Evaluation

Here is the slideshare link to my final evaluation.
http://www.slideshare.net/dandaly77/as-media-studies-evaluation-by-dan-daly

Final Piece

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e333297zrC4

here is the link to the final piece.

Story Board

My story board is late being uploaded due to problems with blogger at home and also problems with scanning.

Looking For Music

We emailed Martin Garrix's record label to try and use one of his songs, however they didn't reply and therefore we had to result with the free music above. The song was called 'Animals' and had the perfect build up which perfectly suited the shots which we had filmed. It's also a very well known song which could help our piece to the audience more. 

Codes And Conventions Of Thrillers - Camera Shots

Another convention of a thriller, is the long still shot of the dead body at the end. We kept the camera there for a few seconds to play with the minds of the audience. At first all you can see is a body on the floor, but as the time progresses in the shot, it signifies that there is more to this shot that meets the eye, and then the close up of the face is shown with the bruises, slit throat and cuts.

Codes And Conventions Of Thrillers - The Colour Red

Blood is used a lot of the time at the end the piece. We used this to emphasise the thriller aspect. People associate the colour red with danger, violence, anarchy and also death, due to the blood being red. When making the blood, I made the colour of it dark red because usually dark red is shown more to emphasise death in films, so this helps show how much of a thriller it really could be.

Filming Schedule

Filming Day 3

The next part of the filming process involved filming Chloe Brock in the next part of the morning after scene. I filmed her waking up in a field. At first I was curious about the weather so we had to postpone it for another day when it was more sunny. I didn't have the ingredients to make the fake blood I did first so instead we used red paint. It didn't have the same realistic effect as the fake blood mixed but it still worked.
The day I filmed was rather sunny. When the sun went into Chloe's eyes, it made her squint which made her look tired which adds to the realism of the piece.

Music Choice

Music has been difficult to obtain for our piece because we haven't got any permission from the labels we contacted. We decided to see if there were any copyright free tracks we could use. To our luck we found this track which suits are opening scene and is copyright free. So, Rhiannon will edit it in to some of the footage and see is it works. Link Below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9Beh8u3DFs 
It's called Boombox Cartel - Hysteria ("WTF Is Festival Trap"Anthem)

Filming - Day 2

On the second day of filming, I filmed the first waking up scene. It involved waking up on a bench with blood on their hands. To make the fake blood, I mixed cornflour, red food colouring and water. It made a very realistic bowl of blood which looked great when George dipped his hands into it (as you can see below).

I put the neon paint on his face like we did in the party filming to add to the realism of the mise-en-scene. The setting we used was good because it was very different to the party scene so it allowed us to explore different angles in the wider location.

Filming - Day 1

We did our first day of filming on the 24th, January. We chose the time of day to be the evening as parties are usually set at this time of day. Before all of our actors arrived, we filmed shots of setting up the party such as pouring alcohol into shot glasses, putting white powder into lines to look like drugs and splattering UV paint onto bedsheets to contrast with the UV lights.

We also had a lot of lights which we used; 3 UV lights, a laser dance light and a large strobe. These worked really well with the camera and added to the effect of the rave scene.

We used a lot of bottles and shot glasses to make it seem more realistic.

Altogether we got over 2 hours of filming done.

When the actors arrived, we filmed many mid shots of them dancing and having a good time. We also filmed people taking shots and smoking shisha pens.                         
The picture below shows us applying the UV paint to one of the actors. 

Inspirations

One of the main TV shows which inspired our opening scene was Skins. This is because there is a lot of party scenes which gave us a good sense of how to film it. A good example of this is the high-angle shot used in the image to the left. We used this camera angle as it shows the light on everyone (contrasting with the UV paint on the face).From the image on the right you can see my point above about the lighting going with the UV and the high-angle shot.

Films which would inspire the social-realism side of the piece would be ones such as, 'This is England' and 'Trainspotting'. This is because they really reflect the modern society in which they were set in, which is what we have tried to do in this piece. For example, we did this by making people wear what typical British people would wear in this situation and also showing cheap beer being drunk such as Stella.

