The second shoot went well. We managed to find an actor that was willing to help us in our scenes. This helped with the ambiance of the scene as the scene was meant to be fast paced and action packed which it definitely was. We had some difficulty with the public walking in some of our shots which took a while for the mto clear and stop watching what we were doing and we had issues with the weather as it was bitter and cold which restricted some movement as the actors were quite cold to do much.
Sarah
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Second shoot
Posted by smcmediablog at 03:26 0 comments
Tuesday, 15 December 2009
Photographs on set
Whilst we were filming on the 15/12/09 I took some photographs to show how we are working together as a group and all helping whether it is deciding on an angle or what should happen next in the clip:
Holly
Posted by smcmediablog at 05:11 0 comments
Photos of making the fake blood
I did not follow the previous recipe which I found on the internet as I could not find the ingredients so instead I created the fake blood by using golden syrup, red food colouring and a little bit of water. Here are some pictures of the process:
Holly
Posted by smcmediablog at 05:09 0 comments
casting of actor/actresses
Finding people to star in our teaser trailer was preety easy to find exept finding a male role. Chloe ended up roping her brother in to play the male role which worked pretty well. He worked well with the female role and this worked well to show the anger between them, this also helped in the fighting scenes as they kept pretty much straight faces.
Sarah
Posted by smcmediablog at 03:28 0 comments
Friday, 11 December 2009
Poster Ideas
I started looking at posters of films similar to our trailer. I looked at posters of social realism films such as Love and Hate, This Is England and Kidulthood as this is what we want our own trailer and ancillary tasks to be based around. I also looked at the Hollywood film Kill Bill as revenge is the main theme of the film just as it is in ours.
From these posters we can see the common connotations for the social realism genre which are shown through the editing, mise-en-scene and character appearance which are used within these posters. For example, the use of the dark colour grading is used here to give a darker, moody look to the poster which attracts the audience who enjoys the social realism genre. In the 'This Is England' and the 'Love+Hate' posters, there are the use of colour which makes the poster stand out to the audience. This is something that we are going to try and use when we create our posters and use that colour when creating our magazine cover. Another film poster which did this was the film 'Trainspotting', they used the colour orange to stand out more to the audience as orange is quite a bright, happy colour which is very ironic as the film is not.
Holly
Posted by smcmediablog at 06:57 0 comments
Costumes and Makeup pictures during shoots - Chloe
The costume we decided on for our female protagonist was an all black outfit. The colour black was chosen for a number of reasons, the first was that she was a dark character seeking revenge and so white would have been inappropriate as it gives connotations of purity whereas black gives connotations of evil and is often used on dark characters.
Posted by smcmediablog at 06:49 0 comments
Tuesday, 8 December 2009
1st Shoot Information
On our first shoot me (Rebecca) Chloe and Sarah travelled to Burnley to capture various different shots using the equipment of the video camera, tripod and also using a stills camera.
The main shots we wanted to gain was to establish the main character that was the girl Leah. She was portraying a rebellious girl who wanted revenge. We also wanted to produce a home movie with footage of two sisters having fun in the past. The sister of Leah was Sarah.
In our group we all took on roles, whilst Sarah acted, i directed the camera and gathered all the footage, and Chloe directed what both Leah and Sarah needed to do when acting also she gathered realistic props such as alcoholic bottles.
Eventually we managed to get some footage we were able to edit on final cut. This footage was what we initailly set out to capture. But we were unable to film everything we needed for our film so another shoot will be needed.
Rebecca
Posted by smcmediablog at 02:19 0 comments
Props -chloe
Below are images of the making of props needed in the first shoot. Our film genre is british socail realism and a main theme of this genre is drugs and alcohol abuse and money issues. We wanted to show this in the trailer without making a direct reference to it such as through speech, so we decided that props in the background of a shoot would just as effectively portray these themes.
Posted by smcmediablog at 02:18 0 comments
Casting Shots - Beki
Here above is our main protaganist Leah Sumner
Here is Sarah Fowler, The role Sarah will take is Leah's sister within the film.
Posted by smcmediablog at 02:12 0 comments
2nd Location Shots - Chloe
We decided to look for more locations in order to get the best shots for our trailer. We needed a deserted looking waste land for the fight scenes and scruffy looking urban streets that would fit into the socail realism genre criteria and also make our trailer look as realistic as possible. We also needed a living room that didnt look to high class as the characters are working class drug-users with little money. These are some locations we found on the second location shoot.
