Film companies who would commission our film.

We have chosen Disney as a film company we believe would commission our film, The reason for this is because they produce similar 2d animations such as Lilo and stitch and Mickey mouse. which have both been popular with the same age range as our target audience which is 0-4 year olds. These films relate to this age range because of their simple story lines and clever use of animation and primary colours. These films also have a good moral behind them that the children can learn.

Evaluation of our children's film.

As our children's film is aimed more at children at the age of 5 and below, it is very much like winnie the pooh. The similarities are the facts that they are both animations, there are various types of animals, only soft colors are used for backgrounds, characters etc. It's very adventurous, much like winnie the pooh is, and is not a very hard story to follow. Both children's films are 2D and the use of animals that children will instantly recognise will instantly attract their attention.

Both childrens films have happy music at the start as the credits were coming on the screen, which would instantly grab a childs attention, and by having the credits in bright, bold colors (red in our film and yellow in winnie the pooh) will also attract the children's attention because bright colours seem to appeal to them.

However, there are many differences between the two film openings. Winnie the pooh changed the pitch of its background music, depending on which character was shown at that point. For instance, when Eeyore was on the screen, the music slowed down and the pitch of it became deeper. This reflects his sad and depressive nature. Where as in our opening sequence we had the exact same music through out the whole thing.

We introduce all of the characters one by one, as we going along the story, where as the voice over of winnie the pooh introduces them one after the other right at the beginning of the opening sequence.

At the start of winnie the pooh's opening sequence, they have a real life clip of about 1 and half minutes, where as straight away in our opening sequence we go straight into animation.

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Even though all of our characters move about the screen in this sequence, their positions are always the same (always have their arms, legs etc in the same place) where as in winnie the pooh, it has been animated so that their arms legs and mouths etc can move.

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garage band and final cut print screen

Final Cut Express

By using cut express we became more familiar with skills of movie making that can be used in final cut, these skills included importing sound and video, the cutting and trimming of clips, zooming in of clips, adding keyframes and titles, andding movement and effects to titles.

Garage Band

Using Garage band we were able to learn how to import music into our videos. We were able to mix up the different tunes to create the mood we wanted. We learnt how to extend the length of the piece of music we were using.

comments on our childrens film.

1. Camera work- are there enough variety of shots, angles, movement? is it steady?
over the shoulder, long shots mostly. always steady. not enough variety of shots.
2a. How well does the sound work? make comments on digetic and non-digetic sound, sound effects, background/ambient sound. Quality of effectiveness at creating mood.
the sound works well, no variety is shown. the backing track suits the target audience. the speech is quick and can be hard to understand.
2b. What opening title sequence conventions can you identify?
the whole clip tells too much information. Tells the story of the whole adventure, although it contains most of the features of the opening sequence.
3a. Comment on all aspects on mise en scene. how smooth is the animation? use of sfx?
great storyline but animation lets it down. Very jumpy and basic. Long pauses that are inappropriate. Characters are cute but their static nature annoys me a bit, but the background could benefit from more colour.
. b. What target audience do you think this is aimed at? age range and why?
. I think that this would go under the 'U' classification because of it's simple, unaggressive nsture and would appeal to the age range of 2-5 or 7 years old children, any older and they would be unamused by the simplicity of the story.
4.

Transitions from shots was quite jumpy. The pace of the editing is quite slow and lots of still images. Editing needed to be faster to keep kids entertained. More movement from characters would have made it more fluent.
5.

Similar to winnie the pooh, like a story book. Ceebeebies, play house disney.

Feedback on questions of childrens film

3. b) What target audience do you think this is aimed at? age range and why?

I think that this would go under the 'U' classification because of it's simple, unagressive nature and would appear to the age range of 2-5 or 7 year old children, any older and they would be unamused by the simplicity of the story.

childrens film final

childrens film script

narrator: In the tree trunk at the bottom of the garden lived Lily the ladybird.
one morning while lily was fast asleep she was awoken by the rooster. As lily was getting ready for the morning she saw herself in the mirror and said with a fright...
Lily: 'My spots! Where have they gone?'
Narrator: Lily decideds to hunt around the garden for her spots and bumps into ben the bumble bee.
Lily: 'Ben do you know where my spots might be?'
Ben: 'No sorry lily' have you tried asking Bella the butterfly?'
Narrator: and off lily went...
Lily: 'Have you seen my spots Bella?'
Bella: 'No sorry lily have you checked by the sand pit?'
Narrator: as lily walked to the sandpit she came across demi the dragonfly...
Demi: 'Oh lily where have your spots gone?'
Lily: ' i don't know. thats what i came to ask you! Have you seen my spots?'
Demi: 'No sorry lily. Maybe the ants will know'
Narrator: And so lily made her way over to the ants..
Lily: 'Alex have you seen my spots?'
Alex: 'No sorry lily i was too busy collecting food. `have you tried the cabbage patch?'
Narrator: 'And off lily went..'
Lily: 'Hi there sammy have you seen my spots?'
Sammy: 'Yes i have actually, They were in the flower beds on the poppies. Shall i show you the way?'
Lily: 'Oh yes please sammy!'
Narrator: Lily and sammy made their way across the garden to the poppies where they met cassie the caterpiller.'

Final Storyboard and shotlist

A memorable childrens film character.

