My Opening Two Minute Film : The Moodboard...

I have created a mood board of images and photographs which helped inspire my film idea.

My Mood Board

One of the images is of Laurence Fox who plays one of the detectives in the TV drama 'Lewis', I chose his character as firstly his character is rather plain and safe similar to how I portray the character of Sam Taylor. I also chose this character as an influence for Sam's costume, the dark suit, plain tie and white shirt portrays a sensible character similar to how I want the audience to portray Sam. Also on my mood board is an image of an interview room in 'Law and Order' the reason why I chose this is because it has the one way mirror which is what I want to portray my interview room to look like to the audience, however I understand in real life many interview rooms do not have one way mirrors so I may have to use editing and camera shots in order to portray to the audience that the room does have a one way mirror. I have also got a few pictures from my childhood (yes there is some cringe pictures), these are to illustrate how I want my home videos to be showing lots of different events during a families history. The birthday scene picture also shows lots of children trying to blow out the candles, I chose this image as for one of my home videos I want Sam to blow out Jacks birthday candles in order to show the audience that he is the more dominant character.

My Opening Two Minute Film : The Script...

Now we can tick of the stage of storyboarding it was time to tackle the script. We first of all looked at how to create the "professional" script, learning the inside codes of scripting in media (example = V.O means voice over). We focused on the layout, demonstrate two characters speaking at once, an interior and exterior setting, how to show inter-cutting and many other skills linked with creating that perfect script. Here is the script for my opening two minutes, I created it so that an actor/actress could just read the script and get a basic idea of their character, where they should in each shot and what meaning I wanted to portray to the audience about the character. I wanted my script to give the actor/actress a little insight into my many thoughts about my opening!

The first draft of my Script!

EXT. GARDEN. DAY. FLASHBACK

Home video of YOUNG SAM TAYLOR aged ten years and YOUNG JACK TAYLOR aged eight years. Both dressed in denim jeans, waterproof jackets, trainers, wrapped up in a scarf, hat and gloves. SAM and JACK are both playing a game of football together, demonstrating to the audience that both boys experience a continent childhood. 

MOTHER (O.S)

(soft, motherly tone of voice)

Jack…Sam…look this way, smile for the camera…give granddad and granny a wave

INT. POLICE STATION. INTERCUTTING SHOTS. DAY

A series of intercutting shots allowing the audience to see that there is a detective and criminal. Extreme close up shots, show the handcuffs on the criminal (who unknown to the audience in this shot is JACK TAYLOR), he is in ripped jeans and a plain hoody. Intercutting between these shots is the shots of detective (who unknown the audience in this shot is SAM TAYLOR), wearing a suit and crisp white shirt, extreme shots are used to show him placing a detective badge onto his suit. No faces are shown during this shot, only extreme close up shots of particular objects.

EXT. GARDEN. DAY. FLASHBACK

Home video of YOUNG SAM TAYLOR aged ten years and YOUNG JACK TAYLOR aged eight years. Both dressed in denim jeans, waterproof jackets, trainers, wrapped up in a scarf, hat and gloves. SAM and JACK are both playing a game of football together, demonstrating to the audience that both boys experience a continent childhood. 

MOTHER (V.O)

(in a monotone voice, lack of emotion)

The choices we make…

INT. POLICE STATION INTERVIEW ROOMS. DAY

An over the shoulder shot, watching through a mirror/glass the interview room on the other side, where JACK TAYLOY is being led into the interview room, and sat down at the desk, his body posture in hunched, a small boy in an adults body, he look vulnerable and lost.

MOTHER (V.O)

(in a monotone voice, lack of emotion)

The paths we walk…

EXT. GARDEN. DAY. FLASHBACK

Home video of YOUNG SAM TAYLOR aged ten years and YOUNG JACK TAYLOR aged eight years. Both dressed in denim jeans, waterproof jackets, trainers, wrapped up in a scarf, hat and gloves. SAM and JACK are both playing a game of football together, demonstrating to the audience that both boys experience a continent childhood. 

