MediaStudies_x

Evaluation

2009-04-04T16:55:00.001+01:00

M e d i a E v a l u a t i o n

We got the inspiration for our thriller opening from a number of films including Leon and Memento and our storyline was inspired by mainly by these two thrillers. Leon shares similar narrative aspects to our film in that it deals with the effects of dealing drugs and contains characters of a working class background. Furthermore, Memento’s opening is shown through a series of flashbacks which we agreed would be a very exciting and refreshing way to structure the shots, also it would create an interesting and challenging viewing experience for the audience. Moreover, Memento has shots in its opening that rarely exceed 2 or 3 seconds per shot, we chose to learn from this technique as we felt it added further excitement and was effective in engaging the audience. In addition to the length of the shots Memento also uses a wide variety of different shots which add auxiliary suspense and excitement within the narrative structure. In our Thriller we tried to achieve as many different shots as we could so as to ensure that our opening was appealing and engaging for the audience as we aimed for a gripping opening of our film.
We used Leon to research potential target audiences as we thought it was one of the most influential of the films we researched.AverageMales 112,655 8.6Females 14,959 8.6Aged under 18 2,130 8.8Males under 18 1,681 8.9Females under 18 446 7.9
Aged 18-29 84,562 8.8Males Aged 18-29 74,736 8.8Females Aged 18-29 9,505 8.9Aged 30-44 33,491 8.5Males Aged 30-44 29,576 8.5Females Aged 30-44 3,561 8.4Aged 45+ 7,180 7.9Males Aged 45+ 5,788 8.0Females Aged 45+ 1,324 6.9IMDB staff 26 8.3Top 1000 voters 793 7.6US users 35,671 8.5Non-US users 91,649 8.7
From the table we discovered that the age group which enjoyed this film the most where males under 18 and females aged 18-29. Leon being our focal influence, we decided that our own thriller would attract a similar target audience and so we decided it to be around the area of 15-29 year olds as these are the ages that have enjoyed the film the most. Also on IMDB this film was voted 10 out of 10 by 36.7 voters which was the highest percentage overall, this shows that the film was largely very popular. I found it useful to look at the audience demographic for this film being one of many similarities to our own, especially as our film is very main stream and this information would relate to our film.
The soundtrack used in our film was something that we left until last to decide, originally we wanted to use the song ’Safe From Harm’ by Massive Attack until it was made clear that copyright laws would not allow us to use this song without permission. Our alternative plan was to, ourselves, compose the soundtrack for our thriller, this opened opportunities such as being able to mould the song around the narrative action on screen and being able to create a sound appropriate to our film.'Safe From Harm', the title of our thriller opening, is one that contains many conventional thriller aspects. The most profound element that we felt we had to include was the staircase shot, which we included a few times. This was inspired by the Luc Besson film Leon when Matilda is sitting at the top of the stairs with her legs hanging through the banister railings and, again, when Leon pulls one of the 'Gangsters' over the banister to kill him. As both of these were most definitely key scenes we set out to use this convention more than any other. Furthermore stairs connote danger and suspense, especially when being chased up them, and this is how we brought our own take on the convention. The young boy sees his mother get shot and runs towards the stairs to hide, avoiding a bullet, he then runs up the stairs and is chased shortly by the murderer.
Our costume choice, especially for our male character, was thought about carefully. Whilst wanting to create a conventional thriller character our actor was fairly young so we had to chose a costume that would be believable. We chose to use a 'thug-type' theme to the costume and one that would ultimately hide his identity to connote a mysterious and guilty personality for the character. Eventually we took inspiration from films such as Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Adulthood and chose to use a costume compiled of a green hooded jumper pulled up over the head, a grey and black scarf wrapped round the face under the eyes, dark jeans and scruffy trainers. This helped to connote the working-class background of the youth and the conventional behaviour expected of him.
The killing of the protagonist, Alice's, family in our opening was something that we felt was necessary and we, again, took inspiration from Leon. This occurs towards the beginning of Leon when the group of gangsters break into Matildas family home and kill all of her family, we felt that this reflected the typical shock-educing aspects of thriller films and gave real contrast to the other elements of our film.
Our location, especially at the beach, was one that we put a lot of thought into. Not only did we want an isolated setting, to add suspense and further conventional attributes , but we also wanted one that would look striking on camera, this is when we decided to chose Holkham Beach on the North Norfolk coast. This beach has been used before in films such as 'Shakespeare In Love' and in an All Saints music video which swayed our decision towards using the setting in our opening. This definitely the ideal setting for our 'present' scenes as opposed to the 'flash-back' scenes shot at the house. We chose this coast-line in particular because it has a vast, sweeping beach surrounded by pine forests. We felt this was ideal to reflect the isolated feeling of the girl and to add a sense of misery and loneliness. Further reasons for choosing this beach in particular were that it was fairly accessible and a place that all in our group had visited and enjoyed.
I think that our character representations are very stereotypical, for example, our protagonist Alice is very much the female victim. She shows no signs of strong emotion and she is a victim of peer pressure and bullying. Throughout the opening she is perceived as being weak and shows no kind of personality, all of these are very typical of female roles in films. Furthermore, our male character (the murderer) is a very stereotypical working class youth. He is troubled and has probably committed many offences in the past. He uses bad language and is rude to people he doesn’t know and he wears sports clothing of bad quality. Typically, the male is the villain and the female is the victim this was not a conscious decision but was just the way the narrative structure took form.
In our film we have used conventional thriller characters to show the genre of our film, this helps the audience to identify the thriller genre. The female in our film is quite a typical victim apart from the fact that it is her own fault that her family have been killed. We took inspiration from Leon as the girl played by Natalie Portman also experiences her family being killed so we decided that this would be a good conventional aspect to have in our film. The villain in our film is also quite conventional as you don’t see his face in the film and he wears clothes that make him appear very anonymous . We also have a voiceover at the beginning of our thriller of the man who leads the girl into drugs talking to her; he could be viewed as a conventional character as most “villain” type characters are usually men for example the gangsters in Leon. We also decided to have a young boy in our film; this is also present in Leon when Matilda’s four year old brother gets killed, we chose to use this aspect in our own film, Alice’s younger brother gets killed, as it is quite a shocking aspect.
To open our film we decided to have a voice-over-black because we felt that this was effective in engaging the audience and providing an initial interest in the plot of our film. Also speaking to people who have viewed the film they found that the flashback style of the film intrigued them and that it made them more interested in the film as it instantly grabs your due to its fast pace.
Our film would ideally be distributed into multiplex cinemas such as Odeon and Vue in Norwich as it is a main stream thriller with a big plot and conventional characters. Then it would go onto DVD to be sold or rented in most outlets for audiences who enjoyed the feel at the cinema and to attract further audiences once the film is out of cinemas. Similar to films like 'Leon' and 'Snatch' it would be shown after watershed on Channel 4 if it was ever shown on television.
When I began doing A level Media Studies I knew very little about film making, in the first few months we were introduced to digital cameras and equipment like tripods. Using a digital camera I can record footage and watch it back, zoom in and out on the desired objects. I understand about camera angles and shot types such as high/low angle shot, tilted horizon, medium/long shot, extreme close up, close up, two shot, over the shoulder shot etc. I know about camera movements like zoom, tracking, panning and single-shot-cinema. This has all been very useful and has definitely had a great effect on the quality of our film.
The editing was the most satisfying part of creating the film I discovered, this was mainly because you got to put all the shots together into the correct sequence and you could watch the film being built. It was, however, the most important and crucial procedure because the continuity had to be perfect otherwise it would disrupt the viewing. This meant that we had to cut every shot down to the last mille-second to make sure it was smooth. Regarding the fact that we had flash-back shots in our opening made it even harder to make the narrative structure clear to the audience. We left small spaces in-between the present shots and the flashback shots to allow a small flash of black to divide them like someone blinking.

