Research and planning: christmas holidays plan

Over the Christmas holiday break, I am hoping to get these tasks completed.

• BBFC film certificate- expand on each rating 
• make-up test for girl actor
• collage on romance
• audience Poll Junkie feedback 
• Facebook trailer analysis ideas

Research and planning: equipment and software list for my poster

• Imac 
• Photoshop
• Indesign
• Image Capture
• SLR camera
• DaFont.com

Research and planning: equipment and software list for magazine

• SLR camera
• Photoshop
• Photo Booth
• Mac computer 
• DaFont.com
• Image Capture 
• Indesign

Research and planning: costume and props list for my poster

• The girl character will be wearing a long woolly jumper with Ugg boots and her hair wavy and down, also maybe wearing a casual coat depending on the weather conditions.
• If we decide to shoot the poster image in the park scene, the leaves, the bandstand and the playground will be the props.
• The boy will be wearing casual shoes and black jeans with a sweater/jumper on. I have also told him not to put any gel in his hair to look more natural.

Research and planning: costume and props list for my magazine

• Casual clothing e.g T-shirt and jeans for both characters
• In the Christmas Market scene the boy character will be wearing casual clothes, black jeans, T-shirt and a nice plain jacket. The girl will be wearing a beige suede jacket with fur around the collar and she will always have a necklace on as this links to the storyline in the trailer.

Research and planning: magazine cover draft 2

Researching and planning: magazine cover draft 1

Research and planning: poster draft 2

 

I re-drew a second draft with the actors facing the camera.  This shows more body language and shows them more engaged with each other.

Researching and planning: poster draft 1

 

For this first draft even though the postioning is good of the two actors, I feel if I was to have them facing forward looking into the camera, this would show more romance elements and facial expressions for a poster.

Research and planning: location reece

These are the location recce for the places we will be shooting our trailer.  We have tried to deal with all the issues we can think of that may occur while on set.

Research and planning: micro elements - cinematograpy

• I have been researching and watching different romance films such as Coyote Ugly and realised how they use the different cinematography elements.
• For example when the storyline becomes emotional we should use a close up on the characters' faces to show their emotions.
• When the characters are in a happy place in the storyline e.g. walking holding hands, we should use a long two shot to show their full frame.
• In our storyline we should make sure a high angle shot is used when the dad is talking down on the boy in the office as he holds more power than the boy.

Research and Planning: practical and impractical trailers

IMPRACTICAL TRAILER


This type of trailer would be unsuitable for us to shoot as we do not have the facilities to shoot along side a lake, at a carnival, at a large country house and props such as the hundreds of swans would be very difficult to find.  The locations are suitable for film companies with large budgets, whereas we only have a very small one.

PRACTICAL TRAILER


For this type of trailer it will be easier for us to film our own trailer as the locations are more suitable for us.  They are easy to access and we can go to our local city, Manchester, to film some of our scenes. The props are also quite basic but have the same effective impact as any other prop, but in our case in terms of having a low budget we can access and afford them.

Research and planning: trailer conventions

• Lots of shot types.
• Summary of the storyline, without giving away the ending.
• Different locations for the various scenes.
• Distribution company and logo
• Production company and logo
• Name of the film
• The actors starring in the film
• Different shots to mirror the storyline 
• Clips from the film
• A narrator 
• Score

Research and planning: poster analysis 2

Genre

• Just by looking at the poster we can tell it is a romance genre.
• As we see the young, attractive girl smiling, looking lovingly at the photos, including one of a man and her and another of the man, we stereotypically straight away can tell romance is involved in this film.
• The title is in red, stereotypically associated with being the colour of love.
• Also the title itself states 'I Love You' again showing the genre is romance.

Representation

• As it is a girl we see gazing lovingly at the pictures, this is very typical of a romance film as its very rare to have the male showing his emotions. However in this case she is lying as if she is in deep thought about the person she loves, with a wedding ring on looking exteremely happy.
• As there is only a picture of the male, this suggests that he may not be around anymore and she is still madly in love with him.  This is very stereotypical as the girl is always shown to be the one pouring all her emotions out about the boy.

