Feedback from people who viewed the film:
this is Feedback from those who watched the film. as you can see most of the feeb back was posative except for interviewee number 3. One thing i picked up on was people said they thought it was not long enough wich could not be avoided. Other things such as my character smirking were part of the acting and were not genuine mistakes. Most people said they liked it, and a lot of people were rather blunt in thier answers, perhaps i should have asked questions with provoked a more in depth answer.
Evaluation (Hunting for Matt)
1) In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of media products?
Hunting for Matt is an 'Action-Crime-Thriller' due to the specific content of the film.
Generally an action film would have fighting, weapons, explosions, fast pace editing, slow motion shots, upbeat and fast pace non-diagetic music, violent scenes, gun fire, etc. Hunting for Matt contains some of these attributes which is the reason it is classed as partly action; Noah holds a gun in his title sequence, Matt opens fire on his victim, the non-diagetic music that accompanies the character's title sequences is fast and upbeat and Noah and Sarah walk down the street when the shot is in slow motion.
An average crime film would contain crime scene investigations, weapons, bodies, criminals, etc. Our film contains some of these attributes which gives our film the partial application of it being a crime film; Again Noah holds a gun in his sequence, Matt shoots his victim, Matt's killing room becomes a crime scene, there is a dead body (the victim) and Matt is a killing criminal. Also the main characters, Noah and Sarah, are both police detectives which is established by their costumes and their location of the scene containing the establishing shot of a police station.
The mixture of these generic conventions indicates that it is a hybrid genre of action, crime and thriller. Weapons, locations, camera angles and shots, editing pace and rhythmic editing, costumes and props all show parts of each sub-genre. In the full plot of the film there is a small hint of romance because towards the end after the climax of the plot, Noah thinks he's lost Sarah when she returns they become a romantic partnership which is a predictable part of the plot in my opinion.
Our film has been influenced by many films that are similar in style, plot and genre. We were influenced by Spooks, Snatch, Sherlock Holmes and Die Hard 4.0 because these films were appropriate to take ideas from. For example, the general plot of Die Hard 4.0 is that the main character (John McClane) is picking off the villains one by one in search of his daughter who has been taken hostage by these people. Our film is quite similar to this except with a slight difference in the fact that our main character is a man who does not want to kill but is searching for one man who is a murderous serial killer who at one point kidnaps Noah's partner.
With Snatch, for example, the opening sequence is a clip of the character doing what they would normally be doing then it follows on with a freeze frame of that same clip with the name of the character beside the still image. We took this film's idea for our opening title sequence has a clip of each character playing which pauses and then a freeze frame from that same clip is presented at one side of the frame whilst the character and actor's names are displayed, however, we added a small screen containing some more action of the character which was an idea taken from Spooks. Spooks had small screens of action establishing what the characters do and what that are like which we particularly liked the idea of.
2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?
This can link into the target audience because it has a wide range of genres that would broaden the interest for people's choice of film and an example of this is the romance part. Not many action films contain a romance story within it, however, one of the unique selling points for our film, if it was to be made, would be the feature of having something for all.
The film we would make would be most similar to Die Hard 4.0 due to the genre and narrative of it. Another unique selling point of our film would be that because it is very similar to Die Hard which, if it was advertised, would attract Die Hard fans to watching an alternative for their desired film choices.
AOL Time Warner is a huge vertically integrated conglomerate which covers three main areas of media; America online, the times and Warner brothers studios. Each part plays a role in production, distribution and exhibition. This is a huge advantage because it eliminates the need to employ separate distribution companies because AOL Time Warner would do it all within the company and all the revenue would go back to the Time Warner.
There is not much in the way of merchandise for Sherlock Holmes except for items like mugs, t-shirts, few toys (e.g. magnifying glass), posters, etc.
Creating merchandise options for Hunting for Matt if it was to ever be an option would be a great way to advertise it, attract a wider audience and rake in more money; A Hunting for Matt video game would be available to make due to the plot and style of the film, personalised items such as t-shirts, mugs, posters etc would advertise the film even without people buying them, trailers made by Warner Bros, online adverts made by AOL, newspaper articles made by the Times, etc. There are plenty of opportunities for the film to be advertised all around the world due to the cultural connections AOL Time Warner has.
4) Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target audience for our film would be between the ages of 15 and 40 and generally more appealing to males rather than females because of the action content, however there is an element of a man trying to win a woman's heart which some females would find interesting. The film has been classified 15 because of the level of violence so no one under the age of 15 should watch it by law. Our most influential film is Die Hard which is also classified at a 15 due to the amount of violence in both films. As previously pointed out, the film being so similar to Die Hard gives a great opportunity to appeal to Die Hard fans and all action film fans which would lead to attracting a very wide range of people and a huge audience would be attached to the film giving the film, if it was a successive hit, a great platform to produce one, two maybe three sequels.Here is a direct link to the British Broadcasting Film Cooperation (BBFC) website:
5) How did you attract/address your audience?
We attracted our audience by creating some unique selling points (USP's) which are throughout the film and parts that have not been produced which is in the summary of the whole film.
The genre of the film is a hybrid of three different sub-genres which can attract a wide range of people, for example, those who have no interest in crime films but like action movies can see it and yet it stays appealing to more than one group of people.
A lot of the film is viewed through character's point of view which gives a sense of being 'in the character's shoes' and creating an emotional connection between the film and the audience which is always effective because it creates suspense when a cliffhanger is made and causes anticipation within the audience. This would work well for us if we were ever to do a sequel because if we left the original film on a cliffhanger then the audience may feel frustrated and would long to see the next film which is where making it partly thriller comes in useful as a great unique selling point. Creating the feeling of self involvement makes the audience feel psychologically that they should do something.With it being an action film that is mainly aimed at males, it grasps a reputation of it being a 'guy' film which can put many females off from watching it. We decided to create some features that would try and remove this reputation as much as what was possible to do so. Collectively, we came up with two main things that would make the film appeal to the females out there.
The first thing that we tried was to put a female character in a position of power and authority alongside the main character to give the audience a sense of equality in an action film, which became very vital because it lead on to giving us our second feature to make it more appealing to females.
It gave us an underlying romance story between the two main characters which would give every person a break from the main storyline. We realised by doing this it keeps the audience more entertained because it gives them a change of mood every now and then to stop them getting bored by the same repeating story all the way through.
6) What have you learnt about technology from the process of constructing the product?
The strengths of using the 'HD Thousand' camera is that not only did it give us the ability to film footage in the first place, but it also gave us a good quality picture and great audio too. This is a good attribute because the film looks more realistic which is down to good quality video and audio footage. It also taught us how to film using only one camera and gave us a mini experience of what it is like on a film set for a real production. We learned that it is better to film scenes that you aren't confident with more than once so that you can make it work when it comes to the editing. It was a practical piece of equipment along with the tripod for it to stand upon which allowed us to film in any location. The scene where Noah cocks the gun and the camera zooms out at a high speed was solely down to the work of Joseph using the HD Thousand camera! It also taught put us through our paces with our motivation and organizational skills which is always considered useful!The weaknesses of using the camera was that it was rather difficult to stand it up in the crime scene room because of its size and the small space there was to film in, bearing in mind however that there was four people in the room at the same time. It was also very difficult to transport without having a car to move it around in because of the weight and awkward shape. Also it became a danger when it began to rain and because of health and safety reasons we had to stop filming at one point which was hard to work with because we were limited with time.
