Continuity task.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CarNvA_NgFI

Our final film.

 

Evaluation- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the fill product?

This links to the idea of our continuity task and how we learnt to record things in a way to make different things be depicted in different ways such as power and movement. The way we recorded it was a POV shot which allowed us to be ‘on the same level’ as the main female character however it meant that the audience could also understand the demise of the male character at the beginning of the clip. The continuity task also allowed us to understand where we might need to change our scenes in order for it all to ‘flow’. By this I mean that there are no errors with missing parts of scenes and there are no shadows or anything that could affect the quality of the film. Creating the continuity task also allowed me to add smooth transitions between scenes as well as changing the pace in which the film is presented by adding different speed transitions and cutting at certain points of the film. The stops and starts in the continuity create tension towards the building in our film which means that the audience could keep up with the pace. Also the continuity task allowed us to understand that the characters have to be wearing the same clothes whilst filming which we found difficult as we mainly had the time during school which was unlikely for us to be wearing the same clothes as the day before. I think that progressing from the continuity task to the actual film was a big step however creating the continuity task allowed me to understand all of the editing software and being to know how I would need to film my introduction to make it a good quality film and appeal to its target audience.

Evaluation- What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have learnt that using a camera to make different shots is more difficult that it seems and that using a tripod will help to improve the quality of the film. However we did not get to show this in our film as our film is recorded by hand and in a POV shot which means that the quality of the film might have been affected. By using our editing software we have been able to enhance this and add effects to the movie. Also the fact that we could add music in the background allowed us to show a sense of professionalism and depict to the audience different things about what the film is about and allow them to create an understanding of the film themselves, leading to the idea of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, (the need for self-affiliation). I found it hard to edit my film however with the help of my group and the software that was available to us it made it easier to work out exactly what we had to do in order to make it to the best standards we could achieve.

Also our ability to use the internet and Blogger helped us with our research and planning and allowed us to change and improve our blogs as and when we needed to. This was convenient in that it meant that as our knowledge of media expanded, the quality of our research in planning did also meaning that we had planned everything down to the last detail and we were ready to move onto filming promptly, allowing me to let my peers access the process and feedback on progress as we made the film.

Another part of the research and planning was storyboards- this allowed our group to see exactly what we had planned to do and how we needed to do it. By making a shot and prop list it also allowed us to be resourceful and ready to make our film. The shot-list also became useful when we realised we needed to re-record scenes so as not to include continuity errors and make our film the best quality possible.

Evaluation- Who would be the audience for your media product and why?

We hope that both sexes will be attracted to my film by people of all ages about 12. Also we hope that people who are generally interested in Thriller movies would be attracted to it as it is  not like the normal thriller movie however the whole point of a thriller movie is to move away from the normal and expected, and subvert to typical conventions of movies. We conform to this idea in many ways.

One way we conform to this is the fact that the roles of men and women are switched and you can see both sides of the story from a third party prospective in that the clip is filmed in a way so that it is like the view of another person who is not actually seen in the film. This could be depicted to be many people however it could also be seen to be nobody related to the film at all. Another way that our film conforms to typical conventions of a thriller is that the introduction is presented with eerie or unknown music. We have related this to the film by making the cuts in the film sync with the beats in the clip which allows the audience to understand the pace of the film and how this links in with the ‘path’ that the film takes following the woman. This idea could link in with the male target audience and make them question whether men are fascinated by women having more power than them even though men are seen as the superior sex.

Evaluation- How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted a target audience by making it involve ‘them’. By this I mean we gave them a story which they could directly relate to or make a connection with due to people in their lives relating to what goes on in our film. This is why we decided to call our film ‘MI Sixth Form’ because it directs our film to students of all ages, that could be either going into sixth form, or having come out of it. It could also link to those who might not have anything to do with colleges directly however they might understand sixth form/college life due to TV shows such as Hollyoaks which is set around a sixth form and university or Waterloo Road which is set in a secondary school.  This makes a recognisable location (a school) allowing the audience to know all of the different kinds of emotions felt whilst at this location. We hoped the audience would feel a sense of mystery and danger.

