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Copyright Information
Any use of music in this film complies with 'Fair Dealing' under the 1988 Copyright Designs and Patents Act (UK), Sections 6(i) and 6(ii); Fair dealing is a term used to describe some limited activities that are allowed without infringing copyright. Briefly these are as follows:Section 6i. Research and private studyCopying parts of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work or of a typographical arrangement of a published edition for the purpose of research or private study is allowed under the following conditions:· The copy is made for the purposes of research or private study.· The copy is made for non-commercial purposes.· The source of the material is acknowledged.· The person making the copy does not make copies of the material available for a number of people.ii Instruction or examinationCopying parts of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work or a sound recording, film or broadcast for the purpose of instruction or examination is allowed under the following conditions:· The copying is done by the student or the person giving instruction.· The copying is not done via a reprographic process.· The source of the material is acknowledged.· The instruction is for a non-commercial purpose.
Thursday 22 April 2010
Monday 19 April 2010
Final Evaluation - Main Excercise
The process of producing our media film for the main excercise has been a challenging yet enjoyable one. Our film; 'Becoming Bella Bright' is of the 'chick flick/musical' genre and is prodominantly aimed at an audience of young girls aged between 13 and 19 years old. This audience has already proved popular with our chosen genre of film, examples include 'Hairspray' directed by Adam Shankman, and 'Camp Rock' which was directed by Matthew Diamond. The reason for the success (in relation to their target audiences) of these films and others like them is greatly due to the fact that the audience are able to relate to the main character/s. For example, the process of getting ready in the morning, the journey to school/work and the general day layout. As a group, we noticed and used this and agreed that the shots where our character was getting ready fot the day were particularly important. We also noticed that chick flick/musical films very often begin with a morning sequence and end with a sequence which takes place in the evening. So even thought the story may happen over a period of days, the whole film is essentially one day. People like clear beginnings, and then closure. This is another reason our film is a morning sequence.
Camp Rock Opening Sequence - Notes in Research Link
We wanted to use 'upbeat' music to aid our film, and chose carefully which music would suit our product. We wanted our audience to get a feeling of a build-up to something and a positive mood from the opening sequence, which would then set up the 'feel' and atmosphere for the whole film. Chick flick/musicals are generally upbeat, are 'feel-good' and have happy endings, and we chose
not to deviate from this norm.
In terms of casting, we decided to use the cliche stereotype of a female blonde. We decided this because the stereotype of blondes today suits our main character very well. She is bubbly, confident, high maintenance and slightly nieve. 'Becoming Bella Bright' suggests a process and even the whole storyline and general direction of the film. Very simply, the main girl is going for an audition for the lead part of the character 'Bella Bright' in a musical, the process of the auditions and learning to become Bella Bright changes her and her nieve and slightly 'stuck-up' attitude towards life.
Another thing we noticed during the research stage, was how codes and conventions in the set of the films we looked at were used to reinforce the characters personality and associate with the target audience. We drew on this and went with the idea of a girly bedroom for our main character and a very over-the-top dress code for her very over-the-top personality. We wanted her to stand out. To demonstrate her individuality and non-coforming dress sense, we brought in a second character to walk past her to show a constrast in costume.
To make our product 'flow' and look realistic in terms of the time the events happen over, we used continuting editing. For example, when the girl's alarm clock strikes 7am, to her eyes opening, then back to the alarm clock with her hitting the 'off' button. It was hard to get the second hand in the right place at the right time over 3 seperate shots needing to look like a single process. In another part of our opening film sequence, the girl in our film is walking down a corridor towards a door, then it cuts to an over-the-shoulder shot of her pulling the handle and opening the door, then to a close-up of her feet walking into the audition room. The continuity of this edit was important so that it looked like it happened all in one shot with no unfilled time or pauses.
