Film Magazine front cover

Sherlock Holmes – Directed by Guy Ritchie - 2009 – England
“Detective Sherlock Holmes and his stalwart partner Watson engage in a battle of wits and brawn with a nemesis whose plot is a threat to all of England.”
Analysis

The main focus of the front cover is on Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr). He placed in the centre of the image. He is fully in focus with nothing obscuring his face. The name of the magazine “empire” has been obscured by his head. This is a metaphor for the magazine is more about the films than the magazine itself.

His hands and head, which are the two most important parts of his image, are not obscured by text, this is because his expression and hands let you know who he is, as many other actors playing Sherlock Holmes in the past are known for the same positioning. What is also important about his hands and face are the cuts and bruises on them, this lets the consumer know that the film is going to be an action film.

Through his chest is all the information on the film that is going to be covered inside the magazine, the text is in a grey colour to show consumers that it is a film set in the past; this is also distinguishable from his outfit.

Other articles in the magazine (Prince of Persia and Alice in Wonderland) are also featured on the front cover (both images are of the main character solely), their images are seen behind the main feature. All the text of the magazine is positioned on the top layer, in front of the main article, but not positioned as to obscure its important features, the sub text(for other articles) is always highlighted in a box or circle to improve its readability.

Animatic

Final shot of trailer

The Last Shot sequence in my trailer will start with a low angle shot with Rodriguez in the foreground to the left with García standing in the background just out of focus on the right. Rodriguez is pointing a gun directly at the camera but the gun is out of focus, he talking toward the right of the camera, he says " I keep my mind on my money" pauses " i keep my money on my mind", The shot changes to a side on shot with García on the left, facing to the right, Rodriguez in the centre looking down to the right and a character on the floor bleeding on the right facing towards the left looking up at Rodriguez. Rodriguez continues with "i got my finger on the trigger and I'm staying on the grind". There is a pause as there is a POV from Rodriguez as the character on the floor coughs up blood at says," your pulling Twista lyrics on me now" and continues coughing. There is a dead silence and a POV shot from the character on the floor. The POV is of García and Rodriguez, García is looking toward Rodriguez confused, and Rodriguez is looking uncomfortably awkward. The shot flips back to the character on the floor and as he coughs up more blood, mutters whilst coughing, “with Tony Hamilton, sunshine”, flipping back to Rodriguez and García, The shot lasts for one second, and then the shot switches to the side on shot, 1 second passes and Rodriguez fires his gun. Him and García turn to face the camera and start walking, Rodriguez takes the bullet out of his gun and holds in to his side, as García lights a cigarette and pockets his lighter, as they both do the last movements the shot slows down to slow motion and as it slows the screen fades to black and the silhouette of the two men fades through. The title comes through below them “Golden Kings”.

Actors

Lewis Hadleigh Brown

Part: Lewis García

Main actor, smart dressed, well spoken with a stange vocabulary, occasionly uses cockney slang.

James Anthony Hall

Part: James Rodriguez

Main actor: smart dressed, well spoken with large vocabulary, often uses very aggressive words and phrases, and tells things like they are

Wednesday Filming

Wednesday coming i am doing some experimental filming with the green screen and some of the locations i have chosen for my trailer, i will be filming at the studio as it is perfect for the setting of my trailer.

Part: Juliet

Actor: Louise Huntley
Dress: Smart, Posh, dinner dress.
Personality: kind, best friends with the two main charachters, underdtanding, but not involved with the drug world.

Part: Marcus "The Money Man" - Bank manager.

Actor: Luke Franey
Dress: Very upper class, Black suit.

Golden Kings trailer music

i know its a bit far ahead. but all the ideas are in my head and i sometimes find it easier working backwords... so i created the music for my trailer . the footage is all planned ... just not written down yet, sometime sit takes a while to get something on papaer. buyt this is definetly the music i want if i can get the copyright

Who Got Himself a Greenscreen!

Well its not mine, my mum bought an art space with a few friends and it had a green screen in it, what a bonus... Its a vast space with lots of grimey industrial surroundings. Perfect for my trailer. Footage will be uploaded once edited.

