Evaluation- Part One

Part One- What brief were you are working to?

It was to create a title sequence for a film, in which we choose our own genre and for it to last 90 seconds.

Our title sequence is about gangsters, and an investigator trying to put all of the gangsters in prison. Our title sequence begins with an investigator that is re-opening an old case, that was never solved. We then see our suspect walking around run down areas and going to his warehouse, picking up drugs and counting mass amounts of money. The investigator then takes pictures of the suspect selling drugs and then the investigator is shown uploading them to his computer watching them as proof.

Our chosen genre is crime and our sub-genre is a crime-thriller. This is because within our film their will be explicit fight scenes with extreme violence. This is shown within our title sequence as their are elements of suspense as for the investigator stalking the suspect. Their is a feeling of danger within the opening credits when we see the suspect within the meat packing warehouse and this is what creates our sub-genre. As their is no underlining scene that makes you scared, but you feel rather insecure of what will happen to these two characters and this is what creates the thrilling aspect to our title sequence.

Evaluation- Part Two

Part Two- Who would be the audience for your product?

The age range is 15-50 year olds, the primary audience is men with a niche market of women. The sociographics would be D-E category people, who are working class. With an audience of teenagers who get their money from their parents. The psychographics is that their lifestyle will be normal law-abiding citizens who will use this film as an escape from their daily routines. They are the sort of people to voice their opinions, their optimistic and risk takers. But they are consumed by a pessimistic life filled with work and family life this is what brings them down. They spend most of their life drinking at the pub with friends, and like fast cars. They are excessively trying to live their lives on the edge. The media that consumes their lives with is social networking, gambling websites and other websites where they are able to be risk takers. They are readers of the sun newspaper, for its intensive sport reviews.

For our pre-production research we looked into other title sequences similar to our own from the crime genre, Such as "Infernal Affairs" and "The Departed". When looking at these I put them on to my blog and stated what was similar to our title sequence such as mise-en-scene and cinematography. I then said what this stood for and how it made the audience feel. As we wanted to project these feelings for our audiences as well. We chose these two films to research as their audiences have the same interests as ours. They are both crime-thrillers constructed to make us feel insecure and thrilled at the same time. This is what we wanted to portray within our film. We looked in to "Infernal Affairs" as it had the same theme of Triads, and by looking at it we were able to see what it's audiences wanted. We saw that they would like to see a gritty and realistic portrayal of a Chinese gangsters life.

This research was incorporated in to our title sequence by using similar techniques. Such as from "The departed" we liked the way you never saw the lead role, he was lurking within the shadows or you would only see the back of his head. This was incorporated within our title sequence as we do not show our investigator. We only show the side of his face or the back of his head, like "The departed" we also showed his body.

Evaluation- Part Three

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

When looking in to distributors i chose Paramount Pictures, mainly because i want our film to be distributed by one of the big five distributors in Hollywood. So i also looked into Warner Brothers and Universal. I chose to look more into paramount pictures as they have a long and thriving history of distributing crime films. I found out that they work a lot with the director Martin Scorsese and he has made many crime films. As for example i found that he made "Shutter Island" in 2010, this is relative to our film as it is a thriller that has crime incorporated within it. As it features a detective trying to solve the case of a missing person. This would be a much more lucrative deal if we can make a connection between our director and our distributor, as their will be history and trustworthiness that will work in our favour.

The films in which Paramount Pictures have distributed that are relatable to our film due to its audiences and genre are "Shutter Island" and "The Godfather". "Shutter Island" is a thriller genre like ours. It's audiences are similar to ours as they are seeking the thrill of a mysterious case. "The Godfather" is a crime genre this is the same as ours. They have a audience that is interested within the true and gritty way in which gangsters work, looking deeply in to their personal lives. The main relatable factor we have with these films is that all of our audiences are mainly seen by men. Also that these films audiences have very similar psychographics to ours, their thrill seeking through the films that they watch.

Evaluation- Part Four

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


Our media product uses the codes and conventions of the crime genre, as it is dark and gritty. It presents the codes and conventions as it constantly refers to crime for example by using imagery. Our title sequence shows police boats and a helicopter swarming around Hong Kong. This represents the crime that fills the city. For example we used similar characters to "Infernal Affair" they used Chinese gangsters and how they commit crimes. We developed this by adding a more realistic portrayal of a triad. We followed our suspect around seeing him in his private life, we show him at work. This makes him a more believable triad, as it is not dramatizing his life by showing fight scenes. We are showing the monotonous tasks that he does daily. We challenged this by being completely realistic and not showing any violence within the title sequence. By making him realistic we are challenging all other crime films that just show car explosions and shoot outs.