The editing software that we used to make Hunting for Matt was called 'Final Cut Express' which was a special software used on an iMac.We split up the whole continuous footage on the tape in Final Cut Express and then used each clip accordingly to what was needed and we trimmed and edited each shot to create shot reverse shot, match on action, rhythmic editing, title sequence, opening storyline, etc.
I also learned how to split audio from different video clips and basically 'plaster' scattered bits of media to work together and produce a brushed up export.
I feel that I will definitely use Final Cut Express in the future for my own use again.
We had one problem in which one scene was far too long and we could find no possible way to cut it down in the editing process so we resolved this problem by re filming the scene again and we changed the script, shooting script and the whole way of the scene to also add more shots in it (e.g. close ups).
7) Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Our planning stages began with one extra member of our group who decided to drop the subject very early on so we only had two of us in our group. We had previously been interested in producing a comedy for a few reasons, one, being the fact that we enjoy comedies, two, it was different from all the previous work we were shown by A level students gone before us. However, we were advised that making a comedy was very hard and after a while we ourselves experienced this too. Our previous research for the comedy idea is still on the blog under one post which is the first one posted.
We later decided that we would keep some of the same ideas but turn them into something that would work in an action-crime-thriller, for example, in our previous ideas we had Sarah Jenkins as Noah's secretary (previously named Sandra and Larry) but we developed that to making her Noah's partner which became an appealing feature for the female audience.
We wrote a shooting script, floor plans, a storyboard, a photo storyboard and a script to help us know what the vision was whilst filming because I learned that your knowledge of what you are doing in filming is hard because you can't edit whilst you're there so you have to try and create a vision of what you're essentially doing whilst filming so having a list of every shot and where people maneuvered themselves and camera equipment was helpful. Also having a storyboard and a photo one was helpful because we could visually see the story whilst the film had not yet been created. Having the script gave us the ability to read our lines so we knew what we were saying which is the basic point of any script, there's no complex thing that a script does.
Having this pre-planning for our film helped us greatly in filming and editing what we needed to do which eliminated many potential problems that could have arose.
Some of the shots that we tried in our preliminary task improved whilst filming and editing Hunting for Matt. One of them was match on action. We used match on action when I entered the room in our preliminary task and we were taught how to do that on the edit software by our tutor. This time it is used on the door at the beginning of the film when Noah closes it and it cuts to a close up shot on his hand closing the door. This shot was not aided by our tutor this time but was carefully cut together by us without help which is an improvement from the preliminary task. Also we improved on shot reverse shot because, again, in our preliminary task our tutor helped us compose the shot reverse shot on our characters using special techniques that we did not know about. This time we used it clearly without any help again and achieved it successfully which, again, is a great improvement. Another shot we did was the jump cutting in Matt's opening clip which came about due to the film being too long so we had little help from our tutor except from showing us how to do it in the first place and from my point of view I think that it worked rather well. That shot was particularly tricky with working with the audio track to parallel with the visual footage on screen which became a large challenge but was resolved which proved to us the effectiveness of editing. One more feature we used in the filming was part of the audience involvement by filming a few point of view shots which was only done through filming. This was not so much of a challenge for me because I filmed as the hostage's point of view which sometimes a moved the camera incorrectly but other than that there was not much to it.I am very confident now with using a large camera and a fairly complex editing software in the production of films because of the challenges we overcame and the finished product of our work. I would happily use the cameras again and the editing software.
I feel that the end product was very successful because it looks professional to a certain extent and it fulfills all the requirements we had for it. We created a 2 minute film opening that established the start of a story and introduced the genre, characters and storyline from the opening sequence which was our exact task so I feel we met this very successfully. Also it gave me and my friend some fun in producing it because of the outtakes we had so not only was it a successful experience, it was very fun to do!
Our planning stages began with one extra member of our group who decided to drop the subject very early on so we only had two of us in our group. We had previously been interested in producing a comedy for a few reasons, one, being the fact that we enjoy comedies, two, it was different from all the previous work we were shown by A level students gone before us. However, we were advised that making a comedy was very hard and after a while we ourselves experienced this too. Our previous research for the comedy idea is still on the blog under one post which is the first one posted.
We later decided that we would keep some of the same ideas but turn them into something that would work in an action-crime-thriller, for example, in our previous ideas we had Sarah Jenkins as Noah's secretary (previously named Sandra and Larry) but we developed that to making her Noah's partner which became an appealing feature for the female audience.
We wrote a shooting script, floor plans, a storyboard, a photo storyboard and a script to help us know what the vision was whilst filming because I learned that your knowledge of what you are doing in filming is hard because you can't edit whilst you're there so you have to try and create a vision of what you're essentially doing whilst filming so having a list of every shot and where people maneuvered themselves and camera equipment was helpful. Also having a storyboard and a photo one was helpful because we could visually see the story whilst the film had not yet been created. Having the script gave us the ability to read our lines so we knew what we were saying which is the basic point of any script, there's no complex thing that a script does.
Having this pre-planning for our film helped us greatly in filming and editing what we needed to do which eliminated many potential problems that could have arose.
Some of the shots that we tried in our preliminary task improved whilst filming and editing Hunting for Matt. One of them was match on action. We used match on action when I entered the room in our preliminary task and we were taught how to do that on the edit software by our tutor. This time it is used on the door at the beginning of the film when Noah closes it and it cuts to a close up shot on his hand closing the door. This shot was not aided by our tutor this time but was carefully cut together by us without help which is an improvement from the preliminary task. Also we improved on shot reverse shot because, again, in our preliminary task our tutor helped us compose the shot reverse shot on our characters using special techniques that we did not know about. This time we used it clearly without any help again and achieved it successfully which, again, is a great improvement. Another shot we did was the jump cutting in Matt's opening clip which came about due to the film being too long so we had little help from our tutor except from showing us how to do it in the first place and from my point of view I think that it worked rather well. That shot was particularly tricky with working with the audio track to parallel with the visual footage on screen which became a large challenge but was resolved which proved to us the effectiveness of editing. One more feature we used in the filming was part of the audience involvement by filming a few point of view shots which was only done through filming. This was not so much of a challenge for me because I filmed as the hostage's point of view which sometimes a moved the camera incorrectly but other than that there was not much to it.I feel that the end product was very successful because it looks professional to a certain extent and it fulfills all the requirements we had for it. We created a 2 minute film opening that established the start of a story and introduced the genre, characters and storyline from the opening sequence which was our exact task so I feel we met this very successfully. Also it gave me and my friend some fun in producing it because of the outtakes we had so not only was it a successful experience, it was very fun to do!
Photo Story Boards
hopefully this layour photo should make it clearer how we want each character to be introduced,
The still shot of a character is to the left of frame,
when it says 'see below for more detail', that photo is the story board photo for the 'video of character in Action' on the diagram above.
The still shot of a character is to the left of frame,
when it says 'see below for more detail', that photo is the story board photo for the 'video of character in Action' on the diagram above.
