Rough Draft Poster

Benjy made a rough draft poster based on the Wedding Sequence.

Happily Ever After (Re-Shoot) Draft 3

This next draft has added music to other sections of the film, also it has added production company logo's to the beginning, as well as cutting a few shots shorter.

This Means War - Poster Analysis

Here is a short analysis of a poster for the film "This Means War". The original Poster is above while the analysis is below.

Poster Types

Posters with all of the main characters:

These posters show all of the main characters. I could consider using one of these, however there are only 3 characters within the film, and the poster wouldn't quite give off the same vibe. This type of poster implies that all of these characters know eachother, or are similar in some way or another, so it is for a very different type of film than ours.

Pick me up

These posters are used to signify a relationship between the two characters, often reffering to the "Rom" for Romance in "Rom Com". We won't be using one of these styles as the relationship between the characters in our film isn't quite romantic from both sides.

Back to back

The back to back look can signify two opposites. It can either show two people working together, with an 'agent' look. Or it could signify the two characters pretending there is a lack of feelings for each other.

Two guys, one girl

This could either suggest one man trying to help another in getting a date (the basis of our story. Or it could suggest two men trying to be with the same girl. This poster certainly fits our film, so I will look into making a poster in this style.

Females take control

This type of poster shows the women in control of the men. The story base would be a man that doesn't know what he's doing, and the women are in power. This type of poster won't relate too well to our story as the story doesn't include these types of characters.

Happily Ever After (Re-Shoot) Second Draft

Here, I have rectified the mistakes made in the last draft:

Happily Ever After (Re-Shoot) First Draft

Here is the first draft of our re-shot version of 'Happily Ever after'. Ther e are a few small mistakes left to rectify, however.

Feedback from Miss Stone

• Show what inspired me to use different types of humour within the same sequence.
• Embed videos with my analysis.
• Re-Shoot our film with more interesting shots.

Our new work plan.

We are beginning a re-shoot, with a higher level of preparation, and a more detailed storyboard. The new film will cut out the scene in which Benjy teaches Callum how to get girls. We have many ideas for what could replace this scene, and we are currently scanning through different ideas to find the most effective scene both visually and narratively.

Updated rough cut

The cut has been somewhat improved. Now I am happy with the cut in general, we need to work on the music for the background throughout the film, while we are working on this, we will be looking into a re-shoot to create some better shots.

First Rough Cut

This is a basic rough cut of our upcoming film. The problems with this cut are that the wink takes a little too long to happen, so I will be shortening this. Also the scene in which Benjy teaches Callum how to get girls feels too jump, I will attempt to smoothen this out, along with add a better font to the credits.

First Day of Filming

We have completed the first and second scenes of the rough cut for our film. We filmed the school scenes and the bathroom scenes, both of which went very well. However having looked over the footage, we have decided that it would be a good idea to dub over the dialogue to avoid all of the background noise that is present throughout the entirety of the film. We ran into a few problems, many people were around the surrounding area and quite often got in our way. To get around this we asked the teachers if they could kindly find another way round. And the background noise will soon be adjusted with a dub. Filming for the wedding scene also went well, we begun with changing into our suits (Poppy changed into a dress) for a more realistic performance. We used the local Cinagog, we were given permission by the chairman (Ian Smiler) to use the Cinagog providing everything was left as it was when we arrived. Some of the jokes used toward the end of the session were thought of as we went along too (not scripted).

Location Shots

Here are some shots of the location we are using, located in the Age & Sons Tavern/Resturant.

Storyboard

This is our finalised storyboard:

Research into distribution companies.

Here is some research looking into distribution companies, this will help me determine who may or may not produce/distribute our film.

 Mainstream

Dreamworks
According to IMDB.com, DreamWorks have never produced a British film, which are usually distributed by Walt Disney. They have produced over ten films that (at the box-office) have succeeded $100 million in gross. Dreamworks also specialise in animation through Dreamworks SKG.

