Product Planning

I have made a little presentation on the website Prezzi. This just goes over some of the things I need to do in my final film. This also is my other way of presenting information.

Product Planning on Prezi

Title of the Film

My short film will be called "The Grand Droonz" and The subtitle is "The Grand Droonz: The Tale of the Missing Shins". I wanted the title to correspond with what the film has to offer (all its random-ness). I have asked people whether they think this is a good name for my film and they all agreed that this was a suitable name.

Genre and Audience Research

Comedies have always found there way to stay in everyone's favourites. The Hangover 2, the sequel to the box office hit The Hangover, came into cinemas on the 26th of May 2011. Its budget higher then its original, and gross lower then the first, it didn't really invoke much of a stir in the film world. This may have been because it didn't really advertise much before the release. Doing that people wont know about it and then people wont go and watch it.

The budget on The Hangover Part II was $80000000 and it made $254455968 in gross. You might be able to say that all the existing customers who watched The Hangover, will have come back and watched Part II. It was an age rating of 15 which goes to show that this is a good audience to screen to as it provides a wider range of customers.

I too have decided to rate mine a 15 as I want to use stronger swear words then that of what would be allowed into a 12. This would also allow better comedy scenes and would also give me a lot more of an audience to view it.

1. Theme: No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate to 15 year olds.
2. Language: There may be a frequent use of strong language; the strongerst terms are only rarely acceptable. Continued aggressive use of strong language and sexual abuse is unacceptable.
3. Nudity: There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational content.
4. Sex: Sexual activity and nudity may be portrayed but without strong detail. The depiction of casual sex should be handled responsibly. There may be occasional strong verbal references to sexual behaviour.
5. Violence: Violence may be strong but may not dwell on the infliction of pain, and of injuries. Scenes of sexual violence must be discreet and brief.
6. Imitable techniques: Dangerous combat techniques such as ear claps, head-butts and blows to the neck are unlikely to be acceptable. There may be no emphasis on the use of easily accessible lethal weapons (In particular, knives).
7. Horror: Sustained or detailed infliction of pain or injury is unacceptable.
8. Drugs: Drug taking may be shown but clear instructive detail is unacceptable. The film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug use.

(Found from http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/592478/index.html)

(If you cannot see them, highlight them, I didn't know how to fix it)

Comedy Reasearch

I can see in many comedy trailers that they start off with describing the general plot and show so comedy to keep the audience entertained. All comedies that I have been watching are always on edge with comedy moments. You are always expecting something funny to happen. By doing this they will always get a laugh when expected. Comedy films always usually have a main protagonist which always has the funny moments around his character. By doing this is it refers to my other point which is that they will always be expecting a funny moment. Comedies are usually favourites as everyone enjoys a good laugh. Even other films like thrillers and actions have comedy in them, but this is for a different purpose. A lot of comedy films have the same actors as this will bring more of an audience to their new film, and maybe even bring the old audience from their past films, this will increase the viewing of their new films which will increase sales.

Many comedies are usually 12 age rating. This is so they can fit more in for their intended audience. A lot of comedies I have watched always have inappropriate language. This makes the effect of the comedy even better as swearing will always keep the audience surprised. I will try to have a different effect with comedy intro as I want it to be unique. Comedy films never really go out of style if they have a new sub genre. Which is why I am trying to have a new style which will please my intended audience.

Step Brothers is a comedy film staring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly.

• Budget was $65000000
• Production Company- Columbia Pictures, Relativity Media, Apatow Productions.
• Director- Adam McKay
• UK Release date 29th August 2008

When Robert and Nancy marry and move in together, Brennan and Dale are forced to live with each other as step brothers. As their narcissism and downright aggressive laziness threaten to tear the family apart, these two middle-aged, immature, overgrown boys will orchestrate an insane, elaborate plan to bring their parents back together. To pull it off, they must form an unlikely bond that maybe, just maybe, will finally get them out of the house. (Found on IMDB)

The trailer is very fast paced to keep up with the fast paced comedy. They are very colourful and very lively. They introduce the main plot and show the main characters. This is so they can just jump straight into the film and entice the audience to join. They have lots of editing texts like when it points to the character and says there name. The instant shot of Will Ferrell instantly draws any body who likes his films in. This helps the film gain an audience as this will get them to want watch them. The text itself its like a pencil which is childish which is corresponding to the film which shows that they are stuck in childhood, which is what the film is all about.

