Monday, 15 November 2010

PRE - PRODUCTION: Locations

Our film is a British based media text. In order to emphasis this to the fullest locations in London are going to be used.  Below I have stated the addresses which are going to be used for filming and embedded maps.
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This is the location which me and Patria have chosen to use. Sutcliffe Park has an Athletics track which is used by many schools and athletes around the area. We shall be using this in the opening of the scene to create an atmosphere of sports as our main character will be running to qaulify for the olympic run.
The area gives us enough freedom to experiment with camaera shots and angles.

                                                                                                                                           

Sutcliffe Track: Image One
 
Sutcliffe Track : Image Two

Arsenal Football Stadium : Image One

Arsenal Football Stadium : Image Two
The images above are of the Emirates Stadium in North London. This is where the football club Arsenal FC play and train. On the 30th of November me and Patria went to an Arsenal football match to film the crowd.
We wanted to get a full effect of a crowd for our media text as there is a scene in our film where the main character is running to qaulify in the Olympics. We wanted to use camera pans and movements to build the atmosphere to convey the impact of the race.

We felt that the overwhelming cheers of the fans and the spirit they would provide would be ideal for our filming.





Above are the locations where the 'Gang violence' scene is going to take place. Inside one of the flats is also where the 'Home' scenes will be taking place. We have chosen this area as it represents London, the structure of the buildings and alley ways conveys the ideology of what the target audience believe London to look like. This is important as we want to appeal to the target audience in the most effective way possible.

PRE-PRODUCTION- Filming Photo's Taken at the Scene's.

JJ - The baby character. This picture displays his innocence.


Me with JJ.. Patria is taking the picture. This picture was taken at the busstop on the way to shoot the family home scene.
Picture taken when shooting the coach scene - in this picture is the coach actor and supporting actors ho offered help and support.

Picture of Patria telling the actors about the scipt. Picture taken by me.

Picture of Patria shooting the coach scene and the actors in action. Picture taken by me.
Me shooting different angles of the coach scene. Picture taken by Patria.
Me shooting the coach scene from another angle. Picture taken by Patria.


The Actor - character : Coach. Picture taken just after shooting the coach scene.


Thursday, 11 November 2010

PRE-PRODUCTION: Genre


My film is going to be addressing problems in society. I want to establish that the problems are created by not conforming to dominant ideology. Due to society enforcing a certain way of thinking this makes rules for society. The issues such as drugs, violence and gangs are all dismissed by society. By using these touchy subjects I am naturalising this in the media, this has done before through various media texts. However, I believe that through my story line it will lead the audience to be more open minded in the causes of these problems.

I hope to represent teenager’s ideology and express that some groups are involved in gangs, drugs and violence through no choice of themselves. However it is important to say that not all teenagers are involved in this and I think that by showing the innocence of these groups it will minimise stereotypes. 

Status Quo plays a huge part in the ideas behind the film as I feel that people of a higher and more dominant power represent these groups in media texts, creating moral panic. The audience act on this and is pushed to think negatively towards these groups creating harsh stereotypes. Due to the enforcement of knife, gun and gang culture surrounded by drugs many teenagers are labelled, they then tend to act on this creating a self-fulfilled prophecy. My media text attempts to go against this and show a deeper and positive outcome to a negative subject. In my media text I will show two contrasting outcomes of two brothers and hope to display to the audience and people in this subculture that they are not always labelled negatively, it is down to the individual what path they take and that they are in control despite dominant idea’s created by society complemented by the media. I am to inspire them to strive for success.


Here is a collection of images and newspaper articles to support my theory.


Monday, 11 October 2010

PRE-PRODUCTION: Synopses

This short film is going to be approximately five minutes in duration. It concerns one main character named Marlon. He has strived for success throughout his life from a young age and is now running in the Olympics 2012. Exploring the past, present and future he is overcoming the experiences in his life. Through the death of his older brother killed from drugs and gun violence by a drug operated gang; he is determined not to take the same route his brother was forced to go down due to his mother’s drug obsession. Through the voice of Marlon himself we accompany him through the journey with him and get a better understanding of his life events.

