Our Final Cut

'Rural Superheroes' by Gemini Productions.

Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Question 7

Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

To compose our film, the camera we used was a Panasonic HDC - TM900. Before we started to film, it was important that we were all confident with how to use the camera, thanks to our preliminary task, we were all fairly skilled with using it. Strengths of the camera include HD recording and playback which we used, the camera could even record in 3D but we didn't have the facilities to support this. Something else that we were partically impressed with was the way the camera picked up sounds, some sounds that we didn't even realise were there, such as birds in the background of some speech sequences. It was brilliant for us that the camera had this sounds quality, as it really helped emphsise the rural setting. As a group, we are finding it hard to think of any weeknesses for this camera, but if we had to mention something we would say that it was not user friendly when you first begin to use the camera. This is becuase it was difficult to get a grip of the vast amount of settings, and how to use them if you haven't worked it before.

Within the filming process of creating our film opening, there were a few problems we faced, but we managed to over come them. The first and probably most significant of our issues, was the ever changing weather conditions on the day we chose to film.The natural lighting that our camera was exposed to, changed every few minutes as the sky was quite overcast. Obviously we could not stop weather, but we did try our best to over come this. Each shot we planned, we filmed over three times, this was so that in editing stages we had a good choice as to what clip to select, this allowed us to try match the lighting in the last clip to the next clip. Another significant issue was the uneven ground levels, this would not be an issue if we didn't need to use a tripod, but we did for our establishing pan shot. To over come this the only option that we had was not use the tripod, but to instead use hand held shots, not just for the pan, but for the whole film. We each took turns and filmed the opening pan, and we ended up having about ten, but this meant we had a good choice when selecting which one to use, and there was one that was very steady that finally went into the movie.

To log our work we used Blogger, before starting my AS Media Studies course i had never used this website before, but once i learnt how it all worked, i found it a really useful and clever way to display my work. Its good because you can access it on any computer with internet connection, so it doesn't even require programs such as Microsoft Word, which was really handy when i went away on holiday. I also like the fact that you don't have to worry about where to save your work, meaning no memory stick to try and remember, as you know all your work is safe and saved on Blogger.

In the editing stages we used an Apple Mac and the software of Final Cut Express to construct our movie. We had the choice from this software or Imovie, We chose Final Cut Express even though it is more difficult to use, because it has a lot more features than Imovie, and we wanted our film to look as professional as possible. As we weren't fully confident with the program or the Mac, we had to experiment with it, to teach ourselves how to use it, we learnt a lot doing this that we didn't know we could do. We were really pleased when we learnt how to take sound from one clip and put it in another, as there were some clips with unwanted sound, which when cut out, needed to be replaced with something. We also found lots of transitions which made our film run smoothly, such as fading in and fading out. I was surprised by how easy it is to add sound tracks to your film.

Question 4 and 5

Who would be the audience for your media product? How did you attract/address your audience?

 I have annotated the final cut of our movie, to show how each part of the opening attracts our target audience. It also includes feedback from our audience.


We decided that our target audience would be comic book loving teenage boys who are comedy fans. This of course is a niche audience, but as it would be a British independent film, a mainstream audience would not be essential anyway. It would most probably appeal to those in demographic grouping E and D, as our target age range means most of our audience would be students placing them in the E category.
As it will be a British independent movie, is is most likely to be seen and enjoyed by British teenagers and those that live in the UK. Although, if seen in any other country or by people from different ethnic backgrounds, it will not be offensive in any way. Although males are primarily our focus, there is no reason why females with an interest in comics, would not enjoy our film, as females would be shown as an equal to the males in the film.
As our main target audience for our film are teenage boys aged around 13 to 18, we would rate our film a 12A, this is because if we were to make the rest of the film, there would be a small amount of language and violence included. We did consider having a classification of 15 but to widen our audience range we thought we would be good to reduce the brutality rate and make it more funny and pathetic rather than violent, allowing us to pull down our classification to a 12A, broadening our audience range.

Below is a video of a target audience member, watching and giving his feedback on our film.

Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Our film was produced by our production company Gemini Productions in association with Poultry Pictures.  We chose these names as they both seem independent; Gemini seems as if it could be associated with any genre of film, and we used Poultry Pictures as it suits our comedy genre.

