Trailer Research

Whilst looking for ideas for our titles, I came across a trailer that wasn't far from my intial idea for our opening titles.
Whilst the idea of different scenes of a students life - a bedroom, college, a classroom, a club etc- might not be suitable for a title, after seeing this trailer I think if done well it could work brilliantly as a trailer.

I don't think a trailer for our production would need to be as long, possibly 30 seconds-ish so we don't have to worry too much about collecting a lot of pictures, as if we had 6 on for 5 seconds (including fade in and fades between photos) that could cover the time. This would also give an insight in to the production as it would show various aspects of the students life, which is what we are trying to portray although in a mocking comedic way.
Again music would be something that needs though, as whilst the slow, calming effect of the epic landscapes works well with the slow piano music I don't think it would be suitable for our trailer. Different speeds and styles of music would have to be tested, which can easily be done if we find some scenes/images for our trailer to put together without the sound and then add different tracks to see which fits best. 

Title Sequence Research

As said previously, Ben and I decided the titles should be a time lapsed over head view of Barnsley college students. With this idea in mind I did some research in to this kind of stuff. The first obvious point is that whilst time lapses look interesting as everything moves quickly, they aren't nearly as effective without good music. For example, the opening titles of the recent BBC nature show Frozen Planet use a time lapse of the sun passing around the bottom of the Earth. If this is muted, it still looks relatively interesting, but with the accompaniment it becomes a relaxing and epic feeling piece despite being 20 seconds long.

This kind of music would work well with our production as it would give the feel of a proper documentary. It could then be ended with something funny, such as a burp or something along those lines. The string, piano and what sounds like a wind instrument give a calming feel which give the impression of a documentary, as if it is sophisticated.

Another example I found was a time lapse of a dandelion turning from a flower to a seed-head. Whilst this isn't opening titles, it is another example of the importance of the music behind a time lapse, as without it this video becomes boring quite quickly. With the sound however, people are more inclined to keep watching as whilst the plant is changing and not doing much, they can divert their attention to the music. Again, this time lapse uses strings and a piano sound, although personally I think the lower sounding strings (possibly a viola) sound a bit too melancholy and depressing to be used in our work. 

Overall I think a short, piano & strings based piece would be sufficient for our opening titles music. The addition of something comical to take the serious edge off at the end would be useful but isn't necessarily vital. 

Scene 1: Set overview

So I decided I'd do a bit of a tour of the set of scene one, as this is probably the most important set in the production. This scene is set in a student's bedroom, and so needs to get across the typical stereotypes of a student but in a subtle way - we cant have an actor saying 'Oh, this alchol, this is all I spend my money on' or 'Oh well I'm not going to make my bed because I'm a lazy student'. Therefore we have to have these things implied in the scene, with things such as rubbish laying around and untidy clothes etc.
I made a short video tour of the set with explanations of things here:

And here are pictures and a short written explanation of why these items are in the scene:

A messy bed. This is here to show the student is lazy and doesn't want to use the energy it would take to make their bed. Could also be because the student is in a rush to get to college/uni as they woke up late.

General rubbish and mess: again, to show the student is lazy and can't be bothered with tidying things up or putting them in the bin

Discarded guitar/instrument: I felt it would be a nice touch if the student were to have an instrument, as its a common thing for people to want to learn but then give up.

Messy clothes: showing the student has little care for how he looks and just takes clothes from the top of a pile, regardless of their condition.

Empty cans: These show two things, the first is that the student is again a lazy person and doesn't tidy up, and the second being that students like convenience, such as multipacks and easy to drink cans. The energy drinks also suggest they stayed up late working on an assignment to hand in the night of the deadline

Technology: All students now-a-days were brought up in the digital age, and so have a wide range of technology at their hands.

Unwashed pots: Again showing the student's laziness as they will just leave things lying around after they've finished with them. There is also beer in this, but that is covered below.

Alcohol: a common stereotype of the student is partying all the time, up all night and sleeping all day. A student bedroom would be a student bedroom without any alcohol, as this is what they (stereotypically) spend the majority of their money on.

