New Filming

We were unable to film today due to the weather conditions; snow and rain, which would have completely ruined the continuity of our shots. However some of our shots were set to be inside, so caitlin has done the shots she can today, and the rest will have to be organised to film either before we go back, or out of lesson time the week we get back. As of now, there is not much more we can do except plan, which a lot is needed if we are planning to re-film the whole, if not the majoraty of the film.
J x

Website links

I have just added links to all of the websites we have used down the right hand side of our blog, if anyone can think of any more then please add them because those were the only ones I could see! :)

changes.

On Friday we submitted our first draft, in todays lesson Caitlin and I have been discussing our short film and have agreed that we do not like it or want to use it as our coursework project. We feel that the main issues are the clarity of narrative, after showing the film to other people in our class and our friends, it is clear that it makes no sence without us explaining the 'point' of it. There is also an issue with the actors we have used, although this was a last minute decision because a lot of people cancelled on us, we feel that the actors we have chosen are unrealistic and not fitting for the parts at all, mainly because of their age but we also feel that Theo's clothing is unrealistic.
We have discussed everything we want to change and have decided to refilm everything on Wednesday 23rd December, this is in the Christmas holidays. As soon as we come back to school we will use all of our free time to edit our film and make it the standard we all want it to be. We have until the 29th of January to get everything done, and we feel that this is achievable as long as we work hard. We have also been told that our animatics need to make more sence, and fit in with our actual filming, so we will be redoing these over the christmas holidays as well. We will also be making a new storyboard and a new shot list. Although this sounds like a lot of work we are prepared to do it after speaking to our teachers.
We have completed the poster, which will just need the picture to be edited when we have changed the actor, and the magazine review will be completed when we have pasted the artical into it, which we finished writing on Friday.
Today we were told that our coursework is currently a U grade and we NEED to change it, however we havent spoken to all of the group yet so are unsure how the other members feel, however we will be refilming regardless of their opinions, even if this means submitting something completely different to them.

Article

This is the first draft of the artical that Caitlin and I have written together, we each wrote our own draft and then blended them together. I have uploaded it onto scribd and we have also put it onto our magazine review pages, it is still a little bit short so we need to add a little more writing. We have also decided to add a box with some information about The Samaritans in, which will be useful as it will allow readers to maybe donate some money to the charity after reading our review/watching our film.

artical
This is just a first draft so we would like to hear ideas or suggestions from the rest of the group or teachers if there is anything you think could be added :)

Decision

Jess & I have discussed with our teachers, and fellow pupils this morning and came to a unanimous decision to go with the phrase 'Ignore Me'. We decided this was most fitting for our film as even though it is very simple, it reflects our message most clearly and directly. In addition to this, I believe it again allows empathy to be created as the audience recognises that the vagrant see's himself as a 'nobody' and expects to ignored.

As for the other posters, we thought some of them were cliche and in some way inappropriate. Firstly, the 'Hold my Hand', could be seen as a reference to homosexuality and even though this is an diverse subject, it is not what we want our film to demonstrate.

Secondly, the 'Am I Human too?', even though this relates to our film fittingly, being the name of our poem and narration it seems slightly too predictable.

Finally, the 'Human or Object?', again for similar reasons to the above it has not been chosen. Also, its message, does not seem as strong or poignant as 'Ignore Me'. Thus, therefore why it has not been selected.





Over & Out, Caity x

to do list

I have decided to write us a small to do list so that everyone in the group is aware of what we still have left to do.
- Add some more text to the artical, we have made the font smaller and therefore need to include more text so that the page appears fuller.
- Finish editing our footage.
- Put the music and sound into our film, this is already recorded and just needs to be added.

This is deffinitely achievable before the deadline, as we have finished the posters and the layout for our artical is completed.

links to individual blogs

I have added links down the right hand side of our blog to our individual blogs, although we have only really used these for homework tasks :)

Film Posters, COMPLETE

We Decided to do 4 posters as a set. This is so when displayed in public places and in magazines/newspapers there is variety for the viewer which may make them look at the poster more often.


the four phrases I chose are :
-Am I Human to You?
-Ignore Me
-Object or Person?
-Hold my hand.


Most of these were taken from the films narrative although hold my hand i just thought was a powerful thought for a vagrant that has no human contact day after day.


Here they Are:
Cheerio, Theodore x (on behalf of the group)

Filming.... Success

Filming today went well, the weather brightened up for use after the morning rain. and we managed to film the rest of our needed shots.

I thought it being a Sunday there maybe more people out and about and therefore creating dispruption other than the odd shout from a white van and a local resident walking through a shot all went well.

the group morale is up!!

cheerio, Theodore x

Pictures

Yesterday as well as filming we also took the pictures for our magazine artical and film poster. We need a big picture for the front page of our artical, we are still trying to choose between the shot of the business man walking past a wall, and the shot of the vagrant and the business man on a bench. We are unsure which to choose, as the shot of the two characters on a bench gives more away and hints the storyline, more than the shot of the business man walking - some members of the group think this is quite boring. We have decided to upload both of our reviews on to the blog and then ask the rest of our media class to vote which one we should use.


If you click the picture then you can read a short description of each picture :)

Representation of Actors

After casting our actors for our filming yesterday i thought about what how their images represented their character within our short film.


Business man played by Jack Sutherland;
As you will be able to see in our film we decided to use Jack Sutherland. His attractive nature appealed to us as directors as we felt our audience would feel a sense of attachment to him on initial impressions. However, in contrast to this his personality is somewhat different. We felt this would work well with his charcter as the audience would have to question their first impression made of him, and form a different opinion. This is out of the ordinary for the normal convention, of having the protagonist as asthetically pleasing however, in our short film he can be seen in a different light due to his arrogance towards the vagrant. The business man is dressed in smart black trousers, black shoes, a white shirt & a smart navy trench coat.



