Casting for opening

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the characters for our opening are as follows:

The man (unnamed currently) - teen

The woman (unnamed currently) - teen

The free coffee man - old man, 60-70s

The child who nearly runs into the road - 7-10 years old

The person who is hit by a car - undecided

The police officer - 30s

The bag thief - unknown, he is masked but will be tall

The Narrator - someone with a powerful voice

The first character, and one of the two main characters, is the man. He will most likely remain unnamed as there will not be a situation in the opening in which a name is needed. This character will be portrayed by Matthew Koster who, before he was chosen for the part, also answered the audience research questions.
The other main character is the woman. She will be played by Matt's girlfriend Sammy, who also participated in the audience research. The reason behind this is that she is also a good age for the video and as they are already a couple, they will be able to act better towards each other.
The coffee man will be played by Luke's dad Carl Bates because he is an appropriate age for the part and he looks like Carl Pilkington (star of the TV show 'an idiot abroad') which will bring some comedy into the opening if people notice the similarities.
The child who nearly runs into the road will  be played by Luke's younger brother Jack because he is 13 but looks much younger so he will be able to act appropriately around the road and will be able to act better.
The person that will be pushed into the road by the woman will be played by Daniel Saker. This is because he is around the same age but a little shorter so it may look like a child being pushed into the road.
The police officer will be played by my dad's friend who is a real police officer so will know how to act in the situation.
The thief will be played by Nathaniel Jones as he is a tall person who will look scary enough with a mask on for the part.
Finally, the narrator will be played by either Oliver Russell or Miss Tremblay. We are going to record both of their voices reading the script and choose the better suited one for the job.

Chef - 2014



Chef, now one of my favourite 'feel good films', is a lovely tale of Chef Chris and his unhappy son who is desperate to be appreciated by his father. In the introduction of the film, we see a montage of cooking in a currently unkown restaraunt, with some unintroduced characters. Later, we get to know the characters and hear their background stories and I think that it really is a good film. The only thing that I did not like about the film is the ending (which I will not spoil) because it seems to just end suddenly as if the audience are just thrown at a wall and that is the film over. Apart from this, it is a well reccomended film and the happy father son relationship makes the audience feel good.

Get off my land video and evaluation

It's finally finished, Get off my land is done! When we first started this project I was very excited and eager to get out and film. So much so that I did end up doing a lot of the panning and preperation after the filming itself. I must first of all say thank you again to the brilliant cast of Andy Woodrow, Mike Woodrow and Katey Woodrow as without their brilliant performances, this would not have been much at all. The location was always going to be a struggle as we would need to look for three or four fields that look similar to those in the film but I think that me and Luke found great places and the only one that I would change is the last one because of a lack of tall grass in the background. Apart from this, I would say that all of the places were very accurate and similar to the originals. Next up, props. Luckily we managed to find every prop we needed except for the shotgun, but as you can see from the video, we made a humerous change to this. The land rover was kindly lent to us by Katey Woodrow's father Terry, who was also considered for the role of the farmer before it went to Mike Woodrow. The fake blood was made by me on the morning of the filming day. I made it this close to filming so that it looked better and stayed a good consistancy. I believe that the recipe that I used was good, but I would use a different one next time as it was a little bit lighter than I thought it would be. When it came to the costumes, I asked the cast if they could find similar clothes and I said that anything they did not have, I would source for them. This did not happen as the cast were able to all get similar clothes to te ones that we needed. As we arrived on filming day, I noticed that Mike (the farmer) did not have a flat cap like the one that we needed, I had a little bit of a panic to start as it was after all, a very important prop, but when Katey arrived in her dad's land rover, we were lucky again as he had one sitting in the back of his car that we borrowed. The next thing after filming was to find all of the best takes and edit them and stitch them together. This was mainly done by Luke as he was unfortunately not able to be there on the day of filming. He did this using adobe premiere pro and did a very good job of it. To get our version as close to the original as possible, Luke was starting and stopping the original alongside our one so that the shots were exactly the same length. To add sound effects, we googled the sounds that we needed and downloaded them in mp3 format to put into the video. Overall, the whole process was a brilliant chance to start learning how to make films and I think that for our first ever film, the outcome was brilliant! To improve, I think that we could have been better at organising our time because the filming was delayed several times because of bad choices on which day to choose. Apart from this, I am very happy with how it went.

