me vid

Evaluating Sweded Version Of Goodfellas

Strengths of my swede

camera- 

Through my swede i felt that at 2:14 which denotes how i who plays Henry is in the shower, fully clothed and slips over, with the camera at high angle tilting down. whilst this shot was not specifically in the film its self, i did think that the camera language was done well. The shot connotes how it was meant to almost look like a cctv camera, as it has that high angle, looking down on me.

Another good piece of camera language can be displayed at 0:06 seconds, this shot denotes how movement of the camera is tilting up, to show me, faris & franki. I felt this shot was good as the speed of the movement was done well, and was smooth, the camera didnt jerk which made the shot better, the shot also is a low angle shot which makes us look more intimidating.

mise-en-scene- 

I felt that our mise-en-scene for the swede was best at 1:38, here from the track shot we can see how the natural lighting pours through the window and into our shot. As our track is coming round the corner the light makes the shot a little more exciting, this i feel is needed as it is a long shot and the audience will get bored if the shot doesn't have moments of excitement which can keep them enticed into the swede.

For the second piece of mise-en-scene that i felt was another strength to our work was at 1:58, this shot denotes how Karen(farheen) is throwing things at me as she is angry, and stressed. The mise-en-scene was particularly good in this shot for its props, in the real scene she throws food and we substitued that for stationary, which i felt was good as it added more humor to the scene. As having no budget we wanted to find props that was similar but also adds comedy, to keep in the themes with a sweded film. 

Sound-

The sound that i though was done particularly well can be seen at 0:03 seconds, here the sound denotes me and faris, making the car noises ourselves, as the toy car is being moved along. the sound of this shot connotes how we wanted to add humor to the shot using our own voices, i felt that in by doing this idea we showed how we can become innovative using nothing but our own voices, and creating an element of humor in doing so.

At 0:26 i felt that this scene also showed some good sound as well, here this scene denotes faris playing Henrys dad beating Henry up. The sounds from this scene that can be heard are more exaggerated hurls from faris and then in the background you can also here me struggling in pain. the sound i felt was good as it was clear, and like my first example it was humorous using only our voice, which i think by having good sound within a swede makes the whole film better.

Weaknesses of my swede

camera- 

some weaknesses in the camera language can be seen at 0:35 this shot denotes Henry (ben) and another person buying ciggarettes in a car park. i felt that this shot was one of the weaker shots from our swede, as the camera was very shaky and constantly jerking, which didnt make the shot look very ascetically pleasing for the audience. the shot we wanted to create was there, but i feel that the execution of the shot was done wrong and we should have re filmed it again.

I think this was the second of very few weakened shots within our film, at 1:56 seconds the scene denotes how karen (farheen) throws things and me in anger and frustration. i felt that the scene was done very well but this shot i felt weakened the scene in terms of camera language. the shot denotes farheen standing up, shouting and throwing things at me. however as we didnt use a tilt for that shot we accidentally cut out farheens head as she speaks, by using this small movement it would have made the scene tighter, and the audience would have been able to see the facial expressions of farheen adding more intensity as well.

mise-en-scene-

I felt that this shot was weak in mise-en-scene because of the costume that was worn during the shot, which can be seen at 0:50. The shot denotes how a policeman has come to arrest me for selling the cartons of cigarettes. I thought that whilst the acting was good during this shot, it was weak in a couple of areas of mise-en-scene. For instance the location may have been a little too full of cars which feature heavily in the shot, but i felt that the shots main fault was the costume also. During the real film Henry was dressed more smartly and there was a clear distinction on who the worker was and who Henry was. i felt that all of the actors within this shot wore normal, plain clothes it was more ambiguous in distinguishing the different character roles.

sound-

During this scene i felt that this shot was a weakness as the background sound coming from the passing cars overpowered the shot which can be seen at 1:02 seconds. Whilst during editing i tried to lower the sound of the shot it was still very loud, and weakened the shot, when compared to the shot with less background noise which would have been much preferred.

I felt that the sound of this shot at 2:39 seconds was also very weak, the sound of this shot denotes many people talking behind the camera in the background in general conversation. For me thats what made the scene weak, because it is easy to hear a lot of the background noise it almost brings me & farheen out of character and doesnt really feel particularly like we are shooting for a film.

