Representation

Teen films we used as inspiration for our opening sequence...

High School Musical

High School Musical is a 2006 American teen/romantic comedy musical. 

Male: represented as athletic jocks who stick to the status quo. However, towards the end of the film they break away from their typical representations and become their own person.  

Female: represented as being very intelligent but who also follow the status quo. They also break out of their typical representations and become what they want to be. 

American Pie

American Pie is a 1999 teen sex comedy. 

Male: represented as weird group of loaners trying to out do each other.    

Female: represented as a goal and not actual people. Women are objectified and seen as sexual tools. There are only a select few female characters in this film that are given names, storylines and essentially personalities such as: Michelle, Heather and Victoria. However, the majority of the women in this film are not given names or a role in the film.

Superbad

Superbad is a 2007 American teen comedy film.
Male: represented as a pair of weird, sexually frustrated friends who trying to make a name for themselves at school.
Female: represented as sexual objects and are not really given a role in the film.

Storyboard and timeline

Our Storyboard

Below this is our storyboard which highlights in which order all the scenes  will come in and what will be included in each shot. This will help us to keep on track with our filming and ensure that every scene is correct. The storyboard also contains the shots that will be included in each scene.

Napoleon Dynamite Timeline

And then this is our timeline of all the names and what times they appear during the opening scene of Napoleon dynamite. This is a film opening which is very similar to our title scene, so this will be very useful. This is because it will help us to order our titles in the correct order and so that the titles flow like other films that we have researched.

Target Audience

PRIMARY: Teenagers

Gender: Female
Age: 14
Favourite Films: Mean Girls, The Breakfast Club, Bring It On and Clueless. 
Interests: Watching films and television, reading, playing netball and other sports and shopping. 
Why would she go and watch our film: She loves teen comedies and classic coming of age films. She is a big film fan and so enjoys going to the cinema and watching new films. She also has a whole range of interests so she can relate to each one of the characters in our film, thus making her more likely to watch it. 

SECONDARY: Parents

Gender: Female
Age: 30+
Favourite Films: Thelma and Louise, Beaches, Back to the Future and Sixteen Candles.
Interests: Reading, spending time with her children and watching movies. 
Why would she go and watch our film: Because if she has teenage children, then she will have to accompany them to our film as it is a 12A. She herself loves watching films, especially 80s/90s teenage comedies.

Our primary audience is teenagers between the ages of 12 and 19. This is because our film features both 11/12 year olds and 16/17 year olds thus making it easy for teenagers to relate to our characters and our narrative. 
Our secondary audience is parents of teenage children because they will have to accompany their children to our movie as it has BBFC classification of 12A. We believe they will also want to go watch our film as it follows a similar narrative to classic teenage films that were released during the 1980s/90s such as: The Goonies, Stand By Me and Now and Then.

Moodboard

This is a visual mood board that displays the inspirations for our film and films that we consider to be similar.  

Marketing of our film

We have done lots of research on how other low budget films like our own film can be marketed with a low budget.

Strategy 1: Social media sites 
Social media sites are used for low budget films to market their film because it is free an because so many people now use social media in their everyday life.

Strategy 2: YouTube pop ups
This costs a small fee to advertise films on YouTube but is a very effective way because you can specify what sort of video you want your pop up to be viewed on which means your marketing automatically is shown to your implied audience.

Strategy 3: Vine 
A vine is a very effective way for a low budget film for marketing a film, because it is free to do and can be distributed all around the world using the internet.

Strategy 4: Blogs
Blogs are free to make and you can add lots of detail to the blog but you can not do this on other types of promoting like a poster. But it is not easily accessed, so is hard to get a large audience to see the blog.


Strategy 5: Street marketing
Low budget film companies can take to the street, to leaflet and promote their film because it is cheaper than other marketing strategies like TV and radio adverts. But it does cost to print off the leaflets and for the wages of the staff who are promoting the film.




