The script

Today we devised the script for our film, this is so the actors have a guideline on what to say.

Beth: “are you coming to my party?”
Boy 1: “who are you?”
Boy 2: “Don’t be silly Beth!”


Beth: “do you wanna come to my party?”
Boy 3: “Nah I’m alright thanks”

Steve: “Hello?”
Beth: “Hello!”
Steve: “Who is this?”
Beth: “It’s Beth…”
Steve: “I don’t know a Beth…”
Beth: “You do! You know Bethlar, the Bethinator?”
Steve: “No.”
Beth: “You do! We had a dance together in the corridor today, we’ve been sat on the same biology table for  years!”
Steve: “Are you sure?”
Beth: “Yeah, so I’ll put you down as a confirmed guest?”
Steve: “No.”

Sam:”Who’s this?”
Steve: “Ignore that, it’s that weird girl Beth, she’ll try and invite you to her party?”  
Sam: “What, who’s Beth?”
Steve: “You know that loner who’s always dancing round the corridors?”
Sam: “Oh yeah.  She’s in my psychology, she’s a bit of a weirdo” 

Throughout the past couple of weeks we have been filming and editing our piece. We changed the original plan to the story being about a girl who thinks she is a lot more popular than she actually is and throws a party to which no one turns up to. The main reason we changed the storyline is because it was difficult to get the original actor available to film when we needed him to, so we felt it would be better if we used someone from within the group to play the main character as they would be more reliable. It was also down to some inconsistencies as we filmed the introduction to our film and shortly after this he had his hair cut.

Casting

For the film to be a success we had to allocate each member of the team a role and also had to recruit other people from outside the group to help us with the production.
I played the main character (protagonist) and as I was in the majority of the scenes it was mainly Becky and Steve that did the filming however we all participated in the editing of the film.
There are six other people that appear in the film;
Helen played the receptionist, we chose her because we thought she fitted the role nicely.
Ash and Ben, the two boys in the corridor scene
Alex in the toilet scene
Sam and Steve in the scene on the settee's.
We chose these people to play the characters as it made the story-line seem more realistic if there was more than just one person in the film and with a range of people.

We also split the roles between the group in order to get the most from our time.
Director- Rebecca Whitehead 
Write- Steve Moore 
Camera person- Rebecca Whithead/Steve Moore 
Editor- Beth Harwood 

Film Schedule

Film Schedule

In order to be able to film effectively we are making a film schedule so that we have something to stick to and goals to work towards. It was quite difficult making a film schedule as we had to make sure that all of the people needed were available on the same days as if just 1 person couldn’t make it we wouldn’t be able to film. It was extremely hard to do this as the majority of our group have jobs so it is difficult to get us all free at the same time.

October 8^th – Film in and around the school with Jack Wilkes-Jones in our media lesson, hand held camera and also use a tripod.

October 11^th – Film an over the shoulder shot of Becca using the iPad to make a party event.

October 18^th – Film Jack walking outside house and lounging around in the house, also film the party scene including the costumes.

Storyboards

Today we put our film idea onto a storyboard, the purpose of a storyboard is to give you guidance whilst filming; it shows you what needs to be filmed and how each scene should look. 

Final proposal

1. Title-Our short film will be named ‘The Not-So-Fancy Dress Party’ as this is kept in line with the storyline and the attitude of the protagonist.
2. TV channel- We think the ideal channel for our film to be broadcast on is either Channel 4 or BBC 3 as both channels are known for showing up-and-coming comedy series/sketch shows. For example BBC3 often shows comedy films in between regular programming.
3.  Target audience-Our target audience would be mainly middle class people aged 16-25. It would appeal to both genders of all ethnicities as it does not single out any specific gender or ethnicity this is because it is a situation that could happen to anyone. We feel fans of the shows; The Inbetweeners, Coming of Age and

Fresh Meat would potentially enjoy our short film.
 

4.   Genre-Our short film will be a comedy and it will follow a linear narrative as everything will be in chronological order. We will use several passing’s of time within our film as well quick cuts which will emphasise his frantic search for a costume.

5.    Style-The film will be filmed in colour but colours will be dulled when the protagonist is stressed as well as using handheld shots because this will emphasise how he is feeling. A range of shots will be used throughout our film including POV’s and pans. We also plan to use a split screen whilst the main character is on the phone to his friend, this is so both characters are on the screen at the same time despite being in different locations. Appropriate music matching the mood of the film will be used, for example during the party scene dance music will be used and during the search for the costume possibly rock music. 

