Attack the Block (Written and directed by Joe Cornish 2011)

This is a British monster movie, set in a council estate in South London on Bonfire Night The plot of the film centers a street gang of teenage lads who are partial to mugging randomers in the street and carry knives, regularly visit Ron for weed and carry fire works in their backpacks. The gang have to defend themselves from an alien invasion which chases them all around the block in order to catch them and eat them.

I watched this film a couple of nights ago and I have to say it has to be one of my all time favorites. I have watched it numerous times, all with different people, all of which get obsessed with the film after watching it, taking lines which the characters say and repeating them till they loose their novelty. From looking at the cover you think its just another alien invasion film, which quite frankly it is, however, the heroes are unexpected, and the set of the whole film is so different, so normal and I think that’s what makes it so entertaining, it takes the normal and turns it into the unexpected.

The plot:

The film begins on Bonfire Night and character Samantha is mugged by a small gang of boystrous youths. The main character of the gang, Moses, is the ring leader. The other members of the gang are Pest, Jerome, Dennis and Biggz.

The mugging is interrupted by a meteorite hitting the car that is parked next to Sam in the street where shes lying after being pushed to the floor by Moses. It smashes into the roof of the car spraying glass everywhere and the lads take cover whilst Sam sees her escape runs off as fast as she can. Moses, being the brave one goes to the car and takes a look inside, where an alien jumps out and attacks him, scratching his face, and runs out of the car into the park. The lads chase after it thinking its probably a dog or a monkey, and kill it with fireworks. From doing this they believe they will acquire fame and fortune as they discover the creature they just killed is not anything they have ever seen. They decide to take the dead alien to their acquaintance Ron (Nick Frost) who lives at the top of the block and grows and sells weed to get some advice at what they have found.

Moses asks Ron and local gangster Hi-Hatz if he can keep the alien in their Weed room as its the safest room in the block.

More objects begin to fall from the sky, and as the gang are eager to fight more creatures they arm themselves with base ball bats, knives and swords and rush to the nearest site where they saw one crash land. They soon discover these creatures are much bigger and gorilla like than the one they killed, with rows of glowing teeth and blacker than black spiky fur. The gang run away and become chased by them, whilst they are running, Moses gets arrested by the police as they were out looking for the gang who mugged Sam. Moses is put into the police van which Sam is also inside. The police men both get mauled outside the van by the aliens who are after Moses, then they attack the van knowing Moses is inside. Dennis bravely reaches the van and frees Moses and they decide to jack it and drive away in it still with Sam inside. Dennis takes the wheel and accidentally crashes the police van into Hi-Hatz’s car, Sam sees this as her chance to escape again and runs off, the rest of the gang catch up to the crashed police car where they all confront Hi-Hatz.

Raging about his crashed car Hi-Hatz threatens the lads with a gun whilst they tell him about the aliens which he refuses to believe until his henchman is attacked and killed by one right in front of his eyes, the lads escape at this moment only to be chased by more aliens. The decide to run to their block but Biggz gets forced to hide in a plastic skip/bin where he becomes certain that he wont survive as one alien waits outside. Pest gets his leg bitten and is dragged up the stairs of the block by his gang. They notice Sam lives in the same block as them and force their way into her flat where they think they will be safe for a moment. Sam refuses to believe their alien story but believes it after one alien smashes into the flat but is attacked my Moses with a samurai sword and killed. Sam decides to join the lads so as not to be left alone. The gang and Sam move upstairs to their neighbors flat who are a bunch of girls. They are again attacked by the aliens who get in through the window and decapitate Dennis. The girls, traumatized note that they aliens are clearly after Moses and flee the building. The gang carry on up the block only to be confronted by Hi-Hatz with some more henchmen who try to shoot Moses and his gang. An alien chases Hi-Hatz and his men into the lift where Hi-Hatz kills the alien but the henchmen are killed too, but he is still raging at Moses and continues his search to get him.

The group make their way upstairs and reach the top floor where they meet Ron’s weed customer Brewis who joins them. They set fireworks through the halls of the floor to kill any aliens that are there in waiting and walk through the smoke, Jerome becomes disorientated by the smoke and is killed by an alien. The group finally reach Rons flat at the end of the corridor and enter it only to find Hi-Hatz waiting for them. He threatens Moses with a gun until aliens crash through the window, killing Hi-Hatz whilst the gang retreat to Rons weed room where they are safe for the while.

