Unit 2/3 Assignment 2

WEBSITES

Derby Day issues 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2416659/Manchester-derby-2013-Police-tighten-security-ahead-clash.html

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/nov/13/manchester-united-hated-success

"Flare-sniffing dogs and protective eyewear for officers but no booze ban... Manchester police tighten security to stop repeat of ugly scenes that marred last season's derby " - The daily mail online

The greater manchester police has to be put on alert for the derby, to try and avoid the massive problems they faced last time of the violence. Officials from both teams have teamed up with the police to make the security at the derby matches better. Including pre-match patrols  to stop graffiti around the Etihad stadium. 

"Only when Manchester United fail will fans reveal respect for the club" - The guardian online 

• Drinking at the match is no longer allowed until kick off
• To prevent a repeat, police will patrol the area around Eastlands in the run-up to the game.
• Last season, Rio Ferdinand was struck by a coin after United's winning goal. 
• One fan was arrested after running onto the pitch to confront Ferdinand

BOOKS

Manchester united ruined my life : Colin Shindler

"Finally i must acknowledge my debt with my wife, Lynn, and my daughter, Amy. They have never really understood what it is that turns me into a furniture-kicking, doorslamming, growling bear most Saturday evenings during the football season. This book may provide a partial answer." - Colin Shindler, Manchester United Ruined My Life. 

The book was an attempt to try and grasp why a man can be so turned in to such an irrational person by sport. It's particularly about Shindler moaning about how arrogant Manchester united fans have been the bane of his life for years. 

• His life revolves around Manchester football
• He will do anything in his power to create a defeat against united
• Passion for sport defies logic
• People have pre match rituals
• Thanks to the innovation of football fanzines, millions know that they are not alone in how much they obsess over football.

Manchester city ruined my life : Colin Shindler

"In writing about Manchester City i cannot ignore what has happened to me off the field as it were because to me, sport only makes sense as a part of life and not as a thing apart. My feelings therefore about City may well have been significantly influenced by events unrelated to football." - Colin Shindler, Manchester city ruined my life 

This book is about how Shinlder is frustratingly in love with Manchester city.

Magazines/Newspapers

Mail online: Under-fire Hart must take the boss, says England boss Hodgson

City's goal keeper Joe Hart always been subjected to more criticism than most football players these days. Under all the pressure of being not just Manchester City's top goalkeeper but also England's, recently in the game about one of the most feared football nations he seemed calm and collected. 

"Joe Hart has been warned that if he drops a clanger against Germany on Tuesday he will be booed - and there is nothing England boss Roy Hodgson can do about it." - The daily mail online

• Roy Hodgson said that if Joe Hart lets in a couple of goals then fans will boo him.
• One performance from Hart in a match such as the England v. Germany one can see public perception from the fans and the media can change dramatically from just a single game depending on his performance

The Mirror : Manchester City fan unviels anti-racism banner in support of Yaya Toure for CSKA visit

A City fan showed UEFA and CSKA Moscow fans what he thought of them with a banner at the game on bonfire night. Fans feel that the punishment given to CSKA Moscow doesn't suffice and praised Toure for standing up to the CSKA fans.

• The russian club said city fans were over reacting.
• There were also 'free pussy riot banners' at the Etihad stadium which City fans chanted before kick off, clearly showing support to the russians. 

Toure said: "We must say thank-you to our fans today. They showed the fans of CSKA how to support a team."

PRIMARY RESEARCH

Questionnaire:

20 people did my questionnaire and here are the results. 

Age: 13 people were aged between 16&25 and 7 were aged between 26&40

Gender: 11 were male and 9 were female

What are your interests?: 9 said gaming, 6 said socialising and 5 said sports

Do you watch documentaries?: 8 said yes 12 said no

If said yes then why: They're interesting because they're factual, some are about things that are unusual and never heard of so they make you want to watch them, they're more real because you can get ones about people and how they live they're lives and its not gimmicky. 

If no then why not: They're boring and drab, they can be too long, don't watch much tv, too busy watching other things, just don't interest me. 

What do you expect to see in a documentary?: 7 said interviews, 8 said statistics, 3 re-enactments and 2 said other (facts)

Are you a manchester city or united fan?: 9 city fans, 7 united fans, 4 neither

If you do support these teams how often do you go to games?: 4 said every game, 5 said only home games, 3 said every other game and 2 said a few in their life.

If you do go to games what do you like about them?: The atmosphere, seeing the match in front of you and not just in the pub or at home, chance to see friends and socialise. 

Do you think that fans can get out of hand?: sometimes people have arguments with fans from the other team, there have been fights when i've been to matches but not that much, sometimes groups of fans can be too loud and cause a bit of trouble at matches. 

Have you ever witnessed crime at matches?: 14 said yes, 7 said no

If yes, how often?: 10 said not a lot, 6 said at most matches, 4 said every game.

