Commission Unit: Filming at a Yu-Gi-Oh Trading card event

Every three months Graham hosts a Yu-Gi-Oh! card game event in a small pub in Maidstone. In these events he usually gets a turn out of about 20 to 30 people since he had to stop doing weekly tournaments (because no one turned up). Graham gave us permission to film this tournament so we went to the pub to gather footage of Graham and contestants for this tournament. There was quite a low turn out for the tournament this time round as there were only a turn out of 10 people but this was only bad for Graham as he made a £5 loss from the event. Filming wise we got some good footage of the games as well as some interviews with Graham and some of the tournament entries. Before we finished we handed out consent forms for people that we interviewed and for people who were caught on camera. Overall I think we got some good footage and we got to see more of what Graham does in his spare time as well as how he feels about the money he generated from that day compared to other days.

James

Narrative and Genre Unit: Research

I have been taking quotes from various books that I borrowed from the library which I feel add to the essay. These books include "Media, Culture and Morality", "Samurai Film" "The Cult Film Reader" and "Comic Book Movies" All of these books will be able to relate to "Death Note" which is why I have chosen them.

Narrative and Genre Unit: Writing the essay

Over the last couple of weeks I have been compiling my essay for this unit. So far I have conducted research into Japanese films, the detective genre, culture and morality and narrative. So far my essay word count adds up to 653 so I still have quite a lot to write however I still have a lot to write about!

Commission Unit: Filming at The Grinning Demon: November 8th

On Thursday we went back to Maidstone town centre to film at the Grinning Demon to film some actuality shots and ask Graham some more questions about his business. In this we had Graham talking to us about his business whilst he put comics in plastic sleeves and stacked the shelves, not only did he talk us through this he also talked to us about some of the customers and regulars that come into the store and how much he makes in a day.

Whilst we we filming the shop flooded with customers, which meant that this was one of his good days. We took this opportunity to film these customers whilst they were being served and browsing the shop. In total we had a good day we got a variety of shots and interviews and we were pretty pleased with ourselves.

Commission Unit: Filming with Graham: 12th November

On Monday me and Sam went to the Grinning Demon again to ask Graham some more questions for the documentary. These questions included how he felt when he first bought the store, how the store was run when Manny was there and others which are quite similar. As it was near closing time we filmed Graham closing up the store as part of a sequence which potentially could be used as the closing scene in the documentary.

Commission Unit: Creating a Script

Today me and Sam started work on our documentary script. Within this we have included many different sequences and shots as well as different interviews with event organisers and a few of Graham's friends. We will be shooting at the Hammerlock wrestling event on Saturday evening so this script will be a lot of help to us!

By the way the blog for our documentary is  http://grinninggraham.blogspot.co.uk/ anyone is free to follow!

Commission Unit: Grinning Graham

On Tuesday we found out which ideas would be commissioned for this unit. Nine were chosen however mine was not one of them, however I am not disheartened as I get to work on another with Sam Wilder entitled "Grinning Graham". This tells a story about Graham Beadle who runs a local comic book shop in Maidstone and shows how Graham lives his dream by running the shop. Graham used to run pubs but this did not interest him but when the chance popped up to buy a comic book store he couldn't refuse, the documentary will also show what trouble he has run into along the way, what he does in his spare time and interview with people Graham knows. "Grinning Graham" is the story of a man living the dream which is something which has not been done before on the course. I am very pleased to be working with Sam on this documentary as he is one of my closest friends and the subject of the piece is something which generally interests me!

Commission Unit: Pitch

On Monday the 29th the whole class had to present their ideas in front of a panel for the ideas to be narrowed down for commission. The title of my pitch was "All Part of Being a Superhero" and was about Antonio Francis a former Britain's Got Talent contestant. I pitched this Idea to the panel which I thought didn't go too bad. The main let down of my pitch was the fact that Antonio himself was not a reliable character and may not have even turned up! Never-the-less I thought the pitch went pretty well and I feel that I got my idea across okay.

Commision Unit: Idea developed

Last week I altered my idea so it could become a non-fictional piece. I did this by finding a former Britain's Got Talent named Antonio Francis who had the unusual talent of poping his eyes out. Antonio made it to the semi-final rounds before being voted off the show, he now goes to charity events to raise money using his talent. By conducting research into his life and who I could interview and what shots I could come up with I compiled a presentation for the pitch on Monday.

The Idea of my pitch was that most programmes which follow BGT and X-Factor are usually about the winner but what is unique about my documentary is that it shows what happens to someone who doesn't win a televised talent show. Another main-selling point is that it is bizarre and something that people don't see everyday which is a reason to tune in.

