Production schedule

The following is a preliminary list of all that we need to complete our production:

Locations

•  Park/forest area/woodland
•  Pond?
•  Bonnie's house (group members living room)

Prop list

•  Rolls of cello tape 
•  Mobile phones
•  Bag of biscuits
•  Loaf of bread
•  Scissors

Costume list

• Bonnie 

           -Everyday normal wear

• Barry

           -Tights and fancy dress costume

• Louis

           -Party wear, perhaps also with some element of fancy dress

Actors/Actresses

• Bonnie- _____
• Barry- Jamie Payne
• Louis- Ryan Kent

Equipment list

• Camera
• Tripod? (as of yet unsure as to whether or not we'll need one)
•  Editing software
  

Time Frame
We will be filming during the day as such it is very possible that we should film during the lessons that we have finished all preparatory work, otherwise we would most likely be filming at the weekend following the lessons that we would have been filming during. 

Term summary and reflection

This term I started my Media Studies A-level, we've been put into groups and are starting our coursework for our foundation portfolio's. My group consists of me, Jamie Payne, Alisha Ward and Ryan Kent.  In these groups we've been planning and researching into genres of film so that we can create our own successful opening sequences. My group has decided to research into and create the opening sequence to our own Comedy film. I personally feel that as a group we work well together though admittedly we do work quite slowly, the questionnaire results took us longer to gather than was necessary, and the findings even longer to pull together. Overall though I think that we each balance out our individual shortcomings and have particular roles within the group that help us to get things done. I'm happy with the work we've completed thus far and I feel that over the Christmas holidays we've completed the necessary work to ensure success when we begin production. In all I feel that in this term as a group we have progressed well.

Below I will write out a brief schedule for our first few lessons back and what my group intend to have completed.

We intend to first check that the screenplay we have written in the correct formatting and generally works, after this we will create the storyboards for the screen play, we will then complete final props lists, final  location lists, camera shots(lists of ones we intend to use) and ensure our plans are as up to date as possible.

Screenplay first draft

LEAP Year Screenplay

Over the Christmas holidays my group managed to meet up and finish some of the preparation work such as the screenplay above, as well as completing a few last minute additions to our research findings etc.

Treatment revised

We have as a group decided that we needed to change our treatment pitch based on the information gained from our online and paper questionnaires and the focus group.
Title: Leap year
An original screenplay from Jamie Payne, Ryan Kent, Alisha Ward and Kayleigh Morris
Date: 15th December 2011

We present a comedy film about Barry and Louis two teenagers with an imagination that far exceeds normality. A third friend attempts to play the voice of reason as the two friends discuss the insanity of the night previous, but really with friends like those two it's not hard to imagine that he's In accordance to the suggestions of the focus group we are going to include a female character (Bonnie) as a challenge to the general conventions in which all main characters tend to be male not really paid attention to.

As the story unfolds we discover that on their night out turned out to be far more than was expected by anyone. They encountered superheroes, dancing aliens, emotional turmoil, a bromance and even llama's? When we pitched this idea to the focus group they thought that we might try to include all of this in the opening sequence and suggested that t might be  a little bit too much to put in the first few minutes. We did explain that we are not going to include all of this straight away and only included it in the pitch in order to give a general overview of the idea. Throughout their discussion of last night several fights and arguments break out. 

The opening sequence of this film would involve the third more rational person entering the room in which both Louis and Barry have collapsed, giving the both of them a cup of tea in order to sober the two up somewhat. From here a long discussion begins revolving around the unclear events of the previous night. 
We'd have the camera showing at first only extreme close ups of the three main characters as they wake up and start moving about. The camera would then reveal that the three are in a park with one character cello-taped to a tree this would be Barry whilst Louis is sleeping in the same tree and wakes up -falling out of the tree in the process. Louis answers the phone to find that Bonnie is attempting to contact them from the location of the party, she then hangs up after a short conversation and arrives with two mugs of tea and a pack of biscuits.

Think, Dude where's my car meets the hangover. 

Our Production Company intends to make use of fairly strange mise-en-scene, for example the characters would be dressed very messily in the same clothes as they had worn the previous night, 

The characters, on the suggestion of the focus group, will be dressed in fancy dress, as of yet we are unsure as to the exact costume they will be wearing. But we are considering having Louis wear tights the props would  be objects such as empty drink cans, cups of tea etc. The lighting would be vibrant and bright at most/all times. We would use a fair amount of effects on the scenes, as well as a wide variety of sound and music that fit the situations. In terms of camera we would use a lot of close-ups and reaction shots. We would make use of extreme close ups and close ups until Louis' phone rings and then when he reveals their location we would zoom out and show a long shot of the entire tree with Louis and Barry sitting in it or stuck to it. We would make use of mid-shots during the phone conversation as well as reaction shots We would include all of this in order to create a sense of humour for the audience to react to. Our target audience would be around the general age ranges of 15-21.

