Hard Living Directors Commentary

Final Focus Group Task

Evaluation Question 7

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

Evaluation Question 6

6) What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

what have you learn about technologies from the process of constructing this product? on Prezi

Evaluation Question 4

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

The primary target audience of our opening sequence 'Hard Living' are roughly aged 15-20 because it features swearing and some violent scenes, so it is not suitable for those under the age of 15, also the content of the film may be considered as 'childish' or aimed at teenagers, so people over the age of 20 may consider themselves to be too 'grown up' to watch Hard Living.  The gender target audience is mainly men, this is because the audience will be able to relate to the characters seeing as they are all young teenage males- also the content of the film represents masculine themes such as fighting. 

The target audience's other favourite films may include british crime dramas such as Kidulthood & Adulthood, Shank, Attack the Block & Harry Brown.

The social demographics of our target audience are mainly C2 D and E because they will be able to identify to the characters because they live in poor deprived areas such as council estates and they may not have a similar lifestyle to our characters. Also some people from the A & B categories may watch our film because they may see it as an escape route from their ordinary day to day office busy lifestyles.

The research we done into our target audience included questionnaires finding out their preferences on the production of our film;

This document clearly shows what the target audience of our film want to see/hear in our opening sequence. The results made us alter and change some aspects of our sequence so it would appeal to our target audience even further. This questionnaire edged us to call our film 'Hard Living' & it also decided the filming location which ended up to be in a graffiti tunnel in an urban location in London.

Sam from Kidulthood

These results show that the audience want to see more stereotypical characters & locations similar to other British crime/drama films such as Kidulthood & SHANK in which the majority of the main characters are black with an aggressive attitude such as Sam from Kidulthood played by Noel Clarke.

Evaluation Question 3

3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why

Evaluation Question 2

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

Copy of How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups? on Prezi

Evaluation Question 1

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

We used the conventional opening sequence of narrative enigma ,we used this because it makes audience puzzled and left unanswered which builds up the suspense, for example in our sequence we used the narrative enigma when the main character is seen immediately running away looking distressed and in panic, however when the audience spectate this they would be left with unanswered questions such as;
where is he running too?
who is he running from?
why is he running?

Another conventional opening sequence element we used was titles and subtitles. For our titles and subtitles we used a  font which we felt symbolised our stereotypical characters which are young teenagers from the urban deprived streets of London which is why we used a graffiti style of font.

We had quite a few unconventional elements within our opening sequence. One of these were the non-linear narrative that was shown from our voiceover, where we see the main characters fate play out and know that he is going to die, but the sequence itself begins disordered and carries on throughout leaving the unanswered questions. 

Changes to our Opening Sequence

When filming our opening sequence we made quite a few changes along the way which had great significance to how our opening sequence turned out. We decided that it would be easier to have main character die by just being beaten up, rather than being stabbed, as it would be a lot easier to show this in our opening sequence and it was something that we felt could be easier to film. By changing this I think we created a more successful way or showing our main characters death, as I think we would have struggled to try and make him look like he had been stabbed.

Another big change we made, was that we didn't have the 'gang' chasing our main character like we had planned in our story boards and ideas. We felt that it looked a lot more empowering and intimidating for the gang to appear and seem to have a more calmer state of mind, so that it built up more tension for the audience

Production Diary

Wednesday 28th March

We decided that we need a second batch of filming up London/Banksy Tunnel to have a wider selection of shots:

• Low shots of Roger (Jamal) running 
• Shots of Roger walking away for our final scene of the sequence to incorporate the title into it
• Wide shot of Roger overlooking London bridge to show he's alone and reflecting on life
• Over the shoulder shot of Roger walking to represent paranoia and  how he feels someone is following him
• More shots of the graffiti on the walls so we have alot of shots to pick from to go over the voice over section

Production Diary

Monday 12th March

• Uploaded all of our footage onto the iMac and onto Final Cut Express
• Decided what clips we would incorporate into our sequence
• Made a brief sequence and listed down what other shots were needed and what more could be added 

Production Diary

Saturday 10th March

First batch of filming up London & Banksy Tunnel:

• Various different angles of the fight scene to use quick shots & shot reverse shots to show the difference and tension between the characters
• Different shots of the graffiti tunnel to have a wide range to pick from whilst editing
• Close up shots of Roger (Jamal) & Chidi (Tyrone) to emphasise their facial expressions
• Shots of Roger (Jamal) running to symbolise he is running away from something
• Quick shots of estate blocks to represent the location and the urban street theme of the film
• Various shots of red buses & black cabs to make it clear to the audience this is a London based film

Zooming Practice for Opening Sequence

For this task, we decided to try out our zooming techniques as this was one of our ideas which we would like to incorporate into our opening sequence. We found it quite beneficial practicing this, as we realised that we found it quite difficult to get the zoom in and out slow and steady whilst holding it as a hand held shot. We placed the camera on the floor and zoomed in and out, and we also found that with this the camera on the floor, it wasn't high enough to get our actors full face in the frame whilst it was zoomed in. From practicing filming this, we have learnt that we shall need to find a way to zoom in and out without it jolting or zooming in/out too fast as we want a slow zoom to show the tension and dramatic effect. 