Sunday, 10 October 2010

PRE-PRODUCTION: Inpiration through films



 Mine and my partner Patria production is a British, London based production inspired mainly by society, youth culture and the issues which are arising within society. I feel passionately about issues within society which is sculpted by the youth with underlining issues founded by government, family and gang culture. Through personal experiences we decided to make a drama short film which is also educational and expresses the issues and make them more known.


In regards to this I feel that since year 2000 there has been an on growing focus on youth culture from the British film industry mostly in the independent filming section. I feel these are important as it gives scenarios to our youth and provides outcomes. Television Drama has also played an important part in the revealing of issues within London through youth culture. Channel 4 funded and broadcasted a North West London television drama which was also television first interactive TV drama. The name of this TV drama is named ‘Dubplate’. It identified music as an extremely big influence in youth culture and used this as a core theme which evolved to cover issues such as gun violence, gang culture, drugs, money and music. I believe this is important as it gives a sense of reality to the viewer and attracted a young audience of the years of 14 – 25 which is the same age range which I wish to attract in my production.
Dubplate used only British actors and actresses around the underground grime scene in music and unsigned artists who were evolving into mainstream music. The cast who were also familiar with the music scene made music which was used as soundtracks and within the series. A well known Mc known as Shystie played the name character and also made tracks which were incorporated into the TV drama. Also known actors from similar focussed films were used such as Adam Deacon and Noel Clarke in Adulthood and Kidulthood.
What impressed me about this TV drama is that they worked for a positive cause, they also worked closely with Child line. They advertised this show through free downloads, CD’s and blogs and social networking sites such as twitter, face book and myspace.

Thursday, 7 October 2010

PRE-PRODUCTION: Audience Preference



I decided to get a better understanding of what people have enjoyed watching and would like to see in the future. Myself and Patria interviewed various different people and created surveys to get a more representative collection of information.


Venetia (left), Anjelee (middle), Komal (right)


Venetia aged nineteen, a college student in South East London. She is studying Psychology, Media, Science and English literature. She enjoys mostly documentary programmes and films.
Anjelee aged nineteen, a university student in South East London. She is studying Psychology. She mostly watches drama and action based movies.
Komal aged nineteen, a university student in South East London. She is studying a LLB in Law. She enjoys watching real-life action films and Indian films.



Our favourite British film that we have seen would be Kidulthood and the follow up film of Kidulthood, called Adulthood. It really identifies the problems in society and I really connected to the film, I think that everyone growing up knows of a situation in the film that they can relate too.
Charlotte is a nineteen year old college student. She is studying dance, drama and media. She enjoys watching many different dramas’ on TV and goes to the cinema regularly. She involves herself in popular culture and watches popular movies in the cinema. She collects loads of films on DVD and especially collects horrors such as Saw.

Charlotte is a nineteen year old college student. She is studying dance, drama and media. She enjoys watching many different dramas’ on TV and goes to the cinema regularly. She involves herself in popular culture and watches popular movies in the cinema. She collects loads of films on DVD and especially collects horrors such as Saw.

For me, my favourite types of films are those which
can make me think and draw out emotion from me. I enjoy horrors because they make jump and push me to try and figure out what is going to happen. I also enjoy films which make me feel different types of emotions like the film ‘My sister’s keeper’ I would like to see a film which could develop both idea’s.






Below is the questionnaire which myself and Patria constructed. We handed this out to twenty people randomly in order to make the questionnaire as representative as possible.
                                                                                            

We asked what gender so we could identify any patterns within gender roles.

We asked for the age type to also identify any specific preferences for different ages, this would help us make a sensible decision on the genre which our film should be.

We needed to know whether we should raise more awareness on what short film is before undertaking our short film task.

We asked how the individual was aware of any institutions which produce short film. This allows us to understand whether the audience take notice of where the film is produced from, this may effect our short film.