What was it you have seen?: 15 said fights, 5 said drunk and disorderly people


THE TREATMENT 

Audience:

The audience for my documentary will be mainly men aged 16-34 and men aged 55+, most likely from the Manchester area. I know this because football fans are predominantly male and with the documentary being about football teams from Manchester i expect the majority of people who would watch it would be from the Manchester area as they are more likely to support Manchester City or Manchester United. 

Synopsis:

My documentary will be about Manchester football. It will tell us about the fans and how the fans lives have changed because of football. It will also highlight issues within football as there has recently been some issues surrounding racism towards midfielder Yaya Toure. I will talk about how the FA deal with issues within football such as racism and discrimination. Also i will talk about the pressures that the players have to face in football. I will also look at how people feel about footballers pay, do they get paid too much? This documentary will be very much about the fans, their views and how they are effected by football.

Documentary comparison

City of Champions

Compared to City of Champions my documentary will be more detailed and therefor longer. It will focus more on the fans than the football players, this will make my documentary more relatable to everyday people. City of Champions also doesn't interview any fans it only shows fans celebrating whereas I will interview fans.

Unit 3 Assignment 1 Research Techniques

QUALITATIVE Research -  This type of research is based on peoples opinions. For example, if you were to have a focus group for a film you have made, the feed back that they would give would be qualitative as they are giving thee opinion of the film.

QUANTITATIVE Research - This is the opposite to qualitative, as it includes numbers. For example, the money a film made at a box office over the opening weekend or for the whole duration. What demographics of male and females have been watching your production.

Advantages of QUALITATIVE Research:

• Can be used for future research
• Good source of information, it can be more detailed than quantitative research.
• Feedback can lead a project on the right path.

Disadvantages of QUALITATIVE Research:

• Sometimes can be too general, tricky to get exact results.
• can be less valid, could easily be untrue
• Result of quite a few variables (what, who, when, where)

Advantages of QUANTITATIVE Research: 

• Easy to analyse the results as you can out them in to graphs and charts and compare them to other graphs and charts from other research.
• The facts could be used to back up your opinion.

Disadvantages of QUANTITATIVE Research: 

• Cant really be used for future research as the date of when the research was made could effect when you can use them in the future (could be out of date)
• Results could sometimes be too simple, sometimes you need to know whats behind the figure and get details of what or who the figure represents.

I think that using quantitative research in pre production is best because it's a basic way of giving feed back. For example, if you used the ratings for when you piloted the production, this could tell you whether people liked it or not because if the ratings were low then the production wouldn't of been successful and there for you would need to make changes to it.

There are two different types of research that you can do to help you find things out about your production: 

• Primary research - This would be getting the data yourself e.g. going to the cinema and asking people to fill in a questionnaire that you have made. 
• Secondary research - Is research thats been done by somebody else that you would like to use. You should get permission to use this information and give credit to who it belongs to. 

The advantages of primary research is that its reliable. It's reliable because you know that it is isn't fake because you have done it yourself. You can be more specific with the data you want to get because you can make your research moulded around what you need. On the other hand, primary research can be time consuming and your response rate might be low because if you're simply standing outside the cinema asking people to tell you about their viewing experience of your film they might not be willing to talk to you. 

The advantages of secondary research is that it is fast, as you don't have to get the data yourself its already done for you. It's also cheaper as you won't need any money to get the data. The disadvantages of secondary data would be that the data isn't your own so it's not as reliable as primary data, it could also be dated. You need data to be current for it to be relevant to what you're trying to find out unless you deliberately want to know results from in the past. 

Primary research and Secondary research are both reliable, it all depends on you as an idvidual. Secondary research is reliable for data that you can't go and find out about yourself and primary research is reliable because you know that it's accurate and exactly what you're looking for. 

Before you start your production you need to know your demographic, and you need to look at productions that will be similar to yours to see what you can do to make yours the best it can be. This would be called market research. Market research is vital, because how can you make something and not know how? Looking at similar productions to yours is a very useful way to make your production better. For example, if you were making a horror film that had zombies in it and you thought you needed make the zombies more scary then you would research horror films with zombies in and pick out ideas and use them in your own way. 

Researching your demographic is very important because how can you make a production and not have an idea who you're making it for? This is audience research, if you research who has been watching productions similar to yours, this can give you and idea of who you should be targeting your production at. 

Using audience profiling can tell you exactly what people of certain age and gender are watching currently. This is a massive help in trying to identify your target demographic. The categories of audience profiling are: 

• Men aged 16-34
• Men ABC1
• Men C2DE
• Men 55+
• Women 16-34
• Women ABC1
• Women C2DE
• Women 55+
• Housewives with children 
• Children
• Boys & TV
• Girls & TV 

Production Research is vital because you need to know what you need to of achieved at the end of your production. Things that need to be taken into account are: 
Locations: are there locations that you can use that are easily accessible but suitable for what your production is about? A risk assessment of your locations is important so you know what safety precautions to take when filming at a location. Getting permission to film in public places is also very important because you can be prosecuted if you don't. 
Personnel: Your crew are more suitable if they are qualified, do they have the right skills? These things can make a big difference to the quality of your production.
Technical Resources: You need to work out what equipment you will need for your production, you also need to find out what equipment you can get that is the best quality possible but also within your budget. If you are hiring things then you need to find out if equipment is available for when you need it and it would be suitable to book equipment in advance to ensure that you will have everything you need.

