Welcome Moderator to my AS Media Studies Blog!

The below posts contain: My thriller film opening as well as a poster and social media tools used to promote the thriller film opening as well as planning and other details about the construction stages with a variety of images and presentational tools to present this.


Elliot Hogan-Keogh 9106

Claremont Fan Court School: 64680

OCR AS Media Studies

April 2014

Brief:

To create a film opening of a chosen genre (Thriller).

FINISHED THRILLER FILM OPENING - AN EYE FOR DANGER

FACEBOOK: AN EYE FOR DANGER

CONSTRUCTION: SOUND EDITING

We recorded a voice over of a news reader reporting prejudice against immigrants as a result of sensationalist coverage of rising crime figures. We have made particular meanings clear through our sound and vision editing:

• The word crime occurs at the same moment as Olez, the Ukrainian immigrant, picks up his fish filleting knife. This links the idea of crime to Olez's thoughts. 
• The audience's understanding that Olez is an immigrant is reinforced by the slow tilt pan upwards towards his face occurring as the news reader talks about the plight of immigrants.
• Olez dreams about his chances with "a nice girl" like his coworker has. His dreams are conveyed through our vision editing technique of the opacity tool combined with slow mo. The words of the Public Affairs Officer for the Migrant Rights Network ("all they want is to find a nice girl and settle down with a good job") occur at the same time. 

CONSTRUCTION: SOUNDTRACK VOICEOVER

We developed the back story today through the creation of a news report that drew attention to negative press coverage of immigrant workers. We had noticed sensational news articles where immigrants are depicted as criminals or as depleting essential services. One example is the sensational reports that immigrant mothers were draining the health service budget in hospitals. Others included sensational statistics about immigrant crime. 

Our central character Oles is represented as a Ukrainian immigrant with a job in the service industry. Negative news reports inevitably make him uncomfortable socially and have an impact on how successful he can be when he tries to meet girls. Compared to his younger colleague who works with him on the fish counter, he doesn't stand a chance. Insecurity and jealousy mount.

Today we wrote the script for the voice over spoken by the news reader and the public affairs officer of the Migrant Rights Network

NEW TECHNOLOGIES - NEW HIVE

CLICK THIS LINK TO GO TO MY NEW HIVE

TWITTER PAGE FOR 'AN EYE FOR DANGER'

I created the Twitter page for our thriller film 'An Eye for Danger'. I used our poster as the picture for our twitter page to make it recognisable, whilst using the username 'AnEyeForDanger' so that it is an easily findable account for those who want to follow us and keep on track with our latest news and information on the film. I wrote a short biography, simply explaining who we are, and why we are producing this thriller film. The biography also contains the date of release so that the audiences are aware of when they can expect to see the final product. As soon as our website, and Facebook page is completed there will also be a link from the twitter directly to these in order for the public to be able to keep in close range with everything we do with the film opening.

I already have tweeted three times to try and create a 'hype' with the film and begin our social media marketing. I've encouraged the public to use #'s associating with the film in which I made up, so that trends begin to form, and this attracts more attention as more and more people being to #. The public will want to # because of what you potentially get in return for doing so...as an enticer I tweeted 'Use the hashtag #aneyeforprizes to be entered into our latest competition' and also #eyeforfeed which encourages people to give us feedback on what they think of our work so far.

Click here to be taken too 'An Eye for Dangers' twitter page and join in the fun too!

ANIMOTO

Construction - Fish Scene and set up

Click here to play my Animoto.

I used the website Animoto to show in detail the efforts that were taken when filming some of our most challenging scenes to date.

TRELLO

I began to use  the website 'Trello' to create a to-do list associating with my media work. Trello allows you to create lists that are labelled 'To do' 'Doing' and 'Done'. This is very useful for planning my activities associating with Media AS as I can keep on top of my work, whilst being organized and keeping records of everything I am doing for future preference.

FINAL POSTER DESIGN

POSTER PROGRESS - 'An Eye for Danger'

Here is the original image we took for the poster of our film 'An Eye for Danger' and an example of the actress who is playing Celine - they young women who is murdered in our thriller film opening. We decided our poster to be purely a close up of the eye, because it suits the title of our film very well - 'An Eye for Danger'.

