my first key frame is the first shot in the sequence and i like it because of its framing. i like the way the camera tracks from the centre of the barrel and slowly moves out of it, keeping the barrel in the centre of the shot. it reminds me of the title sequence of twelve monkeys and it is where i got the idea for it from. twelve monkeys is a very fictional mystery story which is what reaper is so the shot kind of ties in with that.
my second key frame is the shot of the bomb shelter. i like it because of the lighting. the way the shot starts dark an then slowly gets lighter looks visually stunning. the shot took a while to set up because the windows on the left side had to be in shot as well as the door at the end. i really like this shot and i think that the lighting is fantastic. it did take a while but it was worth it.
my third key frame is of an old defense wall. it wasn't in my storyboard but i thought it fitted the narrative better than some of the othershots. i like this shot because of the setting. it really feels secluded and dazzling visually.
my fourth key frame is the shot of the army vehicle and i chose it because i like the narative behind it. the idea behind reaper was that he was a war veteran so the fact that there's a shot of an army truck ties in with his past and fits the storyline perfectly.
my fifth key frame is a pan shot of bomb shells, and i like this because of it's camera movement. i did numerous takes of this shot during filming and the first one was the one i was most happy with.
my sixth key frame of the oil drums and such was chosen because i like the transitions. i think that the fade in and out looks really well done in this particular shot. the contrast effects i put on the shot itself looks fantastic as well. it looks really grittyand the colours remind me of that of sin city. very bold colours but look really earthy and almost dirty.
my seventh key frame is of the gas mask and i chose this because i like the props in the shot. i borrowed the gas mask from one of my friends and it works perfectly with the storyline and the past of the main character who used to be a war veteran. the gas mask reminded me of the doctor who episodes with the little boy and the gas mask. that was filmed in world war 2 london so i thought that using a gas mask that looked similar would help show audiences that hes a war veteran.
the eighth key frame is of the ground leading up to the hand scene and i chose this because o the effects. it isn't a floor at all, it was actually a work surface covered with leaves but you wouldn't be able to notice with out me saying so. it took a while getting it ready before filming but i'm very happy with the results. it fooled everyone i've shown so far and thats what i wante to achieve.
my nineth key frame is of the film title and i chose it because i like the typography. i think the font i chose stands out and at the same time looks epic which reflects the main character in a way and the film because the story behind it all is very far fetched on a big scale. the way the title comes in is a bit like the waythe titles come in for harry potter films. the fade in and zoom effect works well to draw your attention to it. i think it works well in my film.
the level 2 group that i showed all liked my surprise at the end and when i asked them they said that it made them want to watch on and were interested in what the film had to offer. this is what a film opening should do so i've attracted my audience by making them and to watch on.
what kind of genre do you think this film belongs to? why?
horror? action film? zombies?
who do you think the target audience of this film would be? why?
teenagers, similar age to me
what is your favourite image from this film? why?
the bomb shelter shot is good
if you were to borrow one idea from this film for your own film making project? what would it be and why?
what kind of genre do you think this film belongs to? why?
today two film makers (jake and jim) came in to watch our film opening and give us feedback. this was an eye opener because it was nice to hear someone's say who understand the industry.
throughout this project we used an invoice system that meant that if we helped someone on their project, we would get it marked down and we would get credit. it was a way of showing that we could work together which is more like real life work in he mdia industry.
because we were set a deadline, it wasn't easy to do everything by yourself so willing help was needed.
the images above are about the people i helped and the people who helped me. the way it works is the bigger the persons name, the more times either i've helped them or the more time they've helped me. a font size of 12 for example means that i've helped them once. a font size of 36 equals to 3 times, and so on. the closer they are to the centre refers to the feedback i got from them regarding my services. if they are near the centre, it was clar and good feedback. if they are near the outside of the centre, it wasn't very good feedback.
identify three practical/technical skills you feel you would like to work on developing. how could you organize this for your next project?
in what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? ( i.e. of film openings)
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
my film is dark and has a orchestral/ heavy metal soundtrack so it would appeal to social groups such as goths and grebs. it would also appeal to people who enjoy the genre. people who go to comic book conventions and enjoy the glossy sketched out feel from comics.
to begin with i was going to have a short scene where two teenagers find the reaper and confront him and that's when you find out that he isnt bad. the reason why i decided not to use this in my film opening is because i didn't feel it needed it. the hand at the endsets the tone for the rest of the film. you don't know what it is yet so it creates atmosphere and tension. it also makes youwant to watch on becasue of the mystery behind it.
