This morning Gareth and I decided to meet at the costume shop at 9, to rent the costumes, and then head to radnor park to film our newspaper/disguise scene. When we met however the shop was closed, and we had to wait for it to open. We eventually rented our costumes however, which consisted of two police helmets, two police pullovers, and two fake moustaches. But by the time we got to our filming location at radnor park and had set up thetri-pod and camera, it had started to rain, and we had to protect the camera from rain damage and therefore had to go inside and cancel our filming.
To try and ensure that we get our filming completed soon, we have taken the following measures:
- We are meeting on Saturday, Monday and Wednesday to film our scenes.
- We have considered an alternative scene to the newspaper scene which will be indoors and therefore unaffected by the weather. This involves quick cut close-up shots of Myself and Gareth getting into 'disguise' then a shot which pulls out to show the whole disguise.
- When we wear our disguises we will take photographs, and edit them for our ancillary tasks.
Wednesday 8 December 2010
Wednesday 1 December 2010
Issues with filming
As I mentioned in my 'weather' post, conditions for filming are becoming less and less suitable, as we are currently experiencing heavy snow and have forecasts for even more snow this week.
It is now a large possibilty that we may have to adapt our script to fit in with the weather, so we have begun to think about outdoor scenes that may have to be changed.
In the first scene of our storyboard, we tilt the camera down from the sky to meet gareth who is drinking. This would actually look quite good in the snow, as the sun may reflect off of falling snowflakes, supporting the idea that the setting is 'nice'. However, we do not want to distract the viewers attention away from gareth, because we have already drawn their eyes to the snow.
But we do not want to run into problems with continuity, with it snowing heavily in one scene and then sunny the next. Therefore, if we were to film in the snow, we may have to film each scene quickly while the snow lasts. Also, if we discovered a mistake with our filming, it may be too late to change it as the snow would probably have gone. So we may have to just 'leave' the mistake, which is obviously not something we want to do.
It is now a large possibilty that we may have to adapt our script to fit in with the weather, so we have begun to think about outdoor scenes that may have to be changed.
In the first scene of our storyboard, we tilt the camera down from the sky to meet gareth who is drinking. This would actually look quite good in the snow, as the sun may reflect off of falling snowflakes, supporting the idea that the setting is 'nice'. However, we do not want to distract the viewers attention away from gareth, because we have already drawn their eyes to the snow.
But we do not want to run into problems with continuity, with it snowing heavily in one scene and then sunny the next. Therefore, if we were to film in the snow, we may have to film each scene quickly while the snow lasts. Also, if we discovered a mistake with our filming, it may be too late to change it as the snow would probably have gone. So we may have to just 'leave' the mistake, which is obviously not something we want to do.
Wednesday 24 November 2010
Practice Robber Scene
We have produced some practice shots for the 'Break in' scene. This scene took place in my house and we felt as though we needed to see exactly how the camera angles we have planned would be affected by the location, and whether they would still work effectively.
Sam would be playing the role of the thief, but as he was unavailable we decided to use Gareth instead as the shots were not focused upon acting roles but rather developing the camera angles and movements of the scene. This was unfortunate as it meant that Sam missed out on some possible practice but we could overcome this by spending more time on the scene during the actual filming.
Although this is a very unpolished draft of the scene, we decided to edit it to test some of the effects and transitions that we have planned. This included a to-black-and-white snapshot of a scene, in which writing appears, and the last scene where we use a crossover effect to speed up the shot and also to suggest that some time has passed.
Whilst part of the first scene, the very beggining of the scene will have a 'sweep' shot as the theif breaks into the front door. Due to already having practiced this sweep, and time restraints, we decided not to practice this part of the scene to focus on the part that needed further development.
Here is the Practice Scene which is edited but not completed: LINK
Sam would be playing the role of the thief, but as he was unavailable we decided to use Gareth instead as the shots were not focused upon acting roles but rather developing the camera angles and movements of the scene. This was unfortunate as it meant that Sam missed out on some possible practice but we could overcome this by spending more time on the scene during the actual filming.
Although this is a very unpolished draft of the scene, we decided to edit it to test some of the effects and transitions that we have planned. This included a to-black-and-white snapshot of a scene, in which writing appears, and the last scene where we use a crossover effect to speed up the shot and also to suggest that some time has passed.
Whilst part of the first scene, the very beggining of the scene will have a 'sweep' shot as the theif breaks into the front door. Due to already having practiced this sweep, and time restraints, we decided not to practice this part of the scene to focus on the part that needed further development.
Here is the Practice Scene which is edited but not completed: LINK
Wednesday 17 November 2010
Script
The only scene with any dialogue contained within it is the Chief inspector scene, and therefore our script comprimises of this scene only.
Starting shot of Mr Aherne looking out the window from the side with a serious look on his face
Mr Aherne: I’m giving you two idiots one last chance to catch the worst delinquent in history, currently on trial for stealing a hand-bag and robbing an officer’s house.
