Casting - The Pets!

Hey, All!

As well as casting the actors and grossing inspiration from characters from a range of films and TV programs, we also needed an animal to play Naomi's pet in our opening sequence. We narrowed the choice down to two candidates:

Ollie, Carolina's dog

 

Albert, My cat

 

Similarly to Legally Blonde, the film that inspired our decision to include an animal in the opening sequence, we chose Ollie, a fluffy, blonde dog. Although Albert is a very handsome cat, he isn't stereotypically the kind of pet our target audience would associate with our character or genre. He's balck which connotes superstition and darkness, unlike Ollie who is blonde, connoting fun and happiness, the mood we are trying to create initially in our opening sequence.  

 

Between you and me, Ollie is also much better behaved on camera and will actually do what you want, rather than get comfortable in a ball and wait for strokes like Albert does. Ollie is also very cute and playful, and traditionally the kind of pet associated with our girly-girl protagonist, Naomi, hence why we chose him as our pet.

 

 

Pheebs, OUT!!! ;)

Casting

Hey, All!

Our creation of our two main characters, who we plan on being seen in the opening sequence, Naomi and Aiden, are based on a variety of characters from various films and TV programs that we watch as a team.

Naomi: Naomi's character is the stereotypical beauty queen.

• Popular 
• Very appearance-conscious 
• Attractive
• Confident
• Reckless
• Attention-seeking
• Friendly - with close friends

She's meant to reflect the typical British-American teenage girl, who the target audience can relate to regarding behaviour, how they live and how they act e.g. she has an air of confidence about her when she walks from the hallway to the bedroom. We also included a variety of the interior panning shots which take in objects like Vogue magazines, beauty products such as VO5 hair spray and Boots nail polish, and popular books like 50 Shades of Gray trilogy and other romantic, girly literature which make the chracter relatable to the target audience through a sense of similarity.

She's Caucasian with light-coloured hair due to the choice of actress but also to relate characteristics of other well-known characters to her character, through the fact that they look visually similar. We won't have to individually display all the different typical characteristics of a female protagonist because of the image is similar and so will give the idea they have like-minded personalities, or at least traits. We kept the traditional aspects of the romantic-comedy female protagonist fairly unchanged because, in our research and general experience with Romantic-comedies, the protagonist, in each, are fairly similar.

We decided that I should play Naomi's character as, although I'm not blonde, I am Caucasian and can play a sassy, confident beauty-queen in our opening sequence (traits I do believe I have ;). Our actress also needs to be dedicated to our project, (which I am) and have the time to commit to filming, (which I have, as I'll be filming even if I wasn't acting).

Our female protagonist was inspired by these four characters:

Freya Mavor, portraying Mini ("Skins")

Anna-Lynn McCord, portraying Naomi Clark ("90210")

Reese Witherspoon, portraying Elle Woods ("Legally Blonde")

Candice Accola, portraying Caroline Forbes ("Vampire Diaries")

The male protagonist, initially planned to be included in the opening sequence, shares traits of other romantic-comedies, such as popularity, a reputation for being promiscuous "Playa", being attractive and cocky as a result. Although this character is revealed to be bisexual at the end of the film, he's experienced and a hit with the ladies, as shown by his interest in Naomi at the beginning. The creation of 'Aiden's' character is inspired by actors such as:

Aaron Johnson-Taylor, portraying Robbie ("Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging")

Alex Pettyfer, portraying Freddie ("Wild Child")

Jack Harries, from JacksGap (YouTube.com)

We had two people in mind to play Aiden's character. Daniel Walsom, a friend in my form class at college, and Theo White, another media studies student in our class. They both fit the character profile of being Caucasian, blonde or dark hair, play sports *jocks* (both are on rugby teams) and generally have quite arrogant personalities (not in a mean way, they're just both very self assured and it shows. They both have the appearance we can promote as a 'bad boy' and as we have two options, we shouldn't have problems if one of them drops out.

Exhibiting these qualities, plus a flair with the ladies *wriggles eyebrows*, we chose to approach Daniel first as Theo is a media studies student and will be busy organising and filming his own project. He's also going skiing during the time we are filming and so there'll be a clash! Lucky for us, Daniel said yes and since he's only involved in a minor portion of the film, it shouldn't be difficult to arrange a time.