Unit 1 Assignment 1

Time

What is a shooting schedule?

A shooting schedule is what you use to plan out when you will shoot your production and also what you will use to plan out what you will shoot on particular days. The shooting schedule is usually created and managed by the assistant director, they will be in charge of making sure everything is happening on time and at the right time.

Why is it important to have a shooting schedule?

It is important to have a shooting schedule because cast and crew need to know whats happening on each day and they need to know where they need to be and when  they need to be there. Also, because cast and crew members will have other jobs the shooting schedule will need to fit around their personal schedule because it is vital that everyone needed for the shoot can be there at the same time. Having a shooting schedule means that you can be checking that you're keeping to the budget because time is money. If the shooting schedule isn't done with care and precision, then one day of shooting can run over very easily which can prolong the next day of shooting and this can cost a lot of money so this is why it is essential that assistant directors, producers etc get it right first time round. 

How long does it take to get clearances for music/clips? 

The amount of time it takes to get clearance all depends on what you are getting clearance for. It is likely that you will find out within 10 days if its been given or not. If you are getting clearance for a lot of things the sooner you apply for clearance the better.


Personnel - The Imposter

From a documentary/ies of your choice, look at the credits, research the crew members(camera, sound, researchers etc) what have they worked on before, what experience/qualifications do they have?

John Battsek was the executive producer for The Imposter along side Katherine Butler, Simon Chinn. Battsek has previously worked on a lot of documentaries. His latest being 'How I Live Now' which has only recently hit the box office. He has been producing and co-producing documentaries since the late 90s.
Poppy Dixon co-produced The Imposter with producer Dimitri Doganis. Poppy Dixon hasn't had a lot of experience producing, as her first job was in 2008 for The Shooting Party and she was only an assistent producer, it wasn't until 2012 for The Town That Caught Tourette's that she was a producer. Dimitri Doganis who also worked on The Town That Caught Tourette's, has been producing since 2003 but previously was directing from 2001.
Bart Layton directed this documentary, and even though he has only been directing since 2004, he has directed some very well known documentary tv series such as Banged Up Abroad, The Town That Caught Tourette's and Locked Up Abroad.
The Imposter had three different sound recordists. Two which were part of the documentary crew, Brian Albritten and Kaye Charles Cruz and then for the re-enactments filmed in Madrid the sound recordist was Mike Cooper. Cooper has been working as a sound recordist since 1998.
There was only one researcher involved in the making of The Imposter, Will Stanebridge. Having only been a researcher since 2010, he doesnt have much experience but has clearly done a good job with The Imposter.

Why is it important to get the right crew?

It is important to get the right film crew because if not then it could make the documentary unsuccessful. If it doesn't contain correct information and detail, and isn't remotely interestersting then people won't watch it. Experience is key in film and tv production, you know more about how to make a production the best it can be. I think that The Imposter shows this because a lot of the immediate crew members have a lot of experience in their field. For example, executive producer John Battsek has been a producer for 16 years, and within those 16 years he has worked on 49 different productions and mainly they were documentaries so he was perfect for this documentary.
Another reason why it is important to get the right crew is that time is valuable so having the right crew also means having a crew that can keep to the shooting and production schedule. The assistent producers are usually in charge f the these schedules so if they are experienced and good at what they do then there's more chance of the production running smoothly and less chance of becoming behind and then going over budget.

What qualifications do you need to be an editor?

There are no specific qualifications needed to be an editor but there are different training courses you can do such as television and film freelance training (FT2) which gives training for all types of job roles in the media including editing. There's also The National Film and Television School (NFTS) who provide industry recognised short courses for all grades and post graduate courses. These kind of qualifications are good to have to become an editor.

As well as academic like qualifications, you also need to have key skills to be an editor such as:

ability to be creative under pressure;

imagination and an understanding of narrative;

excellent communication and interpersonal skills;

developed sense of rhythm and timing in story telling;

highly developed aesthetic visual awareness;

ability to lead a team;

patience, attention to detail and good organisational skills;

knowledge of the requirements of the relevant Health and Safety legislation and procedures.

Finance

Where can you get funding from?

The BFI (British Film Institution) are one of the well known places to get film funding from: BFI Website
You can also get funding from Creative England who fund short and feature length films : Creative England Website
Local Councils, charities and production schemes and competitions set up by broadcasters are also good ways to fund films. The more well known schemes are:
48 Hour Film Challenge 
Channel 4 : 4Talent
Maya Vision : The Short Film Completion Fund
Straight8

Where do you get the money from to make the documentary? How did the documentary you watched get funded? 

