Vodcast of Conventions

In groups of 4 we had create a vodcast of the different conventions seen in each others film openings which we studied as a previous blog post. Here is our Vodcast


In this vodcast we highlight the conventions of Idents, Mis-en-Scene, Audio and Editing throughout the 8 films.

OpeningEG4 Bullet Boy Film



Cover of the DVD

The Film which i have chosen to Analise is called
BulletBoy
(Saul Dibb, 2004)

Box Office
Opening Weekend: £140K (UK) (10 April 2005) (75 Screens)
Gross: £298K (UK) (17 April 2005)
Company Credits
Production Co: BBC Films, UK Film Council and Shine.

The Film is about how two brothers living in a harsh poverty stricken area of London become involved in a vicious cycle of violence after an incident on the street. The Film Lasts of 89mins and is rated a 15. The opening of the film which was what i analysed lasted for aproximately 2:34 mins where by the end of the opening sequence ends with what looks like the main character leaving some form of prison. Here is the trailer.



Company Ident

This is the only company ident at the start of the film indicating that the film is a low budget film which didnt have much funding to make it or produce it. However other film production companys also put money in to fund it so they could have rights to screen the film, such as BBC Films and Shine.

Opening Shot



 The First shot of the film is a close up of a scratched window with a blurred back to it, this gives an impression of lack of respect or crime or just lack of care. It sets the scene as a sort of rural area or infeltrated by crime and a defaced society.



first character shot

This shot is a medium lomng shot of what seems to be a characted lying in a prison cell this shows that the character inset has commited a crime, Also the character has his hand on his head indicating that he is fed up or not happy about somthing that has happened. Also the effect on the camera in this shot has been blurred at the edges so that the audience can focus on what is in the main frame.



This next shot is a two shot medium over the shoulder shot where by it looks like the prisoner is being let out of his cell on release or somthing. This shot shows the expression and emotion on the characters face on being let out of his cell. Also the point of which the inmate is let out the emotion changes. 

This shot is a multi-shot where by more than one character is involved in the frame at any one time.This shot is more of a medium shot. this shows the character's body language and image as they speak or communicate with one another.

Assessment Criteria

AS Media Criteria Sheet

Final Cut Pro X First Impressions

The First Impressions of final cut pro x was it was so complicated and it was looking challenging at first but then after the help of the year 13's i got the hang of it quite quickly and found it fairly straight forward to use and it was a good help that the year 13's were on hand to help if we got stuck.

Final Cut Express First Impressions

The first impressions i have on final cut express are that it was complicated to use and get the hang of but after a while and when i had time to play with the software for abit i found it quite simple. Once i feel that i was able to use it then i could get on with work.

The Brief

Prelim exercise:
Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door , crossing a room and sitting on chair opposite another character, with whom he/she exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue.This task should demonstrate match on action , shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.
Main task:
The titles and opening of a new fiction film,to last a max of 2 mins.

Shaun of the Dead Swede

In groups of 6, we had to create a sweded film on a film of our choice, our choice was to do the swede on Shaun of the Dead because we thought that this film would be a challenging task to full fill, we did 3 scenes from the film to make a swede on. Here is our swede.

The three scenes we did our swede on were the Fence Scene, The drunken pub scene and the scene where they attack the zombies with kitchen equipment.

The first scene we did was the scene of which was the drunken pub scene, this was probably the hardest scene to film due to the amount of filming that was taken, the shot types we mainly used for this scene was a 2 shot and a long shot,, This scene was just a long take rather than several different shots, so if i were to criticise it, next time i would make it different with not one long take.

The second scene we did was the Fence scene which was probably the easiest scene of the three to film, this was also a long shot scene. this however had other shots in the scene such as close ups and mid shots. next time if i was to change or alter any on the shots i would include more of a mysterious theme as a sort of narrative enigma.

The final scene we shot was that of the scene where Shaun and ed attacked the zombies with the kitchen utensils in the back yard. This was probably the best scene of the film we shot out of the three because it had the most variety of shot types such as close ups and mid shots and various long shots, if i were to changwe the shots in this scene to make it better i would use more of the match on action shots.

Assessing a Past Coursework Opening

'The Cellar'





The Strongest Feature of this opening
The stongest feature of this opening i feel is the way the scene goes from being in the cellar to how she actually got into the cellar in the first place.

The Weakest feature of this opening
The weakest feature was probably the way the character tied up was asleep or passed out when the slasher arrived in the cellar.

Shane Meadows Films

As a class we were asked to present the findings of what we had from a film opening in groups of 3 The other two groups also produced a presentation on a film directed by Shane Meadows. The other two films were 24:7 and Dead mans Shoes. 

24:7 DVD Cover

Twenty Four Seven (Shane Meadows, 2004)
Gross:


In the presentation of 24:7 we found that, it was a low budget film, with long shot takes in the opening scene, the opening scene opens but shows a not very pleasing sight as the area it is set in is dirty and bleak, Also the music that is being played during the opening credits and idents indicatesd that this film is going to be a drama type of film. This is a social realist film which involves some of the isseus brought in by John Grearson in the time period between the 1920's through to the 1940's showing isses of poorness and poverty within the UK.

Dead Man's Shoes (Shane Meadows, 1997)

Box Office

Gross: $6K (USA)

(Didnt make UK cinema)





Dead Man's Shoes DVD Cover

We get the feeling at the start of the film that it is a veryup beat film by the way it is introduced with the music behind the first scene. This is telling the audience that it is going to be a film about the not so asthetically apealing side of the Uk this can also be picked up by what the characters are wearing and the way they walk and what tone of voice and accent they use when speaking.









