Main Task Video

Deleted Scene For Main Task

Media Evaluation

Main Task- pre production

Our group came up with the idea of mixing a mixture of different ideas into making our opening sequence. We decided to base our film on the demise and down fall of wealthy businessman Albert depicting his suicide and mental break down, we then decided a 3^rd person point of view was best suited for this to create realism, we would need to go to a high building. I wrote the script along with the help of my group and we each did our storyboards. We decided we decided that I should play the role of Albert due to my colour to challenge the views of successful business men being of Caucasian background. Unfortunately we had to change this, due to Raymond’s fear of heights. We originally had a female member playing Frances but she had to unfortunately drop out of sixth form. We worked very hard to create the script and media piece and also had an out side source create a piece of music for us to suit the film best. We were all impressed with the piece and decided to use it for the opening scene with greater effect. The storyboard was the hardest to do drawing wasn’t my strong point and I found this part long and tedious to do.

Preliminary task-Video

Main Task - Production

The filming was done in sections; we filmed all the scenes which depicted Albert on the top of the building first this was done at the oracle car park in reading town centre. Ellis and Anna got permission to take the camera out of school and go to this location to film this scene, unfortunately due to my fear of heights I could not take part in this part of the filming. When we arrived at the town center, Ellis changed into his costume, costumes help the audience delve in to the film and relate to the character more. We got permission to film on the top of the Oracle car park and started filming. The one thing our group did not put in to consideration was the amount of wind on the day and the effect it would have on the film it self. The wind meant that stabilizing the camera with out a tripod would be very challenging. We proceeded with filming and gave our best attempt at producing a still and stable piece of film. We made sure that we had at least two or more shots on each angle stated in the script. Looking back the effect the wind and lighting had on the footage was quite positive; it created a very dramatic effect and added weight to the film.
We then proceeded to film the over the edge shot of our main task, this was done in our school playground at a high wall and a low angle shot to make the distance look greater. We wanted to give the impression that Albert was about to leap to his faith with the low angle shot we achieved this motive. This was a scene in which I my self filmed and we didn't do any re-takes as we thought the film was fine first time. We also did some other which will be shown in our deleted scenes.
Lastly Ellis filmed the part in which Anna was acting. We proceeded to the school library to film this, it seemed as the best suited area in which we could effectively film the scene in witch Anna receives the phone call from Albert depicted in the 1^st scene. because we had so many scene this gave us the option to select which one was best suited for the main task.

Main Task - Post-Production

After filming, we assessed each piece of footage and began the editing process. Although before editing had began, we had to carefully select each individual scene and decide whether to keep or dispose of it, this is where some of our footage was deleted. While selecting the footage, we got input from various other members of the class and not only just our group members. We then began the editing process using Adobe 3 with the help of Farhan Sadique, we then shortened the length of the video and added fades to merge scenes together. The editing was more of a team effort as various members offered and delivered various imputes to this part of the production.

"4321" Analysis

Representation:

The opening scene of '4 3 2 1' represents the typical teenage girls in London. However, at first we see three girls, one with a gun surrounding another girl hanging over the edge of a bridge. Relating to narrative, this is the dis-equilibrium and this is something that we would not expect of teenage girls. This representation is shown through a low-angle shot, the effect of the low angle shot is to emphasise the dominance of the three it give the effect that the three females with the power are looking down on the other less dominant and fragile girl. The lighting used in the scene further reinforces this ideology, the dark lighting and the night sky suggests that something bad that could happen later on in the film as dark lighting is usually used to connate evil and bad characters in films but this is in fact a flash forward. This scene would be seen as oppositional representation of teenage girls as we wouldn't associate crime with females. On the other hand out side the flash forward, a scene in the café follows after the gun scene enforces our views of teenage girls as they are seen to be typical teenage girls gossiping and chatting, relating to narrative this would be the equilibrium in the opening scene as this is what the audience would expect from teenage girls.

Audience:

The audience think this film would be targeted at a “teen” age bracket as they will understand and relate to the film more than adults due to its conventions and story line. The use of the American actress in this film suggest that the film is trying to appeal to a wider world wide audience, in comparison to 'Harry Brown', '4 3 2 1' would be shown in several other countries other than just England. The attempt to appeal to American audiences is further backed up by the use of an American distributer; the distributer will increase the appeal of the film as it’s a more globally known institution ‘Universal’. This film would be considered as uses and gratification theory as the audience would view this piece of media for there own enjoyment and entertainment.

