Blog closed

This blog is now closed.

All evaluation scripts

Q 1

We wanted our opening to look as realistic as possible, in order to do this we had to make sure every shot we were using were conventional ones. As well as adding the overall mystery to the plot line leaving audiences confused and curious to what will happen next. The main suspense of the storyline was based around a teenage girl who is in sight of trouble, which fits the conventions of action movie storylines including a naive scared character. We also built up the suspense during the opening by adding a heartbeat sound effect to emphasise the panic of the main character.We switched between long and close up angles of the character to get an overall better understanding of the situation she is in and emphasise on the panic she is going through. All is unrevealed, which may make audiences begin to make up theories of their own to what the film is about. This on the the one hand shines a positive light however on the other may be seen as more negative as people might assume the film is something which it isn't.

Q2

In this opening we are particularly focusing on the female character as being the main protagonist for the full film. We wanted to do this in order to represent females as strong and heroic, although she is represented as weak in the beginning, we would of later on progressed on her heroic acts and how she rises to the challenge. This may however be seen as negatively in the opening scene as the girl is represented as having been involved in crime having information which she shouldn't have. This fits the stereotype of teenagers being trouble makers although she may be helping for the better good. Overall focusing towards social groups who praise heroic and brave media content. This either being for boys or females, or whoever has a soft spot for action movies.

Q3

I am heading towards having columbia pictures and metro goldwyn mayer (MCM) as being the main distributors of our film, this is because there films particularly focus on the action and adventure genre. As well as are also the distributors of the James bond series, which is somewhat similar to our own movie as are both based on spy thrillers. It can also be seen similiar to the James bond series due to the title sequence being made to look like part of the spy genre.  Not only this, but also have a highly recognisable and successful brand names, meaning it is much more likely to be drawn attention to by audiences.

Q4&5

We are targeting at teenagers/young adults as being the main audiences for our film, this is due to having a young female lead taking front stage will be more relatable to the ages that are similar to the main character. We would most likely rate our film a 12 due to its action packed nature and likeliness of having a few gory moments. However will still be within the age gap of which we are aiming for. As audiences like to see characters relatable to their own personalities becoming heroic figures we thought it would suit best as putting a female in charge, this particularly appealing to young girls. As well as due to the increasing climax in female superhero films over the last few years, this including katniss from the hunger games as well as tris from divergent. We tried to address our target audience by making them feel empathy and curiosity to the situation in which the character is in. Our plan was the more mysterious we made it the more the audience would be drawn in.

Q6

I have learnt a lot when it comes to technology during this project,from starting off with the basic recognising how to set appropriately a camera on a tripod to being to work on the imacs for the very first time ever. I had already came to terms with how to work a camera adequately before this project started, however i was very uncommon on how to use the software imovie. I learnt a great deal when it comes to editing including learning how to add titles and crop scenes of film footage. We also had to use various other technologies including sound equipment, which we used to record the phone scenes. This project has mainly taught me that using certain technologies may not be as simple to use as they appear, including the importance of making sure your camera is fully charged before you reach the set!

Q7

Looking back on my preliminary task in my opinion the biggest improvement has to the difference in camera angles and good continuity of the scenes. The preliminary task camera angles were fairly simple and mostly stayed in the same position. As for the final footage used various types of angles which indicated a more professional look.

Final thoughts on the project

I am sad however happy this project of the film openings has came to an end. Even though it was a lot of work it proved successful, as everybody replied with positive feedback, mostly! I got to learn a range of filming techniques as well as editing skills. Now I finally know how to work iMovie, I shall be able to later press on with future editing projects more quickly and thoroughly from now on.

Overall thoughts on the evaluations

Overall I felt as though the filming of my evaluations went fairly smoothly. It took me a few takes to get out exactly what I wanted to say however in the end it felt successful. Each question I tried to expand on as much as possible, bringing up on past experiences filming, as well as sources relatable to what the question was asking. I tried to speak quite genually and not too much word-to-word of what I had previously planned. Even though I had planned scripts out, I was able to expand more once I was on camera without the need for notes.

