Actor interview

On the train on the way to our destination we wanted to interview the actor in our film, our friend Lauren, to give her an idea of our expectations of her for our film. The train journey was the first time we had fully discussed the shots we wanted to achieve however when we were at the recording studio recording the monologue this gave Lauren more of an insight into our main character in our film. This is a transcript from the interview.

Lauren: "So what do I do first?"

Molly: "So you already know that you're a nameless homeless person trying to find your parents. Do you remember the monologue? That is the sort of character we want you to be."

Catherine: "You need to make sure that you maintain your character, especially these train shots because we can't do them again."

Lauren: "Are there any lines?"

Molly: "No. The focus of the film is on our main character so throughout the opening of the film the monologue is the only dialogue."

Catherine: "Make sure that you show your emotions through your facial expressions. You need to be able to show the audience that you are upset and lonely."

Lauren: "Ok, so what shot is first then?"

Molly: "We need a midshot of you sitting on the train looking through the window clutching your sleeping bag for comfort."

Catherine: "Again you need to make it obvious that you are on you own. You need the audience to be able to symphasise with you."

Lauren: "Ok, I will make sure that I remain quite serious and solmn. I won't make any direct eye contact with the camera and I will make sure I remain in character throughout."

Molly: "That sounds great, that is exactly what we need from you."

Soundtrack we will be using

For our media piece we were not allowed to use copyrighted music, this made it hard for us to think about the type of music we wanted behind our monologue and film. We research many instrumental tracks to add to our film but in the end we decided on one.
In the end we decided to use a instrumetnal version of Katy Perry's Wide Awake that we found on YouTube. This wasnt copyrighted and was the perfect fit for our film. The piano version was perfectly steady and emotional for our film and fit right in with the monologue aswell.
We didnt want to include lyrics in the music for our film because it would get in the way of the monologue which we want all the attention to be on. We didnt want our audience to get distracted trying to analyse the meaning of the lyrics because we wanted them to be analysing the monologue and getting to know the character.
We editied the monologue with the sound and made it fit in with the tempo of the song. We made sure that as the characters voice got a bit higher and more emotional, so did the music. We cut parts out the make it match with the verbal noise and made sure it sounded perfect, ready for the film to go over the top of it.
Overall we are so excited about the soundtrack. We think it fits perfectly with the emotional monlouge and will go just as well with the film itself.

Initial shot ideas

Below is a list of all the shot types we initially wanted to achieve and the effect of them. However due to various issues we could not get the a couple of the shots exactly the way we initially wanted them to be. However we improvised, therefore we decided to create our story board after we have edited our film.

Initial Shot 1- Shallow and deep focus

The first shot type we will be using will be a shallow focus shots of Christmas lights combined with the title 'The Desperate Persuit.' This will emphasise our key theme of hope and will ensure that the Christmas lights will draw in the attention of the audience as they will want to know the significance of these lights. This shallow focus will transform into a deep focus shot creating a blurred effect which will be effective as it will cause the audience to feel as though that her dream of hope may not be achieved. The blurred effect indicates confusion which is most likely what our main character feels, the confusion as to why her parents left her. Therefore as well as looking good, these shots link in very well with our symbol of the Christmas lights and our theme of hope. We want to have the shot lasting for four seconds as we believe this is long enough to display the titles for and will make the audience think.
Shallow focus-The first image below I selected is not the exact object we will be using, however it reselmbles the shot type we will be using. The second image however is more or less what we are after. We love how the background is blurred effectively in this shot.
Deep focus- The first image shows blurred Christmas tree lights, it is not the type of object we will be using however the circle light effect is what we will be aiming for. The second image shows a street Christmas light, this shows the right type of object however it is not quite the effect we want.

