Screenplay

Our Screenplay

Our screenplay was written by Kyle and Kevin with contributions from myself and Leslie as we were getting on with the storyboard. Each page of our screenplay will last roughly 1 minute. We had to think carefully about what Limbos script would be in the opening sequence as we had to make sure it wasn't too long or it would eat into our total opening sequence time. We had to make it short and effective. In order to think of a script, we also had to choose a game that Limbos character (Leslie) would enjoy to see if he would come up with any lines himself. As we tested this, it seemed to have worked as he naturally said "Get in the car" which we thought was perfect to put into our opening sequence. This was because it gives the audience the feel that he is really into the game and takes it seriously.

Once we established Limbos speech, we then had to think of another way of portraying his feelings to the audience. We decided to utilise our screenplay to do exactly that. We added actions into our screenplay which told the character (Leslie) to look frightened as well as throwing the Playstation controller onto the floor. The screenplay allowed the characters to grasp all of their actions and scripts clearly so that they can act it out accordingly.

Moreover, we agreed to add our sound effects and soundtracks into our screenplay as it allowed us to layout our entire opening sequence and check if there are any errors. For example, if we added the heart beat sound somewhere other than the start, we could use our screenplay to interpret whether or not it would suit that scene. As well as finding errors, our screenplay also allowed us to reduce our editing time as it clearly stated all of the editing techniques going to be used. For example, at the very end, it says "Finishes with immediate cut" which tells us when were editing, that we need to place an immediate cut there.

Lastly, we also stated which camera shots need to be used in each scene. This would aid us to complete our production efficiently as we have stated what we need to do beforehand.

Our Storyboard

Our Storyboard

We decided to create a storyboard for our film "Limbo" as it would help us to structure our opening sequence. This is useful as it gives us the freedom to play around with each scene and their order.

Our storyboard (shown above), shows the start of the film. We decided to do the layout on post-it notes as it gave us the freedom to rearrange the storyline at any time just in case there were any errors instead of having to create a whole new sheet each time.

1) We will start off by introducing the production titles and the film name to the audience.
2) We will show a close up of a family photo frame
3) A tracking shot of Limbo playing a video game
4) A mid-shot of Limbos Mum entering his room and telling him to go to sleep
5) A mid-shot of Limbo whining about his family
6) A close-up of Limbo looking confused about the television turning itself on
7) Marvel and Limbo titles scroll through with an ink animation along with a non-diegetic soundtrack
8) Extreme close-up of Limbos eye blinking twice with a non-diegetic soundtrack
9) A point of view shot of Li from Limbos perspective with a non-diegetic ambient soundtrack
10) A close-up of Limbo looking confused

Pitch Feedback

Pitch Feedback

On the whole, I think that our pitch went quite well and the response we got was pretty good. The advantage I think we had over other groups is that we clearly illustrated our key points such as who we would recruit as our actors. This provided the audience with sufficient information to understand how our budgeting will work and how much we will need in order to fund the production of the film. We also added an element of interest by talking intuitively and speaking with loud and clear voices to ensure that we come across as confident. This was crucial in our pitch as we would not sound very trustworthy if we weren't confident with our own production. If we were by any chance, coming across as not very enthusiastic and willing to produce the film, we would not be funded by the investors as they wouldn't see any potential in the production being a hit.

After presenting our powerpoint, we held a question and answer session with the audience just to make sure that they have understood our concept idea and if they have any questions they would like to ask us, we would be more than happy to provide them with relevant information. We also used this session to find out if the audience had any issues with our film production that may have needed to be addressed. It allowed us to interact directly with the audience and their likes and dislikes.

Our Pitch

Our Pitch

Title of our Film: LIMBO

Genre: Action/Comedy

Time Period: Modern Day

Film Budget: $80 - $150 Million

Target Audience: 12+ Males and Females

Logline

A teenager wishes to escape from his family without realising it could actually come true. As a consequence of his childish wish, he gets warped into a video game which he must now complete to breakout from in order to get back into the real world. Will he experience his biggest nightmares and comprehend the importance of obtaining a family?

