Hello Kitty

Hello Kitty is a fictional character produced by the Japanese company Sanrio, first designed by Ikuko Shimizu. Hello Kitty is known world wide and sells products such as dolls, stickers, cards, clothes and bags.

Hello Kitty is a white, female cat with a red bow and no mouth that lives in London, this makes her cute and appealing to young girls who possibly live or adore London.

Cats are the second most popular pet in the United Kingdom, this may be one of the reasons why 'Hello Kitty' is so popular. In 2008 the main reasons people kept cats as pets were for:
Companionship: 27%
Love: 31%
Easy maintainance: 7%
Gets on with other species: 3%

Here are the statistics of the population of pets in the United Kingdom that I found here
Dog: 23% (6.0 million households)
Cat: 20% ( 5.2 million households)
Indoor Fish: 10 % (2.6 million households)
Outdoor Fish: 8% (2.1 million households)
Rabbits: 2.8% (0.7 million households)
Indoor Birds: 1.8% (0.5 million households)
Guinea Pigs: 1.3% (0.3 million households)
Hamster: 1.3% (0.3 million households)
Domestic Fowl: 0.8% (0.21 million households)
Horses/Ponies: 0.3% (0.16 million households)
Tortoises/turtles: 0.3% (0.16 million households)
Gerbils: 0.5% (0.13 million households)
Snakes: 0.4% (0.10 million households)
Lizards: 0.4% (0.10 million households)
Rats: 0.3% (0.08 million households)

Filming success!

Today we spent around 3 hours filming our short film and it was brilliant. We had 5 copies of the script so the cast and crew had a script to look at. We filmed each clip two times or more, because we needed to have a few to select from in case there were any mistakes or the lighting and sound was wrong.

We had to make a few changes. We forgot to bring a polar bear plushie, but luckily a helping friend had a Hello Kitty on her, so we used that instead. We actually thought that this may be more humorous than using a polar bear, because Hello Kitty is more recognisable and it supposed to be a cute friendly kitten but in this we have turned her into a killer. We also ran out of time to film the 3 different endings, so we chose the one we liked the best, which was the second one, and filmed that.

I did most of the filming and I filmed every scene atleast twice for a more veriety when editing, also if there where any mistakes we had another clip for back up. When Kyle was on camera I directed him and tried to make him feel confident with his work. For each scene we had the actors, Darren, Tom and Jonny learning their lines before we recorded.

We made the final decision of names yesterday. We have named the advert flash back character Jack, after the main character in 'Lost'. The plushie talker was named Matt, after Matt Parkman from 'Hereos'. The magic 8 ball character John, is named after John Locke from 'Lost'.

Here are some photos of us on set:

Here are some photos for the poster:

Cast & Costume

Jonny Ellis will be playing Jack, wearing blue jeans and a green coat.

Darren Stapleton will be playing Matt, wearing blue jeans and a grey coat.

Tom Bircham will be playing John, wearing blue jeans and a black leather coat.

Tom High will be playing the lawyer in the flash back, wearing a black suit and tie with a white shirt.

I will be playing 'The Blair Witch Project' girl, wearing blue jeans and a long black coat.

The reason why we have them all wearing blue jeans because in 'Lost' the cast generally wear jeans all the time. We have them wearing coats because in 'Lost' they all seam to wear just t-shirts and they have a bit of flesh showing, so we did the opposite and had our cast covered up.

Alternate Endings

Ending 1: They teleport out of the woods using the magic 8 ball and end up in school with Mr Stay Puft.

Ending 2: Plushie is in the way of the exit, Magic 8 ball gets annoyed and asks the magic 8 ball if he should kick it, it says yes so kicks the plushie and they get away.

Ending 3: They get out and the magic 8 ball accidentally gets shaken and they are teleported back into the middle of the woods.

We will film all of the alternate endings and show them to a group of people and ask for their opinion and their reactions. Also our choice of ending may be due to how long they are to keep the short film at 5 minutes.

Location Hunting

Today we went location hunting, we have recorded our journey and thoughts and ideas of different locations within Mousehold Heath.

We also took photos to get more of a feel of the ideal locations

Slide Show

I made a power point presentaion on the technical side of our filming and how It relates to Lost and Heros. I can't upload the presention so here are the screen shots of it.

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5
Page 6

Page 7

Script Analysis

"A: (close up of his face, he wakes up confused, camera follows him up) Err… (Looks around) Where am I?" - He has woken up in the middle of a forest with out knowing how he got there.



"P: (P and M looks at A) what’s a four letter word that sounds like zero?" - the answer is hero, referring to the programme 'Heroes'.