Our final production: Safe From Harm

2009-04-03T12:28:00.000+01:00

Method 2 Audience research

2009-04-03T11:39:00.003+01:00

Britney Spears album promotion: Circus

2009-03-25T16:09:00.001Z

•Circus is the sixth studio album by American pop singer Britney Spears.
•Jive Records with Zomba Label Group and Sony Music Entertainment, released it on November 28, 2008.
•Sold over 505,000 copies in the United States in its first week, Circus debuted on the Billboard 200 at number one, making it Spears's fifth number-one album.
•The album made Britney the only act in Nielsen SoundScan history to have four albums debut with 500,000 or more copies sold.

Promotion
•To promote the album Jive Records set up a hotline where fans could leave a message for Spears, with some of the callers getting a return phone call from Spears.
•Some tracks off the album were previewed via the website of the New York radio station WKTU and Amazon.com.
•MTV aired a 90-minute documentary titled Britney: For the Record November 30, 2008. The show was about her return to the pop music spotlight. Spears's official website released a series of posters to promote Circus.
•A pre-taped holiday greeting from Spears was shown during the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree on December 3, 2008.

Live performances
•Spears's live comeback began on November 6, 2008 at the Dodger Stadium show of Madonna's Sticky & Sweet Tour. Midway through "Human Nature", Spears joined Madonna on stage.
•The week before the release of the album she did more performances in several different countries. On November 27, 2008 Spears performed "Womanizer" live at the Bambi Awards in Offenburg, Germany, where she received an award for "Best Pop International Artist". The following day, Spears again performed the song live on French show Star Academy. In addition, she performed "Womanizer" on The X Factor, in the United Kingdom, on November 29, finishing the European pre-release promotional tour. Her performance on The X Factor was watched by 12.8 million UK citizens, becoming the most viewed episode in the show's history.

Tour
Main article: The Circus: Starring Britney Spears
Shortly after the New York radio station Z100 played her new song, "Womanizer", Spears made a surprise appearance on the show and announced she would be going on a worldwide tour in spring of 2009 to support the album, and that rehearsals would begin in January for a March start.Spears signed a deal with live entertainment company AEG Live to produce the tour. Jamie King will serve as tour director and Simon Ellis will be musical director. Spears announced on Good Morning America that her concert tour would begin in New Orleans on March 3, 2009.

Singles
“Womanizer": On September 15, Jive released a statement announcing the title of her sixth studio album, Circus as well as the first single. The single was released to radio stations on September 26, and the release date for the album is December 2, Spears's 27th birthday. On October 15, the song made a record-breaking jump to number one on the Billboard Hot 100, breaking the record set the week before by T.I.'s "Live Your Life". It also garnered first-week download sales of 286,000, the biggest opening-week tally by a female artist since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking digital downloads in 2003. It marked Spears's first number one single on the Hot 100 since her debut, "...Baby One More Time".
"Circus": On October 31, 2008, it was announced on Spears's official website that "Circus" would be released as the album's second single. The song debuted at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. This was Spears's highest debuting single on the Billboard Hot 100 to date.
"If U Seek Amy": On January 7, 2009, Spears's official website announced that "If U Seek Amy" would be released as the album's third single. After the album's release and before it was released as a single, the song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 86,The Music Video was released on March 12,2009.

