Powerpoint

Evaluation

View more presentations from lauren12345.

Wednesday 1st April

We presented our evaluation powerpoint today and although i am not the best at speaking infront of an audience and despite stumbling over a few words, i feel that i did a fairly good job. I have learnt a lot from both filming in the preliminary and filming for our actual piece specifically with how to use and set up a camera. Creating continuity was probably one of the most difficult tasks especially when trying to link to pieces of footage that were filmed at different times. We had to change the actor for the boy 3 times due to not being able to find a boy who was free when we were, we should have planned the cast better, perhaps even involving someone from outside the school in our piece as we would know that they would not have lessons during filming time. Other than that planning went well, the storyboard was kept to very closely for the beginning of the intro and deterred only slightly during the second half. Despite set backs such as not being able to find the same costume for the geek, these problems went unnoticed and i think the piece was created to the best of our ability. We are still developing as directors, camera operators and with the editing software so anything we are doing currently is a learning experience.

Monday 30th March

In today's lesson we managed to get feedback for the piece with its new ending, the feedback was a lot more positive. We also began our evaluation presentation. We found that we represented teenagers very stereotypically, this was a key convention of teen comedies which we have viewed in the past as they allow the audience to easily identify and relate to e.g. having the geek dressed in glasses and stereotypically geeky clothing made them easy to sympathize with as the "victim" of the narrative. However we may have cast teenagers in a slightly negative light as many people thought the teens were self obsessed and popularity was a big ambition of theirs. However this was from only looking at the 2 minute introduction, the moral at the end of the film would have changed their opinion as it promotes the message that friendship is more important than boys. I will post the powerpoint after we have presented it.

Friday 27th March

We re-filmed and edited the end part again. The continuity is much better than before and i along with the other members of my group are much happier with it. Unfortunately one of the member's of our group was absent today as she is ill, so we had to alter the scene with the three girls so that it was just two girls. We also had to cast another boy as the original boy was not avaliable. Despite these set backs the piece went well, looks more professional and although it doesn't necessarily follow the storyboard exactly it works well. We will try and get some feedback on the new ending over the weekend and failing that from other media students on monday. We will also be completing our evaluation presentation using the new feedback that we have gathered. I will also be posting my own personal evaluation over the weekend.
Here is the finished product:

Wednesday 25th March

We burnt our preliminary and final pieces onto a disk today and got audience feedback. The feedback was generally positive but frequently when asked "What do you think we could improve?" the general opinion was that the end section was not perfected and lacked continuity. We knew this all along but felt that it wouldn't have such an impact as it did.
Here is the original:


As you can see the editing on the end is very choppy and lacks continuity. We were conscious that our mark may have been pulled down due to this, especially as it was so obvious to the audience.

Monday 23rd March

We have finally found a suitable song from an unsigned band called "GoodbyeStereo" and put it in our piece. We found it and downloaded it courtesy of musicglue.com which allows unsigned bands to get their music distributed worldwide through the use of free MP3 downloads. The song is indie but is bouncy enough to suit the genre, i particularly like the effect of the build up to the chorus and how it fits with the action on screen - the chorus kicks in as the two leave their houses. Another accidental thing that i really like is the way the lyrics "paint your lips red" coincide with Jessica putting her lip gloss on in the mirror. I feel a lot happier with the piece now that we have this new song as the song from garage band was too repetitive which made the intro seem very long. I'm still a little unhappy with the editing of the final couple of shots but i think that is more down to being a perfectionist. The piece overall is good, and i feel it suits the teen comedy genre but with a British twist which is aided by the use of the song from the British band "GoodbyeStereo" and the references to British pop culture such as Jordan and Peter.

Refilming, Editing and Audience Feedback

Today we refilmed the last scene of the girls talking outside the school again today because the original was too jumpy and didn't flow well. After editing the result is much better although i am still not entirely happy with the very last shot as it doesn't quite fit with the shot before. The rest of the film introduction is good and i am very happy with it. The storyboard wasn't followed completely because we realised that it would be unfeasible, some of the camera angles written down and drawn looked wrong when filmed so we had to change some bits. We also began writing our audience feedback questionnaire which we we all get people to fill out upon viewing our film introduction. For next lesson we will all be trying to find a song which fits our piece.

Wednesday 18th March

We spent a lot a lot of time looking through unsigned and copyright free music but still do not have a song which i think suits the piece. We decided to put a song from iMovie but i still dont feel it suits the piece so we have all been researching a song which we think would suit it at home in preperation for tommorows lesson. We have also decided to refilm the second part of filming because the continuity is still not right and want our piece to be the best it can be.

Monday 16th March

In todays lesson we were looking for music for our piece but unfortunately did not find any which we thought would suit. We are looking for a song which is poppy or pop rock because they are the genre we have seen in a lot of teen comedies, however it is difficult to find an unsigned or copywright free song that suits the piece.

Friday 13th March

On Friday we began editing the footage we had, the majority of it fitted together well. However there were some problems with the continuity of some scenes, we improved this by cropping the scenes so that they fitted together better. We also solved the problem i mentioned in an earlier post where the fence was visible in the background by cropping the size of the shot down and deleting the part where she leaves through the door so that you only see her pick up the bag and leave the shot. We also came across some problems with the scene involving the "popular" girl's friends as a car was driving past when we filmed, making the dialogue more difficult to understand. So we re-shot these scenes, however one of the characters who was in one of the original shots that needed re-filming was not available so we had to re-think the shot. By changing camera angle we did not need her to be in the small part of the scene. After adding in the new scenes the continuity of the scene worked a lot better. We also added a fade in from black to the beginning of the film with the film title "Best Enemies". We decided to use font and text colour to reflect the film's narrative, putting "best" in pink girly handwriting and "enemies" in a sinister bold red font. The contrast of these two fonts and colours reflects the conflict between the two girls stereotypical girly friendship and the ruthlessness of the actions that take place later in the film. I think the lesson was very productive and that we managed to create a very good 2 minute introduction to our film. In Monday's lesson we will be sorting out any final editing and finding a song that will suit the introduction.