Improving my skills- 

pre-production skills-

During the pre-production stage of the film, of which we had a lot of paperwork to fill out and plan on, i felt the main one we got right was the cast list. This document enabled us to plan out who we really wanted to cast for each character, Naturally, as we filmed a sweded version of the film, it allowed us to use one person for several characters, at the end i felt perhaps it kept within the nature of a swede but personally i felt it added confusion the scenes and perhaps made it harder recognise the scenes we wanted to re-create. However the cast list we did put together was something we stuck well too.




For another pre-production piece i felt i improved on massively was the shooting script, this document was actually very useful as when referred to during production it really helped to make sure i added in the different types of movement and different camera angles. Whilst i sometimes thought best to record and use a different shot rather then just stick to the shooting script, i really felt i understood more about the importance of having a shooting script as sometimes its easy to be lost when filming and the script just helps to keep you on track. 

logistical/production management skills-

Through the logistics and production management during my film i felt one key area i did well and improved most on was the production schedule. This document helped me out massively as certain shots are planned for different days which breaks the whole production down. Instead of thinking about having to film  so much it was easy to just see what was needed to be done on each day, so there wasnt as much stress during the whole production stage.





Something else i felt i improved on was the locations list, it was a document that didnt recieve a lot of attention. However i did rely upon it a few times, during prodution its easy to get caught up in all the filming and when the documents are there such as the locations list or the production schedule everything becomes more organised and easier to film.

mise-en-scene-

The acting during our film was something that i particularly liked and perhaps improved my skills in. When filming any sort of video i think that if the acting and performance is not good enough then anything else becomes irrelevant, the acting is the thing that touches the audience the most as it creates a connection with the audience, i felt i understood that better with farheens performance. Throughout she constantly performed her role well and it shows when watched back. When a film has no budget i think that the acting is even more essential. 

Another aspect of the mise-en-scene that i felt i improved on was the lighting, during the film i felt we did a good job of keeping the shots light and not having a lot of dark shots which wouldnt look particularly good. I feel that during this film i was more conscious of the lighting as i was constantly trying to emulate the real film, and because i was always referring back to the film the scene were improved massively just by having better lighting and taking notice of it.

how well does your swede imitate the real film?

I felt that our sweded version was most recognizable at 0:07 seconds this scene denotes where henry stands karen up which for me i felt was especially recognizable due to the acting  and performance. The camera language isn't exactly the same, but it is smooth and you can really see what part of the film you are watching.

The second scene that i feel is most recognizable is shown at 0:18 seconds, this is where henry's dad confronts henry for skipping school and going to work instead. The reason why i felt that our scene imitated the real film well was because the camera language was well done and much like the real thing, the acting was performed well, although the accents and props were particularly bad to create humor the scene we shot was most recognizable.

Goodfellas swede

ME-VID shooting script

Edit Workshop Evaluation

180 degree rule, rule of thirds, match on action. 

The 180 degree rule was established in our shot reverse shot, here this scene denotes Ben playing the boss and Franki playing the other mobster, we talk to each other considering a shipment deal that went wrong. We start this scene with a two shot which connotes where we are both sitting and establishes the 180 degree rule as we go into our shot reverse shot. Through the series of over the shoulder shots you can see that the camera is always placed on Bens left looking at franki, the camera is then always placed on Frankis right shoulder looking at me. By keeping the camera on the same side for our shot reverse shot we have kept to the 180 degree rule and made it clear to the audience.
In terms of match on action this is shown through Franki walking into the office. The first shot denotes Frankis hand opening the door as he also starts to walk through, this is then followed by the second shot, which is a long shot, of Franki continuing to walk through the door into the office. These 2 shots have connoted the match on action in a simple way, however it is clear that this is the match on action which we had to incorporate in our film.

What challenges we faced through production?

I feel that the main problems that we faced through production was the locations and setting, we wanted to have an office for the head of the mafia, but it was hard to achieve the era of a mafia office. Our film will denote throughout that we used an office which was used for large portions of our film. We wanted to connote that the mafia boss had a lush and big office but in or out of school it was hard to find a place that we could really capture the essence of what a mafia office would look like, such as the one in godfather. I feel that some aspects of our Mise-En-Scene also were a bit of a problem as perhaps we could have lowered our lighting in the office which would have added more tension to the scenes.