Posted by smcmediablog at 02:10 0 comments
Friday, 4 December 2009
Recipe for fake blood
Non-Toxic Blood
Posted by smcmediablog at 07:28 0 comments
Moodboards
Posted by smcmediablog at 07:28 0 comments
Risk Assessment for shoot
We had to consider all the risks during filming and what we would do when we were put in one of the situations.
Posted by smcmediablog at 07:28 0 comments
Feedback 4/12/09
Good group! Good research and analysis- well chosen case studies and extracts- well done!
Remember to outline what your films brand image is that you are pushing through your products.
Planning to add...
- target audience questionnaire results - some graphs are good.
- Storyboard and animatic with comments
- shooting schedule and call sheets
- health and safety form
- props list
- cast list
- location shots
- costume shots/ideas etc...
- keep blogging on your ideas and progress!
Miss McNulty
Posted by smcmediablog at 06:15 0 comments
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
Call Sheet
Posted by smcmediablog at 02:01 0 comments
Photographs of Locations
Although it is a high possibility that we will not use these location shots i went out and photographed, we needed ideas for initial location shots.
We thought wooded areas would be appropriate to our genre of film, and maybe some shots of the protaganist walking and that is why i included steps in the images.
I think these initial shots could be quite effective if filmed correctly, although yet we are still looking for location shots and may find different ones further into our project.
Rebecca
Posted by smcmediablog at 02:01 0 comments
Friday, 27 November 2009
Music
We have been trying to find music on creative commons websites however we cannot decide whether a classical movie type sound track would be best or a pop song with lyrics would be best.
Posted by smcmediablog at 07:55 0 comments
Questionnaire
We created a questionnaire and gave it to 10 people to see how people feel about our ideas for our teaser trailer.We gave these questionnaires to teenagers as they are our audience that we are aiming at. The questions were:
Posted by smcmediablog at 07:25 0 comments
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
Ideology
As our film involves drug use, gangs and violence there will be mainly negative ideologies. Although the trailer opens with people taking drugs and having fun it may give ideologies that drugs are good and fun and help you relax. However, after this scene the girl protagonist gets into trouble because of the drugs and this leads onto violence and so this gives a different ideology that drugs cause trouble and lead to violence.
As our film is a socail realism film and is set in a working class environment with working class characters this could give connotations that working class people are drug users and are violent. Also, as the girl protagonist is a teenage girl it could suggest that it is teenagers that are drug users and are involved in crime- a common stereotype.
All these ideologies are dominant within society, although the ideology that teens are violent drug users is a controversial ideology that is argued to be have created by the media.
However, in many social realism films the male characters are the dominant and stronger characters and give ideologies that males are stronger than females. This is where we offer an alternative ideology within our text as our protagonist is a female but is presented as strong and goes off to get revenge. We will show this in our trailer as we have a fight scene and the whole trailor centres around her making her look independant and strong.
All these ideologies link to the social realism genre as drugs and violence is a common theme within a social realsim film. Our alternative ideology of the female protagonist is also linked to the social realism genre as most socail realism films offer some kind of alternative.
Posted by smcmediablog at 01:23 0 comments
Representation
Our characters who will appear in our film teaser trailer consist of a female protagonist, unlike the stereotypical male protagonist who features in most popular films. We will also need a extras who will perform as her group of friends, brother and mystery man.
Posted by smcmediablog at 01:22 0 comments
Audience Hierarch - Chloe
We used Maslow's hierachy of needs to see which basic human needs our text will fulfill.
Our film will fulfill the basic needs of love and belonging as the film will be watched with friends or/or family. It also creates a sense of belonging as others will see the film and by seeing the film too it would lead to a sense of belonging.
Posted by smcmediablog at 01:22 0 comments
Target Audience
We define our target audience by using GRASS
-Gender
-Race
-Age(usually an ange range eg 16-25 year olds)
-Soci- economic status
Socio- economic status is essentially which class you belong to depending upon your job/occupation.
The groups are as follows:
A) Upper Class eg business professionals (own their own business)
B) Middle Class eg middle management (runs business)
C1) Lower Middle Class eg Trades and supervisory jobs ( supervise office)
C2) Skilled Working class eg blue collar workers ( tele sales/call centre)
D) Lower Working Class eg manual workers ( shop floor)
E) Subsidence eg pensioners/unemployed( students)
Our target audience for the the teaser trailer is 16-25, both male and female. When looking at the socio-economic status, i think the audience watching out film will be mostly lower and middle class.
Posted by smcmediablog at 01:21 0 comments
Narrative
Narratives within media texts can be sorted into different theories.
the theory that our group are thinking of following is Todorov's. As our film teaser trailer is about revenge, and this needs balance as a plotline.
The trailer will hold a certain amount of equilibrium, this will be at the beginning where everything is calm and happy. Then this equilibrium is disrupted by some event. In our basic ideas it would be someone close to the protaganist being killed. This causes numerous other events to happen, As our teaser trailer is about revenge it would be the protaganist getting revenge on the killer. In the end revenge brings around a second equilibrium.
Rebecca
Posted by smcmediablog at 01:19 0 comments
Monday, 23 November 2009
Feedback 23/11//09
Very good research group - good links and references to films/posters etc...
Also what are the conventions of your chosen genre? Try www.filmsite.org - films genres section.
Posted by smcmediablog at 02:54 0 comments
Friday, 20 November 2009
Conventions of Social Realism and Unique Selling Point
I researched conventions of the social realism genre to help with planning our trailer. We found that the characters are normally working class and set in working class locations such as terraced houses, pubs, places of work.
I also found that the characters are normally victims of circumstance and the film is normally about their struggle and what they go through. Typical themes are of poverty, political issues and the pursuit of happiness.
I also found that the tyical protagonist is a male, normally angry or upset with his situation or something that has happened in his life, and the narrative revolves around his experiences.
The media language used is realistic such as authenic costumes to the era it is set in, natural lighting and sound, Real British locations and grainy images.
Our unique selling point is the sex of the protagonist. We have decided to have a female progtagonist which is unusal for the socail realism genre, as the films we researched had males as the leading characters.
Also, we are going to set the film in the 80s which is also quite unique.
Chloe
Posted by smcmediablog at 07:51 0 comments
Analysis of trailer
The trailer I have chosen to analyse is from the film Harry Brown which stars Michael Caine. The film relates well too our idea for our own teaser as the film is about revenge and shows the bad representation of teenagers from a different point of view. In this trailer, it shows teenagers as violent, abusive and drug addicts which is a stereotypical representation of teens and this is how we are going to represent our teenagers in our film as this representation has been moulded by the media and this is how the UK sees the teen public now.
Posted by smcmediablog at 07:51 0 comments
Popularity of Genre
Posted by smcmediablog at 07:51 0 comments
Film Genre
The genre we have chosen for our film would be Drama, as Social Realism fits into that catagory.
These dramatic films show us human beings at their best and worst. Social Realisn is representing real life and characters, it portrays characters, usually from working class backgrounds.
This genre could hold many themes within it, such as; drug addiction, poverty, alcoholism, class divisions and violence towards women.
These end up being typical gritty British films about the struggle to survive.
Films such as Trainspotting, Human Traffic and This is England are some to name which fit into this specific genre.
Rebecca
Posted by smcmediablog at 07:50 0 comments
Genre And Hybrid with conventions of genre
The genre we are studying is, British Social Realism. It has aspects of gang culture, drug taking and alcohol abuse. This is also a hybrid as gangster crime is involved within. Conevtions are the elements in a film which establish what genre the film is. Such as a rule for a chat show on televison should involve hosts, guests and a grand entrance, normaly walking down a stair case.
The circle of pleasure and profit maintains the conventions and meanings of the genre. The circle of pleaure and profit goes from product to audience to profit and ends with producer.
The product has conventions, elements and codes. The audience seeks values and messages from the film whichthe audience enjoy which makes profit and the producer gains commerical success which makes them able to make a repetition in production.
Sarah
Posted by smcmediablog at 07:43 0 comments
Examples of Teaser Trailers
We found these trailers of the films "Harry Brown" and "Trainspotting". These trailers are from the British film institution and so we decided to research the common traits and characteristics within this product as part of research for our own.
Looking at the trailers we found that the settings are typical British locations and the characters are middle/working class. The costumes are realistic to the average British citizen depending on the era. All the characters accents are British and commonly northern. We also found that the actors are normally unknown and not famous hollywood actors, we think this is because British film companies do not have enough money to employ famous actors.
Here are some examples of film poster for the films 'Harry Brown' and 'Trainspotting'.
The Trainspotting campaign worked very well and played a big part in making the film successful. We think this is because of the unique and simple image used. Simply, by the use of the colour orange and the big clear title of "Trainspotting" it creates a clear and simple image that is easily recognisable and remembered by the audience which helps promote the film.
Even though the poster does not give anything away about the story, the characters on hte poster give off attitude and hints at Todorov's theroy of equilibreum- disruption- new equilibreum which creates curiosity and anticipation- another factor which would help make the film successful as it creates hype about the film.
