Font Results

I got all the results back in for my fonts. I asked a total of 50 people to choose which font would be best at the end of my film, and told them that the film would be a mobster style thriller, similar to the likes of Rockanrolla and Lock Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels. Although I don't actually know my film title yet, I put the 3 font titles in the font on a page. Here are the results :-


Dinarjev Republika :- 6 Votes





Hang Up :- 6 Votes







Russian :- 4 Votes

Killed DJ :- 10 Votes

Punks Not Dead :- 19 Votes

Bedspread Assassin :- 5 Votes

So, I am most likely going to use Punks not Dead, although this poll isn't going to conclude my decision over fonts. I may use Hang up or Killed DJ, but I haven't decided yet.

Fonts

I have now started research on the font which will appear at the end of my film. I have got 6 fonts from a site called http://www.dafont.com/. I printed them off onto a sheet and now plan to ask several people in the school which font they think looks the best. This is the 6 :-

Location Scouting

I went location scouting this weekend. I found several locations which would be good for my film, but for several reasons they would not work. Here are some of the locations for the filming :-



















This first one is in the hallway of my house. It is good, because it has 3 doors to film from at the end of the hall, and it is well lit. I imagine i will use this for the scene where they steal paintings.



















This is outside my house, which I feel fits the scene where the men enter the house perfectly. Also, If I use this it makes it easier to film, because there will be no chance of obvious errors in the final film.




This is my dad's front room. I am allowed to move things out, so i plan to take all the pillows and ornaments out, including the table in the centre, and make it look less homely. I think that this will be good for the home scenes as the house has a yard and hall which would be perfect for the starting home scenes, so I could do all the filming in one day.



This is the front of my dad's house. I had though about using this for the entrance to the robbery, or having a piece of film filmed in the street, but there are a series of errors. The door is very close to a main road, so noise and disturbances will occur a lot. Another thing is that there is no brilliant places to film, i would either have to by too close or the other side of the road, so i am not going to use this location.

Mindmaps

A while back I had no idea what i was going to do in my film, so i brainstormed all my ideas in 2 separate mindmaps. I then looked across my ideas and was able to piece together my final idea, the idea that i am using now. Here are 2 pictures of the mindmaps :-

Storyboards

These are my storyboards which I made shortly after the mindmaps. I made them using a pre-printed frame to make them that extra bit more helpful to me. Here are the pictures of the 4 storyboards. Sorry the drawings are bad, I'm no artist. These are just basics, getting down my ideas into something slightly like a film. I will do more storyboards later on, when I am definite on set, music, cast E.T.C :-

Forum...

In an attempt to widen the amount of research that I would have at the end of my research section, I decided to join up to a forum. The forum was called Student Room (http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/). It was a massive waste of time. No-one answered to either of my posts so i got no closer to get as much research as possible. Overall it was a waste of times, and luckily I know what I am doing with my project now. I think I might try another forum, but I'm not sure, as I will be starting my main project soon.

Soundtrack

I was looking through my music collection at home, and using the Internet as research, and I have managed to come up with about 5 songs which I can use in my project. I took the advise to check the soundtracks of 3 films similar to my own, and none of them have any of my songs included. I'm still unsure where in the film would be the best point to use these songs, but they are all rock songs, and are all fast paced, very in fitting with my genre.

Update

As my blog has been looking very bare recently, I thought that I should put a post up just to say that I am doing alot of work outside Blogger, such as location scouting and planning, and I will put up posts soon showing what I have done.

Sound effects

Because I cant get a police car to make the siren noise, I got some free sound effects from the internet. I will use these in my final product. There is one scene that I have still not decided if I am going to put one in. It is a part where a car revs off screen, so I also got the sound effect for that, although im not totally sure if its going to be in there yet.

DVD cover

This is the DVD cover for the Tarantino film Sin city. It shows most of the main characters stood in the rain. All the characters are wearing black, which shows the Sin part of the film more. Also, the film is almost totally in gray scale, so it also fits in that way.
The actors are also stood diagonally, off centre, which could show that there is a sinister part to the film, or that the characters are all evil in there own way. Also, the way that the characters are arranged shows something. It shows the importance of the characters, before we have even seen the film, as Bruce Willis is seen at the front, showing his importance, and then going through the main characters. The main enemy is shown at the very back, very off centre, to show how crooked she is. Also, One man is seen at the very back to the right. He seems to be pretty central, which could show he is good, but it is over shadowed by the others.
The text title is also used very well. As the whole cover is in gray scale, it stands out very well, and detracts from the main picture.

Poll results

You are aware from a previous post that i copied my poll of Favourite films and decided that i would ask people face to face. I asked a total of 30 people. Here are my results : -



The Punisher? 2 Votes

Rockanrolla? 3 Votes

Snatch? 4 Votes

Severence? 1 Vote

The Blair Witch Project? 1 Vote

The Dark Knight? 11 Votes

Hitman? 3 Votes

Dawn of the Dead? 1 Vote

28 Weeks Later? 3 Votes

Die Hard 4? 1 Vote



This shows that the most popular film was the Dark Knight, followed by Snatch, and that action films are the most popular. I will use this information to influence my final film choice in the future.

