Final ideas

Title-Ollie's magical time stopping adventure.

The main character, Ollie, has the ability to pause time and cause mischief. With the click of a pen ollie is able to pause time and resume time. futher on in the production ollie realise that his magical pen is missing whilst time has been paused, ollie then adventures on trying to retreave his pen and restore time.

Shot List
Reaction shot
Match on Action
Shot Reverse Shot
Establishing Shot

Costume, props and Location search
Costume - Casual Clothes

Main character dresses with a tie (makes him different to other characters)

Props - A pen... A pen of magical wonders.

Location - Around the College (Media Class and Refectory)

Soundtrack
Upbeat, magical style of music. Tense when the character makes a bad decision.

Children's Film Opening Sequence - Adventure

For our opening sequence review we looked at the opening sequence for Toy Story. We classified the film as a Children's Adventure.


Some of the main characters in the film are introduced from the beginning (e.g. Woody). However they are not introduced in an animated fashion but rather showing Andy (the owner of the toys) playing with them. We think that this is so that it comes to be a real surprise when Woody starts moving without Andy controlling him. This could be a real surprise to a child who has no idea what is meant to happen in the film. This scene also helps to relate with Andy and help us find out what the other characters are like, for example while playing, Woody is out across as a hero, so the audience sees him as the good guy.


The camerawork in the film doesn't get used to portray a lot but certain characters are shown in different powers, such as Pork when he is on the window sill he is shown at a very low angle, which could show his high power whereas the microphone toy is shown at a high angle and he is portrayed to sit in the corner, showing him to be weaker and less important than the others.

The editing style of the film is Continuity Editing so as to keep the scene flowing, also to make the scene run smoothly cuts are used.


For the sound, a non-digetic sound track of the song 'You've got a Friend in Me' is played, this song is very upbeat and gets the idea of friendship coming to the minds of the audience which wants to make them smile at the clip. 


The mise-en-scene's setting is mainly used to introduce the clip's surroundings and show what the toys have to live in and what normally happens on a daily basis for them with Andy playing with them trying to make his own scenarios (like his robbery scene from the movie), this is a stereotypical thing that children like to do.

Children's Film Opening Sequence - Adventure

For our opening sequence review we looked at the opening sequence for Toy Story. We classified the film as a Children's Adventure.


Some of the main characters in the film are introduced from the beginning (e.g. Woody). However they are not introduced in an animated fashion but rather showing Andy (the owner of the toys) playing with them. We think that this is so that it comes to be a real surprise when Woody starts moving without Andy controlling him. This could be a real surprise to a child who has no idea what is meant to happen in the film. This scene also helps to relate with Andy and help us find out what the other characters are like, for example while playing, Woody is out across as a hero, so the audience sees him as the good guy.


The camerawork in the film doesn't get used to portray a lot but certain characters are shown in different powers, such as Pork when he is on the window sill he is shown at a very low angle, which could show his high power whereas the microphone toy is shown at a high angle and he is portrayed to sit in the corner, showing him to be weaker and less important than the others.

The editing style of the film is Continuity Editing so as to keep the scene flowing, also to make the scene run smoothly cuts are used.


For the sound, a non-digetic sound track of the song 'You've got a Friend in Me' is played, this song is very upbeat and gets the idea of friendship coming to the minds of the audience which wants to make them smile at the clip. 


The mise-en-scene 

Lion King Analyse

Film: Lion King
Genre: Adventure
Style: Animation

looking into the opening sequence of 'The Lion King' it introduces the theme and the characters relationships more then the general conventions that are usually introduced in the average children's production e.g. the cast that produced the production. The opening sequence introduced a number of different characters gathering to one specific area in which the main characters are introduced, this easily shows the status of the main characters so that younger children can have a good understanding on who will be the main characters throughout the production.

The camerawork throughout this opening sequence portrays the genre by using different angles and shots to create a feeling for an adventure. A number of long shots are used to give a detailed oversight on the location that the film will be based in, this is a good introduction for the film as it doesn't give to much information away but gives the viewer a good understanding of the setting. Although there are many locations shown throughout the opening sequence there is a main focus on one specific area in which the main characters are based, this is shown using a variety of different shots to give the sequence more detail e.g. extreme long shot showing all the characters heading towards the mountain.

The soundtrack for the opening title uses non-diegetic sound,

Advantages and Disadvantages Of Film Classification

Advantage

• It prevents younger children from viewing films which could cause distress or en-doctrinate them to believe that things such as guns and other weapons are good to use.
• Gives an idea of what kind of audience will like the film.

Disadvantage

• Main disadvantage of film classification is that a lot of children stories/cartoons (e.g Spiderman, Batman) have become more adult-like and so have higher age restrictions... A lot of Batman films have 15 certificates were as Batman was meant to be a children's favourite superhero. Spiderman's movie release caused a lot of controversy as it was rated a 12 and because of protests saw the introduction of the 12A certificate.

Classifying a Clip

The clip we were given to classify was Home Alone.

Drugs

Near the end of the clip we noticed that during the black and white film the boy was watching, that there was quite a lot of references to drugs. The two characters looked like old-style gangsters. Although kids won't really catch the references because there was not really obvious assumptions of it. However, an older audience may catch the hints of drugs.

Horror

There was one obvious reference to horror, when the boy went into the basement and started hearing non-digetic noises which he believed came from the furnace. This is a stereotypical reaction to seeing something that looks scary and kids will obviously notice this.

Nudity/Sex?

There is a hint of nudity in the clip when the boy is in his brother's room and finds a Playboy magazine... Though you never see what he is looking at he makes an obvious reference to nudity by saying something about how the picture was disgusting because the person in it was naked. But younger audiences are unlikely to know what a Playboy magazine is so this shouldn't concern them.

Imitable behaviour

The boy running around the house in an adventurous way could influence younger children that it is fun to do the same as him and that it is acceptable when it really isn't. Also when he is watching the film he's eating a massive bowl of ice cream stuffed with marshmallows is also a bad. Other references of imitable behaviour are him using his brother's BB gun and him invading his brother's privacy as well as destroying his possessions.

Violence

The film that the boy was watching was the only real reference to violence. The massive tommy gun used by the man could encourage children to see guns as a fun thing to use as they don't understand the danger that a gun can cause. The BB gun is another reference to violence but it is only a small reference compared to the film the boy watched.

Language

The language used in the film wasn't so bad as it was not really swearing. The way the guys were speaking could encourage children to act in the same way.

Because of these aspects, we would classify Home Alone as a PG rather than a U mainly due to some factors being unsuitable for very young children. Certain factors that influenced this were the violence, the imitable behaviour and the horror.

Preliminary clip

This is our clip for the Preliminary Task...

Our findings of doing this task are listed in a separate blog post.

What we have learnt from the Preliminary Task

After doing the preliminary task... We have found that we need to shorten the times between cuts.

Long shots are bad for conversation.

We should use zoom for conversations and shot reverse shot.

When doing the 180 degree rule we need to make sure that if a person starts on the left from one camera angle they stay on the left for the other (e.g. the door smashing scene).

Preliminary Task

180 degrees Rule
The 180 degree rule is a very important concept in video and film production. It refers to to an imaginary line which cuts through the middle of the scene, from side to side with respect to the camera. If the line is crossed it changes the viewer's perspective in such a way that it may cause a disorientating and confusing image. For this reason, crossing the line is usually something that is avoided. An example of the 180 degrees rule being in use is when characters are in conversation.


Continuity Editing

1. The purpose of continuity editing is to smooth over the inherent discontinuity of the editing process and to establish a logical coherence between shots.

1. In most films, logical coherence is achieved by cutting to continuity, which emphasizes smooth transition of time and space. However, some films incorporate cutting to continuity into a more complex classical cutting technique, one which also tries to show psychological continuity of shots. The montage technique relies on symbolic association of ideas between shots rather than association of simple physical action for its continuity. Continuity Editing is used in most clips as it helps to make the clip more realistic by keeping a consistent style.
   
   
   Match On Action Shot 
   "Match on action" is when you cut during an action to another camera angle but showing the action from the same point in time that you left it from the previous shot. This is important to continue the flow of the scene. An example would be when a person is walking through a door to the door being opened from the other side.
   
   
   Establishing Shot
   Establishes a character in the location of the scene, for example a person walking down a hallway.
   
   
   Reaction Shot
   Reaction shots show how a character reacts to what another has said/done. It encourages the audience to believe they are in the same area as each other. An example of a reaction shot could be when someone discovers shocking news and shows how they 'react' to the news.
   
   
   Long Shot
   A long shot shows the characters position in a shot, far away range. This informs the audience of the characters positions relative both to one another and their surrounding. An example of a longshot is to emphasise the surrounding area or perhaps a large building in the distance.
   
   
   Shot Reverse Shot
   Shot reverse shot is normally used to show two or more characters in conversation which is commonly shown by the use of the over-the-shoulder shot.

Where we intend to film
In the the media corridor or the main reception in the B/C block hallway. 


Script
Key - 
A - Alistair 
O - Ollie 
B - Ben 
C - Christian


(First shot is a long shot on A and O in the hallway, they start to walk towards the camera)