Evaluation
Part 1: In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of media products?
The film we have made has been classified as a 'Crime-Action-Thriller' because of the elements it contains each Genre is represented within our film.
The crime side of our film is labeled so because of costumes, props and editing.
The costumes are designed to be detective looking, here is Columbo (left) a well know detective character and Noah (right) he is the main detective character in our film Noah's costume was based on Columbo's, as you can see both have a long trench coat, and both are smarty dressed with a shirt, tie and trousers. The idea of using a well known detective Character as a template for our's was Oliver's, it helps set the character, how they will act and stereotypically what they will be like by using what is already there rather than creating a new stereotype or inventing subverted stereotype.We have included some props you would associate with a cop film such as- a gun as a lot of policemen are armed, a knife stereotypically used by criminals, blood- people would think of it if you asked them what they would find at a crime scene.
At the same time as our titles are set out in an easy to understand fashion they are also a little like a police report, below you can see a mock example, it has a photo of the person and their
name (if you look below) this is very similar to how our titles are constructed, it is a hidden clue which helps identify what you can expect in the film similar to die hard the Fox Logo is made to look like a computer crash, giving the audience a little insight that computer crashes will be a theme in the film.
this title layout is also part of the editing which gives it the identity of a crime film, the use of slow motion and rhythmic editing coupled with fast paced editing also identifies our film as a Crime film.
The Action side to our film is because of various different aspects such as music, Acting and Props.
Most of the music used in our film is fast paced and rhythmically edited to the film for example the beginning scene where Noah closes his front door (above). This technique helps make the film move along quickly it also adds excitement to the film establishing it as a fast paced action film.
The film is also Thriller because of effects and music.
As my character (Matt)kills their captive the lighting behind them is supposed to look a little like an interrogation room as stereotypically the captive has a bright flood light shone in their face, also i think it adds a deeper meaning to it, you could say that light behind me shows life and as soon as i pull the trigger it goes dark and of course that is supposed to be the victim closing their eyes. this also highlights it as a Thriller as there is the dark side of someone dying in it. At the same time the crime scenes all have eerie music to them this effect adds tension and make the film a thriller, also the fact that the murders are part of a mystery to the 2 detectives help makes this film a thriller.
the conventions in the film indicate that it is in fact a hybrid-Genre we also have a sub-Genre of romance that runs though the full film, it involves Noah being 'in love' with Sarah but he is in denial about it, later in the film if we were to make it his feelings would become apparent but the romance side of things never really takes effect and it is only a minor theme.
the conventions in the film indicate that it is in fact a hybrid-Genre we also have a sub-Genre of romance that runs though the full film, it involves Noah being 'in love' with Sarah but he is in denial about it, later in the film if we were to make it his feelings would become apparent but the romance side of things never really takes effect and it is only a minor theme.
You can probably tell this film was greatly influenced by Die Hard 4.0, and the main title idea comes from Snatch, Die Hard is an Action Crime Thrill the same hybrid genre as our film the plot is similar and parts of our film are based on Die Hard, snatch is a Crime Thriller both have a lot of similarities to our film. Die Hards plot, that one by one John (the main character) hunts down and kills all the bad guys who have taken his daughter hostage mirrors our full film as Noah would find the person he loves (Sarah) kidnapped and he would have to save her. Snatch shares the titles with our film it also has plot similarities as in Snatch a diamond gets stolen and they find out and hunt down who did it, this mirrors my Character (Matt) who is hunting for some weapons he has illegally bought but have gone missing. Our film is bringing both sides criminal and Law enforcement together and looking at them from different angles.
Here is a still from Snatch and a still from our film, they both have similarities both have picture of the character and the characters name a quick and easy way to establish the character. although in our titles we decided to take it a step further and give the name of the Actor alongside the Characters name, we also chose to have a small video (top right) of the Character 'in action' this helps to clarify the type of genre in this case, in Oliver's video his character is holding a gun as is 'ready to shoot round the corner this highlights the genre as action and the way he is dressed alongside the action genre highlights that it is an action cop film.
Part 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In Hunting for Matt the range of social groups involved is in reality quite small, in the film both male and females are represented fairly equally the woman character has a lesser Role than both the males but without her the film would not be complete. Although in terms of a fighting character her role is much smaller, her role of Noah’s lover and helper shows her as competent and capable, and so to an extent the Female character is still shown to be less dominant compared to both male characters. Also in terms of race only British white people are involved and only young adults in terms of age range, i would say it mostly applies to young people and Adults ranging from 15-40 years old.
In Hunting for Matt the range of social groups involved is in reality quite small, in the film both male and females are represented fairly equally the woman character has a lesser Role than both the males but without her the film would not be complete. Although in terms of a fighting character her role is much smaller, her role of Noah’s lover and helper shows her as competent and capable, and so to an extent the Female character is still shown to be less dominant compared to both male characters. Also in terms of race only British white people are involved and only young adults in terms of age range, i would say it mostly applies to young people and Adults ranging from 15-40 years old.
The idea of having a female character in the film make it complete, most good films that have action in them have an underlying love story even if the love story does not play a major role without it the film is not complete, in our story the underling love story is not only there to help make the film but the female character will also be appealing to other females as her role is not as passive as 'just the lover' but she also has quite an active role as well. The male characters are both stereotypical males and stereotypical apply to male viewers. Because of the age rating the film does not apply to under 15s but over 15 to 40-50s I would say is the main age range older people will probably not find it interesting due to the content of fighting and the whole action scene.
Character similarities from our film to Die Hard 4.0:
To the Left is Mai Linh she is the second in command bad guy in the film Die Hard 4.0 however the top bad guy does not appear in the opening sequence so i will compare and contrast Matt Morgan (right) to her. First difference is obviously Gender another difference is the way in which the characters get 'what they want' Mai lies and manipulates she is very deceptive and impersonates someone in power to gain what she is after, where as Matt is more ruthless he would kidnap someone he wants information from and threaten them with various different results, both are criminals and both are skilled in the way they both initially get what they are after.
The main characters, detectives and hero's from the 2 films John Mcclane (right) in Die Hard 4.0 Noah Jones (left) in Hunting for Matt. Both are physical men getting what they want by physically getting it in both films they track down the main baddy leaders to save people they love both characters use brute force i.e guns, fighting, however there are differences John starts by already having this attitude of hands on however Noah does not he starts more casual and less involved until Sarah is kidnapped. another difference is that one has hair and the other doesn't. but both men are good guys and are after justice.
Lucy Mcclane (left) and Sarah Jenkins (right) have similar roles but not at the start, to start with both characters are very bold and have minds of their own, however Lucy doesn't really do much in Die Hard 4.0 where as Sarah is part of the police department Sarah is hands on helping Noah all the time where as Lucy doesn't want anything to do with John and is very rebellious in his direction. however both are people who are close to the main characters Lucy is Johns Daughter and Sarah is Noah's love. both of these characters end up being kidnapped and eventually saved by the hero.
Part 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The film would have to be distributed by 20th century fox because of the sear scale of stunts, explosions and the amount of action needed for the film to work, it would require a large well know company to resource it. Fox has already distributed a vast amount of action films similar to the film i wanted to create, also Fox distributed 'Die Hard 4.0' the film i researched and based my film on.