As a group, we didn't want the audience to see the girl in full or her whole face untill the very end, so that the sequence is a process that is building up to the final finished product of the girl, and keeps the audience watching and interested. This is why we used lots of close-ups, to only show and reveal certain parts of the girl, and never her whole face/head. We wanted our target audience to be able to relate to the process of getting ready so that they relate it back to themselves and their routine so that they understand because the audience are there with her, getting ready. When you do finally see the whole of the girl head-on in a panning-up long-shot, she is the happy, bright, bouncy blonde you expect. The lighting is bright to reinforce her mood and the mood of the film. The pan is slow, a point-of-view shot from the auditioner behind the piano. The audience sees what the auditioner sees. So you go from being right next to the main girl, getting ready, to someone else looking at her, seeing her in full, now ready for her audition.
Overall, I am pleased with our film and feel we have worked well as a group and well within our roles. Things I could have improved on include my technical skills, as we had to use Premier Pro to edit rather than Movie Maker so I couldn't offer as much help with editing as I would have liked. I also could have done more research and perhaps more detailed paper work in general. Although I am happy with the outcome of this main excercise and have found it a valuable experience in terms of film making and the process of it.
Links:
Roles & Ideas
SWOT
Research
Camp Rock Opening Sequence - Notes in Research Link
We wanted to use 'upbeat' music to aid our film, and chose carefully which music would suit our product. We wanted our audience to get a feeling of a build-up to something and a positive mood from the opening sequence, which would then set up the 'feel' and atmosphere for the whole film. Chick flick/musicals are generally upbeat, are 'feel-good' and have happy endings, and we chose
not to deviate from this norm.
In terms of casting, we decided to use the cliche stereotype of a female blonde. We decided this because the stereotype of blondes today suits our main character very well. She is bubbly, confident, high maintenance and slightly nieve. 'Becoming Bella Bright' suggests a process and even the whole storyline and general direction of the film. Very simply, the main girl is going for an audition for the lead part of the character 'Bella Bright' in a musical, the process of the auditions and learning to become Bella Bright changes her and her nieve and slightly 'stuck-up' attitude towards life.
Another thing we noticed during the research stage, was how codes and conventions in the set of the films we looked at were used to reinforce the characters personality and associate with the target audience. We drew on this and went with the idea of a girly bedroom for our main character and a very over-the-top dress code for her very over-the-top personality. We wanted her to stand out. To demonstrate her individuality and non-coforming dress sense, we brought in a second character to walk past her to show a constrast in costume.
To make our product 'flow' and look realistic in terms of the time the events happen over, we used continuting editing. For example, when the girl's alarm clock strikes 7am, to her eyes opening, then back to the alarm clock with her hitting the 'off' button. It was hard to get the second hand in the right place at the right time over 3 seperate shots needing to look like a single process. In another part of our opening film sequence, the girl in our film is walking down a corridor towards a door, then it cuts to an over-the-shoulder shot of her pulling the handle and opening the door, then to a close-up of her feet walking into the audition room. The continuity of this edit was important so that it looked like it happened all in one shot with no unfilled time or pauses.
As a group, we didn't want the audience to see the girl in full or her whole face untill the very end, so that the sequence is a process that is building up to the final finished product of the girl, and keeps the audience watching and interested. This is why we used lots of close-ups, to only show and reveal certain parts of the girl, and never her whole face/head. We wanted our target audience to be able to relate to the process of getting ready so that they relate it back to themselves and their routine so that they understand because the audience are there with her, getting ready. When you do finally see the whole of the girl head-on in a panning-up long-shot, she is the happy, bright, bouncy blonde you expect. The lighting is bright to reinforce her mood and the mood of the film. The pan is slow, a point-of-view shot from the auditioner behind the piano. The audience sees what the auditioner sees. So you go from being right next to the main girl, getting ready, to someone else looking at her, seeing her in full, now ready for her audition.
Overall, I am pleased with our film and feel we have worked well as a group and well within our roles. Things I could have improved on include my technical skills, as we had to use Premier Pro to edit rather than Movie Maker so I couldn't offer as much help with editing as I would have liked. I also could have done more research and perhaps more detailed paper work in general. Although I am happy with the outcome of this main excercise and have found it a valuable experience in terms of film making and the process of it.
Links:
Roles & Ideas
SWOT
Research
Tuesday 23 March 2010
The Filming Process...
Our original provisional filming date was the 9th of march, however our actress couldn't attend at the last minute due to other college commitments so we had to reschedule to the following thursday, the 16th of march. I feel we were well prepared for filming and we had done all the recces, call sheets and risk assessments necessary. The first location we filmed at was the audition room.
At first, progress was slow as we set up and established where the camera was going to be in relation the the actress, what we wanted the actress (Lauren) to do and adjusted the room to fit the script/storyboard. We could draw on our past experience of making a previous film for the preliminary excercise and knew exactly what was involved with the process, we also had a much better idea of what it was we wanted to produce this time around. This was our preliminary excercise: "The Meeting" -
At first, progress was slow as we set up and established where the camera was going to be in relation the the actress, what we wanted the actress (Lauren) to do and adjusted the room to fit the script/storyboard. We could draw on our past experience of making a previous film for the preliminary excercise and knew exactly what was involved with the process, we also had a much better idea of what it was we wanted to produce this time around. This was our preliminary excercise: "The Meeting" -
All members of the group had a very clear image about what we want our finished film to look like which we put onto paper by doing scripts and storyboards. When filming last week, we follwed these fairly closely although we did alter some angles slightly. Unfortunatly we ran out of time and were losing light, so decided to reschedule for the next filming session which will be this thursday the 25th of march. Tomorrow we plan to capture the last of the needed shots so that next week we can properly start the editing process.
Wednesday 3 March 2010
The First Reflective Main Exercise Blog Entry Thing!
We have now started to plan for the main excercise. I feel we have adapted well to a new group member and are working well together. We are almost ready to film next week and have completed our first two draft scripts - 1st draft & 2nd draft
As a group, we discussed who we wanted to aim our film at and what our target audience would want to see. After brainstorming ideas, we agreed that a 'chick flick/musical' film would be popular with young females and also this genre has already proven popular with this audience. Examples would include; 'Hairspray, Camp Rock, Legally Blonde, Freaky Friday' and 'Lizzie Mcquire'. We have managed to come up with a brief storyline for the film, to give us more of an idea of what needs to happen within the opening sequence. After doing some research, we noticed that long shots are normally used to show the location and set the atmosphere for the film, for example at the beginning of Camp Rock, we see a large white house surrounded by a white picket fence with a green lawn and trees, with dogs barking and birds singing in the background. This gives the stereotype of a family home in a friendly neighbourhood.
I have noticed how much more needs to be done for the main excercise compared the the preliminary excercise. Five things I plan to do differently in the main excercise are; learn more about the technical aspects (e.g. a more complicated editing site and what formats we can save our film in and how they are different), offer more ideas and try to be more creative, write more detail about everything - like the production schedule, props/costume, research notes etc, doing more outside of lessons (writing up notes at home and doing extra research into audience etc) and as a group we want to make our film look as professional as possible, and a big part of this will rely on continuity editing.
We plan to film next week and I think we are all feeling quite confident about how our film will turn out, but we need to work closely with our script and storyboard, and consider what we find out in our research to make sure codes and conventions are thought about thoroughly.
As a group, we discussed who we wanted to aim our film at and what our target audience would want to see. After brainstorming ideas, we agreed that a 'chick flick/musical' film would be popular with young females and also this genre has already proven popular with this audience. Examples would include; 'Hairspray, Camp Rock, Legally Blonde, Freaky Friday' and 'Lizzie Mcquire'. We have managed to come up with a brief storyline for the film, to give us more of an idea of what needs to happen within the opening sequence. After doing some research, we noticed that long shots are normally used to show the location and set the atmosphere for the film, for example at the beginning of Camp Rock, we see a large white house surrounded by a white picket fence with a green lawn and trees, with dogs barking and birds singing in the background. This gives the stereotype of a family home in a friendly neighbourhood.