Documentary films can be from many different things such as fund raising, bank loans, if your part of a studio they will give you money or you can pay for the film yourself if you're an independent documentary film maker.
The Imposter was funded by A&E films BFI Film Fund.

How much is it to clear music/clips from other tv/film companies? 

Studios usually charger per clip or audio track or per seconds/minute. Its worked out by charge 5p per song times the number of units manufactured with a minimum fee of £200 per song  The basic rate is £40 for every 30 seconds of footage or audio. But you can get an all you can use charge of £275 per production.


Locations

Where was the documentary you have chosen filmed? 

All the interviews of the family of Nicholas Barkley was filmed in San Antonio - Texas. For the re-enactments, they were filmed in Madrid - Spain, Phoenix - Arizona and San Antonio - Texas.

What did they have to do to get permission to film there?

A lot of the re-enactments in The Imposter were filmed in public places. You have to get permission to film in a public place because there are a lot of things that need to be asked about to get permission to film, even if it's just going to be in the background of a shot. For example, iconic, religious and government buildings and also if the public are going to be walking around in the shot, you have to take into consideration that they will be on TV to millions, so it is key that you get permission to film in a public place. If you don't get permission you can be prosecuted for breaching copyright protection and you can be sued.
For The Imposter, they had to get permission from local councils in Madrid, Phoenix and San Antonio to film in public.

Who do you get permission from?

For filming on public land you would need to get authorisation from the appropriate local authority council because they are responsible for public buildings, land, roads and parking. Also you would need full cooperation from local police if you plan to film somewhere such as a public highway or if you need to use special effects, explosives or weapons even if the weapons are just replicas. Also if you have someone who is portraying a uniformed police officers or marked police cars on film you need to get permission for this. The police also need to know about if you film on public roads because they need to make sure that what you are filming is safe and also that you are safe whilst filming on the roads to avoid any road accidents. If filming inside a store or restaurant you need written permission to use the location and you have to include that company's name or trademark but if you are filming outside the store/restaurant you do not need permission. 

Facilities

From the same documentary, find out what equipment they might have used, any specialist kit that they needed.

Obviously for any type of production you'll need your basic equipment, cameras, sound equipment etc. As the imposter used lots of interviews, having lights and filters was essential to make the interviews the best they could be. They also might of used special lenses for Frederick Bourdin's interview because of how close up to his face it was so they could get the best quality they could.
In the re-enactment scenes, they will of used specialist equipment to pan the camera in certain shots, for example in the very first re-enactment scene, the camera is positioned on the floor and it slowly goes glides along the floor and then lifts upwards to show the phone box.

What camera, sound, editing equipment will you need to make your documentary, what are the technical specs of these?

For my documentary i will need a suitable video camera, field recorder, shotgun mic, boom pole, tripod, dolly, lights for interviews and filters so i can get defuse lighting and an XLR cable.

What are the cost of hiring things like this?

It can cost from £2000 per day of shooting. This would be for a basic crew and equipment use on a small production.

Why is having the right kit important?

Having the right equipement is important because the quality is key. The better the quality of the camera, the better the production will look as it will look more professional. Having good sound equipment is very important because if you don't have good microphones then you can pick up sounds that you don't want and this could effect your production massively because you might not be able to edit the sounds out completely. Also having a good dolly would be important because if you need to use one outside and the ground isn't completely smooth then your video will be effected because the camera will shake.

Materials/Copyrights

From a documentary that you have seen what archive or materials from other films/programmes have they used? Who would they need clearance from to use this footage? 

In The imposter they used phone recordings from the police, pieces of evidence such as fingerprint files. Also home videos from the Barkley family were used. Clearance from the Barkley family will have been needed to use the home videos. Also they will of needed clearance from the FBI, the police  in America and Spain. Also, when we find out about all the people that Frederick Bourdin has pretended to be in the past, several people's names were mentioned so they would need to get clerance for that too.

Have they used popular music, who would they have to get clearance from?

To get clearance for the music used in the imposter they would need to get clearance from the artist or the people who represent that artist. You have to give credit to the use of the music and this would be shown in the end credits.

What is PRS?

PRS is Performing Rights Society Limited. It is a society which songwriters, composers and music publishers become members of so they can get paid for people to use their music. PRS collects licence fees from anyone that uses music that isn't their own for business benefit use and then pays royalties to music the creators of the music all over the world and the UK. 

Why should you find things that are royalty free? 

Royalty free music is a popular music license model for all types of project producers. This means you do not have to pay the music producer/writer to play their song every time it is played. For example, the well known theme tune to popular show 'I Love Lucy' did not have a royalty free license and every time it was aired the channel broadcasting it had to pay. 


Materials/Contributors

From a documentary of your choice, find out who the contributors were, who have they interviewed? Were their any specialist advisors they needed to make the documentary? 

The people who were interviewed in The Imposter were:

• Frederick Bourdin - The Imposter 
• Beverly Dollarhide - Nicholas Barkley's mother
• Carey Gibson - Nicholas Barkley's sister
• Charlie Parker - PI on the case
• Nancy Fisher - FBI Special Agent 
• Brain Gibson - Nicholas Barkley's brother in law
• Codey Gibson - Nicholas Barkley's Nephew 
• Bruce Perry - Paediatric Psychiatrist
• Phillip French - US Consul at the American Embassy in Madrid

Specialist advisors will have been used to make sure that all the facts are correct and that nothing presumptuous or offensive was being said in the documentary.

Audience Research Pros and Cons

Pros and Cons

Unit 16/21/38 Assignment 1

Video Tutorial

Unit 26 Assignment 3

The Harry Potter Franchise

Harry Potter Target Audience: Children and Teenagers


















Marketing and Success
Harry Potter targets its psychographic labels (Aspirers and Mainstreamers) because young girls and boys want to be like the characters in the Harry Potter. Even more so in these films because they are fantasy films and unrealistic and this will be a unique selling point for the films as people sometimes like to stray away from real life.
The film posters for Harry Potter are highly effective as they are very dark and mysterious they give connotations of something sinister going on within the films. Also the background behind the characters on the posters fit in with the fantasy genre because there are abnormal images on them for example, on the Harry Potter and The Prisoner Of Askaban we can see a hand/claw that isn't human and also doesn't look like and animal either so this is where the fantasy comes into play. It leaves you wondering what this hand/claw could be, which then means you want to watch the film and find out.
These marketing techniques are cleverly used to draw people in because they want to know what the images on the posters represent or why a character has a certain facial expression.

In the opening weekend in america of the release of each film they made:

• The Philosophers Stone - $ 90,294,621
• The Chamber of Secrets - $88,357,488
• The Prisoners of Azkaban - $93,687,367
• The Goblet of Fire - $102,685,961
• The Order of the Phoenix - $77,108,414 
• The Half Blood Prince - $77,835,727
• The Deathly Hallows Part 1 - $125,017,372
• The Deathly Hallows Part 2 - $169,189,427

 Worldwide in the Box Office the films made: 

• The Philosophers Stone - $ 974,755,371
• The Chamber of Secrets - $878,979,634
• The Prisoners of Azkaban - $796,688,549
• The Goblet of Fire - $896,911,078
• The Order of the Phoenix - $942,943,935
• The Half Blood Prince - $934,416,487
• The Deathly Hallows Part 1 - $956,399,711
• The Deathly Hallows Part 2 - $1,328,111,219

Top 20 Harry Potter Sountracks

All Eight Harry Potter Trailers
The harry potter and the deathly hallows part 11 trailer starts off very sinister, they slow down the harry potter theme tune and use each note in the tune to sync up with a snippet from the film. This is effective because it gives dramatic effect and an eerie feel. The trailer has a very dark colour wash which tells us that this film is going to be a lot about the darkness about the harry potter films and its not all about the fantasy side of the films as seen previously. The camera has a lot of point of view shots for example, when we see the mine cart ride and it seems like you are there in the film which keeps the audience drawn in. The overall sound in the trailer is quite disturbing in a way as we here the theme tune that we know and love being turned into something more sinister. I think that this trailer is very appealing to the target phsycographic as it  doesn't give too much away about the film but it also has a very different feel to the previous films because of how dark it is. I think this could also be a u.s.p to people who may not fit the description of the target audience because it's so different from before.

Official Harry Potter Website

The Potter More Website

Universal Studios Website - Harry Potter Merchandise


Comparison

Comparison to twilight

Twilight and Harry Potter have a lot of things in common. They are both fantasy films, they both appeal to the same psychographic labels ( mainstreamers and aspirers) and they have very similar marketing campaigns. They both have large merchandise collections, you can buy almost anything with harry potter or twilight on. Also they both use similar advertising techniques on their film posters by creating a series of posters, each with a different character on. For example..
                                                




The characters are airbrushed a lot to make them look more desirable and attractive. If people like the characters they want to see the film more because they want to stare aimlessly at how beautiful they are so they will watch the films to do so.

Both films also used long press junkets, big statement film premiers, competitions, behind the scenes programmes online etc. In the opening weekends of these film francizes, some cinemas would play the previous films one after the other and then at midnight would release the new film. This brought in a substantial amount of the profit made in the opening weekends for these films.


Audience Reactions:

Reviews

 Audience responses

Fan review of the philosophers stone

Fan review of the chamber of secrets

Fan review of prisoners of Azkaban

Fan review of the goblet of fire

Fan review of the order of the phoenix

Fan review of the half blood prince

Fan review of the deathly hallows part 1&2


Audience Theory

A very potter musical

Universal studios have created the Harry Potter Theme Park - https://www.universalorlando.com/harrypotter/


There are also fan conventions such as -
http://harrypotterconference.com/

The harry potter fans have definitely made themselves known, there are millions and millions of harry potter fans all over the world and they have shown their love for harry potter in many different ways. 



This picture is from a harry potter convention in London. Every year thousands of British fans come to this annual event to dress up as the characters, meet other fans and share there love with each other. 



