EVALUATION 8: What targets will you set yourself for G324- When making trailers?

Targets in which I will set myself for next year's course (G324), is that I would use a tripod when filming, as this will help me to stabilize the footage, and will improve the quality of the footage, which will make it look more professional. Using a tripod would allow to edit the film or trailer for next year, as the footage will be better , and it would be still and the quality of it will show a clear meaning with each movement whilst filming.Also, by using a tripod we would be able to move it better without the footage becoming shaky and look out of focus the whole time. Also I would trial different cameras to try the quality of it and experiment with them as we didn't do that in the first place so ended with a less quality one which effected the overall quality of the footage.  

Another target that i would make is that I would make sure to complete planning and and make sure we know what we are doing before it all gets to much as I found that we were rushing to get the film made this year and that we could have made it better having given ourselves more time. However,  filming in the sixth form, we need a crowd and busy setting to create the appropriate setting and the week which we were filming was the last week of school and so we did have to rush to finish it. Also we could of filmed more before this week but our characters in the film took different subjects and so during free periods meant that filming was limited as we had to negotiate time with them as well.  Another target could be of using actors who both have time on their hands to make sure that the filming could have been done over a longer period of time allowing us to actually have the time to sit and plan each and every shot we were using before going out and filming the part of the film.

    Another target would be making sure the lighting was correct, so making sure the contrasting was right  in the camera before recording because it would allow us to not have to re-film other parts to fit in with other clips.As during filming we had areas in which which the lighting was very dark. So we could either add lighting or film somewhere the lighting was bright enough to show up on camera. We could also make sure the sound was correct in the camera before recording because we assumed that it was okay but when it came to editing, we found that the sound was much to loud and that it was hard to hear what the characters are saying. So next time we would make sure film things more than once and replay it before finalizing the footage onto the CD. Having said this, the common room was quite busy and so we wanted the background noise to make it seem like it was a busy collage setting therefore suggesting why we left it in. When adding the soundtrack music, we had to make sure it  was lower than the dialogue but in order to successfully do this, we had to lower the volume so it could barely be heard and then increase the volume of the characters speaking which made it seem like they were shouting and also the background noise in the common room was too loud.

    Next year we would make sure that the setting would be quieter and if we needed the added background noise we would add this as a voice over as it would mean we could control the volume of it, Also making sure that the voice over fitted with the relevant actions in the film or trailer.

I would personally set the target of making sure I fully understand the editing software so it does not take as long to edit our film. We found that both of us were trying to figure out how to use certain tools in the first few hours of editing that we actually lost those hours of editing, so by this we could take more of lead when it came to practicing tools. Having used Adobe Premiere Elements 10 this year, I think that when it comes to editing next year, I would know where tools are and the best layout for the editing process. I would also know how to fade sound in and out and also the appropriate transitions to use on our product which will make it  looks theatrical and the best quality it can be.

EVALUATION 7: Looking back at our preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

PRELIMINARY TASK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjvP7OfMLr4&list=UUWiH3yYi97qF-XFKRKco3iQ

 These three frames are from our preliminary task, showing different shots and angles and editing that we have used. In the first frame we see in the preliminary task we use match on action as the closeup of the door being pushed opened. This is effective as it allows the audience to continue to understand on what is going on in the scene. So that the audience can taking along with character, so they can experience the what is going at the same time. The second frame shows a medium shot, showing a conversation between the two characters, this allows the audience to find out what is going on, and allows audience to understand the story line. The last frame shows an over the shoulder shot establishing a different conversation between two other characters and it also shows the facial expressions on each character as they are talking to the other character, shown in the over the shoulder shot.

PRACTICING SHOTS

These frames have been taken from the practice shots, of a short scene that we created on the theme 'what you doing here'. The first shot shows a long shot of the character walking down the corridor. This allows the audience to to follow the character so they will feel apart of the characters experience.  The long shot also establishes the setting of the scene, and allows the audience to identify where the setting is, which is in a school, this allows the target audience to to aimed at a younger audience as they will be able to relate

The second shot shows a cut from the previous shot from walking down the corridor, then cut as the character starts to walk down the stair. The medium shot with a side angle of the character as she walks downs the stairs, allowing the character to see from a different perspective of the scene, allowing the audience to be apart of the journey of the character. It also allows the audience to continues to following the character.

