Evaluation

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

Evaluation

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

Evaluation

How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation

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

Evaluation

How does your media product represent particular social groups?  
 (If you go onto full screen and click the image, it should stop covering up the text)

Evaluation

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

Completion

Today we completed the sequence!! :D

In the lesson we managed to put an effect on the sound to make beginning noises more muffled and therefore sound more diegetic (as if you were standing outside the party). We then created and added in the credits which will play during actual footage. And then we were finished.

I am happy with the outcome of our film, I think we have successfully created an effective opening sequence to a romantic/ coming of age film with the use of parallel sound, both diegetic and non diegetic; intercutting; interesting camera and editing techniques and an eye catching title sequence that fits the genre. There are a few minor details that could have been attended to, for example, I think maybe some of the credits during the footage are shown too quickly therefore reducing the effectiveness; and the transition between the hairspray and the party scene could have been slightly smoother. But the credits were placed to match action of screen therefore they have to be the same length of the footage and the transition is quite good considering the time time constraints we had. Also these are only very minor issues, therefore I am pleased with the way our film turned out and I am glad we are finished. :)

Progress

We decided to change our credits and make them more colourful as when we put them on the film we thought the white on black background looked a little too much like a horror film. The way in which we did the colours was based on the style of Mean Girls.  We also distorted some of the lettering and words to make it a little quirky and give a lighthearted feel to it.

Progress

As the group had different ideas for what the credits should look like, we made two different sequences to see which style looked better.

In the end we decided the second sequence would work much better as it was much clearer to read and not too cheesy, but still was slightly girly so therefore still links to the genre.

Progress

Today we finally agreed on the name for our film which will be 'Snakes and Ladders'. We chose it as it helps to describe the ups and downs of relationships and also hints to the idea that  at a young age love is just a game. I like the name as i think anything with love in the title like our previous ideas such as 'Not Another Love Story' and 'Love at First Sight' were way to cheesy for our genre.

Progress

Progress

In today's lesson we continued editing the sequence which went really well and we got about three quarters of the way through and then Nicola stayed during her free period and managed to finish the rough editing of the end of the sequence. I was very pleased that we managed to finish editing the entire sequence in a very short period of time because it means we are now somewhat caught up to where we were before the burglary  and so we can now focus on refining the film and getting all the finishing touches like sound and credits perfect.

Nicola and I then stayed after school. I focused on refining the sequence by making the match on action perfect, re-sizeing shots and cutting out unwanted sounds etc. which went well and now the sequence flows a lot more smoothly and fits into the time frame. Nicola had a go at creating some music since she hadn't attempted that yet, it sounded quite good however it was difficult to get the right upbeat kick to the music without making it sound too cheesy, also, on the other hand, it was hard to find a guitar that didn't sound to dark. But overall it was good because it moved away from the club sounding music which we did not want.

Progress

In today's lesson we continued editing, which is going well as we have completed over a quarter of the sequence already. However, we do still need to go over it and refine the clips as there are some sound and lighting problems but we will deal with these issues once we have got the whole sequence roughly edited.

After school the whole group stayed to continue with the editing, however, there was an issue in that another group was using the computer we work on and therefore we were unable to edit. Because of this we decided to delegate other tasks that we could do on other computers, so Nicola was working on the behind the scenes footage, and Iveta, Natalie and I were working on getting some sorts of music clips together for the party scenes and for the boy and girl getting ready, which went well as Iveta and Natalie found some good loops that would work well with the getting ready scenes as they would work for both genders. We still need to check whether it matches the footage properly but I think it should work quite well. I was focused more on the party music which was very difficult as it is really hard to find loops which sound party-like as most of the beats are more club sounds.

Progress

Today we continued editing the sequence, which is going quite well as we all remember how it was before, therefore we are able to push through quickly as we have a clear idea of what it needs to look like. Our main focus for the upcoming week is to just get the whole sequence edited roughly, which I don't think will take us that long, and then we will work on refining it and making the sound and titles etc.

Progress

Today the software was installed and so we were able to make a start at re-editing our sequence. As we our now using adobe pro instead of final cut, today's lesson was mainly spent getting used to the new editing software and so we only edited a small amount of the sequence.

Problems

Unfortunately we have been unable to make any progress on our project for the past two weeks as the macs from our school were stolen, resulting in the loss of all our work. We backed up all of our footage on the system so luckily we do not have to re-film, however, we have to edit the entire project again as it was saved on the desktop.

