This statement of intent was done as a group effort.
The statement of intent was something we did as a group, we struggled quite abit when it came to deciding our psychographic since we didn't really know what kind of people would like our movie psychologically but I guess we did alright with it at the end. Aside from that things were pretty smooth sailing. This statement of intent helped my group as it pretty much helped us make and turn our ideas into words which gave us a sense of stability and security to our project, it also acts as a guideline for how we will make our project and we'll keep in mind things like the demographic and psychographic as well as the representations.
Placing the statement of intent into this blog wasn't as easy as it was from the last project, I had to do some techy computer stuff with google drive and pdfs, but I got examples and guidance from my teacher which was a big help.
- Films from this genre usually include many different things in terms of mise-en-scene. In the case of clothing, it will probably differ from movie to movie, but characters could often be seen using dark, low-key, and concealing outfits especially if the character is a criminal since it'll help hide thier identity, in the case of my group and the movies we're trying to recreate, characters such as mob family members can often be seen wearing suits and formal clothings. The way characters are protrayed also differ from characters, movies, and motives, criminals would sometimes be portrayed as messy and dirty, though some movies might subvert this convention.
A Bronx Tale (1993)
Produced By: Price Entertainment, TriBeCa Productions.
Distributed By: Savoy Pictures.
Genre/Sub Genre:
- Crime/Thriller, Mafia Movie.
What Conventions Did It Conform To:
- Firstly, the movie still takes place within the usual years that mafia crime movies do, around the ranges of 1940-1960s, A Bronx Tale specifically takes place around the years of 1960s, at least the start of the movie did. Secondly, the movie takes place in New York City or the Bronx specifically, this city is a very common setting for these kinds of movies and infact almost all of the most popular mafia movies do, and apart from the actual setting itself, the character "Callogero" narrates the opening with a sense of affection, almost like the city itself is a character that he loves, this view towards the city is also commonly used, albeit not always in a positive manner. Finally, although very slightly, the opening shows a few memebers of a mafia mob crew, most notably being the character "Sonny", the character was shown using formal clothing, had clean tidy hair and overall appearance, which I think is also a common way to portray members of these crime groups within the movies, aside from that the mob memebers were seen hanging out in their usual place as Callogero says and this is also commonly used, mafia movies often use certain locations like bars as a common place for them to be.
What Conventions Did It Subvert:
- The music used at the start of the movie was very melodic, warm, and comforting, though it fits the fact that the narrator is describing the city in a positive manner, I don't think these kinds of songs are too oftenly found in crime movies in general. Secondly, the opening starts with the narrator describing the city and its life in a very nostalgic way, as if he was retelling it directly to the audience, I also think this isn't too common, instead of starting off with whatever crime activities happen in the city, he just talks about the cars, the people, and where he lives.
What representations are there (places/events/people):
- Italian Mobsters, Normal Civillians, The Bronx (location).
What Technical Elements Are Used To Represent Them:
- The italian mobsters were mostly portrayed to be very tidy and civilized in a way, they were properly dressed with formal suits, and overall also had tidy hair and appearances, I think because of this they were shown to be rich and wealthy too, especially if we ad the fact that they were seen driving an expensive looking car. The few normal civillians weren't really shown in any positive or negative way, they could be seen wearing normal, non-formal clothing such as polo shirts or tank tops, their appearances too weren't anything special and also had clean overall looks, the few women seen in the car though were portrayed to be flamboyant in a sort of way. Finally we were also shown the general location of the movie The Bronx, the place was shown to be very welcoming and comforting, mostly due to the melodic music used, the narrator sounding very calm and nostalgic, and the camera movements, cuts, and establishing shots were all also very smooth, at the end of the opening it also made the city look very lively and active, due to the activities being done such as playing baseball and the musis used, and the fact that it was day made it seem more lively than nostalgic.
Ocean's Eleven (2001)
Produced By: Village Roadshow Pictures, NPV Entertainment, Jerry Weintraub Productions, Section Eight Productions.
