storyboards and character ideas

  

we drew some basic storyboard ideas for our narrative and drew out how we wanted our main characters to look as well as some of the props in our film

Ideas

Main idea.
This shall be based on a young child and his teddy bear. the main theme is that the boy goes for a walk one night and stumbles across a magic hat. this magic hat makes his teddy come to life. this will happen while the titles are seamlessly integrated in to breaker frames.

Location Sheet

as we shall be doing an animated children's film we shall be making the sets for the film our self and using green paper to cover the table and wall so that it isn't on show.

Shot List

due to the fact that we are doing an animated children's film we are a bit limited to the cinematography that we can use.

 the main types of shots that we will be using are:
-master shot
-tracking shot
-establishing shot
-close up
-two shot
-mid shot

certificate classification-PG

Parental Guidance (PG)

- A PG film has to be suitable for children aged 8 and over.
- It is the responsibility of the parents to decide if there child is to watch a film of a PG certificate.
- Discrimination is allowed but only for education purposes.
- Drugs can be discussed but not seen. however only as an anti drug deterrence.
- Horror is permitted but only in short durations and can not be intense on the audience.
- Some times mild bad language is permitted.
- A PG contains more grown up themes, and education is key.

An example of a children's PG film is Madagascar 2

This film sticks to the PG criteria. the main criteria that this film meets is:

- This film would need to be watched with an adult as the story line has a lot going on and a child would get lost and bored with the film, unless the child is aged 8 or over.

- This film also show discrimination which as it is a PG is permitted. This is due to the fact that it is used for educational purposes.

Rating for our children's film.

We have decided to go for a PG rating for our children's film, this is because we feel that it is much less limited than going for a U rating.
We can have a more developed plot which can appeal to a broader audience.
The PG rating also means that we can develop upon the themes set in a U guidance film and touch upon more serious matters.

Certificate Classification - U (Universal)

Universal rating (U)

-A film with a rating of U must be suitable for anyone over the age of 5 years old.
-The film most also have met these criteria;

• A positive moral framework
• Offer a reassuring counter-balance to anything threatening in the film.
• The story and material in the film must be suitable for a child to watch alone.

-The film must also exclude any references of depictions of the following material;

• There must be no foul language
• No drugs eg. cigarettes, cannabis, alcohol etc.
• No sexual acts or references.
• No discrimination of any sort.

A classic example of the standard U rating is the Pixar film "Wall-E"; below is the trailer.

It sticks to the guidelines in multiple areas.

There is no use, reference or depiction of drugs, sex or discrimination. The film also has a moral framework, emphasising the importances of friendship, working together and exercise. The film also references the importances of keeping our environment clean for future generations. 

The film is also simple enough on a superficial level for children to watch and enjoy the film alone.

spy kids 1 opening

Mise-en-scene

lots of gadgets are used which appeals to the young audience as children of this age are into gadgets and things like that. the setting of the spy base is made to look futuristic and again keeps the audiences attention. the costumes are all quite bright which is good for keeping the attention of a younger audience.

cinematography

a low angle shot is used on the toy master which shows his dominance and that he's evil. theres a high angle shot used on juni cortez to show how young he is. two shots are used with juni and adults to show the difference in size and lots of close ups are used to make it easier to understand the emotions of the characters.

sound
music at the start builds tension when juni cortez is investigating. the music is mysterious as at this point he is investigating. the pace of the music picks up pace when he is being briefed on the case. clear difference in voices of children and adults to showcase the difference in age.

editing
continuous editing throughout opening scene. fast paced editing to keep the attention of the audience. cgi is used for the futuristic special effects such as the bug that writes for them

Iron Giant; Sci-Fi.

