Original/First Draft of Screenplay

Here is our first draft of the screenplay for our piece. Next lesson we will be re-revising and editing it.

LEAP YEAR

SETTING: PARK

Close up of cello tape rolls, one is bare and the other still has some cello tape coming off onto the grassy turf.

Extreme close of LOUIS’S hand twitching.

Close up of LOUIS’S foot in the tree.

Close up of BARRY’S arm taped to a tree.

Close up of LOUIS’S phone in his pocket as it begins to ring, we hear an extract of Macho man by the Village people as his ring tone.

Low angle long shot of LOUIS looking startled in a tree and then proceeds to fall out of the tree.

Mid shot of a dazed LOUIS on the floor realizing his phone is going off.

Extreme close up of phone in the grass still ringing.

Long shot of LOUIS fumbling for the phone.

Close up of LOUIS answering the phone.

LOUIS
Errr? Hello?

(Mid-shot of BONNIE talking on the phone)

BONNIE
Where the hell are you two? It’s eleven o’clock, you’re meant to be in work, but neither of you came back last night! Why didn’t you come back last night? I am going to kill you! I’ve been calling all over the place trying to find you, and you finally answer your phone!

LOUIS
What?

(Close up of LOUIS recoiling from his phone as BONNIE shrieks)

(Mid-shot of BONNIE)

BONNIE
Where. Are. You?!

(Close up of a terrified LOUIS)

(Long shot of LOUIS looking around)

(Pan out shot)

LOUIS
Well, there’s trees and grass and I think I see a lake. I might go and feed the ducks actually.

(Long shot of BONNIE grabbing a bag)

BONNIE
So, you’re in the park. Is Barry with you?

(Long shot of LOUIS looking around the park)

LOUIS
Nah, wanna come and feed the ducks?

(Mid-shot of BONNIE as she freezes)

BONNIE
You lost Barry! You blithering idiot! Of all things to lose, why’d you lose him? Go and find him now, before he does something stupid! I really am going to kill you now! I’ll see you soon

(Close up shot of BONNIE as she slams down the phone)

(Long shot of LOUIS as he begins stumbling around)

(Long shot of a sleeping BARRY taped to a tree)

(Close up shot of LOUIS in shock)

(Mid-shot of LOUIS dialling BONNIE’s number and putting the phone to his ear)

LOUIS
Hey, good news, I found Barry

BONNIE
Brilliant, where is he?

LOUIS
Cello taped to a tree! Fast asleep bless him!

BONNIE
Asleep tied to a tree?

LOUIS
Taped

BONNIE
Does it matter? Get him out

LOUIS
Cant, too much tape

BONNIE
You’re useless. I’ll be there now, with scissors I will not let you touch

LOUIS
Yeah, okay, I’m going to feed the ducks now that I’ve found him

(Long shot of LOUIS staring at the ducks and getting his phone out)

LOUIS
Sorry, can you get some bread? For some reason I have no money or bread. Mad right?

(Back to long shot as he looks back at ducks)

(Long shot of BONNIE walking up to him, a bag in one hand and loaf of bread in the other hand)

(Mid shot as LOUIS runs and takes the bread from BONNIE and rips it open to feed to the ducks)

LOUIS
Thank you!

(Begins to walk off)

BONNIE
Woah, woah, get back here! Where the hell is Barry?

LOUIS
Over there (points)

BONNIE
Oh my god! What is he wearing? And why is he taped to that tree?

LOUIS
And my clothes are irrelevant?

BONNIE
Yes, because you got yourself dressed, he didn’t!

LOUIS
How do you know?

BONNIE
This is Barry! He doesn’t put himself in tights, you do!

LOUIS
What are you trying to imply?

BONNIE
I’m just saying, it’s clear it was you who convinced him to wear them, not the other way around

LOUIS
It’s a good one, you gotta admit

BONNIE
No, it’s mean. He knows no better. Now, lets get him out of that tape

LOUIS
How?

BONNIE
I have scissors

LOUIS
Well, aren’t you cool

BONNIE
I wouldn’t need them if you watched him for once. I said he could leave when I left but no, you have to insist and he ends up taped to a tree

LOUIS
Nothing wrong with a bit of fun

(BONNIE glares at LOUIS and starts going through her bag for a pair of scissors)

(Long shot of a still sleeping BARRY)

(Mid-shot of an annoyed BONNIE and amused LOUIS)

(Extreme close up of BONNIE’s hands as she cuts the tape)

(Long shot as BARRY falls to the floor still asleep)

(Extreme close up as BARRY wakes up on the floor and screams)

(Close up of LOUIS as he begins to laugh)

LOUIS
What’s wrong?

