FINAL PIECE: One Last Dance

Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Evaluation Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I now know how to use Adobe Premier Pro and Adobe After Effects. Whereas at the beginning of the year I had no idea how to use these software packages I know feel more confident when using them.

  I wanted to copy the editing from the amazing Alfred Hitchcock as he used a lot of blackouts and cross dissolves. This I think adds a bit of mystery to the story and it helps with the continuity.
 Also I think that the effects of the unfolding of the words on the tablets add to the slow process that I wanted to create throughout the film opening and helps with the flow of the continuity.
I wanted to add an essence from the eras 1920's-1940 this was portrayed through the mise-en-scene and the editing (specifically the tablets explaining the story). This was very hard to create but in the end I think the final draft came out pretty well.

When I was thinking about the audio, I started to look up the silent movies and found that they had no speech, no Foley it was all just a non-diegetic playlist. So going back to the 1940's era I wanted a song from this time and a slow one as the actors were going to be slow dancing. So I thought of the song White Cliffs Of Dover by Vera Lynn Below:

But getting my hands on this audio footage was pretty hard in the end I was able to get it but putting the audio onto premier pro panicked me but in the end it was all sorted out.

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attact/address your audience?

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I think that a British film  institution would most probably be the likeliest to produce my film like ITV because they have done wartime drama series in the past like Downton Abbey and Mr Selfridge. Seen below.

Downton Abbey

 



 

Mr Selfridge

Also I think that my film is made for Aficionados, so for it to be produced by a Hollywood production company like Universal Studios I think it wouldn't have the essence of loss caught and the plot would be over-dramatised. Also an American Production Company may use an American cast so for a British film to have been made by a British Production Company the likelihood



Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I think my media product being set in the 1940's I tried to represent a patriarchal world with the main character Thom leading the main lady Vera to the dance floor. Also I thyink that the lack of people that were at the 'dance' represents the social life that the women had in the 1940's as the men would've all been out to war so the men would've been scarce and when they did come home on leave they wouldn't have wanted to go out much. So it would've been harder for women to be engaged or married etc.
I think that if you compare this social group to the one in Pearl Harbour. The group is totally different but the director is trying to represent a loud and crazy life that had brought these two lovers through and how they didn't know when their lives were going to end. Whereas I'm trying to represent a social group who have been torn apart by the war and that all they can lean on is each other.

Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Final Editing but without Audio

This has no audio but it has the Silent Movie textboxes in it!

Final Idea: Silent Movies

Just now I had this idea. Because the movie is going to be in black and white I thought of Film Noir and how far back it went even to the first movies. This then reminded me of Silent Movies like the one below:

They usually consist with people talking for a while then a textbook like the one below with sentances of what people have said or an explanation of what is happening. My film I wanted to be like a scene before the movie so this scene gives an insight of what is happening or could happen later on.

First Draft of My Film Opening!!!

This is a rough copy of the short movie there is no music or foley unfortunately. But all the cutting and the editing is done. But I have to put the title up as well as all the opening credits!

Shotlists

ONE MORE DANCE

INT.

PAN AROUND THE BAR/HALL.

 

THE CAMERA STOPS ON THE BACK OF A GIRLS HEAD.

CLOSE UP.

 

OVER THE SHOULDER SHOT.

ECU OF GIRLS LIPS IN MIRROR.

 

WHIP PAN WHEN  THE GIRL STARTS TO TURN HEAD.

POINT OF VIEW.

 

 CLOSE UP OF HIS TORSO.

 

SHOT REVERSE SHOT BETWEEN THE GIRL AND MAN.

 

ECU BACKWARDS TRACKING SHOT ON HIS FEET.

 

 

CLOSE UP SHOT REVERSE SHOT BETWEEN THE GIRL AND THE BOY.

 

ECU ON THE LINKED ARMS.

 

 

Score

As the movie was starting with people dancing, swing in particular, I had to think of some music that really fed the era.
When I was thinking about 40's music I started to look at swing music like: BOOGIE WOOGIE BUGLE BOY OF COMPANY B by the Andrews Sisters

But I thought that it was too fast to dance properly to.

