Animated Storyboard

Here is an animated storyboard that Lauren created, this really helps showcase our idea's, and gives our audience a proper idea of how our movie opening begins. This will be put on our Facebook page tonight so we can gather even more audience feedback.

Facebook page - Audience feedback.

On Tuesday night I set up our company, Dead-Cell Production, our very own facebook page for us to get Audience feedback. Its taken on quickly with 15 people in the first day and we expect that to double or triple in the next week.

As you can see the Facebook page has been set up, I have already asked for people to rate the logo and choose one of the 3 they prefer the most. Secondly I have set up a quick poll to see what are people favourite genre of movies, although we have already choose our style it would be nice to know what percentage of people would be interested in seeing our film.

Movie and Production Company logo

Here is the preliminary logo for our production company, this is just the basic outline for it, over the next week I will discuss with my group what little tweaks we can add to get it that unique effect we want for our company and movie.

This is going to be the logo and title for our movie, we used the biohazard symbol to give the suggestion of something infectious happening in the movie. And hoping that it will infect the audience into watching it. We ran a poll on Facebook out of 3 different designs and to this point this logo is the clear winner.

Lesson Report

In today's lesson, we completed all tasks needed, I posted our storyboard that Lauren completed onto my blog, and as a group we also came up with our production company name. And the name of our movie, secondly I created a few different designs for the title, that we have agreed to use.

So for this to decide which colours I am going to go home and start a Facebook page for us to get feedback, and help us choose which design would be better. And from there on get more feedback from the audience about the opening.

Movie Name and Productions company

We have finally thought of our movie name, and the name of our production company.

The movie will be called - State of Emergency

We thought this titled fitted in perfectly with what is happening in our movie and the outbreak of a virus. And State of Emergency meaning a Government or country is in serious trouble, and under threat, which helps us portray the story of the movie without going into too much detail.

And our production company will be called - Dead-cell Productions

Which we thought would be in keeping with our movie. As it cover the kind of horror basis, of Dead-Cell which basically mean someone who is dead, or dying. So this works well.

First Storyboard

Here is our first storyboard that Lauren has created and shows our final idea in full and the different scenes. At this point it means we are almost ready to start filming certain parts of the movie opening. As we have a very clear Idea about what is going to happen and where it is going to happen.

Lesson report

This lesson we have completed our first draft script, and Lauren has completed our story board which will be uploaded shortly. Curtis also found a distrubutor in Bounty films who are low budget and would specialize in our sort of movie.

Recce shots/video

So on friday morning I scouted to possible locations for one scene (or the main scene) for our film, looked good. I know the area well enough anyway and would be quite easy to find any other location if either one of these didnt work:

Those are shots from location 1.

And that was location number 2.

Progress report

From now on as we are starting to properly plan our piece I am going to put on here regular progress reports.

After the lesson on tuesday we have delagated tasks to each group member, Lauren will be responsible for making the storyboard. Curtis for the name of the movie and company name, and other seperate tasks and I will hope to have some recce shots of filming locations done for friday morning, and finally I look to have completed a preliminary script for our opening. 

Opening Idea update

Today we are going to properly start our planning. Different ideas from me, Curtis, and Lauren are all coming together nicely and we are really starting to see the storyline together. We feel that using flashbacks will be the best way to help kick start the story, to get people interested.

So basically we are going to start it buy showing our main character with the camera filming himself trying to get a message to the outside world, then flashing back to what has happened, maybe showing a new bulletin aswell. And from there showing different flashbacks to the audience. And finally showing the character in his final chase. We also want to end if with the screen showing 6 months later to really set up the whole movie.

Group feedback from presentation

Me and Lauren just presented our idea to the class, the general consensus was good. After this we are set on this idea of a Zombie thriller. Our idea's got a good reception with it being not to unrealistic, with several locations to shoot from. And the story can be chopped and changed if needed.

