Representation

Represenatation is what we see in the film- the way certain types of information are conveyed to the audience. It is the literal representation of the real world... (genders, social groups, age, origin, job, culture, race etc.) or not the real world. An example can be a Madonna concert. If you have ever been to a concert before then you would know that it is way louder at a concert especially of someone like Madonna's popularity. Straigh away we notice that the sound of the audience has been either faded a little or definetly turned down as Madonna's voice is very clear to the audience watching it online.



Representation done by the media is never, ever one hundred per cent accurate. Actually many times it's not accurate at all. Let's take someone from the audience put them in front of a lap top at home and make them watch this video online.. They are most likely going to say, 'Wait a minute, the sound wasn't tak clear at the concert when I was there. And the level of noise made by the audience was tremendous- What's going on?' This happens with exactly everything. A report in the news focusing on how teenagers are becoming violent and not respecting anyone 'blah, blah' with a stereotypically seen girl- a 'chav' in the foreground- will definatley make us think she's bad. But what's being omitted here is what most of the teenagers do that is GOOD. Therefore sometimes if not always representations prove to be stereotypical. I wanted to focus on women and the different roles they have been represented in..

SALT

'Salt' is one of Angelina Jolies mostly knows movies. It is an action and crime film, which shows the total opposite side to women. I believe it took the audience by surprise that women can be so trained and become such high and proffesional agents, it is only the movie of course but it makes us think whether there are women like this out there and I believe there are. This is exactly what representation is. It makes us judge and think upon what we see before us. But of course, naturally we think that women can't do such things and that what this film represents may be seen az absurd to some- although I disagree.

KIDULTHOOD

On the other hand a very stereotypical, but in very many cases true, was the representation of Becky in Kidulthood. A cheap, straight yet complicated girl, some may see her as a 'prostitute'(nice way of putting it) because she has sex for money and to get drugs. The representation of this girl by the way she dressed, the way she acted- which was very violent in most cases, and the way she talked is just another stereotypical way of portraying and representing the types of teenagers in todays societies.. Although again, not all teenager are like that but this is what the representation in this film creates.. The feel that most teens are like that. 

Representation... a way to represent, change views, but not all is bad- to also show the reality...

Production Companies

Production Companies

Paramount Pictures 

Paramount Pictures is a film & television, production/ distribution studio and it's said to be one of the largest and top-grossing movie studios in the world. It is also one of the oldest production/ distribution companies in the world and is a member of the Motion Pictures Association of America. Last year, 2012, was the year of the 100th anniversary of Paramount in the show business. 

 'Adolph Zukor, Jesse L. Lasky and Cecil B. DeMille are credited as Paramount's principal founding fathers'.
A rugged, snow-covered peak from the Wasatch mountain range is the famous Paramount Symbol. 



As they became the first nationwide successful film distribution company, they then started to release 2-3 new pictures a week. This was happening between 1916-1921. Soon they became a fully integrated company that controlled every aspect of filmmaking- production, distribution, and exhibition. Paramount went on to producing some of the most successful films ever made in the cinematic history such as: The Godfather, The Godfather 2, Haroldand Maude.

 

Other films released by Paramount Pictures:

 

                                                                                                                          





DreamWorks Animation

DreamWorks Animation creates high quality animated entertainment mostly aimed at children and young teenagers. It targets audience from around the world therefore it is a major production company. This company has been named as one of the '100 Best Companies to Work For'  by the Fortune Magazine for four years. All of the DreamWorks Animation's feature films are produced in 3D. Theatrically it released a total of 25 animated feature films including Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda and Puss in Boots.
They have also created...

Universal Studios

A.K.A. Universal Pictures one of the 6 major movie studios! Universal was founded by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, and Jules Brulatour. The Universal Film Manufacturing Company was founded in 1912 in New York. It became the biggest studio in Hollywood, and remained as one for a decade.
Films: Jaws, Jurassic Park, E.T, Beethoven, Bourne Identity and many, many more!

Major World Company
20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox is a Film corporation and it's one of the 6 major American film studios. This company was founded in 1933 and some of it's most popular films are: Star Wars, X-Men, Ice Age, Die Hard, Home Alone and many more. The belonging to the 20th Century Fox, Titanic and Avatar are the two top-grossing films of all time with $2.19 billion and $2.78 billion. Below are some other top, high-budget films made that struck film fanatics all over the world recently.

Indie Company
Newmarket Films

Starting off, when talking about Indie Companies I mean, smaller and independent companies. It's much of a smaller concept. They're all in the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers and produce low-budget films. One example I looked at is Newmarket Films.. it is an American film production and distribution company and was founded in 1994. It is a privately owned production and distribution company,and 'Indie Companies' are usually in every case privately owned. Newmarket's aimes are to produce and distribute diverse film and not to focus on the same idea. They're produced films such as The Mexican, Cruel Intentions, Monster, Donnie Darko and God Grew Tired of Us.

I believe that the best production company for our film would be one which is an Indie type of company. Or a similar thing to what was done with 'Ill Manors' or 'Kidulthood'.

13/03/13

Lately when we've been editing in the department, my group and I have noticed that we have a minor mistake in our editing. Whilst we were out shooting one day, the weather wasn't too good and once it was sunny and the next minute it started to snow.
When we got back into the classroom to edit our footage we realised this and concluded that this may cause problems with the sequence. Therefore we had to reshoot our footage. It was a treck and effort to do it all again because other bits weren't working as well as we thought they would but in the end all was good!

Thriller / Crime Opening Sequences

The Narrative functions of the opening sequences are to introduce the characters, setting, establishing the expectations that the audience get as watching it. Some examples of thriller and crime movies that I have looked at are as follows:

• Harry Brown, 2009
• Ill Manors, 2012
• Kidulthood, 2006
• Adulthood, 2008
• Skyfall, 2012
• Taken, 2008
• Taken 2, 2008
• Snatch, 2000

Harry Brown

This film fits in perfectly into the crime and thriller genre and with what me and the rest of my group are planning to film.The opening sequence of Harry Brown establishes the mood of the film. When we start watching the film, we can't clearly see the setting. We can however establish that it is filmed with a hand held camera and this creates a feeling of a real life story. It makes the audience feel really engaged because they feel that this is really happening but actually they all are actors playing a role in this movie.
From the start we can see the distribution company and from this we can tell that this is not such a big
The opening sequence intorduces the characters which later on appear in the movie but we can not see them clearly enaugh. We can only make this out through their voices. However, we expect them to appear later on anyway because if they wouldn't then this opening sequence woud not fit in with the movie and wouldn't make any sense.
Through props and set we can tell that these are characters who aren't nesccesarily from 'good homes', this derives from the fact that it's a dark night and they are out and about in what looks like a subway, shouting and acting quite unusually. And the use of lighting coming from the light in the subway makes this setting feel more dangerous. The fact that he is smoking either meth, weed or whatever else makes this scene make the audience feel even more shocked as they don't exactly expect young people like them to be doing these sorts of things.
The opening sequence does somehow introduce what the story may be about. Drugs are involved, violence and out of control shouting characters. They are just normal mates but this creates a feeling of them being a gang.
The lighting and colour are dark and mostly done at night to show the dangers of being out and about alone with all these groups and gangs out as well.
Harry Brown Opening Scene (embeding of the opening scene of Harry Brown was disabled by request on YouTube)

Ill Manors

The film 'Ill Manors', starts off with a man sitting in front of a T.V. watching the news. This then starts to develop into a narrator rapping the story of characters in this film and this is how we get introduced to some of the main charaters that later on appear in the film. Mainly the first 5 minutes or so fully establish what the film is going to be about and what kind of characters are involved and what the genre it might be.
When the boy sits there we can see a cutting rhythm in the editing of this film. It is a medium close-up (MCU) focusing on the facial expression and head movement. Then the editing has been done so it looks like match-on-action, a shot of the man and at the T.V. and back to the man, and then to the T.V. again.
The main leading up bit to the film introduces some characters, the settings and gives away genre. This is due to Mise-en scene, which is what these chracters are wearing, the places they visit and what they do and how they act. We know this because the camera is moving very swiftly and slowly from different sides in different directions making watching this feel like time's going by quickly because the shots are fast at 2/3 seconds per shot. But really for us the flow movement from side to side make's it seem like we're taking a step back at what we're watching at the same time really pulling the audience in. This shows a fast cutting rate and the straight cuts are used to quickly tell the story.
The credits and text that appear at the start have been very cleverly made to appear as the rapper is telling the story. This has been done to remind us of the importance of the directors and actors and people that have been working on this film, but also not to pull us away from the story that is being told. Therefore we are aware that the film is only just beginning and hat we are being introduced to the characters and background information conveyed through the rapping. This links to sound and the sound clearly helps to portray the whole story and so does the dialogue.

Kidulthood

The Mise-en-scene which is made up of setting, costume and make-up, the use of figure, expression, movement and character by actors and lighting. Whilst watching the opening, the audience are recieving their first impressions about the movie and what it is going to be about.
The action takes place in an estate and around town. It is a movie about a couple of teenagers from mixed backgrounds in West London. Straight away we know that the kids aren't from a high social class, this is due to their envolvement in drugs which are seen or may be thought to have seen in the opening. Their appearance and the way of speech make us stereotipically think of them as 'chavs', although I do not agree with that.
Some of the Enigma's that are created in this opening sequence are: At the start, the ECU focuses on the drill and this makes the audience wonder why there is an ECU on the drill? Who is drilling? Why is this significant? The opening sequence shows the cuts from someones P.O.V. ther



All three of these films content which shows, involvement in drugs, usage of guns and dangerous situations fit in perfectly into what me and my group would like to do.

Institution + Distribution

Our Industry Debrief Idea

For one of our homework/classwork group projects we were told to come up with an idea for a film we were going to make. It could have been our own idea or a film already existing only our own interpretation- remake, of it.  Below is a copy of all the slides included in our presentation.

What have I learnt about Film Prod. & Distribution?

My project was about creating a Macbeth film. This would mean our project would be high budget due to the fact that we would have to recreate a Macbeth play into a really good, effective and a high standard film. Another factor due to which our budget would have to be a high budget is the actors we have chosen. Keira Knightly is a very recognisable actress and she would be expected to been payed a good amount of money for the role. This also goes for the rest of the characters. I know that a medium budget would just not be suitable for a Macbeth film , having to create a movie better and different to other Macbeth films ever made, would require really good actor, the top editors, distributors and director/directors. Top distributor would have to be willing to make this a 'loud' and an exciting release. It is a high concept project therefore a high budget , props and setting would be essential.

Revolver Entertainment

Revolver Entertainment is one of the leading independent distribution companies in the world. It's a multi-award winning, marketing-led industry led with a unique, approach to managing film releases around the world. It was founded in 1997.

This is a perfect example of what Revolver do which is distribute.

They've produced 'Offender', 'Ill Manors', 'Anuvahood', 'Sket' and 'Skank'..

All of the above movies are at the lower bit of the 'shelf'. This means they're not high budget films but on the other hand they are very popular in many social groups. It is especially recognisable by teenagers.

Genre

Genre

Meeting audience expectations equals pleasure and success when allowing the audience to watch a film. This does not meet every body's expectations due to the type of film the audience are watching. This is GENRE. Everybody has a different "taste" when it comes to films. Some enjoy watching horror movies more than anything, and some prefer comedies. Genre creates a relationship between the audience and the producers which minimise the risk of financial failure. This means that the right people will go and see their preferred GENRE of film in the cinema and most certainly will not be disappointed. Films function like language; they get meaning across to the audience. I would say that Mise-en-scene is the thing that plays a huge, if not one of the biggest roles in a film, and it helps to represent that specific GENRE. Whilst watching a movie we consider its characteristics or key features. Another word for this is CONVENTIONS- features(ingredients) in a film, which help the audience classify it in one GENRE or another. Conventions are broken down into 4 main categories that help us when talking about a film. These are:

• CHARACTERS
  their roles, characteristics, relationships, names, dress codes
• NARRATIVES
  the plot, what happens and how- events
• THEMES
  the ideas behind the story, what the movie's about, reactions
• ICONOGRAPHY
  mise-en-scene, visuals, props, locations, colours, shooting techniques

 The GENRE that my group have chosen to focus on for our video is Crime and Thriller. This means that our clip will have to be dark and shadowy, have low key lighting, have POV shots,  have fast and creepy music and mainly create a sense of fear or at least tension. Some films which are the same type of genre as to what we will be filming are: Kidulthood, Taken, Harry Brown, Ill Manors, Adulthood etc.

Harry Brown

Adulthood

I must say Taken must be my favourite film i've seen lately. Because it is crime it's really enjoyable for me to watch and fits perfectly with what out idea for our sequence is. Showing to sides of action but the violence and suspision in this film make it even more related.


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Another film which I liked and remember watching with mum when I was very young is Pretty Woman. It is a Romance film and does not suit my preferences when it comes to film but I must say the movie did touch me. Editing is just not recognisable. As you watch this film it just flows soo well that you do not realise the editing is there.

11/02/13

As we got back to school we found out that the previous Saturday there was a bulglary at our school and to our surprise the Media dep. got robbed of Mac's, camerac, tripods and some other stuff.. Why? We don't know.. Someone needed money but that someone was selfish enaugh to commit a crime like this and make it really hard for us to do any work in Media. We just got to wait for new equipment. Let's hope it comes quick!