Evaluation

Q5How did you attract/address your audience?

In the opening sequence we decided to focus on the environment and the two main characters. We decided to start of with establishing shots of the leisure centre. This was to show the audience that this building is significant to the film because it is where the two characters meet. Then we placed fades between the different establishing shots, because we found out that this is what most films do when showing establishing shots. We then cut back to the beginning of the leisure centre then we added bell sound. This is used to address to the audience that lessons have began, also when the bell rings the camera cuts away to establishing shots, however this time there are students in the shots because the bell has rang, this shows continuity because students are now seen in the playground walking to their lessons or talking to their friends. The next shot shows our character Ricardo walking to the leisure centre, on the way he is placed around crowds of people, we then pan Ricardo’s movements towards the door to address to the audience that he’s one of the main characters. We then show Ricardo opening the leisure centre door and walking through the leisure centre. At this point the camera again pans because he is walking a long distance, during the panning the camera cuts away to Alison, our second main character we decided that it should cut away so that the shot does not bore the audience, also when the shot cuts, Alison is seen stretching we did this because she is a dancer so it made sense and was obvious to the audiences. The camera constantly cuts between Ricardo and Alison and every time it cuts back to Alison she is performing another stretch or action, this is done to show continuity and to address the audience that she is constantly moving while the camera is on Ricardo. We then cut away to Ricardo as he reaches the top of the stairs and whilst he is walking to the changing room, Alison is also walking to the door which leads out of the dance room. This is done so that the audience is attracted to guess that they meet each other before it happens. The next shot is a point of view shot where the camera pans up from the bottom of Ricardo’s feet to his face; this shot is used to show the audience what Alison is seeing. Then there is a close up of Alison’s face which shows that she is love struck, this shows and indicates to the audience that this perhaps might be a romance film.

The theme chosen which is romance attracts the audience through the title credits and music. We decided to use feminine colours for the title credits to reinforce the target audience which are women; also we decided to use slow paced music that may give a hint to the audience. Finally the characters are a male and a female which is typical of a romance film and when Alison’s facial expression is shown when she sees Ricardo it immediately attracts the audience and they become interested and are eager to want to know the rest of the film. The audience would be able to relate with these themes because most of the audience would have probably experienced most of these before.

