Plan And Update 22/03/10 - 29/03/10 - Jason

Over the course of this week we are planning to shoot the rest of our scenes so that the filing part of our production will be over. Harris has produced concept art for this production and it looks pretty good. Hopefully he can produced this level of art when it comes to the production so that our anime element will be a sucess. What follows is an action plan for this week:

Monday - The editing of our movie starts with the helps of a portable hardrive.

Tuesday - Editing

Wednesday - We are planning to shoot the final scenes with Mr.bush so that filming will be over

Thursday - Editing

Friday - Editing

It seems that Most of this week will be just editing. Over the course of the holiday we will be editing aswell. Wether we can pull this off or not is 50/50...

15/03/10 - 22/03/10 Plan and Update - Jason

This week I am determained to get the shooting done and finished with so we can finally move on to the editing phase. This all relies on Kalbir being in. This week can go 50/50. I will do another update this week if Kalbir does appear. If he doesn't then there is no point in doing the update.

08/03/10 - 12/03/10 Plan And update - Jason

This week we have not got anything done as our main protagonist Zack Dylan (or Kalbir) is not here. Given he is sick so no blame can really come upon him, there is still the matter of shooting and then finally moving on to the editing phase. There was a media class being held on Saturday and Kalbir did appear so we managed to shoot the second fight scene. Hopefully next week we can finish the shooting.

Plan And Update 01/03/10 - 7/03/10 - Jason

For this week we are planning to finish all of our shots (with the exception of a few which may run into the next week). As Kalbir did not come into school for the most of last week it has been difficult to achieve shoooting our production. Nearly all of our scenes rely on him being in school. Hopefully he'll come in sometime this week and then finally we can get some shooting done.
For this week the scenes we are going to shoot are Mr.Bush's fighting scenes, The Enforcer scenes (fight scenes), my death scenes and the rooftop scene. As mentioned before, this does rely on Kalbir being present in school. If he does manage to come into school this week then it may not be too late but if he does not, then I fear that this group won't get the production done on time. Once the scenes are done, we will move on to post production work and editing.

Plan And Update 22/02/10 - 28/02/10 - Jason

Over the half term we hoped to have finished some of the concept art that is going to be displayed in our production. Sadly, this has not come about yet but we will hopefully be starting this week. Also during this week we will be shooting many of our scenes including the roof scene, my death scene, some free running scenes with the action scene in the hall. Hopefully all or the majority of our scenes will be shot this week so we can start editing next week. An action plan as be posted up for this week and so far we are sticking to it.

Shooting Schedule - Jason, Kalbir And Harris

Putting our ideas and thoughts together, we've all decided when we will shoot our scenes starting from 08/02/10 - 12/02/10. Here is our schedule:

Monday 8th: On this day we plan to shoot a couple of shots after school at Kalbir's house.

Tuesday 9th: Shooting continues, trying to perfect our shots of Kalbir while including free-running.

Wednesday 10th: We plan what scenes we are hoping to film as they are the hardest and must be delt with ASAP.

Thursday 11th: Carrying on from Wednesday, we will try and film these scenes.

Friday 12th: We plan more scenes to film for the following week.

01/02/10 - 05/02/10 Plan And Update - Jason

This week, our group plans to film actual footage of the shots we are going to use for our production. We also need to use this footage as proof of improvement on monday. We also plan to build up a shooting schedule for next week so we can organise when and where to meet when we plan to shoot footage.
While we are still waiting on Hmazah's HD camera, we should be able to secure it on either Saturday or Sunday. Which ever day it is, we should know what we should be doing as our storyboard is near completion. Also, trailer analysis of different films will be posted up on the blog.

25/01/10-31/01/10 Plan And Update - Jason

This week our group mainly focused on the types of shots we were going to use for certain scenes. While I don't want to give too much away, the types of shots vary from close-ups to long shots, combined with panning.
With our storyboard, we tried to be as realistic as possible when it came to the stunts that Kalbir will (hopefully and bravely) pull off. As most of us and i put emphasis on the word most, don't want Kalbir to get hurt, we also set up precautionary measures to ensure Kalbir's safety during filming.
For our post-production, Kalbir and harris's drawing style's are improving and will hopefully be credit towards our production. We also filmed short sequences of random things and then added a grey-scale effect using Photoshop to test our post-production techniques.
Next week we shall develop our shot techniques and filming progress.

18/01/10 - 24/01/10 Plan And Update - Jason

On the 18th, our group had presented our pitch. In an earlier post, I had mentioned both the positive and negative comments that had been made. Overall, I would like to think that our pitch had quite an impression among our classmates as they thought the concept idea of our movie was good. A concern was raised about the monumental amount of workload ahead but assuming me, Kalbir and Harris are dedicated enough to our work, we can pull it off.
From the 19th-22nd, we planned to create our storyboard. We had visualised the scenes we were going to use and then put it into action. We realised that in order to pull off distinctive effects and scenes, we would need to take into consideration the kind of shots we would use.g. close-up, panning etc. One thing we refuse to include in our production is medium shots as it looks quite tacky and half-done at some points.
On the 23rd-24th, me, Harris and Hamzah (our cameraman) met up at Kalbir's house so we could finish our storyboard, our script and decide on our final scenes. Unfortunately, the HD camera the school provided us with seems to give off a "grainy" effect when in use. As a counter-measure, Hamzah will try and provide us with another HD that should hopefully be better.

11/01/10 - 17/01/10 Plan And Update - Jason

Sorry for the extremely late update folks, our schedule has been so hectic i haven't actually had time to update our blog. I perfectly remember everything that had happened these past three weeks so here is the first week update:
From the 11th-17th, we were preparing our pitch. Many things had come into consideration while preparing like our speech, the amount of text we were going to use, text examples we were going to show etc. The main themes of our pitch were post-production, character development and the theories we were going to apply to our production e.g. Toldorov's theory of the seven spheres of action.
On the 11th, we were planning our concept for our pitch. Harris and Kalbir were also busy drawing concept art especially for our pitch.
From the 12th-17th we were busy building our pitch. We were writing our speeches for each topic we were going to explore during our presentation along with trying to find examples and inspirations that were best suited to our pitch to show everyone what vision we were trying to achieve.
On the 17th (which was a day before our pitch) we had got everything into order and was ready for the presentation. A few minor changes needed to be made, mainly to do with our style of speech and what we say. The next post will be about the pitch and the aftermath.

"Constructive" Criticism of Our Film Pitch - Jason

During our film pitch, we received both positive and negative comments about what was outstanding about our pitch and what needed to be included. While I like to think we passed with flying colours, praise and constructive criticism was made.

What was good about our pitch:

One thing that was commented upon was our slide design. According to Mr Bush (and hopefully others) our slide designs were excellent. The animation, concept art, video placement and overall form was pleasing to the eye. Thanks to Kalbir, this was possible.
Another factor that ensured our pitch's success was the humour by all three of us. While noted that some bits of humour were deemed inappropriate (thanks to Harris), the use of humour was quite effective as it both held class attention and made the idea of the pitch sound inviting.
It seems that our idea for our film came across as very ambitious. We came across as ambitious becuase of our idea of implementing anime style art when a fight scene occured. Though pulling off this effect will be a heavy work load, a driving motivation will help us through.
Our use of media language was also noted as being crucial and important to our pitch as we need to provide evidence that we know what we are doing (theory-wise) in our production. During our pitch, we managed to mention several things like Vladimir Propp's seven spheres of action, enigma codes, connotations etc. This seemed to impress our audience.
Another thing that was noted as being bold and virtuous during our pitch was the mention of video games being an influence for our production ideas. The simple reason for video games being an influence is because with movies, there is limited ideas and conventions you can gather from it whereas from video games, you can control the protagonist's actions, speech and circumstances. This is why using video games as an influence is much more beneficial.
One little thing worth mentioning was the fact that our whole presentation was spoken from memory, not from a power point. This is what made our presentation different from most.

What needed to be included in our pitch:

As impossible as it sounds, there were flaws in our pitch. One thing we should've commented upon was our target audience. By mentioning our target audience, the class would've have a more clearer idea of who we were trying to please. Just for the record, our target audience is 15-25 years old.
Another thing that was noted was our mistake of not doing a trailer analysis on an example of a film utilizing the neo film-noir genre, namely Sin City. By doing a trailer analysis, the class would've had more information on what exactly we are trying to achieve in our production.

Concerns:

With the explanation of our production came a couple of concerns associated with health and safety and our processing power. During the pitch, we mentioned use of swords and knives, and naturally, the main concern is our safety when using these props. We will be in a controlled environment when action scenes are shot.
Another concern that was brought up during the pitch was our software capabilities and workload. We have analysed possible threats and the workload and we figure that pulling off our production as intended is possible.

With that said, I wish every group the best of luck along with our own. May the best group win!

Media Theories And Terminology - Jason

Throughout the media course, we've learnt many media terms and theories that aid us in our analysts of different media texts. When it comes to the theory side of our coursework, these terms and theories will no doubt help us explain our production e.g. camera shots, plot devices etc. Here are some significant media terms:

• Macguffin - A camera shot technique used to lower voice projection
• Denotation - The common sense or everyday meaning of a sign e.g. a red rose is a garden plant.
• Connotation - The additional meaning that an image or word carries with it, above its everyday meaning e.g. a red rose connotes love ( now it represents an emotion and not a garden plant).
• Enigma codes - These codes control how much we know about the narrative and usually holds audience interest. This usually used to create mystery.
• Action codes - These are codes that are used to be seen as important in developing the narrative e.g. a gun being cocked signifies that a violent scene will occur.
• Catharsis - When an audience views a form of media text, they are "purged" or their emotions e.g. violent films act as a catharsis to purge violent emotions.
• Desensitization - When an audience has been exposed to much violence through media texts, they are no longer affected by it.
• Target audience - The audience intended to view a certain media text.

These media terms all link to our upcoming production. Though certain camera shots haven't been decided upon a Macguffin may be used. Both denotations and connotations will be used in our production. Enigma codes may be used to hold viewer interest thus making an effective trailer. Action codes will obviously be involved because one genre of our production is action and our group already have plans to use this code. Catharsis and desensitization all depend upon the audience's part of viewing our production. Our target audience, as mentioned before, will range from 15-25 years old.
With this media terminology comes media theories. Media theories are an interesting way of viewing a certain piece of media text. While viewing, you can apply many media theories with it and can almost figure out what intended reading the director was trying to portray. Here are a few media theories:

1. Vladimir Propp's "Spheres of Action" - Vladimir's spheres of action look at each individual role of characters in a media text. He had developed this theory by studying Russian fairy-tales. Here is each character role

• The Hero - The central protagonist that saves the day and restores equilibrium.
  
• The Villan - This character creates a complication in the narrative.
• The Donor - Gives the hero something that will help in the resolution.
• The Helper - Helps the hero in restoring the resolution.
• The Princess - The character that has to be saved by the hero.
• The Dispatcher - Sends the hero on a task.
• The False Hero - A rare character that appears to be good but is revealed to have been bad all along.
  

Roles can be combined e.g. the donor can also be the dispatcher. In our production, many of these character roles will be fulfilled, nearly completing the spheres of action. Kalbir will be the hero (protagonist), Mr. Bush will be the villan (antagonist), Harris will play the role of the donor/helper and my role is yet to be decided.

2. Another media theory is the Equilibrium, Disequilibrium and New Equilibrium theory. It is a basic theory that is executed in most movies. More taken as a formula to form the basis of a movie, all three terms are explained. The Equilibrium in a media text is an existing state of harmony. Then comes the Disequilibrium where the equilibrium is disrupted by an unfortunate event or character which leads to a chain of events involving conflict. After this comes the New Equilibrium where the evil forces are defeated, the conflict resolved and harmony exists once more.

3. Young and Rubican's 4c's - Young and Rubican are advertisers that invented a phycological profile for their marketing model that they called Cross Cultural Consumer Characterisation (4c's for short).These 4c's divide people into seven types, depending on their core motivation:

• The Explorer - These people seek discovery.
• The Aspirer - These people seek status.
• The Succeeder - These people seek control.
• The Reformer - These people seek enlightenment.
• The Mainstream - These people seek security.
• The Struggler - These people seek escape.
• The Resigned - These people seek survival.
  

