MAIN Post 12.7: Question 7

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

From looking at my preliminary task and looking at my final opening sequence I feel I have learnt quite a lot and have been able to develop my skills sccessfully. In the preliminary task I didnt use very many different shot sizes or camera angles, for example we mainly used shot reverse shots as it was a conversation between two people. However in the opening sequence we decided to use a lot more variety and we filmed a lot more shot sizes and used more camera angles. For example we used some close ups to show the characters emotion and we also used some low angle shots.



This screenshot shows an example of one of the
low angle shots which we used in our opening
sequence.





This screenshot shows an example of one of the
close ups that we used.

 



















Another way in which I feel I have developed my skills is on the editing suites. I have used the suites previously for other tasks however this time I did a lot more and we used a lot more different tools. For example we brightened some of the shots as they were too dark to read the writing for one of our titles, and I hadn't done this before.




This screenshot shows some of the effects and
tools we used whilst editing our opening
sequence.



















Also I have learnt about expanding our first ideas. For example adding in titles which are not necessarily written in, for instance we used fridge magnets to write out one of our names. This we feel portrayed our genre more clearly to the audience and it was quite conventional within the romantic comedy genre to actually include the titles within the sequence.


This screenshot shows the fridge magnet shot.



MAIN Post 12.6: Question 6

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


These are some pictures of examples of some of the equipment we used during the pre-production, production and post-production stages of our opening sequence.












 

As we were filming outside of school grounds we all had to understand that we were fully responsible for all the equipment that we had with us. We all had previous experience and knowledge of using the camera and tripod safely and correctly from other previous media tasks we had done within the school. When it came to using the editing suites we all did have previous knowledge of how to use it however we did need some help and we each developed our skills throughout the editing process. We learnt skills like how to slow down and speed up clips and how to add the music over the top of the clip. Creating our focus group also helped us to develop our skills of the equipment further as we had never used a flip camera before so it was a new experience of learning how to use it properly and safely when filming each of our focus groups.


We also used many programmes to help us create our opening sequence. for example we used YouTube quite a lot. Without YouTube, we would have a lot of difficulty being able to watch our final sequence as well as all our focus groups and also we would not have been able to upload them onto our blogs. 

We also used Blogger. Without Blogger we would not have been able to save all our work onto one place. Blogger was where every piece of work we did in class relating to our project was uploaded. I think it was a good idea to use Blogger as it meant that all our work was on one place and it made it easier to edit and view all the work that we had done. 

Another programme we used was Google. We used Google to do all the research part and find images from other romantic comedy films. If we didn't have Google to do our research it would have taken a lot longer to find all the information we needed and we would not have been able to get some of the pictures that we needed.

We also used Microsoft Word. We used this programme to help us when writing up our work before we put it onto the blogger. Another Microsoft programme we used was Powerpoint. This helped us to save images and screenshots ad save them as JPeg files to put them on our blogs more easily. 

Another important programme which we used was DivX. This helped us when uploading our opening sequence to YouTube. Our opening sequence was too big a file to put onto YouTube so we used DivX to make it smaller so it could be on YouTube for us to watch and put on our blogs.

 

The last thing we used was unsignedbandweb.com. This website helped us to search and find uncopyrighted music. We were able to search and select specific genres of music which we wanted to find and were able t download them to our computer to listen and decide on them. This is where we found our first piece of music, which ended up being on our final opening sequence. If we didn't have this website we would have probably picked a song which would have been copyrighted, which we later found out we actually had as we didn't get it from this website.

MAIN Post 12.5: Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

In our opening sequence we used a range of ways of attracting audiences so we could try and attract a wider audience as possible. The whole of the opening sequence is an enigma as the audience will probably wonder where she is heading to and they will probably guess that she is running late so will want to find out whether she gets in trouble or what she is going to be late for.
This screen shot shows her running down the street, showing that she is obviously in a hurry to get to where she is going.

Another way we attracted our audiences was by the way we created our titles. For example we used a bangle to show the title L.O.V.E and we wrote the directors name on a piece of paper and put it in with the post the character ruffles through. We also used fridge magnets to write out another name.
This screenshot shows this.

To get an audience feedback on our opening sequence, we gathered 3 girls from the sixth form, they were all 16 and 17 years old, which was the lower end of our target audience. They all seemed to enjoy our opening sequence and I think they would have enjoyed to see the whole film.

