Link to A2 blog

www.a2samwebbermedia.blogspot.com
(copy and paaste into address bar)

Order of posts

The order in which the posts are in, is the correct order of when the posts were made, but as we had so many problems with our other blog, one created through Wordpress, we had to copy all of our work from the old blog to this new one. Therefore the dates and times of which the posts were made are not the correct times or dates of the originaly blogs. I had to number them that way to make sure they were in the order that I originally created them in.

Evaluation of final product

http://www.prezi.com/yruixbpoerm5/

Opening title sequence film

IS IT THE 60S?????

With The Secret Life of Tommy Blackwell, we are still indecisive about whether or not the piece is actually set in the 60s or not. There are two possible endings, one for each of mine and Jacks opinions on the film. It was awkward for us to decide whether or not the piece is set in the 60's as there are so many modern day technologies that got in the way of our piece for example T'Vs and phones, and being amateur film makers we are unable to avoid modern day occurances, such as being able to move the road of cars. If he was living in the 60's the clothing and general mise-en-scene would be relevant to that time.

The first and most likely option is that he is living n the modern day, with modern technology, but still trying to live his life as if in the 60's. The clothes and technology that he uses would have to be historically correct for the 60's era, but creating this historical accuracy for one character is much easier than changing the whole piece into a 60's set piece.

On the other hand, it could be a 60's set piece as in the first two minutes we have filmed there are not many sightings of modern day technology in the piece.

Poster

I thought it would be best to start my blog with a poster of our film. Using Paint.Net I managed to conjure up this simple poster just to advertise the film, and to show the production we would have aimed our piece to be produced/funded by - talked about in more depth in my evaluation.

I wanted to use a slighlty blurred image of Jack as this seemed to be common in a lot of 60's posters, the technology was not as efficient as now. I turned the majority of his head white to try to make it look more like a piece of art than an adertisement. I think the effect covers him in mystery, something that would be shown throughout the film. This therefore ties into the title 'The SECRET Life of Tommy Blackwell.' I thought it would be best to use another one of his costumes, not the one featured in the opening, just to show that we would change his costume somewhere throughout the whole film. 'The Darkest Side of Rock and Roll' comes from a line that one of Richard Curtis' characters says in The Boat That Rocked. Gavin Kavanagh, "It's the dark side of rock 'n' roll. As an exaggeration of this line, the Darkest side, seemed very appropriate. Also it shows his dark side when listening to rock and roll possibly? Possibly something that features later in the film? I think the symbol of 'ban the bomb' instead of an 'O' in Tommy, was just as a reference to the 60's, something it is also renowned for. Along with, of course, the complete opposite of peace which is maybe the significance to our piece? Together with the dark side of Tommy while listening to rock and roll and the peace sign. A suggestion of reference to the plot of the whole film.

Working with Jack

As I mentioned earlier I think working with Jack is extremely beneficial as we are both extremely good firends anyway so we both know what to do to make the other one laugh or agree with a piece of our work but also we know what not to do to annoy the other one. I think perhaps that is the downside with Jack and I working together, it was not challenging enough. We both knew how the other would work and we knew when we could film and plan etc. it was just fitting it around the normal time we saw each other anyway. In future I think it would be beneficial to work with someone I am perhaps less familiar with, to be able to grow more at working like a real production company would where no one really knows anyone else. If not working on my own is an option as I could then try see how hard it is to be a stand alone director/producer having to organise absolutely everything around the film, then perhaps I would respect team work more!

I think working with someone you know is easier and more useful than someone you don't as you know what they like, you probably have similar likes and you both know how the other works, what they are bad/good at. But not knowing them is almost equally beneficial. You get to meet someone knew, learn more about others oppinions, you probably end up with a better production as there is somebody else's view going into the piece. You would also be able to create a mix of genres instead of just making films that you want all the time, you would learn of other genres, cultures etc. It seems more beneficial working with unfamiliar faces than with the people you live around and are growing up wih as friends, it is too personal to work and you get distracted to easily.

My Jobs

I was in charge/or a member of, filming, editing, advertising (not needed but was fun), directing.

The editing is always the most personally satisfying moment for me, being able to cut and paste and edit the sounds, visual effects sound effects etc. of the final piece, it is really satisfying.

I am generally pleased with the editing process although now when I watch it all I can see are the mistakes and what/how we could have done to make it even better. I think when you spend so much time on something and when you have to change it quite a lot you get so used to being tough and critical that you completely ignore the good points and just see the bad, and when you are good at something all you see is your weaknesses and not what makes you good at that particular task.

I am pleased with my input in the overall piece as I hard a large role in the editing, and the editing has made the film look quite professional, the filming was okay although I know that I could have used some more creative shots and less dull and uncolourful shots, I should have made the scenes lit up more.

The poster was fun to make, random film poster/DVD cover making something I tend to do in all of my spare time anyway. I just wanted to have something else to add to the piece to show that we had planned the rest of the film out more than just the two minutes of it that we actually could film.

Filming

The filming day, five/six hours, was in general successful. We managed to film all of the inside shots in Jacks Bedroom, with some accompanying from Hollie Bilham as ------, and everything happened round about exactly as we had planned.

A tripod was used mostly to get steadier more accurately leveled shots but occassionally a hand held technique was used for tracking shots and extreme close ups, namely the smoke blow scene. The lighting was good for the piece, inside anyway, and we managed to film more than what we had planned and also various other pieces that we had not originally scripted but what we thought might look good, coincidentally the only good footage that came out of the day was the stuff we had planned, everything else being either too crude, obscene or just a damn right waste of time.

One scene however which did not make it to the final cut, was one of Jack waking up in bed next the Hollie, picking up a rather large bedside clock and checking the time, realising he is late by using the term 'Ooooh Fuck' and then leaps out of bed knocking a guitar over and creating a rather nice high pitched sound with it. This clip im sure is somewhere in the unused/gag reel.

The outside filming was equally successful, all of our shots we planned be filmed successfully and once again a few test shots into unplanned areas where we saw room for improvement or modification. However the down side to all of this successful filming is of course the unpredictability of the weather. It was dull and raining. Within the minute it took us to leave Jacks house and begin to go to our first filming location it had begun to rain. This did not spoil the piece however as Jack was already dressed for winter showers, with his brown leathers and cap, so we just filmed and made it tie into our piece. As it is a realistic piece, or at least based on reality, it did not matter that it rained is this gave it a bit more realism and unpredictability as the weather is, it also ties in with the unpredictability of where our film would go next and how the weather coudl represent the mood of the character?

Final costume decision

We decide to go for a much more toned down, in vibrance and general frilliness, approach with a brown leather coat, more seen in the 70's but a slight indication of his uneducated style to teaching, a floral shirt to show the colour and vibrance of the 60's style. His trousers were simple black trousers, to bring the colours of his upper body out more, and his shoes were simple black pointed ones that also pished the eyes up toward his upper body.

This selection was only a segment of the overall costumes that he would be wearing in the piece, and we had already planned four other costume styles to be used somewhere in the piece, we just decided not to use them at his part of the film, mostly as it was a cold day and was raining outside, the leather coat seemed appropriate wear for that weather. Below are two other costume designs that we would want to use somewhere in our film, but were unable to use in the opening sequence.

Research into location

The easiest way to show the research that we did into location is through photographs. The only places we knew we needed to film in were in a bedroom and in a street, where we would film this what we had to research.

This is the only possible place that the bedroom scene could actually be filmed. Not the only bedroom we have access to but the only one that already looks like Blackwells 'sex lair'. Vinyl player, vinyls, guitar, bass guitar, homely oddities etc.

The same with this photo, it just shows the excellent equipment already in the shot, all perfect the mise-en-scene.

This mantel piece is the basis of our piece actually. After we completed the preliminary, we all met up here and were discussing the next piece. Looking at the amount of rubbish; the empty bottles, ash trays, pointless stuff basically, I had the thought of a camera panning over and in this messy room to show the lifestyle of somewhere, well a segment anyway. This are was perfect for little snapshots of his life, a representation of a heavy smoking alcholic being created-hopefully!

I think we wanted to film in a common, day to day area that he could be walking to work in, but also one that looked believable still active and more importantly where me and Jack could get to. This road, closeby to the other areas we liked the look of, was a good straight stretch of path where we could have some good long shot, tracking and possibly focus pulls for a more professional and also slightly distorting look.

An alleyway would have been good to film in, the noir like feel they create when a dark part of the body hits a lighter part. But in general to the opening sequence we did not think this would really create much of a sense of location and also would look to common and like something you see to often in amateur films.

This is another area we liked the look of as it was quiet yet public and also had a good archway which lead around, behind the camera, into the next photo.

This is the opposite view from inside the archway, and around the corner too the left is the next photograph. It was a good area as we could have a lot of seperate cuts all of one small area, but which would make it look much larger in scale.

This was another street that had little activity in it, but which was accessible and had a good stretch for tracking, once again.

The final place he would end up at, our home site Sewell Park! This shot would be where he walked into work, a closer shot of a doorway or entrance would show him actually entering the building but this was where we would be introduced to the place of his prey. The sign of the school, left of the picture, would be edited after principal photography to say 'The Secret Life of Tommy Blackwell", the title shot for our film.

Costume research

The costume is quite an important part of the piece, it has to resemble that of the stereotypical 60's look. Flares, flowery shirts, velvet, loones and biba. Richard Curtis' The Boat That Rocked created excellent characters to base our costume on. Gavin Kavanagh especially, the eccentric fellow below, who coincidentally is the one we name Jack out the whole film and whom Jack says he bases his day to day costume design on anyway, was the best source of research into the style of the swinging 60's. However we did not want the costume to look to fake and more like a fancy dress piece than a real costume, this would have put the audience off the film as it would look to historically incorrect. However there is the question -STILL- of whether this matters as he may not in fact even be in the 60's, just stuck in a time warp.

We had a look around some charity shops to get an idea of the sorta things that we could buy for our piece, Jack had a few odd little bits of clothing lieing about but nothing too extreme. Here are some photos that look similar to the pieces that we found in the shops.

Under shirt

Over shirt

Coat

Trousers

ShoesWe realised however that if you were in the 60's you wouldn't have needed to have dressed like you were in the 60's because you were, the fashion was just there for you to decide what to wear. Nowadays however we have to try harder to make it look like we are filming a piece in the 60's as it has to be historically accurate (ish.) We realised we maybe should tone the colours and general vibrance of the clothes down for our film as they looked to stereotypically 60's and begun to look like someone was trying to hard to look like they came from the 60's Coincidentally this would be the look we would want to go for as he is trying to convince everyone that he is from the 60's even though he is not. I think the clothes we chose for our piece will only be a segment of his overall wardrobe as it is only one segment of the film, we would be able to get more vibrant and odd as the film went on.

Importance of opening title sequences

The opening titles to any film, are in a way the most crucial parts of it. They draw the audience in. They set the scene. They create a basic narrative. They make the film a success or flop (in most casues.) The first two minutes of any film need to captivate audience, it needs to make the viewer to want to know what happens next. Most productions need to capture their audience in these few minutes otherwise they have lost that audience.

An establishment of who, what, when and where are key conventions to the sequence as these are what make the audience familiar and feel comfortable with the film. The audience needs to be reassured that they are the clever ones, out of them and the film makers, at being able to understand what is happening or coming in the upcoming film. People will stay and watch if they can feel comfortable in understanding and predicting something they feel safe about. However on the contradictary note, not all films begin with a declaration of setting or character etc. and most will show as little as possible about the upcoming film as not to spoil the plot. However prior to visiting a film most audiences will have watched trailers, read reviews, watched clips etc. of the film they are going to watch, so the unexplained plot of a film, in the opening titles, must be more of a nuissance than a spoiler saver.

I will watch and annotate three movie opening sequences, the first two minutes of all three, to see exactly how they attract their target audiences and also how each one of them can inspire us in creating our own two minutes.

(The films are all from Richard Curtis' collection and the genre is comedy.)

Richard Curtis on The Boat That Rocked

I think the reference to how he loved pop music in the 60's is what mostly inspires us. The music is a massive part of what we want the piece to be about and it is a massive part of the film in general, the song holding it all together.

Research into opening title sequence - The Boat That Rocked

The opening sequence to The Boat That Rocked is the one opening sequence, out of all three that I studied, that I like the most from. The first two minutes of the film, along with the other two films, is not enough to show the complete opening titles. The Boat That Rocked titles do not starting until two minutes into the film, exactly two minutes. So instead I analysed the opening scene, and carried on through the titles up until the point where 'The Boat That Rocked' is actually advertised.

