Case study: Cinderella 2015

Me and my media studies class have decided to observe how disney decide to advertise and use marketing to spread word about their upcoming film, Cinderella.
The film is set to come out in the Uk on the 27th of march, 2015. Although this is an american film there are mostly english actors/ actresses to be featuring in this film (such as Richard Madden, Helena Bonham Carter, Lily James and Cate Blanchett.

One way in which disney have decided to spread word about the upcoming movie is via social media, as you can see here they have made a twitter account to tweet updates on new trailers, exclusive behind the scenes footage and a countdown on how long to go until the film comes out. 

The first official trailer for the film came out on May 15th,2014 (just under a year before the release of the film), However this trailer did not contain any footage from the film, but just featured a sparkling glass slipper. The second official trailer featured on Good Morning America, which did contain footage from the film and was a minute and a half long. Deciding to feature the trailer on Good Morning America was an effective way of releasing the very first trailer due to the amount of people who watch the show.

In the first 24 hours of the trailers release, the clip on youtube had 4.2 million views, and 33 million views on Facebook (which is the highest views any disney film has ever had). 

Here is some merchandise for Cinderella, being sold in shops ahead of the release date for the film.

http://9to5mac.com/2015/01/07/ihome-disney-2015-cinderella-ipad-iphone-speakers-cases-headphones/

On the 31st of December, a second trailer for cinderella was released, this time previewing more footage for the film in order to excite the target audience once again. This is so that people planning to go see the film do not go months without seeing any advertisements/new trailers, this keeps them interested and eager to go to the cinema once the film is released

Disney Prezi

Here is a prezi me and my class mates made on Disney's four main business segments: media networks, parks and resorts, studio entertainment and consumer products.
Since being founded in 1923, Disney has adapted and evolved to fit the demand and preferences of its audiences, which are forever changing, primarily due to technology changing our everyday life. Instead of falling behind and not keeping up with society, Disney have changed their ideals and aims accordingly to keep up to date. 

BBC tour video

Here is a video of what we saw and learnt on our BBC studies tour trip!

Filming ideas

After watching our film opening so far, we have decided that it would be good to film our protagonist walking towards the train station, then buying a ticket at the machine.

 Whilst she is standing still it would be ideal to maybe do a POV shot of the ticket machine as she selects 'London Marylebone'.

 After, we will do close ups of her handbag and shoes. This is a typical convention seen in chick flicks and so it would be ideal to include this the next time we film. Also, it will appeal to our target audience to have our protagonist dressed fashionably.

We have then decided to film Samantha rushing to Costa as she has forgotten her Boss' coffee. We will then see her rushing out a few seconds later, we are contemplating standing in one place and doing a pan as she rushes past the camera, we could then pause on the road whilst she steps out the frame, and do our film title here. Furthermore, we felt our target audience would be able to recognise Costa Coffee.

Film editing

This is what our film roughly looks like so far, it is far from finished however this is a rough outline and we would like our friends opinions on what we could improve on or what would make it more interesting. It's ideal asking our friends as they happen to be our target audience, teenage girls for chick flicks.

More filming for film opening

On Thursday, the 20th of november the media studies students in both year 12 and year 13 are going to visit the BBC Studies in London!
Luckily, this gives us an opportunity to film a bit more, on the journey to the studios, we will be taking a train into London.
Fortunately we can then film shots of the moving train and entering marylebone station. This will be used to represent Samanthas early morning routine in which she travels to work.