However due to Dreamworks specialty in animation and lack of British films, they would not produce our film.


20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox Pictures generally handles American made films, they are owned by the Rupert Murdoch News Corporation. However they have a subsidiary known as Fox Searchlight that handle independent and British films.

20th Century Fox are unlikely to produce a small scale British film like ours.

Fox Searchlight

Fox Searchlight Pictures, is a subsidiary of 20th Century Fox, part of the Fox Entertainment Group. They generally produce and specialise in British, independent and foreign films. They cover the aspects that 20th Century Fox do not.

Fox Searchlight might possibly produce and/or distribute Happily Ever After

Benjy has also researched more companies:

New Line Cinema

New Line Cinema is an American film studio. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne as a film distributor, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner Bros. in 2008

It is not a film studio which would produce a film like Happily Ever After.

Universal

Universal Studios Inc. (also known as Universal Pictures), is an American motion picture studio, owned by Comcast through its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal, and is one of the six major movie studios. It is one of the longest-lived motion picture studios to be located outside of Hollywood.

It is possible that Universal would produce our film but it is more likely that they would produce it through the subsidiary Working Title

Warner Bros

One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank, California and New York. Warner Bros. has several subsidiary companies, including Warner Bros. Studios, Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Animation, Warner Home Video, New Line Cinema, TheWB.com, and DC Entertainment

It is possible Warner Bros would produce our film solely because generally their target audience is the same as ours. Also the range of different types of film produced by Warner Bros is wide.

Working Title

Working Title Films is a British film production company, based in London owned by Universal Studios. The company was founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1983. It produces feature films and several television productions.

Judging by the films it has previously produced (According to IMDB), the target audience that Working Title genrally make films for, and the fact that it is a British Subsidiary of a major Mainstream American production company, working title is probably the most likely company to produce Happily Ever After.

 Independent

I have not researched a large amount of independent companies, partly because their aren't many but also because my film is a mainstream Rom-Com blockbuster.

Artificial Eye
Artificial Eye is a British film distributor, specialising in foreign-language and art house films for cinema and home entertainment.

It would not produce our film.

BBC Films

BBC Films is the feature film-making arm of the BBC. It has produced or co-produced some of the most successful British films of recent years, including An Education, StreetDance 3D, Fish Tank, Stage Beauty, A Cock and Bull Story, Nativity! and Match Point.

I would not produce a mainstream romantic comedy like Happily ever After

Channel 4 
Film4 Productions is a British film production company owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The company has been responsible for backing a large number of films made in the United Kingdom.

Because it produced The Inbetweeners Movie, it is possible that it would produce Happily Ever After

Studio Canal 
StudioCanal  is a French-based production (as StudioCanal S.A.) and distribution (as StudioCanal Images S.A.) company that owns the third-largest film library in the world.

It is possible that it would play a part in the production of our film if we were to work with Working Title as the two companies have worked together on comedy films in the past.

Conclusion

After researching into existing Rom-Coms and their production & distribution companies, we have determined that our film would be produced by a British subsidiary of a mainstream American company like Notting Hill which was produced by Working Title - a British subsidiary of Universal Pictures.

Vicky and Sam – Analysis on Cinematography

I will be analysing the first few minutes of the 15 minute short film “Vicky and Sam”. This film uses similar comedy that we plan to utilise in our own film.

The scene opens with a close up shot very low looking at the ground. The camera tracks along the floor and written on the floor is the title “Vicky and Sam”. As the camera pans up, we see a long shot of a video store, with a young man walking a bike toward it. The store is lit up very well to draw attention to it, clearly saying “Video” in graffiti in the window. Then there is a cut to the boy putting his bike down at the entrance, the boy is slightly to the left of the shot, with the door being in the center. This could be to focus our attention on his intentions of entering the store. Then there is a jump cut to a medium shot of his arm opening the door, before seeing a long shot of the building from directly ahead as he walks in. Then there is a cut to a medium-long shot tracking across the side of shelves. A woman is stacking DVD’s onto the shelves, then as the camera passes another shelf, the young boy is looking at a DVD. Then we cut to a medium shot from behind the boy, he is in the center of the shot to show he is the focus character.

