COPYRIGHT PERMISSION

To Unviersal Publishing and Ram Records


We are a group of A Level students working on an A Level project for a qualification in Media Studies. We are writing to request permission to use the following track as part of this project:



Name of track and artist: LET YOU GO - CHASE AND STATUS



With your permission the track would be used as the accompaniment to a short form video that is made purely for assessment purposes and will have no commercial usage. The video will be viewed only by members of the school community and the assessor of the examination board.



The artist and the copyright holder will of course be fully recognised in the pre-production and evaluation material that accompanies the project. We can also include a full copyright notice if required both in the planning material and on the video itself.



Yours sincerely


Patch Wadsworth, Holly Finlay, Oscar Jackson, Charlie Lindsay

Hurtwood House School

Feedback

Your timeline is very good and will work as the basis of a good storyboard.  However, you need to make sure that you keep up to date with each week's postings; although you have the institutional context, the research into album artwork by other artists hasn't yet made it on to your blog.  I know you've done it, but it needs to available as part of the research and planning portfolio.

James

"Let You Go" - SMAK Timeline

Our Chosen Track - Chase & Status - Let You Go

Research Into Artists of a Similar Type to our Hypothetical Band

Nero

Nero are an electronic music act from England consisting of DJ's Daniel Stephens and Joe Ray. Nero are electronic music artists, best known for producing house, dubstep and drum and bass. Nero's debut dubstep release was "This Way" in 2008. Nero recently released their first album, named "Welcome Reality", signed to MTA Records, owned by Chase & Status. http://www.thisisnero.com/




Magnetic Man

Magnetic Man is an electronic music project consisting of popular dubstep producers and DJ's, Benga, Skream and Artwork. The genre of Magnetic Man's songs are Dubstep and are aimed at a similar audience to Chase and Status and our hypothetical band, 'SMAK'. http://www.magneticman.net/gb/home/



Modestep

Modestep are a four-piece band from London . Their sound clearly takes influence from progressive electro and dubstep as one of their fans stated they like to make music which “makes your brains wobble with low pass filth. The formed in 2010. The band consists of Josh Friend, Tony Friend
Matthew Curtis,Nick Tsang. Modestep creates predominately Drum and bass songs and targets a similar audience to our group SMAK.

Institutional Context

Chase and Status are signed to an independant label called 'Ram Records'
This is a label percifically for the genre of Drum & Bass. Ram Records is multi award winning organisation for its label activities, the music it releases, and the artists it has signed over the years. As well as Ram's musical output, the label is also very well know for its legendary club nights.

Our hypothetical Artist SMAK, will be signed to a very small independent record label. A record company such as Bad Sekta. Bad Sekta showcases experimental electronic music from genres that have grown and developed out of the free party scene which our artist will be seen to be involved in. 'Fusing elements of Drum’n’Bass, Techno, Hardcore and Industrial, as well as a hefty dose of experimentation'; non-commercial styles of music have been able to flourish in the free party environment and Bad Sekta aims to bring some of these artists to the ear of those who would normally pass them by.

This type of record company, really helps to highlight SMAK's type of star image, and how they would be hired or taken on by a type of company like this.

Feedback

You have the initial ideas here and your proposal is clearly covered. I know that there were problems with Slideshare, but the research into real artists of a similar type should be on the blog and should be covered in more depth than at present. It would also be useful to have more detail in your target audience profiles - demographic and psychographic - up for an examiner to see.

Initial Idea/Treatment

NAME OF YOUR ARTIST/BAND AND TRACK
Artist: Alex Clare
Track: Too Close

WHAT IS THE STAR IMAGE OF THE ARTIST/BAND
Alex Clare born and bread from South London has come to the music industry with a collaboration of two genres. The mix of Pop Music and Dubstep and not to forget his amazing Soul voice on top has given his music a defined edge that is impressive and very appealing. Alex Clare's 'Star Image' is very hard to say, due to the vast differences in his songs. Some songs such as 'Too Close' Is very up beat and powerful! which in contrast to his track 'I love you' is very different where this other track is very 'relaxed and methodic'. However I can say what audience This artist would appeal to.........

> A Dance/Clubbing Scene
> Age: 15-28
> Fashionable
> Dubstep fans
> Pop Music fans

                                     A Image Of Alex Clare For His Debut Single 'Up All Night'

My initial idea for my video of Clare's track 'Too Close' was to make his life very derelict. The song is about leaving a girl and telling her that they are too close and that he can't deal with it. I had the idea of having shots of Clare sitting with the girl and talking to her and telling her the lyrics. I had the image of them sitting in a rough and ready cafe. She will be staring into and drink trying to ignore what he is saying and trying to keep them together. We would have shots of him singing whilst sitting in front of her. We would have shots of her facial expression of her crying in front of him. Then he would leave before the chorus and the last shot of that scene would be of her looking out into the light from the window wiping away her tears. On the chorus it would change violently to night time where on the drop she would start throwing everything around her apartment to really emphasise her emotion. We could have a quick shot of Clare watching this from outside the window.  Then for the rest of the track we would have shots of Clare watching her from a distance, seeing her deal with being dumped and seeing her upset and reacting in a bad a way. From it being violently going out drinking, falling over, throwing up and smashing objects such as throwing a vinyl player against the wall to crying on the sofa.
The subject of dealing with a stereotypical bad break up for me really works well with this track and could be very effective.

