Prop List for Opening

Box of contraceptive pills
Mascara
Make up bag
Mirror
Bag
Clear bag
Bottle of Port
2x £20 note
Bottles and cans of alcohol (substitute)

Location Research: Location 5: House Party Venue

The fifth and final scene is the house party venue, the scene varies in location throughout the house using the living room, kitchen and hallways; this is where Candice sells her first set of contraceptive pills as ecstasy before getting caught:

 

 

 

Location Research: Location 4: My Bedroom

Our fourth location is Candice's (my) bedroom where Candice breaks down as she realises the lengths she has to go to, to support her family:

Location Research: Location 3: Doctors Surgery

Our third location was outside the doctor's surgery in Hethersett where Candice collects a set of contraceptive pills which she will go on to sell as 'ecstasy' at a party:

Location Research: Location 2: Living Room

Our second location was in my living room. During our filming of this scene we moved some of the furniture around to make the room appear smaller and made sure that we did not capture any technology whilst filming to make sure we did not contradict ourselves concerning the main character's back story and financial state:

Location Research: Location 1: Alleyway

Our first location within our opening takes place in an alleyway in the city of Norwich where the leader of a well-known gang intimidates Candice as he believes she is trying to take over his 'business' of selling drugs:

Final idea for our AS media Coursework

These are Beckiee and myself's ideas for our final AS media coursework put into a short video.

Character Biography

Candice
Full name: Candice Jackson
Age: 16
Marital Status: Single
Occupation: Student at local college
Residency: Small house in crowded estate in Croydon
Family Life: Dad left before she was born, no idea who he is, lives with drunken mum and three younger siblings (two sisters, one brother - all have different fathers). Mum is incapable of looking after them, spends all her time getting drunk and having sex with men she doesn't really know. Candice has to support her siblings for the sake of their health
Close friends: Had a childhood friend (Nath), grew up together, she was close to his family, spent all their time together but drifted apart when he joined the local gang. Doesn't have any at the moment as all of her time is spent looking after her siblings

Kacey:
Full name: Kacey Brookston
Age: 18
Marital Status: girlfriend, haven't been together long
Occupation: Gang leader, drug dealer
Residency: rents a flat on same crowded estate in Croydon
Family Life: hasn't spoken to parents since starting up his gang, no siblings, girlfriend is pregnant - has doubts about sticking around
Close friends: gang members, closest friend is Nath

Mum:
Full name: Shelly Jackson
Age: 30
Marital Status: Single, has a reputation of sleeping around
Occupation: Unemployed
Residency: Small house in crowded estate in Croydon
Family Life: 4 kids all with different dads - not in contact with any of them, spends all her time getting drunk and sleeping around, doesn't support her children
Close friends: doesn't have any - only the locals that she speaks to when she goes down the pub

Nath:
Full name: Nathan Lawson
Age: 17
Martial Status: Girlfriend - only due to pressure and expectations from Kacey
Occupation: Gang member
Residency: high class estate, close to the estate where Kacey and Candice live, large, expensive house
Family Life: Only child, lives with supportive parents - too caught up in their work and each other that they don't realise that Nath's involved with a gang and that his life is going down hill
Close friends: Had a childhood friend (Candice), grew up together, spent all their time together but drifted apart when he joined the local gang. Kacey and the other gang members

Script

Script

BC STUDIOS

RAXIP FILMS

Alleyway

Kacey has Candice pinned up against a wall. Candice is cowering away from his confrontation with some of Kacey’s gang members staring at her from behind him.

-- Directed and Produced by Courtney Radley and Rebecca Tuner --

K: (stares down at C intimidatingly) did you honestly think you could get away with it?

-- Starring Kahmal Sealey --

C: (starts to talk) I.. I.. I didn’t…

-- Chantelle Cooper --

K: (interrupting) I don’t wanna hear what you’ve got to say, I want you to stop whatever little game you’re playing

-- Courtney Radley --

C: (staring blankly up at him)

-- Josh Denny --

K: (shouts) say something!

C: Errr.. you don’t understand why..

K: (interrupting) I don’t care why you did it, I want my business back and right now you’re in the way

C: (on the verge of crying) I didn’t even realise..

K: (interrupting, yells) I’ve had enough of your bullshit (attempts to hit her round the face)

-- FREEZE --

C: (voice over) So I guess you probably want to know how I got myself into this situation, well let me show you..

In her house

Drunken mum passed out on sofa, all three kids sitting on the floor whining, arguing with each other.

C: (walking down the stairs) can’t believe this is happening again, for fucksake mum

M: (groans, wine slips out of glass) let me sleep

C: it’s eight o’clock in the morning and you’re already out of it…

C1: I’m bored

C2: I’m hungry

C3: Candice can you get us some food?