Lesson summary

Today, I managed to finish collating all of the data from our online questionnaires and begin to draft a revision of our treatment pitch, I intend to outside of class create a summary for the information we gained from our focus group as well as upload some graphs and analyse the information gained from the paper based questionnaires and then combine all the information from this and the online questionnaires. Next lesson as a group we intend to finish drafting our treatment pitch and also create a screenplay for our opening sequence based on all of the feedback we've received. 

Audience profile Part 1

Based on our online and paper questionnaires, we have found that;


In general our typical audience member would be of the general  age range of 16-20, the percentage of this range being 56.7%.  We also found that generally people answering our questionnaires was evenly split with 50% male and 50% female. Our general audience member appears to be a student and out of work, who prefer to watch comedy films with 60% of participants voting this genre as their favourite, with action thriller and drama all ranking fairly highly. People that preferred comedy seemed to prefer it as a result of the feel good factor that comedy happens to provide them with, they also tend to enjoy the fact that you watch a comedy at any time, you don't need to be in any particular mood to enjoy them and they allow the audience a means of escapism from the pressures of everyday life.
A majority of our answers came from people that watch films fairly often, with the vast majority of people accessing media on the Internet,  TV and through social networking. A majority of our participants said that they most commonly saw adverts on the TV and also from the Internet due to easy accessibility. Most of our results suggested that they preferred the genres of Rock, and Metal as well as pop, the audience members appeared to think that their preferred genre's would fit in with their favourite film genres as they generally seem to be of the opinion that most genres of music can fit in with any film.



These results whilst fairly useful are very generalised, and as such cannot be taken at face value. In order to gain a more accurate and representative result we may complete an interview or even look more closely at our focus group information (perhaps even form another focus group with more genre specific questions and with an improved treatment)

Questionnaire results part 2

Here is an example of one filled in paper questionnaire, I will be integrating the information from this into the audience profile that I will create shortly.

Focus group findings

Yesterday my group gathered  a variety of people within the age range of our target audience and first showed them our original treatment pitch in order to gain new perspectives on our original/base idea. We asked the group as a whole about their opinions regarding the idea, the feedback we received was as follows: 
~ They were unsure as to how we would do some of the events we said would happen in the film such as the aliens
~ One person also offered the idea that we set it in a Hollywood film set (using a school drama room to do this)
~ We were then asked how we would represent each characters personalities in the short amount of time that we had. We proceeded to explain that we would represent personality through use of costume and dialogue/actions

We then showed to them a clip from the opening sequence of the hangover (this was the only clip from a  key text that we had available to us at the time as a result of technical difficulties, we had intended to use a clip from the anchorman also but were unable to find the clip again) After watching the clip we asked the group why they enjoyed watching comedy films and received the following responses:
~ To laugh
~ The outrageous things that happen in a comedy film
~ More entertaining than other genres
~ They say the things that you are thinking but don't say
~ The situations are outrageous
~ They're easy to watch

We also asked our focus group whether they would watch our film upon it's completion and what they would like to change about our pitch, we had the following responses:
~ We need more to actually happen in the opening sequence
~ Perhaps we could relate the sequence we were planning more to the hangover
They as a group seemed to like the idea of us changing the setting and using one that was more out of the ordinary, in order to make it more interesting.
~We could make it more interesting by having a big important/interesting event happen in the first few minutes
~Maybe we could make use of more risky humour
Overall the group seemed to like the fact that we had used elements of the hangover to inspire us.

We then asked how they thought we should challenge the general conventions of a comedy film, our main suggestion was to include a female lead as women generally don't have particularly big roles in comedy films unless they are romantic comedies.

We had a short amount of time at the end where we answered any questions and received more suggestions about our idea that hadn't been answered of previously mentioned:
~ The group insisted that we should definitely reconsider our choice of setting and a few suggestions (An aquarium, ASDA etc) were offered as settings for the characters to wake up.
~ Maybe we could have a list of things that would go wrong in the first 60 or so seconds
~ It was also suggested that we could make use of symbols/symbolism
~ It can't be too similar to other comedy films, it should be original and stand out from the others
~ Could make use of strange fancy dress costume
~ We need to be practical about what we do

As we finished we asked the group whether they liked the idea as a whole and would actively choose to watch a film such as the one we will be creating the opening sequence to, the whole group said that yes they would watch this film and like our general idea. As a group we found this to be very encouraging and useful.

Focus group interviews

Today we were able to upload the video of our focus group and have posted it for public viewing to one of our group members youtube accounts. 

Questionnaire results part 1

Here are the results that we received on our online questionnaire regarding our film genre. I have included a screenshot of the graphs created from the results of all closed questions as well as samples of results from all of the closed questions. 