Commission Unit: Business Project Editing

Today myself, Sam Wilder and Sam Ellis started to edit our business project. We finished our first rough edit around 4 o'clock where we altered the sound, separated the interview and cut other establishing shots to fit into the interview to separate the sequences.

Commission Unit: Idea

My idea for the Commission unit is to do a documentary on the aftermath of pop star who has just won a TV   Talent show. This will obviously be a fiction documentary but will entail the story of how and ordinary member of the public has reached stardom though a television show. I got my inspiration from watching a documentary about X-Factor winner Matt Cardle called "Matt Cardle into the light" which shows Matt's life after the X-factor and production on his first album. My Documentary will be similar to this and with planning and a good pitch this may turn out very well.

Commision Unit: Filming at Grinning Demon

On Friday myself, Sam Wilder and Sam Ellis set out to Maidstone town centre to film interviews for the business project we were set. We decided to go to Grinning Demon - a comic book store for our interview, where we met Graham who runs the shop. He was very helpful and answered all of our questions on business in Maidstone as he has actually runs an on-line chat show for the store. He has also done this sort of thing with other uca students so knew exactly what he was doing. He was so helpful and gave such an in-depth interview that we decided to do the whole documentary on him and the store. We got some good shots and some interesting questions and answers were included in the interview. Overall our group believed that we got some good footage and are very pleased on how things turned out with our interview and found this an enjoyable experience!

Narrative and Genre Unit: Magnificent 7

On Wednesday we learnt about the "Magnificent 7". The "Magnificent 7" comes from Christopher Booker who argues that all stories can be broken down into 7 main plots: Tragedy, Comedy, Overcoming the monster, Voyage and return, Quest, Rags to Riches and Rebirth. I looked through these different plots and tried to find which one is the one most linked to "Death Note" but I then realised that "Death Note" falls into two different categories. The plot of "Death Note" is both Quest and Rebirth. The Quest in "Death Note" is Light Yagami's vision of justice and how he goes about achieving it and the Rebirth is how at the start of the film he starts off as a Law student who abides by the rules to someone who kills criminals because the world is "unclean" and breaks the law becoming someone totally different to who he is in the end.

Commission Unit: Business Project

Today myself, Sam Wilder and Sam Ellis went around Maidstone town centre to ask small independent businesses if we could interview them for our business project. Our first stop was at the comic book store "Grinning Demon" which gladly agreed to let us interview them on Friday. Our next stop was the "Cornish Pasty company" who said we had to phone the manager for permission to interview. Our next two stops were at "Harlyquinn Fancy Dress Shop" and a pawn brokers who both gave similar responses which were that they would gladly give an interview if they weren't busy on said day. The Last place we visited was a shop called "Music Matters" which said that they weren't able to film on Friday but any other day would be fine as long as we phone before hand. We decided that we would narrow it down to two different store on the day of filming.

Narrative and Genre Unit: Reasearch

 

The Film which I am going to use as an example for my Narrative and Genre Unit is a Japanese cult film called "Death Note". It entails a young college student who plays god when he finds a notebook that when a persons name is written in it they will die from a heart attack within 40 seconds. Light Yagami (the main character) uses this notebook to kill off criminals worldwide, but special investigator L who has never left a case unsolved is hot on his tail. The film questions the audiences morality when the film asks what is justice?

The reason why I have chosen this film is because it shows how the main character changes from a normal college student to a villainous mass murderer and in some ways turns the audience against against him he is very much an anti-hero in the way he'll do anything reach his goal even if it means killing innocent people. The opposing character L becomes more of an opposite to Light but is fighting for his way of justice, when he uses extreme and questionable methods but is always able to find an answer.

The Genre of the film is a supernatural, detective-drama which is a genre which is not often touched upon yet  certain elements and codes and conventions leads us to believe that it does suit these genres.

Direction Unit: my finished piece

On Sunday I finally finished my episode of Park Story. It has been uploaded to the dedicated channel where all the other finished products are uploaded. Here is my finished piece I hope you enjoy it!

Direction Unit: Acting like a Bum!

Today I was acting as a tramp in Tory's episode of park story. Tory's theme was bitter and her prop was hat. On set I had to act very hostile towards a business woman who in the end gives my character £5, to which he becomes overjoyed and happy with her donation. Dave was camera op and Gabby was playing the role of the business woman. It was really fun being on set as a hobo and Tory directed and took charge of her crew very well, she was well planned and knew what she wanted from her shots.

