What was my film about?

In this project then Me and my friend Nicole produced the start of a film that should last just over 3 minutes as just the opening for it, we produced an army related film with a girl (Lucy) as the main character who loses her twin brother due to him being at war (Matthew) it follows what happens to Lucy after this has happened to her. We used a young character to try and communicate with our target audience more as it is for teenagers so it is showing what happened to a teenager as she loses her brother.

Editing Evaluation

With editing then i edited most of the film as Nicole prefered the filming and i prefered to do the editing, i like to cut the scenes in together and make sure we select the right out take from the filming to fit the film right. I found when editing then putting the right transitions made jumping from one angle from the other less jumpy and looked better, i also thought that putting in titles to show what is happening and when it is happening to show the audience what is happening, i used a black background for this and i also putting a black transition in for a long time between scenes when something is happened to show that they are at different times. Most of the filming wasn't jumping from one angle to the other as i remembered everytime we filmed to keep to the 30 degree rule because this keeps the film from jumping as if it is less than 30 degrees the camera angles switching looks bad.
I also feel as you watch our film you will come across some of these cuts as i will explain to you what each cut is so you can notice it:
Cutaway -showing something outside of the frame that could be of importance.
Cross Cutting - cutting from one action shot to another action shot happening somewhere else, usually covers up an edit e.g. someone getting away.
Reaction Shot- Showing the reaction of how the character is feeling/thinking.
Shot/Reverse Shot - Where the characters are shown facing each other, e.g. in a headmasters office the headmaster would be sat one side and the 3 kids on the other with him questioning them.
Elliptical Cut - The removal of time between shots.
These edits are used all the time but not picked up on, when watching through our 3 minute film opening then nearly all of these are used.

What new new skills have you learnt? What have you learnt from technology in this project?

In this project with out film i found that i developed many new skills and learnt quite a few things from it, from using new products from as little as the iMac to using new things to put in to our film such as the voice over. From the technical side then i learnt how to use 'iMovie' which was used on an 'iMac' which i also learnt to use. We were lucky enough to have a man in from Apple a few days before we started our projects as he showed us how to use the iMac's and how to use 'iMovie' on them, this was very useful as many of us had never used 'iMovie' before including me. We learnt how to cut and trim clips and edit things throughout the film and how to add in music over the film, we also learnt how to use many transitions in the film that i particularly enjoyed as whenever you went from one scene to another in the film or different clips then it wouldn't look right as it would almost jump from one bit to another which ruined the film so i liked to use the dissolve transition that i put into the film quite a lot as one shot would go to another so you wouldn't notice anything happening. I also liked to use the blackout transition as when it went from one scene to another then it would show there is time inbetween as the scene would blackout. From this we learnt the simpest of things such as transfering pictures across to the film to cutting and editing the film and putting music in.
Also i learnt how to use the camera recorder as i hadn't really used one before so i didn't really know what i was doing to start with, i found this very easy once i had picked it up though, but it will be very helpful to know how to use one and then upload videos to iMovie and edit them.
When filming this film i also learnt how to use an 'edirol' which is a piece of equiptment to use when recording a voice over, i think using this piece of equiptment was really good for our film as it brings more feeling and drama to the start of the film, it also explains to the audience what is going on, i also found this very useful to know how to transfer the voice over across to the film and edit it in.

What else do you feel you have learnt from your preliminary task?

From my preliminary task and this task then i learnt how to display the 180 degree rule which i use in my preliminary task as the interviewer and the candinate our talking, i also use it in the film when Lucy and her mum are talking in kitchen as the scene keeps skiping from each of them talking together. I also remembered to keep in mind the 30 degree rule when filming as if you go less than 30 degrees from one shot to another it will just jump and not look right, the camera will simply seem like it has just been jolted.
Also in our film then i like to think we used elliptical cuts as then it removed time between each scene for example when Lucy is at the woods and then she is at home washing her face, this removed the time of her getting there.
We also use reaction shots, such as when Lucy tells her mum she wants to go to the army and Lucy's mum is not happy and starts shouting at her.

Who is the audience of your media production?

