The Genre We Chose

We decided to go with melodrama. 

Definition of a melodrama – a very strong dramatic sequence which generally has exaggerated characters and exciting event that are intended to appeal to  your emotions.

We discussed in a group what it is we wanted from our film. We all agreed we wanted to do something that we could all use our skills on. But also we wanted something that would push our skills further. We started from the beginning and disused genre.    

Horror –  I had done horror previously for my AS media video. I asked both Emily Hamer and Emily read if we could not do horror as I wanted to try something a little different. I also asked them this as i wanted to push myself and try to develop my skills. They both agreed with me and said that they totally agreed with me.

Comedy –  when researching comedy we looked at film such as ‘Johnny English’ when looking at this we struggled to find ideas on what we could do for the genre. None of my group including me would describe ourselves as very comical.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSg2tgnvtgY

Romance – when discussing romance we considered it a bit too easy. We thought that it would come across as ‘‘cheesy’’ this is something we hated the idea of because we wanted to make our film something we could all be proud to show people.   

Adventure –  when discussing adventure my group thought of many different film to research as Emily read was a fan of action films.

We researched

Pirates of the Caribbean and Indiana Jones – kingdom of the crystal skull.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7z74BvLWUg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKfT7wloOas

When watching these trailers we realised that adventure film needed to be quite big productions in order for them to be good. This is due for the persistent need of effects and pyrotechnics. This was completely out of the question for us unfortunately, as we just didn’t have the budget or the knowledge to make our trailer to the standard we would have wanted it.

Romantic comedy – romantic comedy was completely out of the question for us. As we thought is we even attempted it would have been a mess. We had already ruled out both romance and comedy for reasons or ‘‘cheesiness’’ and the fact none of us considered ourselves funny enough.

Action – Like adventure Emily Read had lots of ideas of what we research. So we researched Die hard and the terminator because they were as Emily read described them ‘‘classics’’.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TQ-pOvI6Xo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4Jo8QoOTQ4

Unfortunately also like adventure there was a major issue with special effect. This was due to the fact of all the action films where done on very large budgets! That we just couldn’t afford.

Crime drama – when looking at crime drama we looked at ‘‘Sherlock homes’’.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0hXhGt5XPg

 We discussed the scenario  if we did end up doing a crime drama. Emily Hamer pointed out that if we was to do it then we would need a lot of actors to do it and a very strong main actor to lead. The lead would probably also have to be a man, which ruled any of us taking the lead role.   

Documentary –  when discussing documentary we felt it was a little lazy. We ruled it out almost immediately as we felt it would develop our skills at all.  

Animation – we also ruled out any animation film as we didn’t have the skills or equipment to try to attempt this genre.

Drama – We liked the idea of drama almost immediately. Emily Hamer is also a fan of this genre so it helped massively with research. The films we research were ‘‘my sisters keeper’’ and ‘‘Forest Gump’’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP4NxUFgFrs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPIEn0M8su0

Thriller – with thrillers we would have had to build suspense like a horror, so I unfortunately had to ask both Emily Read and Emily Hamer if this was something we could rule out. As I would like to have done something this year. They both thankfully agreed and we ruled out thriller.

Western – when discussing western films we had to think rationally about where we would be able to set it. We realised quite quickly that we would have nowhere to set our film if we did a western genre.   

Musical –  musical was something we had to also rule out because we didn’t know anyone who could sing.

Sci-fi – sci-fi is one of my favourite genres so I suggested we researched ‘‘star wars’’

Unfortunately just like action and adventure there was a major need for special effects. The setting for a sci-fi also would have been a lot harder to find.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gvqpFbRKtQ

Mellow drama – we all loved the idea of a mellow drama. We researched ‘‘the last song’’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwLmQqRanvM

When we watched it we felt very at ease with the idea of doing a mellow drama. We started coming up with ideas almost straight away.

First Inisual Ideas

 

Father and Daughter scenario
One of our initial ideas was that a young girl, who has never known her father decides to start looking for him. The only thing she has to go by is a photograph of when he was 26 years old. The storyline is her point of view on the search for her father, starting from scratch. The young girl travels into a town in which she is completely unfamiliar with, which makes things more difficult for her. She meets a guy on the search for her father, who helps her to find what she needs. A romance blossoms between the two. At the end of the story she eventually finds her father, but he wants nothing to do with her, this is upsetting for the girl however the young man helps her through. At the very end the father turns up at her house declaring how sorry he was and how he wants to make up for lost time.


Best friend scenario
The other initial idea was to have two best friends.

we dicided this becasue what we  could see from viewing trailers previously, a lot of films are about male and female love relationships, so we decided that we could do a female friendship which would be different.

We decided that we could have two female best friends in which become distant due one of the girl getting in a relationship which makes her orientated completely around her boyfriend. Then later on in the film they reunite due to a terminal illness in one of the charters. The girl with a terminal illness and wants to make up for lost time with her best friend in which she realised she made the wrong decision.

A psychological break down

One of our choices was to go with a dramatic sequence of events that eventually results in the young girl emotional break down.

We decided to combine this with one of the girls passing away. We did this so it resembles a turning point in the girl life that results in the turn of events that will shape her life.

We decided to do this because a best friend relationship seemed more plausible, than a girlfriend and boyfriend relationship, as a person who was in a committed relationship, may not have a very good social network around them, as a person who is young and single.

Also a committed relationship seems far too mature for the person we would like to portray in our film, as we would like her to relate to the audience as quite naive. 

We wanted there to be a relatable feel to our main character, so we decided that the only people to get our character out of her rebellion is her friends around her. We are hoping this will relate to the audience, as there friends are very important to them at this point in there lives.             

Brain Storm Of Genre  

 

 

 

The Features Of A Film Magazine 

 

 

 

The key feathers of a film magazine –

·       Title

·       PUFF

·       PLUG

·       The main character

·       Background

·       Teasers

·       Issue date and issue number

·       Bar code

  When I look at a film magazine and the film that the magazine is promoting on its front cover, I always see the main character of that film one the front. The main charter also always seems to be in full costume. This helps us are the reader to see what kind of film it is that they are promoting.

For example-

Johnny Depp is promoting his new film ‘‘Charlie and the chocolate factory’’ and he is in full costume. This gives us an indication, of what the film is about and what sort of charter he will be playing. We can see what he is wearing to be very colourful. The characters red velvet jacket, teamed with a green and orange paisley shirt shows that his character is very unique. His purple glove and top hat show that he is going to be a character that is a little obnoxious as he is very posh clothing.  

The difference between AS and A2

This year I plan to put a lot more work and effort into this piece of course work as my skills have developed a lot more. I now have skills that in the previous piece of course work I didn’t have. I have lots of great ideas this year for our project and I think that will become very useful to the group as a hole, as we can all bounce off each other. This year instead of a film opening we are creating a trailer. I feel this will push us a lot in the long run because we will need to not only need to use the skills we already obtain but also gain new ones.

For our story line this year I will be doing lots of research into our target audience. We will find out what sort of gene they are interested in and also what out niche audience could also be and what we think there interest would be in our film.

For a trailer we will have to use a verity of shots and venues this is due the idea that a film does not just all happen in one place. This will push me as unlike AS we will have to spend a lot more time both filming and planning. This will also push us in other ways such as trying to make the film look interesting but also not giving the whole story line away at once.

This year I plan to use more effects than just basic edits to our film. This year I feel that the work will be a lot more time consuming as we will have to re-watch everything to make sure the footage flows properly like a trailer. I plan to use more types of music this year also, this is due to the fact that last year I couldn’t add as much music as I would have liked to and I feel that music really sets the mood in a trailer also.