Whilst in the weed room, Brewis discoveres a luminescent stain on Moses’s jacket which he theorizes is a feramone which the first alien they killed left on him, as it must have been a female and  it had left a mating scent on Moses that the larger male aliens have been tracking for the evening.  After discovering this they use the luminescent light on Sam to see if she carries the feramone, she is clear so they devise a plan to kill all the aliens when they are in one room together.

Sam escapes out of the flat and runs to Moses’s flat where she turns up all the gas and leaves the door on the latch then runs out of the block. Moses attatches the dead female alien onto his back after finding it in the weedroom where they had left it and runs out of the flat where all the male aliens chase him down to his flat.

 

He throws the female in the flat where all the males gather and ignites a firework which makes the flat explode whilst he jumps out of the window and hangs onto a flag hanging from it. The aliens are all killed and Moses is alive.

In all the aftermath, Moses, Pest, Ron and Brewis are arrested as they are considered responsible for all the chaos of the evening and the deaths of all the people around the area, but Samantha comes to their defence as they saved her. Moses and Pest are shoved into the police van whre they hear the crowd outside cheering for Moses, causing Moses to smile for the first time in the film.

 

Overall I believe this film is brillaint and brings excitement and laughter to your living room when you watch it. I would definately recomment it to anyone, its has no particular audience and is far from a nerdy alien film, its much better than that.

Reservoir Dogs- Evaluation

I have finally finished editing my video and its finished. I took me about three lessons but its done now.

Thing that I found difficult were putting the text on for the names of the actresses and writing Reservoir Dogs at the end and the credits, because I didn’t even know how to even do it. With the help of Rosy I was shown how to do it. Once I learned how to do it I saved a customized font which was similar to the original one in the film and it saved me time when doing all the rest of the text.

What went well?

Things that went well in our video was the walking past the wall part, where everyone’s in sunglasses and the music is playing. It really recreates the ‘cool’ scene like in the film, and our version is like the female version and still looks just as good. Once that scene got put in slow motion when I did my editing it made it so much more similar to the film.

Another thing that went okay was the voice over I did, it could have been improved if I’m honest but only because I hadn’t listened to the original voice over before I did it myself so it wasn’t as similar. I think I spoke a little too fast but I did put on the american accent and try to speak deeply.

I think most of our costumes looked like the characters we were supposed to be, if you watched it you would be able to tell who was playing who. We decided to pay lots of attention to detail with things like the props on the table in the canteen, including the old fashioned mobile phone which Kate brought it, Ketchup and fake monopoly money. This made out video more convincing because we tried hard to recreate the scene as best we could with the resources we had. We also drew the wrinkles and bags on our faces if our characters had them, my character for example had LOADS of bags and was an old man so Robyn did my makeup for me and did a good job of making me look tired and old.

What could have been improved?

Things that could have been improved was when we filmed the part where the characters are shown with their names in yellow font, we should have zoomed in more on the characters faces, this would have made it more like the film because in the film the characters head is at the very top of the shot and their neck is at the bottom and the top of their shoulders showing.

I could have also padded out my outfit more as my character Joe was fat, and I only stuffed the front of my top, therefore making me look pregnant instead of fat.  If we were to do it again I would pad out all my clothes to make me look more like my character Joe.

When editing the shots together I found it difficult to put text on the ending shot where the group of characters are walking down the street and the credits roll up the screen saying ‘Reservoir Dogs’. This text stops at the top of the page. I found it extremely difficult to do and didn’t grasp how to do it as Mr Grant was always busy with someone else so he never got round to showing me how to do it. I asked some of my peers but I still didn’t understand, this was a problem because it meant that my ‘Reservoir Dogs’ text just rolls off the top of the shot and doesn’t stop.

What I enjoyed from this task

From making this video I have thoroughly enjoyed dressing up and making ourselves into the characters we are supposed to portray. That  was probably my favorite part as it makes the video look so much more colourful and interesting if we are dressed as our characters instead of wearing uniform.

I also loved trying to make our version of the film as close to the original as possible. It needed alot of focus from all of us to get the attention to detail but overall I think we achieved a pretty good outcome.

Here is our finished video:

Reservoir Dogs- Editing

Once we had filmed our shots they got loaded onto the desktops and our next task was to edit them together using the real intro from the film as guidelines. We used the programme Final Cut to produce our edited film openings, most of us had used the programme before so it wasn’t too difficult to operate.

First I imported the video footage we made from the desktop onto Final Cut. I also imported the actual film clip onto Final Cut as well which I put under my clips as a guide to what goes where. I started by cutting my shots and putting them in the order of the film. Once I had all the videos in order on the timeline  I decided to add in the text, there’s a bit where the screen is black and there is yellow text which says ‘ A film by Quentin Tarantino’, for this I laid black as a back ground and wrote my own which said ‘A film by Jess Morris’.