not only did i not feel my opening needed it, but the sound wasn't very good so i felt that if i used it, it would ruin what was a perfectly good opening anyway.
if i had more time to work on my film opening, i'd work more on the contrast. make it slightly darker looking and then possibly play around with black and white and see how that looks. the introduction to batman returns is in black and white ad has the same theme and genre as mine. it's the same idea, its mostly pan shots and trackig shots of the sewers. it sets the location for where the film is going to be set. that's what my opening is trying to achieve. batman returns was part of my inspiration.
this is my final film opening after i'd worked on improving it. using my feedback i managed to develop the sound track so it wrks better with the film and the contrast has been improved. i've added the titles and the film title is now on as well.
i need to concetrate on putting in good titles. the font has to work with the films theme and genre. i need to adapt the contrast level on some of the shots because it looks too bright at the moment and doesn't look professional enough. it isn't at a high enough standard. i need to play around with the music somehow so that it works with the flow of the film opeing. the hand popping out scene needs to be more dramtic so i'll need to play around with the music for that scene.
i need to put my prodution logo and long road logo at the beginning of the film as well. i'll slow down some of the footage to avoid making it look shaky.
we watched all of our rough cuts through class and had to give feedback so we could maximize our films potential by making them the best we possibly could. the feedback was another way of getting someone elses opinion so it was a good thing to do.
different people had different things to look out for and give criticism on. for example, there was sound, camera, mise en scene, editing and titles.
sound:
.music works well but might be too dramatic for what your film opening is showing.
.music is good but gets dramatic quite quickly, should peak in towards when the had pops out.
camera:
.good establishing shots and could framework. i like the blend of shots although i think it was a bit shaky at one point.
.lots of good track and pan shots. the slowness helped set the scene.
editing:
.good transitions between shots, works well.
.the contrast of some of the shots is amateur looking and needs improving.
.the hand scene at the end needs to work with the music, at the moment it doesn't.
.the shots should be darker to compliment the dark genre.
titles:
.there aren't any titles and needs them.
.needs a font that works with your genre.
mise en scene:
.good choice of loation, has a sense of mystery about it.
.not too much is given away, the hand at the end is a good ending for the opening. good way to start the film.
the part of my filming that made me feel good was when i was prepping my actors on what they had to do for my scene. when i went to film it they did exactly what i wanted so it made me feel as if i was doing a good job. unluckily the scene that i'm referring to didn't film because i had problems with battery and it didn't record which is a shame.
tips for next time
always give yourself enough light to film at night
don't be afraid to change your ideas
look back at what you've filmed before you go to upload it
overall i think the shoot went okay. it could of gone better but i managed to get everything i wanted done. even with the problems i faced, i managed to still get some footage of the same idea. the problem i came face to face with tought me that things don't always go the way you plan. you need to be smart though and rethink what you can do with the resources you have.
i enjoyed filming and found the camera to be easy going. didn't have any problems with it at all. if i were to do it again i don't think i'd change anything. i might try and film the hole in the ground if the water was evaperated but i'm happy with what i got instead of it.
due to the hole in the ground being full of water, it meant i had to find another way to shoot that scene. there were a number of ideas i got. one was to use this old crate i found and lay in it, putting wood over it. the crate was coffin sized and was big enough for me to lie in it but it was stuck and therefore we could get it out to use. it also had nails in it so it was proberly for the best.
another was to use bricks stacked up on one another and then rest the wood on top of me, with me lying under it again. there weren't enough resources for us to do that though. there wasn't enough wood that we could have used and there were few bricks we could have used.
the last idea we had, and the one we stuck with, was to use an old table and to break two of the table legs off. then i lie underneath it and the cameraman could track up the wood. we decided to use this idea and it worked really well. it did take a while though to make it work as the first table we found wasn't good enough. we had to scout around looking for aothr table. luckily we found one and used that to film the scene.
we rested the table against a metal frame and then put a piece of thin wood over the metal frame. this piece of wood would be the wood i was going to punch my hand through. we put twigs and leaves and soil over the table to make it blend in with the ground. the end results were great. it looked fantastic on the camera. although i was annoyed about not being able to use the hole in the ground, i'm pleased i managed to find a way to get the same thing done. it also meant nobody was burried alive which was good.
