Dominant Reading

This is our table of dominant readings in our texts and how we plan to achieve this. This blog post was made by Gusde.

This is just a quick catch up session that we did as a group. We thought it would be a good idea to check what our intended dominant readings are for the different things being represented in our film opening. We have recently learned about Stuart Hall’s Reception Theory with Dominant, Oppositional, and Negotiated readings. For our media text to be successful, we want to make sure the message is clear and able to reach the correct audience. Below we will discuss our intended readings, and compare them to the intended readings we made in our Statement of Intent earlier on in the project. It will be interesting to see if our ideas have evolved. 

	List	Our intended  Dominant Reading	How we will achieve this with technical elements
Individuals	Boss Mark Choi	Powerful in terms of strength and influence Dedicated smart strong Reckless rash underprepared naive	Mise en scene: Suit, Luxurious Chair, Menacing smile Camera:Low Angle
Social group	Criminals	We wish to represent criminals and be evil and unjust.	This will be primarily shown with the bosses fighting style being dirty and unfair.
Places	Boss office	We want to show the bosses main “office” to be a place fit for a king and extravagant a reflection of a his  power and influence	As we can see here this is done with dark moody lighting. The dark wooden floor gives a rustic and luxurious feel. The boss also sits in a central position showing power within the room. The room is also a bit dirty and industrial with exposed piping this shows that he may be a careless person.
Events	Fighting	The fighting in this opening will be intense and over the top which we hope will add to the comedic	~ Abusing multiple cuts (make sure it has enough time frame for the audience to understand) ~ Close up shots
Overall Message	We wanted to show that evil or bad may be good in the short time but good will prevail in the long run.

How are these similar or different from your Statement of Intent?

• The bosses character traits are similar

• We want to reduce the vitality and amount of guards but we will still use them as comedic value.

  
  

  Reflection:

  The dominant reading is useful for our film opening because it shows how we are going to represent our film opening and how they are going to receive our film opening message. This could create meanings and touch the audience reaction and emotion.

Audience Feedback

 This post explains how we showed a rough draft of our film opening to some members of our target audience in order to receive helpful feedback. 

The purpose of a screen test is to gain audience feedback about our work and see if their are any improvements that can be made. We decided to use Google for to create a survey to share with our audience because it's easy to use make a forms from and has all the features we need such us uploading videos, and a variety of question types. Here are our questions: 

1.Which of these options do you think fits our movie title the best?

2.What do you think is missing in our movie that could be added or improved?

3.Which of these typefaces/fonts would fit the title?

4.How well do you think we portrayed the characters in this movie and how can we improve the representation of our movie?

5.Optional : what song or score would fit our fight scene? (Please Mention name of song and artist.)

We chose these questions because these were the areas that we needed the most feedback and outside opinions for We showed the clip to 4 members of our target audience to ensure that the feedback we receive is appropriate. Finding people for the screen test was easy/difficult because well four people is not alot of people some may not be motivated to watch a short film then answer questions which sometimes aren't multiple choice. Here is the draft that we showed audiences for the screen test: 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-L7bBJ8zFGizcL3MQ9GRU3RXNspUBP0V

Here are the results from the audience feedback:

From the feedback we learned firstly on the negative side, we needed to improve our fair editing but we hope to soon fix this by using Capcut premium which has more unlocked features which give us more creativity. Also, the sound was a bit bad as we didn't have proper mics our sound equipment in the location and our sound effects also need to be improved. Lastly, one participant as well commented about the super video quality probably due to the use of phones and the lack of light in the location. But on the good side people said our acting was very good and as for the questions about the type font people chose Zenaida and for the title people liked Mark Choi: No Mercy.

We are going to change the use of forms as due to it being online people's responses were minimal and lacked more information. I think next time we'll use focus groups instead as it allows for more in-depth data collection which can give us more feedback and opinions.

This screening test was a useful part of our process because it gave us feedback to help us improve and gave us a second opinion which helped settle decisions for us.

Reflection: The screen test was beneficial as it showed our audience our film opening and received feedback/suggestions that could be improved to maximise our film's performance and quality. However, next time we will use focus groups instead of Google Forms as the answers given by the participants do not satisfy us completely.

Production: Behind the Scenes

This blog post contains all the jobs and tasks given to our members behind the camera to assist us during the shooting. This blog is written by Kenzo.

Creative And Arts Crew:
Storyboard Writer: Kenzo
Set Design: Kenzo, Gusde
Make-up artist: Candra, Maha

Camera and VFX Department: (The tech people)
Lighting Technician: Gusde
Editor: Maha
Camera Operator: Kenzo (stunt cameraman), Gusde (drone operator)

Above the line: (The one in charge)
Director: Gusde
Assistant Director: Kenzo


Pictures of Behind the Scenes (taken by Kenzo):

This is the drone that we used to record aerial footage of our character riding a motorcycle and climbing the walls. This device made it extremely useful when it comes to recording far-distance third-person point of view.

This picture depicts Gusde and Maha discussing about how we're going to use a drone to shoot Candra climbing the wall.

