Monday, 14 December 2009
Live Action Filming - End Of The Week
After this week of filming we have realised that we need to speed up in our work as we still have istop motion to do and a theme tune to make. We started creating our theme tune in Friday's lesson but it still needs improvement. We need to manage the time we have left very well because if we don't then it could end up that our children's film does not get finished or it does not turn out how we first anticipated it to.
From the first week of filming I have realised that our ideas may have been a bit adventurous as it has all got very complicated in the way that there are so many things that need to be done in order to make our film to look like how we expect. The istop motion I feel may be our biggest downfall because we have not yet started this and this takes time in order for it to look affective. As long as we work hard and focus in the remaining lessons we have left we should be successful in creating our opening children's film sequence.
We would have managed our time well but for one shot we did not fast forward the camera right to the end of our footage and ended up filming over some of our work we had not yet uploaded to the computer meaning we had to spend extra time re-filming the footage that we filmed over. We also had trouble with our setting because we had been filming in an empty English room for the past two lessons and on the lesson where we needed to re-film some of our footage the room was locked so this wasted more time. Although, we did split the group up so everybody was doing something productive with their time and putting it towards making our children's film look even better.
From the first week of filming I have realised that our ideas may have been a bit adventurous as it has all got very complicated in the way that there are so many things that need to be done in order to make our film to look like how we expect. The istop motion I feel may be our biggest downfall because we have not yet started this and this takes time in order for it to look affective. As long as we work hard and focus in the remaining lessons we have left we should be successful in creating our opening children's film sequence.
We would have managed our time well but for one shot we did not fast forward the camera right to the end of our footage and ended up filming over some of our work we had not yet uploaded to the computer meaning we had to spend extra time re-filming the footage that we filmed over. We also had trouble with our setting because we had been filming in an empty English room for the past two lessons and on the lesson where we needed to re-film some of our footage the room was locked so this wasted more time. Although, we did split the group up so everybody was doing something productive with their time and putting it towards making our children's film look even better.
Sunday, 13 December 2009
Points of Action
Our main points of action that we need to focus on are:
- filming - we need to make sure we have completed all of the filming of our live action, and as we ran into some trouble with our filming when our first shot was accidentally recorded over we need to go back and re film this. This caused a short delay in our filming process so we must make sure that we get back up to date.
- editing - we need to make sure that we have finished all of the editing for the live action filming so that it is done before we start the istop motion.
- istop motion - this section of our sequence is going to take the longest so we need to make sure we keep up to date on making our play dough characters and filming with istop motion.
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
Childrens Film Opening
Our children’s film will be classified as a pg as the main theme is bullying because all the way through the film Tanisha bullies Katherine for liking to play with play dough and make play dough people and that is something children could pick up on in the film, also it has some discriminatory language in it when Tanisha calls Katherine mean names such as ‘Freak’, which also children could pick up on and use.
There will be slight violence In the film one example of this is in the opening sequence when Tanisha flattens Katherines play dough man with her fist, which is fairly violent and the young children who watch it would be fairly impressionable and could copy the things she doe sin the film. Also there may be some mild languange like ‘crap’ which parents may not want there young children to hear, so if its a pg they can choose whether or not their children can watch it.
By Kiera Roseberry
There will be slight violence In the film one example of this is in the opening sequence when Tanisha flattens Katherines play dough man with her fist, which is fairly violent and the young children who watch it would be fairly impressionable and could copy the things she doe sin the film. Also there may be some mild languange like ‘crap’ which parents may not want there young children to hear, so if its a pg they can choose whether or not their children can watch it.
By Kiera Roseberry
Thursday, 3 December 2009
Analysis of opening sequnce to Monsters Inc
Narrative: From the opening sequence of Monsters Inc we are given clues about the narrative straight away as it shows all the different doors and shows them opening and closing giving the idea that the film may be about going through different doors. Also during the title sequence many of the doors open to reveal monsters and creatures behind them also hinting that this could be what the whole film is based around. As the titles come onto the screen the monsters behind the doors are seen leaving one door and then entering another, and swapping through different doorways linking to the idea later on that all the doors are linked and can be made to come out anywhere. We enter the first scene through one of the doors and are brought into a childs bedroom where a child is being put to sleep which gives us the idea that the film will be to do with children asleep in their beds at night and the idea of monsters behind closed doors.
Characters: We are first introduced to the character of the monster 'Phlegm' as he approaches the boys bed, preparing to scare him as a stereotypical monster would. However, when the child screams this scares Phlegm and caused him to scream too. This is not the reaction we would normally expect from a monster and is challenging the stereotype of the usual terrifying monster character. This gives us clues towards the fact that in the rest of the film the monsters are actually scared of the children. We are also introduced to the monsters behind the simulation of the child's bedroom and it shows how they have created a business from the idea of scaring children.
