Opening sequence - Final

Storyboard

Questionnaire (exampler results)

This is the final design and modified questionnaire. This is a male and female example's of the finished questionnaire. In this questionnaire we had wanted to find out how many people find opening sequences important as well as the most popular genre. Although we had already chosen drama we had wanted to find out the opinions and views of other people as we may be able to include or think about how we can make our opening sequence better.

Evaluation - Christopher Gordon-Douglas

Christopher Gordon-Douglas – Evaluation


The aim of our coursework was to create a 2 minute opening sequence for a film, we had different tasks to complete which included things like genre research, BBFC study, Auter Study and Film Opening scenes analysis, our main research attribute was watching film opening sequences and using the Internet to find vital information that would aid us in delivering a cutting edge opening sequence. During the production we went through the different steps involved in putting together a film i.e. storyboards and music research so that it suites our picked genre and style.

Our 2-minute opening was based on the drama genre and that particular genre revolves heavily around realistic themes and ideas. I think we achieve this by surpassing the archetypes that the audience expect from a traditional stereotypical drama sequence, also another way we have done this is by putting an element of mystery and enigma in there to keep the audience on edge and wondering what’s going to happen next, our group had to deliver this to keep the audiences attention during the opening sequence, because if we had a poor opening scene the audience feedback wouldn’t be good as it didn’t keep them occupied and entertained, we used many different techniques to try and achieve this, we used a variety of camera angles and shot to keep the suspense , also we tried a lot of editing techniques to make the experience seamless, another element was to use a location that was familiar, e.g. if you are trying to make an urban drama in the countryside it wouldn’t work as the setting doesn’t adhere to what you are trying to achieve.

I think that our media text developed into a real media product because we adhered to the codes and conventions that the drama genre offered to us, and we did this by introducing the setting, the main characters and the setting, but not totally introducing them to the audience by keeping the plot and the characters profile and background limited, and not exposing too much to the audience, also the dialogue helps a lot to adhere to the conventions e.g. in the opening sequence one of the characters says “don’t worry hakims nothing” this shows that the characters work for someone or they look up to someone this shows how deep the storyline goes.

Our media text shows the diverse social groups, e.g. for our text it is urban youth, as there are many different problem revolving around this social group, e.g. knife crime and theft, also our text shows the element of social realism of what people in this social class have to go through to survive on a daily basis.

The media institution that would distribute our film is revolver, as they have distributed many other successful British Film Dramas, as a group and using our own knowledge we decided that Revolver was the perfect choice given their background with the Drama genre also distribution companies such as Paramount and Columbia wouldn't have as much experience at targeting a British audience that would be interested in viewing the film.

They way in which we targeted our audience is with, posters as well as viral marketing by uploading clips to YouTube etc.

Upon looking back I feel that during the course of this task we improved our media language and skills to different branches and gained knowledge that would aid us further.

Name: Christopher Gordon
Candidate Number: 1485
Centre Name: Capital City Academy
Centre Number: 12350

Initial Ideas - Script

Initial Ideas

Ideas for movie title and caption:
• End of the tunnel – (Caption) At the end of the tunnel…Try the beginning of it
• Any day can be the last – (Caption) Live for tomorrows rush
• Where the soldiers stay – (Caption) As deep as your last breath
• Reflection – (Caption) Alone in the streets
• Honour and Respect – (Caption) Sometimes you have to earn it the hard way

Movie title and caption chosen: Where the soldiers stay – (Caption) As deep as your last breath

Characters:
Jason ‘Ghost’ Peniro – (main character) – Has lived in a troubled area for most of his life and has gone through many bad incidents which he regrets. As the movie goes on Jason decides he needs a change in life and attitude a positive change, but there are many external factors which keeps dragging him down so he must overcome these hurdle through any means necessary.

Charlene Peniro – (Supporting character) – Is a single parent that raised Jason on her own. Although she is a supporting character she plays a major role in trying to change Jason.

Melanie Andrews – (secondary character) – Is Jason’s girlfriend who occasionally gets him to stay out of trouble by pulling him away from arguments which could get Jason in to deeper trouble than he already is, she is one of the positive influences in Jason’s life. Melanie does not get along with Dillon, Jason’s cousin as she knows that Dillon is one of the main reasons why Jason gets in to trouble in the first place.

Dillon Hedge – (secondary character) – Is Jason’s cousin that plays a negative role in Jason’s life by getting himself out of trouble whilst landing Jason in to it. He is one of the main reasons why Jason usually ends up in trouble; Dillon does not get along with Melanie as she usually pulls Jason away from him to keep Jason from getting influenced.