 

Initial Shot 2- Establishing shot

The first shot type we want to use is an establishing shot however we will use several of these. They will take up six seconds of filming. This is to give the audience a feel of the location. We want to give an idea of what general shoppers are like at this time of year busy buying presents for their family.We want to show a festive atmosphere and the happiness of people, we also want to emphasise their wealth to be able to leisurely shop whilst all our main character wants is to find her parents. We need to point our how these people take their lives for granted so we will try to do this buy filming very close to Christmas when we will know it will be busy. The establishing shots we have selected really capturesthe Christmas shoppers walking up and down the streets. The first shot shot captures the bright Christmas lights which is our symbol in our film. We believe the Christmas lights in Guildford will be as good as the ones in this image, we want the lights ideally to be very bright to make the atmosphere very bright and festive. We want the audience to feel as though everyone is having a really nice time shopping with their friends and family all accept our main character. Her main issue right now is where to sleep tonight. The second shot is really shows the amount of people who go out Christmas shopping and reinforces the idea that her parents could literally be anyone. We know that Guildford will not be as busy as London because around 10 million people live in London, however Guildford is the main shopping location of the Surrey Hills, therefore it still should be very busy. The Christmas lights are a very important part of our film, if they are not bright enough or there are not enough of them this will make the atmosphere not seem as festive. We will also need to a few close up shots of the Christmas lights which will take up four seconds of filming. This is to reinforce the setting being near to Christmas.

Inital Shot 3- Midshot

The third shot type will be a mid shot showing our main character sat on a train. By using this shot type we aim to give the audience an insight into what it is really like to be on your own. Audiences will be able to relate to times when using public transport on your own you tend to feel lonely however you have somewhere to go to, we want to audience to symphasise with the girl and make them realise that she really has no one and she is not on her way home to be with her family. The midshot will allow the audience to get a good view of every features of the girl. They will be able to see her face so they can see her expression of longing as well as what she is wearing. We want to allow them to be able to have an insight into the characters situation by what she is wearing. A midshot is also a perfect shot type for as well as revealing the character of focus it also reveals the surroundings. We want the audience to be able to see people on the train and the scene right on the train by filming so close to Christmas as this is the time where people go shopping with their friends and families. We also want the camera to shake a little bit so therefore we will not be using a tripod. This will give a rough feel which links in with the fact that she sleeps on the streets. It will also be realistic and goes well with the motion of train as they tend to be very bumpy, therefore it will be more realistic.

Initial Shot 4- Point of view shot

We will then use an over the point of view shot of the main character getting off the train. This is effective as it focuses on the girl as an individual and shows her to be superior as she is the one who is focused on, therefore her story is of importance. It will also reveal her alienation to society as she is surrounded by people who live normal lives and have lots of disposable income to leisurely shop wheras she can barely afford a train fare. This shot will put the audience in her shoes and will able them to feel what it is like to be so lonely and therefore they will symphasise with her. It also allows the audience to see the surroundings and link them with the main characters perspective. Seeing people around her will make her feel lonely and depressed seeing people with family and friends however a normal person probably wouldn't even notice individuals around them as they have their friends or family there with them, therefore the surroundings will be blurred to them. This emphasises the importance of the girl finding her parents so she can hopefully one day feel the same as the 'Christmas shoppers.' By using this point of view shot we want to make the audience symphasise with the girl as she has to walk past people with their friends and families as she is leaving the train. We have decided to make this shot five seconds, we believe this will be more than long enough to give a good insight in the characters thoughts and feelings. From the first image I have selected it shows the amount of people we want in it. It is busy however the people appear to be dressed in Summer clothes and we want people to be in Winter clothes and carrying lots of shopping bags to show that they have lots of disposable income so can therefore afford it. As a whole the atmosphere in both of these images seems to be quite subdued, we want to try and capture people talking and having a good time to show how our main character can't have this.

Initial Shot 5- Long shot

The fifth shot will be a long shot to show the character walking away from the train station. This will be effective in giving the audience a feel of the location. It emphasises the idea that she is just a teenager in a big world. The long shot will make her look small in comparison to the other shots which we have used that make her look bigger. This shot shows her leaving the station which is significant as it indicates the start of her journey to find her parents. This long shot will allow the audience to see vehicles on the roads, buildings and pedestrians which is realistic and sets the urban location. It is important that the location is as realistic as possible because our story is based on an event which happens to many people, therefore we can't make it look like something it is not, the location can't be out of context such as an exotic location. Many drama films such as Forest Gump are filmed in Urban locations. We decided that this shot type is suitable for this particular moment in the opening because all the main character is doing is walking amongst other people, we decided that she would want to blend in with the crowd as she doesn't particulary want to stand out as being homeless. Therefore this long shot will not allow any facial expressions to be exposed. We decided that 5 seconds would be suitable for this particular shot as nothing significant occurs in this shot so it does not need to be of huge focus.

