Letter to Song Artists For copyright Reasons:

Dear Sirs

I am writing to ask your permission to use the song "No Church In The Wild" by Kanye West and Jay-Z featuring Frank Ocean. We will be using the song for the backing track of a media project we will be doing for our school in Buckingham, Great Britain. We do not intend to release the footage for public consumption and will not be making any profit from having the song in our project. We do not intend to claim any ownership of the song but are writing to you for permission to gain, or the knowledge on how to gain the rights to use the song. Please can you respond as soon as possible. Thank you.

Yours Faithfully

George Whiting, Theo Daniels, Oliver Harbord and Josh Graham. 

Raising Sand- The Evaluation

Raising Sand Evaluation

Click on the Blue writing above which will link you to the Evaluation of raising sand. The Evaluation will appear on a new tab. Hope you enjoy

The Finished Project-Raising Sand

Raising Sand- The Finished Project


Here it is, the finished project.
Click on the Writing above and a link will appear which will then direct you to the final project on a new Tab. Enjoy.

Shot Types

shot types

today we learnt the variety of shots.

•                long shot

•                mid shot

•                close up

•                extreme close up

•                two shot

•                over the shoulder shot

•                wide shot

     each shot has a variety of different effects. long shots will set the scene around the characters and gives us a impression on the character/characters and this is important for new scenes or new characters. long shots allow us to judge mannerisms and also the scene.

     mid shots are a focus on 1 character mainly and they are used to focus in but not be in a place of uncomforted. we see this as our ideal distance away from someone. its widely used and comes in many forms

     close ups focus on a certain character or object. it gives views an opportunity a chance to really focus on the character or object in detail. they are always used but have to be clear what you are focusing on and what you are trying to achieve from using that shot.

     extreme close up is something that is less likely used by directors as they are difficult. in a film they may only use them once. but they are very good at build suspence in tense situations but require good actors in order for desired effect to work properly

     two shots are when 2 people are in the same shot. they are wide shots but only involve mid riffs if stood up or one person side on and the other straight to the camera. this set up of one side on and one straight is widely used in a shot reverse shot between switching who is side on and who is straight

    the over the shoulder shot involves half the head and a small part of the shoulder only the top. the head should be kept within 1 third and the point of action in the right third line to give the frame some structure

     wide shots are ideal when two people are facing eachother. it brings them in together as one. they are not used a vast amount but can be great for opening up the scene or showing a relationship between two characters.

there are also angle options available

•                low angle - shot from the bottom making the character look more powerful

•                eye level - brings a personal touch to the angle. nutrual feel

high angle - makes the character look weaker. can be used in fight scenes

Genre-Slasher

GENRE - Slasher

The first slasher film was in 1932 and was 'Thirteen women'

But Alfred Hitchcock Psycho really changes the format of slasher films.

other slasher films include Halloween, Friday 13th and the nightmare on elm street

what separates a slasher from a horror?

in a slasher we often have a masked character and the killer appears like they are superhuman. they are very difficult to kill and they are also a mystery to use. this killer is wild and preys on weaker people. often our hero see's a murder, escapes the killers attempt to kill them, then in turn kills the villain.

Difference between a Crime Thriller and a Slasher is that the slasher is someone we do not know and is from the point of the victims trying to escape the murderer. where as a crime thriller we know who the murderer is and also we follow them. the shot types are often point of view and close ups.

setting

the setting of slashers can vary. they can be set in familiar places which makes them alot scarier as they are in regular everyday places and makes them more relateable. Or unfamiliar enviroment that we are sometimes left in. this makes it scarier for when we have experienced it or when we know what they are like.

old slashers are often set in isolated locations. this is exposed in Psycho where having to stay in a hotel on your own with a ovally friendly host. gives the impression that you are isolated and unsafe. that you can't escape and are waiting the inevitable.

Modern Slashers are often suburban places and or set in places like a school. This makes them relateable to the viewers and they are can compair their experiences of school and their lives normally. it makes it scary for modern day.

typical characters

•                a stranger

•                the jock who gets killed

•                the wanderer who ends up on their own

•                the pervert

•                popular girl, often targetted and is killed

•                Pandora, is innocent and scared but has a big secret, often the person they tell is the final girl

the final girl

Genre- Rom-Com

 Rom Com

A rom-com is a romantic comedy. a couple often has issues and the break up an getting together happy ending is usually brought together with comical humour and one liners in arguements. often these are aimed at women and are either told from one sides point of view or watches over both sides.

settings

the setting can vary alot, they often move around from different situations.

•                urban

•                weddings

•                small town

•                work situations

•                high school

often they are mainly aimed at one of these but the others may jump into it.

characters

there are many focuses that the rom-com can touch on, often they follow either a couple near to marriage who start falling apart, a heart breaker who is now falling in love with someone but proves difficult as they feel what its like to be on the other side or kids who are faced with distance.