An introduction to a childrens character i will always remember is simba from the lion king, the start of the scene shows various animals as they hear a noise as the sun rises up over dramatic landscapes and they then head to the place the noise has come from which is the lions den where simba has just been born. The background music starts off fairly calm and then becomes more dramatic as the scene goes further on. The scene is memorable because it shows the birth of the cub to be very important to the animals and the way that he is held up to everyone as the camera spins around shows that he is the centre of attention and has not gone unnoticed by other characters. The camera spinning round and the way there is a bright light on simba also helps to show his importance to the viewer. When the monkey is putting the fruit on simbas head it shows a point of view shot from simba of what he can see the monkey doing. When the monkey is standing on the rock with simba the view zooms out from a close up to an extreme long shot right at the end from the side. The way the scene goes from sunrise to mid day helps to build the dramaticness of the scene with the lighting because of the light increasing to a bright sunny day from darkness it really helps to emphasise the importance of simba as he is introduced in the brightest part of the day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX07j9SDFcc

A character from a chidren's film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYPl9nQGoQQ

The film character which is most memorable to me is Belle from Beauty and The Beast. I always remember Belle as being introduced with a very joyfull song which really reflected her bubbly personality.
From 2:48 onwards in the above link is when we are introdcued to Belle. The clever use of camera work in the scene that first introduces us to belle shows not only her environment (a small town), but also the way that her movement can represent how confident she is in her surroundings. For example the whole time she is walking through the town she is using very big, bold movements so she can hardly go un-noticed.

Film classification.

Film guidelines for a 'U' rated film:

discrimination -
no discrimination, language or behaviour.

drugs -
no references to illegal drugs, unless it is an 'anti drugs' message.

horror -
scary clips should be short and to a very fine limit., they should also have a positive outcome.

behaviour -
no bad or dangerous behaviour which is likely to influence young children.

language -
only minor bad language is acceptable.

nudity -
natural nudity only, with no sexual context.

sex -
mild sexual behaviour (kissing)

theme -
must be sensitive to young children.

violence -
mild violence only.



Film guidelines for a 'PG' rated film:

discrimination-
not acceptable unless it is for education or historical purposes\

drugs-
not acceptable unless anti drug message.

Influences for our children's film.

A Bug's Life

Antz

In The Night Garden

As we want our children's film to be an animation/cartoon, we have really been inspired by these three child based films. This is mainly because they were all a hit with children under 10, and still are to this day. This proved to us that cartoon films are still being watched by children in the 21st century.

Our mood board and initial ideas.

Our task was to create a mood board for a children's film we will produce later on in the project. A mood board helps us to create ideas for the film story line. This easy layout of the images we would like to use will easily show people the type of story we are going to try and create. Two of the images above will be the environment in which the lady bird will complete her mission (to collect her spots from the poppy at the other end of the garden) with the help from her other insect friends, who are shown in the other pictures. (Ben the bumble bee, Demi the dragon fly, Bella the butterfly, Sammy the snail + Alex the ant)

Analysis of children's film.

At the beginning they give the narrations and they make it rhyme which appeals to the younger audience. the conventions of an opening sequence for a children's film are use of color and sound, titles and setting of the scene. This clip portrays this well, by having bright colours it draws the audience in even more. The music is very light hearted which appeals to younger children and gives it a more fluent feel. The picture on the left shows the environment of the main character. We can tell from this surrounding who the target audience is aimed for (younger children). 

The movement of the fairy was fluent through out the opening sequence and this will benefit children because it will keep their attention and wont distract them easily. It's helpful that the fairy is introduced with her environment behind her as the children will be able to easily tell where the fairy lives which helps imagine it more. 

In the middle of the sequence the title 'cinnamon' is shown with a big font and a primary color (red). This will hold the children's attention as it is a bright color and takes up most of the screen. 

Children's film opening sequence evaluation.

We looked at the children's film Beauty and The Beast and evaluated the opening sequence. First of all they introduce the producers of the film (Walt Disney).

The beginning of the film starts off very bright and colourful with tranquil music which sets a calm and relaxed scene. The voice over speaks with a slow soft tone and introduces the story by talking about the setting. As the sequence goes on the lighting becomes darker which creates tension and the voice overs voice changes to a deeper tone therefore creating a dramatic effect. The music also contributes with this by getting louder and having a quicker pace. 

The sequence gives us a good understanding of the characters role in the film and who has the higher status. We are shown a prince with an elder woman and due to the background in this clip it is easy to tell their personalities. The picture to the left shows a prince in a colorful outfit with a more naturalistic background and an elder woman hiding parts of her face with a darker outfit with a sinister background.

At the end of the sequence the main title is shown and instantly ties together the story of what we have just been told as we see in the clip the handsome prince is transformed into a beast and within 21 years he has to fall in love with a beautiful woman who loves him just as much in return. The font of the title is colorful on a dark background which contrasts to the change in lighting throughout the sequence. The title is big and bold and and the word 'beauty' is in a red angelic font contrasting the character it fits with, and the word 'beast' is grey, bold and dull which also fits in with it's character. 

Preliminary task.

In our film sequence we used the country music at the start to lighten the mood and the door slamming to create effect for the audience. Our first shot was an establishing shot of a girl sat down, second was a close up of the door handle as someone entered, third was a match on action of Sophie walking in, fourth was a reaction shot of the person who was being yelled at, fifth was the conversation shot and lastly was the long shot as she walked away.

Prelimary exercise.

first shot: establishing shot of one person sitting in a room alone.
second shot: match on action shot of someone walking down a corridor.
third shot: close up shot of the door handle and the person entering the room.
fourth shot: reaction shot to what the person entering has said. (over the shoulder view).
fifth shot: conversation shot: two people sat having an argument over the table about how one person has stolen the others boyfriend.
sixth shot: Long shot: one person storms off and walks away, camera watches them leave.