Film 4

In the Looking for Eric trailer we can clearly get an idea of what the story is about. The characters in this are represented as older men who don't have much of a life and spend their time watching football and drinking beer. The main man in this film is represented as a bit of a loonatic as he imagines that he can see the famous footballer Eric Cantona. The film is set in greater Manchester, we can see this due to the location of the homes and the accent that all of the characters have. This film has a range of British cultural references such as the football team Manchester United which is mention alot throughout the trailer and the use of the soundtrack played in the trailer is a British song making it more appealing to a British audience. Overall the film has a few aspects where it is like a typical Film 4 film. However the film has a relatively happy ending and there is only one part in the trailer which shows a use of violence which is normally found in a Film 4 film but isn't used half as much as other films. The trailer also shows a run down area that its been filmed in which is quite typical in a Film 4 film and this emphasizes the urban feel of the film.

In the Submarine trailer we can clearly get an idea of what the story is about. The characters in this are represented as young teenagers whose lives revolve around love and being in relationships with the opposite sex. The main character in this film is the boy and he is represented as quite weak and the girl is made to seem more powerful. The film is set in Wales and this is shown through the country side locations and the strong welsh accent the main boy has. In the trailer we see a few references to British culture for example they boy is laying on the floor listening to the French Crooners and one of the men out of Arctic Monkeys had made 4 of the songs that were found in the film. This film doesn't exactly fit with most other Film 4 films, as it had few themes that a Film 4 film would contain. The film only shows themes of run down areas whereas nothing else was shown that is typically seen in a Film 4 film. 

In the Four Lions trailer we can clearly get an idea of what the story is about. The characters in this film are represented as a racist group of young men who are very strict to their religion. This is shown through their use of language (e.g. use of Urdu) and their appearance and clothes that they wear. The film is set in Sheffield and two of the characters go to a terrorist training camp in Pakistan. This is shown through the characters strong Sheffield accents and their use of Urdu. In this film there is a lot of cultural references for example the use of police shown quite regularly, the marathon, and references to war and terrorism in the UK. This film is a typical Film 4 film as it has references to racist topics such as all Muslims being terrorists, violence is used frequently in the trailer by the use of bombings and a fight scene and the language used shows the aggression of the characters. This film especially is a risk, as its story line is a touchy subject with most British people due to the terrorist attack in London. The run down areas that the film is set in also creates a good atmosphere for the audience and represents their lives as down and more urban.

In the Hunger trailer we can clearly get an idea of what the story is about. The main character in the film is seen as a trouble maker due to the shots shown in the trailer. This film is set in Ireland, we can tell this from the strong accent the characters have and the locations show in the different shots. In this trailer there is many uses of  cultural references such as the police,it being set in a prison and the voice over of Margret Thatcher. This film is a typical Film 4 film as it shows the use of violence, urban  and rough life due to the locations of the film and the topic of politics and British life. This hints at a typical Film 4 story line due to its themes and topics that are shown which can inform the audience about events that have happened in Britain in the past.

In the Attack the Block trailer we can clearly get an idea of what the story is about. The characters are seen as a group of young hood rats trying to defend their estate from being attacked by aliens. In this trailer we can clearly tell that its set in South London. This is shown due to their use of language and how they speak in conversation. This is also shown through the location it is set in, as the council flats show the urban areas of Britain. In this shot we get cultural references such as the police van, the typical run down area and the references to Xbox and Fifa.  This film is not a typical Film 4 film due to the use of special effects and it being a Sci-fi film. However some themes shown in this are typical of Film 4, such as the themes of violence and the urban area the film is set in. Film 4 took a risk with making this film due to its different genre and special effects which have never been used in a film 4 film before. However this still was a good film due to the large audience it appealed to, because of the use of language and slang by the characters.

In the Inbetweeners Movie trailer we can clearly get an idea of what the story is about. In this film the characters are seen as a group of uneducated,sex hungry boys. The film is set in West London and the holiday resort Malia. The scenes that are set in West London are typical as they are set on a road full of houses and a school, and the characters use of language and the way they speak is typical of someone from that region. There are many British culture reference's such as one character wearing a England shirt, them going to a British school and the music that is played when they are at the club.  This film isn't a typical film that Film 4 would produce due to the locations it was filmed in and the story line was used. In some ways it has similar themes such as the violence and the language but has few themes that are typical of Film 4.  Film 4 took a risk with creating this film however it produced a good boxoffice income and was a hit in the UK film industry.

