Filming

Today we went to Southend (via the train) to shoot our film footage, we went to various different locations to get the footage we desired. By the end of the day we had all the footage we wanted to get at Southend. 

We started filming at Chelmsford Train Station where Katie and Frankie filmed me walking through the barriers from behind, walking up the stairs from above and walking along the platform from across. They then shot me walking onto a train from behind, we tried to make sure shots like these were good as we didn't have many opportunities to re-shoot. We had already accounted for train timings so that we weren't waiting around and were able to make the most of the time we had to shoot at the train station. We watched most of the footage we got at the train station to make sure if we needed to re-shoot it we used our time wisely and where possible in the same places. 

We got on a train to Chelmsford and Katie and Frankie alternatively filmed me whilst I walked through the train to find a seat. This shot also took a few takes as we hadn't thought about the stability of the train and we fell a few times whilst trying to film. We also got the other shots we needed which included, looking at the scrapbook and looking out the Window. 

We had a bit of spare time when we were waiting for the train from Shenfield to Southend so we re-shot the footage where I walked onto the train as when we watched the footage back we saw that someone was staring straight into the camera. We found this quite common throughout the day that people kept staring at the camera when we tried to film but I think we got enough shots without people doing that.  

When we reached Southend we went straight to the seafront as that was where we wanted to shoot the majority of our footage. Straight away we ran into a problem as we discovered Adventure Island wasn't open and we were hoping to shoot some of our footage there so we discussed quickly as to where else we could get some footage so that we wouldn't fall short of 2 minutes when we edited. 

We shot quite a large part of the footage in an arcade where Katie and I featured on an car racing game and Frankie and I had a game of air hockey. It was really busy in there so we tried to go the quieter corners of the arcade so that we didn't get others in the shot.

Then we went to the seafront and got some shots of Katie and I walking down the pier and Frankie filmed a panning shot of the seafront and she got the sunset into it as we filmed at the right time of the sun setting which was in front of me as I looked forward towards it. We also shot the sun setting from the lift at the top of the hill which over looked the sea front. This concluded the footage we wanted to get from that day. Over all it went really well and we got most of the footage we wanted and we were happy with the quality of it. 

Amnesia Representations

Characters: 

• Daisy - Daisy is the main character to star in our film. She represents a teenage girl who suffers from amnesia, which isn't a generic character representation. She is portrayed to the audience as a surprisingly mature young girl and not the stereotypical girly girl. She isn't physically representing a mental illness yet she copes with her underlying problems that she has. To most she would be a character of sympathy and we think she will be viewed as a sympathy character. 
• Eliza & Naomi - These girls are Daisy's best friends and they would been seen as her biggest supporters and always catching her when she falls. They share many memories together and stereotypically are there for each other through thick and thin and help her when she needs it most. They represent Daisy's escape in life, they distract Daisy and the audience from other events in the film. They help to show up Daisy's imperfections and represent normal, young, healthy girls. 

Places:

• The location we plan to use as the biggest representation is the train. We are using it to represent that life carries on no matter what you are having to deal with, it shows that everything around Daisy and her life will move on whether she joins it or not.
• The memories are in a variety of locations, they all represent her past that is fading from her memory as struggles to keep it alive.

Risk Assessment

This is our risk assessment that Frankie completed in order for us to be ready to film on Saturday. 

Institutions Research

We chose New Line Cinema to produce and distribute our film. We did some research into their company so that we were able to see the films they have produced and distributed in the past. 

New Line Cinema was originally founded in 1967. Building on more than four decades of innovation and creativity, New Line Cinema continues its long and successful history of producing critically acclaimed hit films that resonate with both mainstream and niche audiences around the world.

New Line produced the Oscar Award-winning The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, which generated a combined worldwide box office of almost $3 billion (and an additional $3 billion in consumer products and home entertainment revenue). The studio is also credited with revitalizing the genre of the R-rated comedy, based on the success of Wedding Crashers in 2005 and, more recently, Horrible Bosses in 2011. New Line is one of the few film companies that still works in the horror genre, being widely known for the iconic A Nightmare on Elm Street and Final Destination franchises. 

New Line became a unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment in March 2008. The company maintains separate development, production, marketing, distribution and business affairs operations, but coordinates those functions with Warner Bros. to maximize film performance and operating efficiencies. 

Shooting Schedule

This is our shooting schedule of when, where and what we intend to film. We originally planned to film on Wednesday 26th November but due to the weather we were unable to film so we changed the date to the 29th November. 

