Call me…Mr. Teddy!

The brief: Our task was to create a title sequence from an upcoming

production in which we had created ourselves.

Our film, Call me Mr Teddy is and action/comedy film inspired by existing

productions such as Johnny English and dumb and dumber.

Synopsis of the film…

Mr. Teddy is a clumsy man who is simple minded and capable of nothing but

failure ,but due to an inheritance from his nan he now has to take on a new role as a top spy

‘Mr. Teddy.’ Teddy has to push his limits in order to successfully be able to stop a bank robbery, whilst dealing with problems within his marriage as his wife is kept in the dark

about his new identity, and making his label as a ’failure’ become a thing of the past as he

saves the day.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of

real media products?

In order to make our title sequence we had to consider the codes and conventions of a legitimate title sequence in order to apply it to our production.

The main conventions we focused on were introducing the cast, crew and characters, setting up enigma's for the audience, introducing the genre, and indication of

time. All these factors are essential for a title sequence as this is where everything is being introduced to the

audience and  the first impression of a film is made. As we are targeting a young audience enigma's

were essential to keep them engaged especially considering our protagonist is

a spy, thus being mysterious and secretive. One key enigma that was set up for our audience was 'what is Teddy's mission?' and this was done through the mise-

en-scene as it clear he has a goal as he is being attacked by villains yet the audience are unaware as to

why. 

As the genre of our film was action and comedy we had to focus on both area's which have rather opposite conventions and input them

into our sequence. We focused mainly on the comedy aspect as this is the most gender neutral genres of the two. This was firstly done with

the cast choice as we picked well known comedic actors such as Rowan Atkinson and Eddy Murphy, who are both known for children's comedy such as Mr. Bean and Shrek, to play the lead roles in our film.

We also used a long, yet rounded, font to display our titles as this chosen font looked very similar to the typography used for the pink panther titles which shared the same genre as our film. We also had

our protagonist performing comedic actions such as using a gun incorrectly and spitting out his drink which emphasized the

humor. As for the action aspect we included guns and an attack scene as these seemed to be present in title sequences of the same genre

we looked at for example Johnny English. The fight scene ,where Teddy is being strangled by the villain  helped to add excitement into our

sequence as it showed Teddy to live dangerous which is the general representation of a spy. We also made sure that the

soundtrack of the film would be stereotypical of the sequences genre thus upbeat and jazz. To do this we selected a track from

audionetwork.lgfl.org.uk which had all these aspects and worked in sync with our footage.

We managed to portray the time period of our sequence through the use of lighting,

camera and costume. The well lit locations, alongside the flip camera, gave the

sequence a slightly artificial and digital look which is found in modern films set in the

present as they are filmed on digital camera's for example James Bond. This

worked in sync with the clothing found in the present day, such as business suits, to

reveal the film was set in the present. We also ensured not to add any filters which

could obscure the time period of the sequence for example black and white.  

How did you attract/address your audience?We made sure our target audiences opinion was incorporated into our sequence from

the planning stage we did this by handing out survey sheets to our audience to find out what they would prefer to see in our title sequence. The questionnaires allowed us to

pick typography and colour comfortably as we knew our target audience had approved. With their opinion taken into account it would make sense that they would be attracted

to our sequence as their thoughts have become a part of it. We also made sure to make our protagonist male as generally our film would be more appealing to males

aged 6-12 and therefore we needed our protagonist to appear victorious so our audience could admire him as a character thus creating a bond between the audience and the character. As we had analyzed other title sequences with a similar genre and

with the same target audience we knew what to include in order to attract the audience. Johnny English for example made sure to include shots of the protagonist to

make him look humorous and shots making the protagonist appear successful. We ensured to take this information and incorporate it into our sequence as it is what the audience would expect and enjoy from a sequence. This was done through the mise-

en-scene as we made Teddy appear significant and successful due to him sipping on a martini, which is stereotypical for a spy due to the James Bond series. To add to

the humor we then had our actor spit out the drink to contrast the seriousness with the comedy. The lighting also subliminally portrayed Teddy as successful due to the lighting

becoming brighter as Teddy changes into his suit.

