The marketing budget for Deadpool was smaller than the average marketing budget, so Ryan Reynolds worked with Fox to use the internet to his advantage and he marketed the film in ways he felt that Deadpool would. This was quite unique for a single actor to do. Reynolds kept a single Deadpool costume for himself and throughout the campaign he himself appeared in it in the famous costume.
Social media
As the budget for marketing was lower than usual budgets social media would be very important to this advertising of this film. One method that was used was a 'fake' rivalry with Hugh Jackman, who plays fellow Marvel character Wolverine (For years it's been a running joke that they'll never do another film together). They would mock each others posts on social media with one example being when Hugh Jackman tweeted about visiting Beijing, Reynolds hilariously replied with 'pretty sure they're protesters', (a reference to the many protests that China has seen over the years) garnering 26,000 retweets and 122,000 likes which is quite a lot for Twitter even for celebrities.
Snapchat - they created a special lens for Deadpool (you could be a teddy bear that he held) and they also had the character 'twerk' to the music of Diplo.
Instagram - with many movies the Deadpool has its own Instagram page, with the page having 3 million followers, posting pictures ranging from critics reviews, posters that were used to advertise and many photos of Reynolds himself.
Twitter - they also had a Twitter account which done the same as the Instagram account, posting everything Deadpool related. However Twitter is a much better platform because you can interact more with the fans and spread the posts to a wider audience. Also on Twitter, in the lead up to the film release there was an average of 10/20,000 tweets per day about it, but after early screenings that number soared to 90,000 per day. Marc Weinstock who worked with Reynolds to promote film said "There's a lot of debate as to whether or not social media can really open a movie ... and this proves it can."
Wednesday, 23 January 2019
Wednesday, 12 December 2018
Unit 10 - The Oddfather - pre-production
Initial Ideas February 26th 2019 - these are my initial ideas, I established what sub-genre of crime film I wanted, I was wondering between: cartel, western and mafia. In the end I chose mafia, and I chose the plot of the film (a gang war)
Script 8th January 2019 - this is my script for my movie, this is what the actors will be physically saying in the film.
Storyboard December 13th 2018 (old, ignore this) - this is a storyboard, which is a summarized comic style presentation on what my script is about!
Film proposal December 18th 2018 - this is what my film will be about, including the characters, logline and overall plot.
Resource List December 18th 2018 - this is a list of everything I need to make my film, this includes props, costumes and everything else. I have included explanations as to why I've used each piece of equipment
Personnel List December 18th 2018 - this is a list of everyone involved in my production, this includes all the cast members and everyone who will help with the technical aspect of creating this film, I need this to establish the roles clearly of everyone else.
Budget planning, health and safety/risk assessment, location scouting, filming permission January 8th 2019 - first is my budget planning, this is where I plan how much I intend to spend on my production. Health and safety assessment assess how much danger I and other crew members could be on a certain set. A location scout is scouting what a certain location contains, whether it be props and scenery. Filming permission is the form which I need to get signed to allow me to film at a certain location.
Copyright Clearance - Paramount, Copyright Clearance - Apple February 14th 2019 - I also have copyright clearance forms which I need to show that I have asked the copyright holders of the music I have used for their permission to use in my film (however it takes a long time to get a response so I might be without a signature)
Storyboard 8th January 2019 - this is my storyboard, this details what my film will be about and the types of shots that will be used to shoot the movie, I've explained why I used each type of shot.
Shooting Schedule 22nd January 2019 - this is my shooting schedule, this is what I use to write down when I want to shoot certain shots and the dates, it also includes the cast members.
Budget Planning 22nd January 2019 - this is my budget planning, I have wrote how much every piece of equipment is and why it costs the amount it does.
Location Scout - my house, Location Scout - College 15th January 2019 - these are my location scouts, I have wrote about each location that I will use.
Risk assessment p1, Risk assessment p2 15th January 2019 - these are the risk assessments, as it says it's about the potential risk that will come about from each location.
Location Release Form - my house, Location Release Form - college, Photos of my locations 17th January 2019 - these are my location release forms, it shows I have permission to film at my desired locations
Contributor Release Form 26th February 2019 - I have been given permission by everyone in my film to use them in it, I needed this to tackle any legal issues that could occur.
Music Reference 12th February 2019 - this is a list on all the music that I used and the timestamp when it was used. It includes the exact source (YouTube video link) that I used for that song.
Minute Meeting 1 10th January 2019 - this is a rundown on our meeting we had not too long before I started filming, we established some new ideas and changed a few as we went along.
Production Diary 5th March 2019 - this is the completed production diary, in this I went over the key dates in my production, from when I shot certain scenes and the equipment that I used.
Script 8th January 2019 - this is my script for my movie, this is what the actors will be physically saying in the film.
Storyboard December 13th 2018 (old, ignore this) - this is a storyboard, which is a summarized comic style presentation on what my script is about!
