Shooting Schedule

Question 7

My preliminary task was of me and Harry having a conversation in one of the huts in our school. For this we included a shot reverse shot, match on action, eye-line match, and we kept to the 180 degree rule. For my opening compared to my preliminary I think that the editing flows more and the camera work is up to higher standard as we use a variety of shots.
 

 

The tube chop in my preliminary links to my opening sequence. In this one we also used the 180 degree rule when we are lost in the forest and can’t find the boys we were suppose to meet up with. This implies that the girls are lost in the woods therefore they are now more vulnerable, it is an effective shot as we can also can see the location they are in, the conversation we are having and what the characters are wearing. We are not breaking the rule at any time as we are again in the centre of the camera (on the 180 degree point)and have not gone past the line.


Linking this back to the preliminary task, we have subsequently used match on action in our opening sequence. We have used this at the beginning of the opening sequence where the 2 girls are walking into the forest, and when they are walking through the branches in the forest, this is where we have used match on action. The two shots from both sides flow smoothly together, and show that someone is watching them.

 

Question 6 part 8

What have new technologies allowed you to do that old ones wouldn’t?

The new technologies have allowed me to do things that old ones wouldn't. Firstly animoto has helped me make my work more creative and display photos in a more interesting way. Also iMovie has been a really good technology to allow me to do thing I would have never been able to do before. I am really glad that I picked media because the things I have learnt and used for my work will help me with other things, such as making my work creative.

Question 6 part 7

Were there any times you had to do something again because you hadn’t used the technology correctly?


There were a number of times were I had to redo certain things because I didnt know how to use the technolygy correctly. I had to do one of my slide rockets twice, bubbl aswell. Most of the technoligies have been reallu helpfull and quite easy to use however some I could quite get the hang of at first. Another thing that I founD difficult was finding the embed code on the websites to put onto my blog.

Question 6 part 5

What technologies have allowed you to display your work in a creative way?

Slide rocket has abled me to display my work in a creative work,Animoto is a short video which I put pictures on. Prezi is a better version of powerpoint and is a good way to make my work look creative. Also things such as bubble and worddle are good ways to make small amounts of text look creative.

question 6 part 4

What technologies have allowed you to produce something really creative?

iMovie has allowed me to produce some really creative things, I have been able to make a number of videos on their. Me and a partner once made a 'Push a little button' video. We took photos of buttons on a still image camera and then put the pictures onto iMovie, we cut the clips so they were 2 - 3 seconds short. This worked really well as you couldnt take your eyes off it when watching. We added in music aswell which was the 'Push a little button' soundtrack. Another time iMovie alowed me to produce somthing really creative was the last task me and my group done. It was to create a opening sequence of our chosen genre, which was horror. From using iMovie me, Megan and Charlie were able to edit the football that we got so it flowed nicely and actually looks professional. iMovie also allowed us to add a red filter, titles, and a logo in for our production company.

Question 6 part 6

Our story boards need a lot of planning as we needed to think really carefully about what shot we wanted. We needed to have a reason behind picking the shots so it took a long time and a lot of thought. Me and my group made sure that we were all happy before we actually drew the picture of the particular shot on the story board. We also had to think about the positioning of the titles on the story board, so as well as thinking about why we wanted to use that shot we had to think about were the titles would go. The titles are just as important than everything else so it took a while for me and my group to decide what titles we needed and where they were going to go within the shot. The story board was basically a cartoon version of what our opening sequence would look like. It took lots of thought before we could actually draw anything otherwise we would have been continuously rubbing things out and starting again. Once it was all completed we took pictures of every shot and put it onto iMovie and made it into a opening sequence by adding in music. We tried to follow this as much as possible when actually filming but some shots we did change.

Qquestion 3

Question 6 part 3

What technoligies have allowed you to produce something really creative.

Moving image camera/tripod - allowed me create creative shots - Throught the twigs - handheld of megan

Slide rocket - presents work - pictures

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

Vox Pops & Lethal Media Final Product

Question 6 - Questionnaire Data

These are the results from my groups questionairs. The first question was did you like the setting? Everyone said yes which is really good. Me and my group werent always so sure on the setting so it has boosted out confiendece that the public do like it. The 2nd question was did you notice the red filter?Most people said they didnt realise it was used, which isnt suprisig because we didnt make it very obvious. However some people did say yes. The 3rd question were the characters believable? Most people did say yes but there was a minortiy which said no. We wasnt too bothered by this becuase it isnt about the acting skills. Question number 4 was Did you think our opeing sequence links to a typical horror film? just under 1/4 of the people said no which is slightly diapointing as it would have been nice to have everyone say yes, but we are still happy with the people who did say yes. Did you like the titles and do you think they link to our opening sequence ? Question 5 had much better results as eveyone said yes so me and me group were really pleased with that becuase titles do play quite a big part in an oopeing sequence

Question 5

Question 6 part 1

The Apple Macs were alien to me as i had never used them before so I had to learn how to copy and paste using cmd c and cmd v. Also you tube annotations were new to me but lucky i watched a screen cast on how to do it. I have always used a still image camera and sometimes a moving image camera but i had never used a tripod before. They are a great piece of equipment to use for steady shots. I am glad i have mastered how to use one now. To make my blog posts super visual I have used technologies such as Prezi, Screen cast, Bubbl, Wordle and YouTube annotations.