Genre: This film is a hybrid as it has aspects of a number of different genres. From the title sequence we get the impression that it is horror from the monsters and the creepy feeling of the claws and eyes that are behind the doors. This is also apparent during the soundtrack as the music is interrupted with sharp high pitched screams. Also as Phlegm approaches the child's bed this is also a convention of a horror as his eyes are glowing red in the darkness. However, as he is scared he falls over and knocks into lots of objects around the room giving the sequence a comical edge. All of the doors at the beginning give the sense of an adventure as they all lead somewhere and the monsters can enter through certain doors and exit through different ones.
Toy Story Opening Sequence (Analysis).
Narrative: The narrative conforms to a typical children's film as the music is very upbeat and the story line follows the five stages of the narrative structure to a children's film. Although you do not get told this in the opening sequence, you can assume. You can assume this by the fact Woody is Adam's favourite toy. In the opening sequence Woody has almost all of the screen time, with Adam; this shows that Woody is Adam's favourite toy. Although when it is time for presents and his party Woody is immediately chucked down on the bed without any thought. This suggests that Woody may be put out of the picture as he may get a better present (which then turns out to be Buzz). It also conforms to the way that children's films have morals. The moral to Toy Story is to keep trying and not give up. This is shown by Woody not giving up on trying to save Buzz, even though they were not best of friends.
The genre of Toy Story is adevnture but also family in a way, making the genre a hybrid. Woody and Buzz go on an adventure of trying to get back home. It can also fit in the genre of family because although the toys aren't family they act like they are. They all look out for eachother and care for one another. When they think that Woody is trying to kill Buzz they do not approve of this and do not accept him back until they realise what he is actually trying to do. This all gives a family feel to the toys. They live together too, just like a family would.
The characters in Toy Story conform to how they would in any other conventional children's film. There is a main character which is Woody and a 'baddy' which is the evil boy who lives next door and likes to demolish toys. From the opening sequence you can clearly see that Woody is going to be the main character in the film because he has almost all of the screen time and he gets the first line from the toys, this may show that he is in control of the group/ the leader. There are normally two characters in a typical children's film that clash and contrast with eachother. Toy Story conforms to this by having the characters Buzz and Woody clashing with eachother because Woody is no longer the favourite and Buzz can do more things; for example, he thinks he can fly.
Toy Story also conforms to a typical children's film in the way that the atmosphere is consistantly happy until the climax where something goes wrong. In Toy Story Buzz and Woody get left miles away from home and have to try and make it back, it also looks like Buzz isn't going to make it home when he wants to give up. The music in the opening is very cheerful which is also conforming to a usual children's film. The lyrics also suggest what the film is going to be about "you've got a friend in me" it plays these words when Adam had Woody in his hands. When Woody is chucked on the bed the music then stops, this also suggests that perhaps their friendship won't last that long as he is going to open new toys.The ending of the film is stereotypically happy and the problem of Woody and Buzz is resolved and all the toys are friends again.
Wednesday, 2 December 2009
Practice Storyboarding
We watched the opening sequence for 'Back to the future' and created a storyboard for the first two shots. This gave us practice story boarding and also helped because the first shot is a very long duration track shot. It helped us work out the information that we needed to include under each frame to make a successful storyboard.
Production Meeting 2/12/09
Our idea's for the micro elements for our film:
- mise - en - scene
We are going to use two actors from our group to feature in our film and to show their characters we shall use props such as large glasses for our nerdier character and the costume will be based around this idea. They will be dressed in a shirt and trousers and the bully in our scene will be dressed in casual clothes so that they look like normal children. Another main prop in our scene will be the playdoh, as the girl creates her playdoh characters, and when we create the animated sections, this will be the main feature.
When thinking about settings we decided to set our opening sequence in a playground, and thought that the Long Road quad would be perfect for this. This will be using natural lighting, and we have planned to film when it is cloudy to create lower key lighting, giving it a darker atmosphere to reflect the feelings of the characters. As for the colours that we will use throughout the scene we have decided on the colour blue to reflect the feelings of the bullied girl as she is feeling down. The bully will be dressed in red to show she is threatening and to give a sense of fear.
- camerawork
Most of our sequence will be animated so will be made using istop motion, but for our live action sequences the camerawork will be static, using a tripod as the characters will stay in the same place for most of the scene and we want the focus to be on the smaller details, such as the play doh characters. To emphasize this we will use lots of close ups. Low angle shots will be used on the bully to make her seem more threatening and intimidating.
-Editing
- mise - en - scene
We are going to use two actors from our group to feature in our film and to show their characters we shall use props such as large glasses for our nerdier character and the costume will be based around this idea. They will be dressed in a shirt and trousers and the bully in our scene will be dressed in casual clothes so that they look like normal children. Another main prop in our scene will be the playdoh, as the girl creates her playdoh characters, and when we create the animated sections, this will be the main feature.