Vagrant played by Theo Miller;
We thought Theo would be more than adequate to play the vagrant within our film as his innocence should create a sense of empathy between the audience and himself. His long hair could be seen as a representation of homelessness due the fact he does not take pride in his appearance in comparison to the business man. The difference in outfits also reflects the characters in alternative lights. The vagrant is dressed in old shoes without laces, ripped jeans, an old shirt, Deer Stalker hat & a plain black sleepingbag. We thought that his costume portrays his character well, after doing research of what they may where from image hosting websites.

Over & Out, Caity x

Updated Shot List

Yesterday we filmed, due to weather conditions we had to stop half way through, but still managed to get a lot done. Here is an updated version of the shot list, showing what has been filmed so far...

Shot List After First Filming

Filming

Yesterday we took the photos for the magazine and posters, and began to film parts of the film. We plan on filming the rest of the shots on sunday, then we can edit the shots together and hopefully finish the film. There are a few changes to note, the businessman was played by Jack Sutherland and the vagrant was played by Theo Miller.
We managed to film 11 shots in total, which is about a third of the filming, however it started to rain which was a continuity issue, so we had to stop. Filming on different days will be to our advantage, as our film skips through different days, so it will actually look like a completely new day, (hopefully)
J x

Refined Prop List

Me & Theo have just refined the prop list so we know exactly what props and brands of props we need for saturday. I think it is a good idea that we have refined them as the products we are using we are trying to represent their stereotypes within society & shows the different levels of status.

For an example; As you can see earlier in the first props list we spoke of the vagrant having a plastic bag, we have decided to use the supermarket store of 'Farmfoods' as this is seen as a cheaper option supermarket.

Another example is the type of cigareete we are having the businessman smoking, we have decided to use 'Hamlett Cigar Miniatures' as these represent a more upper class cigarette & shows off his wealth.

Over & Out, Caity x

Risk Assessment

Guys, pay attention to this risk assessment i don't want any injuries when we're filming. comprende?

Falls:
Uneven surface areas, ie. pavements & roads.
Appropriate footwear.
Equipment always placed on safe, flat & stable surfaces (tripod).

Temporary Structures:
Carefully stepping onto benches.
No slippery surfaces/ Ice.
Take drying equipment.

Tripping Hazards:
Uneven surface areas, ie. pavements & roads.
Equipment, always be aware if where it is.

Vehicles:
Drive according to speed limits.
Check for any delays/ accidents.
Seatbelts must be worn at all times.
No distractions.
Music not too be played at an inappropriate volume.
Not to overload the car, maxium of four people.

Special Effects:
Time lapse - keep the camera insight at all times.
Keep someone with the camera at all times.
No tripping over equipment.

Weapons:
Ciggarette lighter must be used appropriately & kept the right distance away from the face.
Not to be played with whilst not filming.

Burns from Lighting:
ALL the rest is natural lighting.

We will all be at risk during the majority of the filming however, we all have to agree to minimise risk at all times & act accordingly, especially to the risk assessment.

Over & Out, Caity x

Filming Disaster

Ok, so we had a problem with cameras at the weekend, and we could not obtain a camera for our filming slot, therefore we were unable to film. As if this, we will now have to film sometime this week. Due to a range of problems this weekend just didn't pay off.
At first I think its safe to say our group was panicing about it but we have now have cameras booked for thursday all day, and i have a good stills digital camera and well organised shot list.

SO WE WILL GET THIS DONE!!!

we have the article and the poster ready to go, so once we've done we'll rock the party.

Cheerio, Theodore x

Filming changes

Today we found out that the two men we had planned to play the characters in our film are now unavailable for this weekend. We cant change the date as it is difficult for us to find a time when we are all available to do it, so we decided to find new actors. We have John Flint to play the vagrant, he is a 53 year old male who is the step dad of a member of our class, Anna. Our business man will be Craig Coombs, he is a 19 year old male.
If for any reason either of these actors are unavaible at the last minute, we also have back-up actors who are available incase we need them :)

Prop List

We need to be organised, so that we are not wasting our time and our actors time, to do this we need to make sure that we have everything we need to make our days of filming successfull. We do not want to be refilming things after this weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

List of Props;
- Cigarette Packets x 2
- Zippo lighter
- Ipod classic
- Posh car, Audi/Mercedes
- Coins
- Coffee cup, bottom says cardboard dreams.
- Still camera
- Video camera
- Tripod
- Cardboard box for tramp to sit on
- Can of cheap cider
- Co op bag (for tramps possessions)

Shot List

We are filming this Saturday and Sunday, as well as our storyboard we felt it would be usefull to have a shot list, showing all of the different shots we will be using in order. I have also added tick boxes for when we have filmed and edited each shot, which will hopefully make it easier for us to keep track of what has already been done, as we are a group of 4 and will be sharing out the filming and editing equally.

shot listNext we will need to continue the planning stage by writing a list of what we need, and costume/appearance of our actors.

Blog Layout

Check out the new layout.
It links to our film because there is cardboard, and there is a city. Simple.
J x

Filming

With 2 and a half weeks left until the deadline, weve now decided upon the actors and were planning on filming over the weekend of the 27th and 28th of november. The actors are called Josh Rapley and Luke Norbury, who are friends of family members. After a long decision we decided these people suited the roles for our characters, because they are a lot older than us so they would be more suited for playing a businessman and a tramp. They also fit the main characteristics of our characters, (not saying Josh Rapley is a tramp) however with a little bit of work on appearance, we feel we would be able to represent a homeless person very well.
Same applies with Luke Norbury, who is well suited for our businessman. We will attempt to do everything we can with their appearance to represent them as their characters, to create that cultural code, where the audience will assume who the characters are without us having to introduce them.
We have also decided that we will need a new filming location upon filming the businessman, as we havn't taken photos of a built up area, that would be linked to a wealthy businessman. Therefore as we have the whole weekend to film, we will be able to swap location fairly easily, so we will be doing that.