Media Language

• In the images on the poster most of the shots are close ups of the people so as an audience we can see them clearly enough.
• The main shot is a close up of the attractive female lying down, gazing at the pictures.
• Most of the colours on the images are neutral colours like white and beige; this makes the title and the actors' names stand out more in the bright red.

Audience

• As it is clearly a romance film, stereotypically this would be aimed at females around the age of 20 as by this age they are mature enough to understand the storyline and the sexual scenes, but they still are curious about love and intrigued by it.

Narrative

• From the poster it is clear the female is in love with the man in the photo as we can see by the look on her face.  However, as we do not see the male in person this suggests he is not around anymore as she only has a picture to remind her of him.
• As the female is still smiling at the picture, this suggests it has not ended on bad terms (eg a breakup) but all the neutral white colours on the poster giving the connotations of heaven/death maybe mean that the male in the photo is dead, but his partner (the girl) is still madly in love.

Research and planning: poster analysis 1

Genre

• You can tell from looking at this poster that the genre is romance.
• Having a couple holding one another as the main image shows the audience that they are the main characters and the storyline will be about them two.
• The expressions shown on the characters' faces show they are in love and are happy.
• The colours and text portray a happy and serene vibe, linking with the romance genre.

Representation

• Both the man and woman look in their 20s
• The female's body language, hung around the boy's shoulders, shows that she is hugely in love with him, maybe more than the male is with her as he is facing away from her.
• Because the male is looking elsewhere than at the female suggests he has something else on his mind.

Media Language

• The main image is a two shot and a medium close up, this puts emphasis on them two and their emotions.
• As the two characters are surrounded by clouds, this suggests they are in a place where they are happy with one another and in love.
• The colour scheme is very calm giving off the connotations of love.
• The font stands out on the page but doesn't take away from the main image of the couple.
• There is a long two shot in the bottom left corner showing the audience there is something else included in the storyline.

Audience

• Looking at the main image on the poster and the age of the characters, I would say the target audience is for females aged between 16-30, as a younger audience would be interested in the love storyline, and getting older into 20s people of this age can relate to the characters.  People getting up to 30 can relate to the storyline in terms of their own past experiences.

Narrative

• From the poster we can see that their relationship will be the main storyline as both of them together is the main image.
• We also know that a younger boy will be in the stoyline as the sub image shows this, maybe being their child, or as they are at a young age themselves it could be a sibling of the male's.
• As the poster is covered in clouds this could be linking with the state of love the couple are in or maybe as it looks heaven-like, death is a factor in this film.

Research and planning: film magazine analysis 2

• This film magazine is promoting an superhero film. The cover shows all the conventions of a magazine cover for example, masthead, cover lines, a main story, large image, dates and a barcode.
• It is obvious this magazine is promoting a superhero film as Spiderman is the main image on the cover and the cover line of his name. His facial expression makes him look mysterious and secret linking with his superhero disguise.
• The colour scheme makes the cover look simple but effective as the masthead stands out the most but the cover lines stand out also all in the sky blue colour.
• The target audience for this film magazine would be around 20 years old as the simpleness makes it appeal to a younger audience and having a superhero as the main image on the cover will attract any people around that age and appeal to them to buy it.

Research and planning: film magazine analysis 1

• From the image on the cover you can assume this magazine is an action/romance genre or is just promoting this type of film. You can tell this because the characters on the image are grasped onto each other showing they have a close relationship, but their expressions on their faces show that they are worried so need each other.
• The colour scheme on this magazine cover relates to the action side of the genre. The bright yellow and the whites in conjunction with the font shows to the audience this is an action genre, also the colours used with the dark background associates with males and males associating with action genre.
• The masthead is the largest font on the page making it stand out the most. But the second biggest is the main cover line.  This also stands out with its large font and the bright yellow, this way any King Kong fan who walks past this magazine will notice it and consider buying it.
• The image doesn't take all the attention on the page as the cover lines stand out as much as the image, linking them together to create the article.
• This is obvious it is a magazine cover as all the typical features of a magazine cover are present. For example cover lines, masthead. barcode, dates, stories included in the magazine and a large image.
• The target audience for this magazine would probably be 25+ males as they will be able to understand the relationships within the film showed on the cover and enjoy the action it talks about in the article. Women of this age will also enjoy the magazine too because the image clearly shows a relationship between the two people, making women who are interested in romance enjoy the magazine.

