External Car Shot Research

One of the primary focuses on Luke's trip to Belgium and the Nethlands, (and the whole purpose of his journey), is to see incredible things. Therefore, we are aware that the only way that we can show these magnificent views is whilst we are filming the car driving around these two countries.

There are an unbelivable amount of shots that you can get from filming a car. A perfect example, we found was from the BBC show Top Gear. In this particular episode (like many others), Jeremy Clarkson is driving the Ford F150 Lightning around British Countryside, and has some brilliant shots. From researching and discussing some of the shots used throughout this 8 minute video, we are able to incorporate more unique shots within out shot list.

26 Brilliant Romance Films

Here are some of the films that we took inspiration from whilst planning out the entirety of our film. These films (among others), helped towards posts such as 'Genre Research: Romance', 'Film Title Ideas' and 'Script'.

All of these films are brilliant in their own way.

Genre Research: Romance

Last year, we all received A's for our coursework project for AS Media Studies. As the urban thriller genre was extremeley successfull for us, it would have made sense to create a short film for our A2 project, based upon similar concepts. Although the overall goal is to achieve an A, we also wanted the chance to be creative and try new things which is why we chose the Romance genre, as we knew it is a completley different aspect to anything we have created before.

There are certain elements in which people would assosiate with certain genres of film. For instance, a horror or thriller is likely to have eerie music, night scenes, murders and manic characters. An western however, would be assosiated with particular clothes, horses and the desert, but what about a romance?


Ghost

How does a romance film, differ from genres such as a drama or a 'chick flick'? According to Wikipedia, "A romance film can be loosely defined as any film in which the central plot revolves around the romantic involvement of the story's protagonists"

To create a realistic romance film, we had to research into the romance genre, and what people typically thought a romance film should include. For this, we have used secondary research found from various places around the internet and our own interpretations.


The Notebook

Creating Obstacles and Tension between characters
To create a realistic, authentic storyline, boundaries and obstacles need to be present. A romance movie needs to be more than just 'a couple being romantic', as this would be an extremeley boring film, simply depicting how much two individuals love one and another. Creating obstacles will allow the audience to feel a sense of compassion, emotion and gives the story a sense of direction, and could include elements such as if one character: dies, is married, goes missing, kidnapped (among others)

Sexual
The majority of romance films have a sense of sexual activity between the primary characters at one point or another. A film doesn't have to show the scenario in great detail (Not only may this be considered distasteful, but may affect the certificate regulation), but often shows what is necessary to allow the audience to build repoir with the characters. Within romance films, this can be as subtle as holding hands, putting arms around eachother, or a kiss.. or as overt as full intercourse (obviously with much of it excluded, which I wont go into detail about)

Keep the audience guessing
Whilst endings in films such as PG (happy endings) or horrors (main character survives) are usually predictable - romance films are often quite unpredictable. Not only does this add to the excitement of the film, but it allows the audience to relate to the film overall - romance films are typically realistic to add realism and authenticity, and an unpredicted ending adds to the real-life comparison. Romance films are respected in this sense, as the audience's heart can be torn apart at times, or made up at others - and it is considered a great achievement to build such a powerful storyline in this way.

Likable characters
Whilst the storyline is typically realistic, the characters are often exadurated slightly. You may find, the male characters are often charming and lovley, whilst the female characters are beautiful and funny. This can be seen as a sort of psycological method that film producers use to help with the storyline, as the audience is always wanting the two characters to be together in the end, so making the characters as likable as possible greatly helps with this (to which then the writers could easily destroy them in a plot-twist)


Pretty Woman

Therefore, in brief, a good romance film may have many of the following features...

• Creates obstacles so the two characters cannot be together
• Involves physical romance
• Keeps the audience guessing
• Realistic so that the audience can relate it to real life
• Has an extremley happy or extremley sad ending which is unexpected
• The characters are brilliant

Take a look at the 5 movie stills from this post. How many of the above bullet points are you able to apply to these films? Presumable, a large proportion of them.


Titanic

Romance has always been a popular genre in creativity, as it's hard for people to say why they dislike them. People may hate horrors because they don't like to feel afraid, or hate sci-fi due to the unrealism - but romance is something that everyone at some point in their life will experience.