The codes and conventions of the crime genre are apparent throughout the narrative of our title sequence. We have established that the film will be about a troubled investigator who is re-opening an old case that was never solved. We have established in the opening credits that he is a mysterious character that is secretive about his life. We used this from "Shutter Island" as the detective does not talk about his private life and we only find out his secrets at the end of the film. We wanted the investigator to be completely private in the beginning, but for you to find out more about him as the film ends. We developed this by not showing his face in the title sequence this connotes he is a complete mystery.

We used the crime genres codes and conventions within our title sequence's camera angles, movements and shots. We got inspiration from the film "The Departed" and used the idea of keeping his identity a secret. We used this by only filming our investigator from the back or the side. We developed this as "The Departed" uses lighting to hide their characters face in shots, instead we had our investigator turn his face away from the camera. We challenged the code and convention's of the crime genre by concealing the main character within the film. By filming his whole body, but never showing his face. The audience will never be able to make a connection to him., they will never be able to find him relatable. This challenges the crime genres codes and conventions as no one will ever be able to understand the lead role. Whereas many crime movies like to use their lead role to capture and relate to audiences, instead we have made them curious to find out more about him.

The codes and conventions of a crime genre that are in our title sequence's mise-en-scene are that of lighting and costumes. We have used inspiration from the film "The Departed" by using a contrast of dark and light lighting. Our title sequence's opening panning shots of the city are dark and dull and then a shot of a bright office. We have developed this as "The Departed" uses dark and light lighting within one shot, whereas we have separated the lighting to make a stronger contrast. To connote a sense of good and evil, a good investigator and a bad triad. We have used inspiration from the lead role within "The Departed" by using his rough costumes. We have developed this by our investigator wearing trousers but with his sleeves rolled up.

Evaluation- Part Five

Part Five- How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our title sequence represents two main types of people criminals and law-abiding citizens. The investigator represents the law-abiding citizen and the suspect, the criminal. I felt that stereotyping the suspect would look wrong, yet I wanted the suspect to look like a triad. We did not base him on another triad character, instead we filmed him in a way were he looked like a suspicious character. By using camera angles such as over the shoulder shots, extreme long shots and long shots, we are able to portray him in a suspicious manner. The camera angles connote that he is doing something secretive and wrong. The sound also added to the Chinese themes the film has, making it seem more youthful and more likely to be a popular Chinese song.

I wanted the investigator to look intelligent but not stereotypical like a Sherlock Holmes character, a smart looking man. I liked the idea of him looking rough as this gave him a dangerous edge. We have represented the investigator to look determined, that he will not rest until this case is closed. His roughness is represented through the mise-en-scene, as hid costume is raggedly and smartly. This shows that he is an intellectual, yet his costumes show through rolled up sleeves that he is sleepless. That this case has affected his private life a lot. By using camera shots of him i wanted him to look like a mysterious and troubled hero, by only shooting him over the shoulder and in mid-shots. Through the use of sound we tried to portray him as butch and rough sounding. As we gave him some dialogue within the title sequence and we wanted this to be the only thing audiences knew about him, that he sounded strong and determined.

We chose the typography as it has a Chinese effect, this represents the triads having a main effect within the film. It also establishes that the film will take place within China. The typography looked youthful, this is why I liked it. Because it looked as if it could belong to a gang of young men in china, as they could use this typography as graffiti. I also liked it because it looked smart, as if it could represent both the good and the bad people within society and how they are combined together in this one city.

Using Vladimir Propps' theory i wanted the investigator to be portrayed as "The Hero" as he solves the case and saves Hong Kong from these violent and serious triads. I wanted the suspect to be  "The Villain", but his gang to be more serious villains then he is. With a private source acting as "The Donor", "The Dispatcher" and "The Princess and Her Father", as they supply the investigator with the information he needs and they give him the case to solve. "The helper" would be that of the characters in which the investigator goes to, to get his information from they would most likely be a rehabilitated criminals. "The False Hero" would be that of the police department taking credit for the case they never solved.

Evaluation- Part Six

Part Six- How did you attract your audience?
I think that our title sequence has definitely reached it's target audience. As from the planning stages we wanted to have a male mass audience. All of the boys that gave audience feedback enjoyed the title sequence. I think our title sequence has exceeded within its target audience. Within the planning stages we expected girls to be uninterested, yet they found it enjoyable as well. They also reach their sociographics of D-E category people and all of whom were students. This exceeds all of my expectations making me conclude that we have reached our target audience.

I wanted to appeal to our audience by involving elements they would enjoy such as cars. I planned to do this by showing a busy city, full of speeding cars. Yet we were able to find a broken down racing car. That the audience would find interesting. I also thought that jump cuts would appeal to their thrill seeking personalities. I planned the money and drug scene, this appeals to them as it connotes real danger.

One of the audience members said that the broken down race car reminded them of their cousin's car. "Yeah I think it's good:) looks like my cousins car made the final cut as well, really good though :) well done." A lot of people enjoyed the editing effects and someone mentioned how they worked well within the drug transaction. "Well good, the camera bit at the end is awesome when Si Hin is doing the transaction".

