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Post-Production

Research Page 

Interactive short film 

The first interactive short film I watched was called "Possibilia" It was about 2 people in a relationship who seemed to be having some kind of a conversation about their relationship. The interactive element was quite confusing because it had lots of different things to click but it did not change the ending of the story line at all. The genre of this film was romance/drama. the conventions of the film was that there was a couple which was fighting which was engaging the audience to see what happen next. I would say that the strengths of the film was that the acting which made me engage with the film more. I would say that the weakness of this film is the way that the interactive element worked because you had to move the arrows on the keyboard, however it did not change the story line which has helped me with my planning as I know that this is not how I want my film to be like.

The second video I watched was called "solace" it was about 2 friends who seemed to be having a catch up and one friend was telling another friend a story. The story was very engaging which made me really interested in the story. The interactive element to this film was the you clicked on different bubbles to make continue the story. I would say the weakness of this film is that it did not have any actors it was just a voice over with some animated pictures. I would say that the strengths of the film is the story line and this is going to help with my planning and how to make my film interactive. 

The third video I watched was called 5 mins which was about a zombie apcolypse, as soon as you click on the video you have to chose what type of person you would like to be. the video was a little confusing because the interactive element to the film was that you had to drag and drop things to keep the character alive. I would say that this is a weakness to the film as I did not understand what I was meant to be doing for some of the elements. This video has helped me with my planning as now I have watch three different types of films and have lots of different ideas.

Analysing romantic comedies 
The wedding singer

The storyline is about a person getting married to someone who is not faithful to her during the wedding planning the bride Julia seeks help from her wedding singer friend Robbie Heart. During this time the two end up falling in love, in this scene Julia is practising saying hello to people in her wedding dress this upsets her as she does not want to truly marry her fiance. However little does she know Robbie is on his way to tell Julia how he feels about her, until he sees that Julia seems happy and so he leaves. The theme of this scene is quite sad because as a viewer you want the two to be together and then when you see Robbie approaching Julia's house you feel like the whole film might be coming to a happy ending, until he then walks away. The setting is in a bedroom and outside on the street. This tells the audience that the characters are fairly young as the bride still lives with her parents. The characters seem anxious in this scene this is because they are so young and very unaware of what is going to happen next. The music in this scene is very calming but when it is put together with the lines that the characters are saying it makes the scene sad. The lighting in this scene is dark this is to emphasise the sadness of in the scene and to as this is going to be one of the first things the audience will notice about the scene and will therefore know that the scene is going to be sad. The iconography in this scene can be seen in the necklace Julia is wearing which shows she is girly, her bedroom is filled with little things which tell us a lot about her and what her personality is like. 

Blended

This scene from the film "Blended" which is about 2 families coming together to be one big blended family. In this scene the mother of the family is at her sons baseball game were she is wishing her children's father would come to support their children. To her surprise Jim someone who she had been seeing earlier on in the film comes to support the child. The theme of the film is family, which is shown through out the film in different aspects. The setting of this scene is at a baseball game, the lighting is natural as this is a happy scene which is what the audience will first notice when they the scene comes on. The characters are all wearing summery clothes which tells the audience that this is a happy scene. The ending of the scene is the ending of the film so the end scene rounds off the film. 

Diary entry 20/02/2018

In todays lesson I completed my mind map and flow chart with my other group members, we talked in depth about the character we want to create for our short film. We started to look into the romantic comedy genre and looked at other romantic comedy films to analysis them and understand the genre in better detail. I watched two different scenes from two different films and analysed each of them. Tomorrow I will completed the third scene and then look into the history of the genre to find out the most succesful films of this genre and how it has changed over the years. 

50 first dates 

In this scene Lucy is watching a video which is telling her all about how she lost her memory, which is obviously making her upset. The film is about how Lucy lost her memory in a car accident almost a year ago and that everyday since she wakes up thinking its a certain day as its the last day she remembers before the accident. Until she meets Henry who wants to help Lucy get her memory back so he makes a video that she watches everyday so she can remember him. The theme of the film is happy as even though the story is very sad the way that the story develops makes the whole film come together. The theme of this scene however is very sad as it is Lucy realising she has lost her memory, the setting is in her house in Hawaii and the characters in the scene is Lucy her brother and father and Henry. The characters in the scene make the scene more emotional as they have all been waiting for this day for a long time. The lighting in the scene is natural light as it was shot in the day. This uplifts the scene in a sense which tells the audience that even though the scene is sad it will still be a happy ending. 

History of Romantic comedy films

Romantic comedies started back in Shakespeare's days with plays such as "Much ado about nothing" and "A midsummer nights dream" whereby two people meet fall in love have a fight then get back together at the end. However the most recognised to be one of the first rom coms was "it happened one night" which is about a rich person and a poor person coming together. This type of film was called "comedies of manners", which would follow the same layout as a rom com. 

