My film

looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

After looking back through my preliminary task I have realised that I have learnt alot of skills.
My new skills now include a wider understanding of how to use a camera and editing suite. I have also learnt how much work goes into making a film.

I have now learnt how to set up a camera and now to film. I had a ruff understanding of how to do this but my knowledge has now improved. I also now have a good knowledge on the shot sizes that you can create whilst filming. I now have the understanding to go away and do all of this myself without any help.

I had no skills or understanding of how to use an edit suite until I started my preliminary task, although I, myself did not use the edit suite as much as I would like, I now feel more confident in using the suite. I could go away and edit something by myself. This is a key skill in having whilst doing this task.

I had a vague understanding about how much work gets put into creating a film before any of the footage is shot. I have learnt that there are many pre-production documents made before footage is shot. I also know that time management is a key part in all of this, not having all the pre-production documents will lead to an successful film.

what have you learnt about technologies from the process of construting this product?

I used many technologies whilst creating my opening sequence.

Scanners were used to scan all our paper documents onto the computer.

Camera and Tripod were used to film our footage, the camera was used to capture the footage and the tripod was used to hold the camera up.

Edit Suite was used to edit our footage, this was very important because this helped us in making our changes to our film, cutting out frames and adding new ones in.

A Digital Camera was used to take images of us filming and also to take images for our location recce.

Google was used to help us with our research.

Also Unsigned Band was used to help us find our copyright free music

how did you attract/address your audience?

We used the violence of the murderer as a unique selling point in our film. The reason behind doing this was because it shocked the audience into watching our film. In the opening sequence you do not see the murders face so this causes some mystery into the film. The fact that he attacks a women and then uses his unique way of putting her hand in blood is also interesting and makes people want to watch.

We also used flashbacks in our film we found this an interesting selling point because it is not very common in opening sequences. We thought we would try something new and something that would attract the audience to sit and watch and wonder why we have created them.

Our film is a British film and we hoped that this will also attract audiences. The British audience love to watch crime drama's such as The Bill, however there are very little British crime films. Most successful crime films are American and very high budget, but our film is low budget and British, therefore we have seen this gap in the market for British crime films and our trying to convert the British audience from crime drama's to crime films.

who would be the audience for your media product?

After looking at our audience feedback that we received by handing out questionnaires, we had to decide on what the British Board of Film Classification should be. After establishing that our target audience was males and females aged 16-24 and after realising that our film would contain lots of violent scenes and story lines, we decided that our rating should be 15.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

A production company is a company responsible for the development and physical production of new media, film, radio or a television programme. The company may also have the reasonability for raising the money to create the film.

A film distributor is an independent company, a subsidiary company, which acts as the final agent between a film production company and a film exhibitor. In the film business, the term "distribution" refers to the marketing of movies in theaters, and for home viewing.

Seeing as our film is a low budget British film we wanted a production company that was willing to accept this. This means we would need a company that was willing to help us on paying for things.

An example of a production company that may be interested in our film is Film 4. Film4 Productions is a British film production company owned by Channel 4. The company has been responsible for backing a large number of films made in the United Kingdom. For this company to help sell our film we would have to promote our film at a film festival.

An example of a distribution company that may be interested in our film is Momentum Pictures. Momentum Pictures (also known as Alliance Films UK), is one of the leading independent motion picture distributors in the UK and Ireland and releases approximately 20 theatrical films a year.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

This is a picture of one of our main charater. She is dressed in a coat and leggings, she is a university student so she is dressed in the latest fashion.

This is a picture of our other main character, at this moment in time he is dressed as the killer. He is dressed all in black so that he comes across as scary. His face is covered so that noone can see him, this is done for affect.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In our crime film we have had to follow the conventions of an opening sequence. We had to follow a certain structure so that our sequence was the same as all crime films. We found out about opening sequences

Audience Feedback

We gained audience feedback over two days. We selected members of our target audience and filmed them giving some basic feedback. We then selected more members of our target audience and handed them a questionnaire for them to fill in about our opening sequence.

When we showed our opening sequence to out audience, we had not yet finished editing. This helped us alot because we took on board what people had said about our opening sequence. This is what our audience had to say about our opening sequence before we had finished editing it:












We then handed out a questionnaire to an audience to gain feedback after we had finished our opening sequence.