If we was to film again i think this would be what we changed, the office that we used i felt was too modern for the scene that we wanted to create. I feel that our film would have looked better if we had used an office which looked more old fashioned, as they also tend to be more darker as well this could have also added to the tension of some of our scenes and would have had better mise-en-scene.

What challenges we faced through post production?

Through editing i had realised that continuity was the main problem, when editing i found it hard as we had moved props about and hand movements were also different in certain shots. This made editting harder and i couldnt make a really tight edit because of these slight problems which made me cut shots shorter, and extend other shots which would have preferred not to do. I feel that because our continuity was not perfect it limited me to what i could and couldnt use in each individual shot.

Strength of our work

I feel the main strengths from our film was the camera language that we used, we tried to constantly keep our camera moving to make scenes more exciting. Although some occasions we had to keep the camera stationary, within those shots they were exciting and had a lot of tension in them. The creativity that we had to try and create all kinds of different shots i felt was a particular strength, we wanted to show off our skills using a camera and i feel we did that very well. I felt that the idea itself was very creative in trying to create a mafia scene, but the use of our camer language was a main strength of our film.

Weaknesses of our work

I think the main weakness of our film was the location that we used, we wanted to have a big office but the one we used i felt was too modern for what we wanted to create. It did not look like the offices that are in films such as the godfather, i feel that this was the thing that let down the film the most. I feel that the lighting of our film could have been better as well, i think it was too light and we should have tried to make things darker in the office's scenes to add tension to the film. 

Overall improvements

Overall i think that to improve our film the location has to be changed, the film doesnt fit with the location used and as a result it doesnt look professional. Our budget didnt help the fact that we didnt have one, realistically i think that if we were to have had an office that was more like the one in the godfather then our film would have looked more professional and been better in many aspects. Producing this film has made me realise just how important location is to a film, because if thats right then the whole film looks better.

The encounter,

Swede paperworks

title, production company logo, and credits

Graphics 

These graphics denote a black background, with grey and white text, 2 guns that are shown in the title and the credits whilst they being a large picture of a black and white suit in the title and a smaller one in the credits. The title connotes how we wanted to keep it fairly simple but also conventional within the gangster themes. we wanted to have the guns and pictures representing the violence and attire that gangsters would have, i felt we kept the title conventional and did it very well as its contemporary and doesn't stand out hugely but the audience can still gauge the genre of our short film.

I felt our credits followed a similar theme, they connote the same things as our title does and continues the same types of colours as well. We didnt want to spend to much time on our graphics which is why they are basic, we instead wanted to focus more on the actual film and camera language that we used.

An Analysis of Goodfellas

Audience

Age

For the film Goodfella's I feel that the age range would be 17-35, I feel that because this film contains many mature themes such as; drugs, killing, gangs etc. The film has a limited age range as other people such as children or elderly people wouldn't particularly like what this film contains, at 51:10, the scene denotes how Tommy kills Billy as he jokes around with Tommy who takes it to heart. From this scene which connotes a lot of violence, it illustrates how children shouldn't watch it and elderly people wouldn't want to watch it either.

Gender

I think this film is very male orientated, as the film is based on the mafia and mob members i don't think it would particularly appeal to females. You can see this at 1:12:00 this denotes how Henry has thrown Karen to the ground and is very angry because she held a gun to his head. i feel that females wouldn't like how first he manipulates her and then throws her around.

Interests

The interest of this primary audience i think would certainly be action films and thrillers. Outside of films i think that other interest maybe going to parties with friends, smoking, cars and watching sports as well as maybe gambling. Some of these interest can be shown at 19:20 this scene denotes Henry,Tommy and others having a good night out drinking smoking telling jokes. I feel this is the sort of thing that the audience would also go an do.

Location

For location of the audience i think its primarily based in America, as the film is all based in america, as well as there being a number of real life mafias that lived in America. At 4:56 the scene denotes how Henry is still a teenager and parking the big Cadillac's for the people. that seen really connotes america, with the american car company the way the girls are dressed, it a stereotypical scene that would be shown in american films set in the 1960's.

