Diary Entry

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Evaluation

ACTIVITY 1


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






ACTIVITY 2

In the film. Bullet boy and my Film, Slums ...Infamous J and Ricky are in similar as they are both of an ethnic origin, they are grammatically alike as they both tend to speak in slang using words like 'blood, and cuz' They also both play a brotherly role in their own different way, Infamous J plays the role of an older role model to Paul, whether its a bad role model or a negative one he still has the power to influence Paul's actions as shown in the film; this is similar to the character Ricky from Bullet Boy as he tries to guide his little brother through the rough area which they grew up in. The difference between the two characters is that Ricky had possitive intentions for his brother but these positive intentions where all being distroyed by he's gang affiliated lifestyle, whilst Infamous J did not truely have any love for Paul and was only manipulating him to do his dirty work.

As shown in the images above, both Ricky and Infamous J are seen in hooded sporting clothing, this reinforces the general stereotypical views that all male ethnic are running from the law, using hooded tops to keep their identity hidden.

ACTIVITY 4

My film will mainly be targeted at youths withing the African/Caribbean origin but will also be translatable to any youth within an ethnic background. The target age for this product will be to teenagers between the ages of 13 - 19, i chose this age due to the fact that the genre is crime/drama , this is something to definitely get the youths excited, however the other reason i chose to support this age group is because due to my general knowledge and statistics from  http://www.met.police.uk/crimefigures/  i was able to select the delicate ages which are being affected by crime. 

My target group would have the taste for the finer things in life, designer clothing, the lastest computer games.They'll be intrested in going out, having a laugh and simply living life. Theyre likely to be shopping in regular local sites such as shown below.

The type of music my target would listen to would probably be Bashment, hip hop, rap, r&b, funky house anything current, m pretty sure they would rather go to a theater, prior to a cinema.

 Their favourite tv programs will be 

ACTIVITY 7

Looking back my preliminary task, i feel i have developed as a media student in many ways, i am now more aware on the importance of the equipments used in filming a media text such as a Tripod, this is an essential that my preliminary task lacked which made it look unbalanced and amature. Also since my preliminary task my editing knowledge has increased as i am now able to make freeze frames and synchronise cuts within the scene.



I have also been introduced to the importance of the 180 degree rule and i'm now more confident and certain in terms of when and where it should be used and how it can be broken but effectively.

long shot.....

Animatics/ Storyboards

A Storyboard can be as simple as this.

Drawn with a Pencil or a pen, or can even be created with pictures from magazine and even photo graphs for all you non drawers. Storyboards are an essential to a great movie, as its a plan and a rough summary of the visual ideas in the directors head. Using a storyboard helps in organising your film. They also help to paint a vivid picture of your intentions which will be the guideline whilst shooting. Creating an animatic is the step before shooting and the step after the storyboard. Animatics take an awful lot of time, however it is a cheap and effective way of getting a clear pre visual of your product before shooting.

Here is a Clip of the Animatic process taken to construct The Lord Of The Rings.

As said in the Clip, this is a good strategy as it gives the actors a sense of the emotion and movement expected from them, these animatics can even contain voice overs in order to make it seems life formed.

Equipment

Tripod - Three legged stand that helped us stablise our shots.

Apple imac - This was the computer which Haringey Sixth Form supplied us with in order to create our films.













Final Cut Express 4 - this is the software i used to edit my footage



Canon 550D - i had to used this camera because, all the sony camera's where fully booked so i had to use my own camera as laast resort.

Editing Process

I used a program called Final Cut to edit the footages to my film, however this was not an easy process ...Whilst editing, i found a few things difficult such as cutting and trimming clips but also trying not to make the clip seem rushed, i also had a hard time figuring out how to freeze frame, i had to ask a student for help. It was also difficult to adapt to the Mac computer this was different from what i was used to so editing was twice as hard.
However there were quite a few positives as I've previously edited things in the past for fun so i fort it really easy to adapt to the buttons and icons.

During my editing i used one effect, this effect was called BAD TV, this was a distorted effect which made the screen fuzzy. i used this as it resembled a cctv camera. i wanted a cctv because this film was about crime therefore the character had been monitored from the beginning of his journey without his awareness and i thought this was a perfect way to tell the audience this. However if i could improve of something, i would go back, research then download much better transitions along with fonts.

Misc-en-scene

MISC-EN-SCENE

This is a french word which originated from the theatres, this word means, 'Put in the scene'

LOCATION

 The locations set for my film was an Estate

This conforms with the general ideology that most criminal are raised in estates or council flats

The intention was to make the story seem a bit more believable.

PROPS

We used a red car because in most cases , Red symbolises Evil.

This spanking new car allows the viewers to doubt Infamous bought this car legitly.

