These are our storyboards, as a group we knew it would be difficult to keep exactly in the same constraints as the storyboard and we knew that some things would change, mainly to keep in with the generic conventions and iconography, for example the shot of Harry lieing on the floor in a pool of blood was omitted in favor of the antagonistic Dover fans walking to the pub, and also instead of showing the shock on the face of Harry, we went straight into the punch to keep up a high tempo, and also in the actual movie a voice over was made in the background.
The genre that my group aims to develop is Sport Violence- in particular football hooliganism. The movie that gave us the the inspiration to do this is The Football Factory, here is the opening; watch until 8:20.
The first thing you notice is the music to accompany the opening credits, its electronic with a fast tempo, something that can reflect the mood and pace of the movie, on our film sequence we aim to reproduce this by using Garage Band on the computer and creating something to set up a fast tone with a slight retro feel, because the 7o's and 80's were the main hooligan activity years so a retro sound could relate to the former violence.
After the subtitles are finished, there is an introduction to the main protagonist Tommy Johnson, he is the typical football cockney criminal. he has the accent and the the clothes typical of a football hooligan i.e the Stone Island jumper, white trainers and he has a very laid back approach to life, in his opening voice-over he describes has life so far saying his love for "heavily cut drugs", "casual sex" and "lager."from the outset he his the traits of an antagonist, without the voice-over i think the audience would view him as an antagonist, what the voice-over does is to bond him with the audience so that they look on him favourably. This is very important for this genre that you can give the audience a feel of who is the protagonist. We had already had the idea in our group that we was also going to use a voiceover in a similar way to Tommy Johnson. However in terms of costume, as our film focuses on violence at grass roots we want to have some variance so when the trouble after the game occurs the next day we want the hooligans to be suited up.
As a film of violence in a working class area The Football Factory has a lot of bad language and swear words to stereotypically reflect how a football hooligan may speak, the bad language is apparent in the voiceover and in the dialogue amongst the fans on the way to the pub, also something that stereotypically would be a place where you would expect to find football hooligans, in our own film we regrettably will have to include some bad language to keep up with the conventions of the genre and also the protagonists will be filmed around a pub represented as a place where they spend time.
You will notice in The Football Factory that the initial action scenes and preparation for the fight occur in alleyways and small roads, this is a convention of the genre because the violence cannot happen in a place where the police (often seen as an agent of disruption in the genre) will not be able to interfere, as in a densely populated area the sheer number of fans will lead to suspicion, this also happens later on in the film with the end fight scene, and also other movies from this genre such as the fights in "Green Street" and "AwayDays." One problem we have encountered in the making of our film is that we do not have the amount of numbers of actors to recrete the large numbers of fans perfectly, however, again, our film is based on grassroots football so there are not as many fans to the firm size is smaller, however we feel we have the perfect setting; in a working class town of Dover and we have a short fight film in alleyways.
From a fight scene in this genre you would expect to see violence, gore and blood, when the Tommy Johnson and the other Chelsea fans reach the pub at Tottenham and the fight ensues, it is quite graphic with proper punches and blood, similar to the scene of Tommy being beaten up right at the beginning of the movie where he has visible head wounds with blood leaking from these wounds, we also wanted to include this generic convention so we therefore have two fight scenes, in the second of these we have a injury using blood, from a fake blood capsule.
