RESEARCH & PLANNING: Preliminary Conclusions

All three of the films I deconstructed had completely different ways of entering the film. Evidently it seems that the genre and possibly the year are the biggest contributors rather than the director.

Starting with Harry Brown; it is an action thriller and throws you into the plot almost immediatly, the atmosphere is rushed and dramatic so you get absorbed into the genre. If you take a handful of other action titles such as Star Wars, Quantum of Solace and Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring you see the same dramatic opening. This is not necesserily a directors characteristic which is seen in other films he/she has directed but more of what we expect. So from that we can understand that if we were to do an action genre it should have a dramatic opening two minutes.

The Unborn is a horror and follows similar guidelines. It is not uncommon for horror films to begin with a calm 'ordinary day' feel. The reasons being so the plot can develop and/or the audience find themselves in their comfort zone. I think the chilling beginning is more of a modern filming style, older titles seem more natural but the majority of modern day horrors have a very surreal calm to them.

Directors Pitch

   Grit and action have become a winning formula in the film industry in recent years. Films such as The Dark Knight and Harry Brown are good examples of the application of grit in an action film. We intend to reflect this trend with our film.

   Set in Northampton, we will be working closely with the results from our questionnaire to develop a film that suits our target audience- the young adult demographic. This will be reflected in the characters used in the film. The central characters will be in roughly the same age band as that of the target audience, which will hopefully allow them to bond with the characters better.
   The results from the questionnaire have shown that a number of the sample found aesthetics to be important in a film. We will work to this by using high dynamic range imaging, gritty camera filters, and vignetting, seen in such programmes as Top Gear to add drama to each shot. The use of vignetting also makes the scenes become more claustrophobic. We will apply this with the planned scene in the bathroom.
   The first two minutes of the film itself with focus on the main character, a young man running through the streets of Northampton with a blood covered shirt. The establishing shot will be of the running feet on a pavement and heavy breathing. Opening credits play through this scene. More credits play through the following parts but appear on the picture rather than blacking out. At some point he turns round and this is the first time you see his blood covered shirt. He then will get hit by a car, this is mainly to show that his mind is on other things, at this point the credits stop. He gets up and continues running. We may have a phone call scene at this point to show the main guy and his girlfriend talking and asking if he can come round. The idea is that he then runs into his girlfriends flat essentially to hide and to cool down. At this point we want a gritty tearing off shirt/washing face/bloody water scene. We plan to use a fair share of camera angles and techniques so that the filming style relates to the atmosphere. I will create a storyboard for the film and then a questionnaire on it will be distributed by other members of my group.

RESEARCH: Target Audience

As with anything it is always necessary to perform some kind of market research as it helps to analyse the type of product which the customer would enjoy the most and by using the information you can innovate new products or in this case films to get the most viewers possible.
   In this instance we have handed out a questionaire to 20 students at guisborough 6th form the results are as follows:

1) Your gender
Male? [12]
Female? [8]
2) How old are you?
15 or under [1]
16-18 [17]
19-21 [2]
3) Do you enjoy films?
Yes [19]
No [1]
4) What is your favorite film genre?
Action [6]
Horror [5]
Comedy [4]
Adventure [2]
Science-Fiction [3]
Romance [0]
Other... [2]
5) What do you find important in a film? (Pick three)
Special Effects [9]
Acting [13]
Set pieces [5]
Pacing [3]
Aesthetics [6]
Dialogue [8]
Continuity [3]
Editing [4]
6) What attracts you to a film?
Specific Actor [4]
Critical Reception [5]
Director [2]
Genre [5]
Premise [1]
Word of mouth [2]
Unsure [1]


Pictures here.