6/9/12

Today we have been finalising our plans for our short film. It has been decided that the short film will be based around a boy being invited to a fancy dress party and struggling to find a costume. He finally finds a costume two days before the party, he turns up at the party only to realise that the part is not actually fancy dress and not even a good party at all.

Mindmaps

In the last few lessons we have been mind-mapping some ideas about what we would like to do for our coursework. This is just a rough idea of some of the options we have been given, I did two mind-maps for music videos, one for a short film and one for a documentary. I am still undecided on what idea I will carry out as I will need to discuss with my group what their ideas are and what they would prefer to do.

Ideas- mindmaps

In the last few lessons we watched two documentaries, Louis Theroux 'Behind Bars' and 'A Very British Gangster'. Both documentaries are about crime, 'Behind Bars' is about criminals in prison and 'A Very British Gangster' is about crime within a culture on the outside world.
The purpose of watching the documentaries was to see how proper documentaries use the codes and conventions that we learnt in the previous lesson.
We also looked at music videos, game adverts and a short film, this is so we could look at all the options we had to help us choose what one we would want to do as our coursework.

Review of a short film- Craig Dean Devine

This is the life

The genre of short films is to not give all information that would be given over a usual 90 minute film, it is designed to leave you asking questions.

The focus of the film was of four characters; Dean, his dad, his mum and his sister.
Dean had a close relationship with his sister and seemed to be more comfortable around her,

he was extremely distant from his father and the story seemed to base itself around that showing the adjustments of his dad entetring into the family again.



Dean did not seem close to his mother as in one shot in particular she was talking to him and he did not look at her, there was a pan across them to emphasise this.
It is clear that Dean's dad has been away for a while and it is clear that this has distanced him and dean, he argues with his wife a lot and struggles to become close to Dean again.

Dean's mum seems distant from all of the family, she does not show any affection towards any of them.
It is clear his sister cares for him and is like a motherly figure, it is also clear that she has missed her dad.

At the beginning of the short film it is a normal day, the father returns from what is assumed as prison and Dean's sister gives him a warm welcome.

In the middle of the film the distance between the family is shown, this is done through the dialogue and also through the use of a range of shots. This is also displayed in the car scene when the camera focuses on a drop of rain which suggests the sadness within the family.
At the end it shows that the family is happy and the sun is shining which reflects the mood however the mother is missing in the last scene which leaves the audience questioning what happened.

Near the beginning of the film there is an over the shoulder shot of Dean's father hugging his sister and looking at him. It showed the closeness between the father and daughter but showed the distance felt by Dean.

A shot reverse shot was used which showed the connection between the family.

Video Game Advert

Mass effect 3- 30 second game trailer

Producers cannot falsely advertise on game adverts therefore they have to display a message stating that the imagery shown is not game footage if this is the case.

The first framing of Mass Effect 3 is a close up of a young girl, she is blonde, has blue eyes and has her hair in plaits, this portrays innocence. The framing is used to show emotion, she is looking up at the skies and there is then an extreme close up of of the eye. By using an extreme close up of the eye it shows what they want you to focus on, in her eye it displays the reflection of what appears to be something beastly.
The next frame is a subjective point of view, it shows a giant claw coming towards the screen. In the surrounding area it appears as though the character is in a field of sunflowers, the sun is being blocked out by the large object which is a symbol of death.




In the background there is a mechanical grinding/groaning sound which may make the viewer think it is a strange creature. The music used is incidental creating drama, there is also non diegetic sounds used, explosions and fighting. Whilst the sounds are coming through the snippets of footage start changing quickly using quick editing.
In the middle of the advert there is a review/statistic of the game, the font is futuristic in keeping with the game. There is a voice over towards the end of the advert, the person who is doing it has a husky, masculine voice as the demographic of the game is young men. The game also has an age rating of 15.

