Film Star Productions

We have uploaded a rough cut  of a our final production, we have a positive criticism, which we will us it to  re-film and edit the production ensuring that there is nothing wrong with it and the film is at its highest potential.

MEDIA GROUP QUESTIONAIRE EXERCISE

Title, sound and editing

What type of title sequence do you feel is most appropriate for a ROM-COM?

How long do you feel a title sequence should last?

What kind of sound effects do you feel most appropriate for a ROM-COM?

Taking our genre into consideration, what type of editing do you think we should use?

If you were watching a ROM-COM what kind of music and sound would you want to be included?

How far into the opening of a film do you feel the titles should start?

Reasearch and Filming

We Went out for a reckie trip as we needed to decide on the location for the opening scene of our film, after looking around we collecting an amount of pictures: we have yet to decide what pictures are going to be the area we actually film in, as there was so many to decide from .

As we were out we took the time to film some of our opening scene to get a quick glimpse of what our film would like, we will edit it to make sure that everything is okay and then we will go out again and re film it as we haven't decided if there area we filmed it in is the area that we going to use.

Background Song

We decided to analyse some music that we thought may relate to the film that we have chosen to do. We have looked at a few songs, but we came down to just two. To get the right song for your film you have to look if it will fit in and will relate to the film that your doing as it will sound odd otherwise.



'Maybe' and 'Wherever you will go' are the two songs that we chose, we are debating whether which one is the right choice for the scene in our film; Analysing the aspects for each song is very easy we've come to conclusion that they are completely different as they have different speeds, type of lyrics,and instrumental. Considering this we finally decided to use 'Wherever you will go' as we feel this will relate best.

Research And Planning

 

http://www.imdb.com/list/Cylzo7wmyZI/

i had a look at the website, and was analysing the ratings that the films where getting, which i noticed that the genre romance/comedy is struggling to produce films that are reaching high ratings for example the picture above shows the average ratings that the films where getting.

Research And Planning

Presenting our presentation to the class was very beneficial for us as we gained some critical and positive advice about three ideas that we produced; from the advice that we got we chose a Rom-com as the class preferred this, and it was easier and was more "attention grabbing"

Questionaire

What’s your favourite genre? (circle your answer)

· Horror
· Comedy
· Romantic
· Action

What’s your favourite film? (please write in the space below)

Do you like your opening scene to be...? (circle your answer)

· Give great detail into characters
· Start a dramatic event (death, action or fight)
· Slow build up to a main event in the film
· Show a event then go back in time to see the build up of the event
· To set the scene

What is your age? (so we know our target audience- write below)


Are you male or female? (so we know our target audience - write below)

We will hand out this questionaire to the general public which will give us an insite into what our target audience will be and what our movie genre will be.

Please fill in, we would like as much analysis as possible.

Research and Planning

 

Here is a list of the directors and the films that they have produced, but because we are interested only in Rom-Coms i have only selected the ones that are related to us. As we are doing a Rom- Com if  we were to sell our film and have it massed produced these are the directors that specailise in the genre for our film and the films that they have produced could give us clues on how to make a succesful opening scene.

Idea's and Planinng

Enlarge Image

The image above is a detail description of what will ahppen throughtout the film, not just the opening scene, as it is very detailed it will include everything that will help us produce the film; for example lighting, props, setting and misc on scene. When filming our Final project this will be a very important part for us, as this will be the base idea for the filming which we will refer to it when we go to film it.



Our finial idea is similar to the 2006 film John Tucker must die.

John Tucker must die is a Rom Com based in America. It's main story line is that 3 ex-girlfriends of John try to set him up with the new girl in school so he can have his heart broken, so then he will understand how it feels for him to do it to all three of them.

Our idea however is about one boy who is trying to get revenge on his ex-girlfriend for messing him around and no caring or taking his emotions into consideration.
Although our ideas are similar they have completely different concepts and will be represented differently.

IDEA 3 KARMA

karma was another film idea that we produced, the genre is Romcom; this was the genre that we thought wee would enjoy the most and would enjoy filming. Feedback was given when we produced our presentation to the class, it was very useful, it was mainly positive but we did get a negative but that could be worked on, and changed to a positive. A basic and detailed description was posted on our blog to show and represent the ideas and films relating to the film itself.

IDEA 2 LOST TIMES



Lost times was another film idea that our group produced, the genre of the film is a Romance. We did like this idea as we prefer to do a  Romcom or just romance but from the analysis and the feedback that was given, there was many faults with this idea and required allot of work to ensure that the opening scene would of good quality and interest the audience.

IDEA 1 CHANGING IDENTITIES

Changing Identities was a film idea, the genre was an Action Thriller. We decided against this film was because the hassle or difficulty contacting the police about allowing the props on the streets e.g. knifes. Changing Identities would have been a really easy film to shot as it would be a lot of jump cuts.

Timeline seconds

0 - Film Star productions, names of characters

15- Music in background, snap shots of pictures (8) Forming a collage

35- Walking to Joe’s house, I walk off

45 - Joe match on action into his bedroom, look at picture medium close up on him

105 - Fading memory of Joe and Gina, to conclude with a medium close up of Joe

130 - Joe ripping picture in half, placing it on side

140  - Main title, split picture with the individually cut out letters of KARMA and then blank screen

200 - Blank

Research Into Titles And Opening's

The Opening Titles To Blade 2, here i have introduced a timeline which allows you to see when actors,titles are introduced within the film for example 00.1 seconds actors being shown on screen. This excercise allows us to analyse opening scenes properly and understand what makes a good opening scene and what we shouldn't use, which will help us with creating our opening scene.

