Shot list

Shot number	Type of shot	Camera movement	Action	Length
1	Establishing shot	Still	Marshal walks across frame	8 seconds
2	Close-up shot	Still	Marshall stop walking	3 seconds
3	Over-the-shoulder shot	Track	Jesse plays around with gun	4 seconds
4	Establishing shot	Still	Jesse enters frame	5 seconds
5	Extreme close-up shot	Still	Jesse stares.	3 seconds
6	Extreme close-up shot	Still	Badge eye line match	3 seconds
7	Medium close-up shot	Still	Dialogue “You come to arrest me marshal?”	6 seconds
8	Medium close-up shot	Still	Dialogue “No.”	4 seconds
9	Medium close-up shot	Still	Marshal Badge off	2 seconds
10	Low angle shot	Still/focus pull	Badge falling to the ground	8 seconds
11	Medium close up shot	Still	Marshal lifts head	2 seconds
12	Close-up shot	Still	Marshal brushes coat back	5 seconds
13	Close-up shot	Still	Marshal tense gun handling	5 seconds
14	Over-the-shoulder shot	Still	Jesse tense gun handling	4 seconds
15	Extreme close-up shot	Still	Jesse staring	4 seconds
16	Close-up shot	Still	Jesse going for gun	3 seconds
17	Close-up shot/split screen	Still	Firing guns	1 seconds

Animated storyboard

The animated storyboard helps in showing the shots in the correct order.

Change of setting - Update

We're thinking of changing our setting into a different planet, Mars or any other planet in our solar system. We think this would make our introduction move unique and also, if we are able to learn how to edit the setting, we may show very interesting locations, which will intrigue audiences, though this may be harder than a simple desert setting. Another planet would fit the sci-fi genre, but this is not final.

Film titles analysis UPDATED

                              

                            
             
                       

In all the western film title title introduction, the title is made in a very simplistic and old fashioned way, this makes it clearer to read, which is very important. The conventional color used in most western film titles appears to be red, which my symbolize blood, setting the theme for the rest of the movie.

Below is we have created for our film introduction 'A bullet for James Wesley-Adams', as you can see there are many similarities between it and 'the assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford'. This is because it's title was about the same length, furthermore the simplicity of the title is appealing as well as reflective of the film we hope to create. We decided to use font similar to 'The good the bad and the ugly'  because it fits with the hybrid genre that we're trying to fit into.

Editing analysis - Editing in westerns

There are many shots and editing techniques within this short extract that all contribute to the overall feel of the scene. This helps develop different moods as the story lines progresses. Though most of the editing used is used to establish continuity.

In westerns, they usually aim to make people quite tense, here the tension is created mainly by the lack of score used, this boosts the audience's attention and focus. Most of the shot lengths are quite long which makes for dull situations, fast cuts are used to alternate between characters to create a stare down which makes the audiences wonder what the character might do next

The main character is always in the centre of the shots, which establishes him as the focus of these shots, drawing the character's attention to him. This long shot is able to show the guns of the two characters facing him, which may establish that he's in a dangerous position. The long shot is also able to clearly show that the background is very empty, which may show that this town is dangerous as it is very empty.

The close up above is used in order to show the protagonist's facial expressions, Shot/reverse shots are used in order to show the difference in their expressions, portraying the protagonist as fearless while his opponents are quite scared and surprised. The shot also makes the audience surprised at why he's not scared while facing against several men, drawing them in.

A medium long shot is used in order to emphasise on the amount of people he is facing against. As they begin to draw their guns, the shot slowly zooms out, in order to show that they are shooting at the ground to intimidate him, and also to show the number of people watching in the background, signalling that they are also against the protagonist. 

In this shot, the three characters are all holding guns, which symbolises danger, also the fact that they are shot from a lower angle is made in order to show that they are in control, this low angle shot makes them look larger and therefore more powerful.

Film ratings

Film ratings act as a guiding system in order to allow people to make educated choices on what films to watch based on what their contents are.

By BBFC's rating I believe A bullet for James Wesley-Adam would be for people ages 15+. This allows us to show strong violence which our movie. Since teenagers are influenced greatly by different types of popular media, we are not allowed to show easily-accessible items used as weapons as this might give certain ideas, or even scare younger audiences.

Although our target age demographic is 13-18, we believe a rating of 12+ is too constricting to the content we could show. We would not be able to show violent behavior while our film piece is about a stand off. This may influence children to perform more violent behavior.

Gender representation in westerns

A good way to analyse gender representations in movies is by using the Bechdal test. Which in order for a movie to pass this test, it must feature two or more female characters that talk to each other but not about a man. The fact that many popular movies seem to fail this test shows the conventional portrayal of females in modern media.

In our media piece we decided not to have a female actress, this is because we do not believe it would fit the conventions of a western. Western movies do not usually cast women as main characters. At most, females are characterized as stereotypical damsels in distress.

Females represented as weaker in general media

Males are almost always the main characters of westerns, like 3:10 to yuma and a fistful of dollars. Females are usually presented as supporting characters such as in 3:10 to yuma, in order to create motivation for the protagonist. On the other hand, males are represented quite conventionally in westerns. they are usually greedy cold blooded killers, while the females offer more emotions to the film.

Male representation in 3:10 to yuma

Props research

In order to begin planning our props I needed to take a look at the conventional props used in western movies. The most important prop in our film piece, obviously, is the gun. Since our film introduction is of a genre hybrid of a science fiction and a western, we were forced to search for inspiration from multiple sources

Old conventional western gun

Genre-fitting scifi gun

The guns we're hoping to use would be a mix between a science fiction and a western. Therefore it must look futuristic while also containing the rugged feel that most conventional western movies have.

We're thinking of creating our prop gun by perhaps spray painting a Nerf gun black and the handle brown. we'd also add some details to make the gun fit the atmosphere, making it more dirty, and used. Also the reason for creating the gun in a more futuristic way in order to fit the conventions of a science fiction and also to show the audience that this is set in the future.