Final Product - King Of Spades

Enjoy...

Evaluation Activity 7

From the preliminary task as a group we learnt allot. I noticed that there is allot to creating a scene in a film let alone the entire film.

Not using a tripod to produce when trying to produce steady results will only result in confusing messages for the audience. Also the quick cuts and jittery camera movements we used annoyed audiences and prohibits viewer enjoyment. We made an error with not only continuity but the 180 degree rule and this caused allot of stress when it came to editing.

When it came to producing our two minute file for our final project I felt more confident with using shots to convey meanings and show character roles. An example of this is how we used the POV in 'None of THAT' compared to how we used it in 'King Of Spades'.

King Of Spades                                       None of That

We also did many upon many of the same shots to ensure that when it came to editing we had the right shots. We were more switched on to the 180 degree rule and continuity errors after making mistakes previously and this helped greatly when it came to editing.

Evaluation Activity 6

Even though our film is only two minuets long I have learned ample amounts of useful skills that I shan't forget soon.

 I believe the first skill I learnt in the process of create this film is how to use a Macintosh computer. Having barely any experience with the computers I found it difficult to use the computers but after a while I became accustomed to it's ins and out and I am now a comfortable Mac user but will always remain a PC.

I then learnt valuable editing skills along with Final Cut Pro experience.

I created a Blog for the first time using 'Blogger'.

Although I had had much experience using cameras previous to creating this film I hadn't used tapes before and learnt how to capture films onto a computer for editing.

These are other programmes and significant websites that I used, most of which I had previous experience in.

Evaluation Activity 5

Evaluation Activity 4

With British Crime Thrillers such as our film that incorporate humour, I personally feel that there isn't a strict target audience. Although many may compare our film to a British film as the likes of Football Factory I would steer them to compare our films style to Lock Stock and Two Smocking Barrels.

However if a trailer was created for a film like ours the scenes that would be shown would probably give people the stereotypical impression that the film is for football fanatic southerners, who through about constant cockney banter, would enjoy an episode of 'Only Fools and Horses' or 'Two Pints of larger & a Packet Crisps' and would not skip an opportunity for a pint down the pub.

But with our film I think the audience is not as restricted as it would seem from first glance. I do believe that our target audience is working to middle class men and women from the ages of 18 - 40 who live in the UK. I say this because they can all relate to the characters and can get the humour and understand most if not all the banter.

The only thing that can be counted as a restriction for audience of our film is that people below the age of eighteen would enjoy and want to watch the film but due to their age are not legible.

Evaluation Activity 3 - Director's Commentary

Evaluation Activity 2

One of the key characters from our short film is Karsey Ken. He was dubbed with this nickname due to him having IBS and he's forever on the loo. The costume and style of the character was based on a character from the Guy Ritchie film 'Snatch', the character is Turkish, played by Jason Statham. Both characters wear shirts with blazers leaving out any sight of a tie. Also with the short haired, rough stubble look. The similarities of the characters continue in their ability to be very violent , examples of this is Turkish fending of his shop when the thugs are destroying the machines with baseball bats. We see Ken about to be violent in the end of my film taking the showing and lifting it to assault the mystery person in the cellar.

However the similarities pretty much end there this being because Karsey Ken is more of a sidekick with a violent side than the smart, strong 'protagonist' that Turkish is.

Evaluation Activity 1

 The Title of the film
The title of our film is not only punchy but is a pun on the ethnicity of one of our main characters. 'King Of  Spades'. The word 'spade' can be interpreted as a racist term towards black people. One of our main characters is half black and is high on hierarchy in his community and his hypothetical gang. Also because because they tend to beat their enemies with spades.

Setting/Location
With our film location I believe that we met that created a mise-en-scene that captures the genre of our film.   We used a bar Brixton and a gritty alleyway  next to the bar. We also used the cellar in the bar  to create an eerie, scary atmosphere to match what was happening in the scene.

