If Ben and I were to produce 5 to 5 to it's full potential carrying on from the opening scene, we would have to show the story behind the flashback's shown, and reveal how the twists in the film would be resolved.
Firstly we would need professional actors to play the roles of our film.
Role of Archie- Mark Strong
Role of Vincent- Brad Pitt
Role of Toby- Jason Stratham
The Russians- Dragan Macanovic, Karel Roden
The Italian- Gerard Butler
Narrator- Tom Wilkinson
The reason for why i have chosen these actor's to play the cast, is due to the roles they starred in a number of Guy Ritchie's film, so the experience of starring in an Early London gangster film is already there.
The location of the opening scene is in my home town Portishead, if we were to continue the film from the opening scene, we would relocate to a more industrial area, such as Bristol; being a busy and populated city. This helps to give the essence of an 'underworld' with gangsters and criminals running riot. A suburban location does not hold the same atmosphere.
Also if were we to obtain a larger budget the equipment and technology we would potentially use would be more accurate and up to date. We would not be limited on props that we could use, compared to the props we are using in our Opening scene, which are clothing and items found around the house.
Thursday, 28 January 2010
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Opening Scenes of flims which i feel have inspired me
First of all i will begin with Snatch- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXfdOgTWoxM&feature=related
Snatch has always been one of my all time favourites, along with some other films directed by Guy Ritchie, the Opening scene to Snatch has to one of the most action filled introductions i have seen in any other film of its type.
What i enjoyed firstly was the use of the presentation of the scene. It was presented as CTV camera fed televisions, the screens were in black and white, meaning colour was not drawing the viewers attention else where, the director has purposely set so that the viewer concentrates on what he wants you to watch. There are a number of televisions, as the actors, walk from one side of a room to another, it is shown on the screens, whereby if the actors move to the left of the television, they are shown on another Tv to the left of the previous, the music with this order is slowly pased, and has some humour to it, the dialogue is very narrow, it is not very specific, this keeps the audience on their toes, as they are unware of what to expect; another feature which helps with the factor of weariness are the odd clothes the gentlemen are wearing. Another aspect of the TV's which i thoroughly enjoyed is when the actors are shown in an elevator, it goes up from one screen to the next as it compares the TV switch over to the elevator going up to the destination level.
When the shots are going through the televisions, the credits are also edited in with the flow of the scene, i am hoping to acomplish this sort of title sequence in my opening scene. When the gentlemen reach what is percieved as there target destination in the building, the camera view is changed from a television format and is now shown as any other camera would film a scene. The camera shots used in the following part of the scene are very close up, including close up's and medium shots, the pace of the shots change dramatically to a very quick pace, as does the pace of music, this is in order to keep the rythme of the scene. The camera shots are no longer than 1/2 seconds, as it switches to one actor to the next as they are taking control of the office. There are a couple of spinning transition edits, the director wanted an aspect of chaos in the scene, as the office workers are being held at gun point or being pushed to the floor, when it is shown that the men in disguises have found what they are looking for, the shots start to freeze on each member of the 'gang' so to speak, with edited titles giving them there film names.
What i liked about the idea of freezing the shot and adding an edit to reveal the characters name, is that everytime a character was introduced, when the shot froze to move onto the next, the location also changed. The name of the character was always shown in the centre of the screen aswell, this possibly to highlight the importance of the character shown. Before the shot is froze the actor is doing something in the shot, whether it was sat at a table playing cards or getting money from a safe, those split seconds allow the audience to interpret what type of people they are.
The next film which i looked at, was another directed by Guy Ritchie, Rock N Rolla
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiODSEBRrHU
Rock N Rolla is a film set in London, a real-estate scam puts millions of pounds up for grabs, attracting some of the city's scrappiest tough guys and its more established underworld types, all of whom are looking to get rich quick. While the city's seasoned criminals vie for the cash, an unexpected player -- a drugged out rock 'n' roller presumed to be dead but very much alive -- has a multi-million dollar prize fall into his hands.
What i enjoyed in the film as a whole not just the opening scene was the twists implemented in the film, the aspect of twists in a film have become very popular in the opening scene which i plan to film.