A lot of the audience enjoyed the editing, in particular the flashing effect and the screen turning black and white when the drug transaction is going on. The audience also enjoyed our music, saying that it fit well and that it reminded them of video games and other Chinese music. This is good as they believed the music, they felt that the title sequence was set in China due to it.

Some of the audience did not understand why the title sequence was called "Closure". One of the audience said their was a point within the music were it jolted. "Great editing, the music jumps at one bit maybe could sort that out cause it nocked me off cause I noticed. But yeah it's good. Well done". Also another audience member thought that the title entitled "Jack Hill as The Dealer" was wrong. As they felt that giving the characters name was for the end of the film. "The way you've put so and so's name as the drug dealer, i personally feel that stuff is more suited for the end. But thats all." 

I think that we could have changed the dialogue in the beginning scene with our investigator. To mention that he is re-opening this case for some emotional closure within his life. Or perhaps show him opening and closing the file on his desk. These could hopefully make audiences understand the title "Closure". We could look through the music again and remove the part where the music jolts, so it flows much more smoothly.

Evaluation- Part Seven

Part Seven- What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this project?
The decisions made about the technology are that within the pre-production I would do the filming. Within the production I would film and do some editing. In the post production I would upload the video. We decided as a group to add in jump cuts, and special effects using final cut pro.

I decided to work within the pre-production within filming the title sequence. I also decided that we should have an effect on our production logo. During the production i shot most of the title sequence, although i did not film one over the shoulder shot, an office shot of the investigator picking up his camera and the city parts that were in Hong Kong. In the production stages I also became widely involved within editing. I cut a lot of the footage and put all of the footage in to its exact order in the timeline on final cut pro. I also made a few of the shots faster by editing their speed, and i cut out unwanted sound in some shots. Post-production i uploaded our video to "You Tube" and "Facebook" and I asked the audience for feedback.

We began by using "Blogger" (http://www.blogspot.com/) to plan our whole production. This enabled us to neatly decide what we were and what we were going to film, and for us to decide what all of our roles are. It provided us easy access to all of our planning. We then used a "JVC" video camera as it was the best camera to use as it made all of our footage clearer. We then used a tripod as this stabilised our camera and enabled us to film higher up. Then we used a dolly system in which to move the tripod around whilst filming, this made filming exterior shots a lot easier as it had wheels to move the camera around on. Then we used final cut pro to do all of our editing and uploading of footage. We used Final Cut Pro as it was a professional piece of technology, that thus made of title sequence look more realistic.

The successful uses of new technology in our production would be that of "Blogger" and "Final Cut Pro". The use of Blogger made it vastly easier to know what all of our tasks were and when are deadlines were also. All of this helped as we were all able to keep on track of what we was doing. "Final Cut Pro" enabled us to make sound effects for our production logo, and visual effects on our drug transaction.

The less successful parts would be that "Final Cut Pro" should not be used for the making and editing of our music. As we had many problems with loosing music and having the music jolt within certain places of the music. It made editing the music a lot harder than it should have been.

I have learnt a great deal of knowledge on "Final Cut Pro" i now know how to make shots longer and shorter by decreasing and increasing their sound. I have also learnt how to render pieces of footage to make them appear within the sequence. I have learnt how to add certain effects such as cross dissolving and fading footage. I have learnt how to blend certain shots together.

Evaluation- Part Eight

Part Eight- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
The successes within our preliminary task is that we were able to incorporate everything we wanted in it. We were able to use the sets such as the computer suite, as from using this suite we were able to have a much quieter set. The computer suite also gives this continuity sequence a sense of naivety and it made our dialogue sound clearer. We were able to stick to all of the camera shots that we needed to use. Also we succeeded with adding a comedic element to it. Also the editing flowed very nicely their were no jolts or gaps.

The less successful elements within our preliminary task is within the speech when the girl says "What!" you can see that the camera angle has moved, we are now higher up. So that we are no longer at the same eye level of the boy as we were before. This was an obvious mistake I picked up on and this was our only real failure within the task.

When making my title sequence I was especially careful within the cinematography and framing of our title sequence to make sure that the problem that was raised in our preliminary task, would not happen again so i constantly checked the camera angles especially whilst filming and then whilst editing. I improved amongst my editing within our title sequence as i was able to take along the aspects i had learned from my preliminary task. The preliminary task also made me be very careful and particular on the settings that we chose for our title sequence.

Final Title Sequence

This is our final title sequence for "Closure":

Audience Feedback

                                                   Audience Feedback from Facebook:

These are two comments that i received whilst on Facebook chat from two people within the audience.

These are all of the comments i receieved when i posted the video on Facebook.

 

These are all of the comments i recieved when i posted the clip on You Tube.

