Locations

Alleyway- Cowley, Oxford

This alleyway down Cowley down would be perfect for our opening as it creates a mysterious atmosphere, isolated with brick walls.The congested pathway adds to feeling of the character running into fear. This location really helps what we are trying to convey to the audience. We could shoot this as a point of view shot or a tracking shot if necessary.

Backstreet- Oxford Town, Headington

This location could be another option for us to do our opening scene as it is dark and creepy. We could place our main character in the opening scene in a backstreet like the above picture. The long lonely path could emphasis the unlikely survival of the character, running into more troubles. This is a long or could be a medium shot as a character can placed to describe the situation.
















South Park

This is a rather contrasting location to start our film. It is sunny, bright and shows nature widely (scenery). However I think it can fit in with our storyline quite well. It is realistic which has a major impact on the scene no matter what we do. We are attempting to show that this could happen in our daily live and this could make a perfect location. It can also surprise the targeted audience and get them tensed as it seems a bit strange to have bright light in a film of our genre. The camera ankle used here is low ankled as it shows power and this is quite significant in our film.

Art of the title

Here are some of the art of the title samples that could be used in the opening title sequence of our film (Genre- Gangster/Crime).

Elements of Gangster Films

Iconography – 'Films and moving image products can also be identified by the key
images or icons contained within them. These images or iconic elements are usually immediately recognisable'.


how we could adapt this to our genre: in a typical gangster the central image icon would have the overcoats with turned up collars, broad brimmed hats, pistols and machine guns.

Setting – 'The use of temporal and spatial settings can therefore make a film
immediately recognisable within a particular genre or sub-genre'.


How we could adapt this to our genre: Inner suburb of the city, concrete jungle, alley ways and back streets.

Style – This is how Iconography is presented. 'This category mainly relates to use of camera, lighting, colour and both audio and visual tone'. 


How we could adapt this to our genre: Sequence of montage for violent action.

Narrative – 'Narrative refers to the different types of story structure that films of different genres employ, in addition to the narrative or storytelling devices and narrative moments which they are associated with (e.g. chase sequences, shoot outs, romantic kisses etc.)'.


How we could adapt this to our genre: Social order being challenged by gangster anarchy, struggle of leadership, rivalry between gang warfare and mobs and the hero's internal struggle as he chooses his destiny. These are the basic conflicts we could see in this genre. The hero comes as a reformed character for resolution and the social order is restored. 

Characters – 'The story of a film is most often told through characters. A film’s main protagonist or “hero” encounters a variety of obstacles which he must overcome within the story. These obstacles are usually caused by some kind of adversary or “villain”'.


How we could adapt this to our genre: Hero would be a brutal gangster who is the brutal with overambitious henchman, women would be presented as sexual ornaments, mothers in a respectable way and traditional values upheld by sisters.


Themes - 'Genre films are often underpinned by universal themes, which increase their appeal to audiences. These themes, underpinning a film’s narrative are most effective when they are based on binary oppositions'.


How we could adapt this to our genre: The ethnic gangster (usually) rises from an environment of poor working class to the high state of social prominence through the means of illegal activities and brutality, only to slide back to a rival gang through his arrest or violent death.

Audience response – 'Some genres are most easily identified by their target audience. Every film has a “mode of address”, a particular way in which it speaks to a target audience. Horror films intend to “horrify” audiences, action films deliberately set out to make an audience feel tense'.

How we could adapt this to our genre:  The main character (gangster) can be easily recognised by the audience- Highly attractive, his animal magnetism, physical and economic aggressiveness shows charisma.

The response from audience shows that gangster movies has a mythic resonance for them. A typical character we could be looking at is as of a Robin Hood figure who helps and protects the poor and the weak against the rich and powerful.

Analysis of Good Fellas

The transition between the titles has a moving pattern. This shows rush. Simply from one title to another, it moves and has a background sound of cars passing through. This gives the idea of an urban place and rush traffic. Ironically the film starts with a car driven on the road. The idea of mentioning that ‘this film is based on a true story’ at the beginning gives it a more realistic effect.

The scene starts with a low ankle camera shot of the car and then as the car moves the shot goes into a tracking shot to keep up with the action. The screen goes blank again and shows the location and the period of time.

The next scene introduces us to three characters that are in the car, rather in a relaxed mood. When everything is calm a noise suddenly kicks in making the characters worried. This makes the audience a bit suspicious as the worse is much expected. But of them suggests that it might be that the car suffered a flat tyre which diverts the thoughts of the audience to make it look like a minor problem. The camera shot works are quite intense as it creates tension and anxiety- close ups and two shots are used. The camera zooms into the car closely as they are about to open the car dickey. Zoom is used to increase the anxiety of the audience and make it more intense. Then it zooms into the characters to see their reaction which would have an impact on the audience. When one of them opens it, we see a man covered in blood trying to escape. As soon as we see it one of the character pulls out a knife and stabs him continuously saying ‘he hasn’t died yet’ which emphasis that it had been pre- planned and that they are responsible for wounding him. To make it even crueller, another one pulls out a gun and shoots him and ensures he is dead. We see some of the typical elements which would be seen in a gangster film such as knife, gun, dark scenery, suit etc.

Goodfella's-Opening

Inspired Movies

We make a group of four people who are about to make a film. We had many ideas about how our film should look like and what could be the elements we should include for the film to have its appropriate theme, the rate of conventions, understandable for the audience and identify the message we are trying to forward.

Firstly we looked at all the genres we could apply to the film. Then we looked at the characters, locations and sound we could chip in on the basis of the storyline. 

Considering the limitations of technical support and locations we had to cope with, we decided on the final draft of our film. It is going to be a gangster/crime movie in which we could manage all the necessary elements inside our limitations.

Now here are some of the movies we inspired from:

Scarface Trailer

The Godfather: Trailer

List of Gangster films

In modern movies, gangster genre is one of the most popular and we could see some of the incredible gangster movies which are made by the best film directors. I have a choice of my own gangster movies in terms of  the theme, the rate of convention, sound effects and so on.

The film which would make it first on my list would be Godfather

The other films which would make a place in my list is Scarface, City of God, The Departed and the Good Fellas.