Research and planning: plan for the week

This week I will focus on getting my two film magazine analysis done as well as my two poster analysis.

Research and planning: group meeting

 

In this meeting post we discuss all the micro elements and how we will include these elements in our project.

Research and planning: Animatic Storyboard

This is an initial draft of my animatic storyboard of my film trailer.  This shows the different shot types and the storyline for my trailer.

Research and planning: animatic storyboard scenes

These are the scenes that I will include in my trailer.  I will also do an animatic storyboard video to show more depth in term of the different media areas.

Research and planning: november podcast

Here is a podcast for November to show what I have done and what I still need to do in terms of my research and planning.

Research and planning: film name ideas

These are some names we came up with to maybe call our film trailer...

• Right Here
• Yours, Always
• Always Yours
• Kind Regards
• Love Conquers 

Research and planning: production/distribution company ideas

The film company Jelly Legs have made the famous production The Royle Family and all of their one-off series that goes with the production. I like the way the logo moves when you go on their website, the font of the logo is fun and makes you think the productions will be fun too, suggesting the genre of the company is comedy.

Some of the productions Vertigo Films have made are Spring Breakers, Monsters and Sweeney. I think the logo represents the company's genre of action and social realism by just being black and white with a simple font.

The most famous productions Warp Films have made would be Four Lions and This Is England '86. I think the logo represents the genre of this company well with the flash through the logo with the title on it.  This links well with the social realism/independent theme.

 

Here I used the software Word It Out to create my own logo including the names of existing film company names.

Research and planning: film name ideas on Solvr

I used this software to try and help me decide what to call my film trailer. I found it hard to come up with a name as I didn't want it to be similar to any other romance film, but also I wanted it to be original  and not cheesy.

Research and planning: Half term plan

Over half term I am hoping to get my production/distribution company ideas and start to think about what I should call my film trailer using Solvr.

Research and planning: production schedule

This is my production schedule.  It will help me keep up to date with my project and give me a rough idea of when to do the tasks.

Research and planning: prop and costume list

Boy Character

• Suit when at work for the girls dad
• Causal wear in majority of clips e.g. at bus stop and coffee house, in montage of clips, listening to his and her friends and going to her house. Jeans and T shirts jackets etc.
• No gel in his hair or earrings 

Girl Character

• Cute pyjamas when looking out of her window
• Casual clothes when running for the bus. Beige fur coat, large hand bag, looking smart and well off, with gold jewellery 
• Make up looking natural with black eyeliner. Hair in ponytail, down and in a bun for majority looking cute.

Props

• Large handbag
• Necklace
• Coffee cup
• Stationery in dads office as well as a desk, chair, computer and files
• Popcorn box 
• Lollypops
• Sunglasses
• Umbrella 
• Blanket 
• Swings
• Sat in McDonalds 
• Christmas market stall
• Item from markets 
• Hot chocolate
• Chocolate covered fruit
• White fur coat

Research and planning: sound test

I have researched some romantic scores to give me an idea on what my soundtrack for my trailer will sound like.

The third song will be good for the scene where my male character runs after the girl as he realises he loves her.

This soundtrack involves different parts to it where it is reflecting the emotions in the storyline. I would like to try and make a similar soundtrack of my own in terms of changing the track to fit with my storyline.

Research and planning: equipment and software list

• Blogger
• Imovie
• Photoshop
• Garageband
• SLR camera
• DV camcorders 
• Tripods
• H2 sound recorders

Research and planning: Target audience Prezi

Research and planning: IMDB research

This shows I have researched some of  the most popular romance films from IMDB. I will watch the popular romance film trailers to give me ideas and guidence for my own romance trailer.

Research and planning: Audience Theories

This handout is an overview of the key audience theories that are going to be crucial in developing both my trailer and my ability to create a proficient exam response. 

Research and planning: Social media feedback

For my social networking feedback I wrote on my Facebook page to my friends what their favourite romance film is. The result I got back I will look into to see what type of romance film they are and research each of their story lines.