Journal 02/03/11

Today is our final day of editing, we made the changes as we got rid of a gap within the music, we got zoomed in on some buildings and we added sounds of wind cars, boats and helicopters to the beginning of our title sequence. Today we have officially finished our title sequence!!!!! I have know uploaded it on to YouTube and tomorrow i shall upload it to Facebook. From these two websites i am hoping we will get all of our target audience. Tomorrow i shall ask people to comment on our title sequence and state what they think for e.g. what they liked and what they didn't like and what they thought needed changing. I shall print screen all of our comments and upload the images to my blog, to show for evidence what people thought of our title sequence.

Journal 28/02/11

So on Monday as a group we looked through our title sequence and have decided that we need to changed a few things. So we added some more jump cuts to particular scenes, such as the money scene where Si Hin is counting his money. We got Miss Whitaker to look through our title sequence today as it is within its finishing stages. She mentioned that we should focus in on one building, within the scene of Hong Kong to suggest this is where the investigator's office is. She also suggested that we should add in real sounds when showing the river scene in Hong Kong and adding in natural noises of the wind and water. We also noticed another aspect to change after talking to Miss Whitaker, that their was a particular point within the music were the sound just stops. We shall make all of these changes on Wednesday.

Screen shots of title sequence

This first screen shot is to show how we have added a blue box around our footage and this is the mobile phone and TV safe screen. This means that our footage will be viewable even on a TV and a mobile, that we will not lose any footage due to using a small screen anymore. It is also showing our timeline and the editing process of which we were at. As you can see we were in the process of moving things up and down the timeline.

This is the screen shot of Libby making the text within final cut pro, she has downloaded the text that we chose and now she is editing it so that we can now put our titles within our title sequence. Also this screen shot shows how we were referring back to the titles we used on our storyboards the whole time.

This screenshot was of us editing pieces of sound and to show how we have created different sequences to put our random pieces of sound on. So that we can edit them on a different sequence so that it does not interrupt anything going on in our actual sequence.

This screen shot is to show that we have saved all of our titles within one folder, so that we know where they all are much easily. Also that we have ordered them so we know where to find them within their folder.

This last screen shot is of us finally about to upload our titles to our title sequence.

Final chosen typography

                                                 Chosen typography for title sequence:

We chose this typography as we thought that it had a slick and youthful vibe to it. It also looked like a Chinese style of typography. It looked like it would fit well within the theme of the triad within our title sequence. It was also very bold this stood out to us as it demands your attention straight away. We thought this would be good for enticing viewers in to our title sequence. As they will be captured straight away by our typography.

Journal for last week

This week we have been working on all of the footage, we have been trying to shorten down the sequence as much as we can. So we have been looking through separate scenes and separate shots, deciding where jump cuts will fit. Such as the scene in which Si Hin is counting his piles of money, we have added jump cuts here to speed it up. So it looks very clean cut and speedy, this makes it look far more high tech. It goes along with the crime and triad theme, as it makes it quick as if they have to be quick and get out of the way,otherwise they will get caught. I liked this idea, it also makes Si Hin's character look more of a professional as if he has counted this massive amounts of money lots of times. As if it is completely normal to him. Thus making him look more like a criminal.

Journal 04/02/11

Today we have been working on editing our title sequences, we have got rid of all of the footage that we do not need. We have also got all of the footage from Hong Kong that we wanted. We feel like this footage will make our title sequence feel more authentic and original. Today we have decided permanently on using Paramount Pictures as our distributor. We have also finally decided on our production company it is entitled "Triad Pictures". We have added sound effects and made the text jump on to the screen, this along with a gun sound effect makes it look very professional and effective to us. To be honest i hope that this sound effect would connote to audiences the violence surrounding a triads life. That this will merge together with the triad symbol and show people how it all works and corresponds together.

This decision made will hopefully affect the ways in which audiences will respond to our title sequence. They will hopefully think it looks more professional, and it will be the first indicator to them that the film is all about triads and crime. The gun shot will hopefully just merge all of these ideas together and make the whole thing seem more cohesive to audiences. This idea was an earlier of mine that i suggested to the group that perhaps the title "Closure" should appear on the screen with an animation of a bullet and a sound effect of a gunshot. Yet this did not fit well so we decided against it, especially as the animation would make light of the film. This would make our title sequence look a bit like a spoof, and perhaps enable people to not take it seriously. Yet i suggested the idea again when we made the production logo ideas, i suggested that perhaps this time we should have just the sound of the gunshot appear with the text.
The group liked this idea and we messed around with all the possible gun shot noises and the ways in which it could appear on the screen through transitions. It looks really well just popping up on the screen, as this creates a quick and sudden effect. We also decided upon using the sound of a shot gun, as Si Hin this is a typical triad gun. WE all did like the sound that this gun had and decided upon it. We are still working on the production logo and how it shall appear. I shall post as soon as it is done.