Pheebs, OUT!!! ;)

Script

'Sup, my examiner-homies! (Just kidding, we hardly know each other ;)

Carolina, a member of our team, is the designated script writer and she recently completed the general script/outline. As there is only a small amount of speech in our opening sequence, there wasn't much to include, however she noted the general order the scenes and action will go in and has written the dialogue so the two actors (one being moi) can rehearse and prepare.

We went over and read the script as a team and made a couple of edits regarding spelling and format and what to include. However, I am fairly pleased with the result and feel like our film is coming together, especially as we've now got an organised list of actions taken place and written dialogue. 


Script:

Naomi is filmed getting out of the shower 
(Camera focuses/follows on her feet)

Walks over to the mirror and draws her name and a smiley face in the steam (the mirror is foggy due to the steam from the shower)

She looks in the mirror

Walks through the hallway and into her bedroom

Chooses a song on her iPod which is in the iPod dock

Walks towards her wardrobe and opens it

(Reverse shot involving this position and another shot taken from inside the wardrobe where we will place a camera)

Drops her dressing gown

(Feet are in the camera frame as the title ‘The Naked Truth’ appears)

Puts on outfit, one clothing item at a item interspersed with track and panning shots of the bedroom and beauty products e.g. make-up, ’50 Shades of Grey’ trilogy and the dog

(E.g. Close-up shot of bottle of cream "Blow")

Walks over to her dresser and begins to apply makeup and do her hair

Receives a texts and walks over to the window

(Quick cut between scenes)

*If we have a male lead*
Naomi sees Aiden present outside of her window – Looking down at him

(Low angle - reverse zoom)

He looks up at her and waves
(Over-the-shoulder - high angle)

Naomi putting her shoes on, picking up her bag, putting on her jacket and spraying herself with perfume

Strokes the dog, “Bye, bye, cutie” and leaves the bedroom, shutting (swings it slightly closed) the bedroom door behind her

(Camera tracks her going down the stairs - reverse shot: camera tracks her behind walking down the stairs then in front of her walking down the stairs)

(Reverse shot of Naomi walking out of the front door)

In conclusion, the script is fairly in depth and detailed and as it refers to the camera angles/shots and what the characters are doing prior to the dialogue, we can use it as a good reference point while filming as well as the storyboard. We hope to cast a male lead to play Aiden's character but if not, we will remove his role from the opening sequence which has its benefits regarding not revealing too much of the plot or having to rush what we include in the opening two minutes. We also acknowledged that keeping it short and sweet with minor dialogue had the opening sequence flowing easier as well.

Pheebs, OUT! ;)

Storyboard

Hey All!

As storyboarder, Sam's job was to design and create the storyboard our film, including all of the scenes we'll be shooting and the different shots and angles we'll be using. Sam's the best drawer out of all of us (I can handle stick people, and even then they have longer arms than the rest of their bodies :/ ).

It was a team job initially as we hadn't properly listed all the ideas we'd had and needed to finalise and order the list so that Sam could draw up the storyboard. We'd brainstormed in a previous lesson and had a range of ideas however we hadn't gotten down to deciding which we were going to use, which may take up too much time and other that may give aspects of the plot away too early.

The storyboard was a very important stage in production as it we would use to refer back to while filming and was the basic list of all the stages in the opening sequence, as well as including additional information on camera angles and shots we would use for each.



Title sequence of the 'production companies' involved in the creation of our film

Bathroom scene of the shower turning off and Naomi emerging from the shower to pout in the mirror

Bathroom scene finishes with Naomi exiting the bathroom and entering her bedroom

The title appears on screen and the montage of images and shots of Naomi "getting-ready" and interiors of her bedroom start

Montage of small shots of Naomi "getting-ready" and panning shots of the interior

Continued montage of small shots of Naomi "getting-ready" and panning shots of the interior

Naomi goes to the window and we film a range of point-of-view and over-the-shoulder shots of them looking at each other out of her bedroom window

These are the final stages of Naomi preparing to leave the house, with some close-up 'getting-ready' shots interspersed with interior panning shots e.g. 'Head Girl sash'

These are the last few shots of our opening sequence. The top 3 are of what will happen if we have a male lead, and the bottom 3 are without.

 

When we first saw the storyboard completed, Carolina and I raved about it for ages. Not only did Sam do a great job, but it meant that we had a finalised plan of our film, and a useful reference point which we could continue to go back to when filming. As we've also uploaded the screen-shots onto our blogs, we can access the storyboard from anywhere and we are feeling very confident about filming.

