2. research sf 2017

1. STAGE 2
RESEARCH +
EXPERIMENTS
Your name here

2. From my research I found that the audience of my film were split on whether they
thought a film should be artistic or realistic. This means that when I come to make
my film I will have to make sure that I base it in the real world, but exaggerate
whatever I can to make the film feel fresh and new so that people think it is artistic
also artistic. A good influence for this style word be Wes Andersons work.
The genre people preferred was also split, it was between thriller comedy and
action. As my film will only be 1 minute 30 seconds including all three genres may
be difficult. So I will aim to have two genres as this will appeal to a larger audience.

3.  I intend to make my film with influences from Wes Anderson and Edgar Wright. The
domestic box office of The Grand Budapest Hotel, Wes Andersons last film, was
174.8 million USD, so the style of film clearly has a large audience. However compared
to other films such as marvel films this isn't very grand, marvel movies have a much
larger overall attraction to them. Black Panther at the time of research has earned
$501 million in North America and $897m worldwide, which shows that super hero
movies completely eclipses individual movies in audience attraction.
 Often the target audience for The Grand Budapest Hotel can be mistaken for being
young because of the bright colours and extravagant characters. However it is actually
aimed at art-house viewers, this is due to it being stylized which art-house viewers will
prefer due to them seeing lots of films. The humour is also aimed at an older audience
with jokes not necessarily landing with a younger audience who don’t understand.
 This is different to the British comedy Hot Fuzz by the director Edgar Wright, even
though it is aimed at an older audience the jokes and humour are still easily
understandable by younger audiences. The way the film is presented is also much
more like you would see in most films, this is much more appealing for younger
audiences as they are much less interested in abstract stylised films.

4.  For my film I intend to aim at a more mature audiences, this is because I'm going
for a more stylized approach. I want my film to look more artistic with an
interesting story or theme. Rather than simple camera movements with basic
comedy to go along with, which young audiences are much more drawn to as it is
easier to watch.
 However I also want my film to be full of colour as this is very appealing and gives
location character which helps bring the audience in to the film. However colour is
normally more attractive to a younger audience which is not what I am aiming for.
So I will have to use colour in a way that is more attractive for a mature audience
while still being unique.

5.  When I create my film I aim for the target audience to be mature, however I intend for it to be
viewable by younger audiences as well. In my idea I want to make entertainment by showing
how big companies are re using films and ideas to make money rather than too create create
original stories. I will aim to make my film suitable for audiences of any age, however I will be
mainly aiming for a rating of 12 or under if following BBFC guidelines. I aim not to include any
references to drugs sex or violence, this would make it easy for me to achieve the age rating
of 12. To get a 12 if you wanted to have nudity it would have to be brief and portrayed in a
discreet manner. If I were to include drugs in my film they would have to be portrayed
negatively and used very infrequently, this is common in the lower ratings as well which also
want their to be a suitable anti drug message with the reference. The 18 rating allows much
more to be excepted however if the shots are created illegally the film will not achieve this
rating.
 However there is a Rating that does allow even more explicit content, R-18. This can only be
played in certain cinemas with a correct license. Content with this rating normally shows
strong explicit sexual activity or fetish material. You can also buy these films in specially
licensed film sex shops.
 18 Rated films this rating are mostly because of the sexual content, even though it is not as
strong as in R-18 it can be used only for arousal or to educate the audience. This is due to
adults being able to choose thee own entertainment, unless that entertainment breaks the law,
in which case it will not achieve an 18. 15 rated films are very similar however they cannot
show any gratification of doing taboo activities such as taking drugs or violence

6.  Research potential production techniques you might want to use
or feel would be most appropriate – these can be related to
camera, editing, story, sound, etc
 You should look at a minimum of 3 related products in your
research.
 You should collect clips/still images/how to guides/etc that might
help you. When watching scenes from films, etc you could also
ask potential target audience what they think.
 You will need to add extra slides!
 With each technique you should assess whether you can use it or
how you might employ or why you may want to disregard it
completely

7.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8dFK5nI1YA
 In this scene Edgar Wright uses lots of quick shots to show the
change in location. He does this by establishing the city at the
start of the scene. This is done by a close up of a London cab
light and a shot of Simon Peggs character on the London
underground. There is then a shot of his phone with full signal.
He then falls asleep at a midway train station. After this shot the
scene is practically reversed showing a much more basic cab and
showing a new shot of his phone which now has no signal. Every
shot is done with the clear intention of showing his character
move from the city to the country side, and it is done without
having to give the audience the information vocally.

8.  The scene uses lots of close shots,
this is due to Edgar Wright wanting
the audience to focus on one piece
of information. So removing
everything from the background
makes it clear to the audience
what to focus on.
In this scene there is lots of quick cuts. These quick cuts are great ways for the
director to tell the story of the scene without having to spend a massive amount
of time on it. The two shots of taxi signs show where the character has come
from, the big city, and where he is going, a rural town. The two shots of the
phone are to indicate the character moving away from civilization, which is
helped by the audiences relating the reducing signal in the phone to moving
away. The Characters direction is also very important in this scene, he will
either be facing forward or to the right, this is so that the audience see him
move away rather than travel backwards.

9.  Wes Andersons
style of film
making takes a
lot of influences
from many
different types of
film, including
star wars. His
earlier work was
influenced by
another director
named Waris
Hussein. He has
also been heavily
influenced by lots
of French new
wave films.
His films are always based around family and more importantly
fathers and sons. This has an impact on the audience as they
can instantly relate to the characters position of needing family.
His stories can revolve around, a son needing a father figure, a
father and son in search of each other to someone latching on to
someone they see as a father figure. However he also uses a
subplot that normally involves some sort of romance to break the
plot up and give an audience breath of air from it. However in his
film Moonrise Kingdom these two plots appear to be reversed or
more intertwined as the main character is on journey of love and
his lack of a father or family is one of his character traits and a
driving force for some of his decisions, even though his overall
goal appears to gain friendship and love.
His characters are normally very charismatic, with many flaws
however. They are all men as well. The fact that they are
charismatic helps these character to overcome these flaws. The
character will also use the charisma to lead a group of people,
this is normally to achieve freedom, whether that is from a prison
or from a scout group.