From looking on the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) website and reading through their guidelines I would say that our film would probably be a 12A. I think this because we only have moderate language as she does swear at one point in the opening sequence. It has no sexual scenes, no horror, no drugs, no nudity, no violence, no drugs and no imitable behaviour. This rating would help attract our audience as they would know that it is a young and calm romantic comedy and and they will know that they can enjoy watching it, especially as older people watching like 20 year olds would know it would be alright to watch as it is a 12A.

MAIN Post 12.4: Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The main target audience we was aiming to approach with our film was women around the ages of mid-teens up to maybe early 30's. This is because our main character is a young female and so hopefully the majority of our audience would be able to relate to our character quite well. I think our target audience would probably be interested in fashion as our characters job is at a fashion magazine. Also it would be aimed at people who are generally interested and enjoy watching romantic comedy films. Also we are mainly aiming towards female audiences as generally males tend not to watch romantic comedies unless they are with their girlfriends.

This is the average kind of girl we would be aiming to target with our film. She is 20 years old, and has probably been to university or has got herself a job. She looks as if she could relate to our character and maybe she has a romance going on in her life which could help relate to the romance happening in the film.

At the other end of the scale of our target audience we would be aiming to attract women in their late 20's, early 30's. This picture here shows a typical woman which we would hope to attract with our film.



This woman is the older side of the audience which we would want our film to target. She looks like she has got quite a good job and looks as if she would be dressed quite smartly and take it seriously. She could also possibly be single, meaning she could relate to our main character as she is also single. This would also mean that this audience member would probably enjoy the romance side to the film. This woman probably lives in her own house.

MAIN Post 12.3: Question 3

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

The production company have quite a big role when it comes to making films. For example they are generally responsible for creating the funds for making the film and actually producing the film. Their role is to create the idea of the film, shoot all the footage and then edit the footage to create the finished film. The companies however, do usually have people in the crew who will specialise and help in things like writing the script and editing the footage together. They will then usually pass over to a ditribution company to help them promote and advertise their film.

There are many different ways in which the production company could raise the funds for creating and making a film. One way is that there are a number of charities which help to fund the production stage of new films. Also there is the option of going to the UK Film Council and apply or a fund. As well as these tw options there is the option that once the film has been finished you can take it and screen it at different film festivals, which could help to fund you some more.

If i was looking for a distribution company to distriute our film L.O.V.E I think i would choose SONY. I would choose this company because they are quite well known with the romantic comedy genre which we went for in our film. Also they have a wide range of products which could help increase our advertising and allow our film to reach a much wider audience than if we went with a different company. For example SONY have a big range of video games, so they could advertise our film within those games. Also they have converged with other big companies which would also help reach a wider audience. A couple of examples of films distributed by SONY are Just Go With It, Fun With Dick and Jane and Made of Honor.

However to be more realistic, as our film is a British film we thought another company which would be good to distribute our film would be Universal. Universal are a big company which covers many areas. This would help our film as it means that it could reach a wider audience meaning that more and more people could enjoy our film. It is also the second longest lasting Hollywood studio. This shows that they are a good company to have working on our film. Some films which Universal have distributed in the past include Billy Elliot, Meet The Parents, About A Boy and Love Actually.

MAIN Post 12.2: Question 2

 How does your media product represent particular social groups?

This screenshot shows our character dressed in her pyjamas.

 This screenshot shows our character dressed in her smart work clothes.




This is a screen grab of a comaparable character from a romantic-comedy.

This screengrab is from the film The Break Up, this is the main female character in the film.This relates to our character as she works for a fashion magazine and so her job is quite serious. She dresses quite smartly in high heels a skirt and blazer. This character here relates to our character as she is also dressed quite smartly in a shirt and a skirt and this shows that she also probably has quite a good job and takes it very seriously.

This screengrab is from the film In Her Shoes. This shows the character in her pyjamas. This character is also around about a similar age to the character we had in our opening sequence. This character is also good to link with our character as they are both young single female adults, both are quite clumsy and we showed this through our character falling over the magazines on the floor and running late. 

Main Task 12.1: Question 1

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

We tried to make sure we used normal conventions of a romantic comedy. For example for the style and colour of all the text we used bright colours and we had a girly style. We used this because from previous romantic comedies we had looked at in our research we had found that the majority of them used bright colours that stand out and the style was always quite girly. 

This shows one of our titles which we included into the action. We used the white pillow case so that the bright colours of the text would stand out more, which conveys the conventions of the romantic comedy genre.