There was also text of the actors name when the characters are filmed walking towards the camera. I made a yellow font which looked similar to the one used in the film and saved it so that it was the same font for every characters text. At the end of the clip the credits roll up the screen, for this I used a text template which moved up the screen and put in the writing I wanted.

After I had done all of the text I moved onto the sound. Mr Jackson made us record our voices saying the voice over part at the beginning of the film, we had to do this in an american accent and say it like the man in the film. We did this so that we could put it over the top of our edited shots and use our own voices as its more creative. Once we had done this it was put onto the computer and I imported it onto Final Cut. I then placed it on the timeline where I wanted it which was at the start in the canteen scene. After I’d put my sound on I took the sound from the film off, and imported the music for the rest of the sound in the film. This was difficult because I had to match the music to the music in the film exactly and it was either too forward or too backwards so i moved it as best i could to the spot where it starts.

I then decided to put an effect on the video which matched the film version, it makes the colours a little for brighter and defined, this looks particularly good on the characters who wore sunglasses and black suits, like Rosy, Jemma, Robyn and Jess, as the black sunglasses and suits stand out from the skin and shirt and make the shot more pleasing to the eye.

Before, without the effect:

After, with the effect, the colours are bolder:

Filming Reservoir Dogs- Our Version

On Wednesday the 4th of December we started filming our shots for the remake of the beginning of Reservoir Dogs. We had each been appointed the characters we were supposed to dress up as and paid particular attention to the details of what clothes they wore, their facial expressions and their overall physical appearance. As a group we were appointed roles for within the project, these were the director who was Jess Marshall, the costume decider which was Grace, the person who chose the settings which was Lauren, the story board makers which was mainly Rosy but I helped, the camera woman which was Lucy, and everyone else helped with deciding the props and organizing us as a team.

When filming we just had 1 hour, this seems reasonable for filming about 25 seconds of shots but it proved difficult as its not easy controlling a big group of girls. We started off filming in the canteen for the starting shot, for this we brought in plenty of props which recreated the scene magnificently as we needed to get it as similar to the film as possible. It took us about half an hour to film the canteen scene as it took us a while to get it right but we did manage it in time to get filming the next bit. We chose the wall outside where the buses go past to do the slow motion walking scene. We managed this rather quickly but the only down side was that we didn’t have a blue car in the back ground which is quite noticeable in the real film. We then filmed the characters walking where they are facing the camera, in the film its difficult to tell how they did this so we settled for the camera on the tripod and the characters walking towards the shot. When seeing the boys version they decided to go for a bobbing technique where they bobbed in front of the camera to imitate walking, I think this worked better as it looked more like the film. Our final piece of filming was all us as a group walking down the road. We got this in one shot as it was a fairly easy bit of filming.

The problems which we encountered  when we were filming were trying to get the exact correct position which looked like the film. In the canteen we found it difficult to get the right back ground and had several location changes in the room before we settled for the round table near the edge of the room. We seemed to spend more time discussing how we were going to do each shot, this was quite annoying as we had limited time and people were getting impatient and just wanted to get the shot done instead of spending ages getting it exactly the same as the film.

Another this we found difficult was getting the order of the characters walking past the wall right. We had to pay particular attention to who was who and where they were in the shot.

The most frustrating part of the whole task was that we only had 1 hour to film the shots in. However it was only about 25 seconds of filming so realistically we wouldn’t need long to film it. Yet saying this we did struggle for time by the end of the hour, which meant we rushed our last couple of shots. Though having a time limit does mean that we get down to work and do it, it is annoying because organizing about 9 girls to do exactly what you want them to is a difficult task. We did manage it though and our shots were pretty good.

The Hunger Games- Catching Fire

On Saturday night me and my mother went to the cinema to watch the latest Hunger Games film. I had seen the first one and thought it was outstanding, so I definitely had intentions of seeing the second one. There is a series of books for the Hunger games which are excellently written even though I haven’t read any of them I have been told that they are well written and adrenaline filled. This has made me decide that i am going to read them when I finally get the time as I do love a good book.

The Plot of Catching Fire

Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark have survived the 74th Hunger games and return home to District 12, their home town. From the first Hunger Games movie, Katniss and Peeta inspire the people in the Districts across the world as they threaten suicide with exploding berries which instantly kill you, they both shared some in their hands and counted so as to take them at the same time, so that the game ends with either both alive (if they get stopped) or both dead and there is no winner. In the end the games were stopped and both won. Their relationship is also a ‘show’ as they are in a whirlwind romance for the on screen entertainment for the people of the Capitol. This makes Katniss and Peeta memorable to the spectators.

