PLANNING: Props and Locations

PLANNING: Shooting Schedule

Originally, I had planned for this shooting schedule below:

Unfortunately, due to a lack of actor's we had to postpone filming on these days for another day.

Here is the new and official shooting schedule for my movie:

Another thing which I have kept check on for the day of shooting is the weather. If you look at my final storyboard, I specified a sunny day to symbol the pathetic fallacy of happiness at the beginning. Here is a printscreen of a weather forecast Thursday 24th March 2011. Temperatures look good so it is likely to be sunny which will be good:

PLANNING: Final Storyboard

Below is my final storyboard for my opening 2 minutes to a film, there have been some changes after my TAR 2 to improve it:

Changes I have made from original storyboard

• The final three bits of our storyboards, parts 7,8 and 9 have completely changed. This is due to my partner and I thinking that we didn't want to tell too much of a storylines in the opening 2 minutes, so this was a change we made on our own accord as appose to being due to our TAR 2. Originally, the final 3 parts were going to be the man walking in on his girlfriend cheating on him. Now however, it is made to look like this will happen but then the guy the girlfriend is having an affair with will hide at the point of the boyfriend walking in. Then they greet each other for Valentines Day, hug and tell each other they love each other, with the girl looking guilty. At this point the titles shall come on in order to lead into a film which would be about the boy finding out the girl was having an affair.
• In my second bit of target audience research the first person we spoke to suggested that the memories would be going on for too long if they lastedfor 20 seconds. My partner and I think this is a good idea as it keeps the opening moving quickly, so we have changed it to 15 seconds.
• During my TAR 2 the second person we asked suggested we tried to use some pathetic fallacy in our opening 2 minutes. She suggested using the weather to reflect the mood, as he is only outside once and happy at this time, we are going to try and make sure we shoot it on a sunny day - which i have stated at the top of my storyboard.
• The final person we spoke to during our TAR 2 suggested that maybe the part where we show a birds' eye image could be tricky. Therefore, we have considered how we can do this, and thought of a way so we decided to not change this. We thought if someone records from high up in each room, doing this each time separately. When we put it together we can put some editing in where the screen wipes from one to the other, showing both the birds' eye views at the same time.

RESEARCH: Target Audience Research 2

Below is a video documenting some more TAR (target audience research) me and my partner have undertaken. The target audience for the movie our opening scene is for is people aged about 15-20, also as our genre is 'romantic', it will mainly be girls that our opening scene will be aimed at. For this reason, we undertook this piece of research on 3 girls, all aged within the bracket of 15-20 years old.

For this research, we wanted to record footage of what people thought of our original storyboard. To do this, we showed and explained our storyboard to each person then recorded their immediate response. In which they would give feedback, be negative or positive.

What have I learnt in this piece of TAR?

After completing this second bit of TAR I have discovered several things which will be taken into account while my partner and I construct our final storyboard:

Person 1

• When the main character is reminiscing about time him and his girlfriend have shared, this shouldn't go on for too long as this will distract from the point of the actual opening scene.
• Usually, the main emotion of a movie is at the end, not the beginning, so we should try to not make the opening scene too sad.
• Seems like a positive storyboard, not much needs to improve but obviously make necessary changes as we go along.

Person 2

• Thinks it seems like a good opening to a movie.
• Could include some pathetic fallacy, which is like things like weather reflecting the mood.

Person 3

• Likes the storyboard, thought it would create an interesting movie opening. She said that it would have the audience hooked and feeling like they know the main character, and feel sympathy for him.
• We need to think about weather the birds' eye view bit will be achievable. 
• Likes how it is set out and that the titles aren't until the end, as this leaves the audience open to they're own thoughts.

RESEARCH AND PLANNING: Preliminary Conclusions

What have the deconstructions told you about the openings of movies?

The most important thing to note from my deconstructions is how the opening of a movie seems to work as a theme setter. It sets an idea of a theme and everything in that opening scene seems to link back to that theme. For example, in my second deconstruction of ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ the theme and atmosphere is of magic and mystery, and everything in the opening helps to build this. The 4 tools of ; mise-en-scene, sound, editing and camera types were all used in every opening I saw to create this certain theme.

In terms of mise-en-scene everything on set seems to be deliberately setting the scene, so this is everything in the background of a shot as well as the foreground. A very common occurrence in film openings is music playing over it. I think this is because music is a great way to create a feeling, and interest the viewer as hearing is an important sense to utilise. Editing is used in openings to control the pace of it which is crucial for creating a theme. In my first deconstruction the pace of the opening was very fast and was not a real time event for most of it. The editing was put together so it jump cut between 2 different situations back and forth, which is a good way to make something feel fast. On the other hand, in my second deconstruction as the theme was magic and mystery, they wanted to create a slow and gloomy opening. This is why the editing was just normal and nothing special was used in slide transitions, and it just flowed at normal pace. Camera types were most important in my third deconstruction as it was a stadium event, so the cameras really created the atmosphere by showing a spherical view on it; this showed the viewer it was a momentous occasion.

