Preliminary Task

Before half term we were given the task of our preliminary task. The task had to include someone opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with short dialogue between these two characters. It also had to demonstrate a match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

We storyboard our ideas for the task and scripted it, making it easier to shoot as we new exactly what we wanted. We then chose where to shoot the task and filmed our preliminary task ensure we included all the aspects.

After Half term we then edited our footage on 'imovie' to create a flowing sequence and attempt to match edits in order for the clip to flow and be easy to watch. We then evaluated our task in order to find aspects we needed to improve on along with areas that worked well in order for us to produce the highest quality opening we can and receive the best grade possible.

We realised that some of our framing needed work as we didn't always use the rule of thirds. We also found that we need to shot more footage as, although we tried to shoot each scene from different angles to make it easier to fit together, when it came to the editing of our clip we were unable to completely match some scenes causing it to be quite jumpy and not smooth flowing. We were happy with a lot of our footage as we used tripods causing it not to be shaky, however our handhold shots weren't completely smooth and we need to ensure that we change this in our opening. Another aspect which we were happy with were the use of different shots such as over the shoulder, medium, medium-close and two shots, although we do want to ensure we use an even wider range when it comes to our final filming. We were also especially pleased with the outcome of our establishing shot. When it came to the editing although all the shots didn't flow those that did worked really well and allowed us to see how much the quality is improved when shots fit together perfectly.

This task allowed us to see what needs to be done when it comes to the final filming and what we need to ensure we improve on within this. It also gave us a lot of positives of our ideas that worked really well and aspects which we were good at. The editing within this task also allowed us to see the length of time needed to produce a quality opening and gave us vital information in that we need to ensure we film more footage so our shots fit together perfectly.

Institutional Context

As a group we looked into film industries such as 20th century Fox, Hollywood and the BBFC - Regulation and control. After gathering this background information from these we then looked in more detail and focused on the Company Universal and created a case study on it. We chose universal as it as widely recognised company and released the film Love Actually which was the most popular film from our Questionnaire.
We researched in to the compnay Universal in order to find the Media companies that it owns and there relevance, Its production and distribution element as well as films that it has recently released. From this research we then decided if Universal would be a suitable company to work with for our project and once we decided it would, we explained why we thought this and the reasons behind our decision.
Below are a few slides from the guide we produced on this company.

Evaluation of Textual Analysis

With the other members of my group we then gathered all our textual analysis's together in order to find the common code and conventions of Romantic comedies. We looked at what were the common settings, themes, colours, lighting, camera shots/movement, sounds, costumes, characters, Actors, Narratives, Enigma, iconography used along with typical movement and gesture seen. We created a PowerPoint in order to feedback these findings to the rest of the class and in order to make it easy for us to see what the recurring conventions of this genre are. This is important as it will allow us to include them in our opening and ensure it is clear what genre our opening is for.

Below are a few slides from the PowerPoint we created of the codes and conventions typical to a Romantic Comedy.

Textual Analysis

The next part of our coursework was to complete 8 detailed textual analysis. We were required to complete 5 analysis of Romantic Comedy Openings, paying specific attention to; the setting, camera shots + movement, mise en scene, editing, colours and themes. This was in order to help us see common code and conventions and aspects we needed to include in our opening. We then also analysed 3 full films concentrating on Stock characters and settings, Themes, Narrative, Iconography and Enigma. For these analysis i chose to analysis PS I Love you, Bridget Jones and How to lose a guy in 10 days as they were films that came up as peoples favourite films in our questionnaire analysis. These analysis were important and it was essential to make sure they were detailed as they allow me to understand the genre and the codes and conventions that make up the genre of romantic comedy making it easier to produce our opening.

Friday 22nd January

On Friday, we then had to present our findings to the rest of the groups and Mr Cramb. We Explained the analysis of what our graph showed and what we had found and how this would affect what we are going to include within our opening. Some of the essential findings we found from our questionnaire was that the target audience tends to be females of age 12-25, city based openings with the female often coming up as seen as the most dominant character. The music needed to match the mood of what was being shown on screen and we also discovered that PS i Love You, Love Actually and Bridget Jones were popular Romantic Comedies due to there story lines or humour therefore felt we should look into these films in more detail.

Questionnaire Analysis

We gave out our finalized questionnaire to 50 people, of a range of males and females of all ages, in order to determine our target audience. On Thursday 21st January we then took these completed questionnaires and search through the finds of each question in order to find popular answers and the age and gender of who tended to watch Romantic Comedies. We created a graph of each question with the findings of those who did and those who didn't watch for the majority of the questions but singled out just those that watched for questions where we felt appropriate. This took a lot of time but we felt it was worth it as it allowed us to clearly see who are target audience were and what they expected to see in a Rom Com. we also reduced the time with each member being assigned roles of tallying up different questions and speeding up the process. We then created a PowerPoint presentation which included a copy of the graphs and analysis of the findings we had found and what it meant for our group when it comes to the production of our product.

Here are some examples of slides from our PowerPoint

Friday 15th January

We showed Mr Cramb our drafted questionnaire and he informed us of a few changes we needed to make in order to receive the best results possible from our questionnaire and to ensure we were asking questions that would allow us to receive information that would be appropriate for our task and ensure we find our target audience.

Here is a copy of our final Questionnaire.....

You are… Age?
Male Female -18 18-24 25-35 36+

Occupation?
___________________________________________________________________________

Where do you usually view your films?
Internet Cinema At Home Other____________________

Do you regularly watch Romantic Comedies?
Yes No

If Yes, why do you watch Romantic Comedies?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

If No, then why do you not watch Romantic Comedies?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

From what age did you begin to watch Romantic Comedies?
___________________________________________________________________________________

Who would you usually watch a Romantic Comedy with?
Alone Boyfriend Girlfriend Wife Husband Friends Family
Other __________________

What typical Characters would you expect to see in the opening of a Romantic Comedy?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Of these Characters who would you expect to be the most dominant?
___________________________________________________________________________________

What main Colours would you expect to see in the opening of a Romantic Comedy?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Where would you expect Romantic Comedy Openings to be set?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What is the main theme you would expect to see in the opening of a Romantic Comedy?
___________________________________________________________________________________

Would you expect to hear a Certain Type of Music in the opening of a Romantic Comedy?
Yes No
If yes, what?
___________________________________________________________________________________

What is your favourite Romantic Comedy?
_________________________________________________

Why is this your Favourite?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________