Textual Analysis Main Task

Plot Ideas

 Plot Ideas

• 1        The zombie apocalypse has begun, but the hung over protagonist has no clue on what is going.  He then goes throughout his day unknowingly avoid zombies and staying oblivious to his surroundings.   

I feel that this would be a great film to make. It would appeal to a large group of people as it incorporates 2 major genres (horror and comedy). This is good as it gives me a mass audience, which can lead to a greater profit if this film was released. Another great aspect about this plot is that it is very relatable when regarding the hangover element. Much of my target audience have had horrible hangovers, which leave them in a zombie like state and not have a clue on what is going on around them. This makes the plot more feasible and therefore more enjoyable for the audience as they can see themselves not being aware that the apocalypse has happened. Another great aspect about this plot idea is that there is no specific location that needs to be included. For example, in the film ‘Cast Away’ the story plot is that a man is in a plane crash and ends up alone on a tropical and remote island. This means that when creating the film they needed to film on a tropical island in order for it to appear realistic. That is why this plot idea is so good because there is no specific location that needs to appear in a zombie film. This means I can use the locations near me. These include towns and woodlands, which are free to use. 

Despite all the strengths that this plot idea contains, I do feel that there are some drawbacks to this plot. One of these drawbacks is the cost and skills required to create realistic zombies. In order for this plot to work effectively on screen the audience must believe the world that is being shown to them is somewhat real. It’s this realistic element that makes horror films so effective. So in order to make this plot realistic the zombies have to look real. This means that for each zombie that I want to include I must get a mask/make up, clothes that can be trashed (to look bloody) and any other accessories I wish to include. The lowest cost I have found for all the equipment to make 1 realistic zombie comes to £25. I will also need to hire a professional makeup artist since neither I nor anyone I know knows how to apply the makeup effectively. The cheapest makeup I found costs £55 a day and I shall need this person for multiple days. These costs are far out from my base budget of £50 (give or take £10). Another drawback of this plot idea is the health and safety of the actors and crew on set. This plot would definitely have to include a scene of the zombies being killed. This is because this is a very popular element with audiences. So when trying to create these killings I would have to be very aware of the actors and crews safety. This is just in case while we are trying to ‘kill’ the zombies I don’t cause any harm to the actors playing the zombies or the crew that are assisting in making the killings look realistic.

• 2        A man’s car breaks down in the woods. The film then shows him trying to survive. It will include elements of him trying to survive the night, shaky camera movements, talking directly to a camera phone, him attempting to get food, making a fire and much more.

This would be a great plot idea to base my film upon. The first appealing aspect about this plot idea is how easy it would be to find a location. Given that I live near a wooded area with tall trees it will be easy to just walk to the location and carry the essentials, which would include a camera, batteries, tripod, memory cards and any other pieces like food. Another appealing aspect is that I don’t need any permission to film there. Many locations need permission to film at them. This is problematic because if I don’t get all the shots on the day(s) I can get then it can be very difficult and time consuming to get permission again. However, this problem wouldn’t occur when using this plot idea. Another aspect that I like is that it is set in the modern day. Creating film sets in particular periods of time can be difficult to create due to the fact that many areas of the film need to match such as costumes, setting, props, etc. This can be very expensive to accomplish. So by having the plot set in the modern day it won’t be as expensive because a lot of what we will need won’t need to be specially made. Another great thing about this plot idea that sets it apart from my other plot ideas is that it only needs to have 1 character to work. This is good as it means I only need to direct 1 person on set, which is a lot less stressful. Another great thing about having only one character on set that if I need to reshoot a scene then it can be easily achieved because I’ll only need that one actor to be free. If I had a large cast then this would be harder to do.

A major problem of this plot idea is the location. Despite all of its advantages it does have a serious health and safety risk. If either the actor or I is seriously injured then it would be extremely difficult to get medical attention. This is because the medical staff would need to get through thick woodland terrain with all their equipment and then carry either the actor or myself back to the ambulance, which would be incredibly hard to do without causing harm to the injured person as the terrain is very uneven. Another problem with this plot idea is the lighting will be very difficult to control. Unlike indoor locations where you can bring in lighting rigs and make the lighting to what you want, outdoor locations are known to be very troublesome when trying to get consistent lighting. This will be especially difficult in the woods because the swaying of the trees will constantly change the light. This is bad because when it comes to the editing stage of my production it will be very difficult to get good continuity. Another problem with the fact that the location will be outside is that the weather will be very unpredictable. This makes it difficult to film because if it changes from what I want (from cloudy to raining) I’ll have to wait for it to stop in order to get good continuity.  