Initial Shot 6- Midshot

For the sixth shot type we will be using a midshot to show the main character walking across a road and moving out of the camera frame as she does so. We decided that this shot type is effective as a midshot allows more of her facial expressions to be shown. This is important as we believe that we don't want to reveal too much about the girl's appearence at the start. However as the film progresses we will use closer shots so the audience can feel as though they are getting to know her, and by the end of the film they will feel that they know everything about it. The fact that we will be showing her moving out of the camera frama will effectively represent her on going journey and her desire to find her parents and how focused she is on doing so. We decided that this particular shot needs ten seconds, this is because she will obviously need a bit of time to cross the road safely and we want to capture the whole of her walk as she walks out of the frame.

Shot 7- Long shot

We will be using a long shot to show the girl walking up the street. We chose a long shot to show the surrounding expanse of shoppers. This is to show what a busy location she is in and the fact her parents could literally be anyone, and even one of them. Therefore this shot is perfect to show the audience that she is on a big journey to find her biological parents. This shot will also give the audience a good view of the location as well as all of the shoppers. We believe we have chosen to film at the right time because there are the most amount of shoppers at Christmas time, therefore we believe Guildford will be extremely busy. Idealy we want to film as close to Christmas as possible so we can a huge amount of people shopping. We think four seconds is more than enough time to film this shot.

Initial Shot 8- Midshot

The next shot type we will be using will be a midshot of the girl walking up the street. This will allow the audience to become more familiar with the main character allowing her facial expressions to be shown. The point of this is to make sure our main character is the center of attention however we also want to make sure that christmas lights and other people in the background will also be shown, therefore it is important that we do not use a close up shot but a midshot.

Target audience questionaire

For this task my partner Molly and I created a survey asking the audience their expectations of drama films. Firstly we decided that we would not ask them their names as we believe it is inappropriate. However we asked them their gender simply so we can get an idea as to whether their gender effects their expectations. We believed that females prefer films which display qualities associated with drama films, such as emotion and portraying everyday people. 

 

Out of all of the people who took part in the survey,

females genuinely conformed to their stereotypes. For example out of the females I asked they all chose 'Emotion' out of all of the other options of what they expect to feature in a drama film. This indicates that they are fans of drama films (they also circled 'yes'- they are fans of drama films) showing that they have good knowledge of drama films and prefer them over other film genres such as action films. For what music they expect nearly all of the females circled 'classical' and 'slow paced', also showing their familiarity with the genre. This is also shown as they all circled for what people expected in the genre they all circled 'everyday people'.  Some females also circled softer sub- genres such as 'Comedy' and 'Romance' conforming to their stereotypes. However a couple of females also circled typical male sub- genres such as 'Action' and 'Adventure' subverting their stereotypes. All of the females asked agreed that music could be as effective as dialogue or even more effective. This represents their knowledge of the genre as many Drama films such as 'Forest Gump' and 'Titanic' start with music.

Males are shown genuinely to conform to their stereotypes as they both agree that they are fans of the Drama genre. When asked what is a key part of a Drama film they both circled 'conflict' showing that they have a lack of knowledge of the key features of a Drama film as this feature is associated more with Action films. They both agreed that you would expect to find slow- paced music in Drama films which links with emotion. They also agreed that they should feature everyday people. These two answers suggest knowledge towards this genre. However when asked their favourite sub- genres they both circled 'Action' conforming to their male stereotypes. When asked is dialog is important in an opening and is music as or if not more effective one of the males claims that dialog is important however the other argued that dialog and music can work together effectively given the right content.

 

Our findings hava made us aware of what we will be needing to include to make our drama film appeal to both males and females. We will conform the conventions in our drama film to those of the well known drama film Forrest Gump which enjoyed by males and females. They all agreed that everyday people should be involved however we will not include any conflict, simply because our film is not an action film. We will be using slow paced music. It will be filmed in an urban area because this is where the majority of the population is located. Many people claimed that dialog is important in an opening. This made us feel as though we are taking a big risk by using no dialog but instead a monologue along with music. However we are confident that this will be as effective as dialog as we put allot of effort into our monologue and went to record it at a recording studio.

