Main Post: 12.7 Question 7

What do you feel you have learnt in the progression from your preliminary to the full product?

FIRSTLY 
1) In our preliminary task our film started with a black screen 
with white writing which was clear. However, there was no excitement about this. In our main task our film opens with a soundtrack. We watched our preliminary back in the early stages and realized that it is common

 for a opening sequence to have a soundtrack. Although 'The Tourist' wasn't an opening sequence we still felt that in our main task we should have a soundtrack.The soundtrack added to our opening of 'The Morning After and made it more exciting and upbeat. It also linked to the typical conventions of an opening sequence. 

SECONDLY
 2) In our preliminary the our use of panning wasn't very effective. Our camera man struggled with steadily moving the camera along with the male walking, this showed in our preliminary final outcome. 

We knew this was an aspect we wanted to use in order to appreciate the party atmosphere. Our panning was improved in our final outcome as the camera work was done by Georgia and she was able to smoothly move it allowing it to look more professional and not appear 'jolty'.

THIRDLY 

3) Lastly, another thing we improved from the Preliminary task to the main was the use of Jump cuts. In our preliminary task our use of jump cuts wasn't as effective as it could have been. We used large jump cuts which disturbed the sense of a continuity shot. 

We kept this in mind when working towards our final outcome, we used smaller cuts which allowed a sense of continuity and made the frame look visually interesting. It worked better than in the preliminary task alongside a soundtrack to create the sense of a party atmosphere and a clever editing technique to match!

Main Post: 12.6 Question 6

Below, I have made a mood board of all the different products I used to assist me and my group in working towards our blog and to produce our final outcome. 

What I have learnt:

Prezzi: Through 'Prezzi' I learnt how to create a visually interesting slide show and embed it on to my blogger profile. I feel that this has benefited the appearance of my blog as it creates variation from typing or using power point. 

YouTube: I learnt to use 'YouTube' on blogger to embed video's rather than just links. This improved the appearance of my blog and made it easier for people looking on my blog to watch the videos. 

Blogger: When I first started using blogger I did not feel very confident. After getting used to it and continuing to use it Blogger has benefited me to keep all my work organised and updated as well as tracking towards my final outcome.

Wikipedia: Wikipedia helped me towards my final outcome in researching words or definitions I was unsure of and acting as an aid. 

Google: Google has benefited my in gathering pictures to support comments I have written on my blog and improving the overall appearance. 

Powerpoint: Occasionally I found it easier to use Power Point rather than Word to keep all my information organised on different slides. 

Microsoft Word: Word benefited me as I was able to use different tools on Word such as making tables. 

Main Post: 12.5 Question 5

Ways we attract our audience:

• Through the use of a soundtrack - to appeal to our audience, they would be interested in the music as it is young and fresh

Our audience would be attracted through happy actors. It is an audience pleasure to have escapism, people being happy in a clip would be more appealing than people being sad and moody. 

Particularly male audiences would be interested in activities such as dart boards. They would be able to relate to this and the mise en scen would interest them. 

In order to get audience feedback we asked different members of our media class as well as different people that go to our school. 

We originally said our target audience would be 15-20+ year olds. Therefore it would be appropriate for our rating by the BBFC to be for 15 year olds being the minimal age. 

Main Post: 12.4 Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

We set our questionnaires out to 16 and 17 year old male and females in our class to begin with. Due to the overall favour of film genre being Action Comedy it would be common that both female and males enjoy films of this genre. Our target audience would primarily be 15 year old to people in their 20s, we feel our film would appeal to them as in ways it would reflect their lifestyle. For example, people similar age to them having fun with their friends. Our film may allow them to have audience pleasure, they may see aspects of themselves in some of the characters which may make them become engaged in the film and want to keep watching it and even hope for a sequel of the film. 

Typical Members of our Target Audience: 

Would be a similar audience to those who watch programs such as 'Friends', or enjoy films such as 'The Hangover', '21 Jump Street', 'Hot Fuzz'.

In order to gather information about a typical member of our Target Audience I spoke to two of my friends of opposite sexes who enjoy similar films:

Favorite Films: John Tucker Must Die, 21 Jump Street, Project X, No Strings Attatched, This Means War

Hobbies: Going out, Being with friends. 