The high angle has been shown of the characters walking down the stairs. This allows the audience allows to get another perspective of the character and allows them to be a part of the scene as they will continue to follow the character. Usually a high angle shout would used to portray the character as powerless and seem vulnerable towards the audience, if put in appropriate context in terms of setting, mood and what effect its trying to create for the scene.

A two shot has been used to establish a conversation between two characters, and allows the audience to engage in scene as the dialogue takes place and allows more information to be given to the audience, to understand better about the scene. The two shot also presents new characters to the audience, allowing them to find out more about them. It can also show the relationship between character through having a two shot.

Peer assessment and Evaluation

After we presented our overview of our film we show them our opening tow minutes and afterwards got some feedback on what they thought the strengths an weaknesses were of our film.

The strengths of our opening 2 minutes were from the feedback:

- We were able to meet the conventions of a romance film, as the audience were able to easily identify the genre of the film, for example the slow music going over the top, and the two protagonist looking at each other occasionally. I would agree with this feedback as we tried to stay with the conventions of a romance film so it makes it easier for the audience to find out what type of genre the film is and so being able to identify this would allow them to build certain expectations on what should happen in the film, so having the calming music allows to creates a calm atmosphere which allows to show bit of personality of the protagonist

-  The camera was professional and said that that there wasn't  much jump cutting, however I would disagree as there were a few jump cuts in the middle of the opening scene. But this is from someone's perspective.

- The cutting from going up the stairs and shown in a high angle where the two characters come up the second set of stairs.

- Liked the fact that the camera followed the female protagonist as it allows the audience to follow along with her and her experiences and her journey. I would agree with this as our aim was that the camera should follow the female protagonist as it will allow the audience to be apart of film and go along and get to know the female protagonist, as she will be someone to focus on throughout the film.

- The setting suited well with the film. I would agree with this as we decided to have a school/college setting, a this will attract a younger audience, and they would also be able to relate to some of the thing that happen in the opening.

- Over the shoulder shots, showing her perspective of what is going on, allowing the audience to see in the same perspective as the main character.

- Introducing the main character at the beginning and she has been portrayed as a innocent and would appeal to younger audience who are starting school or college and would be able to relate.

The weakness of our opening scene were from the feedback:

- That there should be more of a conversation or have a moment in which shows the glance between the two characters. Taking this advise to improve we could have more of a conversation between the main character to establish there meeting.

- That we should should of used a tripod to avoid shaking whilst filming, and that could increase the quality of the film.

-  Have more of a wider variety of camera shots such as closeups of the characters and longs shot of the setting.

- The background noise was very loud as the dialogue took place, so it made it difficult to hear was was being said, so we should have dipped the music background music more so that the dialogue could be heard.

Having this feedback would allows us to know what to differently for the areas of weaknesses, to improve the audience's viewing of the film.

Presentation

Here we did a presentation on how film talking about initial ideas, and about our changes in our current ideas and the reasoning behind it. We gave a short overview on what our opening is about. We also talked about the location in which we filmed and why we decided to film in these locations shown in our opening scene. Also we mentioned about our target audience and how it would appeal to them. We also mentioned about the strengths of our film as well, and some of things that we would next time.

EVALUATION 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

 The things that we use to produce our film, include of:
Adobe premiere elements 10

We used Adobe premiere elements 10 to edit our film, as I have learnt how to use the program and tools, and experimenting with the software as I tried out different transitions which we have used in both the opening film and the preliminary tasks and the practice shots task, it allows us to to crop out footage, experiment with adding transitions so for example the black fade in, so putting them in different areas of the footage. Also using this software I learnt how to put titles into our film, so we experiment with different font styles as they gave us varies option on what font we should choose. Also I learnt how to add music into our film and being able to fade it in and out using this software. I have also learnt how to control the volume of the soundtrack, when we put it with the footage. so making it quieter or louder in the appropriate areas in our opening film. Also learning how to crop footage if its too long, as it has a crop tool in which allows us to control the length of each footage that we had filmed. Also when we finished editing our film, we were able to directly upload from the software onto youtube.