Twilight

Props

For our film we are going to use a number of props, this is a list of these props and a short description of what they are used for.

Handheld Video Camera - This is probably the most important prop used throuhout the whole film, it features a number of times because this is the camera that the main character is using to keep a video diary of his travels, not only will the audience see it being used as a prop but we are incorporating shots from this camera into the film. The camera plays a vital role in the film because it is this we see at the end as Nicole watches back the footage after she's found out Luke has died.

Laptop - This laptop is one of the items we will see the main character packing into his bag at the start of the film, we used this because we wanted to show he is taking all of his possessions therefore he must be going on a long trip.

Clothes - At the start of the film we also see the main character packing clothes into his bag, again we wanted to show the audience he is going on a trip of some kind. Therefore we have him packing all the essential items you would pack before setting off travelling.

Deodrant - This is another item the main character packs into his bag, the reason we wanted him packing all these items is because we wanted to cut them together quickly using jump cuts, this showed the audience he was packing his belongings but kept the scene moving at a fast pace.

Money - This is the last item we see Luke pack into his bag, like the other items it is to show he is packing up everything and that he must be going traveling or on some kind of trip.

Bag - This is the bag that we see all the items packed into, this also features at the end of the film, it is thrown out of the car and then the police officer brings it round when he delivers the bad news to Nicole, it is in this bag she finds the video camera and plays back the footage.

Towel - Finally this is a towel Luke uses at the start of the film to dry his face after washing his face in the sink, it plays no special role in the film it is just used in the scene because you would dry your face after washing it.

Short Film Distribution

Short films are not generally shown at mainstream cinemas, most short-film makers rely on the internet to distribute their films and reach their audiences. The most accessible these days is youtube, anyone with the internet and a camera can upload a video to youtube!

Another website that is becoming popular among film-makers is Openfilm. This online film community enables film-makers of all levels to share the work and recieve advice from and advisory board made up of James Caan (The Godfather), Robert Duvall (The Godfather, Apocolypse Now), Scott Caan, and Mark Rydell (Director).
Itunes also devotes a section of its online store to short films which is updated every month, it includes all the nominations for the Academy Awards Best short film too.

But some short films are actually distributed by companies just like feature films are and there are some independent cinema's around the UK that will soley screen short films; but its a very niche market.

When I think of short films, I instantly think of pixar. This summers blockbuster Toy Story 3 came with a short 6 minute animation, Day and Night, screened before the main feature. This is one of the main ways film-makers rely on to display their work to a public audience.
Short films are also a popular extra feature on DVD's. Pixar, Dreamworks and Warner Brothers have all distributed short films with major release fims that are a similar genre or have a similar theme.


Future Shorts, is a short film label that has been around since 2003. It is also a worldwide film festival as well as a distributor, sales agent, consultancy service and DVD label. Their catalouge is huge and includes Acadamey Awards and BAFTA nominated shorts. They have many partners around the world ranging from TV channels to airline companies. Future Shorts also promote films at culture festivals such as Glasonbury, The Big Chill and Benicassim in Spain, which attracts a whole new audience to Short Films

Film Title Ideas

As a group, we have come up with a list of titles that would suit our film. We have all looked on IMDB to find films of a similar genre, and see what they have in common. Each film typically has some elements which would relate to the storyline, but not give anything too important away. Here is a list of titles, one which we will choose one from...

• Affliction
• All These Lives
• Beautiful Mess
• Come Back To Me
• Famous Last Words
• Far From Home
• For Once In your Life
• I Needed You
• Last Kiss Goodbye
• Love's Not A Competition
• Loveless
• One Last Chance
• One Step At A Time
• Sign No More
• Stuck In The Middle
• Tears on my Pillow

Our Film Classification

When it came to choosing an age rating certificate for our film the first thing I looked at was similar films to ours. Therefore I looked at many romance films, the ones most similar to ours were 'The Notebook' and 'Ps I Love You'. I also looked at road films, or films about traveling. One film that was rather similar was the film 'Into the Wild' based on a true story about Christopher McCandless who gave away his life savings and travelled to Alaska into the mountains.
What I noticed from these films is that most of them carried a certificate of either 12 or 15.
I then looked at our audience research, the video interviews we recorded and the questionnaire results. The analysis posts show our full results but overall we found that our main audience for the film was a teen audience, around 15 to 21 and both females and males. The romance genre is usually aimed at females but some of the male teenagers we interviewed showed an interest in our film idea.