J x

Layout of Review

As a group we have been working on the layout and design of our magazine review recently, taking inspiration from the magazine Empire. Here are some ideas we came up with...

This A3 sheet shows the first double page spread, with the right side being taken up completely by a picture - this is either going to be of a business man walking past the graffiti wall or a bench with the vagrant and the business man sitting on at opposite ends. We have not yet decided this and are going to see which looks better when we have the shots. The left hand side shows a piece of ripped cardboard, showing the title of the film in a large font and a small subtitle to hint the genre of the film. There will be a small amount of text at the bottom of this page, in 3 equal comments. When looking through empire we noticed that it was common for the reviews to have little writing on the first pages, and for the focus to mainly be on the pictures and title.
This is the second page of our review, there are going to be lots of images showing different stills of the film, which is something we noticed a lot when looking through Empire. There is the ripped cardboard in the middle again which will link the two pages together, and make it clear to the reader that this page is following on from the last - this circle will contain key facts about the film, which is something that Empire includes in all of its reviews. The quotation marks show where we will include a key point that the film critic makes, a possitive thing that will entice the reader to read all of the review. The 6 collums will include text.

-x-Here is another idea for our review, this is the first A3 sheet, there is a large picture at the top which takes up a lot of the space, we feel that pictures are just as important as text in our review; as we want it to interest the reader, and not include too much text, as this could be quite boring. The picture is of the benches setting with the business man in the corner slightly, this will allow the reader to see the actor we have chosen, as this is a short film without famous actors it is unlikely that this would entice them to see the film, in the way that a well known name would do. This layout includes 5 collums of writing, and down the far right side there is a piece about the charity that our short film supports - the salvation army, with information on how to donate, we believe this could really increase our audience!This is the second page of our second layout idea, again we have chosen to include several pictures, which will break up the text and make the layout more interesting and colourful. We have also included the circle of 'info' which will include the same key facts found on every review in Empire - as a group we prefer the idea of this being made out of cardboard, like the first idea. Again there is going to be a quotation from the reviewer at the bottom of the page, and some extra information about the film/directors/actors at the top in the larger 'info' box.
-x-

We have decided that we would definitely like to use 2 double spreads for our review, after looking at Empire magazine it was clear that a whole 4 page feature on our film would be a better idea, giving us more space to write a longer review and include more pictures. We have been working on making a mock review using photoshop, which is similar to the first images I uploaded here, as a group we think that this looks really good and works the best, as it allows us to include a balance of pictures and text, without there being too much of either.

Animatics

In todays lessons we used the pictures Caitlin and Jamie took of a possible location to play around with animatics. Although this is helpful in showing where our characters will be walking and the position of the camera, because the shots used are still the scenes look very boring. When we come to film we will be using numerous different angles, but at this stage, these pictures are helpful to show the surroundings and where our actor will be positioned.
I used windows movie maker, paint and youtube to create this small film :)

The opening of the video shows the business man walking accross the street, he will be smoking and we will include close ups of his cigarette, face and shoes, as well as long shots such as this which show his surroundings. The busyness of the area we have chosen will reflect the characters hectic and busy lifestyle.
Next the business man will walk past the cash points, on the opposite side of the road, again we will be using numerous shots here. The shot shown in the still image is from a low angle, which portrays the character as powerful and important, as he is looking down on the audience.
The next shot is of the business man walking past the vagrant, who is sitting in the alley next to the cash machines, the homeless man will not be looking at the camera; he will appear unhappy. By sitting down he is making himself appear vulnerable compared to the business man, who is walking past him without noticing he is there.
Next is a shot of the man walking down a greener area, still in the city, here the man will walk forwards and then backwards and then forwards again, each time his suit will change - this will highlight the repetition of his daily routine, and our film will not seem like a 'day in the life' type genre, which we would like to avoid.
Finally there is a scene of the business man walking past the graffiti, which is also included in our magazine review. The run down area surrounding this public walkway represents the neglected lifestyle of the vagrant. Again we will include numerous shots here alongside this long shot to show the surroundings.

Obviously our film will be a lot longer than this, and include lots more shots, but because of lack of pictures this is all I could do so far! Ps, I was unable to speed it up anymore and realise the business man will not be walking this slow.
Also, thankyou to Anna Shepherd who gave us this idea :)

Location

Me & Jamie went to search for our possible location on tuesday afternoon.
I thought we has a successful trip (see the pictures below).
The area we found is just outside the centre of Leicester, Jamie & I thought the location worked well as you can see it is a mixture of a new thriving city area which can be seen as a representation of the businessman and then there is also a more urban area covered in graffiti which can be seen as a different representation for the vagrant.
I believe this location also shows that the two different classes can always intermingle within everyday life.

Over & Out, Caity x

Possible set location

Here are the photos that we took at the possible set location.
J x

Layout for our film review

Today we have been looking through a copy of Empire magazine to get some inspiration for our film review. I have taken pictures of some of the pages to show examples of what we would like to create. If this particular magazine chose to include a review of our film, we would need to ensure that our review follows their style. This is similar to what we would like to create, a double page spread consisting of a review and a picture. Here the main picture takes up the majority of the review, and is the only picture included. I think that if we used such a large picture then we couldnt really include any smaller ones, as this would take up lots of space and make it hard for us to write a detailed review.

