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Final Film

Evaluation Question 7

Compared to the preliminary task, I feel it is clear that we as a group have learnt a lot through in particular trial and error. In the preliminary task, we had limited use of a tripod and had many continuity errors.

We made a lot of effort in the creation of our product to avoid these problems however, when we first began filming we did not have access to a tripod and so we seemingly recreated these fluctuations in quality. In the preliminary task, we had only our camera to record audio which we found to be not a good quality so took the decision in our final product to record all of the dialogue separately. This also came as a bonus as when we filmed, we often found that the weather became particularly windy which would have potentially ruined takes.

However, with this came more challenges than the conventional. Lip syncing and mimicking spoken dialogue to match the footage was difficult and has led to many pain-staking sessions of recording audio. Furthermore, in our preliminary task there was little to no background noise due to being filmed in a relatively quiet part of the school. We did not want this in our final product as the effect would seem unnatural and make the illusion of a busy city moot.

To counteract this, we imported sound effects from free sources and also filmed footage of a busy round-about to create more ambient diegetic sound. To create a more professional film, we added music based on BBC's Luther's theme to create a sombre and mysterious mood. This met the typical movie convention of a memorable soundtrack that wasn't present in out preliminary task. We spent a lot of time attempting to create a continuity error free product which was one of the faults of our preliminary task. To ensure this, we filmed the key dialogue in a single shooting session to minimize any discrepancies.

This way, we didn't worry about wind changes which would have altered minor yet noticeable details such as trees in the background blowing in a certain direction. Furthermore, all our shots that included Harry playing the character John, wore the exact same clothes solidifying a costume. Also, we made sure that we followed the 180 degree rule to make sure the over-the-shoulder shots remained understandable to the audience. 

Evaluation Question 6

Side note: refresh the page if server connection to the Prezi is lost

Evaluation Question 5

To address our audience we stayed within certain expected conventions within the crime genre. These conventions include mystery, urban setting, undercover cops & so on. From our qualitative research, we opted to have two protagonists who are crime fighting partners as that appealed to our target audience. Predominantly, John is the main protagonist whilst Pedro is more of his partner. As their brief dialogue unfolds it's clear that these two have a good friendship both inside & outside of the police force which complies with the convention that the two crime fighting cops are good friends. The antagonist has prominent appearance which foreshadows his intentions to be villainous. His black cap is shown to be draping over his arms which display connotations of death & destruction and further appeals to both the crime & thriller audience. The climatic large explosion creates an tentious atmosphere which reinforces the appeal to the thriller audience. In terms of feedback, our peers and friends believe it to be a descent attempt at creating a film opening especially since we are not professionals. If we were to do this again, then we would invest in a better quality camera and learn more about special effects that could be applied via software. 

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 4

Crime Thrillers usually are targeted to a more mature target audience. This is usually because of the mature content (e.g. Murders) &/or taboo language that is within the genre. Due to the nature of Crime Thrillers having a BBFC of 15, our age range will start from there. Secondary research has shown that an audience of both males and females (aged around 40) find crime genres to have interesting plot lines. So, our film opening for "Dead End" will be aimed at males and females aged 15-40.

 The target audience for this genre is stereotypical of both males & females. Male characters are depicted as the organised, head strong leaders. In some cases they have a crime partner (stereotypically male as well) that will act as a moral compass. On the other hand, female characters are shown as being in less practical roles like secretaries or on the intercoms. In recent media, women are sometimes subverting these roles in the crime genre by being appointed leadership, hands on roles.

Thrillers usually are interested by young adults as they enjoy the suspense and mystery within the plot line. Since Thrillers have content that could be considered frightening & violent, the BBFC certificate is often 15. Most of the time they appeal to people who are 15-21 year old. They also appeal to both genders.

Males usually find thrillers appealing as statistically they enjoy the fast paced action. They usually enjoy plots that cause high adrenaline as there are a lot of action filled scenes.

Females may find thrillers interesting as stereotypically they are attracted to something that causes mystery and causes them to ask questions. The main protagonist is usually a "ladies man" that generally women find attractive. As a result, females find the sex appeal of the Thriller appealing.