Finally I looked at the bbfc guidelines for film classification, the bbfc are in charge of giving every film a certificate before it is distributed in the UK, the guidelines I looked at have been posted in a previous post.
Our film contains a scene containing moderate violence therefore it is not suitable for children. However from bbfc guidelines 12 certificate films allow moderate violence as long as it does not focus on gore or dwell on detail and emphasise injury. Our film does not glamorise violence or show explicit detail therefore The age rating certificate for our film would be a 12.


Due to moderate violence.

Analysis of Audience research video

After carrying out interviews with groups of people and filming this for research, we put a video together of their answers. This has been posted earlier and from this video I am going to analyse the results.
First of all we made sure we interviewed a range of different ages and gender, therefore the people in the video are male and female, ranging from teen to adult. Before carrying out this research I predicted that our main audience was mostly females of a younger age, around 15-21. I am going to analyse our research to find out if this is the case.



Question 1 - Have you ever seen films such as 'The Notebook', 'Dear John' or 'Into the Wild'?
This question relates to films similar to ours and whether people watch films like these, the ones that have seen these kinds of films are more likely to enjoy our idea.
The answers we got were ranged, the group of girls had seen these films which we expected and also some of the males around the same age had seen them. We also got a male saying he hadn't seen them and an older adult female who hadn't seen these types of films.

Question 2 - What is it you like about these types of films?
The two males who had seen similar films mentioned how they like the feelgood side of romance films, however our idea doesn't have the conventional happy ending so this doesn't really relate. Although it is mentioned that they like the twists in the story which our idea does contain a large twist.

Question 3 - If you dont enjoy this genre, then why?
The group of girls all agree that they do enjoy these types of films, this again goes with what we expected. However the adult female says that she just doesn't enjoy the romance genre. This starts to show that our film may be aimed more at a younger audience.

Question 4 - Do you prefer happy or sad endings?
The overall result from this is that people enjoy a happy ending with a film, all the younger people we interviewed said they generally liked a happy ending and the adult said she usually expected a happy ending but does watch films with sad endings. This shows that even though people expect or enjoy happy endings they still watch films that don't always have a happy ending. Our film may even be better as it may shock them as they may not expect the twist and the sad ending.

Question 5 - Who do you generally watch them with?
All the people we interviewed said they watch these types of films with friends or family, which shows these are the kinds of films that people watch casually as they have fun with friends.

Question 6 - Would you prefer the main character to be male or female?
The female teenagers all said they liked to see females as the main character, and also the adult female said she would like a female main character as she feels that movies are dominated by male actors. However the young males all said they would prefer a male main character. In this case our film would be more appealing to the males we interviewed as our main character is male, this means our prediction that the target audience would be mainly female could be wrong.

Question 7 - What do you think to our pitch? Would you watch it?
Generally everyone said they would watch our film. Some said it sounded different and original and liked some of the techniques we are going to use such as the hand held camera. Even the male who said he didn't enjoy similar films said that he would watch our film, and the adult female said that she would watch it because it sounds different to conventional romance films.

Overall it is hard to tell our target audience from this research, although it does give us an idea and when combined with our questionnaire results we will be able to give a more accurate idea of our main audience. From this piece of research we have learnt that our audience is not just female and that males would like to see our film and enjoy films similar to ours. I still believe that our main audience is a young audience around 15 - 25 years of age as these are the people that most enjoy the films similar to our film. When we analyse our questionnaires and combine those results with these we will have a good idea of who our main target audience is for our film.

Questionnaire Analysis

Questionnaire Analysis

In our questionnaire we ask a total of 10 questions where we gave a selection of answers unless told otherwise. We asked a total of 30 people who are in our target audience to fill out our questionnaire.

