Hello, this is just a quick post to say thank you for looking through my work and I'm sorry the evaluations aren't in order. I hope you enjoy the development of our idea and the final piece, we've worked hard to impress as much as possible. Its been a joy to do this course.

This powerpoint should explain all of the social groups we managed to define and represent in our final piece.

For this we strung together our prelim and final movie and generally talked about the progression from the prelim to making the final piece. This was almost too general though as it wasn't planned and slightly rushed but we did answer the question and managed to give our opinions on the final piece which we haven't done yet. Please also note that the recording of our voices was quite quite so to hear at some parts the volume have have to be turned up.

We have learnt about technologies by using a range of programmes and equipment when making our film.

When filming our preliminary task we used a camera and tripod borrowed from school. These were fairly simple to use. When we filmed our final piece we borrowed a camera from a friend and this was much easier to use and gave us better quality results. The only minor issue was the focus in very low light but this was probably unavoidable.

When we were trying out methods for our stop motion we used both digital and video cameras from school.

We made our ident using photoshop and then edited it on imovie.


The editing for the preliminary task, the stop motion, and the other camera tests was all done on imovie on the macs at school. This was reletavly easy to use but didnt have a massive range of features or editing tools. The editing for the final film was done on tims macbook which had the latest version of imovie. This was alot better than the version avaliable at school and this helped us produce the best film we could.

We uploaded our videos onto Youtube to put them on the blog.

We used Slideshare to upload powerpoints onto the blog.

We used Scribd to upload any word documents.

We found our music on Freeplay Music .

We used Myfonts to find the fonts for our ident.

We used Google to search for images and websites.

For this question we conducted our answer in a director's interview situation similar to those that the press will conduct to try and grab more behind the scenes information on the new film release. This meant our answers were almost acted in a way but because we used a scripted answer we had thought through what we wanted to say.

For this answer we made full use of the new imovie features and applications by recording our answer and illustrating it with a scripted version of what we said. We even exported the video in HD to show how we made the most of the resources we had.

When finding a proper target audience for our project idea we looked into the big markets that are the most popular with the action genre by going directly to the websites of recent realistic action films and found that they aim their story-lines and best selling stuff to young adults. for instance Working Title.

This is because the most interest into the film business comes from them, and also the passion for a gripping film. We also determined this by going to films with similar genres and stories and generally taking into account the ages of people watching. With this first hand evidence in mind we went further and said our target audience was males of 25 to 35.

Before we filmed we thought our main target would be a well educated, well read enthusiast of spy books and films but realising this market was actually quite small we adapted our film after the draft to appeal to a much larger audience of general film enthusiasts that enjoy action the most. This is best illustrated by the picture above of a young adult called Elliott who loves film and values the directors behind them.

Also mentioned in our target audience entry was how the target would be extremely interested in the film industry and his/her own creations, in fact after changing our audience we still kept this aspect because of the increase in creativity in recent years. So to appeal to this aspect we filmed with new techniques and made sure that all shots kept with continuity and tried new things to impress them the most.

To answer this question we altered our final piece on YouTube to have comments where we have talked about specific sections of the film that attract the audience and have pointed out the key aspects of the film that we concentrated on the most. The comments also provide reasons for doing some parts of a film which we haven't been able to comment on yet.

This is the short plan Me and Ollie made after Easter to solve our evaluation for Friday, we involved as much new technologies as we could and sorted them to their best question.
Evaluation Plans

As mentioned in our feedback from the first draft we had a major problem with music or just lack of it. We thought of trying garage band to make our own special and unique track to go alongside the scene but in the end it proved too hard and what we had in mind would have been too complex to make ourselves. This left us with finding an existing track on the internet we could use.
So to make sure we had it sorted me and Ollie met up and searched through several free non copyrighted music sites for the best one, the best one turned out to be a simple website called freeplaymusic.com which contains tons of tracks to use in filming such as our own all ranging from simple beats to massive orchestral sounds.
We knew from the start the best track to use for the main part would be a very simple, low bass beats track which would get more upbeat as it carried on, so to find this kind of track we searched 'progressive' in its search tool and received over 20 responses giving us exactly what we needed just in different genres of music. But after lots of searching and previewing we found the perfect track which gave us under tones of suspense but progressively got louder and more upbeat.
The final track we needed was for the fight scene and needed to dramatic, deadly, orchestra based and around 44 seconds long-this we thought would be hard to find. But only after a short search of tracks relating to 'fight' we came across a very well constructed track of orchestral instruments being played fast and jumpy giving the sense of being trapped and feeling death slowly approaching. After doing research on fight scenes within the type of films we based our on we found out that this kind of orchestral music was perfect for building tension and grabbing the audience quickly and not letting go. The track was perfect for our gore and blooded fight.