As our final movie idea we have a scene with violence so for my analysis of two opening sequences I choose two fight scenes, one is in the war genre set in World War 2 with "Saving Private Ryan" the other is also set in war, but as the opening to sci-fi movie "Star Wars-Revenge of the Sith" these are the two clips:
and Star wars:
watch from 1:30
Both the clips are opening to movies and similar themes however the genre conventions mean that they are vastly different, both movies have a set of protagonists who are fighting to restore equilibrium against the antagonists. Also both sets of protagonists have an uphill battle as the antagonists appear to have the upper hand, In Saving Private Ryan have a better position on the beach and better weapons, this is often reflected in the camera angles as when the cuts are made between the shots the German army are always higher up, to cap all this off, throughout most of the opening minutes there is no evidence of the antagonists dying, all the death is off the Americans to show that the Germans are definitely winning until main protagonist Tom Hanks manages to help his squad gain some shelter., not necessarily a birds eye shot but still enough of an angle to show German superiority. In Star Wars although there is a war going on, the protagonists are alone with little help and there are many enemies trying to kill them, the little help that they have is soon destroyed, similar to the other clip until one of the main Protagonist-Anakin manages to remove some of the danger. This is typical of the protagonists being presented as the "underdogs", in both clips when they seem to have the upper hand in Saving Private Ryan this happens when they reach the shelter of the banks and in Star Wars Anakin manages to rescue his mentor Obi-Wan from the "buzz droids". However the period of equilibrium cannot yet be restored as both encounter more obstacles, Saving Private Ryan have difficulty removing the German snipers while the door to the spaceship starts to close in Star Wars, however as it happens at the start, the audience wouldn't expect the main protagonists to die, and this is the case as both sets of Protagonists in both films escape the dangers of the opening scene.
Despite both films being set in wartime, the genre dictates how different both the sequences are, especially in terms of character and setting; In Star Wars the two main protagonists are Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi; played by human actors however in the film they are represented as Jedi's who have supernatural powers this is something typical of the sci-fi genre, despite being in the middle of a "battleground" both protagonists remain very calm, in start contrast to the desperation of the characters in Saving Private Ryan as they are represented as Humans who feel the emotion. The uniform of the characters is also interesting, you would expect from a war for the soldiers to have a basic uniform all the same colours from one set of soldiers to aid identity, and this is the case in Saving Private Ryan whereas the protagonists in Star Wars wear what look like formal robes and the protagonists also wear different colours, Anakin wearing dark and Obi-Wan wears lighter robes, this also foreshadows events that happen later in the film with Anakin turning evill as Black is deemed as the colour of evill in most film.
The setting of where the film takes place is also vastly different, this again is because of the genre. Saving Private Ryan takes place on a beach to mirror that of the Second World War, the war in which the film is based on, some rumors also state that Star Wars was based on the world wars as well, however as a sci-fi film it takes place in a "galaxy far away" in a space setting surrounded by stars and planets much different to the realism on Saving Private Ryan. The weapons used are also different, Saving Private Ryan has the typical rifles, machine guns, boats and tanks as featured in realistic wars, whereas in Star Wars, they have little aeroplane type machines which have many buttons and controls and shoot neon beams in the sky to destroy the antagonists, there are also all sorts of sheilds and spaceships. The main weapons of the protagonists are "Lightsabres" which are neon beams on a stick vastly different to the "thomson" rifle in Saving Private Ryan.
For the next step, we have to choose 4 film genres and look at the conventions and iconography of each genre. The conventions of a movie are things you expect to happen in the genre, i.e something happening between the protagonist and antagonist, iconography are the objects that you would expect to find in the genre, i.e something that the antagonist or protagonist will use. The four genres that i have choosen to use are; Sport crime (football hooliganism), Horror, War and Family.
The conventions of a sport crime would usually revolve around two sets of rival supporters fighting with each other over a particular event thats going to happen between the two teams that the suporters support. usually the protagonists are the supporters that are focused on more by the camera who are followed in their actions untill they meet the antagonists who are looking to end a equilibrium that could exist in the protagonists. The main fight would usually be weaponless and more of a fist fight to the end, you would usually expect the protagonists to be the "underdogs" they may have less people and still end up winning the fight and obtain bragging rights over the other sets of supporters.