Film proposal December 18th 2018 - this is what my film will be about, including the characters, logline and overall plot.
Resource List December 18th 2018 - this is a list of everything I need to make my film, this includes props, costumes and everything else. I have included explanations as to why I've used each piece of equipment
Personnel List December 18th 2018 - this is a list of everyone involved in my production, this includes all the cast members and everyone who will help with the technical aspect of creating this film, I need this to establish the roles clearly of everyone else.
Budget planning, health and safety/risk assessment, location scouting, filming permission January 8th 2019 - first is my budget planning, this is where I plan how much I intend to spend on my production. Health and safety assessment assess how much danger I and other crew members could be on a certain set. A location scout is scouting what a certain location contains, whether it be props and scenery. Filming permission is the form which I need to get signed to allow me to film at a certain location.
Copyright Clearance - Paramount, Copyright Clearance - Apple February 14th 2019 - I also have copyright clearance forms which I need to show that I have asked the copyright holders of the music I have used for their permission to use in my film (however it takes a long time to get a response so I might be without a signature)
Storyboard 8th January 2019 - this is my storyboard, this details what my film will be about and the types of shots that will be used to shoot the movie, I've explained why I used each type of shot.
Shooting Schedule 22nd January 2019 - this is my shooting schedule, this is what I use to write down when I want to shoot certain shots and the dates, it also includes the cast members.
Budget Planning 22nd January 2019 - this is my budget planning, I have wrote how much every piece of equipment is and why it costs the amount it does.
Location Scout - my house, Location Scout - College 15th January 2019 - these are my location scouts, I have wrote about each location that I will use.
Risk assessment p1, Risk assessment p2 15th January 2019 - these are the risk assessments, as it says it's about the potential risk that will come about from each location.
Location Release Form - my house, Location Release Form - college, Photos of my locations 17th January 2019 - these are my location release forms, it shows I have permission to film at my desired locations
Contributor Release Form 26th February 2019 - I have been given permission by everyone in my film to use them in it, I needed this to tackle any legal issues that could occur.
Music Reference 12th February 2019 - this is a list on all the music that I used and the timestamp when it was used. It includes the exact source (YouTube video link) that I used for that song.
Minute Meeting 1 10th January 2019 - this is a rundown on our meeting we had not too long before I started filming, we established some new ideas and changed a few as we went along.
Production Diary 5th March 2019 - this is the completed production diary, in this I went over the key dates in my production, from when I shot certain scenes and the equipment that I used.
Completed: Producing magazine layouts - Emma - Learning Aim C
Magazine: front cover
I would like to do a print magazine.
12/12/18 - in the past few weeks I have been working on my magazine cover before I was doing drafts but now I am confident in what I want to make and I have a good idea of what I want to do. Below is what I originally started with:
12/12/18 (continued) - right now I'm working on my cover and intend to have it finished soon, this is what I have after changing my original idea, as you can see I have put a background behind my dominant image. This works because it's a prison lineup and my dominant image is of a gangster/criminal so he'll have gone through this process at least once which gives it historical accuracy.
13/12/18 (above) - today I added the much-needed features that every magazine requires. After I was done with the images I added in the barcode, the month the magazine was made and what issue it was, I also added in the price as that's needed for anything you buy as the consumer will want to know the price so they can make a decision on if they want to buy it.
13/12/18 (below) - below is the final piece of work I did today, I've said this in my past few logs but I am confident I shall have this finished by next week at the most. Because after I have a tough task with making the double page spread, I have double the work and it would be ideal to have as much time as is humanly possible to do it.
How did I manipulate images?
In my front cover I have used two photos: one of Charles 'Lucky' Luciano (who is the dominant image) and a photo of the flag of the USA.
In the photo of Lucky Luciano I used the posterize tool which made the image black and white compared to the original which didn't look that good despite having color. I set the posterize levels to 4, giving it the effect you can see in the image. On the right is the original image, I cropped the left side of the image (where he's looking on his side)
In the photo of the USA flag I didn't use any effects, I just resized the image so it was small enough to fit in-between the black lines I have in the front cover. This image signifies that the magazine is about the American Mob because of the two images I chose
Magazine: double page spread
19/12/18 - today I started my double page spread. I managed to finish it in an hour, however I will admit that it isn't the best or as good as it could've been, I just wanted it to be something that I envisioned, even if it wasn't 100% what I wanted. Below is the draft of what I started with:
(cont) - it was quite bleak as you can see, so I decided to add some photos to make it look more appealing to the audience, I chose photos of various criminals both old and new. These photos are ideal because this is a magazine about crime and criminals are the first thing you think of when you hear that word. Here is the magazine with added photos on:
Finally, I decided that I needed to add some colour onto the background, the white background looked bland and bleak and that is not what I want my magazine to be. Colours can influence someone to keep on reading which to me is a shock as I've always thought that it should be the content inside it that should matter, not a choice of colour, but people have their preferences. Below is my completed double page spread, with added colour and added writing:
How did I manipulate these images?