Our film is an Independent British film; it also has a rural sub genre, these mean it probably won’t appeal to a large mainstream audience, so we have aimed it at a niche audience of boys aged 13-18 who enjoy comic books. To reach our target audience of teenagers it would probably be best as our film is independent, to show it on TV, rather than just independent cinemas, as this age group does not tend to go to independent cinemas, or even know of them. Our film does have mainstream potential due to our target age range being those that use the mainstream cinemas as a meeting place with friends, but as an independent film, it is unlikely we would get into these cinemas. If we did though, a good distributor to use would 'Marvel' as this company are based around comics and known for them around the world, this theme of course linking to our film. As our film would be independent, we would be looking more towards Film Four or BBC Films, as these specialise in small British independent movies. They would be good to use as they are known throughout the country and release many films that have been successful. 

To create a film like ours, to get the money to fund it, an idea we could use would be to do what Warp Film done when we were planning to create Four Lions. This would be to email fans and ask them for money in return for an extra role in our film. This is a strange technique but at the same time it works.

Question 2

How does you media product represent particular social groups?

I have completed a voice over, over our film opening to answer this question.

Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I have completed a voice over, over our film opening to answer this question.

Research into comedy film openings

Here are some generic conventions usually found in comedy films:

• A happy ending
• Normally 2 to 3 main protagonists
• Upbeat music
• Characters placed in stereotypical groups by their costumes and behaviour
• exaggeration of social situations (embarrassing moments)

Comedy films are designed to:

-Make you laugh

-Make you feel good

-Escape your life and worries while watching it

To extend my knowledge into comedy film openings, I felt it important to do two more film opening analysis's.  This time i will research into comedy film openings and i will relate them to our project.

Hot Fuzz (2007)

Immediately at the film opens, it seems quite serious and tense due to the lack of music and the sound of footsteps. Then, as soon as the non-diegetic music is introduced alongside the dialogue, it is clear to tell that this is not a serious movie, this is the first, and main indication of the comedy genre in the film opening. This poses the question for when we create our film opening, should we show the comedy genre straight away?

The titles are large, but not intrusive of the pictures. The titles are in a clear, readable font, but the font does not suit the comedy genre, on the other hand it also doesn't portray any other genre, it is plain and simple. I like the way, that to emphasis the institutional names, they use the same font, but just of a larger size. We have to really think about what font we should use, as i have learnt that the font says a lot about your movie.

The combination of diegetic sounds, non-diegetic bouncy music and narrative dialogue in the opening, adds to its fast pace, and also brings a sense of excitement to the films opening scenes. The opening uses very fast paced editing, which would probably make no sense at all without the voice over, but together, makes a successful combination. There are a very large number of camera angles and shots used throughout the opening, the shots such as the long shot, combined with the mise en scene shows us the protagonists occupation is as a policeman. You can see what is included in every shot, even though some are very short, this makes the opening easy to follow for the audience. The opening follows generic conventions in the respect that it has two protagonists. 

Drop Dead Fred (1991)

This opening sequence is unlike any i have seen before, in the respect that, it looks as if the whole opening was drawn by a child, alongside the childish handwritten titles. The opening has a non diegetic soundtrack running throughout, this music continues the child like theme, it's very fast paced and sounds as if it has been taken from a children's TV program or a circus. We need to consider our soundtrack to make sure it suits the theme. The soundtrack they have used, alone is enough to make the audience realise this is probably not a serious film. All the titles look as if they have been written by a child in crayon, and to emphasis the childish theme, some words, such as 'by' are even spelt wrong. Although the titles follow this theme which could potentially make the words unclear, all the titles are easily readable in the opening. Most title sequences tend to make the visual action prominent above the titles, whereas this sequence is based around the titles themselves, adding to the originality of the these opening credits. This makes me think that we need to chose what is the most important aspect of our film opening.  This film opening follows the generic conventions of comedy films as the soundtrack is up beat and amusing and what is seen on screen is lighthearted, funny and not to be taken seriously.  

History of the film institution logo

Institutional titles and logos are always put right at the start of any film, its the way an institution brands what they produce. The institutional logo has been around since films began. As with the films, the logos started out very simple, with just a silent, motionless picture, but through time they have evolved. Soon the institutions started to get competitive with their logos, and with the introduction of sound and animation, the institutions would start to try and out do each other. A good example of how competitive this got, was MGM in 1924, including a real lion called Leo into their logo piece. By 1976, all major studios except Universal had switched their logos to animation. The 1980's saw the return of the old style logos, with Warner Brother bringing back a previous logo they had used. In the 90's, Universal completely remastered their logo to celebrate their 75th anniversary. By 2007, all institutional logos were produced on a computer.
Mainstream institutional logos and independent film institutional logos are very different. The Mainstream logos are more complicated, these are those i have explained above, production companies are more well known, therefore they have more money to spend on technology that allows them to create a logo. On the other hand independent film production companies do not have as much as funding compared to mainstream film production companies so this stops them from making visually spectacular logos.

