Question 7- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Insert Preliminary Task Video V Final Film Opening

When we compare the two, the main difference is the more complex storyline. Also the camera work has improved a lot since filming our preliminary task to filming the film opening scene. The preliminary task initially helped us understand what it took to create a piece, film it, and then edit it all in order to bring the whole piece together.  From this, I learnt a lot as it enabled me to understand what it was I needed to develop and improve on to ensure that my final opening scene was more advanced and looked professional.

• Filming- When comparing my original preliminary task to my opening scene, I can see how I have considered shot types a lot more. This helps make it look professional and well thought out. In order to have included all these shots, planning and storyboarding everything was very important. Also all the research we did this time round into similar and existing films helped as I could build my knowledge which enabled me to produce the best piece possible in my opening scene, which I didn't know when filming my preliminary task. Also when filming, rather than just using the camera, we considered how using tripods and dollies would aid us to add to the professionalism of our piece by making the film quality look better. This is because when using just the handheld camera, like in our preliminary task, it looks very shaky and this in turn makes it look very amateur. In comparison to our final opening scene which we used a tripod to film the majority of films, along with a dolly to film the moving shots where we followed behind our actor. All of the subtle changes to the way we filmed our opening scene, in comparison to preliminary task made our final piece more visually appealing and generally better.

• Planning- I also feel that I have learnt the importance of careful and thorough planning. This is because for our preliminary task, we did create a storyboard, script and shot list, however they were not detailed enough to properly aid us when filming as they should of been. This in turn made it harder for us to film our preliminary task quickly and efficiently. Based on this I new that I would need to make time for planning before shooting our opening scene. This is because it takes a long time to create detailed, helpful storyboards, shot lists and scripts. Therefore my biggest learning curb from creating preliminary to opening scene was to ensure planning was detailed and complete. If not, everything is made a lot harder because instead of looking at the storyboard and being able to see the next scene, shot type, shot length etc, you would have to know it, which isn't easy when also considering everything else you have to when filming a scene.

• Reliable/Flexible Actors- Another crucial part of film making that I found was ensuring you have reliable actors. In our preliminary task we had real struggles ensuring our actors would turn up on certain days, at certain times. We found that when was suitable for us, and suitable for our storyboard based on location and other external problems we may have had due to certain places only being available for filming on at certain times, often the actor couldn't make it. This meant that it made our preliminary task a real rush, making it a lot more stressful than it needed to be. This left us the problem of having to then change actors for our preliminary task, meaning he has to learn the storyline and know his lines in minimal time in order to ensure we had our preliminary task completed on time. Therefore, in our final scene, we ensured we chose a reliable actor who we knew had a track record of being punctual and flexible. This made filming a lot easier as it meant we could say to him that we were going to film it on a certain day at a certain time and we could relax knowing we wouldn't be let down last minute. Therefore, from doing the preliminary I learnt that having reliable actors is very important and from learning this probably helped me avoid this situation again in the filming of the opening scene meaning it was a lot less stressful and more relaxed.

Question 6- What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

In order to film our piece we used a Canon HD camera. This camera was HD however, even with this, some of the shots still weren't the best quality. This shows me that even though these cameras were expensive, compared to industry standard cameras they are no match. However, for what we needed, it was good enough. The piece we made looked professional and during the filming we experienced no real problems due to the camera. It was very easy to use, playback was very simple to meaning when we wanted to watch the clips back that we had just shot we could do with ease. We also managed to film during the day and were lucky enough to have got two good days when the weather was bright, meaning lighting was good enough for us to film without it causing any problems. The only problems we did face was the wind, we found that it went straight through the camera, therefore when we played our piece back we had some sounds that ideally we didn't want. This wasn't a problem however as in our opening, there is no dialogue from our main character meaning we could mute the clip and get rid of all background noise. This meant the slight wind noises weren't a problem in the end. This has shown me however that when filming for films, institutions must have to consider all these factors, or get specialist equipment in which is very expensive, this shows me the extent of planning that has to be done before filming and also made me understand that filming isn't as easy as it looks.