Reaction shot of Tom and Gaz looking shifty
Chief Inspector Scene
Actors: Mr Aherne, Tom, Gaz
Scene 3
Scene 3
Starting shot of Mr Aherne looking out the window from the side with a serious look on his face
Mr Aherne: You two…
Shot changes to shot of Mr Aherne from the front with Gaz and Tom in the shot, as he turns around he starts to say
Mr Aherne: are the biggest pair of incompetent buffoons that I have ever had the displeasure of having on my force. You are a disgrace to the police, this nation and to the whole of the human race…
Gaz: (in a feeble voice) but…
Mr Aherne: Shut up I’m talking. I’m giving you one last chance to prove you’re not a pair of stupid, un-educated oafs who…
Mr Aherne: are the biggest pair of incompetent buffoons that I have ever had the displeasure of having on my force. You are a disgrace to the police, this nation and to the whole of the human race…
Gaz: (in a feeble voice) but…
Mr Aherne: Shut up I’m talking. I’m giving you one last chance to prove you’re not a pair of stupid, un-educated oafs who…
Mr Aherne’s voice fades to quietly murmuring in the background as focus changes to see Gaz lean over to Tom in the fore-ground and says
Gaz: What’s an oaf?
Gaz: What’s an oaf?
Tom: It’s the stuff they put in Weetabix
Gaz: Ohhh
Focus changes back to Mr Aherne as his voice fades back in
Gaz: Ohhh
Focus changes back to Mr Aherne as his voice fades back in
Mr Aherne: OI! I’m talking so your not!
Shot of Gaz and Tom looking “scared”
Shot of Gaz and Tom looking “scared”
Mr Aherne: I’m giving you two idiots one last chance to catch the worst delinquent in history, currently on trial for stealing a hand-bag and robbing an officer’s house.
Reaction shot of Tom and Gaz looking shifty
Mr Aherne: You may want to go… in disguise.
Cut to next scene.
This script is by no means the final script and therefore may be adapted in future.
Changes to 'Chief Inspector' Scene
Whilst developing our storyboard we felt that our chief inspector scene seemed lacklustre when compared with our other scenes. We tried to think of a way to expand this scene and give it more depth and meaning to the viewer, keeping them focused on the rest of the trailer.
We have therefore decided to include a small piece of dialogue between my character and Gareth's character. Mid wa into the scene, we have included a part in our script where the chief calls us 'a pair of oafs' to which Gareth leans over to me and says 'what's an oaf?' and I reply 'Its the stuff they put in weetabix.' By using a pull-focus camera technique we believe we can effectively draw the viewer's attention away from the chief and towards us, as we are about to speak. This will demonstrate to the viewer that something of importance is about to be made, and therefore they will be prepared for the joke.
As myself, Gareth and Mr. Aherne will be in this scene, we will have to find someone else, possibly Sam, to be in control of the camera during the pull-focus effect. From my own experience from our AS work I know that this is a difficult technique to pull off effectively, and we must therefore be prepared to repeat the scene many times in order for the pull-focus to work.
We also worry that the scene may now be too long, as comedy trailers generally usually use short quick cut scenes. However, when we come to edit the trailer, if we find the scene becomes too long and slightly monotonous then we can edit out this idea and use the original plan.
This scene is elaborately explained in our script which I shall upload to my blog shortly.
We have therefore decided to include a small piece of dialogue between my character and Gareth's character. Mid wa into the scene, we have included a part in our script where the chief calls us 'a pair of oafs' to which Gareth leans over to me and says 'what's an oaf?' and I reply 'Its the stuff they put in weetabix.' By using a pull-focus camera technique we believe we can effectively draw the viewer's attention away from the chief and towards us, as we are about to speak. This will demonstrate to the viewer that something of importance is about to be made, and therefore they will be prepared for the joke.
As myself, Gareth and Mr. Aherne will be in this scene, we will have to find someone else, possibly Sam, to be in control of the camera during the pull-focus effect. From my own experience from our AS work I know that this is a difficult technique to pull off effectively, and we must therefore be prepared to repeat the scene many times in order for the pull-focus to work.
We also worry that the scene may now be too long, as comedy trailers generally usually use short quick cut scenes. However, when we come to edit the trailer, if we find the scene becomes too long and slightly monotonous then we can edit out this idea and use the original plan.
This scene is elaborately explained in our script which I shall upload to my blog shortly.
Storyboard
These 3 photographs comprimise all of the scenes we are planning to include in our film. This storyboard will become very helpful when we come to film our trailer, as it shows us exactly what camera angles, camera movements, and plot development we will need to consider when filming. This storyboard demonstrates what our film will look like after editing, but we still need to think about the sound and music that will accompany our film.
Now that we each have a copy of the storyboard, we no longer have the worry of having contradicting ideas when we are filming, i.e. we now view each scene in the same way.
Now that we each have a copy of the storyboard, we no longer have the worry of having contradicting ideas when we are filming, i.e. we now view each scene in the same way.
Monday 15 November 2010
Weather
Throughout our storyboard and mind-mapping processes, we have always imagined that the outdoor scenes would take place in sunny weather. However, being in mid-November means that winter is now upon us and there are now very few sunny days in which conditions are ideal for our film.
This is becoming a major issue for us. Renting police costumes means we have a few weeks to film before having to re-rent them. There are also few days in which both myself, Sam, and Gareth are available to meet up at the same time. Add to this the fact that the weather has to be nice and we are facing a serious problem, with very few chances available to film in perfect conditions.