Post Production Report

Once we had finished filming we then had to log all of the footage we captured. This took us a long time because we had captured 11 minutes of footage. After doing this and looking through our footage we then realised we had not filmed different shot sizes. Luckily we did not come across any brakes in time whilst filming.

When then had to film the shot sizes we needed this was harder to log because we then experienced brakes in time.

After finally capturing all of our footage we could start to properly edit it. We began by putting all of our clips in the right order on the timeline and this was when it all started to come together. Between some of our clips we had a flash which indicated that the next scene was a flashback. At first we found this difficult as the sound of the Detective taking the picture didn’t match the sound of the flashback. To overcome this problem we overlapped the two shots so that when the Detective took the picture we would be able to hear the begging of the flashback (as shown in the screen shot).

After watching it several times it became clear that there was nothing to show that the flashbacks were in fact flashbacks. To show the difference of time period we decided to use a contrast of colour by making the flashbacks black and white (as shown in the screen shot).

Once edited we then had to put titles. We had to decide where to put them within our opening sequence and how they would come up on the screen. We also had to decide on colours and fonts. Where we were unsure of what titles would appear we left spaces in the timeline for us to come back to at a later date (as shown in the screen shot). Eventually we decided the order of our titles; we did this by looking at the timelines of other crime film title in order to keep ours the same. We also had to make sure that the title of the film wasn’t the last titles to appear otherwise it would resemble a trailer rather than an opening sequence.

Production Report

Before filming we had a lot of preparation to do. We had to gather all our props that were included in our mise-en-scene. We began by looking at our props list and ticking off each item as we got it. This took some time as we had to borrow things from various places. Unfortunately we could not find a sofa so we had to improvise. Instead we used a row of chairs and covered it with pillows to make it look like a real sofa. It was important that we had the right props because we wanted it to look as realistic as possible.

After collecting our props we then had to make ourselves a flat. This had to look realistic with the amount of props we had. We had to make it look homely and like someone lived there. It also had to look like a murder scene, this was hard because we had to film before and after the murder happened.

We began by filming the scene where the Detective enters the corridor. This was hard to do because the corridor was very small and narrow so it was difficult to fit everything in the one shot. We had to do several takes of this shot until we could finally find a position for the camera where the corridor could all fit into one frame.
We then moved on to film our main scenes where the murder took place. Filming became a lot quicker because the shots were all very similar with the Detective inspecting the room whilst taking pictures. However because of this we found that the camera was in a similar position meaning that we didn’t have a variety of shots or shot sizes, something that we had to come back to at a later date.

Whilst we was filming we noticed we was paying far to much attention to what was happening in the scene rather than the camera work. We also didn't realise whilst filming that our light source was terrible. We didn't use a main key light and only had the outside light and a small lamp in the corner.

Pre production Report

For our final task, we had to make an opening sequence for our own film. As a group we decided that we wanted a film that had the genre of crime. We then started to discuss ideas about what we wanted our film to be about by doing this we slowly started to make a plot for our opening sequence. Once we had figured out what we was doing in our opening sequence we then had to decide on the whole plot. This then lead onto making a script for our film. We didn't have much of a script for our opening sequence because we didn't want to give to much away.

We then had to make our treatment. This made us think about what visuals and audio's we were going to include in our opening sequence. For our audio part in the treatment we had to think about diegetic and non-diegetic sound.

For our shot list we had to make a table which included every shot. For every shot we had to say what type of shot it was (long close-up etc), what was happening in the shot and the camera movement.

We then did our storyboard. We used our shot list to draw each picture and we had to make sure each picture was the right shot size. We also used the shot list to write the technical aspects in the box next to the drawings. We had to ensure that for each shot the technical box matched the drawing.

Next we had to do a location reece came after this once we had decided on were we was going to film our opening sequence. We had to take pictures of the room so that we got a feel of what props we needed, we had some trouble with taking the pictures but managed to get them to slot together to make a 360 degree view of the room.

Our prop list then followed once we had seen the room the list became easy, we had to make it look like a real flat.

Overall I think our preproduction tasks went well. We worked well as a team to make sure that everything got done. Although we did come across a few problems we overcame these and produced some good work that will help us when we are filming.

