DISTRIBUTION: INSTAGRAM

I have decided to create an Instagram account for our movie opening in order to attract and address audiences. Instagram is used by millions of people each day therefore our movie could get a good publication as most people who use Instagram at the age of our target audience. To create this Instagram account I had to make an email that we, as production, can use focusthemovieHOTMAIL.com

PLANNING: INTERVIEW

My media group and I have decided to do a Psychiatry examination interview on the main character of the movie Sam. We all thought that sometime into the near future he would end up being arrested or examined by a specialist to see what is wrong with him as his aggression and controlling emotions get the best of him. We have decided to film this psychiatry examination and plan questions and answers as a script to develop our character. We got this idea from FilmEscape. I read the article by Charlie Sierra on how to get to Know your Character by giving them a questionnaire. They have collected questions about the physical, family, relationships, personalities and flaws aspect fro the character interrogation  Further more I have personally researched into the way Psychiatrist ask questions and also provided props from our filming. 

A psychiatrist would usually: 

• assess a person's state of mind
• use the “biopsychosocial” model of understanding. This emphasises the importance of a person's past experiences, family, culture, surroundings and work as well as any medical features.
• diagnose a mental illness
• use a range of psychological treatments
• use a range of medications
• help a person recover.

We have written rough questions to ask Sam:

Do you think that this picture is demeaning towards women?
Do you think that it is acceptable to control and boss women around? Why?
Who has inspired you to become a photographer?
Do you think that your success has been based on your attitude towards women?
Does the work of David Bailey inspire you?
How do you think this has effected your attitude towards your loved ones?

PLANNING: PHOTOSHOOT SCENE

I have looked at videos on youtube to help me organise the photoshoot scene for our movie opening. These videos talk about the way the models act and the way the photographers act towards the models. Photographers are well known to be controlling and demanding of the models as the video confirms. I personally think that the pose shown bellow will be amazing in our film and will ask the model (Florence or Amy) to re-create it. The second screenshot on the right is from the same youtube video and shows how the photographer David Bailey tells the model what to do and how he wants to sell sex. 

I think that we should also include an extreme close up of the hands of the photographer/psychopath  Sam like shown below in the screenshot of the Nowcast video as well as over the shoulder shot.

I took a book out of the school library called Story Teller by Tim Walker, a very famous photographer who photographs women in a very provocative way. We also used this as a prop in our Interrogation Interview to suggest him as an influence on out character 'Sam

PLANNING: CALL SHEET #3

3) Photoshoot

Shoot date: 27th November 2015

Location: Claremont Fan Court Photography Studio

Crew:
Bea Chavdarova: 7896 ******
Chloe McDowell: 7472 ******
Alex Davies: 7710 ******
James Eager: 7531 ******

Extras:
Amy Spalding 
Florence Selwood

Equipment:
Canon Camera
Tripod
Dollie

Props:

Lights

Cameras 

Wardrobe:
Sociopath's Attire:
Black Top

Black Jeans

Black shoes

Amy Spalding's Attire:

Black Channel cocktail dress

Black heels 

Florence Selwood Attire:
White dress 
Black heels

PLANNING: CALL SHEET #2

2) SOCIOPATH'S LAIR

Shoot Date: 18th of November 2015

Location: Inside the Workshop, Claremont Fan Court School

Crew:
Bea Chavdarova: 7896 ******
Chloe McDowell: 7472 ******
Alex Davies: 7710 ******
James Eager: 7531 ******

Equipment:
Canon Camera
Tripod
Dollie

Props:
Various Photos of Bea in Kingston
Workshop tools

Wardrobe:
Sociopath's Attire:
Blue t-shirt
Black jeans
Trainers

PLANNING: CALL SHEET #1

1) THE SOCIOPATH'S WALK

Shoot Date: 11th of November and 12th of November 2015

Location: Outside the Workshop, Claremont Fan Court School

Crew:

Bea Chavdarova: 7896 ******

Chloe McDowell: 7472 ******

Alex Davies: 7710 ******

James Eager: 7531 ******

Equiptment:

Canon Camera

Tripod

Dollie (12th)

Props:

None

Wardrobe:

Sociopath's Attire: 

Blue t-shirt

Black jeans

Trainers

PLANNING: SHOT LIST - GOOGLE DOCS

Two members of our group, Alex and James worked together to create a shot list on google docs. They used Google docs because it is a very easy way for all of us to access this information and also change it if any changes are needed. Google docs presents everything in a very easy and clear way and nothing looks cluttered. 