Storyboards

2009-03-23T13:32:00.000Z

Reflections and amendments from our original plan

2009-03-13T11:59:00.002Z

As expected our original plan took some changes in the process of creation. Most crucially, we had to change protagonist actress at the last minute after finishing all filming at the terraced house location. This was due to the fact that our original actress was not able to film at the second location before our filming deadline, our only option was to find a second actress and start filming again. This ended up being a positive thing as we were much happier with our second filming at the terraced house and the shots produced were more proffessional.

Our second amendment was that we had to change our soundtrack as originally we wanted to use Safe From Harm by Massive Attack, however, we couldn't due to it being copyrighted. Instead, we decided it would be good to compose our own music and therfore mould it around our plot and ambience.

Finally, we decided against making our actress walk into the sea at the end of our opening as on the day of filming it was about -4 degrees. Alternatively, we decided not use the shot at all as it was not key in the plot.

Titles

2009-03-13T11:16:00.002Z

We wanted our titles to be fairly simple so as to not distract from the other narrative present, however, we did want our titles to be noticed. We used a white font over the black voice-over at the beginning and over a black background after the dialogue has finished. Our titles included our film production company 'Reel Films Production', 'Directed and Produced by', 'Music by' and finally 'Safe From Harm' at the end of the opening.
Our titles are very minimalistic and are comparable to titles such as Alfed Hitchcock's 'Birds' or 'Pyscho' which also had very simple titles.

Shooting schedule

2009-03-13T11:11:00.002Z

For our entire opening we only needed to use a total of two settings this made it easy to decided the shooting schedule.
Our settings were at a terraced house in the centre of Norwich and at Haulkham beach on the north-Norfolk coast.

20th December 12.00 noon-5.oopm - terraced house, college road, norwich, norfolk.

4th January 1.00 pm-4.30pm - Haulkham beach, north-norfolk coast.

Verisimilitude in TV Drama

2009-03-13T11:08:00.000Z

Verisimilitude: the appearance of being true or real.

Realism or verisimilitude is apparent in all TV dramas from Hollyoaks to Dr Who, however, there are varying levels of it depending on the genre and plot within the series.

Dr Who contains certain levels on verisimilitude as there are elements of reality for example: characters have ‘normal’ conversations, wear typical clothing, show signs of suitable emotions and behave in a socially acceptable way. On the other hand though, there is also frequent appearances from aliens, monsters and the recurrent mode of transport is a time travelling huge-on-the-inside-small-on-the-outside telephone box called the ‘Tardis’ therefore indicating factors of surrealism. There may also be occasions such as someone dying and then coming back to life in a couple of episodes time and there is a lack of synchronicity. Nevertheless, Dr Who is still considered to be realistic but there is a definite divide between realistic and realism.
Realism is palpable in Television dramas such as Eastenders or Coronation Street. Episodes contain a conventional narrative plot like eating breakfast or going to the corner shop. Furthermore there is apparent synchronicity, for example, when the audience is experiencing a festivity like Christmas this is also occurring in Eastenders. This helps to add a further feeling of reality and believability for the audience, furthermore it enables audiences to relate to characters consequently having feelings for them. Conversely, storylines are often exaggerated and sometimes slightly implausible but this is added for entertainment values and is often expected in these types of TV drama.

Evaluation Of Costumes

2009-01-29T13:31:00.008Z

Jack Mullane (Drug Dealer/Murderer):
Green hooded top
Dark jeans
Trainers
Grey scarf

Jacks costume connotes conventional aggression,

potraying a typical thriller character much like those from 'Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' and 'Adulthood'. His scarf covers all of his face apart from his eyes and his hood is pulled up, this adds suspense because the character is unknown. The fact that he is trying to hide his identity suggests that he is a menacing character and may have caused trouble in the past. Furthermore, by wearing dark colours this also denotes a feeling of trouble and foreboding.

Katie Boyer (Mother)

Jeans

Yellow jumper

Casual shoes

Scarf

Katies costume was the least important of all of the characters. This was mainly because she had the smallest part to play. Her mundane attire implys that she is just an innocent victim and that she has nothing to do with the situation.

Meghan Summerfield (Alice/Protagonist)

White top

White Jeans

Blue scarf

Black shoes

Meghans costume was oen of the hardest. We wanted to connote purity but at the same time show her in her normal clothing.

Warp Films

2009-01-27T13:45:00.001Z

About Warp Films:
Warp Films has created some of the most exciting pieces of British film making in the last five years. It has won numerous plaudits and awards (including three BAFTAs) since being set up in 2002.

'My Wrongs 8245-8249 and 117' was Warp’s first short film and was directed by Chris Morris. It won the BAFTA in 2003 and for its television premiere on Channel 4, more than one million viewers tuned in to watch it. Warp sold an astounding 22,000 DVDs of My Wrongs and was the first DVD single in the UK market.

Warp's debut feature 'Dead Man's Shoes', directed by Shane Meadows, received a record eight British Independent Film Award nominations, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Achievement in Production. ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’ was also nominated for a BAFTA and won the Southbank Award for Best Film. The film has received nothing less that rave reviews across the board, and is being hailed by some as a landmark in British cinema.

Chris Cunningham directed Warp's next film, Rubber Johnny, –an experimental short and 42-page book that shocked and amazed audiences.

Following Rubber Johnny Warp made the critical success 'Grow Your Own', a film written by Frank Cottrell Boyce (24-Hour Party People), which tackled the subject of immigration.

In 2006 Warp made their most successful production to date: 'This is England', the story of Shaun, a boy who is befriended by a local skin-head gang after his father is killed in the Falklands war. With it's evocative soundtrack, dazzling young star and emotive content it has won numerous international festival awards as well as scooping Best FIlm at the British Independent Film Awards and Best British Film at the BAFTAs. At the same award ceremony Warp collected it's third BAFTA as Paddy Considine's directorial debut 'Dog Altogether' won best short.

Warp FIlms has also worked closely with the Arctic Monkeys, producing two music videos for them and collaborating on the short film 'Scummy Man' starring Stephen Graham, which won best music video at this year's NME awards. Richard Ayoade has recently directed a feature length live show film with of them. shot at their final concert of a world tour.

Warp Films' development slate currently includes projects with directors Shane Meadows, Chris Morris, Chris Cunningham, Richard Ayoade, David Slade and Lynne Ramsay. They are also dedicated to seeking out new voices; this goal is reflected in their recent ventures into promo making and the new digital slate, Warp X.

The purpose of Warp Films:

“By keeping the creative process at the core of our approach to filmmaking, Warp Films aims to create fresh and innovative feature length and short films to be viewed by a wide audience. Our current priorities are nurturing and developing existing talent, as well as discovering new exciting filmmakers.”

Films they have created:
Scummy Man
Rubber Johnny
Dead Man’s Shoes
My Wrongs
Paradise Lost
Cinema 16: US
Cinema 16: EU
Cinema 16: UK
Grow Your Own
This Is England
A Complete History Of My Sexual Failures

Chris Cunningham:

Chris Cunningham is most well known for his music videos whilst working with Warp Films. He has worked with the likes of Squarepusher, Bjork, Madonna, Portishead and most memorably, Aphex Twin. He has won MTV awards for his work and was even nominated for a Grammy as well as 4 silvers and the first ever Gold Award for a music video at the D&AD Awards. He then wrote two short films with Warp Films: ‘Rubber Johnny’ and ‘Spectral Musicians’.

This is the list of his Filmography:
"Mental Wealth" (1994) commercial for PlayStation
"Second Bad Vilbel" (1996) video for Autechre
"Back With The Killer Again" (1996) video for The Auteurs
"Light Aircraft on Fire" (1996) video for The Auteurs
"36 Degrees" (1996) video for Placebo
"The Next Big Thing" (1997) video for Jesus Jones
"Come To Daddy" (1997) video for Aphex Twin
"Only You" (1998) video for Portishead
"Frozen" (1998) video for Madonna
"Come On My Selector" (1998) video for Squarepusher
"All Is Full of Love" (1999) video for Björk
"Windowlicker" (1999) video for Aphex Twin
"Afrika Shox" (1999) video for Leftfield and Afrika Bambaataa
"Flex" (2000), using sounds created by Aphex Twin
"Monkey Drummer" (2001), using "Mt Saint Michel + Saint Michaels mount" from Aphex Twin's album Drukqs
"Rubber Johnny" (2005), using "Afx237 V7" from Aphex Twin's album Drukqs
"Sheena Is A Parasite" (2006), video for The Horrors

Evalutaion of locations

2009-01-23T09:07:00.005Z

Our Thriller Opening is set in only two locations: Holkham beach on the Norfolk Coast and a terraced house in the centre of Norwich.

We chose Holkham beach in particular because it is visually effective as it is a very striking landscape, it has also been used in previous films such as Shakespeare In Love. Further reasons to use a beach in our opening is that, especially in winter, it is a very isolated setting. Moreover, beaches and coastlines connote natural danger and disaster. Also, beaches can be perceived as the edge of the world because you can't walk any further. This is why our protagonist walks to the beach after the tradgedy of her family's death.

We decided to use an average terraced house to emphasise the girl's nomality and to portray the girls background. This will make clearer to the audience that she is not the stereotypical drug taker and that she has been sucked into this world.

Soundrack for our thriller opening

2009-01-23T08:40:00.002Z

Initially, our idea was to use the song 'Safe From Harm' by Massive Attack however we later discovered that this would not be possible due to copyright laws. Instead we had the option to search the internet for appropriate soundtracks free of copyright or to compose our own music. Coincidently, two of our three group members are studying A-Level music and thus opened the opportunity to compose something completely original for out thriller opening. This will be very beneficial as it can be created to fit the emotion within the opening and we can convey the exact message and atmosphere we desire. Our soundrack will consist of string instruments, drums and possibly electric guitars to create an atmospheric yet modern sound.

Colour and filtering effects

2009-01-15T11:52:00.003Z

Saturation is used to change the colours of the shot. It can be used to change the mood of a shot, for example: de-saturating a shot would make it look dull and bleak. It can also be used to highlight particular colours in a shot, as is demonstrated in Dont Look Now where the effect is used to draw out the red in the young girls coat.

Filters are sometimes a film placed over the cameras lense so it is not always a post-production effect, they effect the mood and atmosphere of a shot. To create a cold and bleak atmosphere a blue filter would be used, etc. This effect is clearly demonstrated in Minority Report to highlight coldness.

Lighting is a crucial effect when filming as it ties together the look of the film. There are many types of lighting: Naturalistic (outdoor or anything natural), Artificial (indoor lighting typical in hospitals etc), Low Key lighting (dim lighting), Chiaroscuro (heavy contrast between blacks and whites), Spot Light (a single light aimed directly at something to highlight or isloate it). The use of a spot light is used in the opening of Leon above the table where Leon and another man are sitting.

2008-12-10T13:44:00.000Z

2008-12-09T11:25:00.002Z

Original Brief: “Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.”
Our first shot was a low angle shot of Jonny walking up a corridor from behind. It then cut to a an eye level shot of him coming towards the camera and up to a door in the wall. This helps to set the scene and show that before he enters the room it was only occupied with the one girl. The shot of him turning the handle was cut smoothly to a shot from inside the room of the door opening and him coming half way through the door. The continuity was crucial in this part so as not to disorientate the audience. When filming the dialogue we filmed one characters lines before filming the others and edited them into a conversational structure, we did this so that the camera would remain in the same position. Here is where we included out shot/reverse shot of the girl being spoken to, we did this to add variety from conventional over the shoulder shots. When editing we realised that one of our shots 'crossed the line' in the 180 degree rule and used Adobe Premiere Elements to flip the frame so that it was facing the right way.
As editing was the most crucial part in the construction of the film, especially being a continuity task, we used a program called Adobe Premiere Elements. This enabled us to cut frames, add effects such as slow motion or transitions and rearrange shots to create continuity. We had no problems envloving camera shake as we used a tripod for the entirety of the filming, this made a huge difference in the proffesional quality of the end result. We tried to demonstrate a variety of shots including: Low angle shot, close up, zoom out, shot/reverse shot, mid shot. We had no problems when uploading our film to youtube or onto our blogs.
Original Brief: “Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.”
I believe that our final product met the the brief fairly closely excusing the fact that our character didnt sit down opposite another character he simply stood infront of her. We did, however, clearly demontrate the character opening a door, crossing a room and exchanging dialogue with another character.

Our final piece

2008-12-09T10:39:00.002Z

2008-12-03T13:18:00.001Z

This is England Case Study

Certification: 18 http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2007/apr/23/an18forthisisenglandthis

There was much uproar about the BBFC’s decision to make the film and 18 for its “realistic violence and racist language”. The makers believed that the ones who would benefit the film the most would not permitted to see the film due to this. Bristol City Council decided to give the film a 15 certificate but whether or not it will be changed remains to be seen.

Locations:
The ending credits were filmed in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England, UK.
Most of it was filmed in Nottingham except the abandoned houses which were filmed in RAF Newton, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England, UK.
This was a place where This Is England was filmed

Funding: National Lottery

Production Companies
· Big Arty Productions
· EM Media
· Film4
· Optimum Releasing
· Screen Yorkshire
· UK Film Council
· Warp Films
Distributors
· IFC Films (2007) (USA) (theatrical)
· IFC First Take (2007) (USA) (theatrical)
· Madman Entertainment (2007) (Australia) (all media)
· NetFlix (2007) (USA) (DVD)
· NonStop Entertainment (2007) (Sweden) (theatrical)
· Optimum Releasing (2006) (UK) (theatrical)
· Red Envelope Entertainment (2007) (USA) (DVD)
· Sandrew Metronome Distribution (2008) (Finland) (DVD)
Special Effects
· MotionFX (digital intermediate)
Other Companies
· Abadia Catering catering
· Anglo American Filming Vehicles tracking vehicles (as Anglo American)
· Arn Lighting lighting equipment
· Barclays Bank PLC banking services
· Chitwell Van Hire vehicle hire
· Clearing House, The clearances
· DeLuxe Laboratories prints by
· EM Foundation publicity: UK
· EM Media developed by
· Film Finance completion guarantor (as Film Finances Inc.)
· Film Lab North rushes processing
· FilmFour developed by
· Ice Films camera and grip equipment (as ICE Films)
· Ice House accommodation
· Kodak film stock
· Kodak filmed on
· Media Insurance Brokers insurance (as Media Insurances Brokers)
· Movie Makers facilities vehicles
· Premiere Travel Inn hotel
· Saco World accommodation
· Sapex Scripts post-production script
· Spool Post Production audio & offline post facility
· Trans Sport rigging equipment (as Trans-Sport)
· Urban Short Stay accommodation
· Videosonics Cinema Sound sound re-recording
· Wavendcommunications communications equipment (as Wavend Communications)
· Whitehouse & Co legal and business affairs
· Works, The international sales
Review from Peter Bradshaw (British):
“Shane Meadows continues his fast and fluent film-making career with this quasi-autobiographical picture about skinheads: a movie with hints of Alan Clarke's Made in Britain and, in its final image, the haunted disenchantment of Truffaut's The 400 Blows. It is a sad, painful and sometimes funny story from the white working classes of 1980s Britain, the cannon-fodder caste alienated from Falklands rejoicing on the home front and not invited to participate in the nation's promised service-economy prosperity.
Meadows boldly attempts to reclaim the skinhead from the traditional neo-Nazi image, explicitly distinguishing his characters from a separate racist influence, and presenting them as an anarchic youth tribe that idolised West Indian music. He sees their susceptibility to the extremist right as a poignant and even tragic part of their fatherless culture, literally and figuratively orphaned by the times.
There's a winning lead performance from 13-year-old newcomer Thomas Turgoose playing a put-upon lad called Shaun in the run-down Grimsby of 1983. His dad was a serviceman killed in the Falklands and he's perennially getting picked on for this, and for his horrible flared jeans which make him look, as one bully cruelly puts it, like Keith Chegwin's son. Sloping and moping his way home after a standard-issue school day of humiliation, Shaun gets waylaid by some skins in a dodgy underpass, but instead of yet more battering, the gang give him sympathy and understanding; they become Shaun's only friends, and with a new Ben Sherman shirt and number one cut, Shaun has new pride and a new identity.
The gang's leader is Woody - a cheerful, sparky performance from Joe Gilgun - and they have an African-Caribbean member facetiously nicknamed Milky, played by Meadows regular Andrew Shim; Shaun even finds romance with one of the group's girl-punk fellow travellers: a languid and rather elegant older woman called Smell (Rosamund Hanson) who earnestly explains to Shaun's mum that she is called that simply because it rhymes with Michelle. The idyll is soon destroyed with the highly unwelcome appearance of Combo, a ferocious and sinister skin warrior just out of prison, played by Stephen Graham. He demands the group join his National Front cell, and turn out for an NF meeting in a tatty pub, addressed by one of the movement's suit-wearing officer class, played in cameo by Frank Harper.
Turgoose is the picture's heart and soul, and it's a terrifically natural, easy and commanding performance. Turgoose's open face radiates charm, and then, when he goes over to the dark side of racism, a creepy, anti-cherubic scorn: almost like one of the little blond kids in Village of the Damned. But Meadows is always concerned to preserve a sympathetic core to Shaun, and in fact to all the skins. Even the deeply objectionable Combo is shown to be suffering from emotional pain.
Like Meadows' earlier pictures, Dead Man's Shoes and A Room for Romeo Brass, This Is England is about younger, vulnerable figures being taken under the wing of older, flawed men, and this personal theme here finds its richest and maturest expression yet. As to whether we should buy its implied leniency about skinhead culture: that is another question. The West Indian influence is advanced as proof that skins were not necessarily racist: yet it can't cancel out Combo's hate campaign against South Asians, the "Pakis" who "smell of curry", a campaign which goes quite unchallenged or even unremarked upon by any of the skins, good or bad.
The skinhead identity is, after all, obviously supposed to be more aggressive than that of other tribes: I remember as a 10-year-old cowering on the terraces of Watford football club in the early 70s, as the Luton boot boys got stuck in, and my father grimly telling me that the reason they shaved their heads that way was so the coppers couldn't grab them by the hair. Whether or not that is true, it certainly made the wearer's head look like a big, third clenched fist. And it's still difficult to get a handle on them.
Meadows appears to want to find emotional truths behind the bravado, to find reasons for the male rage. It's a valid quest, and there are telling and touching moments, particularly between Turgoose and Rosamund Hanson. I found myself wishing that their love story could occupy more of the film, maybe for the same reason that the Shane Meadows film I have enjoyed most is the one his real fans loathe: the comedy Once Upon a Time in the Midlands. But from the get-go of this drama, it is obvious that things are heading only one way: towards a climactic flourish of violence, and it's a glum business wondering to whom and from whom this is going to happen. This is a violent subject, and these are violent people, and yet I couldn't help feeling that Meadows is, as so often, more comfortable with machismo than with the humour and gentleness which play a smaller, yet intensely welcome part of his movies. However agnostic I confess to still feeling about his work, there's no doubt that Meadows is a real film-maker with a growing and evolving career, and with his own natural cinematic language. When I think of his films, I think, for good or ill: this is English cinema.”

