Inherited Empire Final Draft

This is our final draft of our title sequence Inherited Empire. We made some drastic changes from the last draft due to the feedback we received from our teachers. We was advised to move the end scene of our title sequence to the beginning as it felt out of place and separate compared to the rest of our piece, it did not flow the the tone and pace of our sequence. We also decided to move all of our opening credits onto the last sequence this way it felt like it worked a lot more and made the use of the burning books more relevant and create a bigger meaning through the mise-en-scene.

Evaluation

Evaluation

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

 The aim of the task we was given was to produce a title sequence of a specific genre, which may or may not contain the traditional codes and conventions of that genre. Before we started I specifically researched the correct codes and conventions of a thriller so that we could make our title sequence to the greatest of our ability. This was crucial towards making our title sequence, as we wanted to make our sequence with a thematic approach to create an enigma for the audience.  This was detrimental for what we was trying to do with our genre as Thrillers are known for there suspenseful storyline and shocking twists through the enigma which is usually created through out.

In our sequence it was important for us to create a slow paced suspenseful feel that would evidently show the codes and conventions of a typical intense thriller. We done this with wide shots of different streets and close ups and mid shots of our main character to get the tension built up even more. Our music runs parallel with our shots, as it is a slow-paced anxiety building ticking of a clock.  This was perfect for our title sequence as our character has to race against time to stop something even bigger from being created. We also used conventions such as low-key lighting, which gave our scenes a dark feel in which thrillers are typically known for.

We thoroughly looked through the codes and conventions of a thriller, as we wanted our final piece to be thematic as possible.  We wanted more of a thematic approach through our clips rather than a narrative so it would keep the viewer guessing, which is a staple of the genre. We also wanted to establish that our movie is a British movie set in London. we illustrated this through the iconography that we represent in our shots such as the London eye and Big Ben.

How does your media product represent particular social groups? 

Our title sequence specifies a certain niche audience, which is due to its 18 certificate. Our target audience would typically be males aged 18-35 they would be a typicall male who likes action films, beer, sports and socializing. Their dislikes would be things that females would usually like such as shopping and romantic films. Also the races that our film will appeal to are black, white and mixed race as these feature in our film. The targeted viewer would not have strong beliefs in church or religion as our film may cross boundaries that may offend them. Therefore, the target audience would only go to church for a wedding or funeral.The target audience’s main occupation would be a practical job such a builder, electrician or plumber, as these typically like gangster movies, as it is there interest. However, another target would be people interested in media such as graphic designers and media technicians as they will be more obliged to go to the cinema, through their shared interest in the arts. 

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

As we was trying to decide on what distribution company we wanted for our title sequence we decided to thoroughly research which distribution company would fit for our film. We researched all the films that different companies have done and we decided to go with Lionsgate as they have made some successful thrillers in the past such as The Game (1997). They have also made films with the actors we have chosen, for example Safe (2012) which features Jason Statham.  Lionsgate have also made films with Tamar Hassan and Ray Winston such as Kick-Ass (2010) and Tracker (2010). We decided that Lionsgate would be the best institution to distribute our film. We chose Lionsgate because they tend to emphasis mainly on foreign and independent films which is just what we need seeming that our film is British.
 
who would be the audience for your product?

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




How did you attract\address your audience?



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

In our preliminary task we had to create a fight sequence. This particulary difficult as we made most of our narrative on the spot and did what ever we felt would look humorous at the time. However with our  title sequence we used a storyboard specifically sat down and discussed for long time what our film will be about and called. This helped us drastically as we was more organised and knew what we wanted before we even started filming therefore everything went through smooth. We also knew that planning a shooting schedule was crucial as before everyone did not know what days to show up and it ended up taking longer for us to make. 
                                      

 However our in our prelimarary task we did use certain shots to connote

  different meaning such as low angles to show a characters power over 

  another and high angles to show a charcters weakness. However whilst 

  trying to make the fight sequence we didnt pay enough attention towards the 180 rule therefore oure work looked very amateur.  This is something we strongly paid attention too whilst trying to make our title sequence and therefore it looks more professional and we done more of a successful job. 

Other good aspects of our fight sequence where that we used foley sound to create the impact of a punch and bone breaking effect. We used meat for the punching effect and celery for the bond breaking effect. During this process i learnt that you could use more than one particular sound to create one full sound effect for example for our bone break we put the snapping of a celery alongside the crunching of nuts to give it that extra effect. However we all contemplated that foley sound would not be necessary for our title sequence as it did not require any sound effects due to the fact that our sequence has a soundtrack over it the whole time. 








Starting the process of editing was simple this was due to the fact that everyone did not have experience in editing before however, i had done this before on the fight sequence therefore i knew what was required so i done the editing. Eventually i start to teach my fellow team member how to edit aswell so if i was busy he could do some editing so that no time was wasted.  

In conclusion i feel as if the preliminary task helped us drastically as we learned from our mistakes and have now made the title sequence that we hoped for. This task also shows how crucial planning is towards making a film and how pre preparation is key in trying to make a title sequence. This also showed that if a clear narrative is not shown before you shoot it will lead to the downfall of your piece. Overall i feel as if i haven't learnt a lot in the process of making my full product and i am pleased with its final outcome.

Burning Money Sequence

Shooting Burning Money

Shooting this scene we had to be very careful. This is due to the fact that this was the only take we could have, because the money could not be created again in the amount of time we were given for the sequence to be finished. This meant that we had to perfect the shot on the first take which i think we achieved. I also felt as if the lighting was done great as well, especially due to the weather conditions that we was dealing with. I also felt that even though we shot this sequence outside the wind somehow did seem to blow the flames as bad as i thought they would be. The only negative that we got from this was that the money did not burn as fast as we thought it would and whilst worrying about that we forgot to get different angles and shots of the briefcase. However overall i believe that this went very well and is a nice touch towards our piece.

Locating Hospital and Audience Research

Locating Hospital and Audience Research

When we located our hospital scene we had to decide between two different types of places St Thomas Hospital and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. We solved this by disusing with our fellow peers in our sixth form on what one there preferred and fit more with our title sequence. Whilst we done this we created a tally chart so that we could record which one they preferred  We chose to do thi simply due to the fact that we feel as we wanted a viewers input on what they personally thought. This lead to St Thomas winning the majority vote which i personally preferred out of the two simple because it had more of a hospital type of feel rather that the Chelsea Hospital. I also preferred St Thomas because of the night time shot that we had taken which of course runs parallel with our title sequence as it is set at night. 

Typography

TYPOGRAPHY RESEARCH 

 

We used the website DaFont to download the perfect font that we wanted we all chose certain fonts as a group and came to a conclusion that we wanted a font that have a sophisticated feel as well as a stand out violent approach to it with a bit of class which our films all about. A good example of what we was looking for was the Goodfellas font which is shown below. 

 

As a group we then came to the conclusion that it would be one of the following fonts: 

We went for the second font simply due to the fact that we believed that the first one was to thin and didnt have that stand out approach. the second one was very bold and stood out which was needed. It also gave of the impression as if it where on newspaper and very much a city like feel, which was crucial for our film.

Mean Streets (1973) — Art of the Title

Mean Streets (1973) — Art of the Title




The film Mean Streets fits into the genre of crime and drama. This title sequence starts with the main character Charlie (Harvey Keitel) who wakes up and looks in the mirror. This could signify that this character feels bad about things he is doing as he looks in the mirror with regret.  We already know this character is religious this is due to the cross on the wall and the dialogue at the start of the scene so it could give the impression that this man is stuck between his religious life and some sort of crime life he is living. The music then starts, which sounds like it is from the 1950's with an Italian like feel. This gives the impression that this film is set in little Italy which is evident further on in the title sequence.

We are then shown super 8 videos of Charlie socializing with his friends around  little Italy and they are all very well dressed in suits. This immediately gives the impression to the audience that they are gangsters in little Italy. This shows a transition between when we first see him he looks as if he is upset or concerned about something but when we see him through the super 8 camera he looks as if he is happy and enjoying being with his friends. We then see a baby which we assume is Charlies and that he is married. He also gives off a distant feel as his wife kisses him due to the fact that she kisses him on the cheek and he barely gives affection. This could show that he does not love his wife as much as she loves him or that he is more focused on his life outside of his family.