Evaluation of Continuity exercise

In my continuity editing piece i had to include:

the 180 degree rule

the rule of thirds

Match on action

Shot reverse shot

I used the 180 degree rule throughout the piece so the shots would be consistent and from the same point of view every time a scene is shot. I used the 180 degree throughout my piece. One of the main shots that i used where you could clearly see this, was when the two Hench men were pushing him down the corridor and into the room. When he pushes down on the door handle i made sure that the handle was seen on the correct side for the audience so that it wouldn't confuse them.

I used match on action in my piece to make the piece flow. I did the shot where Gurtej opens the door and the shot continues to when he pushes the door open and they all enter the room. This shot shows a continuous flow between the two shots, we had to make it accurate so that the first shot of him opening the door was at the exact same position as it was when the door was flung open.

I

 used a shot reverse shot in the conversation between the two characters. This shot had to go from one shot of one character to the shot of the character that he is talking to back to the exact same shot that was used before. In my scene i used the shot reverse shot in the conversation; I had a shot of the "boss" which went to a close up of the other character and back to the same shot that was used previously.

I had to make sure that throughout my piece I used the rule of thirds. This meant that the eyes had to be a third of the way down the shot and i had to make this consistent so the eye line is at the same level for every character that was in the scene. Even if i used a long shot the eyes had to be at the same level as it would look better to the person that is watching it if the eyes were in line the whole time.

When filming this i found something’s quite challenging. Some of the shots that we had planned to shoot in the pre-production stage we were unable to use as they didn't fit correctly or they was just too difficult to get right. I think that some of the shots were quite vague even though we used a variety of different shot types, as some didn't really turn out how we expected them to. The location that we used in our production was meant to be a dark room, we had a problem with that as at the time we filmed it was still light outside and that there were no blinds on the windows so light still got through. We wanted the room to be dark so it was more mysterious for the audience and it would have fitted our storyline better. If we got too shoot it all again, i would have made sure that the windows were covered or that we shot more in the evening so that the light wasn't as bright as it was and we could create a good eerie atmosphere.

When i came round to edit my piece i also had some issues. Some of the shots that we had previously filmed didn't really fit in with what we was trying to show, this meant that the continuity of my piece was not as precise as it could have been. I found it quite difficult to make the editing exact, for example if a shot was too long i would either crop it too much or not enough so there was always a space before or after the shot which made it less flowing. Some shots had dialogue missing so i had to edit the audio onto another shot to make more sense for the audience. If i got the chance to edit my piece again i would have maybe re done some shots so that the editing process was easier for me or i would have taken more time to make the editing more precise and so that my sound effects or dialogue matched with the shots.

The strength of my piece was that we used a lot of creativity. In the brief we was told what we had to do, as a group we developed this by creating a better storyline behind it. Instead of them walking into a room, sitting down and conversing with the other character we made the characters more specific and gave them a more interesting role to play. When we was planning our scene we created a storyboard, this helped us to plan what shots we were going to film, the edit, the location, the dialogue, the lighting, props and any background sounds. By doing this it helped us go into production with an idea of what we wanted to do, if we didn't plan this we would have been a bit lost and i don't think it would have been good. As we had to use new technology such as I movie on the mac's we had to learn from scratch. I think using a HD camera was much better as the shots were clearer, and more defined which makes it better for the audience. When i came to do my editing i found the software quite difficult at first, but then realised that it was making my work look alot better as i could try and make it as precise as possible with the new trimmer on I movie.

The weaknesses of my piece were that the location that we had planned to use wasn't as suitable as we had hoped. We wanted to location to be dark so we could create a scary atmosphere for the audience. As there wasn't blinds in the room and it was still light outside we couldn't create that atmosphere that we wanted to which may have confused the audience. I think we made our piece creative but at the same time we had our downfalls as we couldn't shoot all the shots that we wanted to in our pre-production stage. By having to alter shots so they would work made our actual scenario for the brief not as successfully as we had hoped. By having to use new software on the macs, it took me longer to get used to how to use different effects, trimming clips, adding in audio and adding in graphics. In my editing i think some of the shots weren’t as clear as i had hoped them to turn out. If i could have had the chance to spend more time on some of my editing i could have made it more precise or even selected a better order for the shots.

