Evaluation Question 3 - Part 2

Evaluation Question 3 - Part 1

Question 3 Part 1 (Unlimited budget decisions) Autumn Mitchell

If I was fortune enough to be able to have this film made real, I would have both the film made and distributed by Warner Bros. It’s no secret to anybody that Warner bros have created some of the best and well received films over its time in operation, alongside this the films never fail to disappoint and always manage to impress. Warner Bros are a well-established entertainment brand name and they have made and distributed some of the biggest known films both new and old, there include films such as:

·        Harry Potter (franchise)

·        Dark Knight

·        Suicide Squad

·        The Exorcist

·        Casablanca

·        Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

·        The Shining

·        Conjuring 2

The reason I would personally love to use warner bros for both distribution and making the film, away from the facts, is that as a child I remember putting a movie in the dvd or video player and as the titles rolled I always knew as soon as it was Warner Bros I knew I would love whatever it was. Until starting media studies there were many other companies I recognised the logo and sound from but would never remember a name whereas Warner Bros always stuck with me. As they are so well established it is no question that this company produces high quality and expensive films with huge budgets on the films, and for this reason knowing how amazing the thriller could be if this company was to help film and distribute I know it would be the best it can be and will be seen by a wide audience of loyal customers.

If I had an unlimited budget and could hire anybody in the famous and movie world to be both the target and the two main characters I would of course go large and get the best of the best. The older man who takes the young boy under his wing but eventually turns on him, essentially the “lone wolf” I would want to be played by Leonardo DiCaprio, because he is substantially older than the younger boy who would be played by someone of the age around 20. I would choose him because I have seen him before in previous movies and I know that he can play the business man turn savage as this character needs to be. In my eyes, he would be perfect for the role and would rake in many of his loyal fans to see him meaning the film would go large. The person I would like to play the younger boy who eventually gets killed by the man who teaches him the art of being a sniper would be Brenton Thwaites. He started in one of my all-time favourite films called “The Giver”, his acting skills are empowering and it is impossible to take your eyes off him and he is so well fitted to the role in terms of age and experience making him perfect for the role.

Evaluation Question 2

Our thriller primarily represents Status and age. We wanted our thriller to convert to the stereotypes when talking about the working industry. We wanted to convey that as age increases and the more time is spent in the job meaning professionalism for the older characters, we also used this concept to highlight that along with age, the status someone may have in the particular place of work affects the consequences you may face as a beginner.  We wanted to keep the stereotype that the adults will always be better than the teenagers and young adults as so perceived in today’s society.

Our professional sniper is an adult man. We wanted to almost immediately show the audience that he was professional and of a higher level than our trainee character this therefore conforming to the stereotype of age and status complimenting each other and the higher the better. Although typical of the adult to be in charge for our plot this was important to be presented this way to grasp the idea that what the professional decides is final. We used someone younger to show this as we wanted there to be a harsh brutality in consequences when a professional’s needs are not met.

We dressed our professional in dark trousers, a large green coat, boots and a black hat. We dressed him this way to give the impression that he is so good at what he does that he does not need the full camouflage gear as he can always get away with it. This contrasts our trainee who we dressed in a navy-blue jumpsuit, dark boots, and a camouflage jacket. We dressed him this way to present that he is not of a high enough level in his training to be able to use his skills to get away as those are skills he does not have fully developed once again converting to the stereotype.

The first point at which this is presented fully is when the two characters take position amongst the bushes. It is presented at first in levels, the real sniper who is training his recruit is sat on a piece of wood whereas the trainee is laying on the ground. These two levels present the difference is status between the two characters, the two men are both part of the same occupation of sniping, however, the older man is a professional which contrasts the younger man who is merely in training. The use of dialogue shows the audience this contrast in status as he begins to instruct and give orders to the boy questioning his knowledge thoroughly saying things such as “set her up” “which way are they blowing” but on the other hand the boy on the receiving end is intimidated and does not speak much to show that as he is of a lower status he does not need to speak and address the professional, he only answers simply such as “yes” and “left and right”. When filming we used the camera to make a clear shot of the two characters in one frame, throughout the beginning conversation when we convert between one character to another the two levels are implied by what appears around and behind the characaters in the shot, this is then made factually clear to the audience showing the shot of the difference in levels. When in the editing process we chose to give the trainee more screen time in this section, we did this because our target audience is young adults and we wanted them to form a connection with our trainee who is of a similar age and get them to sypathise with him during his learning process and getting the audience to make their own formed opinions of if they want him to shoot or want him to not. All of these things in this first section convey our aims for the characters difference in status.