(Because of the strict rules of piracy, Youtube does not allow any films to be shown on their website as this is against copyright laws, so instead I analysed trailers)

Role Models is another Comedy film staring Sean William Scott as Wheeler and Paul Rudd as Danny

• Budget-$28000000
• Production Company- Universal Pictures
• Director- David Wain
• UK release Date- 9th January 2009

This film also doesn't give away much comedy as if they give them a few laughs with the trailer, they will want to watch more. They again use text to show who the characters are and what is going on. This is good way as it fits in with the comedy aspect. They always start of a bit slow as if they went of all guns blazing giving all the good comedy moments the film wouldn't be as funny as you've heard all of it before. The text is easy to read and stays up long enough to make sure you've read it. The text is also business style which is what the two characters jobs are. This could show that they are straight edge characters. The music in this also starts of slow then picks up as the trailer picks up pace.

Super bad stars Jonah Hill as Seth, Michael Cera as Evan and Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Fogell.

Seth and Evan are best friends, inseparable, navigating the last weeks of high school. Usually shunned by the popular kids, Seth and Evan luck into an invitation to a party, and spend a long day, with the help of their nerdy friend Fogell, trying to score enough alcohol to lubricate the party and inebriate two girls, Jules and Becca, so they can kick-start their sex lives and go off to college with a summer full of experience and new skills. Their quest is complicated by Fogell's falling in with two inept cops who both slow and assist the plan. If they do get the liquor to the party, what then? Is sex the only rite of passage at hand?

• Budget-$20000000
• Production Company- Columbia Pictures, Apatow Productions
• Director-Greg Motollo
• UK Release Date- 14th september 2007

Agian in this trailer there is the use of music to help with the pace of the trailer. As the trailer picks up pace and is more entertaining and gets to the high point, so does the music. This seems to take place in a lot of comedy trailers and also at the intros of a lot of films. This could help with the genre because if the music is lively and energetic, it will help you get in to the comedy mood. There is a lot of use of just plain cuts to transition to a new scene, but there is also the use of fast wipes that are fitting to the music.

Task Commision

I have chosen for my final piece that I will do a comedy intro as this interests me the most. It will contain "Surreal Humour" which is basically nonsense humour. I have taken a lot of inspiration from The Mighty Boosh as Noel Fielding is a favourite of mine. Creating a comedy film will be easier then any other genre as I don't need anything more then actors, a camera, and a tripod. Making any other film like Horror or Sci-fi would possibly require equipment and software the school does not have. This doesn't mean that it is impossible to make a Horror or Sci-Fi but it means I would have had to shape my idea around the limitations.

I am going to collect research from other intros from comedy films to try and get my intro as professional as I can do. By doing this research I will hopefully get an accurate representation of the comedy film. I will be watching most of my research on youtube or maybe at home I will just watch the first 5 minutes to comedy movies and see what they entail.

Preliminary evaluation

I have finished my preliminary to a quality I could achieve . The editing was quite difficult as I am new to it and some of the shots I took were not very easy to edit because of rubbish acting. Some of the editing itself is choppy again because of acting faults making it hard to edit. If I spend more time in the final video, I will spend more time trying to get professional quality takes to improve my final cut. I could also use many different types of shot as the majority of mine are medium closeups. I could also use different kind of camera movement. This would help my video look more professional. In one of the scenes where the person walks up to the chair, he comes from a different angle, this is seen as a continuity error which will make the final cut look unprofessional.

The things that had to go into my preliminary were:

• A 180 reverse shot
• someone opening a door
• someone crossing a room and two people exchanging a few lines.
• sitting down

Getting these shots were simple as I used a Sony cam-corder, I used a tripod to mount my camera, this gave me a steady shot and it made it look less amateur. I will have to make sure to use more camera movement types which will make my movie more of a professional standard. My movie is about a night out and the person who walks through the door is confused about where he ended up last and ask his friend who went with him and gets a unconventional response.

I had to restart my preliminary a few times due to not getting it done on the day, and then the week after coming back to school in different clothes, but after i had got the script down, I tried my best to get it done as fast as possible. This means during my end project I must make sure I can get my time management correct.

Brief I have chosen.

Video:

Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. this task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot/ and the 180-degree angle.

I have chosen to do video as I would like to get into a career in media involving film. I have chosen film as it will teach me all the tricks of how to make a good movie, and how to edit it properly with good continuity. I would either like to get a career of writing movies or even the scripts, this will give me my first taste of how to write a script with a good story line.

My aim is to create a short intro to a movie with a good a comedy script and good visual comedy. Making a comedy movie is a good idea as it is very easy to make people laugh and I can get inspiration from a lot of other comedy films. Making this movie will come as quite a challenge as I know what I want to do with it, but I may not have the skill of how to achieve it. I have some knowledge of Final Cut Express, and maybe just enough to use this know how to achieve making my film to my liking. Another challenge may be the recording of my short movie as i have no/little knowledge of how to record properly.