We do however have a few scenes that are filmed indoors, and therefore weather conditions are irrelevant. We could therefore save these scenes for when the weather makes our other scenes impossible. Although this may disrupt our filming schedule, we may have no other choice.
If the weather stays consistently bad, we may have to rethink and adapt a few of our scenes. We could change ideas so that they take place indoors, or change them so that it would make little difference what the weather is, or adapt part of the storyline so that rain or wind in particular scenes would actually make sense.
Weather is an inconsistent part of the film-making process that we have learnt that we must be prepared for.
This is becoming a major issue for us. Renting police costumes means we have a few weeks to film before having to re-rent them. There are also few days in which both myself, Sam, and Gareth are available to meet up at the same time. Add to this the fact that the weather has to be nice and we are facing a serious problem, with very few chances available to film in perfect conditions.
We do however have a few scenes that are filmed indoors, and therefore weather conditions are irrelevant. We could therefore save these scenes for when the weather makes our other scenes impossible. Although this may disrupt our filming schedule, we may have no other choice.
If the weather stays consistently bad, we may have to rethink and adapt a few of our scenes. We could change ideas so that they take place indoors, or change them so that it would make little difference what the weather is, or adapt part of the storyline so that rain or wind in particular scenes would actually make sense.
Weather is an inconsistent part of the film-making process that we have learnt that we must be prepared for.
Worries with the 'Car Slide' scene
Whilst creating our storyboard some thoughts arose about various problems we might face with our 'car slide' scene.
First is the fact that we want the failed slide to look as real as possible. The original idea was that we run fast into the side of the car at the wrong angle, and therefore fail the attempt and slowly slide off the front of the car, rather than the side, and fall to the floor. Although Sam, who will be playing the thief in our trailer, has kindly accepted for us to use his car for this scene, we cannot rule out the possibility that if we attempt this scene unprepared his car may become damaged in the process. We obviously do not want this and have thought of a few ways to try and reduce the chances of such an occurance:
- Study various scenes from films that use a car slide
- Slowly build up our speed, and use trial and error
- Practice this scene a lot at a safe speed beforehand
Hopefully these techniques will help keep the car, and more importantly us, from damage.
Secondly, we realised we needed a good reason for the car slide to even be attempted in the film. i.e, why not go around the car? We have therefore decided to make the car slide the only 'quick' option for the thief and the two policeman. We think that the best way to do this would be to make the front of the car as close as possible to the back of another car, making going inbetween slow and near impossible. For this however we would need two cars, and we would have to park them so close eachother that they may actually accidently bump into eachother when we set up the scene. Another method we have considered is having a wall in front of a car. Although this may be easier to organise, it would leave little room for us to fall in front of the car during the failed slide attempt. We therefore face the issue of leaving a small enough gap so it would be impractical to run through, but at the same time having the gap big enough so that we could fall off the front of the car.
We have decided that we will go out and practice this scene as soon as possible, to see whether the location will provide us with an answer, or whether it is possible for us to get the gap as we would like it.
First is the fact that we want the failed slide to look as real as possible. The original idea was that we run fast into the side of the car at the wrong angle, and therefore fail the attempt and slowly slide off the front of the car, rather than the side, and fall to the floor. Although Sam, who will be playing the thief in our trailer, has kindly accepted for us to use his car for this scene, we cannot rule out the possibility that if we attempt this scene unprepared his car may become damaged in the process. We obviously do not want this and have thought of a few ways to try and reduce the chances of such an occurance:
- Study various scenes from films that use a car slide
- Slowly build up our speed, and use trial and error
- Practice this scene a lot at a safe speed beforehand
Hopefully these techniques will help keep the car, and more importantly us, from damage.
Secondly, we realised we needed a good reason for the car slide to even be attempted in the film. i.e, why not go around the car? We have therefore decided to make the car slide the only 'quick' option for the thief and the two policeman. We think that the best way to do this would be to make the front of the car as close as possible to the back of another car, making going inbetween slow and near impossible. For this however we would need two cars, and we would have to park them so close eachother that they may actually accidently bump into eachother when we set up the scene. Another method we have considered is having a wall in front of a car. Although this may be easier to organise, it would leave little room for us to fall in front of the car during the failed slide attempt. We therefore face the issue of leaving a small enough gap so it would be impractical to run through, but at the same time having the gap big enough so that we could fall off the front of the car.
We have decided that we will go out and practice this scene as soon as possible, to see whether the location will provide us with an answer, or whether it is possible for us to get the gap as we would like it.
Monday 8 November 2010
Video Shooting Schedule
This is our shooting schedule that includes where each scene will take place, the order in which we will perform each scene and the actors that will need to be available for each scene. This is a precaution that will ensure our time is not wasted going unnecessarily back and forth between locations. This schedule is slightly misleading as it may make you believe that all people required for the scene are mentioned under the 'actors' heading, wheras in reality another person would be required to be in control of the camera.
Wednesday 13 October 2010
Questionnaire results and evaluation
We have had 14 people complete our questionnaire and we have recorded these results and transferred them into graphs. Gareth and I have discussed these results and evaluated them, hopefully using the information we have gained to help us advance and improve our film trailer.
When we created the questionnare, we decided to let the participants answer the questions in their own manner. Although this meant it was more difficult to transfer our data into graphs, we felt that if the participants said exactly what they wanted to say then the data would be more reliable than if we restricted their answers.