YouTube

YouTube is another source that I used in order to help create my film and the research and planning part of the film. This is because it gave me ideas and inspirations on what I could possible do. I also used it for looking up current film openings scenes an analysed them to find out the convention of particular genre films. Using YouTube helped me with the production setting looking up tutorials either on makeup, hair as this would give us suggested ideas how we should present our cast. or a particular editing video that would help with the editing with the film. We used YouTube to upload the preliminary task, an the practicing shot types and our opening two minutes so we were able to access it quicker on Blogger.


Adobe Photoshop CS4

I also used adobe Photoshop, which helped with cropping photos, such as the storyboard frames, This was useful as it gave the pictures which were cropped a neater frame and looks better when posted onto the blog. Also this software was useful as our production titles were created using this software, being able to create the frame in which introduces the film so 'The lost locket' frame was created on Photoshop, along with our production titles of 'Clouds Productions' was also created and used the drawing tools to create the white smudged section underneath the title. we also created the blank frame using the paint pot, giving us a selection of colors to choose from.

Microsoft word

We also used Microsoft office and PowerPoint as to create mood-boards for our chosen genre of film, as we couldn't create the mood-boards on Blogger as we had difficulty in arranging the pictures, so we put the pictures on to Microsoft word or PowerPoint and then screen shot them and put them onto Photoshop and crop them out and then save it on my computer and then uploaded it on blogger, then analysed them on blogger. Also I used this software to create the questionnaires for our my public analysis of types of films, then I uploaded that on to blogger along with the results.

EVALUATION 5: How did we attract/address our audience?

We added annotation to our opening scene, and it will shows the reasoning in which we put certain music, dialogue, talking about both the male and female protagonist, and how we how we have represented them. Also it will show how presented them to allow the audience to get a sense of idea of what the film is about and will get a sense of what the genre of the film is.

EVALUATION 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

 The target audience for our film is for teenage girls aged 12-15. so taking a stereotypical view of what the target audience would like look,in terms of who would come and watch the film. There main interests would be shopping and listening to pop or main stream music so they can keep up with the trends keep up with the trends, so having similar interests as there friends. TV program's in which they are more likely to be watching are reality TV shows, this is because they would be eager to know a lot about celebrities life. Social media is another thing in which is becoming more and more popular as it allows people to file share online, so gaining a wider audience, in promoting our film. Also by promoting our film on social media will help attract more a wider audience so more on a worldwide scale. Our audience for our film will also help promote the film, through word of mouth as this will inform be about our film. Our target target audience would most likely to watch romance, stereo typically as they are more interested as romance films can also a sense of expectations in which are shown in romance films, as they may get advise or show how a relationship should be, showing that they would build upon there expectations. They would also be able to relate to the female protagonist and her experiences maybe similar to hers, so watching the film may show how the female protagonist deals with certain situations.

EVALUATION 3:What kind of media institution might distribute our media product and why?

The production company in which our film would likely to be produced by
- Newline cinema
- Metro Goldwyn Mayer
These are owned by the distributor company Warner Brothers.
Warner Brothers is distributor company, and is an American media company. They are a vertically intergrated company who own different companies such as:
- Warner bros. interactive Entertainment 
- Warner bros Television
- Warner bros Animation 
- New line cinema
- own half of The CW television networks

A production company helps to create the film, so work in varies different areas such as budget, scheduling, scripting and choosing cast who will be appropriate for the film in terms of what roles should be in the film. The production company will also look for a suitable director, and within that they will be responsible for for any problems that may occur within the set production. 

Warner brothers would be the suitable distributor company for our film because in the past they have distributed successful romantic films such as, 'If i stay', 'The lucky one'. So choosing to distribute our film with Warner brothers will allows our film to be with a company who has already experience producing a romance films, also they would be able access a more worldwide audience, when they distribute our film. 

The money or the budget would usually be given by the British film institution, as they would want to make sure they have a British film which would be released, and so they can keep up to date with having British film going, so the audience can have more updates within it, attracting more people within this specific area.

