First Filming Day

Hi!

After the Christmas break we decided that we’d take a day off of school in January to film the entirety of our opening of an action film. Although we got a lot of shots recorded that day, most of which we used in our actual final film, we made a few mistakes which led to us having to re film using a second film day. During this first filming day, we had both strengths and weaknesses to our filming and choice of shots etc.

Strengths:

·     Amount of shots: Overall on this day we managed to film all of the film and we ultimately used around ¾ of the shots that we recorded. Seeing as this was the first time any of us had created a short film/film opening we handled the occasion reasonably well. Even with the lack of planning that we carried out we were able to come up with good shots that were innovative and that fitted in really well when combined with the music and other shots that we used.

·         Behind the scenes footage: one of the main things that we wanted to do throughout the filming day was to film ourselves discussing what we wanted to do with shots and how we wanted to enhance the quality of each scene. As a result of this we managed to record good behind the scenes footage that we could use later in our evaluation.

Weaknesses:

·        Location: The location that we chose for our final scene in which Matt finally takes revenge on Conor and Jack was filmed in what was deemed a too public area. We had to dismiss the shots we had taken here because the police said that it would cause concern for onlookers and other members of the public. This meant that even if we thought we had finished shooting entirely we would have to at least re film those final shots.

·    The Gun: Jack unfortunately broke the gun that we had been planning to use right at the start of filming. We were unable to fix it with super glue and we all decided that it’d be fine to just use tape to mend it temporarily. However when we reviewed the shots that we’d used the gun for, we realised two things. Firstly the gun wasn’t exactly the right type for our modern day action movie and therefore we needed something more up to date. As well as this the tape had done nothing to improve the look of the gun and although not everyone noticed its broken parts we for sure did and thought we needed to re shoot the scenes that we had used it for.

·      Time management: although we managed to get all of the shots we wanted, we did have the whole day to film and we got distracted a lot. Our distraction led to our final scene being poorly shot in terms of lighting. Therefore we had to reschedule in order to re shoot those poor quality shots.

Overall the first filming day went reasonably well because of the fact it was poorly planned and we were making a film of this importance for the first time. Although we did have more weaknesses than strengths and this was probably down to the fact we were all novices in the film making department. Luckily we were able to review our failures in the first filming day and then correct them in the second filming day. 

See you soon!

Director Study

Hi!

As the genre of our opening film credits is action, it made sense for the director that we analyse be one who directs many films that are of the action genre. Therefore I decided to use an established and famous action director in Quentin Tarantino. He is known for his critically acclaimed films such as 'Pulp Fiction', 'Reservoir Dogs' and 'Django Unchained'.

Tarantino is an American director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He was born March 27 1963. He grew up as an avid film fan and spent a period of time working at Video Archives, a video rental store. He trained as an actor at the same time he was working at the video rental shop. Tarantino kicked off his film career by writing and directing the film “My best friend’s birthday”. In the early 1990’s he started making independent films, the first film he created was “Reservoir Dogs” which has since been voted the greatest independent film of all time. His second film was arguably more successful than his first. Pulp Fiction, released in 1994, has been critically acclaimed and was also judged to be the best film of the past 25 years (1983-2008). Tarantino subsequently went on to direct films such as 'Kill Bill' and 'Inglorious Basterds' both were received well by film watchers and critics alike. In 2012 he directed 'Django Unchained' which became the highest grossing film he’d ever been involved in when it made over $425 million at the box office. He has received several awards for the excellence of his critically acclaimed films these awards include; two Oscars, two golden globes and two BAFTAS. In 2005 Time magazine voted him placed him within the top 100 most influential people in the world. He has often been called the most influential director of his generation.

There are several camera angles, shots and effects that Quentin Tarantino can be judged to regularly include in his films. He uses these features in order to display his thrilling stories to the public visually: 

Long takes and tracking shots:  These kinds of shots let us follow the characters and spend time with them without cuts/edits. There is a real beauty and daring to these kinds of cinematic sequences.

In Pulp Fiction: Long take: We stay with Vincent and Jules several minutes before they go to meet Brett. There are no cuts here. Tracking shot: Butch gets out of his car and walks through an alleyway to get to his apartment to retrieve his father's gold watch:

In Kill Bill: Tracking shot: The Bride walks into the HOBL bathroom----->Charlie Brown & the HOBL owner walk up to O-Ren's private room then we join ----->Sofie Fatale who walks from the private room to the bathroom where we rejoin The Bride.

