Movie Ideas

   For our Children's Film, we are going to make a PG classified film because there will be a more grown up theme of cyber bullying and bullying. We have decided that we are going to use animation as we believe that this will appeal more to children as they enjoy animation and also we have the props that we can use to create the film.
   The outline of our story is going to be about a little girl at the age of a round 10 who is getting bullied by other girls that are mean to her and pick on her on a regular basis, eventually the 10 year old tells her mum and everything is sorted and they all live happily ever after. The moral of our story is not to bully, and if you are being bullied to tell someone as you shouldn't suffer by yourself as other people can help.
   All of us are going to share the roles, but we will mainly have a specific role to play when creating our movie. Each of us will help with moving the small characters, and will take it in turns to do the camera work as moving the characters and items will take a lot of time and a lot of people are needed to make the film successful. After filming is done, one of us will focus on editing, one of us will focus on sound and the other will focus on making sure everything pieces together and is linear and flows properly when the film is put together.

Contraversal films.

Films that are given the certificate U (universal) or PG (parental guidance) are made to be suitable and enjoyable for children.
For example Toy story, contains children's favourite toy's and characters. It also plays without their imagination, it has good morals so overall a good film for that age range. even though it contains some minor violence in the form of toys abusing other toys.

Although any film that is rated U or PG is watchable by children and usually containing little violence, offensive language and scenes of a sexual nature, some films are questionably rated in the wrong category.
For example, watership downs has a U certificate but contains gory scenes and lots of violence. Even though this film is animated children could still become upset or disturbed by this as most of the television they watch is animated as it appeals to them and their imaginations more. So any violence they see no matter if its animated or not can and will affect them.
   The film contains bullying, threats, and violence resulting in pain, death and blood. The animated characters are rabbits, well knows for a young child's favourite animal and seeing this film could upset them.

PG Classified Films

PG stands for Parental Guidance. A PG rated film is only suitable for children that are 8 years old and over, and parents must decide whether their children can handle it. they must consider whether the film is appropriate for them.
Discrimination can be seen in a PG but only for educational purposes and a strong message must be told through the film that whatever the discrimination is, it is wrong. Drugs can be mentioned in the film also, but must carry an anti-drug message so that the children watching it understand that this too is wrong. Horror may occur in the film, however it must be short and not be intense as otherwise the children may find it hard to handle. However, a PG certified film does carry more grown up themes, such as Domestic Violence, however the theme must be strongly portrayed as negative and wrong.

The definition of a children's film; 'No special effort is made to make the film to appeal to different audiences' does not apply today as films such as 'Stardust' is rated as a PG however appeals to older audiences as although there is fantasy violence, children can still enjoy it as they enjoy fantasy films and movies that run off with your imagination, but also adults can enjoy it as there is adult humor included in the film which isn't too old, but the kind of humor that adults will understand better than children. Also, not all adults enjoy violence in films, and because of this, Stardust can be easily watched for adults, as it does contain a little violence, but not too gory or horrific. In films such as 'Coraline' however, it can appeal to an older audience who enjoy fictional horror as there is a part in the film where the characters wanted to sew buttons onto their eyes, which may be too scary for some children but easy to watch for an older audience.

U Classified Films

U stands for Universal, meaning that it is suitable for anyone to see, over the age of 5. 

The British Board of Film Classification say that ' a childrens film should have no special effort made to make the film appeal to different audiences.' I don't think this appeals today because of films such as Toy Story as the humor used can be enjoyed by adults aswel as children.

A U certificate film must have a positive moral within the story, to educate children without them knowing it and sending out good messages. It should also have a reassuring counterbalance to any threat or horror that was seen in the film, for example, Monsters Inc. could have been seen as a scary movie, but to make sure children didn't get scared it showed the monsters as fluffy and cute and scared of children themselves. The movie has to be suitable for children to view alone, meaning that they can go watch the film by themselves without having an adult or older person with them to explain what is going on, so it must have quite a simple storyline. There must be no bad language, drugs or discrimination shown in the film and also no emphasis on real or accessible weapons, for example, in Power Rangers the weapons used are not real and cannot be accessed in the real world. Lastly, there should be no sexual content only love, for example the traditional storyline of the prince and princess falling in love, or the princess and the frog. 

