Genre (part 3)

Another genre of film that many love to watch is Drama. I am not a fan of Dramas because I prefer more funny films however I enjoy watching dramas when they are mixed with other genres such as sci-fi. I was not sure if I had seen any dramas as I am not too sure what makes one, but I visited the IMDB website and under dramas was 'The Shawshank redemption' (1994). This is possibly my favourite film of all time. The film features a young man called Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins) who is believed to have killed his wife over affair issues. Because of this, the court of law sees him to Shawshank, a very large maximum security prison. When he is on the inside, we get taken in with him to see what life in an american prison is like. Shortly after entering Shawshank, Andy becomes good friends with Red, the man who knows how to get stuff for people on the inside. The part of Red was given to Morgan Freeman and it is in my opinion, one of his best roles. This film is definitely a good example of a drama, it is serious, emotional, and has some characters that you grow to love.

Finally,  Horror. Horrors are great as they can be so stereotypical and similar but still be successful
because many people love them. As well as this, it can easily be mixed with other genres such as romantic films or comedies. One thing that makes a horror film a horror film is making an audience jump. Most people love and anticipate these moments because of the adrenaline and shock they get from it. I have not watched many horrors, but a good example of a comedy horror film is 'Scary Movie' (2000). This film follows a group of teenagers being stalked and murdered one by one by a psyco serial killer. One thing that I love about this film is that there are no jump scares because in my opinion these are so pointless and they make a film all about trying to make the audience terrified and by doing this, they often are distracted from the actual story which will make the film really boring and rather repetitive. The fact that there is a good story is why I love scary movie. It may not be the best, but it doesn't have to be because it is a comedy. I reccomend this as it is a great example of a horror and one of the best, another horror I am planning to see is 'The Babadook' and I will write a review once I have seen it.

So to sum it all up, all of the variations of genres can all be brilliant in their own way and I believe that if you read something similar by another film lover, the opinions would be completely different because everyone likes different types of films.

Genre (part 2)

Now for Documentaries, this type of film is a more serious approach to film (much like a drama) but it is real and the story and what is happening is all true. This could be a documentary about animals, or even buildings. I enjoy watching wildlife documentaries as I am interested in animals so I know what can make one interesting or boring. One thing that is important is to (unless the documentary is on one type of animal) talk about many different species. This is because some audiences may get bored if someone is talking about one animal for an hour, however I do not see this as a problem if the documentary is good. One series of documentaries that is currently being shown on BBC One is 'David Attenborough's life stories'. This is Attenborough back at his best. These documentaries are exciting, fact filled, and enjoyable. One thing that I particularly like about his documentaries is that after the program, you get to see how the camera crew found and filmed the animals. Something that I find amazing is how they will look years for maybe only ten minutes of good footage, but it is well worth the wait. This is what happened in yesterday's episode of life stories, in which the crew had been searching for 2 years to see the endangered African Wild Dog in its habitat hunting. Eventually, they found a pack and managed to get ahead and by doing this, they were able to capture footage of the entire chase, catch, and kill. As well as this, they were also very lucky to see a hyena, that came within a couple of meters of one of  the cameramen, fight with the pack of dogs and be chased off by them. This action is what a good documentary needs.

Mockumentaries are a type or documentary that involves mocking a subject or someone. Unlike documentaries, these do not have to be so factual as most of the time the subject is not real and it needs to be more for comedy. A good example of a mockumentary that is funny, interesting, and a believable story, is 'This is Spinal Tap' (1984). This film follows the lives of the made up popular rock band Spinal Tap. I absolutely loved this film. Some parts were so funny I was in tears, and other parts so upsetting that you can feel the pain that the characters are feeling. One part that I found particularly amusing was when a few of the band members were being interviewed and they were discussing all of the impossible freak accidents that happened to all of their deceased previous drummers. These include a ridiculous idea of spontaneous human combustion leaving only a glowing green blob. This film is a brilliant example of what I believe to be a perfect mockumentary.

Editing

At the moment, get off my land and henry are both in the editing process. I am using After effects CS6 and a few other programmes to put together, edit and finish the films. I am doing the editing for henry and Luke is doing the editing for get off my land.

Film opening update

Big announcement! We finally have decided on a name for our film opening. It will be called Henry (after the hoover). Our group decided this today as we did not know what to call it and this idea popped up.

In regards to where we are, all the filming is complete and all that needs to be done is the editing, music needs to be chosen, and we need to each do our own evaluation on how we think it went. We also need to decide if we are going to have credits at the start and which font we will use if we do so.
I think that the only words that will appear on screen will be 'Sam Woodrow', 'Frank Woodrow' and 'Henry'. These words will most likely fade in and out during the running scene.