When thinking about settings we decided to set our opening sequence in a playground, and thought that the Long Road quad would be perfect for this. This will be using natural lighting, and we have planned to film when it is cloudy to create lower key lighting, giving it a darker atmosphere to reflect the feelings of the characters. As for the colours that we will use throughout the scene we have decided on the colour blue to reflect the feelings of the bullied girl as she is feeling down. The bully will be dressed in red to show she is threatening and to give a sense of fear.
- camerawork
Most of our sequence will be animated so will be made using istop motion, but for our live action sequences the camerawork will be static, using a tripod as the characters will stay in the same place for most of the scene and we want the focus to be on the smaller details, such as the play doh characters. To emphasize this we will use lots of close ups. Low angle shots will be used on the bully to make her seem more threatening and intimidating.
-Editing
Production meeting - 1/12/09
Genre
Our genre is animation. We came up with this to be our genre because we got inspiration from 'morph'. This is a childrens animated programme, created out of playdoh. As well as being animated genre it is also adventure. From discussing with the group about what our ideas are going to be for the whole film, not just the opening sequence we decided that the playdoh character that is going to be created will go on an adventure and defeat bullying. The fact that we have real life people and animated (playdoh people), we thought that this would be a good contrast making it effective.
Narrative
Our narrative is based on the idea of a intelligent character who is bullied at school for being this way is a big fan of creating playdoh figures. The reasoning behind this is that this is how he deals with the stress of being bullied at school. He creates a specific playdoh man called 'Timmy' which gets destroyed in the opening sequence by the bully stamping their fist on it. Although this happens Timmy then comes back to life and goes on a journey to defeat bullying for good.
Character
First character:
Name: Catherine
Backgroud information: Catherine is going to play an intelligent school girl who is bullied for being intelligent. She dresses in a stereotypical way of being intelligent, for example, collar out, bulky glasses. She plays with playdoh to try and deal with the stress of being bullied, one of her creations is then the focus of the whole film.
When researching we looked on the Google search engine for stereotypically intelligent children. We thought that the picture to the left was the one that fitted best the mise-en-scene that we're looking for. Although we are going to have our character wearing a polo top with their collar obviously out.
Seco
nd character:
Name: Tanisha
Background information: Tanisha is going to play to 'bully' of the film. She also conforms to the stereotypes of a bully in the way her attitude comes across. She is not going to have any consideration for anyone but herself. She finds it funny that Catherine is in intelligent and because she does not understand why she dresses like she does she bullies her for this.
The picture of Vicky Pollard to the left inspired us on how to make Tanisha act. The way that Vicky Pollard has a very 'I don't care' attitude, we thought that this would be perfect. Although their attitude would be much more dumbed down as they are a child.
As well as Vicky Pollard being our inspiration. Catherine Tate in her character of Lauren with the famous catchphrase 'Am i Bovverd" emphasizes the insecurity of the characters. We want this aspect of her character to show in Tanisa. Tanisha bullies other people because she is not confident within herself.
Our genre is animation. We came up with this to be our genre because we got inspiration from 'morph'. This is a childrens animated programme, created out of playdoh. As well as being animated genre it is also adventure. From discussing with the group about what our ideas are going to be for the whole film, not just the opening sequence we decided that the playdoh character that is going to be created will go on an adventure and defeat bullying. The fact that we have real life people and animated (playdoh people), we thought that this would be a good contrast making it effective.
Narrative
Our narrative is based on the idea of a intelligent character who is bullied at school for being this way is a big fan of creating playdoh figures. The reasoning behind this is that this is how he deals with the stress of being bullied at school. He creates a specific playdoh man called 'Timmy' which gets destroyed in the opening sequence by the bully stamping their fist on it. Although this happens Timmy then comes back to life and goes on a journey to defeat bullying for good.
Character
First character:
Name: Catherine
Backgroud information: Catherine is going to play an intelligent school girl who is bullied for being intelligent. She dresses in a stereotypical way of being intelligent, for example, collar out, bulky glasses. She plays with playdoh to try and deal with the stress of being bullied, one of her creations is then the focus of the whole film.
When researching we looked on the Google search engine for stereotypically intelligent children. We thought that the picture to the left was the one that fitted best the mise-en-scene that we're looking for. Although we are going to have our character wearing a polo top with their collar obviously out.
Seco
nd character:Name: Tanisha
Background information: Tanisha is going to play to 'bully' of the film. She also conforms to the stereotypes of a bully in the way her attitude comes across. She is not going to have any consideration for anyone but herself. She finds it funny that Catherine is in intelligent and because she does not understand why she dresses like she does she bullies her for this.
The picture of Vicky Pollard to the left inspired us on how to make Tanisha act. The way that Vicky Pollard has a very 'I don't care' attitude, we thought that this would be perfect. Although their attitude would be much more dumbed down as they are a child.
As well as Vicky Pollard being our inspiration. Catherine Tate in her character of Lauren with the famous catchphrase 'Am i Bovverd" emphasizes the insecurity of the characters. We want this aspect of her character to show in Tanisa. Tanisha bullies other people because she is not confident within herself.