A shot of a character called Johnny Boy ( Robert De Niro) is then shown who we have not yet been introduced too his shown in to different shots without the main character charlie. This could infer that Johnny boy is going to be another key character in the movie and have some sort of relation with Charlie. The camera also starts to scratch even more during the last shot we see of Johnny Boy this could show that there is something not quite right with this man and maybe he is an antagonist to the story or Charlie. The next shot is of Charlie with a priest this again brings up the two lives that Charlie lives one a religious man another a gangster.

The cards we made

The Cards we made 

The images that are below are of the cards we made for our sequence. We found out the right dimensions of a average playing card and we then used Photoshop to create the cards and give the cards a realistic feel after this we stuck it on real playing cards with a glue stick.

Map scene

                                                       

We shot the map scene for our  title sequence with the original idea being that we would have a birds eye view of the map whilst it pans across. However it did not go smoothly with the shot not coming out at all how we expected. We could not hold the camera still enough for it to look the way we wanted it to look for example the camera kept shaking making the road names not visible through the camera.

Burning the book

The buring book idea was not the original idea, it was first going to be blood dripping out of the book. We felt as if the orginal idea did not make that much sense to the scene and the thematic's of our film it also came across as if it was a horror movie which was the impression we did not want to give. 

We then came up with the idea of burning the books. We felt as if this was relevant towards the film as it is all based around the idea of Luther Lewis cooking the books. We felt as if this would add a nice touch to our title sequence as it foreshadows and explains the story if someone was to analyse the our sequence.

Re-shoot of hospital scene

We re-shot the hospital scene due to the fact that Thabo rubbed his head too much during the scene we shot before. This didn't feel right once we started editing and didn't fell as if he was mourning over his fathers death. It also was very difficult to try and edit because every time we tried to cut it and put another part in it broke continuity because of the amount of time his head was rubbed. Therefore the second time we shot this scene we made Thabo cut down on the rubbing of his head. We also wanted to add more intensity into the scene with Anton starting to get irritant and walk around whilst he worries for his fathers life. We felt as if this would give more drama to the scene and put the audience into the mind frame of the character.

                                              
                                              

Script

Son - "Take it easy dad" 

Dad - "The Books" 

Son - "The books are done dad, There okay, I took care of it. 

Dad - "Im sorry..."

Son - "You dont need to be!" 

Dad - "The book... Im... im sorry..." 

Son - "NURSE!" 

This was the script that we wrote for the end scene of our title sequence where Anton Lewis ( Thabo) is talking to his father Luther Lewis and discussing the situation that they are in whilst Luther feels bad for what he has left behind for his son.

Shooting of title sequence

Shooting of Title Sequence

These are some shots of the preparation and filming of our title sequence. In this scene we was trying to make a underground gambling like feel with dark lighting and poker chips. These pictures also show our first idea which was writing the names on the card which is evident through the picture below. We shot this round Harry's house, in his cellar because it was easier to control the lighting and had a lot of free space.

Voice recording

In today's lesson we voice recorded the scene where Anton lewis and his father Luther lewis are discussing the situation they are in, whilst Luther is on his death bed. This was difficult as we were trying to find someone who had the right type of voice and could act as if they are dying. We eventually found the right person and after a few takes we had the recording perfected and ready for editing.

StoryBoarding

We used storyboards to know exactly what to do when we was shooting our title sequence. It helped us to plan out the precise camera angles and movements so that when it came to the making of the scene we could start straight away without the any problems of discussing what type of shot we wanted on the day. This storyboard also includes the specific sound used in that shot. This helped us get a vision in our head of what the sequence would look like. Our storyboard also had the specific time length of how long our shot should last for which was extremley helpful when it came down to shooting. This all however could be changed and modified to help fit in when editing it is only used as a rough guideline.

New card idea

We shot our first card sequence with normal playing cards with only the actors names written in pen. This looked to standard, however, we believed we could achieve higher and give it more of a realist feel. We decided we should create playing cards using photoshop with each card to represent the characters position or personality within the card. For example the ace was tom hardy as he is ray winstons second in command and ray winstons is the king because he is the leader behind the crimes.