Rocco - Animation

This animation is effective as after the opening credits, the music was engaging and you immediately introduced to the main character, Rocco the mouse. You were brought up on suspense for a little while due to the opening credits and zooming in slowly with quick transitions to text, to who the main character was and as soon as you found out, you were engaged as to what was going to happen or what Rocco was going to do. The main character appeals to the target audience as a lot of people and especially children like animals, and so it automatically would draw in their attention. Also the establishing shot at the start of the animation as to where the story was set, tells the audience where the story was going to be based around - The Alleyway. The clip was also very colourful, and when the lights lit up, it attracted the target audience more as children love bright and colourful things. The moral to the story is that even if you don't have a lot, you can still achieve things - you don't have to be rich to be make something great, the mouse lived in an old alleway, and he didn't have a lot, but he still managed to create the electricity to be creative and light up the lights that he found.





In our group we may do animation as we believe that animation can appeal more to children than real life, as children enjoy fantasy and adventure movies. For example, Disney do a lot of animations which become hugely well known as they appeal to the younger generation. For example, Bugs Life, The Lion King, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast as well as newer films such as The Incredibles, Toy Story 3 and Wallace and Gromit - Curse of the Were-Rabbit. The only problems we may face in doing an animation is that they take a very very long time to produce successfully overall. We may have group members who will not always be available at the time to help with filming and creating and so we'd have to prepare carefully for this if it were to occur at any time. As we'd be doing one-stop-animation, which is a series of photographs put together to create a film, it may be hard having to come away from creating the film and packing up to finding where everything went the next day or when we were next able to return to it, which could mean that it would mess up the whole film. It may also be quite expensive as it would depend on the props we were to use, which would mean that some things we would want to include in our opening clip, we wouldn't be able to.

The Incredibles.

In the opening sequence for The Incredibles the start has quite tense but happy which builds it up to seeing the main characters. The main characters are introduced by using an interview, this allows the children to see and hear simply what each characters personality is like by hearing what they talk about and seeing their body language and how they act. As Mr.Incredible is interviews first this gives the impression that the film focuses on him more out of all of the main characters within the film. As the interview takes place each character is in the superhero costume which states the the children that the movie is an action and that it will be a classic superhero against villain type on film. Also, the background colours used and red and black which adds to the action genre as red is known as quite a powerful colour, the superhero's, and black is known as an evil colour, the villains. Also later on in the film The Incredibles outfits turn to red and black showing the power they have and contrast between the good and bad, showing the classic example of an action film.

Robots.

 In the trailer for the movie Robots we had to analyse  whether is met the opening criteria and if it met the expectations for a Sci-fi genre. Through out the clip there was engaging, bubbly music as a man voiced over telling the storyline and setting the scene for the audience. We get introduced to the main character, Robby, and also get introduced to his family, mainly his mum and dad. Robby is the same age as what the majority of the target audience would be, this allows the children to be able to relate to him. There is an establishing shot to give the children an idea of where Robby is from and his sort of life style, from this we see his not a wealthy robot and gets 'hand-me-downs' from other family relatives, children watching the movie may be able to relate to Robby and see how he solves his situation. Bright colours were used thought out the clip which shows that this movie is going to be a happy and maybe quite comical also. From watching the clip and from the title i found out that the movie focuses around robots. I also saw that it will involve fixing and solving situations that the robots will face, the main one is Robby not wanting to wear his cousins 'hand-me-downs' and to create a style of his own and become one of the coolest robots in town. 

Jumanji - Children's Film

In the first few minutes of Jumanji, the opening clip that we watched in class, we had to figure out whether it matched our opening criteria and how it met our genre expectation. To begin with, there was big engaging music that was non diagetic and empathetic. Tension was created for the audience due to this and the the dark lighting. You were also introduced to the board games at the same time, which indicated to the audience that this was going to be the main theme of the whole movie. All of a sudden there was a new scene and everything was a lot brighter, the music was happier and this told the audience that the time period had changed to a newer age. The main character matched the target audience age and seeing an establishing shot meant that most of the story would be based around that area, or at least where the box was buried. You were also introduced to the main characters dad and industry and his friends, as well as a few of his enemies which turned out to be bullies.
When the box was buried, the drum started beating and the characters who buried it went away. When the scene changed and you were introduced to the main character, the drumming started again as he walked away from his dad's industry and so this indicated to the audience that the film is going to be an adventure movie. You automatically get a sense of that the board game will come back when it is buried due to the dialogue of the people burying it. We've also found that the children can relate to the bullying that occurs at the beginning of the film, although you didn't see any violence as it was hidden. This could be a moral within the story. The titles and opening credits also grabbed your attention as they were very effective and matched the genre of the film.

