extended research

Task 20: anything else added

During our research we visited the Imperial War museum in London to develop our knowledge of the world war I and II during our visit we looked at possible clothing at the time and the feelings people went though during this time though real vocal recordings. This will help our project as it will wider our knowledge this also will help the actors and actress get a grasp on the real feeling that people went though at the time this will make out project look more real as the actress will be able to reproduce the vocals and feelings that we saw and heard.

During our visit we also saw a house from that time this will help us as it will help us avoid getting in the shot anything that is of our time e.g. Nintendo wii’s ect. By eliminating these produces from our shots it will make the places where we are filming look more realistic of the time period we are trying to reproduce.

At the museum we also looked at cloths this has given us a bigger understand of the possible clothing we could us or try to copy. This will make the scene look real also it will help with determining the genre of the film quickly helping the audience understand. Not only did we see possible clothing we saw posters of that time showing Hitler and Churchill. By seeing this we will get posters to put up.

The most important thing we saw was attitudes and how the people of that age spoke as the youth of our age talk in slang this means that the film, will sound like its from the correct age as well with the help of music found such as white cliffs of Dover in the background.

By Daniel Fanthome

Storyboard for opening sequence by Lucy Hyner

Location list

We will be recording the dance scene in a member of our groups nan’s house, as it is quite old fashion.

We will be recording all of the fast shots at school, as a dark background is needed to create a dull sad mood.

The establishing shot will be filmed at another member of our groups house as it has a nice front garden this represents the juxtaposition between the mood of Dorothy “main character” from the war and now.

The shot of the diary being discovered will take place in a loft; we will use the light source from a torch, which the grandmother will be holding.

These 3 locations will be vital towards the mise-en-scene of our film.

By Max Brawn

resource list

. Dress and high heels for lucy in the dancing scene

. Suit and shoes for max in the dance scene

. Overalls for max in the scenes in which he is leaving for combat

. Old fashioned cloths for lucy in scenes in which the soldier is leaving for combat

. Sony HD handycam (used for the recording of all of our film opening)

. tripod (for static shots)

. An old photo albumm which will apear at the start of the film opening

. Final cut (for the editing of the film opening)

. Garage band (to make the instrumental for the film opening)

. An elderly lady (who will play the soldiers lover in current time)

. An old jumper for the scene when dan discovers his grandad was a soldier

. A house to film the scene in modern day

By Max Brawn

PROPS LIST

AS MEDIA CBSC GROUP 1 – TASK 16:

PROPS LIST

Scene 1 – Grandma’s House.

• Christmas decorations (set in the December), teacups, newspaper, vase & flowers – General house ware that we already have on the set. MODEN.

• Old box – diary, old pictures, ration book, war medals, old ripped tea stained letters, little ornaments, old jewellery.

• Children’s toys – some old and some new, showing the grandchildren’s toys and the contrast of the Grandma’s toys when she was a young girl.

Scene 2 – Back in time to when the Grandma was younger.

• Old style compared to the 1st scene, must show comparison.

• Vintage radio and record player (first shot on that), the diary from scene 1, old vintage accessories that portray the time element.

• Gas mark and wartime in shot, to show again the time element has changed to the past.

• Old propaganda pictures, ration books, old cans and tins of food e.g. baked beans.

• Old rags and bits we can find in a charity shop, for an extra-added effect.

• Wicker basket for laundry & union jack flag.

Scene 3 – Evacuation

• Where its set outdoors not many props are needed, just general vintage style props, e.g. gas masks and their boxes, briefcase style bags, luggage bags, period street light, sandbag column, bicycle, post box, barbed wire fencing (shot through the wire).

• Lots of luggage and gas mask boxes.

• Train office (if we can)

By Lucy Hyner

Contingency plan.

1. 1. If the main actress does not turn up or is ill due to any problem then we have a back up actress this will also make it so we need to change the elderly person to a older man we have the older man so it will not be a problem.

2. 2. If our camera runs out of battery we will have two cameras at all time to film different angel so even if one battery runs out then we will have one camera on back up. Also we will take a charger so that we can charge the camera. We can also check the cameras battery life before hand so we no how much footage time we can get before a battery dies.

3. 3. Is we experience memory lose then it will not change anything as we will back up all the videos on a computer and ready to edit. If the memory gets wiped of a computer then the computer also has a back up memory. On top of that we will make sure that the camera does not get messed around with reducing the chances of memory lose.