Here is the original video. And the idea of it getting aggressive and powerful clips in the chorus is shown very clearly in the original music video.

Introduction to Advanced Portfolio

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:


> A homepage for the band.

> A cover for it's release as part of a digipack (CD/DVD package).

> A magazine advertisement for the digipack (CD/DVD package).

All material for all tasks to be produced by the candidates with the exception of acknowledged non-original sound or image material used in a limited way in video/radio work. Further guidance will be avaliable in the support materials. For music video, permission should be sort from the artist for use of the audio track.
The centre will be expected to allocate marks according to four levels for each three categories:

1. Research and Planning.

2.Construction.

3. Evaluation.

In arriving at a level for each category, teachers are advised to look for evidence of 'best fit'. It is possible both for a candidate to be placed in different levels for each of the three categories and to recieve quite different marks from other memebers of the same group responsible for producing an artefact, according to his/her contribution. Teachers are asked to support marks with written comments under the three categories on the assesment sheet.

Our Listener

• Male
• Aged between 14 – 24 (school or uni)
• Race – White or Black
• Middle Class because there are able to afford this consumption.
• Trendy and Fashionable
• To look hard
• Following trends (sheep)
• Watch MTV, Read ‘NME’
• Active on the Nightclub Scene
• Go to Festivals and Live Performances
• Older audience – childless, still thinking their young, still go out socialising.

Feedback

You have a good range of material on your blog, Patch. This is a good start to the unit, so keep it up and make sure you get plenty of detail in the research and planning for the main task up by Friday.

James

Arctic Monkeys And Their Star Image

The Artic Monkeys are a boy band of 4, from Sheffield which makes them popular with their fans as they are consdered as 'normal boys' from a 'normal background'. Most of their videos are from live footage which allows the audience to see what they are like on and off stage, their song 'Fake Tales of SanFransico' had a small budget of 1000 pounds which makes it relatble as it is nothing flashy or to high tech. They also filmed them playing their instruments which is a sign of rockstars and not just mainstream artists, similary bands such as 'Guns n Roses' had shots of Slash playing his guitar and the band playing live this gave them a image of being real musicians and not just studio mainstream artists.

Lilly Allen - Smile

Lilly Allen in this song has a very feminist view and a complete narrative about her breaking up with a boy, which would appeal to the female audience, in comparison to the next video with Artic Monkeys this was a high budget video with a narrtive and not just shots of the band, she was also given a lot of camera time which shows the audience who she is and who they are watching, so it seems to be a lot more about just getting fans. She does want to relate to a wide audience though of teenagers who are rebellious as it seems to them that they are being understood.

Literal Video - Hero by Enrique Iglesias

Verse 1:

i am gonna kiss your ear lobe
i am gonna stand infront of the sun
when your leg gets out of the car
would you come fill up my car
i am leaning on a petrol tank
a tracking shot of my height
as i grope you as i get pissed

Verse 2:

lots of wind but your hair doesnt move
now i will sleep, when you play the piano
now we kiss and i hold you tigh

Chorus:

oh i am driving in the desert
i am chilling in my shades
now suck yout lollypopa
all my money flys away

Verse 3:

now i wear a rediculous hat
the mafia in a derlict house
why is that man playing my piano
i follow her all night

Chorus:

now we kiss infront of jesus
counting money in a sexual way
now i am scared of the mafia
so i stroke her face all day

oh the mafia gets angry
oh were in the desert
oh oh
he throws the gun
she's so angry
oh this is an unfair fights

Jane Doe - Naughty Prelim Music Video Evaluation

We had previously been influenced by other music videos (see blog below) for our shot choices. We therefore just listened to the song and wrote a timeline of where it seemed right to change shot and to what we should change the shot to. Along with our timeline, we had a list of the shots we wanted to make and another list of the order in which we would film. For example, we planned to start off by getting a wide shot, then a mid-shot of each of the instruments and close ups of certain things like the bass. We planned to take some different shots after we had got the important shots but as we only had 25 minutes to do so, we did not get a chance but we managed to make do with what we had got.

In the studio, we set up the band how we had previously planned would look the best. So, we had the lead singer at the front with the two BV's behind her on either side. We then had the instruments surrounding them in a kind of semi circle shape on the right hand side so that we could see all the members of the band when taking a wide shot.