To make the ident more interesting our practical teacher Miss Frearson suggested we create an animation with the logo. As the vocal point to our ident is the blood splatter Miss Frearson saw this and capitalized on it by suggesting we animate the blood by making it appear after the audience sees the logo. With this in mind Ollie then thought of quickly doing this on photoshop by saving the logo as a JPEG on photoshop, then erasing part of the blood splatter, then saving it as a JPEG again until all the blood had been removed. This would then give us the foundations to our animation.
But to quickly animate the ident i decided it was best to import the pictures into imovie which automatically converts the pictures into 10 second clips allowing us to edit the picture as if they were filmed camera shots. We firstly cut all clips to a second so they could be easily managed and set out on experimenting with different times for different blood splotches so the blood would appear to be dropping naturally.
Finally after getting the best balance of times we added a final music track to add to the unusual logo. The music was from imovie and called suspense so naturally it provided the thrilling edge the ident needed. all this combined meant the animation was original, inventive and very fitting for the final draft.

These were the pictures in order:

With our final film company name we started to think of ideas for portraying it and the essence of the filming effectively. As always we looked into existing products and examples for inspiration and what seemed to be common in all film production names was the use of a picture and lines to break up the name. But before we even started on this we looked into graphical fonts which would be the foundation to the rest of the ident, to do this we used good ol' myfonts.com which had thousands of different fonts and allowed us to search for our most ideal one. We typed in film first and got a whole range of cheesy fonts so we revised our search to Gritty and street which gave us loads more fonts connecting to the film corporation name, of all fonts the best one was called streetbrush.

But to follow the trait of the other film company idents we needed to find some pictures that related to the genre of film, to do this we looked into some free copyright picture sites to find the one that had the biggest range and the most professional look. This led us to freedigitalphotos.net. Within the site we searched action and other classic genre traits but we found the most shocking search to be Blood which turned out around 20 results of high quality pictures using fake blood in creative ways:





After playing with the pictures in Photoshop elements 5 we found that the best one to use in the final ident was a blood platter from the third picture, this has accurate spread of blood and covered most of the logo.

We then applied this to the classic set up of idents with a surprisingly dull outcome:

After making this first logo we started to realise the flaw in the design-the font was too dark and the blood was a poor quality cut. We then revised the whole method of cutting and set out to make the final logo with no lines and better quality mix of colours and pixilation.

After thinking of our film institute name it was time to look into original film names. This posed as a hard task to carry out because of the diversity of action film names already having been used, we couldn't just pick a random aspect of action films and use it as a name. But just in case that worked we brainstormed ideas:
• Head to Head
• Bullet time
• Lost in identity
• Derailed
• Right to kill
• Ghost instinct
• Firing line

Unfortunately these names were either cheesy or had been used before. So to get past this we looked into our film story and the basic story of the opening sequence, we knew the strongest piece of narrative was the corrupt boss being framed so we looked into other ways of framing someone and changing the words around to create a new name with action packed connotations.
• Body trap
• The framed
• The set up
• Tricked
• Enticed

Being realistic with our names we singled out: The set up and Tricked, because of strong means they had behind them and the obvious action related aspects. Also out of all names the set up seemed to be the closest to the story line and would give the mysterious presence we needed without detracting from the story too much. Overall we chose 'The Set Up' for its quick and punchy words which seemed to simple but gave us and our peers so many ideas of what it could mean or where the story could go.

At this stage in filming and planning we had to think of a film corporation name which would reflect our type of filming and the genre of film so that the feel and setting of the film would be described before it even started playing.
We first started to think of ideas for names by using inspiration from other names of film corporations, we looked into he type of name to the type of filming they normally do. Strong examples were Universal Studios who will films almost anything, Focus who concentrate mainly on dramas and unusual films, Marvel studios who concentrate of film depictions of comic books. This gave us ideas such as:
• Adrenaline
• The Extreme
• Disaster
• Urban films
• Blooded
We thought that overall the best name that described us was the Urban films, but this was lacking any real description of our genre so we then started to develop it further.
• Urban Shot
• Extreme Urban
• Urban blood
• Urban Action
Of all these names the final one: Urban Action, was the best in terms of look, style and description. This name combined with a sleek and sophisticated ident logo would look mysterious but give a strong professional presence, an ideal combination for any film production company but mainly for our serious and realistic filming.

For the new film we thought using Karl again would be our best bet, he was perfect for the running in the draft but because of his martial arts history and constant spa and fight demo competitions he had the perfect build for our new fight scene. For these new reasons we chose him for the main character/spy.

But for the position of contact we chose a character and friend that wouldn't mind being beaten up and give a realistic edge to everything, so Richard Mackey was the best choice. He had enough strength and stature to look like he could take on Karl but ultimately his efforts would be outdone in the final scene. Also similar to our reasons for choosing Karl, Richard is a close friend so his efforts would be more than standard and working with him would ease the overall process. From experience I know that Richard has a strong resilience to most things and when asking him to be part of the film he was happy to accept and put enough time in it until it was completed.

For the final role as the corrupt boss we chose another close friend called Alex Prichard who at 6ft 4 would give the perfect adult look and add a sense of sophistication to the whole film. His slow and smooth style of talking would add an over confidence to the character and ultimately provide a the best representation of a boss type person without detracting too much from realistic scene.

When me and Ollie were looking through films for inspiration for our final scene we looked at the trailer for Bourne Identitiy to pick out its use of music and shots, whilst doing this we found a clever bit of editing which made it look like the Bourne character had appeared from behind a passing car. we thought this little bit of editing would be great for the final piece to make it even more mysterious. To see if we could even do it we pulled in our friend beau and got him to stand still whilst we filmed.