Question 6 part 2

Question 4

Me and my group decided that the people most likely to watch out film would be teenagers. The reason for this is because, firstly no child will want to watch a horror as they will not understand and find the film too scary to watch, and older people generally don’t watch horrors. When I and my group did our vox pops 4 people out of 5 were all aged 16-18 said they liked horrors. When filming our vox pops one girl mentioned watching them at sleepovers, which we think would be one of main typical groups to watch horrors.  We also think that the audience will have facebook and text a lot, because our film is about social networking and texting, and the dangers that come along with it. The age of the audience we said the majority of them will be 15 – 21 and a mixed gender group but maybe more girls as the film does start off with two girls that are best friends. The film is low budget so we think that they will be students, as many 15 year olds don’t work and lots of people nowadays stay on for higher education. We think that the audience will be skilled working class. Personal interests of the audience will be socialising, listens to up to date music, is popular and fashionable. I can imagine it being a girl with dip dip dyed hair, this shows that she is in with the latest look and takes care in her appearance.

Final Draft

feedback sheet 2

feedback sheet 1

2nd draft

This is mine Charlie and Megans 2nd draft. Unfortunatly we didnt have much time to edit so the titles here arent right. I think we have some really strong shots in this draft but we do need to add in more shots and re-do some to make it better.

First Draft

This is our product for Media Studies coursework.

exam questions

1.       In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge for and conventions of real media products.

The conventions of an opening sequence in general are titles, establishing shots, giving the audience clues, equilibrium/ disequilibrium, soundtrack, establishing the mood of the film, product/distributer logos and lastly prompting the audience to ask questions. These conventions are used to make the audience think and begin to create a storyline of their own.

The titles give clues as the font, size, colour and how they appear on the screen are related to the genre, if the titles are pink and in a big swirly font the audience will immediately know the film is girly a fairytale. An example of this is in the film Ella Enchanted where the title of the film is in a very fairy tale font, as is looks gold with vines wrapped around the letters and fairy dust. In my groups opening sequence we have red titles, we chose this colour as we find it relates the most to horror films. It also looked good up against the shots we had so it fitted the best. People who watch films quite often will know or have a slight thought that our film is a horror.

Establishing shots are used so the audience is able to see the scene, from this they would begin to guess what the film will be like or about. If there was an establishing shot of a forest in the evening the audience may begin to think this could be a horror or a thriller, look how scary that looks. The escent is a horror film, here the establishing shot is very gory and immediately the audience will guess this red on her face is blood from the dead bodies behind her.

Furthermore, another convention, giving the audience clues is used so the audience can think about what the film will be based on. However sometimes films may give clues to the audience to get them thinking one thing when actually they are going to shock them and go again the clues.

The 4^th convention is equilibrium/disequilibrium; equilibrium is used to give the film the feeling of normality, this makes it easy for the audience to relate to them and put themselves in their position. Disequilibrium is opposite, so it doesn’t portray the feeling of normality.

Soundtrack is a convention that is used in nearly all films. Without music most films will not be very successful. Music enhances the mood the film is trying to get across. In horror films the music will build tension to slowly scare the audience before something important happens.

Establishing the mood of the film is very important as the aim is for the audience to feel like it too. If the film is realistic people will be able to put themselves in the characters shoes. Things such as the shots used, tiles, soundtracks etc. all take part in creating the mood of the film next. 

2.       How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In my groups opening sequence we have represented the teenage social group. The two girls (me and Megan) are middle class white able-minded and able-bodied girls. The stereotypical typical teenage girl is someone that wears make up, has good fashion sense, and care free, meaning they are prone to danger. Nowadays teenagers are believed to spend lots of time on social networking sites such as Facebook. Having teenagers as the main part of our opening sequence is perfect as they are vulnerable and something could happen to them. In our opening sequence we represented them by using a variety of shots, one shot we used was the camera was behind a tree with thin branches, so we could see the girls walk through the forest and it feels as though we are watching them and they do not know we are there. At the very beginning we had a long shot of the two girls walking down the road, the shot is from behind so it instantly feels as if someone is following them. This causes the audience to worry and think ‘are they being followed?’ ‘By who?’ ‘Why?’

Charlie’s character is the ‘boy’ Demi has been talking to over social networking and text. John is actually a man, and this is all we know about him and that he is white. We decided to not show much of this character as it creates a mystery. We also do not want to give too much away in the opening sequence. We used shots that gave the audience clues such as a shot of him putting on gloves, from this shot we can see he is wearing a black coat, he’s hands are white and he’s putting on gloves. This will make the audience question why he is putting gloves on.