10.  Wes Andersons style of film appears to
have a focus on symmetry, he also
doesn’t have much depth in his shots
either, this gives the effect that it is a
story and reminds the audience that
they are watching a film. His camera
movements are fluent however none of
them are natural this is for the same
reason. This way of making films allows
him to create comedy much more easily,
even interpreting serious topics into the
comedy.
 His films normally have a very pastille
look to them to build on the drawn story
that he creates. Each scene generally
has about 4 or 5 key colours in each
shot, this makes characters feel much
more sentimental or quaint.

11. LIGHTS OUT - SHORT
This short film starts by showing the viewer a long shot of a building
at night time, this builds tension instantly as it puts the story in a
place that people instantly recognise and can associate with. Long
shots are great at showing a location as it gives the audience a lot
of information about the location of the scene, however this is a
very basic way to give the audience and is not very
interesting. The opening shot has the loud sound of rain this also
sets the mood of the film as it is dark and dull and builds an
uneasiness in the audience.
The film then uses medium shots to establish inside of the building,
it also uses them for character perspective. The use of lighting also
establishes the demons character as it is only visible when the
lights are switched off. When the demon is first seen the camera
switches to a different perspective to that of the demon, this makes
the audience feel watched and un easy, it is an interesting way of
giving the audience a different perspective of the story.

12. EXPERIMENTS
Camera/Editing/Audio Experiments
Be prepared to add extra slides

13.  When filming I worked in a group of three
people, this was helpful because it helped
us to develop multiple ideas. It also helped
us to tackle problems with filming as there
were different ideas about how to get the
right shot for that scene. When it actually
came to filming the main shot that we
actually used was a close up, we used this
to show expression and to express key
points in the plot, eg when turning the key
in the lock. We did also use medium
shots, this was to give the audience
information about the location in the scene,
eg when I walk through the door and end
up back in the same area.
 We also used camera movement to show
my thought processes, as an idea this
worked well and would have been great if
carried out correctly. However when
filming the shot the camera man didn’t use
a tripod so in the film you can see camera
movement. So when I come to film my
final film I will make sure to use a tripod
when filming,

14.  In the filming stage of my experiments I think that learning how to
use the cameras was very successful as we quickly learnt how to
get the camera to focus correctly and how to make sure that the
video wasn’t over exposed.
 Also other than the shot mentioned in the previous slide we also
set up the camera well for shots with no camera movement in
most of the shots we took. However it is quite obvious in the film
when we did not use a tripod so I will have to consider this when
I'm making my film.
 Another problem we had was the lack of footage we had, this
meant that we had to go out multiple times to get more
footage. This means that when I come to make my own film I will
need to focus on getting the right footage and make sure it is
correct before I move onto the next shot.

15.  When editing I started by
uploading all of the footage into
Adobe Premier pro and placing all
the shots in sequence, this meant
that I had a clear outline of my plot
in front of me it also meant I could
se where I was missing footage.
 Seeing all my footage also showed
me which shots didn’t look right
and may have been out of focus,
or if they didn’t have the correct
affect I was going for.
 The next step was to cut any
excess footage where we had
been recording before there was
any actual acting. then I added
any video effects that would benefit
the story, for example, I tried to flip
the footage so that both doors
opened the same way however I
was not able to accomplish this.

16.  When I come to producing my film I will follow the same steps to my
editing as it helps to keep the project very structured and
organised. As it means I will know what footage I still require before I
start to add video effects and start cropping my footage.
 I found that I was quite good at cropping my footage and making cuts
to create a good pace for the scene when I was editing so when I
come to create my actual short film I will be able to use these skills to
create a film that is the length stated in the task I'm set.
 However I will definitely have to develop my video effects skills as
they are definitely lacking, as I tried to do some colour corrections
and I also wanted to change the orientation of one of the shots to
keep continuity, however this I probably wouldn’t be able to achieve
in editing and should plan my shots better rather than relying on my
editing skill, which is very minor as I'm inexperienced.

17.  When it came to collecting audio I was set
the task of adding audio on top of a scene
from a film that had had its sound
removed. To do this I worked in a group of
three again. We started the process by
creating a list of sounds that we would need
and then splitting that into categories of
which we could record with a microphone
and which we would need to either create
digitally or have to download.
 We then went and collected sounds with the
microphone, these sounds were primarily
key sounds like footsteps that were easy to
record, however to do this we first worked
out how many steps the person in the scene
made a minute and then mimicked the same
pace so that audio matched up to the the
visuals as well as possible.
 After we had recorded all the sounds we
could we then downloaded whatever else we
need and placed them into premier pro
following very similar steps as I did for the
video footage.

18.  Creating a list of the sounds we needed helped with organising the
project and set up a clear structure that I could follow, I will continue
to do this when making my final film to help keep structure.
 When collecting sounds our initiative to work out how many footsteps
the character in the film took a minute also helped with the final
outcome as it made the visuals and sound match up in a much more
natural way. So when creating my film I will try to use the same
initiative to collect sounds.
 When adding the sounds I also used video effects to bring sounds in
and out well using fades, so when I create my final product I will do
the same as it sounds much more realistic than a sound just cutting
out.
 When I make my final film however I don’t want to use as many
sound effects that I didn’t personally create, this is because it means
that I have much less control over the outcome of my films sound If I
do not creat all of the effects.