Storyboards

Institutional context

For the opening of the film i will be making i will not have a large budget as those of a larger production company. I will be taking on a lot of roles in the pre and post production of my film as i mentioned in my proposal, these will be roles beginning with writer, producer and director, going on to do editing and set, costume and makeup artist. Film 4 is an example of a media conglomerate which develop and co-finance high profile feature films such as Slumdog Millionaire and This is England, both british films with British independent talent which is what i am aiming for with my film and what Film4 took for in their company. With Channel 4 it is possible to submit your own ideas it a simple process laid out on their website. Just like making a new film for any producers you write a simple proposal and submit it to the online proposal system, there will then be a meeting with comissioning editors if you get a yes from the team. There are then 3 stages of budget approval, commissioning editor and programme finance manager, Head of department, Programme finiance committee. The programme can then be produced with lots of work and then set on the channel. Film 4 is geared towards develong feature length/short films with led british talent. They look for meterial which aims to push the boundaries within film genre, i think Film4 would be the right type of media institution to distribute my product as what they are looking for is my aim with the film i will be making.
There will be a large process a film goes through before it is completed and many of the roles in production i wil have to take on myself. The idea will be writted and passed forward to the producer and the director can make it happen. A pitch can then be written for the producer in order to sell the idea to the financiers to commission a script. Production companies will be approached for development money. The first draft is sent off to the financiers and once everyone is happy it wil be made into a final draft. Once the essential funding and insurance is secured the pre production will begin with storyboards and production design. Effects are planned and this can take months, obviously this is very different to my time scale and facilities. Next will be the shooting of the film involving the actors and cinematographers, now the post production, getting the film edited together, adding sound effects and finalising the product. I will be taking on almost all of the responsibilities listed above although some such as makeup design i may leave to the actors involved if necessary.

Mood board and Rationale

I made this mood board to show alot of things about the film i will be making. There are examples of good romance films which are very popular as proved by my audience research so i wanted to include pictures on them. When you think of romance it is all very bright and happy which i think my mood board shows using the hearts and the rose which connotes love with both its bright red colour and the fact it is a popular romantic flower. I have also given examples of a close up shot and shot reverse shot as these will be used in my film. I have put in pictures of groups of people, i would like to think these people are my target audience, teenagers through to young adults of any class. The actors ive put in are well known and actors play a big part in films as they can be the reason people would like to see a film so i think they are an important part in my mood board as they help to promote the product.

Initial sketches

Initial Treatment

The opening of my film will begin with a female dancer in a gym, the shots will consist firstly of close ups watching the movement of the feet at the same level as the feet, slowly the camera will begin to show close ups of legs, body and arm movements leaving the head always out of the shots so that we can not see the character. There will be diegetic music in the background to a sad love song and the dancing will go on until the song ends. Through out the dance and song there will be flash backs of this woman breaking up with her boyfriend so that we can begin to understand abit about her character in just the opening. These will be fairly closed framed shots of a break up out side of a house consisting of arguing and drama, the shots will not be held for a long amount of time to create the drama and tension of the break up. During the flashbacks the music will still play from the dancing scene non-diegeticly over the top without any other diegetic sound. The last shot of the dancer will be a long shot of her rolling down on to the floor and laid heavily breathing on her back as the music ends. The shot will then cross cut to a closeup of a picture of the dancer in a frame being held in a hand, there is then a cut to the front view of a male holding this picture in a medium shot sat on a bed, then putting it away into a drawer face down and we see a closeup of the draw being closed, the male character will be placed on the right of the frame to show he is in confusion and is lacking importance.
There is now another cross cut to a different female getting ready in a bedroom, she is getting ready, wearing a pink skirt and top and jewellery to show she is an open, happy, colourful person. The first shot we see is of some objects in her room which represent her as a person, such as jewellery and a tebby bead. We then see a medium shot of her applying mascara in the mirror and closeups of her putting it back into her full makeup back which shows she is all about her looks. She continues to sort her hair and clothes in the mirror as the camera pans down her from her head to feet to reveal what she is wearing. There is a cross cut back to the male which will show a shot from over his shoulder sending a text on his phone. Then the camera cross cuts back to the room the woman is in, a close up of her phone, getting a text, cut to long shot of her walking to get the phone and then a point of view close up of the text saying 'Leaving now'. Then to a close up of the expression on the womans face smiling.

Creating a proposal

For the moving image product i will be using DVpal 24 frames per second, and exporting it as a dotmov. My intended audience will be people ages 15 to 25 as it is a young age group so that they can relate to the film, with young romances they may have experienced themselves,.
The intended purpose of my product will be to entertain and exite the audience with the opening of my film, hoping they would stay interested and want to watch the rest of the film so i need to keep the audience interested.
There has been many pieces of media work produced on the same subject as mine, there are many popular romance films, but ive never heard of an opening to be amazing in a romance. This is why my piece of work will be different to the others, all of my focus will go into the opening and with all of my research it will be able to be outstanding.
My soundtrack is from a copyright free source, http://freeplaymusic.com/ and my soundtrack which will cover the sequence is called Natural Beauty.
During the course of making the opening of the film i will have many roles and responsibilites. i will be the writer, producer, director, editor, lighting and set director, costume and makeup artist. I may have a friend helping out who may also be an actress in the opening scene, they can help with choice of makeup and costume.

