here is my prezi evaluation link:
http://www.prezi.com/3lpvr1xarfxm/
Poster.
After we produced our main production task, each of us created a poster for our film. We had an influence of the photo which we used, but different concepts on how the poster would look like. Sam made a poster which had the same basis as this one, however, I chose to make my own as I wanted the poster to 'be my own'. I believe that, with this poster, it captures what the film is about, and if we could continue the film, both of our posters would be used as advertisement for the film. From looking at the poster, the audience can see what the main character, 'Tommy Blackwell' would look like and what the attitude of the film would be. With using this photo, we can see that the character is a confident, out spoken character and proud of himself.
However, the film genre is specified as a dark comedy, but from the poster the audience wouldn't see what genre of film it would be. Although, in some ways, this is a good thing, as then the audience would be intrigued in seeing what this films genre is and what the film is about.
Is It The Sixties?
60's or 2010.
With our media piece we haven't made a certain decision on whether the film is set in the sixties or whether the character believes he is in the sixties but the film is set in the modern day. We both have different views on the piece and how, if we could continue the film, it would develop and end.
During the filming process, we had the problem of excluding modern reality and making sure that there was no evidence of the modern day. However, at the start of the task, we did think of setting it during the sixties and showing the life of a teacher in the sixties. The problem is, at the end of the filming task, we both had different views on our piece and noticed that, if we could continue, that the teacher character, would believe that he was in the sixties but was actually living in the present modern day.
The situation we have is that, because the character is in sixties clothing, we have a different take on how the film turns out. For example, if you were living in the sixties, you wouldn't know you were making a statement in the clothing, you would be wearing what, at the time would be fashionable. But, from a modern day society, the clothing would be stereotypical of that era and the viewing audience would expect the classic representation of sex, drugs and rock n roll.
Target Audience?
The way we both could finally present the film with the right background story, would be by having a showing to the target audience of our film, then getting feedback from them, to see what they believe the plot will pan out to become. Either a film of a teacher set in the 1960s or a teacher who believes he is in the sixties and living his life of sex, drugs and rock n roll.
Another point of showing it to an audience, would be finding out what our true target audience would be. We have placed the film under a 15+ certification. But however, the target audience would be different to the certification, as audience members would be a varied age due to the fact that the film has the nostalgic value of the sixties, the music, the representation and the society of that time would appeal to older audiences.
During the filming process, we had the problem of excluding modern reality and making sure that there was no evidence of the modern day. However, at the start of the task, we did think of setting it during the sixties and showing the life of a teacher in the sixties. The problem is, at the end of the filming task, we both had different views on our piece and noticed that, if we could continue, that the teacher character, would believe that he was in the sixties but was actually living in the present modern day.
The situation we have is that, because the character is in sixties clothing, we have a different take on how the film turns out. For example, if you were living in the sixties, you wouldn't know you were making a statement in the clothing, you would be wearing what, at the time would be fashionable. But, from a modern day society, the clothing would be stereotypical of that era and the viewing audience would expect the classic representation of sex, drugs and rock n roll.
Target Audience?
The way we both could finally present the film with the right background story, would be by having a showing to the target audience of our film, then getting feedback from them, to see what they believe the plot will pan out to become. Either a film of a teacher set in the 1960s or a teacher who believes he is in the sixties and living his life of sex, drugs and rock n roll.
Another point of showing it to an audience, would be finding out what our true target audience would be. We have placed the film under a 15+ certification. But however, the target audience would be different to the certification, as audience members would be a varied age due to the fact that the film has the nostalgic value of the sixties, the music, the representation and the society of that time would appeal to older audiences.
Opening Title Sequence.
Our media represents the adult life of a school teacher living his life as someone from the swinging sixties culture. We represent the stereotypical 60s lifestyle of sex, drugs and rock n roll through the opening sequence by using different shots of his lifestyle. The way we showed it was by filming shots of period clothing, well known 60's band album covers and typical happenings of the rock n roll lifestyle.
I believe that our media would be distributed by Film Four, with the BFI as the institution. This is because during the 1960's, the British society was more well known for the music and its style compared to the American society of that time era. The influences that we used were mainly from the British film, 'The Boat That Rocked'. The reason is because the film is set during the time of the 1960s and focuses on 'Radio Caroline' and how people acted during the 'swinging sixties'. This film is also written and directed by Richard Curtis. Using the influence of this film, made our film more of a British film than an American distributed film. Noticing how this film is recognised as a 'British' film, we included well known British 60's music and British culture was highly promoted during this era which makes this film, what I belive, a British film.