Audience Research

For our film we decided that our target audience would suit most females as the genre would typically interest them more than males. Our target audience would be suitable for the age group of 12 to 17 as the genres and topic of the film would appeal to them and they would be able to understand the amnesia theme. We would expect the majority of our audience to be teenagers around the age of 14 because they would be of the age to understand the topic of amnesia and what the girl (Daisy) is going through. Jane would be our prototype.
Jane is 14 years old who is a stereotypical young girl who likes to watch romance films and girly genres. She is interested in romance films and loves to see films which would be filled with romance. Our film would suit her as it is a teen drama with a bit of a twist. She is of the age that she would understand the connection of amnesia with Daisy and she has the potential to feel an emotional connection with the girl. 

Marketing Campaign

Synopsis

What we will need: 

• A scrapbook of memories 
• A train (+ train station)
• An arcade 
• Theme park ride 
• Beach 
• Bag
• Change of outfits 

Characters: There are 3 main characters in our opening scene. We have Daisy who is played by Libby, Eliza who is played by Katie and Naomi who is played by Frankie. Daisy is the main character who is featured and is diagnosed with amnesia and Eliza and Naomi are her best friends who are pictured in her memories. 

Costume: Our costumes are simplistic and casual as we wanted to reflect the tone of the memories as casual because she was normal when these memories took place. We kept the costumes simple because we wanted the focus of our film to rely on the memories rather than the actors choice of clothing. All 3 girls wore everyday clothes such as jeans/leggings/tops/jumpers/coats. 

Location: Our film opening will be located at Chelmsford train station and Southend. We will be using the train station and the platforms for some of our shots and then we will also be filming on the train for some of our shots. We will be filming on the beach, in the arcades and the theme park in Southend. 

Audience: Our film is aimed at mainly females, however males can view it if they wish to, around the age of 12-17 as we think it would appeal to this age group more than anyone younger as we think it would be difficult for them to understand the theme of amnesia. The certificate is 12A. 

Music Ideas

This is one of the videos that we looked at on YouTube as a possible choice to use for our music, it is a cover of the song Amnesia by 5 seconds of summer. It is sung by Lauren Bonnell. We like this song because it resembles our actual film title Amnesia, the lyrics relates to the reality of Amnesia and people can connect with it. The mood of the Music also fits in with our genre.



We also looked at this video because the tone and pace of this music makes the situation of the film seem really real. It is a cover of say something by Christina Aguelieria. It is sung by Jasmine Thomas.



This is another video we looked at, we like this cover because the lyrics resemble the struggles that Daisy is going through in this opening sequence. It is a cover of Dont you Remember by Adele and it is sung by Hedda Mathide.

Amnesia Research

Memory loss, also called amnesia, occurs when a person loses the ability to remember events and information they would normally be able to recall. This could be something that happened only seconds or minutes ago, or a memorable event that happened in the past. The memory loss may have started suddenly or may have been getting worse over the last year or so. 

Doctors classify memories as either:

• Immediate memories, such as sounds, which are only stored for a few seconds.
• Short-term or recent memories, such as telephone numbers, which stay in your memory for 15-20 seconds. The brain can store about seven chunks of short-term information at any time.
• Long-term or remote memories - more permanent memories, which have been reinforced because you've repeatedly gone over them in your mind.

Generally, GPs find that patients who see them about memory loss are most likely to have:

• Anxiety
• Stress
• Depression

Their memory loss is due to poor concentration and not noticing things in the first place because of a lack of interest. Sleeping problems make the memory loss worse.

Other common causes of memory loss are:

• a head injury, for example after a car accident
• a stroke that cuts off some of the blood supply to the brain and causes brain tissue to die

These will cause sudden memory loss, where you either forget events that happened before the trauma (retrograde amnesia), or you forget everything that happened after the trauma (anterograde amnesia).

Ways to cope

• Keep everyday items, such as car keys, in the same place and try to do things in the same order each time.
• Write information down and keep paper and a pencil near the phone.
• Keep a diary at home as well as at work to remind you to do daily tasks.
• Use an alarm to help you remember to do something in the future, such as taking something out of the oven.
• Repeat back to someone important information you need to remember.

Practice Titles

These were our practice titles that Frankie's mum wrote out, although they didn't look like we thought they would as the pages weren't decorated so they just looked blank and didn't fit in with our scrapbook theme. We came up with some other ideas and ways of presenting our titles. Frankie suggested that we could use 3D letters to spell out the titles as this would be a unique, innovative style of presenting the titles. 

Amnesia Moodboard

This is our Moodboard for our film. It includes some pictures and ideas that gave us inspiration for our film.

Amnesia Moodboard from Libby_Collins_

Ideas Feedback

Before we left to shoot we asked our teacher and some peers to give us some feedback on our ideas as this would help us with the genre and the actual construction of putting the film ideas together. We also wanted some feedback on the titles within the scrapbook as we were finding this difficult. 

