My complete video!

this is our completed video!

Graphic breakdown of a background of a film

Shawshank redemption- Note; The opening for this was found on Showbox. Background The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 American drama film written and directed by Frank Darabont and starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. Adapted from the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, the film tells the story of Andy Dufresne, a banker who is sentenced to life in Shawshank State Prison for killing his wife and her lover despite his claims of being innocent. Whilst he was behind bars, he befriends a fellow inmate, Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding, and finds himself protected by the guards after the warden begins using him in his money laundering operation. Despite being a box office disappointment, the film received multiple award nominations and outstanding reviews from film critics for its acting, story, and realism. This opening is the scene in which the audience get an explanation as to why Andy Dufrene had been sent to Shawshank Prison; the setting in which most of the film onwards will be set, Minimal light was used for the outside scenes, whereas courtroom scenes included a well-lit room to make it look more realistic.

The three camera techniques prezi

The perfect audience member for our media film

Our perfect audience member would first of all be very open and would enjoy different styles of film but especially appreciate comedic aspects of film. Our film is of an acquired taste as it combines comedy into a serious thriller/action movie. They would probably have slightly conventional tastes in both food and clothing but with a unique taste in music. I feel as if this is the case because it is a slightly conventional film with a unique side as well. Our type of audience would be relatively intelligent and usually male 20-80.

Music prep

For sound, me and my group decided that we needed to get Ben to do a voiceover in the background. However, music was also needed. The soundtrack we ended up agreeing to us was "Swastika Eyes" by Primal Scream. We believe this song was good enough to use as it was pacey and energetic. Baring this in mind we then knew it would fit our media product extremely well as it would give it a sense of danger, that something bad is around the corner. We discussed several other tracks such as "Waterfall" by The Stone Roses. However we dismissed this song because we didn't think it would suit our video because it sounds far too uplifting. This is the link to the song.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NrLBlw9WZE We felt that "Swastika Eyes" provided the right energetic yet intimidating feel for our video. We chose this knowing that it is very well linked to the genre of our film and it would add some more effect.

Survey to see what peoples favourite film genres are.

I decided to make a survey and advertise it on facebook to get answers from the public about film genres, i chose to do this because it will help me give ideas to the group that would attract the audiences attention when they see the film.
http://surveynuts.com/surveys/take?id=21274&c=43909553LPVH

Key elements in comedy

Dark comedy is a very uncertain choice of genre to go for in a media task but can be highly effective when used in the right way. My group chose to do this as we wanted a challenge. we were planning to include pacey scenes to show a quicker, more action based intro to our opening film. This was all decided after we filmed the torture film. The decision was that Dan and I would join forces with Ben Kimbles group. However we made a few adjustments to our original plan; we still kept the Dark comedy idea of laughs infused with horror. In the end we as a group then decided that it would be more suitable to make our 2 minute opening scene into more of a crime orientated thriller. However, you can be assured that edgy, dark comedy elements will definitely be included in the film to maintain the elements of a serious action film.

Casting of characters for 2 minute film and why they were chosen

Myself -(Andrew) - Andrew: I have no true experience of acting as i didnt choose to pick drama for gcse or Alevel, neither do i participate in any drama activities outside of school. However we felt as a group that I could bring my particular character to life and add a sense of reality to him. I also have a good understanding of how we want our characters to be portrayed throughout the film. 
Dan - Horatio: Dan was an extremely easy decision for the group to decide upon. Not only had Dan been a motivational force behind the ideas of the story and how the characters develop, he is also an AS Drama student.  He also does acting outside of school and has plenty of drama associated knowledge which will benefit us as a group hugely as it has provided him with a plentiful amount of experience for acting, making him a perfect fit for the role of his particular character in the film.
Jake - The Dealer: Jake was another relatively simple choice for the team. Like Dan, Jake is currently an AS Drama student, with plenty of experience, and has great passion for acting. His skill set was perfect for our idea as we wanted a flexible, confident and willing actor who shared our view for what we wanted from the opening 2 minutes of our film.
(Ben) Bill: Ben was cast as he had a clear vision of the character that we want our main protagonist (Bill) to be. However,he has no formal experience of acting but is able to have a shot at using a sort of cockney accent, which is what we decided we wanted the character he was portraying to have. His great sense of humour will also keep the team going. 

Narrative techniques

Other films like ours and its key elements

Two films which link very closely to our style of film are "The football factory" (2004) and "Shaun of the dead. foot is more gangster as it is more realistic to London life than Shaun of the dead. These are both British comedy films with a sense of dark comedy involved in them.

Shaun of the dead - 2004

Shaun of the Dead is a 2004 British horror comedy film that starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Simon Pegg plays Shaun, a man attempting to get some kind of focus in his life as he deals with his girlfriend, his mother and stepfather. At the same time, he has to cope with an apocalyptic uprising of  harmful zombies. this movie was filmed around london, 

Football Factory - 2004

The Football Factory is frighteningly real yet full of painful humour as the four characters extreme thoughts, opinions and actions are presented to the viewers.

Even though both of these films involve quite a lot of blood and dark humour, they are both set around relatively real events.

They both are based in London and centered on "Hard" and "egoistic" characters each with their distinctive motives. However, neither are centered around just one single character.

Law-breaking (illegal drugs, theft and violence) seem to be the prime factor in both these films, demonstrating that there is no proper good guy, as violence is used. However we still feel sympathy for some of these characters.

From these two films, we can recognize the following key elements that are required to make our film;

-London based background; Accents, cleanliness and Gangster-styled actions.

-A cult where there is one or two characters that have the main part and stand out the most, yet other characters backgrounds are also explained and detailed throughout the film.

-Make the characters seem vulnerable yet tough (involved in fights etc).
- we will ensure that our film uses suspense, tension, and excitement as its main elements to grasp the audiences attention as it will be a crime horror based film.

Introduction-wise;

-Brief Explanation of who everyone and what part they play in the plot of the film

-Background checks on each of the characters involved

Rough edit for two minute video

After collecting all the shots of which we think are suitable, we have created a draft edit in order to get a taster of what is possible in our film.

Note; some screenshots have been added in for some commentary to happen in the background, which has not yet been added. Music is also currently working progress.

The link to the draft video is here;



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE6Q90y8Wu0&feature=youtu.be

Re-shoots and pickups

After going out to film all the scenes which we at first thought we needed, we realised that 2 shots are still required to make our film A-grade compatible;

-An extreme close-up of Ben Kimble's eyes
-A bird on a tilted shot to add effect.

No re-shoots were needed.


Choosing the film name
This had been a massive debate ever since we first began filming. We had many ideas for our film name, such as "Street Capital", "Burnout", "The Silence of the Slaughter", "Criminal Spectrum" "purveyors" and "A solemn blood".  All these ideas have one thing in common; they are all directed (metaphorically or not) at the lives of drug dealers.

We decided that we wanted to give it an element that it was part of society, yet can be seen as perhaps in isolation and cut off from the comfortable world that most of the audience live in today, much alike a street. This is where the idea of "Street" or "Lane" came from. We were also keen on emphasising the point that this is an illegal, rough part of the world,but yet a man can get ahead in life from it, so we played on words such as "criminal" and "Purveyors" but then eventually decided that the type of people are not the centre of the film; it is in fact what gets sold and what everyone basically lives off; drugs.

Capital in the thesaurus can also be linked to many other words such as "dominant", "vital", "prime" and "controlling", 4 words which perfectly explain the role of drugs in our environment.

Putting two and two together, we realised that Capital Lane was the best for our film, and so we continued with the filming...

The Jelly Baby Film

Our jelly baby video was completed in November 2014, the shots we chose to use were close up, which was used to show the jelly baby in great detail, and also portrays it as the main character. we used an aerial shot to show the setting which was a stack of dictionary's. we used a over the shoulder shot because this type of shot is very common when two characters are having a discussion and will usually follow an establishing shot which helps the audience place the characters in their setting. our final shot was of the black jelly baby however we didnt put it in the middle because the effect would of been as good.

Story Arc of Media Film

Synopsis:

The story that our group had come up with is built around a troublesome protagonist named Bill. Bill is involved in a serious drug ring and has made many enemies and friends throughout his dangerous life. After a dodgy deal, Bill has made two more enemies, and lost the trust of a valuable friend. Bill has been left alone and must watch his back in a dog eat dog world, but not everything ends as planned...

Act 1: Bill starts another “ordinary” day, by finishing another drug deal, however events don’t go as well as initially hoped. His so called “friend” betrays him and dobs him in to 2 irritated thugs. Bill introduces himself as a thug and provides a rough introduction to himself and to some events that have and may occur.

