Mise En Scene Mood Board

                                                     

     

Evaluation

Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My media product challenges mainstream forms and conventions of real media products, because it has a concept that is pretty much new to the film world-crackhead clowns. It develops the idea of a drug movie, to a whole new dynamic. Normally drug movies involve either a bunch of "pot smoking hippies", or big time drug lords. I think it challenges forms and conventions of real products in many different ways; I use a great deal of colour, contrast and blur editing, more than i have seen on any other piece of film, i also use metaphors and 'flashes' throughout, which is something that i have not often seen in films. It challenges the stereotypical view of clowns, being funny, scary or evil and puts them in a new category, it shines them in a different light, one that hopefully makes people feel sorry for them, instead of judge them, or fear them. The use of clowns as the main characters of a drug film is something that i have never seen before, so i thought it would be an interesting and daring convention to develop. My film challenges the usual mise en scene of drug movies, which are usually either set in poor dirty areas, or in really expensive places, drug labs and towns, my piece takes dirty to the max, combined with very dark lighting, making it hard to see whats going on some of the time, i did this so the viewer has to look more carefully, and is drawn in. I think my use of extreme camera shakes also challenges the usual techniques seen in other films, making it very distorted and disorientating. I feel my use of music also challenges the normal music choice for drug movies-- Drug movies usual have a mix of phsycadelic rock, sad and suspenseful classical music, whereas mine has a disturbing clowny score with white noise and crackles mixed with it, which again is something i have not seen in any other drug movie. Finally the storyline-- from what ive seen, drug movies have 2 types of storyline one is the users, and their story, or the dealers and their

story, usually both come from broken homes, and go into the drug world trying to 'make it' and to kill their pains, the other type of drug movie is for comedic puroses and shows the silly shenanigans 'potheads' get into. My opening sequence does follow these storylines loosely, however its purpose is so that it feels as if the story isnt really moving on.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product represents 3 different social groups, and combines them all in one hybrid character type. 

It represents crack heads as strange, deranged, twisted, insane individuals that run around doing weird things, as if they have regressed back to their childhood. Willing to do anything for crack, the sad reality is, my representation is mostly true. I represent crack heads and  homeless people as people that live in really dirty abandoned places, out of society, only coming out at night to roam the streets and smoke their troubles away. I then combined these, and put them together with clowns, to make clowns seem as reclusive, insane individuals-- also i go along with the sad clown, and the manic clown representations. These hybrid characters are represented as very confused, insecure, scared people that have lost touch with reality and are slowly wasting away both physically and mentally. 

What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why? 

I think that Film 4 might distribute my media product. i think this because film 4 are renound for their daring stories, hard hitting realism and experimental techniques. Their films are often filmed on location, and have low budgets, as does my opening sequence. Film 4 often make films with daring subject matter, the taboos of society like drug abuse, for example trainspotting-- is all about heroin addicts in Edinburgh, and it deals with their irresponsibility and follows their journies as they try to come off heroin. Mine is similar, however my characters are clowns, i chose this partly to take away some of the seriousness of the subject, so that it is slightly comedic, but it think this could work well as a film 4 production as it still deals with the gritty realism, and the dark underbelly of society.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

 My target audience for my media product is very much a niche audience, only certain types of people would go see it, by certain types i mean people that like alternative weird films, and possibly even real crackheads themselves. It would be for ages 18 to 30, however young teenagers will probably watch it, so it was made with them in mind.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I think my opening sequence attracts its audience because of its dark nature, people hear crackhead clowns, and they're not sure about what to expect, because its a topic that hasn't really been done before. I think the audience will also be attracted by the dark mise en scene, and the disorientating camera movements, and the possibly disturbing themes within.

What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

The two main technologies that were new to me were hardware, and software. 

Hardware- i used a gopro hero 3 for the first time, it was quite a challenge to film with it, because it is very small, doesn't have screen to see what your filming, and has limited battery life. I had an led screen that plugged into the gopro, but it drained the battery even quicker. so i had to film fast, and not make many mistakes, it was also very hard to hold comfortably. 

Software- i used the new adobe after effects to edit my video, it looked quite complicated when i started, but after viewing editing tutorials on YouTube, i realized that it was relatively simple to use and i was on my way. There is still so much more to learn about the program, but i only needed basic editing and effect,  so it was fine.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Personally, i feel that our preliminary task was very basic, we didn't use any effects, sounds, or interesting camera angles. Because we worked as a group, i feel it was not as good as it could have been, because everyone always has varied ideas, and ends up arguing, maybe that's just me, i like working on my own, because then i am not restricted in what i can do. I think i have learned alot about making films since the preliminary task, as it was a wake up call that i needed to' step up my game'. I learned that no film can be successful without some degree of planning, we just made something up on the spot in limited time, having said this, when i was making my opening sequence, i  pretty much made it all up on the spot, but i still had rough ideas, and knew what sort of feel i was going for, i knew what kinds of camera shakes and angles i wanted to use, and how i wanted the lighting to be.