 

Pheebs OUT!!! ;)

OSA: "Sleepover"

The next film's opening sequence I'm analysing the Sleepover, 2004. It's a classic romantic-comedy, centered around a teenage girl competing in a scavenger hunt for the privelege of eating at a popular lunch spot, while also vying for the affections of the school's dreamboat "Steve Phillips". We have roughly the same fan base and genre, with aspects of the plot line similar.

Sleepover

Camerawork:

The screen is initially black and then slowly fades to introduce the first shot, post company-titles, which is a zooming out, retreat shot of the inside of the protagonist's, Julie, lockers door. The scene is shot from inside the locker, so that the shot is filming outward. The camera zooms out from showing a small portion of the screen to a larger portion, making an opening action which signaling the film beginning.

The locker frames the shot as the door opens and we see the first interaction between the protagonist and her best friend Hannah. The frame of the locker not only introduces the audience to the setting (secondary school), information which relates the characters to the teenage audience, but also uses the rule of thirds to centre the two characters shown and highlights their importance. After their brief coversation in which the locker continues to frame the shot, focusing the audience's attention on the interaction between the two through making the action sit in the middle of the shot, the camera switches to a wide, full-length shot of the corridor.

The shot uses the rule of thirds again, as the shot of the corridor is framed by lines of lockers to center the cleared hallway where the title appears. As it sits in the centre, the audience's focus is on the biggest centerpoint, being the of the film "Sleepover". Following the title's appearance, the shot switches to a wide shot, which encompasses a lot of detail, showing the hallway flooded with students, reminding the audience of the setting and showing the protagonist still attends school. This indicates (as well as her appearance) her age and likening her to the target audience who are probably still in education.

The rest of the opening two minutes is constructed using a range mid-shots and close-ups. This offers more detail to the audience and also, through the closeness those shots offer, creates a connection between the protagonist and the viewer, making the film easier to relate to and more personal.

 



Editing:

The film uses a range of quick jump cuts to flicker between different camera angles and scenes. This sets a fast pace of the opening sequence, representative of the anxious feelings to leave school felt by most students at the end of the academic year and excited, energetic atmostphere felt by people racing around, waving and shouting in the shots. The smooth timing of the cuts also gives them a natural feel and fluidity to the clip.

Mise en scene:

The locker door is filled with pictures of couple's kissing, hinting at the romantic genre of the film and foreshadowing the future romantic aspect of the plotline regarding Julie's infatuation with the popular Steve Phillips and eventual succeeding of dating him. The locker door also has stickers of butterflies and flowers, stereotypical girly decor, making the characters relatable to its target market (teenage females) and adding to the girly-mood and genre.

The locker and the hallway lined with lockers established the initial setting of the school and hinted at the character's age. The environment of the school creates an exchange between the protagonist and the audience, as many of the members of the target audience are still in school and so can link that aspect of their lives to the Julie.

The invitation to Liz's sleepover is bright and eye-catching, drawing the audience's attention to it. The invitation is to a slumber party, one of which Julie is already hosting and informs the audience about where the film will begin, what the girls are doing and how they initially plan to spend their evening as well as introduce another dilema regarding a guest being invited to both, Stacey. This gives the reader a lot of information and makes them feel involved in the film and empathetic with the protagonist, who they already feel kindred spirits with due to their similar age, and series of close-up and mid-shots used to film the opening two minutes.

Sound:

The opening sequence begins with a voice-over monologue spoken by the protagonist, Julie:

"I can't believe you're moving. Where is Vancouver anyway? Do you now what happens to girls who start high school with no bestfriend, no guy and low social standing? Nothing. Nothing ever happens to them."

 

The dialogue introduces the audience to the initial dilema of the protagonist, that her bestfriend is moving away and she's starting high school alone. Revealing a personal bit of information to the audience makes the viewer feel more connected and sympathetic to the main character, and instantly revealing a dilema of the protagonist gets the film going, diving right into the storyline and involving the audience immediately.

 

The monologue refers to things important to teenagers, like a social life, reputation and image and change such as getting older and going to a new school. This relates the opening two minutes to audience, who understand the importance of these values as they are in a similar age group and likely share similar concerns to Julie, the protagonist.

 

The background music played throughout is peppy, upbeat and cheerful, a generic convention of romantic comedies and automatically sets the mood in the film as fun, enjoyable and light-hearted, muchlike what we hope to do with our film.