Risk Assessment

Before we even considered filming, we went out to our proposed locations and did a pair of risk assessment sheets for the two locations, both covering the potential dangers that could happen if care wasn't taken before filming.

The main danger we  concluded in the house shot was that cables from the camera and other equipment in use could become a trip hazard next to the steep staircase leading up to the attic's filning location. The main danger found at the college location was the road that runs along side it. It splinters off from a main road then rejoins about 100m down, meaning that heavy traffic would be a problem at times of the day (Rush hour, etc).

-College Risk Assessment Sheet 

-House Risk Assessment Sheet

Poster Research

While looking at 'Mockumentary' posters, they don't seem to come across serious enough to try and pull off the documentary side of things, the main ones I compared was David Attenborough's 'Frozen Planet' and Sacha Baren Cohen's 'Borat'.


The main image you see for the advertisement of Frozen Planet is various short clips of animals and vast landscapes, however, when they show you advertisements on sites such as Netflix and BBC iPlayer, they use the image below as a poster. It clearly depicts Antarctica, one of the two main subjects of the documentary, and nothing else. The simplicity of the poster is a nice effect as well as the lighting from the sun on the bottom corner.

Alternatively, the movie poster for Borat is quite different. It only depicts Borat himself, holding a small flag of the United States, the 'main subject' of the Mockumentary. Other than that there is no real depiction of what it will be about. You can definitely tell the difference between the two from just the look of the poster, which I feel ours will need to follow along the lines of having your poster define what the short film will be about.

Although ours is a self-proclaimed Mockumentary, I feel that a normal documentary style poster would fit quite well. Some may argue that it goes against the whole mockumentary genre, but we need it to stand out from the others, and doing it in such a way would do that. If in the end it really doesn't work, we could always do a hybrid of the two and create a documentary style poster will comedic elements for the mockumentary side of things.

Research into other Mockumentaries

Research into similar stuff.

First film I'm going to talk about is "Borat". It's film produced by Four by Two, Everyman Pictures, Dune Entertainment (in association with), Major Studio Partners (in association with)
One America, Four by Two Films and distributed by many different distribution companies all over the world. It's 84 minutes long but it's format and theme is somewhat similar to ours, it mocks modern society of America and Kazakhstan. on IMDB it received rating of 7.3 from users. I haven't found an official web site to that film but IMDB says a lot about film itself http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443453/ showing all information about film. Apparently most of film wasn't scripted and was filmed as normal documentary which shows not fake reaction from public but also brought many lawsuits to film makers. Reviews range between "The funniest comedy of 2006" to "Horrible film" as a lot of people found offensive the way they represent some groups.

Trailer shows first 2 minutes of actual film and already showing how ridiculous this film is and how it shows Kazakhstan people live which slightly offensive in my opinion but really funny and it all is filmed like some kind of documentary, which is the purpose of mockumentary.

The other mockumentary I'm going to research on is "Hell's Grannies" by Monty Python sketch show. It is part of the show originally a sketch, but it is made in a way any documentary would be made except the laughter of the audience. In this sketch it all starts like normal documentary talking about new gang of streets of town but the suddenly it shows grannies attack young people.

The narrator keeps talking about it as a normal documentary telling all they do and problems they cause. There are interviews with "victims" and they talk about what grannies did to them and all of this sounds ridiculous and funny. It is relevant to our documentary as it shows kind of sub culture and what they're doing, of course not in serious way but it's made to make people laugh but if not to count laughter it is made as a serious documentary. They show things that granny do but they copy most of things that modern young people do. For example graffiti made on wall "make tea not peace" connected to younger generations draw graffitis all over walls. Or street violence that referred to a lot of nowadays criminals who are usually very young. So theme of this mockumentary sketch is close to us as it explains one of sub cultures... Grannies in Monty Python and Students in our mockumentary.

Title Sequence rough ideas

My idea for a title sequence was initially to have a variety of different shots of college and different aspects of student life and to fade between these shots. However this would require collecting the shots and more filming, so along with Ben we came up with the idea of a time lapse of life outside college. This would look better from above, so we chose to do it from a top-floor window outside Old Mill Lane college site. This would have to be done during a busy-ish period, possibly 5-10 minutes before the end of a lesson so we capture the leaving of students, people hanging around then people entering college for next lesson to make it appear busy.

Filming Day 1 Package: Script, Storyboard & Shotlist

For the filming on day 1, we went with our final edit of the script, which is my final edit. This is available on the blog, but the scene we are filming is below. This scene features the introduction to the entire production, as the narrator introduces the subject student. For this reason we have to make sure to get this scene right, as if it isn't the introduction may be lost on the viewers and they won't have any idea what is happening.

SCRIPT:
ACT 1 Scene 1
Narrator sits in chair next to bed of Student in a long shot showing him and studen'ts bed partly, looks in camera.
' Hello. My name is (whatever the name is, I forgot). Today, we we will be looking at an indigenous species to many urban areas. This creature is all around us, but rarely gets noticed. They are vital to the  advancement of our society and without them... there would probably be no need for fast food. I am talking of the Student'
-Cut to student. The bedroom is messy with clothes on the floor, blinds closed and minimal natural light.
VO: 'As you can see, the student has very little qualms about where they take up residence. Some have even been known to live in amongst piles of old food, and are close friends to scavengers such as rats and badgers for this reason. The sleeping patterns of these creatures vary greatly, and some, such as this particular specimen, are near nocturnal'
-Student moves and starts to wake up-
-Student starts to get up slowly and sits up. They reach out and grab the first clothes they can find, grunt and pull them on.
-Student walks downstairs to the kitchen while being followed by the camera-
- Camera setup to look like surveillance from high surface -
Narrator: 'Now the student is dressed and awake, the fight for food can begin. Often the student will live off scrapings and minimal food, such as last nights left over pizza or the last few crushed up cornflakes.
-Student is shown using the last of a bottle of milk-
-Student gets himself some cereal and eats it.-
Narrator: 'Often food can be scarce and the world will become a hard place where only the fittest will survive'

STORYBOARD: To be Added

SHOTLIST: (Shots need to be in the same position as much as possible, as if they are set up like a surveillance and left un-manned)
Initial shot of the subject in bed from above, as if its CCTV/surveillance footage.
Medium shot on the narrator sat in a chair, introducing the scene
Back to first shot of subject in bed, waking up and getting dressed
Can cut between an alternate angle shot of the subject to keep interest of the viewer
Cut between two cameras for student dressing and leaving room
Shot from midway down the stairs as student walks past
Shot from bottom of the stairs as student leaves room
Shots of student walking down second set of stairs
High angle shots of student walking through a room in to a kitchen
Shot from inside the fridge as student gets milk out to make breakfast
Shot of student eating
Same shots of student walking back up stairs as walking down
Student getting dressed,
Student leaving house
Walking towards camera on path
Walking around a corner and down the road

Alex' Edited script.

Red Text - Added by Me

ACT 1 Scene 1
Narrator sits in chair next to bed of Student in a long shot showing him and studen'ts bed partly, looks in camera.
' Hello. My name is (whatever the name is, I forgot). Today, we we will be looking at an indigenous species to many urban areas. This creature is all around us, but rarely gets noticed. They are vital to the advancement of our society and without them... there would probably be no need for fast food. I am talking of the Student'
-Narrator enters a bedroom, match on action as opens door handle. The bedroom is messy with clothes on the floor, blinds closed and minimal natural light. He stands near the bed but with the right of the bed and room next to his shoulder fir a medium shot
'As you can see, the student has very little qualms about where they take up residence. Some have even been known to live in amongst piles of old food, and are close friends to scavengers such as rats and badgers for this reason. The sleeping patterns of these creatures vary greatly, and some, such as this particular specimen, are near nocturnal'
-Student moves and starts to wake up-
'I think we had better leave, as a tired student has been known to rival the anger of a freshly castrated grizzly bear. We should observe from afar'
-Narrator slowly heads to the door and leaves room, narration is done by voice over from now.
-Student starts to get up slowly and sits up. They reach out and grab the first clothes they can find, grunt and pull them on.
-Student walks downstairs to the kitchen while being followed by the camera-
- Camera setup to look like surveillance from high surface -
Narrator: 'Now the student is dressed and awake, the fight for food can begin. Often the student will live off scrapings and minimal food, such as last nights left over pizza or the last few crushed up cornflakes.
-Student is shown using the last of a bottle of milk-
-Student gets himself some cereal and eats it.-
Narrator: 'Often food can be scarce and the world will become a hard world place where only the fittest will survive'

SCENE 2
- Outside Old Mill Lane / Eastgate Campus showing student in college -
Narrator: 'here we have the student in a social environment. The student is a very social sociable animal, often seen in packs and large groups in grassy areas. In the fast paced world of the student, the student relies on their pack for the latest updates and for security in a harsh environments''
-Show student hugging a girl and then someone laughing at their clothes or something. The students friends then start laughing at them too and the student leaves looking depressed'
Narrator: 'If the students dont keep up to date they risk being rejected and exiled form their pack, left to fend for themselves'

SCENE 3

-Show student entering his home, dressing in nice clothes and putting on aftershave-
'The student, left dejected from his run in with the pack earlier now has to redeem himself. He returns to his den to groom himself and coat himself in the most appealing pheromones to attract the opposite sex'
-Shot of the student walking up to his bedroom with a closeup on his facial expressions -
- Surviellence style shot of student walking around upstairs -
-Student goes in to bathroom and does his hair -
Narrator: 'Here we have the student assessing his plumage, ensuring every hair is in perfect place to guarantee maximum appeal. Once this is done, he leaves his den, setting out for the home of his mate'

SCENE 4

-Student arrives at girlfriends house and walks in, as he enters there is a repetitive suggestive banging-
-Medium Close up of the students face looking puzzled about the noises-
'Although sometimes in the cruel, animal world, a mate may be replaced if the replacement is deemed to be better or more suitable, sometimes even older and wiser mates may be selected'
-student opens bedroom door to two bodies under a duvet. At the same time as the duvet is pulled back, the narrator looks in to the camera and says-
'Such as me'\

Alex's Poster Research.

Poster Research.

I've looked through some documentary and mockumentary film posters. Each of them have same format having the main character/object in the middle emphasizing that this film is about this and surroundings are usually empty or not that significant making object in the middle stand out.

 



 This is poster for a mockumentary called "I’m Still Here: The Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix". This film is documenting Joaquin Phoenix's transition from the acting world to a career as an aspiring rapper. You can see that the main character Jaquin Phoenix is in the middle of poster and you can see that he is the main character of mockumentary and emphasizes it straight away as you look at it. It has text saying "I'm still here" all over the posterwhich is part of film as well showing the name of film. Jaquin's look is pretty roughed up probably showing that this way from acting to rapping is hard, he looks tired and wears sun glasses not showing his eyes.

This poster is for film Borat. It's about a journalist from Kazakhstan who goes to USA to learn about their lives. The full name of film is "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan". Again you can see Borat, the main character of film in the middle of poster holding a bag showing that he's going to travel and holding an Amercan flag showing his destination without looking at name of film. He has formal suit on him but his hair style is all messed up showing that he's not a usual person and at least not from USA judging by his looks.

Poster Research

From looking at existing documentary / mockumentary film posters I have found that most of the posters have the main character / star as the main focus point of the poster, then the surrounding content is usually of great significance to the film and details within the film.


- Super Size Me's cover focuses around the main guy in the film, Morgan Spurlock, which fries in his mouth which is directly related to the film because the movie is about McDonalds. This can also be seen in another Morgan Spurlock film 'Greatest Movie Ever Sold' which is about product placement in film so on the cover, lots of brand logos are displayed on the main characters' body.

For The documentary Food, Inc. The poster is designed along the same lines as the two Morgan Spurlock films, the poster includes the subject as the main feature, in this case a cow which obviously represents Beef and part of the food industry, on the cow is a bar code which shows that the documentary will be about how animals are only bred to be sold and made money from. Also like the two Spurlock films is that there is a quote from a review of the film by a respected Publication in plain view on the poster. It also features a small "slogan" for the film such as "You'll never look at dinner the same way again" or "He's not selling out, he's buying in".







Below are a few more examples of documentary posters which also have similarities to the film posters I have wrote about above and will base my designs around.