Film idea and influences

 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.

Please evidence this as soon as possible

1) Explain your film trailer - own film treatment

2) Explain what has influenced your production

Script

Close up of Rachel talking in earpiece while walking down a path by the river.
Rachel: I'm in pursuit.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Close up of Rachel looking out to see from a cliff top, pans around her, reflective tone.
Rachel: I never wanted any of this.

Mood board

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.

To Do List this term

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


 

Questionnaire Results

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


Character Poster Development

Beccy - 

Beccy's character uses her femininity to her advantage in a way that is very streetwise, as a result I have Beccy wearing a fair amount of make-up and fashionable clothing while in an urban backdrop. This character will be one that many of the target audience can identify with which would hopefully increase the draw to the film. This character subverts stereotypes in some ways, while she is quite a traditionally feminine character she isn't just there to look nice and is also quite tough.
I was having difficulty trying to give my first character poster a professional appearance so I did more research into fonts used by professionals. This is the main article I used for inspiration: http://justcreative.com/2008/09/23/top-7-fonts-used-by-professionals-in-graphic-design-2/

Before and after font change: