Final Film

Final Poster and Radio Trailer (Ancillary Texts)

Jennifer Penaluna - Critical Evaluation - Q1

During the filmmaking process, we used the conventions of filming and editing in our film to ensure professionalism. In terms of filming, we made sure to keep to the 180 degree rule so that our film made viewing sense. This was especially important in the beginning scene of Jack and Emma entering the house when they walk through the living room and into the kitchen. We filmed the shots from entering the house to pouring the wine from one side of the couple so it didn’t confuse the audience.

We also used fast-paced editing and jump cuts for when Jack is buying, receiving and opening his remote. The fast-paced editing demonstrates the impossible quickness of receiving a package and makes it humorous. The jump cuts were filmed from different heights and on a 30 degree angle to make the jumps continuous. We decided to use jump cuts to show the speed and subsequent eagerness of Jack and his new life-changing package. 

 

The flower drop and give back sequence was quite difficult to do to ensure continuity and prevent from jarring and consequently looking unprofessional. The editing here was crucial and fiddly to get the consecutive shots to fit together seamlessly. Although I found it difficult to match the giving back of the flowers sequence, I think I managed to make it work and appear to run smoothly.

After coming up with the initial basis of our film, we decided that our film was a Romantic-Comedy which is evidently a sub-genre of both Romance and Comedic films. ‘Rewind’ is based around a “meet-cute” which is a humorous and/or awkward encounter between the main couple and this is what led us to follow other conventions of the Romantic-Comedy genre. We also incorporated a hybrid of Science-Fiction with Romantic-Comedy due to the technology of the remote control and making our film a different genre, which according to Steve Neale, is important for growth of genre as it attracts new audiences. Similar ideas to this include ‘the Time Traveller’s Wife’ which incorporates both Romance with Science-Fiction due to the main character’s love of his family and ability to time travel. Looking for ideas for our niche hybrid genre, I came across ’11 Minutes’ which is a short film that is also a Sci-Fi Rom-Com and this helped me to understand exactly what goes into this genre.

In accordance to Tom Ryall’s genre theory, we tried to stick to the narrative structures, themes, iconography and characters of Romantic-Comedies. Our narrative structure can be said to be typical of a Rom-Com due to the majority of the predictability of our storyline, i.e. the “meet cute” infers straight away that the couple become romantically involved, as well as that Jack will mess up on the date due to his initial awkwardness. The typical theme of love and striving for perfection is the main point of our film that everybody can relate to. Even if not in such a radical way as having a time rewinding remote, people aim for perfection – especially on an initial date. Iconography was very important to us as this is what the audience can easily identify with as being a Rom-Com; flowers, wine and a couple watching television are obvious Rom-Com traits without even knowing the plotline (pictured below). As for the characters in our film, we stuck to the very vague typicality of a main girl and a main boy being romantically involved but we wanted to subvert the gender stereotype and have the male as the awkward and unsure character, subsequently making the female the stronger and superior character throughout the film. This made the twist at the end (Emma having a remote control all along) a shock to the audience because she isn’t the strong one after all; she is just as susceptible to strive to perfection as Jack due to lack of confidence in herself, making the two equals at the end. 

As our film is mainly a Rom-Com with components of Sci-Fi intertwined, we realised that our film would have to primarily follow the conventions of a Rom-Com and the Sci-Fi part would be the innovative and different selling point. This idea follows Steve Neale’s theory of Repetition and Difference, meaning that audience pleasure was created through the predictability of the characters, iconography, themes and narrative structure and the unique selling point of incorporating Sci-Fi and technology into a Rom-Com. With this in mind, we created our poster and radio trailer with the remote control being the main point of the advert. The link between Rom-Com and Sci-fi exists already as a niche film market that manages to make big films due to the mix of traditionalism with a bit of difference. Films likes this include ‘Click’ which has a similar theme to ours in regards to the idea of a remote control for life itself (trailer below).