Quentin Tarantino has trademarked the trunk shot camera angle and he's used it in every movie he has directed. He also uses reverse trunk shots with characters being watched from outside the trunk, as in from the point of view of the person inside the trunk.

The Trunk and POV (Point of View) shot:  

In Reservoir Dogs: Mr Brown, Mr Pink and Mr White looking at Marvin Nash:

In Pulp Fiction: Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield:

As Quentin Tarantino noted, his use of this shot was inspired by Director Brian DePalma who often used the 360 tracking shot to emphasize the feeling of love or togetherness. It can also be used to emphasize confusion as in DePalma's Blow Out (the scene when Jack's tapes are erased) and in QT's Jackie Brown where the camera spins around Jackie. This is actually a trick on the viewer because as we find out, Jackie plans out the entire caper and is merely acting confused:

In Reservoir Dogs: Opening dinner scene:

In Jackie Brown: Sequence at the mall:

See you soon!

Changes We Made to our Final Film

Hi!

After the first film shoot as expected, we weren’t content with a few parts of the final cut, this brought about things we decided to change/re-film about the original, which consisted of;

1    The Gun

The gun choice probably brought about the biggest trouble throughout the whole project, this is because as we were about to start filming, it unfortunately broke on the day, which we didn’t think was too much of a problem, as we could simply glue/cello-tape it back together, + this was the day off we had booked so there was no cancelling it.

Basically we didn’t plan the choice of the gun very well in the first place, one of the members of the group said they had a gun at home we could use and we collectively agreed it will do without really thinking.

Looking back on it wasn’t the best decision as when you watch the ‘complete’ product, it looks good but you can bare help notice the slightly bent gun:

Which we thought gives off a slight image of the whole production being slightly unprofessional and shoddy, which doesn’t directly affect our grade, but does sit in the back of the examiners mind. So we bought a new, better and more realistic gun and re-filmed all the scenes involving it on the other day of filming;

2       The shadow mistake

Here we noticed again watching it back that we had the camera-man’s shadow in one of the shots:

so we instantly agreed to get rid of these shots + the section as it was weak anyway, and replace them with more match-on-action shots.

3       The light

As we had to re-film the final scene anyway, we decided we had to change the time of day but more location we filmed at. Where we filmed the first time was a great location as it was a long dark path with a street lamp at the end;

However when watching it back, no matter how much Eliot could up the brightness when editing, the whole final scene was a struggle to see.

So we changed to a slightly brighter location which was simply better lit by streetlamps, but it still suited our ideas of it being under/next to a street lamp;

4       FPS

We decided to change the Frames per Second of the whole film, instead of being the standard 30fps, Eliot saved it in 24fps as it gives the film a more choppy/grainy effect, much like that of the big action films.

Here is the link to our final film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JI2nvfylZI

See you soon!

Genre Features

Hi!

Genre features are what you would typically expect in your standard action film, we have split these lists into different sections as there is a lot to take in!  

Editing:

-       Shots tend to be sharp and fast, especially in the battle/conflict/competition scenes.

-       Slow shots occasionally used to build up tension.

-       Sound effects (non-diegetic sound) usually plays a massive part in emphasizing the viewer’s experience, especially in an action film as there tends to be a lot of things clashing together/exploding for example.

Camera Angles:

-       A real mixture of long shots and close ups.

-       Again depending on the scene, if the director wants you to get inside the characters head, then maybe close ups would be appropriate, but if he wanted to provoke you thoughts about the overall moment and what the current situation is then he might implement some long shots.

Lighting:

-       Tends to be slightly darker and therefore more serious as unless it’s an action comedy, then the overall mood of the film won’t be a necessarily joyful one.

-       However again this may change due to the scene, as maybe during the fighting/competition scenes the contrast/saturation/brightness of the picture might change to match the general mood of what is going on.

Props:

-       Guns/knives/anything violent

-       Sunglasses

-       Watches

-       Smartphones

-       Expensive vehicles

-       Futuristic/clever technology

-       Sometimes the whole film can revolve around a prop and obtaining it.

Costuming:

-       Costuming usually depends on the tone of the film, but stereotypically for men:

-       Black clothing

-       Vests

-       Military look (belts with items attached/tank tops/boots/some sort of gun)

-       Always muscle showing when appropriate

-       Scars/injuries visible

-       Sunglasses to emphasize importance

-       For Women:

-       Tight, lycra clothing

-       Heels

-       Vibrant lipstick

-       Some sort of weapon attached with clothing

Characters:

-       Hero’s/’goodies

-       Villains/’baddies’

-       Side kick(s) of some form

-       Sometimes family involved

Storyline:

-       Being incredibly stereotypical, action films usually start with a bang, a fight, a death, a plot twist, something major that hits you right from the off and sets the tone for the film.