We are still unable to start re-editing as the new macs have not yet been set up and the software is yet to be installed. We attempted to use the older macs the school have, but it seems that the footage is too large to be used on them.

Progress

In today's lesson we did the final re-shoots which we decided upon due to the feedback we got from our class. We then split the group in order to use our time more effectively, Natalie and Iveta worked on getting the final bits of footage edited into place (they also began to remove the unwanted sound from the sequence e.g copyrighted music we played during the actual filming and they tried to electronically fix the lighting in the beginning scene), Nicola started work on the credits/titles (creating a rough version of what the credits should be styled like) and I worked on the sound (I tried to mix a few tracks together for the party music and I also began to piece together some stuff for the boy and girl getting ready, using two similar tracks where one had a lower pitch than the other, so I thought we could use this during inter cutting to help distinguish between the boy and girl scenes and make it more parallel). This went well as we completed the majority of our tasks, finishing the editing of the sequence, getting an idea for what we want the credits to look like and beginning to develop the sound for the inter cutting between the boy and girl.

Overall this weeks progress has been good and we seem to be doing quite well, all of our focus now I think should be on the music and this is a crucial part to our film and if it isn't correct the film will not work. We still need to complete the credits, however, I feel that this will be much easier and quicker to do than the sound.

Progress

After school today Nicola and I created the distribution logo, we tried to make it fit to the style of the sort of distribution companies we think would distribute our style of film e.g Paramount, Universal. We did this by making it more mobile and interactive (for Example Universal's logo moves around to reveal the Earth) rather than just static words. We also thought it would be quite a distinctive and recognisable logo in that as soon as you saw the plants and the colours especially (since not many other companies use these colours) you would instantly know it was NNIK Productions. I think it is good as it seems somewhat professional and is just the right length for a distribution company logo.

Showcase Feedback

In today's lesson we showed our class the rough cut of our film, here is their feedback.





The feedback was generally positive ,however, the criticisms we received were mainly about the framing of some of Ruby's shots, the lighting in the beginning scenes and the slow motion effect. These comments are very useful as we can easily rectify them now that they have been brought to our attention which should improve of film.

Progress

After school today Nicola, Natalie and I continued editing and replaced all the old clips with the re-filmed ones, we also managed to refine the sequence by cutting it down a lot so that it is now the correct length of time.
We were, however, still unable to find the correct sound for the sequence, therefore we should for now just delete the sound from the clips which we are going to put music over as not to cause confusion. We also have not tackled the credits yet.
But generally I think this went well as we got the main content of the sequence ready for the rough cut showing tomorrow.

Progress

Today we uploaded the footage, whilst we were doing this we also continued working on sound. Then after this we continued editing our sequence to refine and improve on it.

Overall this went well and it created a sleeker looking sequence, however I feel we could have maybe done more during the lesson or after school.

Progress/ re-filming

- Put all of the edited clips together to get an actual completed rough sequence
- I think even though it's unfinished it still looks quite good
- Still struggling to get the right feel to the music
- We need to cut down the sequence as it is currently 3 minutes and it has to be 2 minutes, hopefully this will make it more effective as it will be more fast paced which will keep audience interest, rather than having long unnecessary shots
- Re-filing we well, we got all the shots we needed.

Progress

• half way through editing - going well
• music - difficult
• re shoots on Monday and Wednesday 

Progress

Today we split the group up again in order to get more stuff done and we also switched the jobs today, so Nicola and I were working on the sound and Natalie and Iveta were working on editing the sequence, this was to ensure we each had a go at all of the tasks.

I personally found creating sound very difficult as it is hard to put together different sounds to make a track that sounds as though it is an actual song. And also the fact that we are thinking of using so many different tracks which we hope will create the feel of a diegetic party playlist along with the other music to go with the main characters getting ready makes it a lot harder as we need to get so many different sounds. However, I think Nicola and I worked well together and found some acceptable sounds to improve on what Natalie and Iveta did in the previous lesson. We also decided as a group that in order to make the music sound right it was essential to get some vocals to the track, however at the moment we are unsure on how to achieve this.