The iconography would be of a couple of Jack-the-lads in "chavish" clothes in a working class environment. Possibly in trouble with the law quite often and involved in illegal activities such as drugs. Probably have low paid jobs without family and put all their endeavours into the fights they have, however despite these negative traits the audience will grow to like them. Some video evidence i have obtained in this genre is the movie "The football factory" the protagonists here are football fans following Chelsea with the main character of Danny Dyer who fits the iconography and conventions of the genre;
The conventions of a horror movie; are that an unknown entity will kill defenceless people typically the stereotypical dumb blondes untill coming up against the protagonist can start to unravel the mysteries behind the killers actions untill a final showdown, usually the antagonist will be be killed and the protagonist may have avenged the other peoples deaths, in the deaths at the beggining from the protagonist you would expect a lot of blood and gore, after the killer unexpectantly creeps up on the victim before a brutal murder.
The iconography of horror include having murder weapons usually something sharp like a knife which will result in a bloody death. the killer will often be masked thus leaving the identity under cover. The clothes that the killer wear will often be black or red to be the icon of evill the final confrontation is usually in a derelict, isolated building. here is some video evidence from horror movie "The Ring" which fits the iconography and conventions of horror;
The conventions of the war genre would be a set of protagonists usually given to the army most sympathised with the audience, for example a war film made in America featuring an American army would have the American Army as the protagonists, they may be underdogs but will end up defeating the antagonists who may have the better placing, most of the war films are during World War 2, the leader of the protagonists will often be the main character who has a determination for his army to become victorius. usually the protagonists end up winning the war.
The iconography of the film genre the weapons and uniform of the armies, Machine guns, tanks, possibly boats and aeroplanes will be featured, to make sure the scenes are action filled and realistic to a wartime setting, the uniform in the armies will all be the same amongst the separate armies, sometimes icons of the death of the protagonist may die in bomb blasts with limbs missing and mental pain to overcome within the armies. this is a clip from American war film "Saving Private Ryan";
The conventions of the family genre are usually fairytale themed, with the protagonist on a mission to do something, but confronted by comical obstacles in the process that are comical and enjoyable to all ages, espechilly children though. or the antagonist could be someting or someone who wants to end a period of equilibrium as the agent of disruption who the protagonist will have to fight. The protagonists are almost always succesful and would usually tend to result in rescuing some sort of tresure or girl, with the antagonist being put in jail or an embarrasing future.
The iconography could be that it is an animation as many succesful family films are animations as it appeals to children (the main target audience of cartoons on t.v). Sometimes magic may be used as a weapon to defeat the antagonist or a special power that the protagonist may have. video evidence in the Family animation Shrek;
As a group we decided on a name for our production company, after much deliberation we decided on Beef'ed 'n co. We knew it wouldnt be copying any others and its quite a catchy name, inspiration came from one of our group members unusual sized head.
The next step was to decide on a logo for Beef'ed 'n co, we wanted it to be quite simple but eye catching, to be inkeeping with the name we wanted it to be quite comical, so we all decided to go away and think of some possible logos, i came up with these;
I believe out of my ideas the one on the bottom would be more succesfull, as its much bolder and eye catching with the one on the top being far too basic.
As part of the course I had to look at two different production companies and look at their history, overview and any logo change. My first company i looked at was Walt Disney, the biggest production company in the world under the name of Walt Disney Productions (1929).
The owner, as the name would suggest is Walt Disney and brother Roy Disney, Disney has existed since the 20's thus beggining in the silent movie era, Disney made its name from cartoon movies, and the first released were short films entitled "Alice's Wonderland" in the silent era. over time Disney adapted to change and obtained its mascot so to speak "Mickey Mouse" cartoons proved very popular in intially America but eventually it spread worldwide.
After the World Wars, Disneys name spread further to T.V and highly succesfull cartoon movies such as "Snow White and the 7 dwarfs", "Pinnochio" and "Bambi". The Disney brothers continued to make family favourite movies right up untill their deaths in late 60's for Walt then early 70's for Roy. However the Disney brand didnt stop there as the franchise continued to expand, not only in movies but also theme parks and its own tv show and an increasing amount of aquisitions to other production companies to show their films, some big names include Fox, Pixar and Marvel.