Below is an example of a mainstream institution logo (top) and an independent institutional logo (bottom).

Knowing this will help my group when we decide on our Gemini logo. We have discussed that our movie would be an independent British film, meaning we would be looking more towards the less complex logos, that would be easier and cheaper to create.

Comedy films and their storylines

Blades of Glory (2007)

When looking at comedy films and their story lines, one thing that is noticeable is that, although themes of comedy films are very varied, most tend to follow the same basis. The stereotypical narrative of a film is of course having a beginning, middle and end. In comedy films these sections usually run as follows:
-Beginning - A problem occurs
-Middle - The problem is faced
-End - The problem is conquered - A happy ending


Lots of comedy films follow this structure, as it is a successful combination for a comedy film. When planning our film opening, we will have to also plan the whole movie, we think we will use this structure to create our story line around, hopefully resulting in a good comedy film.

Comparing popular comedy films

Up (2009) and Toy Story 3 (2010)

These two comedy films are both recent and very popular in comedy film ratings. The first and main thing to notice is that they are both cartoons, showing that good actors are not always essential in physical form in comedy films. The second thing you spot is that at first glance they both seem to be aimed at the children's market, but what i believe the appeal and success of these films is down to, is the fact that anyone of any age can watch and enjoy them. These films both combine fun, and touching moments but nothing too serious which attracts the large portion of comedy audiences. The difference between them is that Toy Story 3 was the third in the Toy Story series of films, meaning success was expected, this is a good technique to guarantee audiences to watch your film, this is shown by films such as Shrek and Pirates of the Caribbean. Whereas Up, was a one off, that turned out to be a hit.  

 

The Artist (2011) and School of Rock (2003)

These two comedy films are very different, and yet both very successful in their own way. School of Rock has all the common conventions of the modern comedy film, whereas The Artist goes completely against the 21st century average comedy film but this could be the reasons for it's huge success. School of Rock was a comedy film that attracted all ages of comedy fans, it is quite a predictable and 'safe' comedy to go and see because you almost know it will be funny. Whereas The Artist has not had massive audience numbers, but has dominated the awards this year, proving that it is a very good film. The reason for the lack of audience is because it is a silent, black and white movie, something that is almost unheard of these days. From these two films, the extent of differences between comedy films are shown, showing that almost anything can be a success in the comedy genre as long as it is funny.

   

Doing this will help me when i create my film, as it has taught me that there are a huge range of comedy films, meaning we can be very creative with our ideas. I have learnt that you can make films of this genre in almost any way and they could be successful, such as a cartoon or even in silence. I also now know that comedy films can be made to suit any certification, so we are free to choose any age group for our target audience. 

History of group genre

As a group we have chosen that our film we will make an opening for, will be a rural comedy. So in preparation for creating our opening, we felt it important to do some research into our chosen genre.

History of the genre

Comedy is one of the oldest genres in film, some of the first ever silent movies were comedies, way back in the 1900's. Comedy worked well for silent movies, as it can be dependant on the visual action, rather than sound. They relied upon the actors' talents with timing and physical theatre. One of the earliest types of comedy used in silent movies was Slapstick which was made popular by Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton. Slapstick humour revolved around physical mishap, accidents and practical jokes.

With the rise of sound in films in the 1930's, comedy scrip writers could now incorporate jokes and make complex story lines, which brought a whole new level to comedy films. Dialogue became the centre of comedies. One of the first new styles that emerged within comedy films, was the Screwball comedies which were short movies that featured over the top physical humour, that was common in cartoons of the day, a modern example of this is Mr Bean. When the 40's came, most of the comedy films were based around war or military themed. In the 50's comedy films were in decline due to the invention of the television, but the 60's saw a move towards comedies that used satire to address social change. The 1970s saw the rise of the dark comedy and parody amongst the genre. The 1980's saw a popularity of teen comedies and the start of action comedy films. In the 1990s, actors who could create larger-than-life characters using exaggerated voice, movement and expression dominated comedy, these included Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler and Mike Myers, they became household names.

Some types of comedy that has evolved over the years, include dark comedy, subjected on a taboo subject such as war, and they are  based on fictional storeys. These comedies deal with dark and serious themes. Spoofs, which take films or documentaries of other genres and remake them, mocking them and using sarcasm. A popular type of comedy in films today, is the romantic comedy, where upon the film is based around a developing relationship for two characters, this is partially popular with females.

These days, unlike other genres, comedy has a fan base that is not limited by age or gender, as there are so many types of comedy films.