RESEARCH AND PLANNING: Preliminary Questions

Content

·         The opening of these movies I find is what draws us into the movie and makes us want to continue watching it. It also tells us what genre the movie is going to be within these first 2 minutes.

·         The soundtrack (if there is one) normally sets a mood for this movie, also makes you get an idea of what the genre is.

·         The opening introduces you to the characters, so you can tell by which well known actors or actresses that are in it would then make you think whether or not the movie is going to be good, for example in Hot Fuzz, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are the main actors in this film, this assures you that this film is going to be a comedy.

·         In some of the movies at the start they show credits and the title, again you can tell the movie is going to be good or not by which actors/actresses are in it, and also by what the title is can make the movie appear interesting or not to its audience.

Function

·         The opening of the movie normally tells us the type of genre, it also tells us the time of day this adds to the mood of the film.

·         The soundtrack at the start of the film normally links with what the film is going to be about / the genre.

·         Some of the opening shots of the main character can tell us whether they play a good or bad part in the movie; this also can depend on who the actor/actress is.

Corporate Information

·         The corporate information in these films tells you whether or not the film is going to be good or not, for example Hot Fuzz’s ident is Universal this is very popular in the film industry and might draw people into watching it.

What has your TAR told you about likes, dislikes and viewing habits?

My target audience from our questionnaire results said that they preferred a Romantic Comedy as their favourite film genre; this has made us chose a RomCom as our film genre.
People have said that they prefer to view their film at home, rather than going out to the cinema. They have also said that what really draws them into a film is the trailer; if the trailer looks good then they are more likely going to want to see that film. The questionnaire results also show that most people prefer films that have a soundtrack to the opening and more people also said that the beginning of the film is what draws them in and makes them want to continue watching, and that the beginning of the film is most important.

How have you used the above research to make planning decisions regarding your movie?

Because most people have decided that they prefer a romantic comedy as their film choice, we have decided to have a romantic comedy as our 2 minute opening.
The content of our movie will show our main character getting out of her car and going into her house. As she’s sat reading a magazine the camera zooms and then we skip back to the past and see her sitting at work. We then go back and see her getting ready to go out, we have already found out where it is she is going to from when we skipped back to the past.
 The establishing shot will start with the sky, a few credits will appear and the title will then appear, the camera will then pan down and our 2 minutes will begin, this establishing shot will automatically tell the viewers what time of day our film starts on.

Directors Pitch

Film Media – Directors Pitch

 

·         Our first opening shot is of the sky, a few of our films credits are shown over this. The camera then pans down to a house (evening time).

·         We see our main character arriving home from work (dressed in work clothes). We have a long shot of the house and the car and this then changes to a shot from the back of the car to see the character getting out.

·         We see our character going into the house, the camera follows our character into the kitchen where she makes a cup of tea and sits down with a magazine.

·         The camera zooms into the magazine, and then zooms out showing her work colleague reading that magazine, the camera then pans across to show our main character at work sending an email to her date; this is a past shot of her looking forward to her date later.
We have chosen to do a past shot because we feel it will tell you more about where she is going later on and who she will be meeting. This tells the audience that this film is going to be about love.

·         We see her emailing her date at work, the camera zooms into the email and then out back to her at home getting ready for the date, cut scenes of doing make-up and choosing an outfit.
We have chosen to do these cut scenes of the past and the future to create a sense of excitement for our main character.

·         We then have a long shot of her leaving the house all dressed up for her date, as she walks to the left the camera stays still as she walks off the left side of the screen.

·         The camera then shows her walking from the back and then from the front, this would be a match on action shot.

·         We then see our main character arriving at the meeting place of her date which happens to be a pub/bar; the atmosphere of the film at this point will be excitement yet also tense as we want to see her date.

·         We have a long clip of the clock in the pub/bar which we could then speed up to show that she has been waiting there for a long time.

·         She goes to leave and the pub/bar giving up on her date, this sets a mood of disappointment for the audience. But as she goes to walk out she walks straight into someone else. The camera shows the back of his head as our main character shares a smile with this stranger, this then turns into shot reverse shot as they share a few lines of dialogue.

·         The first 2 minutes of our film ends here.

 

Location

 

Northampton town (area of work)

Long Buckby (their home)

Cold Ashby pub black horse ( place where they meet) we need to get permission.

School B20 (the office, place of work)

 

Resources

Cameras, dolly wheels, tripod, external mics.

