Character Costumes

We have to think carefully about the costumes for our characters so that they fit in with the scene and how we want them to look. 

So below is a list of what we want the characters to look like:

Sarah's costume:

- Black jeans with a plain white t-shirt and black boots to make her character look more grown up.

Tilly's costume:

- Black jeans also so she looks similar to Sarah, with a grey jumper and trainers.

Connor's costume:

- Grey jeans with a plain t-shirt and a shirt with trainers.

Jack's costume:

- Blue jeans with a plain black t-shirt and grey trainers.

We will have to ensure that the four young children that play the younger versions of ourselves look similar to us and that they have similar outfits to make it more realistic or they should wear school uniform which is generally what the younger version of ourselves would wear if they were in Year 7.

Film Logo

After much deliberation we finally decided on the film title: Connect 4 (Four).

This was because Connect 4 is a well known child's game, which our character's play in the film, and we are four childhood friends hence the number/ or word four.

Institution

This is the production company that we have chosen to produce our film:

A similar film production company who produce low budget teen films are Canal+. They produced the film 'Son of Rambow'. There was more than one production company that helped to produce this film but Canal+ was the main contributor in the making of the film and contributed the most money.

Shooting Schedule

This is our group's Shooting Schedule for this week. We aim to film the majority of the required shots over four days this week.

Marketing Campaign

We have done lots of research on how other low budget films, like our own film, can be marketed with a low budget.

Strategy 1: Social media sites 
Social media sites are used for low budget films to market their film because it is free and because so many people now use social media in their everyday life.

Strategy 2: YouTube pop ups
This costs a small fee to advertise films on YouTube but is a very effective way because you can specify what sort of video you want your pop up to be viewed on which means your marketing is automatically shown to your implied audience.

Strategy 3: Vine 
A vine is a very effective way for a low budget film to market their film, because it is free to do and can be distributed all around the world using the internet.

Strategy 4: Blogs
Blogs are free to make and you can add lots of detail to them, something you cannot do on other types of promotions like posters. But it is not easily accessed, so it is hard to gather a large audience.

Strategy 5: Street marketing
Low budget film companies can take to the street, to leaflet and promote their film because it is cheaper than other marketing strategies like TV and radio adverts. But it does cost to print off the leaflets and for the wages of the staff who are promoting the film.

I found this off a website that specialises in how low budget films can market their film successfully, so that the film is well known and people are aware what the film is about.

Paranormal activity low budget marketing strategies:

Before the first Paranormal activity film was released in 2009 few people, other than Paramount production company and select cities knew about the upcoming horror film. The $15,000 horror movie, directed by San Diego filmmaker Oren Peli, first gained awareness at Slamdance Film Festival. A year later Steven Spielberg noticed the potential of the low budget film. The film company marketed the film using social media which intrigued some of its viewers. 

We have decided to use the following strategies to market our film because they are free or very cheap, therefore fit in with our low budget but are still able to make our audience aware of the film and what it can offer them. Here are the strategies we are going to use:

1) Live snapchat feeds- We can create our own snapchat account for our film as this is free and we can create stories that can be viewed by all snapchat users to help market our film. We can also have live feeds of teasers from the filming and production of our film with this we can also leak our release date for the film. This is a really good place to market our film because most of the users on snapchat fit in with our target audience which is 12+ years old.

2) YouTube pop ups- We are going to use YouTube pop ups which are a good way to market our film 'Connect 4'. This is because we can choose which videos our advertising is shown on, helping us target our chosen audience effectively. Also it is fairly cheap to use this method of marketing, which is good because we are a low budget film.

3) Social media sites- We are going to produce a page on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram where users can see when our film is being released and can watch clips and trailers of the film before its release date. This is a suitable method of marketing because it is free and anyone around the world, who has access to these sites, can see our marketing page.

Title Analysis and Timeline

Representation

Teen films we used as inspiration for our opening sequence...

High School Musical

High School Musical is a 2006 American teen/romantic comedy musical. 

Male: represented as athletic jocks who stick to the status quo. However, towards the end of the film they break away from their typical representations and become their own person.  