The music used in the opening scene is set at the pace of edits and extra noises added in, as the titles and sub titles are shown. The opening titles are shown on a very broad and bleak background, the edits are what you can call the ligh of the darkness, this is in order to grab th audience, therefore their attention is not else where.
Another aspect i was fond of was the use of a narrator, talking over the scene, this is an aspect which i hope to implement in my media production. When the scene has finished with edits, you are introduced to the Narrator talking over as you see Johnny Quid in a dim room, with only little lighting. Again the use of little light, gives the character the aspect of being the centre of attention, he i what the director is wanting the audience to focus on. The music then starts again and the camera shots/edits are at a quick pace, as it the music which is played again.
When the scene moves from reality as it were and then to animations of the characters/actors that will be involved in the films, i quite liked the idea of this and how there different shots, whereby you had a close up then a zoomout to then have a close up again, had the sense of the audience having to pay attention, keeping on their toes.
Overall the opening scene to this Film has played a major part in decisions i have made to how i want my films opening scene to be like.
The next film which played an equal part on the basis of my decision making was Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, also directed by Guy Ritchie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSodvRnD3Qc
The opening scene to this film is not like the other two in the way it is presented, in snatch you were shown the scene on Tv's to begin with, Rock N Rolla, was presented in an animated style, where as Lock Stock' was presented by the camera, straight into the action. The camera first zoom's in through a gathering of people around a stall, and then turns to a close up of Jason Stratham who is trying to sell goods, while Jason Stratham is advertising his goods, a black background appears every so often with white titles in the centre, the use of this editing alows the audience to keep on the level of the scene as they can hear Jason, and they are able to concentrate on what the director is showing them.
The next part of the scene which i was amazed with the use of narration over the scene which is now being played in slow motion, the idea behind this is so that the audience are still aware of the activities being shown and being able to listen to a short overview and description of the characters. In my opening scene i'm planning to pull of narration in a sense similar to this, the narrator will be used to tell the story as it were, when flashbacks in my opening scene are shown.
The opening scene to this film was straight forward and simple there was a small amount of editing however it still had a great impact within the short space of time. What i liked about the camera shot side of the scene was when Jason Stratham was shown, the camera was almost a POV shot for the audience, it made them feel as if they were part of the crowd who were being sold items. To help the effect of this POV shot, the camera is never still, it is either moving around other bodies of the crowd or is slighty tilting.
Snatch has always been one of my all time favourites, along with some other films directed by Guy Ritchie, the Opening scene to Snatch has to one of the most action filled introductions i have seen in any other film of its type.
What i enjoyed firstly was the use of the presentation of the scene. It was presented as CTV camera fed televisions, the screens were in black and white, meaning colour was not drawing the viewers attention else where, the director has purposely set so that the viewer concentrates on what he wants you to watch. There are a number of televisions, as the actors, walk from one side of a room to another, it is shown on the screens, whereby if the actors move to the left of the television, they are shown on another Tv to the left of the previous, the music with this order is slowly pased, and has some humour to it, the dialogue is very narrow, it is not very specific, this keeps the audience on their toes, as they are unware of what to expect; another feature which helps with the factor of weariness are the odd clothes the gentlemen are wearing. Another aspect of the TV's which i thoroughly enjoyed is when the actors are shown in an elevator, it goes up from one screen to the next as it compares the TV switch over to the elevator going up to the destination level.
When the shots are going through the televisions, the credits are also edited in with the flow of the scene, i am hoping to acomplish this sort of title sequence in my opening scene. When the gentlemen reach what is percieved as there target destination in the building, the camera view is changed from a television format and is now shown as any other camera would film a scene. The camera shots used in the following part of the scene are very close up, including close up's and medium shots, the pace of the shots change dramatically to a very quick pace, as does the pace of music, this is in order to keep the rythme of the scene. The camera shots are no longer than 1/2 seconds, as it switches to one actor to the next as they are taking control of the office. There are a couple of spinning transition edits, the director wanted an aspect of chaos in the scene, as the office workers are being held at gun point or being pushed to the floor, when it is shown that the men in disguises have found what they are looking for, the shots start to freeze on each member of the 'gang' so to speak, with edited titles giving them there film names.