Ideology:

'4 3 2 1' is made by an American production company called 'Universal' and includes an American actress with-in the film. The American actress may be recognised for being Julia Roberts’s niece, the effect of this is that people would recognise this and may want to watch the film more due to the relation between the two. The use of the American actress would not be expected in this type of film as the representation is teenage London girls; this suggests that she is used for recognition and making the film recognisable to a wider audience making the film all in all more popular.

Institution:

Right from the start of the film, there is a dis-equilibrium being created with the use of night scene of three girls surrounding another girl at gun-point. This is shown through the use of a low angle shot of the three girls with the gun; this shows authority with-in the girls and their power and dominance over the other girl they have surrounded. This is further backed with the use of mise en scene and the fact that it’s at night time and the use of the dark lighting suggests that this is dis-equilibrium as dark lighting suggests that something bad is going to happen or is actually happening. This then moves onto the equilibrium with the cafe scene. This is shown as a brightly lit room where the atmosphere is more relaxed and calm atmosphere where we see teenage girls socialising. The bright lights and bright colours emphasise the fact that this scene is more relaxed.  The dis-equilibrium right at the start of a film could suggest its in fact a flash back dis-equilibrium usually occurs at the middle of the film, this effect draws in the audience and entices them to continue with the film.

Ideology:

Dominant and oppositional ideology is shown throughout the opening scene of the film. The first and most obvious one is the representation of the teenage girls. The teenage girls are seen to be of dominant power and very criminally entwined this goes against law and order of dominant values and ideologies of the typical teenage girl. That view of the girls is then erased and they are depicted as typical teenage girls gossiping and socialising.

Narrative:

The opening scene contrasts between equilibrium and dis-equilibrium and temporal discontinuity. It begins with dis-equilibrium with the bridge scene the audience don’t expect to be seeing girls rebelling against the law. This then moves to equilibrium in the next cafe scene a much more relaxed atmosphere. The effects of both these scenes create a temporal discontinuity which means a mix up in time of events to show a dream or a flash forward for example. Its purpose is to entice the audience in to watching more and wanting to be drawn in to the narrative.

Genre:

From the opening scene, there is constant relation to social issues and teenage lifestyle. The genre of this film creates a rite of passage of teenage girls growing up and the lifestyle they uptake with friends and family. Being a teenager myself, this film shows a good representation of teenage life and the whole idea of peer pressure from friendship groups. In my main task we used the idea of starting with a flash back of someone in a high building and we managed to do it quite well

Main Task script

Task

 Create an opening scene for a film

Characters

Albert Douglas-Hamilton (upper class banker) – Ellis

Frances Douglas-Hamilton (His wife) – Anna

Costume

Albert: - Waistcoat, lose tie, trousers and shirt

            

Frances: – Smart casual clothes.

Set

Top of a building

Office

Music

entropy by Ellis Ballard

Script

Establishing Shot (City) Using the green screen

Pull back revealing Albert on the top of a building, over the shoulder shot

Close up of his face (Deep breathing)

Long shot to mid shot of Albert phoning Frances

Extreme close up of Frances’ phone

Mid shot of Frances picking up phone and phoning Albert

Close up of his feet half over the edge

Camera moves over edge to create an effect that Albert has committed suicide.

Long shot of the sky.

Preliminary task script- Story board

POV Shot - Pans from door to zombies sat on bench.

*Fast music plays as Leroy escapes from zombies*

POV Shot - Runs to door.
POV Shot - Opening door.
POV Shot - Running into civilian.

Civilian 1 - Who are you?

Leroy - You’ve got to help me man!

Civilian 1 - What’s going on?!

Leroy - Zombies! They’re everywhere!

Civilian 1 - You let them in?!

Leroy - No, I ran.

Civilian 1 - You sure?

Leroy - Yeah

Civilian 1 - Have you been bitten?

Leroy - No, have you been bitten?

Civilian 1 - No, I’m alright man. Are you sure?

Leroy - Yeah

Civilian 1 - Alright, let’s go.

Wide Shot - Entering room

Civilian 2 - Where have you been?

Civilian 1 - Oh my god! There’s loads of them, they’re everywhere!

Leroy - Who’s that?

Civilian 2 - Who’s that? I don’t trust him

Civilian 1 - No, he’s alright. It’s okay. Take a seat.

Leroy takes a seat along with Civilian 1.

Cut Shot to Extreme Close Up Shot of Leroy

Leroy - So what's going on? Are we the only three left?

Cut Shot to Extreme Close Up Shot of Civilian 1

Civilian 1 - I don't know man, it looks like it. There's loads of them out there though.

Cut Shot to Wide Shot

-Zombie bangs against window, scaring everybody-


Cut Shot to Extreme Close Up Shot of Leroy

All i'm saying is, if it comes down to it, i'm not dying, because the black man always dies first.