Finally, we asked where the audience would like to watch a film and whether they would enjoy a short film more or a long formed film.

Once me and Patria gave this questionnaire out we gathered a greater understanding of what our target audience prefers. We could now create patterns and correlations based on the information which we had gathered. We are aware that we could of made a more representative questionnaire by releasing it to a larger group of people. Below we have created bar graphs and pie charts to show the information we had gathered.

The pie chart above shows what genre the individuals which took the questionnaire preferred. 30% of people preferred the genre Drama, whilst it is closely followed by 25% of them wanting to watch Crime. 5% however preferred another type of genre which was not specified and the least preferred was Action films.
This was extremely interesting as it meant that we did not have to stick to a specific genre we could use two or three different types of genres to fit the needs of our target audience. 


From the bar chart above we can see that music is rated the most successful element in short film with 10 people choosing it, whilst 5 people think it should be acting. The least successful things are voted other and camera angles. This leads us to believe that the audience focus most on the music or have highest hopes for it. Me and Patria also discussed why we think that music was rated highest and camera angles least as we have been studying media for two years we are aware that camera angles and editing is extremely important. We came to the conclusion that music is what the audience notice whereas the editing and camera angles are not focused on as in depth and the audience do not see the before product therefore, have nothing to compare it too.



The results of the questionnaire show that the majority of individuals would prefer to watch a full two hour film, this is because it is the norm. They also believe that you get full gratification from the film whereas they believe you couldn't get that from a short film.
The minority which chose short films chose them because they believe they leave the film open to interpretation and you are left to make up your own mind about the film.




The preferred way of watching a film is noted to be online, this is because it is free, easy to access and convenient although this disregards the fact that it is illegal. This is then followed by television, again it is partially free and with technology you can record and play again whenever you want. Rental stores are the least favourite, because it is more time consuming and you have to give it back in a certain number of days. To many people this is inconvenient when you have alternative options around you.

Monday, 4 October 2010

PRE-PRODUCTION: Mood Board

Genre Moodboard




I and my media partner - Patria allocated roles to each other during our pre-production. We created a mood board to combine all the ideas of our production. We were inspired by the up and coming events of the Olympics 2012. This is going to be a British based film which will be set around the problems of working class youths surrounded by problems which need overcoming such as single parent families and the effects of miss-guidance or lack of guidance. In the mood board we cover gun violence which has been identified as a problem in South East London. Drugs are also another problem which has a negative effect on the youths in my community. I and Patria identify this in our media project. Gang culture is connected to both the youths and drugs which is another issue we address in the short film.

Using colours we represented moods. The greys and blacks are connotations of the misery and struggle which is explored through the lives of the characters within the short film. The picture from a low angle showing ‘hoodies’ and a blue sky represents the dark personalities inspired by their life experiences and the dominance they create in society. In contrast to the gloomy depressing colours we have added bright colours such as yellow to show the idea of success through struggle which is also the outcome of the short film; making a positive outcome of a negative situation and most of all to inspire the youth in my community.


This picture shows the meaning of the film I want too create. Looking at this picture in a semiotic way the text says 'Positive Impact' the bold text and capital letters enforce this meaning, making it stand out. The gradients of vibrant colours also encourages meaning of a way forward and fun.  





Pictures have been added of British based artists such as 'Giggs' who is an underground grime artist who represents many youths in London and is a strong influential figure to people who our short film will appeal too. We have used him not only for his identity of a strong british youth culture but also his music lyrics. We have researched his music video's and found that the quality of them are similar to the qaulity of ours. We took notes and analysed the video's in order to produce our own. We looked at mis-en-scene, sound and framing and will use this as a stepping stone to make our own production. 


Our production is much like the London bases film 'Shank' which was successful in British cinema's and has a similar genre to our own production.

Sunday, 3 October 2010

PRE-PRODUCTION: Group allocation

From previous experience in AS Media I have learnt that problems can occur when working in large groups for media projects. Keeping this in mind I have decided to work in pairs with one other student named Patria.