The Grinch

We looked at the conventions of the opening sequence for The Grinch which is about a green like monster who hates Christmas and he tries to steal it from the people who live in Whoville, where the film is set. In the opening sequence the scene it set right away, there is a voice over in which he sets the scene for the audience, for example; 'There is no place like Whoville on Christmas day.' This already tells a little bit of the story explaining that it is going to be about Christmas, he also goes on to talk about how much Whoville gets decorated near Christmas which tells the children that it is an important holiday for the people that live there. We see that Whoville is within a snowflake and the fantasy scene is set by having big snowy mountains and white clouds in a perfect blue sky and mist lays across the mountain tops. There is happy and engaging music playing throughout the opening sequence giving off that it will be a jolly film. Towards the end, we get introduced to the characters as we see them preparing for Christmas and gathering up presents, there is a lot of bright colours also which will appeal to the children. You can also see that the characters are very differently dressed which means that they will be different from each other so children can pick a favourite or even relate to the younger people who live in Whoville.




 
  

101 Dalmatians

101 Dalmatians is a well known and loved children's film which is about a huge litter of dalmatian puppies which are abducted by the cruelest of women named Cruella De Vil and her evil workers to create an outfit made from there fur. The target audience are mainly small children under the age of 10, however it is a family film and because it is a classic adults can relate back to their past and enjoy it too.

This film attracts the target audience because many children love animals, especially dogs and puppies because not only are they cute but are also said to be 'a man's best friend.' The characters are all very colourful and bright against the city landscape and so your more attracted to the characters than the setting of the story. Each of the puppies being young, meant that they symbalised the target audience as all the puppies were hyper active and wanted to always be doing something fun, which every child of a young age does and so the target audience was represented through the puppies, unlike other disney movies.

This film is very memorable to us because when we were younger we always used to watch disney films, and as we both had a love for animals, it meant that this film appealed to us and stood out from the other classic disney movies as this film was based on talking animals and people. 

The moral to this story is quite deep, especially for young children. As Cruella De Vil is shown to steal away the puppies to create her coat, it shows the children how arrogant and selfish she really is, and teaches them not to be greedy and to not go to extreme measures to get what you want. You should respect the things around you and also not be cruel to animals. Cruella De Vil also lies to the owners of the dogs and puppies, which digs herself a deeper hole which shows that you shouldn't lie because it won't get anywhere and you will be found out like Cruella De Vil was as she got in trouble with the police.

The Cat in the Hat.

The Cat in the Hat is an adventure, comedy and family movie that is based on The Cat in the Hat books by Dr. Seuss. It is about two young children, who are siblings, who are left home alone until a talking cat, the cat in the hat, turns up at their house and gets them into all sorts mischief and creates mayhem within the house. 

The target audience is young children, we know this by having the movie rated as certificate PG, it was also only 82 minutes long which would have kept the children interested in the movie without getting to bored or distracted. Young children would also be attracted to the movie as it uses bright and lively colours.  Before the movie was created their was already a large fan base of children who loved The Cat in the Hat books, this created a lot of viewings when the movie was shown in cinemas in 2003, and by being shown on 3464 screens on the opening weekend they made around £38,329,160. 

I think this movie is suitable for children as the storyline is simple to follow and the characters are around the same age as what the children viewing would be, which makes them easy to relate to. Also, by being an adventure it gives a thrill to young children to see how a situation would be solved, it is also a comedy which will keep the children entertained and laughing. By being a family genre to, it allows the whole family, including parents, to enjoy the movie with their children. It also attracts children by having lively characters and by having bright and colourful costumes. 