Script for Thriller Opening First Shot

2008-11-20T08:42:00.004Z

Boyfriend: [Annoyed] What d'ya want me down 'ere for then?

Alice: [Desperate] I can't do it.

Boyfriend: [Confused, angry] Do what?

Alice: [Begginning to cry] You, the drugs, everything.

Boyfriend: [laughs nervously] Don't be so stupid-

Alice: [Stubborn but still sad] No! It was only meant to be one time and now look at us, look at me. It's got to end...

Film distribution in Norwich

2008-11-11T10:44:00.000Z

Odeon
Total number of films being exhibited: 19
Total number of screenings: 74
This is on average 4 showings per film, each day, obviously this varies on how long the film has been released.
Hollywood films: 63%
British films: 31%
Foreign: 6%
Australasian or Canadian: 0%

Vue
Total number of films being exhibited: 10
Total number of screenings: 31
This is on average 3 showings per film, again varying on age of the film.
Hollywood films: 70%
British films: 20%
Foreign films: 10%
Australasian or Canadian: 0%

Hollywood
Total number of films exhibited: 8
Total number of screenings: 30
This is on average 4 showings per film which is the same as Odeon cinema, the largest of all the multiplexes in Norwich.
Hollywood films: 87%
British films: 13%

I found out that the majority of films shown in multiplexes are American this is largely down to Hollywood’s amount of resources and money. Also, the most famous actors/tress are American. This means that most films shown in the UK do not always relate to the audiences watching them and are often unintelligent and made quickly.
Nevertheless British films are still shown in all cinemas but there are not enough opportunities for British film makers, actors, directors and technicians, which is why there are fewer released than Hollywood.
Bette Midler on Hollywood Films: "Look at the movies that they put out... It's so junky. So much junk, it's like the food. No content. Nothing."

Continuity Preliminary task: Shot list

2008-11-11T10:04:00.002Z

Shot 1 Shot behind when Jonny is walking (low angle shot)

Shot 2 Jonny walking, shot from the front (medium shot, eye level)

Shot 3 Door knob being turned (extreme close up)

Shot 4 Cuts to behind katie, shot of hands tied up from behind the chair. The camera then pans around right towards the door.

Shot 5 Mid shot of Jonny (the abductor)

Shot 6 Over the shoulder shot of the abductor over the shoulder of the prisoner.