RESEARCH: Indecent Proposal Deconstruction

Film: Indecent Proposal
Year: 1993
Certificate: 15
Director: Adrian Lyne
Genre: Romance

RESEARCH: The Unborn Deconstruction

Film: The Unborn
Year: 2009
Certificate:
Director: David S. Goyer
Genre: Horror

     The film opens up with an overhead shot of a snowy lake with a lane beside it, creepy twinkly music plays over it. The shot then cuts to a city also in the middle of winter. It all seems very quiet and the in the next clip you see hardly any cars on the road. You get the feeling of ‘it was just an ordinary morning’ and that the director is trying to catch you out while you are in your comfort zone by making the opening scenes peaceful and somewhat mundane. The scene then cuts to a lone runner on a park bridge the camera slowly moves towards her from above. There is then a full body shot from behind and then a mid shot in front. It’s all shot in slow motion and another overhead shot is shown and then another mid shot as she slows down to catch her breath. All the while the music continues to play. Something on the deserted pavement catches her eye and shoe moves in to see what it is. The camera focuses entirely on the object which happens to be a glove and you see her legs as she walks over to pick it up. This is done so you know that this glove is important in some way. You then see a full face shot and then she turns around and the camera stretches at the sides to see a boy with only one glove on. The camera goes to a mid shot and then an over the shoulder shot from behind the boy so you can see the woman. The camera then cuts to the boys feet and it slowly rises until you get to the boys face which is grey and dead looking. It then cuts to a full face shot of a woman who looks confused. Then with a beat the film cuts to an over the shoulder shot of her and instead of the boy there is a bulldog with a creepy mask on. You see a confused lady once more and then a close up of the crazy dog which appears to have blue human eyes and is breathing heavily. The dog then moves into the woods off the path and the lady follows like a crazy conquistador. You get a mixture of pan shots and POV shots and it's all very surreal which gives the impression that the whole scene is a dream sequence. Eventually she sees the mask on the floor, another low angle shot is done where the mask in in the foreground and the lady is in the background. It becomes clear at this point that it is a mask of the little boy shown area. She then kneels down to take a closer look.

RESEARCH: Harry Brown Deconstruction

Film: Harry Brown
Year: 2009
Certificate: 18
Director: Daniel Barber
Genre: Action/Drama


     Opening titles slowly appear and reappear on a black screen. You then begin to hear non diegetic muffled voices which turn to diegetic when you are cut to a group of young gentleman. All of them are wearing hoodies and speaking in a modern broken working class accent. The scene is entirely shot on a mobile phone which works surprisingly well regarding verisimilitude, it’s as if you aren’t watching a film but viewing a video on someone’s phone so the whole scene seems a lot more realistic. The scene has a very sinister feel, mostly because of the possible stereotype of the characters and the grey concrete wall smothered with graffiti. It soon becomes obvious that the hoodies have drugs as the camera directly shows a weird contraption. A hoodie is soon centered out as the other characters force him to take the drugs and then pin him against the wall, slapping his face and swearing. He then exhales the substance and his chums congratulate him and the camera moves back. Another hoodie then looks at the camera and shows off a gun, describing it as "real shit" and then giving it to the guy who just took the drugs as if it were a green beret. The film then cuts to the directors title and then cuts to more mobile filming, probably from the same camera. The sound is very loud and frightening and two men are on a bike riding dangerously through the estate. The jumpy film work shows more graffiti and dead trees to emphasis the scariness of the estate. The film then cuts to them riding past a lady with a pram, swearing as they go past you then see one of the youths get out a gun which makes the audience tense, they then ride back and shoot at the girl deliberately missing. The gun sounds are made to be very loud so the audience jump and are naturally scared of the gun. The man continues shooting at the lady and she is shown screaming and protecting her baby. Inevitably the guy on the bike misjudges and shoots her in the neck and she falls over dead. There is a pause so the audience can take in what happened and then both riders swear and make a hasty get away before the camera shows a lorry hitting them. Splinters fly everywhere and the mobile camera is flung in the air before landing conveniently to see the two now dead motorbike riders on the road. The film the cuts to the words ‘Michael Caine is Harry Brown’ on a black screen, the writing is small, a decision by the director so the character Harry Brown appears small and unimportant.

RESEARCH: Preliminary Film

This is the preliminary task. I was involved in the editing, unfortunatly the filming was less then adequate so therefore it did not turn out quite how I would have liked it to. However I have learnt and it was increased my knowledge of media and film editing.

RESEARCH: Preliminary Story Board

South African Guy and Tall Guy talk about driving somewhere!