I have noticed how much more needs to be done for the main excercise compared the the preliminary excercise. Five things I plan to do differently in the main excercise are; learn more about the technical aspects (e.g. a more complicated editing site and what formats we can save our film in and how they are different), offer more ideas and try to be more creative, write more detail about everything - like the production schedule, props/costume, research notes etc, doing more outside of lessons (writing up notes at home and doing extra research into audience etc) and as a group we want to make our film look as professional as possible, and a big part of this will rely on continuity editing.
We plan to film next week and I think we are all feeling quite confident about how our film will turn out, but we need to work closely with our script and storyboard, and consider what we find out in our research to make sure codes and conventions are thought about thoroughly.
Thursday 18 February 2010
Overall thoughts about the Preliminary Excercise
Overall, I think that the preliminary excercise went well and our group worked well together. By completing the preliminary excercise, I have learnt more about my own practical skills and what I can improve on when it comes to doing the main excercise. For example I wish I had known more about the technical aspects of production as this was all new to me. Also, I learnt more about continuity editing and with help, managed to make our finished film 'flow' better so it doesn't look jumpy and there aren't unnessercery pauses. I think we worked well in our roles and all contributed something positive to the group.
Friday 5 February 2010
Filming and Editing the Preliminary Exercise
The first thing our group did when we got to our filming location, (the TV Studio in the Media Studies block), was agree on where our 180' line was and where our actors would sit in relation to rule of thirds. We had carried out a risk assessment before hand and were ready to shoot. However, one of our actors failed to show due to illness but luckily we quickly found an actress to take his place. Whilst shooting our film we referred constantly back to our script and storyboard, and only made one or two changes. It was really useful having the script and storyboard as it made shooting quicker and smoother and everyone on set knew their role and what needed to be done.
Innitially we needed help with the lighting in the studio as this was a new feature to all of us, however once we had learnt the basics of how to ajust the lighting and had started filming, production ran well and efficiently.
We were set back slightly when it came to editing our film as we had the shots saved to the wrong file so instead of editing our footage on one of the college computers, David brought his laptop in and I edited it on Windows Movie Maker, with help from the rest of the group. We decided to leave out one of the shots to make the film look smoother and so the edits were less noticable. It took a while to tighten the sequence of shots up so that it wasn't 'jumpy' or noticable that the footage was shot in many shots, but we all decided that their was a noticicable difference when the shots ran into each other nicely and the speech of the actors flowed like a conversation should do. However, in the case of our film (a hitmen meeting), we wanted to keep the drama level high so therefore didn't leave much space in editing at all for hesitations and pauses between speech, and we thought this worked well and helped to reinforce the anger and furstration of our most dominant character.
Whilst watching the footage back, we noticed that the lighting was actually quite dark, and although this helps with the atmosphere of the film, it is, at times, hard to see the characters. On the other hand the contrast of lighting on the two characters works; the less dominant character is lit much brighter than the dominant character, who's face is barly visible at times, so our eye is drawn to the light, which is drawn to the character, who is looking at the other character, so through intradiagetic gaze, our focus is back on the most dominant and important character, this is also reinforced through rule of thirds.
We have now finished editing our film and are generally quite pleased with the outcome. We have made a final script and have taken notes of the footage so the next stage now is to put the film onto DVD or disc.
Links:
Edited Script
Notes on footage
Final shots
Innitially we needed help with the lighting in the studio as this was a new feature to all of us, however once we had learnt the basics of how to ajust the lighting and had started filming, production ran well and efficiently.