There would also be other minor characters introduced.
Story/Plot/Narrative:
Born and raised in a rough area of West London, Jason is trapped in a lifestyle which he himself regrets getting in to, he had gotten kicked out of college for abusive behaviour as well as a list of convictions which has resulted in Jason finding it hard to get a job, which forces him in to another lifestyle of drug dealing influenced by his cousin Dillon. Tired and fed up of this lifestyle had decided to go on a straight path and change his outlook from negative to positive with his girlfriend Melanie and his supporting mother Charlene, how-ever what drags him back is his troubled lifestyle revolving around drugs, gangs, guns and knives but most importantly his troublesome cousin Dillon which always influences Jason to get in to trouble. In the movie we see Jason changing his outlook until Dillon influences him to get in to something which can potentially land Jason in jail as well as leaving him in some criminal’s bad sides which Jason goes along with. After this flip of events Jason must overcome situations which could lead to his death, his situations keep on getting deeper and deeper until finally he tells his mum and girlfriend who help him out. After a heavy turn of events and incidents Jason gets out of trouble and can finally decide to lead a good life with his mum and girlfriend but his cousin Dillon is still in a sticky situation, Dillon rings up Jason and tells him his (Dillon’s) life hangs in the balance if he doesn’t decide to show up where Dillon is. Soon after the phone call he straight away knows what he may get in to if he goes to where Dillon is, so he has either 2 options:
• Leave Dillon and settle down peacefully, or
• Leave his mum and girlfriend and possibly the good life to try and save Dillon.
The latter shows Jason choosing to save Dillon and leave everything but when he gets to where Dillon is he gets a nasty shock as Dillon had set him up with the people that were after Jason and Dillon ending in Jason getting shot and Dillon staring down on Jason as Dillon had sold out Jason to save himself.

Two minute opening sequence:
For the two minute opening scene we are going to show Jason coming out of his flat/block etc. we then see him on the phone to his cousin Dillon, who just woke up telling Jason he will be ready in an hour or two then inviting him to his house. We then see Jason making a movement towards Dillon’s house which fades away representing a time skip of about an hour. Jason knocks on Dillon’s door, Dillon fed up gets up to open the door. The scene is later shown to Jason and Dillon having a conversation about their plans for the night. Jason has a worried face whereas Dillon is carefree. The end of this scene shows Jason and Dillon ending their conversation and walking out the door.

Script

The beginning of the scene shows Jason coming out of his flat/block, we then see a P.O.V of him opening the door and then a worms eye view of him coming outside to represent that he has power outside of his house. We then see Jason making a phone call to someone as he pulls out his phone.

Jason: yeah, hello… Where are you?

Scene cuts to see Dillon waking up and picking up the phone.

Dillon: I’m at home… just woke up you know

Scene cuts back to Jason to see and hear his reply. A consistent reverse-shot-reverse is done.

Jason: What do you mean you just woke up…? How long are you gonna be?

Dillon: Don’t know… may be an hour, Come over to mines

Jason: should I come over yeah

Dillon: yeah still

Jason: alright I’m on my way, make sure your ready

Dillon: OK cool bye

Jason: Make sure

Dillon: OK bye

Scene cuts to Jason to see him making a movement towards Dillon’s House. Scene cuts to Dillon and a loud knocking is heard. Dillon frustrated, gets up to answer the door. When he opens the door Jason is show ready to nag him.

Jason: You’re not even ready yet

Dillon: So what man

Jason: What do you mean what man

Dillon: Just get in the house

Jason enters the house, angry at Dillon for not being ready. Scene fades to Dillon’s living room.

Jason: You’re letting me down man
Dillon: Whatever

Dillon is getting ready by putting on his jacket and other clothing. Scene cuts to a nervous Jason.

Jason: You do know if Hakim find out where dead

Jason is worried whilst Dillon is carefree, this line represents that Dillon and Jason would be doing something that puts them at risk. A reaction shot of Dillon and Jason is shown. Scene cuts to Dillon putting on his trainers in a carefree way.

Dillon: Don’t worry man… You worry too much… Hakims nothing man

Dillon: Let’s go!

Dillon and Jason both exit the living room which fades away to represent the end of the two minute opening scene.

MUSIC RESEARCH

Music Research

Artist name: Styles p
Track: Alone in the streets
Album: Time is money
Genre: Rap/Hip-Hop
We had thought about using this track as our opening sequence theme but had decided not to go with it, although it did go along with our storyline/theme it had not reached our expectations for the opening sequence as it did not go with the filming that we had done.