The only manipulation I did to these is resizing them and moving them to certain parts of the DPS so they overlap on already existing images, I could've cropped the white background of my primary images (the ones of myself) but each time I'd use the quick selection tool it'd always come up saying 'this can't be done because the smart object is inedible. Below isn't my photo but the same thing popped up for me and I'm not sure why it didn't allow me to crop the photo (to the right)
Sources for double page spread photos:
Roy DeMeo photo - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_DeMeo
Pablo Escobar photo - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Escobar
Joey Merlino photo - https://deskgram.net/explore/tags/josephmerlino
DPS Plan
I would like to do a print magazine.
12/12/18 - in the past few weeks I have been working on my magazine cover before I was doing drafts but now I am confident in what I want to make and I have a good idea of what I want to do. Below is what I originally started with:
 |
| Original cover |
12/12/18 (continued) - right now I'm working on my cover and intend to have it finished soon, this is what I have after changing my original idea, as you can see I have put a background behind my dominant image. This works because it's a prison lineup and my dominant image is of a gangster/criminal so he'll have gone through this process at least once which gives it historical accuracy.
13/12/18 (below) - below is the final piece of work I did today, I've said this in my past few logs but I am confident I shall have this finished by next week at the most. Because after I have a tough task with making the double page spread, I have double the work and it would be ideal to have as much time as is humanly possible to do it.
In my front cover I have used two photos: one of Charles 'Lucky' Luciano (who is the dominant image) and a photo of the flag of the USA.
In the photo of Lucky Luciano I used the posterize tool which made the image black and white compared to the original which didn't look that good despite having color. I set the posterize levels to 4, giving it the effect you can see in the image. On the right is the original image, I cropped the left side of the image (where he's looking on his side)
In the photo of the USA flag I didn't use any effects, I just resized the image so it was small enough to fit in-between the black lines I have in the front cover. This image signifies that the magazine is about the American Mob because of the two images I chose
Magazine: double page spread
19/12/18 - today I started my double page spread. I managed to finish it in an hour, however I will admit that it isn't the best or as good as it could've been, I just wanted it to be something that I envisioned, even if it wasn't 100% what I wanted. Below is the draft of what I started with:
(cont) - it was quite bleak as you can see, so I decided to add some photos to make it look more appealing to the audience, I chose photos of various criminals both old and new. These photos are ideal because this is a magazine about crime and criminals are the first thing you think of when you hear that word. Here is the magazine with added photos on:
Finally, I decided that I needed to add some colour onto the background, the white background looked bland and bleak and that is not what I want my magazine to be. Colours can influence someone to keep on reading which to me is a shock as I've always thought that it should be the content inside it that should matter, not a choice of colour, but people have their preferences. Below is my completed double page spread, with added colour and added writing:
How did I manipulate these images?
The only manipulation I did to these is resizing them and moving them to certain parts of the DPS so they overlap on already existing images, I could've cropped the white background of my primary images (the ones of myself) but each time I'd use the quick selection tool it'd always come up saying 'this can't be done because the smart object is inedible. Below isn't my photo but the same thing popped up for me and I'm not sure why it didn't allow me to crop the photo (to the right)
Sources for double page spread photos:
Roy DeMeo photo - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_DeMeo
Pablo Escobar photo - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Escobar
Joey Merlino photo - https://deskgram.net/explore/tags/josephmerlino
DPS Plan
Wednesday, 28 November 2018
Neil: Pre-Production Script - complete.
[6 months after Johnny Galiano and Eddie Falcone were arrested they decided that they have had enough of being mafioso]
Galiano: Hey Eddie.
Falcone: What's up Johnny?
Galiano: This being a mafioso, you like it?
Falcone: It's alright. Doing whatever we want, it's amazin, that's power, that's respect.
Galiano: Yeah with that, there comes prison, and the bosses don't care unless we co-operate, we do the dirty work yet we get treat like fuckin dirt.
Falcone: Johnny! Fuck ya saying? You ain't gonna rat are ya?
Galiano: Of course not, but I'm gonna do somethin even better, I'm gonna show that being a gangster ain't what it all cut out to be. You know YouTube?
Falcone: Yeah, my kids love it.
Galiano: We'll make our own video, how to be a gangster.
Falcone: Don't think Carmine will appreciate this.
Galiano: I don't care about Carmine, he's done nothin for us.
Falcone: Whatever you say Johnny
[1. extorting]
Galiano: Hey YouTube how you doin it's Johnny Galiano from Sunderland and I'm joined by Eddie Falcone from South Shields, we're here to teach you how to be a gangster.
Falcone: Step 1 to being a gangster, is being able to extort businesses. For generations mafia families have made a lot of money from protection rackets, threatening to put a brick through a shop owners window if he don't pay em. Here's an example
Galiano: How ya doin sir, personally, me and my son love comin to the shop, always have. To protect ya from any accidents, pay me, and i'll make sure nothin happens to the shop.
