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.