MOTHER (V.O)

(in a monotone voice, lack of emotion)

Its it due to our nature or is it down to nurture…

INT. POLICE STATION. DAY

Behind view of SAM TAYLOR walking out of the small room, view point goes back to watching the mirror and sees the detective walk into the interview room. SAM TAYLOR is in a grey suit, white crisp shirt and black tie, the lack of colour demonstrating his lack of personality, how he would rather follow the safe path then take a risk.

SPLIT SCREEN. PLAIN WHITE/BLACK BACKGROUNG

SAM TAYLOR is in front of the white background, showing he is the angelic one, the one who followed the right path, the white is to represent purity and goodness. JACK TAYLOR is in front of the black background, showing he was the one who followed the darker path of life.

MOTHER (O.S)

(soft, motherly tone of voice)

How would describe your upbringing?

SAM TAYLOR

(said simultaneously with JACK TAYLOR)

I had a contented happy childhood, it was family orientated and I hold many memories of me and my brother playing together, yes you could say I had a typical middle class upbringing, I had a mother who strived for me and my bother to have much success, she said we had opportunities to go far and expected us to reach the stars and beyond...

JACK TAYLOR

(said simultaneously with SAM TAYLOR)

I had a contented happy childhood, it was family orientated and I hold many memories of me and my brother playing together, yes you could say I had a typical middle class upbringing, I had a mother who strived for me and my bother to have much success, she said we had opportunities to go far and expected us to reach the stars and beyond...

INT. POLICE STATION INTERVIEW ROOM. DAY  

JACK TAYLOR is slumped on the chair, his head bowed, his shoulders hunched. The camera stays stationary as SAM TAYLOR comes into focus walking slowly over to the empty chair, his shoes creating a slight click, breaking the atmosphere. His fingers press down on the tape recorder, his face empty of emotion.

SAM TAYLOR

(monotone voice)

Interview of Jack Taylor commencing at 13:00, present is Detective Sam Taylor, please confirm for the tape that you are Jack Taylor

JACK TAYLOR lifts his head and both his and SAM TAYLORS eyes meet

JACK TAYLOR

Yes...

THE END

My Opening Two Minute Film : My Ident...

Today James was back with us (poor him having two hours of everyone going "James I need help!"), but yaaay for us! So I could start the creation of my logo, I decided to go for my idea one after asking James for his advice (and being reassured that I could create it), this idea was the row of beach huts, spelling out "seaside" with birds flying around the beach huts.

My Final Logo Idea

So here it is a step to step guide to the creation of a logo (just in case anyone wanted to recreate it!)
What you will need :
+ Photo shop programme
+ After effects programme
+ A very patient James (or your own version)
+ The undo button (it shall come in handy for those oops moments!)

Step One:
The first section which I concentrated on was on the creation of a row of beach huts. I started of with a plain image of a beach hut which I imported into photo shop. I started of by creating a transparent background for the beach hut, this involved using the erasing button (yes that's the right the simple but effective rubber). Once I had one beach hut, I opened a new page on photo shop, changed the settings a little, and then imported my beach hut that I had just edited. I then copied the beach hut six more times, so I ended up with a row of seven beach huts. However the issue was each beach hut was obviously the same (and looking a little boring) so I decided to manipulate the colour and saturation. I initially wanted to just change the colour of the roofs and doors and keep the main colour of the Beach huts the same, however when I tried to do this the originally colour 'bled' into the new one and it didn't give the right look, so I decided to go crazy, and create a row of different colour beach huts (at least my logo shall be remembered!).
Step Two:
This similar to the beach huts, involved importing an image of a sea gull (what else could you have to represent the seaside) into photo shop, and creating a transparent background. I again used the eraser button, however this did take quite a while as a seagull is not as easy to draw round as a beach hut!
Step Three:
This is the stage where I could finally open us after effects (yay I actually started to feel like I was making a logo). I started of by importing the two files that I had created in photo shop (the row of the seven beach huts and the bird). I then decided to start by focusing on the beach huts, I decided to save adding the text spelling out 'seaside' above the beach huts and 'production' below until after effects, so this process involved me using the text tool to add, re-size and create a certain font for each letter
Step four:
Now it was time to start animating, I was a bit unsure of how I wanted to add movement to my logo, so James came to the rescue again and suggested I just used one bird who fly's across the page, revealing each letter to spell out 'seaside' as it goes. I then decided that once the letters seaside are revelled i would fade in the beach huts, followed by the word 'productions'

This is my final ident:

My Opening Two Minute Film : The Storyboard...

