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.