Music Research

Music Research

Song Option 1 

One song that instantly caught our attention once we had agreed on the idea to create a crime drama is "Blinded by the Light" by The Streets. We feel as this is a very appropriate song to feature as a backing track because the song itself is based on drugs which is already relevant to the narrative in our film opening, and for this reason it would be a suitable pairing.

This is a scene from the music video...

Song Option 2

Our second song option is "Playing With Fire" by Plan B. This song is very similar to the first option in terms of the message that both songs send out to the audience. In this song especially, the message focuses on the dangers of embarking on life of crime and gang culture. In our film opening it shows the main protagonist ready to trap himself into a world of drug-use and crime because he has nothing else to offer to the world.

Final Decision

Our final decision was purely based on the preference of the songs and this meant that we will use "Blinded by the Light". This song has a good variation between the chorus, sung by a young girl and the separate verses sung by a male rapper. The chorus has a sense of vulnerability because of the soft voice combining with the ambiguous lyrics. This is exactly the effect we desire because we want to show the naivety of the protagonist who is far too inexperienced to perform the smuggling process.

Script: First Draft

*Shots of scenery/setting*

*Character 1 walks into the dark alleyway and meets Character 2*
*Hands over the goods*
Character 1: "sorry I'm late"

Character 2: "Here's everything you need" 

"What time is the flight?"

Character 1: "Half One"

*Character 1 walks away*

Character 2: "And just remember, if you get caught... you don't know who I am"

*Character 1 is at the station about to depart*

*Calls Character 2 on his phone*

Character 1: "Hello? ... I don't think I can do this..."

*Phone Call is ended*

*A security officer enters (character 3)*

Character 3: "Oi! Get back here!"

*Character 1 runs out of the scene and the camera slowly dissolves*

Story Board Reflection and Feedback

What went well? 

The story board went well as we included a detailed set of images of the scene and also added a voice over to it. By doing this it meant that we gave more information as to what is going to happen in the film opening and how each scene will plan out. We attempted to include some of the shot types to make sure they are varied although in many we were unsure as are planing to decide at a later date. it also gave us a good indication towards how long each scene will be to make sure we can make it with in the guidelines of two minutes. 

What could be improved/ work you change next time?

The images of the story board were draw in pencil. This was to make sure if we made any mistakes we were able to quickly change them and stay on task. Although when we videoed these images they were not viably seen, to improve this we should have drawn them in a darker colour so the audience do not struggle to see them. Plus as mentioned earlier, not every scene is given a shot description. This makes the plan seem a little unorganized with is not the idea we want to give off. To improve this a title could be added on just to give the audience more information of whether it will be a match on action, long shot, close up or pan etc. 

☺☺☺

Risk Assessment

In and job there are risks and hazards that need to be thought about. This is where a risk assessment comes in and this is the one we produced for our production.

 

Shot List

Monday 28/11/16:

-          Packing of the drugs scenes

-          Antonio riding along on his bike

-          The ally scene (may not have time)

Tuesday 29/11/16:

-          The bathroom shot

-          Train time laps

-          Shots of the high street

Wednesday 30/11/16:

-          The airport shots( train station)

·        Him checking in

·        The police officers looking cautious

·        Antonio getting caught

Traffic Light Story Board

 

Prop List

  Cigarette - This is used to show in the first scene that the drug dealer is
The Bike - This is used for the character to travel to get the drugs from the dealer and to travel to the station. It shows he is travelling via a bike showing he is moving around many places for this to happen. '
The drugs' used - This is the main key prop which the film evolves around in the opening showing he is smuggling drugs so therefore had to use ' fake drugs' to represent this. 
Alcoholic drinks - This prop is used when he is around the table to show he is rough and this is all he has in his life as this is what is taking him through what is happening. 
The Candle - This prop is used to create light around where he is sorting out the drugs with the background light off to provide a small amount of light to show the intensity of what he is doing. 
Credit Card - This is used to line up the drugs which he is packaging ready for him to smuggle.

The incense stick - This incense is lighted during the packaging scene, we use this prop to create smoke and to also produce a hostile atmosphere

Distribution

We researched into various film distribution company and we discovered a company called Focus Features, LLC. We feel our film fits into the conventions of this company because they distribute independent films in America and also internationally. Focus Features recently worked alongside the new film called American Honey. This film is a British-American drama road film which focuses on the journey of a young teenage girl who travels with new friends she meets selling magazines and partying hard. This film is closely related to our film as it follows the life of a young man who is lured into a life of crime, smuggling drugs earning money for his dangerous work. 