4. 4. If our equipment breaks then it will not effect us as at all time we will have two of all equipment this will help us as it is a back up. On top of that we will check the equipment before we go so we know that the equipment is not faulty or broke

5. 5. If the weather is not very good for the shots we want then we will film ahead then come back to the scenes in front of that one and then on a computer we will edit it to the right sequence.

6. 6. If the scene is not good enough for the type of shot needed then we have a secondary place we can shot the beginning of our film opening.

7. 7. If we can not get the correct props then we will get cloths from modern times and change them so they have a older look to them. This will be needed to make it look like it’s a wartime film.

8. 8. If the lighting is not good enough for the shot then we will carry a hand touch or for better effect we will have candles to help increase the light in the scene.

9. 9. If one of our team member are late or has not turned up then we will make sure that we have each other’s numbers so everyone can get in touch with each other.

By Daniel Fanthome

Character descriptions

Grandma (Dorothy): An old and frail woman who has soon to go down memory lane when she looks through her album of her past love with her Grandchild. Looking at the photos, she realises how lucky her life is now, and is disappointed to think how she has taken that for granted when thinking about all of the unfortunate people who weren’t so lucky through the war, and so, she tries to fulfill the rest of her life, by spending as much time as she can with her family. She pinpoints on photo of her past love, Edward, and then goes down memory lane.

Grandchild: The youth of the old woman’s life; he is growing up, and is starting to see the wonders and frights of the world. The Grandma adores him, and cares for him very much. The Grandchild makes the Grandma's life a better one.

Younger version of the Grandma: Our younger version of the old woman in the modern day, this is the woman like every other woman in Britain that is hoping that their husband will turn out okay throughout the war, we see this woman’s typical everyday job throughout the war, and what a woman’s role was. We see clips of her spending time with her love back in the day of war, and then him having to say goodbye to her, and he has to go to war.

Grandma's boyfriend (Edward): We see clips of him typing on a typewriting, writing to his love, Dorothy. Then we see him later in the video spending time with Dorothy, just before he has to go to war.

By Daniel Heighington

filming schedule

March 28th – april 3rd

To film at lucys nans house in out media lessons to be asked and finilied before hand to make sure everyone is free and the location is avalible

8 april

in school to get some shots of lucy and max on benches to film emotional shots that will set the mood.

During the half term break

This is to get all the footage definatly done to be able to edit it all. This is the best time due to everyones free to film some footage so we dont have to see if the other is free due to revision or other things.

By Daniel Fanthome

PRELIMINARY TASK STORY BOARD

Script work

Grandma = Dorothy

Edward: Dorothy's past love

A zoom up to the house (establishing shot) with a fade in/out effect of a flower in front of the house, zooming up to a window where the old grandmother is staring out of, but her gazing is interrupted by the arrival of her grandchild...

DING DONG, grandmother rushes down the stairs

Grandmother: “Hello lovely!”

Grandmother: “Hi nan! How are you?”

Grandmother: “I'm fine, thank you”

They both hug, and with a fade out effect, then a fade in of both the Grandchild and Grandma having a conversation of a past family relative who fought in the war.

The grandchild spots a piece of clothing...

Grandchild: "Oh Grandma, what's that?"

Grandma: “Oh, funny you mentioned that; that used to belong to your great grandad, and I thought you might like it”

Grandchild: "Oh, thanks nan! What was my great grandad like, what did he look like?"

Grandma reaches over to a photo album, while talking...

Grandma: "Well, come a sit over here, and I'll show you some photos of him back when he was going into war"

Grandchild gets up, and sits next to his Grandma to look through the photo album. They slowly skip through pages of the album, and the Grandma pinpoints one photo out in particular...

Grandma: "This photo reminds me of that time, when...."

After that sentence, the Grandma goes down memory lane, remembering a montage of happy scenes with her boyfriend, Edward. Clips of them spending silent times together, and clips of more productive times when they were dancing...

However, there is always an ending to things, and the Grandma also remembers when Edward had to go, as the air raid siren went off, meaning he had to go to war.

In the introduction to the video, you see Edward typing to Dorothy, his love. A speech will come into a scene, and it will be Edward reading out loud what he has been typing to Dorothy.

Dear Dorothy, it’s been two years and three months now, and the war is far from ending. You need to know I still love you, but also need to realise that I might not get out of this, so please, enjoy your life to the full. Have children, watch them grow old alongside you. I love you, and I miss you so much, love always..

Edward.