Today's lesson, began the development of my storyboard. Storyboards are seen as the blueprint for a film, each shot is planned, including the shots, actors, set-up and message wanting to be portrayed by the shot. I have included an image of what I want the layout to be for my shot (I say sorry now for my awful drawing), the angle that I will use, the characters involved and sound that will be used during the shot.

My Opening Two Minute Film : Pitching the Final Idea through a Chatshow...

Today we had the task of pitching our ideas, we had to create some sort of film in groups of three where each one of us had the chance to state our ideas and thoughts. Well just have two minutes of speaking on camera our idea - classic but dull, so we thought why not spice it up and create our very own version of Jonathan Ross show, instead replacing Jonathan with Hannah (much better replacement I think!). We had the task of reproducing this in a double lesson, and even though I wouldn't say it was our best film - or award winning acting, I think all our ideas, are developing well and we were able to communicate to the audience what we are thinking of producing. Before we started filming we used one of our hours to plan, creating a mini script, and thinking about the set-up of our shot, this really helped and meant the actual filming only took half the lesson for the second part of the double - we were even able to upload and do a quick edit our piece before the end of the lesson. We had one major issue, me, Georgie and Caitlin choice to go together again, as we all three work really well together and know each others strengths, however we wanted to have a set out like the Graham Norton Show where all three celebrities are on the sofa , which meant we had no one to film - luckily Evie was a star and said she would film us, which was such a great help!

Here is the script which we all followed:

• Hannah Fitzpatrick = Hi, and welcome to Fitzpatrick in the Morning. Today I'll be joined by budding film students Caitlin Robbins, Georgie Brooks and Alice Leng. Here they are!
• (Enter Caitlin, Georgie and Alice)
• Hannah Fitzpatrick = Welcome to Fitzpatrick in the Morning, today you'll be pitching your ideas for a film opening isn't that right?
• Everyone = Yes
• Hannah Fitzpatrick  = Let's start with you Alice, so tell me about your film....
• (Alice's pitch)
• Hannah Fitzpatrick = Wow that sounds good! What's your pitch Caitlin?
• (Caitlin's pitch)
• Hannah Fitzpatrick = Reverting! Georgie what's your opening?
• (Georgie's pitch)
• Hannah Fitzpatrick = Wow! Well they all sound great! That's all we've got time for today, join me tomorrow on Fitzpatrick in the Morning where we'll be talking about cheese. See you then!

Here below is the chat show of our ideas - to get the real experience, enjoy it in the daytime, in your pj's with a cup of tea!

Exploring the order of shots for my opening...

I have been thinking about roughly what I would want in each shot, what angles I could use, what characters would be present and what skills I could show:

1. Scene One =
- home video of the two brothers playing, characters are introduced by mother who is perceived as the one holding the camera and filming
- The home videos are carried on however a voice over of the mother saying is "what makes us who we are"
2. Scene Two =
- Extreme close up of the hands being cuffed and detectives badge being put on
- Home videos are used again, however a voice over of the mothers voice is used saying "the choices we make"
3. Scene Three =
- The criminal is seen walking into the interview room he is cuffed, this is shown as a over the shoulder shot of the detective watching this through glass mirror
- Home videos are used again, with the voice over of the mother saying "the paths we walk"
4. Scene Four =
- The detective walking
- A blank screen , the use of voice over from the mothers voice asking in documentary style "how would you describe your upbringing"
5. Scene Five =
- Both brother reply to the question using general terms of subdued contentment, this will be shown as a split screen view of the brothers, the detective with a white background the criminal black
6. Scene Six =
- This will be the start of the main police interview. The detective will press the tape recorder and formally start the interview (I am going research what is actually used in a real interview), he will introduce himself and the criminal, using the same surname which will inform that audience that they are the trow brothers, and also they were from the home videos

Exploring How to Define a Target Audience...

On Monday 28th November, we explored the way an audience is classified. Throughout media the audience has always been an essential feature, and the need to define your target audience had been driven by commercial prerogatives. For media an audience needs to be quantified, and for this to happen the audience needs to be measured, in order to measure the audience must be defined into various sub-groups.

