The Taken - film opening

Audience feedback

Still to come.

Comment of one of the directors

In terms of the genre I think that our opening clearly fits in to the criminal thriller, as we have used many common stereotypes that have been illustrated by mise en scene. Our soundtrack is instrumental in hip hop, rap and urban style combined with diagetic sounds of the city and footsteps in the background as well as extra train sound. It gives more dangerous, insecure and unpredictable feeling; creating tense atmosphere. When editing we have used quite few jump cuts, which have been necessary to create the tense and the idea of one of characters being followed. Also our cross cutting of action with panning shots and shots of train/tram were just highlighting even more that there is something bad on the way to happen. Therefore, it suggests beyond the reasonable doubt that it is film with the genre of criminal thriller.
Finally, I think that we were making our film opening, we were trying our best to cope with all difficulties that we faced; starting from lack of effective communication and ending on little button on the memory card which have destroyed Friday afternoon filming session. I have really enjoyed our team work, even though some moments were rather difficult. But at the end of the day that is what real production is about. I hope that effort that we had put into creating “The Taken” is shown in its quality.

A. Wieczorek

7. Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you think you have learnt from the progression from it to the full task?

We have learnt that it is important to keep some kind of record of things that we did already, so situations like one on the preliminary task with the door handle is not taking place again. As it is taking away marks for continuality. However, in our film some of things were out of our control, like weather, which was extremely important as we were filming outdoors. Therefore, we were filming in the rain and sun it can be noticed in our film, as well as different times of the day; morning and afternoon. Further more some scenes have been re-shouted, this also has its effects, as our main character has his shirt tucked in and out.
Also we gained more experience with “Final Cut”, that we used to edit for both preliminary task and film opening. Because we have been more familiar with different ways of using the Final Cut, procedure for editing our film opening took less time; editing for “The Taken” was more precise.
Main difference between our preliminary task and film opening is that in preliminary task we only used diagetic sound there was no other non-diagetic sound/music used. Therefore, this was the skill that we had to learn meanwhile editing film opening.
We have also learnt that we must do a great deal of planning before we go out and film the real thing. For example a shot list, location shots a story board and have analysed similar genres to ours.

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

The first shots that we filmed were unsteady and shaky, as they were filmed with hand-held camera when the director was walking behind or next to the character. Most of those scenes were re-shouted, because we and Ms. Smith decided that the quality of our filming is not satisfactory. This situation clearly shown that never mind how good the editing software is, it will not improve poor camera work. We decided to use a tripod to improve this and a hand grip attached to the camera.We have tried our best to make our media product as authentic as possible as we have used editing techniques to highlight who is good or bad character as well as who is being followed.That editing can be used to make a film slow or faster.Editing can be used for cross- cutting as we did.Editing can be long hard process and needs a great deal of time on it.

5. How did you attract/ address your audience?

The genre of our film is a criminal thriller on the borderline of horror, we have used spectrum of ideas in order to attract attention of our audience. We have used beautiful location; its features give to our film opening more glow and Hollywood style film feeling. We have used variety of shots both to show our characters and the location. For example: panning shots of the city of Manchester, detailed extreme close up’s or unusual filming technique where our bad character is filmed from the back to keep his identity unknown and on his front shots, his face remains secret until end shots. Also, our soundtrack is ear catching and complies amazingly with our cut rate and the mood, and the atmosphere of the opening. In post production we added extra train sounds to highlight fast moving and vibrant city, where anything can happen at any time.
Furthermore, when editing we have not used sheer volume of effects, as editing should be not noticeable for the audience; we strongly believe that our product looks authentic and honest for our audiences. Our media product is mainly aimed at male aged between 15 to 25; this group is seen as those who like the most violence and mystery in the films. Therefore, they are prefect fir for our production and they should enjoy huge part of our film, if not everything.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The primary target audience are mainly male aged between 15 to 25. As target audience is usually divided to categories: psychological, demographic audience and social groups, we are mainly focusing on c2 & c3. “Group C2 (31%) is the largest group, and are the mainstream focus for most media texts, these are employee's and workers who read tabloids etc.” “Group C3 (19%) are the "unskilled" or "blue collar" (no suits) workers, and they often only just have enough money for luxury products, these include occupations such as shop assistants.” (quotes from http://rbsmedia.blogspot.com/2009/01/audience-categories.html ). These 2 groups together would cover 50% of all mentioned on above website. Therefore, we would still cover enough without covering those “more intelligent” groups; as we would focus on the largest group, which is c2, with some of c3. Nevertheless we would also consider our secondary target audience, which would include: females and Group D “(10.5%) are the unemployed people, or people who live off benefits, who don't usually have any spare money to spend on things they do not need but want.” At the end of the day media products need to make profits the fact that group D is seen as they spend on things they do not need but want. Therefore, they can be identified as regular cinema goers that we are also aiming for. Our film could be more suitable for niche target audience as it is mainly aimed at 15+ males.The region of interest would be the north west.The ethnicity of the audience may well be white britsh and black caribbean as the people on the film are of this ethnicity.