Evaluation

Q7 Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

In the Post production of the Preliminary Brief we made three initial decisions which we made these were the shooting schedule, the location and the storyboard. We seem to have problems with all three of these decisions, firstly are storyboard was too basic in the sense that it did not contain any cutaway shots or other shooting techniques. We able to deal with this problem by finding out about filming techniques and then applying it to our story board, initially me and my partner both made our own storyboard and when we got together we added certain parts of both storyboards together. This was key because neither of us had the same things and we were able to make the third draft of the storyboard really technical but simple. The other problem was a location for shooting, there were many classes throughout the school, however most of them needed to be booked or were being used by a teacher. So me and my partner decided to ask the head of art department whether we could use one of the classes which were empty. The classroom we used had too much lighting which came obvious to us after filming was done, also the classroom needed was too crowded with art work and tables, so we had to rearrange the classroom in order for to suit our cast in the film. Finally shooting schedule was another problem we did not have enough time to film the shoot in one day, so we ended up shooting for two days, this also meant that we had to come after school and most of our free periods and lunch breaks to get the film finished. All these problems which I encountered in the Preliminary Brief meant that I was better qualified for the main task. In the main task our storyboard was made to a good standard it contained various shooting techniques such as panning and cutaways, the storyboard also made sense to the genre of film which was romance, the characters also fitted the genre. So it was clear that I had improved since the preliminary filming. The location we used was the leisure centre, this location was fairly quiet and not busy so our filming was hardly interrupted, also before shooting part of the film in the dance studio in the leisure centre we booked the dance studio, this meant that it will be available for us to use and that we did not have to worry if anybody else was going to use it. So the past problems in the preliminary round help us to realize the possible issues I needed to deal with. The only problem again was shooting schedule, there was not enough time and again we had to come back in lunch breaks and after school. The key lessons I have learnt is that choosing a location is important, the location must be appropriate to what your filming and that if locations belong in a building it you must book it out first. Also the problems in the Preliminary film made it easier to spot issues in the main task.
In the production stage of the Preliminary round some of the decisions made included variety of shots, continuity and casts. All three decisions unfortunately we had problems with.
Firstly when shooting we didn't take shots from different angles to see which looked better, instead we followed the shots which were on our storyboard. We were able to combat this the next day we came to finish of the film we used different shots from different angles which gave us some different shots which looked better than our original shots which were on the storyboard. Another problem was our casts, because the filming took more than one day this meant that the next day we came in our cast had to wear the same clothes and the appearance of their hair must be the same as the previous day. Unfortunately the case was that one of our casts forgot to bring in the same clothes because neither of us was aware of this problem. We did not have any way of countering this problem instantly, however the next day we able to complete the film with our cast wearing the same attire. Finally the last problem we had was continuity; certain parts of the shots we made did not make sense in continuity terms. So we had to make sure that the previous shot would run smoothly we the next, we were able to do this by coming back the final day and sorting the problem out. These problems again made it easier on producing the main filming. When we filming the main film we followed the shots of the storyboard but we also used safety shots, this was something that I did not use when filming the preliminary round, also we used a variety of shots such as long shots, medium shots and close ups we also involved different angled shots. The reason why we did so many shots is that so when it comes to editing we would always have an alternative is we did not like one of the other shots. Finally continuity was one of the problems which we faced because we needed shots of students walking past and the next time we came to film students walking by there would be less or more different students walking by, so some of the shots did not have continuity. We were able to combat this problem when it came to editing we were able to cut some shots out so that the continuity made the film look smooth. Finally our cast were not a problem in the main film because we were able to give them props such as bags and shoes, and the main task filming only took one day so they did not have to make sure that they brought the same clothes as the previous day. Overall I learnt that the types of shots and the quantity shots you take will depend on how much work you would have to do when it comes to editing. The more shots you film will mean more sufficient shots you can choose. Throughout the whole process of filming, in the main task I think that I have improved in my overall knowledge also I think that I am able to avoid more problems.
In post production in the main task I was able to incorporate feedback from class mates and teachers, I was able to make the main task shorter and input more effects such as cross fades. I learned in order to improve my film I should take on every single feedback because my class mates are the audiences who would be watching this film. This was not the same as the preliminary task where I only had little amount of feedback from my class mates. I was able to show progression for the main task because the main task included title sequences and soundtracks and this was not available in the preliminary task. So the fact that I was able to do all of this in the main task showed that had learnt a lot. I then put in a sound track in the main task film, we had to research a couple romance films and see what type of music they use, so then we picked a soundtrack that we thought would work best with our film, my group were left with two choices for soundtrack and after getting opinions from class members we decided to go with the music that most people would relate to a teenage romance film. Also I created title credits from also researching title credits in opening films; I learned that the colours and font size which is used all represented the genre of the film. So because the genre of my film was teenage romance this meant that the font should be something that young people could relate to and the colour should be feminine because of the target audience which are usually women. I also researched on more title credits from Saul Bass, during my search I noticed that the title credits he created gave clues about the film and all of them were unique because they were constructed differently.
If I could have done any thing different I would have changed the title sequences. I felt that we could have improved the title sequence and the title of the film itself. Firstly the title of he film is called 'Spot light on Alison' I would have changed this title to 'Spot light on me' because in the opening sequence Both characters Alison and Ricardo are focused on rather than just Alison by herself. This would make more sense because there are two main characters. Secondly the title sequence could have been created to match the title itself. I would have created a stage light at the top, and it would beam a light on to the title credits, therefore implying the spot light effect which the title says. This would give the audience a great clue to what the story is about just like Saul Bass title sequences. The only problem encountered was saving work, this was simply because the software crashed so therefore we had to create parts of the title sequence again.
One of the most important things I have learnt is that feedback improves your filming if you wish to accept your mistakes rather than justify your work. This because the people watching are the audiences who would be critizing your work and trying to understand what it is about. Also research is another important thing to do, if you have a great understanding about filming, then it will reflect on the filming which is created because researching allows you to incorporate some of the things you have found out and alter it slightly to fit your genre.

Evaluation

Q6 What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Canon XH A1

We used this digital camera to film all the different shots and angles, the reason we needed to use this particular camera was because it had a high definition meaning a good quality of image would be produced by it. When using the camera we had to place it onto a tripod which had to be adjusted to our shoulder height, this was so that we could get still shots without the camera moving around. Also for health and safety reasons when transporting around the camera had to be taken of the tripod. The camera itself was very heavy so it was quite difficult to carry, the camera had to be put onto automatic and had to be adjusted to the correct settings, apart from that it was easy to operate, the camera had a record button which was pressed on to record and pressed on again to stop. This was very simple so recording and operating on the camera was not a huge issue.