Almost all the shots worked well first time round. However, there were a couple which we had to take a second shot just to be sure. For example, when filming the close up of the lead singer we found that there was a symbol from the drums in the shot and so we filmed it again. Likewise, when doing a close up of one of the BV's, her hair had gotten a bit messy on one side of her face and did not look as good as it could have so we sorted out her hair and took the shot again! I think that most of the shots we got were absolutley fine. However, when we shot the close up of the lead singer we told the BV's that they could move out of shot as we did not think it would make a difference. Yet we were wrong as I think the shot would have looked a lot better if they had stood there when we were filming it (even if it was only a top of an ear that entered the shot) as this gave us a couple of difficulties when cutting from all three girls to just the lead singer.

The good thing about using the studio was that we could plan before hand as we know the studio very well. It also meant that we felt comfortable in our surroundings. We were able to position the band exactly as I had in mind. However, there were some floorboards which had been laid down in order to make the scene a bit more 'retro' and these gave us some difficulties when filming as the camera was a little bit shaky but I don't think it was noticeable.

The studio was brightly lit. This was very successful as when it came to editing it seemed as if it was natural light anyway.




We had previously written out a timeline of which shots we were wanting to do on which seconds and therefore when it came to the editing process we had more or less a guideline to edit. However, we did end up changing a lot of things depending on which shots actually looked better on the day and we could have a better idea for what we wanted to video to look like as we knew more about the band's image. The only problem we encountered during the editing process was what I have previously mentioned to do with the shots moving from the 3 vocals together to the lead singer close up. This was because when we shot the close up of the lead singer we told the BV's that they could move out of shot as we did not think it would make a difference. This gave us difficulties when cutting from all three girls to just the lead singer and so we had to avoid all transitions of this type. I think that my editing skills have developed a lot between the thriller shoot and this preliminary task because I found this task a lot easier to do now that I knew which buttons to press and what I was doing. I also completed it a lot quicker and was not so unsure about what looked good and what needed to be taken out.

We all took it in turns to do the different roles in the production and we all put in as much effort as each other which was nice because that is hard to do but we managed to work well as a group. I started off on the camera and did the first few shots and then passed the camera over to another one of my group members and went straight to playback. After he had been on the camera for a while, I took over as director and directed which shots we needed to do and whether they were looking good and what more the cameraman had to do. When we went up to edit, I started off by directing another group member on what would look good as he was editing. Once he had put in the main shots, I went over it repeatedly and made improvements and changed things that did not look right. We all had a good amount of input and I think we worked very effectively and quickly as a team (bearing in mind we had very little time).




I was very happy with the overall result at the end of the day. The footage met the storyboard requirements in some instance but changed significantly once we knew what the band's image was. The change also took place due to the fact that we could not get in all the shots we wanted due to the lack of time and therefore had to make do with simple shots, yet this turned out to be very effective.

Jane Doe - Naughty Prelim Music Video

Album Cover

We thought carefully about what image we wanted to represent for the band before designing the album cover.

We chose to design the cover in black and white to represent the style of music that the band make, which is in the style of retro. Their style also seems quite 50's or 60's like, and so the black and white photo suits the band for this purpose. Furthermore, in the photo the 3 girls are dressed in a sort of retro/60's style so this just emphasises the image even more. We chose the three girls to be on the front cover because they represent the band more than the boys who are on the instruments as they are the front girls and give off the image. We kept the writing to be simple but effective, and so it is just bold and black. This was so that the band did not seem tacky.

On the back cover, we have the 3 girls in a more natural position and they have not realised a photo has been taken and so are laughing and having fun. This gives off the feeling that their image is not false and stops a fake image being given off. In the photo on the back cover, there is a boy (the drummer) sat next to them to show that there are more band members and that it is not simply a typical girl band as there are boys present in the band too.

Shoot Pre Production

Before our shoot day, we needed some sought of plan to go in with. So Myself and my group which consisted of Isabel boddy, Niall Green and myself. We did some research into some videos that are quite similar with the genre of the band we were making video for. We looked at a video that our previous A2 media classes made. It was called 'Crazy in love'

Arctic Monkeys Development Within Their Music Videos

Fake tales Of San Francisco (Early 2006)
The Video Consists Of them as a band, a Group of close mates.
The Budget was £1000, A high budget is not needed.
The low budget video makes the artist come across as ordinary and it goes along with the lyrical content of the song, of being from a basic working class background from Sheffield.
There are shots of them hanging about backstage doing stereotypical young ladish things together.
The MV is shot on a handheld camera
For location it is very basic, the location is mainly of them playing live at a venue and them hanging out backstage, and occasionally we see shots of the scenery of Sheffield.



A view from the afternoon (Late 2006)
This video is another very basic video. However we do not see any of the band members.
The video consists mainly of a Male drumming. He based in an estate, this is somewhere that can be dangerous. He plays drums for about 24 hours. We know this because time is shown through the daylight and the scene becoming night.
The music is opened by water being splashed over him. It is ended also by the water being splashed over him.
This video has come up is production because the quality is better, The Location would have been more expensive, There are actors and there are some special effects such as the moon exploding But not a lot more expensive. This overall means that Domino Records are becoming a lot more comfortable with spending more money on the band.



