Company Ident Evaluation - By Laura Bebber

When deciding upon a design for my ident, I thought carefully about what would specifically relate to our desired genre. I used a fairground as my inspiration as this exciting environment is suitable and enjoyable for all ages. Therefore, our target audience was broadened and we were able to create an opening of any age certificate. I imported sounds of children screaming and laughing in order to reinforce the setting and captivate emotion. I also incorporated evolving music as the title appears to add tension and ensure that our company stands out. I specifically chose to use the colour red as this connotes fire, excitement and passion; something our audience would be experiencing when watching our film. I ensured that the typography remained white so that it would stand out against the fiery background. White represents the absence of colour and so could have a series of connotations for the audience to reflect upon. The font is collaborated of a series of balloons in which once again reflects our company label. This feature improves the realism of our product and reinforces the fun aspect we were aiming to achieve. I decided to put an ‘earthquake’ effect upon the text as it instantly made it more exciting and looked effective in front of the backing image. During the animation, I used a ‘bloom’ effect in order to create a vivid illusion. I feel that this also polished the ident and increased further professionalism.

      If I were to create a different ident in the future, I would trial and error various other effects on Final Cut Pro. This is because I feel that the animation makes our company name somewhat hard to read. I would also sharpen the image of the ferris wheel as it appears to be a little blurred.

      Overall, I feel I was successful with this task as the ident improves the realism of our film opening and looks rather professional. I am happy with the polished appearence of my creation and believe that each individual aspect has a significant purpose. At first I struggled to find inspiration, but as time progressed I developed various ideas into a final piece in which we incorporated into our film.

Company Ident - Laura Bebber

Shooting Locations - Laura Bebber

Here is a list of locations in which we plan to incorporate into our opening:

Weston-Super-Mare seafront - Establishing shots behind the main character who is walking to her death.





Sea Wall - Act of suicide takes place here. Has much significance to the remainder of the storyline.





Park bench - Male character reflects upon the sitation. Stop motion editing of individuals walking past showing the progression of time.






Alleyway - Character is tormented by bullies.







Shots inside Weston College - Further clips of bullying and harrassment towards central protagonist.










Main character walking into her council estate home.












Male character awakes in his bedroom - Time is altered from reverse back to normal.

Marketing Plan - Laura Bebber

In order to attract our target audience I had to think carefully about specific advertisements. Advertising is one of the most important aspects of distributing a film and so I came up with a series of locations in which we could possibly place posters, trailers or induce various other methods.



Television adverts appearing on channels such as ITV, BBC, E4 and Film 4. I feel this would be effective as many teenagers spend considerable amounts of time watching television on a daily basis.




Advertising on social networking sites such as Facebook would ensure success as they are extemely popular within the teenage category.



As the vast majority of teenagers can not drive, they may use a lot of public transport. Importing posters at bus stops and in train stations could be effective as they would be noticed by a large amount of individuals. (College students especially who use buses frequently)



Cinemas are considered very popular for the teenage generation. Advertising our film on the 'big screen' would attract the attention of our desired target audience as they would probably be viewing a film of a similar genre.

Planning Mise-En-Scene - Laura Bebber

Props

- Character's bag in which the 'bullies' will throw and torment her with in the alleyway.
- Various textbooks for character to drop when tripped over in college.
- Alarm clock in male character's bedroom.

We have decided not to make use of too many props as our main focus is to magnify the character's emotion through specific action and editing.

Costume

Female main character: Casual student clothing such as black leggings, jumper, gilet and boots.
Male character: Jeans, hoodie, trainers, college bag.
Other characters (Bullies): Casual clothing e.g. jeans, jacket, trainers etc.

We decided to ensure that our costumes will be as realistic as possible. We will portray the typical image of teenagers in which will ultimately attract our target audience and allow them to connect with the characters.

Actors

Female main character - Sabrina Bell
Male character - Alex Smith
Extras - Laura Bebber, Emily Saunders, Joe Lockstone, Josh Armitage

We gained the consent of Emily, Joe and Josh to be in our film as extras and we hope that there will be no problems with this on the day of shooting. This should be fairly easy as the scenes in which they will be involved in will be filmed in college.

Lighting

We aim to use natural lighting when filming our opening as it will reinforce the realism we hope to achieve. We feel that shadowing and artificial lighting is not necessary for our desired genre as it would create a more 'thrilling' atmosphere.

Set Design
We will not be constructing specfic sets for our project, we plan to merely use enviroments as they are naturally. This will help to increase authenticity and allow us to express emotion through actions and not the design.

