Film titles research

In a motion picture the opening credits are shown at the beginning of the film and list the most important members of the film e.g. major actors (main characters) and crew. They can be shown as text superimposed on to a blank screen or static picture or on top of a action happening in the film. They either may or may not be accompaned by music. Also opening credits can be built into a sequence of their own this is called a 'title sequence'. The closing credits list an extensive cast and crew production at the very end of the film.

Here is the opening clip to Avalon high which shows the opening credits being shown on top of the action (2:03).

Here is the opening clip to the Pink Panther 2 this has the opening credits in a title sequence (4:38) where the opening crediting are different to the actual film as they are on the top of a cartoon with the Pink Panther theme tune.

Superimposed on a blank screen

To Sin No More script

To Sin No More Script

Here is the script for our film To Sin No More

Storyboard- To Sin No More

Storyboard - Rob, Adele, Holly & Sam

Here is the storyboard for our film To Sin No More

Costumes

In the present:
Samantha: Smart navy blouse, denin boot cut jeans and black socks

Anthony: White polo shirt, denim jeans and white socks
 
Blake: Charcoal polo shirt, jeans
 

In the flashback(1975)
Samantha: high waisted denim jeans with flares and a brown knitted jumper
 
Samantha's mom: large spectacles and a long sleeved black dress
 
Ray: Flared jeans stripped t-shirt underneath a denim jacket and a pair of brown shoes

In the present
Samantha: Black wrap dress

Anthony: Skinny denim jeans and a fitted black shirt.
 

Props

The props that we will need for the film are:

• A 17th birthday card in a envelope, this shows that Anthony is 17 years old.

• A small box wrapped in birthday wrapping paper with a silver crucifix on a chain inside for Anthony's birthday present.

           

• A TV and a TV remote
• A silver crucifix on a chain for Sam and a silver crucifix on a chain for Sam's mom for her in the flash back.
• Rosary beads for Sam to give back to the church for her mom

  

• A Baby's first box (large) in pale blue inside a baby scan photo, a lock of hair, a little box or container that has milk teeth inside and booties.

• A smaller box for inside the baby first box as well with Blake written on in biro with a early scan photo, the rosary beads and a abortion leaflet.

Final Treatment

To Sin No More FINAL
Here is the final draft of the treatment, we haven't really changed much apart from we changed Daniels name to Blake. This was because we felt that if he was conceived from a rape which then caused Sam to then lose her faith then she wouldn't give her son a Catholic name, so we then chose Blake which didn't appear on the list of Catholic name unlike Daniel and simply means 'pale'.

Feedback for Target audience, Conventions

We also asked Mr Leach to help us answer a few questions, we asked him about the target audience of the film. Also Mr Hood raised a good point that we need to consider which is that we are going to need to be careful when picking our actors and actresses because we may not know their background and the issues in the film may cause them some upset.

Treatment feedback (reading treatment)

In our lesson on Tuesday 18th October we presented our treatment for our film to our teacher Mr Hood and our headteacher Mr Leach. We chose to present our film treatment to them because Mr Hood is our media teacher so has knowledge to see whether our idea will work or not and give us advice for the technicalities of producing our film. We also chose Mr Leach because he is a Catholic and is also a step father, we wanted to present to him to make sure that as both a Catholic and a step father he wouldn't take offence to this film idea.

To Sin No More, Treatment First Draft

To Sin No More

This is the first draft of our film treatment

Nursery Rhyme research- Hush Little Baby

The nursery rhyme Hush little baby is about a father promising a child rewards if he/she stays quiet like they are asked. I think that this nursery rhyme can relate to the plot of our film as the 17 year old girl Samantha has to keep quiet about her step father abusing her all these years and about her having an abortion to hide it. Also I think that it will be very effective as instead of us using music to add tension we are going to have a nursery rhyme playing instead which you would typically expect. Here are the lyrics for the nursery rhyme:

Hush, little baby, don't say a word, Papa's gonna buy you a mocking bird
And if that mocking bird don't sing, Papa's gonna buy you a diamond ring
And if that diamond ring turns to brass, Papa's gonna buy you a looking glass
And if that looking glass gets broke, Papa's gonna buy you a billy goat
And if that billy goat don't pull, Papa's gonna buy you a cart and bull
And if that cart and bull turn over, Papa's gonna buy you a dog named Rover
And if that dog named Rover wont bark, Papa's gonna buy you a horse and cart
And if that horse and cart fall down, well you'll still be the sweetest little baby in town.

Research: Rosary beads

 Rosary beads are a physical way of keeping track of the number of Hail Marys that have been said, the fingers move along the beads as the prayers are recited. By not having to keep count mentally, the mind is then more able to meditate on the mysteries. The rosary begins with:

• the Apostles Creed
• followed by one Our Father
• three Hail Marys
• Glory be
• Fatima Prayer (optional)
• Hail Holy Queen 
• Prayer for the Holy Father ( mainly for private devotion only)

The beads can be made from a wide variety of materials including:

• Wood 
• Bone
• Glass
• Crushed flowers
• Semi- precious stones such as, amber, agate, jet or jasper
• Precious materials e.g. coral, silver, gold or crystal

Today most rosary beads are made out of:

• Glass
• Plastic
• Wood

Early rosaries were strung on strong thread most silk but modern ones are now most often made as a series of chain-linked beads.

    

Research: Crucifix

In our film we want a symbol that is carried or worn by Catholics to include in our film, so that the viewers know that the family is Catholic. One way in which we could do this is by them wearing crucifix's, as a crucifix can be worn as a physical symbol I then went and did some research on crucifix's and found out that it is a major symbol of the Christian faith and that it is a image of Jesus on the cross and emphasises Jesus' sacrifice. It is especially important in the Catholic church as in general the Protestant Church prefer a plain cross without the corpus unlike the Catholic church as it is a consistant reminder of Jesus' suffering.

Here is are some pictures of my mom's crucifix

Film Research - Carrie 1976

Carrie is a a drama and horror film and was made in 1976, I think this film will be a good idea to watch as it is set in a similar time to our film so I we be able to look at costumes that are used in this film for an idea and what the locations look in this film.

Film Research- The Da Vinci Code

The Da Vinci Code is a thriller and mystery, this film like the idea for our film include religion throught out the film even though it doesn't show brothers like in our film idea it does show how they used religion to their advantage.

Film research- Twins

Another film that I am going to look at is Twins. This film is about two fraternal twins that are the result of a experiment carried out at a genetics laboratory to produce the perfect child. The mother was told that her child had died and each of the twins we told that their mother had died. The twins where separated and didn't know about each other. One was put in a orphanage and the other lived on a unnamed island and was raised by a professor to become highly intelligent, physically very strong and spiritually pure he found out that he had a twin brother on his 35th birthday. I chose this film as it has to brothers that are treated differently as one grew up in and orphanage and the other was raise by scientists on a island from this I will be able to see how they showed two brothers treated differently and how both of them behaved and what characteristics they have the well treated and the miss treated brother have for idea for the two brothers in our film. Here is the trailer for this film, I have embedded the trailer so I can look at the conventions.

Film research - Abduction

One film that I am going to look at, to look at appropriate conventions and character development is Abduction, this is a thriller about a teenage boy who sets out to uncover the truth about his life after he finds his baby photo on a missing persons website. This film like our is where someone is trying to find out the truth his life and his family as its a thriller as well I will be able to look at the different conventions that they use in this film to see if theres any that we could use in our film. As well as the main character who is trying to uncover the truth is a similar age to the brothers in our film. Here is the film trailer of Abduction so that I can have a look at the conventions used in the film.

Roles to be Allocated

Here are the different roles that need to be allocated between the group members for our final film, this is to make sure that we all have something to do to participate fairly in making our film. To allocate them we will all chose together so that everyone has a chance to chose their roles so that someone doesn't end up with more work than the others. The roles are:

• Director
• Producer
• Editor
• Sounds Editor
• Special Effects Editor
• Lighting Engineer
• Treatment writer
• Script writer
• Story Boarder
• Locations scout
• Talent scout
• Costume/ makeup
• Props manager
• Continuity manager
• Camera operator
• Photographer

Progress

During our lesson on the 27th September we changed our original idea from to:

• Showing that one brother is the favourite through it being his birthday, the mother looks and sees the other brother standing lone in the corner.
• She sits down to watch the TV a new report comes on when the other brother tries to get her attention but she ignores him
• goes to an old news report that shows that she was raped by uncle and because shes religious she cant get rid so she removes religious item (cross)
• original ending she tells the son why he has been treated differently and put the religious item (cross) back on.
• new ending when she tells the son the truth he puts the cross on her, when mom looks in the mirror hes not there and she didn't get rid of him all those years ago.

Genre

In our last group meeting we decided on the genre for our film, like last year for our A's project where all of the groups decided that choosing a thriller would be the best option to go with. This is because w do not have the budget or the equipment to make a sci-fi or action film. For the same reason is why we have decided to chose thriller as our genre again this year.

Although this year we will also be adding different elements to it that we didn't include in our films last year. From reading and looking at each others individual treatment ideas we have the decided to add a religious element to our film, this is because we could use it to build up tension in our film as there is something which is uncertain about religion

Treatment Ideas

 On the second half on Tuesday 20th Septembers lesson we sat down as a group to discuss the film ideas that we had for our final film, we started by all of us going over our individual film treatments that we did to remind ourselves of each others film ideas. We then talked about what ideas from each film that we liked and could include in our final film. The things that we talked about including in our final film was:

• a news report
• stalking
• religious
• being followed
• rape

We then came up with a basic idea that we could then work on next lesson which is:

•  having two brother ( an idea from Rob's treatment) where one is treated better than the other, we talked about showing this by having the mother praising the one brother whilst the other is sat eating his dinner alone.
• This would be becuase the one brother is a result of rape and she couldn't get rid of him because shes religious
• We would show this by her wearing a cross round her neck which she had taken off as she had lost her faith and show the rape by a new report
• She tells the son about it
• then puts on the cross again

Sam C A2 Treatment Pitch from Gavin Hood on Vimeo.

Rob A2 Treatment Pitch from Gavin Hood on Vimeo.

Holly A2 Treatment Pitch from Gavin Hood on Vimeo.

Adele A2 Treatment Pitch from Gavin Hood on Vimeo.

What is a short?

A short film is any film that isn't long enough to be considered to be a feature film. It still includes a start, middle and an ending like a feature film though and isn't the first five minutes of a film. Here are some examples of some shorts that I found.
The Black Hole 

Strangers

My group members

Sam Clark
Holly Sanford
Rob Able

Welcome

Welcome to my A2 media blog, I will be using this blog to present my A-level media studies course work through out the course. We have decided to create a 5 minute short film this is because we have the software and hardware available to create a short film within school.  As well as a short film we will also be creating a film poster and a film review as again we have access to suitable software to create this.
I have decided to use blogger for this as I will be able to embed videos straight from the Internet and on to my blog which I would not be able to do in a scrap book for examples.