Teddy Picker (2007)
This video, again is quite basic. It is of the band recording their track called ‘Teddy Picker’ At the RAK Recording studio.
The video gives the audience an insight into what the band are like. We see shots of the band playing together, going to the Pub together and generally hanging out together on a day at the recording studio.
It gives the audience a viewing on how and where they made the song. It shows us their lifestyle and them at work.
The video had gone up though in production because the quality is better and there are some effects such as slow motion and a vintage overlay.



Crying Lightning (2009)
This video is a massive step up in ways of production for the Arctic Monkeys.
The amount of special effect is huge. The reason for this step up, was to promote their new album HUMBUG. Crying Lightning is the first single from the album.
The band are on a boat playing the song. They are sailing through a rough sea but they still stay aboard. This gives the impression that they are strong and powerful. Some could say that, the reason for this is because the have managed to make another album. They could argue that the Arctic Monkeys are showing that the industry is harsh and that they have been so successful that Domino Records can afford to keep them on the label.

A2 - Music Industry: Advanced Production Brief

In this second year of Media Studies, I will create a promotion package for the release of an album of a new artist, including...

a music video to his or hers first single
the cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD package)
a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD package).

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK

"It made me far more aware of the risks of getting into an un-licenced taxi"- 20 year old Girl

"The choice of shots work well together" 45 year old man

"Original idea, nice sound choices and pans" - 20 years old man

"The choice of actors were suitable and made it a lot more realistic"- 32 years old woman

"I enjoyed the shot choices and camera movements, such as the the wind mirror shot of the driver looking at his victim ,this created suspense!" - 26 years old man

"I liked the opening credits and the sound, overall great video!" - 17 years old boy

"I feel drawn into it and want to know what would happen next and the message was very clear" - 47 year old man

We also made a questionnaire and asked people from the age of 16-30 for their opinion:

What would you define as successful in the opening sequence?

Most of them mentioned: the use of after effects for the opening credits, sound and camera movement, original idea, well chosen material and smooth editing

What would you improve?

Most answers were focused on: The level of the girls voice, some bits were too quiet and weren't clear enough.


Overall, pretty much everyone enjoyed the sound and shot choices we made, the wind mirror shot as one said was popular. The idea was original and made people aware of the consequences of un-licenced taxis. We managed to a-dress the target audience we wanted because people from all ages found it interesting. In addition, men and women had something to say and enjoyed it and the clip was defiantly more apparent to woman.

Task 7. Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

1. Preparation and Planning

Planning our preliminary task and our main task there was a difference in the amount of work we had to put towards to each one.
The preliminary task was our first shooting assignment; most of us were not very familiar with using a camera and how to shoot shots so we were given guide lines to follow. We were given a script for our actors to read, it told us how to set up our filming equipment. We were given a choice where to film, we chose the class room. The guide lines made it easy for every group to do this task because it told us what to do.
The preliminary task was quicker to produce. Instead of planning our shoot day (when, where, what angles, what props) like our main thriller task we were given a media lesson to go off in our groups. We had to find two actors around school to take part in our preliminary task. So when it came to planning we had very limited time which evidentially ending with us making up the shots as we went along by using examples from the guide line sheet. This meant that we had to think up different shots, decide how to arrange the scenery and work out how to interpret the storyboard in our own way.
With our main task a lot has changed in terms of preparation and planning. It took ages at first to come up with an idea, we all went down separately in our group and wrote a idea down which was roughly about a page long, we then returned together and pitched them to one another and this was really helpful because it gave us four different options and it also helped us to get to our final idea. Once we had our final idea we could then move onto the planning of producing our thriller. We had to look into the location; the actors, the shoot days, the time limit, the script and this took a lot more time than the preliminary task. If we had planned our main task in the same time period as the preliminary task we would have ended up producing another amateur piece of work like the preliminary task.
As this was the main task preparation also took longer than the preliminary task because our main task was part of our exam so we took care that everything we needed was there. Our shoot days were shot off campus, it was crucial that we had all the equipment and props we needed with us and we come out with some successful shots. Luckily it all went according to plan due to our good preparation. Our second shoot was shot on campus so it wouldn’t have been as much of a disaster if we had forgotten anything, but again we had everything we needed with us and everything went well.

2. Development of your film-making skills

In the preliminary task we were all given a storyboard to follow with a basic story line already set out for us. This gave room for some interpretation but with everyone focusing mainly on the technical side of the task due to everyone being only just introduced to it, it meant it gave everyone little time to develop a good story to be told visually rather than with dialogue.
Between the filming of our preliminary task and our main task we had learnt a lot more about film-making during lessons and we gained more knowledge of what to put in our main task. I think that the fact we had a lot more time to concentrate on our story board for our main task meant that we had a much higher chance to produce a better piece of work that had a visual narrative.