Institution

Our film is independent and we produced on a very low budget, our target audience is specific therefore it doesn't fit the conventions of mainstream film production companies and distributors. Here are the three film production companies founded by Me, Ale and Pip and these will feature in the start of the film opening for Traffic Lights.

 

Representation Of Our Film Opening Task

Our film opening contains various representations, all of which relate to class, age, and region. The protagonist in our short opening is a vulnerable, disengaged man in his mid-twenties. The reason he turns to a life of criminality is because he has no other leads in life, he has no family or friends who can give him some help. The man is presented wearing old clothes similar to someone you would see lying on the streets at night. On the contrary, the location is a very civilized and suburban area and extremely tranquil, this allows for the audience to see the reality of today's society where criminal activity is inevitable in any place no matter how attractive it may seem.

The other main character in the film is a wealthy man who's success has all come from high-risk, illegal activity where he recruits desperate young men to perform these dangerous acts. This wealthy man is dressed in formal clothing juxtaposing with the appearance of the man carrying out the smuggle. The reason we decided to portray a man with huge wealth and success is to tell our audience that he was once a desperate man in need of some care, yet he escapes this situation by offering himself to a life of dealing illegal goods to addicts across the nation.

The audience will immediately feel empathetic towards the man because he has nothing left in life and if he performs this act he will break free and re-discover himself and his qualities that he can give back to the world. With this connection between the character and the audience it creates suspense because viewers want the man to escape the authorities and re-build his life. 

We chose not to portray a representation of a certain ethnic background, sexuality or disability as it would only cause controversy and some viewers would turn away from our production is they see a negative portrayal of a certain race or someone with a disability. We took out some research into some politically controversial films made in this particular millennium, one film we encountered was 'The Interview' starring Seth Rogan and James Franco. We noticed how this film caused controversy in North Korea as the producers decided to display a contentious image of dictatorship in North Korea. When the film was released it received criticism as it shows a graphic death scene, as a result the film was not released in some cinemas and it gained a bad reputation despite trying to show the reality of living in North Korea.

Codes & Conventions

Drugs

Ways they are smuggled:

  "Banks banks on his Johnson; gets busted"

Antoine Banks was so desperate to smuggle drugs across the boarder that he decided to store them in his fore skin. 

"Don't eat the brown lollipops - They're Heroin"

Instead of chocolate at the centre of these treats, DEA agents found mid-grade heroin when they cracked the candy shells. Among the thirty-one pops some were three quarters of an inch in diameter and some were a full inch. A total of 520.1 grams of heroin was found within the pops and was certified to be roughly sixty-four percent pure heroin. 

  "Lemmie have my coke or i'm gonna wrap it full of lead"

It was assumed that the packages were wrapped in lead to avoid detection by the x-ray machines.

DEA was quick to supply a much better idea for next time stating that “the reasoning behind this concealment technique was unclear” as the bricks were not actually encased or sealed in lead, just wrapped up in sheets of it.

Main Icons:

The drugs 

Table that the drugs are wrapped up on

Train used to transfer him 

Tin foil & Tape 

 Sun glasses to hide his face

Rucksack he caries them in 

His bike to get from A to B 

The police mens uniform

Setting 

We are setting our film opening at various locations. The first being at Antonio and ales house to give the impression of a crack den. The second being the toilets at school, this will be for the scene where Antonio is stressing out and tries to relax himself. Our finally setting for the film is at chelmsford train station as it is the closest representation we can get to an airport. 

Themes

The themes of our film are drugs, forgiveness, crime and justice. The films aim is to give across to young people or anyone that has had or is in a hardship that there is always a way you can turn it around. 

Characters

Jonny is the main characters who smuggles the drugs and is imprisoned Jonny represents desperation as this is the only way he can make a living. 

Vinny is the dealer who supplies the drugs to Jonny to smuggle. Vinny represents the hierarchy of the criminal world and that he is untouchable as never gets caught. 

   

Evidence of Planning

This image shows ale and me working hard making sure we got the planing all sorted...

Film Pitch Feedback

 

 

Clear genre, themes, message?