3. What kind of media institution would distribute your media product and why?

We have invented some distribution company in our opening credits, which does not exists just yet. Our aim would be to find effective, creative, reliable and not too expensive distributor. Distribution involves acquiring a film and making sure it reaches the widest/largest audience possible. Therefore, we would like the distributor to concentrate on getting to our specified target audience, in order to advertise our media product to them, by various methods of marketing. This is main and most important part of the distribution process, as never mind how brilliant the product is, if is has not got good enough marketing campaign it will not be successful, in terms of profits.
We also would like the distributor to use a lot of the viral marketing, internet mainly(e.g.: emails or websites) to reach our audience we could also use social networking sites like Facebook and file sharing sites like You Tube. Because it is one of most suitable for our target audience, who are males 15+. However, the method of marketing that is seen as the most effective out of all is the word of mouth, that we would hope to create by advanced screenings and positive reviews; in media that are also aimed at our target audience.

Just to make sure that our distributor will not omit any of our target audience, we would like the distributor to also use more traditional ways of advertisement; trailers and posters (e.g.; tv channels with similar target audience to ours, screen in the city centre and outdoors, public transport; bus stops ). On the internet movie database website production companies such as Dimension Films, Woods Entertainment See more » have distributed Scream and this is a film similar to ours.The corner house cinema could advertise it for us. A low budget, independent britsh film company Vertigo Films is a British film production and film distribution company and they have disributed films similar to our genre thriller.They might be interseted in distributing our film.Working titile are british film production that might distribute our film as they have distributed low budget films such as shaun of the dead.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In “The Taken” there are only two characters both are male, there is no female appearing on the screen at all. We have used common stereotypes where females are not taking part in some situations as they are not necessary, as well as females can not cope with some situations. Also males on their own give more negative representation.
We also have used the ethnicity of our characters; bad character is black and he is following white character, who is his victim. This is a stereotype that is heavily used in Hollywood productions. Even though sometimes that stereotype is not used in that obvious manner like we did in “The Taken”, black characters have something “wrong” about them, but they not necessary need to be bad character. Nevertheless, black character gives negative representation. In terms of age our characters are in between 18 to 20. This age represents young people who have been recently classified as adults and at that age make one of most important decisions.
We have represented social class/status in our location and costumes. Stereotypes classifying people in the hierarchy upper/middle/working class is frequent in today's society. We have represented it in contrast between our characters; the way they are dressed. The costume of the “baddy” was kept in dark colours, in youth and urban style. Whereas, the victim was wearing white shirt with blue bag and some gold accents in his outfit. White colour is representing him being innocent victim and gold suggests his richer background.

Our location was not incidental, as it is seen as one of most posh residential quarter in the city of Manchester . This is again highlighting the differences between people from different backgrounds with different social status.

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

When we started planning our film opening, we based our idea in film opening of “Se7en” and “Scream” (see analysis on the blog). The genre of “Se7en” is thriller and horror as well as “Scream”. Therefore, our film opening has clear mixture of both.

We have used variety of shots; starting from extreme close ups to smooth high angle panning shots of the city of Manchester, from 23^rd floor of the Hilton Hotel. We have not shown “baddy’s” face through out the film opening (except one of the final shot) in order to hide the identity; keep him anonymous. As it would be for audiences to find out later in the film. Just like in “Se7en” where in opening all the audience can see are hands/fingers; we have shown legs/feet many times.