If i had the chance to do this again I would have re shot some of the shots that i had put in my final piece, which would have made it look more flowing and continuous. Some of the shots also had some mistakes where the characters weren’t in the same position as they were in the previous shot so it didn’t match as well as it could have. I also think next time i would have picked a more suitable location due to the lighting not being correct and how we wanted it or we could have filmed it more into the evening instead of after school. I think if we did this we could have built the atmosphere more and so the audience could have a better understanding for what the back story was.

Continuity Editing Exercise

The scenario of this exercise what to create a scene where a character would open the door, cross the room and sit down opposite another character where they will exchange a couple lines of dialouge. We could pick our own scenario on who the characters are and why they were there to help make this exercise more interesting. For example the character could run into the room instead of just walking or the people could be talking about a specific topic while they are in the room. This was good because as a group we could be as creative as we wanted to be with it.

Rule of thirds- splits the picture into 6 small boxes, the rule is that the person or animals eyes should always be in line with the first horizontal line that you see on the grid. This also means that all characters should have the same rule of being on that line this means they have eyeline match which makes the continuity appear much clearer.

180 Degree Rule- is when two characters are being shot having a conversation that the camera shouldnt go beyone the 180 degree mark as this means that the shot can be interpreted differently and it will look like the people have changed positions or that they may be looking from a different view.

Match on action- is when a cut is used between two shots to show a strong relationship and helps the work flow better instead of there being lots of cuts and stops. 

Shot Reverse Shot- This shot is mainly used in a conversation format, this goes from a shot of one character to the other and back to the previous shot.

 

The key media skills that had to be used in this piece of work was to succesfully use the rule of thirds continually through the piece of work, the 180 degree rule so it was the same point of view so it wouldnt confuse the audience, a scene of match on action and atleast one part which included shot reverse shot. i had to make sure I included all these shots to make sure I could get the best possible grade.

I planned my piece with my group member Akif, we decided on a scenario that we could use which would fit to the task we was given. We had to create a storyboard which would help us to plan out all the different shot types we would use, the sounds, the lighting, the camera movement and a small description of what will take place in the shot. We then gained another team member who was there to help with the filming process, he played one of the characters which stopped us from having to find someone else to play that role. Having that extra team member helped alot as we could share our ideas and he could give us feedback from what he thought of it and so we could make improvements before we started to film.

I think the grouping was succesfull as we was all determined to get our work finished to the best of our ability which made it easier as we could help eachother out and we would listen to eachothers opinions on whether the shot type was right and if we was including all of the different methods that had to be included in our filming. My main role was to film as both of my group members were playing the characters which was the easier option to do. I think if i did it again i would have worked with the same people as eventhough one group member joined us later, we still made sure he was involved and he had as much input as we did. Sometimes i found it hard to concentrate as when we worked together we got distracted but as a group we made sure to stay focus when we had to film certain shots and the facial expressions had to remain serious.

Instead of creating a scenario that was just a character walking into the room sitting down and talking, we created something that was a bit more exciting and not as boring.We decided on creating a peice where one boy plays the character of someone who has been in jail and has been taken out by a group of men that want the money back that he had lost by getting caught by the police. We used a different location which was set up in one of the classrooms in the school, which was rather large and just had a desk and chair in the corner of the room. We tryed to make the room dark and we used a lamp to try and light up the room. We wanted to do this to make it seem like the man was being interegated like you see on police programmes.This wasnt as succesfull as we hoped because the room was lighter than we expected and we couldnt block the windows in the ceiling. I think the lamp did create a good affect as we didnt really want to show the "boss's" identity so we used cut aways to create a character for the audience but so not too much was given away. The characters were dressed up in casual clothing but the "boss" wore a shirt, trousers and tie, this created a feel for the audience which showed that he was a bit dodgy and was superior to the other men that were working for him  We tried to use a variety of shots which would make it seem better compared to it being similar shots throughout. We used high angle shots, mid shots, two shots, long shots, close ups and extreme closeups to show our camera skills as a group.

Having a storyboard helped us to get an idea of what we wanted our scenario to look like, eventhough some of the shots we changed as they didnt fit as well as we hoped them to. We stuck to all of our original shots apart from a couple that we couldnt shoot. Some of the camera movements that we wanted to use we couldnt as they didnt look right and didnt make sense in the order we wanted them, so some of the shots had to be altered to fit our scenario better. Overall i think our storyboard helped us alot, as we could go into filming without having a lot to think about and as we had decided on the structure and the way we would film it we could film it without worrying about what we would have to do next.

Continuity Editing