Final Opening Sequence

Final Opening Sequence directory commentary

Final Focus Group

Evaluation Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Evaluation Question 7 Natasha

Evaluation Question 6 - What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Evaluation Question 5

Evaluation Question 5 –

Evaluation Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

The primary target audience of our opening sequence 'Hard Living' are roughly aged 15-20 because it features swearing and some violent scenes, so it is not suitable for those under the age of 15, also the content of the film may be considered as 'childish' or aimed at teenagers, so people over the age of 20 may consider themselves to be too 'grown up' to watch Hard Living.  The gender target audience is mainly men, this is because the audience will be able to relate to the characters seeing as they are all young teenage males- also the content of the film represents masculine themes such as fighting. 

The target audience's other favourite films may include british crime dramas such as Kidulthood & Adulthood, Shank, Attack the Block & Harry Brown.

The social demographics of our target audience are mainly C2 D and E because they will be able to identify to the characters because they live in poor deprived areas such as council estates and they may not have a similar lifestyle to our characters. Also some people from the A & B categories may watch our film because they may see it as an escape route from their ordinary day to day office busy lifestyles.

The research we done into our target audience included questionnaires finding out their preferences on the production of our film;

This document clearly shows what the target audience of our film want to see/hear in our opening sequence. The results made us alter and change some aspects of our sequence so it would appeal to our target audience even further. This questionnaire edged us to call our film 'Hard Living' & it also decided the filming location which ended up to be in a graffiti tunnel in an urban location in London.

Sam from Kidulthood

These results show that the audience want to see more stereotypical characters & locations similar to other British crime/drama films such as Kidulthood & SHANK in which the majority of the main characters are black with an aggressive attitude such as Sam from Kidulthood played by Noel Clarke.

Evaluation Question 3 - What Kind Of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product and Why?

Question 3 Natasha

Evaluation Question 2 - How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

Copy of How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups? on Prezi

Evaluation Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

we used the conventional opening sequence of narrative enigma ,we used this because it makes audience puzzled and left unanswered which builds up the suspense, for example in our sequence we used the narrative enigma when the main character is seen immediately running away looking distressed and in panic, however when the audience spectate this they would be left with unanswered questions such as;
where is he running too?
who is he running from?
why is he running?

Another conventional opening sequence element we used was titles and subtitles. For our titles and subtitles we used a  font which we felt symbolised our stereotypical characters which are young teenagers from the urban deprived streets of London which is why we used a graffiti style of font.

We had quite a few unconventional elements within our opening sequence. One of these were the non-linear narrative that was shown from our voiceover, where we see the main characters fate play out and know that he is going to die, but the sequence itself begins disordered and carries on throughout leaving the unanswered questions. 

Production Diary

Wednesday 28th March

We decided that we need a second batch of filming up London/Banksy Tunnel to have a wider selection of shots:

• Low shots of Roger (Jamal) running 
• Shots of Roger walking away for our final scene of the sequence to incorporate the title into it
• Wide shot of Roger overlooking London bridge to show he's alone and reflecting on life
• Over the shoulder shot of Roger walking to represent paranoia and  how he feels someone is following him
• More shots of the graffiti on the walls so we have alot of shots to pick from to go over the voice over section

Analysis of first Focus Group

We learnt a lot from our focus group and we got from our feed back that we should go with the stereotypical view of characters that they need to be quite rough and aggressive and make you fear them. We also had the idea that we should put a multi-cultural gang in our opening sequence rather than just having one racial group.
From our focus group we determined the name 'Hard Living' as from the feedback we got hard life as one of the favourite options for the film name, and then thought more into it and decided on Hard Living.

Production Diary

Monday 12th March

• Uploaded all of our footage onto the iMac and onto Final Cut Express
• Decided what clips we would incorporate into our sequence
• Made a brief sequence and listed down what other shots were needed and what more could be added 

film motifs

film motifs

A Motif is a recurring element in a film that helps to develop a major theme in a film. A motif is usually symbolic in some way, but does not have to be. In film, a motif is typically a repeated idea, action, pattern, or image.

symbolic motifs are used throughout many films, for example  in the well know film 'The Noir' a dark street in the early hours of the morning clearly indicates a mysterious and sudden  atmosphere and that something will arise, this is then immediately followed up with intermittent flashing of neon signs.

The sense of flashing signifies danger and alert therefore one can assume that something will arise furthermore the director clearly shows this by making every shot in glistening low key, all of these indication just and up to the atmosphere of the whole eerie and mysterious sense of danger which will found out ourselves.