Falcone: [as shop owner]: How you doin sir, why don't ya go fuck yourself?
Galiano: [Narration] If the owner is giving you a hard time, show him you mean business. Marone! If you don't pay I'll make sure they find ya kneecaps in every dumpster in town.
Falcone: Take it easy... I thought you were some Guido thug. [hands money over].
Galiano: Next time you see my face, show some respect.
Falcone: I...I will.. Sorry Johnny.
[2: how to kill]
Galiano: Heh heh, another good quality for a gangster is being good at doing hits. What we mean by hits is uh, killin people. John Gotti's on Paul Castellano was that well done and public, it was named the hit of the century.
Falcone: To be a good hitman, you gotta be quick and precise, can't be stuttering in front of your target or he'll get the upper hand on ya.
Galiano: So how do you do it? How do you kill people, well I'll tell you. You gotta get up close, and bada bing you shoot em 3 times in the head, dead and done.
Falcone: Ain't you gonna show us Johnny?
Galiano: Hold your horses Eddie, I gotta call Vito to leave me a gun to do this. [On the phone] Hey Vito, I need a piece, can you sort me out? I'll give you 10% of what my pizza joints make this month. Sorted. Now, to the demonstration.
Falcone: Johnny's gonna shoot me 3 times in the head, the Moe Greene special is what we call it. That's how I killed Anthony Lombardo, heh.
Galiano: Say hello to your mother!
Falcone: My what?
Galiano: [Imitating Tony Montana] MY LITTLE FRIEND.
[Fake gunshots ring out, Falcone falls to the ground]
Galiano: And that my friends, is how ya whack somebody.
[3: what to say to police]
Falcone: [Hand gestures] When ya get arrested, like me and Johnny have, you gotta keep your mouth shut to the police, they're the losers who wanna get us put in jail for life when we're just trying to make money.
Galiano: Agreed, and funnily enough the police don't focus on the Pietro crime family but us the DiFalco's, we're public enemy number 1.
Falcone: Anyways, the police, just say nothin. They have nothing on you and they want to fake a confession so they get some brownie points
Galiano: [Getting handcuffs ready] Now we're going to show ya how to react while getting arrested. This is what happened when I was just a soldier working under Eddie 'AK' Angelina
Falcone: [Pretending to be a police officer] Come on Johnny, back to the can you go.
Galiano: I ain't telling you nothing, scum, all cops are scum.
[2 hours later]
Falcone: Now Johnny, let me tell you what I want.
Galiano: What do you want? Frankie Valli tickets? Sinatra CD's?
Falcone: Funny, we want you to inform against your boss, Eddie Angelina.
Galiano: Well I want to know what happened to JFK, guess we're both out of luck.
Falcone: [Looking agitated] Now this isn't 1984, I can't make you disappear, as much as I'd like too. So will you budge or not? If you don't tell me anything you'll go to prison for 2 years.
Galiano: Fine, just tell my girlfriend I'll be late for our dinner, thanks, moron.
Falcone: See you later Johnny, one day you won't be so lucky, one day you'll be dead in a ditch betrayed by your so called friends.
Galiano: Yeah yeah yeah, maybe you'll build a case against one us one day too, all swings and roundabouts.
Falcone: See ya.
[Skit over]
Galiano: That's what you say to the cops, nothing. Cosa Nostra is our thing, nobody else's.
[4: end]
Galiano: That's a few steps on how to be a gangster, we hope that we've shown that being a mafioso ain't all Godfather and Goodfellas, it's nothing but violence, murder and always having a target on ya back.
Falcone: But we took an oath
Galiano: We did, Cosa Nostra till I die.
Falcone: See ya.
[Skit over]
Galiano: That's what you say to the cops, nothing. Cosa Nostra is our thing, nobody else's.
[4: end]
Galiano: That's a few steps on how to be a gangster, we hope that we've shown that being a mafioso ain't all Godfather and Goodfellas, it's nothing but violence, murder and always having a target on ya back.
Falcone: But we took an oath
Galiano: We did, Cosa Nostra till I die.
Thursday, 15 November 2018
Completed: Isle of Dogs review - Due in 21/11/18
Isle of Dogs - review.
Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs is a film that tells a story with an important message. It features a star-studded cast who live up to their reputation and their voice acting had a lot of effort put in which gives their character's personality.
The plot of the film is a 'unique' one which I didn't think would work, to summarize: all dogs have been banished to 'Trash Island' where they have to survive on rotting garbage (in this world cats are seen as superior to dogs). Then a 12-year old Atari Kobayashi (who is later revealed to be the ward of the corrupt mayor) flies to the island in search of his banished dog, Spots. Atari is joined on his journey by the dogs already on the island: Chief, Rex, King, Boss and Duke. Over this movie, we see Chief as the tough guy (well dog) of the group, a dog with no emotion and a disdain for everyone else, but over the course of the film we realise he isn't a bad dog because that's who he is, we learn he was a stray without a stable home so we feel sympathy towards him as he's had it a lot harder than the other dogs. We see Chief develop through a character arc, from tough dog to still tough but likeable dog who's had a rough life and has had to be 'tough' to survive his surroundings. At the end we see that life has changed for the dogs, they are no longer persona-non-grata and are now equal.
The stop-motion is breathtaking. Visually IoD is a pleasing movie. Reading that in total 1,000 puppets were made for this movie makes us appreciate the film even more. The attention to detail is clear, with animations being made for the dogs including 'things' that dogs would do, and if a character changed their expression then their face visually would change too. This movie had a lot of effort put in it and it is clear in the final product.
The plot of the film is a 'unique' one which I didn't think would work, to summarize: all dogs have been banished to 'Trash Island' where they have to survive on rotting garbage (in this world cats are seen as superior to dogs). Then a 12-year old Atari Kobayashi (who is later revealed to be the ward of the corrupt mayor) flies to the island in search of his banished dog, Spots. Atari is joined on his journey by the dogs already on the island: Chief, Rex, King, Boss and Duke. Over this movie, we see Chief as the tough guy (well dog) of the group, a dog with no emotion and a disdain for everyone else, but over the course of the film we realise he isn't a bad dog because that's who he is, we learn he was a stray without a stable home so we feel sympathy towards him as he's had it a lot harder than the other dogs. We see Chief develop through a character arc, from tough dog to still tough but likeable dog who's had a rough life and has had to be 'tough' to survive his surroundings. At the end we see that life has changed for the dogs, they are no longer persona-non-grata and are now equal.
The stop-motion is breathtaking. Visually IoD is a pleasing movie. Reading that in total 1,000 puppets were made for this movie makes us appreciate the film even more. The attention to detail is clear, with animations being made for the dogs including 'things' that dogs would do, and if a character changed their expression then their face visually would change too. This movie had a lot of effort put in it and it is clear in the final product.
Tuesday, 6 November 2018
Completed Unit 4: Pre-Production Portfolio essay. Due in: 23/11/18
Why and what is pre-production and why is it key for a film?
The official definition - work is done on a product, especially a film or broadcast programme before full-scale production begins. The work before the literal work. I'm going to explain what goes into pre-production and why they're all important.
Finance - financing is important as film-making is quite expensive, even the highest grossing film cost 237 million dollars to make. The more money available to you the better the film will end up being. I believe that finance is the most important aspect of filmmaking, as it's obvious to say but without finance, you wouldn't get past writing the script for a film, it wouldn't be able to be made at all. Without money, you couldn't get actors, a crew, equipment, places to film, anything.
How does a film get financed? One method that is commonly used in the director meets with potential investors and pitches the idea to them to see if they're interested in financing the film, the pitch will need to be convincing as some films solely rely on people investing in it to get the project made. For potential investors to be interested the film idea needs to be interesting and unique as they won't want to invest in a film idea that has been done hundreds of times before, and a film that is similar to others won't stick out which will heavily impact the money the film could make, because, with investment, people want to see a return (plus a bit more) on their investment, with the aforementioned Avatar, it cost 237 million dollars to make and it made 2.788 billion, which is a sizeable profit on the investment that was made.
Another common method is that filmmakers get loans/grants (the difference between loans and grants is that grants don't need to be paid back) from the government or other institutions. As someone from the UK, the British Film Institute is the organisation I would request funding from. They were founded in 1933 and as well as funding films, they have the worlds largest film archive, they fund many film festivals and they have their own film academy in which young filmmakers go to learn how to make the future masterpieces. The way the BFI gets their funding is that they use funds from the National Lottery to fund films for UK filmmakers. More recently they funded Yardie, which was Idris Elba's directorial debut. This would be a good method of getting money to make the film as being a filmmaker who is looking to make their first film is difficult, it's almost impossible to gain any funding as first-time filmmakers won't be offered a Hollywood budget as there's no guarantee that the studio will make their money back and with first time filmmakers their first film might not even be good, and if it's not good it won't be profitable. This means that they aren't used to the massive resources that many film studios are used to.
The final way that films get financed is with something called sponsorships. Sponsorships are financial support. Usually, sponsors pay money to have their product in the film (another term is product placement) in some way or another, for example, Heineken paid 45 million dollars to have their product in the film Skyfall, this is used by companies to get their brand out there, Heineken knew that Skyfall would be widely viewed by audiences and saw it as a perfect chance to get their product out there (although audiences questioned whether 007 would drink Heineken, but that's irrelevant). This is what big studios do to try and low the amount that comes out of their pocket for the film, as they'd rather spend less but make more. As a filmmaker sponsors benefit everyone, they benefit you as the director as that's less money that you (or the studio) had to put for a film and it'd benefit them as it'd increase their audience which will make it more likely that they'll invest in your future projects.
