Final Review - Max

In our Project we used a lot of animation effects which worked well with the style which we used as such i think this was effective. however due to our lack of experience using mac's we had trouble with garage band and could not get the audio quite how we wanted it. the camera work was good but we didn't get quite as many shots as i would have liked, this wasn't detrimental to the overall presentation of the sequence so it's not too much of an issue. The mise en scene in the sequence was helpful for setting the scene and for getting across the idea behind each of the characters. For example the ship on the pirate scene, the doll house furniture in the dolly scene and the bins in the blob scene.

Because it's an adventure film the tone was able to vary rapidly between each of the characters, for instance the powerful music and strong pirate scene to the dainty and soft dolly scenes. We chose not to use narrative since non diagetic sounds tend to pull the viewer out of the immersion of the film.

Preliminary Task

Our preliminary task

Blog of the Week!

Congratulations!

You are blog of the week this week.

Your posts are thorough and represent your creative process very clearly.

Keep up the good work.

Tanya

Group Feedback

1) Conventions of an opening sequence?
show our characters clearly

2) Specific genre conventions
Childrens film

3) Variety quality of camera work
Close ups, establishing shots

4) Use of special effects animation
Greenscreen and stop frame animation

5) Sound quality and effectiveness
Use songs to fit our characters

6) Use of mise en scene
playdough
Boat

7) Editing
Green screen worked well
Credits could have been clearer
Needs a title

8) Best features
Characters and mise en scene

Feedback

1)Conventions of an opening sequence?
Introduction of characters
Loved the indroduction, with the background change

2)Specific genre conventions?
Childrens animation
Childrens animation (u)

3)Variety quality of camera work
Uses close ups well
Good quality
Good stop motion Animation

4)Use of special effects - animation
greenscreen
greenscreen
Green Screen used well -> looked good with the boat looking like it was on the sea etc
Very creative

5)Sound - Quality and effectiveness
The music worked with each character
Music suits each scene
Good use of different music for each character
Loved the music
Different music for each character worked well

6)Use of muse en scene
Props are good (ship)
The backgrounds were good for what was going on
Platescine

7)Editing
Could've been linked together a little bit more, the introduction of characters was really good though

8)Best Features
Music/Greenscreen
The shapes made
The logo
Sound effects
Music

Childrens Video

Storyboards - Mary

Storyboard 1.

The first storyboard basically introduces the charaters. Captain Kynan, Polly the Dolly and Uncle Blob.

Storyboard 2.

 

 

 

The second story board shows the audience that each character has lost their items. Shot 10 shows the three friends beginning their search for their belongings. Finally shot 11 rounds off the opening nicely leaving the story on a cliff hanger to whether or not they will find each of their items.

Character Mock Ups - Mary

Dolly mock up.

Pirate mock up.

Blob mock up.

We made mock ups of our characters out of play dough just to get a rough idea of size and appearance. Turns out the play dough wasnt sticky or smooth enough to work with. So for our final characters we will make them out of plastacine using cocktail sticks and saftey pins to keep them together. We will also use better colours as we will get more of a variety to make them look more realistic and interesting.

Call Sheets

Items
We are going to need:
Plaster-cine
Drawings for the backgrounds
Drawings for the faces
Camera
Cocktail sticks to hold characters together
Pages for credits to be written on

Location
We will shoot in the classroom.

When
We will use the 20 and 21 October 2010 lesson time for shooting

What
We will be using stop frame animation to shoot the entire film.
This is a very time consuming process and as such it will probably require efficient use of both lessons in order to get the effect necessary for a good opening sequence.

Classifications - Kynan

Uc - Under 5s
U - Universal (4 or over) - This should be able to be watched by almost anyone
PG - Parental Guidance - This is for general viewing, however parents may not think their child is old enough to watch it on their own
12 - 12+ - Anyone at the age of 12 or over.
12a - 12+ or if you are under 12 then an adult would have to accompany you

Our children's film would probably fall under U, as there will be no gore or blood involved, the characters will be friendly, with no foul language, and there wont really be a villain in it either, just the suggestion of one.