Music video analysis- Sven E Carlsson

Music video is a many-facetedmultidiscursive phenomenon meaning it has a lot to it and is layered. Music videos tend to be seen as a form of low-brow popular culture.
There are two rough groups of music videos; performance clips and conceptual clips. A performance clip is when the video mainly shows the artist singing or dancing and a conceptual clip os when the video includes shots of something else throughout the video usuall things with artistic ambitions.
In one type of performance, the performer is not a performer anymore, he or she is a materilisation of the commercial exhibitionist. The performer is seen as a monger of their own body image which means that they are selling their image like when they change thier outfit, this is because they are selling everything to be in the spotlight for example selling their voice, face, lifestyle, records and so on. This commercial exhibitionist wants success and tries to evoke the charisma of stardom and sexuality, he or she wishes to embody dramas of celebrity, to be an icon, the center of procreative wishes.
A television bard is another type of performance, this is a singing storyteller who uses actual on-screen images instead od inner, personal images. They transform the banal story which is depthless of the lyrics employing on-screen images to create a story about life and death.
The third type of performance is the electronic shaman, sometimes the shaman is invisble and it is only her or his voice and rhythm that anchor the visuals. The electronic shaman promises that there is a hidden meaning in everything.
All three performance types can be seen in Cher's music video Believe.

Assessment of music videos

Genre- Reggae
UB40- Red Red Wine

The narrative we got from this music video is that it is a love story about a boy liking a girl who is with another boy. The performance style for this video is that the members of the band are characters, with the lead singer having the main performance role. The singer doesnt sing in the video, the music is just played over the images which means there is more of a performance element to it. The video is set mainly in a traditional english pub, it is filmed in black and white making it seem dull the only colour is when the lead singer is holding a glass of wine which is red this emphasises this and the fact that this is what the song is about. The editing is seamless throughout almost all of the video. The only sound throughout the video is the music played over the top so there is no diegetic sound. Some of the camera angles that were used throughout the the video were pans, tilts, match on action and close ups.







Madness- our house 

The narrative for this video is that the band is playing in the front room, with the lead singer actually singing in the video, this is also the performance style as they are performing into a camera. The casting for this video is the band members. Mise-en-scene, it is set in a terrace house, the lighting is not naturalistic as the room is quite bright. All the characters are clothed in casual attire, mainly wearing jeans and a jacket. There was an added effect to the video to make it look as though it had dated. The editing was seamless and it was quick changing switching to different daily routines of band members. Camera shots that were used, included; close ups, pans, static and hand held to make it seem as though it is more realistic.








Genre- Pop

Kelis- Milkshake

The narrative of this video is that Kelis works in a cafe, serving milkshake which we have interpreted as a metaphor for her body. She dances seductively showing her body infront of the boys. Her performance style is giving a lot of attention towards the camera and that she is the main focus of the video singing throughout nearly all of the video.
Kelis is the main character and is in the majority of the shots, other characters are just extras such as the waitresses and the boys. The video is set in a traditional American Diner, she is dressed in tight denim, a crop top and is wearing big earings which is a typical american outfit. In the diner the lighting is natural and in the other rooms it is slightly darker. There doesnt appear to be any animation or technology used. The editing throughout the video is quite fast matching with the change of the lyrics, Kelis is constantly singing throughout this. The shots change in time with the beat. The camera shots used incude handheld which moves with the people, pans, tilts, wide shots showing the whole room.

Research into existing products-Louis Theroux behind bars

Louis Theroux behind bars  

Visits Northern California's San Quentin State Prison, it houses 3,000 murders, sexual predators and small-time criminals. It suffers from chronic over crowding. He spends two weeks in the prison and quickly discovers they inhabit a strange world within the place that hold their own rules.

It starts with an extreme long establishing/master shot of the prison, which sets the scene.

 It then goes to an interview with David Silva who is sentencend for 521 years, it starts with him being in what looks like a cage with barbed wire running across the top talking to Louis. The interview was filmed hand held showing realism through a series of pans.

Louis talks about facts of the prison on a voice over of a montage showing him walking around the prison showing prisoners in traditional orange jumpsuit, their daily routines and a guard walking with a prisoner in a white suit with his face covered which shows the brutality of the prison.
After the introduction the title appears which is what looks like a drawn image of Louis behidn bars, it uses three different shades of blue with black bars. It has what appears to be a spotlight on Louis, which is typically used for questioning in films.
The music used is a quirky pleasant sound which is representative of Louis but not typical for the type of documentary it is. As the documentary is about 'gangsters' music that would usually be used is music such as 'RnB'.
Louis is then shown how to wear a protective vest, he asks what the necessity is for him to wear it to which the prison guard replies that the prisoners have a tendency to spear or dart them. The purpose of Louis asking that question is for the audience, so that they realise quite how bad the prison is. The guard that is showing Louis the vest has a scar across the face which implies he has been stabbed.
There is then footage of him walking through the carson section which is where the inmates are segregated from the rest of the prison. You cannot even see inside the cell and the prisoners in this section are locked away for 23 hours of the day. In the background you can hear other prisoners which is said that they are doing it to show off because of the camera crew being there.
The police guard allows a prisoner known as playboy out to talk to Louis, his original offence was 'carjacking' for which he was inprisoned for three years, he is known for gassing the guards. Louis is then allowed to have a look around his cell which is extremely small.
The next scene is out in the yard, the prisoners are only allowed out there for a couple of hours a week. Louis finds out that the inmates stay segregated within their ethnic race.