Evaluation question 7

Evaluation question 6

Evaluation question 4&5

Evaluation question 3

Evaluation question 2

Evaluations question 1

Storyline

The idea of the opening was based on a young teenage girl running through a rather deserted location with important unknown information. She is in the process of passing on this information through a download, however just as she reaches 100% she realises she has been followed, as she begins to run the mysterious attacker knocks her down unconscious. Lastly picking up the girls phone and placing it in his pocket. All is still unrevealed which was our main ambition from the beginning, to keep the audience interested.

Organising evaluations

For my evaluations I have decided to have three of the questions presented on a powteen video as for the other 4 questions spoken about in a vlog recorded on my camera. I have successfully completed all filming now, and will be uploading all 7 items very soon.

My costume

For my outfit I chose to have quite a simple look, however suitable to be running in, so had to allow enough stretchiness. When we first began filming I was wearing another jacket however did not zip up properly meaning it did not give me the amount of coverage I needed. So instead I wore Izabell's coat which provided a more suitable look for the character. For my bottom half I just wore black ripped jeans suiting the coat well, with not to overly bright colours.
I found it quite difficult between day-to-day of filming keeping my look exactly the same especially with my hair as kept changing positioning.

Moana

Moana (2016) is a new upbeat disney movie which is the 56th animated feature film made by Walt disney productions. The film tells the story of Moana, the strong-willed daughter of the chief of a Polynesian tribe, who is chosen by the ocean itself to reunite a mystical relic with a goddess. When a blight strikes her island, Moana sets sail in search of Maui, a legendary demigod, in the hope of saving her people.

Moana was released theatrically in the United States on November 23, 2016, in Disney Digital 3-D, RealD 3D, D-Box, and premium large formats. The film received critical acclaim, with particular attention directed to its animation, music, and voice cast. To date, the film has grossed nearly $638 million worldwide. Along with Zootopia, it marked the first time since 2002 that Walt Disney Animation Studios released two feature films in the same year. It received two Academy Award nominations at the 89th Academy Awards: one for Best Animated Feature and another for Best Original Song ("How Far I'll Go").

I thought the film was extremely pleasurable and funny with the incredible animation design and strong script. The film represents a hero and the willingness of bravery and strength to save your own people. Making this a powerful symbol for females, especially in the new era of disney movies representing they do not need a prince to save them. The main character is completely loveable and charming, not forgetting to mention the adorable baby animation of Moana in the beginning!

Storyboard vs final opening

   

I am now going to compare my storyboard to the actual final footage of the opening. The opening shots stayed pretty similair, particularly the establishing ones. Most of the running angles stayed the same apart from the close up on the feet, as was a particularly difficult angle to film. As well as we did not use the close up eye angle, as did not serve a particular relevance in the scene, not to mention the difficulty of zooming out.

Box office bombs

I have been recently looking into the biggest 'Box-office failures' for part of my research into finding out why some movies fail and others succeed impressively. I have found that these movies were the biggest failures to current time:

Overall summary of feedback

Overall I feel as though the feedback we received was fairly predictable. Most people praised the editing and well filmed shots. As well as the mysterious plot of the story line we were going with. However most people felt as if some shots should had been cut shorter as made the opening lose some of the action it was anticipating. If I could go back to improve on any of the shots we did I would of definitely suggested I did more running to keep up the action pace. As well as although I was not aware at the time my hair kept changing position which may have ruined some our continuity during the opening.

My families reaction to my opening

Dad: It looked professionally produced, the camera perspectives were well chosen. It had a dramatic feel to it and would be interested in seeing the next stage of it. However I feel as though a couple of the shots could had been shorted.