Our ECU’s were mainly showing feet/shoes when walking; to reinforce that there are trouble coming as well as to highlight that Andrew’s character is followed.
When we were editing we have used few jump cuts to make Andrew’s character looking like he is escaping, but in the same time he is still followed.
Our sound is mixture of sound track Hard Scary hip-hop beat (rap) – Instrumental; diagetic sound of the city an 4 o’clock in the afternoon and footsteps in the background; also when editing we improved the sound of the train, so it was louder and clearer, and complied smoothly with our non-diagetic sound.
After we decided on the genre of our film opening, we started to think about the mise en scene. We decided to dress Andrew in white shirt with blue bag and some gold accents in his outfit. This was made to show Andrew’s character as innocent victim and to suggest him being from well of background. Just like character in opening of the “Scream” where a female character is also dressed in light/pale colours and she is also innocent victim. Therefore, Andrew’s character was highly contrasting to “baddy’s” character, who was dressed al most fully in black and cloths were more casual. Our location also was used to highlight the differences between our two characters.

Boring walking altered by incredible establishing shots

When we were editing we were told we were over five seconds. So finding out the ending last seconds wern't that good as just a shot of a light .We took this out and also we were told there was to much walikng and not much going on and boring as only entertainment at the end. So we shortened the shots down as we were told we could be under the time a bit. Further more we were going to go out and get more shots to put in of the background and the area. Therefore, half of our group went to Deansgate at Thursday afternoon and they managed to film some interesting establishing shots. So, we could use them to cross cut "boring walking " with beautiful shots of Manchester. Most of those shots which we used have been made from 23rd floor of the Hilton Hotel. This became possible due to Andrew's convincing abilities.

First "draft" of THE TAKEN

Today at morning media session we managed to put all shots together in "Final Cut". Also we have our music ready. Overall, our film opening only needs some improvement on editing and adding music.

Re-shooting

Well, we basically had to re-shoot everything, most of our shots were too distorted because of our use of handy cams, we asked our teacher to look over our shots and she told us to try use the tripods, at first we thought of using stabilisers, but after tthe use of the tripods we found out that it worked as well and in some cases even better.

Pitch of "the taken"

We are going to do a thriller and at the start we are going to have girl walking in a discreet lonely silent area we are going to use a tunnel for filming in and around the tunnel. Also having footsteps in the background as diagetic sound. But throughout don’t see the face of the person who is grabbing the people but as the baddy goes to grab it cuts of. A baddy with different shots of him.

For our opening of our film, we are going to a do a thriller-based opening. At the start we will have a girl walking through a dark and isolated tunnel, by herself to also show how she is lonely and to build suspense. We will have a shot that shows the tunnel to be in a vast and deserted area. We will also have a shot from the back of the tunnel to elongate and furthermore isolate the location. We will hopefully set out on a dark and cloudy day to create a bleak atmosphere and a thrill to the audience “pathetic fallacy” footsteps of the girl walking on her own shall also be used to create a more tense atmosphere for the audience. We are trying to create a nail biting introduction to our movie, to achieve this we shall use fast cut shots to create a sense of danger and panic .we will also include a wind howling effect to further on exaggerate danger, as the girl is then walking through the tunnel we shall hear rapid footsteps and the camera shall move with the girl turning around showing her POV when she turns back around we shall also get an over the shoulder shot from the front showing a figure at the back of the shot which is meant to be the “villain”

Location Pictures for "The Taken" - Castlefield/Deansgate, Castle Street/Albion Street

Over Febuary half term one member of our group went to Castlefield/Deansgate, Castle Street/Albion Street and she took pictures of location for our film opening of "The Taken".

