Media Studies Blog 2009-2011

 Whilst this shot appears to be very well lit however when recording the scenes seemed much darker.

 This shot shows the filming of the punch to camera and also various other members of the cast.

 This shot here is the rival firm waiting for the green light to come around the corner and into the scene.

This is a photograph of me using Adobe Premiere. We used Adobe Premiere for all of the editing in our film and also for adding effects such as cross-dissolves and freeze- frames.    

 This below is a screengrab where you can see the Premiere interface more clearly. The column in the top left shows all clips or images that are ready to be placed on the timeline. The timeline is the bottom part with the blocks. Once captured, the film is placed on the timeline as one large block but is then cut using the cut tool, from the toolbox on the very right hand side at the bottom. The largest section obviously shows the film as it is layed out on the timeline. Finally the box in the bottom left corner is where all the effects are found, for example Slow motion etc.

 This is a picture of me setting up the camera to make sure all is in order before going out on a shoot. At that very point i am checking the range of mobility on the Y axis of the tripod.

We also used Photoshop to create our Company logo

This is a link to the annotated version of Violent Conduct http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jLXmSylZ5c

Apture does not show up the annotations, so you will have to copy and paste the link.

This here is a link to the opening sequence of Guy Ritchie’s RocknRolla http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6S5CM7C7-g&feature=related which is mentioned as a film with a similar target audience.

  We filmed in two distinct sections. We filmed up to the end of the hand held scene then edited all of that half to completion. We then filmed the second half and again edited it to completion. The audio tracks are the dance track in the background and the lead characters narration, due to those things we had to edit out a lot of the ambience noise. We also took advantage of premieres effects, such as dipping to black, cross dissolving and freeze frames.

The film company is called Dz productions, very imaginatively named after David Batty, and Jack Zelenka the company owners. Dz productions are a small film company that specialize in British crime films, similar to Lock Stock, and Football Factory.

Dz productions work closely with Eljo films who distribute their films throughout the UK and some parts of the US. Eljo films are in charge of marketing the films and are responsible for getting the films to the cinema, and then ultimately to DVD. All of this is trying to make a profit especially from the DVDs as small British films rarely achieve box office success. Films like Football Factory and Away Days were not very successful at the cinema however Football Factory especially attained a cult following through word of mouth.   

At Dz productions they strive their hardest to help up and coming stars in all aspects of film. Much like myself. The films score is all written by Dave Jones. An incredibly talented musician from Leeds. The self titled piece “Violent Conduct” even attained chart success debuting at #17 in the UK Top 40, which provided the film with priceless exposure for a more mainstream audience.

Unlike films such as the James Bond series. “Violent Conduct” was filmed primarily on location in Middlesbrough, Newcastle and London. Only a few scenes were filmed in a studio, which meant that the cost of studio hire was minimal. This and other things, like the relatively unknown actors meant that the film was relatively cheap to make and therefore the profit was greater than first anticipated. Grossing £250,000  on the opening weekend. Which is over £40,000 more than Football Factory attained.

Those statistics show that British Cinema is still going strong despite the threats from illegal downloading and piracy.

The Preliminary excercise was a short piece to practice continuity editing and get used to using the equipment. The preliminary was much shorter and our group sort of attempted it with a much more cavalier attitude, minimal planning in terms of shots and angles. We just made it up on the spot. There was none of this with the actual piece. Every shot was thought out fully to achieve the best effect possible.  

The continuity itself in the Preliminary excercise was actually pretty shoddy. There were two incredibly poor pieces of continuity in which the character in the red check shirt is opening the door then all of a sudden a metre into the next room. Also when the brief case is being opened the lids angle moves unnaturally. In our final piece however the characters movement is much smoother with the walking looking natural and rarely jumping.  

 Here it can clearly be seen that there isn’t anything of importance in the case, and also the next shot shows the case fully open which was poor continuity. We tried as hard as we could to avoid these errors in our final piece.

Another key improvement came in the editing side of things. For our final piece we were much more competent with the editing software and were able to have overlapping soundtracks and added some special effects such as cross-dissolves and freeze frames.