When we created the questionnare, we decided to let the participants answer the questions in their own manner. Although this meant it was more difficult to transfer our data into graphs, we felt that if the participants said exactly what they wanted to say then the data would be more reliable than if we restricted their answers.
This Pie Chart shows the percentage of each age group who completed our questionnaire. This was an important question for us because if we were going to identify a specific genre from this questionnaire, we wanted to know exactly which majority of age group we would be targeting.
We may have a biased result due to the fact that over half of our participants were within the 15-20 age group, but as we fall under that age category ourselves, we felt that this was the age group we were in a position to understand best and therefore we wanted the most amount of data from that particular age group.
This graph suggests to us that other results in our questionnaire may be biased towards the male gender. This may have been due to the fact that as we work in a boy's school, there are many more males that we know that we can ask to take part in our questionnaire.
As Gareth and myself are also males, we feel we are suited to producing a trailer that is more target-focused on other males, as we have a greater understanding of what other males may like. Therefore, although our data is biased towards males, it can help us target the right audience whilst also opening our demographic to both genders.
This graph shows our recorded answers for our participants favourite genre. The majority of participants enjoyed comedy films the most, which was fortunate as we have already developed some ideas for a comedy film. As the second most favourite, horror conventions may be something we would like to include in our trailer (similarly to Shaun of the Dead).
The graph shows that after entertainment, the audience values excitement highly, as the three other genres are generally for high tension films. This suggests to us that whilst we may want to focus on comedy conventions in our trailer, we should keep in mind that the audience is still looking for some action scenes to keep them on the edge of their seat.
Favourite Movie and reasons why
-Anchorman x4 - Funny
-Blades of Glory x2 - Good actors/Funny
-Inception x3- Storyline
-Saw x2- Storyline
-Kick-ass x3- Action/comedy mix
We decided not to put the results of this questionnaire into graph form as there could have been a large variety of answers from multiple different genres. However, one trend that this graph shows is that our participants enjoy comedy films that star Will Ferrel. He currently stars in the chart-topping 'The other guys' which also suggests his comedy is recent and not outdated. We will therefore be studying his comedy films to see exactly what it is that makes him so popular and try to incorporate this into our own trailer.
Six of our participants reasons for their favourite films was because they were funny. This reinforces the popularity of the comedy genre and demonstrates what specifically makes the films popular. The stroyline was another important point that our participants stated, but as we are only making a trailer and not the whole film, we shouldn't have to put as much thought into the storyline as we would if we were making the whole film.
Favourite part of a Film
-Humour x6
-Twist x3
-Gore x2
-Action x3
The result of this question once again shows us that comedy is currently a very popular genre. Interestingly, three people told us that they enjoyed a plot twist most about a film. This made us think about possible twist or unexpected occurances in the comedy genre. The fact that there were three answers for gore once again made us think about Shaun of the dead and how horror elements and conventions can be included in what is mainly a comedy film.
Wednesday 6 October 2010
Camera Loan Inquiries and Actor request
Gareth emailed our media teacher Mr. Aherne on his and my behalf, to ask whether or not there would be problems with loaning the camera during the holidays. We also asked whether he would be able to perform the small part of the chief inspector. We asked him because we wanted the chief inspector to look as though they had authority, and had rose through the ranks, and had gained intelligence through experience. This would have been difficult to pull off if the chief was our age as they would not exude as much natural authourity.
This was the email that Gareth sent on our behalf:
This was the email that Gareth sent on our behalf:
This was his reply:
The reply was great for us as it means that with the camera and another actor organised for the half term, we are now another step closer to being ready to start filming.
Final Scene Choices
Gareth and I have been exchanging emails in order to finalise our choices for which ideas will be a part of our trailer. The final ideas we have decided upon are:
1) Handbag Scene
2) Burgler Scene
3) Chief Scene
4) Disguise scene
5) Car slide scene
Back-up scene: Scooter scene
These are our selected scenes that we will be including in our film and therefore we are now in a suitable position to start our filming schedule and organising issues such as actor timetables, props, clothes, locations, etc.
The E-mails discussing our choices are as follows:
Monday 4 October 2010
Brainstorm and Flow Chart
This brainstorm was created to aid me and my partner Gareth in understanding exactly what we need to be thinking about throughout our film making process.
Comedy Film Research - Forms and Conventions
As we have now decided to do a comedy trailer, we have started looking at various comedy trailers, such as hot fuzz, to better understand the generic qualities involved in showcasing a comedy film.
We first looked at Hot Fuzz as it is our inspiration for our film and is a good example of a film that will be roughly similar to ours. We are also both big fans of this film and therefore believe if our film has similar qualities we should be well prepared to produce it. Something we really enjoyed and thought was clever was the close up 'eyes shot' (4-5 seconds in), as it is used to build up tension, but what we really liked was that it demonstrated the two characters personalities. We think we could use this type of shot for comedic effect so we could build up tension to make a scene even funnier.
We also liked how at the end of the trailer (33-45 seconds), after the name of the film appeared on the screen, another small funny clip was shown to leave the viewer laughing and hopefully associate the funniness of the clip with the name of the film that appeared.