Mum: The music was extremely exciting and thrilling, The scene conveys dramatic purpose that draws you in and makes you want to see more. I liked the way the titles were placed as were cleverly done. On the other hand some of scenes in my opinion were a bit too long

My sister: They did well by holding the suspense with the use of dramatic sound effects. As it gets straight into the action the viewers are immediately hooked on and curious to what is going on. The only thing I found which could had been improved was to not hold on to specific scenes for as long as it slows down the action pace.

Results from feedback sheets

Our film certificate

The current BBFC system is -

If our opening turned into a full film I feel as though it would be rated as a '12' due to its slight thrilling and scary nature. However is suitable for most audiences however deemed most appropriate for children aged of 12 years of age.

Exemplar work for evaluations

I have been basing some of my research and plans off the exemplar work which was posted on Miss Foster's blog to help us plan for our evaluations. I have watched them over and decided that I will present my evaluation question answers as vlogs, as will allow me enough time to expand on my answer. The points which this blogger made were extremely well thought out, which I admired and took inspiration from for some of my own planned answers.

The call

Initial release: 15 March 2013 (Brazil, Russia)

Director: Brad Anderson

Budget: 13 million USD

Box office: 68.6 million USD

Story by: Jon Bokenkamp

The call (2013) is about an veteran operator for an emergency call-center, Jordan (Halle Berry) who saves lives daily as part of her job, but when a young woman's frantic report of a prowler ends tragically, Jordan is devastated. She decides to pack it in on the front lines and instead teach others the ropes of the high-pressure job. But when a call from a kidnapped teen (Abigail Breslin) comes in, Jordan takes charge as never before and turns the girl into a partner in helping to save her life.

The Call kept my interest and had myself wanting to scream at the screen and tell the characters what to do and urge them along. The characters would alternate between overcoming their emotions and rising to the challenge and falling prey to them at just the wrong moment. Watching this film was a thrilling experience, with constant ups and downs, being frequently put on edge. It stayed continuously in my mind the following few days focusing on the realism of the films storyline and how it can easily happen to anyone in there daily ordinary lives. 

Feedback from our opening 2

Would you continue on watching the full film knowing the main protagonist of the film was female?

Feedback on our opening

The showcase

At the showcase both AS 1 and 2 media groups presented their projects. For each project for AS 1, the group came up first and announced the opening, giving a brief synthesis of what the opening they made was about and what would happen it if went on to be made into a full film. As for AS 2 the projects they made were music videos, which we'll be our future project for the following year. All the openings and music videos which were presented were extremely well done and applicable due the amazing editing skills. For our opening I decided to speak on behalf of my group, which was exciting feeling to be able to represent all the hard work which we have done, the audience's seemed intrigued afterwards which was exactly what we were hoping for.

Film schedule

This blog filmed by our other group member, discusses our original plans for our filming schedule. This proves to say nothing goes as planned!

The main character

Our plot only required two actors, one was not faced and the other was the main centre of attention. The main actress was myself playing a mysterious character who has just discovered classified information. The other is a character who is only shown the body of as the person's identity is a secret to the audience and will later be revealed in the film.

Title

We decided to title our film as 'Classified'. This is because of related meaning to criminal activity which is highly anticipated within the footage that was filmed. As well as relates to the rest of the film which is based on the main characters secret knowledge of information that she shouldn't have relating back to the word 'Classified'.

Camera angles

For our opening we had to learn the particular types of camera angles which are most commonly used in films, to make our project look as professional as possible. Here are some examples of camera angles which we learnt:

Eye level -

High angle - 

Low angle -

Undershot - 

Overshot - 

Showcase date announced

We have now finally scheduled a date for showcasing all our media productions. The date which has been chosen is on the 31st of this month. For the showcase one of the members of our group will have to bring a camera in to film us announcing our opening and record the audiences reaction to it. We are all thrilled to see what the rest of the school thinks of our project!

La La Land

I just watched 'La La Land' (2017, UK release date) for the first time this weekend, and I felt as if I just had to talk about its superb cinematography.