The target audience of my media production would be teenager to elderly people as i feel if you are any younger thana teenager you would not understand the plot and what is happening, also i do not think it is suitable for anyone under the age of 15 as it is a bit psychological when Lucy goes a bit crazy. As the film goes on then Lucy is going to go of to war until they discover she is mentally disabled and these scenes could be a bit horrific and jumpy for young kids. I would also say it was targeted to 15 year olds if they are going through something similar to losing someone they loved, the main character is also a teenager to relate to our target audience. It could also relate to older generations as mum's can relate to how Lucy's mum reacts to the news.

How will you attract your audience?

I will attract my audience by advertising the film alot and Nicole and I have already given out a questionnaire to people to see what they think of it, our genre of our film is however now favourited by teenagers as they tend to prefer to watch horror films and comedy. As people watched our film then they tended to really enjoy the film, our film could now just about fit into the horror genre as Lucy goes a bit crazy in the head so people could want to go watch this, aslong as people don't think it is a documentary i think people would watch it more. In the questionnaire we asked people how we could improve and what the enjoyed, as we wanted to interact with out audience and make it exactly what they want, so we took into consideration what they said and our film seems to fit quite well with what our target audience would like

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My film represents particular social groups such as young teenagers as this is who our film is targeted at, we use things such as the main character being young to represent young teenagers and we use what teenagers would use to represent them, for example in the woods scene when Lucy is listening to her iPod which most young teenager use, representing them. I feel our film being quite a psychotic film might attract teenagers as most teenagers like to watch these type of things.
Teenagers are usually seen as:
-Trouble
-Doing Drugs
-Drinking Alcohol
-Causing Drama
But in this film Lucy doesn't drink or do drugs, but she is a lot of trouble to her mum as she wants to go to the army and causes a lot of drama to her family and her friends of wanting to leave

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

I think our film uses real life a lot to be like real media products, as it is on the news a lot about families losing members of their family to war, so this comes back to our film to what happens to them. Also when referring to challenging forms and conventions of real media then our film also has how someone goes insane from losing someone from their family, this also could happen in real media life. Our film could also be brought out from Universal Studios as we have aimed our film at many different ages.
One convention i have used in the film is having the picture montage at the start of the film as it shows what is going on and with the voice over over the top it really gives feeling and emotion to the film from the very start. I also feel that the convention of the voice over at the start makes people want to carry on watching to see what is going on as it drags people in by telling them a lot of the story already

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

When taking into consideration what institutions they are for film there are quite a few companies. Here are some of the main ones:
-Pixar
-Universal Studios
-20th Century Fox
-Warner Bros.
-Dream Works
-Paramount Pictures
There are also small companies such as:
-Film 4
-Walt Disney Feature Animation
-Nickelodeon
-Sony Pictures
-The UK Film Council
Most of these are no good for my film as they are animation companies and our film is not an animation film. One of the best companies to be distributed from would probably be warner bros. but i think realistically Universal Studios would probably take on our film as it is in the right genre of the rest of their films such as, 'Hannibal' as this isn't similar to our film but the main character in this film has gone a bit mental in the head like the main character in our film, this would only be if our film was big, but if we were realistic to start with they wouldn't take our film on. So instead i decided to research into The Uk Film Council, when i did this i found that they would like to make the UK a global centre for films amongst the worlds competitive film industry, after finding this out then i thought they would distribute mine and Nicole's film as they support most up coming film directors from the UK, i would then hope that the UK would watch our film and be attracted to it.
I think our film would start at small cinemas as it wouldn't be very well known, but i hope that it would get transfered to bigger cinemas such as VUE Cinema Cribbs Causeway and then it will eventually get into shops and hopefully get brought quite a lot here.

Audience Feed Back

I showed a few people mine and Nicole's film to see what they thought of it but we both thought creating a facebook group and uploading the film on there would be very useful so that is what we did. We made a group with just over 25 people in it. The facebook group was actually very helpful as most of the people who seen it said they really enjoyed it and all the people in the group were teenagers who are target audience are.
Here is what a few people said about the film;
Jo Barton; 'I really enjoyed the start of this film and i really liked how Matthew kept poping up in places as it did make me jump when he appeared in the mirror!'
Peter Jennings; 'I liked the use of camera angles in the forest i thought these were good but maybe the scene of Lucy and her mum could of been longer.'
Mark Lacey; 'I think the use of camera angles to show how the main characters reactions are good and to improve there could be move dramatic music to build suspense.'
These are only a few of what people said but most of what people say was quite similar.