Filming - 11/3/09

We got all the major filming done yesterday, i was very impressed with how quickly and efficiently we worked. We stuck to the storyboard initially with the scenes filmed in the home, however we deterred from it slightly when filming the school scenes due to the unpredictability of the scene (e.g. other students etc.). The majority of filming went well and the home scenes i believe will edit well. However, some of the school scenes may lack continuity but we will not know until we edit. Also when viewing the home scene where "the geek" leaves the house after filming, we realised that it lacked continuity with the scene where she leaves through the front door as the door is different and a fence can be seen through the window so unfortunately we will have to re-film it.

finalising storyboard, cast and shooting schedule

9th March 09 - Today we finalised our ideas and began casting some people to be in the film intro. However, we were coming across problems....it was difficult to find people who wanted to be in the film and even more so to find people who were all free at the same time. We eventually decided that it would be best to act some of the parts ourselves to ensure that we had reliable and would work to task. We got one of our group member's close friends to play the remaining part for the same reasons. We then drew up a shooting schedule and cast list. We are hoping to get all the filming done in a couple of weeks, 3 weeks maximum.

Storyboarding

In todays lesson we began storyboarding our piece, as we had already discussed what would happen in the intro this was very straight forward. The only things we did have to discuss were camera angles and camera movement.However, we didnt really disagree over this so we finished our storyboard within the hour. One problem we did come across was estimating the time for each camera shot as we have little experience with filming so cant estimate accurately how long a scene will run for. When we did attempt to estimate the total time for out intro exceeded two minutes which may be too long for an intro. Despite this we arent going to change any of the camera shots as we could have estimated the times wrong. All the scenes in our storyboard are very straight forward and are only in three locations so should be fairly simple to film.

Wednesday 4th March

In todays lesson we presented our pitch. I feel that it went well and i over came my fear of talking infront of people. We ran through the pitch a few times before presenting it,so it flowed quite well and we all had our own specific area about the film to pitch. We covered everything required of us in the pitch so i feel it went very well.

Slideshow

Here is our Slideshow for our film proposal:

Opening Of A Teen Comedy

View more presentations from lauren12345.

Continuing planning

Today we mostly continued with the planning, we finalised our ideas and put them into a powerpoint in preperation for our pitch to the institutions. It all went very smoothly as we generally agreed on the portions of planning that were remaining. We worked together on creating a script for the opening and came up with a name for our film "The best of enemies" which is perfect because its short but tells the audience the basic storyline of the film without giving too much away. I will post the powerpoint pitch which has all our planning on it in the next post.

Friday 27th

We began planning our film piece and came up with some great ideas, however we all settled on one which i am very hopeful about. Using research we had done previously we began drafting an opening, characters profiles and the story line for the film in preperation for pitching our piece to the institutions.

Our idea is based on the classic teen comedy: the main characters are a popular boy, apopular girl and a geeky girl and the events in the film revolve around slightly slapstickhumour but come to a moral at the end of the film, which is something we nboticed from both British and American Teen Comedies. We decided to stick to conventional character types as teens can both relate to them and they have been popular in previous films. We didn't have a lot of British teen comedies to base our piece on so we primarily based our story line on popular American teen comedies. We noticed that a lot of British teen comedies were set in boarding schools, whereas most American teen comedies are set in highschool, by setting our piece in a college we feel the film will relate to the "everyday" teenager more than other British teen comedies. We are still going to keep the film British by incorporating everyday British life into the film.

In Monday's lesson we will be drafting up a script for our opening, finishing character backgrounds and our storyboard. I feel this will be very straight forward as we worked well and efficiently together on our preliminary task and in the other aspects we have drafted for this piece.