1. Are you male or female?

Male – 12

Female – 18

This shows that most of our target audience is female with a minority of males. This can show that our film could be aimed more towards females rather than males.

2. What age range are you?

0-9 – 0

10-15 - 2

16-20 - 17

21-30 - 5

31-50 - 6

50+ - 0

In this question it shows that the majority of people we asked where between 16-20 years of age with 2 of a lower age and 11 who are between 21 and 50. This can help us because it helps to choose what age rating we would want on our film and who to mainly aim our film at.

3. Do you enjoy watching films?

Yes I watch them often - 12

Sometimes, I like to watch films occasionally - 10

No, I hardly ever watch them - 8

This question identifies that out of the people we asked more people will watch films and enjoy them. It also shows that they watch films fairly often. IT states that about 25% of the people we asked say they do not like films and rarely watch them

4. What film age rating do you generally watch?

Uc (Universal Children) - 0

U (Universal) - 0

PG (Parental Guidance) – 3

12A (12 Accompanied/Advisory) – 12

15 - 11

18 - 4

R18 (Restricted) - 0

This states that most of the people we ask watch the more higher rated films such as 12A, 15 and a few for 18. It also shows that a minority of people watch the lower rated PG films. This can be useful to us because it shows what ratings our audience mainly watch and helps us decide on what rating we would like on our film.

5(i) Do you enjoy genres such as romance?

Yes - 19

No - 11

This shows that over half of people we asked do enjoy romance films. This is useful for enforcing our decision to make a film within the Romance genre.

5(ii) If yes have you ever seen films such as “The Notebook”, “Dear John” or “Into The Wild”?

Never heard of them/Not my kind of film – 0

No, heard of them but just never seen them – 5

Yes, I’ve seen a couple – 3

I’ve watched allot of films like these – 9

I love films like these – 2

These are the only films I like to watch - 0

These result state that most of the people we gave these questionnaires to have seen the mentioned films and enjoyed them. A few said that they didn’t watch these films but they are just a minority. This is helpful as we can consider making our film similar to the films mentioned.

6. If you don’t enjoy these films why?

The comments we received from this question were along the lines of ‘Not my sort of film’, ‘I like films with more action in them’ etc. This can help as it gives us an idea as why people might not like our film and we could consider adding elements from other genres that would please people that would not necessarily watch romance films.

7. Do you enjoy short films, particularly around 5 minutes?

Yes - 16

No - 14

This question indicates that it’s almost 50/50 that people enjoy 5 minute films or if they don’t enjoy them. This is useful that it does show that more people do enjoy 5 minute films and will help us aim for that time frame of 5 minutes.

8. If you enjoy short films where do you usually view them?

Internet - 5

Television – 2

Cinema - 9

Other - 0

This shows that mainly people watch short films at the cinema (before the main film starts) and on the internet (e.g. YouTube). This can help us as we can release our films over the internet which would be cheaper and we can attempt a cinema release which would be more expensive.

9. Would you watch short films if they were screened more at cinemas or the TV?

Yeah I love short films, but they aren’t shown enough - 4

Yeah if they were on I would occasionally watch them - 12

Maybe - 8

No I have no interest in short films - 6

This shows that people are starting to get more interest in short films as people agree that if they were screened more in various places that they would watch them willingly, but shows that a small minority do not have an interest in films.

10. Would you pay to watch a short film?

Yes - 16

No - 14

This states that it is almost the same as to whether the people we asked would pay to watch a short film but it does show that more people would pay to watch one and enforces our choice to make a short 5 minute film

Narration from 'The Plan'

If you've not seen the video review I did on Youtube about a short film called 'The Plan' I suggest you watch it here. The narration has similar content and tone to what we are sort-of wanting in our film. Here is the transcript, which we can hopefully help to create our script

"The idea was simple. Quit my job. Pack the essentials needed to sustain life. Whatever happens, go through with it. Leave Claudia. For good this time. Take all of the money out of my bank account. Drive to Vegas. Walk upto a Roulette table, and put it all on red.