How we did it:
We're not sure if this was the same technique but we set up the camera in a fixed place and filmed a short clip of our friend Ross walking past with a film board in his hands, this would cover the whole screen making it possible for beau to just appear out of no where. We then filmed the same clip again but with beau standing just a foot behind the film board. Took off the camera and put onto imovie we quickly edited the two clips by cutting off the amount of film on each one from beginning and end and then trimmed down the first clip to half way then the same with the other clip so that when played together they looked like the same shot.

Of all places we looked into for filming we thought that a general and homely house would be the best to suit the story line and the ideal filming conditions for this type of mysterious scene. Filming in a house would allow us to be relaxed about time and be able to keep continuity.

We got the idea for filming in a generic house from the film Hitman in which the beginning scene sees a man entering his house and being startled by an assassin who wants to talk. The shots involved in this scene were fantastic and ranged from different shades of lighting to different shot angles and distances. If we could copy, or even better, improve the shots used in that scene we could gain some shocking suspense and instant mystery.

To do this we chose a house that closest to the actors and was the most available for the planned time, with all factors considered my house was the best option. The reason for choosing my house was even further enforced by its strong layout which carries on right to a garage outside which had the perfect look for our dialogue.

After deciding this we started to draw up the thumbnails using the shotlist in comparison to the layout of my house and its rooms, fortunately the two fitted well and only a few shots had to be changed to fit the required action. I also made a small plan view of the Kitchen where the fight scene takes place on Microsoft Paint so that we could plan the fight in detail to fit the size and shape of the room.

Before filming we thought it was best to draw out basic drawings and depictions of the shots we've described in our shot list, this way instead of reading from a long sheet of paper we can help ourselves visualise each shot and use the thumbnails as a basic foundation to how each shot will work. This is perfect for our new idea because of the simplicity it will have compared to the previous draft but mainly because the draft wasn't planned and had way too many shots.

Because of the detailed shot list we made and the simplicity of the final idea me and Ollie decided making a full story board wouldn't be necessary and that we should instead rely on the combined effort of the thumbnails and shotlist to direct our shots. This would ultimately be risky but prove that we could use our strong vision for the final piece to help us but also allow for actor input and improvisation which would vastly benefit the filming process-making it more creative and less stiffly constructed.

The final idea is an opening sequence to a high certificate rated spy film that is based on a realistic background and story.

Planning for Final Movie

The big changes we have designed for this new film are as follows:
Filming inside for controlled lighting and easy continuity management.
Filming at dark to keep lighting at a constant throughout the filming process.
Relying on artificial light to give a realistic feel and look to the film.
Change in acting roles.
No chase scene, only action coming from small fight/beat up.
Dialogue.
Mystery obtained through suspense.
Strong narrative.
Effective and suitable music.

After handing in our draft and going through all feedback me and Ollie got down to business and started brainstorming new ideas. To do this effectively I thought it was best to get some strong inspiration from the films we first thought of when getting ideas for a film genre. From the start our main inspiration has been James Bond and to be more specific: the film Casino Royale has been our model for everything. We then looked back over the opening sequence for Casino Royale and also the beginning of Hitman which used fantastic use of close ups and panning shots.
After doing this we tried to pick out the most important feedback we received which after long discussion we thought was the comment on narrative. This meant we had to forget all ideas of a chase scene and focus on some aspect of dialogue and strong story which would be apparent throughout the whole scene.
As a basis for our new film idea we took the Casino Royale story and changed the motives, the setting, the destiny of the characters and the overall cinematography. what we planned to keep was the realistic feel of the scene which would be perfect for our target market. Overall the new idea was going to use less Action and concentrate on suspense to give the real enigma behind the scene, which after watching several more action film opening sequences we noticed to be the best way to draw the audience in.

To get feedback from our peers we had to set up our video on a computer and allow each other film team to view it and give comments and constructive advice, their responses were laid out as:
Name:
Audience:
Successes:
Improvements:
Comments:
Level:
Most of the feedback was brief but still extremely helpful in showing us key areas of failures and needed improvements, these were generally pointed out by just key words such as 'Lighting' but this helped us list the problems and reassess the video our selves with these aspects in mind.
The most mentioned problem was the lighting which was said to be poor and lacking 'close to the end of the film', this was by far our worst problem. Other points raised were the lack of music and titles which didn't give the film much presence and left them feeling confused. And finally a small comment was made on how the actors looked too young, but this was the least of our worries.
However out of the bad points many good points were raised such as the use of shots which were 'constantly changing a different' and the clever use of a new board in part of the filming. but oddly enough one of our peers thought that the lighting was great and a clever use of the dark was used, we put this down to sympathy and took little notice.
The final comment each peer would leave was a grade, for the filming a 1 is the worst possible and a 4 is an epic success. We averaged a measly 2 but had a few 3s creeping in which shows how close we were to a success.