Focus group

Yesterday we sat our focus group down and showed them our treatment pitch in order to gain an additional opinion on the idea and opening sequence we created originally as they are members of our target audience and as such the best judges. We also showed them an example of a film opening from our chosen genre of comedy, after this we asked several questions regarding the genre as a whole and our specific idea. As a group we feel that we gained a lot from the focus group and we will be able to, from the feedback we recieved, create an opening sequence that our target audience will genuinely enjoy. 

We have not yet uploaded the recording of our focus group to youtube, but upon doing so I will embed a the footage to this blog.

TV Drama Analysis

Title: Merlin
Who made the Show?
Merlin is a drama created by Julian Jones, Jake Michie, Julian Murphy and Johnny Capps for the BBC.
What channel is it on?
It's screened on BBC1
What time is it on?
Due to the fact that merlin is a family show and suited to people of all ages it's aired at 7:00pm
What is the Genre?
This progamme is a Family drama, with the additional genres of medieval fantasy.
Who is the target audience?
The target audience of this drama is families, as such the general storylines are engaging and suited to people of all ages though some of the episodes have been gradually becoming darker as the series progresses. Regardless of the gradual progression into slightly more sinister and dark storylines I think that the show is still well suited to a younger family audience.
What is the narrative?
The show has progressed through four series so far and it follows the story of the mythological sorcerer Merlin, during his younger years as he watches over  a magic intolerant prince Arthur and the great city of Camelot, with the hope of eventually restoring magic to the city. 
What/who is being represented?
Merlin represents things such as gender, race, social status etc in a multitude of ways. For example, women though of a generally lower social status have been represented as powerful, strong willed and determined, Morgana goes against the kings word several times, holds her own in fights against some of the strongest male warriors and possesses a great magical ability. Guinevere has also proven herself several times over the seires,  though meek and mild mannered at first she has saved arthur, merlin and even some of the knights lives she has sacrificed herself in the place of her mistress Lady Morgana and fought alongside, arthur merlin, Morgana and the knights of Camelot, proving herself to be a strong willed and determined character regardless of her social standing. Over the last few series the greatest enemies of camelot have been women; Nimue, Morgause, Morgana. Race is represented in a manner that is the oposite of what you'd expect due to the context in which Merlin in set, for example, Sir Elyan, during the medival era there was no circumstance in which Elyan or even his sister guinevere would be able to gain a position of power, yet here you have Elyan as a knioght and Guinevere as the future queen of Camelot.     

Focus Groups

In order to aid our groups research and help to create a film opening that would be enjoyed by our target audience of people aged 15 to 30. We've decided that one of the best and easiest ways in which to gather this information would be through a focus group. As such we have created an invitation letter and will be distributing it to an assortment of  people. 









After writing out our letter we regrouped and decided upon the  potential questions we would be asking in our focus group. We have decided on a variety of questions that should evoke some interesting discussion and also provide us with the information we need to make our opening sequence more appealing for our target audience. The questions are listed below:

From our film treatment, what genre would you say the film is?

What is it about this genre that you enjoy?

Would the opening sequence make you want to watch the rest of the film, and why?

How could we make the film more appealing to our target audience?

What would you judge the target audience to be?

Would the film appeal to you?

What would you like to see in a comedy film?

What would you do in order to challenge the conventions of the genre?

Opening Sequence analysis

So in order to help my group create a good opening sequence that will appeal to the target audience and fit in with the specified conventions of the comedy genre, I've created an analysis of some examples of films from my chosen genre.

Opening Sequence Analysis MEDIA 2

Audience Profile research

Click here to take survey

So today as a group we've created a questionnaire that we intend to use in order to help make our opening sequence seem more appealing to our intended audience. We also intend to use the data in order to accurately  profile our audience members and again help ensure that our sequence will appeal to the correct people.

Treatment (with adjustments)

Below is a copy of our original treatment pitch sections written in red have been adjusted in accordance to criticism received upon presenting our pitch for the first time. The new information will be highlighted in pink.

Title: (Working title will be changed) Dude where's my hangover?!
An original screenplay from Jamie Payne, Ryan Kent, Alisha Ward and Kayleigh Morris
Company name: (as of yet undecided)
Date: 21st November 2011

We present a comedy film about Barry and Louis two teenagers with an imagination that far exceeds normality. A third friend attempts to play the voice of reason as the two friends discuss the insanity of the night previous, but really with friends like those two it's not hard to imagine that he's not really paid attention to.

As the story unfolds we discover that on their night out turned out to be far more than was expected by anyone. They encountered superheroes, dancing aliens, emotional turmoil, a bromance and even llama's? Throughout their discussion of last night several fights and arguments break out. 

