AS Coursework - Research Ideas

This film poster inspires us as it symbolises the unknown. We can't see the face of the person, giving it an air of mystery as we want to know who they are.
The words 'fear moves in' could also hint that the character looking into the window will be that fear.

Coursework Ideas

I have already established that I am going to create a film opening for my coursework. I will be working with Luke on this. We haven't been given a specification but we have been thinking about some ideas.

•A Horror Theme - Night time, mysterious characters, dark colours (e.g. red, black, grey).
•A Romantic Theme - Candle lit dinners, Romantic Setting (Countryside), nice and relaxing colours (e.g. pink, cream).
•A Thriller Theme - Cliffhanger, very mysterious, makes the audience jump.
•A Mystery Theme - Nothing to be exposed, scary to some extent.

Exhibition Within Independent & Mainstream Cinema

There is a large divide between independant and mainstream films. Independant are not as well known and do not have as wide audience as mainstream films. They will shown in cinemas like the Phoenix. Mainstream film is more well known and more largely advertised. They will be shown in cinemas like the Odeon and Cineworld.



Mainstream Cinemas

Types Of Film :
The Twilight Saga:New Moon, Sherlock Holmes, Transformers



Film Times :

They offer midnight showings of huge blockbuster films the day they come out.



Target Audience And How They Bring Them In :
They attract a wide audience, with different ages etc.

Cost :
They offer adult, student, child and OAP tickets.



Independent Cinemas

Types Of Film :

Dead Man's Shoes, This Is England, Let The Right One In


Film Times :
They usually only have film showings once or twice a day as it is a more limited audience.



Target Audience And How They Bring Them In :
They have a more limited audience fitting a specific group of people.


Cost :
Can be from as little as £1.50 and are usually cheaper than mainstream cinema prices.



The UK film council wants to make non mainstream films accesible in 3 ways. What are they?

• Creating independent cinemas


• Raising awareness

How Are UK Film's Regulated?

Camera Angles And Editing

Camera Angles

Long Shot
Shows the entire object or human body. The main focus is on the characters or the object but there should still be a good deal of background shown.

Medium Shot
Usually shows the object or characters from the waist up. It us used to show some sort of action taking place or some dialogue. The background detail is usually minimal because the setting is most likely to have been established earlier on in the scene.

Close Up
Focus is often on the face or a specific detail on the object. Background detail is kept to a minimum. Normally used to show the importance of something, almost like a hint to the audience.

Shot Reverse Shot
When one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking "back" at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.

High Angle Shot
The camera is elevated above the action using a crane to give a general overview. High angles make the object photographed seem smaller, and less significant (or scary). The object or character often gets swallowed up by their setting - they become part of a wider picture.

Low Angle Shot
These increase height and give a sense of speeded motion. Low angles help give a sense of confusion to a viewer, of powerlessness within the action of a scene. The background of a low angle shot will tend to be just sky or ceiling, the lack of detail about the setting adding to the disorientation of the viewer. The added height of the object may make it inspire fear and insecurity in the viewer, who is psychologically dominated by the figure on the screen.

Tracking Shot
Camera is placed on a moving vehicle, which enables it to move alongside the action.

Pan
A movement which scans a scene horizontally. The camera is placed on a tripod, which operates as a stationary axis point as the camera is turned, often to follow a moving object which is kept in the middle of the frame.

Tilt
A movement which scans a scene vertically, otherwise similar to a pan.


Continuity
This is the consistency in a film or tv programme of characters and plot etc. For example if in an episode of eastenders, they cut between two scenes. Both in the same place but in one scene it was raining, but the other was not. When they are in the same place and at the same time. This would be bad continuity. Good continiuity would be if the weather was the same in both places.

Montage
This consists of a sequence of shots that are put together to condence narrative.

Transitions
A transition is how you get one clip to the other. You must be careful on the continuity that you use. Wipes is a type of this.

Cross Cutting/Parallel Editing
A technique used in which shots of two or more separate, usually concurrent scenes are interwoven.

Dissolve
A gradual transition from one image to another.

Wipes
A gradual transition between two different shots.

New Technologies

How have new technologies allowed film institutions to target audiences?


Production

As new technology progresses, film companies have more ability to create bigger and more creative films. This helps them to appeal to a larger audience and expand their 'bullseye'. Things like HD cameras allow the filming to look better and create more advanced effects that will attract the audiences to go and watch the film.

Marketing

New technology, including social networking sites help the film companies to promote their new films. This means that the more advertising there is, the more people will know about the film and more people will go and see the film. This means that more money will go into the film so they make more money, and it also means that whoever created the film can have a bigger budget because they will have a bigger bullseye.

