Film Website Plan Draft.

The website of the film is one of my ancillary tasks and as with everything, a certain amount of care is needed to create it as the film trailer and film poster. For this reason, I've done a very very rough draft of what it will look like on Photoshop. What needs to be taken into account is that it is a rough copy, nothing on it but the layout will stick, either, but it's a great reference for when I create my website. Here is the plan: 

As can be seen, it doesn't look great, but it matches in with my colour scheme and generally lays out everything that I want. What is important to take into account is that this is very subject to change, due to the way I'm doing it... As it's easy to change things around on different website publishing programs, I'll be changing things around to fit the website, but I want to keep it relatively close to this, as with the colour, if I feel it doesn't quite fit, then that can be altered and more can be put in! As for the text, that can be changed at all times to fit and make the whole thing look generally better!

So, there's my plan for my website, rough yes, but effective for myself, as I know I'll want to change things around when I get see fit, so a rigid plan would not fit my working style!

What I've planned is quite simple and that's the way I want to keep it. From seeing different websites, it's easy to see that they are relatively simple, anyway. There's not a lot to them and generally they serve as a point of information and possible sales. So, that's how I want to keep mine. There will be the main things on there, but it's relatively small, with only having a few things on it. The links are important to give the illusion of more leading on from the website, as I'm only making the homepage. Similarly, the bottom illusions it to be more professional, with having all the copyright stuff there.

The background I feel is going to be the most important part. Whilst I've currently got a burnt orange colour, what I really want to go for is a picture background with an orange tint to it... Currently, that's not possible due to having no images to go on... But, for now this is an accurate plan that helps me greatly.

Overall, I'm happy with the plan, I just need to get started on the real thing!

Film Storyboard.

Story board from Waring22

Here is a presentation that has scans of my drawings, that put together my entire storyboard! The storyboard is in order and the only issue is that the scanner cut a few of them slightly, but all the writing on them has been put at the top of them! 

Film Poster Planning.

When making a film poster, you need to have a reasonably good idea as to what you want it to look like... For this reason, I set about creating a number of plans and potential ideas for how I'd want mine to look. Instead of doing this through a computer program, I decided to do them by hand. I felt this would be easier, as it meant I could go through ideas quickly and roughly, as I didn't feel the plans needed to be works of art in themselves. Essentially, they're just very rough and quick drawings that I'll turn into something great and established, but finding the one I think would be easiest and most pragmatic will be the trouble. For this reason, I uploaded all of my sketches and set about thinking which one would be best...

So, here are my 3 plans! I decided to go with the second one in the end, as I felt it was simply the best looking. I have no doubt that this will change slightly in the actual production, but for now this is what I will be trying to recreate, in a more artistic and professional looking fashion!

Advertising.

So, for advertising my film, to go along with all my productions, I'll have to think of many different things, as I'll be the one advertising. The perks of being independent!
Later on, I will show advertising in action, but for now it's just important to have an idea on how I would advertise!

In this modern age, there are countless ways to advertise, many of them cost next to nothing or are completely free! Now, it's simple to say I could purchase billboards for a number of months to advertise, or simply put the finished trailer on TV adverts, but this seems too old school and simple. Of course, with it being a trailer, the trailer would be shown on TV and such, but there are other ways to advertise! As I'm making the film poster, this needs to go everywhere where it could be noticed. A normal thing to do is to put them up in a Cinema. There, they can be seen by movie goers and the general public. Also, these can be put up in any film clubs, etc. It would be silly to put them everywhere, as it's a waste of resources, they need to be tactically placed to maximise profit. For this reason, I would use film posters as a major advertising tool, due to it being relatively cheap and effective, dependent on how much the Cinema would charge to place them.
Similarly, just because billboards seem old, doesn't mean it isn't effective. However, they are expensive, so I would not purchase many and only purchase them in places where I feel I could target a big audience, and as silly as it seems, a place to target would be near a hospital, as my film is about disability. People with disabilities would want to see it, so targeting them is a good idea, if not a little controversial.