BARRY
The aliens want to get me! (begins to get distressed)

Treatment Revision

From our audience research, specifically our focus group, we decided we need to revise our treatment. Below is the new, revised treatment based on the feedback we received:

Title:
An original screenplay by Jamie Payne, Ryan Kent, Kayleigh Morris, and Alisha Ward
Dated: 15th December 2011

Together, we present a comedy film, about the adventures of Louis and Barry, two teenagers with an imagination which far exceeds the normal expectations. A third friend, Bonnie, a female as this was what our focus group suggested in a way to challenge the conventions where characters are generally male, plays the voice of reason throughout as the friends try to figure out what actually happened the night before.

As the story unfolds, we discover that their night out turned out to be far more than anyone expected, as they encounter superhero's, aliens, emotional turmoils, and an amazing bromance, although this most likely wont be included within the first two minutes, as to avoid showing the entire movie in the opening sequence. Throughout the opening sequence, several fights and arguments breakout.

The opening sequence of the film would involve Louis and Barry waking up in a park in fancy dress, tied to and asleep in a tree. Louis is woken up when his phone goes off, and panics and falls out of the tree he was in, and answers his phone, just as he see's Barry asleep tied to the same tree. The scene split screens to a conversation between Louis and Bonnie, as she quizzes him on where the pair of them are. Louis gets off the phone and falls back to sleep on the floor. A few 'minutes' later, as in the movie it's seconds but realistically minutes, Bonnie arrives holding two mugs of tea and a bag full of biscuits, scissors, and clean clothes. she then cuts a still sleeping Barry out and he falls to the floor and wakes up, shouting that the aliens want to kill him. Bonnie soothes him and gives him and Louis a mug of tea and a biscuit each, but Barry starts again when realising he's dressed as a superhero, and claims they want to kill him, sparking an argument between Louis and Barry, as they both argue over what happened he night before. Louis shoved Barry to the ground, and the screen switches to tiles of Louis and Barry working, and the title sequence.

We intent to use strange mise-en-scene as we said before. Instead of being dressed messily as we originally planned, the characters are dressed in fancy dress costumes, as our focus group suggested, in order to add comical value to the scene, though as yet, we're unsure of exactly what the costumes will be. The props which we well be using are things such as empty drink cans and bottles, cups of tea, packets of biscuits etc. We intend to have the lighting fairly bright most of the time, however due to the time of the year we're filming, we may end up relying on editing in order to have this lighting. We would use a fair amount of editing and effects on the scenes, for things such as the lighting, sounds and music.

For camera, we will use a lot of reaction and close up shots. Until Louis' phone rings, we will use extreme close ups and close ups, and then we will zoom out and reveal their location, and Louis laying in it, and Barry taped to it. From here, we would use primarily mid-shots and reaction shots.

Our target audience has now changed, as it is now aimed at those between the ages 15-30

Audience Research- Questionnaire Results

We created our survey on survey monkey, and sent it around for people to complete. We got 30 people to participate online, and 10 on paper, leaving us with 40 people to determine our target audience from.

These are our results from the online questionnaire:

 

From our online questionnaire we were able to conclude what our target audience would be.

In question one, the most common age group was 16-20, with 56.7% of those who completed the survey were between this age group, giving us the impression that this will be our target age group, though it is likely to appeal to those of 11-15 or over 25.

 

In question two, there was an equal amount of males and females (50% of each), so we believe that our target audience will be equally male and female.


In question three, the majority of those who completed the survey were students (60%), leading us to believe that our target audience would be some form of student, be it school, sixth form, college, or university students.

When we asked those who completed the survey to rank their favourite genres in order from one to eight, 60% ranked comedy first, and 16.7 ranked it second, leading us to the belief that the comedy genre is popular amongst those who took the survey. The second highest ranked genre was action, with 26.7% ranking it first, and 13.3% ranking it second. The third was drama, because although no one ranked it first, it was the highest ranked for second, with 27.7%. From this, we may need to consider incorporating elements of these genre's into our film.

 

When we asked how often they watched films, 50% of the people who completed the survey said they watched films often, and 43.3% watched them sometimes, meaning we need to aim our film at those who watch films often, and try to appeal to those who watch them sometimes in order to encourage them to watch them more often.

 

When asked how they most often accessed media texts, 86.7% of those who responded to the survey said they tended to access media texts by the internet, and 80% by TV, meaning advertisement needs to revolve mainly around internet and TV in order to appeal to our target audience, however advertisements would still be on other forms of media, such as newspapers, magazines, radio, etc. in order to appeal tp a wider audience.

 

When asked where they most commonly see advertisements for films, 83.3% said they most often see them on TV, which again links to the above question, and means we need to use the TV as a vital tool for advertisement. A following 66.7% said they most often see them on the internet, backing up our above question and use of this media for advertisements.

 

When asked on the survey their favourite music genre, 66.7% said rock, and 46.7% said metal, meaning that we'd use more of this genre of music in order to appeal to our target audience, though other genre's such as pop (40%) in order to widen our target audience.