Because of the close similarities in target audience for crime genres and thrillers, we believe that our film will appeal to both audiences.

In conclusion, our target audience is both males & females aged 15-35. This is attributable by the fact that the thriller aspect of the film lowers the targeted age since thrillers are usually enjoyed by younger people.

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

John v.s Commissioner Gordon

In our film we decided to come up with the idea of creating a character like Commissioner Gordon from Gotham to convey general conventions of the "good cop" persona. We assigned Harry's character the name "John" as (Like the name "Gordon") is a very common name which can be expected to be within the police force. Therefore, making John the archetype of cops throughout the crime genre. Furthermore, reinforcing the idea of creating a character that is microcosm for the "male good cop" character who wants to solve crime and is always working, even on his day off.

In terms of costume, we decided to opt for the smart-casual style unlike Gordon's full suit attire. This is because we felt like it gave our production a grittier feel and blended nicely with the urban surrounding setting. We decided to opt for a colour scheme of black and white. This is because black has connotations of death with symbolizes John's profession as he investigates crimes that can lead to death (much like Commissioner Gordon). It also shows a sense of sophistication and formality which in turn complements the idea of a smart-casual appearance.

Not only that, but the connotations of white entails a sense of great feelings and emotions that are positive. As a result, showing the optimistic outlook that John (much like Commissioner Gordon) has on solving a case. White colour schemes are often associated with life and purity

By pairing the black and white colour scheme together, we were able to abide by the expectations of the aesthetics of a cop which further reinforces the general conventions of the crime genre.

Pedro v.s Harvey Bullock

For Pedro's character, we were inspired by Commissioner Gordon's crime fighting partner: Harvey Bullock. As part of "Dead End's" narrative, we made Pedro's character dress in a more casual attire as it his day off work. We wanted to go against the standard convention of having a "good cop/bad cop" character with Pedro and make his alignment seem more neutral. Like Harvey Bullock, we made Pedro a side character who is good friends with the protagonist - John. As our interpretation of Harvey Bullock was loosely influenced, we have a lot of physical features like costume that defy the the cop demeanor but rather role in the police force that is remnant of Harvey Bullock.

The dark blue shirt worn by Pedro shows a sense of keeping within the crime genre as it is not a bright and luminescent colour. Therefore, keeping within the dark, gritty feel of the genre. Dark blue has conventional connotations of conveying authority, trust, truthfulness & stability. As a result, the choice of colour for Pedro's costume links with his role as being both a cop (therefore showing authority & stability) & Jon's crime partner (showing trust & truthfulness).

Evaluation Question 1

There are many films and television shows that replicate our movie.

The movie is strictly a thriller film as it had many conventions that show this through the use of the crime genre.


One of the films that our film was based off would be se7en, we decided to choose clothes such as the protagonists in se7en due to the fact that they wear what traditional detectives wear. Suit, shirt, tie. However, in a way we defied this convention as we decided to take the more casual route to detective dress to represent that we were not expecting to go into work. The protagonist, John, wears a variety of traditional detective wear such as a black coat to suit the genre and a shirt, however John is wearing trainers and is not wearing a tie to display this. From this we based all of our clothes on the conventions of crime thriller films such as Jack Reacher or James Bond. This helps achieve a depressive mood and undertone that is a convention of crime thrillers also. This sets the entire tone of the film and in doing this brings the audience in with a "what's going to happen next" mentality that has been so successful in the past with films such as The Dark Knight or Jack Ryan.

John Doe from Se7en (played by Kevin Spacey) is a methodical religious extremist. . 

He is extremely sadistic and shows many traits of a psychopath, this is also a common convention of the series. The villain is always portrayed as realistic but somewhat otherworldly to the other characters to add a macabre feel to the villains actions. This is similar to our movie as the villain in our film is not revealed which gives an otherworldly feel to him. This makes his actions more menacing and more dangerous as he is not portrayed as mortal but an otherworldly villain. This "otherworldly villain" convention is frequent in many other forms of media but the most notable "otherworldly villain" would be The Joker from the Dark Knight. The Joker seems insane and does not have the same thought process of a normal human which is what makes him such a feared and notorious villain, this type of villain is synonymous with the genre and has become a convention in it's own right.