Some of the stars of the films go to the convention too.

Creating a fan base for this kind of film is important because without the fans a film can't be successful and well known. You can't make that much money from a film if nobody goes to see it. Fans have engaged so much in this film i think, because of the fantasy theme it has. The target pyscographics that like the harry potter films like to be able to have an imagination and this is exactly what the films give them because magic isn't real and especially for younger people, this is a big thing because they like to believe in things such as magic, wizards etc.

Unit 26 Assignment 2 Improvements

A trade association is an organisation whose members are involved in a particular business or trade, such as the film industry. The MPAA are a trade association because they represent the six big hollywood studios. They work along side these studios who are different companies within the film industry so this is how they MPAA are a trade association.

One negative of the MPAA is that they appear to give a lot more support to studio productions than to independent film makers.  The MPAA say that they real concerns are for independent film makers but it doesn't appear this way to independents. For example, South Park's Matt Stone and Trey Parker said in an interview that the MPAA had screwed them over, they also said that when the MPAA had told them to cut something, they purposefully replaced it with something worse to "put a middle finger up to them" but then the MPAA would give the new scenes the all clear when they would be worse than the original. They said that when they made Orgasmo, they didn't put any nudity or sex in the film to avoid an NC-17 rating but they still got one so when they asked the MPAA what they could cut the MPAA refused to tell them because they could be accused of censorship. But then when they made the south park film with paramount, that also received NC-17 but someone high up from paramount asked the MPAA what they could cut the MPAA told them and gave them a list of things they could cut. This clearly shows that the MPAA support big studios more than independent film makers.


Personally i think that the MPAA are secretly are a censorship group even if they don't directly tell filmmakers what to cut or put in their films but they virtually do because whenever a film gets an NC-17 it appears that all filmmakers do is cut whatever they can and whatever they MPPA tell them what got the film that rating.

Production Companies

• DreamWorks SKG
• DreamWorks Animation
• 20th Century Fox 
• 20th Century Fox Animation
• Fox Atomic
• Orion Pictures Corp.
• Streamline Pictures
• Universal Studios
• Rogue Pictures
• Paramount Pictures
• Paramount Vantage
• Columbia Pictures
• TriStar Pictures
• Sony Pictures Classics
• Sony Pictures Animation
• Warner Bros. Pictures 
• Warner Bros. Animation
• New Line Cinema
• Walt Disney Pictures
• Walt Disney Animation Studios
• Pixar Animation Studios
• Disneynature
• Marvel Studios
• Hollywood Pictures
• Lions Gate Pictures 

5 films that bombed at the cinema

1. Bruno
2. Catwoman
3. Hulk
4. Superman Returns

Movie Trailers Unit 26 Assignment 3 notes

Black Swan Trailer

• this trailer makes people want to see the film because it's quite dark and sinister but because the film is about ballet dancers it makes it seem more interesting because people will want to see how a film about ballet dancers can be so eerie.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Trailer

• This trailer will make people want to see the film because this film has been highly anticipated ever since the first hunger games film came out. It's quite different to the first film and people will want to see how the characters have developed. This trailer doesn't give too much away, the audience are left wondering what things mean.

Black Swan Film Poster

This poster is very striking. The red eyes are captivating and we don't quite know why they are red so people know there's more than meets the eye when we see this poster. The crown shows us that this character is the main character and she has more importance to the film more than anyone else. The poster is simple, it uses a lot of white to show the purity of the character but then the dark make up shows how she isn't all pure, she has a dark side to her.

Editing Script

Introduction to editing

There are many different types of editing software, Sony Vegas, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premier Pro. But the best software to use would be Final Cut Pro.

Final Cut pro

If you have never used final cut pro before this is a basic guide on how to use it. There are five windows on final cut pro...

• The browser, here on the far left
• Next to the browser is the viewer
• Next to the viewer is the canvas 
• And then along the bottom we have the timeline

THE BROWSER

The browser is where you organise all your clips, audio tracks, pictures etc.
You can adjust how you view your browser and you have the option of a list, small icons, medium icons or large icons. I personally think that medium or large icons are the best to use because you can identify clips easier and its easier to see which things are audio tracks and which are video clips.
If you have a lot of clips and audio tracks in your browser you can create bins to organise them. Bins are basically just folders, so for example you can separate your audio clips from your video clips.

THE VIEWER

The viewer is where you view your clips and you can mark up clips and decide your in point and out point. You can also go through a clip frame by frame simply just by using the arrows on your keyboard.

THE CANVAS

The canvas is where you view everything that is in your timeline, you can watch your final cut will appear in your canvas.

 

THE TIMELINE

The timeline is where you put all your video clips, audio clips and any other images, opening titles, credits etc. As well as in the viewer, you can also cut clips down and make them more sped up or slowed down. There's also a slider so you can click anywhere in the time line and view your production from that point onwards in your canvas.

