Barbie and Ken research

Barbie is one of the most iconic childhood toys for little girls. It was originally launched in 1959 by Mattel Inc.
The Barbie doll has become so iconic that she even has her own fictional background story. There were numerous books written about her in the 1960's giving her an in depth life. Her real name is Barbara Roberts from Wisconsin. She had an on/off relationship with Ken Carson since 1961, however, they broke up in 2004 and during this time Barbie became very close with an Australian surfer called Blaine. In 2006 there were reports that Barbie and Ken were hoping to rekindle their relationship after Ken had a makeover.
Barbie has had many different careers; she has a pilots license and has also been a flight attendant, astronaut, doctor and a Nascar driver.



The original Barbie Doll in 1959

Original Barbie and Ken

There have been many controversies when it comes to Barbie; many activist groups have been against giving their children Barbie dolls as they believe she gives off the wrong body image for young girls. If you use Barbies proportions for a real person then it would not be physically possible. Her hips would not be able to support her body.
Many feel that Barbie dolls should be held to a higher standard than other dolls as children may view her as a role model and try to emulate her.
Another is that in 1963 a Barbie Babysits was released which featured a book called "How to Lose Weight" where the only tip was "Don't Eat", this caused outrage among parents as they saw this as promoting anorexia among young girls.
In 2003 Saudi Arabia outlawed the sale of Barbies, as she did not conform with the ideals of Islam due to the nature of her clothes. Stating "Jewish Barbie dolls, with their revealing clothes and shameful postures, accessories and tools are a symbol of decadence to the perverted West."
In 2005 research was published suggesting girls often go through a stage where they hate their Barbies and subject then to different punishments, such as decapitation and placing the doll in the microwave.

Totally Tattoos Barbie was released in 2009, a range of tattoos which could be applied to the doll, one of which included a lower back tattoo which led to controversy as many felt this could lead to children wanting to get tattoos.

In 2010 "Toy Story 3" came out and Barbie and Ken were reunited once again at Sunnyside Daycare Centre

Film Poster Ideas

My idea for my poster was of a girl who looks like Barbie reading the Barbie annual. I want it to look like a Romantic Comedy film poster when it won't actually be. Below is the poster for "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason". For my poster I want the girl to have a similar face to that of Bridget, although part of it would be obscured by the Barbie annual.

I want the poster to come across as a Romantic Comedy-esque film when in fact the plot line is that Barbie turns to alcohol and smoking.
There have been many Barbie films; however, none like the one I am planning on making. Below is one of the posters of Barbie, I want to have mine slightly like this with the classic Barbie pink writing with a pretty blonde girl; however, instead of it being a doll it would be a real person. She will look like Barbie with long blonde hair all made up with lots of make up.

Another poster idea I have also had is one of a strung out real life Barbie looking run down and tired with bags under her eyes maybe smoking a cigarette, hair all messed up with no make up whatsoever. As you can see below in the poster for the film "Young Adult" it shows Charlize Theron kind of messed up and not all prim and put together like most film posters. She looks slightly hungover and I'd like that sort of feel to be emulated in my film poster as well. I also have a screen shot of Lizzy Caplan from the film "Bachelorette" below, she is the sort of character who I want the post break up Barbie to look like, she does drugs, smokes and drinks too much, her life hasn't turned out how she thought it would and isn't going anywhere career wise. Just how Barbie will be when she finds out her husband is cheating on her.



Recreation of a short film - "My Beast Friend"

In groups we were given the task of recreating a short film, our group chose to do the short "My Beast Friend" as seen below. This short was part of a scheme for BBC Scotland for training purposes, the only criteria was that producers and directors had never working in those roles for the drama department before. Thus making it a new experience for those working and training them by making a short film before a TV show or feature length.

Characters

There are 3 characters in this film; Fluff the cat, Ed and Amelia.
Fluff - Fluff is a cat owned by Ed, in Ed's eyes he sees Fluff as a man in a cat suit whom he has conversations with.
Ed - Ed is Fluff's owner whom is trying to get rid of and tries to convince Fluff that he is going to a magical place called "Pleasureland"
Amelia - Amelia is Ed's girlfriend, when she meets Fluff she instantly falls in love, and she shes Fluff as an actual cat rather than a man in a cat's suit which Ed sees him as.

Plot

The plot of this short is that Ed is packing some things away to get rid of, there is a man in a man in a cat suit who is reading a label around his neck, reading free to a good home. When the cat asks what's going on he accusses Ed that he's doing this because of his new girlfriend Amelia, although he calls her Ameba. Ed then tells Fluff that he is going to a wonderful, magical place called Pleasureland. This impresses Fluff and he begins to like this idea. There is then a knock on the door and Amelia comes in and sees Fluff, reads the tag around his neck and picks Fluff up saying that she would be his "new mummy" and starts stroking him. Fluff then realises what was actually happening and calls Ed something but is cut off before he can finish.

Script for "My Beast Friend"

INT HOUSE - DAY
Man with box walks into the shot,

FLUFF - Pl-pleease - Ed, tell me what's going on right now or I'm going to sick up all of yesterday's Tuna (sick noise). Oh no it's that girl isn't it, Ameba. You're mad she's way out of your league!

ED - This has nothing to do with Amelia I just, I just wanted to sort my life out get rid of the dead wood, so I thought I'd take you to this great fun place just for cats, just until I finish tidying up. It's called Pleasureland.

FLUFF - Pleasureland. Sweet. Not before time.

DOORBELL

ED - No, it's only...

AMELIA - I'm so sorry Ed, I know I'm super early! Oh my God, who's this?

ED - That's er Fluff

AMELIA - "Free to good home", some monster actually abandoned this sweet little creature? Well Fluff I guess that makes me your new mummy now

FLUFF - You lying c.......

Location

For the locations for our recreation, we were first going to use a bungalow situated at our school however, this did not suit our film and we decided to film at one of our groups house instead.

Stop Motion Trial

As my idea for the final film is mostly going to be in stop motion with Barbies, I decided to do a trial run to see how long it will take to actually to make a 5 minute film. I used Polly Pockets for the trial and did 3 different scenarios to see how hard it would be to do a story moving a doll and taking numerous stills and putting them together to create a short film. The first was of a doll sitting on a bed and then slowly moving to stand up. The second was of another doll sitting on a chair moving her head looking around and then getting up and walking towards the bed. The final trial was of a dog in its kennel and then moving around, stretching and sitting down. This took me about 20 minutes to make and shoot, the video lasts 18 seconds. I know the whole film will take much longer and I will need to prepare more for this however, I feel that I am up to the challenge and if I work hard enough it will work.

What is a short film?

A short film can be considered to be a film that is not long enough to be classed as being a feature length film. Short films have no constraints, they can be of any genre, any length so long as it is not long enough to become a feature film they can last between a minute to 45 minutes or more. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes of less, including all credits". However, many short films don't last that long, such as; "Get off My Land", "My Beast Friend" and "The Crush" which are all less than 40 minutes.

Many production companies that produce feature length films have made shorts such as Pixar, whom have made a number of short films and they even started off making short films before they ventured into making feature length films such as "Toy Story". Below is the first Pixar short film, it clearly has a beginning, middle and end although it is only just over 2 minutes long. Since this was released in 1986 Pixar have made numerous shorts along with feature length films.

 

 

There are many difficulties in telling a story in such a short period of time, there is a risk of making the plot too complicated so you won't be able to explain everything within the short amount of time you have. However, you can also leave the film on a cliffhanger making the audience think about what they saw. Or like many short films I have researched you can do a short comedy, where everything is resolved or sometimes not. This can be seen in the "Get off My Land" short, this has a clear beginning, a couple taking a walk in the countryside, a middle, they get into an altercation with the farmer about the public footpath, and an end, the farmer shoots both of them then realises that they were in fact on the public footpath. 

Short Film Ideas - Barbie and Ken

One of my ideas for a short film is a mockumentary about Barbie and Ken. I had this idea when I was babysitting, the little girl I babysit for was playing with a Barbie and was plotting out her life through the Barbie doll. I then had the idea of a doing a short film about the lives of Barbie and Ken.

I plan to do a stop motion film with Barbie and Ken dolls, Barbie meets Ken, they fall in love, Barbie gets pregnant, they get married, they are a happy family until Barbie finds out Ken is leaving her for Cindy. This sends Barbie into a deep depression causing her to start smoking and drinking.
Once I have done the stop motion then I want to a real life girl who looks exactly like Barbie and someone who has used these Barbie dolls to act out a situation in a way she would understand. This provides a  warning for her that this could happen to her.

I also had the idea that the stop motion Barbie could turn herself around and become a career woman who doesn't need a man and she could provide for her family without one - the stereotypical storyline for all Romantic Comedies where the man cheats on the female lead. However, in this version she doesn't find another man to replace Ken - she makes it on her own without anyone.

I know this could be quite hard to do as the majority of the film would be in stop motion and this would take a large amount of time to do. However, I feel that I could accomplish this if I make time to do it.

Short Film Ideas - Penny

Another rough short film idea I had was a film about a penny. Following a penny or another inanimate object for a day through different scenarios it gets itself into. For instance the penny travelling round the streets of London, being kicked by different people rolling into the street but narrowly missing getting run over by a car. Following it's journey, then at the end once it's finished rolling it gets picked up by someone, maybe a child and they give it to a homeless man. The moral of the story is that no matter how small something is, or worthless to some people it may have meaning or worth to others. Then at the end of the film as the child drops the penny into the homeless man's cup he looks up and smiles as although many would have left the penny or kept it to themselves, giving it to the homeless man made his day even though it is not much, it is something.

Barbie and Ken - Plot and Responses

The main plot line for my short film is how Barbie and Ken meet, they fall in love, have a baby get married and are supposed to live happily but Barbie finds out Ken cheated on her with Cindy, so she turns to drink and smoking and her life goes downhill. She becomes really strung out and tired and goes down a downward spiral. You then zoom out to see that it is actually people playing with Barbie and Ken dolls, with a real life person who looks exactly like the real life Barbie. They are trying to explain to her what her life may end up like if she doesn't get a proper education and skates through life of her looks.

I pitched my idea to my class and they all commented on it asking different questions about my idea.
There different questions were;
1. Do you mind that the stop motion would be a bit unclear?
2. Do you think you have enough time as it's a lengthy process?
3. How do you plan to get the Barbie and Ken dolls to stand up on their own?
4. Have you thought about how long it will take?
5. Have you thought of the character that's going to play the real life Barbie lookalike, do you have a suitable actor?
6. Are you going to use a tripod for the real film?
7. Have you thought about whether you want to include dialogue, narration, or simply just music?
8. Are you going to use the same Barbie and Ken dolls, or ones from different ranges?
9. How are you going to do the baby?
10. Do you plan to work on the technique of stop-motion production to make it the best it can be?
11. Have you thought about what setting you are going to use for the stop motion?
12. Are you going to build the set yourself?
13. Will you be able to find an actor who looks like the doll?
14. Have you given some thought to the kind of music you might use to emphasise the emotions of the doll more?

Genre research into short films - mockumentary

When researching short films I've been trying to decide upon a genre for my short film. I'd quite like to do a mockumentary I find they are one of the most amusing genres for short films if done well.
One of these in particular was "The Crusader" as seen below

This is about a man who believes that he is Batman and he is trying to sue Warner Bros. for misrepresentation.

Character Profile

Name - Rodrigo Sanchez
Gender - Male
Age - 29 Years old
Height - 5ft 9"
Build - Muscular
Hair colour - Brown
Eye colour - Blue
Right or left-handed - Left handed
Rodrigo has a slight limp as he broke his leg playing American football in High School
He used to smoke but quit 6 months ago, he wears a nicotine patch on his left shoulder.
He speaks with a strong American accent, he used to swear a lot but since he got an apprentice, his nephew, whom is a young boy he tries not to swear as much. He lives with his sister and her 7 year old son. He used to have a string of girlfriends but then settled down with Gabrielle and they were together for 4 years, until she was stabbed to death. Following her death he moved in with his sister and her son. He lives in Pasadena, California in a small bungalow.  Rodrigo works as a landscaper in California, he owns his own small business his nephew helps him out part time. His parent both died in a car accident, he and his sister were in the car also although they only suffered minor injuries. His sister and nephew are his only surviving family.
He never went to college but wants his nephew to have the education he never had and pours all the extra money that he has from his business into a college fund for him. Rodrigo is of Mexican decent, both his parents were from Mexico but they moved to America before he was born. He likes to stay by himself most of the time ever since his girlfriend was killed. When he does have spare time and doesn't keep to himself he tries to help his nephew with his homework. He likes listening to old rock and roll music, his favourite band is Status Quo.  He doesn't like to get too close to people in fear of getting hurt again, he hasn't been the same since the murder of his girlfriend.