The opening sequence of this film would involve the third more rational person entering the room in which both Louis and Barry have collapsed, giving the both of them a cup of tea in order to sober the two up somewhat. From here a long discussion begins revolving around the unclear events of the previous night. 
We'd have the camera showing at first only extreme close ups of the three main characters as they wake up and start moving about. the camera would then reveal that the three are in a completely surreal and unusual place such as a park, for example.We'd then have the characters make exclamations regarding the area that they're in and wondering why they're where they are.  

 Think, Dude where's my car meets the hangover.

Our Production Company intends to make use of fairly strange mise-en-scene, for example the characters would be dressed very messily in the same clothes as they had worn the previous night, the props would  be objects such as empty drink cans, cups of tea etc. The lighting would be vibrant and bright at most/all times. We would use a fair amount of effects on the scenes, as well as a wide variety of sound and music that fit the situations. In terms of camera we would use a lot of close-ups and reaction shots. We would include all of this in order to create a sense of humour for the audience to react to. Our target audience would be around the general age ranges of 15-21.

Treatment SWOT analysis

Last lesson the 22nd of November my group presented our treatment to the class and our teachers,from this we are going to improve our idea and complete a SWOT analysis. 


Strengths
We as a group were told that the main strengths of our treatment was that we conducted good and detailed research into our genre. We were told that the research we conducted was clear and as a result it seemed that we had a clear understanding of our genre and the conventions that we needed to include in order for our opening sequence to be successful and suitable.  We were told that the work we did was both detailed and well considered. 


Weaknesses
As a group we were also informed of the actions we needed to take in order for our opening sequence to work more effectively. It was suggested that we need to include some form of gimmick in order to appeal and draw the audience in as well as establish the genre from the very beginning. Also we were told that it might help us if we included a strange setting in order to add more comedic value and to ensure that the project established more clearly the genre. It was suggested that we include these as if we left our treatment as it was and didn't make any changes to our opening sequence then the entire sequence would be reliant on the script.


Opportunities 
We will have the opportunity of filming in a rather strange location, as we were advised to. We will also have the opportunity to sit down as a group and create a detailed, and strong script. After filming our project we will have the chance to use a variety of editing techniques in order to keep our project in accordance to the specified conventions and key features within the genre. 

 Threats
Possible threats for our production would be that we may not have permission to film in certain more unusual settings. Also our script may not be as good/tight as we need it to be this would be a problem as we need a good script in order for our sequence to actually work. 

Treatment pitch feedback

Today we presented to the class and our teachers the treatment for our film plot, for this we were given a variety of feedback and advice that would aid us to improve our opening sequence. 
We were given advice regarding the setting of our film opening in order to improve the comedic feel, for example it was suggested that we have the opening sequence set in a strange place e.g. a park, ikea, a random street somewhere etc. 
It was also suggested to us that we include a gimmick or joke of some form in the opening sequence in order to further demonstrate that the opening sequence is for a comedy film.  This is also so that we don't rely entirely on the dialogue/script of our sequence to make it funny, as such taking some of the pressure off. 
We were also told what we did in our treatment that was good, this included things such as the research that we conducted into the genre and the films that we used to base our idea on. Our research was very detailed and well considered.  We were also told that our understanding and use of convention was quite good and very relevant to the genre as a whole. 
Based on this advice we will now develop our opening sequence and include a gimmick as well as change the setting. We will also ensure that our script is at the highest possible standard we can make it.

Treatment

Title: (Working title will be changed) Dude where's my hangover?!
An original screenplay from Jamie Payne, Ryan Kent, Alisha Ward and Kayleigh Morris
Company name: (as of yet undecided)
Date: 21st November 2011

We present a comedy film about Barry and Louis two teenagers with an imagination that far exceeds normality. A third friend attempts to play the voice of reason as the two friends discuss the insanity of the night previous, but really with friends like those two it's not hard to imagine that he's not really paid attention to.

As the story unfolds we discover that on their night out turned out to be far more than was expected by anyone. They encountered superheroes, dancing aliens, emotional turmoil, a bromance and even llama's? Throughout their discussion of last night several fights and arguments break out. 

The opening sequence of this film would involve the third more rational person entering the room in which both Louis and Barry have collapsed, giving the both of them a cup of tea in order to sober the two up somewhat. From here a long discussion begins revolving around the unclear events of the previous night. 

Think, Dude where's my car meets the hangover.

Our Production Company intends to make use of fairly strange mise-en-scene, for example the characters would be dressed very messily in the same clothes as they had worn the previous night, the props would  be objects such as empty drink cans, cups of tea etc. The lighting would be vibrant and bright at most/all times. We would use a fair amount of effects on the scenes, as well as a wide variety of sound and music that fit the situations. In terms of camera we would use a lot of close-ups and reaction shots. We would include all of this in order to create a sense of humour for the audience to react to. Our target audience would be around the general age ranges of 15-21.

