'The Way' Progress and Development - DAVID

16/11/2015 - Set up the treatment for the short film, which explained the film synopsis, genre, opening scene and shot, ending scene and shot, and it being a single strand narrative.

25/11/2015 - Came together as a group of 4, including myself. All pitched our ideas and this idea of mine was the one we went for. Our second idea was Daisy's idea, which involved a surgery of a creature that spans way out of control.

10/12/2015 - We went out and started filming particular shots in our movie. We filmed a lot of tracking shots of myself walking to and fro from different houses and buildings.

16-21/12/2015 - 16th = We went out as a group to Old Coulsdon Village, filming long shots, extreme close ups on the actor's face,eyes and mouth. We also decided to film extreme close ups on the piece of paper the actor is holding with the missing address on it. This required myself, Tom and James (camera operator).

17th = We stayed inside Coulsdon College and filmed a lot of walking scenes inside the college. During the day, we filmed tracking shots of the actor walking into the college, through doors and walking into a room where his friends are playing card games. We filmed various mid-shots of the actor and the table. We also filmed long shots of his friends playing different card games whilst the actor has sad facial expressions and tries to play the game.

20th = During the day, we filmed most of the shots needed in Sanderstead, mostly filmed at my house, situated in the village. We filmed mid-shots of the character and head shots soon after his mother died to express sad emotions of the actor.

21st = This day was the last day needed for filming in Sanderstead. We filmed all of the shots needed at All Saint's Church, Sanderstead, where we didn't need any permission to film at the location. First of all, we filmed tracking shots of the church itself and the gravestones that surround it. We filmed full body shots of the actor and filmed a tombstone which did not need permission from certain persons. We lastly filmed extreme close ups on the actor's face and the gravestone.

06/01/2016 - Final day of re-shooting various scenes. Filmed head shots, extreme close ups of the teenager making research on finding his brother. We, as a group, filmed at Coulsdon College, and decided to take some shots of the paper and folder to emphasise what he was looking for. We also filmed outside of Coulsdon College in the village of Old Coulsdon. We decided to film mid-shots of the teenager running around different houses and trying to find his brother.

Final Group Planning (DAVID)

Production Schedule

The final filming deadline to get every bit of filming done is on the 17th December. For my particular film, we are going to start filming on Tuesday 15th December and finish filming on 10th January 2016. During the day, we are going to be filming grave scenes and a lot of house scenes at my house (I gave permission for my group to use my home). We hope to complete filming in that day because we would have a lot of time on our hands during the day and we will film a lot of shots and scenes, so we have a lot more to work with. If we need another day to film, we, as a group, came up with a date of Wednesday 16th December. The list of people involved in my short film are myself, James Fisher, Thomas Clarke and Daisy Da Silva. As this is my short film, I gave myself the role of Director. The role of the Director means I am in charge of making the whole movie. I will take control of my team and make sure that everyone behaves rightly in the right manner and if anybody misbehaves, I will take care of them in the correct manner. I will also be starring in my short movie. I will star as the 18 year old boy who loses his mother and goes out and tries to find his 'brother'. James Fisher is the camera operator which means he needs to make sure every shot is almost accurate to the 16 shot storyboard he created. He is also in charge of the care of the camera and tripod. Thomas Clarke is the location and props supervisor which means that he is in charge of picking the right location which was Sanderstead, which was where my short film is set. He is also in charge of organising the props that are needed for my short film. The props involved include cracked plates, cups and other accessories. Lastly, Daisy Da Silva is the sound engineer to my short film. This includes creating sound effects to add emphasis to the short film whether that being more plates crashing and smashing. She is also in charge of adding music to my short film as well. She will also be featured in the short film as the young woman who opens the door to myself and tells me about his brother. The equipment we are going to be using is one camera and one tripod which makes it a SINGLE CAMERA short film. The props we are going to be buy from Poundland, located in Croydon Town Centre, near Centrale.

Pre-Production Techniques (REBECCA)

This is an individual documentary task, so I am in charge of the production, filming and final edited product of my documentary. My documentary name is Bring Back The Lights 2016, and the main aim is to raise awareness of a fireworks event that got cancelled due to funding costs. The documentary is trying to persuade people to raise funds and to send a message to the Rotary Club of Jubilee that we want the event back.

Budget: For my documentary and the production process, the budget is a total of £0, with equipment being borrowed from the college.

Time (Schedule): The time duration of my documentary from filming to the finished product is between 27th November 2015 to the 9th December 2016. I will film various landscape and background shots that were needed in Sanderstead between Friday 4th December to Sunday 6th December. I plan to interview residents of a younger generation and an older generation, so I will interview residents of Sanderstead on the 6th of December and I will interview some residents that go to Coulsdon College at a later date on Tuesday 8th December 2015.

Personnel (Call sheets): The people involved in the making of my documentary are myself and James Fisher. I will talk in the documentary and James will use the camera to film what I am saying. He will also film the environment of Sanderstead and film different landscapes of the village.

Facilities: Facilities involved in my documentary are a camera and a camera stand for the filming. For editing, I will use editing software on the iMac called iMovie, which will be a very simple way of editing my documentary. In my documentary, I will use voice overs that are under my voice and use recording software on the iMac named Reaper.

Locations (Recce reports): The location involved in my documentary is the small village of Sanderstead, where the issue is affected. It is not far from Coulsdon College (15 minutes drive). Another location that I have considered to be in my documentary is Enfield Town Park, located in Greater London. There is no permission needed.