So I started to think logically about the mood between the characters and the story. I remembered this song by Vera Lynn that I had listened to when I was studying WW2 in GCSE History. Bluebirds Over The White Cliffs Of Dover.

This was perfect as it was slow enough to dance to and it was 3 minutes long. And it was significant to the era of the movie. Because the bluebirds were the British spitfires flying home after WW2.

Costume, Make-up and Hair Tutorials and Ideas

HAIR:

This is a tutorial that I found on YouTube that really inspired me on what my main character's going to look like:

MAKE-UP:

This is another tutorial that I found on YouTube for make-up.

 

 

VERA'S LOOK:

                  

        

THOM'S LOOK:

 





 

 

40's MEN HAIRSTYLE:

Thom's Biography

 

ONE MORE DANCE:

 

 

NAME: THOMAS 'THOM' ANDERSON

 

AGE: 22

 

HOMELIFE: HIS BIOLOGICAL MOTHER DIED DURING HIS BIRTH AND HIS FATHER COULDN'T HANDLE HIM SO HE HANDED THOM OVER TO THOM'S AUNTIE. SHE TREATED HIM AS HER OWN AND HE DIDN'T KNOW THAT SHE WAS NOT HIS MOTHER UNTIL THE AGE OF 19 THIS IS WHEN HE REBELLED AGAINST HIS 'MOTHER'S' WISHES AND JOINED THE ROYAL AIR FORCE AND MET VERA.

 

QUALIFICATIONS: QUALIFIED AIR PILOT, BEFORE THAT HE GRADUATED FROM GRAMMAR SCHOOL AT THE AGE OF 17 AND THEN WORKED WITH HIS 'UNCLE' (WHO TURNED OUT TO BE HIS BIOLOGICAL FATHER) UNTIL HE REALISED WHO HIS 'UNCLE' REALLY WAS AND THEN STARTED TRAINING AS A PILOT.

 

C1: PILOT

 

BIOGRAPHY: THOM FIRST MET VERA AT THE INFIRMARY WHEN HE WAS BEING TESTED FOR HIS HEALTH BEFORE PASSING HIS MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS. WHEN HE PASSED HE ASKED HER TO MEET HIM AT A SMALL GET TOGETHER WITH SOME OF HIS MATES AND FOR HER TO BRING SOME OF HER NURSE COLLEAGUES.

THOM HAD JUST HAD SOME DEVASTATING NEWS ABOUT HIS SURROGATE MOTHER. SHE HAD JUST PASSED AWAY. BECAUSE OF THE NEWS HE WAS SO OVERWHELMED THAT HE WAS LATE FOR THE DATE AND FORTUNATELY MANAGED TO CATCH THE LAST OF THE DANCE.



Vera's Biography

Name:  Lieutenant Vera Walters
Age: 17
Homelife: Lives in the Nurses Quarters on campus (RAF).
Qualifications: A qualified nurse in the British air force.
C1: Nurse

 Her Father is a drunken and damaged man from WWI so he does not approve of her running off to the war and training as a nurse.
Her Mother used to work in the factories whilst all the men were in WWI when she met her husband at a train station and they foolishly married in a moment of weakness.
Vera is a pretty but plain 17 year old girl who is in love with any man that shows any kind of interest. She is interested particularly in a man whom she meets in a club called  Captain Thomas (Thom) Anderson, he shows interest in her and asks her to dance. 
Her older brother flies with Thom and they are good friends it is him that sets Thomas and Vera up. She loses her brother unfortunately in the war and it breaks her because she was close to him.
Thomas was notified to be missing in combat. Vera goes into break down as she believes he is dead. She goes into deep depression and nothing her friends can say to her will stop her grieving. 1 year later when she is found on a cliff throwing the necklace that Thom gave her from the top of the cliff she has a hand grab hold of her shoulder and pulled into the arms of Thom.

