MAIN Post 9: Production

How did the shoot go?
I feel that the shoot went very well due to the fact that my group and I were commited to making a success of it. We chose a very good cast of background actors and they acted very well and were in character throughout the shooting of the film. The different camera shots made the continuity of the film very good, for example we had medium close ups to show the shock horror on the actors.

What problems did you encounter?
The problems that me and my group encountered was the time we had to shoot our film due to the fact that camera only had a very short battery from previous use and us not charging it. This meant that we could have been prone rushing and forgetting things, thankfully we didn't. Also to produce the casino type tense lighting we had a light bulb dangling from the ceiling. The problem was half way through shooting the tape lost its grip and the light bulb went crashing to the floor, this meant we had to use the normal lighting which didn't have the same effect.

How did you overcome the problems?
We overcame the problems by using only half the fixed lighting through the light switches which made us still have the same effect but not as good, resulting in continuity not being very consistent. Also we went and got a back up battery just in case the one we was using ran out, plus making sure that the actors knew their lines and exactly what they were doing so we didn't have to do re-takes.

How well did you work as a team?
In my opinion we worked very efficiently as a team. The communication between us was second to none. Everybody knew their jobs and there was no arguing as to who was doing what. My group and I made sure that we was all allocated jobs to carry out in the production of the film resulting in it being a success.

From looking at the film i can see that there are some continuity areas for example, theres a scene when i face the wall and my shirt is untucked at the back, but when i walk over to lily the hostage it is somehow tucked in. Its tiny small details that make or break a film but thankfully you have to look closely to view ours. The editing side of it, which i have to praise jack and charlie for done a very good job and the film looks very good as there are no sudden jumps which make the cuts bad.

MAIN Post 8: Pre-production documentation

Synopsis of the Whole Film - Dwain Jefferson (Danny) an undecover police federal agent has been tasked yet again with an hostage situation, this time its perosnal and the Mafia gang who he's had dealing with in the past have captured his girlfriend. Dwain wanting his girlfriend back and to take out the mob searches streets, people and houses for clues. The Mafia mob have captured his girlfriend (lily) for one thing only, money. The reasoning is that Dwain has been left a million dollars by his late father. The question is will dwain give in and give them the money, or bust the door in and go in all guns blazing like a scene from a wild west western film or will the mafia get the money and keep the girlfirend?

Synopsis of the opening sequence - Camera is hovering over Dwain within his office with a black and white screen to show the depression and emotion behind him looking at a picture over his dead dad and thinking whether he will be looking at a picture of his dead girl friend, the opening credits then slowly are shown inturn at the bottom of the screen. The camear then switches to the Mafia mob playing a round of poker as Dwains girlfriend sits tied up in the background. They then recieve a phone call from Dwain, which he puts the phone down on them, then he comes busting in through the door, the camera then fades out and the film title appears.

Mise-en-scene description

Shot list

Crew list - the film
Jack - 'Vinnie'
Danny - 'Dwain'
Charlie - 'Sonny'
Me - 'Tony'

Crew list - off screen roles
Jack Cotton - Director/editor/pre-production
Charlie - Chief editor/pre-production
Me - Pre-production
Danny - Pre-production

The Script

Time Line/ Treatment

Storyboard

Location Recce

MAIN Post 7 - Focus Group

Above is the video of Louis Stewart, we asked Louis a series of questions, for example we asked louis what he thought of the script on paper and he replied that he thought it looked good and we had aimed at the right target audience. Have a listen.

MAIN Post 6: History of your chosen genre

The majority of action films which you see include tremendous impactand continuous high energy, to keep the audience with the whole rhythmof the scene and what’s going on. Lots of physical stunts and activity areput in to emphasise on the whole action and brutality of the scene. Theyinclude chase scenes, races, rescues, battles these are all included, theyget people adrenalin flowing as normally these are faced paced andinclude large impacts and destruction. Martial arts and fight scenes areincluded in a lot of fight scene mainly used by the main characters todefeat the bad guy they use allot of non-stop motion, spectacular rhythmand pacing to really get the audience to feel the pace and spped of thefight . Destructive disasters which normally includefloods, explosions, natural disasters these always have one of the morevenerable characters also know as the ‘ Damsel In Distress’ where themain character does a spectacular rescue.During the 1920s and 1930s many films featured asswashbuckling, these are action adventure subgenre films, theynormally consist of sword fighting and adventurous heroiccharacters, these will normally be sit in renaissance westernEurope, the plot to this is normally a damsel in distress and a romanticelement.The 1940s and 1950s saw a different subgenre of films, most films in the 40sand 50s were mainly in he form of a war film, or a cowboy movie. War filmswere generally related on warfare, these either consisted of naval, air or landbattles. Some of these were prisoners of war this is where the film has the plotof someone who is held in prisoner by an enemy during or immediately afterthe war or conflict between either sides. The 1960s Introduced a new subgenre of action films, this was the SpyAdventure Genre, These films, were something new, James Bond cameinto the whole equation, These films dominated the action films of 1960s.This introduced to everyone the staples of a modern day action film. Thesefilms normally consisted of a ‘one man army’.The 1970s, This is where bond saw a competition on his hands thesewere gritty detective stories and urban crime dramas, these consisted ofthis new action style, leading to a string of police officer films all of whichfeatured an intense car chase, which they replicated of bonds popularstuntwork of the Bond films.The 70s also saw the introduction of martial-arts films to westernaudiences.