When editing our piece we used Apple Macs. We used the software iMovie to then edit our piece after uploading our clips from the memory card out of our camera onto the mac. The main reason for using iMovie besides any other software is that I have had some previous experience of using that software, for example when we had to edit our preliminary task. Therefore, it seemed the obvious choice of software to use as it required the least amount of practise prior to editing as we already knew how to use it which made the editing process more efficient. Our other option for editing our piece was Final Cut Express, however, after a little practise on this software, I decided using iMovie would be the better option due to having used it before and having experience using it and due to iMovie simplicity in comparison to Final Cut. Whilst editing we didn't experience to many problems, however it was prior to editing when we were trying to upload the clips from the memory card to the Macs, we encountered a problem in which the file was the wrong type and was not compatible with the Macs. This meant we then had to waste a majority of one day changing them from one file type to another. Other than this we encountered no drastic problems during the editing of our opening scene. A good thing about iMovie is that it allowed us to improve the quality of some of our shots by adjusting the quality by stabilising them. This added to our piece making it look professional. Overall, in the film industry as technology continues to improve, film quality will continue to improve also as editing equipment continues to grow and improve. From what I used when editing, it is already very advanced, and I only used basic editing techniques which added to my piece vastly. I used things like transitions, colour corrections and stabilisation feature which improved our opening scene.
To improve, next time I would consider learning how to use Final Cut Express, as I feel this would have also allowed for an even more advanced edit and meant our final product would have looked even better.

In order to keep and produce a blog of all our work, we used Google Blogger. I found this slightly frustrating to use at first as it often was hard to insert images where you wanted them and also found sometimes when I viewed my actual blog as a whole, text would hang off the side and not be visible or easy to read. However, after I got used to the software, I have actually grown to quite like it as I feel it gives quite a professional look, easy to keep all my work in one place and finally is easy to start a piece, save it and then edit it and add to it at a later date. If I were to do it again, after getting used to the software I would probably use it again as it did help to have all the work in one place and I never once experienced any technical difficulties with the site meaning it was safe and secure to do my blog work on.

Question 5- How did you attract/address your audience?

The video covers the majority of the questions. I got feedback from someone of the demographic of my target audience, a young adult. Like similar other films in the same genre, by using the expected generic conventions that you would expect to find in this genre it entices my target audience to watch the film. Stereotypically crime/dramas are more appealing to a male audience, hence this is our target demographic.

Question 4- Who would be the audience for your media product?

This is an example of my target audience, young adults, aged between 18 and 32.

My target audience would probably shop in quite mainstream shops, clothing would be purchased from stores such as Topman, River Island, Blue Inc etc. They would be up to date with the latest trends and like to always look well groomed and up to date. This is due to their age, they like to always look good, and in turn shop at these shops which they know will have the sort of clothing they look for.

They would mainly listen to rap music- with the like of Eminem, 50 Cent, Kendrick Lamar etc. They would be very into their music and up to date with all the latest songs and gossip from within the music world. Also they would like going to music festivals and seeing there favourite acts live. They also like music festivals for the social side of things, they like to get involved with things and enjoy spending time with their friends and having fun.

There favourite TV programmes would be programmes like..

• Top Gear
• Match of the Day
• Celebrity Juice

They enjoy action packed programmes that change weekly. Have to be jam packed with action to keep them entertained and interested. Like to keep up to date with the top news, hence watching these sort of programmes to understand and be able to share thoughts with friends about the subjects.

There favourite past time would be meeting up with friends and going down town, seeing a movie and playing sports. During the day they enjoy being active and playing sports, of an evening they enjoy either going out in the evenings or having relaxing evenings in watching the telly or putting a DVD on.

Question 3- What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The following is answered in a PowerPoint presentation.

Question 2- How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In this video I am discussing the question above.

