Screen Grabs from sequence

Pete's struggle final cut

Marking criteria for production

During filming, we have done steady shots where appropriate, using the tripod. We did steady shots during the computer scene and Pete slamming into the wall and falling down. It was a mix of a medium shot showing Amanda's body language and expressions. Then we did stop motion, when Pete was on the computer then moving towards the wall and down to the desk.

Framing a shot including or excluding elements where appropriate; we cropped out in some photos my hands during the shots of Pete being smacked into the wall, otherwise we didn't need to crop anything.

We used a variety of shots, these are; an extreme close up of the stranger's hand knocking on the door, creating mystery. A long shot of Amanda and Matt finding Pete outside their door, seeing the body language more than facial expressions. A close up of Pete sitting on the chair, to see his facial expressions. A medium shot of Amanda with Pete in the computer scene, to see facial expressions and body language.

Transitions that we have used so far are, a cut after the title 'Pete's Struggle' with stop motion. Another cut with the scene were the stranger knocking on the door to doing a close up of baby Pete in the blanket on the floor outside. We have a fade to black after Amanda and Matt have found Pete.
We haven't used sound yet. Matt is working on the soundtracks. We all agreed that we liked the soundtracks he has found for when Pete is sad, happy and even for when he is found at the beginning. We will put these in hopefully on Monday.

We have included the titles. One with stop motion, 'Pete's Struggles'. The title '5 years
later',  we were thinking of doing it with stop motion. We decided we didn't have
enough time to use stop motion, so instead we are just using text.

How I contributed

I contributed by playing Amanda, the wife of Matt and mother of Sarah. I had to just walk around so it looked like I was ignoring Pete, whilst he is sitting on the chair.
When it came to the computer scene, I had to say some dialouge and helped with the stop motion.
I had to hold Pete whilst he was attached to some fishing wire, and try to get him to stay as still as possible and move him after the shots of him were taken. I took the photos of Pete was walking up to Sarah.

My contribution

•        helped decide on sequence content as part of a group discussion
•        helped create the plasticine model
•        Played a big part in filming, i did most of the camera work.
•        Also played a big part in the editing

Megamind- title sequence analysis

The opening sequence of megamind starts at the end of the film with a situation which means certain death for the main character. The main character acts as the narrator talking trough whats happening. He decides to explain the story from the begging, starting from when he was a baby narrating the outline of his childhood explaining how he ended up who he is. This is a style i particularly like as it gives you an opportunity to fully understand the main character and his way of thinking and many of the other characters.

After talking through his childhood we are given a quick sum up of the rest of his life through a series of newspaper article clippings hung up around a room. As the camera moves away the paper clippings lined up to crate the main title ‘megamind’. I thought this was particularly clever as it shows how the actions of the character have an effect on everyone by using the newspaper clippings.

The title uses a bold clear font that’s easy for the younger members of the audience to read.  It is also blue which resembles the colour of the characters skin.

For our sequence we want to use a title that ties in with the main theme. Since we are using a plasticene model for our main character we decided to create the title from plasticene and use stop motion animation to animate it. 

Target Audience

Target Audience

The target audience for Pete’s Struggle is 4 years old and above, it is aimed at younger children but some of the themes may be understood by older children / adults. Children may like it because of the use of slapstick violence. Our target market is families with young children; this is because the children can relate to Pete when being ignored, when they are being ignored by their parents. The adults can relate to Pete as an annoying child that doesn’t go away, this makes them either feel sympathy for Pete or makes them feel better about themselves because they are not the only parents that neglect their children. We are aiming this at both genders, even though Pete is a male character.

As for my individual work, I:

·        Provided props – a blanket to wrap Pete up in when he is a baby.

·        Acted – in the scene where the Mother and Father find Pete at the door.

·        Came up with part of the original idea – an intertextual reference with Back to the Future right at the start where there is a panning shot from left to right of the clocks. We are using a panning shot of family photos.

·        Thought of some shots and camera techniques to use in the film  

·        Posted relevant articles to the blog.