Keith Negus

The Ideologies of the music industry

• “What I’m looking for is the working act. The real act. The act that can get up on stage and do it. That act will give you career. I signed Black Sabbath umpteen years ago; they are still making records. These are acts that are career acts… Two years ago I started a dance label… now that’s not a career-orientated label. I mean those records are one-off situations and every now and again maybe you’ll get an artist come out of it.”

• “When I first started it was more about going out and finding bands. That method is becoming more and more redundant. More and more these days I find it’s as much about: I sit here and think ‘there’s really a gap in the market for this kind of project…’. I don’t go out to gigs. That’s not how I find my stuff. It comes through various writers and producers. So if a writer comes in he may have some great songs and maybe is looking for a front person. Or maybe I have the front person who I want to launch into the market but I haven’t got the songs. So you put the two together.”

Ideologies of Creativity

• Keith Negus – Producing pop

• Identifies two distinct ways of thinking about potential artists from within the music industry.

• These ideologies shape the way in which the artists’ images and careers are developed, and the way that they are marketed towards specific target audiences.

• The organic ideology of creativity and…

• The synthetic ideology of creativity.

The Organic Ideology of Creativity 1

• A ‘naturalistic’ approach to artists

• The seeds of success are within the artists, who have to be ‘nurtured’ by the record company.

• The image of the artist is ‘enhanced’ by the record company.

• The artist is given time to evolve and progress through their career.

The Organic Ideology of Creativity 2

• Emphasis is given to album sales and the construction of a successful back catalogue.

• Often aimed at older or more sophisticated consumers

• Profits generated by this kind of act tend to be part of a long term strategy by the record company.

The Synthetic Ideology of Creativity 1

• A combinatorial approach to artists and material.

• Executives attempt to construct successful acts out of the artists and the songs at their disposal.

• The image of the artist is often constructed by the record company.

• The artist will be given a short time to prove their success before other combinations will be tried out.

The Synthetic Ideology of Creativity 2

• Emphasis is given to single sales and to promoting first albums.

• Often aimed at younger, less sophisticated audiences.

• Profits generated by this kind of artist tend to be part of an immediate, short term strategy by the record company.

Balancing the Two

• In practice, the success of synthetic acts will fund the development and investment in organic acts.

• Most big record labels will look to balance their roster with a combination of successful synthetic and organic acts to ensure that there are funds available for the day-to-day running of the company as well as long term profit making potential.

Promoting Organic and Synthetic Acts

• There are clear distinctions between the ways in which different types of artist are represented to ensure short term or long term success.

• Organic acts are often sold on their ‘authenticity’, both musically and socially.

• The image of the artist appears ‘unconstructed’ (although, of course, this is in itself a carefully constructed look)

• Synthetic acts are often sold on their ‘look’ or personalities

• The image of the artist is carefully and unashamedly constructed.

Richard Dyer

Stars and Stardom• In order to understand the relationship between the music industry and its audiences, it is important to consider the roles of music star.

• The term ‘star’ refers to the semi-mythological set of meanings constructed around music performers in order to sell the performer to a large and loyal audience.

Some common values of music stardom

• Youthfulness

• Rebellion

• Sexual Magnetism

• An anti-authoritarian attitude

• Originality

• Creativity/talent

• Aggression/anger

• A disregard for social values relating to drugs, sex and polite behaviour.

• Conspicuous consumption, of sex, drugs and material goods

• Success against the odds

• Dyer has written extensively about the role of stars in film, TV and music.

• Irrespective of the medium, stars have some key features in common: A star is an image, not a real person, that is constructed (as any other aspect of fiction is) out of a range of materials (eg. Advertising, magazines etc as well as films [music])

Stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings.

• Stars depend upon a range of subsidiary media – magazines, TV, radio, the internet – in order to construct an image for themselves which can be marketed to their target audiences.

• The star image is made up of a range of meanings, which are attractive to the target audience.

• Fundamenally, the star image is incoherent, that is incomplete and ‘open’. Dyer says that this is because it is based upon two key paradoxes.

Paradox 1• The star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer.

Paradox 2 • The star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer.

The Star Image

• The incoherence of the star image ensures that audiences continually strive to ‘complete’ or to ‘make sense of’ of the image.

