RESEARCH: AUDIENCE THEORY

 

Audience theory from TomBowling2

PLANNING: CHARACTERS

 CHARACTER CONCEPTS

the good angel /bad angel dichotomy is a concept that dates from medieval morality plays. The painting above by William Blake depicts this opposition and it's cruelty as they fight over a child, Blake's aggressive depiction of the evil spirit lunging from the fire establishes this metaphorical battle for morality and goodness.

We look to create a similar dynamic to depict the teenage experience in our film opening. Gabe (on the left) symbolising the draw to the criminal path and a life of rebellion while there is a clear counterbalance exerted by the angelic Holly (on the right) who is redemptive and wholesome, representing strong social values and a new life for Arran.

With these concepts in mind, the respective characters must be polar opposites as depicted in the drawings of evil and good in the Romantic Era. 

COSTUME DESIGN

https://pin.it/5SGjMuQ

The stereotype of people who do community service are the typical full tracksuit often worn with a beanie and fingerless gloves. We experimented with the idea of using orange jumpsuits (as evident at the bottom of the screenshot) however High Vis jackets would be far more realistic to get in our time frame and would be more realistic in application to UK community service.

The importance of stereotypes are made clear through our research into Frank Ash and his views on stereotypes, he says that stereotypes are comfortable to audiences and will apply many of the characteristics they previously identify with the stereotypes.

Therefore the stereotype of delinquents wearing tracksuits and black coloured clothing is essential in audiences resonating with the characters.

PLANNING: MY TARGET AUDIENCE

1. Who is my primary target audience?

My Primary target audiences would be anyone of aged 15-30. People who are fond of teen dramas or psychological thrillers will be most drawn to this film. The audience is not limited to any gender or race.

2. What kind of films and television are they likely to prefer?

The genre lands around the middle of a teen drama and a psychological thriller with enigma being the main driving factor for the hook which keeps audiences engaged. Therefore any TV or film which uses a similar hook would have a mutual audience. Many more grungy audiences who prefer a more dangerous lifestyle would possibly relate to the characters further therefore they may find more meaning within the film.

3. What platforms do they choose to watch films and where are they likely to see information about films?

I believe our audience would be British therefore much of their information on what shows to watch would be made through reliable British sources like The Guardian and they would further go to watch many of their shows through streaming services like Netflix

4. What brands do they prefer?

This audience would be keen on more underground, vintage clothing to reflect how they are different group in society.

My film provides a level of depth into the minds of a teenager that many shows just gloss over

5. What makes my film stand out from the competition?

My film provides a level of depth into the minds of a teenager that many shows just gloss over.

6 . Why should my audience watch my film? 

We are willing to bring a level of personality towards our work considering it is only two of us working on it and I am going to put the level of work into the film to make something that we can be proud of later to come. This means the cinematography and visual codes will be of higher quality then you'd expect from a general student production. 

I have made an audience profile that I believe reflects the kinds of films our target audience would enjoy, as well as how they fit into different social groups.

 

PLANNING TREATMENT

 Writing a treatment

Friday 13th November - Tuesday 17th November

We had done some research into how to write a treatment, this is what we had found:

• Write a short/brief outline
• Remember what the purpose/meaning is of the treatment
• Don’t include all of the information
• Make the treatment readable and moving
• Show an active protagonist
• Include two or three intriguing, vivid images

As part of our research we took part and watched a Future Learn video/course, which is presented by Frank Ash. Frank Ash has taught us storytelling and creativity technique to teams across the BBC and worldwide. 

See link below for Frank Ash’s Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0DjaV-Y-90

Four Key Points/Quotations: 

1.     “What is the story?” - What is it all about, what is about, what is the issue about (Top line)

2.     “What is going to happen?” - giving them a questions that gives the audience a sense of anticipation and suspense.

3.     “What big story question” - what is the questions that your going to pose at the beginning of the story, which is gong to give the audience a sense of anticipation and suspense. The end goal.

4.     “How will this story relate and connect to me (personally)” - think about the main theme in this storyline.

