Feedback From Peers -

Simon Rogers (Set Designer) said -

Great to see you making some stuff  and I really enjoyed the opening sequence.

Here are some thoughts.

Really like the use of music in the pre title sequence and I like the sense of anticipation it encouraged.  I thought you could make more of the first shot, maybe hang on it a little longer.  It's really got to create the first hook for the audience, so needs to have a very clear intention. In the context of this film it has to create suspense and anticipation but apart from this I think you were generally very successful here.  However, there are several things you could consider: Maybe the use of slow motion would have added to threatening atmosphere, it's a great device, creates mood and would work well with the your choice of music.  Also, as this is a flashback it would be cool way of messing with the sense of time.  You do do this successfully, however,  with the mixes and dissolves. I think the styalised framing added an edgy, contemporary and urban feel.  I liked the overall editing strategy but maybe you could have built up the cutting pace a little more before the attack.  Cutting between the two characters  would make it more clear who is following who helping us to identfy with the protagonist and would also increase the sense of suspense.  I really liked how the attack came out of the blue, however, so I think you were doing this already but could have gone a bit further.  It's really important to make a clear choice which strategy to take, long slow takes with static set ups v quick cutting montage and an active camera need to be chosen decisively and employed for a specific effect as do the speed of cutting.  It's important to consider how exactly these choices effect the way in which meaning is created. But I think you opening was very bold......but be bolder.  Sometime more really is more. 

Your choice of location was excellent.  Dark alley ways and metal footbridges were suitably foreboding and potentially perilous added great mystery and tremendous jeopardy.

Difficult to shoot at night without lots of light on a small budget i know, but the opening could do with a little more illumination.  (Although there is value sometimes in not letting the audience see too much and you were clearly playing with this).  This can even be handheld torches off camera, or headlamps of cars parked out of shot, or a couple of red heads or blondes rigged in a way that it looks like the light is being cast by the street lights.  I'm really big on seeing point sources of illumination in shot and use practical lamps loads.  Directors of photography really like playing with them.  If you can introduce these specular highlights it always looks really good wet downs at night are an obvious choice to be made and are rarely resisted.

Choice of costume was also spot on and I like the James Dean type reference for our central protagonist v the contemporary  gang style ( in a chavvy youthful south london sort of way) hoody

I really liked the way that the attack comes directly at us and suddenly  we are not meant to just identify with the central character but have become them.  A very strong image leading us into the rest of the film.  Blackout to title card to white out to a revealing panning up from the porn mags and discarded pants on the floor, works really well.  Simutaneously taking us forward in time and very quickly establishing character and a sudden change of mood.  Little bits of dressing like this are an efficient way of telling the audience instantly where they are.  The use of props and the top shot of the phone were excellent.

I like the integration of the titles into this sequence and the obvious change in pace in the editing creates a great contrast to what has gone before.  You continue with great economy in a really interesting way in which you hold the shot at the top of the stairs letting your characters leave frame, and only cut on the sound of the front door closing as we see the girl leaving form the upstairs window.  Already you are beginning to create a sense of uncertainty in the audience, as you unsettle them through these choices of what to show and what not. 

I thought this was excellent.  Lots of fantastic decisions made and the shot from inside the fridge was very innovative.  The minimal use of dialogue worked really well and told us everything that we needed to know, and suddenly joined up all the dots. ( Although I wasn't sure wether the performance style or characterisation was meant to make us feel sympathetic to him) This small moment of exposition created a really interesting switch in our relationship to what we had seen so far, moving us from the anticipation and intrigue of the start of the film to expectation and suspense knowing, or thinking we know, what surely is the inevitable outcome.

 

Aaron Lipstadt (Hollywood Director/ Producer) said -

 

I think it works well. The lighting of the night scene, the timing of the music, the effective cutting that keeps the pursuer hidden with good reveals (:23), the dissolves, create a foreboding that is let down a little by the tameness of the confrontation; the title that tells us this is a flashback that will explain who is the pursued and why; the continuation/reprise of the music taking us back to the night scene; the overhead stairs shot lets us know things are not going to go well; the hidden identity of the woman; all set up a series of questions that will presumably be answered.
The morning scene, while quick, could be even quicker; conventionally, the credits would end just before the low angle close up of our hero with cigarette. I had a hard time reading the note, had to rewind a couple of times just to get the gist; think you've gone one shot too long, the high angle crossing the street is more eloquent than the one that follows; and I have a pet peeve about camera-in-the-fridge shots--it's a nice transition, but self conscious to the point of distraction.
Hope this helps, and I'm glad--eager--to talk more. Email anytime, have a great trip to NY, say hi to your dad, and let me know when the premiere is!

Best
Aaron

Final Film - 12 Hours & Evaluation Review.

Personally i am really happy with the final piece as i think it represents our skills well. each member in the group did precisely what was asked of them and i think its resulted in a final piece we can all be proud of and see our own work in. I'm partially so happy with the piece as i think it accesses a market untapped by teen dramas such as Kidulthood as it targets a more middle class group, such as TV teen drama skins, not only is this a massive proportion of teens today but also one with lesser icons than that of past decades. i would like to think our film could do this as our main actor seems to have a James Dean look about him with the red jacket and could possibly offer the middle class teens a cult icon or homage to the earlier years of film in turn creating interest in not only the James Dean years but also the golden age of cinema.

Our evaluation to the class went very well too i believe this is because we left no stone unturned in our evaluation as some of our competitors did. We managed to talk about all aspects of our final media piece and if they where intentional or not in turn giving our class insight into our thought process. All in all after a slow start I'm very happy with the final product and the way our group interacted and i think it has resulted in us all working cooperatively and hopefully 'Last Minute Productions' will stand the test of time and produce more media products with perhaps a more in depth ending or more intriguing cliff hanger.

Evaluation Film, Prezi and Personal Write up -

http://prezi.com/st5nb6fvqbpp/evaluation-advancement-in-media-skill/

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for our media project would most likely be teens to young adults (more male than female), not to dissimilar from that of Kidulthood, Adulthood and Shank and also that of TV series such as Skins and Misfits. However the film would represent a more middle class life style and therefore particularly appeal more to that social bracket than the previously mentioned films do, this is due to the protagonist being middle class unlike Kidulthood where the protagonist is working class. For our secondary audience it would be the 20-30 brackets and this is because of the use of cinematography therefore creating an appeal similar to that of this is England as 12 hours will have a strong narrative however this wont over power the technical skills and features used making the narrative not the only attractive thing towards audiences.

How did you attract/ address this audience?

The audience should be attracted by the narrative because the target audience will be able to relate to the situations within the film, For instance having to choose between 2 girls and the consequences of each. Narrative like this relates to the target audience and therefore they will be intrigued to see how the situation happens and how it is corrected.

The soundtrack of 12 hours should also appeal to the target audience because of its contemporary nature. This is because the music is in the popular chart and the soundtrack is not dissimilar from that of groups such as CHASE & STATUS. In turn this should appeal to the target audience because this too allows the viewers to relate to the media product.

The range of characters in 12 hours means that different sub sections of the target audience can more closely relate to the characters.

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

There are also conventions such as text that make it clear to be an opening. The credits and titles make it apparent to the viewer that the film is beginning however this is contrasted by the fact the audience see the end of the film first this convention is also seen in film such as Danny Boyle’s  Slumdog Millionaire. This gives a fast paced and action packed beginning. This should draw in the audience and make them want to carry on watching (the convention of an opening in itself is to raise an enigma code and hook the audience). They want to discover why this event happened rather than in some films where the finally is not why this happened but what happens in itself. I believe in this sense 12 hours challenges some conventions as it may confuse or intentional disorientate the audience (adding to the enigma code of the opening) because it furthers the point for the fight needing an explanation. For example the darkness is used to not entirely give the audience the complete picture; this is useful in keeping the audience engaged because there is a sense of mystery (once more accentuating the enigma code) in turn creating atmosphere and tension.  Therefore although it keeps some conventions in of an opening it also challenges others because of the use of setting, music and editing of the night sequence at the very beginning.

12 hours is clearly a film opening, I believe it is clearly an opening due to the fact our target audience would easily recognise it was a film opening. I Think this because of the conventions used for our opening such as the introduction to both protagonist and antagonist for example within the first few shots we meet a character whom is being followed by another, these turn out to be none of other, in turn assuming he is the focus of the film, than the protagonist (Joshua) and the antagonist (Seamus). The role of each character is confusing until near the end of the night sequence, due to lack of dialogue, because we are un sure of the reasoning behind the actions of both characters however once the night sequence comes to an end it is apparent whom is going to be the ‘good guy’ and whom will become the ‘baddy’ because he is central and at the point of violence the use of POV allowing the audience to empathise. The morning scene is essential to the protagonist’s introduction is represents his characters, as conventional openings do, and in turn his personality is represented through mise-en-scene and shots giving the audience their needed introduction to him. The introduction to each character is not particularly unusual and it keeps to conventions however the night scene was intended to make the audience question who acted as who in the films narrative in turn making them question their assumptions and in a sense morals. I think this is done successfully done through the costumes and narrative because the one we assume is the antagonist shouts ‘Touch my sister again’, this should make the audience believe that the protagonist wronged his family in some sense however we over look this due to the costume of him being well kept and middle class (unlike that of the antagonist).

