Evaluation of prelim task

 
 We used a programme called Prezi to display our evaluation of our preliminary task.

Moodboard

Other Stereotypical action/drama features are:
- One character is usually an outcast
- Chase Scenes
- Fight scenes
- Two main characters with an emotional story-line
- An event which brings the characters together
- Emotive action

Films with a similar genre

The Fighter: American welterweight boxer from Lowell Massachusetts. Managed by his mother, Alice Ward (Melissa Leo), and trained by his older half-brother, Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale), Micky has not had a particularly successful career. The story is just about his redemtion and training for the fight of his life.

Rocky: A struggling boxer gets the opportunity of a life time when the world heavyweight champion sets a fight up. It was suppose to be an easy win for the Champion but no one told Rocky that.











Never Back Down: At his new high school, Jake Tyler is lured into an ultimate underground fighting club in a Backyard Fight. After receiving threats to the safety of his friends and family, Jake seeks the mentoring of a veteran fighter, to train his mind and body for one final no-holds-barred elimination fight.










Warrior: Two brothers face the fight of a lifetime - and the wreckage of their broken family - within the brutal, high stakes Mixed Martial Arts tournament where winner takes all.















Karate Kid: 12 year old Dre Parker ends up moving to china with his mother where he manages to make an enemey of the class bully and one of the best kung fu fighters in his year. He has no one to turn to when he meets the maintenance man who trains Dre for the fight of his life.


 

Feedback from First Draft

We Presented our first draft to a group of Media students and gave them a sheet to fill out with certain questions on and here are some of the responses that we got:

Is it obviously an opening sequence?
All of the comments we got said that it was very clear that it was an opening sequence.

Is it clear who the target audience is?
On this question we had a mixed response some people though that it was really clear who the target audience was but others thought that it wasn't very clear. So to make this better we will have to add some hints so they know who the target audience is.

Titles go with the genre. Is the genre obvious? Are they clear? Are there enough and are they in the right order?
Most of the viewers found that the titles really fitted with the film and that the transitions between each title was really good. However a couple of people thought that the titles were too simple and that they were in the wrong order.

Think about the sound and the images are they appropriate? Do they fit together?
We got a good response with the sound of the opening, everyone thought that the song really fitted with the whole mood and the emotional side of the film and the storyline and that they automatically feel sorry for Jack.

Camera- Are the shots appropriate and relevant? Is there controlled use of camera attention to framing, variety of shot distance and angle? Close attention use of mise en scene?
The audience felt that the shots that we chose were very good and very effective at introducing the characters and setting the whole theme of the film. But a few people felt that even though the shots were very effective that we needed to have some more variety of certain shots that we use.

Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transition and other effects.
The people that we asked thought that the editing was excellent and they really liked the whole mirror effect to show the differences between the two characters. They also thought that the opening flowed really well and that the transitions between each scene was very clever and worked really well.

Total Score
Taking an average out of the 22 people that we asked the score that we got was:
47.3

Improvements
To improve our first draft we will need to finish filming all the shots especially the last shot needed which will saught out any confusion about what the film is about and the whole boxing theme to it. We will also need to change the order of the titles to make it more professional and to cut certain scenes like the chase scene so there is less time for the audience to wait from one scene to the next.

Music Ideas

We had a few ideas of the song we was going to use in our opening scene:
The Beatles- Yesterday
The Animals House of the Rising Sun
Mozart
Gene Pitney Somethings got a hold of my heart
Jimmy Gilmer & The Fireballs - Sugar Shack

It was difficult to find the right music for our film that was over 50 years old. This is because the songs that we studied in the 1960's were too up beat for our film opening. We found a few songs which we thought fitted our opening scene but after a discussion we decided that they were too up beat.
After looking through youtube we decided that we would go for a cover of a more recent song, we found this one:

Hurt (Cover) Johnny Cash

After listening to this song a few times, we decided that we would put it as the back in track to the first scenes that we filmed to see if it fitted to the images on screen. Watching it with the opening we realised that it did fit the scenes and that it was perfect for the story of the rich and homeless boy and the emotion of the storyline. It was also a cover which meant we could use it for our opening scene which was brilliant.