                                                                         CLOTHING

 The white collared shirt on Paul was to indicate his intelligence due to education, also the white stands for Good/purity... but as u can see, the purity in being eaten up by a thick black hooded jacket, this shows he has good intentions within but evil swamps his as soon as he returns home. 

Furthermore

Infamous J is dressed in a thick black jacket with a dark hooded top underneath this suggests he had no remorse .. No good intentions within.. also the designer NIKE is a sporting clothing ... this suggests he's 

ALWAYS ON THE RUN.

Soundtrack

This soundtrack is used in the introduction to my film. I decided to use this particular song because the lyrics explain the struggles of living in London city, the dilema's within peer pressure, this relates to my film perfectly, i think my targeted audience will immediately be hook and intrigued, also they were no copyright issues as the artists are my close friends so i just had to ask for their consent. 

This song was made by ... SP CARLITO 

Titles/Credits

BOOGIE NIGHTS
The film begins, with a dull, ear aching music ... then suddenly pounces into a much welcoming entertaining disco song. This is a strategy used to create an element of surprise, it leaves the viewers with the mind frame that anything sudden can happen in this movie so do not dose off. Also as the disco song begins, the camera sways from left to right ...this motion resembles a disco dance move, this will have the audience feeling the disco fever right from their seats. Amazingly there are no cuts in the first scene, this is a skill that no every director can pull off. i believe they decided to record this scene this way to again make the viewer believe them too are at a disco, people at such a crowed environment are likely to be on the go.

Target Audience

My Film will be targeted at all teenagers but within the ages of 13 - 19.
I chose this age group because i believe these are the vulnerable ages where teenagers are beginning to grow up and can be victims to peer pressure. I didn't choose a specific Gender or race because i believe the actions in the film can happen to ANYONE.


  

CINEMA WERE MY FILM WOULD BE BASED:

Audiences

MAINSTREAM AUDIENCE - Is the common current thought of the public, any product that appeals to the mainstream audience will contain the highest viewing and listening audience an example of as main stream fil is Titanic 



These are movies that are persumed to attract a hugh mass of audience. Usually popular stars are featured in these films. 

CULT AUDIENCE - A cult audience are the most devoted group of fans, although they are not commercially known,  cult films are extremely popular amongst a small group of obsessed followers

An example of a cult film would be
 

Genre

The Genre i chose to for my film to be about was Drama/Crime reason being, i believe these are the most exciting genres to work with also i live in London so I'm no stranger to these topics and i feel like i'd offer a more realistic and entertaining story compared to an outsider.

Similar Texts

Kidulthood

This film helped me in my film, as it gave me ideas in ways to differentiate Class, i followed
the general ideology given by this film, showing that the young ethnic minorities are usually dressed in hooded
tops, involved in crime, and living in flats and estates. I have incorperated all these ideas into the making
of my film as you can see.

Shank


These are two films that are similar to my film, although they are not similar in terms of the storyline, they have similarities in terms of Genre, and targeted audience. The genre i have decided to do is Crime/Drama ... From these genre's you should expect a hidden message behind it, a positive message for the viewers, you should expect fast cuts in scenes, you should also expect some explicit language.

Analysis of a Film?

Title - Training day
Writer - David Ayer
Director - Antoine fuqua
Genre - Crime/Drama/Thriller
Target audience - Ages 16+

Training day starring Denzel Washington who was a dedicated but crooked cop taking a young vonurable new cop on his first day on the job as a officer. The police costumes, sirens, guns, and cop cars used in this film made the story believable. He is shown with a cross pendent at the beginning of this film to show he was once innocent but the corruption in his job later changes him. When he dies, we no longer see the cross pendent but we now see his police badge, this indicates the source of his death, he put his career before his religion.

Title - Hard Candy 

Writer - Brian Nelson

Director - David Slade

Genre - Drama/Thriller

Target audience - Ages 14+

I think this film is called Hard Candy because the main character 'Haley' looks SWEET but as the film progresses we are shown her vicious 'Hard' and harsh personality. Although she seems like a vulnerable teenager, she's really a mature 14 year old who meets a 34 year old man on through the internet. This film might be exaggerated but it has its bases on a true story or what could happen through an internet chat room, this allows the audience to easily relate to the story.

Title - Friday

Writer - Ice cube / Dj Pooh

Director - F. Gary Gray

Genre - Comedy/Drama/Crime

Target audience - Ages 16+

This is a film that i chose to analyse.

Firstly, the film starts with a soulful song, instantly we know this is going to be an Afro theme film.

Secondly the openning shot shows a shoe hanging on the electricity wires in the middle of the streets ... this is something usually done in the 'Hoods' in America, this symbolises a loss, a killing in the neighbourhood,this allows us to know what type of environment this film is set in. Thirdly the camera starts off in a first persons perspective, this puts us viewers into the mind of the character.

