Streamline Productions; The Drop-Final Cut

After a few problems with YoutTube, we have finally been able to upload our final cut of out A Level Opening Sequence

Dawn of the Dead; Title Sequence

The thing that I love about the updated version of Romero's Dawn of the Dead is that the title sequence change form a part metaphor for American Coloniesim into touching upon the idea of a Holy War Omen to the apocalyspe. It also exsposes the consequences for the medias incollence when they begin asking the tough questions after the feeding has already begun and the consequences for this is that they are shot down. The appearence of war-torn footage with real blood designed by Kyle Cooper shows that Jonny Cash has uped the ante with this newfound contex.

The Performing Art Industry

The Performing Arts Industry

This industry seems to be a beacon for media and it is easy to see why. Theatres, art centres, design services, dance schools, set construction companies, lighting equipment companies, and stage schools are the “products”.  Venues offer a huge array of “products” that attract the audiences and the talent.  Here are some of the “products”: theatres, concert halls, cinemas, rock music venues, art centres, community-based venues i.e. schools or town squares, entertainment venues like cruise ships, clubs, or comedy night. The media will always be around the industry’s venues, looking for talent to show to the world or to make news.

My Connections

Connections

As I have said in previous post, it’s not what you know sometimes, it’s who you know. My music teacher is a Garage Band expert, a drummer, and a guitarist. I have asked him to give me some training on how to use Garage Band and I have asked him if I can include my group. He is happy to help us and in return, I have to do a music presentation on a project I have just completed

Audience Research

Audience Research: Rough Cut

We have put together the rough cut of our opening sequence. The reason for doing a rough cut is that we can put together an inventory of changes to our project. We can find out what is go about the opening sequence; we can find out what could have been better; what need to changed; what needs to be better; what need to be tweaked. Constructive criticism is what we look for at Streamline Productions and if we receive negative criticism, we find a way to make it better and get rid of that problem.

From this, we can find out what target audience our film our film attracts and then take the correct course of action to get the target audience we want. I enjoy interacting with members of the public and finding out what make them smile and what make them frown. It gives me some experience for the future of my career in filming and ideas that will make projects that my group and I work on is remembered.

The Hardway

 Finding Participants for Audience Research

Saying “we’ll just go out and ask some people to go and get their responses on camera”. Many people in this world oppose strongly to being on camera due to media scandals or they feel self conscious. This has been a problem on my part because I have tried to go around in my area and town to film responses of people but many have said no, some rudely. So, to overcome this, I will go around my college and try to film responses from students, friends, and teachers as this will be easier than going out.

Our Soundtracks

Soundtracks

The title slides may have been difficult but, they were a walk in the park in comparison to making a soundtrack. The soundtracks are complicate and stressful so we have each taken out an Apple Mac and we will be using Garage Band to try and put some music together for our opening sequence.

Media Evaluation for "The Drop" by Sreamline Productions

Media Evaluatiom

TV

The world of TV has changed greatly over the years. Firstly, there was these huge box shaped TV's with thick glass and massive antennas. There was only three channels owned by the BBC. The view was black and white this, colour, new sizes, and channel where introduced. Then cam new digital TVs with freeew and sky and better quality with new channels. The progression of technology in the digital area continues to grow.

We are the Producers

The way that media has change has lead to the naudience, us, being the producer. We have bnloggs, podcats, radio stations, smartphones, you tube, facebook, and many other services allow us to get our opinions know. If we have a problem, we can get it disccused, debated, and talked about by clicking a few buttons. We are "The Concept formally known as the audience" and we are the media because we are more engaged with the media.

The projects that i have done throught this course ahve been so easy compared to the old days. If you wanted to film you had a massive camera with a video casset and you had to film each part seperatley. If you got that part or scene wrong, you had to start the whole thing over agin. Plus, the quality was terrible. Now we have smartphones, smat cameras, and all different types of tech in HD/D allows us to film thing in one go and upload it to say an IMac and make a film in a day.

Continuiy Editing: Part Four

We have recently gone through the diverse types if continuity editing and what it is used for. Just to reinstate, continuity editing is a technique that aims to generate a consistent picturesque space through the techniques of eye line match, point-of-view shot, and match on action, directional continuity, and axis of action line. This links with a montage, continuity editing is, in a basic sence, chronological cuttung. Since it does not try to assemble a logical charming space, it does however attempt to generate reprsentative meaning. This is mainly attained by contrasting multiple shots together but, does no consider the cohrent space.