Female: represented as being very intelligent but who also follow the status quo. They also break out of their typical representations and become what they want to be. 

American Pie

American Pie is a 1999 teen sex comedy. 

Male: represented as weird group of loaners trying to out do each other.    

Female: represented as a goal and not actual people. Women are objectified and seen as sexual tools. There are only a select few female characters in this film that are given names, storylines and essentially personalities such as: Michelle, Heather and Victoria. However, the majority of the women in this film are not given names or a role in the film.

Superbad

Superbad is a 2007 American teen comedy film.
Male: represented as a pair of weird, sexually frustrated friends who trying to make a name for themselves at school.
Female: represented as sexual objects and are not really given a role in the film.

Target Audience

PRIMARY: Teenagers

Gender: Female
Age: 14
Favourite Films: Mean Girls, The Breakfast Club, Bring It On and Clueless.
Interests: Watching films and television, reading, playing netball and other sports and shopping.
Why would she go and watch our film: She loves teen comedies and classic coming of age films. She is a big film fan and so enjoys going to the cinema and watching new films. She also has a whole range of interests so she can relate to each one of the characters in our film, thus making her more likely to watch it.

SECONDARY: Parents

Gender: Female
Age: 30+
Favourite Films: Thelma and Louise, Beaches, Back to the Future and Sixteen Candles.
Interests: Reading, spending time with her children and watching movies.
Why would she go and watch our film: Because if she has teenage children, then she will have to accompany them to our film as it is a 12A. She herself loves watching films, especially 80s/90s teenage comedies.

Our primary audience is teenagers between the ages of 12 and 19. This is because our film features both 11/12 year olds and 16/17 year olds thus making it easy for teenagers to relate to our characters and our narrative.
Our secondary audience is parents of teenage children because they will have to accompany their children to our movie as it has BBFC classification of 12A. We believe they will also want to go watch our film as it follows a similar narrative to classic teenage films that were released during the 1980s/90s such as: The Goonies, Stand By Me and Now and Then.

Storyboard

Visual Moodboard

This is a visual mood board that displays the inspirations for our film and films that we consider to be similar.

Music Research

We are hoping to include a small song in our film opening as well as other uses of sound and dialogue. These are the possible options we have found for songs that will feature in our opening:

Possible Film Titles

For the last couple of days our group has struggled to come up with possible titles for our film.
We have had many suggestions but have yet to find the perfect name for our film. These are some of the possible film titles that we have come up with:

• Meeples
• In Bloom
• Then and Now
• Outnumbered
• Fools
• When We Were Young
• Connect 4 
• Gherkins
• Blind Faith
• Out of the Black
• Good Times
• Good Girls, Bad Girls 
• Wannabe 
• 5 Second Rule 
• The  Insiders
• The Normal Ones

Risk Assessment

This our group's risk assessment...

















































We chose to devise two separate risk assessments for each location we were going to film at. This was because as one is indoor and one is outdoor we felt that each of the two locations presented their own, very different, risks and possible hazards. Due to this we wrote two risk assessments: one for our exterior shots and one for our interior shots.



Photo Evidence

This our group's photo evidence of planning and filming for our film opening. It features images of us planning and researching as well as exterior/location shots of where we are going to film.

Props List

Club house:
This is a list of the props that will be needed to fill our portacabin:

• Vinyl Records which will be moved by one of the characters and a title will be shown on the middle of the record.
• Old posters which will be taped to the wall in the club house.
• Boxes of retro sweets and cereals
• A lava lamp
• Scrabble which will spell out the name of the film
• Guess who introducing the characters
• Retro DVDs
• Fairy lights around the room to make it more
• Comic books
• Tea mug, which will have a title on
• Monopoly
• Connect 4
• A round wooden table in middle of the room
• Alphabet Spaghetti to introduce a title
• Rack of fancy dress clothes
• Dart board
• A guitar which will be given to the character of Kurt to show his musical side.
• Cup stacks
• Jenga
• A rug on the floor of the cabin

Using the props to create titles: 

