Pt. 2 final edit

 https://youtu.be/uTwRmUzG7Zw

Representation Essay

 Downton Abbey is a show that tackles the representation of women and hierarchy during the post-Edwardian era. One of the key representations in this film would be women of less social importance, and women overall. This show is portraying women in this era as powerless, and their only purpose is to satisfy the needs of the men in the house. We can see this through the way the first shots are solely based on tracking and showing the lifestyle of the girls that work as servants to the Crawley family. The diegetic sound of one of the servants saying “for once I’d like sleep till I woke up natural”, instantly tells the audience this way of living has been going on for their whole lives, this shows that the servants are indebted to the rich, connecting to the overall arching idea that the lower down the social hierarchy you are, the more indebted you are to those above you. That quote lets us also know that these women have not had a single day off in their lives, which connects to the representation of the lower working class. A series of mid shots are used to show the workers having their instructions shout out by the head of the group of servants, her apparent age and manner suggest that she may be someone who has been the most loyal to the Crawleys, always done her best to serve these people, showing that people of the lower hierarchy are only seen as valuable based on how well they serve the rest of the household, specifically the men, basically only seen as valuable based on how useful they are. The music is very classic to the era, mellow and not heavy, considering how this music is so calm, during all the time the servants are being shown, it tells us that this is normal, it is normal for them to be treated this way and to be seen as inanimate objects who just do everything regular people would have done themselves, but for a rich family. The editing helps the image of the lifestyle back in that era, to be seen as casual through the use of smooth cuts and transitions, this lets us know that this treatment is nothing out of the ordinary, it all works together to show that in the post-Edwardian era, women were seen as tools that would help elevate the men in society, suggesting that would be a woman's only purpose in life, also suggesting that they are the minority. This message that is being portrayed about women, and more specifically women of lower economic social status, is very conforming to what we know of this era. Women were only openly allowed to be part of a proper workforce outside of their masters' homes, during the ’60s and this show was based on the ’20s. This would lead us to assume before then, what is shown in the film and how women are represented is accurate to what we believe that time to be like. 

Men are represented as the only ones in the house who could be of authority, specifically rich men. We take this as obvious because there are simply no male servants in the household as they were stereotypically seen as more valuable than that of the woman. This makes the audience automatically assume after maybe re-evaluating their life, that everything has changed and because of time, now women and men are being treated exactly the same as if their gender does not affect their place on the hierarchy. However, upon closer investigation, people would come to realise we are not as far ahead as we think, as in many traditional homes a woman is still seen as only a housekeeper, and in many countries, men and women do in fact not get paid the same so it really challenges the audience's emotions and psyche. This challenges not what we know of the post-Edwardian era, but in fact the era we currently live in. Even now both societal groups are seen through the eyes of stereotypes, the only difference is that in the 1920s, it was more widely spread sexism and openly expressed too, whereas now it is more discrete and subtle, which cause many to believe it does not exist even though the effects are being held throughout all generations. Even in the minor aspects of life, sexism exists for example in everyday advertisements for items as simple as body wash, the women's ones are called “vanilla” “cherry blossom” whereas the male's body wash is bombarded with the feeding into of male stereotype propaganda with titles such as “Mountain birchwood” “Man Cave” and “Old Spice high endurance”. This shows that still the media even is portraying women to be subdued and men to be the outgoing, hard-working people of society, and this show helps the audience to realise these things and keep an open eye for them. Another way we are shown the representation of men is through the mise en scene of how in the house the women servants are treated in terms of living conditions and lifestyle in comparison to the rest of the house, the women are sleeping in a shared room that looks old and as if neglected for many years, whereas when the rest of the house is shown it seems to be remodelled into being more modern and well kept, so this would suggest the Crawley family just set aside rooms for the servants and have neglected it since as a write off of kindness and basic human decency when in reality that is not at all accurate. The rooms seem dull and monotone which almost portrays the way their life is, the same duties every day, working for the same people and living the same way for their entire existence, the main house, outside of the servants' rooms seems more lively which would also connect to the fact that they are treated overall more like humans than the servants. Even within the group of servants, the men of social-economic status are given slightly less degrading duty as butlers, showing that even down to the lowest portion of the hierarchy, there is still a difference in the way men and women are being treated. 