Filming Experiment

In this filming experiment we practiced using close ups and quick shots to symbolise craziness, also we incorporated  LiveType files into a Final Cut Express document.

Locations

Leake Street (Banksy Tunnel)

We decided to use this graffiti tunnel as our main location because it is underground which almost symbolises the urban grime scene which the majority of our target audience listen too, also the graffiti symbolises the street and illegal things- so therefore it is a signifier into our genre so the audience will recognise instantly what our film is going to include.

Equipment List

Dolly Tripod




Extension Leads



Headphones



Phones




Tripod



Camera

Costume

We feel we need to stamp an intimidating look on our characters, so in order to achieve this we will dress our characters in cheap dark hoodies to symbolise how they don't want to be seen by society and cannot afford luxury clothing, and the dark colours represents their dark & gloomy lifestyle. These clothes are very common in other british crime drama films also.

Props

Our mail props will be phones and weapons, because the sequence is only the beginning we cannot include alot of props we feel the type of people the characters play would use, for example games consoles plus iPods & mp3's. So we decided to keep it simple and include only what was going to be shown in our sequence.

We included only these props for the reasons that in our script the main character is stabbed and there is alot of stories in the news of youths running around the deprived areas of London stabbing each other resulting in deaths. We also included a blackberry, this is because it is the most popular phone amongst young people due to its 'BBM' (blackberry Messenger Service.) This was one of the main instigators of the London riots because of its broadcasting feature which allows people to broadcast a certain message to all of their contacts to get a message across fast and simple.

Planned Scheldue

Character Description

Character Desciption

First Draft of Script

Running footsteps, panting from Jamal out of breath running away from gang.

Gang chasing and shouting at Jamal using threatening language.

Jamal comes to a dead end and turns around and faces the gang who have now caught up with him.

Jamal: No, no wait please, I said I’ll get you your money, I just need time!

Tyrone moves slowly towards Jamal up in his face

Tyrone: Bruv you’ve had enough time, its over

Jamal: hang hang on, my boy has got it

Tyrone: oh your boys got it?

Tyrone turns around to the gang laughing

Tyrone: he says his boys got it…

Gang burst into laughs alongside Tyrone, then Tyrone turns back towards Jamal

Tyrone: what do you think this is, do you think this is a game? are you taking me for some sort of dickhead cuz?

Jamal struggles to get his words out..

Jamal: nah nah im begging my boy-

Tyrone: I don’t give a shit if your ‘boy’ or any other wasteman has my money. You owe me and now your gonna have to pay up boy

Gang start shouting towards Jamal more threats, Tyrone steps back and lets gang start to hit and beat up Jamal, Tyrone walks forward then pulls out knife and begins to stab Jamal. Gang continue shouting, suddenly woman screams gang turn around.

Gang member: oi T we need get out of here

Gang member: just leave him now man

Gang and Tyrone run and Jamal is left bleeding on floor.

Camera zooms towards Jamal’s face who’s practically dead on the floor.

Jamal narration:

Jamal Sean D’Marco born September 17th 1994 at 4:03am.

Jamal Sean D’Marco deceased September 16th 2012 at 2:37am

Who da thought, I didn’t even make it to my 18th birthday..

I had so much ahead of me.. well that’s what my mum would say.

If only she knew what I was really like..

*flash backs to past*

Come to think of it now it was inevitable really that I was gonna end up like this, but this aint how I wanted it to end up, this aint what I wanted at all.

“I’ll probably be punished for hard living” – Tupac  

Hard Living Story Board

Motifs

A Motif is a recurring element in a film that helps to develop a major theme in a film. A motif is usually symbolic in some way, but does not have to be. In film, a motif is typically a repeated idea, action, pattern, or image.

Symbolic motifs are used throughout many films, for example  in the well know film 'The Noir' a dark street in the early hours of the morning clearly indicates a mysterious and sudden atmosphere and that something will arise, this is then immediately followed up with intermittent flashing of neon signs.

The sense of flashing signifies danger and alert therefore one can assume that something will arise furthermore the director clearly shows this by making every shot in glistening low key, all of these indication just and up to the atmosphere of the whole eerie and mysterious sense of danger which will found out ourselves.

As out of nowhere a man appears covered in darkness this clearly symbolises his emotions and characteristics shows him to be a very dark heartless human being.

Another motif found in,'The Noir' are the diverse photographic images used throughout the film is the symbolic image of unsettle disorientation which could symbolise the emasculated darken characters personality in the film.

