This is our second rough cut. It is alot more precise and followable than the first rough cut. We experimented with and altered the title font and colour as an attempt to make it stand out more, but still look professional and flow well within the opening.
We also rearranged the opening shots. We thought the pan looked very unsteady leading into the opening of the first rough cut. To make it more professional-looking, we changed this pan to a steadier, slower one. We also slightly changed the idea of our opening - where the camera moves past the group before rewinding back to it, like in rough cut 1 - and the camera halts at the group with a fitting sound effect. We did this as we found our first idea didn't convey to the audience, through the camera shots used, as we'd hoped it would.
After making the first rough cut, I hastily asked for feedback about it from friends, family and the film's target audience. As we had a mixture of pun names and normal, random names for the film titles, many of the viewers suggested making these names either all normal names or all pun names; they found it distracted away from the film when they were trying to work out if the normal names were pun ones. We took on board this feedback and changed the titles to entirely pun names, however, we may consider changing them to entirely normal names as it was previously mentioned the pun names were distracting and rather unprofessional.
Viewers also suggested that the font didn't fit with the genre of the opening. They said it looked quite horror-like; which in reflection I agree. We first chose this font as we thought it looked quite edgy and country-looking - like cracked ground - however it obviously doesn't give this effect. We will change the font to a softer, more rounded one.
Saturday, 28 April 2012
Rough Cut 1
This is our very 1st rough cut.
Good feedback from it included:
Good feedback from it included:
- liking the pan
- very good sound quality
- variety of camera angles and shots used
- lots of thought put into costumes
- simple and effective
- good framing
- establishes setting
- steady camera
- understood it (good continuity)
- wanted to see what happens next
- a more rounded font needed
- needs more pace
- make title stand out more
Consideration of Sound
These are the sounds we are considering for our film opening. It is very important we choose the correct backing track as it will affect how the audience interpret our film. It will need to be upbeat and happy-sounding, to hook our audiences - this is also a thematic convention of the comedy genre.
Audience Genre Certification
When deciding upon a certification for a film, you have to consider many things including: demographic groupings and cross cultural consumer characteristics, audience theories, genre and the thematic conventions running throughout your film. It is important that a film has a certificate as some content may not be suitable for viewing by younger age groups.
The uses and gratifications theory is when audiences want to feel something from a film. These audiences will select a particular film because they want to learn something from it.
Demographic Groups and Cross Cultural Consumer Characteristics
Demographic groups are, in effect, the gradings of the social status'. Below is a table showing what categories the social classes are grouped into:| Social grade | Social status | Occupation |
| A | Upper middle class | Higher managerial, administrative or professional |
| B | Middle class | Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional |
| C1 | Lower middle class | Supervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or professional |
| C2 | Skilled working class | Skilled manual workers |
| D | Working class | Semi and unskilled manual workers |
| E | Lowest level of substinence | State pensioners or widows (no other earner), casual or lowest grade workers |
Cross Cultural Consumer Characteristics was devised by Young and Ribicam and is an alternative to demographic groups. It is defined as "the effort to determine to what extent the consumers of two or more nations are similar or different. This will facilitate marketers to understand the psychological, social and cultural aspects of foreign consumers they wish to target, so as to design effective marketing strategies for each of the specific national markets involved."
Audience Theories
The hypodermic needle theory is when audiences don't need to pay that much attention - or engage their brain - to understand the film, the information is just fed to them. The uses and gratifications theory is when audiences want to feel something from a film. These audiences will select a particular film because they want to learn something from it.
Auditions for Film Opening
Auditon 1: Harrison
We thought his awkward-ness was more suited towards that of another character- such as the nerd, rather than the farmer.
Audition 2: Michael
We thought he followed direction well but we thought his appearance wasn't necessarily suited to the hippie character, unlike Rob.
Audition 3: Cory
It was clear to us that Cory couldn't take direction, so we didn't consider choosing him at all. This was to avoid having a plain actor in our film, which would seem unprofessional.
Audition 4: Lawrence
We thought he was good at expressing emotion but minor things he did such as closing his eyes a lot made us consider someone else- if a character were to close their eyes a lot in a film, it may seem out of place and doesn;'t draw the audience in properly.
Audition 5: Jonathan
Jonathan offered to audition but he didn't seem to take the role seriously- and we didn't want someone who messed around in our final piece. He also didn't seem to take direction too well as his tone doesn't change much even after being given direction.
