Our group in film studies was set the task of creating a short sequence that is supposed to be a short clip from a film we created our selves.
The first step was obviously choosing a genre and story for our film, this was a group effort that we all contributed our opinions to come to a final decision. The idea was to create a British crime film much like “Kidulthood” or “Adulthood”. We got some inspiration for our actual video clip from the Martin Scorsese film “Goodfellas”. In the opening sequence we see all the main characters stand around a car boot and brutally assassin the person inside. We all agreed that this would not be too hard to imitate and to make it look good. As far as props were concerned, the main one we needed was a car which Chris, (group member) happened to have, a new ford fiesta. The location was thought of by myself and it did not take long for it to spring to mind. The garages we filmed in were perfect for our genre and sequence, empty, grimy, rural and covered in graffiti.
So the scene was set, Chris was to be our driver, Jade would be the damsel in distress kidnapped in the boot. We were planning to get another car for the bad guys (me and Charlie) to show up in but in the end we could not get a second car at the time of filming. We overcame this problem easily by having the bad guys at the scene when the car arrives. In our original plot we had also planned to have Chris be the obvious hero by shooting me and Charlie and the end and drive off with the girl safely in the car. We did not have a prop gun on the actual day so this was not possible, but I think it will be better without this, the poor acting skills on my behalf and poor visual effects would have let our sequence down a little bit.
My main duty here was to be the director, this meant that I was in charge of choosing things like Mise en Scene, location and which camera angles we should shoot from. I also played a vital role in choosing the narrative to our film extract.
Many of the shots we ended up using in the final product we are all very proud of.
Feedback also indicates that we did well in our choice of camera angles. Many students from our class commented on how varied and well thought out our camerawork was.
I think alot of our video’s success is also in the editing, for which I must give Charlie most of the credit for.
Because the camera kept going from the car, to the baddies waiting and back to the car, it maid it fairly clear that was what they are waiting for.
Also, not showing the girl in the boot until later in the clip helps create mood and tension.
In conclusion I think that our video is a success. The quality in our work has shined through in the cinematography and in the editing. Perhaps we should have included a bit more narrative, but I am very satisfied with what we have produced.
Our film clip was from the opening sequence of our film. The main plot of our film was about a girl who was kidnapped and in the boot of a car whilst different deals and happenings were taking part between two different sets of gangsters/thugs. The genre of our film is British Crime and we were influenced by many films such as Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. These are both Guy Ritchie films. We were also influenced by seens from Kidulthood by by Menhaj Huda and Goodfellas by Martin Scorsese
Snatch Video Clip - Inspiration For Our Driving Scenes
Kidulthood - The clothing on the characters in Kidulthood is sporty and casual. We followed this same pattern when we created our film sequence and it allowed us to make the film more believable as large numbers of people involved with British Crime in recent films are wearing casual sportswear.
Kidulthood - Inspiration for clothing and mise en scene
Goodfellas inspired us as far as the boot scene took place. When we were shooting the boot scene with the girl tied up in the boot we used a lot of scope for it from the boot scene in Scorsese's Goodfellas The main bit of the influence we took from the film was where they open the boot and you see the body.
Goodfellas - Opening Scene
When we edited our clip we tried to ensure that the audience knew exactly what was happening and then they could mauybe try and guess what was also going to happen next. In editing we used parallel editing because then when we drove the car up the ramp and into the car park we ensured that the audience was aware that me, in the car, was meeting up with the characters played by George and Charlie. This then gives the audience an insight into what is happening, we then used cuts to cut back and forth from different shots and this allows the audience to see that something is about to happen or that Charlie and George's characters were waiting for something. In the process of editing our film the parallel editing was probably the best technique/feature we used however with the feedback we recieved we believe the majority of our film was done well.
Overall our clip is very well done and very well edited however I do feel we could have improved on areas such as sound. I as sound editor had origionally discussed with the group that we would use a seperate microphone to record diagetic sound and then we would add it into our production, unfortuanetly the microphone did not record and we were unable to use the sound as we could not operate it. Our diagetic sound is what the microphone in the camera has picked up and unfortunately is not that clear however we did create a piece of music on GarageBand which is used as our title credits begin rolling, i feel this works well as it leaves the audience wanting to watch more of our film as they wonder what happens next.
The shot on the left is the POV shot from Jade who played the character who had been kidnapped and was in the boot of the car. The camera angle of this shot has worked perfectly because we have not shown too much of the 3 thugs faces. This is good because it leaves more to think about for the audience. With the editing, the sound, the mise on scene and the cinematoraphy this shot works well, shortly after the shot cuts to a snap of Jade in the boot of the car. Beacuse the audience that is watching the film is unsure of what Jade's character is doing in the boot it intrigues them and makes them want to continue watching.
When we origonally planned our film there was a different plot however due to complications and availability of props we had to reorganise ourselves and come up with a new idea. We came up with a different way of doing a similar plan because origonally we could not get hold of a replica gun or a second car and though it was possible to do it with one car, to do it without the replica gun would have looked unrealistic and unproffesional.
Overall i feel our entire clip works well and that we have been successful in merging together cinematography, mise on scene and sound editing with good direction and a good, interesting story line. The sequence was very popular among the rest of our class and we feel it would be if it was to be completed and shown to other audiences.
Sound For the sound i feel we could have improved. Due to the circumstances the clarity of our diagetic sound was not of the highest quality however i do believe that the music we created for the opening credits is suitable for the film and keeps in theme with everything that has happened before that sequence begins. The reason we used diagetic sound was because we felt it was more suitable to the theme of the film, we then created our own title music instead of using anyone elses to enable us to avoid breaking copyright laws.
Our Video Extract
Other Videos Which Have Been Discussed Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - we discussed this as it has relevant sequences and features which relate to our film sequence.
We also used the music below as the influence for the creation of our non-diageticsound.