Windshield sound system

This was the sound microphone device, we needed to use this to pick up sound such as dialogue when the characters were speaking, it was also used to pick up any unwanted sound which could have interfered with the filming. The windshield system had to be plugged into the camera in order for the camera to record sounds. There are many parts that need to be put together when setting up the equipment so this made it slightly longer and more complicated when setting it up. When taking the sound system outside a hairy Harry had to be placed around it this was to protect the windshield system from bad weather like rain or strong wind. I became aware that it was difficult to move the windshield while it was still connected to the camera. So I learnt that when moving to different locations we had to separate the camera from the windshield. Also we had to wrap up the wires so it doesn’t get tangled up

Adobe premiere

The editing software we used was Adobe Premiere; this software was used so that we could change the film and shots we made. On the editing software we were able to pick which shot we preferred, and then we were able to put them in order so that the story made sense. I have learnt that the editing software also gave a chance to input sound to our film, also we able to create sequences which made the film more professional. But before we could do all of this we had to use a Lacie which was connected to the hard drive, then we connected the camera onto the hard drive.

Zoom.

A zoom was a filming technique which allowed the camera to focus closer for a shot (zoom in) it also allowed the camera to back to its original distance (zoom out). A zoom is used as an effect for shot, I became aware that we didn’t have to use any zoom in my filming because it was not required.

Paning

This was another technique; a pan meant that the camera is moving across horizontally or diagonally. This could be used to show somebody's movements or a landscape etc. In my film lots of different panning was used when filming, this helped me build my knowledge up, there were panning of establishing shots of the leisure centre to show how big the building was and panning shots of characters movements to show where they were walking to.

Point of view,

These are shots which show what the character is looking at, so whatever the camera is focusing on is supposedly what the character is also looking at as well. In my film a POV was used when a character was looking into a mirror at herself, I became aware that if w shot the camera looking into the mirror the recording would show the actual camera so we ended up placing the camera at her face because we could not show the camera while filming.

Shot reverse shot

This is a shot when the camera is placed behind the shoulder of two people who are usually talking to each other. It is used to show who the person is talking to and who is talking. I learnt that because there was no dialogue in my film, shot reverse shot was needed.

Cross fades.

A cross fade is an editing technique which dissolves one shot to another. We used lots of cross fades when it came to editing for example we put cross fades between our establishing shots, so while one establishing shot is being shown, the next one is slowly being introduced, this makes the film run more smoothly rather than jumping from one shot to another which does not show continuity.

Cut away

A cut away is another editing technique. It is used to show something else happening somewhere else at the same time of the shot previous to it. A cut away is when there is a shot going on then you introduce another shot in between, the reason why this is done is because it keeps the reader interested, rather than seeing a shot go on, another shot is brought into the film. However after the cut way we you must go back to the shot before the cut away. Many cut away shots were used in my film, one example was when Ricardo was walking through the leisure centre, and we cut away to Alison stretching in the dance room and vice versa until they actually meet.

Razor tools

A razor tool is an editing technique which allows you to cut parts of shots out. This was used to make shots shorter or cut away unwanted shots or mistakes. We used razor tools in my work because there were many shots that lasted too long, we needed it to be cut short this way the film does not bore the audience and mistakes are not seen in the film.

Digitizing.

Digitizing is when all the filming from the canon camera is recorded and put into shots onto the software. Unfortunately for my group we had missed certain shots out and we had named them either incorrectly or the same as another shot. This meant that we had to rewind the camera and then find out what shots we were missing and then transport it to the software. For the shots that we named the same meant that we had to change it correctly and then add the replaced shots from the camera.

Title credits

Our title credits were created in big fonts, in order to relate it to the film and the target audience which were female we decided to make it pink. When the sequence is being played we decided that the title credits would just fade into the background. We placed all the text of the credits at the top left hand of the screen and the text was also placed in columns with the first letter in Capitals. We thought that this was a more interesting title sequence.

The key lessons which I have learnt is that every single technology is important when filming, I now know that when filming you should have a wide range of shots from different angles so when it comes to editing you can pick the best one. Also I have learnt that both technology and editing equipment are essential because editing allows you to change mistakes in your film by using the razor tool; it also allows you to put in effects which look more professional.

Music Reserach

Enchanted
In Enchanted, the music starts off very magical and fairy talelike however futher on the protagonist starts to sing a song about finding her true loves kiss which sets the romantic element of the film, it also gives the clues of what the narrative may be about.I feel that finding and using a song with lyrics may enhance our sequence and it will help tell the story a little bit more.