Although the main goal of an opening scene is usually to set the theme, another important part can be to give some indication of what the movie will be about. In my first deconstruction of ‘Step Brothers’ the opening made it clear what the rest of the movie might have been about. This was good because it made me want to watch it as it wasn’t going to be too complicated and it was easy to understand. On the other hand, in my second deconstruction not much of the plot was given away. This was also fine though, as the theme was mystery so it was meant to mysterious. This is also made me want to watch on to see what might happen.

What has your target audience research told you about likes, dislikes and viewing habits?

Undertaking a questionnaire for my target audience research has been very helpful in showing me the preferences of an average viewer. I asked what I plan to be my target audience to undertake the research, in order to gain the most valuable information. A crucial thing my target audience research has shown me is that people love watching films, and most do it on a regular basis. This is good because everyone will have a developed opinion to help me with making my opening scene of a movie.

There were mixed responses as regards to people favourite genres, but the most popular decision was comedy. Also, people like romance in a film and sometimes like romcoms which combine romance and comedies. This response has shown me a lot about the viewing habits of the age group I asked, as they like to be made to laugh while feeling emotion at the same time. In terms of what genre this age group didn’t like, the majority went for horror. This could show my target audience dislike something scary and too serious, and are looking for something more relaxed. As regards to people’s viewing habits, most people don’t really mind where they watch a movie. Most people responded saying they watched movies at home, but many people picked answers where they were out and about. Therefore, I can see that people sometimes view films for a social event as much as for enjoyment. In my target audience research people revealed that mostly they watch films with someone that is close to them, but then don’t mind watching it alone as well. So this just backs up that people will watch movies for their own enjoyment or for a social event with somebody else.

Something else I found while undertaking my target audience research is that people definitely prefer a soundtrack over the opening over a movie – not one person apposed to this. This backs up the fact that my target audience likes to be moved to feel something, and this is often what music can do. In response to what my target audience liked in an opening scene of a movie, they loved something big to happen to immerse them straight away. Most people wanted a big event or lots of action to have them hooked in the opening scene. However, I shouldn’t misinterpret this that people want lots of stuff like fighting and explosions in the opening, as this contradicts what genre they like. Something big can still happen in the opening of for instance a comedy/romance, just more subtle.

How have you used the above research to make planning decisions regarding your movie?

The research I have previously spoken about will definitely have a big effect on how I approach the making of my opening scene of a movie. During undertaking research of deconstructing other opening scenes from films, this will effect decision I make regarding my movie. It has outlined how I need to make a clear theme and story if it is appropriate for that theme. One thing I want to do as a result of this research is immerse the viewer in the film right away, like the other films I watched did. So I can do this by showing the feeling of the theme and providing a clear picture as to what the story shall be about. When making my opening scene of a movie, I definitely need to think about how everything I do will affect the viewer. I can use different techniques to give the viewer a certain feeling and try to connote the theme best I can.

My target audience research will have a large effect on planning decisions regarding my movie. One clear effect will be on the genre of the opening scene. Before this research I was not sure on what to do, but I now I think I shall either do a comedy or a romance. I am likely to do a romance as I feel this will be easier to do than a comedy, and it’s easy to connote stereotypes in romance. Also, as a result of my target audience research, I have decided to definitely include a song playing over the opening. Hopefully this will help to make my target audience identify with the opening and what to see the rest of them film if it had one. One final way my target audience research will affect planning decisions regarding my film is that I will try to make it suitable for viewing alone with people. I can make this happen by making it easy going yet interesting at the same time. In conclusion, I feel that all research I have done so far has been a vital part in making my opening scene of a film.

PLANNING: Director's Pitch and Storyboard

This is the storyboard for our main task, of creating an opening 2 minutes for a movie. We have made the storyboard quite brief as we are aware many changes could occur when we come to making the clip. However, here is the storyboard which we currently intend to stick to:

Just to summarize the storyboard, I shall now briefly explain our vision for this opening scene. We want to start with a long shot of a boy walking down an alleyway, trekking towards his girlfriend’s house to surprise her on Valentines Day. He will have a rose in his hand the whole time as his gift to her. After we have shown him walking for a bit we will show him going into his pocket and getting out his iPod, which reveals the date 14^th Feb. Then he shall pick a song to play, which will play throughout the scene as this is his and his girlfriend’s song. When he arrives at the house, he shall enter without knocking, in order to surprise his girlfriend. As he walks up the stairs we will show the audience via a birds eye shot, that the female is having relation with another man. Finally, he will walk in and discover he is being cheated on, drop his rose, and walk out and cry as the titles come on. We are also thinking of making that last bit in slow motion to add to drama. We think this can lead onto a film about the girl trying to win the man back.