Student Evalutation

I Personally would Give this: 40/60

What worked well: The camera shots for the first half of the opening scene was really good and suited the shots. I also liked the actor they found as it suited the role of the character they needed. The sounds added a good effect and tension to the scene and made me wonder why is he doing is which is good.

What Didn't work: The jumping back and forth near the end made no sense as I had no idea why he was walking up to the door. It left you with too much  confusion so you didn't really know what the plot is. They also went for a stereotypical person which made it similar to other things rather than something different and original.




48/60

Worked well: The music and editing added the tension and made this opening scene. The black and white also added an eerie feel when watching  the opening scene.
What could have been improved: The camera shots could have been improved in some places and the acting of the person could have been improved also. Displaying the name of this opening scene would also improve it.

Mis en Scene - The Godfather

Costume
The costumes help you see that the film is set in the 1950's and that they are important men by the way they dress in suites and speak formally. You can also tell because of their haircuts. This helps you understand who are the rich/important people are in the scene.

Lighting
This lighting is a bit dim which makes you know that something bad is going to happen and the red lights on the windows give hints that someone is going to die as blood is going to be spilled

Actors
You can tell that Al Pacino is doing something that he doesn't like and that he is stressed by the way he leaves the toilet and had his head in his hands. You can tell that he is focused as well as he doesn't reply to what the other men are saying moments before he kills them.

Make up
There was no help from any make up which helped show what was going on.

Props
The gun is hidden behind the toilet showing that he is choosing the dirty way out of the situation by deciding to kill them why they are there to discuss things over with him.

Settings
It is set in a dull quiet Italian restaurant in America. This was chosen as a restaurant is a place where you go out to eat with people and discuss things with people over a meal. They chose it to be an Italian restaurant because it is a film about the Mafia in America.
Sound
The sound adds tension to show how much he doesn't want to shoot them for example when he is in the toilets the a train is going over the top showing that his mind is spinning and when he leaves the toilets the sound stops to show he is calm and ready to shoot them.

Shots
The shots help show when he is ready to shoot and add tension for example the close shot on his face as the train goes over it shows that he is focused on one thing only but adds tension because you don't know if he is going to go through with it.

Juno Remake

What went well: I Believe the best part of the Juno remake was  the editing
and acting because throughout Sam was very proffessional and kept in character. The props were also accurate the the scene but unfortunatly there wasn't a guitar for us to use to make it even more accurate.

What could be improved; If I was to remake Juno I would improve the tracking shot throughout to smoothen the shots as they are very wobbly. This was due to the lack of equipment we was given.This would have improved the overall quailty of the scence and made it look much more proffessional. We also missed two shots out which was because of an incorrect story board. When I do my final piece I will make sure our story board it accurate and easy to understand.

Representation Theorys

The Male Gaze

This was recognised by Laura Mulvey is the cinema apparatus of Hollywood which puts the audience in a masculine subject position an women are seen as the object of desire. Many films are structured on these Ideas. There are two types of male gaze "looking at whores" or "unreachables"  (for example Madonna). This shows a sexist view on women as they are seen to just be there to look at and nothing else.

The Bechdal Test

This tests films on three things to see if the film is sexist against women or not:
1) It must have at least two named women in the film
2) They must have at least one conversation with each other
3) It must also include something besides men

Even on modern day films many of them fail this test and women are still portrayed as just a object of desire. 

Richard Dyer as a theory that stereotypes come down to power. Dyer argues that how people are seen in the media affects how they are treated in real life by society.

Barthes looks at mythology, in regards to people and places.He suggests the media often gives us mythic representations or a fairytale-like portrayal of a particular place or person.