Natalie and Iveta were working on editing the sequence which I think went well because even though there was the problem of not having enough footage of the male in order to inter-cut between the male and female getting ready, they overcame this by just editing other bits which they were able to edit like the female walking down the street and some of the general party shots. A part to the sequence I particularly like and think works effectively is the graphic match from the girls red dress to the boys red gel, this was achieved by zooming on on the girls dress, cross-dissolving onto the gel and then zooming out in order to give context. I really like this as it makes the sequence more visually entertaining and gives the sequence more interest rather than just simple straight cuts. We are also planning on doing something similar to this with the girls hairspray which will visually match with the boys lynx, however I am unsure on whether we should use the technique again as the repetitiveness may take away some of the interest and creativity of the shot, but I do really like the hairspray version of the shot too.

Also in today's lesson we made a list of the shots we must redo and why we feel we need to redo them.

• Zoom in on dress - this shot is good and it works well in the sequence, however we need to get it to be more smooth as the shot we have of it is a little awkward and unrealistic. 
• Establishing shot - after watching back the original shot that we have to establish the whole film we do not think it is good enough as it seems a bit nothingy. 
• Close up on Ruby's phone call - our whole idea is that we only show close ups of the main female character until the big reveal at the party so that the audience feels as though they are seeing her for the first time with Michael (the main male) and one of the shots of her on the phone reveals too much of her face and so does not fit into our idea. 
• Opening the door (arrival of Ruby) - the shots we have of Ruby walking to the party are when it is much lighter outside and so it poses a continuity problem as when Iveta answers the door to let her in, it is suddenly extremely dark outside and so does not work. 
• The reveal/arrival of Ruby - this is a very important shot as it is the first time the audience properly gets to see Ruby and so it must be perfect. The shots that we currently have for this are not good enough as in one shot she is looking at the camera and in the other the camera suddenly jolts just as we are about to see her face. 
• Putting on shoes - this shot is not good enough as the lighting seems some what orange and also the shoes are not framed correctly in that they aren't in the center and are cut off toward the top of the frame. 
• Blusher - we all really liked this shot, however we are using this shot before the girl has applied her eye make up, and in the shot she already has eyeliner on. 
• Michael shots - generally we just need more of these.

After school Nicola, Iveta and I stayed and continued editing and also began to piece together small clips which we had edited to make the fit into the sequence.

Progress

Today we decided to split the group so that two people were working on the editing and two people were working on the music. I think this was a good idea as it split the work load and helped us work more efficiently, also we were sat close to each other which therefore allowed us all able to have input into each of the tasks.

Nicola and I were working on the editing in which a few problems arouse about lighting, the quality of shots and continuity. We showed these problems to the rest of the group and we all decided the best thing to do is to quickly get them re-filmed another day this week (which is yet to be decided) in order to get the best overall outcome for our film.

Natalie and Iveta were working on trying to create a basis for what our music for the party will be like. This went well as they successfully created a base track, however I personally feel that it doesn't exactly fit the style of music we need for the setting and genre as it sounds a bit too much like a club anthem than something you would play at a house party. To get the music to fit better i think we need to get the music to sound more like a generic pop song, and perhaps make a few different sounding songs so that it sounds more like a diegetic playlist of songs at a party, rather than just one track throughout.

After school Nicola, Natalie and I continued editing the film and we showed one of our teachers the rough beginnings to the sequence. He confirmed some of our worries but generally his feedback was positive in that he seemed to like the idea and the way in which we were portraying the story through specific shots. He also said that so far our editing was very good with smooth match on action and accurate continuity.  

Progress

• Today we uploaded all of the footage 
• Also in this lesson we watched back all of the footage
• Then after school Nicola and I renamed all of the clips 
• The plan of action for the next two weeks is to all edit whenever we can

Filming Day 2

On Sunday we aimed to get the majority of shots filmed some of which included the boys scenes, the party scenes and redos of some of  the girls shots. I feel this went well as we got all the shots we needed in a quicker time than we expected and also I feel they looked quite good.

Pre-Production

On Saturday Nicola and I set up the boys room to ensure the mise-en-scene was correct for a boys room and ready for filming on Sunday.

Before

After

I think this was effective as I think we recreated a realistic looking boys bedroom significant to the specific character and style of our film. Also this pre-production helped to aid in swifter filming the next day which was useful to allow us to get all of the shots we wanted in a quicker time.

Credits

Originally we were planning on incorporating the titles into the world of our characters by superimposing them onto things like their products or magazine headlines, however after analysing the opening titles of some films of the same genre (e.g. mean girls) it has become clear that the main style of titles used in this genre is when they just appear in the corner of shots where action unimportant to the story is occurring. Therefore in our media project we should  try something similar to this, like scanning over the products and having the titles appear or having them appear as the characters are getting ready (not during dialogue scenes).