Luther is one of the most focal inspirations for our project as it highlights the tormented lives of people who solve the most heinous murders. It portrays a deeply troubled individual working on the fringes of acceptable law enforcement. A running sub-plot focuses on this and a task force designed to remove Luther from his job which he does in a controversial unorthodox way. The tormented cop is a convention also due to the fact that it is frequent in almost every single Police related film. It's even made its way in to different genres such as superhero films and action, adventure genres such as Fast and Furious series.

The final convention that is similar to the thriller genre and is considered a convention throughout is motion blurs.Motion blurs are used to establish a shot or thing without actually making the reader focus on it, this is to give credit to another aspect as to what is on screen. This could include props, characters or subtitles, credits.

Locations

Locations to film:














This path will be the ideal location for the opening shots and also a shot to incorporate the urban background. The trees around created a good lighting effect that allowed us to shoot without the light being too bright.

This underpass is covered in graffiti making it good to set up an urban, gritty theme. The lighting had to be natural due to lack of lighting tools so we had to film on a particularly cloudy day so the contrast did not cause confusion.

Davids Lane is a very busy roundabout near an industrial park. This could work well as an establishing or filler shot to reinforce the gloomy feel and tone of the product.

Here at this location in Cuckoo's Hollow nature reserve, will be the concluding part of the opening sequence. It is loosely based on Netflix's The Killing to present influences and further reinforce gloominess.

The house on the left is where our group member Harry lives. He had a garage with good lighting and space for the Alchemy scenes. The garage wasn't regularly visited so there would be no sound contamination. 

List of Locations featured:

Sound

Digetic Sound

Sound whose source is visible on the screen or whose source is implied to be present by the action of the film: 

• voices of characters 
• sounds made by objects in the story 
• music represented as coming from instruments in the story space ( = source music). In final product, we will use a soundtrack similar to the BBC programme Luther. 

Digetic sound is any sound presented as originated from source within the film's world 

Digetic sound can be either on screen or off screen depending on whatever its source is within the frame or outside the frame. 

Another term for diegetic sound is actual sound.

Non-digetic

Sound whose source is neither visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present in the action: 

• narrator's commentary
• sound effects which is added for the dramatic effect
• mood music

Non-digetic sound is represented as coming from the a source outside story space. 

The distinction between digetic or non-digetic sound depends on our understanding of the conventions of film viewing and listening.  A play with digetic and non-digetic conventions can be used to create ambiguity (horror), or to surprise the audience (comedy). 

Another term for non-digetic sound is commentary sound. 

Change in Production Company Name

We have decided to change our production company name. This decision was due to CakeBox seeming inappropriate for our project. 

We have changed the name to Mallard Media where we have linked the footage of a drifting mallard duck in our film project. The name of the company is also a lot catchier and memorable than the previous name. We have developed the logo to appear at the beginning of the film:

Typography

Here is a potential look for the Typography of "Dead End":

The black typography conveys connotations of death which abides by the conventions of crime dramas relating to a murder case or evil intentions. The glass represents crime as many lives are shattered in crime dramas by law breaking scenarios like murder. The simplicity of the title shows a sense of realism to the project. If we were to go with this idea to represent our film, then we would make the glass an animation - shattering and heading towards the screen to reveal the film title.

The simplicity of the font reflects movie titles like Se7en but the shattered technique was loosely inspired by Black Shard.

Costumes & Props

Costume: Costumes are the distinctive style of dress/outfits which usually adjure to a certain genre or . A costume can be a particular style of clothing worn to portray the wearer as a character or type of character other than their regular persona at a social event such as a masquerade, a fancy dress party or in a theatre performance. 

Props: A property, commonly shortened to prop (plural: props), is an object used on stage or on screen by actors/actresses during a performance or screen production In practical terms, a prop is considered to be anything movable or portable on a stage or a set, distinct from the actors, scenery, costumes and electrical equipment. 