Completed filming on Sunday

Yesterday we managed to film our scenes, luckily we were extremely fortunate in that we managed to film everything we wanted within the 2 hours. However we had an issue on friday afternoon where our actress (the protagonist) could no longer be part of our film opening!
We were then forced to hastily find a replacement actress. Luckily we found someone, Molly in the year above (year 13) who said she was able to step in and help us! We told Molly to wear posh, smart clothing and we met her on sunday after quickly informing her of the location and what we wanted her to do/ what our film opening is about.
Unfortunately we spent about 20 minutes on a shot that I particularly struggled to get right. A simple wide shot of Molly entering the room, and sitting down. But as she sat down, her head would get cut off at the top of the shot. So I struggled to follow her in time and move the camera up and down as she sat down. Eventually I managed to get the shot right, and we moved on to various other shots. We filmed the same scene over and over again from different angles and so when we were editing we had plenty of shots to choose from.
We each took it in turns to film different shots so that it was fair and we all had a go. In one scene, I even make an appearance as an extra, someone who supposedly works at the magazine office, attempting to put a poster up on the wall (which was kindly given to us by hairdressers who heard about our ideas and were eager to help us).
We thought it would be a good idea to have a few of us in the background as extras because it would make it more clear that it is an office, where you would have people busy in the background.
Georgia also makes an appearance as an extra where she pushes a clothes rail into the room, unfortunately this was when I was filming the wide shot of Molly coming in and sitting down (when I struggled to do it correctly) and so she had to repeatedly had to come in and out pushing a clothes rail!
Emily did the tracking shot of Molly walking into the office, which was difficult because she followed Molly with a handheld camera opening the door, and walking through. Unfortunately when we watched it back we felt it looked slightly unprofessional and so when editing we might cut bits of that scene out.
One issue was that we had never visited the location before and so we were unsure of where we were going to set up the cameras and all our props, and how we should film our characters entering rooms. Although when we got there it was easy to quickly set up as we had a limited amount of time to film we just had to decide straight away.
But overall it was a successful day and we managed to get everything done that we had intended to do!

List of equipment needed for shooting

Props:

·     Clothes rail with clothes on hangers – coats, blouses, cocktail dress

·     Tape measure

·     Dressmaker’s dummy

·     Posters to hang on the wall

·     Coffee cups (?)

·     Posh Handbag

·     Phone

·     Flowers for decoration 

·     Clipboard

·     Magazines

·     Laptop

·     Stands for pictures (?)

·     Maybe a printer(?)

*Props with a (?) are props we may not necessarily need

Equipment for filming:

• Camera
• Spare batteries in case camera runs out of battery
• Spare camera incase other one breaks 
• Tripod
• Microphone
• list of shots we need to film 
• lead for microphone to camera 

Costumes

As we ourselves are planning to make an appearance as extras in the background we will have to dress appropriately. For this reason we have all decided to wear monochromatic colours as seen in the devil wears prada.
 This shows how our actress Molly, (playing Samantha) will stand out and differ from the rest of us.
here is an idea of what we would like Molly to wear: 

·     Either a smart skirt and top/dress

·     Heels or smart boots

·     Designer Handbag

·     smart blazer for office environment 

And here is an idea of what we would like Miss Try to wear:

• Smart,monochromatic clothing 
• office wear
• Glasses to make her look older/more professional?

We wanted to ensure our target audience could identify with some of the fashion choices made for our film opening, as we know our target audience would have watched plenty of chick flicks before, we decided to follow these conventions to appeal to our audience. 

Chick Flick Target Audience

By getting together a focus group of girls aged 14-18, and asking people what their favourite films, forms of social media, tv programmes, hobbies, celebrities, shops and music are we managed to produce this poster which represents a large sample of teenagers from our target audience.

If we attempt to keep these in mind when choosing how to produce our film opening, it should make our film opening more successful, and more relatable for young teens.

Finalised Story line

After weeks of consideration and preparation, we have finally decided on what our story line should involve for our 2 minute film opening- on Sunday we start filming!

We have decided to film the conversation between the editor of the magazine and the intern in an office environment. Luckily, due to various contacts we have been able to arrange a time for us to film our scenes in an office.