Snow, the master of the whole Hunger Games is frustrated with Katniss as she inspired rebellion among the districts and he orders her to go to the Districts and convince the country that her and Peetas love is ‘real’.  Katniss and Peetas mentor, Haymitch Abernathy, tells Katniss and Peeta the “show” of their relationship must continue for the rest of their lives. Katniss suggests a public engagement between herself and Peeta, which is carried out and celebrated at Snow’s home in the Capitol. This pleases the Capitol as the tributes of the Hunger Games like the drama to watch of the relationships of the tributes as they are like animals in a cage.

Peacekeepers crack down in District 12 to maintain and order the rebellion and Katniss’s close friend Gale is publicaly whipped by an angry peacekeeper. Snow announces a special Hunger Games which is held every 25 years which involved previous victors, Katniss is picked again but she knows she will be enduring it again, and Peeta volunteers himself as he is in love with Katniss and wont let her go on her own, even though she doesn’t want him to as she wants him to be safe and live.

Katniss and Peeta have their pre games interview in the Capitol where Katniss wears her wedding dress which she would have work in her marriage to peeta if it wasn’t for this next hunger games. This created the best impression for her as the crowd love her. Her stylist Cinna creates the dress so that it turns into a deep blue dress with wings which resembles a mocking jay when she spins. He supports Katniss and assures her everything is going to be okay.  As a punishment for the scene it caused, Cinna is savagely beaten seconds before an onlooking Katniss enters the arena. Traumatizing Katniss and putting her is a state of shock and remorse just before she is about to be in the Hunger Games.

The games begin and Katniss straight away goes in search for Peeta and some kind of weapon which she can use to protect herself, her bow and arrow. She fore alliances with some other people from another District and they sacrafice each other to save each other. I don’t want to give the excitement away so I’ll leave the details of each attack to when you watch it for yourself.

In the end Katniss fires an arrow with a wire attatched to it connected to lighting, to the sky where there’s a force field and the Hunger Games gets a power failure and the arena is destroyed.

Katniss awakens in an aircraft where she finds Haymitch, Finnick and Plutarch Heavensbee, the head gamemaker, revealed to be a rebel against Snow. She is frantically asking where Peeta is as Haymitch promised he wouldn’t let him die, she lashes out at Haymitch and threatens him with a syringe. She then finds out that Johanna and Peeta were taken away by the Capitol and she’s in such a state that Plutarch sedates her and she wakes up days later with Gale next to her and he tells her their District 12 has been destroyed but her family is safe.

The Making of Our Version of Reservoir Dogs-Planning

Our task was to recreate the opening scene to the film Reservoir Dogs, we were put into 2 groups, one of just boys and one of us girls. Then between us we all made the decisions on what characters we were and how was were going to achieve this task.

Here is the clip from the film Reservoir Dogs which we were copying:

To achieve this piece of filming to a high standard we had to assign roles to each other in the group. There was a director which was Jess Marshall, Jemma was organizer and made sure that everyone had a role and we all knew what we were doing. Grace looked at the clothing and wrote down what each character from the scene wore so that we could copy it. Lucy was the cameraman and filmed the whole thing. Lauren looked at location and where we could film each scene where it would look closest to the film as possible. Me and Rosy did the story boards, most of which was Rosy’s handy work as she took the story boards home and worked on them. Robyn and Kate helped with costumes and props, as when we watched the clip we wrote down as many props as we could notice which we would include in our version.

We had 3 lessons to plan our filming, which meant we had to focus and keep motivated to the task. In each hour of lesson we talked about what we needed to do when filming, practiced our walks and watched the clip endlessly to get down every piece of detail we could. We examined the positions and order of the characters, their clothes, hair, wrinkles, what was on the table in the diner etc.

Each character in the film had a specific ‘look’, my character for example was Joe who is a big old guy, He wore a brown top and grey trousers and he had quite big bags under his eyes. From this we all decided as a group that we would go for pencil skirts instead of trousers because we are an all girl group so we thought we should enhance it. I borrowed Graces grey pencil skirt and my mums turtle neck brown top. For the wrinkles, Robyn used an eyebrow pencil and drew bags under my eyes, lines near my mouth and between my eyebrows and lines at the corners of my eyes. I also stuffed a couple of hoodies up my top as my character is fat.

We are marked on our skills on how close to the film we can get it so we need to pay particular attention to what each character does and how they do it. We wanted it to be obvious which characters we were.