Targets: write a script for your Opening Two Minutes and include it as a post. Take photographs of your storyboard and upload it as a post - you may want to add an evaluative comment.

Include a couple of video diaries of your planning - discussions of location, props, costumes and actors etc and what discussions you have made.

Recording our monologue

On Sunday 8th December Molly Jenkins, Lauren O'mahony and myself went to Spiral studios, located in Guildford to record our monologue. The staff at the studio set up the studio ready for us to start recording our monologue. We chose Lauren (who will also play our main character in our film opening) to read our monologue as she did GCSE drama at Therfield and is studying Theatre studies and Drama at Godalming. Therefore as she is familiar with monologues we knew she would be perfect for this role. When Lauren had read the monologue through the first time she was ready to have a practise recording. While Lauren was in the booth reading our monologue we waited outside and could hear her clearly. For the first time ever reading it she did it almost perfectly, however we wanted to add more dramatic pauses as they are effective in drawing the audiences attention and also filling up a bit of time.We also wanted to make her sound more angry when she said certain words such as 'parents' and 'their real kid.' The second reading was perfect,we couldn't believe how professional she sounded, we knew this was as a result of all the monologues she had to perform in GCSE Drama. The staff were also very impressed by how well read it was. Lauren sounded ever so slightly nervous however we believe this created the effect that the situation is a hard thing for her to discuss to people, therefore we found this very effective. Another thing which we chose to keep was the fact that when Lauren said 'I'm fine on my own' she swallowed. I discussed this with one of the staff and they claimed that this is effective and makes the monologue more realistic. In something professional such as a news reel this may not be accepted. We asked the staff to increase the volume when they send it to us, this is because we want it very loud because our monologue is the only dialogue, therefore it needs to draw in attention and be clear. If we have it very loud if it is too loud we can just turn it down. We also asked them to cut our any background noise, we need to make it as clear as possible because music will also combine with it so therefore we need it to be clear so the music doesn't cut it out. We were very pleased with our recording, we were told that it costs £30 to hire out the studio however as we were so quick to record it it only cost £15 so we only had to pay £7.50 each. We were extremely happy with the costs and our recording was even better than how we expected it to be. Molly and I are very pleased with our recording and couldn't have asked for a better job done.

Soundtrack research

We have listened to various different soundtracks to help inspire us for the creation of our own original soundtrack for our two minute opening. When creating features of the actual film we made various references to Christmas lights in the streets it reminded u
s of a song we have once listened to in the past and helped to build up a vision of how it must feel to be alone in the festive period. The first song we listened to was 'Christmas Lights' by Coldplay which was released in 2010. Judging by the lyrics they hint that the theme of this song is a relationship which has broken down very near to Christmas. The song narrator emphasises his lonliness through the use of imagery and symbols; making many references to Christmas lights. This is similar to our idea in our film as we are going to use the Christmas lights as our symbol of our main characters hope to find her parents. However we are not going to use diegetic music. This is because we are using a monologue so therefore diegetic music will clash with our monologue. However in this song we love the constant tune of the piano which is featured on it's own at the start of the song. On it's own it symbolizes loss which is a feeling our main character has experienced for the course of her life; she is not complete without her parents. We can relate many features of this song to our main character however there are a few differences; the song narrator has lost someone they love whereas our main character is on a journey to find her parents. We will probably decide to combine the tune of the piano with either a violin or a guitar. When this particular song gets into the chorus it sounds more upbeat; this type of song would be ideal for a trailer to show her finding her parents however we need to emphasise her sadness; so this song is not what we want. However many of the features of the song have however inspired us in our ideas.