Interstellar - 2014

Yesterday, I went to see the new Christopher Nolan masterpiece, 'Interstellar'. Nolan is known for his amazing films, look at Memento and Inception for example, both were huge and popular when they were taken to the big screen and now his new work on 'Interstellar' is set to be one of the most successful films of the past 5 years. In the opening to this film, we see a little girl called Murph (played by Mackenzie Foy and later in her life by Jessica Chastian and Ellen Burstyn) run into her dads room who then gets out of bed and walks to the window where the scene is set. I think it is a very good opening as it is quite slow so brings the audience into the film slowly as if it needs to be cautioned.
For the rest of the film, we learn about how the Earth has changed since an unknown disaster and what the plans are for the future.

I really enjoyed this film, the cinematography and special effects were unbelievable and the story was gripping and emotional. Another thing that makes the film brilliant is the characters. The main protagonist, Cooper (played by Matthew McConaughey) is the father of Murph and Tom and a we learn lots about him through the film. However, while this tale of wormholes and black holes may seem unbelievable, I do not think it is Nolan's best work. There are a few things that I did not like about it such as a part when they bring around a theory that love can help space travel. I think this part was a small bit silly and could have been cut out. Apart from that, I think that the film was one of the best I have seen and I recommend to any sci-fi or drama fans.

Audience research for opening

As part of the preparation for our film, we have to ask a random group of people a few question about our genre and our idea. The questions and responses are as follows...

1) What do you expect to see in a film opening?
2) Which film openings have you seen which have particularly stood out?
3) What are the conventions of a rom-com mock genre?
4) What may you expect to see in the opening of a film in this genre?
5) What do you think of our idea? (talk about it here)
6) Would our opening sequence convince you to watch the rest of the film?

Matthew Koster
1) It should be exciting and should give plenty of background information about the characters.
2) Star Wars, The Matrix, Terminator.
3) Lots of puns and jokes, dark humour may be funny, and many clichés about rom-coms.
4) Same as question 1.
5) The idea of 'breaking the fourth wall' is very good, it could be very funny.
6) Yes, it would be very good.

Evan Jenkins
1) I would expect to see a few shots of the setting and the characters backgrounds.
2) Star Wars, American Pie.
3) It needs to be funny as well as using lots of puns. Puns are not always funny for some people.
4) The setting to the film, a few characters introduced and funny to set the mood.
5) It sounds very funny and is good as it bends the general conventions.
6) Yes.

Sammy O'Connor Balsillie
1) Dialogue, scenery visible, a list of people in the film (opening credits).
2) In time, Star Wars.
3) Some sarcasm and awkward but funny moments between two people. Many types of humour.
4) A fake audience laugh, an introduction to main characters.
5) A pretty cool and funny idea.
6) Yes.

Andy Woodrow
1) An introduction to characters and ideas.
2) Back to the Future, Fletch.
3) Humour, a good story, and fun characters.
4) A must is character history or background and setting of the scene.
5) It is very good and has great potential.
6) Maybe, lets see how it looks when done.

Poppy Frost
1) characters enter, make sure the genre is clear.
2) Coraline, Road to El Dorado.
3) Cheesy romance between two people, who clearly will be together.
4) Characters and setting is important.
5) Very entertaining and funny idea.
6) Yes, to see how the relationship progressed.

Becca Stimpson
1) Introduction to some character and location. Also being shown the genre through clear use of conventions.
2) Back to the Future, Guardians of the Galaxy.
3) Good, relatable characters, humorous.
4) Introduction to some of the main characters - showing their lives.
5) Very interesting idea that could be good if portrayed well.
6) Yes.