1. The titles will start rolling after the 360 degree shot of the older children sitting in a circle around the table, then one of the characters picks up a coffee mug and takes a sip where the first title will be spelled out on the bottom of the mug. This will be introducing the film's production company.
2. The second title will be using Scrabble pieces which will spell out the name of the film, this will be a sped up version of one of the characters moving the pieces into a line to introduce the film name.
3. The first character Alex, who is played by Tilly, will be introduced by her character walking over to the wall where a posters corner is bent over and she folds it back where her name will be on the corner.   
4. The second character Katie, who is played by Sarah, will introduce her title by pulling out a Jenga piece where her name will be on.
5. The character Kurt, who is played by Connor and is musical, will have his title on his guitar which he will have on his back when sitting down.
6. The character Jacob, who is played Jack and is very sporty, will have his name on the front of a comic book which he will be looking at, at the time.
7. The title for who the film is produced by will be on the spine of a book which will be on the shelf. The camera will pan past the books and then one of the characters will take out of the book shelf.
8. The title of the editors of the film will be on a CD and will be spun around in its case; one of the characters will spin this around.
9. The title of who filmed the opening scene will be on a piece of fake money from the board game monopoly.
10. The title for costumes by will be on a sketch notepad which someone will flip over and the title will be on the other side.
11. The title for who directed the film will be on the top of a coat rack, where someone will go and hang up their coat and the title will appear above the hook.

Other ideas for titles:

1. Glue with glitter on top.
2. Candy stick sweets on table then children’s hands go and grab them.
3. Cup stacks construct to make name.
4. On a whiteboard, steps to clubhouse rules, (First rule of board game club, don't talk about board game club).
5. A slice of cake and pipe onto plate.

Film Pitch

This is our group's final film pitch for our AS Media Project. It has taken us a while to get to the stage where we are able to present a complete idea but we have finally devised an interesting and unique film opening premise. Here it is:

Title Research

In order to understand our own title sequence, and the order in which to present our titles, we had to conduct some research into films that are similar to ours and the title sequences that they have. The films that we have chosen are: Napoleon Dynamite (due to the creative title sequence), Stand By Me (because of the similarities between our four characters, who are childhood friends, and the boys in the film) and Now and Then (due to the same reason as Stand By Me; the similarities of our characters).



This is the timeline for the opening title sequence in Napoleon Dynamite. It contains a list of each of the titles, what time they appear and who's name appears.

My Original Film Pitch

This is the presentation I gave when pitching my film opening idea to my group. My group chose a different idea, which we all came up with together, and so my idea was not used in the end. However, I was still very impressed with my idea despite it being possibly unfeasible and very hard to shoot.

Opening Title Analysis

Sin City Opening Titles



These are the most important titles in the opening sequence of Sin City. They consist of a few members of the large ensemble cast and the people who are responsible for the creation of the film, script and cast.

Title 1: This is the main title of the film. The writing is bold and graphic which follows the theme of the entire film as it is predominately black and white but features occasional pops of colour for emphasis on particular scenes and characters. The bold red of the title contrasts the black background causing it to stand out and be very prominent on screen, which is fitting for this particular title as it is the name of the film.
Time on screen: 2 seconds

Title 2: This is the same title as the previous but there is the added element of the director and writer's (Frank Miller) name above the main title (Sin City).
Time on screen: 3 seconds

Title 3: This is the first title featuring a cast member. Jessica Alba is the first name to be mentioned as being a member of the cast. The style of her title, and the theme throughout all of the cast titles, is their name in bold, graphic writing with a comic strip image as the background. The comic strip image is of their character from the graphic novel that the film is based on. This gives the viewer an idea of the character the actor is playing, and about the film overall, in that it is based on a graphic novel and is in the style of a comic book.
Time on screen: 2 seconds

Title 4: This is the second title featuring Rosario Dawson. Her name is similarly in bold red writing with an image of her character from the novel, behind.
Time on screen: 2 seconds

Title 5: This is the first male name that we see in the opening titles. Benicio Del Toro is a famous male actor and at this stage in the title sequence we begin to see a pattern in the order of which the cast members appear. All of the cast member's names appear in alphabetical order, starting with Jessica Alba. Devon Aoki, Alexis Bedel, Powers Boothe, Rosario Dawson, Benicio Del Toro etc.
Time on screen: 2 seconds