"A: (Looks very confused and slightly annoyed) Wha? (P and M looks at him with hope)…What the F-" - This is to break the tension into the title, like 'Lost' where they build up tension before the titles.



"M: The Magic 8 Ball took us here. I was thinking of Thorpe Park but P the animal lover here (looks at P) was day dreaming about the woods." - This is just to explain how the other two characters got into the woods.



"A: (Laughs) that’s a bit stupid!" "M: Don’t insult her! (Talks to the Magic 8 ball and strokes it) Its ok he didn’t mean it, he’s just ignorant." - We needed to make it hard for them to get back to where they were from, so we gave the 8 ball a personality and it didn't like being called stupid, so it refused to take them anywhere



"M: (talks to the 8 ball) I’m sorry sweety, I didn’t mean to shout. Are you upset with the bad man you called you stupid, don’t worry M is here" - We made this character to be obsessed, almost in love, with the magic 8 ball to mock 'Gollum' from 'Lord of the Rings' and to create humour.



"P: So… Who are you anyway and how did you get here?" - This question is what the audience wants to know, but you don't actually find out how he got there, the flash back is completely irrelevant and explains nothing, just like in 'Lost' where nothing is explained.



"(P.O.V shot of person running, panting and screaming. Shot of everyone from behind watching W stop)" - This is mocking 'The Blaire Witch Project' where every shot is a point of view, hand held shot. And that there is a lot of panicking and screaming in it.



"P: Oh wow a polar bear!" - There was a polar bear in the middle of the forest in 'Lost' that made no sense, so we mocked that and had it kill one of our actors.



"P: Don’t worry guys (close up on P’s face)… I think I’ve just discovered my power. (walks up to the polar bear) Hello, Polar Bear (close up on bears face, then back to P)" - We want to do this to mock 'Heroes' where you see them discover they're powers but he is an over the top, comic book super hero, unlike the characters in 'Heroes'.



"M: Yup…. He’ll always be remembered (voice heard from distance “No seriously guys I’m ok! Wait for me!”) … Always" - It's a text book technique of misdirection, he believes his friend is dead yet we can here him in the distance calling "I'm ok!"

The Script (no ending)

A – Advert flash back person
P – Plushie talker
M – Magic 8 ball person
W – Blair Witch Person
L – Fake Lawyer

A: (close up of his face, he wakes up confused, camera follows him up) Err… (Looks around) Where am I? (He rubs his eyes and hears a cry for help close by, he turns to look and sees two people shouting, he panics and runs towards them) What is it, what’s wrong?!

P: (P and M looks at A) what’s a four letter word that sounds like zero?

A: (Looks very confused and slightly annoyed) Wha? (P and M looks at him with hope)…What the F-

(Title cuts in and music plays)

(Close up on a scrunching up the crossword. P and A are in disbelief.)

P: Wha?! Why did you do that for? I was going to win an Xbox 360!

A: Err… umm… I’m sorry it’s just-

P: You have no consideration for other people’s feelings!

A: But I thought you guys were seriously hurt or something

(Pause)

M: It’s not like you would have won any way…

(Pause)

P: What do you mean? You said the Magic 8 ball said I’d win!

M: …I lied

(P looks stunned. Pause)

A: Any way, how did you guys get here anyway?

M: The Magic 8 Ball took us here. I was thinking of Thorpe Park but P the animal lover here (looks at P) was day dreaming about the woods.

P: You're mean, I did nothing!

A: What? I don’t understand

M: Well… I have this special power you see… I ask the Magic 8 ball to take me anywhere I want and as long as I keep the picture in my head it will take me there, this involves other people if they are tagging along too.

A: (Laughs) that’s a bit stupid!

M: Don’t insult her! (Talks to the Magic 8 ball and strokes it) Its ok he didn’t mean it, he’s just ignorant.

A: O…kay. Can it take us back?

M: I’ll try. Lets all think of a place (Talks to the magic 8 ball) Magic 8 ball can you take us back home? (Shakes the 8 ball, they all surround it. A message slowly appears on the magic 8 ball “Ask me later”) Ask me later?! What?! (talks to the 8 ball) I’m sorry sweety, I didn’t mean to shout. Are you upset with the bad man you called you stupid, don’t worry M is here – (A and P walk off, leaving M talking to the 8 ball)

P: So… Who are you anyway and how did you get here?

