Trailer Title

As we have joined in late with the Sam and Abdul's group, we have no participation in with this but we can hint in the different routes and aspects of the different names that they tried to come up with.

The names for the title had to relate to the main plot of the film, delivering drugs whilst outperforming others.

Slick Icing was the very first name that they came up with, Slick being smooth and dodgy(deceitful) and icing referring to the white substance most ideally known as cocaine. The title in my opinion was a bit bland at the time, there was no feel to it, there was no significant factor that could intrigue the audience with just that name.

Pass the coke, the title seemed that it had a lot of potential, Coke referring to 'Cocaine' and passing referring to trading forth and backwards. I understood that there wasn't much of a hidden meaning within the name, I wanted the audience to read between the lines thus, I felt that the title was not as enthusiastic as it seemed so typical..

Finally, the last name given overall in which was rated the best to become the film trailer's title was: Chasing the Dragon. The title was indeed the most collaborative to all forms of the project, the dragon was referred to Hao Zheng; The powerful drug lord who rules the underpath of all the other drug convicts. Due to a partial of our settings being in Hong Kong,  It was necessary to say that Dragon also has the feel of the Chinese origin ethnicity in which a connection was established.
While looking at another perspective, Chasing the Dragon also refers to inhaling the vapor from heated morphine, heroin, oxycodone or opium that has been placed on a piece of foil. This was ultimately the best choice out of all the others due to the different views that an audience can look at it. 

Audience Profile

Audience profile
 

With our theme decided and set as well as the main plot of the movie set, we have planned to aim for specific audiences within the market. Our task is to induce new meanings and new controversial ideas to the wide range of audiences in order to capture the moods of others. Although we may not be able to capture most of the audiences, we plan to aim for a vast range of audiences. 

Age selection:

Specifically we have targeted at young teenagers as well as adults typically around from 17 to 25 year olds, borderline 30’s.  This is due to that the selection revolves around this sort of age as we feel that teens will have the aspiration and interests of watching this sort of themed trailer. 

Gender selection:

The gender selection is preferably males due to the theme of the film as there are no typical hints of romance within the storyline so ideally it doesn’t fit females in the range. This may act as a stereotypical assumption but we must make this relative hypothesis and make it act as our base in order to proceed onto the next figure. 

Passion and interests:

Stereotypically, we aimed for people who like to be diverse with a range of stylish punk attitude. We tried to understand and look at the audience’s perspective before anything else in which we can hope to aspire and aim to meet their expectations.

Although that is our objective, we also aim to give viewers an experience of grittiness of the sort, the plot of the movie will have a deep engraved meaning to which we hope the audience would relate to this and take it in for themselves.

Race and origins:

Overall, the movie is suited for any race as there is a range of nationalities within the antagonists, there aren’t any binary oppositions to declare who is right or wrong however, there is a anti hero within the story. We are not specifically aiming or targeting a nationality so in perspective we should not be doing any harm to any groups of races or creatign any controversial problems. 

 

Editing and Mise-en-scene Manual

Mise-en-scene

Mis-en-scene constitutes the key aspects of preproduction phase of film and can be taken to include all aspects of the production design and cinematography

Mise-en-scene creates the diegetic world – the fictional world where the story takes place.

Non-diegetic- aspects that were added and was not supposed to be present within the scene.

Aspects of Mise-en-scene

Location-settings, et design and iconography

Character-costume, props, make-up, actor and gesture.

Cinematography-lighting and colour

Layout/page design-colour, placement of objects 

Editing

Editing is post production technique in which the footage shot during production is cut-up and re-assembled in such a way as to tell the story

Film is not shot in chronological order but in a series of takes which are then assembled into the correct order.

Which take was the best take? Did you pull different clips from different recordings to create the best piece of scene? Was one take or one camera work/camera angle selected due to its good quality ascpects.

Editing revolves around two types: Continuity and non-continuity.  Non continuity

Continuity consists of:

Establishing shot, the 180 degree line rule (takes place around shots with conversations between two or more people where both sides of the each sides are taken as the shot selection to establish that continutity , action match, cut away-reference to the scene props, shot-reverse shot, eyeline match.

Non-continuity consist of:

Montage sequence and Flashback/forwards shots

Sound

There are two types of sound

Diegetic-located within the story world (dialogue,sound effects,music)

Non-diegetic-sounds which do not have any explained source within the story world(incidental music, voice over, non diegetic sound effects).