Analysing a Live Character

After looking at many children's films, the best Live Character that nearly anyone can relate to at all ages is Willy Wonka, from 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'. His bright clothing and colourful personality as well as being so chirpy and mad meant that anyone of any age could easily find Willy Wonka a funny and inspiring character. Although he is eccentric and fictional, he appeals to nearly everyone. I believe that the main target audience is aimed at 6 year olds up to 13 or 14 year olds as children and young teenagers love fictional realism and being able to run away into a sort of fantasy world which is sort of what Willy Wonka is doing - creating the Chocolate Factory and its secret recipes. However, Willy Wonka could appeal to the older generation, or people of his age, as they may be able to relate to understanding children of Charlie Bucket's age, the little boy who stars in the film, through Willy Wonka's perspective on understanding children and what they want. A lot of the sound that is given to Willy Wonka is strange and abnormal, showing his personality to the target audience and viewers, and giving off the impression that he almost comes from another world, and lives in a dream. As his outfit is bright and stands out due to the way he wears his clothes, people can also tell that he is going to be quite an odd character, not really involved in the real world living his own 'dream'. Lighting on Willy Wonka is bright throughout the film, creating the sense of that his character really is bonkers. However, when he looks back on his younger years, the lighting is dimmed dramatically, creating the sense that he was depressed when he was a little boy and did not enjoy his past at all, which may be easy for anyone who is a young adult or adult to relate to, but not to his past as everyone has their own story. As Willy Wonka is such a loveable character, his personality and way of speech needs to appeal to everyone, and so his excited voice but deep tone means you can see the child within him, which makes him appeal as a rather fun and funky character.

Where The Wild Things Are - Children's Film

   'Where the wild thing are' is a well known children's story, written by Maurice Sendak. It is about a young boy called Max, who runs away with his imagination and creates a forest, inhabited by a few wild and ferocious creatures who Max manages to befriend and become their King. 
   I believe that the target audience for this film is for children, aged on around 6 or 7 and up to around 12 or 13, as the story line is based on imagining things and children of around that age would be like Max, creating and playing in their own world and running away with their imagination. Anyone younger, of the age of about 4-6, would be able to follow the story and most probably enjoy it, but they wouldn't be able to understand it as much as someone older would be able to. Also, it may not appeal as much to an older audience, such as teenagers or young adults, as the film is based on a small boy and his imagination and they may find it hard to relate to, unless they related it to their younger years.
   I think that this film is definitely a good children's film as children can easily relate to Max and running away with his imagination as when you are a child, that is what you do and you get involved with where your imagination takes you. The colours used in the film are natural, as even though it is a fantasy sort of children's film, Max sees the creatures in his world and way of living, a natural environment and the target audience can understand that. The music in the film can become quite intense at times, when the creatures get quite scary and make Max a little afraid of them, but not as much as to completely scare the target audience. Max's clothes are also not out of the ordinary, meaning that he really does represent a cheeky and young character, who does dress up occasionally, in the film shown by seeing Max wearing a wolf costume, as well as just jeans and a jacket, the ordinary clothing that a child of his age would wear and so the target audience can easily relate to Max himself.
   As this film is an adaption to the actual book 'Where the Wild Things are', there are some differences in the story and the story line. The film was directed by Spike Jonze, and the screenplay was also written by him and Dave Eggers. The film was rated as a PG and 101 minutes long, and was released on the 11th of December 2009. The film was nominated for many awards and won quite a few, such as a 'Black Reel Award' and even a 'Golden Globe'. On the opening weekend in the UK, after only 491 screenings, the box office had taken in £883,990 whereas in the USA when it had been released on the 18th October 2009, the box office took in $32,695,407 after 3735 screenings. However, the only downside to the film written by many reviews is that many people have found the film to be a little depressing - ''As a child, I found the book a little creepy and maybe even sad, but the last images, those of Max returning to his own room on the very night that he had left it and finding his supper, left for him still warm, redeemed some of the angst of the book. Those last few lines left this little reader feeling relieved and hopeful that tomorrow would be a better day for young Max. The film offered no such relief from the considerable gloom and sadness it inflicted.'' is just one quote, and so you can tell that this adaption to the story is not at all the happy ending that you would hope for from the film. Although the film is very good and gripping for most people who enjoy the fantasy and family movies, it does not end in the happiest and most cheerful of endings or in any sense of hope which to a lot of viewers means that although the film was very good, they didn't and wouldn't have enjoyed it as much as they would have liked to.