Direction Unit: Title Sequence

Yesterday my peers and I gathered to discuss the title sequence for Park Story. Together we put forward ideas and discussed what would be appropriate and what we all wanted to see. We looked at several different title sequences from different TV shows however because all of our episodes carried different messages and genres, and the sequences we were looking at had the same genre throughout the series and carried mostly the same message it was hard to find something which would inspire us. However after looking through our ideas and putting together some existing footage we made a title sequence which looked quite professional. This is only a rough draft however we are showing progress title sequence wise!

Direction Unit: Assistant Director

On Thursday I acted as Assistant Director for Sam Wilder on his 3 minute episode of Park Story. This gave me the chance to give input during the shoot e.g. shot ideas etc. This way I got to see how my peers directed their episode compared to my style of directing. Like me I felt that that Sam had a variety of different shots which I felt worked well for his piece. Sam was well organised and knew exactly what he wanted as a director.

Direction Unit: Editing

On Friday I started editing my 3 minuted episode of Park Story. So far I have put together 2 minutes 45 seconds of footage. This is only a rough copy and is no where near completion however I am confident in my piece and am confident that when the editing process is completed that it will look great. That's all I've got on the editing front so far! but watch this space EDITING HAS BEGUN!

Direction Unit: Production

Last Tuesday I set out with my production crew to Vinters Park to film my episode of Park Story. On my team I had Sam Wilder as main actor, Zara Kemmenoe as the main actress, Tory Stewart-Wooler as my make up artist, David Anga as my camera-op and Melissa Liddicoat as my Assistant Director. We started filming at 4pm and finished around 7:45pm. Armed with my storyboard I set out looking for my locations and  informing my crew of what I wanted. I have never directed before, and telling people what to do isn't something I'm used to doing however seeing my creation come to live was quite enjoyable and I believe it was enjoyable for my crew as well! I believe that my crew selection was a good one and that everyone performed very well on set. One problem which I encountered was the time of day, as it got darker quicker than I imagined, however I prepared for this to happen and used a battery powered hand held light to brighten up the scene. Here are a couple of behind the scene stills from the shoot.

Direction Unit: Development

After receiving feedback from my peers during the group crit session, I have decided to change a couple of shots in my 3 minute film. To Identify that the male character was a paranormal photographer I had a extreme close up of his pass saying "paranormal photographer" but my peers suggested that perhaps I should show this in a different way, e.g. show some of his pictures he's done on previous jobs or show him putting up a note at the front of the park saying "paranormal photographer at work". I have taken these ideas into consideration and will most likely use one of them.

Direction Unit: Locations

A couple of days ago I went to Vinters Park to find some locations for shooting my three minute film theses are a few of the places where I plan to film.

Filming For Desi Blitz: Barfi

Over the summer holidays I did some filming for the internet website "Desi Blitz" at the English premier of "Barfi". Recently the interview which my friend did with the leading actor (Ranbir Kapoor) was featured on the website. The interview was recorded with audio only, however some of my footage which I filmed at the premier of "Barfi" was used on top of the audio of the interview. Here is the website where the interview can be found: http://www.desiblitz.com/content/ranbir-kapoor-as-fun-and-dumb-barfi

Direction Unit: Planning

In my take of "The Park Story" I shall be creating something along the lines of a horror genre. To achieve this I need to have a dark setting. My idea was, as the story progresses the darker the setting will become as the photographer goes deeper into the woods to find the ghost. I plan to put a blueish filter over the footage to give it the creepy and eerie sense that the photographer is being followed. The image on the right is an example of what I want my setting to look like.

The torch will be carried by the photographer and will be used to find where the girl is. I plan on using a hiking torch which has two different brightness settings. The torch is a key prop in the story and will be used by both characters (the girl will only use it in the last scene after the photographer dies). The torch looks similar to the one in the picture.







Another prop which I have chosen to add to the scene is a professional camera, which the photographer uses to capture images of the ghost he's looking for. When he tries to take pictures of the ghost/girl she does not show up when he looks back at the camera which starts to strike fear into the photographers heart. The camera will look similar to the one on the right.







The costumes which I plan to use for the actors have already been planned out. For the photographer he will wear a leather jacket with a white work shirt, jeans and black shoes. For the girl I need a white dress to represent the ghost like eeriness which is represented in modern day media.    

