Note to moderator

Dear Moderator,

Thank you for taking your time to look around my blogs. It's been a long process, but i have enjoyed it fully and really hope its worth it. My group blog is linked to my individual blog, so you will be able to navigate around from one to the other. The link to the group blog is on the left hand side, with the other members of my group's blogs also there (Francis and Natasha). Another main link you can find there is the Main Class Blog which is our teacher's central blog , which has links to all the other student and group blogs.

On my individual blog you can find some of my individual research and planning for the project, along with my evaluation and prelim tasks, which includes the video clip and answers to the evaluation questions.

I have also linked my finished film opening sequence and preliminary sequence at the top of my individual blog.

I hope you navigate around my blogs easily and enjoy looking all the work. I have used labels to identify my Research, Planning and Evaluation that I have completed on my individual blog. We have done the same on our group blog and also labelled the posts we were individually responsible for, so for example posts that I have done say 'Nico.'

Thank you for your time,
Nico :)
Candidate Number 2750

Closing Post

This blog is now closed.  I've had a great time making this blog and an even better time on the rest of the project.  I hope you enjoy reading through!
Best regards,
Nico x

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In order to tackle this question, I have broken it down into four parts:

Genre
Narrative Structure
Form
Style

Genre: Action/Thriller

In order to create a sequence of the action/thriller genre, we ensured that we followed conventions of the genre.

Iconography seen in action/thriller movies such as The Godfather and Kill Bill

Throughout our sequence we include iconography such as cigars, knives, whisky and a gun, which are conventional icons of the action thriller genre.  They are used so that our audience can immediately begin to understand what the film could be about and how it may progress.

Our sequence also includes an assassination, along with themes of good vs evil and murder, which are more conventions of our genre.  Although there are now several female assassin movies out following the success of Kill Bill, I still think that by creating a strong female assassin as our main character we are challenging the convention of a strong male lead.

Narrative Structure

Through our research, we grasped the understanding that films are conventionally structured in  Todorov’s three part narrative theory .  When applying Todorov’s theory, we can clearly see that our sequence follows this structure.

Equilibrium- Man in house, classical music playing in the background, preparing himself for relaxing drink/cigar

Disruption- Music becomes tense; Shadow of a woman holding a gun appears through the glass of the door behind the man, who is completely unaware of the situation.  Assassin points the gun at his head and the man becomes uneasy as he understands that he is about to die.

Resolution- Assassin kills the man by shooting him in the head, leaving the gun in his hand to cover up her tracks, while then taking the briefcase of money and exiting dramatically from the room.

In order to create a conventional and engaging sequence we ensured that our opening was in real time.  This ensures that our audience could engage with the characters on screen and the events and actions taking place.

Characters

Villain/Victim- Man in Sequence- There is a lot of focus on the man; he is shown washing knives and pouring whisky, which presents the type of person he is and what kind of film it is.  However his insignificance in the film as a whole is shown when the camera immediately shifts focus on our assassin upon her arrival through the kitchen, suggesting he is simply another target.

Heroin- Assassin- Her slow and dramatic introduction, followed by her killing the man by shooting him in the head immediately presents her dominance and importance within the film.

Form

I believe that our sequence does follow the typical format of an opening sequence and achieves what is necessary for a successful sequence.  The opening introduces our assassin in a way that is typical and conventional of her type of character.  It also tells us the institutional information; who distributed, produced, directed and starred in the film.  Our sequence also creates a binary opposition between the calmness of the setting and the relaxed man to the assassination, emphasised by the change in pace of the sequence, going from slow at the beginning to fast after the murder. 

Titles used in sequence

Our titles in comparison to those of 'The Kings Speech' and 'Saving Private Ryan'

We decided to use cut-away titles so that the audience wouldn’t be distracted from the shots by super-imposed titles.  Our titles are very much imiliar to those of 'The Kings Speech and 'Saving Private Ryan' 

Style:

Tense, Slow, stylisation of shots/abstract CU’s, cold colour Grading, Low-Key lighting

We used a lot of close-ups of objects in the beginning of the sequence; we used the camera to create stylised shots to engage the audience into the narrative of the sequence.  We aimed to create several contrasts in our film.  This can be seen in the music track we chose.  The first part of our sequence is TRACK NAME which suits the slow eeriness of the shots and their duration, whilst the music after the headshot is the same track but an enhanced version, complimenting the fast pace and drama of the assassination.