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Romantic comedy films gave both men and women more confidence to talk about sex and it not be awkward, it also taught people that love is real and that it is easy to find it. "Annie Hall" is one of the only films that does not follow the typical romantic comedy ending. This film does not focus so much on the couple however more on the individual. 

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More recent films have focused more on how the couple interacts with each other and not just in an intimate way, the films have modernised along with society however still follow traditional values such as the couple is always a straight couple. Most romantic comedies follow the plot of someone (usually the male) having to give something up to make the relationship work the couple will most likely end up having an argument about this then come back together in the end. Most of the recent films have followed this plot and has made romantic comedy films one of the most successful genres. 

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Diary entry 21/01/2018

Today I completed all three scenes and I also researched into the history of romantic comedy films and how they have evolved over the years. From doing this research I am starting to understand the codes and conventions of romantic comedy in even more depth. Tomorrow we are going on a trip to the BBFC in London where they decide the rating of films this should help me even more with my research as I will start to understand what we should rate our film. 

Age rating laws 
U

A U film should be suitable for audiences aged four years and over, although it is impossible to predict what might upset any particular child.

U films should be set within a positive framework and should offer reassuring counterbalances to any violence, threat or horror. If a work is particularly suitable for pre-school children, this will be indicated in the BBFCinsight.
 

Discrimination

Discriminatory language or behaviour is unlikely to be acceptable unless clearly disapproved of. 
 

Drugs

References to illegal drugs or drug misuse must be infrequent and innocuous, or have a clear educational purpose or anti-drug message suitable for young children.
 

Imitable behaviour

Potentially dangerous or anti-social behaviour which young children may copy must be clearly disapproved of. No emphasis on realistic or easily accessible weapons.
 

Language

Infrequent use only of very mild bad language.
 

Nudity

Occasional nudity, with no sexual context.
 

Sex

Only very mild sexual behaviour (for example, kissing) and references to such behaviour.
 

Threat

Scary or potentially unsettling sequences should be mild, brief and unlikely to cause undue anxiety to young children. The outcome should be reassuring.
 

Violence

Violence will generally be very mild. Mild violence may be acceptable if it is justified by context (for example, comedic, animated, wholly unrealistic)

PG

Discrimination

Discriminatory language or behaviour is unlikely to be acceptable unless clearly disapproved of, or in an educational or historical context, or in a particularly dated work with no likely appeal to children. Discrimination by a character with whom children can readily identify is unlikely to be acceptable.
 

Drugs

References to illegal drugs or drug misuse must be innocuous or carry a suitable anti-drug message.
 

Imitable behaviour

No detail of potentially dangerous behaviour which young children are likely to copy, if that behaviour is presented as safe or fun. No glamorisation of realistic or easily accessible weapons such as knives. No focus on anti-social behaviour which young children are likely to copy.
 

Language

Mild bad language only. Aggressive or very frequent use of mild bad language may result in a work being passed at a higher category.


Nudity

There may be nudity with no sexual context.

 

Sex 

Sexual activity may be implied, but should be discreet and infrequent. Mild sex references and innuendo only.
 

Threat

Frightening sequences or situations where characters are in danger should not be prolonged or intense. Fantasy settings may be a mitigating factor.
 

Violence

Violence will usually be mild. However there may be moderate violence, without detail, if justified by its context (for example, history, comedy or fantasy).

12a and 12 

Discrimination

Discriminatory language or behaviour must not be endorsed by the work as a whole. Aggressive discriminatory language or behaviour is unlikely to be acceptable unless clearly condemned.
 

Drugs

Misuse of drugs must be infrequent and should not be glamorised or give instructional detail.


Imitable behaviour

No promotion of potentially dangerous behaviour which children are likely to copy. No glamorisation of realistic or easily accessible weapons such as knives. No endorsement of anti-social behaviour.
 

Language

There may be moderate language. Strong language may be permitted, depending on the manner in which it is used, who is using the language, its frequency within the work as a whole and any special contextual justification.
 

Nudity

There may be nudity, but in a sexual context it must be brief and discreet.
 

Sex

Sexual activity may be briefly and discreetly portrayed. Moderate sex references are permitted, but frequent crude references are unlikely to be acceptable.


Threat

There may be moderate physical and psychological threat and horror sequences. Although some scenes may be disturbing, the overall tone should not be. Horror sequences should not be frequent or sustained.
 

Violence

There may be moderate violence but it should not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted if justified by the context. Sexual violence may only be implied or briefly and discreetly indicated, and its depiction must be justified by context.

