Question 1 My group’s sequence is similar to the introductions of other superhero films, primarily because we looked for other superhero films for inspiration. As with most other superhero films, the opening two minutes do not reveal any of the character’s powers, or even provide any major insight that the character onscreen will gain any powers. We were heavily influenced by Spiderman, which is evident in our sequence as it follows a similar path. In the initial two minutes of Spiderman, we are introduced to a character that it not very popular and is bullied by his peers, we also find out he is in love with the most popular girl in school, who he is not confident enough to speak to, but she takes pity on his plight. Our sequence is similar to this with the story of a teenager being bullied and rejected by the girl he loves, and we used voiceovers in a similar style. The main difference between Spiderman and our sequence is the character; in Spiderman, the character has very low self-esteem, even in the voiceovers, the character seems insecure. In our sequence, the character attempts to come across as a very confident and enigmatic individual, and the voiceovers re-enforce this idea; however as the sequence progresses, the audience are shown that it is all an act and the character truthfully is an unpopular and uncharismatic character. This is also contrasting with Ironman as the character in that film is much older, and is a very confident and successful individual. Our sequence focuses more on introducing the main character of the film, which will allow the audience to familiarise with him and become more accustomed to him in the film; whereas the start of Ironman introduces the action to the audience and gives them an idea of what to expect in the rest of the film. Despite the focus being on the inclusion of the action sequence, Ironman still manages to leave a positive impression of their protagonist on the audience in the introduction, and from much of the positive feedback we have received from our audience, I feel we have managed to do the same although our audiences feel empathetic for our protagonist, while they were impressed by the protagonist of Ironman.

Question 1

I also think our sequence can be related to Kick-Ass with the similar style of the introduction. Both films are alike as both have weak and ostracised protagonists that have found themselves unsuccessful in love. Both films feature a love interest which is out of reach of the protagonists until much later in the films; the difference is that in Kick-Ass, the character is not popular enough to approach her confidently and succeed in wooing her, while in our sequence the love interest is not interested in males until the end of the film. One of the main similarities between the two introductions is that Kick-Ass are set in a American high school, and our is set in the British equivalent. They both begin in very light and humorous moods however the mood of our sequence ends off on a more deep and emotional note. Kick-Ass draws humour from crude, vulgar adult jokes, while we attempted to incorporate basic comedy with few indecorous gags although they appeal to our target audience. In both our sequence and Kick-Ass, the protagonists aspire to become something great; the main character from Kick-Ass wants to become a superhero, while the character from our sequence desires to become a powerful and renowned police officer, and is forced into becoming a superhero.

Question 1 We maintained some of the genre conventions in our sequences for instance, as in the majority of superhero films, our superhero is male, in the story we created he fought the antagonist twice as well as his minions, and the hero ends up besting the villain and getting the girl. I think the footage we recorded was edited effectively and this increased the realism of the piece and made it look professional. The use of voice-overs further supplements the proficient look of the sequence. In my opinion, we have challenged more of the conventions than we have retained. Unlike most other superhero films, the main character is portrayed by an Indian actor; most other superhero films feature Caucasian actors. Furthermore, our superhero is in his late teens while most other superhero films have older protagonists. Additionally our protagonist is not born with any superhuman powers, and does not gain any later on, instead his damaged bone structure is replaced with a metal skeletal structure, our character is more like Batman who does not have any powers either. Another convention we defied was that most superhero films are filmed in America, while our sequence is filmed in the UK.

Question 2

I think our sequence re-enforces the modern stereotype of teenagers and their consideration that “image is everything” and I think we have shown the stereotype generally in a negative way, with the protagonist still remaining as a positive character, allowing the audience to empathise with him. The section of our sequence where a kid is being bullied by the other boys shows the criminal and thuggish stereotype of teenagers that is commonly exaggerated and blown out of proportion by the media which we also demonstrate in a negative approach. When the protagonist arrives to assist, he too is beaten up by them. The whole idea running through the sequence of the protagonist attempting to create this artificial image for the audience of himself as a strong, popular guy that is a “hit with the ladies”, this maintains the idea of the popularity contest that is school life for teenagers. The central character fails in trying to create a macho image, and again trying to be a ladies man, it is then that the audience see him for what he really is and feel empathetic. I think in trying to show teenagers in this way, we also managed to represent the male gender. The idea of the male character trying to create and uphold his manly, macho persona and the heavy focus on the guy trying to get the girl he wants is a negative stereotype of males, which I think we have displayed in an amusing manner.

Question 3 I think that there are two major independent film distribution companies that could consider distributing our product; North American entertainment giants Lionsgate Entertainment, and the formerly major studio American media company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). In my opinion MGM would be the primary candidates, as they have more experience in distributing films similar to ours, with Superhero movie of 2008 being a venture similar to ours. MGM also have two other endeavours lined up which are in the same genre as our film; they are going to distribute the sequel of G.I. Joe: Rise Of Cobra entitled G.I. Joe: Retaliation later on this year, and they are going to concentrate on the home entertainment distribution of Robocop which is to be released in 2013. I think that despite their high popularity, Lionsgate would consider distributing our film as in 2010 they distributed Kick-Ass which was another project similar to ours, and it introduced many new actors which is something we have done in our film. Kick-Ass turned out to be a successful venture despite the introduction of new talents; this may encourage them to take on our project.

