Unser Film ist vollständig!!!

For those who can't speak German, OUR FILM IS COMPLETE!!!! woop woop, check it out and be amazed!

Mein Bewertung

My AS Media Studies Project Evaluation

-Ben Lucas

Photo Storyboard

The four page photo storyboard for our film :

Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4

Title Sequence Analysis : The Pursuit of Happiness

The opening title sequence for 'The Pursuit of Happiness' starts with a serif font introducing the production companies and other businesses involved with the making of the film. As each name is faded in from black to white, it slowly swiped left to right until they fade back out. 

As for the title of the film, the camera pans over an open book which then highlights the words 'Pursuit of Happiness'.

Compared to the titles in our film, it is quite similar in the fact the white-on-black writing introduces the key companies/people within the first few minutes at a fairly slow pace. The only different I noticed is the title of our film is shown a lot differently as the screen fades to black and individual letter of "LiFE" pop up at second intervals. 

Link to the title sequence

Treatment - Full Film

Introduction:
Our film is an urban drama, inspired by films such as Shifty and Taken. A mixture of drug-fuelled twists and turns along with a touching story of a brothers devotion, makes this a must see for the majority of society today.

Title:

Our film will be called ‘LiFE’ due to the issues it covers, which could become reality for anyone without warning.

Audience:

The audience for our film is people mainly aged 15 to 50 who enjoy gripping, heart-warming stories with a sinister twist. People who enjoy related films such as Shifty and Taken may be interested to watch as it covers some of the basic elements of each without being a blatant copy. The certificate of 15 was chosen so that we can include some scenes involving drug use, kidnapping and strong violence, which may appeal to the more desensitised audience who prefer grungy, urban and realistic scenarios to glitzy Hollywood fakeries. A male audience would probably be more suited to watch the film due to the violent nature of some scenes and the overall theme, drugs. On the other hand there is something for everyone in our film, which makes it appeal to infinitely larger audience.

Duration:

The duration of our film will be about 80 to 100 minutes long, as this gives us time to work in a gripping introduction, an edge-of-your-seat main body and an ending where all narrative threads are tied up.

Synopsis:
“Our drug-fuelled crime thriller, follows the story of two brothers – Jake and Kyle Miller from Barnsley – who’s previously divorced Dad was believed to have mysteriously died when Jake was just 7 years old and Kyle was 12. Having no mother figure to support them, and little money left to them by their father, they struggled through homelessness and living in shelters for the most part of their young lives.

The story picks up when Kyle wins £25,000 on the National Lottery, which his brother Jake has always been reluctant to take part in. Jake is now 17, and Kyle is 22.

Needing at least £2,000 more in order to finally buy themselves a small 2 bedroom flat, Jake turns to small-time drug dealing, in order to quickly raise the money they need. Jake tells Kyle that he’s got a low-paying job, which has provided the extra money they needed, although Kyle remains suspicious of his brother.

On a dark night in a quieter part of town, Jake is kidnapped without any evidence left behind or any witnesses to the crime. After receiving a ransom letter from Jake’s kidnappers, demanding the £25,000 they were going to put to a flat, Kyle then finds out his brother’s secret drug dealing ways, and goes on the hunt to rescue him, being warned that Jake will be killed immediately if anyone else gets involved.

The film then follows Kyle on his hunt for his brother – the only family he has ever really known – as he travels from town to town to save Jake.

The twist in the story later reveals that it was in fact the brothers' father (Brian Miller) who kidnapped Jake after Brian faked his own death once he became involved in heavy drug dealing issues himself. The whole idea behind the kidnapping was to try and shake him out of the shady world of drug dealing, but was it successful, or is Jake on a set path in a downward spiral?”

Suggested Elements:

There are many things that set our film apart from others. The first one of which is the motion tracked text in the title sequence. This is not a common effect in films these days, with most directors opting for static text or motion graphics. Secondly, the film burns between clips make the final product look more professional, and make the piece look more interesting, and in turn keep the viewer interested for longer.

Permission for Train Station Filming

The link below is the permission we received to film some of our scenes at Barnsley Interchange Train Station.

CLICK ME

'Tricky' Camera Angles

 From looking at the script, and from taking photos of the areas we plan on shooting, there is only one shot that I deem to be tricky, and then, it's mainly about timing as we can select which train we need to film.

The only shot that will truly be hard to shoot is the one where we film both main characters walking on one side of the platform for a few seconds right before a train drives by, cutting to a different scene. The main problem that will happen is if the train isn't going straight through the station, and in fact stops, making the shot useless. 

Individual Film Analysis : Shifty

Within the first 3 minutes of Shifty, the scene and overall plot of the film is set, with usage of drugs introduced quite early. In this short time, the main antagonists and protagonists are shown going about their routines right before the film begins.