Here are some pictures from it aswell, this presentation really helped us a as group and it was important to get the first forms of feedback we needed for our project. About the locations we could really shoot anywhere, forest's have been thought of along with maybe an empty car park.

Audience Research - Horror

Because we are looking into creating an opening for zombie films, I have decided to delve into some audience research, I started by looking at box office figures for zombies movie's when they were released. The movie Zombieland is the highest grossing zombie film of all time, collecting 75 million dollars since being realeased, With resident evil-Afterlife behind it with 60 million. This shows there is a rather large market for Zombie films. In fact Zombieland was the 42nd highest grossing highest film in 2009.

Another example is the Saw films, although not Zombie orientated, but maintaining the horror genre this series shows that horros sells, the series not in its 6th edition has continually grossed highly for every single film.

To add to the Saw film franchise, the first film was made with a budget of 1.2 million, it box officed 102 million dollars, which is an unbelievable turnaround showing the massive interest for movies of this genre.

Shaun of the dead had a budget of only 5 million dollars, but box officed over 30 million, here we saw an actual zombie film make quite a big success in the film market.

Distrubutors of horror films :
Mainly for the bigger budget, bigger success films a big distrubution company will be used, such as Saw which was distrubuted by 20th Century Fox. Secondly Zombieland was distrubuted by Columbia Pictures. And finally Shaun of the dead was distrubuted by Universal Pictures.

Quantum of Solace- Opening titles timeline.

From the opening titles of Quantum of Solace, I have created a timelime of it. Which includes sound, and the opening titles. By analysing different opening and how titles are shown in different movies, this will help us be able to create a better standard of opening title.

Quantum of Solace- Opening titles

I have decided to use the opening titles from the movie A Quantum of Solace, here are the opening titles.

The Main task

We now start the planning for our main task. To create a opening for a Fiction film that last the maximum of 2 minutes. Me, Curtis and Lauren, or trialing several ideas. But we are mainly leaning towards the Genre of Horror, or a 30's Gangster movie. More so the Horror movies, as we feel we could create a sophisticated take on this sort of film. Without it becoming a silly blood and gore movie. We feel the "Zombie" option would be a good idea. With possibly a chase scene through a dark Forest.

One of my own ideas would be to have some P.O.V shots as a character was filming himself being chased. But we are still in the early planning phase and more ideas will come together.

The Brief

We now start our main exercise, to create an opening to a film of any Genre lasting 3 minutes.

British Board of Film Classification

The BBFC are the company that certify films and give them their classification. Different certificates will have different guidelines.

U- No discriminatory language or behaviour unless clearly disapproved of. Scary sequences should be mild, brief and unlikely to cause undue anxiety to young children. The outcome should be reassuring. Mild sexual behaviour (for example, kissing) and references only (for example, to ‘making love’).

PG- Frightening sequences should not be prolonged or intense. Fantasy settings may be a mitigating factor. Sexual activity may be implied, but should be discreet and infrequent. Mild sex references and innuendo only. Moderate violence, without detail, may be allowed, if justified by its context (for example, history, comedy or fantasy).

12 - Moderate physical and psychological threat may be permitted, provided disturbing sequences are not frequent or sustained. Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied, or appear pain or harm free. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised. Sexual activity may be briefly and discreetly portrayed. Sex references should not go beyond what is suitable for young teenagers. Frequent crude references are unlikely to be acceptable. Moderate violence is allowed but should not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted if justified by the context. Sexual violence may only be implied or briefly and discreetly indicated, and must have a strong contextual justification.

15- There may be frequent use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’). The strongest terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable. Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable. Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.

18- Sex works are works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation. Sex works containing only material which may be simulated are generally passed ‘18’. Sex works containing clear images of real sex, strong fetish material, sexually explicit animated images, or other very strong sexual images will be confined to the ‘R18’ category. Material which is unacceptable in a sex work at ‘R18’ is also unacceptable in a sex work at ‘18’.

All these things contribute to the certificate of the movie, and they must keep in these guidelines for the movie to be given, if not, it can be changed and the target audience would need to wholely change aswell.

