Research for Sherlock Holmes and The Dark Knight

SHERLOCK HOLMES
• Make a list of the website’s content available for each film, i.e. does it include Trailers/Clips, Still images, Biographies, Character details, Posters etc.
- Trailer
- Promotional critique
- Ways to buy movie (several options)
- Characters names
- Free things (iphone app, e.t.c)
- What is on the soundtrack
- Special features
- About the film
- Synopsis
- Actor, directors and film makers profiles
- Can follow on social networking (twitter)
- Screen/still shots

• Identify the elements of design - colour scheme, tone, shapes, space, etc.
The colour scheme is cool and dark. There is very little tonal contrast and all of the colours and shades are dark greens, greys and black. The writing and set-up of the website is clean cut and very straight, with focused squares and, with what can only be stated as, old fashioned style. At the bottom was the credits in small but noticeable font.

• Identify the principles of design - composition, balance, emphasis, repetition, etc.
Emphasis was put onto the characters in the background as they were the only colourful thing on the page the rest was in the subdued tones of black, grey and dark green. The pages are all balanced as on one side is the characters and on the other is what the page is about. .e.g. on the page with Sherlock Holmes is the downloads and with Holmes on the left the downloads are on the right.

• Comment on the overall ‘feel’ developed for the film’s promotional materials.
The overall feeling of the promotional material is sinister and unknown. A little like something ominous is going on behind the scenes and that is what they (Holmes and Watson) have been sent to find out. This fits the movie perfectly as that is the basis of the film.

• Identify who the target audience is.
Teens to adults.

• How is the website laid out? Look at the menu system, font selection and how information or promotional materials are accessed.
The menu is across the bottom and when the curser runs over it, it slides and unfolds also as you point your curser to left and right the menu rolls so that you can see all of the options. The font is quite straight edged with a glow around the edges, it is white. The promotional material is mostly produced in the form of square or rectangular boxes. When each page is opened a little animation is shown to ‘take you to’ the page.

THE DARK KNIGHT
• Make a list of the website’s content available for each film, i.e. does it include Trailers/Clips, Still images, Biographies, Character details, Posters etc.
- Trailer
- Promotional critique
- Ways to buy movie (several options)
- Characters names and profiles
- Free things (Google widget, e.t.c)
- What is on the soundtrack
- Special features
- About the film
- Synopsis
- Actor, directors and film makers profiles
- Can follow on social networking (twitter)
- Screen/still shots
- Games
- Special Events

• Identify the elements of design - colour scheme, tone, shapes, space, etc.
Dark colour scheme. Not much tonal contrast mainly dark colours and shades, black, grey, dark green a splash of orange/yellow for the fire. Each page has a different screen shot as the background. The website is set-up using geometrical shapes such as squares and rectangles. Even though the squares and rectangles are clean cut there are areas on the pages that are unfocused and confusing.

• Identify the principles of design - composition, balance, emphasis, repetition, etc.
The pages are balanced using the same technique as the Sherlock Holmes website. Having the character on the screen shot being on the right or left and the promotional materials on the opposite as the character. The emphasis is on the central character on each of the websites pages but in the poster the emphasis is on Batman and elements such as line and tone are used to accent the emphasis.

• Comment on the overall ‘feel’ developed for the film’s promotional materials.
The overall feel of The Dark Knight’s website is dark and ominous. Even though everything is clean cut it has a sinister feel, almost surgical. This very specifically suited to this movie as the movie is about the sinister and terrifying joker and scarecrow. Batman can also be seen as sinister as he does things that aren’t always ‘good’.
• Identify who the target audience is.
Thrill seeking teens and adults, the pages and movie looks sinister and ominous.

• How is the website laid out? Look at the menu system, font selection and how information or promotional materials are accessed.
The menu is once again across the bottom with it expanding, except with The Dark Knight menu everything is shown straight away and you don’t have to roll your curser over the edges to see the rest of the options. The writing is white and glowing.

BOTH
• Identify the common elements in both sets of material.
Dark colour schemes, clean cut squares and rectangles for the promotional materials. Similar glowing writing. Animation for; coming from and go to pages. Same kind of balance technique is used.

• In your opinion, are the websites effective in appealing to the intended target audience?
Yes they both are. They project what the target audiences want in a movie and that is what draws them to the websites and promotional material.

• What do you like/dislike about the promotional materials reviewed?
I like that the promotional materials are fitting to the movies and they are perfect within their style. I don’t like how in the, The Dark Knight website there is nothing about Batman’s mixed feelings about being ‘good’.

Finishing the research and planning, Part A

I have finally finished the research and planning for Part A of the assignment. I have filled out all the criteria, I think, and hopefully I will be able to hand it in tomorrow. It feels good to finally finish after working on it for a couple of weeks now. All that is left is Part B and C which are making the poster and website and putting in all of the information.

Film Promotion

As of this term we are promoting the short films we had to complete for the last two terms. As our film is a crime film I researched the posters and trailers of some serious/crime films. The Dark Knight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jqq4j52Fb4

The Dark Knight is a 2008 superhero film directed and co-written by Christopher Nolan. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, the film is part of Nolan's Batman film series and a sequel to 2005's Batman Begins. Christian Bale reprises the lead role. The film follows Bruce Wayne/Batman (Bale), District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), Assistant D.A. Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), and Police Commissioner James Gordon (Gary Oldman) and their struggles and journey in combating the new rising threat of a criminal who goes by the name of the "Joker" (Heath Ledger).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Knight_(film)

I dont know if this is the right poster for The God father as I have never seen the film.