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I believe that an institution such as Film Four may help to distribute my media product. I think this because of previous media products that they have helped to distribute. For example they have distributed such coming of age films such as This Is England, Now Where Boy and Hallam Foe. All these films focus on a young male attempting to find his path and all with previously unknown actors and producers. Another reason is those films were also relatively low budget with little big names giving funding. It’s this independent and up and coming reason I believe an institution such as Film Four would distribute my media product. The low budget factor of the film may also appeal to more b-rated and art house distribution companies however this doesn’t particularly relate to the target market and looking at it from a business point of view this would also run the risk of making it a cult movie in the small niche market of art house teens. On the other hand this wouldn’t be so much of an issue if the marketing of the film was strong and advertising campaigns focused the web in turn creating a viral marketing aspect similar or that previously used by Shank and TV Drama Misfits.

Our film when distributed should be looked at in this sense-

Young person’s drama (marketed similarly to Adulthood and Misfits).

Cert. 15 due to these guidelines:

 ‘Frequent use of strong language (such as ‘fuck’). Stronger terms (such as ‘cunt’) will only be acceptable where justified by context.

‘Sexual activity may be portrayed but without strong detail.’

‘Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole should not promote drug misuse.’

‘Violence may be strong but may not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury.’

By young people with young cast and crew.

These factors should be looked upon when distributing the film.

(These guidelines are taken from ‘The Observer Book Of Film’ published in 2007.)

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

When constructing my media product I learnt to successfully use Panasonic DVX100B with a Leica Dicomar lens and multi-directional Sennheiser Microphone. On the post production side I learnt to use movie cuts, transitions, how to insert captions & text and layer sounds.

In pre-productions I and my group each successfully used the camera and mica to get good quality shots and diegetic sound. This in turn led to the use post production editing software. The software used was movie and me and my group all learnt to use cuts, fades and ‘Ken Burns’ as well as post production sound such as soundtracks and sound enhancement.

Looking back at your prelim any task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

SOUND- Unlike in our pre-lima wave had a wider range of soundtrack choices and therefore the final soundtrack adds to the atmosphere creating a much more well rounded final product. Numerous meetings and discussions took place in order for us to get a final soundtrack that fits perfectly with both narrative and mise-en-scene allowing connotations of both keep in tune with the codes used to identify the characters, and their personality. For example in our opening the main characters are 2 fold as is the night/day and finally the soundtracks. This was done intentionally to show how Seamus is powerful at night (in the dark and undercover) and Joshua powerful at day (in the light and popular).

ATTENTION TO DETAIL- In our final product we had much more time to make each shot better with specific reasoning behind it. This has lead to each shot having an individual purpose witch wasn’t the case with our prelim. The various shot types have led to a more ‘efficient’ final product that is precise in what is has to achieve. Also within in each shot most things are there for a reason and help to encode each character, location and costume. For Example Joshua’s costume being the same through out and showing his class.

LOCATIONS- Use different locations in order to create different atmosphere for various purposes. For instances each location was specific chosen so that it was camera accessible had enough light and most importantly fitted the brief. For example in the attack scene it happens under a lamppost which allows there to be enough light for the audience to see the events taking place yet also fit in with the brief of a urban setting. For example the dark night time in a poorly lit urban alley which typical space for mugging or violence.

MISE-EN-SCENE- In our prelim we didn’t have anything that represented the characters or maybe show us a little about them however in our final piece we have manage to show aspects of Joshua’s personality by the use of objects not dialogue or other sound. E.g. Joshua’s bedside with the deliberately placed beer glass, magazines and Good Clean Tackle Boxer shorts. The mise-en-scene also contributes to the realism of the film as they are everyday things that are no out of the ordinary for a teenage boy to have.

PLANNING- In our prelim we didn’t know what we were doing when and played a lot of it by ear with little idea of what we were setting out to achieve however in our final product we knew what we were doing when leading to less conflict of ideas and a more smoothly running pre & post production experience. This was furthered by the use of storyboarding and conscious gathering of props.