The film is very similar to something like Die Hard hence why i did an analysis on it when looking at the scale of that film and looking at the scale of the one we would have made it would require a large film company.
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| An Action Still from Die Hard 4.0 |
The film it's self does not support much room for merchandise, one reason is the age ranged involved toys and child's a major merchandising industry would not apply because of the age range. However because it is an action film gaming could apply to a great extent due to all the action and explosions. Other things could also be merchandised from the film. but this is more likely to be things with the films logo or a saying from the film on it eg mugs or t-shirts.
Video games: Made from Die Hard, our film could support similar products.
Titles:
Die Hard for Nintendo Entertainment System - Die Hard for MS-DOS
- Die Hard 2: Die Harder for Commodore Amiga
- Die Hard Arcade for arcade and Sega Saturn
- Die Hard Trilogy for PC, PlayStation, and Saturn
- Die Hard Trilogy 2: Viva Las Vegas for PC and PlayStation
- Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza for PC
- Die Hard: Vendetta for Nintendo GameCube, Xbox, and PlayStation 2
Part 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target audience for our film would be between the ages of 15 and 40 and generally more appealing to males rather than females because of the action content, however there is an element of a man trying to win a woman's heart which some females would find interesting.
Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction
The major selling point is the type of film,with the stunts the action fights and explosions involved in the film it is most appealing to males. the underlying love theme also makes it apply to some females, but not all.
here the audience is put 'into the shoes' of a character in this case the victim, they see first hand what the victim sees this helps the audience associate with the characters and almost helps them build up relationships between them and the characters.
The target audience for our film would be between the ages of 15 and 40 and generally more appealing to males rather than females because of the action content, however there is an element of a man trying to win a woman's heart which some females would find interesting.
I looked up BBFC classifications and our film only bridges into the 15 category because of the violence involved in the action of the film.
"Violence
Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the inflictionof pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to
be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also
unlikely to be acceptable.
There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence
but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and
have a strong contextual justification."
The film we are wanting to produce is a typical action film like Die Hard it contains violence blood and explosions, this appeals mostly to men (under 40s down to 15 year olds).
The major selling point is the type of film,with the stunts the action fights and explosions involved in the film it is most appealing to males. the underlying love theme also makes it apply to some females, but not all.
In the film the Audience are put into the position of 'the Hostage' due to a P.O.V shot, the audience witness quite a few sense which some could find upsetting like the murder of the hostage, this violence will have a shocking impact on the viewer. This links back to the film being a thriller because the audience guesses whats coming before the character does and they feel for them. Unlike the Character who has no pity.
The fast paced music during the titles should also enduces excitement in the viewers this creates that action genre in the film.
Scenes like these help to engage the audience in the film:
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| In shots like this one it is almost like the character is directly addressing the audience, giving the audience a sense of involvement in the film. |
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| Here the Audience can clearly see information about the character almost like a character profile they see their name,the actor who plays them, they see the character'in action' and they see a still 'passport style' photo of them |
here the audience is put 'into the shoes' of a character in this case the victim, they see first hand what the victim sees this helps the audience associate with the characters and almost helps them build up relationships between them and the characters.Part 6: What have you learned about technology from the process of constructing your product?
The camera we used was a HDV-1000 video camera which gave us a much better high quality picture, allowing us to film in HD and wide screen. There is a much better zoom feature than with previous cameras we have used for the preliminary task. 
For the editing we used Final Cut Express. This was a bit tricky to get used to but gave us more features we could do with our film. To start with we just imported all the clips we had, gave the ones we wanted to use names and then created a rough edit. this made it easier to alter bits and make it perfect although on a few occasions things worked out just right without too much messing around. This software allowed many effects such as colour correction which we needed after setting the white balance wrongly we could also do sound bridges because sound and video were separate. It also allowed us to import files such as the music we used as a soundtrack. it allowed us to have cool effects such as the titles at the beginning being wiped by the door or the type writer effect.
The camera equipment was clearly vital for our film, but what were it strengths and weaknesses?
well it's strengths include its versatile, due to the tripod it could be set up any where we chose even unlevel ground, it was fast in terms of features like the zoom, it's easy to use and the user friendly menu helped us correctly set the settings such as white balance.
it's greatest weakness was it's size, the camera was big and bulky which made it hard for us to transport around examples of when this was a problem was walking around and getting onto cramped buses.
The filming process was fun and enjoyable, it was also made easy with the use of the tripod. one of the biggest difficulties we faced when filming was the size of the rooms we filmed in, this was mostly our fault, but the camers tripod helped us cram it into small spaces and the beauty of the filming screen which moved around was i could film from the side of the camera rather than being stood behind it and still see what i was doing.
new equipment which we used obviously the cameras without them the film would not bee as good in quality. the tripod also helped keep the filming level and still it mean there was no shaky movements that you would get from a hand held camera.
Part 7: Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
The planning stages of our film were long and tiresome but in the end all the hard work paid off as it made shooting, editing, sound and mise-en-sen easier to work thought and easier to do. to start with me and my 2 friends were interested in doing a comedy however one of my Friends left Media so our group was brought down to 2, our teacher advised us that a comedy would be hard enough not to mention the fact that with only 2 of us there is a large work load already. so we changed Genre after a long debate to Action crime thriller. originally we were going to do a cop spoof so we kept the cop idea but moved towards an action thriller rather than a comedy- here is the work we did towards a comedy-
http://joeolcon.blogspot.com/2010/11/ideas-for-opening-so-far.html
After we changed what Genre we were doing mean a total re-draft of all our work and it mean we had to crack on with our research. after we had completed the script and story boards it made the filming easier as we knew exactly where to set up and what shots to take.
I can confidently say that my experience on the camera has improved, i got used to the zoom at last! to start with it puzzled me a little, and i have definitely got better at editing, now i can confidently and quickly edit my work to produce things like 'match on action' effectively and accurately.
After we changed what Genre we were doing mean a total re-draft of all our work and it mean we had to crack on with our research. after we had completed the script and story boards it made the filming easier as we knew exactly where to set up and what shots to take.
I can confidently say that my experience on the camera has improved, i got used to the zoom at last! to start with it puzzled me a little, and i have definitely got better at editing, now i can confidently and quickly edit my work to produce things like 'match on action' effectively and accurately.
The audience feedback we received on the film was good, quite small in terms of numbers of people that commented but it was encouraging still, people said they enjoyed it that even for 2 minutes they were at 'the edge of their seat' the rhythmic editing was a big hit people liked that and one person said it looked very professional.
here is a link to the audience feedback:
http://joeolcon.blogspot.com/2011/05/feedback-from-people-who-viewed-film.html
here is a link to the audience feedback:
http://joeolcon.blogspot.com/2011/05/feedback-from-people-who-viewed-film.html
i am hopeful that the work i have produced is good and i hope that it will fulfil the requirements needed for a good grade, i am very happy and pleased with my work and thoroughly enjoyed making it... except the story boards. i look forward to doing another project in the future.
below are 2 videos the preliminary task (top) and the 2 minute opening sequence (bottom) please watch and enjoy!
Die Hard 4.0 15 minute analysis.
