Pictures

What can our target audience learn from our film.

        We have made a U film, therefore our target audience are children. The main character and his friend are playing football, the friend walks away leaving Teddy playing on his own. Teddy's ball disappears in a mysterious way, he decides to search the place of mystery. Although the football has came back to him, Teddy ended up somewhere in the forest having no idea what happened and how to go back.
         The fact that Teddy disappeared in a mysterious way can teach children that they should always tell somebody where they are so they can take appropriate action to help the person in trouble.

Comparing and contrasting our main character with another from a different U film

Our main character is Teddy, we will be comparing him with Woody from Toy Story.
Similarities;
-They both have child friendly names.
-They are both male(appeal to a young male audience)
-They are both positive.
-They are both inspirational, because Woody always overcomes his problems like Teddy does.
-They are both brave as Teddy goes into the hole and Woody constantly shows bravery.
Differences;
-Teddy is live action where as Woody is animation.
-Woody is a toy and a cowboy, Teddy is a schoolboy and real.
-Woody speaks and Teddy is a silent character.
-Woody has more interaction with characters, Teddy is alone most of the film.

-Woody has more problems to overcome, Teddy just has one big problem.

Evaluation of film process

What we are happy with;
-The story line is good and makes sense to a younger audience, we think this because we can see that it is not too complex and shows clearly what is going on in the film.
-That the music fits with the film well, because in certain parts different sounds fit with different movements.
-We liked how the editing turned out, because there was no room for error and although some of the clips are not perfect we have edited them to fit with other clips.
-We like that we met our deadlines, and were comfortably on time and had enough time to improve the video.
-We liked the locations of where we filmed, it was good because we had two such different backgrounds when the character went through the hole.

What we aren't happy with;
We were not happy with the clips and the way they are filmed because they were not filmed in the exact same position when we edited the hole so it took longer editing and still was not looking very good.
-We didn't like that the credits were on a white background, we choose white to make the film more child friendly but afterwards regretted using the black background.
-We are not happy with the camera quality as it had a smudge on the lens that was not noticeable when filming so by the time we realized it was too late to re-film every clip.

Children's film opening

Photo Shop Credits

Screen shot of our creits which were created in photoshop on the 7th November

Progress 3/11/11

Today we finished the music and it is ready to be imported into the video. More editing of the film has been done, putting all the clips together and making it look as good as possible. 

Progress 2/11/11

Today we basically finished off the music all it needs is a few final touches. We did a little bit of editing but  we had a couple of problems in using the software however, we overcame this and resolved the issue. Also we did more posts on the blog, trying to make it better and stay up to date.

Planning and Research

What is a children's film?

Children's films most commonly come under the U and PG rating, under the age of 12, teens begin to develop to different taste such as 12a

U -

• No special effort is made to cater for n adult audience.
• Positive moral frame work
• Suitable for anyone over the age of 5
• Offers resolved counter balances to any threats
• Suitable for children to view alone
• No bad language or discrimination 
• No drugs or sexual scenes

PG - 

• Suitable for the ages 8 and over
• Parents are responsible to decide if their child is mature enough to watch it
• Discrimination is allowed but only for educational purposes
• Drugs can be mentioned but not shown
• Some scenes of horror but not intense
• More grown up themes

What do we expect from a children's opening?

• A basic outline of what this film is going to be about
• Shows the main location
• Introduces main characters
• Happy music
• Basic camera angles

How does your product fit in with what is already out there?

Our product fits in

Target Audience

The type of people that our film will be aimed at is children from 6 years old to 12 years old. We don't want a really young audience as they may not understand what is going on or the story line but on the other hand, we don't want them to be too old because they may find the film boring.

Harry Potter;

Harry potter is a good example and something that our film can relate to. This is because it is a fantasy and has things going on that don't exist, this is like our film when the main character disappears through an invisible wall.

Script

We decided not to have characters talking in our film. We decided to do this because when watching other peoples previously made films we thought that if the acting isn't very good or convincing then it makes the film not very interesting and doesn't make the film look too good. To overcome this we decided to have sound track playing throughout the open scene, it will be a happy and a catchy tune in hope that it stays in peoples heads so that they remember the film.

Initil Ideas

During our planning, we looked at some childrens films made by previous students, one of the ones that we watched had a boy that turned invisible, this gave us our idea for a sporty childrens film that will hopefully encourage children to become more active. Also we wanted to make an film that would excite kids, we thought we could do this by having something happening that is a fantasy and something that will be interesting so that they enjoy the film.

Credits

On the beggining of a childrens film there are usualy no credits, sometimes the production company name and logo is displayed but not always. On the beggining of childrens film the main characters are introduced. We get to know their names, whta they look like, what they do etc. There may even be no name of the film displayed before main character introduction like in The Incredibles.

Filming

Today we have started our filming and editing part. The filming went well as we have filmed all the scenes we needed. We took many shots of the same scene where Teddy acts differently, such as him being surprised when the ball disappears, so we can then choose the best shots to be put together. When shooting, we tried to use a range of different shots, movements and angles like extreme close up to Teddy's face when he looks surprised or pan when he appears in the woods.

Location Shots

Story line

We don't know what our film will be called at the moment. It will start with a group of friends playing football. Two of the friends will go away and the third one will continue playing by himself, at one stage when he kicks the ball it will disappear while in mid air. The ball will then reappear and come back to him, the boy being surprised looks around to see if anyone saw what happened and decides to check it out, he walks up to the place where the ball disappeared and puts his arm through, his arm also disappears, he takes it out being even more surprised, put his head through and is being sucked in. The boy then arrives in the forest and confused looks around t new surroundings, he then walks around the forest still looking around whilst credits go along. There really is no moral in our film as it is just an opening.

