2nd Draft

The second draft deadline is the week beginning 9th of January.

With the second Draft I already have some complications, because of the Location for the poker scene.

I originally filmed this in school, on the stage in Mendip hall, but this area has now become unavailable because of space.

I have found another location in the Drama studio but this has come with issues. I now need to find a way to encase the studio to make it look like a small square room in the dark.

Another issue I have with this is that very often the studio will be used by drama students so I will have to use what little time I will have in there wisely.

Poker scene

I do not plan for my poker scene to last for this long, I have used this video for an example to show some of the techniques that I want to use in my video, such as at 48 seconds in to the video you see the man chuck his cards towards the camera in slow motion, it is techniques like these and editing methods that make the production I am doing more conventional of the genre.

First Draft

The first draft deadline is this Thursday; I will be posting the first draft on my Blog within the week.

The first deadline for me is more about making sure that the props work and that the locations are suitable for my first draft.

I also need to make sure that I am using suitable affects for my Production that match those used in similar productions.

Story boards

Here are the Story boards for my opening 5 minute Film Production 'The king of Hearts'
They include the types of locations I wish to use and the basic props that I will need to make this successful.

Music

For the opening chase scene I will need a piece of music that will be similar to the music that is used in the film Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, by this I mean that it will need to be a similar genre (Indy). This will be done with a guitar, I will be using a friend to help me create this piece of music.
This will be for the chase scene that I will be filming in a wood so that i can film them running through the trees.
I have also thought about possible actors for my production, they will need to be looking older but still be young, they will need to be given make up and made to look older as the actors that are available to me do not look as old as I would like them to be.
The actors available to me will be people that are of similar age to me (18), this will mean that I am relying on the acting to give the sense that they are older than they actually are.

Rating

I have now chosen the censorship rating for my production,
I have decided it would be best for the rating to be a 15, this is because the opening is unlikely to show a killing or sexual scene so i have chosen the age rating that will best match my capabilities in this opening 5 minutes

Use of props

One thing that I have noticed with the use of modern gangster films is the use of weapons such as guns and also drugs such as cocaine, in my production I will need to recreate this somehow.
In terms of recreating drugs cocaine can be simply recreated with the use of flour, whereas with the gun it is more difficult because I can use a toy gun but the effects needed to make it look like it is firing is difficult.
This is one of the many problems i will need to overcome when i begin to make my opening to a crime film, I could overcome this by editing in a flash or I could simply have a gun that does not fire, there are many solutions but I need to chose the most attractive choice to the audience members (my target audience being males in general, I have yet to be more specific with this)

Narrative

I have already talked about the idea I have for the production before the title sequence in that at the beginning it will start with a chase scene that will lead in to my title sequence, after this title sequence it will then cut to about 1 second of a black screen. This will then fade in to the shot of a car game being played by the four main characters, each with a briefcase by their side. This will then cut in between this and the chase scene, after this it will thenpermantly remain on the scene of the gambling, with a phone ringing, all the character so far will be dressed smartly if they are a main character

Title and design

This is the Title I decided to use, this Font is fairly plain but also not to plain because of the blotches in the writing, this is similar to texts where there are gun shots through it, this is stereotypical in other gangster films such as The A-team, despite this being from an action film the actual font of the writing is similar to that from the film Snatch. From 1:01 onwards you can see the title sequence from Snatch that uses a similar font, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vWxU7tclsw.

The title came from the idea that the king of hearts is the only king that doesn't have a moustache in a pack of cards, this relates to my narrative idea of four gangsters who are in the drugs world, but one of them is not the same as the others and tries to steal the drugs from the other 3 drug lords. This is just a basic Idea at the moment but I am satisfied with the Idea for the title.

British films

It is important that I also compare my production to American AND British film openings to get a mixture of the conventions used.

One film that is set in the 60's is Brighton Rock, this is another gangster film for me to look at and this will closely match the conventions of the British films I have already chosen to look at.

Another film that I have been advised to watch is called The Krays, this film stars some very well-known actors and is a benchmark for most British films, the conventions used are similar to those used in most American films but the film can be clearly defined as being British through the use of the actors and the narrative.

I think I will need to compare the films to the American films that I discussed in the last Blog entry.

Other texts

For my essay I was tasked with looking in to other films to research and collect ideas from that were earlier than the two films I looked at, as mentioned before I did choose a more recent film as well, this was Layer Cake, because the film managed to take 11 million dollars at the box office, meaning they must have used some good conventions.

In terms of the films I chose that helped create and set the conventions of the crime genre, these being things such as the way they use lighting and the characters they used at the time and also most importantly the setting and how the film begins, these films were; Reservoir Dogs taking 22 million dollars, Good Fellas taking 55.1 million dollars, Scarface taking 65 million dollars, The Untouchables taking 76 million dollars, The Godfather Part 3 taking 136 million dollars, The Godfather Part 2 taking 193 million dollars, Gangs Of New York taking the same amount and Pulp Fiction taking in 213 million dollars.