This picture shows us reviewing the footage that we shot after the take.

This picture shows our actor "Mark Choi" getting ready on a motorbike to shoot our very first scene.

This is the picture of our actor playing as the criminal boss of the underworld.

This picture shows us shooting the final scene of the film opening where we used red food colouring to act as blood and we needed assistance from Gusde he will splash red food colouring onto Maha's face.

These videos shows how we recorded our film opening for the fighting scene.

Reflection: From the task given to our members, shooting the film makes it a lot easier as the people assigned to these roles are specialised in the assigned task. Without doing this, the final result of the film would not look great and conflict would probably happen between us when deciding. We also took a few pictures behind the scenes as a piece of evidence that we shot this on our own and how it looked like during the shooting.

Filming Schedule

This post contains the Filming schedule of our final film, we did this as a group:

Scene	Date/Time	Location	People	Props	Equipment	Other
All Scenes	Monday 21/01/2025	Maha's House	Maha (Actor), Candra (Actor), Gusde (Cameraman), and Kenzo (Cameraman)	Dress in Bike Weapons (knife bat etc) Fake ID cards and outfits (all Black	Drone camera mics boom arm	During this day, Kenzo couldn't come to our set location because he was busy so we had to shoot the film with the 3 of us only.
All Scenes	Friday 31/01/2025	Maha's House	Maha (Actor), Candra (Actor), Greg (Actor),  Gusde (Cameraman), Kenzo (Cameraman)	Motorbike, jacket, black suit full set, red food colouring for blood, Knife, newspaper.	Drone camera, Phone camera, Clapper	After what happened on Monday last week, the opening scene we recorded was not what we expected. Due to that, on this day we decided to reshoot the whole thing with a new unofficial member added to our production crew named Greg (one of our friends). We are more prepared on this day as everyone in the group can arrive on the scene.
Some scenes we decided to reshoot	Friday 07/03/2025	Maha's House	Maha (Actor), Candra (Actor),  Gusde (Cameraman), Kenzo (Cameraman), Greg (Visitor), Marvel (Visitor), Arnold (Visitor)	Motorbike, jacket, black suit full set, red food colouring for blood,	Drone camera, Phone camera,	On this day we decided to reshoot some scenes, especially the fight scene as it was badly choreographed. We also removed one actor in our film which is Greg because the scene that he was in was unnecessary. We had a few visitors during our shooting who wanted to see the process of how we film and gives us feedback on what to improve.

Reflection:
The filming schedule allows us to list down the tasks that need to be done to help us prioritize our time and achieve the goal before the deadline. Without the schedule, it would be difficult for us to keep track of time and tasks that are unfinished making the group fall into shambles.

Classwork: Editing Practice

This blog post contains the work I did in my lesson on how to successfully edit. My teacher filmed the footage but me and my partner (Candra) edited it together. My teacher also provided the template for the blog post. 

Why is continuity editing important?

Continuity editing includes making sure that items like props or costumes stay consistent from scene to scene. But the more important work lies in editing shots together in a way that leaves viewers thoroughly grounded in both time and space.

Different types of continuity edit 

• Straight cut (cut)

• Eyeline match 

• Shot /reverse shot

• Cutaway / Insert 

*Match cut

Footage

Here is the footage that my teacher shot which utilises a variety of camera angles and movements. The scene is very simple, it involves a student standing up and leaving the classroom. A single shot here might be quite boring for the audience, by editing and combining the shots together we can make the scene feel more dynamic. 

My editing process

Explain how you edited the clips together. Include screenshots of the editing software.  We used a lot of cuts and tools from canva.

Here is my first attempt, which had some misunderstandings with the editing app we were using as there was a lack of editing tools that Canva offers their users. We couldn't fix this issue as we do not have any other editing apps besides Canva installed in our devices.

Here is my final scene. Editing multiple clips together made the scene better because it made the whole scene understandable for the audience to watch. Without it, audience would have to watch raw footages that do not make any sense.

Reflection: This helped us to decide who had the best editing skills in our group so they could edit our final film. The biggest challenge was that our editing software Canva has limited editing options so the result was not on the maximum performance. All we had was multiple cuts and no zoom or effects elements in our practice. Next time we would have to get real editing software such as Capcut. The reason we had to use Canva was because me and my partner had no editing software and it would take a long time to download Capcut (or any other editing software) within the classwork timeframe.

Shooting Practice: Action Scene Recreation

This post contains a mini project that helped us learn how to shoot a cinematic scene. we did this as a group in school.

Lesson Description: My teacher told us to find a scene from a movie in our genre. Our chosen task was to recreate this scene from John Wick where he and the film's main antagonist conversed with each other engaging in a deal. 


Storyboard:

Original Scene:

     

Our recreated scene:
                                                

Problems, How to solve them and What to do next time:

1) We do not have the proper camera equipment, so sometimes the camera movements are a bit unstable, making it look unprofessional. We could not solve this problem besides the least we could do was to get someone from our group to have stable hands when holding the camera. Next time we would be required to buy new equipment that would stabilize the camera when moving to create a better quality film for the audience and avoid shaking the camera.