Evaluation of Preliminary Task

Evaluation

We were set the task of creating a preliminary piece. The piece had to show a person entering a room and conversing with a second person. It had to be less than 2 minutes long and include the 180o rule, match on action and shot reverse shot. We decided to use a job interview as the situation as this would be fairly straight forward to film and would allow us to include all of the criteria requested.
We began creating a very short script for the piece. Initially our script was quite complex but we ended up discarding it as it would take up to much of the filming time and lost focus. We only needed about 2 minutes of filming so no more dialogue than a couple of lines for each character were necessary. The script involved some mild humour which was executed well by Grace by her use of facial expressions and body language in filming. We all agreed as a group that this script was suitable for the task and didn’t come across any major problems in writing it.
When storyboarding, initially we were very ambitious with what we wanted to create but were advised by our teacher to keep it simple and concentrate more on getting all the criteria in. So we simplified our storyboard. We planned to incorporate the 180o rule, match on action and shot reverse shot, we each had our own storyboard which was helpful in case any of our group were absent from a lesson but luckily no one was. We all contributed towards and agreed on the content in the storyboard.
We did however have to alter our first storyboard due to problems when filming. We had filmed some of the content but were restricted from improving it as the location we had decided upon became unavailable for further filming. Luckily, this worked to our advantage as we were able to secure a better location for filming. The new location was a teacher’s office so had all the props that would make our job interview storyline more realistic. We re-did our storyboard and second time around it went almost perfectly. When it came to filming we did shoot every scene exactly as it was on the storyboard. However, we did have some trouble with the tracking shot as the room was very small so we had to do a number of takes to get both characters in the frame. The actors who played the characters in our piece were members of our group so we knew that we wouldn’t have any problems with reliability, the standard of acting they gave and how professional they were when filming.
We experienced some technical difficulties with uploading our content onto the macs which was very frustrating as we knew how we wanted to edit the shots and that it would not take a considerable amount of time to do so. After hours of attempts on several machines with different cameras we were finally able to upload the filming and begin editing. Editing went as predicted; we knew what we wanted to do and stuck to the storyboard. We only omitted two shots because they reduced the flow of the piece, these were the close-up of the door handle as Rachel (who played the interviewee) opened the door and the medium long shot of the door as she approached it.
Although we kept the piece simple I feel it did meet all the criteria and was fairly professional looking. It would have been nice to include some more impressive media skills as I feel this would make our piece more entertaining but the use of mild comedy made up for this. There was one thing we were disappointed about and that was the costume. We didn’t premeditate costume and therefore both characters were dressed casually which is not what you would expect of a interviewer or interviewee, so this reduced the realism of the piece. Therefore if we were to do this piece again we would involve some character designs as part of our plan. I also feel that we could include more shots to make the piece more interesting. Despite this the piece did meet the criteria and turned out exactly as we had planned so I am happy with the end result, I think we work well as a team and there were very few disagreements when making decisions about the piece.

Technical Difficulties

We've been experiencing a lot of technical difficulties both before and after the half term holiday with the macs over the last couple of lessons, the footage we caught on tape won't upload onto the mac and the mac freezes when we try to upload it. It is for this reason that we haven't been able to get a lot done either over the halfterm or in lesson time and the reason why i haven't been blogging. in today's lesson we will try again to upload our footage so that it can be edited and will also begin evaluating our piece. Hopefully we will be able to get this problem resolved because we risk falling behind otherwise.

Filming

In today's lesson we began filming. Intitially we intended to use a spare classroom to film in but unfortunatley we could not find one. We therefore decided to use the 6 form study room which luckily was empty, however the choice of room meant that often we had to stop filming due to interuptions by other 6 formers wanting to use the photocopier. Also at the end of the first hour lesson we were interupted by a teacher who had a lesson in the room. As we had not finished filming this proved to be a problem.

Luckily we managed to secure a more private and more professional filming location : the office of the deputy head teacher, who kindly allowed us to film in her office whilst she was at a meeting. The room did throw up some problems in that it was much smaller than we had intended so the tracking was slightly more difficult to do. However, once furniture was re-arranged we were able to film quite successfully. We also added a few shots so that there would be more footage to edit. I am very pleased with the footage we filmed today. We will be editing in friday's lesson, we already have some knowledge of the editing software so we should be able to develop this piece well.

Preliminary Task

Last lesson (Monday 9th Feb) we began planning for our preliminary task. We discussed some suitable ideas which we storyboarded but realised that there could be potentially some problems with creating such a complex piece. It would take too much time to film if there were complex components to the piece, the idea of using a clock would also have some pitfalls as time changes so re-filming certain scenes may ruin the linear narrative we were intending to create and as our time is limited for creating the piece preparing props or getting people outside our group involved in the piece would be difficult. Therefore we simplified the piece down to the basics but ensuring that we kept to the instructions. I will post the final storyboard during today's lesson.

We drafted a short script which was as follows:

Interviewer (on phone): She was meant to be here five minutes ago!...yes...alright...goodbye

(After some time)

Interviewee: Sorry I'm late! (sitting down) The traffic was terrible, the weather is awful.

Interviewer: Well, we can see your punctuality is intact.

Interviewee: The bus...broke down.

Interviewer: Yes, i gathered that...

Institutions

Over the weekend i researched Institutions which develop Teen Comedy films like the one my group are looking to create. I did this by looking up which institutions created films such as St Trinians, Wild Child and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. I also looked up a couple of major institutions such as 20th Century Fox.

All Information in my notes was researched on wikipedia.

20th Century Fox
Formed in 1915 by William Fox .
Became known as 20th Century Fox after a merger of two companies, Fox Film Corporation and Twentieth Century Pictures, founded in 1933 by Darryl F. Zanuck, Joseph Schenck, Raymond Griffith and William Goetz.
The company's first film studios were set up in Fort Lee, New Jersey
New sound technologies came about and Fox moved to get the rights to a sound-on-film process.
In 1926 Fox bought a plot just outside Beverly Hills and built "Movietone City", the best-equipped studio at the time.
When Fox’s biggest rival Marcus Loew died in 1927, Fox offered to buy the Loew family's holdings. Loew's Inc. controlled more than 200 theaters and the MGM studio at the time.
MGM studio-boss Louis B. Mayer didn't want the merger to go ahead and used his political connections : the Justice Department's anti-trust unit to stop the merger from going ahead.
Fox was injured badly in a car crash in 1929 and just as he recovered was hit by the stock market crash which stole most of his fortune.
Fox lost 20th Century Fox and ended up in jail, Fox film ended up in receivership.
The new owners began negotiating the launch of Twentieth Century Pictures in 1935.

Twentieth Century Pictures

An independent Hollywood motion picture production company.
Created in 1932 by Joseph Schenck
Financial backing came from Schenck's older brother Nicholas Schenck and the father-in-law of Goetz, Louis B. Mayer, the head of MGM Studios.
Films were distributed by United Artists

Teen Comedies

John Tucker Must Die
Satisfaction

Working Title
A British film production company, London, England.
Founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1984.
It produces both feature films and television productions.
Eric Fellner and Bevan are the co-owners of the company today.
Mainstream success came after the unexpected global success of Four Weddings and a Funeral, this film also launched one of their biggest stars, Hugh Grant.
Working Title tended to produce a lot of Romantic Comedies but have recently ventured into other genres of film.
In 1992 Working Title Films merged with PolyGram.
In 2004 Working Title grossed £17.8 million
Since 2007 all of Working Title’s films are distributed by the American Universal Studios.
Universal Studios own 67% of the company, the rest of the shares are owned by both the company’s founders and private investors.
Many of Working Title’s recent films have been co-productions with StudioCanal.
Working Title also own a low-budget film brand called WT2 or Working Title 2 which has produced films such as Shaun of the Dead in 2004.

Teen Comedies

· Wild Child

Ealing Studios

· A television and film production company, Ealing Green, West London
· It is officially the oldest film studio in Great Britan .
· The site was bought by theatre producer Basil Dean's Talking Pictures in 1929
· But re-opened as Ealing Studios in 1931
· In 1933, the company was renamed Associated Talking Pictures.
· By the time Basil Dean left the company in 1938, 60 films had been made at the studios. Dean was replaced by Michael Balcon from MGM.
· Balcon decided to return to the name Ealing Studios.
· In 1944, the company was taken over by the Rank Organisation.
· Over the war the comedies became what the studio was best known for.
· The BBC bought the studios in 1955 and created television productions there.
· In 1995, the studios were purchased by the National Film and Television School.
· It was then bought by Uri Fruchtmann, Barnaby Thompson, Harry Handelsman and John Kao in 2000 in an attempt to re-vive the studio.

Teen Comedies
· St. Trinians

Gold crest Films
· A British film production company founded by Jake Eberts 1977
It won two Academy Awards for Best Picture, for Chariots of Fire in 1981 and Gandhi in 1982.
After these successes the company decided to back more expensive productions with famous Hollywood stars. However these films often ran over schedule and budget e.g. The Mission (1986) and Revolution which were ultimately flops.
Recently Gold crest has begun to produce critically acclaimed films again.
Goldcrest Independent is Goldcrest’s newest venture. It was created to offer independent producers a chance to get their films made and produced worldwide.

Teen Comedies
· Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging
· Sex Drive
· Twilight?

Summary of Findings

Constraints

• Lack of funding
• Lack of expertise e.g. trained camera operators
• Lack of equipment e.g. lighting, props, special effects
• Stick to the BBFC’s guidelines for a 15 certificate
• Geographically – can’t travel too far so limited locations

All the Institutions researched have produced Teen Comedies but tend to produce a range of films of different genres, i would say the biggest competition would be from American studios as they produce a lot of Teen Comedies which are popular worldwide. In creating a British Teen Comedy we would be rivaling these American Studios for the British teenager's attention. A British Teen Comedy will enable British teens to relate more to the content as it will have references to their everyday lives which will hopefully appeal to them more.

Summary of Findings

Generic Codes and Conventions of a Comedy Film

This lesson and last lesson we watched members of the class present the codes and conventions that they noticed in the films which they analysed. I presented my powerpoint this lesson on the generic codes and conventions i noticed in the comedies which i analysed, it is displayed below throught the use of print screens.

Our group also decided that we would be trying to create a Teen Comedy, this would be the easiest type of comedy to create as we have the teenagers and the setting (school) avaliable. We will be trying to create a film similar to "St Trianians", "Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging" and "Wild Child" which all are set in Britain. We feel that by creating a British Teen Comedy we would be filling a gap in the market as there seems to be a lot of American Teen comedies but few British Teen comedies, other than the ones mentioned.

Some information about Comedies in the powerpoint was researched from: Getting the Joke: Teaching The Comedy Film - www.mediaed.org.uk/posted_documents/comedyfilms.pdf

Full film analysis

The Other Half

This film complies with Propp’s character theory as it contains many of the fairytale characters e.g. the Villain of the narrative is the man in Mark’s
head who tempts the hero into going to the games despite what he is risking by doing so, the Hero of the narrative is Mark who struggles against temptation and the Princess of the narrative is Holly. The characters of which are very stereotypical e.g. Mark is stereotypical working class English male who is obsessed with football and has no airs and graces about him. Holly is also quite stereotypically female; she hates football and loves sight seeing. The use of stereotypes helps the audience to relate to the characters as they are easily identifiable.
The narrative of the film is in a linear fashion but does use imaginary scenes in-between the narrative, such as Mark’s imaginary tempter. These scenes are clearly distinguished from the rest of the film due to the intense glow around the characters and the use of bright colours.
The main scenes in the narrative are: The introductory scene, Holly and Mark are the first seen in the storyline, represented in a two shot to show their relationship. A close-up on their hands reveals that they are holding hands therefore establishing that they are in a romantic relationship. The lighting is bright and sunny which connotes happiness and new love.
The next major scene which influences the storyline is Mark’s first conversation with the villain; this scene is clearly defined by the use of bright light and colours as imaginary or a dream.
The next important scenes are the ones where he actually finds a way to sneak to the football matches, the use of non- diegetic football crowd sounds cheering connotes his happiness in being able to go to the match.
Then the next important scene is after Mark has told Holly that her passport and cards have gone missing in order to go back to Lisbon where the next football match will take place. In this scene she finds that the cards were hidden in a bag in the closet, the lighting in this scene is dimmed which creates a tense atmosphere and reflects the emotions portrayed on Holly’s face through the use of closeups.
There is then the confrontation scene, the lighting in this scene is still very dim and in contrast to the first scene of the two, they are now shown in separate shots rather than in two shots. Holly storms out into the street and Mark loses track of her.
There is then the reunion scene where Mark and Holly ring Holly’s parents at the same time and they put them on the line together. The weather in this scene is sunny at both ends of the phone line in America and Lisbon which connotes the happiness in their reunion.
Throughout the narrative the characters are dressed casually which is reflective of the characters going on their honey moon and makes the film accessible to more people as their clothing is reflective of themselves. The use of football paraphernalia such as football shirts and painted faces solidify the film’s football based narrative.
The creators also have used computer generated animation in order to create scenes that would have been difficult to film e.g. going into the football stadium and watching the world cup match. The use of non diegetic football sounds creates the atmosphere of the game and the simple yet bold animation keep the part of the narrative interesting to the audience.
Football is referenced to throughout the film throughout the use of CGI, the film integrates the use of a scoring system between Mark and Holly. It also has a time played box in the corner exactly as you would see during a football match on television. The playful use of replays and slow motion replays creates a football atmosphere, also the use of two commentators as characters in the piece help to keep even the parts of the film that are not about football with a football sense.
This film is quite a good representation of the comedy genre as it has been successful in creating a romantic comedy which both men and women alike can enjoy. The film also complies with Bulmer and Katz uses and gratifications theory as many of the audience will be able to relate to the characters and see parts of themselves reflected in the narrative. However they are quite rigid stereotypes so not all people will be able to relate.

Hot Fuzz

This film also complies with Propps narrative theory e.g. The hero of the narrative is PC Angel as he is the one who seeks to re-establish the equilibrium by finding out who is murdering the villagers. Danny who is Angel’s best friend is the helper as he tries to aid Angel on his quest. The Villains are the Elders who are secretly murdering those who do not comply to their rules and the Princesses are the unsuspecting villagers. The false hero is the police department who believe that they are doing their job when infact they are hindering PC Angel. There is also a use of stereotypes in this film, PC Angel and the other officers from the city are portrayed as uptight and straightfaced through both their appearance and manner towards the job, where as the officers from the countryside are depicted as untidy in appearance and laid back towards their job. The police officers are clearly given status over the other characters in their uniform and other character types are set up for example. The police officers who are rouges and rude where aviator sunglasses which connotes these kinds of tendencies, the reporter is quite stereotypically geeky with glasses and untrendy clothing.
There is also a clear definition between the two settings that the film is based in, the city is depicted as cold and clinical with dully lit interiors that aare boxy and plain. The countryside s a little more rustic whith picturesque scenery and historical landmarks, the lighting is bright and airy which connotes the seemingly “perfect” place.
The main scenes in this narrative are : The initial introductory scene, the back lighting from the street creates a dark silhouette in the background of the frame, the figure is central which gives the impression that this is the main character. The doors ahead of the character open swiftly, which gives the character intense dominance over the room. The intensified diegetic sound creates impact which immediately gets the viewers’ attention. The use of non diegetic police sirens signals to the viewer that the film is about police, but also that this character is a police officer. The drum beat as the silhouette approaches the doors gives a sense of foreboding. The use of voice over allows the character to introduce him self, and give the audience an insight into his background.
The editing is fast paced with a choppy representation of different angles of the same scene which is reflective of the action genre with which this film is a spoof of. The fast pace and editing with the non diegetic beat over it creates a sense of impending action.
The next important scene is the scene which influences the whole of the storyline, the one in which Angel discovers that he will be being relocated to a sleepy countryside village. The office is very clinical looking, and makes use of the colours blue and black. The lighting is very low which helps to create a sense of verisimilitude.
Initially when PC Angel gets to the countryside the lighting is very dark and the shadows of trees reflect onto the streets which gives a very eerie feel to the community. This creates a sense of foreboding events and makes the village seem very sinister.
Each murder is very important as they further make Angel look crazy as he continues to stress that they are murders not accidents as everyone else believes. Dramatic Irony is created in that the audience know and have witnessed the murders yet the characters don’t which hooks the readers as they want the characters to figure it out.
PC Angel seeing a murder for him self is also an important scene as it is the first time that he actually has his suspicions solidified. The lighting is very dull which creates a suspenseful atmosphere. The fact that PC angel sees the murderer fall over and cut his leg allows him to follow up on who the murder might be.
The next important scene is where PC Angel witnesses the Elders at their annual meeting, It is night time and they are all dressed in black hooded coats which connotes evil. They are all portrayed in a group shot around a large round table which shows their unity as a group.
The film makes use of film stereotypes in creating humour, recreating scenes from famous action films in order to do so.
I think this film is a very good example of the genre as it has ben one of the most successful British comedies to date. However, the film could be considered more of an action spoof than a comedy in its own right. It could very useful if we decide to create an action comedy ourselves, but even if we don’t we can still use some aspects of it to help us create a piece which will appeal to British female and male teenagers. This film also complies with the uses and gratifications theory in that the film allows audiences to escape into the film because they are unrealistic events.