Ethnicity

Primarily the ethnicity for this film would be all, whilst the characters in the film are white with exception to one, i think the film its self appeals to everyone. it doesn't have any racial comments so i think that because it doesn't pick up on any racism then it can be enjoyable to anyone. we can see at          that the scene denotes Stacks and others in the bar having a drink and everyone is acting equally. This scene connotes how others see Stacks as one of there own which i think the audience like and appreciate because i think it could have been easy for Martin Scorsese to write in racism in some parts.

Institution

The worldwide box office for this film was $46,836,394, the production company for Goodfellas was Warner Brothers. The UK theatrical distributor was Warner Brothers as well as being the US distributor.

Representation   

In Goodfellas i think that the protagonist would be Henry, as he is the main character we follow throughout the film, we see that he recognizes the bad from the ugly. Whilst he is still a member of a mob, he still realizes that people die unnecessarily and some people shouldn't have died. Although he is not a hero and doesn't do the right thing, mainly through the film he doesn't do anything that is really dark and disturbing. At 1:08:50 the scene denotes how Tommy kills the bartender who is very young as he gets drinks for everyone playing cards. When the scene cuts to Henry the audience can see his expression connoting how he realized that it was unnecessary and quite disturbing by Tommy. The scene connotes to the audience how we like Henry because he wont do the ugly things.

Many people would think that the antagonist would be Tommy, he kills people for no reason, he's very aggressive and generally gives the audiences many reasons for us to hate. When Tommy dies we aren't particularly sad either, but i think that the main antagonist is Jimmy, because he wants to kill Henry. Through the success of the heist and taking millions of dollars, Jimmy will start to kill everyone in connection, so he can take all the money and ultimately go for Henry too. At 1:43:30 where the shots are denoting people being killed or already dead and we are seeing bodies discovered, i think that's the point the audience realize who the antagonist is. As the audience i never fully trusted Jimmy but that scene connotes everyone turning on him and hating him, more then we hated Tommy.

I think other notable characters in the film was Pauli he took Henry in as a teenager, looked after him and brought him up to be a gangster, i felt he was very much a 'good guy' and actually i wanted to see more of him throughout the film. He was a character that the audience liked and was a real let down to see Henry go behind his back, even in trouble Pauli was still there for him and in the end let him go do what he wanted to do. Pauli almost acted as a father figure, i think we sided with him so much because he was a calm character and we didn't see him kill or do many things that was particularly ugly.

Genre

Themes

The themes for Goodfellas would be things like guns, killing, drugs, action. As the film is based on gangster life in the 1960/70's, the film portrays many illegal acts as would happen in a mob. You can see at 1:25:10 where Henry, Tommy & Jimmy have a stashes of cocaine and money which they they are about to sell. They do this behind Pauli's back as they attempt to make more money and at this point Pauli seems to become irrelevant as Henry is a full on gangster. this scene connotes one of the main themes of drugs which can be seen in other parts of the film but there are many other themes that can also be seen throughout.

Stock Characters

Stock characters would include people like Stacks and Morrie being victims as they are soon killed off so that they dont receive any money from the heist. Tommy would be a helper as he helps Henry and Jimmy throughout the film being a gangster ultimately though through his own choices he will die. the other main characters would include Henry and Jimmy which are the protagonist and antagonist. 

Setting

The film was set in New York predominately in the 1960's. The film denotes the city as well as the outskirts allowing to show bigger detached houses. The film was actually filmed in parts of New York so re-creating aspects of the city was not needed as they could already use everything they needed to. You can see the main parts of New York at 14:50 this of course connotes how they used some real life shots and didnt have to make much of the set up for filming.

Mise-En-Scene

The film set mainly in the 1960's can be seen a number of ways, one of which is the costumes that the main characters wear. At 17:30 you can see Tommy in a suit talking to others, the shirt of his suit denotes a big collar which is closed very tight and is almost touching which covers the knot of his tie. from this it connotes the fashion of the suits in the 1960's that the gangsters would wear. 

In terms of props we can see how everyone carries a gun, wears a gold chain and drives a Cadillac of some sort. possessions that many gangsters will have, their money effectively  is 'dirty' so they spend it on luxurious things to look like they have a lot of money.

Set Pieces

I think the main set pieces of this film were when Henry and others were in the bar, it was a regular occurrence throughout the film that they would spend much of the night smoking, drinking and either planning their next robbery or joking around. one of these scene can be shown at 1:29:30 this denotes Henry, Tommy & Jimmy among others celebrating at the bar after they had just pulled off the biggest bank job in history. This set piece connotes how whatever happens to an individual of the group they always have somewhere they can o to escape or to talk. i think its also good to have this for the audience because otherwise we are constantly jumping from one location to the next which at times can be a bit confusing.

Sound

Much of the sound i felt was alright, gunshots didnt seem unrealistic enough to be annoyed over them. Much of the continuity sound of car boots shutting or doors closing also seemed fine. In terms of the music they used i thought it was very conventional it was quite slow classical music almost which can be heard at 14:42. Although a number of other songs were played throughout the film as which can be heard at 30:40 through the track shot.

Narrative 

Equilibrium

This is where we see Henry as a teenager in the 1950's in New York. The audience sees how he aspired to become a gangster and make money, so we see him working part time for them which soon turns into full time and not going to school anymore. this is shown at 2:45 we are seeing the story line being set-up and the background of Henry's family.

Disruption

At this point Henry is working full time for Pauli, and is introduced to Jimmy and Tommy. Henry and Tommy becomes partners together as they work for the mob, we see at 13:00 how the scene denotes Henry and Tommy selling cigarettes to people at which point Henry gets arrested by police. this scene connotes disruption because the story is starting to take shape and the audience are seeing how the film is a real gangster themed.

Recognition

during this point most of the film is playing out Henry has grown up got married and now a full time gangster. Henry, Tommy & Jimmy are now all partners doing whatever they want, they feel untouchable but as the audience we have grown to hate Tommy and not trust Jimmy either. The main part of recognition is where Henry, Tommy & Jimmy a successful in the heist we can see this at 1:29:30. This is the all time high for the trio the biggest bank job ever has been pulled off. I think you can start to see some tension and almost frustration for Henry as at times you can see he doesn't agree with things that Tommy and Jimmy do.

Repair

Through this point we are showed Tommy's death, but i don't think that's the highest point in the film, i think repair comes from Jimmy killing everyone that helped with the bank job so he can have all the money for himself and next he will come for Henry, which is seen at 2:09:17. These scenes connote the climax of the film and show the highest amounts of tension between Henry and Jimmy which is illustrated at   . 

New Equilibrium 

This ending of the film is where Henry has escaped Jimmy and he and the family move into the witness protection program, away from the gangster life which is shown at 2:13:56. Whilst i don't think that it was a great ending to the film it is the new equilibrium, for me i wanted to see more, i wanted to see Jimmy and Henry have some sort of conversation or meeting at the end, i wanted to see Pauli for a final time. thus, it didn't happen and the film established the new equilibrium by Henry escaping that life.

Shooting script

My Interests

Planning Edit Workshop

    Storyboard

page 1




                                            page 2

page 3


                                            page 4

page 5


                                            page 6

page 7

Camera Choices

We wanted to use a range of camera language to show off within our short film, as you will see throughout our storyboard there will be techniques such as shot reverse shot, match on action whilst also establishing the 180 degree rule. As you can see on page 5 of our storyboard, the frames denote how the scene constantly flips between Ben and Franki in the office discussing what went wrong. The shots on page 5 connote a tense scene between us, as i am becoming increasingly impatient with Franki. These frames also establish our shot reverse shot camera language, as you will be able to see we wanted to make the shots very conventional this was to really show off the camera language and the technique that we tried to use. Through shots 4 and 4b they denote how the camera tracks franki from the front panning to then track him from behind. This shot was probably the hardest to film as we wanted the movement to be smooth and not to jagged in order for it to flow and look professional. the shots connote franki walking to my office, through these shots we wanted to create some tension and have a build up, then follow it to the reveal of me and having the meeting. These shots also create continuity by showing the audience Franki has walked into the office rather then him just appearing there, we believed by this camera choice there is a bigger build up as the movement becomes less boring. We also included some match on action, which can be seen in frames 14 to 14b, they denote me picking up some whiskey, pouring it and drinking it. Personally i really enjoyed shots 14 to 16, because they are creating tension the shots are very basic as there are no particular camera angle or much movement, and i think that really adds to the intensity of the scene as for a few seconds nothing happens and the audience can just feel the power struggle for Franki and almost see the aggression coming from Ben.