It's about going back to a time where life was unexpected, taking a change that would allow me to start over. Finding a new purpose, a new adventure, a new love. I will go through with it. No matter what the outcome is, at least it wont be the life that I live now.

I guess it's about it's about going back to a time where life was unexpected, taking a change that would allow me to start over. Finding a new purpose, a new adventure, a new love. And no matter what happens, at least it wont be the life that I live now."

Photo Storyboard

This is the photo story board to accompany our oroginal story board.
We had taken pictures while we were filming and we have put them together in this video

Here is the video

StoryBoard

John

INT. BATHROOM

INT. BEDROOM

INT. HALLWAY - DAY

EXT. STREET















Danny

INT. CAR

EXT. MC'DONALDS

EXT. HARBOR

INT. SHIP






Kirsten

EXT. COUNTRYSIDE

INT. CAR

EXT. MOUNTAIN VIEW

EXT. MOUNTAIN ROAD






Andy

INT. CAR

EXT. ROAD

INT. LIVING-ROOM

Questionnaire Data Inputted

As we have received the questionnaires back, we have inputted the 30 into the PC to analyse via pie charts.

(click to enlarge)

Questionnaires printed and back!

When we finished our questions for the questionnaire we formatted them into a word document and printed off 30 copies. We then handed these out to a range of different age groups and genders making sure we got reliable results back.

We have now received these questionnaires back and we managed to get them all. We will now analyse these results and also produce charts making the data easier to read.

Emails to Hotel Companies

Since we are wanting to film inside the premises of a hotel, we decided to email different hotel chains to get permission to film. Here are a couple of the emails (We have excluded personal names and hotel names)


-------------------

Dear Mr. Kerr,

Thank you for taking the time to write and inform us of your request for filming in our hotel bedrooms.

In order to take further action on your concerns, we require the following information:

--Please provide us with the names of the proposed hotels and locations.

Upon receipt of this data, we will endeavor to bring your concerns to a speedy resolution.

We appreciate your help and cooperation and remain,

Yours sincerely,


Sarah ********
Guest Relations
****** - United Kingdom

-------------------

Thank you for your email.

Unfortunately due to the way our hotels operate we would suggest you direct your enquiry to your nearest ********* hotel and speak to the General Manager who may be able to assist with your request.

To acquire the telephone number, please visit www.*********.com or contact the Customer Contact Centre on the number below.

Regards

Darren **********

-------------------

Dear Andrew,

Thank you for taking the time to contact *******.

I would advise you to contact the hotel in question directly, as it is at their discretion as to whether they would allow you to film within the hotel.

Please use the below link to locate the contact number for the hotel:

https://www.*************.co.uk/search_and_book/list.php

Thank you once again for contacting ***********.

Kind Regards,

Charlotte **********
****** Customer Services

Script

Slow-Motion Research

This year we are hoping to incorporate some slow motion effects into our media production, however we had worries about what it would look like. Slowing film down can cause problems such as blur and jumping, therefore we decided to test a few shots that are similar to the ones we hope to slow done in the final piece. The results have been successful, the slow motioned shots look good, there is a slight blur but I think that will fit well with the sad emotion of the film. We may be able to smooth this out more if we want to but it depends on how the film looks once we've done it. Overall the slow motion effect is successful so we will be using it in the final piece.

Audience Research

This is a video compilation of our audience research, we questioned a number of people of all different age range and genders. The video is cut together to show each persons answer to each question. After completing this research it is clear that our audience is a younger age, around 15 to 25. However it not only appeals to females as originally thought, it also appeals to a young male audience.

Certificate Regulations

Before I began researching into what age rating we would have for our short film I knew straight away we were looking at either a 12 or 15 age rating. The film does contain some violence which means it wouldn't be suitable for young children, however it doesn't contain any explicit material or strong violence, language etc. that you would find in an 18 rated film. Another reason I assumed it would be between those rating is because the audience we are targeting are a teen audience particulary females.
When it came to researching, the one place to look for cerificate regulations is the bbfc website. The British Board of Film Classification is in charge of giving each film an age certificate before it is distributed. The website contains guidelines of what each certificate would allow so this was ideal to decide what age certificate are film would be. All information below is the guidelines from the student section on the bbfc website.

