preliminary task evaluation.

For our preliminary task we had to create a short sequence of a conversation using different shot types. We had to think about our shot types to keep the audience engaged and so that the sequence did not get boring.
Although one member of the group was a away our original story board did not fit our new ideas, however we did not have time to create a new one. Even though we had a few set backs to begin, and originally found it difficult to think of some new ideas, our final sequence worked well.
In one section we had a problem with continuity editing as i was facing one way in one shot and then the other way in the next shot but this problem has helped me to be careful when filming to watch out for things like this.
We also included all the shots that were required. I feel that our match on action shot flowed smoothly from the previous shot to create a fluid transition. It was very difficult to do the 180 rule with two people to film and act so we had to film all our sections of talking and then cut and move them. Despite this being an unconventional way of doing it, it proved to work well and looked effective.
From doing this task i have learned how to overcome problems such as not having enough in our group. I also feel that i have become more confident using a camera now and know more different shot types.

analysis of ' a cinderella story' opening scene

Narrative: the opening scene is typical of a childrens film, with an introduction to the characters.The title of the movie gives the audience clues about the narrative as Cinderella is a well known story, and therefore would make the audience think that the movie is going to be along the lines of the fairy tail story. However during the opening scene we are told by the narrator that 'this is no fairytale'. The opening of this movie conforms to the typical 5 stage narrative structure of childrens film. Firstly the equilibrium is defined as she is leading a happy life with her father, secondly there is a disrupition of the equilibrium which in this case is the death of her father. Thirdly is the recognition of distruption ,which is shown and talked about in the opening scene by the narrator as she explains that her step mother has taken over all of her father things including the girl herself who is banished to a horrible room on her own. The next few stages are not shown in the opening but we can assume that there will be an attempt to repair the disruption and finally a reinstatement of the equilibrium which in the case of childrens films is the cliche 'happy ending'.

characters: we are introduced to all the characters in a typical fashion and the main character is established as she is the narrator and has most of the screen time. The characters are typical of a childrens film as the main character is a good child and presumably the hero of the film, along with the villains who in this film are the step mother and sisters. The characters appearance also conforms to the conventions of childrens film as the good character is blonde with blue eyes which presents her as innocent whereas the villains have dark hair which is stereotypically regarded with suspicion in relation to good and bad.

Genre: the genre is a hybrid, which presumably consists of fantasy, in relation to the title 'cinderella', adventure and comedy

Themes: The themes of ' A Cinderella story' are family, shown in the relationship between her and her father who she describes as her bestfriend. Love could also be a theme as with the actual story of cinderella, she finds love. overcoming tradgedy is also a theme as she has to move on with life despite her fathers death.

evaluation of preliminary task

For our preliminary task we had to design different shots for our scene using a storyboard. This allowed us to think carefully about the angles and lengths of our shots. However as i was away during the filming of the task we could not use the scene designed on the storyboard as there were not enough people to film and to act it out, despite this i think our scene has turned out well as the transitions from shot to shot are fluid, we used all the shots required and successfully Incorporated a match on action shot into the scene. We also managed to follow the 180 degree rule successfully to create a fluid conversation. The preliminary task has helped prepare me for the children's opening scene as i now know what shots to include and how to use them effectively. the task has also given me practise on uploading and adding new posts to the blog.

Song Ideas

If we were to film the whole of our film we would use the opening of this song for when the dolls are running away as it is a love song and is also relevant to Christmas.

Song Choice for opening credits.

We have chosen this song for our opening credits because it is relevant to the theme of Christmas and sets the scene well and draws in a wide audience of parents as well as children.

Narrative

Its a week before Christmas, and a brother and sister have found one of their presents. They both open them early to see whats inside. They find a barbie and ken doll and a magic reaction takes place after they both say, at the same time, "i wish you were real" to the two dolls. This causes the dolls to transform into real people. This makes the children excited at first but soon come to realise after receiving a letter from Santa saying that all other dolls have disappeared due to their naughty actions, of opening their presents early. The children are then given the chance to right their wrongs by turning the dolls back into plastic, however the dolls have fallen in love with each other and do not want to be turned back into plastic so they run away together to escape. The children now have to find them, with only 5 days before Christmas eve to return the dolls to their rightful place. This leads them on to an adventure, filled with magic and trials, that will take them all the way to the North Pole. The film ends with a stereotypical happy ending where the children find dolls who are willing to return to plastic as long as they stay and play together, meaning that the siblings have to get on, which adds a moral lesson to our storyline.

Toy Story 1

Narrative

Starts with Andy playing a game with his toys, shows his view on each of the toys as what he represents them as in his game, e.g. good guy or bad guy. The disruption is that it's Andy's birthday, and they are all worried whether he'll get new toys and not want to play with his old ones anymore. They don't want to be replaced. It also introduces the characters in the way that Andy wants them to be introduced, but once Andy has left they introduce themselves in a way of what they do. When Andy leaves the room, it also reveals the secret of that they are all able to talk and to move.