Similiar opening sequence- 'Dexter'

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In this question i will talk about the social groups we have represented and how we have presented them in a way that can appeal to our audience.

Our media product particularly represents women.  We aimed to challenge the gender stereotype so often seen in action thrillers such as the Bourne Trilogy and the James Bond franchise, in which the male characters dominate the action roles, and where women are often seen as the weaker of the sexes, overtly feminine and reliant on the masculine heroes.

 

 Our female assassin, the heroine in our film, connotes dominance, stealth and power.  Our original inspiration for the sequence, Beatrix from ‘Kill Bill’, shares these qualities with our character and with the recent surge in female assassin movies such as Columbiana and Haywire, we were able to replicate a similar character using these movies, creating a modern and conventional female assassin.

By defying the stereotype of a male action hero and having a dominant female heroine as our main character, it inevitably means we are also portraying men as the weaker of the sexes.  The man in our sequence is completely helpless to the power of our female assassin, and instantly accepts his fate.  We emphasise this power of our assassin over the man when he asks, “Can I atheist have one last drink…” Not even completing his sentence, our assassin ruthlessly kills him, paying no attention to his pleas.

The dominance and power of our assassin is shown in our other action codes:

She is calculated and calm when she encounters the man, slowly approaching him through the kitchen. 

She brings the gun to the temple of his head to alert him of her presence, giving her full control of the situation. 

She shoots him in the head causing a gruesome blood splatter on the wall, yet she hardly flinches, emphasising the control she has and how heartless of an assassin she is.

She then plants the gun in his hand, showing that she knows what she is doing and that she has already planned the assassination, presenting her as calculated and meticulous. 

Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Here you will find information on our own production company and our desired distributor.  I talk about the process of distribution and how we would possibly exhibit and market our film.

Our Production Company: Sigma Productions 

Our production company produces mainly British films, similar to the companies such as Working Title.  Because the company is rather small, generally producing independent British movies, we decided we would need to distribute with a company that could provide large financial backing to both distribute and market our film on a possible global basis.  We believe our chosen distribution company, Miramax Films, could fulfil this aim.

Distributor: Miramax Films

Being an independent film, we would firstly exhibit our film at one of the film festivals, for example the Toronto film festival, which has been a platform for Oscar winning films such as Slumdog Millionaire and The Kings Speech, both of which were British produced films.  Our film would then be picked up by a distribution company such as Miramax Films.

Miramax films, whilst having a selection of British films in their portfolio such as The Queen, they have also distributed both of the Kill Bill movies, an inspiration for our film, which not only suggests that they are a company suited to distributing British films on a global level, but also that they are familiar with distributing films of our genre.


Also, Miramax Films is owned by Walt Disney, one of the largest conglomerates in the world, so they have the capability and financial backing to distribute the film worldwide, firstly on a national scale across cinemas, and then a possible limited releases across the globe because of the global locations in the film which vast audiences can identify to. 

Because Walt Disney is a fully integrated company, it would be possible to market our film horizontally across a range of media platforms; owning one of the largest T.V. networks in the world, our product could be advertised across this network.


Our film, after it has been released throughout cinemas, would then be available on both Blu-ray and DVD, whilst also being available for purchase via software such as iTunes and rental companies such as Lovefilm etc.  This enables our film to have maximum viewing potential as it is in keeping with modern technology.

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

I will answer this quesion by breaking down what our typical target audience would be like.  I have also included the audience feedback from our screening and my reflections on this.

Age: 16-24 core market

Gender: Both. This is because women may aspire to be like our powerful assassin whilst men admire her, whilst also enjoying the action of the film.

Nationality: Mailnly British as our sequence involves British settings and actors.  However our whole film has global locations which could target wider international audiences.

Lifestyle: fans of films, reasonable income, students/workers, come to cinema to socialise/night out

Tastes in Media: Likes British films/Action films that arethought porvoking/interesting. Prefer to be captivated by an engaging narrative.

Film Consumption Habits: Visit cinema 1-2 times a month, Watches films on terrestrial TV/PPV/Online/DVD’s or Blu-Ray. Wide variety of consumption methods, like to visit cinema more as a social thing.

Representation of our 16-24 audience

Our film targets the widest demographic of cinema goers, the 16-24's.  They would generally watch a film with friends for a social outing, and don't have a suited genre, although action/adventure would be the most popular. Our audience will like to be completely engaged within the movie, taking them out of the reality of school,coursework and daily routine. As we are apart of the 16-24 demographic, we believed that it would be easiset to target ourselves because we know what kind of films we would like and how we can achieve a successful film that our target audience would watch.  Our film has a broad appeal because of this target audience.

We gathered some feedback from our target audience at our screening that took place in the media block. From our feedback we learnt that our audience liked the enigma within our sequence.  They liked the gunshot which they thought looked realistic so it came as quite a shock.  However we did hear that we could have quickened the pace of the sequence as we had feedback saying it was a bit slow.  Our average score for the film was an 8 out of 10, and everyones feedback said they would watch the whole film, which we feel is good considering you are trying to setup an entire film in just two minutes.

Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

In this question I will show how our media product has been made to target and appeal to our audience through the use of enigma codes, action codes and conventions of the Action/thriller genre.  I will also show how the marketing of our product is affective at targeting our audience.


There is a great sense of enigma in our opening sequence.  Because the beginning of our sequence is rather slow paced, filled with close up and fairly abstract, stylised shots, the audience have to ask themselves questions about the characters traits.  The use of rather conventional iconography such as the cigars, the knives and the whisky foreshadows the style and genre of the film, thereby even what the audience should expect of the genre.

With the audience constantly questioning aspects of the film, it keeps them constantly engaged into the film.  Further into the sequence, there are more enigmas for the film.  Our female assassin is introduced in a suspenseful shadow through the glass of the door, enhancing the mystery of her character for the audience, and then the act of assassinating the man, who is the focus of the start of the opening sequence, emphasises her dominance in the film to the audience and leaves more questions of why she has done this and who she actually is.

The audience inevitably fears the role of the female assassin and as the killing is rather unexpected for the audience, who have seen a man in his quiet, homely surroundings, it keeps them engaged within the film, not least because of the rather convincing makeup by Natasha and blood effect, which make is more believable.  The binary opposition between the murder and the quiet setting of the man’s peaceful home emphasises the impact that the assassination brings to the audience, further allowing them to engage into the film and create a sense of escapism into this desired, mysterious situation of the sequence.

Our core audience of the 16-24 market would be attracted by the action within the sequence, and the tension that builds prior to it, allowing them to fully escape and submerse themselves within the film, leaving reality for a period of time.

Our female assassin plays a vital role in attracting our audience.  She acts as an inspiration for our female audience, not to turn into ruthless assassins, but to feel empowered and dominant.  She is also the key attraction for our male audience, as she is the attraction of the film.

In order to attract our audience to our first showing of the film, we made a poster which we put across the school, however because our target audience are 16-24, we thought it would be even more effective to create a Facebook event for our screening.

Our screening took place on Monday 26th March in the media block, and we had a good turnout of over 40 people.  We firlsty allowed the audience to watch the whole sequence through so that they could engage with it completely, then we replayed the sequence this time asking them to fill out a feedback sheet.

Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

In this question I will talk you through the areas where I have learnt about technologies the most, both in production and post production.

From the process, I have learnt of the importance that technology plays throughout both production and post-production. 

The most important thing I have learnt I think is how the finished product relies equally on the post-production process of editing and the production itself. Our film only seemed to come to shape when we were able to put it into a timeline on Adobe Premiere Pro.  By making an animatic of our sequence and then putting it into a timeline, it gave us a clear structure of what our film would be like, and allowed us to assess the duration of our shots and when and where titles would come into place.  Here is a commentary over our animatic that both I and Francis did through the process.

Test shots and real shots

Lighting- We didn’t fully appreciate the effectiveness of lightning until we compared the footage from our test shoot to the real shoot. Our test shoot resulted in poor quality grainy shots as we were not able to use the lighting equipment.  However for our real shoot we did use the lighting equipment, which resulted in clear images and much less grain in the shots.  Also, with the help of the three point lighting technique, we were able to create a greater sense of depth in our shots and higher contrast, which proved effective when trying to create the shadow of our assassin through the glass and the shadow of the head on the door. 

Before we were able to use the lights on our shoot we had to undergo a session with our media technician Chris on how to use the lighting safely and effectively.  This included wearing gloves when handling the lights as they get hot when left on for a period of time, and also taping down the wires of the lights to ensure nobody tripped over them causing harm to themselves or the lights.