Dan Saker
1) An introduction to the characters in the film, and something that sets the genre.
2) Memento, Star Wars, The Dark Night, as they are memorable and introduce the film well.
3) Taking the micky out of the classic cliché moments of classic romantic comedies.
4) The 2 main characters doing things in a funny or stupid way.
5) I like the idea, its sounds very funny and works really well.
6) Yes because I like rom coms and comedies so it will be good.

These are the responses for 7 people, but we have also asked people the questions on camera so that you can see and hear their exact reactions. We will use this information lots to help with what we should do in our opening.

Target audeince for opening

Our film is a romantic comedy/mockumentary so there could be a lot of variation in the target audience. There will be people coming to see the love story, and others for the comedy and for the fact that it takes the mick out of existing romantic comedies such as Love Actually to give it a Family Guy style twist. I think that the best audience would be teens to young adults as the story will be more relatable to someone the same age. People who watch romantic comedies, or just comedies may be the type of people that we would expect the most. The mockumentary style part of the film will be the way that we use comedy to express our hate for romantic comedies. We hope that this will be funny as humour can sometimes be difficult to get right.

Prop & Costume list for opening

We will need to source the following props for the opening:

• toothbrush
• toothpaste
• deodorant
• coffee
• handcuffs?
• handbag
• fake blood

We will also need to source the following costumes/clothing for the opening:

• pyjamas for man & woman
• casual clothes for man & woman
• apron for coffee man
• police uniform

We need to make sure that the casual clothes that the woman wears will be old clothes as she will be getting them ripped and muddy.

Existing character profile - Ramona Flowers

Name: Ramona Flowers

Film/s: Scott pilgrim vs the World

Gender: female
Actor/actress: Mary Elizabeth Winstead

Ramona is a 24 year old delivery girl from Canada (originally from New York) working for Amazon.ca. She enters the film after the main character (Scott) starts dreaming about her and when he does find her, he falls in love. However, it won't be easy for him because of her complicated past. Ramona has seven evil exes who Scott must defeat in order to be with her. Throughout the film, she comes across as a shy character who is constantly changing her hairstyle and acting anxious about herself. Ramona is by far the most important character in the film, even more so that Scott. This is because she is the one who brings all of the evil exes, and in turn, the whole storyline. The film is a comic book, arcade game, real life style mix about these issues.
I like her character because she is very reserved and complicated but also very important and lovable.  A very good and strong willed character.

Characters for opening

The important characters will be as follows:

• The man (unnamed currently) - early 20s
• The woman (unnamed currently) - early 20s
• The free coffee man - old man, 60-70s
• The child who nearly runs into the road - 7-10 years old
• The person who is hit by a car - undecided
• The police officer - 30s
• The bag thief - unknown, he is masked but will be tall

The last 5 on the list will only be in the opening of the film for a couple of seconds each, the main characters are the man and the woman who will be featured throughout.
As well as these, we will also need some background extras for scenes such as the one in which everyone applauses when the man saves the child.

Film opening rough script

The scene is a small town. There are video clips of the town and people doing different things walking and doing daily activities.

Narrator - The scene is a small town. There are video clips of the….oh dam that's the wrong bit…hang on (flicks pages on a script) ok, finally here we are after I definitely didn't accidentally read the wrong thing. 

Hi there. I want to talk to you about love. Love is all around, everyday. But the one day people start to show it is on the 14th of February. Valentines day. A day where love flows around like a river…no hang on, no I'm done. No, why is that there? (video’s stop). Come on, seriously (mocking voice) “Love flows like a river”, stop now. The only people in here watching these silly rom com’s are either obsessive girlfriends who want to see fricking Zak Effron take his top of or lonely guys looking for a place to go where he can disguise his tears. This is stupid, right start again please I’m going to make this script more realistic to the modern world. God, this is stupid. Might as well be directed by Michael Bay would make this day even more brilliant…what, he does? You’re kidding. This is a ROMANTIC COMEDY! There aren't any explosions in this film, he’s going to be like a lost little puppy bless him. Right let’s do this stupid film opening.

