Evaluation 7

I have learnt and developed many skills from when I first completed the preliminary task to now. This is because I have learnt so much from my theory lessons as well as my coursework based lessons. I have learnt to work as a team within my group of 2 and, along with my actors and editors we have completed the main film opening.

In the preliminary task I learnt how to use match on action, shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. From using these techniques I can see how they improve the continuity and realism of footage. Especially when characters are in conversation, otherwise it can lead to confusion and disinterest in the audience.

I feel I have progresses and learnt a lot from the preliminary task to the film opening. This includes learning how to edit footage, insert music from the pre recorded ones on YouTube and crop out footage that didn't make sense in the plot of the opening.

Evaluation 6

To film the film opening we used an iPhone 6s which may not be the most professional piece of equipment to use but we did not have access to a high end camera as we don't have a budget to work with. Although we used an iPhone 6s it still contains a high definition camera that records at 60 frames per second therefore providing the video with a far smoother quality.

After the filming we begun to edit our film opening with the use of multiple programs including Adobe Photoshop which was used to create the film title. We used Photoshop as it allows us to create graphics therefore it was suitable for the text/title of the film to be made using it. It provided us with the option of making it be suitable colours and adding further effects to it such as gradients. To edit the actual footage we started with iMovie on the Macs just to order the videos correctly and begin stitching them together. After that had rendered we used a software called Camtasia which is a more professional editing software and it gave us further options such as overlapping more sounds plus it was far easier to use compared to iMovie.

Joe, our editor, learnt how to use iMovie and the basics to the software as it was his first time using it, it is not his preferred editing software for video as it is far more complicated compared to other software he is more familiar with using video editing software such as Camtasia or Sony Vegas.

The sound effects in the background of the film openings such as the birds, gun shots and the music were all obtained through the YouTube creator section which are all copyright free and anyone can use them as long as you have a YouTube account.

Evaluation 5

Our film opening for "The Company" links to other films within the action genre to attract the audience we were looking for by the use of the background music, sound effects, costume and the camerawork. The majority of action films use fast paced music when something is about to happen such as a fight scene, in our film opening this music begins once the other characters enter the scene in which it can highlight to the audience that some form of action is about to happen. The sound effects also used relate to the action genre, its still to do with fighting as they are gun shots therefore still maintaining the action feel to it. A lot of films in the action genre make the use of guns and it also becomes far more appealing to the audience who enjoy that particular genre. The costumes used can also relate to other films within the action genre as the character is dressed in full black to apply a secret/mysterious feel. By making the audience question who the person is and what he has to hide makes them more intrigued to view the film and find out.

Most of these points mentioned can again be related back to the "Bond" films due to action contained within the film opening and the use of fast paced backing tracks. High paced music, effective sound effects can be a unique selling point in the action genre of films which will then appeal a lot greater to that specific audience.

Evaluation 4

For our film the target audience would be teenagers and young adults who are generally more interested in action style movies compared to the older generation. The picture below shows what are target audience may look like and also displays the age group that we intend to target our project at. Normally these kinds of people are quite into media related activities such as films, music and occasionally books and so on. I believe that the majority of people within that group would prefer to shop at electrical and technology related stores such as a shop called HMV which sells music, films and so on. If someone were to be interested in viewing our film I wold think that their preferred TV programmes would be something relating the action genre, or something suspenseful, this could be stuff like the programmes, Dexter, Prison Break or Sons of Anarchy which all contains high amounts of action and violence therefore making our film be interesting to them.

Evaluation 3

A production company assists to create the film with the budgeting, scheduling, casting, scripting and more. The company will help and watch over the film from the beginning until the completion. These people are the main ones in charge of searching for actors and choosing the correct director.

A distributor helps to make your movie public and reach a far wider audience. They decide on how to promote your film and where it will be available such as cinemas. When making the decision they have to consider how many copies of the movie they should produce and distribute, the film must be viewed by prospective buyers.

A film such as ours would need to be funded and a have a decent sized budget to afford actors, cameras and so on. This would have to be assisted by production companies by showing a preview and casting our initial ideas to them. Money can become a big issue in the production of films and how the creators of the film can get the available funding needed, In the credits of the opening the main actor, producers and directors are named, this is because they are the main people associated with the film. The directors are named because they were the people who created the ideas and scene plots, the producers helped with things like casting, scripting etc. The actor is also named because people may have heard of them before therefore its a good selling point but as they are the main center point they should be credited in a obvious sense.

As the film is British as it contains British actors and has British directors and so on a suitable production company would be someone like Film4 who help fund British film makers. This production company also have a good distribution arrangement from the connection they have and their own television channel, this can provide far better publicity for the film.