Each title sequence I have analysed has had something specific to the film incorporated into the title sequence (e.g. in 13 going on 30 every time a credit appeared it came up in a puff of glitter) therefore I think we should think of something unique to our story and use this in the credits to create some sort of relevance to the story so that it is not just words on the screen.

Filming Day 1

Yesterday we started filming in which we shot most of the shots with the girl (her walking to the party and getting ready). There were a few issues but this will make us more careful with filming correctly next time.

Pre-Production

Cast

We have finalised the cast to a main boy and girl and some background extras for the party scene. Here is a picture of the main girl.

We chose this girl because we feel she is most suited for the role as she is quite sweet, pretty and slim which most of the leading girls in romantic films are, therefore she fits into the role well.

Here is a picture of the main boy.

We chose this boy because he again fits into the typical leading role of a romantic film of a slim good-looking male.

Credits

Mean Girls

Click the video to hear audio commentary

Credits

13 going on 30
(ends at 4:37)

This title sequence begins with a blank screen and the sound, Head over heels by The Go-Go's a 1980's song which helps to set the location and time period, and also just helps to create a general lighthearted, upbeat feel to the film. Then the Revolution Studios logo is revealed which is then cleverly linked with the light from the glitter and Revolution Studios comes up again, highlighting the importance of the distribution company.

Whilst the first most important credits are coming up they are surrounded by colourful glitter, primarily pink glitter, which helps to link to the main part of the story in which magic glitter is used to grant the main character (Jenna) a wish, also the pink of the glitter and the pink text helps to portray the genre of film as being a girly romantic comedy as pink is a major part of the iconography of this genre. Also the high contrast between the blue black of the background and the pink helps to make the text stand out more which makes this part of the title sequence very effective as it helps to draw the attention of the audience to them. It then fades into the clouds of the school photo background and begins to zoom out, this zoom allows the audience to get into the film and slowly understand the location.

The rest of the titles are placed strategically around the frames in places where action key to the storyline is not taking place, this allows the audience to focus on the actual film rather than the credits. The pink text appears with a flash of glitter which again helps to portray the girly feel to the film. This is good, however the fact that the titles are appearing whilst the storyline is actually beginning, and there is dialogue and other more important or interesting things going on in shot, it makes this part of the title sequence less effective as it takes the attention away from the text and they can be easily ignored.

Overall I would say that this is quite an effective title sequence as a lot of attention is drawn to the more important titles, the girly pink text helps to portray the genre, the glitter also helps to show this and also links to key parts to the story which help to connect the audience to the film.

Credits

Scott Pilgrim vs the World



The title sequence for Scott Pilgrim vs the World is incorporated into the song which the band is playing and helps to show us how Knives (Scott's girlfriend) is feeling toward the band, in that she is in complete awe. Every part of the sequence is linked into the song for example the words are sort of blazing with the strumming of the guitar and the background images are moving quickly to keep with the tempo of the song. This draws a significance to the band and to the music, which is a key part of the film.

Also each of the sections of fast paced images have some sort of significance to the story itself or to a specific character which helps to engage the audience to the film as well as just being eye catching. For example, there are general images of hearts, feet (kicking) and the Canadian flag which are all significant to the story (in that it is a sort of love story set in Canada where the main character fights for the girls love); also, a key part to Chris Evans' character is his skateboard and when his name comes up the background images are of skateboards, similarly with Brandon Routh and Ellen Wong, when each of their names appear the key attributes to their characters are shown (guitar/knives) this not only draws attention to the characters but to the actors names and thus to the credits therefore making this very effective. Also the words are always in high contrast to the background and seem to be jumping around a lot which fits in with the sort of punky feel to the music and makes them stand out more which is good for drawing the attention of the audience.

Overall I would say that each element is used very well to create an effective and visually interesting title sequence which both drawings you into the story and makes the audience actually watch the titles which can sometimes be a boring part to a film. 

Credits

The credits in a film are an acknowledgement of the people that contributed to the production e.g the actors and behind-the-scenes staff.

Opening credits (title sequences) are shown at the beginning of the film and are usually superimposed on a blank screen or appear around the action in the corners of the screen. They feature the most important members of the production e.g the leading actors, the director, the editor etc and, essentially, the title of the film.