Finally was our teacher's feedback which came in a much smarter format and gave extremely blunt yet in formative advice, they cleared up the problems with lighting and music but then started to comment on deeper and more pressing issues we should have looked into. Firstly was the comment on how the chase was too long and left them feeling bored, even with music very little suspense would be achieved. Then to resolve this they pointed out that the problem was lack of narrative which would have been presented in our film with flashbacks (unfortunately we never got round to that bit). A quote given in person from our practical teacher was 'just looks like a couple of guys playing tig' in a really ironic way we found this to be the most constructive comment made. The final addition was asking for more 'dramatic tension' which they said would be achieved by giving a close up of the gun.
With all this in mind me and Ollie decided it was best to start again with a new idea and learn from all the obvious mistakes made to produce something quite different to a chase.

To help plan the whole draft more closely and view every shot as how it should be we made a story board which depicts the whole film in boxes which represent shots. Our story boards and thumbnails have all been drawn by Ollie who took the challenge so I had to do the next ones for the final film, however all planning for the filming has been done equally by both of us.

This time instead of hanging the bullet from invisible string and taking the pictures from the side we decided to glue the bullet to a wall and take the pictures whilst moving the camera slowly forwards. This should, when put together, make it look like the bullet is quickly approaching the camera, if it did this then that would work perfectly for our draft by making the audience jump.

What we did differently:
After the first test we realised we would need a ton more photos to get a better quality result, so this time we took over twice the previous amount: around 36. This would make the bullet flow easily and give a more fluid trajectory instead of having massive jumps which were all too common in the first test. Also another big problem was how the bullet appeared to jump and move on its travels, we instantly solved this by sticking it to a white background. The background was key in this test because the illusion in making the audience think the bullet has moved but instead the camera is only getting closer to it. To do all this we simply blue-tacked a glue stick lid to the projector board and attached the camera to a box resting on some books we moved forward a centimetre after each photo.

To edit the photos we added them to a imovie project on the school Emacs and made each photo transaction 0.1 of a second, we debated on the speed but this appeared to be the best to reflect how fast a bullet travels but also to make the audience jump.

Overall I like how the bullet takes a while to get close and appears to be a blue dot for the first half, this means the audience has time to guess what it is before it gets bigger and closer within a second and finally ends covering the majority of the screen. We could have stabilised the camera more and ensured it was on a continuous path to avoid any mistakes like a jumpy bullet but the end result showed we could do the final bullet shot within 50 pictures, we would just have to be extremely steady and keep the camera on a constant and planned path. This method is extremely better than the first.

After filming for 6 hours until it got pitch black we had filmed enough shots for a 2 minute opening sequence. Although the shots had been planned we hadn't scoped out the area well enough and ended up improvising most of the filming which was great at the time because we had flexibility and could try several ideas for one shot but this meant we spent way too much time thinking and not doing. This caused the filming to take longer than the predicted 4 hours so we had to film in the dark which in terms of continuity wasn't the best result. The chase ended up starting at mid-day and got dark in 2 minutes.
Apart from this the shots we recorded were unusual and used loads of different angles to add a quirky and realistic edge to it. I think personally the best part of our draft is the running around the church where we mixed two lots of shots and combined them together, this was maybe a bit too confusing but it took us a long time and had the best shots of the whole thing. Finally the area that we lacked in the most was music, with absolutely no music at all our draft had no pace and without the sub-conscious notice of music going on the draft had no essence of a film.

After watching a few examples of action film opening sequences from previous media students mine and Ollie's media teachers said the best and most effective way of making the film interesting and gripping was to use unusual shots from either behind objects or the actors. For example in a video we watched called Plan B the students found new shots by placing the camera underneath cars and creating low angled close ups which looked spectacular. Also the key advice from our practical teacher was to film a series of continuous 3 second shots which we could cut and add together to make a fast paced mesh of running. this would ultimately make the running look faster and add a thrilling edge we wouldn't be able to obtain any other way. Advice from our peers was to use the area to our advantage by looking for parts of Lutterworth that could give us good lighting or a great bit of free running, then try to loop all of these areas together in one big trail.

From the beginning of planning me and Ollie had chosen our close friend Karl Green to be the bad guy in our opening sequence. This choice was mainly based on how athletic Karl is but also because his general looks are (to put nicely) mean. Also this choice was based on availability and our relationship with Karl which we understand to be a key point in making a film from doing analysis on Shane Meadows who found working closely with actors more than benefited the end result. Finally Karl is an old free running buddy of mine so I had to choose him.


For the main spy we're finding it hard to cast someone so we decided for the time being that I will take that place.

After discussing the best time to film with Ollie and the Actors we decided on a Wednesday during February when the teachers at our school have a mentor day, this would meant we could start filming early and have flexibility to our schedule. Unfortunately when me and Ollie rang the Abbey Park College campus to ask for permission to film they advised against it because of the many forms we would have to fill out and just in case we caught any of the students in a shot we would have to ask them for permission to use it.
This meant our plan B had to come in to use and our filming would happen in Lutterworth, this also meant changing some shots and the story board, but overall the change in location was for the best.

When planning the film me and Ollie decided the best place for filming would be in a city because of the urban landscaping which would provide a gritty and realistic vibe to the whole filming. Also the darkened and grey colours of natural erosion that the city would have around it would make the whole opening seem like it could happen.
We then thought of specific areas of the city that would be easiest to film in and also so that we could film some small stunts and free running without causing trouble, ideas of areas like parks seemed to make sense but to keep the urban feel we wanted we decided filming in part of the Leicester College Abbey Park campus would be best.