This is a zoomed in clip of the first paragraph of the review, this short fact file about the film is something that Empire use throughout their magazine. If we choose this magazine for our review then we would deffinitely need to include something like this. The headings are: Released, Certificate, Director, Cast. Screenwriter, Running Time, Plot.

Here is a double page spread showing several smaller reviews, with an advertisement running across the bottom of both pages. Again each review includes the same headings as above, but without any more of a review on each film. I dont think this is something we could really use, as it would take away the focus of our film, as it wouldnt be the main feature. To overcome this issue we could make the advertisement at the bottom of the pages for our film, but as a group we would prefer to make the whole double page focussed on our film.

Here is an example of a single page review on one film, again it includes the same headlines used throughout the magazine, to show some of the key facts. At the end of this review there is a 'verdict' from the critic who wrote it, with a 3 star rating, this is something we would like to include in ours, to conclude the review with a final opinion, which will be positive. The writing in red at the bottom of the page reads 'normally investigators try to make a witness talk - here he wont shut up' this sentence gives away a part of the plot, and stands out so allows the reader to know what type of film this is without reading the whole review. We would like to use something similar to this in our review.


Here is an example of a double page showing an advertisement on the right hand side and 2 reviews on the opposite page, this is something we could use if we made the advertisement for our film. However, we would also have to review another film, which doesnt really fit with what we are required to do, and we would prefer to focus on just our film.


This is a longer review of the film 'Nowhere Boy' which has not yet been released, it starts with a double page spread, showing a big picture of the main actor which takes up the whole page. There is a big title on this page and a few paragraphs of writing. The next page has a larger part of the review with several other pictures, shots from the film. Agiain this page includes a short fact file about the film, as seen previously on the other reviews. There is also a quote included from the critic, which is larger than the rest of the text, and makes it stand out, as well as breaking up the rest of the text, making it easier to read. This is similar to what we would like to create, making our review 4 pages in total. When filming we will need to make sure we take stills of the film to include in our review.

As well as Empire, we are planning to look at the layouts of less mainstream film magazines, such as Sight and Sound :)

Camera Angles

This is a set of camera angles that we took roughly around school, we will try to recreate all these angles when we go to the set location.

J x

The Wave

In media last week we watched a film called 'The Wave' (Die Welle) from the director Dennis Gansel. It's a German film, so this meant we watched the entire film with subtitles. This was a challenge at first, but once I got into the routine of it, I began to connect with the film more. The basic plot of the film is about a teacher (Jurgen Vogel) who uses his power to influence his students into a cult gang; 'The Wave'. He transforms them into united group, dressed in white shirts. This is made as a key feature of the film, the white shirts become compulsary to their collective status within the school.Within the film there are many different scenarios in which we see the powerful force they have over the other pupils. Their military like nature is demonstrated through their salute and the way they have to recieve permission to talk & stand up whilst doing so. The 'cult gang' also come up with a trademark for their group, and in one of the more visually stimulating scenes you see them running around their town 'tagging' everything with their symbol. This is also one of the first times you see the extremities of which one of the pupils will go to. Firstly, when meeting an opposing group of older men, he pulls out a gun (which later becomes iconic) and then later climbs the Town hall, covered in scaffolding showing the risks he is willing to take for his so called 'people'.

The idea of this film is based on a real story in America, in which a teacher followed the same pronciples i've spoke of previously creating a clut gang. Originally, it started as just a simple lesson which then turned into a week experiment. However, the ending was completely different as it did not end in suicide. The students were informed that it was part of an experiment and went back to ordinary school next week.

We felt the impact this film had on our project is that it illustrated a strong sense of collective identity. This related to our idea due to the fact that vagrants are put under the title of 'homelessness' and are not seen as individuals.

Over & Out, Caity x

Jamie's individual blog...

Sorry its late,

http://jamiehives.blogspot.com/

Jess' personal blog

http://jesshlca2cw.blogspot.com

Theo's Individual blog.

my individual blog, www.theodorelca2cw.blogspot.com

Time to do something...

Hello everyone, hope the holidays have been well, but im afraid it is time now to actually do something, therefore i am making a plan of action. Due to theory lessons, and people being away during the holidays, we may be slightly behind the rest of the groups, as rumors are others have started to film...

So first of all, storyboards need to be finished, this can be done either at home or in lesson time. Also, one of our group members has learnt how to drive, (woo caitlin) so unless we catch the bus, or walk, it looks like your in the spotlight caitlin to drive us to the location. :) (we will buy your petrol for you do not fear, or simply a mcdonalds meal, or something similar.) Anyway, we have the location pinned down, somewhere near Friar Lane...
So that is something to do when we get there, just scan the area, and look for places that we could film, take pictures of them to add to the storyboard etc.
These are the first two things that i can think of, storyboarding, and planning location, so we shall talk about it in the lesson next week.

I had a really good time in new york aswell guys, just to let you know.

J x

An Example of Postmodernism.

This is the advert for the new LG chocolate. and a very good example of postmodernism and it's use in mainstream media. It is an obvious homage to Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" The Specific use of this reference in the advert is good for advertising as it makes the phone appear, like a Monolith and makes the LG Chocolate BL40 therefore a mysterious futuristic object.



here is the start of 2001: A space odyssey. i was going to tube chop the specific part but as it is such a amazing and at the time influencial film i will let you watch it.



Cheerio, Theodore x

We are all one ,a circle, unite and become stronger,

Strength through discipline, strength through community, strength through action, strength through pride

I am sorry to inform we are no longer a media class but instead , "the third wave" Die Dritte Welle, possibly in german for the dramatic effect! Ironically, also a german musical about a man called "Ben Ross" and is also a german wave of Ska music.