Questionaire

This is the questionnaire we handed out to about 50 different types of people. We done this to gain an understanding of what our audience would be like. We found out that on average most people visit the cinema once or twice a month mostly with their friends. We asked these people what they would expect in a crime film and they mostly commented on the amount of action they would like to see. They also mentioned about there being a twist at the end that shocks them. This information has helped us and we have taken on board what people expect.

Pre production documents

Research In Job Roles

The film industry divides itself into five sectors:

Development - the writing, packaging and financing of film ideas and scripts.
Production - the process of setting up and shooting every scene in a film.
Post Production - where all these shots are assembled, treated and mixed into a finished product.
Distribution - the process of selling this product to audiences, via the cinemas, retailers and rental firms.
Exhibition - the cinemas which screen the film for the general public.There are literally hundreds of different jobs in the UK film industry, each one requiring a unique combination of specialist skills. The majority of these roles are found within the film production sector, and production crews are divided into standard departmental hierarchies. Each department has definite tasks and allotted objectives at particular stages in the production process.

Film directors take overall responsibility for the look, sound and style of a film. Their job usually starts once they receive the script. It is the director's artistic vision that will guide the work of the film crew as they search for suitable locations, hire the cast, design the sets and lighting, and finally edit and dub the finished recording.

Producers are the main role in this industry. The initial idea for a project often comes from a producer, who will then keep an eye on the project from start to finish, the producer may also get involved with the marketing and distribution process. A producer or executive producer is required to report directly to the client. Producers work closely with directors and the other production staff. Increasingly, they need to have directing skills themselves as it is likely that the producer will also be the director and take care of all project operations. Producers arrange funding for each project and are responsible for keeping the production within the allocated budget.

Camera Operators perform a vital role within the camera department on feature films. They support the Director of Photography, and the Director, by accurately carrying out their instructions regarding shot composition and development. The seamless ease with which the camera moves is key to the narrative flow of feature films.

The Lighting department plays a crucial role in most film crews. Humanity lives by the light of the sun and, when it sets, artificial lights of different kinds and intensities are required. Although some productions may make use of daylight, for the most part it is necessary to use artificial light to achieve the visual image required. The different members of the Lighting crew are responsible, together with others such as the Camera crew or Designer, for the look and feel of the images that are captured on the screen. They set up a wide range of lighting equipment to achieve a variety of moods, atmospheres and effects, as well as helping to make the actors, performers and participants look right for their roles.

Plot For The Whole Film

Plot for the whole film

Five girls, one killer, this small town doesn’t know what’s hit it. Detective William brown is making it his mission to find the murderer. With a lack of evidence, will this murderer prove to be too big for this small town?

Less than a year ago, Detective brown attempted to solve his first murder case, a brutal attack on a young 15 year old girl was just the beginning…

This film begins at the end, showing the audience the final murderer of a local university student. We see how this girl is brutally killed and left in her flat for days until Detective Brown finds her following a phone call.

We cut back to a year ago, and as the year passes by detective brown tries to solve these murders, he finds a reoccurring clue that may lead him to the murderer, a handprint of blood from the victim. This gripping story shows the lives and troubles of all involved. We see each girl’s individual story and try and see if there’s any reason to these murders. Towards the end of the film we find out that the murderer is in fact Detectives Browns long lost son, just craving attention from his father. This gripping story shows the audience the tragic event of a son just trying to get the attention of his father.

As William puts the puzzle together, the clues take him to his main suspect Tom Brown. Williams tough questioning becomes too much and Tom cracks under the pressure confessing the whole truth to his father William. William is in a state of shock as he finds out that his son has committed the brutal murders. He doesn’t know whether to follow his heart or his head, should he arrest his son and never have the chance to see him grow up or does he take this chance to be a part of his son’s life and help him to fight his problems?In the end common sense proves to be too much, as William realises that there is only one thing that he can do, arrest his son.

Plot Of Opening Sequence

Plot of Opening sequence

Detective Brown and his team take their first look at the crime scene as a body bag is wheeled passed them. Detective William Brown walks into the murder scene with a camera in hand and a look of despair on his face, he slowly paces around the room trying to find any clues as to who is behind these sickening murders. As he glance’s around the room he see’s the vital clue that links this murder to the previous four, the hand print of blood, the victim’s handprint.