Artist name: Styles p ft Nas
Track: What they want
Album: unknowm
Genre: Rap/Hip-Hop
For a while we had used this track as our theme song but had decided to change it due to the negative feedback as well as the explicit language used in the track. The reason that we had gotten negative feedback for this track is because it does not suit the theme of our genre.

Artist: P-Money
Track: Single Words
Album: Money Over Everyone
Genre: Grime
This is the track we had decided to use since it had positive feedback as well as hardly any explicit language which meant that audiences would not be offended when listening or viewing the opening sequence. Although this is the ideal track there are negatives as well since it is a fast paced track whilst our sequence is slow paced.

Artist: JME
Track: Sidetracked
Album: unknown
Genre: Grime
This is the track that we were thinking very highly of to use since it did convey the message of the movie but the reason that we had not used it is because it conveyed it at the wrong part of the movie as it would be fit for the middle of the movie but not the beginning.

Artist: Ghetto
Track: Buss one
Album: Freedom of speech
Genre: Grime
This track was not very ideal for our opening sequence since it did not convey no message for our opening sequence at all. Also this track is a bit too violant as well as sending out the opposite message that we would want to send, overall it is the exact opposite of what we were looking for.

There were many other tracks that we went through before we had used our final track. We had gone through many artist’s playlists such as Eminem, Dr.Dre, Devlin,, Plan B, Lil wayne etc. we had gone through more than 30+ tracks before we had finally found the track that we wanted play for oour opening sequence.

Sohel Uddin Ahmeds - Evaluation

Evaluation

The coursework that we had been working and filming on was to create a two minute opening sequence to a movie, to do this we had to research on a lot of different media products and institutes to find out what makes a successful two minute opening. The research was primarily based on what kind of materials we could use for our opening product. This research was later processed in to the foundations of our opening sequence, some of the research had included:

• Watching clips: we had watched many different openings to assess which kind of footage we would be offering.

• Music research: we also researched on what type of style (genre) and track we were going to play in our 2 minute opening scene as music can help develop a dramatic effect in opening scenes and give an idea of what the sequence may be about.

• Storyboard/ideas/script: we as a group had to storyboard as well as come up with ideas and a script to finalize this idea.

There were also other research we had carried out, the output results were our final media product.

The 2 minute opening sequence that we had developed uses actual real media products as our genre was drama and drama heavily revolves around realistic themes. The ways that our media product uses real media products is by playing with the emotions and ideologies of the audience by using a music track that relates to our opening sequence for e.g. in a thriller movie you would expect a music which changes in tempo to play with the minds of the audience. Another way that our media product uses real media product is by catching the audiences interest by showing them or giving them a taster of what the opening scene as well as the movie will be about, the reason that catching the audiences attention is important is so that the audience do not give negative feedback as well as viewing the movie to the end. This means the way that we had caught the audience’s attention was by showing them an establishing shot right in the beginning of the 2 minute sequence. The reason that this will catch the audience’s attention is because the movie will be played mainly in London as well as set in London it self which means audiences may want to know the issues as well as scenarios as what may be going on.

The way that our media product develops in to a real media product is because it follows the codes and conventions of an actual media product for e.g. an actual media product would introduce its main characters in the beginning and develop on them throughout the movie not exposing too much in the start of the movie. We had followed this convention by introducing 2 main characters not exposing too much but developing on the convention by exposing a little bit of their nature as we only have 2 minutes and more to catch the audience’s attention. This is shown in our work when Jason (name not introduced for suspense) says “if Hakim finds out, you know he’s gonna kill us” this suggests that the nature of the characters run deep as the word kill is a strong word which also can show what the characters are involved in.

Our media product also challenges the forms and conventions of drama as the beginning is shown as serious as well as exposing some of the storyline and plot. The reason that this challenges the form and conventions of real drama media products is because drama movies develop their characters through out the movie by using the convention equilibrium-disequilibrium-equilibrium, whilst our product uses disequilibrium-equilibrium-disequilibrium with the seriousness of the drama and other conventions used as well. This also challenges forms and conventions since our product goes straight in to action and seriousness whilst real drama products takes time developing the situation and then adding the character/s in to that situation. Our media product also challenges forms and conventions since some of the footage shown in our drama is not part of the drama conventions yet has all the other conventions that a drama would have for e.g. P.O.V shots are not a main convention in drama, it is usually shown in third person whilst our media product has recurring P.O.V shots.