Distribution
Now that we have modern technology, it allows us to use more of digital distribution. This is cheaper and faster. There is a powerpoint on my blog which shows the advantages and disadvantages of digitial distirbution, and with modern technology it allows us to be able to achieve this because there are more advantages than dis advantages.


Exhibition
Exhibition becomes easier now because we have digital distirbution. It also becomes cheaper because of modern techonology.


How have new technologies affected the position of the consumer?

Now that there is new and more technology it allows the consumer to have more power over the film and whether it does do well. This is because they have the power on whether to go see it or not, because i they don't then the film won't do well.

Research For Coursework

For the coursework, Me and Luke are going to work together.
We will create a 2 minute film opening.
Here are some film openings that inspire us;


These are the opening titles to Spiderman 2. This inspired us because we liked the fact it was very close to reality but was a cartoon. We thought that the colours were very effective and we liked the fact that the background was spider man's costume. It was done like a spider's web which creates realism. Although this is a really good opening, it would be too hard for us to create, but we are hoping to have colours which stand out just like this does.



This is the opening credits to Casino Royale, which is one of the newest James Bond films. This one inspired me because i felt that the idea of James Bond's openings work very well. They are the same for every film. They have about 5 minute action, or talking and then they have a small cliff hanger and then they have a song which is the theme song for that film, and then have credits. I like the credits to this film because they have clearly been recorded as normal action, and then changed into cartoon. You can tell this by the black figure playing James Bond, because it is very alike to the actor who plays James Bond. This is Daniel Craig.

This is an optical illusion. This inspires us because we both like the idea of something being different to what it first seems. For example, in this we see two old people, but when you look closer we see two people sitting on a path playing instruments. We are not sure how we would put something like this into a film opening but we could at least think about different elements which we could include.

This inspires us because of the colour in the poster. For example the dark background and the contrast between the two people. We also really like the colour used in the film which you can see on this trailer;

Distribution

Digital Distribution

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Model Evaluation

Megan Fox 2

Marketing

On average 50% of a film's budget is spent on advertising to promote the film.

Merchandise is things like T Shirts, posters and cups. It could also be things like toys that you buy in a shop, quilt cover's and anything that is personlised to that film.

Viral Marketing is basically word of mouth. Somebody could read something on a website, tell their friend, and that person tells someone, until alot of people are talking about it.

Synergy Marketing is when you use the success of another existing company to promote your own. For example the 2009 film 'Up' used the success of McDonalds to advertise their film.

Product Placement is when companies are promoted through the use of a film, for example Aston Martin uses James Bond to promote themselves.



Bridget Jones' Diary (2001)
The film company produced a soundtrack for the movie, using Product Placement.
They produced calendars, t-shirts and posters as merchandise to help more promotion with the film.
Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth all used viral marketing to promote their film through interviews that they did.
Synergy marketing was used through Galaxy when they gave the public a chance to win a competition to celebrate the film's release.

The Male Gaze Advertisement

This advertisement fits in with Laura Mulvey's theory of 'The Male Gaze', as the woman, Megan Fox, is seen as the image with the picture being aimed towards men who are the 'bearer of the look' and could also influence them to buy it for their partners when they see the advert. However, it could also appeal to women who see this advert and they may think that if they buy the underwear then they can look like Megan Fox.

The Gaze

Marjorie Ferguson identified four types of facial expressions -

Chocolate Box

• Half or full smile
• Lips are together or slightly parted
• The teeth are barely visible
• Whole or three quarters of the face towards the camera

Invitational

• Emphasis is put on the eyes
• The mouth is shut with a hint of a smile
• The head is to one side or looking back to the camera

Super-Smiler

• Whole of the face
• Wide open, toothy smile
• The head is thrusted forward or the chin is thrown back
• The hair is often blown by a wind effect

Romantic Or Sexual

• Includes male/female "two-somes"
• A dreamy look
• Heavy lidded
• It is overtly sexual/sensual

Trevor Millum identified five different types of facial expression-

Seductive

• It is similar to cool/level
• The eyes are less wide
• The expression is less reserved but still shows self confidence
• It's milder

Carefree

• It's nymph like
• It is active and healthy
• It's vibrant
• Outdoors
• They are often smiling/grinning

Practical

• A concentrating look
• They are engaged in a business in hand
• The mouth is closed
• The eyes are directed to the object
• There is sometimes a slight frown
• The hair is often tight back or shot style

Comic

• It's deliberately ridiculous
• Exaggerated
• They are acting the fool
• They're pulling faces

Catalogue

• It's a neutral look, like a dummy or artificial
• Usually, the eyes are open and the smile is wide but the features can be in any position
• The looks are empty/vacant and show no signs of personality

Promoting Films

Production practices are used to appeal.
Distribution and marketing are used to raise awareness.


