General Progress

General Progress

Recently we have completed the poster and included the different movie companies that may work in conjunction to produce a film that we are producing. The different movie companies, which we included, are listed below:

Working Title - We decided to include working titles because it is a British movie production company and is well known for a majority of the British films. Therefore it will help to promote the film and gain interest in the British market. Furthermore Working Titles have produced films such as "Shaun of the Dead" and these films were very successful and a similar genre to our film - "Dead Man's Love" and because of this they will understand the market and how it would need to be promoted.

We also thought that "Studio Canal" would be a good choice because they often work in conjunction with Working Titles and would help to promote the film into the European market. As the two companies have worked together it would also be good for "Blue Box Productions" to gain contacts abroad. Additionally the two companies have made 'hit' films before such as "Johnny English" which is a proven comedy film producing a turnover of around $27 million. Therefore they will be renowned for producing films with large potential for return on investment.

Universal Studios was chosen primarily due to the fact their brand has worldwide recognition and is highly respected. Furthermore we thought that it would be important if the film was looking to expand into America (the largest market for films) it would be important to have their backing. Additionally they are behind a number of top sellers to hit the market and because of this we think it would be good to incorporate them into our production but primarily because they allow us to target an American market which could be useful because America and Hollywood control a majority of the market.

Our poster is below, however it still doesn’t include the image, which will be placed on to the center of the page:

Filming Schedule

Due to problems with the location we have lost our location and had to re-schedule our time for filming. We have now put it for Wednesday 22nd December and our discussing amongst us for possible locations.

Music ideas

Music ideas

Over the past few weeks we have been looking at some music that may be suitable for our film. After looking around we have found some music that could be suitable. In the film "Shaun of the Dead" the music they use would be good to use because it adds to the tension of various scenes, however they manage to maintain the comedic values. Therefore we believe it would be good to encompass the music within our short film. The music is shown below:

We have also found music from the film "the crazies". This film manages to cleverly incorporate their music because for 90% of their film is built up tension and manage to keep the viewer of the film on the edge of their seat without showing the 'gore'. Therefore to use this type of music could be good because it will entice the viewer and will be possible to do as effects is relatively minimal, which will be suitable for the resources we have, however the problem is that "The Crazies" is more suitable for zombie films so we must be careful that we don’t incorporate in our film if its not the right time as it could promote the wrong image for our film.

Poster Update

After looking into posters Sam has found two posters, which will be good to incorporate into our final poster. The first poster is from "Me, Myself and Irene" and the second from "Superbad". By incorporating these two together it could help to come up with affective imagery.

The poster above shall be considered carefully whilst we decide an image to place over the template I created. As you can see the image which we found would be very suitable for our film. The image as you can see is separated and we thought that we could use this idea and have our characters face before and after he turns into a zombie. This would be affective and helps to portray a good image of our film; therefore we will look to incorporate something like this.  Furthermore the use of blue text contrasts to the white background making the text more clearer and the writing fits in with the overall image of the character - 'wacky; different' because its different sized and also different layout and because of this we will need to think carefully about the font we do choose. In addition they have highlighted 'June 10" which is its release date so it stands out and its easy to read so they can attract their audience and tell them exactly when it shall be released and we have incorporated this in our film with the large red font and this will be used to attract the audience to it so we can directly promote our film. Lastly the white background connotes representations of 'innocence' which the directors may be aiming to portray and also the main character Jim Carrey is placed directly on the front to give the film a unique selling point which can also be used to attract an audience and because Jim Carrey is renowned for comedy films and this again is a unique selling point for their film.

This film poster was chosen simply because it places the two main characters on the front cover, and we hope to do this as well. We are looking to place Luke on the front and hopefully include Luke's wife and maybe Mickey and Dave in the background simply for added affect. By adding the characters any viewers that watch our film will be familiar with the characters. However this poster does use various other features, which makes this poster effective. To begin with the large red title - "Superbad" is placed directly at the front of the poster which almost forces the viewer to know what the name is and almost implant it in their minds, whilst the red connotes 'danger' fighting; blood; love" which they may be trying to represent. Furthermore the facial expressions of the characters are used to represent comical value and this fits in with the overall genre of the film and we need to take this into account when we are adding the images to our poster because it is important we represent the right image and show the viewer exactly the type of film we are producing.

Progress

Unfortunately the read through last sunday didnt go ahead, however the cast is the same as it was and we hope to have found the character for the boss - Mr Kirk and he is a current teacher at our school.

