Notes from todays lesson

These are our notes from todays lesson.

• Credits (possible sticky notes idea, sticky notes round house showing credits)

• Character getting ready in morning ( process sped up eg. Kettle boiling, eating breakfast etc) – possibly link these two ideas together

• Flashback when don exits house eyes looking straight to camera shot filled just by his eyes. Then fades to flashback in Pleasantville effect

• Flashback shows the two henchman/gangsters running possibly away from something. Run to a hedge and pull out a suitcase they open it to see documents, money and gun in it. They then carry on running away, get to an alley and get halfway down it and a silhouette of a mysterious man appears at the end of the alley as the characters get close to him he has a weapon and manages to injure the characters and take the case and walks calmly off. 

    

• Fades in from flashback and colours slowly seep back into next scene. Characters walking down the street joining paths from side streets looking suave and cool. (Don possibly falls over)

• Shows title of movie and then fades to black

End

Reseach and Planning

In todays lesson we listed our ideas for our 2 minute film opening. To help us with our ideas we watched a range of film openings including resovior dogs and some other a level fim openings.
We also decided on our characters and who we would be e.g the lead characters, the don and the henchmen.

Mitch - The Don
Kieran - Henchman
Matt - Henchman
And Harry Kent our drama student freind - Mysterious man 

We decided on these characters because as i am smaller than matt and kieran it would look stupid if i was a  henchman because the henchman would be different sizes. We will be uploading pictures of our characters ready for analysis. 

At the begining of our 2 minute opening we want to do a differnent style of the reservoir dogs clip. This video shows a good example of what we could do as an opening. When we do this type of clip we would probally try and created what the do in this video from 00:35-2:10 as it introduces the characters/ people one by one as th enter they shot in a certain way. For example at 00:49 a man enters the shot by falling over. This adds humour and light heartedness to the shot showing that it is not that serious but exacerbates the audiences reaction to make think that something later in the opening. 

Goodfellas picture analysis

This picture i believe will be the main focus of our characters stereotypes. We will apply some different accessories to make our characters stand out but they will follow the stereotype of the suit and tie smart look. This is also a good picture because i like they way that the characters are fadeing into the darkness adding the effect that the characters are shady and suspicious.

This video shows a great example of good lighting i think we could use in our 2 minute opening. At 00:19 the shot is surround by bright lighting but as soon as the bmx rider enters the shot it returns to the normal state. I think this would be a great thing to use because it draws attention to the main object in the shot. Also at 00:28 we see they same shot from two different angles. This would be great as it adds enphasis to a sertain shot makeing it show that this is more important. The clip uses alot of wide angle shot and some slow motion. We will also use slow motion to show the visual apperence of our characters and make them stand out.  

Crime Film Cliches

In crime films police are as bad as the gangsters.
The gangsters are shown as tough guys who have turned to a life of crime because it is the only way to get ahead or they were wronged at a young age by the authorities.
In crime films there is a vaugue code that cannot be violated.
Crime movies almost always have a rat, the rat can be an undercover cop, member of the gang or even the gang leader himself.
Gangsters always have a hard time identifying the rat, even though the rat is the newest and best-looking member of the gang.
Gangster movies often include a scene in a restaurant or nightclub where somebody says the wrong thing to the wrong guy and later regrets it.
In crime movies there is usually one straight narrow whom the gangsters respect as he is not completly crooked like them.
For a crime film to work, there must be a wizened, cynical cop who is close to retirement and a young cop who is about to get married who will most certainly die and there must also be a full dress funeral service, preferably in the rain.
Finally gangster movies would not be gangster movies without the crucial scene in the hospital where a good looking young cop comes on duty to replace a cop who is guarding an important witness and turns out to be a hitman. Never once is this cop asked for ID.

Pleasantville Effect

The pleasantville effcet singles out certain colours and make them stand out whilst the other colours are grey. This clip shows the pleasantville effect in the best way. As he turns the rubiks cube and creates a wall of a certain colour the objects in the scene change to that colour makeing it stand out. I believe that we could use this effect to make our two minute film opening enjoyable and interesting.

Picture analysis

I believe that this is what our characters will look like in our 2 minute intro. Our costume will consist of a black suit with white shirt and black tie. We shall use accessories like black glasses, toothpicks and guns. We hope by dressing like this the audience will recognise us a stereotypical gangster character like Marlon Brandos character in godfather Don Vito Corleone.
We will use the pleasentville effect to bring life to one object in colour in the scene. This will present a change in time as the past merges with the present.

Our Film Genre

In todays lesson we made a decision on what genre our 2 minute film intro would be.
My group decided that our film was going to be along the lines of the crime genre, we decided to do this genre because after watching a few examples of this genre we decided we like the techniques used and the mise en scene of the clips. we also want to do crime to break away from everyone else in the class who are doing the stereotipical horror intro.

Typical Film Genres And Examples

Media Preliminary Task

Editing

Today me and Kieran strated to edit the preliminary task unfortuently Matt could not join as he was ill. Me and Kieran used the programe adobe premiere elements to edit the software. We found the using this software easy as Kieran had some experience with this editing software so he really show off his skills. At the end of the lesson i believed the clip was fully edited and looked great but Kieran offer to take it home and add a few minor tweaks to it to make it flow well and look outstanding. 

Finished Filming

Today our group finished filming the preliminary task. Me, Kieran and Matt finished off the preliminary task by filming the rest of the conversation and me opening and walking through the door. Next lesson our group will begin to edit the clips and put them together ready to hand in.
 The preliminary task was too, film and edit a character opening a door, crossing the room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue.

Start Of Filming

Today we started filming our prelimanary task.
Whilst filming we tested out many camera angles/ camera shots. Those included the point of view shot, this is the most common view, being the real-world angle that we are all used to. It shows subjects as we would expect to see them in real life. It is a fairly neutral shot, the high angle shot, a high angle shot shows the subject from above, i.e. the camera is angled down towards the subject. This has the effect of diminishing the subject, making them appear less powerful, less significant or even submissive and the low angle shot this shows the subject from below, giving them the impression of being more powerful or dominant. We also inclueded the 180 degree rule,The 180 degree rule is a basic guideline in film making that states that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other.

Mise-en-scene "putting into the scene", mise-en-scene includes those aspects of film that overlap with the art of the theater: setting, lighting, costume and the behavior of the figures.
Mise-en-scene everything in the frame, colours, props, set, costumes, lighting. Nothing in the film is there by accident. Mise-en-scene is a broad term covering everything you see.

Film key terms
close up- a shot showing a character from the neck up
Medium shot- A shot showing a character from the waist up
Extreme close up- Focuses on a small detail e.g an eye, a hand etc
Long shot- A shot showing a character or setting from a distance
High angle shot- A shot taken from above looking down, makes audience feel powerful
Low angle shot- A shot taken from below, it is as if the audience are being looked down on
Panning- When the camera moves in an arc from a fixed point
Tracking- The camera is on tracks and follows the action
Zoom- Camera moves in to a close-up often used to focus attention on a relevant detail or emphasises a characters reaction
Diegetic sound- Music/ sound effect that comes from the scene of the film
Non diegetic sound- Music/sound that is added to the film during editing