Karis Hammond, Will Leighton, James Banister & Harry Mountier

Running for Charlie - Teaser Trailer

2010-05-03T09:01:00.000-07:00

Filmed evaluation

2010-03-30T01:11:00.000-07:00

Evaluation Of Filming So Far

2010-01-22T02:44:00.000-08:00

The footage we have shot mostly so far is jogging and nature shots. The main focus of our trailer is the jogging footage which is the focus point for our title and our storyline.

When filming similar shots on different days we had to be conscious of the weather and of the costumes and props which we used. If we filmed in different weather conditions then the film will look sloppy and wouldnt have as great an effect. Also with props and costumes. We had to make sure that we didnt change the props and costumes used in shot to shot as this may come across once again, sloppy.

Most of the camera work so far has been conducted by myself and Will, whilst Karis has been in charge of taking still images and pictures, with Harry having a more of a director role in filming. So far we havent really been too experimental with the camera, optic mostly for slight camera movement, with the majority being a static camera. However, for this years trailer we have used differnt cammera heights and made more use of the zoom function. In our last project we tended to use mainly hand held camera and medium shots. This year we wanted to try and do something different with the camera, to give the film a more traditional feel.

We have most of the footage needed to make a gangster trailer and will start the editing process as soon as possible.

- James Banister

Filming (James and Harry)

2010-01-22T01:38:00.000-08:00

On our second day of filming, me and Harry decided to stay behind and film a few extra shots.

As we were limited to what we could do we decided to film mostly jogging clips and nature clips. We took time and found different ways of filming the shots to create different efffects. For example, instead of having a simple panning/tracking shot for when I was jogging up the road, we decided to try keeping the camera static and using a zoom function instead. We did the same shot twice using both a zoom in and a zoom out.

We then copied a jogging shot that we had filmed on our first day of filming, only this time having the camera at a slightly lower height and extending the time length of the shot. This allowed us to cut between the two shots when editing the footage and create a more dramatic effect.

We also decided to use alot of hand held camera to make it seem as if the shot was from a first person perspective. This is a common camera effect used in gangster films as it implies that someone is "watching".

After filming the jogging and "watching" scenes, we decided to get a few tracking nature shots. These will be used to create a relaxed atmosphere for the start of our trailer, they will help to portray a natural and relaxed mood for the audience.

- James Banister

Day 3 of Filming

2010-01-21T12:02:00.001-08:00

Another Day of Filming Thursday 21st of January. Today we filmed mainly in Epping Forest. We filmed the part of our trailer were Tommy finds a dead body with drugs and take the drugs with him. We filmed Tommys expression also when discovering the dead body.

Drugs in a bag

Will laying down, Dead body holding drugs.

Close up of the hand of the dead body holding onto the drugs.

James getting ready to run down to the dead body. Whilst Harry films.

James Running.

James filming close up of his face and expression of when he find the dead body and drugs.

Forest Tree - Location of filming.

James (Tommy) Dressed up in character.

Will dressed up in character.

Harry dressed in character.

Will, James and Harry together in playing their characters.

These last 4 photos we are going to use in our poster.

-Karis Hammond

Our Poster.

2010-01-21T06:05:00.001-08:00

This is the finished poster. I created it using Adobe Photoshop. I used original images and fonts.

When it came to actually creating the poster, I had to take into account the analysis's I'd conducted of other posters. I decided to make the image the main focus point of my poster and revolve everything else around it.
To make the image stand out, I too the original image of me, Harry and Will and cut us out of it. I then put this cut image on the background of a photoshop document and coloured the rest of the background in grey. The use of the grey background allows every other layer added above it, to stand out. The title, image and text all stands out from the rest of the page as it is coloured white and is place upon the plain grey background.
Once I'd inserted the image I then added an "outer glow" effect to the edges. This was to give the impression that the characters are separate from the drab, dark background (which represents their childhood/upbringing) and standout in society as power figures and Superior people. I then added a slight "inner glow" effect which made the characters stand out even further from the background. This also allowed me to put text over the image as it wouldn't blend in or be hidden by the image.

The next focus of the poster was the film title itself. I didn't want to use the same font for the title as the rest of the text as it wouldn't stand out. Will designed the font for the website. I thought we ought to keep some similarity between both the poster and the website so will e-mailed me the font which I then used for the film title. I also made sure that the title was coloured white as was the other text, this further kept similarity within the poster and the website and also allowed the text, once again, to stand out. We also didn't want to use a font that was common, we wanted the title to have its own image and therefore chose to create a font solely for use on the website and poster. This further added to the professionalism of the website and the poster.

Then, when comparing my poster the others I have analysed, it does share some similar codes and conventions. For example, the use of the light coloured text and pictures upon a dark background is a common trend in 'gangster' posters. The costume used in the picture is also similar to that of other images used in gangster posters. All the characters in my poster are wearing smart suits, this highlights the 'power' and 'superiority' of the characters.
Another similarity with other film posters is the use of the phrase "From the people who brought you..." this is quite often found on posters that are advertising films from a major pioneering director.

If I could do it again I would change the background of the poster. Although the plain grey is effective in highlighting the foreground, it is however boring and dull looking. I would insert a still image from the film faded into the background.

I would like to think that my poster reflects and holds conventions of traditional, professional gangster film posters. I feel that it shares similar characteristics with other posters and has a professional look.

- James Banister

Storyboard

2010-01-19T05:12:00.001-08:00

Here is our storyboard finally got up our inital ideas on our gangster trailer.

This is our first drawing of the character named Tommy, played by James. He first takes his daily jog in the forest. Long shot, Tracking.

We planned to film this part in Epping Forest.

Tommy (James) is also running with his ipod headphones in. The music we are going to use will go along with when Tommy puts his headphones in the music starts. The music also will help build up tension through out trailer. We also hope to also get some voice over onto our trailer. As most gangster trailer have a cockney accent which will we need to produce over our trailer, taking the viewers through our trailer, giving them an insight into the story of our film.

Here is a medium shot of Tommy. We've got a good shot of his face. showing his expression. Whilst Tommy is running he comes across a dead body and drugs on the floor.

He is shocked and unsure what has happen, which is shown through Tommys' facial expressions. As a group we need to decided whether the song played from the headphones stop as a this may create more shock as everything goes silent would make the audience think what is going on if the music was to stop and seeing the facial expressions.

Another long shot of Tommy. Again it is just showing tommys' expressions and also him walking up towards the dead body and drugs.

Here is the dead body that Tommy sees. The body is laying dead beside drugs, cocaine. I didnt draw in the drugs here but this was basically to show the dead body.

Here is the close up shot of the drugs. On the forest floor, beside the dead body. We also have money as well as drugs relate to money.

We are going to put the drugs in a breift case of some sort of luggage bag, because this is what it is like within real gangster films.

Here is Tommy hand, calling the police; 999. I think at this point we decide that we should show Tommy going to call the police, but he doesnt actually do as we think he will and he walks off with the drugs.

Close up shot.

Another close up shot of Tommy. Again showing his facial expression on the matter that is in front of him.

Medium Shot of Tommy Again, with his phone. Deciding on what to do.

Here is Tommys' decision. He picks up the drugs and runs off with it.

Again another shot of Tommy actually picking up the case of drugs and leaving with it.

The filming of Tommy after he leaves with the drugs it fades out and then zooms back into another part of the film.

After the black fade it then fade into Will getting slapped by Harry.

Different shots of this will be taken, getting in Close ups, Long shots.

Last photo, Harry having ago at Will. This is a mixture and different shots and angles to create a high status character played my Harry and a Low status one by Will who is playing Harrys' Underdog. He is also having a go at his for loosing the drugs that Tommy (James) knicked from the dead body scene.

Here are 4 sketches of another little story board we had in mind. A group thought process we thought of a tracking shot going to different iconic objects of drugs, gun, bra, body etc . . . . .

Luggage with drugs in it.

Tiled Flooring, Tracking along to next object.

Body on the floor, we thought of a dead body or even a drugged up person blacked out.

Bra.

When we get filming we will probably change our minds on ideas and situation when it comes to filming. But either way we hope that our final piece will portray a well produced Gangster Trailer.

- Ideas - Karis, Will, James & Harry

-Sketches and Writing - Karis Hammond

The Godfather Poster analysis

2010-01-19T04:35:00.001-08:00

The Godfather is considered the most traditional gangster/mafia film ever made. It set the bar for gangster films to come and created its own codes and conventions.

When looking at the poster, our eyes are firstly drawn to the film title. It is in a bold, posh style font coloured white on a black background. The posh font is used to associate tradition and shows that the mafia has a history and is timeless. The use of the puppet strings above the writing also shows how the mafia has power and control and can 'pull the strings' of society. This has become an iconic image in the gangster genre. The fact that the font is white upon a black background allows it to stand out and be the whole focus point of the poster. This is a regularly used marketing strategy that directs focus at the films title in order to increase popularity.

Our focus is then directed towards the picture in the poster. We are shown a man wearing a black tuxedo with the traditional red rose on the lapel. This further highlights the feeling of tradition and timelessness of the mafia. We then see that the person in the picture appears to be holding and stroking a cat. This shows us the contrast between what the gangsters do and the world in which they are in. One side is a man that has a history of crime and violence and the other is a peaceful, domestic animal that is full of innocence and vulnerability. It shows that even gangsters cannot ignore their primary instincts.

At the bottom of the poster we have the films tag line. Instead of using a simple statement as most other gangster films do, this poster has an actual quote from the film. This gives the audience a small taster of the sort of content and dialogue the rest of the film will contain.

-James Banister

Still Photo's - Day 2 of Filming

2010-01-18T10:38:00.001-08:00

Here again is a few still photos from our second day of filming. This time we did some shooting within james house where we created a room to represent the main gangster (Harry) place. Showing a higher status to the other characters within our filming, trailer. I think that we need to think out our thoughts and look back at our storyboard to get our ideas going as we didnt have alot props today which we need, because showing props, such as guns ... to show an imagery of our genre. As though our trailer is giving clues to what our film is about.

A location shot of James' house. We use this part of his house to represent the gangsters den. Dark room with a lamp to help create a dark but sophicated place for a gangster to be located in. We have the main chair also for this is show the high status of the gangster, to make him look like the leader, the main gangster.

James Filming.

Looking back at filming.

Three images of Harry on the left and Will on the right. These are still shots of Harry slapping Will, showing a high status and that he is in charge and has power.

Again two other still shots of Harry shouting at Will, showing anger and voilence within our gangster filming.

Below are three images of again the high status that is portrayed by Harry and Will. With also James filming this.

Here i am, playing part of a druggie, we used props also to make this part seem more realistic and work quite well.

Harry the high status gangster. Sitting in an arm chair as this portrays a traditional gangster feel. There are props also around him to show his portrayal of the character that he is playing. But we need to get some more props in next time, like a gun.

After taking these shots and also filming, we really need to get some still shots for our website and poster. Possible shots of each character, the main characters played by James and Harry. Then maybe still shots of objects that give an insight into our trailer, but without giving away too much. Maybe using some of the props we have used, and put then into our poster. I think my next step is to do some sketches of posters to get some ideas. I need to get this together to present a well produced gangster poster.

- Karis Hammond

Day 2 of Filming

2009-12-14T01:03:00.000-08:00

Another filming day, Thursday 9th Jan. Today we went back to James' house to continue our filming. From our previous filming day we did shots of James' (Main character now know as Tommy) walking out his house and also shots of the forest, where he goes running.

We have also chosen a name for our film, trailer. ' Running for Charlie ' This is alot of help as we can get base of what type of poster and website can look like with the key base of the title of our trailer.

But on our second day of filming we did inside shooting, within James' house. We filmed the main gangster who is played by harry slapping another man, (Will). Will who is another character but just a low key character as we just needed him to portray Harry character more clearly to our audience. We had filming of Harry slapping Will to show his high status of the main drug/ dealer / gangster.

This part with Will and Harry shows The main drug dealer gettin annoyed at the other man as he hasnt done what he has been told to do. This showing volience and anger. Which are key aspects within a gangster film. Harry then puts Will up against a door to show even more higher status and power.

Our other shots from todays filming was a tracking shot that has a track of objects and pieces to portray our genre. I took part in the filming as i had to make out that I was a druggie. We also had Harry in a arm chair to show his high status too, with objects to portray our film, such as drugs ( cocaine), cigarrettes and matches.

After our two days of filming i think it is time now to start our editing and also plan our next day of filming.

