This has always been in discussion but my group had been talking over the course of our filming production and we came up with a cleaver logo and company name to suit each one of our projects.
Company name - Essential/ Nice Productions
We came up with the name while working together on set. Since our directing styles were all different we would always end up asking each other the same question...
"Is that shot essential? Or is it just nice?"
In a way it was a running joke and we thought it would make a cleaver production company name to suit all of our films.
Writing for comedy is difficult as lots of things in comedy that are potentially funny are closed off as most subjects tackled today can be taken as an offence. People in todays society I feel are very sensitive when being thrown a specific joke. When talking about the war, British comedies such as 'Allo, Allo' based on the second world war in France when the Germans invaded was taken at first as a great offence as some wives who had husbands who dies in the war didn't think that war was a particular matter to made fun of. Not only so, but the matter of racial stereotyping was also taken into matter. Making fun of British manners, French lust and traditions, German informant and Italian motivations and logical ways of thinking.
In this live show/ documentary celebration the reunion of 'Allo Allo' cast, a segment is played on the particular debate to the humour that is presented in the show and what people initially thought of it. Half stated they found it offensive because some of their families died in the war. However some of the families who served the war found it hilarious.
(See from 2:17)
CJDone. (2013). Return of Allo Allo 7. [Online Video]. 18 April 2013. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsLvIog3KPY&t=320s. [Accessed: 5 May 2017].
However the rise in fandom for this series stood out as now there are low budget plays performed by amateur actors and the show is still being played on television channels such as Gold to this very day.
Writing for comedy can be a risk and often most risks turn out to be a success, a big example is the film 'Monty Python's Life of Brian' which got a live debate between representatives of a religion, a Bishop and a born Christian, and two of the Pythons, John Cleese and Michael Palin.
Stephen Huitson. (2011). Friday Night, Saturday Morning - Monty Python's Life of Brian. [Online Video]. 16 November 2011. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeKWVuye1YE. [Accessed: 5 May 2017].
The debate ended up being a win for the Pythons as in the end the debate ended down to, if you are offered by certain content in the form of film, then you have the power to not go and see it. Therefore you have nothing to be offended by or get upset about. With a twist it turns out the religion debate team didn't see the first 10 minutes of the film, there was a crucial part where the wise men find out where the real Jesus Christ is being birthed and go to see him and forget about the main character Brain.
Therefore the act of being offensive in comedy was taken into consideration and was demolished by the cleverness of the comedy at the same time.
In the parody of the debate of comedy, John Cleese's character stands up to Michel's character and discusses why being offensive is not entirely that bad.
Right. Where was I?
Being offensive. Being offensive,
thank you. What is the worst
that could happen?
You'll stop talking to me?
Heaven forfend!
What will probably happen?
You'll be upset for a bit
and then forget about it.
What's the best that can happen?
Maybe you'll think
"John's got a point.
"My wife does look like a man
"and her soup does taste fucking
awful. Maybe I should leave her."
I've been able to keep
my marriage together thanks.
That's the spirit!
Besides, we haven't
been offensive, Mike.
People just like complaining.
The British love complaining.
Complaining about the weather,
complaining about the government,
the fucking darkies, the fucking
queers, Noel fucking Edmonds
and his Multi-Cunting Swap Shop.
When it comes to the British
you can't please any of the people
any of the time, and you know why
they like complaining so much?
Maybe because deep down they know
there is no fucking God and it takes
their mind off the fact that their
lives are a pathetic sham that won't
amount to a hill of shitty beans.
Are you going to be like this
on the TV?
Yes, I am.
Read more: http://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=holy-flying-circusRight. Where was I?
Being offensive. Being offensive,
thank you. What is the worst
that could happen?
You'll stop talking to me?
Heaven forfend!
What will probably happen?
You'll be upset for a bit
and then forget about it.
What's the best that can happen?
Maybe you'll think
"John's got a point.
"My wife does look like a man
"and her soup does taste fucking
awful. Maybe I should leave her."
I've been able to keep
my marriage together thanks.
That's the spirit!
Besides, we haven't
been offensive, Mike.
People just like complaining.