The scene is moving very slowly, we then cut to a long shot of the woman walking toward the camera, the boy the walks to the side and bumps into her. There are two bookshelves either side of the characters, it’s possible that this was shot like this to enclose the two characters together, forcing the attention onto them. There is then a close up of the boy looking at the girl smiling, then a close up of the girl smiling shyly back. This type romance is something we parody in our own short film. We then cut to an establishing shot of people in a café, this shot is used to explain and establish that the café will be an important location in the scene. The first line we hear is “You’ve got to be kidding me, right?”, this is in reference to the scene we have just watched. Then the same man says “It’s flipping cliché”, this is what we are going to aim for in our film, showing the lack of realism in a cliché romantic comedy film. This way we are creating something different that fits within the same genre. The 3 sitting at the table are all writing a romantic film, and in doing so are explaining to the audience that a film can be romantic and funny, without the cliché romance, this is what we want to convey in our own short film.

This film has used generic shots and romantic music toy convey and portray a romantic film in a cliché fashion. They have then used a more TV show like style to accommodate the comedy aspects, showing the writers writing the characters, showing the audience how unrealistic the generic romantic film can be.


Vicky and Sam from Nuno Rocha on Vimeo.

NightWalking - Short Film Analysis

NightWalking is a short film being showcased on The BBC Film Network. It is a black comedy
detailing a person’s thought process when walking home alone at night.

The “ACTAEON FILMS” company introduction has a dark, strong piece of music (strings) that suggests a drama/thriller/horror. The very first shot we are shown is a long shot of a woman’s legs as she walks along a dark road, strong light is beaming from the right side of the frame, possibly imitating a lamppost. This lighting is used effectively as it casts a large shadow onto the wall and floor to the left of the frame. The shadow suggests a dark story or event upcoming. The title “NightWalking” appears at the bottom of the wall, running along it. This is used well and is a more subtle way of introducing the title, without distracting from what is happening on-screen. The first line we hear is “I hate walking on my own at night”, this is an inner monologue inside the woman’s head; suggested by her mouth not moving, and said as if she is thinking to herself. This line immediately tells us that the film is focusing on the fear of being alone at night, we begin to wonder what will follow.

We then cut to a similar shot, but now it’s a medium-long shot, and we are seeing the top half of her body. We can see that she has a scared expression on her face, and due to the angle allowing a lot of space in front and behind the woman, we can see the large shadow of another person appear behind her. Then we hear “I always think there’s someone following me”, more signs pointing toward a possible thriller genre. The scene goes into grayscale when we see the other man’s shadow, along with some sort of distortion. This creates a mysterious effect, and we still don’t know who the person behind her is. We are then shown a medium close-up from behind her, possibly the view from the supposed “Stalker”. We finally see the man’s face, which is again shown in grayscale, possibly to keep us from associating with him. The woman goes through options in her head, such as “I could tie my shoe lace, then he could walk past” or “I should run!”, this is shown in the efforts to create a somewhat relatable film. As worrying about the person behind you is a common occurrence. She decides to turn around, and the man is no longer behind her. A mysterious feel lingers as I (the viewer) wonder where the man has gone. At this point there is no hint to a comedy genre.

She walks back to the corner she has just turned, to see if he is there, but she still can’t see him. However we can hear a phone ringing, the woman looks down and sees a mobile phone on the floor. The scene then fades out, and we cut back to the very first shot, however this time we are following the man that was walking behind her. He first says “Oh, I hate this; walking behind a woman on her own at night. It’s embarrassing, she’ll start to walk faster when she hears my footsteps”. Here is where the comedic effect begins, we discover that rather than a mysterious man stalking a woman, he is just walking in his direction, and is in fact worried about what she thinks of him.