Shot 7 Shot-reverse shots of Jonny and Katie speaking (Jonny Left/ Katie Right) Dialogue takes place here.

Shot 8 Jonny leaves the room. (Long shot)

Continuity preliminary task: Script

2008-11-11T09:57:00.003Z

To set the scene: Jonny is a capturer and Katie is the one being captured.

Jonny:[Shouting] Remember me!
(pause)
[quieter, persuasive] Now then, are you ready to talk? Or will I have to bring in Big Bob to make you!

Katie:[angry] I will never talk, not to you scum.

Jonny:[annoyed but trying to stay calm] Well, there is a price on your head but this may just magically disappear all forgotten if! You give me or my friends some information.

Katie:[definant] I will not utter a word even if it’s my last breath.

Jonny: [Irritated] So be it. I see a more vigilant technique is needed! I think I will bring in big bob to make your acquaintance. Then you might change your mind my dear.

Film making techniques

2008-11-10T16:08:00.005Z

180 Degree Rule
This technique is crucial in film making and without it you will break the flow of the scene and disorientate the viewer.
The basic idea is that each character must stay on the same sides of the frame at all times. For example: if in a dialogue situation a man and woman were sitting at opposite sides of a table and the camera was position so that the woman was on the right and the man was on the left, if the camera cut to the opposite end of the table the actors would have to swap seats so as not to confuse the audience. If you break the 180 degree rule you are 'crossing the line'. In only one case are you allowed to 'cross the line' and that is if the camera is moving and you physically see the camera 'cross the line'.

Shot-reverse shot
shot-reverse shot is a technique where you have an over shoulder shot of one person looking at another and then it cuts to and over shoulder shot of the first person. It can be used in the same way if a character is looking at a newspaper, for example, and then cuts to the newspaper from their point of view.

Match-On-Action

Match on Action is a technique used in film editing when a cut connects two different views of the same action at the same moment in the movement. You have to carefully match the movement across the two shots to make it seem as though the motion continues uninterrupted.

Thriller Opening Treatment

2008-11-07T11:49:00.006Z

Our first shot is of a 17 year old girl from behind. She is wondering down a beach (holkam beach on the north-norfolk coast, shown right) along the waters edge, the day is bleak, windy and cold. We chose this setting as, especially at this time of year, it is very isloated and the beach we chose is especially vast. The shot is in black and white and is in slow motion to emphasise the bleak atmosphere. The medium shot is moving along behind her and after 3 seconds begins to pan down and left around her body so that you can see her walking as well as the sea next to her. The camera is eventually situated at her feet from the front. It then pans slowly up her body revealing her distressed appearance, she wears black tights, but no shoes, they are ripped and dirty. She also is wearing shorts, because of the cold weather the audience will feel uncomfortable and already suspect something is not right. A black strap top underneath an oversized white shirt is all she wears on her top half and her make-up has run down her face as if she has been crying, her hair is down but unkempt. When the camera has reached her face it zooms in to a close-up as she is still walking, the frame is then disrupted by intermittent flickers of real-time shots in colour. As this is happening the girls face changes from emotionless to as if she is in pain, then the flickering shots cut over the image of her face and we are in the past. This, although is not the usual thriller way of doing flashbacks in black and white and real time in colour, connotes the girls emotion; when she is on the beach she is an empty shell, colourless and dispondent but in the flashbacks she is a fairly normal teenager living her life.

The flashbacks continue with breaks of the girl walking along the beach in between. The story is then revealed that the girl is a drug addict, born into the world by her boyfriend. Drowning in a world of debt the girl separates from her boyfriend hoping for the debt and drugs to dissappear. Unfortunately, without her boyfriend to keep the dealers off her they start to send threats which she ignores. When the girl is walking home one day, the audience see's a tall man dressed in black walking infront of her. He then turns left into the front garden of a house and the girl stops at the same house, it is then realised that the man is going to her house. The man walks up to the door and kicks it open, the girl's mother is in the kitchen with her younger sibling. The man starts screaming at the mother and pressing a gun on her neck, asking her where her daughter is. When the mother says she doesnt know and that she hasn't seen her for days the man gets angry and kills her. Meanwhile the sibling has run upstairs and hidden in its room, the man decided to go upstairs and look for it. The camera follows the man up the stairs, he has the gun down at his side, finger on the trigger. It then cuts to inside a cupboard slightly ajar, the shot is from the siblings point of view, the man walks into the room and is looking around (similar to the scene in Leon when the 4 year old boy is hiding under the bed). It then cuts to the girl still standing at the front garden and she looks up at the top window, it zooms in on the window (shot reverse shot) and there is flash and a bang that echoes as it zooms in on her face, her eyes are scrunched shut it fades into black and white and we are in back at the beach. The girl is standing still, wind blowing, alone. Her feet are in the water, the camera is behind her as she walks into the water and goes up to her waist, the frame then fades into complete darkness.

My questionnaire into Audience Research

2008-10-31T15:42:00.002Z

Age:

Gender:

Occupation:

Student

Full Time

Part Time

Retired

Unemployed

Aspiration:

Get a job

Travelling

University

Moving abroad

Other

Of these three which do you most prefer?

Thriller

Comedy

Horror

Which British films from this list have you seen?

East is East

Anita and Me

About a Boy

Chocolat

Love Actually

Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone

Calendar Girls

This is England

Billy Elliot

Snatch

What attracts you most to watch a film?

Word of mouth

Director

Actor/ress

Advertising/ Marketing

Other

Which radio station do you listen to?

Which newspaper do you read?

Which film viewing setting do you prefer?

