Life Directors Commentary

Evaluation

What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing this product?

We have learnt that the camera is sensitive to light and movement and is particularly important to adjust your self to suit the camera. We also learnt that using different ways to hold the camera can create different atmosphere to the piece then using a hand held, which we have used in many part of our piece. When using the tripod it created a steady feel at the start of the piece and a professional look. In parts where we used a hand held (Theo beating up someone) it made it look as if the person he was beating up was holding the camera, putting excite ment into that piece of footage .The camera works how you want it to work and getting the right angles can make the piece. The camera creates a whole world of its own which can be altered by angles to portray particular meanings. We used final cut pro for editing and learnt that the way you put together each piece of footage together has to be done with accuracy, because if the continuity isn’t to its highest standard the film can look jumpy and the timings of the film will not flow together making it look unprofessional. Final cut pro helped us create an authentic piece by being able to us the different effects that made the flash backs look distinctive to the present day parts. Being able to use our voice over and music together on final cut pro created a lot more depth and this was done through the help of final cut pros facilities being able to make the sounds fit together and changing the volumes to fit the piece.

Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you think you have learnt from the progression from it to the full task?

In the preliminary we learned to achieve a high quality standard film, it is always better to film more than is needed and chop back rather than set a story line and film only what is needed. We learned this through the preliminary task as additional footage was added on (the conversation). The additional footage was filmed before we actually started the main take but we added it on at the end, after we had edited. We applied this to the main task in a similar style. A lot of footage filmed in our main task (shots with Martin in). All the shots with martin were additional shots and were only added in after we had initially finished. The step up in editing quality was drastic. In our preliminary task there is a conversation between Martin and Theo. This involved a shot reverse shot which with over the shoulder angles. This did not help our piece as the standard continuity was noticeable as there were sound mistakes, rough jump cuts and unsteady camera filming. How ever although this did not benefit our preliminary it helped us narrow down ideas for the final piece. In our final piece we discussed and decided that shot reverse shot would not help our piece but only make things more complicated. This worked as an advantage to us as with out the conversational aspect we were able to explore more depth of the underlying plot. We used voice over to uncover flash backs and explain the plot of our story.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media piece represents stereo typically described black males and white females. We chose our story carefully and ensured it wasn’t classed as racist but made sure it served a purpose. In our piece our main male character is Theo (a member of our group). He plays an aggressive violent male who shows emotion through actions. Instantly Theo is portrayed as an abusive dominant role of our opening. Later on it is revealed Theo is the victim of a dishonest relationship, which results in him murdering another person (the man who’s he’s being cheated on with). This represents the urban media orientated stereotype of a an average male who is seen as violent, aggressive and has thug like traits just because of the area he lives (dress sense and characteristics: spitting facial expressions). Although Catrione (the leading female role) has cheated on Theo and shows no remorse the main focus of our opening is concentrated on Theo being an aggressive male. We did this to enlighten the public’s take on urbanely stereotyped males and try to regurgitate the appearance of them. We also did this to show women are not always innocent and show how it is easy to divert blame onto males. Theo is strongly representative of this stereotype as he portrays a convincing criminal as he is local to the area and understands how to play a convincing stereotype. Theo has indulged in satisfying the media’s interpretation of this stereotype. Theo has a white friend and also a white girlfriend, this was also done on purpose to destroy the myth of financially unstable communities being racist but emphasis how racism is still of essence but isn’t questioned anymore as we believe we are in equally treated societies. We believe our film is accurately exposing of this representation and is portrayed accurately.

What kind of media institution would distribute your media product and why?