Symbolism and Meaning

My story is a highly emotional tale of 2 clowns, who only have each other in this world... and crack. The clown industry is failing, children don't need clowns to entertain them anymore these days, because they have Xbox  and TV  These two clowns Figi olda and oom Koos have lost their jobs and their families, they live in wastelands and are completely addicted to crack, cocaine and heroin. Their lives have been ruined and they suffer from physchotic delusions. The breastfeeding scene is the main theme and centerpiece scene of the film.  When the 2 clowns smoke crack together, its as if they are being nourished by the crack, they enjoy it so much that they feel nourished, though ironically its ravaging them. The ultimate form of nourishment is breast milk  both the mother and baby draw comfort, safety and pleasure from this bonding process. So this is the metaphor and the reasoning behind all their drug abuse. Also some of the voice clips are from the clowns childhoods, of how their parents abused them, shouted at them and tried to force them to become lawyers and doctors. They came from pushy loveless homes, which ruined their psyches forever.

The disorientating shots and editing techniques symbolize the way the clowns feel when they smoke crack, disorientated and 'totally tripping balls'.

                                                Photos

Filming process

I filmed my opening sequence with 2 cameras, a go pro hero 3 and a Sony DSC-RX100

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 I had the go pro first, and it doesn't have a screen to see what your filming, so i had to use an adapter which drains the already short battery life. Me and my brother traveled to Deptford, we met our friend Drew, i put makeup and costumes on them both, i also dressed up for fun. We walked to a place we call the wastelands, it is an entire council/gypsy estate which has been abandoned and left to rot. We filmed in there because it was the perfect mise en scene for the crackheads to be, dirty, abandoned, dark and in the middle of London  We filmed for a limited time because of the battery. We also filmed in a children s play park, but i decided not to use that footage because it didn't go with the feel of the film. Then we went back to Drew's house to charge up and wait for darkness to fall. We then went out again, to the streets to film the night scenes. We filmed in lonely alleyways and on the Deptford anchor, which was Deptford s main attraction and the heart of Deptford.

After i went home and started editing, i noticed that it lacked an important scene, the metaphor of the story. It was the film where Drew breastfeeds my brother in masks and different costumes. So a few weeks later we went back to Deptford to film the centerpiece scene. I decided that we should shoot it in Drew's house, on his toilet, as it was a step up from the wastelands, and the scene is supposed to represent comfort, and i think a toilet is one of the ultimate comforts people have, but it is taken for granted as we see it as a normal part of our lives. I had made long saggy latex nipples, which i latexed to Drew's hairy chest. I filmed lots of the footage while violently shaking the camera to give it a trippy, disorientating feel.
In the first 2 scenes, i spray painted OOM KOOS on the floor, and FIGI OLDA on a wall, these are meant to be the actors names, the shot moves a bit too fast, so if you don't know that they are there you might miss them. However i like the speed of the shots, otherwise they would be too long.

The filming was then complete.

Editing Process

I edited my video in adobe after effects- premier pro. It was the first time that i had used this software, but after testing it for a while, i found it quite easy to use. The over all editing process happened over a space of 5 weeks. I decided not to use hip hop montages and many of my initial ideas, but i am very happy with the outcome. There were many times when i thought that it wasn't working and that it looked more like a trailer, and that the footage was not good enough, but i managed to pull it together. I used high contrast, low brightness, saturation and hugh throughout, to give it a cold, dark phsycadelic, trashy feel. I also put colour gamma changes throughout and radial spins on the violent shake scenes to make them even more disorientating. I added quick subliminal flashes of photos and videos i took, and the breastfeeding scene throughout. Finally i overlayed an old film dust and scratch effect over the whole thing, and added the titles and editing was complete.

Making the soundtrack

As we are not allowed to use copyrighted music, and the uncopyrighted music is inappropriate for my style, i decided i would make my own track. My friend Sam is a really talented musician, me and my brother went to his studio to make the soundtrack. I wanted it to have a trashy clown, dark, eerie and morbid feel to it, we made it on cube base  with electronic sounds. We made the base beat with drum, bass and synth software. We then overlayed a record crackle and played tunes on the keyboards with different effects on the notes and cut and looped them together to make the main body of the track. We also pitch bended the track and set the tempo. When i layed it over the film, it was good, but not good enough. It was lacking in depth and emotion, so i reset the pitch and the tempo, my band of me and my brother played some slow low pitched tones on our instruments. I recorded it and layed it over the first track, i pitch bended it and this made the track perfect. I also recorded my brother speaking a monologue which is telling the story, voice clips of the clowns past, and more manic laughing, which completed the soundtrack.

Behind the scenes

These are some photos i took of the mise en scene, and of my actors, unfortunately at the time, i didn't have a proper camera, and i couldn't use the GoPro because i had to save battery life for filming, so the quality isn't the best.