Costumes and Props
The costumes that we have used for our characters match their identities in the film and are based on characters from similar films. For example our characters talk with a cockney dialect and are wearing clothes as if they are business-men but are actually dangerous men like 'Happy Harry' relating him to 'Rory Breaker' from 'Lock Stock'. The only prop we used was a green spade as Karsey Ken's choice of weapon.

 Title font and style

With the title sequence of our film we use a black background with white writing over it. The titles cut in and out of the opening scenes of the film. I would not really say that we challenged any conventions of film titles because black backgrounds have been used since the beginning of Films. I would say that we played with theme of our films genre in regards of the font of the text.

Story and how the opening sets it up
The beginning of the story sets up the feel of a gangster film that takes no enemies. The cockney banter and the light humour lets the audience know that it's not strictly a violent film but has some intelligence in between the lines from the script.

How characters are introduced
The characters are introduced using freeze frames with voices overs we were inspired for this from the film 'Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'. Using these technique we were able to incorporate the banter associated with british crime thrillers.

Diary Vlogs

Diary Entry 1

Diary Entry 2

Diary Entry 3

Diary Entry 4

Diary Entry 5

Diary Entry 6

Diary Entry 7

Diary Entry 8

Diary Entry 9

Titles Sequence

The Title Sequence in a film is very important and is sometimes confused with credits, but they are different. The Title Sequence is at the beginning of a film and is the time to present the key people in production, key cast members, also the title of the film. There are many things that can be done to make a title sequence different from another film and also to singular it out so that it is remembered for your film due to it relating to the theme of your film.

I think a fantastic example is the 2006 James Bond film 'Casino Royale', which uses Rotoscoping to make the title sequence match the casino theme of the film and this keeps the viewer engaged through out, thus remembering the key names.

In regards to the opening sequence of my film the techniques my group used were based on the title sequence styles of the british Guy Rihcie film Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

The relation with Lock Stock and our film is the use of cross cutting from a black screen with text, including the essential cast and crew names along with the title of the film, to the film. We used this because it is a good way of introducing the key people of the film while maintaining the pace of the film and keeping the audience engaged with the film and not bored by simple monotonus white text on a black background.

Audience Research

The Genre of our film is British Crime Thriller. However even though we knew this we did some filmed research in our college with both students and teachers participating to see how our film would be received and also to see people's preferences in the 'world of cinema'.

Equipment

To create our film we needed the basic essentials such as equipment. This includes Camcorder and SLR Cameras. We as a team did not have a budget so our college provided us with both a very able 'Sony HVR-A1E' Camcorder from the media department and I acquired a 'Nikon D40' SLR camera from the Art department.

I also must include that one of my team mates (Naomi Highfield) actually bought a camcorder so that we didn't have to waste time renting the college's and also because it gave our team much freedom. The name of the fantastic Camcorder is 'Panasonic-HDC-TM700' which we did all our filming on for the actual 2 minuet film. (Most gratefull for this)

Sony HVR-A1E Camcorder

Nikon D40

Panasonic-HDC-TM700

Recce

Recce which originnates from the military term Reconnoiter, in terms of media is part of pre-filming. It is basically when the director visits the location for a scene to do a check up of what works. What this means if the lighting is correct, if the shots will work, to see what angles will work or need to be changed, if acoustics are right, if the script works, how the actors will position themselves and all in all to make sure if the Mise-en-scène is captured. It is very rare to get footage of a director doing one of their Recces but in the 'behind the scenes' of the DVD of the classic Reservoir Dogs by Quentin Tarantino he shows the Recce he did for the scene in the movie where one of the characters is bleeding to death on a ramp.

This is the scene that was Recce'd in the 'behind the scenes'

After learning from Tarantino in my group we created our own Recce for the scene after the two 'geezers' walk down the stairs. We used this time to explain what we were doing with the film's progress.

Similar Text

The two films that we have based our film on for the sense of inspiration is 'Snatch' and 'Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels', Two Guy Richie film. These are two brilliant, entertaining films with great storylines and even better directing.