Question 1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our film includes stereotypical conventions that you would expect to see in Crime/Dramas whilst also challenging these generic conventions in other ways.

 Most Crime/Dramas tend to have a good guy and a bad guy. Usually, in the end we see the ending come without a definite conclusion on what's happen. They are often very good at building tension and grabbing at the audience in order to make them want to watch on. Ours, also includes the majority of these things, besides having a bad guy in it. Our piece is aimed at young adults, because of this we have incorporated an expensive well known car, nice house and nice clothing. This enhances our audience because they can relate to this as they are at the point in their life where they are every interested in these things and want these things too. By being able to relate to things, it means the audience engages better with the film. Title sequences in our piece are very standard, meeting the requirements expected.

Another common convention of Crime/Dramas are for them to connect deeply with the audience and catch their feelings and allow them to relate to the text. This goes hand in hand with the uses and gratification theory that I spoke about in a previous post. By using this it means the audience is constantly looking for something from the text that they personally can relate too, meaning they are always active and aware of what's happening. By using this theory, and making our piece very relatable, people are more likely to want to watch it.

Also stereotypically we have a male as the main character. This is very common in Crime/Dramas as they are portrayed stereotypically to be the stronger gender hence playing the lead role, opposed to woman who are often made out to be seen as being venerable.

The camera work and shot types make our piece look verisimilitude. Again, a very stereotypical generic convention of Crime/Dramas is to make the scene very believable and realistic. By using establishing shots, which immediately show the location of the film and set the scene for the audience, it makes the piece seem very lifelike. Set in a large house, it is a stereotypical rich persons house, and the Jaguar car that Xavier the main character then gets into also is very stereotypical and what you would expect from a character like him. Again, enhancing the pieces realism.

A tension building piece of music is also used throughout, the idea is that it builds tension and almost works in harmony with the scenes as you see them. This means the audience will be more engaged as they are using more of their senses. This is a generic convention too.

Overall, our piece uses conventions that you would expect to find in a real life Crime/Drama product. This therefore makes people more interested in watching it as they are fooled to believe it could actually be a true story and could happen, therefore making it more believable and not so unrealistic that they switch off and don't pay attention.




Final Final Cut

This is our final final cut. We changed the music on it due to copyright reasons on the last piece.

Final Cut

This is our final cut. The finished version.

Rough Cut 2

In this cut we got rid of some of the effects used on the clips. We also added in our institutional logo at the beginning.  This made it look better and more professional. Below is the second clip of our piece.

Rough Cut 1

This is our first cut of our film. We still need to add in some changes to make it up to the standard its expected to be. We also need to add in our institutional logo and sort out some of the titles. This is the building blocks to our final cut.

Filming Diary

Day One: (20/03/2014) Afternoon, 14:00-16:00hrs.

We filmed the scene of Xavier at the construction site.

What went well?

• The actor/s arrived on time. This was beneficial because it meant we could start filming as soon as possible and get filming done before the area started to get busy, which would make it hard to film without people being in the way and getting in the background of shots.

• The actor/s were ready and dressed as we told them to be. This helped ensure the audience, when they watch the piece, understand what character he is playing and that it matches up with how we designed our piece to be during planning and storyboarding.

• We managed to get lots of shots of this to ensure we had plenty of footage; should when it comes to editing parts of some shots aren't as good as others in which case we have plenty of different footage that we can use to ensure our piece is the best it can be.

Negatives?

• Being outside meant that lighting was hard to get correct. It meant that sometimes we would have to wait until the sun went behind a cloud or visa versa in order to make the shot look good. Otherwise it meat we had unwanted shadows in the piece, lighting on the camera was poor resulting in the shot not looking very good and also in order to keep the consistency in all shots we had to ensure the weather was similar in each shoot.

• Again, being outside meant when filming the tracking shot of Xavier walking towards the building site, the ground was quite uneven meaning the shot sometimes looked a bit shaky. This then meant we had to go back and re-film to try and make the shot not look so bumpy and more professional.