Consumable food items appearing in the production are also considered properties. 

Costume ideas for our opening scene: 

Costume for the Alchemist (Keenan) Black Cloak Black Trousers Black Shoes White T-shirt Props for the Alchemist Vials Jars Cat Herbs Pestle Mortar Rocks Jewels Skull Bunsen Burners/Fire Water Books 





Costume for the Jon (Harry) & Pedro (Kieran) Dark coloured jacket Jeans White v-neck Black boots

Denonative and Connotative

Connotative - Connotative is when an object or action has a deeper meaning. Usually determined by the symbolism or connotations within a shot.

Denonative - Denonative is when it is obvious what the contextual meaning is of a shot.

Connotative & Denonative analysis of AHS: Coven Promo Poster:Denonative: Three women with a white , magic snake slivering out of all their mouths. The close-up shot is only showing the lower half of the face - making the main focus being the snake & the three mouths. Two women are of Caucasian ethinicity are either side of the one woman of black ethinicity. As a result, makes the black woman appear as the main focus.

Connotative: White snake represents a weaker enemy (i.e. the battle between the voodoos, witches & witch hunters), females' glossy red lips symbolise seduction, black ethnicity of the woman could depict the voodoo clan & the complication of racial topics in New Orleans, Because the snake is slithering from each persons' mouth it could be to show that all of the women are somehow linked (& in the case the women are used to portray the factions within Coven), snakes also have connotations of magic, temptation & the devil; therefore applying a biblical reference to the poster as many people oppress witchcraft as it can be considered to be unholy because Satan took the form of a snake when he tricked Eve into eating the apple; also defying the act of god.

Thriller Demographic

The BBFC sets most thriller films with a rating of 15 which aims thrillers directly at a more mature audience. Most thriller films also have a viewer-ship of 15-40 year old indicating a mature yet conventionally modern audience. 

Thriller appeals to both females and males with the mystery genre being predominantly viewed by women (e.g. Midsommer Murders/Insomnia)  and the action thriller (e.g. James Bond/Jason Bourne). With elements of both conventions, we intend for our film to appeal to both genders while being predominantly aimed at 15-40 year old viewers. Despite this, the largest more select viewer-ship is 15-21 year old views statistically. Therefore, a thriller with a younger cast is likely to attract this core group more rather than the conventional cast age range of 27-70 (with the Da Vinci Code as an example).

Issues With Rough Cut

We encountered issues when editing including and particularly audio.
Due to this, several sound clips had to be cut and thus our rough cut needs a lot of work. Also due to the lack of a tripod, we naturally encountered problems with the camera being shaky at times when it needed to be still. 

The feedback we received also stated that some scenes seemed dull due to the lack of titles in them. 

In our next attempt:

• We will make the camera more stable
• Increase number of titles
• Add production company titles
• Shorten shot lengths to reduce potential to be dull
• Focus more on the dialogue so other audio elements don't interfere. 

Taken: film analysis

Taken is a film that is about a retired government agent who has to save his daughter from kidnappers in France. He does this by using his detective skills and mastery of combat to find his daughter and her captors. The shots used in the film are usually close-up shots to give a reaction of the characters, a large amount of establishing shots are also used to show off the location which it is set such as Chicago at the start and Paris later on in the film. 

The film uses a dim lighting to portray a mood of depression and darkness which is why a the end the lighting is far brighter and much more happier mood.

Directed by	Pierre Morel

Produced by	Luc Besson

Written by	Luc Besson Robert Mark Kamen

Arrow: TV show analysis

Arrow is a TV series that features Stephen Amell, Katie Cassidy and Emily Bett-Rickards. It follows the life of a "superhero" that his decided to fight the injustice in his city and stop the corrupt rich folk that are causing the cities destruction.

The show uses action and violence to portray a dangerous city that is riddled with crime. The protagonist, Oliver Queen, has been on an island for 5 years away from society.

The TV program consists of Arrow, the protagonist, investigating crimes and solving them using vigilante justice which means that he can operate outside the law.