Clouds production is the the title that we choose for our film production company. We choose it to be a British production company instead of an American company as this would change the genre and how they display it, so this would make it change in perspective of how the audience would see this and there interpretation would different,so having a British production company can allow to fit within the story line and the audience would be able to relate. its important that we have a British production company , as this will help to keep it alive and still noticeable as it can get drowned by huge American Blockbusters, so making sure that its still running and is noticeable.  

EVALUATION 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Similarities

The similarities between these two frames in terms of representation is that Leola from our opening scene has been represented as innocent as she she is shown as she enters into her new school, also Mia from 'if i stay' has been represented as naive as her facial expressions is shown through this. It also shows her as she is talking to them. The close up used in both these shots shows that the audience can relate and relate to go through the same experience as them. In our opening scene we have a voice over which complements what the female protagonist is doing and gives the audience an insight. The two female protagonists have been represented as young which would appeal to a more younger teenage audience as these are stereotypical convention of teenagers can relates to the experience school life and things which they will undergo, so making friends, going to lessons. The recognizable setting is also another similar feature as the setting will allow to show the audience to be familiar with the location in which the film has been set in. This would attract a young teenage audience because they would be able to relate to the scene and be able to reflect toward it to there own lives. The roles in which both female protagonist will play will be similar, as it they both romance films and will be expected to be shown with the male protagonist. In our opening we have shown an introduction of the male protagonist, who will then notice the female protagonist, and will start to create enigma codes for the audience about there relationship. The film 'if i stay' shows that both the male and female protagonists will meet in school, and will develop a relationship during the film. This adheres to the conventions to a romance film as the both male and female protagonist will meet and will show how they come together. This allows the audience to find out more about both these relationships and how they come together. 

Differences

The differences between these to characters is the costume of both these female protagonists, Mia from 'if i stay' is wearing a dark blue top with a burgundy red cardigan, this represent her personality and also gives the audience a sense of what she could be like, like as it shows that she seems innocent and relaxed as she is having a conversation. However our female protagonist costume is shown as Leola wearing a coat, in the medium shot shown in the frame. This shows the audience the female protagonist hidden personality, which they will have to watch the film in order to find out more about her and what she is like.

Reading of our film/ Directors commentary

 READING OF OUR FILM

We introduce the opening to the locket by the production credit, which was called 'cloud productions'. It was then complimented by G321 FILM as the secondary title, which was the image of an old camera from black and white fading into colour. We then added paired titles to introduce the film; with this it shows production credit showing the audience on who was involved in the production of the film. Whilst the production credits are shown, the non diegetic sound also starts to play. We have decided to use the acoustic guitar, as it allows the audience to identify the genre of the film being a romance film, so this would be conventional toward what they would usually expect from a romance film. To introduce the titles of the film we faded them in and out for about 2-3 second, as this would allow the audience to identify the main characters of the film and who else has been involved in the film. The non-diegetic sound continues to play throughout the opening and then the audience are introduced the title of the film ' The lost locket', The font used to create the Caslon bold italics in the size 54, We thought this would a suitable size for this frame as this would allow audience to identify what the film is called. The colour red which has been used for the word 'locket' leaves an enigma code for the audience, as this will be an important feature in which the audience will have to focus on as this will a feature in which will be involved the protagonists relationship. The words "The Lost" has been shown in the colour white in bold, as this would represent calm and innocence's which would reflect on the main prop which will be significant within the film. The title then fades out into introducing the opening scene.

