Christmas film tasks, unit 4

 Task 1

Family Christmas film: Family Christmas films can be hard to pull off properly due to the fact that they have to appeal to and entertain people of all ages. Because of this, slapstick humour is seen very often in them, language is clean, colours are bright and plots are usually cartoonishly over the top, heart-warming or a blend of both. The plot should revolve around Christmas and the film should be very obviously set around Christmas time. These films often follow a basic 'story mountain' plot structure, some would argue that their predictability is part of what makes them comforting as they are not too challenging and can serve as pleasant background noise over the lazy holiday season. 'Elf' is a good example of a family Christmas film as it has appeal for people of all ages, a simple story that you can tune in and out of as you please and is heavily reliant on Christmas as a plot device. The colours are bright and the character of 'Buddy' is boisterous and whimsical in true Christmas film fashion.

Questionable Christmas film: Questionable Christmas films cover a broad spectrum, films such as 'Gremlins' to films like 'Die Hard' and 'Batman Returns' all fit this category. These films tend to rather be set at Christmas rather than be about Christmas itself, the holidays are usually unimportant to the plot. Sometimes, but not always, questionable Christmas films are aimed at a more mature audience and have a bit more of a complicated plot than the family Christmas films due to children not always being a part of the target audience.   

Hallmark Christmas film: Hallmark Christmas films are what most people think of when they think 'Christmas film'. Light hearted, comical and easy to follow. These films are essentially designed to be easy to dip in and out of  and be used as background noise over the holidays for the family. The narrative structure is almost always simple for this reason. These films are very formulaic and stick to the same tropes as they are all made by the Hallmark Company. Some examples of this type of film are 'A Christmas Detour', 'A Princess for Christmas' and 'Mrs Miracle'.

While these films are very different, all of them are still considered Christmas films. This is because they are all set at Christmas time, this is explicitly stated by at least one character, it is somehow involved in the plot but the involvement can vary depending on the genre. For example, 'Batman Returns' is a Christmas film as it is set at Christmas and this is somewhat involved in the plot but to the degree that it would be classed as a Questionable Christmas film. 

'Batman Returns'

As you can see, Christmas is incorporated into this shot heavily with an establishing shot of a large Christmas tree. However, the colour grading and gothic set design add to its questionability.

'Batman Returns'

The character designs are also highly unconventional for a Christmas film, and while the colour grading of the above poster doesn't explicitly look Christmassy, there is definitely a winter element in the blue hues. Cold lighting is very unusual for a Christmas film as warm lighting creates a comforting and happy feeling that hallmark and family Christmas movies try so hard to create, hence why a lot of shots in those films look almost orangey. 'Batman Returns' makes for a great questionable Christmas film as it avoids most Christmas tropes while still being explicitly set at Christmas and incorporates the holiday into the film's overall design but with a gothic twist.

'Jingle All The Way'

'Jingle All The Way' is a brilliant example of a family Christmas film, from just the poster you can see the warm tone of lighting, a Christmas tree letting you know that Christmas is integral to the plot, a child with a toy and a universally recognisable star pulling a funny face dressed in very 'normal' clothing and a Christmas themed title.

While these two films seem very, very different, they are both still Christmas films for the reasons listed above.  

Pre-Production/ Production 

My team were tasked with creating a Hallmark Christmas film, after a lot of brainstorming we settled on creating a script where a Christmas-loving man shows a group of unruly punks what Christmas is truly about. After much deliberation, we settled on the title 'There Ain't No Santy Claus', named after the Damned song by the same name. My main contribution to this film was writing the script. Originally, I was going to direct as well but this proved to be too overwhelming with my lack of experience at the time. 

Devising the story was easy as it follows most straight-forward hallmark tropes, picking locations was also easy, as was casting. It seemed as though everything was running smoothly as we managed all of these steps very quickly, when it came to actually shooting though things began to fall apart. Getting the whole cast together was our major issues as all of them had other commitments to other films, the Wizard of Oz or both. This left us with virtually no time to shoot and everybody we needed was never able at the same time. Because of this, our film wasn't complete until after the deadline and we had to ask for an extension. I hope to avoid this happening again in future and will make sure I can get actors who will be committed to filming. Through this process I have learnt to not just cast any willing actor but those who know how to manage their time and will commit themselves. I also need to have confidence in my own abilities as I feel the vision I had for the film was not realised due to me not directing it and I am unhappy with the final product as a result.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7m85o 

The link to our film.