In particular, the compositional balance within the frame is very disruptive  and very nerving in two shots that show the characters relationships with one another in addition the uncommon off angle which are uncommon in the frame so therefore this creates the symbolic sense of a mind frame  of a psychopath which we see throughout many two shots.

Two shot in the frame sets clearly captures the symbolic image of psychopaths disturbed mind set. 

Choker close-ups, framing the head or chin,; are obtrusive and disturbing. These are sometimes used on the menacing heavy, other  times reserved to show the couple-on-the-run whose intimacy is threatened or invaded.

In addition in these frames we truly witness the idea of a patriarchal society, as throughout frames we see the male character as a dominant figure and authoritative role, to emphasise that men are in a position of authority.

Close frame shot clearly shows the amount of difference shows the women being imprisoned and weak.

Encoding Our Text

For our film opening sequence we have thought of a few ways of which we will encode signifiers to help the audience identify which genre of film they are watching.
Our film is a British Crime film, and is heavily involved with gang scenarios and crime. By having this genre we speak out to quite a wide audience and this genre is quite easily noticed, but sometimes could be mistaken for a thriller. In order to make sure our audience wouldn't confuse this, we will include certain signifiers. One of these being the fonts used, for example 'West 10 LDN' uses graffitti fonts and urban backgrounds which to an audience will immediately let them know what type of film they are about to watch, it also gives the viewer an insight to the location of the film with estate blocks in the background and the actual text 'West 10 LDN' is another way in writing the postcode of an area. 


A few signifiers we will use in our opening sequence are; grime music so the audience can relate and recognise that our film has a street/grimey theme to it. The locations will play a big part in signifying the feel of the film- we will use underground tunnels with graffiti & shots of estate blocks so the audience know instantly that this is not some luxurious upper class film and that it tackles the issues that stand with youths today with stabbings & shootings in the deprived areas of London. 

Live Type Play Around

My first time on LiveType having a play around with the effects and getting the hang of the programme, the task was to produce a horror/thriller title called 'The Seventh Son'. 

Pie Chart to Represent Questionnaire Results

This pie chart shows the feedback we received from our questionnaire.

First Focus Group Evaluation

We learnt a lot from our focus group and we got from our feed back that we should go with the stereotypical view of characters that they need to be quite rough and aggressive and make you fear them. We also had the idea that we should put a multi-cultural gang in our opening sequence rather than just having one racial group.
From our focus group we determined the name 'Hard Living' as from the feedback we got hard life as one of the favourite options for the film name, and then thought more into it and decided on Hard Living.

Research from Questionnaires

Media Graphs From Questionnaires.

From the results of our questionnaires we had a mixture of answers which we initially didn't think would be a response our audience would pick. Our audience that we asked were a mixture of males and females so that we could get a wider range of views and opinions of what we should involve in our questionnaires. 
One of the results which we felt really spoke out to us, was the question about the stereotypical race. We assumed that most people would pick the stereotypical view on gang crime with just a one race gang, but nearly every questionnaire we got, or from those we spoke to, said that they would find it easier to relate to the gang and film if it had a multicultural gang, indicating the strong closeness between all the youths of today rather than a clear division. 
We can also see from our results how our filming location would be best to be filmed in a urban location, as it would be the best to fit the genre of this film and would look a lot better in comparison to other locations which were a choice such as a park, which was the next popular choice, as some people argued that youth's of today would be found hanging around there.

Questionnaires for Opening Sequence

Focus Group Video Task

Target Audience Description

Our group decided  that our primary target audience will be urban teenagers who will be able to relate to the content by  having some sense of  experience or a relative similiar lifestyle to the characters .The secondary choice of our target audience may be powermakers that tend to have the stereotypical view upon teenagers which we want to rectify, in addition they are able to change things in society which we acknowledge in order to tackle issues raised in our opening sequence. As a group we want to demonstrate our  views and opinions on how teenagers are perceived in the media lime light  or what the majority of society thinks about teenagers in the UK  so therefore our target audience will be varied from the young and old as we want to engage a mass of viewers in our openin sequence as the characters vary from ages thus giving the audience the rare oppurtunity of relatin to more than one character, therefore the social demographic will be a mix of A-B as well as the occurence of C1.

However our target audience would be most likely to have common interest as the characters in our opening sequence fow example they would possible have the same interest in music  they would much to prefer to listen to urban musicians such as 'wiley' which they would be able to relate to personally and also his music.

another hobbie in which our target audience may demonstrate is the enjoyment of socialising with his friends  which is also similar to our characters  in the opening sequence as you tend to see them hangin in large groups which draws attention from stanbys once again our target audience will genuinely have hobbies and interest similar to the characters in the film or on the other hand our target audience will be significantly diverse than our characters but still find them intreging  so therefore our target audience can either be teenagers in urban areas or various people in society.