These results are only from our electronic survey not our ones on paper, meaning the results could change. Also, a problem with these results are that they are too general, and their lack of specific information could affect judgement on our target audience, e.g, the females who took part could have had a preference to the romance genre, but we would not know this, and would generalise that males and females are both equally fans of comedy, when this in fact may not be true.

These are the results of our survey completed on paper:

Focus Group

We sent out our letter and invited a few people to our focus group. We held this at 3:30 on Monday in our media classroom. This is the video from our focus group:





From the focus group we ...

Audience Research - Focus Group

We decided on our target audience, which is quite wide, with the only really target audience being that they are between the ages of 15 and 30 and enjoy comedy films. We then began to draft a list of people to be part of our focus group, wrote our letter to invite them, and began to write some potential questions for the group.

Below is a copy of our letter:

'Dear Sir or Madam,

We are inviting you to take part in a focus group as part of our media coursework on the 5^th December 2011 in Media room 2, Jo Richardson school at 3:30pm. We intend to share with you our film treatment and show you some examples of films within the genre we are working with. We would like to ask you some questions as we believe you would be part of the target audience for our film and we need to find out whether or not the plot/ideas we have for our film would be appealing to you.

We, as part of our coursework, would like to film the focus group as evidence of the discussions we will be having. This is to keep a record of the responses we will have, and if you do not want to be filmed by us then please give us notice.

We would greatly appreciate it if you could attend and look forward to seeing you. Please RSVP to 06rkent@jrcs.bardaglea.org.uk.

Yours Sincerely,

Jamie Payne, Ryan Kent, Alisha Ward, Kayleigh Morris'

After we wrote the letter, we began to come up with questions which we could potentially use whilst we interview the focus group, referring to the genre alone, our opening sequence, and the appeal of the two to our target audience. The potential questions, in the order in which we came up with them, are written below:

From our film treatment, what genre would you say the film is?

What is it about this genre that you enjoy?

Would the opening sequence make you want to watch the rest of the film, and why?

How could we make the film more appealing to our target audience?

What would you judge the target audience to be?

Would the film appeal to you?

What would you like to see in a comedy film?

What would you do in order to challenge the conventions of the genre?

We are now going to revise the questions and put them into the order of how we will ask them, particularly the first few, as after this we hope the discussion will become more natural and flow better than if we just asked the questions in a strict order and had them answer.

TV Drama Analysis

Scrubs is an American TV Drama, with the sub-genres of comedy and medical. The show was made by Bill Lawrence, and stars Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke, Donald Faison, John C. McGinley, and Judy Reyes. The show originally premiered in 2001 on NBC for eight series’, before the ninth was aired on ABC before cancellation. Episodes from all series’ are now played on Comedy Central throughout the day.
The target audience are people who are big fans of comedy, though don’t mind serious issues being discussed. Due to most of the content in the shows, I’d imagine the target audience to be around 15 years +, and unsuitable for those younger. The show presents a group of doctors and nurses at the Sacred Heart Hospital, a hospital of teaching, and follows the life of J.D (Zach Braff) as he goes from intern to doctor, narrating each episode like a story.

Audience Research - Questionnaire

We began to compose questions to go into a questionnaire to help with planning our opening sequence so we aim it to the right target audience.

We each went away and came up with a few questions to contribute to our questionnaire which is on SurveyMonkey and posted below.

The questions I contributed where:

'Where do you most often see advertisements for films?' This is a closed question, in which the respondent is given the options of 'Cinema, Radio, TV, Internet sites, Newspapers/Magazines, Posters, Other (Please Specify)'

'What sorts of hobbies do you have?' Which is an open question for the respondent to reply to how they wish.

'What sorts of media do you use?' Which is a closed question with the options of 'Magazines, Newspapers, TV, Film, Internet, Other (Please Specify)'

Click here to take survey

Superbad Opening Sequence Analysis

Superbad (2007)
Directed by: Greg Mottola
Written by: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogan
Starring: Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Seth Rogan
Certificate: 15

Superbad begins with a surreal opening credits in an array of bright colours, before showing Seth (Jonah Hill) in his car, and on the phone to Evan (Michael Cera) discussing money and a production, before he pulls up outside Evans house, and Evan gets in his car.

The opening sequence doesn’t really use any genre conventions, and nothing really happens yet. The only convention is probably the bright lighting, which is a feature in almost all comedy films, but at this point in the film, nothing but a phone call happens, and not much happens in that. We can’t tell much about the characters at this point either, which would normally be used to generalise the larger than life character types used in comedy films.

Seeing as this film opening has very little happening, it’s difficult to say what the target audience would be. Also, the film opening is of very little help for my groups own opening sequence, as we would like something to happen that isn’t a rather boring phone call.

Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny Opening Sequence Analysis

Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny (2006)
Directed by: Liam Lynch
Written by: Jack Black, Kyle Gass, Liam Lynch
Starring: Jack Black, Kyle Gass
Certificate: 15


The film begins with an establishing shot of a house, and the words 'Kickapoo, Missori' with misuc in the background, before going to show a shot of a cross on a wall, and a family praying at a table. The scene goes to show a boy with a guitar singing with a guitar, and we learn this music was him. The Boy seems to distress the family, as the woman begins crying, and the father (played by Meatloaf) takes his belt and drags him up to his room, before beating him with it. His father then proceeds to sing to his as he shouts, and rips down all of the boys posters, bar one of Dio, who begins to sing back at him, advising him, and the boy begins to pack all of his things, and jump out of the window, and leave. We see him running, and the background changes in a montage of different places, and calendars, clocks and things like that.

The opening sequence itself uses few 'Stoner Comedy' elements, though these are seen more frequently throughout the rest of the film. One of the big involvements is two friends with some sort of task to complete throughout the course of the film, in this case the friends having a task to do doesn't appear for little while after the opening sequence, but JB alone is set the task of escaping his fathers clutches, and journeying to Hollywood in order to form the worlds most awesome band.
The film also involves the authority figure who disagrees with the main characters lifestyle; in this case it is JB's father, who is a strict christian, and believes that his son's interest in rock music comes from the depths of hell, and is the Devil wanting him to rebel.
The opening sequence also over exaggerates characters, such as the strict christian father, who is a larger than life version of many religious people, and the rebellious son, who seems under exaggerated in comparison to his father.

In the opening sequence there are three characters who are really focused on; JB, his father, and Dio. JB is a boy of around 10- 13 years of age, with long hair, dark clothes, and a guitar. His language is sung, connoting a love of music, and he swears a lot throughout the song he sings, even within the first line, and several times in each verse of the song. In comparison to his father, who is a well dressed religious man, who doesn't swear, and speaks in a higher standard. This also shows the difference in the two characters personalities and even their beliefs, as well as connoting the over used and exaggerated difference between those who believe in religion, and those who believe in music.

As far as mise-en-scene goes, the costumes, props, setting, and lighting represent a few things within the genre. As well as the film being a 'stoner' comedy, it also comes under rock musical, shown by the props such as guitars and posters, and the sound, such as the song JB is playing.

The mise-en-scene also denotes a few things about the particular characters shown in the scene, and perhaps the false connotations around them. JB is wearing all black, a colour often used to connote an evil or less than good character, whilst his father is dressed in a white shirt, which is the part of the costume we mainly see, which connotes good characters, however the characters use of language shows that the role expected by us of an audience due to our everyday associations are false. JB’s father hits him with his belt, before asking why he was ever born, whilst all his son is doing is playing music.

The setting of the family home is also quite a generic comedy setting. It gives us as an audience a better awareness or connection to the characters in the film, the association of which is important in any genre.

The lighting at the beginning of the scene is darkness, as the scene is set at night, and it’s a shot of the outside of the house. The next is quite bright lighting, partially due to the white environment, showing the inside of the family home and a majority of the family. In the next, JB enters, and is put under a spotlight as he begins to play to his family. Asides from this, the majority of the light in the scene is quite dim. When Dio somehow comes to life from his poster, the lighting around him is slightly red, as is he, connoting his father’s misconceptions of rock music being from the depths of hell.

The opening sequence alone is enough for someone who likes rock musicals and comedy’s, particularly if they’re a fan of them rolled into one. I’d imagine the target audience to be anyone above the age of 15 whom is interested in these genre’s, as within the first few minutes, a plot of an epic adventurous task is set, and we’re instantly consumed, and we also are interested in what other awesome songs the film will contain throughout.

As far as our opening sequence goes, I don’t think that this film will be of much inspiration, as it’s not quite the style we’re going for, as we didn’t really want it to be a musical; however it was useful to analyse as it gives a different take on the use of genre conventions.

Dude Wheres my Car Opening Sequence Analysis

Dude Wheres My Car? (2000)

Directed by: Denny Leiner

Written by: Philip Stark

Stars: Ashton Kutcher, Seann William Scott, Jennifer Garner

Certificate: 15

The film opens with Jesse Montgmery III (Ashton Kutcher) and Chester Greenburg (Seann William Scott) waking up at Jesse's house with no recollection as to how they got there and hangovers. 