2) The backlight when we were filming ruins the recreated scene as the original scene was in a dark gloomy weather. There was nothing we could do as we could not control the weather and we did not have enough time to find a new place to film. Next time we would need to take our time to decide which location would be suitable for the environment to match with the original film.

3) There were background noises from the area where we filmed which caused a disturbance in the audio every time the character was speaking even though we had a phone microphone near the voice of our actor. We solved this problem by muffling the audio from the video however this makes the character's voice low and unclear. Next time we would need to buy a proper microphone attached to our actors so their voices can be heard loud and clear. We also would need to clear out the area of our filming set to avoid unnecessary audio or disturbance from entering our film.

4) We had a problem with our cameraman due to his unprofessional conduct where he accidentally recorded the scenes in slow motion. Luckily we had a solution where the videos would be sped up to cover the mistake of our cameraman from the audience. However, this solution would not fully solve the problem as some of the scenes are still in slow motion to match the pace of the original audio. Next time we would have to switch our cameraman to someone else as this can prove to be a hazardous conduct towards our final film.


REFLECTION: 
I think overall this was a fun and effective task to do because it gave us an overall experience of how we would film our future final project. The fact that we had the lack of props and equipment when we filmed this makes this a pretty decent low-budget attempt that my group were proud of. I think if we were to do this again and had more time doing this, it would turn out to be a really good scene as I'm confident with this groupmate.

Screenplay & Script

The screenplay and script is done by Gusde and me

FADE IN:

1

EXT. ROAD -  Day

We open with a Drone shot following CANDRA, a devoted man who comes back to his old gang to take revenge on the boss who's wronged him. riding a bright pink princess bike dressed like a woman with a blonde wig down a street until he arrives at a house. 

CUT TO:

EXT. ROAD - OUTSIDE ROAD- DAY

He puts one foot on the ground, creating a thump, and dismounts the bike, showing off a pink sparkly glitter shoe. He then seductively walks his way towards the building CANDRA as the camera moves down, creating a low-angle shot of the building.

CUT TO:

EXT. HOUSE - GATE - DAY

A large, secure, decorated gate protects a big, fancy house fit for a king. Two guards patrol the outside of the gate. The guards then begin catcalling CANDRA, Whistling him and calling him over. CANDRA then walks closer seductively and elegantly.

GUARD 1

Hey gorgeous, how you doin’? 

GUARD 2

Are you lost, little missy?

Candra with a smirk on his face walks close to the guards and kicks one of them in the groin then the other tries to pull out a weapon but CANDRA smacks them over the head with a heavy purse incapacitating them. 

Then we see candra open a door and emerge with the guards outfit.

CROSSFADE:

2

EXT. Compound - Outside garage - day

CANDRA then walks into a garage and sees people working on cars. That could be his escape. He opens a door to enter the main compound then he sees a group of guards drinking relaxing snacks in the Bale/Communal area.

Guard 1 

(enthusiastic)

Hey who are you?! 

Guard 2 

(enthusiastic)

Yoo, what do you want! 

Guard 3

(enthusiastic)

Where you headed to, new guy?

CANDRA 

(serious tone head down)

I’m the new guy. I need to go to the boss's office. I need to have a word with him

Guard 1 

(enthusiastic)

The new guy doesn’t see the

boss on the first day

CANDRA 

(confident Looks up)

Watch me

EXT. MAIN DOOR INTO MAIN BUILDING. WHAT CAMERA SHOT DO I USE?

CANDRA then walks towards the main building and meets a towering guard with sunglasses.

BIG Guard

ID please (smirk)

The Big guard is then surprised as to where he gets the ID and before he can ask him. Candra pulls out a spray bottle of mosquito repellent and sprays the guard in the face. 

CUT TO:

INT. HOUSE - OFFICE - DAY

CANDRA enters the large office of the BOSS as he tries to close the door the Big Guards hand blocks it from closing and CANDRA kicks it and closes the door.

BOSS

So we meet again, Candra. What have you come for this time?

CANDRA then turns his head to see a  Big well dressed man the BOSS

CANDRA

Your head (smirks)

Boss

(laughs maniacally)

The BOSS then stands up from his desk, takes off his suit and approaches CANDRA to confront him. An intense stare down occurs and the camera cuts from face to face then they both dash towards each other with ready fists and BLAM both fists connect knocking them back.

Boss

Finally the moments i have been waiting for 

(laughs)

CANDRA

Tch 

(smiling)

Candra runs toward the boss and swings his feet straight towards the Boss's face . Then the Boss block his kick with one arm and threw him to the side 

Boss

You never change CANDRA 

(laughing)

(pulls out a gun)

CANDRA

(angry)

FADE OUT

(Gun shot)

Reflection: The screenplay may possibly change if new ideas are formed during filming, but I think this should be enough for us to get a good start and an overall view of how the final project will look like.