HOTCHICK

This film also complies with Propp’s narrative theory, the Hero is Jessica, a cheerleader who takes her life for granted, the villain of the story is the thief or arguably the earring which the thief finds and puts in his ear. There are many helpers, most of which turn out to be people that Jessica has wronged in her life.
Teenage stereotypes are evident of nearly every character, the Goth – cast spells, curses, wears black, dark makeup and generally doesn’t fit in. The geek overweight, wants to be a cheerleader, gets picked on by the cheerleaders and the cheerleaders – pretty, popular, every boy wants them. These stereotypes allow audiences to relate to the characters and see a part of themselves reflected in the narrative which is a part of uses and gratification theory. The magical element of the narrative allows the audience to escape the mundanity of their own lives which is also a part of the uses and gratifications theory. The costume of the young popular girls throughout is very stereotypically girly, bright pinks and pastel colours, skirts and crop tops. The setting is in California therefore the lighting is continuously bright and sunny which connotes the “perfect” life that the main character has.
The story line is linear from a historical first scene about the history of the earrings and their power. This scene is Egyptian and the audience can tell this from the period costumes that the characters are wearing and the exotic colours and lighting give the impression of an exotic warm place such as Egypt.
A close up shot of the fireplace in this scene fades into the shaking of red pom poms and the diegetic sound of cheerleaders chanting and the crowd cheering acts as a sound bridge over this scene transition. This scene introduces the main characters. The first character to be seen is Jessica in a medium close up, the camera zooms out to reveal a group shot of Jessica on top of a pyramid of cheerleaders which immediately gives her status. The cheerleaders are wearing red glittery cheer uniforms. Thisgives them a glamorous edge, it also gives the impression that this is an important match. In contrast the geek is dressed in a dull green and grey cheer uniform which reflects how un-glamorous and unbeautiful she feels in comparison.
The next important scene is the meeting of the villain and hero, the villain is a stereotypical thief, his hair is dishevelled and his clothes soiled. Which in contrast to the girls in their shiny, brightly coloured car which connotes youthful vitality and spirit, he seems quite old. It is this scene which gets the plot moving as in this scene the thief finds one of the earrings on the floor, the earring has a glow about it which gives the impression that it is both important and magical.
The next important scene is the one in which after trying to deal with her new body and convincing her friends that she really is Jessica they finally find her real body. It is night time which reflects the evil things that the thief has been doing with her body such as robbing people. It is in this scene that they manage to trick the thief into switching bodies, the use of a group shot shows the deep connection that Jessica has developed with the girls she used to pick on in school.
This film is a good example of the comedy genre but I feel it will fail to appeal to both males and females and due to its American setting it would appeal far more to American teenagers. However we could still use aspects of the film when creating our own piece such as the humour used or the character types expressed as these appear across both societies and variations appear across Western culture.

The 15 certificate

As we are creating a certificate 15 film i researched what content a 15 film allows, we need to be sure that we do not exceed any of the restrictions in creating our piece, the BBFC permits:

Theme: No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate to 15 year olds.

Language: There may be frequent use of strong language; the strongest terms are only rarely acceptable. Continued aggressive use of strong language and sexual abuse is unacceptable.

Nudity: There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

Sex: Sexual activity and nudity may be portrayed but without strong detail. The depiction of casual sex should be handled responsibly. There may be occasional strong verbal references to sexual behaviour.

Violence: Violence may be strong but may not dwell on the infliction of pain, and of injuries. Scenes of sexual violence must be discreet and brief.

Imitable techniques: Dangerous combat techniques such as ear claps, head-butts and blows to the neck are unlikely to be acceptable. There may be no emphasis on the use of easily accessible lethal weapons (in particular, knives).

Horror: Sustained or detailed infliction of pain or injury is unacceptable.Drugs: Drug taking may be shown but clear instructive detail is unacceptable. The film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug use.

sourced from:

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/592478/index.html

Film Intro Analysis

Since our last lesson on Monday the 21st we have been viewing and textually analyising five 2minute Introductions to comedy films in order to get an idea as of how to start our own introduction. Below is my analysis of 5 film introductions, all the films that i used to analysed are certificate 15 or below.

HOTCHICK
Initially some Egyptian History is given which puts the future events of the storyline in context, the fire place from the Egyptian history part fades into the shaking of red pom poms which unifies the two times and creates a sense that the history has relevance to the people in this scene . The actual film starts after this; diagetic sounds and music of the cheerleaders doing their cheers come in over the shaking of the pom poms and continue, the cheers are upbeat and energetic. The initial shot is a medium close up of the main character who is dressed in cheerleading outfit which immediately gives the character’s personality away. When the camera zooms out we realise is standing on top of a pyramid of cheerleaders, indicating her high importance, she is top of the popularity ranks. There are shots of the crowd to reveal their popularity. The lighting is very bright and the colours of costumes and props are very vibrant which is reflective of the film’s youthful appeal. All the characters are introduced within the first minute. The main character (cheerleader) was introduced straight away. The geek wannabe cheerleader is then introduced being tormented by the main character. The geek is stereotypically overweight and plain looking; she is complete opposite of the cheerleaders. The comedy kicks in after this, slap stick comedy of the geek being hit by toilet tissue and then a toilet seat and falling over.
The next scene is a straight cut to a classroom scene, a two shot of the two cheerleaders playing patter cake shows a bond between the two, the song they sing as they clap hands is another source of comedy. More stereotypes are introduced; two chavy twins are introduced, stereotypically big earrings, revealing clothes and ponytail on the side of their heads talking colloquially. The Goth is then introduced as stereotypically wearing black clothes, black makeup, and unusual hair. The popular girls are stereotypically catty towards her and the Goth then begins chanting a curse over the popular girl.