CODES- In our final product I started to understand the importance of encoding and decoding. For instance in the prelim the antagonist could have been John Smith however to encode the violent, irrational and working class Seamus the group descried to make a stereotypical lower class Irish male. Seeing as both the Irish and lower-class’ sometimes carry connotations of violence’s his antagonist character should be decoded that way.

How does your media project represent particular social groups?

Age: Age is represented quite stereotypically throughout my media project ’12 Hours’, For instance in the night sequence young people are represented as violent and quite thuggish this is done by the use of dialogue of Seamus. He comes across as very angry and violent as is done by other modern mediums, for example newspapers with such headlines of ‘The Youth of Today’ and the glorification of ASBO’s. The soundtracks juxtapose as the violence almost aggressive non diegetic sound in the night sequence and the calm ordinariness of the day sequence. Both songs being in the popular charts gives a very strong representation of the specific age and 2 social groups, that of chavs (night sequence) and that of indie (day sequence) of the main characters within the films.

Class:  Class is represented in the opening by 2 characters. These two charters are the same age and genders however differ in class. This is mainly encoded by the costumes used, For instance Joshua is in a polo-shirt, jacket and wingtip shoes witch is widely considered as middle class due to the cost of such clothes. To contrast Seamus (Antagonist) is wearing Nike, a brand that is often worn by that of lower income, as well as wearing his trousers lower with his hood up. Finally the narrative represents the 2 different classes, for instance Seamus are shown being violent towards Joshua. This is something more often than not being shown by lower class people, it would break convention if a group of well spoken, posh dressed private schooled boys attacked a group of working class boys in trackies and flat peaked caps.

Gender: Most importantly to out opening a stereotypical male is represented. This is achieved by the mise-en-scene of Joshua’s room that has ‘Lads Mags’ on the floor, Beer classes around the room and a girl in his bed. This is essential to representing his character because these objects speak for them self’s about him. For instance the pint glass (rather than a champagne glass) shows he drinks larger, something often done by men in pubs or at bars. The woman in this scene is shown an s not particularly important and this is done by the way the camera never focus’ on her or follows her as it does with the male ones.

Sexuality: Mise-en-scene is the biggest contributor to the representation of heterosexuality in the opening scene. Joshua’s sexuality is predominantly represented by 3 things. On Joshua’s floor he has three lads’ mags this is the first shot of the day sequence and suggests Joshua is sexual active. This is turn is reinforced by the ‘Good Clean Tackle underwear that is given away with Chlamydia tests this shows Joshua sleeps around a bit and in turn foreshadows the plot of later on in the film. Finally Joshua’s sexuality is shown by the girl in his bed this shows he certainly is sexually active and the reason there are no close ups of this girl suggest she is unimportant to our protagonist and suggests she is just another number to him.

Ethnicity: The ethnicity of the young working class Irish teen is stereotypical, as is Joshua’s representation. Both seem to keep to codes and conventions of similar representation in other British Drama Films. For example Seamus is quite similar to that of Mickey O’Neil in Snatch (Seamus purposely knocks Joshua out in one hit as Mickey O’Neil does in Snatch adding intertexuality to the opening), these violent and temperamental actions are in keeping with the stereotypical Irish code. On the other hand we have Joshua who is in keeping with the British code by wearing a Harrington jacket and polo shirt.

Audience responce-

We recently showed our plan to our class on witch we took on criticism shown in an earlier post. more recently we showed a final draft on which there is still room for improvement. The main areas we can improve on in filming with shots are the connoting that our antagonist is Irish & related to the female in the bed and finally clarifying that it is a female in the bed rather than a house mate of some sort. In post production we need to work on the cut into Shot Yourself In The Foot Again and the actor names appearing in the opening as these were seen as tacky and cheap.
To combat the filming problems we decided to film today. This went well and managed to look the same as the previous day we filmed on as not to confuse the viewers with continuity errors. However we had to find a new actress as the one previously featured was not able to attend the filming session. Now we have the final footage we can finally finish our media project and make it as clean and professional as possible allowing us to focus on our evaluation.