instead of using a bench for my scene i decided to use a bus stop instead. this way i could have the same storyboard idea but in a different location. it also had a street light nearby which was good. i managed to film the teenagers in clear enough light but i couldn't film the reaper because he wouldn't show up on camera. it was too dark. i decided to film the rest the next day. it only took 5 minutes the next day so i wasn't bothered.
there were numerous problems i faced on my second day of shooting.
when i arrived at my location the hole in the ground was still full of water. luckily i brought a bucket so i began to bail out the water. after about 40minutes the water still hadn't got any less deep. i had to come up with another way of shooting my scene beacause it's the most important scene in the opening. without it my opening wouldn't count for anything.
i also didn't know where i could film the last scene with the two teenagers. i couldn't find a bench i could film. i started setting up with one bench and then two men asked me to not film there because i didn't have permission. i did scout around for a bench with the right space i needed. i neeed a street light nearby but there weren't any so i had o come up with a completely new idea.
it also got dark really quickly. i started filming at about 5 o'clock in the evening, and by that time i couldn't see the reaper through the camera. i was dressed up all in black and my girlfriend was filmin and operating the camera. the footage we got was terrble because it was just a black screen. you couldn't see anything. we decided to come back the next day and film then instead. there was nothing else we coul do really.
i got up early and made sure all of my eqiupment was ready. i made sure to put the camera on charge during the night so it was fully charged by the morning. i also made sure my props were ready and i got a bucket to take as well in case i had to bail out the water from the hole.
i also made sure my actors were available to star in my film. i arranged a time and that was all sorted out.
when i go yesturday t to my location and realized that part of it was flooded from the recent snow, i told myself that i would come back the next day hoping it would have evaporated. i have to take into account that it might not be evaporated. if not i'll take a bucket with me so i can bail out the water. i'm not sure what to do if that doesn't work. i'll have to try and find another place to film the same shot. the shot is of the hand its the main shot in the opening. there's no way around not getting it.
i'm happy with what i got done but a bit anxious to get it all done. there isn't much more to film but it's going to be tricky.
i need to film the hand popping out of theground scene and the dialogue scene with the two teenagers. it shouldn't take too long so i'm not too worried.
i hope the hole at the location still isn't full of water. if it is i'll have to bail it out or come up with another idea on how to do it.
because of my storyboard being heavily involved with tracking shots, and me not being able to achieve them, i had to rethink how i culd do what was on the paper. i decided to use all the same ideas, just move the positioning of the camera.
some of the locations for the shots on my storyboard i was unable to do because i could never get it in the shot. there wasn't enough room to put the camera because of trees and other objects. i just filmed other things that would tie in to my idea and compliment the location.
i did the shots in order aswell. it was just an easier method rather than watch over what ive filmed. this way i could tick off what i'd filmed and moved on. my storyboard was really helpful whilst i ws out filming because it meant that i could just refer back to my storyboard instead of making up shots.
there were a number of problems i faced on the first day of shooting. a few of them were the reason why filming took me 2 days longer than it should have. i could have easily done it all in one day but because of the time of day i had to film, it narrowed down the amount of time i had to do it.
one problem i had was that the hole in the ground that i was going to use for the hand popping out scene was full of water due to the recent flood of snow. when i saw it i thought i'd leave it a day and then go back to it. possibly bail out the water. i decided to leave it and do it the next day.
another problem was that because the ground was so unstable and covered with rotten wood and rusty metal, i couldn't do my tracking shots. i decided to do zoom shots of everything instead which initially would provide the same effect if done correctly. it also meant that i would need to get the zoom to look as smooth as possible. that was a challenge because operating the zoom is rather fidly. i did numerous takes on each shot so hopefully the outcome will look promising.
on the first day of my filming during half term i went to my location early and began to set up for the scenes i was going to film for my opening. early on i realised that some of the shots i had in mind were going to be impossible for the technique i had in mind because of the ground area. there were no level areas big enough for me to attempt to do a good tracking shot, so i had to come u with a new way of filming it staying as true to the storyboard as i could.
i got props and packed them ready for filming. i gathered the crew together a couple hours before filming as well. they were helpful with getting the equipment from and to the location. it required a wal through a field but they did alright. i also knocked on the neighbours door to check and see whether the dogs were home but luckily they weren't so i wasn't interrupted by barking dogs during filming.