Some of Disneys most popular cartoon creations include family favourites such as "Beauty and the Beast", "101 Dalmations", "Lion King", "Jungle book" and "Finding Nemo", however possibly its most succesfull films are the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies; all of which feature in the 50 highest grossing movies of all time. Disney are adapting to a change in technologies in the movie industry by releasing 3-D movies such as "Alice in Wonderland"
Disneys logo's have changed over time with argueably the most easily recogniseable logo from the past was this:
nowadays the logo is this:
as you can see the logo has changed in the past, the previous logo shows the towers featured at the theme parks owned by Disney, and it gave it a more fairytale theme, however the change could show a move from the fairytale ideas into more serious themes, possibly this is because Disney have started to do less cartoons and more realistic movies to adapt to these new technologies in the movie industry.
The second production company I am going to look at is Dreamworks animation, began in 1994 by Steven Speilberg, Jeffery Katzenberg and David Geffen, the idea was to build it into a succesfull Hollywood studio. As the name would suggest Dreamworks are most recogniseable in the animation type films and provide competiton to Pixar.
When first arriving on the movie scene it had teamed up with Universal, and won awards with non-animated films like Gladiators and American beauty. Dreamworks's arguably most succesfull partnership was with Pacific data images, as together some of Dreamworks most succesfull titles all animations, such titles include Shrek 1,2,3, Madagascar 1,2, Sharks tale, Bee Movie, Kung Fu Panda, Antz and Flushed away. Dreamworks along with their partners have 5 movies in the highest grossing movies of all time, however undoubtely Dreamwork's most succesfull films are Shrek a film they made independantly.
The Dreamworks logo is very easily recognised it features a child sitting on the moon while fishing, and was the subject of arguements between the founders of the company, Steven Spielbeg wanted it more animated. the Logo has never changed in design however it does sometimes vary in colour from movie to movie, some examples of this is;
these are the two most popular logos they use before the film, and also i couldnt find any evidence however either side of the titles for shrek they used Shrek ears.
With the constructive comments from our preliminary, we had previously thought about basing this as a criminal drama with our main protagonist being an illegal immigrant from Bulgaria, who would be on the run from the police as a drugs mule, however the person who thought up the idea had poor attendance, so we therefore decided that this idea was unattainable, and plus Bulgaria is an EU country therefore making it impossible to be an illegal immigrant.
Us remaining group members thought up a different idea, we decided on a film based on violence in football and general hooliganism. We preferred this genre and felt it would be a change to the usual scene of death and darkness, both of us also have a fairly good knowledge on local football at Grassroots level. The inspiration for our movie were other football hooliganism movies such as "The Football Factory" and "Green Street".
We planned to go down to the up and coming game between Dover and Folkestone, due to the geographic location, a rivalry has always been present, so we built our film around this rivalry. The protagonist is Harry Wall (me), supposedly the son of the Folkestone Hooligan leader, throughout the game itself you see no actual footage of Harry, it is camera cuts between the two sets of fans singing.
The film is set after the game after Folkestone win the game, two Dover fans; Alex and Shane are in their home town, strolling around, Harry after tasting defeat is looking to cause trouble in Dover with his new bragging rights after his teams victory, despite being outnumbered he dishes out some abuse to Alex and Shane who duly take offense, Alex and Shane proceed to chase Harry "roughing him up" in the process, Harry, however, escapes.
The next scene moves foward to Harry at work in his office block, is then confronted by Alex and Shane who have managed to track him down, as revenge Shane gives Harry a punch to the face that leaves him bleeding. After informing the other Folkestone fans were informed of the attack, Alex and Shane are told there in trouble however they see this as a way become of their own firm....
As part of the course I had to look at two different production companies and look at their history, overview and any logo change. My first company i looked at was Walt Disney, the biggest production company in the world under the name of Walt Disney Productions (1929).
