Evaluation Question 1

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


The conventions of psychological thrillers are detailed earlier in the blog, our media product makes use of a large majority of codes and conventions from within the genre beginning with the plot line: the plot lines of psychological thrillers are centrally based around the mind and psyche of the key protagonist, our product focuses on the events which occur to one particular individual and the way that he emotionally deals with the ordeals that are thrown at him and how this leads him to react, this is seen in many previous psychological thrillers such as " The ButterFly Effect" and "Vertigo" in which we see the actions of the protagonists dramatically effected by the events that have formed a drain on their psyche. Continuing the theme of character, the key Protagonists within psychological thrillers are most often of an older generation, this links in with the audience and the age range of the film, this is because older people are more likely to be interested in the adult themes so therefore are more likely to emphasize with an older character.
The settings of psychological thrillers often include Claustrophobic spaces, this adds tension to any scene and makes the audience feel crammed in. the example of a claustrophobic space within our product is the alley way in which the protagonist is mugged, this is following examples from films such as " The lives of Others" where a prison cell is used for an interview and in "The Jacket" where the protagonist is put in a straight jacket and put into a morgue draw.
The lighting is often that of a light and dark contrast to achieve a shadowy effect, and to make the scene seem dark to the audience but still remaining aesthetically pleasing, as well as quick paced cuts that ties in with the fast non diegetic music to increase the pace of the film and add tension to the atmosphere received by the audience.

Final Cut

This is the final cut of our film opening that has been burned on to dvd and sent away for moderation.

Decisions about the office scene

• Having taken 3 different cuts of the office scene and having edited them and put them in to place we have decided that our second cut of the scene will suit our opening best as the first one was letterboxed by the computer, so basically made it unusable as the rest of our footage was not taken using a widescreen effect. 
• We then initially took 2 other separate cuts, it was a difficult decision to make between the two, as they both have their own advantages and limitations. 
• Cut 2 - had a good variation of shot type and good mise en scene with the yorkshire tea box; connoting aspects of regional identity however baubles that were previously inside the box we used were caught inside the shot. 
• Cut 3 - although it had similar mise en scene, the shot variation was not as wide, so therefore we decided to use "Cut 2"

Hardware + Equipment

To Film our footage we used a sony video camera that records on to Dv Tapes ( cassettes ) These are not as modern as HD Cameras, so there for do not rely on a hard drive. The tapes were reasonably cheap and could be brought from super market stores such as Tesco and obviously from specialist recording equipment shops although they may tend to favour newer modals. The use of this camera was fairly simple as they themselves as a modal are not over complicated. Options at the back of the camera: Play and record allow you to watch back what you have recorded before actually putting it on to a computer for editing. Due to the fact that it is a hand held camera during the shots we were taking it may of caused a slight shake of the camera, hence effecting what is seen by the audience on screen, to counter act this at many points of our filming we used a tripod (a 3 legged stand for cameras) to gain a steady shot  and achieve a better sense of verisimilitude through out our footage. Other things to take into account are the effects that are available on the camera's settings. Adjusting the white balance can make it appear that it is either night or day, alternatively you can use a variety filters to achieve different affects, such as the red filter we used to gain  the appearance that it was dusk. A range of different modes such as sports mode allows you to adapt the camera to your particular situation, whilst adjusting the focus to achieve a decent picture.

Production Plan

This is a copy of our production plan that we used whilst filming the footage for our film opening.

Screen play

Screen Play Snared

Title Name Continued

Originally the name we wanted to use for a film was "Phantasmagoria ". However that particular name is being released as a feature film this year, directed by Maralyn Manson. Due to the fact of copyright, we would definately not be able to pay the licensing fees to use the same title.

The new title we are using is "The Snared". One of our other original choices for a working title.

This phrase comes from a reference to the noose used to hang our protagonist, in the opening flashback scenes.

Audience feedback on first cut

We are looking at audience feedback in order to gain an insight into what people think we might need to change. We showed our opening to a group of year 13's and asked for their opinion.