The next song we listened to was found on youtube, we searched various soundtracks. We simply searched 'Piano music instrumentals' to find this soundtrack made up of two and a half hours of music. The first track on this soundtrack is a simple yet effective tune using a piano. As soon as we heard this song we absolutely loved it however we could not identify what all of the instruments were that we're included in this piece however we can identify that the piano was combined with a guitar. Within the first minute this song it really helped to inspire us on what sort of music to use for our film opening. To us the opening of the song really gives us the image of a person on their own watching people go by as just the piano is played at the start of the song. This gives us a vision of emptiness which would be able to help us give the audience an insight into the characters feelings. Ideally we really want to try and make the audience able to relate to a time when they have felt this way, so therefore it is vital to compose a piece that will do just that.
 

The final song we listened to was found on the same soundtrack. The song we found starts at 1:56:37. We decided that this tune was almost perfect for our film opening, it has so many different instruments used in it however it is not over powering; it is simple. It gives a bit of an urban vibe as acoustic instruments used give an empty feel and some other instruments used make a sound similar to wind. This will really go well with the surroundings as our main character is on her own in the streets, it is a cold winter night so wind will most likely feature. Later in this song more of a beat features which would go perfectly with the part in our film when the main character finally decides to find her 

parents, through this beat it will give be audience the idea that the main character is actually getting somewhere. Therefore both this track and the above track have really helped to inspire us with what type of music we will include in our opening.

Film title questionaire

We asked 20 people to choose a film title from a list of 5. We did this to get an idea about what our target audience would be more drawn to. Our first idea for a film title was 'The Search' but we wanted to get a response from our target audience to see if our ideas were acceptable.
A nameless foster child has recently been kicked out of her foster parent’s house for stealing. She is homeless and alone at Christmas. All she wants to do is find her biological parents, who could be anywhere. Follow her journey as she goes through all the experiences of being homeless and the emotions of losing everyone around her. An outstanding and touching true story that will leave you breathless...

 

Which film title do you think goes well with the above film plot?

·         The Search

·         The Desperate Pursuit

·         Going Down

·         Roaming The Streets

·         The Unprotected

The results are as followed:

 

 

From this we discovered that the majority of people are drawn to either 'The Unprotected' or 'The Desperate Pursuit'. This shattered our first idea of 'The Search' which we were very keen on and were hoping people would see this simple title as effective. We decided to choose from the two most popular because it’s what our target audience want to see, and to attract our audience we need to include titles that they approve of.

Finally, we agreed on 'The Desperate Pursuit' for our film title. We chose this because it draws you in more and it sounds more dramatic, making the audience want to know more. We like this film title for our movie because it reflects the story really well. The young girl is on a 'desperate pursuit' to find her parents. The title is fitting, which a film title needs to be and overall we are pleased that we decided to ask people what they thought.

Institution research- Sony Pictures Entertainment

Sony Pictures entertainment is an American television and film production company. It is based in Culver City, California and serves as Sony's main global production company. Sony pictures entertainment was established on the 7th August 1991. Sony pictures has a television group which produces iconic American sitcoms like Seinfield and Days of our lives. Films produced by Sony pictures entertaiment include Spiderman, Men in black, Skyfall and 21 Jump street.

Institution research- Other companies

Below we have written about the six main production companies in the world. These are the main companies, but of course there are many other companies that produce film on a much lower scale. These companies has much lower budgets but still release hard hitting movies that people around the world love and relate to.
The 'big six' are the major production companies, but there are other companies which are called the 'mini-majors'. These companies are big companies but just not as well known and popular as the big six.
The 'Mini-Major' companies include:

DreamWorks -
DreamWorks is a California film studio which develops, produces, and distributes films, video games and television programming. It has produced or distributed more than ten films with box-office grosses totaling more than $100 million each. Most of DreamWorks' films are marketed and distributed by The Walt Disney Studios.
Films by DreamWorks include: 'Chicken Run', 'Shrek', 'She's The Man' and 'Just Like Heaven'.

Lionsgate Films -
Lionsgate Films is a Canadian film production/distribution studio and a division of Lions Gate Entertainment. It is the largest and most successful mini-major film studio in North America. It focuses mainly on foreign and independent films and has distributed various commercially successful film series.
Films by Lionsgate Films include:'The Twilight Saga' (partially), 'The Hunger Games', 'Saw' and 'The Expendables'.