Distributed By: Warner Bros. Pictures
Genre/Sub-Genre:
- Crime/Comedy, Heist, Thriller, Action.
What Conventions Did It Conform To:
- Firstly, I think the jazz music is very typical and expected of a heist movie, it's sleek and slightly non-chalant, but also up beat and exciting due to it being somewhat fast, apart from the fact that it is typical of the genre, I think it could be said that the music is also reflective of personality owned by the protagonist being introduced. I think the setting included in the opening is also typical of heist movies, it shows the protagonist being in a casino, which could signify where the heist could be taking place in.
What Conventions Did It Subvert:
- Firstly, the way the protagonist is being introduced and portrayed isn't too typical of how they would be in a typical crime family, though we know he might be a criminal since he was just released in prison, he is shown to be intelligent, smooth, and somewhat likeable, isntead of being a typical criminal who might be instead shown as unlikeable, dirty, and slick in a very bad manner. The introduction also pretty much has no action at all, instead it focuses on setting introducing our character, the setting, and some bit of dialogue, I think this is done in order to give the audience a sort of tease of what is to happen, but the movie isn't spoon feeding it to them just yet.
What representations are there (places/events/people):
- Casino and Prison (setting), Casino goers, Danny Ocean (protagonist)
What Technical Elements Are Used To Represent Them:
- I think the way the casino and prison is portrayed is very different, the prison was shown to have a light blue hue, plain concrete walls, metal gates, which symbolizes the fact that its a very lifeless, unhappy, and in a way authoritarian location, The casino however has an entirely different color pallete, being shiny, rich, and vibrant, with many flashing lights and people, which then symbolizes the place to be luxurious, high stake, and also lively, this being a very stark contrast between both locations. We also got multiple glimpses of the casino visitors around the character throughout the opening, a large majorty of them were portrayed with formal clothing, as well as having a neat and clean appearance, this also symbolzies the casino to be a high-class and formal location. Finally, the main protagonist was portrayed with a very positive manner, he had tidy hair, a clean appearance, wore formal clothing, and the way he behaved and talked in general makes it seem like he was very confident with himself, he was very polite, and knew how to carry himself around, which again makes him seem likeable and intelligent, different from the usual criminals portrayed in movies.
Here are some other texts I will look at a little broadly to see how they appeal to audiences and how they can inspire me.
Name: The Godfather
Year: 1972
Target Audience And How Are They Appealed To:
- I think the taraget audience is definitely for the more mature audience, due to the fact the opening involves a lot of dialogue, doesn't have too much action. and doesn't use music, this caters more towards people who focuses and enjoys the story more, whereas people of younger ages might get bored at it.
What Would You Like To Use In Your Opening From This:
- I think my group would definitely want to include the amount of dialogue this movie opening has rather than having too much action. Apart from that we'd also probably want to replicate the lighting of this opening on ours though I doubt we'll want to do it to the same extent, maybe just dark surroundings and focused light somewhere, in order to add a sense of tension or unease and uncertainty. Finally I think my group would probably also include the same clothing that is in this opening, things like suits or at the very least just formal attire in general.
What Would You Like To Avoid In Your Opening From This:
- The setting is something we'd probably want to avoid, rather than being set in a office or formal like place we plan on doing our opening in somewhere more abandoned to make it seem more unsettling and uneasy, we also plan on doing this because despite focusing on dialogue, ours won't only include it. We'd also probably also avoid not having music used in the opening, my group plans on using non-diegetic music, preferrably anything that's discordant so the audience would feel uneasy and show a sense of desperation for the character in our opening scene.
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Name: The Irishman
Year: 2019
Target Audience And How Are They Appealed To:
- Though I can't say for sure what the target audience is due to the fact that not really anything happens in the opening, I do think it might cater towards a more mature audience who prefers strong storytelling from the movies they watch, I say this because it's the overall vibe or feeling I get from watching this opening, slow and calm, which is probably how the movie will play out in terms of pacing at least, though this movie would probably end up like the typical crime/mobster movies we see.
