Storyboard

here is our storyboard which contains images and some directions of cameras and music we are going to use :

weekly update

This week we have uploaded our videos of our pitch presentation and our screen tests, we have started to edit them and they will be up on our blogs as posts in the next few days, this week we will also take photos of our location as we have chosen now where to film due to the reception of our pitch presentaion and the questionaire we did, also in the next few weeks we will be filming our short film and should by the end of the christmas holidays be near completion,we will add posts periodically during the filming stages to clarify where we are and any updates about changes in our film or filming process.

Market Research And Presenting Our Story

This is a video of when we presented our story to a group of 15 year old students, which is the age group we are aiming at, they gave us feedback on our story and potential camera angles, they gave us ideas about colour and music. our story went down well with the students and they liked what they had heard, due to this feedback we will now go ahead with the story and start filming ASAP.

Here is the link to the video on vimeo:

http://vimeo.com/21480237

Examples of inluences

reservoir dogs-trailer from Ariel Landau on Vimeo.

Camera Angles

i will use many different camera angles in my film, such as close ups of each character for the scene setting up the flashbacks, and wide angle shots to show the men sitting around the table, i will also use over the shoulder shots for when people are talking so you can see the characters perspective.

Influences

my influences for the idea i have created were the films of quentin tarantino, i like the revenge plot of kill bill and tried to use this but change the antagonist to a woman as this is not often done in films, i also like how he uses implied violence in pulp fiction and i am going to incorparate this in my film so as to gain a sense of hyper reality, i also like how in all of his films he has witty banter between characters, i am going to use this in the scene when the men discuss the woman around the table and try to incorparate post modern topics so as to relate to a modern audience. i will also use black and white and colour for my film like in kill bill, i will use colour for the scenes when no violence is occuring but when fighting or violence comes up i will change to black and white so as to differentiate the film from the audience making the scenes seem less realistic therefore not offending the viewer.

Initial Idea

my initial idea is for the film to be about 3 men linked by one woman, they were all married to the woman and were all individually beaten by her, the start of my film will have the 3 men sat around a table something, you wont hear what they are saying as music will be played over the top but you will be able to see they are talking, it will then go to a close up of the first man and pause and titles will go above his head saying husband 1, it will then go to a flashback of when the man was married to the woman and how she hurt/affected him, i will then repeat the process of titles above each man and a flash back for all of 3 of them, after the flashbacks have finished i will have the men talking around the table again discussing how to get back at the woman, the process of the film will show how evil the woman is so you empathise with the male characters, after the scene around the table there will be a cut to the men confronting the woman and a fight ensuing with the men victorious and thus the revenge being complete, due to the violence in this short film i will use camera angles to imply violence rather than show it full on.

i may have to edit the ending depending on audience perception to my pitch however i would like to keep the main base of the film and the opening scenes.

Age Rating

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/15-2

this is a link to to the bbfc website which classifies the age rating viewers should be to watch certain films, this link is to the 15 rating page as it describes what we are allowed to use and show.

due to the violent scenes and strong language in our film we are going to make it a 15 as we didnt feel it neccescary to make it an 18 due to the fact it has no sexual imagery which seems to be the main base for something being rated 18

examining the established boundary conventions as set out by the bbfc we realised that within the catgory of 15 we can still show

• implied violence
• extreme aggression
• implied threat
• moderate explicit language depending on context
• nudity in a non sexual content or in a sexual content without great detail

we have to consider when the film goes from hyperreality or suspended realtiy to reality as this is what would make the age boundary go up, as we are using hyperreality for our violent scenes we are taking care to make it seperate from the audience as if it becomes to real then we feel they would be disgusted and take no futher interest in our film.

magazine and poster sizes

our poster will be an a4 size poster that goes into the magazine where are magazine review is being shown.

Poster Layout Design Ideas

alex took charge of the poster designs
here is a link to her page:

http://alexandrajermya2media.blogspot.com

Magazine Spread Layout Ideas

here are some images of ideas for our magazine spread:

Print screens of potential fonts for our magazine

Here are some print screens of fonts we may use for our magazine, we will also make a design poster using these images and fonts so as to gain an insight into what our final magazine spread will look like.

