Inbetweeners

As well as looking at the Big Bang theory we looked at a number of other tv episodes/films:

                                           -The Inbetweeners

The Inbetweeners series follows the life of teenager Will and his three friends at fictional Rudge Park Comprehensive, their actions and how they are on a day to day basis.

- Final episode peaking at 3.071 million viewers on E4

- 3 successful series

The shows format of having four teenage boys is something which we decided from the start would be a good idea to fit with our film. By having four instead of any other number means that there wont be too many in the group making it harder for the audience to familiarise themselves with the individual characters and also means there wont be too little giving a lack of range of character and personality. As with the success of Big Bang Theory and the Inbetweeners, we can be confident that the plotline of having four lead character will work and be recieved well by audiences. Below are extracts taken from character profiles (e4.com/inbetweeners) giving an insight into their personalities:

"Hello, i’m William McKenzie and i’m proud of how well i’m doing at making friends in my new school. So far i’m up to one real friend (simon) a sort of semi-mate, who’s really a friend of his (neil) and a person i sort of hang around with but to be honest i think is a dickhead (Jay Cartwright).

Acceptance isn’t all, i know that, but it is a nice thing and i understand it will take time. I could do with it taking a bit less time, but there you go."

-Academic, truthful, misfit, 'nerd'

"Erm, hello. I’m Simon. My mates call me Si.

I go to a fairly uninspiring school in a fairly uninspiring town. What can I tell you about Rudge Park? Well last year one kid wrapped a bike chain around Tony Garner’s head because he tried to start a drama club. It’s fair to say it’s not a great school."

-Naive, clever, obsessive, bad hair

"Right, hello bitches. My name’s Jay. First off, this is not one of those blogs that twats write to make them feel like they’ve achieved something with their lives. “oooh this is what I think, isn’t it important, but also funny.” No, it’s not. It’s embarrassing. No one cares. Grow up. Stop clogging up the internet."

-Confident, cocky, self assured, obnoxious

"Alright? I’m not too bad, cheers. My name is Neil Sutherland and i’m in the sixth form at Rudge Park Comprehensive. I have no idea how i passed enough GCSEs to get in, but i’m well glad i did because it’s a laugh most of the time and a doss and beats the shit out of working i reckon. That looks well hard. A mate of mine is a panel beater and he’s always well knackered in the evening."

- Happy go lucky, dim, funny, easy to talk with

Working on the 'science boys' as a final idea ..

After talking though a number of ideas me and Flossi decided that we would work on the Science Boys idea and adapt it to fit for a final piece. We've already started our research and looked at a few tv series/ films that fit with out genre:

                                           -The Big Bang Theory

-Averages 17.1 million viewers around the world

   -Averages 1.13 million viewers on e4 (UK) making

it the most watched programme of the week.

The format of the show follows 4 scientists living in California and their day to day lives, it also features their good looking neighbour Penny and how they interact with her and the rest of society.

The format for this show can  be linked easily with the science boy format that we have planned, but instead of basing our movie around their adult lives, we are looking at the daily actions of four 'science boys' in school. The characters from this series are also good to take note of as they are all in their own right 'unique' something which we would like to try and replicate. Below is a brief of these characters and their unique attributes:

-"Leonard Hofstadter, Ph.D. – An experimental physicist with an IQ of 173, he received his Ph.D. when he was 24 years old. The straight man of the series, he shares an apartment with colleague and friend Sheldon Cooper. The writers immediately implied potential romance between him and neighbor Penny, and their sexual tension is frequently explored."

-" Sheldon Cooper, Ph.D., Sc.D. – Originally from East Texas, he was a child prodigy with an eidetic memory who began college at the age of 11 (after completing the fifth grade), started graduate studies at 14, and earned a Ph.D. at 16. A theoretical physicist focusing on quantum mechanics and string theory, he has a master's degree, a Ph.D. an Sc.D., and an IQ of 187. He exhibits a strict adherence to routine; a lack of understanding of irony and sarcasm; he is also uninterested in many of the romantic hijinks of Leonard, Howard, and Raj. Sheldon shares an apartment with Leonard Hofstadter, across the hall from Penny, and relies on both for advice in social situations. In the fourth season, he begins a relationship with Amy Farrah Fowler, the result of a blind date arranged by his friends Howard and Raj."

- "Howard Wolowitz, M.Eng.^[36] – He works as an aerospace engineer. He is Jewish, and lives with his mother. His father left when he was 11, and, to date, he has never learned why. Unlike Sheldon, Leonard, and Raj, Howard lacks a Ph.D. He defends this by pointing out that he has a master's degree in Engineering from MIT and that the apparatus he designs are launched into space, unlike the purely abstract work of his friends. He provides outrageous pick-up lines and fancies himself a ladies' man with suitably unimpressed reactions from Penny; however, he has shown limited success with other women. He claims to be a polyglot. He dates and later becomes engaged to Bernadette Rostenkowski."