I honestly have to say the change of team members was a contributory factor in the success of the final piece. My team for the Preliminary excercise were disorganised, immature and didn’t try at all, however my new team worked hard, and cooperated very well, all contributing with ideas and editing etc

This “geezer” in the centre of shot is our films main character. He is a very average type of guy. Brought up in Middlesbrough, didn’t get on well in school (when he went). He has probably had one or two run-ins with the law. He’s not an evil person. Whilst what he does isn’t very moral it’s just the lifestyle he has chosen. Fighting for his beloved Middlesbrough FC. He’s the leader of the pack. A role model to his followers behind him and hopefully the audience can empathise with his cheeky sense of humour.

Visually he is fairly tough looking. Wearing brands such as Stone Island and Tacchini and other casual sportswear brands. The iconic burberry cap is also quite a key flourish of his image. He manages to still look tough, but be attractive enough to entice a female audience. Much like Danny Dyer in a lot of his films such as Football Factory.

The man on the right is actor Danny Dyer in the film Football Factory as “Tommy Johnson.” His style and general appearance is very similar to that of our leading character however he is a cockney, whereas our character is northern. In our film we actually pay tribute to this character when our lead character puts on a cockney accent during the squareing off scene. Both characters are “twenty somethings” and both live for the weekend and the buzz of fighting. In Football Factory Tommy ends up having to evade the rival firm and his status is decreased significantly as he ends up being chased by incredibly angry Millwall fans. Whereas our character seems to be feared by other firms as they try to employ ambush tactics to take him down.

The thing that sets Tommy Johnson apart from other stereotypical hooligans, is his loveability. The audience find him endearing and end up very much so rooting for him. We hoped to create a similar relationship between our character and the audience.

Above is a picture of Daniel Craig in the British gangster film “L4yer Cake” or “Layer Cake”. His character is not named despite being the main character in the film. In the credits he is merely listed as XXXX. This film is incredibly more sophisticated and complex than Football Factory. And XXXX is a much more sophisticated character. He is the brains of British crime. He is well educated, smartly dressed and very polite. These skills have allowed him to establish himself as highly regarded drug dealer. This high regard makes him a leader just like our character who also, remains unnamed. At least for the opening of our film. Whilst Layer Cake has nothing to do with Football hooliganism, it shows another side of the Real Crime genre. The glitsy and suave side. The business side of things. So obviously the characters are presented very differently, to say football hooligans. However both are essentially people just trying to make a name for themselves through criminal activity.  

Frame 1 – This introduces the film company “Dz Productions.”  The music also starts rolling at this point.

Frame 2- This is the final shot of a long walking section in which the two characters in frame are introduced. There is a narration by the lead character whose name is not actually revealed.  However during this section he hints at possible plot lines in his narration by talking about his hooligan interests.

Frame 3 – This short shot of a train passing is used because the film opening starts at a train station, suggesting that the characters are getting on a train. There is then a cross-dissolve into the next scene set in an urban locale supposed to represent a town or city.

Frame 4 – This frame is the start of a hand held sequence. The use of hand held camera work makes the film feel gritty and adds to the intensity of it by putting the viewer into the action. It feels almost as if the audience is walking behind the characters.

Frame 5 - This again carries on the urban location. This time the characters are walking down an alley in a particularly impressive scene as far as continuity is concerned. The action flows very smoothly including the use of the mobile phone.

Frame 6 – This frame is the start of the climactic scene. The rival firm is introduced and are all wearing clothes typical of football hooligans. Mainly casual sporting wear.

Frame 7 – In this frame the films main characters are joined up by some friends from off screen to face up to the rival firm. Creating an almost western like stand off. These new characters are again wearing the correct clothing for the roles.

Frame 8 – This frame is taken from a point of view shot. The main character is about to punch a member of the rival firm, however the the audience sees this in a first person view. When the character swings back the film pauses and the narration previously mentioned resumes. This freeze-framing is a recurring motif in the sequence. The character then finishes his line and the swing resumes and the screen goes black.

Frame 9 – This is the title frame. Having gone black, the words “Violent Conduct” come up in white stencil. “Violent Conduct” obviously being the films title. This is very effective seeing as the last thing the audience sees is someone punching.