Shooting Schedule!!

Evaluation :p

As a group we decided that it would be better if we went with comedy as the genre. As a genre we felt that comedy would be aharder to do as it all about timing and content and so means that it would be just as challenging to edit as it would to film.

At first we decided that we would create an americanized style film about a secondary school outcast who in the end turns out to be the 'hero' of the film. We thought that in the opening scene we would create an atmosphere of how the main character, melvin, views himself and at the same point we would show a clip of the reality of life and how he is really treated.

We decided that we would start with narration from the main character, we believed that this was a good idea as after analysing several different comedies such as "American Pie" and "superbad" we found this was a common technique used in comedies, we felt that by using him to 'big' himself up and then contradicting it with a clip of his life would add humour, although when it came to the editing process of the course we found that the voice over didnt seem quite as natural as we wanted and seemed more robotic and forced than a natural flow, so we decided that instead of using a narrataion we would use titles in our film, and after we watched it afterwards we found that it the same effect as we wished from the voice over.

We also found that by using the 'voice over' it allowed us to portray our character and allows the audiance to understand the character and connect with them.

Later we found that the narration did not fit with our clip as the voice over was not quite fluent enough and seemed forced rather than flowing and in the end decided not to use the voice over. Yet later on we decided that it wwould be better to have it in for two reasons, first it we found that it was iconical of comedies to have a v=narration in the beggining, and also we found that it seemed ironic that although the hall monitor was trying to make himself sound better he didnt sound too emthusiastic about it and it allowed the audiance to realise how much he really thought about himself.

AS far as the filming went i believed tha it was perfect apart from we had to film the class room scene several times as the first time we filmed it that there was no sound. The hardest pne to film though was the last scene in the Hallway, this was because of the fact we had several cameras filming at once and it made it harder as we had to try and avoid getting the other camera in the filming.

The editing was next and this was easy once we worked out how to use Adobe Premier Elements. I found that is was harder to transfer the files needed for our clip into the program rather than it was to use the program itself.

The filming was taken in our college, in both the rooms and the hallways as these are typical areas where teen comedies were filmed as they are familiar areas for the audiance. We felt that by using area's more comonly know to the audiance would make it easier to determine what genre the clip was.

When choosing the characters we wanted to portray in our film, we first looked at our comedy research and the characters that were used, most of the time they have 'the jock', 'the hot girl' and 'the geek' and so we thought these would be the characters we would use. As we were only filming the opening 2 minutes of the film we only had time to show the geek as he was the main focus as the film was about his life. We tried to find clothes that were more conservative and formal for him to wear and we believed that he should speak with a different accent as to help portray him as an 'outcast'.
We also found that when looking at our research that there was a change of 'status' within the school in the teen comedies, 'the geek' generally tends to become more of a 'jock' at a point in the film, this is what generally helps to add humour to the film and this was a focus of our film aswell.
We also tried to portay the 'hot' girls in our clip, this was fior several reasons. It helped to show what the hall monitor 'aspired' to have, it also helped to show how far from reality his thoughts were. In our piece we have tried to show how the social groups/click's are decided by what people prefer to do rather than who they are and that anyone can be popular.

I think the main target audiance for our piece would be late teens to mid 40's. Although this seems like a larger spectrum of people to choose for an audiance i feel that due to the fact it is a teen comedy it will appeal to teens in school and college, and then you have the students in uni who in the same situation. The you have all the adults who have not long left education and those who have children in the same posistion as many of the characters depending on which sicial groupp their child falls into. So by using teens as you characters you have the potential depending on the storey itself to reach a large audiance of people, such as with the 'American Pie' series.

Since my preliminary task i have become more knowledgeable and more comfortable using the Adobe Premier Elements program and now feel comfortable making short clips, although i have learnt that if you wished to make the film look more professional you would need to use a program which has more advanced transactions and effects as the one's available can make the film look tacky and leaves you with a limited amount at your disposle.
I aslo learnt more about the work that needs to be put in in the background, for example i have learnt about shooting schedule's and how by planning ahead you can save time, although you may believe that this is a fact everyone should have known, it is actually impossible to go ahead with anything unless you have planned ahead when filming, to just turn up and think of the top of your head wastes too much time and prior planning was a major fault of my group.

Overall i am pleased with our clip and how it turned out although i wish we had found a more suiting background tune. When we showed our finished poroduct to the public we asked them what the liked, what they would change, what they thought about the editing or sound and whether they would change anything if given the chance. The majority of our feedback was posistive with many being able to tell us the genre and how they felt about it in general, although the main focus the audince was unhappy with was the music in the background and they felt it was not in sync as far as the action is concerned and it seemed too slow. Many found it funny and it was found that t he humour they saw was more slapstick rather than in the dialouge, this shows me that if i was to do the film again i would have to look more at the dialouge and work on making it more interesting.

Who's done what????

Fraser Nick Scott Stevie
Storyline Storyline Storyline Storyline
Script Shooting Schedule
Story Board Story Board Story Board Story Board
Camera Map
Camera Man Acting Camera Man
Editing Title’s

Hall Monitor

‘The Hall Monitor’


Short cut with sound of an alarm clock

INT. BEDROOM, DAY

Boy laying in bed, action figures seen around room. We see Melvin(Hall Monitor) leave his bed and walk off screen.