-       Then the middle section of the film tends to be the build up to the end, this part may consist of a few plot twists or even romance.

-       Then the final part of the film is usually the big finale, a fight/conflict or competition, something along those lines. This usually ending in the good guys/hero’s coming out on top.

See you soon!

Storyboard

Hi!

Here is our Story-Board, This is our original storyboard to our first final opening credits made very early on, so the pictures and descriptions will vary a lot to the shots of our final Complete Film. It was also very rough and generalised as again as I said it was done very early on. However there are some shots on there you might be able to recognise. 

See you soon!

Target Audience Profile

Hi!

For our target audience profile we have created a male called Dom. Dom is the ideal person who would watch our movie therefore this is our Target Audience Profile of Dom (our ideal target person):

Dom is a 17-year-old male who lives with his parents in London and goes to his local sixth-form studying A-level sport, A-level Business, Law and Biology. He was at the same school that his sixth-form is at and got 9 GCSE’s in his time at secondary school. He is currently single and is enjoying his time at his sixth-form and is also interested in females.

Dom spends most of his days revising, however he does allow himself time to hang out with his friends and have some time to himself. He had a part time job at the school as a cleaner and enjoys his job which he does for 2 hours each week day after school. He has a small family as he is an only child but his parents are loving, caring and supportive of him which is very important to him and he makes sure he always has time to spend with them. When he has any spare time weekend, he enjoys spending time with his friends. They hang out together at each others houses watching TV and playing online games. They often also go out into London to go to the cinema or shops for sports and clothes to wear on nights out. He hates people who think they are better than everyone else and are big headed. He also plays football for his local side Shoreditch Rovers FC. At night time, he often goes out for a meal with his friends or goes out to local clubs in the area.

In 8 years’ time, Dom wants to be a business manager at a medical company. His goals are to climb up in the business management world to eventually become the boss and then start his own business. He dreams of travelling around the world visiting every location on the map then to settle down and start to have a family. He wants to move out of his parents’ home when his finished sixth form and move onto college or University.

Dom has a TV in his room which he loves watching Netflix and Box Sets such as Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead and Prison Break. He also loves films and takes recent trips to the cinema, trying to see all of the currents films with his friends. But his favourite genre of film is action suspense. He loves films about guns and hostages and the reason why he like these sorts of films for example, Taken and Die Hard is because he fines them intriguing and enjoyable. He loves the fact that you don’t know what’s going to happen next and that anything can happen, so he’s always left guessing on what’s going to happen next.  

See you soon!

Font Type

Hi!

For our opening credits to our new film we had to decide and chose what font style we would use in the opening credits. Different films in different genres will have different font types and styles to match or coincide with the story line.

The first one I looked at was The Walking Dead:

This is the opening credits to the walking dead. Although a TV series and its genre is horror. However it can be looked at as action suspense also. Therefore it is the same as our movie idea. The colours used in these photos are dull, greys and greens. These are very plain, empty colours that can also signify depression which helps show the nature of the story. Also the all the colours are dull and plain except the red in the eye. The eye is dark around the lids and red in the eye, drawing our attention to it making us feel uncomfortable and have a sense of evil or disturbance. The font is small but in bold, which gives us a sense of urgency. The pictures have all something in common, that they are all lifeless apart from the eye, yet this isn’t just a normal eye. Therefore this tells us as an audience that something has happened and all is not the same.    

The second credits I looked at was 'Sherlock Holmes’:

The first thing you notice is the style of font used. The font for this film is handwritten, this makes the film and the story feel more personal to the readers. Also the background is like a canvass to show it’s almost a story and like a book, therefore you’ll be taken through the journey and pages. Also it is to illustrate the time of which the movie is set as they are still using parchment and feathered pens. I like the style of this font and think it is another style to consider for our own film.

 Next I looked at was James Bond Casio Royal:

This opening credits writing is all in capitals again giving us the feeling of urgency and the feeling that something’s going to happen. With the title already giving you a sense of gambling, the whole opening credits incorporates and blends action with the gambling affect such as the cross hairs of a gun to look like the roulette tables. Also the fact that James Bond is always in black and white gives us a sense of him being mysterious and hard to read. Whereas the other man is in red, this is to show or give you the sense and thought of blood and therefore death.

See you soon!