Use of music in children's film

The music in most of the films reflects the action, it is used in the way to make the film interesting to the audience the film is aimed at. In children's films the music is happy and lively, it seems to be "colorful". It makes a feel of happiness to children.

We will use the music to reflect the ongoing action. It will be happy at the beginning as the characters will be playing football and then it we'll use kind of mysterious music to reflect the mysterious disappearance of one of the characters. We will make our own tracks using the GarageBand software.

Mise-en-scene

Lighting

In our opening we will just be using natural lighting, this is because all of our scenes are being film outdoors and there is no need for other lighting.

Props

The only props that we will be using is a football and a football goal. We will be using the football for most of the scene

Makeup

Our actors are male and the natural look will be fine for our film.

Costume

Our actors will just be wearing their ordinary clothes, this is because it  will suit what we are doing as we aren't doing a fantasy. 

Sets

The first set that we will use is on a football pitch, this gives the film an ordinary feel. We then move to a set where there is a woods near by, this gives a mysterious and spooky feel to the scene and we thought that it would fit perfect for when our invisible wall comes into place.

When the ball disappears, we will be on the hard court area in college, we chose to do this because we have to capture two clips and merge them together. We decided not to do this by the woods because the trees will be moving and it won't look as good.

Colour

They colour when filming will be just neutral colours but when in the editing process we may add extra colour to make it stand out and more appealing the to young audience  

Shot list

Children's story board

Brainstorming initial ideas for opening sequence

• Live action 
• Kids playing football
• All of his friends leave for lesson
• He stays and plays with the ball 
• Kicks it and it disappears 
• He then walks into an invisible hole 
• And then either goes into animation or he transforms into another location

short description

this was a groups work from last year which we liked because it was different to a normal animation video it was very creative and different which brought more of an interest with the different ways they brought together the video

Children's film ideas

We will be doing a live action film, and we have watched some past students work as well as more famous ones, overall we came to the decision that doing an animation would be very long process in a limited time period. For the actual content of the film we liked the idea of a small person in a big world, and the idea of being able to do something extraordinary such as time travel. Overall we are still not sure what we will do when it comes to the content of the film.

U childrens film

Children's Film U- Finding Nemo

U certificate criteria

• A "U" certificate film is suitable for anyone above the age 5.
• It usually has a positive moral framework for children to learn from.
• It offers a reassuring counterbalances to any threat
• It is suitable for children to view alone
• "U" certificate films cannot contain bad language, drugs, discrimination or sex or sexual scene's

"Finding Nemo" is an animated film and it meets all the "U" criteria.

"Finding Nemo"  is a film about a little fish called Nemo that has been fished out and taken to Sydney, his father was going through a very hard time and has been to very dangerous places to find son. At one point he gave up but he has been influenced by other animals in the sea that he met on the journey. This film is suitable for young children because it is animal based animation, therefore it is interesting and creative for young children. There is a group of sharks in the film that is trying to be vegetarian but after while they can stop themselves and go back to their natural behaviour at which point they act really scarily, this shows that the producers have counterbalanced the threats.

PG Children's Film

What makes a PG;

- Suitable for 8 years and over
- Parents responsibility to decide if their child is mature enough
- Discrimination only for education purposes
- Drugs are mentioned but not seen, must carry an anti- drugs message
- Horror - short and not intense
- More grown up themes

Shrek
  
They discriminate against the ogre being different, but the film shows that it is okay to be different and everyone should be treated equally,
there is fighting but there is no blood.
there are more grown up themes like love.

Anaylsis of childrens action film

The Incredibles

• It is an interesting as you can work out a simple plot of the film
• The characters are fun and it introduces you to them
• It is using basic camera angles, this makes it easy to follow as the audience are children
• It is colourful so it attracts the eye

Science Fiction Opening

E.T

• It stays quite dark through the scene, this gives it a mysterious feeling
• You can work out the basic story line
• The music helps to build suspense
• It seems quite scary and gives you the feel it will be like that for the whole film
• A variety of camera angles, e.g cuts, this makes the scene seem quite fast 

Fantasy Childrens Film

Aladdin

- Exaplains the main story line

- Shows the main characters

 - It is bright and colourful

- Basic camera angles

- Shows the title

- Shows the moral of the story

- Happy music

- Sets the scene

What we liked about it when we were younger;

- Funny characters, e.g the genie

- Happy ending

- We liked how Aladdin is able to fly on a carpet

- You see things that aren't actually real

Jamanji Cinematography

- Simple close ups
- Lots of panning tracking and zooming
- Over the shoulder shots
- Establishing shots
- Low angle shots
- Point of view

- Close up of he tomb stone when the boy was getting beaten up to make the fight out of our view, we also saw the same tomb stone at the start of the film. They do this because it is  children's film and they can't show the boy being beaten up.

How it meets the conventions of a children's film;

- It shows us the main story line
- Shows the main character
- Gives the title
- Has basic camera angles
- Happy music when it was daylight

Favourite Childrens Film

The Lion King -

- Introduces characters and main character
- Bright and colourful
- Happy music
- Shows the setting
- Basic camera angles
- Title

What we liked about the film when we were younger;

- We liked how the animals could talk
- We liked the setting how it is in the bright sunny Sahara
- The animals looked interesting
- The characters are quite funny
- Simple story line so is easy to follow

Evaluation of preliminary task

We thought that our film worked well and made sense. Also we used all the camera angles but the lighting from the sun played havoc and made some of the shots hard to see. Something that we could improve for next time is the use of a tripod. Another thing that we could improve is the conversation, we could make it clearer maybe more interesting. Sick.

Preliminry car film

Preliminary task