As for using the internet, there are many many ways to do this. One of my favourite ideas is to use Google advertising. Google run YouTube, Blogger and many other different services that are accessible to the general public. The only problem with advertising this way, is that it can be quite expensive. It's a choice between whether or not it's worth the expense or would benefit my film. Something to think about is that my film is independent and relatively small, so would advertising to a large audience really help all that much? It's debateable. The thing with Google advertising though, is that adverts show up dependent on what people have searched for. So, if you search for lots of stuff to do with Football, it's more than likely that you'll get Football related advertisements. That's the theory, anyway. So, actually, the thought of using Google adverts becomes a lot more viable, as the advertisements would hopefully show up to people who would appreciate it. Still, it's a big investment and one that would need to be thought through once seen.
The good thing about my package, is that it's essentially an advertisement package, so advertising 'could' take care of itself, but it's always good to have other advertisements in place for marketing. There are lots of ins and outs of advertising, such as putting the website on the film trailer and such, but it'll all be put into future posts, along with a post showing how some different advertising would look, to see which would be worth paying for and investing in!

Another definitely worthwhile way of advertising is Social Networking sites, like Facebook, Twitter and Google+. This technique has been done many times and for good reason! Creating a page is cheap and easy to reach the masses! Later on I will be putting up a post showing all my Social Networking pages for the film, but this will most likely have to be after I have made my film poster, so I can at least have an image to it and not merely a name. Similarly, the page will get better when I have more done, so more can go on it and be engaging for an audience.

Key Directors.

Here I have a presentation dedicated to some key directors I thought would prove useful in my own work... The theory is that by knowing the ins and outs of directors, I'll take ideas for my own and develop my own directing style! So, knowing some directors helps to shape this and by making them sport based, it rubs off into my sport movie! Their directing style is also similar to how I want my film to be, meaning knowing how they do things is very important! Overall, I expect this to help in the underlying qualities of my production...

My Company.

I felt it was important to come up with a company on a theoretical basis, as I have somewhere to work to and everything feels much more professional! The professional feel to everything makes me driven to be more professional in everything else, too... So, the theoretical company has a lot more use to it than at first glance!

Staff.

There's going to be a few members of staff hired to help with the production of my film trailer, poster and website. Mainly to help with filming and photographing, as I can't work a camera, boom mic and direct at the same time! For this reason, I have decided to hire a few people to help with the production and luckily these people have volunteered.

Something to realise though, is that these people have little to no experience with this kind of equipment and so don't really know what they're doing. This does not mean to say though that they will be bad, just that it won't be completely professional. Although this isn't ideal, with my budget, it's the best I can do and hope that they are not awful. I don't think they will be bad, just inexperienced, but their job isn't too hard, so hopefully it will go well!

The people who I've hired to help with my production are as follows:

Emma Hancock: Boom Mic Operator

Tom Denman: Cameraman

Luke Thomas: Assistant Director (Whilst also being the lead role. We're taking advantage of his knowledge of film)

Lucy Norton: Costume Helper

Jack Waring (Myself): Basketball Coach (To help with the small parts of the sport that will be needed)

Mick Waring: Mechanic (In case Wheelchairs get damaged)


Luckily, I won't really need many more staff, as it's such a small time production... These people will be brilliantly helpful and all I'll need, really... Some won't even need to be on site!
So, here are my staff! Sorted!

Extras.

In my film, I'm gonna need a fair few 'extras' and for good reason. In my film, I have plans for there to be a 'mugging', so on top of the main characters, there needs to be people who can just fill in for a scene. Luckily, I have access to a broad variety of people that would be willing to do me a favour, so this shouldn't be much of an issue. But, I do want the best volunteer actors I can get! No point in having them if they're not very good!

Below, are some pictures of the extras starring and their names!

This is Adam Dickens. Or "Mugger One".

And this is Joe Hamer. Or "Mugger 2"

There isn't much information here about them, as that will all be done later. But, for now... It's good to see I have people dedicated to helping with the filming! 

Antagonist.