What i liked about the idea of freezing the shot and adding an edit to reveal the characters name, is that everytime a character was introduced, when the shot froze to move onto the next, the location also changed. The name of the character was always shown in the centre of the screen aswell, this possibly to highlight the importance of the character shown. Before the shot is froze the actor is doing something in the shot, whether it was sat at a table playing cards or getting money from a safe, those split seconds allow the audience to interpret what type of people they are.
The next film which i looked at, was another directed by Guy Ritchie, Rock N Rolla
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiODSEBRrHU
Rock N Rolla is a film set in London, a real-estate scam puts millions of pounds up for grabs, attracting some of the city's scrappiest tough guys and its more established underworld types, all of whom are looking to get rich quick. While the city's seasoned criminals vie for the cash, an unexpected player -- a drugged out rock 'n' roller presumed to be dead but very much alive -- has a multi-million dollar prize fall into his hands.
What i enjoyed in the film as a whole not just the opening scene was the twists implemented in the film, the aspect of twists in a film have become very popular in the opening scene which i plan to film.
The music used in the opening scene is set at the pace of edits and extra noises added in, as the titles and sub titles are shown. The opening titles are shown on a very broad and bleak background, the edits are what you can call the ligh of the darkness, this is in order to grab th audience, therefore their attention is not else where.
Another aspect i was fond of was the use of a narrator, talking over the scene, this is an aspect which i hope to implement in my media production. When the scene has finished with edits, you are introduced to the Narrator talking over as you see Johnny Quid in a dim room, with only little lighting. Again the use of little light, gives the character the aspect of being the centre of attention, he i what the director is wanting the audience to focus on. The music then starts again and the camera shots/edits are at a quick pace, as it the music which is played again.
When the scene moves from reality as it were and then to animations of the characters/actors that will be involved in the films, i quite liked the idea of this and how there different shots, whereby you had a close up then a zoomout to then have a close up again, had the sense of the audience having to pay attention, keeping on their toes.
Overall the opening scene to this Film has played a major part in decisions i have made to how i want my films opening scene to be like.
The next film which played an equal part on the basis of my decision making was Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, also directed by Guy Ritchie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSodvRnD3Qc
The opening scene to this film is not like the other two in the way it is presented, in snatch you were shown the scene on Tv's to begin with, Rock N Rolla, was presented in an animated style, where as Lock Stock' was presented by the camera, straight into the action. The camera first zoom's in through a gathering of people around a stall, and then turns to a close up of Jason Stratham who is trying to sell goods, while Jason Stratham is advertising his goods, a black background appears every so often with white titles in the centre, the use of this editing alows the audience to keep on the level of the scene as they can hear Jason, and they are able to concentrate on what the director is showing them.
The next part of the scene which i was amazed with the use of narration over the scene which is now being played in slow motion, the idea behind this is so that the audience are still aware of the activities being shown and being able to listen to a short overview and description of the characters. In my opening scene i'm planning to pull of narration in a sense similar to this, the narrator will be used to tell the story as it were, when flashbacks in my opening scene are shown.
The opening scene to this film was straight forward and simple there was a small amount of editing however it still had a great impact within the short space of time. What i liked about the camera shot side of the scene was when Jason Stratham was shown, the camera was almost a POV shot for the audience, it made them feel as if they were part of the crowd who were being sold items. To help the effect of this POV shot, the camera is never still, it is either moving around other bodies of the crowd or is slighty tilting.
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Preliminary Task!
"The Real Gordano". We worked in a group with Rosie, Jack, Layla and Becky. We started by planning out our video we first drew up a story board of each individual scene.
We wanted our video to be as professional as possible so when drawing up our story board we thought about different shots and angles experimenting with close ups, low and high shots, and the distance from which we took these shots because we were trying to make our video professional we especially used shots which would be often used in the film industry below I have outlined the shots we used and analyzed them.
In the first scene we used an over shoulder shot following the 180-degree rule so the viewer doesn't get confused and finds it easy to understand what is happening.
In the next scene we used shot-reverse-shot, if we hadn't of used shot-reverse-shot then we would of had a lengthly clip of the girl walking away, which could of been used in other circumstances but in this scene it would have been uninteresting to watch.