Codes And Coventions - Film Openings

The first 2-5 Minutes of any film are vitally important. This obviously if the first thing the viewers see so it must be exciting enough to draw them in, tell them the story them to bring them into the story themselves. Or show something thought provoking to antagonise them to watch more.

Common Codes are:
Setting the Scene
The Genre of the film
Introduction of Characters

Different directors techniques will vary, for example in the movie Top Gun the director has chosen to start the movie by showing the actors name before actually seeing any action and some brief info on the movie. The director starts with views from the aircraft carrier at a low point, tracking across the deck. As the aircraft take off, the director uses extreme long shots and wide shots to get as much of the action as possible.



On the other hand we have, Star Wars revenge of the Sith. This movie starts in at a very fast pace. As you go straight into a space battle. This first of all gets the viewer immeadiatly interested, and it shows the Genre of the film straight away. There are again lots of long shots, and establishing to show an array of action. Which switch to close ups of the characters inside the spaceships.



Finally im going to talk about the movie Forrest Gump. This is slightly different to the previous two. This movie follows a feather down from the sky. Little do the viewers know this feather is an important symbol in the movie. And as it floats down it introduces the main character. Also it lands on his muddy trainers, which links back to another important part of the movie to come, which the viewer will realise as it carries on.

Preliminary Exercise

Here is my finished Preliminary Exercise:

Camera Angles

There are a vast amount on Camera angles in film and TV which are all used in different scenarios, here are some examples.

Extreme Close Up:
Taken from a long way away somtimes over a quater of a mile. Used to set a scene and establish a location
 

Long Shot:

This category includes the full shot showing the entire human body, with the head near the top of the frame and the feet near the bottom. While the focus is on the characters, plenty of background detail still emerges.

Medium Shot:
Contains a figure from the knees or waist and is normally used for dialogue scenes, or to show some detail of action.

Close Up:

This shows very little background, and concentrates on either a face, or a specific detials of mise en scene. Everything else is just a blur in the background. This shot magnifies the object, and shows the importantnce of things, be it words written on paper, or the expression on someones face. 

Extreme Close Up:
As its name suggests, an extreme version of the close up, genreally magnifying beyond what the human eye would experience in reality. An extreme close up of a face, for instance, would show only the mouth or eyes with no background etails whatsoever

 

Continuity

In fiction, continuity is consistency of the characteristics of persons, plot, objects, places and events seen by the reader or viewer over some period of time.

For example, most continuity errors are subtle, such as changes in the level of drink in a character's glass or the length of a cigarette, others can be more noticeable, such as sudden drastic changes in appearance of a character. Such errors in continuity can ruin the illusion of the scene or movie leading to the scene losing its realism.

Continuity

Match on Action

Match on Action is when you see a character in a scene for example going to open a door. You will have a medium shot of where you can see the whole character. As the character opens the door there will be an Extreme Close up on the Characters hand as they open the door.

Shot/Reverse Shot

Shot reverse shot is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.

180 Degree Rule

The 180 Degree rule is basically the guideline that states two characters in the same scene should always have the same left right relationship.( As shown above) If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle

Preliminary Exercise!

We were told to produce a continuity exercise which involves a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down opposite another character, they then exchange a couple of lines.

We were told to use these:

• Shot/Reverse Shot
• Match On Action
• 180 Degree Rule

Me!

Hey, Im James.

I take Media Studies at Ken Stimpson Community School. Im 16, live in Peterborough and come from Northern Ireland. I am 6ft tall and have Brown hair, I enjoy doing Drama and English, aswell as Media and hope they help to further my acting career. I also enjoy playing and watching football aswell as many other different sports. Also I have a great love of music in most Genre's but mainly alternative rock.

My group for my Media Studies A-level is with Curtis Lord, Lauren Alexander.

This year in Media Studies we have to complete a premliminary exercise where we have to keep continuity throughout the small scene.

And for a main task we will create a opening titles for a new fiction film.