We decided that only one of our main characters would be shown in the opening sequence so we introduced her as getting up and ready for work. We tried to portray her character through her actions rather than dialogue. For example we showed her rushing around and falling over, showing that she is quite clumsy and she's running late. We used our research again here to help decide this, from other films we had looked at most of them only showed one character, mainly the woman. We also thought that it would be best to not have a script for our opening sequence as we thought we would be able to show the characters personality a lot more through her actions and the way she lives rather than her speech.

This screenshot shows our character falling over on her magazines. This shows her clumsy characteristics and shows that she's quite messy as she has left all her magazines on the floor.





We decided on having some upbeat music playing all the way through the opening sequence, which also links to the normal conventions of a romantic comedy as upbeat music gives a feel for the film and portrays the genre through its sound.

From watching other romantic comedies we had found that usually the characters have every day looking clothes on with natural hair and make-up. We decided to try and keep to this in our opening sequence. Our main character started off wearing pyjamas as she had just woken up, she then got changed into her work clothes which was a plain black skirt, a patterned top, blazer and tights. We also put her in some heeled shoes as we thought this would help to portray her job as a magazine editor a little more.




This shows our character in
her pyjamas.



 



This screenshot shows our character
wearing her work clothes.You can also
see her natural hair and make up.



We tried to keep the editing quite natural and we didnt use any special effects. This keeps with the conventions of a romantic comedy as special effects usually give a feel for adventure or action, and thats not what we was aiming for in our opening sequence. We used a couple of jump cuts to show the time moving on, however we think they worked quite well and fitted in with the sequence. We also used a range of camera angles and shot sizes. For example one of our shots is from under the bed and another is from in the mirror. We used some close ups to show the characters emotion for example when she looks at the clock and realises she is going to be late, we used a close up on her face to show that she is shocked.

This screenshot shows one of the low angle shots that we used in our opening sequence. We filmed this from underneath the bed. We used this because from looking at other romantic comedies some of them use shots quite similar to this one.

This screenshot shows one of our shots from the mirror. We had to try different camera positions so that you couldnt see the camera, but we found a good spot and we were pleased with the result.

The two pictures above show one of the jump cuts that we used. the first picture shows her standing at the mirror and then it cuts to the second picture which shows her doing her make up. We felt this jumpcut worked quite well as it still flowed in the sequence and it didnt seem as if she'd move too far.

Main Task 12a: Evaluation- Audience Feedback

This is the clip of our focus group, we showed them our rough cut of our opening sequence and then asked them for feedback on what they thought about it and how we could improve.

This is the clip from our feedback from showing our final and finished opening sequence.

Main Task 11: Final Opening Sequence

This is our rough cut.

We edited our sequence using the feedback from our focus group and what we thought would work also. This was our first final opening sequence.

We then recieved a message to say that the music we had chosen to use was actually copyrighted, so we had to choose some different music which wasnt copyrighted. We chose to use the original piece of music we was going to use in the first place. This clip is our final opening sequence.  

Main Task 10: Post- Production

We started by capturing our footage and creating the logging rushes table. However instead of just capturing the shots in which we wanted to keep, we made the mistake of capturing all the footage we had. Once the logging rushes table was complete we then started the rest of the editing process. The first thing we did was we used the logging rushes table to help us pick the clips we wanted to keep and then we went through and put them in order. This then led to us creating our rough cut. We had a few problems when creating our rough cut as some of the shots we wanted to use were a bit shaky. Also the shot of JENNY choosing an outfit from the wardrobe to wear to work was a lot longer than we had thought.

 We added in the titles that we needed and cross dissolved them in and out. Also some of the shots we had were slightly darker than others as during the filming day, it got dark outside quite early. We chose the shots that we wanted and put them all together. A problem which we encountered was that in some of the shots it was clear that we was laughing behind the camera as you could hear it over the shot. We then added in some music. It was quite hard to find suitable music as we was looking for an upbeat, bubbly track to use, however some of the ones we came across were quite slow and not really suitale for a romantic comedy. We did then find two tracks which we thought may work well. We put the one track that we thought worked better onto our opening sequence. Another problem we had was that our rough cut was roughly 4 minutes long when it needed to be a lot shorter. Once the rough cut was complete we gathered a focus group together and played them the rough cut. We then asked them for some feedback on whether they enjoyed it, what parts they liked and disliked and why and how they thought it could be improved. We filmed their feedback so we could use it when creating the final sequence.


