19/12/11: Filming Report

Today, after months of planning, location hunting, casting and negotiating filming times with our actors, our group members and our actors finally met up for the filming of our trailer! We scheduled to meet up at 10:00 at Folkestone Bus Station, then head to Dymchurch where we could use Megan's house as a base for getting our actors dressed and made-up and then set out to the vast and deserted fields as the location for our filming. However, one of our actors (who was meant to be acting as the antagonist - 'Bully Edwards') made a last-minute decision to drop out due as he was not feeling well. This meant that we had to make quick changes to some aspects of the trailer by cutting out our comedic character, 'Grave Digger', and reassign roles with the actors that we had remaining. It was decided that our actor who was orginally casted for 'Grave Digger' would play our bad boy of the movie, 'Sheriff Bully Edwards'. Although, we were slightly behind on our schedule, we managed to get all our actors dressed up and to our filming location.

For the first filming site, we chose a deserted field near Megan's house as it thought it would be the best representative of the vast, dry lands of the Souther parts of USA that Western movies are set in. In this site, we were to film the ending scenes of the trailer - the 'shoot-out' scene.

Here, we had a few problems in terms of trying to find the perfect camera angle in which modern developments and technology would not be seen. Although, the location was rather deserted, there were several interuptions such as buildings in the distance, telephone and electricity lines and so on. However, after a bit of moving around and with Megan's excellent camera skills we managed to find angles in which none of them were present!

We then managed to get all the necessary shots that we needed from the location so we decided to move on. We would've liked to re-do some of the scenes in order to get even better shots, however, although we had checked the weather forecast beforehand, the weather was not on our side with sudden showers of rain so we were unable to spend much longer in that location. After that, we managed to get a few establishing shots (such as of train tracks and so on). Then, we headed over to Sophie's (our actress) house, which with its all wood and rustic charm was the perfect filming location for our indoor scenes.

We used Sophie's kitchen area, in which we had to create our 'bar' set. The covering up of modern appliances and products turned out to be much harder task than expected ... But after a lot of moving things around and a lot of covering things with towels, we finally managed to turn Sophie's kitchen into a convincing Western bar! We also adjected the lighting to make it dimmer, in order to recreate a more older and natural feel. Also, we felt that the shadows would aid in conveying a mysterious vibe to the audience.

So, after a long while of shooting inside Sophie's house (the actors found it very hard to keep a straight face ... haha), we finally managed to finished the filming! We then moved on to do the photoshoot for the magazine cover and the posters, for which we had to use several other light sources such as extra lamps and torches from several different angles in order to create light and shadows exactly where we wanted it. And that concluded our long day of filming! Despite having to cope with last minute changes, time constraints and after giving much direction to our actors and with Megan diligently working behind the camera, we managed to get some good material for the trailer.

And now the long process of editing begins ...

Trailer Storyboard

Casting

After getting together and pulling together a shortlist of our friends who could be suitable for the roles required in our trailer and then contacting those said friends to ask if they would be willing to help ... we have finally got ourselves the actors and actresses who will be portraying the characters of our movie!

Here they are ... I present to you the main actors for our trailer!

JOSHUA HOLLIER as 'EAGLE'

ADAM COMPTON as THE SHERIFF

and last but not the least

SOPHIE O'CONNOR as LORETTA

Ancilliary tasks: Film poster

Drawing from the style of the True Grit posters I found during my research, I have created my own possible template for the marketing of our film. I have taken the idea of a full-page photo with a lot of text over the top, in varying fonts, and applied to 'The Eagle'

Instead of cast information, I have used a quote from the film's dialogue because we do not have a famous cast like Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon to help sell the film - using a quote may create suspense and intrigue into the plot, attracting viewers.

Potential poster template:

Fonts used: Carnvalee Freakshow, Woodcut, Wild Rodeo

Location update:

I have recently heard back from the owner of our ideal filming location and unfortunately, he was not able to offer us concession on the price of using the area so we are unable to film there. However, as we realised this was a possibility before we contacted Laredo, we have made contingency plans concerning our filming locations.
We plan to film in local areas that have a look reminiscent of the empty planes of classic western films, and around the steam railway as this is a classic element of western mise-en-scene.