Ghost Ship Semiotics

From the opening scene you can see that it's set in the mid 1900s because of the outfits and the music. You can also tell that they are upper class, because of their outfits and the way they look. Initially, because of the typography and the use of pink, we assume that it will be light hearted and the total opposite of what a horror is. The music contributes to this assumption, as it is calming and uplifting. The singer is wearing a red dress which indicates a warning of something that will go wrong. However, the little girl's white dress indicates innocence and tranquillity but she does look quite pale.

You are then taken outside from the bright dance floor to the dark, formidable switch and reel shows us that something bad is going to happen as the music quietens as well. Lots of sounds of the wire take over from the calm music. The pink roses are cut first by the wire which links back to the pink typography at the start of the light hearted, happy film that we all expected. The horrible sound of the vibrating saw make it even more horrific as it makes it feel like we are standing right next to the saw. As the saw cut through everyone the lighting darkens to a dim grey, representing the change in mood and time; now everything will be different for the little girl. The Sea Captain comforted her and protected her despite that fact that he was about to die showing that everything that will help her will get hurt or die.

The film is also set on a boat in the middle of nowhere so you know that something is bound to go wrong as there’s no one to help them. It’s also set a night and as in every horror film that’s when everything bad happens. The start and the end shows you coming out of the water to watch and then returning to the water afterwards. This shows that the horror that did this may live in the water and the area the boat was in was haunted as it lurks in the darkness below

Denotation and Connotation

 

This Poster is on the film Due Date shows two men holding a dog wearing a lampshade dog collar. The man on the left has an injured right hand and has blood over him wearing a blue shirt and the other one seems to be fine and happy and wearing a red shirt that is holding the dog. They are in a desert in the middle of nowhere and the sky is overcast. The man on the left who is played by Robert Downey Jr. also is wearing sunglasses and leaning on the other man. The man in the red shirt who is played by Zach Galifianakis also has a beard.

You can tell this is a comedy by the way one person is happy and one person is not this shows that Zach annoys Robert. The one on the left is also wearing sunglasses meaning he doesn’t want to be seen with the other man as he may be embarrassed by him. Robert is also leaning on Zach this shows that Robert thinks he is better than Zach as he is putting himself above him by leaning on him.

The colour of the two shirts tells a lot about the two characters as Robert is wearing a blue shirt which shows he’s a calm and cool character but Zach is wearing a red shirt which shows he is going to either be a dangerous character or attract danger in the film. This lead me on to the injury on Roberts right hand this shows there will be action and danger in the film which will probably caused by Zach.

They also have a dog with them; it is wearing a lampshade collar which shows it has something wrong with it and it’s not in its best shape this also links to the comedy as having a disabled pet will always cause something interesting to happen in the film. It is also being held by Zach showing that it is probably his dog so it might cause some danger as well as its owner is danger prone. It is also between the two characters so it might be the link of the characters or it might be the dog that breaks them apart.

It is also set in a desert in the middle of nowhere showing that at this point they are either lost or on the run from something making you think what are they running from? 

Saving Private Ryan Opening Scene

  In the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan you a greeted by the horrors of D Day as the soldiers land on the beach to find them stuck there under fire of German machine gunners. This scene shows the horror of D Day as you watch American soldiers shot to pieces and lose their limbs trying to get off the beach and secure the German guns so the rest of the Army can land. The scene has lots of gore action and strategy on how they got off the beach.

The film is set on Omaha beach in Normandy; you can tell that is a beach by the sea and the sand as they run towards the rocks. You can also see that it is set in WW2 because of the guns they are using and uniform they are wearing. This opening scene has lots of action, gore, death and strategy which sets the scene for the rest of the film. The Opening Scene is set around a Sergeant who is disorientated from a bomb that has gone off near him. It shows it from his point of view looking around the beach watching horrific things happen to soldiers. This makes you see it from a normal soldier’s point of view and the horrors and situations they had to deal with.

Research