The 2 minute opening sequence that we had filmed and edited represents many different types of social groups but urban youth in particular. The reason that it represents the urban youths is because there are many different issues that revolve around the urban areas such as gun crime, knife crime, drug dealing etc. Also it represents the options that urban youths have when they get kicked out of college as many citizens of different classes are oblivious of what goes on in the urban area as well as the small and limited options and opportunities this social group has which forces them to do things to survive. Our media product also represents teenagers that get involved with dangerous conflicts as well as situations that most grown men wouldn’t be able to handle. It also represents how it is hard to turn around their lives with limited options and opportunity as well as other factors such family, friends, contacts etc.

The media institute which would distribute our media product is Revolver since Revolver is based around London as well as producing similar drama content such as KiDULTHOOD, BULLETBOY etc. We have also produced research on different types of institutes so that we can know or find out which would be the best suitable institute to distribute our media product. Although no research had been done on Revolver, primarily on the big institutes such as Columbia, Paramount etc. we had decided from internal knowledge that the best media institute to distribute our product would be Revolver as  Revolver are more in to touch with our target audience than any other media institute. Our target audience are urban youths, teenagers aged between 14-19 as well as adults so that the adults aged between 25-35 know about the situation that revolves around the urban youths. Also another reason that we had gone for revolver is because it is successful when distributing independent movies seeing as our opening sequence as well as our whole product is indie.

The way that we had attracted/addressed our audience is through marketing such as using our posters to let our target audience know about the movie. Although we used one method of marketing (poster) which may not get the result we may of wanted we had worked around that by deciding to also use viral marketing by uploading our two minute opening sequence on to YouTube. We had also worked around this issue by exposing the poster in a location where a lot of our target audience may reside. This helps us also to use another form of marketing which is word of mouth, this means the more we can expose to our target audience the more they will talk about the opening scene making more awareness towards our audience.

Whilst producing our media product I have witness as well as taken in how different platforms of media can come together to create a media product, for e.g. the technologies we use to film our product, the software’s to edit the filming as well as to create posters to market the product. Throughout the process I have learnt that there is much more to just filming and editing to product a first hand media product. Though it was a challenge such as learning how to use the equipment as well as new software’s on the iMac we were still determined to produce a piece of work that was more than up to standards. Being a windows user I found the iMac to be harder as well as confusing to use, despite these facts I was able to overcome this factor and was able to produce work that had nearly matched my skills in windows.

Looking back at my preliminary I feel that I have improved in my camera work as I had also done some camera work during our production. I also feel that I am more opened minded to different types of ideas to introduce in to my work. These ideas I feel have helped me to produce the quality of work that I have worked on. During the production process I have learnt how to use camera angles most effectively as well as using it in the timing for e.g. using a worms eye view to show power on a character etc. I have also learnt and harnessed my editing skills on the imac’s software iMovie, though it was a challenge getting used to the software in how to edit, crop, add effects etc I have found that the iMovie is a very useful as well as a powerful tool to use for an independent movie as it could be used as a low budgeted tool for indie films.

Evaluation by: Sohel Uddin Ahmed

Candidate number: 1204

Centre number: 12350

As level media studies

Mise-En-Scene - Avatar (2009)

Mise-en-scene in the 2009 film Avatar the costume has a very unique look and hasnt been done before, in this film new and innovative technology has been used to create a new world, animals and characters that has never been done before, this technology is newly developed and is a big step in future development of films. In avatar they were able to make distinctive new and never before seen creatures that look extremly life like, aswell as making a specie of natives that have an innovative design and human like features. The stand out of the film is the the world in which the movie is set, during the night the scene comes to life and mesmerises the auidence with its lighting and scenery in general.

Camera Angles - The Dark Knight

This is an Example of a close up it shows the full image of the face.

This is an example of a two shot, it shows two characters in the scene.

This is a canted camera shot as it shows distortion and shows a sense of imbalance and danger.

This is a focus zoom, it shows someone close and some of blurred in the distance.

This is an example of an over the shoulder shot where the carea looks over a characters shoulder for a conversation or meeting.

 

This shows a low angle shot, this tpye of shot gives the character a sense of power as the auidence is looking up at him.

 

This is an example of a close up it shows mostly the characters face.

This is an example of a long shot, it is used to show a character or characters at a distance with some scenery in the shot aswell of buildings.

This is an example of a tracking shot, it usually has a moving object and the camera follows it along its path.

 

This is an Ariel shot, it shows a city or landscape looking directly down toward the ground.

