evaluation upate

By way of introduction, i would like to say that our film trailer took precise use of certain media products and equipment, so that it would be proficient in its effective conventions when shown to the public audience.

Having watched, studied and analysed the trailers of 'without a paddle’,'Lethal Weapon'And 'Beverly hills’ cop', we finally decided that the right genre for our film would not be individual, but a hybrid genre of both action and comedy elements. The element of the action genre had been used to its full advantage in the 'Lethal Weapon' and 'Beverly hills’ cop' films, the directors of these films having already produced and directed successful films, of which they had full use of the action genres, containing nothing that would convey the comedy genre. However, more recent films that have conveyed the action-comedy genre within a more balanced perspective such as 'without a paddle', having been made by a director who has produced more comedy orientated films, would naturally have that effect on the hybrid genre, action-comedy.

In terms of correct media terminology for the aforementioned films used as examples for our research and ideas, they seemed to have a similar process of piecing together the shots for their essential trailers. We noticed that the overall content of the film was equalized and balanced between both the action and comedy genres, so that it would convey both types of the hybrid genre without establishing the whole plot.

Naturally, this would influence the way we put our trailer together, so that, in the eventual consequence of watching the film by others, we would be successful in the way that whilst the plot didn't reveal too much, the thorough idea of the action and comedy elements being conveyed in a balanced process, so that the audience would both be enthralled and determined to watch more.


The element of action comes from within their posture, as their direct mode of address and straight upper forms convey the natural assumption of their personalities, but as the audience would normally expect the male sex to dominate this particular type of film, the comedy element is hereby shown through the deliberate element of surprise, the fact that instead of the male domination towards the action genre, there are two girls, seemingly conveying the comedy part.

The ancillary tasks, including a poster of our film and the Empire magazine cover based on our film, were two of the various ways of getting our message across to the common public. Both posters portray the seemingly main characters of the film, but convey their main feelings and the overall hybrid genre of the film.



These two ancillary texts are prime examples of advertisements for our media projects, as we realized they could not only give the audience a clue as to what type of characters they would expect, but also their enthusiasm about going to watch the film in cinemas, as displayed through a movie poster and the magazine cover of an empire magazine.






I designed the movie poster to come across as an equally adventurous and hilarious aspect of the film, by using Adobe Photoshop 3.0. Through this, I captured a photo of the two main characters, Brandene and Charlene, and provided a forestry background to convey the overall location of where most of the film would have been shot, in which this portrayed the overall message of the film trailer. The lexical choices were written to connote an enthusiastic approach towards the audience, persuading them to watch the movie in local cinemas.

The magazine cover of empire was designed to meet the specific content of magazine covers for empire in general. Through this, I thought that a photo of the two main characters of our film trailer, Brandene and Charlene, would need to have viewed them performing direct mode of address towards the audience. Also, the other information, such as 'puffs' and 'ears', conveyed a similar genre to our film trailer, so that it would seem to be categorized into one particular type of genre.

The two main characters of the film, having already been conveyed through certain elements via the aforementioned subjects, are often unexpected in action-comedy films, as the general aspects of action-comedy films tend to twist the stereotypical analysis of subject characters in a certain movie, to suit the entire plot. However, as a group we decided that it would be much more interesting and entertaining towards the audience, had these two characters been developed into southern American stereotypes, and naturally, via the inclusion of southern American accidents and ‘dizzy’ personalities, therefore conveying the overall message of the action-comedy hybrid genre, and how the aforementioned stereotypical analysis falls into this particular category.


As pure examples of research, we looked deeply into the distribution of the 'Beverly hills’ cop' and 'Without a paddle' films, and found that since paramount had distributed many more action-comedy based films amongst the aforementioned movies, it would be good to choose paramount as the distributor for our film. Not only for this reason, but also the fact that most of the films paramount has distributed contain actors within the age range of 18-25, obviously a valuable choice for us, as our media project applies to a young audience, thereby being influenced by young actors.

