Our moodboard for our drama film opening.
Posted by Abbey Newton
Thursday 31 January 2013
Audience Expectations: Questionnaire
Researching into our audience for our genre, we were advised to conduct a questionnaire to find out what an audience would expect from a film of our chosen genre, in this case, drama. I decided to use an online survey website called 'Survey Monkey' and posted the link to my questionnaire on Facebook.com and Tumblr.com. This enabled to me to gain results from people of all ages and from different parts of the world.
The age range was from 16 years old to over 65, so I gained a variety of results.
The questions I asked were the following:
What is your favourite film within the drama genre?
Films such as Shawshank Redemption and Third Star were the one's that came up more than once, a particularly good response was 'I could never choose just one. Sad dramas like Third Star and Stuart a Life Backwards are amazing to get those heartstrings pulled and tears flowing. Comedy dramas like Forrest Gump can make you think about the different people you come across in life. Any film that makes me think about things more deeply or with fantastic acting will become one of my favourites.' From other research, we have found that most people enjoy a drama film with characters they can relate to.
Why do you enjoy dramatic films?
Again, the results here show that the audience like to be able to relate to the characters who should be realistic. Many people also enjoy being surprised by the plot, plot twists are enjoyed in a drama film. Another good response was 'Dramatic films can pull on your heartstrings but they also make you think about things and where you life is etc. You can compare the films to things that have happened to you and you enjoy them more. Sometimes its nice to have a good cry or to come away feeling really happy. Actors' performances can make or break a good film and it is good to watch an actor that you admire become another person so different from their other parts.'
What do you expect to see in a dramatic film?
Most of the audience want to see realistic characters who aren't perfect, with flaws and personality. The best response was 'Realistic characters with depth of feelings, age and appearance depends on the story line, the same with personality traits. You have to feel that they are real people facing real problems. I expect to care about what happens and not to just be watching as that makes it boring. Difficult topics also make good drama as it can enlighten people to the difficulties of prejudice.'
Do you expect anything specific from a drama film?
The audience expect to feel emotionally invested in the film, whether that be in a happy or sad way, it does not matter. They expect to get attached to characters regardless of their flaws and follow them on their journey through the story. The best response: 'I would expect to feel strongly about certain characters, to empathise with them and want them to "win" etc. You have to believe in them and want the right outcome for them at the end. For a sad film I expect it to make me cry or a comedy drama to have good comedy moments but not be too over the top funny. I want to come away from the film thinking about it afterwards and caring about what happened.'
From these results we can see that most people whom watch drama films like to be actively involved and invested in a character's development and characterization. The journey of which the character takes is extremely important and has to be realistic, where the audience often sympathizes with a character. These results will enable us to look into and develop our characters in a way that will attract this audience and will compliment what the audience want from a drama film. Studying what the audience want will help the film have success in the industry.
- Posted by Hayley
Research in Drama Genre
Our chosen genre for our film opening is Drama. To get a better understand of the Drama Genre I have researched into different elements of Drama.
The Drama genre relies on the emotional and relational development of characters throughout the film. Dramatic themes are often present within the film and are often a problem, conflict or misunderstanding that would happen in a real life situation. A Drama film would try to tell a realistic story with realistic characters of real life problems.
Sub Genres of Drama:
Dramedy- A combination of both drama and comedy. The film still has a dramatic tone but there are underlying comical elements. Both the drama and comedy are equally balanced but still focus on a serious issue
Melodrama- It appeals to the heightened emotions of the audience. The characters and plot tend to be a lot more unrealistic compared to a typical film of the drama genre.
Tragedy Drama- This is where a flaw within the character then causes the downfall of said character It generally focuses on self destructive behaviour of the character which then tend to result in death or the deterioration of the character.
Romance Drama- Explores the concept of love and focuses on the thing that is preventing two people being together. A romantic drama does not always have a happy ending due to a wide range of things, one being one of the characters family's disapproval.
Historical Drama- A historical drama will focus on a certain group of people within a certain time period. The characters are not always realistically portrayed and are often only loosely based of the historical events. Most films tend to only focus on Romans, King, Queens and important political figures.
The Drama genre relies on the emotional and relational development of characters throughout the film. Dramatic themes are often present within the film and are often a problem, conflict or misunderstanding that would happen in a real life situation. A Drama film would try to tell a realistic story with realistic characters of real life problems.
Sub Genres of Drama:
Dramedy- A combination of both drama and comedy. The film still has a dramatic tone but there are underlying comical elements. Both the drama and comedy are equally balanced but still focus on a serious issue
Melodrama- It appeals to the heightened emotions of the audience. The characters and plot tend to be a lot more unrealistic compared to a typical film of the drama genre.
Tragedy Drama- This is where a flaw within the character then causes the downfall of said character It generally focuses on self destructive behaviour of the character which then tend to result in death or the deterioration of the character.
