Evaluation question two

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My product presents one main social group being upper class British criminals. I achieved a very typical presentation of these characters through various conventions. 

SOUND

Sound became a very poignant way which I used extensively to present the social groups. Firstly I ensured all cast members to perform with a strong and gritty accent. this linked to typical gangsters being from the south and gave a more convincing portrayal of the characters involved. I felt the accents helped to present social class as often southern people would be more wealthy which linked to my idea of presenting the criminals as being upper class. I also chose these accents as they contained very gritty and raw elements to them which gave a more convincing presentation of strength through the characters. 

The soundtrack also became a main focus for presenting an upper class criminal social class. I chose to use slow paced soundtracks as oppose to high intensity more fast paced tracks to help present the social classes. The slower pace presents the higher class as being more in control and and having a more relaxed approach to the environment they face. I cut the soundtrack at dialogue when characters begin to speak to further portray the importance surrounding the characters showing the upper social class as being dominant and incredibly important. 

MISE EN SCENE

Mise en scene was truly where I could present the target social class fully and most obviously to the audience. Firstly props were a huge portrayal of the money involved in modern crime and the upper social class. I was able to have access to a luxury car in which Jason - one of the protagonists - was driving in addition this depicted the "gangsters" as very wealthy and powerful and most definitely not humble about their money obtained unlawfully. I wanted also to really push the idea of the obtainment of "dirty money" to the audience so chose to shoot the confrontation sequence in a very desolate and run down area which almost juxtaposed the lifestyle presented through clothing and props giving the social group a very shady and false feeling surrounding them projecting the social class as hell-bent and fake. All characters were dressed in formal attire projecting them as wealthy still and being figured of importance, the formal wear correlated to that of a business man which of course it is a common projection for gangsters to see themselves as businessmen. This presented a very out going and independent feel to the characters. I Dressed my main protagonist who holds power throughout the majority of the scene in the more formal wear which portrayed him as the most important and also correlated to the power which he held throughout the scene. The other two characters were then dressed down further with the lowest ranking character dressing the least formal and I found this to reflect the power in which each character had and wanted this to reinforce the impact the twist would have.

EDITING

Editing in Fidelity was quite simple and slow paced I wanted the editing style from the beginning to be very understated for the majority of the film drawing more emphasis to the characters interaction with each other and putting a greater focus on dialogue and the story elements of the sequence. The lack of cuts when more important characters were speaking put greater emphasis on their speech reflecting them as being a more important social group. The lack of cuts created however a more orientated feel and presented a much calmer feel to the visuals of the film. This once again helped to reflect the mind-set of the upper class characters presenting them almost being in a routine and used to these dealings but also presenting them as very collective people which I felt differed from many of the films in which I looked at which presented the more irrational side to criminals and their acting. I wanted to present a sense of urgency in the opening credits so only used straight cuts and didn't want to use fades as I still wanted that rough edge to be presented to the social group throughout creating a very raw and real feel to the sequence. The colour grade I used was also very muted and gave a more raw feel which became gradually more raw as the location changed which once again gave this juxtaposing feel from the false luxury and money.

CAMERA WORK

Camera movement and cinematography required the most in depth planning in order to subtly hint key aspects of social groups portrayed and highlight their power and tendencies. Firstly I used varying angles to give a sense of power to the characters using a low angle to project importance and dominance something which is commonly portrayed about this social group giving them a very strong presence in the shot without "glamourizing" them. Most of my shots were static takes giving a very calm and clean feel to the scene reflecting on the social groups calmer and collective side of their personality and also giving a more luxurious and prominent feel to the characters as our focus is purely on them during dialogue as the shots force us to focus on the motion of the character rather than that of the camera. However as action and tension increased throughout the sequence I used similar shot types for all characters showing the shift in power leading up to the shooting which presented a more turbulent and unpredictable side to the social group I aimed to present. The shot I was very happy with and I had crafted and used to really reinforce the power and importance of Jason - protagonist- was the act shot. I felt by rotating around the set really quantified the power Jason held showing that all around him belonged to him almost as if the world (audience) was revolving around him. it gave a very self centred portrayal to the social class showing them as being very stuck up and self obsessed.

Overall I feel my media product presented the desired social class in many different ways through different aspects of the film giving for a very uncertain feel surrounding all characters towards the end of the sequence presenting the criminal lifestyle as unpredictable yet high rewarding however a very dangerous lifestyle to be involved in and shouldn't be aspired too.