Stills of Our Settings and Locations

 

These are stills from the scene where we see our suspect handing someone drugs. These are our location shots, we chose to film outside school as we thought it would be best. As there were bushes and fences, in which our investigator could hide behind. This looked affective as it connoted a trapped and insecure environment that the inspector was in. Also filming after school meant that it would be dark outside, this was a plus for us as the darkness connoted danger and that evil was near. We chose this location in particular as our investigator could hide behind the bushes and yet be in perfect view of the suspect and his associate. The fences work well within the frame also as they add these gritty blurs in front of the lens. Thus creating a sense of being trapped or perhaps that the victims future is of him behind bars. We also chose to see the deal going on outside some normal houses, as it showed that they were in some sort of disgusting estate were things like this happen every second. Therefore creating a creepy environment for audiences.

Stills of Our Settings and Locations

 

These are stills from two of our scenes, firstly and interior shoot of our investigators office. This was some re-filming we had to do. Which involved our investigator walking in to the room and him walking back out with a camera. We chose that office in particular because it was very plain it showed our investigator as a sensible man. The next lot of pictures demonstrate us filming exterior shots, of our suspect selling some drugs and handing over some money. This is where our investigator is stalking our suspect and taking pictures of his illegal acts. Today we filmed everything we were supposed to we were able to re-shoot the investigators office and the scenes with our suspect and his associate. We did not stray away from our earlier ideas that we established within our storyboards. As for the exterior scenes of our suspect we followed our storyboards, we showed how the investigator was stalking our suspect behind a fence. We wanted to get in the fact that the investigator was behind a bush, and that the fence would show on the stills that the investigator took of the suspect. Our office scenes were rather exact in comparison to our title sequence, although we did stray away a bit as we cut out certain shots. Such as him walking in to the office, and the fact that we have a point of view shot swiping across the items on the investigators desk. Other then those we followed our story boards exact, so overall filming went well. We were able to shoot in the office and the exterior shoots we got lucky with also. As we were able to get in the bush and the fence, we were also lucky with the dull weather. The rain made the title sequence feel more dark and brooding. 

Journal 28/01/11

Today as a group we have been looking in to how we can edit all of our newly filmed pieces of footage. We are currently re-arranging all of the footage we filmed the other week in the meat packing factory also. We are working hard on  making all the footage flow perfectly, we are also thinking about editing and all the things we can put in. For instance we think that using jump cuts of our footage will look really good and compliment our music well. We have been looking in to jump cuts and the style we shall use, we think that this will give our title sequence a much better fast pace to it.

We have also been looking in to our titles today and how we wont them to look and we are currently in the process of adding in our production logo in to our title sequence. We are also playing with the possible effects we could use for our production logo. For example how it shall appear on the screen by either fading in or dissolving in. I think at the moment we are really liking the way it shall fade on to our screen. We shall decide this in the weeks to come.

Props

These are the props in which we will use for our title sequence. Firstly we are going to make a file on our suspect and the main sheet shall have an array of different articles in which we found on the internet about triads. We have simply changed the name to our suspects name and we have written vital info about our suspect on it. Such as his whole name, his age, where he lives and other criminal offenses he has committed. It shall have a picture of him at the top of the sheet along with this vital information, the photo is of Si Hin and it is one of his most recent passport photos.

Another prop we shall use will  be a professional camera in which the investigator will use. He will use this camera to take pictures of the suspect, in a sense he will use this camera to stalk him. To document what he does in a day to day routine, and how this makes him look like a criminal. We shall show him picking up this camera in his office, then him using it in which to take pictures of the suspect with.

We also made fake drugs out of potato starch and we have used these when filming in the meat packing factory. We have also used an envelope of money as a prop, all the money was Si Hin's savings and it made him look more powerful and like a real triad within the title sequence. We use this envelope in the meat packing office scene. Then re used this envelope and shot it in the scene where our suspect hands something to one of his "associates".  

To do list

- Editing shots from the investigators office and the triads hangout, so that the music fits in with any dialogue.√
-Film exterior shots of the investigator stalking the suspect.√
-Re-film scenes from the investigators office.√
-Do audience research, get their feedback.√

Journal 21/01/11

Today we have been editing our title sequence, we have now made the music fit with the dialogue within the title sequence. Through fading the music in places and making the dialogue louder. We have now decided today in the early aspects of editing that we should do our audience feedback. As right now is the best time to get any feedback because we are in the stages where making big changes will not really set us back too much, or effect the title sequence that much either. We shall do this some time this week, i think we are considering on doing it in our double lesson on Friday. We are thinking of ideas on how we can present our audience feedback, so that it can benefit us and be presented nicely on the blog. We are still in discussion about this and i shall update the blog on this once we have decided.