Conventions Of A Poster

as i took charge of doing the conventions of a magazine spread alex decieded to do the conventions of a poster here is a link to her blog and the post on poster conventions:

http://alexandrajermya2media.blogspot.com

Conventions Of A Magazine Spread

I have done some research into the conventions of a magazine review page spead of a short film, i looked at different film magazines such as EPIC, TotalFilm, Empire, from looking at these film magazines i have discovered that most film reviews take a double page spread and have plenty of sneak peak pictures of whats in the film to grab your attention, they also use bright colours in the background as a form of eye catcher and because of this you are more likely to read this page, they often have interviews of some form with actors, directors etc, we have decided to use this idea in ours but have tweaked it and our going to do the interview from the perspective of one of the films characters and not the actor playing the character, the magazine reviews often have long paragraphs with lots of information etc, but we have decided to use short paragaphs with different information but not giving to much away so that the reader will have to come see the film.

Audience Research

we decided to do a questionaire as our target research, alex and i both devised the questions and set out and asked different sets of people around our school and people within the age bracket of 15 to 18 as this is our decided target audience, we decieded on 18 questions, here are the questions we wrote and some of the responses we got:

1) Age ?

17,17,17,17

2) Do you watch short films ?

yes,no,no,occasionally

3) If not why ?

NA,too simple,doesnt hold interest,NA

4) What genre do you prefer ?

romcom,thriller,thriller/comedy,animated

5) What would you like to see in a short film ?

jokes,complex storyline,action,mature jokes

6) How many characters do you think it needs ?

6,2,2,3

7) How long do you think a short film should last ?

10 mins,20 mins,5 mins,5 mins

8) Where would you watch a short film ?

before a movie,internet,internet,after a movie

9) Where do you think it should be advertised ?

posters,internet,social network sites,cinema adverts

10) Where should the location be set ?

city,village,city,random

11) Is it more effective to film at night ?

no,no,dusk,yes

12) What part of the year should the film be set ?

autumn,autumn,winter,summer

13) What period of time should it be set in ?

modern,modern,modern,modern

14) How much would you pay to see it ?

£5,£2,£0,£5

15) Who would you go see the film with ?

girlfriend,friend,friend,friend

16) Why would you go see a short film ?

new experience,boredom,new cultural experience, entertaining

17) What type of viewer would watch this ?

teens,teens,teens,teens/kids

18) How should we promote this ?

bus posters,web advertising,magazine review,radio adverts

With the information we have gathered we will use this to plan our film and advertising schemes and hopefully make a film that our audience will enjoy and want to watch.

Weekly Progress

so far over the past week we have done our genre research, short film research and we have delegated tasks between us, we have decided on the genre of our film and have made a basic design of what our film is going to be about, we have learnt about the conventions and know now how to apply them to our film, after writing a basic script and making a storyboard we will start to film in the next few weeks.

Post Modernism

post modernism is the evolution of modernism, modernism was split into many different form such romantacism,cubism etc and made people choose which one they liked and as soon as one was finished people would have to move onto the next regardless if they liked it just to be part of the social norm, post modernism started in the sixties and broke convention as people were allowed to like whatever they wanted, most modern singers, actors, directors try to break convention and often reffered to as post modern as this is associated with people trying to be new and not fit in with everyone, this makes for a more free aproach to cinema as now there are mutiple genres for people to enjoy based on there own taste, whereas before the sixties it would be often comedy or drama.

Task Management

Alex's Tasks:

• Poster design and research
• Storyboard
• searching for locations of films
• Questionaire

Lewis' Tasks:

• Magazine spread Design and Research
• genre research
• Script
• Questionaire

Genre Research

We wacthed the film Colin which was a thriller/ horror, we were given this to watch as we wanted to do a thriller based film but because both me and alex made a thriller last year we decieded to take a new direction and try something more within the conventions of a short film so we have decieded upon a drama/ comedy film, watching colin did however make us decide to use many short length clips as the clips in this film seemed quite long and did not work so well, we also decided to make it a colour film this year as we tried black and white before and didnt think it would work with this genre.