Location Scout and recce - a location scout is where a certain location is scouted to gather information about a certain location. Scouts are used to determining which is the most ideal location for your shoot. To be a successful location scout you have to identify a variety of factors: is the location safe to film in? Because there was a tragic incident in which a location scout for Narcos: Mexico named Carlos Munoz Portal was shot dead in Tesmascalpa, Mexico. The town was drug cartel territory and Portal wasn't aware of this, this tragically showed the show's creators that this area was a no go to film. Linking in with the previous point you have to identify all the safety risks to a potential area, for example, there could be an area which is prone to flooding and as a location scout you need to identify all the risks that come with a location to provide the safest working environment for everyone involved with your production. Location scouting can take a long time, as it's not easy finding the right location, everything has to be right and perfect. It takes Game of Thrones months to film so there's a need to find the right location that is suitable, and available because in some cases you need permits to film somewhere and nobody wants to go through the stress of asking permission over and over again, also with location scouting you can determine if lighting/sound will be an issue, to conclude location scouting is more than just if the location looks ideal. Regarding asking about permits, location scouts don't just scout locations, they also handle the legal side of booking locations, normally a contract is drawn up by the filmmaker, the owner of the land you want to film on and any other party involved. Then you settle on the price the owner will want for you to film, and a location scout basically deals with all the potential issues that could arise, so it's a burden off the directors back, it is one less thing for he/she to think about, and any director will want as little responsibility than they already need. A location recce is similar to scouting a location. But a recce solely focuses on highlighting the potential hazards a location has, for example, a location with wires makes people prone to tripping over said wires, a recce is also used not to just highlight problems, but solving them too. For example, a potential hazard in a room with lots of computers is that there's a risk of spilling water. Here are the five questions that you should really be asking while doing a recce. A recce is important as it highlights all the potential issues that you may face as a crew, and knowing these hazards will give you the safest shoot possible: Is there a power source for charging up equipment? Health and safety considerations?
The official definition - work is done on a product, especially a film or broadcast programme before full-scale production begins. The work before the literal work. I'm going to explain what goes into pre-production and why they're all important.
Finance - financing is important as film-making is quite expensive, even the highest grossing film cost 237 million dollars to make. The more money available to you the better the film will end up being. I believe that finance is the most important aspect of filmmaking, as it's obvious to say but without finance, you wouldn't get past writing the script for a film, it wouldn't be able to be made at all. Without money, you couldn't get actors, a crew, equipment, places to film, anything.
How does a film get financed? One method that is commonly used in the director meets with potential investors and pitches the idea to them to see if they're interested in financing the film, the pitch will need to be convincing as some films solely rely on people investing in it to get the project made. For potential investors to be interested the film idea needs to be interesting and unique as they won't want to invest in a film idea that has been done hundreds of times before, and a film that is similar to others won't stick out which will heavily impact the money the film could make, because, with investment, people want to see a return (plus a bit more) on their investment, with the aforementioned Avatar, it cost 237 million dollars to make and it made 2.788 billion, which is a sizeable profit on the investment that was made.
Another common method is that filmmakers get loans/grants (the difference between loans and grants is that grants don't need to be paid back) from the government or other institutions. As someone from the UK, the British Film Institute is the organisation I would request funding from. They were founded in 1933 and as well as funding films, they have the worlds largest film archive, they fund many film festivals and they have their own film academy in which young filmmakers go to learn how to make the future masterpieces. The way the BFI gets their funding is that they use funds from the National Lottery to fund films for UK filmmakers. More recently they funded Yardie, which was Idris Elba's directorial debut. This would be a good method of getting money to make the film as being a filmmaker who is looking to make their first film is difficult, it's almost impossible to gain any funding as first-time filmmakers won't be offered a Hollywood budget as there's no guarantee that the studio will make their money back and with first time filmmakers their first film might not even be good, and if it's not good it won't be profitable. This means that they aren't used to the massive resources that many film studios are used to.
The final way that films get financed is with something called sponsorships. Sponsorships are financial support. Usually, sponsors pay money to have their product in the film (another term is product placement) in some way or another, for example, Heineken paid 45 million dollars to have their product in the film Skyfall, this is used by companies to get their brand out there, Heineken knew that Skyfall would be widely viewed by audiences and saw it as a perfect chance to get their product out there (although audiences questioned whether 007 would drink Heineken, but that's irrelevant). This is what big studios do to try and low the amount that comes out of their pocket for the film, as they'd rather spend less but make more. As a filmmaker sponsors benefit everyone, they benefit you as the director as that's less money that you (or the studio) had to put for a film and it'd benefit them as it'd increase their audience which will make it more likely that they'll invest in your future projects.
