Wednesday, 12 December 2012
Tuesday, 11 December 2012
Sound
The two main sounds we will be using in our sequence are diegetic atmospheric sounds and a melancholy piano melody. The music we use has to be quite soft so that we can fade it in and out of scenes that need to be silent/just have diegetic sounds for effect.
As we cannot use copyrighted music, we will be using music from the website www.freeplaymusic.com which has simple piano pieces that we can adapt to our film.
Examples of music that we may have used if we could use copyrighted music are:
Point of Disgust - Low
Black Flies - Ben Howard
Where is my Mind (the Pixies piano cover)
Hand Covers Bruise - The Social Network
Hand Covers Bruise - The Social Network
Trying to find replicas of these songs was difficult but so far we are interested in the slow, very simple piano music such as:
'Through Thick and Thin'
'Music Box'
'Autumn Nights'
W.H B.M
'Through Thick and Thin'
'Music Box'
'Autumn Nights'
W.H B.M
Graphics Research
For our opening credits and title, we would like to use very simple graphics that don't intrude onto the actual images on the screen. For this we would like to use simple font such as 'Arial' but in white so as to be highlighted against the background.
Example of Arial font:
Willa Hope
Bea Marston
Luke Forryan
Brittany Johnston
We would like the names and credits to be playing throughout the sequence on the left and right hand sides of the screen towards the bottom so as not to distract from the filming. This way the scene becomes less of a title sequence and more of an opening scene containing opening credits. We have planned to not have the title right until the end after the screen has blacked out and to appear in the middle of the screen in bold font (title is still undecided).
Similar examples of these credits that I found on the website 'Watch the Titles' are:
The font and positioning of the credits in this clip is very similar to what we would like to accomplish in our opening sequence - the credits do not interrupt the film and are in a very simple but bold font. However, if you actually watch the opening it is clear that the sound and imaging revolves around the credits which is something that we would like to avoid as it makes them too obvious.
Similar to Wimbledon, this clip also has a similar font and positioning (if slightly high up) to what we would like to achieve. However, due to the computerised images, it becomes more obviously a title sequence rather than actually playing the film.
I really like the positioning of the graphics within this clip and the font is very clear and bold yet simple. However, in our sequence we plan to use more action in the actual filming during the credits compared to the still photos in this scene.
Due to the way the credits work with the actual filming and imaging within this sequence, overall it is the most similar to what we want to achieve. The sequence contains dialogue and movement while the credits are going on as well as advertising the credits without making them too obvious. The sequence also ends with a black out to the title which is the same effect we want to replicate.
W.H
W.H
Monday, 10 December 2012
Costume
Jasper Thomas will be wearing casual clothes like this when being pushed into a police car: he will be in casual wear, because he will not be expecting the arrest. We want to make it as clear as possible that he is living his normal life, simply going about his day to day routines and is unexpectedly interrupted by the arrest/the police.
And for the court scene: a loose fitting suit, to make him seem small and vulnerable and perhaps innocent looking.
B.M
Ident Research
For our film opening, we are going for a low budget, indie film sort of vibe. We will hopefully achieve this by creating an ident which is now too showy and bright.
Some examples of the 'big six' big budget idents from Hollywood studios are:
To avoid looking too mainstream and high budget, we can avoid using big showy and elaborate idents. Some examples of lower budget and perhaps more arthouse-like idents are ones such as:
Some examples of the 'big six' big budget idents from Hollywood studios are:
Twentieth Century Fox |
Svensk Filmindustri |
Mosfilm |
Les films du lonsange |
Cuba Pictures |
BBC films |
We are going to aim to make our ident more similar to these ones, because we are going for a deliberately gritty and low budget feel, also it is set in largely grey areas of London, similar to films such as 'fishtank' and 'shifty'.
B.M
Thursday, 6 December 2012
Friday, 30 November 2012
In our opening sequence, we will mainly be seeing Jasper at the courthouse so for his costume, we want him to be dressed quite smartly in a suit to make him look like he's made a huge effort for it and so shows the audience that he considers the court case hugely important. We would also like to give the impression that he is making such a huge effort to make him seem innocent.The only other time we see Jasper (if we choose to include this scene) is when there are flashback references to him being arrested from Ally's mind. For these shots, we would like Jasper to simply be wearing jeans and t-shirt as in the narrative, he will just be sitting at home with his family.
W.H B.M
W.H B.M
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Introduction to the film industry - Questions
Media
The Film Industry Introduction questions
1) In the UK
film market, an increase in the number of screens available to show films has
not led to an increase in the number of films being shown. Why?
