Pitch for proposal movie (trailer) "Who Owns"

Based in 70's New York, Antoni is a 20 year old, full time waiter working in a pizzeria. A street life with his gang is all he has. Until one night he over hears a plan when working, from a Mafia don named Sully, to take over the restaurant. And to Kill Albo, the Manager. Antonti saves Albo. Albo leaves the country leaving Antoni with his house and restaurant. His gang takes over the restaurant until the Mafia find out whats happened. Antoni and the gang are not willing to compromise What will happen next?

DW

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels Teaser Trailer

">

Dead Man Running Teaser Trailer

">

• In 47 seconds of trailer i counted 42 visible shots. There is also a seconds worth of film that also includes a second long montage that includes about 20 shots. This requires very sophisticated editing but looks very good. Most of the explicit shots are either one or two seconds long with pure implication attached- something very important for teaser trailers
• The point of a teaser trailer is obviously to whet an audience's appetite. The inclusions of well known actors and features of a Crime thriller that the chosen audience will want to see are all put in. For example, the problem is lightly explored, lots of money is shown and black screens in between the visual action that explicitly tell you what you are watching. An example of this is 'The Player' followed by a little montage of Danny Dyer and so on. There are six of these black screens including the Title at the end. They simply serve to fill out the story and make sure the audience knows what is going on.
• Another feature that works well is the voiceover that goes over the fast paced music and the visual action. It is almost all Danny Dyer's voice that fills out the story without giving too much away, similar to the way the black screens do. The best quote is "How we gonna raise hundred grand in twenty four hours?!"

BH

Dead Man Running Film

The film 'Dead Man Running' is an example of contemporary Brit Crime Thriller genius in terms of storyline. It is written and directed by Alex De Rakoff, and this is perhaps why the storyline is so well done. The actual cinematography used throughout the film is not special, and no shots really jumped out of the screen at me like The Layer Cake did. However, the narrative is done extremely well over the hour and a half of the film.

• There are no settings in the film, bar the last two minutes of it, that say that it is set in London, however, the estates shown and accents used (cockney rhyming slang mainly) and the diverse nature of people shown imply that it is based in the Capital until this iconic shot:
• The reason i praise the narrative so highly is because whilst the main narrative featuring Danny Dyer and Tamer Hussain (staple Brit Crime Thriller actors) are carrying out one storyline, there is a parallel one featuring the protagonists mother being held hostage by the local hard man. You would expect that the main storyline would be light-hearted and this other parallel would be dark. On the contrast, the main storyline is at points dark and sinister, as well as carrying a form of light-heartedness throughout. The storyline that runs parallel is almost laughable, as this older woman, in a wheelchair, is having two shotguns pointed at her for hours on end and she laughs about it, reads and listens to the radio. She offers him tea and talks to him, to the point where you revisit this one and forget he has guns, and she is hostage to be killed if money does not reach the main bad guy in 24 hours.
• The only cinematography that I really liked was when Hussain has to kill a random man in some woods for money.  He drags him into the woods, away from the van and the driver, and you see a medium close up of him shooting the guy, which then cuts quickly back to the driver's perspective, so a long shot. This happens three times and the juxtaposition allows the audience both the protagonists view, and that of the driver. Later on in the narrative, you find out that hussain has used a fake gun previously given to him and he doesn't actually shoot the man, and this is why you see the long shot, because the driver tells his boss that the target is dead, and Hussain is given the money.
• The soundtrack is very british, and modern, to the point that I recognized all of the main songs played, showing that my generation can really relate to that, as well as other aspects of the film.

BH

Genre

The genre we are most interested in recreating is the niche market of British Crime thrillers. To provide the best example (and arguably the pioneer of the genre) is Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. It wasn't the first of its kind, granted but it is the first that comes to mind when thinking about the genre as a whole. Others that spring to mind are: The Layer Cake- my personal favorite, Snatch and Dead Man Running to quote a few.
Another reason for doing this genre is that many of the best British crime thriller films are done on a low budget, and this is obviously important for our piece, as budget is one of, if not the main issue when planning and making the piece.

BH

The Hero with a Thousand Faces - Joseph Campell

The non-fiction, comparitive mythology work written by Joseph Campell is broken down in "The Hero with a Thousand Faces". A book published in 1949 describing, through a theory, that myths with the archetypal hero usually share similair structure and have over thousands of years. writers, directors and artists have taken on board the theorey conciously and carefully in modern times.

Here is a Quote that is well known from the introduction of this book.
"A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man"

We can break down this theory into steps, which lay out and create the journey for the Hero.

1. The Hero is living a dull, basic or exciting lifestyle, though in the ordinary world. The world could always be improved, though they are usualy (not always) unaware of it ever changing, by accepting through society, family or past. "Ironman" gives us the example of an exciting lifestyle, lived by a successful buisinessman. "Avatar" gives us the example for the dull lifestyle, thinking it shall never change due to the Hero's part as a soldier who is disabled in a wheelchair.

2. The Hero is called to duty usualy because of need, help or revenge into a strange world of different activity. we make out of the "adventure call". Though the Hero may be given chance to accept, we learn things throughout about the Hero, though at this point we see whether they are "worthy". Courage, pride, hate, love and loyality is also what we may find out.

3. Trials and tasks will challenge the Hero if he chooses to enter the alternate world. The Hero may decide to, or not to, go alone. This choice may interfere with the goal. The Hero may leave his home and family behind. Also, typically telling them "I shall be fine". The tasks usualy include fighting through battles against foes.