-"Rajesh Koothrappali, Ph.D. – Originally from New Delhi, India, and works as a particle astrophysicist at Caltech.^[38] His family is very well off. He communicates with them via webcam. He is very shy around women and is physically unable to talk to them unless he drinks alcohol (or thinks he has been drinking alcohol). However, he has often had better luck with women than his overly-confident best friend Howard. His parents, Dr. and Mrs. V.M. Koothrappali, are seen via webcam. During the fourth season, his sister Priya becomes Leonard's girlfriend."

Science Boys!

Lord of War

This analysis the introductory scenes of ‘Lord of War’ a 2005 film directed by Andrew Niccol.

The film starts with a low angle shot which then tilts to a high angle shot of some sort of factory. This introduction helps establish to the viewer the setting giving them time to understand the surroundings. The sparks flying from the machines and the cold blue tones give the idea that this is a factory that produces serious goods. The colours and expressionless workers give the impression of a cold, unfriendly atmosphere. The camera then follows a P.O.V shot leading the viewer into the machinery and through the process of the manufacturing of the goods. As this happens it’s clear to see that it is bullets being made, this relates to the setting that was previously established and draws on the audience’s preconceptions that it is in fact serious goods being made. It is interesting to notice at this point the non diajetic sound of the music being played. Bullets can be linked with emotions of violence, anger and action, but so far the music suggests none of this giving off a more subdued mellow feel. The effect of this could be to portray the detachment felt by those making the bullets, the manufacturers know that these bullets will result in death and violence but choose not to think about it only focusing on their job. The music could also relate to the simplicity of the bullet and how easy it is in reality to make.

As the scenes progress the audience now sees the sequence of events from the perspective of the bullet. I think its good how this introduction documents the journey of one ‘insignificant’ bullet amongst thousands until the bullet becomes ‘significant’ resulting in the death of a child. This added with with the music shows how disturbingly easy it can be to take a life and I think the stark contrast of the music in relevance to the events happening adds to the feeling of unease felt by the viewer.

Overall I think the components have worked well together, the shocking ease at which the child is killed gives the viewer the impression that death and war will be a main factor in this film, so already establishing the genre of this film and foreshadowing later events. The camera angles provide a more unique introduction making it memorable if anything and the music leaves viewers with something to think about. Generally it works well to engage the audience from the beginning because they are in a sense experiencing it from the start. 

 

About to upload

Me and Flossi are currently rendering our 'movie' so that it can be uploaded so I thought I would use this time to reflect on our current project.

I'll start with how we came up with the idea for the theme of the movie. We wanted to create something a bit different from other media projects, opting for a comedy - like genre that was a bit fun. We knew that this would be difficult as it required research into a genre we'd never really focused on before. Given the time we had I feel the script was done to a decent standard, but I do believe that if we were to continue this idea into a final piece more consideration for it would be taken.

The idea itself was 'Science Boys', a film based around two science minded teenage boys who find themself in unexpected situations, we tried to give this a comedic twist. After the successes of 'The Big Bang Theory' and 'The Inbetweeners', we thought that the concept of our idea was good and would be recieved by an already established audience.

We cast someone who we had used before in our film as we found from our previous film that he took direction well and may be suited to the character we were trying to portray. Unfortunately when I looked over the film it seems obvious to me that the time restraints we had meant we couldnt quite get the shots or dialogue just as we had hoped.

Music wise we chose an Indie band the Arctic Monkeys as it fitted with you age group and target audience we would try and market our film to.

My overall feeling about the film is that it is a good start if we were to continue the idea and there are some flaws that we could change for the future.

The Prisoner

Here is the finished product! Due to rendering the film starts 55 seconds in .. enjoy!

Flip Camera!

We had a few problems with shooting, mainly that the camera we were using had run flat on battery, so we asked around and managed to find a HD Flip Camera. At first we thought this would leave us at a disadvantage as we felt the size of the camera would comprimise the overall quality of the shoot, but this doesnt seem to be the case. The camera was much easier to use than the previous one, the audio and picture quality was just as good and when we uploaded the files they were already converted into the right format making it much easier for us when we started editing. Overall it was a really useful camera to find out about and may feature in future shoots!

Another decision we faced was location - where could we shoot the film which allowed the right atmosphere? We thought about a few place around school but opted for the drama room as it had enough space, a dark backdrop for the scenes and the option the filter the amount of light entering the room with the use of the blackout curtains.

Bloopers!

This week myself and Flossi finished the filming of our film introduction 'The Prisoner'.We were given a script and a few stage directions to help us start with, then the rest was up to us and our interpretation of the script. We asked Sam Humby and Billy Bradshaw if they would feature in the film. This way it made it easier for us to direct and oversee the production. As with any film at lot of takes have to be done before the 'perfect' shot is taken and ours was no exception. So here is a 'Bloopers Reel' showing just a few of the shots that didn't make the cut!

Media shots take 2 ..

Here are a few extra shots that me and Flossi took last week, creating a short miniclip out of them. We were asked, for one of them,  to take a POV shot and decided to experiment with the idea of using a computer chair to balance the camera on to make the shot smoother as opposed to the camera being hand held. We also played around with the speed of some of the clips to show variation and make it more dramatic
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Media Shots! (by Kirsty and Flossi)