We found that films such as 'Kindergarten cop'(1990)


and 'Kick-ass'(2010)


, both of which had developed a balanced perspective on both action and comedy genres, were distributed by universal film studios, amongst many other action-comedy films,and so this would naturally be a good distribution choice for our media project. The aforementioned movies distributed by universal film studios have also been successful in terms of both grasping a rapturous response from the audience and receiving highly-rated reviews from international film magazine companies such as empire and total film.

The audience for our film would naturally be not only fans of comedy, but also people of young age, as the content within our media project applies specifically to audiences of both a young age and bear awareness of all types of humour. However, the editing process, which includes a variety of different types of speech, such as different languages and narrative, would not only appeal to an audiences of young age, but to an audience of older age as well, since they would come primarily for the inclusion of different nationalities, and the experience of narrative perspectives. This could also link into the young audiences' education, since it would be both interesting and educational, just for the inclusion of a new language. This was my personal idea to speak in a foreign language within a cameo role, in order to sustain the audiences' bemusement alongside learning something new from a film, aside from media studies.

On the other hand, as we know now that audiences of a young age are becoming more and more addicted to the internet, the possible advertisements of our media project across the web may attract the audience to view the whole of our film, as well as uploading processes of film trailers onto social networking sites such as YouTube and twitter, in which the two aforementioned websites are currently two of the biggest examples of what we would call, 'We media'. In relevance to the subject at hand, the definite type of audience that may view our film would obviously be those who are becoming more and more attracted to the internet, as well as youngsters, who may only watch for entertainment, but learn something new without realizing.

We also did a questionnaire, not only unto the target audience, but to other age ranges as well, so that we could get a clear,concise idea of how our film fared, in terms of the public opinion. We found that, having watched the film trailer, every person surveyed thought that the genre would defenitely fit in with the comedy element, although some thought that there were traces of the action element throughout the trailer. The audience were asked why they thought the trailer was their chosen genre, and with regards to the effects and music being two of the concrete examples, some reasons ranged from particularly specific to a broad answer, e.g.; the weird costume that 'Moondrop'(Charlotte Pell) wore, and another answer stating simply, 'everything'.

In relation to how well-structured the trailer was, we included a question as to whether the sequencing actually made sense, and we found that nine out of ten people said 'defenitely'. In order to establish a more concise understanding of the trailer, we attempted to develop a question based on whether the audience thought there were connections between the characters, and, like the aforementioned introductory question, everyone said yes, but with different reasons ranging from 'Brandene and Charlene' to more unlikely situations(i.e. hans and Moondrop).

A questionnaire would not be complete without asking about the favourite parts of the trailer, and naturally, there were plenty of comedic scenes to choose from, including the ending scene and where the tent fell down, featuring a classic moment wherein the 'weather became terrible'.

In the past, there have been instances wherein trailers were hated for being 'too long' or 'too short', however, when the audience was asked about this in regards to 'The Quest's trailer, all but a few said it was perfect timing, leaving nothing too open-ended or revealing, so that this would make the audience want to watch the actual film.

Following on from the pre-mentioned point, a final question was asked based on what the audience thought would happen in the film, and leading on from the two main characters, Brandene and Charlene, around 95% said that they would love to know what happened to them.

All in all, in regards to our questionnaire, we felt that we had definitive proof that our trailer would be particularly successful, not only via the cinema screenings but also the process referred to as 'We media' that would encase the success our film trailer would be embracing.

The majority of film producers and directors often use a variety of media products, in order to enable their films to encourage a wide range of audience types. We have noticed, as a group, that the emphatic use of tripods with cameras have been used to a great extent, in terms of raw footage, as this would make key scenes in the film seem more professional within its work. For our media project, we used the standard tripod a number of times to make our key scenes have a degree of stillness, so that it would be clear for the audience to view the media project.