Clearances: With the two locations that I am proposed to film, there is no permission needed to film at these locations, which is an advantage as it allows me to carry on with my film. I am filming at Sanderstead Recreation Ground, Sanderstead village and my house; all of these locations do not need permission to film.

Copyright (Intellectual property): The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 came into force on the 1st August 1989. Intellectual property protection helps my documentary to stop people stealing or copying the names of my documentary, which is 'Bring Back The Lights 2016'. As this is a documentary of my own creation, which meets copyright, I own intellectual property.

Health and Safety (Risk assessments): When filming at Sanderstead Recreation Ground, there is a case of slipping on floors and getting injured. It might be a wet day therefore there will be wet surfaces as we are filming outside. To prevent this, we will put signs on where to stand and where to not move to prevent this from happening. Secondly, whilst filming outside in the village of Sanderstead, there will be noise coming from cars and people talking. There is nothing I can do to prevent this, so I will include this in my documentary.

Codes of practice and regulation (The Broadcasting Code): It is the responsibility of the broadcaster to abide by the Broadcasting Code. There are nine sections to the broadcasting code delivered by Ofcom.                            

Key Assessment Week Task - REBECCA

LO1 - Understand the requirements of working to a brief

LO2 - Be able to develop a planned response to a brief

The title of the project would be Bring Back The Lights 2016 to raise awareness of the issue about the cancellation of the fireworks in a small village in south London named Sanderstead. A summary of my documentary would explain facts about Sanderstead involving the population of the village and the population of how many people attended the event in the past years before the cancellation in 2014 and interview people and see how this issue has affected them. Also, the documentary will involve different cases in different villages that the cancellation has affected them in big ways after a lot of history behind it, for example Enfield Town Park has had a lot of history about fireworks and was cancelled after 40 years. The length of my documentary would be between 15 - 30 minutes because my target audience would be teenagers aged between 16-18, and if my documentary goes for longer than 30 minutes, my audience will get bored and will find my documentary will drag on. The filming will be completed by the 18th December 2015 and the overall film will be completed by the 8th January 2016. The locations of where the documentary will be filming would be in the villages of Sanderstead and Enfield Town. Specific filming locations would be Sanderstead Recreation Ground and Enfield Town Park. For my documentary, we don't need permission to film as filming is allowed at both locations. The specific filming dates with locations will be until the 18th December and the finished product will be published on YouTube on the 8th January 2016. For the majority of my documentary, there will be a lot of voice overs and interviews with the community of Sanderstead and some of Enfield Town. I will do the camera work, interview people, edit and direct and I will get James to camera the interviews I have with different people. For my documentary, a camera, a tripod, voice recording software and editing software is needed. My documentary is meant to raise awareness of the cancellation of Sanderstead's fireworks and to create a fund to bring back the fireworks in Sanderstead, so the key message that I am trying to communicate to the audience is to raise awareness of an event that has closed down and has left thousands of people not gathering as a community and also nothing to do on Bonfire Night. The music that I want to use is quite jolly music, not specific songs and are copyright free. There are no other documentaries that are targeted at my issue, so this is a unique issue that I am trying to promote.

The Way (Treatment) - DAVID

The Way

The Way follows the story of a young 18 year old boy, growing up in a small village in south London named Sanderstead. The story begins in a graveyard where we see the boy standing, staring at a tombstone. We then find out this is his mother's tombstone and his mother died not so long ago. He then starts walking home. He enters his house, sits down and goes into a frenzy in his house. He starts smashing glasses and plates, punching through walls, breaks down in tears and finds out he is all alone. The next day, he starts going through his mother's belongings and comes across a purple/red folder. He finds a photo of him and his mother in a picture frame when he was a baby. He opens up the picture and finds out the picture is creased over. He opens the creased picture and finds a boy, similar to his age, sitting next to him. He then opens up the folder and finds different types of papers e.g. adoption papers and care-home papers, belonging to this baby. He assumes this is his brother and immediately goes out to find him. He finds out he, apparently lives very close to where he, and his mother lived. According to one of the papers in his folder, the house he lived on was Sanderstead Court Avenue. He finds the street and looks for number 63, where the boy apparently lived. He knocks on the door and comes across a distraught woman. He then starts to tell his story that he had a brother that went into care and was adopted and lived at this address. The woman then starts to cry and takes the boy inside. In the next shot, we see the same shot we had at the beginning, but instead he is looking at a different tombstone. This tombstone belonged to his adopted brother. He puts some flowers down, next to his tombstone and walks away. On the other side of this tombstone, we see his mother's tombstone.

Genre: Drama, Mystery

Title: The Way

Opening: My film starts with a young teenaged boy, aged 18 who stands at a tombstone. We see tis tombstone belonged to his mother. He puts some flowers down next to her tombstone and walks away. This scene quickly suggests that this is a drama-type film, as the film will have very dark lighting and I won't have any dialogue in my movie, which will add a sense of mystery. The only music that will playing in my film will be Zack Hemsey's 'The Way Instrumental'.

Ending: The film finishes off with the teenager looking at the same tombstone he looked at the beginning of the film then walks over to another tombstone, and finds his brother's tombstone and lies some flowers next to his grave, and walks away and looks at his mother's tombstone and lies another batch of flowers next to her tomb. He then gets up and walks away.

Single or multi-strand narrative: The story follows a young 18 year old boy who aims to find his 'supposedly' brother, similar to his age. This is a single strand narrative because it follows the story of just one boy, it doesn't follow any other characters in the movie.