We have decided to start with our protagonist walking into the office (match on action) , we then will do cut aways and close ups to various props around the room i.e: magazines, posters and a clothes rail. We will each bring in bits of clothing to put on the clothes rail for verisimilitude. We would like to have people sorting things out on the clothes rail with a tape measure. 
we would then like to do a mid shot of our actor sitting at a desk, sorting through papers when she finds a letter saying 'confidential'. We would then like to do an over the shoulder shot of her opening the letter, once she reads the words 'court summons' we will then cut to a close up of the confusion/shock on her face. 
Just before you see her going to bring out the rest of the letter to see what it says, we will then have our 'editor' shout out 'samantha?' in the background, as she does this we will then switch back to a mid shot to show our actress struggling to quickly put the letter back in the envelope whilst her boss gets nearer to entering the room.
Once the editor comes in, we will switch to a wide shot she will demand 'where is my coffee?' then slamming her books down on the table, once she does this we will then go back to a mid shot and show once again Samantha's confusion as she realises she forgot to get her boss' coffee! 

We have 2 hours in which to film all of this in so I am hopeful we will be able to get all of our scenes filmed! 

Storyboards

Here are our storyboards which show various shots we hope we can do for the beginning half of our film opening. 

Nine frame analysis

I have decided to do a nine frame analysis on The Devil Wears Prada.

This first shot shows the office as very modern. The use of the monochromatic colours emphasise the sleekness of the location (the building is all white and the employers all wear black) The main character Andrea is contrasted to this and sticks out because of her brown clothing. This also emphasises how she does not belong in this environment. 

Behind the character here we can see posters of previous 'runway' magazines. This is an effective way of using props as it increases the verisimilitude. Also, the rule of thirds is followed here as we see that the character is not standing in the middle of the frame, thus we have a clearer view of the posters. When making my own film opening I hope to use posters in the background as well. 

Furthermore, the use of props here also contribute to a sense of verisimilitude, as you can see the clothes rack in the background. As with the magazine posters, I will aim to use a clothes rack in the background in my own film opening. 

Here you can clearly see Andrea is out of place in the scene as everyone who already works at this office are wearing black, thus this emphasises her presence as a stranger who doesn't belong in this setting. 

The scene switches between everyone running around panicking in the office to their boss walking out the car, the shot of her foot creates mystery around who she is as you never see her face. Since she is seemingly very important, the audience will be curious as to what she looks like. 

Once again, the shot completely cuts out the characters face as you can only see her body. She is keeping in tandem with everyone in the office who are specifically all wearing black clothing. You see her carrying a magazine which links her to the office upstairs.

This mid shot is very important as it finally presents this mysterious character who everyone seems eager to not cross paths with. 

The characters expression is very cool and nonchalant and her hair is perfectly styled. Because this shot is important, it contains no other background props so the audience can clearly focus on the character.

Here, the editors secretary is rushing to keep up with her as the editor critisices her on how incompetent her secretary is. Her voice is very cool which shows the audience how she thinks discussing this stuff is beneath her and she should not have to be explaining this to her secretary. 

The mise en scene here is very impressive, it reinforces the importance of this character as this large,modern and aesthetically pleasing office is hers. 

The use of font is very typical for a chick flick and the use of the colour red on the word 'devil' fits in with the connotations of hell and the devil, you would think of the colour red to describe hell. 

Inspirational Film Openings

This film opening has given me a lot of new ideas on what I could possibly use in my two minute film opening. As similarly shown in the Lizzie McGuire film, the opening scene switches between two narratives. In Legally Blonde the scene alternates between showing the protagonist getting ready and showing the journey of a letter. Also, it builds up slight tension as we never actually see the main characters face, not until the letter everyone is signing reaches her.
It's also very girly, focusing on makeup and her painting her nails, not to mention the pink curly writing showing the names of the cast members.

In terms of using these ideas in my two minute film opening, as with all other chick flicks I will aim to use:

1. A Girly font (soft colours with quirky, curly writing)
2. Upbeat, cheerful music 
3. Perhaps a voiceover from the protagonist (as shown in Confessions of a teenage drama queen)
4. Perhaps I could also alternate between two different scenes in order to further the storyline and give the audience a wider understanding of the protagonist's life (in terms of my idea we could alternate between our intern working at Vogue then working at her actual job in tescos, serving a customer shopping). 