The Princess diariesThe opening seqence starts off with establishing shots of the city and city life, however the music accompanying it is very mellow soft and romantic, so it is a contrapuntal sound from the images we see, i think this is a very clever idea because although we can see the city we can here a romanctic soundtrack which helps the audience identify the genre.

When we are then introduced to the charecter the music changes;
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"SuperGirl"
Written by krystal harris, J. Morant and Jimmy Harry
Performed by krystal harris
Courtesy of KBNHA Records

It is a song with lyrics with a rock based element; i feel this type of music got used not only to portray the charecters personality but also for the teenage audience to engage with because young teenagers prefer rock and edgy music to classical, and it helps to describe the charecter that we are introduced to so similarly to enchanted the music used gives the audience's clues and a clear understanding of what going on.


Chasing Liberty (trailer)

Full movie;http://www.watch-movies-online.tv/movies/chasing_liberty/

Chasing Liberty is one of my favourite opening seqences for a romance movie, simply because of the fact it breaks the rules but in an effective way. It starts off with close ups of the charecters eyes then lips putting make up on then to a close up of her face before the camera pans from her feet to her face. This is extremely effective because we our instanstly drawn to this charecter straight away.

Evaluation

Q4 Who would be the audience for your media product?


Target audience of my film:

Age: This would be from around 14-17, this is because the film is about romance and the age that people start dealing with romance start at an early age like 14, I decided that it stops around 17 because any age above that would be too mature and will not have any concerns about the types of theme in the film.

Interests: The target audience for this film should be interested in relationships, they should be interested in some of the themes that the film deals with such as love and bullying and jealousy.

Gender: This films gender is mainly female; this is because most women can relate to the character Alison in the film because she tries to get the attention of the person whom she likes Ricardo. Also the theme love is one which women audience prefer and are interested about and it is one that men do not prefer.

Ethnicity: This is any colour or background of people, because both of are characters are from different race which is black and Asian it shows that love can be shown through any colour so that’s why the ethnicity of the audience can be any.

I chose to target this group because I felt that they will have something to relate to in the film because it shows many themes that the audiences may have been in, also being such a young group they will understand the concepts and the film in general. Also because the target audience are young there will be lots of different aspects which the film could contain such as break ups between relations which the audience would understand well. Also if the audience were slightly older they would find certain themes of the film such as Jealousy as random because it hardly occurs to them.
I think the target audience of my film will be interested in watching films which will have young people involved; I think they would be drawn to other teenage films not necessarily about romance but about comedy and drama as well because they are genres which young audiences tend to prefer. I think in the last six months the target audience of my film are likely to watch films such as '500 days of summer' because it is a romantic comedy about fairly young adults, because it has comedy as a genre I think that it would have been viewed by young audiences and because its also romantic like my film I think it would be watched by my audience. Another film is 'I love you, Beth cooper' this film is about the typical 'geek' and 'princes' of a high school which is closely related to my film, I think the audience of my film would have watched this film because of the type of characters which are the ‘geek’ least important character and the schools most popular girl the ‘princess’ .A final film is 'After school' which is a drama about a young boy being traumatized. I think the audience of my film would have watched this film because it is slightly more dramatic than what would be usually watched.

Evaluation

Q3 What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Here's the path a film usually takes to be distributed:

An idea for a movie is made, and then outlines our created this means that a storyboard and a script would be made, this promotes interest in the idea and allows the director to see if the idea of the story makes sense. Depending on the company size a studio or an independent investor will then purchase the legal rights to the film and then people would be assigned for the creation of the film such as screen writer, director, producer the cast of characters, and the crews. When the film is completed and edited it is sent of to a studio where a licensed agreement is made with a distribution company, this is where they determine how many prints of the film should be made. Once printed the distribution company would screen the movie to prospective buyers representing the theatres, the buyers will then negotiate with the company about which movies they would contract and the terms of the agreement. The prints are sent to a theatre a few days earlier before the premiere, the theatre then show the film for a number of weeks while people purchase tickets to watch the film. At the end of the weeks shown the theatre send the prints back to the distribution company and payments on behalf of the contract are made.

I consider entertainment film distributors to distribute my film ‘Spot Light on Alison’ because they are interested in British films; also they have a whole variety of genres which they deal with. I think my film would be suitable for them, also I think the theme and genre of my film would attract them because my film ‘Spot Light on Alison’ is about teenage romance and this company have lots of films about romance so my film has a high chance for being distributed for this company.