The lighting is relatively dark to show a unforgiving mood to the show. This is shown by the fact that they are not afraid to kill off characters and the themes of drugs and violence.

The episode usually includes a large amount of action scenes and in this has a wide variety of  stunts in the programme.

The show constantly uses flashbacks as a way to enrich the overall plot and explain some of the back story to the show. Stephen Amell(Arrow) uses monologue from time to time to give the audience a better idea of what is going through the characters head or it is used as a segway to a new scene.

Movie Opening Evaluation

As part of the post-production of Films & TV Shows, Titles & Openings are generally used to introduce it. Titles & Openings often communicate with the audience the type of genre the film/show belongs to along with the people associated with it like main actors/actresses, costume design, director, etc.

Game Of Thrones

 

Game of Thrones's Opening takes the audience on a fantasy-inspired journey throughout Westeros's current state during that season. Landmarks & locations known to the audience begin to form & take shape on the virtual map. The actor's & actress's names appear in the opening sequence next to a picture of their character's house sigil. For example, Maisie Williams's name is next to a picture of a Wolf because her character: "Arya Stark" is part of House Stark & their sigil is a Wolf. The colour pallet is quite natural with whites, greens, blue & browns as they are the colour of the landscape - The white is used for snow, green for grass, blue for the ocean & the brown for rock/desert. Subtle tones of gold are used to convey a sense of regal superiority to tie in with the story of "fighting for the crown to rule Westeros." The final scene where the title is shown on the crown along with four house sigils in each corner shows the main contenders (Stark, Targaryen, Lannister & Baratheon) all are in for a chance of winning "The Game of Thrones." The art style of the visuals paired with the epic, well received music hints to the reader that this show will indeed be a unique, fantasy, battle that the audience will encounter twists & turns with unexpected outcomes - hence the intro showing the building of the locations on the map - you have to guess the outcome of what the outcome is going to be of the construction when first watching (unless you know you already know the geographical aspects of Westeros).   

Thriller Tropes: Protagonist

James Bond was created in the 50's by ex-SIS agent, Ian Fleming. He has been the face of the action thriller genre for over fifty years with each actor to take on the role bringing the character to a then modern audience. The character is the most successful of his kind, spawning a uber-franchise that has arguable kept MGM afloat during financial crisis.  

Classically a sexist dinosaur, he has inspired the creation of similar characters throughout the thriller genre and sub-genres. The Bond-appeal even became a coined term for the thrill of being a spy which is often used to describe both the reality of  espionage and the fictional world of movies.

By all accounts, it is also arguable that James Bond has become an iconic institution of cinema which continues even now (which the latest instalment of the franchise being released later this year). 

Jack Ryan was created by Tom Clancy and spawned a sporadic array of films which included a variety of actors to play the character. Being based on a more modern look at espionage the analyst/operative/president never completely picked up in steam at the box office, however. 

For more information on the Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit film in particular, refer to the film study. 

Popular Thriller Trope: Location

First of the locations is probably the most famous of all crime ridden, thriller-esque locations is Gotham City from the Batman franchise which has been in existence since 1939. It is the set archetype for locations as such and has been shown to be the gritty place where no one wants to live. Such has been the stage for a number of film franchises each visibly taking aspects from the age old creation which itself, has appeared in a number of incarnations (from based on Chicago, New York to a fictional built and in Batman vs Superman, Detroit).

Basin City from Frank Miller's Sin City saga is a secluded city trapped in a basin/sink hole. It was nicknamed Sin City for its noire apparel and violent history. What also adds to the 'rough city' is the predominant red light district where a large portion of the stories to do with Sin City take place. 

The most used location for a thriller is undoubtedly New York. With Gotham being the archetype for a gritty city, it's no surprise that the eponymous TV show is filmed here. With boroughs ranging from the super funded to impoverished - it boasts a wide array of urban enviroments that have been adopted by a number of thriller TV shows such as Elementary, CSI, Blue Bloods etc.

Script changes

When filming, we came to the conclusion it was easier to use the script as guidelines than strict rules. 