Also it was found that doing voice recordings of people got to the point of what they thought as well so here is some of our target audiences feedback:
this was from a student from out school who is the right target audience for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxXcAUnTKU8&context=C4055ce5ADvjVQa1PpcFPUD5sIIjRZ9tXs9r4Lb6M6OrqpvMOtbZ0

This was from a boy from the target audience of our film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3wUYhy0tGo&context=C4958a7eADvjVQa1PpcFPUD5sIIjRZ9r9DP1dlsN-T3S4YBex2Ob8

This is from a girl who is also from our target audience:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhjTIJIAYGU&context=C432c3c4ADvjVQa1PpcFPUD5sIIjRZ9gpWf579qh-j2GAdTxHtJK8

Script

Script 3
This scene is when Lucy is talking to her mum and confronting her with what she wants to do with her life, the scene's script goes like this:
Mum: 'Alright honey, has was your day at school?'
Lucy: 'Yeah it was alright' *sighing*
Mum: 'aw, what's up?'
Lucy: 'Well i was talking to my friends about something earlier, and they didn't support me at all'
Mum: 'Well what was it what were you talking about?'
The script goes on with Lucy confronting her mum and them getting into a bit of an argument.

Script 2
This scene's script is when Lucy confronts in her friends with what is bothering her, it goes like this:
Friend: 'Alright? Why haven't you been returning my calls?'
Lucy: 'It's just things with my brother, you know its been really hard.'
Friend: 'I know it must be hard, do you want to talk about it?'
Lucy: 'Right, i know this is going to sound really bad, but i am thinking of following in his footsteps and joining the army'
Friend: 'what, why would you do that? Your a woman!'
Lucy: 'What do you mean? How is that bad?'
Friend: 'Your brother just died?'
Lucy: 'If you can't support me then you are clearly not a friend, just leave me alone!' *walks off in a strop*
This scene then ends with Lucy storming off from her friend, upset that her friend didn't understand.

Script 1
This script is a voice over with Lucy explaining what is going on and it goes like this:
Lucy: 'Have you ever had somebody who you trusted and depending on so much, you feel lost without them? I did. My twin brother Matthew, he was a kind, generous person who you could always rely on and he was my best friend. Matthew went off to the army after his GCSE's, within a year he was out in afghanistan. Whilst he was out there he stood on an IE, which is the most common explosive bomb type in Afghanistan and he died.' *slight pause* 'All of my feelings have been crushed, and i lost my best friend that day.'
The script then goes into the sound of church bells which is where Matthew is buried and you see Lucy walking in and seeing a memorial stone, I feel this really sets the scene as how she is feeling, lost and sad.

The Last Scene

As our film plot has changed so many times now then it was getting difficult with what would actually look right in the film anymore. I decided maybe we could have that Lucy our main character goes a bit crazy in the end and she starts seeing her brother who is actually meant to be dead, i felt our film didn't really have anything in to make people really want to see it, this would bring a sick twist to the film, dragging people to want to watch it.
For this scene i decided that Lucy would of just came back from the woods and would go into the bathroom and wash her face because she thought she had seen Matthew. I filmed her from above washing her face and at other angles to make more effect.
Nicole then decided that she should start doing her make up in the mirror and maybe something else could happen, she came up with Matthew flashing in the mirror to really creap people out, i edited the film to make it that one minute Matthew is there and the next he isn't.
The scene then goes on as Lucy running downstairs as she does this she goes into the kitchen and i decided maybe she should see Matthew one more time just to make the audience feel very interested in the film, i decided he should be in the garden so when she is in the kitchen she see's him and gets more scared. As she see's him i added a banging noice into the film to make it more dramatic.
I then decided that Lucy should run upstairs with the camera following unsteadily to show that the situation going on isn't right, she then looks down the stairs and all the lights change which freaks her out.
I think this is a good way to end this three minute film as i think it drags the audience in to show them they want to see what else happens, it also show's to some teenagers it wouldn't just be a sad film with nothing happening in it.