A small distributing company would distribute our film with an average budget such as verve pictures. We have decided this because our film attracts its audience by story line and does not have a promoting attraction to a wide target audience such as special effects or stars, which would broaden our target audience. I think that British broadcasting co-operation would be interested in our film because it is 100% representative of British culture and firmly represents British cultures in the poorer urban societies. I also think they would also be interested in distributing our film as it discusses the troubles that are constantly undermined in everyday life. Our film because it is simple but effective. Our film portrays most of the characteristics that Verve pictures are interested in. Working title is interested in distributing films that are highly based around social realism. Our piece is 90% based on social realism and 10% based on a romance story.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience of our film would be a niche audience as our film is a social realist film, which in essence only appeals to people who understand the culture of that society. Our piece is aimed at males specifically but also has attractions to women. We have divided our target audience into two types of male: Older more educated males aged 35+ and younger more adolescent uneducated male adults from socially dysfunctional backgrounds who can relate to the situations aged 16-25, which Theo is undertaking. The grittier, more violent aspects are aimed to reach the younger males and the hidden elements aimed at the older more educated males who can understand the sub context of our piece and can interpret meanings accurately e.g. the vicious cycle Theo is subliminally going through which will continue with in that culture. In our opening, culture is a heavily addressed element which templates how we market our target audience.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The genre of our film is social realism, which represents subculture and stereotypes. This is expressed through the appearance and accents (voice over) of the actors in the film. The genre we chose helped develop forms and conventions of real media products showing stereotypes from a South Manchester subculture.
In terms of structure, we compared the genre of our media production to elements from three different films: Harry Brown, Kickin’ it Old School and Eternal Sunshine. The main elements that influenced us to develop our ideas where voice over, from Eternal Sunshine, the stereotypical subculture from Harry Brown and the bed scene from Kickin’ it Old School. We merged elements of the three films to develop a secure base of our film opening. The camera work is most similar towards Harry Brown, the hand held camera portrays a diverse way of filming and gives and gives an insecure over view to the audience. The sound; Non diegetic is a very paints a sympathetic picture. The mood and atmosphere is created by the music and bases the first general opinion of the film. The voice over narrates the piece and makes it clear to the audience about character actions. The diegetic sounds contributes to the severity of the realism as Theo plays a serious character and he uses minor yet effective dialogue in the piece. This challenges the conventions as it makes it very believable as does harry brown through that films dialogue. The mise en scene of the piece sets a scene but plays a little role e.g. apart from the flashback the opening is in low key lighting casting a dark mood. The lighting sets off a whole new representation of the piece and through pathetic fallacy we open a whole new interpretation as to why we have used dominantly low-key lighting. The editing of our piece is non linear but is standard continuity. This is done on purpose as the flash back displays the events as to why Theo is a aggressive male very similar to the way Harry Brown tells its story.

Harry Brown Opening Scene

Harry Brown is about an elderly ex-serviceman and widower to avenge his best friends murder by doling out his own form of justice. The film was realsed in 2009 and was Directed by Daniel Barber. It stars Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer and David Bradley. We used Harry Brown as it replacates the stereotypical youth of todays society. It concentrates severly on the darker of todays adulences but still shows social realism and the way peer pressure effects us. The use of the mobile phone gives it the effect that its very real. Our opening scene shows realism through the standard continuity of Theo waking up, however through the flash backs it shows that there is a darker side to the story.

Location shots

Kickin it Old Skool Opening Scene

For our main task we took ideas from the first 40 seconds of the opening scene of Kicking it Old Skool when the boy gets out of bed and there are close up of him putting his jacket on and doing up all the zips. From this opening scene we took the ideas from it for our, so for our opening scene Theo gets out of bed but there will be different shots of him putting different items of clothing on in close up shots.

Main Task Shot List

1. Close up on alarm clock.

2. Hand on alarm clock.

3. Midshot of Theo getting out of bed.

4. Close up on Theo's feet in slippers

5. Over the shoulder shot.

6. Close up on hand picking up clock.

7. Over the shoulder shot.

8. Close up on clock.

9. High angle shot of Theo on bed and standing up.

10. Behind shot of standing up.

11-17. Different close ups of Theo getting ready.

18. Walking out of the room.

19. Close up on hand opening door.

20. Front shot of Theo walking out of door.

21. Midshot walking down the stairs

22. Midshot walking into the room with Cat.

23. Midshot walking out of first door.

24. High angle shot of Theo opening second door.

25. Front long shot of Theo walking out of the front door.

26. Close up on side of Martins face.

27. Midshot of Martin and Theo walking down the road.

Production Treatment for Main Task

Opening of a short film -

Genre - Social Realism

Title - Life

Duration - 2 minutes

Audience - Females 16-28

Resume - Theo lies in bed, his alarm clock goes off and he jumps out and gets in the shower, then brushes his teeth. He goes back into his room and starts to get ready and puts on some jeans and t-shirt. (voice over starts) He is rushing because he is late for job interview. He runs out the house and grabs a piece of toast off the table and opens the front door and walks out. Theo then walks down the street until the camera cannot see him anymore. END

Suggested Elements - Performance - Theo is getting ready for a job interview.