3. Use of camera

Comparing the preliminary task with our main task it was easy to see that we had become more familiar with the camera and we had a lot more shots to choose to use in our task. In our preliminary task we were all fairly new to the camera and with the short time limit we were only able to produce four of five shots maximum which understood after a small introduction. It was also easy to tell that with more experience we could have made those shots better if we were to re-do our preliminary task now I very much think it would be shot with a more professional angle to it.
Our main task is a good example to show how we have improved in terms of camera work. At the beginning of the year we weren’t aware of the different shots and the rules behind them. However now that we have learnt about such things as the framing for eye line matches, 180 degree rule and use of close ups we were able to use a lot more in our main task which as a result would make it look more visually appealing and interesting to watch that was better quality.
The shots we used in the preliminary task were basic and made the sequence altogether rather slow and jumpy to watch. In our lessons we have learnt how to decide on what shots would be best to use in each part of our main task and which would make the sequence flow better and look more professional.

4. How you use of sound has developed

The sound in the preliminary task was very basic, consisting of just dialogue and the background noise of the room. This was because when editing our preliminary task it again was new to most of us so we didn’t feel comfortable to start playing around the sound and we just need to focus on placing the shots together. However when it came to using sound in our main task we had a longer period of time to develop our knowledge of using sound I was put in charge of the sound a making the original score. Due to learning about the sound I was able to incorporate different sound effects which might have been a non-diegetic sound track to create an element of fear or suspense for example placing in the backing music. We also had the option of adding in sound effects that we perhaps weren’t able to achieve on our shoot day such as rain fall or passing traffic. This helped us to save a lot of time when it came to editing, instead of using a microphone to record these sounds we had samples on the computer to use instead.

5. Demonstrating your ability to master new technology

When editing our main task we used Final Cut Pro. We used this programme when we were editing our preliminary task. However at that point in time not everyone got to spend very long using the programme and coming to grips with how to use it.
We were allowed to go up to the edit suite and use Final Cut Pro on our own. This meant I had time to learn how to use the programme through trial and error, learning how to use different tools. I can say due to these both tasks I have become a lot more experienced than when I started.

Task 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Task. 5 How did you attract/ address your audience ?

The main attraction of our film is the fact that it is based on "Social Realism" meaning that is addresses current affairs that are going on in the world today, unlicensed cabs are a big issue in The United Kingdom today and action needs to start to take place to sought out this issue / Crime. I think that if teenagers were to see our film it would perhaps make them think twice and make them more aware about getting into a strangers car in the future that has no indication of it being licensed. When parents here about this film they will edge their children to go and see it so that they may think again next time before they go to get in an unlicensed taxi in the future. The film also has a thriller attraction to it, The theme of kidnapping and murder in the film will attract and address our audience.

Task 4. What kind of media institution might distribute my media product and why?

The institution that would possibly make our film would be vertigo because they produce and distribute low budget films. They want to produce and distribute commercially driven independently made films that enable them to make a profit.Their aim is to compete with the mini majors such as fox searchlight, who distributed the film Taken, in the U.S.A. so they would try and produce and fund an equally as successful film as Taken. Similar films that are made are ‘Hitcher and London to Brighton as they are both about people running away from someone.

I feel that my film would cost around about half a million to the maximum of Three million. Vertigos film budgets range between about half a million to about three million so for us as Directors this would work comfortably. Vertigo have made a series of horror/thrillers such as the Children, The Cove and Outcast which shows that they have a niche audience from the ages of 15-24 that would watch our film. Our film would mainly be first attracted by a male audience so we have a female protagonist to attract female viewers. ‘Vertigo Films’ sell the films abroad before the film is made so that they can put money into the film whilst making it which enables them to fully fund it and make the most out of the film.

How does your product represent particular social groups?

The two social groups that we have chosen to represent in our media product are; teenagers and our driver who is suppossed to be a stereotype of a rough edgy man from a poor background. We have focused on using the idealogy that in society you do come across some taxi drivers that sterotypically do seem to be from a poor or foriegn community. Then you also do have the sterotypical naive teenagers who will get into any taxi without thinking twice.

In terms of choosing our actors we have tried to portray these two sterotypical social groups through their appearance and their actions within the title sequence.



This Is a Photo from the film of 'Taxi Driver' This film gave us the idea of the taxi driver.



This Is a Photo of a stereotypical girl that could be vunrable in the films situation.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

           

This first image is taken from our first shot of the sequence. It is used to establish the fact that our victim is on her own after leaving a club. This upholds the conventions of a film sequence because the fact she is on her own makes it more believable for her to be vulnerable and to be kidnapped by the driver.

We wanted to show the difference between a licensed cab taxi and an unlicensed taxi. By having the real taxi drive off and dismiss the safety of the girl conforms to the conventions of our sequence because it is no longer definate that she is getting into a real taxi.

This screenshot is to show that the girl was first of all in a busy town with little chance to be hurt because she was around the public. You could argue that this image subverts the conventions of a thriller film sequence because she is safe, however this changes when she enters the taxi. So it quickly conforms the conventions of a Thriller film.