 



Titles:

The title of the film "Sleepover" appears at 00:36, a quarter of the way through the opening two minutes. The title is in a simple font, block letters to draw the audience's attention and signify its importance. It could also signify through the simplicity of its font, the younger-aged characters and target audience the film is aimed at. The title spreads the width of the screen and is large, and is two different colours: purple and pink, which contrasts sharply with the white background, making the title stand-out on screen. Both colours are traditionally feminine colours and relate the title of the film to the female target audience. They also connote romance and love, particularly pink, and represent, as a result, the romantic-comedy genre of the film.

Narrative:

There are a few indications of what the plot is featured in the opening sequence. The first person we are introduced to is Julie (Alexa Vega) suggesting she's the protagonist, and then gradually, in the opening two minutes, we are introduced to her friendship group, teacher and enemies, signified through her comment "speak of the Devils".

We overhear a conversation between the protagonist, Julie, and her friend Hannah. She says "do you know what happens to a girl who start high school with no social standing", suggesting that the film will focus heavily on the social lives of teenagers, and now important appearance and 'looking cool' is to young people. There is also mention of a sleepover/party, the catalyst for the main event of the scavenger hunt in "Sleepover" and foreshadows the next setting in the film as well as inspires thoughts about future plot twists in the film.

The setting of the high school and the wide-shot of the hallway with students throwing their papers into the air suggests the main characters are still in education, and the film is set in at the beginning of the Summer holidays, feelings of celebration and relaxation associated with this time of year are instantly reflected by the audience you can share and empathise with the characters. This also appeals to the target audience who are likely still in education. 

Pheebs, OUT! ;)

Opening Sequence Analysis: Legally Blonde

Hi My People,

The next step regarding our Foundation Project is our opening sequence analysis. I've aptly chosen 2 films and their opening sequences which I think reflect our romantic-comedy genre and will compare and contrast both sequences, and possibly apply some of the techniques they use in their opening sequences to our film so that it will reflect our genre and better achieved standard.

Legally Blonde

Camerawork:


From the beginning of the opening two minutes of Legally Blonde, the image is slightly blurred, to make the titles of the companies more prominent on the screen, and to avoid distraction for the audience member with the movement in the background. The background is her distorted blonde hair, which relates the introduction to the title of the film and main character, instantly allowing the audience to make that connection. At 0:16-0:19, the picture sharpens and it becomes clear that Reese Witherspoon's character, Elle, is brushing her hair (close-up) as the title 'Legally Blonde' appears. The title and action are simultaneous in order to highlight the character's importance to the film and how her blonde hair relates to the title of 'Legally Blonde' and key theme of prejudice and stereotyping - particularly regarding hair colour.

The opening sequence includes a series of quick cuts between Elle 'getting ready' in her bedroom and another unknown blonde girl collecting signatures on a card for Elle. I think they used this fast-paced cutting technique to convey the idea that the two scenes are happening at the same time and also to add a sense of fluidity to the opening sequence. This is added to when the camera uses a tracking technique to show Elle brushing her hair again (close-up) and to follow the cyclist over the bridge (wide shot), creating a likeness in both scenes through the use of tracking in both as well as adding to the mobility and smooth switches between scenes.

During the period between 0:40-0:52, the camera mimics the movement of the cyclist on her bike, the filming jostling and swerving as you would while cycling. This creates the effect of the audience feeling as though they are within the film, rather than watching it. This is furthered by the tracking shot used in the same time frame where we switch between watching the blonde girl cycle (mid-shot) and what she views (point of view shot) e.g. the group of shirtless males wrestling, adding to the feeling of being present in the film.

There are a variety of shots where the camera is still and there is exaggerated movement in the frame (0:55) which creates a sense of energy and engages and focuses the audiences attention on watching the film.

In contrast, there are a lot of tracking shots of the interior of the protagonists room and scenery and this is used to subtly show the audience aspects of the character's personality and life. For example, we learn the main character, Elle, was homecoming queen and sorority president, implying she's popular, as well as shown items in her room like a range of beauty products e.g. Herbal Essences shampoo and nail polish, fluffy pens, Cosmopolitan magazines and CU university prospectus, creating the stereotype of a 'girly-girl', university student who is blonde and has a penchant beauty. This collection of shots is used by the film to broadcast a stereotype of blondes having low-intelligence and being focused on their appearance, a strong basis for the beginning of the film, particularly as stereotypes and overcoming prejudice is what the film is about.