-Leroy gets up and leaves-


-Sad music plays as we see a blurred POV of Leroy stepping outside where all the zombies are situated-


-Fades out-


End of Scene.

Story board

Se7en analysis

Se7en analysis

When watching the opening scene of se7en we were asked to write an analysis focussing n particular areas these were representation, audience, ideology, language, institution, narrative and genre our analysis must only focus on the opening scene

Representation: the open give the idea that it is a physiological thriller and the only part of the character we are shown is of his hands in a dingy environment through his actions we can notice this is not normal human behaviour and the sings of physiological and mental issues surrounding this individual come through it’s a very slow paced scene that is altered by the music which changes the meaning behind the actions of this individual whos identity is not yet clear this could also give the idea that mental issues and disabilities do not usually have a clear cut face and that it could be anyone by leaving his identity unclear at the start of the scene it is showing the movie industries sensitivity and attempts not to offend

Audience: this film seems t be aimed at mature audiences those above the age of 18 in the opening scenes we notice that they are very displeasing and uncomfortable to watch for certain viewers the opening scene gives the horror theme impression but at the same time maintains the physiological thriller theme and this reinforces the idea of the target age being 18 and above the distribution company behind the film is new line cinema an American distribution company that has a world wide target audience and they used two actors that have world wide acclaimed they are brad pitt and Morgan freeman the two actors are globally known

Ideology: the idea the opening scene is that we see mental health as an illness or a threat and there fore grow a fear towards it the person in the scene is shown as very mysterious and disturbed he characteristics of someone who is disturbed and that of a physiologically challenged individual and as an audience we would feel intimidated by that the scene does not contain any dialogue but there is a array of sounds that are mostly diegetic we hear sounds of thunder needles and screaming this add to the tense atmosphere already created by the characters disability and backing track which increases in pace as the scene progresses to a sudden halt as the scene comes to an end all this is also accompanied by the beat of a heart that steadily increases as the scene draws to a close

Institution: New line cinemas distribute the film se7en new line cinema is a large  American distribution company founded in 1967 by Robert Shayne and Michael Lynne they are based in LA and are a subsidiary of Warner brothers

Narrative: we are unsure of the narrative at this stage of the film it has a peculiar starting stage and also no clear out equilibrium we are unsure of the going ons and of where we are there is a series of enigma codes the leave the audience wondering what is going on but from what is presented you can connote that obvious criminal activity is taking place

Genre: this is very unclear as at first it would be assumed that it is a horror because of the dark imagery and dark surrounding leaving the audience tense and in suspense at all times thorough out the opening scene

Main task week 1- Planning and idea

The 1st week of our main task was spent planning and preparing our scene’s and getting out ideas together although we did not have a story board together we still managed to film our opening scene the idea of our story was that wee focused on a banker that would be on the verge of committing suicide there is also a focal point on his wife who make it clear she is oblivious to his actions and feelings.we went to the town center to film our oppening scene and also hand permisoon granted by the owners to film at the building

Preliminary Task - Filming

We started filing our preliminary task. We arranged some locations to film in and record a number of scenes in. our filming went pretty smooth and nothing really hindered our progress once we got going. then only problem was the noise of the school, there for we had to edit the film once it was complete we used an array of shots to demonstrate our understandings of shots and angles but the main shot we used was (POV) to show the prospective of the main character

Once the filming was done we edited the video using Sony Vegas. A variety of effects was used and affects to construct our final video for our preliminary task and we added music on to the scenes to add greater effect to the film 

The clip has now been fully completed and rendered. We decided to leave out the end credits as what we have constructed has more than enough editing than required

Preliminary Task - Introduction

The idea we came up with on our preliminary task was pretty simple and once thought of we went about creating a script and story board the script and story board included stage directions and shots and angles then we set about filming, we had to change locations though because the Gym we decided to use was always in use. we then went about a second plan where we recorded zombies taking over the school and found good locations to film in we also had extra people from the below years to act as more zombies.

Preliminary task: the beginning of filming

When we started filming we had the idea of chloe farrance on the tredmill but due to one of the sceens being in slow motion chloe did not want to participate in the filming so the idea and the story board had to be changed again to make it more suitable

Preliminary task - planning stage 1

Our first week was hindered by allot of mishaps that set our recording back back we were behind in the  first week and also still needed to do some filming there was allot to be done the first week was out planning week this week is where we decided to do everything from the story board and rehearsals we were also meant to decide where the filming has to be done and when it needed doing due some of our members having commitment issues out of school.