Act 2: After the initial jumping from the two angry thugs Bill begins to plot a revenge plan. In order to carry out his planned murders of Horatio and Andrew he ends up calling upon favours from previous friends and enemies alike, including the help of his mate “The Dealer”.

Act 3: Bill discovers that his drug business is drying up and he is making less and less money. Bill keeps an eye on his enemies Horatio and Andrew as he arouses suspicions that they could be the source of his problem.

Act 4: Bill, who is financially weak and has stumbled into a gambling and drinking problem confronts Andrew and Horatio, accusing them of stalling his drug business. The two then reveal to Bill that his mate “The Dealer” have in fact begun their very own drug business and have outdone Bill.

Act 5: In a drug fuelled attempt to salvage his reputation, Bill confronts “The Dealer” revealing to him that he knows what he's done. At this point Bill pulls a knife out of his pocket and threatens him, only to learn his fate as “The Dealer” has company in the shape of Horatio and Andrew, who then overpower him and eventually beat the life of Bill.



Myself (Andrew) = Andrew
Horatio = Dan
Bill = Ben
The dealer = Jake

PROPS WE REQUIRED FOR FILM OPENING

Fake blood - Used to give an impression that there has been a fight. For this we used red food dye, as it appears very realistic on the camera. 

Camera case - Used in order to carry the "drugs" in the deal scene. It provided a very dodgy, cheap and unofficial look, adding to the sense of reality for the audience to pick up on. 

Plastic carrier bag - Used to emphasise how deserted and filthy our setting is suppose to be (this was also useful to carry rest of props in as well as edibles). The bag was also recycled after use. 

The costumes we required for our filming are as follows:

-White GAP Hoodie.(as shown opposite)

- Grey McKenzie Jacket

-Blue Hoodie

-Grey-and-black striped designer coat.

These costumes will help give the audience an impression of the characters well. They portray them to be rather thug like and add a sense of reality and intimidation, which is exactly what we were looking for. 

Comedy mood board

I chose blood to go on my mood board because it shows my idea quite well because it signifies pain, anger and negativity. this is what the main character will feel by the end of our film.

I chose danny dyer because he is the type of character that would suit our story, he takes no messing and he is a Londoner. we want our characters to talk like him to make the film look more authentic.

the microphone picture was used because it represents comedy, which we are hoping to infuse with our horror orientated theme.

I used hot fuzz as a picture to go on my mood board because this is the film we are benchmarking ours against. this is because we are hoping to go for a London background with lots of street crime which is basically what makes hot fuzz the brilliant film that it is. we used Shaun of the dead for the same reason.

we used the drug picture because they are going to be dealt in our film as it is going to have a London background.

Research the institutions that might produce, distribute and exhibit your film

Research the institutions that might produce, distribute and exhibit your film

Somebody such as director and producer Martin Scorsese would be interested in the production of our film. he has produced some well known films in the past such as the wolf in wall street and goodfellas. I think Martin Scorsese will be interested in our film because he is a very crime oriented producer, suiting the genre of our production very well, as we have based ours on crime films ourselves. Matthew Vaughn, the producer of Snatch would be another suitable producer as our film shares many similarities with Snatch. Companies such as Arrow Films would be responsible for the distribution of our film. They produce a wide variety of films and in several countries. They also provide special edition movies in high definition and on blu ray. Film exhibitionists such as Astoria Cinemas would possibly exhibit our films. They show a wide array of films including crime which is ideal or out

group.

media logo and media logo essay

I chose to design my media production logo in this way because the type of film i am currently aiming to make is a crime/action type of film with a hint of comedic features in it, so all in all it won’t be too serious. My logo also follows that because it is badly drawn out. I called it ferret film productions because it is unusual and different so people can memorize what my film production is called. However the purpose of my logo is to inform the audience on my film company and the aims I want my productions to have. I took inspiration from companies like MGM productions; my logo is similar to theirs because mine also has an animal as the main picture. My logo is quite simple and as a result of that it may not stand out over other film logos because it isn’t a very interesting and exciting image. However I think this is also important because it does not give too much away to the audience so they can still anticipate unexpected events in my films, and they may not know what to expect from them which is what makes some films rather intriguing.