Evaluation question one

How does your film use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My opening was crafted to follow generic structure, form and feel to a generic crime film. Based heavily off existing successful crime films and TV series Fidelity really was just a blend of as many elements a crime film would contain. 

Depiction of characters was a main theme I focused on when planning the way the opening would pan out. I instantly began centring every element of the sequence to fit around how these protagonists would be projected to the audience. The opening shows 2 seemingly high rank characters (Jason and Reggie) and one aspirational sideman (Arthur) who will stop at nothing to get to where he wants to be despite the way loyalties lie. I felt the opening really presented the corruption and uncertainty of gang life and this was a key message I wanted to voice through the film. That below the law nothing is safe or appears as it seems. I felt the intended twist to the opening would really set this in stone for the audience and present the irrationality present in gang life and how things could change and become dangerous very quickly which is a very generic presentation of gang life. 

I carefully crafted a location as often gang films are set in secluded and dangerous areas away from the lavish luxury life which is also presented with gang crime. I had the privilege of using a very nice car which presents the money involved in crime and how often the higher ranked people possess a large amount of money. I felt the car was perfect and another key way to present Jasons personality. I used editing techniques to make the driving in the opening seem erratic which linked greatly to the personality I wished Jason and by using sweeping shots far from the car it helped present a calmer side to Jason yet hinted at the more irrational and enraged personality he later possesses. I didn't introduce Jason till the abandoned factory scene to create narrative enigma as there was no clues as to his destination or intention during this sequence. This links to a more generic representation giving the criminals a more mysterious and innocent appeal at first and then revealing their darker undertones later on in the scene. 

I used low angles to represent the characters in power so initially a lower angle was used to depict Jason quantifying his power at the beginning, gradually this angle became less and less emphasised until we get his final shot at eye level showing his loss of power over the other two characters. This element of the film  I feel was less generic as its not often in crime films where a lower rank almost guard decides to betray his superior due to fear of fate should this be done. 

Sound I had also planned to follow general trends of a crime film introducing a rock and bass sound track to create a high energy level and adrenaline to the film whilst introducing suspense. I took inspiration from Peaky Blinders for my soundtracks as I had liked the way they introduced emotion through a soundtrack implicating the characters mood and intended actions without any dialogue. I wanted to make my tracks predominantly percussion based so I tried to find an intense drum track which would suit the "in your face" nature to the video.

Editing built up in speed as the scene became more intense I used an increase of cuts to create a sense of discomfort and also removed the static elements of the shots creating disorientation as Jason gets betrayed which links to generic trends through current existing crime films and TV series.

Overall I feel Fidelity was a very generic film suiting the genre and was purposefully based on existing crime successes to secure a relative success of the film due to its low budget limitation as well as run time allocated in the brief.

I decided to introduce Jason through time showing initially his feet as he exited the car, this was done through a crab left as the door opened which presented a very slick feel to this introduction almost as if the world moved with his actions showing immediate power and by not showing his face initially this created a mystery surrounding him. Through the shots eventually his face was revealed from a low angle which depicted him as a very strong and powerful man. It is very generic in crime films to introduce a mysterious character indirectly to create narrative enigma surrounding them and giving them a sense of power also.


As well as incorporating many generic factors of a crime thriller film I felt there were elements of the film which made it stand out from other generic crime films. For example the colour grade I was using was tinted towards a more blue colour palette which gave a very raw and exposed look I also desaturated the colour to reinforce the grit and rawness which would be prominent through the scene, this almost modernised the crime genre in my opinion as often colour grading in crime films is very understated and is often incredibly contrasting crushing the shadows in the image to surround the scene with mystery. I also managed to shift the colours of the sequence from a surprisingly vibrant grade for the first scene which I then shifted to the desaturated grade in the industrial estate. This I wanted to do to throw off the viewer and create a more poignant mood shift that was sure to hint at the nature of the events that follow. This I felt was an example of me developing and defying typical conventions of a crime opening.

Another example of developing conventions was the use of the arc shot during Jasons speech which I felt worked really well as often in crime films not much is displayed of the location and very often I found through research an establishing shot is completely removed from the sequence to create secrecy however the arc shot in which I used my camera mounted on a glidecam was intended to create a calmer environment surrounding Jason showing how he is almost reluctant to people seeing him as he has so much power the world is almost revolving around him. I feel by using extensive camera movements I was able to really portray power held through the characters and at the same time I was able to show the depth of emotion surrounding each individual character.