Shot Lists - Kynan

There will mostly be a series of mid shots and close ups, with quite a few over shoulder shots, as the characters will probably be talking to each other while they are trying to find their treasure. Mid shots would be good for when they are just walking along, and close ups to show facial expressions, for example when dolly is crying when the pirate meets her. Close ups could also be used to show their items when they find them - the pirates treasure chest, the dollys bow, and the blobs eye. Long shots might be good, for example when the shadow is chasing the characters and when the pirate is trying to ignore the dolly.
There may also be an occasional extreme long shot, for example for the establishing shot, when the pirate wakes up on the beach.
There will be probably very few, probably no extreme close up shots.

What to materials to use for background props + characters - Kynan

Ideas to use for backgrounds
We could use CGI to create a good picture of a jungle and beach.
We could use a picture of a beach and a picture of a jungle in the background
We could get some actual sand and water for the beach and then just draw some trees on paper
Take some pictures of some trees instead of drawing them

Ideas for the items the characters are looking for:
Lego? Plaster-sine? drawn pictures of it? Photos of a bow could be used, difficult for treasure and an eye though. Computer generated image?

Ideas for what to use for characters
Plaster-sine characters
Lego characters or other little toy characters
Drawn pictures + using computer to create different movements
computer generated characters
People dressed in costume


What we will use in the film
For the background we will use pictures / drawings
We will make the items for the characters out of plaster-cine
We will also use plaster-cine to make the characeters

Storyline Ideas - Kynan

The pirate will wake up on a beach, and realize that he has lost his treasure, and while running around, trying to find it, he will run into the dolly. The dolly has lost her bow, and asks the pirate to help her find it. The pirate doesn't want to, and walks off, but the dolly follows and finally persuades the pirate to help her. While trying to find both the pirates treasure and the dollys bow, they run into the blob, and he unfortunately has lost his eye. They all go on an adventure to recover their lost possessions (and body parts).

There could be a jungle next to the beach that the pirate wakes up on, and when trying to find his treasure he wanders into the jungle to find his treasure, where he meets dolly. They eventually come out of the jungle and meet the blob, the blob who is he a great friend of the pirate explains his situation - he has lost his eye. All three of them go off to find their items, walking along the beach, but when they enter the jungle again, the shadow finds them. Narrowly escaping, they run for their lives where they chance upon the pirates treasure chest, and next to it is the blobs eye and the dollys bow.

Opening Sequence Ideas - Max

For the opening sequence it seems a good idea to introduce the 3 main characters if we decide to go along the line of an intro

So perhaps the first scene in the intro shows the Pirate sailing his ship, drinking rum, and pillaging things.Whilst playing fast paced action music.
Then the music could change to a far more relaxed and calm music showing the dolly playing about and doing her hair.
Then to introduce the blob it could show him moving about and parts of him falling off, this would forshadow what happens later on.
After the 3 have been shown (all the while credits could appear) it could come up with the title screen with the shadow of the potential bad person in the background.

(to my knowledge you can leave comments so if you put ones there i will read them)

Film Outline

Main Characters
Pirate - The pirate of the film he is displayed as constantly being drunk. The pirate is searching for his treasure. He got drunk and hid it and he cannot remember where he left it.
Dolly - The dolly is one of the main characters and friends with the pirate and blob, she is looking for the bow for her hair.
Blob - The blob is the final character of the 3 friends and never fully forms words. The blob searches for one of it's eyes which fell out.

Plot
The story begins with the Pirate waking up and discovering that his treasure is no where to be found. Suddenly he starts screaming with the realisation that he might not find it and begins running around.
The next scene shows him running in from the side and crashing into a dolly who is sitting down and crying. The pirate picks itself up and notices the girl. He briefly looks at her and complains that she was in hit way. Then he turns around to walk away, the dolly picks herself up and follows the pirate.
The scene changes and the dolly is still following the pirate and the pirate then turns around and interrogates her to find out why she is still following him. This is where the dolly explains that she has lost her bow and request to join the pirate in finding his treasure if he will help her.
The begin their journey to find the treasure and bow down a long journey when they come across, 'uncle blob' who slides up to Captain Kynan and introduces himself to dolly as uncle blob.

