Research and Planning - 50 First dates

This is my analysis of 50 first dates which is a rom-com, not my chose genre as a comparison.

The opening starts with a black screen with Hawaiian music playing as the titles have sections which fade in and out in a blue font to appear like waves to echo the Hawaiian theme. This continues with the fonts as the background of the screen fades into a beach at sunset with connotes romance. There is then a pan across the beach moving over a pineapple, the pineapple stays in shot as the rest of the background fades into a kitchen scenery which I feel is good continuity. The number 50 from the titles roles with the camera in the same direction from behind the pineapple in a red font to show the love, the ‘first’ fades in and out like waves and the previous titles and the ‘dates’ slides in from the side to balance the movement of the camera out.

The music then becomes quieter as two characters come on screen as they start a convocation there is then a link between several different women speaking to different people yet all convocations link as they are all talking about the same person except for the ‘older’ woman who when they are all saying the name of the man they spent their time in Hawaii with she is the one who says “Harry, Harry Pairoftesticals” which is comical to the audience as she is the odd one out from the rest of the group as well as being the one who receives the fake humorous name. The music then stops as the final woman says to him “Henry Roth why didn’t you tell me you were a secret agent?” comical as the next shot of a close up shows a man who you would not stereotypically class as a secret agent. Also the line after running and jumping onto a moving jet ski “keep going and I’ll give you $20” shows that he was not really a secret agent and that it was just an excuse.

Main task planning and research - opening 2 mins of Dude, wheres my car?

The clip starts with a black screen and a voice over with a screeching noise to sound as though the voiceover is coming from a radio. The voice then says “The following story is based on actual events...” which is also written on the screen in a curvy, bold, white font. The music then starts as the screen fades into a bright blue almost space like background which we as an audience are carried through as the beginning titles fade in and out of the screen.

A few seconds into this we then see the title of the film, with a galaxy in the background. As we then continue to move through this ‘space’ we start to see a selection of the characters dancing to the music as the names of the actors appear around the screen. One of the groups of characters are a selection of ostriches which at the beginning of this film can confuse the audience yet also make them laugh as they appear out of place. During this sequence the movement of the camera is quite fast pace and the music is more techno and so suits the idea of travelling around space.

We are then drawn into a sphere type object as the music becomes overpowered by the sound of an alarm clock as we are then transported to the ‘real’ world as we see a mid shot of the famous actor Ashton Kutcher sit up from his bed with a card stuck to his face and a distorted expression on his face which indicates to the audience that he is a main character and that he has been drinking the night before. The shot then freezes and the name of the character strongly appears on screen in a bold blue font as at the same time a more rock style of music begins to play.

There is then a pan round the house at first slowing down on a poster outside of ‘Jesse’s’ wall saying “alien workshop” which helps the continuity of the space them whilst the titles were rolling. The next place it slows down is on the T.V where there is a chimpanzee scratching his head to show he is confused. The camera then comes to a stop and says who this character is adding to the comical value of a monkey being involved in a film.

Finally we have a fast paced pan towards the last of our main characters with a mid-shot sitting on the sofa imitating the monkey on the television by scratching his head the camera freezes and his name appears on screen in the same font as the previous two. there is then a straight cut to a long shot of the first of the characters falling out of his room and pulling up his shorts as he starts to walk down the hall way the music fades out and the dialogue between the two characters begins.

Main task planning and research - Comedy

Comedy: Any work used to amuse by creating laughter. this can also be divide into sub-genres depending on the context and the source of humor.


Action-Comedy: This sub-genre combines action with humor. This relies on the characters portraying the humor as the action scenes are less intense than the typical action films.
Example - Rush hour, hot fuzz
                                                                                                              
Horror-Comedy: This combines Traditional horror with humor. Horror- Comedy films however can sometimes cross into the black comedy sub-genre. They aim to scare the audience yet also provide comical outlets to allow the audience to laugh at their fear.
Example - Jennifer's body, Scream 4, Scary movie
                                                                                                              
Black Comedy: Takes topics that are commonly used as serious, but manipulate them to make them comical, because of this approach the audience  are made to laugh and feel uncomfortable simultaneously.
Example - Dr Strangelove, Fargo 

We chose the genre Comedy as we felt that it was unique and has multiple challenges that our group will face. This will also test our skills when it comes to writing the script, filming and editing to come together to make the opening clear that it is comical. It also has lots of sub genres which could allow us to expand our knowledge. 

Brief For Main Task

Create the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

Evaluation

The process of planning, filming and editing for our preliminary task was a long one yet the end product I am proud of.  Our match on action went extremely well, particularly as the main character walks down the corridor and through the door. The combination of establishing shots and midshot brings the scene together.

The planning process involved a combination of drawing up a story board by deciding what shots went where and for how long the camera would be recording on that particular time. Doing this was harder than expected as you would think that a set time (6 seconds) would be short, however on film this time would appear longer than expected. We would then have to cut this section down to make it shorter and fit with the flow of all other shots combined. Another section of the planning process was writing the script and choosing a topic for the characters to talk about. This would have been successful if our actors followed the script which we had written.  However they did not and change words round as well as changing words completely. To solve this for our main task we will use more reliable actors that are willing to follow the script.

The start of the clip begins with a midshot from behind the main character. We did this so that the audience can establish which direction the character is heading in. it also provides a point of view from the character as we see what they see. In this shot we can see trophy cases, art work and notice boards. This can tell the audience that this character may be in a working environment or in this case a school reception. We then switch onto a long shot with the main character walking down towards the camera. She is central throughout which gives the audience a clear indication that she is the main character. There is then a switch to a long shot facing in the opposite direction. This then shows her walking away from the camera once again, however this time we can see the door that she is walking to. These sections are simple yet when they come together to make a full scene they allow the audience to anticipate what is to come.

There is then a side on shot showing the character pushing the door open. This section lasts for only two seconds yet is a vital part of the piece as it is in the brief. There is then a bird’s eye view shot which then pans, following the main character. We first tried this shot as an experiment and as it portrayed the right affect. We may use this type of shot again in our main task. We are then back on the ground continuing the pan shot. A difficulty with this shot is that joining the two together as there was a background of a cityscape. However instead of keeping this as a negative we manipulated this to become a positive. We then used the land marks to join the two shots together to perfect our continuity.

In the convocation section we had many difficulties when we came to the editing process as for a start the actors did not stick to the script which then resulted in them not saying the same thing every-time we shot the same scene. We then had to work around this problem as we had to combine the two sections which also combined two of the same words at one point. Which you can hear as the tone of her voice changes in the second half of the word. Our shot reverse shot came together well. However this I found editing this section was the longest part of the editing process.

A negative aspect of our preliminary task was that we had constant back ground noise which caused the clarity of the speech between the two actors to become reduced. To solve this problem in our main task there are many options. One is to film our project in a quiet place where we can guarantee there will be no background noise by making it someone’s house and requesting that everybody who is not in the film to be quiet. On the other hand we could attach a microphone onto the camera which we will direct towards the sound we want. E.g. dialogue, I feel this will be the best option as we may wish to film in a public place and will not have the authority to remove all background noise.

Preliminary task