Animatic Storyboard

This animatic storyboard is essentially is a short animation that we created in iMovie. Our group produced this storyboard to give us more ideas on on what shots we should use in our opening sequence and how we should incorporate sound into our product in post-production. Creating this storyboard in iMovie was useful for various reasons; it allowed our group to get a better idea of how to work with iMovie, gave us a better idea of how long our opening sequence will be and helped us to determine which sounds would and wouldn't be appropriate in our opening sequence.

Post 6 Planning - Props, Costumes and Locations

This is Megans athsema pump and this is one of our props. Me my group thought this would be a really nice idea as this is a very small piece of equipment but with out you can die (if you are atsematic) In our opening sequence to a horror Megan who plays Megan does has atsema and while shes running, unbeknowed to her it falls out of her pocket. The audience get to see the moment megan drops her atsema pump which gives the audience a sense of importance , but they are also leftasking themselves, 'is this forshadowing something bad will happen ?'

This is my phone that my group will be using in our opening sequence. We will be refering back the the text messages between Demi and John a boy she has recently met over the internet.  The text meaages will tell us about the relationship they have and that they are going to be meeting in a woods. My phones does have crack in the centre of the screen but this helps to portray Demi;s character of a dipsy teenage girl.

This is the decison that my group have decided, we all liked the concept of the openfield then the woods. Although the picture is is the dark we wil be fiming in the light. The woods is a place that not many teenage girls visit, this is used deliberately to raise the audiences suspision on 'why did John ask her to meet there?'  The woods is also a place where not a ot of people are going to be, therfore if something bad were to happen then there couldnt be no quick action to help.

Storyboards

Planning post 10 - Casting

Firstly we have chosen Megan to be one of the main parts as she is a drama student.  She fits our idea of the character of the teenage girl. Megan is stylish and takes pride in what she looks likes, which is exactly what her character is like.

We also have Demi as the other main part in the opening sequence. Demi has the clothes to fit the stereotypical teenage girl. Demi also fits our idea of what a teenage girl should look like.

Charlie is going to be the antagonist of the film because he has an intimidating body structure. Charlie is 5ft11 which fits our idea of a man as he is quite tall. Also, Charlie has black clothing that he can wear so that when he gets filmed, he will have a mysterious look because of the black clothing he is wearing.

Titles

Titles used in our opening product:

- New Wonder Productions
- Working Title Films
- Casting by Demi Proud, Megan Harris and Charlie Price
- Edited by Mike Adams
- Music by David Laws
- Produced by Ann Lee
- Directed by Nikola Busonovic

These are the titles that will appear in order for our horror opening sequence.

These are a few ideas of the fonts of titles we are going to use. We are unsure as to now of what one will be using. We want to use a font that is suited to our genre. We would also like to use a red coloured font but some font websites don't have fonts that can be changed in colour.

Panning Post - 12 Location Permission

Post 9 - planning - character descriptions

Demi:14 year old girl, who acts older than her age. Has an older sister who she idles. Bubbly and dipsy, doesn't always think things through. She is sporty and is involved in a netball team and a gymnastics squad. Likes to wear make-up as she feels better and enhances her confidence.Can be very persuasive and hard to say no to, so she usually gets her way. Demi has lots of good friends but has one friend she can always rely on. She has the the latest fashion sense and is in with the crowd. Likes to go on Facebook a lot to talk to her friends and meet new people.

Megan: 14 girl who also acts and looks older than her age. Always wearing her older sisters clothes to look fashionable. She is shy at first but is confident when she comes out her shell.Megan has common sense unlike Demi, so she is good with directions and everyday things. Megan likes to dance and sing and aspires to be in the west end when shes older.She is very sweet and innocent but is always faithful to her friend and sticks by Demi even if she has a crazy idea.Megan is always trying to help people and she is very realistic and sensible.

The Script

(Two girls are walking down a road, clear shot from the back of their heads)

Megan- So where are we meeting them again?

Demi- Let me just check.

(Demi scrolls down her phone to look at the previous messages between her and John)

Demi- Yeah we are meeting them in the warehouse over there(looks to the left). (panning/point of view shot of forest)

Megan-Are you joking?!

Demi- does it look like i'm joking?

Megan-look Dem, ive got so much homework to do & so many deadlines..

Demi- Oh come on, don't chicken out, come on i set you up with his mate!

Megan- But i don't even know the guy?

Demi- Oh please Meg, its going to be fun i promise!

Megan- Oh fine then. (walks into the forest)

(the two girls are walking through the forest, many different sounds occur, quiet music creeps in and is playing very quietly in the background. Demi secretly texts the boys saying 'where are you?')

Demi- I think we're lost.

Megan- What do you mean we're lost?

Demi- look don't panic, you go that way and look for the warehouse, i'll stay here incase the boys come out and look for us.

Megan- Ok.

(Megan departs to the left of the forest looking for the boys, Demi stays in the same place trying to call for the boys)