As out of nowhere a man appears covered in darkness this clearly symbolises his emotions and characteristics shows him to be a very dark heartless human being.

another motif found in,'The Noir' are the diverse photographic images used throughout the film is the symbolic image of unsettle disorientation which could symbolise the emasculated darken characters personality in the film.

in particular, the compositional balance within the frame is very disruptive  and very nerving in two shots that show the characters relationships with one another in addition the uncommon off angle which are uncommon in the frame so therefore this creates the symbolic sense of a mind frame  of a psychopath which we see throughout many two shots.

two shot in the frame sets clearly captures the symbolic image of psychopaths disturbed mind set. also the colour of clothing clearly shows 

Choker close-ups, framing the head or chin,; are obtrusive and disturbing. These are sometimes used on the menacing heavy, other  times reserved to show the couple-on-the-run whose intimacy is threatened or invaded.

in addition in these frames we truly witness the idea of a patriarchal society, as throughout frames we see the male character as a dominant figure and authoritative role, to emphasise that men are in a position of authority.

close frame shot clearly shows the amount of difference shows the women being imprisoned and weak.

Production Diary

Saturday 10th March

First batch of filming up London & Banksy Tunnel:

• Various different angles of the fight scene to use quick shots & shot reverse shots to show the difference and tension between the characters
• Different shots of the graffiti tunnel to have a wide range to pick from whilst editing
• Close up shots of Roger (Jamal) & Chidi (Tyrone) to emphasise their facial expressions
• Shots of Roger (Jamal) running to symbolise he is running away from something
• Quick shots of estate blocks to represent the location and the urban street theme of the film
• Various shots of red buses & black cabs to make it clear to the audience this is a London based film

Schedule

Changes to our Opening Sequence

When filming our opening sequence we made quite a few changes along the way which had great significance to how our opening sequence turned out. We decided that it would be easier to have main character die by just being beaten up, rather than being stabbed, as it would be a lot easier to show this in our opening sequence and it was something that we felt could be easier to film. By changing this I think we created a more successful way or showing our main characters death, as I think we would have struggled to try and make him look like he had been stabbed.

Another big change we made, was that we didn't have the 'gang' chasing our main character like we had planned in our story boards and ideas. We felt that it looked a lot more empowering and intimidating for the gang to appear and seem to have a more calmer state of mind, so that it built up more tension for the audience.

Conventions into Genre - British Crime/Drama

Codes and conventions of crime/drama genre vary depending on the cultural context of the film, but they are likely to include , alcohol, illegal substances,weapons, parties, raves, sex,murders,shootings, relationships, social groups and gangs,turf wars.
The classic codes and conventions of crime/drama film came from American films, where one of the most widely used conventions are the stereotypes and social groups and the main sterotypes in this genre associated with these kind of films.

It is mostly young black people who are involved in these types of films, so teenagers who have been in a gang of maybe just a group of friends or an organised syndicate, will recognise and relate to these type of films. The story lines usually play out, that the characters then will get into illegal things, doing small crimes or using drugs and over time getting more serious and then having to deal with the consequences. This can then be adapted to the british scene instead of America so teenage boys in London mostly refferd to as 'chavs'  by the genral public, commiting all sorts of crimes or just causing trouble. For others british crime and drama films this seems to show the more grittier and realistic side than American films, which usally seems to glamourlise this kind of lifestyle e.g. gangstars driving expensive cars, living in big houses, having lots of money etc, but British films show the more realistic side of it and the problems the characters face and dealing with the consequences after.

    

Target Audience Description

Our group decided  that our primary target audience will be urban teenagers who will be able to relate to the content by  having some sense of  experience or a relative similiar lifestyle to the characters .The secondary choice of our target audience may be powermakers that tend to have the stereotypical view upon teenagers which we want to rectify, in addition they are able to change things in society which we acknowledge in order to tackle issues raised in our opening sequence. As a group we want to demonstrate our  views and opinions on how teenagers are perceived in the media lime light  or what the majority of society thinks about teenagers in the UK  so therefore our target audience will be varied from the young and old as we want to engage a mass of viewers in our openin sequence as the characters vary from ages thus giving the audience the rare oppurtunity of relatin to more than one character, therefore the social demographic will be a mix of A-B as well as the occurence of C1.

However our target audience would be most likely to have common interest as the characters in our opening sequence fow example they would possible have the same interest in music  they would much to prefer to listen to urban musicians such as 'wiley' which they would be able to relate to personally and also his music.

another hobbie in which our target audience may demonstrate is the enjoyment of socialising with his friends  which is also similar to our characters  in the opening sequence as you tend to see them hangin in large groups which draws attention from stanbys once again our target audience will genuinely have hobbies and interest similar to the characters in the film or on the other hand our target audience will be significantly diverse than our characters but still find them intreging  so therefore our target audience can either be teenagers in urban areas or various people in society.

The target audience for our type of film would be most likely to be dominantely young teenage men, as previous urban british crime films tend to generate more male viewers due to its 'nitty &gritty'  violence it has throughout the film , which our opening sequence shares comparison with  furthermore it would also generate more  male viewer as our openin sequence is mostly played by male characters therefore our target audience will be able to relate to them for their individual characteristics such as personality.

