Evaluation - Question 6

Film Opening - Character Names

Ma'at is the Egyptian Goddess of justice and order, so we thought Matt would be suitable for the hero's (secret identity) name as he brings justice and order to the people of his city.

The Egyptian God of chaos and war was a bit more difficult to interpret into an English name. His name is

Apophis, also known as  Apep. After some thought we decided that Peter would be the closest.

The Girlfriend of Matt's name  was never really finalized however it sort of has to be Ashleigh as it is written on the back of the door in the first scene because we used my sister(Ashleigh)'s room for this scene as I don't have a wardrobe, just drawers.

Film Opening - Script

We decided the only Matt and his girlfriend would be speaking our opening. This would emphasize how socially withdrawn Peter is in comparison and make him much less likable. The Dialogue is a simple every day conversation to connote that Matt has no idea of anything being wrong.

               (Girlfriend appears in doorway)

Girlfriend - I'm going now, I'll see you later.

               (Matt gets up to see her off)

Matt - Ooh, wait!

               (Conversation in hall)

Matt - We got plans tonight?

Girlfriend - Yeah we're going to that meal tonight with my parents remember?

Matt - Oh right, yeah, have a nice day.

Girlfriend - Alright, I'll see you later.

Fourth Scene Setting and Props

For the villain's secret hideout room we need a small space as it's supposed to be somewhere in the villain/hero's house that only the villain persona knows about. we walked around the school to see if there were any places we could use for filming. It needed to be somewhere dark so as to connote that the villain is a very dark character.

After a while we decided the best place to us would probably be the theatre as it it's completely black in there with all the lights off.

We are using a spacious corner of the theatre as we need a corner to show the villain ha pictures up of the hero and pictures of clocks all around the room. The excess space isn't an issue as we can use lighting and camera techinques such as different shots and camera movements to make the place appear smaller and more contained.

We stuck pictures on the wall of me as the hero character along with pictures Imogen stalked off of my facebook. We also ripped out pieces of newspaper and printed headlines relating to heroic activities such as 'Hero does it again!' an 'Baby saved from burning blaze!' this has been done to show that the villain is obsessed with the hero character and and to connote the fact he knows about the hero and also captivated by the hero's personality and his life. On the adjacent wall we have many pictures and technical diagrams of clocks to indicate that the villain is interested and fixated with time as he is trying to obtain the hero's power to speed up, slow down and stop time.

On the table there were notes, as if scattered around by the villain, in the picture you can see a picture of a clock this has been done to further show that clocks and timepieces are always bouncing around in the villain's scattered mind. The villain's table has been scattered with papers and notes to show that like the table, his mind is a scattered mess.

Another prop we used in this scene, in addition to the papers on the walls and on the table, was an awesome brass pocket watch lent to us by mine and Kirby's friend John. The watch was important to the piece as it further indicates the villains  attraction to and obsession with time. It's also needed as we see the villain in this scene attempting to stop time, in fact we see the watch before the villain showing this is what he does, this is his life.

Second Scene Setting and Props

 

In the first shot of this seen we see the hero putting his costume away into the wardobe we used my sister's for these shots as she has a wardrobe in her room with good space infront of it with a lot of good natural light

We got two angles of this area as we ar going to do an action match of my character putting the outfit in the cupboard, the match on action with start from side on and then moving to a shot from behind me. Hopefully we will be able to make this action match smooth like we did with the scene where Kirby sat down in our preliminary task peice.

An important prop used is my sister's alarm clock which never seems to get her up despite going off loudly enough to wake me up from the opposite side of the house. This prop links the two characters together with time as the hero has the power to control time and the villian is trying to also get this power.

Harry Webber's morphsuit is what we used for our hero's costume and he's awesome for letting us borrow it. The costume is good because it show the cliche of heores always wearing spandex it's also good as it breaks the colour connotations we've built up ie. the hero is shown wearing white and the villian wearing black, this costume is interesting as it is the superhero's costume but it is black, not white

First Scene Setting and Props

The Hero is shown in this scene to lead a normal life, The Hero is on screen eating his breakfast and reading the newspaper.We've chose to film this scene at the dining table in the dining/living room. We decided to use my house for the film as it most fitted with the storyboard.

