Director's commentary

The Dream

Directors commentary script

The film opens with an establishing shot of the protagonist running across the bridge who is very determined to be a professional basketball player. The fast paced background music flows well with the narrative and most importantly it interests the audience by sending an up beat spirit and a motivating message.

This is followed by a point of view shot of the protagonist running which demonstrates realism and it also connects with the audience straight away by it relating to their lives. The fast tempo non diegetic sound continues to the next scene which is cleverly done by it being a match cut and it symbolises aspiration of the protagonists willingness to reach his goal despite the tragedy that has occurred.
I decided to keep the diegetic sound of the footstep and the basketball bouncing to again illustrate realism. Its crucial in the basketball scene to get as many shots as possible and it is important to make it fast pace because it not only shows the determination of the protagonist but it also builds up tension. The fast paced music works well with whats going on in the scene.

The next sequence is the flashback where all micro aspects are changed because the event is at a different time. The mise en scene of this scene is in black and white so the audience can understand when it happened. Most shots in the flashback is a long take to show sympathy of the death of his mother

The Dream Analysis

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

The continuity for our preliminary task was done to a good standard and looking at our final piece I think that we have improved the continuity of the film which makes it run a lot more smoothly and looks a lot better. A mistake that we made on our preliminary task was that we never had a script ready therefore we had to make up what we was going to do instead of having a set shot list which we would could follow so for our main task we made sure that we had a script prepared. Another thing that we learnt from our preliminary task was the range of shots we took and this was very important for a sport film where a variation of shot is needed to interest our audience. We used a much wider range of shots in our main task compared to the preliminary task, which gives the film much more variety, and more exciting for the viewer rather than just having the same shots time after time which will become boring for the viewer. Another thing that we have learnt from preliminary task is that we need to have a variety of different filming locations; this again makes the film more exciting by adding different scenes such as a driving scene. Also a major difference between the prelim task is the editing, the main task is edited together a lot better and the continuity in the main task is a lot better which makes the movie fit together and run smoothly. There also learnt how to include titles into our film. We learnt that from the preliminary task, but in the main task of ‘ The Dream’ we put our titles on a blank black background, which is a different piece of editing we had to learn.

The Dream Analysis

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

In the development of our product our group has learnt about a number of different technologies, one of the main technologies we used was using the camera and editing software. We learnt how to edit our movie using final cut pro and putting the video together in a variety of different ways. As well as this we learnt how to use the camera in a variety of different ways, as we became more familiar with the camera we started to add more advanced shots to our film in order to give more of a creative look to the film opening. Also to do the music for our video we had to make our own track so that it isn’t copyrighted so we learnt how to make a track/beat on garage band. We also learnt how to put effects on the video putting in effects such as fades to move from scene to scene to make sure the video has a feel of continuity and fits well together. We also added filters to put the second half of the video into black and white to emphasize the feeling of a flashback. Also we used a radio-recording desk in order to record our voice over in the film, we recorded on the desk then imported them onto the computer in order to edit them and put them together to get the voice over to work well with the video and fit together well.

The Dream Analysis

How did you attract/address your audience?

The audience of our film is mainly to attract male teenagers. Therefore the films we researched is the same audience which is '17 again'.

We also researched one film that appealed to a wide range of audience and this film is Space Jam, so we decided to add some techniques of what this film uses to attract a wide range of audience. Despite that we couldn’t have a star and use CGI, We felt that the key feature to try and attract a wide range audience is from the narrative so the script for our voiceover should be powerful and effective, It should engage the audience to watch more of the film. All the films we have watched for our research did not have a voice over at the beginning of the film therefore we felt it would be a good idea to add it so it can not only be unique but also effect because it clearly tells the story. Making the beginning exciting interest our audience to watch more of it, so fast pace editing and sound is key to attract teenagers. In Conclusion, we made sure that we got our audience to feel excited about our beginning scene by adding great editing effects and making sure that we put techniques within the film that makes our clip seem different to any other sports films. We made sure that we put in what an audience wants from using our own experiences when watching films.

The Dream Analysis

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our audience for this film is mainly aimed at teenagers. Therefore, our film should be marketed to that specific audience. However, this film can interest other audience from the old by it being a sad film as well as the young, very entertaining film from the linear narrative; this shows that it appeals to a mass audience. The audience of our film is the same audience as '17 again' and this was a well produced film that had a huge success. The age rating of our film will be PG for the same reason as '17 again' as young teenagers as well as older teenagers will want to watch our film and if we put on a high age limit then some of the people that wanted to view the film wouldnt be able to. The gender audience of the film be predominantly males as basketball is dominated by male athletes and is watched by mainly a male audience, which is teenage males. This film has a smaller target audience than most films as it is a film that is mainly focused on basketball which will only attract a specific audience who have an interest in basketball.

The Dream Analysis

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The distributor for our film is called, ‘jay’s production’, as it being a low budget. A media institution that will be suitable to distribute our film is New line cinema, which is an American Independent film company, which is owned by Time Warner. It distributes both mass market and niche market films like ours. The film '17 again' is distributed by New Line Cinema and it appealed to a mass audience just like our film.

Another possible distributor for our film could be WT2, they may distribute our film as it is a small low budget film that is aimed at quite a small target audience that is male teenagers.

Also the main protagonist in our film is a male teenager, so as the film is based solely around a male character this will attract the audience we were aiming for.

The Dream Analysis

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product represents male dominance as the main character portrays that. It also represents the elderly at the end of the scene where the mother dies who is quite old. The media project represents mostly Asian ethnic group especially as the main character in the task was a young Asian boy who is trying to achieve his dream of being a professional basketball player, but the death of his mum hit him as a sad news which is hard for him to go through. It doesn’t agree with the stereotypes of Asian people, as there are not many professional Asian basketball players and this is sending out a message that no matter what your dream is you have to try your best and go out and achieve your dream.

There is a marked contrast between the character when he is playing basketball where he is chasing his dream to a real life flashback of what had happened in his past which is like his nightmare. It also shows a juxtaposition of emotions between the protagonist playing basketball and the protagonist in the flashback, in the basketball scene he is doing what he wants to and is happy.

The Dream Analysis

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

The genre of the film, ‘The Dream’, is sports drama and this is clearly represented at the beginning of the film where the protagonist is playing basketball and some of the drama is portrayed after the basketball scene. The fast pace shots especially in the basketball scene interest our audience because fast tempo is usually entertaining and it is used in other sports movies, we as a group has researched such as 'Rocky' and 'Coach Carter'. Also, during our research of the sports films, we noticed that generally there is an upbeat tempo music flowing with the fast pace shots but in some case, the film ‘17 again’ uses a violin for the background sound whilst the main character plays basketball. Also, in ’17 again’ during the opening scene the protagonist is shown to be taking lots of shots at a basketball hoop. We decided to do the same thing in our film opening. We also showed the ball going into the hoop a lot, which was also taken from ’17 again’. It denotes a calmer atmosphere to the movie. Furthermore, we took the idea of the ball going through the hoop at different angles from ‘Space Jam’. However we decided to apply the same instrument to our movie but increase the tempo because of the narrative, where something tragic happens. Once the music was applied we feel that it went well with not only the fast pace camera shots but also the narrative. The flashback scene is slower paced, for example there is a long take where the protagonist is driving and during that time, we felt as a team that it was the right moment to add the credit because the short flashback is a miserable scene. There would be a slow sad music during the flashback to build up tension. The flashback is in black and white/grey like most films, this mise en scene is applied to not confuse the audience and clearly demonstrate that the scene is from the past. The flashback scene conveys drama from the camera, sound and mise en scene but there is no dialogue, which makes the particular scene unique and again builds tension. The mise en scene of the protagonist running at the beginning showing his determination to become a professional basketball player is vital because it represents that it is based in a working class city but as soon as the basketball scene appears, it feels more upper class which is done deliberately because it symbolizes that the main character is not far away from achieving his dreams and is close to become wealthy. All of these are key points to recognize the genre of the film (sports drama).

Voice Over

“You never know if a dream is real, whether it’s good or bad, you can change them, Don’t let anyone put you down, Anyone, Because, One day, Just One Day, You will Win/Succeed”

“Don’t ever let somebody tell you, You can’t do something, You got a dream, You got a protect it, life will try and stop you, no matter what gets in the way, go and get it”

From these two voice over’s, we are going to choose one of them to add to our final piece

The basketball court which we have used in the piece.

The protagonist wearing his costume, holding the basketball that we are are going to use.

