Archive for 2014

 Our main character is on a mission which she is told to abort due to complications but continues anyway, successfully. Despite her success she is still in trouble for disobeying orders and recklessly endangering herself so the agency director hatches a plan to put her in charge of a team to teach her responsibility. The team is all female and covers a range of different personalities in order to show women in all their forms, similar to in the show Orange Is The New Black. Tonally this film will have similar qualities to Ocean's Eleven however it could possibly have some more somber and reflective elements. As well as the aformentioned I will also take influence from the director Edgar Wright's humour and wit that he incorporates to his films.
 The main Character will be played by Rachel Simons and Beccy Swanson is composing a backing track for the trailer. It will start initially quite fast paced and jazzy and will build as the trailer goes on however at the end as the reflective element is introduced it will become more serious.

1) Explain your film trailer - own film treatment

2) Explain what has influenced your production

Close up of Rachel talking in earpiece while walking down a path by the river.
Rachel: I'm in pursuit.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Close up of Rachel looking out from behind a corner.
Director: How many?
Rachel: 5
Director: You need to wait for back up.
Rachel: Frustrated They're about to leave!
Director: Hold your position.
Rachel:No, I can do this.
Director: Negative. Do not attempt...
Rachel rips earpiece out.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Mid shot inside car, match on action with driver as they start to pull away.
Passenger: Nervous Hurry up!
Driver: I'm going!
Mid shot as Rachel runs and reaches out for the car. Over shoulder shot inside car.
Passenger: Relieved We lost her.
Over shoulder shot of Rachel watching car drive off in the distance.
Rachel: Reattaching earpiece Bug in place.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Mid shot of Rachel on phone
Rachel: You want me to do what?
Director: Lead a team.
Rachel: That's not going to work. I don't do teams.
Director: You don't have a choice.
All 5 characters are in a circle in a field. Close up on Rachel's face back to the previous phone shot.
Rachel: You've gotta be kidding me.
________________________________________________________________________________
Close up on Rachel's face with her wrist visibly bound to a pipe in the background.
Rachel: Screams No!
Shot of hand limply dropping to floor.
Director: We wanted you to be a leader.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Close up of Rachel looking out to see from a cliff top, pans around her, reflective tone.
Rachel: I never wanted any of this.

1. The love heart represents the human relationships that are key to the film - The film is driven by how its character feel about each other and without that element the film would have no emotional impact or way to move its audience. If you look at the most successful action franchises out there, Indiana Jones, James Bond, The Dark Knight, Jurassic Park etc. they all take time to represent often quite complicated, emotional relationships between their characters as it deepens the empathy  that the audience feels for them and therefore raises the stakes when that character is put in jeopardy.
2. The second image represents the technological element of the film. When you ask a child what they like about spy films, they will often say the gadgets. As my film has a far, far smaller budget than the Bond films for example, I won't be able to have such complicated equipment. However I feel that this is a genre convention that it is important to uphold and so will be showing my characters using things like earpieces and tracking devices.
3. The explosion represents the action element of the film, what people like about action films is their ability to get the audience's hearts racing with thrilling and complicated action sequences. As I am only filming the trailer I most likely won't end up showing any sequences I film in full, however I plan on filming at least two full sequences which I can the cut up in the editing process to make the trailer more ambiguous. It is important that I keep this ambiguity because my questionnaire showed that people don't like it when a trailer shows too much of the film.
4. I wish to subvert the stereotype of females in action films only being there for eye candy, while yes I believe that the female characters can use their femininity as a weapon and do show one of my characters doing that, I also feel that women in this genre need to be shown in far more complexity and variety. As a result I have an incredibly female led cast and lots of different personalities to showcase the potential gains of giving women more of a role in the genre.
5. The laughing children shows that I want my film to be witty. Often action films have their leads quipping witty one liners and, as my questionnaire showed, I am not alone in enjoying this convention. It can give relief from the intensity of action sequences and endear characters to the audience, there is a reason why Tyrion Lannister is such a popular character after all.

