The Hermeneutic Code

A hermeneutic code often occurs at the beginning of a film or story which creates narrative enigmas. It is something that is not explained and it leads to the audience not knowing what is going to happen, it is simply just an unanswered question and it makes the audience think to themselves, ‘why is this happening?’. The affect that is code has is that it makes the audience draw more attention to the film and it creates suspense. This is an important technique as it grabs the audience’s attention right from the start. The question is not usually answered till the end of the film and it will tie up all the loose ends. 

Risk Assessment

Location

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Location

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Booom productionz costume, prop, casting

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Booom productionz costume, prop, casting

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Shot list SlideShow

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Shot list SlideShow

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Storyboards for Preliminary Task

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Storyboards for Preliminary Task

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Target Audience

Our film Flashback is a film inspired by the British Drama films Kidulthood and the sequel Adulthood, which is directed by Noel Clarke. It follows a story of teenaged youths living in London getting up to no good. Our film is aimed at the same target audience to the films mentioned which is the urban youth ages between 14-25 In some ways, our film is similar to Kidulthood and Adulthood as it contains violence and hooliganism. Also the actors in our media product are within that age group. The urban youth or social realist genre is very popular these days as the film industry saw a market for teenagers that could lead to a reasonable income.

Our media product represents teenagers stereotypically in a negative as shown by the four technical codes. The costumes used in our film opening are very stereotypical of teenagers, such as the hoodies, tracksuit bottoms and attempting to keep their identities hidden. Also, the actors being shown near a dark alley at night also gives the impression that there causing mischief as there are many problems with this sort of situation nowadays. Certain features used, such as the violence and alcohol are very common with teenagers these days so they will be able to relate to it. 

Other Ideas

Before we came to a final decision on what our film was going to be about, we came up with a few ideas to see what we could produce. Some of our ideas were:

1. A businessman who is also a hitman who aims to deliver a package deal as part of his mission. The opening part of the film would consist of the businessman receiving the package and being told what to do with it. This would create an enigma as the audience will not know where the package came from.

2. A guy comes out from a club, and we witness fighting scenes in the club, not knowing why the fight is happening.

3. A guy wakes up the next morning from a night that involved a lot of alcohol with bruises and cuts not knowing how he got them.

Introduction Of Group Project

For our media studies project, we have been asked to produce a short film opening of 2 minutes of any genre that we like. The other members of my group are Callan McCauley and Luke Longman. We have all agreed to share our roles in the process of filming, for example acting, editing and being a cameraman. The name of our production company is called ‘Boom Productionz’ which emphasizes the fact that our films are urban and modern. The name of our actual film is called ‘Flashback’ where we show a man waking up in the morning not remembering what happened to him the night before. Our target audience is aimed at a youth generation ages between 15 – 24. Our film is similar to the likes of Adulthood as it is aimed at the same urban generation and because of the scenes that occur in it.

Initial Task

Our initial task for our media studies project consisted of my two other group members and me to create a film with the following media techniques, Match-on-action, shot-reverse-shot and some form of dialogue. The initial task is compulsory and it enables us to show my other media colleagues a glimpse of our media qualities. It is only a short clip of roughly 30 seconds long, where we used a high definition video camera, and using all of the media techniques mentioned.

White Chicks Film Opening Essay

White Chicks is a 2004 American film directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans and written and produced by Keenen Wayans, Shawn Wayans and Marlon Wayans. The film was produced by Columbia Pictures and Revolution Studios. The film begins in a convenience store where two FBI agents and brothers try to arrest drug dealers. In the opening part of White Chicks we witness a Company ident that shows who is responsible for the making of the film. It then quickly changes to an establishing shot of New York City to show where the scene is set. What follows this is that there are few other establishing shots to show the audience where the action will take place and it also enables an understanding of spatial relationships. After, there is then a crane shot from high to low that signifies the location of where the scene is going to take place. There is then a long shot, which is when the camera is some distance away from what is being shot to show a relatively large area and the surroundings. The long shot focuses on the ice-cream delivery truck and the men which perhaps signifies that they are about to play a significant role in the opening sequence. After, there is a medium shot on the delivery men as they enter the shop which shows their waist and their head.

 The sound of the opening sequence to this film consists of non-diegetic gangster rap music which perhaps suggests who the film is aimed at and what generation they are in. The dialogue of the opening sequence shows the FBI agents putting on accents to hide their true identity. They represent old stereotypical Latino men working in an old grocery store. Also, the fact that the ice-cream are foreign show that they are very stereotypical of other delivery men. The way that the mise en scene contributes to opening of this film is that both the FBI agents have guns, which is a significant prop which suggests that they have a dangerous job.  Also as the FBI agents play their part as old Latino citizens they have cigars and maracas’ which again connotes that they are old stereotypical Latino men working in a shop however they are both imposters, just doing their job as FBI agents.

3 Opening Films & Similarities

Introduction

This part of my blog will talk about 3 film openings that are similar to my media product. These films are:

• Adulthood
• Green Street
• Football Factory

The reason I have chosen these films are because they are all films that contain violence.

Adulthood

Adulthood is a British drama production directed and starring Noel Clarke. This is the sequel to Kidulthood also written by Clarke. The film is distributed by Pathe Pictures International and gained total gross revenue of £3,347,811. The story follows guy who has been released from prison for six years for murder. The film begins with an establishing shot of a street gathering that involved alcohol and loud music. What follows this is that an expansive looking car pulls up which triggers the opportunity for teenagers to smash the car up. This film represents stereotypical teenagers roaming the streets of London getting up to no good.




Green Street

Green Street is a film directed by Lexi Alexander showing people across the world football hooliganism in England. The 2005 British and American drama film shows the insight of violence behind the beautiful game. They show this through the four technical codes of camera, editing, sound and mise-en-scene. The story follows a guy who has been kicked out of college for being accused for drug dealing and falls in with the now famous West Ham United football firm. The film was distributed by Baker Street OddLot Entertainment and the music was created by Terrence Jay. I feel that this film is similar to our media product because due to the violence and alcohol occurs. 

Football Factory

The film football factory is another football film that displays hooliganism within the sport. The 2004 film directed by Nick Love stars Danny Dyer and Frank Harper. It is also based on the novel with the same name written by John King. As for the film, it reflects on two rivalled football supporters, Chelsea and Millwall. It follows a young single guy who begins to doubt himself and re-thinks his actions of being a hooligan. The film was distributed by Momentum Pictures with music produced by Ivor Guest. This film is very similar to Green Street which therefore means that it is similar to our media product again due to the fact that the characters are under the influence of violence and alcohol. 

In this section of my blog I will be discussing three film openings that have similarities. These films are:

• The Hangover
• Superbad
• Step Brothers

The reason I chose these films is because they are all american comedies.


The Hangover

  The Hangover is an American comedy film directed by Todd Phillips in 2009 starring Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Heather Graham, Justin Bartha, and Jeffrey Tambor. Legendary Pictures produced the film on a budget of $35 Million. The plot follows four friends who travel to Las Vegas for a bachelor's party, only to wake up the next morning not knowing what they got up to the night before. The opening part of the film will prove to be crucial later on. It consists of the main characters being in the desert looking for their friend. They don't know where he is as they can't remember what happened the night before. The film then goes back in time and the story goes on. Throughout the duration of the film they try and find out what happened to them, which is very funny.

Superbad

Superbad is another American comedy film directed by Greg Mottola starring Jonah Hill and Michael Cera.  The film is said to have grossed $33 Million in its opening weekend with a budget of $20 Million. In total Superbad grossed $170 Million. Two of the producers' of the film, Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg, began writing the script for the film when they were just 13 years old, completing it by the time they were 15. The film consists of 3 teenaged boys' attempting to achieve success at a party. They are the alcohol providers for the party and they try many different ways into bringing the alcohol with them, however they have to tackle many unexpected obsticles on the way. The opening sequence of this film shows Seth (Hill) picking up his friend Evan (Cera) on the way to school. They are conversing on the phone to eachother talking about typical teenaged boy topics.

Step Brothers

Step Brothers is the final film I will be discussing in this section of my blog. It's a 2008 American comedy starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly directed by Adam McKay. Distributed by Columbia Pictures the film had a budget of $65 Million grossing at a total $128 Million. The film is about two unemplyed middle aged men who still live at home with their parents. They become united when each of their single parents marry leading to Brennan Huf (Ferrell) and Dale Doback (Reilly) living with eachother. The opening sequence consists of two single parents marrying, and moving in together. The atmosphere of this film is very jolly and happy as people are getting married however there is a sense of conflict as a new relationship is about to be unveiled.