However, i found it enlightening.

What makes me unique?
What Unites people in the class?

questions such as this made me think, how am i represented and how people read the way I think i represent myself. and this related back to representations.

My Gender, Age, Class, Ethnicity, Religion, Disability. these are what can define me as "unique" but also unites me with my peers. This can help me understand the way in which the audience will read into our film, dependant on the way in which we choose to represent the above categories.

the completed, annoted storyboard is nearly finished now and will be on the blog ASAP.

Cheerio, Theodore x

Interactive presentation, Web 2.0

EXAMPLES OF WEB 2.0...

This is a message from the whole group. There may be a slight space in blogs for the time being we are working on a final storyboard when this is done we can then start putting that on the blog and showing where we got specific ideas from. and explaning, and adding advanced annotations etc.

Caitlin,Jamie,Jess and Theodore xx

Narrator Research

Hi, kiddies
As you know i wrote the poem,

Here is the previous post containing the poem if you have not seen it before

i decided to further develop this idea beyond a research level so i got my mum, dad , brother and sister to dictate the poem into a dictophone and i am converting this to a .wav sound file so i can upload it to the blog.
i used imeem to add it too the blog it was reasonably long winded to set up but worth it in the end here is the poem. the people reading it goes in the order of:

1.My Dad (00.00-01.03)
2.My Mum (01.03-02.09)
3.My Brother (02.09-03.07)
4.My Sister (03.07-04.05)

Media Narration.wav - lcmedia

i did this to compare and contrast the different voices and how it can change the mood of the film. for example when you listen to my sister say it, it has more denotations of an abused child rather than a vigrant.

my brother, who is 22, read it most like i wrote and i think this is the most emotive due to how you can relate to his voice, and portrays him to be younger and therefore more, helpless and it also adds to the build of sound that will hopefully achieve a climax within our film.

my dad reads it like a teacher and more cold emotions, so i find it harder to relate to, and my mum reads it like shes reading it too a 5 year old!

i also added another section to the end of the poem that goes:

i was once like you,
a passive observer,
a city commuter,
ignoring...
and walking...

Am i human too you?

I will try to upload the sound file as soon as i can he should be emailing it to me today soo....

Cheerio, Theodore x

The Group

Right guys, nows the time we need to start thinking about doing things to help finalize our ideas, for example, taking pictures of relevant areas that we can film in, taking stills of some of the camera shots that we could be using, starting to brainstorm the cast for the characters in the video, and beggining to put together our storyboards so that we can come up with a rough idea of the story.

First of all, we need to decide where we are going to film.
-Leicester


View Larger Map
(thanks theo for embedding this map!!)

So now we need to know where abouts in Leicester, here are some ideas:
-Friar Lane
-Highcross
-Other areas near Friar Lane, such as New St, Millstone Lane, Pocklingtons walk, Market street etc. Basically any areas that we see when we go to investigate that we think would be an affective location.

J x

Debussy - Claire de Lune

Claire de Lune - Debussy by Phil Best

This song is mentioned in one of the books I am studying for english and it is also in the film Twilight. Im not sure if it's right for our project because there is something quite romantic about it, which obviously doesnt relate to the characters or narrative of our short film. However I thought I would upload it so that we dont completely rule out classical music because at some parts where the sound is slightly lower pitched it is fitting for the message we want to convey. And I really like it also :)x

tonight!

I went to see 'The Soloist' starring Robert Downey Jr and Jamie Foxx, the film tells the story of a vagrant and a middle class man who are binary opposites and become linked. This is similar to what we want to do with our project, however at the end of our short film the two characters will not be friends.
Although the film did not quite reach my expectations, I did find it really inspiring for our project, as the central theme throughout the film is homelessness - and at times it feels as though this is what is mainly being explored, and not the relationship between the two men. I felt that the film deffinitely has a moral message, and I came away feeling sorry for vagrants. At the end of the film text appeared on the screen with the number of homeless people living in LA, which made me feel mixed emotions, sad and lucky.
It was clear that meeting the vagrant changed the life of the selfish 'business man' character which is what we would like to imply at the end of our film. x

Sound Cloud

Acoustic One by Ekspert

as a reply to jess's previous post i thought something like this i can imagine tht narration over the top. and he setting it to play on his ipod and pause (check storyboard if you dont know what i'm on about) ok, i am typing this while listening and it has changed abit but i'll leave it its still a possibility.

WHY WONT MY FLIPPING COMPUTER PLAY HALF THE TRACKS.

i'm adding this just to see what it sounds like for this i searched "instrumental"

Some place else by H3X

WOW i like it. imagine it with the vigrant on the road and the cocky businuess man walking along the road.

ps. we have reached the big 80!! lol :P

Cheerio Theodore x

more about music!

Today in Mr Ford's lesson me and Caitlin were looking into music we could use in our short film, we were using soundcloud to do this. At first it seemed like all of the music was quite upbeat and dancey, which isnt really wanted for our film. However, after typing in 'acoustic' I have found lots more fitting tracks we could maybe use, but I wasnt sure what type of music we were thinking of using, happy or sad? Opinions pleeeeease :) x
ps, I made us an account on soundcloud with the login caitlinjamiejesstheo and the same password as the blog.

UNCOPYRIGHTED MUSIC !!!!

I saw this song on someone elses blog. I realise we can't use this because it will majorly tick them off but here it is:



it happy and upbeat but the website is awesome , i think they are all copyright free and downloadable. also there is loads and loads of music on there

Groove Shark

ok it is reasonably hard to use and songs are hard to "stumble across" i think i will leave grooveshark and see if i can find another source , group you can check it out if you want though some of the tracks aren't copyrighted i think.