After having received the feedback we were able to make adjustments to our opening:

1. Got rid of the burnt toast scene - we originally put this into shadow events in the future, unfortunately it didn't particularly achieve this effect so we decided to withdraw it.
2. Changed the Eviction scene, as the camera bag was left in the shot on our first cut, re-filming the stairs scene
3. Changed the redundancy scene - as the camera was letter-boxed 
4. Changed the ending where the protagonist wakes up to be a quick selection of shots flashing across the screen. 

First Cut

This is the first cut of our opening two minute at the moment it is a bit too long and we are still needing to re-film the eviction scene and the redundancy scene..

The Distribution Process

• The primary agenda of the distributor is to convince the exhibitor to rent, or "book", each film. To this end the distributor usually arranges industry screenings for exhibitors, and uses other marketing techniques that will make the exhibitor believe they will profit financially by showing the film.
• Once this is accomplished, the distributor then secures a written contract stipulating the amount of the gross ticket sales to be paid to the distributor (usually a percentage of the gross after first deducting a "floor", which is called a "house allowance" (also known as the "nut"), collect the amount due, audit the exhibitor's ticket sales as necessary to ensure the gross reported by the exhibitor is accurate, secure the distributor's share of these proceeds, and transmit the remainder to the production company (or to any other intermediary, such as a film release agent). Ordinarily there are standard blanket contracts between a distributor and an exhibitor that apply to all films subsequently booked, although on occasion some of the terms, such as the percentage of the gross to be paid by the exhibitor, may be varied with regard to a particular film.
• The distributor must also ensure that enough film prints are struck to service all contracted exhibitors on the contract-based opening day, ensure their physical delivery to the theater by the opening day, monitor exhibitors to make sure the film is in fact shown in the particular theatre with the minimum number of seats and show times, and ensure the prints' return to the distributor's office or other storage resource also on the contract-based return date. In practical terms, this includes the physical production of film prints and their shipping around the world (a process that is beginning to be replaced by digital distribution) as well as the creation of posters, newspaper and magazine advertisements, television commercials, trailers, and other types of ads.
• Furthermore, the distributor is responsible for ensuring a full line of film advertising material is available on each film which it believes will help the exhibitor attract the largest possible audience, create such advertising if it is not provided by the production company, and arrange for the physical delivery of the advertising items selected by the exhibitor at intervals prior to the opening day.
• If the distributor is handling an imported or foreign language film, it may also be responsible for securing dubbing or subtitling for the film, and securing cencorship or other legal or organizational "approval" for the exhibition of the film in the country/territory in which it does business, prior to approaching the exhibitors for booking.     [Wiki-Pedia] (No Quotes included within this post)

Podcast On Filming So Far

Character Profiles

The Protagonist: Joe ( Mark Cooper ) 
The Key Protagonist is called Joe this is a fairly average name so there for could be considered and everyday person, he is 26 years of age; we had to adjust the age of our main character to suit the appropriate audience of our genre as the target market is mostly focused on people over the age of 18.






The Girlfriend ( Ellie Broadley ) 
She is a Brunette, to steer away from the stereotypes of blonde females. Also mid twenties this also appeals to the target market of an older audience




The Muggers ( Rob Cranley & Joe Drakard ) 
The two muggers are young teenagers, they are wearing trackies and hoodies which is the stereotype of a young working class male, this ties in with representation of social class.

Possible Film Titles

For the title of the film we want it to be related to the theme of recurring dreams, hanging, or general fate and destiny.
Here is what we came up with:

The Snared.
–noun

1.

a device, often consisting of a noose, for capturing small game.

2.

anything serving to entrap or entangle unawares; trap.


Phantasmagoria
–noun

1.

a shifting series of phantasms, illusions, or deceptive appearances, as in a dream or as created by the imagination.

2.

a changing scene made up of many elements.