There is a range of ways in which we could classifying the audience:
+ Age
+ Gender
+ Social class
+ stero-typical groups (example = emo's, chavs)
+ Culture
+ religion and ethnicity
+ their personality (example = people get a thrill from different things)

One of the most basic and common ways of classifying the audience is into Social Classes. There is a social scale of which people are classified by their occupation, the middle class are called "ABC1s" whilst as the working class are called "C2DEs" . People who are classified under "ABC1s" are said to vist the cinema more as they have a 'disposable income'. Whilst as "C2DEs" are said to have less of an income, therefore vist the cinema less which means they are more prone to see the mainstream films, that they know will entertain them. 66% of ABC1smake up all admissions.

Marketing people try to pinpoint the exact type of customer they expect from a film, which will make up their target audience. In order to this they create a 'character profile'. This profile describes their, personal lives, income, what they do and off course their film habits. There are eight different categorises which can be used to classify an audience by their values and beliefs; actualisers, fulfillers, achievers, experiencers, believers, strivers, makers and strugglers. We had the task of creating our own character profiles, I chose to create a profile for a Believer and Experiencer.

Audience profile - Believer
Cathy, a 45 year old mother of four. She reads the EDP every morning over her bran flakes, which are topped with raisins and semi-skimmed milk. Every month she treats herself to the Good Housekeeping magazine. She is a primary school teacher assistant at the local village school, in her free time she enjoys knitting and sewing. She attends church most Sundays, on Sunday afternoon she enjoys nothing better than a country walk through the fields that surrounds her cottage. Her husband, John who is 49 and very well mannered runs the small but successful peaceful village shop. As a family they attend the cinema to see mainstream films a few times a year; her and John enjoyed "The Kings Speech" however as a family they all enjoyed "Harry Potter". One the left is how I would envisage Cathy and John looking.

Audience profile - Experiencer
Laura is a 19 year old, first year university student who is studying fashion. She is naturally into the latest fashion, and is rubbish at saving money as she either spends it on clothes or her social life. She relays a lot on her parents for money. She buys closer magazine every Friday to read whilst she gets the train to her parents house which is an half an hour away in order to get her clothes washed! She goes to the cinema a few times each couple of months as she has a student budget (and she would rather spend money on clothes or drink), however she does enjoy watching mainstream romantic comedy's with her group of girls. On the left is how I would envisage Laura looking.

My Opening Two Minute Film : Creating a Film Synopsis...

Title: Identity
Genre: Documentary style crime thriller

Core audience: Mainstream Plus

Would attract: People from the age of about 17 onwards as it is quite a complicated story line, those that are interested in crime thrillers, also those who are interested in psychology and the whole debate on "nature v nurture". Due to this element of compassion, family and upbringing affecting later life I think the film would attract both females and the added element of crime and psychology would attract males.

Logline: What makes us who we are today; what determines what we become in later life, is it down to nature or nurture;  one film, one million questions on whether our future really determined from conception

Basic summary of Identity:  A documentary style thriller that focuses on family and the paths of two brothers (Jack and Sam Taylor). Both sharing a happy childhood, to growing up on the opposite sides of the coin: one breaks the law, one enforces it. Through flashbacks and interviews, it explores the issue of nature vs. nurture whilst playing out an old fashioned detective thriller between the greatest of adversaries

The opening:

We are introduced to the brother by the mother through her filming them playing and generally looking very content little boys, "home video" style shots shall be used for this part, again giving the sense of family and happy memories being created.

Then there will be an apposing question "what makes us who we are", in the form of an voice over (this will be done using the mothers voice) this will be played over clips of more home videos .

We are then brought to modern day, using a range of extreme close ups of the handcuffs, police detective badge the audience will be told non-verbally that there are is two characters (a criminal and a police man)

Then there be another apposing question "is it down to our genes..."  again in the form of an voice over (this will be done using the mothers voice) this will be played over clips of more home videos .
We then have an over the shoulder shot of the detective looking through a window-mirror at the criminal in the interview room

Then there will be the ending to the other question "...or our upbringing" again in the form of an voice over (this will be done using the mothers voice) this will be played over clips of more home videos .

We then use a point of view shot, of the detective walking into the interview room, the camera will then focus of the tape recorder rather than the people, and the detective states "interview of Jack Taylor resuming at 18:59 present is Detective constable Taylor"

My initial two minutes opening will stop there, leaving the suspense of the audience finding out what the two brother have become - one breaks the law the other enforces it...

The rest of my story:

The rest of the film, will explore how the brother ended up breaking the law, what his brother is actually investigating through a range of technique including interviews. It will also show further home videos, showing how each brother reacted differently to a situation, exploring their childhood in more detail. It will ask more apposing questions and get the audience developing their own idea of whether it is our genes that determine our future or our upbringing

The ending:

At the end there shall be a twist DNA results will come back, and show that actually one the brother were adopted at birth, showing the audience that our personality is all down to our genetics. I hope this ending shall be a surprise to the audience and a twist they were not expecting

My Opening Two Minute Film : The Final Idea...

I have been exploring the idea of both doing a crime thriller film and a documentary, because I was having such a dilemma I was finding it hard to really focus on one idea therefore I could not develop the idea, so I decided to have a sit down and brain storm - and have at last come up with my final idea (yaaaay). I have used my two potential ideas to help me develop this final idea (so all them dilemmas did help with the research and development of this idea which so calls for another yaaay). So here is the final idea:
Genre: It shall be a documentary style crime thriller
Title: Genetics (this may change though as I am not sure yet whether this is the right title)
Core Audience: Mainstream Plus
Summary of the opening: "a documentary style genre film focusing of family and the paths of two brothers. From a shared happy childhood to group up on different sides of the coin; one who breaks the law and one who enforces it. Through the use of flashbacks and interviews, addressing the issue of nature vs. nurture whilst still playing out an old fashioned detective thriller"
Potential shots that shall be used:
+ Extreme close up
+ off the shoulder shots
+ point of view shots (through the home videos)
Characters:
+ Jack Taylor (The criminal)
+ Sam Taylor (The detective)
+ The mother of the brothers
+ extra policeman
Locations:
+ Garden (where the boys will play)
+ Police interview room
Props:
+ Football (for the younger brothers to play with)
+ Interview tape recorder
+ Handcuffs
+ Police badge
+ Police uniform (for the extra)
Media skills:
+ voice over - this will be used over home video shots, I shall be using the mothers voice as if she is the one interviewing and questioning how the boys became so different

My Opening Two Minute Film : Exploring Two Potential Ideas...

As I stated in a previous blog post (Thoughts, Ideas and Feelings), I have been switching and changing between two different genres, Horror/Thriller and Documentary.

Firstly the reason for a documentary being an option of my genre for my two minutes opening, is mainly because I have always had an interest in them. Since starting media I have been able to develop on that initial interest and develop my knowledge about what works for a documentary and what doesn't. I personally think a documentary is a great way to get a powerful emotion across to the audience and a way where a big impact can be made with little money spent (always a bonus for us poor A level students), therefore if i was doing a documentary I would explore the "looking at the life of people" documentary, rather than a factual documentary (example = enviromental documentary, 'Frozen Plant').  I was lucky enough to have the experience of being in a professional documentary ('five minutes of fame' blog post), which really gave a insight into the creation of a documentary (also how long each shot can take - I've never had to say "hi I'm Alice" so many times!). The fact it was based on a impacting topic, helped show me how effective these kind of documentaries are and how I could create a documentary to inflict the same response to the audience as the professionals wanted from this documentary.

The second option is producing a horror/thriller film. Before I started media studies, I very much thought I would never be interested in creating this genre type, due to the fact it wasn't the typical film genre that attracted me (I'm a bit of a scardy cat) however since starting media I have seen how much impact a thriller film can make, how it can get the audience questioning their own minds, therefore i really like the ones that have a hidden twist, one which you try to guess what is going to happen but that never plans out. I have seen a lot more thriller/horror films since starting this course (I even based my first essay one a horror 'From hell' i didn't think i would ever willingly put myself through a horror film before a level media). This has helped me understand what works and what doesn't, what i could do for mine and what would be to expensive to create (or at least look good when created). When we watch the opening of 'Se7en', this was what really got my mind buzzing for ideas of an opening, and made me relate back to books that I had read and therefore develop my own idea of a horror/thriller opening