Direction Unit: The Letter

This is my work on a direction project we were assigned last week hope you enjoy

Direction Unit: Progress

The theme that I drew for the "Park Story" was "Death" and the prop was "Torch". My initial idea for this was to film it during the evening or night time, making effective use of the torch prop. I next thought was in what sort of scenario would someone be using a torch in the woods at night relating to death. My first idea was that a girl goes missing so her boyfriend goes out in search of her with torch in hand only to find her dead by a cliff, however this idea has not been look too much upon as my second idea is one which I prefer.

My second idea was a paranormal photographer investigating the park for a ghost of some sort during the evening or night time. As he walks through this park looking for clues he hears footsteps, sees figures in the bushes, etc. Along the way he notices a pale looking girl and tries to communicate with her, however this becomes unsuccessful and the photographer moves on. Not much later the same girl appears again before the photographer, he again tries to communicate with the girl but again this is unsuccessful, noticing that this is "paranormal" he decides to take a few pictures of the unusual girl. After taking a couple of pictures the photographer looks away to tighten the focus but when he looks away the girl is gone. Fear starts to come across the photographer so he pulls out the torch in order to find the girl who turns out to be right behind him. The photographers flight or flight instincts come into play as he flees the girl. He runs through the darkened trees he cannot seem to flee the girl. A hand then appears from the ground and grabs the photographers heel and tripping him up, the photographer struggles but the girl won't let go, he pleas for his life begging the girl to let him go. As he looks into the girls eyes the grip on his ankle loosens and he is able to walk away, as the photographer flees he looks back to see the girl in the same place where he last looked which is unusual considering the girl has vanished every time he's looked away. As he turns to head out of the park with the torch in his hand, he collapses shaking uncontrollably frothing from the mouth until he is still. Footsteps are heard as the girl approaches his body she picks up the torch, she points it towards her face looking straight into the camera, she switches of the torch and the scene ends.

The Girl in this short scene is representing death, the message of the scene is that death is always round the corner and that you cannot run away from death it will always be able to find you. This is still in the drafting stage and can still be edited.

Over The Summer Holidays

Over the summer holidays I did some camera work for the on-line magazine website DESIblitz. What I did for the website was film an Interview with some Bollywood actors at certain premiers and press conferences around London at the Indian Film festival and Feltham. I filmed at premiers such as "Teri Meri Kahaani", "Arjun & Alison", "Baishey Srabon" and "Barfi". At these premiers I filmed interviews with big name Bollywood actors and actresses including Raima Sen, Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra. Over all I found the experience enjoyable and I look forward to doing it again.

 

Sound Unit completed project

I have just realised that I have not uploaded the final version of my Sound design project so here is my finished project I hope you enjoy it.

Filming for Desi Blitz

Yesterday my friend and I went to a press conference and premier of the Bollywood film "Teri Meri Kahaani" to film and interview the actors, actresses and everyone else involved in the film. The film is a romance with the tagline "thrice upon a love story" and is set between 1910, 1960 and 2012. Each love story is set in one of the time periods but all are somehow connected. My friend works for the internet website http://www.desiblitz.com/ and asked me if I would like to film him interview the actors of the film, I was more than thrilled to help out and together we went to London where the press conference and premier were being held. The press conference was held at the Montcalm hotel, there we were able to ask the panel questions about the film and their experiences. The panel included lead actor Shahid Kapoor, lead actress Prianka Chopra and director Kunal Kohli. As we were only asked to film this on short notice I had to film the press conference on my iPhone so the shots were not exactly steady but if we knew what we were doing before hand we would have been more prepared. After the press conference we headed straight to the premier of "Teri Meri Kahaani" where we were able to get interviews with the director and a couple of members of the cast. To film this we used a handheld sony camera. The premier of the film was jam packed with fans who (when the main actors arrived) barged into the press pit to meet their idols. It was very hard to get a clear shot of the actors and we ended up without two interviews. The event was incredibly organised and the security guards were no help at all which was very frustrating when we were trying to do a job, however we were able to get a couple of interviews and some pretty decent shots of the event. This is the first ever premier I have been to a have to admit that it wasn't brilliant but I tried my best to do a good job. The article, interviews and videos will be uploaded soon, so just keep watching.

As Live Project: day as a camera assistant

The second years had to create and film a live tv show and needed help from the first years as camera operators, camera assistants and runners. I gained the spot of a camera assistant which mainly involved me cable bashing for my camera op. The show was called Unsigned Live, which allowed unsigned bands to perform in front of a live audience. Overall I had fun working on the As-live project, enjoyed listening to the bands playing, gained experience and learnt a lot from this project.

