Equipment list

·        1X-Camera.

·        1X-Tripod.

·        1X-Steady cam.

·        2X-Bikes.

"    2X-Police Costumes.

Music Video Pitch

Music Video Styles and Conventions

Audience Interaction With Media

Scott Pilgrim Movie Review

The lead role is played by Michael Cera and yet again his part is the awkwardly charming and somewhat clueless underdog. However this time he’s flawed, he’s self-centered, can be a jerk at times and doesn't always make the right call, but you can’t help but root for him, even if it’s because things never seem to be going his way.  Although he is seen as loser by most people Scott can still kick some serious butt when things get hot.

The world of Scott Pilgrim is based on an alternate world Toronto which runs on video game rules, which goes blissfully unexplained. As the story begins Scott (22) has just started dating a 17 year old high school student, but his affections quickly change when he meets the girl of his dreams: Ramona Flowers, a rollerblading delivery girl.  She is quite literally from his dreams, as she uses an inter-dimensional highway which runs through Scott’s head, when he finally meets her in the real world he is instantly smitten.  The good news, Ramona kind of likes him too. The bad news, to date her he must defeat all seven of her evil exes (each one representing a boss fight at the end of a video game level, complete with power-ups and the loser bursting into coins), needless to say they all have superpowers. These powers make sure now to battles are the same, so Scott is left figuring thing out on the fly.

Being largely based on the comic series by Bryan Lee O’Malley, there are a lot of graphic call-outs like sound animations when music is playing or the statistics of each character that appear throughout the film. The best lines and entire scenes have also been pulled directly from the books.  Even though it was O’Malley who came up with the concepts and the characters it’s Edgar Wright that makes them really work in live action.  The problems that do arise are from the fact that all six books are crammed into one film leave some things seeming rushed, especially the ending, but also that you want to see more of the supporting characters because of how good those characters are.  The other problem is that the final third differentiates somewhat as the books were still coming out as the film was being shot.

This is one of those movies where you can walk into the theater and see one of two versions: one being a romantic comedy which doesn't take itself too seriously, with lots of jokes, cool action and plenty of eye candy and pop-culture references. The second being a smart romantic comedy that once you look past all of the above has a lot to say about  young adult relationships in this modern era, love and the human condition.

 Overall the film is great, with really clever editing where conversations take place over multiple locations and times, and even smarter directing where subtle hints will leave you wondering what happens after the credits roll, and the only fatal flaw being that all of the pop-culture might leave some people feeling overwhelmed and take away from the experience.

Soft and Telling Lies Contrast and Comapre

Both of these are short films made by Simon Ellis and though they are both written and directed by him, they are fundamentally different in visuals and the telling of narrative.

Soft is the story of a boy and his father being essential bullied by juveniles and the story is told as it happens, as the characters experience it. Telling lies on the other hand has the characters recount to us the events of the previous night. Experiencing the story as it occurs is a good way for the audience to get to know the characters, even empathise with them because we get to see how react to the events that happens and understand their thought process. It is however the way Telling Lies recites what has already happened that I believe works more in getting us to empathise with the characters.  And that is quite simply because we are in their heads especially Philip’s as he is the only constant character and we see, well more hear everything happened from his end of the line. The recounting works so well because it’s after a night out and as you can imagine Phil’s memories must be quite blurry and he is most likely in no hurry to recall them, now presentations plays a big part in this because right after he reluctantly tells his mother what happened the calls start coming in quick and each one tells more of what happened as is they were memory flashes of the night prior.

Both films develop characters as much visually as narratively. In Soft it shows how the father is not a strong or confident person by simple visual clues like him nervously trying to avoid the eye contact of the chavs outside the shop and then flinching when they pop the balloon because he is already intimidated. The shop keeper also has no respect for him because he purposely drops the change on the counter even though he could have just put it in the other man’s already out stretched hand; we see a similar thing happen between his son later on. Although the visuals in Telling Lies are quite simplistic, they are also quite cleaver through the use of colour to better describe the characters like Philip whose orange which can be a calming colour but can also be alert kind of like Phil, he starts off trying to be composed but quickly becomes frantic and panic; Sarah is red, the colour of danger and anger and the mum is green, a neutral colour showing that she is but a by stander with nothing to do with the previous nights events or the fallout. But the one thing they all have in common is that when they lie the text is always white, a simple white lie.

Even with the aid of the visuals Soft still relies on dialogue as much as Telling Lies, especially right after the dad’s gotten in after being beaten himself to find that his son has too now he tries to be reassuring but his voice fails him making the words not only mean nothing but also showing that he can’t protect himself or his son. Telling Lies only has dialogue but it holds up just as well because we can clearly tell how the characters are feeling like when Victoria calls and the calm and collected voice cheers Phil up instantly but as she carriers on talking we see straight through her façade because of the pauses and how carefully she puts her words together. Philip recognizes this too before she even has to tell him this was an easy let down as we hear him get audibly disappointed.

Different Film Production Industries

DNA Films