Our Treatment

Kevin has been given court mandated community service  for stealing from a convenience store and emerges with little reason to go straight. He does not realise how much prejudice he will face based on his criminal record  and how many setbacks threaten to sink him. He is haunted by his past mistakes. It comes to a head when he is almost tempted back to his old ways, until a chance encounter offers new hope.

Top Line/Title and Big Questions

We decided our top line would be: “Facing life with a criminal record in their back” 

Title: “Criminal Faces” 

Big Question: "will Kevin make peace with his past and find a future?"

RESEARCH: Scoop.it

 I used scoop.it as a way of accumulating all of my research ad compiling it into a very easy access format with clear labels. I further made comments below the video's as a way of reminding myself why  I picked the certain video clips.

The resolution on the screenshot makes it hard to see dome of the text therefore the link to the page is here

Black Panther - Title Sequence

 

• Production Company - Marvel Studios
• Distribution Company - Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
• Director - Ryan Coogler
• Writers - Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole
• Executive Producers - Kevin Feige
• Based on -  Mavel Comics by Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby
• Director of Photography - Rachel Morrison
• Production Designers - Hannah Beechman
• Editors - Michael P. Shawver
• Costume Designer - Ruth Carter
• Visual Effects Supervisor - Geoffrey Bauman
• Visual Effects Producer - Lisa Beroud
• Music - Dave Jordan
• Music Supervisor - Dave Jordan
• Casting - Sarah Halley Finn
• Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o

Uncut Gems - Title Sequence

 

• Production Company - A24
• Distribution Company - A24
• Director - Josh Safdie
• Writers - Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie, Ronald Bronstein
• Producer - Lakeith Stanfield, p.g.a 
• Executive Producers - Oscar Boysoue, Scott Rudin and Brad Winderbaum
• Executive Producers - Thommas M Hammel, Sebastian Bear-Mallard
• Co Producer - David J. Grant
• Based on -  The New York city's diamond district
• Director of Photography - Javier Aguirresarobe
• Production Designers - Sam Liscenco
• Editors - Ronald Bronstein
• Costume Designer - Mayes C. Rubeo
• Visual Effects Supervisor - Jake Morrison
• Visual Effects Producer -Benny Safdie
• Music - Mark Mothersbaugh
• Music Supervisor - Dave Jordan
• Casting - Sarah Halley Finn
• Adam Sandler, Kevin Darnett, Keith William Richards, Judd Hirsch, Eric Bogosian, Julia Fox, Lakeith Stanfield

Digital Storytelling with Frank Ash

Frank Ash discussed how to make a film well by satisfying certain aspects of a film  audiences will be looking for when beginning a film.

These aspects included; 'How to connect well with audiences emotionally'. He describes that this could be done by creating a plot audiences could relate to. I believe this is something i want to take into account with my own film opening. I believe that if you apply a character many people can identify with and stick them into a believable reality then they can feel immersed as if they themselves are the main character.

I took this information and translated it into a digestible format I can easily read, a comic strip. I did this using Comic Life:

PRODUCTION PRACTICE: MONTAGE / TABLE TOP SEQUENCE

I worked with Laura to come create a film opening which has connotations of travel (as suggested through maps and objects associated with Asia), amongst this main idea we imbedded themes of a bank robbery through the 1 dollar bills eventually leading to the face of a women suggesting a possible plotline for the show were creating a title sequence for.

We carefully placed down the objects and placed them considering the order of how they'd show up in the final cut after filming so that it feels seamless when watching

we took inspiration 'Delicatessen' which incorporated a sense of business behind the main text and theme 

Kung Fu Panda 3 Distribution Collage

 The I watched a presentation on the FDA website by Kezia Williams head of theatrical distribution at Pathe, on how distributors work to create a successful and exciting new marketing campaign for each film, on the film distributors' association site. In this presentation it was explained by Chris Besseling of Pathe, that major movie marketing companies will position a film to make it stand out to the rest, they can do this by having a USP such a major movie star titles, literacy adaptations or cast director

The film I chose to research was Kung Fu Panda 3, it is a 2016 computer-animated wuxia comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by 20th Century Fox worldwide and by Oriental DreamWorks in China. It is the third instalment in the Kung Fu Panda franchise, and the sequel to 2011's Kung Fu Panda 2. In the film, Po enters the panda village and re-unites with his birth father and other pandas, but problems arise when a villainous undead warrior named Kai

The Warner brother’s distribution team did extremely well to produce a wide variety of content which was able to reach all audiences depending on what age, this was necessary as the film was trying to target at all ages therefore its marketing needed to reach these different age groups.

