Choice of setting and scenes.

The choice of an urban setting was because research showed that basically every successful mobster film has a urban environment setting. We was origionally going to shoot in a forest but in the end we decided to shoot in more of a city area as in a normal city people live there and they can clearly see what is happening therefore this gives the illusion across to the audiance that the mobsters must be well known within thew city not to be approached.

Also the choice of scenes we decided to show were because we wanted to show the different types of scenes featured in the film, these consist of a quick energetic get away scene, and a more dramatic scene showing the business side of the film,
These scenes were carefully chosen to show a massive contrast in scenes.

The use of a very action pact scene is to get the adrenaline side of the film across to the target audiance and the use of the scene with the boss is to show the audiance the serious side of the film and the different statuses that the characters have within the film.

Encounterd problems during the task

During our task we encountered many problems such as jumps in the film when we change from angle to angle, we could have made this smoother by thinking about this during filming and making sure that the actors knew where there body parts were the whole time. Also we did not leave ourselfs as much time as i would have liked, this error in time created a great pressure on my shoulders. We did manage to get the film finished early in the end but as we went to save the finished product the systems crashed and we lost all of our editing, therefore we had to re edit the shots we had and input the film tracks again and edit the sound tracks noise levels because we didnt want the sound track to overpower the dialogue. This error costed us a lot and we realised how close the deadline was and how hard we would have to work in order to get the product up it its high quality standard that it origionally was. The next day we started to re edit and after a clear look over the un eddited tape I feel that me and my partner debated more and we actually made the peice look better then the origional.

If there was any changed i would have liked to put into the film it would be the use of a high angle shot because I feel that this shot is a great way to portray emotion and really show the setting off to the audiance. But this shot was very hard to get because of the lack of equipment we had and we also had to think of safety because getting up high in the area we was in ment climbing on a tree and that would have been a safety hazard therefore I decided that we should not shoot this shot.

Also one more problem we had when shooting the film is the fact that we had 2 of our group members unfortunatly drop out of the idea, one of our group members wanted to switch task and the other team member dropped out of school so therefor it was just me one other partner working on this film. This created many problems such as getting actors to perform in the film, this was hard becuase no one really had the time to help my group out because they had to focus on there work. I worked around this and decided to shoot this with people that were not in my class and had free periods when i had my time to shoot the film, This allowed me to round up a large number of people to be in the film such as the peopl chasing us and to get a teacher that was not teaching to shoot the boss scene.

Also one more thing i would like to have added in is an extreme close up in the bosses scene of his cigarette being crushed into the table, this would have been a great shot to get and would have portrayed much emotion into the piece, it would have also been a great metaphore for how the boss could instantanieously make someones life hell.

Overall i am please with the piece i have created and I feel it was made to a high quality. Also i can see how the research i have done has allowed me to create a great prospective of these mob type gangsters and portray my view of them and get an audiance to relate towards it.

Distribution of the film

As the film is more typical of a british style film we will base our release around britain and the UK success in the United Kingdom would allow discussion for further release into the Uniter states and other parts of the world, Also this would allow us to choose more distributors that are more american based such as Miramax. These film distributors are popular in America and are multi award winners for films.

The aim of creating a successfull film for the British public seems a realistic view as it is a fitted and typical genre that has shows remarcable success in the past with film such as reservoir dogs which was a big influence on our film, I feel that the British public could relate more to our film and also the research done shows that the gap in the market for a film such as the one we have created will allow the film to maximize its revenue and make remarkable profits.

Competitive edge-

Our film was constructed of many different elements that in my opinion gave our film the competitive edge in drawing as many target audiances in as possible, we used conventions to our advantage by using typical conventions used on this genre but also we used younger kids to try and draw in younger audiances as they could connects with the different characters within the film. This technique allowed young kids to see thereselfs within the film and also allowed adults that are enthusiasts in mob style gangster films to feel the need to see the film as it does feature the typical conventions.

Also the use of the research on characters i did in the past allowed me to debate with my partner on the outfits, and whether we should be in uniform/suits to show that we are school children trying to make it in the gangster underworld.

The name dodgy dealings is also a very catchy name that I thought of in order to lure the audiance in. The use of an alliteration makes the name much more catchy and it is also proven to stick in peoples minds more therefore people will remember the name of our film much more easily then if the film name wasnt so catchy.

