Analysis of Kidulthood:

This British drama follows a day in the lives of four poor youths living in an impoverished neighborhood in West London, where the pressure and desperation of poverty propels each of them towards the choice between a life of bleakness, violence, and crime, and the terrifying prospect of striving for a better life. 

In our short film we tried to make something similar in a variety of different ways including:

Sound: The music used both in Kidulthood and our short film is of the Grime\HipHop genre which appeals to the target  of urbanities who can relate to the happenings in the film  

Language: The language used in Kidulthood is of the Jamaican known as 'patois' or 'Jafaican' which is a term coined to define a recent dialect of English, spoken mainly in inner city London. Whereas our short film is in English but more inner city Manchester slang to show the less intellectual skills they have than middle class people living in Manchester.

Mise-en-Scene: The clothing worn by the actors in kidulthood is commonly street wear which is usually worn by the average teenager, we portrayed this in our short film by dressing our characters in dark clothing consisting of hoodies , trainers so the audience will start thinking about what will happen. The setting of Kidulthood is mostly backstreets, council houses and public transport this reflects the inner city realities, our short film take place under a inner city motorway which may give the audience a sense of believability and authenticity towards our short film.

Audience: The primary target audience of Kidluthood is mostly urbanities and teenagers who would be able to relate to the context of the text. Also it may be able to relate to audiences who are in authority in the country e.g  government  who can tackle issue raised in the film. The audience our short film was aimed at is mostly black youths of a working class type because of the characters portrayed in our film but it can appeal to other ethnicity's of urban and teenage type because of the ages of our characters. 

5. Who would be the audience for your media product?


I expect my target audience to be teenagers and young adults between the ages of 15-21, as I believe they can easily relate to the everyday characters that have been used in this short film. This is the kind of audience you would expect to be interested in these types of films because it contains characters the audience can relate to being there age or that some of the audience have experienced the goings on situated in our short film e.g experiencing drug dealing. Furthermore the main gender of our audience would be mostly male because all our protagonists/Antagonists are male and get caught up in crime and violence, this is what most young men like in films to keep them interested and decrease boredom, on the other hand many females may be interested in this type of film because not all females like the 'Romance' or the 'Chick Flick' type films which society heavily stereotypes that with women for example British types of films which our short film takes idol from such as the 'Kidulthood and Adulthood' series had a big amount of female viewers , in my opinion i think that was due to the female characters situated in the films but it did contain a big amount of male dominance and lots of action so that shows that some females like a bit of action and thriller to keep them on there toes. The main ethnicity of our audience would be black youths because all our characters in our short film are black teenagers and they would appeal to this certain type of ethnicity because it shows the experiences and hardships black teenagers would go through to get by, turning to crime etc. But there isnt a boundary to what ethnicity can come and watch it it may appeal to other people, they may of had the same experience of crime and drug dealing so may find it interesting in seeing other people and what they went through.

7. Looking back at the prelim task, what do you think you have learnt the progression from it to the full task?


I believe that there is a number of areas in which I have progressed in in terms of ability from the preliminary task to the full product. I think that one area I have learnt about and improved in is my performance on-camera during the full task. During even a relativeI believe that there is a number of areas in which I have progressed in in terms of ability from the preliminary task to the full product. I think that one area I have learnt about and improved in is my performance on-camera during the full task. During even a relatively basic task such as the preliminary I was evidently nervous and perhaps originally slightly uncomfortable about being on camera and had to get out of bad original habits such as talking into the camera as opposed to other characters and not timing the start of my lines correctly.


I have also improved on and learnt a lot about the importance of working well as a group on a project such as this. During a small task like the preliminary this wasn’t so evidently needed but it was still vital that we worked well as a group as we had to get it right both on and off camera as well as when it came to the editing stage of the task. With the full task, it was much more important that we worked well as a group and broke up separate tasks and jobs accordingly between members of the group. With regard to planning the film as a group, I have learnt that it is vital to split up planning jobs amongst members of the group with jobs such as the shooting map, writing the storyboards and planning the storyline itself. I have also learnt a great amount about working together during the shoot of the full task. My learning of the timings between starting the camera and commencing the action in the scene, particularly during the sniper scene, has definitely improved and it was vital that it did as everybody had to be in the right place at the right time in order for this ambitious scene to work.