Film Poster Final

Institution Research - Paramount Pictures

Paramount pictures is a film production company that produces and distributes film across the world, they were founded in 1912 and are currently owned by media company Viacom, it is currently America’s oldest film production studio and is the only remaining studio to be situated in Hollywood, there current revenue stream is more that 3 billion annually.

Paramount were founded in 1912 under the name Famous Players Film Company, right from the offset they started making feature length films for the target audience, these films led to the studios being more and more recognized, in 1914’s they started releasing films under “Paramount Pictures Corporation”, this led to Paramount becoming the worlds leading film distributor, this led to paramount getting famous and well known actors such as Gloria Swanson etc, this led to them introducing the “Block Booking” system which meant that if a theatre wanted to show a film that had a well known star they had to buy other paramount films as well this is what led to paramount being the no1 film company at the time, with this new found success paramount’s key people wanted to expand this led to them building over 2,000 movie theatres and 2 production studios to maximize revenue they also acquired a 50% equity in CBS(Columbia Broadcasting System). In 1936 Zukor bought out most of the shareholders of paramount and restructured the company as Paramount Pictures, Inc, this led to paramount making some of the most memorable films of recent time, which includes titles such as Titanic and Saving Private Ryan, but early into the 2000’s paramount announced that its parent company’s have split the announcement that CBS and Viacom splitting left Paramount with networks such as MTV and BET.

In 2005 Paramount bought out DreamWorks which is a modern production studios that produces different types of media from films to video games, the deal in which DreamWorks was bought was roughly around 1.6 billion, this led to paramount getting the distribution rights to DreamWorks Animations film which raked in even more money with the releases of the Shrek Franchise, this deal was active until 2008 when DreamWorks announced that they were looking for a new distribution partner. Also during this time Paramount were one of the first major film production/distribution studio to support physical HD Media in the form of Blu-ray and HD-DVD this early support for the format led them to re-releasing there key film franchises in the high definition format as well as adding extras due to the disc capabilities of the physical disc format, also paramount extended there film distribution horizons by opting to distribute through downloads and streaming media through 3rd Party hardware and software e.g. Netflix and through game consoles i.e. Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

Genre Research

Genre Research


Genre is a type or category in which a media form or type could fall under. There are many different types of genres for e.g. comedy, drama, horror, action etc. There are also hybrid genres a hybrid genre is a form with two or more genres for e.g. rom-com, action-adventure, Sit-Com etc. As well as genres and hybrid genres there are also sub-genres. A sub-genre is the divided form of a genre with elements which make up a whole genre. Sub-genre could also be defined as a minor style in a normal films genre for e.g. in an action movie you may have disaster as a sub-genre. A genre could be determined by its sense of style as well as the conventions, conventions is what we expect to see which means each genre has a distinctive character or convention in which it determines its style.

Action is a genre in which there is more of exciting action sequences such as fights, car chases, extreme sports etc. rather than a depth of storytelling/narrative. It also focuses more on its sequences and SFX as well as emphasising them more than working on character development. The action genre has many different sub-genres which helps identify the type of action movie. These sub genres can range from a variety of sub styles such as martial arts or any other extreme sports as well as car chases and other types of vehicles. Action is also one of the main genres that are viewed worldwide because of its budgets spend on SFX as well as its hook to intrigue audiences and keeping them on their seats. There are also many conventions in the Action genre, these conventions are:

• Fast Pace: Most action movies are fast paced to keep audiences on edge as well as setting the atmosphere to be tension filled as well as non-relaxing.

• Equilibrium-Disequilibrium-Equilibrium (Hero and Villain): Action movies tend to use the equilibrium balance system to portray action movies this is a convention as well as being one of actions basic narratives, a convention that we would be expecting is that this balance system will usually be shown in good vs. evil i.e. Hero vs. Villains. There are many more conventions of Action.

Comedy is also one of the major genres in film alongside action since comedy appeals to all ages and groups. Comedy is a humorous genre which is practiced to make the audience laugh this is usually at the expense of the character or the situation that they are in. There are also many sub-genres in comedy, these sub-genres can range from different types of sub-genres for e.g. Wordplay comedy, wordplay comedy is a more intellectual form of comedy as it deals with twisting up or manipulating words to make the audience laugh this could be done through puns or rude remarks. There are also different types and forms of comedy such as a mockumentary where it mocks (makes fun of) documentaries, another type of comedy which is similar to mockumentary is spoof/parody, spoof/parody is when there is another movie (comedy) which makes fun of other movies of different or same genre for e.g. Meet the Spartans was a spoof/parody of the movie 300. Like other genres comedy also has conventions, these conventions are:

• Humour: Humour is a main convention of comedy, as the audience would be expecting some sort of comical gags as comedy sets the atmosphere to funny and live sort of place.

• Characters/Situations: Audiences would be expecting some sort of comical trap or comical character so that the audience could laugh at their expense as well as their situation. There are many more conventions of Comedy.

Drama is a genre with a deep storyline and meaning, drama also has realistic characters as well as narratives and heavily realistic themes usually with an in depth emotional storyline. Most of these themes/narratives could be seen on reflecting life such as criminal activities, politics as well as corruption in society and much more. Drama like other genres could also be divided in to sub-forms i.e. crime drama, docudrama etc. Romance and tragedy can also be seen as sub-genres as romance and tragedy have an in depth of emotional storylines as well as having some realistic themes and characters. Although docudrama, crime drama and others, can be seen as sub-genres we could also call them hybrid dramas since these genres have a mixture of two genres. Drama also has conventions audiences would want to see, these conventions are:

• Real life issues: Audiences would expect to see real life issues as drama is based on reality, which means that audience would expect to relate to the drama movies.

• Corruption: In a drama movie we would expect to see some sort of corruption as the corruption is mainly the disequilibrium of the drama.

Romance is a genre that revolves around the liking of someone (love) between a male and a female character, romance like some other genres have deep emotional storylines as well as realistic themes. These themes as well as emotional storylines could also be broken in to sub-genres, the sub-genres are included in romance are comedy, adventure, drama etc. Romance could also be put in hybrid genres such as Action Romance which is a mixture of both the action genre and the romance genre. The Romance drama could also be categorised as a genre that does well when put with other forms of media as it is successful in appealing its target audiences. Like all genres romance also has conventions, these conventions are:

• Male and Female lead roles: Since the genre is romance the audience would expect a relationship between a male and female as well as the lead roles developing on this relationship

• Situation: We as an audience would be expecting to see some sort of situation to see the main leads overcome this situation and work it out so that the characters can show true feelings in the movie as the romance genre is heavily revolved around emotions.

Horror revolves around supernatural and eerie events as horror is meant to keep audiences in the dark to give them a scare. This means that the elements in horror could range from anything such as suspense, action etc anything to keep the audiences on the edge of their seats, the main element that horror uses is supernatural elements and surprises. Horror also has sub-genres; these sub-genres are thriller, action, adventure, comedy and much more. Horror is a successful genre because it also appeals to all ages and different audiences as horror could be very entertaining. Horror like all other genres also has conventions, the conventions in the horror genre:

• Supernatural: We as the audience would expect to see supernatural elements as supernatural events are unusual and unexplained which gives it a scary mystery behind the idea of supernatural events.

• Mystery: Since certain events are unexplained the audience would expect to see mysterious elements which leave’s them in the dark.

British Board Of Film Classification

The British Board of Film Classification also abbreviated/short for the B.B.F.C is a British non-governmental organisation, this means that the government do not own this organization and therefore is seen as an independent business which deals with censoring and certifying movies or other forms of media such as video games, albums etc. The B.B.F.C has been censoring Movies and other forms of media for a long time. It was set up in 1912 originally named the British Board of Film Censors which was then changed in the latter development of the B.B.F.C in 1984.

The B.B.F.C or the British board of film classification, it is an institution as well as taking a form as a regulator, which censors movies and categorises them for the right age. Not only does the B.B.F.C censor movies but it also censors other forms of media such as video games, DVD’s and more. The B.B.F.C was founded in 1912 which was originally named the British board of film censor which was later changed in 1984 to the British board of film classification after the parliament had passed the video recordings act. The B.B.F.C had started when the cinematograph act 1909 was introduced, fearing that the governmental bodies will put down some films, so in response to this fear the film industries had come up with the B.B.F.C to deal with the censoring of films. The B.B.F.C also has a job which is to pass movies, DVD’s etc. this job is taken very strictly as seen with the censoring of movies as well as the advice and critics given to the film industries.

The B.B.F.C does this by viewing the movie more than once to clarify any mistakes which needs censoring and files a review/report based around what needs to be censored and edited. After filing the review/report and advice on what needs to be edited and censored the B.B.F.C will then send back the movie to the institute which produced the movie for the final cuts along with the review. The B.B.F.C will also give feedback to the institute such as comments, suggestion etc. to improve the movie and so that these improvements would be able to bring out the movies full potential. The B.B.F.C will censor the movie or media according to the appropriate age category that the institute which has developed that form of media has chosen. The institute will then have to follow the censor rule and edit the clips which must be taken out but is compulsory if they want to follow the advice or not which gives some freedom to the institute, most institutes follow the advice as it will help them achieve their conventions for the intended audience and in some cases make them change their mind about their target audience for e.g. The bourne identity was the first ever film to be classified as 12a because of its violence and storyline, based around this decision it shows how heavy B.B.F.C can influence an instate.