We have also just bought some props that will be used in our film, firstly we have bought the table and this will be used when Luke tells Mickey to clean up and he then decided to throw it out. Furthermore we bought the blood and it is slowly beginning to come together.

In regards to filming, we are looking to start filming this sunday - Sunday 21 November.

Props

After completing the script we had to see what props we needed and where we would need them. And after reading through the script we have come up with a list of props that will be needed before we are able to start filming.

Cast

After looking into potential actors for the film we have finally decided which characters we feel are appropriate for the film. The cast is as follows:

Luke - Samuel White

Wife - Lucy Webber

Mickey - Samuel Peckham

Dave - Edward Watson

Man in car - Justin Heron

After completing this we have printed out several copies of the script for the cast and the crew. This needed to be done because we will be doing a read through of the script on Sunday 14th November. We will be doing this so we can see if the cast has any questions about their characters, the script or the film in general.

We intend our character Mickey to portray the characters in the hit TV program 'Men Behaving Badly' which shows a man living with a very lazy individual who does very little around the house.

Update

We have now given the script to our main character Samuel White who is playing Luke so he can read through the script. Unfortunately Steph Dearden is unable to attend the read through on Sunday 14th November, however we will be communicating with her in the meantime so we can come up with a filming schedule and once we receive the dates and times we need to pass these on to other members of the cast and crew to see if they are available at these times.

Filming - Pre production

We are very close to filming and in order to get the right cast we needed to send out an email to the whole year to see if anyone will be up for acting in the film. The email we sent out is below:

Hello,

    For our advanced portfolio for A2 media studies We are looking for a male in their early 20’s or someone who looks 20 who wouldn’t mind having the male lead in a short film. The filming would mainly take place on a Sunday. If you know anyone who is interested please can you get them to email one of these three people:

peckhams.student@ringwood.hants.sch.uk

burden.student@ringwood.hants.sch.uk

heronj.student@ringwood.hants.sch.uk

Many thanks

Sam, Ryan and Justin

From this email we immediately got two responses and we do hope to get more in the coming future.

Production name

In regards to the production name we have come up with a few ideas. We needed to do this because last year we each had 2 different production names. Sam and I came up with the production name of "Big Box Productions", whilst Ryan's production name was "Blue Monkey". Therefore we thought it would be appropriate to merge the two names. At the moment we have come up with various names such as "Big Monkey" and "Blue Box" productions.

Furthermore we need to come up with a 10 second opening to the film with our own opening. Therefore we have also come up with different beginnings, for example a box falling on a monkey or a monkey coming out of the box. However this has yet to be decided.

Poster draft

After researching into magazines we have now decided to research into our second auxiliary task - creating a poster. Researching into this we found various posters that were similar to our genre. These posters are from Shaun of the Dead, The Crazies and Zombieland.

 We decided to look at the film "Shaun of the dead" because this film is a similar genre to the film that we are producing as it has a horror comedy. After looking in detail we have found some features, which we found particularly interesting. To begin with we believed that the image in the center of the picture was particularly effective and because of this we have decided to incorporate it in our poster. We thought it was effective because it was very eye catching and stands out on the page. Additionally we found that the font at the bottom of the page the font they use was very effective. This font makes the poster look very realistic and therefore the poster is viewed as a reliable article and because of this we hope to reproduce something similar.

 "Scary Movie" was incorporated because like "Shaun of the Dead" it is a horror comedy and we can take factors that are similar to this. Firstly we liked the written text at the top of the page, this is where is states "Hilarious & Outrageous". We thought that this was effective because it made it gave the viewer a feel of what you will expect and get from watching the film. Furthermore we found that it was a common technique, particularly in our genre to put the title of the film at the bottom of the page and because of this we have decided to follow in their footsteps.

We decided to look at the film "Zombieland" because it included zombies within the film and we thought it would be appropriate to look at their poster whilst producing ours. Within this poster we liked the ideas of incorporating the names of the characters who are in the film, however we used a different font, similar to that used in "Pearl Harbor". By adding in the names of the characters it acts as a selling point for the film and gives more information about the film. Furthermore the image of the poster was again covering the whole thing and we thought this was good so when we do take the image of our film we will look to add an image that will cover the whole page.

After looking into the above posters we have decided to create a poster that we could publish to our audience as a marketing tool. This poster is shown below:

When we tried to create a poster we had to carefully think about the font choice because if its not correct it wont attract the audience. Therefore the very close text underneath the title was chosen because it is common in film posters as a way of expressing a slogan or saying. Additionally we had to make it realistic and we have decided to add our production name and also when the film will be released.