The opening sequence for the film helps set up the premise, something crashes into the sea while a lone fisherman in a storm frantically looks for a lighthouse. The crashed object turns out to be a giant robot, with the fisherman looking on in terror as he crashes into the robot.
The robot is heavily stylised to keep the film child friendly, with larger white eyes, and with a metal mouth that always seems to be in a smile.
This means that he can strike a scary figure against the dark or when partially obscured but once the main character, Hogarth, a young boy in suburban 50's America, meets the giant he comes across as naive but friendly.
The mise-en-scene helps set the scene with 50's American vehicles, a small town setting and lush woodland areas.
The introduction of the government agent Kent Mansley is introduced as an incompetent antagonist, who looks down on the small town and the population there not taking the giant seriously until he himself witnesses it.
The giant also becomes frightening whenever he notices a weapon as a defensive action. When threatened his eyes become smaller and red, with tentacle guns, chest cannons and blasters on his arms, a very relevant throwback to cold-war robots.
The costumes in the film are very heavily 50's stylised, with the Hogarth's mother, Annie Hughes, wearing a pink dress with white collars in a diner.
The film has a lot of colour, with bright greens for the grass and foliage, deep blues for the sea.

Above is a trailer for the film; The Iron Giant.

monsters inc. opening

the titles/credits introduce the general theme of the film.
jazzy upbeat music which is used to entertain the children.
opening scene opens the theme of the film introducing a monster.
Also introducing its genre(s) of fantasy and comedy as a monster makes a mistake using slapstick comedy.
introduces the theme of scream energy.
introduces the name of the main character.
the scene starts in a child's room, using toys, bright duvets and clothes to set the scene.
the monsters are bright stylised monsters. making the monsters seem friendly but at the same time scary to.
the testing area has cameras, big lights and lots of yellow and black lines which sets the scene in the factory.
diagetic sounds adds to the tension.
close up on the bosses face adds emphasise to what he says at the end of the introduction.
to show that he is more important the director has used a low angle shot to show his dominance in both the company and the situation.

toy story 3 opening scene analysis

mise-en-scene - costumes are used to make it obvious to the younger audience who the bad guys are as mr potato head and his wife both have black eye patches on whilst they are hijacking the train and connotations of the colour black are evil and darkness which makes it easier to identify them as the bad guys.

cinematography- establishing shot shows scene (desert).close ups are used on lots of the characters to show the emotions of the characters and makes it easy for a younger audience to understand the emotions of the characters.low angle shots are used on both buzz lightyear and woody to represent them as big and strong and make it clear to the young audience that there the good guys.

sound- non diagetic sound is used throughout the opening and is fast paced upbeat music to match the pace of the editing. the tempo and pace changes at points in the scene to match the emotions of the audience as when the train goes off the rails the music becomes slower and low tempo and when buzz lightyear saves the train it gets quicker and more upbeat again.all the voices are exaggerated to make it more interesting and exciting for the young audience

editing- fast paced editing throughout the scene which keeps the attention of a young audience.continuous editing used throughout which matches the action and music.no cuts or fades used.

Jumanji opening

we watched the opening of jumanji and studied the cinematography used in the opening. an establishing shot was used to set the scene at the start where the two young boys are in the woods approaching the jumanji box. close ups were used to show the emotion on the boys face when he fell into the hole and again after he was beaten up. a two shot was used to show the boys together and there expressions. p.o.v shot was to used show Alan parish view of the boys outside and helps emphasise with him (the main character). tracking shot was used to show the bully's in pursuit of alan in the bike chase, the shot helps increase the tempo and adds tension. A high angle shot was used on the bully's to make them look bigger and scarier and a low angle shot was used on alan parish to make him look smaller than the bully's.

Favourite children's film- conventions

Th Lion King




This is one of our groups favourite children's film. It sets the scene of the film and introduce the characters to the audience. It also introduces the main theme of the film in both the opening song and in the images that is shown on the screen which is the 'circle of life' which helps the children learn the morales of the film which are the importance of family as they stay together at the end of the film and about not being greedy as scar leaves nobody else any food and the effects of this are shown. The opening sequence also introduces us to the idea of status in the film. this is due to the fact that all of the animals have come to welcome the Simba. The opening sequence also incorporates lots of bright colours so as to attract the attention and stimulate the minds of the young audience. the opening clip contains no dialogue and the sound used in the clip is non diagetic music and sounds that the animals make which is educational for young audiences as it helps them learn the noises each animal makes.