The fact that the number of screens available to show films has increased has not led to an
increase in the number of films being shown because although some people may
think more screens opens up the opportunity for more films, the same major
films are in fact played at different times of day, and repeated for how ever
long they stay in the cinemas for.
2) In your
opinion what might account for the fact that cinema attendances have fluctuated
between 139 million and 176 million between 1999 and 2008?
In 2002, ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’ was
released. The gross of this film was £91,914,687, which is huge. This is partly
because it was the sequel to an unbelievably successful film, which guaranteed
it a subsequently large audience.
3) In 2011, UK
film distributors invested £330 million in advertising their new releases and
on 35mm film prints. If around 450 new films receive a theatrical release in
the UK every year, how much, on average, do distributors spend distributing a
film in the UK?
0.7 million
4) This spending
stirred up enormous demand – 171.5 million cinema tickets were bought UK in
2011. This is great news for cinemas – what’s the downside of all this
excitement generated and consumer demand for film PRODUCERS in the UK?
America is a lot bigger than the UK, and the advantage of
British films generally being in a language most countries are able to
understand (English) is obviously also current in America as they speak
English. This means that when there is a ‘boom’ in the amount of cinemagoers
and people seeing films, America profits also. America can afford to produce
more films, which attracts a larger global audience. This results in the UK’s
film consumption market generally being dominated by US companies and films.
5) In 2004, the
average cost of releasing a US film domestically was $39m, in addition to the
average production cost of $63.8m, making an overall average
production/distribution cost per film of $102.8m. What effect might this have
on Hollywood production and distribution if these increases have continued?
It could cause the Hollywood production and distribution to
decrease because of too high a profit, which would result in less Hollywood
films being made.
6) Why are more
‘middle aged’ people going to the cinema in 2011? Who, in your opinion, are the
current most bankable leading actors for the ‘youth’ market in the UK?
More ‘middle aged’ people could be going to the cinema in
2011 because of the age of the starring actors/actresses in the films. Usually
an older audience is attracted to older actors.
7) How many of the top 10 films in the US last year made
two-and-a-half times their budget?
‘The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1’
‘The Hangover Part 11’
‘Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol’
‘Cars 2’
‘Thor’
Only 5/10 films.
8) Jerry Bruckheimer is still producing films today – find
some of their recent films he’s produced and look at the trailers. Is he still
a ‘high concept’ producer? Michael Bay has taken over his mantle as the go-to
man for the ‘event’ movie. Watch some of the trailers for his recent films –
does he deserve his reputation for films that are high on effects and low on
narrative?
In my opinion, Jerry Bruckheimer is still a ‘high concept’
producer. Although, having said this
Q9) find some ‘indiewood’ type films –
ones associated with a certain ‘art house’ feel yet connected to a big
Hollywood studio – that these companies have produced. Who are their films
aimed at?
Fox searchlight pictures – ‘beast of the
southern wild’ is aimed at children
-‘The sessions’ is aimed at middle aged
people/ adults
Paramount pictures – ‘200 cigarettes’ – aimed at adults
-
‘an inconvenient truth’ – documentary, aimed at
middle aged people/adults
Sony pictures
classics – ‘where do we go now’ aimed at adults
-
‘smashed’ – aimed at young adults
Focus features – promised land
Q10) to what extent
does Hollywood dominate the UK film landscape
How has it
managed to retain its stranglehold?
Hollywood does dominate the UK film landscape to a large
extent. It seems that high budget Hollywood blockbusters are the most popular
films in the UK by far. Also, they are generally the types of films that end up
in major cinemas. This results in them being shown widely to the UK’s cinema
audiences, and spreading throughout the UK. The idea of ‘herd mentality’ also
comes into play here, people follow the crowd and follow what other people deem
to be good, hence the phenomena amount of popularity of Hollywood films
receive.
Although there is a large market for indie looking films,
there is also the ‘indiewood’ genre, which is Hollywood making indie-like film.
This is an example of just how much Hollywood has taken over the film industry,
it seems to cover almost every genre of film, and make more money out of it
than independent film companies or film makers with less money.
Hollywood has managed to retain its stranglehold, because of
how popular it is. The popularity automatically means the Hollywood films make
more money, which results in more and more films can be afforded to be churned
out.
Tuesday, 20 November 2012
Pros and cons of digital film piracy - Essay
What are the cons (for institutions)
and the pros (for the audience) of digital film piracy?