The Godfather

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf16Vc3iZjE

The Godfather is a 1972 American gangster-drama film based on the novel of the same name by Mario Puzo and directed by Francis Ford Coppola from a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola, and Robert Towne. It stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard S. Castellano, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard Conte and Diane Keaton, and features John Cazale, Talia Shire, Al Martino, and Abe Vigoda. The story spans ten years from 1945 to 1955 and chronicles the fictional Italian American Corleone crime family. Two sequels followed: The Godfather Part II in 1974, and The Godfather Part III in 1990.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Godfather

As you can see both posters contain the main/central character in a serious pose with a serious expression. In my movie poster I would like to have something similar.

Reflection

Describe any problems or difficulties you encountered during post-production and editing. These may include; technical difficulties, corrupt or missing files, group related issues. etc;

As a group we had so many problems it’s hard to count them on one hand. Our group had arguments on whose idea we should use. Eventually they all chose mine. We shot our first film but we weren’t organised and so we missed a large array of shots. As a group we decided that instead of getting the extra shots we should just shoot again. Our lead cinematographer was away and so we had to substitute her with someone who was not up to her standard and so the second film had all the shots and flowed well but it had no cinematography to it. So once again we had to re-shoot. This time our lead cinematographer was able to film and took it on herself to shoot the whole film on the weekend. Once the film had been shot, our group decided that it was smart if only two member edited and for the other three to find music and start the soundtrack. While these two girls were editing they encountered technical problems. The started editing and had edited a considerable amount of the film but then the next lesson the USB corrupted putting them back to the beginning. The started again and were halfway through when they found out it didn’t save properly to the scratch disk. The third and final time they started (threes the charm) it properly saved and the completed the editing. After we picked all of the songs, one group member left so the two of us were fixing the soundtrack. After all of the songs and the film had been imported into garage band I set to work getting rid of all of the non important background noise and laughing. I found this very difficult until my teacher showed me a useful technique in deleting background noise with out making the soundtrack out of sync with the film.

Explain whether your pre-production and planning helped during post-production. In particular, discuss whether the use of devices such as storyboards, shot-lists, and rough edits assisted in the editing process;

As we refilmed three times and so for the first film we did have a shot list and storyboards but they weren’t used as we slightly altered the storyline. But for the 3^rd and final effort we make a proper shot list and props list and this helped in the post production when we were editing as we knew what we wanted out of the shots we had.

Clarify any time-management issues you encountered during the editing process and describe the steps you implemented to improve in this area;

Our group was extremely unorganised and it is not a single persons fault. We split up the work between us all and although some of us completed what we were supposed too others didn’t which set us back. We also constantly argued about the genre of the film and whose film we ‘should’ have shot.

Discuss whether you made effective use of the provided templates (EDL and Sound Design) to assist in the editing and decision making process;

Our EDL was part of our shot list. Our shot list included what we wanted out of our shots. We didn’t use a SD template as shooting our three films had taken up a lot of time and we were extremely rushed in making the soundtrack.

Discuss whether you undertook adequate and detailed reflection to throughout your project. Have you provided enough evidence to support your work? (Look back at your blogs/journals and think about whether it looks like a whole terms worth of work).

My blog is slightly inadequate in that I don’t have all of the reflections but I did post all of the pre-production work.

List any skills, techniques or tricks you have discovered during the project.

During the project I learnt how to use Final Cut, and Garage Band. I learnt a good technique in garage band about how to edit the background noise without making the soundtrack out of sync with the film.

Discuss YOUR feelings about the production task:

Are you satisfied with the final result?

I am happy about how the film turned out. For rushed work it is good, it had sufficient cinematography and a matching soundtrack

Would like to change any aspects of your film?

I would have liked to make the film a little more serious but that is the way the actors interpreted it.

If you could start the project again what would you do differently?

I would definitely be more organised and would have liked to shoot a film like this on the first go.

Reflection

During this term my group has run into many problems. Bella took it on herself to film the whole film during the weekend. The rest of the group including me converted and named all 83 clips. we have now started editing. The editing process doesn't need a group of five and while Sharna and Bella are editing Chloe, Jess and I are looking at garage band and starting a EDL and TDL.

Script :)

Scene One:
Sue: good morning detective smith!
Detective smith: good morning sues
Sue: a new case has come up!
Detective smith: what is it?
Sue: an old friend of ours you know the wolf?
Detective smith: yes I do
Sue: yes well he is chasing our other case little red that has stolen the hutch diamond. Think they are both after the same thing
Detective smith: not again! I HAVE TO GO!
Sue: don’t forget this!
Scene two:
Little red: yes I have got it! I have the diamond. I have the hutch diamond
Wolf: (tackles little red to the ground) GIVE ME THE HUTCH DIAMOND! GIVE IT TO ME!
Detective smith: GET OFF OF HER! I'M GOING TO GET YOU!
Wolf: never!
Scene three:
Detective smith: STOP (wolf falls over)
Little red comes running in and steals the diamond back off the wolf: ha-ha mine now!
Detective smith: NO!
Detective smith walks off smiling :)

Props List

Characters:
Detective costume: jeans, leather jacket, checked shirt, glasses
Secretary costume: dress, heels, glasses
Red Riding Hood costume: red shirt, red track-pants
Wolf costume: black hooded jacket, jeans, sunglasses
Props:
Diamond ring
Car
Taser/mobile