PLANNING: Shooting Schedule

When I made my shooting schedule the first thing that I did was to make a table of all of the shots. In the table I have given each shot a number so when I come to make my shooting schedule it will be made easier as I can use this table to help me choose when I am going to film each shot.
 
This is the shooting schedule for the opening two minutes of my film, I have decide to film all of the my scenes over two days, this is because I am going to be filming with my dog and he will get restless so I will only film a certain number of the shots on the first day and then I will film the rest the next day. The only problem with doing this is that the light in the shots from the two days will be different. I will over come this by editing the light on the Mac when I start to edit the film. The two days that I will film on are going to be Saturday the 4th of march and Sunday the 5th of march.

Saturday 4th shooting scedule

Sunday 5th shooting scedule

PLANNING: Final Storyboard

This is my final draft of my story board

RESEARCH: Target Audience Research No.2

For my second piece of target audience research I explained my story board to my target audience. The feedback that I got was very useful and I am going to use it and change my story board, so that my final product is more appealing to my audience.  

The first piece of feedback that my target audience gave to me is that they do not get enough time to see the characters face, they will need to know and be able to recognise the man’s face for later on in the film. This is why I agree with my target audience’s feedback.
                The second piece of feedback that I got was that there are not really enough clues for the audience to pick up on that fact that the object that the character is moving is a girl’s body. I will change this and add more clues for the audience to get to help them realises that the object is a dead girls body.
                The third piece of feedback which I got was that they think that they should see more of the characters house so they can understand what he is like, I do not agree with this as this would happen later on in the film. The first two minutes of this film opening is for the audience to realise that this man is trying to get rid of the girl’s body, not to find out what type of a man the killer is.

I have found out some very interesting views from my target audience and will now use them to change my story board. I will change it so it will be the best possible film opening it can be and as suitable for my target audience as possible. 

RESEARCH AND PLANNING: Preliminary Conclusions

What information have you gathered from you film deconstructions that you will use in you own two minute film opening?
                 During the research stage I had to deconstruct the first two minutes of three film openings. While I was doing the deconstructions I noticed that all of the films had similarities with each other.
                 The content of the film openings were mainly all the same with a few minor differences. The film opening will introduce the audience to the main character, theme setting and time period of the film. The introduction of the main character will give the audience extra information such as the characters gender, age, profession and the type of person they are.  Another similarity that all of the film openings had was that they all had some music in the background. The music is used to inform the audience what the theme of the movie is and I think that it is also used to keep the audience interested.
                 The function of the film openings were mainly all the same too, I think that the function of a film opening is to inform and to introduce the audience to:

·         Theme of the film

·         Time period of the film

·         Setting/ Location of the film

·         Main characters of the film

·         The genre of the film

·         Certificate of the film

                 The corporate information that is given out to the audience in the film opening is mainly all the same too. This information is the publishers name and the logo, the distribution company responsible for the film, the director and the writer of the film and the main characters that are in the film.


What has your target audience research told you about the likes, dislikes and the viewing habits of your target audience? 

                 For my target audience research I made a questionnaire of ten questions and then asked ten people who were aged 16, 17 and 18 this who my target audience are. The questionnaire was used to find out more information about what my target audience want and expect from a film opening, what they like about films and who do you watch the films with.
                 The information that I have gained from the questionnaire will become very useful to me when creating my film opening. My questionnaire has told me that my target audience would prefer to watch films with their friends over their family.
                 Also I have found out that my target audiences favourite genre of film is horror with Sci-Fi being the least favourite with no votes, I have decided that I am going to make a film with the genre of horror this is because my target audience like the horror genre the best and this means that my film will be very popular with them.
                 Some more information that I gathered from my questionnaire was that my target audience like a variety of actors, genre, story line and certificate in the films that they watch.  My target audience want the first two minutes of a film to present them with questions that will be answered later on in the film. Another thing that my target audience like to see in a film opening is for the film to jump right in to the story/action.
                I will use all of this information to make my film opening suitable and popular with my target audience.

How have you used the above research to make planning decisions regarding your movie?              
              The first planning decision that I have made is that, I will use my film opening to introduce one of the main characters to the audience. The introduction of one of the main characters will give the basic information such as gender, age, looks and what type of person the character to the audience. I think that this is important as the audience will need to know what type of a person the character is to under stand the film opening. The introduction of the one of if not the main character is one of the main similarities that all of the films that I deconstructed had.
               Also one of the planning decisions that I have made due to my deconstructions is that I will also introduce the time period, theme, genre and the setting/ location of the film in my opening. Another planning decision that I have made is that the film opening will need to have the corporate information on. This is one of the main similarities that all of the films that I deconstructed had. I will have to create a publisher name and logo and the name of a distribution company that I can use in my film opening. The corporate information that I will have to include too is the actor/ actresses name that are staring in my film, the last part of corporate information that I need is the directors name.
                The first planning decision that I have made due to the information that I gained from my target audience research (questionnaire) is that my film is going to be a horror genre based film. This is because my target audience’s favourite genre of film is horror.
               The second planning decision that I made was that my film opening will need to present questions for my target audience which will then be answered later on in the film. Another planning decision that I have made for my film opening is that the film opening will need to jump straight in to the story/action as this is what my target audience want/ expect from goof film opening.

PLANNING: Director’s Pitch and Storyboard

Plot
The Evans family are doing some work in the garden of thier newly bought house. Although they do not know that the past home owners are laying under the recenlty moved soil. The family of the old house have been laying benath the soil for years and have now been woken.

Location
All of the film will be filmmed in my back garden.

Recourses
Camera, Dolly wheels, tripod, external mics, duck tape, carpet and old sheets, spade and a freezer.

Problems

Some problems that I might come across are:

• I am filming with my dog he may lose his concentration and become restless. To over come this I am going to spread the film out over two days. So that when he becomes restless we can stop film for the day.

• I have two brothers and a sister, and they may be in the garden on the day of my filming, to over some this problem I am going to put a note on the back door asking them not to come out in to the garden for a certain time on my filming days.

• Another problem is that as my main character my mum will need to be free the weekend that I intend to be filming, this is why I asked her which weekends she would be free to film on.

This is my first draft of my story board 

RESEARCH: Target Audience Research No.1

This is my target audience research, for this I asked 10 people to answer my questionaire. I wanted to find out what my target audiences favcourite genre and what they wanted from a film opening. Out of the 10 poeple 5 of them were females and 5 of them were males. I think that I got alot of importnat information from this questionnaire that I can in my film opening.

Question 1. Do you like to watch films?

In the question there were only two possible answers. In this question 100% of my target audience answered the question do you like to watch films with a yes.

Question 2. How many films do you watch in a month?In the question there were six possible answers that my target audience could choose from. The most popular answer was five films in a month. None of my target audience answered the question with the answer one or two films in a month.

Question 3. Who do you watch films with?This question was a written answer but most written answer was friends, then partner then family.

Question 4. What is your favourite genre of film?

My target audience want I am asked my target audience which of the genres of film were the most popular. Horror was the most popular genre of film, closely followed by comedy.

Question 5. Do you tend to watch films with all the same genre or do you like to have a variety?These results show that my target audience like to watch a variety of films and have the choice to choose to watch a different type of film.

 Question 6. Do you tend to watch films with the same certificate or do you like to have a variety?

All of my target audience said that they like to watch a variety of films with differnt certificates. 

Question 7. Do you like to watch films with a certain actor or actress in?

In this question I can see that 80% of my target audience like to watch films with a variety of actors or actresses in, while 20% like to watch films with the same actors or actresses in.

Question 8. Do you want the opening of a film to present question to be answered later on in the film or to be clear and no question?

It is clear that my target audience want the opening of the film to present question to be answered later on.

Question 9. What is it about a good film opeing that hooks the audeince?

60% of my target audience said that they think that it is questions presented that hook the audeince to the film opening.

 

Question 10. Do you think a film opeing should jump straight in to the action or start of steady and get the background info?70% of my target audeince said that they would want the film opening to jump straight in to the action.

RESEARCH: Deconstruction of Kick Ass

Director: Matthew Vaughn


Year: 2010


Certificate: 15


Genre: Action-Comedy 

The first shot that we see is of the clouds and the cameras is moving forward into them, this gives the idea to the audience that we are flying and that the theme of the film is on super heroes. As the camera continues to move forward we see the credits rushing towards us as the camera passes through the text the diegetic whooshing sound plays, this effect is used to reinforce to the audience what the film is about. As the camera continues to rush forward and non-diegetic sound of radio and news report about superheroes, most of the speech is hard to understand but some of the reports are spoken clearer for us to understand, this also adds to the fact that the film is about super heroes. As the credits pass by there is also some non-diegetic background sound which is a kind of fan fair super hero music.
            When the credits finish the camera pans downwards and the building starts to appear in the shot, this helps the audience realise where the film is set and what time period it is set in too. As this shot appears of the city there is a non-diegetic voice over, we as the audience will then guess that this is the main character giving us some information about the film, this I think adds to the super hero theme of the film. When the camera continues to pan downward to the city we see a man dressed in super hero costume, we as the audience all assume that this is the man who is speaking in the voice over.
            As the camera moves closer to the super hero his wings open and then the camera moves to an extreme close up of the superheroes face and this adds tension throughout the audience. Then the camera moves above his head and we see how high up the superhero is. When the super jumps of the building the music picks up adding tension to the audience, then the shot changes to an extreme long shot and it is a kind of point of view shot from the spectators showing the super hero flying gracefully through the air. While he fly’s through the air the audience can hear the diegetic sound of the spectators clapping and cheering the super hero on. Then the shot changes to a close up of the super hero and the audience can see that he is struggling and then the shot changes to a point of view shot and we see the taxi getting closer and closer.
            The next shot we see is the superhero crashing in to the taxi. As the camera moves we can see the spectators express and hear the diegetic sounds of how worried they are. Then the voice over from just before says “that’s not me by the way” this immediately gives the audience a sense of relief. After the voice over says this camera moves and focuses on the taxis number plate which reads “kick ass” which is accompanied by the voce over who says “I’m Kick-Ass!”