Here are some effective examples of existing production cards:
Both Production cards are very animated which we can't really do at school, but watching I've come up with some ideas and have started work on my production cards. My ideas at the moment are 'Kings and Queens productions, Which would feature a pair of hands flipping cards over and eventually getting toa king and a queen, then the deck would roll over and on the back of the cards it would gave the writing 'A Kings and Queens Production' with a logo. Then it would follow on to Associated with 'Rock the Boat films' with a small plastic boat coming across the screen with the Name' Rock the Boat Productions' Coming up underneath, this will be in the film and the scene will then continue, My film was set to begin in the abbey gardens so i could use the river there. I will do some filming and show how I think I'll do this and see if it looks good and see what other people think and get there responses.
Religion: Christian/ UndecidedNationality:White/BritishLikes Music- Indie/AlternativeLikes watching films- Social realism/ Comedy
Example of someone in my target audience:
'Hi! I’m Luke I’m 17 years old. I like music and I play the guitar. My favourite band is the vaccines and I love going to gigs. I like watching lots of different types of films, my favourite is ‘Submarine’. I care about my appearance. I’m not currently in a relationship. I like hanging out with my friends. I’m currently doing my a-levels in sixth form. I’m always either on Facebook or on my phone, I’m in a gigging band as a vocalist/Guitarist. I plan on going to university to take music if that doesn’t take off!'
None of the story line is shown in this opening sequence, Just history of the time that the film is set around. It shows some of the Falkland’s war which the boy in the films dad dies in and some general 80’s history to set the scene of the times. Margret thatcher’s also shown a lot in the opening sequence which shows that it’s going to have a political theme.
The enigma codes
What do these images have to do with the rest of the film?
There aren’t any main characters in the opening sequence but there is a collage of scenes important people and events from the time that the films set. Margret thatcher appears a lot in the scene, Rowland rat who was a popular TV character of the time appears at the beginning, people who were on the miners’ strike appear and there are people who fought in the Falkland’s war
Mise-en-scene
The footage of the film is mainly just short 6 second clips of things from the time so the Mise en scene would just be the fashions of the time like punk for example. So everything is very stereotypical of the 80’s.
The cinematography of the start of the film is all very simple since it’s all just chopped pieces of film there are a lot of close-ups to show the different people in the footage.
Editing
There are lots of cuts between the film footage to show that the social realism is very simple and they wouldn’t have had lots of editing software in the 80’s so it is all very simple
The music for the opening sequence is ‘54 46 that’s my number by Toots and the Maytals’ which was a classic 80’s song. This is the only sound featured in the sequence there is no sound from the film clips
The titles appear in-between bits of film in white on a black background which make them stand out a lot then going into the same font over the top of the clips.
Not much of the story line is shown in the opening sequence, you can kind of tell what the film could be about by the face that he's driving a vespa throughatown and some other men drive past and give him some abuse. The story of the opening sequence is that there is a man staring into the sea, he walks up past the camera and it changes shot to his on a moped. The other characters bike past and give his abuse and he drives on and parks his bike down a little alleyway where there seem to be hundreds of other bikes.
The man staring into the sea at the sun set. Takes a minute to walk up to the camera- Shows its slow paced.
Enigma codes
What was he doing staring into the sea?
Where was he driving to?
Who were the other men?
Characters
The main character of the film is shown a lot here. He was doing something looking into the sea maybe just thinking, so we know that about the main character. We also can tell by the huge grin on his face that he likes driving his moped.
There were some other characters, which were the other men on the bikes. They were shouting abuse at each other so we assume that they are his enemies.
The Men shouting abuse at each other
Mise-en-scene
The footage so far is all in a town. You can't really see a great deal of set and location because it is quite dark.The characters are wearing typical mod clothes, suits and parkas etc. His scooter has been modified with another light and more mirrors which shows his love for the bike.
His modified Vespa
Cinematography
The camera angles are all very basic since it is a social realism film. One extreme long shot at the very beginning which the character takes a whole minute to walk up and get into frame showing that it is clearly a social realism film since its so slow paced. There are a lot of medium shots that show the locations and the bike constantly moving, and there are some close ups which show the riders face and enthusiasm he has when riding his vespa.
Editing
there are lots of cuts between shows typical of social realism and there is one fade at the start which gets the light of the vespa to shine into the camera to make it subtle.
Music
There is the music, 'The real me' By The Who which is typical of Mods and people of this time. and there is also the sound of the engines of the bike and the people shouting which is in the film. The Soundtrack builds as he gets on his bike and the drums kick in, maybe symbolising the motor of the vespa.
Titles
The titles come in on top if the film in bright orange so they are easy to read on the dark background, they go under peoples faces as to be subtle and not get in the way
I have completed my 1st script, im going to try filming with the actors that im casting to see if it all works or it needs changing.
I've started working on my storyboard, it is coming on well using some artistic shots, I have started thinking about locations of filming etc. I've also been thinking about how I can incorporate writing and credits in the actual film rather than editing them in afterwards, i think that it would look better and be more creative like that. The start to 'Waiting for my chance to come' By Noah and the whale uses production logo's etc. so I've come up with some ideas like that.
The words 'The hangman' everywhere, (On leaflet on the floor and on the top of the news paper) and it also features throughout the film so i think it could be quite good to feature the name and/or logo in there somewhere.
For my film idea I went out and did some market research, i asked people in my target audience what they thought of the ideas in my film. Since they all were fans of social realism films they knew the conventions and I got there opinion of what would be good for my story/film
I asked a large number of people to fill in the questionnaire varying from 15 year olds to a 27 year old all being in the target audience. I tried to keep the balance between male and females who i gave the questionnaire to equal so to get a equal understanding of what the people thought of my idea and it could help me in some of the questions.
Justification for asking the questions and the results found.
How old are you?
I asked this question to find out how old the members of the target audience were so I could have a good range of people in the audience rather than lots of 16 or 17 year olds. I could tell that I now have a wider view of people from the older half of my market and some of the younger ages.
Gender
I asked this again to try and get an even number of males and females taking my survey so I would get a wider prospective of the audience so I can get more opinions.
When watching social realism what do you think is the most important? Rank the following highest to lowest, 1 being the highest 5 being the lowest
I asked this question to find out what people thought about different things and the order in which they took notice of things. Then I can see what I should focus on. The others sections will still be important but I just thought it would be good to see what the audience thought. The results that came out were as follows:
Overall people seemed to think that family relationships were a major theme that should happen in social realism and before my story had nothing to do with the family background, so now I can do some changes and add a family into my story.
What gender do you think the main character of my film should be?
I asked this to see what the audience thought rather than me rushing and making it a male then I asked the audience since this could change the theme of the story. But overall the gender that came off ontop was male, I think personally that that would work the best.
Do you think the titles to my film should be overlayed on top of film, within the film or in-between shots?
My audience has seen other films and will have probably noticed the credits of the film, so I asked them whether they would like the credits over the top of film or actually in the film. Overall I think I am going to do a bit of both, I think it would be more effective that way. The results seem to show that its balanced between Overlayed on top of the film and within the film. So I am happy with the results
What social realism films have you seen?
This is just a way of finding out the kind of films that my audience watch so I can look at themes of storylines etc.
Do you take much notice of the title sequence at the beginning of a film?
This is to see whether people actually pay attention to the opening scene, and followed by the next question
‘Are there any that you can remember from other films that you really like or think are interesting?’ more people said no but then overall more people could name films that had an ‘Interesting opening’ So I will look at these films and see what people liked about them and possibly get some ideas.
What type of location do you think would be suitable for a social realism film?
There are lots of different types of social realism films and so I think it would be useful to see what the audience like in films. The story line could change. Overall the area chosen was urban which is the most conventional for a social realism film.
What soundtrack do you think would be suitable for an opening sequence for this genre of film?
Since I’m planning on writing the music for the film I think it would be useful to know what I’m writing so I can get some inspiration from existing songs and films of this genre.
Indie came out on top followed by acoustic, I had a comment saying 'I would have liked to tick more than one, Indie/Folk/Acoustic I think since the two top answers were indie and acoustic i could stick with that style. This was also used in 'SUBMARINE' I’ve come up with an idea and have started recording and writing lyrics.
The main story for my film focuses on a young boy and his want to have a band/fame/ play festivals etc. The story follows him making a band playing gigs and eventually making it. His academic parents don’t want him to do it or take the risk of not having a ‘Proper job’ as a doctor or lawyer, but he doesn’t listen and follows his dream.He’s brought up in a poor area so can’t afford the equipment but eventually his talent pays off as he lands a record contract.
which are a mixture of being in the film and over the top of the film.
There is a brief example of an idea I have for my opening sequence below, but I have thought I could use other instruments to present titles like on a drum kit bass drum skin and on the side of amps etc like bands use at gigs
Writing could feature on the bass drum skin or on amps'
Opening Sequence.
So my opening sequence will begin as a boy (Reuben- The main character) sits on a wall and receives a text message saying 'Hurry up where are you?!' He Picks up his guitar case and sets off walking to his band practice at his freinds house while the credits appear, its a slow paced opening sequence that will show the key locations of the film as he walks about town getting to the rehearsal. The credits can be on the guitar case and on other things that he walks past. i would prefer it if all of the credits were on actual objects rather than edited on afterwards.