The inclusion of a microphone for not only a key shot in our trailer, but also for a bigger surround sound system, helped to make the sound much sharper, and becoming familiar with it we used it to its full advantage, in which our media project turned out to be something special, also applying the key connotations across to our key audience., 'Lethal Weapon' and 'Beverly hills’ cop', we finally decided that the right genre for our film would not be individual, but a hybrid genre of both action and comedy elements. The element of the action genre had been used to its full advantage in the 'Lethal Weapon' and 'Beverly hills’ cop' films, the directors of these films having already produced and directed successful films, of which they had full use of the action genres, containing nothing that would convey the comedy genre. However, more recent films that have conveyed the action-comedy genre within a more balanced perspective such as 'without a paddle', having been made by a director who has produced more comedy orientated films, would naturally have that effect on the hybrid genre, action-comedy.

Synoptic treatment for The Quest

Action Comedy: the definitive fine line between the breathtaking experiences of movement and sarcastic humour. A hybrid style genre that fuses two of the most notable film genres to cross our screens and forms into a new type. However, having been one of the oldest hybrid genres, it also stays one of the more memorable genres of film itself-and The Quest will prove that point with relative ease...

Two Tennesseans: Brandene (Charlotte Pell) and Charlene (Charlotte Cooper)-on vacation to the wide wilderness of Sherwood Forest, home to the once legendary Robin Hood, and the glorious land of England. Everything seems beautiful, by way of nature. However, how many laughs can a Camping Trip bring? None? Wrong. What shall surprise most budding Film experts is these Tennesseans inability to get out of even the simplest of situations. Yes, even when they already have a prepared tent with them, it unexpectedly (or as it so sullenly seems to Brandene and Charlene) collapses on them. It’s England. It’s autumn. It starts raining. You get the picture.

The ‘exciting’ trip continues throughout the morning, when Brandene and Charlene (having finally put the tent up) wake up to an alien figure, a hunter of the forests and a searcher of ‘groovy’ expectations. Oh, it can only be a hippie from England. Yes, and as all hippies do, they fret about the ‘consummation of the planet’ and ‘how the world will end’, if people ‘don’t do something (dude)’.Ah yes, she has a name-‘Moon drop’. The Tennesseans are in a state of shock, about to fall backwards due to such a frightening awakening. Then in comes everyone’s favourite (or most hated for that matter) Action comedy character, a forest warden from Germany who hates the environment and is slightly confused as to why he has been given this job (he’s only German after all), comes into the scene and brushes Moon Drop away, using only the harshest swear words from the German dictionary and quite literally insulting the ‘helpful’ hippie. It will have you flying off your seat, and by the end you will bear no voice as you will laugh that much. It’s Stark-raving bonkers. It’s verbally abusive. It’s amazing.

The tension begins again. This time, in an abandoned (?) house, made from only the dirtiest materials, threatening the forest with it’s ‘architecture’. And guess who’s stumbled upon this disgusting discovery? It can only be young Brandene and Charlene, who, after finally figuring out what Moon Drop was waking them for, find someone’s plans to sell the trees and build them self a lovely, wide house. And then, that ‘someone’ comes in, and discovers them. Oh dear, it seems that this ‘someone’ appears to be of male substance, a dark-coloured uniform, and grumbling with a strange accent. Now, we all know that Brandene and Charlene aren’t very good at remembering particular faces (neither are they good at anything for that matter), but even the most forgetful person couldn’t dismiss this man’s face from their own minds. It is Hans, the forest warden, the German who hates his work, but loves his native language.

Like any other action comedy film, the main characters (Brandene and Charlene) decide to dismiss themselves from the situation, eventually losing them in the mist of the forest. And guess who’s there to save them from this perilous adventure? Why, it’s innocent Hippie Moon Drop! The one who is there to say that famous line ‘I told you so’, and hopefully rescue them from being arrested. Aha. And therein lays the satirical twist. The evil one, Hans, is eventually arrested, cursing underneath his breath with his own native language, and now, the forest remains as it was at the start, beautiful and full of wonderful pleasures.

