Friday 20 December 2013

Age Classifications

All classification decisions are based on the BBFC’s published and regularly updated Guidelines. The Guidelines are the product of extensive public consultation, research and the accumulated experience of the BBFC over many years. They reflect current views on film, DVD and video game regulation.

  • Suitable for all

  • Parental guidance

  • Cinema release suitable for 12 years and over

  • Video release suitable for 12 years and over

  • Suitable only for 15 years and over

  • Suitable only for adults

Films as we see in the cinema are classified by at least two examiners looking for specific content relating to each category, they look at issues such as discrimination, drugs, horror, imitable behaviour, language, nudity, sex, sexual violence, theme and violencewhilst deciding. As well as  context, the tone and impact of a work and the release format (for example, as DVDs are watched in the home, there is a higher risk of underage viewing).

Generally the issues the examiners look for increase with the scale of Classifications, it is likely that drugs misuse and sexual behaviour are shown in an 18 where as it is very unlikely and if so mild in a PG or U.







Monday 16 December 2013

4 Key areas for me to consider as a Film producer.

HEALTH AND SAFETY

  • Actors Heath and safety
  • We must consider the safety of our actors; this can be through choice of props, location and costume. It is not a good idea to use a real weapon and it is best to consider the weather when choosing heels for the femme fatale.
  • Vision
  • We need to consider the restrictions during motion camera use, during filming. I, as director will supervise Lane, ensuring she doesn't walk into anything or fall over.
  • General Risk Assessment
  • *******Example to Add from school system******

ETHICS

  • Validity of Offending People
  • We must consider that some thing we may show or say will offend some audiences.
  • Responsibility
  • We must know what is right/wrong to include in our OTS, and show responsibility about what is sensible to show in our production. 
  • Impact on Well-being
  • We must ensure that our film will not negatively effect spiritual and physical well-being.


FILM CLASSIFICATION

  • Audience
  • Age Restrictions - BBFC
  • The BBFC website explains the age restrictions.
  • (See next post)


COPYRIGHT

  • The Rule
  • Evidence
  • Poem

Creating a title

Most Film noir titles are 2 words long we intend to follow this convention, these title are usually about sex or violence so using a thesaurus we intend to find a title similar to "Sexual Violence".







End Result:

Sunday 15 December 2013

Working out how to create an "ASMEDIA" channel on youtube..

Click here to find where I sought help.
After reading this I realised that I needed to create a Google+ Page, I have linked the page "ASMEDIA" to this blog.

I have undergone this process so that I can upload my sweded film to my past blog post.
I have managed to link my Google+ page to my YouTube channel and my blog.

Evaluation of our continuity task

My media task develops and challenge forms and conventions of real media products by taking the typical conventions of a film noir which I have shown throughout my blog however we have challenged these conventions adding our own styles influenced by our research.

The continuity task presents social groups such as upper/middle as more seedy than the working class, we can distinguish this since the characters all have something to hide in this scene where as if continued the working class characters would be more honest.


Our media product would be likely to be distributed in a small cinema rather than a multiplex due to the style of film and the lack of blockbuster names and effects.

Middle aged audiences would be expected to watch our film if it were to be completed however I think it would be aimed at men rather than women due to the nature of the characters.


I  have learnt a small bit about technology whilst producing this piece in particular how to use a more up to date version of I-movie as well as getting to grips with the basic uses of a camera and the uploading techniques.



First edit of our OTS


In our first cut the footage doesn't flow as one would expect a film to, our continuity isn't perfect however it isn't so bad for our first try. This task allowed me to consider the 180 degree rule and basic errors in continuity ( I even spot it a lot on TV!) This will benefit my Final OTS task since I will be looking for these errors as we film and hopefully avoid most errors that may occur. The sound on this edit is atrocious because we filmed it in a noisy area, I will listen to the noise on camera before filming in any particular location.

Narrative Storyboard


Create a Copy | View Larger

Planning our continuity task

This continuity task was set to test our knowledge and understanding of the 180 degree rule,match on action, shot/reverse shot. We used Facebook chat to communicate throughout the group. Here Morrighan has used a voice over to explain what is going on while the rest of the group were planning scripting and narrative ideas. I will try to use this technique to demonstrate my work in the near future. 

Looking for realistic bullet wounds

How to (bullet wound)




How to (Fake Blood)...

Wednesday 11 December 2013

Researching props, costume and make up to use for our neo noir opening title sequence

Since our film is neo noir we are able to be more controversial with our miss-en-scene.
Femme Fatale idea mood board pictures: Femme Fatale .. How to..




Here are pictures of modern femme fatale icons contrasted with the image of a traditional femme fatale.








Here are some more images however these focus on modern (since it's a neo noir)  hair styles for our actress Lydia Fulcher.



Here are some influential make up styles related to modern femme fatales (since it's a neo noir):


Production roles

We have decided to allocate myself as production manager, I will direct the project to ensure it goes a planned. My predominant role is to look at cinematography and props and look at what works well considering editing and titles. Meanwhile Lane is more focused on filming and organising music

Monday 9 December 2013

Minutes for today

I have drawn up the storyboard for our animatic,while Lane continued the original narrative. We hope to collect props, make up, and costume ideas soon.
Lane will aim to research locations while I focus on the costume/prop aspects. We hope to achieve this by Monday 16th December 2013.

Friday 6 December 2013

Narrative planning stage 1

We had a slow start to our narrative planning, but hopefully with a little extra work we will finish it soon. The narrative development was based on the idea that our film would be neo noie rather than based on typical noir elements although some elements will be included for our neo noir style.

Wednesday 4 December 2013

Planning our Opening Title Sequence.

Here we have contacted the author of a poem to see if we can use a passage from their work:


We are happy to say that the author did indeed reply, giving his permissions for us to use his poem for our project (the email is below).

The poem is written below, copyright to Matt Castaneda,
(We are likely to use the highlighted section, and would have used the whole poem at the end of our film)

Collusion Of Silence

© Matt C.
I live everyday with everlasting shame,
with everlasting regret,
with everlasting pain,
Why? What have I done to beget?
I don't forget, like a tight corset
of the pain that tightly constrains my soul
and turns my heart into deep, dark coal.

So there's nothing left to do,
except load this bullet and blow straight through.
For every somber moment,
every haphazard mistake,
every broken promise,
every failure,
all my doubt,
all my lost hope,
all my poisoned love,
can go straight through
the bullet hole I just blew.
Now, they can escape to the surface,
in hopes of a higher purpose, because I'm sadly through.

One bullet, one dream, one doubt,
and the one fire no one helped to put out.
So say goodbye,
and don't forget to say hi
to my demons passing by;
For I am Satan's now,
no matter how hard I cry.
No one can hear me anymore,
forever suffering, forever silent, forever I die.

Monday 2 December 2013

Neo Noir (New Dark)

Here is a comparison between conventional noir elements and unconventional noir elements.

Neo Noir Films:
Red Riding Trilogy
Mulholland Drive
Blade Runner

Top 10 Neo Noirs according to listverse

Red Riding Trilogy




Mulholland Drive















Blade Runner



Wednesday 13 November 2013

Differences between a storyboard and an animatic

Storyboard:
An array of sketches or pictures that represent the changes in action/plot in a piece of filming/ TV program. These images are predominantly accompanied by directions, dialogue exhibiting shots for films.

An example of a storyboard from http://www.storyboards-east.com/sb_coke.htm:






Animatic:
The initial interpretation of  a film  deriving form a storyboard through the use of film and added voice-overs and or music/sound effects.
Click here to find out more about animatics!


An example of an animatic I found here > http://www.storyboards-east.com/animat.htm

Monday 4 November 2013

Audiences

ABC1s
http://www.abc1demographic.co.uk/

Audience Terms:
Passive; A passive audience also known as the audience effect is an audience who does not interact with media and is just injected with the messages, not intending to watch it. Source Passive

Active; An active audience interacts with the organization, issue, or cause. Instead of waiting to receive information on it, they seek it out from many sources and when doing so, they speak as well as listen.
Source Active

Monday 21 October 2013

Juxtaposing our photographs to those of a film noir style including the conventional charcters

As an all girl group we were challenged to recreate all of the conventions so we decided to break some: we had female models representing both femme fatale and protagonist/antagonist...






Above the images are similar however within the school environment we were unable to create the same effect that the Venetian blinds have, although to keep the film noir style we used shadow to emphasize the femme fatale. The eye contact with the camera accentuates the femme fatale conventions since it instills a sense of impotence within the audience.












 The two iconic 'white dressed' pictures are similar though appearance and lack the eye contact which was in the pictures before. We haven't much mise-en-scene in the background like the image above which makes our recreation less effective on the audience. In our image I believe we fail to meet film noir conventions since location and props don't fit with the style and Lane's expression  isn't as demeaning as the character's above.




The photograph above is representative of film noir setting/location since it features an urban setting that looks slightly suspicious. The use of the shadow against the wall creates this suspicious effect, we have used a similar shadow effect to dramatize the situation. This shadow over Mol's face and the shadow against the wall creates enigma for the audience adding to the corrupt connotations of film noir.











Contrast is apparent in these two photos in addition to the conspicuous curves added to the image from sin city. Although not as obvious as the image above, our image holds a comparable likeness around the lips.







Below are a selection of other photographs taken in the style of film noir:







Beneath are a couple of images that I have edited on Adobe Photoshop.


The image of Lane above isn't successful at portraying conventions of a typical femme fatale in film noir because her expression is more frightened than confident,the angle also makes Lane look smaller and weaker accentuating her lack of confidence in this photograph.






This image uses the gun to distort the face, this blocks my expression, however the shadow works well against the white wall, this may have looked better cropped similar to the pictures below. Also this may ave looked better if my shadow emphasized the female form, especially if my facial features were shown on the shadow.












This is one of my favourite photographs that we have taken. The light effect was created through one of us holding a phone torch towards Mol. Simultaneously, I used my hand to create the bullet-like shape with the light. This shape focuses on the conventional femme fatale's red lips.







With this image I have cropped it so that the effect it creates is stronger focusing on my face .The shadow of the gun distorts my face, framing the expression given. The lack of eye contact shows impertinence of the femme fatale as well as the angle we have chosen to take the photograph from.

Research and critical theory: understanding narrative theory

Linear & Non-linear

  • Linear - Everything follows a chronological order; the story cannot jump past any stages only follow through one by one.
  • Cemetery Junction : this follows Levi Strauss' opposition theory, as well as Barthes' theory which suggests each action follows from the previous, and Propp's fairy tale theory since Freddie Taylor chases his childhood sweetheart (the princess)
  • Non-linear - Story-line doesn't follow chronologically, the plot can jump backwards and forwards in time.
  • Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind : this follows Levi Strauss' theory of  opposition, this film also follows Propp's and Todarov's theories since it appears to leave an equilibrium that is disrupted and restored while simultaneously following Propp's theory about fairy-tales since Jaroel proceeds to chase Clementine who would fill the character of the princess.


Levi Strauss - Binary oppositions:
 Strauss (1908-2009) created a theory that suggesting : in order to have one independent state (e.g the antagonist - villain) you must have a perception of the opposite (Protagonist - hero) For your perception of the villain to be extremely negative you must have a comparison to somebody displaying positive actions.This is said to drive the narrative.

Tzvetan Todorov - The concept of equilibrium and disequilibrium:
Todorov (From 1939) introduced the theory surrounding the equilibrium. The equilibrium is the normal state that the narrative starts off with, this is disrupted usually by the antagonist, this creates an adventure/journey for the protagonist to restore the former equilibrium, to be followed by a climax and ending with the new equilibrium.

Barthe - Actions and Enigmas:
Barthe's theory presents the theory that in some films the narrative is directed through the actions, one thing happens, which causes the next to happen. Although Barthe's theory also suggests that the enigma can drive the narrative by making the audience wonder what happens next.

Vladimir Propp - Fairy-tales:
Propp indicates that narrative is character driven, that it thrives on the characters present and the actions they pursue.

Examples of Characters from Goldfinger (1964)

The hero, the one who is on a mission, usually to save someone or something (The protagonist)
Example : James Bond



The villains,characters that prevent the hero from completing his mission, usually the cause of the mission (The Antagonist)
Example: Auric Goldfinger and Oddjob




The Doner, the character who tries to help the hero, usually by giving something up.
Example: Tilly Masterson











The Dispatcher, the character who sends the hero on a quest.
 Example: "M"
The Princess, a stereotypical persecuted maiden.
Example: Jill Masterson

The Helper, also known as the 'sidekick' who aims to aid the hero.
Example: Jill Masterson
The False Hero, a character who appears to be good but tricks the hero with bad advice.
Example: (More of a False Villain) Pussy Galore
Sometimes the Princess' Father is included, who usually rewards the hero usually with his daughter.