Roles and Responsibilities

Me and my partner Rhiannon decided to allocate me as head of filming and main director. Therefore she became head of sound and film editing. During the filming process we both took turns filming different shots to help broaden our experience with exploring different camera angles. When it comes to the editing we will also share the responsisbilty so we are both able to take part.

Me and Rhiannon both designed and assembled the set which took around two hours. This is because we had to set up all the lights, paint a bed sheet with UV paint and then pin it up, linking up all of the speakers, made 'drugs', laying the table with the bottles and shot glasses and doing make-up on the actors.

Script

Film Opening Survey Analysis

The first question in the survey asked about peoples favorites film genre. 48.72% of responses said Comedy was their favorite film genre. We have chose to stay away from comedy as the main genre for our film opening as it is difficult and a too high skill set for our current media skills. The second highest response was Romance with 15.38%, followed by Thriller with 10.26%. Horror and Social-Realism were the last two with 2.56% of the votes each. Other responses such as Drama and Marvel were added. Although Social-Realism was one of the lowest, we have still chosen to use it as our main genre. This is because we will be able to go in-depth into the scenario filmed with the use of drugs and alcohol. One of our main objectives it to change the way Social-Realism films are portrayed and hopefully change peoples opinions about them as they are not the most popular at the moment; as our survey shows.

The second question asks about specific favorite films. Many of the responses relate to films directed by Quentin Tarantino. Using his ‘wacky’ ideas we hope to use a similar style when filming ours, especially in the opening party scene. Other answers mention films like ‘The Inbetweeners Movie’ which fits in very well with our party scene as it has very short shots of the party, in ours we hope to develop the scene with the use of lights, music and drug use. Many of the films people submitted are comedy, our party scene also has the objective to make the audience laugh as watching nowadays teens at a party can be entertaining to watch.

The next question asks about what makes a good film opening. Many of the answers said suspense. This is exactly what we intend to use when we produce our opening. The final opening part of the scene revolves around an incident with a lot of suspense as to what actually happened. Another answer commented that a good film opening should be one that ‘grabs your attention quickly’. This is what we have planned to do with the use of non-diegetic sound which will be placed over the top and the short alternating shots in which we intend to use. The use of bright colours used (neon paint, laser and UV lights) will make it stand out.

The final question relates to the best film opening they have scene in a film. Pretty much all of the films people replied with have opening scenes with the use of loud sound, and suspense. As I mentioned before this is exactly what we intend to do as it grabs the viewers attention straight away.

We have adapted our film opening to meet the preferences of our audience, (teenagers) who took this survey. We want it to reflect nowadays ‘Teenage Raves’ by focusing of alcohol, drugs and sex. We will do this by filming close-ups and use slow-motion to show the effects of what these substances feel like.

Film Opening Plan

Rhiannon and I have decided to produce a social realism/thriller film opening. We decided this as both of these genres have many benefits such as shooting on location, and in our case, have access to non-diegetic sound (music) which we can put over the top.

Plot:

A brief outline of the plot, a 'rave' party takes place at a teenagers house. The camera will focus on the alcohol consuming and drug taking etc, as part of the social realism. Hard-core techno music will be playing and shots of a typical teenage rave will be shown. The shots will be shortened making the sequence of events quick which ends with the camera blacking out. The next scene is the morning after, no one has an recollection of what happened. People from the party wake up in different, odd places around the village in which it is set. Strange events appear to have happened but no one knows what.

Props: 

- Bed sheets covering the walls, makes it feel more of a party scene. These will also be splattered with neon pain to enhance the party feel and a more professional looking set.

- UV light, this makes the neon paint stand out more.

- Strobe light continuously on, this is to bring out the music and make it look like a well organised party. 

- Water speakers will do a similar job to the strobe and UV light, the music will be edited over the top of the piece, but speakers will make it look more realistic. 

Camera shots:

- close ups of alcohol bring prepared and consumed.
- close ups of drugs being smoked/taken.
- wide shot of the rave.