From the beginning, it was evident that Jack was an awkward kind of boy and so the audience would assume that he would mess up. From guessing this, the audience gains pleasure through feeling as if they have worked something out. So as not to be overly predictable and subsequently bore the audience, we manipulated the audience’s expectations right until the end where Emma has also had a remote and this hopefully left them surprised. After letting people view our film, typical out loud comments were:  ‘Oh, she has a remote too!’ which show the exclaim we were looking for and means that we were successful in terms of creating audience pleasure through both predictability and surprise.

Jennifer Penaluna - Critical Evaluation Q2

Rewind on Prezi

Jennifer Penaluna - Critical Evaluation - Q3

Jennifer Penaluna - Critical Evaluation - Q4

We initially set up a blog on Blogger of which all our media portfolio would be put on to enable us to use different types of media in one place throughout the making of the film. I was introduced to this last year and so had a years worth of experience with it at A2.

We were able to upload videos that we created on Final Cut Express onto YouTube and then embed them onto Blogger so they could be viewed directly on our blog. For this to happen, we had to create a YouTube account. We created a group account with the username ‘blankpagepro’ so that we could upload and manage our videos together.

Along with videos, we can upload photos to our blog which allows us to show our further ideas in picture format, making the blog a multi-media platform and interesting to view rather than just writing and essay structures.

Ebay helped us to be creative by allowing us to create a pretend selling page for our remote control prop in our film, making the intertextual link between the viral advert and selling page which were incorporated into the actual film.

We used the Macs for all of our media production process, which featured Celtx and Final Cut Express. We used Celtx to create the script and was very easy to use as it uses the correct format for a script. We used Final Cut Express for all of our editing throughout the filmmaking process including my Video Diary, the Viral Advert and the title sequence along with the finished film.

For the filming, we used a HD camera which I did not use last year so this was a development for my confidence in my camera skills. As I was in most of the film, I did not get chance to film much so my input to this was limited but I got to see and understand how to use the camera through observation. The sharpness of the image that this camera gave us made our film look a lot more professional than last year. For my video diary, I used the smaller handheld cameras as they were more portable but a less sharp image.

A voiceover was included in our film which meant that we had to use a Zoom recorder to record both mine and Joe’s voices. This was a new experience for all of us and we had to quickly learn how to use it. We missed a part of Joe’s speech and me and Jade had to re-record it whilst we were filming. We were also able to turn the sound level up when necessary on Final Cut Express due to one part being held further away from Joe and subsequently sounding naturally too quiet.

Final Cut Express enabled us to be creative with our film and incorporate the ‘rewind’ feature. We wanted to show the shots in reverse to fit with the theme of rewinding to make the effect of the remote more plausible. We were able to edit the shots to play backwards which was exactly what we anticipated. Some of our shots were the wrong colour due to filming on different days in different levels of natural sunlight and they weren’t continuous. We were able to edit the balance of light on Final cut, making our film look a lot better.

We also used Photoshop to create our poster in a professional looking way, which was a step up from last year. After every group member contributed a poster, we chose a favourite and used this to create in Photoshop so we knew exactly what we wanted it to look like so it was quite straightforward.

Along with other group members, I used Facebook to gain audience feedback which proved useful. Before we had fully finished the film and wanted some feedback on what was missing, I posted our film on Facebook to people directly asking for comments which we took on board, allowing our creativity to blossom further.

Film Poster Idea

I tried to use all of the features of the Romantic-comedy film posters that I found. In this poster, I included:

• the title in capitalised large letters to stand out immediately
• a tagline that sets the idea of the film and creates curiosity
• a picture the main couple at a bus stop, smiling, to signify an initial meeting and liking
• the remote control prop in Jack’s hand to show that he uses it and it is important
• the actors' names
  

Film Poster Research

Click
I chose to specifically look at this poster because I know that it is a Science-Fiction Romantic-Comedy which is the exact same rare genre as ours and for the same reason; a time controlling remote. I hoped that this poster would give us some good ideas of what to include in our poster.
The main two things on the poster are the actor and the remote. The remote is very important as this is the selling point of the film, so we should include our remote to make it apparent to the audience that a time controlling remote is the basis of the film. Other features to note are the simple and also capitalised title of the film to grab attention, the actor’s name and the date it will be released.

Leap Year
When looking for existing posters of the romantic comedy genre, I came across this one and liked it because it makes the main storyline quite evident due to the prop and the tagline. This means that a tagline is very important for establishing the initial point or even plot to the film to interest the audience. The couple are also the main features of the poster, taking up most of the room and allowing the audience to bond in some way with the characters by knowing what they look like. As the female is holding her hand to her chest and holding an engagement ring, we can see straight away that she is in love and the male has his hands in his back pockets, creating the impression that he is distancing himself. From this we can learn that the body language of the characters is also important to create an initial impression on the audience of what the characters are like.

My One And Only
This poster confirms my previous statements as it involves the characters creating an impression on the audience through body language and also the mirror frame being used as the main prop to demonstrate the basis of the film’s idea. Again, a simple title, actors’ names as well as an important tagline to understand what the film is about.

Audience Feedback

From these questionnaires that I gave to a selection of family and friends, we have gained mainly positive feedback. If any serious amendments had been suggested, we could have changed parts our film to ensure the audience's understandability. The genre of our film was also identified which means that we included the right narrative structure, iconography, characters and themes due to the research that we carried out. Music was something that we struggled with finding but what we have found seems to be right for the film. The viral adverts have also been liked by the people that I showed it to due to the unique idea of creating fake advertisements to make a talking point and has been reflected in these questionnaires.

Audience Research - Feedback

To get a reception from our traget audience, we posted a rough version of the final film onto Youtube and uploaded it to Facebook on our three profiles. We each have friends within our target audience range and hoped they would comment with some suggested improvements before we did our final edits to the film. But also to find out if the film has a generally positive reception from the people who watched it. Here are the improvements we are expecting to hear;

• Title Sequence - needs more clips in the blank areas.
• Music - needs more music throughout, in particular the title sequence.
• Sound Effects - TV Background, needs to be louder.

Here is the rough edit we have uploaded. After we have enough results, we will made the ammendments to our film before realeasing a final edit.

Results

We didn't receive all the expected results. Some of the suggested improvement highlighted aspects we really liked and didn't want to change but we did use the results to make some improvements.

• Amended spelling errors.
• Made the music in the delivery scene more smooth, by re-added a section we had previously cut.
• Added music to the title sequence and credits.

Overall, after the audience feedback, our film runs much smoother and sees more professional. The film already has a generally positive response, but should now be more satisfying. We are pleased with the end result and it seems to be understood by our target audience.

Behind The Scenes Video Diary

Behind the Scenes: Viral Advert

Viral Advertising

For the 2008 film, Dark Knight, the viral advertising used created a kind of alternate reality game whereby the whole world could witness and new fans could be drawn in. Some of these methods included:

• gatherings of Joker, Batman and Harvey Dent fans
• scavenger hunts around the world websites that let fans ‘vote’ for political offices in Gotham City
• hidden phone numbers and websites in the queue lines of The Dark Knight roller coasters at Six Flags Great America and Six Flags Great Adventure
• Gotham News Network has links to other Gotham pages such as Gotham Rail, a Gotham travel agency, and political candidate's pages.
• a fake web page was set up for Gotham Cabs, a website for Gotham News, and even the subway in Gotham City.

Each of these methods created a buzz around the film and were brought into the mainstream culture by word of mouth, ultimately resulting in a widespread knowledge of these campaigns as well as the hype about the film itself.

Below is a video detailing the viral campaign for Dark Knight in its entirety, demonstrating the effectiveness it had on the awareness of the film.

Pictured below is a small group of fans dressed Jokers, demonstrating against Harvey Dent in the fake election.

The idea of an alternate reality game, in which aspects of the film come to life, is an idea which hugely benefitted the profit of the film at the box office, as well as making a memorable viral advertising campaign. We could use a similar idea, whereby the idea of our remote control being real could be incorporated into a fake advert. This would allow people to wonder about the great idea behind having a remote that could rewind time and possibly be therefore interested in watching our film after being exposed to the idea.