Links:

 

Task 2 - Understanding and Interpreting a Brief (REBECCA)

There are 8 types of briefs when working in the creative media industries. The first type is a Contractual brief. A contractual brief is given to a media company employed by a client to complete a project which has specific guidelines and the media company is told exactly what the client says. If the media company goes beyond the contract, they could face legal action. In this brief, a large sum of money is involved and given to the media company, but are forced to all terms. This is otherwise known as a contract. This is a very simple brief as the media company knows exactly what they're doing and is very specific so that no questions need to be asked. However, the media company HAS to do what the client says, if they reject these terms, they could face action in court and force a bad reputation upon the media company. An example of a contractual brief could be an actor signing on to a project, or a computer graphic company signing on to a project for a particular film.

The next type of brief is a Negotiated brief. A negotiated brief is very open-minded but given not that much information but enough for the client to understand what they need to do. The client AND the company have to agree on what they need to do so negotiations would occur between the two until they get an agreement. It gives more lee way for the media company to produce a product that would satisfy a client's need. However, a client might argue that they are not given enough information and this can cause, almost like aggressive negotiations. There could also be problems such as money issues or a breech or contract.

Another type of brief is a Formal brief. A formal brief is a detailed brief which outlines specifications of a finished product. It is well set out and structured to suit a company's needs. It is throughly explained, therefore the company or employee knows exactly what they are doing. With this brief, the client is open to ideas or issued can be raised by the company. However, there might not be enough information for a client to understand what they need to do and therefore produce a wrong product. There could also be financial issues which might need to be sorted out if a case like this ever happens.

One other type of brief is opposite to a formal brief called an Informal brief. An informal brief can be a short piece of text or a verbal agreement but not official. It can range from a simple question to do a project to helping somebody out. It is not documented, therefore NOT official. It is more verbal communication than a paper contract, which makes it simpler and easier to understand. However, with this type of agreement, there might be confusion between a client and a company as to what needs to be done. The time requirements can range from the day after to a week ahead, which also makes it simpler.

Another type of brief is a Commission brief. This type of brief involves a client commissioning another company to fulfil a brief. This is also important because it can save time looking for potential employees because you can rely one person to get the job done. However, negotiating the brief with the client can waste time on unnecessary issues that are brought up in the brief. This can also delay making the product and its time it has been allocated.

Another type of brief is a Competition brief. A competition brief is given out to different companies to create a product for a competition. The client then judges which company has made the best product and the media company is awarded, whether in money or being published. The client only has to pay the winning company, which is an advantage, but might not pay all of the other participating companies. However, the companies that don't win may become angered by not winning so they have missed out on work for the client and its payment.

One other type of brief is called a Tender brief. A tender brief is similar to a competition brief as it requires the brief be posted to other companies. The best companies will get chosen the brief that suits them the most. Companies would get to look at different ideas of their project and produce them to the highest quality. If a pitch to a client gets turned down however, the client can then release them and they won't get work from that client again. This would be difficult as it is very hard to find work now because more and more production companies are in business.

Lastly, there is a Co-operative brief. This is a brief given to two or more companies contracted to work on the same assignment. This is a brief which requires multi-skilling from different employees from different companies. However, one of the only troubles that can affect definitely both media companies:  TIGHT DEADLINES. This can not only rush the product but also make it a bad product. With this brief, along with the skills, there can be different perspectives when negotiating with this brief, which makes the brief somewhat easier. However, whilst negotiating, there would be plenty of disagreements and may take a while to get to a final brief overview.  

Whilst working in the creative media industries, you have to be aware of the above briefs and what they illustrate, so you have to thoroughly read the brief. You must pay attention to what the brief is, first of all, to make sure what you're doing and what you need to talk with the client. You need to then look at the deadlines, when are your deadlines? They can defer from one week to one month, but it has to be the right product and suits the client. You might need to negotiate with the client if there is an extension needed. Following on from extensions, how long do you have to complete the brief and if you need an extension or not. Finally, and probably most important, what is required from you. This is normally noted in a brief as a task, you can also negotiate any special requirements from the client that is needed for your project.

Assignment 31.1 (Task 1) - Understand the purpose and impact of social action and community media production work - REBECCA

Social Action and Community Media is a form of advertising a specific topic which is not spoke about, which gives an opportunity for somebody to talk about and do something about it. Examples of issues involving Social Action and Community Media would be 'Kony 2012' and 'Children in Needs documentary's, such as 'Looking After Mum''.

The purpose of Social Action and Community Media is to address the audience of current issues either around the world, in your country, such as the UK, or issues within a community of people. Another purpose is to convince to the people of the world, a country or a community, that a particular issue would get worse if no action was taken at all. There are different types of Social Action and Community Media documentaries that affected different people, sometimes on a smaller scale and some of the time on a larger scale.

One type of Social Action and Community Media would be issues involving a LOCAL change. Local change are current issues in a community that members of the public feel like the issue is concerning them, e.g. closing certain buildings down that have history, littering, drugs etc. An example of a Social Action and Community Media topic involving a LOCAL change would be the cancellation of Sanderstead's Fireworks in 2014. The fireworks and bonfire display at Sanderstead's Recreation Ground, known in the community as 'The Rec', has been cancelled after 40 years and will never return. The reason behind the cancellation was because The Rotary Club of Croydon (who organises the event), couldn't afford the costs of the events. In 2013 (the last display), the event populated more than 3,000 people at the event and 6,000 people who was in the area at the time of the display (figures according to Croydon Advertiser). Since the cancellation 2 years ago, there has been a public outcry and a lot of comments, talking about the memories these people had in the past 40 years at this event. Here are an example of comments to the article:

      

According to this source, we get two very contrasting comments on the issue. One states that this move of cancellation is 'great news', which shows it has 13 dislikes, so a lot of people don't agree with this comment, whilst on the other comment it gives us a perspective of what looks like a parent having 'fond memories' of taking their children up every year, which is a more positive comment and, obviously, everyone agreed more to this comment than the other. Here is the full story in the Croydon Advertiser:

http://www.croydonadvertiser.co.uk/Sanderstead-Receation-Ground-fireworks-cancelled/story-23433789-detail/story.html

THE fireworks and bonfire display at Sanderstead Recreation Ground has been cancelled after more than 40 years and may never return.