Title sequence research

Titles are very effective in enhancing the scene and can play a big part in setting emotion and enhancing tone to the sequence. size, timing and introduction to these titles will help enhance the scene whilst subtly giving us as the audience insight into the people behind the film and key actors who play parts within the film. They are only used for the most important people responsible for the creation of the film and come at the start of the film which differs to the credit which roll after the film have ended and list every person involved in the movie its self as well as distribution and marketing.


Opening Credits


For the Titles I wanted to go for a more discreet effect which would involve very standard looking titles in the sense they would just appear on screen without a fade however this would be hidden by a cut which I gathered inspiration from the TV series which helped inspire my opening- Peaky Blinders.

I used an external font sourced from dafont.com which I felt complimented the text of the final title as I wanted the final text to have more impact so didn't use the same font for the opening titles. I wanted to give a rustic and industrial feel to the fonts showing them as almost damaged which matches the characters personalities very well. I chose to use alternate corners for each opening title to almost divert the viewers attention so the titles do not seem predictable and are spontaneous this effect I also took inspiration for from Peaky Blinders. I chose to make the text quite bold and big to also reflect the protagonists personalities. I chose to use a white colour for the text as I really like white text as I feel it compliments the colour grade very well and stands out from the darker tones of the film. It also presents a sense of irony as the colour white is quite pure which would later on in the sequence become apparent none of the characters are pure.


Outro Title


For the outro title I wanted to give a very edgy and industrial look and found using smoke on a black background made this work very easily. I wanted a rustic looking text which would be minimalistic yet very poignant over the smoke. Once again I sourced the font from dafont.com and sourced the smoke from stock footage. I wanted slow moving smoke to compliment the music and create a very mysterious yet modern feel to the outro. I rendered out the outro in after effects yet when it came to importing in Premiere I felt it wasn't as impactful as I wanted it to be so I saw I had a glitch effect plugin installed in Premiere which I felt would give a very spontaneous and sudden twitch to the outro which would reflect the volatile and irrational theme running through the whole film should it be taken to production. The title would then fade to black and into the next scene.

I used keyframes to alter the opacity of the smoke and text so that they both faded in slowly to give a mysterious effect enhanced through this. I feel the glitch added in later worked well with the soundtrack to relight the energy lost through the sudden death and this was built back up through the car sounds I added in production and the glitch effect combined with the drum introduction of the soundtrack gives a very energetic feel to the conclusion of the opening ready for the scene to follow.

Fidelity Final Cut Two

Fidelity- Final Cut One

For this cut I achieved a more final look to my film going back to adjust colour parameters on each shot individually to make the sequence flow more seamlessly to the eye and I also brightened some of the shots to retain detail which was lost in previous colour correction. I wanted to slow down the whole sequence as I didn't feel enough tension was created in my rough cuts and that the scene was very fast paced and some of the shot timings were off I created 2 different sound tracks in garage band, one which was intended to be more ambient whereas the main intro soundtrack intended to accentuate the scene and add personality to the character driving.

Full Rough 2

This cut was merging both scenes together to formulate an idea on how to blend both scenes to run seemlessly and to try establish how the mood flows through the scene. I added minimal sound to try add atmosphere but my main focus of the cut was to finalise colours and show how the full story would pan out. I essentially blended my two previous rough cuts together to create the full story.

Next steps I will need to create a final cut and create a soundtrack as well as researching potential title sequences and formulating a final title slide. I have to correct some colour to make the scene flow fluidly and in addition will have to sort the issue of sound abbruptly entering the scene to mask the fact its a new shot.  

Produciton- Shoot Two- intro sequence.

I managed to finish the shoot for Fidelity by travelling to Ilkley Moors to shoot the opening of my sequence as Jason drives over the hills to reach the abandoned factory.

For this shoot  I decided to wake up at 7:00am to shoot the sequence to catch the roads at a quiet time and hopefully encounter an interesting morning mist as I had checked the weather the night before and mist was predicted which I found would be perfect for the look I aimed for. Unfortunately we went up a bit too high for the mist to have impact however it created a very industrial looking smog in the valley which I found gave a very impactful look to the image. To shoot the sequence we took the car onto the moors and I would walk off to find the shot and then signal the car to be driven past. I has planned to just shoot as much as possible so I had a lot of flexibility when editing in post as I found shooting purely from the storyboard during the execution scene left some gaps where a shot was missing however if I could manage to capture a large variety of shots it would ensure no gaps would be left.