Top 10 camera shots

To help me film my movie opening, I have looked at the top 10 camera shots typically used in Chick Flicks. Below are a list of all of them:

1. Establishing Shot- This is used to show the audience where the setting takes place, e.g. rural countryside or in the city. This is clearly shown in the princess diaries where you can tell the story takes place in San Francisco. Similarly this is shown in Angus thongs and perfect snogging where we establish in the first two minutes that the film is set by the sea in England ( in this case Brighton)
2. Close up shot- These are used a lot in chick flicks as it is easy then for the audience to observe the certain range of emotions a character may be feeling,whether they are happy, sad or angry.
3. High angle shot- High angle shots can be used to emphasise the loneliness of a person. This may be useful with Chick flicks as in a film, typically there is a love interest involved and usually something end up going wrong and there is a period time in which the protagonist is upset/lonely without this person. 
4. Shot reverse shot- this is used to show a conversation occurring between two characters. It implies a connection between the two people.
5. Tilt shot- Usually after a film, the camera slowly tilts upwards towards the sky and ends.
6. Tracking shot- this can be used to follow a character as they weave their way through busy cities (e.g. In the Devil wears Prada a lot of tracking shots are used to emphasise how busy New York city is).
7. Two shot- A two shot is one which depicts two people in the frame, this is usually used to imply a connection between the two characters. In chick flicks this is commonly used to show two people after a date. 
8. Wide shot- A wide shot is used to show where the story is taking place or if a character goes on holiday, For example this is used The holiday where the storyline switches from LA to England. 
9. Long shot-A chick flick often starts with some sort of journey and this is often portrayed by a long shot showing the main character walking through a city/town or even a school. 
10. Mid shot- As previously mentioned, this long shot then cuts and moves in closer for a mid shot. 

After researching and coming up with these 10 camera shots, I will aim to use all, if not a majority of these shots to fit with the typical conventions of a chick flick. 

Film Openings

Through the help of this blog entry: http://whatculture.com/film/the-importance-of-film-openings.php
 I have analysed the openings to Saturday night fever and Adventures in babysitting. Using these, I have decided on ideas which I hope to convey through my film opening. Observing these two film openings helped me to develop my understanding of the typical conventions used in chick flicks. Below are the videos of the two film openings:

I also observed the opening to Confessions of a shopaholic and 10 things I hate about you. Here are the videos to show you both of the film openings:


Here is a prezi which shows a summarised version of everything I have observed through these film openings and everything I would like to include in my own 2 minute film opening:

Top Chick Flick Directors

As part of my research for my final AS task I am going to look at two different directors who have successful movies in the chick flick genre.
The first director I looked at was John Hughes. He directed a few of my top favourite chick flicks such as Sixteen candles, The Breakfast club and Pretty in pink. All of these films have elements of humour in them, drama at times and most definitely romance. Two out of three of these films have a female protagonist. The Breakfast club in fact contains four main characters, but overall there are only 5 characters in the whole film. Quite often, John Hughes' films have catchy songs, such as the iconic scene where Judd Nelson fist pumps the air whilst 'Don't your forget about me' by simple minds plays in the background. I managed to find a clip on youtube which shows this iconic ending:


Also, John Hughes' films contain stereo typical high school characters. This is especially shown in the breakfast club and pretty in pink. Pretty in pink shows a girl (called andie) who's quirky and different, who has a male best friend called duckie who is hopelessly in love with her. She does not even consider the idea of being with duckie as he is not attractive nor is he popular at school, This is shown in contrast to a popular boy called blaine who expresses an interest in Andie, and she immediately is taken by the idea of dating blaine simply because he is rich and popular at school.
Similarly in the breakfast club, four teenagers are forced to attend detention on a saturday. All are from completely different social groups and think that because of this they can not get along. However, funnily enough they end up enjoying the time they spend together but all agree that come monday, they will be back in their original social groups, avoiding one another as they have done all along.

