Main Task

 

This is the Final Broken bonds opening sequence.

The Preliminary Task ( Typical School)

This is the re-shoot of our preliminary task, to help us learn and 

get used to match on action from different angles.

Evaliation Question No.1 In what ways does your Media Product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our Main Task did not really fit into one type, or a specific Film genre; it fits into several types of Genre. It is crossing many genres such as Action, science fiction, a little bit of Horror and Thriller even though it was not meant to have a Horror or Thriller Genre in it. Action Genre is shown through many ways for example; through the type of songs which we used in it, the non-diagetic sounds and songs are fast paced, this is effective because it builds up the adrenaline and creates an action mood. The action side is also shown through the way the characters acts in the 2^nd scene, the way Scott Parker falls down and starts banging the ground with he’s hands gives a clue that there might be some violence in the film.  Another  reason why our film comes across as an action film is because of the narration by Scott Parker in the 2^nd scene he says “I Must Defeat Steven” this shows that there will be some kind of a fight or a battle between some of the characters and therefore it is an action film. 

The styles and fonts of the title sequence also helps to create it into an action film this is because, The title (BROKEN BONDS) is animated, the title smashes in to pieces which also supports the idea of violence and this was achieved greatly with the non-digetic sound used on the title and even without watching the film, the title itself Broken-Bonds all ready suggests that there is going to be some kind of rampage in the film. In order to follow the typical Action convention we had to make sure the characters are dressed in black, because that is the typical clothing of an actor in an action film. We also made sure we choose the right type of actor due to their physical appearance. An action film requires a tall, big and pretty strong looking Actors and that is exactly the type of people we choose to act in our film. However we pushed the Boundaries of the convention in some aspects, the music we choose was a bit like an urban type of music which will fit more into an urban film, and it didn’t fully fit into any of our chosen Genres. 

Science fiction also is a very important Genre in our film; it is represented through the characteristics of the characters. An example is in the first Scene when Zion Vanishes, this represents Sci-fi because it is not the kind of thing which you would expect to see in real life and also vanishing/ teleporting is associated with supernatural powers which are definitely not seen in everyday life. In the next scene Sci-fi is also represented by Zion when he penetrates Scott Parker with Enormous Powers and energy, Humans do not have powers like that, so therefore it is fiction. In order to achieve this genre we had to learn tutorials on how to use after effects in order to create these types of effect, e.g. teleporting. This follows a typical Sci-fi genre because sometimes in Sci-fi films you see something or someone doing crazy, unusual things that wouldn’t happen in real life. So in order to achieve this Genre we had to follow the typical way and therefore the Sci-fi genre in our film does not challenge the convention.

Even though we did not originally plan to add Thriller/Horror genre into our film; our film fell into these two genres as well as action and Science-fiction. Horror is shown in some ways an example of how it is portrayed is through the Dark coloured  background, the dark background signifies something scary and misty about to happen and the fact that is was recorded at night also helps to portray this because night is usually associated with ghosts, death, demons and evil beings. This idea is backed up by the mise en scene because the two characters are dressed in all black clothing, the colour black is mysterious, evoking and creates a sense of potential and many possibilities. The  empty, sort of outside a church background ties to the idea of Good vs. evil because of the great contrast between how the characters are dressed all Black (Demons) and the church (purity), and this brings out the horror genre. The horror Genre is also achieved through the editing, for example the white flash, there is also a great contrast between white and the background colour, this effect speeds up the audience’s reaction and leaves them confused of what to expect next and this also creates the thriller genre. The way some parts of the film was shot contributed to the Horror and Thriller genre for example; the Hand Held-circular motion recording. This is because the circular motion recording confuses the audience and makes it looks like something is going to jump out from the background and attack the character, therefore this creates a sense of fear. The mise en scene e.g, Clothing and Background fits the conventions of a typical Horror and Thriller film but the boundaries is pushed by the sounds used because horror film usually have low, quiet and slow music in the background compare to our film which has a loud fast music in the background so therefore it doesn’t follow the conventions of a Horror or a thriller film.