Research and planning: Group meeting

Previously to this video we assigned roles to one another, then thought it would be a good idea to let the moderator know what we had discussed so we made this short video letting the moderator know our roles.

Research and Planning: trailer analysis 2

The second trailer I will be analysing is The Lucky One from 2012.  This film was directed by Scott Hicks and was given a 12A certificate. This again will help me understand the narrative to a romance film.  This shows, as well as my first trailer, that there is always something that goes wrong in the storyline when everything seems to be going great in terms of the characters' relationships.

GENRE AND AUDIENCE

This film is a romance with elements of drama as the film's storyline has the ability to make the audience emotional. This film will appeal to a primary audience of 18-40 year old females as they could potentially relate to the narrative in terms of trouble with ex-partners and struggling to fall for someone they think could have a negative impact on their child's life. For women of this age group, the male character will appeal to them as he is seen in the army being near bombs and weapons and this to a woman gives off a strong and powerful feel. However as we hear by the voiceover of the main male character, he needs to find this girl to thank her for saving his life. For the audience this will make them feel emotional as for any woman, for a good looking man to come all that way to find you, and to only thank you, is quite special.

NARRATIVE

By watching the trailer it is clear that Logan the main character is in the army fighting in a foreign country.  We are shown him finding a picture of a girl in the rubble, then seconds later a bomb is dropped, but as he survives the bomb attack, he feels the girl in the picture protected him. So we hear as a voiceover Logan telling us that he is going to find this girl and thank her for saving his life. We see him walking in various shots with his dog, showing us that he's been travelling for a while to find this girl. Then as we see the shot of where he first lays eyes on Beth, the girl in the picture, we see Logan's face look amazed as if he's never seen anything so beautiful before. As he is so amazed by Beth it seems as though he forgot why he was there and ended up getting a job with her instead of telling her the truth. The grandma is shown being nice to Logan by giving him the job whilst Beth is not happy about it. We are shown Logan working hard and doing his job, then the little boy asks questions about Logan and Beth, his mother, seems awkward when speaking about him.  Then when she sees how he is with her son, we see her mood change towards him. Slowly we are shown Beth watching Logan and falling for him when really she doesn't want to.  We are shown soon after an aggressive man, which is Beth's ex and the little boy's dad, being aggressive towards Beth and still wanting to know things about her life.  Beth doesn't want him in her life so she snaps but the ex won't let go of her when she says so, then Logan tells him to listen to her, making Logan look like the knight in shining armour. Logan becomes protective over Beth and this makes her tell the aggressive man straight and Beth and Logan's relationship grows stronger. But then the ex once again ruins things by finding the picture of Beth that Logan found then things between them both go downhill. We hear the ex putting negative thoughts into Beth's head about Logan because he is jealous. But when Beth's mother talks sense to her they can't stay apart much longer so they come to terms with the fact Logan came especially to find her and stay togther.

REPRESENTATION

Logan, the main male character, is portrayed with a soft and sentimental side, as well as protective over Beth and her child. Logan represents young fit men that appeal to the primary audience of this film. Beth's ex is represented as aggressive and possessive over Beth and their child, we can see from the trailer that he does not like Logan acting as a father figure over the child so comes across as potentially violent.  This represents the stereotype of an absent father. Both Beth's ex and Logan have positions of power in the trailer as we see that Logan comes from an army background and Beth's ex is in the police force.

Beth is the stereotype of a single mum trying to do the best for her child, to try and stay strong and independent when raising her son.  However Beth is easily influenced by men showing the conventional emotional side to her. The grandma is also very stereotypical as she is shown to be wise, fair and kind. She is supportive towards Beth's decisions when raising her son and is friendly to Logan when he comes to their farm. Both Beth and the grandma are good with children, strong minded and show importance towards raising the child and making a good home.

MEDIA LANGUAGE

Cinematography-  a tilt was used when showing the destruction the bomb made in the war scene. A worm's eye view showed the helicopter flying above, then a low angle shot of Logan's face when he was blown up.  An over the shoulder two shot was used when the dad grabs Beth and swings her around aggressively.

Sound- diagetic sound of the helicopter flying and the bomb exploding. A non-diagetic sound of beeping noise to symbolise a heart monitor created tension when watching the trailer. Two different scores were used during the trailer to emphasise the change in the storyline.
 