Genre

This film is a hybrid as it contains a range of different genres, for example, adventure when all of the army toys are sent off on a mission downstairs. Comedy, when Mr Potato head puts all of his facial pieces on the wrong parts of his face - this is amusing for children. Romance between Woody and Little Bow Peep, when she gets all flirty with him. And also a bit of fantasy because toys that can talk and move on their own aren't very realistic.

Characters

Andy, the child, seems to be conforming to the stereotype a typical boy, he's excitable because it's his birthday party. He is also treating his toys a bit rough, like making Woody slide down the banister. None of the toys he plays with are girly either, for example, dinosaur and cowboy, except from Little Bow Peep of course. He is also a caring older brother and a good son, as he did as his mother asked by collecting his baby sister, Molly, from her cot. Woody appears to been the main character as he has a lot more screen time than everyone else, he orders people to do things, and they do what he says, everyone listens to him, he seems to be more in control than everyone else, the leader of the pack.

Atmosphere

The atmosphere is really happy, it's Andy's birthday, so everything is on his side and going right for him, so he is happy. It's also a very colourful scene, so this also adds and emphasizes the happiness in this.

Themes

One of the themes is happiness, as I have spoken about in the atmosphere section. There is a separate theme for the toys than Andy. Andy’s theme and main focus is his birthday party, whereas the toys main theme is Andy, to make sure that they're always part of him and are always there for him when he needs them. They also want to make sure that no other toys take their place, so they themselves are one of their themes.

Taylor Hayward

Series Of Unfortunate Events.

Conventions of a childrens opening sequence.
Narrative:
- Introduces characters and their personalities and interests (signifies possible events within the narrative)
- Starts conventionally and then immediately changes to darkness. This is going against convention which is usually a happy start, but in this film we get a dark and moody feeling.
- Refers to family secrets, and suggests that we will find out what they are.
- The narrative will be mainly focused on the children.

Characters:
- They don't conform to the stereotypes of typical childrens film
- Introduction - the children do not talk
- you see them from the back initially when they are introduced
- Old fashion clothes (sets time period)
- Children are very clever:- the boy reads and remembers all the books he reads
- the older girl invents things
- The children are very wealthy and a close family unit.

Genre:
- Hybrid (which is a mixture of more than one genre)
- Adventure: - when they become orphans
- discover the family secrets
- Horror (unconventional): - house was burnt down
- graveyard
- creepy man
- Fantasy: - lack of realism
- the flower that grows immediately
- Comedy - when the young baby is biting on the table
-Romance?

Atmosphere:
- Elf scene - happy, humorous. The music is upbeat, joyful, laughing and singing.
- Sudden change to gloomy and dark - dark lighting, low key lighting, gloomy, fog.
- Eery music made an uneasy atmosphere.
- The existence of the contrast between the happy beginning and the dark change, makes the change to the dark bit seem even more dark and worse.

Themes:
- Sense of family - referred to as a group (by their surname) - closeness
- Love (siblings)
- Secrets and mystery of the characters when they are introduced as you only see the back of them, also when the children look around the house once it's been burned down, and find secret objects.
- Overcoming the tragedy of losing their parents.

conventions of a childrens film.

Narrative
-Simple structure
-Resolution - Happy ending
-Throughout narrative, some disruption that characters have to overcome
-Moral message

Genre

-Action


-Romance


-Comedy


-Adventure


-Musical


-Fantasy



Children's films are often a hybrid - contains two or more genres.

ideas for filming.

i had the idea, that for our filming we could use stop motion to create an opening using playmobil characters, i found this clip on youtube to use as an example. i thought that we could use playmobil, because not only does it appeal to girls, but also boys.

Taylor Hayward.

preliminary task evaluation.

From doing the preliminary task, we have learnt that we need to keep to the 180 degree rule, when filming a conversation, this is so not to confuse the veiwer as they may not know where abouts the characters are on the screen if we do not follow this rule. We also learnt how do actually do the angles whilst filming, as we had veiwed these filming angles and shots in many tv programmes and films, but hadnt actually had a go at doing these ourselves, so this allowed us to try it out.

There were a few problems when filming our preliminary task, as one of our members was not in the lesson, we had to compromise and change the story line and location a little bit, this also caused problems with filming because both people in our group had to appear in the filming and another had to film, but as we had noone to film us, we were rarely on the screen together.

This has prepared us for the real filming as we have learnt that we will need to compromise with the resources, actors and locations we have got. We also know how to use the camera properly and all of the editing programmes on the computer.

Taylor Hayward

welcome :)

Hello, our group is made up of Shanna Taylor and Matt.
Our initial ideas: we have thought about the making of the titles of our children's opening scene and have come up with the idea of using stop motion with alphabetti spaghetti to spell out the title and the credits of the film. This take into account conventions of a children's film and would appeal to our target audience, which is young children.


idea number one: the opening shot could be a split screen of a girl with her barbie and a boy with his action man both talking to their toys and saying ' i wish you were real' at the same time. they then both fall to sleep and non diegetic music is dubbed over the top and we see a reaction takes place in which both dolls turn into real people.
The problem with this idea however is the location, as we only have access to cameras within the college and therefore cannot film this in the suitable location of a bedroom.

Welcome

Matt, Taylor & Shanna :)
This is our preliminary task, including Taylor & Matt.