Our skills with the camera also, in my opinion, hugely progressed between the preliminary task and the full product. During the preliminary task our camera work was extremely poor and the handheld work with the camera was very shaky and unreliable. However, mainly due to quite a high amount of practice during the making of the full product, our camera work improved quite dramatically and we was now able to also hold a camera steady as a handheld for a long amount of time and this was especially important as a number of the closing camera shots involved us using the camera handheld.


Finally, I believe that the most important thing I have learnt about film-making during this process is that you do need to have patience, especially during more ambitious scenes and that you will never get every single shot right in the first couple of takes

6. What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing this product?


During the creation of this short film 'The Dealership' I've learnt a great deal about technologies and they have vastly helped and improved the construction of our final media product. During the construction of my media product needless to say i did use a computer but below is a list of other technologies which was used:

1. Digital Video Camera
2. Digital Camera
3. Blogger
4. Final Cut Pro

  A Digital video camera was used in filming our final short film it was really useful because it enabled the camera man to take shots from all angles e.g over the shoulder and they can video hand held to create realism and suspense and it enabled them to video stationary to get all characters emotions in the shots. I never got the full use of a video camera before and when i did i was a bit shaky and first but then i got used to it playing with the zoom in/out to get the right shots in and just general videoing of random things to see if i can get that 'precision' shot. Then it was all systems go it enabled us to get our Final media product finished.






A Digital camera was used in taking location shots which we would later use in our final media product this was a simple and easy way to get clear shots of surroundings which we would discuss whether to be our location for our media product. Using this technology i learnt that you dont always have to use the most expensive equipment in order to get the best out of a film and also i learnt that its alway good to have a digital camera handy when in the process of making a film because you  may see something which you could include in your film or on your blog in discussion of it.


 The website blogger was used specifically to pin point the stages of where we were at in making our final media product and the research we done before we started thinking about making a film, the blog includes things such as our preliminary task which was just a film we made to get used to the camera's etc, questions explaining the ins and outs of int he filming business and just general research about different films and how we could entwine them with our media products. Personally I didn't know what Blogger was until we had to use in in or Media work so it was very hard using it at first , getting used to how to publish your finished work and how to upload pictures but i got used to as the days went along. It was very useful because it enabled me to write down ideas and brainstorms for our media products and then publish them when we actually got down to making the products in very fast succession.






Final Cut pro was used to get rid of any unwanted scenes and sounds in our preliminary and final media product. It enabled us to add credits and titles to our films and adding fades of different colors to create the flashback effect, furthermore it enabled the user to cut the filming time short so like our media product it was a short film we was aiming to do but during the construction of that we film a lot of scenes so thanks to Final Cut Pro we deleted and threaded wanted scenes together to create the movie up to our standards and have the perfect short film consisting of titles and credits and no forgetting a soundtrack. When i first heard we was using this software i was puzzled because  i never heard of it before due to me being used to using Windows Movie Maker back in High School, it was hard really getting used to because there is different tabs you have to click on in order to delete and thread scenes together and putting the actual scenes into Final Cut Pro was the hard part but we finally got used to it and it helped us a lot and got us to where we are now evaluating our finished media product.

 3.What kind of media institution would distribute your media product and why?

The kind of media institution that would distribute our media product is 'Revolver entertainment' which has released such films as 'KIDULTHOOD' and 'DEAD MAN RUNNING' which have the same genre's as our film such as comedy, action and crime. Both films that are above are located in the UK like our film and are lower budget films as apposed to hollywood films. Another media institution that would distribute our media product are Paramount picture or Universal picture because they have released such big hit crime films such as 'The Godfather' and 'American Gangster', which are both crime orientated films that have a small female cast, due to the genre being male orientated cause of the crime and drug use rates in the film. Our media product is similar to the film 'dead man running' because of the threats made upon the main character (Ramiel) and a time limit given to Ramiel to retrieve the drugs back or consequences with be dealt with... Universal which has distributed the film 'American Gangster' is also similar to our film because it is drug orientated and has no females in the main roles. It also has a dominant character like (victor) who acts like a boss figure to his 'drug runners' the people who sell the drugs for the boss.