- Karis Hammond

Still Photo's - Day 1 of Filming

2009-12-09T05:45:00.001-08:00

Here are the first still shots from the first day of filming our trailer. We went to James house where we filmed a few shots. We also made some props too which we are putting into our trailer to represent the genre. We also need to add in some more props such as a gun or something else that can create our genre on screen.
I took pictures to show us working on our trailer, behind the screen shots and also of set locations and movement shots also to show our development throughout our filming. I will take still shots every time we film so that we can keep up to date with our development and also to remind ourselves on key points and possibly thing that we think we need to develop on and make it better.

Here is James and Will. The start of our filming. Here we are filming James coming out of his house, the beginning of our trailer. (James in the green and Will behind the camera.)

Again the shot of James making his way out of his house. This part of our trailer James is going for a daily run in the forest, which is up the road. James also puts his ipod headphones in which is where we start the music to our trailer and play through out until it hits the beginning of our trailer where James see dead bodies from a gangster drug deal.

For our trailer we also needed props. Here are images of James and Will making props. They are making drugs, cocaine, which is apart of our film.

Shooting again, another shot of James and Will filming his way out of his house, getting closer to the forest location.

Establish shot, location shot of James house.

James running up his road, towards the forest scene.

Again James running towards the forest. Running across the road.

Finally at the forest, another set location, establish shot. Here is where James run through into the forest, i also thought that i could use either image for a poster adding in text etc... to make it look more of a professional look like an actual movie poster.

-Karis Hammond

Day 1 of Filming

2009-12-03T05:43:00.001-08:00

Today as a group we all went out for our first day of filming. We went to our location for which we had decided which was james's house, and also the forest near his house. As apart of this I took a digital camera to take still photos. Photos of location shots, establishing the scenes that we are filming. I will put up these photo's when I get the camera back and have finished taking all of my still photo shots of our filming, to show what we have been doing on our filming days. Next filming day we will go our next thursday, (10 dec.)

Today we did the first shots of james, who is one of the main characters. He filmed him walking out of his house, as he is going for a daily run, jog. This part of filming is building up the tension within our trailer. As we also have james in his running clothes, going out for a run, he also is listening to his ipod which as he is listening to the music, as an audience we will also be listein to this music, as it will be the music for our trailer. As the trailer is building up, the music also will. We thought of this idea of where the music gets faster and faster building tension and then it shows the main source of our film of a dead bodys. This is were the start of our story and genre begins as we will in following filming day film, drugs, gangsters, voilence, etc ... But whether the music idea will work or not we're not too sure. So once we come to editing and placing in our music, we will suggest whether this is a good idea or not.

After we did some shot with james coming out of his house, ( one of the locations sets ) we then did another shot of him running up his street. We did different camera shots and angles. High angle shot, making james look like a more of a low status character having no power, innocence as james is just an ordinary man going for a morning run. We will use low angle shots to show a high status of other characters within our trailer, on our main drug dealer, gangster, who will be played by harry.
Other shots we used are again our establishing shots. We used this on the location of james house, as well as the forest where james is going for a run.
The other camera angles and shot are the simple, close ups, medium shots and i think we also used some panning as well.

We need to get up our storyboard to show our initial ideas, as well as the other ones we thought of. These are to show what we have to film and how are trailer is flowing to present the genre of a gangster trailer. I will scan these in and then post them up below to show what we have developed as a group.

Our next film day posting will be on the 10th of dec, our next full day of filming.

- Karis Hammond

Layout and Structure of Posters

2009-12-03T05:40:00.000-08:00

For our project We have to make up our own posters. So I'm going to make a couple so that there are a few to look at and decide on what one is the best for our film

Here are my two poster for which i have picked at to see main points to add into our own groups poster to make it look decent. I have already looked at one of the poster American Gangster but i again looked at it in greater detail as i liked this poster and think it would fit well with also our gangster film. The other film poster i think would also help and fit in with our gangster genre for a poster, so I looked at this one too.

Looking at these posters i realised that black, white and red are great colours to use. Using white on black background helps to highlight key words and make them stand out alot. Black and white images also help to create classic images (depending on the type of image) and can help create a sophisticated feel to a film poster, good for our gangster film.

- Karis Hammond

Mood Board

2009-11-23T00:49:00.001-08:00

Here I have created a Mood Board. I decided to make a mood board to get my ideas across on what i have seen and now think about gangster film during anaylising trailers, posters and also websites.

I have place variety of image that I can relate to our genre for our media project, ' Gangster.' The images i have used some are from the films i have anaylsed how one film uses a more modern approach shown by costume of tracksuits then the typical gangster costume of the smart, working office suits. Looking through images, from typing into http://www.google.com/ in the search bar, Gangster, I got up things of gangs of people, which i also looked at images that voilate voilence, and iconic objects of, guns, money, drugs, police. All stuff that i know will represent our genre.
I also put in character, ( famous characters ) people such as megan fox, showing a sexy female character which can be shown within gangster film to show more of innocence but also for the audience of men to be more intreged. I also put in george clooney. Yet again another iconic and famous good looking and high status actor. Maybe not in the league to play in such a character as a gangster, but the typical good looking character and popularity that will also get the audience attention a bit more from female audience to go watch the film with their husbands, boyfriends.
All of these images just give us that picture image to look over to remember what we need to add into our trailer to make it come across this genre and also to have a base to think we need to maybe add in some iconic objects here just so it shows an insight to our trailers storyline but not giving it away to tell the whole story of our film. Just like a trailer is giving clues and ideas for the whole inital film.

This mood board i have created is to help our group think of inital ideas, to get our genre and our trailer going on a good start with images to remind ourselves of what we maybe need to add in, guns, money, drugs, etc . . .

-Karis Hammond

Websites from my Analysis of Films - The Firm, The Departed & American Gangster

2009-11-23T00:48:00.001-08:00

As part of our project we also as well making a trailer and poster, we need to create a website too. I have created a websites before when i used to do ICT. But it's been a long time since i have. But i know that the layout and structure of a website and how it flows, is important as we dont want our website to be confusing for our audience, as they won't visit our website. We also need to make it interesting including BOLD and EYE CATCHING words and images, with also maybe putting some music on it as well, with of corse our trailer and poster which we will be creating, even a few games which are always on website to make people re-visit.

First I'm going to look at the website of the films i have anaylsed, starting with the film, ' The American Gangster.'

This is the front page of the American Gangster Website. I like this opening page for their website, because they've kept the same kind of image from their own movie poster. Keeping the colours the same, which need to be done on our own website page.

We got the main two character either side, and then in the middle we have the trailer playing, which also after the trailer has been played has clips of behind the scene of the movie as well. I think having the trailer straight in front of you, middle, centre is a good idea as we want people to watch the trailer to get an idea of our movie. Also re-visiting and watching the trailer made me think of the music, because i love the music that goes behind the trailer. It is a typical urban, genre gangster song, by jay z, and it fits in really well. This has made me think and to also relate to my group, to think of some type of music that will fit well within our own trailer.

At the bottom of the page, like any other normal website we have the links, that nagivate us around the website, which we also need to allocate onto our website too.

Entering the site there is voice overs from the films and then plays the song from the film. So we need to definetly consider the type of genre for the music that will fit well within our moive trailer. When entering the site we are brought straight to the main characters which we can click on and to find out more about each character. In the bottom left corner, we have the title of the film, again the titles i think is like a logo for the film. In the top right hand corner there is a little square box which when u hover over bring out the links, navigation buttons...

The links shown bellow >

The links include; Home, The Story, Notes,Cast & Crew, Video, Images and Downloads. All of which we can include within our own webiste.

When i clicked onto a link the music changed and took me to another place. This website work really well and was simple and easy to use.

The Departed

This is the website opening page for The Departed.I prefer The American Gangster's website compared to this one because it had great art work and also the trailer was larger and mid center making it more appealing. As well with the link to navigate to another page, are really small as well with red onto black can't really see the text either. But from analysing websites so far i have found that each website has an opening page. To starts the opening of the website needs to be a clear and approachable layout.

Apart from the opening page, i like this layout. A large photo of the character DiCaprio and about his character he is playing. I also like how the colours are suttle together, and works well. There is no music through out this website but i prefer it with because it gives it more character and more of an effort to the website.

The Firm

The opening page for this website is just the poster of the film, with Enter Site. It hasnt got the trailer on the front opening page like the other two websites. I suppose this way people will click into the website straight away to look for the trailer. But i think i would prefer the trailer to be within the website and then a really good image to welcome the audience into the website, just like this one.

Clicking in to ENTER SITE, it loads up but what i like about this is that its really simple. Getting the audience to know when the film is out, mainly the only piece of text on this page, as well of corse with the title, but makes people remember the date, getting people to go and watch the film when it is in cinema.

The image above, is the full active page to The Firm website. From the other two website pages this website i prefer the most because it is BOLD, full of some colour and also they had music that linked to the 80s era that the film is based in. Song of the eighties, 'Tainted Love' - Soft Cell, 'Get Down On It' - Kool and The Gang. All classic songs that people remember and can relate to well which would also make this a good website just for the fact to listen back to snipits of songs. As well as these songs are within the film the firm also. So it not just a random pick of song it all link within the film.

Next to the sounds of the eighties there is also a pacman game that is linked up to the site. Again another little bonus to the website. Making it more exciting and also like the song the game is a 80s classic that people will be fond of, visiting the website for the game as well, so will get people visiting the site some more than what they would.

On the website, there are no links, either because of the set up of the computer i am using i can't scroll down to find the links. But either way i think that having links on the page is the most important thing because it holds different pages to hold information on the film. They are good because it makes people become more interested into the website, giving them great information about the film.

- Karis Hammond

Eastern Promises Poster Analysis

2009-11-19T02:41:00.001-08:00

This is the poster for the 2007 film, Eastern Promises. It is a gangster film set in London, like ours, yet this delves into the world of organised crime, with the Russian Mafia.

The poster shows a man with tatooed hands, which is a symbol that is featured heavily in the film. Its adds an iconic addition to the film and makes it easier to associate the audience with the film.

Again,dark colours are used to represent the dark themes in the film. The credits, above the actors names, show who the actors are as they are not as household names, yet their faces are easier to recognise. In doing this, they show the characters in costume and show us their faces as well as their names, thus making it better to know who they are, as was used in Goodfellas.

Red is a very aggressive colour and is used to indicate blood and violence. The subtitle, 'Every Sin leaves It's Mark', tells us that the film will have various moral subtexts and will be metaphoric in places. It also tells us about the dark themes of the story, highlighting the word Sin. This is pivotal, giving away a small amout of what the film will entail. It also opens up the possibility of a religous subtext.

So as you can see, the use of red,black and white is a effective way of giving of a broad impression of a film with dark matters and plots which are not your average family films.

Harry Mountier

Goodfellas Poster Analysis

2009-11-19T02:09:00.000-08:00

This is the poster for the 1990 crime drama film, Goodfellas. This poster, along with Scarface's, has become iconic and used several times as modern interior design. It's poster is simple yet incredibly effective, it only shows the three main actors aswell as a dead body but the colour schemes and writing stand out.

Firstly, the three actors lined up next to each other. They are three heavyweight actors, all prestigious and renowned in their own right. The faces they pull are reflective of their characters in the film. Ray Liotta is a naive,confused anti-hero, his face in the poster is expressing both this qualities. Robert de Niro is a menacing, stone cold crime kingpin. His status is shown in this, he is in the middle of the three, arm crossed and clearly the main brain. Joe Pesci is a physcotic,maniac and his glare in the poster is a great indication to this.

The dead body laid on the floor is a obvious sign to the content of the film, brutal and underworld. The dark lighting which encompasses the whole poster is a reflection of the film's dark and cynical nature. The bridge which is shown may very well be a symbol of being under the radar so to speak, being out of sight of the rest of the world.

The contrast in white and black is something which was also shown in the Scarface poster. It shows a balance between Good and Evil, which is present in the film as the anti-hero, Henry Hill, faces a constant struggle to see what is right and what is completely wrong. Yet the majority he doesn't see the difference, making the balance inequal. This may be why the white is significantly reduced compared to the black.

The tagline, ' Three Decades in The Mafia', tells the audience of the epic nature of the film and more obviously, the content of gangster drama with its highs and its lows.

The credits are placed above the characters heads to empathise the importance of the actors. We will emulate this in our poster as it is a good way to pull people in and see the film's potential. We will also try to mix the colours to reflect the film's nature, the 'ying yang' theory used in this may not be used, as we plan to make a rather perversely dark film which is a throwback to gangster film's with morals.

Harry Mountier

The Firm - Movie Poster

2009-11-13T05:34:00.000-08:00

Going back to my most previous anaylsis of The Firm I now am looking at their poster, as i have already anaylsed previous posters i thought this gangster poster contrasts to the other ones i have anaylsed. As my previous other posters, of The American Gangster and The Departed have dull and dark posters, which show a possible darker movie to this one. Because i have looked at this trailer i can see now why this gangster movies poster isnt in the regular dark, and also limited with colour. This is because of the modernised gangster film. The colour also as well represent the humour of this film. Because not only is this just a gangster film it is also conflicts humour within.

Out of all the posters i have anaylsed i like this one the best because it would attract more viewer because of the structure and colour of this poster, compared to the other typical gangster posters. But then as a groupd we need to come together to work out whether our movie is going to be serious of that it might confind in a bit of humour.So now i am thinking about the structure of our movie trailer. Whether colour will be added or that it will be simple and be dark and deciving.

Looking at this poster, The Firm, yet again we have the text at the bottom in small because it is important text but not important for it to take away the whole artwork of this poster. The title again is very large and bold, in blue also as this could be a sysmbolic colour, as when we see this colour to think of the firm, the movie. The titles text is also quite funky, contrasting it towards the other movie trailer were the text was quite formal, this one is unformal, maybe because it wants to give that vibe of young, hip and humourous effect. The image art work is a gang of youths. Walking out towards the viewer.Typical youths in tracksuit bottoms and trainers. Again giving that more mordern vibe of how gangsters movie are changing in time. I like that this poster remind me of a pop art piece of image. Showing the time of the movie has been set in, and making it seem more fun and a cooler vibe to this type of film.Bringing in an audience of teenage boys 18+. As well under the the title, The Firm we have a large text of the director name Nick Love. Because this showing that a well know and excelled director will bring in more viewers to watch this film.

-Karis Hammond

The Business Poster Analysis.

2009-11-13T05:30:00.000-08:00

The Business is a crime/gangster film, set in the 80's. It is famous for the era it is set in as it shows the way drugs and drug dealers have evolved and changed over time.

The poster for the film represents the era and shows the criminal nature behind the characters. The characters are dressed in classic 80's atire (man in a white 'power dressing' suit, the woman in a small, high cut silk dressing gown and the lead role wearing classic 80's RayBan sun glasses and having the iconic 80's slicked back hair).

The title is of a relatively simple block style font and is coloured white. It has been set upon a light blue background which makes it stand out more from the rest of the poster. This means that anyone glancing or looking at the poster will clearly see the title and will therefore remember the name of the film. This is a common marketing strategy used by producers to get their films name out amongst the public.

The tag line for the film: "Good Fellows In The Sun", gives us an indication that the film is set in another (sunnier) country. This also implies that the characters in the film are not gangsters or criminals as it says "Good Fellows..". However it is meant deliberately as a sarcastic statement which shows that the film may contain humour, which is also another common trait in gangster films. The tag line has been place directly above the title to draw maximum attention. The fact that it is also the same colour as the film title helps it to stand out more from the rest of the poster.

The use of props in the poster also indicates to us that it is a gangster film. The gun being the main prop in view, shows us that the film will involve violence/shooting as is a common trend in gangster films. The use of a cocktail also suggests to us that the characters have money and spend it on luxuries. This is also helps to indicate to the audience that the guns link in with the luxuries/money.

- James Banister

The Departed - Film Poster

2009-11-13T05:26:00.001-08:00

After analysing the trailer for 'The Departed' I then found the poster for the film. As a part of our media project we need to make a poster for our own trailer.
I have already analysed one poster, from one of the trailer movies i have looked at (The Firm.)

From looking at this poster, I see the obvious text shown, portraying, movie realse date, the people involved within the film, distributes, ( which i will look later into) the main actors, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson...

The text that is used on this poster, and also as i have look at a previous movie poster, I mean there isn't alot of text because a poster is all about the image, and how they can attract the audience of this film, as well as on lookers as this poster will be bulleted up on bill boards and at bus stops etc... But i have looking at this poster found that the text i have mentioned are all that needs to be shown within a poster, also as this type of text is quite small also conveying that it needs to be on the poster but it doesnt matter for they want the audience to use their eyes to maybe pay to watch this movie, as well as the image on this poster show high class, actors, and also film star hotties such as DiCaprio, Damon and Nicholson. Which could be a clever way to introduce a wider audience of also female, being this film to be a males film.

Another BIG point to this poster of corse, THE TITLE. The title has to show a clear view to the audiene. On this poster the title is shown twice, because we have it in the bold white, shone on the black background, giving it more emphasis to be seen. But the title as well is also seen within the art work of the poster.The art work is the films title, The Departed, in big blocked text, but the text is used with images.Images of the main characters. Yet again, for someone to walk by this poster, straight away are going to be intreged by this poster as the main characters are high class actors that people idolise. Brining more viewers and making more money for their movie, whether or not that this film is a hit or not, people will still wants to watch it for the love of their idols. Going back to the Art Work, it is very, Very simple, but also creative for catching the audience attention. Which we will need to as a group to discuss because looking at different posters some maybe be more elaborate than others. But i think the more simple and more creative it is, then the more people will be fond of our movie.

Again the colours used for this poster as well as my previous poster review is, White, Black and Red. I think these colour indicate good and evil, dark and light, like as if there is postive events and then dark events. then the indication of red used brings me to see blood, danger, voilence. Looking closer into the poster, the red writing is, Cop or Criminals. When You're Facing A Loaded Gun What's The Difference?
This is a possible slogan, quote used from the film. Gets the audience to think about the film, about the storyline of the film. If i before hand didnt watch the trailer of this movie and i read this quote i would be thinking that they are trying to say that cop or criminal either way facing possible death it doesnt matter where you stand, there is no real difference.

Key Points From Anaylising
- Small Text for obvious text, such as the producers, distrubutors, text that doesnt really bother the audience.
- Large, Attractive Image and Title - What the audience will be most attracted to.
-Quotes/Sayings - Audience will cling onto, remember about the movie.
-Colour - Thinking about colour that will highlight our type of gangster genre.

-Karis Hammond

Film Anaylsis The Departed

2009-11-09T06:48:00.000-08:00

This is the trailer for the film, 'The Departed.' From my previous analysis of 'The American Gangster' i got the same feel for this one as they both portray, good and evil. The good character being played by Leonardo and Damon and then the bad characted played by Nicholson.

Already anaylising gangster trailers i have understood that within our group, our final outcome of our trailer needs a good character and a bad character to bring across the effect of a good gangster film.

As the trailer starts we straight away see Nicholson, as well as the narator speaking throughout the trailer bringing a sense to the audience that he is the main, higher status character towards leonardo and damon, having more power, making the other two characters look more innocent and less of the bad guys.

As it starts and continues with Nicholson narration stating question towards the audience, brining them involved within the film, grabbing the thoughts of the audience to linger onwards to figure out the answers.This can bring the audience more inducued within a trailer which we want to indicate to our audience, as they get to know our characters within our trailer.

There is cross cuttings within the trailer to bad and good. From Nicholson to Damon, Nicholson to Leonardo. I also found that the bad character influencing the good, to make them into gangsters.This could as help us to think of another lead to our trailers storyline, maybe to mix it up a bit to get viewers more interested or it could possibly just make viewers bored. Maybe a group discussion on this will help bring our storyline, storyboard together in a different approach to the usual gangster image.

As the trailer plays we find out that here is a gangster film. Showing iconic symbols of Police men, Guns, Knifes, Fighting, all of which we need to consider within our own trailer to sysmbolise this genre into our filming. Yet again from my previous analysis of trailers iconic objects can help produce our genre. Thinking as a group we could all discuss on what objects could be good to use, maybe a gun, money, drugs... etc... The main images, icons that our audience will straight away view and think that they can pick up our genre and be interested as an audience.

- Karis Hammond

Trailer Format

2009-11-09T06:44:00.000-08:00

This is the trailer for the new film Harry Brown, a crime drama set in East London, like ours. The only difference is the plot obviously and this still contains the elements of a stereotypical crime drama, the Slang used in their speech, guns, knifes,drugs,prostitution and revenge. The trailer is produced so that narrative is non-diegetic descriptions from the film,crossing over as scenes are played to give a summary of the plot and characters.

We will use this in our trailer as it is effective and looks stylish, creating an edge to the trailer. It makes it appealing as things are given away throughout the trailer in small segments and leaves some to the imagination.

The Usual Suspects poster analysis.

2009-11-09T06:40:00.000-08:00

Looking at this Usual Suspects poster, we notice a key image that is used throughout all of the film posters and the film itself. The image of all the main characters standing in the line-up has been made an iconic image for this film.
The picture itself is a still from part of the actual film. There is a scene where all of the main characters are standing a police line up and are all asked to repeat a quote. This is turning point in the movie and has been cleverly used as part of the marketing strategy for the film.
The use of the police line-up imagery itself gives the audience an idea of what the characters are like. We know automatically just from where they are standing that they are criminals and they could possibly be gangsters. This is also a very clever use of imagery that once again increases film popularity. The characters costume also gives us an idea to the nature of their work and the role they play with in the gangster/criminal community. We see the middle two characters both wearing suits, which shows that these two characters are more the "brains" of the opperation. The characters that are on the outside of the of the group are the more rough looking and "brawn" of the business. They are the ones that do the manual jobs and tend to be the more aggressive and hands on characters.

The characters have also been arranged in order of size. The smaller characters are positioned toward the outside, and the taller characters are positoned toward the middle. It shows how the more powerful characters are taller and emphasises their power over the other characters. This concentrates our focus more towards the centre of the screen and makes us fammiliar with the characters before we have even seen the film, yet again, another clever marketing tool.

James Banister

Codes

2009-10-30T08:54:00.000-07:00

When you watch any crime genre or gangster related film, they always contain certain styles and codes which we would associated the genre itself. For example we would expect the gansgter to use slang i.e 'Cockney Rhyming slang'. This means that we are constantly reminded of the character's background,style and education. If they speak colloquial english for the majority of the film or scene, then we are told that they are from a lower background and that they perhaps are not as educated or priviledged as perhaps a well spoken, smartly dressed character.

A convention of the genre would be black suits,designer usually. They would also be a smoker,a drinker of alcohol and a user of drugs, or be incredibly anti drugs to represent a bad experience,usually personal to them. The way they talk about vices i.e drugs,alcohol is usually a indication of their attitude. If they find them to be a part of their lives then it a reminder that they are laid back and open to a world of crime.

Womanising is also very common in the gangster underworld.They treat women as objects for their own desire and personal use. This usually involves prostitition and whores. They are used as drugs and sex mules. They will also treat their wives disrespectfully, abusing them emotionally and physically.

They will also be secluded from the world, being very reserved. They have no friends due to trust issues and treat any threat with brutaliaty and ruthlessness.

Harry Mountier

Film Title.

2009-10-22T02:04:00.000-07:00

The title of a film is very important when it comes to attracting an audience an giving the film meaning. A good film title will give the audience an idea of what the film is going to be about and should also hint slightly at a plot line.
Film titles such as "dawn of the dead" give a clear message as what this film may be about, that 'the living dead are starting to walk among us' or whatever people would call it. It gets straight to the point and prevents the audience guessing what the film may be about. It gives no hint of a deeper message and in my opinion tells viewers that this film won't be very articulate and meaningful.
However, there are some film titles, 'Layer Cake' for example, that seem to have nothing to do with the plot of the film. Layer Cake is a film that is based around how drug dealers and criminals work, the title seems to give no hint as to what this film is about. It isn't about a cake with many layers as some audience members might think at first glance. This is why we must look at deeper meanings. The title of the film doesn't give a direct outline to what the film is about, but highlights the industries that are involved in the film. Looking at the drug trade, we learn that it is made up in many layers, of hands on men, to the top guys in suits getting the big money. This hierarchy can rather resemble a cake that has different layers. This is where the creators got their name.
Depending on the title of our film, we will either be giving the audience a clear view of what our film will entail (and therefore possibly giving the impression that the film itself may not be very meaningful or proffesional) or we will be giving them a clever, thought out title that gives the film an element of professionalism.

James Banister

Analysis of Promotional Websites

2009-10-22T01:33:00.000-07:00

Rock'n'Rolla

As I have been given the task of creating a promotional website for our film, I thought it would be a good idea to start analysing some websites of recent films.

The website I will be looking at is for the recent gangster movie 'Rock'n'Rolla' . Screenshots of the website can be seen below.

The first thing I took note off was the dark and dingy colour scheme. Lots of browns, blacks and dark colours in general are used. This emphasises the dark, urban and gritty nature of the plotline and setting of gangster films in general, not just Rock'n'Rolla specifically. As our film is within this area and theme, it would be a good idea to implement such a colour scheme into the website that I will be designing.