4. Demographics - Demographics are the statistical characteristics of human populations, such as age and income, that are used by businesses to identify what form of media or what media text they are into. Audiences are placed into groups using quantities data which is also based on their gender, social class, geographical location, religion and ethnicity. A few examples of demographic groups are :

• Group A - People in higher management, bankers, lawyers, doctors and other professionals
• Group B - People in middle management, teachers, creative and media skilled people e.g. graphic designers.
• Group C - Office supervisors, junior managers, nurses, specialists, electrical staff.

Using these demographic groups, we can see what sort of media text and genre would appeal to each group. Our production will most likely appeal to all demographic groups because there will be a variety of conventions in our production to keep everyone entertained. We hope that our production will be a success so that everyone will enjoy it.
To conclude the explanations of media terminology and theories, every form of media text and genre can be analysed by using media theories and terms. Also, by using these terms and theories, in-depth analysis can be used in order to fully grasp the director's intentions. We hope that in the future, our production will be used as a subject of analytical discussion.

The Justification of Our Need of a HD Camera - Jason

The idea of our production is one of a unique stature, and as such our group needs high quality resources in order to truly portray what we think will be a media production to remember. One item we truly desire for our production is an High Definition camera. We think that with a HD camera, our production can reach its full potential.

Without giving too much away, various camera shots and effects will be used in our production and a HD camera will add more depth and a more realistic approach to our scenes. With high quality, the potential of this production could spread far. Also, the high picture quality will be helpful with the editing software we are going to use.

The effects we are going to produce in our production will be of high quality and the software we are using will go hand-in-hand with a HD camera, giving our production the chance to truly shine and stand out among the other productions. To not give our group this chance would be unjust because a tremendous amount of effort will be put into making the overall production.

If our group were given the opportunity to use a HD camera, the outcome would be spectacular in terms off effects in accordance to the available yet effective software we will be using. In some scenes of our production, fight scenes will occur and with our well placed choreography, high picture quality will be the icing on the cake, or so to speak. Also, our production will have some well placed scenery, and in order to grasp the intended atmosphere being created, stunning picture quality will need to be available for a more dominant reading.

To conclude, a HD camera that would be available to us would be very helpful to us as it would help us create a much more dramatic piece for our production. By creating a more dramatic piece, our intentions of an effective trailer will be fulfilled and the audience can judge as to whether our production is award-worthy. Our justification for using a HD camera is complete.

Action Movies: A Brief And Detailed History - Jason

In our production, we plan for many scenes of the trailer to be action orientated, displaying many stunning visuals to leave our audience in a state of awe. Since our target audience will range from 15-25 years old, our trailer will have to relate to many conventions that this target audience can be associated with....action.

Action movies are a film genre where the story is mainly told through physical action rather than dialogue. With this genre developing in the 1970's, action movies would later pave the way for many successful movies and directors...not including Michael Bay.

This particular genre has always been aimed at male audiences. Action movies would usually serve as a "thrill" and "escapism" for male audiences as they would see the protagonist fight their way through the movie in order to reach a certain goal. Primary examples of this formula are films like Enter The Dragon, Rambo, Commando, Die Hard etc.

Though these movies have similar themes of action, there is a distinction of how these movies carry out violence and action. Films such as Enter The Dragon and Rambo lean towards a more physical, agile fighting approach while films like Dir Hard and Commando employ elements of explosions and plenty of gunfire to portray violence and action.

With action movies developing more and more throughout the years, the 1980's was known as "the action era", and with it came many legendary movies and actors such as Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and Mel Gibson. Directors such as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were majorly recognised with their release of Indiana Jones Raiders of The Lost Ark in the 80's. Some say the 1980's was the successful peak of action movies.

Many sub-genres derived from the action movie genre such as Action Comedy, Heroic Bloodshed, Die Hard Scenario and Girls With Guns. Action Comedy is a sun-genre involving humor in combination with action. With this genre, many comedic icons such as Eddie Murphy began taking lead roles in action films. Very rarely in Action Comedy movies does death or serious injuries to characters occur. Examples of Action Comedies involve Big Momma's House, Bad Boys and Rush Hour.

