Story board

Here is our finished storyboard; it demonstrates what we have done so far and how we plan to lay out the film in production process. The storyboard also gives us a clear insight into any problems that are clearly going to happen when we start filming. The pictures are quite low quality but they are backed up by the text, with the use of media technical language.  

Research and Planning

How did your research into genre contribute to your production work?

As we are producing a Drama/Documentary film this has given us a problem because as you can see there are not many films that fit into our genre, whist this makes it difficult for me and the group too analyze and determine the conventions of the films genre it also makes it hard for us to understand the common aspects and criticisms theses types of films face. I personally have really struggled to find large blockbuster films which are widely know which would fit into our production genre. However there simulates that mimic the conventions seen within other blockbusters i.e. the traditional teenage girl film does rotate around how the female actors eat and live and indeed with the male actors  in how they look like and how they dress especially the weight of any of the girls and what they are eating if they are fat, another aspect is the consent cure for fighting weight and it is often seen in these films the methods used when girls when they have a weight problem, plus the common media pressure and bullying they face every day. Moreover there are hundreds of cheesy girl films, these all should give us some idea in how they target teenage audience, and how the audience can relate to such films, as a group we can make sure that ours fits into the most popular genre. For instance I have constantly found in my research that the directors of the most popular teenage girls films focus along the same lines and copy the same screen shots and camera angles i.e. the twilight saga films all often use extreme still/slow close ups of the face (heavily edited/Photoshoped and airbrushed to give the audience an example of the perfect face. This aspects can all be seen in later films such as the 2004 teen comedy film “mean girls” and its sequel “mean girls 2” (2011) both use wide camera angles demonstrating the girls whole body in which the audience (young girls) can see how the “perfect” body outline should look, apart from the obvious body shape and make up the directors make sure the audience got the fill opportunity of taking on board the clothes and fashions styles the actors are wearing/flowing. This underling pressure and concept that only thin, nice look, heavily fashionable people are nice is the conmen policy found in young American blockbusters this tend is found very much in high School Musical, for this very reason myself and the group have tried to make the gene have a more grown up feel to it, for example it would have more off a darker feel to it i.e. Black Swan appeals to a wide age audience. Our films gene could possibly appeal to a more mature teenage girl audience which I think could be a advantage because the 90’s teenage girl films have know become not fashionable this is shown in the rise of twilight, which raised and broken away from the genre I have studied in the last 8 years.

This research into more mature/adult films has given us a clear insight into the conmen shots used i.e. slow cycler shots which demonstrate the whole actors body, more examples of this can be seen below, when I analyzed film THIN. We have taken on board these skills and are planning to utilize them in the filming methods.

 

How did your research into institutions responsible for the production and regulation of the media influence your production work?

After answering question 1 I think I will find it easy to answer and analyze this question because they are both closely linked with each other. I think it is always important to determine a clear policy when it comes to deciding the films genre, the group and I have consistently done this in this production task/process. Moreover to find similar institutions that have supported the conventions of our film, I have to look at similar films with similar genres and the production companies that tend to support/finance them. An example of this would be “Working title” who have developed themselves over the past 20 years in expects in making British historical films and TV dramas examples of these are “Atonement” and “Elizabeth” however this rule of production company making only certain types of movies tends to be breaking down, I think this largely down to the super large American/Hollywood production company’s making all sorts of films that all tend to turn to gold because they have enough money to flood the American market with advertising. The difference between small national-euro Production Company’s like “Working Title” or “Studio Cannel” tend to struggle against the huge American super production companies that really do rule the movie market. After researching into the American production company’s I realized that the reasons they have become so successful (apart from the large population of the USA) is because they are able to throw huge amounts of money into all sorts of ideas and genres when it comes to making films, however a prime example of a collapsed production company is MGM, they have relied on the James Bond franchise for years but with the recent down turn this has lead to a lack of funds forcing the company to go into administration.

Our target audience “girls aged 15-30” tend to be some of the most affluent spenders when it comes to films, this is because they go in large groups and do weekly girls nights out. It is clever move on our part to chose such an target audience because this will certainly attract large amounts of box office takings meanwhile as I have stated before the nearest film which comes close to our genre criteria is THIN; the director for this film was Lauren Greenfield, it was successful but did not hit the main stream market. Therefore as a group we have decided to work along the same policy as “Working Title” and try and gain a large national but not international audience. As for the regulation side of the question we thought that the best option would be a 12 age category because then there is more potential for large number of young girls viewing them film but it could be a 15 depending on how graphic the film is, this will properly be down to how realistic the side effects are of the drug scene. The trailer will be likely to have a scene that shows the main actor taking or have taken coke. For these obvious reasons the age can be raised to a 15 category. I have done some research into how the setting of the age for films is done and found that all filming is regulated by the British Board of Film Classification who are a government agency who deal in all aspects of the film and TV regulation. They work closely with the British Film Institute and Ofcom the main TV regulation agency to determine the watershed regulation and deal with filming complaints made to Ofcom that have been broadcasted on national and digital platforms. I tried to find the basic points for age regulation but struggled to pick my way through the bureaucracy that surrounds the BBFC’s web site, so I went to a more basic GB media site to finds these points;

-Home media only since 2002. 12A-rated films are usually given a 12 certificate for the VHS/DVD version unless extra material has been added that requires a higher rating.

Nobody younger than 12 can rent or buy a 12-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game. Films in this category may include infrequent drugs, infrequent use of strong language, brief nudity, discreet sexual activity, and moderate violence. Home media only since 2002. 12A-rated films are usually given a 12 certificate for the VHS/DVD version unless extra material has been added that requires a higher rating. Nobody younger than 12 can rent or buy a 12-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game Films in this category may include infrequent drugs, infrequent use of strong language, brief nudity, discreet sexual activity, and moderate violence.