Also today we have realised that we urgently need to re-film shots from the investigators office such as elements as items on his desk. We really want to get this done in the first few days of next week such as Tuesday and Wednesday. So that are title sequence will look really professional, we will confer with Sean who is acting as our investigator so that he can appear in these re-filming processes. We have also decided that we would like to shot our other exterior shots of the investigator stalking the suspect this week hopefully on Wednesday. I shall update upon these matters once the group has met on Monday and decided upon all of these things.

Journal 20/01/11

So  yesterday we eliminated any pieces of film that we did not want to appear within our title sequence. We looked over all of the footage and have now realised that there are some shots that we need to re-film. Such as the investigators office, there are elements such as the items on his desk that need to be re-filmed. This is because they do not look exactly right and make the title sequence look a bit unreal. Such as a file about the suspect it has nothing else on the page besides his personal details, therefore it does not look like a real police file. So we shall re-film this hopefully some time this week, this is something we are working on resolving and trying to edit in to our schedules.

All of this week we have been editing our title sequence, we have been working hard on the music in the title sequence. Si Hin has now edited all the parts of the song that we want in our title sequence and we have blended them together. So that they now flow perfectly just like any other normal instrumental song. We may have to do a few adjustments once we get some audience feedback. We also need to work on fitting in the shots that we have to our music. This shall be taken care of tomorrow, and we will work on looking into Si Hin's footage he got whilst filming on holiday in Hong Kong.

Possible footage for title sequence.

Si Hin went on holiday a few years ago to China whilst there he filmed a lot of skylines, buildings and streets especially in the Hong Kong area. We are hoping to use the footage in which he has and incorporate it in to our title sequence. As we feel the title sequence will work well if we present the film straight from the opening as having a Britain and China as the main two countries the film will be filmed and set within. This is a great way of getting around this using footage a group member has filmed previously themselves within this other country. That way we do not have to venture to places such as China town to be able to create this imagery. We are also deliberating between using a Hong Kong skyline then the skyline of London, to properly connect the two cities.
Below is the footage of Hong Kong that Si Hin filmed that we are thinking of using for our title sequence.

To do list

-Eliminate any footage we don't need and finalize any footage we definitely want.√

- Edit footage.√

-Get pictures of the office in which we used as the investigators office as a source of evidence and to show planning.√

Journal 18/01/11

Last week we visited BFI on a film/media school trip, this was an act of preparation for our media and film exams in June.  The day consisted of lectures all morning, then a lunch break in which many of us visited Mc Donald's. After this we went straight back to BFI and watched the new Sherlock Holmes film featuring Robert Downey JR, Jude Law and Rachel McAdams.

Within the lectures at BFI we learnt a lot to do with marketing, audiences, Hollywood and distributing and producing. There was a lot of relevant information to help us out with having a much better grasp upon making our title sequence. As it supplied us with information on how we can attract our audiences to our movie, just due to simple factors such as publicizing what actors are present within the movie. The lectures also taught us about distributor's and from this we felt reassured that we can make our own and make it very marketable to our audiences. We are doing this through calling our production company "Triad Productions" it relates perfectly to our film and has a triad symbol above it as if to reinforce it's name.

From the lectures at BFI we also found information such about "The big five" the major studio's and companies that dominate the film industry.We were able to find this relatable to our title sequence as it made us realise that our production company would come under the independent production companies. Therefore making our movie a lot more artistic and it would make our movie look like an independent movie, so perhaps as a group we should think about changing who we would want to be our investigator and our suspect. I shall keep this factor in the back of my mind and update my blog once the group has come to a decision, as there are a number of actors that work in independent movies that we could use and who would work well. Such as a Ewan Mcgreggor Esq actor for our investigator and a Jay Chou Esq actor to play the suspect.

Tomorrow we would like to edit our title sequence the two scenes in which we have already filmed of our investigator in his office and the suspect in his own office and meat packing factory. We shall look through all of our footage and it shall be like an elimination process finding out what we really need and what we will never put in our title sequence. We may need to add footage to either scenes or re-film things, so tomorrow's elimination process will be necessary before any real editing process can begin. Si Hin has also found some footage of Hong Kong that he filmed of a previous holiday to China *Fingers crossed* we can use aspects of it. I shall update on this particular subject tomorrow once we have spoken to our teachers about the footage, also hopefully i will be able to add the possible clips we want to use on to my blog tomorrow.

Production Schedule

Tomorrow Wednesday 19th January we hope to be editing the two scenes that we have now filmed of the investigator and our suspect. We also may have to do some more filming in the investigators office as we may not have enough footage to work with as planned we may not have made enough shots to make up a substantial scene. That production schedule will be looked at as soon as we can look over everything we have filmed. That shall be the work topic tomorrow as well as editing so i shall update tomorrow whether we need to re-film anything or add more shots.

