Seeing as our film would feature no major names our film would probably be independently funded by lots of smaller groups rather than any major companies as it would be more of a gamble and be more at risk of not making a lot of money. We would probably be distributed by an independent company like Film4 or maybe, seeing a our film is in a well established genre we may even be distributed by a larger company like Universal.
The people who would gross the highest pay would be our lead actors, Daniel Wright, Andrew Bryan, Alisha Ward, Ges Smith etc; and though they were not featured in the opening credits the rest of the cast and crew who worked in making the film would be featured in the end credits instead.
Our film is similar (in it's production) to the BAFTA award winning film 'Tyrannosaur', this too is an independently funded film starring relatively unknown actors. It was distributed and produced in all independent minor companies like Film4 Productions and StudioCanal UK.
Here is the BiggerBoat productions Logo I made to go at the beginning of my video:
I chose to make this logo as I felt it would give my work a more proffessional look as all production companies have logos. I designed it as a metallic boat, it is slightly different to my original design as I had computer troubles which mean tthat I had to redo it but I still think it turned out pretty good.
-Badass by Reece A
-Sound of Da Police by KRS
-WWE: Brodus Clay 4th Theme song 'Somebody Call My Momma'
-'Bumblebee' from Transformers The Movie by Steve Jablonsky
- And 'Chamber of Mirrors' from Conan The barbarian by City of Prague Philharmonic
Low angle shot to give the character a sense of power and strength- something that we will later contradict.
One effect we used was to fade one seen into the next, the fade was barely noticeable but made cut between the scenes less jumpy.
Shot/reverse Shot:
We also used Shot/reverse shot for the dialogue scenes using over the shoulder shots on Alex to one on Mr Smith:
We also used match on action:
To follow Alex from his getting up from the table to a change in angle of him opening the door (filmed from the outside)
I also used Rule of Thirds:
When filming the shot reverse/shot dialogue scenes we lined up the characters bodies and faces to the rule of thirds to get maximum effect and enable that they both were the focus of the the scene.
We also used Extreme high angles to make certain characters appear weaker.
Looking back at your Preliminary task (the conitnuing editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
This final task was by far harder than my previous short film 'Saveloy and Chips' which was a lot of fun to make and really not that much hassle as we filmed it nearly all in one day and with only a cast of two so we had little organisation problems. Which is the complete parallel of this final piece which was riddled with filming problems. It was nigh impossible to get everyone together to film in one day as we were all so busy with our other subjects and free at different times, the costume and direction much more complex, the story was more detailed and a lot of our cast failed to turn up and then completely let us down so that we couldn't get all of our script filmed. This meant that we had to totally re-juggle our plot and so our final footage is very different to what we had previously intended.
Editing wise: I had used iMovie before and so because of that and the fact I had been ill (and so had missed much of the editing period and the last few days of shooting) I had not been able to learn how to use final cut or assist my partners in doing their edit so I had to do my own. I managed to get a rudimentary understanding of Final Cut however, just enough to get the voice over on and in my free time after school and during lessons got the editing done.
I think I've learnt through this experience how stressful filming can be (especially if people let you down and you don't have enough backup plans to supplement it) and I think though I do enjoy editing and directing and generally filming it's far too much pressure for me to ever consider as a career. I think that I do however have more confidence in my abilities to salvage a sequence form the utter mess that was our filmed footage (after all our problems) and though my final piece may not be award winning I hope that I've managed to cobble together a decent (beginning of a)story.
I also am quite sure now that directing, storyboarding, editing and even occasional acting are my strong points but sadly not writing humorous scripts which I more than happy am to leave up to the boys!
The computer programs I used when producing and editing my footage were iMovie and Final Cut Express.
This is an example of one of the cameras we filmed it on.
The computer I used to do my editing was an Apple Mac:
iMovie:
I used iMovie to do the majority of my editing and all of my rough-cuts. I also used it to add my transition effects and adjust the contrast and colours. I also used it to add the music.
Final Cut:
I then transferred my almost complete footage to Final Cut where I added the voice over and some more editing in depth. However when I had transferred it over I had lost the music, so I then had to re-transfer it over to iMovie, and re-add back in the music and then do some final cutting to finish it off. Then I put it on Youtube, however once I had done so I realised that it was over two minutes and that the audio for the music was too high so we couldn't hear the dialogue. I then took it back off of Youtube and re-adjusted the levels of audio and ducking and added some more titles, once I had done I posted to back up again.
This is Alan, he is in his mid-teens and is in secondary school, due to his age he is beggining to be more appreciative of more intelligent humour (though is not quite of the age when childish humour or toilet humour are lost on him). He is a fan of cult classic movies, comedies, action and science fiction films. He wears casual clothes and enjoys listening to underground music and hanging out with his friends.