PLANNING: STORYBOARD

I designed the story board for our film. I decided to do this on post it notes as it would be easier to re- arrange or get rid of any mistakes or ideas that got changed. Every detail about the scene location and action is written bellow the post it note to help us be more organised. Below you can see the str board. 

PLANNING: TREATMENT

FOCUS 

Treatment: A hot sociopath named SAM who is in love with a girl named JASMINE decides to investigate her life in order to control it and for her to be only his. He constantly stalks her and makes her feel uncomfortable. He takes photographs of her and people she hangs around with. His photography skills come from his  job of being a photographer which has made him very controlling and demanding of what’s his. 

Top Line: A hot sociopath who is in love with a girl decides to investigate her life in order to control it and for her to be only his. He takes photographs of her and people she hangs around with. He threatens them and contemplates killing the guy who admires the love of his life.

Twist: The girl finds these photos in his office whilst cleaning up but gets caught by doing it.

The Big Question: What will happen to the girl? And will she brake up with him?

Locations: School workshop, Wimbledon streets, Mansion room, Photography studio 

Props: Camera, photos in black and white, fake body parts, fake blood, wax, makeup, tape, weapons (workshop), lighting, red sharpie

Clothing: Psychopath- dark clothing, Girl- vibrant/normal clothes, Models- black and white dresses.

Sound: Chloe, owl hooting, scratches, steps, doors, dripping water, 

PLANNING: VIEWER PROFILE

FOCUS 

Age group: 15-29+, teens and young adults

Gender: Both males and females

TV Shows: They are likely to watch TV shows in the thriller and horror genre, such as Scream (2015), and others which are suspenseful, like American Horror story, Pretty Little Liars and Scream Queens  

Films: They are likely to see at the cinema: Scream, Scream 2, Scream 3, Scream 4, The Woman in Black , Gone Girl, Saw, The Conjuring;  

Leisure Time: In their leisure time, they will visit websites such as YouTube, twitter and facebook, stream films via iTunes, eat at upper-middle class restaurants, like Nandos, GBK and Café Rouge or equally got to more affordable fast food places such as McDonalds and also visit posher restaurants such as the ones in Harrods. They would also watch movies at home like Silence of the Lambs, and many other horror genre movies.

Clothes: Topshop, Topman, river island and/or designer brands

 Media: A recent model of the iPhone (5S/6/6S) with 4G access so they can communicate at any time. A Netflix or amazon prime subscription as they would be media enthusiast

Social Media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and use those to post pictures, comments and posts about their everyday lives and to keep up with their friends and share what they are interested in.The two step flow theory suggest that audiences consume media that their piers recommend, this is a really good way of building audiences.

I used the NME reader profile to help me understand how to create this viewer profile.

RESEARCH: THE ROLE OF THE BBFC

I looked at the BBFC website. They look at the issues such as discrimination, drugs, horror, dangerous and easily imitable behaviour, language, nudity, sex, and violence when making decisions on what rating the movie is. We will aim our movie to be a 15 as it will have some violence and explicit images.

RESEARCH: AUDIENCE CONTINUED

RESEARCH: AUDIENCE

RESEARCH: PREVIOUS PRODUCTIONS

I have had a look at 10 previous productions created by students at our centre. I think that by doing this it could help me learn a few new techniques when I have to begin creating a film opening or a short film.

One of the thing I learned by looking at other people's work is that lighting is very important when filming. The lighting can change the whole mood and effect on a shot if it is not taken care of. One of the productions I watched had natural lighting coming in from a window just like my group had for our prelim exercise. The previous students had a shot where the lighting hit the veil of the girl in the film and made her look angelic which is an example of a way to use lighting in our favour to create an atmosphere or character.

The second thing I have learnt from doing this is that another important feature is editing. Previous students used programmes such as Adobe after effect or iMovie to edit their productions and this was effective as it made it look professional and made the opening sequence/film flow better. However some titles were not made using an editing programme but were handmade. For example a previous production used guitar picks with letters written on them to spell out the title desired which was relevant to their movie and theme.

Furthermore, the last thing I found interesting to learn about is the sound in the productions. Voice over was used by one of the previous groups for a horror movie. This creates tension and mystery and is therefor effective to the theme of horror. Sound can be diegetic or non-diegetic and can also be edited on programs such as iMovie.

RESEARCH: EXIT POLLS

I looked at the exit polls of the film "fast girl" and specifically looked at the gender and age groups. This helps film producers understand who to aim their end film towards. I found this helpful as it made me understand who my film can be aimed at. 