To conclude, I think some parts in our film follows the typical media conventions for example the mise en scene, but it also challenges the typical conventions in some ways, mostly because of the sounds and music used. Overall I think it Challenges the Media Conventions more than it follows it and I also think it will affect the distribution of our film in a positive way, this is because I think our film is unique, new and original therefore it will sell a lot because nowadays the same ideas are repeated in different films and doing something different will definitely catch the audiences attentions.

Evaluation Question No. 2 How does your Media Product Represent a particular Social Group?

Q2 How does your Media Product Represent a particular Social Group?

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Evaluation Question No. 3 What kind of Media Institution might distribute your Media Product and why?

Our film genre is based on mostly action, with some parts of fiction shown in the film this is shown in many ways such as teleporting, vanishing and tension creating sounds. The two main Genre of our film is represented in many ways e.g. the music choices in our film represented the action side too. Our film will get a mainstream audience when distributed, this is because the genre we have chosen is quite a popular one and these kinds of genres usually get mainstream audience.

Our film is the type of film that would be played at Odeon cinema, i think this because I have previously seen similar films like mine at Odeon before, such as: Jumper, Max Payne and Chronicles. In order to prove this I looked at the Odeon website and I looked at the Top 10 films chart and the Top film was Hunger Games which is an action and science fiction film (it matches with our Genre) so our film is definitely the type of film that will be played mainstream at Odeon.

The names of Potential Companies are : Entertainment Films distributors, 20th Century Fox (UK), Lions gate, Universal.

The two main Companies i have chosen are LIONSGATE and UNIVERSAL.

The reason i have chosen these two Big Producing Companies is because when i looked at their websites, the genre of some the movies which they have produced or are  advertising  are similar to the Genre of our film. If you look at the print-screen below you can see that LIONSGATE produced some Films similar to our Genre and this Films are: Hunger Games, Expendables and Safe house. These Films are mostly action, and our film has an action Genre too. The reason why our film is likely to be distributed by most film producing companies is because of we have a action genre in our film, action genre is a very popular genre and it is produced by a lot of companies and this is why most companies will distribute it.

 

I have chosen Universal as the other producing company because after researching and looking at their website i found out that the types of movies genre they are producing has the same genre as the film we have created  and theses screen shots are below. The are producing films like: Battleship, The raven, Immortals and The Thing. The genre of Theses films matches our genre so therefore this is how i got the impression that they are the kind of Film Producing companies that will distribute our film. As we can see on the screenshots, the front-covers of the films tells us that some of the films has Science-fiction  in their genre and this genre is also a part of my film genre. The reason our film has a high chance of being distributed by a lot of companies is because Science-Fiction is a very popular genre as well as action and there are lots of Science-fiction producing film companies.

Evaluation Question No.4 Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation Question No.5 How did you attract/address your audience? (Broken Bonds Poster)

 

http://goanimate.com/videos/0q7zFof3mJ94?utm_source=linkshare&uid=0COecsk44Cjs

We have tried to attract audiences to watch our film in many different ways, and an example of this is by making a film poster that will attract the audience. This poster is very useful because, even though the audience do not know anything about the film, this poster will tell them a few important things about the film. For example the Genre is clearly given away through the pictures, subtitles and even the fonts. The way everything in the poster is placed together also matches the genre, for example the fact that the two characters on the posters are both male, shows that this is a male dominated film and therefore this portrays the idea of action. The science-fiction genre in our film is not very obvious from this poster, this was done purposely, so that everything in the film will not be revealed, we want the audience to be a bit surprised after they have watched the film without knowing exactly everything that will take place before watching the actual film.

Everything in this poster was done for a reason for example, The Back To Back Picture is used to show a sense of Disagreement between the two characters and to show that the are not in the same side and are fighting against each other, this also reflect the idea that they are both so close but yet so far apart and the fact that they where once very closed friends but now they are enemies. The effect of placing two pictures on top of each other is to show the difference between times, (Past and the Present). The fact that this effect creates some shadow around the picture shows  that some aspect in our film will be vague and will require a lot of concentration from the audience to enable them to fully understand the concept. The font for the word BROKEN BONDS was used to show the situation at hand, for example the Font is a bit bendy, this is used to show that the situation isn't balanced and certainly not stable. 