Assignment 2 Unit 26

Unit 26 Assignment 2

Observation Form Assignment 1 Unit 26

Observation Form Assignment 1 Unit 26

Unit 26 Assignment 1

Assignment 1

quick quiz

1. taxes 

Quiz

1. 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures, Walt Disney
2. Paramount, Universal, Warner Bros., Pixar, Nickelodeon
3. Disney + Warner Bros. 

Video Editing = Unit 16 + Unit 21

Workflow 

1.  Ingest Footage
2. Review/Mark Footage
3. Rough Cut
4. Finesse Cut 
5. Locked Cut = Export 

Non - Linear Editing systems

• Final Cut Pro
• Adobe Premier Pro
• Avid Media Composer
• Sony Vegas 

Sound Testing

Sound Testing Clip

Video - An Introduction

Moving Images

The reason we film/video is to tell stories. Some are big (Cinema, Television) Some are small (Advertising, Promo)

The Process

The film making process is split into three parts:

1. Pre - Production
2. Production
3. Post - Production

Shooting Ratio - 10:1 (For one hour of footage you need to shoot 10 hours)

Production: Who does what?

Camera Operator/Cinematographer/Director of Photography - Sets up entire scene, size of shot, framing, lighting.

Director - Come up with the shots, tells the story visually. 

Producer - In sole charge of everything.

Lighting Technician - To get the lighting right, make sure the film has the right look. 

Types of Production

Single Camera Production: Only using one camera throughout the whole production

• Feature films
• Documentary 
• TV Drama
• (On Location) 

Multi - Camera Production:

• Live Broadcast
• Pre-Recorded TV Show 
• (In a Studio)

How To Make Moving Images: 

Light is everything we see. Once you understand light you begin to understand video. 

Soft Light - Diffused Light 

Hard Light - Direct light

Contrast - Difference between light and dark

• Soft light is LOW CONTRAST 
• Hard light is HIGH CONTRAST 

The Shining review

For the past two, nearly three lessons we have been watching the film the shining. I thought that the film was very confusing and disturbing. At certain times in the film you think you have the gist of the narrative, but then something else weird, but creative happens witch throws you off and makes you think again.
I thought the actors performances were good but they were very dramatic and over enthusiastic. In a way though the way they were being dramatic could be dismissed because you could understand why they were being that way. I thought Wendy Torrence was an unusual choice of actress because she wasn't the typical horror/thriller actress. Normally people would expect a ditzy, attractive girl who can easily be tricked and killed. But then throughout the film you could begin to warm to Wendy and like her more because you would feel sorry for her because of how she was treated by jack. I thought that Jack Nicholson was extremely well suited for playing Jack Torrence because he had that creepy look in his eyes and he looks like he would be an intimidating kind of person. I imagine that it is hard to play a character who has mental health issues because if it is played well then it will seem too fake. But Nicholson did it very well. Danny was played well by Danny Lloyd especially as he is only a child.]

What did the critics think?

New York Times:

" Meticulously detailed and never less than fascinating, The Shining may be the first movie that ever made its audience jump with a title that simply says "Tuesday.""

The Guardian:

"Instead of the cramped darkness and panicky quick editing of the standard-issue scary movie, Kubrick gives us the eerie, colossal, brilliantly lit spaces of the Overlook Hotel (created in Elstree Studios, Hertfordshire), shot with amplitude and calm."

Film 4:
"One of the late 20th century's finest tales of the supernatural and a justly famous classic."


A good example of unusual camera shots is where Wendy is trying to get away from Jack and he is following her up the stairs but the camera is used from a high angle over Wendy's shoulder and a low angle from over Jack's shoulder. This is unusual for this kind of scene because jack is the one with the power over Wendy not the other way round so why has Kubrick done this? Is he trying to show that maybe Wendy is the one with power? I think he might be trying to show this because he could be using these camera shots to portray their mental power not physical power as Jack is loosing his mind and Wendy is in more of a healthy mental state than him. 

The Shining Notes 1

Sound Unit 38 Lesson 2

Location Recording

1. Choose the correct mic
2. Mic position = Above/below 
3. Use a muffler to make the sound more clean.

In the studio

• Perfect Acoustics to make the sound perfectly clean.
• Sound Control
• Additional Sound Recordings to change sounds if they arent suitable on the first recording.
• Foley Sound Recordings to add in extra sounds for emphasis or fill in gaps where there needs to be sound
• ADR = Additional Dialogue Recording 

Mixers, Recorders & Monitoring

• Studio - Use a mixing desk
• Levels - Volume
• On Location - Field Mixer
• Listening = Monitoring 
• MIXERS DO NOT RECORD 
• Headphones can help prevent feedback.
• Monitor Speakers

Feedback is where the mic records sounds coming from the mic and from the speaker because the mic is too close to the speaker. Be careful with feedback, put headphones on and turn the speaker down.

Auteurs

What is an Auteur?

A film maker who influences their movies so much that they rank as their author.