Costumes (basketball)

The basketball sneakers that the protagonist is going to wear whilst training. The sneakers matches with the whole kit, black and white, this it to keep it simple and show that he is their for practicing. Also, the basic colours will make the protagonist stand out.
We decided that this will be our number one choice that the protagonist will be wearing because not only its simple from the colours but it looks like a normal training kit that basketballers will wear.
This is one of our kits that i might of worn but we decided that the three quarter pants did not suit the te-shirt and also we wanted the kit to be plain without any other colour or writing on it.
We thought this costume is a little unusual becasue the colours of the whole costume does not match and so the protagonist may not stand out. We also said that we dont want any writing on the kit.
This could of been the kit we could have used but there are points that we thought it could not work which is the writing on the kit and the character would not stand out. The colours of the costunme on the picture below does not match therefore this kit is a definate no.

Space Jam Opening Scene analysis

The establish shot sets the scene. This gave us the idea of filming our opening scene at night. Whether we shoot in the day or at night, we are still going to use an establishing shot of the sky. We decided that our film opening needed an establishing similar to this. At one part of our film opening we also used a shot of the moon to help the flow from the basketball scene to the flashback scene.



This shot gave us the idea of the angle we need to shoot when the protagonist is taking a shot. We used a lot of shots of our protagonist taking shots into the basketball hoop. So we needed help in what angles we had to use and which angkles were best to show the protagonist shooting.



This shot gave us another idea of a shot to use when filming the protagonist shooting. It also gave us an idea of editing each shot together. It also helped us to choose which angles to use to show the protagonist scoring.


This close up of the ball going through the hoop showed us what angle we should use. We could use the low angle shot in our film. We decided to use shots of the ball going into the hoop a lot in our film opening. We also changed which side of the hoop we filmed from.

Screen shot analysis of Love and Basketball

I chose this printscreen because in our beinning of our film, we are going to add a title that matches the genre of the film. The text size and font matches the genre of the film, the love heart shows this.
This establishing shot is a key feature for starting a film, it shows the setting and where its located which is important and so their is likely chance we'll be adding this shot at the start of the film.


This shot shows the protagonist for the first time, The person stands out with the clothes that she is wearing. We want the same effect in our video which is making our main character stand out.
This shot is important becasue it shows the protagonist playing the main sport. The main character in our film will be playing basketball so the shot is key.

Production Treatment

Shot List

1) Establishing shot of outside the basketball stadium

2) Insert shot of the basketball hoop, two basketball are shown going inside the basket (1st Titles fades and Voice over starts)

3) Close Up of the protagonist looking up towards the hoop (Voice over continues)

4) High angle of the hoop looking down at the protagonist throwing the basketball (2^nd Title Voice over still continues)

5) Insert shot of the basketball going in the basketball hoop (Voice over continues)

6) Low Angle of the protagonist throwing the basketball (Voice over stops and everything pauses and then the title of the film appears (The Dream).

7) Medium Shot of protagonist holding the basketball and then it tilts downwards, as he rolls the basketball on the floor, the camera tracks the basketball.

8) Tracking shot of the protagonist foot walking down the corridors towards the door therefore it’s a match cut.

9) Extreme close up of the protagonist hands holding the door handle and opening.

10) Very Long Shot of the protagonist walking out the door (His car is able to be seen)

11) Establishing shot of the moon

12) Medium Close Up of a side view of the protagonist driving.

13) Over the shoulder shot of the protagonist reaching its destination ( People are around the house )

14) Medium close up back to the side view of the protagonist opening the door (At a quick speed)

15) Point of view shot of the Protagonist looking towards the door but people are blocking it (The slow motion starts) Music – Coldplay Fix You

16) Over the shoulder of the protagonist again walking towards the door (Still in slow motion)

17) Long shot as the protagonist reaches the door (Cameraman inside the house, Slow motion stops and the living room door is open)

18) Point of view shot of the protagonist looking toward the protagonist looking at one of his family member dead on the floor.

19) Medium close up of the woman holding the dead person and looking towards the protagonist sad.

20) Medium close up of the protagonist shocked and sad of what just happened.

21) Bird’s eye view zooming out upwards seeing both the protagonist and the two other characters. (Music stops)

22) Dissolves slowly into the protagonist waking up from his dream panning to press and turn off the alarm.

Scriptwriting

It starts of a teenager playing basketball, in which the next week from that day he has trials in America to play for a professional team. Other problems occur in his life which affects him from achieving this dream. As he practices in an indoor basketball court, he walks/drives home, not knowing that something tragic has happened in his house, one of his family members has died. As he parks the car/walks home, he wonders why there are number of people standing outside the house as well why his house door is open and the lights on. He pushes out the way like he knows what has happened and as he approaches the living room, he glances at one of his family member on the floor. The teenager is heartbroken and then it slowly dissolves in to him waking up and pressing the alarm (The Dream).

Genre

Sports/Drama

The Target Audience

The Target audeience for our main task is 16-25 year old males.

Love and Basketball opening scene analysis

At the beginning of this movie Monica(Kyla Pratt)and her family moves to a neighborhood in LA in the year of 1981 and just so happen move next door to a boy named Quincy. They are both 11 years old at the time and they both want to play for the NBA. Monica ends up playing basketball at the basketball court with Quincy and some of his friends and they tell her she cant play cause she's a girl. During the game Quincy gets mad because a girl beat him so he pushes her to the ground and makes her scar her face. The next day Quincy's mom comes over to give Monica's mom a "welcome to the neighborhood" cake. Monica and Quincy end up going to the kitchen and they start talking about basketball.The day after that he comes to pick her up for school on his bike. When Quincy tells her to get on the bike she says she dsont have to so they end up fighting.

Storyboard

Films we watched to get ideas

We watched these films to get ideas of the shots we should use and how to put our piece together. All three films cover the same genre of the film I am going to produce. These films are important for my research because it gives us a better view and understanding about the main sport, which is basketball, and how all the micro aspects are portrayed. All three films are successful Hollywood films which is the main reason I chose them. I want to get a similar Hollywood blockbuster feeling to my film and these three; two minutes opening of the films helps me create a number of ideas, so I can put it into my original style.

What we learnt from the preliminary task

What We Learnt

Camera

We decided to do camera shots in the order that we needed them so we stayed organized in where we were doing.

We were told before we started filming the task that while filming a shot to have the camera running a few seconds before the actors start and a few seconds after so that the final piece flowed better and we could edit the task easier.

During filming the task we0 decided to film each shot a couple of times so that we could choose which one we wanted to use during editing and see which one flowed better with the other shots we used.

Editing

We learnt how to use the editing keyboards so that our final piece flowed well. We were taught how to use final cut pro, which is the program used on the editing computers so we could edit our final piece.

We were told how to insert titles into our piece. We changed the colour, font, size and composition of the titles. We then had to decide how long each name appeared in the piece and when it appeared, which is either the beginning or the end.

What worked well and what could have been improved

Camera

We have decided that we could have used more shots in our piece e.g. when we did our shot reverse shot we could have included a close up.

When we did our birds eye view shot we had to do the shot hand held so the camera wasn’t still and shook whilst filming. We could have used the tripod for the birds eye view shot so the camera was held steady.

Editing

We could explored more of the fonts and colours for the titles then we could have found ones that fitted into our piece better. We could have also explored the effects we used more for the titles, if we did this then our piece might have flowed better than it did.

Shot Reverse Shot

In our piece we used an over the shoulder shot of one person which then cut to another over the shoulder shot of the other person. We did this so the conversation between the two people flowed well. Whilst filming the over shoulder shots we had to make sure we followed the 180 degree rule so the audience wouldn’t be confused when they viewed our piece.

Continuity

Our piece flowed well because we edited it well so the people in the shots were in the same place and they weren’t jumping from one place to another. For the majority of the piece the sound flowed well as we were careful about when we used dialogue and diegetic sound. There is only one time in the piece when the diegetic sound didn’t quite fit together and we could have spent more time on editing that part of the task so the sound flowed better.

Preliminary Task Shot List

Preliminary Task shot list

1) Long Shot- Person walking towards camera down corridor.

2) Cut Away- Close up on person’s foot whilst they carry on walking.

3) Medium Pan- Pan shot following person walking, from the side.

4) Close Up- On the door handle whilst the person is using the handle.

5) Medium Shot- Different person sat down at table.

6) Close Up- On the same person looking at the door.

7) Medium Shot- Of the first person walking into the room.

8) Birds Eye View- First person moving chair and sitting down.

9) Over The Shoulder- Over first person shoulder looking at the other person.

10) Shot Reverse Shot- Switches to over the second persons shoulder, looking at the first person.

11) Two Shot- Both people in the same shot looking at each other.

Preliminary Task