What Would You Like To Use In Your Opening From This:
- I think my group would want to use the calm and melodic song used in the opening, though for the case of our project, we'd probably use it in a contrapuntal manner, this in turn would hopefully create a sense of unease for the audience, though this issue as a whole is still under discussion within my group.
What Would You Like To Avoid In Your Opening From This::
- Probably the setting of the opening, the one in The Irisman uses a singular location and I'm not sure what the place is but I assume it's a sort of retirement house, my group might choose to include multiple settings in our opening which right now is still in discussion, but the locations would most likely not be clean, bright, or welcoming like this since we aim to have a gritty and dark opening. I also think that our opening might not include having one singular shot since it might not fit with what we're aiming to do, and might be hard to replicate if the location we were to shoot in would have many people.
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Name: Bad Boys: Ride or Die
Year: 2024
Target Audience And How Are They Appealed To:
- I think the target audience for this movie based off the opening are for people who enjoy comedy movies with a lot of action. They are appealed comedy wise by the dialogue offered by the two main characters shown, and I think the contrast between behaviours and personality of the two characters could also add in some comedic value into it. They are also appealed action wise from the fast car driving scene where both characters are in a sports car speeding and drifting through the city, the music used is fast paced and hip, and the final bit of the opening where both of them are being robbed might also hint to the fact that the movie will include more action later on.
What Would You Like To Use In Your Opening From This:
- I think my group would want to include a few aspects from the mise-en-scene, this includes the clothing both characters are using which are formal attire with one of them wearing a full blown suit, I don't think my group has that type of clothing but at the very least formal clothes would do the trick, We'd also probably want to include weapons as well, albeit we'd want to use ones that are smaller.
What Would You Like To Avoid In Your Opening From This:
- My group would probably want to avoid a bunch of things from this opening, we'd avoid including a car scene in a bright and lively city, mostly since it'll go against the overall vibe and audience we're going for and entirely due to the fact that we don't have licenses and would get arrested. We'd also probably avoid having a comedic value into our opening primarily from the dialouge at the very most we'd have it slightly light-hearted and might focus on using a narrator instead of our characters speaking directly. My group would also avoid the music used, I believe it's too upbeat and exciting which again goes against what we want the vibe and mood of our opening to be.
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Name: Hot Fuzz
Year: 2007
Target Audience And How Are They Appealed To:
- The target audience is proabably people who enjoy action movies and maybe those who like comedy movies too. I say action because the fact that the main character is shown to be a Metropolitan police officer and the movie might include his line of work which is already shown in the opening like where he was raiding a house of no-no people and he was wearing swat armor, there was also a scene where there was a group of officers with riot shields and armor walking through fire on the ground. The fast camera movement, close up angles, and quick traisnitions also makes it seem more fast paced.
What Would You Like To Use In Your Opening From This:
- My group would probably want to incude the many transitions changing between scenes that this opening includes because my group is debating whether or not we want our opening to be a compilation of something in some way. We'd probably also want to include having many locations in our opening just like the one in Hot Fuzz, though ours probably won't be as bright or corwded.
What Would You Like To Avoid In Your Opening From This:
- The music used is something we'd want to avoid, it's too upbeat and exciting for the theme and vibe my group is going for. Although the camera trainsitions would probably be something we want to follow, the erratic and fast paced camera movement is something my group would want to avoid. Finally my group would also want to avoid including police officers or any other forms of law enforcements and government institution since we're trying to focus on portraying criminals.
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Name: Reservoir Dogs
Year: 1992
Target Audience And How Are They Appealed To:
- From this scene the movie is definitely for a more mature audience, sppecifically those who enjoy crime movies. The movie is for mature audiences because of the amount of gore used in this scene in particular and the language used as well, seeing this to younger audiences such as children would be downright traumatizing and a bad case of parenting. This movie might also be geared towards people who enjoy crime movies since in this scene, there is a police officer being tortured by who I assume is a criminal with whatever motives, the inclusion of a police officer might signal it being a crime movie, and the torture being done itself is a crime.