12 Hours Plan Feedback.

Bellow is our rough media opening, its basically a plan for the camera shots and rehearsal for our actors it should also be good for feedback on dialogue, costumes and sounds
After showing the rough opening to an audience which was basically our target audience for the film we received a lot of constructive criticism. The chosen sound track (which hasn't be edited on yet) had good response as did costumes and the actors however we have now debated added a sequence of the antagonist in the morning due to feedback stating that the opening lacked tension and was boring at points. The night scene went down well with our audience and therefor we've decided to keep that basically the same.
we will re-film all the shots in half term and edit quickly as to reach the deadline.

Film Opening Update-

The filming for our rough edit has now been finished however we are yet to edit it which is a worry. Once the rough editing is completed we've decided to re film the entire footage because although it will work for a rough edit as it outlines the basic plot of the opening, yet setting up the rest of the plot throughout the entire film, but we would ideally like a better quality final piece with a more in depth introduction to the protagonist and a larger variation of more advance camera shots and angle.
The fact that we will re film all the footage is also helpful because our peers will be able to give us feedback on our rough edit allowing us to fine tune sound, dialogue, locations, mise-en-scene and camera shots. Hopefully this in turn will give us a better final piece that is more in keeping and representative of our skills and aspirations as a group.

Despite the newsreel opening 'This Is England' has a ver similar narrative and characters to our opening '12 Hours'. In theory it has a similar target audience, young people, to our film. Its because of this i believe they could both be put in the Genre of Coming Of Age. The link between the films is established by how the protagonist is of a similar age, ethnicity and background (location too is not dissimilar). The opening shot, post newsreel, is very similar with subtitles also being placed in the bottom half of the screen. However the openings will differ in the way the opening shot is established because unlike 'This Is England', '12 Hours' is set 12 hours after the very very opening of our film.
Another clear links comes in the form of the mise-en-scene of Shaun's (TIE) room with that of Joshua's (12H), both rooms are shown to be scruffy,unorganised and in a sense creating a stereotypical boy of that age. Camera shots are massively similar, for instance the establish shot at 4:25 though to 4:33 are a long shot to medium this is unlikely to be down to the reasoning on genre but more so that of conventions on a film opening. Narrative itself for the openings is similar because it represent the awakening of a teen, almost metaphorically establishing the fact both young teens are awakening for childhood to adulthood this allows the target audience to in turn relate to the protagonist. Overall i think both openings represent the awkward young person stage of life, no longer a child but not yet an adult, this is done by use of establishing shots that allow the protagonist to move toward the camera (moving towards adulthood) and mise-en-scene that fits in with stereotypical representation of that specific age and gender (scruffy and boyish teen).

Sans- Serif Vs Serif.

Nearly all fonts can be divided into two groups, Serif and Sans- Serif. There is one basic difference that can divine a font from these groups this is the curves at the end of each letter, Know as 'feet. For example a Sans-Serif font such as 'Arial' has no feet however a Serif font such as 'Courier' does have the 'feet' at on each letter.

The reason behind the difference is so that one may be able to use it for different purposes in turn also defining the purpose or perhaps formality of a text. As an example if one is writing a document that you’ll print out and give to someone to read you should use a Serif. Whereas if one is sending an email or writing a blog entry you should use a Sans-Serif font this is because its clearer and easier to read.

Target Audience '12 Hours' -

Our active audience for '12 Hours' is mainly in the bracket of 16-24 yr olds. Our project should appeal to them in a similar way to that of Kidulthood & Skins this is due to it being clearly set around the lives of teens and their actions. Seeing as teens are represented a lot in our film this should be evedent even in the opening 2 minutes. Although it is aimed at 16-24 yr olds we feel the film would be better suited to an 18+ certificate, this is because we would like to achieve and almost gritty feel such as Kidulthood does. Seeing as the certificate would ideally 18+ we think that 16 & 17 yr olds would still watch it as the majority of them wouldn't care about this certificate, this fits in with the theme of rebellion that is evident in our film.

Mid Production Film Update -

We are currently half way through filming '12 Hours' opening scene. So far it hasn't gone particularly well due to issues with scheduling, a few technical difficulties and locations. However tomorrow we are having our 3rd attempt with completing the filming portion of the project so we can start with editing this Wednesday.
To brake down the problems we've had at first it was finding a time we were all free with a willing female actress. Once this problem was tackled and had our 2nd filming session however the footage was to dark in turn this led us to think we should have one final attempt at filming.
Hopefully tomorrow we will iron out the problems such as lighting and acting thus allowing us to finally complete '12 Hours' opening scene.
On the upside location, costumes and actors are now secure so we only need to film witch with all the planning shouldn't be to complicated.