Questionaire

What’s your favourite genre? (Circle answer)

·         Horror

·         Comedy

·         Romantic

·         Action

What’s your favourite film? (Write Below)

Do you like your opening scène to...? (Circle answer)

·         Give great detail into characters

·         Start a dramatic event (death, action or fight)

·         Slow build up to a main event in the film

·         Show a event then go back in time to see the build up of the event

·         Set scene 

Age (so we know our target audience- write below)?

Are you male or female? (Write Below)

 Please fill in, we would like as much analysis as possible.

BBFC

     
Suitable for all

Its not possible to tell what may upset a child, but a 'U' film should be suitable for children 4 and over. There should be a counterbalance which is reassuring to the viewer if any violence, horror or threat is used; It should be suitable for the child to watch alone this will be notified by the consumer advice.

     
Parental Guidance

This is general viewing as this as children unaccompanied by an adult can watch, but it should not be able to disturb a child eight and older as there may be inappropriate scenes in the film.

     
Suitable for 12 years and over

These are the same criteria certifcate as anyone 12 and over can watch the film, as it would be suggested not appropriate for a child under 12 years old, even the parents may find the film unsuitable for there child.
'12A' category is used only for cinema films, as no one younger then 12 may see a film rated 12A unless they are accompanied by an adult;There parent may take tehre child to watch a 12A if they are younger then 12 but this entirely up to the parents judgment.
'12' catergory only exsists for videos as no one younger the 12 is able to rent a dvd or buy a dvd rated '12'.

     
Suitable only for 15 years or over

A film rated '15' means that no one younger than 15 is able to go and watch the film in the cinemam, this is the same in shops as they are not able to rent or buy a dvd if they are younger then the certficate e.g. '15'

     
Suitable only for adults

A film rated '18' means that you not able to watch the film in the cinema if you not older or equal to 18, shops will ask to ID you if you try to buy a '18' DVD if you do not look old enough.

     

To be shown only in specially licensed cinemas, or supplied only in licensed sex shops, and to adults of not less than 18 years.

 the rating 'R18' is a special and legally restricted certificate that is only used in specially licensed cinemas, the content of this rating would be of 'sex' or strong fetish material. Licensed shops may sell 'R18' films but they may not send them by mail order.

Analyse Film Openings (Codes and Conventions)

 The hangover
The film opening to the hangover starts off with showing us the wedding venue and the bride worrying about where her husband to be is. The opening the goes onto a Close-up of a man on the phone, the man says the Bachelor party got out of the control and they 'F***ed up' and lost the man who is due to be getting married. He then says the wedding will probably not happen. The titles then start and it makes you want to carry on watching in suspence to know what happened that may make the wedding not happen, and where the lost man actually is.

Step-brothers

The opening sequence of 'Step-brothers' shows a women and her son at home, and then a man and his son at home. It then cuts to the man and women meeting in what seems to be a work conference. I think this is shown to show the two families coming together which makes the viewer want to keep watching to find out what will happen.

Observe and Report
The opening scene of Observe and Report begins with an Long shot of the area that the film is based, or the scene where it is being filmed.There are many close ups used through the opening scene these are used to show the important characters and people that are in the surrounding scene. The clothing used throughout the opening scene is smart and casual Shop owners/employees (Smart) shoppers (Causal). Bright lighting is used throughout to show all characters clearly and easily, when the security guard is shown this would be convention as this would be typical in any shopping malls or shopping centre's  to have security which means that there may be action throughout the film.

The Other Guys

The opening scene of the Other Guys begins with an establishing wide shot, to show the where scene is being shot; for example it may be in New York as you can see 'sky scrappers'. The opening scene is full of explosive action with close up on a character ( law enforcer) which shows that this film has to be an action film; guns, police, and violence. Further on through the opening scene the explosive action is very dramatic and creates a very welcoming invite to watch on as this will catch your attention. Both sets of actors in the opening scene have specific dress codes for example the police where black and professional colours where as the gang are wearing casual clothing; there hair would show that they are Jamaican as they have ' Dread locks'. The body language of the police would suggest that they are happy with what they are doing as they are smiling and showing negative expressions, the song choice would link into the gang related crime as it is a 'rap' song.

Mean Girls

The opening scene of mean girls shows a girl who used to be home schooled moving to a high school. It starts off with her parents talking to her, looking down at her. They show this in a two person shot. It then does an over the shoulder shot of her standing up. The camera movement throughout the opening scene is mostly panning.

Codes and Conventions


Code


Code is a way in which a small element of a text is used as a ‘sign’ which ‘signifies’ a meaning or concept.

Techincal - Which include camera techniques, framing, depth of field, Mise en scene, editing,  lighting and sound
Symbolic -  Which refer to objects, setting, body language, clothing and colour.
Written - in the form of headlines, captions, speech bubbles and language style.

Denotations:

The Character has just shaved, he is preparing for a night out.

Connotations:

The Character is vain, old fashioned, expects close contact with the opposite sex.This is an example of what Fiske calls a ‘social code’ In the background, Elvis Presley is playing ‘Viva Las Vegas’. This is an example of a ‘technical code’. It could denote that the character likes the track or it could connote that the character identifies with Elvis.

Convention

Convention is the way that these signs are put together to tell a story or give information.

Conventions can be related to Narrative: How a story is told, what format or conventional method is used to tell a story. The opening sequence of a drama will often show the equilibrium state, introduce characters and hint at conflict. Conventions can also be related to Genre: The type of text and the typical textual elements that audiences expect to be in it.

Continuity

When filmmaking this aspect of it, is very important as if you dont have continuity your film will have many errors and these are very easy to spot. You have to ensure that your the shots and angles you have are combined  into sequences, and ultimately creates a final picture.