What Would You Like To Use In Your Opening From This:
- The setting of the scene is probably something we'd want to include in our opening as well, an abandoned building or warehouse though my group would probably use one that is much farther away or isolated from cars and the public. We'd also want to probably use clothing similar to the one that is being used by the torutrer, I'm not sure if it's formal clothing but it looks like it, so my group would aim to look someting like that, especially if we don't have coats or full blown suits.
What Would You Like To Avoid In Your Opening From This:
- The amount of injuries the person being tortured has and the torture methods is something my group would want to avoid, this is caused by the fact that it might be too extreme to recreate especially considering Cambridge guidelines, and I think recreating wounds like the one in the scene would be too hard or impossible since we're considering just using tomato juice or paste for blood, another factor is the time limit too. The ligthing is something we'd also want to avoid, I believe the lighting in this scene is far too bright than what we're aiming to achieve, we'd preferably want a dark room or overall setting and one focused lighting on whatever subject we have. Finally the type of non-diegetic sound is also something we'd want to avoid, I think my group wouldn't really want to have use a contrapuntal audio and instead use something discordant to fit the mood of our opening, though this issue is still under discussion in my group.
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Name: The Outfit Year: 2022
Target Audience And How Are They Appealed To:
- One of the target audiences is probably crime movie fans, the two people entering the building silently, escaping the police shows that these people probably don't have good relations with law enforcement, so this fact is probably what could appeal crime fans. The movie is also geared towards a mature audience due to the language used and the fact that one of the characters has a pretty bad wound, which may be disturbing to see for younger audiences.
What Would You Like To Use In Your Opening From This:
- The clothing is something we'd probably want to include in our opening since we are aiming to portray ourselves as characters who are memebers of a crime family, and they are often portrayed wearing formal outfit like suits, though I doubt my group can entirely don ourselves with suits. I think the lighting is something my group would want to replicate as well to a certain extent, the ligthing used in this scene is concentrated on the centre of the room and dim the further out you get from the centre, my group would want to use this in order to create an uneasy atmosphere.
What Would You Like To Avoid In Your Opening From This:
- The type of non-diegetic sound is something my group would want to avoid, though we do want to include that type of audio, the one in this scene I think is too nerve-wrecking and fast paced, made for the audience to be on the edge of their seats, my group would want to use music that is probably more slow and discordant, or we might go for contrapuntal melodic audio instead.
Here Are Some Other Videos/Texts I Observed That Could Help Me In My Project.
- This video helped me because I was't aware of the fact that there are different ways to open films, I used to think that directors would just do what they felt like was right or what seemed more pleasing to them, but turns out there is in fact actual reasons to start a movie in a certain way that is not just to please the director or producer but to also set up the mood for the audience and maybe guide them into understanding what the film is gonna be about or like.
- I can also see this video helping me and my group in deciding on what we want our opening to be like but instead of fighting on which feels more aesthetically pleasing or something, it'll actually help it make sense in some sort of way.
- Originally my group wanted to make an opening and include characters that are inspired from popular crime mafia movies like Goodfellas or Godfather, however we got hit like a truck after realising we aren't full grown adults with a thick accent and beards but instead we are teenagers we annoying voices, because of this we had a post high (??) clarity and had a tough time deciding what we should replace our ideasw with.
- Eventually I though about our age group and what genre we wanted to use and it reminded me of these few side characters we encounter in the game Red Dead Redemption 2, I believe it fits what we want to go for in our movie opening or at least we could refer to these characters since they relate to our age group, these characters are basically kids who loiter around alleyways, ambush people and rob them, we might want to go for something like this.
- Our opening also is gonna be inspired by this scene in The Batman in some way and essence, basically the opening is gonna be about a gang of teenage criminals (around 3-4 people I think) who are about to rob some passerbys (maybe just 1 guy), the rest of the gang bascially agrees in some way but one of them hesitates as he is reflecting and regretting on joining the gang, basically something like that. Massive thanks to the teacher for reminding and mentioning this scene for us since it's a big inspiration.
