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Thursday 28 January 2010
Columbia Pictures
We have chosen the company owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, Columbia. After watching film trailers by this chosen institution we saw that the company logo is usually displayed at the beginning of the trailer as an introduction. We found the logo they use and uploaded it into our trailer, the logo is below....
By looking on YouTube we also found out that there is a transition when it comes on the screen. We managed to add this into our trailer so the picture zooms in and out of the picture to make the same effect as in previous trailers.
The video on YouTube we saw this effect on was http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9qnKZgAoTE.
Target Audience For "Lola"
When considering the target audience for our we film we had to take several factors into consideration, firstly the genre, After concluding that the genre of our film was an action/thriller, With that in mind we knew that films of similar genre like "Long Kiss Goodnight", this film is targeted at men over 15 (due to it's rating) because of the violence and swearing.
However another factor to take into consideration is the lead character, if the lead character was a male, it would attract a male audience as it is a macho man running around and killing people, but in our film the lead character is a female, this could attract a female audience as there is a possibility of a romantic storyline or the opportunity to see a female in an empowering role. The age of the lead can also be a factor, for example we have a teenage lead so it is more likely for people of our own age to watch our film, unlike a film with an elderly lead than a teenager is less likely to want to watch it as they have less chance of relating to the character. The reputation of the lead can also be a factor, in our case this may not be so beneficial as we have a relative unknown as a character, but in other films they rely on a big name lead to pull in the audience, which is why its always such a risk to cast an unknown in a film.
The target audience may be attracted by who is involved in the film itself, for example when you see the names Spielberg, Scorcese, Tarantino or Cruise any where near a film the interest in it will spike tenfold, again in our case this isnt so benficial.
However another factor to take into consideration is the lead character, if the lead character was a male, it would attract a male audience as it is a macho man running around and killing people, but in our film the lead character is a female, this could attract a female audience as there is a possibility of a romantic storyline or the opportunity to see a female in an empowering role. The age of the lead can also be a factor, for example we have a teenage lead so it is more likely for people of our own age to watch our film, unlike a film with an elderly lead than a teenager is less likely to want to watch it as they have less chance of relating to the character. The reputation of the lead can also be a factor, in our case this may not be so beneficial as we have a relative unknown as a character, but in other films they rely on a big name lead to pull in the audience, which is why its always such a risk to cast an unknown in a film.
The target audience may be attracted by who is involved in the film itself, for example when you see the names Spielberg, Scorcese, Tarantino or Cruise any where near a film the interest in it will spike tenfold, again in our case this isnt so benficial.
Monday 25 January 2010
Production Company
If we were to release our film Lola, a realistic thought occurred of what type of film production or distribution company would get involved in a film of our genre. Whether they be a large scale International company like Warner Brothers or a smaller scale predominantly British company like Working Title. To find out i looked into films of a similar type to ours and compiled a list of the companies that either produced or distributed them in the UK.
The following are films with a female lead playing an assassin of sorts.
Nikita- A film about a criminal who is given a second chance by the government to stay out of prison by becoming an assassin. - MGM
The Long Kiss Goodnight- A women suffering from amnesia, begins to regain her memory of a violent past. - New Line Cinema
Prizzi's honour- A professional hit man and hit woman fall in love, only to discover they have been hired to kill each other. - ABC
Kill Bill- The bride awakes from a coma with a metal plate in her head and her baby missing. the only thing on her mind is to take revenge on the people who did this to her and to kill there boss Bill. - Miramax
Charlies Angels- Three Female secret agents try to retrieve stolen voice Id Software with the use of Disguises, Martial arts and Sex appeal. - Columbia
Elektra- A supernatural assassin is assigned to protect a boy and his father from an opposing group of supernatural killers. - Fox
The following films dont have a female lead but are based around a "Gun For hire" Character.