Narrative

they follow some basic plot lines these are

•                a couple who are falling apart but come back together

•                a rivally or a couple who argue and fight alot but they in the end fall in love

•                one night stands which turn to be more

•                a player finding their true love

•                often the endings are happy

Camera shots

often in rom-coms they expose power over the two people. but if their are moments where they are equal as each other, eye level shots are used more than most. this makes the power balance equal. camera angles in rom coms must show their divisions. very little two shots are used until they are back together at the end. shot reverse shots are used throughout to reveal the divisions amongst the couple.

mise en scene

they are basic and relaxed area's. typical life situations around. but with this each character will have a side kick who is very bright in colour and more wild than their friend. this revealed in his costume and way of life.

    the props will also be reflecting on the character who owns them. it a way for the audience to easily judge and compare to other characters. this reflects on the type of relationships they aim to have. so mise en scene is important in revealing the character to the audience.

lighting varries depending on the scene. when to show affection, low lighting is used, to show happiness natural bright light is used. this is important in revealing the mood and tone of scenes.

Genre-Spoof

GENRE - Spoof

spoofs are often based on another story. but then they play with the story and exaggerated things to make fun of it. they are often comical and run in the same way as what they are based on. their audience if for anyone who has seen the previous film.

Characters

they are based on the characters from the original film. but their appearance may be to make them look a bit stupider to make fun of them. the characters will often reveal a new side of the character which is often in total contrast for comical purposes.

Narrative

the narrative will follow the same as what it is based upon but with a lot of exaggeration and traumatic situations that are both ironic and sarcastic. irony will be a key part making the whole film more comical as irony will go perfectly with the seriousness of the situation in the real film compared to the spoof. sarcasm will look to be in the characters and both in where they are. both will contribute to the humour of the film.

Camera shots

the camera shots will be very similar if not the same as the original film. but there will be added close ups for facial expressions.

Mise en Scene

make up and costumes will be as similar to original but with exaggerated features of something takey which looks similar to make it funny. the whole mise en scene will look to patronise the personality of the original characters and make fun of them

Film Opening Idea's

Film Opening Idea's

our film opening sequence has alot of talk about what genre we were going to do, we finally decided to be a little different and do a modern western. it’s going to have to be well planned and have lots of aspects for it to be a western but modern.

as a group we were struggling to find a compromise with our idea’s, we are trying to put both together but know that would not work. in the end we constructed a survey to find which was better idea for a general range of people.

our results will be up soon to show which way our film will go.

Story Boarding - Film Opening

Story Boarding - Film Opening

our story board has come together, i am able to move certain shots as we have them on paper sketched up and can cut them out and move them. we made a rough copy first. this was just a few pages of rough idea’s all scattered and pretty jumbled up. this enabled us to get all our idea’s down on paper and then move it around.

it starts with a news interview in a tv screen reporting about the gangs being taken down by a mysterious figure who appears to have a cowboys appearance. As this slowly zooms in we switch to building suspense shots of this character not seeing his face. shots of a gang in a bar who grab in someone and start beating him up in the bar. whilst this goes on it will have a mash of quick moving shots and then slower one’s with credits on. this shows our characters relaxed approach and power over the more chaotic style of the gang. we continue till we see him enter, we do not see him kill the gang but we do see how calm he is entering to do it and afterwards.

we asked our audience what they expected. they responded with horses and to be filmed at dusk. they wanted lots of action. we adapted our storyboard to finish with a scene at dusk of him practising his shooting. very clique but its a western it’s going to have some punny moments.

our beginning is very focused on building our character and the genre. with out audience questionnaires and interviews we adapted to show what they would like. with a horse being out of our budget we changed to have at least 1 shot of a stable where we see our character relaxing, at least showing that he has a connection to horses and pay and interest. we think that this is good to have as it makes our character a deeper person and therefore the viewers can get more of an connection to character.

looking at lots of credits in western films they always have very big red writing. hopefully we can capture this in our opening but it will require a lot of work to make it look neat than just out of place, but with some changes in contrast and brightness of the red it can look very good.

Filming- Changes to be made

FILMING - changes to be made

we put our film together after day 3 and well it looked fine to us as we knew the roles but we used an audience to look over it and evaluate it so we could make changes to anything that was badly shot or didn't make sense. we discovered

•                our barman was a bit random

•                there was not enough establishing shots

•                how did our hero know they would be there

•                how does the hero just walk in

we made extra things we could change, it would mean shooting again but we had direction from a target audience on who would be able to change the parts that were misleading.

our idea's where to shoot CCTV of the bar and show how the hero is watching over them, taking notes making a plan. this would increase the seriousness of the hero's plans and ability to track. much like a cowboy tracking animals.

also in these CCTV clips we would show how the bar threatens the barman and shows their dominance, again Oli will be displayed as Theo's follower and does things for him as theo is more powerful and dominating.

