Survey

For our survey we asked 10 people the following questions to find out what it was they enjoyed and what they would like to see in a film:

Feedback

This has progressed a bit but is still quite weak in terms of its content - you need more research and analysis and where is your storyboard? It should be scanned in and added here? You need to go back over my feedback and develop some of your posts more.

• the analysis of the Lock Stock sequence - add comment on what you would like to use from this clip in yours?
• box office statistics - link to your project - why is this good news for your idea? what does it suggest about making this type of film?
• do you still need some examples of real institutions (production and distribution companies) who could make your project???

Planning is very thin, too - locations list - we need photos, as we do for your cast - both need comments on why they are suitable? You need risk assessments and evidence of your music choices and possibilities with reasons why...

This is still worrying me, as is your lack of footage. This is worth 50% of your final mark this year and the effort must reflect this. Look at my entry on my blog to see where you should be up to.

Mrs Doggart

Our Storyboard

Here is our storyboard and basically most if not every camera angle and scene we'll be doing in our opening sequence :

Final decisions

Props:

*Model gun (already bought)

*Suit (already bought)

*Desk (use the ones at college)

*Chair (use the ones at college)

Location:

*Back alley (Blackburn)

*Small office (College)

Lighting:

*Small desk lamp (already bought)

Actors:

*Nick Whalley (Boss)

*Cameron O'Donnell (Henchmen 1)

*Alex Williams (Henchmen 2)
*Patrick Macadam (Main Character)

Director:
*Dylan McGough

Again this film is a British one, set in Britain, with british actors in it and directed by Guy Ritchie. We like alot of the features which have been used in this film and we feel that we could incorporate many of them into our own. First of all we could use weapons in our scene. We think that weapons help the audience feel like there is alot more danger in the scene. Another feature that we could use is the camera shot which is facing the man when he is running. We would like to use this type of camera shot because it makes the audience feel like they are almost in the scene. I t makes the audience feel this way because of the jerkiness of the camera, bouncing up and down, also because you have a perfect view of the runners face, meaning you will be able to see the emotions of the runner e.g.- the sweat worried look. Another thing which we liked about this scene was the fake blood used. We like this because it again makes it seem more realistic for the audience. Something else that works really well in the scene is the soundtrack. It has quite a fast beat to it and it really fits the scene well. Also the thugs in the film are eastern european and they are really musically . This is a very well used stereotype because when you think of thugs this is what you tend to think of.

Feedback

There is some evidence of research but it still is a little skimpy.... look over what is required for the perfect blog and see what else you can add. Iknow it requires effort outside of lessons but it is worth marks... You still need to take note of some of the things I mentioned in my last feedback.

New comments:

• box office section - why is it vital to make a film in a genre that is popular? add brief comment.
• Guy Ritchie section - add some still images or video clips to illustrate?
• have you done an audience survey? have you defined your audience using GRASS and thought about what you can do to ensure your opening appeals to this group?

You need to get your planning on here as well and crack on with the filming. This is still not really what it should be and I don't want to see you lose marks but nor do I want to see you not getting on with the filming...

Mrs Doggart

Guy Ritchie

The director that we are mainly focusing on for our opening sequence is Guy Ritchie. The reason we choose Guy Ritchie was because he is one of the most succesful British directors and most if not all of his films are based in Britain. Also alot of his scene as well as chase scene fit in perfectly with how we want our opening sequence to look like. In all his films, there's always lots of different camera angles, camera shots and they all fit together nicely and run smothe. Another thing that we like about Guy Ritchie is his unique aproach towards his directing and film making is not only does he use lots of camera angles and shot but he also makes an apperance in all the films.In our research we found that guy ritchie before becoming a film director that he was a music vudeos. This is why he can link the music to the film extremely well. In addition to this, the majourity of his films have been extremly successful. the most successful film he made was, making a total profit of £

Box Office Profits.