You have not created any posts in December - remember your Research and Planning needs to be completed by Christmas.

1) Explain your film trailer - own film treatment

2) Explain what has influenced your production

3) Moodboard

4) Representation of the characters in your film - are they stereotypical or not

5) Audience Research and Profiling

6) Online Tutorials to help you with your filming and editing - explain the techniques you have learnt

7) Soundtrack Research - non-copyright music - explain whether it is conventional and why you chose the music

8) Opening titles - research titles in the same genre - analyse what is effective about the titles, practise creating your own titles and evaluate these

9) Script

10) Animatic storyboard

1. What sort of locations do you expect to see in action/spy films?

• Busy cities, train stations, busy roads, sciency places
• Other countries especially USA or Russia, urban settings
• Business districts, night times settings, slums, lawless places

2. What characteristics do you like to see in action/spy film protagonists?

• Blunt, funny, dark side
• Intelligent, ruthless, attractive
• Funny, witty, dark side

3. What is your favourite action/spy film and why?

• James Bond or Bourne Films
• Skyfall - good music, or Alien - Strong female lead,no love interest
• Taken, Taken 2, Spy Kids

4 .How old are you?



5.  What gender are you?



6. Do you watch this genre of film regularly? (explain why or why not)

• Sometimes, I like action films and have watched so spy films.
• No, I tend to prefer less action based films.
• No, I don't really watch films often.

7. What age did you first start watching this genre of film?

• Very young
• 8-10
• 10

8. What do you expect to see in an action/spy film trailer?

• Lots of action, building suspense
• Fight scenes, witty dialogue,some plot exposition, mystery, love interest
• Witty one liner, action, hints of a sexual scene

9. What would you like to see in an action /spy film trailer?

• Same as above
• More witty dialogue, less plot exposition, more mystery, fight scenes
• hints of a sexual scene

10. What most draws you to a trailer?


11. What sort of music would you like to hear in and action/spy film trailer?

• Dramatic, loud, building suspense
• suspense, fast, funk/rock style
• Dramatic scores, epic rap song

12. What would you least like to see in an action/spy film trailer?

• Boring things, showing too much of one scene
• giving away too much plot, not enough action
• plot spoilers, the climax to a climactic scene

Beccy - 

1. What sort of locations do you expect to see in action/spy films?

2. What characteristics do you like to see in action/spy film protagonists?

3. What is your favourite action/spy film and why?

4 .How old are you?

5.  What gender are you?

6. Do you watch this genre of film regularly? (explain why or why not)

7. What age did you first start watching this genre of film?

8. What do you expect to see in an action/spy film trailer?

9. What would you like to see in an action /spy film trailer?

10. What most draws you to a trailer?

a) Location shots
b) Hints to the plot
c) Character introductions
d) Action scenes

11. What sort of music would you like to hear in and action/spy film trailer?

12. What would you least like to see in an action/spy film trailer?

Well done Katy, you have several key ideas for your film trailer so far and have considered the setting, costumes and tag lines. Try and complete the following posts this week:

• Over shoulder
• Tracking
• Low angle
• High angle
• Establishing shot
• Two shot
• Close Up
• Long Shot

My trailer will include a mix of rural and urban locations as I feel it is important to capture British identity within the film and therefore want to show multiple elements of the country. I will have shots on cliffs overlooking the sea, a fight scene on a motorway overpass and running down alleyways.
It is important that this alley connects to a road as I hope to include my main character attaching a listening device to a moving car.

 Most of these titles were put together using spy terminology which I gathered online. My favourite ones are The Take, Burned and Honour of Duty.

