Dear Moderator

Dear Moderator,

Welcome to my blog, I am Esme Finch. On here you can find my research evidence, evaluation questions and the final product of our opening title film. I am in a group with Ellie Walton and Joanna Lewin. I hope you will like my work, thank you.

FILM

WATCH FILM HERE!

PRELIM

This is our Prelim 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IVmAA3IMTs0

1 FORMS AND CONVENTIONS

Titles- 

We researched professional film title sequences in a variety of ways, such as the website 'art of the title'. 

As we are making a comedy film opening we decided that an element of surprise and fun was key to indicating genre to our audience. We also knew we had to signal the location very early on, which is a restaurant setting. Therefore we decided we would use CGi to introduce our titles and have them appearing on different part of props in a way that would be visually arresting. We start with our production company 'WLF' where milk is being poured onto a chopping board and displays the name. We edited this on after effects.  

In common with most films we build up with the title of our film at the end.  We based our methods on food ink.

Sound – music, voice over, dialogue

Our soundtrack has three main elements, which often feature in film openings: the musical soundtrack dialogue and voiceover. The audience first hears the soundtrack. We chose a musical soundtrack called…. It has upbeat, cheerful and lively qualities.

The voice over is crucial in introducing our central character – Danni, the gap year student. The voice over is important in establishing the point of view and making the audience share her attitudes towards her employer and customers she meets.

Although Danni and her opinions do not feature largely, because they’ll be developed later on in the film, nether the less she sets the tone of how the audience sees what’s going on. Everything that goes on in the British restaurant is all very foreign to Danni as she’s Australian and this is Britain. She’s alternately aspirated and amused with the people she encounters.

In doing this we are echoing the convention of other comedy films like Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging where the narrative is framed through the viewpoint of the teenage girl.

The dialogue is in snippets to introduce social satire types. We had one of the celebrities complaining about her hair extension falling out to emphasis the stupidity of the girl.

2. SOCIAL GROUP

2. SOCIAL GROUP 

Stereotype: celebrity chef ( left Heston Blumenthal) Cutting edge molecular Gastronomy, obsessed with inventing new recipes with scientific approach. High profile TV appearances. Our chef (right) is modelled on this stereotype 

We have chosen a comic stereotype relating to body image here: fat people are often stereotyped in a negative way as figures of fun; Dawn French, for example, is famous for drawing attention to her large appetite in comedy sitcoms such as The Vicar Of Dibley. 

Magazines and online news sites are crammed full of representations of celebrities: Their clothes, their escapades, their spending habits, their love lives and their holidays seem to have an inexhaustible fascination for readers. We depict celebrity stereotypes as being empty headed and obsessed with their body image.

This social  stereotype is the posh social climber, like Penelope Keith in The Good Life. We introduce them a glass fine white wine being swirled in front of them as they are the kind of people who think of themselves as the wine connoisseurs. this kind of customer likes to boast and bandy about names of famous restaurants and hotels that they have dined in to show off  about their knowledge of cuisine. they are also the kind of people who follow trends in the press about the latest diet fads. they are likely to shop at waitrose and want to know that their food is ethically sourced and of the finest quality. The recent horse meat scandal is likely to have appalled them and made them suspicious of whatever they put into their mouths. At restaurants they are likely to talk very haughtily  in a RP accent like Margo Leadbetter in The Good Life. 

I decided to compare Dani (the main character) from in our opening Zest to Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones Diary'.
Both films have a comedy essence to them. 'Bridget Jones' is a comedy romance and 'Zest' is a comedy'. There are aspects of resemblance which occur  in both, she wears:  sturdy jackets, with a smart casual shirt underneath to create a laid back edgy look. her hair messy and wavy, shows she has a genuine feel to her.It helps the audiences identify the emotions of the characters easily. Her face expression is stern looking, as if she is very competent, this is similar to Dani who plays our Aussie gap year student, who comes from a sturdy upbringing and has worked in a restaurant all her life, so she knows how to handle tough situations. 

The social group represented by 'Zest' is aged around 16-30+mainly teenagers and young adults, both gender but mainly male. 
People around that age would watch TV and films like Bridget Jones Diary, the Inbetweeners, Chocolat, Waitress, and Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory that includes elements like slap stick comedy, narration from main characters, excitement  etc. So audiences are likely to be engaged and interested in our film 'Zest'. 

 

3 DISTRIBUTION

View my PREZI on distribution 

4. Who is YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE?

4. TARGET AUDIENCE 

When planning on our film 'Zest', one of the things we did was deciding who our target audience is. Our film is set in the modern days with characters who could be your wacky friend or parents and hoping to create comedy. It is energetic, hectic and imaginative, and aimed at the kind of mainstream audience that might watch mainstream comedy as well as  special interest programmes such as cookery shows.

Planning our viewer profile:

Age group: 15-30+, teenagers in schools/ universities

Gender: 60%male 40%female

They are likely to watch TV programs like: Sherlock Holmes, Top Gear, Friends, Big Bang Theory, InBetweeners, Fawlty Towers, Heston Blumenthal, Jamie Oliver 15 minute meals

They are likely to go to the cinema fairly often and see films like: Shaun of The Dead, The Man On the Ledge, Bulletboy, Seven Pounds, The Hunger Games, Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging

In their leisure time, they will listen to  music, watch videos on Youtube play video games, and go on social network sites like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr i mention these social network sites because they will be included in our distribution planning.

They might go to restaurants and fast food shops like McDonald, KFC, Nandos, Subway, Costa, Starbucks Coffee.

Clothes: Top Man, Top Shop, Superdry, River Island, Next, Jack Wills, Fat Face: for this reason, we will dress our characters in the kind of clothes that our audience can relate to. 

Media: Mostly Blackberry and Iphone. They use them for browsing the Internet like watching videos on Youtube and going on Facebook when they are out, connecting and chatting with friends and listening to music. I know that younger audiences use mobile devices more than any other technology to access information and connect to their friends, so i will use this knowledge when i distribute my film and attract my audience.

Here is a collage i made by using Photoshop that shows the special feature of our target audience.