Commissions Unit: Film Introduction

Now that time is gradually getting closer for our filming stages, my group and I began to decide how we wanted to introduce our film (as you can see in our script).

Our general idea which we all agreed on was to create a mini montage showing previous footage of 'super fans', and how they have been around not just recently, but for a long time supporting huge global acts.

So we began our research by firstly thinking who has been and is (now) the biggest music artist of all time. It doesn't entirely matter whether the artist(s) are the biggest or not - as long as our audience can recognise who they are is our aims. Showing how these types of fans have been around for years shows that they aren't anything new, and more importantly showing how the passion for music has been around for many years!

How are we going to do it?

Firstly, we decided to use the old legends 'The Beatles' and fan-crazy and present boy band 'One Direction', to show the juxtaposition of the fans and the times they are in. Additionally, because they are both boy bands, it makes the contrast seem more effective by showing that boy bands are one of the most common types of artists which have these super fans.

For the montage, we wanted to open our film by having a narrator explaining the depths and passion fans will go to to see their desired artist - showing the extremes they will go to. This should originally focus on the Beatles so that the audience learn that these fans have been around for years. Which then of course, juxtaposes against to the more recent and present boy band One Direction.

Although this will be difficult and require a lot of research to find, we also want to use a graphic match between the old Beatles footage with the new One Direction footage - showing this progression of time.

The footage must simply show the fans going crazy - showing how they are different to your ordinary fan. Hopefully the footage could also have a narrator whom is narrating on the actual footage itself, which too can be juxtaposed between the two types of footage.

Introduction Progress

After researching footage online, we fortunately found pretty much exactly what we were looking for. We managed to find old and vintage footage of a narrator discussing how fans will sleep over night whilst they wait for 'The Beatles' to arrive. The best part is that the footage is actually old meaning it is in black and white, making the change between the two types of footage more effective as it goes from monochrome to colour.

Additionally, we also found a graphic match which works considerably well, as it goes from one fan holding onto a gate (The Beatles fan) to a different One Direction fan holding onto a gate - even at the same angle and similar shot size.

Below shows the graphic match. You can clearly tell that there is a difference in time from the colour and even the girl's mobile phone. The only slight problem is that the 1D fan isn't behind the same fence as the previous footage, however this doesn't matter entirely.

'The Beatles' clip

'One Direction' clip

To reinforce this change, we have also decided to use a simple 'Fade to Colour' transition - simply just to emphasise and show how the time has progressed.

Below is a draft of the introduction for our film. Of course, we are going to have our narrator over the top to introduce the film and to talk about what super fans are, and how they're nothing new. I've also added some additional ambient soundtracks which are iconic for the fan world i.e. fans singing over the top, fans screaming, etc.

After showing this to our course leader Helen, she reminded us about copy right infringements. This means that if we aren't granted permission to use this footage then we are not allowed to use it, meaning we may have to get different footage if we cannot be granted permission.

This is only a rough draft - it is just to get an idea on how we want to introduce our film, so lots more work will be done on it!