Friday, 11 March 2016

The Budget

For this movie we can't really spend much money on it, so the budget will obviously be very low, fortunately we have most of the props and locations we'll need and for everything else we can borrow that stuff from other friends who are willing to help us with production.

Thursday, 10 March 2016

Superhero Comedies - Openings

These are some openings of comedy and/or superhero films which we could take inspiration from. 
KickAss:
The KickAss opening establishes location immediately with an establishing shot of the Empire State building and the New York skyline which tilts don to reveal the hero in full costume, standing on the edge of a roof. The colourful costume and cape like wings establish that this is a superhero. The low angle shots from the floor then  establish that people can see him. The monologue over the footage establishes that the hero is a young man from the voice and parodies dramatic speeches in the dramatic close ups of his face and what he says, while also establishing his character and reasons for becoming a superhero; "I always wondered why nobody did it before me. I mean, all those comic books, movies, TV shows, you'd think that one eccentric loner would have made himself a costume. I mean, is everyday life really so exciting? Are schools and offices so thrilling that I'm the only one who ever fantasised about this? Come on, be honest with yourself. At some point in our lives, we all wanted to be a superhero." The fact that he crashes on a taxi, looking to be seriously hurt, establishes that this is not a successful hero by undercutting the dramatic monologue and drop, while parodying the trope of a superhero falling from great heights and landing in a three point pose.


The Incredibles:



Shaun of the Dead:
The opening scene shows people walking around like zombies. This introduces the theme of the film, zombies, and one of the major jokes of the film, that people are like zombies anyway. It also introduces the two main protagonists (Nick Frost as Ed & Simon Pegg as Shaun), and their personalities; both are relatively lazy but Ed far more so, not moving in the whole sequence. It shows the living room as incredibly messy, with crushed drink cans, crisp packets and wrappers everywhere. It also establishes that Ed is unemployed but Shaun has a job through the one line of dialogue; Ed saying "Don't you have work?" This is a very effective example of show don't tell, establishing much of the two main characters and a general theme with almost no dialogue in only one minute.

Market Research

This is some Market research Aidan had done

We are thinking about creating a comedy film opening. We are thinking about this because it doesn't require much budget. It does not require lots of props, effects or exotic locations; it san easily involve normal people in common locations. It would not need much choreography or stunt-work; it can be based around everyday situations with a comedic twist.


It is also a very popular genre, particularly in the UK:
As you can see by the charts above comedy movies do very well, in the British film industry they are just behind Drama for the largest quantity of movies made and make the most money with the most tickets sold among other genres.

Audience Research by Aiden

I have collected some audience research data from the polling website YouGov:









A lot of data changes here but there are some constant factors:
Firstly, the fans of these films are mainly males aged 25-39, with some correlation with 40-54 and 18-24 year olds, but very few over 55. This implies that this genre appeals to a young adult audience mainly, so we should aim for this audience. Therefore, the hero should be relatable to these age groups.


Another common factor is the general interests category; the top three for all is, in some order, movies, video games and science. Their favourite sports generally include forms of motor racing and boxing. Movies is an obvious correlation, but video games, boxing and motor racing give more information, suggesting that they enjoy fast paced action. A relatable character to this audience would likely also enjoy these things. It would not be difficult to use video games in establishing a relatable character.

In terms of entertainment, people who like these films also enjoy thrillers and horror films, such as District 9, V for Vendetta, Evil Dead and Alien (except for The Incredibles, this category is entirely other Pixar films). Therefore, in appealing to this audience, elements from these genres could be included in some way.

Audience Profile - Nathan

Name: Nathan Charr

Age: 15

Gender: Male

Hair Colour: Black

Skin Colour: White

Nationality: British, Scottish, a little Japanese

Social Class: Middle Class

Income: On a regular allowance from his mother and father.

Home Area: Tooting

Likes: Anime/Manga (particularly action comedies), Competitive sports (Boxing, Wrestling, Kendo, etc), Ninjas, Assassins, High-Action Games, Build ups, Cliffhanger endings.

Character Type: Very casual, Quiet when concentrating, Talkative around his friends, Has a strong attention span.

Dislikes: Generic Archetypes, Media that's too happy-go-lucky, People who have a very stuck up attitude.

Favourite Colour: Black

Favourite Music: Guitar Tracks/Tunes

How Often Does he Listen to Music: Frequently

Favourite Games: Open World Action Beat-em-ups

How Often Does he Play: Whenever he has free time

Favourite TV Shows: The Walking Dead, One Punch Man, Friends.

TV Usage: Around 7 hours a day, watches with his parents sometimes.

Favourite Movies: Deadpool, Kick Ass, The Incredibles, The World's End.

Why Would he Watch my Movie?: If my movie were to be advertised using posters for example, it would have a colour scheme of mostly black with purple highlights, the main character would be shrouded in the darkness with something on/around him to offset the ominous atmosphere and create a comedic feel. In a trailer it would use allot of guitar riffs and have small parts dedicated to the comedy side of the movie like the Deadpool trailer, it would also share some qualities with One Punch Man's "Speed O' Sound Sonic" and comedy similar to The World's End and Deadpool.





Our Jobs

I will be doing the Storyboards and costume design along with directing and Aiden will be the cameraman and write the script.

We will both do the editing .
We will both be doing research and sharing ideas on our film.

Friday, 4 March 2016

Atmosphere

The over all atmosphere of the opening of a film is crucial to any movie, so we need to know what works in a superhero movie.

Kick Ass's opening had a grandiose atmosphere with a large establishing shot with a man looking like he'l fly off a building, he drops and the crowd applauds before he face-lifts into a taxi below. The atmosphere then shifted to a kind of cringe/black comedy.

Deadpool opened with a slow motion pan around a flying taxi with Deadpool and some other men fighting, it was full of either crotch shots or people getting hurt by Deadpool. On top of that the credits were all like jabs towards the actual production team, like calling the camera man "some nerd with a camera".