Editing- a montage of jump cuts are used to show the time in the storyline move on. Slow motion is used to emphasise the impact of the bomb explosion, more jump cuts were used to show aggression and to tell the story in more detail. Fades were used between most shots to give off the romance genre.
 

Mise-en-scene- the sun setting at the beginning of the trailer shows the romance side, rocks used on Logan's face when the explosion goes off shows the extent of the damage it caused. A modern coloured photograph was used as the main link in the storyline. This shows the modern age of the film. All the props used in the family house make it feel more warm and 'home-like' and finally all of the action in the trailer is mainly focused around that house showing how much it means to their family.

Research and planning: trailer analysis 1

The first teaser trailer I will be analysing is Love and Other Drugs from 2010. The film was directed by Edward Zwick and was given an age 15 certificate. Analysing this romance trailer will give me more confidence when thinking of ideas for my own romance film trailer. I can see the way romance trailers flow and incorporate that into my own work.

GENRE AND AUDIENCE

This film is a romance and also includes drama features as well as comedy. It will appeal to a primary audience of 18-40 year old females as the trailer portrays a desirable lifestyle in terms of the male protagonist; tall, dark and handsome. The lifestyle in terms of a career is made to seem desirable to this audience as well as the city in which they live. From the trailer we see the main character, Jamie, slowly turn into the perfect partner, from the 'bad boy' 'player' image he was at the start of the film. We also see a woman come onto the scene that changes him into that perfect man.  Any woman of this aged audience would love the thought of the power of turning a bad boy into that perfect image of a partner. This is why the trailer will appeal to this specific audience I stated earlier.

NARRATIVE

From the trailer it is evident that there is a parallel narrative for the male character Jamie. This is shown through two key themes which are his work life and his personal life in terms of relationships. For the first theme to do with his work life, we are shown that his dad disapproves of him being a pharmaceutical rep, but we are shown in the shots following his dad disapproving, Jamie having success with the new drug and becoming really popular with the ladies. Even though he may be getting success from his work life, during the clips shown we are introduced to his love life changing with the influence of a woman called Maggie, a patient of a doctor he is trying to sell his drug to.  It states on a clip that Jamie has 'met his match' in terms of having a spontaneous love life, and this makes him want Maggie more because she doesn't reciprocate. As Jamie and Maggie grow closer, and Jamie develops more feelings for her that he's not used to, Maggie becomes ill and it rocks Jamie's world.  He realises he loves her and chases after her, this again for the audience is an idyllic thing to happen in their world, so feel more attached to the film.

Research and planning: Influences

I watched The Lucky One at home last night and thought about my trailer for Media and decided that this would be a good film trailer to analyse and think about for my own trailer.

Research and Planning: BBFC film certificate

These are all the different film classifications that films and their trailers can be given. They are given a rating so that the audience will know what to expect from the film in terms of the content without watching it. This is good for parents when worried about a certain film that their child wants to watch, because by looking at the rating given they can make a decision about it. I will be giving my film trailer an age rating of 12 because as it is a romance film trailer, no horror scenes will be shown and I am making sure that no sexual scenes will be in the trailer that will be unsuitable for a 12 year old unaccompanied by an adult.

U - The U symbol stands for Universal. A U film should be suitable for audiences aged four years and over. However, it is impossible to predict what might upset a particular child, especially at this lower end of the category range.

PG - PG stands for Parental Guidance. This means a film is suitable for general viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for younger children. A PG film should not disturb a child aged around eight or older. Parents should consider whether the content might upset younger or more sensitive children.

12 & 12A - 12A means that anyone aged 12 or over can go and see the film unaccompanied. The A stands for 'accompanied' and 'advisory'. Children younger than 12 may see the film if they are accompanied by an adult (eg someone over the age of 18), who must watch the film with them. 

15 - No-one under 15 is allowed to see a 15 film at the cinema or buy/rent a ‘15’ rated DVD.  15 rated works are not suitable for children under 15 years of age.

18 - Films rated 18 are for adults. No-one under 18 is allowed to see an 18 film at the cinema or buy/rent an 18 rated DVD. No 18 rated works are suitable for children.