Planning - Storyboard

Questionnaire Results

Film Media - Target Audience Questionnaire

Target Audience Research

1.       Where do you watch films? (Circle One)

Home   Cinema   Other______________

2.       What Genre do you watch? (Circle One)

Sci-Fi Horror Drama Comedy Romance Action Family   Other___________________

3.       What hooks you into a film?

_________________________________________________________________

4.       Does the opening create questions for you that will be answered later on in the film?               

YES      NO

5.       Do you prefer it if there is a soundtrack to the opening?

YES       NO

6.       How do you find out about new movies? (Circle One)

Film Reviews Interviews with actors Cinema Listings   Film Trailers Other__________________

7.       Do you think the Beginning draws you in to the film?

YES      NO

8.       Do you think the beginning is the most important part of a film? Why?

______________________________________________________________

RESEARCH: Deconstruction of 'Scream 1'

Director: Wes Craven
Year: 1996
Certificate: 18
Genre: Horror

Camera Work

   The opening shot is a close up of a phone ringing, as the phone is answered the camera pans and follows it to the girl who has answered it. As she is talking the camera slowly zooms in slightly. As she hangs up the phone and walks away the camera continues to pan so we are focused on her, the phone rings again and as she stops so does the panning, the camera zooms slightly in again. We have another close up of the phone as she answers again and again the camera pans to her. The camera zooms and very slightly pans to the right of her. The camera then pans a little more quickly until we are also focused on her and the door behind her, as she hangs up again the camera does not pan this time, it stays focused on the glass door behind her, this creates suspense. She stands back up and walks from left to right across the screen but the camera does not pan to follow her, the whole time it is focused on the door which is building up the suspense for something to happen.
 The scene changes and we are shown a close up on a tree outside, the camera slowly pans down the tree to show a swing swinging slowly.
 The scene changes quickly again to our main character lighting gas on the hob, we have a extreme close up of this. The phone rings again and as our character moves around the kitchen to answer it, the camera has resumed to panning as she walks. The camera continues to pan as she walks around whilst on the phone. As the creepy man on the phone tells her he is watching her, the camera zooms into her face which is looking fairly frightened now. As she panics and starts locking doors, we have close ups of the locks as she is locking them, this increases the suspense and tension of what’s about to happen.

Sound

  The film starts with a non-diegetic crash as the title of the film ‘Scream’ is transitioned onto the screen from top to bottom, there is also non-diegetic ringing of a phone and then screaming and then as the title turns red, there’s a non-diegetic sound of a guillotine. The non-diegetic ringing soon changes to diegetic ringing as our first image is a close up of a phone.

 As the scene changes and we are shown a tree, we hear diegetic noise, frogs and crickets in the night, we also hear the creaking of a swing moving, this adds to the tense atmosphere.
 The scene changes again to her lighting the gas ready to cook popcorn, more diegetic sound as the gas clicks to turn on, and the popcorn cracking as it cooks. The diegetic ringing starts again and this builds up the suspense even more.

Mise En Scene

  After the title, the first thing we see is an old looking phone, so we can at this point tell that the film is set some time ago. The woman who then answers it is dressed in a cream jumper and by this and the type of hairstyle she has we then defiantly know that the film is set quite a while ago. We hear the voice on the other end of the phone, he sounds friendly yet also there’s something creepy about the way he speaks. The way he answers her questions with another question we assume that he is going to be the one doing something bad, that the film is in a way revolved around him.
 She hangs up the phone and as the camera pans around where she is walking we can see she is in a house, quite a modern house for the time period the film is set around. The phone rings again and after hanging it up for the second time, the camera is focused on the glass doors that lead outside behind her, this creates suspense and tension, yet also makes us curious to find out what may come through those doors.
 We are then shown a shot of outside in the night, there’s a big tree and the swing is slowly moving forwards and backwards slightly this adds to the suspense that something is going to happen soon.
 When he rings her again, he asks what she’s doing, she says about to watch a video, by saying that she’s going to watch a video we know that this film is set a while ago because nowadays we have DVDs instead and no one really has videos anymore. She then tells him she likes the film Halloween and explains that its about someone stalking and murdering babysitters, this is ironic because later on in the film that’s exactly what has been happening to her, this also tells us that she is a babysitter and that’s not her house.

Editing
  We first see the title of the film transition onto the screen from the top and the bottom until it meets in the middle, sound effects are edited over the top of this such as screaming and a phone ringing, when the second red title lands over the top, a sound of a guillotine is edited over the top of this.
 A cut scene happens from the inside of the house to then showing the outside and then back to the inside.
 Shot reverse shot is shown when she cooks popcorn and then to a mid-shot of her answering the phone. Match on action is then shown when she is searching out of the window, we are looking at her as if we are standing outside looking in.