• This is achieved by continued consumption of the star through his or her products.

• In the music industry, performance seems to promise the completion of the image, but it is always ultimately unsatisfying.

• This means that fans will go away determined to continue consuming the star in order to carry on attempting to complete their image.

• Finally, the star image can be used to position the consumer in relation to dominant social values (that is hegemony)

• Depending upon the artist, this may mean that the audience are positioned against the mainstream (though only to a limited degree, since they are still consumers within a capitalist system) or within the mainstream, or somewhere in between.

The Star Image QUOTE: Richard Dyer (stars, BFI, 1981)

• “In these terms it can be argued that stars are representations of persons which reinforce, legitimate or occasionally alter the prevalent preconceptions of what it is to be a human being in this society. There is a good deal at stake in such conceptions. On the one hand, our society stresses what makes them like others in the social group/class/gender to which they belong. This individualising stress involves a separation of the person’s “self” from his/her social “roles”, and hence poses the individual against society. On the other hand society suggests that certain norms of behaviour are appropriate to given groups of people, which many people in such groups would now wish to contest (eg. Gays in recent years). Stars are one of the ways in which conceptions of such persons are promulgated.”

Props

Prison Bars - Provided by Theatre/Media department

Cigars - Provided by Jason (Teacher)

Mug-shot boards x3 - Hand made: rectangular pieces of cardboard painted black with white numbers on

Retro silver microphones - Provided by Theatre/Media department

Money (Notes) - Printed and photocopied

Spaghetti - Provided by Jason

Martini Glass-

White Plate - Sourced from school kitchen

Poison Bottle - Provided by Theatre/Media department

Knife and Fork - Sourced from school kitchen

Small Tables(Jazz Club) - Provided by Theatre/Media department

Backdrop for Mug-shot -painted before shoot

Glasses - Provided by Theatre/Media department

Chairs for club- Provided by Theatre/Media department

Bar - Provided by Theatre/Media department

Gun (machine) - Provided by Theatre/Media department

Briefcase - Provided by Theatre/Media department

Desk - Provided by Theatre/Media department

Handcuffs - Provided by Theatre/Media department

Bed - Provided by Theatre/Media department

Storyboarding Editing Process

We had several initial ideas that we drew up storyboards for, one of which was set in a sweet shop. We had army men as the dancers and the 3 band members worked in the old fashioned sweet shop. We had the jazz club scene in with this idea. We wanted our video to have a retro feel, with the old sweet shop and the clothes they were wearing and the uniforms the soldiers had, we were then going to cut to the jazz club which was also set in the 50s.
This is one of the sheets from our storyboard for our original idea:




We came up with the idea of having the narrative being the 3 female jazz band members being 'Crazy in Love' and going round committing brutal murders. We have set our video in 2 main locations, a prison and a jazz club. Cut in between are the murders. We have 5 different murders and after each murder there is a 'cheeky' mug shot of one of the girls who supposedly committed that murder.
We decided to incorporate a dance break into the instrumental part of the song, this is done by the prison guards and prisoners in the prison scene. We filmed shots of each individual shot on the storyboard and cut them together to the timing and beat of the song using Final Cut Pro. Whilst drawing up the storyboard we included drawings, location, action, movement/type, sound, editing and timing of the shots. This will make it easier when we edit the shots together on the timeline. We had to change the length of some of the shots as when we played it back, we found they were not all keeping in time. Shortening the shots and speeding up the tempo, created a much more upbeat and energetic feel to the video, which is what we wanted to create.
This page below is showing how older women would want to see themselves as younger more dangerous, so the fact that these women in the band are portraying what they want to be, is inspirational for them.
This is our final storyboard:

Copyright Letter to Label

To the copyright holder

We are a group of A Level students working on an A Level project for a qualification in Media Studies. We are writing to request permission to use the following track as part of this project:

'Crazy in Love' by The Puppini Sisters

With your permission the track would be used as the accompaniment to a short form video that is made purely for assessment purposes and will have no commercial usage. The video will be viewed only by members of the school community and the assessor of the examination board.

The artist and the copyright holder will of course be fully recognised in the pre-production and evaluation material that accompanies the project. We can also include a full copyright notice if required both in the planning material and on the video itself.