Another company which I feel will distribute my film are www.cenifiledistributior.co.uk distributors, the company has recently released films about youth and are optimistic about youth films. Because my films genre is teenage romance I think that the company would consider distributing it.

If I were to choose an independent film distributor, I would choose www.onetakepictures.co.uk . This independent film company have received runner up of best directors and actors in international film festivals. However the demands required that we should have a high quality value and a budget.

Youtube.com and Facebook.com are the other methods for distribution; these sites can help promote my film. To distribute my film ‘Spot Light on Alison’ the film must first be uploaded onto the site, once uploaded it can be viewed by millions of people all over the globe giving a wide span of audiences. Youtube means that the audience would not need to pay to view my film so they could watch it over and over, and if the audience like the film they would give it ratings, also the audience can write some notes and feedback for what they thought of the film, this is a good way of promoting my film. On Facebook, videos can be posted on to the site for millions of people to see, just like youtube facebook is also free of charge. Many audiences can send the video to their friends and they too can pass the video on, this will help promote my film and give it a high status

A film festival which I think would screen my film ‘Spot Light on Alison’ is Ivyfilmfestival.com, The film festival is one of the most successful and attended up to date. I think they would be interested in my film because they encourage and admire all types of creative work produced by young students such as myself. Also there would be judges and directors to comment on the film which would be beneficial to us. The screening of the film in this festival will help promote the film as lots of people would attend.

Evaluation

2. How does your opening sequence represent particular social groups?

In our film we have created two key characters Alison and Ricardo.
Ricardo:
The character Ricardo is represented as a confident and popular person, he is very tall in height and this reflects his sport which is basketball, in the opening scene he is scene in tracksuit to suggest that he plays sport, another thing which suggest he plays sport is the duffel bag that he is seen carrying in the scene. Finally his height then matches him to basketball. Ricardo also becomes involved in a relationship with another character. This is similar to the character 'Troy' in 'High school musical' who is also a basketball player, both 'Troy' and 'Ricardo' are in their first year of college and just like 'Ricardo' 'Troy' too becomes involved in a relationship.
Alison:
The second character is Alison, she is represented as an independent girl who likes dancing, this is shown in the opening scene where she is in a dance studio stretching on her own which suggests that she could be practicing her dance routine at her own time periods which suggest that she is very dedicated to dancing. Alison can be compared to 'Gabriella' in High school musical because both characters are independent and usually do things on their own for example 'Gabriella' is seen reading a book on her own during a party in the opening sequence this shows rather than socializing she prefers to do something she enjoys. Also the our character Alison can be compared to 'Nora' in Step up, because she two in the opening sequence of the film is also dancing in a dancing hall showing that both characters have similar representations which are that they both are hard working dancers.
We were representing both of our characters in a specific way because it had to be clear to the audience who the characters where, it had to be clear what they do so that the opening sequence would make sense. Both characters had to portray two different types of worlds, which were a basketball player and a dancer, this also reflected where they met up because both characters saw each other in the leisure centre which is a place for physical activities so it made more sense to the audience when both characters are represented as sport students.
We were limited to the amount of people we could choose from to represent our characters, we were unable to get other students from the school such as friends off their time table and be in our cast. This meant that we could only choose students from the available media group, so this really limited the amount of cast and the type of characters we needed. We decided to choose Jesse who was a tall student who plays basketball this was a good choice because we would not have to change much about him or direct him too much, he was able to represent the role of 'Ricardo' are character well because of his height and school profession. The next person we decided to use as cast was Dhara, Dhara played the character of Alison a dancer. Due to other groups from our class picking casts from the same class as my group we were limited again in the females we could pick.
The only problem we had with the casts were when they was not needed for a couple of shots they would wonder off, so we had to kept on calling them on their mobile phones and trying to get in touch with them. We were expecting the casts to comply with every thing we said, we expected them to listen to what we had to say and follow the directions we gave them, for example my group did many different shots of the cast doing the same things we expected that the cast would not complain with our decisions and give 100% effort in when they were repeatedly acting the same movements.
With the character Ricardo we told our cast Jesse to walk with confidence chest out and head high, this was because his character was someone represented as confident, he was also told to wear tracksuits and bring a duffel bag to show to the audience that the character was someone connected with sports. Jesse also had the height which was needed too, that was not a problem for us. With our other cast Dhara, we brought in for her a pair of ballet shoes and a black top to show that she was a dancer. We also explained to her that when he character meets Ricardo for the first time she has to look love struck, this was because Dharas character was a person who is represented as shy and quiet, so she really has to show her facial expression so the audience can understand what was going on in that particular scene.