Thursday, 31 March 2011
Feedback to the magazine review
Our peers looked at our magazine review and gave us the following feedback:
- To change the blue font and bubble for a different colour such as similar to his tie to match the film more otherwise it looks as if it is a water-based film.
- To align the text boxes and borders to make it look more professional.
- To change the blue font and bubble for a different colour such as similar to his tie to match the film more otherwise it looks as if it is a water-based film.
- To align the text boxes and borders to make it look more professional.
Saturday, 26 March 2011
Research for 'brand' identity.
In order to gain high audience recognition and publicity, it is important that films have elements of their brand which the audience can identify together and so distinguishes the brand in the consumer's mind. These elements could be aspects such as the colours used, the format/layout used, a logo used, a name or a symbol.
As you can see in the image below there is a predominant theme of black and red on a white background. This means that when people see a poster, for example, with the black and red theme and the style of writing the title is in; they will automatically associate it to Love Actually without even realising. As it is part of the romantic genre, it is also portraying the themes of love through the red and innocence and happiness via the white.
As you can see in the image below there is a predominant theme of black and red on a white background. This means that when people see a poster, for example, with the black and red theme and the style of writing the title is in; they will automatically associate it to Love Actually without even realising. As it is part of the romantic genre, it is also portraying the themes of love through the red and innocence and happiness via the white.
A further example of the use of brand identity in films is Shrek:
However, as shown in the poster for Shrek 2, once the film is onto a sequel and it has created a brand identity for itself, the characters no longer need to be visible. This is most likely to happen when the film has previously been a big success and is highly recognised. They are able to use this design because purely from seeing the 'S' with the unique Shrek ears coming off it, against the blue sky background, the audience automatically link it to Shrek and the characters and so they are not needed on the poster and neither is the actual title of 'Shrek.'
This picture below is showing even with convergence opportunities that come from a successful film, the image of 'Shrek's' head and the unique ears are a lot larger and more dominant being in the centre of the packaging than the title 'Shrek' itself due to immediate association.
An example of a psychological thriller film, Paranormal Activity, also displays these characteristics of brand identity. As shown below, the recognisable bright red title font is almost blood like with the glow through it. The space is also largely consumed with an image from the film which is in night-vision, which is a recurrent theme within the film itself.
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
Construction
Before the construction process it was important all of our group had a copy of the shooting schedule and script as well as our actors to ensure we all knew which parts we were filming and when. During the construction process we came across many problems with the weather such as it was too dull and too windy; resulting in shaky cam which we eventually were able to get rid of by re-shooting on a less windy day.
We had to take the HD camera, tape, small tripod, large tripod (for only a few shots), the crane; which we had to use twice.
In our group, we all took it in turns to film, direct, manage, set-up etc so that we could all give our opinion on a scene's set up for instance. I think we did achieve what we set out to each time of filming and i think the final shots we have captured are very successful for our film. The shots that needed re-filming were the ones where there was shaky cam and the jerk in the camera movement. We also added a shot of the police detective coming out of the police station to make the whole piece come together.
To edit our film we used Final Cut to edit the footage and Soundtrack Pro to add sounds to support our footage, and Live Type for the titles.
I was very pleased with the outcome of our film and was pleased that it turned out very much like our original plan in the treatment and animatic.
We had to take the HD camera, tape, small tripod, large tripod (for only a few shots), the crane; which we had to use twice.
In our group, we all took it in turns to film, direct, manage, set-up etc so that we could all give our opinion on a scene's set up for instance. I think we did achieve what we set out to each time of filming and i think the final shots we have captured are very successful for our film. The shots that needed re-filming were the ones where there was shaky cam and the jerk in the camera movement. We also added a shot of the police detective coming out of the police station to make the whole piece come together.
To edit our film we used Final Cut to edit the footage and Soundtrack Pro to add sounds to support our footage, and Live Type for the titles.
I was very pleased with the outcome of our film and was pleased that it turned out very much like our original plan in the treatment and animatic.
Sunday, 20 March 2011
Edits added ; FINAL FILM
This is the final version of our film wiht the edits and improvements made.
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
Construction: Final Cut
In this final cut of our film, I showed a group of middle-aged relatives and friends as well as our peers to see what they all thought and it was recognised that they all got the general idea of our film and the two genres wihtin it. the sound has been altered to fit the last recommended changes. There were some of our peers who recognised the 'shaky cam' and the shot that jolted a little and so we wanted to put these right for the final film and so decided to re-shoot as it seemed worth it to get the best effects and atmosphere to the piece.
Wednesday, 23 February 2011
Friday, 18 February 2011
Tuesday, 9 November 2010
Saturday, 6 November 2010
Tuesday, 2 November 2010
Storyboard
The advantages of being able to use this storyboard quick software is that it is far easier to change if you make a mistake or want to alter the order for example. It is also quicker than drawing out each individual picture and gives a ncie follow on idea of how the film is planned to look.
Monday, 1 November 2010
Research into the use and presentation of film titles, including ideas for your own film.
The title of a film can say a lot about the film itself and often gives the audience a feel for the genre of the film and what it will be like. The colour of the title for example can say a lot and so can the font that is used.
In the example below, 'While You Were Sleeping' has been re-cut into a psychological thriller trailer and the titles at the end of this piece are plain and simple; white on a black background. Yet, these are very effective because they show eeriness and the font is almost type-writer like and gives the effect that it has just been stamped out on a type-writer as if writing an angry/threatening message to someone. The type-writer like writing shows it is not a romantic film because the edges of the text are harsh straight lines to support the psychological thriller genre.
Another version of titles often seen in psychological thrillers are similar to the ones shown in this trailer below. The black background with white writing is used again however looks completely different because the title writing has got the strong glow around it and slight reflection of the letters both upwards and downwards. As well as this, they have used an image of what appears to be a blood spreading version of a heart which is disappearing from the bottom, reflecting the title of the film.