We decided to make an opening scene for a film of romantic genre, because we feel that we can convey this genre the best using certain methods. For this main task we are going to use other actors because it will be easier to control the outcome to be what we want to happen. For the location of our opening two minutes, we will use either mine or Zach’s house, as we won’t need to gain permission to access s these locations. Also we need to use an alleyway in a village for when he is walking down it looking at his iPod. We won't need many resources except for a camera and a stand; I also don't think we will need an external microphone because whenever someone speaks it will be inside so the background sounds won't have much effect. Although, if we find that the sound is quite loud we will use an external microphone. For our shots we won't need the wheels because we don't need to do a tracking shot anywhere. We think we are going to use three actors in our movie, this will be two boys and one girl, but one of the boys only has a small part as the two main characters are lovers. We need to obtain permission for a song by Boyce Avenue and we have sent off an email for it, it is an acoustic version of Katy Perry’s song 'Teenage Dream' this is the email we sent to their record label. This is the email we will send off:

‘Dear Sir or Madam

For our ‘A’ Level Media Studies coursework we have to make the opening two minutes of a movie with a song over it.  For our project we would like to use Teenage Dream by Boyce Avenue and are seeking your permission.

The resulting two minute film opening will not be used for commercial gain, will be hosted on a private coursework blog and also rendered on to DVD for the attention of our teacher and the coursework moderator.  Should we not hear from you to the contrary within 14 days of the date of this email we will assume that you are happy for us to use this music under a fair use arrangement.

Should you require any further information please contact our teacher, Mr Scargill on scargill@guilsborough.northants.sch.uk

Yours faithfully

Alex Saker & Zach Goodchild’

RESEARCH: Target Audience Research

Before creating my directors pitch of what I intend to do for my final opening scene, I thought it would be a good idea to gather some research on what my target audience would want in it. Here is a copy of the questionnaire I used to research my target audience:

Who undertook this questionnaire?

I needed to make sure my target audience took this questionnaire. At this point I intend to aim my final movie at people around my age of 17, and either gender. These are the details of who filled it out:

• 10 people (7 male, 3 female)
• 9 of these people were aged 16-17, 1 of them was around 30 (I asked one person a bit older just in case I decided to aim the film at a higher age group). 

Questionnaire Results

The answers to this first question were in response to whether they watch films, and importantly everyone who responded did watch films. This shows that films are very popular in the current world, so all opinions of people filling in the questionnaire would be from experience. If no one had seen a film, they would not have seen an opening to a movie, so wouldn't be able to help me much with my final product.

As displayed in the graph above, you can see that not only do people watch films; a lot watch films daily or most at least weekly. The least anyone watched films were monthly, and this was an anomaly which shows the dominance films have on the world today. 40% of my questionnaire responses would be from people that watch films daily, so their opinions will be valued.

For this question, I asked people what their favourite genre was, this will be very important in me deciding which genre to make my opening to minutes of a film to. The majority of people responded saying that they liked comedies, so this would be a genre to seriously consider. Next in line for popularity weremantic films, tied with romcom's. This represents that people like it when romance is tied in with some comedy, so people like to watch something which might make them feel emotional and provide laughter at the same time. Given that 70% of questionnaire responses were from boys, you might expect adventure, horror and action to have been more popular. Therefore, in my final product I think I shall either make it a comedy or romantic.

This question is the opposite to the previous question, discovering what people would see as their least favourite genre. The table shows that it would be a bad idea for me to do a horror as this was many people's least favourite genre. You can see that these results can contradict the previous question, as many people dislike romance. I think this is due to the fact many people who answered 'adventure' in the previous question might be the sort to most dislike romance.

In the table above, you can see that most of the time people watch movies in the convert of a home. People do enjoy going to the cinema, but it is more common for people to watch a movie in a home environment. Therefore, it would make sense for me to make my opening 2 minutes a film to suit being watched at home or at someone else's home.

The results above show that people will watch a film whether they are in company or alone. This again goes to show proof that films are huge and people will watch them in many circumstances. The most popular way to watch a film is with friends, this is probably as it can be fun to discuss a film with your friends, and can be a social activity. The least popular response was 'with your partner', which is probably just due to the fact most the people in the age group wouldn't have a boyfriend or girlfriend.

In this final graph, we can see that a soundtrack should definitely play over the top of the opening scene I create. 100% of people like it when an opening to a movie has a soundrack, so it is very popular. When my friend and I come to making our final product, I think we will have a song playing over it as this is seems to be what people like.

Question responses to which a table wasn't appropriate for:

Question 8 asked what people's favourite opening scene of a movie were. The answers people gave backed up their responses to previous questions, because the genres of the films they picked were the same genres which they liked. Most the films had an opening with sentiment or on the other hand fast moving action.

Question 9 queried into how I could make my own opening scene effective. These were the answers people wrote: 'Teaser, lots of action, dramatic events, background knowledge, music, explosions, women, suggest what the film is about to entice the viewer straight away, scary, explosions, get viewer involved and immersed.' All of these will be taken into account when my partner and I make our final product.

Here is a video, recording evidence that I actually undertook the questionnaire: