Production Company Logo-

When designing the company logo, I looked at existing logos and came up with this idea. the clouds in the back ground refer to the idea of "wonderland" or "dreamland" which is in our company name.

Shooting Script

Exterior, Outside House, Daytime

Shot 1               EL/S of Jim and Craig’s house

                         Fades out and into shot 2

Interior, Jims Bedroom, Daytime

Shot 2               L/S showing Jim in bed, under the covers
Off camera we can hear Craig knocking on the bedroom door and shouting Jim

Shot 3               M/S of Jim pulling down the covers, looking at a t-shirt on the floor then picking it up

Shot 4               CU eye line match of the t-shirt being picked up by Jim

                       

Shot 5              (Split screen) Left hand side of the screen showing Jim putting on the t-shirt, a backward tracking shot leads Jim out of his bedroom 

Interior, Hallway, Daytime

Meanwhile on the right side of the screen a ML/S shows Craig putting on his coat from behind, a tracking shot follows him into the kitchen (Left half expands to fill screen (End split screen)

Shot 6                A M tracking/S follows Jim to the toilet

……………..

(Scene cuts to a finish as he shuts the door behind him)

Interior, Kitchen, Daytime

Shot 7                MLS of Craig making coffee, continues to a ML tracking/S of Craig leaving the house

Shot 8                C/U s of getting coffee jar

Shot 9                C/U putting coffee in mug

Shot 10              M/S getting milk out of fridge

Shot 11              C/U sniffing milk,

Shot 12              C/U puts milk in coffee

Shot 13              C/U face drinking coffee

Shot 14              M/S drinking coffee

Interior, Living Room, Daytime

Shot 15              MLS of the living room doorway as Jim walks in and picks up the PlayStation and sits down

Shot 16              C/U picking up PlayStation, match on action

Shot 17              Front view, M/S playing game

Shot 18              M/CU Reverse shot of screen

Shot 19              C/U of face (phone rings) looks at phone

Shot 20              (Phone rings) close up eye line match to the phone

Shot 21              M/S picking up phone

Shot 22              (Split screen) MS of Jim and Dan throughout conversation

Shot 23               MS of Jim playing on the PlayStation

Shot 24               (Phone rings again off screen) (split screen) M/CU conversation between Jim and solicitor

Shot 24a             Jim M/CU

Shot 24b             Solicitor M/CU

Shot 25                CU of Jim’s facial expression

Interior, Hallway/Craig’s bedroom/Stairs, Daytime

Shot 26                Front view M/S of Jim jumping up

Shot 27                ML/S of Jim getting up from the side

Shot 28                ML/S of Jim leaving the room, camera pans to follow him to the door

Shot 29                ML/S Match on action of Jim leaving the room filmed from outside of the living room

Shot 30                CU of his frantic expression

Shot 31                CU of his feet as he begins to run up the stairs

Shot 32                M/S front view of Jim as he looks for ID

Shot 33                ML/S side view of him looking through drawers

                       

Audience Questionnaire

For further research into comedy films, we needed to ask our audience questions about comedy films and how they feel about them. The questions we asked were as follows;

1. What types of comedy do you like?

2. What are your favourite comedy films?

3. Are the actors in comedy films important? Why?

4. Do you prefer American comedy or British comedy and why?

We asked these particular questions to give us an idea of what we should focus on in our film, like whether our film should be more British comedy or have more of an American feel to it as most of the popular modern comedies are American.

Comedy Research

There are many different types of comedy films that differ from film to film to satisfy all types of humor;

A comedy of manners film ridicules the manners and affectations of a social class, often represented by stock characters. The plot of the comedy is often concerned with an illicit love affair or some other scandal. However, the plot is generally less important than its witty dialogue.
In a "fish out of water"-style comedy, the main character or character finds himself in an unusual environment, which drives most of the humor. Situations can be swapping gender roles (Tootsie; 1982); an age changing role (Big; 1988); a freedom-loving individual fitting into a structured environment (Police Academy; 1984), and so forth.
A spoof film is a comedy that satirizes other film genres or classic films. Such films employ sarcasm, stereotyping, mockery of scenes from other films, and the obviousness of meaning in a character's actions. Examples of this form include Blazing Saddles (1974) and Scary Movie (2000)
The anarchic comedy film uses nonsensical, stream-of-consciousness humor which often lampoons a form of authority. Films of this nature stem from a theatrical history of anarchic comedy on the stage.
The black comedy film deals with normally taboo subjects, including, death, murder, sexual relations, suicide and war, in a satirical manner.
Gross-out films are a relatively recent development, and rely heavily on vulgar, sexual or "toilet" humor. Examples include Dumb and Dumber (1994) and American Pie (1999).
The romantic comedy sub-genre typically involves the development of a relationship between a man and a woman. The stereotyped plot line follows the "boy-gets-girl", "boy-loses-girl", "boy gets girl back again" sequence. Generally light-hearted comedy lies in the social interactions and sexual tensions between the pair. Examples include When Harry Met Sally... (1989), Pretty Woman (1990), and Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994).

• Action comedy films blend comic antics and action where the film stars combine wit and one-liners with a thrilling plot and daring stunts.

• Comedy horror is a type of horror film in which the usual dark themes are treated with a humorous approach.

• Fantasy comedy films are types of films that uses magic, supernatural and or mythological figures for comic purposes. 

• Sci-fi comedy films, like most hybrid genre of comedy use the elements of science fiction films to over the top extremes and exaggerated science fiction stereotypical characters.

• Military comedy films, involve comic situations in a military setting. 

Risk Assessment

Actor Research- Popular comedy actors

There are many different styles of actors out there, especially in the comedy world, so finding one to fit your film is crucial.

In my opinion Seth Rogen ( also a writer and producer) is one of the best actors around for our style of film, he has played many great roles from his main parts in Pineapple Express, Knocked up, Zack and Miri make a porno and Superbad to his minimal parts in for example Step Brothers. His writing is as good as his acting, he co wrote both Superbad and Pineapple Express with Evan Goldberg.

Will Ferrel is an American comedian, impressionist, actor, and writer. Ferrell first established himself in the late 1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, and has subsequently starred in the comedy films Old School, Elf, Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Stranger than Fiction, Blades of Glory, Semi-Pro, and The Other Guys.


Both these actors would be perfect in our style of light hearted and social comedy

Opening Title Research- Superbad

During research in to title sequences I decided to analyse the titles from Superbad as the film is around the same style as ours, light hearted and social realism comedy;
The opening sequence is very 70's and has  "too hot to stop" by The Bar Keys playing in the back ground, the soundtrack is very "feel good" and has happy connotations. The sequences is rather physicadelic, It is based around the two main characters (Seth and Evan) dancing obsecurely to the music, from the beginning you can tell that the film is going to be funny, light hearted and gives you a basic idea of the characters personalities. It was shot against a green screen, so the 2d cutout effect could be added, the bold bright colours give it a kind of pop art style.

These colours change as the sequence goes on and add to the 70's feel, as the pop art culture was at its biggest then. They make the colour transitions using bold shapes such as stars.

Behind the scenes of the opening sequence shoot;


The titles open with the distrubution company (Sony Pictures)

Then move onto the productions companys ( Columbia Pictures and Apatow pictures)

Followed by the film title ( Superbad)







The main actors ( Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Bill Hader and Seth Rogen)

Then they introduce a new actor ( Christopher Mintz-Plasse)

and run through the rest of the production crew then finally the exclusive producers and writers ( Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg).

Here is the full sequence;

Although we couldn't really do anything like this as we do not have access to a green screen, something light hearted like this would be a good opening sequence for us as it sets of the mood and gives you a feel for the film straight away.

Character research

In our film, one of the elements of comedy comes from the main character. The main character in our film is a 19 year old boy who doesn't work or go to college. He spends most of his days in front of the t.v or on the xbox. At night he likes to go out with his best mate Dan and have a laugh. I am going to research a few main characters in comedy films and have a look at their traits and how they add to the comedy element in the film.

The first character i'm going to look at is Will Ferrel's character, Ron Burgundy, in the film 'Anchorman'.

Ron Burgundy-
Ron Burgundy is San Diego's top rated newsman in the male dominated broadcasting of the 1970's, but that's all about to change when a new female employee with ambition to burn arrives in his office. The film focuses on the character, Ron Burgundy. As he plays the main part throughout the film, it is important that the audience find him funny. His appearance, his quotes and his relationship with Veronica Corningstone all add to the humour of the film. Below is the trailer from the film Anchorman: The legend of Ron Burgundy.

The next character that i'm going to look at is Mr. Bean.

Mr. Bean -
Mr Bean works as a caretaker in a British gallery. He is a very bad worker but his bosses are prevented from firing him because the head of the gallery wants him as his worker. So his bosses send him to another gallery in Los Angeles, California. But things in LA go wrong. An important painting arrives to his new gallery, and somehow Bean is supposed to present it to a selected audience, and to protect it as well. The thing is that Bean does not know anything about paints, and he is exactly the most unsuited man to protect the paint. The humour of the film comes from Mr. Beans appearance and mostly the situations he manages to get himself in and how he copes when in that situation. Some of Mr. Bean's traits are clumsy, dozile and dumb. Below is the trailer for 'Bean the movie'.



The last comedy character i'm going to look at is Borat.

Borat Sagdiyev-
Kazakh TV talking head Borat is dispatched to the United States to report on the greatest country in the world. With a documentary crew in tow, Borat becomes more interested in locating and marrying Pamela Anderson.
Borat is a fictional character, who has lived in Kazakhstan and moves to America to film a documentry. Borat, played by Sacha Baron Cohen, has arranged interviews with different people who live in America. The humour comes from the fact that these people, who Borat is interviewing, don't know he is a fictional character. Below is a link for the trailer from Borat:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_I3tIjztj8

Similar Films

One film which has a similar storyline to ours is The Secret of My Success (1987).

This is a film starring Michael J. Fox as a graduate of a university, who finds a job working in the mailroom of a company. He discovers that the company's employees are making bad decisions and finds a empty office in the building and assumes the identity of a new executive working for the company and making it successful.

The storyline is similar to our film as the main character assumes the role of someone else (in our film it's his brother) and how the main character gets into many impossible situations.

Here is a trailer of the film;



Another film which I see as similar is Richie Rich (1994).

This is a film starring Macaulay Culkin as the richest kid in the whole world, as he is the son of $70 billion tycoon. All the kid has grown up with is money and he hasn't been able to find friendship, until he encounters a group of kids playing baseball which he invites them to his home in a way to bond with them.
However, the greedy CFO of his father's company intends to take the family riches for himself, and goes to his home to steal the riches from his father's vault.

The storyline is similar to our film and it has many similar elements, most notably the money (although not the same scale) and how at the end of the film there's a morale to it. Richie figures out friends are important and in our film Jim discovers that he will work hard to be happy.