Our film wouyld have a classificatition of 15+ because there would be swearing, drugs use and sexual content. Our product does include dark comedy and emphasises the 60's culture which would draw in audiences who remember or are interested and enjoy the 60's music and the social culture. If we could carry on the media piece to be a full length film, we would show how stereotypically youngsters of today would react to a teacher which believes he is from the 60's, such as ridiculing him, due to the fact that he is a modern day teacher but believing he is living in the 'swinging sixties'.
We attracted the audience by using the first shot of a vinyl player being turned on and playing a well known, up beat 60's song - 'Street Fighting Man by The Rolling Stones' - we believed using this shot will grab the audience's attention. Next shot shows the audience two frames of different actions being shown. One of the shots we see is, the main character dancing in his underwear to the music. This shows the audience that this film has a comedic aspect in the opening credits. The other shot shows some mise-en-scene related to the character, the vinyl spinning with a Rizla packet on it, spinning with the vinyl. This gives the audience a intial idea of what the character will be like.
I believe that the experience of the preliminary task helped me to understand how I can do better on my next task. I worked better and understood the concept easier than I did compared to the first task. This is because instead of working in a three, I worked as a duo. By being in a duo, the idea which we created was easier to change and didn't have set backs, such as disorganisation and differences with camera shots and ideas. Also with working in a duo, no one gets left out or leaves the rest of the group to do the work. With being in this duo, I understood different techniques and felt much more involved with the piece, by knowing that my ideas have been put into the final media product. In the film, I played the part of the main character, 'Tommy Blackwell', as well as helping out with editing the film along with syncronising the music with the film. I also helped Sam with ideas of how the film could look more proffesional, rather than a GCSE media piece.
With our media product, I have found the technological side rather simple to understand. We, as a duo, discovered how to place two frames in one shot including a background to give the opening credits a professional look, instead of a GCSE amateur take on the sequence. In the opening shot of the vinyl, we have used a zoom out technique to the next shot. This has worked well with our piece, however we knew not to use any more as this would make the piece look once again very amateurish and would lose the professional look. Using the technology, I now understand how to import music and edit the music so it syncronises with the action. Before our opening title task, I really didn't know how to achieve this technique.
Our media product develops the ideas of a cliché 1960's lifestyle in involving sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll and the fashion from that era. However, our media product also challenges current media of today, giving the audiences a 'change of scene' from current up to date films. We show a stereotypical character form the 60's, instead of using a serious character. We did this as we knew that using a stereotypical character would be easier to grasp whilst watching the film. Also, seeing as our film is a dark comedy, using the stereotypical character helps the audience to reflect the film with a comic value, which in turn draws in the audience to carry on watching the product.
Main Production Ideas.
Title Sequence Ideas.
'The Secret Life Of Tommy Blackwell'.
Set during the swinging sixties, Tommy Blackwell's character, is an eccentric personality, who teaches a year 10 English class at Rodwell High School. Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, are what he believes is the life of a fun teacher.
Opening Title Sequence.
The audience will see the character 'Tommy', getting dressed in his room, with the backing of 60s style music. The sequence will consist of the main character getting ready for what seems like a night out on the town, set during the 1960s. The sequence will be made with the background of a comic strip style, where 3 or more shots will be playing at the same time. Each will show different moments of 'Tommy' getting ready. Some shots will be focusing on detailed factors of the character, such as a focus on a cigarette being lit. and the character putting on a fur coat. The scenes will be filmed in the character's home, which will have the mise-en-scene of a stereotypical 1960s bedroom. Showing iconic posters from that era.
Research Of Main Task.
Costume.
Our influence on the clothing was by noting down how in 'The Boat That Rocked' the stereotypical swinging sixties is portrayed through clothing. Here to the left, we see how Richard Curtis has researched into the 60s era and pulled out ecentric characteristics of the dress sense during the sixties. From this and using our own research, we made the decision to use this stereotypical costume design.
Mise-en-scene.
The key idea of creating the swinging sixties was making sure the mise-en-scene was in key with the concept of setting the production during that era. How we made this possible was by using album covers from that time to boost the beliefs of the audience. In our film, we used a panning shot which focused on the mise-en-scene which showed a number of album covers, which included the one on the right. Also, knowing the stereotypical lifestyle of a swinging sixties character, we made sure that we had to create the setting to fit the era. We researched artists and style of household pieces. We mainly used Paisley styled pictures to create the sixties interior, we also used the Paisley style on the character's costume.
Music.