We also decided that by switching the superior/inferior roles, that this would attract our target audience as both sexes would be able to relate to the idea of switching their roles and how the other sex would feel in the role of the opposite position.  My film does not however appeal to younger children- this would be shown in the fact that the certificate is higher than an age group which would be classed as ‘children’. The idea that there is a perception of violence means that the certificate would have to be at least a 12A this is why we have chosen this certificate for our film.

Evaluation- What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Media institutions such as ‘Miramax films’ are an example of a company that could distribute my film as they create films similar to mine which are also within the same genre. An example of a film similar to mine which they distribute is ‘Kill Bill’. ‘Kill Bill’ is similar to my film as it also depicts the woman to be the superior sex and this film would relate to mine in that she is out to kill people, (Bill), which is the atmosphere created within the 2 minutes we have  created in our movie. By a large institution such as ‘Miramax films’ distributing my film it would lead to larger companies being interested in showing my film. Companies such as LoveFilm and Sky would be inclined to want to show our film on their websites/television solely down to the distribution company name and brand. We would hope that our film would then go on to be sold on DVD’s and Blu-Ray disks creating a global audience for our film and leading on to making a profit from the movie. This would mean that our target audience would need to have a disposable income meaning that they could have to be C2 or above.

Evaluation- How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product represents women and men in society however they are not represented in a typical way; this is typical of a thriller movie. In my film I have represented men to be the inferior sex as opposed to women being the less superior gender. This is typical of a thriller movie as the target of a thriller movie is to make the audience unaware of exactly what is going on but let them piece together the plot of the film. This is similar to movies such as ‘Kill Bill’ (2003) where the introduction of the film a flashback form the past, then it skips forward and backward in time.

It could also be said that it depicts teenagers and students to be unpredictable and unknown in that you would not expect this from a normal teenage school girl. It shows us that the understanding of teenagers of today could be completely wrong. Male teenagers are seen to be dominant, violent, aggressive and unpredictable. This contrasts the observation most people make at a glance of a teenager as in my film he is illustrated to be weak and it is the female who is seen to be the violent one. 

Our characters were dresses in smart/casual clothes. We thought this would be appropriate as these are the kinds of clothes that we are obligated to wear to school thus allowing our target audience to feel the same way towards the characters and how they come across. We did not use any props in the scenes of the film- this allowed the audience to piece together, for themselves, what has actually gone on.

Evaluation- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My media product is about a woman who is an assassin in a school. This conforms to conventions of real media products as thriller movies are known for being ‘different’ and subverting typical conventions of normal films. It develops the idea that women aren’t quite what they perceive to be. They are perceived to be weak and vulnerable compared to the strong and quick male. This can relate to a thriller movie from the 2011 movie called ‘Hanna’ where a young girl is set out to kill the people who killed her mother. The idea that my media product has quite an upbeat background soundtrack to it, I think, is atypical of a real thriller movie of today as the idea of a thriller movie is to disorientate the audience which is normally shown by slow and eerie music.

The fact that my media product is clearly set in a school also subverts to conventions of normal thriller movies as most thriller movies are set in an unknown place so as to get the audience to question what is actually going on and that they should feel a sense of self-affiliation towards the movie. However, I think the fact that the characters stereotypes’ are opposite to those which they normally are, the audience can relate to the characters in a way that they do not normally. By this I mean that the male audiences can relate to a more victimised male character but also relate to the strength of the female and the female can relate in the opposite way. This creates mystery to the plot of the film and therefore applies the Barthe’s Enigma y by presenting the audience with puzzles to solve and questions to ask.

Images- props

 In these images you can see pictures of teachers which I will use as props to set the scene of my film.
The image with the words are the titles to the pictures that I am using which allows the audience to understand the plot of the film and how it conforms to conventions of a thriller movie in that the woman who is presented at the beginning of the clip is not directly linked to the unknown villain.
These make up a typical faculty department images and how they are typically represented. I researched these teachers through the internet and I found it difficult to find images which are typical. I tried to find images of both male and female teachers however I had trouble finding an image of an asian female. This tells us that it is atypical, perhaps for asian women to be teachers. I made sure that the image of the head teacher was an older male as they are the dominant characters and seem more intimidating which links in with my film.

Shot list table

This is a table of the shots I will be using.