Then we also wanted to involve the entrance of our hero before we see them targeting and beating up our victim. we decided it would be good if the hero would come in the pub and enter, order a drink and sit in the corner. they would be covered with a coat and a hoodie. they would represent the layers of the hero concealed. after they enter he gets up takes off the layers and makes his way over to where they are beating him up in the back room.

there was also a flaw where actors laugh that we missed, so we would look to re shoot that part aswell

Evaluation of third day filming

DAY 3 - re filming pub scenes

after seeing we needed to improve our pub shots we went back again. this time we turned up and the pub had people in it, this was not expected and kinda made the whole day a lot more difficult with distractions and interruptions. builders were on site, we were not informed of it all and well caught us by surprise. but we continued

   we adapted the order in which we were going to shoot. due to us having an actor that was only available for one hour. we started off with his shots. the lighting was good and we managed to keep continuity even though there was a massive problem with things everywhere!! we managed to avoid it. luckily none of our shots involved sound, so the background noise that came from the people working all around the pub was fine, we carried on around them.

       we all set up the rest after shooting our actors shots and moved on to our own and focused on speeding them up. our film was just too short with little going on, so on each piece of action we involved and designed another 3 shots for that piece. this allowed us to keep the action flowing and make it seem as if it had been sped up but really it was all the same shots.

     once we filmed them we put a brief edit together to check that it speed up more and worked more accurately. the shots looked good and flowed more than before. this allowed the section that was slow to be more action and exciting rather than boring and slow.

     with all of our shooting done and moving around the pub according to where the people were working it looked impressive. we were very happy with how we adapted to the building going on around us and the adaptations we made to the film.

Evaluation of Fourth day Filming

DAY 4 - another day re filming pub scene

we went back to make changes to what the audience said. we designed some shots before hand of how we think it would make it clear that the barman's involvement and how to further increase the knowledge, seriousness and organisation of the hero. these were

•                    a shot of our hero at a desk watching CCTV footage of the bar and the gang threatening the barman in the CCTV footage, this meant we had to also shoot some high shoots in corner of the bar of activity to be turned into the CCTV footage.

•                a shot of the hero entering and sitting down in the corner but with a hood and coat to hide his identity.

•                shot of the barman being threatened as the gang enters with the victim

these few extra shots opened up the audiences knowledge of what is going on in the story.

we also had to refilm a shot where one of the actors smiles and it just looked bad because of that.

we turned up on time and the pub was clear and no disturbances. this means we could work to schedule. the producer had alot of control over his crew and organised set up for the order of shots we were going to film. we again had limited time with one of our actors so got to shooting theirs first. it meant shooting completely out of order. we used the previous footage that we were keeping to keep continuity from the last time we were there. as we shot it, we had a few bad moments were actors went wrong but it was all good to get the shots in in the end. we got the extra one's shot easily and precisely and they were good as they were not very long.

       we re filmed the shot were we noticed a laugh and adapted it slightly to make it a bit more dramatic and involve a shot reverse shot we had previously missed. in the end we put them on the laptop and put a brief draft together to see a overall picture and thought it looked much better

we then went back to school and used a drama room with a spot light to shoot the desk shot, we used a match on action here as we knew it would look good if the hero was watching it, but then it would switch to the actual footage. so we used a clip and decided the right transition would make that flow a lot better than just a straight cheap cut. so we were thinking about editing it before we got to that. hopefully will allow for a better overall product in the end.

Film Certification

FILM CERTIFICATION - U and PG

When filming a U or a PG film there are certain aspects that you can and cannot have. you should consider your films audience and making sure the certification fits the audience. So in a PG and U there are things you can and cannot include.

•                these films are allowed brief fight scenes

•                problems with emotional stress but they are quickly resolved. the audience will be reassured quickly

•                villains can have weapons but are not allowed to use them. 

•                parts are cut if danger is portrayed as fun or safe

•                there may be some blood but they do not show the injury or violence unless it is in a very obvious fantasy setting.

•                there are small aspects of sexual behaviour. kissing cuddling is fine but sex is referred to as love making.

•                none innuendo's or focus on sexual behaviour

•                gay or straight does not mattered and can be referenced to

•                often comedy is involved to hide aspects of sex to draw focus away

•                bloody and bugger are allowed as an example of very mild bad language

•                bad language is not allowed to be used vilently

•                drugs are not involved unless educational

•                any themes can be involved as long as they are possitive.

•                smoking of drinking must be shown as bad and minimal in the film

there is always happy endings to reassure the viewer.