RESEARCH: DISTRIBUTION COMPANIES

RESEARCH: TWITTER

I decided to create a professional twitter account after reading an article by Alan Rusbridger "Why Twitter matters for media organisations". The article states that Twitter is a great platform for distribution which I think will come in handy when my group create a film opening. We could share it on twitter which could make it accessible by millions of people. The articles goes on to explain that Twitter is one of the biggest search engines and that most news are first published on there. It also is said to be that Twitter can be a great way to get feedback and also that it is an amazing form of marketing. The fact that you are only allowed 140 characters per tweet makes what you are sharing more likely to be read as people don't usually want to spend ages reading about one particular thing. 

Twitter can be used as a distribution tool for our movie as the 'retweets' can help make it go viral. 

On my twitter I will post things about media that I am interested in, for examples movies that I have recently seen and will also follow people from the world of movie making and media. I will also retweet tweets about or media film "Focus". 

RESEARCH: OCR EXAMINERS REPORT (2015)

I looked at the OCR Examiners report for 2015 and the G321 Foundation Portfolio in Media to get a better understanding of what is wanted. By reading it I have understood that all the work has to be mainly done individually and also very neat and organised as not doing so could lead to complications. 

RESEARCH: PETE'S MEDIA BLOG

Pete's Media Blog is a blog created by the chief examiner. I find this blog very useful as it is full of tips and tricks on how to expand your media knowledge and skills. The blog also consists of examples of work and videos that might help media students like me. Pete blogs for Media magazine which is also very useful. Pete uses Twitter to reach out to more people and he retweets and tweets thing related to media which could also be very helpful. 

Click here to go to "Pete's Media Blog"

Click here to go to Pete's Twitter

Finally I looked at the Media magazine and Read and article called Selling youth by David Buckingham which is mainly about attracting a younger target audience which is what I will be trying to achieve with my production.

RESEARCH: TRELLO UPDATE

Over the past month I have found using Trello very helpful to stay organised and on top of the things I need to do. I will keep using this website in the future. The remaining task I have will be The next few posts on this blog.

Click here to see live link

RESEARCH: OCR WEEBLY

I have used the links from our very useful. For example I have used Steve Thornes advice on video production and on how to plan a photoshoot extremely helpful. 

I also liked how they suggested to use post it notes for storyboards, making it more practical and efficient. 

RESEARCH: ART OF THE TITLE - HACKERS (1995)

RESEARCH: ART OF THE TITLE- SE7EN (1995)

The opening sequence does not include any long shots but is very short and snappy and suggests to the audience that it is set in an office or someones home as the props used are your typical daily use thing like tape scissors and paper. everything is shown for a very short time creating suspense and tension making the audience want to know more. All of the shots are reasonably dark which creates more tension.

The editing is a montage of a lot of different short clips from around the room and object close ups. Nothing is in order therefore shows more mysteriousness and darkness. Some of the clips fade into black creating a eire feel and atmosphere.

The non-diegetic soundtrack is fairly slow at the very beginning making the editing of the shots slow but once the speed builds up the editing becomes shorter and snappier to create even more tension. Some clips are in slow motion. This is an added special effect when editing, there is also so flickering and background noise to make the mood eire again.

The titles look like they are in a hand written font and t appears in white to make it stand out from the black background. The production companies are listed first in this order: New Line Cinema, Arnold Kopelson and the followed by titles for the creator of the film David Fincher and the main actors. In this case Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman.

RESEARCH: ART OF THE TITLE - EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (1990)

RESEARCH: ART OF THE TITLE - THE CONJURING (2013)

The conjuring falls under the genre of horror/thriller. The opening title sequence is in black in white to create a scary, old and dull atmosphere. The darkness of the opening can suggest mysteriousness or death and the bright white areas could represent the purity which could make the audience unclear of what to expect and also make them want to cary on watching. The use of newspaper adds to the realness of the plot. 

The movie title is presented as a long shot of a tree and a house with a rope naming from the tree. The title is in amongst the tree in white font. This also creates an eire atmosphere. 

Furthermore the pictures of the people reveal that it could be based in the past as the clothes worn are very old fashioned and the pictures are very old. The X-ray layers could suggest that there is a lot of layers to discover about the story.The non diegetic music is slow and set the mood as very dramatic and yet scary. 

The first title to be presented is the director, James Wan, in the centre of the image. Followed by Chad Hayes, Carey W. Hayes who wrote the film and the producers, Tony DeRosa-Grund, Peter Safran and Rob Cowan etc... Furthermore credit is given to the actors such as Patrick Wilson and Vera Farming as they are the main characters in the movie. Credits to the production companies: A New Line Cinema presentation  and Safran Company/ Evergreen Media Group Production are given along with credits to a James Wan Film. 