The cast that feature in the film surround the title. This helps emphasise and bring attention to the title, also, the fact that the actor directly behind the title is wearing a black suit contrasts well with lighter colours associated with the the title and helps bring attention towards it. Maybe I could look at contrasting colours within my website when I need to bring attention to certain areas, specifically the film title.

The names of the cast are displayed throughout the top in a small clear font. They do not take away anything from the theme of the website, nor do they take focus from the more important aspects of the site. It does however add a sense of professionalism and it would be a good idea to do this with our website to make it seem as close to the real thing as possible.

Finally, in terms of the visual department, the DVD is displayed in the bottom right corner with a glowing outline. This is purely (quite obviously) for the promotion of the DVD and Blu Ray release of the movie. The white glow helps attract attention to it.

Moving onto the interactivity side of things you have your usual selection off buttons that when clicked take you to other pages. Upon moving your mouse over them, unlike other sites they do not indicate that they are highlighted by altering the look of the button. I will however implement a highlighting feature into the buttons.

As for the aesthetics of the pages the general gritty theme with dull colours persists. But with the addition of iconic london buildings and skyline silhouettes. This fills the what would be empty space nicely, and keeps to the theme of the movie. I like this look and would like to implement a similar theme and style into my website.

The Departed

- Will Leighton

Analysing Film Posters

2009-10-19T06:49:00.000-07:00

For our project we also need to do a film poster. As i have in my last post looked at the film trailer for 'American Gangster' I will then anaylse this film poster.

This film poster connotates two men, for which star in the movie. Apart from the image of these two men, we see the text, including the title and the other details of actors, producers etc...

Going back to the image, behind the text of the two men which is edited into a black and white photo effect. I think that this shows the respresentation of each of these characters. The man standing in front of the other man, shows he could have a higher status to the other. Who in a whiter shadowed effect could present a lower status. As we can see as well the man in the foreground is also holding a gun, presenting a character that we can think he will start trouble, be in a gang, a gangster character compared to the man behind him, he wears a police badge, showing he is trusted character, saving crime, from the man who is holding gun.

The colour of a black and white effect, could show the representation of each character of good and evil. The man standing more within the foreground, in the more black edit show a more evil, bad and dangerous character. Whereas the man standing behind him, in a more white edit, show the good character.

Looking at this poster i feel that the audience that would be attracted to this would be highly towards boys, teenage boys and up. The two character, played by two world classed actors also could bring more of an audience into this film of different gender and ages. The Object of a gun also could convey this type of audience as the gender of boys can represent that this film can involve, voilence, crime and gangs.

-Karis

Scarface Poster Analysis

2009-10-16T01:22:00.000-07:00

The Brian de Palma film,Scarface,was made famous by its iconic poster, which has become a must have accessory for any teenage boy wishing to spice up their bedroom. This iconic film poster has not aged with time and still holds codes and conventions of modern day film posters.

The most stand out feature of the poster is the black and white/negative effect. It stands out to the audience and is an unusual tool for drawing attention, yet it still works. The negative effect is also used on the actor in the poster, reversing the colours of his suit and making him stand out from the rest of the poster.

It also uses the 80's colour scheme for interior fashion, Red,Black and Chrome. This adds to its class,making it trendy and interpretable to the feel of the era. This has made it so iconic and popular due to its symbol as a trend setter. We will have to find a symbol of our era to perhaps include in our poster.

It has a brief subtext to try and explain the film before you see it, giving the audience a taster before the film is released to encourage a large audience. It informs to the minimum to make people want to know to the maximum. The credits are large to give of the prestige of the production, showing those involved in the filming. We will add the credits to subtly, not to defer people from the lack of repute.

Harry Mountier and James Banister

Analysing Layer Cake poster.

2009-10-16T00:58:00.000-07:00

Promotional devices such as trailers, posters and websites are crucial to a new films success and popularity. If the films trailer/poster/website does not capture the audiences attention from the off, they could risk losing crucial ticket and film sales and therefore losing potential interest and popularity. This also applies a films poster, if a poster doesnt interest the reader enough at a first glance they won't look back and analyse it further and they won't become interested in the film.
Having already looked at why film trailers are crucial in previous blogs, we now need to look at and break down the properties of a good film poster.

I have decided to analyse this Layer cake film poster, and break down exactly what makes it work and why is made the film iconic and popular.
Straight away we notice that the name of the film 'Layer Cake' is written in the form of a private number plate with the letter 'A' being replaced with a '4' (a common occurance for private number plates). Straight away this highlights the nitty gritty, working class nature of the film and its characters. Our eyes are then drawn to the big yellow range rover. This is a very bold, bright image and sticks in the mind even with one glance. The use of this image throughout all of the Layer Cake posters and trailers has made it an iconic part of the movie and has helped increase the films ticket sales and popularity. The use of the yellow and black colours througout the poster also make our minds relate the rest of the poster back to the cars colour scheme. This is a very powerful advertising tool and is used alot in film posters and promotional materials as it allows the audience to relate one prop/object or character to the film. We then notice the Iron on the bonet of the car. This stands out as it is not an object you would neccersarily associate with a car or gangster/drug film. This prop is also iconic as it is used in one of the scenes of the film as a torture weapon and stands out to audience members and film fans.
When making our film poster, we need to find a suitable advertising technique to try and capture our audience. To do this, we are also planning to use the idea of taking an iconic image/character/prop from the film and use it in the poster so audience memebers relate it to our film. This we give an element of realism to our film and poster and hopefully be an aid to attract audience members.

James Banister

Teaser Trailer. Props, costume, make-up,setting

2009-10-15T03:25:00.001-07:00

When looking at the props etc that we will be using in our film, we need to know what typical gangster films use and why. We can look at what works for other films of the same genre and make our own twist.
The first main prop that is common in the majority of all gangster films, is most commonly a case of drugs or packet of drugs. They highlight the illegal nature of a gangsters business and personality and if used in certain ways, can potentially become very iconic for that specific film. Secondly, most of the typical gangster films tend to have firearms (guns) to further show the illegal nature of their business and personality but also to highlight the ruthlessness of the characters. If a man is prepared to fire a gun at someone, then they are prepared to kill and this sends a message to the audience and gives the character power. Gangsters in films also tend to have alot of high class gadgets/gizmos such as a flash mobile phone, bold jewlery, expensive lighter, rings etc. This shows that they tend to 'flash the cash' and further highlights their shallow personality. Classic gangsters also tend to smoke, alot of the time this will be big high quality cigars. This is to portray an element of class and power. Gangsters in film also tend to have a flash car that will also further show a shallow personality, wealth and class.
Looking at costume, i often found that alot of the higher power modern gangsters and the old traditional gangsters, would be wearing suits and dressed smartly as if they are legitimate bussiness men. However some of the modern gangsters dress in tracksuits or jeans just like an everyday citizen, their costume doesnt neccersarily set them apart or make them stand out as a 'gangster'. For our trailer, We will use modern day 'gangster' attire, which is mainly consisting of black and grey shades. Brands are paramount as they are symbolic of the gangster's wealth and their attitude. If they wear a ralph lauren jacket with smart jeans and clean black shoes, it is reflective of their smart, clean nature. If they decide to wear an old tracksuit with gold chains it is usually to describe them as poor and not as concerned about their appearance.
Gangster films are usually set in urban areas, where crime is rife. The houses or buildings are often run down and clearly have been left behind, thus enticing crime sprees and large illegal activities. East end as previously mentioned is a urban crime is incredibly high and gangsters rule the streets.Replicating this image will involve extras wearing the attire and following a certain walk and attitude.

James Banister and Harry Mountier

Analysis of Trailer 'American Gangster'

2009-10-15T02:43:00.000-07:00

The beginning of this trailer starts with a few establishing shots, of a urban city, which is Manhattan, America. Establishing Shots help to set the scene of the film, indicating where the film is set, and also to get the feel of the setting of the film. After we have the establishing shots of the view of buldings, showing the city of manhattan it goes to a closer establishing shot on the streets of manhattan city. As the first view of character come envolved to the trailer this portrays 5 men walking towards the camera, walking the street, looking as thought they own the streets of manhattan. These different established shots portray the film is being based in this urban city.

We can see straight away, the character, played by Denzel Washington, is the main character as seen in a conversation, his voice appears, starting to tell the viewers of the brief of what this film is some what about. He then shown in middle of these 4 men, leading the way shows a higher status to them as he wears a Smart, Rich looking suit compared to the other men, wearing casual t- shirts, hats and trousers. From the costume they are wearing we can tell the difference between the main character who will be playin a lead role, who will have that power within the film. Helping our viewers to get sense of who our film is going to be set on, about.

Another main character is then brought into the trailer, play by Russell Crowe. From the dialogue we can convey the different types of characters. As Denzel portrays a high status, as if he is running the streets of manhattan, and then with Russell Crowe's character who is brought in with a variety of cut shots, getting together a theory of what is going down in the film.

He uses sharp short words with as well quick cut shots to get different sides of the movie, from his point of view and the character played by denzel. Cutting in from both characters, contradicting with each other portrays the good and bad character.
These cut shots also show different objects that portray the genre, 'Gangster, Crime'. These include Money, Cars, Guns, Voilence . All for which we can think about using in our trailer to give that straight away clue of how we are portraying our film and to give it that true Gangster, Crime feel.

-Karis

Analysing Layer Cake.

2009-10-15T02:21:00.000-07:00

Looking at the opening monologue and first scene of layer cake, iconic images and refferences have already been used. The film starts as a sort of time walk, of how drug deals and drug dealers started out and how the attitudes and power of gangsters has changed throughout the years. It shows the tradioional drug "stick up" with a classic 'sawn off shot gun' shoot out scene where the men are wearing balaclavas and are jumping out the back of a van. These are the tradiotional things that people associate with a drug deal gone wrong and is a very stereotypical scene for a gangster/crime film. It also takes us through the 'Hippy' generation of drug users and how the attitudes went from power and money, to peace and harmony (however, this was only short lived). This part of the time walk also uses stereotypical costume and make up, the hippies in the scene have long hair and wear lose fitting baggy clothing and the characters are shown as relaxed and spaced out. The use of these 2 iconic era's gives us a complete contrast of the drug underworld and how it has progressed through time. The use of iconic 'happy/hippy' drug users, highloghts the 'good'effects of drugs and how the drug business at that time was a 'happier' place. The contrasting gang 'shoot 'em ups' of modern day then highlight the bad side of drugs and the drug trade and show. These 2 contrasting times show how drugs have gone from small time recreational use, to big business. Drugs have now become a way of gaining power, security and money but in a glamourous and tax free way.
The film then progresses to show Daniel Craig walking into a shop and on the shelves are drugs with brand names, as Daniel Craigs monologue reaches its end, the drugs on the shelves change into normal products. These iconic items have been used to promote the film, they have been used in film trailers, posters, leaflets and on film websites etc.
The shop scene then cuts to Daniel Craig at home with the drugs showing how he doubles the amount by adding to them and the whole time, the voice over is telling us what is happening and why it is happening. It shows the gangsters sitting roung a table dealing with their money. The characters are dressed in typical gangster fashion, they are all wearing suits and some are smoking cigars. These are all iconic props and costumes that are asociated with gangsters.
The use of the iconic images from the film for advertising, is also something we could look at. For our promotion materials, we need to find and iconic object from our film and include it in our posters, website, logo etc to give the audience a little teaser/taster of the film whenever they see an advert or poster etc.

James Banister

Ideas on Costume and Makeup.

2009-10-14T05:50:00.000-07:00

Having looked at trailers from the gangster/crime genre, we notice considerable simmilaritites in costume and make-up.
Firstly looking at male costume, we notice a simmilar trend of smart, well presented and neat. Gangsters tend to be wearing high quality suits, often designer. This is to highlight their personalities that they "business men" and do legitimate work.

Also Breifly as a group looking over youtube at the variety of gangster movies as from the most popular to least to the old to the new. There are different types of costumes. From the Gangster movie, Good Fellas. In this movie we've got the costumes of the High class, Suits and looking smart, maybe this is because that it is one of the old gangster films? But we also as a group looked at a new gangster trailer, called The Firm. As a group we felt that being a more modern film that it has modernized for their costumes were based in the late 80s 90s english tracksuits.Portraying a time in england when riots of gangs were popular rioting across the london streets.