So, we have the main two characters sorted, but we also need the Antagonist, Sebastien.
Now, we didn't feel that the actors who showed up for the auditions really fit the part of Sebastien, so we needed to stretch out a little further and approach those we felt may be right for the part. We found a guy called Reece Kite who we found in a small time school production. His acting was mediocre, but the way he acted just felt right to us. It's hard to explain what it was about him due to having limited knowledge of Drama, but I definitely felt as if he'd be good for the part. Also, since I'm only creating a film trailer, there's going to be very limited acting as such, so his inexperience shouldn't matter too much! The guy is below:

The actors name is Reece Kite and is an good guy to work with, despite his inexperience. Also, the bulky figure of him really works for an anarchist. Yes, he is smiling and doesn't look very intimidating, but the picture wasn't designed to achieve that. Instead, this is just him.
On camera, it's easy to make him look scary, even though there will be limited shots of him.

So, there you have it! The antagonist.

Finalised Actors.

After deciding my main characters, I decided to make a post with all my finalised actors on it. Main characters and others! Attached will be pictures of the actors and a little bit about their role in the production.

 

Deciding The Two Lead Roles

To decide the lead two roles on my film, I decided to utilise Prezi.
With Prezi, I was able to come up with an easy, stylish and smooth way to show my thought processes when picking actors.
As you will see, there were four potential actors who auditioned, but in this you will see the reasons for those that got the roles in the end!

Colour Scheme.

For my overall product, I'd like a loose 'colour scheme' that fits in line with the title, poster colour, website colour, etc!
I'd like this to give the whole thing a bit more of a professional feel to it... But, I don't want it to be too strict, so I can avoid being restricted when creating everything...
I want my product to have a serious, yet warm feel to it, that mixes in with the theme of the film. For this reason, I think it's important to stick with the 'basketball' feel to everything, so for this reason I'm going to put some orange into the scheme, but not a bright one, more of a serious, burned orange... To keep a professional look, I want to keep black on the colour scheme, as it's simple yet effective, especially over the orange. As for other colours, I don't think there's too much to change, as it risks making the whole thing too complicated, or too colour strict. I think what will happen is there will be different variations of orange with more colours mixed in for effect, but mainly I want to keep it to that kind of colour scheme, with obvious exceptions for the images and such!

Nikon D90

So, before I begin to talk about this brilliant piece of equipment, I’ll explain exactly why I feel the need to! The D90 will be the camera I will use for most of my production, from photographing to videoing. It seems slightly strange that I would use just one camera for everything, yet I do have my reasons. 

Unfortunately, the main reason I can only use a camera to this specification is because I simply do not have access to any better cameras. The other cameras I have are flat image cameras and so cannot be used to achieve focus effects, as this DSLR can. So, this being said, it does not mean this is not a good camera. In fact, the Nikon D90 is indeed an extremely good piece of equipment. The camera Is 12 Megapixels when taking still shots and the video function on it registers 24 frames per second, which although isn’t amazing, is more than enough for the film I will be creating, as what it lacks in FPS, it makes up for in other features, such as free reign over most aspects, such as light balance, contrast, etc.
So, it will be able to shoot in the best possible way, depending on where the scene is shot, amongst other reasons. This also means I don’t have to worry too much about what weather I shoot in, as I will be able to tweak the camera, in order to get the best output possible. The specification of the camera is reasonably impressive and to go through it would take a long time, so I refer you to here - http://www.cameras.co.uk/specs/nikon-d90.cfm - to read up on all the specification. As you’ll be able to see, it’s quite impressive and more than good enough for shooting a film trailer.

Another reason for choosing it, is quite basically the ease of getting to it. As the camera isn’t rented and is owned by myself, I can access it whenever I need it without trouble. This is a huge help and factor, as the budget for this film package is essentially nothing, so ease of access to equipment that is free is essential.
If the budget was high, then I would definitely have invested in more expensive equipment, but this is not the case, making this camera ideal.

Something else that is ideal about this camera, is that I own a number of different lenses that can be used with it, to help bring about a more professional feel to the trailer and following media products.

Overall, I feel this is a good choice in camera and one that is going to serve me well over the course of my media creations! There’s no real catch to using this camera, as it will fit the purpose perfectly!

Below is an image from the web of the camera, as it would be difficult to take a picture of my camera with my camera...

Tagline.

With great film, comes great responsibility...

