Term summary

In this term i have conducted a lot of research on our genre gangster which we are planning to do for the opening sequence.We have managed to create a treatment that has been uploaded the blog and also did a rewrite of this treatment based on the results we got from a survey we carried out.This research we did has definatly influenced our idea in many ways including the characters we plan on including in the sequence. we have also done all of the following as a group:

- Initial Genre Research

- Chosen FP Genre Research (analysis of 5 opening sequences)

- Initial Ideas for Opening Sequence

- Treatment

- Treatment Pitch

- Predicted Target Audience

- Audience Research (all of the methods used)

- Audience Research findings (analysis of results)

- Target Audience Profile

- Treatment (new drafts)

- Screenplay (all of the drafts)

Daily Upload

Today I undertook the task of doing the treatment rewrite.In this treatment i decided upon changing a few ideas that we presented in our original treatment.With these made improvements i believe our production will be much better.

Treatment Rewrite

Title:Rags to riches
An original screenplay by:Dean Landers,Damian Mathers and Josh May
Production Company Name:Damian Media co.

We are presenting a gangster film about  typical London man who starts off poor and ends up very well off because he teams up with the insiders of a well known London Gang; WestfieldGang.In doing so he eventually becomes the most feared man in the whole of the capital.

As the story unfolds we see how the main character betrays each of the supporting characters to gain respect and further power.We see this through the killings/Imprisonment and kidnaps of the supporting characters.

We have changed it from him gaining respect hourly and going up in the hierarchy to just betraying them all in one go as gaining respect hourly is pretty unrealistic.

We are trying to make it as batman meets the Godfather because we like the idea of when the Joker betrays his associates to gain all the money for himself.

Our production company plans to use the theme of trust,betrayal and money in order to achieve the desired effect of surprise targeted towards a demographic composed primarily of the male gender.

Audience Research:Interviews with members of staff

We took the time out to conduct extra research in the way of an interview. we managed to interview 5 different members of staff and they came back with a very varied opinions upon each of the questions asked. One of the main questions raised within the interview is maybe the possibility of introducing a strong female character to go against the typical conventions of male dominance in the gangster genre.

Tv Drama Analysis- Holby City

TV Drama Analysis

Title: Holby CityWho made the Tv Show? The series was created by Tony McHale and Mal Young as a spin-off from the established BBC medical drama Casualty. 
What channel is it on?BBC1
What time is it on?8 o'clock
What is the Genre?Holby city would be classed as a medical drama
Who is the target audience?Nurses and everybody interested within this sort of subject.
What is the narrative?Well many people occur in fatal and less life damaging accidents and pay a visit to the hospital.But in this particular episode that i watched on the internet. A guy is fatally wounded with a gun shot from a gang of youths as he is caught up in the shooting.In the operating theatre the guy gets diphibulated as he is close to death but after the procedure he seems to be on the uprise until he suddenly goes back into a coma.
What/who is being represented?The people being represented are nurses and doctors and also injury prone people who are a part of an accident in the episode

Predicted target audience for our opening sequence focus group

As we are producing a gangster genre opening sequence our predicted target audience would be the age group of 18-30 and predominantly male as the genre contains a lot of violence that is stereotypically connected with the male gender.

Audience profile research

We worked together as a group to create a survey, and this is what we came up with
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/63SLBQ6
These are the questions I contributed to the group;


Would you Here u include watching films as one of your hobbies
[]yes   []No

When was the last  time you went to a cinema?

______________________________________


Rank in order your favourite genres from the list below?

Gangster                                                Action
               comedy                  other
Horror                                                   Romantic

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)

What television programs do you watch ?
(List 3 please)

_____________
_____________
_____________

Opening sequence research number 1:Godfather

The Godfather-opening sequence

Francis Ford coppola

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBfMikOuv2U
The scene starts off with a guy in low key lighting he is clearly italian of of
a closely related ethnicity We can tell this by the looks of the man and the dialogue
that he is using.The low key lighting on the introducing of the character is to show
that there is a mysterious way about the character.this intrigues the audience.Then
the godfather is introduced with even lower key lighting.we can not see his face at
all because its an over the shoulder shot and the camera does a reverse creep
shot to eventually show the office that they are in and reveals another character
which is a woman that seems to cater to the godfathers needs. The low key
lighting and camera shot used are very effective for keeping the godfather hidden
and unknown for bit. The males clearly have dominance within the scene.however

we can tell that the godfather has the most authority as the guy is asking for his
help.The guy who is in distress is given some kind of drink. We can tell this is most
likely alcohol or some kind of beverage because of the size of the glass.
The general gangster conventions are used to meet the stereotypical
gangster theme. These include black suit.This will definitely aspire our production
as we will definitely include black suits within our sequence.
I believe the target audience would be an older generation as the whole film is concentrated on violence and revenge. I also think it would appeal to the male gender rather than the female.

Treatment pitch feedback

treatment pitch feedback

Our group were filmed pitching to Mr Lawes,Miss O'dell and the rest of our class mates.We received some feedback for our audience:

Good Feedback on our idea-They said that our idea was well planned out and our thoughts on the opening sequence were clearly put across during the pitch.Our idea would definitely go along with the stereotypical theme of the gangster genre.It was also very efficient on presenting what the target audience the film will look to appeal to.Male audience.Mr Lawes and Miss O'dell told us that they could tell we had carried out our research into the genre as our conventions were the same as films such as goodfellas with the monologue throughout the footage.They also believe that the way we keep the character mysterious is very effective.