Looking at the different Types of Film for the Genre GANGSTER, as a group will need to consider what type of costume and makeup we want for our own trailer when it comes down to filming. Do we want it to be a Classic type film or a more modern approach to costume and makeup. This is one point that we need to elaborate on throughout our project as also costume and makeup could also be a key icon to our overall film production.

-Karis Hammond

Teaser Idea

2009-10-12T07:00:00.000-07:00

Having worked out the genre of our film and a basic story line, we have now started to think about more technical and physical aspects of the trailer. The basic plot line of our story is a drug deal gone wrong and being stumbled upon by our main character.

The inspiration which resulted in the idea below, literally came from no where. I (Will) was simply sitting at home when a TV advertisement had a backing track of some form of classical music and my mind got going about the thought of our gangster film. Although that in it self is something to think about and look into; how my mind automatically associated classical music with gangster movies (in particular high piano keys and violins).

Me and James discussed the idea in school and we expanded on it further. What we came up with so far for the trailer is a birds eye view shot that is tracking past floor which passes props such as a case of drugs, a gun, a dead body, blood, clothes, money etc. to not only symbolise the stereotypical gangster/crime genre, but to make it immediately clear to the viewer what is the movie's theme. Whilst this shot is tracking, it will cut to other clips from the film such as a chase scene, sex scene, shooting scene, emotional scene etc. The tracking shot then pans up as it approaches to face a figure seated in a dimly lit room grasping a gun and smoking a cigar.

It fades to black where the trailer will then end with the title of the movie fading in (name undecided at the moment) with a date in a smaller font fading in below the title.

We plan to do our first piece of filming sometime this week.

Will Leighton and James Banister

Analysis and Codes & Conventions of the Gangster Genre

2009-10-12T06:41:00.000-07:00

Setting and Era

The gangster genre is a sub genre of the crime genre and the most popular era gangster movies revolve around has been the 1930's (American movies in particular such as The Godfather and Goodfellas ). This is because throughout this period America was going through the great 'Depression' where everyone was doing there utmost to gain money, wealth and power. This era not only provides an interesting and accurate representation of that time, it also brings the audience down to their perspective as we often come to like the characters. We know they are bad, but because we enjoy there personalities and have become accustomed to seeing them on screen so much, we connect with the characters and want to see them succeed.

However, if you take a look at England based gangster/crime movies, a vast majority are based in London in a modern era (examples include Snatch, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, RocknRolla etc...). This is because we do not have that kind of history and struggle to benefit from to feed the storyline. London was no where near as exciting and interesting in terms of crime and gangsters back in the 1930's when compared to America. By basing the movie in a modern era, without a doubt it will appeal to the current generation who enjoy the genre. Why? Because they themselves are living in the times that the movie is taking place. Movie's for many are a form of escapism, and what better way to see these story's unfolding in familiar places and time.

Saying they are based in 'London' or 'America' is a bit vague so I will expand on this. Movies within the genre will often be based in large crowded cities. This is to highlight the unknown and secretive underworld of gangsters and criminals: bars and clubs that light the streets with neon signs, expensive sport cars, drugs, sleazy bars, prostitution, hangouts etc... all add to the genre. If a crime/gangster film is based in a more 'exotic' location (warmer foreign locations) it often brings the feeling of wealth and adventure with it. An example of this would be 'The Business' starring Danny Dyer who becomes drawn into organised crime and gangs after he travels to Malaga from being on the run in London.

Plot

The stories within this genre often highlight the life of a crime figure (fictional or non fictional) or at times victims. Or they tend to glorify the the rise and fall of a particular criminal, particular group/gang, bank robbers, murderers and more. Its not unusual to find real life crimes, gangsters or headlines used as inspiration or even recreated on the big screen. The gangster or some form of main character will usually die emphasising that crime does not pay, especially to an audience that has come to like characters which are essentially villains.

An alternative plot line that is also used is when a group or person not associated with gangsters becomes drawn into a development or problem be it through accidental means or through consequences. An example of this would be Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels where four Londoner's who at the most are small time scam artists, find themselves heavily in dept with east end gangsters, and result to humorous attempts at theft.

Diegetic and Non-Diegetic Sound

Diegetic sound is sound which source is visible on the screen or is implied to be present by the action of the film such as a character talking.

Non diegetic sound is sound which source is not visible on screen nor has been implied to be present in the action such as a music track played over an action scene.

Diegetic sound within the gangster genre is pretty self explanatory as it is with any film out to date. Characters talking, environmental sounds, sounds made by props etc... The non diegetic sound is what differs greatly in films, in particular the music.

Classical music is often associated with american gangter films, more so in those that are based in an older era. If you had to associate a genre of film with classical music, many (as I) would no doubt choose the gangster genre. I have two opinions as to why this might be. The first being perhaps the huge success of films such as The Godfather (which featured a lot of classical music) resulted in people automatically associating it with gangster films. Second would be how well it suits the theme. The quiet, relaxing and sometimes epic pieces created contrast greatly with what is happening within the ganster genre. But it successfully makes an impact to what is happening on screen and can emphasise many emotions and actions such as sadness, death, murder and more.

However, if we take a look at modern day London gangster films you will not here much if any classical music at all. After viewing films such as Rock'n'Rolla, Lock Stock and Snatch it is evident that this side of the genre tends to focus on rock/punk. More than often the music will be from a London based band. This is probably to emphasise and amplify the nature of the criminals/gangsters within London, how they rebel and dont take kindly to authority much like the rock/punk genre did.

Costume

As the teaser trailer will be based in modern day London, I decided to look at the trailer for 'Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' to get a better idea of what costume is used.

After viewing the trailer, it is evident that there are various groups involved with the plot line, and that each one has a different style of costume (some only slightly different however).

First we have a group of friends that are portrayed as small time criminals involved with the likes of scamming. This group are shown wearing suits, possibly conveying how the group are trying to show class or that they have money, or even the director even putting across that they are 'wannabe' gangsters?

Next we are introduced to who is obviously the main gangster within the area. This is made evident by the indefinite change of style from the previous group. He is wearing a smart, buttoned shirt and tie with smart trousers and braces. This conveys a sense of authority and professionalism, the fact that no other character is dressed like this further emphasises these messages.

Moving on we are introduced to what seems to be the gangsters henchmen. We are given this impression due to them wearing not just suits but long brown coats. The long brown coats are a typical item of clothing that appear often in gangster/crime films.

Will Leighton

Filming

2009-10-08T02:15:00.000-07:00

For our Filming, We will be using a tripod to give it the effect of a professionally made film, rather than a student made project. We will use dark lighting to give it a grimey feel to the trailer.

We plan to film in Epping Forest, the perfect location and the prime location for crime scenes in Soap operas i.e Eastenders, Coronation Street etc. This location is very versatile when it comes to filming any genre of film, from comedy to gangster crime. It is the perfect setting for our film as drug deals/crime do take place in forests.

We also plan to film partly in my house. We will use the house setting for one constant shot that will be playing throughout the whole of the teaser trailer.

We plan to start our first piece of filming in epping forest in October half term.

James Banister.

The Firm - Trailer Analysis

2009-09-17T02:19:00.001-07:00

This is the trailer for the film, 'The Firm'. As a group we are looking at trailers for which we can relate to our genre we have picked, 'Crime/Gangster'.

When researching through for these types of trailers we came across this particular one for which we can pick out the qualities of what makes a good crime, gangster trailer.

The qualities we picked out are the, language (cockney rhyming london slang.) Costume, ( Early 90s, Tracksuits) and also the settings, (London, Council Estates.)

From here we then can look on these qualities to help for when planning our trailer and remember to add these into our work.

Looking at different trailers we also have to understand that we need these main points, Language, Costume and Settings, for our trailer so that the viewers can understand and also for our trailer to be a success.

From the trailer the textual input of, characters are shown a stereotype of a typical gang of young london men, street youths. The audience that this film trailer would be shone towards would be the age range of teenage boy, the film is rated as a 18, so older teenage boys, 18+. Mainly for the male genre as it fits into, football, humour and voilence.

This Trailer show different cut clips of a varation of up close camera angles to show the main characters towards the audience. Within the trailer it also shows the film distrubutions, Vertigo films and Universal.

-Karis Hammond

Ideas and Research

2009-09-17T02:10:00.000-07:00

Having decided on a genre, we next need to start looking at ideas for our trailer.

We decided on the "crime/gangster" genre as it is easy to relate too for the youth of today and is a growing issue in todays society.

Setting

2009-09-17T02:02:00.000-07:00

To help decide on a setting and era of which our gangster film would take place, a questionairre was handed out around the class to see what they would like to see. The questions were:

What do you think of gangster films based in an 'older' era such as the 1930's (Godfather, Goodfellas for example)?

- I prefer gangster films to be based in an 'older' era
- I prefer gangster films when they are based in a more modern era
- I dont mind

If a gangster film was to be based in London, what era would you prefer it to take place within?

- Older
- Modern

If a gangster film was to be based in America, what era would you prefer it to take place within?

- Older
- Modern

On average, the most popular results were:

- I dont mind (what era they are based in)
- American films taking place in an older era
- London films taking place in a modern era

From the feedback I recieved, we have concluded that the best possible setting for our film will be East London, in the modern era. One reason being that people seem to prefer london based gangster films to take place within a modern era, while they prefered American based films to take place in an 'older' era. I assume this is because many gangster films from America are based in the 1930's, reason being 'The Great Depression' was taking place where everyone was at a struggle for wealth, power and money. Enland/London on the other hand doesnt have this kind of history to benefit from in this kind of genre. Hence why we see more gangster films based in London taking place in modern day.

Another reason is that modern day is easy to relate to and being in an area close to it, it is easily accessible.

by Will Leighton

Ideas

2009-09-11T01:33:00.000-07:00

The reason I chose the trailer for Road to Perdition as my starter trailer is due to it being a crime drama. This means even in the trailer you have the same effects as a stereotypical crime drama. Notice its dark lighting and themes. The characters are shown in an array of different angles to give the trailer a sinister nature. The music is poignant and adds an edge to the trailer, making it more elaborate and in depth.

We feel this is a great example of using music to express something more in detail. The music in this case serves as a juxtaposition between what is glorious and what is dark.

The trailer is also effective in how lighting is used. Notice it is dark around a title character, yet they are seemingly glowing. This could be used to represent the nature and intentions of the characters involved in our trailer. The characters who the trailer show to be villainous in nature are shown to have dark throughout and at times shown to be the opposite of the heroes, they have a dark light on them constantly and at times, it is light around them whereas they appear dark adding to the audience perception, making it easy for them.

I have chosen this trailer as it is the best at exciting the audience, it doesn't give the whole of the film away. Instead it uses brief clips and compiles them to give a small indication of what the film is about without giving too much away

Harry Mountier

Introduction

2009-09-11T01:18:00.000-07:00

For our task we have decided that producing a teaser trailer would be the option on which we could express ourselves more creatively. it is an option which we can be more innovative and the results would be more interesting and higher quality then if we simply recorded a short film.

We will be delving into the crime drama genre. This is a popular genre amongst our age group and something which we reguarly watch. We hope that by having this experience of being entertained by this category of film, we are in the best position to replicate its thrills and help us to find a formula which results in a interesting concept.

As well as a trailer, we will also have to produce a website home page featuring the film. This could be interesting and versatile as we can possible venture into being creative on the website, possible giving it features and giving the audience a more in depth analysis about the film.

finally, we will also have to create a poster for the film advertising it. We will have to think hard about what images will be used as this has a lasting impression on the viewer. We will give it text and will try to make it as realistic as we possibly can.

We will obviously have to work hard to ensure that all three forms of promotion interwind with one another, thus resulting in one experience and promote the film in the best possible manner.

Harry Mountier

A2 coursework starts here!

2009-09-09T23:40:00.001-07:00

Evaluation

2009-05-08T00:19:00.001-07:00

This is our evaluation. click here

Dead Before Dawn - final cut

2009-04-27T00:17:00.000-07:00

Preliminary task

2009-04-26T04:17:00.000-07:00

Editing

2009-04-03T02:29:00.000-07:00

Over the past 2 days me and karis have been editing our footage with the use of a Mac and a program named iMovie HD. Getting to grips the with the program took a few hours, but we had plenty of free periods and lunch breaks to get used to the program. Its simple to use, and it has many features such as cropping, transitional effects, audio effects and more. The Mac's were a bit frustrating , especially the mouse.

Editing went well. One thing I tried to implement was having the music in sync with the scenes, to make it feel a lot smoother to watch. I managed to do this with our initial 30 or so seconds of footage; the estabilishing scenes of nature. After the single piano key plays, I tried to make sure that after every key played, it will fast cut to another shot.