The most important time at which the contrast in status is shown is in the during the trainee sniping a civillian. When the trainee goes to take his shot there is clear hesitation shown through the mise-en-scene, his finger begins to remble when reaching to pull the trigger and he almost shuts his eyes to suggest he cannot bare to look at what it is he is about to do, this suggesting that as he is of this low status he does not want to go through with soemthong he is not ready to do. The volume of the dialogue coming from the professional increases dramatically, he begins to show agression and anger through his tone of voice “soldier you are about to lose your target” “take the shot do it NOW”, this gives the impression that he is ill-tempered and cannot handle someone as low down as the trainee daring to ruin a mission for someone as important as himself. The camera pace inceases and the panning across of the target becomes shaken to show his hesitation, the editing process we used shot-reverse-shot on a number of occasions whilst having the dialogue of the professional go over the top of these shots. The way the dialogue goes over all the different shots implies that he is of such a high status his word needs to be said no matter what goes on in the shot while the trainee does not utter a word once again defining the adult is in charge.

The aftermath is the final portrayal of this contrast in status. The professional and trainee flea the sniping site and appear in the woods, the professional pulls out a cigar, this brings us back to defining age, the trainee looks baffled at the concept of him having a smoke showing that he really is young enough not to understand why he would want to smoke a cigar. “Start packing down a riffle” the professional once again gives him orders and does not accept any questions asked. The trainee goes on to apoligise for his hesitation whilst carrying out the orders set by the professional the shot goes to a close-up of the trainee packing away the riffle, he suddenly falls to the ground as he is shot in the head by the professional. The shot revals the professional stood behind him pointing a gun at his head. This moment is really important as it represents that the higher the status the more you can decide including who lives and who dies.

Evaluation Question 1

Similar Products - Research

Leon the Professional  

Directed by: Luc Besson

Stars: Jean Reno,  Gary Oldman,  Natalie Portman 

Writer: Luc Besson

Over-View: Mathilda, a 12-year-old girl, is reluctantly taken in by Léon, a professional assassin, after her family is murdered. Léon and Mathilda form an unusual relationship, as she becomes his protégée and learns the assassin's trade.

Released: Release date: 3 February 1995 (United Kingdom)

Video link: https://youtu.be/DW1mY7a0AVE

MAIN PLOT IS SIMILAR

Of mice and men

Originally published(book) : 1937

Author: John Steinbeck

Initial release: 2 October 1992 (USA)

Director: Gary Sinise

Screenplay: Horton Foote

Starring:  John Malkovich, Gary Sinise

Video link: https://youtu.be/5Ddap2Pyhtw

KILLING SOMEONE YOU WORK WITH, WITH A GUN, NO HESITATION

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Initial release date: 5 November 2007

Composer: Stephen Barton

Awards: VGX Award for Best Shooter, more

Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360

Developers: Infinity Ward, Aspyr Media, n-Space

Video link: https://youtu.be/RNaqBwjqxjQ

FIRST PART OF THE VIDEO IS THE SAME AS PART OF THE THRILLER

American Sniper

Release date: 16 January 2015 (United Kingdom)

Director: Clint Eastwood

Adapted from: American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History

Cast: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller.

Video Link: https://youtu.be/USAKb8nvFcQ

Autumn Mitchel Media

Editing Reflection

After shooting our thriller we went up to the edit suite to put the thriller together. We had alot of footage to choose from so we began by going the the rushes and choosing our favourite few shots of each of the small scenes and put them into a seperate folder to go through and begin putting tother. We followed our initial sequence when putting it together, it was clear which the best shots were making it simple to put together. Of course there were some issues such as because we shot outside some shots had more lighting than others as sometimes the sun was out and other times it was hidden so we had to consider using colour gradient. In the end we put the footage together and all of the colours were very similar in the shots we chose so no extras to change the colours that appeared.

We used Adobe Premiere Pro when editing our thriller. Once the sequence had finally been put together we moved on to adding the effects. No sounds had to be re-recorded so that was on thing we did not have to worry about. As our thriller involves a shot thats from point of view of the recruited sniper, we went online and chose a sniper scope template and went from there to create a scope that using CGI we added over the shot to create the effect of looking through the scope. It took a while to do and it was slightly complex but in the end it looked very effective and realistic. We then needed to add in the gunshot wound, Matt helped us with this, after chosing the way we wanted the shot wound to look on the actor Matt showed us how to get the wound to track and stick to a certin spot, upon doing this all CGI effects were finished. Next we added in the titles, this was most likely the easiest part of the editing process. We simply added the text and changed the font to something that fits the spy themed thriller and is easy to read. We wrote out all the information and it appeared across some of the shots in the thriller and they appeared for just the right amount of time for the audience. The final title appeared on a black background at the end of the thriller and it was the title, we decided to name it "The Recruitment".

The last thing we did was add in the gunshot sound effect. There were many times of gunshot sounds stored onto the computer and there must have been 100 to choose from. We dicided to use the most accurate noises to fit each of the individual guns used as props in the thriller. For the sniper we of course used the sniper riffle effect which is reasonably quiet as a sniper gun would be, and for the final noise we used a handgun sound for the handgun. Once this was completed we had finished our thriller and it was ready to be posted.

Behind the scenes