Props

These will be two of our main props. The knife that we will use is to stab our main character so is an important prop within our opening sequence. We have included the mobile phones in this, as it is stereotypical for teenagers to record events like this on their mobiles, so we will want to fit in with the genre and apply this in our opening sequence and have the gang members to appear to be filming what is going on.

Costume

These are the type of clothing that we want our gang members and our two main characters to wear. This style suits our genre because the typical style from a british genre is quite commonly known to wear tracksuit bottoms and trainers so it fits in well. We want our characters to wear darker colours to emphasise how they do not want to be seen and hide away from society.  

Equipment List

1. Dolly Tripod

2. Exstension Leads

3. Headphones 

4. Phones

5. Stage Lights

6. Tripod

7. Video Camera

Character Description

Character Desciption

Locations

These are the locations that we have chosen to hopefully film our opening sequence at. We think that they are really appropriate for the type of genre that we are filming as the graffiti that surrounds the walls and the tunnel shows the youth and the grimey locations which we wanted to incorporate into our work.

Encoding our Text

For our film opening sequence we have thought of a few ways of which we will encode signifiers to help the audience identify which genre of film they are watching.
Our film is a British Crime film, and is heavily involved with gang scenarios and crime. By having this genre we speak out to quite a wide audience and this genre is quite easily noticed, but sometimes could be mistaken for a thriller. In order to make sure our audience wouldn't confuse this, we will include certain signifiers. One of these being the fonts used, for example 'West 10 LDN' uses graffitti fonts and urban backgrounds which to an audience will immediately let them know what type of film they are about to watch.

Another signifier which we will use will be the use of music and location, for this we will use quite urban, street and grimey locations to get that atmosphere of a hard life for the characters which audiences will then relate to and feel it is more of a realistic approach to what they are watching. With the style of music, we will use will also be quite urban related with a grime style, the type of music we would feel our characters would listen too.

Results of Focus Group

Results of Questionnaires

Media Graphs From Questionnaires.

From the results of our questionnaires we had a mixture of answers which we initially didn't think would be a response our audience would pick. Our audience that we asked were a mixture of males and females so that we could get a wider range of views and opinions of what we should involve in our questionnaires. 

One of the results which we felt really spoke out to us, was the question about the stereotypical race. We assumed that most people would pick the stereotypical view on gang crime with just a one race gang, but  nearly every questionnaire we got, or from those we spoke to, said that they would find it easier to relate to the gang and film if it had a multicultural gang, indicating the strong closeness between all the youths of today rather than a clear division. 

We can also see from our results how our filming location would be best to be filmed in a urban location, as it would be the best to fit the genre of this film and would look a lot better in comparison to other locations which were a choice such as a park, which was the next popular choice, as some people argued that youth's of today would be found hanging around there. 

Motifs Task

Blade Runner
A motif is a recurring element that has symbolic significance in a film. There are several motifs that run through the film Blade Runner. Most of them are straightforward and show a simple feeling or thought about the story.
Motifs is used in Blade Runner through the use of nature and animals, for example;The owl represents the grace and beauty of Rachael but is also associated with wisdom. in addition Zhora’s snake is a very clear indication of her role, particularly given the introduction we hear at Taffy Lewis’ bar: “Watch her take the pleasure from the serpent that once corrupted man”. On one reading she is the snake, the demon who has infiltrated the garden to curse mankind, on another she is Eve: her provocative manner towards Deckard in her dressing room is temptation to him to fall from his quest, to take pleasure from the ‘evil’ he is tasked with destroying.

 Another motif shown in Blade Runner is in the opening sequence as The first sight we have of any character in the movie is the giant close up of an eye – presumably Holden’s, although in many ways it really doesn’t matter whose eye it is, reflecting the incredible Hades landscape that was our introduction into the world of Blade Runner. This motif recurs throughout the film, but instead of simply being an image which repeats on itself or directly indicative of one theme in the movie the eye motif in Blade Runner continually tells us more both about the story and about the themes being explored. 

motifs is also demonstrated through the characters memories,he issue of memories crops up repeatedly throughout Blade Runner: the false memories that have been implanted into Rachael, the memories that Batty recounts as he sits in the rain waiting to die. The story suggests that a person is nothing more than the sum total of their memories, but also poses the question – if that is right where does that leave us when our memories can no longer be trusted?

 we wouldnt personally use motifs in our opening sequence as it would be too difficult to apply on a two minute opening sequence. however if were going to use motifs in a an actually filming perspective we would probably relate it to our main character Jamal and his diverse lifestyle, by demonstrating how hard is lifestyle  actually is  through misenscene; location,costume and the  characters around him.

Focus Group Task