I found thisof a website stating about what low budget films can do to market their film sucessfully. So that the film is well known and people aware what our film is about.

Risk assessment

This is our groups risk assessment...

Film name ideas

As a group we have struggled to come up with a name for our film and so today we sat down as a group and brainstormed some ideas. Below is a list of the names that we collectively came up with:

- In bloom
- Then and now
- Outnumbered
- Fools
-When we were young
- Connect 4
- Gherkins
- Blind faith
- Out of the black
- Good times
- Good girls, bad girls
- Wannabe
- 5 second rule
- The Outsiders
- The normal ones

The film name that we decided which fit our film plot and theme the best was 'Connect 4'. This is because it is a board game and is fun and playful, which will appeal to our implied audience of 12+ years plus.

We are hoping to include a small song in our film opening as well as other uses of sound and dialogue. These are the possible options we have found for songs that will feature in our opening:

We also choose this song because it has no copyright on it,this means that we will not get penalized for copying a song of youtube.

Script

This is our script of the narrative and which character and the timings that the speech will be said.

Location photos and photo evidence

Below is a group of photos to show our location and evidence of everyone in our group working together and how we managed to achieve the task. It shows the progression from researching, planning and filming.

The first group of photos are showing evidence our group planning our task and working together to complete task that each member of our group had been allocated.

This is a photo of Connor completing our film pitch.

Here is a photo of me completing our script for our film.

Here I am starting to fill out our cabin with games etc, in which we are going to film the majority of our film opening.

This is the location of our film and how it was a storage unit before we transformed it.

This is the door to our cabin.

Here we figured out what we can do with the cabin to transform it into the room we would like it to be, so that we can film.

This photo shows the location for where we are going to film.

Here is Connor completing research for our opening scene and coming up with ideas for shots etc.

This is  a photo of Sarah completing a power point of similar films which we have researched.

This a photo of when we asked a team of people to come and help us to clear out the cabin so that we can start to film.

Here is photo evidence of us clearing out the boxes, tables etc. ourselves.

Another photo of people helping to move boxes out of our filming location.

A photo of moving the boxes to another location.

This is Jack and Connor moving the table which we did not need in the cabin when filming.

This was when we were moving the table out of the cupboard and into another room.

This is a photo of me talking to the four children actors, who play mine, Sarah's, Connors and Jack's younger selves in our film. I was letting them know what they will have to do for filming the scene.

This shows how we set up the cabin for filming the title of Connors name on the pictionary cards.

This is a photo to show how we transformed the location from being empty to having full shelves.

This is a photo of Sarah preparing the camera ready to film one of our title scenes.

We are all setting up the scene with games, ready for us to film.

This is a photo of us setting up our tripods and lights so that they are in the correct position for filming the scene.

Sound

We learnt about sound, how it is used to create effect and what are the different types of sounds. Here is what I have learnt about sound:

Digetic sound: The things the characters can here, like dialogue and sounds where they are filming the scene.

Non-digetic sound: Sounds that the characters cannot hear, like music or Foley sounds.

Synchronous sounds = Sounds that are matched with what is viewed. E.g. See your phone and hear ringing. This is digetic sound.

Asynchronous sounds = The sounds you hear but can't see on the screen. E.g. Siren but no ambulance. This is also digetic sound.

Ambient sound: Background noises (e.g. Wind, gate swinging, planes). These make a soundscape.

Voice over: A narrator talks over a film, this is a non-digetic sound.

Melody: A distinctive tune.

Symphonic: Music performed by a large orchestra.

Atonal: Music having no established key.

Rhythmic: Percussive sounds forming a beat.

Dissonant: Discordant (non-harmonious) combination of sounds.