Journal 17/01/11

Yesterday we filmed in the meat packing factory in Charlton, everything went well we got all of the footage that we wanted. We also found some different locations amongst the premises that we wanted to use. Such as a dark and crumbling looking alleyway, and a broken down old racing car. We found the alleyway to fit well into the scene as it adds a menacing vibe of danger to the scene. We also found the racing car to work before the alley way shot as the racing car is quite comical and shows the suspects youthfulness and outgoing and careless personality.


We think that we are hopefully completely finished with all of the footage within the premises of the meat packing factory. We hope that do not have to film anything extra, as this would be much more time consuming and would set back our production schedule. We shall hopefully start editing on Wednesday 19th January and to carry on filming and editing next week. We are finding that at this particular moment in time we are complacent and thinking that we are meeting our production schedule well, and we can only hope that this continues and that we don't run into any glitches.


Props- We also took it upon ourselves to decide what props a triad might need in the shot within the meat packing factory. We chose to use the props in the form of money and drugs, to work around the whole drug aspect we made our own. Si Hin made some fake drugs out of potato starch and we all decided upon putting them within sandwich bags. Libby also made two very small bags of drugs out of flour with salt added so that it would not stick to the bag or look at all like flour. The smaller bags will be used in other scenes for Si Hin's character to hand to his customers on the streets. Whereas the bigger bags were used within the meat packing factory to present that he was a drug dealer. Also that he was turning these big bags in to many smaller bags to be sold on. Our other prop was money, luckily Si Hin likes to save all the money he earns through working in his parents take away also any birthday and Christmas money he gets. This adds up to a lot so he was able to bring five hundred pounds out with us to the meat packing factory, to connote the massive amounts of money these triads are dealing with on a daily basis.

Stills of our settings and locations

On Sunday 16th January we went to a Chinese meat packing factory in Charlton, once we arrived we scoped out all sorts of settings we could use within this location. We chose the outside of the factory to act as an meeting place and entry. We used an alley way to signify the danger and destruction on the triad gang. As the crumbling old alley way connotes well the misery that can come from being within a gang. We also chose this particular alley way opposed to the many others within the area because it backed on to a garage. This was good to signify that these triads are not just young men they can afford nice cars and they also connote that they are always on the go, busy and off to places to collect things. Another setting we chose was the office within the factory, we chose to use the office to present how powerful this particular triad is. As if to be an example of his wealth, We thought it would show that he is like a co-partner in charge of the business. We also chose a setting behind our alley way setting that was of an old and broken down racing car. We chose this as we thought it was a rather comical element to the title sequence. As if to give a brief indication to the triads life as if to say they don't take life too seriously and thy do mess about. 

 The Entry Way Setting and Meeting Place

For the entry way setting we shot characters entering and leaving the premises, we also shot Si Hin's character going within the premises. We also caught some workers loading up cars and interacting with each other within this setting.

                                                                

The Alley Way Setting

 

Within this setting we shot Si Hin's character walking down this alley way and going to the meat packing factory. 

    The Office Setting 

Within this setting we shot Si Hin's character working for e.g. counting his money dropping off drugs and taking out more packets of drugs to sell on. 

The Race Car Setting 

Within this setting we shot Si Hin's character on the phone to his clients and to his gang members, he is also talking in Chinese in this shot so we will consider possibly putting in this dialogue and enhancing it. We also see him look at some bags of drugs that are in his bag, then we see him get off of the car and leave for the meat packing factory.

Finding footage to use in title sequence

  We wanted to use real footage from China so to keep away from Chinese copyright laws so we have decided to use news from China. Involving such items as gang warfare and riots and protests. We have found these two videos on YouTube and we are hoping to fit both of these videos within our title sequence and i think we shall shorten them slightly so we can fit the best parts of the news clips in our title sequence.

Music for title sequence

Today we looked at a lot of Chinese music, but a lot of it sounded very much like an older Chinese style of music. It sounded as if it was very old and it had that ancient sound to it. But we wanted something fast paced and like an American rap. So we chose this song as we thought the beginning of the song would fit our music video well, so we shall edit the song so we just use the beginning of the song for our title sequence.

Chinese Copyright laws

These are the Chinese copyright laws that we found that say we are allowed to use Chinese music if it is used for work purposes only.

Article 2 Works of Chinese citizens, legal entities or other organizations, whether published or not, shall enjoy copyright in accordance with this Law.

Any work of a foreigner or stateless person which is eligible to enjoy copyright under an agreement concluded between the country to which the foreigner belongs or in which he has habitual residence and China, or under an internationa1 treaty to which both countries are party, shall be protected in accordance with this Law.

Works of foreigners or stateless persons first published in the territory of the People's Republic of China shall enjoy copyright in accordance with this Law.

Any work of a foreigner who belongs to a country which has not concluded an agreement with China, or which is not a party to an international treaty with China or a stateless person first published in an country which is a party to an international treaty with China, or in such a member state or nonmember state, shall be protected in accordance with this Law. 

Article 3 For the purposes of this Law, the term "works" includes works of literature, art, natural science, social science, engineering technology and the like which are expressed in the following forms:

(1) written works;

(2) oral works;

(3) musical, dramatic, quyi', choreographic and acrobatic works;

(4) works of fine art and architecture;

(5) photograPh1c works;

(6) cinematographic works and works created by virtue of an analogous method of film production;

(7) drawings of engineering designs, and product designs; maps, sketches and other graphic works and model works;

(8) computer software;

(9) other works as provided for in laws and administrative regulations.

Stills from our settings

This image is of the entrance to our meat packing factory location. Si Hin took it when he visited them to ask them if we could use their premises, we really like the front of the meat packing factory as its bright red metal doors and Chinese writing above the door will give our title sequence some real authenticity. We will take more photo's from all the rooms and corridors we shall use here on Sunday and we shall upload them as soon as possible. More location and setting shots shall be on our blogs from our filming that will happen tomorrow.

Schedule

We have finalized the location of the meat packing factory so we are now is discussing with the owner's and we have now finalized a date for filming within the factory. We will be filming on Sunday 16th January.

Sunday 16th January- Filming in the meat packing factory.

Songs

This is the song in which we would love to be able to use within our title sequence, we are still looking within the Chinese copy right laws. We think this would fit perfectly within our title sequence and we hope to be able to use it.

Journal 10/01/11

Yesterday Si Hin was able to visit the meat packing suppliers and ask their permission for us to film there, and thankfully they agreed to letting us film there. They also agreed to our requests as they are letting us film them whilst they are working they are also letting us use their office once they have closed up to the general public in the afternoon. They even agreed to act within our title sequence, the only down side to all of this is that they are not really to keen on their faces being shown within our title sequence. So we are trying to come to some kind of agreement with them such as us perhaps not filming them straight on. As we could try to film the side of their faces or maybe the backs of their heads as they are working. We hope to resolve this with them on the day of filming and hopefully they will come around and not mind having their faces appear just slightly within our title sequence. If not we are willing to figure out certain ways to film them that do not really show there faces completely.

We have also finalized a date for filming we are planning on filming in the meat packing factory on Sunday 16th January. As the factory closes early on this day, and they are not particularly busy to the general public on this day. Therefore this would be the best day for them to be filmed, and for us to operate our tripod within there premises. We are now in the planning and scheduling stages of our title sequence. We are scheduling all of our filming and planning how much time it shall take us to film certain parts and what shots we need to prioritize. We are awaiting filming tomorrow and we are trying to finalize an office to film within. We are also trying to gather together props for e.g. a camera in which the inspector shall use, his business card with our new chosen typography on it entitling his profession "Private investigator".

Also we would like to film some exterior shots so we would like Sean Simmons to have  cigarette in his hand as he is stalking Si Hin. We are also finalizing wardrobe as we would like Sean to appear with smart trousers on and a white long sleeved shirt with rolled up sleeves. For Si Hin's look we have adopted a more natural and laid back outfit for e.g. a hoodie and jeans. As we have decided we do not want him to look noticeable as he is portraying a triad he would have to be discrete and blend in like any other normal citizen. We will film these shots on a later date.

Storyboards

Here are our storyboards, we have now edited them as we had a few location changes. We had to change a few certain shots as we wanted to put Si Hin within a Chinese environment that we could make look like a triad setting. Our original storyboards featured Si Hin within his own Chinese take away, we were not given permission to film here thus we chose another location. We went with a meat packing factory in which is a Chinese owned factory, we felt as if this would be a great hub for our triads. As the blood from the meat and the fact that carcasses of dead animals will be around the factory, will connote a distressing and a disturbing sense of danger and death.

New schedule for filming

As a group we have decided upon filming on Tuesday 11th January, we are going to film on the streets and within school hopefully we are able to use the office that we want. We will hopefully film both the investigator's office scenes and the investigator stalking the suspect scenes.

Tuesday 11th January- Filming inside school and on the streets around the school.

Typography for main titles

I looked at these two types of typography as i thought they would give the title sequence a rough edge, and it would connote as if the investigator had written them himself through either anger or stress. I liked the idea of him writing the title sequences himself as it to connote that this is his story this is the closure that he needs for his life. This idea would work really well alongside the rest of the title sequence. But i wanted to carry on with the Chinese element to the title sequence so i went back on to Da font and looked at some more font types.

There was a particular font style on Da font that was called Chinese/Japanese style writing, so i chose that particular font and found these ten fonts. There are certain ones that i am more drawn to than others, but i shall show the group all of these fonts during the week and hopefully we might choose one of them. I thought this style of writing would be best fitting for the title sequence as the triad theme is already very apparent throughout our title sequence. As a group we decided against using a type writing style typography as we feel it would not fit in with our title sequence anymore hopefully this one will be more best fitting.