At the cinema

At home on the sofa alone

At home with friends/family

Round a friends house

Don’t care

How often do you go to the cinema?

Never

Once a year

Once a month

Twice a month

Every week

Other

Which type of cinema do you go to?

Multiplex (Like Odeon)

Independent (Like cinema city)

How often do you watch films in general?

1-2 times a week

Once a month

Less

My Media Advert

2008-10-21T10:20:00.008+01:00

I chose the target audience for my advert to be males aged between 16-35, they would be aspirers who buy high-tech gadgets and high fashion goods. They want a higher social status, and desire a superior persona. For this particular group it is hugely important to have status, image and acceptance as they always want to be 'the best'. I predicted that this group would fall into the C1/C2 group, most desiring to be in the B bracket of the social pyramid. I designed my product name and advert composition around this audience and I think it definitely appeals to this target.

I chose the name 'Alpha' for the brand of my product as it connotes superiority as it is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. It is also the brightest or main star in a constalation, connoting that he who buys this perfume will be the main individual of a group, those around him will desire to be him. It is the highest mark you can recieve in academic work again connoting superiority. Mainly it revolves around the common term 'Alpha Male': 'a male in a pack of wolves, or a similar pack or troop of animals, that other members submit to and follow and that takes priority in mating with females.' This connotes that the man who buys this will not only be the most popular and superior of all his followers but will also have a good romantic life as well. I chose the name of the perfume to be 'Dominant' again, following the main superior theme as 'Alpha male' can be also described as a 'dominant man, a man who controls the activities of a group and to whom others defer'. All of these appeal to my target audience's desire to be unsurpassed.

I chose to use a black, grey and white colour scheme throughout my piece becuase it connotes classiness and the fact that black, grey and white are all very formal and business orientated colours has definitely got a lot to do with the overall advert as it connotes success and superiority. I took all of my images in black and white changing the setting on my camera before capturing. This made it easier to compose the final advert although it did not give me any option to change my mind or experiement with alternatives. I chose to use white font to primarily stand out over the black background

I used a low angle shot specifically to highlight the superiority of the model, it gives the impresison that he is towering above the audience and after buying the product, you too will have this power. I used my own digital camera and set it black and white when taking the photos. I took about 20 photos in total and chose which one was the most appropriate, I thought the one I have chosen was the best because it connotes power the most. I imbedded a picture of Skyscrapers in the background to emphasise this idea, also Skysrapers connote high-class exclusivity, they also link in with the business idea from my colour scheme. On the right is the original photo of the skyscrapers in my advert, using photoshop I blacked-out the background using the 'magic wand tool' and layered the photo of the model over this. It was fairly easy to do but was very time consuming to get it perfect round the edges of the buildings.

Thriller Openings

2008-10-08T12:38:00.006+01:00

Leon (The Proffesional) Dir. Luc Besson, Released:France September 1994. United States: November 1994.
Shots
The opening shot of 'Leon' is a slow-moving helecopter shot above the woodland outskirts of NewYork. It travels at a constant speed towards the Silhouetted stretch of sky scrapers. There is then a quick dissolve cut into a, still moving, shot through the city. The camera is now following the city roads as if placed on top of a car. The shots keep dissolving into each other, each time getting closer to the destination. The camera finally reaches a shop and whilst it carries on travelling the shot is eventually emmerced in complete darkness of the extreme close-up. The darkness of the shot before is merged with the darkness of the room in the following shot in which Leon and another man occupy. The camera is in extreme close-up of a section of Leon's face and it carries on cutting between the shots of him, the picture sliding across the table and the glass slamming down on the table.
Sound
The sound in the opening of 'Leon' is predominantly non-diagetic. As the camera travels through the city there is a peaceful soundtrack with a slightly oriental sound, this completely contradicts the film's theme. Then, as the camera zooms into the black doorway we hear a loud dooming sound, this makes the audience feel alarmed and know everything is not what it seems. When in the room with Leon all we hear is dialogue (Diagetic), this signifies the beginning of the film.
Mise-En-Scene
The Mise-En-Scene in Leon is all very conventional to the thriller genre. For example the staircase shot and the climbing lift numbers. The colour of the film is yellow tinged grey, I think that this highlights the bleak lives of the two protagonists.

Bertie

2008-09-29T12:19:00.001+01:00

Bertie
Originally uploaded by Rosy_x

Little Brother Bertie Paddling in the river :)

Music Video

2008-09-29T11:54:00.006+01:00

Midnight Madness By The Chemical Brothers

My two year old brother goes mad to this song and runs around pretending to be the odd creature whenever he hears it. Also, as strange as todlers can be, he seems to sing the words 'goodnight french' instead of midnight madness. If you imagine the lyrics to be goodnight french it does sound like it. So yeah, hope you like Goodnight French by The Chemical Brothers...they do know what they're doing, a brilliant band.

A Few Scenes From Films I Love

2008-09-23T18:01:00.001+01:00

Pulp Fiction

Leon

Blog #1: Introducing me

2008-09-23T16:49:00.000+01:00

Hello :)
Im Rosy Jemima Dive and I am in year 12 at CNS sixth form. I am studying Media Studies (obviously, who wouldn't?), Psychology, English Literature and Photography. 'A good mix' as I am constantly told.

What else can I say? Erm, I live at home with my mum, step dad and younger sister and brother.

In my spare time I like to: Watch Films and Television, go to the Cinema, surf the internet, go out with my friends and family, etc.

The purpose of my blog is to display my media coursework, planning and research.

So that's it
Rosy .X