 Mise-En-Scene

We used an office for our location as not only was it ideal to incorporate the different pieces of camera language we needed, but also because we wanted to have a confrontational place and really show the difference in characters. In terms of props that we used for the film, we didn't want to use loads of props which would crowd the shots, we wanted to keep it realistic, as you will see many of our shots they denote a glass and whiskey. the props that we used connote how we wanted to keep the scenes more clear, we didn't want to add too much and just add what was needed and what mob offices would normally have. As for the lighting we used a mixture of artificial and natural lighting. the artificial lighting can be seen in the hallway and the office scenes, whilst we want to have the artificial lighting which can be helped to darken scenes, as well as be positioned in a specific place. In terms of the use of costume used throughout the film, which denotes Franki wearing a three piece black suit and Ben wearing a blue suit with waistcoat but without the blazer. the costume connotes how we wanted to be realistic and keep with the times what would have been worn by mafia members during the 1970's. As me an Franki were the only two actors, we kept our normal English accents rather then try to put on a american or Italian accent. we wanted this short film to be serious, and felt that by adding accents we would create humor which we didn't want. I feel that we conducted ourselves in a serious tone when performing, perhaps having more cast would have been better, but for a 1 minute film, I felt that me and Franki did a decent job at acting in the correct roles.

Music Choices

For music i went with a piece that featured in the Godfather films i felt it was appropriate to have Italian styled music as i felt it was conventional to have in a mafia based film. The music is a piece of opera and is slow however i felt that when i have chosen to increase and decrease volume that it adds to the tension in the scene and it adds to the drama that happens at the end of our film. whilst the music that i have chosen may not fit to some i feel that it adds to the authenticity of the film, it makes the film a bit more classy, and a classical mafia movie. the piece that i have selected runs from 32 mins to 34 mins. i feel that it can set the traditional era that we was looking to have within our short film. 

My Review Of Goodfellas

The movie that i watched was Goodfellas, wrote by Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese and also directed by Martin Scorsese. The film was released on the 21st September 1990 and starred actors such as; Ray Liotta, Robert DiNiro, Joe Pesci, the film was in the gangster genre having a estimated budget of 25 million dollars and on box office made 46 million dollars. Although personally i found it an excellent film, because of its themes and age restrictions it did not make a huge amount of money.

Having previously seen the Godfather trilogy i was excited to watch another gangster based film, i was a little apprehensive as i was unsure weather it was going to be a copy of the godfather and was hoping for it to be different. I felt that Nicholas Pileggi delivered a film which was was a more aggressive and violent take on the gangsters of america back in the 1960's/70's. The politics of how the mafia is run were kept short which i liked, as i preferred to see how each indivduals life went on rather then who is being paid to keep things quiet.

I did however want to see more of 'Pauli' i wanted to see how he ran things as mob boss and wanted to see him be more involved. As he dips in and out of the film i wanted to see him interact with 'Jimmy,' 'Tommy' and 'Henry' and didn't particularly like how they went behind his back to make more money.

I enjoyed watching how 'Henry' knew the bad from the ugly, it almost seemed like he was a good guy gangster, when 'Tommy' did something stupid he wouldn't laugh with them because he realized that it was unnecessary and  shouldn't have happened. I felt like Nicholas Pileggi emphasized and tried to manipulate the audiences view on each character, for example as the audience we liked 'Pauli' and 'Henry (for the most part)' but  we didn't like 'Tommy.' Throughout the film i was never sure of him and he constantly kept giving us reasons to hate him.

Looking through a media perspective i enjoyed the camera language, i cant forget that track shot of 'Henry' and 'Karen' I must have watched that single shot so many times, it was excellent. I wasnt particularly keen on the blood or wounds as they didn't seem to be that realistic, for example when 'Tommy' stabs someone in the back of the head in the car we saw a close up of the knife in his head but the stabs didnt seem realistic.