Short Film Research

After watching some short films we learnt there are many specific conventions needed, we watched the dvd cinema16 which featured lots of short films which helped provide background information and devices we could use in our own film, after watching some of the shorts on cinema16 we realised that most short films have a comedy base to them, we watched terry tate office linebacker by the director of the film dodgeball, this gave us an insight into one way of making our shirt film in a series of short clips, we also watched carmen which started as a comedy and turned into a drama, we have thought of using this in our short film as it seems a common occurance and could work well for us, the film also had the dialogue written between each scene in oppose to hearing it, it also used a lot of music, we thought of using this due to the fact it is not common and could make us stand out but we are yet to decide.

marks i am aiming for

Level 3 12–15 marks

There is proficient research into similar products and a potential target audience.
There is proficient organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props.
There is proficient work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding.


Level 4 16–20 marks
There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience.
There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props.
There is excellent work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding.
Time management is excellent.
There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning.
There is excellent skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the presentation.
There are excellent communication skills.

film/television/video

Level 3

The candidate is expected to demonstrate proficiency in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:
holding a shot steady, where appropriate;
framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;
using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;
shooting material appropriate to the task set;
selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;
editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer;
using varied shot transitions, captions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set;
using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set.

Where a candidate has worked in a group, a proficient contribution to construction is evident.

Level 4

The candidate is expected to demonstrate excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:
holding a shot steady, where appropriate;
framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;
using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;
shooting material appropriate to the task set;
selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;
editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer;
using varied shot transitions, captions and other effects selectively and appropriately;
using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task.
Where a candidate has worked in a group, an excellent contribution to construction is evident.

Print

Level 3

The candidate is expected to demonstrate proficiency in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:
use IT appropriately for the task set;
show understanding of conventions of layout and page design;
show awareness of the need for variety in fonts and text size;
accurate use of language and register;
appropriately integrating illustration and text;
framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;
using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;
shooting material appropriate to the task set;
selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;
manipulating photographs as appropriate to the context for presentation, including within text, within particular IT programmes, cropping and resizing.

Where a candidate has worked in a group, a proficient contribution to construction is evident.

Level 4

The candidate is expected to demonstrate excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:
using IT appropriately for the task set;
showing understanding of conventions of layout and page design;
showing awareness of the need for variety in fonts and text size;
accurate use of language and register;
appropriately integrating illustration and text;
framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;

Potential Blog Titles

Storyboard
Planning
Research
Representations
Influences
Layout
Design
Audience feedback
Target audience
Conventions
Sound
Editing
Camera angles
Techniques used
Marketing
Media terminology
Presentations
References
Progress reports
Film-script, characters,sounds,actors.

Short Film Presentation

here is the presentation that me and alex have created.

Animatics Storyboards

In animation and special effects work, the storyboarding stage may be followed by simplified mock-ups called "animatics" to give a better idea of how the scene will look and feel with motion and timing. At its simplest, an animatic is a series of still images edited together and displayed in sequence. More commonly, a rough dialogue and/or rough sound track is added to the sequence of still images (usually taken from a storyboard) to test whether the sound and images are working effectively together.
This allows the animators and directors to work out any screenplay, camera positioning, shot list and timing issues that may exist with the current storyboard. The storyboard and soundtrack are amended if necessary, and a new animatic may be created and reviewed with the director until the storyboard is perfected. Editing the film at the animatic stage can avoid animation of scenes that would be edited out of the film. Animation is usually an expensive process, so there should be a minimum of "deleted scenes" if the film is to be completed within budget.
Often storyboards are animated with simple zooms and pans to simulate camera movement (using non-linear editing software). These animations can be combined with available animatics, sound effects and dialog to create a presentation of how a film could be shot and cut together. Some feature film DVD special features include production animatics.
Animatics are also used by advertising agencies to create inexpensive test commercials. A variation, the "rip-o-matic", is made from scenes of existing movies, television programs or commercials, to simulate the look and feel of the proposed commercial. Rip, in this sense, refers to ripping-off an original work to create a new one.

here is the clip of the video that i will record myself and present

http://vimeo.com/8717262

favorite music video

my favorite music video is the verve bittersweet symphony

here is a link to the video

http://vimeo.com/8717262