For my 15 Minute Analysis I am going to Analyse Die Hard 4.0, it has a similar plot to the film we want to create and it has the same genre.
The film starts with the 20th centaury Fox opening, but the logo has been customised for the film and is made to look like a computer crash, after the usual 20th centaury logo screen has finished the screen flashes and makes crackling noises, then the flood lights go out. Here the producers of Die hard have given the viewer a glimpse into whats going on and the viewer has only seen the logo up to this point, it also introduces the style of the film by giving the audience a 'clue' towards the content of the film.
The screen goes black then eary music starts playing, which builds up tension, the films starts with a long shot inside what looks to be an empty library, the camera pans right to left as it does "20th centaury Fox Presents" appears.
The camera stops panning when it comes to a young man on a computer, he has a jacket and t shirts on and is concentrating on his computer screen; this fills the viewer with curiosity as to what he is doing on his computer. Then it cuts to a screen full of information and data, the camera does a close up on one imperticular piece of information to draw the viewer’s attention to whets important so they don't miss it. it is a dialogue box which says "Unlocking Password/User Connection" this will be intriguing to many viewers as to what he is unlocking, then the screen brings up a lot more information, one part of this information is a map of north America, the screen goes back and rhythmically edited to on a drum beat "Bruce Willis" comes up.
His name then fades out and it cuts a different location where a woman is on a computer the camera pans right to left behind the computer showing lots of wires and the back of the computer and then, comes out at the side so you can see the woman on the computer, close up, she has an ear piece in, she is communicating with the person on the computer revealed at the beginning. There is a match on action with some dialogue. this establishes they are in contact with one another, it also makes the audience realise they are working together and are doing something.
The camera shows a close up of her computer a lot of information flashes up then the computer says "download complete" the information flashes away to reveal "Die Hard 4.0" then the match on action continues with more dialogue, again the screen flashes green and then to black to reveal "Justin long".
The camera fades in giving the film so far a lot of mystery to reveal another person seen thought some neon lights, a man sat at a computer. reavealin this character thgough the lights is a nice effect it also tells the audience to look at him in 'a favourable light'. there is a close up of him typing, and another close up of information on his computer screen. It fades to black and "timothy Olyphant" appears, during these titles there is a lot of buzzing wirring and clicking noises to represent computers,again like the logo revealing to the audience that the film will be computer based and making sure the audience understand the key point is whats going on it linked to the computers. A flash of information comes up and then back to black more titles appear and the music beings to speed up slightly in pace, there is a close up on the second mans computer and it says "algorithm... Access granted" this once again interest the viewer who are likely to be asking 'Access granted to what?' this builds up tention and fills the audience with intreeg it also works well by drawing their attention in and making them wonder whats going to happen next.
The second man sat at his computer is revealed in a medium long shot the camera is ever so slightly looking down on him showing him to be inferior, he is clean shaven, has fairly scraggy hair, is wearing a t-shirt and a jacket... this makes him look like a computer user however not like the cartoony stereotypical computer geek. the fact that he is clean shaven but with scraggy hair is contrasting, you would expext a clean shaven man to be interested in hygene as he shaves and someone with scraggy hair to be uninterested in hygene as they don't bother with their hair, this strange combination gives this character uniquness and individuallity making him a more believe able character.
The camera cuts to show the woman’s face and then her screen, which has a list of peoples names and at the side of them it says "delivered" except for next to one name "Matthew Farrell" it reveals the second man to be Matt. Next to his name the screen then flashes and says Delivered, just like the others. The woman thanks him. This tells the audience that some information has been sent between the 2 computers and that the second man is somehow getting some important data and giving it to the woman.
After the computer says delivered it zooms out to reveal the woman inside a larger computerised room behind her is another man on a computer. Another title flashes up and it cuts to Matt sat at his computer it slowly pans around him to reveal he has a lot of computer equipment as well. this shows he works with computers and that he is very keen and used to using them, this tells the audience he is some sort of computer programmer or hacker, certainly a computer expert. Here it is revealing both characters slowly giving them a personality, The Man then asks if what he is doing "is Legal" the woman reassures him it is. The audience will have realised at this point for Matt to be unsure of what he is sending it must be very important and potentially dangerous to other computer users, the woman tells him that it is just a test of their new software. At this point all of the viewer’s attention is drawn to what information he has sent and what he is doing. The pace of the music really starts to speed up giving the audience another clue something is going to happen, at this point and the woman says good bye to the man.
Then a lot more title appear on screen this is because the main introduction to the film is almost over. The camera goes close up on the list of people on the woman’s computer and it pans down the list showing each persons name and "delivered" next to their name. The woman sharply turns to the side and says "were ready" more titles flash up. this continues to fill the audience with intreeg, they may be asking 'ready for what' the audeince will have figured out by now that something is not right and that the information that Matt has sent is useful or dangerous but they will still want to know what exactly he has done and what the woman will use it for.
It then cuts to a computer game, a young boy is playing it, and then the first man runs into the room and tell the young boy he has just got a lot of money from doing a job. He sits at his computer and starts typing when... the computer crashes, the man looks puzzled, again he is revealed to be a computer programer or hacker, so for him to be puzzled it confirms to the audience something is seriously wrong. He try’s various different buttons on his key board, the camera looking level at him in a close up so the audience can see the confused expression on his face. After several attempts to mend his computer he tells the young guy next to him off for "messing with his computer" he then clicks a turn off button. The camera cuts to a box on the back of his computer and a red light flashed on. Then the camera cuts to a long shot of the house they are in, which blows up. Now the audience will wonder what information has he sent because he just got killed for it, and soon after a black van parked outside his house pulls away. the audience is also filled with sympathy for the character of the young boy playing on the computer it also adds more personality to the computer guy, who appears to have needed to money for him and his friend.
The music beat increases bringing more tention and the camera returns to the list of names now one by one they change from delivered to deactivate, the audience will realise one by one they are being killed. This is the first time the audience can see whets going on now the picture is more complete, that a large amount of people have given computer information to this woman. She and a team of people have then killed the people who sent the information; again this builds up suspense and fills the audience with interest as to what the information was. There is a wipe to reveal a large long room with a lot of people working on computers all along it most of them are more typical 'computer geeks' with glasses and shirts, one of those people is the woman revealed in the beginning.
It cuts to her and she continues typing only now on her screen it says FBI, there is an extreme long shot outside the FBI headquarters and a helicopter flies in front of the camera. The camera cuts to a large room filled with people and computers a foot note comes up in the corner saying 'cyber security division' when all of a sudden it cuts to the woman who types something in, and the whole room of FBI computers shuts down. the audeince should realise that the files from earlier are linked to this computer hack however it is slightly misleading adding more suspense and mystery to the film making it more enjoyable for viewers. The music beat and pace at this point increases again this shows the audience clearly that the woman and 'her team' are responsible for the crash in the computers. The people in this room all smartly dressed wearing suits-steriotypical office dress code, look around bewildered at the computers that are crashing. The camera pans round the room to show many confused people. The audience will be confused, until the camera cuts to a woman and 2 men walking briskly into a conference room on their way the woman explain that it is an intentional breach. Behind them are the American flag and an FBI plaque, helping identify where they are and making the set look affective and 'real'.