Developing a Character

Whilst reading the chapter "Structure and Character" from Robert McKee's biography of characters-"Story" we were to pick out what makes a character and what develops a character. Here are my points:-

• Characterisation Vs. Character:

True Character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure--the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice to the character's essential nature.--from Robert McKee's book 'Story'

For example if your character saw a hit and run would you go and help the victim and call the police or would you run away from the crime scene and just suppose some other citizen would just walk by and discover the struggling/dead victim. This is what is makes the audience love or hate the character by allowing the audience to decide whether his choice was correct or not.

Characterization is the seen qualities of a human being; their vocabulary, accent, clothes, occupation, personality, values- all aspects that we knowingly take in from the character physically.

• Character Revelation:

The revelation of a character is whether they have changed throughout the film or not. If in the first 40 minutes of the film a the character has found no love in her life and she is sour and nasty then the last 20-30 minutes she manages to get with the man she desires then the audience will start to change their minds about their feelings towards the character and come to like her rather than detesting her bitter personality.

Character Arc: Taking the principle further yet: The finest writing not only reveals true character, but arcs or changes that inner nature, for better or worse, over the course of the telling.--from Robert McKee's book 'Story'

• Climax and Character:

 The last act of the film is critical to the movie because if the last 30 minutes has no turn to it then the film becomes boring and "will die over it's opening weekend"(Mckee's "Story").

"Thou shalt save the best for last. The final movement of a ballet, the coda of a symphony, the couplet of a sonnet, the last act and it's Story Climax--these culminating moments must be the most gratifying, meaningful experiences of all."--from Robert McKee's book 'Story'

Audience Interview

I interviewed 4 of my family members all of different ages and found that the different generations had different views on films.

 

My Target audience would probably be 25+ but I think the majority of people that would watch it would be women but men would be interested as drama's can be quite catchy there is something in there for everyone

script

ONE MORE DANCE

 

INT.

PAN AROUND.

AN OLD BAR/HALL DARKENED. PEOPLE/PARTNERS ARE DANCING LAUGHING A COUPLE SHARE A QUICK KISS. TWO MEN CHECK OUT A BEAUTIFUL YOUNG LADY DANCING WITH HER GIRLFRIENDS.

 

THE CAMERA STOPS ON THE BACK OF A GIRLS HEAD. SHE FLUFFS HER HAIR.

CLOSE UP.

OVER THE SHOULDER SHOT.

ECU INTO THE MIRROR.

 

IN THE REFLECTION OF THE MIRROR YOU SEE HER SMACKING HER NEWLY PAINTED RED LIPS TOGETHER. SHE PUCKERS HER LIPS UP AND THE CORNER OF HER MOUTH CREEPS UP IN A CHEEKY SMIRK. SHE LAUGHS AND THEN STOPS HER LIPS OPEN IN A SMALL 'O' LOOK. SHE SEES IN THE CORNER OF THE MIRROR A FIGURE OF A MAN.

 

SHE SLOWLY TURNS HER HEAD

(WHIP PAN)

 

POINT OF VIEW

WE SEE A MAN STANDING WITH HIS HANDS IN POCKETS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DANCE FLOOR. CLOSE UP OF HIS TORSO AND SMILE. HE TAKES HIS HANDS OUT OF HIS POCKETS AND STRAIGHTENS HIS JACKET.

HE LOOKS AT HER.

SHOT REVERSE SHOT.

 

THE MUSIC CHANGES TO VERA LYNN'S 'BLUEBIRDS OVER THE WHITE CLIFFS OF DOVER' A MAN GRABS HIS GIRL'S HAND AND PULLS HER TOWARDS THE DANCE FLOOR.

 

ECU BACKWARDS TRACKING SHOT ON HIS FEET AS HE MADE HIS WAY TOWARDS THE GIRL.

 THE MAN PASSES THROUGH ALL OF THEM. ONE GIRL GRABS HOLD OF HIS HAND AND TRIES TO PULL HIM OFF COURSE. HE SMILES REASSURINGLY AT HER AND PULLS HER HAND OFF POLITELY.GIRL SHRINKS AWAY.

