Task 4 (Main Task Evaluation)

After showing our final piece too our colleagues they provided us with some positive and some constructive criticism, all of which can help us in the next stages of the course.

Firstly all the positives; the general consensus was that the best part of the film was the successful use of the voice over, it was accepted that it supported the storyline well, and the menacing voice used in the style of a stereotypical football hooligan, a convention that we had hoped to fill at the start of production so we felt this was a success. Many people in the class were impressed with the 'blood scene' people thought it looked quite realistic and we gained many plaudits for this, other successful parts were the titles at the end of the sequence, many people thought they set the tone of the movie well and looked quite professional and was well accompanied with a 'funky-retro' music again something we wanted to achieve from the beginning. The camera work in some places were executed effectively, nearer the beginning when the shots of the crowd are being used the quick cuts between the different set of fans give a sense that this movie will be fast flowing, and finally the 180 degree rule was kept throughout with a varied number of shots; including worms eye, birds eye and over the shoulder.

Now for some of the the more constructive comments that as a group we should consider; We had a lack of footage after the initial footage that we came back with and at times this showed. Some people noticed that the freeze frames may have been used one too many times, as we had wanted a quick movie but maybe the use of the freeze frame may have hampered this effect however at the time of editing we didn't really have a choice as it had to be synchronized with the voice over. Also on the night of filming the crowd shots , (the only time we could film it) the ground was quite even meaning the use of the tripod would be ineffective so we had to film by hand on a windy night, despite staying as steady as possible there is some camera shake which we wasn't happy with however despite our concerns some colleagues said it effectively blent in the active crowd. Some people also said we had some wasted space in the shots a few times, something that we should have looked out for, however this could have been countered with the use of extras but unfortunately we were restricted to only being able to use people who wanted to do it, i.e our group members and as we had no money to pay others to do it, this was probably our downfall, as movies that we have studied to help and motivate us like 'The Football Factory', 'Green Street' and 'AwayDays' all rely on large numbers of extras for the big fight scenes.

The sort of real media products we wanted to was films such as The football factory and green street both these films are made with budgets as mentioned above which left us with an obvious problem, but in the main we did in fact follow these types of films in the way that it was based around a sport and conflict amongst fans.

The type of people that would or social class, would be the working class, as the type of people in dead end drugs, who live for the weekend to drink their watered down lager, casual sex and the occasion fight on the football terraces, of course this is stereotypical it is generally accepted in other movies that this is the type of person featured in the movie.

There are many movie distributors in the UK such as paramount, MGM, Disney, 20th century fox and many others, however the one i would probably choose would be MGM due to its history of violent films such as the James Bond collection.

The audience for our film if we made it fully would be predominantly young males who are interested in sport or violence, in away you could say that are target audience is the type of people featured in the film, the working class males looking for violence in our film, although the it would probably be given an 18 certificate, to attract our audience we would probably have to approach the audience through after the watershed advertising or at similar age type movies at the cinema due to the probable 18 certificate.

In the making of the movie we have encountered a lot of technology we have used for the first time in particular the programmes that come with come with the apple mac's. For example I Movie HD and Garageband. Although they were difficult to understand at first the process gradually became easier and they proved to be a helpfull tool in our movie making.

In conclusion, looking back on the Preliminary task i believe we have come a long way, we have managed to use the camera better to come up with better angles, effects etc..., the making of the voice over was also something that helped us on a long way from the preliminary stage. And we have found it naturally easier to keep the 180 degree rule without having to think about it too much.

Task 3 (Construction)

To start our final piece, we had to first come up with an idea amongst the three members in our group, this was probably the most difficult part of the whole process deciding on something we could all agree on. The initial ideas was a film in the action/crime hybrid genre, or a comedy. We liked the idea of doing comedy and could base it around popular tv comedy; The Inbetweeners but we encountered a problem when we realised it was going to be difficult to produce a successful script, because none of our group members were funny enough. So we decided to do the action genre despite not being happy with it, one of the group members produced a script as he was the person who had thought up the idea. It was set to be based around an illegal immigrant living in Dover on the run from the police, however after the group member who thought the idea had a long absence the remaining group members including me, thought it was unlikely to be successful for many reasons. This, however, left us quite far behind the rest of our colleagues, however we managed to think of a genre to do, gaining inspiration from the film; The Football Factory, we decided to sport/crime. We didn't have a lot of time to think of a script so we had to think quickly, we thought we could base it on the up and coming local football team between rivals Folkestone Invicta and Dover Athletic, we had an idea of filming both sets of fans to gain a sample of the atmosphere and we could then use the crowd clips to work as a backdrop for the rest of the sequence, we therefore took the video cameras with us along with tripods and set up at the football, we were not allowed to film the game due to privacy issues, only the crowd. We obtained the footage we wanted however one slight problem was the amount of movement on the camera due to it being a windy day with the tripod set up on uneven ground. The next lesson we uploaded the crowd footage onto the the Apple mac's, but we still needed more footage to make the scene. We then took the cameras and filmed our ideas for the fights between football hooligans of each side, making sure that we had kept the 180 degree rule. For one of the scenes we wanted a punch to look more realistic with use of something to represent blood, in a lucky coincidence one of our colleagues had fake blood capsules for his own film sequence, we then borrowed the capsules and the fight scene looked quite realistic and had positive reviews in our evaluation. We now had all our footage and we started to edit the piece however we thought the scene was quite difficult to gauge what was going on so we thought a voice-over would be ideal, the script was made and the voice-over put in, we then edited around the voice-over to make sure everything was synchronised after editing on I Movie HD all that was left was the titles of the movie that we were going to put in at the end of the sequence, and of course the name of the film, we thought Grassroots would be an appropriate title because the two teams featured in the film play their football at "grassroots" level once that was completed we wanted to create a retro style soundtrack to go along with the titles we managed this successfully on the Garageband programme.

Task 2.7 (Storyboard/Animatic)

These are our storyboards, as a group we knew it would be difficult to keep exactly in the same constraints as the storyboard and we knew that some things would change, mainly to keep in with the generic conventions and iconography, for example the shot of Harry lieing on the floor in a pool of blood was omitted in favor of the antagonistic Dover fans walking to the pub, and also instead of showing the shock on the face of Harry, we went straight into the punch to keep up a high tempo, and also in the actual movie a voice over was made in the background.

Task 2.6 (Single Sequence Analysis)

The genre that my group aims to develop is Sport Violence- in particular football hooliganism. The movie that gave us the the inspiration to do this is The Football Factory, here is the opening; watch until 8:20.





The first thing you notice is the music to accompany the opening credits, its electronic with a fast tempo, something that can reflect the mood and pace of the movie, on our film sequence we aim to reproduce this by using Garage Band on the computer and creating something to set up a fast tone with a slight retro feel, because the 7o's and 80's were the main hooligan activity years so a retro sound could relate to the former violence.

After the subtitles are finished, there is an introduction to the main protagonist Tommy Johnson, he is the typical football cockney criminal. he has the accent and the the clothes typical of a football hooligan i.e the Stone Island jumper, white trainers and he has a very laid back approach to life, in his opening voice-over he describes has life so far saying his love for "heavily cut drugs", "casual sex" and "lager."from the outset he his the traits of an antagonist, without the voice-over i think the audience would view him as an antagonist, what the voice-over does is to bond him with the audience so that they look on him favourably. This is very important for this genre that you can give the audience a feel of who is the protagonist. We had already had the idea in our group that we was also going to use a voiceover in a similar way to Tommy Johnson. However in terms of costume, as our film focuses on violence at grass roots we want to have some variance so when the trouble after the game occurs the next day we want the hooligans to be suited up.

As a film of violence in a working class area The Football Factory has a lot of bad language and swear words to stereotypically reflect how a football hooligan may speak, the bad language is apparent in the voiceover and in the dialogue amongst the fans on the way to the pub, also something that stereotypically would be a place where you would expect to find football hooligans, in our own film we regrettably will have to include some bad language to keep up with the conventions of the genre and also the protagonists will be filmed around a pub represented as a place where they spend time.

You will notice in The Football Factory that the initial action scenes and preparation for the fight occur in alleyways and small roads, this is a convention of the genre because the violence cannot happen in a place where the police (often seen as an agent of disruption in the genre) will not be able to interfere, as in a densely populated area the sheer number of fans will lead to suspicion, this also happens later on in the film with the end fight scene, and also other movies from this genre such as the fights in "Green Street" and "AwayDays." One problem we have encountered in the making of our film is that we do not have the amount of numbers of actors to recrete the large numbers of fans perfectly, however, again, our film is based on grassroots football so there are not as many fans to the firm size is smaller, however we feel we have the perfect setting; in a working class town of Dover and we have a short fight film in alleyways.

From a fight scene in this genre you would expect to see violence, gore and blood, when the Tommy Johnson and the other Chelsea fans reach the pub at Tottenham and the fight ensues, it is quite graphic with proper punches and blood, similar to the scene of Tommy being beaten up right at the beginning of the movie where he has visible head wounds with blood leaking from these wounds, we also wanted to include this generic convention so we therefore have two fight scenes, in the second of these we have a injury using blood, from a fake blood capsule.

Task 2.5 (Comparison of Sequences)

As our final movie idea we have a scene with violence so for my analysis of two opening sequences I choose two fight scenes, one is in the war genre set in World War 2 with "Saving Private Ryan" the other is also set in war, but as the opening to sci-fi movie "Star Wars-Revenge of the Sith" these are the two clips:


and Star wars:

watch from 1:30



Both the clips are opening to movies and similar themes however the genre conventions mean that they are vastly different, both movies have a set of protagonists who are fighting to restore equilibrium against the antagonists. Also both sets of protagonists have an uphill battle as the antagonists appear to have the upper hand, In Saving Private Ryan have a better position on the beach and better weapons, this is often reflected in the camera angles as when the cuts are made between the shots the German army are always higher up, to cap all this off, throughout most of the opening minutes there is no evidence of the antagonists dying, all the death is off the Americans to show that the Germans are definitely winning until main protagonist Tom Hanks manages to help his squad gain some shelter., not necessarily a birds eye shot but still enough of an angle to show German superiority. In Star Wars although there is a war going on, the protagonists are alone with little help and there are many enemies trying to kill them, the little help that they have is soon destroyed, similar to the other clip until one of the main Protagonist-Anakin manages to remove some of the danger. This is typical of the protagonists being presented as the "underdogs", in both clips when they seem to have the upper hand in Saving Private Ryan this happens when they reach the shelter of the banks and in Star Wars Anakin manages to rescue his mentor Obi-Wan from the "buzz droids". However the period of equilibrium cannot yet be restored as both encounter more obstacles, Saving Private Ryan have difficulty removing the German snipers while the door to the spaceship starts to close in Star Wars, however as it happens at the start, the audience wouldn't expect the main protagonists to die, and this is the case as both sets of Protagonists in both films escape the dangers of the opening scene.

Despite both films being set in wartime, the genre dictates how different both the sequences are, especially in terms of character and setting; In Star Wars the two main protagonists are Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi; played by human actors however in the film they are represented as Jedi's who have supernatural powers this is something typical of the sci-fi genre, despite being in the middle of a "battleground" both protagonists remain very calm, in start contrast to the desperation of the characters in Saving Private Ryan as they are represented as Humans who feel the emotion. The uniform of the characters is also interesting, you would expect from a war for the soldiers to have a basic uniform all the same colours from one set of soldiers to aid identity, and this is the case in Saving Private Ryan whereas the protagonists in Star Wars wear what look like formal robes and the protagonists also wear different colours, Anakin wearing dark and Obi-Wan wears lighter robes, this also foreshadows events that happen later in the film with Anakin turning evill as Black is deemed as the colour of evill in most film.

The setting of where the film takes place is also vastly different, this again is because of the genre. Saving Private Ryan takes place on a beach to mirror that of the Second World War, the war in which the film is based on, some rumors also state that Star Wars was based on the world wars as well, however as a sci-fi film it takes place in a "galaxy far away" in a space setting surrounded by stars and planets much different to the realism on Saving Private Ryan. The weapons used are also different, Saving Private Ryan has the typical rifles, machine guns, boats and tanks as featured in realistic wars, whereas in Star Wars, they have little aeroplane type machines which have many buttons and controls and shoot neon beams in the sky to destroy the antagonists, there are also all sorts of sheilds and spaceships. The main weapons of the protagonists are "Lightsabres" which are neon beams on a stick vastly different to the "thomson" rifle in Saving Private Ryan.

Task 2.4 (Generic Conventions)

For the next step, we have to choose 4 film genres and look at the conventions and iconography of each genre. The conventions of a movie are things you expect to happen in the genre, i.e something happening between the protagonist and antagonist, iconography are the objects that you would expect to find in the genre, i.e something that the antagonist or protagonist will use. The four genres that i have choosen to use are; Sport crime (football hooliganism), Horror, War and Family.

The conventions of a sport crime would usually revolve around two sets of rival supporters fighting with each other over a particular event thats going to happen between the two teams that the suporters support. usually the protagonists are the supporters that are focused on more by the camera who are followed in their actions untill they meet the antagonists who are looking to end a equilibrium that could exist in the protagonists. The main fight would usually be weaponless and more of a fist fight to the end, you would usually expect the protagonists to be the "underdogs" they may have less people and still end up winning the fight and obtain bragging rights over the other sets of supporters.

The iconography would be of a couple of Jack-the-lads in "chavish" clothes in a working class environment. Possibly in trouble with the law quite often and involved in illegal activities such as drugs. Probably have low paid jobs without family and put all their endeavours into the fights they have, however despite these negative traits the audience will grow to like them. Some video evidence i have obtained in this genre is the movie "The football factory" the protagonists here are football fans following Chelsea with the main character of Danny Dyer who fits the iconography and conventions of the genre;

The conventions of a horror movie; are that an unknown entity will kill defenceless people typically the stereotypical dumb blondes untill coming up against the protagonist can start to unravel the mysteries behind the killers actions untill a final showdown, usually the antagonist will be be killed and the protagonist may have avenged the other peoples deaths, in the deaths at the beggining from the protagonist you would expect a lot of blood and gore, after the killer unexpectantly creeps up on the victim before a brutal murder.

The iconography of horror include having murder weapons usually something sharp like a knife which will result in a bloody death. the killer will often be masked thus leaving the identity under cover. The clothes that the killer wear will often be black or red to be the icon of evill the final confrontation is usually in a derelict, isolated building. here is some video evidence from horror movie "The Ring" which fits the iconography and conventions of horror;

The conventions of the war genre would be a set of protagonists usually given to the army most sympathised with the audience, for example a war film made in America featuring an American army would have the American Army as the protagonists, they may be underdogs but will end up defeating the antagonists who may have the better placing, most of the war films are during World War 2, the leader of the protagonists will often be the main character who has a determination for his army to become victorius. usually the protagonists end up winning the war.

The iconography of the film genre the weapons and uniform of the armies, Machine guns, tanks, possibly boats and aeroplanes will be featured, to make sure the scenes are action filled and realistic to a wartime setting, the uniform in the armies will all be the same amongst the separate armies, sometimes icons of the death of the protagonist may die in bomb blasts with limbs missing and mental pain to overcome within the armies. this is a clip from American war film "Saving Private Ryan";

The conventions of the family genre are usually fairytale themed, with the protagonist on a mission to do something, but confronted by comical obstacles in the process that are comical and enjoyable to all ages, espechilly children though. or the antagonist could be someting or someone who wants to end a period of equilibrium as the agent of disruption who the protagonist will have to fight. The protagonists are almost always succesful and would usually tend to result in rescuing some sort of tresure or girl, with the antagonist being put in jail or an embarrasing future.

The iconography could be that it is an animation as many succesful family films are animations as it appeals to children (the main target audience of cartoons on t.v). Sometimes magic may be used as a weapon to defeat the antagonist or a special power that the protagonist may have. video evidence in the Family animation Shrek;

Task 2.3 (Production Company Logo Design)

As a group we decided on a name for our production company, after much deliberation we decided on Beef'ed 'n co. We knew it wouldnt be copying any others and its quite a catchy name, inspiration came from one of our group members unusual sized head.

The next step was to decide on a logo for Beef'ed 'n co, we wanted it to be quite simple but eye catching, to be inkeeping with the name we wanted it to be quite comical, so we all decided to go away and think of some possible logos, i came up with these;

I believe out of my ideas the one on the bottom would be more succesfull, as its much bolder and eye catching with the one on the top being far too basic.