Style models

A lot of careful thought has gone in to planning my film trailer. Elements of film making which I will use in my trailer have proven to be successful in both European and American cinema. Films such as Bend It Like Beckham, Being John Malkovich, and Kick-Ass have been commercially successful in America, and equally as popular in Britain.

Also, films such as have had cult followings in the UK. I have reached the conclusion that their would indeed be interest in my film from audiences, not only from the 50+ age bracket who might have enjoyed the comedian Manning himself, and can perhaps understand the character and his mild obsession with him.But also from a younger audience (16-25) who would also be interested in the humour and realism the film has. Large proportions (if not all) of the audience are likely to be British. The concept of people meeting their heroes has also been explored in cinema. Looking For Eric explored this theme quite a bit, and I hope to use some similar ideas in my project.

This hopefully will attract another audience type, one interested in arty, picture house style films, again primarily in Britain.

Mood Board

Mood Board

This is my mood board for my media project. hopefully this can give a general idea of the film to audiences. It includes the main actor, elements of the culture which will be shown.

Character Profile

The main character; Graham is 17 years old and living in the sea side town of Hastings. The role of Stanley will be played by Rathe.

Graham isn't really comfortable in his own skin, and his career choice as a hopeful comedian stems from his need for gratification and acceptance from others.

Being Indecisive

Despite my multiple film idea changes so far, I have yet again opted for a different project. After recently visiting the Duke of York theatre in Brighton, where i viewed 2 independent British films, I came to realize that despite how much I enjoyed these films, the gritty realism in british film has almost become a necessity. I have now decided to buck the trend and do what few british films do, and make a quirky, funny film. It may not necessarily have a happy ending where all is resolved, but teenage prostitution, murder and human trafficking have already been done, and I intend to go nowhere near it. over the next few days i will develop a new idea i have a genuine interest in and can hopefully enjoy making.

Upon my return to college in January, I hope to have figured out at least the first minute and a half of my trailer. I will construct it first on storyboard form, and will aim to stick religiously to it. I will have to juggle this with re-take preparation, but with good planning and structure I think it isachievable. At this point I am fairly confident with the work i have submitted so far. My research so far has been positive, and I shall post it soon.

Narrative & Narrative Theory

Narrative is very important whilst making a film. It differs from the story massively. How the story is told and the plot itself.

Todorov’s Theory – Todorov proposed a basic structure for all narratives. He stated that films and programmes begin with an equilibrium, a calm period. Then agents of disruption cause disequilibrium, a period of unsettlement and disquiet. This is then followed by a renewed state of peace and harmony for the protagonists and a new equilibrium brings the chaos to an end. The simplest form of narrative.

Barthes’ Enigma Code – The narrative will establish enigmas or mysteries as it goes along. Essentially, the narrative functions to establish and then solve these mysteries.

Propp’s Theory –Vladimir Propp’s theory was formed in the early twentieth Century. He studies Russian fairytales and discovered that in stories there were always 8 types of characters evident. He did not state these characters were all separate people e.g. the provider could also be the helper. There are only 8 different character types and only 31 things they ever do. Once you have identified the character type (e.g., the hero) it’s easy to guess what they will do (save the maiden, defeat the villain, marry the maiden or whatever). This is easily relatable to films and programmes today.

In my film project ---, I hope to use Todorov's theory of basic structures. The idea for my film will be fairly simple, and the entertainment shall come from the journey the characters take on and the resolution at the end.

Preliminary location shots - old project

These are a few of the pictures we took for location shots. These are just preliminary photographs of the school the characters go to; and an alley in which the main event will occur. These shots are likely to happen at night, and with the street lights providing good mood lighting, and creating a sense of impending doom. The shots of the school won't feature massively in the trailer, but when they do they will be as they appear in the photos taken.

The Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy

The Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy, is a series of films created by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, and starring Pegg and Nick Frost in leading roles, with many recurring actors within British comedy appearing in supporting roles. The first two films in the series are Shaun of the Dead, a zombie comedy with romantic comedy elements, and Hot Fuzz, a buddy cop action/comedy film. A third film, provisionally titled The World's End, is slated for the future.

Each film is connected to a Cornetto ice cream flavour - both of the films released to date feature scenes in which one of the main characters purchases a Cornetto of the appropriate flavour. Shaun of the Dead features a red strawberry Cornetto, Hot Fuzz includes a blue Classico flavour, and The World's End is due to feature a green mint chocolate chip ice-cream. The use of the three colours of Cornetto is a reference to Krzysztof Kieślowski's Three Colours film trilogy.

The first two of this trilogy have been incredibly influential on our taste in films and has certainly given us some inspiration from creating our own film

Individual work that has been done in the group

Harry

• Research into films that have influenced our project
• Research into narrative theory (todorov etc)
• Ideas for film project (recent ideas that have since been abandoned)
• Contributed to mood board work
• Researched directors and their debut films (edgar wright etc)
• Started work for final film project

Dan

• Ideas for film concepts (recent and current)
• Research into other genres of films
• Contributed to mood board work
• Started work for final film project

We hope to conclude the planning of our film project within the next two weeks, and hopefully start filming, and conclude before Christmas.

Film project and this that and everything else.

Me and my companion Daniel Elphick are currently in the process of undergoing a film venture. So far, our initial ideas, are the following:

We realised pretty quickly that most films that will be made teenagers will seem low budget; chiefly because it is. With that idea at the front of our minds, we wanted to make a film that didn't rely on expensive surroundings, lighting, actors etc. My group have decided to make a cult-esque style film. We decided to draw inspiration from films like Sean of the Dead, and Skeletons.




Call The Wardens is a preliminary idea amongst our group. It features 2 main protagonists William Darling and Frankie Daubney, 2 traffic wardes, both with very different approaches to the job. Frankie is a maverick, not caring to break the rules as long as he gets the job done. He doesn't suffer fools gladly, this combined with a love for all things whisky based, he often finds himself in tussles with members of the public. William is relatively new on the traffic warden scene. He has been paired with Frankie, an established veteran. Together they stumble upon a plot to assasinate the Prime Minister. With the national hatrid for traffic wardens at its most viscious, they find very few people who take their claims seriously. They must battle these obsticles and save the Prime Minister's life, with endless satire along the way. The plot of this is likely to change in the near future.

Our second idea is named Fortune. It starts 2 friends who have to write the fortunes inside fortune cookies. The story is told from the main protagonist's (Mark's) point of view. It starts from Bertie's (The second main character) graveside as he retells the story of his eventual death. The two characters get in endless japes with their new found powers, however with time they become jealous of one another, and fight using the fortune cookies, this is how Berties death comes about. The story is about greed, jealousy and friendship.

As with EVERY film that has EVER been made EVER, trailers tend to come around after the film has been made, as to get the best bits from the film to get people to come and see it. This project however, ignores this fact, quite brilliantly, and so we must choose and edit clips from a film, that HASN'T been made, quite remarkable.

Advanced Portfolio Task

• To produce a promotional package for a film.
• To include a teaser trailer, a magazine front cover and a poster.
• The work must be presented on a blog format and edited to individual taste.