Deadlines

Here are the deadlines for my blog, they will be updated as i go.


-Friday 16th Have looked at 30 or so Short Films
-Wednesday 20th have blogged casting/prop/music requirements.
-Friday 23rd to have completed Teaser Poster
-Friday 6th November Pod-cast and Genre Research
-Friday 13th (No pun intended) November finish story board, screenplay, casting and Soundtrack preferences

Hardware

The Camera i will be using to record the video footage is called Cannon Wide screen MV920

It is 115mm in length, 92mm in height, 49,mm in width and 375 grams in weight. The LCD screen is 2.7 inches. Te video type is PAL, it also has features to change the white balance;

• Auto White Balance
• Manual Brightness/Contrast Settings
• Multiple features to change lighting and focus such as Daylight, Nighttime, and Sport etc.

It has a built in microphone and its audio output is Stereo. It has a 800x Digital zoom and a 25x optical zoom.

I will be using a tripod for some shots to keep the camera steady. The tripod we used was very useful as it had expandable legs and also you can change the angle of the camera-rest for shots such as a Dutch angle. It is also very stable with adjustable feet as well.
The main good thing about this tripod is that it is adjustable in about anyway which makes it easier to get a steady shot of whatever angle you want.

For some special shots e.g. slow motion we will be using the Lg KC910. 

Primary	8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, Schneider-Kreuznach optics, auto/manual focus, xenon flash
Features	Geo-tagging, face, smile and blink detection, touch focus, image stabilization
Video	Yes, VGA@30fps, QVGA@120fps
Secondary	VGA videocall camera

Casting and Costume

All casting, composers and props have been sorted out/are organized to be done by ourselves. Sam White in the group is a composer, and I have props and costumes we are planning to use.
There will be two protagonists in our film. The rest of the cast will be filled up with extras which have been sorted out as friends and other actors have agreed to help out where-ever they can.

One of the protagonists will be the 'Blue Man' he is never named but this is what people have come to call him. He will be acted by me(Sam thomas) and will be dressed in a work uniform (white shirt, black ties, working trousers, black shoes blazer and a hat). He is too look like a busy business man, with not much time on his hands.

For our main protagonist in the film we will be using Ben Gibson. He has had acting experience when he was younger and he is also available whenever we are as he has similar frees to us and also is a friend of ours and will happily give up free time to work on the film. He is of a normal stature and is what we see as the average teenage boy. He is 17 years old and is part of the middle class.
The costume for this character will be basic clothing. He will, most of the time, be wearing a leather coat, jeans and a t-shirt. For props that link to the story, we will have him wear a medal from RAF. This links to his childhood in the story. Also it will act as the magical object  from propps narrative theory.

For  our flash back seen will be using a small child who will be the image of our main protagonist as of when he was younger. This role will be played by Sam Whites Little brother William White. He is aged 7, which is the same age as the character and also will be of similar attitude (Lively, active).

UPDATE(14/02/2010): Due to unfortunate circumstances, our lead actor, Ben, became very ill and then went away on holiday, making re-filming very difficult. Therefore, we have changed the main protagonist to Sam White. HE still fits with our character as he is of average build, and looks like the average guy. HE also is the brother of our younger Gordon therefore will actually fit better as he looks more alike.

Teaser Poster

This is our teaser poster, We created it on Photoshop using an image taken of me in my outfit for the production and then edited around it. We decided the tag line suited the poster as it is all about time being backwards and also he clock suited this because it is mirrored.

Useful Resources

I useful resource found in my school library was 'Making short Films' Written by Clifford Thurlow.  It teaches how to write scripts, what good shots to sue and also how to create an impact, in a simple to do way. ISBN: 978 1 84520 804 2

www.filmradar.com/community/viewforum/6/  a community site where posters talk about films, this forum in particular talks about short films and people help each other out.

Target Audience

The age range we would be aiming for our target Audience would be 12 (12a technically). This because we will not be using adult language, and if we do, there will be little and it will not be of much harm. the theme of the film isnt too disturbing but it wouldnt be understood as easily to a child audience. There is no sex witnessed in our film, nor violence or drug use, but some scenes may be horrific to some e.g. backwards people and the blue man. Our cast and location will reflect this age as well as it will be in a recognisable environment, and also the age of characters will be older teenagers, which at this age, they aspire to be like.


Our film is aimed at all ethnic minority's. There is no discrimination against either ethnicity however there are only Caucasian characters being used. However this is down to primarily being a mainly Caucasian school. In the media industry this generally doesnt effect the audience of the film anyway as it doesnt really matter. However, if a Black character was to be used as a main protagonist, this could change our audience a little bit as it is seen to attract more of a Black audience, which can be seen as odd as a Caucasian character does not effect as much.

The gender of our film would be aimed at the male audience. This is because we havnt invested in using any female characters, and the main-protagnoists are male as well. However, we will incorporate the Female Gaze in our film by having either a topless man, or a short love scene, but these are not major plot points. With our film also being a Comedy genre, this will cross out the female audience as Comedy has been branded a more male film genre, the Rom-Com being totally different, but this hybrid genre has evolved into being completely on its own.

Our film will be aimed at C1C2(Middle Class) audience. this is because our characters will be of Upper.Middle class but the upper class will be victims of a mockery and from the view of a middle class character. Also the story may be too complex for a DE class or too boring (no explosions and 'hot babes'). However there will be hints of the lower class which can draw them in as the character will be walking around town, through different areas.

Software

In the production of our movie we will use a few pieces of software. The main software we will be using is Final Cut Express 4. We have chosen to edit our film in this programs over others (iMovie used last year etc.) because it is a very complex movie editing program but with a wider arrange of tools to others we can produce much higher quality films. It is also at the film industry standard where films such as District 9. Me and my partner recently under-went a Editing Master-class at the co-op young filmmakers festival where we used another version of Final Cut, but is practically the same.



To compose music for our film we will be using Garageband. This is because it has a wide range of audio sounds which we can use and also it is simple to hook up an instrument and record live to compose our own music. Other software similar to this may be Logic Express 8, this is more complex, but can create better pieces.

To create graphical images we will be using Adobe PhotoShop Elements 6. This is because it is a highly complex program with a wide array of tools which can produce very high quality images. We will be using it mainly for teaser poster but also may create some slides which may feature in the film



Update 10/12/09
We will now be doing all the editing on Sony Vegas Pro. This is because I have used it more at home before, and also since it is at home I can work on it more freely. It is very similar to Final Cut with the precision of the editing and tools available.