This is a film that will silence the doubters, prove the haters wrong, and impress the willing audience. A new generation will begin.

Detailed film treatment of The Quest

By way of introduction, I would like to say that our trailer took timing,effort and precision in order to be the best they could naturally be, and therefore, i feel that our genre could not be more equivalently matched with the theories and footage of our filming.

One of the interior shots at the beginning introduced the two main characters(Brandene and Charlene) and through the use of a two-shot, portrayed their bubbly, excited characteristics and personalities. A freeze frame of this scene, displaying the two main characters' names, had been frozen deliberately to show their excitement inside, via the footage of them jumping in mid-air gleefully and with a warm atmosphere. As explained earlier, the representations of these two tennessean youths could not be any clearer to the public eye, as the audience will automatically deduce they really are happy about something. Therefore,this is where the audio has been particularly useful, as two seconds before the freeze frame took place, Brandene quite obviously expresses her excitement through the speech 'Charlene, we're going to england!' , in her natural Tennessean accent. However what, is not as obvious is the relevance to the actualy hybrid genre,known as action-comedy. We wanted to keep a sense of mystery throughout the trailer,not giving too much away, in the process maintaining the thoughtful guesses of the audience. Meanwhile, there was very little that was given away to the public eye, since the image of a globe may have suggested that the two Tennesseans were travelling somewhere, therefore combining the action genre with the idea of travel and adventure, and fusing the comedy genre via the Tennesseans' bubbly personalities.

Following on from this, a brief screenshot of one seemingly beautiful sky, on a leaflet and the other representing a dull, natural view of a forest, are both displayed interchangebaly. However, what instantly catches the human eye is the transition of both images, exchanging from a bright,blue sky to a dull atmosphere, to emphasise the difference between the two. This also represents and portrays both the main characters'(Brandene and Charlene) perspective of the two shots; both characters feel that there is 'more than meets the eye' to their destination,once they pull the seemingly beautiful picture down, only to reveal a visually destructive envronment,complete with visions of the natural world, which seems drastically interchangeable to the human eye. However, to the audience, once again, the element of comedy has been portrayed in this scene, as, now having discovered the obvious personalities and features of Brandene and Charlene, the leaflet picture would seem apparent to the audience that it was there purely to distress the radical feelings of both main characters even more, and so as there is two completely different themes between the two images, it furthermore portrays a critical situation in the film, particularly of the two tennessean girls' arrival.

Naturally, the aftermath of the preceding shot would lower the two characters' hopes, as they discovered something that would exclaim a feeling of disappointment. Their expressions to one another are also in a very morbid and uninteresting fashion, appearing as a moody approach to their first impressions of the arrival. The scene also captures them looking around in wonder, as if they are confused as to why they ended up here. Of course,it would seem to the audience that their moody expressions only help to furthermore portray the comedic feeling of the whole film, whilst creating a sense of suspension, as, in the natural world, they would be worried that they were being watched, therefore emphasising the action genre, and also perfectly capturing the whole sense of the hybrid genre,action-comedy.

What helps to make the trailer seem more professional and genuinely produced, is the constant use of a narrator, giving out speech throughout the trailer so that they can obtain the gist of what the trailer is trying to say. One shot in particular, wherein the narrator(Nathan Staples) expresses the situation by saying "The two friends embark upon their journey, facing many obstacles", is deliberatley emphasised by the current situation conjoined with the diagetic dialogue.