my girlfriend helped me do some of the filming so i went through how to use the camrea with her and made sure she was comfortable with doing it. i also looked at the storyboard with her so she knew what i wanted things to look like. she was comfortable doing it all so i was happy.
this is the continuity task i acted in. the other one (HD version) i filmed and directed with matthew hornby.
because we have access to good quality cameras, we decided to do our continuity tasks again. the ones we did first time around weren't of a high enough standard so i was happy with the decision to redo them. it was also the first time i used the cameras so it was good experience and practice, getting to grips with the new equipment.
there are several things i'll need to do before the day of filming to garuntee maximum time for shooting. things include:
-clearing away any unwanted junk from floor that will appear in shot
-bury someone ready for shot
-make a scythe
-tidy up the bomb shelter ready for shooting
-make the reapers costume
-scatter guns around where shots will take place
-drop a gas mask on the floor
-drop a helmet on the floor
-tie a piece of rope round a tree
-prep my actors
lighting - to overcome the problem with lighting, i could have a practice shoot using the less expnsive cameras the week before my actual shoot. this means that i'll have a week to look over my shooting and i can determine what times to shoot.
tracking shots - some of my tracking shots are going to be impossible to do using a crane or a track, because the ground is so rough at my location. one thing i could do is move the camera slowly during my shots and then speed up later on during editing.
i could also construct platforms for the camera to move accross for the straight tracking shots. there's scrap metal at my location. i could use this to construct my platforms and then have someone move the camera along one with minor movement.
time i need camera - i can share the camera with philippa. because there's only a few good cameras, if i share it with philippa, i can still use it with out having to travel a great distance to ge it. philippa lives about 4 miles away. an easy distance to travel.
weather - although februray isn't the best month for shooting in, all i need is for the weather to be consistant so my shots don't look silly when some are of snow and some are of clear skies. i would rather have is clear and dry, but nobody can pretict how the weathers going to turn out.
who can help me during filming -
most of my friens live in the same village as where the location is for my shoot, so finding people to help me shouldn't be a problem. they can help me by steadying the camera during tracking shots and help me construct the platforms for some f the shots. i'll also end up using some of my friends to act in it as well. i need two rough looking teenagers, i know just the two.
nuisances:
the neighbour of where i'm shooting has two vicious dogs. although their not always there this could turn into an issue.
i need someone willing to be buried alive in a hole.
everythings rotten. if something breaks, i'll need to re-shoot
minor concerns:
finding a scythe
who's going to act? i need convincing, yet laid back looking teenagers
i'm going over the 2 minute film time so i will need to make the finished outcome look good
major issues:
while shooting, i need the lighting to be consistant and the same for each shot. this will lower the amount of time i can shoot each day.
need smooth looking tracking shots. rough looking ones are un exceptable.
need my camera in half term.
weather needs to be consistant.
i'm going togo to my location and scout around for the shots that are on my storyboard. if i can't find the exact shots i'll look for something is similar but works with the narrative as well. reaper was a war veteran so the location needs to look deserted and look gritty as if there was a past war.
because most of my shots are tracking shots over ground and terrain, most of my props are weapons that have been left behind. this suggests that there has been a war which reflects my heroes past.
props:
several rifles and shotguns - i shall need my friend to be with me who has a gun license for his gun.
a scythe - i'll make one from a piece of wood and metal or foil
a helmet (if possible)
gas mask
rope - to tie on a tree
these props are for the heroes costume. all clothes are for the reaper to wear
clothing:
a black hooded jumper
black silky clothe
a black balaclava
black jeans
black shoes
clothing for teenagers:
teenager 1:
blue jeans
green hooded jumper
teenager 2:
black faded jeans
red top and grey jumper
-you've laid out your blog nicely with a nice and orderly text size/colour aswell as imagery - although basic, its aesthetics give it a professional feel.
-black screen
1st shot
my first shot is of a oil drum. the shot starts with the camera inside the oil drum and slowly works it way out. the oil drum is in the centre of the shot for the whole of this shot.
2nd shot
my second shot is of the ground. the camera tracks over the ground, moving quicker than the other shots and then, after a few moments, it stops and stays static. then a hand pops up from the ground and then the screen fades to the title of the film.