Sound Unit: The Journey progress

Yesterday I imported my clips onto Final Cut and started editing with them. In total I took over 900 photos so that I would have a wide range of shots to play with and doing this has helped me a lot. At the moment I am one third of the way through the editing process and still have to match the sound effects to the pictures but I know what sounds I want and what shots I want them on. Here are some more pictures I have chosen to import.

Sound Design unit: photo shoot

Last Thursday I took my photos for the sound design project. My story is of a student travelling to university, but everything goes wrong for him until when he gets to uni something unusually lucky occurs that doesn't happen to many people. I took up to 950 photos (most of them being doubles and triples) so I could have a wide range of shots, here is a taster of some of the scenes. Enjoy!

 

Review: Prototype 2: Live Action Game Trailer

I've recently been browsing through youtube watching trailers for films, and short internet comedy sketches. Whilst doing this I stumbled upon this trailer for a game called Prototype 2, as I watched I admired the thought that went into this. The trailer appeals to it's audience (teenagers) by showing snippets of the storyline but in live action sequences which is very unusual for a game trailer. The music also reflects the back story of the character as it is a woeful melody but as the trailer continues the theme of revenge kicks in and the image on the screen is in somewhat contrast to the music. Although I have never played the Prototype series before the trailer has some what enticed me to play the series..when I have enough money. I have posed the trailer below Enjoy!      

Sound Design Unit: Sound Edit Workshop

Today we were set a task to put sound onto a clip with the audio taken off and were aloud to experiment using sound effects. I was paired with Ashley John and after 3 hours this was our finished product. Enjoy!

Media Strategies: Essay

Today I started writing the essay for media strategies. The programme I have chosen to write about is going to be Doctor Who due to the series running over decades and how the audience is affected by this. I have planned out how I am going to structure the essay and plan to spread it out over the weekend (500 words today, 500 words Saturday and 500 words Sunday) this way I am able to manage this essay and the story telling unit and sound unit work evenly.

Story Telling Unit: First draft of trailer

This is the first draft of my trailer, I hope you enjoy it!

Sound Unit: Ideas

For the sound unit I have thought of some ideas and how they could work, my first idea was to have an "unfortunate" journey which is a story of a student who wakes up late for uni, and things go down hill from there,e.g. he runs out of hot water in his shower, he almost gets hit by a car, steps in dog poo etc. and when he arrives at uni he finds it's closed and the journey was a waste, this is my initial idea but I feel that there needs to be a twist e.g. he finds a love interest or things start to pick up. I feel that I need to pick apart this idea and find it's key points to get the most out of the story.  

Story telling unit: The meeting trailer production

Today I started the editing process by putting my clips in order and following the storyboard. Some of the problems that I'm facing are that at some points the audio is a bit low at times and that at one point where George enters the scene the room looks more orange than the rest of the footage but I will overcome this through the next couple of days.

Story telling Unit: Production

On Wednesday I started to shoot my trailer for the meeting. After creating a storyboard and script for the trailer I found production alot easier and if I forgot where something would go the storyboard and script would help me through it. My locations were an external scene outside a block of flats and two internal scenes, one inside a hallway and another inside an office which I made by changing around my room in halls. I will begin the editing process this week.

Story telling Unit: The Meeting - Trailer Development

Yesterday I completed both my storyboard and script for my two minute trailer. The trailer is based after the short film where a amateur reporter and cameraman try to uncover the urban myth of George Figgs after there have been rumours going about that this man has been covering up stories and secrets about celebrities, however there is no evidence of this man ever existing. These two amateurs break into a flat which they believe is owned by Figgs in order to find evidence of his existence. The trailer appears as a mock-umentary in contrast  to the actual short film but takes a serious turn when George appears. Below is a storyboard of the trailer.

 

