My Pitch- Suppression

My original idea before our final idea:

Characters:                     Genre: Action/Thriller
Person A
Person B
Person C

1. A teenager, Person A, of either gender appears to be hiding subtly from someone/something. The reason for this is not clear.

2. As they are walking the credits appear in puddles, car windows and fences.

3. When Person A walks past a certain spot they start to become more shifty and nervous.

4. He/she is then encountered by Person B and C who block them from both directions. These two characters are the ones being avoided from.

5. Person B and C pull out a gun and hold it at eye level, aiming towards person A's head.

6. Person A looks behind to see Person C pointing the gun, then a gunshot is heard.

7. Person A's head turns back to face Person B who has already fired the gun.

8. The bullet shoots towards Person A's head

9. Camera is in point of view of the bullet

^ 7,8&9 are all in slow motion

10. The bullet stops inches away from Person A's face and then the entire scene rewinds back through the  whole of Person A's day. This includes rewinding the shooting all the way until Person A wakes up in the morning.

11. The scene ends with an extreme close up on Person A's eyes closed.

12. As soon as their eyes open it cuts straight to the opening title: Suppression

I believe that some of the things I would want to do would take time and patience but I think the finished sequence would look really good.

Titles and Credits

Opening titles and credits could indicate what themes, genre and general idea of the film. The opening credits show the people starring in the film and the most important members of production, e.g. the director. Different font type and size could allow the audience to get a feel of the mood the film is in. Handwritten font could suggest the film is a rom-com whereas big, block, square font could indicate that it will be an action film. Colour also plays a big part in discovering the genre. If the font was red it could suggest danger which could then mean that it is a horror movie. The credits could appear over the opening sequence or on a background. 

The credits flash onto a black background in the colour red. This indicates that it will be a thriller or a horror movie. The title of the film 'Monster House' appears on the screen towards the end of the credits in a big font. It is also 3D like which would grab the audiences attention. 

This is completely different to the first clip. The credits are appearing on the the footage. The font is white and the font is funky which suggests its going to be a girly teenage film. We have decided that for our opening sequence we would put our credits on the opening sequence and not separately on a background. 

Distribution of My Film

Choosing a distributor for our film

I researched small independent companies that would be able to distribute our film. As the genre of our film is action/thriller, I was looking for companies that would be best suitable for this genre. I came across a company called Metrodome which has a microwave scheme. They give small British films a chance to make their movie giving them a budget of £100,000 and only 18 days to make it. Metrodome have worked with some big names in the business such as Jake Gyllenhaal (Donny Darko) and Kirsten Scott-Thomas (Leaving). I think that this company will be perfect for our film as they have distributed films with our genre and is also a UK company which is where our film is set.

Institution & The Film Process

This is the process of making a film. Knowing this will benefit me in the weeks to come when I begin to create my opening sequence.

Development- developing the idea and the project in general.
Pre Production- is the process of preparing all the elements involved in a film e.g. finance, storyboarding and writing the script.
Production- is when the actual film is being produced and the gathering of sound and images.
Post Production- is when the film is being edited. The titles are created and added as well as the audio. Finishing of the film.
Distribution- The finished film is distributed and is exposed to the public. 

Distribution
Film distributors are responsible for marketing a film and the circulation of movies in cinemas and home viewing. They decide how much the film should be advertised in order for it to become a success, using things such as posters, trailers and many other promotional techniques. There are two different types of film distributors. There are big companies that usually promote big hollywood blockbusters and then there are the independent distributors.

Big Companies:

20th Century Fox Film Corporation
Located in Los Angeles, west of Beverly Hills. It was founded on May 31st, 1935 after Fox Film Corporation and Twentieth Century Pictures merged together. They have produced many successful film franchises such as Home Alone, Star Wars and Ice Age. The most highly gross film they distributed is Avatar with a total gross of $749,766,139 and Star Wars with a total gross of $431,088295.

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Warners Bros is located in Burbank, California and New York. It has many subsidiary companies such as Warner Bros. Pictures and Warner Bros.Studios. It was founded by four brothers: Harry, Albert, Same and Jack in the 1900s. They have also produced many successful hollywood films such as The Hangover, The Artist and Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix which they co produced with Heyday Films. 

Independent Companies: 

Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation

North American entertainment company formed on July 3rd, 1997. As of 2012, it is the most successful independent film and television distribution company. They distributed films such as The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 and The Hunger Games. 