Louis asks one of the new arrivals who is locked away in a caged area with others why they reoffend, to which he replies its too easy to do the time. We translated this that he feels its easier to be in prison than to live on the outside world.
Badger section is the worst section, they are the 'real bad guys' as described by the police guard he says that its the murderers and rapists. Louis meets one of the new arrivals who describes it as a playground and that its easy. He has been inprisoned for murdering his bestfriend, he claims he was wrongly convicted. His sentence is 50 to life, it is his first offence. Antony explained that it is easier in prison as in the outside world as you can wake up to hearing gun shots and people being murdered. As Antony walks away there is a fade out which represents the end of the day.

Louis sits and eats breakfast with two of the barbarian crew members, there are a certain amount having breakfast at a time in twenty minute intervals as they leave they are giving packs which they can eat later in the day in their cells.
The barbarian members informed Louis that people would be beat up if they stole food off someone elses tray, they described it as the 'rules of the prison'.

Louis talks to a guard on the gun rail who explains that he is authorised to shoot inmates if necessary. Later Louis walks down to talk to an inmate who is due to be relased. He wears a wig and prefers to be called Deborah, he was inprisoned for robbery and stealing cars. Deborah has a partner who he shares a cell with, they both want to continue the relationship on the outside.

Louis said that it seemed that the inmates seemed to be grateful that he had taken an interest in them as they feel that no one cares about them.
Louis then meets David Silva again, who informs him he has to serve 521 years and then eleven life sentences. This is because he carried out multiple home invasions, he said there were a lot of victims and he used a lot of torture tactics. He said he did this so he could live a better life and that many people would hire him to do this, David also told Louis that nobody was killed in these invasions but the victims were probably at a point where they wish they had died because they have to live with what David and his crew have done to them. David claims that it is 'pretty serious' and it ended with a shoot out at the end. David goes into more detail by saying some people had their heads held under hot tubs for long periods of time and that some claimed they were sexually assaulted by a pistol by him using the words people claim means he detached himself from that crime almost denying he did that. David was in a young offenders institute from the age of eleven until the age of twenty, he was then back in prison at twenty two.

There is a scene where they go back to yard time for alpine section who are segregated for their own protection. The prison guard says that the majority of the inmates in this section are usually gang drop outs who have to be protected. In here there are many types of people, Louis talks to the religious group who are carrying out a religious act. Louis asks some of them what they were in prison for but they refuse to say however they imply that he had been taken over by a demon which 'made' him carry out acts.

The prison guard then says that the atmosphere went quite tense because there are people in there that do not want people to know who they are or where they are, Louis then asks if they are child molestors to which the guard replies you could say that yeah.
After this Louis then has lunch with some of the homosexual inmates who make it clear that it is worse for the inmates who try and cover up that they are homosexual.
After lunch Louis then meets up with Playboy Vincent again whilst he is in his walk alone which means he has to have his yard time in a cage by himself, this is because he too is a gang drop out he says that gang members would class him as a rat. Louis refers to him as a marked man.

There is a prison hierarchy, with Paedophiles being at the bottom inmates would kill paedophiles if they had the chance. Louis asks a prison guard that surely its a better life on the outside world to which the guard replies that in here they are somebody, out there they are nobody. One of the release officers said that with the 27 being released that day he would see over half again some within days some within months.

There is a bookend in the documentary which means it starts and ends with the same thing which in this case is Louis having an interview with David Silva. Louis asks if David feels remorse for what he has done, David says he does and that he was wrongly convicted with some things but he has to accept what he has done and if he didnt feel remorse then he would just be a cold hearted person. David is also asked if he has ever thought about him being mentally ill and he says that at one point he thought that there was a chemical inbalance but now he has realised this is not the case.