Editing:

Throughout the sequence, the film flickers between two scenes, one being the protagonist 'getting-ready' and preparing, the other being an unknown blonde girl travelling to her sorority and getting a card signed for Reese Witherspoon's character Elle. The sequence uses parallel editing by making fast-paced cuts between the scenes so that they switch from one to the other really quickly. This creates the idea that the two events are happening at the same time, and makes the transitions from each scene succinct and smooth, adding a fluidity to the sequence.

Mise-en-scene:

Before I talk about the mise-en-scnene used in the opening sequence, I would like to talk about the relevance of the colour scheme regarding the film's DVD cover. Most romantic comedies often use the colour scheme of red writing on a white background, or those two contrasting colours as a basis for the campaign poster or DVD cover, like in Love Actually, Definitely, Maybe and P.S. I love you. This is because those two colours connote love and romance, and set the genre and tone of the films, giving clear hints to the target audience about what to expect. In comparison, Legally Blonde chose to ignore the classic colour scheme of red and white used for romantic comedies in order to stand out from those former films and add a sense of originality to the film, and so their colour scheme was centred around PINK and BLUE. Not only does using the colour pink convey the romantic-comedy/chick-flick feel to the film, the use of the colour pink and blue (which traditionally symbolises men and women) represents the key aspect of the film regarding the battle of the sexes and tackling gender prejudice and stereotyping.

The dominant colour throughout the opening sequence and, generally the whole film, in PINK! The colour pink is generally associated with girls and being a fairly feminine colour, and so hints to the target audience the genre of the film e.g. a chick-flick/romantic comedy. The fact that it is the colour of the protagonists' room and most of her personal items like her fluffy pink pen, pink roses, nail polish and other beauty products, reveal aspects of her character, for example, that she's a 'girly-girl' and 'beauty-queen'. This impression is added to by the various shots of Elle putting on make-up, shaving her legs and the stack of Cosmopolitan magazine present in her room.

The setting is presumably in America in a sorority house and the activity going on outside, like a couple of girls throwing a frisbee or a group of boys wrestling on the grass all create the idea that this movie is about young people and so becomes more relatable to the audience of a similar age group. It also sets an active, energetic and peppy mood to the film.

The lighting is bright and vibrant throughout the opening two minutes. This conveys the comedy genre of the film due to the fact that comedies are usually brightly lit and got a 'fun' feel to them in order to instil a similar mood in the audience - prepared to laugh at the jokes and have a good time watching it. The lighting contributes to the overall positive and happy mood of the film.

Regarding costume, most, if not all the of the female characters present in the opening sequence in the Sorority House, Delta Nu, wear some item of clothing which is pink. This again adds to the romantic/chick-flick feel to the film and paints the picture of the main character and her associates being fairly 'girly' e.g. obsessed with beauty products and fashion. This information is given to the audience in the opening sequence in order to allow the audience to form a stereotype of the character, so that the film's events can challenge that later and also to relate the opening sequence to the main theme of the film, stereotyping and prejudice.

Sound:

The opening sequence of Legally Blonde is set to the soundtrack of "Perfect Day" by Hoku and is non-diegtic. The song is peppy, girly and of the 'pop' genre, which relates similar characteristics to the film's genre. The song is also very 'catchy', upbeat which generates a mood of positivity and giddiness in the audience which instils the right state-of-mind for watching a romantic-comedy.

There isn't a lot of diegetic sound in the opening sequence aside from small talking moments like when a girl living in the sorority house opens the door to a friend of hers delivering Elle's card. They both say 'hi' and this creates a sense of familiarity about the characters living in the house, including the protagonist.

Titles:

All the titles are written in a girly, hand-written script e.g. hearts over the eyes and swirly tails of 'y'. The feminine touch to the hand writing relates the title's font to the film as the protagonist of the film's character is very girly and feminine. The hand-written, school-type font is used to foreshadow the future event in the film of the protagonist enrolling and attending law-school, and the hearting of her eyes and swirls of the tails of letters again contribute to the romantic-comedy, girly genre of the film.  The colour of the titles is pink and white and this also relates to the genre of the film (rom-com) and girly-aspect of the protagonists character.

The titles are always centred on the screen and this could not only be to highlight the importance of the information to the audience but also the hint about the film you get from the colour and font of the titles could be being showcased as something the producers wish the audience to pick up on.