*SPOILER ALERT*

I did enjoy this movie i liked the action the violence of the film , however i was disappointed with how the film ended, i didnt like how it ends with 'Tommy' and his family just leave everything behind and are in the witness protection program whilst the remaining people get arrested and sent to jail. I felt like it was an anti-climax to the film, i was almost waiting for one last big thing to happen and in the end they all split up, i realize that it was based on a true story however it just didnt leave me satisfied at the end of the film.

I think that it was a very good film i was really impressed with many aspects of the film, perhaps a few things that i didnt like but i think that you can pick things out of any film. Overall to give it a rating out of 10 id give it an 8/9 i would recommend it and defiantly watch it again.

story-boarding- the encounter

 the storyboard that we have created shows all different kinds of camera language. throughout the storyboard you will see a series of editing techniques, we specifically tried to incorporate different types of movement so that the scenes didn't become boring. the storyboard also illustrates

• camera angles 
• sound
• lighting
• setting
• a brief description
• and the duration of the shot.

We drew out a storyboard to show the general idea of what we want to film, it also illustrates camera language edit techniques and various other things that we want to be in our short film.

You can see that from frame 11 to 13 we see a shot reverse shot and within that we have established the 180 degree rule. you will also be able to see that in frames 5 to 8 there is a piece of match on action, as well as having a second piece of match on action in frames 14 to 15.

mise-en-scene

gangster

teen romance

thriller

action

gangster

The best one for Mise-En-Scene would be the gangster picture. The picture denotes to people in an alley way doing a deal, they are dressed in dark clothing, whilst handing something to the other person. The pictures setting in an alleyway connotes a typical place where a deal might happen, in terms of product design the location for some sort of deal is particularly good along with the use of money being a prop adds for authenticity to the picture.

I feel that the lighting of the picture perhaps let it down a touch as the picture denotes it is day time with light coming in to the picture mainly from the top right of the picture. Perhaps if the picture had been shot later into the evening so the natural light was darker then it would have t he picture better. However, because it is a low angle shot much of the lighting is actually cut off, whereas if the angle was straight on more light would have come into the shot therefore making the shot worse.

In terms of acting and performance, i feel it was done fairly well both Bleu and Franki are in role. The picture denotes how both actors aren't looking at each other or smiling/laughing in the picture. This can connote how both actors are in role and are committed to the picture. 

I feel that costume was one of the better things within the picture, which denotes Bleu wearing a dark hoody and Franki also wearing dark clothing as well. This can connote more authenticity to the shot as both look like they are more in role due to their attire, as well as having some time restraints I feel that the costume maybe the best out of the 4 pictures.

I feel that this image was the best as it did have a lot of things that made it a look authentic and believable that it could have been a scene from a gangster film and be on the back of a DVD with 1 or 2 improvements..

action

I think this is the worst picture out of the 4, within the picture you can see many things wrong which make it unclear as too what is even happening in the image as well as it doesnt look very much like a scene you would see on the back cover of a DVD action film.

I think that the lighting wasnt particularly good, the picture denotes a mixture of artificial lighting and natural light coming through into the image. to improve the lighting there needed to be less of it, as well as it could have come from just a certain area seeping into the picture, this would then make the picture darker and have a better feeling to it.

In terms of costume which wasnt thought out very well. The picture denotes Bleu wearing a jumper with blue jeans on as well as Josh wearing jeans a bag and top. The costume perhaps would have been fine if the location as better as then we could have connoted a chase scene within the image. However in this image they are in a building and i feel perhaps the costume may have been improved if they wore moire sports wear to fit the location of the image.

The location of the image is actually set in a hallway with leading stairs to the gym, maybe having a running scene inside was not particularly authentic or believing. The image may have benefited from the location being in a alleyway of some sort making the picture look like a chase scene and thus more authentic.

The camera language that was used within this picture perhaps was not very well done, as the image denotes a straight on angle, with a long shot of Bleu but then a mid shot of Josh as he comes closer to the camera. Perhaps we could have canted the angle or made it a low angle with a long shot of both of them. This would perhaps have made the scene more exciting and more believable that it was an action scene.