In this shot the driver is showing the girl her driver's license that he has stolen. This conforms to the conventions of a thriller film sequence because even before he had shown her the audience were already catching onto the idea that this driver wasn't normal. However when he shows the stolen driving license the audience now definately know he is not normal and infact very dangerous and has been following the girl or keeping track of her in some way

This screenshot is to show the struggle and dispair of the girl when she realises she is in danger from the driver. This conforms to the conventions of our thriller sequence because the viewer now knows for definate that something is wrong and she is in danger.

The last image shows the driver in the foreground and the Girl in the background placing them at different levels of power between the two. This image conforms to the conventions of a thriller film sequence because the audience can tell that the driver has power over the victim by the menicing look in his face and the fact that he has her life in his hands by him being behind the wheel of the car.



Who would be the target audience for my film?

Our films target audience would likely to be between the age ranges of 15-24. They would like this film because it is an action movie. My target audience is this age range because these age ranges are the ones that go to the cinema.
I would be the certificate of 15 due to the violence and the explicit language throughout the film and some sexual scenes The Film is an action movie so it would also appeal to older people. The audiences have a lot of free time especially the audience under 20, my target audiences would mainly be in education either college or university or even in employment. The typical interests of that age group would probably be Sport, performing arts, films, relationships, shopping/fashion and using technology (facebook, twitter, youtube). I would use facebook, twitter and youtube to advertise my film as most 15-24 year olds use these on a day to day basis. For my secondary audience of 24 - 35, they may like my film because it is an action movie! My movie is more aimed for a male audience, due to its grotesque violent scenes! However, couples could enjoy this film together as there is a strong female character and the males would enjoy the thrill and action. I feel men would like my film as we have used a young attractive female character and females would like our film as there would be several male characters that would be muscular and middle aged. I feel that the film would attract a greater male audience as it is full of action but I feel some females would enjoy it too.

Shoot Two

On our second shoot it was a very cold and miserable rainy afternoon, we had the car parked out side the media studio. We then set up lights either side of the car, on being red and one being normal to signify cars driving past and the back lights reflecting the car going past. After setting up the lights we started to work on placing the mic in the correct position in the car so we could pick up the best level of the driver and the girl this was mainly my job as I am doing sound for the thriller. After this we then did a side shot of Lottie where we captured her starting of being mildly upset then gradually getting more upset. We then did a front on shot of the two of them in the car though the windscreen. We had to create a rain effect due to the fact that it stopped raining when we wanted to this shot! So we used a water gun which had a wide spread spray. As we shot each video we had two people on lights turning them from side to side as if there was a car going past. On this shoot I did a bit of everything but as I said I mainly did the sound. The shoot overall was very fun and quite easy in some aspects. I am confident to say that the shoot went very well.

Europacorp

What institution would make our media product?

Film companies such as 'Lions gate and Europacorp' are the sought of companies that could possibly be interested to made my film. My film is a thriller. These companies make thrillers similar to mine in the way they have lots of action and fast scenes. Europacorp in 2008 make the film 'Take' which was a action thriller film starring Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen, and Maggie Grace. The film is about trafficking of woman in Paris. this is similar to our film of 'Unlicensed' in the way of a girl going missing and the struggle of freedom. So it is a 'Kidnap' thriller. Europacorp make low budget action films, so for a first time director Europacorp would be the best option.

With our film they would make money by a few different ways. As it is a low budget film they don't have enough money to distribute it all over the world so they would have it in countries such as the UK,USA and some countries in Europe. Europacorp would get money from the cinema ticket takings from the cinemas over those countries. Then after a few months of it being shown in screen (depending on its popularity and success) it will be brought out on DVD, being placed in most high street chains such as HMV or Zavvi. A few months later the film can be placed on pay per view on peoples TV’s. After that it could be put down to being played on normal TV.
After all of this it could be reduced in the shops. If the film is very successful the film could be made into a video game.

Europacorp specialize in low budget action films, they produce films for a small audience. The audience would be an audience that likes 'Action Thriller Films'.

Shoot One

The Shoot in Guildford went really well, we did a shot of the club sign tilting down showing Lottie Putting her jacket on coming out of the club and looking for a cab. We did a shot of a cab driving away from her and the unlicensed cab pulling up and her getting in. We then did a shot from another angle when Lottie is walking towards the camera and we see the black cab and unlicensed cab pulling up again. After that we did a shot through the window of the unlicensed cab as Lottie gets in it. These shots went really well for us but it was difficult as there were a lot of people walking past. It was also hard as we didn’t have a lot of time so we were rushed. This was my first time using a camera out in a town filming and there were a few inconveniences that I didn’t really think about before shooting i.e. the sound of the road, the traffic outside the club and getting the taxi to pull up on time. We could have used a better form of communication i.e. walky-talky’s to get everything coming at the correct time and making sure that people were not getting in the way of the camera.

Why Did We Use These Props?

Car- To use as an unlicensed taxi

Hose Pipe- To create the effect of rain and make the false impression of a moving taxi more realistic.