Title 6: This is the second male name that appears in this title sequence. Michael Clarke Duncan's title follows the typical style of this sequence and boldly features a profile image of his character. The image itself is dark and menacing which perfectly portrays Michael's character as the muscle for the villain in the film.
Time on screen: 2 seconds

Titles 7, 8 and 9: These three titles are of three very prominent men in this ensemble cast. The first being Mickey Rourke followed by Bruce Willis and Elijah Wood. As well as following the template of these titles and the alphabetical order they are placed in, these three titles all feature prominent images of men in powerful positions.
Time on screen: all 2 seconds

Title 10: This is one of the most important titles in the whole opening sequence. It is the first title that tells the audience who wrote the graphic novel on which the film is based. Frank Miller was a crucial member of the production process for Sin City which is perhaps why this title is only one of 3 that features for more than 2 seconds. The other two titles both feature Frank Miller's name which is perhaps why they last for more than two seconds as he is the creator of the film thus making him very important and influential.
Time on screen: 4 seconds

Title 11: Casting is a very crucial element of the film making process. A good cast can make or break a film so this may be the reason why the casting director's name appear first. These few titles, beginning with Casting Director, have a very similar style. The name of the role, be it Casting Director or Executive Producer, is written in graphic, white writing with a black background. This style of writing is mirrored in the writing commonly seen in graphic novels. The actual name of the person is written in the similar red, graphic writing that was used for the title of the film and all of the members of the cast.
Time on screen: 2 seconds

Titles 12 and 13: These two titles feature the members of the production team that were responsible for the music and the shot and cut. They are two very important roles in the making of a film and so it makes sense that they should follow one after the other. They also follow the similar style of the previous titles and change swiftly between one another thus creating a dramatic and comic book-like effect for the audience.
Time on screen: 2 seconds

Titles 14 and 15: Both of these titles feature the members of the film making process that were responsible for producing the film (Executive Producers and the Producer). The Executive Producers partly responsible for this film are Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein, two huge names in the film industry.
Time on screen: 2 seconds

Title 16: The direction of a film is crucial to its individual success and overall box office success. This is probably why the directors of this film appear last in the title sequence. Quentin Tarantino has been credited as the 'Special Guest Director' on this film and appears on the second to last credit thus showing his importance and relevance to the film. This title follows the typical template of all of its counterparts.
Time on screen: 2 seconds

Title 17: This is the last title in the sequence and features the directors of the film (Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez). Frank Miller's name appears three times in this title sequence which suggests that he had a heavy hand in the creation, direction and production of this film. Also, because he wrote the graphic novels on which the film is based it translates that his name appear the most because without him the film would not exist. This title is one of the most important titles in the opening sequence as it is only one of three that features on screen for more than two seconds.
Time on screen: 4 seconds

Sound Analysis

Sin City Film Opening
Ambient Sound- Car horns, sirens in the distance and the general bustle of the big city create a soundscape for the location the scene is set in.
Synchronous Sound- seeing her walk and hearing the sound of her heels on the concrete. Him walking towards her and hearing his footsteps. The lighter and the sound of a flame lighting. The gun shot with silencer, then seeing the gun. The rain and the sound of rain falling on the concrete.
Symphonic music- the sound of saxophones and other horn instruments.
Voiceover- the male character in the film narrates his thoughts on the scene that is unfolding on screen. Adds to the ambiance and helps the audience understand the storyline a little more, as you get insight into the character and his questionable actions in this opening.
Asynchronous Sounds- the sirens and the noise from the streets below.

Diegetic
Or
Non-Diegetic

The music is subtle enough that you hear it, but it does not distract or compete for your attention with the dialogue and voiceover. The voiceover helps establish the narrative and the character further, thus aiding the audience in understanding the genre of the film.
The soundscape created of the city aids the audience in gauging the atmosphere of the opening scene. The car horns, the sirens and the bustle of the streets below amount to the overall soundscape of a busy city in America, somewhere like New York or Chicago.