We were set back slightly when it came to editing our film as we had the shots saved to the wrong file so instead of editing our footage on one of the college computers, David brought his laptop in and I edited it on Windows Movie Maker, with help from the rest of the group. We decided to leave out one of the shots to make the film look smoother and so the edits were less noticable. It took a while to tighten the sequence of shots up so that it wasn't 'jumpy' or noticable that the footage was shot in many shots, but we all decided that their was a noticicable difference when the shots ran into each other nicely and the speech of the actors flowed like a conversation should do. However, in the case of our film (a hitmen meeting), we wanted to keep the drama level high so therefore didn't leave much space in editing at all for hesitations and pauses between speech, and we thought this worked well and helped to reinforce the anger and furstration of our most dominant character.
Whilst watching the footage back, we noticed that the lighting was actually quite dark, and although this helps with the atmosphere of the film, it is, at times, hard to see the characters. On the other hand the contrast of lighting on the two characters works; the less dominant character is lit much brighter than the dominant character, who's face is barly visible at times, so our eye is drawn to the light, which is drawn to the character, who is looking at the other character, so through intradiagetic gaze, our focus is back on the most dominant and important character, this is also reinforced through rule of thirds.
We have now finished editing our film and are generally quite pleased with the outcome. We have made a final script and have taken notes of the footage so the next stage now is to put the film onto DVD or disc.
Links:
Edited Script
Notes on footage
Final shots
Friday 29 January 2010
First skills audit for the G321 Foundation Production
When we first began our coursework planning for the preliminary excercise, I was a little worried about how much we had to do in relation to how long we had to do it in. However, after we had created a production scedule I think the whole group felt better about where we were and what we needed to do. Initial ideas were brainstormed and we came up with our final idea to film a short meeting between two hitmen.
When deciding our roles within the group we tried to match everyone as best we could, for example David has experience with a camera and has his own, so he is our camera man. I am editor as I have edited videos on Windows Movie Maker before, however I would like to develop my editing skills so that we can make our main excercise film look as professional as possible, even though we are all amateurs. I also aim to improve my angles/shots vocabulary and to experiment when we come to film the main excercise. I have already learnt a lot about what's involved when preparing to film, including how to produce a SWOT analysis, how to produce a call sheet, and how to carry out a risk assessment.
I feel we are making good progress and am pleased with the outcome of our filming afternoon this wednesday gone. After a slight setback when one of our actors didn't show due to illness, we soon found an actress to take his place and adapted the script to the situation. We also couldn't use dress codes to reinforce the characters roles because our actress replaced our ill actor last minute so we didn't have time to find a suitable outfit.
The next stage is to edit our film. As editor this is primarily my job, but the whole group will have an impact on the final film. We have already chosen which takes to use (we took several of each shot) and hope that they flow smoothly when we put them onto Windows Movie Maker.
Links:
Production Schedule Plan
SWOT Analysis
Initial Ideas
Origianl Script
Storyboards
Props
Risk Assessment
When deciding our roles within the group we tried to match everyone as best we could, for example David has experience with a camera and has his own, so he is our camera man. I am editor as I have edited videos on Windows Movie Maker before, however I would like to develop my editing skills so that we can make our main excercise film look as professional as possible, even though we are all amateurs. I also aim to improve my angles/shots vocabulary and to experiment when we come to film the main excercise. I have already learnt a lot about what's involved when preparing to film, including how to produce a SWOT analysis, how to produce a call sheet, and how to carry out a risk assessment.
I feel we are making good progress and am pleased with the outcome of our filming afternoon this wednesday gone. After a slight setback when one of our actors didn't show due to illness, we soon found an actress to take his place and adapted the script to the situation. We also couldn't use dress codes to reinforce the characters roles because our actress replaced our ill actor last minute so we didn't have time to find a suitable outfit.
The next stage is to edit our film. As editor this is primarily my job, but the whole group will have an impact on the final film. We have already chosen which takes to use (we took several of each shot) and hope that they flow smoothly when we put them onto Windows Movie Maker.
Links:
Production Schedule Plan
SWOT Analysis
Initial Ideas
Origianl Script
Storyboards
Props
Risk Assessment
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