These were some of the most iconic films in history and were all rated amongst the top 40 gangster films of all time, amongst these were also the two films I had already compared.

These film openings will allow me to see some of the conventions that began the crime genre and helped it to evolve and progress to create new conventions for the genre.

In my essay I will be required to compare these films with each other and to the 2 films I originally chose to look at also to use some references from reviews and media terminology to analyse the key conventions of these films.

Media essay

We have been given our media essays back,
these essays are meant to relate to the productions that we are currently planning,
For my essay i need to add more references to texts that i have researched in my planning, also when comparing the two films i have chose (Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch) i will need to compare them to more films of a similar genre that were made earlier and set the conventions for the genre i am analysing.
Also i need to make my essay less descriptive and generalised and focus more on the texts in particular and the specific genre that i am talking about, speaking constantly about the conventions, what they are and how they are used.
The deadline for this essay re-draft is due in for the beginning of October.

Idea

I have now begun to draw and create my story board that will help to create a clear plan for my ideas that i have put forth.
To help my ideas to match the conventions of the crime/ action genre i am looking specifically at the moment at the title sequences of the opening of the film Snatch, specifically the order of the titles the font and the timings that they appear on screen, and also the timings that they appear, meaning is it at the beginning or after a small section of action or at the end of the opening 5 minutes.
These timings and parts of the opening are all crucial to get my opening as close and similar to the conventions of the well known crime/ action films.

idea

My first idea is relatively basic but i am thinking of starting with a chase scene that will then go back to a safe house of sorts, i have yet to go in to the details of this plot...

Back To WORK!!!

First day back with media,

Will need to update blog weekly once again

And on week one I will need to update my blog twice.

I need to begin to think of ideas to begin to create my production plan,

I could do this by doing a story board or shooting script, I think this time I need to include some theories in to my production, such as the use of binary opposites, because this will be crucial in my crime/ action genre opening.

In the next blog post I hope to be posting the possibilities for my production that will be possible for me to create with low production costs. Hopefully the ideas will include a range of settings and narratives.

Film openings

further research

I have began to research now into the visual codes of the film lock stock and tow smoking barrels and also the film snatch, these films are both made by the same director but have got different styles of openings. I have looked at the use of Mis En scene and the way they use editing techniques with the shots to create a good and captivating opening. These films use similar techniques but in a different order and in different ways to create different openings which allows me to have similar ideas.

research

I have now begun my research into my chosen question that I discussed in last week’s blog.
So far I have chose to research the films mentioned in the last post.
In class work now I have done work towards researching the text of The X Factor, and the company ITV, this has helped me to know what I should be looking for when I research the texts mentioned before.
The next deadline is the 11th of July, by this time I am expected to have handed in all of the research that I have collected as well as the final chosen question which I have decided on.
I think I am capable of meeting this deadline as I have already chosen my Title and have already began planning and researching in to this.

final decision

I have now decided to look at Films, specifically their openings.
I am interested most by the actions genre, because I am a fan of this genre.
This has enabled me to create an essay title that will relate to the production that I hope to create.
The question I have chosen to use is: "A close analysis of the action Genre in British Film",
I will be looking closely at films that are known as Gangster movies, the films in this type that I am a fan of include, Lock Stock and Two smoking barrels, snatch and layer cake. These films are well known gangster films that are popular action/ crime films that I know well.
I will be researching these texts and texts similar to these for my production and essay.

First Ideas

For my ideas I have looked at Productions such as short films and film openings.
Many film openings that I like include the hangover films, James bond: casino royal.
These films are capturing the audience’s attention straight away at the beginning which is a tough task.
I would also enjoy the task of fitting all the necessary information and points in to a short 5 minute film.
I think these options are what I will base my production on because of the challenge they offer.
I will choose to do one of these with an essay on representation because I want to be able to show representations early on in a film so you can show what the main character (s) is like.
My genre choice that I have chosen to do for my production be it a short film, or an Opening to a film, I aim for it to be an action/ adventure genre.
These are the foundations to my Ideas

First Entry

Today we discussed the beginning of our A2 course.
This involved talking about MS3 and MS4.
I think my decision so far is to not do a print based production, but to do a different moving image production; this will have to be different to a film trailer, like I created in MS2.
By this time next week I will have finalised my decision on what moving image to go for exactly.
This decision will go side by side with my decision on whether to produce an essay on representation or narrative or genre. Although I am already keen to produce and essay on representations in films such as American pie, the hangover and other films similar to these. This decision will be made over the next week.