Leon- a proffesional assassin reluctantly takes care of a 12 year old girl, after her parents are killed, he than teaches her his trade. - Columbia
Collateral- A Taxi driver finds himself becoming a driver for a hitman as he makes his away around town "dealing with his business". - Paramount
Smokin Aces- A Las Vegas perfromer is squeeling on the mob, its up to a small task force of police to protect him, as well as all the big assassins killing each other off in the attempt to claim the reward money. - Universal
Desperado- A gunslinger takes revenge on the people that killed his lover, and anyone who gets in the way. - Columbia
In The Line Of Fire- A secret service agent is brought out of retirement to save the president from a clever assassin. - Columbia
After looking at my findings, i found that Columbia Pictures (owned by Sony) produced or distributed the most of our genre type with 4 out of 11 of the films i looked at, had them involved. Not only this but they have produced the last two james bonds and are lined up to produce James bond 23 (as yet untitled) and they are in the process of producing Angelina Jolie's new Film "Salt" about the governemnt and Hired killers.
With all this in mind if any company were to get involved even if it were the under companies, It would most likely gain success with Columbia Pictures.
The following are films with a female lead playing an assassin of sorts.
Nikita- A film about a criminal who is given a second chance by the government to stay out of prison by becoming an assassin. - MGM
The Long Kiss Goodnight- A women suffering from amnesia, begins to regain her memory of a violent past. - New Line Cinema
Prizzi's honour- A professional hit man and hit woman fall in love, only to discover they have been hired to kill each other. - ABC
Kill Bill- The bride awakes from a coma with a metal plate in her head and her baby missing. the only thing on her mind is to take revenge on the people who did this to her and to kill there boss Bill. - Miramax
Charlies Angels- Three Female secret agents try to retrieve stolen voice Id Software with the use of Disguises, Martial arts and Sex appeal. - Columbia
Elektra- A supernatural assassin is assigned to protect a boy and his father from an opposing group of supernatural killers. - Fox
The following films dont have a female lead but are based around a "Gun For hire" Character.
Leon- a proffesional assassin reluctantly takes care of a 12 year old girl, after her parents are killed, he than teaches her his trade. - Columbia
Collateral- A Taxi driver finds himself becoming a driver for a hitman as he makes his away around town "dealing with his business". - Paramount
Smokin Aces- A Las Vegas perfromer is squeeling on the mob, its up to a small task force of police to protect him, as well as all the big assassins killing each other off in the attempt to claim the reward money. - Universal
Desperado- A gunslinger takes revenge on the people that killed his lover, and anyone who gets in the way. - Columbia
In The Line Of Fire- A secret service agent is brought out of retirement to save the president from a clever assassin. - Columbia
After looking at my findings, i found that Columbia Pictures (owned by Sony) produced or distributed the most of our genre type with 4 out of 11 of the films i looked at, had them involved. Not only this but they have produced the last two james bonds and are lined up to produce James bond 23 (as yet untitled) and they are in the process of producing Angelina Jolie's new Film "Salt" about the governemnt and Hired killers.
With all this in mind if any company were to get involved even if it were the under companies, It would most likely gain success with Columbia Pictures.
Tuesday 19 January 2010
Shot of actor on the phone from behind
At the beginning of our trailer, whilst 'Lola' is applying make up, the phone rings and it cuts to a shot of her 'boss' giving her orders. We wanted this 'boss' character to remain mysterious so we aimed for the shot of him to capture this. The shot we used was an over the shoulder shot from the side of the character, the lighting was dark so you cannot see the characters face and leaves the audience wondering. From this shot we also wanted the suggest what this character's role would involve, we did this by having the actor holding a whiskey glass and talking in a deep, powerful voice. This makes the character seem controlling and slighting scary, bringing a new suspense to the trailer.
Music in the Trailer
At the beginning of our trailer we intend on creating a suspensful moment so we feel there is no need for music during the initial dialogue exchange.
After the dialogue we than move to a montage of action detailing themes from our film, this leaves us with the perfect opportunity to use fast paced, punky guitar music.
Our group found it necessary that if we have any words in our diagetic sound than it would have to have a female lead, and the words would have to specific to what is involved in our film, for example the song Going in for the kill- La roux. The problem we face is that we require royalty free music, so we can search for the songs we want all we like but we are unable to use them so we used free music websites like http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/free.html
After extensive searching we found that the song loop95 sounded like something we could follow up on.
After the dialogue we than move to a montage of action detailing themes from our film, this leaves us with the perfect opportunity to use fast paced, punky guitar music.