Story Boards

For this storyboard above it does not have anything in the first box as we hadn't decided what out title was going to be that we now have decided it is 'Your On Going Presence', the top is the first couple of scenes from the film as it starts with the picture montage then the Matthew Moltell shot of his name. It then goes on to Lucy at the church in the next few boxes, it then goes on to Lucy in school talking to her friend and then leaving. The box afterwards is Lucy talking to her mum which is then followed by the next box with her walking into the woods, the next box is Lucy thinking there is someone behind here.

The rest of our film goes onto this story board where Lucy see's Matthew in the mirror and then runs down the stairs and puts the kettle on to then look outside and see Matthew again and then in the last two boxes she runs up the stairs to where it ends when the lights change and she runs of scared.

Costumes

Tim Roberts (Matthew) - Matthew is dressed in very casual clothes for most of the film as he comes back in some of the shots he is wearing army type of colours though to make him fit in with the army look but he still looks like in normal clothes as he is now back at home and how Lucy would remember him wouldn't of been in the army clothes.
Emily Sawtell (Lucy) - Lucy wears quite innocent and nice clothes because she is a nice young lady she isn't a punk rocker or a chav, she is just a normal teenager so wears the same type of clothes as another teenager would, we used most things to make Lucy seem feminin for example when she uses her mascara in the mirror, this also shows she is a teenager as they apply their make up quite a lot more regulary to the older generations of people.
Daisy Mcquaid (Mum) - As Daisy played the mum then we made sure she was in more mum type of clothes not young teenager clothes, she just dressed simply, but just as a young mum.

Research of Film Titles

As me and Nicole are still struggling to find a name for our film as the plot has changed then we thought it would be best to take some research into film names.
As we would like a title that appeals to make people want to watch it and something that goes with the film then i have researched army film titles the following could be for this type of title:
-We Were Soldiers
-Pearl Harbour
-The Lucky Ones
-Home of the Brave
none of these type of army films really fit our film as Matthew has already been to war so it isn't that he is going in.
We need a type of film title that could be with a pschological fault with someone because this is how the film is now, i took some research to find out some psychological film title names, some of these came up with this type of title;
-The Talented Mr Ripley
-Fatal Attraction
-The Game
-American Psycho
None of these i also don't find very well to go with our film because it just doesn't fit the film, we need something with like the word's 'soul' or 'spirit' as i feel the film will be better if it isn't too long a title and it isn't to over powering.

Taking the feedback and using it

Evaluation of using the feedback
Nicole and I took the feedback in and went and filmed some more of the film, we filmed Lucy training in the unkown place and getting ready to escape, as we put this all together and added it to the video then we realised it really didn't work because she was all of a sudden from being sad and scared to up-beat music training and going straight from one mood to another just didn't work, so we decided just to scrap this bit as it didn't fit the film at all.
As the film still didn't have much left to it then i decided to work from what the film had and what we could do with it, now the plot has been changed to Lucy being unstable and not in a fit mental state, so we now are going to film where she starts seeing things that aren't actually there and going a bit crazy. This is showing she isn't in the right frame of mind from losing her brother and maybe she doesn't actually know what she wants.

Woods scene

What i did
I also came up with the wood scene as i felt the film wasn't really going anywhere because nothing was really happening in the film, so at the end of the scene Lucy gets taken and then the last few minutes she is in an unknown location, crying. This showed that Lucy was still alive but no-one knew what was happening to her so it would show the film was still to continue.

Evaluation
I think this scene went well because at one point i filmed Lucy's feet being dragged away and i thought it fitted very well in and then it leaves on a cliff hanger as Lucy is crying in an unknown location and no-one knows what is happening. This scene also shows that Lucy is very scared and doesn't know whats going on because of close ups to the face of her breating very heavily and how she runs, also the location was Alveston woods and this i thought was a good location as it was mysterious and looks to be in the middle of no-where so its obvious that Lucy is alone and creates a tense mood to the scene.