Frinally The [V.O] shows that this film is like a story being told and the character is aware that we are watching the Voice over also initiates that we're going to be handheld through this amazing film. 

My Recce

**OUR RECCE HAS BEEN RECORED AND EDITED BUT WE HAD A SLIGHT PROBLEM IN UPLOADING IT ONTO YOUTUBE**

The creation of my recce was one of the most important things i did in this project. This recce allowed me to plan for my final shooting, it was like a trail run to see what was hot and what wasn't in other words, what we should keep or scrap. The recce was the conservation between Paul and Infamous J, we just decided to pick out the easiest but most informative part of the film.

The clothing didn't work, we had to make the typical ideology and stereotype a little clearer, we also had to change locations to an estate as we wanted to go for the more deprived image, how ever the main structure of the conversation worked perfectly fine, although we made some rough adjustments during the final shooting, as we had access to better props such as Estates and Cars.

Here are some pictures of the behind the scenes view:

Quentin Tarentino & Recce

                                     Quentin Tarentino

Quentin Tarentino is a great writer/Director. In January of 1992, Reservoir Dogs was a an instant Hit the by first-time writer-director Quentin Tarantino. The film garnered critical acclaim and the director became a legend immediately. He then followed up with another spectacular film with this time Two Volumes to it, this film was called Kill Bill.

Quentin Tarentino uses Great Camera angles and Great screenplay. As you can see, Quentin Tarentino used a close up and not an extreme close up shot so he could hit two birds with one stone, he uses a close up shot to show the detail in the bloody scene but it also allows us to capture the pain and distress from the characters facial expression. He changed his camera angles from the recce to his final film, this same scene was the complete opposite as the bleeding man was further away from the camera however, hes such a talented Director that he realised his mistake and improved his final piece.




how quantin changed the angles in the real movie

Preliminary Task

This is the final outcome to my pliminary task which was to make a short two minute film.
This task was to give us an idea of how films and scripts are created, this is a short film myself and my group made. This film is about an innocent boy who is constantly bullied and robbed for his goods. I know its basic but it's just something we thought would be easy and straight forward. The shots we included were...

1. Mid Shots
2. Extreme close ups
3. close ups
4. Over the shoulder shots.

At this stage, our knowledge in camera shots and angles were minimal thats why some may see this as an amateur effort. we could have improved on  many things such as the acting, and also the cuts, we could have used more transitions to create a smoother effect.

Script writing & Analysis

Writing a script before shooting a film is crucial, to make a film without a script will be a recipe for disaster. I can now say i understand why scripts are so important to film making, they don't only just contain the dialog, they are so detailed to the point where good scripts will make you feel like you where watching the film with your imagination. Scripts tell you the tone of which people speak, the Voice overs, the location and time.
A final script draft should include enough linguistic devices to make the director and actor feel the emotion of the character.

180 degree rule

 The 180 degree rule is a simple guideline that says two characters in a scene must always have the same left/right relationship as eachother.

Imagine a circle which is 360 degrees, cut the circle into half making it a 180 degree semi circle, this will be your action work base. This technique can be used when viewing people conversating, you should always keep the camera within the 180 degree of the circle .


How ever the 180 degree rule can be broken, as proven int the film Dark Knight however this is only performed in rare occasions and by experienced directors only, such as Christopher Nolan. Personally i believe Christopher Nolan simply played with the irony in the scene that The Joker had intentions of braking rules .

These images show how the 180 degree rule is broken, the camera switches sides and crosses the 180 degree boundaries.

Intial Ideas - Treatment- Storyboards & Script

(idea 1)
TREATMENT: This film is called LAST HOPE, it's set in north London. it's about a young boy who was born into a mafia family.
He doesn't understand that he is the chosen one to carry on the family name, his family has been running the street gangs for years and are highly wanted by the police so before they get caught the leader of the family tells him its hes turn to be in charge and hands him the responsibilities.

STORYBOARD:

SCRIPT:
LAST HOPE

"LAST HOPE", By Damilola Alokolaro


                5/12/10
                first

INT. LONDON HACKNEY, TRAPHOUSE LIVING ROOM -- NIGHT

Boy gang member on his knees holding prayer beads in hands,Casually dressed
whilst surrounded by fellow elderly gang members dressed smartly,dull mood,
Elderly members join hands for the last minute prayer.

[V.O] Clock ticking

Prayer finishes, Leading Elder looks at clock, (slowly)

EXT. LONDON HACKNEY, TRAPHOUSE LIVING ROOM -- NIGHT

Police officers on foot Surround the entrance of the TRAPHOUSE (Silently) armed with guns and
torchlights...