Or, so a spoof of a tagline would say. Taglines! A really important part of a movie package and something that can make or break a film. A memorable tagline can stick in a consumer's head and they will always remember it when the film is mentioned. Often, things like this start trending on Social Networking sites and a younger generation can quote it often as a 'craze'. But, that happens very rarely and mostly only with big budget films. Regardless, I need a good one that is clever, sums up the film, yet stays very mysterious about it. As is with my spoof, the quote 'With great power, comes great responsibility' is a very iconic tagline from 'Spiderman' which is said by Uncle Ben in the film. A tagline like this is short, snappy and very shrouded in mystery, so it doesn't give much of the film away, but it still says a lot about it. Whilst confusing, it does make sense. Similarly, Coach Carter has the tagline 'It ends in the streets and begins in the GYM'. Again, this gives a lot of mystery, yet says something about the film. What is very good about this tagline is that is uses capitalisation well, the emphasis on 'GYM' makes us associate the film with a gym, which associates it with sport, so even from the tagline, we essentially know what the film is about, which is a great thing to have. If people can recognise what your film is about from the tagline, they're likely to go and watch it if they're your target audience.
In 2008, www.taglineguru.com voted the film 'Alien' to have the best tagline... The tagline was 'In space, no one can hear you scream' due to its originality, creativity, suitability and memorability. Personally, I think the tagline works well, yet doesn't say much about the film. In the case of Alien, this works, as the whole idea of the film is that you don't really know what's happening.

This in mind, I need to come up with my own! It's never easy coming up with something short and catchy, but I have some ideas. Bearing in mind the name and theme of the film, something fitting in with the controversy of it all would work well, but also showing that the film is essentially about someone making something of themself in a bad situtation. So, something like 'The beginning is down, the future is up' would work quite well, but I'm not so sure on if it's 'catchy' enough, or really fits in with the controversy too well, as the 'down' and 'up' seem too subtle to get, if people don't really look into it. Something a little more in your face is needed, I think. Something more along the lines of 'In the beginning, we're all on the ground, it's our choice to stand'. This is much more out there and fits in with the title slightly. Although most taglines don't involve the title, I think it's important in this film, especially as I'm only making a few parts of it, as the audience really needs to understand what it's all about! However, that's more of a 'draft' tagline and it could do with some editing.

'In The Beginning, We're All On The Ground, It's Our Choice To Stand' is what we're starting with and I think it could do with shortening. 'All On The Ground' can be shorted to 'All Grounded' which also seems slightly more relative. Also, 'Stand' seems way too close to the name of the film, so replacing the word with 'Rise' also seems more in tune with 'Grounded' and makes for better effect. So what we have now is 'In The Beginning, We're All Grounded, It's Our Choice To Rise'. Overall, I like it and can't really think of anything to change about it. It still seems a little long, but many Taglines are, so I think I'll stick with this! There we go, a finished Tagline ready for Typography and editing! 

"In The Beginning, We're All Grounded, It's Our Choice To Rise"

Typography

One of the things I need to think about is the Typography of the title, and overall how it's going to look.  This is important because the title will probably be the most iconic part of the overall package, as it will be a logo and brand title. The title will go everywhere and be on every part of the package, so there needs to be a lot of thought go into it, to make it perfect for my film. Because of this, I decided to write out the title in many different fonts (as shown below) for me to decide on which I would think would look best. What is important to take into account though, is that it may be subject to minor change when on my poster, in regards to colour, size and possibly shape so that it fits the images and looks part of the poster and not a stand alone thing.

To make a good decision, I decided to stray away from built in Windows fonts and instead started looking online for different, maybe slightly abstract fonts to use. I have looked a variety of different fonts as will be shown below, all in the same size, etc. After which, I'll try and decide on which one(s) I want to use!

As  can be seen, there are a lot of fonts here! I went through hundreds and hundreds of fonts to find ones that I really liked and here there are many! It's going to be very difficult to choose the right one for the job. What to keep in mind is that I will pick a font for the Title of the film 'Taking A Stand' and one for the tagline, which may be the same or different, dependent on whether or not they would clash...

The fonts are all very different and varied, and none of them look 'bad' and all (If put in the right way), would work for my film! As for picking the 'right' one, it's not so easy!
Also, I think I'm going to have to decide once I have more images to work with and see! So, I'm not gonna pick my Typography here, merely have lots in mind and decide fully when it comes to creating the posters and such!