Main - More traditional spy clothing, eg suits/catsuits
Others- One could dress in everyday casual clothing like jeans, one in feminine dresses, waistcoats?, Shorts with thigh holster (think Lara Croft)

The first few seconds of the trailer establish the fact that Thomas doesn't remember anything but his name, in terms of an introduction to the fictional universe he inhabits this put the audience on the same level as him. This allows his introduction to be our introduction which is useful for explaining the concept of the story for those who don't have prior knowledge of the books. for just over a minute the trailer effectively takes the form of a question and answer session to explain the principles of "The Maze". Once that has been set up Thomas starts to question the norm and a change is thrown into the mix, when a girl appears saying Thomas' name. This second section shows that we have been introduced to the glade on the edge of change and also sets Thomas apart, as one glader says "Everything started to change when you showed up.". However before the animosity builds against him too much the danger levels reach critical for them and they're forced to turn to him for leadership. This trailer basically acts as a plot synopsis, establishing the fictional universe and it rules before showing us its degradation which will make up the plot of the film. In a way this trailer is a taster which will give audiences an idea of what they're buying into.
 As this film has quite a large ensemble cast it takes a bit of time to start to introduce us to some of the key characters other than Thomas, the first person we see beside Thomas is Will Poulter's character, who like all the others remains unnamed in the trailer. This suggests that he will be very important to the storyline as he is shown clearly and has spoken lines, the recognizable actor also implies this. the next one introduced is the guy who says "Welcome to the glade" his importance is shown through the fact he informs both Thomas and us of the the place's name, his voice is also the one questioning Thomas on who he is at the beginning which gives him an air of authority. His role as the group leader is further confirmed by the fact he is answering Thomas' questions and giving orders. However when thomas asks about the maze the narrative role switches to another boy, again played by a recognizable actor Thomas Brodie-Sangster,  as these two are shown talking in a two shot it seems like they are the same in the hierarchy and makes it seem like more of a conversation between friends. We don't learn much about the girl in this trailer however she seems to be keen to continue pushing Thomas apart from the rest suggesting she might know something.

 One of the most interesting elements about this trailer is the way it evolves over its course. At the beginning its quite jovial with upbeat modern music which would draw in younger audiences, however as it progresses it starts to get darker and darker with the music building in the background. Near the beginning it almost comes across more as a comedy, with one of the female characters asking Miles "Are you, posh?" in an over the top horrified way. In fact for about half the trailer it seems like it is a film about rich boy hi jinks, however when the girl from the beginning says to Miles "they're not your friends. They don't know when to stop." the mood starts to change. At first its subtle a slight change in the tone of the music and a build in the on screen hysteria. However when Sam Claflin's character punches the landlord of the pub they're in the music cuts out and is replaced by some sinister sounding piano notes. Suddenly everything seems much more serious, and the fun and games are replaced with some kind of ambiguous crime. By the look of the characters covered in blood we are left to assume that it was a murder. Following the line "people like us don't make mistakes" the music suddenly picks up again but now with an orchestral track that build the hysteria. from this point onwards it is clear that this is a drama/thriller to with the politics of class and the line from earlier on in the trailer "these boys will go on to be very important people" becomes quite a scary thought. This is emphasized by the words which appear onscreen "Filthy, Rich, Spoilt, Rotten".
 Another key point to this trailer is it's cast. It features a large group of actors who over the past couple of years have really stepped into the limelight, most notably: Natalie Dormer, Sam Claflin, Douglas Booth, Jessica Brown Findlay, Holliday Grainger and Max Irons. This young, popular and attractive cast will have massive pulling power for the film as many already have dedicated groups of fans.
 The unique selling point of this film is its cultural relevance right now in Britain, with the election coming up next year and growing dissatisfaction among the younger generations a film like this about the infamous Bullingdon Club could not be better timed for release. Many of our politicians including the current prime minister David Cameron were members of this club and this film raises the import question of whether or not you really want people this out of touch with reality in charge of the country.

Target: try and use key terminology such as, technical, verbal, symoblic and engima codes.

Are there puzzles and questions left unanswered in the trailer that create an enimga for the audience?

Are there symoblic codes that create certain connotations and impact the audience?

Could you comment on the narrative structure of the trailer according to Todorov's theory of narrative?

