Shaun O¶Connor

6167
?
 
 
 Our film opening goes with the normal forms and conventions of an action
comedy. Looking at the film Johnny English, there is a mix of the conforming
dress code which you would expect from a secret agent and the
ridiculousness of Rowan Atkinson which go together well to make a good
film.
 Our actor was chosen because, at face value he does not look like the kind
of person who would ever be hired as a secret agent, and this makes the
audience question how this person has got to where he is.
 

 Our film is targeted at a younger audience, in the 16-25 age range. The film
may also appeal to younger audiences, as the main character is a secret
agent, and this type of character is appealing to younger people. This could
also mean that parents would go to see this film with their children. Our film
would mainly appeal to middle and upper class people, due to the
references made in the film. These relate to the times in 2009 where top
workers for the government were leaving important documents in on trains
and in public areas, and these incidents gave us the inspiration for our film.

 We compared our film to the 2003 film, Johnny English which was an
appealing film to younger audiences. The film was given a PG certificate,
but we feel that our film would be a 12a due to some subjects that appear in
the film, such as the Al Qaeda references and other scenes that would take
place in the film.
V

V
  
 As our target audience is the 16-25 age range, we would use a number of
advertising methods. We would not advertise on T.V late in the evening as
much of our audience would not be watching at this time. We could
advertise our film in between children¶s programs and in the early evening
when much of our audience will be watching T.V.
 Another way of advertising would be to put on promotions at places like Mc
Donalds where many young people go and would see the adverts.
 Another way of attracting our target audience would be to show the trailer
for the film before popular films in the cinema that our target audience would
be watching
à
  
 During the making of our film opening we used a range of different
technologies.
 The camera we used was a 1080i hdv camera that took mini dv tapes. This
is the same kind of technology that professional camera crews use. This
technology helped us with the opening scene, as the cameras provided by
the school would have provided grainy images in the opening scenes and in
the other low light shots.
 We also used a different tripod to the ones provided by the school, which we
feel worked well, as the pan shots were very smooth, which would have
been hard to achieve with the other tripods/
 We used Imovie 9 to edit the film. Which is the newest version of imovie and
was the best software available to us.
à
?
 During the beginning scenes, just after the agent had got out of bed, we used fairly
slow transitions, to show how tired and sluggish he was. As the action gained in pace,
so did the transitions, to show that the agent was in a great hurry and that he was late
for work.
 We also used music in the piece to build up pace. We chose the song On Call by Kings
Of Leon because it went with the title and the song developed at the same pace of the
film. The song started playing on the alarm clock diegeticly and then became non
diegetic, which we feel worked well.
 The start of the song is slow in tempo and goes with the mood that we have created at
the beginning of the piece. As the agent gets ready the song speeds up and gathers in
pace to create the sense that the agent is in a hurry to get to work.
 At the beginning of the film, as the agent comes out of the house, he realises he is still
wearing his pyjamas. We did this to show the audience how clumsy he is for an MI6
agent and to also create some comedy within our piece. We also put in the rewind of
him coming down the stairs and out of the house as a good effect and to show how he
was starting his day again, correctly.
 We used a meeting room to stage the final scene. As the agent entered, the room was
empty, except for his boss who had written I am so bored on the board just before he
switched to the presentation. This was a small effect to create comedy but
unfortunately it did not show up on the film due to the brightness.
 At the very end of the film, when the agent thinks back to what he was done with his
bag, we used a ripple transition to show the thought he was having. We also changed
the colour of the shot, reducing the saturation to show how it was a memory.
Æ
 
 I think that our film would be distributed by a British independent film
company, and would be a relatively low budget film. This is because it is a
small, quirky film that would mainly have a British appeal.
 Hiring a large scale distribution company would not work because in
countries like America, the film would not have a such a large appeal do the
character being an MI6 agent, and much of the plot being based around
events that took place in London and that are not globally known.
%





 Between filming the preliminary and the main task, we have learned many
filming techniques that aided us in the filming of our piece.
 While we were filming we learned that in much of London, it is best to ask
permission before filming on the streets, as some businesses or shops may
not want to have their buildings filmed. We did this before filming and many
of the places did not mind us filming.
 Whilst filming on the trains, ask the station supervisor for permission to film,
otherwise they may not let you film at their station.
à
?


 I filmed the entire film, as the shots that Matthew had taken through out the
filming had not been good enough to include in our piece.
 The shots worked well and helped the film to flow and create a sense of
fluidity through out the piece.
 The early shots where the agent was in his pyjamas could have been more
cropped so that you realised what he was wearing at the same time that he
did.
 We could of created more establishing shots, if we did not have a time
restriction on the piece.
 We went over our 2 minute time allowance, but we feel that this was totally
necessary to create the establishing shots and to fit in our minimum amount
of shots and still make the piece work.
V



 
 This our short questionnaire that we asked some audience members to fill in after
watching the film. Here is an example of one set of answers

 1. How old are you?

2.Are you male, or female?
3.Did you enjoy the opening sequence?
4. Do you agree that the film was action comedy? why or why not?
5. After seeing this opening sequence, do you want to see the rest of the film?
6. What did you like about the opening sequence?
 1)14
2 Male
3)Yes I did enjoy it.
4) thought it was a good comedy with elements of action
5)Yes
6) The zooming into the clock and the part that goes backwards