Premonition
noun

1.

a feeling of anticipation of or anxiety over a future event; presentiment: He had a vague premonition of danger.

2.

a forewarning.


Blue Funk
n.a state of depression. : You've got to get out of your blue funk and get back to work.


Denouement
–noun

1.

the final resolution of the intricacies of a plot, as of a drama or novel.

2.

the place in the plot at which this occurs.

3.

the outcome or resolution of a doubtful series of occurrences.

Image Rights Permission Form

Release Form for Media Recording DB Edit As

This is needed to be signed by everybody that appears in the film so that we are allowed to use their image to show to others.

Story Board

Props : Sugar glass

Sugar glass is used as a replacement  for normal glass, it is made of: Golden syrup, Sugar, Water and Cream of Tar Tar. It is the same density as glass but is not as sharp and saves us breaking a real car window which is definitely not within our budget.
We made a video blog to document how we made it.






Ingredients:

• 3 1/2 cups of sugar
• 1 cup of Golden Syrup
• 2 Cups of water
• 1/4 teaspoon of Cream of TarTar 

BBFC Certifications

British Board of Film Classification

This is the group of people that decide what rating films are within the UK.




These are the film Ratings used by the BBFC, each film falls under certain classification depending upon its content.

• U - Universal - Suitable for all 
• PG - Parent Guidance - General viewing, however scenes may be unsuitable for young children
• 12A/12 - Exactly the same criteria applies to 12A and 12 films however 12A films are recommended that children are accompanied by an adult

Now coming in to our bracket of the film classifications as our opening includes Violent content, Upsetting images and the use of Alcohol.
Several Issues are looked at by the BBFC before any films are classified. A detailed list of issues and guidelines can be found at the BBFC website, or alternatively you can just look at This Link

• 15 - Suitable only for those of the ages of 15 and over
• 18 -  Suitable for only adults
• R18 - Only to be shown in specially licensed cinemas and specially licensed sex shops

BBFC Rating for our film:

• Commonly with psychological thrillers the audiences are older as the issues and themes which are central to the film are often difficult to understand or deal with emotionally/mentally by younger audiences. The complicated plot line which involves the mental stability of a characters psyche is much more likely to appeal to an adult audience, as well as the violent scenes that take place within our film. Also due to the older characters that nearly always play the key Protagonists/Antagonists it is much more likely to appeal to an 18+ audience.

Updated Idea

Change of idea explained through our 3rd Pod caste

Animatic of Original Idea

Audience Feedback

• Mis en Scene: Hanging - Use of a Kicked away chair?
• Instead of having the knocking on the door and the hanging separate - link them together
• Have more of each shot revealed slowly.

Based on Audience feed back we have decided to change our initial location from a house to some woods, so that a more accurate hanging effect can be achieved.

Location, Props, Mis en Scene, SFX, Costume ect for seperate scenes

Scene 1 - Hanging

• Location: Woods/Forest
• Props: Rope, Torches, Dog, Car
• Mise en Scene: wooded area, clothes of the character
• Costume: Standard clothes for Protagonist, Police outfit
• SFX: Special Cuts to make it look like a man hanging + Make up to create verisimilitude

Scene 2 - Burnt toast

• Location: Kitchen
• Props: Toaster and Burnt toast
• Mise en Scene: Things in the Kitchen

Scene 3 - Wake

• Location: Mothers Wake, House
• Props: Photo albums, Bottle of Vodka
• Mise en Scene: Lounge things around the lounge
• Costume: Formal attire e.g. shirt, tie: suit

Scene 4 - Fired

• Location: Office
• Props: Office Box + Items to put in 
• Mise en Scene: Office+Desk
• Costume - Scruff clothes

Scene 5 - Mugged

• Location: Alley way ( Claustrophobic space )
• Props: Knife, Wallet, Ipod, Phone ect
• Mise en scene: clothes of Muggers - Hoodies ( representation of youth/ethnicity )

Scene 6 - Car stolen

• Props: Car 
• Mise en scene: Driveway/Street
• Costume: Hoody ect

Scene 7 - Evicted

• Props: Suitcases & Binbags
• Mise en scene: Stairway of flat

Scene 8 - Wake up

• Props: Bed, Duvet
• Mise en scene: Bedroom
• Costume: Pyjamas

Opening Two Minutes: Initial Idea

• Our Opening two minutes will actually be a nightmare and result in the person waking up.
• It wont actually be fully anchored as a nightmare untill the end of the scene.