The way that our film would be marketed is mainly on 'above the line' distribution such as advertisements on the media i.e. Internet, popular social sites such as myspace, twitter and Facebook, billboards and posters on public transport such as buses, metro links and trains. I would decide to use this kind of distribution because 'Dead man running' used the same distribution methods to get their film around in the UK. Social websites are a good way of distribution because its not very costly and millions of people go on social sites everyday so at least thousands will acknowledge the advertisements. Billboards, posters and public transport advertising is also a good way of advertising and distributing because just like on social sites thousands of people get on public transport, and drivers will see billboards & poster all around town.

4. How did you attract/address your audience?

Our film attracts the audience through its genre which is Action/Thriller and also through the characteristics of the actors. For example, Victor (drug lord) character is more of an aggressive character when it comes to business this would specifically appeal to the male audience. Whereas Ramiel is more of a funny drug dealer who makes jokes even in real and serious situations, this would attract the female audience because they like a bit of comedy in films.The camerawork throughout the film constantly changes shots during the climax of this opening film,This adds to the action and creates a sense of urgency both for the audience and the characters. The editing also helps keep the audience both engaged and interested because of how the story links together well.We also constructed a soundtrack using “Garage Band” which is a music construction software on all Apple compatible computers. Our soundtrack on our short film is of the Rap/HipHop genre to endorse the sense of suspense in the atmosphere  when the drug dealing was taking place. This music is more of a British type because it is 'Grime' and 'Grime is a very common genre of music for British teenagers, this shows that our audience would be mostly people between 15-21 and of the ethnicity of black and white youths.

2.Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our media product would be aimed at audiences from ages 15-21, there isnt a specific gender script our film is aimed at but it will appeal to males due to the male characters and the nature of the storyline which consists of moderate violence and drug offences. Our media product would also appeal to the male audience because most men are attracted to the gangster type storylines such as Guy Ritchies Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather Trilogy. On the other hand our media product would attract the female aundience aswell because not many females are against the gangster films many like a bit of action in films to keep them entertained and get rid of boredom. This short film would specifically be aimed at young black youths because of the black male dominence situated in our film and the specific area around inner city lower class areas in Manchester which not long ago was known for certain types of crimes and offences such gun crimes , thats how Manchester got its name 'Gun-Chester', which consisted of many black youths killing each other in order to survive themselves.
 


So our media product portrays what living in lower class inner city places is like , people having to resort to crime to survive and the consequences when something goes wrong in a certain type of situation as seen in our Short film.

Filming Shots

Location Shots

Location Shots

<<< This Location Shot is where the Story of our short film really took off, this is where Ramiel and John meet up to to switch the drugs and money but John doesnt comply and runs off this is very important to our blog to pinpoint to the visitors where the short film hits suspension.

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

Our film genre is Action Comedy Thriller. We chose to add comedy so people wont be put off by thinking "its just another drug movie and they're all the same". As teenagers, we are often stereotyped for drugs and violence. We fulfilled that stereotype to show people what happens in modern days for teenagers.. etc. Instead of all that, we added a bit of comedy to make audiences feel interested and make them laugh. We also added comedy at the start so people would get really interested. Our film consists of drug lord (Victor) and his employees meeting up with local druggie in the area (John). They both have agreed to the drug sale on the phone of £5000, but when they meet up; Ramiel vows to pass over the drugs but the local druggie doesn't co-operate and runs off with the money and the drugs; leaving (Ramiel) stranded with NOTHING to give back to the Drug lord. 