The shots of the man are no longer in grayscale, and are without distortion. We are now meant to sympathise with the character. The man continues thinking, wondering if he should walk another way round, but sees no need to as he’s not a maniac. He then thinks he could just stand for a bit, and wait until she’s walked off, eliminating the problem, he then wonders if he could overtake, but as we saw in the last version of this scene, she speeds up to get away. He makes jokes in his head to calm himself, such as “This would be much easier if I was a rapist”. He decides to make a “loud, but not threatening” phone call, possibly to his mum. This time round, the man is well lit, we can see his face and he is displayed as less-mysterious. This has created an incredible shift in opinions, as we are lead to feel one way about a character, before listening to their side of the story. This type of subtle humour is something that could be very beneficial to our own short film. The man then accidentally trips over into a hole dug in the ground, so he can’t be seen and drops his phone, before the woman turns around to find the phone.

The way that this short film manipulates your thoughts on a story and a character, then completely changes your feelings by showing you another side of the story is something that I would like to attempt in our own film. I also like the way that the film uses a few one-liner jokes to add to the humour, to really slot it in the comedy genre.

In our film, throughout the majority we are lead to believe that Poppy is not interested in Callum, however we later find out that she’s a little weirder than first believed. This has been incorporated as an inspiration from this short film. The film can be viewed below:

Meeting Review

Me and Benjy had an interview with Helen; the owner of Age & Sons on Thursday and it went very well. We begun by introducing ourselves and before beginning, I asked for permission to voice-record the meeting for evidential purposes. Helen very kindly offered us a hot drink and agreed to the recording and we begun discussing the film. Helen brought up the very good point of insurance. Asking if we are covered under the schools insurance or elsewhere. This is a subject matter we had not yet discussed or thought of due to the common event of filming within the school, where our insurance completely covers us. For this we decided we would ask our tutor and report back to her with information. We then moved on to the matter of plotline, we explained the plot of the film in question and she had done Media Studies herself during college, thus she understood the need for quality and what shots would be effective. We discussed the time and date in which we wanted to film, and we were given clearance providing we can provide valid information on insurance.

The meeting overall went very well, Helen was understanding, kind and helpful with helping us within the meeting. We discussed very valid points and looked into every aspect required, we even discussed shooting there again for our final piece, which she then also agreed to providing it is pre-arranged. The meeting could have possibly been better had we already looked into insurance and cover. This is something we can work on in the future. The meeting was approximately 20 minutes long overall, 15 minutes spent dicussing and 5 minutes on looking around the area and swapping phone numbers. Should we aquire another meetkng in future, we will ensure that we have looked into every detail and aspect of the films production.

Age & Sons Meeting

The meeting that myself and Benjy had with Age & Sons is below. Once our rough cut is finished, we will conduct a second meeting regarding a final version.

Meeting Arranged

Me and Benjy have now arranged a meeting with the owner of Age & Sons to discuss the possibility of using their resturant to film. The Meeting is on Thursday 21st June at 4:15pm. We will be discussing when and why we wish to film there and how long it will take. The meeting will be recorded and uploaded onto this blog.

Reply from Age & Sons

We have now recieved a reply from Age & Sons about the ability to use their resturant area for our work:

We hope to arrange a meeting with them soon to discusss the use of their resturant.

Casting & Props

When it came to Casting, we knew that this film would be set around the life of Benjy and Callum. Thus we would be playing the main roles. While we then needed one more actor to play the female in which my character is trying to get a date with. For this we turned to Poppy May as one of our most trusted actors we have worked with. For most of this film, little props are needed. During the classroom scene, the only props present will be a laptop and some paperwork. While in the dinner scene, only two drink glasses will be used. Then during the Wedding, we will decorate the room to look traditional, with white cloths over the table with confetti.