Analysing an Animated Character

For this task we chose to analyse Russell, an 8 year old wilderness explorer in the movie 'UP'. He is very colourful and chirpy, attracting mainly a young audience but also anyone who loves children's films and an animated comedy movie. He is a very plump character, coming across as cute and cuddly, and with his innocence makes the audience sympathize for him and his actions. He has been created to appeal to young people of his age, who can also be just as ditzy and innocent. It could also appeal to older people as there is a range of other characters, such as Carl Fredrickson, who is from the older generation. As Russell is a 'Wilderness Explorer' it may appeal more to boys who can relate to the activities he does of his age, such as Scouts and Beavers, who must earn badges by doing good deeds. For example Russell asked to help Carl cross his street and front yard. Russell has quite a high voice and talks quite slowly and loudly as well as speaking his mind, as he doesn't know how to keep things to himself like any 8 year old would. The sound based on Russell is quite chirpy and happy, as he is an innocent and cute character. The lighting is also rather bright, showing the target audience that he is a cheerful character. His clothes are also bright, which represents his personality as a bubbly character, although his socks are always pulled up above his shoes close to his knees, which is a sterio-typical nerdy and innocent sort of character, not knowing that what and how he wears his clothes could mean he doesn't have a role model to look up to.

Evaluation:

After filming our video we added music, transitions, text and used basic editing. It worked well but we need more practice at garage band and to make sure that the music is in time with the clip and the different edits. In our clip we used slow motion, which we think gave it a more dramatic effect.  The shots we used worked well and were linked together and gave it a professional look. We used close up, establishing shot, long shot, tracking shot, and many more types of cinematography!!!!!

Preliminary Task - Planning

For this task, we must show different camera shots and make a short clip using an Establishing shot, Close Up shot, Match on Action shot and a reaction shot, a Long shot and film a conversation.
The locations we are going to use are places around long road such as outside or corridors for the establishing shot and someone using their phone as a close up. For a match on action shot, we could video a corridor again, but a reaction shot, could be the response from the other person on the other end of the phone. The long shot could be the two people on the phone meeting in a corridor and then filming their conversation as they start talking to each other.

Examples Of The Shots;

an establishing shot

This shot is effective because it gives the viewer an idea of where the characters are and what the place they are going to is going to be like, for example, the shot shown above shows a big grand house, which could tell the viewer/target audience that the people who own it are very rich and posh. without this shot, it can confuse the viewer as to where the characters are situated.

a close up

a close up shot is effective because it gives you a feel of being even closer to the character and standing or sitting right in front or next to them.It draws the viewer in more, and there is more detail on the screen.

a match on action shot

a match on action shot is effective because it gives the viewer a feel of watching the action from two points of view, for example the shot above not only shows the character opening the door, but watching them come through it too.

reaction shot

a reaction shot can be very effective because it can add to the tension of the audience. If the character jumps, it is more likely to make the audience jump too. It also helps the audience to feel how the character is feeling, for example, the shot shown above makes the audience understand the shock portrayed on his face.

long shot

Long shots can be effective because they help the audience to see the location as well as the character in a situation. for example, this shot was taken of a character running away from a situation and so this helps the audience to see not only the character but also where he is.

conversation shot

a conversation shot helps with the continuity editing. it is effective because it helps the viewer to feel as though they are there listening in on the conversation but also helps them to understand what is going on.


Our Preliminary Task Script.
Shot 1 - Establishing shot - Tim walks down a corridor by some lockers
Shot 2 - Close up shot - Tim stops and dials a number into his mobile phone and the camera is close up on him typing in the numbers
Shot 3 - Match On Action Shot - Tim walks through a door whilst on his mobile and is filmed as he walks into it and walks through it from the other side.
Shot 4 - Reaction Shot - Caroline sees Tim and is surprised as she hasn't seen him in a long time
Shot 5 - Long Shot - Tim runs through a door and outside
Shot 6 - Caroline stops Tim and talks to him;
              Caroline: Tim! Where are you going?
              Tim: I've just been told that theres a Football Match and if i don't go now i'll miss it!
              Caroline: Oh.