Location	Shot	Camera movement	Characters	Length of shot	Sound
Outside school building	Establishing shot	Zoom into school doors	N/A	15 secs	Clicking of heels
Inside school- hallway	Long shot	Pan around characters in scene	Dead man	10 secs	Clicking of heels
Along the hallway following a trail	N/A	Tracking shot following a trail	N/A	25 secs	Clicking of heels and increasing volume of whistle
Another hallway	Close up shot	Tracking close up of woman’s feet	Killer	20 secs	Increasing volume of whistle
“ ”	Mid shot	N/A	Shot of cleaner	5 secs	Maximum volume of whistle and noise of man being knocked over
Board with images of teachers	Close ups of different images	Zoom into images	No specific actors	20 secs	Whistle becomes slower
Head teacher image	Close up	N/A	N/A	5 secs	Whistle slows down and fades out

Shot list

Shot list:

·        Establishing shot of outside school building.

·        Zoom into building’s doors.

·        Pan around man.

·        Tracking shot following trail of blood.

·        Two shot of woman and the cleaner.

·        Tracking shot (still following the woman).

·        Arc shot followed by close up shot of image on the pin board.

Audiences of my film

From my film I hope that the audience will feel a sense of the unknown but also a sense of self-accomplishment in that they will have figured out themselves which characters conform to each part of Propp’s character theory and that they will have fulfilled the need for self esteem. The fact that the characters role of men and women have been reversed will make male audiences consider their stereotypes of physical strength against the stereotypes of women’s strength of mentality. Conversely it will make female audiences question their perceptions of male strength and that mentally, they also may not be as strong as women might think. I will also be providing a strong female role model which one could argue, is uncharacteristic of most thriller movies. A typical convention of the thriller genre is that there are a wide variety of camera angles, used to convey narrative and atmosphere within the scene. However, my film will contrast this convention in that we have chosen to use more camera movements than camera angles as it follows the character through her ‘journey’ through the school giving the narrative a sense of momentum and movement. This will also allow the audience to discover the setting of the film and understand why the film has been named ‘MI Sixth form’.

Certificate of my film

We have decided to use a 12A certificate rating in our video so as to attract a wider target audience and so that there is mystery as to what has actually gone on in the video. We will conform to this in that no violence is directly seen however it is implicated by the props in the film.

The name of my film

We have chosen to name our film ‘MI Sixth form’. This links in the idea that the our film is about a school full of undercover agents and set in a school. It also links in with our target audience in that the target audience is15 year-olds and older which is around the age that people in Sixth forms/colleges are in. It might not, however, attract an audience much older than this. It does not give away the idea that the film includes violence, thus taking the audience by surprise when the implication of violence and death is put into the movie. Other names that were discussed in the group are 'MI 6-teen' however we did not feel that this links to the idea that the film was set in a school and that 'MI Sixth form' made it clearer.

Sound in my clip

Sound in my clip:

My group plan to use diegetic at the beginning of the scene with the sound of a woman’s clicking high heels in the background of a scene of the doors to the school. This will immediately indicate to the audience the gender of the character and signify the contrasting view of the woman being the killer. There will also be a gradual sound of a woman whistling a nursery rhyme- as the scene gets closer and closer to the woman, the whistling will get louder and will fade into a non-diegetic sound of a nursery rhyme which will be placed over the moving image. There may be noise from when the cleaner gets knocked over e.g. if he knocks over a bucket or other equipment in the scene. I hope that this will leave my audience aprehensive to what actually is going to come from this. It is later revealed that the woman is powerful however equally manipulative by the man whom she is working for.

Camera movements

Tracking shot- a forwards or backwards movement of the camera usually on a dolly/ track & dolly.

Crab shot- a sideways movement of the camera normally used to follow the movement of a character and keep up the pace with the scene.

Tilt- tilting the camera on an axis normally representing the power of each character. I.e. looking down shows the character has more power, looking up shows the character has less power.

Zoom- adjustment of the focus of the camera allowing the shot to focus on one part of the scene or character.

Arc shot- movement of around the scene revealing the facial expression of the characters in the scene (normally outside of the scene looking in).

Panning shot- movement of around the scene revealing the facial expression of the characters in the scene (normally inside of the scene looking out).

Crane shot- the camera is attached to a crane allowing the camera to see farther and look down at places that the camera man would not be able to. Also it allows more artistic movements of the camera i.e. a wave.

