Finished Film Opening

Completed Film Opening

This our final completed film opening 'Traffic Light'.

Evaluation - Q7

Question 7

This was Question 7 of my evaluation. I used a PowerPoint presentation to present this question. I used images and many transitions throughout. This question looks back at the comparison of my final film opening to my preliminary task i did.

Evaluation - Q6

Question 6

This was Question 6 of my evaluation. This question was done using Emaze and this question focused on the technology used throughout to construct and produce our film opening as well as advertisement and hardware we used.

Evaluation - Q5

Question 5

This was Question 5 of my evaluation. For question 5 of the evaluation I decided to produce a video where i asked a student who hadn't seen the Traffic Lights film opening yet. this presentations reviews the feedback of the audience member who viewed our film opening.

Evaluation - Q4

Question 4

This was Question 4 of my evaluation. For question 4 of the evaluation I chose to use a Prezi presentation to illustrate, as a group, how we decided on a specific audience.

Evaluation - Q3

Question 3

This was question 3 of the evaluation. for this question i had research and show the different companies that could possibly distribute our film 'Traffic Lights'.

Evaluation - Q2

Question 2

This was Question 2 of my evaluation.

Evaluation - Q1

Question 1

This was Question 1 of my evaluation.
 

Film Poster

Film Poster

Presentation Techniques

Presentation Technique

There are many ways in which you can represent your ideas and presentations. Here are some examples:
- Prezi
- Emaze
- PowerPoint
- SlideShare
- SlideRocket
- Present.me

Personally I have never used Emaze, SlideRocket or present.me so they would not be my first choice when choosing what presentation tool to use. PowerPoint and SlideShare come hand in hand as after producing a PowerPoint to post it anywhere you need to put it through SlideShare. This can become useful as it is a basic software meaning everyone is able to use it no matter what skill bases they have. Finally Prezi, this is my favourite tool as it is simple to use yet produces an excellent presentation at the end of it. It takes a long time to process and get everything in the correct position but it is worth it.

After deliberating it with my team we felt that we should vary our presentation tools we used. throughout my blog I have used prezi and slideshare to present my work along with the normal blog posts. so consequently, when presenting our final film and all of the information to come with it we are going to produce an emaze. This is because it is different and makes our blogs more interesting...

BBC Certificate

BBC Certificate

When researching about the aging certificate we came to the conclusion of our film being of an aging 15. We chose this because it has content that would be inappropriate for younger ages and felt that that age group upwards would be the audience most interested in our film.

During our research we looked up the certificate that the BBFC class their films under. I selected the themes that we included in our film and included the pain points from their description:

Discrimination: The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour, although there may be racist, homophobic or other discriminatory themes and language.
Drugs: Drug taking may be shown but the work as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse (for example, through instructional detail).
Language: There may be strong language. Very strong language may be permitted, depending on the manner in which it is used, who is using the language, its frequency within the work as a whole and any special contextual justification.
Nudity: There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context. There may be nudity in a sexual context but usually without strong detail.
Threat: There may be strong threat and horror. A sustained focus on sadistic or sexual threat is unlikely to be acceptable.
Violence: Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic violence is also unlikely to be acceptable.

We thought that our film fitted in with these guidelines and therefore would be given a 15 certificate...

First Draft

First Draft

 

Production Diary

Production Diary

Day 1 - 7/11/16

On the first day of production of our Film opening task, we researched different film openings to help give us ideas and inspire us for our film opening we will make. We are also choosing the genre for our film opening. This is so we have a clear idea for our film opening.

The films we researched for the film opening were: The Shadow man and Midnight Express. We were intrigued by these films because of the themes of mystery and crime. These themes create the genre of drama and thus there are countless enigma codes which will captivate the attention of the audience.

 Day 2 - 8/11/16

On the second day of production we brainstormed genres and ideas we can have for our film opening. We came up with a few ideas such as: a drama/action film about drug smuggling, a war documentary film. From these ideas it was clear that our intention was to create a drama however it was still a question of should we create a documentary or a reality drama film.

Then we started to plan to produce a presentation for our ideas for our film openings. We figured that producing a documentary would be a challenging task with very limited resources. To create a war documentary we would need to find outfits and a suitable filming location which is too unrealistic.

Day 3 - 9/11/16

In this lesson, we came to a decision to produce a drama film about a young man who embarks on a life-changing mission to smuggle drugs across the border for a huge financial reward. We produced a Prezi presentation outlining our ideas on the opening sequence and the narrative of this. Collectively, we had to plan how the opening sequence relates to the rest of the film. This is essential because the audience must gain an insight of the story however it is important not to overload the audience with information as it could give away the plot of the film.

Day 4 - 10/11/16

Today we assigned jobs to make sure we were ready to present our prezi and ideas on Friday.

Day 5 - 11/11/16
In this lesson we presented the press.


Day 6 - 14/11/16
Today we had lots of jobs to complete. We chose to assign jobs to make sure we completed them all. Antonio did the story boards, al posted the fed back onto the blogs and I sorted out the titles and the order they go in. 

Day 7 - 15/11/16
Today we finished the work we started yesterday and ale researched the sort of titles we would want to use for our opening sequence. 

Day 8 - 17/11/16
Our lap charts include the blog posts and activities we need to have complete our film opening to our best ability. Therefore today we spent the time assigning jobs for each person.

