Audience questionairre

I decided I would do the questionnaire using Facebook and set it to everyone so I can link it here.

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=188126077900149

These are all screen grabs from the questionnaire.

Photo storyboard

close up dolly of legs

medium shot with all three characters in

close up shot

extra close up shot

medium-close up shot

medium two shot

long tracking shot

medium shot from behind

Shooting script

 Scene 1
1. Close up shot
2. Close up shot in different location

scene 2
3. Medium shot from side
4. Close up shot
5. Medium shot
6. Close up shot- reverse shot
7. Medium close up shot from front
8. Medium-close up shot
9. Medium-long shot (establishing)
10. Close up from front
11.  Close up from side (match on action)
12. Close up from front
13. Medium shot
14. Close up
15. Medium shot (shot reverse shot)
16. Close up
17.Medium shot (shot reverse shot)
18. Close up
19.Close up from front
20. Medium shot
21. Tracking shot long shot (establishing)
22. Medium shot (with zooming out)
23. Close up shot
24. Medium shot

Location shots

Main street, Goldthorpe. Used for the walking scene in the film.

Alley way, Goldthorpe. Used in dragging scene.

Different location of Main street. Used in dragging scene.

 

 

 The previous 4 photos are from a lock up in Barnsley, this location was chosen as it looked abandoned and was not in the best of conditions. It looks like it could be quite dodgy and I felt it was a good location to film the gun scene.

Storyboard

Close up legs dragged, camera movement in direction of arrow

Close up of gun to the back of the head

Long establishing shot

Close up from front

Close up of gun to the back of the head

Tracking shot of characters walking down the street.

long shot from zoom in to out whilst walking towards camera

long shot from behind characters as the walk past camera and zoom in from out

List of tricky shots

Tracking shots
Aerial shots
Dolly shots
Zoom shots

These are a few of the shots we wanted to include within the film, we managed to get some zooms in and a tracking shot, however the other two were unachievable but possibly could be included later in a full length film.

Full length treatment

Programme: Pretty Violence
Duration: 100mins approx

Audience: Those interested in a British crime thriller, those who enjoy films with action, will interest female gender as it is based on female drug gang

Resume: A man who has stolen drugs from a feared female drug gang is taken to a secluded lock up where he is at gun point in order for Abbie and Eveline to find out where the drugs are the man has stolen. The man reveals that Big Mickey, a notorious local gangster has the drugs, however this does not save the man and he is shot by Abbie.
The girls meet up with the rest of the gang in a pub where they reveal where the cocaine is. They then come up with a plan to get the drugs back and pay Big Mickey a little revenge. The girls track down people who know Big Mickey and beat them up for information on where the drugs are hidden and try to find out his location. Big Mickey finds out that the girls are after him and sends out some of his men to deal with them, the group go after the drugs first but one of the girls is killed brutally in the process. Abbie and Eveline in vengeance seek Big Mickey and go to his headquarters, they kill some of the guards without Big Mickey realising. The girls enter Mickey's office, they shout at him and threaten to kill him. Abbie points the gun at Mickey, he also grabs a gun under his desk, he quickly pulls it out and shoots. They both have been shot, Mickey is dead whilst Abbie is bleeding on the ground with Eveline clutching her. The film ends.

Suggested Elements:

a) British female drug gang

b) Violence, blood and gun crime

c) drug use and dealing

d) British locations

e) Narration

Character Profile: Unknown character (Male A)

His name is not revealed within the film and is only a plot device. He is a large character, approximately 6ft3 and of large built. He breaks into a flat where the female gang run their business and steals a large amount of cocaine for notorious Drug Baron/gangster 'Big Mickey'. He's one of the many men that Big Mickey uses for his own dirty work and is easily replaced. He is killed by Abbie Miller.

Pretty Violence: Finished script

Individual analysis: Snatch

I have chosen to analyse the first 15 minutes of the film 'Snatch'. It is a similar film to our film 'Pretty Violence'. It is directed by Guy Ritchie, a famous British director who directed other similar British films such as, 'Lock Stock and two smoking barrels' and 'Rock n rolla'. I chose this film to analyse as it is a Crime thriller like ours and is one of my favourite films of all time.

The film begins fading from black to a shot of the back of a man's head. The shot then cranes to reveal two characters. There is no diagetic sound during this scene, which could signify that a conversation has just taken place or that they are waiting for something. There is non diagetic sound in the form of narration from main character 'Turkish'. He gives a backdrop to the story and introduces himself and the character sat next to him 'Tommy'. The camera frequently cuts to a close up of each of the two characters before going back to a medium two shot. It close ups to Tommy when the narration is talking about him and close ups to Turkish when he is talking about himself. They are both wearing the typical old fashioned Italian suits and Tommy is wearing a generic Gangster style hat.

It then fades to black and then fades back to a television screen which are showing live footage of security cameras, which show a group of men dressed up as Hacidic Jews sneaking into the building in order to steal a valuable diamond. The camera moves onto different television screens as the group move through the building showing different positions of the security cameras. The security cameras are set up as low angle shots looking down on the group, as actual security cameras are set in buildings and also establishes the corridor and where they are in the building. There are diagetic sounds from the security guards and the group who are speaking to each other in foreign accents. The security guards are in typical uniform, black trousers, white/blue shirts and black ties with security equipment such as a metal detector which is used on the group of men.

The group of men planning the heist enter the main office of the bank the speed of editing increases greatly, as to suggest it is panicked and rushed and gives the elementary of surprise making the scene much more exciting. There is a zoom in, as one of the characters reveals the guns he has concealed under his coat. There is then a zoom on the banker to show his expression as he realises it is a heist. At this point the non diagetic music begins to increase in pace as the editing does. There is much jump cutting and camera rotating/spiralling to show transition effects and keeping the scene fast paced to emulate the pace of the action. There is use of different camera positions, height of the camera when the man is on the table. This reflects the chaotic situation in which the bankers are in and makes the scene much more energised. The scene slows down and the music stops as Benicio Del Toro asks the banker 'Where is the stone?' whilst he beats another man in order to persuade him to tell him. There is diagetic sound of the Benico Del toro hitting the man and spinning the gun. There is use of shot reverse shot to show the expressions of the banker as Benicio hits the other man.

It then cuts to inside a van after robbery, revealing that he has got the stone, with a close up of the stone. It then dollys back to reveal the rest of the team as they remove their disguises. There a few jump cuts to slightly increase the pace. It then focuses on the guy holding up a large diamond, it then zooms in on the diamond and rotates. The title of the film appears in front of the diamond. The title sequence introduces the main characters of the film and reintroduces main characters Turkish and Tommy. There is a freeze zoom on each character with edited background colour with added in name and nickname. As the edits move from character to character there is an action carried out through edit, i.e. in one shot Benicio is holding the Diamond then it cuts to Cousin Avi holding the diamond in the same position, much like a match on action over different shots. Non diagetic music ensues as the title sequence takes place. It then leaves the title sequence back to inside the van the same way it entered the title sequence with the diamond in the middle of the shot as it is being placed into a secret compartment within the briefcase.

Then we are shown the first actual conversation of the film between Franky Four fingers and a bald man, shot reverse shot is used here with a close up of both the characters. The bald guy spins the revolver and it cuts over to London with Tommy, Turkish and new character Gorgeous George at what appears to be a boxing training session. They have a conversation which leads to Turkish asking Tommy to pick up a new caravan for him and other general conversation, there is use of reverse shots and tracking shots as the characters walk around. When they talk about the gun Tommy has it cuts to an earlier scene between Tommy and new main character 'Boris the Blade', there is a series of shot reverse shot and freezes with non-diagetic narration from Turkish who gives a background story of Boris and he does the same with Tommy.

It then cuts to a seemingly unlicensed boxing match with the camera passing them and centres on main character 'Brick top' who appears to run the place. He talks to two men behind him and a medium two shot, as he is not facing the characters it is not a reverse shot and is done to reveal the expressions of the characters. Brick Top gets down from the ring and as he walks towards the camera it dollys back. It then freezes on Bricktop like in the earlier scene with Boris and Tommy and gives a little backdrop on his character. There is jump cutting on the items such as stun gun, roll of tape and bag.

After the boxing scene it cuts to what looks like a pig sty, the camera dollys as Bricktop is talking to Turkish and feeding pigs. Here there is both diagetic and non diagetic sound. Diagetic where the conversation takes place and the noises the pigs are making, and non diagetic where Turkish is telling the audience what he is thinking and with the background music.