The 'Paul Blart: Mall Cop' Trailer has many examples of scenes which are unexpectedly funny to the viewer, such as when at the start of the trailer, the camera angles and setting suggest an area where physical fitness is taken very seriously, which makes it funnier for the viewer when you see the unfit man trying to compete with the others (11-15 seconds). Another example of this is at 1.43-1.56, when after a variety of action scenes, you see the policeman try to slide around a pillar dramatically. Because the trailer built up tension from all of the action scenes, it made it even funnier when the star fails.
We wanted to integrate this idea into our film trailer and have decided to use it at the end during the 'car slide' scene. If we have a variety of action scenes follwed by the thief performing the car slide, then hopefully it will be funny when the actor fails the following slide.
Something that I have noticed from both of these trailers is how important camera angles are when demonstrating something funny. If the camera angle changes when the joke happens it can draw the viewer towards it. If the camera angle does not change, it becomes less obvious something out of the ordinary has happened.
The beggining of Anchorman builds tension before making the teleprompter joke(2-26 seconds), much like the beginning scene of Paul Blart. However, the Anchorman trailer spends around 30 seconds introducing the main character, rather than quickly showing him in the first 5-10 seconds. This trailer also shows the jokes of the film while at the same time showing the storyline, which differs from the other trailers who tend to intersperse the storyline scenes with joke scenes.
We first looked at Hot Fuzz as it is our inspiration for our film and is a good example of a film that will be roughly similar to ours. We are also both big fans of this film and therefore believe if our film has similar qualities we should be well prepared to produce it. Something we really enjoyed and thought was clever was the close up 'eyes shot' (4-5 seconds in), as it is used to build up tension, but what we really liked was that it demonstrated the two characters personalities. We think we could use this type of shot for comedic effect so we could build up tension to make a scene even funnier.
We also liked how at the end of the trailer (33-45 seconds), after the name of the film appeared on the screen, another small funny clip was shown to leave the viewer laughing and hopefully associate the funniness of the clip with the name of the film that appeared.
The 'Paul Blart: Mall Cop' Trailer has many examples of scenes which are unexpectedly funny to the viewer, such as when at the start of the trailer, the camera angles and setting suggest an area where physical fitness is taken very seriously, which makes it funnier for the viewer when you see the unfit man trying to compete with the others (11-15 seconds). Another example of this is at 1.43-1.56, when after a variety of action scenes, you see the policeman try to slide around a pillar dramatically. Because the trailer built up tension from all of the action scenes, it made it even funnier when the star fails.
We wanted to integrate this idea into our film trailer and have decided to use it at the end during the 'car slide' scene. If we have a variety of action scenes follwed by the thief performing the car slide, then hopefully it will be funny when the actor fails the following slide.
Something that I have noticed from both of these trailers is how important camera angles are when demonstrating something funny. If the camera angle changes when the joke happens it can draw the viewer towards it. If the camera angle does not change, it becomes less obvious something out of the ordinary has happened.
The beggining of Anchorman builds tension before making the teleprompter joke(2-26 seconds), much like the beginning scene of Paul Blart. However, the Anchorman trailer spends around 30 seconds introducing the main character, rather than quickly showing him in the first 5-10 seconds. This trailer also shows the jokes of the film while at the same time showing the storyline, which differs from the other trailers who tend to intersperse the storyline scenes with joke scenes.
Monday 20 September 2010
Sweep shot - Practice
We thought of making a shot where the theif is trying to break into a house and we sweep around and one of the policemen is on the other side of the door. For this we wanted to have a single sweep, but couldn't go through the wall. We had a look at what effects could cover this and found the effect 'Side (towards left)'. Here is how it turned out - Link
Tom Adaway and Gareth Todd’s Questionnaire
This questionnaire was created to help identify what our target audience is and what appeals to them. Please take a moment to help us by completing our questionnaire.
1) What is your age?
___________________________________________________________________
2) What is your gender?
___________________________________________________________________
3) What is your favourite genre of film?
___________________________________________________________________
4) Why is that your favourite genre?
___________________________________________________________________
5) How often do you watch films?
___________________________________________________________________
6) What do you like most in movies? (I.e. car chase, dialogue, gore, etc.)
___________________________________________________________________
7) How do you prefer to watch movies? (I.e. TV, DVD, Cinema, etc.)
___________________________________________________________________
8) What is your favourite movie?
___________________________________________________________________
9) Why?
___________________________________________________________________
10) What is your favourite scene from any movie?
___________________________________________________________________
11) Why?
___________________________________________________________________
12) What was the last movie you watched?
___________________________________________________________________
13) What was the last movie you saw in the cinema?
___________________________________________________________________
14) What did you like most about it?
___________________________________________________________________
15) How many people do you watch films with?
___________________________________________________________________
Thank you for your time.
Magazine front cover draft
As Gareth was at a sociology lecture on wednesday, We could not meet to discuss ideas for our project. Therefore I took the oppotunity to create a draft of the magazine front cover, as for this I did not need Gareths help.This is the e-mail I sent to Gareth detailing what I had done, the reasons I had for colour schemes, and asking him for his opinion.
Wednesday 15 September 2010
Personnel involved
My group consists solely of Myself and Gareth, and as some of our ideas for filming require at least 3 people we have asked others to help us in some way, be it acting, manning the camera, directing, or editing.
