Evaluation Question 4- Maddison Brown

Evaluation Question 3- Maddison Brown

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Evaluation Question 2- Maddison Brown

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Evaluation Question 1- Maddison Brown

Our film displays continuity through match on action; shot reverse shot; and 180-degree rule. The editing of the shot reverse shot is used in conversations. The edit is shown through Maddy and Destiny’s conversation and Destiny and the Loan sharks conversation. We used sound bridges to trick the audience to smooth out the cuts between shots. This makes the conversation flow more and appear more realistic. (show an edit photo of sound bridge and shot –r-shot). The match on action is used in the same way. We used a sound bridge over the office opening by using the knocking sound and the Loan Shark speech to make it seem like an ordinary office. (show an edit of sound bridge over match on action). We also applied the 180-degree rule to all conversations. These traditionally happen in all films to show continuity. 

Photo from Usual Suspects

Photo from GR££D

The film does have a montage with quick editing and music that beats to the cuts. This is good because it makes the film more energetic and breaks the middle of film up. This also breaks continuity as there is no continuous shots. Also with the use of mise en scene we also kept continuity to make the film realistic and believable to the audience. This was specially done through costume and make up; props; scenery. One problem we did have occurred when editing to film is that the shots from the park scene have different lighting as they were filmed on different days. To overcome this error we filtered the film with colour correction to darken the shots of Destiny to match Maddy’s shots. We also had problems with the continuity on the Loan Shark scene where the Loan Shark gets Destiny to sign the contract we used two different sheets of paper so we had to wire frame the mid shot to crop out the sheet of paper.  The advantage we had when filming was when the park scene was out of focus on Maddy we only had to re-film Maddy’s part, this is good because Destiny’s hair changed colour so it would have made it hard to connect her with the same character in other scenes. Another advantage we had was planning beforehand; we used production day packs to keep a track of clothing; props; scenery; shot listing and scripts. This helped us keep our continuity consistent.

The film reflects a few conventions of psychological thrillers. One of these is using a male to play the villain or false hero. This convention is shown in Angel Heart, The Box and Cape Fear. The use of the male lead of a villain creates a more dominant and powerful character. This is a natural stereotype from audiences. In other genres this is also a convention such as horror where you have Freddie; Jason; Jigsaw; Scream. They are all following a male stereotype. It is not very often in psychological thrillers a woman is the villain. One film that has challenged this stereotype is Fatal Attraction however a male lead that does wrong is still involved.

 We used a male Loan Shark to hopefully follow the success of the stereotype of haunting; powerful; dominant. This helped create the innocence and scared personality of Destiny as she is bounded to this contract to kill herself. This creates more tension and excitement for the audience. If the Loan Shark was a girl I don’t think it would have had the same effect as lead villain females are normally jealous, wanting beauty, controlling. These conventions do not suit or storyline as the Loan shark is not envious of Destiny.

Photo from Fatal Attraction showing gender stereotypes

Another convention in thriller film is the use of dark or twisted music. However, in our film we used rap/gangster music for the montage. We used this because we wanted to break up the film and create energy to the audience as the first part of the film is a slow pace and long beginning.

One of the conventions we used from other films is the use of suspense. When Destiny gets told she needs to kill someone there is a build up of suspense of who she has to kill. This is then built upon the climax at the end when Destiny gets the letter. This use of suspense is used in films such as The Amazing Spiderman when Peter uses his webs to catch the Doctor but he is waiting ages then a web moves. It is also used in Cape Fear when the husband is in his house and he is waiting for Max to attack.

Photo from Amazing Spiderman 

Photo from Cape Fear

In  our film we follow the drama convention of using no or little fantasy and keeping the storyline realistic by using money worries and loan companies to suggest realism. We also use the factor of job loss to show the modern style of the film. in summary, our film does include many conventions included in the genre of a drama such as realistic characters and storyline. Our characters are dramatic and show emotions like in dramas. However, some aspects of the film challenge traditional conventions, which could be because we wanted our film to stand out to break convention. 

In previous questions I have displayed some of Richard Dyer’s theory. This theory relates to why we watch films. The sections of this theory are:

• Energy
• Abundance
• Intensity
• Transparency
• Community

Our film supports this theory because our film shows energy with the break of continuity and music in the middle of the film. This shows that the audience want to watch this film because they feel they need to be energised and motivated. Our film does not do this is a common way, normally films use action, fight scenes and fast pace cutting. We used fast pace editing and cutting to speed up the film and grab the audiences’ attention.

Our film again supports this theory because of abundance. In our film Destiny comes enriched with money. When she has this money she spends it on a car; house; paying Maddy back and getting her life back. However, since Destiny is full of greed she uses the money on materialistic objects and nothing for her own real benefit. This utopia to the audience makes them feel in a world of fantasy of what they would do with £2 million. This is parallel to when someone wonders what they would do if they won the lottery. This shows the audience become captured in a dream land. The montage also happens in Rocky films and creates energy to the audience. 