Music copy right

I need to get permission to use some of the songs i would like to use in my film so here is a list of the songs and who i need to contact for then

Song: Money Honey
Artist: Lady Ga Ga
Telephone: 310/235-4721
Fax: 310 /235-4905
E-mail: umpg.licensing@umusic.com

Song: Feeling Good
Artist: Nina Simone
COntact through website

Dear Sir/Madam,

My name is James Hall and i am currently an A2 Media Studies student attending the Chalfonts Community College, England. I am currently doing my Media Studies coursework in which I have to make a trailer for a film. I would very much like to use the Nina Simone song; Feeling Good, in my trailer as its such a perfect song for my intended purpose. My piece of media is completely non-profit and is solely for education purposes.

If I am not contacting the right person could you please direct me to the right person.

Thank You for your time.

Mr James Hall

The Deal - Scene 1

The Deal

All songs mentioned are ideal songs that if I succeed in acquiring the rights for the music, if I do not acquire the rights I will use other music.

Scene 1
The film opens with the song feeling good by Nina Simone with two boys running out of an old sort of cottagey house, getting on their bikes and riding them down a country lane, with shots of birds flying, rivers and plants. I will use a filter over the scene to show that the shots are in the past, the final shot will be of the 2 boys side by side riding down a small road, I will have the shot pan up in to the sky and look at the sun. As this shot will be very bright I should be able to fade the shot it to another shot of the sun and have it pan down (at this point the song kicks in with the trumpets) on to a similar road with two young adults driving two cars(nice cars, trying to have a Bentley and at rx8 as they are easily accessible by me) the shot will pan down with the shot level with the car windows so that you can see through the first car in to the second car showing the two men with sunglasses in a suits, looking happy.

The Song


The cars

Green Screen experimentation

Today i did a bit of experimental green screening. The reason for wanting to green screen is because i want bits of my film to be shot in a car, by using a green screen i can give the effect of something exciting like a vehicle moving at high speed, or something more common such as, two people having a conversation in a car.

The reason i am not going to just film inside the car while the car is moving is because it puts the lives of my actors in danger (something i wish to avoid). by asking an actor to remember their lines, act natural, keep in character whilst driving a moving vehicle is dangerous and via green screening can be easily avoided

Also whilst filming in a car that is moving any small bumps the car encounters vibrates through you or the tripod and gives a horrible overall effect giving uncontrollable jerky movements that not only look very amateurish also can ruin the whole effect you are going for, so by having a stationary car and putting a green screen infront of whatever you want to edit out, you can film from inside, or outside the vehicle and get a stable shot that gives the effect you are after.

The final reason for wanting to green screen is becasue i want to feature in my own film, i can set up a tripod and get the composition perfect with an actor of similat build to me, push record walk in to the car and act my part, then get out of the car turn off record and then edit out the bits i dont want to use.

Here is my first attempt at green screening

to do this piece of green screening i filmed out of the passenger side of charlies car whilst he drove, i got about 8 minutes of footge. i then put the green screen behind my car and filmed charlie driving, i asked him to only do small movements on the wheel and to change gears at random, i filmed him for about a minute. after importing the footage in to after effects i was able to achieve the green screen effect purely through guess work. and also due to the amount of footage i had collected of background scenery i was able to scrub through and find a piece of footage that fitted perfectly.

As i only guess worked my way in to learning green screening techiniques, my video resulted in being(excuse the punn) a little rough around the edges. so my plan is to do a few more shoots, and take a few tutorials to improve my knowledge of green screening.

i have choosen this tutorial to start with.
http://aftereffects.forgingfire.com/2009/04/28/advanced-keying-pt-3-keying-with-color-key-linear-color-key-color-range/

Experimental

Experimental shooting will begin 2 weeks today. I'm Really excited to figure out how to use green screening techniques. I will be using Charlie Aldridge as experimental actor.

Sherlock Holmes

After watching Sherlock Holmes last night, I really liked the use of a certain camera filter that was used throughout to give the film an olden day effect. part of my film will be set in the past so i will learn to use a similar effect to show that its in the past.i will learn how to create this effect by watching this video co pilot tutorial and then experimenting until i get the desired effect as i dont need the old graing flickering look, just more of a semi sepia tone.