4. The Hero will face a final challenge. This usualy comes with aid or help gained throughout the joutney of tasks. This challenge could be fighting in battle, a duel, rescuing something, destroying something, defeating the enemy or finding freedom. The challanger may come across the Hero before the "final showdown", and even defeat the Hero before hand. This appears the most anticipated or intense.

5. The Hero may gain or release the goal needed for the long journey. This will open up self-success or extreme self-knowledge. This could change the Hero into a "new-being".

6. The Hero now has the chance to return the goal or gift back to the ordinairy world. If the Hero chooses to do so it may create peace or freedom for the ordinairy world. The Hero may discover love along the journey and find it on the journey home. When back to the ordinary world there may be a problem with the love coming back with the Hero. The Hero or even the love may have to devote or give up something for the love to last. Many thanks from the ordinary world are given to the Hero. The Hero lives a better life.

Not all myths or recent movies contain these stages. Some may have one, some have all.





DW

MYTH

There are myths in life, as well as being in Media. A myth is something engrained in our understanding of life which has been shaped by our background. A media myth is similar, but it focuses on metanarrative, and the myths in them. Metanarrative is the super story if you will, it is the story that everyone in an audience is assumed to know what exists outside of the narrative. For example, Batman Begins (2005) was created with a massive myth of Batman that the director assumed people watching already were aware of this. He then took this and expanded on it and used, but also altered, the myth surrounding the character.

BH

Reseach: The Layer Cake

">
A film made in 2004, directed by Matthew Vaughn. It quickly rose to critical acclaim for brilliant storyline and casting. These were the ideas i collected from watching the whole film. A few of these are in this clip above:

• At the start, a black front door shuts, with the name of the film in white edited on as though it is stuck on the door.
• There was a bird's eye view of three toilet cubicles, the two flanking occupied by girls using them, and the middle filled by two girls snorting cocaine
• In the club scene, Sienna Miller is shown dancing in a small crowd of people, and she is shown very claerly to be the attention of the camera, and of Craig (at time 0.30) he is shown coolly watching her while being talked at by the girl's boyfriend. WHen she comes over to talk to her boyfriend, the camera moves with her hand to Craig's with her number and she mouths 'Ring Me!' (at time 1.12) I would really like to create something similar in my piece
• In the slightly horrific assault scene in a cafe, one of the main characters is shown effectively beating up the camera, with the effect of being the beaten and getting beaten up up. It is very easy to do but the effect is very good, shown in the above clip (at time 1.40)
• A very small thing but it jumped out the screen at me, the camera is under a glass table, which holds glasses, drugs and a gun, and you look up at the two people talking like this:
• There is a black screen, made by the camera being in the back of a van, the doors are opened, and it illuminates the van-you see the man with a dead body, and a policeman looking in. The camera is at the back of the van giving an onlooking, seperate effect
• A slow motion silhoutte of a women walking down a corridor create powerful implications, as does the over the shoulder shot of the woman knocking on a hotel room door, the man opening it, the women steping inside and kissing him and the door slowly shutting
• At one point, there is an extreme close up on Daniel Craig's eyes, which has zoomed in in one setting, and when it zooms out, he is in another setting. Quite difficult to edit, but looks really clever. Something similar happens where you are just out of an over the shoulder shot, but you see Craig's reflection in a mirror cabinet, he looks haggard and is topless then the cabinet opens, and when it shuts he is looking normal in a suit as shown in the above clip (at time 2.52)
• The main killing scene is done very well, and more importantly cheaply. The killed is walking around the garden, the camera zoomed out and you watch the killer walk up to him with a gun pointed at his head. The camera then cuts to looking down the barrel of the gun, from an over the shoulder point of view, which then cuts to original spot, the gun is fired and the guy flies to one side
• When the thee main characters look into a freezer, the camera is placed in the freezer looking up at the three's reactions, an original idea done very well
• Lastly, the drug deal at the end is done how I want to do ours, there is a car with four men suited and booted, and the camera almost is aiming at them, and the other car is almost in front of the camera but at an angle, so that you feel on neither side, but included somehow 

BH

Research into the Genre

For the project, it would be useful to research similar films to the one I want to create. The genre, or more sub genre is crime-thriller, a popular contempory choice for directors in the modern era. I have been watching the modern classics to get ideas on mise en scene, editing and shot techniques, not to plagiarise but recreate with a personal twist.

BH

Critical Perspectives writing about production

Critical reflection is the ability to step away from your own work and critically analyse it. This is not only an evaluation of the work, it is the instinct to theorise our own things, getting to a level where opinion does not affect the evaluation, it is from a perspective outside your own, opinionated one.

The 10 Commandments for Reflective Writing by the Moses of Media:
1. Focus on creative decisions informed by institutional knowledge
2. Focus on creative decisions informed by theoretical understanding
3. Evaluate the process
4. Relate your media to 'real media' at the micro level
5. Try to deconstruct yourself
6. Choose clearly relevent micro examples to relate to macro reflective
7. Avoid binary opposites
8. Try to write about your broadcaster media culture
9. Adopt a metadiscourse
10. Quote, paraphrase, reference

Key Concepts
Synergy: The way that two media texts sync together, for example a poster with a film. It is concepts being continued across the texts
Downloaders: Pretty self explanatory, it is the new term given to the way of accessing media that does not require hard copies of it.
Theorised: Explores theories of media showing understanding of other forms of media

BH & DW