The Rotary Club of Croydon Jubilee has called time on the event due to the escalating costs of staging it.
More than 3,000 people attended last year and in its heyday there were more than 6,000 packed in to the Limpsfield Road recreation ground.

However, Dhiraj Shah, of the Rotary Club of Croydon Jubilee, said the bonfire night tradition had become too costly after Croydon Council indicated it could not provide it with the same level of funding.
The cancellation leaves Croydon with only one major fireworks display at Crystal Palace Park, which is technically in the borough of Bromley.

Mr Shah said: “It’s a real shame, we would have liked to keep doing it but unfortunately for one reason or another the council cannot offer the same level of support.

“We would like it to come back in the future but we would need more help. Last year, we did it as a community service and there was no fundraising side to it for us.

“The numbers have gone down a bit as well, we thought a lot of people would come to us once the fireworks were cancelled at Royal Russell School but it didn’t really happen that way.”

Another type of Social Action and Community Media would be issues involving a NATIONAL change. National change is change within a country where issues are addressed to the public of a country, so they can change into a positive outcome. An example of a Social Action and Community Media documentary wanting a NATIONAL change would be Children in Need's documentary named 'Looking after Mum'. Here is an analysis of the documentary:

At the beginning of this documentary, we get told that we are going to follow three young children/teenagers for six months and we are going to see what life is like looking after a family member when you're only a teenager. We first of all get introduced to Tom and his brother Joe from Stockport who looks after her mum who has liver disease. The first thing that made me feel a bit saddened for Tom was that when he's older, he wants to be a doctor and said he wants to give his money to his mum to maker her better. At first hearing that, I felt quite emotional at the time because beyond the caring side, there is a very important relationship that needs to be recognised between a mother and daughter and we see what the relationship is like as the relationship went on in the documentary. We then get introduced to Antonia-Rae who is 11 from Worsley. From the first image of her, we already see her working, waiting outside the bathroom, and then having to wash her mum's back. Her mum, Leslie, had a stroke when she was younger and since then, she's been forced to do jobs such as washing pots, vacuuming the floors, do the bedding, dressing her up in the morning and a very important thing, making sure her mum takes her tablets. When the mum had an interview, she talked about after her stroke, she was very down for many years, she didn't know what to do but the most important thing that came from the interview was the appreciation she gave to her daughter, Antonia-Rae. She called her 'my pride and joy', which almost warmed my heart because she appreciates what she does all around the house and without her, she would have been in a very worst state. We then get shown back to Tom and his mum as they go into Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham where we see his mum being checked to see if she can survive a liver transplant. Tom gets interviewed during the check and he tells us he likes to come with his mum to the hospital because this is where he wants to work when he is older and he has a chance to see what everything is going on and also he cares for his mum. We then get showed to a new young carer, Kashanna who is 18 from Slough. She has to look after her mum who is blind. Kashanna talks about what she has been gong through since the age of 4, she talks about having to help her mum pay the bills, take her to the corner shop, she also talks about when she goes out with friends, she has to, first of all, do a load of jobs before she goes out because her mum is not capable to do it. We then hear the emotional story of how her mother went blind after having an operation that without it, she would have died so she had to have the operation to save her life. There was only one thing - the operation would have made her blind. This made me quite emotional because this is the real reason why Kashanna has had to look after her mum for this long and it was a very emotional story that might stick in the audience's minds.

This particular documentary, on YouTube, has been seen 40,850 times (Sunday 20th September 2015 figure) and was presented on BBC One leading up to Children In Need in November of last year. I believe that this documentary is extremely effective as a social action documentary in the way it is trying to reach into people's hearts and to think of other people and to help other people, whether it's just total strangers or even family or friends.

From my own opinion, this is a very effective social action documentary because it allows teenagers aged between 12-18 to look at their life and see how lucky it is compared to the 700,000 children who don't have those kind of luxuries that we do because they are normally spent inside looking after a family member, in this documentary it showed their mum's being looked after. I chose this particular documentary because I also have a granddad that needs looking after every day by my grandma and the stories told by these amazing teens really hit my heart because this is what my grandma goes through on a daily basis and I always want to do my bit to help her so whenever she wants to go out, I always sit with my granddad because she deserves the chance to go out after all the things she has to do inside, so this social action documentary is really effective to me.