Also within our film opening we use non diegetic music and diegetic music in order to capture the audiance, the choice of music was a long process as I thought it was quite a key component to get right in order fulley deliver powerfull and emotional parts of the film, for the bosses scene the contrast between the music and the boss was a constant reminder that the boss could actually make your life a misery with one phone call, but on the other hand it showed that behind his tought man attitude there was a soft and musically appreciative man. The use of non diagetic music in the chase scene allowed us to capture the speed of the chase and how much it ment to the kids, the track choice was very important and took a long time, but in the end i feel we chose a great track and it is 100% relative to the scene we inputted it into.

To gain success in the film industry we would like to distribute our product different companies and go down the same path as films in our genre such as Reservoir Dogs and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. there choices in distributers are companies such as Miramax, Lionsgate, Rank Film Distributers, Maple productions, Universal pictures, Polygram filmed entertainment and Summit entertainment. These companies are great successes and have successfully made tromendous profits off of there films in this genre, If we could distribute to any of these companies I would choose universal as they have a repretation for younger children as well as adults, and this is a key element in our film therefor allowing us to mamimize revenue.

Camera angles.

Camera angles are great ways to supply the audiance with different feelings and help them to gain and insight and understanding into the characters and there positions/feelings they enrole and have in the film.

Different camera angles are used to show different emotions of a character or to focus on a body part that will portray a different feeling the character has. A great example of this would be a big boss man in a suit and then having an extreme close up on a cigarette that he is crushing into the ash tray, this type of shot would be used as a code for his ability to crush someone and make there life a misery.

Other shots such as over the shoulder shots, and point of view shot would be used to put the audiance into the characters position and let them see everything he does. These type of shots are really effective when the characters in the play are showing emotion as it puts the audiance in there place and allows them to feel the emotion within the character and the depth to the scene.

I took inspiration from Steven Spielberg when he shot jaws as he used a handheld camera for parts of it to allow the audiance the chance to feel as if they are in the scene. We will use this and purposley shake the camera in the chase scene to therefor make the effect that the audiance were in the scene and that the camera was there point of view of the whole scene.

Also shots from different angles such as high and low are used to portray different levels and rankings within the characters. A low level shot looking up onto a character would give the illusion that the character has a high ranking status in that scene of the film as he is taller then the camera, whereas a high angle shot would be looking down onto the character and giving the audiance the illusion that he is a lower ranking character within the scene, these shots are very good to add purpose and layers to the scene and characters.

I would like to also input an establishing shot into the the piece because I feel that is an important part of the film to show the setting, as our piece is going to be based in an urban setting we want it to appeal to a large quantity of people and attract certain audiances. Therefor showing the environment that the film is set in will be important. Although this is a tricky shot to apply to a low budget film as in an urban setting the building are very tall and you would have to get above them to get an overall view of the setting, on the other hand a big shot such as this may not be necessary because we could get a shot of some of the scenery just to give the audiance an overall idea of the film.

Characterization and setting

In the genre of film I am going to be basing my introduction on, the research into many films such as RocknRolla and Lock Stock show the many conventions of a typical London old school gangster.

In this Mise-en-scene you can clearly see that the men are drinking alcohol by the beer bottle placed on the left hand side, This shows us that the men are typical blokes in the sense that they love a bit of alcohol plus they are gathered round playing poker laughing a joking. The man in the middle with 2 shotguns clearly plays an important role in the film as they have put him in the centre and have not used any effects on him, Also he has 2 guns which shows his typical tough man attitude and style, the reason for him having not 1 but 2 guns is to show that he is superior to everyone else. Another typical convention of a old school gangster film is his leather jacket and a smart collard shirt underneath, this gives him a sense of importance and money which are important in the development of his character.

The difference in the 3 shots shown in this picture are very different in the way each one represents the characters, the far left one shows there ability to have fun, the far right one shows action, and the one in the middle which is most important to the gangsters and is the key element of the storyline which is business. Also another typical convention of Vinnie Jones character is his hair cut, this is a very typical hair cut for a thug/ hard man, the facial expressions on his face are key to make his character look serious and have a sense of foreboding about him.

When taking into consideration the characters of films in this genre such at lock stock, we would like to input these characters into out film such as

The hard man- The hard man is usually a tall and broad man with a tough guy attitude, he is usually only used for beating people or forcing something out of someone. The typical features of this character would be a short haircut, a chain, also in films in this genre the hard man is the leaders right hand man and will do anything the leader wants.

The boss- The boss is usually the smartest dressed, and you will never usually see him with the group because they will have to see him and step into his office. He is usually a very wealthy man and not featured too much in the film.

