Our group's film entitled the Guitarist’s way (2010) uses forms and conventions from real media products such as The School of Rock (2003) in that camera shots and angles used are not dissimilar in both film’s performance scenes, showing close ups midshots and establishing shots from various angles without distracting the audience from the music that they are hearing. The music that appears in both films is not dissimilar either for example both films incorporate loud rock music to drive their characters forward. Comparing the films in terms of mise en scene both films include scenes showing guitarists playing on stages and both show struggling artists apartments/rooms. We tried to incorporate both the success that a guitarist can get from both school of rock and also the youthful aspect of it by showing what Steven was like playing guitar as a child. We did this because we thought the audience would sympathize with him more than they would otherwise, because they would’ve seen what background he was coming from.
The technical aspects that the group explored included editing techniques like a rewind effect from a video camera used in the film, an animated credits sequence showing everyone who was involved in making this media project and a tracking shot across the top floor of the theatre we were using to perform, although the group explored these aspects we were not able to implement them fully into the final film due to technical and time limitations, for example the rewind effect had to be cut from the film because the software we were using did not have it as an available scene transition option, instead we as a group decided to use quick cuts between the three scenes that would’ve used this effect but keep the intended scenes within the film, although this does not produce the same effect we were satisfied that it didn’t distract the audience from the plotline of the film. Another of the aspects that were not included because of limitations was the animated credits sequence, originally the idea was to have credits appear over the guitarist’s performance scene but to appear as part of the opening scene as signs. However the idea soon changed as it would’ve been too difficult and time consuming as well as the software limitations to implement fully, we changed our idea so that credits would appear on some music book pages as writing when the main character flicked through his music book. This I believe was an altogether better idea, perhaps not as technical but it showed a guitarist’s music book which in the context of the film I think it suited it better. The final technical aspect that wasn’t included was an establishing shot at the start of the performance scene that was going to be a tracking shot that would go across the theatre area showing the audience a crowds eye view of what was happening. We filmed the tracking shot as planned but later in the editing stages as a group we noticed that within the tracking shot however steady the cameraman held the camera there was quite a lot of screen shaking. Whilst we felt that the camera shaking may have been good as it would’ve shown the ordinary chaos and anarchy oh a rock concert we felt that it wasn’t very good viewing material as the audience wouldn’t have liked watching the movie if the camera seemed to be darting about. Instead of the above we decided to exclude the tracking shot and reshoot using various camera angles.
An aspect that we had to cut out of the film was the full performance scene, with all of the recording that we did we had roughly 6 minutes of performance footage that we had to condense into just over 1 minute, as the guitarist in the group I found this part difficult because I wanted to keep the best parts but also I wanted it to flow almost like no editing had been done at all to give the most realistic performance, and although ideally I would’ve wanted to keep all of the footage in the film I think a very good job was done in editing by the whole group who offered suggestions for what to keep and what to delete.
The Guitarist’s way also challenges its genre as it’s not an all out comedy like Dogma (1999) that has laughter and jokes at every turn, The Guitarists way also has its dramatic moments where the audience can see how the Guitarist Steven’s (Stephen Wilcockson) life begins to collapse before he finds the website YouTube. Whilst these dramatic moments are normally associated with more serious drama I believe this film is still a comedy. Other comedies have dramatic moments as seen with the comparison to school of rock here:
Guitarists are represented in a positive way in the film The Guitarist’s way; it shows that with gritted teeth and determination they can achive whatever they set out to do. Whilst initially guitarists are represented in a stereotypical sense in that the main character is overconfident and arrogant about his abilities, through the film that stereotype is slowly removed and the audience sees a more in depth version of the main character, through the choices he makes, the people he knows and his actions towards them.
As this media institution distributed this film’s main inspiration, The School of Rock (2003) I believe Paramount would distribute The Guitarist’s way (2010) as the films have similar references and plotlines.
I believe the film the Guitarist’s way (2010) would be given the certificate 12A due to its content not being offensive and its limited amount of mild language heard within the film. Giving the film a 12A certificate also allows it to be seen by anybody which from the start was something that the production team wanted and tailored the film for. Advertising for the film would take place using both the usual TV advertisements using trailers and an online viral marketing campaign hosted on a YouTube profile where guitarists can upload video responses to the trailers showing their guitar performance YouTube profiles, the goal being to find the greatest guitarist in the world. This will attract artists from around the world to see the film but also will advertise individual artists on YouTube that may just as in the film gain success from their YouTube profiles.
Through this project I have looked in detail at media technologies and how they influence the production and creation of real media products and have applied these technologies to the production of the film The Guitarist’s way as best I could with the resources that were available. These media technologies include HD cameras, video editing software and high quality DVD burning these technologies give the best quality in both video and audio giving The Guitarist’s Way the best possible experience for its audience.
The guitar playing within the film was heavily influenced by a few of my own favourite guitarists and performers including Jordan Bracewell and Kyle Gass. The guitar Car start/Gear change solo was based heavily on Jordan Bracewell’s performance in Vampires rock when he played the “blood solo”.
Also later in the solo my technique flipping quickly from one fret to another was similar to the solo played by Kyle Gass in the movie the pick of destiny (2005) during the band Tenacious D’s performance in the dream sequence that Jack Black has.
As seen in the above pictures the playing style I tried to include was very similar to both Jordan Bracewell and Kyle Gass.