INT. LONDON HACKNEY, TRAPHOUSE LIVING ROOM-- NIGHT

Elderly gang leader pours a drink ,straight face,makes a toast,
then directs boy to the back room.(calmly)

EXT. - LONDON HACKNEY, TRAPHOUSE LIVING ROOM -- NIGHT

INT. - LONDON HACKNEY, TRAPHOUSE BEDROOM -- NIGHT

                BOY
        is everything ok?

                ELDERLY
        [SIGHS]..son.its time

the Elderly hands Boy a folded piece of paper and a gun then walks into the
Living room.police shortly bursts into the TRAPHOUSE, arresting all the gang members.
boy makes a dash through the bedroom window, where a man in a car awaited him in the alley way.
Car horns, boy jumps into get away car.

                DRIVER
        Hello...

                BOY
        huh, Whats going on? (trying to catch his breathe)

                DRIVER
        Hahaa...

                BOY
        who are you? where are you taking me?

                DRIVER
        that is not important.. and neither is who i am.

                BOY
        what?..speak now!!! (angryly)

Boy points gun at drivers head, Driver isnt faised and still laughs,
Turns head towards Boy, and smiles,

                DRIVER
        You are the LASTHOPE


(idea 2)

TREATMENT: This film is called TRANSITION it's about a boy contemplating whether he should commit suicide, because he's being cyber bullied. He heads towards the woods and approaches a near river and see's a bright light from the sky and decides not to go on with the suicide act.

STORYBOARD:

SCRIPT:
TRANSITION

"TRANSITION", By Damilola Alokolaro

                6/12/10

                first

INT. LONDON TOTTENHAM, BEDROOM -- NIGHT

Teenager called Spencer sits at his computer on a chat room. dressed in pajamas.

lights out, only light source is from the computer screen.

EXT. LONDON TOTTENHAM, BEDROOM -- NIGHT

INT. LONDON HORNSEY, BASEMENT-- NIGHT

Crazy bully laughs aggressively as he types threats to Spencer through his laptop

dark basement. he sits on a stool , no bed.

EXT. - LONDON HORNSEY, BASEMENT -- NIGHT

INT. - LONDON TOTTENHAM, BEDROOM -- NIGHT

                SPENCER

        Leave me alone!!

                BULLY

        [LAUGHS] LOL

Spencer pulls the plug from this computer [VICIOUSLY] then storms out of his house towards a near river.

[V.O] - Why me? wh whh why? 

Spencer then looks into the clouds and see's and opening, he falls to his knees and begins to wheep.

         

(idea 3)
TREATMENT: This film is called 48HOURS and it's about a boy called 'Paul' who used to live in a deprived area, but his parents moved him out to he's relatives in order to live a better life and go to university, However he returns for a weekend, and falls back into he's old ways, committing crimes etc ...due to peer pressure from an old mate called 'Infamous J'

STORYBOARD:

SCRIPT:

48HOURS

"48HOURS", By Damilola Alokolaro

                7/12/10

                first

INT. EAST LONDON, 149 BUS -- DAY

Paul sitting on the bus, with his luggage, looking distressed, looks from left to right nervously.

[V.O] - I can now see our suspect. IC3 on the 149 bus heading towards tottenham. [police officers]

He ringings the stop button and runs off the bus.

EXT. EAST LONDON, 149 BUS -- EVENING

[V.O] - Yeah im back to this dump, Shit aint changed... im only here for two days so it is what it is..

INT. LONDON BRENNETTS CLOSE N17-- NIGHT

Paul arrives at his neighborhood, and bumps into an old mate ...'Infamous J'

                INFAMOUS J

        Who's that!? .. leaning on his car, 1hand on mobile phone.

                PAUL

        It's Paul man... ..looking intimidated..

[V.O] - Thats infamous j, the biggest drug dealer on the block .. been jail 5 times, got 5 kids

                INFAMOUS J 

        Ohh shit, where you been fam?

                PAUL

        ive been at Uni and that ..

                INFAMOUS J

        Fuck uni and alladat Blad..Look at my whip

                PAUL

        Naa man I've changed ..drops head embarrassed..

                INFAMOUS J

        Yh i can see you've changed, But since your killers lil brother mans got love for you still

                PAUL

        yh i hear that

                INFAMOUS J

        Come buck me at 12 oclock i got a lil job for you

                PAUL

       [Sighs] i'll THINK about it   ..Whipes hand across face

                INFAMOUS J

        Why you moving soggy blud, 12 O'Clock..Tonight

            

[V.O] - yeah, he's saying i'm soggy . but i'm not trying to get drawn into this lifestyle uno.

Spencer gives infamous j the hood handshake and sprints into the flats slamming his front door!