Similar film title research

In order to understand our own title sequence, and the order in which to present our titles, we had to conduct some research into films that are similar to ours and the title sequences that they have. The films that we have chosen are: Napoleon Dynamite because of its unique use of titles and also Now and then (1995) which shows the young and older versions of the characters which we want to incorporate into our film opening. Here they are:

Prelim Flim pitch

Here below is our group's (which is me, Sarah, Connor H and Jack) final film pitch, after coming up with many different ideas and plots we adapted our best idea and pitched it to our class and teachers. This film is unique and interesting with a old school twist:

Production Diary

Production Diary

9th of November:
Today the class got split up and put into three groups, the group which I'm in involves Sarah, Tilly, Connor H and Jack. The first task which we had to do was to create our own individual film opening idea to then pitch to the group. This was so everyone could equally come up with their own personal idea which they think was a good idea and is doable.

10th of November:
Today we all pitched out individual film openings to see whether or not the group enjoyed it and so they could get constructive feedback.

Sarah's pitch- Sarah came up with a more futuristic film which involves the government being very corrupt and has tried to take control of the common people in the world. They have done this by irradiating speech and communication and has replaced is with media and technology. However in this there will be a glitch in the system which hasn't been affected by the government and is trying to fight back, this would be what the rest of the film would consist of.

Tilly's pitch- Tilly came up with a teen drama which has an upcoming teen star who is about to preform her first concert. However before she goes on she has flashbacks of her dramatic past. This involves her mum and dad dying and how she has been bullied throughout school. The stress of all these memories gets to her and she passes out before the concert.

Connors pitch- Connor came up with a drama which shows how a child has to deal with his OCD during school. This is presented as he his doing a voice over of what condition he has while he is tiding up a class room, each time he tides something the names of the people involved will appear. However after all the names have been shown two other kids will run into the room because they are trying to hide so why don't get into trouble, they see the other child and aggressively force him not to talk. The rest of the film would be based on the child having to keep a terrible secret which if said would help someone but if he does he would get very hurt.

Jacks pitch- Jack presented the idea of having the opening scene to be set in a hospital and some one is in a coma. Then while the camera is slowly doing a 180 degree shot round the bed there will be a few flashbacks of how the person is put in the coma. The rest of the film would be set in the past and is showing why and how the person is in the coma.

Once all of us pitched our ideas we had to discuss which one was the best. However after the lesson had come to an end we couldn't decide which one was the best because each of us defended and though our idea was the best so we didn't come to a conclusion by the end.

11th of November:
Today we sat down with our teacher to try and finally decide which film idea we were going to do, we then came up with the idea of a group of friends who have stayed friends over the course of there child hood and high school by playing games in a small hidden place which only they know and love because of the memories they have made over the years. After we had came up with this we then had to produce a slide which to pitch to the class and teachers to get feedback.

13th of November:
Today we got set each other different tasks to do, Sarah was finding opening scenes which related to our film so we could get more knowledge of what to include and how to shoot it, Tilly writing down a list of what props we need and how they could be used during the opening scene, Jack was set the task to find the background music the the opening scene which was important because the music sets the mood and atmosphere of the entire scene. Connor had the task to keep the production diary up to date.

16th of November:
Today we again set each other different tasks to complete, Sarah was writing about opening scenes which are similar to ours, she was saying how they were similar and what was good about them. Tilly was making a start on the script of we scene and what actions/emotions they would show when taking. Connor was in charge of producing the story board to show what is happening in each scene and to update the production diary. Jack had to use the camera and take pictures of us doing each of out tasks and to show the location of where we are shooting and what the place looks like,

17th of November:
The tasks which we had to complete today were, Sarah was writing down all of the shots for each seen and researching film titles. Connor was producing the shooting diary and updating the product diary. Tilly was producing a risk assessment for each filming in the cabin and doing the scene down a road. Jack was looking up extra props we could buy and use during the opening scene.

19th of November:
Today the tasks we had to accomplish was Jack was doing the representation, Connor has doing a video of the story board where he was saying what was going on and updating the story board. Sarah is doing the audience of our film. Tilly is completing the marketing of our film.