-Only those over 15 years are admitted.

Nobody younger than 15 can rent or buy a 15-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game, or watch a film in the cinema with this rating. Films under this category can contain adult themes, hard drugs, strong words, moderate-strong violence/sex references, and mild non-detailed sex activity.
Examples: The Uninvited, Good Luck Chuck, Love and Other Drugs.

                                    An very old British Board of Film Censors certificate;

How did your research into audience contribute to your production work?

-this question has already been answered in the two answers above, it will mean reading through and picking out the answer.

                                      

Filming process

We got down to some filming this week; part of the group went to a local gym to film some of the scenes needed, we haven’t up loaded them yet on to the PC however when we do we are going get straight away with the editing and putting the whole trailer into order, this also gives us the opportunity to see how good our leading actor is on screen.  

The date which we did the filming was the 9^th feb.

Now we have this raw material to will give us a clear insight into the next stage of the filming process, in today’s lessons we are already discussing when the next date should be and how we are going to deal with the logistical problems that we face each time we go of  site to film ie travel and weather.

L.O.O.K.E.R.

I have done more research into films and posters similar to our group’s genre and found this 1981 science fiction film written and directed by Michael Crichton. It starred Albert Finney, Susan Dey, James Coburn and featured former NFL linebacker Tim Rossovich as the villain's main henchman.
The film is a suspense/science fiction piece which comments upon and satirizes media, advertising, TV's effects on the populace, and ridiculous standard of beauty. It is an interesting film to study because first movie to create 3-D shading with a computer, months before the release of the better-known Tron.
Plot
Plastic surgeon Larry Roberts performs a series of minor alterations on a group of models who are seeking perfection. The operations are a resounding success. But when someone starts killing his beautiful patients, Dr. Roberts becomes suspicious and starts investigating. What he uncovers are the mysterious - and perhaps murderous - activities of a high-tech computer company called Digital Matrix.

This is the first prober movie poster that completely represents the conventions of our film including the genre. The main difference between this and our film is that the target audience for this is an adult horror. However it is lucky I found this poster because it demonstrates how easy it would be to make the poster too dark, and turn away our target audience, myself and Mel will take heed of this and work hard not to do this.

Research – into similar poster ideas

Our group have now finalised the target market, which makes it easy for me to establish the basic genre for our poster. Most film posters all work along the same principles; catching the target market i.e. Twilight which has been very successful in braking into the teenage girl audience.

It can be seen back through the media age that there is a strong link between popular and successful films and popular and successful posters. It is common place for really amazing films i.e. Avatar to have amazing and dynamic poster. Which can only improve the film’s success at the box office. I have decided to brake the poster down into themes which makes it easier for me work on the whole project and to archive the highest quality aesthetic appearance.

Age theme for our poster is between 16-35, this is a female target audience. To establish the popular themes I am going to do some research into similar popular posters. The original concept of any poster is to drew in a large audience, it is also interesting to study the difference between posters for the same film but for different countries, these differences are often very slight, this is seen in British and American films, in which professional media productions company’s spend fortunes on trying to in age the largest possible number of consumers. I am going to try and archive this by first of all studying popular posters which have nothing to do with our films themes, and then go onto film posters with similar themes. However it can be argued that the differences are ending because the power America has over the filming industry this modern cultural imperialism is a global force that is spreading over Europe and infiltrating people’s thoughts and ideas.      

When I think of any famous posters I straight away think of this Star Wars EPISODE 1 poster, which sums up completely the clever production process that has gone into making movie posters.

The background for this poster is featuring Anakin on well know casting a shadow of the Sith Lord he would become. This is probably one of the most popular posters of the star wars saga because it is simple but very effective. It also brakes the traditional layout of Star Wars posters being all crammed up with lots of faces, however this one has a grown up feel approach, which would draw many older fans back to the cinema
I want use this simple concept in our film, an idea to have the main character standing all ill and frail from drugs and then a shadow of how she was before she started modelling. Or it could be the opposite way round with her all fine and healthy and then the shadow of her all ill. I am going to try and put this idea forward to our group and see if it is possible to do for our task.

Other film poster ideas

Here are a number of posters that all work along the same gene I am just going to study them briefly and develop the basic ideas behind them. But we need to think about which genre of film we would like to produce a trailer for. Over a course of time we have been thinking about which Last year, we produced a two minute film for the horror/thriller genre, theme. Sought of based on twilight, we did sought of think of using the same guidelines however it would be a bit boring and we want to do something more creative. Other possible genres for beauty are on the drama genre we agreed that a simple low-budget romantic comedy aimed at young girls would be the best course of action. Adding a documentary feel to the film would improve the serious nature of the genre will enable us to steer clear from potential "cheesiness".

After looking at research found from various study’s, it has been said the most profitable market for the film industry to target is the female market, as females not only choose the films that they would like to see alone, but those in relationships also tend to choose the film the a couple or group of friends would go and see. Considering this piece of evidence we have decided to follow rule and use the young age audience. To make this a success we will start to look into similar films and products that come with them like posters and so on.

Here are a number of screen shots that demonstrate the conventions of our film process.

-A documentary film on Photographer Laura Greenfield attempts to "put a human face on these sobering statistics" by spending time inside Florida's Renfrew Centre, an inpatient treatment program for women battling disordered eating, our film is the same as the apart on modelling.

This is a screen shot of another film flowing the life of how a American girl deals in the life of anorexia and the problems she faces. It cleverly shows the detraction in her health and lifestyle in general.

 

-The Famine Within

Documents the contemporary obsession with an unrealistic body size and shape among North American women and the eating disorders it engenders.

Director:

Katherine Gilday

Writer:

Katherine Gilday

Stars:

Rebecca Jenkins