Evaluation 2

The image below displays both a character from our film and also another film named "Hitman". The Hitman films are originally based off of the video games named Hitman which are still being made today.I thought that these characters were particularly similar due to them having very relate-able jobs. These characters also both work alone, the only difference between their job roles is that Ben from our film left his work behind him hoping for a better life. Another similarity is the fact that they both wear black which is related and known for being mysterious and secretive, although the character on the left is wearing a suit it still strongly outputs the black as the main colour.  Overall we thought this was a good relation between the two characters and have very similar roles in the films and so on.

Evaluation 1

This screenshot displays the title of our film “The Company”. This appears after the introduction to the film has been shown. We thought it was effective to do it in this way as it lets the audience get a feel of the film before showing them the title. Other film openings have used this technique such as James Bond movies. For the text colours we chose to use red which is symbolised as violence, death and red is also the colour of blood. We thought that was suitable soon as though the film is based around action and violence. 

This long shot shows the location where the film opening was shot, but it also keeps the character in the frame so the audiences focus does not wear away from him. The picture consists of a field which the filming taken place. The field was relevant to the movie plot as it contained a stone which could symbolise a memorial. A lot of films use this camera shot to allow the audience to get a greater view of the location that the scene is taking place.

The costume is shown more clearly when there is a mid shot used. The character is stood central in the shot and makes the costume more obvious and provides a greater mysterious feel. The majority of films use this shot type to show the characters and get a better feel of who they are. It is a typical camera shot as it gets straight to the point of showing off the costume being used whilst also maintaining the shots of the background around them.

The effect shown in this image displays the two video clips overlapping and merging into one another. This creates a good effect and a smooth transition between the two clips whilst trying to keep it slow paced along with the slow music used. This editing technique can also be seen in some war films where the character us reflecting over the graves of those who died. This shot also uses an over shoulder angle which can keep the character in frame but shows the thing he is looking at so the audience can establish a better feel of what the object is.

This screen grab shows the credits of the film such as the producer, director and the main actor. The colours within the credits are simple using white text on a black background so they stand out. The font is also kept simple so everyone is able to read it, if a more difficult font was used some people could have not been able to read it. Most films tend to place the more important people at the beginning of the film and the other people involved either overlapping the video or at the end of the movie. Having them be displayed just after the film title appeared kept it in a theme and consistent with how the background is still black and it smoothly changes over.

The story is setup and comes more clear when the other characters enter through the use of a long shot of the field. The story still does not become completely obvious but it creates a better image for the audience on how he is being tracked down by some people and thy are following him. James Bond films use this sort of technique in how they show the bad person on the other side of a room but keeping both characters in the same frame as one another.

The opening can suggest that the genre of the film (action) opening from the screen grab because it shows that the character is being followed therefore you can understand that something is going to happen at some point. This can also be related to the costume of the main character in how he is mainly dressed in black to symbolize mystery and secretive. Most films that want to display the genre of the film from the beginning use scenes that allow that to happen such as action films having some form of action at the start. This can come back the the Bond films, they use fast paced introductions with fights or high speed chases.

The character is first introduced in the first camera shot of the opening with them walking along a pathway. The character is introduced in a mysterious way which relates to how the character is. It introduces him wearing the full black costume which then also builds up on the mystery part of the character.

There was not any special effects used but this can come back to the overlapping of video. Image 4 can relate to this because of how they merge into one another to form a sad, reflective effect on the audience. 

Camera Angles

The opening begins with a pan motion which moves right to left following the person walk along the pathway. This emphasises the movement happening within the scene and makes the action taking place more interesting to view. When the camera is panning it is also using a mid shot to allows the audience to get a feeling of the surrounding area but to also have a view of the character in full clearly displaying his costume and already giving off a mysterious atmosphere.

 The next scene has the camera tilting upwards following the character begin to walk up a hill and also still using a mid shot to allow the viewers to still analyse the surrounding set, and yet again view the persons appearance.

The next part to the opening uses a long shot which then changes into a mid shot to show what the character is doing. It adds to the storyline by showing the memorial of the person he had once killed and also has enough detail to the shot to show him reflecting on it.

The camera then changes the direction it is facing and is aimed towards the memorial/stone using an over shoulder shot, still keeping the character in frame but allows the audience to get a greater view of the thing he is staring at. This then develops into a further close up but still keeping the over shoulder angle to keep the character remaining within frame. By then moving the camera closer and kind of using a close up it makes the writing on the stone more visible and identifiable of a persons name, this then lets the audience know it is someone he is reflecting about or it could have been someone that he killed in the past.