Drama

Struggles and hard life - try to help people aim high and not be put down.

Crime, drug smuggling, turning life around

forgiveness

Justice 

what is the narrative?

Drugs and airport

train

crime and smuggling

What drugs?

first crime even committed

Realistic Storyline. 

Interesting character?

the main characters

just close up

Italian characters

 

The target audience?

Young people

uneducated

teenagers and adults

15+

Institution

low budget

social media (free)

enigma codes

Independent production company

 

Any comments about the film, would you watch it, it is doable and interesting?

Yes because it is raw and hard hitting- you want to know what happens.

yes again building intensity essential to build up tension. Close ups so you want to know what he's doing. Concentrate on mise en scene.

Opening scene looks capable of being done at a high standard and realistic.

 

 

Titles Research

For this task ale researched the type of fonts we could use in our film opening...

 

After deliberation, the top font would be the one we used as our titles.

 

Visual Moodboard for 'Traffic Lights'

Titles for 'Traffic Light'

The production company:
Pelican productions

Directed by:

Filipa Richenda Englefield

Screenplay by:

John Burridge

Produced by:

Brian Earp

Executive producer:

Clive Eastwood

Co- producer:

Luciano Floridi

Director or photography:

Bart Gremmen

Production designer:

Will Davies

Editors:

Aimee chaser

Costume designer:

Kathrine Ross

Visual effect producer:

Rachel Walters

Music by:

Antonio Campoccio

Associate producers:

Sian Field

Casting by:

Katrina Brooks

Actor:

Antonio Campoccio
Alessandro  Campoccio



Antonio also found the music for us to use in our opening: 

https://youtu.be/hSe95yskUoI

Related Films Title Research

To add to our research we found a film of a similar genre and produced information on the titles of the films and the times that they were on the screen for. This gave us a better indication of how to include the titles in our film opening.

 

Titles film from alecampoccio17

Film Opening Ideas

Film Name Research

We chose the produce a poster in which we asked year 11 students to tally the name they felt would best match our film. This way we gaged what our target audience wanted and also could finally choose our film name...

 

This is the poster that was produced:

 

Production Diary

Day 1 - 7/11/16

On the first day of production of our Film opening task, we researched different film openings to help give us ideas and inspire us for our film opening we will make. We are also choosing the genre for our film opening. This is so we have a clear idea for our film opening.

The films we researched for the film opening were: The Shadow man and Midnight Express. We were intrigued by these films because of the themes of mystery and crime. These themes create the genre of drama and thus there are countless enigma codes which will captivate the attention of the audience.
 

 Day 2 - 8/11/16

On the second day of production we brainstormed genres and ideas we can have for our film opening. We came up with a few ideas such as: a drama/action film about drug smuggling, a war documentary film. From these ideas it was clear that our intention was to create a drama however it was still a question of should we create a documentary or a reality drama film.

Then we started to plan to produce a presentation for our ideas for our film openings. We figured that producing a documentary would be a challenging task with very limited resources. To create a war documentary we would need to find outfits and a suitable filming location which is too unrealistic.

Day 3 - 9/11/16

In this lesson, we came to a decision to produce a drama film about a young man who embarks on a life-changing mission to smuggle drugs across the border for a huge financial reward. We produced a Prezi presentation outlining our ideas on the opening sequence and the narrative of this. Collectively, we had to plan how the opening sequence relates to the rest of the film. This is essential because the audience must gain an insight of the story however it is important not to overload the audience with information as it could give away the plot of the film.

Day 4 - 10/11/16

Today we assigned jobs to make sure we were ready to present our prezi and ideas on Friday.

Day 5 - 11/11/16
In this lesson we presented the press.

Day 6 - 14/11/16
Today we had lots of jobs to complete. We chose to assign jobs to make sure we completed them all. Antonio did the story boards, al posted the fed back onto the blogs and I sorted out the titles and the order they go in. 

Day 7 - 15/11/16
Today we finished the work we started yesterday and ale researched the sort of titles we would want to use for our opening sequence. 

Day 8 - 17/11/16
Our lap charts include the blog posts and activities we need to have complete our film opening to our best ability. Therefore today we spent the time assigning jobs for each person.

Day 9 - 21/11/16
Today we completed our tasks that were set:
Antonio - Target Audience 
Ale - Titles Research 
Pip - Codes and Conventions & production diary 

Day 10 - 22/11/16
I completed the story board video and ale started the marketing ideas.