C: Yep with all that money I have in my back pocket..

All Children: Pleaseeeeeeeee

C: I’ll sort it

Candice storms out, slamming door behind her

Doctors

Candice walking into doctor’s surgery

C: (voice over) this stupid little idea is where it all started. Now looking back trying pull contraceptive pills off as ecstasy is one of the shittest ideas I’ve ever had… it worked though

Reappears with box of contraceptive pills in her hand

Bedroom

Candice takes pills out of contraceptive box and puts them in bags

Candice sitting in front of her mirror applying her make up – stares at her reflection in mirror – breaks downs and cries.

C: (through tears) Candice pull yourself together. You can do this.

Candice hesitates when putting little bags in her purse then walks out of her bedroom

House Party

Establishing shot of party from outside – Candice walking into party

Random shots taken of party (getting off, drinking, snorting sherbet/salt, drug deals)

Hall way:

DG: (whispers, pushy) I want 3

C: £20

DG: Deal

(Close up of money and pills exchanging in hands)

DG walks off

N: (creeps up on Candice from behind) what do you think you’re doing?

Candice: (gasps)

 

-- ECSTASY --

Key:
C = Candice
K = Kacey
M = Mum
C1,C2,C3 = sibling, child 1,2,3
DG = Guy that Candice sells drugs to at the party
N = Nathan

Who's Playing the Roles?

Candice Jackson played by Chantelle Cooper - Age 16

We chose to use Chantelle because not only does she fit our age for the character, but she comes across as quite a strong willing person and will do anything to help her family.

Kacey Brookston played by Kahmal Spencer - Age 18

We chose to use Kahmal to play the role of Kacey because he has a London accent (stereotypical thug) and he seems to have quite a dark side to him.

 

Nath Lawson played byJosh Denny - Age 17

Josh won the role as Nath because he has quite a friendly looking face, yet can still seem intimidating. Nath's character gets into the wrong crowd, but during the film, falls back in love with Candice and helps her out of her situation - Josh gave us the impression that he's a kind, caring, genuine person, which is what we wanted for this character.

 

Shelly ( Candice's Mum) played by Courtney Radley - Age 30

When assigning roles to people we struggled to get adults involved. Due to this we decided to assign me the role of the mum because I look older than what I am.

 

Lou Jackson played by Emily Ellwood - Age 14 

Chloe Jackson - Georgia Banks - Age 11

Jamie Jackson played by Marcus Mauby - Age 14

We chose to have these 3 children as Candice's siblings because 2 of them were my relations - easy to get them-, they fitted the age criteria and as they all knew each other, they already had a family feeling bond which is reflected in the opening.

 

Tom Hooper played by Harry Silvester - Age 17

 

We chose Harry to be our Tom because he fits the age criteria, he's rather cocky, and gives the impression that he only really cares about himself and having a good time, not the consequences of his actions, and we wanted this portrayed in the character.

 

 

Extras as the party, ages 16-18

The extras at the party are some mine and Beckiee's friendship group as they all fit within the age criteria, they were easy to get in contact with and they are all friendly and familiar with each other, this enabling the scene to run smoothly and there wouldn't be any awkward scenes where they didn't know what the other people we like.

Research into Young Carers

When we were planning our final idea, we came up with the idea of having a young carer trying to look after 3 siblings and her alcoholic mother. We decided that as this was a vital part of our media piece, that we should do some research into young carers, so we can portray this in the correct way.

Recent headlines from the BBC show that: "Nearly a quarter of a million children in England and Wales are caring for a relative."
Figures from the ONS suggest 244,000 people under nineteen are carers - about 23,000 are under nine.
Girls are slightly more likely to be carers than boys. Among 15-to-19-year-olds, about 5% of girls are carers and about 4% of boys.

From these statistics, we can not only see that young carers are quite common, but also that female carers are more common than male carers. This has agreed with our idea, and given it more realism.
Having this as a part of our storyline, it not only shows the problems and troubles that some teens face, but it enables us to give off a much more mature feel as its quite a complex situation.

It is seen in some TV programmes, for example The Bill, where teenagers end up selling and/or running drugs or turning to prostitution as a way of being able to financially support their families when their parents cannot. This further supports our idea of combining the use of drugs into finding a way for our main character to get money.

Target Audience/Venue

Our target audience is 15-24 year olds, both male and female. We feel this is a suitable age range as it may include some content that this age range could be going through with the money worries etc. We decided on having it as both male and female, as the female side would be the romantic interest between the main character and one of the gang members, and the more masculine side would be the action that follows the main character on her journey to put everything right.
    We decided that our film would just come straight out on DVD because we don't feel like its a main stream film.