 'La La Land' is an American musical romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Damien Chazelle, and starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone as a musician and an aspiring actress who meet and fall in love in Los Angeles. The film's title refers both to the city of Los Angeles and to the idiom for being out of touch with reality.

The entire way the movie was filmed was based off the 1930s works of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. The director of the film wanted the film to emulate the widescreen, CinemaScope look of 1950s musicals such as 'It's Always Fair Weather' (1955). Consequently, the film was shot on film (not digitally) with Panavision equipment in a widescreen format, but not true CinemaScope as that technology is no longer available. However this cinematography added a more theatrical feel to the film, and made it a more unique type for the era that it was filmed in. The way that the movie was filmed and the locations that it was based in gave me an old fashioned movie vibe, even though the film was in based in the world of today, including mobile phones and modern day cars. It still had a beautiful feeling about it, representing a glimpse of nostalgia to the early film era.

As of February 26, 2017, 'La La Land' has grossed $140.9 million in the United States and Canada and $228. As well as 1 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $369 million against a production budget of $30 million. 'La La Land' was also met with critical acclaim upon its release, with critics praising its screenplay, direction, performances, musical score and musical numbers. The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 93%, based on 332 reviews, with an average rating of 8.6/10. 

The Life Of David Gale

The top picture is of our own project, as for the bottom is from the beginning of 'The Life Of David Gale' which we based our establishing shots off. We used the inspiration of the long shot from the beginning of the film to use as our own, as we thought it created a suspenseful atmosphere, and mystery of what the character is running from.

We also used some ideas from the different running angles which was used in their opening for our own. We felt as if both the film and our own movie concept quite suitably fitted each other, as in both scenarios the characters are running due to new information they have discovered.

Evaluation questions

The questions for our evaluation are as follows:

1)  In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 
2)  How does your media product represent particular social groups?
3)  What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4)  Who would be the audience for your media product?
5)  How did you attract/address your audience?
6)  What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
7)  Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I will have to complete all of my evalution questions by April 28th 2017. 

First pitch

This was our groups first pitch for our filming opening, we had mostly positive responses from the rest of the class, which gave us the 'green light' to begin filming.

Importing keynote

The next step to using keynote was moving the text into iMovie. In order to transfer the text we had to make sure the background colour green was the specific colour to match the green screen. Once the title was ready for us to export we used Quicktime player to import to iMovie. Once back in iMovie all we had to do was choose our title and drag it in over the video than afterwards selected the green screen button and was complete.

Using keynote

For our title sequence we had to use the software keynote to enable us to access the typewriting effect which we required. The software was fairly basic meaning all we had to do was change the background colour to green, choose the font and effect which we wanted, select the position which we wanted it to be in, then basically done! We also had to make sure that the position we selected the text to be in was suited for the particular background of the scene we was using, otherwise we would have to repeat the whole process again.

POV shot

We used a POV shot in our opening as the main character fell over after being hit over the head. We had a very quick tranisition from the character running to when we see her POV of falling. This contrast of shots creates a more intense atmosphere as is more quick and snappy than the rest of the other scenes. Being able to see what is happening through the characters eyes allows the audience to fall with the character.

Establishing shots

For our establishing shots we decided that we wanted it to be of the setting which was surrounding us. As we were filming October/November time we did have a few issues with the weather including have to cancel filming days when it was raining. It had to be fairly dry and sunny for us to film on a particular day to suit the continuity. As well as would of been quite noticeable of weather changes considering we were filming in a park.

We decided to film in certain positions where we knew we could fit in title space, so that it would blend in with the particular shot. We did this with all our other establishing shots as well, so it took some time to input all of the titles.

Intercutting scenes

This is my other group member Sophie discussing why we decided to inter-cut our scenes during editing the project, we felt as though the scenes worked better when they were inter-cut as helped bring out the tension more and give a better visual to the audience. 

