Evaluation.

 

         The project that I have made is a two minute long clip, which is part of a film. I made this as part of a group project, in this group was four people, including me. The other people that I worked with are, Rebecca Fernandez, Jurguen Munch, and Steven Culshaw. I contributed to the filming of the clip, and also editing, whilst taking extra photographs to be used in the clip. I also chose the sound track, for the short clip. In the end the images didn’t get used, but instead of them going to waste I have used them in this evaluation.

         Our Clip is a hybrid genre, it is a gangster style film and also a teen drama, there is also action included into the story line, and the clip is mainly based at teenaged males, to adult males, probably between the ages 14-30 years of age. Even though research on similar films shows that also female teenagers, of the same age, might also be quite interested in our project.
The end product was slightly different, than what we had expected. As our clip progressed we had to make a few changes, because our original story-line would not have been able to work, because of the people that we had involved in the filming of the project. After coming to the conclusion that we would have to change the story-line a little, we all agreed that the decision worked out for the best in the end. I think our clip would be successful, because it includes many problems, of what some teenagers have in their lives, and it also gives other people insight of what other people living, in and around the U.K. have to experience, and sometimes on a daily basis. I think this is important in a person’s education, and out-look on life in general.
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think our choices in the film proved successful, because others had commented on how well it was executed on a whole, and how the special effects  had worked well, to maximise the clips potential, and how others would see it. The clip that we made was actually an opening sequence, which then leaves for the least of the story-line to unfold. The clip certainly challenges the genre of the film. It does this by the action, linking to the teen drama genre, and the fighting which also goes together with the drama, but also the gangster factor.

The Mise en Scene of the clip generally links in with the gangster genre; the characters are dressed in average teenage clothes, which are jeans, tracksuit bottoms, and hoodies. Where as also hoodies can be suggested as a link to yobs, and hoodlums. This all generally links with how we have decided to represent teenagers. Here on one side, we have a teenage lad, who is trying to do well with sport, and then on another side, we decided to show how teenagers are generally seen in the public eye, with the use of costumes, and weapons, I feel that we have represented both sides equally as well. Even thought it challenges the stereotype of teenagers, by also having a teenager that wants to do well in life, whilst still dressing in the same way as the actual stereotype would normally. We decided not to use any speech in the film, as we felt that the use of non diegetic music would work better and give a greater effect than normal diegetic speech would do. All factors of media language are used to the advantage, each is equally incorporated into the clip, and all are equally important, to give the project the full effect as it should do. The lighting for example is natural, because we wanted to keep the look of the clip, as real-life as we could do. We wanted to educate others into the lives of people who are involved in gangs, and not giving people a bad impression of at least one of the characters, and make people to re-consider their views of teens in recent years.

         I think our audience responded well to our film, because it was made to make people think, “maybe we have got it wrong about some teens” and make people realise that they don’t have to be scared of every teen when they walk down the street. But also give them insight of the harsh reality that some people have to go through, because of the area they are brought up in.

         If we was to consider making a whole entire film, and wishing to market it, and turn the whole prospect bigger, I would look to the film production company ‘Stealth Films’ which is based in great Britain. My reason for this is because they have helped produce a film which is ‘Kidulthood’ because it has a similar type of idea as we had making out film. Kidulthood is based on looking into the gangster areas of London, and how some teens grow up in London. Showing many sides, some people being better off, but then some stuck in the harsh realities that them types of areas, are portrayed to have.

         The age group that our project is focused at would be in the area of ages 14-30 years of age, mostly focused on male bias, but as wrote earlier in the evaluation, a secondary target audience would be for some female viewers. I feel the people that would enjoy the film would like Hip-hop style music, also rap and RnB. This is because of the stereotype we are given to look to.

         In this clip we have tried to create binary oppositions, and include conflict. We made the characters’ appearance, make them look like they would usually be friend in other circumstances. We have also created many enigmas for people to question “why the characters at are war?” and “where is he going on the bus?”, “will the situation be resolved in a later clip?” and also “who is the character at the end of the film?” I feel that these are very good enigmas because these begin to prove that not every single teenager will be a malicious person. Or not every teenager will hang around in threatening gangs.

         We have used many different editing techniques, to enhance the story line, and also to enhance the over-all out look on the film.        

         Looking back over my preliminary task, I feel I have learnt an epic amount of things, to make a full and finished product. I have learnt how to vary the composition of shots, to make the out-look, more creative and dynamic. I have found many different effects that I can use to emphasise the story-line of the product, and also to make the finished product appeal more to the view, so it is ultimately more aesthetically pleasing. I am also please to say that I have learnt how to edit properly, to a good standard.