Oppression is a key representation in this show, the servants are being oppressed by the rich, they are being treated differently due to circumstances they are not given the opportunity to change. The men in the house are the oppressors mainly, they take authority in the house as they are stereotypically seen to be indebted to having more power and to be the backbone of a house as women are seen to be careless and not to be trusted with anything of major importance which is why all that they are trusted with is perhaps a mop and some wood. The non-diegetic audio of the warden woman saying “go down to the kitchens before anyone sees you”, shows us that this group of women are looked down on so much to the point where they should not even be seen by those of higher social importance. The men of the house wish to have all their duties fulfilled, all jobs are done without even having to glance at those that it was able to be done because of. This is because they are seen as the lowest of the lows so the men do not want to see them in a place they also spend time in because to them it would be degrading to be connected to them in any way. We also know this through a midshot of all the servants and butlers eating, at a separate table to the rich men and women, suggesting that they are not worthy to sit with people of such class. The lighting shown in rooms and situations where it is just the servants and/or butlers is always dull and lifeless, this would show that their lives alone are dreary and muted much like their basic human rights and emotions in this household.  The girl in the pink dress, Daisy is new to her addition of jobs, she is not resenting any of the work she had to do and instead is proudly announcing it as done to the head of the kitchen within the servants, this would suggest that since this is the norm, the girl has accepted this will pretty much be her life for the rest of the time she is here, connecting to the representation of social pressure that is being put on women and specifically women of lesser social status.

Preliminary Task 2: CCR Q.2

 

Preliminary task 2 rough edit feedback

 Teacher Bianca:

• music 
• quality of focus
• dialogue louder 
• establishing shots to start with fade in-between
• continuity
• cut up the shot of Kevin begin

Other/s:

• Can't hear Oscar in speaking scene
• The sound is too much and needs work 
• there are parts of the sound which are not meant to be there
• Nice sound effects
• needs to be longer to reach 1.30 minutes

What will be done different for final edit:

In the final edit there will be a proper music track added for suspense rather than the sound effect soundtrack alone. However I will keep some of the impending doom parts where they are heavy to emphasize the dramatic parts because having there be dramatic sounds throughout the entire film seems a bit excessive and takes away from the suspense. Another change that will be made is that the quality of the focus will be rendered again to be higher so that the film is actually watchable. The music is said to be louder than the dialogue sound at certain parts so what will b changed is the volume of those particular parts so that the words are not drowned out by sudden dropping sounds. There is one establishing shot near the beginning of the film however to make the film have more context I will be adding establishing shots right at the beginning of the film, establishing shots of the gazebo, establishing shots of the bridge as such. The continuity is also an issue as the videos do not align in such a way that isn't very cut and paste. In order to fix this issue I will be adding in an effect that replicates very fast blinking, like a flicker cutting in and out of the shot so that it seems more tense because that shot is actually supposed to be one of the more suspenseful scenes. Finally the video is only 1.26 minutes and so to make sure that it reaches the required time duration of the film, I will be adding in a few more establishing shots. 

Target Audience

Opening Sequence Pt.2

How is the sequence engaging and how does it conform to traditional Thriller codes and conventions?

(think about the 4 technical areas as well as narrative conventions)

1. Inception

Sub Genre: Action Thriller

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LYz4tUrxzs

At the beginning of the opening sequence, the film makers decided to add in their film company's classic, universally recognisable  title sequence with their logo. The effect this has in the audience is excitement, when you see the logo of a film company that is known for making good movies, the audience is on the edge of their seat to watch the movie because they expect greatness. The first proper shot in the opening sequence is based in the water with waves crashing, this leads to confusion of the audience and curiosity, this curiosity drives interest and attention to the movie. Then it shows a man just laying there washed up on shore, this heightens engagement as they are showing a situation and leaves the audience to wonder how this man ended up here, so now they will want to pay attention to the rest of the movie. Thriller movies usually have a lot of symbolism and in this film there is a spinner top that is used as a significant symbol in the film that helps differentiate which is a dream and which is reality. When seeing a reoccurrence of this item throughout even just the opening scene, the audience understands that it is significant. 

2. 

Sub Genre: Horror Thriller

Death Note 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVNIq0QiEK4

The opening sequence of film begins with an establishing shot that shows the city, panning the scenery coming through with the mise en scene.  Then the screen blacks out and moves to the next shot which is of school and moves to the next, showing the fast pace life of the characters that are about to be shown. This showing a normal life yet the music gives off the feeling to the audience that something is off, hence the genre of horror thriller. showing that it is conforming to the conventions of a thriller. With thriller there are a lot of jump cuts and this film follows that convention as within the opening scene we are flashed with multiple shots that we know will only be unpacked later on in the film. The use of jump cuts actually heightens the audiences engagement as they are simply being given a lot of information with no context so obviously to understand what is going on they would have to continue watching the film so the audience would be at the edge of their seats waiting to find out what are all the connections between the shots/scenes. The music is flashy at points and this is because it is showing a series of events occurring in a certain time frame, all of which leading up to something big and this is shown and portrayed to the audience through the use of music.

3. Maze Runner

Sub Genre: Man vs. Nature Thriller

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpezsRoq1nw

The film makers have the opening scene consist of a title sequence showing the logos that may be familiar to the average movie watcher. The 21st Century logo being shown instantly gets the audience more interested because they are familiar with the  company and as they are known for their great and iconic films, so when the audience sees this logo they know/have a gut feeling that the movie will be worth while. Then the screen cuts to being pitch black and slowing a moving light is shown, then we come to the realization that the character is in an elevator type contraption, the way the screen starts with black gives the audience a feeling of "where are we" and it is also conveyed through the stress the character is experiencing. This puts the audience in the shoes of the character on screen as they also feel tense, they too have no clue where the contraption is taking the character. The mise en scene once the character gets out is green. blocked off and constricting. The light in the contraption turns red, red is a universal symbol of danger so the audience is now aware that the character is currently not in the ideal situation. This is very compliant with the conventions of thrillers as it is commonly used in these types of movies to make it clear something is wrong. There is a point of view shot, commonly used in thrillers to get more emotional engagement by getting the viewers to feel what the characters feel, the point of view shot is showing from the perspective of the main character who was in the contraption which opens to show a group of people huddling around him, this makes us understand his confusion and gives us a reason to continue watching just to see where he is and where this goes. 

Preliminary Task 2: Brainstorm

Made by Brianna Hodder
 

Preliminary Task 2: Roles

 Chloe: 

- Script

- Talent

- Filming equipment organization

-Filming equipment final check 

- Film schedule

- Director

Brianna:

- Brainstorm

- Storyboard

- Camera

- Props and costume

- Call sheet

- Audio

Carol:

- Mood board

- early technical decisions

- location

- weather check

-Lighting 

Location shot set up

Treatment Roles: 

Chloe:

• Character names and their motivations/representations in the film
• Ideology
• Narrative

Carol:

• Mood and tone
• Mise-en-scene/setting
• Location

Brianna:

• Camera shots, camera movement/lighting/angles, lighting
• Themes and motifs
• Symbolism

All:

• Sound and music
• Use of credits and logos
• Editing

Preliminary Task 2: Early tech decisions

  Early Tech Decisions

On Saturday the approximate weather forecast is said to be complient with our plans and does not look like we will have any problems dealing with

Preliminary Task 2: Treatment

 

• Mood and tone
• Mise-en-scene/setting
• Location

Mood and Tone

The mood of this film is something that is conveyed through a use of different conventions styles, sound, location, characters and so on. The theme of this film is danger and anticipation. This is conveyed through the use of the characters being not just the average friend you owe money to, these people are to be feared and this is what adds tension to this film. The entire film the audience will be made to be on the edge of their seats trying to figure out if the main characters will make it through without getting caught by these dangerous people. 

The tone is set by the feelings evoked by the characters and what they convey to be feeling. This film is set in the location of an "in the woods" type feel, with there being not as much civilization as there would be on the sides of main roads, this area is more secluded and gives off the feeling of isolation and loneliness, and something that is scarier than being in a dangerous situation, is being in that dangerous situation without a single soul to come save you if you scream. The woods/forest areas are mostly associated with fear of the unknown, fear of what may be in hiding, there are so many unexpected things that take place in the forest purely because generally no ones around 

Mise en scene

The mise en scene is very green, based in nature out in the open. The scenes are mainly set in two places which is the bridge and the gazebo, both these places are more serene, secretive and closed off. The gazebo is boxed into a corner and the bridge is slim leaving only one escape route and that doesn't work out in the protagonists favour if they are running from people with guns. The way mise en scene affects the mood and tone is vital to create an atmosphere of the desired feeling aimed to be experienced by the audience. Taking this into consideration, the setting is very secluded which would give the audience a feeling of being on the edge and always on the lookout for something bad to happen. this ties in with the aim of a thriller film.

Location

The location looks to be forest-like and consists of structures such as a white gazebo and a bridge. These places aren't very open places to be and especially at night, however this is the reason why we have decided to base the tension filled scenes there. That closed off feeling will be easily felt almost "through the screen" and the audience will feel the same tension the characters on screen because of the location and what it is generally associated with, what series of events usually take place in such an environment. The location is vital for creating an atmosphere of fear and tension, the film will be recorded mainly at night so that there is more suspension as to what may occur, this is also tying in with the fact that people are not actually scared of the dark, they are fearful that they may be more than just them there in the darkness, so this gives leeway for adding in conventions such as ambushes, jump scares perhaps with the pulling out of a gun or the bringing in of another character into the mix unbeknown of the protagonists. 

Preliminary Task 1: Film Schedule

  Film schedule 

Tuesday 

13.25: Meet in Media Studies Suite.

13.25-13.35: Gather necessary equipment required and walk to the first shooting location (senior classrooms)

13.35-13.50: set up filming equipment

13.50-14.00: run through the brief with all 

14.00- 14.45: film Mark stalking Lisa scenes

Shots including: 

(refer to shotlist)

1. (shot 1)Extra-wide shot showing the girl walking home and the boy starting to follow her  

2. (shot 2)Middle shot from behind shows him as he gets closer 

3. (shot 3)Wide shot of girl turning around 

4. (shot 4)Mid shot of Mark starting to run 

5. (shot 5)Wide shot of girl turning around 

6. (shot 6)Close up of girls reaction 

7. (shot 7)Over the shoulder shot of Mark covering Lisas mouth 

8. Shot 8 to 9  

14.45- 15.00: review footage and make sure it is up to standard 

15.00- 15.45: film bathroom scenes 

Including Shots 10-15 (refer back to shotlist)

15.45-16.00: review footage and approve of quality 

16.00- 16.30: film classroom scenes 

Including Shots 16-25 (refer back to shot list) 

16.30-16.40: Pack away all equipment

Preliminary Task 1: Script

 

Preliminary Task 2: Lighting

We plan to use dim lighting for a majority of the shots and this is because since this is based at night in the dark, there isn’t as much control on the light however the basis of all the shots will be in shadowed lighting 

Split lighting will be used to convey the message that the gangster characters have an evil side that is yet to be revealed with what they do to the protagonists. This lighting adds a sense of not knowing the full picture and instills fear in the audience of what they might be capable of which adds to the tension and suspicion. 

I feel a shot of the silhouette of the gangsters would be appropriate when introducing the characters as it adds to the mystery of their identity.

 

Preliminary Task 2: Weather Check

 

The weather will be fine to film  so we are all good with the weather for our filming days 

Preliminary Task 2: Mood board

 

This Film is based around the themes found generally in an action-crime thriller. This is conveyed through the consistent use of the conventions such as gun, blood, targets and deals. Throughout this opening sequence, we are trying to convey the feeling of  suspense and fear along with anticipation. The audience will be given a piece of information which is that the character is owing people money, they will be shown that the money is fake and now as the viewers they will see if the characters plan unfolds as per expected, they will see if the characters succeed in giving the fake money to the people they owe without being caught. This is where most of the anticipation and tension stems from, as it is what the plot is based around. The photos convey the mood the film will show, which is danger through the use of guns, curiosity, with the use of a duffle bag, and vulnerability with the target markings.

Preliminary task 2 : Location

This is the first location that we will be filming at and it is under the gazebo where Omen and Bridget will be looking through the duffle bag at all the fake money. This first location is chosen because its private and since its associated with making deals of a kind, being private about it is safest as this business is illegal. At night time it will be difficult to see what goes down here due to the polls, darkness and the fact that the gazebo is placed in the corner of the land space. This all adds to the suspicion and tension of the scene. 

 

Everyone ends up on the bridge which is where they first start and the bridge is a symbol of their relation, bridges represent connection and trust which is what the gangsters had for Mason and Camila yet they had to wait to find out that was false. This bridge was chosen as a location we would use because it seems as though its a fair playing field that can be agreed on, however mason and camila later find that to be breeched.