Posters

The posters as made evident in the collage above signalled the main genres of the movie, this being a Kung Fu inspired family friendly comedy. The poster advertises the slogan 'the weight is over', this being a pun about how evidently the panda shown is fat while also portraying how the movie is finally out, this gives us a feeling of the type of humour one might find when watching the film. The marketing campaign gives a teaser to the plot of the film with the audience being further shown what to expect through the nervous look on the Panda's face while he's having to juggle karate, his love of food and some smaller pandas who see to be troubling him, This further gives us a reason to watch the film as anyone who has seen the previous movies will understand that Po (the main character, and the panda depicted in the middle of the poster) already has a lot of pressure he must overcome, and it seems he has been thrown further challenges.

Trailers

The marketing team at warner brothers didn't have to push for the trailer to be watched as the first two films were widely popular meaning many people would go out of their way to find the trailer on websites like YouTube, this however puts pressure on the team editing together the trailer as this was were many audiences would decide whether they would end up watching the film, however I believe the trailer was extremely effective in this sense as it built of a lot of excitement with audiences considering the amount of plot they showed while still leaving a lot up to mystery with them introducing a new villain which will provide a new challenge for Po to overcome. 

Advertisement and Publicity

The warner brothers marketing team partnered with McDonalds having their happy meals advertised with all things Kung Fu Panda, this is from the box to the toy inside. This would have caught many children's attention as these Happy Meals are popular among children, this means that they bring their whole family along when they go to the film creating more publicity as it begins to spread between all age groups.

Continuity Editing

Using the idea of a, 'who wants to be a millionaire' we started off by drawing up the storyboard, The storyboard served the purpose of allowing us to plan a step by step guide of how we would shoot our short movie, this included a detailed plan of; the shot type, camera movement and the action we'd include. 

With everything planned we got into filming where we surrounded ourselves in green screen so that we could make our 'Who wants to be a millionaire' set more realistic

I played the host, Charlotte played the contestant and Jess played the friend who Charlotte would call for assistance with the question 

ON THE SET

This post will go into a detailed account of the process of setting up the camera with a tripod attachment, we went into detail with how to remove and insert the camera's battery and compact flash, while also getting an understanding of how to correctly attach the camera to the tripod. 

Cameras and tripods.

 In small groups we passed the camera around and each of us practised how to handle the camera and how to further insert the battery and memory card correctly.   We learned how to set up a tripod and to 'bubble', the 'bubble' served the purpose of helping to make the lenses centred. We explored the camera such as how to focus.  The exposure on the camera is adjusted by moving the dial up and down. 

White balance

 is the process of removing unrealistic colour casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in the photo. Proper camera white balance has to take into account the "colour temperature" of a light source, which refers to the relative warmth or coolness of white light. This is easily adjustable with a simple 'WB' setting on the canon camera

180-degree rule. 

The 180-degree rule is a cinematography guideline that states that two characters in a scene should maintain the same left/right relationship to one another. When the camera passes over the invisible axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line and the shot becomes what is called a reverse angle.

On set

 We were then directed on terminology to be using on set so that everything can move correctly. The director shouts 'Standby' before filming to ensure that everyone is ready and when they are, they reply 'Standing by.'
When the director shouts ‘rolling’, everyone on set must be quiet, then he /she shouts ‘action’ which tell the actors to start. After the shoot, the director has said the last ‘cut’, he / she will say ‘strike the kit’ which is the film crew's cue to pack away, put the batteries on charge and ensure that the footage is uploaded. 

Film Opening Codes

Film opening codes from TomBowling2

RESEARCH: Art of the Title - American Psycho

RESEARCH: Art of the Title - American Psycho

As soon as the title sequence begins you are presented with a grey screen and silence, this silence is broken with a short yet prominent, sharp violin sound. a synchronous sound device is used in the beginning of the sequence as when this sharp violin plays, a drop of a red substance falls down the screen, immediately this strikes the viewer as blood as this would fit the horror like soundtrack, this continues forward creating an eerie tone, which as a viewer made me feel uncomfortable which I believe proves the effectiveness of the opening as the film is a psychological thriller and often making the audience feel appropriately uncomfortable is a goal for this genre.