OpeningEG1 TisEng

This is England was released in the year 2006 by a Producer called Shane Meadows, the production company's that released the film were Warp Films and Film 4. Shane Meadows has directed some short films before such as 24:7 and Deadmans Shoes, also he directed A room for romeo brass. The genre that shane mainly focuses on is a social realist genre, where by he takes some of the social problems and involves them in his films. Here is the trailer.




Box Office: 1.3m
Length of Run: 4 weeks
Number of screens: 62/151
Overall Film Takings: 3.2m

The media language used in the starting shots of this film are that of establishing ones due to setting the scenes, for example the dirty scenes of the olden buildings and the old car of which we see in a shot which is a panning shot across a street. Most of the shots are medium close ups and close ups of the main character. The long takes in this film opening surgest it is a film of a social realist or drama type film where by it will follow one character in his journey though a changing society and the decisions and choices he has to make

Prelim

As a group me (Ben Brearley), Curtis Tiplady and Tilly Dennis made a short film which was the 'Prelim' Introducing Curtis Tiplady and Directed by myself, Extra's Tilly Dennis.

The task was to create a short film which consisted of 3 camera shots which were, Match on action, the 180 degree rule and the shot reverse shot. The Video.....

OpeningEG2 Casablanca

Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

Budget: $950,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: $181,494 (USA) (12 April 1992) (11 Screens)

Gross: $1,711,189 (USA) (19 June 1992)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034583/

This Film was set in early unoccupied Africa in the early days of World War 2, Its about a Freedom fighter who meets an ex lover which has unforeseen complications. The Opening indents of the film start with Warner Brothers which shows the viewers that the film is a huge American film mainly because Warner Brothers are linked with huge Box Office films. Here is the trailer of Casablanca

<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/tG0tX96ZSfc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

In the opening shots, as a viewer you see an image of the globe in black and white indicating the age of the film as black and white picture show the film is before the time when colour was introduced. The opening credits are over what is a picture of Africa which gives us an idea of where the film is set and going to be based, also the American national anthem is played whilst the opening credits are being show, this can mean that the film is an American film. The opening credits fade out and then the opening scene starts.

Shot 1 is a Extreme long shot which is for establishing where the setting is, usually to set the scene of the film and in this case it is a shot of a slow spinning globe until it gets to the country of France where the globe stops spinning.
Shot 2 is a close up of the country France on the globe to indicate where the film is going to start or what the film is going to be about, when the film was set World War 2 was happening so the Germans were invading parts of France at the time.
Shot 3 is a close up of the city Paris with the background fading of soldiers in the war which shows the film is going to revolved around war and the going's on of the war.
Shot 4 is an Extreme long shot of the surrounding buildings of the area usually shown to add a sense of atmoshpere to the scene.
Shot 5 is a long shot of a sort of market street or square to show the lower working class of the time and how they would be seen in this time and age
Shot 6 is a medium shot between what looks like two generals of war and by their accent they sound very French this enables the audience to see the expression and body image of the characters
Shot 7 is a medium shot of what looks to be a warden of some sort or an old police officer you can tell this by the clothing and accessories he has on his person.
Shot 8 is a long shot of a police car passing across the camera and this also is a panning shot which follows the car until it screeches to a halt
Shot 9 is a medium long shot of which seems to be refugees getting into the police car or more like getting forced into the back by the policemen
Shot 10 is a medium shot of two men who seem highly important and powerful by the way they are dressed and the way they speak as a more posh and upper class tone of voice
Shot 11 is a medium shot of a character who seems to be standing with a group of women who seems to be a thin white man who looks to be clean shaven indicating that this could be the hero of the film
Shot 12 is a long shot of a man who is clearly breaking the law gets shot in the back by a gun and suddenly falls to the ground after falling to his knees
Shot 13 is a close up of the dead man's hand before it is opened to reveil to an officer a document that seems to be valuble to the officer the close up shows that the detail and emotion is being observed
Shot 14 is a close up of what looks like a sign ontop of a door at a court of justice where the trail and sentensing is being held, the close up here shows the detail of the old building and the detail the walls
Shot 15 is an establishing long shot which shows men of the law it looks like, to be getting ready for a court case of some form
Shot 16 is an extreme long shot of a resterante or cafe to show the parade of police vehicles parking up near the court and then emptying the cars of the refugees.
Shot 17 is a medium close up of two men of high class due to the clothing and the monacle and the neatly trimmed moustashes showing upper class stature
Shot 18 is an extreme long shot of the general public gazing at something in the sky of interest or an unusual circumstance, for example a fighter jet or somthing.
Shot 19 is an extreme long shot of what looks like some form of fighter jet or bomber plane in the sky overhead.
Shot 20 is a medium shot of the crowds which are looking at this jet and this shows the expression on their faces and emotion towards the happenings by the camera panning across them

The opening sequence lasts for roughly 1:30 seconds up to the point of which the plane or jet flys overhead. So from this opening you dont really get to see which the main character is which indicates some form of mystery or somthing isnt right about the film or who it is about or what it is about. The film doesnt really communicate with the audience much by what is going on during the opening scene but you get an idea of what the story is based around.

Sweding Definition and Swede Pitch

Sweding

What is sweding, well sweding is where you take a film and change the aspects of it to make the film comical or a spoof of the original film, For example this sweded film of The Avengers




The film that would be good to swede I think would be Saw VI because some of the scenes in this film could be produced by the group very well with the props and characters that could be used could look good.

...

The areas of saw that we would look at would be the gory torcher scenes for example the onews in the video link above.