Open Road Films -
Open Road Films is an American film distribution company based in Hollywood, California. It was launched in March 2011 by the two largest U.S. theatrical exhibitors, AMC Theatres and Regal Entertainment Group.
Films by Open Road Films include: 'The Host', 'Side Effects', and 'Silent Hill'.

Relativity Media LLC
Relativity Media LLC is an American full-scale film studio. It acquires, develops, produces, and distributes films and produces television programs.
Films by Relativity Media LLC include: 'Mirror Mirror', 'Movie 43', 'House At The End Of The Street' and 'Safehaven'

The Weinstein Company
The Weinstein Company is an American mini-major film studio. Its films are released on DVD and Blu-ray by Beverly Hills–based Anchor Bay Entertainment, due to the 25% purchase of Starz Media, which is Anchor Bay's parent, and it has an office in Beverly Hills.
Films By The Weinstein Company include: 'So Undercover', 'Lawless', 'I Dont Know How She Does It' and 'Silver Linings Playbook'.

Looking at the filmography of these companies, nearly all the films i know and have seen. This just shows that the 'big six' dont produce all of the blockbuster films.

Institution research- Walt Disney studios

Walt Disney Studios is one of the largest and best known Studios in the world and is one of the six major film studios. It produces many kids films which we all would have watched as a child.

Disney was founded in 1923 by Walt and Roy Disney. They were the leaders of the animation industry before diversifying into live-action films, television and travel. In 1986 it expanded its operations and started divisions for theatre, radio, music, online media and publishing.

Disney also owns the ABC television network, Disney Channel, ESPN and ABC Family. It also owns and licenses 14 theme parks around the world.

Films produced by Walt Disney include: 'Cinderella', 'Mary Poppins', 'Bambi', 'Peter Pan', ' The Jungle Book' and 'Snow White And The Seven Dwarves'.

Television shows produced by ABC and ABC Family include: 'Lost', 'Greys Anatomy', 'Nashville', 'Twisted', 'The Fosters' and 'Pretty Little Liars'.

Institution research- Paramount pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation (also known as Paramount Pictures) is a film and television production studio founded in 1912. Based in LA, it is one of the largest film studios ever and the fifth oldest still in continuous production. It is a division of the American media company Viacom. On August 21, 2006, Nickelodeon Movies and MTV Films became full labels of the Paramount Motion Pictures Group.

Films Produced by Paramount Pictures include: 'Mission Impossible', 'Save The Last Dance', 'Zoolander', 'The Italian Job', 'How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days', 'School Of Rock' and 'Coach Carter'.

Institution research- Universal studios

Universal Studios Inc. (also known as Universal Pictures)  is an American motion picture studio, and is one of the six major movie studios. Its production studios are at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California. Distribution and other corporate offices are in New York City.

Universal Studios was founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley and Jules Brulatour. It is the oldest movie studio In the USA and the fourth oldest in the world that is still in continuous production behind Gaumont Pictures, Pathe and Nordisk Film.

Universal Studio has a theme park situated in Hollywood, California. Themes from movies and television shows are integrated into the rides like The Simpson's Ride, Jurassic Park: The Ride, and Revenge of the Mummy. There are now two more theme parks in Orlando, Florida and Japan. The theme parks only show you how high budget and high profit this company is. The list of films produced by Universal Pictures in endless and the amount of money the company make is ridiculous!

Films produced by Universal Pictures include: 'Meet The Parents', 'How The Grinch Stole Christmas', 'Bridget Jones Diary', 'The Holiday', 'The Mommy Returns', 'Despicable Me', 'Transformers' and 'American Pie'

TV shows produced by Universal Studios include: 'House', 'The Office', 'Suits', 'Law And Order: LA' and 'Lipstick Jungle'.

Institution research- Warner bros

Warner Bros Entertainment Inc. or simply WB is an American producer of film, television, and music entertainment. Warner Bros. has several subsidiary companies, including Warner Bros. Studios, Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Animation, Warner Home Video, New Line Cinema, TheWB.com, and DC Entertainment. Warner owns half of The CW Television Network.

Warner Bros was founded in 1903 by the four Warner brothers Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack.