After this part has taken place the camera changes into a long shot to display the new characters entering the frame which are walking down the path but still keeping the main character in frame to not lose the audiences attention to him. This also adds mysterious aspects to it about what he has done which also relates towards the costume, such as the black and being secretive.

This then changes to a pan movement which follows the main character walk away from where he was previously stood. After this the camera changes into a mid shot displaying the other characters walking towards it and where the other person was stood a second ago. This shows off the characters in better detail and makes it more obvious to the audience that they were after the main character.

Character Profiles

The main character (Name: Classified)
 - The main character was previously working for a company that specialised in killing people who have done wrong in their life. The employees of that company were paid and hired to take people out and this character had enough and attempted to leave the business he was once in. This character is very mysterious and for the costume we decided to go with full black which is associated with mystery and being secretive. This matches the characters past also as he had to keep his life private, and what he did for a living a secret. He regrets his previous life decisions and he reflects on his bad past and wants to change his life around but the other guys will not allow that.

Other characters in the film opening (People from the company)

 - These characters are not main characters within the story but just used in the film opening to give the basic story line of the film and what it is based upon. The two characters are just following the main character in attempt to kill him.




Costumes:

 The main character as said before is dressed in full black which are colours associated with mystery and secretive. This gives the character a far more mysterious feel and how he is hiding his past. The costume is also related to what he would have had to wear when he was previously working with that company and he had to stay hidden and quiet.

The other two characters that enter during the film opening are the people who are after the main person in which they are just dressed in normal everyday clothing to not seem as suspicious.

Film Opening

Studio Logo Research

Logos are used within a company to create a brand name and something that the audiences will recognise. 


Most film studio logos are simple and to the point making them memorable for people to recognise and should almost always have the name within the logo. This is shown within Paramount and Warner Brothers. They are both simple, effective and anybody would be able to pick them out of a trailer and an opening and think that this will be a very good film.

However some logos such as Universal and 20th Century Fox's logos are much more complex as they have a more detailed logo and even an animation (sometimes a soundtrack too) for their introduction at the start of a film. Even though it is slightly different in terms of complexity it is still very much memorable.





After looking through many logos from film companies we decided to stay with the theme of staying simple and to just show the company name. We created a film studio and a logo for it here:

This logo is made combining both of our last names and kept it simple and recognizable. The logo also allows us to brand our film opening.



The Comapny Script

Script for the film opening task:


1. Dark, moody sky to create a gloomy setting and atmosphere which is located in either a graveyard or something similar. The use of sad music whilst the character reflects on what he has done will add to the dramatic effect and also using sounds of birds in the background will add a more realistic point of view to the scene.


2. Main character stares at the grave stone using a longshot to display the surrounding area and for the viewers to establish the location it is taking place. Preferably using quite newish grave stones in order to provide a more modern theme to it.


3. Camera shot changes into a mid shot which captures the character in more detail but also the surroundings. Have the character dressed in quite dark modern clothing such as a long coat which can make it seem like he is hiding something from people, this adds more suspense to what is happening.


4. Use a close up shot to capture the characters emotions in greater detail, have the character appear sad and confused in terms of facial expression. For the background noise use the bird sound effects still but more like crows to add more variety to the scene.


5. Change the camera towards facing the gravestone and using a close up to emphasise the situation and for the audience to get a batter understanding.


6. Use a flashback in which the scene must be in black and white to add the thought of older memories. Film a guy on the floor as if he was dead and the main character had killed him, this then displays the situation and who's the grave belongs to.


7. Within the flashback use a separate shot/scene of what happened and how he killed him, adding more detail to what happened and it relates more to the current events.


8. Camera cuts back to characters face with a close up and character whispers "I'm Sorry" which will be the only dialogue used throughout the film opening. Music continues still.


9. Two more characters enter the scene walking down a path in the distance in which they are dressed in casual clothing to make them just seem as standard pedestrians. The characters begin to walk to the main characters in which it makes the main person realise who they are. Using a mid shot which could develop into a panning motion from the two guys to the main character.


10. Use a longshot where the camera is far away from the two characters heading towards him to get a feeling of where they are in terms of the main character.


11. The two characters continue to walk towards the main person and uses a close up of the characters hands to make it appear they have some form of weapon increasing the suspense in the scene. The music then changes into something more tense and dramatic to blend in with what's happening.


12. Camera cuts back to the main character which then moves down his body as he reaches his hands into his coat as if he is going to draw a gun.


13. The screen goes black with two gun shot sound effects and no music is used, the audio just goes silent for a few seconds in which it will then fade into the next section of the film. This part then clearly displays that is the end to the film opening and it should supply a rough idea to the story line of the film.