After listening to the focus groups feedback we went back through our rough cut. Some parts which we originally weren't too sure worked very well, the focus group picked up on. For example the shot of JENNY choosing her outfit we felt was too long, and this was one of the points that the focus group made, they said they felt it was a bit boring. So we took this shot out and it made the sequence flow a lot better. We also paused the text message and email, as in the rough cut they were quite hard to read as they weren't on the screen long enough. We also changed the colours and font styles of the titles so that they stood out longer and were a lot clearer to read. Another problem which was found was the shot of the fridge magnets spelling out one of the crew members name. We only had one shot of this so we decided it would be bext if we re-shot it. The re-shoot worked a lot better and it was a lot easier to read. We also changed the music. Firstly we decided to use two tracks instead of one, but then we felt it didnt really work as well so we changed the music and only used one track throughout the whole sequence. All the changes we made meant we had cut down on a lot time, our rough cut was around 4 minutes and our final sequence was just over 2 minutes. After making the appropriate changes, this then became our final opening sequence. We then gathered our focus group together again, showed them the final opening sequence and then filmed their response again.

Another problem we had was after uploading our final opening sequence onto YouTube, we found out that the music we had finally decided on was actually copyrighted. We had got the piece of music from an old uncopyrighted CD so the music may have been copyrighted during that time. We then decided that we would use the original piece of music that we used at the beginning of our rough cut.  

Main Task 9: Production

We decided that filming on one day would be easier and give us more time to edit it all together and give us more chance to re-shoot any footage we may need. We chose one day of the half term and we decided to do it in the late morning so that the parents in the house we were filming in were out, and when the traffic wouldnt be too bad outside the house. We chose to film the last part of our sequence first as it was quiet outside and as it was about midday, the light was quite good. We had a small amount of problems with pedestrians walking where we filming, we had to wait for them to walk by before continuing to film. Also in one part of our sequence there is noise from a nearby van parking up, however we didnt feel this was such a big problem as we wanted to put music over the sequence so we hoped it wouldnt be a big problem.

While filming our opening sequence we did encounter some problems. For example we had to change a few of our shot sizes as the rooms we used didnt allow us as much room as we first originally thought. Also towards the end of our filming the light outside began to get quite dull and so we did have to use the artificial lighting which was available however it didnt make much of a difference and so some our footage is slightly darker. Some of our shot caused us quite a lot of problems which we didnt actually think of when creating our shot list. For example the shot of jenny throwing her tights at the tampon box actually took us about 10 attempts as we couldnt get the tights to knock the box over. We had to put a brush in the tights to make the tights heavier and then we had to do some different shot sizes and angles and put them together to make it look like she had thrown the tights and knocked the box over. Another shot which was quite difficult to do was the shot of jenny rolling over and taking the pillow with her to display Kings Langley Productions. We had to do this shot a number of times also as it was quite difficult to read and it was quite dark.

In the end i think our shooting was quite good. I think we could have possibly planned our shots and the problems which they may cause a bit more in depth so that we would have missed the problems before filming. However as a group we are pleased with our footage and the fact that we only took 4 hours to film over one day gave us more time to edit, which was beneficial for us.

Main Post 8: Pre-Production Documentation

Synopsis of the whole film
Our film is about a a single, unorganised woman and her everyday life. We will show her free spirit and that she has a very hectic life. She rents a room in a flat with her one of her friends. Her occupation is an editor in a fashion magazine. The film will show her go through a number of dates which fail for different reasons, for example her battery goes flat in a meeting and she cant text her date to tell him. She will eventually meet her match and fall in love.

Synopsis of the opening sequence
In the opening sequence we see the girl in her house, rushing around to get ready. Her room is very messy and she is rushing around to show that she is quite unorganised and scatty. The credits won't be written in text but we will use objects from around the house, for example we want to write the title of the film in fridge magnets.

Treatment

Shot List


Location Recce

           Props and Costume List

Risk Assessment

Mise-en-scene Description

Set Design/ Location

Our film is set in the main characters house, the main character is a girl so we are using a bedroom that is pink and has white furniture. We also use the bathroom and kitchen as she is a young woman and she won’t have a lot of money so we want the set to look realistic and to show her character. This means that the audience will be able to relate to the character easily.