 

Conclusion

         I feel that my groups finished product, was very strong. I feel that some of the strong points of the clip were the composition of some of the shots; I feel they worked well, and to the best of our advantage. I do feel that as time went on some of our group members because slightly less interested, and wasn’t working to their full ability, and I also feel that some didn’t but as much effort, and commitment as others did. I am also pleased with all the new and extremely useful techniques that I have learnt.

 

 

Casino Royale Chase Scene Analysis

b

The chase scene begins with an extreme long shot of a town centre in Madagascar. Digetic sounds are heard from the people in the town centre. The town centre is like a market place with only stalls and no buildings. The people are all chanting and betting on a fight between a snake and a ferret. Then we see a medium shot a man in the crowd who drinks out of his bottle of beer and then proceeds to watch the animals fight. the camera then zooms out to a British man who is talking to an unknown man who we later find out is James Bond. We then see a second extreme long shot but this time it is of people sat on top of walls and buildings to see the fight. The man who was previously drinking out of the beer bottle is then showed again but this time he is answering his phone. Whilst the man is on the phone James Bod realizes that he is the bomb maker. Bond then tells a man who is sat close to the Bomb Maker to not let him get away. The Bomb Maker then realizes that some people are after him an turns away from the camera shot and runs in the opposite direction while the man on the phone to Bond can just stand and watch the man escape. The man then begins to chase after the bomb maker who has just ran through the fight ring and is nearly bitten by the snake. The man chasing the bomb maker is then stopped because he runs into so people in the crowd and then he an the people he ran into fall off the stands that they are stood on and into the middle of the fighting ring. At this point Bond sees the bomb Maker escaping from the fighting arena and begins to chase him. This chase then carries on until the building site. The Bomb Maker then hides behind some industrial pipes and pulls out a hand gun, he then looks around for Bond but he cannot see him anywhere. We then see a long shot of a shack and a fence being bulldozed by a Caterpillar Truck. The chase then continues through the building site as the Bomb Maker shoots at the Truck that Bond is in. The truck then crashes at the bottom of some scaffolding. The Bomb Maker begins to climb up the scaffolding as Bond follows him up it. Whilst Bond is half way up the scaffolding the truck that he was previously driving explodes. The shot then changes to the bomb maker who is at the top of the scaffolding. From the camera angle we can see that the Bomb maker is trapped at the top of the scaffolding, but then from another angle we can see a crane dangling some steel pipes. The bomb maker makes a desperate attempt to escape by jumping on the crane, he makes the jump and then begins to climb up the crane to the top, the shot then changes to Bond, he also makes the jump from the scaffolding to the crane. The builders on the site look on in amazement whilst Bond and the Bomb Maker climb up the huge scaffolding. We can still hear non-digetic music playing at a fast pace to match the chase. Once both men reach the top of the crane they then begin to carry on running through the pillars in the crane, the Bomb maker then jumps from one crane to another with Bond following closely behind. The Bomb maker then stops an pulls out a gun and aims it at Bond. Bond then grabs the gun and the men begin to tussle on top of the crane. the Bomb maker manages to shrug off Bond who slips off the crane but manages to keep hold of the platform. The Bomb maker then makes an attempt to get away whilst Bond is struggling to get back onto the crane platform, the Bomb maker jumps from the crane onto a rooftop and then onto another rooftop. By now Bond has managed to pull himself back onto the platform and has began to proceed with the chase, he watches the Bomb maker jump from rooftop to rooftop before doing the same himself, however Bonds attempt is not very good, he makes the jump to the first rooftop and then falls off it onto the next roof, from the floor he can see the Bomb maker running away round the corner he then gets back to his feet and begins to chase the bomb maker once more the chase then goes through the site where the builders are working with the bomb maker narrowly avoids being caught on the electric saw, Bond then comes from another angle trying to cut off the Bomb makers path, however he is a bit to slow and the Bomb maker sees Bond and then begins to run in the opposite direction which is the elevtor shaft he jumps down the shaft and kicks off the wall to get on the floor below and begins to run off again, then we see Bond drop down through a hole in the floor to get to the same floor as the bomb maker the chase then continues again the bomb maker then makes an attempt to get away by jumping through a small window, this does not slow Bond down because he just runs through the paper thin wall, the chase then leaves the building site and enters onto the main road the chase continues down the main road until the chase ends at the Madagascan Embassy.

