Friday 3 April 2009

I am now closing this Blog
Evaluation
The opening scene is essential to all films as this is what brings the audience in and one of the most important parts of any film. With any opening scene you can’t give too much away but still keep the audience intrigued. Myself and my partner Sedat worked together to pitch this idea and create it.
The forms and conventions that contained in our opening scene were not obvious or literal. They were how teachers are portrayed to be trusted and harmless in our society and how danger can be any where; even the one place where parents believe to be extremely safe, a school.
The genre Alone is due to be based on horror this is because it has similar structural elements to a modern horror film such as ‘Stranger’ they both have the characteristics of horror. Films that have the same genre have distinctive characteristics or conventions. The form of our opening scene also included action which comes natural to some horror films. After our critic lesson with my class we established our video was lacking in suspense. We took this back and reworked it and improved the sequence. The elements of horror that were included in our film were a designated school with empty corridors.
To start with our video was revealing to much of the film so me and my partner Sedat studied a few opening scenes and deleted chucks out of our sequence to mystify the audience and not give so much away.
Our opening sequence is based in the modern times; we slightly made the sequence darker as the natural lighting was too light.
Our organisation of actors was fairly smooth but could have been a lot better. The making all went to plan, such as all the permission that were needed was sorted and actors were on time and at the right place, this was all down to organisation. But at one point, we had to reshoot one of the shoots and the teacher we used in the previous scene was not available but fortunately, we got him at the end.
Our chosen location was Bexleyheath School and Goals car park the location seemed quite easy to get permission for that was one of the points why we choose it. But it actually became a bit of a hazel as we had to ask 6 or 7 senior staffs. Then finally the site manager gave us permission alongside Goals were happy to let us shoot on their property. Due to our opening scene being based on a horror, genre we needed our school to be completely empty so we waited till after school so we were alone.
Costumes/ Props- We wanted to show the audience that the students that are targets were in sixth form, so we went for the casual look but for the teacher we wanted him to look like the average teacher so we told him to wear what he’d normally wear. Some of the other props that were included in the film were a white board, car, desks, and chairs also a marker and pictures of the victims.
Shotlists - At the start we used a stabling shot for the audience to engage with the charters and to create an image around the surroundings. A lot of our opening was kept at a midshot angle; we also used an angle called tilt up which proved to work well. They angles that were used towards the teacher were also tilting up giving him the power and control. One of the films that our opening scene was inspired by was ‘The Blair Which project’ as there whole film is using the free hand method we tried to apply this skill to some of our work which work well as it gave the sequence a bit more suspense.
The layout was arranged well I believe as everything was in order to shoot. The layout we used was so the student can run to his car and the school to be still in the frame. Also as the student runs from the class so we needed to be close to a door so we got the end class room of the corridor.
We created a storyboard showing each scene step by step. We drew this up briefly and the explained each scene by scripting it. When we done our sequence first it was slightly confusing to what, was happening and everything was happening to fast we then slowed it down by taking bits out and making previous scenes last longer. It then became a lot easier to understand the storey line.
Our time was used well at the beginning as we were the first group to go and shoot, which allowed us more time to edit our film. After our critical session me and Sedat were told by the rest of the class there was not enough suspense in our sequence and needed a bit more excitement also we found out we were giving too much, of the storyline away. So due to us filming earlier we were able to correct it. We used our time well to edit as we had the time to put things in and take them out.
Overall I have enjoyed doing this production and have learnt loads from it. It took a lot of dedication to have the sequence completed. I have also enjoyed working with my partner Sedat as we dealt with every problem together furthermore I have worked closely with my teachers and took on board everything they’ve said. The software I have learnt to use were I movie which I‘ve never used before
I have also provided my continuity sequence which I also done with Sedat

Thursday 26 March 2009

What is MARXISM?


Marxism is a political and economic philosophy emphasizing the importance of class struggle in society. It is based on the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels from the middle of the 19th century, and is often described as a form of Socialism. Marxism calls for society’s inevitable progression from capitalist oppression to a socialist, classless society through a worker’s strike.

Marxism was the foundation for many political ideologies which followed, including Communism, Nazism, Stalinism and Maoism. Many political leaders of the 20th century, including Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler, were followers of the teachings of Marx and Engels. The teachings of Marxism would ultimately help to mold many important global events of the 20th century, including both World Wars. Marxism was first attempted to be instilled into a national consciousness by the October Revolution of Vladimir Lenin in 1917.
Potted history
Rough Trade Records was started in 1978. It came out of the Rough Trade shop that was started in 1976 in West London by Geoff Travis. It was the time of the punk and reggae explosion in London and the shop was very popular with bands that wanted to put records out. Geoff thought he might as well put them out himself, so in 1978 he put out a single by a French band called Metal Urbain and then it just blossomed from there. Then, in the early 80s, Geoff found The Smiths. Before that, Rough Trade was seen as a kind of cult post-punk label, but when Geoff signed The Smiths it became a lot more mainstream and The Smiths became one of the biggest independent bands ever. And that carried on into the mid-80s when Geoff started Rough Trade Distribution which, to cut a long story short, was quite badly managed. Towards the end of the 80s, it went under and brought down Rough Trade Records with it. Geoff continued to put records out under different names like Trade 2 and Rough Trade Recordings, with the same ethics. Then, in the mid-90s, he re-acquired the name and here we are again riding the crest of a wave.