Another type of Social Action and Community Media would be issues involving a GLOBAL change. Global change are issues that affect the world and targets to change issues people feel strongly about. An example of a Social Action and Community Media documentary wanting a GLOBAL change would be 'Kony 2012', which is a documentary raising awareness about the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) and its army, Joseph Kony, who takes in children and makes them slaves of war. Here is an analysis of the documentary:

At the beginning of the documentary, made by Invisible Children, we get introduced to the narrator, Jason Russell's story about the birth of his son, Gavin. We get introduced to what he likes, for example being in movies and jumping on the trampoline. Then we get told about about the narrator visiting Uganda, Africa to see his friend, Jacob and we see a flashback to see children, including Jacob being forced to sleep on floors and starving. We see an interview between the narrator and Jacob and Jacob tells him he would rather die than live in the future in his country. This particular bit of the documentary made me feel very saddened and upset because nobody should ever live in a world where they would rather die than live, I feel that it's not right. Then we get shown photos of the narrator's journey to keep a promise made by him to Jacob that he was 'going to stop them'. He then gives a message to the audience saying that he needs our help to fulfil the promise he made not to just Jacob, but to the whole of Uganda. We then see almost like an interview between the narrator and his son, Gavin, who knows nothing about Kony or the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army). At first impressions, I believe that children shouldn't hear about war or destruction happening in other countries because they are extremely young and should not get told about current affairs. Gavin's answer is exactly the same as mine: sad. I glad the narrator didn't go on to tell his son how much destruction there is because it wouldn't be right at all. We then get some very distressing images of Kony making children mutilate their own skin which was extremely distressing from an audience's point of view. We got introduced to the International Criminal Court, which deals with finding and executing the world's biggest criminals, Joseph Kony being number 1 on the wanted list. His crimes include murder, sexual slavery, rape etc which, I think, are inhuman crimes. We then see politicians of Uganda, wanting their children back and we see they are willing to contribute with 'any friend of Uganda' to stop the mindless killings caused by Joseph Kony. After, we see Invisible Children being set up, talks being taken, more and more members joining all around the world. The Invisible Children Facebook group and we see a rising figure of how many members joining the group, which, I think, is extremely positive and I felt happy and supportive by what they had done that would benefit thousands of people in Uganda. At the end of the video, the documentary gave us 3 things we need to do. 1= Sign The Pledge To Show Your Support, 2= Get The Bracelet And The Action Kit and 3= Sign Up For Tri To Donate A Few Dollars A Month And Join Our Army For Peace. If you was older enough, aged between 17-18, I would have definitely signed up to join the Invisible Children group and I would have done all 3 pledges. Unfortunately, I was too young to understand what was going on and I saw a lot of Joseph Kony photos but did not know what it was about at all. At the end of the documentary, we get shared a message: SHARE THIS MOVIE ONLINE, which shows that we live in a world where messages need to be shared online which was a rousing success.

I believe that this documentary is extremely effective in the way it coveys its message to capture Joseph Kony. On YouTube, it has reached 100,676,517 views (Friday 18th September 2015) and has had over 1 million likes. I think Invisible Children's social action documentary is extremely effective in the way it conveys its message to share this documentary on sites and social networking services. It is also effective because the documentary shows many countries coming together to fight a cause to capture an evil war lord. It shows what they have been doing around the world, like putting posters up around the world at night time and giving action kits around the world so that they can do something about what they believe in. However, out of 7 billion people, only 7% of the earth's population took part which is very, very little but I think that figure will rise if more people watched this documentary

In my personal opinion, I believe that this social action documentary about 'Kony 2012' is extremely effective and makes me want to do something about the cause. I think this particular documentary will stick in the audience's minds and make them want to do more about the cause, like meeting people in Uganda and joining rallies or marches to get into politician's minds that this needs to be a number 1 priority.

Homework due Friday 9th October 2015 - REBECCA

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=9227B1D3554DD829!239&authkey=!ALQqrY9blx8Lk8U&ithint=file%2crtf

In this brief, I am briefed to re-create the website to EntertainXYZ so it is easy to see and easy for company staff and clients to access to use facilities on this particular website.

With this brief, I would see that my skills would be creating a very simple website that can easily promote the company (EntertainXYZ) and find information about this particular company. I can install facilities on this website so that company staff can go on and look at what is happening in their place of work. I might have to develop working to a particular target audience as this is targeted, from what I see, at a more adult audience so I need to work on what type of language I have to use.

I would need to negotiate with the company what message I am trying to put across, despite promoting it. I might also need to negotiate when this particular brief is due and whether I need to have a time extension or not.

This brief is missing a time date, which is extremely important to a brief because the workers need to know when they can finish off this brief. We also don't know how long we have, whether it being 1 week, 1 month or 1 year, this particular information is extremely important when writing a brief.

Assignment A: Analysing the features of single-camera productions - DAVID

Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014)

Rated 8.1/10 (IMDb)

A group of intergalactic criminals are forced to come together to stop a warrior from blowing up a planet and from controlling the universe

Director: James Gunn

Writers: James Gunn, Nicole Perlman

Year of Release: 2014

Main Cast: Chris Pratt as Star Lord

                   Vin Diesel as the voice of Groot

                   Bradley Cooper as the voice of Rocket

                   Zoe Saldana as Gamora

                   Dave Bautista as Drax

                   Lee Pace as Ronan

                   Michael Rooker as Yondu Udonta

                   Karen Gillan as Nebula

FORMAT

This is a feature film, directed by James Gunn, and is part of Phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in which superheroes from comic books owned by Marvel come to life as live-action movies. This film has a open ending, which means the story is not over yet or does not have an ending. Because of the success of this film, Marvel are going to make a second movie named Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which will be released in 2017. Rumours are also going around that the cast of this film will make an appearance in Avengers: Infinity War, which brings all superheroes that are owned by Marvel comics together.