The film follows Carlton Leach from his younger days as a 'footsoldier' among the ranks of the ICF to membership of a notorious gang who rampaged their way through London and Essex in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The film focuses on three decades of his life, following him from football hooliganism through his burgeoning career as a nightclub bouncer and his involvement in the criminal aspects of the early 'rave' scene, until finally becoming one of the most feared criminals in the country. The story concludes with three members of his gang - Tony Tucker, Craig Rolfe and Pat Tate - being brutally slain in the infamous Rettendon Range Rover triple murders of December 1995.

F1 Jedi Prelim Task

b

This is our prelim task, the plot of the story was that the girls were trading some goods accross the table. This turned out to be a good success, however, due to the time we were unable to record all of what we needed, therefore, we improvised and delt with what we had.

We used several different types of camera shots such as long shot, mid-shot, extreme close ups and over the shoulder shots. This allowed the sequence to flow with the help of invisible editting and simple cut shots. We were able to stay within the 180 ° rule, as we shot the angels from one side of the point of action/conversation. 

The music we chose was very limited as there was no other music on the player, so with the amount of time we had we chose this music to give a comedy side to the sequence as well as to give the sequence a lift of non-diagetic sounds rather than just diagetic sound/noise in the background. We extracted the audio and silenced the scene where she walks in and replaced it with the non-diagetic sound of music. Once she sits down we faded the music down but still had it playing quietly underneath as the diagetic sounds of them talking needed to be heard. The music fades back in throughout the credits and stops in sync to the credits ending.

To improve our piece of film we would spend more time filming, if it was possible, and also we would have chosen a better soundtrack if we had more choice in the itunes player. Also some shots were a little shakey, this was either due to the actor being unable to stand still or because the camera was a little shakey, to improve this we would ask the actress to stand perfectly still and the camera would need to be steady.

Overall our prelim task was a success and we feel that this experience will help us with future recordings.

Analysis of "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" Opening Sequence

b

The above clip is the opening sequence of the number one rated British gangster film called "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels".

Firslty, each shot is done as a simple and invisible cut to the next shot, this is useful to make a movie flow and go in a chronilogical order. Instead of using fades to introduce a new clip or a different title, simple cuts enable the clips to switch back and forth from a title to a movie clip.

The cinematography used is varied as sometimes it has point of view shots and sometimes it uses steady shots. The point of view shots allow us to feel like we are a part of the movie where we can see and hear what everyone else in the scene can hear through the diagetic sounds of talking, walking and the jewelry on the table. The give a sense of realism and can emphasize what we can feel and think because everyone else may be feeling the same, it also intregues us, therefore, it makes us want to peer over the other people's shoulders to see what is happening. This is shown at the beginning of the scene where the camera is tracking towards the crowd to see what is happening like a human, and to emphasize the realism it has people walking in front of the camera like people do with us in real life. When the steady shots are used these would have been either handheld or had a tripod used. These closeups help us to see the expressions on the face of the dealer, and also it allows us to know what he looks like. The midshots through the point of view shots helps the audience see what kind of clothing they wear or what thier characteristics are like how they stand or move. We can see that this dealer is a confident man.

The titles are white, old type-writer style of writing, on a black background. This allows us to see what the words say and who produced, stars and the name of the movie. As the movie title is revealed to us we see that it is "typed" into the screen as if someone is writing the story and telling us about it. This is a good way of opening a title scene because it doesn't just show the title, it plays with it and waits for us to see what the title is rather than straight away know what it is. The connatations of each title could mean that this person has a dark history and has renewed it, or it could be just so we can see what it says.

The clothes used show a stereotypical dealer trying to dress well but also is trying to keep warm as the day may be quite cold as he is wearing a black coat, dark coloured scarf. He may wear it to let the people in the crowd assume he is like them and none threatening, however, people with a "buzz cut" hairstyle often can look threatening as this is the style of hair cut that people who were once or still in jail have. He seems like a nice, confident, helpful person who is just trying to work, however, once the police are seen by him he eventually reveals his true personality of a dealer/gangster. The man runs from the police not wanting to be caught so this shows he has done something very wrong.

One specific editting was used on the scene where they are running through the alley way, the slow motion clip emphasizes the surreal feeling and fear that is running through them. This part is very memorable because it shows a surreal feeling.

The lighting is of a natural setting so it also gives the sense of realism.

Editting

b
Editting is used to make a film or sequence flow and seem realistic, this can be done by different types of effects and editting techniques, also if a film is editted well it can be understood by the audience.
Different types of editting techniques include such things as fade, simple cut, invisible cut, montage and changing what has come through on the camera, for instance, if the camera has recorded a shot of someone standing on the floor, by using editting you can "flip" the person upside down and still have their hair perfectly normal in a sereal world. Also by the use of editting you can use green/blue screens to fill in background effects or additional characters, for example, when Eddy Murphy plays the Nutty Professor or Norbit he plays more than one character and by the help of blue/green screen they were able to have both of the Eddie Murphy characters on the screen. However, gangster movies hardly use green/blue screen, usually it would only be in the scene had a car chase scene in it, from the front view of the car, or if the background needed changing into something more gangster type. Films that wouldn't have changed it's backgrounds would be such things as "The Godfather" and "Scarface".

Fades are used to either end, begin or even link one clip to another, it can either give the sense of emotional effects (as in someone fading away) or it can give a link to the next scene. Fades are not usually used, however, when they are used they are used well as they can reveal the next scene slowly while we anticipatingly wait for it. Fades are rarely used during the film but they are normally used in opening credits and endings, which draws us slowly into the film. Fade is rarely used in gangster films which suggests that we should hardly use it in our film.

Simple and invisible cuts are similar as they can be used at any time to change camera view in the same scene or change scene entierly. When they are used it allows the film to flow and become more effective because you can use it as many time as you like, the majority of film making is in fact simple/invisible cuts which are the easiest and simplest things to do. This is done by having two or more of the same clip filmed at different angles, by cutting these clips up and editting them into the right places you have made a more effective scene, as if it was left to one angle the clip would drag on and we couldn't explore and feel like we are in the movie.
In the movie of "Exorcism of Emily Rose" it uses many simple cuts which are done quickly, for example in the court room and when Emily is being taken under by the Devil. The following clip shows when it is used and where, the total number of simple cuts in the first 5minutes 30 seconds are around 168.






As we can see from this clip, the simple cuts can help raise the tension by having quick, fast pace shots editted together to make them heart pounding (between 00:16 and 00:30 in clip), also they can be used to let us know what else is happening in the room or around them (between 00:46 and 01:00 in clip) also the fast pace of this editting causes us to become confused and a little scared because we do not understand what is happening. Simple cuts like this are able to make us tense and scared, it is due to the editting and camera techniques that really get our body scared. Simple cuts can also view the different types of angles of the people in the same area for example when Emily/Lucifer is telling the priest the six people that she/he is (between 04:54 and 5:24). This lets us know the full expression of the person that is speaking or doing an action.
Invisible editting shows continuity and shots in sequence, also it puts the shots in chronological order so it flows simpler, the invisible transition is also known as cut. It is used to create realism and verisimillitude which is creating a believable world and allows the audience to enter the world of the story.
Montages are used to group similar clips in a scene together, however, it is used less commonly and is more abrupt, also it takes the audience out of the story and the juxtaposition of images that don't exist in the same time are used. When two images are editted together a new meaning is created which is greater than each individual shot.
In our sequence we will probably use the simple, invisible cuts as we do not think a montage will go very well. Also some of the shot lengths will be short when he is running or fighting, and we will have a good use of close ups to see into his mind and know what he is thinking and feeling. We will use the rule of thirds to fit the talking shots together if he is talking to someone else and the 180º rule where we will film from one side also during the conversation shots. When the main character is walking, the editting will be to slow down this shot and fade it into a closer shot which saves a long easing in shot.
Editting brings the film to it's final preparations and also it can fit everything in the film together and have good continuality, also it can emphasize scenes like by short, quick shots to promote a fast paced scene of confusion or fear, or long shots to promote a calm or eary atmosphere. Depending when the shots are introduced we can feel fear or peace, this is why we jump to some noises and not others, the shots can be editted quickly to a scary point which is called the "sting" and accompanied by music will make the audience jump or possibly scream.

(By Beckψ)

Get Rich Or Die Tryin' Analysis

b

Get Rich or Die Tryin' is a typical gangster film. This relates to our film because we are going to make a Gangster/Revenge film. The plot of Get Rich or Die Tryin' is about one mans (50 Cent) attempt to be rich and famous. The main character Marcus (50 Cent) has a dream of being a rapper. During his quest for fame Marcus realizes that he needs money so he turns to selling drugs. During the film Marcus is shot several times. The gunman is masked so Marcus has to find out who the man was. This is where the movie relates to ours. Our movie is about a mans revenge on three gangsters that killed his innocent best friend.

• Get Rich or Die Tryin' received $46,442,528 in revenue when it was released in 2005
  
• The company that produced the film was Paramount Pictures

(By Ste)