What have you learned about Technologies?

During the creation of our title sequence I have had to adapt to new and unfamiliar technologies which challenged me through the production of our sequence.

Being the director it was my job to overlook the group and provide help thus I had to be able to use all different forms of technologies. The main challenge we uncounted were with

the programme after effects as no one had ever used it before. We made sure we did some research on how to work the programme but even with this knowledge we still found it

a challenge to work with as we could never remember how to make the green screen images look as realistic as possible. Due to the unsophisticated green screens we produced we

decided to abandon them from our sequence as they looked to unprofessional for our sequence 

Once all the shooting was done we needed to edit our sequence using final cut pro. I was rather familiar with this software as I had used it many times before but we

were introduced to some new features which challenged our knowledge of the program. The first new feature we had to understand was adding titles which was really simple as all we

had to do was go into the text option, add text and input what we wanted it to read. However, we encountered problems with the titles as the chosen typography wasn't appearing in our

sequence and no matter how many times we changed it back once converted the typography would still be missing. In order to overcome this we seeked help and informed ourselves more

about titles which then encouraged us to remove all the titles and try again and this time they all worked properly. 

These programmed impacted our sequence dramatically as they allowed the editing process to be done as quickly as possible, due to us being able to remove and add whatever we

pleased, which aided us as we had to re-shoot a lot of our footage. This knowledge of all the digital technology was very helpful as it allowed us to make our sequence as acceptable as

we could in the time given and it will help us in the future if we decide to develop our sequence further.

Looking back at your primarily task , what do you feel you have learned in the progression

from it to a full product?Throughout the course I have learned how challenging it is to produce a title sequence and that it to difficult to combine a

whole groups idea's to become a single design. From the planning stage the whole group had a range of idea's which made it difficult to actually finalize a solid idea as there was to much to input into our sequence which made it seem unrealistic

and past our level of knowledge. This is were team work came into our production as without it we wouldn't of had a sequence to submit. We realized we all needed to work together to create something more simplistic which would provide

the same outcome and in the long run would be more appropriate for our target audience which we managed to do. Making our target audience the main priority was also essential for producing our title sequence as everything we included we had to ask ourselves if it was appropriate and appealing for our target audience. We also made sure this was the first

area we researched into otherwise our ideas would of gone astray as we wouldn't have anything to build up our ideas around. With this mind set we managed to insert shots which would attract and provoke a positive reaction for our target

audience. We also had to consider what was already on the market that our target audience enjoyed which is why we ensured we had done plenty of analysis on existing title sequences. 

I have also learned to importance of knowing the codes and conventions of our chosen genre, action and comedy, and I am relieved that we informed ourselves on this at the start of our production otherwise our title sequence would of been completely dysfunctional and lack one of the main aspects of any title sequence, to introduce the genre. 

As our main purpose of our sequence was to entertain our audience our continuity sequence aided us dramatically as we all produced comedy pieces. This knowledge allowed us to show comedy through the mise-en-scene to provoke laughter

from the audience as our protagonist was acting comedic. Without this previous knowledge we would of struggled to portray comedy in our sequence as we didn't have the right mind set on how this could be done in way which would appeal

to a younger audience.

As a whole, the process of creating a title sequence has allowed me to gain both skills and knowledge in production. I have learned how to use final cut pro properly to turn our ideas into a visual representation and I have also learned how to

successfully research into a target audience and genre to prepare for our own creation. It has also become apparent that during this process we have learned how to Incorporate our knowledge into our ideas and also how everyone's roles are

significant to constructing a title sequence as the best way to get things done properly is to work together. Since our final production consisted of new footage we had recently shot we have learned that in order to improve our sequence we need

everything to look realistic and simple rather than over thinking the footage and trying to incorporate aspects of the narrative which would just confuse children of a young age; Because of this new footage it has enabled our title sequence

to be more genre specific as it has more codes and conventions of action and comedy than our previous sequence.