Warner Bros specialise in a number of different things (hence the subsidiary companies) and produce many high budget movies.

One of the main things that Warner Bros have done is the WB TV network. This was founded in 1995 and found a large teenage following after producing shows like Charmed, Dawson’s Creek and One Tree Hill. In 2006 the WB network was closed and CBS and WB created what is now The CW network, cancelling many TV shows on the WB but transferring their most popular to the new network.

Major films produced by Warner Bros include: 'Kangaroo Jack', 'Two Weeks’ Notice', 'What A Girl Wants', 'A Cinderella Story' and 'The Polar Express'

TV shows produced by the WB (now CW) Network include: 'Charmed', 'Dawson’s Creek', '7th Heaven', 'The Vampire Diaries', One Tree Hill', 'Hart Of Dixie', 'Arrow' and 'Beauty And The Beast'.

 

Institution research- 20th century fox

20th Century Fox is one of the six major film studios situated in Los Angeles in the USA. The company was founded on May 31, 1935 when Fox Film Corporation was merged with Twentieth Century Pictures.

20th Century Fox has distributed many successful movies including Star Wars, Ice Age and Die Hard. Many television shows has also been produced by 20th Century Fox including The Simpsons, How I Met Your Mother and Glee.

20th Century Fox's logo is one of the most well-known logos in film history and you would probably see it on the majority of films you watch. Many films have played around with the logo and the music at the beginning of their films or TV shows. For example on season 10 of the Simpsons, you see Bart running around the logo being chased. And also on the film Alien, the music has been played around with to fit in with the genre of the film.

Famous films by 20th Century Fox include: 'Home Alone', 'Avatar', 'White Men Can't Jump', '27 Dresses', 'Star Wars', 'Die Hard', 'Aquamarine', 'Life of Pi' and 'Runner Runner'

Famous TV shows by 20th Century Fox include: 'New Girl', 'Modern Family', 'Bones', 'How I Met Your Mother', 'My Name Is Earl', 'Life On Mars' and 'Glee'.

Paramount Pictures Corporation (also known as Paramount Pictures) is a film and television production studio founded in 1912. Based in LA, it is one of the largest film studios ever and the fifth oldest still in continuous production. It is a division of the American media company Viacom. On August 21, 2006, Nickelodeon Movies and MTV Films became full labels of the Paramount Motion Pictures Group.

Films Produced by Paramount Pictures include: 'Mission Impossible', 'Save The Last Dance', 'Zoolander', 'The Italian Job', 'How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days', 'School Of Rock' and 'Coach Carter'.

Research into recording our monologue

We have decided that if we record our monologue on a simple program like a laptop or a voice recorder, the sound quality will be extremely bad and the monologue will not sound as professional as we want it to be. To change this we were thinking of hiring a recording studio. This will allow us to get the sound quality we want, despite the small cost.

We started searching for recording studios near us and we found quite a few that are extremely close to us. Some of the studios we found were just too expensive and a little bit too far away, but we found two that were reasonably priced and close by in the town of Guildford where we were planning on filming. Guildford is a short train journey away from us so it’s a perfect area.

 

 

 

The first Studio we emailed was Silent Hill Studio's in Guildford. They were available to help us for little over £20, but we had a problem because they were only available during the week, which is when we are at school. This disappointed us a little bit but we decided to go on and email a few other places in and around Guildford.

 

 

The second place we emailed came back to us within minutes and said they would be available to have us anytime. The price was quoted at £30 for an hour and a half. We were really impresses at this and decided to go on the 8th December instead.

What’s really great about actually hiring somewhere for the first time while doing media is knowing for certain that you are going to get a good result as we will be surrounded by professional equipment and professional employees that will help make our monologue the best it can be.

Our monologue

The main feature of our opening 2 minutes is the monologue spoken by the main character over the top of the film. This needs to link to what is happening in the film at times and make the audience connect and sympathise with the girl.

We wanted to make the girl sound like the average teenager. She is not very literate when it comes to talking and quite informal. This makes her relatable to other teenagers, our target audience. We like the way the monologue shows the girl as not caring about her parents, but the monologue is easy to see through and hopefully the audience will see that she is lying to herself, and in fact all she cares about is finding them and being loved by them.