As a group we chose to use these films as a basis for our creation, the genre of the film is British Crime Thriller and there is also some humour. The directing is innovative; using split screen to shot what both characters are doing and voice overs to explain characters identities. Scripts that are smart and catchy incorporating Cockney Slang such as : 'If the milk turns out to be sour, I ain't the kinda pussy to drink it'. Also with storylines that make the audience want to watch the films many more times after the first, entwining characters fates with irony and further humour.

Film Script and Storyboard

Storyboards

Initial Script

HAPPY HARRY 

ON THE PHONE –

      ORITE SUNSHINE?

      PAUSE

      YEAH, YEAH

      PAUSE

      NAH DON’T YOU WORRY ABOUT IT; ME AND KARSEY ARE GUNNA TO SORT IT OUT.

NARRATOR

THIS IS HAPPY HARRY, WE CALL HIM HAPPY HARRY CAUSE HE’S A MISERABLE BASTARD.

[GIRL WALKS PAST] KARSEY KEN

ELLO TREACLE *WHISTLES*

NARRATOR

AND THIS IS ME, KEN. BETTER KNOWN AS KARSEY CAUSE I’M ALWAYS ON THE BOG, GOT IRRITABLE BOWLS YOU SEE.   

[NON DIGETIC TOILET FLUSH SOUND]/[BELLY GRUMBLES]     GRABS HIS GUTS AND BLOWS OUT.

THERE YA GO...SHOULDN’T OF HAD THAT FUCKING VINDALU LAST NIGHT!

-KEN PUTS IN HEAD PHONES AND DIGETIC MUSIC KICKS IN AND TURNS INTO NON DIGETIC-

-    SPLIT SCREEN -

KARSEY KEN

     ORITE

HAPPY HARRY

     YEAH, YOU READY?

KARSEY KEN

      SUNSHINE. I WAS BORN READY.

-    BOTH WALK TOWARDS THE BLOKE TIED UP –

HAPPY HARRY

      *SNIFFS* AY, HAVE YOU JAM TARTED?

KARSEY KEN

      SORRY MATE, HAD CURRY LAST NIGHT, YOU NOW WHAT MY GUTS ARE LIKE.

HAPPY HARRY

      JESUS CHRIST, THINK YOU CAN STOP IRRITATING YOUR BOWLS WHILE WE DO THIS?

KARSEY KEN

      *NODS*

HAPPY HARRY

-    TAKES THE BAG OFF OF THE GUYS HEAD –

MAN 3

      *MAKES NOISE THROUGH THE GAG*

KARSEY KEN

-    TAKES THE GAG OFF –

MAN 3

      PLEASE, PLEASE, FELLAS, YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO THIS.

HAPPY HARRY

      SHUT IT

MAN 3

      I PROMISE BOYS, I’LL SORT IT

HAPPY HARRY

      AH, NOW YOU SEE, YOU HAVEN’T SORTED IT. THATS WHY YOUR HERE SWEETHEART.

KARSEY KEN

-    PUNCHES MAN 3 IN THE FACE –

CLOSE UP ON THE EYES – THEN REWIND TO THE BEGINING

Final Script

HAPPY HARRY 

ON THE PHONE –

      ORITE SUNSHINE?

      PAUSE

      YEAH, YEAH

      PAUSE

      NAH DON’T YOU WORRY ABOUT IT; ME AND KARSEY ARE GUNNA TO SORT IT OUT.

NARRATOR

THIS IS HAPPY HARRY, WE CALL HIM HAPPY HARRY CAUSE HE’S A MISERABLE BASTARD.

NARRATOR

AND THIS IS ME, KEN. BETTER KNOWN AS KARSEY CAUSE I’M ALWAYS ON THE BOG, GOT IRRITABLE BOWLS YOU SEE.   

HIS GUTS AND BLOWS OUT.

THERE YA GO...SHOULDN’T OF HAD THAT FUCKING VINDALU LAST NIGHT!