Story Telling unit: The Meeting Development - storyline redraft

After thinking about my script and how I can improve it, so I came up with the idea to give the main character George a motive and to steer him away from being greedy and money grabbing personality that he has at the moment. He now does his job to save up enough money for him and his wife Anna to move to Italy and start a new life. George has it all planned out that after he finishes his next few cases and gathers 15 million pounds to pay for a house and other living arrangements him and Anna will leave the country together. At the moment he has 14 million so only needs to gather another million until he begins his life in paradise.
The film starts with George on the phone to Anna, she is in Manchester at the moment visiting her mother who is quite ill, they talk about how much they look forward to living away in Italy and how much George has to go to reach the 15 mill and that it will take a year or so. As George is on the phone we see him looking at an Italy poster which he has on his office wall and in the corner of this poster we see a small picture of Anna. The conversation ends but just as George puts the phone down it rings again and it turns out to be Patrick Heartly a famous journalist who wants info on some of the stories George has covered. George refuses to give out the information but Patrick manages to get it out of him by offering another million. Although George contemplates taking the money he still refuses and turns down as he thinks of the long term effects it would have on his future with Anna and not to mention the fact that he would lose all the faith he gained from his clients. Patrick becomes aggressive and tells George to watch his back. George becomes distraught by this but shakes it off and carries on with a current job.
The next day George is woken up by loud knocking noises at his front door followed by cursing and then a window smash. George knows that these are people sent by Patrick so grabs a few things from his office (the Italy poster, pictures of his wife, case files and a credit card) and makes a run for it out the back door of his house.
We now see George running down the street clutching the possessions from his house. He rings up his younger brother Craig and begs for him to hide him in his house, Craig agrees and picks George up in his car.
George and Craig arrive at Craig's house where George tells Craig what happened. Not long after a car pulls up in front of Craig's house and two burly looking men step out demanding to see George. George not wanting Craig to get hurt goes outside to confront the men leaving his possessions with his younger brother, he is punched and shoved into the back-seat of the car. The two men are about to get into the car, but suddenly an angry man waddles over to the men complaining that they're parked in his disabled spot. The two burly men start an argument with the angry neighbour, totally forgetting about George. Craig takes advantage of this by sneaking up to the men's car and freeing him out of the back-seat. They both jump into Craig's car and drive off leaving the two men cursing and still arguing with the angry neighbour.
George asks why Craig helped him and what they were going to do. To which Craig replies that they will head up to Manchester to meet Anna and all will be sorted out from there.        

Story Telling Unit: The meeting - meet the Characters

This is the look I wanted for George. A young smart yet scruffy looking character who knows what he's doing most of the time. I didn't want him to look too old or middle aged and also wanted him to look cool and relaxed.

I have some ideas of what I want my characters to look like.

 This is the look I wanted for Craig (George's brother). I wanted Craig to look a little bit more scruffier and slightly younger than his older brother. I also wanted him to look slightly scruffy due to the conditions in which he is living in.





This is the look I wanted for Anna (George's wife). Although she isn't featured in the film that much I still had a very clear image of what she looked like. I wanted her to have a caring look about her to show that she has feeling for George.

This is the look that I wanted for Patrick Heartly the journalist. I wanted the kind of person who would do anything to get a story with a sleazy sort of expression. I also imagined Patrick to be in the 40-50 year old age bracket and in some ways to look more professional.  

REVIEW: Project X

A couple of days ago me and some of the other people on the course went to see a film called "Project X". The  film is shot entirely through handheld view, either from camera phones or a handheld camera. The film is about four teenagers called Thomas, Costa, JB and Dax who decide to hold a house party for Thomas's birthday. These four people are quite low on the social scale at high school and are shown being bullied in some scenes. Regardless Costa invites everyone in high school to the party which is being held at Thomas's house while his parents are away for the weekend. Thomas's parents allow him to have a party at the house but as normal parents would, they want the house to be left the same as when they left it.
So as the night draws in the four boys are at Thomas's waiting for the guests to arrive, but the party's an hour in and there isn't a sign of anyone. Just as the guys are about to call it quits hundreds of their classmates arrive at the door and the party gets started. All goes well for Thomas and the gang as the party is a massive success everyone is having a good time and getting drunk but Thomas can't help but notice that the number of guests are getting larger. The party then spreads from the back garden, into the house, then into the front garden which causes George's neighbours grief and they phone the police. The party gets way out of hand as the guests start to get violent, the number of guests has risen to over a thousand and Thomas is powerless as he loses control over his own party.

I had not seen any trailers for this film before seeing it so had no idea what this film was about, what genre it was or how it was shot. I have been very critical and weary of films shot in this sort of style after watching Cloverfield (In my opinion the worst film ever to hit cinemas) but after watching this I have found myself more willing to watch something similar to this. The film was clearly aimed at teenagers and students as they would be able to relate to the storyline in the way that every teenager has been to a house party (whether or not it has gone out of control). I also loved the concept of the film and how the main character has evolved from a social reject to possibly the best host to a party ever.

Overall I found the film quite enjoyable because of the concept of the storyline and the way it was shot has changed my opinions on films using a handheld point of view. If I were to rate this film on a scale of one to ten I would give it a 7.5.

Till next time

James       

Story Telling Unit: Scriptwriting feedback

Today we all had feedback to our drafts of our scripts. I think mine went pretty well but my script needs a lot more work, I need to improve the dialogue and make it match the characters, make the characters more believable and make it more into a story. As I said the script still needs a lot of work but this is only my first draft so it is still in the processing stage.