• First of a starting with the Production logo and company name, distributors ect
• Pan shot of street, Close up on a front door, and a character banging on the door, so far this has a non diegetic audio bridge playing through from the title and production company logo.
• The Camera Will pan down to te letter box: Open + shot through the letter box
• You see a pair of feet hanging across the room. at this point the music changes and the atmosphere becomes alot more tense and it zooms in through the letterbox
• Cut to the rope + knot
• Pans down to head + shoulders - hes clearly been hung.
• Flash + Cut to Flash back of Burnt Toast( forshadowing)
• Flash + Cut to body - feet
• Flash + Cut to match on action in kitchen --- mothers funeral/wake
• Flash + Cut to the body - back
• Flash + Cut to empty house with him in
• Flash + Cut to close up of neck
• Flash + Cut to party - Key Scene - Drugs!
• Flash + Cut to Mouth
• Flash + Cut to dealer - Male
• Flash + Cut to body - Side of Face
• Flash + Cut to being pinned against a wall
• Flash + Cut to Blood drips
• Flash + Cut to Black Eye
• Flash + Cut to eyes
• Eyes Open
• Cut to sitting up in bed. Heavy Breathing - Nightmare
• Fade to Film Title

Film Openings - Genre Research: Psychological Thriller

Das Leben Der Anderen ( The Lives of Others) 2006

A film based on the attempts of The Eastern German Government to know about those who apose the socialist regeime and their mission to know everything about and control the Protaliterat. set in the 1980's during the cold war.

• Production company logo
• First scene 2 shot of guard and man
• Setting in prison - establishing shot 
• Subtitles for setting, German Temporary detention centre 
• Subtitles in English because the Language used is German
• Long shot on Guard and man walking down the Hallway
• Audio bridge
• Goes into the cell and is sat down in an interview situation - Claustrophobic space

The Jacket (2005)
A man returns from the army to be falsely accused of murder he is then declared insane and sent to a mental institution, where he is put under a new psychoactive drug treatment, where he is placed in a straight jacket and put in a locker for hours on end, in the locker he begins to see into the future and needs to unravel the mystery of his own death.

• The Locker and Jacket - Claustrophobic space 
• Visions in to the future - Premonitions. Links in to our initial idea.

Taking Lives (2004)
Set in Canada it details the Killings of a young man, beginning in his later teens he runs away from home, in Quebec the police desperately try to solve a group of murders. Unbeknown to them they have already met the murderer.

Vertigo (2004)
A Hitchcock classic in which a private detective is sent to find a young attractive woman, finding her on the brink of suicide, he stops her. After this he develops a strange Obsession with her.

The Butterfly Effect (2004)  
A young man blocks out harmful memories of significant events of his life. As he grows up, he finds a way to remember these lost memories and a supernatural way to alter his life. [IMDB]

• Production and Distribution logos flash up, black background
• A brief quotation from the Chaos theory is shown on the screen " flap of a butterfly wing can cause a typhoon on the other side of the world" - This gives us some idea where the working title as come from.
• establishing shot of a small office (claustrophobic place)
• shot of door opening,  Ashton Kutcher comes through the door, there is match on action to show this.
• He is wearing a patients outfit from a hospital, this gives us some brief exposition to the setting of the film.
• Torch lights shine through the tinted windows of the office, gives the audience a sense of tension.
• The protagonist begins to write on a piece of paper, reading it aloud in his mind, this non-diegetic sound aswell as the music aids the tense aura of the scene
• There is a flash and it goes back to Ashton Kutcher's character's childhood, this is a non-linear narrative very similiar to the one that we shall use within in our opening scene. 
• 
  

2nd Pod Cast

Codes & Conventions of Thriller.