Comedy Film ideas

For our coursework we need to create a two minute opening sequence for a film genre of our choosing and my group has decided on.... Comedy!
So we're all going to create our own ideas for a plot for our film so that we have several options to choose from and it's easier to map out our opening before we actually begin to film.

My idea for a comedy film is:

• A man goes through the worst day imaginable.
• I thought that to a degree this would be inspired by the old mickey mouse cartoons I watched in which Goofy had a problem that the narrator helped him with, only for things to not go exactly to plan.
• As the man goes about his day a voice from a recently discovered and strange device offers him advice about how to overcome various problems. 
• The advice given by this device tends to not be the most helpful however and many a time causes the problem to become worse.
• Regardless of this fact the man continues to take the advice given to him being the eternal optimist and thinking that things can't possibly get worse... but they do.

In terms of a title I thought that perhaps 'The advisor' sums this idea up fairly well.

The plot of my film is as follows:

It would start with the man suffering though a multitude of problems e.g. car doesn't start/misses his train, turns up late to an important meeting/appointment etc. His day gradually gets worse until it reaches the very worse it can possibly get and he has lost his job and such, he returns home dejectedly. Only to discover a mysterious device on the way, being naturally curious he picks it up and intends to work it out when he gets home. he messes around with it when he gets home until it starts to speak to him, not a recorded message but directly to him. Foolishly he decides to keep it with him not seeing what harm it could cause and speaks to it about his day. He wakes up the next day going about his business and follows the advice of the device as he has nothing else he can do and no other choices about how to get his job back. He does as suggested by the device and gets his job back, overjoyed he decides to follow any and all advice given to him by the device. He goes about the next few days doing as the device suggests and all goes well but gradually things begin to go down hill and the device seems to giving advice that causes more harm than good. He pays this little attention though until the device suggests something that goes really wrong . Now he tries to stop using the device to find that without any outside input(the device's help) his luck is even worse than it was originally as such he begins to use it again only for the same cycle to repeat. Soon his friend steps in and tells him he doesn't need it and that he's fine the way he is, accident prone clumsy and unlucky. Confidence restored he gets rid of the device and continues with his life, still one of the most unlucky people in the world.

Genre Research-Fantasy

Genre Convention Research: Peer Assessment Feedback

In order to aid us in completing the main task of our coursework in which we would do some genre convention research and plan our own two minute opening sequences, we have completed our own ideas and research based around the genre of Gangster films. We completed our own ideas for a gangster film plot and opening sequences, which can be found below: 


Film Plot Summary


The story follows the life of America's top criminal Italian American Silvano. He introduces himself and begins to tell his tale, about the rise and fall of his empire starting with his roots and how he was drawn into the life that he was. He tells us of the various problems that he faced as a child that eventually lead him down the route of crime where he was noticed and mentored by one of the, then, leading crime bosses. Eventually they went their separate ways due to several severe disagreements that could have cost them their freedom. After separating from his mentor he began to build up his own empire and quickly surpassed all other rival gangs. This continued for years before it all fell apart when his old mentor came into conflict with him. 

I intend to stick to the following conventions with my ideas for Gangster films:

• Smartly dressed
• Violent, use of weapons
• Use of dark lighting
• Fairly slow ASD 

However I will challenge the gangster film conventions by having the title screens not in the standard white writing against a black screen but instead make use of the colour red combined with both white and black for the title screens.

One of my ideas for a two minute opening sequence was:

[We see a dark room with hardly any lighting, the main light source would be the overhanging light. The camera slowly does a reverse creep to show a close up of a (Very shadowed) young man]
Silvano: *Sighs* "It was never supposed to be like this..."
[Camera cuts to show a close up of his hand as he picks up a glass contemplating as he stares into it, glass would be out of focus with the face still shadowed but of sharper quality]
Silvano: "How could everything change so quickly?... One moment you're at the very top and the next...*Sighs*"
[Reverse creep to midshot, we can now see that he is sitting at a desk. He moves to hold his head in his hands]
Silvano: "I was at the top. I'd surpassed everyone, but it all fell apart..."
[Raises his head and looks at his open hands]
Silvano: "Like sand, it slipped through my fingers... piece by piece until nothing remained."
[Screen fades to black and stark red writing appears with the name of the film 'Quicksilver' this writing fades as more appears 'new york 1978']

As part of our peer assessment we each received criticism from people in our group, for this task I was with Jamie Payne, Alisha Ward and Andrew Bryan. Upon reading my first idea to them it was suggested that my "opening sequence introduces the character very well but doesn't really introduce the film as a whole." 