Day 11 - 23/11/16
The storyboard was finished and published onto the blog. Antonio completed the institutions work.

Day 12 - 24/11/16
Lots of tasks were completed today, we reviewed our story board and produced a reflection and feedback. This included what went well and what we could improve.  the deadline for the first draft was coming up quickly so today we also had to produce a shooting schedule so we had everything planned out and everyone knew what they were doing.
We were also due to film the following week therefore had to fill in a risk assessment form.

Day 13 - 25/11/16
Yesterday we were unable to film the talking scene as we ran out of time, as suspected. we aso realised we hadn't written down a script so today that was our task. we also had to research some music options so did so as well.

Day 14 - 28/11/16
We shot the ally way scene and uploaded it onto the presentation software we used( premier).
throughout this week we focused on sorting out the shots we needed and putting them together on premier e.g day 15 & 16.

Day 17 - 1/12/16
Today we decided to change/ reshoot the ally scene as it didn't look as professional as our other shots. we also noticed that we were still missing so I then made an add on shooting schedule for those shots we needed to add in.

Day 18 - 2/12/16
I spent today making sure everyt0.
hing was completed and ready for out due date for the first draft on Monday. None of our opening was currently put together so I spent the whole day trying to make our first draft as best as it could possibly be.

Day 19 - 5/12/16
we reviewed everyone's first drafts and gave feedback for each one.

Day 20 - 7/12/16
Everyone focused on typing up their feedback and thinking about how we could improve our opening. I myself produced a prezi to present all of this. This took up day 21 as well.

Day 22 -  9/12/16
Today me and Antonio went into town to the train station to shoot the ending scenes of the ending. we had a slight problem as you are not aloud to film in the train station without permission. The due date for our final piece was getting closer so we had to improvise as we didn't have time to organise all of the permission side of things.

Day 23 - 12/12/16
Miss emailed us the list of final tings that needed to be posted on the blog so we spend toay doing so.

Day 24 - 13/12/16 
Whilst I was editing and adding in all of our specifications, Antonio and Ale sorted out the website by using wix.
Day 25, 26, 27, 28 - This continued throughout the week as we had completed all of our other work and needed to focus on our final opening...

Titles Task

For this task we had to pick an opening scene and make notes of the titles used and for how long...

 

 

Titles – opening scene from englefieldf11

Innocence Final Movie

 

 

 

By Pip Englefield, Renae Dawes and Antonio Campoccio


Evaluation

1) Who did you work with and how did you manage the task between you?

In my group I worked with Renae and Antonio. We allocated the jobs to each of our skills, for instance I like editing therefor did the editing of the prelim. I feel this worked well as we all knew what jobs we needed to do for the team and nothing was forgotten.

 2) How did you plan your sequence? What processes did you use?

we had a brain storm as a team, then produced the idea of an action thriller. we set it in a school as it was the most accessible location for us and planned our story lines and actors around that idea. we produced story boards and researched action genre films to help us too.

 
 3) What factors did you have to take into account when planning, shooting and editing?

We did have difficulties with the location scenario as we were restricted to producing our prelim in school. Also because of this we had to make sure we didn't shoot the students in the school as we didn't have their consent.

 4) How successful was your sequence? Please identify what worked well and with hindsight what would you improve/do differently?

I feel that our sequence was very successful as we fulfilled all of the necessary points. We were able to use all of the locations that we wanted to and also we managed to film everything we needed to in the time frame that we were given, therefore we didn't get behind with any of the editing.

 5) What did others say about your production?

Others in our media class said that our preliminary task had a very good storyline which matched well with our genre type. They also said that the different music clips that we used were a good choice as they linked together well and they got the audience's attention straight away.

 6) What have you learnt from completing this task?

From completing this task I have learnt how to film correctly with and without a tripod, and also how to zoom in and out on the camera to add effect. When editing, I learnt how to add a voice over into the scenes and also how to add only certain parts of songs in, for example: when we only wanted the rapping part of a song we clipped it so it was only that part in the background.
 

 7) Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing your final film opening?

From what I have learnt from this task I will be able to take these new skills and put them into my final film opening to make it even better than this task. From the skills that I have learnt from this task I will now be able to film with a better quality for my final opening and I will also be able to edit much better.