26th February - The Dominant Commodity - Our film title.

In today's lesson we have finally decided on the title for our film. We left it so long on purpose, as it was likely certain aspects of the film would change and we wanted our title to directly represent the plot. After a time consuming discussion we narrowed our film title idea to:
                           'The Dominant Commodity' or 'Contents Unknown'

But we eventually decided on 'The Dominant Commodity'. We wanted our title to relate to the key aspect of our film which would be the contents of the briefcase and the consequence of events due to the briefcase. This is the reasoning for the 'Dominance' and 'Commodity' is a synonym for product which is what the briefcase is, and we want to keep this as ambiguous as possible to draw the viewers in so 'Commodity' is a good word to use.

PPP First draft - NOT FINAL

This is our first draft of our film production. We still have not finished so expect more to come.

Productions music - Research

Background

Almost every film uses music, non-diegetic or diegetic to enhance the effect on the audience to feel more engaged. All are used for different effects with slower, mellow music for situations which are slow, and at contrast faster music for tense situations. The music parallels the plot and so it is essential for a professional production and is expected. Last year I made the music through my own musical instruments, and this year I will use the Apple computers and use the tool, GarageBand. This is music software where you can record your own music according to the hundreds of instrument choices provided by Apple and then I will place it over certain scenes throughout our final iMovie production.



Other films and its music

Alfred Hitchcock with Bernard Herrmann
Hermann is a notorious American composer known prominently for working with the director Hitchcock, most notably in Psycho, North by Northwest, The Man Who Knew Too Much and Vertigo. This is important as Hitchcock has been described with the nickname, ‘The Master of Suspense’. His large collection of films directed by him are almost always thriller films and he has gained one of the greatest reputations for any director, ever suggested by the Daily Telegraph as ‘Unquestionably the greatest filmmaker to emerge’. Being a filmmaker has a large impact on what music he wants to choose for his film and every other aspect of filming so Hitchcock should be recognised.Perhaps taking notes off some of his films will help our group choose a suitable style of music.

This shows the fast paced string instruments, increasing in pace to the antagonist dark character within Psycho. When making the music on GarageBand I will be referring back to Hitchcock's and Hermann’s work.

Stanley Kubrick
Full Metal Jacket is one of Kubrick’s all time classics which has received very few critical responses but only praise. Although in reality it will be impossible for us to create any music production on level to Kubrick’s or Hitchcock’s films, we can show ambition. A certain scene I have recognised would be where one of the soldiers shoots himself in the head after shooting his Sergeant. He has gone insane because of the pressure, and the music really highlights this. But the music is only that of diegetic sound so is very unique but has an extreme effect. This is possible for our group to create and could be used for the torture scene, saving us time and having an even greater effect because of its individuality

Potential genre or style
As our film is a crime/thriller production I need a genre of music which will link to this and base the music I make to a suitable genre or at least a style of music which can be used throughout large proportions of our film.

Certain styles of music I have considered include:

Acoustic

Bass

Electric

Strings

Classical

Military

Discordant

Harmonic

Foreign

Disharmony

Crescendo

Lo-fi

Up-tempo

Rhythmic

Currently I feel a foreign style music would link to our film, linking the gang members to a different society, not just literally, but also through how they are from a different occupation so an unusual type of music for the audience would make the terrorists seem even more distant. Or if not foreign music then definitely eerie music making the terrorists almost inhuman emphasising their acts upon the protagonist including the torture. An example would be the opening scene of The Shining:

 It brings chills to the spine, a great piece of music, may be a bit too eerie for our production but nonetheless this opening is incredible.
 

The original by Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique - Dream Of A Witches Sabbath. Throughout is spectacular and due to its age it bypasses copyright laws so we could strip certain parts off and use it for our production? I will have to decide with the rest of the group but this has serious potential.

5th February - Blog update

SoundCloud plan.

In our last lesson we decided to re-film several shots, due to problems with lighting and also some shots had a blurred effect, so lacked vivid detail losing the films cinematic atmosphere. To further this cinematic filming style we included other actors, so our film is presented to be more professional, showing the effort we have put in. We also found new props and guns to help them fit in when we used them for the hostage scene.  They do not produce any dialogue, so they do not take any credit and keeps the audience focused on the main actors, yet their presence is telling to show that these terrorists mean real business and have a large gang base. We also used another person to help film a certain shot so all three of us who created the production could be featured in a shot together, including me, Ed and Oli. I also insisted on having this shot for a potential poster photo so the audience understand who will be featured within the film and this also shows planning ahead so our group is not kept behind.