Evaluation Part 7

From prelims to the final product - what has been learnt. Many technical aspects of our production needed to be addressed. The 180 degree rule is very important, as breaking it can result in confusing the audience and making the action seem unnatural and jumpy. In our final product we did not break this rule, yet in the prelim we did jump over the wrong shoulders - something that was picked up on and feedback from the prelim helped us to make sure we didn't do anything like that in the proper production. For shot reverse shots - this is where, in the prelim, we broke the 180 degree rule, so in the final production, we were sure not to do the same. As there was not much direct diaglogue between characters, the main shot example of this is when I shout "It's cigarettes!" and the others look around - we made sure to have an eyeline match so that it matched up nicely and also they we in the same spot as they had been before - no continuity error. Match on action is very difficult to get, but with careful editing together, we obtained a good flowing opening, where actions and reactions happened effectively, and the sample audience didn't pick up on anything out for being unnatural.

Evaluation Part 6

Camera/Tripod: We have used a video camera that the school provided us with to do the filming of all of our shots for our two-minute production. The camera was generally very easy to use and we found the quality of the filming to be very good. It was very useful for us to rewind bits that we filmed to watch them back before shooting the next shot. Also, the quality of sound that it picked up on was good, although it was almost too good - wind did become an issue for some shots, yet we got around this by dubbing over the top and bringing down the sound level of the clip (on iMovie). For the tripod, we found it necessary to use for the normal shots, yet we did not need to use it for the point-of-view shot (which was from my eyeline). It is always useful to have a steady camera throughout - and a piece of equipment like the tripod is essential in production.

iMovie: For editing our shots together, we used the Apple software iMovie. In general, this was successful, as we could add transition fades to shots, and editing them - for example, the zoomed p-o-v shot onto the packet of cigarettes - we used iMovie to change the colour of the shot to red, and to speed it up to make it look better and less jerked. Also, it allowed us to put on the credits onto the shots, giving us a lot of options to choose from.

Garageband: To create an original soundtrack to accompany our film, we used this software to get the wide variety of musical sounds that otherwise we would not have access to. Also, because we could do this all on the Apple Mac, it was easy to transfer out soundtrack onto the iMovie project. Of course, we had a few attempts at creating soundtracks, but in the end, I think we have a perfect scoring to our opening two minute production.

Youtube: For this project, we have use youtube an incredible amount. To begin with, we used it to find clips for research purposes, although that did become difficult as certain videos had been removed because of copyright enfringements. Youtube has also been very useful for us to exhibit our prelim tasks and also our promos and rough/definitive cuts of our film.

Evaluation Part 5

Our final product:



Attracting the audience: The audience for our film is young adult males - stereotypically enjoyers of a range of humour, the desire for women, and action elements. So for this teen-comedy, we decided to get straight into the plot in the opening 2 minutes. The voice-overs are supposed to introduce the characters a little bit - get the audience engaged in relating to one or more of them, or laughing at their personalities. We included the beginning to the encounter with two 'smokers' (which will be concluded later on in the plot, after the film goes back into the past) as an incouraging element to what passes for action with the nerd superheroes. The cast is all teenagers - a young cast makes it easier for the young target audience to relate too. To entertain is the main purpose of film - and if we fail to engage the audience in the opening 2 minutes, then the viewers are unlikely to fully engage in the film and stop watching it.

Evaluation Part 4

The audience our film will be aimed at is a primarily young adult audience, from the ages of 15-25 and will be mainly male. We feel that they would best relate to a superhero story, and the comedy genre we are following is modern and so younger adults will be more inclined to come to watch. Personality-wise, our audience will generally be interested in comedy shows, having a good ranged sense of humour, average job, appreciative of entertainment over money spent.

Our audience will shop at places like HMV, Forbidden Planet, Game, but will also use the internet to buy things - sites such as Zavvi, Play.Com, Amazon etc.

Musically, i think their interests may be mainstream pop (in conjunction with being Rubicam and Young's mainstream) but also, there will be a lot of alternative rock-style soundtrack in our film, which I think they would enjoy and it would appeal to them.

Television programme interests that the audience will have - likers of The IT Crowd (comedic aspects), Spaced (comedy/sci-fi influenced sitcom), Doctor Who (sci-fi/teenage audience), The A-Team (action sequences), The Big Bang Theory (widely loved mainstream audience), The Inbetweeners (young, teenage humour).

In terms of Rubicam and Young, our audience will be the mainstream, the everyday people, who are the largest type of people who will watch a variety of genres from sci-fi to drama and would respond to a comedy film produced by established names and companies within the semantic field of fim.

By the sbbfc guidelines, our film is rated 15, as we include strong language, violence and adult humour. We feel that this rating would help to advise people of the primary audience, that no-one under the age of 15 would be advised to watch as the language used would be too strong for them

Evaluation Part 3

A production company will produce a film. They will have direct links to funding and the film's budget. For our film production, our production company is Drunken Elephant Productions - a very small company that our group have created (primarily for Youtube) but we have used it because it is very much so a small production.

However, we have selected Universal to be our distributors - to release the product, mainly because they are a trusted and well-established institution in the film industry, but also because they have a big influence in today's cinemas.

The funding for our film will have come from independent investors, and would be sorted out by the production company. As this was a small production - we did not have the budget, and the production company has been set up by ourselves and did not receive investment.

Only certain jobs were credited in the title sequence - the actors names. We did this because it is the most factors to the audience. Additionally, we did not include a director or producer credit, because these roles were performed by the group as a whole. Furthermore, it is more of a convention to include actors names (particularly comedy films - to establish the comedic actors) whereas unless the director is an especially household name (i.e Steven Speilberg) then it is not likely o be included at the start.

Institutionally, our films are similar to:

In terms of budget: Hello, Friend - the 2003 comedy short film had an estimated £40,000 but I would think it was actually probably less than this. I think if we had to produce the feature-length film, then a figure around this would be enough to do so.

In terms of location: the television programme Skins - set in Bristol, although it would be from a completely contrasting social group - our production being about nerds, and Skins being based around partying teenagers who do blown-out-of-proportion things.

In terms of cast size: Phone Booth - the 2002 film which revolves around Colin Farrell's character being controlled by a mystery caller has a relatively small cast and has a few main characters - Farrell, Forest Whitaker and Kieffer Sutherland.

In terms of where it would be released: Submarine - the recently-releseased coming-of-age film has been only released in a small amount of cinemas because of the budget that it had - the creaters have not anticipated it to be a mainstream success so are limitting expenses on having it distributed to all major cinema companies (to all of their major cinemas).

Evaluation Part 2 (4)

Protector (Adam Bown): can be twinned with Hancock from the film Hancock. Although Hancock was played by Will Smith - the characters have some similarities in them. Hancock is an often agressive hero, yet still has his heart in the right place. Additionally, costume is similar - they both often wear a wolly hat - although Hancock wears it as his normal self, and Protector wears it as a disguise. Also, they are both out to protect and help people - as their main goals.

Evaluation Part 2 (3)

Mega Boy (Josh Chivers): can be paired to

Scott Pilgrim from Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, because of his surprising strength and all-round combat ability. They also have similar hairstyles - quite a modern teenage look. Although Mega Boy is a sidekick (for comedic purposes) and Scott Pilgrim is the main character of that film, they both have similar interests - music and amusment games.