Email to Age & Sons

Me and Benjy wish to use the resturant area of Age & Sons in Ramsgate as the location for the dinner scene. For this we decided to contact them asking them for permission to use the area for approximately 3 hours. Here is the email we sent to them:

Target Audience

Definition of Target Audience: "An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art"

Romantic Comedy Romantic comedy films (abbreviated as rom coms or romcoms) are films with light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals such as a true love able to surmount most obstacles. Romantic comedy films are a sub-genre of comedy films. Romantic comedy can also be used to describe some television series.

My target audience Typically Romantic / Comedy films appeal to a young audience, of both genres who can appreciate and enjoy the story, the connection between the two people and how the story progresses. Therefore, I propose my production to be aimed at both a male and female audience with an age range from about 13-18, and a demographic of lower to middle class consumers with a reasonable disposable income and level of education to afford to watch the film as well as appreciate and understand the narrative plot. Despite this, due to the unique story-line I believe people within a higher demographic of an increased disposable income and higher level of education would also enjoy the film, with perhaps less well known actors. 13-18 year olds still attend school and are at a part in their life when relationships are very much on their mind. For this reason I believe the most profitable market for mine and Callum's film is 13-18 year olds.  

Our Roles

My Roles:
Main Actor
Storyboard Artist
Concept Artist
Co-Director
Editor (of my own version)
Budget/Expenses Manager
Producer
Co-Writer
Make-Up Artist
Co-Costume Manager
Set Creator
Co-Prop Manager

Benjy's Roles:
Main Actor
Camera Operator
Director
Editor (of his own version)
Music Composer
Location Scouter
Writer
Co-Budget/Expenses Manager
Producer
Set Design
Prop Manager
Costume Manager

New Fonts

Me and Benjy have begun looking at fonts for our film "Happily Ever After" (Tentative Title). Here are some of the "Romantic" film fonts that have been used before.

Something I noticed about the titles of these proffesional and extremely successful films is that all the words are in capital letters. This isn't the sort of look I want for my film but it was interesting to look at how exsisting films create a romantic title. The look I am going for resembles pride and predjudice the most but I'm going to look at fonts rather than exsiting films to create an idea of what I want.

Here are some of the fonts that me and Benjy have looked at:

Happily Ever After - Script

First we see a medium-close-up to the right of two guys sitting at a desk in a classroom writing. The sounds of a teacher talking can be heard. Callum looks up and stares off to the right. Cuts to a medium shot behind a girl working hard. Cuts back to the two guys. Benjy speaks.
Benjy: You like her don't you.
Callum: Yeah.
Benjy: Are you gonna talk to her?
Callum: maybe. I don't know how I would though..
Benjy: what you need (looks at camera, cuts to close up) is a plan (winks)

Dark room. Just Benjy, Callum and a white board can be seen. The rest is black.

Benjy: Ok. This is our plan. First...(montage)
Callum: (stands up) Let's do this.

Benjy rubbing callums shoulders
Benjy: Do you feel ready?
Callum: (nods)
Benjy: remember you ask 'How do you like your eggs?' Then you say 'Fertilised'
Callum: Hey would you like some fertilised eggs?

cuts to callum rubbing his face with a slap mark on it.

Benjy: ok...plan B
Cuts to callum
callum: my friend and I bet you wouldn't take off your shirt in public.
Cuts back to Benjy and Callum

Benjy: well at least you didn't get slapped.
Callum: (lifts up a bag of ice) not there!
Benjy: oh OH!!!!
Callum: fuck this
Benjy: ok. This one is bound to work! (hands callum a piece of paper with 'I put the STD in Stud and all I need is U' on it)
Callum: No. No way in hell! Im just gonna talk to her!

Callum approaches the girl

Callum: Hi. I'm sorry for being weird. Do you maybe want to go out with me sometime?
Girl: yeah, I'd like that.
In the restaurant

Callum: see this is nice. We're having a great time. No crazy schemes.
Girl: Yeah I'm having a lovely evening.
Callum: I'm glad to hear it. I just have to use the bathroom.