Narrative:

There isn't a lot of the plot revealed in the opening sequence. The audience is presented clues regarding the protagonist's character like that she is girly-girl/beauty-queen, hinted by the make-up and 'getting-ready' sequence and pink colour scheme of her bedroom. The audience is engaged by the upbeat and positive soundtrack playing in the background and the relatable actions the protagonist is doing e.g. as the majority of the target audience will be women and so the emphasis put on getting ready and preparing for the day, applying make-up and having stack of Cosmopolitan magazines in her room, makes the film and the lead actress relatable to the target market, making them engaged and interested in the film with just the opening two minutes.

Pheebs, OUT! ;)

Institutional Research

'Sup!

When doing institutional research, I initially began searching British films of the genre romantic-comedy. Surprisingly, the list I referred to on Wikipedia only named 108 films in that genre category made by British production and distribution companies, some of which include Bridget Jones' Diary (Working Title Films), Tamara Drew (Monumentum Pictures) and Mamma Mia! (Universal Pictures, Playtone and Little Star).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:British_romantic_comedy_films

I decided to research various British institutions which created films within my genre to educate myself in which companies would best be used to produce a film like ours. I chose to research Artificial Eye, Momentum Pictures, Entertainment Film Distributors and Working Title Films.

Artificial Eye

Artificial Eye is a British film distributor, specialising in foreign-language and art house films. It was founded in 1976 by Andi Engel his then wife, Pamela Balfry, who had a background working with Richard Roud at the London Film Festival. She became Artficial Eye's first managing director. Artificial Eye releases some 20 new theatrical films and 30 DVD titles in the UK each year. 

It distributed a variety of films including Fish Tank, a low-budget British Film, as well as 360 and What Richard Did. Although Artificial Eye is a British Company and showed willingness to distribute low-budget films as it did with Fish Tank, the genres it seemed to focus on are foreign and art house films, both of which don't fit with our chosen genre of romantic-comedy, therefore, the distributor is inappropriate for our film.

Momentum Pictures

Momentum Pictures, my second researched company, is one of the leading independent motion picture distributors in the UK and Ireland and releases approximately 20 theatrical films a year. The studio produces a variety of genres in film, including romance, comedy, horror, and family films.

Among other films, it has distributed Just Friends, P.S. I love you, and Dear John, all of which are romantic-comedy genre. Although the company doesn't seem to specialise or endorse low-budget production films, they do distribute a films with a range of genres, some of which are popular rom-coms and as a result, is a suitable choice for our film to use.


Entertainment Film Distributors

Entertainment Film Distributors is another British distributor of independent films in the UK and Ireland for various production companies, currently run by Nigel Green. The fact that they distribute independent films implies that they specialise in backing newcomers, unknown film makers and low-buget films, ideal for our film project.

The company distributes a variety of films in different genres, including Run Fatboy Run, 17 Again, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and My Big Fat Greek Wedding. This indicates that this distribution company would be suitable for our film due to the fact that the company delves into our genre of romantic-comedy based on their wealth of films in that category. The films they produce in the rom-com genre are popular and well-known, inspiring confidence that our film would get wide-spread exposure and circulation. The company also works with newcomers to the film-making-scene and back low-budget films, which puts them ahead of Momentum Pictures and Artificial Eye, as Momentum pictures doesn't do a lot of work with low-budget projects and Artificial Eye specialises in art house and foreign films, neither of which are our genre.

Working Title Films

Working Title Films is a British film production company, based in London. The company was founded by tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1983. It produces feature films and several television productions and is one of the most successful and well-known British production company, and its parent company is NBC Universal. It produces films in a variety of genres, including romantic comedy and have produced, among others, Love Actually, Bridget Jones' Diary and Definitely Maybe. All these films share the similar category of romantic-comedy and all three have been popular classics which are loved by the British public (Love Actually won a series of BAFTAs and Golden Globes), inspiring confidence in us as directors looking for a production company to create our film. The company has a positive image and history if success and is a promising option as a production company.


Pheebs OUT! ;)

22/01/2013

Hey All,

We didn't do much this lesson aside from preparation for filming and admin work mainly. Sam wasn't in school and so it was just Carolina and myself, however we'd had this conversation earlier on so she didn't miss anything and we didn't make any decision without knowing she was okay with it.

