Main AS Media Task

Research on genre
After our preliminary task of doing a police drama we found that the crime genre was the best route to go down therefore we set upon the task of which sub genre to include. The most obvious choice for a sub genre would be a 'thriller' because the two genres are regularly put together and therefore would be easier to put together. Examples of crime thrillers are..

-Seven

-Inside man
Both of these films include very complimented storylines in which come together at the end, therefore we thought that for our opening sequence we would include quite a confusing start with a major twist to immediately capture the audiences attention. Towards the end of both of these films the director purposefully turns the storyline in order to shock and astonish the audience however we are restricted to just a two minute opening sequence therefore we have to try and get some of the elements of these films and cram them into a significantly smaller piece.
Research into opening sequences
Before even going near the filming stage or anything near the practical part of the course we began to study different short clips of a film in which are great examples of opening sequences. The two films in which we studied in this were Seven and Dirty harry, both of these were classic examples of superb opening sequences and therefore were easy to analyse and take different ideas and tips from. For example in Dirty harry the opening scene shows a women swimming and then cuts to a mysterious figure looking down the scope of a sniper rifle towards the woman, however the director is very clever in how he conceals his indentity by brushing all his hair infront of his face in order to create a sense of danger and mystery. And to show the woman being shot the director uses the camera effect of putting a 'scope' in order to show the woman is in danger. After this is when the protagonist uis introduced and has an effective sequence of events to show the character and his surroundings therefore setting the scene for the audience. The director deliberately uses lots of shots include industrialised equipment in order to show that the city is not too glamorous and almost show a modern atmosphere.
For seven the opening sequence includes a compilation of different picture and images which are shown for short durations however are very effective in that every time you watch the sequewnce you see a different image making the sequence very effective. The sequence is also very dark and disturbing with both its lighhting, pictures and music.
Deciding on a new name!

We decided to carry on in our preliminary group as we found we worked well during this warm up exercise. We did however change the name of our group, as for our preliminary task we were called 'insanely good productions' however we felt that this name was too unprofessional therefore decide on the new group 'Waffle productions' this was more of a contempary name and made us more up to date with the current fashions.

Idea's and planning

For our main piece we quickly decided on the idea of a crime/thriller because it was the best topic in which to fit the criteria given. The original idea was based around a technique in which me and perry tried to use, this was were we would pressure one of our group(Georgia) into giving the basics of a film we asked about setting, characters, genre, props, and content in which we would elaborate around. She came up with the idea of...
Setting- Cold winter morning, frost on the floor and a car in the middle of a field looking upon a field.
Characters- One driver and a innocent person the boot of the car possibly policeman?, the man in the car would be mysterious and possibly foreign.
Genre- Crime thriller, possible twist at the end
Props- Gun, mobile phone, car
Camera angles- High shot, low shot, mid shot, steadycam/hand held, close up, over the shoulder.
This was going to be our basic guidelines of the piece. And afterwards me and perry would put detail and decide on the possible content of the piece.

The Music

The music we have chosen for our piece is 'The sadness will never end - Bring Me The Horizon. To avoid copy right we will be informing the bad via email that we are using the track. This is not only courteous however also prevents us from being attacked with any legakl actions if the band is found to be unhappy with how the music is being used.

Possible Camera Angles
Camera angles and movements in which we have considered using in our main are
High angle shot- This is when the camera is placed high up in the set in order to present the character being shown as quite vulnerable, this camera angle can also show a point of view of a particular character ijn order to show there power and status compared to the character shown.
Low angle shot - This is the opposite of the high angle shot and shows the character in shot as being very powerful and immediately presents the character as being higher in status or even authoritarian. This can also show the characters point of view and present to the audience that they are looking up at the character and are vulnerable and weak in comparison to the character being shown.
Close up- This shot is usually used in order to show the audience a close up on a particular object or facial expression, this shot allows the audience to truely feel the characters emotions.
Establishing shot- this shot is shown at the beginning of most scenes as it presents the whereabouts of the scene. An example of this scene would be in the hit tv show 'friends' where at the beginning of each scene the appartement buildings are shown and so is a famous new york monument to 'establish' the scene.
Handheld/ steadycam - -This is where the camera is held where the audience would imagine the characters eye line to be. This shot is done in a modern way as it is done without a tripod and therefore the footage is shwon the to be shaky. This camera movement/angle was most famously shown in the movie 'cloverfield' and 'the blair witch project' which both show footage from the characters perspective.
Mid shot - This is when the camera shows the top half of a person, the shot usually displays to the audience the status and clothing of the character.

Camera Movements
Possible camera movements we have thought about in our piece our...
- Panning - This is when the camera slowly tracks alongside the scene whilst the characters are walking, this is usually used in a car scene, or police chase.
- Zoom in - this is when the camera zooms into a particular item which is relevent to the scene, it can also focus onto a characters face in order to show a more indepth look, and allow the audience to feel the emotions of the character.
- Zoom out - this is usually when a scene is focused on a particular character or item and the camera will move out in oreder to show the whole setting and give the audience, this is usually used in order to set the scene, and is used in an 'establishing shot'
Risk Assessment