Tim Burton study

Tim Burton 

I really like the way that Tim Burton uses lighting in his movies, its always so dark and low level, it makes everything look so much more serious and dark. I intend to make my opening sequence, serious and dark, so i will try to use some of Tim Burtons techniques

Burton uses high level lighting to represent fantasy and joy, and he uses low level lighting to represent the reality of life, pain and suffering. He uses various angles to show a characters power, or weakness.
Colour is a huge element, which is enhanced, and created by light, lights and colours add to the films symbolism  for example, gloomy shades represent a lack of sincerity, and bright vibrant colours represent cheer and optimism.He shoots subjects in oversaturated and undersaturated colour, often in order to use the colour of the scene to help add to the Gothic mystery or surreal and dreamlike states that his stories portray. He does use digital colorization to help enhance the colours, like in charlie and the chocolate factory, but Burton still likes to use the camera to capture his colours. Tim Burton also mixes his lighting up, for example in corpse bride, there are two worlds, the world of the living and the world of the dead. The world of the living is total low level darkness, very muted colours, every thing is grey and dull. This is to represent to poiniency and the struggle of life, but the land of the living is in total high level lighting, everything very colourful and vibrant, because if your dead, you dont have to worry about money or anything, because nothing worse can happen to you, and you feel no pain.

This picture shows the contrast in lighting of corpse bride.

The dutch angle or dutch tilt is a film technique that appears in many of Burton's films. He uses it much more frequently than other filmmakers. The shot involves tilting the camera when shooting a frame in order to create a skewed sense of tension. In the resultant shot, the horizon of the shot will be on an angle rather than on a horizontal plane. He uses the technique in both his live-action and stop-motion camerawork.

This is an example of the dutch tilt, i personally love this angle, and i will definitely use it in my opening sequence.

Music

Digetic and non-digetic sound

My opening sequence relies heavilly on sound to give it the impact i desire it to have on the audience. Because its fast paced editing, i will need some fast paced music, and because the content is morbid but funny, i will need morbid but funny music. We are not allowed to used copyrighted music, and theres not alot of music out there that would suit my film. However, i am in a band, we right all our own music, and its all about crackhead clowns, and homeless people. So i think this will be a good genre of music for my film, its original, and relates to the topic of the film. The genre of the music is a whole new genre on its own, which i have decided to call Deth Funk, it is a combination of many different genres in one played with wierd guitar tunings, and blast beat drumming. I will record the track profffessionaly and lay it over in the software. At the moment i am undecided if i will have a narrator giving information about the film, or if i should just let the film speak for itself...

Black Background Technique

 

Advantages to black backgrounds

There are several advantages to filming with a black background.
They are easy to set up
They eliminate distractions
They make colours and characters pop out
Also, a black background adds a very serious tone, which works well for adult themes and serious ideas. The black Background takes away any sense of location, which forces the viewer focus on whats happening. In the first few seconds of my opening sequence i will have a black background, and a hip hop montage of extreme close up shots of clowns doing crack.

How i will create my "blackground"

I will build a makeshiftt frame out of wood and scrap metal, and i will hang sheet of heavy black fabric over it. Heavy Black fabrick works the best because unlike paper, it is non reflective, and just looks better in general.

Lighting smoke infront of the blackground

Smoke is hard to film infront of a blackground because it has a natural grey colour that only really shows up when light is reflected on it. So i need to set up a lighting source with a mirror opposite to it, so the smoke gets an equal amount of light from either side. I need to put the smoke and the light quite far infront of the blackground so that light doesnt get reflected onto that by accident.

Representation

I think an important part of my story is representation. Because the subject matter of my opening sequence is dark, drug addiction, it is a living hell that people cant imagine, or don't want to. So i found that it would be much more interesting and less shocking or disturbing if i used clowns, because you aren't meant to take clowns seriously, they hurt themselves and get into uncomfortable situations for the pleasure of the audience viewing them. So if the hardcore drug addicts are clowns, people may see my video in a different light, they may take a more sympathetic view on real life drug addicts. Also because clowns are supposed to represent something funny, so if you make something funny do something very bad it creates a strange kind of paradox in the viewers mind, and they are unsure of how they feel i.e the audience is slightly disturbed and confused.

However i understand that clowns are also perceived as being scary, evil and the most morbid people on earth, so i think they will create some really interesting characters, and if the audience is scared of clowns-they will feel fear and panick as they watch, which is what the clowns themselves feel.

Here is an example  the picture of the real life drug addict is much more upsetting and hard hitting than the picture of the clown.

Lighting and Mise En Scene

My opening sequence deals with dark subject matter, the taboos of society, the things that you don't often see happen in broad daylight. So,my lighting will be very dark, and minimal. I want there to be muted colours, like greys, blacks, browns, etc with a splash of bright colour from the clowns costumes. However they will also be quite muted and dirty. This will make the clowns jump out at you, and they will be a strong contrast to their bleak surroundings. I am thinking of trying to film in black and white, and then only the clowns will be in colour, and so they will jump out at the audience even more. I want it to be bleak because i want my audience to feel bleak and morbid in themselves, it is a technique used to help the audience empathize with the characters. I want my audience to feel empty and alone as the clowns do.