The British love complaining.
Complaining about the weather,
complaining about the government,
the fucking darkies, the fucking
queers, Noel fucking Edmonds
and his Multi-Cunting Swap Shop.
When it comes to the British
you can't please any of the people
any of the time, and you know why
they like complaining so much?
Maybe because deep down they know
there is no fucking God and it takes
their mind off the fact that their
lives are a pathetic sham that won't
amount to a hill of shitty beans.
Are you going to be like this
on the TV?
Yes, I am.
Read more: http://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=holy-flying-circus
This comes to my inspiration 'The Young Ones' came from the comedic writings of Ben Elton. Who has not only worked on the Young ones but has gone on to do many aspects of comedy such Blackadder staring Rowan Atkinson.
The thing about Ben Elton's writing that really applied to me and my project was it was the fact that it was a classic style of British comedy that you just don't see or hear. UK shows like 'Mrs Browns Boys' is as close to British to old style black comedy as you could get.
Slap Stick humor.
Rude language.
Cleaver writing to not only challenge the audience but also delivers a bigger punch line.
Making fun of controversial subjects like Religion, stereotypes, politics, and rarely on race.
Even Death itself
For one thing one of his earlier writings I have of my disposal is in fact the entire scripts and stories of his work on the TV series 'Blackadder'.
Curtis, R,. Elton, B., Lloyd, J and Atkinson, R. (1999) Black Adder the Whole Damn Dynasty 1484-1917. London: Penguin Books.
With help of his writing style and hints from this book I will manage to boots the sarcasm of Roberts character and the comedy in general. This handy book also includes:
Blackadder's best insults
All scripts from all episodes
Possible handy tips for script writing (weather it would be relevant in todays industry(.
Right. Where was I?
Being offensive. Being offensive,
thank you. What is the worst
that could happen?
You'll stop talking to me?
Heaven forfend!
What will probably happen?
You'll be upset for a bit
and then forget about it.
What's the best that can happen?
Maybe you'll think
"John's got a point.
"My wife does look like a man
"and her soup does taste fucking
awful. Maybe I should leave her."
I've been able to keep
my marriage together thanks.
That's the spirit!
Besides, we haven't
been offensive, Mike.
People just like complaining.
The British love complaining.
Complaining about the weather,
complaining about the government,
the fucking darkies, the fucking
queers, Noel fucking Edmonds
and his Multi-Cunting Swap Shop.
When it comes to the British
you can't please any of the people
any of the time, and you know why
they like complaining so much?
Maybe because deep down they know
there is no fucking God and it takes
their mind off the fact that their
lives are a pathetic sham that won't
amount to a hill of shitty beans.
Are you going to be like this
on the TV?
Yes, I am.
Read more: http://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=holy-flying-circus
I knew the majority of the budget would go towards some of the people I was going to hire in order to make my project stand out, such as the animator, and make artist.
However working with my production designer I knew I would be buying a lot of essential props for my characters. The table read I had with my crew before hand really helped me know what actors could provide for me in terms of costume and items they would use.
Above and bellow the line in expenditure:
In terms of expenses for my film, there is in professional terms, putting that money to use. Above and Bellow the line. In marketing and business, these lines are used in different ways one such aspects is for film. According to lynda.com:
'Typically, above the line costs deal with creatives such as directors (even first assistant directors), producers, writers, and actors, while below the line costs consist of filmcrew and post production team members.'
lynda.com (2017) Above the line vs below the line. At: https://www.lynda.com/Filmmaking-tutorials/Above-line-vs-below-line/129018/493059-4.html (Accessed on 05/05/2017).
For my film particular, I believe that my film with a simple budget as this, I needed to show bellow the line costs as the majority of the money went to my film crew and post production team members.
I wanted to do cleaver cutaways within a scene because my film takes place in one location. Edgar Wright has made a cleaver way of getting from point A to point B for a scene using transitions that fluently grabs your attention spans and then continues the same scene without dragging it out.
In November I managed to go to Rochester to do a quick test shoot to see weather my transitions effect would work at all. It turned out to be a success using my green screen and help from a friend of mine who walked in front of it. The editing was fluent, maybe not as much with the last person popping up but still I managed to find a way from cutting in-between the same scene.
Director -
Define: "The director is the creative head for the entire production unit. He or she provides the artistic vision of the production and translates the screenplay or teleplay into the movie or television show." (Gordon, 2002: 36)
This particular role involved me making sure all of the shots and actor direction was my top priority. In terms of collaboration I had to work quite closely with my D.O.P to insure each of my shots were what I wanted.
What I found most challenging about my role was that I had to work with a couple of young and reasonably new talent. I had to make sure that they brought each and every one of their characters out and to show how they were represented in my idea.
'One of the most important attributes of the successful director is PATIENCE. The desire to get what you want, to see it immediately, is like the addict's need for a drug and is equally destructive to the process. Actors work gradually, adding a layer at a time. Pushing them to deliver or show you a finished character before the preparation has been completed will most often give you a one-dimensional result that is flat and unsatisfying.' (DeKoven, 2013: 167)
Attributes for a good director to use:
Patience
A clear vision of what you want to see in your film
Positive communication Skills between crew and actors so they know what you want
Peroration, the more you understand and know about the film the more you can visualise and interact more professionally towards your crew and actors
Behind The Scenes
The challenge was to make sure I could use as much of my location I could possibly use. The basement for instance for Agnus's scene was a lucky find as it brought a lot of Angus's gothic nature out. Combined with her obsession with skulls and death symbolisms, with help of my set designer we managed to transform this empty basement into a gothic scary bedroom for my most threatening character.
Skull to boost the gothic persona of Agnus's character
Terry Pratte books in terms of his character Death
Agnus played by Rhiannon Occhini
Agnus is a threatening character thats why Rhiannon had a knife with her on set at all times to get into her character.
Her costume represents Wednesday Addams, a character from the popular gothic show 'The Addams Family'.
A bloody picture of Trump with a desk made from a stool clovers with a red fabric and decorated with an old victorian clock, eye glass inspired with 'The Series of Unfortunate Events', a word from Harry Potter, and a grail.
Jesus and the cross to symbolise both the Jehovah's Witness religion and the Christian religion
The reason for this was to find a way to scare Henry the Jehovah's Witness and to get him uncomfortable.
The Jehovah's Witness religion does not believe in the cross, so all the more reason why this would make the main character scared or unsettled.
Writer -
Define: The writer is constructing the story itself, making the script that the whole film or production will follow to shape out and create the film.
This for me was the hardest part as I have a language disorder and so find it difficult to express what I want to say within written form. I often find myself lost in my own thoughts while writing and occasionally loose track of the main point that I want to establish.
For example my first draft script came to an astonishing 30 pages, the majority of it was completely dialogue and had no connection to the genre I was trying to tackle. It was more of a drama than a funny comedy. So I had to sit down and look into what I had to accomplish by looking at writing styles in connection to comedy writer, Ben Elton, one of the writers of my inspiration for this film 'The Young Ones'. Ben Elton is also responsible for writing comedies such as Blackadder which had a somewhat dark and sarcastic way to telling stories from historic periods of England. Yet the satiric comedy element still remained the same.
Editor -
Define:
What I found challenging was that I was planning on using Adobe Premier Pro, a professional piece of editing software. But due to time constraints I thought I would be more convenient to use Final Cut Pro X. Not only because it is the piece of editing software that I particularly grown more fond of, however I also had the same software back where I lived so I could work from home if I had to in order to conserve time. Because of this decision I made I knew I had to work on at least one more film for another one of my class mates and just finding time to come into the studio and logging onto a computer that already be occupied by first or second years.
I just couldn't deal with all that so I decided to try and focus at home rather then trying to make it an everyday battle in order to use a software I haven't got much experience with in the first place.
Effects used?
Flashing effect to give of the sense of lightning in the panic scene.
Flashback effect to give the right transition to engage a flashback involving the main character's childhood.
Dry Heat and Focus effects on the flashback to give a sense of the past experience of a person in film.
The Drop In Transition effect was used in the main sequence to give a comedic and animated effect to the introduction as well as giving off the comedic feel of the film.
