Main character profile.

Props storyboard!

Storyboard for our film idea!

This is our storyboard idea for our film these pictures can show you how the film will run and what the opening sequence will look like also we did this storyboard idea because it helped us to make our movie and helped us to plan it. As you can see in comparison to our finished idea we used this plan to do our opening sequence and then later decided to add a lot more to set the story and also to make it longer as the film wouldn't be long enough with just this piece of film. So from the task it helped us to get planned and get out and start to film our idea but it also helped to show us that we need a lot more to set the scene and make the film longer and make sense throughout.

Institutional research

Distribution

I think that the company that would produce and distribute my groups drama movie would be a company such a BBC films. This is because they have done other British drama movies that have gone international after a small time of being UK exclusive. I think that it would be best to start off being UK exclusive because we would find out if the movie is successful before putting in a larger amount of money for making the film international

After we have had success in UK with BBC films we would try to contact a larger company that would distribute my movie internationally. We would try to use river road entertainment to get our movie to go international, this is an American company that have had other successful drama movies such as ‘Fair game’

The BBFC research and what rating i want my movie!

The BBFC is the British Board of Film Classification and they make sure that all the films in Britain are suitable for the rating that have been given, they also give films the correct rating which is varied depending on the content involved in the film, they watch the films before they are released to make sure that they have the age appropriate rating so that no-one under-age sees the bad content.

“15”

15 is the age certificate that my film will be so we have to make sure that our film doesn’t break the boundaries set by the BBFC because we don’t want the film to be 15, we have chosen it to be a 15 because it is going to contain strong violence and strong language so it wont be suitable for a lower age certificate, we also chose this because we did some research into what certificate we should give the film and people are more likely to watch a 15 because it seen as less childish and you expect more from the film so we made it a 15. BBFC - “The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.”  This is one of the boundaries we cannot break.

 From this task i have learnt the different boundries in which movies have to face, some of the boundries can be strict and stop films from having certain scenes in their film but it is also good as it tells what we expect to see during the film and what to expect.

First attempt at filming!

Me and my filming partner went out on Friday the 30th and attempted to film our horror movie, but because the camera isn't very good quality the lighting was very poor meaning that all our footage (which was filmed at night) wasn't visible, we couldn't see the people who were speaking and it left us with no footage which we could see or use.

From this we learnt that we cant film at night or we need better lighting also we have changed what our genre is going to be because horror is hard to film and also the dark scenery wont work because the camera is too low quality and we don't have enough lighting, so now we have decided to go a for a thriller because that will be easier to film and it will keep the audience captivated, so overall doing this was a good thing because now we have learnt from our mistakes and will now not film at night and during the day so that the camera will be able to see the actors and we will have some good footage.

Questionnaire visual results!

Questionnaire from Curtis Cragg on Vimeo.

This is the results of our questionnaire on video, me and my filming partner went around our college and asked several different people our questions from our questionnaire, we gathered many different results.
From this task we learnt about what we are going to include in our film e.g Tension, drama and a troubled character we decided to include a troubled character because we watched several different drama films e.g from London to Brighton, and many drama films have a troubled character in and this helps to set the story line and also it is what people expect to see when they watch a drama film this is the reasons in why we have included a troubled character.. Also i learnt from using  this technique that filming the results makes it look a lot better than just writing them down on paper.

Planning of our film idea

 From this piece of work that me and my filming partner made we learnt the genre that our film was going to be and also we found out the different acotrs that we were going to use and the plot of the story so from this we got our overall idea for the film.

Audience research + Results

1) Do you watch drama films?

2) What is your favourite drama film?

3) 3 key reasons why it is your favourite drama film

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4) 3 things your expect to see in a drama film

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Results

1) Yes [4]    No[4]   Sometime[2]

2)   -

3)

• Emotion
• Good actors
• Dramatic climax
• Dramatic pauses
• Good plot
• Interesting
• Characters draw you in
• Storyline believable

4)

• Drama
• Misery/emotion
• Dilemma
• Solution
• Crying
• Realism
• Dramatic climax
• A good, inspiring narration
• A troubled character
• A major problem for the lead character
• Tension

Using this research i am going to base my drama film around these answers for example i am going to make it about a troubled character and there is going to be missery and a character who is going through a hard time, so from this research i have found out what people expect and want from a drama film.

Target Audience!

Teenagers/Young adults


Me and my filming partner have decided to make a thriller/action and we believe that the suitable age range for our film would be around 15-26 because we are going to have some gory scenes which means that the certificate will be raised to around a 15 also we have chosen this age range because young children could be disturbed by the scenes in the film and also the older aged people wouldn't like the action and thriller because it will be too fast paced and they wont be able to keep up with it and they wont be able to keep up with the story.


Male


We have decided to make the films for males because the film is going to be gory and have some action in it and i don't believe girls like that kind of genre and they will get bored easily with it also its for males because males like action packed movies that are fast paced and have a lot of action scenes that are shot fast to keep them motivated.


Socio-economic groups


My film will be aimed at people in middle class and lower class because i don't believe that people in higher class will want to see the type of movie that i am making. I also believe that people in middle class and lower class probably go to the cinema or buy movies more often because they are cheap, affordable and very entertaining, also people in higher class may want to watch a film with a bit more of a story and not as fast paced.