Cuts to Callum washing his hands. As he looks up Benjy is seen in the mirror.

Benjy: Callum!
Callum: (panicked) WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? GET OUT!
Benjy: I have a plan!
Callum: no! It's going great! Don't do anything!
Benjy: Trust me! Just wait until the bill arrives!
Callum: No! Benj... (benjy is gone)..benjy!?
Girl: that was an amazing meal. We should probably get the bill.
Callum: NO! I mean... theres so much I still don't know about you. What's your favourite colour?
Girl: haha what? CHEQUE PLEASE!

Benjy arrives.

Benjy: Callum asked me to read this
Callum: no I didn't!
Benjy: this past three our date has been incredible. Would you do me the honour of marrying me -signed Callum
Callum: That's not my signature! I never asked....
Girl: YES!
Callum:...what?

Cuts to wedding. Callum looks scared. Benjy looks pleased.
Benjy: When Callum first asked me to be his best ma...
Callum: I NEVER ASKED YOU THAT!

Time Management

Before we begin work on the final short film, we are working on a rough version. Or a Beta version if you will. We will work to the best of our abilities on this piece, however we will then be looking at what can be improved and what needs to be removed and what needs to be added. This rough version will last around 2-3 minutes while the final edition will be approximately 5 minutes long. I have now begun working on Time Management, we are filling in specific dates on a calendar as and when required so we can manage our time and know exactly what we have done and what is left to do. Our completed calendar is below. One day of filming has been marked out as we scraped that particular idea.

New Ideas

Having looked over new ideas for our short film, we have decided on a new plotline. Our ideas came about after viewing a video on BriTANiK's YouTube channel, named 'TeamWork'. This short film features a man that wants to be with a woman, and his friend helps him make it happen. For comedic effect the two try these ridiculous, random methods of getting her. We decided we would take a similar approach, but use different methods of visually communicating the story to the viewer.
Our film will not show what went wrong in the pick up attempt. Our film will use visual implications to help you figure out what happened, along with heavily featured dialogue to assist the visuals. A script for the piece is now in the works.

Annotations can be switched off at the bottom of the YouTube Player.

iCan Contextual Edit

This is what we created as a rough draft for the iCan sketch we were creating. However due to new ideas and the notion of a challenging project, we decided to scrap it and start a new project. We are now thinking over ideas that are more challenging and fitting to our abilities. This is why we have not rounded the iOS styled screen to fit the can and have not added a hand over the top of the can swiping along the screen.

Initial Ideas

Once deciding on comedy as our genre, we have begun thinking about plot. First we decided to think of something that is very common now, relate it to something from childhood and work on a situation from there. We looked into the popularity of Apple products, in particular the iPhone. We took a lot of time and effort into researching what people like about the iPhone; particularly features we can create jokes based on.

We then looked at some videos from TomSka and BriTANicK on YouTube. These comedic videos gave us inspiration for what we could achieve ourselves. We watched a video that randomly featured someone using a tin can as a phone; here is where we decided to link the iPhone with a tin can. For this we have decided to create a fictional product, replicating an Apple product named the iCan. This is merely a tin can with iPhone capabilities. The advert will showcase different features of the iCan and we will focus on the name. For example, a line such as 'I can, with the iCan' relates the feature to the name.

Genre Ideas

For this years course, me and Benjy (www.clapperboardcreations.blogspot.com) decided to work together again due to the success of our last project. We begun this project by deciding what genre we were going to use for our short film. We begun thinking about the possibility of creating a horror film. However we discussed and agreed that horror is not very challenging and is somewhat overdone. After much discussion, we made the decision to create a Comedy.

The reasoning for us using the comedy genre is to give ourselves a difficult task. Comedy is not easy to get right and can be a big challenge. At the same time, it's something that people don't commonly create. Thus it would help us stand out from the croud.