1. Extreme Close Up, "baddy's" shoes,
2. Middle Shot, CHARACTER 1 walking,
3. Middle Shot, "baddy's" back,
4. Extreme Long Shot, CHARACTER 1 walking,

11. Long Shot, CHARACTER 1 walking, tracking; trees in front of CHARACTER 1,

5. Extreme Close Up, "baddy's" shoes, waking on the bridge, towards camera; tracking,
6. Middle Long Shot, CHARACTER 1 waking on the bridge,
7. Extreme Long Shot, "baddy" waking on the bridge,
8. Extreme Long Shot, high angle,CHARACTER 1 walking,
9. Extreme Close Up, "baddy's" hand, walking on the bridge, tracking,
10. Point Of View Shot, "baddy's" point of view when walking on the bridge,

USED IN FINAL SHOTS

12. Low Angle Shot, "baddy" walking towards camera JC,
13. Point Of View Shot, "baddy's" point of view, see CHARACTER 1 ,
14. Long Shot -> Middle Shot, CHARACTER 1 speeds up walking, JC from LS to MS,
15. Extreme Close Up, CHARACTER 1 shoes (filmed from behind),
16. Extreme Close Up, "baddy's" shoes (filmed when walking towards cam),
17. Close Up/Middle Shot; Point Of View, CHARACTER 1 filmed from the back; "baddy's" point of view,
18. Over Shoulder Shot; 2 shot; "baddy's" and CHARACTER 1 ; both from the back,
19. Middle Shot, CHARACTER 1 is looking for something in her bag,
20. Close Up, showing bag
21. Middle Shot, the same shot as 19, but with "baddy" in the frame,
22. Middle Shot, of CHARACTER 1 , about to be grabbed; "baddy's" hand in the frame,
23. Close Up, when bag is dropped, panning
24. Middle Shot -> Long Shot-> Extreme Long Shot, "baddy's" goes away, JC,

Art of the title

We have been on the art of the title website so as to give us an idea of how to title our short intro movie.Our movie is based on a thriller genre about a girl who gets kidnapped,because we do not get to see the face if the kidnapper we are going to give it a title of "The taken"

Shot list of "The Taken"

1. Extreme Close Up, "baddy's" shoes,
2. Middle Shot, CHARACTER 1 walking,
3. Middle Shot, "baddy's" back,
4. Extreme Long Shot, CHARACTER 1 walking,
5. Extreme Close Up, "baddy's" shoes, waking on the bridge, towards camera; tracking,
6. Middle Long Shot, CHARACTER 1 waking on the bridge,
7. Extreme Long Shot, "baddy" waking on the bridge,
8. Extreme Long Shot, high angle,CHARACTER 1 walking,
9. Extreme Close Up, "baddy's" hand, walking on the bridge, tracking,
10. Point Of View Shot, "baddy's" point of view when walking on the bridge,
11. Long Shot, CHARACTER 1 walking, tracking; trees in front of CHARACTER 1,
12. Low Angle Shot, "baddy" walking towards camera JC,
13. Point Of View Shot, "baddy's" point of view, see CHARACTER 1 ,
14. Long Shot -> Middle Shot, CHARACTER 1 speeds up walking, JC from LS to MS,
15. Extreme Close Up, CHARACTER 1 shoes (filmed from behind),
16. Extreme Close Up, "baddy's" shoes (filmed when walking towards cam),
17. Close Up/Middle Shot; Point Of View, CHARACTER 1 filmed from the back; "baddy's" point of view,
18. Over Shoulder Shot; 2 shot; "baddy's" and CHARACTER 1 ; both from the back,
19. Middle Shot, CHARACTER 1 is looking for something in her bag,
20. Close Up, showing bag
21. Middle Shot, the same shot as 19, but with "baddy" in the frame,
22. Middle Shot, of CHARACTER 1 , about to be grabbed; "baddy's" hand in the frame,
23. Close Up, when bag is dropped, panning
24. Middle Shot -> Long Shot-> Extreme Long Shot, "baddy's" goes away, JC,

se7en analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEZK7mJoPLY

"Se7en" analysis

Throughout the opening sequence of se7en the director uses Close Ups and Extreme Close Ups. Reason why the director have chosen these shots is to make sure that the character in the opening sequences identity a secret. Just focusing on the characters hands the audience are automatically drawn in and will want find out who this mysterious character is.

The type of camera movement used in the opening sequence is a panning movement to the right displaying a various amount of books, writing and pictures showing e.g.: hand, someone's face.

The sounds and noises heard in the opening scene are similar to those usually heard within a factory or a warehouse e.g.: machinery. The choice of those suggests that the character may be planning crime or do something dangerous. The sounds are an example of non-digetic and they are also quite screechy and eerie create the sense of someone suffering.