The lady’s man- Usually a slim man, well presented and smooth with the lady’s, he is usually not used for much to do with the business side but he always seems to have money to spend on the lady’s.

These are what we find typical characters of a film of this genre, we would like to incorporate these characters into our introduction that we are shooting, and we would change several aspects of this because we are shooting a teenager based version, so we would change the dress sense slightly but keep the suits. Also the language that each character uses will need to be changed to modern day lingo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzMpH9jjo4w

This link to reservoir dogs is a piece of research carried out that I think shows a great deal of the reason why this film was such a success. The intro to the film uses a voice over whilst showing Quentin Tarantino’s name then it cuts out before the change of scene to individually show the actors in the film, This helps to attract potation audiences such as fans of Quentin Tarantino’s work Then as the non diagetic music slowly fades in it shows the time that the film is set in because of its early developed rock aspects. Also when it shows the men walking past the brick wall, they have placed a car there to also show the time the film is set in. Then as the men are walking down one of the men puffs a cigarette, this gives the man a sense of importance and show he is cool. After this you get a close up of each individual character, and they always have at least one thing that differs them from the rest of the characters such as sunglasses, cigarettes, different outfits, goatee and beard or a cigar.

Then the shot of the group walking away into the distance with the name of the film scrolling up above there heads, also as the title of the film appears the song changes from verse to chorus as this is the most important part of the intro because the name of the film is very important.

 

Target audience/Narrative

Target audience/Narrative

For our film to be successful we need to specifically aim our product at a part of the market; this is known as a target audience. As our genre is British gangster and it features a younger generation of men it appears that we are appealing to British males aged 15-35. 

By realising our target audience we can therefore base what we deliberately do- e.g. place props in the shot, camera shots, around what our target audience expect to see. We have already identified typical symbolic codes: costume, characters actions etc.

Narratives rely on a disturbance of some sort, which can then be identified and we see the characters attempt to make amends whilst encountering difficulties along the way. Our narrative structure represents this as we see that our characters owe money to the “boss” (disturbance), and they must return the money (make amends), then we see problems unfold as we follow the characters’ struggle to find enough money.

As we are only filming a 2 minute scene it allows us to not finish our narrative, however the audience will be engaged and therefore want to discover how the narrative of our film unfolds, therefore our film will be appealing to our target audience.

Although the base of our narrative is similar to all the other British gangster films on the market, our film contains a younger version of the stereotypical characters in gangster films nowadays, this differs us from the market and allows us to offer something extra to our audience.

Rory Fairweather

Aspects of a Typical Gangster Film

In a film in this typical genre, setting plays an important role in the play because you need to keep the atmosphere tense and mysterious, in reservoir dogs, they use an empty room with nothing in it to interrogate the police man, these could be metaphors for the empty spaces in there hearts that are needed to torture someone like this. Also in this film, on the rare occasion you actually see the group out on the street they still use a plane scenery e.g a brick wall, they also add into the scenery things that set the time the film was set in such as a car, just to show the year and the typical features of that time frame.


I think my group could incorporate these ideas into our film very easily and also they would be very beneficial towards the success of the film, Also the use of the scenery is very vibrant in colour in contrast to the men who are in very dull outfits that give the impression that they are business men. We could also use this contrast between characters by setting statuses with the outfits, the boss could be in an outfit just like the men in reservoir dogs, the chav in a typical tracksuit (like the guy at that back but dated to the 21st century) and the druggie could have his clothes loose fitting and scruffy to show the the is the lowest status of the group that we just have around to keep the numbers up.

Kidulthood is also a film we would like to incorporate into out film, we think the aspects of the film such as the language and the story line, are great things that relate to out film and we could use this film as a great guideline, Also the teens in this film are also roughly the same age as the people in our film, therefore there are certain tiny parts of the film that we could use such as when one of the boys leaves his house he makes sure he says bye to his mum, just as a reminder to the audience that these boys are only teens and most of there attitude is just an act to look cool. Also in kidulthood they use great camera angles to show status and place, a great example of this is at the end of the film when the big tough man Sam is on the floor and the camera angle is looking up as a point of view shot looking into another mans eyes as he points a gun to Sam's face and makes him beg, this is a great shot showing Sam's status being washed down the drain and weakening him whilst showing how vulnerable this position is.
I feel my group could input this into our film to show how each individuals role is different within the gang and how we all think of each other without actually saying it to each other.