With and without colour grading

Contrast difference- Darker/lighter

Grading- I didn’t realise how effective grading was until the process was finished.  Using the colour wheel in Adobe Premier Pro, we made our shots slightly bluer, which made them look rather could, effectively representing our bad guy and also the cold blooded killing that takes place. 

With the benefit of hindsight I would have left more time for the grading process.  This is because we were only able to make the changes to the colour correction that were necessary rather than experimenting with a variety of settings. 

I would also have liked to pull off an even more prominent focus pull in the shot where the man is at the sink and the bag of drugs is in the foreground, although we did manage to improve it using a light filter which enhanced the pull.

Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the whole product?

The learning from the preliminary task helped me a lot during my main task.  Although the scales of the tasks were different, I was able to use knowledge I had learnt from the preliminary task effectively during the final product process.
I have learnt that necessary planning and preparation is essential when trying to make a successful sequence.  We meticulously planned our sequence, firstly by creating our animatic.

 I learnt that an animatic is the very first presentation of your film, which helps you adjust shot duration, overall timing and really just what the sequence will be like.  An animatic is definitely something I would recommend to somebody who is creating an opening sequence, or media product of any kind.

In our prelim, we made only a basic shot list, so when we filmed our sequence we were confused as to what shot we were doing and which ones we had already done.  For our real product we made several lists for our production:

Shot Log

Props List

Script

Shot List

Location

One thing we did take from our prelim was the use of only one location.  This proved really manageable as it saved us a lot of production time, which allowed us to focus on the camera work itself, rather than having to travel to different locations.  It also made the narrative much simpler; the audience could grasp a good understanding of the location from our master shots in the sequence.

Editing

Our preliminary edit was rather easy as the sequence was in real time.  We thought it would benefit us to have an easy linear edit so it didnt get too confusing and saved us time for the rest of the project.  However what we didnt take into account were titles, special fx, grading and music tracks, all of which were in our final product but not our prelim.  Therefore I have learnt, that the more complex you make your sequence, the more difficult it will be when in post-production.

Overall I think the most valuable thing we learnt from the prelim process was the importance of teamwork.  Once jobs were equally delegated between us in our prelim, things really did get easier, and allowed us to be a little more creative as a group within the short time period we had.  This was the same for the real product.  We kept in contact greatly throughtout the project so everybody knoew what was going on with the sequence and when things were going to happen.  We arranged daily meetings throughout the project both for organisation and planning, but also for creative sessions where we would all share our ideas on the sequence.

Update!

We have now finished our final edit to our sequence!  We eventually resolved the problem with the titles using Chris' epicness.  Once our film has exported it will be ready to upload to youtube where we can record some audience feedback.  We can now also set a time and date for our screening which will take place in school, and so preparation is now needed for this event, including audience feedback forms and posters that can be put around school.  Marketing time!

Editing

Our editing has run very smoothly with only minor problems.  I think because we had already made an animatic and test sequence for the project it has made it alot easier as we already know the structure of the edit.  We have finalised our music selection, chosing Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven.  The first half uses the original music to suit its slow pace.  However the moonlight sonata piece picks up a customised version by Es Posthumus, which suits the fast pace of the sequence.  We have also finalised the style of our titles however when I tried importing them into Adobe Premiere Pro they became pixelated, but our technician should have a fix for this some time soon!

Final shoot reflections

I believe that our final shoot went really well.  We managed to get all of our shots done by the end of shoot, although it really was a rush towards the end of the day.  I think this time we were alot more confident about how we wanted the day to plan out.  We filmed all the kitchen shots first, so that for lunch we could air out the kitchen for the cigar smoke so Francis' parents didn't get too cross!  We then shot all the living room shots within an hour so we were really low on time, but in the end it turned out ok.  Time for editing!

Final Shoot

From our test shoot I've learnt that the use of lighting will be essential.  Our shots are far too grain in the test and so we will need to hire out the lighting equipment and learn how to use it effectively.  We have aloso decided to completely scrap the phone call from the opening as we feel it doesn't add anything particualrly interesting to the sequence.  I think this will allow us to use more shots at the beginning of the sequence, creating more enigma and suspense for the audience.  It will also allow us to slow the first part of the sequence down so that there is even more contrast between the pace of the sequence at the start, to the fast pace after the assassination at the end.

I also hope that we could add some more iconography such as cigarsor cigarettes and possibly an older more classic briefcase you can see im movies such as The Godfather to add tradition and conventions of our genre.   I think cigars would improve the mise en scene of our shots, with the fog of smoke lightly adding to the cold background.