Romance Drama- Explores the concept of love and focuses on the thing that is preventing two people being together. A romantic drama does not always have a happy ending due to a wide range of things, one being one of the characters family's disapproval.
Historical Drama- A historical drama will focus on a certain group of people within a certain time period. The characters are not always realistically portrayed and are often only loosely based of the historical events. Most films tend to only focus on Romans, King, Queens and important political figures.
Romance Drama-Titanic
This trailer for Titanic incorporates both the dramatic elements of the sinking of the Titanic ship and the love story between the two main characters.
Historical Drama-300
The film 300 focuses on the historical time era of 480 B.C. and the fight between King Leonidas and the Persians at Thermopylae, which fits in the with genre of drama.
Posted by Abby P
Wednesday 30 January 2013
Initial Ideas for Film Openings
To begin with our group mind mapped three different ideas for a film opening. The first one being a documentary featuring a young protagonist, the second being a supernatural thriller and the third being a drama with a misunderstanding Doing these mind maps helped up come up with some initial ideas for our film opening and also helped us come to a final decision on the genre of our film opening and what it would be about.
We decided that we would make a drama that involved a misunderstanding as we found that we had the most ideas for this and with the resources available to us and the skills within our group, this is the genre we would be able to make the best film opening for.
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Posted by Abby P
Tuesday 29 January 2013
What type of institution would we like to be and why?
As a group, we have decided that we would like to be an independent institution as we would like to target a mainly British audience. This is because we are an independent company, therefore we would not have the money to distribute it out globally.
Independent institutions target their audiences by using British actors and filming in Britain, for example. It would also be beneficial to be an independent institution as the British audience would understand the links to the British culture. This would then cut down any likelihood that foreign audiences would be confused due to the refrences to the British culture.
Being an independent institution also means that we can focus our re-make more on the desiered genre, rather than catering for a larger audience. This means that more people in our desired audience would appreciate the film more rather than a film which wasn't specifically made for the desired genre.
Colm Gerlach.
Independent institutions target their audiences by using British actors and filming in Britain, for example. It would also be beneficial to be an independent institution as the British audience would understand the links to the British culture. This would then cut down any likelihood that foreign audiences would be confused due to the refrences to the British culture.
Being an independent institution also means that we can focus our re-make more on the desiered genre, rather than catering for a larger audience. This means that more people in our desired audience would appreciate the film more rather than a film which wasn't specifically made for the desired genre.
Colm Gerlach.
Film Opening Re-make Activity
This activity helped us, as a group, to understand how a film opening was structured and what should and shouldn't be included. It also gave us ideas on how to include our opening titles, for example: should they be edited in with a professional technique, or should we use the simple method of just adding them on top of the clip? It was also a useful idea of using post-it notes as we could simply remove something if the group as a whole wasn't too sure on the idea. Moreover, it also allowed us to add things to our opening title which we thought might have been important and to help us consider the genre of the film opening we will make.
Even though our test wasn't exactly a real life replica of a film, it gave us creative ideas which we could use for our actual re-make of our film opening.
Posted by Colm.
Even though our test wasn't exactly a real life replica of a film, it gave us creative ideas which we could use for our actual re-make of our film opening.
Fonts Research
The use of an appropriate font in film openings is highly important, it helps set up the mood and genre of the film. If the film is of the comedy genre the font should reflect that by being softer and brighter coloured in comparison to the font from, for example, a Horror film.
Juno(Comedy)
With the use of this font, the audience can interpret the mood and genre of the film as a Comedy. The font style is quite simple, with a handwriting type feel to it. The use of bright colours are welcoming to the audience. The brightly coloured handwriting style relflects the Comedy Genre.
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly(Western)
The classsic Western style font used in 'Wanted' posters during the 1800's immediately establishes to the audience that the film will be of the Western genre.The slights differences in the fonts of the title relflect the different chartacters within the film, for example 'The Ugly' has a rugged edge, which is less attracttive compared to the other two fonts.
RocknRolla(Action/Crime/Thriller)
The use of capital letters and a bold font reflects the fast paced atmopshere of an Action film. The use of two contrasting colours implies to the audience that there will be two different types of character, such as police and criminals. This would be one of the expectations the audience has from a crime film.
Posted by Abby P and Hayley
Saturday 26 January 2013
Film Opening Remake Evaluation
One of the good points we found when making our film opening is that we worked well as a group and all slotted into a worked at our given roles well, we all knew what we had to do in order to make the film opening, for example, I featured in the opening, Abby was on the camera, Hayley was directing and Colm was organising props and costumes. Then we all worked together, taking it in turns to import and edit the film, adding effects and titles. This will be a very helpful point when it comes to making our actual film opening.
One of the bad points we found when making our filming opening was that we found it hard to position and keep the camera steady. Although we used a tripod, the scene involved a large amount of movement and dancing, this meant that that the tripod would jog and move slightly meaning that when it came to editing it was clear the the camera had moved frame slightly, we manage to disguise the problem by cropping but it was an issue that could have been avoided.