It then cuts to an unknown bald character who is on the phone to Boris, he is betraying Franky by revealing where the Diamond is and sending him to Boris. The lighting is low and is directed to only one side of his face, signifying that the character has a dark side to him as he is betraying him. The non diagetic music is low and slow paced as not to take distraction too much from the conversation, but enough to reflect the betrayal that is occurring. There is a split screen shot to show Boris on the phone to the other guy, with dollying of Boris as he walks through his house. It shows the difference in locations by showing Boris is in London and the other guy is in Antwerp.

It then cuts to New York to Cousin Avi, he appears to be a rich character as it reveals his big office through a wide angled shot. He is on the phone to Franky, there is slow slight zooming on each character as it cuts to each location and has interesting transition effect. It one shot Franky is getting measured by a tailor, in the next he is wearing a coat and hat. In each cut back to Franky he is wearing a different costume. After the phone call, there is a shot reverse shot between Avi and two other characters as he tells them about Franky and the Diamond.

It then cuts to a London pub with a two shot of Turkish and another main character 'Doug the head', there is low diagetic sound of the people within the pub and the conversation between Doug and Turkish. There is non diagetic sound of Turkish giving a back story of Doug. Doug then receives a call from Avi and it cuts between them as they take their turn to talk. Doug is currently walking through London with the camera dollying to keep him in the shot at the same speed he is walking. The camera follows him into the shop which he appears to own, where he stops to talk to two girls behind the counter which appear to be his twin daughters.

Evaluation

Our film 'Pretty Violence' is a gangster film which incorporates generic conventions such as mise-en-scene, with the costumes our characters are wearing, also with props such as a gun and the location of a untidy room and a dirty, urban street. This is a main theme in gangster films and creates the tension for the audience. The music in the background is non-diegetic which adds to the realism of a gangster movie. The sound effect of the gun being fired creates excitement and keeps you watching. The editing of the aperture effect around the edges at the beginning creates the effect of mystery which makes the audience feel into the action. We wanted to relate our films to others such as the Godfather, Snatch etc. To make it fit in with films of a similar genre. By using editing techniques, the tense music being played and the costumes such as leather jackets. Snitch was a big influence on our film and how to betray the different characters. We wanted to have a similar opening to theirs, having a mini animation to start however due to time constraints this was not possible. Snitch opening sequence is fast paced, quick and exciting however we wanted ours to be tense. An example of this would be counting down from thirty slowly before the shooting. This sets the theme atmosphere and specific genre of the film. As the action gets built up more and more the longer our audience will be captivated to carry on watching.

Our film repersents particular social groups due to different ages, race (due to black people later in the film) and especially gender. However the way in which we wanted to repersent geder is in a non-sterotypical way as the woman in this film are brutal and dominant. Thus, making the men passive, timid and weak. We decided to do this because it has something that hasn't been done in a gangster thriller before. This will open up a totally new world to the audience and how they may percieve social groups, in everyday life. This will link to both target audiences of both genders men can see things from a different a different perspective whereas the woman could see it as them dominant and in charge. The reason for giving the title 'pretty voilence' is due to this non-stereotypical gender.

Our film is defintly something that could be produced by a major hollywood blockbuster film because like I said before, it brings something original and different to our audience. This would make our film stand out, especially if Warner Bros. accepted it because they have several other related gangster films and also different genre of films, relating to different audiences. Also because its a big film company we could take great oppertunity to promote our film, by selling merchandise. Also by using above the line marketing eg. Interview with the actors. Also mise-en-scene from the film eg. Soundtracks, a ride at alton towers? We would like our film to be heading straight to the cinema and been able to purchase it on all forms of media eg. DVD, iPhone, when the interest starts to decline.

The age we would like our film to appeal to his mainly teenagers 18+ due to classifdication criteria of sexual references and strong language throughout. Also because of the style and narrative of the film it could distress or scare younger viewers. So we expectthe classification rating to be high. The gender as I said, would like to appeal to both and also be able to create the same amount of interest as other big productions like Snitch. When we did our audience research this seemed to be the best option of genre and took thier opinions on what they would like to see.

Using the camera work, we tryed to put the audience in the postion of the character such as the point of view shots at the beginning with the editing effects being made. At this point they are only allowed to see the very minimal as we give very little away at this stage. They can see someone's feet being dragged along the floor, but whos? This creates suspense for the audience. Also after the shooting this would appeal but shock the audience at the same time. However terrify a certain age group such as small children. Also the constant, fast paced changing of shots throughout adds a great impact of excitment to the film.