GENRE

The genre of this feature film is action, adventure and sci-fi. This is emphasised through its use of lighting, colour and camera techniques. There is many themes in this particular film that reaches out towards the audience. The first and main theme would be FAMILY. This is conveyed in many different ways, the first way is when all five heroes, Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Groot, all come together as one to defeat Ronan. Throughout the movie, these five characters were all trying to settle their differences by fighting each other, but near the end of the movie, we see these characters working together as a team, talking as if they were friends. They also cared about each other very much which is another example of family. This is really conveyed when Groot makes a shelter out of his body when they are all crashing down into Xandar. What the audience didn't know until Rocket said, was he was sacrificing himself to make sure the other four characters survived. Another example of family in Guardians of the Galaxy is the clip shown above when Thanos confronts Ronan. Thanos refers to Gamora being his 'favourite' daughter which angers Nebula (his other daughter). This is completely opposite to my other example with the Guardians coming together. This example is negative because it shows that Thanos favours the daughter that betrayed him more than the daughter that is still more loyal to him and Ronan.

NARRATIVE FEATURES

The basic plot of 2014's Guardians Of The Galaxy is about a group of intergalactic criminals are forced to come together to stop a warrior from blowing up a planet and from controlling the universe.

This is a linear storyline but also has elements of non-linear elements in it. Examples of this are shown at the beginning when there is a flashback of the main character, Peter Quill, and it shows his mother being killed from what looks like cancer and was abducted by aliens. Another example of this shows Peter Quill holding an infinity stone, then looks at Gamora (played by Zoe Saldana and is one of the guardians), but in Peter's eyes, he sees the figure of his mother, telling him to take her hand. This film is set in outer space and other planets but it is not set in real life, so it is an anti-realist film but also has elements of realistic in it. The only scene we got that was set in real life was at the beginning of the film where Peter's mother dies. There are also a lot of anti-realistic characters in this film as well as this is set in other planets in outer space. These are a couple of images that show the different aliens in this film:

This film has one single story based round, at first, one character in Peter Quill when we see his adventures in outer space, then we get multiple story lines from different characters. After meeting Quill, we meet Gamora who is on a mission of her own to steal a magical orb that is in his possession. We then meet two bounty hunters in Groot and Rocket, who tumbles across Peter Quill, who at that moment is wanted for a lot of units (money). This is the scene where all four characters come together:

This film lasts for 2 hours 2 minutes which is a short form narrative. The plot does have a very fast pace meaning the plot is identified quickly, mainly through the use of clear characters involved. In this film, there are elements of non-linear moments. Examples of these are flashbacks, flash forwards or alternative versions of plot. In this case, we see flashbacks from Peter's character back to the scene of his mother, when she says the line, 'take my hand'. This scene is extremely effective as it shows these events has affected Peter's life growing up in outer space with no family to go to. The first video shows the flashback scene of young Peter and his mother dying from what looks like cancer and the second video shows the flashback of his mother saying 'take my hand' in the form of Gamora.

                                             

                                       

This film has an open ending which means the events of the movie aren't over just yet. After Ronan's death, we see the united Guardians of the Galaxy blasting away into outer space, then goes black and text appears saying 'Guardians of the Galaxy will return'. There is also a sequel being made at the moment named "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2' which follows the events of the first film. The setting is very anti-realistic with the setting used, exaggerated characters and the plot getting a stone that can blow up worlds.

TECHNICAL METHODS

                                   

This scene happens in the film where Ronan finds out Gamora has her own plans on finding the orb for herself and to not give it to Thanos. We then see a meeting between Thanos and Thanos demands that if he doesn't bring the orb to him, he would punish him severely by death. The miss-en-scene is extremely important in this scene. First of all, this is set in outer space, potentially in Thanos' base. We can tell this by the name of the planet named Sanctuary, which is also called the 'domain of Thanos'. This is shown in 0:29. We can tell this scene is set in outer space because throughout the scene, we can see stars and asteroids that surround the domain. There are a lot of head shots throughout the scene because the director, James Gunn, focuses on the character's facial impressions rather than what is happening in the scene. One point in the scene that I found important is on 1:36, when Ronan has quite a worried face on. This is very important as it shows Ronan 'The Accusor' at a moment of weakness by Thanos when he threatens him to bring the orb and to not let him down. This shows a completely different contrast in his character because throughout the film, he is very powerful and has extremely dramatic facial expressions, but at this particular moment, he was at a moment of weakness. The use of lighting and colour is extremely important and really stands out in this scene. There are a lot of vibrant colours, for example Ronan's blue skin is extremely bright and almost matches the surroundings. Thanos' gold and purple costume is also very vibrant in colours and is almost the brightest in the whole scene. This is to represent him being the dominant character, out-matching Ronan the Accusor's costume being black and blue. The use of colours also emphasise the theme of fantasy and adventure very much, which sticks to the audience's mind when they watch the movie. 

Doctor Who (2005-)

Rated 8.8/10 (IMDb)

Focusing on Series 1 (2005)

This particular series focuses on the character Rose Tyler (played by Billie Piper), after she is saved from a mysterious man called The Doctor, who has a unusual and dark past. She then finds out he is an alien with a space ship, formed as a 1960's police telephone box. The series then follows the two travelling in time and space, visiting ghosts from the past and aliens of the future, all in aim of saving planets, involving Earth.