There are several people informing the main man, shown to be in authority because the camera looks up on him he is the most smartly dressed and all the people acknowledge him as 'sir' and speak to him this shows the audience is in authority. The main man and a few other are walking along a glass wall in the fore ground there is a lot of people panicking and rushing around but the focus is shallow and is pulled so that the audience can see whats going on in the fore ground but they are focusing on the main man and his advisors. The main man announces that he wants 'every hacker in the country who could have done this found' this helps to prove what i said earlier about Matt and the other man being hackers or computer programmers. Now the audience can see that the people in the beginning are hackers and that they are linked to hacking into the security of the nation. There is a loud drum beat and it cuts to black signifying an end to the panic for a moment.
The screen comes back on and the music has changed to a more faced paced happy music, this music is diegetic, because it is coming from a car so the characters can hear it, there us a log establishing shot of a park, with a fountain in it helping to paint a picutre of peace in contrast to th panic that was just shown. The camera cranes down to the car park next to the park where a man and a woman are snogging in the car. The camera cuts to close up of them snogging the woman in the car stops the man and says 'I said no' it cuts to another camera from someone’s view point from inside another car near them, it looks like a steak out. The camera cuts to the inside of the car and then out again into a pan from the back of the car round to the drivers side then the camera shows a close up on a hand reaching for the door handle, it cuts to the inside of the car as the door opens, match on action, a man says get out of the car. Burse Willis then drags the man out of the car. This film unique selling point is its part of a series so the audience will probably already know Burses Character- John. this is what the audeicne was waiting for- to see John the much loved hero of the previous films.
A three way argument begins between the woman, John and the other man. The woman turns out to be Lucy (John's daughter), the camera then cuts from one person to the next, shot reverse shot, it ends with Lucy walking off. Lucy here is wearing a tight dress with a denim jacket over the top and she is looked down on slightly by the camera she had a rebellious attitude. The other man is wearing I t-shirt with an unbuttoned shirt over the top. And John is wearing a t-shirt with a brown leather jacket, making him look 'tough'. this tought looks tells the audience he is a fighter this has previously been established in the previous films so it is more continuing to uphold this point rather than establish it.
The film carries on after John gets into his car and the other Man drives off. when John gets into his car, his radio/ walkie talkie shown by a close up starts ringing, here it established John as an undercover cop as the audience associate these types as radios with police, they are even known as police radios. The man who talks to him on the end of the radio asks him to do an assignment. The other man is shown in an office room on the phone to John, he is smartly dressed with a shirt and tie showing him to probably be the head of police if not definitely someone important as the camera looks up at him confirming his authority. On the other end of the phone the man asks John to pick up 'Matthew Farrell' the man who was previously shown on the first few minutes of the film. Now the audience see how John and Matthew Farrell are linked.
At this point a background dull toned music starts and it cuts to an extreme long shot of a city, the next shot is of some flats within the city, it then shows what Matthew is watching on his computer lots of data and a music video, he is in the middle of talking to someone online when the camera cuts to the street outside his house, eary music starts playing as the 'black van' from earlier pulls up, immediately the audience will realise it is the same van from the explosion earlier and they should realise that Matthew is about to be blown up.
It cuts to inside the van and there is a man on a laptop medium long shot, he is a subverted stereotype of a computer geek, he has a full beard and is wearing a military style jacket. The camera goes to a close up on his computer and shows him hacking into Matthews’s computer then he uploads a virus to it. Just after the virus is uploaded it cuts to Matthews’s computer and shows the same box on the side of it with the red light as the one where the other explosion was, just like before Matthews computer crashes and he starts to try and fix it. here suspense builds up in the audience as they feel he is about to be killed. After a while he can't do anything and a deep drum role starts to play over Matthews music... he is just about to press the delete button (which will cause his computer to blow up) when there is a nock at the door and Matthew jumps, this should have made the audience jump too as they would be expecting Matthew to push the button. it is a very effective techniqu, the film makers allow a build up in tension and then release it but then the build tension back it, it helps make the audience more suspenseful as they don't know which tension build up's are genuine and which are fakes. It cuts to the door being knocked on.
Matthew turns around and goes to answer the door a very tense music starts playing and Matthew pauses his music video. The man in the car shown by a close up and a pan say "plan B we do it our selves" in other words they are coming to kill Matthew. Here the it's the second time the tension builds up this time with a real danger after it. It cuts to a long shot and a man jumps out of the car with a large gun, it cuts to a high angle camera over the man (birds eye view) of him running into the building next to the one Matthew is in.
Very tense music takes over building up extreem tension in the audience who are expecting something to happen any moment.
Matthew answers the door to John and it shows a close up on all the locks, Matthew and John have a conversation (shot reverse shot) Matthew asks for Id and John shots him his Badge (close up) he then shows him his gun (close up) this makes it clear to the audience whats going on. Suddenly behind John a very stereotypical computer geek comes out and starts talking to Matthew... Matthew asks him to shut up and invited John into his house. Eary music with deep drum beat continues and it cuts to the man with the gun who begins to set up ready to shoot Matthew. Matthew goes back to his computer and starts to turn things off (not the computer with a bomb in it) the eary music picks up volume and editing starts to speed up- rythmic editing again a very useful technique when building up to a high tension moment it also adds excitemnent and slight confusion. The camera cuts to an eyeline match down the scope of the mans gun as he looks into Matthews window and prepares to take his shot. this is where members of the audience are tense, will he get Matt and John or won't he?
Matthew attempts to run out of his window (which leads to some stairs) but the window is locked (shown by close up), then the window breaks as the gun fires and bullects come through it and it hits several other ornaments and the light, the music begins to be really loud, special effects with the broken objects and sound effects of the gun adds to the realistic view on whats happening drawing the audience into the film and making it more enjoyable. John peers our of the broken window and gets shot at, John returns fire. It cuts to the other men in the black van and they have a puzzled look on their faces as they hear Johns gun the quickly grab other weapons and run out of the van (to attack John). John and Matthew sneak out of the room when the other men come running up the stairs. John looks at a fire extinguisher (eyeline match) close up on extinguisher. There is some stunt acting and explosions as John throws a fire extinguisher at the men and shoots it, it explodes and one of the men falls out of the window which breaks. Here there is a camra looking up and the audicne see the man fall out of the window and plumit to his death. John says 'thats going to wake the neighbours' adding humor to the film.
John and Matthew dive back into Matthews’s room avoiding the gunfire from the other men. The music becomes faster paced and intense, one of the other men tried of kick the door down so John pulls the fridge in the way whilst the other shoots randomly through the wall. John's gun gets nocked out of his hand as he tries to re'load it, he then is being shot at and has to lye down in front of the fridge to avoid being shot, this adds tension and fear that John minght die because he is unarmed and uppretected and therefoe vunerable
The film starts with the 20th centaury Fox opening, but the logo has been customised for the film and is made to look like a computer crash, after the usual 20th centaury logo screen has finished the screen flashes and makes crackling noises, then the flood lights go out. Here the producers of Die hard have given the viewer a glimpse into whats going on and the viewer has only seen the logo up to this point, it also introduces the style of the film by giving the audience a 'clue' towards the content of the film.