When the two protagonists meet up at a house, through their body language and actions you can tell they previously knew each other and are on good terms. It is not until several minutes later though you find out that one of them has turned to drug dealing for a living. 

Meanwhile, when it focuses on the antagonist, the feeling is less rejoicing and more down-to-earth as you can tell, again, from his body language and behaviour that something is bothering him, causing him to leave the house without interaction with anyone. The idea that something is wrong is then confirmed as he is told to leave his work premises by his Boss for brining and using drugs on site. 

When compared to our film there are many similarities, mainly the use of drugs but also how people are reunited after a long period with no contact at all. The intro of ours is different as it mainly focuses on the fact the main characters are homeless and in a dire situation of being moved away from their current 'home', when in Shifty it is about reunion and drugs. (Which come at a later stage in our production). 

Title of our film

Our film has finally been named!
We decided upon a title of 'LiFE', as this reflects the fact the film is about the life of the two brothers. It is also a memorable title as it is short and not complicated, meaning it will stick in peoples heads more. A smaller title also means making posters and promotional material will be easier as we wont have to fit a large, hard to read title onto, for example, an A5 flyer

Treatment - Short Film

Introduction:

Our film is an urban drama, inspired by films such as Shifty and Taken. A mixture of drug-fuelled twists and turns along with a touching story of a brothers devotion, makes this a must see for the majority of society today.

Title:

Our film will be called ‘LiFE’ due to the issues it covers, which could become reality for anyone without warning.

Audience:

The audience for our film is people mainly aged 15 to 50 who enjoy gripping, heart-warming stories with a sinister twist. People who enjoy related films such as Shifty and Taken may be interested to watch as it covers some of the basic elements of each without being a blatant copy. The certificate of 15 was chosen so that we can include some scenes involving drug use, kidnapping and strong violence, which may appeal to the more desensitised audience who prefer grungy, urban and realistic scenarios to glitzy Hollywood fakeries. A male audience would probably be more suited to watch the film due to the violent nature of some scenes and the overall theme, drugs. On the other hand there is something for everyone in our film, which makes it appeal to infinitely larger audience.

Length:

The duration of our film will be about 2 minutes long, enough time to show the motion tracked titles, introduce the main characters and their situation.

Synopsis:

“The first 2 minutes of our film not only introduce you to the characters, but also give you a taste of what is to come later on in the story. The characters are shown to have contrasting outlooks on life, Jake taking a pessimistic approach to everything, where as Kyle is an optimistic person, always doing what he can to try and sort out their life. This is mainly shown when Kyle finds a lottery ticket on the floor, and hopes to keep it and win something, whereas Jake sees no point in keeping it, and has no hope of ever turning his life around. He believes that they are set to be down-and-outs for the rest of their lives, while Kyle thinks there is a chance of changing their futures.”

Suggested Elements:

There are many things that set our film apart from others. The first one of which is the motion tracked text in the title sequence. This is not a common effect in films these days, with most directors opting for static text or motion graphics. Secondly, the film burns between clips make the final product look more professional, and make the piece look more interesting, and in turn keep the viewer interested for longer.

Storyboard v1

Our first storyboard draft.

Click Here for Your Own Pleasure

Script v.2

This is our second draft of our script.

Click Here for Eternal Joy

Character Profiles

Here are our Character Profiles for our film, they are only on the main two characters.


Jake Miller
Age: 16
Personality: He is a thoughtless, self-centred character with a negative outlook on life and make enemies very easily.
Interests: Drugs, Smoking, Drinking, Music, TV
Place of Residence: Barnsley, South Yorkshire
Involvement in Story: Jake is the younger brother of Kyle Miller and he turns to drug dealing to try and earn £2,000 to put towards a small house after Kyle wins £25,000 on the National Lottery, he only wanted to sell drugs to pay for the house but can't get out of it once he has enough. 


Kyle Miller
Age: 20
Personality: Kyle is the nicer one of the two brothers and he aims to get a good life away from all the trouble that surrounds them in the town of Barnsley.
Interests: Music, TV, Drinking, Socialising, Theme Parks, Nightclubs
Place of Residence: Barnsley, South Yorkshire
Involvement in Story: Kyle wins £25,000 on the National Lottery and asks Jake if he can try and get £2,000 towards a small house for the two of them to share, to start with he doesn't know that Jake is selling drugs to raise these funds.

Filming Permissions

During this Media lesson (01/03/12) we took a camera to our desired filming locations, and took recon photos as well as asking in various places, whether we could be granted permission to film in those areas.

First off, we spoke to a number of different people concerning filming on the platforms at Barnsley Train Station. We were told to phone the National Rail Press Office and were given a number. Unfortunately, the person we needed to speak to was in a meeting at the minute, so we will try again later and update the blog accordingly.