Chloe and Holly
Posted by smcmediablog at 07:03 0 comments
British Film Industry
The typical traits of the British film industry are important to us to consider whilst we are creating our products in order to make our products look realistic. We have researched the typical traits of British films and they are that the genre is usually social realism and is under a low budget of £5 million compared to Hollywood films who have no limit. The narrative is usually alternative rather than classical and makes the audience think more about what they have just watched instead of just enjoying the film. A lot of British films are created by independent film companies and can be very controversial and reflect British issues. Films like this include: 'This Is England', 'Billy Elliot', 'Kidulthood', 'East is East' and 'Trainspotting'. These are similar trailers to what we would like to create in our own brand.
Chloe and Holly
The Full Monty is a 1997 British Comedy Film. It tells the story of six unemployed men, four of them steel workers, who decide to form a male striptease in order to gather enough money to get somewhere else and for main character Gaz to be able to see his son. Despite being a comedy, the film also touches on serious subjects such as unemployment, fathers' rights, depression, impotence, working class culture and suicide. This is a film we have taken interest in as we want to cover different issues throughout our film.
However, even though the film is based around British realism and the struggle in British society, one of the three film companies which helped produce the film was Twentieth Century-Fox. This is what made the film so popular as the film was distributed in America unlike many British films therefore the larger population in America means more money for the film industry. The Full Monty won the BAFTA Award for Best film in 1997. It was nominated for a total of four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Music Score and Best Originial Screenplay.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Full_Monty
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA3W36JVnRc
Sarah
Posted by smcmediablog at 06:52 0 comments
History of Teaser Trailers
Trailers shares many of the same functions of a film poster. Posters raqise awareness of a film, but trailers give us a feel of what the film is about. A Trailers normally begin showing extracts from the film around six weeks before the film is actually released. They are approximately edited down to around two minutes, as they are shown in the cinema while waiting for a film to start. Highlights which are the most interesting parts from the film, are shown but usually not in chronological order. A full theatrical trailer is she approximately 2 weeks before the actual film is released to build up buzz and hype about the film. A trailer starts with a slow pace to establish the plot, genre and characacters and thengain fast pace to show action.
Good trailers contain enough information to appeal to the audience without revealing the main plot to the film. A trailer is shown to hook the audience in. they are for advertising the film and to draw in the audience. A trailer is made to "wet the audicences appetite", they establish the genre and show the stars of the film. If you see a favourite actor starring in a new film, you are drawn in to watch it or a director of one of your favourite films, that is directing a new one, you know it will be good.
In the early 1960s, motion picture trailers changed. Textless, montage trailers and quick-editing became popular, largely due to the arrival of the "new Hollywood" and techniques that were becoming increasingly popular in television.
( Obtained from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_trailer )
Our teaser trailer belongs to the British Film Industry. If a film company was to manage our film the company would be Vertigo Films as the make gritty British Films. An example of one of their films that relate to our genre is Outlaw. We researched this company on: http://www.vertigofilms.com/home.php
Sarah and Rebecca
Posted by smcmediablog at 06:52 0 comments
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Branding Research
Pulp fiction is violence and gangster based film involving drugs and realism. The posters reflect the film's image and give connotations of what is to happen within the film. The colour palette which is used on this poster is also used in the film, the use of dark colours and the bright red which creates a brand image for the film. Will we have to consider the colour palette when we create our brand. The woman in the poster is a femme fatale, which is an alluring seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. You can see this by the womans attitude. She uses her sexuality to get what she wants. This is a feauture we want for our brand image as when you look at the person, you want to know what she is like or what she is about.
Posted by smcmediablog at 03:58 0 comments
Branding Research
We have chosen to look at the branding of Charlie's Angels. By looking at the poster and trailer we can tell it is action packed and fiestywith female protagonists. The flames connote danger and reflect the fiery characters. The background is bold and stands out and makes it look dangerous. The back lighting on the characters sets up enigmas as to who they are. We can see the brand image is that it is action packed and fiesty.
Sarah And Rebecca
Posted by smcmediablog at 03:52 0 comments
Branding
A brand refers to more than just one product. Branding is about creating an image that people link to a particular type of product. We did some further research and found that according to www.mudvalley.com there are eight elements that combine to create brand identity:
Posted by smcmediablog at 03:38 0 comments
Our Chosen Group and Brief
We have chosen to be in a group of four, these people are: Chloe, Sarah, Rebecca and Holly. We have decided to make a teaser trailer for our product.
We will be using in our product the software final cut express, and the hardware we will use stills digital cameras and digital video cameras.
Posted by smcmediablog at 03:14 0 comments