 

ECU SHOT REVERSE SHOT BETWEEN THE GIRL AND THE BOY. HE PICKS UP HER HAND KISSES IT AND THEN BOWS TO HER SWINGING HIS HAND TOWARDS THE DANCEFLOOR. SHE CURTSIES. AND PUTS HER HAND THROUGH HIS ARM

ECU ON THE LINKED ARMS.

THEY MAKE THEIR WAY TOWARDS THE MIDDLE OF THE DANCEFLOOR.

 

CLOSE UP OF THE COUPLES FEET AND SLOWLY TILTS UP SHOWING THE LEGS AND THE TORSO.

TILT SHOT MOVES UP PAN AROUND THE BODY.

THEN PAN AROUND THE HEAD.

Deconstruction of 2 Film openings in my chosen Genre: Drama #2

ATONEMENT (2007):

Director: Joe Wright
Producer: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Paul Webster
Screenplay: Ian McEwan (novel) Christopher Hampton (Screenplay)
Musical Score: Dario Marianelli
Stars: Keira Knightly, James McAvoy and Brenda Blethyn
Genre: Wartime Drama

Synopsis:
Fledgling writer Briony Tallis, as a 13-year-old, irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit. Based on the British romance novel by Ian McEwan.

 

The opening titles consist with a Courier (typewriter) font naming the opening titles and the title itself. Throughout all the words and letters appearing a non-diegetic typewriter audio is going on in the background. This then turns out to be diegetic as later on the sequence we find one of the main characters’ writing a script.

Once the titles have gone the black background cuts to a shot of a doll’s house-one that looks remarkably like the house they are living in. It’s a very old, Georgian styled doll’s house and the exterior design is identical to the architecture of the large mansion the characters are living in. this may be because the director wanted to give the audience the idea of the kind of house the characters are calling their home and also a typical house that would have been owned by the bourgeoisie. The camera slowly does a backing track shot of the doll’s house and pans over some figures of animals all in a line two-by-two. This clearly shows the age of the child, between 8 and 13. Then we see a silhouette of a girl sitting down on a typewriter-this is when the audience realises that the typewriter sound is diegetic.  The quick pace of the typewriter, matches the quickness that the little girl is walking.

The Mise-en-scene throughout the opening matches the class standard and the up-to-date fashion. For example the short hair was very popular in the 1930’s so the fact that the little girl and the mother both have the short hair shows that the producers have stuck to the period of the drama. Also the little girl has pleats on her skirt which was very 1930’s fashion and was very popular in magazines like Vogue. The hairstyles were also a trend that was started by Vogue. This type of hairstyle was popular among the bourgeoisie but when the war started the women refused to go by the fashion trends as the magazines were not being imported from the European country’s that started the trends. So women in Britain started their own fashion that resulted in Tea-dresses-usually made from old table cloths and curtains- and the hair dressing profession was not as popular so women made their own styles at home with shoulder length waves and kiss curls all made with cut strips of rag. This is seen later on right into the war when the young girl becomes a military nurse.

The décor of the house coincides with the supposed age of the doll’s house-which previously mentioned was meant to be a sneak peak of the house that the character’s live in. The banisters and the staircase have a dark mahogany touch and the wallpaper shows the era of the film.

The modern (although not so modern now) typewriter seems quite binary as it sits on a small bureau in a pastel coloured play room. This though (even if you hadn’t a clue of what the era is) shows how the age this is helpful for the audience and gets them wondering also why a little girl has a typewriter. Is it hers? Her mother’s/father’s? We understand later that it is hers and this then concludes how well off they are as a family. Although it is the start of the war because of the sense of how rich the family is; when seeing the many maids, cooks and how large the house is with all its twisting corridors and beautiful décor. One just happens to wonder how far off are they going to be when they enter the war and whether they actually succeed in keeping their home.



Deconstruction of 2 Film openings in my chosen Genre: Drama--#1.