Location Scout and recce - a location scout is where a certain location is scouted to gather information about a certain location. Scouts are used to determining which is the most ideal location for your shoot. To be a successful location scout you have to identify a variety of factors: is the location safe to film in? Because there was a tragic incident in which a location scout for Narcos: Mexico named Carlos Munoz Portal was shot dead in Tesmascalpa, Mexico. The town was drug cartel territory and Portal wasn't aware of this, this tragically showed the show's creators that this area was a no go to film. Linking in with the previous point you have to identify all the safety risks to a potential area, for example, there could be an area which is prone to flooding and as a location scout you need to identify all the risks that come with a location to provide the safest working environment for everyone involved with your production. Location scouting can take a long time, as it's not easy finding the right location, everything has to be right and perfect. It takes Game of Thrones months to film so there's a need to find the right location that is suitable, and available because in some cases you need permits to film somewhere and nobody wants to go through the stress of asking permission over and over again, also with location scouting you can determine if lighting/sound will be an issue, to conclude location scouting is more than just if the location looks ideal. Regarding asking about permits, location scouts don't just scout locations, they also handle the legal side of booking locations, normally a contract is drawn up by the filmmaker, the owner of the land you want to film on and any other party involved. Then you settle on the price the owner will want for you to film, and a location scout basically deals with all the potential issues that could arise, so it's a burden off the directors back, it is one less thing for he/she to think about, and any director will want as little responsibility than they already need. A location recce is similar to scouting a location. But a recce solely focuses on highlighting the potential hazards a location has, for example, a location with wires makes people prone to tripping over said wires, a recce is also used not to just highlight problems, but solving them too. For example, a potential hazard in a room with lots of computers is that there's a risk of spilling water. Here are the five questions that you should really be asking while doing a recce. A recce is important as it highlights all the potential issues that you may face as a crew, and knowing these hazards will give you the safest shoot possible: Is there a power source for charging up equipment? Health and safety considerations?
Shooting schedule - a shooting schedule is a plan of each day (over a certain period of time) and what you want to film on these days. These are key to any production as it indicates that the production team are organised and with a schedule, you won't lose focus and won't be catching up and not going back to the same location another day and possibly missing out on a lot of filming time, these are usually timelines indicating what equipment will be used and what scenes will be shot. Like I referenced earlier this is important as with a schedule you won't be recording any scene, because without no schedule then you'd be panicking as you have to figure out what you want to film. The downside to these is that it could be hard to make a schedule as peoples availability may vary.
Storyboard and shot list - a storyboard is used to plan for shots in a media production., this is shown with drawings detailing what the scene will contain, the camera angle that the scene will be filmed in and what the sound is like in the scene (non-diegetic and diegetic). Why is it important? Firstly, the storyboard is used to tell the story about the film, to break down the narrative, storyboards can be used to tell the story in case someone doesn't have time to read the script. Also, they're used by the director to make it clear (implementing their vision) to the crew what they want. The producer uses a storyboard to identify the shots that will require special effects and the ones that won't, how many extras you'll need for a scene and so on. Storyboards can also be used as a pitch to potential clients who may be interested in jumping on the project and like said previously, having drawings on what the scene will look like will make it clear to the potential client what the director hopes to achieve with their film, because you could have the best script but without showing what it'll look like visually may put some people off, as people would rather see their ideas come to life. Martin Scorsese himself said 'Storyboards express what I want to communicate'
A shot list is the list of all the shots that you will have in your film and wherein the film they will be. It lists the type of shot (Eg: tracking shot) and who will be in the shot. An example of this is that while filming you'll need to list the props, actors and as much about the shot as is possible. The reasons shot lists are important is that it makes it clear to the film crew what sort of shot you want to film and it won't be unclear, also it allows the other crew members to know just in case they need to provide anything for the shot. As Dawn Cobalt writes, 'When there is no shot list there is no guideline'
Script - the script is the written of a play, film or broadcast. All of the other pre-production methods are important but scripting is the most important of them all in my opinion, because without a script you have nothing, the script is considered the blueprint of the whole production, the script is needed if you want to make your shot list, your equipment list, storyboard, shooting schedule, everything. Also the most important people (the actors) will require the script as the majority of films rely on the actors giving an amazing performance to draw attention to the film which the film studios hope will make them profit on their movie, the script allows you to get your shot list as certain scenes will require certain types of shots, shooting schedule as some scenes may be harder to film so you'll need to plan your schedule around it and so on. There are three different types of script: a standard script is a script that is pitched to potential clientele, if they're interested it'll be written with their input. A spec script which is a script that has been written in advance in the hope that someone will pick it up and turn it into a film and finally an adapted script where a script is adapted from an already existing product (books), a famous example of this is the Harry Potter book franchise, which has been made into one of the most successful film franchises of all time.
Audition - an audition is a process ('sample performance') where an actor/actress goes through an interview for a certain part in a movie whether it be a main part or bit part. This is usually done before any pre-production is done as with the actor/actress you choose, you'll have to base your schedule off of theirs, then once you have the main lead you can begin your pre-production as now you know who'll be playing the role and you can move forward with the second part of the process of making your film. Auditions are used to see who'll be the best for a certain role, not necessarily the best actor. So for example in an audition for James Bond the directors will be looking at British actors in particular as that is where the character of Bond is from.