We researched different unsigned tracks which would fit well with our media film, we went through 9 different tracks; Grolling Hone - Rita & The Rock n Rollers, Jazzed - Blue Attitude, Good Ol Days - Kim O Harper, I got A Dime - The Straight 8's, Touch Me 2 - Gareth Johnson, T Bird Roller - Christian Marsac, Stratocaster - Christian Marsac, Stompbox Boogie - Anthony Leonard and Lonely Hearts Club Dance - Jackie Barnett. From these 9 tracks, we both liked the last two tracks, as these tracks both have an upbeat pace and fit well with the era that we were trying to create in the film. However, in the end, we chose to use a copyrighted song, Street Fighting Man - The Rolling Stones, as we thought this was perfect for the film concept and was used whilst filming the opening sequence. However, if this film was going to be a worldwide product, that we would have to follow copyright laws to gain right to use the music for our media sequence.
Clothing And Set.
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Clothing.
As our media piece was set in the swinging sixties, we had to make sure that the character was dressed exactly in time of when the film is set. If we didn't make sure of the costume as part of the continuity of the film, the film would be ruined and the realism would be lost. The main character was dressed in black trousers, pointed leather shoes, a red and orange paisley shirt, a beige tweed blazer and a brown leather jacket, and blue scarf. This costume design was influenced by noticing the stereotypical representation of the different styles in our influential film 'The Boat That Rocked'. We based the clothing style on the character of 'Gavin Kavanagh', who was dressed in an eccentric outfit, full of colours which for the audience, is a clear representation of the 'swinging sixties'. However, we made sure that the costume wasn't too over the top for the audience not to be put off by the costume, otherwise if the clothing was too much like a fancy dress costume, the audience wouldn't believe the plot of the story.
Set.
The setting was key to our production, due to the fact, the film was set during the 1960s era. Of course, as we haven't got a massive budget to create a 60s styled street. So we had to make sure that, when we filmed the main character 'Tommy' running to work, that we did not shot modern day vehicles or any other present day. In fact, during the filming we were troubled with modern day actions. We excluded these by making close-ups to the actor and making shots in areas where there isn't much modern day realities. The first setting was set in the main character's bedroom. We see a lot of mise-en-scene based on the sixties and accessories which linked to the character such as scarves, a fur coat and many vinyl covers. The decor of the room was made to look like a sixties room, with paisley pictures and cigarettes everywhere.
Two Minute Task Ideas.
As a group, we have been influenced by the film, 'The Boat That Rocked'. From this film, we noticed how the life of the 60's would be a different theme for a opening title sequence. We also noticed how the comedy involved with the film is witty and subtle. We favoured the music in the film. We enjoy the music from that era and using that style of music would be a different angle for the film. Another film which has influenced us, was 'Four Weddings And A Funeral'. The opening sequence of where Hugh Grant's character is getting ready in a rush and swearing constantly. With this opening sequence, it creates the genre of the film, which is a comedy. Using this way of showing what genre the film is by the opening sequence, we thought of using this technique in our filming production to create the same effect, such as constant swearing, falling over when getting dressed and being late for 'work'.
Evaluation Of Preliminary Task
Evaluating Video Production.
We had to ensure continuity during recording. We made sure that the lighting was the same, the mise-en-scene and the costume of characters. With the language of the film, we also had to use continuity with the way the actors brought out the dialogue - the accent, the subtext behind the words. Otherwise, if we had changed it, the continuity of the piece would have been lost, and the audience would've got confused and lost.
The filming mistakes we had to overcome, was that some shots were blurred. However the shot does come into focus when a character comes into the shot. We as a group all agreed that this effect was a good choice to keep, as it made the piece of film a stylized piece, experimenting with new ideas etc. Along with the blurred effects, we had to sort out the lighting continuity of each shot we took. The way we kept the lighting continuity was looking at the film we recorded before, and noted down how the light was positioned, the amount of light needed and what light effect we used before hand. Another problem we had was, maintaining a steady camera shot as we had to use a hand-held camera, which was a difficulty due to the fact that our shots had to be still, and not to make the filming look amateurish. The reason we didn't use a tripod is because of the type of shots we wanted. For example, we used a shot where the camera was on one character then twisted over the scene in a 180 degree angle to the other character.
Our genre which we aimed for was a 1930's film noir which I believe we achieved. I believe that the audience would be happy with the final edit and product of the film. How we achieved the 1930's noir style, we made sure our mise en scene was to the right period. We used simple props, such as, a ring binder and a box of matches. There was no modern technology involved in the scenes. The costume was in the style of the 1930's gangster/thriller. We made sure there were no bright colours which would've ruined the concept and illusion that this film was set during the 1930's. Along with the mise en scene and costume, the actors had to think about the accents of their characters during this time period. For the police inspector character, the actor was American/slight Italian accent, to represent Mafia characters of that era.
I believe that our filming was to a good standard, for the audience to be enticed to see what the film will be about. Draws the audience in and wanting to understand the background story. With the two lines of dialogue, the audience will not know what the story is. However the dialogue will capture the audience and make them want to understand what is actually happening throughout the film.
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