School Scene

What i did
As Nicole and i did this film together each of us came up with different ideas in the film, the school scene is one of the scenes i came up with and filmed mainly. I thought that a school scene would be appropriate as we show what Lucy's life is like and her telling her friends and family what she wants to do. I thought her telling a friend would be good to shoot in school because it also then shows how old Lucy is and why everyone is reacting badly to it, also because of her losing her brother.
Evaluation
I think this scene went well with the filming and putting everything together because it fits in the film well as well and the way the camera angles work also work well in the scene, this also brings a lot of reality to the film as it shows Lucy not only telling her mum later on but her friend on, this is also an important scene because it leads on to why Lucy wants to run away because her friend reacts badly and doesn't support her so she feels all alone.

Scenes

In our film then i decided to break the film up into different scenes, there are 4 different little scenes in our film so far, these are;
-Picture scene, this is the section at the start with all the picture montage and voice over.
-Church scene, this scene follows Lucy to the church.
-School scene, this scene is where Lucy tells a friend how she is feeling.
-Home scene, this scene is when Lucy confindes in her mother about how she is feeling.
-Woods scene, this is the final section of the start of the film as it is when Lucy is running away from home basically.

Each of these scenes have been filmed in different places and have different reasons for being in the film.
I thought of the school scene as i thought it would be good to film Lucy in school talking to her friend around normal surroundings as she is in the library of the school where there are other people there too.
I also came up with the wood scene because i felt like the film didn't really have a reason to carry on watching it when it finishes and that nothing really that good happened in the film, so i decided we should put a scene of a bit of action in to the film.

Evaluation of voice over

I think that using the edirol for the voice over was a very good idea because it brings more feelings to the film and makes it seem more real, as when the pictures were just showing then it seemed good but then when Lucy is talking over him it makes it more sad. The edirol was also easy to use and good quality so it fits into the film very well. The only problem i had was that it started recording before it meant to at some points but you just edit that out and don't put it in the film so it was still good. Overall the voice over goes very well with the film because it went into the film how i wanted it too.

Voice Over

We are using this piece of equiptment when doing our voice over through the picture montage at the start, we are going to get Lucy to talk all about Matthew and how everything has happened, i am going to record this on here and then upload it to our video and edit it in, this piece of equiptment is called an 'edirol'

We used the edirol and recorded Lucy speaking on it, afterwards i put it into the film and edited it into right bit and made sure that the montage of photos were showing with the voice over it. Using the voice over was decided because it created more drama and feeling to the film and Lucy describes over the voice over how Matthew was her best friend and how he died.

Film Certification

When doing mine and Nicole's film then we have to think of what certificate our film could be, we have the choice's of the following:



Between the certficates above i think our film should be certificated as a 15 because it isn't actually physical of anyone being hurt but it could in some sense still be scary to some little children, and they might not understand what is going on as it is all to do with feelings and the war, so younger kids wouldn't really be interested anyway.

After evaluating the film and what happens in the begining of it then i decided that i would put the film at a 15 certificate because as the film goes on and 'Lucy' becomes unstable it's not very suitable for younger children and also they wouldn't really understand the plot. As the film goes on Nicole and I thought that Lucy would want to go of to the army but could get rejected because she isn't in the right fit state of mind. 

Specialist Terms

We learnt some Specialist terms in media of what we should use and the meanings, i thought i would share what i have learnt;

1) C.G.I - computer generated images
2) Cinematography - moving imagery used in films as photographs
3) Dissolve - when two shorts merge then disappear into each other
4) Stereotype - making a judgement of a particular subject
5) Archetype - strongest example if a stereotype - pattern of behaviour
6) Crane shot - a shot from above
7) Trombone shot - combining zoom and track shots
8) Asynchronous sound - the discrepancy between shots
9) Ambient lighting - Basic light available
10) Mise en scene - props/objects on set
11) Non-Diegetic sound - musical sound effects that do not fit
12) Semiotics - the study of signs and symbols
13) Pull out - everything is pulled out of the frame
14) Pulling focus - blurring a subject then putting it into focus
15) Residual meaning - left after other parts are taken away
16) SFX - special effects
17) Symbolism - something that is used to create a particular meaning
18) Convention - an informal rule
19) Open frame - frame is cleared for action
20) POV - point of view
21) Connotation - for example, RED = DANGER
22) Foley - sound effects made in a studio
23) Action code - to signify action
24) Fast editing - quick cutting technique
25) Kinetic camerawork - hand held camera using a lot of energy
26) Convergence - industry works on 2/3 different medias and they start to feed of off each other through advertisement.
I'm going to try and use the majority of these within the film, i think that a lot of them would come to use in my film.

