Preliminary Task - Brief

The Story So Far...
So far in our project, we have completed our taught lessons on the film genre (as detailed in the Overview First Post) and have presented a group presentation on the class to demonstrate both to ourselves and the class the knowledge we have learnt. We also researched specific directors and the style of film known as Film Noir so that we can apply these conventions to our main task if we feel it would improve and diversify our final project.

Our Next Task
Our Preliminary Task, although not directly marked (marks are deducted for incomplete work),, is a chance for the group to work together for the first time as well as get to grips with the techniques of planning, filming and post-production. We also feel that as a group it allows us to develop our plot ideas; although at this point we do not feel that our preliminary plot will be extended or used in anyway during our main task (i.e. The Main Task will have an unrelated storyline). Over the next days and weeks, we will post updates detailing the script and back-story for our Prelim. Task as well as a storyboard/plan that we will produce to aid our filming.

Decisions Thus Far
In order to keep things simple the group have so far clarified the following aspects of our Preliminary Task in order to keep things simple for our "practice run"

• The Preliminary Task will be shot in Black & White, with high-key lighting and large amounts of shadow. We are aiming for a Film Noir style both to create atmosphere and tension for the audience as well as to experiment and establish whether the Film Noir Style is something we would want to use for our Main Task.
• Because of time constraints; the group has opted to film the preliminary task in school. We understand that this will give a less-polished or realistic look to the final outcome and most definitely will not adopt this model for the creation of our main task, but on the whole feel the Preliminary Task's primary purpose is to allow us to gather our ideas and skills in preparation for our main task.
• We have also opted for a short sequence with limited dialogue so that the scene does not become overly complicated to film (see above).

Schedule Update
Our Schedule should have been as follows -

Preliminary Task ::
Storyboarding & Filming - Until 30th January (Not Met) - Not Yet Completed (as of 4th Feb.09)
Editing/Post-Production & Completion - Until 6th Feb (Not Yet Begun)

Unfortunately, as acknowledged by our subject teachers; we had originally overrun on our lessons regarding the taught section of our coursework unit. We also understand that there have been some lessons cancelled due to staff training but at this present time we do not expect our Preliminary Task to be completed on time.

Please Note: Due to adverse weather conditions in Early February 3 hours of lesson time has been lost due to school closure; and this has, as one can imagine, affected the schedule and our ability to film our Preliminary Task.


- Rory Jee

Group Presentation - The Thriller Genre

You can view the entire presentation by downloading it here

Our Task
As part of our ongoing project we summed up what we had learnt during the teaching portion of our coursework in a 15 minute multimedia presentation to the class including the use of film extracts, powerpoint skills and still images.


What we did
Working as a group; we created a powerpoint presentation based upon the key areas which we studied. (Conventions, Direction, Audience and Analysis) We, as a group, presented our findings (in the form of both spoken and written language) to our class accompanied by two film extracts which we had previously analysed. (The Life of David Gale & Man on Fire). We also analysed a still image and applied the generic conventions of a thriller to two films (Man on Fire & Secret Window) in order to gain a wider understanding of how conventions are not hard and fast rules but rather can be applied at the director's discretion and often without clear purpose.

Reflections
Kim Rayner:
My contribution to the group's presentation was to analyse an extract from the thriller film The Life Of David Gale. I analysed the opening 30 seconds of the film and commented on the use of camera movement and shot types, mise-en-scene, sound, plot structure/ editing and semiotics and what effects these had on the audience. I felt that the presentation of my extract analysis went well and that I was able to communicate across clearly the use and effects of the above mentioned areas of analysis.

Laurence Sturla:
In this exercise i gave a presentation showing how the film Payback is aimed at different audiences and why, and how that this film is an example of a modern day film Noir, using many conventions associated with the Noir sub-genre. I also analyised an extract of man on fire, commenting on the shot types, camera movement, mise-en-scene, the different sounds, and the editing and effects that are used to create this thriller, and how they are effective. I feel that i presented these extracts well using correct terminology and putting the ideas across clearly. i think that our presentation as a whole worked very well.


How we benefited
As a group we feel that the presentation was an excellent way of summing up the knowledge we had learnt over the course of the last few weeks; and allowed us to reinforce this in our own minds because we were able to allow our knowledge to actual media and content.


The next phase of our project will be the planning and execution of our Preliminary Task.


Please note that the presentations we created were presented in different groups than the actual group that we have chosen for our task. Going forward all work will only be completed by the four members of our group as detailed previously.

- Rory Jee (Reflections - Authors indicated)