We began editing the picture to see what effects we could use to make the picture better and enhance the main focus - the eye. After playing around for a few minutes we decided we wanted the image to be darkened, especially around the eye in order to enhance the eye itself. The darkened effect enhances the eye and the eyelashes and makes the audience focus primarily on the eye. Here we also added red lines, that were wavy to make it seem like flowing blood or scratches across the face of Celine. With the red, we chose to a white contrasted font for the title of the font to make it look good and stand out.

We decided that the eye itself wasn't bright enough, and didn't attract enough attention and therefore, we planned to edit the eye only to make it brighter and more colourful. This was the outcome of the colour enhanced eye and we all decided it looked much better and attracted more attention to the main focus - the eye. We also added a slogan to the poster that could be easily associated with the film during its release. It also correlated with the film title perfectly - 'KEEP ONE EYE OPEN AT ALL TIMES'.

Here is the final edit of our film poster - here we simply placed a release date and the actors names onto the poster in order to make the public aware of when the film was released and the actors to attract attention.

PICS

P&A: PHOTOSHOP

Here is the image we took of Amber's eye, for the cover of our film. This would feature on our Facebook page, Twitter page and website to promote the film. We focused the poster mainly being on Amber's eye considering the film is called 'An Eye for Danger'. We made sure the image was clean and focused directly on the brightness of the eye. We needed the picture to also look clean and have plenty of natural light in order for us to edit the picture and make it look good, whilst experimenting.

Here we continued to use Adobe Photoshop to play around with the image in order to make it look the way we pictured it on all of our promotional methods of advertising. We used several different filters and decided on the filter 'Fresco' as it created a darker more mysterious tone, that enhances the eye itself - sort of highlighting it. Here we also added text, and we had to decide where on the page we wanted the text because we also had to allow room for different details necessary, such as ratings and reviews.

We decided on placing the title below the eye instead of putting it above the eye - it just seemed to fit perfectly below the eye and this is where we introduced the red lines running through Amber's face and through the title itself. This symbolizes blood running through her face or a scratch like effect. We experimented with this a lot and decided to use this in the final image, as we all agree that it looks very good, and enhances the photo and makes it more exciting. 

FILMING SHOTS

Andy setting up the camera - we had to make sure the camera was in the correct position to film in order to get everything in frame, whilst being in frame and having a great view on the fresh fish and knife, as well as myself dressed in the fishmongers clothing.

Here we see myself (Elliot) in front if the projector screening the Waitrose logo to set the scene. This is accompanied by our tables used to hold the fish on top - symbolizing what a fish counter is actually like - I am dressed in full white clothing to reflect a fishmongers clothing necessities.

Here we can see the use of external lighting to enhance the lighting on different areas of the set.

In order to block out pieces of the screen that we didn't want to see, we used books to make the table taller. This also made it look more like a fish counter rather than two school desks.

We had limited spacing for this scene and therefore we had to make sure the camera angle was precisely correct so that we didn't get any of the classroom in the background - otherwise it would have looked unprofessional.

Here we see Andy, our executive producer, coming closer towards the fish to get a zoomed in shot of my hands playing with the fish, whilst also cleaning the blade of my knife.

FILMING

In today's lesson we continued filming. We wanted to establish the setting for the scene and did so by using a left to right pan. We planned the shot so that the wooden panel can be used when editing to have titles appear on it.

 We also filmed the scene where Bryn gets ready for his job. We positioned the camera with a slight upward tilt showing the back of Bryn to keep his identity hidden for the time being. This was also done to leave us with an area of white space in the top left of the frame to enable us to add titles.

Also when Elliot comes into the locker room looking angry. We used a downward tilt of Elliot when he through his hat off in anger. We did this to show how his feelings have got on top of him and has forced him to concede to himself.

EDITING - iMovie

When editing our thriller film opening today, we discovered the 'Opacity' tool. This tool allows you to place a video on top of another video whilst they place at the same time, creating the look of two fading images overlapping each other. This created an amazing look, when it came to creating our dream sequence.