The Treatment For Our Film Opening - Alex Smith, Sabrina Bell, Laura Bebber

Treatment

Audience research - Alex Smith (Images) Laura Bebber & Sabrina Bell (Research)

Our stereotypical audience profile

Age: 16-25

Gender: Female

Social status: Comes from a working class back round, aims to achieve highly through education and better own situation.

Ethnic back round: Mainly white, british, but may appeal to other ethnic groups.

Education: A full time student at college/university.

Subjects likely to be taking: Psychology, media, sociology, art. A mixture of academic and creative subjects.

Occupation: Part time work in a retail store.

General interests: Being with friends, concerts, being with the boyfriend, engaging in many media products such as face book and twitter, reading books centred around romance/thrillers. Likes to be different and not follow a crowd.

Musical taste: Non mainstream, quirky style of rock/acoustic based music.

Movies likely to have seen: This is England, Fish Tank, Submarine, Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging, Harry Potter franchise.

Relationship status: In a steady relationship, likely to take her boyfriend/partner along with her to see the movie.

Reasons for consumption: To explore certain ideas that they haven't experienced before, and to form on screen relationships with characters. They consume media in a light hearted way, for entertainment purposes and to be sociable, and up to date with media.

By using a variety of elements from many diverse images of a character whom we assume to be the audience for our film , we have created the perfect demographic.

Director Research - By Laura Bebber

Shane Meadows, an English director, screenwriter and BAFTA winner was born on the 26th December 1972. Nearing the beginning of his successful career, Shane was merely making short movies with his friends in which were not showcased to the public at all. After a lot of hard work and effort, they began a film festival in his local cinema in which was very popular within the city. This was a great opportunity for the hopeful director and he was then was enrolled onto a Performing Arts course where he first met his future collaborator Paddy Considine. The vast majority of Meadow's films have been set in the midlands area and reflect upon 'kitchen sink' realism.

His feature films include:
This is England
Twenty four seven
Dead man's shoes
Somers town
Once upon a time in the Midlands
A room for Romeo Brass

Facts:
Meadows is widely regarded as a big fan of football with several references included in his films by way of imagery and background shots.

His shortest film, The stairwell, was shot on a mobile phone and is just 40 seconds long!

Television success:
This Is England '86 (2010) (four 60 minute episodes with Meadows directing episodes three and four)
This Is England '88 (2011) (three 60 minute episodes)

Research into the director of 'Fish Tank' - Sabrina Bell

Name: Andrea Arnold
Birth date:5 April 1961, Dartford, Kent, England, UK

 Andrea grew up as the eldest of four children, and lived in a council house it Dartford. Simarly, the movie Fish Tank is based around a british council estate. She later went on to study the American film institute Conservatory in Los Angeles and graduated in 1991.
After graduating, her first job involved becoming a dancer on shows such as Top Of The Pops, and later became a television presenter. After retiring from presenting, she studied film directing in Los Angeles. Her early short films include Milk(1998) and dog(2001)
She directed Fish Tank in 2009, and was awarded a jury prize. The film also went on to win the BAFTA award for outstanding British film.

Research Into An Iconic Director - Alex Smith

Richard Ayoade on Prezi

Frame by frame analysis of Fish Tank opening (Sabrina Bell)

This shot of the title 'Fish Tank' is the first image the audience views, as it plays a significant part to the opening. The words are layed out in a square, angular way, which could connot the harshness that the film explores. The typography is written in plain white capital letters, and with a plain black backround. The darkness on screen may represent the un-pleasant, 'dark' storylines that the audience will experience as the movie progresses.

The second shot introduces the main character, Mia. The position she is in represents stress and suffering. This will get the audience familiar with the themes and feelings that Mia experiences throughout the movie. She is in an abandoned flat, where she practices her dancing in secret, but the audience is unaware of this at this point. It could be percieved that she herself is in a 'tank', and dying to break away.

In this shot, Mia is looking out upon her neighbourhood- which is an east London council estate. This could represent how she is longing to grow up, and how nieve she is in respect to the world around her. This fits in with the coming of age genre that we are looking at, as it is centred around the discovery and journey of a teenager.

This shot shows Mia walking out onto her councel estate, and witnessing some 'chavy' girls practicing a dance routine. She confronts them, and then head-buts one of the girls in the nose. This reinforces the brutatlity of teenagers that live in certain areas. This also allows the audience to become familiar with Mia's personality, as she is portrayed as foul-mouthed and violent.