Constructive Feedback on our idea- The monologue needs to be very appealing and well scripted to keep the audience entertained throughout the whole 2 minutes.we also need to consider whether we be able to film in london due to security restrictions

treatment template

idea for gangster opening sequence

• Black background London 22nd January in white text
• Poor man has a little amount of money
• Horrible clothes and travelling around London looking for people to give him money
• Black and White film footage
• Monologue over the top
• Black background London 2013 23rd of January in white text
• Same guy but this time clearly has money

The overall plot of the film will be the day of a guy that unfortunately has little financial funds due to a series of life changing events that we will get to find out about within the opening sequence.However this day will be his lucky day as he begins to make money and within one day is very very well off. Basically the monologue will explain the life off the man and the shots will be used to show him being a poor citizen to the next day being made of money. When the guy is poor i want to show it using his clothes.I want to make them horrific and then the next day i want to show his rich and that is the same guy by having somebody in a suit getting into a black cab however you wont be able to see that it is the same guy until he looks into the mirror.this is when the oepning sequence will end.

Genre Convention Research: assessment feedback

5 things that are conventions in the gangster genre would be

• Money
• Suits
• Family
• Male
• The Boss

If i had to contrast against the theme of gangster i would consider making the boss a woman,however this might not work very well.

Rough plan of an opening sequence

Close-up of a gun on floor with a pool of blood around it. Blackness and then white writing appears on the screen."New York 1973".Then a close up of a guys lips whilst he is talking.The monologue will be played over the top of this.He will light a cigar and place it in his mouth at the end of the dialogue.The dialogue will be the boss ordering some of the members to take attack on the enemies.Towards the end of the dialogue the camera will do a reverse creep to show the whole of the guy.Guy will be shown in the spotlight and then the screen will fade to black.

I received a peer assessment from group members josh may,Damian mathers and renee instance.Overall they concluded that they think my idea is there however my planning is a little short of being successful.They believe that i didn't mention my camera shots as efficiently and as much as i could.

Prelim task evaluation

The prelim brief was to include:

• Match-on-action
• 30 second dialogue
• Shot reverse shot

And must also follow the 180 degree rule.


In iMovie we used a variety of editing techniques. We had to mute the diabetic sounds that we didn't want in the short clip.we Then added no diabetic sound/music to create the atmosphere that we as a group decided we wanted. We also tuned the lighting to the brightness and colour that would create a continuous contrast throughout the prelim task.


Josh May-He was the member of the group who took an overall control and lead during the editing as this is the area that he is strongest in,therefore we decided on appointing his services to this task.He processed the shots that we had filmed and put them into a rough cut.
Damian Mathers-He was the main person involved with the filming of the footage we needed for the prelim task.He managed to get all the shots required in the brief, and me and the rest of the group confidently believe that these shots captured were very effective. 
Ryan Kent-Ryan also took part in some filming including the shot reverse shot. He had a clear idea of what we wanted to have therefore our ideas and his  clearly worked when we were filming the sequence.Ryan was also the person to produce the script for the piece.


I worked upon many sections within the task.For example i was the only member of the team that was featured within the prelim task filming. I assigned myself to this region as i do not mind being on camera and we had to have somebody within the piece.Before we started the filming and the editing we created a plan in which all our ideas were taken into account,this plan was then formulated into the film that we produced. I worked alongside Damian Mathers on constructing this plan.When we eventually started upon the editing i contributed with various ideas such as the use of slow motion when Mary is walking during the match-on-action shots. 


In conclusion i would say that the whole procedure of planning,filming and editing went extremely well. I happily believe that every member of the team contributed in there own way, and due to different members having different skills in certain areas, specialising members to specific jobs within the task was a good idea.
However i believe that we could have met all the tasks included in the brief if we reread it before filming as our footage was 1 minute long when the brief asks for 30 seconds. This could have definitely been done better as we could have made the clips shorter.
Another disadvantage of our group was that i would have liked to get more of my ideas across during the editing although they might have not been good but i would have liked the group to consider them.For example making the colour into black and white as i believe this would have added to the atmosphere we were looking to create.

As you can see above we have completed the 180 degree rule.

preliminary task

preliminary task camera used

Preliminary Task-First Lesson

Today we didn't get to record as we couldn't find a suitable person to film( a girl).This could be improved with a scheduled planning procedure in future tasks.However we planned the camera sequence to film match on action for our next lesson. i believe that this went very well and will be very efficient in completing this task.

Preliminary Task Camera Plans

Preliminary Task Script

Guy: Hi you must be Mary?

Girl: And you must be George?

Guy: So where did you grow up?

Girl: In Dagenham, my parents split up when i was born though. What about you?

Guy: Weird, that happened to me as well.

Girl: We've got a lot in common.

Guy: Its uncanny.

Girl: I know, It's almost as if we're brother and sister.

Guy: Whats your last name so I can save it to my phone book?

Girl: Adams.

Guy: That's mine too.

Girl: If we got married no one would have to change their last name.

(George and Mary laugh together)