We continued to use this tool and experiment on this particular clip, of the young woman being represented in a dream like state and we began to merge this clip with the next clip of a close up of one of the fish mongers (murderer) knives as he strokes and cleans the knife. 

Here is the screenshot of the merging of the original clip and the fishmongers knife close up - using our new found tool 'Opacity' on iMovie.

DISTRIBUTION: PREZI

FILMING

On Thursday 30th January, Bryn, Andy and I continued filming our thriller film opening. We needed an extra person for our filming and they had to be female, and therefore we asked Amber if she would be in our film. We decided that we were going to try and film two different scenes in our double lesson. One scene included Bryn and Amber walking along the road together, as Bryn heads into Waitrose for his shift. The other scene was the more complex scene, where I (Elliot) had to pretend to be behind a fish counter, getting ready to slice up some real fish. Going outside Waitrose to film the first scene gave us the perfect opportunity to buy some fish. 

When returning to the classroom, we made a set that looked similar to a fish counter, with trays and ice, with the real fish on top. I was dressed in a white coat, that looked very similar to the ones fishmongers wear, whilst wearing a Food Standards Trilby hat. I also had a large silver knife, that I used to stab the fishes, to imply that my character was murderous. Many different shots were used, including close ups of the knife, close ups of the fish, zooms and tilt pans. 

EVAl. q.3 - DISTRIBUTION PREZI

·  PRESENT THIS IN PREZI EXPLAINING WHICH DISTRIBUTION COMPANY WOULD PRESENT YOUR FILM AND WHY YOU CHOSE THAT COMPANY (their track record) UK film council, we chose this as it is a British film and it relates to many films that the UK film council have produced. Many of these films are to do with the youth of Britain and crime. Our film contains a teenager who gets tangled up with the crime but has nothing to do with it.

·  SAY WHAT DISTRIBUTORS DO (digital and conventional screenings, cinema exhibition, DVD and other sales)  they raise awareness of films in order to create a ‘hype’ or ‘buzz’ about the film to make it popular and ‘known’ before its even been released.

·  and HOW THEY RAISE AWARENESS ( P & A, film websites with interactivity, TV spots, trailers)  They create awareness using trailers: the first trailer in the cinema is said to be the most important part of advertising the film according to David Willing (CEO of Miracle Media group because it is the publics first glimpse of the film and it creates a ‘hype’ or ‘buzz’ associating with the film.

·  EXPLAIN THE RESEARCH YOU DID TO FIND OUT ABOUT DISTRIBUTORS  (FDA, Launching Films, video presentations from this site)

·  GIVE EXAMPLES OF CASE STUDIES ( eg Shifty and Kidulthood)

LOCATION PLANNING

In today's lesson we went to Waitrose to plan and walk through one of our scenes. This enabled us to visualize how the scene would take place and blocked the shots and positions of the characters.

Where we positioned Bryn so the audience knows where he works.

Waitrose

We decided to act out our scene to see how we could position the camera for future preference

Close up image of fresh fish

We travelled to Waitrose to have a look at their fish range so we could grasp an idea on what fish we would need to buy for our scene where the fish monger is cutting up a bloody fish.

CLOSING SEQUENCE

CONSTRUCTION: CLOSING SCENE

Discovery of a dead body by a detective
Over the shoulder shot of detective looking in the file
Mid shot of board of pictures relating to the murder

CALL SHEET: MURDER VICTIM DISCOVERED

AS Media Studies 
Thriller film opening 
An Eye For Danger 

• Murder finding scene
• 20th January 2014
• Food Tech doorway
• IMAGE:
  
• Crew: [Elliot Hogan, 07789463786, elliothogankeogh@hotmail.com]
• Crew: [Bryn Williams, 07231774659, brynisdabomb@yahoo.co.uk]
• Crew: [Andrew Bownes, 07364889003, bownesisdaboy@gmail.com] etc..
• Camera equipment (Cannon 600D, Tripod)
• Lighting equipment (1x stage light)
• Props (Fake blood)
• Wardrobe [Celine]