20th to the 30th of  November:
In this period of time we set up the cabin which we shall shoot most of our opening scene in. The first thing we had to do was clear out all of the boxes and a desk from the cabin to create space for us to set up all the props, once we had done this we had to bring in loads of games and other props to fill up the selves and fill space. The next thing to do after this was to write and make titles for the opening scene, we are going to do this by putting them on some of the props.
We also have to find four kids which shall represent our younger selves in the opening scene too.

1st December:
Today we found the four children whom we will use to play our younger selves in our film opening and we also went to the cabin and wrote on books, CDs, games etc. the titles which we had earlier come up with. We also started to shot our film opening and start to edit together the footage we got.

2nd December:
 The tasks that we completed today was to continue filming and today we filmed the four younger children in the cabin playing games and also filmed our selves playing the gamed and edited this together.

3rd December:
In this media lesson we all as a group decided on which final shots we should film for our titles which was the pictionary and cup stacks. After filming these two titles

4th December:
Today we asked the four children who played our younger selves to come back to media and we filmed the jump shot scene of them walking into school.

7th of December:
On this date we watched everyone's first draft of their film opening and then was asked to give negative and positive feedback on what we had watched for each video. We also received feedback from teachers and peers and sat down as a group to discuss what we shall do to improve our film opening.

8th of December:
Sarah Olivier wrote the script for the voice-over and then Tilly Hawkins and Connor Harper recorded the voice over and applied it to our film opening. But due to it being fairly hard to understand and not flowing we decided we are going to re-film it so it is clearer on the 11th.

9th of December:
Today in this lesson we sat down all four of as a group with our teacher to discuss our script for our new voice-over and how we will use the voice-over to get across the idea of being childhood friends etc. to the viewer.

10th of December:
After receiving the feedback from our teachers and peers a couple of days ago we decided to re-film a couple of the titles so they make more sense such as the CD title. But after returning to the media room and looking at the footage we re-filmed, we collectively decided that the footage was worse quality than the original footage. Therefore just kept the original footage but edited it to color correct some title scenes.

11th of December:

Today we decided to re-film our voice over in the morning due to negative feedback about the voice over in particular and we edited this onto our film footage. And then after some final editing our final draft for 'Connect Four' was complete.

Character costumes

We have to think carefully about the costumes for our characters so that they fit in with the scene and how we want them to look. 

So below is a list of what we want the characters to look like:

Sarah's costume:
- Black jeans with a plain white t-shirt and black boots to make her character look more grown up.

Tilly's costume:
- Black jeans also so she looks similar to Sarah, with a grey jumper and trainers.

Connor's costume:
- Grey jeans with a plain t-shirt and a shirt with trainers.

Jack's costume:
- Blue jeans with a plain black t-shirt and grey trainers.

We will have to ensure that the 4 young children that play the younger versions of ourselves look similar to us and that they have similar outfits to make it more realistic or they should wear school uniform which is generally what the younger version of ourselves would wear if they were in year 7.

Prop List

Prop List

Club house:

This is a list of the props that will be needed to fill our portacabin

• Vinyl Records which will be moved by one of the characters and a title will be shown on the middle of the record.
• Old posters which will be taped to the wall in the club house.
• Boxes of retro sweets and cereals 
• A lava lamp 
• Scrabble which will spell out the name of the film
• Guess who introducing the characters
• Retro DVDs
• Fairy lights around the room to make it more
• Comic books
• Tea mug, which will have a title on
• Monopoly 
• Connect 4
• A round wooden table in middle of the room
• Alphabet Spaghetti to introduce a title
• Rack of fancy dress clothes
• Dart board
• A guitar which will be given to the character of Kurt to show his musical side.
• Cup stacks
• Jenga
• A rug on the floor of the cabin

Using the props to create titles:

1. The titles will start rolling after the 360 degree shot of the older children sitting in a circle around the table, then one of the characters picks up a coffee mug and takes a sip where the first title will be spelled out on the bottom of the mug. This will be introducing the film's production company.
2. The second title will be using Scrabble pieces which will spell out the name of the film, this will be a sped up version of one of the characters moving the pieces into a line to introduce the film name.
3. The first character Alex who is played by Tilly will be introduced by her character walking over to the wall where a posters corner is bent over and she folds it back where her name will be on the corner.
4. The second character Katie who is played by Sarah will introduce her title by pulling out a jenga piece where her name will be on.
5. The character Kurt who is played by Connor and is the musical, will have his title on his guitar which he will have on his back when sitting down.
6. The character Jacob who is played Jack and in the film his character is very sporty will have his name on the front of a comic book which he will be looking at, at the time.
7. The title for who the film is produced by will be on the spine of a book which will be on the shelf. The camera will pan past the books and then one of the characters will take out of the book shelf.
8. The title of the editors of the film will be on a CD and will be spun around in its case, one of the characters will spin this around.
9. The title of who filmed the opening scene will be on a piece of fake money from the board game monopoly.
10. The title for costumes by will be on a sketch notepad which someone will flip over and the title will be on the other side.
11. The title for who directed the film will be on the top of a coat rack, where someone will go and hang up their coat and the title will be above the hook.
12. Glue with glitter on top.
13. Candy stick sweets on table then childrens hands go and grab them.
14. Cup stacks construct to make name.
15. On a whiteboard, steps to clubhouse rules, (First rule of board game club, don't talk about board game club). 
16. A slice of cake and pipe onto plate. 
17. Using Lego pieces

Individual Film Pitch

Today I have been put into a group for my prelim task with Me, Sarah, Connor H and Jack. Below is an overview of the film pitch which i will present to my team, so we can decide which film idea we like the most and which one is the most suitable. Then we can develop these ideas


Film Title: Eyes Wide Shut

Film Genre: Drama

Film Idea: 

The idea that I have come up with is a young female who is a young, famous singer who has not always been as famous as she is today. The scene will open up with the young singer walking on to the stage, where the stage is blackened and there is a spotlight on the center of the stage. 

This entire scene on the stage will be in a black and white effect. Someone will introduce her to the stage and everyone will applaud in the audience. She stands in the spotlight with the microphone in front of her. It will start of a fall shot of her on the stage, then slowly zoom into her face. Before she closes her eyes and has a voice over of her saying about her life previously.

The spotlight will then cut out and it will be a black screen, before then cutting to a scene from her past where her parents died, she got bullied and in her school crying (make-up all down her face). When it flashes back for the final time, it is still close up to her face and there starts heavy breathing and then camera cuts out and goes fuzzy almost like she has passed out. This will leave an enigma code, so the viewer will want to know why she is struggling to get over her past.

I would like to take some influence from the opening scene of "Into The Wild", with only one character in the scene and there is a sense of vulnerability towards the character. the character also has a backpack and is trekking but this will be what only the ending of our opening scene will be like.

 

Film Title analysis

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol title scene

Today in lesson we where asked to choose a film with very interesting film titles in which we could analyse and which will help us to determine in which order the titles run and which person in the making of the film is considered having the most important role. These below are the titles which contain the main actors and directors etc. from the large ensemble cast.

Time on screen:

3 seconds long

1) The first title that pops up in the Mission Impossible: Ghost protocol title sequence is the production companies, it is the first company listed maybe because it is the most important. The style of the background is a explosive wire being set on fire and travels along the scene of an underground, which has an eerie feel.

Time on screen:

3 seconds long

2)This is the second title with a film production company on but this film company does not stand out as well against the background because there is no light shining on the name.

Time on screen:

3 seconds long

3) This is the third and final production company which has the same graphics and same font size as the previous titles, meaning that it has the same importance as the second production company.

Time on screen:

3 seconds long

4) The main character who is played by Tom Cruise is shown first on the credits, because he is the most well known actor in the film.

Time on screen:

3 seconds long

5) This is the main title of the film. The writing is very bold and bright, therefore stands out on the dark, dull background. The scene is in a sewage tunnel underground, which shows a sense of adventure.

Time on screen:

1.5 seconds long

6) This is the second title of the film because the film is part of a sequel, the titles have to state which sequel it is because there are multiple other films in the franchise. Due to the nature of its name, it is called 'ghost' protocol and when this title scene finishes the letters fade into the darkness almost like a ghost.

Time on screen:

2 seconds long

7) This is the second cast member in the title sequence to be shown, it is Jeremy Renner and has a similar animation and design as the font for Tom Cruises title. The scene is set in an office room and has a character investigating into the darkness of the room.

Time on screen:

1.5 seconds long

8) This is the third and final cast member to be shown on their own in a title scene because Simon Pegg is also a very well known actor. The writing of his name is very similar to the other two actors but the only thing different is that the background has more light in it.

Time on screen:

2 seconds long

9) These are all actors/actresses in the film but are not as well known as the higher earning actors therefore as shown in a title of three actors together including Josh Holloway, Anil Kapoor and Lea Seydoux. This scene has graphics so the writing looks like it is floating underwater and is a lighter scene than previously.

Time on screen:

2.5 seconds long

10) After the celebrity cast have been introduced the next title is still underwater and the writing is still plain and action like. This title is showing who was in charge of the casting for the film, which is a very important role.

Time on screen:

2 seconds long

11) The 11th title is in a special agents office showing a missile and the writing saying "Visual Effects Supervisor" is still similar size to previous titles but the writing is positioned more to the right to fight around the missile prop.

Time on screen:

2.5 seconds long

12) This title scene is from a birds eye view of a tall building in a city and the whole feel is very futuristic. The font of the Co-producers is a lot smaller that all previous title scenes but it is still in the same style. 

Time on screen:

2 seconds long

13) This is very similar to the previous slide but is showing two more co-producers who helped to produce the film. And the scene is still very much the same.

Time on screen:

2 seconds long

14) This title shows who the music is by and the scene is very light. There is good use of props in this scene with the climbing equipment and the goggles which show the action in the film.

Time on screen:

1.5 seconds long

15) This title is very creative which fits well with the idea of introducing the costume designer, who is called Michael Kaplan. The title has a fast sports car speeding along the street, which shows the viewer instantly that the film is going to be face paced.

Time on screen:

2 seconds long

16) This title is to show who the film was edited by, Paul Hirsch is by himself on this title showing that he is the main editor of the film and is superior to other editors. The background is of a high tech computer system which also shows that the films genre will be action.

Time on screen:

2 seconds long

17) This is a title to introduce the executive producer who has the overall say on how the film is produced. The background is lighter than the other scenes but the text is the same.

Time on screen:

2.5 seconds

18) The third title to include producers on has three names all on one title. And none of the names are larger than the other so shows that they all equally played a part in the editing of the film.

Time on screen:

2 seconds

19) This title in the background shows a faint image of a character falling off a building this also shows a sense of fighting and action in the film. This Title shows who the film is written by and is the second from last title which I believe means that the writers of the film are very important to the film. 

Time on screen:

2 seconds long

20) The last title in the scene is who the film is directed by who is Brad Bird and he is one of the most important minds of the making of the film and i believe this is why he was left to the end of the titles to introduce because he is the most important. The scene is dark again and goes back to underground where the titles started out at.

Conclusion...

I can conclude from analyzing the title sequence of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol that there is a particular in which the members of the team used to create the film are ordered. First of all I discovered that the production companies of a film are what bring the film together so this is what came first on a title sequence. And the main star of the film which the viewer watches the film to see is the first cast member to be mentioned. And then the less famous ensemble of cast members are then titled on the next couple of pages. Due to all the text throughout the film except from the film title all being the same size and font, it shows that all the members of the cast are as an important compartment to the team as each other.Then the members that help make the film behind the scene are after the cast because these are usually the people which viewers are less familiar with and the role they play in the making of a film. Even though the members of the people making a film are all a team and are all as important as eachother.