I decided to make a film of the superhero genre, as I am a fan of the genre and felt that I already had an understanding of the genre that would help with my own film, and I also wanted to create something of imagination and humour. To begin I researched genre conventions so that I could use and apply them within my own diegesis and narrative. This research helped me with deciding on stylistics to use in my film, such things as mise-en-scene, cinematography, sound and editing.
I had to define my aims and context of my film before fully beginning all my research. The context of my film is a 3-5 minute production in the style of a short film of the superhero genre, and the film is called 'Shadow Fighter'. The main purposes of my film was to insert humour and adventure into the progressing narrative, engaging the audience into the characters journey. My target audience is similar to the audience of films of the same genre, consisting of both male and female within the ages of 15 - 25. The main stylistics I chose to use to conventionally and effectively present my film were sound and mise-en-scene, applying the research I had done to my film by ensuring that the character is understood better through the use of mise-en-scene in the bedroom and costumes. Whilst using sound to express what is happening as well as adding the humorous aspect I wanted. I got inspiration for my film with these stylistics through the research and textual analysis I did on films that are of the same genre, such as Kick ass (Dir. Matthew Vaughn, 2010) and Spider-Man (Dir. Sam Raimi, 2002).
Throughout my research into the genre I found that the superhero is always the protagonist, always going on a quest of fighting evil, and saving victims and their home town/city, in anyway helping. And the antagonist being something bad that the protagonist is trying to prevent or help with etc. The Good vs Evil has been a narrative convention of this genre throughout each film I looked at. This is how I got ideas for my script, I applied this research and had my protagonist as the hero aspiring character and the protagonist as the mugger/robber.
I documented my ideas into a storyboard so that I knew what shots I plan on doing and what will be happening in each shot, I then made it into an animatic so that I could visualize what the film would look like put together and to also ensure that I wouldn't have any gaps, and that it would run smoothly.
During the stages of pre-production for my film I looked at other films of the same genre as influence. This helped me with developing such things like my narrative, Kick Ass has the same style of narrative, the humour of the film is something I wanted my own film to have as it interests the audience into watching more. The idea of an ordinary boy wanting and aspiring to be a superhero and following through to trying it is just as I wrote my script, I thought that I would have the protagonist bail and decide that he wasn't ready for a more comical end. I also took editing techniques from this film as to have faster cuts in certain parts of the film and dips to black to represent passing of time and a change of scene. The use of the faster editing makes the audience be more aware of the action and that the film is about to come to its climax of the characters coming together.
My research also influenced the music that I would use for my own film, as in other films I looked at the music is usually more upbeat with a faster pace to match the action that is happening in the film and to give the action a bigger impact on the audience, also building up the narrative with a faster song to create more intense need to know what is going to happen in the narrative. And this is what I tried to do within my own film, I used other superhero music such as batman music as it emphasises the characters love of superheros as well as their music, but I also used the song 'Hero' by Nickleback which fits well with my narrative, it mentions being a hero, which is the focus of my narrative, I juxtaposed the song to begin at the chorus right where the main character runs away, failing as a hero, as the lyrics read 'and they say that a hero can save us' which is ironic playfulness in the fact that the supposed hero just ran away from the person in need of saving, this is something that comical superhero films conventionally do.
 |
| Part with an over voice |
Another common convention of the genre is to use an element of voice overs in a film, it represents the characters thoughts and ambitions as well as informing the audience and giving them a better understanding of the narrative. This is how I decided to include the non-diegetic voice overs in my own film, I thought that it would give a bigger impact to the film as a superhero having a secret identity meaning that they will have thoughts that are secret also.
From doing research I was influenced with my decisions for costume, setting and props, all factors of mise-en-scene, such things that I would have to consider in contributing to the narrative and meaning. One of the locations I used is what would be the characters bedroom, I considered what the characters bedroom would actually look like, which is why I designed the room to look like his, I put posters up of hero's, that would be interested by the character. I felt that this contributed greatly to helping the audience understand the character further. In terms of props I placed a collection of superhero movies in the room this further contributed to the building of the character and ensuring that the room looks like it would actually belong to this character. When I came to decide upon costume I looked back at my research and found that characters that are like my character wear everyday clothing that would show their love for comics and superhero's, this is why I put my actor in tops that had superman and comic style designs on them. Through my research I realised that my character would need a superhero costume as this is a convention of the genre costumes, to give them a hidden identity. This is how I came to having the character in a Batman costume, it represents the character as a true comic superhero geek and his true aspired dream of being a hero.
Another decision I came to through doing my research was to edit text into my film, giving the audience specific information as to how much time has passed, as well as to add little comical captions to try make the audience laugh, it is also something that is conventional with comics and often the film genre also. I thought that it defined the genre of my film further in terms of looking as though it is a comic strip. I would have liked to have the text look more like it was from a comic strip but my resources were limited.
The use of different camera shots was done to help present my narrative in the best way, and to try use conventional shots. I used a tracking shot for the scene where the character is finding a sign that will tell him he should try being a hero, I felt that this worked best as not only does it ensure that we have the best view of what is going on but it represents us coming along with his journey, sort of being a part of his journey as a voyeur. The footage of the character running away at the end is slightly slowed down to make the character look as though he is running slower, I decided to do this as it is conventional that the footage is slowed down during a fighting scene to emphasise the movement of the fight, but there was no fight in my film only the 'hero' running away from one, this is why I slowed it down to emphasise that he is running away from what he wanted to be for so long. I didn't slow it down too much as it wouldn't fit with the rest of my film it is was really slow running, but having him run too fast would mean that he wouldn't be seen running for as long, which I don't believe would have left less of an impact on the audience.
I ensured I had continuity with the editing in terms of the use of fades to black, I used them throughout the film to represent that time has gone by, and so this is why I ended my film with a fade to black but only this time it stays black and runs the credit, I believe that it effectively represents the end of the film. There is a sound bridge when the last shot in the film finishes and the it then cuts to credits showing who starred in the film, but have the same song playing through, this gives the audience a chance to listen to the song whilst seeing who starred in the film they just watched and it represents continuity further with my music.
Overall I believe that I achieved my aims and context by using different stylistics to create a short film that uses conventions of its genre throughout, using mise-en-scene, cinematography, sound and editing to achieve an effective and convincing superhero film with the target audience of both genders aged 15-25. I think I successfully achieved my intentions of audience response and I am happy that my film was positively received and enjoyed as intended by my target audience.