Self Reflection: I think I felt much more confident with doing this research as compared to the one I did from the previous project, I felt like I knew how to explain things a little easier and just overall felt much better with my writing, I definitely did much better on this one and I hope I can continute writing well for my research. I think this is due to the fact that I knew much more theories now from media and can spot media thingies much easier or atleast I can get a slight bit of it, and the fact that we're researching movies also felt more fun and comfortable compared to tourism ads.
I also found it easier to research inspirations on things to put in our film opening, mostly because the idea of teenage criminals came to me from a game I once played so I kinda knew what to talk about already.
Though we ended up barely using the research I did, I still feel confident and proud about it, I hope in the future I could grow my research skills and implement it better towards my future group and whatever media text we have to make.
This Is My Research: Industry For My Comp 1 Project.
What Genre am I working in?:
- My group is considering on making movie that follows a genre of Crime/Drama.
Do I want my film to be niche or mainstream:
- We are torn between which to choose since both has their own caveats, mainstream could mean that the expectations would be higher when it comes to the quality of our media text since they have massive fundings, meanwhile niche means that we'll have to follow their filmstyles and could result in our creative liberties in being restricted.
- In the end I think I'd want our group project to be niche, mostly due to the fact that we can have a sort of specialized style to it, our quality won't have to be that of a multi billion company, and it allows us to target a more specific audience.
What company would most likely produce my media text in the real world?:
- Probably Lionsgate Studios, mostly since the studio creates some media texts with genres and themes that my group is trying to follow, this includes things like American Psycho, or Hostel.
What other media text did they produce?:
Lionsgate Films has produced a few notable movies before, most notably John Wick 3 and 4, The Hunger Games Part 1 and 2, as well as American Psycho.
The one that somewhat fits with the genre we're going for is probably Reservoir Dogs, it also has a crime genre and I believe not too much action in it.
Self Reflection:
Finding what studio we'd want our film to be produced by was sort of a headache, we were torn between wanting it to be a niche studio or mainstream because both of them had their own caveats, things like creative limitations and quality expecations, we decided on choosing Lionsgate since it's sorta in the middle of both sides.
This Is My Weekly Progress + Plan for my Comp 1 Project.
Week 1:
- Throughout this week we were introduced to the media industry, mainly things like funding, ownership, distribution, charters and agendas, and so on. Charters are basically strict rules that film producers must adhere to and all media text they publish follow those said rules, agendas are bascially based on the funders or owners personal belief and values, which also may affect what media text is being published. Alongside that I finally learnt how confusing this whole media ownership and world is since everything overlaps, owns and owns something else, and so on.
- Following that on Friday, we finally got into our groups and started deciding on what type of film we would want to make and whether it'd be niche or mainstream, I managed to get very little research to the industry as I found it hard to decide on what group we want our movie to be in, and what producer we'd expect to make our typs of movies, in the end though we managed to decide on Lionsgate and Niche/Independent.
Week 2:
- On tuesday we did a more in depth and big research towards our genre, we chose a movie that we wanted to research and had to write things about conventions, and representation which is simillar to what we did last term, I will admit I don't know too much about the movie I'm doing to go very in depth, but I think it's my best shot when I have to consider the genre I'm trying to go for and having to choose a movie that also follows it. I still struggle trying to put in techincal elements especially when it comes to things like editing and camera so I'll have to catch up on that. I also probably need to watch a bit of movie intros to get my mind marinated to this genre I wanna do.
Week 3:
- On week 3, we did a collection of researches both big and small to find more inspirations that could hopefully influence and aid us in making our film, and deciding on what overall aesthetic and emotions we want to envoke and show within our opening.
Week 4:
- On week 4 we learnt further in depth about media consolidation, we learnt about things like vertical and horizontal integration, cross-media convergence, and synergy as well was how those things beenfit the audience and the media companies themselves, then we did a classwork in where we had to research our own case study about which 2 companies did synergy together and how it benefited them and the audience.