While I edited, Karis provided feedback and arranged varius students in the class to view it and provide us with suggestions on how we could improve the editing. In particular, in what order the shots were in and whether particular bits of footage were needed.

Six hours worth of work later, we had completed our movie. Complete with audio, sound effects, titles and transitional effects. One thing my self and karis realised through the process of editing, is how time consuming it is. You can go so in depth into editing; making such slight changes to the timline, length of footage, the audio etc... We understand why films can take years to make, it took us 6 hours to edit 2 minutes worth of footage!

A nice touch that I added was a fictional production company that I created. I named it Zoh My God! And I designed a logo in photoshop that could display in the opening to the film.

We are pleased with our final product, and the feedback we recieved from students in the room was positive at the time. They complemented a lot of our angles, shots and especially the music, we even had a few people asking were I found it.

- Will & Karis

Selecting Music for the Movie

2009-04-02T16:31:00.000-07:00

I wanted something a bit....different to your usual horror films music. Something slightly calming but eery and sad. So I trauled the internet for copyright/royalty free tracks, in particular in the ambience genre.

I came across www.garageband.com and discovered a track which can be listened to here.

http://www.garageband.com/song?|pe1|S8LTM0LdsaSkYVmxZW4

I instantly knew it would be perfect for our film, especially the initial 30 or so seconds of the track. It provides a perfect introduction and build up to our tension building establishing shots. I showed this to the rest of the group and they felt the same way, they loved it. To me, how slow paced the track is emphasizes how the character must feel during the chase scene, wanting it to be over but seeming like it is taking forever. It is also more fitting with our daylight setting.

- Will

Filming Day 4

2009-04-01T15:24:00.001-07:00

Day 4 of Filming

Another BUT final day of filming. From the day before of all zombie shots we edited it all and we wanted to get some more shots that were relating to the main character. So we all went out again and film some more footage.

(Photos By Karis Hammond)

these 3 images are will filming james coming out of hiding away from the ZOMBIES. this location was one of our location, established shots. As a team we thought this little places would work well as a hid out and worked effectivley as they two differnt levels that we were using throught zombies on top of the bridge were james was underneath there feet, portraying a higher status for the zombies showing they have more power the main character underneath them with a low status.

(Photos By Karis Hammond)

This next shot, a high angle shot poratying james as a smaller status as he is becuse he is runnin away from zombies who have more power on him then just himself. the main character, (james) is coming out of the forest and runing out of the woods. i thought that from this part up to the ending really did work well. this shot was james running, scruffling out of the forest showing a trip as he is looking behind him fom the zombies. It then leads up to the next 3 images below

(Photos By Karis Hammond)

These Shot i really wanted in with the film as it was tracking. I think we really got this shot perfect. it show again a up closer shot of the main character stuggling to get away as he scrounges up the hill for a safer destination. deep breathing and fast movement help create a urge to get away from this environemnt that the character is within, hopefully making the audience sitting on the edge of their seat, waiting to see what is happening next.

(Photos By Karis Hammond)

Another great bit to our opening scene. after the main character climbs up the hill with desperation it then shows him going down. As we filmed this part as a low angle shot giving the characted a higher status as he is gettin away and being more confident with the situtation he is in.

(Photos By Karis Hammond)

Another Great shot , ONCE AGAIN! this last part to our filming really came our a sucess. it shows james emotions and deep breathing as he look upon the forest, the place he has just escaped. we used, close up of james face, breathing hard to show his feeling and emotion of how he is after his chase, them we get another great point of view shot of where he had just came too with deep breathing and he is still out of breath but still aware incase of anymore zombies. It then goes back to james smoking, take a fag out and smoking it, which links back to the character from what he was in the begining, chilled and relaxed. portrating to the audience that he is being brave and cool, after all that has gone on. it also shows he is trying to take away his trouble as he smokes out and the camera follows the smoke with a pan.

(Photos By Karis Hammond)

James Smoking

After filming this all we were all very happy with how we work as a team and brought in different ideas of what would work and didnt we really enjoyed ourself and hope that it works well for our final opening scene.

-KARIS

Filming Day 3

2009-04-01T14:56:00.000-07:00

FILMING DAY 3!

Day 3 of filming was where we got involved with the high, fast tempo of our opening secene. We started by bringing in the Zombies of our film. I did some makeup and costume whiles also helping out will with camera angles and shots aswell with james who is the main character in our opening.

(Photos By Karis Hammond)

Zombie 1 (Tom) All covered in blood (fake) ripped top, bloddy face and messy hair. Getting Preped for being a Zombie!

Filming the first part of the zombie parts, which are all very fast shots, full of action, deep breathing and panic. Here we filmed james running across and then seconds after you get the sounds of other footsteps which are makin zombie noises, this shows the difference between the foot movement with bringing in different sounds to show the difference between two types of character as they can't be seen as this shot was taken with only footstep running.

(Photos By Karis Hammond)

here is another shot of this scene, zombies running in.

(Photos By Karis Hammond)

And again.

Through this filming day it took us a good few hours to film this part of our opening scene. But using these hours we got some quality shots within the time. working as a team we all put our differnt thought through as we looked back at every part we took to see what development we really thought worked and ones that maybe could have been developed.

Good Shots that were taken today were point of view shots of the zombies. I really like this shot as it show alot of movement with the camera work creating a manic situation with also the sounding of zombies to connect to who is also running.

we think today went really well, we think tommorrow we will go through all that we shot and edit it all and see if we need to do any more shotting for a great final piece.

-KARIS

Diegetic and Non Diegetic Sounds in Horror

2009-03-31T06:39:00.000-07:00

Diegetic Sound
Diegetic sound is sound with a source that is visible on the screen or is implied to be present within the action. Diegetic sound can include:

- Voices of characters
- Sounds made by objects in the story
- Music represented as coming from instruments in the film

It can be either on screen or off screen depending on whatever its source is within or outside the frame.

Non Diegetic Sound
Non Diegetic Sound is sound with a source that is neither visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present within the action. Non Diegetic sound can include:

- Narrator's commentary
- Sound effects which is added for the dramatic effect
- Mood music

Non-diegetic sound is represented as coming from the a source outside story space.
The distinction between diegetic or non-diegetic sound depends on our understanding of the conventions of film viewing and listening. We know of that certain sounds are represented as coming from the story world, while others are represented as coming from outside the space of the story events.

Non Diegetic and Diegetic Sounds in Horror
I recently watched Dawn of the Dead (2004) and Dawn of the Dead (1978) to help myself grasp how the use of diegetic and non diegetic sound has benefited the films, and contributed to the scenes it has contained.

Throughout watching these two films I noticed various aspects of non diegetic/diegetic sound contributed greatly too scenes. In particular, it helps create a sense of tension and helps the viewer become immersed within the film. Such as the diegetic sound of the buzzing of flies around rotten corpses, water running down a river, dripping from a tap or birds scattering from a tree. Or non diegetic sounds ranging from sound effects like the barking of dogs or gunshots in the background during urban environments, or music placed over scenes to create a certain mood.

They certainly make the film a lot more interesting to watch and to listen too. Without some sort of ambience, mix of music and sound effects, the world in which the story is taking place would be a very boring one, and become tiresome quickly.

As I feel that these contributed a significant amount to the films, I think it would be a good idea to implement various non diegetic and diegetic sound effects to our opening sequence. It would benefit the scenes greatly, especially our scenes of nature that build up to the chase scene. It will provide a sense of tension.

- Will

Filming day 2

2009-03-31T00:56:00.000-07:00

DAY 2 of FILMING!

Day 2 of filming went well. We managaed to get the rest of the opening sequence; nature shots and so the start of the film is now fully edited. We hope to get back out again to get some more fully packed footage of blooded zombies and trying to get some great shots of angles and movement, as wel as getting in some great natural sounds aswell giving our opening scene a natural feel, so that its as realistic as possible for audiences point of view.

-Group

Make up & Costume

2009-03-24T14:17:00.001-07:00

Make- Up & Costume

For Make Up and Costumes, from the mood board i created i have seen the sort of costumes and make- up that is needed. I think will need some fake blood, some dark eye make up to make people look tired/dead maybe some pale facepaint. For Costume some ragged clothing, bit dirtyy, bloody. I will take some photos aswell of a 'ZOMBIE' to show the results of how sucessful the result came out.

Back To Make Up And Costume, We went out for our filming and i therefore did makeup and costume. I told the people who we got to be zombies to bring some clothes they didnt need, clothes that they could get dirty. I then rip a bit up of there tops, and blodded them up using the fake blood that was made. Just made it all look at though it was ruff and acidental as it creates that MAD, KILLER, ZOMBIE LOOK!!!

(Photos By Karis Hammond)

Here is a image of the makeup and costume. I used fake blood and dirt to make the effect that these zombies are out to kill anyone who isnt one of them. i got ideas from the moodboard i created which also has images of what zombies looked like so i tried my best to get that effect for our opening scene.

Myself pouring over the fake blood, i was really happy with this fake blood, i though it turn our really well.

(Photos By James Banister)

- KARIS

Mood Board

2009-03-24T13:23:00.000-07:00

Analysing and also our own views of the genre of our opening scene i have created a Mood board so people can have a look to see different images to get a feel of what we what our opening scene to consist and also have an understanding of how we want our opening to realate to.

Here's is theMood Board i Created, i thought this was a good idea to collect some images that would realate and also help up whiles thinking of mood and idea to add to our opening scene to also remember things that we can add in also it helped me to look at costume and makeup and what is good to make at least our zombies to look zombiefied.

-Karis

Still Camera Shots - Locations

2009-03-19T12:09:00.001-07:00

Still Camera Shots - LOCATIONS

As a group we all started filming on sunday which we went into epping forest to get some feel of the environment aswell as recording some opening footage. Whiles in epping forest i look around to see what were some good Locations, Settings for our opening scene.

(Photos By Karis Hammond)

Here is an establish shot of part of the forest, as well with trees and little lake running through it lookd really run down and tatty which looks good for maybe a part in our opening for making a beautiful scene turn into a more of a grotty scene, possibly when we bring in zombies.

(Photos By Karis Hammond)

The Camera View of what will was filming, as a group we thought that this with also the river streaming down would create some tension for our opening, also to create a real feeling as the river flows showing that its a normal day. It was one idea that we had when we look around for different locations so filming it gave us more to look at and to decided whether or not we will use it for our opening scene.

(Photos By Karis Hammond)

Not a very clear image, but if u can see its a establish shot of a hill with forest in the background, i wanted to take this shot as from an analysis of the film, 28 WEEKS LATER there is a part of the opening scene which i and also dicussing with my group found really effective as it shows a movement shot , dolly shot as the zombies are coming over the hill in the distance, we all thought was effective part of the opening and like it. So this location shot has gave us ideas and also to look back to places we thought will work well with what we have in mind.

(Photos By Karis Hammond)

Here another location shot, whiles as a group we walkd around epping forest looking for good locations that we thought would work and had a good feel to. here we thought of maybe a chase see maybe coming from the background coming closer into the foreground.

(Photos By Karis Hammond)

Another location withing the forest i thouht this also was a good loaction gettin away from just dirt tracks brought in a lake to maybe have some zombies to go throught the little river to create some tension, anger rushing through the water and also we could pick up some great sounds of raging waters.

(Photos By Karis Hammond)

Two images above, whiles walking looking for other different locations james found a good little spot which he got into to show how we want this shot to be shown maybe. we thought be good for a hide away from zomibes, and use great shots, different angles etc...

(Photos By Karis Hammond)

the place james found. taking a shot of it as a whole to show what we thought.james being in the tube under a bridge. thought of shot of showing him in it hiding away and then just shots of zombie feets to create tension as he hides away from them.

(Photos By Karis Hammond)

Urban shot, bringing back to a everyda caption. we wanna bring the nature shot into an urban laoction to bring it more down to earth as tho its happening in real life.

-Karis

Filming (day1)

2009-03-16T03:09:00.000-07:00

Our first day of filming was a great sucess as we now have alot of opening sequence footage too choose from.

We have filmed and edited the first 30 seconds of our opening sequence for our film. We have filmed our establishing shots and the nature scenes at the start of the film.
We used epping forest as the location for filming our first scenes. We took a variety of shots including shots with dead bodies and open nature spaces. We have closeley to our storyboard although it is not idetical as the location isn't exactly the same as the one we pictured.

We managed to shoot 50 seconds of footage of varying shots of the same scene so we had a variety to chose from. After editing and using what nature scenes we had, we have succesfully made the first 26 seconds of our film.
We play to have a second day of fiming on wednesday 18th of march. This shoot will consist mainly again of nature shots and shots of out main character seeing his surroundings.