Our film would fit in perfectly in the cinema industry because its mostly targets 15-21 year old who spend their disposable income to come and watch films at the cinemas. We picked 15-21 year olds because their age group is suitable for our film genre. This age group are usually looking for something enjoyable and will put them at the edge of their seats in the cinema. 

This short film of ours would be a short snap shot of like British films such as the series of Kidulthood +Adulthood which concentrates on British teenagers lives and the hardships they go through to get through life.In our short film we used certain props to show the authority of each person. For example, the drug lord (Victor) was dressed in a suit with a RED tie which indicated danger also to show his importance and authority over Ramiel. This shows he expects respect from everyone, Whereas his Ramiel is dressed in black and casual with his hood up to blend in with the certain surroundings this follows the gangster conventions of the film Dead man running which is set in the the UK is a gangster based film where an exchange of drug for money is a huge part of the film... Furthermore the key props in our short film are the bags which contain the drugs and the money these are very significant because this starts of the story of our short film. As many films such as 'Dead man running' contains typical key props of money, drugs, guns etc our film will perfectly fit in with no problem.

Every film has a rating which categorizes the film according to the materials used in the film. Our film is rated and classified 15+ due to the material that has been presented in out film. In general, only people aged 15 and over will be permitted to watch our movie. This is due to our film Containing scenes of drug dealing and moderate violence/language

Final Shot list:

   Medium shot of Ramiel panting at the start.

Another medium shot of Ramiel on the phone talking to ‘the boss’.

  
 After the ellipse of time an extreme close-up of the door handle is show.     

  
4) Then a close up of Ramiel walking through the door.

                  

5) Medium shot of Ramiel sitting down.

                  

6) Point of view shot of Ramiel looking at Victor

7) Low angle shot of Victor telling Ramiel to pull hood down.

8) Shot reverse shot of Ramiel and victor conversation.    

9) Over the shoulder shots continue.

10) High angle shot of victor speaking.

11) Long shot of Ramiel leaving the room.  

Media Product Questions

How does your media product represent particular social group?

Our media product represents particular social groups such as groups that are into action, comedy genre films, and social groups that are inner city such as the film. our film as well as appeal to people of the comedy/action genre it will appeal to the youth of our society (15-21) as it is quite modern and has a urban feel to it. Our film will also appeal to the male gender simply because of the main genre of the film…

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

Universal is the kind of distributor that’ll distribute our film because it has distributed such films as ‘American Gangster’ because it has the same genre. Revolver is a low budget company that has distributed such films as ‘dead man running’ and would most likely be interested in distributing our film. revolver is more suitable to distribute our because they deal with more independent movies, also we would want to keep the film as british as possible.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for our film is 15+ years old. And we aim for a mass audience because the film genre will appeal to many teenagers and the inner city has many teenagers that will come and watch the film. but being a action film/drama/comedy it's genre it's self appeals to a mass audience. 

How did you attract/ address your audience?

The way we attracted our audience was mainly word of mouth. Word of mouth is good because it’s a free effective way of helping distribute of film. We attracted the audience because at the end of the trailer it makes you think what is going to happen next…

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

The things I’ve learnt about using the cameras are the different shot, like close up’s, still shots, long shots etc…

From the preliminary task we learnt to do the 180-degree rule (over the shoulders) to show that there is a conversation going on…

Dealership (Action/Thriller/Comedy

The opening of a short film:  Dealership!  Genre: Action/thriller/comedy. (Main Task)

Duration: 2 MINUTES/2 1/2 MINUTES

Audience: 15-16+ includes limited strong language and drug dealing scenes

Resume: Opening scene: Starts off with Ramiel meeting up with the local ‘druggie’ (John). Sells  $5,000 worth of drugs to him. John runs off with the drugs, and keeps the money…

Ramiel runs after him persuing John through the Mancunian subway , but John is too fast and gets away…

Ramiel then receives a phone call from drug lord (Victor) The conversation carries on … Victor then meets up with Ramiel, Ramiel then explains to Victor that he has been robbed. Victor then threatens Ramiel and tells him he wants to meet up. Ramiel meets up with victor and they have a convosation ending in victor instructing Ramiel to bring him his money and he has 24 hours.