For the pictures we hope to place the main characters in the middle - this will most likely be Luke and maybe his wife at the front because they are the main characters. And we may also try to place Dave and Mickey at the back for the comedic affect.

Magazine 2

Today, we will be conducting research into magazines as we have chosen this as one of our options. To do this we will need to look at the styles of the magazine and the font in which they are written, as this will help us to give an insight into what styles and font we should use. In addition to this it is important we look at the images they have and see if the images they have are relatively similar because after researching they would have found images, which would finally suit their target market. Lastly it is important that we get a feel for the styles of writing and the different linguistic techniques used in the magazine so we could potentially incorporate it into our final piece.

After researching into magazines we have now completed the first draft of our magazine and from this we have been able to create a first draft to what our magazine will look like in terms of layout and design. Images from "kick ass" are below.

As you can see our template above is similar to that of the "Kick Ass"magazine. After completing a template to the magazine I then had to write the contents of the magazine and the inspiration for this was still from the review on "kick ass". We had to make sure that the imagery and layout was suitable. An image of the final publication of the magazine is below. 

One thing that we were unable to complete is the adding of the images as we haven’t done any filming yet we were unable to take photos to add them in so this will be added in over time. However the text has been implemented into the publication and we believe, except for the lack of images the overall layout is very similar.

Mood Board

Here is a thought board and this is done to try, brainstorming ideas, which we will be communicating in our film. It covers numerous issued, such as comedy, however also a car symbolizing the car crash and this shows the twist within our film. We feel this has allowed us to show our ideas and allowed us to put our film into a more cohesive idea of what our film is going to be.

Script production

Over the past few weeks we have been developing the script for our film. We had to try and make it suitable for our target audience and make sure that it is understandable. To do this checking  the speech was vital so it can be communicated clearly was very important. For example when "Ed" says just 1 word it must be the correct word to portray the type of character that he is -"lazy, messy". Furthermore comical aspects were also added to entice the audience into viewing the film.

Below is our finished script ready for filming:

Dead mans love

View more documents from RyanA2media.

After completing the script we have decided to start on the storyboard to aid the visualization and to show the order of the short film.

Location of shooting

 This image is of the office. This is simply too give the surroundings of the house as to walk to the bedroom you will go too through the office

 As you can see this image is of the front of the house, the front of the house will be used when Luke is walking home after he has just been hit and also when he is coming home from work. this will help to give the viewer an idea of were its taking place.

The image shown to the left is an image of the bedroom and this will be used when Luke is ofcourse waking up and going to sleep, and this will help to give the real life perspective within the film and help the viewer too relate with the film. In addition to this it may be used at the end when Dave is joking around in the room and this will be incorporated if we have the time.





We will also be filming on Parsonage Barn Lane, this location is needed for the collision to occur. Additionally we will be filming at a block of offices and this will be used when Luke goes to work.

Magazine

We have recently decided to do a magazine for one of our options, after doing some searching we have found numerous magazine reviews, with a majority being from:

http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/cinema/

After doing some research we have found some of the linguistic techniques that they use, for example alliteration and the rule of 3. This was shown in the review of the hangover - "paced, inventive and flat-out hilarious". We personally feel that these features would be quite good to incorporate as it entices the reader.

A review of Benjamin Button is below.

http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?DVDID=118079

Another film website with general reviews is listed below

http://www.totalfilm.com/

Target Audience

Our target audience for "Dead Mans Love" is quite diverse as we do hope to appeal too large audience and because of this we have to make sure we attract the audience. We hope to be attracting the white male audience between the ages of 15 -40 and potentially the female audience, however this will vary based on their type of film and whether they like the ideas of Zombie's and 'gore; We hope that our target audience will be watching films such as "Scary Movie; Shaun of the Dead". These films will be similar to ours because they are the same genre. In regards to television programs we will aim it at individuals who watch programs such as "The Inbetweeners; Only Fools and Horses". To involve such a market and attract them into watching "Dead Mans Love" we have created a Facebook group so they know that the film is being produced and coming into the market. We have decided to divide our target market into various segments:

Male young adults and teenagers - The people will most likely be between the ages of 15 - 40 and watch films such as "Scary Movie", yet "Shaun of the Dead" has attracted an audience from 18-31, yet we believe we can expand on this.

Females - The female audience is much smaller in the fact they might not like the idea of zombies, however we do hope that the comedic value will entice them into watching the film.