Mr Amato- 'The genre is confusing especially the titles which don't seem to match the genre, aside from this it is a creative, original idea.' 
He advised that we add drawings, doodles and pictures do the background of our scrapbook. 

In response to his feedback we have tweaked our genre slightly, it is now more a teen drama than a mystery film. The titles were too quirky to be associated with the mystery genre. 

Issy Payne- 'When filming the memories Libby will have to wear different clothes to show they are in the past, other than that it is a good original idea'

In response to this we realised she was right that Libby will have to wear different clothing when filming the memories or it won't be obvious that it is in the past.

Alternative Production Companies

I also looked at Twentieth Century Fox as a production company but they were a larger company and therefore may be uninterested in small budget films. They may also be unwilling as we are a smaller, less known production company. 

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation also known as 20th Century Fox, 20th Century Fox Pictures, or simply Fox (20CFFC), is an American film studio and one of the six major American film studios. Located in the Century City area of Los Angeles, just west of Beverly Hills, the studio used to be a subsidiary of News Corporation, but now it is currently a subsidiary of 21st Century Fox. It is the world's second largest major film studio, after Warner Bros. 

The company was formed on May 31, 1935, as the result of the merger between Fox Film Corporation, founded by William Foxin 1915, and Twentieth Century Pictures, founded in 1933 by Darryl F. Zanuck and Joseph M. Schenck.

20th Century Fox has distributed various commercially successful film series, including Avatar, the first two Star Wars trilogies, Ice Age, X-Men, Die Hard, Planet of the Apes, Night at the Museum, Taken, Fantastic Four, Alien, Predator, and the live action Alvin and the Chipmunks. Television series produced by Fox include The Simpsons, M*A*S*H, The X-Files, Bones, House, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Futurama, How I Met Your Mother, Glee, Modern Family, New Girl, and 24. 

Richard Morrison Interview

At first he talks about when meeting a director or a producer to keep your ideas short and not to over complicate it. He is able to remember Ridley Scott when he sold Alien to him as 'Jaws in space' which got him the money to be able to make the his film which tells you SIMPLE IS GOOD. 
He believes that once you go past the storyboard, it's a good idea to make a model so that you're able to visualize it because it's a visual object. If you use your senses with the physical object it feeds you subconscious information into you. He believes it doesn't matter how good the object is but that you are engaged in the process makes it believable. 
He says that you should never dive in and do high end visuals because by doing that you are stopping a creative process. "You are putting all the clothes/colours on before you have had time to test it out." He says that if you put ideas onto a storyboard you can always rub things out and collectively you can add a few things. 
I could apply these pieces of advice to my film titles to make sure that they are a good as I can make them. 

Group Film Pitch

This is our group film pitch which includes out intital first thoughts and ideas for our film. 

Script

This is the script for our film opening. There is little dialogue in the opening scene so that the audience has a chance to understand the thoughts and processes in Daisy's head. We feel that the amount of dialogue used was sufficient to introduce the film and the characters in the time frame of footage that we produced. We chose to utilise this dialogue in a voice over. 

British Film Institute Trip

On the 7th November we went to the BFI in London to attend a conference. Once we were there we had a talk and were shown a presentation of all the things relating to independent and mainstream films. The conference introduced several speakers from different production and distribution companies and we were given the chance to ask them in a question and answers session. It was an interesting and enjoyable day. Here are some of my notes I took on the day. 

Independent vs. Mainstream Films

Independent films - make you think and make you want to ask questions. 

Mainstream films - make you laugh and cry, and you associate them with commercial success. 

Distribution led industry- Mainstream films attract significant advertising budget. 

"The big six"

• 20th Century Fox
• Sony
• Warner Bros 
• Disney 
• Universal 
• Paramount 

Typically a safe genre convention would be - Sci Fi or Fantasy - as these are popular amongst a large age group and therefore would appeal to a larger target audience. 

Skyfall (Mainstream)

• 2012 - Action Adventure
• Distributed by MGM/ Columbia Pictures 
• Starring Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Dame Judi Dench, Ralph Feinnes
• Directed by Sam Mendes 
• Adele soundtrack makes it mainstream (synergy)
• Drama and excitement 
• Violence (guns)
• High production values 
• Star marketing 
• Emotive, non-diagetic music
• Elaborative CGI

The double (Independent)

• Genre - Noir, Drama, Thriller, Black Comedy
• 2013 -Directed by Richard Ayoade 
• Critical success 
• Released at 2013 London film festival
• Independent distribution - Studio Canal 
• Based on a novel by Fyodor Dastoyevsky

What makes it independent?