STUCK ON YOU
The initial scene of the film sets the scene; a long shot of boat in the sea by a port lets us know that the film will be set in a port. It is sunrise and the scene is very picturesque and peaceful, which gives the impression of a perfect life. There is then a straight cut to an alarm clock and the music starts which is very upbeat. The clock changes to 7:00 and the diagetic sound of the alarm going off can be heard. The idea of an alarm clock creates a sense of normal daily routine with which the audience can relate to. This is until 2 hands reach out to turn the alarm off, we don’t see anything else which is humorous as the audience wouldn’t expect it. There is then a straight cut to the side of the bed two sets of feet get out of the bed at the same time but still the characters’ identity is kept secret as although the audience don’t know yet the main part of the story would be given away. Then two heads come up across the screen as they both do pull ups with one arm, as they pull themselves up it is then revealed that they are Siamese twins as the title “Stuck on You” comes up in between them, the words of the title are quite literally stuck together then pull apart which forebodes the events that happen later in the film’s narrative. The lighting and colours are quite dull which is not only a reflection of the time of year that the film is depicting but also the normality of the two’s lives. There is then a straight cut to a medium long shot of the two jogging in the snow, the daylight is bright but there is an impression of a “normal” day given. There is quite a bit of verbal comedy passed between the two as they jog around the small town and people say hello to them which reflects a close knit community. This is also mixed with slapstick comedy where there is a two shot of the two talking and jogging then a POV shot of a pole which they bang into. The use of a POV means the audience don’t see it until the twins see it which increases the humour.

BRUCE ALMIGHTY
The film starts with a voice over a black screen with credits, the set up of the scene is set as a woman explains about the background of two characters, and verbal comedy begins as Bruce argues about wearing a hairnet. The film then quickly fades in to the punch line of this verbal comedy, a medium close up of him wearing the hairnet and his facial expression. The future events of the storyline forebode as Bruce utters the words “God, why do you hate me?” under his breath. “we’re rolling” another man says as a side shot medium longs shot of a camera crew infront of Bruce is straight cut which reveals he is a reporter and puts what was being said in the credits in context. The lighting is bright but quite normal which gives the impression of a sunny perfect atmosphere. The colours of props and costumes are pastel which could be reflective of Bruce’s boredom with his seemingly perfect life. Visual comedy plays a key role in this film’s beginning as again while Bruce reports, behind his back one of the chefs is picking his nose, Bruce notices and goes on to make sarcastic jokes about it. A medium shot of the crew’s reaction also creates comedy as the audience can relate to the feeling being portrayed. The humour is also brought through in the comments the chef’s make when being interviewed which are not what you would expect and the way they outtake it. The audience are given a behind the scenes view at how the news is reported which engages them. The two chefs are very stereotypically Russian with strong accents, and not communicating in English correctly.


HAROLD AND KUMAR GET THE MUNCHIES
The scene is set, a long shot of an office block on a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky. The office is rigid and generic looking which gives the impression of long hours and tedious work. A straight cut to the interior of one of the floors reveals the main character in a medium shot working at his station, he is stereotypically geeky with glasses and a straight cut hair style. The office is a stereotypical office block, dull colours and every cubicle looks the same but outside the windows the sunshine is bright which reflects the eagerness of employees to get out. The time is set by a conversation between two business men dressed in black suits, which gives them status; they are talking about the impending weekend. The one man is very stereotypically masculine; he talks about drinking and women, convincing the other to dump his work on someone else. The man then approaches the main character and a low angled shot of the main character reveals his status towards the other man giving the impression that he is the main character’s boss; he is also sitting whilst the boss stands over him which reflects the main character’s low status in comparison. He dumps his work on him, the pace of editing speeds up as we see the two business men leave and drive off in their sports car which reflects the excitement of the two. The camera then pans up to a medium long shot of the main character in the office window stuck in the office which reflects how trapped he is. The comparison creates humour. There is a straight cut to another man who is the main characters’ opposite, he is dressed casually with messy hair which reflects his free nature seated in an elegant looking room full of bookcases which indicates intelligence. It becomes apparent he is in an interview the interviewer is a stereotypical upper class white man who talks in the queen’s English, is dressed smartly, humour is creating in him trying very hard to be politically correct. The colours are brighter in this room than the office which implies life is better for the second man than the first. Humour continues as the second main character begins doing and saying things you wouldn’t in an interview: answering his phone, and having a phone conversation about partying and taking drugs.


JUST FRIENDS
Music starts over a black screen with the words “1995 New Jersey” the music is slow and romantic (“I swear” By Boys II Men) which gives the impression of a romantic film. The film fades in with someone writing a note and a voice over “Dear Jamie…”. There is a straight cut and a pan down of a board of photos with the words “Chris and Jamie friends forever” and lots of pictures of a teenage boy and a teenage girl. The voice over continues as he lists romantic things about her in a childish voice. This immediately sets the storyline when the music, the photographs and what he is saying are combined; he has an obsession for Jamie.This occurrence is a typical teenage boy/girl experience therefore teens can relate to the narrative. Visual comedy starts when the photos are panned, a picture of them both looking in love pops out to reveal another man in between them and he tries to re-stick it, this further tells the storyline in indicating that he cant have her. The camera straight cuts back to him writing in the book as he reveals “hoping to be your boyfriend, sincerely Chris Brander, BFF!” we then realise that this is her year book as the camera fades into a page with her picture. When we finally see the boy’s face he is stereotypically geeky, he is overweight, has retainer, his hair is large and curly. He sings the words of the song into the mirror until he is caught by a little boy who starts mocking him who we assume to be his brother as he shouts “mom!” when Chris tells him to get out; this reflects also his low social status as even his brother mocks him. A medium close up shows him taking out his retainer and eating which is stereotypical of overweight people to binge when upset. The lighting in the room is warm and homely which gives the impression that it is his home and his bedroom. There is then a straight cut medium long shot to a dark peaceful road which gives the impression of suburban living. He is on a bike which further aids the stereotype of a geeky boy. A voice over enhances him muttering the words he is going to say to Jamie over and over which gives the impression he is going to go see her.