The guidelines for a 12 certificated film are:

Discrimination

Discriminatory language or behaviour must not be endorsed by the work as a whole. Aggressive discriminatory language or behaviour is unlikely to be acceptable unless clearly condemned.

Drugs

Any misuse of drugs must be infrequent and should not be glamorised or give instructional detail.

Horror

Moderate physical and psychological threat may be permitted, provided disturbing sequences are not frequent or sustained.

Imitable behaviour

Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied, or appear pain or harm free. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Language

Moderate language is allowed. The use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’) must be infrequent.

Nudity

Nudity is allowed, but in a sexual context must be brief and discreet.

Sex

Sexual activity may be briefly and discreetly portrayed. Sex references should not go beyond what is suitable for young teenagers. Frequent crude references are unlikely to be acceptable.

Theme

Mature themes are acceptable, but their treatment must be suitable for young teenagers.

Violence

Moderate violence is allowed but should not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted if justified by the context. Sexual violence may only be implied or briefly and discreetly indicated, and must have a strong contextual justification.

The guidelines for a 15 certificated film are:

Discrimination

The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.

Drugs

Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.

Horror

Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.

Imitable behaviour

Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Language

There may be frequent use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’). The strongest terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.

Nudity

Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

Sex

Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.

Theme

No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

Violence

Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.

Equipment and Software

For this years project we have decided to use the best equipment we have available, this is so that we can film in the highest quality and produce a film that as good as it can be.

The Camera we will be using is the HDV-1000 video camer, this is the best camera we have available at college and it allows us to film in HD and widescreen. We had the oppurtunity to use the same camera last year we means we have already had a lot of practice with it giving us an advantage when it comes to filming. This camera has a number of good features, it gives up to 20x optical zoom and allows us to use both manual and auto focus.

The only problem with these camera's is that they don't pick up sound from distance, the microphone is attached to the camera so if the scene is from a distance sound can't be picked up.
Therefore we will be recording sound seperately.

The flash recorder (Zoom recorder) is a seperate sound recording device, not only will this be useful for recording very clear sound but it will also be good for recording the narration that will go throughout the film. The most improtant advantage is of course that we will be recording seperately so we won't have to be close to the camera. Once the sound is recorded we will match it up to the video during the editing process.

When it comes to editing we will be using Final Cut Pro, this is specific software for editing film and gives us a lot of different effect and features we can use. We also got to practice with this software last year so we are quite confident when it comes to editing.

Overall we are quite confident with the equipment we will be using and we will also be using it to practice some of the shots we hope to use in the film. We shall be posting the results of these practice shots and at the same time we will gain even more practice with the equipment.

Links to Resources

These are links to resources that we may have used for our film

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/ : A fantastic source for many UK independant short films



http://www.dafont.com/sketch-block.font - The font that we used to create our production logo



Firefly Image that was turned I turned into a Vector via Adobe Photoshop for our production logo

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/ - The bbfc website is what we will use to give our film an age rating certificate.

http://youtube.com - Researching music, title sequences and other short films

http://adobe.com - Production company logo produced with this software

http://www.imdb.com/ - Great resource to find out about all aspects of any film

http://maps.google.com - Used to show possible filming locations

http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/  - Here is where we got our weather information

Research into title sequence

The title sequence to any film, should add to the entire ambiance of the story. It shouldn't be an after-thought like I feel they are on most short films, and certainly shouldn't be just a method of enlisting the major talent that was involved with the production of it. Any title sequence is directly affected by many aspects of the film - elements such as the music, the genre, and the opening scenes are all responsible for influencing them.

Take for example the film Saw, directed by James Wan. The titles are in a grunge font, white on a black background with heavy eerie music. There are screams, and flashing images flashing onto the screen. We do NOT want a title sequence similar to this type of genre.