• 3        An elderly couple going through their day, but they don’t conform to the stereotypes about elderly people. As soon as their family members leave they play video games like ‘Call of Duty’, they eat junk food, go clubbing and do extravagant activities like skydiving.

I feel that this would be a great film to make. Many people will have or would have had grandparents. This is good because my main characters will be grandparents, thus making it more relatable. By establishing a relationship between the characters and the audience it will make the comedy (outlandish activities that the characters get up to) so much funnier because the audience can imagine their own grandparents in those scenarios. Another great aspect about this plot is that I already know an elderly couple that would more than happy to star in this movie. This is great because I feel the greatest struggle with this plot idea would be to find the actors. The actors have also agreed that I can use their house to film the scene where the family are leaving their house. This is great because it saves a lot of money that I would have to spend to either recreate or rent out a location that would fit the scene.

However, this plot idea does have some bad elements to it that would make it difficult to create. For example, shooting some of the more extravagant scenes like sky diving and clubbing will be costly and difficult to shoot. I would have to take in to consideration the noise pollution from the music (clubbing) and the wind (skydiving) and work extra hard in the post production stage to create audio that would be believable and understandable for the audience to listen to. Another problem with shooting these scenes is that I will have to be highly aware of my actor’s health and safety. Doing these activities could cause damage, whether that is to their eardrums or even their mental health. Another problem with this plot idea is that there are multiple actors. This is problematic because I will need to schedule days that we are all free to film and any further days to do any re-shoots. This problem wouldn’t occur with one of my other plot ideas (plot 2) as I would be the only actor, which requires less scheduling and allows me to film more frequently. Another problem in filming in a location such as a club is that it requires filming permission from the owner. This can be difficult to obtain, as I would also need the consent of anyone else attending the club that night (if they are in shot).

• 4        An existing student shows a new student around the high school. While the school’s social hierarchy is explained. The entire short film is done in one long single take. Not just an academic or technical exercise, this is a fun story for low budget film making.

There are many good qualities to filming this plot idea. The main being that I still attend school. So shooting getting permission wouldn’t be difficult. The second appealing factor is that despite it is set in a school setting many age groups can relate to the scenarios that would occur on screen, as most adults will have attended a high school and will remember the hierarchy from their days at school. Another great aspect is that finding actors that are age appropriate and would be willing to play the various parts of the school hierarchy won’t be hard to find. This is because my school’s drama department has an abundance of students varying in age that would be more than willing to be apart of my film, as they will see it as an opportunity to practice their skills and have physical evidence of their performances (the film). Another intriguing quality to this plot is that it will all be shot in one shot. The purpose of doing so is to show the audience what the main character (new student) is experiencing, which is an overwhelming rush of information as soon as he/she enters the school. This one take element also provides a technical challenge that I would like to achieve, as when pulled off it can look very impressive.

Despite the fact that shooting a film in one continuous shot would be make my film appear very impressive, using this technique does have its difficulties as well.  The largest difficulty that I would face is to keep the continuous shot in motion. By this I refer to the fact that if anything goes wrong during the take i.e. if the camera slips, the actors fumble a line, the lighting suddenly changes (altering the image) or even if a member of the school interrupts our shot then we will have to redo the entire shot again. So unlike films with large amounts of footage to pick from and to splice together, my film will depend on whether or not everyone will function together for a full 5 minutes (the length of my film).  

Audience Research

For my audience research I wanted a detailed analysis of what my target audience is interested in when regarding comedy films. So instead of conducting a standard questionnaire, I decided to create this reaction video. It includes 3 of my classmates (whom all fit within the age range of my target audience) and my teacher who is in his early 30s. I decided to include my teacher in my audience research because I was interested in seeing his answers and analyzing what the similarities and differences would between each age group. If there were a lot of similarities with each age groups answers then that could mean I would be able to target a larger amount of people, thus increasing the chances of obtaining more viewers for my film. I was not able to include all the footage I shot because the video would have been over 1 hour long and very boring. So instead I recorded all the responses that were given and only showed the best responses in the video.

Here are the questions that I asked my participants.

Each question was particularly tailored in order to generate the best responses from the participants, which I could then use and incorporate into my short film. I made sure to create two sets of questions. This is because I was unaware if the participants had seen all 3 of the movies I used, which were 'Anchorman', '21 Jump Street' and 'Bridesmaids'. 