By Daniel Heighington

Primary research

Our main research consisted of researching one movie and a series that would have meaning to our opening. We compared Saving Private Ryan and the series: In Loving Memory.

Saving Private Ryan is an American war film set at the time of the invasion of Normandy during WII. The opening is quite intense, with the typical guns and firearm. It shows soldiers going into battle, with all the props giving intense atmosphere. Whereas, "In Loving Memory" is a saddening story about a widower, and her nephew who recently had to take over a small running family business as the husband has died.

They both conflict, which is what we need to make our opening. Our opening is planned to be about woman going down memory lane, remembering times of her, and her one to be spending time together, having fun. However, he soon has to go to war, and he gets killed in war. Our aim is to make our opening to the film more saddening, with plenty of happy memories; we do not plan to add in guns and violence.

For inspiration, we went to the WII museum in London; we gathered lots of information about the evacuation in Britain. Experiencing it for ourselves, there were prototypes that try to relate to the experience of having to be evacuated. There was a very well constructed prototype of the typical house back in the WII times; it would show each room at its best. One thing we learnt related to rationing was the bathtub; most families had a line around, inside their bathtub, to give a guideline to the amount of water they should be using.



By Daniel Heighington

Questionaire And Results

Below I have put only three out of our 10 questionnaires:


· Sex

o Male/female

· Do you like our idea of a wartime film

o Yes/no

· Why or why not

o Because it’s different to everyone else in the class and I am intrigued to find out what you are going to create with the theme.

· Do you think it should be in black and white?

o Yes/no

· Why or why not

o Not all of it because it will look to cheesy, certain bits will lok better in my opinion.

· Would you like to see any feature in our story line or in the whole starting of the film?

o Maybe a theme of love or loss?

· What’s your favourite genre

o Comedy






· Sex

o Male/female

· Do you like our idea of a wartime film

o Yes/no

· Why or why not

Because I like the idea of a take on the wartime period and to see how it is portrayed

· Do you think it should be in black and white?

o Yes/no

· Why or why not

Because it can be difficult to see certain things because of the lack of colour

· Would you like to see any feature in our story line or in the whole starting of the film?

o Hitler
o Dancing
o Evacuation

· What’s your favourite genre
Comedy/fantasy








· Sex

o Male/female

· Do you like our idea of a wartime film

o Yes/no

· Why or why not

· Creative and not done a lot.

· Do you think it should be in black and white?

o Yes/no

· Why or why not

o More effect to the project increasing the reality

· Would you like to see any feature in our story line or in the whole starting of the film?

· Music of that time


· What’s your favourite genre
o thrillers


Findings from the questionnaires

· We did ten questionnaires and out of ten 8 were male and 2 were females

· Out of ten questionnaires 3 of then came back as to not like our idea of doing a wartime project this shows that the majority of people will like the idea.

· 3 out of ten people think we should not do the project in all black and white this is a good result as our project has already been planned as to be both in colour and black and white due to realistic features

· In the questionnaire 5 our of ten people said that they would like to see love and loss of people.


by Daniel Fanthome

Initial ideas

Genre

Our genre is going to be a wartime film. The film will include such things as black and white colour over a shot and use a shot with items from the time period such as radios. This will be hard as a lot of the world has now got technologies that are new and did not exists in the war such as computers and ipods.

Ideas/angles

Our ideas are that the film should involve a older lady that then takes the audience back in time to shots of her when she is younger saying goodbye to her lover/husband. This means that we will need to add some emotional shots that include close ups and slow motions to exaggerate the mood to help the audience to understand the correct mode.

Music

Our ides about the music is that the music should old such instruments should be strings and brass that give it that older sound this will help to take the audience to the past with the older lady so the audience are able to follow the whole story board. The music should also be in a lot of the footage due to its important to help the audience visualize. We will also record a voice and put it over the top of some footage to be her lovers/husbands voice talking to her.

Props

Our ideas for props are that the clothing needs to be like wartime overalls helmets and other clothing like that such as a suit if possible and dresses for Lucy as the man character.

By Daniel Fanthome

RESEARCH INTO THE GENRE:

AS MEDIA CBSC GROUP 1 – TASK 1:

RESEARCH INTO THE GENRE:

The theme’s we have chosen all link in together very well, using war films, period drama and family love to conclude the ideas of our story.