Yours sincerely


Lauren Thornton-Clark
Hurtwood House School



http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p13 permission

Chosen Cover Track

We have chosen to use the Puppinni Sisters cover of Beyonce's 'Crazy in Love'. This decision was made, as our group appeals to an older upper class audience and the original artist Beyonce, appeals to a much younger audience. We thought this song choice would be a good way to appeal to a wider audience, as the younger audience would recognise the song and the older members would enjoy the style of music and the band image.

Artist Profile

Our group 'Hunky Dory' is made up of 3 girls. They specialize in 1940s style vocal music, and they have a burlesque style to there performances.

Our Target Audience

Our Record Label

Instituional Context

Two of the members of the band 'Hunky Dory', worked in a vintage charity shop in London, While the other (The sister of One of the Charity/Vintage workers) struggled on the jazz circuit, singing in grotty unsuccessful clubs. They decided to join together to try and become a successful cappella, pop, jazz, Close Harmony, Swing group. The group has been performing for roughly two years together and have attracted a niche audience. Since forming the group there style image has matured and become more sophisticated. They have always had an original style inspired by 40’s vintage fashion but it has become more glamorous over time, however they do have a sex appeal through there cheeky style. Hunky Dory will never become a mainstream audience but there original niche audience may grow slightly through word of mouth and by singing covers of mainstream songs, such as Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love”.

Hunky Dory are inspired by female singers who performed around the time of World War II (1939-1945), such as: The Andrews sisters, Vera Lyn and Judy Garland. They are also inspired by style icons such as pin up girls and Burlesque dancers. There modern day competitors would be the similar group, The Puppini Sisters. The old fashioned, sophisticated, glamorous style of their genre matches there appearance and makes them stand out in comparison to current successful music artists. The commercial implications that the Hunky Dory’s have is there style of music, which does not appeal a Mainstream artist. They have a very individual sound which is not typical of what you would here in the charts.

Hunky Dory are signed to a small record label, Universal Classics and Jazz (UK) which targets a niche audience. Other acts signed to this label are artists such as The Puppini Sisters. Our choice of label is aimed at a niche market; therefore our band has a unique look. The record label constructs Hunky Dory’s image to make them more sellable by portraying them as glamorous and sophisticated band.

Hunky Dory appeal to the demographic of upper middle class, and have a mainly female fan base. However their sex appeal may also attract a male audience. It appeals to and audience of the ages between 18-30s.
The typical fan would visit art galleries, vintage boutiques and stores, possibly be a fan of Portobello market. They would be interested in British culture and also in the World War II era as well as this eras fashion. Hunky Dory fans would listen to music in the same genre and close genres such as swing, jazz, classical and pop. They would listen to music from the same era that inspired the music of Hunky Dory. Again a typical fan might watch media product from the World War II era, as well as current day media product that replicates this same era.

Websites used
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Andrews_Sisters
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Puppini_Sisters
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II
http://www.jazzfm.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Lynn
http://www.streetsensation.co.uk/brick_lane/bl_intro.htm

Initial Ideas

Within our production group we discussed our potential music video ideas that we had came up with over the summer. All the ideas were of good quality and possible to do, so we had a tough decision to make, we could not choose between them all, we decided we would create a product that had all of our input from the start so decided to come up with a new music video concept. As a group we decided doing something different, would be beneficial. We decided to go with Laura’s idea. The idea was to a song originally by Beyonce that had been covered by The Pupinni Sisters. Their genre of music appeals to a mainly upper class, older audience as it is swing/jazz style. We wanted genre that people would not instantly think of. The Pupinni Sisters have an old-fashioned, feminine touch and we saw potential to create a video that would be diverse and individual that would appeal to a niche audience. As a group we researched The Pupinni sisters and listened to other tracks they had done. We chose a track called “Crazy in Love” which is a cover of Beyonce’s original. We thought that this well known song would be a good choice due to its tempo but mostly due to the fact that it will attract attention as it is a cover of a mainstream song. We choose to call our group “Hunky Dory” that consists of three female singers, Sabrina Salmon, Karis Arghiros and Nikola Duckert. Our initial idea was a very fast process and we feel that we have worked well together and will end up with a impressive result.

Websites used

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxyITLELNZ8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3Ee_WaDB4c&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DlHmoYP7V4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD57OrPaX0A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu-7rPdFjvI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_sh1B3aCVQ

Our Production Group

Star Image

Targeting an Audience

Convnetions of Magazine Advertising

Conventions of Album Artwok

Conventions of the Video Promo

A Look at Sub Genres

Background to the Music Industry

Advanced Production Portfolio 2010

Conclusion

We are very pleased with the outcome of our thriller finished product. The basic aim of 'a thriller' was shown due to the increasing tension throughout sequence, which was built up by the choice of sound. The current audience feedback that we have recieved has been very positive, and due to that, we have reached our target audience. Our group all worked incredibly well as a team, contribututing ideas and techniques during the planning stage, shoot day, and during the post-shooting production. At first we were unsure where to go with the footage that we had, but as we gathered ideas we were able to mould the shots into an tense and exciting sequence.The ending caused us alot of concern and debates over a few weeks, as we didnt know what to do with the birds-eye shot, as it was so dynamic. Overall we managed to edit it well, and bring out the best in our footage.

Audience Feedback

Now that our thriller is on YouTube. We have been recieving comments and feed back.

Audience feedback will help us determine whether we have met our target audience and gained their interest...

LegacyOleg - YouTube Comment
Awesome and very atmospheric opening!
I like it :)

Sophie Evans - Personal Comment

I like the creative shots such as the tracking shots and the slow motion shots. I also like the tension building element and the titles with the blood.

Gabby Meech- Personal Feedback

My favourite shot is the birdseye high zoom at the end :)

mutemiss - YouTube Comment
Good tension at the beginning with the eye shots....Constantly building and kept me watching!Music is very suitable.Well edited :) Well done.

schreuderha - YouTube Comment
I love all the close ups! especially on the eyes in the begining it is a great way to build tension. I also think the tracking shots are very effective especially at the end and the slow motion effects are also very cool.Well done :)

stephaniemaureen - YouTube Comment
the end shot is absolutely INCREDIBLE!

hurtwoodhousemedia - YouTube Comment
great opening shot.

fatboy22222222222222 - YouTube Comment
The characters in this are well designed as they all oppose their stereotypes e.g. the female crime boss

Task 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

From the Preliminary task at the beginning to the thriller now, I have learnt a lot about the storyboarding and planning, the production and the post – production of making a film. Obviously the prelim task was just about getting used to the equipment, seeing what it could do and working out the best way of shooting things. Compared to the Prelim task the shooting of the thriller was set over a longer period of time, and the post-production took a much longer time too. Another reason it took longer was because we had to come up with an original storyline and what the most effective way of shooting it would be, in order to come out with a unique, successful thriller sequence at the end. It was important to make sure that the narrative and storyline were clear as there was no dialogue in our opening sequence.

The Preliminary task only required us to use the most basic shot types, as we were just getting used to the equipment. By the time we got to shooting the thriller, we were slightly more experienced and could make the visual narrative sequence more exciting and interesting by using tracking shots, extreme close ups and birds eye shots. The use of these shots shows a clear development in the shot types we used from the preliminary task to the thriller product. The way in which we were shooting and editing has also developed from the preliminary task, we made sure that we did not jog the camera whilst filming, we kept all the shots in focus, we used depth of field shots with parts being in focus and other parts being out of focus, and we made sure that we did not break the 180 degree rule.

We finished putting our final shots together and moved on to sound effects. For this we used a program called ‘Soundtrack Pro’. We have included foley work of gun shots, doors opening and shutting and ambient sounds of a room, to create more of an atmosphere and a sense of tension. In the preliminary task, there was silence in-between the speech and no atmosphere, this made the scene very dead. With the use of Final Cut Pro and the ‘After effects’ program we have made our thriller look sophisticated and professional with brilliant visual effects. We have added titles, transitions and imported shots that we wanted to use. To conclude we realized we needed to make the scene look more realistic, so we used ‘After-effects’. This included the ‘Muzzle-flash’, which adds a flash and smoke from the gun and a splat of blood over the title of the film at the end of the sequence. This made our thriller the best it could be and gave a professional finish to our product. We did not have the chance to do this to our preliminary task, but I doubt it would have benefitted from it as much as our thriller.