There are two types of advertising -
Above the line advertising is something that you can't get away from e.g film trailers
Below the line advertising is where you have to look for it e.g websites

The upcoming film's 2012, A Serious Man and Bunny and the Bull use these strategies to help the advertisement of the film

• Their own website



• Trailers showing parts of the film



• Posters



• Billboards



• Premiere's



• Well known, established actors e.g. John Cusack, Thandie Newton in 2012.



• Blogs



• Social Networking Sites



• Viral Websites

These strategies are used to attract the audiences showing dramatic, exciting or funny parts of the film to make them want to see the rest.

In 1994, Four Weddings and A Funeral used websites, posters and billboards etc. to help the promotion of the film.

Shameless

How are the various characters represented in episode one of Shameless?

Consider how different elements are used to construct the representations e.g. mise en scene, sounds and camera work.

Fiona

Fiona comes across as the mother figure in the Gallagher family even though she is another of Frank's children. The use of mise en scene portrays her as a stereotypical 'chav' character by her clothing and jewellry etc. This could also been shown through the area she lives in which is commonly seen as lower class, although this stereotype seems to fit more with her best friend Veronica. In one camera shot, Frank is on the floor with Fiona behind him on a higher level, this seems to represent her power over him and again shows us her matriarchal role.

Steve

When Steve is first shown to us in the club we can instantly see that he seems more wealthy and of a higher class than Fiona. He is wearing a suit whereas no-one else in the club is again showing a different social background. This is also shown to us through the mise en scene that he is higher up on the balcony than Fiona who is dancing on the floor below.

Lip

Lip is the oldest boy in the family and at first it seems like he may be a stereotypical chav, like Fiona, through the way he is dressed etc. but we find out that he is actually very intelligent when he is tutoring Karen. We also see that he has a close relationship with his brother, Ian. When he learns that Ian is gay he seems quite angry about it but we see that he's just worried about him and doesn't want his brother to get hurt.

Ian

Ian is Lip and Fiona's younger brother who we find out early on in the episode, is gay. He is having an affair with his co-worker Cash who is married with a family and seen as religious. They buy each other presents but Ian's gifts to Cash, often seem to be more extravagant than what Cash buys for him which could mean Cash is taking advantage of him, especially as he is only 15.

Hot Fuzz, Dead Man's Shoes & This Is England

The budget for Hot Fuzz was £8,000,000. They wanted to achieve a comedy that would entertain the audience, it helped using quite well known comedic personalities. The editing that they use gives it a sense of non realism which reflects the comedy genre that institutions like Working Title can afford to use. There was a larger bullseye for this film because there was a wider target audience and a bigger budget being used. This meant that they could use established comedic actors such as Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Jim Broadbent which appeals to the audience. The genre of this film is known as a hybrid genre because it includes comedy, crime, thriller and action which again helps build up a wider audience. Product placement is used where Vodafone is advertised on the phone. This may give them a bigger budget to use as Vodafone would have paid the production company to feature them in the film. The film doesn't represent true British life but it mocks our culture allowing us to laugh and add to the comedy effect. The use of lots of stereotypes, e.g. city life vs country life also adds to the comedic effect.
Hot Fuzz uses the same acotrs, productions team and editors that were used for Shaun Of The Dead which allows us to build up a loyalty base.




The budget for This Is England was £1,500,000. They wanted to achieve a realistic insight into an older society and more of a gritty storyline, affecting the audience. There is a strong political message as it was a time of change in British culture, we are shown this by the images of the Gulf War and Margaret Thatcher at the beginning which helps the audience relate to the film. There is a wider target audience because of Shaun, the likeable main character who we feel sympathy for right from the start because of losing his dad and the fact he gets bullied.



The budget for Dead Man's Shoes was £723,000. They wanted to achieve a well made thriller that would please their audience as it is a popular genre.

Homosexuality Presentation

Homosexuality

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Working Title And Warp Films Culture Show Notes

The Culture Show - October 2009

Mike Goodridge
He said that Hollywood Studios depend on big budget action movies with many special effects, these are known as "Tent Pole Films". This means that middle range budget films will suffer because audiences are more focussed on who's in a film rather than what is in it.
Tim Bevan
He works for Working Title Films. He says that it is easier to sell a comedy or scary film than it is to sell a drama or thriller. This is because people want to go to the cinema to relax rather than have to really focus on a film, which is called "escapism". He talks about having a "bullseye" which means that the more risk's you take, the smaller the bullseye. This has resulted in risk taking going down because directors aim for a larger bullseye.
Lord Puttnam
He says that if you have a film involving well known, established actors e.g. Brad Pitt then it will help a film to sell. This is the reason that he stopped making films as he wanted people to watch a film because they were interested in what was in it rather than who was in it when the audience watched a film for the opposite.
Sandra Hebrun
She says that more films need to be created that are intelligent and make people think.