Story telling Unit: The Meeting development

Yesterday we had to discuss our ideas in pairs, and pitch each other's idea to the rest of the group. By doing this it gave me a few ideas of my own, and showed me how I could make my script have a more story element to it and have started to write my script and have started to plan my two minute trailer.

Story telling unit: Pre-writing Practice

A couple of days ago we were asked to create a story, where the starting point was from an article in a newspaper. After brainstorming for a couple of hours, Dave and myself came up with this:

Title: Accused

Genre: Thriller/Drama

The Idea:

In a Courtroom, a secret police informant sits in the dock charged with the murder of his ex-wife. As the court case goes on and evidence is given against him, it cuts to descriptive scenes of events that took place leading up to the case.

There are multiple twists to the storyline but the major turning point is when the brother of a drug lord is arrested and imprisoned due to evidence supplied by the informant, he sets out to avenge his brother by setting up the informant in a murder case with the ex-wife as the victim.

The film is voiced over by the lead character as a first-person narrative.

To the audience, the film is set like a game of ‘Piece the Puzzle’.

Theme:

The moral to the story is dealing with subject matters of Vengeance, False accusation and Innocence. Another major theme is a ‘Reverse state of affairs’ in the sense that the major character finds himself in a position where he usually causes others to be in.

Characters:

The lead character ‘Jeff Neilson’ is a Web-Designer. However, he secretly works for the police as a police informant. He is responsible for hundreds of dangerous criminals imprisoned.

He is the caring father to a five year-old daughter but recently divorced from his wife of seven years.

Though dedicated to his job as an informant, he also knows that due to its nature his family is under much threat and risk from criminal, so his is always prepared to go to lengths in order to protect his daughter.

He has a huge fascination for photography.

He is framed for the murder of his ex-wife due to their legal divorce battles.

Rebecca Neilson is Jeff’s ex-wife who becomes a murder victim in a vengeful attempt to get him sentenced to life imprisonment. Prior to her murder, she was at constant battle with him over the custody of their daughter and other legal issues, which is then used as evidence against him in the court case.

Rebecca was stabbed in the neck in Jeff’s kitchen. The knife was stained with Jeff’s fingerprints and used as evidence in court.

Elizabeth Neilson is their 5-year-old daughter.

Simon Todd is a professional Lawyer dedicated to his craft. He is Jeff’s close friend and defendant which means he is willing to do all in his power to help him.

Don Fremlin is a drug lord who desires to avenge his brothers’ sentence because of Jeff so he sets him up in a murder case.

Setting:

Set in a courtroom with the descriptive scenes set at Jeff’s home, Don Fremlin’s office.

Sorry this posted quite late, we ran into some technical problems.

Story Telling Unit: "The Meeting" Development

   After brainstorming for a couple of weeks and tweaking my ideas, I have finally come up with the storyline for "The Meeting". My initial idea was to have a boardroom meeting between some representatives of a company or some government officials, but while thinking of main characters and background information the story transformed and started to warp around the main character. The story now shows the main character's daily routine and how a boardroom meeting changes his life completely.

The story is set in a contemporary urban setting (London/Maidstone area) and shows a male in his mid-twenties woken up by his television and alarm clock. This young man is George Figgs, he has a wife and together are expecting a child in the next few months, he works for a company called "Enigma" who specialise in covering up the stories and secrets of celebrities, MPs and anyone else who is under the public eye as court acts like injunctions and super injunctions have become meaningless and useless against the media. One day George is called into a boardroom meeting about a new client, an MP who has spent thousands of pounds of tax payers’ money on his new condo and wide selection of expensive cars. George is put in charge of covering up this story and hiding it from the press and is told that this has to be done urgently and as soon as possible. Soon enough George gets cracking on with covering up the story but later gets distracted when he finds out that he has forgotten that today is his 1 year anniversary of being married to his wife. He quickly leaves work to find a present for Anna (his wife) totally forgetting about his assignment. George manages to find a present for Anna and takes her out to a 5 star restaurant for a romantic dinner and a couple of drinks. The next morning George wakes up dazed to find out that he is late for work and that his story has been leaked to the press and has caused public outrage. He rushes over to work only to get fired by his boss and violently beaten by security guards. He returns home to tell Anna that he has been fired, she asks him what happened but he refuses to tell. The couple break into an argument where George gets violent and physically harms Anna; she runs out the house in tears and phones the police. Meanwhile George shocked by what he has just done has a mental breakdown and crawls into a corner sobbing uncontrollably, police sirens are heard outside the house and the story ends with George on the floor still crying with his head buried in his arms.

The genre that I am aiming for is Dark Drama/Thriller which I tried to show through how a man started out with a happy family and ended up with nothing. This is only the first draft so can and will be edited. Hope the story didn’t bring you down too much.

James          

Spaced: The Synopsis

In Spaced we have 5 main characters. We have Tim a twenty-something year old who has recently broken up with his girlfriend Sarah, he is a massive fan of comics and is writing his own he also works in a comic shop where he dresses up as a monster/alien to promote the store. We then have Daisy another twenty-something, unlike Tim she has a boyfriend however he is living in Hull, her ambition is to become a journalist. Tim and Daisy end up meeting in a cafe where they form a friendship, both end up looking for flats but are unsuccessful until they find one which is suitable however the advert is aimed at professional couples only. Together Tim and Daisy form a fake relationship in order to live in the flat. There they meet the landlady Marsha who is a woman in her mid-fifty's. Marsha is an alcoholic and always appears to have a cigarette in her hand. Tim and Daisy manage to fool Marsha and obtain the flat, which is where most of the series would be filmed. Other main characters include Brian a lodger who lives in the room beneath Tim and Daisy's. Brian is a very emotional artist who comes across as slightly psychotic when he describes his feelings through his art (rage, wrath, anger etc.). The fifth main character is Mike who is obsessed with the military and is usually carrying a weapon of some sort. Mike is Tim's best friend who comes across as a tough man who doesn't really care what people think of him.
This is all set in the urban setting of North London where these five distinct characters form relationships and get into all sorts of "wacky" adventures.

Spaced is a sit-com with a combination of styles. It has the classic slapstick humour but also has an atmospheric side to it which can be reflected with the lighting and a variety of camera angles. The story is something the audience can also relate to for example a viewer can relate to Tim and Daisy if they have unusual and distinct neighbours and friends. Spaced also attracts an audience by mocking pop-culture by making references to television and film, for example a scene appears where Tim and Daisy resemble Scooby-Doo characters after talking about the flat being haunted. The title "Spaced" is indeed very relevant to the storyline as the characters are seen taking drugs and getting high.

Spaced will be a half hour series full of the 5 twenty somethings wacky adventures as they live their life in their North London flat. Each character could have their own story arc which will include interesting back-stories as well as some episodes showing how their past will affect their future. This series will have it's cliff hangers, it's twists and turns but one thing that is for sure, "Spaced" will have you hooked.  

Spaced - The Pitch

"Spaced" is a 30 minute sit-com about 5 twenty-somethings living in a urban surrounding with an atmospheric yet slapstick style about it with pop-culture references.

Hello again! Well today was our first day at Maidstone TV Studios without any tours or inductions, so we could finally get to do some work. Our first project was that we had to create a three minute video of any genre, just as long as it had an opening title which included the word "life" and a list of everyone who was involved in the production (credits). We were split into a group of 4 and in this group we came up with the title "A Wasted Life?" which was about a girl who's life starts out quite innocently, until it changes and turns into a life of drugs and getting drunk. Although some viewers may think that this is a life which has been wasted, the girl seems to think otherwise which is shown at the end when she says "I wouldn't change a thing". Our group had planned what we were doing a couple of days before filming so we had a general idea of what we were going to film, because of this we were able to provide props for the production such as flowers (both alive and dead to symbolise her life), a vodka bottle and some paracetamol (for the scene where her life starts to go downhill).

Overall I found my first day at Maidstone TV Studios highly enjoyable as I enjoyed working with my group, enjoyed working with the equipment and will be looking forward to continuing with the course.

Till next time

James

  "The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time." Abraham Lincoln 

Here's one of my videos which I created with a group for our A-level coursework. I hope you enjoy it! 

First Entry/ My Introduction

Hello There! My name is James Ogden and I am a student studying Broadcast Media at UCA Maidstone. I have many hobbies, including: reading Japanese graphic novels (aka Manga), watching anime, playing video games, listening to music and of course watching TV and Films like most people my age. I have previously worked in Marks and Spencer as a customer assistant, but before that was a student at Sixth Form studying Media, Critical Thinking, Oracle and Psychology A-level.


Well that's about it for my introduction, there will be more blogs to come soon enough. I shall be looking forward to starting the course and working with everyone on it.


Goodbye and have a wonderful day.


James


"Each generation wants new symbols, new people, new names. They want to divorce themselves from their predecessors" - Jim Morrison