We came up with all the dialogue when on set which made the filming much quicker as we weren't restricted by what we had to follow. The one fixed thing, however, was the monologue which is going to be played over the travelling scenes. We compromised the script so the filming could expand and evolve without being restricted. It cut time and also gave us more freedom for what we wanted to do.

As of now, the script is only exists due to the script and the rest is pretty much obsolete now. 

‘Untitled’

By CakeBox Productions

A bleak city landscape. The camera is following a man walking through the grey streets. He is wearing warm clothing indicating winter. Camera pulls focus in and out changing focus from him and the scenery around.

John(aside)-: I always wanted to be a police detective. I don’t know why.

Cut to next shot. Close-up match on action of Jon brushing past a building.

John(aside)-: Maybe it was the TV shows. The good cop always catching the bad guy and he somehow manages to rescue everyone at the end. Cool story.

                Cut to extreme close up of the Bomb Maker tinkering.

Cut back to John. Low angle shot like the camera is behind a car following the approach of John.

John(aside)-: No. It was a nice thought, though. Maybe one day I’ll get given a case where the killer is some idiot with a clear motive, prints at the scene, the works.

                Cut to extreme close up of the Bomb Maker’s mouth area. He slowly smiles.

                Cut to shot of traffic with muffled car noises allowing the monologue to be heard.

John(aside)-: That would be nice before I retire. That old cliché.

Shot of the back of John. He is looking down at traffic on an overpass. The sound of wind and traffic is muffled.

John(aside)-: Long time until that, unfortunately.

                Cut to two-shot. Another person approaches. It is John’s partner, Pedro La Guerta.

Pedro-: John?

John-: Pedro. What d’you need?

Pedro-: You at the station. Someone’s there claiming that they’ve set up a bomb in the city. They’re asking to speak to you personally.

                Close up of John as he replies.

John-: And here I thought that I could have the morning off.

Cut to main titles.

The red highlighted portions show the obsolete sections as the dialogue was revised.

The green highlighted portion shows the cut cues rather than strict instructions so these are open to change. 

A film that inspired our project - Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

The film based on Tom Clancy's character once played by Harrison Ford, was released in 2014 as a reboot to the Jack Ryan franchise. Starring and directed by Kenneth Branagh as the arguably trend setting, evil Russian tycoon villain. 

Based on characters created by Tom Clancy and adapted for the screen by Adam Cozad and David Koepp, the film grossed $135.5 million at the box office from a budget of $60 million. 

It brought together currently popular actors such as Chris Pine (Star Trek), Keira Knightly (Pirates of the Caribbean) and Kevin Costner who is a Hollywood A-list veteran.  

Comparatively, the film flopped compared to previous Jack Ryan films such as Clear and Present Danger and Air Force 1.  Currently, it is unknown whether there will be a sequel to the film as funding has currently not been confirmed.

Risk Assesment Table

Weather:

Attempt to shoot on a day where there is light but it is cloudy. Use of pathetic fallacy to reflect mood of film.

Careful not fall into lake:
When shooting scenes that require us to approach the lake in Cuckoo's Hollow, do not stand too close to the edge of the brush. Also be sure to not drop the camera in the lake in filming over the bridge or rails.

Neighbourhoods:
Do not make too much noise to disturb people living in the neighbourhood.

Beware of traffic:
Don't get hit by a car.

Beware of passer-bys:
Could accidentally get them in the footage without consent.

Alchemy scene:
Be careful not to cut self on equipment.
Don't drop glass bottles/jars.
Beware of any spillages.

Risk	Consequence	Risk chance	Precautions
Dropping camera while filming	Broken property and inability to film	Low	We will take regular breaks.
Canine interference	Pet dog(s) on set ruins take or post-production sound recording with barking or intrusion.	High	Ensure the dogs are in another location so they do not provide non-diegetic sound.
Road traffic accidents	Injury	Medium	Take standard road safety precautions when encountering roads.
Falling/tripping	Injury	Low	Be cautious when travelling by foot.
Camera breakage due to wind knocking over tripod	Camera is broken and the product is unable to be filmed.	High	Be vigilant of wind and hold onto tripod and camera at all times..