Company Logo.

So, every good, respectable company has a logo. One that can be easily recognised and stands out a bit, often they mean something, yet others are simply an icon. It's completely dependent on the company and some companies have more than one! So, this in mind, I went to create my own logo. Something simple, with a bit of a kick to it. What I will add, is that it isn't perfect. Creativity and art are not my strong point, which is a weakness of mine that I know of. But, it's simple and easy. What I did was make it on Photoshop on an A3 sheet of paper. I did this so that I can shrink it down and not have to size it up, which would pixelate it. Also, this means I only have to do one copy of it, so it's always going to be consistent. The logo is below!

Here is the logo! As we can see, there have been better logos, but it's not awful! It shows the company name, is very simple and overall gets its message across. There's no fancy pictures or very iconic images, but I'm a small independent company and my message is going to come from the films and not how good a logo is. That doesn't mean that the logo is not important, though. On the contrary, it's very important, but I do not see it as the backbone to my company. Instead, I feel that the film side of my company will be the backbone of everything. 

But, like I said, the logo isn't awful, the colour scheme is nice and simple, it's not too in your face and works as a logo. 

The logo will go on pretty much everything, the trailer, the poster and the website. It would be use in advertisements, etc. As good as the film is, people need to know who produced it. If investors like the film, they'll invest, which means more money for the company, which means more films and so on. So, the logo is pretty important as an advertising tool in itself! 

Film Classification.

With any film, comes a rating. Whether it be 'U' or 'PG', '12' and so forth! So, my film will need one, too!
At first thought, I'd say my film (if created) would be a 15, but it can't go simply on what I think it should be, there's a whole 'board' for this kind of thing! For British films, it's quite simple. The classification board is 'The British Board Of Film Classification' or 'BBFC'.

On the official BBFC website, it states:

"In order to protect children from unsuitable and even harmful content in films and videos and to give consumers information they might need about a particular film or video before deciding whether or not to view it, the BBFC examines and age rates films and videos before they are released. This independent scrutiny prior to release ensures the highest possible level of protection and empowerment.
We watch films and videos all the way through and award an age rating and insight to each one. We reach an age rating by applying the standards and criteria contained in our Classification Guidelines which can be downloaded below.
Typically, two examiners view a film for theatrical release. In most cases a Senior Examiner will confirm the examiners’ recommendation. But if the Examiners are in any doubt or fail to agree, or if important policy issues are involved, the work may be seen by other members of the Board up to, and including, the Director and Presidential team. Occasionally we need to take specialist advice about the legal acceptability of film content or its potential for harm.
The same process exists for DVDs and Blu-rays though generally these are seen by one Examiner. However, opinions from other Examiners may be required for more difficult works.
We look at issues such as discrimination, drugs, horror, dangerous and easily imitable behaviour, language, nudity, sex, and violence when making decisions. The theme of the work is also an important consideration. We also consider context, the tone and likely impact of a work on the potential audience.
The release format of a work has an impact on classification. Our decisions on the age rating of DVDs and Blu-rays can occasionally be stricter than at the cinema because there is a higher risk of underage viewing in the home and a greater potential for watching scenes out of context."

Now I have the official classification process, it makes it easier to rate the film... The only problem is that the actual guidelines (also on the website) are extremely complex and it would be very difficult to rate it myself, without professional advice and without it even being made yet... So, whilst I feel that the film will be around a 15, I think it's safe to say I can't classify it fully until the evaluation. However, it's good to know the board that is classifying films, so I have something to refer to, as to not make my film too innapropriate for the rating I want it to have.

The rating is important, as it's all about target audience. If the film is rated a 'U' then it's not going to be teens that go and watch it primarily, as it's not appealing to them. But, if it's rated a 15, then only those with a bit more maturity are going to want to watch it, plus those that just want to watch a 15 for the sake of it being a 15, whilst this is slightly taking advantage of the attitudes of the younger generation, it works. Besides, they're not my main audience, simply a consequence of my target audience, which does help me in the long run!  So, the classification is majorly important into reaching an audience, but this will have to be decided once the trailer is nearly made, so I can add the classification into the trailer at the last minute!