A website was created for the campaign, using The Joker's tagline 'why so serious?' at whysoserious.com

Pictured above is the fake news campaign being recorded for the fake website of the fake election of Gotham City. We could do exactly the same thing with our remote control having an advert and even it's own fake website.

Although the Dark Knight film mainly appealed to existing Batman fans, new fans were founded through the hype of the extraordinary campaign. As our film would be a new film and not have an existing franchise to fall back on, it would be harder for us to create a buzz for our film as we would not have the existing fans to entice the new fans. Although it would be harder, it would not be impossible because the remote control idea would appeal to everyone; everyone has had moments when they wish that they could rewind time. Perhaps the film itself and romantic-comedy genre would not appeal to everyone, but if we could expose as many people as possible to the advert, we have a good chance of extracting possible fans of our film.

Script - First Completed Script

Possible location Photos

Genre Research - Romantic Comedy

Typical features of a Rom-Com:

1. Boy & Girl meet.

2. Conflicts occur. This is usually in the form of the boy and girl not seemingly being destined to be together, or if they are well suited, other obstacles become apparent to get in their way of happiness.

3. 'The Look’. This is a moment shared by the two love interest which captivates the audience into believing that they will end up together, even if the couple do not know themselves and this is strung out throughout the film.

4. Threats/obstacles/bad guys. One of these things gets in the way of the couple being together and the audience can fear that they will never be together, although they believe that they should be.

5. Happily ever after. After placing numerous doubts in the audience’s minds, the couple always end up together. Cue the 'aww'’s.

Research taken from essortment.com

Logo Ideas

By using an image of a sketchbook with 'Bank Page Productions' written all over it, the logo is ironic and gives the initial impression that our film company makes films that people can chuckle at.

For this logo, I found an old sketchbook of mine and a pencil and took a photo of it. I added the production name on afterwards on the computer. I thought that a monochrome look would enable the logo to look simple and effortless.



Again, I thought a simple idea would be best suited to our production company name, so I wrote 'BLANK PAGE PRODUCTIONS' in pencil on a piece of paper, screwed it up a little and took a photo of it. The discarded and screwed up look of this logo gives the impression of writers block or ideas trying to be formed and made perfect, which is similar to the theme of our film whereby a man on a date tries to make the date go well but things keep going wrong so he starts again each time.




By combining two previous ideas, (the screwed up paper and the simple sketchbook) I tried to create a more visual and aesthetically pleasing logo, whilst adhering to the same idea of simplicity and and a blank page.

Opening Credits Research

Order of Credits:

• Production Company - “A Production Company Name Production.”
• Distribution Company - most likely to be an independent distributor that did not finance your film so will appear on its own. It usually is listed as “Distribution Company Presents,”
• The director’s credit tends to come right after this, labeling it “A Director’s Name Film.”

Research taken from here, on brightbulb.com.

TYPES OF OPENING CREDITS:

Animated:

Animated Opening Credits from 'Catch Me If You Can' which would be difficult for us to do.

Title Sequence:

Title Sequence from James Bond - Golden Eye, whereby the credits are incorporated into a separate sequence. To use this idea in our film, we would have to create a fully separate sequence of events that are not related to the storyline of our film, which could be potentially difficult and confusing to the plot.


Cold Open:

Ocean's Eleven demonstrates a Cold Open, which shows a part of the story pre-credits to hook the audience by creating a teaser. We could create a Cold Open for our film by showing time rewinding but not immediately reveal that the remote control is responsible, which would be the teaser for the film.

Minimalistic:

Title Sequence from 'Bunny Lake is Missing' which is a simple and minimal concept of showing credits. For our film, this could be done well with a lot of effort put into it but would perhaps be a little boring and be difficult to set the tone and theme of the film immediately.

Relative Theme:

As American Splendour is about a comic book creator, the title sequence is in a comic book format, giving an initial taste as to what the film is about. In our film for example, a similar idea would be to base the title sequence around a remote control, perhaps with credits on the buttons or on the TV.