The B.B.F.C censors movies and other type of media forms so that it can be released legally and so that it can also be released for the right and intended audience. The B.B.F.C also gives information and advice on censoring to the producers so that they can edit it and so that it can also be released in England and other parts of the U.K. The B.B.F.C has a major role to do which is critical in terms of media, the role that they play in media is that they regulate it by viewing different media forms such as magazines, movies etc and give it an age certificate so that it is appropriate for the right audience and age group, also the B.B.F.C gives a brief warning of what the movie contains, this warning is usually seen on the back cover of the DVD box set at the bottom of the cover. The warning that B.B.F.C gives us are: Language: mild, Run time: 1:37 mins, age rating and more. This information also tells us why it is certified for that age group as well as giving us a warning about any offensive material.

The reasons that the B.B.F.C censors most media forms is because it is simple to pick up a weapon/tool to hurt someone else for e.g. picking up a knife and to go out and use it as shown in various movies. Not only are movies imitable but also video games as most video games tend to revolve around pure violence such as games like Call Of Duty.

A prime e.g. of this violent epidemic would be manhunt. The reason that manhunt is a good example to use is because it had been banned in the U.K by the B.B.F.C as it was too violent and too easy to imitate, another e.g. is how Stanley Kubrick had banned his own movie, a clockwork orange. The reason that he banned his own movie is because of his knowledge about how things could be imitable he knew that if it were to be released then crime rates may increase because of all the imitable violence in the movie which can simply be copied, because of these fears that crime rates may increase, the B.B.F.C censors movies, they also censor movie for other reason like:

• Some scenes are not suitable for the intended audience.

• Some scene may be racist and offensive for viewers.

• Many movies have been copied all over the world and has had an heavy impact on society.

• Copying movie stunts has become a major problem as many of these stunts lead to severe injury.

The B.B.F.C uses the age certificate system to classify the movies category regarding age groups. There are many reasons why the B.B.F.C uses an age certificate system for e.g. there may be scenes in an adult movie, which may not be suitable for a child such as sex scenes, racially abusive and sexually abusive scenes. All if not most media forms have classifiers as some do not, for e.g. a media institute which creates educational documentaries do not, this is because it can be used for educational purposes and its intentions are to give knowledge to viewers, not just the educational documentaries which have no classifiers but there are other forms of media which do not have classifiers such as an advertisement’s in magazines and other sources as its intentions are to create consumer awareness.

The B.B.F.C is also there so that violent, unsuitable and abusive scenes are not imitated or shown to the wrong audience, since violent, unsuitable and abusive images can easily influence the audience/viewers to imitate or mimic the scene as well as the behaviour and actions that are shown with in that scene. In our own opinion we think that T.V as well as other types of media forms are being mimicked and imitated heavily. Also the elders have the moral responsibility of setting an example which means that if they start abusing that responsibility by doing the wrong things, then the children who view these elders as role models then they might end up doing the same thing that they see on T.V as they do not know the concepts between right and wrong since they are not up to the level of maturity as we are as well as imitating these scenes as they would want to be like their role models.

There are many reasons for the evidence of mimicking behaviour from what children see on T.V one of these evidence is by viewing the activities on the school play ground or outside of school or during any of their free time. What is seen is that children imitate behaviour from their favourite T.V shows for e.g. YU-GI-OH, Pokémon, Dragon ball z and much more. These behaviour and imitations can be seen in the form of trading card games. This is where the owner of the trading cards can be like the characters from their favourite show.

Even though the B.B.F.C is doing what they think is for our safety and benefit, I think that we should have the freedom of choice based on what we want to watch with out censoring the movie but at a certain age since if the viewer is too young then they might try and take advantage and watch movies which are unsuitable for them. The age group which should be the age that we get to view whatever we like is 16 and over. The reason that I think it should be this age is because if people/audience at any age could be able to watch what they like then many of the younger generation may abuse that privilege and end up watching scenes which may affect them heavily and how they think and also by watching something which can easily be imitated.