Another director I have decided to look at is Gurinder Chadha. She directed two of my most enjoyed chick flicks (Bend it like Beckham and Angus, Thongs and perfect snogging) Both of these films largely consist of humour, drama and romance, which is very similar to John Hughes' films. Again, as with Pretty in pink, the two main characters are quirky and different to your typical girl, they challenge the stereotypical teenage girl idea, however these quirky characters are surrounded by typical teenage characters. Such as, the popular good-looking boy, the mean girl, the caring friends and the parents who don't understand their daughters.
Below is a scene from Angus Thongs and Perfect snogging which shows how the humour and romance commonly shown in chick flicks.


From my evaluation of these films I can conclude that it would be ideal for me to base my 2 minute film opening in a high school environment. This will be useful as I can ask my peers to complete questionnaires on what they would prefer to see in a chick flick film.

Chick Flick collage

At the end of AS level media studies, I have to produce a two minute film opening. I have decided the genre I will focus on are Chick Flicks because I have watched numerous chick flicks and feel because of this it will not be hard for me to recreate my own version. To help prepare for this I have researched various chick flicks and have made a collage of a few of them below. 

One thing I noticed all chick flicks have in common is the use of a pink/purple/red theme. This convention could be because pink and purple are stereotypically quite girly colours (this is used to attract young adults). The use of the colour red could relate to the elements of love a chick flick typically contains. 

Furthermore, another thing I noticed was that almost every chick flick contains an element of humour throughout. The story line is pretty straightforward, containing a beginning-where the story is introduced and you become aware of the protagonist's daily life/routine, eventually a male character is introduced who catches the attention of the protagonist, a problem eventually arises in which the two main characters have reason not to pursue their love interest any further. And then to end the film, one character (typically the male) redeems himself by showing an act of true love. Finally the two can live in harmony, with a 'happy ever after' ending. 

Preliminary task analysis

Our actual task was to film someone walking into room, film them having a conversation with another person and then filming them walking out the room. Three camera techniques were necessary here which I recently researched about.


Overall, I found this task very interesting to do as it was my first time properly filming/directing a scene. I was also eager to use the three different camera techniques I had recently learnt ( Shot reverse shot, the 180 degree rule and match on action).


To film the scene, I used a sony handicam on a tripod. I had never used a sony handicam before or a tripod so before I actually started filming, I experimented using the camera and tripod together correctly. Luckily It did not take me too long to get the hang of it! What was also new to me was holding the handle on the tripod correctly to pan across a room, showing the actor walking across. Luckily I had used iMovie before so I did not have to spend ages finding out how to edit the videos and put them together to make one overall scene.


To plan the overall scene I created a storyboard (which is shown in my preliminary task preparation post). Unfortunately there was not enough time for the actors to properly learn their lines that I had written on the storyboard and so they had to make them up on the spot. This was not efficient as I filmed them having the a conversation around 5 times before I was confident I got the right shots, and each time they could not remember exactly what they had said.


Leading on from my previous point, it was then difficult to edit my videos correctly, so that the dialogue flowed appropriately as if it were a normal conversation.


After I finished the editing and published my video on my blog, I turned to my peers and asked them for feedback on what I could improve the next time I filmed a scene and what was good. Here are some issues they raised:

• In the very first scene, the headroom could be considerably lower as there is a bit too much space on top of Nina's head. Perhaps I could also move closer to her to film as there was too much extra space around her. 
• Also, when I pan across the room to follow Nina I struggled to keep up with her as she was walking too fast. Next time I will have to tell her to walk much slower so that instead of slightly cutting her out of the frame, I can 'lead' her with the camera. 
• In my shot reverse shot, the angle at which i film the scene differs, for example when i switch to show Georgia talking to Nina, you can tell the angle is slightly different and I have filmed her too close. 
• In the scene it is quite difficult to hear the two actors having a conversation so next time I will tell them to either raise their voices slightly or I will have to use a microphone. I would do a sound check however the sony handicam is not attached to a computer so this would not be ideal. 
• Also,Nina is sat at an angle whilst Georgia is sat facing right ahead of her. This is is probably why my shot reverse shot does not look equal and at different angles,because nina is sitting not directly facing Georgia. 
• Another issue in my shot reverse shot is that there is too much space on the side of my actors, I could have made them more central in the frame instead of too much to the right or vice versa. 
• When I follow Nina as she looks at the clock, I tried doing a point of view shot however the shot of the clock is much too zoomed in and so the camera was very shaky as I filmed it. This was because I had no time, so next time I will attach the camera to a tripod and film the clock correctly. 
• Another issue with the clock was that although in the dialogue Nina says 'Oh it's lunch time' the clock clearly says its 3pm and so next time I will pay extra attention to detail and change the clock so that it says 1pm. 
• As aforementioned, when Nina stands up to leave the room, I lose her again as I pan across the room so I will have to ask her to slow down when walking. 
• To conclude on the issues I faced, one major problem that caused a majority of the issues listed here was the lack of time I had to correctly film the scene. Next time I will leave an adequate amount of time to successfully film a scene properly.

A few of the good things my peers informed me of were:

• My ability to accurately demonstrate match on action, when I edited the recordings and put them together I was extra careful to make sure they added up so that when Nina walked through the door I showed her from inside the room in the exact same spot she was in from when I filmed it outside.
• My idea to add in a point of view shot from Nina's perspective when looking at the clock. 
• The way I included an effective 'two shot' which helped to establish the relationship between the two actors in the scene.

Overall to conclude my analysis, I am fairly pleased with the outcome of the video, albeit I did make numerous mistakes, these were crucial in that I will next time, be able to avoid repeating the same mistakes and be able to produce an aesthetically pleasing piece of work (this experience will help me with recording my two minute film opening).

Preliminary task

This is my preliminary task video:

Preliminary task preparation

I have prepared for my preliminary task by creating a storyline of what I want the scene to be about, and dialogue etc. I also prepared for the preliminary task by researching into three camera techniques I am required to use. These were:

• Shot reverse shot
• Match on action
• 180 degree rule 

I am nervous to film my first proper scene and I am hopeful it will go smoothly, I am also hopeful,

after practicing each technique,  to use them correctly in the preliminary task and see what the overall result is. 

Here are pictures of my storyline:

Camera Techniques

In preparation for my preliminary task,I learned today about different camera techniques which would have to be included in my preliminary task, such as:

• Match on Action
• Shot reverse shot
• 180 rule

I used a video camera to try out each of these and have been able to come to the conclusion that it is actually very difficult to correctly do each of these techniques whilst making the scene and camera work look professional.


Here are examples of each technique:



Shot reverse shot:

I thought that this would be a good example to use as it clearly shows the two characters having a conversation whilst correctly using the shot reverse shot technique. As you can see the camera switches to show the character that's speaking,on the same eye level as the other character.

Match on action:




I think this a very good example of the match on action technique, as you can clearly see the person walking through the school, you see the back of the student opening a door then see them walking in from inside the room.

I also found it hard to understand what exactly the 180 rule technique was, and so I watched this video which clarified it for me.

First Lesson

Today I learned about what to expect from my first year studying media.
I think it sounds interesting and I am thoroughly excited to explore various ideas concerning the type of coursework I will be producing over the next year.

I particularly enjoy reading books and so it will be a nice change to look at the visual aspect of telling a story, I will also be able to (at the end of the year) present my ideas through my own individual way and create the beginning of a film.

Not only do I enjoy reading books but I also enjoy watching various films. I never focus on one particular genre and have a wide range of films I enjoy (anything from schindler's list to romeo and juliet or even your typical chick flick).

I hope the year ahead is as enjoyable as the first lesson and my skills/knowledge of media develops as the year progresses.