Storyboards

Basically in my free this morning, decided to do a storyboard. basic though it was it was good to get some ideas down in terms of our film and how it was actualling going to start, and end. so i quickly drew out a 32 frame storyboard this is shown below:



this is helpful to me but to an outside viewer it isnt very clear so i decided to draw it again better quality and less random labelling! however this isn't a definative shot list is just ideas that i wanted to include and some transitions etc.

here is the clearer version:



can i please have some feedback group on the comments , any more shot ideas etc. thanks
by the way if we callaborate our ideas we can then post a final storyboard up on here and then i can put all your names on the labels!

i used flickr to display these photos.

Cheerio, Theodore x

sound cloud

Hey guys,
im just going to have a look on soundcloud to see if i can find any uncopyrighted song that would fit with our short film. I'll update you once i've had a look.

Over & Out, Caity x

Time to Storyboard

With thanks to Theo, i now have some storyboard templates which i can get stuck into at home...
when ive finished doing some, i can bring them in and we can all compare our own ideas and stuff to then hopefully come up with some final ideas that we can get started on putting forward.
J x

Research

Right, thanks to Mr Smith we now know that even if i play another bands song, its still copyrighted. stink. so i have watched the music video by Radiohead for the song "Just" which basically links to my point about not having any dialogue. This video uses no dialogue, but just subtitles at the bottom of the screen, which could be an idea that we could take into account.
As the video has disabled embedding here is the link.

Radiohead - Just

Another idea, is to just not have any dialogue, and rely on camera angles and shots to tell the story, which could be using the cultural code, where we rely on the audience to understand what is going on, rather than the chararcters explaining.

J x

Storyboard please!

we need to get a storyboard going or at least a detailed mindmap of events in the film.

We have plenty of inspiration and ideas we just need to apply them to our film now and get "cardboard dreams" rolling! If we are not doing anything in Mr. Fords 3rd lesson tomorrow that needs to be a priorty (if someone can spell that please change it!) so have a think of a few ideas for tomorrow, i have some.

I might make a simple storyboard grid so we can just get things down easy. yeah. infact i'll do that now

Cheerio, Theodore x

Neon Thoughts - Kevin Bradshaw

I have just been on Mr Ford's blog and watched a few of the short films he has put up from the Virgin Media Shorts website, I then started watching some more of the entries on the website to see if any of them related to our own short film :)
Here I have uploaded 'Neon Thoughts' which was produced and directed by Kevin Bradshaw, this short film has a clear message and really made me think as I was watching it. It shows the protagonist going through different settings, surrounded by lots of people but always standing alone, this feeling of isolation is something we aim to create in our homeless character. I really like the effect that has been used to show the rest of the world moving at a fast pace behind the character, as he just stands still, also by not looking at the camera he appears disconected. At times, for example when the man looks up on the bus and the woman smiles at the camera, the point of view shots that are used place the audience in the mans position, this is effective in allowing us to almost feel the way that he does.
Time lapse is used a lot throughout the film which highlights the busy lifestyle most of us lead nowadays, by always staying still it appears as though the protagonist has taken a step out of reality to review, and critisize the behavior of the modern day person. There is a short piece of stop motion when the man moves down the road perfectly still.
The last sentence we hear is "6 billion people live here together, yet within your life time you connect with less than one percent of them, how many have you avoided today?" Here Bradshaw has used personal pronouns, the same as Theo did in his poem, this is effective in directly addressing the audience, so they are forced into thinking about the people they have avoided eg. homeless people. I also thought that the music used was fitting to the action, however it did get a bit repetative towards the end! x

research

okay, ive just listened to some of the Bright Eyes album because most of the songs represent different messages, realism & how corrupt we can all be. this made me think of our short film, because we want to show how you chose your morals, that homelessness is universal & that we all at times forget what we stand for. Like the businessman, who deals with a situation we are all familuar with, however, we find his behaviour offencive & heartless even though most of us would be lying to ourselves if we say we haven't done exactly the same thing. i think some of Bright Eye's songs make you question yourself & your actions sometimes.

'At the bottom of everything'

Oh my morning's coming back
The whole world’s waking up
All the city buses swimming past
I’m happy just becauseI found out I am really no one.

'We are nowhere and it's now'

I've got no plans and too much time
I feel too restless to unwind
I'm always lost in thought as I walk the block
To my favorite neon sign.

'Land Locked Blues'

So I’m up at dawn
Putting on my shoes
I just want to make a clean escape
I’m leaving but I don’t know where to
I know I’m leaving but I don’t know where to.

like i said before, i know that these songs arent necessarily about homlessness but you can see how strong & home hitting a simple sentence & in this case lyrics can be. i thought it was neccessary to put these on due to the fact we have said from the beginning that we dont want to include dialogue (as little as possible) as this could make it look cheap. However, if we wanted our message to be stronf & powerful to create empathy we our audience, we need to play around with ideas of how they will clearly see what we are trying to reflect. We all now how powerful a song can make a scene, or even a simple narration. Like Theo's already wrote his poem from 'the secret millionaire' & the poem from the beginning of 'trainspotting' it can have a huge affect on our audience.

Over & Out, Caity x

Bright eyes,

hey guys,
i was just listening to my itunes & 'bright eyes - first dasy of my life came on' & dont worry im not going to say use it in our film (i know the copyright issues), but i really like some of the lyrics & the different messages & emotions they reflect.

here's some of the lyrics;

I swear I was born right in the doorway
I went out in the rain suddenly everything changed

Now I don’t know where I am
I don’t know where I’ve been
But I know where I want to go

And I wondered if I could come home.

these lyrics make me think that behind every face is a story, and even though this song isn't about homlessness, you could see it as a man who is lost & not knowing what direction he is heading whether it is to do with love or life. the same as our vagrant.