We plan to meet up with our actors and film on Monday 19th December.

Our original trailer storyboard only needs altering slightly and as we have already drawn out a contingency storyboard, this should not be an issue.

[image]

Poster & Magazine Cover Template

After analysing several posters and magazine covers, we have come up with rough ideas for the creation of the poster and the magazine front cover:

Poster Template:

(By Bhawana)

Magazine Cover Template:

(By Megan)

As you can see I have chosen the title of the magazine, after having searched through common Western slang. I decided to play on the term 'Iron Horse' which is the term for a steam train. I then combined it with 'bullet' as the magic bullet/hypodermic needle theory came to mind, suggesting that a lot of information is provided quickly.

It is also apparent that I have started the piece, using the same font title for the film title as a method of tying the two together and creating a house style. There is also an article title which I used the film 'Cowboys & Aliens' for, as it is the most recent Western themed film to have been released.

Font Choices

In the end, we decided to use 'Carnevalee Freakshow' (1st on the 2nd row) because we felt that the font best represented the 'classic Western' vibe that we were aiming for as the font is one that audiences would have seen often on Western boards and signs and they should be abe to instantly recognise the genre of the film as a Western.

Rough Poster Ideas

I drew some rough ideas for the poster based on our findings from the analysis into film posters.

Ancillary Tasks: film magazine cover and poster

From my research, I have found out that western films very rarely feature on magazine covers. This is most likely down to that they are no longer a popular and proliferant genre, despite well-recieved, well-liked and good quality modern western films being released in recent years. Due to the lack of covers featuring western films to analyse and draw conclusions from, I have had to research elsewhere for examples to refer to.

The publication 'True West' is a magazine devoted to 'preserving the American west' and occasionally features covers about western films. Its illustration and styling are very traditional and reminiscent of the classic westerns of the 'Golden Age of Westerns'; a style I feel our group should attempt to emulate in the house-style of our production. 

Recently, the film 'Cowboys and Aliens' was released in an attempt to reboot the western genre by crossing it over with sci-fi. The film magazines that featured the film had very different approaches to how ro represent it - some choosing to show the sci-fi element and others the western conventions.

To the left, 'True West' magazine, although not a film magazine, has a more dominant western style where as 'Empire' uses a much more modern, sci-fi style. When we create our magazine cover, we will need to consider which style to choose and whether it will tailor to our audience.

The film 3:10 to Yuma kept the same traditional house style throughout its marketing, was aimed at fans of westerns and hoped to reboot the classic style of the genre. This is similar to our ideas about the production so to emulate this style would be an option. Alternatively, we could use the same approach as True Grit, combining traditional typography with photography to create a more minimalist style than the old posters which were often crowded with a lot of different images.

By studying these films, we can formulate ideas concerning the format of our film magazine cover and promotional poster.

 

 House-style:

 This traditional style would include images that appear to be hand-drawn or painted in a sketchy but realistic way; impactful 'western' fonts such as 'Rio Grande', 'Carnevalee Freakshow' and 'Woodcut' from the font site dafont.com; feature key elements of the mise-en-scene of westerns such as weaponry, horses, steam trains or elements of costume like hats;

 more text than conventional for other films (poster); possibly a weathered, dirty appearence - shown through textures; dark colours based in browns and yellows and strong poses by the characters featured.

Initial ideas:
We have decided to name our production 'The Eagle' after the protagonist so here I have tested some different typefaces and colours to see the effect created.

And The Film Will Be Titled ... *drumrolls*

(Eagle Image: http://www.wpclipart.com/armed_services/fighting_eagles/Eagle_AF_1.png.html)

Decision Time ...

After analysing the films, we have decided we are going to try our hand at making a trailer that will stay true to the Western genre and the codes and conventions that we identified through the analysis of the films.

We decided to forego the parody idea as we felt that while it might be hard to pull off a Western movie in our modern environment, we wanted to face the challenge and explore our creativity. Also, we felt that for a parody movie trailer, we would have to have the aid of some very abled actors in order to evoke the desired response from our audiences - something that we, realistically, do not have access to.