Trailer Plan

For the intro, we plan to intercept the audience with ambient music as well as monologue speaking by the main protagonist - Nathan.

Nathan will be speaking upon intro about himself as it will lead to some sort of surrealism due to the fact that he would be directly speaking to the audience as this will grab there attention. The music shall then increase in. We plan to have screenshots and scenes of Nathan within the house at the beginning so that we can set the scene. (To bring in the aspect of the day to day life)

In which we shall lead the audience to the main part of the entrance of most of the main characters who pose as an evil threat. The main characters shall all be introduced with their entrances to the main building for the drug conference.

Eddie Goodman played by Abdul shall be entering through the stairs as he will be walking upstairs to the destination.

Pete played by Haydn Macmaster shall be entering the main hall with his pack of drugs.

Finally, Hao Zheng played by me will be entering through the elevators as this gives off a much bigger prescense than all the other high profile drug lords.

Each and every character will have their mystery profiles throughout their introduction and it shall remain that way in which this will give off a more chilling perception behind the characters.

The main scene of the trailer will consist of Hao Zheng getting killed off by the main character, Nathan. A gun scene will intercept this production as the effects will be put into place to make it seem as real as possible.

New project introduction

Our new project will be based on a thriller/action theme. The general plot that we shall subsidize is a gangster-drug circle in which each and every main protaganist will be featured as an important character with past relations with narcotics.

We will be creating the trailer rather than the opening scene due to the time restraints. Most importantly we as a group think that the Trailer can be enhanced to a more specific point increasing the drama and grabbing more attention. Factors that we can take account for is the fact that we can use special effects for the scenes.

With a trailer, cut outs will be made within the process, cliffhangers will also be placed to heighten the effects as well as to increase the dark aura to contribute to the whole idea of 'thriller' of the film.
Mysterious and trancy music shall be added to summarize the whole of the film however, decision shall be made to figure which sounds and type of music we should use.

Of course, separations will be needed for individual segments as some scenes will only have a certain atmosphere to which only one sole

Reaching out the media, we will try to exasperate the audience to their initial limits.

Roles

With our new group sustained, we have all divided our the partaking roles into four ends so that each and every member will have a dedicated role to specially focus on.

Sam Harvey - (Actor) Main director of the play, will organize the script and follow through scenes.
Plans have already been made with his storyboards and other ideas. Script writer for Nathan's monologue.

Abdul Basit - (Actor) Directs the script and will give specific ideas upon the trailer. Script writer for Nathan's monologue.

Howard Kwok - (Actor) Main editor of the group, Mac-book pro user and will edit most of the remaining clips for the Samsung HD recording camera. Will manage most of the effects and will implement further media styles onto our product.

Haydn Macmaster - (Actor) Cameraman, equipment manager (Mis-en-scene).

Although roles are divided into different categories, we intend to help each other out. Different views and perspectives cane be used to tune any segments/tasks into a better quality.

Dilemma

There has been a crisis within the casting of the our media project, the problem lied with the time constrictions of the whole project.So, a joint group contribution were made and overall, it reduced the roles of each and every member.

Me and my partner Haydn will now be joining Sam and Abdul's group, their work currently focuses on a Gangster/Crime film in which has a high profile of drug lords and such. narcotics will also be included as it is the main mis-en-scene of the whole production.

Although this new whole innovation differs from what out original project was, we still have the encourangement to contribute as me and Haydn also have the interests within this sort of theme. On the contrary, I had planned to do such a thing similar to the 'gang' concept of a film but Haydn disagreed and figured that with a music video it would be much easier and requiered less work.

Whether this is true of not, none of that mattered as we both lost interest with our music video soon enough. We shall now expand and explore different areas of the project as we have never have produced a movie before. Though our experience is low, we do have strengths within our secondary tasks from before such as the music video 'Gnome'

With four members all in at once, we understand that communication is the most important factor within the project. To grab hold of that communication skill, we all now have each other's number as well as Msn and FB. The combination of each and every member will lead to bright new ideas for the movie as then we will have a large contrast of ideas to choose from.

Wish us the best of luck.

Casting members

The casting members within the song and the scene will need a specific personality in order to give a aura of different persona.

The casting actors will consist of:

Haydn - Singer/Guitarist,
Haydn knows all of he lyrics throughout the song, he has the mood and the inspiration to become the main leader and singer. Can play rythmn guitar to an extent.

Me - Main Guitarist
As a main guitarist, I have been learning how to play guitar since childhood. Guitar Solo's are witihin my expertise. From becoming a self-taught guitarist, I have became a professional over the course of the past 7 years due to non stop training.

Sam Harvey - Bassist
A self taught bass guitarist, knows the madatory basics upon strumming.

Mark Mwaura - Drummer
An expert dummer, has been taughted within school years whislt attending Drumming tuitions.

Nicola Beere - Pianist
Pianist, reliable and most fitting person behind the piano, currently studies Music for A level

Location (First Project)

Our location will be based on  multiple areas that will have a significant factor towards our music video.

Also, due to the restraints upon the amount of places we can go to, some of the locations that we planned have been restricted but we have done the best we can to optimise the scenery.

- Hong kong -

The scenery within Hong Kong is pro at it's best, the nightlife is spectacular as the lights brighten up the whole of the landscape. The neon lights is what attracts the whole idea of tourism and the cherished
The added specialty of the light show is also what heightens the effects. The purpose of using the site is to relate to the lyrics due to the "new world". Purposely, we would use this as a guide for the combination of the lyrical and video connection.

-Drama studio-

The drama studio has a a peculiar essence that distorts the aura. It is a perfect place to act upon the theme of depression as well as mystery. The studio is stated as a professional mis-en-scene which should be a perfect allocated location to use for our music video. A variety of acts can be used along the way of advancement  The surreal darkness fits in with the theme of light versus shadow, an added gloomy perspective can be placed fitting the sort of atmospheric theme we wanted.

The studio will be most likely to be used for the singing piece from my partner Haydn, a few props such a the microphone stand and the microphone will be placed to enhance the scene.

Shadow and lighting is also an important factor as we can adjust the brightness and contrast. The more effects put into place within the scene, the less of editing that we would have to do. 

-School stage-

The school stage is where large assemblies take place within all years, it is a social event where announcements are contributed and shared to all pupils. Within our perspective, we can use this sort of idea to do the same thing with the exception of having a musical. We a discussing upon the idea of using this location as there are some disagreements with me and my partner. Stunt performances can be related in which soley intrigues me.

The school stage has also a VIP, backstage area in which we can use to add further to the whole idea of the hidden viewpoint.

-Music Room-

The music room is a large storage place filled with all the kinds of instruments you can get. The remaning factors that we tend to forward is the whole idea of playing the instruments along with the music. It is of course a classy/cliche way of doing things but the tone and rhythmic beat of the song 'Radioactive' is quite upbeat meaning that playing the song would enhance the actual standpoint of the video.

We plan to borrow props/instruments such as Guitars, microphones, Stands and the Drum kits as me and my partner will discuss the members acts further on.

Ideas

We currently have a large bulk of ideas to be used within our music video but deciding on which one at what time and place is initially the starting point that we must consider in order to progress.

Many of ideas that has been introduced were basic inside jokes which built up from piling other ideas ontop of each other to which worked miracuosly.

Fundamental concepts that have been planned throughout the video that create the standing point of the scenes are such ideas that include :

• Moving pictures that articulate the meaning of the lyrics,
• Examples include using specific scenes to demonstrate the ending of each phrase or the rhyming words.
• Using motion pictures that split the scenes apart from each other giving it a special jutter effect.
• The stunts that we plan to use is planned to be used within the very beginning, the song intro begins with a quite tone as it eventually builds up, rising to a burst down drop beat. For some specific parts of the rythmn, the intercombination of the an actual person dropping down from a height forms a synchronization with the beat.

Overall, we shall study these ideas and come up with advantages and disadvantages of using each one.

Choices

A2 Project

After discussing the many various songs that could be used within our music project. From Waywood son to short change hero by the heavy. Harder to breath by Maroon 5 seemed to be the best choice out of the many selected.

Our A2 project with be based on the current song by Maroon 5, harder to breath was one of the many songs that me and Haydn could compromise with as it seemed that we had a good connection and plan with the scenes that would be used within the video.

Harder to breath has a constant upbeat tempo to it which relatively creates a challenge or some sort of barrier for us due to its speed of pace. Synchronizing is also one of the many problems that we would face within production.

Harder to breath also consists of having multiple instruments such including Guitar, Bass, Drums and a keyboard.

Regarding on the advantages of this song, the music video that accompanied with it was rather bland within the making. This would give us more of an aspiration to think and create ideas for our video in which we could put forth our description of the song itself.

In conclusion, the song seems perfect to capture both sides of pro's and con's in which allows us a large margin of correction.

Goodwins theory.

Goodwin’s theory

Buckcherry – Highwaystar

 

 

Within this video, there is a definite sign of combination between the video itself and the lyrics. ‘Highwaystar’ the lyrics describes the journey upon one end to another, whilst exploring the love that they have for ‘off-roading’

The video has a great relationship with the song, with the Nascar cars going around the track, this gives a great emphasis of racing upon the whole video itself.

The background music from the cars such as the engines igniting from one end to another ‘wow’s the audience as it gives a deeper and more thrill to the whole video.

The music itself has a constant upbeat tempo, there is a hard on strum as the electric guitars are being hammered on to give that full effect of being powerful, which initially has the ideal bond with the Car itself (as the Nascar’ cars resembles something like of a  bulldozer).

Other visuals scenes you will see is the appearance of the band, at any moment there is a high pitch speech that he would need to sing

The guitar solo which is immensely filled with the fast paced strumming as the high pitch screech relates itself to the visualization of the car skidding around the track leaving tyre marks around. This is a powerful technique between rock music and the dominant vehicles as the guitar itself can imitate the noise of the car. The drums also have an permanent effect on the whole video as it has a consistent upbeat.

“Nobody gonna take my car, I'm gonna race it to the ground, Nobody gonna beat my car
It's gonna break the speed of sound”

The lyrics within describes the thrill of racing, as heard within the video, background noises from the cars with the ‘Vroom’ upon one car to another is a great use of external onomatopoeia. Enlightening the audience at one end to another.

The genre characteristics of this video introduces extreme sporting, Nascar, one of the worlds most major sport especially in America is the perfect sport that fits in with this initial song. The Collaboration between both is as perfect as it gets. 

Guidelines

Effective storyboarding and Guildlines

 

Director and production designer discuss how to achieve the right look and  the feel by planning the sets and costumes for each character.

Storyboard artist – rough drafts must be made in order to carry on the task analysis

Motion capturer- Camera settings, shot selections and lightning decisions must be made accordingly, weather and schedule is important towards the production as it can change the whole project within the day.
(Achieving camera placement and tracking movements is necessary and needs time to aqquire perfect handling shots)

Director of photography for the ancillary tasks will be induced to talk about effects and other styles.
Editor of the video will palce all the clips together and make sure that they fit together all in one piece.

Communication

Important process of communication in order to contact schedules/timings and placements within each scenes. (Checklists can be produced to create an easier time for identifying the scenes and shtos that needs to take place).
Phone numbers, bloggers and other sorts of telecommunication as well as the internet addresses can be exchange for quick messaging purposes.

Production

The crew must establish the story set, location equipment and props must be handled on time and placed correctly in order for each scene to take place correctly.

Any special effects that needs to be carried around such as SFX(Special effects ) and green screens will be sorted out before the initial cut.

Guides and production plans must be handed out to all members in order to establish the scene.

Post Production

Editors will synchronize the shtos taken into a whole clip and create visuals with contact of the background theme music/song/sounds. Editing will enhance the characters of the video. SFX sequences can be carried out as well as adding transitions.

Different frame shots that should be considered: Angle levels, height distinction, distance set, the framing of a shot whether it is angled in a way Angles: Straightforth, high angle, low angle.
The best will be chosen in order to create the right perspective for the audience.

 

 

Introduction

Introduction towards A2 Media Studies and reviews upon the previous year

After the first year of AS media studies, I have recognised my ability to understand the prospects within the world media. My perception upon the news and the press has widened. My knowledge is still limited to an extent as I will try to improve my awareness around others.

Throughout year 12, I have learnt and gained various skills within editing such programs including Photoshop and Gimp (Two editing programs). Although I value these skills as my base of each and every design, I have to understand that there is much more to learn in order to advance to the next level.

Within A2 media studies, I will encourage myself to polish my editing skills to the extent of watching more YouTube tutorials and such. The creations will be more diverse than the previous projects, more elements and professionalism will be looked into in order to improve the tasks set.

More effort will be put into editing as well as the bibliography, I shall increase the amount of detail put into the subject. More testing and evaluations will be made upon each segments, this will improve the overall finalization.

Diversity is an important factor within this year, I must consider other aspects within reviews and comments in order to meet other peoples expectations instead of just mine. Exploration upon different media genres will help me locate my target audience.

I have been informed by my teacher that we will be using other various programs in order to edit our projects (specifically towards filming). We will be using such programs including Imovie maker or Windows movie maker. From now till then, I will learn the basics and try to improve ability to use the video editing programs.