Keeping the same continuity

As I have previously mentioned we had to re-film quite a few of the shots numerous times. This meant that we had to return back to our exact same location and path that we were using, to keep the continuity of the film. Sometimes it would be difficult to tell apart where we had last filmed considering our location mostly consisted of fields which looked quite similar. One scene which was quite hard to film was when I was getting knocked out. As I had to make sure beforehand I was in the exact same position that I was last in.

Final Opening

We have finally uploaded our final opening project to youtube. The whole group are extremely pleased with the overall outcome and can't wait to hear the responses from everyone else as well.

The Shawshank Redemption

A couple of weeks ago during our media lesson, We watched the movie classic 'The Shawshank Redemption' for the first time ever! I thought the film was an absolute masterpiece and that it deserved its own review on my blog. So here goes:

• UK release date: February 17, 1995
• Director: Frank Darabont
• Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
• Budget: $25,000,000

"Adapted from the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, the film tells the story of Andy Dufresne, a banker who is sentenced to life in Shawshank State Penitentiary for the murder of his wife and her lover, despite his claims of innocence. During his time at the prison, he befriends a fellow inmate, Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding, and finds himself protected by the guards after the warden begins using him in his money-laundering operation."

My review:

The movie was born to be a classic from beginning to end. The opening intrigued audiences into knowing the truth about the mysterious Andy Dufresne, and throughout made audiences feel sympathetic for the character as he has to adjust to the imprisonment lifestyle. At times the film may of appealed as quite simple but towards the ending you will find that the main character had much more up his sleeve than entailed. With other characters being introduced along the way you watch as a simple man journeys his life through prison experiencing at times torture and others sadness, but in some ways shines that a light can be found at the end of the tunnel, and such thing as hope is possible (within the movie anyways). I loved every second of it and am sure I will watch it multiple times again in the future.

Class feedback

This was our class response to our first time presenting our film opening. We had mostly positive responses however realised we still required some additional editing. For example we spelt one of our production companies incorrectly, as well as credited the same person in the opening twice. Unfortunately I could only upload this footage in the lowest quality available due to being unable to pass on through the Mac, meaning I had to upload it through my phone instead.

Downloading image

We decided to use these particular downloading bar images during the scene whilst the main character pulls out her phone. We picked them due to there simplicity and basic nature, we didn't want anything to extravagant or overdramatic however still wanted it to look realistic. Even though we found it particularly difficult to find what we were looking for considering we required a specific bar once at one percent to then another image showing one hundred percent, as well as having to follow the copyright laws. In the end we had the best result, with what we had and ended up fitting perfectly with the opening.

Our Experience

Me and my fellow group member Izabell decided to make a vlog talking about our experience whilst filming the opening, and the problems that we had to overcome.

Problem with the titles

Unfortunately we noticed a slight flicker on the letter 'd' during the production of the title sequence. For some reason this blip was unfix able, as much as we tried to solve the problem. However it can only be noticed for a slight second. We also had various different issues with the typewriting effect we used for the credits, as the quality of the font kept being changed without our control. However many times we tried to solve the problem from starting from scratch the problem still remained the same. In the end we found out a way to stop the credits from glitching, even though it took some time to do so.

Saturation changed

We decided to bring the saturation down on the scenes we shot during editing due to the colours being quite bright which was not as intended. This is as we wanted to impose a more sinister atmosphere and represent that the character was in danger to the audience. This helped capture the grim surroundings of the setting it was in, and therefore gives a glimpse at the mood for the rest of the film itself.

Storyboard animation for opening

This was my group's first storyboard animation draft for our opening. It is clear to see now how many changes have been made during the actual production especially having to do with the music, as well as some of the shots we initially planned on doing.

The making of the opening

This video shows myself and my group working on the opening for our film project.

Production companies

Before our opening started we knew that we had to place a few production companies in to help give the opening a more realistic feeling. We decided to be quite adventurous and choose the first piece of footage from my own camera roll on my phone. Using previous video footage of myself on a motorbike. However we had to cut down the footage due to myself screaming my friend's name! In the last couple of seconds, however we still wanted to include the motorbikes itself sound during the beginning. We also decided to name the first production company as 'Fast lane productions' due to the evidently fast pace that the bike was going. Our second production company was a lot simpler being named 'Stained glass films' with an background image of a glass window. Our editor Sophie firstly attempted to have the text circling the glass window however due to the overall difficulty of this challenge we ended up with a simple yet sophisticated straight line animation.