Potential Idea One
Genre = Documentary
The idea = Recently I have been very lucky to become an auntie, and it really got me thinking about family and how much support we rely on from our families. I personally have had a rather tough previous year, and without my family I could not get to where I am today. This therefore made me think about people who are not so lucky to have a family of which to rely upon, to Cheer you up, to be there for those special moments in your life. So my first potential idea was to make a documentary, the different generations of a family, the different moments for a family that are memorable, the support families give during the hard times, but also too look at the care system and those who do not get the support, do not get the memorable moments, do not get the excitement of a new addition to a family.

Potential Idea Two
Genre = Thriller
The idea = To create a thriller-horror film, my idea was inspired by a novel that I have read called "looking for JJ" that was about a child killing her friend, I have decided that I would start of shots of different newspaper cuttings and articles stating about a murder of a small girl, this would be foreshadowing the event that the film is going to explore. I will then do clips of photos up on a wall, snapshots of the little girl who was in the newspaper article. There will then be an extreme shot of the murderer, putting a pair of little girls shoes in a box. I want these elements to add tension and suspense, a sense of mystery and horror.

My Opening Two Minute Film : Exploring Two Potenital Genre's...

We are approaching the time of creating our opening two minutes, and as I am sure many other A-level media studies students, my mind has been buzzing with ideas. Every thing I see I think "ahh I wonder if I could use that as inspiration for my two minutes", and I have been changing my mind left, right and centre as to what I want to do, from the genre to content. So I have decided the way to decide is to research both ideas, think of the positives and negatives, asks others for advice and then decide! So I have limited my ideas down to two main genres (these were both genre that I also focused on when analysing the textual content of two films)

Documentary Genre Film
A documentary is defined as an non-fictional film, that uses factual information. Throughout history documentaries have been changing and trying to take on new forms, some of the new forms since the early days have been termed under propagandist or non-objective. The term 'documentary' is a vague term therefore allows for a broad range of films to categorised under it. Some exemplars of different documentaries are:

• Biographical films (films that are about living or dead people) example of this type is 'Muhammah Ali- When We Were Kings' (1996)
• A well known event example of this type is 'The Holocaust'
• A concert or rock festival example of this type is 'Madonna : Truth or Dare' (1991)
• A comedy show example of this type is Eddie Murphy shows
• A live performance example of this type is 'Cirque du Soleil-Journey of Man' (2000)
• A sports documentary example of this type is in the concentration of surfing is 'The Endless Summer' (1996)
• Examination of a specific subject area an example of this is in 'Frozen Planet' (2011)
• Spoof documentaries which are termed as 'mockumentaries' an example of this type is in 'Summer Heights High'
• Examining a persons life over a period of time (these tend to see extreme lives or events in a persons life and how they cope) example of this type is in 'The little lambs' (2011)

Horror/ Thriller Genre Film
A horror is defined as a film that is unsettling film, that has the aim of creating extreme emotion of panic, dream and alarm from the audience. The aim is to invoke the audiences worst fears and play on our vulnerability (example = playing on our fear of death). For a horror to work it must captivate the audience, whilst entertaining them at the same time.

A thriller film is defined as a film that has one single-minded goal, that goal is to provide a thrill. A key factor to the genre is for the film to be able to always keep the audience on edge as the film plot builds about towards its main climax. The way thriller films build the climax is usually through the main character having to to escape a dangerous situation, one of which to any normal person would be impossible. Life is in danger in thrillers, and the principle character usually enters a deadly situation unknowingly, this is to bring out a reaction from the audience, as they are willing the character not to enter the situation creating the audience "to be on the edge of their seats", this is different the reaction of which just a horror film draws from the audience.There are six different types of sub-genre's to thriller films:

• Action/adventure thrillers
• Sci-fi thrillers (example = Alien, 1979)
• Crime-caper thrillers (example = The French Connection, 1971)
• Western thrillers (example = High Noon, 1952)
• Film-noir thrillers (example = Double Indemnity, 1944)
• Romantic comedy thrillers (example = Safety Last, 1923)