DEVELOPMENT: Questionnaire Responses

This is the feedback that I got from a selection of people who watched my trailer. The range of answers is really helpful to me as I can get an objective overview to the product without my subjective opinions.

RESEARCH: Questionnaire

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS: The Runner Trailer

RESEARCH: Funding and Production

Today I have been researching exactly who would fund my documentary, and upon researching, I came across BRITDOC. Below is the connection that BRITDOC have with Channel 4, and why i believe it is relevant to my production.

"Channel 4 has been the founding partner and inspiration of BRITDOC from day one. They share the same belief in the importance of public service content to British culture and society, alongside a modern and innovative approach to problem solving.

BRITDOC are 'delighted' that in November 2011 Channel 4 announced they were renewing their partnership with them, and increasing funding by 30%. This increase means they will be able to make more and better films that will be seen all around the world, and on Channel 4 in the UK.

The Channel has an option to broadcast any of the Foundation funded films from BRITDOC's UK production fund that can work for their audiences. They view the films once completed and through this mechanism many of BRITDOC's films have been shown on Channel 4 or More4.

With Channel 4’s help, BRITDOC are continuing to seed a 'vibrant independent documentary community' from where future theatrical, TV and online documentary stars will emerge."

The website goes on to say "We give financing to support independent filmmakers making documentary projects that would not be commissioned by a UK broadcaster.  Since our inception in 2005 we have funded over 60 award winning films."

BRITDOC tend to fund independent, one-off films. They look to widen the spectrum of British documentaries being made by giving filmmakers the ability to complete passion projects that might not otherwise get made. They are keen to work with filmmakers where they can build co-productions and partnerships around films. They can come in with first funding and will assist filmmakers in securing additional finances. They also consider feature-length projects for completion funding on the basis of an early rough cut or rushes.

The above trailers are for just two of the many documentaries that BRITDOC have made. After researching the genre of these short films and documentaries they make with Channel 4's funding, I have come to realise they would be a perfect company to go into co-funding with.

RESEARCH: Focus Group

LOUISE FRASER - 17 

Louise is one of the stars of my trailer, she is an art student, and wants to go to Bournemouth to study Marketing.

JOSH BEECHAM - 17

Josh is a fellow media student of mine, he enjoys drama and appreciates the artistic movement of film, TV and theatre.

EMILY CROW - 18

Emily studies Media, Psychology and English, she loves McFly and spends her spare time trying to get Dougie to tweet her.

JENNIE MOLONEY - 18

Jennie and I have spent our childhood together, she spends her spare time singing and playing guitar, and is a consistent uploader to YouTube.

DEVELOPMENT: Teen Dream Trailer

This is the trailer I have been working on so far. It is not yet complete - I keep having ideas that I think may work and then have to keep arranging with the featured 'actors' to meet again for a shoot. I have spent so many hours perfecting the timing of the music and then I have another idea, add footage, and have to re-arrange the video to the music.

I think it is coming along nicely though, I have had lots of feedback so far, not only from my focus group, but other friends and family members too.

This feedback suggested to me that there is not as much footage of Louise as there is of Lewis, which upon reflection, I agree with. This has confirmed to me that I should carry out the next shoot with Louise which I was considering. In this shoot, I will film Louise's morning routine more as I have done with Lewis, including the making of toast and tea, among other footage.

DEVELOPMENT: Treatment and Information

My trailer is for a Channel4-style documentary series which follows two adolescent students who both have a goal to reach; one a musician, the other an artist. 
The trailer is accompanied by the song 'Meo Blodnasir' by Icelandic singer 'Sigur Ros'. I heard the song years ago and it is only when I listened to it recently with media in mind that I realised the angle I wanted to take on my trailer. 
The song has a certain point where it 'kicks in' and I wanted to match this climax of the song to a climax in my footage, which I think I have managed to do by filming Louise opening the curtains; I wanted this to represent the start of a new day and therefore starting her dream on that day, which the rest of the trailer shows.

DEVELOPMENT: Title of documentary

I have been trying to think of a catchy name for the documentary I am doing a trailer for, and to do this I have been carrying out some research into synonyms for the words 'aim', 'goal' and 'dream'.

There are a few on the list below I am considering such as 'Teen Project', 'Teen Meaning' and simply, 'Teen Dream'.

The opinions of my focus group will help me in making this decision. 

DEVELOPMENT: Progress of trailer

I have now completed filming everything I need to.

The last few weeks I have been gradually developing my footage for the trailer which I think is coming along nicely. I still need to adjust the colours to make each shot clearer and to edit the sound to fit perfectly in sync with the video. 

RESEARCH - Institutional Context

WHO WOULD DISTRIBUTE THIS TRAILER/DOCUMENTARY? 
The people who would distribute my trailer are the same ones who would screen it. I believe this would be the Channel 4 team as it follows the typical documentary conventions of a trailer for a Dispatches program all except for the voiceover which they sometimes also omit. 



WHO WOULD BE THE CONSUMERS OF THIS TRAILER/DOCUMENTARY?
Anyone who watches Channel 4, but for this particular topic I think teenagers would be interested as they may relate to having a dream but being too young for people to take you seriously. I also think media students and free-lance filmmakers would be interested because it will be funded by BRITDOC; an opportunity for people to express their products. 

RESEARCH - My Opinion on the Examiner's Report

WHY WE KEEP A BLOG
*It is easy to revise from
*We can share information by looking at each others finding
*It is simple to comment and edit notes and thoughts
*It shows our 'Learning Journey' and progress throughout the year

I SHOULD...
*Complete a post per lesson
*Show the outcomes of our decisions in context
*Display my on-going evidence to see connections between research and decisions
*Categorise each post in either "Planning", "Research", "Production" and "Evaluation"
*Textual analysis of existing products is crucial (connotations and denotations)
*Potential target audience in deatil (mood boards etc) Ask focus group what they expect
*Risk assessments

MY TRAILER
*I should aim to intrigue and entice viewers
*Edit it to a good pace
*Maximum; two minutes long
*Intertitles in between shots to mix it up
*I need to find an example of a trailer that doesn't give away its narrative

PLANNING - Change of Mind

I have filmed footage for Life in the Day of a Student, but after consideration and many attempts to plan the narrative, I have concluded that it is not exciting enough to make into a short film. I do not have access to the sound effects that I had hoped for, and I think if I continue to try and edit the footage, I will end up with a five-minute scene in which nothing really happens, nobody learns anything and that is forgotten about within minutes.
However, due to this change of heart, I have had to plan something to take the place of my original idea. I have decided to produce a teaser trailer instead. The narrative of this new idea contains similar aspects of the original idea, and I may even be able to use some of the original footage due to this. 
The new idea is still based around teenage life, but instead of following one character's day in their hungover state (original plan), I have decided to do a Channel 4, Dispatches-style, documentary trailer displaying the early morning of five or six aspiring students in their home town. The moral of this trailer will be along the lines of "Do students really act the way they're portrayed?" and by showing the faces and routines of the students in the trailer I hope that this will work the way I imagine. 
My initial inspiration for this change was due to this song, which I will use as the song for my trailer; Sigur Rós - Með Blóðnasir    

RESEARCH, PLANNING AND ANCILIARY TASKS

Research, Planning and Ancillary Tasks

Research and Planning

·         Generic research into similar artefacts for main tasks and both ancillary tasks

·      Identify codes and conventions

·         Institutional research, exhibition and distribution of artefacts.

·      Audience research:

è Focus Groups

è Interviews

è Feedback

è Planning: Storyboards, animatic, photoshoots, sketches, drafts,   screen shots, skills development from Foundation, mood boards, rushes, 1^st drafts.

Construction

Main Task:  40

Ancillary 1:  10

Ancillary 2:  10

Evaluation:  20

Completed Evaluation Tasks

·         Analysis in terms of Media

è Language Genre

è Narrative

è Representation

è Audience

è Answers to evaluation questions in dynamic form (film, PowerPoint)

Ancillary Tasks

·         Two minute teaser trailer 

·         Webpage, film magazine cover or poster

PLANNING - Film Makers

What do filmmakers have in common? Passion, focus, commitment, resiliency and talent? (Jacques Thelemaque, Withoutabox)
Which of these do you think you have? Which might you have to develop? What do you know; what you are passionate about?

Use your focus group, “Listen carefully to first criticisms of your work. Note just what it is about your work the critics don't like, then cultivate it. That’s the part of your work that’s individual and worth keeping” Jean Cocteau

RESEARCH - Lurpak Advert

This is the Lurpak advert from 2011. A major feature of the advert is that it uses a lot of enhanced sound effects for, for example, chopping, dicing and mashing the foods up.
I really admire this aspect of the advert because it makes it different to other food brand commercials and I have always been able to remember it as I had never really seen anything like it before. I hope to base my footage around these exaggerated sounds not only so people remember it, but also because I think it's a good USP for my short film. The basis of my short film is a teen boy waking up with a hangover, and so I thought encorperating these sounds could work nicely with his feeling excessively sensitive as sounds are usually heard louder and harsher when a body is lacking in energy and soberness.

RESEARCH - Elephant

When questioned about the intention of the film, Gus Van Sant stated that he “wanted to recreate the actions of the day without any glib sociological or psychological explanations for an inexplicable horror.” A review of the film later read “Elephant is filmmaking at its most powerful and provocative…Van Sant sketches a portrait of what is lost when such a tragedy does happen…Elephant’s neutrality forces the viewer the confront the utter senselessness of such a tragedy and the arbitrary randomness with which it can strike…Elephant is the most affecting and powerful film of the year.” These are the aspects of the film which I admire most and would like to reciprocate in my own short film. My aim is to show the true everyday life of a student without fake or exaggerated narratives or Special FX.

PLANNING - Terminology

PERSISTANCE OF VISION; how we remember what we have just scene even if it's gone from the frame LEONARDO DA VINCI; creator of the projector (the first idea of one) ZOETRAPE; illusion of movement by spinning a drum with slightly different drawings There were different forms of creating movement. These gradually advanced. 1900; The idea of a narrative; a storyline 1927; 'The Jazz Singer' by Warner Brothers; the first film with sounds. Before 1927, there were pianists/organ players in the cinema to accompany the film. GLARN; Genre, Language, Audiences, Representation and Narrative Before films got sound, theatre was more popular.

RESEARCH - Britain In A Day

On Saturday 12th November 2011, an eclectic range of British people turned the camera on themselves, capturing the entertaining and mundane, the exciting and the unusual, the poignant and the everyday. The result; Britain In A Day tells the fascinating story of the British public in their own words. Following on from feature film 'Life In A Day', the film directed by BAFTA-winning Morgan Matthews offers an extraordinarily candid look at 21st Century life across the UK, crafted from over 750 hours of footage, including 11,526 clips submitted to YouTube. The documentary offers remarkable insight into the lives, loves, fears and hopes of people living in Britain today. This captivating self-portrait of Britain forms part of the BBC's Cultural Olympiad. Film-maker Morgan Matthews is explaining why more than 11,000 British men and women responded to a call by the BBC to pick up a camera, record what the were doing or feeling that day, and then upload the footage onto youTube. Some of the clips lasted 10 seconds, others 2 hours; edited, curated and whittled down into a 90-minute documentary. They offer a fascinating, sometimes affecting, often funny snapshot of this country. Morgan Matthews is an English, factual director. He is the founder of Minnow Films and has won many awards, including a BAFTA for his documentary 'The Fallen'. 'Britain In A Day' is a follow-up to last year's Kevin MacDonalds-directed, Ridley Scott-produced 'Life In A Day', which was assembled from clips captured across the world the previous July. Its structure is similar, but tonally it veers away from the global humanism that pervaded its predecessor. "If there's a message you take away from Life In A Day, it's that we're all different, but essentially, we're all the same" says Matthews. "Because it offered a very broad canvas, it made it difficult to capture what was going on in the world at any one time. I hope my film captures the zeitgeist, a moment in time that's quite specific"

RESEARCH - History of Film

THE LUMIERE BROTHERS - 1885 *Long shots and had no narrative; they didn't follow a particular story or person *The camera did not change it's movement or angle during the whole scene - it was fixed in a set position until the short film was over. *Some shots show a narrative of the characters and evoke a response; usually, this was slapstick comedy The first films produced were short. The film was expensive; they didn't have batteries to power the camera, which is why it is hand-cranked. THe film reels were 17 metres long which translated to 50 seconds. The Lumiere Brothers made over 1,425 different short films. A TRIP TO THE MOON (Le Voyage lans la lune) *1902, French, Black and white, silent science-fiction film *As film developed, so did narrative *It is loosely based on two popular novels of that time *It was 14 minutes long (16-frames-per-second; standard frame rate) *It was the very first sci-fi film in history *It uses innovative animation and special effects, including the iconic shot of the rocketship landing on the eye of the moon In terms of film language, be aware of post modernism and intertexuality. Films nowadays are usually expressions of previous influences. HOMAGE; A copy of previous work. For example, 'Tonight Tonight' by 'Smashing Pumpkins' is a homage of 'A Trip To The Moon'

PLANNING - Films Offer Experiences...

"Film offers experiences that viewers find worthwhile - diverting, provocative, puzzling or rapturous. But how do films do that?"

Diverting - One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest


Provocative - Elephant



Puzzling - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Rapturous - One Tree Hill - Haley and Nathan

Rapturous - One Tree Hill - Graduation (from 5minutes)