• Charles Chaplin
• Woody Allen
• Lars Von Trier
• Mike Leigh
• Quentin Tarantino
• George Romero
• Fredrico Fellini
• David Lynch
• Niel Marshall
• Steve McQueen
• Mel Brooks

Man on Fire

In man on fire, the 7 minutes of footage we watched had lots of different camera angles and shots. Some scenes were sped up to fit in with atmosphere of the club and the man running into the club. It had very low-key lighting because of the setting. When people were talking fast the close up of the characters were switching quickly too fit in all of the dialogue. There were some high angle wide shots so we could see all off the setting of the club and of everyone dancing.  It also contained a split screen of 4 different scenes. Wide shot shows a rundown setting in the background of the frame. The sunglasses make him look a bit shifty, the audience wonders what he is doing there and if he is up to something. He changes his costume to show the audience that he isn't a villain but he is a gangster. The blue colour wash makes it seem more mysterious and shady. Most of the props were guns and a photo of the little girl who he was trying to find.  The lighting flashes a lot to make it seem more fast paced. There is a P.O.V. shot where it shows what he is holding close up to the camera. There is an over the shoulder shot when Denzel Washington is  interrogating his victim and the effect is to show that they are quite close together so it's kind of intimidating for the victim There are subtitles next to the person that's speaking to show how loud the place is. The bits that are subtitled are the bits that we need to focus on the most. When it slows down it does it to highlight important things happening. The camera pans to show the whole scene. They have overlaid two scenes on top of each other to fit in with it being a rave and to show that the people outside still aren't aware of what is happening. Flashbacks to give the audience important information. 

Sound Unit 38 Lesson 1 Outcome

Who does what? 

• Sound recordist - holds the boom pole, recording the clean audio 
• Sound mixer - person who does post production 
• Foley artist - someone who creates sound in a studio/represents sound in production. They create realistic sounds in a studio so if the sound designer wants to make sounds more prominent or put more sound in for emphasis they would go to the foley artist who would produce the sounds.
• Composer /Score writer - come up with and creates music
• Sound designer - decides which songs need recording, designs entire sound for film production 

What do we record?

• Dialogue - Speech coming from individuals or groups of people.
• Ambient/Atmosphere - Animate, Inanimate could be a wildtrack, a lavier mic or any other omni directional mic because they pick up all sound.
• SFX (Sound FX) - Foley, Real world. The sound FX can be foley sounds from a studio or real life sounds that are added on to make sounds bolder.

Sound for video

• Sync Sound - MUST be in sync to make sense, such as a person talking or popping a balloon. The pop of the balloon needs to be in sync with the action of the balloon being popped just like a persons voice needs to be in sync with their mouths moving.
• Non Sync Sound - doesn't have to be in sync to make sense such as a bus going down a road. the sound the bus makes doesn't have to be perfectly in sync with it moving. 
• Mix - Balanced sound 
• Wildtrack - Recording of ambient sound

Recording Environment

• Recording somewhere like next to a motorway isn't a good recording environment. This is because its background noise that is too loud or not suitable for what is actually being recorded.
•  Must have the right equipment for the right environment. If you need to record a wildtrack, an omni-directional mic is the correct mic to use as they records everything around it.

Microphones

• Shotgun Mic - Directional/Cardioid
• Omni - Directional Mic - Picks up sound from everywhere, for recording a wildtrack.
• Lavier Mic = Omni - Directional

Induction Video

Finishing scream filming and continuing editing

Today we finished off filming the final shots of our scream scene.

We came back into the classroom and carried on with the editing. I had done the editing previously so the other people in my group were doing it. I learnt how to unlink the audio and visual and delete the audio off the video.  I also learnt how to download music and import it into final cut pro.

Scream filming first day

Today me and my group (Jade, Vicky, Jess and Nicole) began to film our spoof version of a scene from the movie Scream.
The filming went well as we had gotten half of the filming done in two hours which was what i had expected as our location was the toilets so we were getting interruptions throughout the two hours from people wanting to use the toilets. We tried to work fast so we could try and avoid as many interruptions as possible.

The only downfall we had was that we were filming in a toilet so people where other students were coming in and out wanting to use them and it did slow us down a bit because we had to stop filming when people were coming in.

Scream Planning

In my group (Me, Jade, Nicole, Jess and Vicky) we are creating our own interpretation of a scene from the movie scream. Today we have been shown how to use cameras, how to book equipment and we have also been sorting out camera angles for our scene and how we are going to make the scene our own. We have decided to spoof the scene and make it comical as the film is the horror film. I will be playing the killer who we have turned into a killer gorilla with a banana gun. Jess will play Sindey who is the victim of the killer. Nicole and jade will be extras (Sindey's friends) and Vicky will be operating the camera.

We have been on location scouting to find a suitable cubicle, and found one. For our plan B if we cant use that particular toilet then we have found another toilet that is suitable for us to use.

Working in a group is good because more ideas can be discussed and people can help each other out if something needs improving. I get along with everyone in my group as i have got to know them well.