Locations

As the plot has changed a bit as when the ending comes then Lucy gets followed then we had to think of some suitable places to film, also throughout the whole film.
We have used many different locations in our film, to start with then we have some filming at Alveston church as it is where Matthew is burried and has a memorial statue for WW2, so we are saying it is a memorial statue for dead soldiers, this is Alveston Church:

We think this is a good place to off filmed because it is in good location for us to be able to film.
We also have filmed in the library of Marlwood School as it is a study area so it is realistic that Lucy and her friend would be around people when they are talking, so we have also filmed at Marlwood School;

We thought this would be a good idea to film here as well as Lucy is still a student in sixth form in our story

so this explains why they are in the library here.

We are also filming at Nicole's house which will be known as 'Lucy's house' because it is showing her and her mum talking as she is at home.

We also thought when Lucy is walking with her headphones in then we should film somewhere that is a bit spooky and mysterious as if something like someone following could happen, so it couldn't be on the main road. We chose Alvestons bridle path for this as it is like the woods;

As you can see from this picture even the scenary shows that it isn't going to be a good scene and makes veiwers aware that something spooky could be going to happen.



Characters

As the plot change has changed our characters we now have new characters, we have four actual speaking characters but three main characters, our three main characters to the film are;

 Lucy Mortell - Emily Sawtell

   Matthew Mortell - Tim Roberts

Mum (Lucy and Matthew's mum) - Daisy McQuaid

We also have another character who speaks but isn't such as a main character, more extras and these are:
Lucy's friend - Chloe Bennett
Person in the woods - Ellen Wilson
At the end we have someone who chases Lucy in the woods, we used me for this as it was easy to be able to film as much as we like. In this bit of the film Nicole and I still shared the filming as equally as when i wasn't in the film i would film those bits, whereas the bits which i am in then Nicole would film.

Picture Montage

We decided at the start of the film to have a montage of pictures with a voice over of 'Lucy' explaining what has happened, like how her brother has died and explain to people what is actually going on. I thought this could bring a good feeling to the film and make it feel more real as we will put all the pictures and have Lucy talking over this.

So far Nicole and I have both chose some pictures each to put into the film, here are a few of the pictures i chose;

I chose this picture because it shows the two together at prom and how they are happy, it also shows that they were close and not identical twins, i think this picture is a good picture to choose because it is showing how happy they are which would give more emotion to the montage because when the voice over is speaking then Lucy will sound very sad about it.

I chose this picture because it was another picture of the two of them happy together, it also shows they were close and that they did many things together.

I decided that as we have a scene with Lucy, Matthew and the Mum it wouldn't make sense if there were no pictures of the mum with the two kids, so i chose to put some pictures of this in, also because then it seems more real because there aren't just picture of the two of them , so this picture was chosen for these reasons.

Plot Change

We decided to change the plot a bit becuase the story didn't really have anything good in it as a bit of drama or something that felt like it was going to be a good film, we also thought that most films are men orientated and don't have many women main characters like the Guardian's theory. We have still kept the genre of the a war film, but changed the main character to a women. We chose to do this also because it will make our film quite unique because women also aren't very focused on about going into the army when they are just as much wanting to go into the army as men, so we thought we would do this film and have a twist to it at the end, causing some drama.