Our group found it necessary that if we have any words in our diagetic sound than it would have to have a female lead, and the words would have to specific to what is involved in our film, for example the song Going in for the kill- La roux. The problem we face is that we require royalty free music, so we can search for the songs we want all we like but we are unable to use them so we used free music websites like http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/free.html
After extensive searching we found that the song loop95 sounded like something we could follow up on.
Planning The Script & Shot Composition
Now the vast majority of our footage has been filmed we have began editing and are slowly shaping the final piece. We are currently focussing our attention towards allocating the order of shots, and also deciding how we would like our voice over and title sequences to be. We have opted to use a classic voiceover style as this is often present in action films so will hopefully indicate our genre well. Typically the voice is a deep and male which we have taken into account by appointing Greg to the role.
One of the points that has prompted much discussion is the decision to assist our opening 'make up scene' with titles or voiceover. It was suggested that as this scene is quite lengthy and simplistic in its content, we could add some narration or titles, possibly including a question to prompt curiousity. The advantage with this interaction would be heightened audience engagement and avoiding boredom. The opposing idea was to leave it completely untampered with; it could be considered that a sense of intriegue would be evoked without needing to 'spoon feed' the audience, and we were also made aware of the fact that some may enjoy the idea of 'voyeurism'- spying on the character. Theres also short diegetic dialogue in this scene with the mystery man on the phone which we need to finalise.
The next issue we are yet to resolve is regarding our penultimate scene, the walking sequence that follows the action montage and leads to the 'spin & main title' climax. It has always been our intention to involve the main voiceover dialogue during this period and we still stick by this decision. Our primary challenge now is to perfect the wording. At the moment we are toying with the idea of 'what goes around.. always comes back' (or something along these lines) but we are also attempting to come up with something that perhaps relates to Lola's story a bit more.. revenge is sweet? in for the kill?.. we also liked the idea of answering the question we may include earlier in the trailer.. its a working progress. Once we have something we like it will be a matter of deciding which words go on which caption shot, the frequency, font, animation, etc etc etc.
One of the points that has prompted much discussion is the decision to assist our opening 'make up scene' with titles or voiceover. It was suggested that as this scene is quite lengthy and simplistic in its content, we could add some narration or titles, possibly including a question to prompt curiousity. The advantage with this interaction would be heightened audience engagement and avoiding boredom. The opposing idea was to leave it completely untampered with; it could be considered that a sense of intriegue would be evoked without needing to 'spoon feed' the audience, and we were also made aware of the fact that some may enjoy the idea of 'voyeurism'- spying on the character. Theres also short diegetic dialogue in this scene with the mystery man on the phone which we need to finalise.
The next issue we are yet to resolve is regarding our penultimate scene, the walking sequence that follows the action montage and leads to the 'spin & main title' climax. It has always been our intention to involve the main voiceover dialogue during this period and we still stick by this decision. Our primary challenge now is to perfect the wording. At the moment we are toying with the idea of 'what goes around.. always comes back' (or something along these lines) but we are also attempting to come up with something that perhaps relates to Lola's story a bit more.. revenge is sweet? in for the kill?.. we also liked the idea of answering the question we may include earlier in the trailer.. its a working progress. Once we have something we like it will be a matter of deciding which words go on which caption shot, the frequency, font, animation, etc etc etc.
Friday 15 January 2010
Research: Audiences for: Action films: "Wanted"
"Wanted" was a very successful film in 2008 included many star actors and actresses. It became successful as it managed to attract a variety of audiences.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uMlNKozweg
When looking at the film trailer, you can see why the producers of the film have managed to attract its many audiences. They have mandged to get two very famous woman and male actors:- Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman. These choice of actors already attract both the male and female audiences as they are both very well known actors. Males find Angelina Jolie attractive so they will want to whatch her whilest females know that Morgan is a ledgend of an actor, so they know he will good in the film. It catches the younger audiences because alot of young people, males in perticular like to whatch action or thriller films. This variety of audiences was how the film became such a success and we should adapt our film trailer to which audiences we want to target.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uMlNKozweg
When looking at the film trailer, you can see why the producers of the film have managed to attract its many audiences. They have mandged to get two very famous woman and male actors:- Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman. These choice of actors already attract both the male and female audiences as they are both very well known actors. Males find Angelina Jolie attractive so they will want to whatch her whilest females know that Morgan is a ledgend of an actor, so they know he will good in the film. It catches the younger audiences because alot of young people, males in perticular like to whatch action or thriller films. This variety of audiences was how the film became such a success and we should adapt our film trailer to which audiences we want to target.