Film opening filming

On the morning of halloween, we decided to film our opening. For the first scene of the opening, it starts in the evening when it is slightly dark and then the character wakes up. Unfortunately, one of the members of the cast was working in the evenings so we had another plan. We woke up at 5:30am to get filming before sunrise so that is seemed like the evening. This went well, however I would not do this again because it was too early to wake up and in the opening, the sky may get slightly lighter into what the audience may assume is the night.

In total, the filming took about two hours, an hour and a half in the streets filming, and half an hour
doing the rest of the shots. There had been a last minute change on where the character Johnny was going too. The initial idea was that he would hide in a shop, however the owner of the shop had to change their mind as they had a large delivery coming in early that morning, so the shop would be full. Instead of this, we had an idea that I think is actually better than the shop. To flee from the dangerous hoover, Johnny would dive into a large bin down an alley next to the shop. When in the bin, he would light a lighter to see, and looking him in the face is the evil hoover. I think this ida went very well and I cannot wait to see what it will look like.

While Johnny was running, I wanted to make sure that I made it interesting by getting lots of different camera angles. This included long shots, shots from up high, and even one from within a hedge as if it was the hoover's point of view. I
think that Sam did a very good job of being the character Johnny, he showed lots of fear in some scenes and provided some unexpected humour in others. Frank also did a brilliant job of being Dr Smith and was a good convincing character.

Overall, a good day of filming and I expect that the outcome will be brilliant.

Genre (part 1)

A Genre is the style of a film. This can include:

• Horror
• Comedy
• Romance
• Drama
• Documentary
• Mock-umentary

Each of those can easily be successful and loved by a wide audience. Below, I have looked at examples of these 6 genres and how they can be good or bad:

First up, Comedy. This is my favourite genre of film because comedy is by far the best way to get the attention of the audience and they can cheer people up! One of my favourite comedies is 'Airplane' (1980). This film is Comedy at its finest. Throughout the film, we get many small funny ongoing gags such as Ted Striker (played by Robert Hays) and his 'drinking problem'. As well as this, there are also many small 'funny parts' as we may refer to them, in which jokes or amusing things may be said such as when a young boy asks a girl if she would like a drink and she replies with an unexpected response that left me laughing for ages. One thing that some people may find difficult in regards to creating a comedy is that it has to be funny or so stupid its funny. If a film tries to be funny but is really not, it can leave the audience feeling really awkward.

Next, romantic films. I have not watched many if any romantic films so I will use my knowledge on romantic comedies to try and explain what they need. First of all, a couple that everyone wants to be together, this is important because if the audience do not want them together, they may not enjoy the film. These films also need someone who is going to get in the way. This could be another man or another woman but in most films (especially American high school romances) there is a sporty boy, a nerdy boy, and the girl that they are both in love with and we know that in the end, she and the nerdy boy will be together. An example of a film I have seen that is a type of romantic film is 'Grease' (1978). In this film Danny and Sandy are the couple that end up getting together, however, unlike in many romantic films, it is the girl that has to change for the guy rather than the other way around. The film does meet many expectations of a high school romance and is a good example.

Script and storyboard for film opening

The film starts in a dark street at night. Johnny is frantically running and we see shots of his face, feet, and long shots of him running. He runs down a dead end and turns in fear, we then hear the sound of a hoover and see its shadow against a wall as it approaches him. He screams and wakes up. He looks relieved as he realises it was only a dream.

The scene then changes to Dr Smith filling up a glass. He walks into a room with Johnny sitting down and he sits next to him.

Dr Smith "how's that?"

Johnny nods his head, not wanting to speak.

Dr Smith "right, lets get started"

This is the script for the film opening. I decided not to include much dialogue to try and show how serious he is about his fear of hoovers. Hopefully, the audience will find his fear amusing but I did not want to try too much comedy in the opening as there are very few comedies that have humour in the first two minutes.

Here is the storyboard for the opening:

Casting for film opening

For our comedy film opening, we have had to find two actors. One to play Johnny and one for Dr Smith. The part of Johnny was given to my brother Sam Woodrow. He has just recently got home for a week from an acting university in London so I thought it would be good to see if he could be used, and he said yes. The part of Dr Smith was given to my grandad Frank Woodrow. I thought he would be good for the role because as much as he is normally a very funny man, he can act seriously very well and will not start laughing like some people may have trouble with during filming.
In the picture, Sam is on the left, Frank on the right.

Prop list for film opening

We will need quite a few props for the opening so here is a list, some may be added, and some

removed.