Also the reason that I think this age group to watch what they like should be 16 is because at this age group the audience should be mature in what they watch and also before they imitate something from a movie, T.V etc then they will take account of the consequences of their actions and how it can affect them and others around them. These consequences could be:

• Getting in to trouble with the law and ending up in prison

• Harming people around them such as family and friends (mentally and physically)

• Relationships (family and friends) leaving relationships in a negative state

• Society out casting them, not helping them out in times of need

• Reputation turning bad which may result in no one taking them seriously

The opening sequence of our movie will be aged at 15, the reason this is, is because our movie may contain violent images which can easily be imitable since our genre is drama which means that it will be based heavily on realistic themes as well as issues in society.

Institution research - Columbia Pictures

Columbia pictures is a film production company that produces and distributes film across the world, they were founded in 1919 and has gone through many ownerships including being purchased by Coca Cola and more recently Sony. During the golden age of film it was part of the little three this meant that they were a recognised film studio but on a small scale, over the years they have been based in California, there films have tended to be of a wide variety of genre for e.g. comedy. They are now currently part of Tri-star pictures, which is an agreement with HBO, and CBS to produce and distribute film and TV shows. Columbia’s logo is made up of a woman covered in the American flag holding a lamps/light which is called the statue of liberty, usually when it is showed during a film the camera the camera zooms out to reveal the torch and the woman, over the years this logo has gone under many revisions.

The studio was formed in 1919 under a different name, Cohn-Brandt-Cohn Film Sales, and was owned by Jack and Harry Cohn and Joe Brandt but it wasn’t until 1922 where they released their first film and soon after that they changed to Columbia Pictures and soon after that they started to become more popular by the 1920s, and with that popularity more lucrative directors wanted to produce films for them one of which is Frank Capra, with his help they were able to lure more well known actors and directors, but with more success meant more money was being spent and soon Columbia couldn’t pay for everything so effectively they had use what there budget could take despite the directors that were signed to them asking for bigger budgets, but there fortunes soon changed as they were getting more annual profit, they were bought out by coca cola in 1982, coca cola decided to buy them instead of investing in Disney and the partnership meant good things for Columbia where they produced films such as Ghostbusters and the Karate Kid, Columbia also branched out into Television, and produced TV shows such as The Jefferson’s, with the increasing cost of film productions Coca Cola brought in some partners in the form of HBO and CBS to form Tri-Star Pictures eventually those 2 partners dropped out and then was renamed Columbia Pictures Entertainment, this soon led to Sony buying them and saw Coca Cola get a feasible profit form the transaction, Sony then expanded by opening Sony Pictures Studios, Soon after it was re-branded again under Sony Pictures Entertainment, they went on to produce stellar films like Spider-man and Men in Black.

Since the take-over of Sony they have produced many of films that have done very well at the box office selling millions and appealing to the mass audience, they have been able to produce as well as acquire lucrative franchises and create new and successful franchises and gaining revenue of over $1.3 Billion and cementing there place as the most successful film producing and distribution company of that year, also Sony bought MGM one of Columbia’s rivals in film production and this gave them access to a larger library of film franchises that was previously held by MGM such as James Bond.

Film Poster Analysis

Film Editing

On the 11 th of December we were guest treated by a film editor named Laurie McDowell who came to talk to our media class about the illusion film art of editing for films and music videos. It was a very informal discussion on the concepts of editing itself such as how editing is used to tell the story using thetransitions of clever editing techniques like action match to smooth the audience from one cut to another and the important understanding of how editing is an illusionary film art that cuts to where it really counts of the drama in between the dialogue.

The most important comment that I found was to film a sequence several times from different camera angles so as not to bore the audience with a still frame of the performance and continuity editing.

He also explained the use of editing in music videos to engage and distort the audience but stressed the importance of cutting with the music, beat and lyrics with graphic images and creating escapism through the music with fast pace action.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

Mise-en-scene/ Narrative

The opening sequence is an enigma because it draws the audiences attention to whats happening and put them into a state of mystery so the audience can suss out the story. It adds mystery to the story as the audience has had a taster on first impressions from the title scenes, it looks like a spy film because the opening credits are similar t that of James Bond.

One of the main narrative agents that drive the story forward is the magic trick part as it attracts the audiences attention as its a tense scene and gives a sense of danger as someone's life is in the balance. It conforms to the enigma formula as the setting of the first scene misleads the audience to what the stories about.

Setting
The opening sequence looks like it is set outdoors in a back garden. In the first scene the colour looks dated and old which gives the impression that its a passage in time. The opening scenes are abstract as they are animated and it tries to tell the course of the story. The opening scene setting is unexpected because it contrasts from the title of the film, when you hear Kiss Kiss Bang Bang you expect it to be more than a magic trick in a back garden.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjW95XLN9tE