Veiw opening sequence and outline events

Identify genre conventions

Describe characters/dialogue/mise-en-scene/editing/sound are used to attract audience

Evaluate audience appeal of film, who are TA and why?

consider how it inspires planning of own sequence

SWOT Analysis of Treatment

Strengths of Treatment-
It sticks to the conventions of the comedy genre
We had detailed and relevant research, meaning we know how to fulfil the conventions or oppose them

Weaknesses-
The setting was a little too cliche
The comedy genre absolutely demands a good script to be successful

Opportunities-
We can have more creative liberties in choice of setting, as we were advised to think of things such as Ikea, or parks as our setting
We were advised to spend time writing a good script
We will have the chance to use a lot of good editing techniques to improve out piece to fit the genre conventions

Threats-
Due to the costume choice and the laws about public filming, we may not be able to film in our desired place

Treatment Pitch Feedback

Today, we pitched our treatment idea to our class and teachers, and received plenty of feedback and constructive criticism.
We were given things to improve on or change, such as the setting, the gimmicks, and we need to ensure that we have a good script, because the dialogue in our piece could make or break it. Our original setting idea was a house, however we were advised to re-think our setting, as the idea of waking up after a night like that in the characters own house is too cliche, and so to think of changing the setting to somewhere like a park, or another strange setting.
The things we did well were stick to/understand the conventions of the comedy genre, and of our research. We had quite detailed, relevant research and understanding of the genre and what makes it, and  so were well informed of how to go about opposing or creating these conventions; such as the characters we present, the way we present them, the understanding of how humour would be used and how it would be used, as well as how to oppose the genre, such a not having the serious topic as a main theme.
We are now going to move on to writing the scripts. We're going to write one each and compare them, and edit and combine them to create our final script.

'Dude wheres my Hangover?' - Treatment

Title: Dude Wheres my Hangover?
An original screenplay by Jamie, Ryan, Kayleigh and Alisha
Company Name: (As yet to be decided)
A comedy film about Louis and Barry; two teenagers with imaginations that far exceed normailty. A third friend attempts to play their voice of reason as their friends discuss the insanity of the night previous.

As the sotry unfolds, we discover that their night out turned to be far more than expected. They encountered superhero's, dancing aliens, emotional turmoils, and an amazing bromance, and llama's?
Throughtout their discussion over the night before, several fights break out.

The opening scene of the film would involve the third more rational person entering the room in which they're collapsed, giving them each a cup of tea in order to sober them up slightly. They then have a long discussion around the unclear events of the previous night.

Think... Dude wheres my Car, crashing into The Hangover.

Our production company plans to usefairly strange mise-en-scene, for example, characters would be dressed messily, in the clothes they would have been wearing the night before. The props would be things like empty drink cans, cups of tea, etc. the lighting would be quite bright and vibrant as much of the time as possible. We would use a fair amount of special effects on some scenes aswell, as well as a wide variety of sound and music that fit the situation. In terms of camera, we would use a lot of reaction shots and such. We would do all of this in order to create a sense of humour for the audience to react to. Our target audience would be around 15-21 years old.

Initial point summary- Comedy film opening

A group of friends are  seriously discussing the crazy night partying they had last night, though with the excessive amounts of alcohol drunk, their stories are filled with superhero’s, aliens and the general surreal.

The scene would start with a close up shot of one of the friends shaky hands as they pick up a half empty glass of water. It then shows him drinking the water, and putting it down as someone else walks into the room. They begin a discussion about what happened the night before, as neither can really remember, though one is sure they remember a superhero partying with them, and the other is sure an alien was with them. They then argue about it, before calling in another friend, who claims they’re both wrong, and that the party ended in some sort of weird movie style surrealism, and that they ought to clear up their flat, though the others want to go and find out what really happened.

Five of the comedy film conventions I’d keep the same in this are the humorous exaggerations of characters and situations, have the scene aimed at more adult situations, satire, traditional representations of character types, and language used, however, I would change the way comedy films study institution or more serious topics.

Genre Research- Action

The History Of Action Films

Action films came about in the 1920's and 30's, and were usually more adventurous or western based pieces. 

The 1940's and 50's saw action turn to the form of war and cowboy movies, and Alfred Hitchcock soon introduced spy adventures to the genre.  

Spy orientated action films dominated the 1960's, predominantly with the James Bond series, which had long time success. These films introduced the characterises that we now associate with modern day action, such as their larger than life characters; the hero, who acts as his own army, with villains and masterminds that such a hero can easily rid of them in ever changing ways, which are normally followed by a one liner. They also used quick cuts, vehicle chases, fights, gadgets, weapons, and elaborate action sequences. 

By the 1970's, action saw gritty detectives and urban crimes attach to them, and police officer films, such as Bullitt (1968), The French Connection (1971), Dirty Harry (1971). These films all featured intense car chases, inspired by those in the Bond series. Dirty Harry also saw Clint Eastwood lifted from his cowboy roots, and become the first true archetype in urban action films. The film also proved that the modern world had an equal amount of glamour, excitement, and violence as old west films, and signalled the end of 'Cowboys and Indians'. The 1970's also introduced martial arts themed action movies to western audiences, as films such as Bruce Lee's 'Enter the Dragon' (1973) and 'Way of (or Return Of) The Dragon' (1972). This also inspired additional success to the Bond films, such as the Asian influenced 'You Only Live Twice' (). the Martial arts action genre thrived throughout the rest of the 1970's.