Common Order for opening titles:

Studio Name

This is the name of the studio that distributed the film. This company may/may not have actually made (produced) the film. For example, Lionsgate, Universal, Sony.

Production Company Name

This is the name of the production company that actually produced or financed the film, which is most commonly credited with "in association with".

(Producers name) film or/and A film by (Directors name)

This is the first acknowledgement of the director.

Starring actors

The leading actors and key members of cast.

The Title

Name of the film.

Featuring 

Featured actors.

Casting Director

The name of the person/people that selected the cast.

Music (composed by/original score by)

Composer of music.

Production designer

The name of the person that designed the production

Representation - Our Film

Locations

We have chosen to represent our locations in the usual glamorous, idealistic way that romantic films always represent locations, so that we present the characters life and the world they live in as desirable. To do this we have chosen pretty, suburban locations which will be made to look even more glamorous with the use of high key lighting.




Events

We have also chosen to stick with the over dramatisation of events seen in romantic films, and make everything that happens in our film seem like it is the most important thing in our characters lives, e.g. the most amazing party, a long lasting relationship. We are going to do this with the help of editing, by building up suspense before the boy and girl meet with the use of inter-cutting  we can create the effect that it is a very important moment in their lives.





Characters - Gender Stereotypes

We have decided to stick with the change in trends of the girl being the one that is sought after and represent her as a confident, independent, beautiful woman to be desired. We are going to do this by firstly building up the suspense of not knowing what she looks like until the reveal at the party which will help to represent her as a stunningly beautiful, desirable woman; also by making the character walk to the party alone we are representing her as confident and independent girl, this is also helped with the bright red colour of her dress. However, we had decided to stick to the stereotypical image of the girly girl and represent her as a feminine, mainstream, young woman with the help of gender colours such as pink and purple, flowers, dresses and makeup.

Pre-Production

Costume

The costume we have chosen for the girl is something not too formal, as it is a more of a coming of age film and teenagers don't generally tend to wear formal clothing, however it is still a very nice, pretty, girly outfit as it is supposed to create the wow factor when the male first sees her. This also helps to maintain the stereotypical image of the very well put together, glamorous, girly girl that is often portrayed to us as the lead in romantic films.

For the boy we think it would be best just to go for a nice trendy shirt and jeans as boys tend to not get as dressed up as girls and also because this is what is in style at the moment and we would like both characters to appear as quite mainstream trendy people.

Representation - Romantic Films

Setting

The settings in romantic films are always represented as being the ideal, picture perfect world that everyone wants to live in. Using beautiful wide open spaces, or glamorous cityscapes, or large modern houses in the suburbs it helps to represent the world of the romantic film as something to be desired by the audience.

Events

The events in romantic films would generally not be considered as that important in the real world, however the way the film dramatises the events helps to represent these events as being the most important things in the world. For example they way in which romantic films represent the formation of the relationship usually leaves the audience in the mindset that the characters will live happily ever after and get married and that will be the most important relationship they will ever have, when in reality this is an unrealistic outcome and it's most likely that the characters may in fact break up.

Characters - Gender Stereotypes

Generally in romantic films women are represented as vulnerable and emotional, and men are portrayed as strong and independent; the thing to be desired and sought out by the woman. However in recent years this has seemed to change in such films as 500 Days of Summer in which the sensitive man is pursuing the strong confident woman. This is most likely due to the fact that over the years woman have gained more dominance in the world and also taste in men has changed from wanting the strong, manly man to wanting the more sensitive and caring guy. 

Representation

The way a place, event or character is portrayed in a film is known as representation. Films can represent each of these in different ways by constructing either negative or positive versions of them.
The way you want to represent something is done using sound, mise-en-scene, editing, lighting and colour and use of camera, for example if you wanted to portray a character as being dominating and scary, you would use low key lighting to create large contrasts and shadows on the characters face thereby making the character look menacing  suspenseful sound which would make the audience feel anxious; dark colours and settings; fast editing and low angle shots, all of this would represent the character as something to be feared. Representations are ideological views of the world, in that they are constructed within a framework of values and beliefs.



Representation helps to show aspects of the world we inhabit e.g gender, social groups and places (stereotypes). Depending on the genre of film the representation of one of these things can be very different, e.g in horror films females are shown to be weak and defenseless (damsel in distress), in contrast in family films such as The Last Airbender, they are shown to be strong and independent (role models).