 As The Hobbit:TBOTFA is the final part of a prequel trilogy it has to feel like its going to be a massive cinematic event, as a result this trailer has a grandiose feel with many links back to the original trilogy and featuring almost every character. One of the most poignant references to the original trilogy is the song in the background of the trailer which is sung by Pippin in The Return of the King over the top of Faramir's doomed charge against the Orc forces. By including it int this trailer they not only promote the link between the two trilogies but also for those who have seen the Lord of the Rings it hints at impending tragedy. Another link back to the original trilogy are the characters that feature in both of them, for example Galadriel, Gandalf and Saruman played by Kate Blanchett, Ian Mckellan and Christopher Lee respectively. By having these big named characters and actors featured in this trailer it will bring in a wider audience of cinema goers who will see these names as a symbol of quality.
There is very little speech in this trailer which makes what speech there is especially important. At the beginning Bilbo has a short voice over which basically serves to build the mystery around the film, with the suggestion of key character death. However as this is very vague the ambiguous nature of it will serve to entice in a cinema audience by making them want to find out more. The next speech is over halfway through the trailer with the exchange between Bard and Thorin, "Will you have peace or war?" with Thorin replying " I will have war". This shows a shift in the dynamics of Thorin's character, while previously he was very much a "good" character this hints that maybe in this film that could change.
 There are lots of slow paced establishing shots and fast paced mid or two shots which introduce all of the characters while maintaining the epic tone of the trailer. The low angle shot of the dragon Smaug is intimidating for the audience and firmly shows that this film will be darker than its predecessors.

	Done?	Comment?
RESEARCH
Uploaded YouTube videos of 15 trailers – analysed Key Terms: genre conventions, mise-en-scene, camera shots, sound, editing, unique selling points (USP), target audience, verbal codes, technical codes, symbolic codes, enigma codes.	3 done	Technical codes, enigma codes and verbal codes. Also look more into composition.
Posters analysed – 5 Picture, costumes, font, captions, text, colours, target audience, symbolic codes, enigma codes.	Done	Add analysis of enigma codes.
Magazine Covers – analysed - 5 Key Terms:  font, layout, picture, target audience, verbal codes, technical codes, symbolic codes, enigma codes. Typography • What font styles are used? • What are the connotations of the font (what do they suggest)? Layout • What effect does this have? Why is the page laid out like this? Colour •What do the colours connote? Images • What shot types and angles were used? • What is the effect of the shot type and/or angle? • What effect does the mise-en-scene have? • Why were the props, costumes, locations, etc. used? • What do they signify? Mode of Address • How does the magazine ‘speak’ to its audience? • What language is used? • What impression do the fonts, colours, etc. have?	4 done	Add analysis of enigma codes. Shot types, locations or lack thereof? Mode of address
Reflection of Year 12		More detail in evaluation, download programs tomake seem more sophisticated and record sound separately.
Exemplars read and reviewed	Yes.

 This is one of the earlier Bond posters for the 3rd film Goldfinger, there is a reacuuring theme of gold and yellow colouring which stands out against the black for a high impact effect which captures the dynamic element of Bond's personality. A variety of font sizes are used to draw the veiwers attention in a certain order, specifically to the phrase "Everything he touches" which could be veiwed both as a reference to king Midas and as an innuendo about his well know status as a womanizer. Red alludes to danger which is a convention of the genre.
 The naked woman covered in gold symbolises sex, death, wealth and the link between the three. these themes are often addressed in Bond films and as a result are now considered to be a standard of the genre. The franchise's 007 logo is tactically placed between Sean Connery's name and the film's title showing that even at this early stage they were keen to establish the franchise's branding.

