MEDIA RECCE

This is a picture of ‘London city airport’. We will be using this area because it is needed for out short film to show where the main character will be landing from a country abroad.  The advantages of us using this venue for our short film is that it is the closest of the airports to us to the journey will be quite short.  The fact that we will be filming from the outside near a taxi stand to show his arrival will give a more realistic feature to our short film as it is very cliché in many past films that have been made.

 

This is a replica picture of the taxi we will be using.  In reality the taxi would not be at the airport instead we will be getting permission at a more local taxi/mini cab office in order to film our scene inside of the car. The advantages of us doing things this way would be that we would save money by not actually spending money to have the taxi go to city airport as it would cost £40. We would also save time because the minicab/ taxi office is very local to Leyton Sixth Form College.

 

We will be using ‘Liverpool street station’ to show a scene which consist of the taxi driver dropping the main character here. The main character will be lost and the fact that this station is always busy will give a sense of realism as the busy environment will compensate and work in our favour to show the character’s confusion. He will be asking random people how to get to Stratford station of which we would have pre planned this and have asked for the people’s permission.

 

 

We will be using a London bus to shoot a scene where the main character will have a sort of day dream of someone who he will fall in love with. The advantages of using a London bus would be that it could sort of replicate a person’s modern day routine on public transport.

 

 

After the main character has taken his bus journey, he will arrive in Stratford station in which he will be again asking some people how to get to the Olympics, we are using Stratford station as it is a refurbished station and has gain recent publicity due to the Olympics. He will then make his way on to the stadium be very excited however he will found out that the Olympics have finished and he would be very disappointed as the security guard will tell the main character that his ticket is outdated.

9th + 10th october

In these lessons we brushed up on our final cut pro skills by editing scenes in order to to make a continuity project. The whole point of this task was to make us familier with the programme again and also to help us learn some new techniques. Within these lessons our group was given a brief presentation of basic skills needed to edit films. We was given different short clims from a real film and our task was to complie it using techniques such as shot reverse shot and match cuts in order to achieve conintuity.

Script

Scene 1: airport

·         The main guy walks out of the airport and gets into the taxi

Scene 2: Taxi

Taxi driver: so my friend where are you coming from

farooq: non diegetic sound

Taxi driver: my friend you know this country is rubbish weather is no good, very bad people.

farooq: non diegetic sound

Taxi driver: excuse me (answers the phone)

Taxi driver: salaam akhi, yes I’ve got the package and I’m going to be there in a half an hour. Okay see you soon, inshallah

·         farooq zones out and focuses on the bag while the taxi driver talks to him and makes convo

·         The driver realises farooq is trying to get to his bag so he kicks him out of the car. 

 

Scene 3: Liverpool station

·         Looking to ask people for directions to get to stratford station and he asks many people  

Farooq: (meets a random person on the street and point to stratford)

Random person: you want to get to stratford?

Farooq: non diagetic sound

Random person: well basically you need to get on the ……

Scene 4: on the bus

·         He gets on the bus and his eye falls upon a buetifull girl. He has a day dream about the girl and a indian music takes place and he imagines her in a romantic situation

Scene 5: Stratford

·         he happily enters the station and is ready to go to the stadium but the security guard stops him

security guard: excuse me sir you can’t go in

farooq : (angry face)

security guard: because your ticket is out dated!!!

8th october

Today me and my work colleagues are continuing to work on the script for our short film. We are also brushing up on other posts such as production schedules case studies etc. We are also planning on future events such as shooting the film itself. We are half way through the script and next lesson we aims to finish the script. Next week we also plan to finish the release form as we planned today to finish the script first  then to begin and finish release forms within the next up coming lesson. The4 storyboard is in progress as we speak. We also aim to have the storyboard finished by tomorrow's lesson.

3rd october

today, me and the other members withing our group all contributed towards the production of the story board, we got about half way through it today and just about got the script done for our short film.

Case Study 2

Case Study ‘Spooks’

 

Ethnicity is portrayed in ‘Spooks’ through the use of many techniques. These include camera edit, camera angles, sound and mise en scene. Firstly camera angles have portrayed the two characters (Ahmed and Khatira) as evil, heartless beings. This has been done by the camera not showing full view of Ahmed and Khatira. The camera constantly shows the side of Ahmed’s face only showing from his eye down. Also glimpses of Khatira’s face can be seen as she is wearing a head scarf that hides the majority of her face, which she can be stereotyped as a terrorist. The effect of this is that is makes the audience fear the characters as they are portrayed as evil due to past events such as the 9/11 bombings. 

In contrast, there are the long and medium shots followed up by some close up shots of Adam and Fiona, two white characters living normally within their house. As they can be fully seen to the audience, they are portrayed as being less menacing and living more of a normal life compared to Ahmed and Khatira; the effect of this is that it shows that the two Asian darker skinned characters are foreshadowing something and could also demonstrate the balance of power. There are also over the shoulder shots of Ahmed and Khatira; the effect of this is that it shows that the two characters have power and again empathises the idea of foreshadowing something evil. Lastly, when Adam and Fiona are leaving their house, the use of the zoom camera effect from the jeeps wing mirror shows to the audience that they are being watched. This correlates with the theme of ethnicity that is portrayed within the programme because it shows that the white couple Adam and Fiona are perceived to be innocent and happy whereas the Arab/Asian couple Ahmed and Khatira perceived to be evil, heartless and miserable.

Camera edit portrays ethnicity in the extract in many ways. Firstly there is a normal pace on Adam and Fiona. The effect of this is that it shows they are having a normal life; however there is a slow motion effect on the little girl skipping. The effect of this is that it shows that the child is innocent and vulnerable moreover, being watched. There are countless slow motion effects that take place while the white family is in their house having a normal life, tis shows that they are vulnerable and are not aware of the danger ahead of them. Also there is a fast motion zoom effect as scenes switch from Adam and Fiona to Ahmed and Khatira. The effect of this is that its showing to the audience the comparison between the two completely different lifestyles of the two different races.

Sounds are used in the extract to portray ethnicity in many ways. Firstly in scenes on Adam and Fiona, there is happy and loving music playing on the radio whereas in the scenes of Ahmed and Khatira there is no music playing at all which would demonstrates that they are a miserable couple. Furthermore, slow music is played while Adam and Fiona are being watched. The effect of this is that it shows that Ahmed and Khatira are planning something sinister.

Mise en scene portrays ethnicity in many ways. For example Adam and Fiona drive a small common car (Volkswagen Golf) whereas Ahmed and Khatira are driving a huge aggressive looking jeep (Porsche Cayenne). The effect of this is that it portrays the contrast between the two different types of people following their interests and characteristics (Adam and Fiona, cute normal and happy – Ahmed and Khatira, powerful, aggressive and dark). Also in the scenes of when Ahmed and Khatira are in the car the lighting is dark whereas in the scenes of Adam and Fiona the lighting is very crisp, light and clear. The effect of this could reflect the two pairs of character personality and their roles. Ahmed and Khatira seen as dark and evil, Adam and Fiona seen as the hero’s; Followed by the innocence and purity of their child.

Case Study CURSE OF MR BEAN - MR BEAN

 

Mr Bean – The Curse of Mr Bean

Mr Bean consists of a series of short films which are present and explore many features of comedy. This being the main feature, it seems to have drawn a mass amount of viewers of different backgrounds with different opinions about the series. In almost all of the episodes, the fact that the film focusses solely on shows Rowan Atkinson himself playing Mr Bean as the main character to go through journeys or to solve common problems in different scenarios in which the comedy aspect is taken to a whole new level for example in this episode, he has a competition about eating a sandwich in the park and therefore goes to make his own sandwich by killing a live fish.

In this short film/episode, a variety of camera angles were used in order to capture the childlike features of the main character.   These include shots such as mid shots and close ups which were used to represent the characters personality and his message. Countless establishing shots are used to introduce the scene and the character himself.

 

The fact that a close up shot is used on the tool used to pick up rubbish, and that he is using it because he can’t reach the machine shows the stupidity that actually surrounds this idea however his stupidity is what makes this show successful. props were also used in this extract for example his green Mini. Being quite a small car, its often represented as one of those clown cars that giant clowns come out of.

Long shots are also used to get other points of view. The effect of a long shot being used here gives emphasis that he is trapped within the car park and gives another point of view to the audience of how he escapes. This can also be shown in high angled shots within this episode in order to show another point of view to the audience and to give the audience a sense of what’s really going on within the scene. The fact that he’s naked and alone within this shot shows to the audience that he is trying to escape.

One of the most common shots used in this short film is the mid shot. In my opinion I feel that this was done on purpose in order to give emphasis to the comedy aspect as it focuses on Mr Beans dress sense as this is a major factor that is embedded in the character. This shot is usually used to show body language as in this series, Mr Bean uses body and sign language to communicate as he uses non- diegetic sound which again gives a huge emphasis on the comedy effect on the audience.

The over the shoulder shot in this scene shows that he is again trying to escape. Mr Bean is extremely scared and doesn’t want to get caught naked. The fact that he’s running around naked and covering himself immaturely represents his child like attitude due to the way he’s treating it like a game of hide and seek. The location of the short film extract was in a swimming pool then going to the park for a normal day out to enjoy the scenery. There’s emphasis on the fact that Mr Bean is trying to live a normal life however the irony of this was the fact that he found himself acting like a child and making a competition out of who can have the best sandwich nonetheless his sandwich being made out of raw materials. This scene gave the extract more humour and emphasised the comedy theme the short film was trying to achieve. The costume of the main character is formal but it’s in a sort of funny formal way because of the old styled suite that he wear and the fact that parts of his suite are in different colours followed by his trousers being pulled all the way up past his belly button line which sometimes exposes his ankles. The effect of this is that it shows to the audience that he doesn’t really take himself seriously and implies that he just doesn’t care about the way he looks. 

The sound used in this film extract is mainly non diegetic but in some parts there was diegetic sound. The non-diegetic sound as he get caught being naked shows that he is helpless in the situation that he is in. The diegetic sound that was used in the short film are scenes such as the swimming pool instructor telling everyone to get out of the pool. This adds to the comedy as he has lost his pants he has to figure out a way to get out as he has to get out.