Roles:

Storyboarder - Sam (I'm pretty poor on the drawing front and Carolina wasn't overly keen so it was left to Sam with her stick people)
Organiser - Phoebe (I'm a crazy neat freak but also because I have a good attention to detail and am very organised in day-to-day life as well as projects and deadlines)
Script-writer - Carolina
Director - Group task, but Carolina and Sam will lead due to the fact that I will be acting in the film
Editor - Group task

Timetabling:

We chose to work out some later details about when and where we could meet up, film and plan. Comparing schedules, it turned out that Carolina and I have the same free periods (Tuesday morning, double) and although Sam had lessons during that time, we decided that we can use times after school and weekends for filming, as well as set-aside a day or two during half term to get the bulk of the filming out of the way.

Pheebs OUT! ;)

Full Synopsis

The Naked Truth Synopsis


"At the age of 18, in her second year of college, Naomi (Phoebe Bower) is the “queen bee”. She loves being adored by people and the attention she receives from boys. She will resort to anything to keep the power in her hands, even at the expense of her own dignity. Underneath her sweet exterior she is a girl who is very insecure about herself and feels the only way she can be popular is to give boys what she thinks they want (sex).

After having multiple flings with multiple guys she sets her sights on the main prize, the alpha male of the school, Aiden (Daniel Walsom). When she finally lands a date with him they hook up and she feels as though she has accomplished something great; however, much to her shock, Aiden has a girlfriend and not only is she popular but also ruthless.

Katelyn, Aiden’s girlfriend decides to get make it her job to get revenge on Naomi and posts a naked picture that Aiden took of her all around the school and online. When the rest of the school sees these images Naomi is alienated and a lot of her friends reject her, except for her two best friends who have been with her though everything, even with her bad reputation.

Naomi, however, is not willing to take things lying down; she aims to get her own back. Over a number of months Naomi and her best friends Abigail and Lauren plot and plan ways to get back at Aidan and Katelyn. Naomi puts ant powder in Aiden's jock-strap, cuts up Katelyn's school clothes, dyes Katelyn's hair pink and spreads a rumour about Aiden having a tiny penis, but both Katelyn and Aiden are able to find ways of styling them out and their reputations don’t get damaged. Naomi however begins to gain more and more friends after doing each prank as everyone who ever felt victimised by Katelyn decides to take her side.

Since none of their plans have worked, Naomi and her friends decided that they need to do something that will really hit Katelyn hard, so Naomi decided to go after Katelyn’s brother, Oliver. They plan to use as a source of information and find ways of humiliating Katelyn, just as Naomi was humiliated beforehand.

Oliver ends up liking Naomi and becomes close friends with her, much to his sister’s dismay. Naomi also begins to realise that that she likes Oliver as more than a friend and she feels something for him that she had never felt for another boy. She decides that she can’t keep using him and lying to him and so calls of the whole revenge plan thinking that she will go to him and explain everything to him, making everything fine.

Meanwhile one of Katelyn’s friends finds out about Naomi’s plan through the schools grape vine and rushes to tell Katelyn. Katelyn rushes to Oliver and tells him everything and although he is crushed, Katelyn is filled with joy over the fact that her brother no longer likes Naomi.

When Naomi and Oliver next see each other he ignores her and, after seeing the smug look on Katelyn’s face, she realises that Oliver has found out everything. Naomi is heartbroken and begins to give up hope. After many sleepovers filled with chocolates and tears, Naomi’s friends convince her to do something because nothing will ever change if she sits around crying.

The next day at school a large crowd gathers and Naomi tells the whole school that she is sorry for what she has been doing as she had dropped to Katelyn’s level and most of all she is sorry for what she did to Oliver. Oliver forgives her and they become friends again, foreshadowing a possible relationship in the future.

At the end of the film, Naomi is walking round the back of the sports centre at school when she sees Aiden making out with the football captain Luke - we find out that Aidan is bisexual. Naomi wastes no time and decides to take a picture, bringing the film to a close as she sends the picture to a bunch of people."


Pheebs OUT!!! ;)

Synopsis

Hhhhheeeeeellllllllooooooooo, Mr Media-Studies Peoples,


"Naomi is the “queen bee”. She gets what she wants, when she wants it, and more importantly ... gets exactly WHO she wants.
After setting her sights on the biggest prize of all, Aiden Young, and having her reputation ruined by Katelyn “the bitch”, Naomi is determined to get revenge. From ant powder to pink hair, Naomi pulls out all the stops!
Will Naomi ever be back on top, or will her vengeful spiral get the better of her, especially when Katelyn’s brother Oliver becomes the centre of her plot."