Characters & Representation

Dead man- the dead man will be wearing smart casual clothes as if he is one of the teachers of the school. He will need to be wearing a tie and smart shoes. If possible, a ‘staff’ badge should be worn around his neck in order to identify that he is a teacher. Also his face will appear on the ‘Teachers’ board which is the main focus of the last shot of the clip. This man can be described as the “damsel in distress”. This is an atypical representation of a man as it is normally the man that is stronger than the woman and is the more dominant character however their status of power is flipped in this scene and the man is seen to be weak.

Woman- wearing school uniform and preferably high heels. This will indicate that she is not actually the age that she is being perceived to be however she has the ability to look and play a character as young as a secondary school student. It will be unclear at the beginning of the scene however this character will in fact be the helper as opposed to the direct villain. This links in with the idea of Propp's character theory.

The cleaner- the cleaner will only be in the scene for a brief moment just to depict to the audience the severity of the woman’s anger and what she is capable of. He will be wearing overalls (if possible) to show his purpose in the clip. He will not speak make any action other than clean and stare at the woman as she walks past. This is shown to represent his innocence within the scene and that he has nothing to do with the action going on in the clip but is just an extra character to fit into the scene. He therefore does not fit into Propp’s character theory.

There will be no other characters in the film in the hope that the audience will buy into the purpose of each character and understand what motivates the charcter to within the clip. This will also allow them to question their previous perception of who the villain is when at the end, it is revealed that the woman isn’t in fact the villain but the helper to the villain.

Props ideas

These are our ideas for the plot, found on the post, 'Story board' where the plot is explained scene-by-scene.

Title ideas

We chose to call our film 'MI Sixth form' allowing the target audience to relate to the setting of the film and understand how the atmosphere can change according to various settings.

Character ideas

We chose to use as little number of characters in the film so as to add to the tension of the movie and conform to the typical conventions of a thriller movie. We have chosen to stick to 3 characters in the whole movie however just 2 characters have active roles. This allows the audience to invest more deeply into the characters in the film.

Plot & Narrative ideas

I have chosen to use a woman who is portrayed to be the villain however turns out to be just the helper to the villain. The villain is not shown in the actual clip however he is perceived to be a very much threatening character and one who has a lot of power over the other characters. The 'damsel in distress' is a man- this subverts to typical conventions of any movie as it is the woman who kills him and this goes against the idea that men are much stronger than women as in this scene she is the person who causes his demise. This plays into Propp's character theory, conversely, the idea that the actual villain doesn't do any of the hard work it subverts to his theory about the villain. Also, the idea that the woman is the main and stronger character, conforms to the idea of the 'Male gaze theory'. This is depicted in that the woman is the stronger character and everything is seen from her point of view as the scene follows her through the hallways of the school. As we can only film the first two minutes of the thriller movie, it will be hard to understand the idea that the movie does not conform to Todorov's theory of narrative however it will be clear that the first state of equilibrium will not be met and therefore does not play into the idea of Todorov's theory of narrative.
 

Storyboards

The captions underneath the scenes explain what goes on.

The storyboards allowed me to create a shotlist and therefore make my organisation for my movie much more specific to what I need to do and in which order they will need to be done. Also it allowed me to understand how long my film will actually be and where I may need to make scenes longer in order to fill up the full 2 minutes which are needed.
My storyboard also helped me to visualise bhow the narrative will flow and take into account the continuity of the film.











 

Title sequence ideas

Locations ideas

 

We have chosen to use the school as the setting as we believe that our target audience can relate to the area that it is set in. Our target audience is quite young and therefore a school would be the perfect setting as everyone around this age would be able to understand how a school can feel differently in different situations. I.e. An empty and dark school.

Camera shots

There are 6 main types of camera shot.

These are:

-Extreme long shot; this is a shot which allows you to establish the place that the scene is set. It is more commonly known as an ‘establishing shot’.

-Long shot; this is a shot that allows you to see one full body length. It is usually used when you are being introduced to a new character and need to find out the ideology of the character.

-Mid shot; this is a shot which allows you to only see the portrait of the character. It is usually used in scenes where there is an interview or conversation

-Two shot; a shot simply involving two people. Commonly used when there is a conversation or a two part argument and it is important that you see the facial expressions of both characters.

-Close up; this is the head and shoulders of a person or the main features of an object. This shot is generally used to show the facial expressions of a person after something has happened and you would need to see their reaction.

-Point of view shot; this shot is where the audience (or camera) is viewing a situation as the characters eyes. This allows the audience to engage with what is going on and fully appreciate their perspective of the situation they are in. It is usually used when a character is running away from something.

-Extreme close up; focuses on just one part of the person allowing the audience to feel the tone that the scene has been set in. It would normally be a facial feature such as the eye if a character is crying it would be an attempt to make the audience to feel the emotion that the character is also feeling.

Propp's character theory

Propp’s character theory is the theory that everyone has a set role in the film and that it is typical for certain characters to act a certain way.

These characters are as follows; the hero, the villain, the dispatcher, the helper, the damsel in distress, the donor and the false hero. This is presented in the film ‘The Dark Knight’.

The hero: Harvey Dent/ The Batman- never does anything majorly wrong and always has the best interest of others at heart. It is misconstrued that the Batman is the hero however even he himself at the end of the movie tells us that he is not. It is put into theory with all other aspects of the movie however that the Batman is the hero.

The false hero- this is definitely represented as the Batman where at the end of the movie he quotes, “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain”.

The villain- this is the Joker in the Dark Knight. This is as he attempts to kill a heroic man and the person who he thinks is the hero to the movie- the Batman.

The helper- aka Alfred. Everybody loves the old, wise butler who knows everything about the richest man in Gotham City and the fact that he helps the batman with everything that he does to help Gotham City and the damsel in distress, Rachel.

The donor- this is the character which wise Morgan Freeman plays (Lucius Fox) gives Batman all of his crafty equipment and his protective gear.

The damsel in distress- this is a woman named Rachel who everyone likes and Bruce Wayne (Batman) is in love with her however she is in love with the true hero to the movie, Harvey Dent.

Todorov's theory of narrative

This theory can be broken down into 5 simple steps.

1.A state of equilibrium (just as everything should be).

2.A disruption of this order, by an event.

3.A recognition that the disorder has occurred.

4.An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption.

5.Restoration of a new equilibrium or a return to the first state of equilibrium.

This idea states that everything would end in an equilibrium however this would be unconventional of a thriller movie in that not everything is as it should be in the order that things happen. This presents itself in films such as The Dark Knight as the ‘hero’ at the end of the film states, “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain”. This shows us that it is not typical for the hero to always complete his task in being the

Sound

There are two types of sound - diegetic and non-diegetic sound. Throughout the movie there is nearly no non-diegetic apart from in the opening sequence and the last scene where John Doe admits to murdering detective Mills’ wife. This could be classed as stereotypical as the music/non-diegetic sound is very deep and low, it is also a slow piece of music which builds up tension to the big finale when Detective Mills finds out that his wife is in fact dead.

Camera movements in 'Seven'

 As a thriller movie, there are a lot of zoom movements. By this I mean that the camera focuses on one specific part of the character on screen or props. This is effective as a thriller movie because it allows the audience to focus on one part of the scene and understand what it is they need to figure out as the audience to a thriller movie rather than be confused about what is going on.

There are also a lot of pan shots so as to let the audience follow the characters and metaphorically follow the story line too. It also allows the audience to gradually associate the characters with the situation and the setting that the scene has been put in. This conforms to typical conventions of thriller movies as a lot of what is meant to be known is slowly revealed to the audience and this keeps the audience interested and involved.

Camera shot types

Throughout the film a variety of camera shots are used. However, due to the idea that the audience need to slowly unravel what the film is actually about and the discretion of the typical thriller, we constantly get to see the whole of everything that is going on (medium shots or long shots). This allows us as the audience to digest exactly what is going on and why it is happening in the film too.

On the other hand, the opening sequence- as it would usually establish the scene (establishing shot) could be argued both subverts and conforms to conventions. It subverts to conventions as a movie. However could conform to typical conventions of a thriller movie as it only shows extreme close ups of certain parts of John Doe’s body (such as his hands) allowing the audience to involve themselves in that they would need to figure out the basic idea of what is going on for themselves. 

The image with the men walking up stairs shows an image of when John Doe hands himself into the police- this is a medium shot of the two detectives, a long shot of John Doe in the background however it is also an establishing shot of where this takes place therefore you begin to understand why John Doe is in the presence of the detectives.