"This is my story. I’d tell you my name but what’s the point? It doesn’t mean anything.  You see a typical family has two parents, a couple of kids, maybe a dog. My family, it’s just me. And my best friend Jo, she’s the only family I have now. I lived in a foster home for a while. John and Kelly were nice but I knew they didn’t love me like they loved Jake, their real kid. See my parents gave me up when I was born. They couldn’t hack it. And now look at me, I’ve been to juvi. I’ve been in and out of foster homes, and now I’m pretty much living on the streets. John and Kelly kicked me out when they realised I stole from them. I know it’s a terrible thing to do but I guess I just needed to get out of there and that was the only way to make sure I did. All I’m focused on right now is finding my real parents. I have a lot to say to them. Why did they leave me? Why did they allow me to have such a crappy life? Are they even still together? Probably not.
You see being in foster care is like being in a world of your own. No one to worry about you, no bedtime, no love. I guess if my parents were still around I'd be a different person. I wouldn’t be so messed up or angry. But my parents aren’t here and I’ve adapted myself to deal with that. I’m fine on my own, but I need to find them. I just need to. I need to let them see what they’ve missed out on."

Costume research

We want to research deeply into the costumes of our characters because we believe they fully express the characters personality. Our main character is a homeless teenager. She is angry, hurt and alone and we want clothing to reflect that demeanour. We also need to make sure the audience believe that she is homeless, to do this we need to make sure we research into what homeless people would wear.

The usual stereotype for a homeless person is that they are dirty and addicted to drugs. They are also considered illiterate and lazy. For some people this is the case but in many circumstances homeless people are just helpless lost souls.
Our main character is defiantly not considered a bad person because she is homeless; she is just someone who has no love in her life and no one to look after her. She is just a child and wants to be loved.

The clothes the girl wears need to reflect how desperate she is and how much she wants to get out of her situation. We were thinking that maybe she could wear clothes that any normal teenage girl would wear but scruff them up to make the audience believe she is actually homeless. We want her to be wearing a winter hat and a long scarf to really show how cold it is. This will make the audience sympathise with her. Other pieces of clothing we will use are a winter coat that is too big for her. This will show how people don’t care enough about her to be buying her normal sized clothing. She will also wear scruffy trainers. All of these items of clothing will emphasise the fact that she is homeless.

Although we want the girl to look scruffy and dirty, we want to make her appealing to the audience. To do this we will make sure that you can see that the girl makes the best out of the clothes she has.

Location research

 We have decided to film our opening two minutes in Guildford. This is our closest town centre so it will be easy and cheap to get to. Also there are lots of people around in Guildford, especially at Christmas time so we would like to film there to emphasise the fact that the girl’s parents could be literally anyone and it will be a struggle to find them.
We want to film nearer Christmas, when the lights are on. This will make the girl seem more alone and really show how everyone else is perfectly happy and her life is in pieces.
Another reason we have decided to film when the Christmas lights are on is to get good artificial lighting because it will be hard to see the characters if it is fully dark. The lights will create not only a festive feel but it will light up our characters in different colours which will make it feel more Christmassy.
The way Guildford High Street is set out will make it easy for us to really show the Christmas feel because the lights hang from building to building making it obvious that it’s Christmas. Hopefully the town will be busy and we will be able to capture families having a good time Christmas shopping to show how alone the girl is.

 

 

 

Certificate research

We decided to give our film a certificate 12A. This is because based on many drama films the age certificate is 12A, most of these films are not very hard hitting and are effective because they show normal peoples struggles in their daily lives in everyday situations. We did not decide to give out film a higher certificate, this is because higher certificates are mainly associated with horror and thriller films and this is not our chosen genre. Higher certificates also use sex scenes and strong language and the main character in our film is a young girl and her struggle to find her biological parents. Therefore sex scenes will not be appropriate for our film opening; the only focus is for her to find her true parents. We will not use strong language in our film opening; this is because the character hasn’t got that sort of personality. Besides she is so desperate to show her parents what they are missing out on and what a good person she has become. Although a strong part of her wants to shout and swear at her parents, she does not choose to do this because she knows that this language won’t solve anything.