"After hearing about your film it really appealed to me as it seemed like the type of film I would be interested in. I like films that are funny like 21 Jump Street and Project X are two of my favorite films."

Favorite Films: Jurassic Park, The Hangover, The Other Guys 

Hobbies: Playing rugby, Paint balling and being with Friends

"I've always been interested in funny films that have action in them. I mostly watch that type of genre as I find it easy to watch. After watching your opening sequence I felt like I wanted to watch more of the film and find out about how the rest of the night went! It looks awesome"

Main Post: 12.3 Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

In order to distribute our media product it would be an idea to converge with another company in order to make our film known. For example, 'Working Title' films who are British Film distributors based in London but are owned by Universal Studios. Joining with 'Working Title' would allow for our film to become known by others due to the fact that Universal is such a well known, top end, film company which produces such a large range of Hollywood Blockbusters!

As well as distribution with 'Working Title' we would also consider other factors whilst distributing. For example, we would work with social networking sites such as 'Twitter'. This would allow for our film to become known through a promoted trending topic. We would hope that 'Working Title' and 'Twitter' would benefit us through word of mouth as a lot of people would be able to view our film through Universal. Positive word of mouth would benefit us in the long run. The media institution would not be the only aid, we would also produce our own website of the film which had 'clips' of the making of the movie, games and other ways to interact allowing our audience to become utterly interested and excited for the film. We would also join with companies similar to what James Bond - Skyfall did with Heineken beer and do competitions to raise more money for distribution. 

We would feel confident with Working Title distributing our media product because they are well known and have produced many well known films such as:

• Bridget Jones
• Love Actually
• Four Weddings and a Funeral
• Thunderbirds
• Definitely Maybe
• Johnny English
• Billy Elliott

To name a few! I think that this institution might distribute our product because they are keen on allowing British films to become well known and be successful. 

Main Post: 12.2 Question 2

One of the characters in our film is Danny. Danny can be seen on the left to be wearing a rabbit onesie. Danny takes on the typical role of the joker/class clown figure in our film. We feel an audience would find this character a like-able one as audiences

could emphathise with him and find him humorous. Our media product represents their social groups as Danny can be seen as a 'Lad' who is willing to embarrass himself and make a fool of himself similar to Alan. We would picture the character of Danny to come out with witty 'one-liners' in our film.

The character of Georgia (female on the furthest left) is wearing a black skirt, white top and a necklace. Georgia can be known to take pride in her appearance. She is the girl hosting the party to gain popularity, people like her when they meet her she's just not overly well known!

Georgia can be known to be similar to Lindsay Lohan in the film 'Mean Girls'. This is evident as Linsday Lohan joins a new school and makes friends easily and shortly after gains popularity. They are similar in this sense. Audiences can relate to the character of Georgia in our film as she is intended to be the lead character who is throwing the party. 

Main Post: 12.1 Question 1

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

In our opening sequence we tried to do all three.

To begin with, the product uses typical forms and conventions of real media products through the structure of the sequence. With the use of typical conventions such as credits, clear style and font which allows writing to be legible, the use of different camera angles and characterization.

Our opening sequence may develop forms and conventions of real media products through a larger range of editing techniques. For example, after watching the opening sequence of 'The Hangover' they commonly used 'shot reverse shot', we used 'jump cuts' and a range of other shots to create a different perspective and make our opening sequence appear more visually interesting.

It may be evident that we challenged forms of conventions of real media products as well. Due to introduction of actors and the different times of day in the few minutes of the opening. We became inspired for the audience to know what the rest of the film would be like from the comedy aspect of 'The Hangover'. 

It would be most appropriate that we tried to use the forms and conventions to the highest level to ensure our opening sequence seemed like a real film. 

Post 12a: Evaluation - Audience Feedback

Post 11: Final Opening Sequence

Below is our final opening sequence for 'The Morning After'

Main Post 10: Post Production

Above is our unedited clip of our opening sequence 'The Morning After'. The unedited film was straight off the camera but the new clip will also have a soundtrack playing as they walk in. We have trimmed the clip as it was too long and dragged on making it boring, the trimming was done to the start of the clip as the lead up wasn't very interesting. 

When it came to filming our group came across the problem of people not being willing to act, some people were conscious! This meant that we had to create the 'party atmosphere' with tighter shots and using smaller spaces to make it look like it was more full. We felt that the filming went relatively well, we managed to get all the necessary shots we needed to create the build up to the death as well as creating the main story line which led to the climax. 