Frame By Frame Opening Analysis (Alex Smith)

Frame by Frame Analysis - Dark Knight

Analysis of the opening of 'The Lovely Bones' By Laura Bebber

~ "The Lovely Bones is the story of a teenage girl who, after being raped and murdered, watches from her personal Heaven as her family and friends struggle to move on with their lives while she comes to terms with her own death."

The first clip displays the production company in a clear and direct format. The black and white colouring reinforces simplicity and a precise, straight to the point introductory to the film

This is a mid shot of a snow globe in which is featured throughout the entire opening. The penguin is trapped within a glass dome reinforcing a sense of isolation and completely foreshadowing many later events within the film. The solemn music in the background instantly sets the tone and creates an emotional atmosphere. This draws the viewer in furthermore and allows them to connect with the situation. The fade from black also provides a smooth transition from one clip to the next and reinforces the sense of passion and misery.

The third clip shows the central protagonist as a child innocently playing with toys. This shot allows the viewer to empathise with the character and view aspects of her life from when she was younger. The music continues to develop emotion and captivate the audience’s affection towards the character.

This clip displays a typical home environment in which provides a very realistic atmosphere. A voice over of the main character reflecting her life as a child then begins. Her voice is soft and innocent developing further empathy and sorrow towards her. 

This is a close up shot showing the child staring into the snow globe. The intensity in her eyes show how passionate she is about this object and that she puts a lot of thought into it.

This close up shot of the penguin allows us to view the snow globe from the child’s perspective. The story in which the character is portraying in the voice over captivates the true purpose of this. “I remember the penguin who lived inside the globe. He was all alone in there and I worried for him.”

This clip shows the child’s father attempting to comfort her: “Don’t worry kiddo, he has a nice life…he’s trapped in a perfect world.” The child begins to express emotion in which inevitably makes the audience feel for her. The words are very clever as they are a representation of what happens later in the film. The main character herself, becomes “trapped inside a perfect world” in which is a clear parallel from the beginning.

                                                                                

The typography of the title in which appears in this shot is plain yet meaningful. I feel that this was a clever choice as white represents the absence of colour. Colour can instantly reinforce many emotions and without it, the mind is left to think for itself. Usually, white can be seen to connote purity, peace and innocence in which is extremely effective upon the audience. The overall simplicity of the font symbolises the innocent imagination of the child.

                                                                                    

The History of Our 'British/Coming of Age' Genre - Sabrina Bell & Alex Smith

British Golden Age

The British film industry had a golden age in the 1940s, led by the studios of j.Arther.Rank and Alexander korda. Many British actors such as: Kate Winslet,Julie walters and Sean Connery have achieved highly in the film industry.

There is often a debate on whether a film can be classed as being 'British', or not. Many films that include British actors, and British settings are often distributed by American Producers I.e The Harry Potter, and James Bond franchise. 

The British New Age

British films are often refered to as 'kitchen sink realism'. This extended from british films portraying a sense of realism, and gritty lives of working class citizens. This genre of film was introduces in the 1950's and early 1960's. Normally, kitchen sink films are based in working class suburbs of england, such as council estates. This genre became popular with other forms of media also such as plays, novels and art. Television soap operas such as Eastenders and Coronation street became very popular in portraying the raw lives of everyday people living in english towns. The term 'kitchen sink' became apparent after an expressionist artist John Bratby painted a picture of a kitchen sink. This sparked influence from other artists, that wanted to portray the banality of life through artistic means.

Coming of Age Films

The term coming of age refers to films that involve normally(but not necessarily) a male lead, that embarks on a life changing journey. They are usually a teenager that becomes more wise and mature towards the end, after going through self discovery, and learning about the world. Here are a few we've researched:

STAND BY ME (1986)

This film was released in 1986, and is about four boys that embark on a physical and emotional journey of discovery. Even though we are going to make a British based film, i believe that Stand By Me is an inspirational coming of age film that has been held as inspiration for other films.

FISH TANK (2009)

This film follows a working class teenage girl. It is a British film, set in the east london council estates. it relates to the British 'kitchen sink' genre because it is a raw,gritty story line that explores sad themes and ideas.

ANGUS THONGS AND PERFECT SNOGGING(2008)

This is another film that is under the 'coming of age' genre. This film explores a teenage girls discovery of herself, and demonstrates a typical girls life. Romance is very much a big part of this genre, and the protagonist female embarks on a quest to get the boy she likes.

'This Is England' Title Sequence Timeline - Sabrina Bell & Laura Bebber