Fortunately, I have had much experience with editing techniques from our AS project last year, as I was in charge of cutting each scene at appropriate moments so our film was not too long.
Although I was not acting at any point in our main task, I was on screen in the preliminary task, so I do at least have some experience and will therefore be acting alongside Gareth, who was the main character in our main task last year.
I was also the cameraman throughout the whole of our main task last year, and I therefore know how to handle the camera and how to activate all of the cameras options (zoom, blur, etc,).
The main reason I decided to work with Gareth was the fact that we cooperated well last year, and we both put a lot of effort into making a successful, polished film. However, Gareth also brings numerous other benfits to our production, such as his vast knowledge of music. He listens to music often and is currently undergoing his music A level, which means he knows how make, tweak and upload music that will suit our trailer. This is fortunate as I know very little about making the music itself and it would require a lot more of an effort to produce something by myself that Gareth could produce without trouble.
Gareth also has a lot of experince working with computers, and did a lot of work last year whilst editing. This also means he can help to produce the ancillary tasks (Magazine cover and DVD cover) as he has spent a lot of time working with Adobe Acrobat and similar programs which would make our products look professional.
As we may require more people to help in our task, we haved asked Sam Britcher and Tom Male to help us in any way that may be required, to which they have agreed. They have accepted that they may either need to act, film, or direct particular scenes, and that they will be called upon at a time that has not yet been decided. Fortunately, both of their timetables are quite flexible, which is good news for us as we have yet decided on a filming schedule.
Fortunately, I have had much experience with editing techniques from our AS project last year, as I was in charge of cutting each scene at appropriate moments so our film was not too long.
Although I was not acting at any point in our main task, I was on screen in the preliminary task, so I do at least have some experience and will therefore be acting alongside Gareth, who was the main character in our main task last year.
I was also the cameraman throughout the whole of our main task last year, and I therefore know how to handle the camera and how to activate all of the cameras options (zoom, blur, etc,).
The main reason I decided to work with Gareth was the fact that we cooperated well last year, and we both put a lot of effort into making a successful, polished film. However, Gareth also brings numerous other benfits to our production, such as his vast knowledge of music. He listens to music often and is currently undergoing his music A level, which means he knows how make, tweak and upload music that will suit our trailer. This is fortunate as I know very little about making the music itself and it would require a lot more of an effort to produce something by myself that Gareth could produce without trouble.
Gareth also has a lot of experince working with computers, and did a lot of work last year whilst editing. This also means he can help to produce the ancillary tasks (Magazine cover and DVD cover) as he has spent a lot of time working with Adobe Acrobat and similar programs which would make our products look professional.
As we may require more people to help in our task, we haved asked Sam Britcher and Tom Male to help us in any way that may be required, to which they have agreed. They have accepted that they may either need to act, film, or direct particular scenes, and that they will be called upon at a time that has not yet been decided. Fortunately, both of their timetables are quite flexible, which is good news for us as we have yet decided on a filming schedule.
Tuesday 14 September 2010
Storyboard that won't be used
I thought I would share the storyboard for the horror trailer that we decided we would NOT be doing, to show exactly how we were imagining the camera angles.
Monday 13 September 2010
Ancillary Ideas
We have chosen to produce a film magazine front cover and a film poster for our ancillary tasks.
Magazine front cover research:
-Title, some have puns that match the film
-Huge picture takes up most of the room on the front cover (at least 2/3)
-Picture usually obscures part of the magazines name, to give the impression that the magazine is well known.
-Other 1/3 of space taken up by small pictures of other films reviewed in the magazine
-Plenty of very small writing that advertises what's in the magazine
-Lots of self compliments (world exclusive! read it here first!
-Large dominant feature
-Side articles
-First word in second word's first letter, e.g.
This example of a film cover incorperates most of research ideas we have come across, such as wording, picture size, font size, and side articles.
Film Poster research:
-Film poster analysis - Overveiw, typography, pictures, foreground, background.
-text easy to read
-try to reflect the mood and tone of the film to attract the right audience
-Slogan? should be memorable and should convey the idea of the film (enticing)
-Keep relatively simple
Magazine front cover research:
-Title, some have puns that match the film
-Huge picture takes up most of the room on the front cover (at least 2/3)
-Picture usually obscures part of the magazines name, to give the impression that the magazine is well known.
-Other 1/3 of space taken up by small pictures of other films reviewed in the magazine
-Plenty of very small writing that advertises what's in the magazine
-Lots of self compliments (world exclusive! read it here first!
-Large dominant feature
-Side articles
-First word in second word's first letter, e.g.
Film Poster research:
-Film poster analysis - Overveiw, typography, pictures, foreground, background.
-text easy to read
-try to reflect the mood and tone of the film to attract the right audience
-Slogan? should be memorable and should convey the idea of the film (enticing)
-Keep relatively simple
New Ideas
Due to the fact that we have already created a short horror clip for our A2 coursework (Paranoia), after much consideration, we have decided to use a different genre this year, and we hope it will demonstrate our versitility. As we used a lot of our ideas for horror already, we decided that we were limited in what we could do in the same genre. Therefore we have been thinking of ideas for the comedy genre, specifically for a film we thought of called 'bad cop, bad cop'. (a play on the phrase good cop, bad cop). Here our some of our ideas:
Opening scene Idea:
- spooky music as guy breaks into house. See door being broken open, creeps along a corridor but can hear football on tv from another room. Camera notices a cerificate on the wall that says 'Fully certified trainee policeman'.Goes to investigate the sound and as he opens the door knocks over something and makes a loud noise. Theif freezes and stares at the cop who just keeps watching football. Theif starts waving his arms about and cop still doesn't look up. Theif moves arms in front of TV and cop just moves head so he can see better. Guy takes stuff and then fades to later when almost everything has been taken. Theif says 'thanks mate' and cop waves without really paying attention.
- fades to black, next scene
- Same theif runs into 2nd cop, stare off happens (zoom in on eyes), and the cop just picks up the handbag and hands it back to the theif, saying 'Watch where you're running, son'.
-These scenes should introduce these characters as two bad cops.
- Fade to black
- While chasing after a criminal, the police officers run towards a car. but instead of getting in it, they run past to children's scooters painted in police colours. One of them puts a helmet with a siren on, and they ride off.
- Chief scene, chief says to the two cops ' Have you seen this man?' and gives them a picture of thief in balaclava, the same thief both of the cops have seen. Cops think for a while, and say 'nope never seen him'. Cheif says 'this guys a master thief, you'll have to go in disguise'. As he finishes his sentence, cuts to cops lowering newspapers with drawn on moustaches. They nod at eachother and raise their newspapers.
-Final scene, one cop says 'He jumped the fence!', they both take a run up and try to scramble up the fence, and fall to the ground exhausted. Camera pans out to reveal an open gate just around the corner.
-Final scene idea 2, robber slides across car, cops attempt it and fail miserably.
-Final scene idea 3, cops try to get in car but can't find keys. They see a cat that has the keys on a magnetic collar, and try to chase it.
We are currently in the process of arranging actors and dates for filming which will suit everybody.
Opening scene Idea:
- spooky music as guy breaks into house. See door being broken open, creeps along a corridor but can hear football on tv from another room. Camera notices a cerificate on the wall that says 'Fully certified trainee policeman'.Goes to investigate the sound and as he opens the door knocks over something and makes a loud noise. Theif freezes and stares at the cop who just keeps watching football. Theif starts waving his arms about and cop still doesn't look up. Theif moves arms in front of TV and cop just moves head so he can see better. Guy takes stuff and then fades to later when almost everything has been taken. Theif says 'thanks mate' and cop waves without really paying attention.
- fades to black, next scene
- Same theif runs into 2nd cop, stare off happens (zoom in on eyes), and the cop just picks up the handbag and hands it back to the theif, saying 'Watch where you're running, son'.
-These scenes should introduce these characters as two bad cops.
- Fade to black
- While chasing after a criminal, the police officers run towards a car. but instead of getting in it, they run past to children's scooters painted in police colours. One of them puts a helmet with a siren on, and they ride off.
- Chief scene, chief says to the two cops ' Have you seen this man?' and gives them a picture of thief in balaclava, the same thief both of the cops have seen. Cops think for a while, and say 'nope never seen him'. Cheif says 'this guys a master thief, you'll have to go in disguise'. As he finishes his sentence, cuts to cops lowering newspapers with drawn on moustaches. They nod at eachother and raise their newspapers.
-Final scene, one cop says 'He jumped the fence!', they both take a run up and try to scramble up the fence, and fall to the ground exhausted. Camera pans out to reveal an open gate just around the corner.
-Final scene idea 2, robber slides across car, cops attempt it and fail miserably.
-Final scene idea 3, cops try to get in car but can't find keys. They see a cat that has the keys on a magnetic collar, and try to chase it.
We are currently in the process of arranging actors and dates for filming which will suit everybody.
Sunday 12 September 2010
Technical issues
Me and Gaz thought of some temporary solutions to some of our technical issues.
- Rain scene- watering cans, hose, wait for weather
- Windy- fans, weather
- clothes- evil guy, black hoody, face shielded from view, possibly due to dim lighting
- Us, regular clothes, in later clip ripped clothes to give the impression that an
attack has taken place
Also thought of doing a security camera type shot which fits in with the horror theme and identifies the location.
- Rain scene- watering cans, hose, wait for weather
- Windy- fans, weather
- clothes- evil guy, black hoody, face shielded from view, possibly due to dim lighting
- Us, regular clothes, in later clip ripped clothes to give the impression that an
attack has taken place
Also thought of doing a security camera type shot which fits in with the horror theme and identifies the location.
Thursday 9 September 2010
Initial thoughts for trailer
Some very basic ideas for our horror trailer, which we will elaborate on later.
- Horror
- Point of view: running
- Examples: Saw, Shaun of the dead, Cloverfield
- Banging on Window
- Beggining: Guy sleeps, Door opens slightly, fade to black, at the end door opens fully
- Quick cutting
- Guy rings friend, starts talking, then mate screams and phone cuts off, someone else picks up phone, says "I've been watching you" and hangs up.
- Puts down phone, peeks round door, guy at window has gone
- from this point, show different parts of the film because the story is now established.
- pan shot round character, fast forward
- At end, mistake each other for enemies and go for each other
- Two perspectives?