Stop Motion

Stop motion animation is a cinematic process, or technique used to makes static objects appear as if they were moving. This technique is commonly used in claymation and puppet-based animation. The objects are brought to life by breaking up the figure's motion into increments and filming one frame of film per increment.

Fantastic Mr Fox uses stop motion the entire way through the film. This type of film not only appeals to children because of its content, but it appeals to adults also because of how well made and intricate it is. Adults will be interested in this film because of the amount of effort has been put into the making of it, and most likely watch it in admiration.

James and the Giant Peach was also a stop motion film. with the large uses of colour, and the content, this is another stop motion picture with the audience of children.



I think that the majority of stop motion films are mainly targeted at the younger population, therefore, this is something which we haven't really wanted to involve in our opening as we have a very complex and mature storyline which we would like to keep that way, and we dont feel like it would fit.

Narrative in Films

In The Hangover, the film opens with the one of the grooms friends ringing the bride telling her that something has happened whilst they're in vegas. As the film progresses, and they go on a search for Doug, the groom, we find out how they lost him in the first place, and in the ending, they find him, and he gets married. This film does not follow the traditional structure of a film (the Todorov model), however, it still makes sense.

The film which Beckiee and I have decided to create, kid of follows the start of this model. Our opening is going to start off with her current situation (being threatened by the gang leader). Then we're going to have a few flashbacks of how she got into the mess to start with.
The rest of the film is going to show the lead up to the cornering of the entire gang, and then how she manages to get out of both of her situations, owing somone money, and also having money struggles at home.

Opening of King Kong

Colour
When showing New York City, the colours are quite dark and dreary, this could possbly show the mood that is currently in the City.
The theatre is very bright, colourful and happy - showing a fake world, reflecting the island (with everything being fictitious).

Costume/Props
1930s clothing - setting the time era
Anne is always in bright clothing - viring colours, quite petite. Her clothes always look pristine and not worn. Other clothing in the opening people tend to look quite tatty, showing the impact of the great depression.

Setting
Set in New York City. Well known for its years of hard labour and poverty - largely hit by the great depression. Has many iconic buildings, like the empire state, which is used in one of the final shots of the sequence.

Narrative Codes
The beginning here shows all aspects of the film: animals in cages - they locked King Kong up towards the end, poverty - showing how hard people were hit, and how people like Anne got to the situation they did within the films narrative, theatre - the entire film, is actually based on Carl getting his film made, so with the theatricallity within the first few opening sequences, it gives us an indication that this is going to be one of the focusses of the film.
Anne is shown as if to be a damzel in distress almost imediately due to her losing her job at the theatre, and she is slightly moaning at the fact that the other theatre members are not as enthusiastic as she is about the theatre business picking up.

Editing Styles in Films

In films, editing can be used to portray emotions, or speed/pace/action (what's happening in that current scene of the film) and can help to tell the story more effectively.
There are 2 main types of film editing, slow paced editing, and fast paced editing.

Slow Paced Editing

• More than 4-5 seconds of a shot
• Can capture the romance in a scene
• Can portray sad emotions
• In horrors, can show the build up to a "jumpy" shot
• Can increase the tension within a scene

Faced Paced Editing

• Around 4-5 seconds of a shot
• Portrays the action within the scene
• Can adapt the tension within a scene (mainly reduce)
• Can be used in comedy's when there is a fight occuring, (showing the two sides)
• Can be used to make a scene feel "jumpy"

Evidence of the use of both shots is in the film Psycho.

At the very beginning of this clip, we are introduced to the girl in a serene manor, with her just having a shower. Having a shower is a very calm, tranquil scene. This is where short paced editing has been used. They could have used short snippits of her in the shower, but with the upcoming event, the use of slow paced editing makes it unexpected, and causes the resultant scene to be "jumpy" and scare the audience. The final short paced clip we are left with before the girl gets stabbed is where we get our full view of the killer. He/she is holding up a knife, therefore we know what is in line for the girl, this short paced edit is useful here becuase it enables us to prepare for what is coming. 

As soon as the fast paced editing cuts in, we're given every piece of information we need to enable us to understand what is going on. We see a short snippit of a girl screaming (symbolic code for a horror movie), we have continuous shots of the psycho killer (yet more symbolic codes of a horror film) stabbing the girl, and finally we see blood draining down the plug of the bath tub, (another symbolic code of a horror film).

As soon as the killer leaves, we return back to our slow paced editing, which shows our main character (of the scene) dying in her bath tub.