- On Tuesday we went into our statement of intent, here we were hit like a truck and decided to move away from the whole mafia genre and aesthetic and decided that we wanted to go for teenage criminals and stuff, aside from that we also drafted and planned the roles of our group, we also chose pur final genres and to what demographic and psycographic we want to aim our opening to.
Week 5:
- On Tuesday we finally began on learning and working on our storyboarding, script, and a little bit of screenplay as well. We first did a rough "bad" draft of what we wanted our storyboard to look like, after which we watched a 13 minute video of how to draw them well before we went on and made another storyboard that is more detailed and in some way better, we also had a long discussion about how exactly we wanted the opening to look like and alot of ideas were brought it, thrown out, and planned to be used.
Week 6:
- This whole week was filled with project lessons and was where we did a majority of our work, I also began to fill up my blogs and ticked a few things on my to-do list. We began to fully go in depth with things like our script/screenplay however our storyboard is still waiting on the script to be somewhat finished or to be further done. I still have a few gaps in my blog such as the script/screenplay post, storyboard post and what not. I'm quite nervous and stressed out since now it's daunting on me with the fact that I still have a lot of work to do and can't just wait things out till the shooting day comes up.
- Next week is sorta gonna be the same thing but I do believe we're gonna start reviewing and learning for our semestral exam which I'm nervous for.
Week 7:
- This week only had one project lesson on Tuesday but that was where we had to pretty much wrap everything up and submit and do everything on our blog, I only managed to get some of them done that day but I kept doing them bit by bit throughout the week, it was kinda confusing since I sometimes didn't know what exactly to put in the blogs and if the things I need to put is exactly finished and enough, but for now all I can do is hope it's enough.
- Aside from that the rest of the week was used for us to review and practice for the semestral exam next week, we practiced both text analysis and writing an essay, the first one in particular was very hard for me since I'm not really used or comfortable writing things like this.
Self Reflection:I think this term went on pretty well, there wasn't much that we did project and shooting wise however I do think i learn much more and could possibly be important and helpful for me in some case.
(Semester 2)
Week
Start Date
Task
Blogpost Title
Content
Deadline
W1
6 January
Production
Shoot
Editing Mini Project
A short recreation of a scene from your genre
W10
Behind the scenes
Images of your filming shoot
W10
Filming Schedule
W2
13 January
Shoot
File Organisation
My system of storing video files
W3
20 January
Post-Production
Editing
Editing Process
A description (including screen shots) of how you edited your post
W12
W4
27 January
Editing
Audience Feedback
A review from your target audience
W12
W5
3 February
Editing
W6
10 February
Self Reflection
Self Reflection: CCR1
W16
Self Reflection: CCR2
W16
W7
17 February
Self Reflection
Self Reflection: CCR3
W16
Self Reflection CCR4
W16
W8
27 January
Self Reflection
W9
3 February
Finalise
W10
10 February
Finalise
Final Film Opening
W17
Final CCR
Week 1
- One of the activities that we got from our teach was shooting and editing practice. The teacher told us to choose a section of a clip from a movie that fits with our chsoen genre for our project and recreate and edit it. My group chose to do a clip from Fight Club, me and Panji acted in it while Arnold edited and did the camera work, Alex helped in camera positioning and taking behind the scene pictures. I think this was helpful since it really helped get our engines running again after a long long break, it also helped us spot what things we need and how we could possibly solve issues we may face.
Week 2
- This week for our project lesson our teacher gave us the task to practice continuity editing and the importance of it, me and my partner had to practice editing while ensuring we have continuity by using pre recorded clips that were provided by the teacher.
- For our theory lesson we learnt about 4 new audience theories which are Cultivation theory, desensitisation theory, social learning theory, and reception theory.
Week 3:
- This week we learnt a large amount of theory. We learnt about representation theory, reception theory, and 3 gender theories from Butler, Murvay,Van Zoonen, and one other person that I forgot, in general thes theories state things like how sex and gender are different and can change from time to time, how men dominate the media indsutry and about male gaze.