• A glass of water
• A clipboard
• Some fake documents or paper
• A name badge for Dr Smith

As well as these, we will also need some equipment for filming:

• A camera
• An SD card for the camera
• A tripod for the camera
• A program that will put a filter over the video for the flashback

For the characters costumes, only Dr Smith's will need to be specific because of their jobs and Johnny will just be playing a character with everyday style clothes, so I will ask the actor to wear clothes that they would normally wear.

Dr Smith's clothes will hopefully be as follows:

• A tweed jacket
• A smart shirt and tie (preferably ones that go well together) and a jumper to go over
• Smart trousers that go well with the jacket
• His name badge
• Maybe someone with glasses can be cast because stereotypically, people with glasses are regarded as 'nerds' or more intelligent
• and nice shoes

These are the only things that we will need as far as I know but this list will be updated otherwise.

Location research for comedy opening

From the idea that we have had, and the possible locations that could use, I have come to the conclusion that the best place to film our opening would be in a smart looking living room of a house. This is because we need to have a place where the cleaner can plug in the hoover as well as a place where a glass can be broken and people can sit down.

I think that the room that we will be using is my living room. This is because there is suitable furniture, a suitable floor, and a bookcase that will make the scene look nicer.
Here (right) is a photo of the living room. I will probably move some of the furniture about with permission so that I can set up a good area to film.

For the nightmare at the start of the film, I think that a good location would be a street near my step mum's shop as it has little lighting, tall buildings to emphasise that Johnny feels less powerful, and a graveyard next to it to make it seem more like a nightmare.

Audience research for comedy opening

For our group's short film opening, I think that the audience would be around our age group. People who find the bizarre and random events in films rather funny.
I asked a few people their opinions on the idea of a man with a fear of hoovers. Here are their reactions and comments:

NEED TO UPLOAD VIDEOS

Character profiles & costume

For our film opening, there will be two main characters as well as some background characters. The man with a fear of hoovers, the doctor trying to help him, and the cleaner who scares him.

Johnny: the man with a fear of hoovers
will be wearing normal looking clothes, trainers
his personality is kept to himself and he is quite quiet around people who he is not famailiar with

Doctor Smith: the psychiatrist trying to help Johnny
Will be wearing smart clothes, hopefully a suit or jacket
wise, old-middle aged, supportive and tries to help, posh or intelligent voice

Comedy film plot & characters

The film that we will be creating the opening scene for is about a man with a fear of hoovers. I think that the idea for the story will be that it is a romantic comedy about this man and how nobody can help him with his fear... until he meets his perfect girl who helps him forget his fear. In the opening, a man will be sitting on a chair with a glass of water talking to a doctor about his fear (which the audience will not know yet) and they will be talking about how he has lived with the fear and how it has changed his life.

The characters will be:
Johnny Begood (the man with a fear of hoovers)
Dr Smith (the psychiatrist)

Comedy

If done right, this genre can be easily the best in film, this is because humour is the best way to get an audience's attention. My favourite comedies include 'The Cornetto Trilogy', 'Airplane', and Bruce Almighty'. So I was thinking, what makes these films so funny?!

The opening to Shaun of the Dead
This film is just pure brilliance. Directed by Edgar Wright and featuring the hilarious comedy duo of
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, it is easily one of my favourite comedies there is. The film starts with repetitive movements of average people such as playing football and at tills in shops. They are doing this to a quiet, not very attention grabbing tune. Their slow repetitive movements and the music makes them act like zombies and instantly brings in some humour because it is ironic that they are acting like zombies when we all know that they will very likely all become zombies. The opening then follows to Pegg's character Shaun yawning like a zombie and sitting down with Ed (Frost) to play on a video game. This simple opening with not much humour is a very good example of showing that a comedy does not necessarily have to be funny to start but will still be funny.

Film opening ideas

-starts with a drunk person on a night out/at home, they start seeing strange things such as animals acting like humans and people doing odd things.
-a teenager's story of how terrible his social life is, starts in a school in a boring lesson
-a farmer hunting rabbits, the rabbit runs down a hole, he sends his dog to get it and after a while he looks in the hole to find the dog and rabbit playing cards.
-the story of a man who is hated by everyone because he is always rude around people, starts with him waking up brother with air horn, and his journey to work shows how mean he is to others too.
-a man who is terrified of hoovers. Starts with him having a nightmare about them.

New task- practice film opening

In preparation for our actual film opening and to practice focusing on a specific genre, the genre that our group has been given is COMEDY. This, in my opinion, will be quite a challenge, this is because with other genres such as romance, it can't really go wrong. But in comedy, if its not funny then its not good. However, as we are only creating the opening to a film, it may not contain any humour to start, but I would like it to. We will be doing a comedy/horror as I think that by using stereotypical expectations of a horror can create humour like in 'scary movie'.