-James

The Evolution of the Zombie

2009-03-09T12:32:00.000-07:00

The Evolution of the Zombie Concept

Zombies have been a popular concept in movies for many years. In fact, spanning as far back as 1932; where the film 'White Zombie' first introduced the world to a much loved concept. All though...the zombies are nothing like the zombies seen on screen today. These zombies follow the rules of Haitian voodoo practices. Innocent people manipulated by their master’s spells, turning them into emotionless slaves. The stiff ,stumbling, frakenstein like movement that is still iconic today also debuted during this time. It was a simple and effective concept, yet it was a concept destined for change.

This simple concept stayed until director George A Romero came onto the scene in the late 1960's. What some would call a legendary director of the zombie concept. 'Night of the Living Dead' was released in 1968, and with it the zombie was reborn. Romero brought change to the scene, one that would create a more horrorfying zombie to keep the genre fresh.

No longer were mindless voodoo practices the cause of the zombie, nor were they living innocent people. Zombies became the living dead; reanimated corpses that craved human flesh and brains. They were not under the control of any spells or masters and act based on instincts. Other aspects were also introduced through Romero's movies such as:

- High levels of gore
- Being bitten by a zombie results in the bitten survivor slowly undertaking a transformation in a zombie themselves
- Overwhelming crowds of zombies

The next stage of progression would not be as drastic as to change the zombies origins yet again but to turn them even more horrorfying. Directors began to realise that slow 'shamblers' as they became known as, were not scary enough and realisticly not too much trouble to evade. The solution? To add high-paced running aggressiveness to the mix. This next generation of zombies made there debut in 'Return of the Living Dead' in the 1980's and could sprint and swarm over victims like animals. Suddenly the survivors didnt have the upper hand...

From then on the directors choice off 'sprinters' and 'shamblers' has fluctuated. All though the sprinting concept has become more popular in recent years; a prime example would be Danny Boyles (one of my favourite directors if I may add) '28 Days Later' (2002), as well as the sequel (under a different director) '28 Weeks Later' (2007).

The latest phase of the concept, particularly since the dawn of the millennium, focused on making the zombie more believable and possible to what is a modern and more sceptic audience. And thus, the virus was introduced. In a twist from past zombie movies an incurable virus spreads rapidly and anyone who gets infected will change in a matter of seconds. Before, bite victims would have at least several hours before transforming into zombies. As well as the origins of the zombies changing, Boyle has made some radical changes to the zombie:

- They do not focus on eating flesh, instead focusing on killing the uninfected on site in extremely violent ways including punching, biting and even thrusting fingers into eye sockets. Or infecting the survivors on site.

- They can pass on the virus through transfering bodily fluids to victims, such as spewing blood in the victims face (as well as the inevitable bite)

Although the changes being big, traits such as hunting humans and not being in control of mind, body or will have stayed. There has been much debate that the type of zombie in 28 Days Later is not a real zombie, because they are infected human beings. But those who agree with that point do not know the history of zombie cinema very well. As shown throughout this post, being undead and eating flesh only emerged through Romero's creations, the zombie has many variants. There is no set definition for the zombie in the world of cinema. Fans must accept that zombies are going to continue to evolve.

Over the course of nearly 80 years the 'zombie' has under gone many changes. Some major and some minor. It has evolved to keep the genre fresh and appealing to our current generation. I doubt zombies and what defines them will ever stop to evolve. The only thing that limits writers, directors etc... is their imagination. There will always be a movie that does something of significance to change how we view the villain we have come to love and call the zombie.

Based on this research, I put forward to the group that the best path to take would be to implement 'sprinters' into our opening sequence. They result in the viewers feeling un easy as the sense of security that used to arise from the zombies being slow, is no longer there. They are a much more horrorfying zombie.

- Will

StoryBoards & Scripts

2009-03-09T04:27:00.000-07:00

For our own Opening scene we want to attract our viewing from good camera skills, locations , music etc... so that our opening is a success and that we have a group discussion for what we want to put into our opening.

As a Group aswell we have thought about many designs which we brought together as a group and happy to go forward into filming from our storyboards and scripts which will be place on her soon.

-Group

Common factors.

2009-03-03T05:44:00.000-08:00

Having watched many opening sequences of zombie films and trailers such as : 28 days later, Dawn of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead (original) and 28 weeks later, I have started to look at what type of things are common in each film. Things such as certain lighting, sound, actor movement, common scenes etc are quite similar from film to film.

The lighting for alot of these films tends to be very dark and dusky during the high tension action scenes. These scenes also tend to have a piece of music to them with either a high paced rhythm or a low paced, eerie beat. the actors movement in these type of scenes also tends to be very slow and wary, as if they can sense danger is about to take place . These techniques help to create tension within the audience and draw them away from reality and really hone in on the heart of the action. These scenes tend to only end up being Red Herrings* and are used only to build up tension and scare the audience but are used in almost every Zombie film I have seen.

There are also a significant number of similar scenes that are used in every film. Alot of the zombie films tend to have a scene that involves are large number of the "living dead" chasing/running after a single, uninfected character. The character in question, in most cases tends to be the main "hero" of the story and is mainly focused on during the whole of the film.
Another common scene that tends to occur in these films is the death or "changing" of one of the most liked and vulnerable characters. The directors of these zombie films tend to use this type of scene to make the audience feel sad at having lost their most preffered character, as it creates the desired effect well. Although these scenes are very common in this genre of film, if the film is well made then they are not always predictable. You go into the film thinking and partially knowing that these type of scenes are going to take place but not always are they able to pinpoint if the film is well directed.
Zombie films do also quite commonly include a scence that really shows how deserted and lonely the world has become. In 28 Days Later, they have a scene that is made up of shots of parts of London that are completely deserted. This really makes it hit home to the audience that the character really is completley alone in the world.

I think a good idea to make our zombie opening sequence believeable and realistic to the audience would be to include a "chasing" scene. This would start the film off straight away with some action and automatically entice the viewers. I also think we should include a "lonely" scene in the film. This will help to build up tension before the chasing scene and help to create a more intense effect on the audience. To do this, we would have to film early in the morning so that parts of our locations are completley deserted and we wont be interuppted whilst filming.

*Red Herring- When the audience is made to belive that something serious/significant is about to take place in the scene.

-James.

Mis-en-scene from analysis for our opening

2009-03-01T12:58:00.000-08:00

Looking at Zombie Films and analysing them has help to understand how they are shown to create the right atmoshpheres and mood to create the perfect horror opening.

Mis en scene will also help create these mood and atmoshphere. so looking carefully are this will help us to think about what props, lighting, set location/set, makeup, costumes we will need to consider

from analysising Zombie Film were therefore have thought about thing we need to consider in our zombie film.

Lighting - for our lighting we have anaylse zombie film that are realistic everday and for our opening we using a natural day, which consists of natural sun so we will use this within to create that feel of a normal day and maybe use a dark night to create some tension within our opening aswell, because being dark can make viewer more on edge.

Set Location & Set - As a Group we Decided to choose a location of epping forest which will give us a good opening sequence of a erie place as being in a forest comes across as a place which is lonely and eerie for not knowing who you will come across (zombies?) so we suggest this as it also is a great location for a realistic feel for our opening.

MakeUp - as we are doing zombie film i suggest that we will need some fake blood to create a bloddy effect for zombies which are used alot in zombie films.

Costumes - for costumes i think that becuase we want to create a zombie film to make it a sucess and analysing recent movies we want to make it as realistic so it links to everyday life so that viewers can feel uneased thinkin of that it is a everyday feel to it. So everday clothes shall be worn, but as we need zombie characters there clothes will be more worn, dirty , bloddy to show zombies from other which aren't.

Props- props that will need to be used within our opening scene we have thought of, a gun - for surviving people - or for our case james who is the surviour in our opening
Decor - we are filming within a forest, which is a natural decor to our opening, trees, leaves, etc...

-Karis

Dawn of the Dead - 2004 Analysis Through Screen Shots

2009-03-01T11:43:00.000-08:00

For Reading throught analysis and then viewing the opening scene of this film i found this film the best , horror/ zombie opening. My reasons for which i liked this opening was because it linked in with a real realistic effect. I also liked the opening of the credit and how they used the credit to also create and atmosphere and mood of the film.

As this opening of this film begins there is a sound which is erie and then the credit come in. the credits written in a bold red writing then fades away like blood with gruesome sound.. This creates to the whole atmosphere of the scene. Red Credits create atmosphere of blood, danger, horror, evil. this makes the reader become a bit unease and as the opening carrys on more shot images pop up and then go back to the credit which makes the opening shocking and right in your face. the first part of the opening with the credits and shot images of zombies realate to the genre the film and also a bit about what is going to happen in this film.

After the first 10 seconds the title of the film shows up onto the screen. the first 10 seconds are used with sound clips of blood, screaming and lightening all of these sounds make a quite on edge feel and tension towards what is going to be wached. All of this denotation creates an disturbing mark for what is being watched which connotates a feel for the viewer creating a unnatural and own opinion of what is going to be watched.

Dawn of the Dead, the denotation of the words , DAWN and DEAD highlighted, bold and written in red, relating once again to blood, danger. shown onto a black background for also creating the atmoshphere of dark and unhappy feel.

this connotates the feel, atmosphere of what this film is about and also making a start to build tension in the film.

The next part of the opening begin with sounds of screaming, without any motion image of images to portray what is going on, this create a sense of unknown. after the screaming and title are faded by once again the blood effect it then start to bring in speaking and motion images.

It starts with a interview between a spokesman and interviewer conveying the story of the film, what is happening. Whiles the speaking is going on throught the opening the word credit are still showing and also quick clips of zombies, (infected people) are denotated. The connotation helps the viewer to understand what the interview is about and also to shock the viewer and to put view on edge. It's all so very erie and unnormal createing a atmosphere of the film.

the interview comes to a close telling the viewers that the situation what is going on isnt being resolved and then the opening begins with the caious for what is going on within the film.

This whole interview is like as if the viewer of the film is watching a the news. this creates a feel as tho it is real life. making it more realistic as thought it is happening as they ar watching it.

the denotation is the view watching the news.

relating to everyday circumstances. After the speaking of the interview ends then shown of the 'news' is images of which is going on in the world for which is the circumstances of ZOMBIES!

a song come into place for which is a johnny cash song. this also brings the view down to earth for the song is a day to day song to listen to this also makes it beliveable for the opening to get the viewer to think they are in the movies watching real life television. the song and the denotation all happen so quickly building up tension with the rhytm of the song. this create alot of happening, riot, confusion and disfunction to the scene. the scene cuts in with the credits again with the film of more and more violent images to watch.

overall i think that this opening scene of a zombie horror is really simple but really effective. using little filming and also including the credits in a differnt way then just some words the credit also help to create the atmosphere of the story. i really think that this opening is a good one to analyse and to help us make our opening scene well thought through and effective.

-Karis

Mis-en-scene- 28WeeksLater

2009-03-01T10:32:00.000-08:00

Before starting to make our group opening filming scene i will look at professional public, world wide hit horror , speficiying into zombie film to look at their set/location, lighting, costume, makeup, props and of corse other aspect which link to the mis-en-scene.

To get a good idea, i will use YouTube. Also i will look at zombie film that as a group have anaylsed, 28 weeks later and dawn of the dead.

28 Weeks Later

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHf6Th-E3kE

here is the link for the opening of the film.

Whiles watching the opening, it is a relaxed enviroment. but the background, the set of this scene makes it more than just a sit down whiles reading a nice newspaper. The Windows, Doors Boreded up without no natural light suggest that it's not a normal situation, creating a more unrelaxed mood to the viewers suggestion.

The Lighting which is created by the candles making this scene dark relates to a normal horror scene. The Characted lays sitting relaxed, reading a newspaper. It makes it look more at ease, potraying to the viewers that even tho its not a normal environment that it relax which help with build up to the horror parts. the opening of a un realistic and un normal scene helps the viewer to suggest that this film isnt going to be a comedy, romance and happy film.

Lighting - Dark, Lighted by candles.

Props - Newspaper, Candles.

Set - Shabby House, borded up, no natural light.

These are creating a scence for which help to relate to horror and erie atmosphere.

throughout the opening of the scene it is dark and lit up by candles creating a sense of

These shots of the first bit of the opening i think is good and realate well as it is dark and unknowing of what might happen next so puttin this into consideeration we need to think maybe of using some dark shots to create this feeling for our own film aswell.

Watching through more of this trailer of corse there is zombie crazyness of zombie chases which i think of corse we will have to consider in our opening. but in this opening of this film there is a part in it for which i and also a group dicussion aswell think works really well and we think we might sort of manipulate this idea for adding into our own opening.

Here is a link of a view of this part of the opening that we think works well...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eekv713f2GI&feature=related

this link is don, the man who is running away from aload of zombies. as you watch it there are alot of cut shots that are in it making different angles etc.. this create alot of happening within this part of the opening making it manic and all over the place, which works really well.

then as he escapes from the house as you see, a runnin scene, tracking his movement and also over the shoulder shots to help see what he is running from, the best bit that we thought was good is when the camera is tracking him and you can see in the background out of focused zombies running over the hill making a trail onto don. this makes the audience feel on edge and make u want to watch it as u want him to get away from the mayhem.

As a group we also thought this part was great and think we might also use it, its has given us some good ideas for our opening scene.

here is the print screen shot from the opening scene showing a close up of don has great facial expresions and withinthe background ar the un focused zombies running over the hill, this also is been tracked along with don.

Another print screen shot the same part of the scene aswell.

Looking at this opening sccene as always made us think of locations and also makeup and costume and moods for our opening scene.

-Karis

Mis - en - scene

2009-02-26T03:45:00.000-08:00

After analyising about the films from the genre we are doing, 'Horror' (zombies) The next step is to think about the mis-en-scene. It plays a bit part in our project for which it consist of everything that is placed within a scene from the decor, lighting, location, set, costume and props. More importantly we will have to take in all of these as for a horror, zombie film the set, location and defiently costume and makeup will help us for making our own seqence professional and effective.

Mis-en-scene will create the mood and atmosphere of what our genre is portraying to our viewers. Therefore we will need to create a tensed mood/atmosphere for our opening scene for the viewers to want to watch more and also that it create the right mood for the view, horror.

Taking in consideration the opening scene need to focused on, orchestrated and set up for the camera scene. I think i will look at horror movies, zombie ones aswell to see what their sets, location, costume, etc... and what they give to make their opening seqences look good and stick in viewers minds to remember a really good opening.

-Karis

Research into Opening Sequences of Zombie Films - 28 Days Later

2009-02-23T07:10:00.000-08:00

Before I begin my analysis, I would like to state that all though many think this is technically not a 'zombie' film, the zombie has many variants and has only been labelled as flesh eating undead through directors creations (such as Romero).

28 Days Later Opening Sequence
28 Days Later is a post apocalyptic film set in Britain. The story depicts the breakdown of the country following an accidental release of a highly dangerous and contagious virus. The film focuses on a small group of survivors as they struggle to cope with the devastation of the life that is non existant. It is a personal favourite of mine.

The opening sequence is an introduction of violence through the use of news clips, it becomes clear that this will not be a smooth ride nor a regular commercial movie and that violence or aggression will be a theme. This relates to my previous analysis of Dawn of the Dead, which uses similar if not the same approach to the opening sequences. Although unlike Dawn of the Dead, it does not make up the entirety of the opening sequence. Only the first 45 seconds.
Distorted audio plays throughout the news clips; what sounds like radio signals and static cutting in and out. This helps add a sense of confusion to the scene. We are aware of what we are viewing, but what is the reason behind it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dHzoUuA6G0

As the video footage ends, the distorted audio fades away, eachoing into the distance. The camera zooms out and pans to reveal a monkey wired up to a chair, and what seems to be forced to watch these videos. Some sort of experiment. The audio echoing and fading away helps add a sense of isolation to the current scene. It also assists in the progression from scenes of violence to calm very well.

I like the way the audio has been used in the transition between scenes, and I will try to find a suitable piece of audio to implement this into our own film. The TV series 'Lost' does something similar (although it moves on more abruptly than seen in the 28 Days Later opening sequence); when moving onto a different scene or location of significance a low pitched rumbling builds up and ends as the next scene appears. This helps build the tension between a current event and the scene that is yet to come. At times, leaving you on a temporary cliff hanger.

The sound in particular from Lost can be heard here:
http://www.losthatch.com/sounds/sound_effects/flashback.mp3

Moving on, the camera tracks to the left which results in a foreground object coming into the shot, and becoming in focus to reveal people breaking in on CCTV. I like how focusing is used here, it helps keep the event taking place fluid and clear. This is another technique I will look into implementing into my piece.

As the sequence progresses characters are introduced and a tense conversation takes place between the scientist and the trespassers. During which whenever the shot contains the trespassers, it will be shot through one of the glass containers for the animals (which slightly distorts they're faces), or an animal will be in the foreground yet out of focus. The scene is shot this way in particular when confusion and questions arise. In fact at the end of the conversation when the scientist explains what the animals are infected with, the mans face (who is doing the majority of the talking) becomes heavily distorted through the glass to again emphasise the confusion and unknown.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGae5vkMekA&feature=related

Two shots are also used often during the conversation, at a medium shot length. The camera cuts back and forth between the two characters that are talking as they speak. The cutting back and forth helps the audience grasp who is talking and who it is directed at. The two shots are used successfully to implement the other characters not through diologue, but through facial expression; as the conversation unfolds, the more silent characters express confusion and even fear at times. This allows the scene to build up tension to an upcoming event and to yet again, emphasize the confusion and unknown.

As the trespassers spread out to release the caged animals, an estabilishing long shot has been used. This has been because there is a lot of movement and action on screen that needs to be shown. The angle is also in what seems to be in the corner of the ceiling, to which suggests this is what the CCTV cameras are seeing unfold. Estabilishing shots are used to estabilish an area or setting for the audience, feeding them a better understanding of the current scene.

The woman opens the cage and the chimpanzee that was being housed in it sprints towards her. The camera emphasizes the speed here by having a camera on a track progress forward towards the woman. Speed and panic are also emphasized through the use of various cuts leadind up to the this forward track. Three different angles of the chimp building up speed are used; one from behind as it runs into the distance, one where it passes the camera very quickly and finally a the camera horizontally tracking the chimp. All of this happens in a matter of seconds. The speed at which they are cut doesnt really allow the audience to prepare for the chimp's lunge and further more emphasizes the speed and aggressiveness behind it.

I liked the emphasis put on the speed and panic. The fast cuts, point of view and track use works very well here. I would love to try to implement this into our own film, and will try my best to.

Analysing this opening sequence has given me a lot of ideas in regards to camera angles that could be used, especially the ones that emphasize speed and aggression such as the running past the camera, or the point of view shot when he goes to lunge for the woman. Estabilishing shots are important and work well, so I will definately implement these into my camera work before any major action takes place. The point of view shot is also something would love to add into some part of our opening sequence, maybe when the zombies are chasing a survivor I could use it then? I would also like to have some form of close up to show the emotions on the characters face, and allow the audience to connect closer to the main character.

- Will

Research:

2009-01-30T05:27:00.000-08:00

Today I researched zombie film adverts, trailers and opening sequences. This is a crucial part of researching as it shows what tends to occur in zombie/horror films and what the audience like to see. It also shows us what works in these films and what doesnt, it gives us an idea, as A level students, of what we could possibly do to make it seem like a realistic and proffesionally made zombie film.
The first thing i found with what most zombie films have in common, is that they all have scenes which involve the actors running about madly and irraticly, a mix of "zombies" and humans. It creates a sense of anarchy and really potrays what it would be like if something like that happend in real, everyday society. It intensely shows the mayhem of a society that has been turned on its head and shows the real struggle for survival and, in a way, is showing survival of the fittest at its most intense level.
I also noticed that most of the zombie films seemed to end with a main character always tending to survive the "zombie outbreak" and managing to solve the problem single handedly rather than really struggling to survive. Although they already are unrealistic films, this detaches even further from a sense of reality and can, in some cases, ruin the film for people. It makes it seem as if any average human being could survive what no one else could.
From these 2 facts i've seen with zombie films, me and my group will now have to see whether we want to try and make our film seem as realistic as possible, or stretch reality and make a film that is unrealistic and could lose interest with some viewers.

-James

Research into Opening Sequences of Zombie Films - Dawn of the Dead

2009-01-26T03:43:00.000-08:00

Today I have been looking into opening sequences of a sub genre/theme of horror; Zombie. I myself am a fan of Zombie films. And I'd go as far to say they are my all time favourite type of film. I simply cant get enough of them.

Dawn of the Dead
The first I looked at was the 2004 remake of the classic 'Dawn of the Dead'. A film that follows a group of survivors through an outbreak of a virus that turns people into cannibalistic predators (zombies). One thing I have noticed about zombie films is how the zombies themselves has been defined. Before and in the older more classic films the zombies are simply the dead rising from the graves and feeding on the living. But now its due to the cause of a virus or infection. I think it has been defined in such a way to make it more believable to the modern and more sceptic audience of today. A virus or infection is a lot more believable than the dead coming back to life. The typical flesh eating traits are still there, but the origin behind the zombies themselves has changed. There have been other major changes to the zombie. But I will go further into this at a later time.

The intro to the movie begins with audio of a press conference being played discussing the infection, the outbreak and how it spreads. The audio lasts for a good 10-15 seconds and ends on a question 'are these people alive or dead'; being answered 'we dont know'. As soon as the question is answered, a Jonny Cash song begins to play. The song begins with the artist talking, then the song builds up to more rhythm as the scenes of violence and zombies intensify. The clips themselves show scenes of violence, military activity, news reports, riots and zombies. The clips appear very fast and cut out to a black background showing credits between each clip. The clips build up and get more and more violent as the intro progresses, in what seems to hint to us that this is a world wide pandemic.

As the short clips of zombies are flashed in and out, a sharp almost demonic screaming noise is heard to intensify the horror. Its almost as if the quick flashes of clips are subliminal, placing the images of infection, death, horror into our minds without us taking too much notice. This estabilishes the general theme to the movie, and paves the way for more in depth clips. It draws in the viewers well.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lwBigliX1Bo

As the intro/opening sequence finishes, the rythmn and song slow to a halt. Which leaves us with the artists voice talking about how a horse is coming, and death is riding it. As the track dies down we are left with a final clip of a news reporter being attacked live on air by zombies, the intro finishes with a close up of a zombies face after it has knocked down a camera. This again estabilishes the general theme to the film, and provides an insight into how this infection resulted in the world erupting into chaos. Leaving the last image in our head, with that of horror.

I personally enjoyed this intro, and feel that it estabilished the theme and genre to the film well. As well as providing a look into how the infection has affected the world.

- Will

Research

2009-01-26T03:40:00.000-08:00

The next step was to research opening sequences from the horror genre. I specifically looked at the horror which included zombies, because as a group we all decided to specifiy in this part of the horror genre. For research of the genre 'Horror' i will google search popular top 10 horror movies for which people have suggested to watch. This reasearch will help to look at the best opening sequces of the most popular horror films.

Here is the link for the Top 10 Horror Movies that were listed.
http://listverse.com/entertainment/top-10-horror-movies/

From here it helped to then pick out three of the films which iv seen before; Jaw, The Shining and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
From here i can look at these opening sequences on YouTube and see what techniques are used to create a good horror film especially tension for our horror film to be a sucess.

Whiles watching JAWS in this movie they used a good source of music which helped to create tension which set the opening of the movie.
I also looked at the opening scene of the film ' The Shining.' I thought that this opening scene of this horror film was good as it was so simple but effective. They aswell as the Jaw used a good source of music which creates tension and makes the audience on edge for it being erie and also awkward.
For the Film, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre i found it interesting as i like the way they made the sounding of their sound as if it was a heart beat. with the beat it then shot in different camera shot to fit in with the beat. i found this really effective and good to relate to tension for horror.

Looking at these film openings helped to relate to not just zombie horror but other which create the right atmosphere in which we need to consider for our film to be a success.

-Karis

Deciding on a Genre

2009-01-23T05:38:00.000-08:00

As a group we had a dicussion regarding what genre our film will be based on. Many ideas were put forward such as drama, comedy, romance, ganstar and horror. We chose horror as the genre for the following reasons:

- It appeals to both male and female audiences
- It has alot of potential sub genres and themes
- Horror is a popular concept with our group (teenagers) but also appeals to other age groups/audiences
- Can be very creative with Costume Design
- We ourselves are fans of the genre

We will be looking further into this genre by researching popular horror films, and looking at the various sub genres and themes throughout 'Horror'.

- Group

Introduction

2009-01-23T05:27:00.000-08:00

For our Media project we as a group have decided to choose film over print. We chose this as we enjoyed the process of making a film which included; camera work and angles, lighting, acting, diologue and producing a story. From making a short test film it has made us realise what aspects of filming we excelled at and others that need to develop and improve on.

- Group