In the picture to the right we can see the props used in thebreakfast scene: The Sunday Times Newspaper, a plate of toast and a glass of apple juice, although I drew the storyboard with orange juice in mind so apple juice wasn't as good but I had to settle as we didn't have orange juice. I was really craving some citrussy goodness that morning, however I had to settle for apple juice, which was probably better for me as I have a really sensitive tooth and the citric acid in citrus fruits such as oranges edrodes tooth enamel potentially making the sinsitivity of my tooth worse so I guess apple juice was better for the occasion despite my orange juice lust.

Planning - Costumes

The Hero's and villain's costumes are supposed to look completely identical despite this colour of the shirt. The costumes are this similar to indicate these 2 people have the exact same style as they are in fact the same person.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The shirts are different colours to inicate the differences between good and evil; The hero is wearing white to indicate purity and hope whereas the villain is wearing all black to show his dark life and cruel intentions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Hero's girlfriend is shown in a simple black dress with tights and high-heeled shoes. The costume along with curly hair and a hangbag make her out to be feminine. the shoes and tights indicate she is going to work like she would on a normal day.

Research - Sound Design

David lynch once said "Films are 50 percent visual and 50 percent  sound" However Mr Wallis disagrees and said he thinks that 40 percent visual  and 60 percent sound is more accurate.

 

Mr Wallis showed our class this video on monday, in this video we see the importance of sound and sound design and we also see some of the ingenious ways in which sound production teams can manipulate every day objects such as slinkies to make effective sound effect such as lasers.

 

 

Sound design is everything you hear in a tv programme or movie including backgroud noise, dialogue, score, sound effects, ambient/drone noises and every thing else that you can hear (this also includes silence)

Sound design is just as important as the images on screen, if not more important. Sound can change the mood and feel of a film of programme completley.

Planning - Opening Storyboard

UK Classification Categories

Marvel

Marvel comics first began as Timely Comics in 1939 and since then it has signed up with Walt Disney and has become a multi-billion dollar corporation

Marvel comics are the creator of many of the well known superheroes we know today. Characters such as Iron Man, Hulk and Spiderman are some of Marvels creations along with teams such as The Avengers and The Fantastic Four. These characters are known and loved by millions, children and adults alike. Action comics attract possibly widest audience range of all the film genres. As children we often dream of being a superhero and performing the stunts that our favourite characters do.

When we see the Marvel logo we instantly associate the film to be an action film, not the aggressive and danger associated with the likes of Die Hard, but instead with more fun-loving characters that we can relate to emotionally. With Marvel films, they have made the difference between the hero and villain very clear. Everything we see of the superhero, the colours, lighting, his whole character influences the audience to like them and be on their side.

Film Opening - Planning

Our main, end of year media task is to produce a film opening for one of the following genres

• A "relationship" comedy/drama made by an independent production company, aimed at young adults.
• Science fiction British adult audience.
• A mainstream action film that will appeal to both 15-25 year old males and females, based on a comic book. (The comic can be either real or fake as long as it has not already been made into a film of course)
• A film that is based on real event from the last 10 years, that appears to be independently funded.

We are allowed to do pretty much anything we like as long as it fits within one of these genres, here are our ideas for each of the genres

1.We tried to of different story lines for this genre rather than stick to the common RomCom convention of 'Boy meets girl...' For example I proposed the idea of a bromance themed film similar to 'I Love You Man' (possibly the funniest film in the world). We also discussed the idea of a relationship between gay people or even the relationship between an owner and his/her pet. We're trying to be different and expand the relationships genre by thinking outside of the box.

2.Although we wanted to be seen as different when presenting our film opening we wanted, with this genre to take this subject extremely literally by using stereotypes, codes and conventions to show things such as space and technology. We would like to focus on something related to either aliens, space or time travel as we think this would make an interesting and exciting film opening. We would have to seriously consider our settings and costumes to make our genre choice as obvious as possible and to make our story line clear if we were to choose this genre. 

3.When we thought of action within comic-adapted media I immediately thought of the old Batman series with Adam West, I suggested we could include creativity into the film opening by making our own sound signs of things saying "pow" and "wham" in a sort of pop art technique. We then started to think about using stop motion and create a comic book sort of layout or have scenes with comic book images in to give you the retro action superhero feel. Imogen being a Psychology student thought back to something she learnt about Dissociative Identity Disorder/DID (formerly know as Multi-Personality Disorder/MPD) and suggested we could create a typical comic book superhero with a twist, he has DID and is also the villain but doesn't know, however she later told us about something else she learnt about, The Three Faces of Eve, in which a woman, Eve had multiple personalities some of which knew about the others. We decided that if we picked this topic our hero would also be our villain but only the villainous personality would know about the disorder. We haven't thought much into the powers or names of the villain or  the hero but we can decide this at a later date. We have to try to make this so that it isn't at all funny as it could be seen as mocking DID and people with DID.