Main Post 9: Production

At the start of the project our chosen film genre was primarily influenced by the questionnaires we made and sent out. Due to the fact that we are a group of 2 boys and 2 girls we felt that the final outcome would work for us. Action Comedy allowed us to find a balance between the action that the boys would be more interested in and allowed us females to become interested with the comedy aspect. We felt that this would benefit us in the long run if we were all happy with the genre that we based our film on. 

After sending out questionnaires we felt that it was important to investigate on our chosen genre. We watched opening sequences of films such as The Hangover, clips of Project X, Hot Fuzz and 21 Jump Street. After watching the opening sequences we became aware of the factors needed to attract an audience to a film. The Hangover demonstrated a comedy factor in the opening sequence, following typical conventions such as opening titles and names of the cast and crew. The Hangover seems exciting with the choice of location and the well known actors which create a buzz. We knew that we wouldn't be able to have well known actors but we knew we could have actors that the audience could recognize and connect to in different ways. 

Although we knew what our film was going to be like we faced difficulties when it came to actually filming our film, we came across issues such as the following

• Finding moments to film - we decided we wanted to film at someones house to have the party atmosphere. This led us to come across complications as we had to find transport to the house along with being organised with all of our filming equipment!
• Ensuring we had 'extras' to be in our film - because we were creating the party atmosphere we needed actors who wouldn't necessarily talk but would be in the background and appear as though they were having a good time. 
• Having to re film - we had to re film a couple of times. After filming and watching our footage back we felt unsatisfied with editing it and decided it would benefit us in the long run to re film. We made silly errors such as cutting actors out of the frame. 

Main Post 8: Pre Production Documentation

Above I have used Prezzi to show the different elements working towards our film.

The Hangover seems exciting with the choice of location and the well known actors which create a buzz. We knew that we wouldn't be able to have well known actors but we knew we could have actors that the audieTowards our opening sequence we have considered some Mise En Scen plans which could contribute to the overall outcome. To begin with, we feel that the use of a pool table and darts board would add to the atmosphere creating a party feel. We would also like to use low key lighting in moments to create the sense that it is night time like a typical party. We have also planned for people to have bottles lying around add to our planned atmosphere.

Plans for Mise En Scen              

We considered factors of Mise En Scen which could improve the overall party feel in our opening sequence. We decided that the use of a pool table and darts board would create a fun effect and increase the party feel. We also decided that bottles surrounded by the table would increase the party atmosphere. We filmed at night time which meant there was low key lighting which is common at parties and events. We hope these factors will contribute to the atmosphere of the party. 

Below is a list of our different shots and description of it. 

Main Post 7: Focus Group

We got a group of people together that would fit the age of our target audience. We had a few people who are both male and female in order to do this. We read told them our synopsis to our opening sequence which was the following:

"Our film forms in a similar style to project X. Based on an unpopular female planning a party in order to gain popularity. What seems like the party of the year, with people having fun and doing wreck less things it's not until the next morning that the unexpected happens. The morning results in an unexpected death..."

THEIR RESPONSES

"I think the film sounds like it would really appeal to me. I am a fan of the film Project X I think the way that film is made is fun and action packed. 'The Morning After' seems as though it would be similar and even the death at the end makes it seem mysterious like something crazy happened"

"I think the same, I like the sound of the film being a party and similar to the Hangover in the way they have to try and trace their footsteps in how the death happened"

"It would be cool if there was a lot of different shots as well to create the action and speed up the pace of the party atmosphere"

Main Post 6: History of your Chosen Genre

An action film is commonly known as a genre involving heroes who are thrown in to challenges which require fight scenes and commonly super powers. There is commonly an antagonist taking the role of an evil villain alongside a protagonist Hero rescuing a damsel in distress. Hollywood have been making more action films than ever due to advancements of CGI effects. The genre is closely linked with thriller and adventure film genres and may sometimes include elements of spy fiction. 

In the 1940s and 1950s action films came in the form of war and cowboy films. Alfred Hitchcock brought in the spy-adventure genre, with films like ‘north by northwest’ and ‘the guns of navarone’. These films also directly inspired producers Albert R. Brococcli and Harry Saltzman to invest in their own spy films based on the novels of Ian Fleming.