 If I stay comes out in summer 2014 and is an adaption of a book. It starts with an establishing shot of a theatre which presents our main character to us on centre stage. We then hear the cello music she's playing which creates a sound bridge for roughly half the trailer. The equilibrium is set by showing us the romance between the main character and Adam, at this stage it sticks to romance conventions with the narrative of the Chloe Grace Moretz's character explaining her feelings for him alongside a montage of romantic moments. As the cello music gets quicker so does the pacing and the line "Why do I get this feeling I'm about to mess up my entire life?" acts as foreshadowing, these combined elements ramp up the tension. The music shifts again as the characters kiss, marking the moment as is common in the romance genre. The music builds to crescendo and then we see her and her family in the car about to collide with another one on a snowy road for a brief moment before the screen goes black and the music suddenly cuts out and switches to a much more slow paced, somber tune. we establish she is having an outer body experience while in a coma and the following shot of her in the hospital explains the key point of the film, that whether or not she wakes up is her choice. After this the simple white text on a black background tells us it's based on a novel, her situation is further complicated when we find out both her parents died and her conflict about what to choose becomes more clear. Following this we see many flashbacks sandwiched between statements beginning with "If". In conjunction with the music there are several quick flashes of shots leading up to Chloe Grace Moretz's name and a shot of her walking down a corridor with her back to us towards a window, presumably symbolically. After this we have a final shot of Adam begging her to stay followed by the title of the film which is in a much softer title than the previous title cards, showing the delicate nature of the film's content, and a coming soon card.
 The female protagonist and romance element will greatly appeal to female viewers and the perspective of a teenager will apply to younger viewers, however the strong family theme showed with the various flashbacks with her parents will appeal to almost anybody but especially those with children themselves.
 That the trailer suddenly shifts in tone halfway through is effective as it makes it stand out and anybody who would have tuned out watching it in the cinema because of the romance genre will have been prompted to take notice of it. The change in music also helps with this as it breaks it up and keeps the audience's attention.
 The trailer makes a point of making Chloe Grace Moretz's name very clear as she is a well known actress with a wide fan base, which can act as a pulling point for the film. Also there are no title cards in the first half of the trailer allowing the audience to relax into the trailer and come to grips with the relationships they're seeing, this makes the change far more poignant than it would otherwise be.

Quentin Tarantino

Films:

Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill Vol 1&2, Death Proof, Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained

About:

Quentin Taratino is one of my favourite directors and for our film we have take influence from his work. His films tend to include the key elements of  nonlinear storylines, satirical subject matter, and an aestheticization of violence that often results in the exhibition of neo-noir characteristics.

JJ Abrams

Films:

Taking Care Of Business, Regarding Henry, Forever Young, Six Degrees Of Separation, The Pallbearer, Gone Fishin', Armageddon, The Suburbans, Joy Ride, Mission Impossible III, Cloverfield, Star Trek, Morning Glory, Super 8, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Star Trek Into Darkness.

About:

He is not just a director but also a screenwriter, actor and producer who also has a broad influence on TV. He tends to specialise in the Sci-Fi  genre which although it hasn't directly influenced our project is a genre we both like.

Diablo Cody

Films:

Juno, Jennifer's Body, Burlesque, Young Adult, The Magic Bracelet, Evil Dead, Paradise.

About:

Diablo Cody is one of the few female directors to have commercial success and therefore is a inspiration for myself. Her stylised screenwriting technique in Juno is one that is love.

Guillermo Del Toro

Films (Directing Only):

Cronos, Mimic, Blade II, The Hellboy Franchise, Pan's Labyrinth, Pacific Rim, Crimson Peak.

About:

Guillermo Del Toro has done a lot of work as a screen writer including working on the Hobbit films. His other films, such as Pacific Rim look heavily at human relationships.

Joss Whedon

Films:

Although he has only directed Serenity, The Avengers, Much Ado About Nothing and the upcoming Avengers: Age Of Ultron he has done screen writing for a vast amount amount of films, specifically superhero ones like the Thor Franchise, Captain America The Winter Soldier and X Men. He also Wrote for Cabin In The Woods and Toy Story.

About:

As well as films Whedon has a vast number of popular TV series including Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Firefly and Marvel's Agents Of SHEILD. He uses online media to his advantage and many of his works have reached cult status.

