Cast Changes

Unfortunately, due to an operation, Cameron Wishart - who was playing Joe, the main boy- is no longer able to act in our opening sequence.

After much thought and recasting, we decided Ashley Cunningham, a reliable friend of ours who also took GCSE drama with me and Cameron, would be best suited for the role of Joe. (See photo of Ashley to the right).

The Best and The Worst Comparison

In our lesson on Thursday 24th January, we compared two fight scenes. One of which was of very poor quality and the other very good, both clips are on Mr Buckmaster's blog (http://marlboroughmediastudies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/comparing-best-worst.html).

The first fight scene we watched, the considerably bad one, was from 'Star Trek'. In the scene we noted featured which made it look unrealistic and bad.

• Slow movement- made it look unrealistic and choreographed
• Music didn't build up, it stayed constant
• Camera quality made the blue sky look fake
• Sound effects were either not used or not effective. E.g the rocks hitting at 1.49
• Characters were unbelievable
• The story line was also not realistic (the man could of easily ran away).

We then watched a fight scene from 'The Book of Eli', this scene was miles better, it brought tension and drama and felt very realistic. This are some features that made the scene so effective:

• Realistic sound effects which helped portray things that we could not see. (E.g. the chainsaw, clanking of metal and swords, stabbing the man at the end and blood trickling) 
• Colour treatment- yellow sepia and silhouettes. The silhouettes made the sequence look almost like a dance, a situation Eli is often in and so rehearsed and comfortable in.
• Fast movements and continuity of shots
• Continuity and fast movement of and in shots 

BBFC- British Board of Film Classification

'The British Board of Film Classification is an independent, non-governmental body which has classified cinema films since it was set up in 1912 and videos/ DVDs since the Video Recordings Act was passed in 1984.'

In class we watched a video on the BBFC (www.bbfc.co.uk) and learnt about the rating process of films and why.

Films are rated on:

• Violence and bad language 
• Sex and nudity
• Taste and decency 

Violence examples:

'Casino Royale' The James Bond film directed by Martin Campbell is rated at (much to my surprise) a 12A. However, this is because in the torture scene (which I analysed back in September http://elliebunce.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/casino-royale-camera-shot-analysis.html) we never see the actual whipping (we just see Le Chiffre swinging the rope and James Bond's reactions).

'Die Hard 4.0' The American action film directed by Len Wiseman is rated at a 15. This was because in scenes, such as the one where Bruce Willis is fighting the female, the sounds affects make it more violent and exaggerate the fight scene. 

'The Last King of Scotland' The British drama film based on Giles Foden's novel and directed by Kevin MacDonald is also rated at a 15. This is because the gruesome context of the film is very realistic to what actually happened e.g Dr Nicholas Garrigan (played by James McAvoy) being hung by his skin. Here we see the brutal pain he is under and the blood which make the scene naturalistic. 

Bad language examples:

'Four Weddings and a Funeral' The British romantic comedy directed by Mike Newell featured so much swearing it had to be made a 15.

Sex and nudity examples: 

'Titanic' is rated a 12A. The romantic tragedy directed by James Cameron only features one scene of nudity, this is when Kate Winslet (playing Rose DeWitt Bukater) asks Leonardo DiCaprio (playing Jack Dawson) to draw her. In this scene we only nudity we see is Kate Winslet's breasts as she lies down to be drawn.

'Team America' In the American action comedy film, directed by Trey Parker, there is a sex scene where both characters are unclothed, however, because they are puppets the film could only be rated a 15. 

Taste and decency examples:

'Borat' The 'mockumentary' comedy film directed by Larry Charles starring Sacha Baron Cohen was rated at a 18 in cinemas but 15 on DVD. This is because of the irony of the film and context which could be taken as racism but is so extreme to create comedy value. 

I watched the 'Wild Bill' trailer (click here to watch) and guessed it to be a 12 due to the swearing, drugs and some violence which make it unsuitable for a PG or U, however, I didn't think the violence and bad language was enough to push it to a 15. The trailer was actually a 12A and the film is a 15.

Production Meeting 4

Date: 10th January 2013
Present: Bethany Hutson, Katie Bannock, Camille Pierrart and Ellie Bunce (Me)
Focus: Plan (Create a scene breakdown, shot list and production schedule)

In our fourth production meeting we got started on planning filming our opening sequence, this included making a scene breakdown, shot list and production schedule. We assigned ourselves different roles, Bethany and Camille made the scene breakdowns using our storyboard we used in our production pitch (http://www.scribd.com/doc/118314176/BECK-Production-Pitch) and I created our shot list and a summary of each scene (the props, costumes, equipment etc used). We also tried to schedule a time to start filming when we were all free by creating a table of dates but ran out of time. Although we didn't finish our production schedule we each printed a blank schedule which we had to fill in before our next meeting.

Action Point: Fill in detail of scenes on production schedule.

Production Pitch Feedback

After Camille, Katie, Bethany and I had presented our production pitch to our class and teacher we were asked some questions about our idea.

These are some of them:

Question: What was your inspiration?

Answer: 'The Holiday' and 'Love Actually' were my two main inspirations for our opening sequence. The Christmas themed romantic comedies are two of my favourite films. Also doing a Christmas themed opening fits in the weather and the moment and is easy to portray.

Question: Who is your target audience?

Answer: Teenage/ young females. The film will be a feel good typical 'chick flick' probably rated at a 12 or 12A. 

'The Holiday' is a 12 and 'Love Actually' is a 15 (see photos below).