• The camera kept on picking up on unwanted sounds from passers by. This unfortunately could not be helped and just means it will have to be cut out during editing. Its not a big problem, just one that could have been avoided by checking to see if anyone was around before shooting.

Day 2:  (21/03/2014) Afternoon, 13:00- 17:00 hrs

We filmed the scene of Xavier leaving his house, driving off in his car, getting out of his car (filming all the close ups of his body) and ensuring all sound we needed to include was filmed.

1. Filming at Springfield House

When here we started by filming the scene of Xavier leaving his house. Once he leaves his house, he then walks and gets into his car, we then see him in the car and leaving the premises of his home.

What went well?

• The majority of this scene went very well. Having had it very well planned and by following the storyboard it meant we efficiently moved through the scenes, filming them all at least three times before moving onto the next location.

• We checked the weather prior to arranging a day to film, luckily we managed to get a day where the weather was very similar to the previous time when we filmed, this after editing the film together, it'll look like it was all shot on the same day making it look continuous rather than being obvious it was shot on two different days.

Negatives?

In the background of one of the shots, their is lots of parked cars. Originally this was not meant to be in the shot and was not part of the scene on the storyboard, however there was nothing we could do about this and on reflection it added to the piece. This is because if you looked at the size of Xavier's house, then considered the storyline of the piece and looked at outfit Xavier was wearing, it would seem fitting for him to own lots of cars (dare I say the cars sitting in the background were mainly Jaguars and Land Rovers, stereotypically richer peoples cars).


    2.  Filming just outside the construction site

When here, we used the car to film the door opening and shutting. We also filmed Xavier getting out of the car, this includes close ups on his feet, cuffs and tie. We also filmed the diegetic sound of the car door shutting and opening.

What went well?

• We managed to film everything that we needed to.

• The lighting was ideal meaning the shots looked good and professional. Filming externally meant lighting was temperamental throughout the day.

Negatives?

There was a busy and noisy road next to where we were trying to film, this meant that trying to shoot was quite hard because it meant conditions weren't great. This means that we will have to edit the sound out.

Auditions for Film Openings

This was our first potential actor. However he didn't seem to concerned about the role and did not seem interested in whether or not he got the role. Also compared to the others, he did not show any personality, nor have any past experience in acting.



This was the second potential actor for our piece. He has been at acting school and therefore will have a better idea of what was expected of him in this role. We also felt he had more of a personality and would fit the role better than the initial candidate.



Our final potential candidate for the role of Xavier was very good. We were impressed with his audition and from the off, felt he would fit the role perfectly.



After looking at all the negatives and positives of all the candidates I felt that the best audition was by Lewis Hale, the 3rd and final person who auditioned for us. Therefore, as a group we all went on to agree this and have decided he will play the role of Xavier.

Possible Locations

Some of the possible locations where we are considering filming our film opening:

Marlborough House, Chelmsford.

QBE, Chelmsford.

Institutional Logo Designs

Some of my logo designs.

The second of my designs, the idea being that Chameleons can change colour in order to camouflage in with their surroundings. Therefore, its fitting having a rainbow, which has lots of different colours in it. The name of our production company then is in the cloud which is directly in front of the rainbow, therefore audiences instantly see our institutions name. The rainbows rounded shape also means that the audiences eye is naturally drawn to the text in front as whatever way they follow the rainbow down, leads to the text. This making it near on impossible to not see our institutions name.

My initial idea was to incorporate an image of the animal within the logo. However, after creating the logo, I thought that having the Chameleon itself in the logo meant the audiences attention is drew away from the institutions name and instead attention is on the image. This means people may not remember the institutions name, and instead just remember the image, which is okay initially, but then they wouldn't actually know the name of the company which isn't great when the idea of an institutional logo is credit and make people aware of the company who produced the film. After this I created another design which is a lot easier to look at and therefore, personally I think its a better logo and would be more beneficial at doing the job that is required from a logo.