Bag- To carry her belongings and for her to drop it on the floor in order for the taxi driver to help pick up the contents and steal her purse.

Student ID- To show that she is at university which will suggest her age and also allow the taxi driver pretend that he goes to the same university.

Taxi Radio- So that the interior of the car looks more like a taxi and also for the taxi driver to communicate with the guy he's working with.

Reference

This film starts off with shots like we want in out thriller. The conversation between the girl and our driver is going to be shot very much similar to that in this film "Collateral".

Taxi Driver Influence

Taxi Driver Influenced us by the way in the film robert de nero is a phsycopath. In Taxi Driver, Robert de Nero helps the girl. we got influenced by the screen shots n the film, in the way we see each character in the mirros of the car. This builds up tension and adds to the mood.

PROPS

Shooting Script

• Abby is really upset having just broken up with her boyfriend, she is standing in the rain waiting for a cab
• Tomasz: you alright love, want a cab?
• Abby : Thanks , How much will it be to get to 54 Cavendish road
• Tomasz: Oh I think about £20 will cover it
• Abby: Ok
• Abby: struggles to pick up her suitcase
• Tomasz: Want a hand?
• Abby: Yeah, thanks
• Tomasz goes to put Abby’s suitcase in the boot. Whilst doing so Abby is looking for her phone in her handbag and accidentally drops her bag on the floor-the contents falling out.
• Abby: Shit
• Tomasz: don’t worry ill get that get in the car (Picking up the contents of her bag from the road he hands the bag to her).
• Abby: Okay let me see how much I have got… (Pause)… Oh no I’ve lost my purse fuck sake today is not my day.
• Tomasz: How much you got?
• Abby: I have a tenner in my pocket (She shows him the £10 note)
• Tomasz: (looking through her purse at her ID cards) Don’t worry, you go to Warwick don’t you? You can pay me back there ill give you my card.
• Abby: Oh I didn’t know you went to Warwick? Thanks that’s great
• Tomasz: yeah on my third year now.
• Abby: oh what are you studying?
• Tomasz: Psychology.
• Abby: oh really? I’ve never seen you around.
• (all goes silent. After a few seconds another voice is heard through the taxi radio)
• Other Man(Russian): Mate after the job your on I’ve got another one for you
• Tomasz (Russian): I don’t think this one will be going home, she’s a looker.
• Abby: Excuse me, sorry, my flats that way. (points right)
• Tomasz: nahhhh I know a better route.
• (she falls asleep on the back seat)
• Tomasz (Russian): I’m Almost here get ready.
• Other Man (Russian): Ok great see you soon.
• (BLACK OUT)
• (Sounds of doors Slamming and a loud scream from the men who are shouting in Russian. )

Final Thriller idea

final idea

Interior Taxi- Girl gets in the back of the cab, people are talking outside, music and lights a flaring as she gets in the cab and shuts the door the conversation is muffled as is the music, we pull off.

Taxi driver looks through the wing mirrors and the rear view mirror and angles them at her begins talking to her after getting out and helping her with her seatbelt as it is stuck he steals her purse and as he drives he begins asking her questions about her student card and her university details telling her they have things in common.

Driving through the city with foreign music playing in the background speaking in a different language on the intercom we will subtitle this conversation.

After having dramatic shots like the drivers eyes in the mirrors and him adjusting it to see other parts of the girls body better.

They talk for a while and we see that they are now out of the city centre and on country lanes our girl is now asleep in the back of the cab and our taxi driver is looking nervous maybe sweating.

We then go to a blackout and we hear sound effects such as tires screeching, car doors opening, footsteps in the gravel, girl asking the cab driver what he is doing and finally screaming and we finish on a silent black scream.

Storyboards

Drink spike advert

My thriller idea

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div style="width:425px" id="__ss_5960219">Texas Chainsaw Massacre The Beginning

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Thriller Idea

We open on an establishing shot of a club in a busy town centre focusing on the cue to get into the club, we then go into a close up of one girl in the crowd clearly underage and out alone. We then see that the girl starts taking to an older man in the cue and getting very friendly, we cut to the P.O.V of the man talking to the girl doing this hand held to make the audience feel like they are in the shoes of the man, all the sounds up until now have been diagetic, the music coming from the club and conversations between people.  Staying in the point of view of the man we make our way into the club where the night starts to speed up until we see the man give the girl a pill of some sort staying in P.O.V handheld we see the girl swallow the pill. It is at the point we go to a fast tracking shot backwards to see her reaction to the pill we then have a static wide shot where the girl is moving slowly around the club and dancing really badly as if she is overly drunk the crowd starts moving really fast to show us as the audience what she is feeling. When the girl finally leaves the club it is light outside we see cleaning crews and shots of empty streets and the sun rising. The girl who is now standing on the curd outside the club still a little tripped out from the pill she was given in the club. Several black cabs go past her as she tries to flag one down until finally an unlicensed cab pulls up and she gets in and tells him where she wants to go we have cutaways of the taxi leaving with the girl and some other shots inside the cab of the girl sleeping and the driver looking nervous and sweating a little bit it is at this point that the car swerves off the road quickly and the girl wakes up we then cut to black where we hear diagetic sounds of the car skidding to a halt, the door opening and finally the girl screaming and crying. Finally after all this we have the title come up on screen and some sort of slogan both of which I have not decided on yet.