A film that we focused on for our box profits figures is 'Snatch'. This is a British film. I t has been directed by a british direct, 'Guy Ritchie'. Also the film is based in Britain. This film made a profit. So we decided to base some of our ideas around this succesful plan.
These our the figures for the profit of the film.

In American cinemas :-
*Budget: $10,000,000(estimated)
*Gross profit: $30,093,107

In British Cinemas :-
*Budget: £6,000,000
*Gross profit: £12,137,698

It is very vital to make a film that has made a profit. Firstly it proves that the film is popular, and if it is popular it means that you have made a very good film. Another reason why it is vital to make a profit is so that you dont make a loss of money.

Feedback

Dylan and Nick

Can you move your prelim task to the post reflecting on it? Ask Rachel how to do this?? OR move the content of the post evaluating it to where the task is and add a subheading????

Section on conventions: need to add more - what type of characters/stereotypes do we get in this type of film? what type of settings? what ideologies? what types of media language? You could also comment on the distinctive elements of the British action film and comment on why you are following this direction of the genre? Looking at your storyboard, you also need to talk about how your film is a hybrid - part action and part gangster/crime thriller and outline some of the conventions of the second genre and why hybrids are popular? Try and give some real examples of films in these categories too!

Target Audience - you need some examples of films with female protagonists; you also need to talk about what you will put into your film to gratify your target audience... have you done an audience survey????

I expect to see a lot more research on here by early next week!

Genre & Target Audience

GENRE - ACTION

We decided that the genre we would focus our opening sequence would be 'Action'. This type is usually fast-paced, full of activity and conflict throughout. As well as this it also usually has a heroic protagonist character, violence, gunplay, stunt scenes and chase scenes. As well as this in the past decade there has been a large increse in the use of special effects along with new technology (CGI). Because of all the specail effects, chase scenes and stunt scenes typically action film tended to fall under the Hollywood genre due to the very expensive price of making the films. But now with more improved technology at cheaper expenses it has also become popular with other institues such as Europe and Asia.
Aswell as the Action genre our opening sequecne is also going to have an aspect of gangster/ crime thriller. The reason for this is our opening sequence is going to have a character who's selling drugs for his boss but decides to steal some money off him. With this it makes the opening sequence not only an action film but an action/thriller film. With the addtion of the thriller genre along with action genre this will make our film become a hybird. Hybrids are films which have more then one genre. Some examples of British hybrid films like ours could be, Snatch, Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels and Rock n' Rolla because one has action, crime and thriller genre running throughtout.

TARGET AUDIENCE

After researching our genre we found out that Acion genre traditionally is aimed towards a male audience from early teens right up to mid-30s. But this isn't the only audience that the action genre attracts anymore. Now days action films are also enjoyed by more female audiences due to more women being involved in the films and also more directors having a a female as their protagonist character. a very good example of this is Tomb Raider, with Lara Croft(Angelina Jolie) as the protagonist character. Aswell as this we researched and found out that hybrid films are extremly popular over a wide audience. The reason they are so popular is that dont just target one set of people(audience), instead because they have more then one genre it targets many people. Our opening sequence would target people who enjoy actions film, but also people who enjoy watching crime films and thriller films because the whole film isn't just none stop action but it also will have selling drugs (crime & gangster), chase scenes and guns etc, which falls under thriller. However, overall we would say our film is a action film and these films are still targeted more towards a male audience because they have a much greater consumtion of action films. Therefore our target audience will be males ranging from teens to mid-30s.

Final Idea for the Project

IDEA 1

For our opening sequence we are going to be doing a action/thriller chase scene. At the beginning we wi

ll establish our protagonist character while he’s casually walking and talking down a main road. (long range shot & medium shot)
As he’s walking he notices one/two men slowly tailing him. So he changes his speed so he is

almost power walking. But then as he turns around (new camera angle - his eyes) and see the men have also changed their speed. Suddenly, he sees a turn off down onto a back street and sprints off down. (New shot - medium range shot).