Question 3

I think the product should be initially released in the UK and in India and then expanded further internationally to Europe and America. I feel this way because low budget films without any well-known actors or directors produced in the UK do not usually succeed straight away in America. If the film’s popularity increases in the UK, it could spark interest in America and this could be a springboard for its international success. My reason for saying the film should also be released in India is that it is a film made in the UK, which features many Indian actors. These types of films are generally received well by the Indian public, and films such as Bend It Like Beckham 2002 and Bride and Prejudice 2004 are testament to this. Despite it being a low-budget film, it will be received well by the Indian public as it will be the fourth ever film to feature Indian actors as superheroes. In my opinion, it will be most profitable to release the film originally in the cinemas, before moving onto home entertainment and then television. I think because we would release the film internationally, television would not be such as successful method of distributing the product initially, and although distributing the film through the internet would allow it to reach large amounts of people at once, it would not be as profitable as distributing it through the cinema first.

Question 4

The film is principally aimed at males. The film’s target audience is predominantly teenagers regardless of their interests or lifestyle as I think our product is well rounded and so would have something that would appeal to everyone, although the product is also aimed at young adults. As our age rating of 15 indicates, the film is not suitable for younger audiences. I think that psychographic factors may influence the target audience; however our film will feature comedy, action and romance and so will cater to the interests of many people. Our audience feedback showed interesting results, our film was aimed predominantly at male teenagers, and the male teenagers that saw it provided us with very positive comments on its humour and ambition, and requests to extend the sequence. A surprising result for us was that many of the female teenagers that saw our sequence also provided us with positive feedback remarking particularly on its humour, cheek and style. I think if we really want to draw in more females as a secondary audience, we could make the existing female characters a more integral part of the film, or introduce more female characters for a subplot.

Question 5

In my opinion, the mise-en-scene in our sequence effectively appeals to the audience, as it is set in a location and with situations they will be familiar with. Our sequence is filmed in a secondary school, and so our teenage target audience will be able to relate to it easily. The use of teenage actors and extras will assist them further in relating to the setting. Our feedback confirmed that we made the correct decisions when selecting our locations. We used some locations within the school such as the faith centre, in which not many people from our school have been, however along with the audiences not from The King’s School, they too appreciated the idea. I think our selection of the stereotypes that we used in the sequence was a key factor in enabling the audience to engross themselves and genuinely be able to relate to it. Our piece significantly changed from our initial ideas as we progressed, we initially had the main character as a superhero already, however we would not be able to execute the initial plans and so we decided to have it so that the main character had not yet become a superhero, and instead focused on the introduction of the main character and helping the audience familiarise with him. Many of the things we incorporated in the piece will help our target audience to relate to it as fights and getting rejected by girls are common occurrences in schools.

Question 6 After producing this sequence, I now appreciate the difficulty of filmmaking, as I didn’t assume that it would be as challenging as it actually was. I personally have learnt several things through doing this; I learned that it is wise to take several different shots of the action in different angles and positions to ensure a wide range of possible clips, which makes the editing easier. I now appreciate the rule of thirds and the 180 degree rule as we paid close attention to them, especially to the 180 degree rule while filming in a narrow corridor. Also, the different types of shots and that are used imply different things, for example, we end the piece with a high-angle shot of the main character; this makes it seem as though the audience is looking down on him. Using the Apple Macs to edit the sequence was an interesting and challenging process, as well as being an enlightening one. I have learnt the difficulties faced when editing, and how the process of editing is where the film really takes shape. The use of iMovie has taught me different things such as the manner in which to add effects to the video, how to import sound, edit volume levels, and polish the clips and transitions between them. I think one way of improving would be if we used more voice-overs, I think this would have been more effective in certain parts such as the very beginning. Also, I think the application of credits is another area which we could improve as there were issues and we faced difficulties while adding them, I think they could be used in a more impressive way had we not had any issues with the Macs and in uploading the footage.

Question 7

I feel that there has been a significant improvement in the planning and preparation of this sequence from our preliminary task. Our introductory task was heavily improvised, we had our main idea which was that two unwise agents were interrogating a man using heavy force and accusing him of something despite him being innocent. We had no idea of the location, dialogue or any action and so we just found a room, made it appropriate by closing the curtains and blocking light from entering and leaving two mobile phones on for illumination. We then just improvised dialogue and physical, violent sequences. Contrastingly, for this sequence, we had a large amount of time to prepare and so we decided on the initial story, dialogue, actors, locations and then we wrote the script and selected shots using a storyboard. We later realised that we would be unable to complete this idea and so we changed the core of our sequence, while maintaining some of the dialogue. We also made changes to the cast and found the most appropriate locations to film. We didn’t receive permission to film in two of the locations and so were compelled to go against the script and the storyboards and we replaced those two sections of the sequence and resumed filming. Despite these problems, we had a good idea of what shots we were going to use as well as the dialogue and so it was not too difficult to film despite these changes. In the sequence, the filming and footage quality was of a much higher standard than that of our pilot task.

Question 7 In the pilot task, we had the camera panning twice as the characters entered and exited the room, while they were in the room; the camera remained in the same place, held by the cameraman who was sat on a desk. We were strapped for time and so we just ran through it section by section with the camera running, we only took one shot for each component of the small sequence and didn’t vary the position of the camera. On the other hand, when filming the new sequence, we had access to a tripod which stabilised the camera and allowed easy panning and tilting without the camera wobbling. We incorporated many different angles and shot types to keep the audience engaged and we constantly repeated things placing the camera in different positions to get several takes which gave us a wealth of options during the editing. After uploading the footage onto the Macs and selecting the desired footage, we compiled the shots chronologically and then began bringing the piece together. We trimmed many of the clips to allow smoother transitions between them, we also added the misty effect to support the dream sequence and make the idea of it being a daydream more obvious, we also had a slight change of costume for the dream sequence to help make it more evident. We heavily incorporated music in this piece using three songs in the sequence to make it more entertaining and to help it flow, as well as adding a voice-over to add to the authenticity and to assist the flow of the piece further.