The New Plot-Lucy and Mathew are eighteen year old twins who are inseperable. Lucy is still a student at sixth form college and Mathew as soon as he finished school applied for the army and within the first year was out in Afgahistan. Whilst he was out there Mathew stepped on a IED (Improved Explosive Device) which is the most common and newest bomb type in Afghanistan at the moment which obviously caused him to die. Lucy and her family is distraught over the loss of their son/brother and Lucy hits depression. Lucy wants to try get back in touch with her brother but the only way she thinks she can do this is by joining the army like Mathew and follow his footsteps/memories. Lucy tells her mother and friends her plan and it doesn't go down well with them at all. Lucy feels hurt and alone so decides to run off to the woods for some alone time but realises as she is walking with her headphones that she is not alone...

Audience

When filming this film as it is a war film and seems quite more of a film that would need to of been watched by people who understand what is going on, so it is aimed at tennagers both male and female. It could connect with some teenagers who are feeling the same and they don't realise what could happen if they changed their mind or how much of a big thing leaving everyone is, hopefully our film could help them to see what could happen.

The Guardian

We listened to a podcast in media through the Guardian which was about how women are represented in the media, it did show a lot of womens lack in the media.
We found out through this podcast that;
78% of articles are wrote by men.
84% men are on the radio - current affairs.
Through the podcast then the people talking thought that this could be because women can be less likely to push to get a chance to go on these radio shows. Also the hours through the media are very anti-family so women are less likely to be able to appear.
This shows that women are clearly not in the media as much as they should be.

When looking at mine and Nicole's film then our main character is also a boy, this wasn't on purpose but it just shows men are usually in the media and are more overpowering, however we do have another character who is a girl so our film is balanced but the main character is also still a boy.

30 Degree Rule

With having the 180 degree rule then there is also the 30 degree rule to take into consideration. The 30 degree rule is for when you are filming then not to move less than 30 degrees, becuase if you do film under it then when watching the film after filming when you go less than 30 degrees then it will just look as it would be jumping, it would also just look as there was a mistake in the filming, like the camera was just jolted. So each shot should be over 30 degrees to make it look like the shot was meant to change.  

Films i know to do with war.

The best film i knew which had stuff to do with war in it was 'Dear John', this film description is;
'A romantic drama about a soldier who falls for a conservative college student while he's home on leave.'
This film is a bit like my one because the film is about a man who falls in love with a girl when he is on leave, and then you see her not wanting him to leave and him changing his mind on going, this film is very touching and was a big hit in the cinema, this film also shows how realistic all of this is and brings the same thoughts to people as i would like my film too. With the film i will be creating then the boy is put in the same position because he no longer wants to go to the army either, when that is the same as 'Dear John' because he realises he wants to stay at home and not go back.

Research

I decided to do some research on army films, to see what type of army films there were.
On the IMDb wedbsite i found the top 10 films were;

-Platoon                           (1986)

-Apocalypse Now            (1979)

-Tigerland                        (2000)

-Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)

-Saving Private Ryan        (1998)

-Buffalo Soldiers              (2001)

-Enemy at the Gates         (2001)

-Full Metal Jacket            (1987)

-Jarhead                          (2005)

-The Great Escape          (1963)

The film that they rated no.1 on there to be the best was 'Platoon' which was made in 1986 and the description said the film was about;

'A young recruit in Vietnam faces a moral crisis when confronted with the horrors of war and the duality of man.'

This film was quite a lot different to our idea, the newest film that was on that list was 'Jarhead' so i had a look at what that one was about because it is more modern, this was the description;

'Based on former Marine Anthony Swofford's best-selling 2003 book about his pre-Desert Storm experiences in Saudi Arabia and about his experiences fighting in Kuwait.'

So both of these films were different to my idea, so i thought that the idea was still good to go on.

Idea for the end of the film.

There still was no reason why the boy all of a sudden wanted out of the army, and him getting nervous wasn't the best idea because he wanted to be like his Grampy so would probably be too determined. So after seeing all the soliders on the news coming back for christmas it made me think, when they have little kids surely they didn't know they were coming at one point and it was too late to stay and watch them grow up once they go to the army. So for a new twist to the film and to make it more realistic, i thought that the boy could have a girlfriend and she falls pregnant after he had sent of to apply, so this makes him change his mind because he then knows he is going to have a baby and wants to see him grow up.

