Monday 14 November 2011

3 Gangster Film Idea's (homework)

My Idea for the Gangster film.Picture it, around the 1950's in the darkest, dangerous depths of New York City - a forever growing gang of assassins and mob leaders, known as The Misouski's run by The Boss, govern everything. From factories, to casino's, to the highstreet market, to an average man's wages; they rule it all. They take it upon themselves to take and give, warming off all trespassers who mean war, and wiping away whoever doesnt agree. Locals fear what they dont know and try their best to keep themselves to themselves; but no-one's safe. People talk, and people see - and everything gets back to The Misouski's, they know everything.
The Misouski's are undefeatable, they number in the hundreds - one big hungry family, where infact, family doesnt entirely mean blood-related, or trusted; just capable. And thats all they need.
The Misouski's go back decades, and their history is known everywhere, and feared by everyone - gangs have come and gone, disappeared in car boots, off cliff edges, in garbage trucks, at the bottom of the ocean, you name it; no-one ever stood a chance.
Until, a new family move into the neighbourhood.
A small family, respectable, observant and resistant to anything or anyone who tries to dominate them - The D'Norts. - Rumours spread of their history, and how they've circled the area, gathering the thousands, bracing themselves for confrontation, and (if necessary) - war. See, they dont agree with The Misouski's or their ways of giving what they dont need, and taking what they want.
Sensing a panic and disruption in the area, The Misouski's keep a close eye on them, not taking any chances - and decide to offer them a passage into their gang. Endless money, respect, feared by all, dominated by none but The Boss, and a passage through life that serves nothing but self desires being fulfilled, and their duty as a man being carried out by their side.. who couldn't refuse ?
The refusal came nothing but suprise to The Boss, and with a slight nod of the head - assassins would be on their way to get rid of them. - But to their suprise, The D'Norts came prepared, fighting their own like there was nothing to lose.
Gun's, knives, machetti's, baseball bats, flash cars, machine guns - anything that could conquer death is used from both sides.
The Misouski's have met their match.
As mob-wars erupt, the city is destroyed. Explosions, car bombs, flying bullets and any means of tortchure are thrown at eachother, and finally, the triumphant winners hold the power to the city.
The D'Norts restore peace and tranquility to the City of New York, leaving The Misouski's as nothing but a bad memory to everyone.

5 Things I'll Do To Keep Within The Genre.1. I'll include the traditional costumes, such as darks suits and proffessional outfits.
2. I'll show consistant agressiveness and violence, whether that's in the form of speech, actions or events.
3. I'll present wealth, power, high status - and clealy contrast/seperate this from the average people (locals) - by costume, speech, facial expression, body language, occupation etc.
4. I'll show weaponry such as knives, guns, baseball bats etc.
5. I'll show the ownership of places, and people through acting strategies aswell as visually (being named after the gang/person).
One thing I'll do to change/adapt the genre, is to make the leaders females. Hardly any gangster films include women in a powerful, if not a leadership role - but only as an object/jailbait for the men. This will be a different feature, and will give a fresh perspective for the audience as it encourages equality between the two sexes.

My 3 Possible Opening Sequences.Opening Seqence 1#

Darkness.
Dialogue (Female, American accent, low, threatening tone.) "It aint ever easy y'know.. bein' a woman. Them scumbag suckers look at ya' like ya' aint nothin' but a matt to wipe ya' feet on, and thats how it was. Nothin' ya' could say, nothin' ya' could do. - I remember back when I was only a kid - watching the devil of a man I'd call my father hit my mother like it was nothin'.. like she was nothin'. But I aint layin down for shit. Anyone can hold a gun and aim for ya head, anyone could get revenge..''
Clips of people at clubs, casino's bars, resurants etc in a montage (to show time passing).
''But I aint here for revenge. (laughs) I'm past all that.. - I'm here to prove a point. That us women are just as good.. maybe even better."
Images stop, and the camera is moving in a point-of-view movent, walking down the street, cars going past, men stopping for you to let you walk past, fearfully.
"But like I said.. it aint ever about provin' them wrong. It was about provin' yourself right. Whether that meant reasonin' to em', or putting gun to their head and telling em'.
Point-of-view shot still going as you enter a bar, everyone looks up at you, and then quickly back down - a few bolder characters nod slightly in respect.
Moves toward a stool near the bar and sits down, hands rest on the counter (gloved hands) - the barman nodds and puts a glass infront of you and a bottle of Bourbon. As he moves away, the mirror behind him is in full-view. A woman with dark brown wavy hair at her shoulders, bright red lipstick and a pale face smiles mischievously at her reflection.