Ancillary Task: Poster and Film Magazine Cover Analysis

(Under construction)

Film Analysis: Blazing Saddles

BLAZING SADDLES (1974)

Director: Mel Brookes

Cast: Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Slim Pickens

Production Company: Warner Bros. Pictures, Crossbow Productions

Plot Summary: 'The Ultimate Western Spoof. A town where everyone seems to be named Johnson is in the way of the railroad. In order to grab their land, Hedley Lemar, a politically connected nasty person, sends in his henchmen to make the town unlivable. After the sheriff is killed, the town demands a new sheriff from the Governor. Hedley convinces him to send the town the first Black sheriff in the west. Bart is a sophisticated urbanite who will have some difficulty winning over the townspeople.' - IMBD.com

Here are some of the observations that I made while watching the movie:

Parody?

So, we have chosen to do a trailer on a film of the Western genre ... However, we identify that  trying to convince our audiences that the trailer is a true Western will be a very difficult task with our environment and resources. Therefore, we are considering making the film into a parody movie (similar to the 'Scary Movie' series which mock the Horror genre) which will use the concept of having a 'Western' movie set in themodern environment.

To help make our decision and to help us identify the key codes and conventions of the genre, Megan and I will both be watching and analysing a Western film each. Megan will be watching a typical Western movie ('3:10 to Yuma'), while I will be watching a parody Western movie ('Blazing Saddles') - this should aid us in comparing the different films and identifying which would be more plausible for us to do ...

Location ideas:

These are my location ideas for our production. Below, is a video made by the members of Laredo, it really shows off the location and how realistic - and suitable for us - it is.

Find Laredo here

UPDATE:
I have scince spoken to the owner on the phone and emailed them concerning the possibility of working in Laredo and am currently waiting for a reply.

Costume Ideas

Our genre choice requires us to dress our actors in a very specific way and give them a specific look. To achieve a look that would seem authentic and legit, I recently visited a costume shop near-by - 'Dress to Party'.


(http://www.dress-to-party.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/shop.jpg)

I decided to go to the store to look for any appropriate costumes or accessories that could be of use for our trailer. However, upon searching through the shop, I found that there were no western costumes that would be of use to us. I did, however, find some accessories such as guns and moustaches.

When I talked about it to my group, though, we decided that it would be better if we just used make-up to achieve that 'rough', 'rugged' look that most cowboys wear rather than the fake moustaches that would make it look less realistic. To affirm our decision, we experimented with make-up and decided that make-up indeed would be a better choice.

These are a few looks that we tried out:

For this first look, we tried to create the unshaven look with pencil eye-liner.

Here, we used mascara.

We decided to go with the mascara in the end as the strokes of the mascara brush created an effect that look more realistic than when we used the eye-liner. 

These are the make-up products that we used:

Geogie also went to a costume shop to find any props and costumes that would be of use to us. Contrary to my findings, she found some very good costumes, however, the problem, this time, was the prices. The costumes were out of our budget and we were unable to bargain for a better price. Therefore, we had to settle with having to pull together our own costumes from our own wardrobes.

Here are a few things we came up with for the potential costumes:

25/10 - Group meeting

Yesterday, our group met and we discussed out plans for this project and assigned tasks.
Our general conclusions were:

• as a group, we must watch more films in this genre to understand better the conventions of plot and technical codes of westerns
• as we know many people who would be willing to play parts in our production, casting should not be a problem
• in terms of props, as we cannot produce explosions or gunshot special effects, we could use toy guns for comedic effect - for example, the classic gag of 'BANG!' guns, cap guns or other toy guns that could be painted to look more authentic. Similarly with elements of the mise-en-scene such as horses, toys could be used for comedic effect. 
• we need to build a clearer picture of our target audience and reader profile before beginning filming etc - we must put together a questionnaire, and use the results to form this profile
• to help us decide how to film our production, we should gather ideas of locations, props, plots, actors and what we classically associate with westerns - music, mise-en-scene, type of language etc and use these to decide what to include in our trailer

From this, we assigned tasks for each member of the group:
Megan - to create and distribute the questionnaire and use the results to assemble a reader profile
Bhawana - to create a 'mood board' of ideas, conventions and symbols of the genre
Georgie - to begin further research into the genre and scout for locations in which we could film

