A Film Evaluation.

Our Film is now complete and so I have completed an Evaluation.

I have tried to answer the following questions:
> In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
> How does your media product represent particular social groups?
> What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
> Who would be the audience for your media product?
> How did you attract/address your audience?
> What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
> Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Evaluation on Prezi

A post long over due

Right at the start of our project our group had to present our ideas to the class. This presentation was recorded as well as being presented to the rest of the class. This is how it went.

PRESENTATION 5 from fLIX.TV on Vimeo.

an update on our OTS

after research with a focus group my group mates and I have have made some updates to our film. Although we do not have any voices on our OTS yet we do now have a soundtrack with was composed by Sam High. We have chosen to have the majority of our soundtrack written and performed by our group (mostly Sam as this is his forté)  as this will help with avoiding copyright infringement. The exception in our music is that we have used another artists music in our film noir, however, up to 20 seconds an be played before copyright is infringed so we have kept the time down.

We have also completed the editing now also, including adding in the animation. The animation will be uploaded to my blog soon.
UPDATE:

filmnoiranimation from Matt Armes on Vimeo.

Credit where it's due.

My group has been working well and have been looking into different areas of the film industry.

Matt has done some work relating to age groups and film ratings which can be found here:
http://asmediastudiesmattarmes.blogspot.com/2011/02/film-age-classification.html
and has also done some work with uploading one edit of what will hopefully be our final piece, which can be found here:
http://asmediastudiesmattarmes.blogspot.com/2011/02/update.html

Sam has done his work on Target audience, and who our Film noir will be aimed at, which is here:
http://mediastudiessamhigh.blogspot.com/2011/02/our-target-audience.html
He has also been working on the sound for our film noir, and an update can be found here:
http://mediastudiessamhigh.blogspot.com/2011/02/sound-problems.html

Deconstucting a Neo-Noir

The Red Riding
A film that starts off by building tension a slow tilt showing a small dead child with angel wings, like a fallen angel, this shows a murder already and this is a major part of film noir, as they usually involve some sort of crime. The next scene (using a fade edit and continuing the tilt) is of the anti-hero/protagonist, he is beaten up, which shows he is flawed, making him an anti-hero not a proper hero. The next scene is of him driving in his car down a rural road in the rain. A voice over states that he has just failed in london where he was attending his fathers funeral, once again showing his flaws. the colours of this OTS Neo-Noir are almost monochrome, the colours are all quite whitewashed brown colours, with very high shadow contrast. The music is very unconventional because it is acoustic guitar, where-as it is normal for a film noir to have an orchestra. However, it did use a voice-over which is conventional.

Blade Runner
The colour scheme is very conventional to Film Noir except it is in colour, not monochrome. The contrast is very high, which means the scenes are either very dark or very light. This is highly conventional of a film noir which tended to be very dark films. Another convention used in blade runner is the fact that it uses an urban backdrop however it is extremely unconventional because the city is completely Sci-Fi with explosions, flying cars and hologramatic advertising.





Maholand Drive
Urban and dark Maholand drive starts off very conventional however it soon goes completely unconventional. It goes to a clip of very abstract dancing with bright purple backgrounds. It is also unconventional in the fact that the hero is a woman, as well as the femme fatal. The following scenes are all set at night in the dark, following a car. This gives a very bright light contrast from the headlights. When a crash is shown in the clip we watched, the explosion is a brilliant white (magnesium powder most likely used) which is another good colour contrast.

Semiotics in film noir.

semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of cultural sign processes, analogy, metaphor, signification and communication, signs and symbols. In film noir this means that different objects will have different meanings. For example; a pack of cards would represent a casino, or a loaded gun would represent danger and power. Or finally the light could also show this sort of thing. If the lighting is dark then it will show danger, or evilness, whereas light will show goodness, etc.

In our film noir we have used a gun to show power and danger, we have also used the eyes of each character to show danger and what side they are on. The mobsters wear their fedoras low down so that it creates a shadow down over their eyes, whereas the hero's fedora is facing upwards, showing his face. When the Don goes to shoot he pulls up his fedora showing his face, this is to show he means business and the audience can understand this.

Continuity task for AS media from Lee Cooper on Vimeo.

This is my and Bethany's continuity task for media. We have included all of the necessary shots and camera techniques, however the actual footage is not very good and is quite boring. However from a technical point of view i have included Long shots, Mid shots, two shots, Matches on action, reaction shots, and panning. We have tried not to create any continuity errors.

Animation problems.

I have had prtoblems with uploading the animation as it is nopt saved as the correct file type. I am going to have to find some software to change the file type from a .SWF to an .AVI or .MP4.

Animation Progress.

I have finished my animation for my OTS, however, Vimeo is having problems uploading it. Once it is uploaded it will be posted on here.

Mid Term assessment.

After Looking through my blog i have decided that there are problems with:

• Continuity task is still missing.
• Too much text, I have not included enough different types of media.
• I need to add some light tests, and possibly as stills or as a movie clip.
• I need to link to Matt & Sam's blogs more often as they have done work that is more relative to their areas as I have with mine.
• With our film noir we need to add the sound, edit, and add my animation to the end.
• We need to check with continuity in the film noir.
•  Deconstruct a film noir that is not ours.
• Do an evaluation as a prezzi. 

A successful filming

Our filming session was yesterday and it went very well, and we were able to finish filming with time to spare enabling us to get in some extra shots and enable us to re-shoot some scenes. However, the filming was not without out its problems. Due to the location the sound will have to be recorded separately with the actors lip syncing to the footage. This also means that we can add our own soundtrack.

We managed to get our cast together using the social network "Facebook."
Facebook enables people to create Groups and Events. It was using these that were were able to get our cast together and hear their opinions.

Script writing.

Photographic evidence of us writing and editing our script.

Script/stage directions

Shot of the double doors opening following a pan of the bar.

Zoom/cut to a shot of the hero & femme fatal (two shot)

Cut to a shot of hero;

Picks up drink, takes a sip, places drink back onto the table.

Cut to shot of femme fatal;

Stand/sits idly, as if bored by the company. Possibly plays with her hair.

Cut to an over the shoulder shot to hero over the shoulder of the hero;

Hero looks over to femme fatal and says 
HERO: "I've got something for you"

Camera focuses on a mid-shot of the hero. 

Hero takes out necklace, she takes it and admires it. two-shot of femme fatal taking the necklace from hero. 

FEMME FATAL: *GASP* "how did you get this?"

Close up of hero. 

HERO: "Let's just say {shuffles cards}  I'm a lucky guy"

Puts cards down and goes to put necklace on femme fatal. 

Focus changes from hero to background where three figures walk past the window heading for the door. Shot turns from a close up to a OTSS of the figures walking.

Outside shot of 3 figures walking round the outside of the pub windows.

Cut to shot of 3 figures walking in sync with a inverted triangle look. 2 henchmen behind the don following a step behind him. (Shot of feet) they stop at the doors. Henchmen take a step forwards and grab hold of the doors. 

Cut of one henchman's hand grabbing door handle.

Quick cut to other henchman doing same to opposite door. 

Match on action to double doors opening. 

Don walks in. Henchmen follow suit. Camera tilts to give a 'Worms eye view'

DON: "I believe you have something that belongs to me."

Cut to a medium-long shot of hero (Don's Eye-line)

Hero moves in front of femme fatal. 

Cut back to Don. Shot of top of face. 

Push's hat (Fedora) above eye-line so that eyes are now visible. 

DON: "I'd like it back."

Change to side shot. 

Don pulls gun from inside of coat/waistcoat. 

Cut to side shot close up of gun. 

Animation is applied and takes over. 

Casting problems!

Due to an unforeseen circumstance we have had a problem with casting as our actor playing the hero is no longer available for the filming date. To over come this slight problem we have desided to exchange one of our gangsters for a hero, and replace the missing gangster as they do not have to have any lines.

Filming report.

our group is still to record our Film Noir, however we are planning to film on Thursday (20th January) however we have been doing some filming for other things. Matty has been filming a couple of our group meet ups as video blogs, which he plans to edit and upload as soon as possible. we have also done a few seconds of filming to help me with my animating. By filming Sam throwing a playing card I can easily copy the shapes and get an accurate representation of a throwing arm.

Marking Criteria

Marking Criteria for the presentation of the research and planning

Level 4 48-60 marks

There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience.
There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props.
There is excellent work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding.
There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning
Time management is excellent.

Marking criteria for video, filming and editing.

holding a shot steady, where appropriate;
framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;
using a variety of shot distances as appropriate; 
shooting material appropriate to the task set; 
selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting; 
editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer;
using varied shot transitions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set;
using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;
using titles appropriately.

Beehive is the new Set

We have chosen to use the Beehive pub instead of our first idea of Paolo's Restaurant. This is mainly for two reasons;
 1) It is a lot closer to the school meaning easier transport for our Actors and Actresses (and possibly extras)
2) We (me and my group) were lucky enough to bump into the owner and ask his permission to use his pub to which he accepted.

Settings Update.

One place our group would like to use is Paolo's restaurant. I have just had a look at their website and have found their opening times.
 http://www.paolos-restaurant.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4&Itemid=4
The restaurant would be the perfect set as it features all the aesthetic qualities and surroundings needed; - The right mood, lighting and there is an alley way next to it which could be used to create a moody entrance for the "mobsters" if filmed at night or early morning.

UPDATE

Due to the fact that time is running short, me and Matt have been discussing an idea by Sam, suggested at the start of the project. This idea is to use the Beehive pub instead as it is nearer to the school and has roughly the same aesthetics, however, its location is not as good for certain scenes, such as the mobsters entering/walking into the pub. A pro of using the pub would be that it would be easier to get the cast down to it as it is only 5 minutes  away from our sixth form.

The six degrees of separation.

Whilst looking at some possible ways of displaying our film opening to as many people as possible when I came across the theory of six degrees of separation. This is a theory that states that through friends of friends you  could only be 5 people away from anyone on earth. although unproven the theory got me thinking about using social networking sites and viral advertising. If I was to send it to 5 people and they were to show it to 5  people  and so on and so on, it would soon be seen world wide, however this idea has a flaw that not everyone would be willing to show the footage or, if sent by email, seen as a junk email, as it would be a type of chain email. The other side to this is that people could send it to more than five friends. For this reason I think it would be a good idea to use Viral Advertising across Email and Social networking sites such as Hotmail, Googlemail, Facebook, and possibly Twitter.