Genre Research

 

Horror/Mystery

I looked at the film paranormal activity as i thought that it would be quite an easy film to make and if done well could have a great effect on people as a horror. It would have to be filmed as they did it int he dark because that is when it  will be scary.

What i would need for it.

• The room would have to be dark so that it would have a scary effect
• there would have to be a plot/story line to keep the audience captivated
• the camera would have to have nightvision or an effect would have to be put on the film to look like it has it.
• I would also need somthing that is scary and would put the audience on edge.

Features that would need to be included.

It would need to be set in a house where it is pitch black e.g at night
There would need to be a nightvision camera that displays the time aswell like paranormal activity.
Also in paranormal activity there is a lot of tension building up, which then comes to a climax with a scary scene, paranormal activity is also a psycological horror as it makes you more aware of your suroundings after you have finished watching it so it will have a strong effect if done well.

Problems with doing it.

The problems that we would face if we were to do a horror/mystery is the fact that the cameras dont work well in the dark so we would end up with a lot of footage which we wouldn't be able to use or see so i think that the idea of a paranormal activity style film wouldn't be a very good choice, also during paranormal acvtivity i found out that they use a lot of hand-held camera technique and this wouldn't work as we need to keep the camera steady, so a change of genre/ movie idea may have to happen based on this.

FIlm synopsis

Our film synopsis

This film synopsis shows how our intro to the film connects to the rest of the movie, I think this helped me because I know how I can do something that may not make sense now but I know will make sense later

I have learnt that writing a synopsis can be really helpful in ideas of the beginning 2 minutes; I think that this process has been helpful.

What’s done is done

Our film is about a teenage boy (Jake) who was being bullied in his school (By the bullies of the school Robin, and Jim) and he was felt as though he could not escape. However one day after having a really bad day he decides to stand up to the gang leader of the bullies. He takes a hammer with him to scare off the bully and maybe hit him so that he would be left alone, but ends up hitting and killing him. Jake then tries to run away, we see him packing his stuff and walking away.

The film goes on to show how he struggles in life because of having to run from his previous life, he tries to hide his old identity but he cannot get away from the horror’s of his past. He starts having to run from the police and ends up travelling all over the country with no money and no home.

The film ends with him being caught by the police and taken to stand in court. He pleads that he did it in defence and that he had to do it because they were bullying him. But the judge does not believe that the other boy bullied him. Jake got 10 years imprisonment, and the movie ends with Jake being put into a jail cell.

Film conventions of a drama!

I need to research the codes and conventions of a drama thriller as this is the type of film that i am going to making i know most of the things that are included into a drama thriller but i need to research more into the thriller side so i will know exactly what to include into my film, i am going to research some drama thriller films and look on the Internet to see as to what will be included into a drama thriller.

Drama Thriller!
Here is the research that i found on the Internet in movies on what is included in drama thriller films.

Characters!

- Male characters and/or female characters
- Character is normally troubled/ has problems in life
- Family members included in the story.
- Friends/Boyfriends/Girlfriends
- Possible a bully/a rival in the movie.

Settings!

- Small towns/Villages/Cities
- Their home town (the film wont usually go past the home town)
- Household/Schools
- Prison could be included.
- Streets/Shops

Storyline!

- Story can include a troubled character that wants to escape their everyday life and their upbringing brings them down so that they cant escape.
- Could include a bully which comes back in later life then something is done to the bully and the main character could end up in prison.
- Often a problem that gets in the way in some films the obstacle is resolved and other films the ending is ended on a climax or the character gets dragged back down again.
- Tragedy in some endings but the tragedy could be the resolution to the problem in the end.

Props!

- Props could include a weapon which causes the problem(which eventually gets resolved)
- Clothing could be cheap/not very good because the character comes from a bad background and they keep getting dragged down from society.

Cinematography + Editing!

- The camera mainly follows the main character as they are the main focus of the film the camera also follows exes and people who may be out to get the main character.
- The film could contain flash backs of when they were younger or of previous events in which they regret doing.
- The films could have scenes in slow motion to emphasis the actions which are taking place.

Sound!

-The music used could be slow to build up tension.
- Music could be fast paced to show that there is a fight scene or something bad is about to happen ( adds to the dramatic effect).
- Limits dialogue mainly narrated or there is music played over the the top of the film so there is no silence.


My comments!

-I found researching drama thriller useful because i now know what things are to be expected in a drama thriller it has also helped me in that i know the different filming techniques i could use for my film and also a good place to where it should be set and what type of music would be suitable for a drama thriller.
- It was useful because now in my story plot i am going to use flashbacks and also the story line will most likely end in a tragedy and problems will face the character and he will have to try and overcome them.

My Preliminary Task!

Preliminary task from Curtis Cragg on Vimeo.


This was our second attempt at filming our preliminary task as the first time around the camera was not giving us any audio. We then found that the cameras speaker was broken and later replaced it and started the filming again.

The preliminary task was to film someone walking, opening a door, closing the door, siting down and then having a conversation with another person. The scene had to include match on actions, over the camera shots and long shots. I think that this was helpful because it helped me to remember the different shot types that had to be used in order to make a piece of film smooth and flowing.