 

RESEARCH: ART OF THE TITLE - SHERLOCK HOLMES (2009)

The genre of the movie Sherlock Holmes belongs to thriller, action and also comedy genres. The colours used for the opening sequence are black and white for the main footage but they appear to change to sepia hand drawn sketches or watermarks that imply the era the movie is set in (Victorian). The use of dark colours reinforces the thriller part of the genre of the film.

The opening title tells who the director is, Guy Ritchie. Credit is given to Michael Robert Johnson,Anthony Peckham and Simon Kinberg for the screenplay. Next to be given credit are Lionel Wigram and Michael Robert Johnson for the screen story. Also mentioned are the producers Joel silver, Lionel Wigram, Susan downey and Dan Lin. The executive producers Michael Tadross and Bruce Berman are also given credit in the opening sequence. The editor James Herbert and the main actor in the move Robert downey- Junior are mentioned before the main title of the movie that appears centre shot in old fashioned pen and ink wash handwriting just like all of the titles before hand. This creates a background noise. All of the titles are carefully placed so they are visible. the colour of the font changes to white if the background is too dark which draws the audiences attention.

The soundtrack fits the editing because when the soundtrack slows down so does the editing and the image comes to a still of a title and a pen and ink drawing. In contrast when the tempo of the soundtrack speeds up so does the editing and the pen and ink wash fades away and a new black and with real life image appears with no titles on it. The audience is drawn in by the suspense and dramatic non diegetic music used.

The Production companies are mentioned at the very end of the opening sequence. " A Warners Bros. Pictures Presentation","Village Roadshows Pictures", "A silvers Pictures Production"," A Wigram Production" and " A Guy Ritchie Film" were the last production companies credits given in the opening sequence.

RESEARCH : ART OF THE TITLE - JUNO (2007)

RESEARCH: ANALYSIS OF THE OPENING OF NOWHERE BOY

Nowhere boy 

In the beginning of the opening it is clearly shown that the movie is sponsored by "Icon" and "Film four" and also sponsored by the "Uk Film Council" through The national Lottery. The movie is co-produced by "Northwest vision and media" & "Lip sync Production" & "Hanaway films" & "Ecosse Films". 

The director of the film is announced in the titles by the words " a Sam Taylor-Wood film". In the most prominent letters the title of the movie "Nowhere Boy" is shown centre screen. 

The establishing shot is a wide shot of a young boy running energetically through a grand building which is in contrast as the building itself looks quite old and elegant. The young boy does not look intimidate by this and conveys how rebellious he is. However the sense of venerability is created when a shot of the boy curled up in bed is presented sharply from a birds eye view. The pyjamas and the bedding create a sense of the time period as they are not very modern at all.
The audience is interested from the very beginning when it is clearly shown that there is a conflict between John Lennon (young boy) and his aunt Mimi that he has grown up with. Aunt Mimi is presented as a very neat and strict woman who always seem to be very collected. This is presented by her always perfect hair, clothes and speech.

In contrast with this relationship his uncle, George, is presented to be in a much more loving and close relationship with John Lennon. This is a shown in a two shot of the pair hugging and is also shown in scene where they have fun setting up music in John's bedroom and sharing alcohol with each other like they are both of the same age. This makes the family dynamics very clear to the audience.

The soundtrack to the movie is a classic Rock n' Roll song to convey the time this was set in (1950's). The soundtrack is carefully picked to represent John Lennon as a "Wild Child" as he rebels. 

FILMING OUR PRELIM

Click here to see prelim

Today in our media lesson we had some fun playing around with the cameras and filmed our very first prelim as a group. My group consisted of Chloe, Ollie, Xander and Ryan. We used a big room with big windows so we can have good lighting in the video. However whilst editing the video we realized that some of the footage (mainly the one with the camera facing towards the window) was too dark and almost looked like it was created on purpose to create tension or a dark atmosphere to suggest that the figure in the clip (Ryan) has a dark soul. Further more we had troubles with some jump cuts whilst editing. For the soundtrack we filmed Xander playing an original song on the piano and edited it so it would last for the whole of the prelim. For better sound next time we would use an external microphone instead of the camera one and for better lighting we would use a studio light to help adjust the brightness of the room and clip. My job was to be the woman that the mysterious man was giving his number to and help with the editing and transitions.

RESEARCH: TRELLO

I have started using Trello today, in order to help me stay organised throughout this month and my research for film openings.

Click here to see live link

RESEARCH: BRIEF

I have chosen the brief of the video where the main task is to make the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.