A second two minute opening sequence would be:

[Black screen fades into colour and we see a brief but fast montage of several different scenes, all of Fairly dull colour. Examples of the type of scene shown would be a man meeting with three others, meeting with someone else, exchanging unclear obscure objects, sorting through money that had just been handed over]
Silvano: "What a life, eh?"
[Abruptly cuts from the montage to show a man sitting at a bar, midshot showing him in profile, cuts to a close up(still profile) as he says his next line]
Silvano: "I had everything..."
[Spends a moment thinking, we see another montage in which we are shown the luxuries that he possessed. Mixed in with this we see also some of his desires, the few things he didn't and couldn't have, his family back for example. The camera now pans so that we no longer see him in profile as he leans over his drink]
Silvano: "...Well I had a lot... No man can have everything, and those who think they do?..."
[Looks up at the camera]
Silvano: "Well It certainly won't last... Trust me."
[He sighs looking down once more as the screen fades to black, stark red writing appearing with the title of the film 'Quicksilver' before the screen flashes white, black writing appearing stating the date and place (New York 1978)]

Upon hearing this idea my group offered me the criticisms of:
"Sounds good for a second scene. The first scene needs to be focused more on establishing the genre of the film."
and, (about both of the above)
"Opening scenes all put emphasis on his fall and give some insight into the character."

My final two minute opening sequence was as follows:

[See a table full of old newspaper clippings and photographs, the headlines all about various unexplained, unsolved crimes]
Silvano: "Mine. All of them, they were mine."
[Cuts to show a montage of clips of newsreaders explaining about the crimes mentioned in the newspaper cuttings and the panic they caused. Cuts back to the news clippings as we see someones hands set down on the table over some of the clippings and the back of the mans head moves into the view of the camera.]
Silvano: "I'd never been caught. I was the best of the best."
[Camera cuts from the high angle shot showing his head to a low angle showing his shadowed face as he picks up one clipping and grips it tightly]
Silvano: (Slightly strained voice) "But of course, the best things don't last.Especially not for someone like me..."

Silvano: "This. This was my downfall. I became overconfident. I expected too much. I only just managed to escape with my freedom, but my reputation..."
[He tears the clipping in half, slamming both parts down again and turning to exit the room. The camera pans slightly so that the cutting can be read properly]
Silvano: "... Was left in tatters"
[See a close up of the clipping about a failed crime, the screen fades to black and slowly bleeds away to become red as stark white writing appears with the film title and soon after the date and place appears on screen (New York 1978)]

My Group favoured this idea over the others, stating that it's "Very detailed and uses the plot of a downfall well, using other conventions and such well also." and that "It shows the genre much more clearly than the other ideas did as well as still giving a good representation of the character.

Evaluation of preliminary task

For our preliminary (prelim) task we needed to plan film and edit a conversation that lasted 30 seconds and involved examples of match-on action, shot-reverse shot, and the 180 degree rule. We had to ensure that each member of our group had a turn at filming and editing, I feel that we managed this fairly well considering that our filming was completed as a group of four but during the last stages of editing we gained a member.

On Tuesday the 1st of November we began the initial planning stages of our task and by the end of that lesson were ready to film. (A copy of our script, storyboards and original costume designs can be found on the blogpost for the 1st of November) On the following lesson we began to film our material. Each group member took an active role in the filming process even if the section that they filmed wasn't included in the final edit. For example Connor filmed parts of the dialogue, Becky filmed the match on action, Kirstie filmed the final shot that sadly we were unable to use and I filmed the rest of the dialogue and the crossing of the room/dropping of the necklace. With the editing certain members did do more than others mainly due to a lack of confidence on the part of certain members. However we did all work out the shots that we would be using as a group and we made sure that everyone was happy when we chose which cuts to make, which transitions to use, which effects would fit best, which clip to slow-how much by and which clips to mute. 

We as a group did meet the brief to the best of our ability though we did for get to have the characters sit down to exchange the lines of dialogue and our footage lasted slightly longer than was expected and that the brief said it should. In order to prevent this in the future we will ensure that we double check with the brief more often than we actually did. But we did include examples of match-on action. For example;

We also ensured that we used examples of shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule, these elements fit together very well and we used them together. For example;

From the Prelim task I've learnt quite a lot. For example I know not to film directly opposite a window as it makes the shot a lot darker and makes it difficult to see what is actually happening in that part of the scene. The worst example of this we've not included in our final edit as it looked very out of place and didn't really help the footage to flow effectively even after we had put effects over the scene. Upon re-watching our footage I've decided that we should have also filmed the scene using a wider variety of angles and distances, low-angle long shot for example. We really needed to film for longer than we did and complete more takes of each scene. 

Prelim Task~Filming and Editing.