Over & Out, Caity x

Research

Right guys, been doing a bit of thinking about music for the video, and i was wondering what you guys think. I think we should have some music for the introduction, and because were focusing on camera angles and shots etc, were trying not to put any dialogue into the video, we should perhaps have some backing music for the actual video?

Basically, if we cant use any existing songs, then i think it would be best to avoid using garageband, as the sounds are limited and we wouldnt get the specific sound we wanted, therefore i have came up with an idea that you might or might not like. Me and theo both like the song "When the sun goes down" by Arctic Monkeys (Who doesnt?) however we may not be able to use this due to copyright etc. Therefore i have realised that if we do want to use that song i can just play the intro on guitar and record that, and it will just sound like the actual song without vocals, which could be what we want anyway.

Another idea, is for me to write a song or something, or learn to play a song that you want? obv try and be reasonable as i cant do everything, however i am in a band so technically we could learn a song if anyone wanted us to... :)

let me know what you guys think about music, as we definately need a plan if were not having dialouge, as we cannot have 5 minutes of silence. :)

J x

Poster, Tonight seems to be blog night!

Having read Jess's post on Film Posters i loved the first example of her eternal sunshine poster. Because it goes well with our theme and style. So i decided to design one! I started out with a simple sketch just to show the outlines of what i wanted to do with the poster.