Final Piece!

Semiotic Analysis Of 'Quantum Of Solace' Introduction

To help me get a better understanding of semiotics, I analysed the introduction to Quantum Of Solace. It helped me understand certain codes and conventions used, and what they signify. 

Quantum of Solace

Opening Scene – Semiotic Analysis

In this essay, I am going to analyse the opening scene of Quantum Of Solace. It starts off with slow, ominous music which signifies something is happening that is soon to be discovered. This is followed by an establishing shot of what appears to be an Island. The Island has big mountains on it which hint something big is going to happen. The overall Island represents exoticness which is classic with James Bond to those who have seen previous films.

We start to get brief glimpses of machine gun bullets and cars driving fast. This means there is going to be an action scene to come. The bullets signify it will be a shootout and the cars show it will be a chase. The brief glimpses continue and one of them is an Aston Martin logo. This is the main signifier of Bond himself if people understand Aston Martins are his signature car.

The chase scene is filled with car crashes, dangerous driving and gun shots. Because Bond is the only one who doesn’t crash or get shot, this shows he is skilled and experienced, even if he is breaking the rules. The music speeds up, this goes well with the speed of the cars. The calmness in Bonds face shows; as I said before; he is skilled and experienced.

In the mise-en-scene the police get involved within the chase, this represents that it is going to get more action packed. Very soon after the police joining, they manage to crash or get blown up, however Bond is still driving showing one man is more capable than half a dozen police.

One part of the opening is set in a Quarry, this gives a real chance for some immense driving. This scene enabled me to explore different camera angles, such as close up of Bonds face and a panning shot of the cars as they drifted around the Quarry. Sand and dust from around the quarry is blown around to show the high speed the cars are travelling at. The camera makes sure we can see how dangerous the quarry is by showing the large drops and thin paths.

To summarise, the opening scene features a lot of diegetic sound such as car engines and gun shots to emphasize the action within the scene. The use of set such as The Quarry and the Tunnel show that Bond is one of a kind and is very dangerous when crossed. The final part of the opening when Bond manages to get hold of a machine gun and kill the person in the car chasing him all happens in a short space of time. The short amount of time signifies that Bond is a quick thinker, those who are already familiar with Bond will understand this. The gun is fired when Bond is in an uncomfortable position in his car showing his fast reflexes are very beneficial and professional.

Analysing Potential Film Genres

To help us choose the genre of the film opening Rhiannon and I are going to create, we decided to list the pros and cons of different ones. This helped us identify what genre would allow us to make the best film opening we can.

Potential genre:

Horror

Pros:

- easy to find a suitable set

- doesn't involve a lot of dialogue

- can include a lot of codes and conventions

- shoot on location

- easily accessible music 

Cons:

- hard to find suitable actors/actresses

- difficult to make it dramatic

- hard to access camera angles

Comedy

Pros:

- shoot on location

- props are easy to acquire

Cons:

- hard to make it humorous

- hard to find suitable actors/actresses

- hard to get suitable music

Social-Realism

Pros:

- shoot on location

- wide range of locations to shoot on

- realistic mise-en-scene

Cons:

- hard to get suitable actors/actresses

- music will be hard to find

- hard to think of an original idea

 

Evaluation

What worked well:

-> The use of diegetic sound of students talking in the background creates a realistic effect of the natural school environment in which some of the shots were filmed.

-> Our match on action shot worked well, it consisted of a naturalistic flow of the opening of the door in the three shots used.

-> The actresses we used took the task seriously which improved the quality of our piece, making it look more professional.

What didn't work so well:

-> The shot reverse shot of Amy talking, there was nothing to rest the tripod on so I had to hold it, this caused the shot to be slightly wobbly.

-> When the dialogue takes place, the sound of the speech is overpowered by the background noise.

Overall, our preliminary task worked better then we had hoped. We had a minor issue as we had not included any dialogue, we overcame this by adding the part with girl 3 in the end. We thought this bit worked well as we were able to use shot-reverse-shot and it extended the length of the clip.