15 

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Discrimination

The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour, although there may be racist, homophobic or other discriminatory themes and language.
 

Drugs

Drug taking may be shown but the work as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse (for example, through instructional detail). The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.


Imitable behaviour

Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Whether the depiction of easily accessible weapons is acceptable will depend on factors such as realism, context and setting.
 

Language

There may be strong language. Very strong language may be permitted, depending on the manner in which it is used, who is using the language, its frequency within the work as a whole and any special contextual justification.


Nudity

There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context. There may be nudity in a sexual context but usually without strong detail.
 

Sex

Sexual activity may be portrayed, but usually without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.

 

Threat

There may be strong threat and horror. A sustained focus on sadistic or sexual threat is unlikely to be acceptable.

 

Violence

Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but the depiction of sexual violence must be discreet and justified by context.

18

Exceptions are most likely in the following areas:

• where the material is in breach of the criminal law, or has been created through the commission of a criminal offence
• where material or treatment appears to us to risk harm to individuals or, through their behaviour, to society. For example, the detailed portrayal of violent or dangerous acts, or of illegal drug use, which may cause harm to public health or morals. This may include portrayals of sadistic or sexual violence which make this violence look appealing; reinforce the suggestion that victims enjoy sexual violence; or which invite viewer complicity in sexual violence or other harmful violent activities
• where there are more explicit images of sexual activity in the context of a sex work (see below) or where the primary purpose of the images in question is sexual arousal In the case of video works, which may be more accessible to younger viewers, intervention may be more frequent than for cinema films.


Sex education at 18

Where sex material genuinely seeks to inform and educate in matters such as human sexuality or safer sex and health, explicit images of sexual activity may be permitted.


Sex works at 18

Sex works are works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation. Sex works containing only material which may be simulated are generally passed 18. Sex works containing clear images of real sex, strong fetish material, sexually explicit animated images, or other very strong sexual images will be confined to the R18 category. Material which is unacceptable in a sex work at R18 is also unacceptable in a sex work at 18.
 

When taking a trip to the BBFC London and finding out about each age rating in detail I was also surprised to learn that is the creators really want a certain age rating sometimes they may have to slightly edit the film so that it will the film will fit the guidelines of their desired age rating. I also learnt that the BBFC also receive a lot of complaints about certain films because of certain scenes which make the film hard to put into one age rating. From learning all of this at the time being I would put my short film into the 12a age rating as when writing the script we may include some swear words which would put it into this age rating. Another reason for this is because most romantic comedies usually fall into this age rating. 

Costume in Romantic comedies 

In most romantic comedy films the costume that the characters are put in is just casual clothes this is usually to describe that they are just normal people going about their everyday lives. Obviously the costume will also depend on the year that the film is realised and in some scenes we may see the character wearing smarter clothes however this is usually work related. For example in the film friends with benefits we see the two main characters Jamie and Dylan  in casual clothes in most scenes however when at work are more professional. 

As romantic comedies have been around for a long time the films have evolved and have become more modern and fashion is the same which means that the costumes that the characters wear now compared to back in 2006 will be very different. From doing this research I have an idea of how our main character and other characters should be dressed. 

Settings 

Most romantic comedy films are mostly set in New York sometimes the characters might travel outside of New York and when they do this it is usually back to where they are originally from which is either really far away that will have to get a plane and the someone will chase them through the airport to confess their love or it will not be too far away and they will get the buss or train and again someone will chase them through the station to confess their love. These settings are mainly chosen because many people will be able to relate as they may have moved from somewhere to the city to persue their dream job. Most of these characters will have their own tiny apartment where they live on their own. All of this is stereo types to the genre however clearly engages the audience. However as we do not have the budget to fly to New York so we will just have to settle for Luton town centre and other surrounding areas.

Props

In romantic comedies the props that are used are mostly are everyday items such as mobile phones, newspapers, bags and more. However the props you would expect to see in a romantic comedy more so than any other film is a engagement ring, or props which would reflect the characters personality which could be a lucky charm or a meaningful piece of jewellery. In our film the character will use everyday props however we could maybe have a meaningful item that the character could hold close to themselves which is a huge part of them as a person. in a discussion as a group we said that our main character will use/have props such as photo frame with a picture of her self and friends I can get this from my house and print off my myself and my friends, to make the desk fit for the character we are going to organise getting a pop which will show the personality of the character. We will also use a bag that will be stuffed with random things which makes it hard for the character to ever find what she needs. All of these items will build up the characters personality and add to who they are to engage the audience in who they are, and their background.  