Costumes - Jeans and T-shirt for the interview

Props - Toast,Clothes,Alarm clock and Old takeaway box.

Key locations - Martins house and Martins road

Title and Opening Credits - Life.

Credits fade in and out of different camera shots.

Shooting Schedule
Day 1 - Martins house : Opening scene of alarm clock and Theo in bed and getting up.
Day 2 - Martins house : Shots of Theo getting changed and walking out of bedroom.
Day 3 - Martins house : Scene with Cat
Day 4 - Martins road : Scene with Martin
Day 5 - Quinney Cresent : Scene between Cat and Ethan / Martin and Theo walking round the corner
Day 6 - Alex Park : Fight scene

Eternal Sunshine Of the Spotless Mind - Screen Shots

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind

Eternal Sunshine Of the Spotless Mind is a Drama directed by Michel Gondry who also directed films such as 'Be Kind Rewind' and 'The Green Hornet' and was released in 2004. It includes well known actors such as Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. The film is about a couple that undergo's a procedure to erase each other from each others memories when there relationship goes bad. They discover through the loss of each other what they had in the first place.

The naration of the opening brings out the realism of the piece as it gives an insight as to what is going on in Jim Careys life. The events that he is narrating are the events happening on valentines day. The voice over he does creates a feeling realism to the opening of the film because he is talking about what he is thinking at the time and it flows with the sequence. In the opening sequence, there are only 4 locations used which are all linked well together which creates standard continuity editing. There are camera angles used create this se-realism and realism, for example some of the shots at the train station, when he is running down the stairs its a high angle shot but also a close up revealing the back ground. The camera is sometimes looks hand held, which creates the realism to the opening scene. The end shots is of Jim Carey and Kate Winslet on the beach, this shows that something more is going to happen between the two as the voice over of Jim Carey is saying "If only I could meet someone new, i guess my chances of that are some what diminished, seeing that i'm incapable of making eye contact with the women i don't know."

Preliminary Evaluation

What did you learn about the cameras and editing software during the preliminary task?

Our group learnt about the video editing software "Final Cut Pro" also known as "FCP". As a group we learnt how to use the software in a suitable and appropriate manner. This enhanced our groups prelim task to be exceptionally well edited to high standards. In addition during the prelim task our group also managed how to match cuts good.

In the filming and editing of your project , what worked well and what could have been improved?

During the filming and editing of our project the transitions could of been improved. Our continuity editing worked well. Also we used the 180 degree rule while making our prelim task look professional. We think that the shot reverse shot ran smoothly as the conversation went on time with the camera positioning, We also think that the close up of the hand was edited particularly well, We did have our downsides though, our group did not conduct them selves appropriately whilst filming the conversation as a result of this doesn't sound as professional as the other part of our production.

Give a detailed, specific example of how you used shot/reverse shot combination in your film

we used shot/reverse shot while creating our prelim task. The way we did this was by filming the conversation between Theo and Martin. One all the way through over Martin's right shoulder and then all the way through again but over Theo's left shoulder. While doing this we did not break the 180 degree rule. After we filmed the conversation we edited it on final cut pro to create the shot/reverse shot.

Give a detailed, specific example of how you achieved match cuts during the editing process

We achieved match cuts by repeatedly shooting the same footage from precise positioning on various locations. Our editing took place on final cut pro our match cuts create a linear narrative continuity and we learnt how to do match cuts by watching previous groups and speaking to higher level students for information which would benefit our work. We watched through all of our filming and carefully selected ones which would match well with others to achieve match cuts to perfection.

How do you make sure that you didn't break the 180 degree rule ? Or if you broke it what have you learn't from this ?

We managed to avoid breaking the 180 degree rule by simply following the over the shoulder rule (left on right/right on left shoulder) during the conversation between Martin and Theo. Also we managed to reduce the risk of breaking the rule by panning certain shots carefully.

Prelim Task

Preliminary Task

1a) Establishing long shot of Martin approaching stairs.

1b) Midshot of Martin crawling up the stairs

1c)High angle shot of Martin rolling

2a) High angle shot of Martin crawling up stairs

2b) Close up of Martin while crawling up stairs

3a) High angle shot of Martin hopping up stairs.

3b) Midshot of Martin crawling.

3a) Long shot of Martin walking towards door then rolling

3b)Close up of hand opening door.

4) Mid shot of him standing in the room.

5) Four over the shoulder shots (reverse shots) between Theo and Martin (Martin is pregnant)