Storyboard and shot list - a storyboard is used to plan for shots in a media production., this is shown with drawings detailing what the scene will contain, the camera angle that the scene will be filmed in and what the sound is like in the scene (non-diegetic and diegetic). Why is it important? Firstly, the storyboard is used to tell the story about the film, to break down the narrative, storyboards can be used to tell the story in case someone doesn't have time to read the script. Also, they're used by the director to make it clear (implementing their vision) to the crew what they want. The producer uses a storyboard to identify the shots that will require special effects and the ones that won't, how many extras you'll need for a scene and so on. Storyboards can also be used as a pitch to potential clients who may be interested in jumping on the project and like said previously, having drawings on what the scene will look like will make it clear to the potential client what the director hopes to achieve with their film, because you could have the best script but without showing what it'll look like visually may put some people off, as people would rather see their ideas come to life. Martin Scorsese himself said 'Storyboards express what I want to communicate'
A shot list is the list of all the shots that you will have in your film and wherein the film they will be. It lists the type of shot (Eg: tracking shot) and who will be in the shot. An example of this is that while filming you'll need to list the props, actors and as much about the shot as is possible. The reasons shot lists are important is that it makes it clear to the film crew what sort of shot you want to film and it won't be unclear, also it allows the other crew members to know just in case they need to provide anything for the shot. As Dawn Cobalt writes, 'When there is no shot list there is no guideline'
Script - the script is the written of a play, film or broadcast. All of the other pre-production methods are important but scripting is the most important of them all in my opinion, because without a script you have nothing, the script is considered the blueprint of the whole production, the script is needed if you want to make your shot list, your equipment list, storyboard, shooting schedule, everything. Also the most important people (the actors) will require the script as the majority of films rely on the actors giving an amazing performance to draw attention to the film which the film studios hope will make them profit on their movie, the script allows you to get your shot list as certain scenes will require certain types of shots, shooting schedule as some scenes may be harder to film so you'll need to plan your schedule around it and so on. There are three different types of script: a standard script is a script that is pitched to potential clientele, if they're interested it'll be written with their input. A spec script which is a script that has been written in advance in the hope that someone will pick it up and turn it into a film and finally an adapted script where a script is adapted from an already existing product (books), a famous example of this is the Harry Potter book franchise, which has been made into one of the most successful film franchises of all time.
Audition - an audition is a process ('sample performance') where an actor/actress goes through an interview for a certain part in a movie whether it be a main part or bit part. This is usually done before any pre-production is done as with the actor/actress you choose, you'll have to base your schedule off of theirs, then once you have the main lead you can begin your pre-production as now you know who'll be playing the role and you can move forward with the second part of the process of making your film. Auditions are used to see who'll be the best for a certain role, not necessarily the best actor. So for example in an audition for James Bond the directors will be looking at British actors in particular as that is where the character of Bond is from.
Thursday, 1 November 2018
Completed: Rational - Emma - Learning Aim B
Primary research - questionnaire about magazines - Emma
Secondary research - Do people still like magazines? How magazines are surviving
Contributors - right now I will be only using pictures from websites but if/when I use models I will be sure to get some form of written permission to use them in photos.
Location - currently I am only using secondary images so there's no need for me to list shooting locations however I probably will be taking photos of my own, most likely in my home or my college so I will need to get permission to shoot at either location, I chose these locations as they're fairly close and I'll get some good photos.
Equipment - I shall be using a camera (not 100% certain on the specific one), hopefully I shall have some props for my photos. Considering it's a crime magazine probably weapon props such as guns, knives etc, although I'll need to be clear that they're props or someone might get the wrong idea.
Crew - me (as the main magazine 'maker') and I may recruit some of my friends to help me with taking the photos that I will eventually use for my magazine, I will do the rest.
Magazine pitch
Proposal
Magazine diagram
Secondary research - Do people still like magazines? How magazines are surviving
Contributors - right now I will be only using pictures from websites but if/when I use models I will be sure to get some form of written permission to use them in photos.
Location - currently I am only using secondary images so there's no need for me to list shooting locations however I probably will be taking photos of my own, most likely in my home or my college so I will need to get permission to shoot at either location, I chose these locations as they're fairly close and I'll get some good photos.
Equipment - I shall be using a camera (not 100% certain on the specific one), hopefully I shall have some props for my photos. Considering it's a crime magazine probably weapon props such as guns, knives etc, although I'll need to be clear that they're props or someone might get the wrong idea.
Crew - me (as the main magazine 'maker') and I may recruit some of my friends to help me with taking the photos that I will eventually use for my magazine, I will do the rest.
Magazine pitch
Proposal
Magazine diagram
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