We also decided that each of us should watch some western films so we are all watching 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly' because it considered one of the most classic westerns and then meeting and discussing what we have drawn from it which could be applied to our own work. Additionally, we are each watching a different type of western and choosing a film to analyse so we get a varied and complete feel for the genre and what is associated with it.
The films we are individually watching are as follows:
Megan - 3:10 to Yuma (modern western)
Bhawana - Blazing Saddles (spoof/comedy)
Georgie - Once Upon a Time in the West (traditional)

After watching these films, we plan to post our own analysis of the chosen scene and talk about how it applies/deviates with the conventions of the genre, any significant elements of the codes, similar plot lines and themes between the three films and how all of this could apply to our own work. From this point, we shall decide out plot, story board and begin filming.

Questionnaire

In order to determine what is desired by our audience, I have created a survey which asks questions about the genre of Western.
It will help us realise what is expected from such a trailer, in order to follow genre conventions, and possibly what to avoid, to provide that the trailer doesn't become too over the top.

The Questionnaire

Concept Board

Our Chosen Genre is ...

After carrying out research for our individual genres, we unanimously agreed to choose 'Western' as the genre for our trailer. We came to this decision as Megan found that 'Crime' was only a sub-genre and so it was difficult to have a movie that was solely 'Crime' without touching on other genres such as Thrillers, Sci-Fi, Mysteries, Horrors, etc, and I found through my research that Horror/Comedies all seemed to have very common themes. I felt that we would be too tempted to fall into the cliches and would not be able to create original material. 

While we acknowledge that 'Western' may be a difficult genre to do, we were enticed by the challenge and the desire to do something unique. 

Genre Research: Western

Film choices:
For my research, I chose to look into what is often considered to be one of the films that empitimise the western genre, and a film that parodies all of the classic conventions that it features - A Fistful of Dollars and Blazing Saddles. I chose these films because I felt they truly represented the genre of classic spaghetti western and western spoof respectively.
I did originally plan to study the trailer of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly but I felt it's trailer wasn't as respresentative of spaghetti western as A Fistful of Dollars, despite it being considered one of the greatest westerns. I did, however, watch this scene to see the classic genre practices.

A Fistful Of Dollars (1964)

Conventions:

• Music: The 'sound' of the music used in westerns is hugely identifiable with the genre, perhaps the most so with any film soundtrack. The use of drum beats, whistles and harmonica conjure the atmosphere of the classic western perfectly - the drum beats create the high level of tension while the whistles and harmonica hark to the desolate lonliness of the winds blowing across the desert. In this trailer, the drum beat connotes death or war, reminding the audience of tribal drums for a ritual or battle. This raises the stakes of the showdown before the audience has even seen the film, setting the tone for the feature beyond the trailer. If we were to chose this genre, we would have to ensure our music was the best we could make it because it is such a key identifier to the genre.
• Mise-en-scene: The costume, props and setting in this trailer I feel wholly represent the classic image of spaghetti western. The voice-over describing 'this short cigar' 'this long gun' and 'this poncho' talks not only about the character concerned, but details the image of the 'man with no name' that features in so many spaghetti western films - the poncho, boots, hat, gun and holster, cigar, even facial hair. Other features of the mise-en-scene like horses, ramshackle towns and the actions such as spinning the gun after a shot are classic features of this genre but may be difficult to recreate in our production.
• Sound : The hyperbolic voice over in this trailer is also used in The Good, The Bad trailer and embodies the image and attitude toward western heroes - they are larger than life figures of mystery and danger and the phrases such 'the man with no name' 'danger fits him like a tight, black glove' and 'he is perhaps the most dangerous man that ever lived' all fit this image and create the sense of tension and danger surrounding the protagonist, a classic trait of this genre.
• Use of camera: Low angle shots, close ups, long shots are common in this trailer and the whole genre to make the characters look powerful and intimidating and the intense close-ups create the uncomfortable, strained atmosphere during show-downs and duels etc. Long shots establish the setting and often focus on the protagonist, painting a picture of a isolated character dependent on themselves.

