Institution Task

1. Pirates of the Caribbean

Produced by Walt Disney

High Budget

2. 

 Shaun of the Dead

Produced by Studio Canal/Working Title/Big Talk Productions

Low budget

Shaun of the Dead budget = £6 million

Box office = 30 million

Pirates of the Caribbean budget = £335 million

Box office = £963 million

Walt Disney are a very famous production company, making films mainly for children.

High Budget - Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End

£300 million
Box Office £965

Low Budget - Shaun of the Dead

£6.1 million

Pirates of the Caribbean is expensive because the actors are very famous and there is a lot of computer work required to get the main characters and the settings. 

However, Shaun of the Dead has a low budget cast that are still well known which would interest people in the film. There is not much animation required in this film as all the zombies have makeup on and the scenery is very basic which wouldn't cost much

In terms of popularity there is a small difference in the films however the institutions are are very different, Walt Disney being popular and Studio Canal and Working Title not so much. Due to the editing and filming, there is a big difference in the budgets of the film.

The institutions for Shaun of the Dead are very small companies, making small films like Terminator 2 and Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy. However Walt Disney make films like the Jungle Book, Cinderella and Sleeping beauty, all of which are very popular films, especially for young children.

Studio Canal have made films like Terminator 2 and Tinker tailor soldier spy which have been very successful towards their target audience however these films are old now and they haven't made many recent, successful films.
Walt Disney have many successful films, old and new such as Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan, which are considered to be all time classics. They are aimed mainly at children and are all cartoon.

Studio Canal and Working Title tend to make serious films with the odd exception of an action film such as Terminator 2 and Walt Disney always make cartoon films aimed at kids, although sometimes there are non-cartoon films such as the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Choosing which institution makes my film is very important depending on the genre of film I make because if i make a children's film, i do not want it to be made by a company rebound for serious action films.

Studio Canal aim their films at adults, this is shown by Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy because this is a very complex, serious film that would be difficult to understand for a child. Walt Disney make films mainly for children, the is obvious in the range of films they produce.

I think Walt Disney is the more successful institution of the two because it is more widely known and they have made more well known films than Studio Canal and Working Title which have only made 2 significant films.

Prelim Task

I worked with Tom, Izzy and Olivia. we decided it was best to work all together on the same thing at one time, therefore we could get everyones ideas in rather than leaving it down to one or two people. This allowed us to come up with a wider range of ideas.

We planned the script and storyline on a storyboard, but first it was done on the back so we could get a rough idea and play around with scenes before we wrote down the final ideas. We also tried to incorporate the important camera shots and rules such as the 180 degree shot and the close up shot.

We used a Sony Carl Zeiss camera to record our film and Adobe Premiere to edit our footage

When planning our film we had to take into account weather and availability of class rooms. We tried to get all the filming in one area done in one day so that we would have to worry about consistency in the film if we could not use that classroom again. Because we had to film on serrate days it was important that we were all wearing the same clothes so that it did not look odd if I was wearing a different outfit half way through the film. The weather did not end up being a big problem because we originally planned to have me run across the playground on a hot day but we decided it might be funnier if it was soaking wet and raining.

I think that the filming was done well and the story line was good however the acting could have been better. Given the feedback from our classmates, most people did not find the funny side of the film and this shows obviously we have to think more about how we will make the film better in the future so it fits the genre. Also I think that my final edit for the film could have been better by cutting out scenes which can show unwanted people in the background and add music so it could convey the genre and humour a bit more

Prezi

Film Language

Today we learnt about film language.

Camera:
Frame - extreme close up - focusing on one feature for example an eye
             - close up - showing one part of someones body like their head
             - mid shot - this shows half of someones body
             - mid long shot - this would show most of the person, but cut the shot at the knees
             - long shot - this would show someone walking down the street, so we can see all of the person
             - extreme long shot - this would usually show you the setting of the scene, like a shot of the mountains

Mise En Scene - costume
                          - lighting
                          - actors
                          - makeup
                          - props
                          - setting

Editing   - transition
               - order of narative
              - pace
              - SFX

Sound   - music
             - contrapuntal / parallel (parallel music fits scene, contrapuntal doesnt)
             - Diegetic / non-diegetic (diegetic is sound from filming, non-diegetic is added sound e.g. music)
            - on/off screen sound
            - voice over
            - emotion
            - dialogue

Logo

I chose this as the logo for my company because most famous, hollywood films are made by American directors and actors, therefore I decided to make it american based. The eagle is stereotypically American and the ferns iconically represent New Zealand, and these two countries are rated to be the freest countries in the world.

Looking at the most famous film company, most have an animal in the logo, representing power, hence why I chose the eagle. They also have a grand, powerful background which enhances the main image which is maybe something I should have added into my logo.

Famous film company logos:

Juno Intro

 On this task we were asked to recreate the intro for Juno and had to make it as accurate to the actual film as possible.

Narative

Barth's Codes - " a galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of signifields" Barth is basicly saying that text is a tangled ball of threads which need unraveling so we can seperate the colour. Barth has three main codes: Action, Symbolic and Enigma. In the opening scene of the prestige we see these three codes. The first thing we see is a magic trick which shows a man and a bird disappear. this creates action because they are both suddelnly gone. This brings on the enigma code and we think, are they okay? Where have they gone? How did they do that? Finally we see the symbolic code like the birds can be a symbol for young life and the clothing is a symbol of the era in which the film is set.

Todorov - The disruption of the equilibrium is when a character comes in and messes up everything and changes normality.

Propp - Propp is a Russian who studied Russian folk & fairy tails and he then decided that every single character in any narrative has been used before. He narrowed these characters down to 8 main types :-

1. The hero
2. The villain
3. The donor
4. The dispatcher
5. The false hero
6. The helper
7. The princess
8. The princess father

In the film the prestige we see a few of the above characters that Propp discovered. We see the villain who doesn't rescue the magician who falls into the water, we also think we saw the hero who we think is the monition in the water.

Levi-Strauss - Believes that after studying hundreds of myths and legends and he observed that we make sense of the world, people and events by seeing and using binary opposites. some examples of binary opposites that we see every day are:

1. Good and evil
2. Black and white
3. Old and young
4. Wealthy and poor

Mise En Scene

 

Lighting: Low key Lighting is used to show secrecy and they are on a rescue mission at night so it needs to be dark

Costumes: Captain America is in his costume, his crew are in army gear and the pirates are wearing cargo boots and pants.

Audience: The target audience is aimed at young people because it is mainly action based and there is lots of sci fi involved like the computers.

Makup. There is no makup used.

Props: Captain America's shield, guns, computers, the womans laser and a boat.

Setting: On a boat out at sea

 

The positioning of Captain America suggests he is in charge because he is in the middle of the shot which represents leadership. The are also guns in shot so people already know there will be violence vecause guns are used to kill people. The tone Captain America speaks in suggests it is serious and that their lives are at risk, this is also shown by the use of guns and the look on his face.