4.We like this genre as we have thought of a lot of story lines and techniques we could use to present scenes and can even indicate that flashbacks happen. The story line we have came up with is an ex mental patient who had a diary during her time in her ward. If we choose this genre we'll use an inner-monologue to make a personal connection to the audience as she tells her story. We then want to include cut away shots of the scenes she is talking about which had previously happened in her ward to give the impression that she is having flashbacks and is often thinking about the events that took place during her time on the ward. We'll also have a councilor character so that we can see the events from two perspectives.

Analysis - Comic Adapted Action Films

We were mostly leaning towards the RomCom and Action (Comic Adapted) genres so have analyzed these genres to a greater extent than Real Life and Sci-fi

Comic themed films are often films based on real comics and graphic novels. It is common for these films to be based on superhero comics such as Iron Man, Spiderman, Xmen etc. However lots of comic themed films aren't superhero based for example Alien Vs Predator, Surrogates, Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (based off of 6 awesome graphic novels) etc.

I honestly had no idea that Surrogates was based on a comic, but it's a pretty cool film.

Comic book films based from superhero comics often use a similar narrative: A normal guy lives a normal life (usually). Something happens for him to have some sort of power(s). A villain or criminal arises, creating havoc over the main protagonist's home town. The protagonist triumphs over the criminal and he's sent to prison (or in some cases is killed by the main protagonist). However comic adapted films which aren't superhero themed do not follow any particular narrative ie The Mask, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, Sin City and 300 have no formulating pattern in their narratives.

Comic adapted superhero films are often set in real life places such as New York (Spiderman) or Kansas (Superman) however certain comic adapted films are set in fictional cities such as Gotham (Batman)

In superhero movies such as Superman, Batman, Iron man, Spiderman etc the audience first get a preview into their normal life, ie in the first Spiderman film we see a nerdy Peter Parker living his remarkably average life, we also get a feeling that there's something wrong, he lives wit his aunt an uncle which gives the impression that his parents are gone/dead which makes us feel sorry for and get closer to him, the more the audience like the protagonist the more we want to see him succeed. A similar thing happens in most superhero films.

Analysis - Romantic Comedies

RomComs are the love child produced when romance and comedy made disgusting love to each other in the 1920s, I wont go into detail but Romantic Comedies/ RomComs/ Romedies were the result. Romance stories generally emerge and are presented in the way that a comedy film would be presented

The narrative of a RomCom is a typical three part structure. A boy and a girl will meet, and for some reason, they will be torn apart. Throughout the film, they will realise that they are meant to be together, and try and back to each other. In the resolution of the film, although it might not be a happy on, the characters will meet again and work out went wrong between them. Throughout the film, there will be an implied theme of true love conquering all barriers. 

The audience must be able to connect with, and relate to, the characters in a romantic comedy. They need to be likeable and down to earth, so that the audience support them ans their relationship. We are usually introduced to the best friends, and maybe some family members, of the two main characters. Although they are there to offer their support, they are usually the main source of humour in the film.

Horror films tend to have a score, where music (e.g. orchestra) is used instead of songs. In romcoms, there will only usually be songs used. The songs that are used in the film will usually be well known pop songs, so that the audience can recognise them easily. They must relate to the story being told in the film. The songs can even assist in the story-telling process. 

Romantic Comedies are commonly set in big, well known cities such as New York, Paris or London, this is done because these cities are quite well known as romantic settings which helps to set the theme of the film very early on. They also do this so that whether people have been to these places or not they can recognise the places from memories or from other media such as television and feel comfortable watching a film set there.

 

Film Opening - Brief

• A "relationship" comedy/drama made by an independent production company, aimed at young adults.
• Science fiction British adult audience.
• A mainstream action film that will appeal to both 15-25 year old males and females, based on a comic book. (The comic can be either real or fake as long as it has not already been made into a film of course)
• A film that is based on real event from the last 10 years, that appears to be independently funded.

Preliminary Task - Planning

Initial plan plus ideas for individual scenes

Incredibly drawn storyboard done by myself including shot type information plus dialogue and other information 

These photos suck, blame it on Apple.

The plan and the story were thought of by Imogen which is why the video is going to be so weird. This is what craziness goes through her mind