3rd shot
the third shot is from the teenagers point of view when they see the reaper in the shadows. the camera zooms in slowly and the reaper doesn't move. the reaper is in the centre of the shot. you can't see the reapers face. he is silhouetted
so far, the idea i have for my film opening doesn't have that many different shot. most of them are tracking shots or zooms. because of this, my rough drawn out storyboard isn't very accurate in what i want to portray because there isn't enough detail. what i'm going to do is break up the shots into 2 or maybe 3 parts and draw them out on the storyboard, showing the transitions and how they move.
i know where i'm going to film my opening but i'm not sure of the limitations i have. i don't know what's there and what isn't. what i'm going to do is draw out what i'd like to film and then go scouting for it. for example. i want a pan rounmd shot of a tree but i'm not sure if there is a tree to meet my requirements.
if after i've drawn my storyboard and there isn't anything like that to film, i'll just adapt it slightly and film something similar in the same fashion. that way, it shouldn't affect my storyboard too much. due to my shots just being shots of the location anyway, changing some of them won't have a huge affect on the story anyway.
my idea is to have a number of different tracking shots fading out to eachother with credits going over the screen but keeping them simple. no effects on the titles.
1st shot
start by the camera moving its way out of an oil drum slowly. starting with the base of the oil drum and working its way towards the top.
2nd shot
shot of the inside of a bomb shelter, starting with the back and moving towards the entrance. tracking shot but keeping the speed the same as the other shots. credits over the screen same as before.
3rd shot
shot of the interior of a car starting with the camera under the drivers seat and moving to the back and out the window. shoot in two shots but use clever editing to create the illusion hat its one shot. credits over the screen.
4th shot
pan round a tree with a noose on it. have the tree in the centre of the shot at all times, keep the speed of the camera moving the same as the other shots. credits over the screen.
5th shot
tracking shot of the ground and the speed of the movement going faster because the music will go faster. credits shown on screen till the last few seconds where a hand pops out from the ground. when this happens the camera has steadied.
after each shot it fades out and then fades in but at a dark point. for example the shot in the car starts in the drivers seat shadow.
BRIMSTONE
the images i included in my moodboard are the images that gave me inspiration to follow up and carry on with my idea for a comic book adaptation. i was having serious doubts on whether or not it would work. because my film is based around one character, that character being reaper, most of the images i found are to do with his image or his past.
MOVIESTORM - TERMINATOR SPOOF
the other day we were asked to have a go at making a film on moviestorm. It was our first go at using the software and it took quite a while to get used to it. it's a hard thing to get the hang of because more than anything, it's very slow loading.
original
introduction to theme of film - for example, saw films have a brutal and gory killing in the title sequence which introduces the theme and mood.
to my brother
kestenbetsa
thomas langmann
presents
a co-production
AJOZ films - la petite reine
UGC images
TFI films production
120 films
crystalcreek Ltd (UK)
ultra films (mexico)
with the participation of
TPS cinema
vincent cassel
julette leis
michael madsen
"BLUEBERRY"
with
tenuera morrison
enerst borgnine
djimon hounsou
hugh o'conor
geffrey lewis
nicole hiltz
kateri walker
vahina giocante
kestenbetsa
special guest
tcheky karyo
with eddie izzard
and
colin meaney
in the tae of me chase
loosely adapted from the 'blueberry' comic book series
serie drawn by
jean mcebius giraud
script and dialogue
gerardbrach
matt alexander
and ian kouren
original music by
lean lacques hertz and francois roy
director of photography
tetsu nagata
visual effects
rodolphe chabner
production designer
michel barthelemy
costume designer
chattoune and fab
sound
albert bailey and dean humphreys
production manager
emmanuel jacqelin
editors
benedick brunet joel jacovella
assistant directors
pascal salafe
javier clave
co-producers
UGC images
timothy burril and michel lacor
produced by
ariel zeitoun and thomas langmann
a
jan kounen film
Dino De Laurentiis presents
"FLASH GORDON"
Sam .J. Jones
as flash gordon
Melody Anderson
as dale arden
Ornella Muti
as princess aura
Max Von Sydow
as the emperer ming
Topol
as Dr. hans zarkov
Timothy Dalton
as prince barin
Brian Blessed
as prince vultan
Peter Wyngarde
as klytus
Mariangela Melato
as kala
John Osbourne
Richard O'brien
John Hallam
Philip Stone
Suzanne Danielle
Production. Costumes and sets
designed by
Danilo Donati
executive producer
bernard williams
director of photography
Gil taylor B.S.C
film editor
Malcolm Cooke
Music composed by. performed
and produced by
QUEEN
orchestral score composed
and arranged by
Howard Blake
Screenplay by
Lorenzo Semple .JR.