Shots rewind back to the start

(coughs) Valentines day. A day of love, a day of kindness, a day that’s after Ice Cream For Breakfast day and Curling Is Cool day (videos pause) It’s true, look them up I'm not lying. (Videos play)  Our story starts in the small town of Wymondham where we see some couple doing (mocking voice) “lovey dove smoochy woochy stuff”. (whisper, sigh) god i hate my job…anyway here's a song your girlfriend might like (cheesy pop song plays)

last between 45 seconds and 1 minute

in the next few scenes, there are two things going on. The first is a man getting ready and the second is the woman getting ready, who will have the worst time getting ready to go out to meet the man. 

(The mans day)

1. The man gets up bright and early ready for his day out.
2. He goes to the bathroom the brush his teeth and shave
3. He gets changed and sprays deodorant on
4. slides down the banister to go grab some toast for breakfast
5. Leaves the door waving bye.
6. stops a kid from running into road
7. gets a free coffee
8. walking
9. walking
10. gets to the table outside café waiting for his date
11. waiting
12. date arrives, he says “well at least its not raining…”

(the woman’s day)

1. sleeping.
2. sleeping.
3. sleeping.
4. wakes up in panic and jumps out of bed.
5. runs out the door.
6. running down road and accidentally pushes/knocks someone into the road who gets run over.
7. police grab her
8. running out of police station
9. running
10. running and falls in puddle, gets very wet and muddy. 
11. part of her clothes gets caught on something and rips
12. gets to the date looks like a state. He says “Well, at least its not raining” then she gets mugged.

scenes 12 blends together. Each scene lasts maximum of 5 seconds.

 

Courtesy of Luke Bates' media blog (we worked on this on his blog first).

Existing character profile - Andy Dufresne

Name: Andy Dufresne
Film/s: The Shawshank Redemption
Gender: Male
Actor/actress: Tim Robbins
Inmate number: 37927

Andy Dufresne is the main protagonist of the amazing, award winning 'The Shawshank Redemption'. Andy, a very well off vice president of a bank, is in for an unfortunate turn of events when he is charged for putting 4 bullets in both his wife and her secret lover. His punishment, a life sentence at Shawshank State Penitentiary. While inside, we find out many things about this character such as his abnormal personality compared to other inmates and his strange behaviour that makes him appear like a lonely man without anything to live for. Later in the film, he becomes good friends with Red (another inmate) and we see their relationship develop over the rest of the film.

Andy is by far one of my favourite characters in film. He shows emotion so easily through so little dialogue however, this may not be his character but the beyond impressive acting of Robbins. The character is also secretly very intelligent which I think is a really good trait and a good idea because it means that he can do anything off the storyline and when it is introduced to the audience, it is beieveable.

Existing character profile - Han Solo

Character name: Han Solo

Film/s: Star wars episodes V, IV, VI

Gender: Male

Actor/actress: Harrison Ford
Height: 1.8m

Han Solo, is a Hero, a smuggler, but most importantly, an integral part of the Rebel Alliance. With help from his co-pilot Chewbacca and good friends Luke Skywaler and Princess Leia Organa, he helps in the fight against the Empire. His ship, The Millennium Falcon has been his pride and joy ever since he won it in a gambing match from good friend Lando Calrissian. He takes care of his ship as much as anything else in the universe and with good reason as this huge, armed vehicle becomes a great force against Darth Vader and The Emperor. Solo is from a place called Corellia but spends most of his time trying to escape criminals such as Jabba the Hut who he is in serious debt to.

I think that Han Solo is one of the best characters in film. This is because we see a good progression of his personality. In the beginning,  he is a cocky, irresponsible character who appears to be in the way of Luke and his mission, but later we learn that he is a fun and loveable character who everyone grows to like. I think that his character is very good and I cannot wait to see how his character progresses in the new star wars trilogy by Disney.