FOCUS GROUP SESSIONS

FOCUS GROUP WORK

            Working with Nabil

We decided to go along the path of action/thriller/horror movies, as we were both very into this type of genre. Our main target audience would be males, due to the fact that majority of males prefer these genres compared to romance movies.

We then proceeded to look at examples online, to gather ideas and inspiration to create our own thriller/ action.

YouTube- AS A grade movies.

Looking around on the Internet we came across various movie openings made by various other students around the world, and grasped a better understanding of what it was that we are meant to do.

Analysing the openings we also were able to achieve/brainstorm most of what we plan to do for our own movie.

Possible fighting

Stranded in a desert

First option as we live in a sand filled country

Seeking help

Running away from something/someone

On the weekend I went to the cinema to watch ‘DR. Strange’ and the opening scene was immediate action. This is something that I am interesting depicting for our own opening movie, it also hooked the viewer into the movie.

Possible narratives to our opening sequence could include gunfire, explosions, running, hiding a mystery, seat-clenching thriller.

FOCUS GROUP 2

After deep consideration Nabil and I decided to change our genre from action to drama. This being as action films are quite mainstream due to the mass creation of movies and TV Shows. So a drama would be more unique

Topic we decided upon were the following

a.     Focusing on bullying

b.     Alienation

c.      Anxiety

d.     Peer pressure

e.     Loneliness/isolation/emptiness

f.      Social realism

After choosing our theme we needed a name for our production company

g.     KN PRODUCTIONS

h.     NK PRODUCTIONS

i.       K.N PRODUCTIONS

We are both studying Photography and would like to incorporate our kills in to the title skills, such as photographs of ‘thoughts, emptiness, thought process’.  This gives us an advantage and gives us an eye on what we can capture using cinematography.

Focus Group 3:

We had a new student to join our group and we are too far into the course to change anything, so we will be trying to bring him up to pace. (Issa Shakif)

            We were delighted to have an extra set of hand on board

Issa was able to help us in many ways and go over what we had done and give his opinion.

Focus Group 4:

Today we decided we needed to research more of our topic as Issa felt there was stuff we were still missing

As we had a new student we also had to bring Issa up to pace, so;

-       We discussed who our main target audience is and created a questionnaire for us to hand out.

o   We will take the answers and fill in any potholes we have in our work.

o   (Generally know who are target audience is)

§  Males aren’t likely to be open to confirm that they’ve been bullied

Focus Group 5:

                       

Today we talked about characters shots, stereo types and post productions.

 Bullies will be: Jonathon, Yelenia, and Issa

Videographers :Khalid Nabil

Bullied: Abdullah

Focus Group 6:

We Found out that our group members were not allowed to be in the opening scene as major actors, so we had to recast and some people were not able to make it as it was a slight inconvenience, that we were shooting on a Saturday, so we casted a new member that were more than happy to join us and help.

            Actors: AJ, Abdullah, Mr Khan, Oliver and Oscar.

AJ and Abdullah kept the roles handed to them before, Mr khan was the math teacher and Olive & Oscar were AJ’s friends.

We needed to study more on the technology required to film.

·         Technologies:

o    Discussing cameras and camera actions. The difference between photo lenses and cine-lenses.

§  The difference between the two is that cine-lenses don’t have a jump in distance when focusing. Cine-lenses record video at smoother frame rate compared to still lenses.

o   Learning the different types of angles and shots. We also learnt about focus breathing and the effect it has on the shot/video.               

§  We know that lenses breathing is when the focal length changes.

·         Breathing refers to the shifting of angled views of a lens when changing the focus. Some lenses are designed to lessen the degree of this effect; these are generally higher quality cameras.

o   The cameras we decided to us is a HD Camcorder and a DSLR

§  The DSLR will be used for a nice pan shot.

Lenses: Professional lenses used in both Photography and Cinematography

 Microphones and Tripods: The microphones will be used to clearly capture the speech of the actors and the tripods will be used to steadily capture certain scenes.

CAMERA ANGLES

All these angles are crucial in our movies as we want to capture all that we can and each angle can tell a different story. For example a low shot from behind a person making a fist could represent self pain, if they are being oppressed by a certain individual.

There are many cases where this can happen as it can also show self control, and not allowing themselves to lash out. This particular angle is widely used, and I have noticed it is quite common in dramatic/sad TV series.

This image is a prime example of what I am attempting to portray, though we may not use this in our film. It is a very 'special' shot, as it can show both sides of the story.

Focus Group 7:

Post Production, leading to a re-shoot

What was wrong: Master shots, angles, exposure and lighting

1.     The angles could have been improved. We could have set the angles could have been lowered

2.     The focus was wrong, it wasn’t fully focused

3.      And the lighting could have been better as we transition from orange to a dim grey shot. The background was over exposed.

4.     The acting was not so real, too much laughing.

How to Fix:

1.     Lower down the camera (the camera was too high). To much head room

2.     Use a lot of wide angles

3.     Use matching lights; the orange was not matching the grey.

4.     DON’T Laugh too much (actors were laughing around amongst each other making it look fake)

5.     USE SOFT BOXES

6.     Cheat the views, manipulate the building (viewer doesn’t know the building)

Focus Group 8:

Why is the first shot is a close up?

·      The first shot it a close up in order for us to show the tough situations that a driving the bully to both verbally and physically abuses other students.

Why have we chosen this composition? (1 shot)

·      The first shot of a close up on AJ’s face is giving us an eye on how paradoxical the situation at hand is. For Example:

The lighting is piercing. This portrays the severity of what ‘drew’ the bully is going through                                         

Mimicking angelic qualities, thus making it devilish.                      

Eyes are closed to keep the light out (the good)                 

AJ is our main focal point in the first few scenes.                   

We were happy with shooting AJ getting told off                       

Cross-cut to the teacher telling AJ off                       

Cut his walking                       

He needs to vent his anger so he goes to Billy                       

Flash bang noise                       

Epitome                       

AJ is perfect for a Bully

·      His clothing stands out                       

o   Primary colours                       

o   Gangsta. They stand out                       

AJ looks bigger built compared to Abdul                       

Due to availability we weren't able to use another classmate as a Bully                       

Dramatic irony was created outside as we go to know what was happening before Billy did and why. Waiting for doors to open                       

Film cigarette dropping                       

Billy chews gum to stay cool                       

We looked at dead man's shoes threat scene