Executive Producers: Russell T. Davies, Julie Gardner, Mal Young

Producer: Phil Collinson 

Start Date: 26 March 2005

End Date: 18 June 2005

Main Cast: The Doctor as Christopher Eccleston

Rose Tyler as Billie Piper

Mickey Smith as Noel Clarke

Jackie Tyler as Camille Coduri

Captain Jack Harkness as John Barrowman

Adam Mitchell as Bruno Langley

FORMAT

This is a television series revived in 2005 after a long wait of 16 years to be re-made. It is comprised of 13 episodes, all 45 minutes each, 6 episodes were 2 part-stories (episode 4&5, episode 9&10 and episode 12&13). The rest of the episodes had closed endings after each episode which means the story was told in 45 minutes. Since the popularity of this series, they then made more series' with the Doctor changing (known as regenerating) after each 2-3 series. These actors were: David Tennant, Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi. 

GENRE

The genre of this series would be sci-fi and fantasy, but the main genre for this series would be a drama. These types of themes are emphasised through the use of settings, as each episode is set in different centuries and planets that is really important as the series follows two characters who travel in time and space. The use of characters is also used to portray these themes as the villains are portrayed as sci-fi aliens from different worlds, aiming to blow up Rose's home planet of Earth and also other fantasy planets. The names of these planets seem made-up as well, with names such as Gallifrey and Raxacoricofallapatorius. These are examples of aliens that were seen in Series 1 of Doctor Who:

NARRATIVE FEATURES

Episode 1: Rose

Episode 2: The End of the World

Episode 3: The Unquiet Dead

Episode 4: Aliens in London

Episode 5: World War Three

Episode 6: Dalek

Episode 7: The Long Game

Episode 8: Father's Day

Episode 9: The Empty Child

Episode 10: The Doctor Dances

Episode 11: Boom Town

Episode 12: Bad Wolf

Episode 13: The Parting of the Ways

Each episode tells a different story in this particular series. This has multiple storylines which means it is a multi-strand narrative. Each episode lasts for 45 minutes which means each episode has a short-form narrative. It has a total of 585 minutes (9 hours 45 minutes). It has a basic narrative pace, which means everything runs at a normal beginning, middle and end, which makes it simpler for younger audiences to understand. This series is linear, which means there are no flashbacks or flash-forwards or any alternate to the plots of the episodes. Each episode always has a closed ending except for the two-part episodes, in which part one has an open cliffhanger and is resolved in the second episode (the episodes in red are two-part episodes). This series is filmed in a realistic style meaning filmed on real locations and set in modern-day Britain. This series was filmed in Cardiff, Wales; even an episode was set in Cardiff (Boom Town).

TECHNICAL METHODS

This clip is from the second episode of this series named The End of the World. This follows the first adventure that Rose and the Doctor go on. The Doctor takes Rose to the future, when they land on Platform One, a space station orbiting the Earth. When they land, they are introduced to a party celebration in celebrating the destruction of Earth. They meet different aliens, including Lady Cassandra O'Brien, who is supposedly the last human on Earth. Suddenly, mysterious metallic spider-like creatures are released and they start killing the staff onboard. The Doctor then investigates this situation and finds out that Lady Cassandra O'Brien released the spiders to sabotage the platform and to kill everyone on board. This scene shows the ending of the episode where an upset Rose looks at the burnt Earth and talks about her family on there and where they all go to die. We then get shown the Doctor landing Rose on present-day Earth, filled with modern people, not knowing about the Earth exploding in many years to come. The first scene shows The Doctor and Rose in an empty party room with a view of the burnt Sun. There are asteroids surrounding the Earth, almost representing this is the new Sun, after exploding. The second scene is more important I believe in this clip because the Doctor talks about his own home planet burning up like the Earth and his family all burnt, after a massive war named The Last Great Time War, involving two planets: The Doctor's home planet, Gallifrey and another planet named Skaro. In the scene, we hear sounds normally heard in a town centre, for example babies crying (1:22), people talking and laughing (1:21) and a homeless man persuading people of the town centre to buy The Big Issue, a magazine (1:30-1:34). We see various different shots in each scene. We see a full body shot when The Doctor offers his hand to Rose (0:49). This is very effective because the two characters are both in a very dark light, maybe to emphasise a couple in love. This is important as their relationship seem to grow in the series and even Rose develops some feelings for the Doctor. In the second scene, we see more head shots than body shots. For example, in 1:52, we see the Doctor telling Rose about his own planet gone and never coming back and how this is similar to what Rose witnessed of her own planet exploding. The use of colours and lighting is extremely important, especially for the first scene. The most vibrant colour in this scene is mainly orange, which emphasises the Earth's explosion. This colour lights up the entire room, which shows that this is the main colour the director, Euros Lyn, wanted to covey to the audience. The use of sound is more important in the second scene than the first. When the Doctor talks about his home planet, we hear faint voices 'ooing' quietly, which really creates an emphasis of the fallen victims of his planet. This is an example of a non-diegetic sound, which sets the mood being very upsetting. We also hear diegetic sounds, for example the announcement stating 'Shuttles 4 and 6 departing. This unit now closing down for maintenance.', which explains after the events of their adventure, the platform has to close down. This particular setting of Platform One is also featured at the end of the series, when the Doctor confronts his eldest enemies, the Daleks. The use of script and dialogue is also important in these scenes. The main points being the Doctor talking about his home planet. This really emphasises the Doctor's character all alone with no family or friends to rely on anymore. It also presents him being lost in the world because he has no where to go to, except his use of transport...his TARDIS. When Rose is introduced into his life, it is almost like she is the person he could turn to in a moment of need, almost like a guardian angel to the Doctor. 

Children of Men (2006)

Rated 7.9/10 (IMDb)

In 2027, in a chaotic world in which women seem to have become infertile, a former activist aggres to help transport a pregnant refugee to a sanctuary out at sea.