Task 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from process of constructing this product?

Task 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

Task 5 How we addressed our audience LTC

View more presentations from hurtwoodhousemedia5.

Task 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

The Genre of our media product ‘Ace’ is a gangster thriller. This therefore means it contains violence and some drug references, so we have rated it a certificate 15. Another reason for rating it a certificate 15 is the fact the film includes a murder The target audience age is 15+, it is mainly targeted at a male audience, although females would enjoy the unconventional way women are shown to be superior to the men in ‘Ace’. If it was a certificate 18, the film would be less successful, as we would no longer have the younger audience members.

Task 3 - What kind of media institute might ditribute your media product and why?

We chose to use ‘Lionsgate’ as the distributor of our film. We chose ‘Lionsgate’, because in the past they have produced similar films which include violence and action and are generally masculine themed action films. These include ‘The Bank Job’ and ‘The Gamer’. Therefore this would make ‘Ace’ an interesting and exciting film for them to distribute, as this is what they are used to and what they are known for. ‘Lionsgate’ are a well-known and established distributor within the industry, so for our film this gives us a higher chance of success in all areas from cost, release and making it a profitable product.

Our thriller would be classed as a ‘medium budget thriller’ and is therefore similar to Saw 1’s budget which is another film ‘Lionsgate’ has produced. Due to the film being of a low budget, ‘Lionsgate’ would find it more appealing to take further, as extra money could be spent on the marketing and advertising of the film, which in turn would help make it a bigger success.

Task 2 - How does your product represent particular social groups?

Our media product was cast with very diverse social groups and people from different ethnicities around the world. This effect created a sense of an international atmosphere within the poker game and also made the game, look much more realistic, as in Casino Royale they also have international poker players.

In most American media products these ethnicities are categorized as stereotypes, but we wanted to move away from this. Therefore the oriental gangster was Korean, the eastern European gangster was Ukrainian and the African gangster was Nigerian. By doing this we are subverting the society’s initial views about the looks of people, from the traditional media product. We do this by pinpointing their nationalities. Although in the final cut of our sequence we ended up not using any of the speaking scenes, in which it was made obvious about their nationalities.

We have made all the nationalities equal, and have not singled-out any ethnicity to be better or worse than any other. Whereas in usual or American media products the ethnicity that would be portrayed as the ‘bad guy’ would be the Arabian, as it is stereotypical for people to think of the Arabian as a terrorist figure. This is due to the influence that the media has had on today’s society.

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

Our screen grabs from our titles are following the conventions of real media products. At the beginning we inform the audience of the distributing & Production Company, we then incorporated the title of the film in at the end and then the Director’s name follows that.
We made a decision as a group not to include the titles in alongside the action as we felt that it detracted from the action and it would create a pause in the tension in which all anxiety of what is going to happen next is lost. We also experimented with putting breaks in with black screen with titles on them in-between the action but again it detracted from the sequence and gives the audience ‘time-out’, which breaks up the tension we wanted to build up.

Ace is similar to real media products of this type as we chose not to put the title over the film itself. This is also true in ‘Casino Royale’ and ‘Smokin’ Aces’ where they have put the title sequence in a cartoon sequence. The reason we decided to keep our thriller plain with just black and white was because we did not want to give too much away, so that as the sequence moves on the audience begin to understand what the films about and gain more information that they can piece together as the films plot unfolds.

In conventional media products gender representation is usual steered towards the controlling male being in charge of the situation. We decided to challenge this in our media product and go against the conventions of society. We therefore made the controlling powerful boss, a female. This can be seen as we placed her so she is sitting at the head of the poker table, surrounded by men. Simple gestures such as a ‘click’ suggests a powerful figure and the way the other male, poker players act towards her and react to her entrance also suggest they see her as a powerful, important and influential character.

In our media product Ace, we have incorporated the a 'highlighted' character, or character of interest that the sequence is mainly focused on. We have chosen to make the highlighted character an attractive male, as this is a Unique Selling Point (USP). The audience therefore will be instantly more inclined to follow and watch this characters progression throughout the sequence, without realising it.