Overall we worked well as a group, we came across no major hurdles or issues when making our film opening and we are pleased with the outcome.
Posted by Abbey N
Friday 25 January 2013
Re-creating The Opening of Superbad
25/01/13
To re-create the opening of Superbad we will consider the need for the use of contrasting colours to create a similar opening. To do this we will pin up a large white sheet for the background and get the two dancers to wear one solid contrasting colour. Doing this will enable easier editing when it comes to finalising the opening. We will need to constantly refer back to the original sequence in order to be accurate with our production. When editing, we will need to make sure that we refer to our timeline and make sure the titles appear at the same time as the original opening.
04/02/13
To re create the opening of Superbad we used our schools dance studio that had large frosted windows which provided ideal lighting to create a silhouette effect on our actors. This worked much better and was much more effective than using a white sheet as a backdrop. We used the original opening as a guideline for our Actors so they knew the dance moves well. We set up our camera on the tripod so we had a steady shot that would keep the background consistent throughout. Our Actors co-operated well and we managed to get all of the filming done quickly and efficiently. They knew the dance well and we managed to get it as close as possible to the original opening.
Editing our piece took a longer amount of time. We split the editing between our group as to maximise our efficiency. First of all we cut down all of the unnecessary film and put everything in order. After this we added to different colour effects to each of the dance clips, making sure the colour scheme was the same as the original opening. We finally add on the titles, using the timeline we created as a guide to make sure it was accurate and the same as the original.
From creating and editing this opening we have learnt that a lot of work will be involved in creating our actual coursework opening piece and that we will need to split the work between the group evenly to manage our time effeciently and create a opening that is to the best of our abilties.
Posted by Abby P and Hayley
To re-create the opening of Superbad we will consider the need for the use of contrasting colours to create a similar opening. To do this we will pin up a large white sheet for the background and get the two dancers to wear one solid contrasting colour. Doing this will enable easier editing when it comes to finalising the opening. We will need to constantly refer back to the original sequence in order to be accurate with our production. When editing, we will need to make sure that we refer to our timeline and make sure the titles appear at the same time as the original opening.
04/02/13
To re create the opening of Superbad we used our schools dance studio that had large frosted windows which provided ideal lighting to create a silhouette effect on our actors. This worked much better and was much more effective than using a white sheet as a backdrop. We used the original opening as a guideline for our Actors so they knew the dance moves well. We set up our camera on the tripod so we had a steady shot that would keep the background consistent throughout. Our Actors co-operated well and we managed to get all of the filming done quickly and efficiently. They knew the dance well and we managed to get it as close as possible to the original opening.
Editing our piece took a longer amount of time. We split the editing between our group as to maximise our efficiency. First of all we cut down all of the unnecessary film and put everything in order. After this we added to different colour effects to each of the dance clips, making sure the colour scheme was the same as the original opening. We finally add on the titles, using the timeline we created as a guide to make sure it was accurate and the same as the original.
From creating and editing this opening we have learnt that a lot of work will be involved in creating our actual coursework opening piece and that we will need to split the work between the group evenly to manage our time effeciently and create a opening that is to the best of our abilties.
Posted by Abby P and Hayley
Thursday 24 January 2013
Why Remake A Film Opening?
The point of remaking a film opening is to get a perspective on how much work we need to put in to create a good opening sequence and how much planning pays off when creating the titles. Remaking a film opening gives us the idea of how much work and planning goes into a film opening without actually having to come up with ideas ourselves, we have the guidelines and we can follow them. Also, creating something that already exists with our group gives us an idea of how we work together as a unit and whom is best at what things for quick efficiency when creating our actual opening.
Why we chose the opening?
The film opening we chose was Superbad. This is because the genre of the film is not something we'd like to do for our own opening sequence and so we would like to experience and prove that we are able to create openings for another genre of film. Also, the sequence requires some level of animation and we would like to be able to experiment and try to recreate the animation on the software we have at school to practice for our own opening sequence. Superbad isn't the easiest of openings, we'd like to push ourselves to see if we could create something of some level of quality and gain new skills when working with the animation.
Posted by Hayley, Abby P, Colm and Abbey
Why we chose the opening?
The film opening we chose was Superbad. This is because the genre of the film is not something we'd like to do for our own opening sequence and so we would like to experience and prove that we are able to create openings for another genre of film. Also, the sequence requires some level of animation and we would like to be able to experiment and try to recreate the animation on the software we have at school to practice for our own opening sequence. Superbad isn't the easiest of openings, we'd like to push ourselves to see if we could create something of some level of quality and gain new skills when working with the animation.
Posted by Hayley, Abby P, Colm and Abbey
Wednesday 23 January 2013
Candidate Names and Numbers
Abby Potts 7489
Hayley Sprawling 7512
Abbey Newton 7479
Colm Gerlach 7561
Hayley Sprawling 7512
Abbey Newton 7479
Colm Gerlach 7561
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