-    SPLIT SCREEN -
BOTH ENTER PUB AND CONTINUE TO WALK DOWN INTO THE BASEMENT TOGETHER.

KARSEY KEN

     ORITE

HAPPY HARRY

     YEAH, YOU READY?

KARSEY KEN

      SUNSHINE.I WAS BORN READY.

-    BOTH WALK FORWARDS –

HAPPY HARRY

      *SNIFFS* AY, HAVE YOU JAM TARTED?

KARSEY KEN

      SORRY MATE, HAD CURRY LAST NIGHT, YOU NOW WHAT MY GUTS ARE LIKE.

HAPPY HARRY

      JESUS CHRIST, THINK YOU CAN STOP IRRITATING YOUR BOWLS WHILE WE DO THIS?

KARSEY KEN

      *NODS*

MAN 3

      *MAKES NOISE THROUGH THE BAG*

HAPPY HARRY

SHUT IT AND LISTEN TO ME, ME AND MY COLLEGUE HERE ARE GUNNA DO SOME FUCKING DAMAGE. HERE KEN HOLD THIS....

KARSEY KEN

     *RAISES SPADE TO SMACK MAN 3 OVER THE HEAD*

Script writing and Analysis

The script in a film is as essential as what you see in a film, in fact without a script there would be no film to play. Writing a script is an art and there is technique to it. I had to study scripts and understand how they enable the film to be directed. Every key aspect from the light, scenery, stage direction and of course the dialogue is in the script. There are many symbolism's that are born in the script and add to the understandings of the film.

A good script will enable the director to do there job, however a fantastic script will enable a director to show the reality of a script along with all the semiotics and semantics of the script. It enables an encapsulation of ideas so that the audience has full comprehension without any doubt.

Animatics/Storyboard

The purpose of an Animatic and Storyboards is to understand how the shots and scenes of your film will be layed out. Both storyboards and Animatics are very in-depth and this ensures that the end product of the film is planned out well saving mass amounts of money and time. Also it helps to pysically vision the end product which in turn enables the film to stay on course and not loose the intended impact or story. Storyboards are basically the main shots of the film drawn out side by side to show how the film will sequence and to see and each shot will be done in terms of directing. Animatics is a more extensive version of Storyboards, where they differ is that an Animatic is using the storyboards and bringing them to life with animation, voice overs and sound.

Lord of the Rings is a brilliant example of how using Animatics and storyboards thoroughly and effectively can benefit the end product of a film, earning global acclaim and becoming one of the highest grossing films to be ever created.

180 Degree Rule

One of the most basic rules in film making is that characters in the same scene (usually two characters) should always maintain the same left and right relationship. If the director imagines that there is an imaginary 180 axis, he must stay on that axis to maintain a visual connection, a understanding of the conversation and also so that the audience do not get confused and are then left out of the film. This imaginary axis is the reason for its name.

A good example of this rule in film is in the 2010 film Inception. In the second scene when the character played by Leonardo Di Caprio is dragged into the room as the character begins to talk not only is the 180 Degree maintained but the camera moves almost as if it is a POV shot to add an extra effect and to make the audience feel more involved with the characters. I edited this clip so that only the necessary parts are shown.

Preliminary Task

My Preliminary Task was created along with my team. This task was to let us 'wet our feet' with film making. It was so that we could as a team create a script, storyboard, film and using editing software.

As this was our preliminary task and first ever attempt at creating a film, albeit 2 minutes long we knew it was not going to be perfect. Due to the insufficient amount of equipment my group did not use a tripod throughout our filming. Filming and editing errors include; actors being out of the frame of shot, fast cuts, background sound disturbance, unstable camera and continuity errors. However I can honestly say I learned a great deal from creating this.

 

My team created a two minute film where two guys are in a cantine and become confused and angered with each other due to the fact that they are unaware that they are dating twins and first believed there to be a dishonor of friendship.