Day 9 - 21/11/16

Today we completed our tasks that were set:
Antonio - Target Audience 
Ale - Titles Research 
Pip - Codes and Conventions & production diary 

Day 10 - 23/11/16
I completed the story board video and ale started the marketing ideas.

Day 11 - 25/11/16
The storyboard was finished and published onto the blog. Antonio completed the institutions work.

Day 12 - 28/11/16
We started filming our production. We filmed the scenes that we inside and used Ale and Antonio's living room to film these scenes. We also filmed the scenes down an alley way in the dark.

Day 13 - 29/11/16
We carried on filming. The scenes we filmed was the scene in the bathroom and we also started editing the footage we already had.


Day 14 - 01/12/16
Antonio re filmed the scene when he was on the bike a\s we had difficulties with the first time we filmed that scene. Pip started to edit the the first parts of the footage we had and started to put the scenes we had into order. Ale started to make the film poster by using a shot from the filming. 

Representation

Representation

Our film opening contains various representations, all of which relate to class, age, and region. The protagonist in our short opening is a vulnerable, disengaged man in his mid-twenties. The reason he turns to a life of criminality is because he has no other leads in life, he has no family or friends who can give him some help. The man is presented wearing old clothes similar to someone you would see lying on the streets at night. On the contrary, the location is a very civilized and suburban area and extremely tranquil, this allows for the audience to see the reality of today's society where criminal activity is inevitable in any place no matter how attractive it may seem.

The other main character in the film is a wealthy man who's success has all come from high-risk, illegal activity where he recruits desperate young men to perform these dangerous acts. This wealthy man is dressed in formal clothing juxtaposing with the appearance of the man carrying out the smuggle. The reason we decided to portray a man with huge wealth and success is to tell our audience that he was once a desperate man in need of some care, yet he escapes this situation by offering himself to a life of dealing illegal goods to addicts across the nation.

The audience will immediately feel empathetic towards the man because he has nothing left in life and if he performs this act he will break free and re-discover himself and his qualities that he can give back to the world. With this connection between the character and the audience it creates suspense because viewers want the man to escape the authorities and re-build his life. 

We chose not to portray a representation of a certain ethnic background, sexuality or disability as it would only cause controversy and some viewers would turn away from our production is they see a negative portrayal of a certain race or someone with a disability. We took out some research into some politically controversial films made in this particular millennium, one film we encountered was 'The Interview' starring Seth Rogan and James Franco. We noticed how this film caused controversy in North Korea as the producers decided to display a contentious image of dictatorship in North Korea. When the film was released it received criticism as it shows a graphic death scene, as a result the film was not released in some cinemas and it gained a bad reputation despite trying to show the reality of living in North Korea.

Distribution

Distribution

We researched into various film distribution company and we discovered a company called Focus Features, LLC. We feel our film fits into the conventions of this company because they distribute independent films in America and also internationally. Focus Features recently worked alongside the new film called American Honey. This film is a British-American drama road film which focuses on the journey of a young teenage girl who travels with new friends she meets selling magazines and partying hard. This film is closely related to our film as it follows the life of a young man who is lured into a life of crime, smuggling drugs earning money for his dangerous work. 

Institution

Institution

Our film is independent and we produced on a very low budget, our target audience is specific therefore it doesn't fit the conventions of mainstream film production companies and distributors. Here are the three film production companies founded by Me, Ale and Pip and these will feature in the start of the film opening for Traffic Lights.

 

Marketing Campaign

Marketing Campaign

Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment

Music Research Ideas

Music Research

Song Option 1
One song that instantly caught our attention once we had agreed on the idea to create a crime drama is "Blinded by the Light" by The Streets. We feel as this is a very appropriate song to feature as a backing track because the song itself is based on drugs which is already relevant to the narrative in our film opening, and for this reason it would be a suitable pairing.


A scene from the music video from "blinded by the Light"


Song Option 2
Our second song option is "Playing With Fire" by Plan B. This song is very similar to the first option in terms of the message that both songs send out to the audience. In this song especially, the message focuses on the dangers of embarking on life of crime and gang culture. In our film opening it shows the main protagonist ready to trap himself into a world of drug-use and crime because he has nothing else to offer to the world.

Final Decision

Our final decision was purely based on the preference of the songs and this meant that we will use "Blinded by the Light". This song has a good variation between the chorus, sung by a young girl and the separate verses sung by a male rapper. The chorus has a sense of vulnerability because of the soft voice combining with the ambiguous lyrics. This is exactly the effect we desire because we want to show the naivety of the protagonist who is far too inexperienced to perform the smuggling process.

Props Research and List

Props

List of Props

Cigarette - This is used to show in the first scene that the drug dealer is

The Bike - This is used for the character to travel to get the drugs from the dealer and to travel to the station. It shows he is travelling via a bike showing he is moving around many places for this to happen.

'The drugs' used - This is the main key prop which the film evolves around in the opening showing he is smuggling drugs so therefore had to use ' fake drugs' to represent this.

Alcoholic drinks - This prop is used when he is around the table to show he is rough and this is all he has in his life as this is what is taking him through what is happening.

The Candle - This prop is used to create light around where he is sorting out the drugs with the background light off to provide a small amount of light to show the intensity of what he is doing.

credit card - This is used to line up the drugs which he is packaging ready for him to smuggle.