This is our synopsis for our 'film' called 'The Naked Truth' - Deciding on a title was difficult. We went through a variety of suggestions, from "Love-Switch", "Unforgettable affair" - which we concluded sounded a bit too '50 shades of niceness', and "Let me love you" to "P.O.R.N. (Problems of Rude Nudes)", "Hell hath no fury" and "W.A.B. (What. A. Bitch)" - I was on a bit of a abbreviation craze.


The title is a well-known saying and relates to the plot of the movie as the initial problem in the tale is the honest-to-God-truth coming out and ruining Naomi's life. The word 'naked' is a double entendre which relates to the naked-pictures of Naomi which are brodcast throughout the school as well as the importance of truth and the role it plays in the film.


We initially had some trouble with creating a plot because we had initally thought up as simple boy-meets-girl and falls in love idea however that sounded much too cliché and we thought it didn't scream HIT! It didn't have much of a storyline and didn't attract interest, so we decided to recall some of our favourite chick-flicks and came up with the revenge aspect to John Tucker Must Die (I'd seriously recommend it) and the ant-powder prank was inspired from a story, amateur written, on Wattpad.com called White Liar. These extra add-ons to the plot developed the comedy aspect of our film, something else we'd struggled with as we'd begun to think the original storyline was more romantic-drama than rom-com material. After much deliberation, we improved the story with a revenge theme, romantic interest and comic touches throughout - and although the film isn't original (name me one film that is), that may work to our advantage as we are taking inspiration and ideas from a range of popular films and combining them to make something a little bit different and perhaps better. It fits into the genre of romantic-comedy which will appeal to our target market of teenage females, 12-21 and works as a succinct, interesting plot.


Pheebs, OUT! ;)

Preliminary Task Evaluation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrmahtRXnaQ&safe=active

Hello-AGAIN, Mr/Ms Examiner-Person!

Preliminary Task

The first item on our project checklist was to film and edit our preliminary task. We weren't getting marked for it but it was mandatory and we would loose marks off of our overall project if it wasn't done and completed in time (hence why this is the first blog that I'm writing). 

Filming the actual footage was fairly easy, just a matter of picking locations and following a script already written. Carolina was our chosen 'A' and Sam was our chosen 'B' (I was fairly certain about staying behind the camera for filming this one). We stuck to our editing tip from Sir of waiting 5 seconds before and after we've completed our shot  and it really helped when it came to editing because we had extended time to shorten shots and make changes. Once we'd completed our filming, we took our footage back to the huts and plugged the camera into the computer - Macs, I've come to find, are a NIGHTMARE to use and I'm still trying to adapt (Windows girl at heart <3). 

Editing went well as we had a sheet to guide us and we'd had prior practise when filming our Red-Riding-Hood film sequence. We were succinct and attentive to the changes we wanted to make and when done, presented our work to Mr Roberts. 

Our feedback was fairly positive. Mr Roberts complimented our reverse shots, arguing that they were smooth and looked natural on camera. Naturally we were chuffed, but on referring back to our sheet, we learned we'd neglected to do a over-the-shoulder shot on step 4 so we re-filmed and added it to the footage. 

What we were criticised for was our mistake of crossing the 180' degree line twice during our task. We didn't understand where we'd go wrong and I didn't follow what the 180' line was about but we asked Sir and he explained that you have to film on one side of the line at a time otherwise the characters in different shots look like they are facing in the other direction and it throws the whole shot off. 

We didn't make the improvement on the task purely because we weren't being marked for it and it was evidence we can refer back to later when filming so that we don't make the same mistakes when it counts.






Another thing we realised we need to work on is our use of light because, in retrospect, a lot of our shots were dark and obscure the image - and since we want to mimic the bright and cheery feel of the Legally Blonde opening sequence in our own piece, light is a technique we are going to have to improve on.

In conclusion, I found that we followed the task fairly well and found it really useful because we learnt what aspects of filming and editing we need to improve on e.g. use of light and crossing of 180' degree line, and now that we've been made aware of it, we can focus on making sure we don't make a repeat of it later. We've also refreshed our memories regarding using the software and I now feel more confident about moving onto the next step in our project!

Pheebs OUT! ;)