Recording sound

We had to use foiled sound over the top of some of the action sequences in the opening. This was necessary due to failure of being able to hear the phone we used for the ringing and the message sent to voicemail sounds. We also added sound to where i had filmed myself receiving a call and hearing a voice to suddenly then declining it. Luckily my reaction time to the voice we recorded separately fitted perfectly within the editing, making everything look in sync.

Music

We decided from the beginning that we wanted our music for the movie to start off as quite simple and then suddenly turn to more dramatic. It started off as quite a difficult challenge considering each member the group was imagining the sound we wanted to use quite differently. However to find the music that we required, we pressed on and found a website called epidemic sound that to our opinion gave the largest amount of choice and variety. We looked through most music choices for dramatic and running music and ended up choosing:

Editing the film

Our main editor for this project has been Sophie. However we have all tagged in on making decisions for the movie and how it would be edited. For our first time editing we realized that we was still had missing some valuable film footage which we required. This meaning that me and Izabell had to return back to Oakwood park to fill in the missing points. Once we were able to complete this task, we were able to start editing more adequately. During editing we also began to decide on titles and the fonts that we would use. We came up with the idea of placing the title of the movie where I would begin to run, and as I run past the letter, it would disappear. For the rest of the titles we decided that we wanted them to appear in a typewriter animation, as gave a dramatic and edgy effect.

Preliminary Task

Match on match action:

This refers to film and video editing techniques where the editor cuts from one shot to another that matches the first shot's action. One example can be a man walking up to a door and reaching for the knob.

The 180 degree rule:

This is a cinematography guideline that states that two characters in a scene should maintain the same left/right relationship to each other. When the camera passes over the invisible axis, it is called crossing the line and the shot becomes what is a reverse shot.

Shot reverse shot:

This is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character, and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character.

Filming for the project

We decided to base our setting in Oakwood Park, as provided us with lots of filming space, and for the majority of the time was mostly empty. In my group we all took on different roles of the positions which we would fill as the film crew. I volunteered to star in the movie, as for Izabell did the filming and Sophie did most of the directing. We came across having quite a few problems whilst filming the footage. To begin with the first time we filmed my hair was in plaits, and the day that we had returned to filming I had forgotten to put my hair in plaits and had no hairbands to be able to tie my hair with when we got there either, making us re-film what we had done so far due to continuity reasons. However we had only filmed very little footage so far meaning that it was not too large of an inconvenience to film again. Another issue we had was that the camera we first began to film with begun not working properly due to needing to be replaced with a new battery. Meaning we had to resort back to our first original camera that was given to us from the school. I had low hopes that both pieces of footage would match each other however as we have began to edit the movie, Sophie was able to change the saturation of the content making them blend in more nicely together, as well as now having less noticeable quality differences. Overall the filming experience was very fun, even though it took us multiple tries, and lots of visits to Oakwood Park we was able to understand how difficult and exciting it can be to film a real life movie.

Final Story-Boarding

To begin the preparation for our group film project of an opening scene to a movie. We first had to draw out a storyboard to get a rough idea of the type of angles and scenes we would be shooting. We decided to base our opening scene off the beginning of the movie 'The life of David Gale'. So we started picturing that the setting would be an empty field area, allowing enough running space, and good scenery to shoot good establishing shots. We also planned out the script as well as drawing out the scenery, we were able to establish from all the planning that we would need the availability of quite a few props. We also decided that we wanted the quality of the content to be as high as possible, deciding that we would use a more efficient camera than what the school gave us to film with. We began planning out when we would start filming and arranged dates that all of us was available, we initially thought the filming would take 2 days.