The shot itself commemorates a situation in which the two Tennesseans are putting a tent up, and having listened to the narrative as well, the audience would realize that this was purely used to emphasise the comedy genre. Holding the tent up, the two girls release their grip and watch,in sheer disappointment, the tent fall down in front of their very eyes, as the audience can clearly see. This connotes both a hilariously depressive moment for the two main characters and a prime example of the fusion of the action and comedy genre, as, conjoined with the narrative viewpoint of the word 'obstacles', this further challenges the idea of the action genre. To further represent a very muddled situation, but also to state the obvious to the audience, Charlene expresses her feelings via saying 'Brandene, I think we did it wrong', which,in turn, also contrasts the immediate opposite of the current situation, therefore bringing in the element of ironic comedy.

With due respect, the subject audience would now expect the two Tennessean girls, having analysed their personalities and actions respectively, to move on from the troublesome situation of not putting a tent up properly. However, this is truly correct,via the immediate next shot of Brandene and Charlene, having finally put the tent up, 'cooped up' under the covers, and saying 'Night' to each other. This connotes a relaxed feeling and the theme of comfort and calmness, because, as they have been through a series of unfortunate events, they are now resting in peace. However, to the audience, this would show them the extreme opposites that the aforementioned shots reflect on each other through connotations of several different themes, and so they would also praise this film for doing just that.

As a deliberate improvisation of the general effect created by the shooting features, the very next shot connotes the binary opposition of the weather; the previous shot shows a dull-timbred weather,involving dark colouring and an overall cold atmosphere, whereas the very next shot emphasises a bright coloured setting,connoting a general sense of warmness and calm. however, what immediately grabs the reader's attention is the transition effect in between the two aforementioned shots that have been contrasted, in which a shot with central focus on a moon is accompanied by the natural voice of an owl, in order to contain that natural feeling of the wilderness,as whoever from the audience who had had a previous experience would instantly recognise and follow on with their past experiences as a result of watching this film trailer. However,the latter shot emphasises yet again, a unique continuation of frustation within the personalities of both Brandene and Charlene,so that this further pushes the boundaries of the hybrid genre,action comedy. This is constructed through Charlene saying 'Brandene, what is that noise?', in which the reply from brandene is 'I don't know!'. This is a natural consequence as the overall impression by the audience is indeed not as surprising, since they would already know the general feelings of these two main characters, via the aforementioned shots.

This,in turn,leads into a transition effect that introduces two of the other characters in the film, the first shot,of a female bearing light mise-en-scene and a seemingly flowery headband, of course connoting the stereotypical representation of an environmental supporter, known to the common public so often as a 'hippie'. However, this is deliberately contrasted when the transition effect quickly exchanges into a close-up of the other character,bearing dull, seemingly smart mise-en-scene, as well as the obvious fact that he is german,as appointed to by the clear german language of his clothing. the dialogue of both characters further emphasise their own characters and interests, as well as connoting the common contrast between the two, whereas one is merely singing gracefully, the other is giving a command in a rather angered mood. However,from the audience's point of view, it furthermore elongates the excitement and amusement within the film, due to the addition of two new characters within the trailer's footage, and this also perpetuates the ideology of the both Brandene and Charlene characters, as more often than not this would normally be brought up had the director wanted there to be a whole story to the actual trailer,without giving away too much to the audience.

A key scene that represents the otherwise similar personalities of the two main characters, Brandene and Charlene, is the two-shot of Brandene and Charlene, -scene,complete with a microphone, for excessive use of typical mise-en scene, which may be used for a typical type of scene. The dialogue of '...and here we meet our foreign heroes...', though obviously diagetic, still does not seem to appear from any of the characters in the actual shot, and this may deem wondrous to the audience, as it prepares for them an enveloping plot that will only become more and more obvious to the audience, if they watch the film,which is entirely what the director of this film would have wanted, to be in secret to a degree within the viewing of the film trailer, so that viewers would want to watch it more and more.

In order to complete a trailer in unsuspected and surprising fashion, there have been a number of film trailers that have imported a key scene at the end, not necessarily to connote the beginning or ending of the film,as it could be at any time of the film. Having took important notice of this fact, we would have wanted to leave a degree of surprise and excitement within the audience's expectations for the film,so that in turn, it would persuade them to go and watch the whole film,just to find out more about the plot.