Group Update- 20/12/12

Today we came to our final decision about the storyline of our opening sequence. We decided to incorporate all of our ideas into one. We felt that each one of us gave good ideas and that if we put it all together it could work extremely well. One idea we felt would work is Theo's ideas about where the credits would be shown e.g. in a puddle or on a car window. One idea we all unanimously agreed on was Mats scientist character creating a cure for a virus. We felt this was a slightly more original idea and if played well could potentially work.
I had a technical idea of reversing a shot in slow motion. This is still being decided on, despite everyone liking the idea, it is difficult to do and involves a lot of time and patience. We are not really sure if it fits in with our opening sequence, but we will have to see. Serena's idea involved a variety of different shots such as POV and tracking shots which we decided to include in our sequence.

Group Update- 18/12/12

Today we put forward our individual ideas for an opening sequence. We reviewed each one giving the positives and negatives and realistically thinking if it is possible to do each one. We decided not to come to a conclusion on which one to chose as we felt we needed more time to decide which one to stick to. We agreed to make our final decision in our next lesson.

Feed the Fish

My Group:

• Iveta
• Inoshan
• Fahad

Throughout the first two months of our AS media course we have learnt about a variety of different shots and what they can symbolise. We then applied our knowledge by creating our 'Feed the Fish' sequence.

We first did an establishing shot of the building and Iveta walking inside. This enables the audience to see the entire setting and to recognise Iveta as the main character. I was impressed by the steadiness of the camera despite not using a tripod. This, in my opinion, is the best shot of our sequence. 

Our next successful shot was the match on action used when Iveta is walking into the building. This created the impression of a sense of continuity. We then did a low angle shot of her walking into the building. I feel that this fitted in well as it hides Ivetas face. This makes the audience question who this character is and what importance she may have. However I learnt that a low angle shot is often used to increase the height of a character or to inspire fear to the audience which definitely did not fit in with our sequence. Another problem with this particular part was the sound. As Iveta is walking off screen we can hear a loud laugh which only lasted a second. There was no sound we would intentionally use, so to improve this we would block out all surrounding sound. 

I have learnt that it is important to discuss what is the right camera angle/shot to use and what meaning we want to project to the audience. 

We did a tracking shot of Iveta walking up the stairs. We felt that this was a decent shot, however it could be improved. The camera was not really steady, so to improve I would use a tripod. Another issue with this shot is the lighting. Although this is quite hard to improve as we are not able to control the sunlight. However, there are many stairs in our school so we could of gone to a different part of the building. Again the sound is another problem. As said before, to improve I would block out the sound. 

One shot I thought did not fit was Iveta opening a fence door. I feel that this did not make sense as the previous shot was of her walking up the stairs. From the group feedback, our audience members stated that they were confused by this. To improve this I would stick to filming indoors as it would of made more sense. However, i feel that the close up on the sign 'Danger of Death' worked well to build up the tension of where the character was heading. I felt that the shot after of Iveta trying to close the fence door on the other side was pointless. 

I felt that the 'over the shoulder' shot worked well as it revealed the reason where and who this character was travelling to see. Although there was a pointless low angle shot used whichIi felt did not fit in with the conversation. To improve this i would of stuck to the 'over the shoulder' shot. 

The flashback part could be improved in many different ways. The sound of students in the background was the main issue with this part. To improve, instead of blocking out the sound we could of filmed it at a time where students were in lessons to reduce the noise. Our aim for this shot, as the sequence was called 'Feed the Fish', we wanted to show Iveta actually feeding a fish. We were hoping that the audience would think that feed the fish was code for something different. To make this more clear we could of used real fish food to feed a real fish. This was a problem however as none of us had a pet fish. 

This whole task gave me an insight into how the editing process would be when it comes to devising our own opening movie sequence. It helped me understand the meanings of different camera shots/angles which will be very useful. 

Group Update- 14/12/12

In todays lesson we started to discuss possible story lines for our opening sequence. The first step was deciding on what genre the sequence would be. We put down two ideal genres that we were happy with and they were Action, Thriller and Comedy. We then wrote down different films under each genre to develop a deeper understanding of the concept of the movie and how it fits under that specific genre. Comedy was definitely the genre we were edging towards, although it was very difficult coming up with an idea. A character we were quite keen on having was a superhero. We liked the idea of having a funny superhero doing dangerous/risk taking stunts. Having discussed this with our teacher, we were told that a comedy is difficult to get right and we could potentially struggle. Having taken what Sir said into consideration we decided it was best not to go with our superhero idea.