Below we used a POV shot to put the viewer in the position of the character and therefore empathy can be felt for the character. This was also a match on action shot by using the close up on the door it creates suspense as the viewer does not know what is going to happen next.
Sky 10 minute tales Broadcast
On Monday 4th of January we were shown a youtube clip of Ten Minute Tales released by Sky in our Media Lesson, the idea was to watch and analyse these short clips, and to also look at how you could take aspects and ideas from the clips and implement them in our films. The thing i liked about the tales was that there was no dialogue however through the use of emotions shown by the actor's face and props, you were still capable of undertanding the mood of a scene or grasp what is happening e.g action or romance.
However for my film dialogue will be a key aspect of my film as the characters will need to interact with eachother in a way for the audience to understand what we are showing them. So although dialogue is not needed to make a clip successfull, it is still an important factor to make sure your viewers on are on the same level as yourself.
Another point we can take away from these Ten minute Tales we were shown is that, just like ourAS media films, the tales did not require a large budget, the props and Mise en scene consisted of household items and even peoples homes, which in my case i will be using a familly members garage to film our opening scene.
Due to copy right claims, i am unable to upload some of the Tne minute Tales which i most enjoyed, however the ones which i favoured most were:
-Perfect Day
-Ding Dong
However for my film dialogue will be a key aspect of my film as the characters will need to interact with eachother in a way for the audience to understand what we are showing them. So although dialogue is not needed to make a clip successfull, it is still an important factor to make sure your viewers on are on the same level as yourself.
Another point we can take away from these Ten minute Tales we were shown is that, just like ourAS media films, the tales did not require a large budget, the props and Mise en scene consisted of household items and even peoples homes, which in my case i will be using a familly members garage to film our opening scene.
Due to copy right claims, i am unable to upload some of the Tne minute Tales which i most enjoyed, however the ones which i favoured most were:
-Perfect Day
-Ding Dong
Plan of Action
RESEARCH- Firstly i'm going to watch opening scenes to a number of film's which i feel are partly responsible for the influence of decision i have made whilst planning what to do for my opening scene. When watching these opening scenes, i will analyse them in the criteria of what i enjoyed, what i could use in my opeing scene and the different props/ mis en scene used etc.
ROLES Of The GROUP- In my group, there is two of us, Ben Hicken and myself Jack Pollock. Together alongside friends who we feel will play there roles well and to the standard we want, will help with acting, Joel is now an A2 media student has been kind enough to help give us tips when filming i.e camera shots, the useage of lighting and props etc. The main reason why there is only two of us doing this task is based of the past experience of our Prelimnary task. When i did my preliminary task, i was part of a large group, so organisation can take longer than needed, also time is a massive issue, having a large group means you have to rely on attendence, if someone is absent, it really hinderence on your ability to progress. Also when being part of a large group, your not always neccessarily going to be hands on throughout the task, a good example of this, was that i was unable to play a part in editing. Whereas now, being only two of us, it gives a great deal more of independence and responsibilty which will fuel us to be successful.
NOTES- Notes will be created through analysing opening scenes to other films, the choice of films i have chosen to analyse are:
-Snatch (Guy Ritchie)
-Lock Stock and two smoking barrels (Guy Ritchie)
-Rock N Rolla (Guy Ritchie)
- Hitman (Xavier Gens)
The use of analysing these films will help to widen my knowledge about the amount you can accomplish in only two minutes, it will help me understand the use of different camera shots, and choices of props to help set the scene.
STORYBOARD & SCRIPT- For all Directors, coming up with a film from the top of your head and shooting it as you go along is not a practical method, which is the reason for why me and Ben will create scripts and storyboards in order to give us a clear overview and plan of what we can expect to shoot. Storyboards are extremely helpful as it gives you a structure for your film and allows you to pinpoint what camera shots and props you will use in that shot. A script will be highly usefull in the same way as a storyboard in the sense when acting we will be able to know what we need to say, rather than improvising on the spot, as this can consequently ruin the flow of the film.
EQUIPMENT- The equipment used during filming will consist of props, the Mise en scene of the set, the surroundings of the set i.e trees/busy roads etc. Creating a list of the various amounts of equipment needed when filming will enable Ben and I to be aware of what is needed prior, instead of organising and finding what we need on the scheduled day of planning.