The first question I asked was "Have you ever seen this film before?" This was an important question to ask because depending on whether the answer was "yes" or "no" it would then allocate them onto a particular group of questions. 

On the day of recording I decided not to ask the second question in my 'yes' group of questions, which was 'Would you recommend it to someone else? Why/ why not?' I chose to remove this question from the survey because after evaluating the question I couldn't figure out how receiving their answers from this question would improve my film. 

So the first questions I asked for the "yes" and "no" responses were "What aspect of the film did you most engage with?" and "After watching this trailer would you go see this movie?"  This was important to know because if I know what characters, story plot, style of comedy and so forth my target audience most enjoys then I can include those aspects into my own film, thus making it more enjoyable and more successful. What I found very interesting was that all my participants had similar answers to these questions for all 3 trailers. The general consensus was that dialogue is a highly important factor in the success of a comedy. This is good to know because when I come to the script writing stage of my production I shall be sure to research what makes good storytelling and how to make it funny through the use of dialogue. 

The second questions I asked for the "yes" and "no" responses were "What particular aspects of the film did you not enjoy?" and "What particular aspects of the trailer did you not enjoy?". This was a highly important question to ask because the responses given would help me establish what not to include in my comedy film. This research has illustrated that I should avoid including any context that may be seen as 'dark humor' such as sexually derived comedy. This was brought to attention by a female participant who found that this form of comedy, which see saw in the 21 Jump Street trailer, made her feel a bit uncomfortable. However, she found the same style of comedy amusing in the Anchorman trailer. The main aspect that made it enjoyable was that she understood that it was meant to be a joke due to the fact that the character saying it was so outlandish so the participant never took it seriously. This tells me that if I attempt to use this dark humor I should include an outlandish character that the audience can't take seriously in order for the dark comedy to be received well.  

Now I shall be evaluating the responses given from my participants about the first Anchorman question, which was titled "What are your first impressions of Ron Burgundy?" I decided to include this question because I felt that this character broke away from the stereotype that viewers like characters because they are relatable. Anyone who has seen Anchorman can easily say that this character is very outlandish and very hard to relate to, but is still considered one of the greatest characters within comedy of all time. So I was interested in finding out why this is. One response that I picked up on was that the participant enjoyed not only Ron Burgundy, but he also enjoyed the responses given off by other characters when they see and speak to Ron. This is useful for me as it tells me that if I decide to go down the route of only having one lead character then I shall need to include supporting characters that react to my characters antics and show the audience that this character should be enjoyed, but not taken seriously (if I choose to use dark humor for this character).

The second Anchorman question was called "Do you prefer a male lead in comedies?" I felt this question would provide me with good responses from my participants, which would then help me decide whether to include a male or female lead in my short film. All the responses given by my participants were very similar. They all said that they didn't have a preference on if they prefer male or female leads. One of my participants stated that the gender of the lead character was dependent on the context of the film. This made sense because in the context of Anchorman (1980's news reporter) people were more likely to see a man being sexiest to females than the other way round. When it comes to me choosing the gender of the lead character in my film I will most likely choose to have a male lead. This is because I am a man and it would be very difficult for me to create humor that a female audience would like more so than a male audience. So by having a male lead it should allow the male audience to relate to this character more. 

The first and only question that I specifically asked for the 21 Jump Street trailer was called "Do you prefer comedies with more than one lead character?" This question generated a lot of great responses from my participants. All of them stated that they prefer comedies with more than one lead character. However, some participants had different reasons why they prefer multiple leads. For example, one participant mentioned that he related more to the pudgier lead character in 21 Jump Street than the muscular lead character. This is good because it told me that by having multiple lead characters it would provide a greater opportunity for a larger audience to engage with my film. This larger engagement could be done if I decided to have a male and female lead, thus aiming at two large markets. Another great aspect that one of my participants brought up was the fact that by having two lead characters it would provide the actors to 'riff' off each other, This is good as not only does this provide more footage for me to choose from, but this chemistry also translates through the screen. This is good as the audience can see this chemistry and they can see the friendship between the actors is authentic, thus making it more enjoyable for the audience to watch. 

The last question I asked all of my participants after the Bridesmaids trailer was called "Do you think women can be as funny, if not funnier than men?" I asked this question because I was interested in finding out my participants preferences on females in comedies. This interest stemmed from the fact that compared to the amount of comedies with males lead there aren't many films with female leads. The responses correlated with my interest as all the participants stated that they thought women can be as funny if not funnier than men. With some of the participants stating that it was a difficult question to answer due to the fact that they hadn't seen many comedies with female leads, thus making it harder for then to evaluate whether they thought women are funnier than men, These responses are very useful to me because when it comes to me writing a story plot for my film I shall be looking at other successful comedies for inspiration. So if I don't find many examples of good comedies with female leads this won't hinder me exploring the option to either include a character or make a lead character female.