War films are one of the most individual genres. Where they mainly focus on warfare, usually about air or land battles, or sometimes even people imprisoned in the war or the military training at the war camps. We have chosen to use some of this focus, but not go with the most obvious and look into evacuation and the life of people that experienced the war and went onto surviving it. Within the wartime genre the stories can consist of being fictional, docudrama, or even alternate history fiction. The term anti-war film is sometimes used to describe films, which bring to the viewer the pain and horror of war that emphasizes the horror and human costs of armed conflict. The main WW2 wartime film’s, were made from the 1940’s up until the 1950’s where they reflected back on the turmoil of the war.

Romance/Love on the other hand is one of the most popular genres. It started of being shown very traditionally through films e.g. Romance or chivalric romance which is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Popular literature also drew on themes of romance, but with ironic, satiric or burlesque intent, also being influenced by the medieval genre, and the standard image of medieval invokes knights, distressed damsels, dragons, and other romantic tropes. Originally, romance literature was written in Old French, Anglo-Norman and Occitan, later, in English and German. In later romances, particularly those of French origin, there is a marked tendency to emphasize themes of courtly love, such as faithfulness and commitment in adversity. From ca. 1800 the connotations of "romance" moved from the magical and fantastic to somewhat eerie "Gothic" adventure narratives. We decided to look at the Modern day romance genre, which shows how themes that include the characters making decisions based on a newly found romantic attraction. The questions, "What am I living for?" or "Why am I with my current partner?" often are shown. They relate back to the traditional style drama of a fairy tale, where romance was shown intensely, with the ‘happy ever after’ effect, which is still commonly used today. We have looked more the family side of romance, and how love can bring families together as a unit, in hard times like the war.

By Lucy Hyner

List of generic conventions of the genre and examples

Top ten wartime films

1. to hell and back

2. midway

3. a bridge too far

4. pearl harbour

5. saving private ryan

6. sands of iwo jima

7. tora tora tora

8. das boot

9. enemy at the gates

10. memphis belle

In wartime films you would normally see black and white footage that has not alot of editing to keep it as relistic as possible as in wartime they did not have effects to change footage. The footage would also involve alot of people speaking in the film with not alot of music however is there was music then the music would involv such instraments like strings and brass that makes the film sound older in time as now the music as a lot of computer generated sounds that normal instraments can not make.

Another typicall thing you would see in wartime films are such things as violence in some kind of sence as the war was a time of great upset and violence against each other. Images included in wartime films also normal consist of Churchill or Hitler.

The last typical thing you would see in a wartime film is children in pain or upset in some way due to getting parted from their parents. This is a big factor of a wartime film as it shows the full impact of the war on the younger people of the world.

By Daniel Fanthome

Our Film Idea

Our idea to our film is a memory themed love story, with war included- but not the typical guns and violence.

It's about an old woman we call Grandma now. Her life is her only Grandchild, that she spends plenty of time with, they talk about everything together. One day, and odd discussion about a past relative comes up, a relative that fought back in the war. As they talk, the Grandma brings up the fact that she went through her loft the other day, to clear a few things up, but found something that her Grandchild might like, and gives it to the Grandchild. The talk of the past relative goes deeper into conversation, and they soon look through a photo album. The Grandma pinpoints one photo in particular of her past love, and a dozen of memories come rushing to her...

Happy, indulging memories of her one to be back in the past has suddenly sprung to her mind, and she remembers the great, fantastic memories flowing in. However, great things must come to an end at some point, and the air raid siren alerts their ending, as her love, Edward, has to go to war.

This film also signifies the lives lost in the war, and how it has greatly effected others.

By Daniel Heighington

opening scene of fast and furious

I am going to analysis the opening scene of fast and furious. The first shot comes from the left to the right quick showing that the film is a fast paced film, also the music is quick this also shows that the film is going to be quickly paced. When the title comes up the letters are shiny silver like the chrome of a car. The next shot is of men packing a van of good such as televisions and others this shows that the film will include new technology and full of money involved deals. Then the a shot of a van going down a motor way is shot with cars following it, the color are black with a green neon light underneath this symbolizes; black representing that bad or dark force is coming fast and the green shows that the darkness is growing from the bottom of life slowly going to the top. Following this is a group of people that are getting out the roofs of the car dressed in black trying to get the goods of the van driver. The van driver has a baseball bat this shows that the van driver was prepared for this also that the character is violent. The group of people robbing the van uses a tranquillizer showing that the group is not violent but they want to do the job fast without hurting anyone. The van crashes though a site hat is getting worked upon this shows that they do not care for any type of rules that have been set out by a higher power, an establishing shot is shown with the camera slowly panning to the left and the sky turns to day showing that the film is set in a city full of technology, also the lights are all on in the city showing that the city never sleeps showing a fast life style.