Opening Sequence 2#

*Harsh breathing*
Lights suddenly fade on (perhaps point-of-view, someone regaining consciousness) - camera does a full circle of the small room; dirty walls, old floorboards with blood smudged across it and a door. On the floor lay two men, one barely conscious and the other writhing in pain. The first man sits up with difficulty, blood streaming from a gash in his forehead and looks around in terror. The other lays writhing in pain still.
First man whispers "Where did she-"
Is interrupted by a female voice coming from the door way; "Go ?"
The camera zooms in on a woman standing in the doorway, holding a gun playfully in her hands.
She looks up at the man, and chuckles; "Without finishing my business ? How careless would that be.."
She walks across the room towards the first man, her heels are loud on the floorboards.
She kneels infront of the man and leans forward mockingly; "I want my money."
Shot-reverse-shot of the man and woman.
"I swear to God, I don-"
Is inturrupted again by the woman; "I couldnt care less who you swear by, it's either my money in my hands, or your head on a plate - completely your choice.."
Man whimpers, "Please... I dont-"
*BANG* - woman shoots the second man who was laying only feet from them.
"Lets try that one again, shall we.." woman sticks the end of the gun into the man's mouth threateningly.
*the sound of her re-loading her gun*
Darkness.

Opening Sequence 3#

*fast-paced old fashioned music plays* lights flash like a party/club.
Camera reveals the outside of a club, loud music is blaring out of it, and a queue of people are waiting to get in outside.
The camera does an 180 degree turn, to a fancy car thats pulling up outside. A man runs forward from behind the camera and opens the passenger door slowly.
Close-up of a womans heels hitting the pavement, zooms out to show the a wealthy woman in a red expensive dress get out of the car, her feathered hat doesnt allow the audience to see her face. Another man runs from the opposite side of the car to the pavement, to escort her inside.
Camera tracking the woman closely behind, as she has the man hold the door open for her, and other men wait for her to walk past respectfully. Other women looking with a fearful smile and letting her walk infront.
As they reach the main club, the woman walks past people sitting at tables. People one by one do a double-take and stare at her.
The camera swerves to the stage where the 'host' has also noticed her arrival.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a very special visit - from the lady herself !" he gestures towards the woman.
Everyone applaudes.
Camera circles round to see the woman's face, (extreme-close-up) - a small curve of her lips indicate that she is smiling.

Thursday 10 November 2011

Prelim Task Evaluation.

In terms of team-work, I found the task relatively easy as we all contributed to the task without any problems/conflict. The roles in my group were as follows: myself created the storyboard, did a large amount of editing and contributed to the filming. Teni mostly filmed and contributed to sound, Michela came up with the plot and helped with editing and the script. Stevie's role consisted of editing and sound and the script. We all took into account each other's ideas and gave each other equal roles and we encouraged eachother to take part in every method we used (filming, editing, sound..)
I shot the ending of the prelim (plot; Becky leaves Ryan) - below are the shots that I filmed -


 
We met the brief by using the 180 degree rule effectively and successfully, as shown;
 
We also explored various other shots, including point-of-view, extreme-close-up's and mid-shots.
 


For our Prelim Task, we decided to narrate the typical moment, when someone (in our case, Ryan, the boyfriend) finds out that his girlfriend has cheated.
As you can see from our footage; shot-reverse-shot and over-the-shoulder shot were used and proved to be useful in that they displayed both the characters positions and emotions (body language etc.)
We decided, whilst editing, to demonstrate this situation in a comical way, instead of being serious - this is to create a light atmosphere and to allow the audience to view the situation in an entirely different way. This was generated by a cheesy romantic backing-track being played at every oppertunity ('Lets Get It On' Marvin Gaye) - this was closely followed by the clip of a record being suddenly stopped; to heighten and enhance the awkward moments in the conversation.
We also used a diversity of editing techniques, including headings, sound effects, ASD and liighting adjustments.

Weaknesses

As a group, we faced a series of problems, such as who would act in our production, what location we'd choose and (the most challenging) what roles would be taken by who in our group.
Nevertheless, we equally split the roles of filming, directing and editing between us - so that we could all expand our knowledge and experience.

Strengths

Something that we did well, was that we were co-operative with eachother and we took eachothers opinions and suggestions into account.
Moreover, somethign we could improve on, would definitely be preperation - and we'll be sure to take this into account in future tasks.

Prelim Task.