If we were to create a trailer for this genre, we would need to comply with these conventions but try to regulate it so that our production doesn't become cliched. That is, unless we wish to create an over-the-top effect for humour, such as if we do a spoof like Blazing Saddles.

Due to the time the film was made in, the film poster does not feature photography but because this imagery was so prevalent in the advertising for westerns at this time, it has become synonymous with the genre. The drawing style here is rugged and powerful, representing the character it depicts. The quote featured on it is the same as from the voice over of the trailer, an unual feature that do you not usually see now unless it is the tagline for the movie. The typography again indicates the age of the movie, but evokes the genre, time zone it is set in and environment of saloon bars etc of the movie so if effective rather than dated. The lack of fancy effects and over-crowding of the poster sets it apart from modern-day posters and I think that if we were to create a poster for a western in our production we should experiment with this more simplistic approach, using the negative space to create an impact similar to this.

Blazing Saddles (1974)

Blazing Saddles is comedy western spoof or parody. In the trailer, it uses the conventions of western films and trailers as described above but for comedic effect. For example, there is use of voice over to set the tone for a western movie but contrasts it the serious tone of the words with the light-hearted content of the trailer. There is also music, but in this trailer it is of a faster tempo - more upbeat and fun rather than suspenseful. This creates an almost circus-like atmosphere rather than the tension of the Fistful of Dollars trailer. The mise-en-scene is conventional of the genre, featuring guns/horses/saloon bar/ramshackle town but altered to create humour - such as the 'Gucci' bag the sheriff carries and the town's buildings clearly only painted 2D boards for film sets.
If we were to create a spoof trailer of a western film, the techniques used here we could employ to make humour - particularly taking the classic conventions of the genre and turning them on their head and making observations about classic 'spaghetti westerns' (for example, that the sets always looked flimsy and insubstantial) and play on them.

Genre Research: Crime

I chose crime as I felt that it would be a good genre to use for our own production piece. It has become clear to me, however, that crime is viewed as a sub genre, and so I had difficulty finding explicit 'crime' films.

As a result, I focused on films that I am familiar with, as I know that they have important crime themes running through them. I chose to look at the popular 2010 film, Inception, due to its underlying crime storyline. Sherlock Holmes is another film I have focused on, as most of the common crime conventions have arisen from its origin.

Sherlock Holmes is an extremely well known crime fiction piece, and is probably one of the most popular detective based texts.

Initial Ideas and Research

For our A2 Media Studies production, our group has the members Megan Hogben, Bhawana Siwa and Georgie Watts. From our AS productions, we gained various different skills which we can bring together to contribute to this A2 film task. We all have different favourite genres and knowledge of these so we can all bring different ideas to the group to create a diverse collection of thoughts and attitudes.

We all had varying ideas initially so chose three genres (with sub genres) and researched one each. Our plan was to research each individually and then group together and discuss our ideas once we had a more fleshed-out knowledge of our genre. We chose specific films related to these genres to give us an idea of
what our film product would be like and studied their trailers to get a feel of the style and conventions that would become part of our own if we chose that genre to use for our production.

Our chosen genres were:

Bhawana - Horror, with the sub genre of comedy-horror with a focus on the films Scream and Scary Movie

Megan - Crime, sub genre thriller - specific films, Inception and Sherlock Holmes.

Georgie - Western, with the sub-genre of spoof, focusing on The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and Blazing Saddles

We didn't want to choose any genres that could be aimed at our own age range such as teen film, romcom and urban drama because we felt it would not be challenging enough and wouldn't allow us to stand out against other candidates.

We chose these genres because they have classic conventions, especially in their trailers, and allow for us to adjust these for our audience once we decide our audience profile.

By looking at the film posters, we can also think about wat to include in our ancillary tasks, and look at the codes of posters in these genres.

Let Us Introduce Ourselves ...

Hello,

We are Megan, Georgie, and Bhawana and welcome to our A2 Media Production blog! Here we will be posting everything to do with our production so you'll be able to get an insight into all our thought processes and the various stages throughout our journey to realise our task of creating a trailer, a poster and a magazine cover.

So wish us luck and enjoy the process!