I have chosen not to work in large groups to avoid the following:
·         Unreliable members not completing the tasks they were given
·         Members dropping out of the group
·         Members being absent from lessons and shooting sessions
·         Unequal efforts from members
·         Dominant members
·         Members not explaining themselves properly
·         Loss of patience within the group which can cause tension
·         Arguments in the group
All of these factors may go wrong if I was to work in a group. Therefore by only working in pairs the problems are reduced. However the following may go wrong:
·         One person may be absent leaving a lot of work for the other to do
·         Leaving equipment at home which will stop progression
·         A difference in opinion and not being able to come to an agreement
·         One person not doing enough
·         Personal problems getting in the way

I and Patria discussed these problems when talking about pairing up. We agreed to always let the other person know if one of us is going to be absent as soon as possible and to complete the work in our spare time. Also, to put personal opinions behind in regards of idea’s and too think in a media set mode in order to make the best production which the audience will benefit from.



Me (Left) and Patria (Right)
We identified our strengths and weaknesses so we could allocate jobs to the person who would be able to do it the best. We agreed that this is important in team work as it will allow the best short film to be made that we can.

Naomi

Strengths
Weaknesses
·         Organisation
·         Camera skills
·         Working as a team
·         Storyboards
·         Working with sets and Actors
·         Editing and using computers
·         Framing and shot composition
·         Keeping blogs
·         Planning and evalutation
·         Scripting
·         Lighting in shooting
·         Special and sound effects
·         Researching



Patria

Strengths
Weaknesses
·         Writing dialogue and monologues
·         Scripting
·         Working as a team
·         Storyboards
·         Lighting in shooting
·         Editing and using computers
·         Framing and shot composition
·         Keeping blogs
·         Planning and research
·         Scripting
·         Organising actors and actresses
·         Special and sound effects
·         Evaluation


 

Monday, 20 September 2010

RESEARCH: Narrative

In order to create my short film I need to understand the theory of narrative. I had done wider research on theorists around narrative. I found out that Narrative story is different from narrative plot. The narrative is how a meaning is constructed and displayed to the audience and how they understand it. Narrative allows compressed time and space into manageable chunks.

Friday, 17 September 2010

REASEARCH: Institutional practices, finance, lifecycle of a short film, marketing and distribution, branding, narrative image

Our production is not suitable for big media industries. The production would be suitable for smaller London based industries as it introduces London Young peoples Culture which can be recognised by London viewers. British film market would introduce a film like mine as it is not suitable for an american blockbuster because it introduces many English forms and conventions. Also, to become successful in the American film industry you would need to be from a big producer and having famous actors which would draw in the attention of the audience because they have been familiarised by the media and press.

After researching many different film distrubutors I have the following:

20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century House
31-32 Soho Square
London
W1V 6AP
http://www.fox.co.uk/

Amber Films
5 Side
Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
NE1 3JE
http://www.amber-online.com/

Arrow Films Distributors
18 Watford Road
Radlett
Herts
WD7 8LE
http://www.arrowfilms.co.uk/


RESEARCH: Semiotics, signs and signifiers and codes.

Semiotics is the study of signs and meaning behind them. In media this is used in order to leave the audience to come to their own conclusions through the thoughts they think from a sign.

Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913)
Ferdinand De Saussure
Saussure is a theorist who discovered semiotics in his study of linguistics. He found that signs included text, images and sound. Saussure believed that signs are made up of two parts:
• A signifier – the form which the sign takes
• The signified - the concept it represents













Charles Peirce


Charles Peirce - Philosopher

Peirce describes semiotics as the ‘formal doctrine of signs’ he said that ‘a sign... is something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity’. He believes that everything is a sign as long as it can be seen to signify something. Peirce believes we think in signs.
• Semantics – the relationships of signs and what they mean
• Syntactic (syntax) – the structural relationships between signs
• Pragmatics – the relations of signs to interpreters
Information from link: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem01.html