Wednesday 13 January 2010
Editing
Due to the recent weather, We have had limited opportunities to begin editing. We completed the majority of the filming during the December holidays and we hoped to get the editing for this footage started as soon as we got back from our holidays, however we have been unable to start any major editing.
Hopefully when the weather stops and we gain full access to the editing software at school we should be able to finish editing.
Hopefully when the weather stops and we gain full access to the editing software at school we should be able to finish editing.
Sunday 10 January 2010
Media Presentation
This is the media presentation we put together to show to the class and explain what we were doing for our trailer and how we are researching possible ideas.
Wednesday 6 January 2010
RESEARCH AND PLANNING; Title
Initially the name of our film was going to attempt to specify the genre of film that we were aiming for, with words like assassin, femme-fatale and seduction being thrown around, After researching and brainstorming we came to the conclusion that any names we tried were either already used in other films or sounded cheesy and like a parody film, these included ; " Kiss Goodbye", "Man Eater", "Temptress" or " Nail Polish Off".
After going through films that have a similar genre to us we discovered several films with just one word being either a description of the film or the main characters name, like "Leon", "Psycho","Heat" and "Crash".
We concluded that to add an air of mystery to the film we would just have the name of a character we already knew we wanted a female lead so it needed to be a woman's name, this also helped us as this would attract male and female viewers, One of the first names to spring to mind was "Lola" as it was an easy name to remember and unusual enough for people to recognise, also as far as we are aware no other film is called this, Finally the name is also impossible to mispronounce so it should be a successful title and manage to entice an audience.
After going through films that have a similar genre to us we discovered several films with just one word being either a description of the film or the main characters name, like "Leon", "Psycho","Heat" and "Crash".
We concluded that to add an air of mystery to the film we would just have the name of a character we already knew we wanted a female lead so it needed to be a woman's name, this also helped us as this would attract male and female viewers, One of the first names to spring to mind was "Lola" as it was an easy name to remember and unusual enough for people to recognise, also as far as we are aware no other film is called this, Finally the name is also impossible to mispronounce so it should be a successful title and manage to entice an audience.
Tuesday 5 January 2010
Taglines
At the end of our trailer we plan to have some cuts to relevant taglines on the screen that will give a twist away to keep the audience on the toes. This twist involves 'Lola',the main character, becoming the vulnerable one who is in trouble. Here is one of the ideas we have come up with...
Shot of walking down alley
'This summer'
Return to walking shot
'What goes around'
Return to walking shot
'Always come back around'
Cut to shot from behind her, with her reacting to a noise and spinning around with a scared look on her face (slow motion?)
'LOLA'
The last cut will have the words 'LOLA' with the font and layout we have discussed previously on the blog. This will finally give away the film title and hopefully the way it is laid out will stick in the audiences mind.
Problems Faced Whilst Filming
Lighting
We had numerous ideas related to how we could portray certain moods within our film, one of which was lighting. When watching big films its easy to forget the technology and effort that goes into creating the right ambience and its frustrating when you have a picture of what effect you want but cant quite duplicate it. The scenes which we filmed in daylight didnt werent negatively affected, however there were some shots that proved problematic. As mentioned previously in the blog, we were put under pressure by the dusk/night time work we wanted to include; we didnt have the technology to immitate a particular time of day so we had a short slot of time to film between the points of it either being too bright or dark, which meant reduced room for error and a risk of continuity issues. Another particulary difficult scene we encountered was the shot of 'Lolas Boss' on the phone to her. As a group we had a shared image of how we wanted the outcome, a darkened setting with limited light on the character in order for him to perceived as mysterious and possibly sinister (something simlair pictured below) . We attempted to get a shot that displayed the illuminated outlines of the features that were relevant to the mise en scene (the character, phone, glass of brandy) however, once again their was a fine line between being so dark that it was unrecognisable or so light that it compromised the conviction of the mood. We tried different light compositions and settled for a distinguishable-yet-dark scene where the mans back is to the character so as not to eliminate the idea of enigma.