James Bond as a successful series, easily dominating the action films of the 1960s, essentially introducing all the staples of the modern-day action films. The bond films were characterized as having a larger than life character, such as the imaginative hero or the one-man army. 

Sub genres of Action Adventure may include:

Action Comedy, Action Horror, Disaster Film, Martial Arts, Sci-Fi Action, Spy Film, Super Hero. 

We have chosen the Action Comedy element specifically. 

Main Post 5: Analysis of an Opening Sequence

I looked at the typical conventions of an opening sequence such as the Hangover. The Hangover had the typical conventions of an opening sequence: credits, director names, a range of different shots, soundtrack and moments of dialogue. The title was clear at 2.03 with a plain background with red writing allowing it to stand out clearly and catch the audience's attention. It was also written in capitals. 

Main Post 4: Group Meeting

In order to discuss our plans for our film we held a group meeting, discussing the different things we wanted to include in our film. Another thing we agreed we wanted to do was clearly show a genre through our opening sequence.

From our research we decided it would be appropriate to do an action film. As a group we decided that our action film shouldn't be the typical car chase or fight scene style film. We sat together and brainstormed different ideas of types of films that we could relate with and link with comedy which was voted highly in our questionnaire. We decided we wanted to link comedy with action as they clearly appeal to audiences according to our research and it is crucial for film industries to appeal to audiences so we felt we should think the same.

We came to the idea of our film being based around a huge party. The idea was based around teenage girls who decide to throw the party when one of the girls parents is away in order to gain popularity. As the night continues what was fun and games turns in to an out of control party. With the following of death and missing  people to realise the next morning what happened that crazy night.

Main Post 3: Research into Opening Sequence Designs

Below are two clips of Kyle Cooper interviews that I watched in order to inspire me to fully understand what makes a successful opening sequence design.

 

 

Ways in which the interview may affect our designs:

 

After watching the video clips I realised how important the font is in the title sequence. The font should be in the style of the film and linked to the video being shown. It will be important to make sure that the font stands out and allows the title to be clear for an audience to appreciate. The font also needs to be in a readable form so that the audience does not find themselves become strained to try and read the writing. Experimenting with different materials rather than just using different digital effects can create a more interesting title sequence. It could appeal to audiences as it appears more visually interesting and unique with the use of different materials that stand out. 

The main thing we acknowledged from this clip was the importance of ensuring the title sequence should be linked to the storyline of the film. For our title sequence we may film the really interesting parts of the film to create more of an interesting sequence or perhaps show lots of fast snappy shots of the party atmosphere of our film. 

Main Post 2: Choosing your genre

In order to gather information to chose which film genre to do our group decided to do a questionnaire. The questionnaire involved questions that would give us both Qualititative data and Quantitative. The information allowed us to interpret what audience's looked for in films and a range of other information.

Out of the people we surveyed the most popular film people enjoyed watching were 'Chick Flicks'. Followed by Comedy, Rom-Com, Action and then Horror. This influenced us and made us aware that we could produce a chick flick film as it was the highly most voted as the favourite genre.

When asked why people liked 'Chick Flicks' answers followed such as:
"They are romantic"
"They are cute and they make me laugh"
"They always have happy endings"

Allowing us to gather more Qualititative date we asked:
"What do you want and expect to see in an opening sequence?"
We found that audience expect the following:

• Film title
• Cast and Crew
• Sightings of Characters
• Creates mood
• Sets the scene
• Make you want to watch the film
• Soundtrack

We asked the people we interviewed how many times on average a month they go to the cinema. We found that most people went to the cinema once a month on average.

When asked who they would most likely to go to the cinema with the most popular answers were 'Friends' and 'Family'. People were more likely to go with people they know rather than with 'strangers' or 'on your own' which we predicted would be the result.

Main Post 1: Conventions of an Opening Sequence

Summary of two different film genres:

Enchanted (2007)
Genre: animated/fairytale
In the opening sequence of Enchanted there are a range of conventions such as:
- Title of film
- Names of Actors
- Soundtrack/music
- Lead up to the story
- Animated features

Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street-Details of Cast and Crew
-The film’s title
-Indication of place
-Indication of Historical period
-Mood and tone conveyed
-Mise en Scene

Enchanted and Sweeney Todd Screen Shots:

 

Post 12: Independent Work Towards Targets

In order to reach our targets as a group, I have also set myself some targets which will allow me to ensure that in my main task we will be able to succeed.