Of course to do this we would need specific permission and possibly have to be escorted around and watched at all times so in case this didn't work out for the actors or for the college our back up location was decided as Lutterworth. This wouldn't reflect the proper scene but at least we could film at ease and leisure and he location isn't too hard to get to. However our main problem with this location is lack of urban styling and shapes which we planned as key elements for free running and small stunts.

At this stage in planning we didn't have many ideas for locations so we stuck with the idea of filming at the Leicester College campus and based our thumbnail drawings of what we could remember from walking around the college.

The first few bits of planning for the film was a basic range of shots and a few ideas for the name of the film. These plans were basic but they made the foundations for the whole draft, also note that although I'm making this entry now the shot list was made before the film pitch entry which is the introduction to the whole media project.

film name: Tracked or Adrenaline
film genre: Action
beginning scene: chase scene/flash backs
setting: dusk, inside shopping area-interchanges between outside areas

1st shot: a busy road, cars going past. big car passes and main character appears from behind it. mid angle

2nd shot: a lower angle of the same street, main character crosses road.

3rd shot: POV shot which goes to over the shoulder of the main character to view the bad guy.

4th shot: POV shot of the bad guy he turns and notices the main character.

5th shot: FLASH BACK low angle close up of man sitting behind desk, saying dialogue on not being seen.

6th shot: mid angle shot past the bad guy looking over his shoulder to see main character. the protagonist then shuffles.

7th shot: close up of bad guy's face watching his revelation of who the main character is.

8th shot: close up of 2nd man followed on from 7th shot. bad guy runs away.

9th shot: far shot-mid angle-main character starts running

10th shot: shot from across the street both men running, quick cut to 11th shot.

11th shot: low angle behind car watching legs running past.

12th shot: high angle from a vantage point on a wall, the two men run past and the shot pans across.

13th shot: from behind corner of wall, bad guy runs past wall and camera. mid angle

14th shot: from the opposite side of corner, main character runs past camera then past wall.

Unfortunately this is as far as the shot list got which meant most of the planning of shots from then onwards was whilst doing the thumbnails, leaving the development of the planned shots for when story boarding.

After going through my blog entries and previous work I noticed a lack of interesting features so to spice it up and give a good feel to the work I'm doing I chose a new theme and a short playlist of music that reflects not only myself but the kind of work I'm doing in media at the moment.

The choice of music is odd but most of these tracks give a real urban and gritty feel with under tones of relaxation and deep tunes.

With the deadline fast approaching I have made a final to do list to help me set out time for each task and hopefully (in theory) complete the needed work before Friday.

Majorly needed
• All tests
• Thumbnails for draft
• Storyboard of draft
• Development from draft
• New idea/shot list
• Script
• Actor profiles
• Film corporation ident
• Film logo
If I have time
• Extra film opening analysis
• Area chosen for draft
• Area for new film

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/film_reviews/article6847491.ece

The article although well constructed and informative was basicly a hissie fit on the dissappointment the author had after watching the film. He included a basic interest and some fair sided comments but the main jist of his response was based on the lack of £7 he felt after the cinema had nicked from him.

The most unfortunate side of the authors aritcle was his comments on joe wright the accomplished, british director, who he tyhough was out of place and slanderised his work in this recent film forgetting the unusual setting he was in and his inexperience in the area he was filming. This responce was highly critical and indefinitely unfair.

Provide an analysis of the film ‘This is England’ explaining how the production practises appeal to the target market.

As the film of choice has been assigned its budget by an independent film company its main genre is realism, this is because throughout the making of the film the budget would have determined the range of props, lighting, camera shots and actors. Because the budget was so small, in this case, the film director Shane Meadows will have most likely opted for cheaper methods of filming, however this actually helps achieve realism more effectively and easily than other more expensive product practises.
Firstly the title sequence for the film was comprised of many clips from the 80s (the era of which the film is set) this is extremely effective in getting the audience in the correct frame of mind but will also appeal to the target audience of working class 40 year old men and women who will have experienced the footage before and will be able to relate to the clips more. This montage of clips would have saved money and improved the budget of the film. Also the camera work throughout the film was mainly handheld which helps get the most realistic look because of the natural bumps and nudges of the camera which is similar to that of our walking and movement, the overall look is that the scene being watched is coming from the perspective of someone part of the scene. For the more gullible viewer this will seem like they are actually part of the film, this is also fitting for the target market that can see themselves repeating their past in the shoes of the actors.
As the budget played an important part, the actors were unknown at the time of release and most likely had very little experience, this is ideal for the film which is trying to achieve realism, because the audience will have never seen the actors before they can imagine the film as being more real.
This is England is based solely on the issues of 80s Britain and concentrates strongly on the Skinhead culture which produced most of the issues at the time and had a great influence on the current social status we all have. This means that a more specific target for the film are men and women that were part of the Skinhead culture and found their lives being controlled by it or influenced heavily on it. To do this the film was produced in largely ‘untouched’ areas of cities and countryside that still have the essence of the 80s culture, this meant Shane Meadows directed the film in parts of Nottinghamshire that have yet to be developed since the 80s. However this meant that to fill the now abandoned buildings with 80s merchandise Shane Meadows had to buy items he remembers from his past from bidding websites such as EBay, this allowed him to buy the items at lower prices and have the items delivered to him. One extreme example is the cars used in the film which were all bought from EBay for as little as £50 and used to place on street pavements to give the same 80s effect.
Often in mainstream films the lighting used can look too artificial and give the film a perfect light balance which is noticeable and ideal for filming but reduces the realism of the filming. So for This is England very little extra lighting was used and most scenes were lit by either natural outside lighting or indoor lighting integrated into the buildings. Overall this made every shot seem natural and viewed as if from us if we were in the film however in certain shots inside buildings a murky effect was achieved that combined the lighting with the dark and faded colours used in the 80s.