After that, we went to the Civic, and spoke to a man who contacted someone of higher authority, who we then spoke to personally, and they told us that filming outside the town hall, or almost any public place in Barnsley is fine without permission, as it is public land.

The last place we went was to a small newsagents, close to the Old Mill Lane college building. However, after speaking to the man inside, he told us that he had his own personal issues with us filming outside his shop (which we would have to discuss), and also there were many health and safety issues that he was wary of, if we were to block the pavement outside the storefront. We were told to return on a Friday at 11:30, to discuss filming. For this reason, we have decided that there are plenty more newsagents that will surely be more reasonable than him, and will look elsewhere for our filming location.

We will update the blog accordingly, as we gain more permissions, and detail, on the locations where we will film our project.

Possible Distributors

Metrodome was the first distributor that came to mind as it is the company which did Shifty, the film that we got our inspiration from. They mainly distribute low-budget actions, horror and thriller films from around the world, but mostly they come from England.

Metrodome

The second distribution company we chose to consider was Revolver Entertainment.  They distributed films such as Kidulthood and Adulthood, both of which are similar to our genre. The company is based in London and Los Angeles meaning that the American market can be covered at the same time, for the price as it would for just England.

Revolver Ent.

Genre Research

From our questionaire, it's apparent most people think our film should be a thriller.

Thriller
The genre 'Thriller' covers a wide range of sub-genres, for example: Action & adventure thriller, Sci-Fi thriller, crime thriller... Pretty much all genres can be tied into a thriller in some way, so for this reason I'm going to focus on the overall aspects of a general thriller film, and then the details of crime thriller, as this seems most suitable.

The purpose of a thriller film is to keep the audience at the edge of their seats with constant suspense and, obviously, thrills. This usually happens by placing characters in dangerous and life threatening situations, and having them not escape until the last conceivable moment. It can also be achieved with plot twists and by leading the viewer astray, so when something unexpected happens they are genuinely surprised, and havnt been waiting for it to happen all along.
Characters in thriller films are usually dark, such as convicts, criminals, stalkers, physchotics, spies and sometimes even terrorists.

Thriller films can be dated as far back as 'Safety Last' in 1923, but its rare that a list of thrillers is put together without at least a mention of Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock helped to shape what we now see as a thriller film with productions such as 'The Lodger' in 1926 and 'The Blackmail' in 1929. A favourite technique of his was to take an innocent victim, and place them in danger due to wrangful accusation or mistaken identity (for example, 'The Wrong Man'). Another much-used technique was the use of 'red herrings', an element within a plot which would lead the viewers to suspect one thing, when infact this was put in entirely to mislead the viewer and has no real significance to the actual plot.
Other examples of thriller films are 'Silene of the lambs', the 1991 production featuring Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter, and 'Collateral', featuring Tom Cruise.

Crime Thrillers
As the genre suggest, crime films are concerned with the actions of either a lone criminal or a gang. This is usually done in one of two ways; by either focusing on the criminal themself, or by focusing on their victim and the effects the criminal has had. Characters in Crime films are usually macho males, often with features people would find intimidating such as tattoos and piercings. The characters in these films often have very few or no morals.

Noteable crime films include the 'Dirty Harry' series of films, 'The Godfather' trilogy, and 'Pulp Fiction'. Another film worthy of mentioning is Shifty, as this is a prime example of making a crime thriller film on an extremely low budget.

Certificate Rating

The chosen age rating for our film is 15. Below are the classifications of a 15 film.

Suitable only for 15 years and over

No one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work.

Discrimination

The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.

Drugs

Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.

Horror

Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.

Imitable behaviour

Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Language

There may be frequent use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’). The strongest  terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.

Nudity

Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

Sex

Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.

Theme

No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

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 or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.

Our thoughts on why we gave it a certificate of 15:

The demographic for our film is people mainly aged 15 to 50 who enjoy gripping, heart-warming stories with a sinister twist. People who enjoy related films such as Shifty and Taken may be interested to watch as it covers some of the basic elements of each without being a blatant copy. The certificate of 15 was chosen so that we can include some scenes involving drug use, kidnapping and strong violence, which may appeal to the more desensitised audience who prefer grungy, urban and realistic scenarios to glitzy Hollywood fakeries. A male audience would probably be more suited to watch the film due to the violent nature of some scenes and the overall theme, drugs. On the other hand there is something for everyone in our film, which makes it appeal to infinitely larger audience.

Inspiration for our film (& embedding test)

Our film will be based around a theme of a crime/thriller, taking inspiration from such films as 'Shifty' and the '...hood' series of films.

Introduction

Welcome to Ochre Digital Productions' blog.

Josh Perree, Ben Lucas, Matthew Jones and Callum Norton will be adding to this blog as part of the Media A-Level course, in which we shall produce the first 2 minutes of what is supposed to be professional film.