The opening scene begins with a the long shot of the female protagonist entering in to the pathway, this allows the audience to get an glimpse of what the female protagonist is like shown through her appearance and costume and presents herself, giving the audience sense of what the female protagonist is like, so with the coat is allows to show the audience that she has a hidden personality in which may be reveal throughout the film, which is then followed by an over the shoulder shot, however the female protagonist the walks away from the camera, We have used this as it starts to shows some of the protagonist personality, of not being overly attached, and allows the audience to get involved with the film, so as the female protagonist walks away from the audience, showing that she doesn't really want to get too attached. Then another long shot is shown of the protagonist as walks toward the camera, this shows that camera tries to get back in contact with the protagonist and find out more about her, the non diegetic sound fades out as the voice over is introduced. The voice over introduces the protagonist and starts to give an overview of what she is like and gives a background of her past. This allows the audience to find out more about the protagonist and her background. A small introduction is shown of the male protagonist as he looks over the road toward the female protagonist and the female protagonist does it as well. This leaves an enigma code for the audience as it start to show connections towards other characters in the film. Alongside the voice over the female protagonist continues her journey to college, we then cut to shot where the female protagonist signs into college, and this is shown through a close up shot of her signing in, allowing the audience to relate to the film as they will have experienced doing this thing when they come in to school. The medium shot of the female protagonist looking at the display boards allows to show the audience how she tries to show interest in the school as she is new will try to find out as much as possible as doesn't know that much about the school. The voice over starts to fade out and brings back the non diegetic sound of the acoustic guitar creating a calming atmosphere and portrays the female protagonist as innocent along with her costume of her coat allows to show that she is nervous and shy showing that she has a hidden personality as she starts a new school, the audience would be able to relate to this, as they may have experienced this before. As the non diegetic sound continues to play we are shown a close up of the female protagonist looking directly at the audience making them feel apart of the film as she takes them along with her on her journey to college. 

We then cut to the common room as the female protagonist enters, complementing with a long shot showing the location of the common room. The audience would be familiar with the setting as they may have experienced it before, so they will be able to relate to the protagonist as she enters this location. Along shot has been shown as the female protagonist makes her way to sit down on a table on her own, this allows the audience to continue to understand what is going from a different perspective. Then we cut to a table where its shows a group of people talking, allowing the audience to be introduced to new characters in the film. We then see a medium shot of the new character who will make friends with the female protagonist and will take her along with her and show her around the school. The non diegetic sound fades out and the dialogue starts between the friend and the female protagonist. However the background music is too loud making it difficult for the audience to hear what is being said. Then the two characters come out of the common room and the camera follows them out, this allows audience to follow with them so they can be apart of experience as well. We then have them going up the stairs and the cut to a high angle of them coming up the second set of stairs so it shows that the audience understand what is going as they follow them. Match action takes place as friends opens the door and we get a close up of the hand pushing the door open. The audience would be able to continue with understanding with what is going on. Then as the medium shot shows the two characters entering into the room, there is a slight jump cut as the friend invites her to come over and sit with her and so the female protagonist joins her. We then cut to show an introduction of the male protagonist as he enters the room takes a few glimpse at the female protagonist, and the female protagonist does the same and we are shown by the cut in the scene. This meets the conventions of a romance film as it starts to show the connections between these two characters, and leaves an enigma code for the audience so that they can continue to watch the film to find out what will happen between these two characters. A two shot has been shown as the friend and the female protagonist start to talk about the guy and the female protagonist take interest in him buy asking about him.


DIRECTORS COMMENTARY

We based our directors commentary on our reading of the film, however we shortened it to make it more of an overview of the film, as it would go on for too long, The commentary will include some of the features that we have included in our film and talk about the story line briefly. So what we did is that we took turns in talking about a feature, then after we would upload it onto computer. Then we brought up our film and deleted the audio, music and voice over and replaced it with our commentary.

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

The first frame shows the title of the film. we placed the title on the bottom left corner. we used white for the first two words, "The lost" This connotes innocence and purity, This gives the audience an insight on into what the film could be about as the the colours may represent the loss of a crop, which will be important within the film. We decided to make the first two word in bold as this will symbolize the female protagonist's innocence, This would conform to the stereo types of romance films as it starts to reflect the emotions of the film into the titles, allowing the audience to find out more on the film and why the title has been chosen, as it relates to a certain part of the film, so the audience will have to watch the film in order find out and relate back to the film title. This would leave an enigma code for audience to find out why the locket is an important aspect of the film, and how it could relate to the genre of the film. The "locket" in red italics, connotes love and relationships, This will be an key aspect of the film as it shows that the locket will represent a relationship which will bring the two main protagonist together. This would conform to the stereotypes of romance films because the title alongside the colour which we have put with it will associate with a relationship, allowing the audience to knowing the genre of the film, because of the titles, and the font used to help the audience recognize the genre, so being able to attract the right audience. The italics which compliments the 'locket', shows importance of the prop, allowing the audience to have a focus on a particular prop, which will be shown during the film. When choosing what titles we should have looked up some titles relating to the romance genre, for example The holiday, the title is shown as two women swap homes in different countries, where they will meet guy which they will eventually fall in love with. This shows that the titles being chosen suit to the storyline of the film, so the audience can have brief idea of what it could be about. We choose to put the title on a blank shot, with black background, as this conforms to a typical introduction of the film, as the titles are presented through blank screens, allowing the audience to find out more the production on the film.