To sum up i feel that this image had a lot wrong with it and with more time we could have made a lot of improvements to make it look and feel like a better action scene.   

editing techniques, short films

the match by usama


the interrogation by ben jones






the night of our life by matthew   

My Media Summer

My media summer was not particularly great as I was out most days and didn't have time to sit back and watch some TV.

Films

My favorite film from this summer was Anchorman 2, although its been out for a couple of years I still find it hilarious as each individual character of the news crew is funny in their own way. I think I particularly like this film so much because its an easy film to watch and to just have a good laugh. 

My favorite bits of the film come from 'brick' played by Steve carell. His opening scene denotes a funeral for him where he thinks he is dead and gives a speech to himself. But the crew make him come to realize he is actually alive. From this opening scene it connotes how he is an unusual figure but the audience instantly fall in love with him because of his quirks and oddity and as he will bring some of the funniest moments of the film.

My next favorite film of the summer was wolf of wall street because looking beyond all the bad things 'Jordan belfort' did  he had that raw ambition to come from being just a normal stockbroker to starting his own firm and tearing wall street apart. Doing that isn't easy but to have that drive and determination to be bigger and better is actually quite inspiring. My favorite part of the film denotes where 'Jordan belfort' is asks the people at the start to sell him the pen and where he does it at the end of the film as well. this connotes how things that seem complicated can be so simple, maybe this can even be applied to ourselves in certain situations and problems that occur.

For my 2 favorite songs of the summer I would have to go with ; JME 'integrity' and Spektrem 'shine' 

JME's song 'integrity' denotes is life and how he started with his brother 'skepta' and moved through to where he is now. The song denotes how his music was not approved or liked early in his career and now he is a big talent in the Grime industry of music. The song connotes how he never gave up on his dream of becoming a grime artist and how you don't have to have lived a harsh life to be able to produce good songs.I think that's why I liked the song a lot because he didn't have a bad start to life as he did achieve a university degree but yet he can still share his experiences of trying to make it as a grime artist.

Websites

My two most used websites for the summer was YouTube and Amazon mainly because i kept buying things and if i wasnt watching a YouTube video i was probably uploading one.

I used Amazon alot because over the summer i was constantly adding equipment to my set-up and needing certain props for projects that i'm working on outside of school. Amazon is a trustworthy site, and is just much easier to order something from them rather then searching a whole shopping mall trying to look for it.

YouTube is my favourite website, I easily watch more videos on YouTube then i do watching TV programmes. Wheather its a vlog or a gaming video or a prank, I've probably watched them all. But aside from watching videos i've recently started to upload and start channels up, it something I thought i would do as a little tester, but after my first video i was instantly hooked on making more and doing more videos and pranks and to continuously better myself. 

TV Programs

My favourite TV program is 'Friends' the show denotes a group of 6 friends that share their entire life with each other every day, as every episode features a problems for the characters that after time they will resolve. The show connotes a sense of togetherness, how having a good group of friends you can always trust and rely on can really help you with every day life. I've watched every episode of every season and still hoping for a reunion, over the summer i watched from the very start to the end in 1 week a 'friends fest'

As i watch a lot of YouTube I don't particularly watch much TV plus many series have finished and i am waiting for more such as the Walking Dead series. But watching YouTube videos for me personally is like watching TV, I could sit watching YouTube for hours and much prefer to do it rather then watch TV. I think being able to watch any video i want is more relevant and interesting to my life whereas a series on TV sometimes episodes and get dry and drag on sometimes but every YouTube video that i watch will always be different.

News

Much of the news that I watch is sport because its one of my passions. Especially over the summer I watched sky sports news everyday to keep up to date with football transfers and other sporting news. However sometimes I will watch the BBC to see what is happening in the world. For me personally watching the news doesn't interest me, its something that seems very repetitive as stories are usually hard news and almost depressing, to me it seems rare that there is much continuity in a bulletin.

My media summer seems unbalanced I seemed to be using the internet and using websites more then watching TV and the news. I think that comes from everything that I need I can get from the internet whether that's updates on news stories or buying something from Amazon. As a whole my summer wasn't especially good for media as i was very busy but the media that i consumed i think was very good.