As i previously mentioned, the colours used for the titles have a big impact and so i decided to look into the symbolism of the main colours used in titles for this genre of film. The colours red and black also have the symbolism of danger. Using red can have great symbolism of lots of intense and passionate things; such as, love, desire, strength, aggression, power, war, blood, violence, danger, fire and heat.
The symbolism of white: shows purity, cleanliness, simplicity, peace, innocence, youth, good and can be seen as clinical.
The colour black has a strong contrasting symbolism to white: it scan signify; power, formality, sexuality, elegance, style, sophistication, wealth, evil, fear, mystery, depth, evil, sadness, remorse, anger, anonymity, unhappiness, mourning and death; in Western cultures.
Therefore, I believe that it is important to know what you want to portray your film as before you decide on the titles because the way the font they use and colour play a big par in reflecting the film and attracting an audience. It is also important to know who your audience will be and make the titles suitable to the film's genre and to the audience. For instance, it would be entirely unsuitable to make a film that was supposed to attract a male audience and to use pink and spirally 'girly' writing for the tiles with make up, etc in the background because this would appeal mostly to a female audience.
After researching these aspects about colour and font used for titles of films, i think for our film a fairly hard, similar to a type-writer type, black font would be best suited because our film matches the representations of the colour black and the font would show the harsh, stabbing ways of frustration for the man in our film. The romantic element could be the background for instance.
In the example below, 'While You Were Sleeping' has been re-cut into a psychological thriller trailer and the titles at the end of this piece are plain and simple; white on a black background. Yet, these are very effective because they show eeriness and the font is almost type-writer like and gives the effect that it has just been stamped out on a type-writer as if writing an angry/threatening message to someone. The type-writer like writing shows it is not a romantic film because the edges of the text are harsh straight lines to support the psychological thriller genre.
Another version of titles often seen in psychological thrillers are similar to the ones shown in this trailer below. The black background with white writing is used again however looks completely different because the title writing has got the strong glow around it and slight reflection of the letters both upwards and downwards. As well as this, they have used an image of what appears to be a blood spreading version of a heart which is disappearing from the bottom, reflecting the title of the film.
As i previously mentioned, the colours used for the titles have a big impact and so i decided to look into the symbolism of the main colours used in titles for this genre of film. The colours red and black also have the symbolism of danger. Using red can have great symbolism of lots of intense and passionate things; such as, love, desire, strength, aggression, power, war, blood, violence, danger, fire and heat.
The symbolism of white: shows purity, cleanliness, simplicity, peace, innocence, youth, good and can be seen as clinical.
The colour black has a strong contrasting symbolism to white: it scan signify; power, formality, sexuality, elegance, style, sophistication, wealth, evil, fear, mystery, depth, evil, sadness, remorse, anger, anonymity, unhappiness, mourning and death; in Western cultures.
Therefore, I believe that it is important to know what you want to portray your film as before you decide on the titles because the way the font they use and colour play a big par in reflecting the film and attracting an audience. It is also important to know who your audience will be and make the titles suitable to the film's genre and to the audience. For instance, it would be entirely unsuitable to make a film that was supposed to attract a male audience and to use pink and spirally 'girly' writing for the tiles with make up, etc in the background because this would appeal mostly to a female audience.
After researching these aspects about colour and font used for titles of films, i think for our film a fairly hard, similar to a type-writer type, black font would be best suited because our film matches the representations of the colour black and the font would show the harsh, stabbing ways of frustration for the man in our film. The romantic element could be the background for instance.
Friday, 29 October 2010
Reseach and planning: Costume
Costume is very important in representing the character's in the film and gives the audience a feel for the type of character they will be.
The man in our film is called David Bird, he is a husband in a monotonous job, with a nagging wife who wants to make a family and so is preventing David from progressing in his job. She eventually drives him to the edge and he eventually killed her:
David will wear a black suit in our film to show the authoritative figure of an office man and the power he can have to 'deal' with his wife. The colour black is also a recognised reflection of death; as is shown at funerals with the black cars and black clothes worn. The colour of the suit also shows mourning, because after he kills his wife he has to live with the guilt and would grieve for her because he did love her even though she drove him to do what he did. Black is also associated with evil.
The white shirt that he will wear underneath the black suit will show his innocence beneath his crime; as he can be seen as a victim of his wife's nagging and being held back in his job.
In the picture above, you can see the villain of the film 'Psycho' is wearing a balck jumper; showing he is going to be an evil character.
Emma Bird, his wife, will wear casual, pretty, girly clothes which will portray her innocence as she is the victim of murder.
The girl above in this picture is from the film 'Psycho' and is also a victim and is wearing a frilly, girly dress similar to how the female in our film will dress; showing her innocence.
The detective/police officer will wear a long black coat to show the authority he has and power over the man and by being black in colour again it foreshadows it will be bad news he is about to receive. It is also showing the stereo-typical 'costume' of a police detective.
These two detectives are out of the film 'Righteous Kill' and show that they tend to wear just a long black coat/suit jacket and not the full works of a police officer.
These are all similar to our film and show the same representations which we are trying to portray.
The man in our film is called David Bird, he is a husband in a monotonous job, with a nagging wife who wants to make a family and so is preventing David from progressing in his job. She eventually drives him to the edge and he eventually killed her:
David will wear a black suit in our film to show the authoritative figure of an office man and the power he can have to 'deal' with his wife. The colour black is also a recognised reflection of death; as is shown at funerals with the black cars and black clothes worn. The colour of the suit also shows mourning, because after he kills his wife he has to live with the guilt and would grieve for her because he did love her even though she drove him to do what he did. Black is also associated with evil.
The white shirt that he will wear underneath the black suit will show his innocence beneath his crime; as he can be seen as a victim of his wife's nagging and being held back in his job.
Emma Bird, his wife, will wear casual, pretty, girly clothes which will portray her innocence as she is the victim of murder.