- This week on thursday we did a good bit of our project, we did a dominant reading blog where we discussed the readings of our project within things like its events, people, and social groups. The editor of our group also started on a small bit of his editing. We finished our shooting, though we may have to reshoot some scenes since some of them look shaky and we don't have 2 minutes worth of footages.
Week 4:
- More than half of this weeks school week was taken up by chiense new years meaning we only had the opportunity for one media lesson which was used for our project. I started writing about the movie openings typeface development which we plan to use for our title and credits, despite this me andd my group are still struggling to find a proper title that would fit the theme of our movie and won't sound too corny, we tried using chatGPT but it went nowhere since they all sounded generic, corny, and similar to preexsiting films.
- The groups editor FINALLY had the will to edit, because of this we're quite far behind and have to catch up quite abit, thanks to the teacher though for giving us scolding which kickstarted our engines, especially for our editor.
- Me and my group still has a lot to catch up on, and our roles and tasks in doing the blogs aren't all too defined, I'm trying to do what I can most to help.
Week 5:
- National holiday, school closed.
Week 6:
- This week we had to take online schools since our actual school was closed due to extreme weathers, it was abit of a throwback to quarantine but it felt odd and was dificult for me since my school was very slow with having to handle zoom and other softwares that Id have to use.
- Aside from that, we finalised our audience feedback and also were introudced with CCR 1 and CCR which I only started abit with, if there's anything I hate most in media it'd probably be having to make a ccr, it really makes me wonder why I decided to stick around, but at the end I'll still have to make it anyways.
Week 7:
- For this week we returned to offline school. We started off with our CCR 3 and 4, both of which I've only done a bit about but atleast I have a hang of it now, I hope to finish all 4 CCR's in the next few weeks. My group also plans to shoot one last scene this week.
- Throughout this week we also had to face a few mock exams which made progressing with our project.
Week 8:
- This week was no different from the previous one. On Tuesdsay we had a review lesson regarding our previous mock test and discussed the questions and answers we had on it, I must say that I think I did pretty well considering that it was the firsts mock in a while but there's definetely room for improvement there, we also got help and tips from our teacher for our next mock on wednesday which I believe would be beneficial and could help me a lot.
- On wednesday we had another mock exam and this time I think I did a lot well as compared to the previous one I did, I felt more confident with my writing and I hope I can continue doing well in my future mocks and actual exams for media.
- On Thursday we had a project lesson with the teacher absent so a substitution teacher took care of the class instead, the editor finally got done with most of the editing so that means we can finally start with doing a bulk of our CCR.
Week 9:
- This was a very turbulent week, we had a mock test in media and other subjects, and biggest problem of them all being that we need to reshoot a nd effectively restructure our film project that was deemed to make no sense at all and was poorly done, we need to do this within the span of 6 days, in between that we have to study for more mocks and prepare our slcs, I blame this on our inconistensies of communications and work ethics, god help us all.
Week 10: (DEADLINE WEEK!!!!!)
- This was the final week for our media project submission. We managed to finalize on our video and did all of our editing so now hopefully our video is acceptable and makes sense to the point where we can gain some points and a good grade, we did things like adding a voice over to make our story make sense, fixed the typeface so it fits our genre more.
- I also managed to complete and wrap up my CCR's and blogs the night before the submisson day (Wednesday) and thankfully I did it with minor inconveniences and difficulties. I think I did more work regarding my blog and CCR's in this last 3 days as compared to this whole semester, I'm happy with how my things ended up especially considering how long I didn't do them and how little time we had left to finish everything.
This Is My Preliminary Research for my Comp 1 Project.
On the previous term, the class did a few research on different film openings.
Film
Genre/Genre Conventions
How did this scene introduce characters, settings and create intrigue?
What did you like/dislike about the intro?