Psychological thriller

• This is one of the many sub-genres of the wide spread Thriller genre, in  thrillers; Plot is often more emphasized than Character. However in Psychological thrillers this is somewhat reversed.
• It may also include aspects of the Mystery and Drama genres and very often bordering over into Horror. [Wikipedia]                                                                                                However Thrillers follow certain Codes and Conventions:    
• Claustrophobic spaces
• Quick pace cuts
• The use of lighting to create shadows
• Foreshadowing of events
• Dark Lighting
• Aspects of Propp's Theory: Hero, Helper
• Ignited Audiences Mind
• Generally older characters leading to an Older audience

Film Openings Analysis

The Lost Boys (1987)

• Directed by Joel Schumacher
• The production company logo appears and then cuts to  blank screen on which the directors name then appears.
• Increase in non diegetic sound followed by and extreme long shot, which is also used as an establishing shot on a amusement park next to the sea this sets the scene.
• The title then appears over this shot fading in.
• The title is a Serif Font with a mix of Upper and lower case letters with a red underlining, signifying the possible link to blood and vampires and that the film is possibly a Gothic Horror.
• There is a straight cut and then closes in on a Protagonist in this case an Antagonist. which is commonly used.
• one of the characters walks past and picks at his teeth this is a form of foreshadowing often used in The Horror and Thriller Genres.
• The above point and the body language portrayed gives subtle exposition.
• The forces of law and order are represented as unaffective thus appealing to a teen audience
• There is a Wide variaion of shot types including, Medium close ups and Longshots.
• After 2 minutes the genre hasnt really been specifically defined
• Although it is clear an act of violence is occuring it is not shown on screen so therefore it leaves what happens to the audiences imagination, this can help keep verisimilitude.
• There is an establishing shot following a car from a "birds eye view"
• The audience can hear voice coming from inside the car
• There is some music playing, the audience is unsure whether or not it is non diegetic or diegetic
• There is a mid shot inside the car focusing on the characters and we discover that the music is diegetic
• The song " People are strange" by The Doors is playing helping to give some exposition to the location.

Divorcing Jack  (1998) 

Cry Wolf (2005)  

Human Traffic (1999) 

Coursework Brief

• Preliminary task:  Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing the room and sitting down opposite another character and then the two partaking in a conversation. this should entail shot reverse shot, 180 degree rule and match on action. 
•  Main Task: The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.
• all audio and video material must be original, produced by the candidates with the exception of music or audio effect with copy-right free support.

• The coursework is worth 50% of the AS (same at A2) and the marking (detailed later) is divided into 3 sections:RESEARCH AND PLANNING: 20%
  PRODUCTION: 60%
  EVALUATION: 20%

The 7 Evaluation Questions

Throughout my work i must consider these questions and make notes to make it easier for me to write up my final evaluation.

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

• How does your media product represent particular social groups?

• What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? 

• Who would be the audience for your media product? 

• How did you attract/address your audience? 

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

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

Initial Idea Pod-cast

Talking about our initial idea for Our Film Opening.

My Film Tastes

The last 5 Films i've seen:
1. Pulp Fiction
2. Quadrophenia
3. Wanted
4. The Shining
5. The Beach


The Last film i payed to see in the cinema was Avatar. 




My favourite two film genres:


. Social Realism
. Crime


My top 5 films of all time:


1. Human Traffic
2. Pulp Fiction
3. Rise of the foot soldier
4. Trainspotting
5. Green street


MY FAVOURITE FILM OF ALL TIME: RISE OF THE FOOT SOLDIER.
This is my favourite film of all time because of the detailed plot line based on Carlton Leach; one of Britain's most notorious gangsters. Leading through the traumatic events of his life... from football thug to experienced doorman of some of London and Essex's most high profile night clubs. It contains action from start to finish and touches on contraversial issues such as drugs.

This is the greatest film ever made 


Still the greatest film ever made......

My Brief First Ideas for Films

Idea 1

• A group of Teenagers go camping in a near by woodland.
• On the way there their car breaks down and an elderly man stops to help them
• He begins to tell them stories about the woods.
• The worst story includes an urban legend about a mad killer that lives in the woods and who has been associated with the dissapearances of several hikers and campers.
• They ignore the warnings of the man and drive off.
• They get to their destination and set up camp
• The party begins: out comes the Drugs and Alcohol
• A promiscuous young couple emerge from one of the tents, smiles, pulling clothes back on. They been having sex
• Drunk: one of the youths wonders off into the woods. He is killed.
• The Couple are then Killed off
• The remainding teenagers sit round the camp fire and start to worry
• One of them then Says "everything will be alright" an axe then flies into his head
• The remainding 3 then run for the car
• An epic chase scene follows
• Only one person makes it to the car: The innocent geek, asked to come at the last moment.
• followed up by nightmares

Idea 2.

• A young adolescent has recently lost his mother in a Tradgic accident
• He is obviously fairly sad and sees no point in much of life
• He has a conversation with his friend after the funeral about what he is going to do next
• Cut scene to a party and the teenager drinking and doing drugs
• Cut scene to the boy fighting and mugging somebody
• Cut scene to boy stealing a car
• The boy is troubled and despite his deviant behaviour is still being bullied at school.
• He decides to sort things out, his own way.
• He takes a knife from his kitchen and takes it to school
• When his tormentors attempt to mock him, he confronts them with the knife and stabs one of them
• This is followed by a form of psychosis due to his drug intake
• He is arrested and not released for bail
• He is then sent to court and then a Borstal
• He slowly loses his mind due to the lifestyle within the young offenders institution eventually decides to do something drastic
• He hangs himself in the cell
• An inquiry follows in which several of the Guards and Inmates of the Borstal recieve sentances. 

Idea 3.

• Female: mid twenties finds that she is having trouble with everyday life
• She has reocurring dreams of terrible things happening to her Family, Friends ect
• She also has an increased feeling of De Ja Vous and believes that she has seen things that happen before.
• Eventually this becomes more frequent and she begins to have slight premonitions of what will happen that day.
• Eventually the nightmares and Premonitions become one and the same
• She wants to find out what is wrong with her
• She goes to a Priest, who turns her away out of fear
• Upset and unaware what to do after having lost her father and having seen it and being unable to do anything
• She begins to doubt her own sanity, so do her friends
• She is then sectioned and placed in a mental institution
• She sees that something bad is about to happen in the institution
• She prevents it
• People believe her and she is released
• When walking out she has a sudden headache it is unbearable, all she can hear is screaming.
• She is hit by a car and taken to hospital
• When she wakes up her dad is sat on the end of her bed, she is confused.
• She thinks it was a dream but really it is all about to happen in reality.

Microdrama and Narrative theory

Vladimir Propp's Narrative Theory
was based on the conclusion that all stories follow a distinct narrative and include certain character types, known as archetypes.

• The Villain - Struggles against the Hero
• The Donor - prepares the hero or gives them a magical object
• The Helper - Helps the Hero in the Quest
• The Princess - and her father gives the task to the Hero, identifies the false hero and marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that the princess and her father cannot be clearly distinguised.
• The Dispatcher - Character that lets the lack known and sends the hero off
• The Hero or victim/Seeker hero - Reacts to the donor, weds the princess
• False Hero - Takes credit for the Heros actions or tries to wed the Princess

Tzvetan Tordorov Narrative structure
He believed there were 5 stages to every narrative structure

1. A state of  Equilibrium ( all is as it should be)
2. A disruption to the order ( by an event)
3. A recognition that the disorder has occured
4. An attempt to repair the damage
5. A return or restoration to start a New Equilibrium

Prelim: Sweding a Film

Sweding
the term sweding comes from the film "Be Kind Rewind" starring Jack Black; his characters brain becomes magnatised resulting in the accidental wiping of all the video tapes in his friends store, to keep customers happy they produce a series of short 'spoof' films and quickly become popular in their area.

