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.