This frame shows the location and setting of the film, we had chosen to begin the opening with the female protagonist walking to school, so showing the path way in which she travel through. we had chosen this setting to open the film is that relate back to the storyline of the film, as the female protagonist is taking the audience through her journey to college. The right pan camera movement, is started with as the female protagonist is walking passed. The road shown in the long shot of her walking to college shows her journey to college. The audience would be able to relate as the target audience will consist of  teenage girls, who will have experienced there journey to college and the voice over which will complement this, will also be relatable to audience. We also used the sixth form common room, and this will make the audience familiar with the college setting and make audience make relate to the film and the event that will occur within it. The stereo types conformed in this frame is that the opening begins with the female protagonist, which shows that the main focus will be on her, as the rest of opening will consist of following the female protagonist, on her journey to college. The long shot represented through this frame allows the audience to be shown in as hidden personality, and the female protagonist costume and appearance is one of the most important part in representing her personality to the audience so they can find out a bit about how the female protagonist is presented and will allow the audience to build expectation on how the protagonist should act.

This frame shows the costume of the female protagonist, and how it shoes her personality. The female protagonist is wearing a black coat, tights along with black boots. We have chosen this outfit for her because it will allow the audience to show the female protagonist and her personality. Her personality will be shown as hidden and shy as this will show her feelings as she starts a new school, so her personality will show that she wont get attached with people as much, as this is also addressed in the voiceover. The conventions which would suit this long shot is that the opening follows the female protagonist on her journey to college, ad tracking shot is established as this allows the audience to feel apart of her journey.

 This frames shows us a close up on a side angle of the female protagonist as she looks towards the male protagonist in the opening. This adheres to the conventions of a romance film, as there is build in connection between the male and female protagonist leaving an enigma code for the audience to find out what connection there may be between these two characters. We then cut to the male protagonist who enters in in the study room and make a slight glance at the female protagonist. This shows that the conventions of the romance film has been met as we have introduced the two main protagonist and have started to create enigma codes for the audience about these two characters as it will show the audience that there is a connection between them and they would have to watch on to find out what happened in relation to there relationship.

The next frame shows some of the titles that we used to in order to to show the audience on who made the film, so including director and editor. We originally had the idea of having the titles with action during the opening so as the protagonist is walking we would introduce this then we decided to not put all the titles in the action scenes. So we created a blank background and decided to put the titles diagonal form each other. The font that we used suits the conventions of a romance film as it as the white connotes innocence which will be reflect in the opening as the it will involve relationship, alongside with white italic bold font which allows the appearance to better for the audience, and shows clearly who are involved in the film. The italics represent a feminine side and will gives hints on who might begin the opening.

This frame show how the Opening begins. The opening begins with the female protagonist on her journey to college and a tracking shot is showing at this point, allowing the audience to follow her on her journey, the voice over, compliments this frame as well as it the audience will get an insight on the female protagonist personality and life and the audience could relate as they will have experienced there first day at school and college and will be able to relate in terms of emotions and feeling of entering school or college on the first day. We decided to film at the end of the road, showing the journey of the protagonist, from this we have subverted the expectations of a romance as the setting may not reflect hugely on the convention, however some aspects such as beginning the opening with the female protagonist.

The frame shows an aspect in which will hint the audience on the genre of the film. The medium shot of the male protagonist entering in the room allows the audience to show that he glances at the female protagonist and gives the audience an immediate hint that there will be a connection between the two main protagonists,leaving an enigma code for the audience to find out more about them and there relationship. The convention would relate to this situations as the both male and female protagonist will will have brief meet in the opening, and shows the audience that there may be a development in there relationship.

OUR OPENING 2 MINUTES: The lost locket