Tom and Jerry

Tom and Jerry
There are two main characters - Tom and Jerry. Tom is the family cat, charged with the job of catching the mouse - Jerry. Jerry pretty much always outsmarts Tom and gets away, while constantly annoying Tom.
Because of the lack of speech between the two animals, almost all of the tone is dictated is made up of the classical music in the background.
To begin with, the camera is mainly focused on a happy town, which contrasts with the scary house. This makes it clear to the audience that this house is different from all of the other houses in the area.

Peter Pan

Peter Pan
The characters of Peter Pan include a family called The Darlings, which is made up of a father who has stress issues, a kind mother, Wendy - the eldest sibling, and 2 boys who are around the age of the target audience. The film is pretty much all animated, so there are very few props.
Peter Pan is a fantasy adventure hybrid genre. Peter Pan is initially set in the house of the Darlings at the intro.
Peter Pan makes a lot of use of wind instruments for things such as when people fall over, and to set the general tone of the scene. The use of wind instruments when people fall over give it a comedy effect that the target audience would appreciate to help keep their interest.

Scooby Doo

Scooby Doo
Scooby Doo opens using a dark atmosphere to set the scene of being mysterious or scary; but as it is in a animated style it is not too scary for the children that would be watching it.
Using the main characters as friendly or relatable to the children, gives it a kind of comedy effect, which also reduces the seriousness of the program, whilst retaining the mystery elements.
Scooby Doo has a lot of ambient music in the background, to help set the tone for each scene and enhance the mystery.
The location is almost always somewhere spooky, for example a ghost ship, or a haunted house or mysterious woods.

Goonies analysis

The Goonies is a children's film made in 1985. It is an action adventure film about seven children who make up the gang called the goonies. The story line revolves around the two brothers whose house is under threat of being demolished to create a golf course for the rich enemies of the area. They search the attic and find a treasure map which leads them on an adventure to find the treasure of one eyed willy. They enter a restaurant and encounter a family of criminals called the frattellis who are the main antagonists throughout the film. The restaurant soon leads to them finding the entrance to a series of traps left by mr one eyed willy. This concludes in them finding the lost treasure and the frattellis capture.

All the main characters have their unique personalities which reflect their role.
Mickey - The leader of the goonies who persists on the quest of one eyed willy throughout the film.

Data - The inventor of the group

Chunk - The greedy and comical member.

Brand - The handsome and manly character who gets the girl and who all other boys aspire to be like.

Andy - The pretty girl next door which all boys lust for.

Steph - The geeky girl who moans constantly.

Mouth - The confident character who is made out to be a thug yet as we get to know him more is very intelligent.

Technical features
Camera work
the cameras are used during the trap scenes and when the children are scared to make them seem vulnerable by tilting the camera down.

Aladdin Opening Sequence

Shows the title
Credits
Song introduces and describes setting, it also mentions the flying carpet which is discovered later in the film
Setting - Arabia, palace and the slums
Character in film narrating
Antagonist - The main enemy introduced
Establishes questions - What is the diamond in the rough, what is in the sphinx, what is the lamp
Time period - long ago

Oepning Sequence Analysis

Up
Main Character - The boy, with the girl as a side character
Setting - Hometown of the boy
Time Period - 1990 ish
Genre - Comedy
Establishes questions - Who are the kids, what is going to happen,
Credits
Introduces their idol - Maybe the kids will meet him later on?
Title of the film at the beginning

Nanny Mcphee
Main Characters - The family (a lot of kids and the dad) and Nanny Mcphee
Credits
Establishes location
There was a narrative voice over
There was unusual events causing questions to be raised
Time period
Humour - the eating baby thing
Title of the film at the beginning

Stardust
Main Character - the scientist
Setting and time period - 150 years ago (1860)
Narrative voice over
Establishes questions - who is the princess, how is he going to free her
Introduces fictional elements
Genre - Adventure