The 1980's saw action take over Hollywood. The 80's were 'the action era', and was popularized by actors such as Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, and Chuck Norris. In 1981, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg made 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' which paid true homage to the Bond style. In 1982, Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy smashed box office records with action comedy film '48hours', which is also credited as being the first buddy cop movie. That year, Sylvester Stallone starred in the first of the Rambo series. 'First Blood' which proves so successful that three years later 'Rambo: First Blood Part II' was released, making Rambo a pop cultural icon. 'Die Hard' (1988) payed particular influence on the action genre; in the film Bruce Willis plays a New york police detective who becomes involved in a terrorist take over of an LA office building. By the end of the 80's the influence of the action genre could be felt in many genre hybrids, such as: War- Actions, Science- Fiction Actions, Horror Actions, and Musical Action Comedy's. 

The 1990's was an era of sequels and hybrids. Action films were beginning to parody themselves, and the growing use of CGI gave real life settings over to new and more exciting environments. The decade also saw a rise in film budgets, and a collective amount of sequels to action films since earlier ones had proven that the success of one singular action film could guarantee success of a continuing franchise. Although sequels had before been frowned upon by film-makers and goes, the later 1980's saw a dramatic increase in them, as film makers and stars began to compete and try to top the previous film in their sequel. This drive led to the increased want and need for more advanced technologies that would allow film-makers to take audiences to entirely new places,   heights and idea's. The success of Tim Burton's 'Batman' in 1989 led to successful sequels, and proved the success of the comic book action film.  

Genre Convention Research: Peer Assessment Feedback

My idea's for gangster movie opening sequences were for a family in a mafia to be reading a newspaper the day after the end of events which the newspaper's front page article is about;




'A possible idea for an opening scene to this film would be to show the Capello’s reading a newspaper article about the events of the past few weeks, and then using this as a continuation as a narration throughout the film. The scene would begin with a black background, with white writing saying ‘New York, 1973’. It would then become a long shot of a large room, with low key lighting, containing a large round table lit up by a spotlight above the table, sitting a middle aged woman who is holding a news paper and reading intensively, and eight young men, and six young women. One of the young women, a daughter of hers, asks what she is reading, and she proceeds to read aloud the headline of the paper, as the camera zooms in to a close up shot of her face as she does so. The camera quickly shows the reactions of the young men and women as she finishes, and one of the men, her son in law, stands up and walks round to the older woman and stands next to her, and the camera zooms out to another long shot of the table as the others in the room watch him. The camera zooms in to a midshot, as he begins mumbling parts of the article, and the older woman begins to read the first paragraph aloud, and the man goes and take his seat. As she reads, the others watch her, and then the screen blacks out.'




The second is of three men from the same family walking down an alleyway and into a shop to meet with a man who works at the shop; 


'Another possible opening sequence would be to show the three men walking through the alleyway to the shop. The scene would begin with the black background and white writing saying ‘New York, 1973’. It would then cut to an establishing shot of the alleyway they’re in, with them as silhouettes at the end of the lowly lit alley. The camera remains in the same place and as they walk, talking about where they’re going and why, they walk into long shots, mid shots, and eventually, close ups of the three men as they talk. It then goes into an extreme close up of one of he mans hands as he opens the shop door, and then a long shot of the door as the man opens it. The three men then go and stand in front of a desk, which has a man sat behind it. There is an over shoulder shot of the man as he gets to his feet, and the cameras follows him this way as he leads them into a store cupboard. It then shows a close up of him as he shuts the door, ending of the door shutting in front of the camera, leaving the screen black.'


In lesson today, we got into groups and assessed each others opening sequences. I received mainly positive criticism, as the other members of the group all felt that my idea for the first opening sequence was different, as it is like a narration to the entire film idea, as well as happening after the events of the entire movie. They thought that the second one was also good, as it was a good link to the rest of the movie, but simple and also in the right order of events.


Their only criticism was that both opening sequences are very slow, and in most gangster movies they'd be much more speedy than talking and/or walking. 

Gangster Movies

Gangster movie’s are a subgenre of crime movies, focusing on organised crime, more often than not, the mafia. In most gangsta movies, they link into film noir, particularly the earliest. Gangster films had their roots in silent movies, the gangsta movies we know today came about in the 1930’s. The first most common films in this genre were Little Caesar, The Public Enemy, and Scarface, all of which followed the rise and fall of three young and violent criminals, all of which faced a downfall to remind the audience of the consequences of crime, and at the same time, an anti hero who they can identify with.

The conventions of this genre are low key to black and white lighting and colouring, they’re smartly dressed, there are acts or referrals to acts of violence, white writing on a black background to say the year and place, and male dominance. If I was to make a gangsta film, I’d keep the majority the same, but change the dominance to females, for example, in all gangster movies, the leader’s of the mafia’s etc, are all male, but I would change this, so the leader was a female.