As mentioned previously we, as part of our Preliminary task, needed to plan, film and edit a scene in which we included examples of match on action, 180 degree rule and shot reverse shot.  
So last Thursday my group did the filming of our Preliminary task and began to edit the work which we finished today, above you have the final result of our work. We, during the editing process, noticed that we've made mistakes which we will expand on in our evaluation and take into account when filming our main task.

Our Preliminary work was difficult in theory as we were going to film identical twins without actually using identical twins. As such we thought it best to have two girls with similar hair colours and physiques. This meant that we would be able to use one as the face of the twins and one as the body double, so long as we changed their costumes around as was necessary. We managed to do this quite well in my opinion and now have quite a successful piece of preliminary work that we have learnt from and will be able to use as a reference when completing our main task.

Preliminary task- Storyboard and costume design

Showing the match on action

Showing the first part of the storyboard (it is backwards for some reason)


Showing the last part of the storyboard


Showing the first twins costume


and giving details of the second twins costume
*EDITED 9/11/11*
*RE-EDIT 14/11/11*

My group did on the day use different costuming for our preliminary task as such the above costume plans are out of date.

Preliminary task

So today we started working on our preliminary task, our brief was to plan and film a face to face conversation between two characters. It involves filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing the room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a few lines of dialogue. 


My group then wrote this script for the task. 


Twin1: [Walks through door and crosses the room hitting the other persons should as she passes]
Twin2: [Drops a locket] "Hey! Watch where you're going!"
Twin1: [Sarcastic] "Oh, sorry..."
Twin2: [Picks up locket and dusts it off]
Twin1: "Uh, what's that?"
Twin2: "This? It's my locket, why?"
Twin1: [Silently takes off her own locket showing it to the other]
Twin2: [Looks up] "It's the same?"
Twin1: "So what does that mean?" 
Twin2: [Thinks] "So you know you said your birthday is the 13th of January?..." 
Twin1: "No! no, no, no! I know where you're going with this! We're not..."
Twin2: "Twins!!"

Let the right one in ~Half-term homework.

Let the right one in (2008) is a Swedish vampire film that was directed by Tomas Alfredson, it was given a 15 certificate and runs for 114 minutes. It was screened in the UK in eight cinemas but only four in the US, this is due to the fact that it would be more a cult film than one that was intended for and appealed to the masses. It was based on a book by John Ajivide Lindqvist, who also wrote the screenplay. It would be classed within the genres of Horror, Fantasy and Romance, a rather unusual combination. 

I wouldn't really say that I'm a fan of horror films, personally I don't like the idea of going to watch something with the intent of making myself feel scared and upset. I've not really seen many horror films in my life.
I feel that the language differences would be a barrier for those who enjoy watching horror films as stopping to read the subtitles becomes slightly tedious and means that you might miss something important while you read the subtitles.

I feel that the trailer would encourage people to go to the cinema and watch the film as it makes the film seem very mysterious and quite strange. The trailer shows that the film also incorporates elements of other genres which means that it should appeal to a slightly larger audience. As a result more people would want to watch the film in the cinema in order to see how this mix of genres would actually work.

Let the right one in went against a lot of the familiar conventions of horror films whilst also sticking to many of them. Examples of familiar conventions that the film opposed would include, the fact that many horror films tend to be set within a house or some form of building that has been abandoned and is in someway abandoned.whereas Let the right one in is set in and around Oskars school and apartment buildings that are wholly inhabited areas. However the film does in accordance to the typical conventions also take place within forests and empty playgrounds/parks. Within Most Horror films scary music is played during scenes in which the main hero and the monster/villain' it signifies that something will soon happen. In contrast Let the right one in plays more romantic soft music at the points in which Eli and Oskar are together, this suggests more about romance between the characters rather than any particularly evil or bad events that will be taking place. However in scenes with Hakan, or Eli going out on their own to get her food the music is significantly more menacing. Darkness would be another typical convention of horror films in general, the lighting tends to be dim and atmospheric, while in this film the lighting isn't too dim, for example even when out in the playground at night the two sit under direct lighting and as such the scenes aren't that scary, also that the setting is covered in snow means that the lighting will be fairly good as snow reflects light very easily. However again during scenes in which Hakan or Eli are getting blood the lighting is very dim/dark which perhaps is a reflection of the nature of their actions, the darkness being what they are doing. One familiar convention that the producers and directors really stuck with was blood. in one of the first scenes we seen Hakan is out finding a victim whose throat he slits in order to collect the blood. Blood is a recurring theme throughout the entire film, we see Eli covered in it several times and Oskar somewhat fascinated by it and cutting his own hand open for a reason that is quite unclear.