Ace - Shooting Script

ACE SHOOTING SCRIPT

ENTER: tracking shot of Nikis shoes (high heels) walking along an external road

PAN SHOT of her walking down the road from the behind.Luke steps into the frame and shows them walking along the street together

ENTER Niki and Luke in the poker room set. Niki shrugs her coat and thrusts it into Luke’s arms. (Camera is placed behind her)Laughing and groaning from the table of poker playersMid shot: their reaction to a woman entering the room

OVER THE SHOULDER SHOT Niki sits down and is dealt a hand

MID SHOT Luke goes and sits at the bar and orders a drink.

CUT IN to Guys shiny loafers walking a long an external road

CLOSE UP of some of the poker player’s eyes and facesShot of the bar and the barman mixing drinks and taking orders.Barman is followed over to the table where he places a drink and walks back to the bar.

CUT IN to another shot of Guy’s feet walking fast this time

CLOSE UPof Lukes eyes gazing at NikiThe money being gambled increases into drugs and car keys

CUT IN to Guys feet walking very quicklyExtreme close up of guns put onto the table

CLOSE UPof on gamblers eyes

CUT IN to Guys feet walking stops. Gamblers are now laying down their cards

MID SHOT of the poker room: Guy bursts through the room and instantly pulls up his arm and fires a shot at Luke

Ace - Set

This is what the set looked like when built. We had a few problems at the beginning of the day as we had confusion over where the door should go. We had started off with no door, and then we had a door put in for us.

On the day i provided a poker set, which had a green felt mat that we placed on the table. We also had a smoke machine, which added a smokey effect. This suited the atmosphere that we wanted to create and made it look more like the players had been smoking. We had a hanging light bulb above the table, which gave a raw feel to the scene.

OPENING THIRILLER SEQUENCE

After, long consideration we have come up with a concept of what we want our sequence to develop into. Beginning with the main action of the poker scene, and then ending with a gunshot, and for a red 'blood' curtain to fill the screen. This is where the credits begin...
Whilst researching similar films we found we like how the James Bond 'Casino Royale' credits are floating around a 'card' animation of the Queen of Hearts, Ace of Spades etc. In order for us to have the ability to do this, we do need to draw some animations to use.
I like the effect that it brings to an actioned scene before, as the card game is the focal point of the narrative. Due to the cards playing a big factor in the film itself. Another reason why I am interesting in us trying this, is because it is not your conventional credits and so will keep the audience interested.

Ace - Lighting

We had a standing light for the key light; at a 90-degree angle to this we had the fill light. The backlights we used got rid of the shadows on the back brick wall. The key light controls the brightness of light on set. Using this we made a low dim light to give the effect of a underground basement. The hanging light was there for effect, to make it look like a backroom. The studio lights above we turned out to represent the bulb. We used a smoke machine, to add some atmosphere to the set. However we couldnt use too much, as it got very smokey, and began to look like a haze machine! But the use of it created a mysterious feeling, and worked very well for the atmospherre we wanted.

Post Production - Sound

Once we got the footage we had shot on the day onto the computer ready to start editing, we found that we had had a failure with the sound whilst filming. All that we can hear is a loud buzzing noise. This therefore meant that we had no sound to work with at all and would have to make another arrangement then what we had originally planned. We then came up with the idea that we would have no speaking throughout with the occasional sound of doors, poker chips being thrown and glasses, loud enough to make out what they are, but so they do not distract fro the scene and what is going on. Adding this sound back in was essential to increase the tension. After partially adding the sound back into the sequence, it needed something more. We added an underlying 'room tone' which creates a mood and brings tension and atmosphere. The software we used to do this was Soundtrack Pro, which allowed us to create and change the sounds into what we feel suited our sequence. It was easy to import the sound into the Final Cut Pro timeline, once we had rendered it.

Post Production - Shots

As a group we have decided to edit our shots together in a clear, straight forward and accurate way, this was essential in order to create the tension that is needed for our sequence to work. The shots are sharply cut between shots of the poker game itself and the players eyes, faces, or actions. We have decided to put some shots in slow motion, which draws the eye of the audience to that shot. This provides a build in tension between the fast motion shots and the slow motioned shots, so as the sequence goes on the audience and feel is getting more tense. Then we introduced the fast paced shots of Guy, walking down the alley. As the colour tone of these shots are very different to the poker scene. This colour difference is clear and makes the contrast much more obvious. So overall the feel we have tried to get by the way that we have edited out shots together creates tension throughout the sequence, building up to the big climax at the end.