The detective/police officer will wear a long black coat to show the authority he has and power over the man and by being black in colour again it foreshadows it will be bad news he is about to receive. It is also showing the stereo-typical 'costume' of a police detective.
These are all similar to our film and show the same representations which we are trying to portray.
Monday, 25 October 2010
Research and planning: Locations
Locations used in films say a lot about the mood and atmosphere of the piece and so it is important to get it right.
In our film, we need a location of a field, an office, a shower, dining table and bed in 'his' house, and a graveyard.
In picture number 1; the office, you can see it is a deliberately chosen cluttered office to reflect David's messed up mind. It has good lighting and space to film around as well.
Image number 2; this is the dining table in David's house and shows he is quite a wealthy, middle-upper class man. The lighting for this scene is good because we can adjust it to whether we want it brighter or darker and there is plenty of space.
3; is a picture of a police station we could use for an establishing shot to link the murder and jail together.
4; this is the shower which is particularly good for filming due to it being a walk in shower from both sides with no glass in the way which would cause reflections.
5; a part of the house which is good for space to film in, we would just have to be careful filming around the mirror.
6; This is a picture of the tree area of the field we will use and this would be good for the build up to the death because it is all enclosed with the trees and so would look like something bad could happen there. Enclosed wooded areas are also typical conventions of psychological thrillers.
7; The drive and outside of 'David's' house shows that it is a fairly big house and also shows his wealth.
8; This open part of the field is to portray the happy atmosphere in this scene and is a typical convention of thrillers to use open, sunny areas of parks and fields. It will also give nice natural lighting and a vast filming space which could allow for different shots such as a crane shot.
9; The graveyard is symbolic of mourning and death and the thriller side, graveyards are often featured in thriller films. To film here, I rang up a council number which was on a sign for the graveyard just outside the gates of it and I explained that we were filming for our educational A2 media project and asked for their permission to film on the graveyard and they were very complying and kindly allowed us to go ahead to film there.
Locations from some similar films of the same genre are shown below and these are purposely used, as in ours, to create these romantic/thriller effects;
In the image above, from 'The Omen,' you can see that the priest is standing in a graveyard at the point of which he gets stabbed; this is more dramatic but similar to our film in the way that something bad happens at graveyards, as they are full of death. Graveyards can also be seen as places for spirits and consciences and so David may not only be there to grieve but more because of his guilt. However, either way graveyards are recognised as very emotional, sad places and then he is arrested there which is sad for him as another part of his life, not only his wife but his freedom as well, has metaphorically died.
'Just Go With It' was a romantic comedy and this picture above showing the couple walking through a field with the bright sky in the background, is very similar to how we created the happy mood for our scene like this. We chose the idea of having the scene in a nice, sunny, grassy field because it is seen as romantic because couples go out on 'dates' for example through a park/field for a nice walk or picnic.
Also, in this picture the man is wearing a white shirt, signifying the happiness and pureness , however with a hint of black around his neck. This is similar to our film because David wears a white shirt resembling the happiness but the black trousers could hint at the darker side of him. The girl is also shown to be wearing pretty, frilly, girly clothes like Emma will be in our film.
In our film, we need a location of a field, an office, a shower, dining table and bed in 'his' house, and a graveyard.
In picture number 1; the office, you can see it is a deliberately chosen cluttered office to reflect David's messed up mind. It has good lighting and space to film around as well.
Image number 2; this is the dining table in David's house and shows he is quite a wealthy, middle-upper class man. The lighting for this scene is good because we can adjust it to whether we want it brighter or darker and there is plenty of space.
3; is a picture of a police station we could use for an establishing shot to link the murder and jail together.
4; this is the shower which is particularly good for filming due to it being a walk in shower from both sides with no glass in the way which would cause reflections.
5; a part of the house which is good for space to film in, we would just have to be careful filming around the mirror.
6; This is a picture of the tree area of the field we will use and this would be good for the build up to the death because it is all enclosed with the trees and so would look like something bad could happen there. Enclosed wooded areas are also typical conventions of psychological thrillers.
7; The drive and outside of 'David's' house shows that it is a fairly big house and also shows his wealth.
8; This open part of the field is to portray the happy atmosphere in this scene and is a typical convention of thrillers to use open, sunny areas of parks and fields. It will also give nice natural lighting and a vast filming space which could allow for different shots such as a crane shot.
9; The graveyard is symbolic of mourning and death and the thriller side, graveyards are often featured in thriller films. To film here, I rang up a council number which was on a sign for the graveyard just outside the gates of it and I explained that we were filming for our educational A2 media project and asked for their permission to film on the graveyard and they were very complying and kindly allowed us to go ahead to film there.
Locations from some similar films of the same genre are shown below and these are purposely used, as in ours, to create these romantic/thriller effects;
Also, in this picture the man is wearing a white shirt, signifying the happiness and pureness , however with a hint of black around his neck. This is similar to our film because David wears a white shirt resembling the happiness but the black trousers could hint at the darker side of him. The girl is also shown to be wearing pretty, frilly, girly clothes like Emma will be in our film.
Friday, 22 October 2010
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
Tuesday, 19 October 2010
Question and Answers feedback
After knowing our film, we gained this peer feedback which we have some valid opinions from and this will prove useful for us to know whether or not we are aiming at the right audience and including the right aspects to portray our target genres for instance.
At 0:12; the opinion that our film will be for an older audience, possibly 30+year olds, is expressed and as we got through the group this is overall conclusion from them. Some of our peers informed us because it was a more slower paced film but a witty film it would suit an older audience who like to think about films more.
1.14; It was recognised that our film was a thriller and more of the sub-genre of a psychological thriller that the audience would have to think about.
1.32; Our peers saw the romantic elements in our film of the couple once being 'loved up.'
1.44; Our chosen genre was reached as it was said that it seemed to be a mix of the two genres of romance and thriller.
2.39; It is noticed that the man is the main character and the woman is the victim which is typical for psychological thrillers.
2.54; The convention of romantic films was said to be the weather showing it was a happier scene for instance.
3.16; Conventions of a psychological thriller being used are recognised by the man being the one in control and ending up as a murderer; whilst it keeps the audience guessing as to what has happened between the couple.
3.46; A convention we are challenging was said to be that the man looks like the victim at the start of the film and it is normally the woman who is purposely shown to be a victim, however ours was not.
Monday, 18 October 2010
Audio treatment
This treatment includes a class discussion about possible problems they could see as well as things they liked. This was a valuable source of feedback so that we could make relevant changes and therefore making improvements to suit our audience better and avoid potential problems which weren't needed.
The main potential problems I can gather that our peers saw in our film were the use of quite a few different locations and time settings and so we would have to be careful not to make it too confusing for the audience if there was a lot of flitting between these. The other main problem they recognised was how dependent our film was on the weather, and that it had almost become a character of our film. This is because if the weather wasn't right for each scene then the film would not make sense as the mood being put across would be completely irrelevant to the scene.
The main potential problems I can gather that our peers saw in our film were the use of quite a few different locations and time settings and so we would have to be careful not to make it too confusing for the audience if there was a lot of flitting between these. The other main problem they recognised was how dependent our film was on the weather, and that it had almost become a character of our film. This is because if the weather wasn't right for each scene then the film would not make sense as the mood being put across would be completely irrelevant to the scene.
Saturday, 16 October 2010
Thursday, 14 October 2010
Target audience research & declaration (with explanation).
Due to have taking the decision of our film being both from the romantic genre and the pyschological thriller, i have chosen to research both types and their audiences to get a feel for what our film sould and will attract and how we can do this. I have chosen to use YouTube to gain research into this because it allows users to look deeper into who is viewing the videos, for example; it provides age statistics of the viewers.
The short film below is of the romantic genre and includes many conventions which will be used in our film. For example, it features a middle-aged man who appears bored in his job and then has 'fantasies' about spending time with a girl he takes a fancy to. It also has soft romantic music which changes to the mood of the scenes; slow and sad portraying his misery. There is also a scene with a similar location to what we will have; a grassy field in the sun wiht some trees surrounding.
The most popular audience viewings for this film are;
A further example of a romantic short is Post-It Love:
The views for this are;
An example of a psychological thriller:
This film also has similar aspects to ours because it is about a man losing his mental state within his office job. The tense music and changes to faster edits help portray this throughout the film.
The most popular audience viewings for the above short is as follows;
From the above examples and after looking at a few other shorts on YouTube of these two genres, as well, I found that the general pattern was young adult-maturer adult males and younger-adult females. The females were often younger than the majority of males shown to be viewing these shorts. I have also found that by asking some teachers and family members aged between 25-35; that the males generally prefer films with mainly action/psychological content and the females preferred the romantic type of film. However, I found that it was only the minority who actually watch any shorts on YouTube and these were predominantly males.
Despite facing the issue that our audience are not the main cosumers of YouTube we decided it was suitable for us to aim our film at a target audience of 20-30year old males and females. However the actual audience may range from males and females aged 16-late 50's.
The short film below is of the romantic genre and includes many conventions which will be used in our film. For example, it features a middle-aged man who appears bored in his job and then has 'fantasies' about spending time with a girl he takes a fancy to. It also has soft romantic music which changes to the mood of the scenes; slow and sad portraying his misery. There is also a scene with a similar location to what we will have; a grassy field in the sun wiht some trees surrounding.
The most popular audience viewings for this film are;
| Gender | Age |
| Female | 13-17 |
| Male | 25-34 |
| Female | 45-54 |
A further example of a romantic short is Post-It Love:
The views for this are;
| Gender | Age |
| Female | 13-17 |
| Female | 18-24 |
| Male | 25-34 |
An example of a psychological thriller:
This film also has similar aspects to ours because it is about a man losing his mental state within his office job. The tense music and changes to faster edits help portray this throughout the film.
The most popular audience viewings for the above short is as follows;
| Gender | Age |
| Male | 25-34 |
| Male | 45-54 |
| Female | 13-17 |
From the above examples and after looking at a few other shorts on YouTube of these two genres, as well, I found that the general pattern was young adult-maturer adult males and younger-adult females. The females were often younger than the majority of males shown to be viewing these shorts. I have also found that by asking some teachers and family members aged between 25-35; that the males generally prefer films with mainly action/psychological content and the females preferred the romantic type of film. However, I found that it was only the minority who actually watch any shorts on YouTube and these were predominantly males.
Despite facing the issue that our audience are not the main cosumers of YouTube we decided it was suitable for us to aim our film at a target audience of 20-30year old males and females. However the actual audience may range from males and females aged 16-late 50's.
Monday, 11 October 2010
How we plan to challenge a convention in our film
We are challenging the typical romantic genre convention of having a happy ending in our film because at the end it doesn't all work out happily ever after for him even though he has been shown throughout the film to be the one to feel sorry for and has lived a dismal lifestyle which, as the audience, you take pity on. Therefore our ending is fairly unexpected in my opinion and contrasts with what you would normally expect to happen.
Sunday, 10 October 2010
Our chosen genre and its conventions
Our film is going to be a mix of two genres; romance and psychological thriller. This is because we will have the relationship shown between the husband and wife but then the twist will be the tragedy that he murders her.
Psychological thrillers, i have found, usually feature middle-aged characters despite the fact that the audience they attract are normally the younger generation, such as 15-24year olds; which is why they are normally rated either as a 15 or 18, depending on the level of content. I think the younger audience would be attracted to this genre of film because they often contain a lot of violence for example and people like to see exaggerated versions in films because it seems more exciting than real life. However the reason for aiming it at a younger audience may be for different reasons such as; they are the largest age group viewers, they use the internet a lot and so would access information about the films very quickly and easily and so bring the most money in and also possibly due to the inexperience youth have meaning it can show them the consequences of certain actions on people's lives.
The genre psychological thriller is a sub-genre of the general thriller genre, however what makes it slightly different is that it incorporates elements from other genres too such as mystery and drama. The psychological elements are related to the mind; which could be a character's conflict of thoughts within their own mind for instance; it is often an attempt to understand an event which has occurred in their life, which is partly like ours because he was so frustrated with his wife but now has the guilt of his crime to live with instead. The thriller part of this genre usually focus's on plot to create intense scenes with physical action rather than looking into the characters mind processes. However, even though psychological thrillers are a form of a thriller, they tend to go the opposite way and focus largely on the characters, not the plot. Therefore this means the characters are mainly reliant on their mental state to overcome and obstacles they face; whether these be physical or in their own mind as previously mentioned. The characters minds are often affected by each other, with one possibly trying to destroy the other's mental state.
Psychological thrillers have come about in various different media forms over the years, but there is still a general pattern to be seen within the narratives. For example some themes to be seen are;
- Reality; Working out what is true and not true within the narrative and being able to relate to situations.
- The mind; is often where the narrative conflict occurs as characters battle with themselves to reach a new equilibrium.
- A purpose; the character's can often need to discover who they are and what role they should be taking in their life.
- Gender; males are usually the murderers and females the victims.
- Death; characters usually face experiences of death in their lives, whether it be due to their actions or not.
- Colour significance; the clothes or location characters are put in often symbolise part of their life such as white has the connotation of pure/innocence/victim. Even the weather for instance; a bright sunny day signifies happiness in a scene.
In our film we have got a lot of these conventions as well:
- We have cast the man, husband, as the murderer and the female, wife, as the victim. The men are also typically dominant and controlling in this type of film.
- Having the weather changing with the mood of the scenes; ensuring the viewer gains the total atmosphere of the film.
- We have got the twist in the plot of death because the man murders his wife and hen has to live with the guilt an the consequences of jail.
- The character's purpose of the dominant male character in our film was that he wanted to move on to a better job but his wife was always holding him back and nagging at him and he wanted to be a successful business man without the ties of being committed to a family and so he ha to find himself by taking control of his life and dramatically getting rid of his wife.
- The battle of conflict within his mind is therefore whether he should just be dominated and surrender to his wife's wishes or get his life back. After this conflict he then has another conflict about whether he should have killed her or not because he has to live with his actions.
- I think we have got two types of reality within our film because the situation of being trapped in a marriage and work are very easy to relate to and also the point of being able to realise what is real and what is not in the plot when the husband is imagining his nagging wife again, but she is dead.
Examples of psychological thrillers are;
- Lovesick Blues (2006) Short, directed by Alexander Cicak. This incorporates the themes of love and death and fatal consequences of mix ups between love and rage.
- Another film which incorporates love into the thriller is the one shown below:
Alfred Hitchcock is famous for his work on psychological thrillers often known as 'The Master of Suspense.' We can find examples of this in this film through the changes in music when he is having the thoughts of killing her, making the female the victim, and the softness and little camera movement when the romantic scenes are happening.
Another Alfred Hitchcock video shown above, Strangers on a Train, also has the suspenseful music, faster and slower editing for the different atmospheres and portrayal of romance and thriller and the female as a victim with death being a central theme.
Due to the fact that our film incorporates the romantic genre as well, i decided to look into some of the conventions for this genre as well. I found that :
- They are usually based around a couple who fall in love but there is something or someone preventing them to live the 'happy ever after' life.
- It will take place often around a house/work place and feature somewhere thought to be quite romantic; a park or beach for instance.
- To portray the mood of happiness bright lighting is used and scenes in the sunshine.
- Change in lighting; darker scenes, when they come to face the problem that is trying to separate them.
- Birds can often be heard in the background along with soft, romantic, happy music.
- Slow editing for romantic scenes, close ups are often used to show deep expression from he characters.
- The female will often be made out to be the victim if there is a break up and will be wearing bright, feminine clothes, look pretty.
- They are majorly centred on the love story, or affairs of the heart. These centre on the emotional, passionate and romantic involvement of the main characters. We follow the journey that their love takes them through, keeping the love story as the main plot focus.
Some examples i have found which show these conventions are;
In the trailer for 'Forrest Gump' above you can see that during the romantic scenes there is soft, romantic music playing, and the locations used for the romantic scenes take place in the sunset with the two 'love-birds' sitting on the tree. Another is where they are walking through a nice grassy park; these are tyical to the romantic genre.
Below is the trailer for the romantic film 'Ghost' by Jerry Zucker and straight away when the trailer begins you know that it is a romance because of the slow edits and fades and the slow, close, intimate movements between the characters, accompanied by romantic music.
Psychological thrillers, i have found, usually feature middle-aged characters despite the fact that the audience they attract are normally the younger generation, such as 15-24year olds; which is why they are normally rated either as a 15 or 18, depending on the level of content. I think the younger audience would be attracted to this genre of film because they often contain a lot of violence for example and people like to see exaggerated versions in films because it seems more exciting than real life. However the reason for aiming it at a younger audience may be for different reasons such as; they are the largest age group viewers, they use the internet a lot and so would access information about the films very quickly and easily and so bring the most money in and also possibly due to the inexperience youth have meaning it can show them the consequences of certain actions on people's lives.
The genre psychological thriller is a sub-genre of the general thriller genre, however what makes it slightly different is that it incorporates elements from other genres too such as mystery and drama. The psychological elements are related to the mind; which could be a character's conflict of thoughts within their own mind for instance; it is often an attempt to understand an event which has occurred in their life, which is partly like ours because he was so frustrated with his wife but now has the guilt of his crime to live with instead. The thriller part of this genre usually focus's on plot to create intense scenes with physical action rather than looking into the characters mind processes. However, even though psychological thrillers are a form of a thriller, they tend to go the opposite way and focus largely on the characters, not the plot. Therefore this means the characters are mainly reliant on their mental state to overcome and obstacles they face; whether these be physical or in their own mind as previously mentioned. The characters minds are often affected by each other, with one possibly trying to destroy the other's mental state.
Psychological thrillers have come about in various different media forms over the years, but there is still a general pattern to be seen within the narratives. For example some themes to be seen are;
- Reality; Working out what is true and not true within the narrative and being able to relate to situations.
- The mind; is often where the narrative conflict occurs as characters battle with themselves to reach a new equilibrium.
- A purpose; the character's can often need to discover who they are and what role they should be taking in their life.
- Gender; males are usually the murderers and females the victims.
- Death; characters usually face experiences of death in their lives, whether it be due to their actions or not.
- Colour significance; the clothes or location characters are put in often symbolise part of their life such as white has the connotation of pure/innocence/victim. Even the weather for instance; a bright sunny day signifies happiness in a scene.
In our film we have got a lot of these conventions as well:
- We have cast the man, husband, as the murderer and the female, wife, as the victim. The men are also typically dominant and controlling in this type of film.
- Having the weather changing with the mood of the scenes; ensuring the viewer gains the total atmosphere of the film.
- We have got the twist in the plot of death because the man murders his wife and hen has to live with the guilt an the consequences of jail.
- The character's purpose of the dominant male character in our film was that he wanted to move on to a better job but his wife was always holding him back and nagging at him and he wanted to be a successful business man without the ties of being committed to a family and so he ha to find himself by taking control of his life and dramatically getting rid of his wife.
- The battle of conflict within his mind is therefore whether he should just be dominated and surrender to his wife's wishes or get his life back. After this conflict he then has another conflict about whether he should have killed her or not because he has to live with his actions.
- I think we have got two types of reality within our film because the situation of being trapped in a marriage and work are very easy to relate to and also the point of being able to realise what is real and what is not in the plot when the husband is imagining his nagging wife again, but she is dead.
Examples of psychological thrillers are;
- Lovesick Blues (2006) Short, directed by Alexander Cicak. This incorporates the themes of love and death and fatal consequences of mix ups between love and rage.
- Another film which incorporates love into the thriller is the one shown below:
Alfred Hitchcock is famous for his work on psychological thrillers often known as 'The Master of Suspense.' We can find examples of this in this film through the changes in music when he is having the thoughts of killing her, making the female the victim, and the softness and little camera movement when the romantic scenes are happening.
Another Alfred Hitchcock video shown above, Strangers on a Train, also has the suspenseful music, faster and slower editing for the different atmospheres and portrayal of romance and thriller and the female as a victim with death being a central theme.
Due to the fact that our film incorporates the romantic genre as well, i decided to look into some of the conventions for this genre as well. I found that :
- They are usually based around a couple who fall in love but there is something or someone preventing them to live the 'happy ever after' life.
- It will take place often around a house/work place and feature somewhere thought to be quite romantic; a park or beach for instance.
- To portray the mood of happiness bright lighting is used and scenes in the sunshine.
- Change in lighting; darker scenes, when they come to face the problem that is trying to separate them.
- Birds can often be heard in the background along with soft, romantic, happy music.
- Slow editing for romantic scenes, close ups are often used to show deep expression from he characters.
- The female will often be made out to be the victim if there is a break up and will be wearing bright, feminine clothes, look pretty.
- They are majorly centred on the love story, or affairs of the heart. These centre on the emotional, passionate and romantic involvement of the main characters. We follow the journey that their love takes them through, keeping the love story as the main plot focus.
Some examples i have found which show these conventions are;
In the trailer for 'Forrest Gump' above you can see that during the romantic scenes there is soft, romantic music playing, and the locations used for the romantic scenes take place in the sunset with the two 'love-birds' sitting on the tree. Another is where they are walking through a nice grassy park; these are tyical to the romantic genre.
Below is the trailer for the romantic film 'Ghost' by Jerry Zucker and straight away when the trailer begins you know that it is a romance because of the slow edits and fades and the slow, close, intimate movements between the characters, accompanied by romantic music.
Wednesday, 6 October 2010
My group member's initial ideas
At the start of our course, each student had to come up with their own idea for a 5-minute short film and give a presentation on it, including aspects which would need to be considered to create the film; such as, location, props, potential problems, etc.
My idea: was a fantasy/festive family film and revolved around the idea of Christmas and Santa instead of the typical thriller film. The main plot of my film was that Santa would be going around the houses on Christmas Eve and would get sucked in by a dolls house chimney which was a present and then end up stuck inside the house as a miniature Santa so that he was not able to go and finish the rest of the deliveries.
Pros:
- The genre was different to what the other groups members had thought of.
- Detailed plot thought out.
- It would provide a chance to use green screen and so those effects would look very good in the film.
- It could all be shot locally and didn't contain any fast-paced action shots which would make it easier to film.
- I wouldn't contain any violence or swearing for example and so would be suitable for a wider audience.
- It provides good convergence opportunities for promotional toys etc.
Cons:
- The green screen effects may be very hard to achieve to a high standard and therefore may look unprofessional within the film.
- Due to the film being based around Christmas it had lots of 'snowy' scenes which would make it hard to film around the weather and would look unrealistic using a snow machine.
- It is a seasonal, festive film and so may not be of interest after Christmas time.
- It may miss out a vast age range; as children would enjoy it, and their families may watch it around Christmas but teenagers to young adults may not.
I felt my presentation was quite detailed and informative after carrying out a fair bit of research into each aspect; lighting, sounds, location, potential problems, props etc. However, my idea seemed fairly limiting to the group to link new ideas into it and so we decided to look at how we could use the other members ideas.