• Character driven 
• Minimal set locations 
• Not a clear genre 
• Eerie non-diagetic music 
• Mise en scene - disorientation of characters 
• Difficult humour 
• Subterranean, claustrophobic location 

Film Production

• Warner Bros - owned by Time Warner 
• Paramount - owned by Viacom
• Universal - owned by NBC 
• Disney - owned by Disney 
• 20th Century Fox - owned by Fox Entertainment Group
• Sony - owned by public share holders

Big Talk

Big Talk productions - TV

Big Talk pictures - Film

Countries they sell to: 

1. Australia 
2. United States 
3. Scandinavia 

Distribution - The big six dominate but the UK has many independent film distributors. 

Film Marketing 

• POS (Point of sale) e.g displays in cinema 
• Market research - before, during, after 
• Above the line advertising - television, cinema trailers, press, outdoors, online
• Below the line advertising - viral videos 

Distribution case study (A Field In England)

• Multi platform release in 2013
• Director - Ben Wheatley
• Shot in black and white in a field 
• Took 12 days to film 
• Budget £300,000 

Exhibition/ Exchange 

• The way the audience consume film 
• Viewing via Netflix, Lovefilm is increasing 
• DVD/ Blu-Ray sales are down 
• Cinema - Box office curve suggests theatrical distribution still reasonably healthy
• IMAX/ 3D levelling out but still commercially successful
• Film on TV = 77%
• DVD/ Blu-Ray =14.2%
• Downloaded/ Streamed = 5.5%
• Cinema = 3.4%
• Less than 1 in 10 UK films make a profit 

Types of UK Cinema 

• Multiplex (278 cinemas)
• Independant
• Small chains 
• 2013 - 172.5 million cinema admissions, £1.1 billion
• 2013 - 769 cinema sites in the UK, 3817 screens 
• Piturehouse (runs its own film distribution company - Picturehouse Entertainment)
• Currently 19 in the UK

Representation

For this we learned the definition of representation and the different roles and stereotypes within the media industry. 

Stereotype - media institutions use sterotypes because the audience will instantly understand them. Think of stereotypes as a 'visual shortcut'. They've repeated so often that we assume they are normal or 'true'. 

Archetypes - this is the 'ultimate' stereotype. For example, the white stiletto wearing, big busted, brainless, blonde bimbo. 

Countertypes - a representation that challenges tradition stereotypical associations of groups, people or places. 

Representation - is the way in which people, events and ideas are presented to the audience. To break it down, the media takes something that is already there and represents it to us in the way they choose. These representations are created by the producers (anyone who makes a media text) of media texts. What they choose to present to us is controlled by gatekeepers.  

Gatekeeper - a media 'gatekeeper' is any person involved in a production with the power to make decisions about something the audience are allowed to read, hear or see - and also what they don't get to see. For instance, a newspaper editor has the final say on what goes into his or her newspaper, where it goes within the pages, next to what other piece, with which pictures, straplines and headlines, etc. 

Moguls - In the example of the newspapers editor's decision, this will not be mad freely; it will have been affected by technical issues, by the kind of person who owns the newspaper, for example the media moguls such as Rupert Murdoch, and by many other things. 

When you are analysing representations, you have to think about the following questions:

Who? - Who or what is being represented? Who is the preferred audience for this representation? 

What? - What are they doing? Is their activity presented as typical or atypical? Are they conforming to genre expectations or other conventions?

Why? - Why are they present? What purpose do they serve? What are they communicating by their presence? What's the preferred reading? 

Where? - Where are they? How are they framed? Are they represented as natural or artificial? What surrounds them? What is in the foreground and what is in the background? 

Representation Theories 
The male gaze (Laura Mulvey):
The cinema apparatus of Hollywood cinema puts the audience in a masculine subject position with the women on the screen seen as an object of desire. Film and cinematography are structures upon ideas. Protagonists tended to be men. Mulvey suggests two distinct models of male gaze - "voyeuristics (women as whores) and fetishistic - women as unreachable Madonnas". Also narcissistic - women watching film see themselves reflected on the screen. 
The Bechdel Test:
The Bechdel test, sometimes called the Mo Movie Measure or Bechdel Rule is a simple test which names the following three criteria - 

1. It has to have at least two named women in it...
2. ...who have a conversation with each other...
3. ...about something besides a man.

How we treat people (Richard Dyer)

Dyer argues that how we are seen determines how we are treated and how we treat other people is based on how we see them. This comes from our understanding of representation. He believes that stereotypes come down to power.   

Preliminary Task

This is my Prelim task. We were given the genre of Superhero and this is what we created.