Prelim

This is my finished prelim. Like i said before, the problems with the delay on the camera are visible. Mine and Alex's have the same problems, but i may be able to re-film my prelim at a later date. So, here it is.

Research

I know not that many people can get to my blogger page, so im going to print out the poll about favourite films and then ask random people about school. Hopefully then i will get some results. I will put them up for all to see when I finish.

Problem

I was going over the film for my prelim again today, and it appears there is a delay at the end of the clips no-one told me about when I was filming. Im annoyed because I dont have the people or the time to re-film and the clip doesnt look as good as it could. All the speech is cut short also. I will just submit and hope I can refilm later.

Ideas.

Wondered if anyone could give me a little help. I need to get more ideas for my media studies coursework. I really truly have no idea what I'm going to do. I will probably do a thriller but I'm unsure. I have my polls on Blogger but they are not showing much response so i have plans to try and get more. I plan to do more research and put polls on Bebo and Facebook, and also sign up to some forums and post on there to try and get ideas. So far, i plan to do a film in the style of a Guy Richie great, such as Snatch or Lock Stock. I need to get an idea of the plot of the film and what the characters will be. I also plan to go onto YouTube and look at some products submitted by other students, and then put onto YouTube. Through doing this i may be able to see ideas that other people had, and will possibly be able to lift ideas for my plot ETC from there.

Prelim Problems

I'm having a bit of a problem with my preliminary. I captured the video off the tape yesterday, with the plan of editing it and then handing it in in the lesson, getting it finished. Unfortunately, the media room is being redecorated, so i cant get it to edit it. Also, Alex's work is on the computer too, so he cant get to his either. Ive decided I'm going to get the tape, which is at home, and borrow a camera and a firewire cable. Then i will capture it onto my PC and email Alex's clip to him. Then we will edit them both and post them.

Prelim!

For the past 2 weeks we have been filming our preliminary products as a group. Me, Alex and Izzy have finally finished filming and are planning to start editing next lesson. Mr Taylor has allowed us to edit over the holidays, so if i cant get it finished, i can post it then. I will put it on here when I'm finished.

Analysis !

In this post I will analyse several stills from various films.

This is a still which i uncovered from the film Blade. The scene shows the main character holding a gun to the face of a police officer.
This shot clearly shows the fear on the POs face, and the anger on the face of the main character. The lighting is natural,as the shot was taken outdoors. Make up has been used in the form of blood on the face of the PO. With the background of a city, and the 2 main characters dressed in leather, they stand out from the rest of the people, making them seem suspicious, or important. The shot is a mid shot, showing all 3 people, allowing you to see everything that is going on. The background is blurred, making the audience concentrate more on what is happening in the centre of the screen. The screen is slightly canted, which suggests that one of the characters has a hidden agenda, or that something secretive is going on. I think that the sound here would be of the bustling city, with no soundtrack, unless the people were not talking, in which a fast paced sound track would fit perfectly.

This is a scene the thriller the Dark Knight, the new batman film. It shows one of the man characters, Harvey Dent, climbing a stairwell.
The Mise-on-scene is not too visible. The uniform is is a suit, which is what Dent wheres in most of the film. It is set in doors, in a concrete building, so the light is not natural. The light is casting a large shadow of the main character, which is in the centre of the shot. This could show that Dent has another half to his character, or a sinister, evil half. This shows great symbolism, as Dent later becomes 2 face. The shadow is also covering part of him, showing that this side is possibly taking him over. The camera angle is a long shot, fitting both Dent and his shadow into shot, although is shadow is not a character.

This screen shows the Joker burning a large amount of money in a warehouse.

He is the only character seen. The lighting has been cut back a lot in this scene. This is because the light from the fire makes the money seem more prominent, as it is the main source of light. The flicking from the flames also flashes across his face slightly, showing how sinister he is. Make-up has been used as it always is on the Joker's face, but in this scene, his actual mouth is flat, but the painted mouth is smiling. This could show that the actual Joker is not totally happy with what he is doing, but to make him look as evil as he is supposed to be the painted face is more prominent, bringing the evil side through. The burning of the money could also show the Joker is out of his mind, or insane, because he is burning so much money.


This scene is a scene from the film Eagle Eye. It shows the main charactor Jerry running down a main road in Washington D.C.
The Mise-en-Scene in this scene is just plain everyday clothes. The camera angle that is used is a Mid-Long shot. I feel this is used well, as it shows the emotion on the characters face but still shows the that he s running, although we dont know what he is running to/from. That is something else in htis scene, why is he running? He is scene running the opposite way to the traffic, showing that it is very important that he gets to his destination/ away, because he is putting his own life on the line running down a road the wrong way. The Capital dome of the Capital building, the seat of the US government, is seen in the back drop. This shot could suggest that the man is running from the law, or from the government of the US.

So, first post.

Hi, Im Dan Arrowsmith, and I am currently doing Media Studies at AS Level at Biddulph High School.
This is the blog that im going to use to show all my media studies work. I actually have no idea what genre or type of film to do yet, but i will decide eventually.

Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions for a film genre, or any other ideas or suggestions, don't hesitate to put them to me!