As the team moves in to assess the crime scene Detective Brown starts by taking pictures of the scene. As he walks over to the entrance to take picture of the drops of blood on the floor, the flash leads to the audience first flash back of the murder taking place.

The flash back shows shadows of the murderer walking into the room. The flash back stops as the detective continues to inspect the room. He then moves on to taking pictures of indents in the wall which leads to another flash back as the camera flashes.

The second flash back shows the murderer attacking the victim in the room; we do not see the face of the murderer but just how violent he can be. The flash back stops and the detective moves over the broken furniture where he takes pictures. This flash leads to show the struggle between the girl and murderer as she screams for help and tries to escape. As we come back to the room the detective walks over to the hand print of blood, as he mumbles to himself he takes his final picture. This final flash back shows the murderer leaving his signature mark by printing the victims hand in their own blood, before finally leaving another scene of devastation. The opening sequence ends with a final flash.

Textual Analysis

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Recent Films

Crime films from 2008 are:
- Bangkok Dangerous
- The Dark Knight
- Mad Money
- Max Payne Despite negative reviews from critics, Max Payne opened #1 in the box office with $17,639,849 on its first weekend. The film has grossed $40,689,393 in the United States and Canada, with $44,677,000 in foreign markets, making a worldwide total of $85,366,393. While it is not considered an overwhelming success, its U.S. gross was around the same range as other video game adaptations such as Hitman, Silent Hill, and Resident Evil. Its international gross was lower than both Silent Hill and Hitman, and it was significantly lower than that of the three live-action Resident Evil films released to date. The film also ranks ninth in U.S. box-office gross revenues for video game adaptions.
- Patology
- RocknRolla
- The Spirit

Crime films from 2009 are:
- 44 inch chest
- Fighting
- The Informant!
- Killshot
- Law Abiding Citizen
- Public Enemies The movie opened at number three behind Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs with $25,271,675. The following weekend it had a 45.5% drop to $13,794,240 for a total of $66,221,110. The next three weekends the movie would go on to have decent drops of 46% or less. As of January 18, 2010 the film grossed $97.1 million domestically with a worldwide gross of $214.1 million in revenue, more than twice its reported production budget.

Crime films from 2010 are:
- Brooklyn's Finest In its debut weekend in the United States, Brooklyn's Finest opened at #2 behind ‎Alice in the Wonderland with $13,350,299 in 1,936 theaters, averaging $6,896 per theater. As of March 2010, the film has grossed $24,859,000 in the United States and $24,956,198 worldwide.

- The Jilling Jar

History Of Genre

A Crime Film is a film that invoves various aspects of crime and the crimal justice system. A Crime Film can fall under many different genres most commonly drama film, thriller film, myser film, action film and film noir. Films that are focused on the Mafia are typcial examples of crime films. Films dealing with crime and its detection are often based on plays rather than novels. In crime films, in most cases it is not clear at all whether the accused is gulity of the crime or not - this is how suspense is created.

A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, crime and corruption put the characters in conflict with themselves, others, society and even natural phenomena.

Group Meeting

In my group we had to work together to decide many things that would then later help us in completing our final task. The first thing we had to decide was the genre of our film, after a long discussion we decided upon crime. We then went on to putting together as a group the plot to our film. After comparing and discussing our ideas we finally came up with the plot and the title of the film. We decided to call our film The Handprint.

We then had to start out pre-production documents, in our group meeting we discussed who would commit to doing what. We had to make storyboards, scripts, location recce and so on. We also created a questionnaire this was our biggest help in the pre-production stage because this helped us find our target audience, as a group we decided our audience was males and females aged 16-24.

We had a pre-filming meeting to discuss when and what times we would film. We had to schedule our filming during lessons because two members of our group are from different schools. This meeting also included what props each person would bring in.

After filming we had another meeting, and sat down to watch our footage. After seeing our footage we then found that we had missed certain shots, we then scheduled to shoot again.

Our last meeting was to make sure that everyone was happy with the opening sequence of our film and to choose music which suited our film. We then showed a ruff cut of our opening sequence to members of our class this then lead us into getting feedback.

Conventions Of An Opening Sequence

Brief For The Main Task

Brief- The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last maximum of two minutes. All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidates, with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source.