Actors may need to lower their budgets in the future but this will most likely only happen if they are actually interested with the film and are willing to be a "coventurer".
An institution is always about the budget and how that will affect the audience that is seeing the film.



Shane Meadows
Meadows works for the independant film company, Warp Films. He said that for making a film you can have alot of money and big names involved in it but it doesn't mean that it will necessarily be a good film. In films that are made by Warp Films, he says that the scripts often change during filming e.g. half a page of script can become 10 pages of script. He mentioned that the relationship with the actors is very important which will make it a more flexible production. By cutting costs e.g. using normal room lights to light a room, and for example in one of Meadow's biggest films, This Is England, he says how they bought all of the cars in the film from eBay. Also in this film he directed it on a set that was already there, on an estate in Nottingham which he felt fitted the film. By cutting costs he lowers the risks to take during filming.

Working Title And Warp Films

Working Title and Warp Films

Preliminary Magazine Cover Task Evaluation

1. For this task I worked with Luke again, with him focussing on the magazine front cover whilst I focussed on the contents page. I think we worked well together as we both helped each other come up with styles, colours and fonts etc so that the front cover and contents page would look good together and we both had different ideas that we could use in our magazine.
2. We planned the sequence by drawing a draft of the layout that we wanted our pages to look like and came up with ideas of stories and features that we could include in our magazine. We looked at a few magazine covers that helped us to get an idea of what works and what doesn't on certain covers.
3. To complete this task we used Photoshop Elements, which allowed us to edit and adjust our magazine to how we wanted, using a variety of styles and texts that we could include on our magazine and it helped us edit our magazine easily to how we felt it should look.
4. Whilst doing this project we had to take into account what pictures we could use and whether it would attract our main audience and whether the photos related to the magazine's theme. We also had to take the colours in our pictures into account so that we could fit the background with them and we didn't have a clash.
5. I think our magazine cover was quite successful although we could have done alot better. I think our colours worked well with each other as we felt it suited the genre of the magazine as it was black and white and we had a magazine relating to performing arts. Although in some ways I feel we could have brightened it up abit to help make it more appealing to the buyer. If we had to do this task again I would have changed the layout of some aspects of the magazine as sometimes I felt that both pages seemed abit cluttered with the writing and we could make it look better with re-arranging the writing and the pictures.
6. From completing this task I have learnt how to use Photoshop Elements alot better then I could before and it has helped me to see what it would be like to create a magazine in the future, for example if I choose to do a magazine cover for my foundation coursework instead of the film opening. I think that as it was my first time at attempting to create my own magazine I did quite well although I definately feel I could have improved if I spent more time focussing on how I wanted the magazine to turn out.

Preliminary Film Task Evaluation

1. For my film task I worked with Luke, and we both had an equal share of videoing and directing.
2. We planned our sequence using a storyboard of the different shots we were going to use. We also created a short script of dialogue. We had seen some other students work of when they had done the same project and we didn't need much inspiration as it was quite a narrow brief.
3. For this task we used a recording camera from the school's library and we used a tripod to film our shots from different heights and angles etc.
4. When we were shooting our sequence we had to take into account the continuity of our shots so we had to make sure that the actors were in the same positions if we re shot the scene. One factor that we did not include was the 180 degree line, during the conversation between the characters. In editing we had to make sure that our shots flowed into each other and that we didn't have any parts that were out of step with the rest of it. We had to re record one of the actors sitting back down in the chair and we realised we had cut that part and it was evident when we played it back.
5. I think our sequence was quite successful except for the 180 degree line which you can see but I don't think it changed our sequence too dramatically. I think we had good continuity between our shots and it flowed quite well. If I did it again I would make sure that I had taken the 180 degree line into account and made sure I did at least two shots of each scene.
6. From completing this task I have learnt how to create a good link between our shots and how to edit our sequence to make sure that each scene works well with the other.

Magazine Annotation

The magazine cover we used was from Vibe magazine, with Janet Jackson.

The magazine follows the regular conventions of magazines, including mast head, cover lines, date, barcode, 3 colour palette, strapline, advertisement and 3 fonts.

The target audience for the magazine would mainly be mixed but certain editions may be suited to one gender. This one would be more suited for women I think by the style and colour of the front page.

The colour palette suits the target audience because it uses pinky and peachy colours which will generally be more attractive to women.

The cover lines entice the audience by using colours which stand out, drawing in our attention. They hint at the stories but do not explain it fully, making the reader want to know more.

The magazine appeals to regular readers, as shown by the picture of Janet Jackson covering the mast head, showing that regular readers will already know which magazine it was.

From producing a magazine front cover I have learnt that similar colours work well together, and cover lines need to be relevant to the style of the magazine.