In the video above I wanted to see how I could fade in the footage from my idents as I wanted the car to be introduced very abruptly giving an instant adrenaline filled opening. I sped up the shots slightly also to enhance the speed making the car seem as if it was going at a faster speed. I used a fluid head tripod with the microphone mounted to my camera this time so I could capture a more distant sound of the car as most of the shots were establishing. I focused on adding sound before visuals also which helped to add a more abrupt feel to the sequence.

I wanted sound to be a very dominant element to the opening contrasting the peaceful countryside with a roaring engine sound complimented by a rock soundtrack to really project the characters personality through his driving and create an atmosphere surrounding this.

Overall I found this shoot to be a huge success which will hopefully add to the production value of my film and further help accentuate mood.

Next Steps: work on how to transition from the scene on the hills to the more tense feeling abandoned factory confrontation scene. also try to craft a soundtrack to help enhance the mood and increase tension adding more of an emotion.

Ident

I created my Ident in Adobe After Effects. I wanted a very simplistic title sequence that carried a lot of suspense through sound design. I wanted to add the element of water which would link to my company name "Tidal". I had a small title text in the Bauhaus font which is San Sariff creating a very simplistic and clean look carrying a lot of impact. I created a vignette around the dark blue background and then key-framed the mask path so the vignette gradually increases and decreases in said however this is very discreet when reviewing on an apple Mac. I used the CC drizzle effect on my text and reduced the drip frequency to time a single drop in the corner of my text. I then added a drip sound effect on top of the water however felt there wasn't enough ambience. I found some water noise to add ambience and depth to the intro. I also added a slowed down helicopter blade sound which made for quite an uncomfortable feel to the ident. I keyframes the opacity of the text so it faded in slowly and never fully reached 100% opacity giving some more depth and mystery. I didn't want the ident to be too poignant so that it complimented my film opening and didn't set a scene i wished my film to do by its self. I aimed for a minimalistic intro so it looked professional rather than including a tonne of effects which would distract from the film opening and reduce the production value in my opinion.

Rough cut one- test grade and storyline

This was a very rough cut in order for me to see how the story flowed together and was also an opportunity to test out colour grading and making the scene seem as mysterious and gloomy as possible despite shooting in daylight. I didn't add any music or foliage as I wanted to also see how the sound of the water and surrounding traffic would sound. I feel the location worked very well to set the scene and music would definitely help  mask some ambient sound. From this edit I was able to identify weak points to the story where there are gaps in which need to be filmed. I think returning to the location to shoot some more B-Roll would be a huge benefit for this video as a whole as I found from this rough cut the betrayal does not carry out as much impact and shock as I wanted and this point of the scene almost runs too quickly lacking suspense build up which although can be reinforced through music and sound design could be introduced more strongly through the cinematic of the video. I feel I focused too heavily on the camera movements and sound and should have paid more attention to detail on how the story is going to be presented.

On the other hand I feel the colour grade works very well in masking the daylight of the scene and creating the gloomy atmosphere I desired for the scene I de saturated the image which relates to previous crime films I had studied and helped add a more gritty and raw feel to the image. I also reduced exposure to bring down the overall light in the video creating some menacing shadows which I reinforced through decreasing the blacks. I increased the highlights of the footage bringing out the white which give a more glamorous feel to the video and gang life. I added the faded film also in order to give a more hazy mysterious effect and also retain some shadow details.

Next steps: return to location to shoot some B-Roll to increase suspense and help to compliment some of the ambient sound present in the sequence. Finish shoot on the moors with driving and help to pad out ending to the opening.

For the blood hit (gunshot) I used After Effects in order to create a more realistic feel to the shot. I used the Rotoscope tool to mask around the subject frame by frame then duplicated the layer so only the talent was on the top layer meaning I could put blood behind him which would make the shot more realistic as it gave almost an exit wound. I then thought about exposure as when the gun would fire the muzzle flash would light up the subject so I created a mask one frame long of the talents face then increased exposure to give the illusion the gun has been shot. Combined by a gun sound which I will add too as I go further into post production I feel gave a more realistic feel to the shot creating something relatively realistic and almost shocking.

Once all my footage has been saved I will then be able to string the whole story together to hopefully come to the final piece within the next couple weeks.  I might even look into dubbing over the original dialogue to make the scene more prominent however before doing this I will look into some similar tension scenes to see what famous directors do, The Godfather for example Coppola uses ambient sound volume to create suspense when Michael is about to shoot the policeman and other gang member in the final sequence.