We have also conducted research into our target market, which has helped us too produce findings on our target market:

Ages attained (years)	Population	% of total population	% per year of age band
0 - 4	2,926,238	5.96	1.19
5 - 7	1,838,668	3.74	1.25
8 - 9	1,283,861	2.61	1.31
10 - 14	3,229,047	6.57	1.32
15	623,767	1.27	1.27
16 - 17	1,231,266	2.51	1.25
18 - 19	1,177,571	2.40	1.20
20 - 24	2,952,719	6.01	1.20
25 - 29	3,268,660	6.65	1.33
30 - 44	11,127,511	22.65	1.51
45 - 59	9,279,693	18.88	1.26
60 - 64	2,391,830	4.87	0.97
65 - 74	4,102,841	8.35	0.84
75 - 84	2,751,135	5.60	0.56
85 - 89	637,701	1.30	0.26
90+	316,323	0.64	-

This index shows that our target market is around 19757727 however this number doesn’t take into account the large female population that is not interested in 'gore' and the potential large number that will not like films such as ours - "Dead Mans Love" and also the population which is not white because we will be targeting white individuals, yet 83% of England, according to statistics published in 2007 are white suggesting the target market wont be reduced significantly because of this factor.

Influences

 When we were deciding on our film we had numerous different influences, which helped us to come up with the idea of our short film. There films include "Shaun of the Dead" and "Scary Movie". Shaun of the dead provided us with the genre of a "zombie" theme whilst Scary movie provided us with the basis of a comical output and from that we could successfully builds on those ideas. The characters in "Shaun of the Dead" will partially be used, particularly their characteristics.

In "Scary movie" we disagree with the stance they take of using already filmed characters and are simply using the comical aspects that they use, however creating are own individual. We believe that the comical aspects are underated in this film and they are more focused on who the "Scary" individual is, however we would like to reverse this and place more emphasis. If not all on the comical aspects.

"Shaun of the Dead" is another key influence for our film. The genre of our film is also very similar to that of "Shaun of the Dead" as its based on humans turning into Zombies, however in our case its just one person. In addition to this our characters are also based around the characters from this film. "Ed" will be rein acted in our film as the lazy, messy character, similar to "Ed".

Other influences include:

Our potential target audience for our film will be 15+ however we believe it will be primarily targeted at teenagers because of its comical and humorous nature and don’t think its suitable for children because they may not understand the concept that the wife of Luke (main character) wont know what is happening and only he does. In additton to this an older audience will understand the realism of the film such as the everyday tasks that everyone has to do.

Short FIlm

“Black Button” is a short film that is about an individual who has to make a serious decision. It begins with 2 quotes from the bible and to a degree shows the seriousness of the situation, backed up by the bleak music in the background to add to the tenseness and distress of the situation. The individual behind the desk is seen to be in control of the situation directly from the beginning with camera directly pointed at him, leaning forward to show his power. The music is also repeated for the same effect and to show the situation isn’t changing and that the man who has the choice is being pressured into a situation he doesn’t want to be in.
The camera work within the film is very simple often using medium shots whilst the editing is simple shot/reverse shots, which does make sense due to there low budget of just $200. These shots remain until about half way through when it starts to get “heated up” and the man behind the desk begins to demand an answer. When this happens the camera begins to get closer to the man and his facial expression are very serious. In addition to this the man who has the choices is being pressured into pushing the “Black Button” and the man behind the desk remains calm at all times and is very smartly dressed so he is seen to be a believable individual.
When he stands up just before he is about to push the button there are quick reverse shots between the man behind the desk and the button. As he pushes it the viewers the music gets louder and the tension within the room is built, and straight after he pushes it there is a period of time were everyone is left too wonder what has happened. However then the twist happens and we found out he is already dead. The camera shots become quick again, the music sharpens and the blood begins to drip down his face to give the first impression of how he died.
Once the flashback occurs there is the crash noise, which is seen to be cheaply done, however is understandable due to their low budget and this tells the audience the context of the situation and why this is occurring, and as the blood keeps dripping down his face and as the music gets quicker too symbolize the mans insecurity, the story to who the man is and what he’s doing becomes more apparent.
Overall i think that “Black Button” is a good film and it shows that within a short period of time you are able to convey important messages and impact viewers, and because it may not be the most action film or the most lively it still remains interesting due to the constant enigma of the situation as the viewers are always left wondering what is happening.