RESEARCH: Deconstruction of 'Hot Fuzz'

Film Media – Deconstruction of “Hot Fuzz”

Director: Edgar Wright
Year: 2007
Certificate: 15
Genre: Comedy / Action

Camera Work
   The film starts with an extreme long shot of the main character walking towards the screen as some of the main credits are shown at the bottom of the screen. The shots change as he gets closer to the camera, from long shot, to mid shot, and then a close-up. He then holds up his police ID and this is an extreme close-up. We are then shown another close-up of our main characters feet as he is walking. We are then shown different shots from a mid-shot from the front of him to then a mid-shot to the side of him. This then changes and we are shown a close-up of the side of his face whilst all these shots are happening he is still walking quite quickly along this corridor, so this means the camera has to pan at the same speed he is going. We are then shown a mid-shot of him and the rest of his police crew whilst training, the camera then zooms into our main character and becomes a close-up of him, the camera has also blurred out the people behind him. The camera then quickly pans across and the scene changes and different mid-shots are shown of him and other police officers either in training or actually going out to a crime. The camera is always focused on our main character and stays at a mid-shot of him and also at different angles of him. We are then shown a close-up of him and a few others looking like they are doing riot patrol, this quickly changes to a long shot and we see a lot more of them all running towards the camera. The camera then flicks between being a long shot of the whole force running to then just a close-up of our main character this happens 3 times before the scene changes again, to a close-up of an examination paper to then an extreme close-up of a pen ticking answers, the camera then changes angle to a mid-shot which is also zooming into our main character taking this exam, when he finishes to tell us the audience that he has finished he clicks his pan, but as he clicks it we are shown an extreme close-up of him clicking the pen. The scene changes again to a mid-shot of the force achieving an award, this shot then zooms out and we see the whole force being taken pictures of and also people applauding, this then makes us realise that all the scenes being shown was of them all in training to be official police officers and then passing their examination. There is then a slight canted angle as our main character is running up some stairs and the further he gets up, the camera pans beneath him. We are then shown different shots of him on different modes of transport and then an extreme close-up of each of their wheels, as he tells us that he has taken these different courses. We are then shown different cut scenes of other activities he has taken part in such as fencing and karate. We finish the first 2 minutes to the opening of this film with our main character walking around a corner and the scene quickly changes as the camera pans, to our main character by the looks of it going to investigate a crime.

 Sound   The film starts off with non-diegetic sound as the opening credits and film companies are shown, the non-diegetic sounds are police sirens ringing, we instantly then know that the film is going to be police related and some sort of action movie. The sirens stop as our main character approaches the camera. There is then his voice over as he explains every different scene that comes onto the screen, as the scenes change and different aspects of his work are shown to us, he then tells us exactly what he’s been through here and what he has done, the whole time we are shown him doing different activities and training courses the character himself never speaks but his voice over tells us about it and what he’s done to achieve it as we are seeing it happen. As we are being told what he has done, and being shown, the whole time there is different diegetic sound matching to what is happening on screen, as we are seeing this we know that the movie is about this man, he is a police officer, and the movie is going to be about police officers, so we guess that there is going to be a main crime that will happen.

Mise en Scene
   The first scene we see is a modern city building, this shows that the movie is set in the present. We see a man walking towards the screen in a suit and hat; we cannot see what sort of suit this is until he gets closer to us, when he is closer we see that he is wearing a police uniform this then suggests that this is a police film and also makes us think an action film. He then holds up his police ID and states that he is a police constable and gives us his name; this makes us think that he is extremely serious and committed about his job by the way he speaks, this could also mean that maybe he doesn’t know how to switch off from his job and just have fun. We are shown scenes from his life in the police force, and with the amount of awards, training and courses he has done this also adds to us thinking that he doesn’t really seems like he ever relaxes and is too tied up in his job. The way he describes what he has done and goes into much detail about it makes us realise that he is actually very good at his job, maybe a little too good. We see him looking like he is on riot patrol running through fire and things falling off buildings onto him and the rest of his team, this makes us think that this film will defiantly be a action type of film and also that in his job he has to go through life threatening and dangerous areas of crime. We see him taking an exam and this gives us the impression he is very intelligent and determined to become an official police constable, we then see him and the rest of his team on a stage in front of an applauding audience being given an award, this then ensures us that he has succeeded in becoming a good police constable. We then see him running up some stairs this makes us think that he is busy all the time and doesn’t have time for anything else. We then see him talking to very different people showing that he is helpful and does his job well if he has been chosen to help.

Editing
   Sound effects have been edited over the top of the universal I-dent this sounding suggests that the film is to do with police as all we can hear is sirens and police cars. There is then a jump cut from the main characters feet to the top half of his body, there is also quite a lot of match on action used here. When we see him in different training courses all the other people around him are faded out, setting our focus on him. A bit more on we see him talking to different people trying to help them, the editing technique used here are jump cuts. There is then more match on action and continuity techniques used as he walks around a corner and the scene then changes.