The film starts with the same sort of diagetic sound as in Notting Hill. A radio tuning in stopping briefly on different radio stations, segments of various nostalgic radio broadcasts; mostly comedy and educational broadcasts that all fit in with the strict principals of the BBC -Inform, Educate and Entertain. This is an excellent way to capture the older audience of the film, the people that survivied the 60's themselves. It would bring so much back to them in a matter of a few seconds. Memories flooding back to them about the times when they themselves listened to such radio stations. The first image is of a quiet urban street, no cars or industrial noises just somebody walking past. A piece of text introduces the year and the context of the story, the lack of music channels and, later on, how pirate radios sprung up to broadcast illegally. A stereotypical working class family are seen going to bed and doing various tasks around the home, a young boy goes to bed and begins to listen to his radio underneath his pillow. More memories flooding back to the audience, remembering when they too listened to such illegal radio stations like Radio Carolina the most infamous. The first character is introduced here, Philip Seymour Hoffman's The Count shown through extrmeley fast, loud and vibrantly coloured clips that show the lifeliness of the radio station and how happy and wild they are. The first paced working of the radio station shown and reflected in the fast cuts between his actions. With the flick of the vinyl knob The Kinks kick in and instantly there is a montage starting of lively and wild people all dancing differently around the UK. This is the style that we want to replicate, the music kicking in, the fast movements, the fast cuts...the rock 'n' roll of the 60's not the boring perfect homely atmosphere shown at the very beginning.

The way that the clips have been cut together, the radio like tuner seen on older radios, is excellent. How it cuts from one clip to another as the radio tunes in. Me and Jack both imagine our piece looking like this, with multiple clips happening so quickly to each other and even possibly over each other? Luckily for us the next clips involved such marvellous ideas a multiple clips playing at once!

This would be the style we would copy. Multple clips of Jack doing different things; getting dressed, smoking, listening to vinyls etc. all playing at the same time as the other one. Not as many cuts to different places though as we would only be following Jacks morning not anybody elses. The multitude of clips used in the part would be brilliant to replicate. Thirty odd different things happening at the same time, so you have to watch it thirty times to see it all.



The clips being used are all of being dancing, showing the stereotypically happy feel of the time and the joy created by the music, the main reason the music is so important to us...it has to capture the feel of the era.


The title for the film only appears for a brief second but it has had such a hyped up introduction, 'All day and all of the night' playing it in that it does not need to be that outlandish and eccentric as the film has already set the bar quite high for having to keep this nostalgic happy mood up throughout the entire piece.

Research into opening title sequence - Notting Hill

After watching Curtis' second big film, I was only slightly more impressed than from Four Weddings and a Funeral. I particularly liked how from the opening production company, Universal Pictures, there was the sound of what at first appeared to be a London market place, shouting venders etc. The introduction of the lead female role was this chattering however, as a radio presenter cuts in to the black background white writing of cast and production team, the radio announcer tells the audience that they will be talking to Anna Scott, Julia Roberts' role. The loud talking, perhaps Notting Hill market, or Julia Roberts, Anna Scott's fans, makes the audience wonder what is going on, instantly. They are intrigued by what is happening and why there is so much talking. The use of a radio announcer announcing the character in the story brings the audience into the piece instantly. It makes the piece more realistic and believable, and also makes the link, like in Four Weddings, between the audience and the people in the film. The people in the film are now learning or being more educated about who Anna Scott is at the same time that the audience watching is.

The cutting from black to images, TV footage, magazine covers etc. of Julia Roberts/Anna Scott makes it look like the switching over of a TV channel almost, the quick switch. The collection of footage shows highlights from her career, Roberts real life career or just made up im not sure, which is like someones personal collected footage of, a fan or...stalker...which gives us an insight into her life if like the people in the film they are not sure who is she. It is clever how it is crafted as we, once again like Four Weddings, are only just learning about the plot as the cast is. We start where they start and we are not unfamiliar with something that everyone in the film know about. The audience is included in the piece and made to feel superior as they know they same things as the characters do, making them on the same level as them, not superior or inferior. It creates that friendly bond once again and makes the film more enjoyable as you are almost friends with the characters, you almost grow up with them as the story progresses.

Research into opening title sequence - Four Weddings and a Funeral

After watching the opening to Four Weddings and a Funeral, and not quite making it to the profound swearing part, I have managed to note a few things that Curtis uses in attracting and keeping the audience hooked.

Firstly the credits role over a black background, floral headers and footers mark the 'Polygram filmed entertainment and Channel Four Films' making it appear like an invitation to a weddings, and also written below this are the words 'Invite you to.' This formal addressing of the audience instantly makes them feel a part of the film, and also captivated, a simple invitation makes the audience feel involved and actually acknogledged, which in most films they are not. It makes the audience also intrigued by what they are invited too, besides the fact of the film being called Four Weddings and a Funeral, they will be wondering what lies in store for them personally as themselves personally are invited. The lead casts names follow in the same manner, white font on black, leading into the next shot of a close up flower, which zooms out to reveal a small bouquet of flowers lieing on a table beside the film title, 'Four Weddings and Funeral'.

