Group discussion/Ideas

Within my group we did a mind map on which genre would be easier to achieve. We felt documentary wouldn't be in our forte as you would have to be incredibly accurate with what ever you are doing it about such as historical, the amount of propps for each scene and how they spoke. Adventure would be hard as well because where we are situated you couldn't really do it and there wouldn't be a lot of angle use, and if there were it would be very hard to do.
I wanted to do something along the lines of black comedy or horror containing comedy such as Shaun of the dead, but i felt doing the humour isn't something i can easily achieve and probably wouldn't end up being as funny as i thought it would. In the end we decided to do horror. I do believe horror is the easiest the achieve with all the camera shots to give the right effect and atmosphere, the use of pacing to show a build up to something. The use of music or sound could create a very tense scene.

At first with the camera angles it was going to be hand held camera like in Blair witch project and the clover field, but we felt it was very limiting and may not create the atmoshpere we would want it to. The first idea was the trailer would start off with a couple on a beach having a fun time, then it would jumpcut to a clip of people running through woods and screaming, then flash back again to the beach and the cheerful times within the clip, then it would finally jumpcut again to the running and the camera glances back only seeing shadows running after them. I really did feel this idea had potenial but we discussed further and felt and many trailers have done this and felt the effect probably would be as horrific as we would have hoped.

Our other idea was that the end of the film would be the first clip of the trailer and would be a girl in ripped clothing drenched in blood banging on a door screaming help, someone opens the door and asks 'what happened' the girl falls to the floor and looks up at the person and as she's about to speak it jump cuts to a slow pacing shot running in the woods, the pacing of the jumpcuts gradularly becomes faster and the scenes contain clips of them running, close-ups of scared facial expressions, then the last shot could be a close up of the eyes of the monster/killer.

The locations which we could film in - Beach - where the couples are having fun, woods - a typical scene where most movies take place, graveyard - obvious scary place as where the dead rests, oldtown - historic/distorted looking buildings helps give the eeriness of the film.

Narrative

Narrative - A story is portrayed
- Sequence of events
-The means by which a story within a film is structured and organised to create a given meaning - Normally have an exposition, which is in the opening scenes of the film and presents the protagonist and their situation or predicament
- May hint a back story to that character which will shape the characters behaviour and the events that befall upon them.

Ellipsis - Change of time.
This can be shown through when a flash back appears, it's usually in black and white.
In Momento when we look back at the man writing down important facts about a murderer, the scene is in black and white.

Parallel narratives - two stories at the same time

Tzvetan Todorov is a Bulgarian philosopher and his theory was:
Equilibrium: the state of normality of someone's life.
Disequilibrium: Something which creates the imbalance of the normality state.
New equilibrium: Normality has restored, doesn't mean the life is what it used to be, living a new normality state.

Bambi - Equilibrium - Bambi happy with his mother whislt being a young deer.
- Disequilibrium - Bambi's mum is shot
- New equilibrium - His father takes him in and looks after him.

Films can also fit into another structure which is often used, Vladimir Propp was a Russian Formalist who analysised Russian Fairytales and came up with a theory that is thought to be in most stories. The theory was that a particular group of characters always appear in most stories, especially Fairytales:

Example for the use of ToyStory 1

1. Sid - The Villian -
2. Mr Potatoe head The Donor - Prepares the hero for the adventure ahead
3. All the toys - The (Magical) Helper - Helps the hero throughout the task
4. Little Bow Peep - The princess of prize - What the hero gets once defeating the villian or the task and ends up marrying the princess
5. Her Father - Gives the task to the hero
6. The Dispatcher - makes the lack known and sends the hero off
7. Woody/Buzz The hero or victim/seeker hero - reacts to the donor
8. False Hero - Takes all the credit

There is another structure which is commonly used by large Hollywood Productions which is called 'The Classic Hollywood', this contains more sections to Todorov's theory.

Exposition - tells us a little bit about the protagonist and sets the scene.
Development - the film proceeds further and tells us more about the protagonist and the relationship with others.
Complications - A problem occurs which makes the life of the protagonist harder
Climax - The situation builds up to the problem and fights it.
Resolution - All is restored the protagonist is happy once again, basically what happens after the problem has gone.

However a film called Momento goes against Todorov's theory of the three main structures of a film. Momento starts off being in a disequilibrium state, and every time the protagonist is close to finding out the problem so they are thrown back again. This film is very effective as it breaks all the rules of being an organised film, also the idea of the story flowing through, whereas in Momento as the story goes forward it keeps converting backwards as well.

Advanced Portfolio Task

To produce a promotional package for a film. To include a teaser trailer, a magazine front cover and a poster. The work must be presented on a blog format and edited to individual taste.