Christopher Nolan

Films:

Following, Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Man Of Steel and the upcoming Transcendence.

About:

Christopher Nolan is credited with having created several of the most successful films of the century so far. He has a unique style that crosses art house and blockbuster through creating a challenging narrative for the audience, most notably in Inception. He inspires me  in the way he explores concepts such a human nature, personal identity time and memory. He also often uses a non-linear storyline.

Peter Jackson

Films:

The Valley, Bad Taste, Meet The Feebles, Braindead, Heavenly Creatures, Forgotten Silvers,The Frighteners, The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, King Kong, Crossing The Line, The Lovely Bones and The Hobbit Trilogy.

About:

He is known for his attention to detail and was famously very much a perfectionist when shooting Lord Of The Rings. He will shoot each shot loads of times from many different angles to the extent that he will spend days on one shot, his trademark is having lots of close ups of character's faces. His films tend to have a general playfulness and during the shooting of LOTR he wore shorts and no shoes most of the time. He also makes lots of cameo appearances in his own films.

180 degree rule -

Tutorial on the 30 degree rule
 In order to avoid the transition looking like a jump cut you should always change the angle by at least 30 degrees. If you don't it will look messy and disgruntle the audience.

Match Cutting -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1loA9p5GfM
 When tha camera shot cuts between two people, usually in a conversation, otherwise known as shot reverse shot.

• Generally horror films are aimed at the 18 - 25 market.
• It has a pretty even divide between the genders.
• People who are fans of suspense, gore and disturbing images will like this genre.

• Young teens to mid adults
• Mostly aimed at the male gender
• For fans of violence, fast paced action and weaponry.

• 12+
• Almost entirely female
• For those who like comedy, sad moments and pushy parents.

Source: Wikipedia
We're aiming to make our film either a 12 or 15 because we want to be able to address all the issues it tackles fully without cutting anything out for the sake of lowering the age rating.

Columbia Pictures:

 The studio was founded in 1918 with the name Cohn-Brandt-Cohn Film Sales by brothers Jack and Harry Cohn and Joe Brandt. It released it's first feature film in August 1922 and changed it's name to Columbia Pictures in 1924 before going public two years later.

Famous Films By Columbia Pictures: The Karate Kid, Ghostbusters, Monty Python And The Holy Grail, Misery, Superbad, The Amazing Spiderman, When Harry Met Sally, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Funny Girl, The Shawshank Redemption.

Warner Bros:

Famous Films By Warner Bros: Superman Returns, Mars Attacks!, Calamity Jane, The Prestige, The Dark Knight Trilogy, The Matrix Trilogy, Life Of Brian, Little Shop Of Horrors, the Bodyguard, I Am Legend, The Bucket list.

Disney:

Famous Films By Disney: The Lion King, Cinderella, Pirates Of the Caribbean, Toy Story, Tangled, Spirited Away, Monsters Inc., Star Wars, The Nightmare Before Christmas, National Treasure, Freaky Friday.

Universal

 

Famous Films By Universal: Back To The Future, Jurrasic Park, E.T, Jaws, Hot Fuzz, The Breakfast Club, Bruce Almighty, Kick Ass, Chucky, American Pie, Despicable Me, Inglourious Basterds.

 

20th Century Fox:

Famous Films By 20th Century Fox:  Avatar, Independence Day, Home Alone, The X-Men Franchise, Night At The Museum, Alvin And The Chipmunks, Les Miserables, Mrs Doubtfire, Ice Age, The Simpsons Movie, Taken, I Robot, Marley And Me, Doctor Dolittle, Life Of Pi, 27 Dresses.

Paramount Pictures:

Famous Films By Paramount Pictures: Titanic, Transformers, Shrek, Star Trek, Forrest Gump, Indiana Jones, Iron Man, War Of The Worlds, Ghost, Kung Fu Panda, How To Train Your Dragon, Thor, Mission Impossible, World War Z, Top Gun, Grease, The Godfather, The Truman Show, Shutter Island.