There are
many cons for institutions in digital film piracy. It can be a huge issue
because of the fact that it can costs millions to create films and the aim of
creating them, amongst other things, is to make a profit. If people are
recording the films themselves in cinemas and distributing them online or
otherwise, they are making no money for the institution that has made the film.
If everyone committed piracy, the film would make no money for the film makers,
and companies would, after a while, not be able to afford to make successful,
high budget films anymore.
Secondly, if
you do buy into the piracy market because you want a film earlier than the
official DVD release date, or are not prepared to pay the full price, your
money is usually given to criminal. It is probable that the criminal you are
paying is part of a bigger web of criminals, and therefore your money is more
likely to be spent on things you perhaps would not like the idea of.
The quality
of films that are illegally filmed and obtained is also usually much worse than
the film’s real quality. This can reflect badly on the film creators and also
dissatisfies the viewer where ever they may be watching it.
Urmee Khan, Digital and Media Correspondent at the Daily Telegraph
writes that ‘Tackling film piracy would generate £614m for UK economy’. This
shows how much we could do with an end to film piracy. It would also provide
some employment and tax revenue. With such technological advances in the past
ten to twenty years, the problem of copyright theft is ever growing worse as it
is becoming easier to translate a film somebody else has recorded in a cinema
onto your own computer screen or television screen. There are not only pros of
the internet!
However, there are also many pros for the audience of
film piracy. The obvious advantage of watching a pirated film rather than an
official bough copy of it is that you probably have to pay less. Also, often it
is easy to get hold of early copies of movies that may not be out on DVD yet.
These advantages often weigh out the disadvantage of the quality not being 100%
for many people.
The ‘pirates’
also make money from selling their recorded copy of the film. However, if they
are caught they could easily end up with a very high fine or even, in extreme
cases, a sentence in prison.
Overall, it
is clear that if everyone stopped piracy, the economy, and subsequently a large
amount of people, would benefit a huge amount. However, it is going to take a
lot more than the current effort made by ‘FACT’ and other organisations to stop
movie piracy altogether. Over half a million people in the UK download films
illegally every day, so there needs to be action taken and perhaps more
individual smaller punishments for people sitting behind their computers
downloading and never imagining they would be caught.
Tuesday, 13 November 2012
Actor Profile - Sabine Coates
Willa and I chose our friend Sabine Coates to play the main character in our opening, Ally Quinn. We chose her for a few reasons. Firstly, she lives very close to both of us which will make it easy, when it comes to filming, to access her and have her participate in filming. Secondly, she fits the description of a blonde girl, slightly grungy but attractive at the same time and she looks the right age also.
B.M
Sunday, 11 November 2012
Actor Profile - Luke Forryan
For our actor, we chose our friend Luke Forryan. We thought Luke would be suitable to play Jasper as he looks quite young and unthreatening and so it makes the audience question to whether he is actually guilty or not.
W.H B.M
W.H B.M
B.M
Thursday, 8 November 2012
Thriller Opening - Narrative
Ally is on a run to forget her sorrows/reflect on what has happened and the day ahead of her. Throughout her run she is thinking back to when Jasper Thomas was arrested (unfairly?) with flashbacks of her watching him being arrested and taken into a car from his house, and she has a moment of reflection and stillness by the river. This shot is interrupted by a cut to her slamming the door in her house and beginning to get ready to go to court that day. Shot of Ally's room. We cut back and fourth to Jasper in back of car going through city towards court looking nervous and upset. Finally we show Ally arriving at court sitting in front of car with mother next to her driving. End with shot of Ally and Jasper sharing a look and then Jasper being violently ushered into court, with Ally taking a deep breath and following with mother.
Cut to title
B.M W.H
B.M W.H
Jasper Thomas character
Character profile: Jasper Thomas
Jasper is a 23 year old man who lives at home, just finished university and has never committed a crime in his life. He is a very good person and has a loving relationship with his family and a great relationship with his friends. He would be the last person to commit a crime.
We want Jasper to be innocent looking, the opposite to a threatening rapist. Some actors I had in mind when deciding who should play Jasper Thomas were:
Jasper is a 23 year old man who lives at home, just finished university and has never committed a crime in his life. He is a very good person and has a loving relationship with his family and a great relationship with his friends. He would be the last person to commit a crime.
We want Jasper to be innocent looking, the opposite to a threatening rapist. Some actors I had in mind when deciding who should play Jasper Thomas were:
Robert Emms |
Michael Cera |
Aaron Johnson |
All these actors are innocent looking in my opinion, and look between 17-25.
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