Here is an idea I had for a plot of a gangster movie:

Three members of the Capello gang in 70’s New York are heading through the centre of the city, fully armed, towards a shop down a dark, dingy alleyway, commenting only on their disgust at the place. When they get into the shop, a pawn shop, they’re just as disgusted, and look very out of place in their pinstripe suits. They take the shopkeeper into the store cupboard, and he explains that a gang rival to theirs, the Mancini gang, are after his family because his daughter made the mistake of getting involved with one of them, and they require protecting from them after his son was attacked protecting his sister. After a short while, they leave with the money, but no sooner are they out of the shop, is one of the men shot and killed, another injured. Five members of the rival gang emerge from the shadows, all armed with pistols, shooting at the remaining two Capello family members, who reach for their guns. It ends in a shootout in the alleyway, in which two of the rival gangs members are shot and killed. The others leave, leaving one of the gang members to die in the others arms. He then steals a car off the street, and drives back to their base to tell their boss what had happened.

He then informs the head of the Capello family, his mother in law to be, that he has the protection money from the shopkeeper, but as they left, they were shot at, killing her youngest son instantly, and her nephew minutes later. Distraught, she calls upon her family and the rest of her mafia in order to plan revenge on the Mancini family for what they took from her and her family.

A few days later, they hold the funeral for the two young men, which passes quietly with a large crowd paying their respects to the family. The family return to their mansion near the coast, and very solemnly pay their respects to their dead relatives. Their leader then pulls together her remaining sons and daughters, nephews and nieces, and in laws to plan revenge now that the pain has really hit home. They spend the entire afternoon planning the destruction of the Mancini family, particularly their leader, and as emotions stir, her oldest son storms off and searches for the gang leader himself.

The Capello leader orders a niece, and nephew to go after him. They chase him as he heads into the city looking for him. As he approaches the warehouse they use as their headquarters, he’s shot at and wounded. His cousins and a few from the Mancini gang are involved in another shoot out, where the two of them manage to kill and wound all the Mancini members. They gather their cousin into their car, and drive him back home. His mother yells at him, and they all go their separate ways, after agreeing to leave the Mancini’s alone until after her daughters wedding in a few days.

There are quicker shots of a happier moment where her daughter and new son in law are married. After the wedding, the family and extended amount of friends go to a hotel near the mansion to celebrate. As evening approached, a series of gunshots, and then members of the Mancini gang force their way through the doors to the room they’re in, being chased by people who work at the hotel. As the door opens, it reveals all the dead people on the floor- the result of the earlier gunshots. The Marcini’s open fire at those in the wedding reception, harming several of the innocent guests. A few members of the Capello’s get out their own guns and shoot at the Mancini’s. Several of the mafia members try to get everyone out of the room, whilst some of the others stay and shoot back. Once most of the wedding guests are out, the Capello boss makes a speech to all those who are there, vowing the ultimate revenge on the Mancini’s for the lives they took, and what they did at her daughters wedding, due to the ultimate disrespect they have cast upon her family.

Back in the room, the shootout ends with a majority of the members of each gang on the floor dead, dying, or injured, though those who are still standing from the Mancini’s are outnumbered, so they leave and the Capello’s shoot at them as they go. After this, they go and get their boss, and she’s furious when she finds more of her family to be dead. She orders all the bodies of the Marcini gang to be dumped on their headquarters doorstep in the middle of the night, dead or alive, with a bloody bouquet of flowers on the top to give them a scare.

A few days later, the funerals for the six members of the Capello that died on that day are held, and as the bodies are being lowered, a gun fires, and the priest falls to the floor, bleeding from his head. A shootout quickly begins, but ends just as quickly, as the angry family chase them away, shunning them for their disrespect. Afterwards, the family take the priest into the church, then, continue with the funeral, having the caskets put into the ground, before returning home.

Back at the mansion, the atmosphere is thick with sadness and anger, as the family mourn the many they lost in the last few weeks. Away from the rest of the family, two of the sons of the Capello’s boss are in the front garden, planning their own small revenges for the deaths of their family and friends.

Fast-forward a few weeks, and the same two brothers are walking down the same alley as in the beginning of the film, but to a gym just past the shop. They enter to be greeted by a large amount of large men fighting each other and training with boxing and other gym equipment. One stands by the door and door and guards it, whilst the other goes up to a man behind a desk at the back of the room, and takes him upstairs into the store room. Once there, he intimidates and manipulates him into getting him and his trainee’s to rough up a few of the Marcini gang members for a set fee. Once the price is settled, he eagerly agrees, and the two brothers leave.

Once back at the mansion, they keep their whereabouts secret. Later in the day, there is a knock on the front door, though when they open the door there is no one there, only the burnt remnants of the flowers that were left on their families graves. In fury, the same brothers go on a chase for the culprit, and find a man who had been paid by the Marcini’s to place them there after they burnt them. Not caring of his reasoning, one of the brothers shoots him, and leaves him to bleed to death.