Lighting

There is natural lighting coming in through the whole back wall of the bedroom, this means that we won’t have to use any artificial lighting and it will make the shots look more natural. In the bedroom there is also a ceiling light and a bedside table light if the natural light is too dim. The bathroom also has windows across one whole wall and as it’s at the front of the house there is a lot of natural light, this will once again give the clips natural look. The bathroom does have a ceiling light but we probably won’t use it if it’s light outside. The kitchen has windows along two walls as its situated at the back of the house, there isn’t a lot of natural light but there is artificial lighting which we can use if necessary. Rom-com's are usually light and bubbly and the lighting normally helps makes it seem more upbeat. The lighting is quite important for our opening sequence.

Props

 All of are props are used to help put across JENNYs personality and information about her life. For instance we are going to have fashion magazines all over her bedroom floor to show that she is interested in fashion. We are also going to have jenny knock over a box of tampons this will show the comedy element of the Rom-Com. All of our titles are used with props as we have seen this is quite common in Rom-coms, we are using fridge magnets, makeup and handwritten titles this allows the titles to link with the characters and also gives the natural realistic styles that Rom-Coms have. Many of our props are everyday items such as a toothbrush, make up, toothpaste, clocks and pillows. This shows the audience her normal life style so they can relate to her.

Costume

JENNY= when she wakes up she will be wearing shorts and a vest top as her bed wear, when she gets ready for work she will be wearing black tights with a black skirt, a plain top and a blazer. Her work clothes shows that she has quite a good job as she is dressed smartly and it also shows she is quite fashionable. She will also be wearing heels as many women her age would wear them to work.

Hair and makeup

JENNY= her hair will be straightened and left down in a natural looking style. She will have natural looking make up. This will help show her age and maturity, as she wont be too made up she will have the normal amount a woman her age would usually wear to work.

Character Movement

Throughout the opening sequence JENNY is rushing around everywhere, for example as soon as she wakes up she runs out the room, a lot of her character movement is rushing around and worrying and this shows her character as un-organised and clumsy and has a very hectic life. There are also elements of her character movement that just reflect her normal life, for instance when she is getting ready she is shown brushing her teeth, putting on her makeup and getting dressed. We tried to keep the character movement quite naturalistic. For example we wanted to show her waking up and getting ready quickly as she is going to be late.

Shooting Schedule

Day	Shots	Time
Tuesday 22nd February	ALL SHOTS WILL BE FILMED	12- onwards until natural light is too dark

 

CREW LIST

Amy Taylor: The actress who will be playing JENNY
Becky Trimmer: The camerawomen and Director

Alice Kempster:  Costume and make-up and also Director
Chloe Taylor: Props and also Director

Technical Reece

Unwanted Noise: As our location is set in a house the best time to film is when there is no-one else in as there will be noise that we don’t want and they might get in the shots which will make it less realistic.
Animals: In our location a dog and a cat live there so we will have to make sure that they are not in our shots or make noises which we don’t want them to make.
Outside filming:  We will have to be aware when we are outside of pedestrians as we don’t want them in our shot, traffic isn’t a main problem as we want the footage to look realistic however the noise of the traffic may cause a problem, we will have to try and film in a quiet part of the day.
Weather: For the outside scene the weather will affect when we film as we won’t be able to film when its raining as it could ruin the equipment. Also if it is raining it could be quite dangerous when jenny is running down the drive and the road.
Cars in drive: We will also need to make sure that no cars are parked in the drive when we are filming as this will make the shot look bad and we don’t want to show the character as having a car. This would confuse the audience as they may see the car but wonder why she isnt using it.

Storyboard

Pre-Production Report
Our original idea was to do a romantic comedy and our original target audience was teenagers to young adults. However when we had our meeting with our media teacher we found that the synopsis we had decided on was quite vague and didnt really flow and also our target audience seemed too young for our character. Our teacher suggested that we should maybe re-think our target audience and add some more depth into our synopsis so our opening sequence had somewhere to lead to. We then went away as a group and re-discussed our orginial ideas and managed to come up with improvements and plenty of ideas to add in. We then carried on with our pre-production documents. We created our shot list, however we discovered it wasnt quite right when it came to creating the story board. So we then had to edit our shot list, by changing shot sizes and angles and we had to add a couple more shots in. We wanted to use a variety of shots and angles in our opening sequence so we tried to vary the shots we added in. We split our work up between the three of us in the group, however before splitting it up we all discussed what each part was going to be like so the whole group knew what was happening.