Wednesday 17 July 2013

Using real people task

This is the video of where we used real people to produce one of our shots, it will not appear in our trailer remake task, but was a useful task as it enabled us to investigate how it would have been different if we were to work with real people rather than plastic ones.


Obviously, the mise en scene, particularly props was not ideal, however, this has shown us that films of a fantasy/adventure nature may be difficult to recreate due to the settings and therefore locations suitable, providing mythical creatures/animals that are not usually domesticated and props such as boats.

Tuesday 16 July 2013

Using real people

We have decided to try to work with real people for one of our shots to help us understand what it would be like in the production of our actual trailer. We decided that the shot we would recreate in this way would be shot number 22 where the tiger and the main character crawl around the boat. We will use white curved tables to appear like the boat.

This shot has required us to find...

  • A life sized tiger
  • A main character
Our next step is to cast both a young male character and a tiger, preferably a stuffed one because of health and safety issues.

Tuesday 9 July 2013

Trailer remake: Location

I created this moodboard of the locations that I am likely to use in the production of my trailer remake. These include the bathroom, as the bath will be the ocean, garden (for the elephant scene), goldfish bowl- for underwater scenes, river/pond for tea-lights scene/boat disaster, dark room for nighttime scenes and the stables' sand school for the sand track scenes.

Obviously if I were creating this trailer to a high standard these locations would not be chosen, as they are far from realistic or ideal, this has shown me, however, how I can produce a small scale, independent trailer and has reinforced my learning from my genre research in that in order to produce amazing sets/effects such as those seen in fantasy films like a Life of Pi, sophisticated software and big budgets are often required.

I have also decided that if I am to use the bath for the ocean/at sea scenes I will use blue food colouring in the water to produce a more realistic blue water look to it. I will also use fairy lights as stars in the night scenes.


Trailer remake: props

I created a list of the props that I will require in the filming of this trailer remake. I will now begin to collect these props or find alternatives if they cannot be obtained. Since publishing this list I have also decided I will also require white fairy lights and blue food coloring.



Trailer remake: Planning

My first step in planning this small scale, filming research task was to look at how I could recreate the shots in the actual Life of Pi trailer. I created these storyboard like tables which include a drawing of the shot, a technical description of the shot and how I plan to produce it. I have decided, due to the type of th eprops involved that I will use small model toys for characters as it minimises risks of injury which could occur if I were filming real people. It is also easier to shoot a toy boat in a bath for example, than obtain a real boat and shoot at sea. The drawings are very simplistic, but can be understood. There are a total of 36 shots in the trailer that I will be recreating.

Trailer remake: making decisions


Genre research conclusions table

Although I evaluated the possibility of the production of each genre in the presentations I made I created this table as a simplified reference to conclude my genre research. It has helped me to minimise the possible genres I will be working with in the initial ideas stage. It has helped me cut out 6 of the 10 possible genres and I have decided that the genres I am most likely to be working with include Drama, Family films, Horror and Fantasy. Horror and Fantasy, however, are more questionable, but storylines can be created without use of mythical creatures, using just 'magical locations' for fantasy films and horror films can be successful without death scenes. I will be more cautious when creating ideas around these genres so that if I were to decide to produce them they would not be of a poor quality because of the genre choice and my scale of production being incapable of living up to the genre conventions- therefore producing a poor quality trailer.

Genre research: Dramas

Genre research: Family films

Genre research: Musical films

Genre research: Romance

Genre research: Fantasy

Genre research: Horror

Genre research: Sci Fi

Thursday 4 July 2013

Genre research: Comedy

I created this presentation looking at what a comedy film is, the genre conventions and if I'd be able to produce a comedy themed film trailer. 

Genre research: Action and adventure

I created a presentation for the first genre I am analysing. I looked at action and adventure, firstly I defined what an action/adventure film was, secondly I created a moodboard and then I looked at the genre conventions of action/adventure by looking at a trailer. This enabled me to establish what would be expected of my trailer if I were to make one of this genre. I finally concluded by looking at whether or not I would be able to make an action/adventure film trailer.

Next steps fo research: genre

In order to produce a film I will need to look at different genres and what is expected of them. I wrote this to clarify my next steps for my research.

I have decided to look at the following genres:
Action and adventure, comedy, historical/period drama, sci fi, horror, fantasy, romance, musical, family and crime

    Mise En Scene- lesson task

    I looked at how Mise en scene can be created to work with a particular genre. My group were selected to create make up, costume and settings for the horror genre. We had to evaluate what went well and how the task could be even better. I also looked at what went well with the mise en scene for my coursework piece (an opening title sequence) last year, and what could have been improved.

    This is the Sliderocket presentation I made to record the task and my evaluation of it...

    Target audience

    I created this presentation after completing a lesson on target audience and how micro-apsects can attract  and effect them. I have not yet decided my target audience, but that will be a task after I have decided the genre of the film. This will require some research into genre, however, beforehand, I will be completing a task on Mise En Scene- this will be during class time.


    Magazine test 2: Little White Lies

    This is the second of the test covers I created. This is for the same film, but in the style of the Little White Lies Magazine.


    Magazine test 1

    I decided that to show I understand the conventions of magazine covers I'd create a quick one of my own. This is NOT my final coursework piece, just a small test. I thought that I would create two magazine covers from two very different publications. I decided that I would create one for Empire magazine and then Little White Lies. The image below is that of my test magazine front cover for the magazine Empire.


    Comparing magazines

    It's important for me to understand the differences in magazines in terms of genre, target audience and if they focus on independent or blockbuster films, for example, as I will be able to decide which magazine my film should appear in. Once I have completed my production context task and finalised an idea I will be aware of what magazine my film would be likely to appear in. For example if my trailer is from that of a large scale blockbuster film it would not appear in Little White Lies and if it were a small scale independent film it would be unlikely to make an appearance in Total Film or Empire magazine.

    I created this simple table to easily compare the magazines. This is an incomplex summary of my research which I can quickly refer to later when creating my own magazine front cover.



    Film magazine research: Sight and sound

    I contacted Nick James, the editor of Sight and Sound and asked him a few questions about the publication. This is detailed below.


    Film magazine research: Little White Lies


    Film magazine research: Total Film


    Film magazine research: Premiere




    Film magazine research: Empire magazine

    Being one of my coursework tasks, I decided that I needed to look at  film magazines and their front covers in order to produce my own. This research is essential as it will enable me to understand what is required of my own magazine cover. Looking at common features and conventions as well as how different film magazines vary.

    Below is my first analysis of the film magazine Empire:



    Tuesday 2 July 2013

    Film poster evaluation

    I created this mind map style evaluation to look at the features in my poster and how it achieves its purpose being an advertisement.  I also looked at how effective my poster is in communicating genre, content and release information my finding are presented in the image below.