This is the basic outline, It has key conventions such as the title , the credits at the bottom and also a heading of who is starring in it , other possibilitys is to put review comments on this will be possible but just for the sketch i left it out. You will notice i did it on cardboard, this is not only because i have an abundant amount in my garage but because it fits with the title of the film and also the style I wanted to achieve in the end product.

~~~~~~
The next scan i have uploaded is of a basic development from my sketch it has an image of a vagrant ( that i sourced from google , obviously for the final thing we will have to use our own photos) and it has a slogan where the eyes of the man should be, you will also notice he is not clean shaven and has stress lines on his forhead so it asks the question to the audience , why he has got these (barthes enigma code)



I achieved this effect by using a printed of image , glueing it to the card and riping a section of his eyes a way, for now the slogan i have used it "ignore me" this in no way is what is going to be on the final one it was just to show what it looks like.
~~~~~
This next scan is a further development, using collage techniques , i think this image is the powerful and artistic to use as a poster for a short film it is also eye catching due to the unorthodox presentation(ripping, hand-writing)
~~~~~

Nearly finished!!!

This final scan is a full development from the final idea i have used a Photoshop program to add writing and blend the edge of the image into the cardboard background. I think it looks proffesional and artistic as a poster, please leave feedback on the comment please it would be a great help to generate new ideas. I could change the contrast levels to make the balck blacker and the white whiter but i kept it reasonablly 'raw' at this stage.

Cheerio, Theodore x

film reviews.

I've just thought i should look into film reviews a little more so we know what styles to go for & conventions to use within our review.
There are also issues that are going to come with this as if we want this to be as realistic as possible, we need to think about certain factors such as; how biased can we be? how much detail do we want to go into? and how much we are willing to give away?

Typical Features:


- star rating
- directors name
- main cast list
- length of film
- date of release
- picture of iconic image within the film/ or characters
- plot summary
- positives/ negitives
- personal opinion
- mention of audience/ target audience
- performance of actors
- comparison of directors work (use AS pieces)
- does anthing make it different?

we also need to think about asking the typical questions to ourselves, such as;

- who is our target audience?
- what are we trying to portray?
- where did we find our influences? (make comparisons)
- when did our film most excel?
- how have we used our techniques/ convetions/ camera work/ casting/ editing etc. to our best ability?

these are all questions we can consider when writing our review because as a critic there are certain areas & questions they will have to look at & consider. so if anyone had an copies of any film reviews bring them in asap so we can all have a look at the style they are written in aswel.


Over & Out, Caity x

Secret Millionaire

Hey guys,
i watched 'the secret millionaire' on channel four last night & it looked into homlessness & the different aspects within it. i thought it might help with the representation of our character & allow us to give him more depth which will enable our audience to create a different reflection of the said 'vagrant' and empathesis with his character.

Representation:
In the documentry style program it shows the audience the reality of life behind closed doors. The rawness of some of the stories told were really home hitting, such as the crisis one woman had to deal with due to financial troubles in the current climate & the distructive reality of alcoholism & drug abuse. This allowed me to believe that behind every face is a seperate story. This made me think we really need to have a powerful & believable story behind our own vagrants eyes which will allow the audience to feel sympathy towards him. In tomorrows lesson we could mind map some ideas to create the depth to one of our main charcters, yeah?!

Imagery/ Style:
Seeing the potrayal of the people in lat nights program gave me a clearer idea into how we need to make sure our vagrant looks realistic & not to be too stereotypical with how we style & dress him. I know we will be relying on Barthes cultural code for this part of the narration but there are our factors within the mise en-scene, setting & props which should also reflect this. Last night, you could see that the homeless people are not that different from you & I. yes, they are rougher looking at times, slightly dirtier (what do you expect?) but not always outrageously hairy & long nailed. We could try & be more clever about the way we reflect him, such as through habits formed, from either drugs or drink, make a key feature of his eyes because we all know the saying & just style him carefully as we don't want it to look tackyyy.

Over & Out, Caity x

posters - eternal sunshine of a spotless mind

This is a poster for the film 'eternal sunshine of the spotless mind' when i originally searched for this poster, 3 different choices came up. I have decided to analyse all of them.
- I like the way that the eyes have been cut out here, and replaced with words. This is a technique we could use for our poster, as we would like our film to convey a message and this would be a good way we could hint it to the audience through the poster.
- The way that the characters eyes look as though they have been ripped away looks really effective and almost collage like. I like this technique and think it works really well here.
- A lot of different bright colours have been used, with the characters smiling faces this makes the film appear quite positive and happy. However the text placed across their eyes hints a different story, the film makers obviously do not want to give to much away.



This is the second poster for the film I looked at..
- I really like the lighting that has been used here, and the way that one photograph has been used for the background of the poster, and text has been added on top.
- Obviously we couldnt do anything like this for our film, as the main characters are both male, and this is very romantic looking. However we could use some sort of picture without revealing too much.
- I like the way that this picture only shows a fraction of the characters, and not their faces - this not only looks effective, it also ensures that nothing is revealed to the audience. This is deffinately something we need to think about with our poster, as we have to be careful not to reveal the 'twist' before the audience have seen the film!
- I like the font that has been used here, and the way that it is not centrally aligned, I also like the way that the poster does not contain the actors names. As we are not going to be using famous actors, this is not something we need to worry about advertising on our poster.


This is the third and most well known poster I looked at for the film...
- This is clearly the most comercial of the 3 posters, as it shows both of the well known famous actors - advertising them to the audience and enticing them to watch the film. It also names all of the actors included along the top of the poster.
- I like the way that half of the protagonist's face is shown at the bottom of the poster, it appears as though the top of it is his mind - showing his thoughts. This is also achieved by the position of his eyes, looking up.
- The poster uses a simple colourscheme, even though the pictures are in colour, they have stuck to oranges and blues mainly, which looks effective but doesnt really stand out. I like the way that 'eternal sunshine' is almost fading away, hinting the way that the protagonist's memory begins to fade away after he has treatment.

film posters - 5 minutes of heaven

I have been doing some research into posters, as this is another part of our project which we have decided we are going to do after we have finished our main film. I have been using the website IMP awards to look at different film posters :)

This is the poster for film '5 minutes of heaven' - I have never actually heard of this film but I was drawn to this poster when doing my research as it features the faces of two males, and our short film is going to include two main male characters - the business man and the vagrant.
- I really like the use of black and white, I think this makes the poster look almost vintage, and in some way I feel that it draws attention to it more than colour would.
- I also like the contrast between the black and white and the black and yellow, sepia tone could have been use here but the yellow provides an effective brightness, which allows the poster to stand out more.
- I think that the way the faces are both emotionless, almost sad, makes the poster intriguing, and automatically allows the audience to see what sort of film this is - for example, it is clearly not going to be a comedy.
- The plain font used fits in with the whole mood of the poster and I think that this looks really effective, it highlights that there is no need to use a big exciting font to draw attention to it.
- There is deffinately a simplistic feel to this poster which automatically drew my attention to it, and I like the way that the characters whole faces are not shown, this makes me intrigued.
- A negative I would give to this poster is the font sized used for the actors names, I found that this was the first thing I noticed when looking for the name of the film, as these are both well known british actors, there wasn't really any need for the film company to make their names so big.
- The use of 3 main colours looks effective and not too complicated, this also reflects the mood of the film - bright colours would have looked too happy, positive.

I have saved so many, i'll try and upload some more later! xxx

An Idea

Am I human too you?
When do I become less than an object,
less than a background noise,
when do I become part of your routine,
something you are so used to ignoring.

When you shut your door,
draw your curtains,
I am on the outside.
When you commute to work,
sit in your office,
and have those “water cooler moments”
I am wondering when my next meal with arrive.

Turn a blind-eye.
Check your phone;
change the track on your Ipod.
Anything to avoid eye contact,
with the person you think you don’t know,
you can’t relate with.
You never know me,
you don’t know me,
and you never want to know me.

But you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.
Walk on by; immerse yourself in your own world.

i realise this is really airy-fairy and too much of a lecture, but we could use parts of it or change it a bit, i wrote it myself while watching secret millionaire. could this be what is written on the cardboard box's or could it be a narration over apart of the film.??? need answers group when you check the blog.

Reponse: Mr. Smith sent me a link to the opening of trainspotting, and although we dont want it as fast paced as this, i think maybe that is the route to go down, PLEASE WATCH THIS GROUP!





Cheerio, Theodore x

stereotypes in mean girls

I have included this clip of 'Mean Girls' into our research because in one of the opening scenes it introduces the different stereotypical groups in the cafeteria to a new student who has never been to a real school before. As a result of her being home schooled for the majority of her life, Cady (Lindsey Lohan) does not have the cultural code that the other student have, and is unaware that students would be separated into groups relating to their dress sence and hobbies.

The 'Asian Nerds' are playing cards across a table, contrasting to the 'Cool Asians' who are wearing revealing clothing and sitting in a relaxed manor around their table.
The 'Varsity Jocks' are all masculine, and appear quite stupid by fighting across their table, 'Unfriendly Black Hotties' are all giving the point of view camera questioning looks.
'Girls who eat their feelings' are all overweight and look very excited about eating a burger this juxtoposing the 'Girls who don't eat anything' who are all very skinny and sharing a can of diet coke between them.
The 'desperate wannabes' are disabled or small, I think this is the harshest stereotype so far! The 'burn outs' just look very relaxed which contrasts with The 'sexually active band geeks' who are all kissing eachother around the table.

The film is aimed at teenagers and young adults, I think that they have used a scene like this to explore stereotypes because it is something that people of our age can relate to. Although it is not so segregated in real life, with relation to the colour of skin etc, it is still seen in other stereotypes - goth, chav, indie.