History and development

After completing this piece of work I feel that I not only have a better understanding of where the comedy genre originates from and how it has developed over time, but also an idea on some aspects that I should include in my final piece. I have learned that the two most popular forms of comedy over the years have been slapstick and dialogue based. This is good for me to know as I can incorporate these aspects into my own short film. In the future if I am unsure on whether to base my film primarily on slapstick or dialogue I can create a focus group and show them examples of both forms of comedy. This would allow me to see which was more popular among, what would be, my target audience. 

Another interesting thing that I noticed while researching the history of this genre was that there has been evidence of early comedy female stars such as 'Doris Day' and 'I love Lucy'. This was interesting because it is a well known fact that the comedy genre has consisted of mostly male directors, producers, actors, writers and so forth. Knowing that not only has there been female's working within this genre, but working to the same standard, if not higher than the men, is a reassurance to me. This is because originally I thought I needed a story plot that revolved around a males perspective of the world in order to get more laughs. This feelings stems from the realisation that comedies based from a females perspective can be criticized harshly even before people have seen it. A good example of this occurred when there was a remake of the classic comedy 'Ghost busters' with a female team of ghost busters instead of male. However, learning that having female characters doesn't necessarily mean it won't be hated has inspired me to expand my thinking and ponder what my film could be about. 

  

Introduction to the brief

I have chosen to do brief 10, which is a short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may  be live action or animated or a combination of both. This piece will accompanied by two ancillary tasks, which will be a poster for the film and a film magazine review page featuring the film.

I have decided to attempt this brief over others because in my year 12 coursework I made a 2 minute opening scene for a horror film. Personally I feel that it was not as good as it could have been. So I want to try and do something similar for my year 13 coursework, but make it have a more cinematic flair to it, like better quality film footage and better audio, instead of it being  homemade.  

I was tempted to go with brief 2, which is to create a promotion package for a new film. It would include a trailer and two of these three ancillary options: a website homepage for the film, a film magazine front cover, featuring the film or a poster for the film. The reason I decided not to go with brief is because I feel that making a short film would take less time to shoot for, which be at most 3 days. Brief 2 may require me to shoot in various location, which will be more time consuming.

So since I know what brief I am going to do (brief 10) I now have to decide what genre to do for it. I have created a prezi that answers this.

Audition Skills (Research)

In this post I will be talking about my first attempt at creating a radio advert through using the Adobe Software called "Audition". I will mention my experiences learning to use this software and why I think this software is the best to use for my future ancillary task of creating a radio advert for my short film.

Before using this software I wanted to first come up with an idea on what the radio advert would be about and what it would roughly include. That is why I created this timeline that depicts what I wanted to include. First I came up with a product that I would sell. I decided to use the children's game known as "Zombie Dice". This meant that I needed to think of sounds that would resemble the genre of the game (horror), sounds that would appeal to a young audience (9 to 12 years old) and fit within a 30 second time frame as that is the standard length of time for a radio advert. As you can see in the timeline below I have clearly written what I wanted to include in my advert and the justifications for them. Something that was really helpful in the production of this radio advert was that when I visited the website for the game it had a text depicting what the game is in a child friendly way. I then read it aloud and timed how long it took to say. It came to 40 seconds long. Once making a few changes to shorten it I then had a script, which was really useful and saved a lot of time than making a script from scratch.
























After finishing my timeline I began working on creating the radio advert for "Zombie Dice". In the picture below you can see the audition software and the final edit for my radio advert from 0:22 to 0:32.5. This piece of software was relatively easy to use. Embedding the audio files was easy to do as it was a simple drag and drop process. As you can see in tracks 1 and 4 I used a fade out. This was easy to do as it only required me to move a square in the top right corner of the track and drag it to the point where I wanted the track to start and fade. Something that I really liked about this software was that I had the ability to change where the tracks could be heard. This was great as it gave the advert some spacial awareness, thus making it appear realistic and therefore more exciting to buy. However, the software did have its problems as well. For example, I wasn't able to put 2 audio files in the same track. This meant that synchronizing the audio together was very difficult to do. Overall I think that this software would be great to use for my ancillary task in my coursework as it is easy to use.






























Here is the final product.

Stabiliser (Research)