In the opening sequence of Hannible, a montage is used to bring crows, a busy city, and an eriey feeling togetehr. The crows are then arragned to make Hannible's face, they are seen in a range of flashing images, montages, on rooftops and buildings, giving the sense that they are watching all the humans below. There are montages of CCTVcameras, dirty roads, and traffic lights as well as people, making the audience feel tense, worried, and suspious of the surroundings the opening sequence is set in.

Continuity Editing: Part Three

Eye line matches are used when there are two or more people having a discussion. It gives the sense that everyone is equal, everyone is important, and no one is more significant that the other person. They make the scene and shots more serious and the emotions are more real and sombre, drawing the audience into the performance more.

Continuity Editing: Part Two

A match on action shot is where the camera cuts from once scene to another and back again. This is mainly used in action scenes and films because it allows the audience to be into place at once, seeing the action unravel from both sides.

In Primeval, there is an action sequence where the Sabre Tooth Tiger is trying to kill the man. The blond woman, in a digger, try’s to attack the Sabre with the swinging arm of the digger. However, the counter-attack does nothing except put her in danger and the man sees this. He gets the Sabres attention and leads him away from her but, he forgets that he will be in more danger that her. As he runs into an open clearing, we have a range of close-ups, long shots, low and high angle shots and cuts of him being chased by the tiger. This is where the match on action shot comes in because when his death seem inevitable, we have a cut to the blond woman running with a gun and then it cuts back to the man again. These cuts will continue until the climax of the scene because they lead the audience to think that something else is happening when something totally different is taking place.

Continity Editing: Part One

Continuity editing is a technique used in an attempt to create a rational space. This can be achieved by using a range of techniques. Here are a few of those techniques: point-of-view shot (POV), axis of action line, eye line match, directional continuity, and the match on action cut.

An example of a POV would be if you were screaming in agony, swinging your head from side to side. The director would take a camera to show the way you felt, he would take the camera and move quickly to and fro to emphasise your movement. This would make the audience feel the pain and suffering you feel because the swinging would represent you agony and hurt.

Long take and deep focus photography are used to call attention to the drama on screen as it progresses. These techniques are used to generate a connection between characters as well as settings. They also give the actor a chance to let their performance stand out and they can also uphold a mood or an emotion for along time. On the other hand, they can detach the viewer from the progressing action.

Help Us Gather Our Fans

Please take the Media Studies Survey that i have made for you so that i can get an idea of who my target audince willl be for my film thanks a mill:http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HC3M9MK

Small Things That Make Us Want More...

The smallest parts of things in life lead us to want a lot more. When i saw this trailer of Inception, I thought "Holy cow!" This is because the editing is so majestic, gripping; it makes me nauseous. Just from these few second, I knew that i had to see this masterpiece because it was going to take the film world by storm and you know what? I was right! It was bloody marvellous!

Mise-en-shot

Mise-en-scene presents what appears in front of  a camera. What may appear in front of the camera could be lighting, set design, and character movement. Everything that can be seen in the shot has been placed there deliberately. From a ball of dust to empty bear can, everything has a story and is a part of the film.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Opening Sequence (2011) [HD]

The opening sequence for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is absolutely gripping. The dark, mysterious, scary flashing images of the black liquid flowing through everything grips the audience . I feel that the title slides fit in beautifully and tell there own tale by the way that they grow, and twist and turn

Media Is KING

T

Only now I am really taking in what Media actually is. It's not EastEnders or Holyoaks, it's not Waterloo Road or Tog Gear; it's a part of everyday life. With out it, the bars that Benny Banks, Devlin, K Koke, Blizzard, Sneak Bo, and all the the other new comers that are getting the thing that we love established.
Without out it, costume dramas like Downton Abby would not grip the millions that it grips.

Using Apple Mac's

When my group and I edited our opening sequence, it was very interesting because we used the Apple Mac Pro. Garage Band and iMovie are some brilliant tool when it comes to movie and music making. It's not as hard as many people make using a Mac out to be, it very simple and you can do so much with a few click here and a scroll over there and before you know it, you've mad a film and a theme track to go with. Good stuff!

Our Production Company's Name

When we discussed our production name, I felt that Streamline Productions would be perfect because it means smooth, calm, perfection, masterpiece.

We thought of other names but, this one just fitted everything that we have achieved.

Modern Sldes

These are the types of slides that i use in our film. They are modern and i can edit and manipulate them to make them into what i want.

Team Work

When you work in a team, everyone must play a part. As many of you know, there can be lots of friction and tension in a team when someone is not doing their part of the job. We are using Apple Mac's to do our editing, sound, and title slides so, without it, we grind to a halt. The member of the team who is responsible for bringing the Mac has not been in and is not replying to text or phone calls. This may cause us loose marks for work and miss deadlines, which is not acceptable.

Title Slides From The Past

Title Slides have changed differently over the years. Before, the producers, directors, actors, costume designers, etc, were all put on one page.

Title Slidess

My newest job in the group it to create and manage the title slides that we shall be using in our film. The Mac has a wide array of title slides and hundreds of fonts to mess around with. We are still experimenting with our slides because we have to make sure that they suit the film. A title slide also tell it's own story so we are taking our time with this.

Wipe

WIPE

A transition betwen shots in which a line passes across the screen, eliminating the first shot as it goes and replacing it with the next one. A very dynamic and noticeable transition, it is usually employed in action or adventure films. It often suggest a brief temporal ellypsis and a direct connection between the two images.

More Filming To Do

We dicovered that we may need to go back to Southbank to re-film a action scene. We may have to do this because the spped and lighting in some of the scene do not match some of the other scenes. This may loose us marks and we want to be as professional as possible.

Lighting

The intensity, direction, and quality of lighting have a profound effect on the way an image is perceived. Light affects the way colors are rendered, both in terms of hue and depth, and can focus attention on particular elements of the composition. Much like movement in the cinema, the history of lighting technology is intrisically linked to the history of film style. Most mainstream films rely on the three-point lighting style, and its genre variations. Other films, for example documentaries and realist cinema, rely on natural light to create a sense of authenticity.

THREE-POINT LIGHTING

The standard lighting scheme for classical narrative cinema. In order to model an actor's face (or another object) with a sense of depth, light from three directions is used, as in the diagram below. A backlight picks out the subject from its background, a bright key light highlights the object and a fill light from the opposite side ensures that the key light casts only faint shadows.

 
These shots from Written On The Wind (Douglas Sirk, 1956) demostrate the classical use of three-point lighting. Laurel Bacall and Rock Hudson are rendered glamorous by the balanced lighting. Compare this to the manipulation of lighting for expressive purposes on the high-key lighting and low-key lighting pages.

   

2 Fast 2 Furious: Sound

The sound used in 2F2S is so har hitting and every peice tells its own story. I felt that it was must have taken them ages to make sound for the movie because every scene with music was absolutly perfect and fitted in well.

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene

The representation of space affects the reading of a film. Depth, proximity, size and proportions of the places and objects in a film can be manipulated through camera placement and lenses, lighting, decor, effectively determining mood or relationships between elements in the diegetic world.

Improvisation

When we was filming, we asked a nice gentleman if he could play the part of our agent. He said that he would be happy. He was absolutly brilliant because he had a top had on, sunglasses, a dark suit with a trench coat on, and he looked like an agent that you see in the filMS. he was very good at acting and we feel that he was a god send.

Heightened Security

We found it very hard to film in near Waterloo Bridge  and this made filming long and tiring. We felt that because of the Olympics, Security in London has been heightened. Twice we were told to move from one area by security and then we was told that we could film but, without our tripod.

The Right Costume 2

The art of fashion in film costume is knowing what magnetosphere you want to set. A bowler hat will make our suspect seem mysterious, old fashioned, stylish, and, villainous.

How Hard Can It Be to Find A Black Briefcase?

The search for props has not stopped and this week, ma and my group are going to be loking for the props we need for the opeing of our film. We have all ready found a watch, a black suit, and sunglasses but, there are still things we need to get. The most important thing we need to get is the briefcase that will be used in the film and is essential to the story line. It is this main prop of the film and although we have been searching very hard, we are finding it even harder to find one the will look good and fit in. We are going to film this week end, so i will try and find a suitable briefcase by then.

Being Different

We do not want to be lazy or simple like many other groups so we have decided to film near and around Waterloo Bridge and include it and other bridges as parts as our opening sequencing.

It's Not What You Know; It's Who You Know! Part 2

My friend Ruben Salasee, Music Producer, has offered his extraordinary skills to the group when we have finished making the opening sequence because we feel that we should get the filming finished and then develop the soundtrack

The Right Costume

This is the type of costume that our suspect will wear because it is modern, sophisticated, serious, as well as unnoticeable. This will be great for his character and really set the pace.

Macbeth's Influence On Me

While watching the opening scene of Shakespeare's Macbeth, I thought about how brilliant it would be to be able to do an opening sequence that is similar to that. It has tension, awkwardness, a range of shots, angles, and compositions, the editing of the pace of shots is superb, the mise-en-scene of an empty beach with no one but the three witches is so gripping. I know that it would be hard to do but, the grade our group would get if we pulled it of would be 60/60.

Unreliable Team

My group is very unreliable and seem to have a major disregard for my ideas. They feel that my ideas may be good but they will make the opening sequence long and drawn out. They work together and when it's time to feel, something happens and i cannot go.  I wish that i could do this on my own with my own team because I know exactly what the examiner want and how they want it. This group thinks that i am a sill person with big, stupid ideas but, if i could have one chance, they will see how wrong they are.

A Bigger Cast

I feel that we shall need more actor for this opening sequence because we have an Agent, 3 teenage actors, a Suspect and for this sequence, we need more. Plus, if i can get a good camera, we should put some dialogue in because it seems bland with all action and know talk. It may confuse the audience.

Skills development

In today's lesson, I have found out that while i am good at practical work like editing, filming, etc, I need more practise on writ side of things. I need more practise in this because i find it hard to make a link with how gender is represented through the four core areas: camera movement, shot, shot, etc, editing, sound, and mise-en-scene. This will be a major problem in the exam so i need to get it sorted out a.s.a.p.

Exam Style Writting

In our lesson we have been leaning how towrite up an exam style essay. The exam that we will be taking is based around how gender is represented thought the uses of the four main techniques used in Drama TV. They are: Camera-Movement, Angles, Shot, and Composition. Editing, Mi-en-scene (everything that can be seen by the audience) and Sound.

We have been watching opening sequences of British Drama shows like Casualty, Doctor Who, and Top Boy. We watch them four or five times each and have two minutes to write down notes after each viewing. After this, we have 30 minutes to write an exam styled essay.

The First Part Of Our Project

We have filmed the opening part of our movie and we have presented it to our class. We used a different range of shots and filmed at the 77 bus stop by Waterloo Bridge.

BFI: Part 5

The first film we watched was Catch Me If You Can which stars the infamous Tom Hanks. I noticed that the sound was fast paced and jazzy, it had a tempo that rose and fell quickly, and I had only discovered all of this within the first 10 seconds of the film. The music was very mysterious, tense, angry, sad, happy, scary, and so hard hitting that it was baffling. We can here the saxophone which is a smooth instrument but, I love how it has been changed into an almost violent creature that plays psychological mind tricks with its rapid change of tempo, notes, and chords.

The animated picture pictures are very fast past with a rich with an array of colourful, confusing, mysterious, tantalizing, and hopeful colours that the atmosphere throughout the audience was tense and in upheaval. This is very effective and took around 5-6 months to make.

BFI: Part 4

Because we have just started our courses and we have not got a lot of experience, the chief showed us a few opening sequences of a few films and explained the different strategy‘s that we can use when making a film opening and that we should try and look outside of the box and regardless of how silly or difficult an idea may seem at the time, we must still keep it and work on it, we should think of different ideas and add to them.

BFI: Part 3

The chief explained that we cannot just jump into what we are doing because if we do, our work will be terrible. He gave us the perfect site that has film openings, analysis of filming, editing, shooting, how to research and plan a film, comments on all areas of making films from directors and producers. YouTube is another good site to use but, he warned us to be careful on how deep we go with YouTube because a lot of the film openings stray away from our coursework. If you would like to view this site, I have put down their web addresses: www.artofthetitle.com then goes onto sequences or, you can go onto YouTube: www.YouTube.com or just YouTube and type in ‘opening sequences’

BFI: Part 2

We leant about Narrative-What is the film about i.e. is it about a teenager who has to look after his four young sibling’s while his parents have abounded them? Character-Which is being played, what are they like, what is their significance in the film, what part they are playing.  Atmosphere-What is the mood of the film? How does it make the audience feel and what effect does it have on the audience? What effect is it meant to have on the audience? Setting-Where is the film set? What is the time period? Why is an specific location being used as the foundation for a film?

BFI: Part 1

Firstly we leant about Reel Films and the key features or components that all films must have to be successful, regardless of the budget or of the film is a blockbuster or an AS Media Studies Course work. The chief of Media gave most of the presentation and I found it interesting and very benefiting because it showed the group and I where we had been going wrong, what we need to improve on, tips on how to improve, and things that we have not thought about and what we don’t know already. The key features anyone must be understand, be aware of, and be able to demonstrate and be able incorporate into what ever type of film that they are doing are: Genre- Type of film i.e. Thriller, Drama, Syfy, Horror etc.