Another type of title sequence we do not want to imitate is one from an action genre movie. The James Bond series of films are notorious for having amazing title sequences, generally involving girls and guns. They are often computer generated or animated and use lots of special effects. The example I have here is from the 2006 movie 'Casino Royale', the theme of cards is present throughout the opening and this ties in with the rest of the film as the movie is centered around a game of poker. This type of title sequence would be totally unsuitable for our film.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nfc9GLxlhEw













A light-hearted title sequence such as a comedy, is very contrasting. The background is usually a solid colur, with happy-bold-text sliding in and out of the frame. An example of this would be the title shot in the trailer for the feel good comedy 'Little Miss Sunshine' which consists of a very bright yellow background and Bold words of the title, each word getting bigger till the word 'Sunshine' is the largest which makes it stand out to the viewer.












Another good example is the title shots in the trailer for the film 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind. Link to which is below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GiLxkDK8sI

A romance however is usually composed of a white or black background with text in a colour that does not contrast and in an artistic font. A perfect example of this is the title shot from the trailer for the film 'Ps I Love You'. Link Below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GNxdc-wlw4&feature=related

Possible Filming Locations

We were extremely critical of how we pictured our filming locations to be, and it was great that we all shared the same vision. One of the things we wanted to try this year, was to try many more adventurous filming locations. From watching other students' movies from last year, one of the things that stood out.. was if the filming was done on College premesis, or somewhere that was well known by the audience, which made it lack authenticity. We have chosen a total of 14 filming locations that we would like to fit into our storyline, which is only 21 seconds of screen time per location! We know this may appear to be an extremely small amount, but we feel if done correctly - it will help keep the audiences attention

Here are the filming locations, taken from our script. Each of the images are the locations as seen from Google Earth. Not only does this help to show where we are filming, it will help when we are wanting to produce the shooting script, as we will obviously try to travel the most efficient distance between scenes.

We will be making another post shortly confirming these locations, and posting actual pictures that we have taken of the locations.

INT. BATHROOM
We are hoping that this will be shot from John Jones' bathroom. One of our previous posts outlined one and anothers houses, and we were able to choose which internal locations (for the first 2 scenes, and final scene), would work the best.



INT. BEDROOM
Again, we are hoping to use the same location as it is the following scene, John Jones' house.



INT. HALLWAY - DAY
Here we are hoping to use Kirsten Barman's house as it has the staircase leading directly to the front door. This will allow shots that we require, not making the entire scenario too complicated.



EXT. STREET
Again, we will be able to use Kirsten's house as we can film both characters exiting through the front door.



INT. CAR
As we are unsure about who is playing the Male protagonist in our film, we have narrowed the choice down to two cars (Obviously depending on which charcter is chosen, due to car insurance).

Although there are scenes where Luke is apparently driving whilst filming himself, we must make it clear that the car will be stationary at all times whilst doing so. We will also be filming the cars exterior to show him driving. We are hoping to do this on a similar road to the shots below (In the Pennines. They have miles upon miles of derelict roads, and we could easily have several different locations in there which appear to be completley different)

EXT. MC'DONALDS
There are many Mc'Donald's resturants within our area. Rather than just choose the closest one, we are hoping to film at Wakefield retail park, as it has a large carpark next to it and infront of it, and is usually rather quiet



EXT. HARBOR
We feel like this is the trickiest filming location of them all. As we live in Barnsley, it would be around a 1 hour 15 minute drive to the nearest port, which is Hull. Three out of the four of our team are able to drive, so getting there should not be a problem. However, if we are able to find a closer location before we film, we may favour that instead. (Also, that water looks rather disgusting)



EXT. COUNTRYSIDE
For this shot, we will hopefully be able to use the same location as the initial interior/exterior car shot. As above, the Pennines are host to many miles of varying landscape, so filming here will not raise any alerts that it is the same location, and not on Belgium :)



INT. CAR


EXT. MOUNTAIN VIEW
Again, the Pennines



EXT. MOUNTAIN ROAD
Again, the Pennines



INT. CAR
Again, a similar location to the previous car shots (Roughly the same place, it would be time efficient to film all of these shots at the same time)



EXT. ROAD
As this scene should reflect a derelict road in the middle of Belgium, we have chosen a straight road - again in the Pennines.



INT. LIVING-ROOM
For this, we are hoping to use Kirsten's house again as it would appear that she has the best layout for the room.