In the opening sequence the editing is used in cutting different shots which represent character's feelings and that they are out of control the situation they are in. The double vision effect, type of editing was used to represent that the antagonist is not in their right mind or may be under the influence of drugs.

The director uses a fade effect which gives a more mysterious atmosphere, this makes the audience feel as if this suggested antagonist is hiding from someone or doesn't want to be found. It have been done this way to keep the audience guessing the identity of the character which is hidden.

The credits are displayed in a disorientated text to give the impression that things are unorganized.

In mise en scene used objects such as needles, newspaper cut outs, blood, images of the dead, razors and books are identified. All these objects are normally associated with a serial killer or someone who is not in there right mind. This would clearly indicate that this person is the antagonist in the film. It would also suggest that this antagonist is used to or has become accustomed to committing crimes; planning a murder. As the character associates himself with things to do with death, possibly planning next murder, the director shows the character cutting the skin of his fingertips. Therefore he wants to remain anonymous and doesn't want to be tracked. The antagonist does not want to be found or discovered it is given by the impression of no source of natural light typical in either a basement or warehouse which are possible locations for the opening scene. This location reinforces him performing illegal actions or hiding from someone.
The opening scene gives the idea that there is only one character in the film; his actions can be caused by his loneliness.

There is also a yellow glow which gives a more spooky effect and gives off this vibe of danger and fear. The visual style of the opening sequence is dark, gloomy and a slight glow in the background.

In the opening sequence the genre of this film indicates it is thriller or a horror film. Simply because the character and the location has been kept a secret. This kind of secrecy and dark practice are usually seen in genres such as thriller and horror. The idea of a thriller is given due to the objects in the scene and the behaviour of the character which seems to be mysterious and dastardly.
The director decided not to show the characters face; gives the audience the impression that this film will consist of a mystery, which will some hero try to find out who the mysterious antagonist is. The use of blood,

razors

and images of the dead also give the opening the theme of
death and murder.

Preliminary Task

What did you learn about the cameras and editing software during the preliminary task?
We learnt you can use the camera for diffrent shots. As it has diffrent modes and settings on it. Also you can use the camera handheld for trackng and on the tripod. We learnt that editing is time consuming and a bit tricky.

In the filiming and editing of your project, what worked well and what could have been improved?
When we edited the extreme close up of the door handle, it was on a diffrent side than the one we used in the other shot, also in editing when we cut the scene from when Andrew was sitting down it seem abit jumpy which made it look like a jump cut but that was not the effect we were looking for; this could have been improved.
The shot reverse shot worked well in the editing.

Give a detailed, specific example of how you have used a shot/reverse shot combination in your film?
We had Anderw and Eddie sat down on chairs facing each other in the room in a two shot, having conversation (dialogue).Then we had an over the shoulder shot showing Eddie. Then we reversed it so the camera was looking over Eddie's shoulder at Andrew.


How did you make sure that you didn't break the 180 degree rule? Or if you broke it, what have you learnt from this?
We did break 180 degree rule as a mid shot of Andrew in the video entering the room shows the door opening and the handle. And in the same video a close up of the door handle is from a different door.

Preliminary Task - filming finished :D

Today we (just after few changes) finished filming our preliminary Task. Hopefully it will look even better when we edit it.

Shot list of our Preliminary Task.

Preliminary Task!

Match cut of person up the stairs

Tracking shot of person a walking towards the door

Extreme close up of door

Close up as person enter through the door

One shot of person A as they enter the room

Panning shot of the room

Medium close up on person b

Eye line match as person a looking at person b

Over the shoulder shot of person a to person b

A low angle shot of person a looking down at person b

A high angle shot of person b looking up at person a

2 shot as person a sits down next to person b

Shot reverse shot as they exchange dialogue

Long 2 shot of person a and person b

Fade Shot

Location Trip 27.01.11

Location Trip at 2pm on Thursday 27th January at Piccadilly Gardens in the centre of Manchester.
“We will be going to a good location and will be doing a photographic exercise designed to get you thinking more carefully about locations for your coursework.Be there or be square…” Miss Smith.