Media Studies 2009-11

Northallerton College Media Studies

Risk Assessment Form

Step 1            Identify the hazards

Roads and strangers.

Step 2            Decide who might be harmed and how

Mainly camera operator as they will be least aware of their surroundings. i.e. Roads and Strangers.

Step 3            Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions

We just have to make sure to be aware of our own and each others surroundings.

Step 4            Record your findings on this form and implement them

Step 5            Review your assessment and update if necessary

Genre: Social Realism Drama

Sub-genre: Comedy

Characters: Male, stereotypical teenager.

Setting: His bedroom, a house party, then another room

Beginning: Talking about party then getting ready,

Middle: Waking up after party with girl, and “Joe” being in the next room.

Ending: Him leaving and seeing an adult and realising they are not real.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uVphjd7l3g

The production company name is “Dz Production.” This was inspired by the owner’s names – David Batty and Jack Zelenka. Their logo is a black background with a brick –patterned font for the “Dz.” This shows the urban style this company produces.

This company are a British film company, and funded by the U.K Film Council. This government run scheme support the making of British films, “who are capable of creating distinctive and entertaining work.” We did find problems with funding the film however. There were lots of props me (the director) and the producers wanted to include, but could not receive the funding because we could not find a distributor. This included use of another urban area, like Middlesbrough. We could not afford the transportation there to do so, so we had to prioritise our money. After we created the film on the money we did manage to get, we went to London Film festival in October to try and locate the distributor we needed. The festival is about promoting independent films from all over, so this was a perfect opportunity to promote Violent Conduct.

We got chatting to a woman named “Elinor Jones” and she owned a distributing company named “Eljo” films. She offered us a fair deal, and Eljo Films distributed the film. Their role is to situate the film to cinema and DVD. The distribution is what makes profits in the production, and British films are only shown in a few cinemas across the country. Violent Conduct was shown in Newcastle, Middlesbrough and London. Due to the fact it is only shown in 3 places, makes the DVD distribution most important. British films are always more successful on DVD than in cinema. Other films in this genre have been more successful in this way, like The Football Factory and The Firm. Vertigo films produced The Football Factory; however they also distributed The Firm. They both made more on the DVD than in cinema. Vertigo is a very successful film company.

When the film was released in cinema, it did achieve greater profit than expected. However the next worry was that the film would be illegally downloaded instead of bought on DVD – which would leave the producers and the distributor out of pocket. This happened to a minimum though, and the DVD, like we thought did rather well.

The preliminary task’s purpose was to get used to using the equipment and to practise using the editing software. Looking back, it was completly differently planned to how our actual film was. We did use a variety of shot types, which included wide shots, mid-shots and two close-ups. Compared to our actual film, this is very minimal. The cuts used in the exercise were not very “clean”, and flickered more than they should have. Since then, my editing skills have clearly improved. We followed the 180 degree rule, and only changed shot angle in a different room. At the end we included the shot-reverse-shot which we were told to, even though it only included 3 shots.

Overall, the preliminary was a success but I chose to work with oher people for my main piece as I felt they were more passionate about the subject than those I worked with in the preliminary. My editing skills, ideas and filming skills have definetly improved since I made the preliminary.

1) Jamie “Bison” Byrom - Violent Conduct  

   2) Pete Dunham – Green Street

Similarities: They are both strong, male characters who love to fight and stand up for they believe in. They do support different teams though. They are both intelligent, interlectual and are successful in life when it comes to women and careers. In terms of appearance, they are both white, middle-class well built figures. They are both not bad looking,and wear “casualwear”. Our main character proudly wears his Stone Island jumper, and in the film Pete Dunham wears a long Stone Island coat. This fits into their casual life style. They are both leaders of their Firms, and both the toughest in their group. Their share the same passions for football and fighting.

1) Bex – The Firm                                             

 2)  Jamie “Bison” Byrom – Violent Conduct

Differences: Bex is older than Bison, and has been leading his Firm alot longer. He has less morals than Bison, and less of a humanist. Basicly, Bex is a bit of a psyco path. In his appearance, he tends to wear brighter coloured, more statement tracksuits. It is set in the 80s, so his appearance is more 80s. His beliefs are the same, but support different footballs teams.

The subway scene – we shot the main characters and their firm first, then filmed the second firm afterwards. It took around an hour to film the violent shots, and all the walking took around 6 hours.