Adaptation by
Michael Allin
based on the characters created by Alex raymond
licensed by king features syndicate
producer
Dino De Laurentiis
director
Mike Hodges
mostly orchestral where as flash gordons music was done by a rock band. queen did the song 'flash'. sound effects are used for both of the openins. flash gordon used wind gails and explsion sounds for when emperer ming is destroing earth. blueberry has sound effects all the way through the sequence including a small child talking and animal noises. all sounds help us establish what the films about. flash gordon is a traditional comic book theme with he 'sav the world' idea. where as the sound for blueberry suggests that the film will follow a boy in the wilderness, which it does. 
it's a nice dedication to the art work from the comic book.BLUEBERRY
this french film was based on the western comic book series thought up by Jean-Michel Charlier and Jean Giraud.
FLASH GORDON
the film was based on the comic created by alex raymond and licensed by king features syndicate.
my initial idea for my film opening is you don't quite know whether or not the main character is good or not. the name suggests that the film is dark and based on fiction. the name 'reaper', sounds as if the character takes peoples souls and isn't good. this idea is to create mystery which is good in comic book idea films. the wolverine in x-men is a mysterious character in that you don't know where he came from or who he is. this is the sam idea i want to achieve.
Alexander
my idea for the film opening is to have a static camera shot of the ground and hold it for about 20 seconds. before this have establishing shots of a forest/ grave yard type setting. have titles over the screen through the shot until the action takes place. after about 20 seconds have a hand punch its way through the ground and make a growl kind of sound to create confusion as to whether or not this person is good or not.
independant movie featuring a young protagonist. your film should appear to be financed through regional funding.
pitch ideas:
1- a boy wakes up one day and realises that he's changing, and that he's afraid his friends won't except him.
2- an old man who's close to death retells aspects of his life to his grandson as if it's one big adventure.
a supernatural thriller that will appeal to female audiences. your film should appear to be an international co-production.
pitch ideas:
1- after the death of her only son 32 year old mary swindon leaves her home and travels someplace new. when shes there she adopts a boy named eric, only to find that he knows a little too much about her sons tragic death which she knows nothing about.
2- many years after her husband dies in a car accident shes haunted by him again with the intention to carry on the sickly abuse he gave her whilst he was alive.
3- 31 years working on the maternity ward has been easy living for 51 year old aggie byers but one night she waes up after hearing cries and screams. from then on every night shes haunted by the wailing of babies and she tries her bes to find whats happening to her.
i think that the main thing when appealing to a female audience is the lead has to be a women. this way females can relate to the main character and go through what their going through. it's a way to get cloder with the main character.
1-he's escaped and ready to seek revenge on those who murdered his school friends back when he was 15.
2-after hiding from the world a man decides to leave his sanctuary after hearing the city is overpopulated with evil.
3- a man who has nothing to live for is going to fight to save the life of those who treasure it.
4- the after life is well-worn for the unlikeliest of heroes who decides to rise again and fight evil.
i like my last pitch because it sounds unique where as the others sound over used and plain. my pitch sounds dark which is the approach i want to go for and sounds interesting to do. if i find the right place to shoot i could have a scene where something bad happens and then show the hero rising fro his grave. i'll have to represen the hero in such a way that shows he's good and not evil. most of the time people rising from the ground means they're ombies or evil in some way. the 'something bad' as i put it, doesn't need to be anything drastic. it could be as mellow as a purse snatching but i might explore this idea and think of something a little more adventurous like a killing or kidnapping. the most important thing though is finding a way to show the story in such a short amount of time. remembering that the title sequence or opening will only be a couple of minutes long.
i've always been a fan of the Batman films, the tim burton adaptations were fantastic. he really captured the dark and sinful world of a comic book hero. there was just something about them though that didn't appeal. the playful villians and unrealistic fighting might have had something to do with it. christopher nolan did what nobody thought was possible. he completely transformed the franchise making batman a more believable person. he spent mre time finding ways to make batman look and feel like a real person. the gadgets and costumes were all real and are possible to obtain. burtons look and feel of batman was slightly more fictional.