Photo from Rocky Montage showing energy

 Gr££d shows intensity when Destiny opens the letter and when she makes the choice of killing someone. These parts of the film are intense because they create suspense for the audience. This is done through the letter as it is a mysterious letter. We used close up shots to show Destiny’s confusion when she first sees the letter and we used slow acting to display Destiny’s emotion. When she opens the letter the audience see who she has to kill. However there is no name just a photo. To display Destiny’s emotion we used a key frame to zoom is on her face and a freeze frame. The freeze frame also shows a mug shot still photo with the look of emptiness and sadness. This happens in the box when they are faced with the box and we can the actors emotion. 

Photo from The Box showing emotion and intensity 

The film shows transparency as Destiny isn’t hiding anything she isn’t hiding that she has no money or that she does have money. Maddy is transparent because she shows an honest and confronting personality to the audience. However, the Loan Shark does challenge this as he does say that Destiny has to kill someone he keeps the secret of who that person is.

Photo from The Box showing transparency 

The film displays community as Maddy and Destiny are good friends and Maddy helps her out. However, we also see Destiny is alone a lot, she seems to have no family, no job and no other communication through social networking as she can’t afford internet. This shows the audience the Destiny needs sympathy that she is so alone and her only way out is through a Loan Shark. This is also shown in Gangster Squad when John needs to get a squad together and gets one of his friends to help him, Jerry. Jerry then falls for Grace who then asks Jack for a favour as a friend to hide Grace from Mickey. 

 photo of Jerry and Grace displaying community by becoming acquaint.

 Mickey and Grace displaying affect which shows a different type of social community

Photo of the gangster squad showing community in their friendship. 

c) Are there any elements of deliberate pastiche or parody, where you ‘play’ with the genre’s codes and history? Are there any intertextual moments where you hint at a reference to another film?

In our film we have used ideas from Angel Heart to help us set the scene and film it effectively. We used this scene because the shots are not complex and the scene in Angel Heart is similar to what we wanted to achieve. In the short film Room 8 that I researched we wanted to use similar camera shots to when Destiny first meets the Loan Shark. Another part of the film was the montage. For this part we looked at Teen wolf, Rocky, Scarface and Dirty Dancing we used all these different genres of films because we wanted to see how they used the music in collaboration to the cuts.  

To find research for our film we looked at Angel Heart and The Box. These films follow the theme of selling yourself or making a life changing decision.  From these films we used: the plot twist of agreeing to a sin and getting revenge. These films have also impact some short films we used to base our film around. One of these short films is Room 8, a film about a man who is imprisoned with an inmate who has an “escape plan” however this is a trick for people who are not paying for their sins. From this this film we used the same setting and shot frame of when the Loan Shark is introduced. (Show images). Another film we looked at was Black Button, this film follows a man trying to make the decision of killing someone and having a lot of money to walking away to freedom and heaven, after he chooses the money he is sent to hell for greed. From this film we used the conversation and characteristic of the judge in our Loan Shark. This type of conversation was also in Angel Heart when Louis cypher is speaking to Jonny Favourite in the church. (Show image). From these films we also looked at their film posters. The convention of The Box and Angel Heart show there is 2 or 3 main characters focus on; a mass use of black; simplistic features; mysterious tone. These poster helped us aim our film at a similar audience. 



Radio Trailer Script

This script helped plan out our radio trailer. We followed it step my step when recording the voiceover on the zoom recorder which helped save time. We used this script to help us edit our trailer together also, as it suggests where music needs to be placed and when certain bits of the voice over fit best.

Link to our online questionnaire about final film

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1OwMpJCNhW356VgWEebGwDVwE4WgSd39KFHGNrs97wk4/viewform

Possible Images For film Poster

Possible Images For Film Poster

We have decided to use an image from our actual film to use as the background image to our film poster. We decided to do this as we believe it will have a good effect on the audience as they can see the actual facial expressions used within the film and get a feel for what happens to the main character and why. 

This image is a medium close up of Destiny with her hands over the eyes, looking like she's going to cry. This would be a good image to use as it shows character emotion. However, I believe a better image would be where the audience will actually be able to see the characters facial expression throughout a certain part of the film.

This is an image of Destiny looking at the leaflet, debating whether to call the Loan Shark. This would be a good image as it is a part of the actual film and makes the audience question what she is looking at and whats it importance is. 

"Need easy money" turns out to be a really important search that Destiny does within the film. This is how she finds out about the Loan Shark and finds the advert. The issues with using this image are that it's not a facial close up and you can see the tab open for the youtube sight that we had to switch to within the film.

When Destiny goes to meet the Loan Shark, she knocks and walks in. This shot is a nice one as you can see the fear on Destiny's face as she is nervous to meet him. This would be a really good shot to use as a film poster as it doesn't give much of the storyline away, but makes the audience question who she is going to meet. 

The Loan Shark is the second most important character within our film, therefore we could use him as the vocal point of the film poster. 

This is another idea that could be used, however it isn't a close up of Destiny as we planned.

This could be used as its a scene from the ending, however doesn't give much away about the plot and how the film ends. The facial expression of Destiny within this image is good as it shows the audience how she is feeling. This may also make the audience want to watch the film as they want to see what she is looking at and why her facial expression as like that. 

rough draft film poster

For my film poster I wanted to use the idea that money can create two types of people. Money has become something that can make or break a person. This is one of the meanings behind the film title "Greed". This is because Destiny becomes greedy with her money and becomes obsessed with material objects. I used the colour red on Destiny's photo as she is in danger and I used the colour blue on the Loan Shark because he is a cold person. I blurred the photos to give an affect of mystery to the audience but then I faded the edges to focus on the main images. I also wanted to make the title stand out.
The images have tag lines of critics reviews. This is important because it markets the film to the audience. This creates a buzz and word of mouth for the film. If the tag lines are effective then the audience will believe this is a great film.
The film has a specific tagline. This was the most difficult part because the film has so many aspects. The tag line "Money creates two types of people" creates a sense of mystery to the audience and can be an ambiguous meaning. I used a different font to the main title because I wanted it to stand out.
The title is set on an off white background. This is so it stands out more the audience and creates a contrast with any white lettering. I used the graffiti style font because it gives the impression of a bad and crime theme to the film. Also it is all uneven and unbalanced which creates the type of life Destiny leads.

Narrative and Our Film

Narrative

Bordwell and Thompson

This theory created by David Bordwell and Kristen Thompson relates to our 5 minute long film, ‘Greed.’ This theory suggests there is a relationship between story and plot, in which they explained within a diagram. The story includes inferred events which are understood by the audience, yet not seen. This relates to our film as it isn’t shown directly that Destiny has no money. The audience finds this out when the future scenes show Destiny telling her friends that she will not be able to pay the money back she borrowed. Furthermore, within Bordwell and Thompson’s theory of story and plot, explicitly presented events, which the audience see directly happen include the scenes of ‘Greed’ where Destiny reads the letter, stating she has lost her job and house. The plot includes added non-diegetic material that is not part of the story such as credits, subtitles and title sequences. Our film has a title sequence that introduces the audience to the story without being a part of the actual storyline.

Vladimir Propp: Spheres of action

Propp found there were 31 functions in each fairytales and storylines. This suggests that there is a generic structure throughout every storyline. The theory also shows that Propp believed there are similar characters in every storyline, including: The villain, the hero, the doner, the helper, the princess, the father, the dispatcher and the false hero. In our film, the characters may be seen as the following:
The false hero – The loan shark
Destiny believes that the Loan shark is the answer to her money problems, until she goes to the meeting and finds out the task he wants her to do for the money.
The helper – Maddy
Destiny is helped my Maddy, when she is in need of money. Destiny tells Maddy that she might not be able to pay the money back and Maddy reacts positively, helping her further by asking her if she wants to stay at her house seen as she was going away for the week.
The villain – The Loan shark
Furthermore, the Loan shark could be seen as a villain as his intentions were never aimed to benefit Destiny.
The father – Money
Money and wealth play a big part in our film, the whole film revolves around Maddy and her quest for wealth.

Furthermore, Propp’s theory of complication is shown in our film as new problems are introduced throughout ‘Greed’, including the main problem at the end of her having to kill herself.

Syd Fields: Three act plot structure

This theory suggests that all films can be split into 3 sections. Act one is a setup in which the audience get a feel for the film. Our film’s first 30 seconds shows Destiny losing her job and house and telling her friend she’ll not be able to return the money. Act two is usually the longest part, in which the main character is seen in different situations and most of the story is told. The middle of our film is Destiny choosing to go to the loan shark, getting told she has to kill someone for the money, agreeing and spending the money. Finally, act three is the resolution where everything gets brought together. The last 15 seconds of our film finds Destiny opening the expected letter up, stating she has to kill herself. This is the finally and only takes up a few seconds right at the end.

Claud Levi-Strauss: Binary Oppositions

This theory relates to how within many narratives, there are opposites. I don’t believe this can be used to explain ‘Greed’ as there aren’t any opposites in our film. The loan shark and the Destiny make an agreement together and it isn’t really a fight between them both.

Rough Film Poster

Rough Draft Film Poster

I created this rough film poster for our film, "Greed", using Adobe Photoshop Elements. This poster is simple, yet effective. After researching existing film posters for popular drama films I decided that the use of a close up shot of Destiny's face is important as it shows the characters emotions and gives the audience an idea of what is included within our films storyline. I transformed the image into black and white as this effect gives a darker shade at one side, portraying money to have a good and a bad side to it. The Loan Shark is looking over at the letter that Destiny is looking at and represents the power he has over her in the contract that she has signed. I did not include the actual letter within the poster as our film is all about the anticipation of the build up to the end where Destiny finds out she has to kill herself. Including the letter would have gave the storyline away and discourage our audience to watch our film as they would know the ending. I used a fade effect on the Loan Shark to blend him more into the dark background, portraying that he is apart of the dark and an eerie character. Non of the images I used were copyright as they all came from  either our film or we took them on our own camera in the surroundings used in the film.

The title 'Greed' is capitalised and makes it stand out to the audience from far away. The use of money signs within "Gr££d" makes the audience aware that the thing the main character is being greedy over is money and this may give them a clue to who the man is in the background. This may provide audience pleasure as they may sense the emotions of the characters and feel that they want to relate and get to know them by watching the film. I used the traditional Steel Tongs when adding the film information at the bottom of the director, writer etc. This makes the film poster look more realistic and like it's advertising an actual film that they can watch. 

The font of the star rating and tagline is simple and also easily readable, this matches our theme of simplicity throughout all our advertising. The use of these is also to persuade our audience to watch our film as it gives them a basis to why they should watch it. If the Daily mail newspaper has rated it 5 star, this may make them want to go see it as it must be a good film. Many films use this as a selling point. The tagline "Do you need money to be happy?" makes the audience question themselves. The topic of money may appeal to a certain audience and this might make them want to watch it if they are struggling with money themselves as this tagline questions money and if it is important. 

As this is only a draft there are still aspects of this film poster that I feel could improved. The main problem I have with this film poster is that it doesn't look realistic enough to be an actual film advertisement. I could make it look more realistic by blending the images into the background more using a tool which would make the edges of the image look less rough. 

Narrative theory

 Bordwell and Thomposn

This theory of narrative relates to the relationship of plot and story. Our film “Greed” relates to this because as our film develops the events do, and they are fully explained to the audience. However, this is indirectly done. This is because the audience don’t know that Destiny has to kill herself. Has the film is set in the present this also relates to the theory. The events are all follow on from each other telling a simple narrative.

Vladimir Propp: Spheres of action

This theory relates to the 31 function in each storyline and fairy tales. This shows there is common structure throughout the storyline. The theory believed that there are common characters: the doner, the helper, princes, father, false hero, villain, and dispatcher. These link to:

False hero- this is the Loan Shark, he “saves” Destiny and tries to save her from not having any money. However, this links to the twist that he uses her greed as a price of debt. This is commonly used in a lot of films especially fairy tales such as Tangled: where the princess’s mother acts like she is trying to stop her from getting hurt but she is actually using her to keep herself young. This is also common in Frozen where Prince Hanns acts like he loves Anna and he wants to save her but he just wants to take the throne. The false hero is using vulnerability to get something they want.

The Helper- This is Maddy as a friend she lends Destiny money and a home. This shows the generic feature of many fairy tales such as the fairy God mother from Cinderella as she makes it possible for the Princess to meet the Prince. This shows our film relates to this theory from the general conventions of past films.

The villain- The loan shark again as he plays the false hero he uses Destiny’s desperation to his own gain. The convention of this is that villains often use someone’s desperation for their own good. Another example of this is from the fairy tale Little Mermaid as the princess is used for her desperation of love to the villain’s advantage.

The father- As destiny needs money and the film is fixed on this idea of materialism and greed.

This theory is used by a lot of films because the character always follows an often role and convention. This is because it is convenient to the audience and makes the film follow either a simple or complex plot. This shows there is ways to easily build layers of storyline to make the plot as complex as the production team want. But then the film can be easily cut down into small and solid blocks of theory of narrative.

Syd Fields: Three act plot structure

This theory relates to the idea that all films split into three sections. For example act one is used to make the audience build an understanding of the film. In our film at the start we see Destiny losing her job and house and struggling to pay her friends back. In the middle of the film is normally the bulk, this relates to ours as it shows Destiny going to the Loan Shark and spending the money. The final section of the film is the end, in our film Destiny opens the letter. Most films follow  this dissect of three sections. However, some films that leave an open narrative ending such as Stay or films that have a following sequel such as Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

Claud Levi- Binary Oppositions

This theory suggests that in most narritives, there are opposite character. This can be: heor and villain; good and bad; happy and sad; rich and poor. Even though in our film Destiny is poor and Maddy is well-off there is no real explanation of this. Also the Loan Shark and Destiny come to an equal agreement where they are doing something in exchange for each other so this does not make them too fair opposites.