Extracation 2 (2023)
Action
Fights, explosions, guns, gang members, blood
I think the scene introduces us to the movie genre as well as the hero. The genre is introduced since there’s guns, men in body armour, though this genre is introduced only subtly and not shoved into our faces. It also introduces us to the hero since the character is focused on the entire intro. I think the scene creates intrigue by only showing the aftermath, instead of the past like why the character was being shot, why was he in that country in the first place, though I assume the prequel would explain this, the aftermath also makes people nervous since the main character is being desperately saved and in a hurry, and considering the fact that he’s a popular figure/actor would make it even more interesting.
The thing I liked about the intro is that despite it being an action movie, it didn’t really shove the typical conventions of those movies to us, except for a few things of course.
I think the scene introduces the genre of the film, it does this by making the atmosphere eerie using dark lightning and some sort of unsettling music, then there’s a guy burying a dead body, he sees his legs has a bunch off goopy goop on it, then he gets up whistles and after a few cuts shows a large amount of other bodies surrounding him. I think the intrigue comes from the fact that we are left out in the open and not really told who the person is, who is he burying and why, and the fact that he’s doing it alone and seemingly rushed also could raise some eyebrows, so I guess overall it just makes us suspicious of the man's motives and also what could happen previous to the scene.
I appreciate the fact that the movie doesn’t use any jumpscares, the lack of dialogue or any background information makes it seem more interesting and mysterious, the use of the eerie music and the whistling echoing around also sets a sort of uneasy mood which is good since it’s what the movie is trying to achieve.
I think the scene introduces us to the plot of the movie, it pretty much tells us about the background of the movie, whatever happened before the movie happened in the world, and how the world within the movie came to be. The movie also somewhat introduces us to the genre because of it being set in the future, and how it mentions scientific research and futuristic stuff. I think it creates intrigue by telling us the background of the movie first, and so straight from the bat we kinda get the feeling of how the movie might go on, and we also get curious of what the current day within the movie looks like.
I think the intro was pretty much telling instead of showing us what happens, it’s like storytelling but not enthusiastic since the characters voice is very plain, though I guess there must be a reason behind this.
500 days of summer (2009)
Romance
Boyfriend, girlfriend, break up, aww
I think the scene introduces both the genre and relationship of the characters, though the latter only slightly since we are shown the hands of two people holding each other with a ring, which I assume is the characters. I think it also introduces the genre since the relationship being introduced kinda just points out to us that it’s a romance movie, and at the end the person says love story bla bla. I think it creates intrigue by not really introducing and going into depth the relationship of the two characters, only some background about them, and at the end he says “this isn’t a love story”.
The thing I liked about this intro was that the movie only introduces us to the characters and not really their relationship, which kinda reels me in and makes me curious.
Johnny English (2003)
Comedy
Funny people
The scene introduces us to the hero, subvert genre, genre, and somewhat the plot. It introduces us to the hero by making him the main centre of attention during the opening, especially on the opening credits. It also subverts genre since at first it was a serious agent movie thingy, then after that it turned serious. It introduces us to the genre since I think it has some conventions of an agent movie type, coats, guns and MI6. Then finally it slightly introduces the plot by informing us of agent 1’s death, and how the government or something is trying to figure something out. It creates intrigue by using catchy music, and the way the movie starts at first, being serious, could make people interested.
I like how the movie subverts the genre at first, although rowan atkinson was in it and I should’ve known better, I genuinely at first thought that it was gonna be a real agent, action serious movie, or at least I was knee deep into it, and then it gave me a shock by pulling out of it.
After very little discussion, we decided that we wanted to do a film that follows a crime/drama genre, we mainly chose this because we like the asthetics and the characters of films that usually follow these genres conventions. The overall theme, music, and emotions that are used and envoked form movies of this genre is also really good, we hope to reflect that too in our project.
Self Reflection:
The Preliminary Research for me was alright, I did struggle to note down whatever things the movie introduction introduced to us since it was pretty much a new thing we learnt for the previous term and weren't really familiar with it but I think I did alright in general, I hope I can improve my writing further after doing this.