INT. BATHROOM - Looking In Mirror

MELVIN (Scene cuts between shots of Melvin in Bathroom to different scenarios that contradict what he has said)
(cool voice) ‘Hi, I’m Melvin (coughs)……..
(normally) I mean hi I’m Melvin. I’m 17, and
I’m a college boy and I love it!
I have so many friends' (cuts to classroom scene)

'I'm a ladies man'
(Shot of attractive woman coming out of gym, slow motion shot and provocative music, breaks back into reality to find Melvin breathing deep and staring intently)

Attractive Girl
'Hey there'

Melvin
'I..........uh........arggghhh'
(Melvins runs off holding crotch)

'And I am clearly the coolest kid in school' (smiles at himself in the mirror)
(shot of Melvin putting sash on and Waiting for students to exit classroom, we see him with speed monitor gun)

'I am the HALL MONITOR'
(Melvin ducks to spit in sink and we see Title scrren come up)

Treatment

The 'Hallmonitor' is an American style teen film in which the social 'outcast' becomes the 'Cool' kid that everyone wants to be, along the way he will change his appearance, change his views and will get the girl that everyone wants to have....





The film will open with an aerial shot of the 'Hallmonitor's' (HM) bedroom, with him lying in bed. The room will be clean with toy action figures everywhere in 'mint' condition and scientific equipment, such as a microscope and stethascope. There will be the diegetic sounnds coming from the room and outside. We hear the alarm ringing and watch as the Hall Monitor leaves his bed and walks off screen.

We then cut to an over the shoulder shot of Melvin in the bathroom mirror as he brushes his teeth, a voice is overheard, melvin narrating his life, while Melvin is talking we have cuts to different aspects of his life that he refers to, Although whatever the narrator says the opposite is shown in the film!!

Next the title scene commences and the names of the 'creators and actors' show in the film appear! The title is simple just saying the words 'Hall Monitor' with the LL's being replaced by Inhaler's to try and emphasize the iconic view of a 'Geek'!

The next shot is a long shot of a class room with the HM sitting at the front of the room on his own, the rest of the room is empty. Next a group of 'cool' kids enters the room and walk to the back, the camera then cuts to an over the shoulder shot of one of the kids and we hear then make fun of the HM as they procedde to chuck paper at the HM, we hear the HM 'thank' the kids not realising they are being mean.
Next we cut to a scene of the HM in the hallway doing his duties, using a homemade speedgun, the people walking by look on with confised faces on, we then see one of the kids running past and we her the HM shout 'Slow down laddy your going too fast!'
We done this to help show how 'strange' the HM is and help build the 'outcast' aspect of the HM.
The next shot is one of the HM in the hallway trying to talk to some 'hot' girls, after approaching the girls and asking them thw they are, we see the HM thrown across the hallway by one of the girls.
The next scene is a shot of the dinner time routine with the HM watching eveyone as they walk past, ignoring him. Oblivious to the HM one of the hot girls is looking at him. The hot girl turns to her 'friend' and asks her what she thinks of the HM, she laughs.
In the next scene the 'hot' girls tells her friend that she thinks the HM is hot. Unaware to the 'hot' girl, her friend likes the 'hot' girls boyfriend and so goes to inform her of what she has said. The Boyfriend confronts the 'hot' girl and says he is 'going to get' the HM.
It then cuts to the HM doing his duties when the 'boyfriend' enters and starts to give him a hard time. He tells the the HM that they will have a fight the next day, the 'hot' girl then tewlls the Hm what she really thinks and gives him a kiss and leaves.
We then cut to the HM back in his toilet mirror giving himself a 'pep talk' and it the cuts to a 'rocky' style montage witht HM doing a work out to try and get 'nigger'
It then cuts to the next day with a shot of a clock on the wall and as the bell hits 3.00 we hear the bell ring to symbolize the end of school and we then see the HM curled up in the bathroom toilets at school. We then follow the HM with a point of view shot as he tries to get away from the school without being noticed.
It then cuts to an over the shoulder the shot of the 'boyfriend' noticing the Hm as a group of his friends run over to get him. A 'two shot' would then be used to film the fight, at the end of the fight we notice one of the boys lying face down in the ground, we notice that it isnt the HM and the camera then pans round to find him in the arms of the 'hot' girl and it fades out as he kisses her.

Genre film opening research!

After watching 'American Pie, The Naked Mile'(ap) and 'Rush Hour'(rh) myself and the other members of my group have come up with certains aspects of the genre which will help and aid us when it comes to creating our film project.



For instance we will be using a 'flawed' character in our film, in ap the main protaganist is a senior high school student verging on going to college with his life sorted......except for one thing, he is a virgin. Many comedies are based around flawed characters as they are easy to base jokes around, although in many instances the stories seem to be sex based.

In the opening of our films we found that it inroduced all the main characters from the storey and gave a brief description as to what type of character they were, later we were introduced to 'Mike 'Cooze' Coozeman'...a self proclaimed ladies man, 'Ryan Grim' Eriks football playing best friend who can have any woman he wants, in the beggining though we are introduced to 'Erik Stifler' a boy cursed by his name and his legacy.

The use of cuts in the opening scenes help to add pace in the opening and thus cause humour to arise. such as when we are introduced to the characters, or when Erik is spanking the monkey to his 'dumpster porn'. The fast cuts between the porn, Erik and his parnets coming home add humour as the audiance knows what is about to happen.

Practice :)

Harro everybody :)