This next scene shows a car park the music has changed but it is still has a fast tempo. Here we see the main character, he is driving a green and black car this represents the fact that he is growing in a personality way and the black could mean that he holds dark secrets about his past. He is shown speeding down a road this represents his fast life style this scene in closed with him spinning out of control he is shown scared this could show that he is scared of his own ability.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG82JNkknTs - The link to the opening scene of the film I have just analysed.

By Daniel Fanthome

Opening scene of Love Actually.

In the opening scene of Love Actually it starts of with a symbolic harmony playing, whilst a pan shot follows the scene of an airport. There is a shot following a woman who then is reunited with her loved one. You automatically see that the film is about Love as it gives of a warming vibe. There is a commentator over the top discussing how ‘When ever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think of the arrivals gate at Heathrow airport’’ He discusses love and the importance of it. You see the connection between families and love through zoomed shots and slow motion shots to embrace the emotion, and fast, running shots to show excitement. Colour representation is shown through the mood of love. A bold text comes up on the screen at the end saying ‘Love actually is all around’ the word ‘is’ is shown in a red colour. Showing the connection of the film and love. The word ‘Love’ stays on the screen longer then any other word and fades in and out, which resembles a heartbeat. There is a selection of pan shots, and then an establishing shot of London and a shopping centre, with a few mixed level shots of Central London decorated in Christmas decorations. Christmas is a time which people spend with their loved ones and families. So it is a good chosen time to set the film as it portrays a lot of emotion. Text is shown on the screen saying ‘5 weeks till Christmas’which represents a time ellipsis. The cast’s names are shown throughout the opening sequence with the first letter red, which again signifies the representation to Love.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3GWzLpkVdg - The link to the opening scene of the film I have analysed

By Lucy Hyner

Opening to Kill Bill Vol 1

A simple, but effective opening; It shows a close up zoom of a badly injured woman on the floor, her face covered in blood, who seems to be wearing a wedding dress and a veil on her head. She is struggling to breathe, which gives off a dangerous vibe in the room. Seconds into the opening, a man we do not see, but only hear, interrupts the silence. Suspecting he is a bad man, he mocks her, while she seems incapable of standing up, but is able to speak.

He carries on speaking to her, mocking her, then uses a handkerchief to wipe the blood from her face, and you notice on the corner of the handkerchief that it says the name “Bill”, we now know that the person that possibly hurt her is called Bill- which brings in the comparison of the movie title “Kill Bill”, she may be wanting revenge after what he possibly did to her.

At the end, you suddenly hear a gun noise, and see blood splatter right beside the woman’s head which ends the opening.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew5EYd5_i6M - The link to the opening scene of the film I have analysed.

By Daniel Heighington

OPENING SEQUENCE GOODFELLAS

At the very beginning of the Goodfellas The names appear on the screen with haste along with the sounds of cars and other vehicles, this indicates that the film is set in a busy city with something always happening at fast pace. The first shot is that of a car driving at high speed, indicating that wherever the driver is going it is vital he gets there soon, the shot soon skip to 3 males in the car with the text appearing ‘New York 1970’ setting the scene for the audience. The three men then start talking, which instantly indicates that they are from an Italian American family (this automatically gives the audience a stereotypical view that they are some king of gangsters). The conversation that takes place is what is wrong with the car; the men look anxious as if something ha gone horribly wrong. The men then instantly pull over showing their concern with the car; all three men exit the car showing that they take collective responsibility for the cars problem. The men are lit up by the cars red backlight signifying that they are the evildoers in this film; this is soon backed up by the fact that there is clearly something trying to escape from the boot of the car. The collective attitude of the men is evident again once time comes to open the boot as one man stands with a baseball bat another has his hand in his inside pocket and the other opens the boot, once the boot is open a wounded man struggling for survival is revealed making it clear the men in the car are ‘bad guys’. The man in the boot is then stabbed and shot several times by the two older men whilst the other stands casually as if nothing is happening, showing that this is a natural occurrence among this group of people. The man watching then clearly becomes centre of attention as a close up shot of him appears whilst he describes his earlier ambition in life of becoming a gangster, this ties the opening scene together and sets up the rest of the film. The film name then appears in red showing they are villains, with haste again showing that they have to continue with their fast paced life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8pQJOeTkFs - This is the link to the opening sequence of the film I have analysed.

By Max Brawn