Editing the prelem task

we had to edit the prelem film.We had to select the apporiate shots from our various takes of each angle. we had to select and reject some shots.Obviously we used the best shots we filmed but we also chose the ones that worked with the other clips, ones that fitted well with the other clips.We had to organise our shots. we had to match them to the storyboard.the shots were filmed in a way to show the characters powers. for example we would have high angle shot on character two to show that he is vunrable and a weaker character. the shots are in a certain order so they fit to the words of the characters and to the script.I really enjoyed this part because i was very new to the editing process and it was fun. it was pretty straight forward and the film runs quite smoothly but i know that i will improve and for a first start it was a decent effort. we used final cut to edit our clips.

Prelim Task Video

Prelim task

I was in a group of four, it was myself, Daisy Balwin, Jack Lemon and Theadora. We had to place our scene in one of our media class rooms. We had to use many different camera actions. We first got the exposure right on the camera and the correct light to film in we had to get the correct while balance and to do this we got a white piece of paper in front of the camera lense. before every shot sequence we  had to check that the tripod was level and we had to check if the each shot was framed correctly.We first started shooting off by using a wide shot. We filmed the whole sequence all the way through. We then did a "over the shoulder" shot facing towards character one. We filmed all they way though. Then we filmed a "over the shoulder" shot of character two. Yet again we filmed all the way through, just in case we missed something. We then did some close up shot on both actors. At the end we filmed the entry of character one through the door and some sliding of the cube from one charater to another and the slam of the cube. When filming we found that light was hard due to the room we were filming in. The Light was very flat and not very effective it was pretty boring and didnt have any effect. 

The other problem was doing a "over the shoulder" shot of character two. Due to the fact that he was sitting down and the shoulder of character one was standing up so we ad to put the tripod quite hight to make it look good. with the sliging of the cube we had to make it look good for to actually work. we filmed just the hand on the cube moving it on the table at the same time to the character lines. We also did the same for the other character. the slam of the cube was just the hand and the cube slamming down onto the table. It started off with just the table as a shot and the cube and the hand follwed into the shot. throughout the time of filming we always stuck to the 180 degree rule. Before we filmed we used the correct / appropriate terminology so that everyone on set knew what was going on.

So far i have learnt about light and angles and how to direct from my practical film. It was very fun and interesting.

Introduction to using a video camera

The past two week we have been in the media suite at school learning how do use a video camera. we managed to get out a test the cameras out by filming small scenes. we first learned how to set up the tripod and how to fit the camera onto the tripod correctly!. Once we got the camera onto the tripod we learned how to bubble the tripod so we could get a good level of balance. with the camera we learned the camera operation and functions. we learnt about timecode, which is how long you record for. then we learnt about white-balancing which is getting the correct light and exposure levels. We then learnt about focusing, we started by in class room focusing on objects on the other side of the room. There are different benefits of tripod shots as well as handheld shots such as you can get it be completly still and also you can be very precise with your shots. with handheld you canj get some amazing effects of tension and suspense for example.


We then went onto different types of camera shots. this helped us to learn the different ways of filming and imagrey. we had make a composition of work that included spacing and framing. We learnt about the rule of thirds. for example not to break the 180 degree rule. we started filming we learned the key words. such as 'Stand by, Standing by, Turn over, Turning over, Lead in, Action!, Lead out, Cut' this was very fun!.


On the first time filming i made the mistake of breaking the 180 degree rule whilst doing a over the shoulder shot. but apart from that there were no other mistakes!.


The change of going from a still camera to a video camera wasnt to bad due to it not being that different although there was a live picture contantly, the levels of exposure and shutter speed and aperture didn't put me off. i really enjoyed it because was fun and very interesting!

Doctor who editing exercise

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/trailermaker/view/7iasqi

I first started with this scene because it is a punchy start for an advert.
I then added this music to make it sound mysterious and slighty scary to build up tension
The next part was chosen to show the viewer that there is a bad guy.
The next scebe us to show what the doctor is about and also to give the viewer a description about him
The final scene is to leave the viewer with some mystery.
I ended the music early so the doctors final words mean a lot.

What is a Thriller?

We have been learning about the film genre 'Thriller'.  we looked into the film 'The Usual Suspects' we learned that a thriller consited of many types of media, such as 'Mystery 'Unexpecting Endings 'A Clever Storyline' 'Death' 'Crime solving'. with the 'Usual Suspects' we analised the poster for the film. we analysed from that who is the most important person in the film. so overall a thriller is a film that is full of mystery and death with a twisting storyline. In a thriller music and lighting and the mise-en-scene are a major part of making the thriller. The music helps to build tension.

Photoshopped Movie Poster