The screen goes black then eary music starts playing, which builds up tension, the films starts with a long shot inside what looks to be an empty library, the camera pans right to left as it does "20th centaury Fox Presents" appears.
The camera stops panning when it comes to a young man on a computer, he has a jacket and t shirts on and is concentrating on his computer screen; this fills the viewer with curiosity as to what he is doing on his computer. Then it cuts to a screen full of information and data, the camera does a close up on one imperticular piece of information to draw the viewer’s attention to whets important so they don't miss it. it is a dialogue box which says "Unlocking Password/User Connection" this will be intriguing to many viewers as to what he is unlocking, then the screen brings up a lot more information, one part of this information is a map of north America, the screen goes back and rhythmically edited to on a drum beat "Bruce Willis" comes up.
His name then fades out and it cuts a different location where a woman is on a computer the camera pans right to left behind the computer showing lots of wires and the back of the computer and then, comes out at the side so you can see the woman on the computer, close up, she has an ear piece in, she is communicating with the person on the computer revealed at the beginning. There is a match on action with some dialogue. this establishes they are in contact with one another, it also makes the audience realise they are working together and are doing something.
The camera shows a close up of her computer a lot of information flashes up then the computer says "download complete" the information flashes away to reveal "Die Hard 4.0" then the match on action continues with more dialogue, again the screen flashes green and then to black to reveal "Justin long".
The camera fades in giving the film so far a lot of mystery to reveal another person seen thought some neon lights, a man sat at a computer. reavealin this character thgough the lights is a nice effect it also tells the audience to look at him in 'a favourable light'. there is a close up of him typing, and another close up of information on his computer screen. It fades to black and "timothy Olyphant" appears, during these titles there is a lot of buzzing wirring and clicking noises to represent computers,again like the logo revealing to the audience that the film will be computer based and making sure the audience understand the key point is whats going on it linked to the computers. A flash of information comes up and then back to black more titles appear and the music beings to speed up slightly in pace, there is a close up on the second mans computer and it says "algorithm... Access granted" this once again interest the viewer who are likely to be asking 'Access granted to what?' this builds up tention and fills the audience with intreeg it also works well by drawing their attention in and making them wonder whats going to happen next.
The second man sat at his computer is revealed in a medium long shot the camera is ever so slightly looking down on him showing him to be inferior, he is clean shaven, has fairly scraggy hair, is wearing a t-shirt and a jacket... this makes him look like a computer user however not like the cartoony stereotypical computer geek. the fact that he is clean shaven but with scraggy hair is contrasting, you would expext a clean shaven man to be interested in hygene as he shaves and someone with scraggy hair to be uninterested in hygene as they don't bother with their hair, this strange combination gives this character uniquness and individuallity making him a more believe able character.
The camera cuts to show the woman’s face and then her screen, which has a list of peoples names and at the side of them it says "delivered" except for next to one name "Matthew Farrell" it reveals the second man to be Matt. Next to his name the screen then flashes and says Delivered, just like the others. The woman thanks him. This tells the audience that some information has been sent between the 2 computers and that the second man is somehow getting some important data and giving it to the woman.
After the computer says delivered it zooms out to reveal the woman inside a larger computerised room behind her is another man on a computer. Another title flashes up and it cuts to Matt sat at his computer it slowly pans around him to reveal he has a lot of computer equipment as well. this shows he works with computers and that he is very keen and used to using them, this tells the audience he is some sort of computer programmer or hacker, certainly a computer expert. Here it is revealing both characters slowly giving them a personality, The Man then asks if what he is doing "is Legal" the woman reassures him it is. The audience will have realised at this point for Matt to be unsure of what he is sending it must be very important and potentially dangerous to other computer users, the woman tells him that it is just a test of their new software. At this point all of the viewer’s attention is drawn to what information he has sent and what he is doing. The pace of the music really starts to speed up giving the audience another clue something is going to happen, at this point and the woman says good bye to the man.
Then a lot more title appear on screen this is because the main introduction to the film is almost over. The camera goes close up on the list of people on the woman’s computer and it pans down the list showing each persons name and "delivered" next to their name. The woman sharply turns to the side and says "were ready" more titles flash up. this continues to fill the audience with intreeg, they may be asking 'ready for what' the audeince will have figured out by now that something is not right and that the information that Matt has sent is useful or dangerous but they will still want to know what exactly he has done and what the woman will use it for.
It then cuts to a computer game, a young boy is playing it, and then the first man runs into the room and tell the young boy he has just got a lot of money from doing a job. He sits at his computer and starts typing when... the computer crashes, the man looks puzzled, again he is revealed to be a computer programer or hacker, so for him to be puzzled it confirms to the audience something is seriously wrong. He try’s various different buttons on his key board, the camera looking level at him in a close up so the audience can see the confused expression on his face. After several attempts to mend his computer he tells the young guy next to him off for "messing with his computer" he then clicks a turn off button. The camera cuts to a box on the back of his computer and a red light flashed on. Then the camera cuts to a long shot of the house they are in, which blows up. Now the audience will wonder what information has he sent because he just got killed for it, and soon after a black van parked outside his house pulls away. the audience is also filled with sympathy for the character of the young boy playing on the computer it also adds more personality to the computer guy, who appears to have needed to money for him and his friend.
The music beat increases bringing more tention and the camera returns to the list of names now one by one they change from delivered to deactivate, the audience will realise one by one they are being killed. This is the first time the audience can see whets going on now the picture is more complete, that a large amount of people have given computer information to this woman. She and a team of people have then killed the people who sent the information; again this builds up suspense and fills the audience with interest as to what the information was. There is a wipe to reveal a large long room with a lot of people working on computers all along it most of them are more typical 'computer geeks' with glasses and shirts, one of those people is the woman revealed in the beginning.
It cuts to her and she continues typing only now on her screen it says FBI, there is an extreme long shot outside the FBI headquarters and a helicopter flies in front of the camera. The camera cuts to a large room filled with people and computers a foot note comes up in the corner saying 'cyber security division' when all of a sudden it cuts to the woman who types something in, and the whole room of FBI computers shuts down. the audeince should realise that the files from earlier are linked to this computer hack however it is slightly misleading adding more suspense and mystery to the film making it more enjoyable for viewers. The music beat and pace at this point increases again this shows the audience clearly that the woman and 'her team' are responsible for the crash in the computers. The people in this room all smartly dressed wearing suits-steriotypical office dress code, look around bewildered at the computers that are crashing. The camera pans round the room to show many confused people. The audience will be confused, until the camera cuts to a woman and 2 men walking briskly into a conference room on their way the woman explain that it is an intentional breach. Behind them are the American flag and an FBI plaque, helping identify where they are and making the set look affective and 'real'.
There are several people informing the main man, shown to be in authority because the camera looks up on him he is the most smartly dressed and all the people acknowledge him as 'sir' and speak to him this shows the audience is in authority. The main man and a few other are walking along a glass wall in the fore ground there is a lot of people panicking and rushing around but the focus is shallow and is pulled so that the audience can see whats going on in the fore ground but they are focusing on the main man and his advisors. The main man announces that he wants 'every hacker in the country who could have done this found' this helps to prove what i said earlier about Matt and the other man being hackers or computer programmers. Now the audience can see that the people in the beginning are hackers and that they are linked to hacking into the security of the nation. There is a loud drum beat and it cuts to black signifying an end to the panic for a moment.
The screen comes back on and the music has changed to a more faced paced happy music, this music is diegetic, because it is coming from a car so the characters can hear it, there us a log establishing shot of a park, with a fountain in it helping to paint a picutre of peace in contrast to th panic that was just shown. The camera cranes down to the car park next to the park where a man and a woman are snogging in the car. The camera cuts to close up of them snogging the woman in the car stops the man and says 'I said no' it cuts to another camera from someone’s view point from inside another car near them, it looks like a steak out. The camera cuts to the inside of the car and then out again into a pan from the back of the car round to the drivers side then the camera shows a close up on a hand reaching for the door handle, it cuts to the inside of the car as the door opens, match on action, a man says get out of the car. Burse Willis then drags the man out of the car. This film unique selling point is its part of a series so the audience will probably already know Burses Character- John. this is what the audeicne was waiting for- to see John the much loved hero of the previous films.
A three way argument begins between the woman, John and the other man. The woman turns out to be Lucy (John's daughter), the camera then cuts from one person to the next, shot reverse shot, it ends with Lucy walking off. Lucy here is wearing a tight dress with a denim jacket over the top and she is looked down on slightly by the camera she had a rebellious attitude. The other man is wearing I t-shirt with an unbuttoned shirt over the top. And John is wearing a t-shirt with a brown leather jacket, making him look 'tough'. this tought looks tells the audience he is a fighter this has previously been established in the previous films so it is more continuing to uphold this point rather than establish it.
The film carries on after John gets into his car and the other Man drives off. when John gets into his car, his radio/ walkie talkie shown by a close up starts ringing, here it established John as an undercover cop as the audience associate these types as radios with police, they are even known as police radios. The man who talks to him on the end of the radio asks him to do an assignment. The other man is shown in an office room on the phone to John, he is smartly dressed with a shirt and tie showing him to probably be the head of police if not definitely someone important as the camera looks up at him confirming his authority. On the other end of the phone the man asks John to pick up 'Matthew Farrell' the man who was previously shown on the first few minutes of the film. Now the audience see how John and Matthew Farrell are linked.
At this point a background dull toned music starts and it cuts to an extreme long shot of a city, the next shot is of some flats within the city, it then shows what Matthew is watching on his computer lots of data and a music video, he is in the middle of talking to someone online when the camera cuts to the street outside his house, eary music starts playing as the 'black van' from earlier pulls up, immediately the audience will realise it is the same van from the explosion earlier and they should realise that Matthew is about to be blown up.
It cuts to inside the van and there is a man on a laptop medium long shot, he is a subverted stereotype of a computer geek, he has a full beard and is wearing a military style jacket. The camera goes to a close up on his computer and shows him hacking into Matthews’s computer then he uploads a virus to it. Just after the virus is uploaded it cuts to Matthews’s computer and shows the same box on the side of it with the red light as the one where the other explosion was, just like before Matthews computer crashes and he starts to try and fix it. here suspense builds up in the audience as they feel he is about to be killed. After a while he can't do anything and a deep drum role starts to play over Matthews music... he is just about to press the delete button (which will cause his computer to blow up) when there is a nock at the door and Matthew jumps, this should have made the audience jump too as they would be expecting Matthew to push the button. it is a very effective techniqu, the film makers allow a build up in tension and then release it but then the build tension back it, it helps make the audience more suspenseful as they don't know which tension build up's are genuine and which are fakes. It cuts to the door being knocked on.
Matthew turns around and goes to answer the door a very tense music starts playing and Matthew pauses his music video. The man in the car shown by a close up and a pan say "plan B we do it our selves" in other words they are coming to kill Matthew. Here the it's the second time the tension builds up this time with a real danger after it. It cuts to a long shot and a man jumps out of the car with a large gun, it cuts to a high angle camera over the man (birds eye view) of him running into the building next to the one Matthew is in.
Very tense music takes over building up extreem tension in the audience who are expecting something to happen any moment.
Matthew answers the door to John and it shows a close up on all the locks, Matthew and John have a conversation (shot reverse shot) Matthew asks for Id and John shots him his Badge (close up) he then shows him his gun (close up) this makes it clear to the audience whats going on. Suddenly behind John a very stereotypical computer geek comes out and starts talking to Matthew... Matthew asks him to shut up and invited John into his house. Eary music with deep drum beat continues and it cuts to the man with the gun who begins to set up ready to shoot Matthew. Matthew goes back to his computer and starts to turn things off (not the computer with a bomb in it) the eary music picks up volume and editing starts to speed up- rythmic editing again a very useful technique when building up to a high tension moment it also adds excitemnent and slight confusion. The camera cuts to an eyeline match down the scope of the mans gun as he looks into Matthews window and prepares to take his shot. this is where members of the audience are tense, will he get Matt and John or won't he?
Matthew attempts to run out of his window (which leads to some stairs) but the window is locked (shown by close up), then the window breaks as the gun fires and bullects come through it and it hits several other ornaments and the light, the music begins to be really loud, special effects with the broken objects and sound effects of the gun adds to the realistic view on whats happening drawing the audience into the film and making it more enjoyable. John peers our of the broken window and gets shot at, John returns fire. It cuts to the other men in the black van and they have a puzzled look on their faces as they hear Johns gun the quickly grab other weapons and run out of the van (to attack John). John and Matthew sneak out of the room when the other men come running up the stairs. John looks at a fire extinguisher (eyeline match) close up on extinguisher. There is some stunt acting and explosions as John throws a fire extinguisher at the men and shoots it, it explodes and one of the men falls out of the window which breaks. Here there is a camra looking up and the audicne see the man fall out of the window and plumit to his death. John says 'thats going to wake the neighbours' adding humor to the film.
John and Matthew dive back into Matthews’s room avoiding the gunfire from the other men. The music becomes faster paced and intense, one of the other men tried of kick the door down so John pulls the fridge in the way whilst the other shoots randomly through the wall. John's gun gets nocked out of his hand as he tries to re'load it, he then is being shot at and has to lye down in front of the fridge to avoid being shot, this adds tension and fear that John minght die because he is unarmed and uppretected and therefoe vunerable
He ends up pushing his gun though the wall and john jumps kicking the gun out of his hand he then punches through the wall and kills the man, then other man starts shooting through the door John scrambles along the floor till he is safe next to Matthew.
The other man breaks down the door and rushes in shooting wildly as he does it. After a while he stops and walks in calmly there is a pause in the music John shoots him in the leg from behind a corner and the music starts the other man starts fairing back. the other man walks towards John whilst shooting at him, (however he is walking closer to the computer. john shoots back and hits an ornament near the computer (close up) the it shows the other man hiding (medium shot) the music becomes very loud and very tense as the other man get ready to shoot John (still hiding but now out of bullets)
when... the ornament John shot and knocked over rolls onto the key board (close up on bomb) and extreme close up on delete button, red light comes on and the room explodes, it cuts to the man outside who assuming john is dead packs up his gun. the camera cuts to John and Matthew who are covered in soot and ash after the explosion.
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