As he

s running down the back street taking sharp corners the men still relentlessly try and keep up. But there are many big wheelie bins which are like obstacles. (When jumping over one of them have a camera on top of it so we see feet & the jump). He also uses the bins by throwing them onto the ground to stop the men catching him. (As the men are following have some tracking shots, as well as this have the camera having a side on view of the man running away)

During his attempt to escape he keeps on getting back flashes of his past career as a drug lords middle man (use black & white setting for these). There are a total of 3 back flashes, the first is when the men first meet and the boss says

“what ever you do never try and cross me because I will get you”, the second is a short one of him completing a deal and receiving money for it. And the last one is when he takes an extra cut out of the money he made and smiles to himself.
Finally as he

s running around a corner he slips and falls! Leaving the men to catch up and grip him. Then slowly the boss appears and walks up to the man (Camera angle on the ground looking up - to give off the effect that the boss is supreme). When he gets close enough he puts his hand into his pocket reaching for his gun. Puts it right up close in between his eyes.
Then just before he pulls the trigger blackout, up comes the title.

　

IDEA 2

For our opening sequence we are going to be doing a action/thriller chase scene with a rewind. At the beginning it wi

ll start with the main character stood outside a door with a stack of money and he takes out some, places it into his back pocket and then inters the room. (long range shot, medium shot & close up shot on money in pocket).

When he enters the room behind a desk is a man dress in a suit sat down with two hench men stood behind him with there arms crossed (establishing shot). He walks in and straight away with out any speech he just hands the stack of money over to the man sat down. (extreme close up of the man counting the money). Then he notices that all the money isn

t there, “this doesn’t add up. Why am I missing 2 grand?” (medium shot of his body up). Then suddenly out of no where the protagonist character turns and abruptly runs out of the room leaving the rest shocked! As hes running out all you hear is “get him now!!!!! Nobody steals off me! Nobody”. While that i

s being said we have a new shot of the outside the house with the main character escaping and the hench men following behind. (long range shot).

While he

s running away and the men are following we have a tracking shot of both men mixing it up from the hench men to the main character. Then, the man quickly turns off down a back street. As hes running down the back street taking sharp corners the men still relentlessly try and keep up. But there are many big wheelie bins which are like obstacles. (When jumping over one of them have a camera on top of it so we see feet & the jump). He also uses the bins by throwing them onto the ground to stop the men catching him. (As the men are following have some tracking shots, as well as this have the camera having a side on view of the man running away)
Next, as he’s running around a corner he slips and falls! Leaving the men to catch up and grip him. Then slowly the boss appears and walks up to the man (Camera angle on the ground looking up - to give off the effect that the boss is supreme). When he gets close enough he puts his hand into his jacket pocket reaches for his gun. Puts it right up close in between his eyes. Then just before he pulls the trigger everything pauses. And we hear the main characters voice say, “how did it all come to this” and everything rewinds from there back to just before he puts the money into his back pocket.

Finally, we see a few clips of what will happen during the actual film. With the first time the men meet, how made them meet and how it was that made him steal the money. After all that everything blacks out and 4 DAYS EARLIER comes up just before the title. 　

FINAL IDEA WE CHOOSE

Finally, for our opening sequence we decided on the second idea which we came up with. The reasons that we choose this idea was, firstly, this idea has much more camera angles which would make the filming look extremely well. It also has much more enigmas running through out, such as ‘Who is the boss is’ and ‘What made him steal the money’ etc. Another reason we choose this idea was there is more of a story with this idea and at the end it shows what will happen throughout the actually film itself.

Feedback

There is still nowhere near enough work on your blog.

For starters:

• you need to add a reflection on your prelim
• Lock Stock post - you need to add a comment on what you could learn or use from this clip

You also need some more opening sequences (aim for four in total) and analysis and reflection on them. You need some genre research and some research into your audience and institution. What you have done so far will not gain many marks, so please do something about this.

Mrs Doggart