The short yet sharp violin sounds begin to happen more frequently until a piano joins in to create a recognisable soundtrack reminiscent of the classical genre which still remains fitting of the same eerie tone creating in the first five seconds, the classical music is fitted with visual codes one would associate with the horror genre, for example a person is shown holding a large butchers knife slowly moving downwards, immediately this has connotations of someone being stabbed however in replacement of this we are greeted with a mysterious hand cutting a piece of meat, followed by the red substance, mentioned earlier, becoming recognisable as raspberry falling. The setting seamlessly goes from a murder scene to a kitchen. This even further relishes this feeling of discomfort as the viewer clearly can see that a murder is happening through the music however it tries to make you rethink what you saw, an appropriate metaphor for the murders that happen in the American Psycho film that make the audience question whether the killings actually happened.

The montage of clips we have just seen then seamlessly come together when we see all the ingredients in said montage having been made into a complete dish, the camera follows in a bird’s eye view angle as the waiter brings the dish to the table where our focus is brought to the scene of the movie. When making the title sequence to my creation it would be very important that I would incorporate similarly transition techniques that make it very appealing to watch.

The audience are now aware of the; themes of murder, the genre being psychological thriller and are now introduced with the setting through the visuals, an upper-class world of first class dishes with nicely presented salmon, fine wines and very well dressed guests. We are then introduced to the main plot where we see three very well dressed men in suits discussing exactly what you’d expect of them, everything seems completely natural of men in their status however the scene moves into a club when the main character, Patrick Bateman, is talking to the bar tender to try and get drinks and just as we aren’t expecting it, the man who has been presented as totally normal lashes out and starts to aggressively shout at this bar tender, however she doesn’t appear to be fazed by his comments. This engages the audience because how could a man so normal be so aggressive and finally, get away with it.

This is exactly what is required from an opening, visuals that appropriately set the tone and are able to immerse you in the world which the story is set while also providing you with a hook to watch more and the American psycho introductory opening sequence does exactly this in one minute and thirty-five seconds

RESEARCH: Art of The Title - Skyfall (2012)

 RESEARCH: Art of The Title - Skyfall (2012) 

The title sequence is instantly made immersive through its transition, traditionally there would be a hard cut which then transitions into the opening titles consisting of slides of text, although the high budget that Eon Films is able to apply to their James Bond franchise allows for the editing in this opening sequence to be far more ambitious. The main storyline cuts off with an enigma, Is James Bond dead? The opening titles use graphic effects to play on our distress for the character with the image of Bond getting absorbed into the abyss, overlaid with the main title of the film. This makes for a very dramatic screenshot which asks the question, can Bond recover. Returning fans would see through this knowing Bond has the resilience to brush this off physically, but as the title sequence continues we begin to see that the question is more whether he can emotionally recover.

The titles continue into a down the rabbit hole reminiscent sequence where we see an insight into Bonds mind, predominantly consisting of all things death related with the setting being monochrome with blue saturation. The objects that flew past him consisted of targets, grave headstones, guns and swords. This may be a reflection on how these are the themes that consume him and considering this is played over a blue tint it may connote how it is not only the water that is drowning him however it is the violence that is consuming him. The sequence then moves to an ultra wide zoom of Bond's Eyeball where it continues to zoom further into the pupil, until the audience is immersed into another setting which appears to have Bond standing in a desolate place with four shadows that he proceeds to shoot. The editing taking us through the centre of his eye is an insight to his soul, and due to us being presented with an image of bond shooting his own shadow we can interpret this as bond trying to kill his demons, however as we can see he fails to shoot the last one which then props up and points the gun at him, probably foreshadowing of the plot to come.