- Camera may not pick up voice on phone when on loudspeaker
- Shot of guy looking scared as he hears chainsaw (Chainsaw sound effect)
- Guy in rain desperately tries to fit key in a lock
- Easter Eggs
- Phone call conversation:
"Hey Gaz, did you see anyone walk past you?"
"No, why?"
"I've just seen someone at my window..."
(thud) - "Gaz? Gaz?"
"You're next!" (Hang up tone)
- Horror
- Point of view: running
- Examples: Saw, Shaun of the dead, Cloverfield
- Banging on Window
- Beggining: Guy sleeps, Door opens slightly, fade to black, at the end door opens fully
- Quick cutting
- Guy rings friend, starts talking, then mate screams and phone cuts off, someone else picks up phone, says "I've been watching you" and hangs up.
- Puts down phone, peeks round door, guy at window has gone
- from this point, show different parts of the film because the story is now established.
- pan shot round character, fast forward
- At end, mistake each other for enemies and go for each other
- Two perspectives?
- Camera may not pick up voice on phone when on loudspeaker
- Shot of guy looking scared as he hears chainsaw (Chainsaw sound effect)
- Guy in rain desperately tries to fit key in a lock
- Easter Eggs
- Phone call conversation:
"Hey Gaz, did you see anyone walk past you?"
"No, why?"
"I've just seen someone at my window..."
(thud) - "Gaz? Gaz?"
"You're next!" (Hang up tone)
Wednesday 8 September 2010
Initial ideas and research
When me and my partner Gareth decided to make a film trailer we already had some ideas for a horror film, and we also already had previous experience of making short horror films with our production last year of Paranoia, where we produced the first two minutes of a horror film. This of course set us up perfectly for a horror trailer.
Therefore, we started reasearching horror trailers from youtube, so we could learn/relearn the basic ideas of developing a horror trailer and how film producers try to entice you to watch the full film.
The first film trailer that I came across was 'Scary Mary Poppins', which although is not a trailer for an actual film, still gave us great insight about how a trailer can be very different from the actual film it is showcasing. Scary Mary Poppins uses existing footage of Mary Poppins, but through the combination of sound and editing makes it seem as though the film is a horror. Anyone who has seen Mary Poppins will know that it is actually a family friendly film, so it prooves how important editing techniques are and how they can effect the feel of the trailer.
Although the trailer's footage was initially shot by a large production company for a mass audience, the editing for this trailer was done by a small group of enthusiasts. This realistically shows us what could achieve in our editing if we made a similar effort to what this small company did.
Next Gareth showed me a trailer he found for Saw. We really liked how in the first 30 seconds of the trailer you see flashes like a from a camera. We saw how this sort of simulated lightning and raised the viewers tension. We also liked how the 'low rumble' sound that ended in an evil high pitched laugh added a sense of mystery to the trailer.
From this point onwards there were fades to black after displaying various characters, also adding a sense of mystery to each of these characters. By only seeing glimpses of these people it makes the viewer think of the possible storyline combinations, which is good as the more you think about how a film might end the more you would want to go and see it. We decided from this to use fade to black and flashes in our trailer.
This trailer also showed us that it is good not to give too much of the story away, so the viewer wants to see how it ends. This was good information to us as it meant that we did not have to think the whole film through, i.e. how it all links together, as we can partly let the viewers come up with their own ideas.
Therefore, we started reasearching horror trailers from youtube, so we could learn/relearn the basic ideas of developing a horror trailer and how film producers try to entice you to watch the full film.
The first film trailer that I came across was 'Scary Mary Poppins', which although is not a trailer for an actual film, still gave us great insight about how a trailer can be very different from the actual film it is showcasing. Scary Mary Poppins uses existing footage of Mary Poppins, but through the combination of sound and editing makes it seem as though the film is a horror. Anyone who has seen Mary Poppins will know that it is actually a family friendly film, so it prooves how important editing techniques are and how they can effect the feel of the trailer.
Although the trailer's footage was initially shot by a large production company for a mass audience, the editing for this trailer was done by a small group of enthusiasts. This realistically shows us what could achieve in our editing if we made a similar effort to what this small company did.
Next Gareth showed me a trailer he found for Saw. We really liked how in the first 30 seconds of the trailer you see flashes like a from a camera. We saw how this sort of simulated lightning and raised the viewers tension. We also liked how the 'low rumble' sound that ended in an evil high pitched laugh added a sense of mystery to the trailer.
From this point onwards there were fades to black after displaying various characters, also adding a sense of mystery to each of these characters. By only seeing glimpses of these people it makes the viewer think of the possible storyline combinations, which is good as the more you think about how a film might end the more you would want to go and see it. We decided from this to use fade to black and flashes in our trailer.
This trailer also showed us that it is good not to give too much of the story away, so the viewer wants to see how it ends. This was good information to us as it meant that we did not have to think the whole film through, i.e. how it all links together, as we can partly let the viewers come up with their own ideas.
Monday 6 September 2010
Media Brief
For my A2 Media Studies Project Brief I have decided to undertake the second option, a promotion package for a new film. The brief is as follows:
A promotion package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer, together with two of the following three options:
A promotion package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer, together with two of the following three options:
- A website hompage for the film
- A film magazine front cover, featuring the film
- A poster for the film
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