A more suited briefcase of maybe brown or black leather would certainly add class to the shot, making our character look rugged yet sophisticated, heightening his importance.

Test Shoot- Reflections

I believe that our test shoot went well.  We managed to shoot all of our shots bar two; the money in briefcase CU and the pulling off of the gloves CU.  This was because we simply forgot the props needed for these shots.  The test shoot brought up alot of things that we need to think about.  We need to ensure that we bring all the necessary props to the shoot and even make a props list so we do not forget any we need.  Our main problem however was that we struggled lighting our sets and our shots were grainy, so for our real shoot we need to learn how to light effectively for the sequence.  Also, although Tasha finally pulled of a goodfocus pull, we may need a more prominent one to be effective as a shot, and so more research and advice from Chris will be needed for the final shoot.

Animatic Reflections- Joint Commentary

First Shoot 5/2/12 : Snow!

Unfortunately  our scheduled shoot on Sunday had to be cancelled due to the heavy snowfall on Saturday night, and so it wasn't possible to travel to Potters Bar to do the shoot.  We have spoken with Mrs Blackborow about when we could do our second test shoot and have decided to do it on Sunday 19th February at the end of half term.  Although this will be doable, it falls just two days after we return from L.A. on our media trip, and so I assume we will be tired through the shoot.

Update

We recieved our green light after making several changes to our initial proposal.  We firstly clarified our plot, making sure that our opening sequence was presented thoroughly, including specific shots we would like to use. We also talked about the practicalities of our sequence, for instance the use of props such as the gun and how we would need to research the post production editing of a gun shot and the special effects make up on set for a head wound. 

After our pitch, we adressed the issue of our script.  Francis made an initial script to use as a template so we could build upon it.  Chris, our media technician read the script, and knowing what direction we wanted to go with it, wrote us a revised script with all the technical language you would expect to hear in our type of film, which we were very grateful for.  The revised script is posted on our group blog. 

We are now completing our animatic, and I have been working in the edit suite putting all our shots in order, whilst also choosing a suitable soundtrack that wasn't copyrighted and creating the titles consisting of our institutional information.

Proposal feedback: Individual reflections

Year 12 film pitch feedback group 2

Individual Reflections

I believe that institutionally we were successful in choosing a distribution company that suits our film as Miramax distribute stylised/indie films, and even distributed one of our main inspirations Kill Bill.  I think that the concept for our film is a good one as it targets both genders at a wide age range between 15-30 (primary audience).  However, in regards to our opening sequence presentation I believe that we were too brief and unclear as to what actually happens in our seqquence, and things that we had previously discarded were brought up as current ideas which further made our presentation unclear, such as the use of our male characters family.  Initially we were going to show his wife and child leaving the house but decided against it.  However we did not chage this on our initial treatment and so it was brought up by Miss blackborow, which then highlighted our lack of preparation.  We also had no evidence of research into our gun sounds and effects needed for this shot which was is a key shot in our opening.
   Having said that I believe I presented ok on the inspirations of The Bourne Trilogy and Casino Royale and how we could incorporate ideas from them and use them in our sequence.
  I wasn't surprised when Ms Blackborow and Mr Bayliss didn't give us a green light right away as there's still alot that we had to think about regarding our sequence, and it gave us time to think about the suggestions and criticisms that were brought up in our presention and how we could improve/resolve any problems.

Film/Opening sequence Inspiration

I think this Bourne Supremacy clip is good inspiration for our film as it is set in a domestic environment where Bourne and the other asset incorporate household objects into their fight sequence.  Also I do like the pace of the sequence; it starts off quite slow to suggest that there is little threat against Bourne and builds the tension of the situation for the audience. However the pace then quickens to suit the action of the fight sequence. The sequence presents the level of sophistication and proffessionalism of the characters which I'd hope to emulate for our opening sequence.


Similiarly with this Kill Bill: Volume 1 sequence, the fight sequence is also domesticated.  The use of household objects such as the frying pan and wooden table legs are smartly used to create an untypical environment for two assassins to fight in.  In contrast to the Bourne sequence, the action is much more rough and bloody, and the characters aren't sophisticated but are ruthless and use any means possible to try and injure eachother.

I'm Back!

Hi, starting our opening sequence coursework now, little late on the posting but expect to see alot of blog posts over the next term. Also i'll be posting on the group blog along with Natasha Jalonen and Francis Gillen.