For this analysis i chose a recent TV advert from Visa called the evolution of football, this advert tried to have consistent continuity whilst filming chronologically.
The first shot was a still of the character we are following and in the first few seconds we understand this person is most likely extremely lazy and bound to his chair most of the time because of his position and the stae of the room he is in. But as the character gets up we notice his passion for football as he celebrates vigorously unlike how we would expect him to move. Editing then kicks in when a cutaway of a close up on a visa card (which the man picks up) is used, it then cuts back to the shot of the man starting to run and the advert continues with the same angle shot from the same distance away.


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At first glance the Book of Eli looked to be well filmed and carry a strong storyline, however in a period of film releases that concentrate on the fall of human kind in the future this particular film seemed to be overshadowed by the Road and Avatar. But I was drawn to the film for the reasons that it was obviously an action film (this was gathered from the guns and knifes showed in the trailer) but also because its back drop seemed to be a world in struggle. This was ideal for using as inspiration because of how realistic it looked even with the most complex of settings, the post apocalyptic earth.

The film is set in a time period roughly 30 years after a global war that saw the earth's population turn in on its self and conduct in massive nuclear Armageddon. this caused a revolt against religion which was blamed for the mass destruction of billions of people. In this revolt all religious texts and books with any references were destroyed. This gave cause to Eli to guard the last remaining bible and start travelling west for reasons which Eli gives as a voice telling his heart what to do. During the film we follow Eli who passes a town ran by a ruthless leader in search of the last bible so he can give the people he rules over hope, however Eli determined to travel west fights back against the leader and all his men. This obviously means several fight scenes entail where Eli kills almost all his enemies with brutal accuracy and impossible feats of skill.

The film is largely set in sand ridden places covered in a dust that ruins everything and gives the best representation of a world torn apart by nuclear destruction. The realism, however, comes in the desperation we see in every person throughout the film, this is best shown by the weariness each character has other people and how even the strongest of morals can be broken to survive. The most shocking feature of this is the cannibalism often mentioned.

Overall I will use the film's outstanding realism and gritty dialogue to enhance my opening scene's gritty nature.

The Soloist was a film directed in 2008 by Joe Wright, previously the director and adapter of Pride and Prejudice and Atonement which were critically acclaimed for their accuracy to the books original narrative. The film was released in April 2009 in the US and then released in September in the UK, proving an average success the film managed to place itself 4th in the most popular films that month however at the end of its showings only $31 million was made which is just over half its budget of $60 million. The reason for this what put down to the release date which was set back continuously, but many different film review websites had shown its popularity as mediocre, this was due to its unusual narrative and inability to follow the true story.

The film follows the true story of Steve Lopez, a Los Angeles times columnist, searching for a new article and something fresh to write about. When taking a look around the famous skid row of LA he stumbles upon Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless man which an extrodinary talent for playing his 2 string violin. Taking this into account Steve Lopez writes a series of articles on his life as a homeless person on the backdrop of his musical talents, however when fans of the story respond to his plight Steve finds himself building a relationship with the artist which takes him and the musician on a struggling journey to battle Nathaniel's schizophrenia.

The film was made by Universal studios and Dreamworks, financed by Working Title and produced by Krasnoff Foster Entertainment and Between Two Trees production groups. While filming the director used over 500 local homeless persons to help with filming and to gain a deep understanding of the life and struggle the main character would've had to face. However being out of place in an American setting Joe Wright struggled to define the differences in race and social rank, unlike his previous films which excelled in deeply describing struggles between two people in different worlds.

My opinion of the film is that it has been well developed and the research conducted by the director and production teams was more than enough to grasp the story but because of the lack of experience director Joe Wright had in this area the film lacked the essence of struggle.

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Note: For this film I couldn't find the opening sequence on Youtube so I hope my avid descriptions are good enough.

Similar to James Bond films is the series of Jason Bourne films originating from author... who wrote the extended trilogy in book for first. These films don't however have the class and sophistication of Ian Fleming and instead go for an even more realistic edge of uncover spy's and assassins which plot revenge and carnage whilst staying agile and hidden.

For analysis I have chosen the second film which uses one very key technique to hook the audience which is a running theme in all of the films: mystery. Obviously if enough mystery is created our nature is to discover all that we can to solve the unknown, this is also done by using one very big flashback which becomes faster and more potent as it carries on. The scene starts with these unfamiliar images which are all very blury but this is due to the flashback being a dream, but still the unusual images are very effective in showing the audience snippets of information but not enough to quench their taste buds.
another effective area is in the fast paced editing of the flashback, as if the unusual nature of it wasn't enough the shots are small bursts of energy and get quicker each time until the scene wraps up in a final climax of music and sound... (not finished)

To gain some inspiration on how spy films edit and construct their opening sequences I will analyse 3 film openings from movies that are either spy or action orientated.