A: I’m A and umm… I’m not sure (puts hand on chin as he looks up)

(FLASH BACK STARTS)

A: (A walks along and falls down stairs) Whoaah! (shot of him lying at the bottom of the stairs)

L: (appears from nowhere) Have you had an accedent at home or work? At Lawyers that sue for gold we are real lawyers that get you the gold that you deserve... all of it! (shot of hand trapped in door) You see that hand? Sued! (shot of block of wood on floor) You see that bit of wood that shouldn't of been there? Sued! (shot of stairs) You see them stairs? Sued! (shot of lawyer) So if your interested call '0800 give me gold'... we're real lawyers!

(FLASH BACK ENDS)

P: Pfft, that’s your power? (Laughs)

A: (Dazed and confused) Wha…What? …Power?

P: We all saw it

A: What? My flash back? I didn’t know I could do that… I don’t remember a lawyer being there.

M: I didn’t know I could teleport with my magic 8 ball.

P: That’s your power, you have flash backs in advert form… and we can see it too! (Laughs)

A: (Doesn’t look amused) So how did I get this?

M: It’s this place I think

(Screams are heard from the distance getting closer, they all turn around)

A: What’s that? (takes a step towards the scream)

(P.O.V shot of person running, panting and screaming. Shot of everyone from behind watching W stop)

A: Are you ok?

W: (out of breath) Get…. yourselves…. out of here!(P, A and M look confused)

P: What?

W: (catches her breath) THERE’S A MAN EATING PLUSH TOY BACK THERE!!!

M: What?!

P: No way!

W: (looks back) RUN! (Runs off screen)

A: … What’s going on?!

M: AAHHH!!!

P: Oh wow a polar bear!

M: It’s a killer polar bear!

P: Don’t worry guys (close up on P’s face)… I think I’ve just discovered my power. (walks up to the polar bear) Hello, Polar Bear (close up on bears face, then back to P)

A: (whispers) What is he doing?

M: (loudly) I don’t know. (Polar bear looks at M and snarls, he looks back at P and attacks)

P: AAHHHH!!! M you idiot! (he collapses whilst being mauled, the other two look away and run. Extreme close ups on bear attacking P. We see M and A stop, out of breath)

A: … Are you ok?

M: Yeah, you?

A: Yeah… you going to be ok?

M: Sure, why?

A: You’re friend just got killed…

M: Yeah… he’ll be remembered (voice is heard from a distance “I’m ok!”)

A: What was that?

M: Yup…. He’ll always be remembered (voice heard from distance “No seriously guys I’m ok! Wait for me!”) … Always

Planning for group presentation

7 minute presentation per group including:
-Semiotics
-Meta-analysis
-Analysis of directors
-Evidence of criticising/denoting
-Storyboard
-Location
-Sound (non diagetic, ambient, contractual, synchronous,
asynchronous)
-Lighting
-Script
-Editing
-Camera

Links: http://www.virtualmediastudies.com/
http://getaheadocrmedia.blogspot.com/

Time Tables and Names

Me and Kyle had a meeting to discuss when our possible actors are free to film. We made a time table with everyone we know who can film and wrote than the times they were free, we also included me and Kyle. We have discovered that Wednesday is our best day. We have assigned possible actors to characters due to what we have worked out from the time table, but we need to double check whether our actors can make it to our location, Mousehold Heath.
After this we discussed the names for our characters, we decided to take the names of who they relate to from Lost or Heroes and change it a bit. For the Plushie talker we related him to "Matt Parkman" from Heroes, because he can read peoples minds. We could parody this in a similar manor, I thought we could change the "man" in Matt's last name to a bear or some sort of animal, but we couldn't think of anything that would fit. Kyle then suggested "Matt Packman", because it sounds similar, people will be able to recognise it and it's humorous. For the Magic 8 Ball person we want his name to be like John Locke from Lost. We thought of John Lockpick, but we weren't too sure. Then I thought of John Ball-Locke because the last name sounds like "bollocks", but the jokes may get too repetitive.

The Story Board

Kyle has done the story board for our film and it looks great, I really like his style of drawing. If I did it I would of done stick men like in my story board for my AS project. I'm now writing the script, working from the story board. You can see from the story board that Kyle has gotten everything we have talked about in there.

Changes

Me and Kyle had a meeting on the subject of characters. We both have decided that we have too many characters. It would be hard to try and get everyone we needed to be able to film at the same time. Also Kyle discovered, whilst story boarding, that he couldn't find a way to introduce some of the characters. We have decided to eliminate the mind reader, although it was a very good idea we think that it would be difficult to constantly have his thoughts out loud and people to respond to it. We will kill off the plushie talker by the plushie eating him.

We haven't assigned anyone to a character yet because we a still organising whether people are free at the same time. We only have three main characters now; the advert flash back person; the plushie talker and the magic 8 ball person. We have sub characters; the Blair witch student, played by me; and the fake lawyer in the advert.