SCHEDULE FOR SHOOTING- Having a schedule will allow Ben and I to be able to organise days of shooting, allowing us to see when actor's and access to props are available and best suited. The schedule will be in a form of either a Timeline or in calander form. Schedules also allow you to have some contingency, in the event of bad weather or an inconvience for an actor.
DVD EXTRAS- Having DVD extra will allows viewers to see behind the scenes of how we put the film together, and to show how that anyone with time and planning can create a media piece, it will allow the viewer to be in our shoes when looking over outakes, looking at scenes we reshot, in order to see that you need perfection.
ROLES Of The GROUP- In my group, there is two of us, Ben Hicken and myself Jack Pollock. Together alongside friends who we feel will play there roles well and to the standard we want, will help with acting, Joel is now an A2 media student has been kind enough to help give us tips when filming i.e camera shots, the useage of lighting and props etc. The main reason why there is only two of us doing this task is based of the past experience of our Prelimnary task. When i did my preliminary task, i was part of a large group, so organisation can take longer than needed, also time is a massive issue, having a large group means you have to rely on attendence, if someone is absent, it really hinderence on your ability to progress. Also when being part of a large group, your not always neccessarily going to be hands on throughout the task, a good example of this, was that i was unable to play a part in editing. Whereas now, being only two of us, it gives a great deal more of independence and responsibilty which will fuel us to be successful.
NOTES- Notes will be created through analysing opening scenes to other films, the choice of films i have chosen to analyse are:
-Snatch (Guy Ritchie)
-Lock Stock and two smoking barrels (Guy Ritchie)
-Rock N Rolla (Guy Ritchie)
- Hitman (Xavier Gens)
The use of analysing these films will help to widen my knowledge about the amount you can accomplish in only two minutes, it will help me understand the use of different camera shots, and choices of props to help set the scene.
STORYBOARD & SCRIPT- For all Directors, coming up with a film from the top of your head and shooting it as you go along is not a practical method, which is the reason for why me and Ben will create scripts and storyboards in order to give us a clear overview and plan of what we can expect to shoot. Storyboards are extremely helpful as it gives you a structure for your film and allows you to pinpoint what camera shots and props you will use in that shot. A script will be highly usefull in the same way as a storyboard in the sense when acting we will be able to know what we need to say, rather than improvising on the spot, as this can consequently ruin the flow of the film.
EQUIPMENT- The equipment used during filming will consist of props, the Mise en scene of the set, the surroundings of the set i.e trees/busy roads etc. Creating a list of the various amounts of equipment needed when filming will enable Ben and I to be aware of what is needed prior, instead of organising and finding what we need on the scheduled day of planning.
SCHEDULE FOR SHOOTING- Having a schedule will allow Ben and I to be able to organise days of shooting, allowing us to see when actor's and access to props are available and best suited. The schedule will be in a form of either a Timeline or in calander form. Schedules also allow you to have some contingency, in the event of bad weather or an inconvience for an actor.
DVD EXTRAS- Having DVD extra will allows viewers to see behind the scenes of how we put the film together, and to show how that anyone with time and planning can create a media piece, it will allow the viewer to be in our shoes when looking over outakes, looking at scenes we reshot, in order to see that you need perfection.
AS Media Coursework production -
My AS media production is a two minute film for an opening to a film. The opening to my film which i will produce along with Ben Hicken is inspired by the Director Guy Ritchie; films done by him including Snatch, Rock n Rolla and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels have been key influences in the way we produce our coursework piece.
Another film which has helped to inspire me for my film is 'Hitman' directed by Xavier Gens. The reason for why this film has helped with the planning of my film is because the idea of having the end scene as your opening scene is a clever twist. Guy Ritchie films in themselves usually have a number of twists within them, so using twists in my production and using the idea of an end scene as an intro, seemed to be an excellent collaboration of twists.
Another film which has helped to inspire me for my film is 'Hitman' directed by Xavier Gens. The reason for why this film has helped with the planning of my film is because the idea of having the end scene as your opening scene is a clever twist. Guy Ritchie films in themselves usually have a number of twists within them, so using twists in my production and using the idea of an end scene as an intro, seemed to be an excellent collaboration of twists.