CALL SHEET: FISH SCENE

AS Media Studies
Thriller film opening
Fish scene

• Location - Claremont Fan court School

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

• Crew: [Elliot Hogan, 07874638282, elliothogankeogh@hotmail.com]
• Crew: [Bryn Williams, 07835472039, brynisdabomb@yahoo.co.uk]
• Crew: [Andy Bownes, 07899395933, bownesisdaboy@gmail.com] 
• Camera equipment (Canon 600D, plus tripod)
• Lighting equipment (Portable stage lights)
• Props (fish x4 fish knife x2, white aprons x2, white trilby hats x2)
• Wardrobe [white apron and white trilby hat]
• Wardrobe [white apron and white trilby hat]

CALL SHEET: MURDER VICTM ANALYSED

AS Media Studies
Thriller film opening 
Murder victim analysed

• Shoot date - tbd.
• Location - Food tech corridor opening

 

• Crew: [Elliot Hogan, 07874638282, elliothogankeogh@hotmail.com]
• Crew: [Bryn Williams, 07835472039, brynisdabomb@yahoo.co.uk]
• Crew: [Andy Bownes, 07899395933, bownesisdaboy@gmail.com] 
• Crew: [Amber Saville, 07839049290, ambersaville@gmail.com]
• Camera equipment (Canon 600D, plus tripod)
• Lighting equipment (1 x portable stage lights)
• Props (Amber)

CALL SHEET: CELINE FANTASY SEQUENCE

AS Media Studies
Thriller film openingCeline Fantasy Sequence

• Shoot date - Monday 20th January
• Location - School gym

 

• Crew: [Elliot Hogan, 07874638282, elliothogankeogh@hotmail.com]
• Crew: [Bryn Williams, 07835472039, brynisdabomb@yahoo.co.uk]
• Crew: [Andy Bownes, 07899395933, bownesisdaboy@gmail.com] 
• Crew: [Amber Saville, 07839049290, ambersaville@gmail.com]
• Camera equipment (Canon 600D, plus tripod)
• Lighting equipment (2 x portable stage lights)
• Props (Amber/Connie)

CONSTRUCTION: FILM TITLE

We spent time deciding on the name of our film title.

• We want to signal the thriller/crime genre clearly.
• One key moment in our opening is when Oles, who works behind the supermarket fish counter, is brooding about the beautiful Celine and slams down his knife in frustration. We plan to make a connection between the fish that he is filleting and his thoughts about the girl. To achieve this, we intend to make a match cut between the fish's eye and Celine's eye.
• Therefore, we started exploring names which included references to eyes, with our first choice being A Watchful Eye but we found this was already being used. 
• We have chosen to name the film An Eye For Danger

CONSTRUCTION: COMPOSITION OF TITLES

We story boarded the  sequence where the two main characters are introduced and decided what order the titles would be. in our framing and composition of our shots we know that we need to leave appropriate spaces for these titles to come up. We are currently researching the title of our film.

Order of titles as seen on the screen:
Elliot Hogan as Oles
Bryn Williams as Alex
Amber Saville as Celine

The name Oles has connotations of eastern Europe (most crime being around these parts)
We chose this name as it is simple, easy to pronounce and a Ukrainian name.
The name Alex is very simple and short for Alexander, Alex pis less posh. We chose this name because it is British and very simplistic.
The name Celine has connotations of beauty. We chose this name as it isn't a common or normal name and catches attention.

CONSTRUCTION: MURDER SCENE

 

This is a location recce shot: the security light is currently faulty and flashes on and off in a very disconcerting way. Thanks to this fault, this creates an appropriate mood and atmosphere as to where we are going to find our murdered victim.

CONSTRUCTION: FANTASY SEQUENCE

• The still image above is our inspiration for the treatment of our fantasy sequence. We are trying to achieve a visual expression of the murderer's obsession with a girl who is not interested in him.
• We have decided how to film and display this scene where the girl is fantasized about. 
• We've chosen to use the white wall in the school gym so we have been down to book to use the gym with the PE department. 
• We will use strong lighting to cast a shadow of the girl on the back wall. 
• We intend to edit it in black and white.