Having the scene planned out as "slow paced - fast paced - slow paced", it almost follows todorovs idea of equilibrium - disequilibrium - equilibrium, as at the end, the girl is no longer in any pain.

Film Treatment

Ideas for a film

Genre: Rom-Com

Narrative: Girl (Selena) gets treated like crap by boyfriend (Stering), unhappy in relationship so breaks it off, Sterling's best friend (Zac) comforts her, end up falling for one another, Sterling gets new girlfriend labelled as 'post-it' (Demi), Sterling catches on to the closeness between Selena and Zac - gets jealous and argues with Selena, fights with Zac and created an argument between Selena and Zac which ends in them breaking up, Zac and Selena both uphappy so they make-up and get back together, all reunited at the end-of-school year party

Codes:

Technical: high school - natural lighting, mainly day-time, restaurant/party scenes - low-key lighting, intimate mood

Symbolic: flowers, jewellery, chocolates, crying girl

Narrative: 'Post-it' - a girl that sticks to everyone despite not being wanted by the majority, break-ups and make-ups

Cast: Selena - played by 2010 Miley Cyrus, Demi played by Ashley Green, Sterling played by Matt Lanter, Zac played by Ashton Kutcher

Framing/Shot Length, and Camera Angles

In film, there are many different camera angles that are used to portray maybe emotions, status, or just to simply connect one view to another. When deciding on your shot, there are diffent aspects you need to consider: Framing/Shot Length and Camera Angles.

Framing/Shot Length

Extreme Long Shot

This shot can be taken as much as half a mile away, and is generally used as a scene-setting, establishing shot. It normally shows the outside, like the exterior of a building, or landscape, and is often used to show thrilling action, like in war films. As this can be from so far away, there is very little detail visible in the shot, but this is because it is maing just to give a general impression.  

Long Shot

Generally shows the image as "life" size. For example, correspnding the distance between the audience and the screen in the cinema. This includes the full shot, so seeing someones full body length, with the head near the top of the frame, and the feet near the bottom. While the focus is on the characters, opposed to the previous shot type, background detail still emerges. Like in the photo, we can tell that the coffins are in a Western-style setting. 

 Medium Shot

This shot contains a person/figure, from the knees/waist up and is normally used for scenes where there is dialogue, or to show some detail of action. A variation of this shot is the OVER-THE-SHOULDER shot. This is where the camera is positioned behind one figure revealing the other figure over the shoulder of the first so you able able to see the figures shoulder and part of his back.

Close-Up

This shows very little background and concentrates on a face, or a specific aspect of the mise-en-scene. Everything else is blurred out. This shot can be used to show the importance of something, for instance, if a particular prop is going to be significant to the storyline, they may do a close up shot of it so that the audience can piece together aspects of the film. 

Extreme Close-Up

This is basically just an extreme version of the Close-Up, generally magnifying beyond what the human eye would experience in real life. An extreme close up of a face would only show the mouth or eyes with no background detail whatsoever.

This is a very artifical shot, and can be used for dramatic effect.

Camera Angles

The Bird's-Eye View

Shows the scene from directly overhead, a very unnatural/strange angle. Some objects may be unrecognisable from this angle at first (umbrellas, dancers legs). This shot does put the audience in a "God-Like" position, looking down on the action. People from this shot can be made to look insignifcant, and ant-like.

High Angle Shot

This shot is not as extreme as the Bird's-Eye View shot, but is still quite high angled. It gives a general overview, and makes the object photographed seem smaller, less significant or even scary.

 

Eye Level Shot
This shot is classed as fairly neutral, the camera is positioned as the a human is actually observing/taking part in the scene. so that actors heads are in level with the focus. The camera is placed approximated five to six feet from the ground.

Low Angle Shot
These angle increase height (useful for short actors like Tom Cruise or James McAvoy) and give a sense of speeded motion. The background of a shot will tend to just be sky or ceiling, the lack of detail about the setting adding to the disorientation of the viewer.

Oblique/Canted Angle Shot
Sometimes the camera is tilted to suggest imbalance, transition and instability (very popular in horror movies). This technique is used to suggest POINT-OF-VIEW shots.
http://www.mediaknowall.com/camangles.html

Preliminary Task

In our preliminary task we were told that we had to record a film opening that included the opening and closing of a door, and the exchanging of dialogue between two people.
Within my group we decided that we wanted to have a "bullying" scene.

Love Actually Re-Creation

We have recreated this Love Actually scene, to assist our knowledge and understanding of dialogue, camera angles, and lighting.
By doing this it enabled us to ensure that when creating our final 2 minute opening we used each aspect to the best of our ability.