Matt's idea: was based around a fairly average man who was trapped in a dead-end, boring job but he dreamt about what his life used to be like when he was younger and where it all went wrong for him. The idea seemed to be more of a romance, with hints of psychological thriller.
Pros:
- Combination of genres.
- May appeal to a large age range.
- Some ambitious locations
Cons:
- Loose ending would need to be thought about in detail
- Ambitious locations
- Similarly to my idea, it focus's on the weather in order to create the right atmosphere for most scenes
Overall, Matt's idea seemed fairly feasible to create but needed some contribution from our other groups ideas in order to form a more solid plot.
Richard's idea: was all about going through the journey of a young man's memories whilst he appears to be lay down in a grassy field. However, the big twist in this plot is that later, the camera pans out and we find that it was those events which led up to him being stabbed and he is lying there with a knife in him. His presentation came across extremely thought out; consisting of a slide-show as well as including a more in depth idea for the treatment and parts of the script.
Pros:
- Very unexpected and effective twist in the plot.
- Seems as if it would reach a broad audience.
- Incorporated changes of mood and setting, however may include weather like he previous two which can prove difficult when needing to film.
Cons:
- It would require a lot of good quality editing to look professional.
- Flitting between settings and times could confuse the audience with the plot.
- Doesn't fit into a specific genre.
This idea seemed to be the one that would be most effective to produce with possible additions from other ideas. However the presentation could have been a bit shorter and a lot less writing to make it easier to understand and keep interest.
Jodie's idea: was slightly unclear as to the actual plot idea but was based around a glass of water which would empty itself during the night, however turned out to e a practical joke played on the girl by her sister. The presentation had lots of images to help follow the story.
Pros:
- Based around young character's which would relate to a large audience.
- Had a clear twist in the plot.
- The locations were easy to access.
Cons:
- The plot didn't feel as though it would last for the 5-minutes.
- There weren't many ways to change the plot by adding our other ideas to it.
- The plot wasn't very strong.
The idea seemed okay initially but then after listening to the whole presentation, there were problems with how the story of the glass would actually be able to be created and it didn't seem a good basis to start on.
After listening to each of our group's pitches, we decided that a combination of Matt and Richard's film ideas would make a good film and so we began working on that basis. As a group we have chosen to merge these two ideas because we feel they could link together as one really easily as they have some similar aspects about the plot to them. Also because mine and Jodie's ideas were very much unchangeable plots to link into the others. We also feel we will be able to make the most of different locations and shots by using Matt and Richard's ideas to create a professional outcome and the plot seems as though it will run for the desired amount of time; 5minutes.
My idea: was a fantasy/festive family film and revolved around the idea of Christmas and Santa instead of the typical thriller film. The main plot of my film was that Santa would be going around the houses on Christmas Eve and would get sucked in by a dolls house chimney which was a present and then end up stuck inside the house as a miniature Santa so that he was not able to go and finish the rest of the deliveries.
Pros:
- The genre was different to what the other groups members had thought of.
- Detailed plot thought out.
- It would provide a chance to use green screen and so those effects would look very good in the film.
- It could all be shot locally and didn't contain any fast-paced action shots which would make it easier to film.
- I wouldn't contain any violence or swearing for example and so would be suitable for a wider audience.
- It provides good convergence opportunities for promotional toys etc.
Cons:
- The green screen effects may be very hard to achieve to a high standard and therefore may look unprofessional within the film.
- Due to the film being based around Christmas it had lots of 'snowy' scenes which would make it hard to film around the weather and would look unrealistic using a snow machine.
- It is a seasonal, festive film and so may not be of interest after Christmas time.
- It may miss out a vast age range; as children would enjoy it, and their families may watch it around Christmas but teenagers to young adults may not.
I felt my presentation was quite detailed and informative after carrying out a fair bit of research into each aspect; lighting, sounds, location, potential problems, props etc. However, my idea seemed fairly limiting to the group to link new ideas into it and so we decided to look at how we could use the other members ideas.
Matt's idea: was based around a fairly average man who was trapped in a dead-end, boring job but he dreamt about what his life used to be like when he was younger and where it all went wrong for him. The idea seemed to be more of a romance, with hints of psychological thriller.
Pros:
- Combination of genres.
- May appeal to a large age range.
- Some ambitious locations
Cons:
- Loose ending would need to be thought about in detail
- Ambitious locations
- Similarly to my idea, it focus's on the weather in order to create the right atmosphere for most scenes
Overall, Matt's idea seemed fairly feasible to create but needed some contribution from our other groups ideas in order to form a more solid plot.
Richard's idea: was all about going through the journey of a young man's memories whilst he appears to be lay down in a grassy field. However, the big twist in this plot is that later, the camera pans out and we find that it was those events which led up to him being stabbed and he is lying there with a knife in him. His presentation came across extremely thought out; consisting of a slide-show as well as including a more in depth idea for the treatment and parts of the script.
Pros:
- Very unexpected and effective twist in the plot.
- Seems as if it would reach a broad audience.
- Incorporated changes of mood and setting, however may include weather like he previous two which can prove difficult when needing to film.
Cons:
- It would require a lot of good quality editing to look professional.
- Flitting between settings and times could confuse the audience with the plot.
- Doesn't fit into a specific genre.
This idea seemed to be the one that would be most effective to produce with possible additions from other ideas. However the presentation could have been a bit shorter and a lot less writing to make it easier to understand and keep interest.
Jodie's idea: was slightly unclear as to the actual plot idea but was based around a glass of water which would empty itself during the night, however turned out to e a practical joke played on the girl by her sister. The presentation had lots of images to help follow the story.
Pros:
- Based around young character's which would relate to a large audience.
- Had a clear twist in the plot.
- The locations were easy to access.
Cons:
- The plot didn't feel as though it would last for the 5-minutes.
- There weren't many ways to change the plot by adding our other ideas to it.