Audience research - Primary

I made this questionnaire to hand out to research what people would like to see in the opening of a film and how popular romances are today. I asked 5 males and 5 females to fill them out aged mainly 15-20. As my results are coming from this age group my target audience will be aimed at people aged 15-25, i chose this age group as most of my questionnaire results have good ideas from this age range and my film would be one containing things which happen in life which this age group could relate to which, from my research, is what people like to see in a romance film. The age range begins at 15 as this would be the certificate of my film which most people voted for and there would be no unsuitable content for anyone this young, which was the posibility for it being an 18 but the film would ensure there was nothing unnessesary. When i asked what people would like to see in the opening of a film, about 30% said a flashback, i agreed with this idea and think i will use flashbacks in my opening as it will help build a character in the short amount of time i have for filming. I found that females had more interest in romance films than males as males seem to prefer sex scenes and horror or comedy films rather than romance. The most popular romance films people liked were Love actually, The Notebook and The Titanc which was good information as i have already researched the openings of The Notebook and Love Actually.

Audience research - secondary.

The information on the website shows that the most popular age for watching this film, love actually is 25-34 year olds with 22% with 15-24 year olds just behind with 21%. Its estimated box office was 24,000,000 with a 60% female audience showing females are more popular with the romance genre than males.
The information for the notebook, another classic romance has a 62% female population and just 38% male. The Love Actually 25-34 year olds rank highest age group for the films audience with 24%. 4-14 year olds having 0%.

As these two popular films both have a main audience of 25-34 year olds that will be my aim for a target audience, but any age from 15 above would be suitable as that would be the certificate. although the certificat of the notebook is actually a 12A. It would be aimed also more at females because of the romance genre, this will make the box office less than it could as if it were a family film for all ages the film would make more with a more widespread audience.

Textual research - Opening of 50 first dates

00:00 - 02:07
The opening of the film is a long shot of a beach setting in Hawaii at nightfall, this straight away gives the impression of the romance genre as it is a romantic setting. The opening credits begin to fade on and off screen whilst non diegetic hawaiian music plays. The camera tracks to the left as the setting changes to a medium shot of a Kitchen setting and a pineapple places on the left of the screen which has been continued through the last shot, and the title of the film appears in the middle of the shot. The text fades as two actors enter the shot and sit down to talk about the womans holiday to hawaii. The camera then crosscuts to various shots of other women in different locations talking about the same man they had met on holiday, as the conversation continues through each woman. The mise-en-scen of each setting is always bright and colourful opening the film in a cheerful way with some slight comedy in the dialouge. Each woman ends up saying the same name of the person they met and that they will struggle having future contact, from this we can already work out the problem we are going to face during the film.

Textual Analysis - The opening of Love Actually

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsnruVriVYw

(embedd code disabled by request)

The opening sequecne of Love Actually is a short scene in the arrivals department of an airport. There is mainly medium close ups used in the sequence to see expressions on the faces of those greeting each other giving the viewers a feel good, happy feeling. We get a zoom in as children run to meet parents, this helps emphasise the happyness and feelings of the characters. The shots are all closed framed which encodes the togetherness and the closeness of families and friends. The scene is bright and colourful by the clothes of the characters also setting a warm environment for a romance film. The whole opening sequence has no diegetic sound, we dont need the dialouge to know what is going on or how people feel. About 20 seconds in there is a voice over by Hugh Grant, one of the main characters in the film, talking about the fact that love is all around, representing the whole narrative of the film. I think the voice over is a good idea for the opening of a film, especially the subject of the voice over, talking about love is a good idea for the opening of a romance.

Textual Research

In the opening sequence of The Notebook begins with the opening credits coming up on a black screen fading into and off the shot. There is no dialouge, the sequence is based on a series of establishing shots which are there to set a scene for the rest of the film. The film begins with a black screen and the opening credits showing up then as a pink sunrise sets over a river the names of the main actors show in the bottom left of the screen finishing with the name of the film, there is then long shot of a large white house with white Pekin Ducks flying past, this is a romantic setting fitting the genre of the film. The sound is nondiegetic music from David Sun, a relaxing soundtrack which also sets the romantic mood. There is only one character introduced in the opening and this is an old woman stood in the large house looking over the lake and watching the birds, from this we know nothing about her, but we know she will be involved. From the opening you can tell straight away what the genre of the film is whitout giving any big clues. The only other person we see is just a man in a small rowing boat, rowing calmly down the river, creating a calm mood ready to introduce the rest of the film.