The films do seem to have a lot in common in the first 2minutes, the main character(s) is introduced straight away in the first scene, and they are usually the Hero of the narrative. The first 2 minutes try to give as much detail as possible about the main character(s) by using stereotypes e.g. the connotations of the way they are dressed/look and the way they interact with others. The introduction also tries to set out the background that the narrative leads from e.g. Hotchick and Just Friends both give information as to events that happened before the film began.

Powerpoint on findings and actions

Powerpoint

In Today's lesson I began creating a powerpoint detailing the findings of the Questionnaire through the use of barcharts and pie charts.

We also established our Profile audience as :

n Female

n Aged 16

n Her favourite film genre would be comedy

n Her favourite film would be Hot Fuzz

n And she would watch most films with a 15 classification

Knowing our Profile audience will enable us to successfully create a piece which will appeal to this type of person.

In the next blog on Monday i will post print screens of my powerpoint.

Looking Good

Hi Lauren

Firstly, well done for getting this baby up and running. Secondly, make sure you are using this to reflect on what you have done rather than simply posting lost of your research. It is essential during this unit that you reflec ton everything you do and consider why you are completing tasks and how they inform your practical work.

Questionnaire results

Consumer trend questionnaire results

Below are the numbers of people who gave each answer

About you:

Age:

Under12 0

12-14 4

15-17 14

18-20 3

21-30 2

31- 40 2

40+ 4

Gender: M: 11 F :19

Occupation:

Student 20

Other 10

Nursery Manager 1

Gardner 1

Probation officer 1

Sales assistant 4

Assistant care manager 1

Senior residential social worker 1

Other 1

If student, what subjects are you currently studying?

Media 8

English 14

Health and social care 1

Art 2

Geography 3

French 4

Science 1

ICT 3

Design Tech 1

RE 2

PE 1

Business 4

History 2

Photography 1

Maths 1

Psychology 3

Drama 1

Politics 1

What is your favourite genre? Tick more than one for subgenre

Action 13

Adventure 9

Comedy 19

Crime and gangster 7

Drama 7

Historical 1

Horror 11

Musical 3

Romantic 12

Sci-fi 2

Thriller 10

War 2

Western 2

Other- please specify 3

Cult Classics

Dance

Teen flicks

What is your favourite film?

Matilda 1

Shawshank redemption 1

28 Days later 3

Saw 1

Titanic 1

Mean girls 1

Van Helsing 1

Love actually 2

Dirty Dancing 1

Wicker park 2

Forest gump 1

Man on fire 1

Fight club 2

Hot fuzz 1

The green mile 1

The notebook 1

Dogma 1

Blade 1

Bridget Jones 1

Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind 1

Angus thongs and perfect snogging 1

The Hurricane 1

What character types are in this film?

Villain 18

Hero 18

Flirt 12

Good Wife/Husband 7

Rogue 10

Airhead 3

The clown 5

Popular boy/girl 8

Other 6

Please give an example and the film that this character was in?

Character:

Brad Pitt

Tyler

Bridget

Blade

Jason Bourne

Matilda

Van Helsing

Zombies

The clown

Forest

Amelie

Prisoner

Ruben Carter

Protagonist

Butch

Lennie

Regina

James Bond

Creasy

Josh Harnett

Lindsay Lohan

Film:

Fight Club

Step up

Bridget Jones’ Diary

Blade

Bourne Identity

Matilda

Van Helsing

28 Days Later

Love Actually

Forest Gump

Amelie

The Green Mile

The Hurricane

Fight Club

Pulp Fiction

The Beestel

Of Mice and Men

Mean Girls

James Bond

Man on Fire

Wicker Park

Mean Girls

Do you only see films that conform to this genre?

No I vary my choices 18

Yes I only consume films of this genre 3

I prefer this genre, but I am happy to view other films 8

What age classification are you mostly likely to watch?

U 3

PG 4

12A 4

12 8

15 23

18 17

R18 5

How often do you go to the cinema?

Weekly 2

Once every few weeks 10

Monthly 17

Never- skip next question 1

Do you prefer to go to the cinema when there are promotional offers on at the cinema? E.g. orange Wednesday

Yes I only go when there are promotional offers 2

No, but I prefer to go when there are offers on 14

I am happy to go any time and I am not influenced by these offers 14

Which do you prefer?

American films 12

British films 16

Foreign language films 2

Other 0

No preference 7

Would you be persuaded to make a special effort to see a film if a particular actor/actress was in it?

Yes I would 9

Depends whether I like the look of the film 13

No I wouldn’t 7

If yes, please give an example

Hugh Grant

Johnny Depp

Daniel Craig

Will Smith

Tom Hanks

Jeremy Sisto

Denzel Washington

Elijah Wood

50 Cent

Do you favour a particular institution? E.g. working title

Yes 8

No 20

If so, which institution (s)?

Universal Pictures 5

20^th century Fox 4

Disney/ Pixar 4

Film Four 1

DreamWorks 3

Other (please specify) 1

Momentum Pictures

Which do you prefer?

Independent films 9

Arthouse films 2

Blockbusters 24

Other (Please specify) 0

How likely are you to purchase a film on DVD/bluray/video?

Very likely 14

Likely 13

Unlikely 3

Very unlikely 0

Have you ever downloaded/owned a pirate or illegal film?

Yes 16

No 14