- The plot wasn't very strong.
The idea seemed okay initially but then after listening to the whole presentation, there were problems with how the story of the glass would actually be able to be created and it didn't seem a good basis to start on.
After listening to each of our group's pitches, we decided that a combination of Matt and Richard's film ideas would make a good film and so we began working on that basis. As a group we have chosen to merge these two ideas because we feel they could link together as one really easily as they have some similar aspects about the plot to them. Also because mine and Jodie's ideas were very much unchangeable plots to link into the others. We also feel we will be able to make the most of different locations and shots by using Matt and Richard's ideas to create a professional outcome and the plot seems as though it will run for the desired amount of time; 5minutes.
Monday, 4 October 2010
Shorts Research
Examples I have found which I thought to be influential were 'the black hole' from future shorts because it has an unexpected twist at the end and also likewise in the short 'Goodbye to the normals.' Goodbye to the normals has 64,928 views and the black hole has a huge 7,780,782 views. Viewers comments on the black hole have claimed it made themselves feel claustrophobic, they could tell the moral of the story was about greediness, it is amazing and wonderfully simple and there were many more positive comments. All of these comments prove that the film was high quality, very worthwhile and of importance to many who watched it.
As you can see from these films they all fit the general pattern of;
- being shorter than 10minutes.
- they are creative and experimental.
- use a small cast; usually 1 or 2 characters, with one of them being the main focus throughout. This may be because short film are too short to have complex characters and plots and so focusing on a small number of characters make it easier to follow the plot.
- they all have a twist to the plot, to form an interesting watch because they are so short.
- they tend to work upon the basis of an everyday situation so that their audience can relate to it, but then put a twist on it to make it often comical or surprising to watch. The shock factor of the twist is what makes them good to watch.
- My examples have all used everyday characters and everyday locations, again enabling the audience to relate to the situation which makes the twist in the plot pleasant to watch. It also makes it more believable.
- Due to short films being low budget, they have all got fairly plain and simple white writing for the titles and simple scrolling credits.
- They all use an ident at the beginning 'Future Shorts' in this case, clarifying what we are watching and where it has come from so that you can find more if you liked the first video you saw.
As you can see from these films they all fit the general pattern of;
- being shorter than 10minutes.
- they are creative and experimental.
- use a small cast; usually 1 or 2 characters, with one of them being the main focus throughout. This may be because short film are too short to have complex characters and plots and so focusing on a small number of characters make it easier to follow the plot.
- they all have a twist to the plot, to form an interesting watch because they are so short.
- they tend to work upon the basis of an everyday situation so that their audience can relate to it, but then put a twist on it to make it often comical or surprising to watch. The shock factor of the twist is what makes them good to watch.
- My examples have all used everyday characters and everyday locations, again enabling the audience to relate to the situation which makes the twist in the plot pleasant to watch. It also makes it more believable.
- Due to short films being low budget, they have all got fairly plain and simple white writing for the titles and simple scrolling credits.
- They all use an ident at the beginning 'Future Shorts' in this case, clarifying what we are watching and where it has come from so that you can find more if you liked the first video you saw.
Saturday, 2 October 2010
My group members
I am in a group of 4; myself, Jodie Wilkins, Richard Dawson and Matthew Bradley.
I feel that Richard has an extremely high strength in the editing aspect as he enjoys making edits in his own free time as well. This will work well when it comes to editing the actual film and also for creating a film poster in Photoshop because using that programme is what he is particularly talented at.
Jodie quite likes to know how she wants things to be done and confident in achieving this within a group and so i think taking a director role whilst filming would suit her.
I think Matt is quite creative and musical and can take a step back to evaluate situations to come up with more feasible options. Therefore I would think Matt best for creating the soundtrack and directing.
For myself, I feel I am fairly creative from studying Drama and English and so would enjoy creating/producing aspects such as the storyboard, script, poster and filming/directing actors.
I think within our group we are all fairly creative people with our ideas and put these forward so that we have a larger choice when it comes to making decisions which works well and we are all able to input our thoughts.
The work load will be shared out fairly so that one person is not left to create the script, get props, and organise the filming, to name a few. We all plan to take turns in the filming and directing of the scenes and will all be there to make any decisions and input our ideas when it comes to finding our actors, as we have already been doing with decisions concerning our treatment.
I feel that Richard has an extremely high strength in the editing aspect as he enjoys making edits in his own free time as well. This will work well when it comes to editing the actual film and also for creating a film poster in Photoshop because using that programme is what he is particularly talented at.
Jodie quite likes to know how she wants things to be done and confident in achieving this within a group and so i think taking a director role whilst filming would suit her.
I think Matt is quite creative and musical and can take a step back to evaluate situations to come up with more feasible options. Therefore I would think Matt best for creating the soundtrack and directing.
For myself, I feel I am fairly creative from studying Drama and English and so would enjoy creating/producing aspects such as the storyboard, script, poster and filming/directing actors.
I think within our group we are all fairly creative people with our ideas and put these forward so that we have a larger choice when it comes to making decisions which works well and we are all able to input our thoughts.
The work load will be shared out fairly so that one person is not left to create the script, get props, and organise the filming, to name a few. We all plan to take turns in the filming and directing of the scenes and will all be there to make any decisions and input our ideas when it comes to finding our actors, as we have already been doing with decisions concerning our treatment.
Friday, 1 October 2010
Introduction to shorts
I am creating this blog to follow the process of creating a 5-minute short film for our A2 media studies. A 'short film,' in the early period of cinema was a technical description first known in the North American film industry. In North America a short film is usually one between 20 and 40 minutes. However, in other places such as Europe, Latin America and New Zealand, for example, the film duration could be between 1-15mintues. In North America a short film also has the focus much more on character, whereas places such as in Europe it is much more on visual drama and plot twists. In other cases, short films are used as showcases for cinematographers and commercial directors.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)