the thing i like about nolans sequal to his first encounter with the character is that he created this corrupt and dismal atmosphere which felt so real. what he also did was he made batman almost the second character as the dark knight is all about the villian, the joker. the joker is hands down far more intersting than batman. the way the villian is portrayed in the dark knight is that he's always one step ahead of the hero. this creates some great moments in the film and also makes batman to be a far more grittier character. he gets put in situations that may resultin death. in comic book films, most of the time, good guys don't die. it's always the numerous amount of henchman that get killed off.
if i were to use pitch 1 for my opening to a film piece, i would really like to make it with a truely great villian and make it a believable setting, like hellboy. i believe that setting a fictional character in a real world makes it slightly more frightning and definalty more exciting. i want to be able to achieve this. maybe, since the opening is only going to be a few minutes long, only show the villian. focusing onl on one charactere should have it's dvantages. coming up with a hero and a villian will be difficult if i don't wat this opening piece to look loosely made and crude. by focusing simply on he villian, i should be able to concentrate on the darker side of comic book film which is what i want to achieve.
this is the trailer of the first Hellboy film which was released in 2004 and made by Guillermo del Toro. this trailer was the trailer i saw, their are a number of trailers that were released to market the film. this trailer made me go see the film at the cinema and it didn't disappoint.
the opening to a film in a way is like a film trailer. they both have the same purpose. their trying to sell people the ideo of the film. this is a very good trailer because it doesn' make the mistake of giving too much away and doesn't show the best parts of the film like so many other trailers make the mistake of doing these days.
hellboy was created my mike mignola and was ublished in dark horse comics. mike pitched the idea to DC comics before going to dark horse comics but they weren't too keen on the idea involving hell. they thought it was a bit too dark.
Pitch 1
A mainstream action film that will appeal to 15-25yr old males. Your film should appear to be based on a "fictional" comic book.
comic based films have always been a guilty pleasure of mine, having grown up with such films like masters of the universe and batman. their films that don't need much story line, just a great character. Batman, Spiderman, Ironman, Superman; their all the names of films based on comic book characters. the names of the films are of the characters so obviously the character has a lot of input in the film and has importance.
using the pitch, i straight away thought about where i could get ideas from. almost all comic inspired films are for a Male audience so that part of the pitch wasn't too difficult to come to grips with. the action and 'saving the day' aspect of film is always enjoyed more by males simply because that's what we enjoy. we like lots of action, loud noises and explosions.
the first film i researched as Hellboy. i think Hellboy is a very original film in that the good guy in a way is also the bad guy, because he's the devil. that's never really been done before although batman is seen as a authority-ignoring vigilante. the gritty atmosphere and dark setting make Hellboy so different from any other comic action film which tend to be colourful and vibrant to show the world in a more comic book like way. the world in a comic book is nothing like the real world. Hellboy, although based on supernatural, is more realistic. it rains, it's dark, nothings perfect in the real world. Hellboy reflects this and tells the story which could quite possible be real.
Hellboy himself is a great character. he's witty and has a gun. one of the greatest combinations in film history. it always seems to work. Hellboy's sense of humour and 'walk in guns blazing' attitude is what the male audience like about it. if i were to go with this pitch, i would want to incorporate a supernatural hero into the real world, possibly make it slightly more edgy and darker to give it more atmosphere and depth. things you associate to be real are far more interesting so setting it in true to life settings would an interesting choice.
this a logo i designed to be a production company logo for my work through out the course. i made this when i was playing around with after effects. it isn't my final one but it's given me convidence to move on and try and explore other ideas i could come up with. the production name and images i made up. for a production logo this one is a little long. most of them are around 4 seconds long. this one is closer to 10 seconds long. if i were to use this one i would change it's length and work on the tone of the images. by that i mean i would change the colour of the image so it wasn't the same colour as th background. at the moment it clashes.
this is a logo i made using the long road logo. i manipulated it using after effects for putting infront of the films i make during the course so people are aware who made it. it's farily simple but i beleive that the simplist of ideas are often the best. it isn't a long logo either but they usually aren't. the idea behind it is straight forward. my idea was to have every aspect of the logo moving towards the centre of the screen at the same time. cming together to form the gogo. then i decided to make part of it look as if it was dropping into the rest of the logo. this part is the last part of the logo that moves. that was the hardespart of the logo to do. i did it once but i didn't like the look of it so i went back and made it more simple. i'm happy with this logo though. it was one of the first things i did in after effects so i'm proud of it.