A2 Film Idea

We have now completely decided we would like to do a short film and we now believe that we have an idea to use. In addition to the film we have decided to do a poster and a cover for a film magazine. We chose to do a short film because we felt we could learn more and enhance are camerawork skills and also believed that with the experience gained during AS are editing skills can be positively enhanced. I personally feel that this film can also go numerous ways to leave the viewer thinking and has the opportunity for it to end with numerous endings. In addition it will enhance our special effect skills when he gets hit by the car and also our observations and ideas for the mise en scene will have to be carefully chosen.

For our idea we have decided to do a zombie rom-com. The story itself is based around a male character who gets hit by a car and on his return home to his wife is shocked to find he has in fact turned into a zombie, however with his zombie instincts slowly coming through, how long will his relationship last?

Short Film Analysis

This is a short film that I will be using as an example to our film. The film itself is called "The End" and is a short 2-minute film.  In this clip they use good mise en scene to highlight the mood, particularly with their use of lighting and also with their use of camera work, often changing the shots and camera techniques.

The film is shown below

It is also shown on the "BBC Film Network" as shown below

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p004tddt

1. What genre is it and how is this made apparent through the Key Concepts?

The genre of this film varies, at first it can be seen to be a bit of a drama, with that of a hard working individual, within a dark room, however this begins too change when he spins the globe and it turns into somewhat of a comedy as he when he changes the position he goes to that particularly place, symbolized with the change in external noise and lighting. However it can be seen in two different views, one that its sad that a "tragedy" can be occurring at the same time in the other part of the world, or it can be seen to be a comedy with a bit of a twist on just simply turning the globe and then dropping it to symbolize "The End" of the world.

2. How does the narrative work?

"The End" is a linear narrative. It begins with a an individual who appears to be working had on a piece of paper, however finds out that he has the ability to change his setting with the turn of the globe. The whole mood changes, his facial expressions change from one of seriousness to nervousness and uncertainty. The reader is left confused to why this has happened the first time and therefore leaves an enigma for the viewers. However the second time this occurs it is much more apparent that it is the turn in the globe that is causing the change of lighting and external sound. In particular as he knocks the globe off the table it is cut leaving us unsure about whether that is therefore "the end" of the world.

3. Write something about the technical aspects of the film (camera angles, framing; composition, editing, mise-en-scene, music and sound effects) etc?

In this film they use various technical aspects. In the film they use numerous camera angles. Within the film they predominantly use medium shots as shown below. These shots help to show a majority of the objects in the room, in particular him and the globe, which shows, helps to show the difference when he does turn the globe. They also use close ups, when the room darkens to show the mans shock and that he is nervous and unsure about what to expect, by using these shots it helps us to see the characters facial expressions in more detail.  One shot, which is used at the beginning of the film, is a high angle over the shoulder shot

In addition to the camera angles, they also use mise en scene to set the scene; with the man dressed up in a suit it shows him as a professional individual and potentially respectful. With the high angle shot it shows what he is working on of which it does seem quite complex. The lighting is a key aspect in this film because it changes when the globe moves position the lighting goes down to symbolize a change in location and this is corroborated with the mans facial expressions of shock and horror.

Regarding the sound there is very little, only using non-dietetic sound with ambulances and crashes to suggest other things happening on the other side of the world. And in terms of the editing they maintain the continuity and because there is only 1 person they do not use reverse shots and its only ever shot is on the man himself.

The title is also quite effective with the simple bold title to highlight the simplicity of the film and to state a simple fact.

4. In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of its genre?

This film's genre is a comedy, however it is challenged on numerous occasions within the film. Directly from the opening shot the dark room and straight facial expression at first tell us that this is not a comedy and this is continues as the plot deepens and he turns the globe and the room darkens too suggest the matter is very serious. However as he keeps turning the globe you can begin to see the comical aspects as hears the noises from other places in the world. But this can be seen to be a serious matter to highlight the problems in the world with the siren noises and therefore the story line is dependent on the viewer’s point of view and standpoint. As he drops the globe the comical aspects partially diminish were it is left on an enigma. In conclusion the film can be seen as more of a "black" comedy.

5. What do you like about the text?

In this text I particular like the use of the enigma at the beginning to leave the viewer unsure about what has occurred and this allows us to act as though we are in the actors shows, as he too is unsure about what has occurred. In addition too this I like the change in lighting as it changes the mood, and highlights issues in the world and also other aspects in the world at the same time. Lastly, I like the use of the abrupt ending leaving the reader to come up with his or her own view on what happened. Was it "the end" or was it a big change in positioning. It leaves possibilities for the film to be extended as it leaves options open