Media Evaluation

Our media project this term was to produce an opening sequence to a film. We started off by choosing groups our group was Dan Mckenna, Annie English, and Mollie Bodian. First in our groups we did a prelim task. We didn’t really plan for this task and the product show that, after the task we learnt from our mistakes and made sure that for our main project we would plan well for it, the mistakes were that we didn’t plan the mise en scene so our lighting and setting wasn’t right this was because we didn’t look for a room before we were going to do the task so it was a last minute thing, also we didn’t notice the flashing monitor in the background which made the task look really amateur and poorly done. This made us make sure that our planning for the opening sequence will have to improve.

At first we decided on a thriller/war film however we notice that without any money and lack of resources it would be hard to make the film look realistic. This was a setback so we decided to brainstorm on other genre, the genre caught our eye was the gangster genre because it was easier to make with our budget and resources we had by focusing on the character instead of stunts. It was easier to make situation in the film than explosion.

Our group had the opening sequence all done however we had to make the plot for the whole film otherwise we weren’t sure if the audience could make sense and see where it’s going. We make the plot for the hole film which was that a gang of amateurs were going to rob a bank however there is a traitor in the gang who double crosses them and the gang all get sent to jail except the traitor, when the gang gets out the traitor has come top gangster so the gang all make a revenge plot.

Once we had our plot we started to think about what characters we wanted to have in our film. We decided to go with the stereotypical character with the hard man as a leader, an amateur, a traitor, a drug addict and an every day guy that got into the wrong crowd, who the audience understand. After we got all our character sorted out we went on to think about what we are going to do for our opening sequence, our first idea was the gang playing poker and it goes to each character and introduces them separately and showing something about them, we elaborated with by freezing on each person separately and then show a flashback of something they have done in the past.

Now we all knew how the opening sequence was going to plan out we started storyboarding, showing how the camera angles for each shoot was going to look and how the mise en scene was going to work. In our storyboarding we were making sure that we put in shot type and shot techniques like match on action, 180° rule. After we storyboard we made a shot list so we could start filming.

Now we started filming which is good for our group because we all live about 5 minutes away from each other also it help because Dan had a camera that was compatible to the Macs and Annie had a tripod. We decided to use friends as our actors who also live near us so we did need to take stuff out of school or bring people into school. We set up a schedule so we know when we were going to film and we can tell our actors when we are going to start filming. We thought we should keep organised so we all know when we are going to everything. We only had a week to do all the filming before we started editing.

In our film we wanted all the actors to look like they are in a gang so with there costumes we made them wear leather jackets. We made Jacob have a brown leather jacket because he was the leader of the gang so it will identify that his clothing is different to the others so the audience will see that he is the leader in the gang before they hear martin phoenix say he is. Not everyone had a leather jacket but mark smith had a couple extra to lend out.

We start filming the flashback of our opening sequence first this was because we couldn’t get all our actors out at the same time and also we didn’t a setting to hold the poker game at that present moment. The filming of all the flashbacks went really well expect one of the flashback which was Mickey the kid who josh white play, we had to reshoot the flashback because the lighting of it the flashback changes because it gets too dark in the winter.

The first flashback we filmed was Vincent Carbone’s flashback which mark played we wanted him to look suspicious so he would portray the traitor in our film. We filmed this flashback in a dark alley where he is meeting a dodgy character who hands him a package and walks away. We had him smoking so it looked like he shouldn’t be doing this and looking suspicious so the audiences would hopefully notice that he is the traitor however also we have got a voice over which tells you that he is the untrusted one in the gang.

The second flashback was Powder Charlie. He was the getaway driver and also he was the drug addict. His flashback was him in a van waiting for accomplice to come back where he is taking some cocaine which is four. Then the accomplice comes in and Charlie is a mess and drops the keys. With the voice over it all will make a sense to the audience.

The next flashback we did was Mickey the kids, Mickey is the amateur in the gang so in his flashback we tried to portray this by steal a phone from a park off a little kid, also we made him keep repeating himself so that it show that he does really know what he is doing and just wants to fit in with the gang, we made sure that when we did this everyone at the park knew what was going on and that kids parents knew what we were doing and were fine with it.