How did we attract our target audience? (Watch the annotations)
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e of film openings)
I chose these nine screencaps as examples of how our film fits to the comedy conventions: the first has the typical overdramatic shot angle that's often used in cop parodies (like our own which is an almost cop parody with a twist), the second I chose because it shows the costume- a glorified school uniform done right up to the top button highlighting how anul the character of Alex is) and because it has the dramatic to camera swagger which is a common feature in comedy films in which the hero swaggers down the street believing he looks cool. The way in which we challenged average comedy film openings is through using young actors in the lead parts,, most comedy films have older actors playing their lead parts but we decided that as it is a film about young people we would use young people. Also it will allow us to connect to our target audience better as they will be able to identify with someone their own age.
The third I chose to use as it shows creative camera work; we toppled the camera after Daniels punch so that we could watch him walk away, this is also the kind of thing you would see in comedy films as they like to play up the drama/cool to ludicrous levels to rip on the action films conception of itself appearing cool when in fact people would never act like that in real life and so it only looks vaguely ridiculous. We also had the punch and address to camera as it is an example of breaking the fourth wall which is often used in comedies to show the audience that the film is self aware and should only be taken as a joke.
The fourth I chose to use as it sets up the action part of this action-comedy it also is reminsicent of the typical ridiculous chase scene that is a common feature in the comedy film. This one is particularly silly as it is a mature teenager chasing a little boy in the middle of the school and nobody stops them!
The fifth I chose as it is the introduction of Chris's character, his character is seen several times during the opening sequence- at every occasion being harassed by Daniel! This is a particular point of silliness as though Alex insists he is striving for justice he seems intent on bullying Chris! Also I like the fact that this scene appears to be particularly biased towards Alex's view of the world as here we see Chris cower in fear at him when in reality we have already seen that Alex has little power (we see this in the previous Mr Smith scene). I should also mention that the introduction of the female lead love interest character also is in this opening sequence though she only appears to dramatically sigh for a second, this is a rip on the way that female characters often seem to appear in action films to either get in the way and then fall modly in love with the lead male or be desperately in love with him but remain unacknowledged until the day is won and he has time for her.
The sixth I chose because it shows a classic cheesy moment as Alex does the cliche finger snap at the ladies, this sort of awkward humour is common in comedy features and the idea of a character who is often not loved by the ladies who is under the misconception that he is is also a common occurence in comedies.
The seventh is a section of the office scene between Mr Smith and Alex, I chose this as not only does it show our use of the over the shoulder shots but also sets up part fo the core drama of the film and gives the character od Alex osem emotional depth, it also introduces the character of the headteacher who will be one to further antagonise our unlikely hero throughout the course of the the film. It also adds a little risk as we are made aware that Alex doesn't not entirely get away with his behaviour and isn't perhaps as much viewed as a hero as he believes he is. what is humour without pathos? Aswell as that this scene makes particular use of music as as Alex gets up and begins to make his dramatic heroes speech drmataic heroes music begins to play in the backgorund which reaches its climax as he throws open the door to 'stare out into the night' like some kind of superhero watching over his city.
The eighth shows the main characters (Alex) sidekick Toms introduction. He is introduced in a rather dramatic but anti-climactic manner as he puts out his bag to knock down the fleeing student. I picked this particular shot as it highlights his morose and unimpassioned character, not only through his bored expression but through the use of a boring flat angle mid-shot, in great contrats to Alex's more frequently dramatic shots e.g the extreme low angles.
The final screenshot I have chosen is the titles, I have used bold red text to match the movie poster/logo art I did previous to shooting the opening sequence so as to keep a sense of regularity to the overall image of the film. Also the titles are animated and fly in from either side of the screen, meet, and pause in the middle then fly off once more, this is fittingly dramatic and appropriate for Alex,s character as he to is prone to the dramatic. Animated bold text is also seen in 'Zombieland' which is an action/horror/comedy.
Today I started the second half of my editing, my video is almost finished ands there's only a few more things to do now those are:
-Final touches
-One final peice of music to add
-Some last titles to add
And then hopefully my editing should be complete.
My final video has turned out completely different to the script and storyboard, I have taken the clips and rearranged them to make up for the fact that we didn't get everything filmed we need. So far I'm guite happy with what I've got and it's got good responses.
19th March:
Have added stuff I mentioned last time and have got it pretty much finished with it and am quite happy with how it turned out. Had a bit of hassle transferrign it from iMovie to Final Cit and back again (see Technology review for further information on this incident) but it looks opretty good now its downe and I'm uploadign it.
20th March:
Once I had uploaded it yesterday I realised it was two seconds too long so I have taken it down and cut it, also I have adjusted the sound levels as they were too high and you couldn't hear the Voice-over which isn't very clear. Plus I noticed that I had somehow accidently cut a scene which I have added back in. It is now the correct time of two minutes exactly and all final problems have to been sorted so I am now re-uploading it.