The film represents the idea of being an outsider through use of mise-en-scene in that Eli is always wearing clothes that are very different to that of all other characters within the film. Her costume tends to consist of thin light shirts and bottoms, whilst all other characters(even Hakan her 'father') wear thick insulated clothes to protect from the cold. The fact that she is singled out and dressed very differently implies that she is outside of what is considered normal within society and as such would be considered an outsider. We can see that Oskar too is an outsider through his body language. He tends to be very closed off from others and we see this through the fact that he walks slightly hunched over with his arms pulled in close this displays a want to appear smaller and less noticeable perhaps as a defence mechanism against bullies and such. It implies a degree of nervousness and suggests that he feels very alone and solitary which suggests that he is or feels like an outsider. Both Eli and Oskar appear  to have trouble with or not want to form relationships with other people which suggests that they might feel as though they don't fit in with everyone else(we know this to be undeniably true on Eli's part) We see this reluctance to form relationships when Eli tells Oskar straight away that they can't be friends and he instantly closes off trying to appear nonchalant.

I found the characters fairly interesting and other than the bullies I did rather like most of the characters. I particularly liked the characters of Eli and Oskar for the reasons that I found them to be very interesting and quite complex. I like that though Oskar was very young he was by no means easy to understand in that he as a character had a lot of layers. and Eli was generally interesting in that she's a 200 year old vampire in the body of a 12 year old she's an enigma and very mysterious overall. I enjoyed the development of the two as characters. 

My favourite part of the narrative was the (admittedly very awkward) budding relationship between Eli and Oskar. I found that the slightly awkward way in which they acted towards each other was quite endearing, I liked that she seemed so unwilling to see him upset that she ate the sweet he gave her knowing it would make her ill. I really liked that although the the theme of the film was horror due to her being a vampire they didn't focus so much on the horror aspect as they did on their romantic relationship.

In a version of the film where Eli wasn't a vampire the narrative would need to go through quite a wide variety  of changes and developments. Were Eli not a vampire then the whole dynamic between her and Hakan would need to change and he would need to actually be a relative of hers rather than just a person that did her bidding. Currently in the film he has no power and authority over her and this would need to change so that he were her actual father and as such had authority. He also serves little purpose other than to go and get blood for her this would need to change as if she weren't a vampire he wouldn't need to go out and murder people in order to feed her. I think that also Eli and Oskars relationship would have to develop into something less awkward and that doesn't need to end in a big revelation that ultimately results in them leaving behind their families as this is something that happens mainly due to her not being able to stay in one place for too long as a result of her being a vampire. Also Eli's initial behaviour in which she is reluctant to befriend Oskar would either need to change or have a different reason behind it. Also were Eli not a vampire then Jocke wouldn't have died and Virginia wouldn't have been attacked and turned into a vampire before dieing. As such these characters would either need to serve a different purpose or not be included at all.

The domestic way in which Eli lives with Hakan seems to detract from the fear often felt during a typical vampire film. This is due to the fact that rather than seeing a constant blood lust and her going out herself to track and torment her victims as you would expect we instead see her interacting with her 'father' Hakan and falling in love with Oskar. Due to this we don't really feel any fear towards her until we start to see her hunting and giving off signs that tell us what she is. However the domestic life she leads can also evoke a feeling of fear towards the vampire as it shows that it may not always be obvious at first that people are hiding things such as what Eli and Hakan hide.Giving her a more domestic way of living allows her to appear more human and identifiable to the audience members, which in reality is quite a frightening idea as she does awful things and shows little to no remorse for her actions. This suggests that anyone can be capable of doing terrible things and it would be difficult to know. It's in this way that we are encouraged to be fearful of vampires through this domestic lifestyle that she leads.

El's 'father' behaves in a way that suggests he has next to no power in their relationship, Eli is the one to give the orders and gets her 'father' to go out and do her dirty work, which he seems to do more out of fear and/or want to make her happy rather than out of any respect he has for her. Further research has told me that he isn't actually her father, merely someone to take the risks for her- which I think may be her eventual intentions for Oskar. As such I feel that he subverts the vampire stereotype, as generally you expect the vampire to be a solitary figure that goes out and does their ow hunting for the joy that it seems to bring them rather than getting someone else to do it for them.

The relationship between Eli and her ' father' seems to be somewhat of a power struggle in that she holds all of the power yet he still attempts to take charge on occasion. For example, when Hakan fails to get Eli her food she grows very angry, screaming and shouting in her frustration that now she will have to do her own hunting. He during this scene backs down slightly and it shows that he has no power or authority over her, and she holds no respect for him. However, later upon finding out about her continued meetings with Oskar Hakan warns her to be careful attempting to get her to not associate with Oskar. This seems to be him trying(and failing) to exert authority over Eli, which she disregards and ignores. Personally my sympathies lie more with Hakan as he is the one to take all of the risks for a person that doesn't respect him, though I much prefer Eli as a character.