The red colour in the middle is used to show that violence will be portrayed in this film, which adds to the action genre. The production company name is at the bottom left hand side,and most importantly the name of the director is in the middle this will attract audience because if he is a well known director then the audience will be attracted to watching the film because of the  great works the director has previously done. Likewise Hence why it says from "the directors of One Blood". The subtitle "Your Greatest Enemy was once your Best Friend"  is used to show audience what the film is about but overall it still doesn't give everything away.

TO WATCH THIS CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW

http://goanimate.com/videos/0q7zFof3mJ94?utm_source=linkshare&uid=0COecsk44Cjs

Evaluation Question No. 6 What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

 

WHAT IS AFTER EFFECTS?

Adobe After Effects is a digital motion graphics and composting software published by Adobe Systems, used in the post-production process of film making and television production. Its main uses are the origination of 2D animation, visual effects com positing and finishing image adjustment, color correction etc .Adobe After Effects is primarily used for creating motion graphics and visual effects. After Effects allows users to animate, alter and composite media in 2D and 3D space with various built-in tools and third party plug-ins, as well as individual attention to variables like parallax and user-adjustable angle of observation. After Effects and some non-linear editing systems are layer-oriented, meaning that each individual media object (video clip, audio clip, still image, etc.) occupies its own track. In contrast, other non-linear editing systems use a system where individual media objects can occupy the same track as long as they do not overlap in time. This track-oriented system is more suited for editing and can keep project files much more concise. The layer-oriented system that After Effects adopts is suited for extensive effects work and key- framing. Although other compositing packages—especially ones that employ tree or node workflows, such as Apple Shake—are better suited to manage large volumes of objects within a composite, After Effects is able to somewhat counter the clutter by selectively hiding layers (using the Shy switch) or by grouping them into per-compositions. The main interface consists of several panels (windows in versions prior to After Effects 7.0). Three of the most commonly used panels are the Project panel, the Composition panel, and the Timeline panel. The Project panel acts as a bin to import stills, video, and audio footage items. Footage items in the Project panel are used in the Timeline panel, where layer order and timing can be adjusted. The items visible at the current time marker are displayed in the Composition panel.

Before this academic year, i knew nothing about After Effects, i never even knew that such an amazing software existed. I thought that this kind of software were only available to big movie stars and producers such as Steven Spielberg or Jerry Bruckheimer but Today i must say that i was very wrong! After effect is a software that is available to any one and anywhere around the world you just have to have a PC and your camera kit. Looking back at how i started, i was a complete amateur, but i had really good ideas of the effects i wanted to do in my two minutes intro film, and i was determined to make it work. So in order to make these effects happen, i started asking my friends for ideas and any information of any software that can make my imaginary effects become real. Since none my friends are any sort of computer wiz, i began to do lots and lots of research, in search of a programs or softwares that will bring my imaginations to life. I usually searched in  Google, forum websites just to gain more information about any available softwares such as After Effects, Sony Vegas pro and I-Movie. After all these researches i found out about After Effects online through an internet forum and a friend advised me to buy the Software and  follow and learn the tutorials on YouTube. Having watched the tutorials for while, i became slightly used to the software and now i have gained a lot form the tutorials. an example of the skilled i have gained is how to improve the contrast and brightness in after effects and another example is how to teleport this video is below.