Finally it ends with a montage of hallucinogenic clips, with effects such as mirroring and reverberate being applied. One of the clips drawing the most attention would be the ripped up paper which has been set on fire, however as the clip zooms in we see that these images in fact are images of Bond. This plays on the classic trope of Bond having a target on his head with Bond having to overcome the challenges thrown at him. The final clip in the montage presents Bond in his classic form with a suit on and his gun pointed at waist height, however despite this, the bullet wound we just saw him receive is still stained in the same spot on his suit, this may be in reference to how Bond may never truly recover from these injuries.

In Conclusion the title moves at such a pace that without pausing, it is simply an aesthetically pleasing cut together which moves seamlessly into attractive visuals. If one looks deeper with some analysis the basic plot of the movie is revealed with it being evident that Bonds mental health is going to be challenged.

RESEARCH: Art of the title - The Rook

RESEARCH: Art of the title - The Rook

The Title sequence for rook immediately intrigues me as a viewer as it is both able to evoke feeling of uneasiness and confusion while still being appealing to watch

The opening frames start of with some very faint music that feels like it is building towards something dangerous and exciting, yet paired with the visual codes of a woman in a slow motion action dropping her keys makes me question whether there is something dangerous about these keys, this same image of the keys further evokes more interpretation through its use of visual codes, the key is attached to a red key-ring, which further evokes feelings of danger as the colour red has connotations of blood and death.

This quickly and sharply cuts to a montage of images that have been distorted and made difficult to identify through its use of the kaleidoscope effect, as the opening moves onward the editing makes the images expand outwards leaving the effect of falling through this rabbit hole of memories, with heir being very faint images that are barely recognisable. This feeling of falling is has a further impact through how its volume increases and decrease as the images expand, as a viewer this montage is very engaging for me as they use synchronous sound due to when we hear the beat drop the image changes with the music tone making each frame-change evoke different emotions. For example, at 14 seconds the generic cars and the usual colours make the image feel very familiar to the audience making it feel less dangerous therefore there is a sense of fidelity in how the music compliments this with it being very mellow and clam however this very quickly changes with the music taking three sharp beats before becoming louder and faster and the image complimenting this feeling of danger with their being more unfamiliar, unnatural scenes.

Beige and grey colour scheme make this a more familiar image, a severe contrast with other frames

The audience are then presented with a montage edit of people seen through a translucent piece of glass, the first being a person being pushed, however due to the glass being translucent this same person has no identity and all the other frames where a similar effect Is used these people feel reminiscent of ghosts with how they reach out to the audience as if wanting help. The opening includes a lot of different people’s profile with being able to see the outline of their face however the people themselves are made unfamiliar and unrecognisable through how none of their facial details are shown, projecting this feeling of danger for the audience.

Getting to the end of the opening, the music begins to have less rhythm and the cuts begin to be asynchronous making it feel overwhelming for the audience member, this in my opinion is a very clever way to end the title sequence as you are now put into the shoes of the main character who has lost her memory and can’t remember the main details of her life as this would definitely be overwhelming for someone.

Sound Design

Rhythm - Involves a beat pace or tempo, most recognisable in music and its important to match the  pace of the music to the scene for the right effect. In Jaws, you can see the shark approaching with it getting closer the tempo slowly building with the tension.

Fidelity - is the extent to how faithful the sound is to what we see on screen, for example in Taxi driver when i gun fires we expect to hear the sound of the gun firing. It is purely a matter of what e expect to hear.

Lack of Fidelity - Often comedy makes use of lack of fidelity, in Charlie brown the adults make a weird unexpected sound to put the audience into the shoes of a young person who isnt paying attention

 Parallel - Sound that goes hand in hand with what we see on screen, in a hoorror when someone jumps out there tends to be a loud noise

Contrapuntal - Sound that does not fit what we expect to hear, in reservoir dogs when a man is being tortured,  Upbeat music is played. it being out of place makes the audience feel uncomfortable because of the contrast. It further puts the audience into the killers mind as he feels happy about hurting someone as portrayed through the choice of music.

Synchronous - When the sound and what we see on screen are synced

Asynchronous - When the sound we hear is overlapped with a different image then what we expect. In 39 steps a women discovers a dead body and screams however we heaar the scream over a moving train, this works as it transitions nicely due to the train sounding similar to the scream.

Digetic - when the sound is coming from what we see on screen

Non-digetic - sound that isn't coming from what we see on screen.