Whilst making our film I have learnt a great deal of how to use different technology and pieces of equipment such as simply how to set up the camera and setting white balance correctly. The strengths of the camera equipment that I personally found great, was how easy it was to change shots such as zomming in and how easy it was to set up. However some weaknesses I found is that I found it incredibly hard to pan the camera and keep a steady hand, to keep the footage flowing nicely. This took several trys but I managed it in the end. We changed the story due to it being hard to find the right location to film. Also due to time constraints our titles on our film could have been better. Also trying to keep the roads and streets clear whilst filming the second scene. We dealt with this by filming at a quieter stage. We used new equipment and software such as iMovie to create the editing effects and cut out parts we did'nt need or did'nt flow nicely. I learnt how to edit footage, such as cuts, transitions, adding titles and grouping it all together. Unfortuatly there was no specialist equipment to enhance our film only a sound effect was really added to enhance the action. However we would have liked to try something more technical. For the music we added in scene two, it was original music which we created and added in the editing stage.z

I feel as though I have learnt way more now than when I completed my preliminary task we took considerable amount of time to plan our project by researching different genres, considering which one would work best. Not only for us but your audience too. Creating storyboards also helped us plan this for a clear structure. Because of doing the premilinary task, we were aware how to use the camera and different shots avaliable to us. This helped specific shots like point of view, run smoother. I know feel more confident with the editing process as the program looked complicated and difficult to use. My knoweldge of the whole media industry has now increased imensly and I feel as though I have made a successful end product which I'm very happy with.

Eveline Mcqueen

Aka- Evie

Evie is the baby face of the group. She may look cute and innocent, but her appearance is deceiving. She won't refrain from punching you in the face and kicking you in the shins if you cross her, or make a comment about her. She's younger than the other girls and sees the others as bigger sisters. The other girls took her in when she was 15 due to suffering domestic violence from her alcoholic father, her mother left home when she was 12, to pursue a career as an actress. She's now 17 and has quickly become part of the gang.

Character Profile: Abbie Miller

Aka- Abs, Miller, Mills or more commonly known as Lady Pink

Brought up the daughter of a wealthy businessman, Don Miller a drugs baron, Abbie quickly became the apple of her daddy's eye. Slim, red haired, she is noticed a mile off. At the ripe old age of 26, she took over her father's business. She's aggressive and will not hesitate to pull a trigger.
She's the money of the outfit.

Distributor research

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warner_Bros.
I chose Warner Bros. as a possible distributor as it is a company that has many convergences and is a subsidiary company of Time Warner. It has distributed many films including Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes and crime thriller Rock'n'Rolla.

Warner Bros. would allow the film to be advertised and has many aspects of synergy which could allow the film to have merchandise made to further advertise and generate greater profit. Warner Bros. had a revenue of $11.7billion (2007) and is a massive company.

It has it's own website where you can look at details of its films and purchase merchandise.
www.warnerbros.com

Individual title sequence research

Reservoir dogs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjPBSih0e8g

This title sequence from Reservoir Dogs is a very interesting one. It closes up on each character and introduces them as they're walking.
There are uses of long shots, and close ups of each character. There is camera movement which follows them as they're walking.
It makes the characters look cool, as they're dressed in suits and some are wearing sun glasses. Even the music is quite gripping and adds to the coolness of the characters.

I am interested in using a similar title sequence to this one in my own film.

Title sequence research

This is the title sequence to the film Snatch.
It uses freeze frames on characters to introduce characters and match on action to cut to a new scene which is something I find very interesting.

This is the title sequence from Smokin' Aces, I liked the idea of the colours used and the way the names of the actors appeared. I may consider incorporating similar ideas into the title sequence of my own film.

Title sequence from Blown Away, this is similar to the Smokin' Aces title sequence. I like the idea of switching to different characters and the movement of how they switched. Also, the close in and zooming out greatly interested me and maybe something to consider in my own. As well as, it was made more intriguing by the way that all the characters were in action poses.

This is another interesting opening sequence from the film RocknRolla. I like the idea of the characters seem to be separate from the background and the images are moving. I like the 2D cartoon-like effect very much and intend to use something similar in my own title sequence.