Institutional logos- Mainstream and Independent

At the start of films, there is always institutional logo and titles. This is because it allows producers to show off what they have produced. They are identifiable at the beginning of films, and depending on the amount of production companies who were involved, depends on the amount of titles that will be seen.

Independent films usually have more logos in their films, this is because they have more funding from places, meaning they credit these companies. Also they are horizontally integrated, meaning money does not filter through the company, instead goes into over companies who have the technology to be able to distribute the film effectively and so on. This in turn another reason why independent films would have more titles, because they have to credit all these companies too.

Logos have changed over time. As times and technology have developed, so to have logos and titles.

History of Logos:

• Early Days- Very simple, black and white.
• 1922- Studios grew, motions and sounds are added into logos.
• 1976- By now, all major studios, except Universal had switched their logos to celluloid animations. This is when objects are drawn onto a transparent sheet and made to look as though they are moving. Like cartoons.
• 1980's- Still images returned.
• 1990's- Universal became animated.
• 2007- Logos changed to being edited on computers.

Mainstream

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox Institutional Logo

Universal Pictures

Universal Institutional Logo

 

Independent

Film 4



Film 4 Institutional Logo


Overall, from doing this research it has helped me to see that logos tend to be very simple and basic. This is because it then makes it easier for the audience to remember it, meaning every time they then see it they know which company it is and which company that logo belongs too. Based on this, when creating our companies logo, I will ensure it is quite simple, and that the logo itself has the institutions name within it. This way the audience will know what the logo is showing easily.

Being a mainstream company, it means we will have more surplus cash than an independent company would, meaning we could afford to make a very technical. However, I think it would be better to keep it simple because this way people will remember it easier. If its too complicated and too technologically advanced, people may not pay attention and lose interest. This would then mean they don't even see the logo, therefore never knowing what the institution is anyway. Therefore, I will keep my logo simple, to give it the best chance of people seeing it before turning off and not being interested. 

Our Production Company

Chameleon Productions as a group, decided we are going to be a mainstream production company. We decided that being a larger mainstream company would be better because it meant we have a larger market that we can aim for, meaning we appeal to a larger audience, therefore in turn usually meaning more money (profit) can be taken for the film. This means larger budgets for future films, meaning we can afford better more prolific actors that will also help to sell the film. This could be known as celebrity endorsement.

Another reason for being a large mainstream company is because the piece we are producing is very mainstream meaning the target market that we are targeting isn't as specific as it could be, however this means a wider audience we should increase sales. If we aimed our product at a niche market, the take up would immediately be less because there initially isn't as many in that particular market who we can target and aim our film towards.

Audience Theories

Hypodermic Needle Theory

This is when audiences don't need to pay that much attention, or engage their brain, to understand the film, instead, the information is just fed to them.




The Uses and Gratification Theory

This is where audiences want to feel something from a film. These audiences will select a particular film because they want to learn something from it.

How will this apply to our film?

We will apply these theories in our films by firstly understanding what it is the audience wants to get from our film by doing genre research prior to making our opening scene. Once we understand what it is they want we will use the hypodermic needle theory to feed the information into the audiences. By doing this they will then want to watch the rest of the film because although they may not have been engaged, where the information was fed into them they are now intrigued about what is going to happen next and therefore want to see more. We will use the Uses and Gratifications theory by using stereotypical conventions of which you would expect to find from Crime/Dramas, this will then mean our target audience, who want to see these typical conventions will watch our film opening, notice the typical conventions that they'd expect, which will make them want to see the rest of the film. They will want to watch more as this is what they expected and what they wanted to see.

American Pie: Opening Sequence Timeline

I chose to do a timeline on American Pie because it wasn't the standard opening scene that you would normally expect. This just shows to me the variety of different openings that as a group we could consider doing.                                                  

    

 

American Pie Opening Title Sequence from Venkat Gazula on Vimeo.

The Hangover: Opening Sequence Timeline