As a whole, our presentation went better than we had thought. Through the use of a powerpoint presentation, we were able to put across our message as well as the importance of our necessities such as our budget. We delegated 2 slides to each other in order to maintain the focus of the audience which enhanced their understanding about our film.

Here's what our pitch looked like:

 Question and answer session at the end of our pitch

The audience engaged in our presentation

Our group presenting our main message.

In Depth Analysis

In Depth Analysis of The Amazing Spiderman 2

The Amazing Spiderman 2 opening scene:

Mise-En-Scene: Setting

The very first thing shown at the start of this sequence is the spider logo on the back of Spiderman's suit. This is showing the audience that he may have evolved from a spider. The camera zooms out suddenly to show the rest of Spiderman's body which shows that he may have started as a spider but is now has a human-like figure. This links in with the name of the film being "The Amazing Spiderman" which suggests that he has become something different, like never before. This creates a great sense of enigma for the audience as they're not too sure as to what they should expect. Spiderman is then shown to be falling from the sky towards the city with the camera tracking him then suddenly zooming out which showed the audience the place that the film is set. The camera then zooms out further to show the audience New York with Spiderman swinging from building to building which suggests that he is looking over New York city like a surveillance camera. Tall buildings show a large urban, metropolitan area. Furthermore, Spiderman flinging off tall buildings further emphasises his powers. This also helps to show his dominance in the film. He is then shown to be flying alongside helicopters which further enhances the audience's knowledge of how high Spiderman can fly.

Mise-En-Scene: Props/Costume

In this opening sequence, we are immediately greeted with Spiderman himself which shows the audience his costume. He is shown to be wearing a "typical" superhero suit as it's worn in conjunction with a mask and is red and blue. The choice of colours on this suit represent that he's related to spiders due to the red colour which signifies poisonous spiders. In addition to this, the red parts of his suit have a spider web-like design which also helps the audience to understand that he may have powers like spiders such as being able to make webs.

Mise-En-Scene: Characters/Objects

The opening sequence of this film shows that Spiderman is swinging from building to building which shows the audience that he can reach great heights due to each building looking like a skyscraper. This shows his power to the public and that he is somewhat superior due to the height at which he is swinging over New York. We are then shown a point of view shot of the buildings from Spiderman's perspective which also tell the audience the audience that he is "reaching great heights". I use this double entendre as it means that he is physically reaching new heights as well as "great heights" of protecting New York against any crime. We can differentiate between good and evil as the criminal leading the heist of the plutonium conforms to the dominant ideology of being a bulky person with a completely shaved head.

After this series of events, we are also shown supposed criminals who seem to have stolen a truck and are being chased by the city police (NYPD). This ties into the representation of Spiderman being a superhero as he is shown to be chasing these criminals down and preventing them from getting away.

Mise-En-Scene: Lighting and Colour

In terms of lighting, low key lighting is used to ensure that Spiderman stands out with his bright red and blue suit. This gives the audience who may not have seen the first instalment of this film the idea that he is going to be the main character for the rest of this film. An example of this is, at the very start of the film, we are shown a blank black screen through which the Spiderman symbol is shown in a slow fade-in effect. During his descent towards the city, everything brightens up to establish the scene of him swinging from building to building. However, his suit still seems to gleam which again, somewhat represent his power which is being used to protect the city.

Acting

The acting at the start of this film is very focused on Spiderman himself as it starts off by showing him and his powers through which he his flying over New York. Spiderman seems very relaxed to start off with and it looks as though he's flying around just for fun. However, as he's flying, he seems to become serious as he hears that a truck carrying plutonium is being hijacked. He is portrayed as a witty superhero as he's stopping the criminals from getting away as well as saying jokes and being funny.


Make-Up

It is not known whether any make-up is worn at this stage as Spiderman is dressed in the typical "superhero" suit where his whole body is covered. However, the criminal at the start is shown to have tattoos which are usually symbolic of a negative or villainous character.

Setting

It can be established that the film is being shot in America as the typical American cabs are shown. Not only that, but NYPD police cars are also shown which is the New York Police Department.

Camera

There are various camera techniques used during the opening sequence of the film. At the very start, there is an extreme close up of the spider embroidery on Spiderman's suit followed by a slow zoom out and tracking shot which makes the audience feel as though they are flying with him too. To add to this, a rather unusual point of view shot is also used to enhance the audience's interaction with the film as though they are present in the film.

Editing

The editing used in the film is very sleek and flows together quite well. For example, at the start, as a blank screen is shown, the image of the spider is faded in slowly to allow the audience enough time to think about what may happen. This also allows the audience to establish who the main character is.  Matching on action is a technique used quite a lot as it reduces the amount of time each move takes but also flows quite smoothly. For example, as Spiderman dives towards the ground, a tracking shot is used to follow him all the way down up until he shoots a web onto a building. At this moment, matching on action is used as we can see him shoot the web, then we're suddenly shown him swinging up towards the building.

Sound

The first soundtrack which starts with the film is upbeat and has a heroic feel to it. This increases the likelihood of the audience realising that Spiderman is in fact, the main character and superhero of the film. The non-diegetic soundtrack seems to speed up as Spiderman is swinging between the buildings which creates a sort of enigma for the audience as they're not quite sure as to what they should expect. The suspense is built up so the audience is left to guess whether he will hit the ground or spray a web and pull himself up again.

Enigmas

The opening sequence of The Amazing Spiderman 2 creates multiple enigmas such as:

Will Spiderman hit the ground?
The soundtrack leaves the audience thinking "What will happen next?"
Why is he flying around helicopters?

Our Survey Results

After approximately 1 week, we managed to attain 12 results. This included 5 online responses and 7 written responses. This showed us that questionnaires were amongst the most efficient ways of attaining the publics interests. 

Question 1)

Our first question was to identify the audiences age. This was to determine our market for the distribution of our film. The majority who answered our questionnaire were 16 years of age. This helped us to come up with an idea which would entice our audience into watching our film.

A bar graph to show the trend in age:

Question 2)

The majority of our audience for our survey were male as we can see in the graph below. This trend showed us that we have to create a movie that would be suitable such as an action film for our mass male audience.

Question 3)

Due to our first questionnaire audience being our classmates and friends at college, they were a perfect fit into our target audience which ranged between the ages of 16-25. However, there was an anomaly in our results as we also distributed our questionnaire to a couple of teachers in our college who exceeded our target age range of 16-25. This can be seen in the pie chart below:

Question 4)

Judging from the chart below, action/comedy was the most preferred sub-genre by our audience. The use of this pie chart was so that we could decide as to what sub-genre we could go with in order to produce a quality in-demand hit movie.

Question 5)

As shown below, we asked our audience to name their 3 most favourite films. This was due to the broad range of films today. In order for us to meet our target audience's interest, we had to narrow down their most favourite film. The graph below shows us that James Bond was the most favourited film. Therefore, we have to create a film similar to that of James Bond.

Question 6)

Looking at the graph below, we can see that our audiences' favourite super-hero films are Batman and Iron Man. Both of these films share similar characteristics and storylines such as both superheroes coming from rich backgrounds and trying to change society for the better.

Question 7)

The pie chart below shows the 50/50 ratio of our audience interested in a marvel parody and a samurai inspired film. From this it is visible that both of our film ideas are great and suitable for our audience.

Question 8)

Our last question was to identify what the audience would like to see in the future. From our data, we could see that most people would like to see action packed movies. Alongside this, the audience would also like to see an incorporation of comedy, fighting and a villain.