This creates the feel of the wedding reception where each table, or person rather, has their name card placed on a table. This follows the pattern of feeling invited to a an actual wedding, and this is a typical convention of weddings which the audience would be familiar with. Also as the camera is so close to the table we cannot see any of the surrounding area, a slight directed and secluded look where we have to wait to be shown more about the film.

The best part about the opening sequence is the introduction of characters. Hugh Grant is first up with his lazy character Charles who sloppily turns off his alarm, the background messy. We can see his suit hanging up, presumably for the wedding and also a ladies hat implying a female is also present. This instant addressing of the characters makes the audience warm to him straight away, he is the first character shown, and is also semi naked in his bed. This creates and informal like bond between him and the audience, the audience can warm to him as he is open and relaxed and we are shown his bedroom instantly, a sort of friendly manner.

The next character to be introduced is James Fleets Tom, a completely different atmosphere from Charles bedroom as when Tom's alarm goes off he jumps from bed and merrily gets ready. This also creates a good friendly bond between audience and character.

Next is Krostom Scott Thomas' Fiona, Tom's sister who also is much more organised than Charles. The two rooms where these siblings live are quite formal and well kept, unlike Charles'. This begins to show more depth to the characters and possible plot turners as we being to see a slight social status creeping in here.

Next is Simon Callow and John Hannah with, Gareth and Matthew, the first couple introduced, who are both getting ready for the 'event' still uninformed of it being a wedding or the funeral. Gareth makes breakfast, another reference to convention along with dress picking shown by Fiona, earlier mornings shown by Charles and Tom, all things that people would recognise from personal experience and all things that they could relate too.

The waking up is the best part of this opening, and how it introduces the characters through waking up into the film alongside them, you begin with no knowledge of whats going on just like them. There is also no indication to the piece being a comedy, apart from what individuals may funny there is no real comedic moments.

Music influence/selection

As both me and Jack are big fans of the 60′s, specifically the music…I am guessing that the main reason we actually did decide to create a piece set in the 60′s (debate over whether it actually is set here is later…), either that or i finally noticed how large Jacks wardrobe of ‘out-of-date’ clothes stretched back too! The Kinks, The Who, The Small Faces, The Box Tops, Cream, The Rolling Stones etc. was all top of our list of our favourites. We came to the conclusion, earlier on than we actually decided a set piece of music, that the only track we would be playing over the opening titles would be that of which the vinyl player was playing. We wanted something that built into the story, and song, slowly so tracks like; All Day and All of the Night, Jumping Jack Flash and Hi Ho Silver Lining seemed really suitable. We then found out that we had to use uncopyrighted music for our final piece. So Jack, in charge of all things musical, set about finding an appropriate song.

Using the websites;

http://www.unsginedbands.com/

http://www.e2bn.org/audionetwork/audionetwork_out.php

We came up with about nine songs that we originally would have liked to put over the piece, soem from unsigned bands and other from e2bn. Here is the list of the original songs;

Grolling home: Rita + the rock 'n' rollers

Jazzed: Blue Altitude

Good ol days: Kim o harper

Lonely hearts club dance: Jackie Barnett

I got a dime: The straight 8's

Touch me 2: Gareth Johnson

T Bird Roller: Christian Marsac

Stratocaster: Christian Marsac

Stompbox boogie: Anthony Leonard

The three pieces we were tempted towards all had a different genre of 60's like music. The first being Lonely Hearts Club Dance, the second being Stratocaster and the last being Anthony Leonard’s Stompbox Boogie. We found Stompbox boogie the most appropriate and most soulful and earthy like the 60′s sound that we thought resembled the emotional music of the era.

We then found out that we could use copyrighted music and so decided to resort back to the original sixties masters, The Rolling stones.

The pieces we namely wanted to have in the piece, or at least the first song we would hear in the film were;

Jumping Jack Flash

Lets Spend The Night Together

and Street Fighting Man

Testing Jumping Jack Flash, Lets Spend The Night Together and Street Fighting Man, we decided that Street Fighting Man had the best opening to go over a vinyl playing and also had the best pace to match the films cut and speed pace.

Basic story idea continued...

We begun to see the film starting with the vinyl player being turned on, the needle coming down the music plaing and kicking in to a fast upbeat 60s tempo to which the character could get dressed too. The Kinks All Day and all of the Night, seemed a good fast song to have someone getting ready too. We made a list of things we definately wanted to see in the dressing stage too make sure we got them in there.

• smoking cigarettes



• loading many packets of cigarettes into pockets in coat in trousers



• applying eyeliner plus other makeup



• trying many a pen on his mantel piece before chucking them away for not working.



• the vinyl player spinning around



• the vinyl player being turned on



• ongoing shots of objects lying around the bedroom



• shot of a girl laying under the quilt in his bed (on his mattress)



• him pulling money from wallet and chucking it on her



• biking to work – up hills through countryside falling into roadside



• snorting a line of cocaine (substituted of course)



• dressing eccentrically



• turning up at a school building and us finding out he is actually a teacher

We wanted to give the character a name which sounded 60s and had references to bands/events from the decade. (The character process became more important than the storyline at this part as we needed the character to make the scene and too make the audience not like his attitude but also love him, this needing to be acheived in two minutes. Blackwell came to us first. Just as a sort of 60′s sounding name really. No real cultural or historical references. Tommy however came to use from inspiration of The Who’s infamous Tommy the movie, a film we both hate more than anything from anywhere…but which has massive cultural reference to the 60′s. The other names in the piece have been from famous musicians; Roger Daltry, Mick Jagger etc. who we are both inspired by, and which have been moulded together to create new names. Another name was taking from someones Mums maiden name, who was conceived by a student and her English Teacher. Something we thought extremely relevent to our own protoganist.

Above is the first design of how we thought we could use the multiple clip idea in our piece. Not sure if we even could do this we were ready to cut down most of the shots we wanted to film to be able to fit it into one parellel timeline, only one clip showing at a time like any normal person would do.

Basic story idea

We twiddled our thumbs and put our heads together to come up with a general idea of what our story could actually be about. We mostly talked about what clothing would be relevent to the time period and what pieces of the clothing we said reminded us of the 60s, that we actually had. (a list of all of final clothing used will be blogged later.) We also mostly had ideas about what music we liked from the period and how that could play into the story. The Rolling Stones, Jumping Jack Flash was mostly talked of and hummed mongst us two as we sat and wondered what it would sound good to. I had the idea of someone biking up and down a hill whilst this music played, they bike struggling up a steep hill only to have to come back down again because it is the wrong way, bike tumbles back down the hill or he is sliding back down the hill when it appears as if he is biking up it. Slapstick comedy that was too direct and laughably funny. Jack had the ideas of showing a vinylplayer spinning around playing a song, more than likely we were hearing Jagger again, and there would be cigarette butts and used condoms spinning around on top of the vinyl. Ideas then developed into drug and sex related humourous ideas involving heavy drug use and a humourous number of naked girls. The idea short lived due to the reality of not being able too actually do either of these things. We knew we wanted a shot of a vinyl player somewhere in the opening credits, and we knew we had to have a close up of a burning cigarette and of a male applying makeup to his face. We just tried to elaborate off of that.

Genre discussion

We noticed a lot of comedic elements in Curtis’ films, mostly as they are comedys, but also found that the jokes we mostly laughed at were to do with the characters likeability and realism and also the parts that were oddly dark and yet still humourish. We talked up everything we knew about the 60s; the wild colourful clothing, the hippys, the music, sex drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, the music, Mick Jagger, the music, sex, drugs, the music….mostly the music stood out, but to us a wild happy and fun side that could be seen even in the day to day occurances. Perhaps it is looking back and into a decade, or what we know about it anyway as neither of us were around in the 60s, that creates a happy feel like being able to wish it was the relaxed hippy times everyone talks about. Perhaps it is the music that seems so alien to us now that makes it a funny decade. I know for me there is a warm British feel, a patriotic element to the 60s that creates wild and wacky characters that make everyday jobs and lives more interesting to live in, to me they are funny odd characters. We therefore settled that a comical film was needed, but not a one liner, punch line film and not a slapstick film based upon an early Chaplin black and white film, but a dakrly comical film that looked interesting and was just fun to watch and make.

First Discussion

We wanted to move away from our old test video and wanted to create a more colourful lively opening sequence to a film. We both, me and Jack, love, no like, no love the 60s and knew we would do something to do with this. We pondered over other 60s film, the more famous of many. Films like Quadrophenia and modern films like The Boat That Rocked. We also liked Richard Curtis production, Notting Hill, Four weddings and a funerla etc. and we noticed there being a feel of the 60s or of past Britain in all of his work. We begun to look more at his work and once again at our familiar 60s set British films before deciding apon a set genre.