We had numerous ideas related to how we could portray certain moods within our film, one of which was lighting. When watching big films its easy to forget the technology and effort that goes into creating the right ambience and its frustrating when you have a picture of what effect you want but cant quite duplicate it. The scenes which we filmed in daylight didnt werent negatively affected, however there were some shots that proved problematic. As mentioned previously in the blog, we were put under pressure by the dusk/night time work we wanted to include; we didnt have the technology to immitate a particular time of day so we had a short slot of time to film between the points of it either being too bright or dark, which meant reduced room for error and a risk of continuity issues. Another particulary difficult scene we encountered was the shot of 'Lolas Boss' on the phone to her. As a group we had a shared image of how we wanted the outcome, a darkened setting with limited light on the character in order for him to perceived as mysterious and possibly sinister (something simlair pictured below) . We attempted to get a shot that displayed the illuminated outlines of the features that were relevant to the mise en scene (the character, phone, glass of brandy) however, once again their was a fine line between being so dark that it was unrecognisable or so light that it compromised the conviction of the mood. We tried different light compositions and settled for a distinguishable-yet-dark scene where the mans back is to the character so as not to eliminate the idea of enigma.
Location
One of our observations from our extensive research of the action genre was that many are filmed in cosmopolitan areas; shots of city skylines, main road car chases, skyscrapers, city bars and busy streets are ubiquitous. We took this into consideration when selecting filming location but unfortunately we were unable arrange filming in this setting, the reason for this was availability, timescale and inconvenience, as well as ultimately it not being a good idea to be waving a mock gun around in central London which of course was a key prop for our trailer. There also would also be the chance of disruption from passers by and a limited timescale due to personal schedules and it not being local for our group. We were conscious of varying our scenarios and managed to get some effective footage regardless, and in hindsight I think filming anywhere else will have incurred problems that outweighed the benefits.
Weather
The weather on our main day of filming was extremely cold and icey, on one hand it contributed to mise en scene; the bleakness of the atmosphere was reflective of Lola's victims helplessness in a scene where she is chasing him. On the other hand it was dangerous for our actors who also had to be conscious of being cautious on the ice. Luckily I dont believe it affected things too much and no one was seriously hurt. The only other problem endured pertaining to the weather was ensuring that filming equipment wasnt damaged by rain or snow, once again this was fortunately overcome and all equipment was unscathed.
One of our observations from our extensive research of the action genre was that many are filmed in cosmopolitan areas; shots of city skylines, main road car chases, skyscrapers, city bars and busy streets are ubiquitous. We took this into consideration when selecting filming location but unfortunately we were unable arrange filming in this setting, the reason for this was availability, timescale and inconvenience, as well as ultimately it not being a good idea to be waving a mock gun around in central London which of course was a key prop for our trailer. There also would also be the chance of disruption from passers by and a limited timescale due to personal schedules and it not being local for our group. We were conscious of varying our scenarios and managed to get some effective footage regardless, and in hindsight I think filming anywhere else will have incurred problems that outweighed the benefits.
Weather
The weather on our main day of filming was extremely cold and icey, on one hand it contributed to mise en scene; the bleakness of the atmosphere was reflective of Lola's victims helplessness in a scene where she is chasing him. On the other hand it was dangerous for our actors who also had to be conscious of being cautious on the ice. Luckily I dont believe it affected things too much and no one was seriously hurt. The only other problem endured pertaining to the weather was ensuring that filming equipment wasnt damaged by rain or snow, once again this was fortunately overcome and all equipment was unscathed.
Friday 1 January 2010
More Setting Photos
Below are some more pictures we have been taking of the setting as we have been going along...
Above is a picture of one of the settings we chose for hints of the storyline to take place, this one has a woodland, foresty backdrop, which will show 'Lola' after one of her victims.
Above is one of the obstacles we are going to have for the victim, we are involving obstacles so that the victim is slowed down and we can use a bigger variety of camera shots to stress the characters panic and increase tension.
The pictures above and below show the icy/snowy sections of our trailer, this is where we will show our victim struggling to get away from 'Lola' on the ice, the ice will ad the extra effect.
Below is one of the settings for one of the montage shots we may use in our trailer, we chose another realistic setting so that the audience may be more familiar with what they are watching
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