PEARL HARBOR (2004):

Director: Michael Bay
Producer: Jerry Bruckheimer
Screenplay: Randall Wallace
Musical Score: Hans Zimmer
Stars: Ben Affleck, Kate Beckinsale and Josh Hartnett
Genre: Wartime Drama

Synopsis: A tale of two Best Friends, Rafe and Danny, who become Army Air Corps pilots, they soon meet gorgeous Navy Nurse, Evelyn, whom Rafe falls for immediatly. When Rafe gets called out to Britain and shot down, whilst in combat, he is immediatly assumed dead. Danny and Evelyn find comfort in each other and form a relationship. When Rafe mysteriously appears to find Danny and Evelyn as a couple it causes friction between all three of them. Just before Danny and Rafe are called out to duty Evelyn tells Rafe that she is pregnant with Danny's child this hurts Rafe but he knows to look after Danny, for the unborn childs sake, when Danny is shot down and slowly dying in Rafe's arms Rafe tells him that he cannot die as he's gonna be a father. This cuts to years later when an older Rafe and Evelyn are together raising their child, Danny Jnr (Danny's biological son) when they then take Danny Jnr to Danny Walker's Grave.
This film is based upon the Historical events in World War II when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941.

Here is a short clip of the movie.

 

 

 

The title sequence consists with the two main characters-Danny and Rafe-as children playing in a .pretend airplane this shows the audience later on in the movie that actually the two characters wanted to be pilots their whole lives. A sense of foreboding when they start the real airplane shows that something is going to happen later on in the film with the characters and planes.

 

The Mise-en-Scene is quite stereotypical they are both farm boys from Tennessee. One is wearing denim trousers a white shirt and braces to keep the trousers up, and the other (Danny) is wearing a pair of dungarees. you can tell by how tatterred Danny's clothes are compared to Rafe's that perhaps Rafe is wealthier than Danny or perhaps Danny works on the farm that is owned by Rafe's father and that is how the two boys met. The binary opposition between the two boys  is made up by the love of flying they both share. The cornfields that they're playing in show a stereotypical farm, with a red barn and fields and fields of corn and wheat also the water metre that stands nearer the barn is very American and a stereotype of a farm. Later on when Rafe's dad has finished with the plane he leaves the two boys unattended and they jump in the red plane. The colour of the plane connotes trouble, danger and a warning siren. So when the boys get into the plane the audience automatically realise that there is going to be a problem. They guess right when the plane starts and the two boys are unable to control finally they do and restore mahem.

The camera shots are quite simple there is a shot reverse shot between Danny's father and Rafe, the tension between the two characters in the SRS is purely because Rafe called Danny's father a "dirty German" and Danny's father is distraught because he fought against the German's in WW1 so for someone to refer to him as one is heart-breaking let alone finding out that his son and best friend are both playing a make-believe game of the Great War. I think that a shot reverse shot can leak out a lot of emotions between two characters as we find out how each character is responding to the other's remarks. In this moment both Rafe and Danny's father are scared and angry but the father looks mostly terrified like he's just gone back to the Great War. Before this there is a brilliant low angle shot of Danny and Rafe watching the red plane-that Rafe's father is flying-going past them, this is also slowed down and the shot emphasises the fact that both these boys are treasuring this point in their lives and the memory will stay with them forever. Right at the beginning of the Film there is a tracking shot of the red plane and the sun is setting just behind it so all you see is the silhouette of the plane this is stunning and very elegant. The fact that the movie opens with an airplane shows that the film will consist of planes-which it does because the boys grow up to be pilots in WW2.

There is not a lot of diegesis in the film but most of it is diegetic, this includes a lot of the dialogue between Danny and Rafe and Danny's father. Also there is a fabulous diegetic sound of some cards hitting against a bike wheel's bars making a fluttering sound-this is on the toy airplane that the boys are riding-and it sounds remarkabley like an airplane's motor. Finally a non-diegetic which is the piano playing softly in the background. I don't think the opening needed the non-diegetic sound as the airplane motors spoke for itself.