An idea for the film

When i was at my Grampy's house then i was looking round and seen a picture of my grampy when he was in the war and all of the pictures of him, and it makes you proud. So i was thinking the idea of him going into the army could be because he was very proud of his grampy and wanted to be like him to make him proud of him. So i thought that at the start of the film the boy could be talking to his grampy who is an inspiration to him and then he catches look at the picture of his Grampy in the war and he starts to wonder, he starts to think he wants to be like his Grampy. Then i thought even though it isn't a very nice bit to the film but if his Grampy died that could really push him into going into the army because he really wanted to be like his grampy, so then he applies. This now brings and idea to the start of the film to make it better and for him to have a reason he really wants to go in to the army.

Thinking of changing the idea again.

When i looked at the film and how it was going i thought that there wasn't enough to it, there wasn't exaclty any drama and also there was no reason exactly why he was chasing his mind, also there was no reason why he all of a sudden thought of the idea of going in to the army. There was some thinking to be done to try and either change the film idea or to think of something better for the film.

Inspirations for the film.

On the news around about at this time round christmas, there is a lot about soldiers and about them coming home to their families and how it is emotional, this is inspirational because it shows how real life all of this is and what happens to soldiers and how they feel when they go to war. It shows all the family they leave, their lives. So i thought this could lead to why the boy could change his mind because he realises what he is leaving behind, or it could just be last minute nerves and he changed his mind. It has not been decided on why he is choosing to not go at the end of the film yet.

Changing the film idea

After we got told the film would be too cliche then a new idea got brought up of maybe thinking of making the film more realistic by having something to do with the army being in it. It was decided that the film would be a boy who applied to the army and then changed his mind about going and wanted to back out, but it was too late by the time he decided, so the film would follow everything the boy was thinking, and it would show how it was thought to happen in real life, so in the end the boy would run away. It was forgotten that it was only meant to be the first three minutes of the film, so the rest of the film would be what happened to the family and what the boy did after he had ran away and what would happen to him.

Film Ideas

I came up with some ideas of showing some realistic issues, such as domestic abuse, murder or rape. Also because i wanted the genre of the film to be drama so people can watch it without it being boring. I came up with the idea of a girl walking down a dark pathway at night drunk with a bottle of vodka in her hand who had just left a party who gets followed by a man in black and then gets murdered, but then i realised it was too cliché and as i watched other people's films on the blog a lot of them were based on scary films, and the usual type of stuff like murder and i wanted to bring a whole new idea to a film so i tried to think of a new idea altogether.

My Evaluation Of My Preliminary Task

My 180 degree rule which is showing below of my filming of the extract is my understanding of how the 180 degree rule actually works, this wasn't my original piece because i filmed a totally different extract to start with, which was between two girls fighting because one of them found their boyfriend with the other girl, i wanted to use this because it had more drama and was more funny, but as i watched the film afterwards i noticed from just one bit i had filmed the wrong side of one of the girls shoulder, which failed my film to show the 180 degree rule, so i re-filmed for this one which was an interview, this one was easier to show that i understood the 180 degree rule and also was easier to film and make sure i was sticking to the rule because people weren't moving all the time so it was easier for just me to move myself to show the 180 degree rule with the actors just sat down.

My Preliminary Task

This is my piece of filming for my extract of the180 Degree Rule for my preliminary task, which is just showing i understand how the 180 degree rule works. 

http://www.youtube.com/user/ellenwilson01?feature=mhee     

Preliminary Exercise: Continuity Task

Preliminary exercise: Continuity Task

involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialougue.

This task should demonstrate:

-Match On Action

-Shot/Reverse Shot

-180 Degree Rule

180 Degree Rule

Within Media then the 180 degree rule is basically where there are two characters in the same scene should always have the same left/right relaionship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two characters, it would be called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle.

My Work

For my main task for this then i am going to be doing a film, i have decided to do a film other than a magazine because i feel like it could be more interesting and my type of thing to do. I have decided that i am going to do a film with Nicole Fairman and we are going to bring some ideas together to try and bring a really good idea to a film that we hope will be really good.