Focus group

In our focus group we asked the group to watch a clip from the film "Man up", we chose this film because the main female is sort of similar to our main character. We asked the group what they thought of the scene and whether they thought it was refreshing to see a British romantic comedy instead of another one from America. We talked to the group about our idea and asked them what they thought of it and how we could improve, the group liked our idea and thought that it was a different to other romantic comedies the advice they gave us was to add more to the story. We also asked what they would expect from a romantic comedy in terms of the ending and everyone said that we should have a happy ending as throughout the film you could grow fond of the character and want the happy ending for her. 

Diary entry 26/02/2018

In todays lessons I completed more of my secondary research and as a group we conducted our second piece of primary research which was our focus group which can be seen above. We also help other groups by being in their focus groups and from this have gained ideas about how we should shoot our film. As a group we thought about the props we wanted to use and where we would get these from. I looked into the settings of romantic comedies and how we could try to portray this. Tomorrow is the research deadline so I will analyse the questionaire and finish off my secondary research. In order to prepare for this I will have to do some work at home so that I am not overloaded and will hit the deadline. 

Analysing questionnaire 

We asked people their age to see who was mostly answering our questionnaire, most people answered that they were between the age 12-24 this tells me that this is only because of where our survey has been distributed to. This tells me that the next time I make a survey I need to find a new distribution method because my answers are never diverse enough. As a group we have found a facebook page called survey exchange which is a page where you can post your survey which will give us more of a range of answers. 

We asked people what they would expect to see from a romantic comedy we received answers such as ' they always get together in the end, because the guy always sees the girl for who she is. Someone clumsy. 2 people bump into each other. This answer tells me that what we are trying to create in our short film is exactly what people expect from a romantic comedy. Other responses were 'Humour, romance, drama. This tells us that we need to make sure we include all of these things to create a successful romantic comedy. 

We asked people is they thought slap-stick comedy is funny as this is the type of comedy we want to use. Some responses we received were 'In moderation, if not too heavily depended on' and 'only if its done in the right way' this tells me that the idea we have for our short film is going to work. However when creating the script we need to be careful where we include the slap stick comedy and try not to over use it. 

We asked people to name a rom come that they like, by doing this it will help us understand what some of the more popular films are and therefore we can base our short film of some of these rom coms. For example the way the script is written or camera techniques or how a character is portrayed. The most popular film that was chosen was 'Bridget Jones' this is actually really helpful as our character is a little bit like Bridget which means that we can easily take inspiration from the film. 

We asked people to talk about an awkward situation, we did this so that again we can gain inspiration for our character and what situations we could put her in. The answers we received were really helpful especially ' When you totally embarrass yourself eg by saying something about someone they subsequently overhear. ' This answer has really helped as this is something we can easily put into the script. 

We asked people if they knew what an interactive film is, as some people may not be familiar with the term and could end up being confused by the film when they come to watch it. Some people did not know or have never heard of interactive short films however some people had a great knowledge. This tells me that maybe we should not make the interactive element complicated as this could confuse people and therefore they would not want to watch the whole film. 

Props we may need to buy for the film

We have decided to buy a couple of these photo frames and put some pictures of our character and her friends in them and have them around her room so that when we do the establishing shot the audience will see this and will already be starting to learn something about the character. 

As this production technique is new to me I have decided to search 'how to use Eko' I then found this website called 'Eko studio' which is a website that teaches you everything you need to know on how to use the eko and how your end product should work. The website is broken down into sections e.g Build your project, Working area. When editing the film I know that I am going to use this page in order to make sure that I can produce the best work properly. 

It happened one night (1934) is the oldest however the most successful Romantic comedy according to the rotten tomatoes '50 best Romantic comedies of all time'. It is said that this film has inspired so many romantic comedies. 

Target audience 

The target audience for our short film is 12-25 females even though this is a large range of people our short film will be something that they will be able to relate to as it could be something they are currently going through or it could be something they used to go through and it would be funny for them to watch which would bring back memories of their youth when they were single and looking for love. We would also like for our target audience to also be people who work at a good paying job or are aspiring to have a life style because even though our character is a little clumsy she is still very successful in her work and is doing well to balance a social life with her work. 

Biblography 

Zimbo. Com (2010). ‘Mila and Justin film “friends with benefits”’ Available online: http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Justin+Timberlake/Mila+Kunis/Mila+Justin+Film+Friends+Benefits/PWs5yZcquxU . (Access date 25.02.2018

Diary entry 27.02.2018

In todays lesson I completed all the research that I needed to finish and because I completed some work at home the night before I did not have much to do which meant I had the time to spend on my biblography as normally it is the last thing I do and it gets really rushed. From doing all of this research I have learnt so much that I never knew about romantic comedies and how they are produced. I learnt that romantic comedies have been around for a lot longer than I had originally thought. Tomorrow we are going to be planning our pitch which we will present to the class on the Monday. 

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