Audition 6: Ben
Ben seemed like the ideal choice for the farmer character, but he auditioned for the nerd character. We have decided to choose him for the farmer character (after discussing with him if that's ok) because of his good acting qualities, plus the added bonus of the fact he looks like the celebrities we originally compared our characters to.
Audition 7: Robert
Robert seemed like a good actor for the hippie character, who he auditioned for. His appearance suited the character well and although he didn't seem to take the direction given too seriously, his perspective on it still suited the character.
Chosen actors: Harrison, Ben and Robert.
Friday, 27 April 2012
Audience Expectations
Romance Genre
-What do you expect in the first 2 minutes of a romance film?
The older of the people I asked this question to mentioned Sex and the City and said that the 'main middle-aged woman character' would be introduced. They also said there's usually a narrative overlay on the introduction, if not the whole way through.
Teenagers said a similar thing, however the main character(s) was also a teenager/young adult, as opposed to middle-aged, there would be a group of friends introduced at a school and that a male character may also be introduced. They also said that there may be more than one main character and that there can be multiple storylines within the film. Some teenagers referred to the film Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging.
The youngest of the people I interviewed suggested films such as Shrek, and spoke about princesses and princes.
-What sort of main characters will there be?
As I mentioned before, the older, more mature people I questioned envisaged a middle-aged, single, female main character within a group of friends - similar to Sex and the City.
The majority vote of the teenagers concluded the main characters would be a group of high-school friends and their love interests.
The younger people I interviewed mainly referred to Disney-type films, such as The Little Mermaid and Shrek, where there are the female (princess waiting to be found) and male protagonists (prince searching for princess) and an evil antagonist trying to deter the main characters from finding their 'true love'.
-What kind of event do you expect to occur/begin?
Strangely, all the age groups were referring to 'rom-com'-type films, rather than any other romance-hybrid film. Therefore, on a whole, they expected to see the main character/characters eventually end up with their love interest, after embarrassing themselves - maybe more than once - or making mistakes trying to make their love interest notice them or fall in love with them. They said that it would end happpily, or if not, it would be comedic in nature.
Overall, we have learnt that within a popular romance (rom-com) film, there is usually a female main character, mirrored by a male one and that the basic storyline is that somehow, whether it be through slaying the dragon, through embarrassing oneself at the school disco or through a work dilemma, they end up falling in love. A. rom-com may or may not end happily, but it won't usually dwell on the fact it has ended badly and will turn it around into comedy.
-What do you expect in the first 2 minutes of a romance film?
The older of the people I asked this question to mentioned Sex and the City and said that the 'main middle-aged woman character' would be introduced. They also said there's usually a narrative overlay on the introduction, if not the whole way through.
Teenagers said a similar thing, however the main character(s) was also a teenager/young adult, as opposed to middle-aged, there would be a group of friends introduced at a school and that a male character may also be introduced. They also said that there may be more than one main character and that there can be multiple storylines within the film. Some teenagers referred to the film Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging.
The youngest of the people I interviewed suggested films such as Shrek, and spoke about princesses and princes.
-What sort of main characters will there be?
As I mentioned before, the older, more mature people I questioned envisaged a middle-aged, single, female main character within a group of friends - similar to Sex and the City.
The majority vote of the teenagers concluded the main characters would be a group of high-school friends and their love interests.
The younger people I interviewed mainly referred to Disney-type films, such as The Little Mermaid and Shrek, where there are the female (princess waiting to be found) and male protagonists (prince searching for princess) and an evil antagonist trying to deter the main characters from finding their 'true love'.
-What kind of event do you expect to occur/begin?
Strangely, all the age groups were referring to 'rom-com'-type films, rather than any other romance-hybrid film. Therefore, on a whole, they expected to see the main character/characters eventually end up with their love interest, after embarrassing themselves - maybe more than once - or making mistakes trying to make their love interest notice them or fall in love with them. They said that it would end happpily, or if not, it would be comedic in nature.
Overall, we have learnt that within a popular romance (rom-com) film, there is usually a female main character, mirrored by a male one and that the basic storyline is that somehow, whether it be through slaying the dragon, through embarrassing oneself at the school disco or through a work dilemma, they end up falling in love. A. rom-com may or may not end happily, but it won't usually dwell on the fact it has ended badly and will turn it around into comedy.
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