A good place to start with a spy genre is James Bond but because most of the film openings from 007 films involve massive stunts and suave lines I chose to analyse the opening sequence from Casino Royale because of its harsh gritty realism unlike any other James Bond film. This particular beginning is perfect for inspiration because not only is it vastly realistic but the scene involves James Bond fighting his first target which is almost the exact same storyline of my film. Not only this but film contains flashbacks which break up the action and give some perspective which is again similar to my film idea.


Note: This video contains an extra minute of cricket which isn't included in the original film. I will not take this into account and analyse the final cut.

The first thing we notice about the opening is the unusual film noir setting which displays classic elegance and silence and adds the perfect mood, but this set alongside a very modern building gives it an even more unusual mood as the only light we see bounces off the glass walls of the building making it almost spooky. The camera shots at this point range from all different angles and use close ups at the same time to get the audience in a detective frame of mind and forcing them to think about the obvious changes in the environment, this again adds a spooky mood with a tinge of thrilling suspense. It is only until the character we are watching enters his office that we start to look for James Bond.
The scene then develops a darkened mood as the music fades in with spiking violin tunes that excite the audience's senses, as the character moves across the room our eyes are struggling to see any light and start to see things as the character and understand them as the character does. The pinnacle of this suspense is reached when we finally hear the voice of James and the audience is rewarded with a shot of his face but with his body covered. The shots are all slow and mid angled but little do we realise that they slowly reveal where James is sitting.
The effect all this has on the audience is making them search for the light in the room and with clever positioning the light only falls on James's face and the back of the mysterious character.
After this the obvious enigma code of action is developed through a quick shot of a gun hiding in the man's desk, this acts strongly on the audience who start to wonder if this mission isn't all it seems and fear the safety of our hero. Already the gripping music and mysterious dialogue maintain the film noir background but also start to make us anticipate some brutal action that reflects the gritty mood. Overall this is a perfect example of setting the scene, the soft realism makes the scene entirely believable and prepares the audience for a rocket ride of gritty action that hooks the audience in new way.
The audience's hopes are rewarded quickly with a flash of action completely separate from the setting we received but to keep the continuity of mystery the film remains in black which adds to the flashback's abrupt entrance. This highly basic setting for the action would have very little colour in it but by placing it all in black and white the geometric shapes become very drab and claustrophobic, which is perfect for the realistic edge the scene has to give. At this point we are drawn to the harshness of it all and almost request that the realistic nature of it ends and the man is dealt with but as we establish before hand this is the first kill and it had to be shocking enough to give the sharp and cold image James Bond has about him. This is critical for me to achieve, if I manage to give the spy a cold hard status the chase will instantly look realistic. This combined with thrilling music and sound effects will ultimately hook the audience to every slight movement and make them feel the danger and seriousness of the situation.
After the initial flashback the action is heated up in the original setting when the enigma of the gun gets more thrilling. As we're so used to James Bond handling these situations with ultimate knowledge and being able to stay 2 steps ahead we start to fear for his life even more and wonder if the danger is going to be resolved. This works by breaking the conventions of a spy thriller and showing a weak spot to the hard shell these characters give off. I will try to replicate this as best I can by showing the spy to make simple mistakes but actually coming out on top afterwards.
All the action is finally and supposedly resolved with another flashback that finishes with a brutal death and the slow realisation of what has happened. Expecting the scene to end with some more dialogue yet another convention is broken and the man is killed abruptly during his final line. This is yet again realistic by breaking the code of action films and not letting the villain finish his monologue, however it does add to the supreme suave nature that resonates throughout the whole scene.
Overall the areas of the film that I will take away are the film noir setting and how the strong use of black and white photography strengthened the mysterious nature of it. Furthermore I will now look into using longer flashbacks that break up the scene even more and give a more detailed description to the film so it can be as hooking as possible without leaving the audience lost. And last I will strive to use unusual camera shots that incorporate close ups, back drops, pans and slanted angles to grip the audience and show them something new.

To make our film as good as it can get we decided on a new stop motion idea to display a bullet flying which would incorporate more than one type of editing and boost our overall marks. But before we started to draw up ideas we received valuable information from Miss Sutton which helped us realise we had many different ways of doing it and that it was best to explore each one to find the best. This was also feedback from when we pitched to the class and all commented on how it would be difficult but worth spending a lot of time on to get right. Our first test was the basic photo stop motion idea where we would string up a bullet from the celine using wire string and slowly move the bullet along the camera's view taking a photo every time it moved. This by definition should give us a steam of frames which when put together would look like a piece of ordinary film. However when we did this we were short on time so not enough pictures were taken and the whole process was rushed, on top of this the blue tack we used was heavy on one side and wouldn't stop moving so some pictures lost the continuity of where the bullet was travelling. But the string didn't appear on the pictures and the background was the same throughout the whole range of pictures. Also when we put them all together on the E Mac's imovie software we were able to speed the transitions up to 0.2 of a second making the whole clip just under 2 seconds and all of the mistakes barely noticeable. While this test took 20 minutes and 18 pictures if we were to conduct on a larger scale for our final scene we would put in the extra effort and aim for around 50-60 pictures for a 4 second clip. This would achieve a bullet flying with effortless fluidity and almost no noticeable mistakes.