A few days later, the brothers order the trainees to hide in the bushes outside of their headquarters, masked and armed. As each of the rivals come out, a trainee jumps out and knocks them out, dragging their unconscious body to their hideaways. After a few hours, they leave, and go back to the brothers to collect their blood money now they’ve finished their job.

In retaliation, the Marcini family send twelve men to kill the family who paid them to protect them at the beginning, and their protector. After that, they kidnap two of the Capello’s daughters, and lock them away. They then place the body of the dead protector on their doorstep, with a note telling them that they failed, and the family is dead, and that they owe $3million if they wish for the two girls to return to them again, alive. In extreme distress, the Capello boss says she must do this for her family.

The next day the two sons escort their mother to the rivals base, though they’re heavily armed with guns, knives and grenades, though no one else knows. Once inside the base, they ensure they’re ready for any trouble, and the three of them are escorted to the Marcini’s boss, who has the two daughters tied up next to his chair. He them proceeds to play about with them in front of her, annoying her sons in particular.

Suddenly, one pulls out his gun and shoots the Marcini boss in the arm, followed by anyone who tries to approach him, and his brother follows suit. Whilst the Marcini boss is trying to recover himself, the Capello boss rushes forwards to free her youngest daughter, and then her older daughter, though as she gets to her, the Marcini boss grabs her by the throat and throws her off, taking his gun out as he does so. Her daughter quickly frees her sister, and grabs the gun from the Mancini boss, kicks him off of her mother so he’s on his back, and shoots him in the mouth. With their leader dead, the Marcini gang scatter and leave, and so the family run out of the base.

Once outside, they rush to their car, except one brother, who quickly stops to throw several grenades into the base, before jumping into the car, just as the place blows up.

A possible idea for an opening scene to this film would be to show the Capello’s reading a newspaper article about the events of the past few weeks, and then using this as a continuation as a narration throughout the film. The scene would begin with a black background, with white writing saying ‘New York, 1973’. It would then become a long shot of a large room, with low key lighting, containing a large round table lit up by a spotlight above the table, sitting a middle aged woman who is holding a news paper and reading intensively, and eight young men, and six young women. One of the young women, a daughter of hers, asks what she is reading, and she proceeds to read aloud the headline of the paper, as the camera zooms in to a close up shot of her face as she does so. The camera quickly shows the reactions of the young men and women as she finishes, and one of the men, her son in law, stands up and walks round to the older woman and stands next to her, and the camera zooms out to another long shot of the table as the others in the room watch him. The camera zooms in to a midshot, as he begins mumbling parts of the article, and the older woman begins to read the first paragraph aloud, and the man goes and take his seat. As she reads, the others watch her, and then the screen blacks out.

Another possible opening sequence would be to show the three men walking through the alleyway to the shop. The scene would begin with the black background and white writing saying ‘New York, 1973’. It would then cut to an establishing shot of the alleyway they’re in, with them as silhouettes at the end of the lowly lit alley. The camera remains in the same place and as they walk, talking about where they’re going and why, they walk into long shots, mid shots, and eventually, close ups of the three men as they talk. It then goes into an extreme close up of one of he mans hands as he opens the shop door, and then a long shot of the door as the man opens it. The three men then go and stand in front of a desk, which has a man sat behind it. There is an over shoulder shot of the man as he gets to his feet, and the cameras follows him this way as he leads them into a store cupboard. It then shows a close up of him as he shuts the door, ending of the door shutting in front of the camera, leaving the screen black.

Prelim Evaluation

The Brief of the Preliminary Task was to film and edit a thirty second video of a face to face conversation between two characters, involving a character opening a door, crossing a room, sitting down and exchanging dialogue with the other character, using match on action, shot reverse and the 180degree rule.

As a team, the four of us worked well together, sharing idea's and alternating the work. Luckily, our group all get along, so there was no arguments, and we all worked together to make the video work, focusing what we did on our strengths. I did the more artistic side of things, such as the storyboard, make up, and props, such as the masks and logo's. Andrew, Jamie, and James chose to write the script based on my original concept of Robin questioning Batman about a new costume, being refused, and running out crying, as they all have good skills in drama to make the script work to our advantage. When it came to filming, we all had a role in the video, and had a part in filming and editing, although when any of us had difficulty in this, we helped eachother out.

Personally. I think we met most of the brief, as we used shot reverse, the 180 degree rule, and match on action, as can be seen below:

As well as using the reverse shot in these scenes, we also used the 180 degree rule without filming out of this angle for most of the scene.
We aso used match on match action for the beginning scene, as seen below:

From the Prelim Task, I have learnt the importance of working well as a team to make a good video, and the importance of a good script and storyboard to structure the work, all of which I will take into account with the coursework task.