The ‘R18’ category is a special and legally restricted classification primarily for explicit works of consenting sex or strong fetish material involving adults. Films may only be shown to adults in specially licensed cinemas, and video works may be supplied to adults only in licensed sex shops. ‘R18’ videos may not be supplied by mail order.

Research and planning: Questionnaire Results

Questionnaire results from oliviataylor678

Here is a slideshare of my questionnaire results in the form of a variety of charts. From this chart it was made clear that the most popular audience was 17 year old, females, that prefer a romance film with a twist in the storyline. They would prefer a one off film rather than a saga and also with a contemporary storyline such as Love and Other Drugs, which has an initial (equilibrium) scenario then the meeting takes place, followed by conflict, resolution and then tragedy.

Research and planning: Questionnaire

This is the questionnaire I will be handing out to people of different ages and gender to research people's opinions on film genre and preferences.

Research and planning: Audience interview videos

These are my audience feedback videos from both a younger and older generation.  From these videos I can see what different generations prefer in term of film genres etc.

Research and planning: Audience interview questions

Here are the questions I am going to ask my audience;

1. How old are you?

2. What type of outcome do you prefer in a romance film?
 

3. Would you prefer the setting to be in a city or a rural environment in a romance film?
 

4. What type of background music do you expect to hear in a romance film?

5. Would you prefer in a romance film, the male character to be in touch with his emotions or laddish?

6. What's your favourite romance film?

Research and planning: Plan for the week

This week I will focus on getting my audience interview questions done, audience interview videos, questionnaire questions and their results.

Research and planning: The Pitch

This is the Pitch that me and my partner Chloe created to explain clearly what we wanted to get out of our trailer, this included the plot, the sound, location, typical direction and how will we link it to magazine and poster.

Research and planning: Photoshop Challenge

This is my first time back on Photoshop since back in AS, so to familiarise myself with the programme I played around with the colour of texts and the different sizes and fonts. I also cropped the image and stretched it to fit my page. I would like to do a romance genre for my trailer therefore I stuck to the stereotypical layout, images and word choice of a romance film poster.

Research and planning: Chase sequence

This is my chase sequence, a series of jump cuts are used to fill out the clip, I put a comical track as background music to fit well with the running around and it gave a classic humourous watch.

Research and planning: Genres

Animated films

Stereotypically animated films are aimed at a younger audience, such as Monsters Inc., A Bugs Life and Cars. I think is because for a younger audience used to watching cartoons on the TV, when they see the advert it will appeal to them, therefore result in them begging their parents to go and watch it. Animated films are so big nowadays, companies such as Disney Pixar and DreamWorks are constantly making new films. Disney for example has been so successful in the animation business they have stores worldwide selling merchandise from those popular films that the young audience will watch.

Horror Films

Stereotypically horror films have very dark lighting to make the audience feel more into the film by making it more believable with the use of scary music and dark lighting. Horror films tend to have a storyline that is based on real life events. This allows the audience’s mind to think more into the film, therefore creating the effect the director wanted. To create synergy around the films, large budgets are used on things such as trailers, posters and viral marketing. Most horror films will have a high certificate rating of 18 because stereotypically the film's editing will make you jump, scared and have some scenes that may scare a younger audience.

Romance Films

Romance films usually are aimed at a female audience, because stereotypically there is always a male character within the film who the female audience fall in love with. This is the root of the ‘chick flick’ label. There are usually three/four parts to romance films; a couple meeting, they fall in love, something goes wrong (someone falls ill, they break up...), then they get back together making it a happy ending. These films are usually an easy watch for the audience including editing such as shot reverse shots, straight cuts and dissolves when love is the theme. Usually romance films depending on the sexual content can range from a certificate rating PG-15.

Comedy films

With comedy films these are also seen to be an easy watch. Nothing usually goes wrong in the story line to make the audience emotional or to have too much of an impact, but something may happen to make the main (funny) character think seriously for a second. The use of strong language is sometimes used also as this can be seen as humorous to some people. The main character in comedy films usually stays the most seen character throughout so we as an audience can grow to his personality, therefore finding him/her more humorous.