To get into the mind set of my target audience I have created another mood board that will be used alongside my first mood board of action and spy films, this will help when making crucial decisions like film name and setting. this mood board contains images of objects and people my target likes.

Ultimately this mood board is my reference to the target I have in mind and referring back to it will hopefully improve every aspect of my film.

When asked to choose between a film opening sequence or a magazine my mind ran wild with film ideas and all the film influences I've been hooked to over the past few years. This obviously meant I had to do a film but I came across problems like: wanting to be unique and which genre to choose. I first decided to team up with my faithful media partner Beau but he had a strong passion for doing a Horror opening scene with a difference-convinced this was an idea that had been thought of too many times I broke off and teamed up with Ollie to try and piece together a new idea that had never been tried before. Unfortunately our focus ran to Actions films and we quickly decided on a chase scene 'with a difference'. The first few weeks of discussing this idea showed that the filming would be moderately hard depending on our setting but the real struggle was with keeping the audience's attention.

With guidance from our practical teacher Miss Frearson we changed our classic chase scene idea to one that involved breaking up the shots with flashbacks and voice overs. This we thought was great but we went one further and started to plan extra jaw dropping features like a stop-motion clip of a flying bullet and our own sound effects that will add to the suspense. This combined with unusual shots and Free Running would make our final product diverse, interesting and the new yard stick for media chase scenes.

After deciding on my film genre and how the film will be made I then had to develop my understanding of the film's target and who are the most likely people to see it or get hooked. As I chose the type of film that will excite the viewers my target would have to have an appreciation for special effects and explosive photography, but more than this, the target would have insider knowledge on how films create thrilling scenes. This type of target may also have interests in spy books such as the Bourne Trilogy and enjoy the obvious film franchise of James Bond films. But because my filming will be basic I decided to make my film genre more specific and head towards gritty real life spy films and use the Bourne films as my main inspiration because of their harsh reality.
Here is some basic information on my target audience:

Age: 25-35
Gender: Male
Occupation: Mainly to do with computers and IT but possibly jobs such as teachers
Background: Comes from an intellectual family and holds high regard for the authorities around him.

Likes: Detective and thriller films with a strong interest in army and spy novels by John Le Carre and Ian Fleming. Music interests range from rock to acoustic. More general likes are chinese food, social time spent in pubs socialising and a keen sense of casual style. Even deeper interests: free running and far away travelling.
Dislikes: Obvious drama films and unusual foreign films with very little context. dislikes in music start with classical music and end with popular HipHop and Rap. more general dislikes include deadline pressure and stress, not having anything to read and girly connotations about his life.

Ambitions: May include to one day become a private investigator or to just plainly manage his own team of workers to therefore reduce his workload. More advanced ambitions include owning his own company or becoming a director of actions films.
this could even lead into being a reviewer of films for a popular newspaper such as the Guardian.

Idols: These may include mainly fictional characters that are either spy's or assassins like James Bond-but this will only be because of the suave nature about them. More sophisticated idols include George Cloony and Brad Pitt.

Media Habits: As mentioned before my target dislikes not having something to read and has to be up to date with current affairs, this means his attention to the news is regular and often uses live updates on his computer and phone. Other than that his taste in programmes range from Horizon and Panorama to Heroes, Big Bang Theory, Scrubs and even a like for wildlife programmes such as Life.

Overall my target is constantly in the loop and is drawn to any law breaking news or conspiracies, also his general knowledge is highly built up by constant references to the newspapers he reads. Furthermore his strong taste in music and independent films drives his creativity.

As a way of helping with peer mentoring and getting our idea across the teacher we had to conduct a pitch in front of the whole class in under 2 minutes using any medium we wanted. To do this efficiently I chose to set up mine and Ollie's ideas on a power point because of its ability to hold most types of media but mostly because it would help us deliver everything quickly. Whilst each pitch was being delivered it was the job of the rest of the class to write the potential problems, positive comments and advice etc. This was our power point:

The feedback we received on paper was minimal but the feedback whilst presenting was fantastic. As pointed out by the class our ideas were going to make the scene different and stand out but we might have problems keeping continuity and not being able to film all of it in one night might ruin how realistic the film is. Other feedback included mentions of our stop motion idea being a very good one but that we should investigate other areas of filming the bullet to find the best one before start filming. But collectively me and Ollie decided the best feedback of all was the advice on editing: in order to keep the audience hooked we need to use quick editing and unusual shots. Furthermore where most chase scenes fail is in the direction of shots, in other words most chase scenes can become confusing and the audience can't keep track of what's happening.

Paper feedback included: 'finding a place for chase and incorporating flashbacks may cause problems' 'use slow motion before each flashback and dramatic music during chase scene' 'have lots of close ups and mid shots' '2 second shots' 'experiment with sound effects' 'sounds like its well planned out'
These comments however brief will also help massively when concentrating on each aspect of the film during editing, it is these comments that we can refer back to during any stage of the project, making sure that we always have something to think about or improve.