Preliminary Task

Final Cut

This is our final sequence.

Title ideas

We began to think about names for our film. We thought about things to do with our film and thought we should base it around the word "Family" in some way as this is the basis of our film. Here is a list of ideas for names we have: 

• It Runs In The Family
• (The) Family Business
• Father & Sons
• The (Insert Surname) Family
• Brothers In Crime

The Shoot

Last night James, Ryan and Ali went to James's house to do a second shoot for the sequence. This shoot went a lot better than the first one and we managed to get everything we needed. We did have some worries about shooting in the dark but we have found that we can edit this on the Final Cut software so there isn't really a problem. We did all the outside shots first, which made our shoes muddy so we had to be careful not to film feet when we were inside as we weren't wearing any shoes. We would like to thank James's parents for letting us shoot and would like to apologise for making them eat dinner on their bed. We have uploaded the footage to the computer and have began the editing process.

This is our test footage which we filmed in the DT block. It gives a basic representation of what one of our scenes will look like and different camera shots and angles which we will use. The story is not an accurate respresentation of what it would be, it is just test footage.

Half Term

We had planned to film over half term but unfortunately the opportunity for filming never came up. There was never a time where we could have people filming and also the actors for the sequence. We will now be filming everything on Tuesday 24th at James's house. This is the only time we can get actors for the sequence and enough members of our group for the filming. Unfortunately Michael will not be able to make it to the filming but James, Ryan and Ali will be filming.

We have a consent form from Sam who is in our sequence:

Animatic

This is our final animatic it is going to be similar to our final title sequence as the scenes will be approximately this long and the music will be similar to this. However the shots maybe different because once we do our test footage we may decide to change it a bit more.

response to feedback

We are overall very pleased with the feedback we received about our blog. The positive feedback we received said that our blog was good, in depth and gave a good idea of where we were headed. Negative feedback was also constructive, we were told to go back and look at the micro-elements of the opening sequences we analyzed.

In responce to our feedback, we are going to keep up the work on our blog, but will go back to look at the micro-elements of our title sequences.

It is essential to receive feedback because it lets us now how we are doing. We may think that we have a very good blog, but it could be that we don't have all the things we need on there. It may also be that we understand what is going on in the blog but it may not be clear to someone else looking at it, from not in the group.

Ryan and James: Our thriller blog was quite good. Ram did quite a lot of work on our blog when we did our thriller project. I would say that our blog for this project is slightly better because we have a clearer view as to what we are supposed to put on there.

Michael and Ali: Our blog was lacking blog entries, which meant that if someone looked at it they wouldn't be able to see all our ideas. Also we didn't upload many videos and pictures up so this meant the blog didn't look as good.

Class feedback on blog

Positive

• In depth - constantly updated
• Mood board detailed + informative
• Good analysis
• Stuff
• Frequently updated, with some good info.
• Good research
• Lots of pictures
• Good animatic and logo
• In depth
• We're very proud of you :)

Negative:

• Narrow down film genre examples
• Die Hard is not related to Juno in anyway (but that was our homework)
• Confusing
• Animatic too long (supposed to interpret actual length of shots etc)
• Whilst analysing narrow down inspiration to micro elements
• Relate analysis to genres

The original ‘The Italian Job’, directed in 1969 by peter Collinson is a great example of a classic late 60s/ early 70s crime film. The opening sequence starts off with a slow pan from the deep blue sky slowly to the huge vast open stretches of the Italian alp, setting the scene. We hear no sound until the non-diagetic slightly muffle long distance roar of a sports car engine, which builds up and changes to the scene of the car moving across a vast bridge stretching over a large valley, where the sound of the engine turns into a diagetic sound. The shot type changes to a point of view shot, making it seem as if we are now in the car with the driver, and again we are given another non diagetic sound of soft music, slowly replacing the noise of the cars engine. Only after about 45 seconds into the scene are we finally introduced to the character that is driving the car. This technique is used to make it seem as if the rest of the film is based around this character as he is the last apparent person/object we are introduced to.

The whole atmosphere is now very calm and relaxing with the vast stretches of the Italian Alps and the soft music, and now we are shown all of the opening titles of the film. The titles are generally very bold and have a similar colour to the car which he is driving (red) which is a well known colour for fast Italian sports cars, which is possibly used to reinforce that the rest of the film is based in Italy. The fact that the fonts of the titles are also very foreign and glamorous also sets the scene for the rest of the film being in Italy.

As the car enters the tunnel the sound turns again into the diagetic sound of the cars engine, which echo’s again the side of the tunnel. This is very quickly obstructed by the shriek of the cars breaks and the explosion of the car. We then very quickly see the clip of the truck facing into the tunnel and the back view of the man holding the wrath, preparing us for what is about to happen.

we are then confronted with the image of the explosion which is very dramatic and has a strong effect breaking out of the calm relaxing atmosphere which the title sequence has been building up all this time. This gives allot of mystery into what has just happened and makes the audience confused, making them realise that this is the scene that the rest of the film is build around. It also creates suspense in that if this has been intentionally done or if it is an accident.

The long stretching tunnel also makes the audience realise how infinite this landscape is, and how it stretches for miles, even in the small space of a tunnel.

The reversing of the truck takes a long time, creating s suspense, finally revealing to us the true genre of the film being a crime, having just committed a murder. I think the reason why the director (Peter Collinson) has included this is because not only has it revealed the true horror of what has happened, but it also slowly reveals the true intention of the obviously evil man who we have only seen the back side of.
As the car slowly roles down the hill, we are re enforced in what has just happened and that the driver is defiantly dead. As the main bad guy walks over towards the edge, he treads on the glasses, which is a very strong image used in many similar crime movies of its time, used to make it seem as if this has been done out of vengeance.
we are made to think that the bad people are gang members because of there smart suits and dark glasses which they are wearing, apart from the main bad guy who is wearing a different colour suit making us focus on him, rather than the other characters, introducing him, as later in the film he is the ‘big boss’.
The sequence finishes with the main bad guy throwing the wrath into the valley, which then leads into a fast flowing stream. This makes it seem as if it is some kind of Italian respect which is a powerful thing, clarifying to the audience that they are some kind of Italian gang, which we find more about later in the film.

  

Crime Caper mood board Ryan Breeze

We have decided to change our idea for our opening sequence; we are now going to be filming a crime caper. We decided to do this because we thought that our last idea wasn't very good. Our new idea is to focus on a dad and two children and how they are struggling through the credit crunch, the dad has also lost his job and the family are very short of money, they then resolve this problem by stealing.

This is a crime caper mood board. A crime caper is usually an action packed film involving someone trying prevent/steal something. Usually the item they are trying to acquire is a large sum of money or something that could be sold. They also usually feature a team of people, like a leader who is calling the shots, a technical person and a transportation person. A classic example is 'Italian Job' where they have a team to move the gold and a team to open the van and load it also with Michael Caine calling the shots. Another point is that crime capers tend to be quite realistic so that the audience can relate to it instead of being aggravated by its lack of realism.

Mood Board

For our media project we have decided to film a British social realist. Our mood board shows some examples British social realists including 'This is England', 'Kidulthood/Adulthood' and 'Green Street'.