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/old_film_look/

Questionnaire

From A Level Art

here is an example of my questionnaire

Just got blogging on my N900

I can now blog about things ive seen and done that will benefit my coursework, at present im in a tapas bar drinking a refreshing drink... Nothing to do with my work, but hey, its a start

fighting testing

after deciding to do a trailer for an action film i decided to try out a bit of fight directing, filming and editing, this short clip was filmed in slow motion and then sped up and slowed down in different spaces to create a far more interesting fighting effect. also the use of after effects allowed me to pan whilst editing.

This is the second version of the same clip, i have made a few changes to smooth it out and make it look more realistic, also adding some music to set the mood. the faults with the last one were that the character went out of shot when he was punched, i felt he needed to be in shot to make it a better piece.

Initial Idea

My film will be in the league of such films as layer cake, The Italian Job and, lock stock and two smoking barrels. It will be a film about to drug barons who have made there millions from dealing drugs since they were 16 and liable for their own actions. they keep everything on the clean, until they are offered a new type of drug that they have to literally fight for their lives for. i will use a lot of special effects such as gun shot and green screening.

Brainstorm ...To be continued

Basic conventions of a crime/gangster film

Crime stories in this genre often highlight the life of a crime figure or a crime's victim(s). Or they glorify the rise and fall of a particular criminal(s), gang, bank robber, murderer or lawbreakers in personal power struggles or conflict with law and order figures, an underling or competitive colleague, or a rival gang. Headline-grabbing situations, real-life gangsters, or crime reports have often been used in crime films. Gangster/crime films are usually set in large, crowded cities, to provide a view of the secret world of the criminal: dark nightclubs or streets with lurid neon signs, fast cars, piles of cash, sleazy bars, contraband, seedy living quarters or rooming houses. Exotic locales for crimes often add an element of adventure and wealth. Writers dreamed up appropriate gangland jargon for the tales, such as "tommy guns" or "molls."

Trainspotting

Trainspotting

The business

The business 2005

Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels

Four Jack-the-lads find themselves heavily - seriously heavily - in debt to an East End hard man and his enforcers after a crooked card game. Overhearing their neighbours in the next flat plotting to hold up a group of out-of-their-depth drug growers, our heros decide to stitch up the robbers in turn. In a way the confusion really starts when a pair of antique double-barrelled shotguns go missing in a completely different scam

Layer Cake

The successful drug dealer Mr. X plans his criminal career intermediating business with drugs without calling the attention, working with a small gang and honoring his payments with the suppliers. On the day planned for his early retirement, the powerful mobster Jimmy Price gives two assignments to him: find Charlie, the addicted daughter of his associate Eddie Temple and negotiate um million pills of high-quality ecstasy with the stupid smalltime gangster Duke. Mr. X hires two acquaintances crooks in a night-club to find Charlie, and he unexpectedly meets Duke's cousin Sidney with his sexy girlfriend Tammy and flirts with her. But Mr. X discovers that the ecstasy was stolen from the dangerous and wild Serbian drug lord Dragan that wants the head of Duke and the drugs back. Further, Eddie shows a tape proving that he has been double-crossed by Jimmy, and also wants the ecstasy. The smart Mr. X plots a scheme to resolve the situation and meet Tammy.

Snatch Trailer

Turkish and his close friend/accomplice Tommy get pulled into the world of match fixing by the notorious Brick Top. Things get complicated when the boxer they had lined up gets the shit kicked out of him by Pitt, a 'pikey' ( slang for an Irish Gypsy)- who comes into the equation after Turkish, an unlicensed boxing promoter wants to buy a caravan off the Irish Gypsies. They then try to convince Pitt not only to fight for them, but to lose for them too. Whilst all this is going on, a huge diamond heist takes place, and a fistful of motley characters enter the story, including 'Cousin Avi', 'Boris The Blade', 'Franky Four Fingers' and 'Bullet Tooth Tony'. Things go from bad to worse as it all becomes about the money, the guns, and the damned dog

The Brief

I have chosen Brief 2

A promotion package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer, together with:

• a film magazine front cover, featuring the film
• a poster for the film