The next most popular genres were Thriller and Action. I was not particulary keen on the genre but to agree without argument we thought it would be best to combine the two.

First Cast List Draft

Kids Might Fly- Alex Taylor

Clip Three-  Kids Might Fly by Alex Taylor

What is it About? Looking at young people living in East London. It focuses on a young teenage girl talking about her childhood and the way she was brought up.

Who is the main character? Homeless female teenager around the age of 16/17.

What was their objective? What did they want? There was not real objective to the short film other than telling the audience about the way she has been living the past few years. 

What is the conflict?

First Two Minutes- The entire film has a documentary feel to it. The beginning appears to be filmed with a handheld camera which gives a home video effect. I felt this was better than using a camera on a tripod because it was more realistic and engaging. There was a POV shot of the girl looking at pigs. The camera was often following the teenagers movements which helped create the documentary feel. 

Mud Boy by Nic Penrake

Clip two- Mud Boy by Nic Penrake

Rating- 4 stars

What is it about? A young girl, Mina, finds a body buried at the bottom of her garden. Its her brother who has been missing for a while. We think that he is alive as he is still breathing and manages to walk and talk. However at the end we realize that he is dead and the girl is seeing his ghost.

Who is the main character? Mina, a young girl who looks around 7/8. Her younger brother who looks around 5/6.

What was their objective- what did they want? The main objective was to find her brother Jamie

What is the conflict in the narrative? Mina and her family are victims of abuse which they have tolerated from her mums boyfriend. From watching the short film the boyfriend has killed her brother Jamie and buried him in the back garden. 

First two minutes-  Close up shot on shovel that appears throughout the film. Tracking shot into the house where there is a straight cut onto a nintendo that Mina is playing. There are also a few two-shot and reverse two-shots of the mum and boyfriend arguing.

Coming of Age by Ben and Charlie Goodger

Clip One- Coming of age by Ben and Charlie Goodger

Rating- 5 stars

What is it about? About a young boy who struggles with his new responsibilities in a brutal post-apocalyptic future

Who is the main character? A young boy around the age of 15-17

 What is their objective- what do they want?   He aims to find a pack of pills which have previously been stolen from him. From what i could gather this boy has a sister who appears to be ill. This is why he has been trying to find these pills.

What is the conflict in the narrative? The boy has to get the pills but struggles as two men are trying to get these pills too. The main character finds some pills in what appears to be an abandoned barn, however he does not realize that it is occupied by these 2 men. When they notice the boy running away, they try to catch and kill him. 

First two minutes- There is off an off screen sound at the start of heavy breathing and running on crunchy leaves. The source of the sound is then shown of the boy running in a forest. There are 3 fade ins/outs and a brief tracking shot of the boys feet. An extreme close up on his face of his tears and rubbing his eyes. It then goes to a very long shot of him standing next to a grave. This creates a mystery of who is in the grave and what had happened to them.

Narrative

A story is a sequence of events which is known as the plot. The narrative the way those events are put together to be presented to the audience. 

Tzveten Todorov looked at 'linear narrative' which means where events happen in chronological order. 

Narratives are structured in the following order:

• Equilibrium- all is in order, 'normal' and happy
• Disruption- the state of normality is disrupted by an outside force
• Recognition- There is recognition that a disruption has taken place
• Repair- An attempt to repair the damage caused by the disruption
• New Equilibrium- the problem is solvers and the return of a new type of equilibrium

Example 1:

We first looked at a classic fairytale- Little Red Riding Hood

Equilibrium- Little Red Riding Hood is walking through the forest to bring a basket of goodies to her grandmother. 

Disruption- The wolf disguises as her grandmother.

Recognition- Little Red Riding Hood realises that it is the wolf.

Repair- The lumberjack barges into the house and kills the wolf. 

New Equilibrium- They are all safe and continue to lead their lives. 

Example 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8VoTI7qtk8

Arctic Monkeys music video- Leave before the lights come on

Equilibrium- The guy walking down the street.
Disruption- Saves a woman from committing suicide.
Recognition- Begins to harras him.
Repair- Tells her to go away
New Equilibrium- It happens all over again to another guy

My own example:
I applied narrative to a film- Juno


Equilibrium: A 16 year old girl living in a suburban area.
Disruption: She finds out that she is pregnant.
Recognition: She goes to the abortion clinic but cannot bring her self to go through with it.
Repair: Finds a couple to adopt her unborn baby.
New equilibrium: Adoptive parents take care of the baby and Juno carries on with her life.