Be Kind Rewind [IMDB]

Films i might like to swede


1.Human Traffic
2.Trainspotting
3.Pineapple express
4.51st state
5.green street


My Choice: Greenstreet


this film focuses on football violence. the lives and troubles of a group of young men that support West Ham a football team from west London and they're conflict between their south London rivals; Millwall. I have chosen this film as although it has very adult themes it could easily be adapted to become entertaining. This could be done by making the very "laddish" culture; for example the tricks they play on each other and the general banter that they have over exaggerated and ridiculous, this could be done by picking up on the fact that most football hooligans are stereotyped as being uneducated thugs and blowing this out of proportion making their conversations so un-relevant to anything within the situation. Also by turning the usually graphic fight scenes between the essentially "hard" men into bitch fights; as you see between girls in american "comedies". Portraying a more comical perspective of football hooliganism.

Final Idea

• Eventually the final idea of our group was 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'
• This was chosen as it was seen as having a lot of potential to be quite funny as it was so long and there are various significant parts which are recognizable by a wide age range as the Harry Potter series has been so popular across the world, with little children and adults, there were some parts of the films in which the negotiated reading could of been considered to be humourous, taking advantage of this making the situations exaggerated and comical.

• 
  
  Costume

Due to having absolutely no budget, we were very limited on what costume we could use and as the task was to swede a film we felt as if it would give a better effect of a re-make of a film. As the swede we were making was Harry Potter we needed cloaks, we used bin bags as cloaks, further more we needed at least one wizard hat that Brought from home. We also used a chequered shirt for Neville’s pyjamas, and our teachers coat for Professor Snape.

• 
  
  Locations & Mise-en-scene

We were very limited for the use of locations, as a greater proportion of the work was done within lesson time. A host of empty classrooms were used for setting of most of our scenes, aswell as around school, such as the play courts for the Quidditch match. Also for the station scene we went to the station in Ilkley and got on the train to film the scenes of which: Ron, Hermione and Harry Potter first meet. A good aspect of Mise-en-scene at Ilkley station is where it says ¼ over the station which we were going to edit to say ¾ like the film, achieving an aspect of verisimilitude in a Harry Potter sense. For Harry’s glasses we used a dry wipe marker to draw them on as we were unable to find real glasses at the time.

• 
  
  “Special Effects”

Due to the nature of the film that we are making, having absolutely no budget limits the amount of special effects that can be used. Although for the magic spells on imovie there are flashes and little bits of smoke that we have added in to make it appear that magic has been used. We also made it appear that there are special effects with the use of a feather attached to a piece of string which was dangled in front of the camera.

• 
  
  Props

We used quite a few props in the making of our swede, for example wands, with the use of fluffy fairy wands and paintbrushes turned upside down we attempted to make them look like wands in the films. Another prop that we used were broom sticks and various shapes and sizes of balls, this was for the quidditch match, and we also used a trolley for the station scene to give the feeling of verisimilitude, which effectively we “borrowed” from Tesco’s for a short period of time. We used a toy cat and snake to play the animals in the film as we were unable to get living creatures. A cup was also used as a lantern at some point.

My Initial thoughts about Imovie and Equipment use:

• I felt fairly comfortable with the editing and use of transitions and effects whilst using the Imovie software, it was relatively simple to work out how to make cuts of clips and place them in to sequence.
• With the use of equipment i am comfortable although in reflection i remember the camera being very shaky when using it, so therefore maybe the use of a tripod in future would be a good idea.