Evaluation Question No.7 Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I think the preliminary task was a big introduction for us, it thought us some camera skills e.g. how types of shots could create a significant difference to the entire clip.For example, Almost all the shots in my preliminary task were captured on a tripod because we were not confident enough to record hand held, we were trying to make sure the camera wasn’t shaking, but now we realized that recording by hand or even shaking the camera purposely could make a difference in a positive way.  Hand held shots, created the motion for our film; the fact that the camera kept moving instead of being placed on the tripod creates the sense of movement of the actors in the clip. This draws the audience closer to the film because it tells them that something is going to take place; the pace of the movement of the camera already signifies the mood and what is going to happen. For example; in a chasing scene the camera would be very unstable and shaking a lot, this is used because even without showing the actor, the audience would be able to tell that there is a chasing scene going on or about to happen.

Having done the preliminary task successfully I became very aware of many types of shots such as mid shots, zooming, panning, close-up etc. Panning shots was used in my preliminary task to show the two actors communicating but it became really important and compulsory in my main film intro because the panning shot was used to show the location, where the film is set in. When Photographing a moving subject, the panning technique is achieved by keeping the subject in the same position of the frame for the duration of the exposure. Panning shot was used to record the actor when he was moving in order to follow and keep up with the actor. Panning can also be used to show the character moods, this is achieved greatly when it is done hand held, a great example of this is my first intro when ‘Scott Parker’ was standing still but there was a hand held panning on him, the camera was going around him in a circular motion and slowly it became faster and faster, the camera became more shakier. This is to show that as time goes by, ‘Scott Parker’ starts to struggle, and he is unable to cope with the terrible situation.

Another vital shot which I practiced while filming the preliminary task is the mid shot, which is used to emphasize the body language and gesture of the actor. The best part of the shot is that it can show facial expression, gestures and body language at the same time because the shot is used to capture everything at the same time; this was used often in my preliminary task which reinforce why it was used successfully in my Final film intro.

Zooming is also very useful to get into a specific point at a specific time and to exclude every other object or place in the scene. This wasn’t used in my preliminary task because I didn’t need to exclude anything. However using the shooting of my 2 minutes intro it became important, because the camera was far away from the actual place we wanted to capture.

After the preliminary task I knew that I had to familiarize myself with different types of software because after my preliminary task, I started getting ideas of what to do in the actual final piece but I didn’t know how to do most of the things I wanted to do e.g. effects, layer etc. So I searched it up On You Tube and tried watching some tutorials, we were able to perfect some parts of these software such as Imovie, movie maker, logic. After learning after effects tutorials, I can now say that I am even able to teach others, (a tutorial video made by me will be on this blog). Most of the editing was done on Imovie and after effects, since I do not own an Imac, at home I used Movie maker and after effects and later converted it into a version compatible for the Imovie on Imac.

To conclude, we learnt to re-shoot anything that we thought didn't work right. For example the first preliminary task we had didn’t go too well because the camera angles did not match, when an actor was talking, the camera was not capturing the actors face when they are speaking and according to my media teacher “that is not right”. So my partner and I had to re-shoot. We also had to re-shoot some parts of the final piece because we noticed that the first film we made did not fit into the genre we had chosen. We had to change the main aspect in terms of the task which was to create a 2 minutes opening intro into a film; we did a short movie instead. Though the first film did not workout it gave us a lot of practice and experience with using the softwares and camera angles. Through the first movie we made, we noticed that the film was too fast and that the fast speed took away the the original genre we had chosen and turned it into a British crime, gangster film. Having learnt to re-shoot when something isn’t right during the recording of my preliminary task, re-shooting the Final opening piece was not hard for my partner and I and even though it was quite stressful to travel to the shooting location; we did what we had to do.

The Interview about our video so far

The documentary of Broken Bonds

Film Posters

Max Payne's Poster above, is the type of poster i first had in
mind because the Genre is easily given away through
the poster but later i changed my mind because i wanted
 to create something more original and different
 from the typical posters.
This Picture gave me the idea of putting Scott Parker and
Steven slayers in one picture.




The fact that there are places shown on the poster on top
 of the actor shows how quick he can teleport to this places,
 this shows how easy it is to represent an idea in a poster.

Broken Bonds Timeline

 

This is the Timeline of the Film opening sequence. 

From scene to scene. 

Space Production > Film title > Scene 1 > Scene 2