My first target will be to ensure that myself and my group are all confident about our idea and happy with the way the script is looking before we work on the filming aspect.

In our next task another target is to have a high level of team communication.

I would like to involve more technical aspects in our next piece. Such as more ict elements and a soundtrack.

In our last project myself and my group members discussed using a larger range of camera elements. I would like to do this in the next project.

To choose an interesting location which we can work with to create an interesting film.

Improving level of ICT on our blog. Adding more links which link to youtube or other sites to help accessing my videos to be viewed on my blog. By doing this it will improve the appearance of my blog.

 I am also personally going to ensure that I keep up to date with working towards my blog which will benefit the group as a whole.

Our Final Film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pymECcDTTlg

I tried to embed the film however I came across difficulties.

Post 11: Targets

Group Targets: Smart Targets

 

So that we are able to improve in our film we have set ourselves five smart tasks.

 

Lighting

 ensuring that the lighting is beneficial to the clip. We are going to ensure the lighting is nor too high key or too low key lighting whilst filming. We noticed when filming the Preliminary task that we used natural light often when instead it may have been more beneficial to use artificial lighting.

 

Script Writing 

In our prelim task there are many ways where we recognised faults in the script as a whole. When it comes to writing a script in the main task we are going to ensure that it is something we are interested in which will allow us to make the best possible script to our ability. It would be to our advantage to make a script that interests us as it will motivate us as a group to make an exciting and fresh film.

 

Framing

It wasn't until after we had filmed that we learnt the importance of framing in a final outcome. We're going to make sure we do not cut people out of the frame as it affected our film as the final outcome did not look as successful as it could have.

 

Improving level of ICT in blog

The addition of links. Keeping up to date with my blog and making it more accessible for others to understand and putting the clip on our website rather than links. This too will improve the appearance of our blog.

 

Team Communication

Although we worked well as a team we feel that there is definitely room for improvement. Spending more time out of lessons to do work towards our main task will defintely be beneficial in the long term. In the main task it will be necessary that we become more organised and make decisions together as a group.

Post 10: Evaluation of Skills Developed

Technical Skills
I have become more confident with the technology we used to create our film. I am comfortable in using the camera to film and aware of different rules such as the 180 degree rule. As well as this I also feel I am now successful in using editing software.

Creative Skills
I have learnt that in order to make an interesting film it is necessary to be creative. Our group were creative with the use of the jump shot, which showed our actor exiting the school.

Personal Skills
i personally learnt to work well in a group. This was achieved by listening to one another's ideas and experimenting new things. Whilst we worked we were aware we needed to be open minded and aware that things sometimes sound better in our minds than they appear, this was evident in pre-production as we were ambitious with our ideas and then we came to find that they wouldn't work. Personal skills I learnt was giving honest feedback and commenting on areas where there is room for improvement.

 

Post 9: Post Production

Post 8 Preliminary Task 

How did the shoot go?
Our group had to overcome many obstacles towards the stages leading towards shooting. A group member left the group and we struggled at first to choose a final idea. The shooting was successful as we shot in a location which was quiet so did not interfere with the sound in our filming. 

What problems did you encounter? 
A member leaving the group was probably one of the main problems that we encountered in the early stages of our shooting. In addition, we also struggled with finding time to shoot our short clip as we found that we were all busy at different times. 

How did you overcome the problems?
We overcame the problems by pulling together as a team and realising that we needed to get the work completed. We each put in time to focus on different aspects which contributed to our final piece. 

How well did you work as a team?
We worked well together as a group when the member of our group left. There was only three of us and we knew that we had to pull together to produce a successful final outcome. 

What do you think of the footage you shot?
Some parts of the footage where slightly jogged. However, I thought we used a good range of different camera elements and were able to communicate a short film. 

Are there any areas for improvement in the technical execution? 
We could improve some of the shoots we took however I felt that our use of a 'jump cut' was successful.

Is there anything you will need to do now as a consequence of the footage you shot?
We had to reshoot a few times. 

Have you abided by the rules of continuity? 
Yes, the actors appear the same in all the the scenes as they are all wearing the same clothes and appear the same throughout.