Documentary- A Very British Gangster

 A Very British Gangster, following a man named Dominic Noonan.
 Directed by Donal MacIntyre

Starts with an establishing master shot of Manchester .. Even though it is a documentary film it follows all conventions of films. There is then a sound bridge from Dominic which then follows a shot of Dominic with two other boys all dressed in suits. Dominic is positioned in the middle of the shot which informs the audience that in this case he is the protagonist and antagonist as he is the 'bad guy' which is the main focus of the film. The typical 'gangster' music kicks in as they walk through the 'under belly' which is a typical place for gangsters and possibly homeless people (the crime class). The title comes in which is yellow it is at night, which makes the title stand out even more. The title looks as though it is projected on the wall. As Dominic and the boys continue to walk through the town there is a slow motion shot as there is a voice over explaining crimes that have been committed by this man, the slow motion may have been used to make them look 'cool'.

It then switches to a shot which is black and white, this is from CCTV of Dominic and fellow gangsters. There is then a cut away to Dominic's hands, where he is wearing Gold wich shows a degree of wealth. His nails are also dirty which shows that he isnt involved in a clean business.
Dominic has spent twenty two years of his thirty nine years of life in prison, in twenty seven different prisons. He was involved in inmate riots which cost the country 50 million pounds.
Dominic walks down the street which is a typical lower class area, he walks into a house which is full of people mainly children, you can see by the children that they too are quite dirty.

One of the fourteen Noonan brothers was killed in 2003, for his funeral half of north Manchester was brought to a stand still. The police asked for a contribution towards the cost of this and the Noonan family refused.

Archive footage is used to show a clip of the news when Dominic escaped from custody to then carry out an armed robbery. He was kidnapped from a police car  by his friends to do this.

A montage of images is put together, the images are in black and white which gives the illusion that they are under serveillence and perhaps printed in a newspaper especially when they ise black and white still photographs. Whilst the images are shown there is music that is used, which was also used in Pulp Fiction.

Allegedly 5-6 million pounds has been stolen by the Noonan family. There are around 20 in the Noonan crew.
Actuality is then shown when an argument is started between two of the younger members of the group after Dominic has been arrested.
There was a 360 degree pan, around Dominic whilst he was talking about the reputation of the Noonan's. It shows the pub around him and the people in there.

To find out sensitive information within documentary's they tend to film further away making it more comfortable for the person which is what happens with Dominic, this shows the psychological state. Dominic reveals he is indeed gay and that when he was thirteen he attended a boarding school in which he was sexually abused every day for weeks on end. This could have been a major trigger for Dominic's mental state and a  fuel for other crimes he has committed.
Later in life Dominic met the main 'abuser' he got his revenge by torturing him.

Later in the documentary you meet Dominic's brother Dezzy Noonan, he claims he is responsible for 27 deaths in Manchester. Shortly after he is stabbed to death by a rival crew member, following this there are death threats sent to other members of the Noonan's. It was estimated that 3,000 people were to attend the funeral of Dezzy Noonan with local businesses and two schools close whilst the funeral was carried out. However some of the Noonan crew could not attend the funeral and had to watch from a distance because they had been threatened to be killed if they did.

What is a documentary film?

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record.^[1] A 'documentary film' was originally shot on film stock — the only medium available — but now includes video and digital productions that can be either direct-to-video, made as a television program or released for screening in cinemas. "Documentary" has been described as a "filmmaking practice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception" that is continually evolving and is without clear boundaries.^[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_film

Research into existing products

Codes and conventions of documentaries- 

Types of documentaries;

• Historical- e.g. The Rise and fall of the Egyptian Empire
• Biographical- The Life of Sir Stanley Matthews (the story of a significant persons life)
• Investigative-The truth behind the disappearace of Madeline McCann
• Artistic-The work of Van Gough
• Wildlife- The anatomy of the Blue Whale
• Political-The New Labour years
• Drama documentaries- Margaret Thatcher
• Reality TV- The Kardashians (Olly;Life on Murs)
• Celebrity-David Beckham's new tattoo 
• Scripted Reality- TOWIE 
• CCTV is the most truthful form of reality tv 

What Style of Documentary is it? In terms of: 

•   Narrative structure (linear/non-linear narratives)
• Editing (fast, slow, dissolves, fades, superimposing etc)
• Voice-overs (narration, register, tone, mode of address)
• Archive footage (type, style, place, time-period)
• Graphics (pie charts, images,)
• Text (captions, subtitles, banners etc) 
• Music (instrumental music) 

What is the subject matter/ content of the documentary?

What are the messages and meanings behind the documentary- what is it trying to communicate to the audience?