Ace

Name – Ace
Distributor- Lions gate
Production Company- Blanc Productions
Producer- Steph White
Director- Cat Dixon
Cinematographer- Megan Knowles
Sound Engineer- Lauren Thornton-Clark

Cast List:-
Seyi Olasunkanmi
Min Choi
Oleg Naumenko
Felix Klinkhammer
Tym Magdich
Alex Moss
Luke Chapman
Nikki Gilford
Guy Stanley
Alex Moss

Storyboards

Our storyboard was a rough plan that drew up, of the shots we were planning to use on the day in the order. On the day of shooting we changed the shots we did, but this was a plan we made as a rough guide. We drew them all up after we had thought up an idea for each shot.

Ace - Shot List

Below is a list of shots we shot for the possible use in our thriller, Ace. Whether we actually use them or not is debatable as we have not started editing yet, but we wont use them all. we shot extra, so we have a vast choice of which to use during the post production stage.


-Birds Eye shot of when Luke gets shot and everyone scattering.
-Low angle shot of two cards being peeked at.
-Close up of something on table then tilt up to a player with Luke in the background not in focus.
-Extreme close up of Niki’s eyes.
-Tracking shot around the table, with everyone putting something in.
-Medium shot of Felix stressed (fixing his tie) then tilts down to close up of him putting in the keys on top of the chips.
-Medium shot of Guy walking in to shoot Luke.
-Tracking shot of Niki entering, tracking round to when she sits down “deal me in boys”
- Close up shots of chips being thrown in and cards being fanned out for opening sequence of title.
-Close ups of everyone’s faces.
-Extreme close ups of everyone’s faces.
-Tracking shot of money being pulled out of his jacket.
-Close-ups of drinks being drunk, cards being dealt, chips being thrown in.
- Cut away shots of drink being poured in glasses.
-Medium shot of Luke pouring drinks.
-Close up focus change shot of cards-bottom right. Then change focus to poker player drinking a drink.
-Close ups of Tym and Min panning to thinks on a table.
-Two shot of Oleg and Seyi talking and looking at the table, as if they are watching Min and Tym battling it out. (to do this we had to turn the characters round the table so they can do their chat, with the brick background.

ACE

Location
We decided to film in the film studio at Hurtwood as apposed to on location because we thought that it would be the best use of time, the easiest place to create the atmosphere that we wanted, instead of trying to find a location that fitted the sequence. Luckily, it worked really well, and turned out how we wanted it to.
We chose to film in the Hurtwood Underpass as it has a raw, bare, edgy feel, and also because it has an 'underground' feel to it, which is primarily our first idea. Again, this worked really well as it had an echo with the shoes, and there was no need to use additional lighting which saved a lot of time.

Set
The set we had set up in the film studio was in a closed confined space, surrounded by brick walls. There was a door on upstage left and the poker table was in the centre. In the top right corner of the set we had set up a small drinks table.
The poker table itself, was very realistic. I had bought in a poker set including the poker table top. We had divided the chips out, set the cards out, and poured the drinks into the glasses, borrowed from David Broom.
We used very dimmed lighting, which made the scene more atmospheric. We had a naked bulb hanging above the table, which added rawness and then we also had the studio lights to add some extra lighting. The lighting was exactly how we had envisioned it being on the shoot.
We had the use of the smoke machine; this again added some atmosphere to the set. However we couldn’t use too much, as it got looked stupid with too much and became unbearable with all the fumes and smoke around, although the use of it created a mysterious feeling, and worked very well with the sequence.

Costumes
The poker players were in suits, but each person had there own style. We tried to get a gangster feel, for example we had some in hats, one in a cravat, and one in a fur coat. So it was smart but with a touch of gangster/poker/criminal!
The ‘toyboy’ wore a brown Suit, with a grey jumper and a white shirt. This worked well as he needed to look smart but he had to be able to be distinguished as younger and different from the poker players.
Nikki wore a red dress, with a fur coat and black heels, along with some diamond jewelry. This worked well as the red complimented her role as boss. It made her stand out, and made the poker boys look less intimidating.