The scene in question includes four characters, two being the frequently aforementioned main characters, 'Brandene' and 'Charlene', and the other two merely performing cameo roles, of which they seem to the audience as being relatives or friends, due to the comforting actions purveyed by hugging and waving goodbye, in which this connotes an overall sense of adventure due to the constant use of sympathetic emotions used by the actors of Brandene and Charlene. However, the element of comedy has not necessarily been ignored, since the very last shot of Charlene turning away envelopes into a shot of her just falling down, which is a frequently used idea within films categorzed in the comedy genre, and so these two particular representations tie in together, in order to establish the action-comedy hybrid genre. This also leaves an element of suspiscion and surprise unto the audience, as the shot does not cover thoroughly the movement of Charlene falling down, as this would persuade the audience to find out more through watching the film.

By way of conclusion, i would like to say that, throughout the constant effective use of different representations, both element of action and comedy have been balanced through various feelings between the two main characters of Brandene and Charlene, and so this would only consider the audience's expectations as unexpected,due to the constant elements of surprise used in the aforementioned scenes.

Camera map

Charlotte Cooper was the creator of the camera map,and, alike the storyboard, it worked perfectly to our advantage, making it easy to understand and follow when shooting on the day.

storyboard

Our Storyboard was thus drawn, written and laid out beautifully by Charlotte Cooper, so that we could follow it easily when it came to the day of shooting.

shooting schedule

The original shooting schedule was hand-written by Charlotte Cooper, though instinct told us that it should have a better appearance when typed us,so i performed this action straight away.

Filming

On the 22nd of november we began shooting, having easily found the house of Charlotte Cooper. Having acquired everything we needed(camera, microphone,tape, costume, suitable accessories and paperwork), we began to film for the day.

Fortunately, it was the right weather for each scene-as for being set in england, and in november, it would have been compulsory to shoot our idea at this designated time.We had finished most of the shooting at around 2:15pm,having spent 90 minutes in the forested area nearby.

The script suggests a few place names that appear obvious in the narrative,such as Bell Buckle,which was thoroughly researched in order to make sure that it was the ideal place name for this particular trailer. The town in question had the smallest population in the state of Tenessee, which was also compulsory for our two characters-Brandene and Charlene.

Although the original character for Brandene could not be available, we improvised as a team and one of the other female members took the place instead, changing into clothes that would portray the character of Brandene excellently. I remained the character of Hans, due to the fact that i was the only one in the group that could speak good german, and that I could carry it out with a strong german accent.

We commenced filming the first few scenes ast the interior of the house, which was very fortunate, as it rained heavily during this time. However,when we had finished shooting at the interior of the house, it was still raining with visceral brutality, so, as an ever-improvising group, we decided to practice putting up the tent,so that in the coming minutes,we would be prepared to shoot with simplistic skills, and so we did get round to shooting fairly quickly after.

One of the scenes in particular could not be filmed exactly as posted in the script, as the original character of Brandene could not be available, so we improvised again and decided to film seperate shots of Moon drop and the two tenesseans, two characters of which were played by Charlotte Pell simultaneously.

The last main problem with the overall product was that the microphone did not appear to function on all scenes, but whether it was because it was plugged in the wrong port we did not know, so therefore we have decided to re-record the sounds that were supposed to have been played in the original scenes at another place and time. At a later date(16th December 2009 to be exact), with the assistance of a camera, we started re-recording the audio tracks of the scenes thought necessary to do so, and fortunately,this process worked fully to our advantage,and I am pleased to say that our product is almost complete, with only a narrator to follow.

Generally speaking, these few problems could have reduced the power and excitement of our filming, but improvising as a team we struggled right through to the end, and I think that it was still a successfull shooting nonetheless.