Director: Alfonso Cuaron 

Writers: Alfonso Cuaron, Timothy J. Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby

Year of Release: 2006

Main Cast: Clive Owen as Theo Faron
                   Julianne Moore as Julian
                   Michael Caine as Jaspar Palmer
                   Chiwetel Ejiofor as Luke
                   Charlie Hunnam as Patric
                   Clare-Hope Ashitey as Kee
                   Pam Ferris as Miriam
                   Ed Westwick as Alex

FORMAT

This is a feature film, directed by Alfonso Cuaron, a Mexican director, who has directed many famous movies, such as Gravity (2013), Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001) and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004). The film lasts for 109 mins (1 hour 49 minutes). This film is based on the novel Children of Men, written by P.D. James, who is also known for writing the novels Unnatural Causes, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman and A Certain Justice.

GENRE

The themes for Children of Men are Drama, Sci-fi and Thriller. This is emphasised really through the use of settings and props. The theme sci-fi is shown through interactive boards on buildings with animations talking about fertilisation. These buildings are shown at the beginning of the film, from 1:49 to 2:12:

The theme of Drama is really conveyed through the use of characters involved, with very dramatic characters, such as Jaspar Palmer being extremely dramatic with the use of humour he says. The theme of Drama is also emphasised by how serious the main character's situation is in. Throughout the movie, we are shown very dramatic locations, for example near the middle of the film, we see a refugee camp that the main character is in that is filled with poor immigrants and a very dark and filthy atmosphere that suits the theme of Drama.

NARRATIVE FEATURES

As this is a feature film, this is a single strand narrative which means there is one single story based around one character in Theo Faron (played by Clive Owen), in which he needs to escort a pregnant refugee to the other side of the country to a sanctuary near the sea. This film lasts for 114 mins (1 hour 54 minutes), which means it is a short-form narrative.This film has quite a fast pace, which means the events are quicker. This is used to introduce different characters and also to stick into the audience's minds more than if the story went at quite a slow pace. This is a linear film, which means there are no non-linear elements, such as flashbacks, flash-forwards or alternate versions of the plot. This film, I think, has a very open ending. We see the hero, Theo Faron, dying onboard a canoe-shaped boat with the refugee, Kee, with her baby, escaping from the events that happened previously in the film. We then see a very large boat, that is very similar to the ship that they were trying to get to. The thing is, we, as the audience, don't know if they either made it to the boat, if the boat found them and they are then rescued, or if they board the ship and they are then captured and taken back to a refugee camp. This is the ending to Children of Men:

                               

This is set on planet Earth in the year 2027, and is filmed in a very realistic style. First of all, there is a very realistic setting as we see different places that are all what would look like to be realistic. There are different people that we meet in the film which are very realistic and what we would expect if the world was dying. This is seen through the use of costumes, characters and settings:

TECHNICAL METHODS

                              

The use of camera is very important in this particular scene. There are a lot of close-ups inside the car, 360 degree turns of the camera, these are to show key emotions of the characters, especially when Julian (played by Julianne Moore) gets shot. When Miriam says 'look-out', 1:22, that is when the fast action occurs and therefore a lot of 360 degree camera turns. The camera also followed every bit of action whether it being inside the car or outside the car. This is show the perspective's of the characters involved in the scene. As you can see in the scene, there are no editing cuts, meaning this is all one shot on camera. This makes it more realistic when the audience sees it. The use of mise-en-scene is also important in this scene. The people outside of the car are dressed as almost like a different genre, like a zombie horror genre, instead of a drama, thriller style genre. The characters in the car are driving in a stolen car, as seen in 3:39 to 3:47, where they are driving a car belonging to a 'Biology Institute'. As soon as they drive off, there is a walkie-talkie heard from the shot policemen. Talking about the shot-policemen, they were shot by Lewis (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor). Lewis, near the beginning of the film, didn't look like a character, who would kill, but then in this scene, shoots two policemen. Also in this scene, the character Kee, played by Clare-Hope Ashitey, is dressed in black to match surroundings. This gives us a sense that she is trying to hide from somebody or maybe even the world. This also gives us a sense that she might be trying to hide SOMETHING, which we then see is a baby, later on in the film. The use of sound is also important. There is a radio that is played throughout the scene. There is an impact alarm, which is seen when a flaming car is driven to block their view. When the gun shoots Julian, we hear ringing in the ears to symbolise that this would be a normal reaction. There is a police walkie-talkie sound effect after the policemen are shot, which shows that there is going to be more danger for the main character and his companions when they exit the scene. Going back to the gun shot, the gun shot wasn't that loud, but the screams from the other characters were even louder, which gives us a sense of danger and sadness, as we see a death of a very key character. At the end of the scene when the car drives off, we hear normal sounds, like birds chirping, which conveys the emotion of quite peaceful and maybe not even knowing that everyone on earth is dying. Lastly, the script and dialogue is very important in this scene. This is very realistic dialogue in this scene which gives more emotion and also gives backstories of the relationship between Theo Faron and Julian. There are a lot of background screaming outside of the car, almost sounding like angry screaming. Throughout the scene, every character is shouting, which gives a sense, as the audience, that the characters are very confused and don't know what to do. When Miriam says 'put pressure on the wound' from 2:27 to 2:30, this is a medical term which shows that Miriam has a medical background to her life. This is an action scene and dialogue in action scenes lets you know what is going on. This was made perfectly as every character had a say in this scene.