Heroic Bloodshed is a sub-genre that involves dramatic themes such as honor, brotherhood and redemption. This sub-genre derives from Hong Kong and usually involves stylized shootouts with slow-motion scenes. Barrages of gun fire also ensue throughout the film which is what makes this sub-genre so popular. Director John Woo is often associated with the Heroic Bloodshed genre.

Die Hard Scenario is a formula that is seen in many action movies such as Con Air, Under Siege and of course, Die Hard. This formula involves the story taking place in a limited location e.g. a plane, building or vessel. These places are captured or under threat by the antagonists, leaving the lone protagonist to challenge them using their cunning and stealth to defeat them.

The Girls With Guns sub-genre uses a female protagonist to take a position of high power and defeat the antagonists. This sub-genre is mainly set in a modern context and examples of this are movies such as Kill Bill and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.

With such in-depth research of the Action Movie genre, our group has a better understanding of how action should be portrayed and choreographed in our production. This research will also lead to a better outcome of our action scenes, having in mind ideas of an original nature.

Free Running: A Brief History- Jason

Our production will contain a number of scenes that will involve "free running". Free running is a form of acrobatics which makes uses of city landscapes to perform an array of athletic movements and stunts. These stunts are usually performed to awe an audience which also the desired effects of our media production scenes.

Free running has been used in a number of media texts including films, music videos and video games. Though there have been much controversy behind free running, many still use it today to entertain audiences. As mentioned before, video games are now using free running as a basis for movement. One game i would like to look at in particular is a game called Mirrors Edge.

Serving as an inspiration for our media production, this game also gives us ideas on realistic uses for free running. Set in an urban city, this game can be useful in many ways by giving us a view of things we can expect while shooting some of our scenes. This game can also act as a guideline for shooting our free running scenes in our production. Seeing as this game heavily relies on free running acrobatics, our understanding of free running can also improve resulting in better and more effective free running scenes.

A Brief History of Film Noir - Jason

For our production, we are using a neo film noir style genre to create a more stylized effect on the action contained in our production. The effects in our production will involve stunning effects in neo film noir style that create exhilarating action scenes to captivate the audience. Effects will be created on the computer with the assistance of Photoshop, Image ready, After Effects, Adobe Premiere and possibly Sony Sound Forge. To see where we are heading with our production we must trace back to the source of film noir and the eventual birth of neo film noir.

Film noir is associated with a low-key black- and- white visual style that roots from German cinematography that eventually made its way around the world. The term film noir is used to describe Hollywood crime genres and, in terms of cinema, was quite the range in the 1040’s to the 1950’s.

Neo film noir films are aware of the current modern circumstances and technology. In noir films, the basic technique of audiences “building” a relationship with the protagonist was used. Neo noir films encourage audiences to act like as a “voyeur”, peeking into the protagonists’ lives. This is what we want to achieve as the overall effect of the production will be much more effective this way.

Inspirations - Jason

For our media production, Silencer, there have been many inspirations from a number of movies and video games. These movies and games have themes that relate to our media production in a number of ways e.g. genre, cinematography.

Here are a number of movie examples that have been an inspiration to our work in progress:

Sin City:

The cinematography of this film had given us an idea of how to shoot our movie. Being influenced by the neo film-noir genre, our production will be most effective in delivering astounding scenes.

Kill Bill:

The idea of assassins will be a refreshing concept to audiences seeing as this idea has not been touched upon. Kill Bill is a film that contains the stories and lives of modern day assassins which is an essential for our media production.

Wanted:

Wanted is also a film of assassins living in the contemporized word. We aspire to create dazzling effects and scenes in our production and this film contains scenes that are a marvel to witness.

Here are some video games that also served as inspirations:

Mirrors Edge:

This game contains free-running missions that are fun to play and exciting to watch. We are going for the same kind of effect in our production. Since our production will contain a free-running protagonist, it is crucial to study the mind of a free-runner.

Assassin’s creed:

This game plays with the concept of both ancient assassins and contemporized assassins. Since our production will contain a theme of assassins it is, again, important that we study the characteristics and behavior of assassins in order to make character roles more convincing.