Skills Review

Skills Review

 

Research & Planning

We were given the Gangster genre for our film opening which meant that I had to look into the genre and watch several films just to get a general feel for the genre. I then looked at several film openings from each sub-genre (Brit/Film Noir/Mob/Detective) like Pulp Fiction and Sunset BLVD., in order to get a more in-depth idea and it helped me decided what kind of film opening I wanted to make. After deciding that I wanted to create a Film Noir/Detective opening, I looked into the audience and created a survey using ‘Survey Monkey’ with questions like ‘What kind of music would you like to see?’ and ‘Are you interested in 1940’s/50’s glamour?’ I then sent it to a large group of people to get a general idea of the kind of audience that I would be targeting.  I then took the answers I got back from my Survey and used it to create a ‘Voki’ which was a representation of my audience.

During the planning, I created a little narrative so that it was easier to create the film opening and it gave me a guideline whilst I was filming. I then looked into music and sound as we weren’t allowed to use Copyrighted music which meant I had to look around on the internet to find a suitable piece of music which fitted with the film opening and the narrative that went with it. I also had to look at the titles which meant me looking at Film Noir openings and seeing what kind of font style they used, the length of that the titles were up for and general things like that. I then looked at physical things which I would need during the actual filming like planning out the costume that the actor would wear and the props used in the film opening.

The one thing which I wish to improve is the planning. I wish it was more in-depth like I knew what type of camera shots I needed to use and create a storyboard so I knew everything to the tiniest detail making it easier when I filmed.

Using Conventions from Real Media Texts

When I was doing my research for my film opening, we looked at the main conventions of the gangster genre and what seemed to be the norm in those kinds of. I looked at the conventions and how they related to the four main areas (Mise En Scene/Sound/Editing/Camera) I discovered that the mise en scene varied with the sub-genres as well as the sound, but the camera and editing seemed to be very similar. I found that the music used for Film Noir was usually classical music which I chose to show the convention in my film opening. The props used were also fairly similar across all four sub-genres using things like, Guns and Cigarettes.

 One thing I did notice was that women seemed to play a very small part, if any at all, and were normally seen as weak and vulnerable as well as sexual objects. Because of this stereotype, I wanted to deliberately challenge this which is why I made my main character a female detective as well as the victim being a woman, which showed both sides of the spectrum. I found that women play a bigger role in Film Noir movies than any other sub-genre which is one of the main reasons why I chose that particular genre to do.

Creativity

To start off my film opening I created a mood boards and used Mind Maps in order to start off my inspiration. I looked at quite a lot of female icons like Marilyn Monroe and more modern ones like Kelly Brook and Dita Von Teese in order to see what they whereas they are seen as icons.

As well as using mind maps and mood boards, I looked at other film openings but not just specific to the Gangster Genre. For example, I looked at Tim Burton’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’,’ Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ and a fight scene from ‘Kick Ass’ in order to get some inspiration and what styles I could take from the film openings.

Ever since beginning the project, I would say I have been seeing things with a more artistic eye and paying attention to Cinematography more when watching movies. For example, I went to see Maleficent during which I looked more at the Cinematography and the effects used in the film.

I think that if I were to do the film opening again, I think I would try more artistic things so that it fits into the Film Noir sub-genre as well as making everything a bit smoother.

Digital Technology

To film my film opening, I used my own camera which was a Canon G11. The camera is a lot smaller than a normal DSLR so it was easier to carry around when I was filming, but it stilled maintained a fairly high quality. Using my own camera proved to be quite useful as it meant I could film whatever I wanted, where and when I wanted to instead of having to wait for a weekend.

The tripod I used was also my own and whilst it proved useful it wasn’t as stable as I hoped as I was filming outside a lot on un-even ground. Also, the tripod was a bit stiff so when I was doing a lot of panning shots, it looked a bit jerky and not smooth which meant I had to re-film it.

For editing, I used Premier Pro, which I found it a bit of a struggle to use at first mainly because I hadn’t used the editing programme before but as I used it more I found that I was becoming more used to it.

Post – Production

For editing, I used Premier Pro, which I found to be very useful, as it allowed me to be very specific with everything that I wanted to edit. The programme allowed me to cut clips at exact points so that it flowed exactly how I wanted it. It also allowed me to change the colour of the clips, so that it was in Black and White. Despite having my final film in colour, I used the effects on Premier Pro so that it was Black and White on my First Draft.