Suggested elements:

Performance (shown above)

Costume: John & Ramiel in ordinary black clothing,Victor dressed in a suit because he’s the drug lord and shows his Authority in the scene…
also the use of a bandana in the drug exchange would suggest † gang affiliation.
Victors red tie would suggest danger as he is a drug lord.

Props: Bag(with the fake drugs in) and a bag (with money in)  Phones to call each other. (Victor,John & Ramiel) 
Bin, used to scare Ramiel and show that Victor has a violent side.

Key locations: Mancuian Way subway

Title/Opening credits: Title ‘Dealership’

RECORDING DAYS: The approximate time that would be spent on the film, in one day. And editing would be used to cut, and make the ‘flashback’ effect in the scene…

analysis of the opening of Step Up 3

  Analysis of the opening scene of Step Up 3 

Straight away there is a shot of the main character with playful music in the back ground (shows its a family film) made to look like he is filming himself on a hand held video camera. This is for realism, he is also the first person to be seen at the start of the film to show that he is a important to the story. Also shows that its his film (that is relevant later in the film). immediately after these opening shots the first main character introduces the other main characters in a home movie format. All from the point of view of a video camera as if looking at the screen on the camera. Each character gives a brief interlude about why they dance and how it has affected them. This gives the viewer a idea of what the film is about and who its about also about some characters circumstances. This was done to help engage the viewer and set the mood of the film.The title (Step up 3) was shown over the New York skyline thus setting the location of the film.

Then there was a scene showing a crowd of university freshmen (first years) on a tour of the campus which moves to show another main character to show he is important and who he is. This leads to a brief conversation with his parents which reveals that he has a past and passion for dance. This conversation gives a insight into his life and gives the audience a clue to the story line.

Preliminary Task ( Short Film)

Preliminary task

What did you learn about the camera's and editing software during the Preliminary task


During the preliminary task we used the camera and a specific editing programme called Final cut pro.
With the camera's we learnt how to get the required shot using a tripod, which steadied our shots and increased the aspect of our shots. But before we started filming our prelim task we did a few  practice shots to get the feel of it.


The Final cut pro software we used was really hard to get the hang of first, but we finally got grips of it and it was simple. It allowed us to cut what we didn't want in the scenes and allowed us to get better shots and cut out and put to together scenes that looked better together. Final cut pro also helped the short scene we made look professional.

In filming and editing of your project, what worked well and what could have been improved


In the process of filming our project the things that worked well was the team work and the way we all put the scenes together in the Final cut pro software. What didn't work well was the scene when Victor was running outside with the bags at the end, the doors he was running through were automatic and Victor was running at pace so we needed someone to stand at the door so the sensors will be triggered so Victor could go through it . We couldnt find anyone at the time we were filming so we had to recruit John to stand at the door which on the plus side allowed the door to stay open but when looking over he video you can see John at the door so he was in two places at once which deleted the concept of our film.


How did you make sure that you didn't break the 180 degree rule? or if you did, what have you learnt from this?


We did break the 180 degree rule at first, by making the main character going into two directions, we now know not to make that same mistake in the main task and stick to the 180 degree rule...


Give a detailed account, specific example of how you used a shot/reverse shot combination in your shot


We used shot/reverse shot during the exchanging of bags and money with Victor and John. We achieved the shot/reverse shot combination by filming from character A's (Victor) shoulder to show the full conversation between John and Victor. But we didn't film from John's shoulder so we kinder achieved the Shot/reverse shot.

Give a detailed, specific example of how you achieved match cuts during the editing process


An example of when we used a match cut is when the main character (victor) was running out with both bags and the camera cut back to second character (john) showing his reaction to victor running away with the briefcase.

Preliminary introduction

For our preliminary exercise we were given a continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. this task should demonstrate match on, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. We started by dividing our  short production into crew roles, Gasim was camera man, John+Victor were the main actors in the short opening scene