The target audience for our type of film would be most likely to be dominantely young teenage men, as previous urban british crime films tend to generate more male viewers due to its 'nitty &gritty'  violence it has throughout the film , which our opening sequence shares comparison with  furthermore it would also generate more  male viewer as our openin sequence is mostly played by male characters therefore our target audience will be able to relate to them for their individual characteristics such as personality.

Initial Ideas

Initial Ideas

Analysis of Snatch Opening Sequence

Sound:

The music is running all the way through the clip and is non diegetic. The music that is used is quite upbeat and gives an impression of whatever they are doing and shows they are up to no good. Throughout the clip nothing else can be heard other than the music, until the very end when the clip goes back to the first character holding the diamond and we can hear him 'kissing' the diamond and placing it in his briefcase. This emphasises to us from the opening sequence that the whole film should be revolving around this one diamond and all the characters that we are shown in clip have a part to play also.

Mise-En-Scene:

The opening sequence of this film indicates what type of charcters they all are as we are all introduced to them. Most of them are all quite a typical shift lopking type of character and from what we can see they all appear to be crooks and all involved in some sort of crime going on.

Most of them are all wearing suits but with their top buttons undone to imply that they are trying to pull off the 'business man' type of look but are not actually a 'business man' you can trust. They are all quite agressive looking and men who you would not double cross or want to fall out with.There is no females within the opening sequence, implying that perhaps there is no need for them in the type of jobs they are doing, and seems quite a very stereotypical film with the males dominating and 'running' everything. Props that have been used the whole way through, has been money and the diamond. This shows how this is all the characters seem to care about and focus on and gives us an idea to what the film is revolved around. 

Camera: 

There are many camera angles that have been used in this opening sequence, however most of them are fairly similar and are medium shots showing each of the characters from the waist upwards. This is usually because all the characters being shown are sitting down at a desk, giving the audience an idea that each of these characters have a type of authority and power over whoever the person is behind the camera behind the desk. There are also a lot o f quick camera movements that move from one scene to the next indicating that whatever the characters do, they do quickly and sneakily. 

Editing: 

The editing of the opening sequence is quick paced and is all done quick. It involves a lot of zooms and spinning shots, this could be linked with the confusion of the characters and what they do and gives us a sense as an audience that they are all over the place. The opening sequence also features a strongly photoshopped pictures of the characters when it pauses onto them and shows their name. 

Titles:
The titles for this opening sequence are quite simple and in a plain font. The title of the film is in front of a image of a diamond which the whole film is based on, the chase of the diamond which explains to the audience the importance of the diamond and signifies this is something of great relevance throughout the whole film.

Analysis of Kidulthood Opening Sequence

Mise-En-Scene:

The opening scene is located in a school yard so it instantly gives the viewer the impression the film is based around kids/teenagers, also the state of the playground does not look like a nice playground to be in, with worn out grass and old rotting fences symbolises that the school is not a particularly good one or in a nice location. Also in the school car park there are old dull cars- which can represent how the teachers and the parents of the students are not rich and do not have access to qualities through money. The students are all wearing ragged school uniforms and their own personal accessories such as hats, trainers & jackets- this gives us an insight to how they do not abide by school uniform rules if there even are any which also furthers the impression of the school not being a good one to say the least. 

Sound:

Camera:

Editing:

Credits:

Conventional Elements:

Analysis of Se7en Opening Film Sequence

Conventions of a Film Opening Sequence

http://prezi.com/qqawu3icetmv/conventions-of-a-film-opening-sequence/

Conventions of a Film Opening Sequence on Prezi

Research & Conventions into Genre

British Crime/Drama

Codes and conventions of crime/drama genre vary depending on the cultural context of the film, but they are likely to include , alcohol, illegal substances, weapons, parties, raves, sex, murders,shootings, relationships, social groups and gang turf wars.
The classic codes and conventions of crime/drama film came from American films, where one of the most widely used conventions are the stereotypes and social groups and the main sterotypes in this genre associated with these kind of films.

It is mostly young black people who are involved in these types of films, so teenagers who have been in a gang or maybe just a group of friends or an organised syndicate, will recognise and relate to these type of films. The story lines usually play out, that the characters then will get into illegal things, doing small crimes or using drugs and over time getting more serious and then having to deal with the consequences. This can then be adapted to the british scene instead of America so teenage boys in London mostly refferd to as 'chavs'  by the genral public, commiting all sorts of crimes or just causing trouble. For others british crime and drama films this seems to show the more grittier and realistic side than American films, which usally seems to glamourlise this kind of lifestyle e.g. gangsters driving expensive cars, living in big houses, having lots of money etc, but British films show the more realistic side of it and the problems the characters face which leads to them having to deal with the consequences after.  


Examples of this genre include Kidutlhood, SHANK & 4.3.2.1;