The final flashback we did was of Jimmy the Fist, we wanted to so that he was our leader and the reason why he was the leader and we want the audience to see this to, so in his flashback we made him beating up a guy just for urinating next to him. We wanted to make him look violent also with the voice over he explains this.

After we did all the flashbacks we had to do the main poker scenes to do, with doing this we decided to film all of it from start to finish with a lot of different angles so that we had choices of different shoots to play around with when we start editing. We film the gang as a group but also will film them separately for the flashbacks and the freeze frames, therefore with powder Charlie we made it lower than everyone else because he was the druggie and a messy character so it didn’t look even in addition he is also sniffing to show that he is a drug addict. Also with Mickey the Kid he is a clumsy character so to show this in the opening sequence you see him knocking over a glass so that the audience know from the start that that he is clumsy, as well as when he is talk the gang is ignoring him so we made the camera not focus on him so that you can tell that know one cares what he is saying. Before jimmy the fists flashback we have him throwing the cards down this shows that he is the leader and makes the rules. Then we have Vincent Carbone where before his flashback showes him cheat which also lead to him not being trusted so show that later on in the film he will do something to the gang which he does. Finally there is martin phoenix that doesn’t have a flashback but you can tell that he is a normal guy who the audience is going to be able to relate to.

In our planning of the film we wanted to use a room above a pub so you get the gangster feel however we couldn’t get permission to use a pub anywhere although our friend house who plays Jimmy the fist have the perfect lighting and furniture that we wanted for the poker game. We wanted it to look like we were older like the age that gangster would be so we put cold tea into shot glasses and put a Jack Daniels bottle onto the table. so it looked like we were drinking alcohol, we used a few other props like toy guns, the poker set and also cigarettes in there mouths. We use the guns very well in our opening sequence when the gang finds out that Vincent Carbone has been cheating they all stand up pointing their guns at Vincent expect Jacob where he has got a butchers knife and is banging it across the table we wanted this to show that Jimmy isn’t like the rest of the gang and that is why he leads it. The gang wait to see what Jimmy wants to do and he just laughs and everyone joins in because there all friends theirs no point killing him over that.

Next stage of our production was to help with our planning we did this by having separate jobs I had to do fonts and conventions, with the fonts I had a list of font then I analysed a few of them that the group through were best and worst. With conventions I just show all the props and explain why we were using them because of the genre we were using and also what people said were in gangster films in our questionnaires.

The stage of our production now was the editing stage, we all took it in turns with the editing however me and Mollie did a bit more because we weren’t at all of the filming, we edited the film but we needed music Daniel research some music however they were signed so it couldn’t be used, therefore Daniel went to look for songs sang by unsigned band we were looking for the song sunshine of your love but not by cream by an unsigned band however we could find that song for ages and I found a song which went alright with the film which was Diablo- Subdue which was alright then again after a week of look Annie found Sunshine of your love cover by an unsigned band which we used in the end. Now we found this we could keep editing and make it all go, with the music when Vincent carbone gets caught for cheating the music stops this is because we wanted to show that they can have a laugh as mates however they are still gangster so prepared to kill. Once we found the song we went on to see if our flashback should be black and white which we plan on in our pre production however when we change it the atmosphere of the street lights had got especially in Vincent’s one where he’s meant to look suspicious the lighting of it help that lot however when it turn black and white it all went never the less we decided to keep them normal colouring but we decided to have freeze frames before the flashback of each character showing their name and also as the flashback is play there is Martin Phoenix narrating over them, this show that they are flashbacks and will help the audience understand this.

After we did the rough cut of our film we had to show it to the class and they were reviewing our film, our group where concerned that they wouldn’t be able to follow
The film was the flashback and the way we introduced the character in a short amount of time, however our feedback was pretty much all positive feedback although they just said that is was a bit too long. With our feedback we took it on board and re-edited our opening scene by taking out all the useless parts which made the film cut down a whole lot more

I thing that our group worked extremely well we all contributed fairly and shared all the work including the filming, and the research. Before I had media I dint know a lot about Macs and camera work but now I have learnt techniques in both I hope that itll show in my next media project.

I think that our film as a whole went well and would be enjoyed if a whole film by all countries but mainly English because we made our film with English Gangster culture however I think that all culture will be able to understand our film and enjoy it.

I really enjoy the making of our film and I am very proud of how it turned out.