Friday, 4 March 2011
Filming Journal
Editing complete! We have changed the typography of Graduation Day to fit the typography of the names. We are currently uploading it to YouTube .
Thursday, 3 March 2011
part 8 evaluation
Part 8I think that my research was very successful and feel that researching similar films of the same genre helped to ensure that we had the correct lighting, music, and ideas to fit our target audience. Research into distributors was also very helpful. My previous knowledge of filming was developed when doing this take as we used different shots and angles to make our title sequence more effective. Analysing many different title sequences made it easier to recognise mistakes that we had made and made us think about what we could do to improve our title sequence. Our planning such as our storyboard was less successful as it was not clear and we ended up having to film our title sequence more than once, which gave us less time to edit. We improved as when we did have to re-shoot, we considered what we had done wrong previously and drew a clearer storyboard, which enabled us to film our title sequence properly, and made us pay more attention to the mise-en-scene. Overall, I feel that the effort put in to our title sequence was excellent, and I am very pleased with our final title sequence for 'Graduation Day.'
part 7 evaluation
Part 7
The decided that we wanted the title sequence of 'Graduation Day' to be very fast paced pre-production. We were aware that a lot of the footage would have to be edited to make it at a fast pace as it would be hard and not as effective to film it fast paced. We decided to use final cut pro instead of i-movie post-production, as we felt it would give us more opportunites to make our sequence look very effective. These decisions were made based on our target audience, and also we knew that we would learn new skills by using final cut pro. There are a wider range of effects to use on final cut pro that we thought would be ideal for our title sequence. When filming our title sequence, we used a video camera and a tri-pod to keep the camera still when we were filming. However, when we were doing point of view shots, we did not need to use the tri-pod as it wouldnt have been effective for the camera to look still. When editing, we used final cut pro on the i-mac computers which gave us more opportunities to learn and use different editing techniques. Using final cut pro was very successful as were were able to use the font that we had selected, and we also found it easier to edit our sequence in specific detail. The use of the i-mac computer made the sound very clear and we were able to ensure that it was very effective. The use of the tri-pod was less successful as some of our footage was not as clear as we would have liked it to be. I have learnt how to hold a camera when filming a point of view shot. I have also developed my skills on an i-mac computer and also learnt how to use final cut pro, and how to use different effects.
The decided that we wanted the title sequence of 'Graduation Day' to be very fast paced pre-production. We were aware that a lot of the footage would have to be edited to make it at a fast pace as it would be hard and not as effective to film it fast paced. We decided to use final cut pro instead of i-movie post-production, as we felt it would give us more opportunites to make our sequence look very effective. These decisions were made based on our target audience, and also we knew that we would learn new skills by using final cut pro. There are a wider range of effects to use on final cut pro that we thought would be ideal for our title sequence. When filming our title sequence, we used a video camera and a tri-pod to keep the camera still when we were filming. However, when we were doing point of view shots, we did not need to use the tri-pod as it wouldnt have been effective for the camera to look still. When editing, we used final cut pro on the i-mac computers which gave us more opportunities to learn and use different editing techniques. Using final cut pro was very successful as were were able to use the font that we had selected, and we also found it easier to edit our sequence in specific detail. The use of the i-mac computer made the sound very clear and we were able to ensure that it was very effective. The use of the tri-pod was less successful as some of our footage was not as clear as we would have liked it to be. I have learnt how to hold a camera when filming a point of view shot. I have also developed my skills on an i-mac computer and also learnt how to use final cut pro, and how to use different effects.
part 6 evaluation
Part 6
We attracted our audience by asking people who fit our target audience description what they thought of our idea and how they thought we could develop it further. I think that we have reached our target audience, as we have showed some people our title sequence and they have given positive feedback and said that they would love to watch the film. When planning our production, we took into consideration feedback that we had had from our brief and treatment. We also thought about what our target audience would have in their rooms so that we knew what we were going to put on our set. We thought carefully about the music that we were going to use, and made sure that it was appealing to our target audience. When we got some feedback, we were told that the typography of 'Graduation Day' should be the same typography as the typography used throughout the title sequence. We went back and changed the typography and we now agree that it looks more effective. We also originally had a voice-over in our title sequence, however, due to people feeding back to say that it was unclear, we removed it and just kept the song instead and we agreed that it sounded much better. Overall, we were told that the mise-en-scene was very successful, and the point of view shots were very effective. Many people said that when the photographs of the characters were shown from an over the shoulder shot, it worked very well and the editing was very successful in this part. Some of the footage wasn't as successful as the camera was jumpy. However, we managed to make it look better through editing. One piece of negative feedback that we got was that the transition from point of view shot to normal shot was not clear. The work could have been improved if we had had a clearer storyboard, and planned what we were going to film properly the first time.
We attracted our audience by asking people who fit our target audience description what they thought of our idea and how they thought we could develop it further. I think that we have reached our target audience, as we have showed some people our title sequence and they have given positive feedback and said that they would love to watch the film. When planning our production, we took into consideration feedback that we had had from our brief and treatment. We also thought about what our target audience would have in their rooms so that we knew what we were going to put on our set. We thought carefully about the music that we were going to use, and made sure that it was appealing to our target audience. When we got some feedback, we were told that the typography of 'Graduation Day' should be the same typography as the typography used throughout the title sequence. We went back and changed the typography and we now agree that it looks more effective. We also originally had a voice-over in our title sequence, however, due to people feeding back to say that it was unclear, we removed it and just kept the song instead and we agreed that it sounded much better. Overall, we were told that the mise-en-scene was very successful, and the point of view shots were very effective. Many people said that when the photographs of the characters were shown from an over the shoulder shot, it worked very well and the editing was very successful in this part. Some of the footage wasn't as successful as the camera was jumpy. However, we managed to make it look better through editing. One piece of negative feedback that we got was that the transition from point of view shot to normal shot was not clear. The work could have been improved if we had had a clearer storyboard, and planned what we were going to film properly the first time.
Part 5 Evaluation
Part 5
'Graduation Day' is filled with different types of stereotypes. Many typical teen stereotypes are portrayed, to show the different types of characters in the film. The main character, Rose, wears clothes of very dull colours, with no bright colours. In her school photo, she also wears glasses which represents the stereotype of a 'geek'. Doug wears a baseball jacket which suggests he plays a sport, which is a very common stereotype for the 'popular' boy. There is also the character of Ching-Lee that is also presented as a 'geek' through the use of glasses, and also fits the stereotype that asian people are intelligent. The character of Shelby wearing a fur coat instantly suggests that she is fashionable, and the use of the pouting and posing represents that she is the 'popular' girl. In our research, we found that in many teen films, the 'popular' boy and the 'popular' girl would be in a relationship at the beginning. For example, this happens in 'A Cinderella Story'. However, we decided not to use this stereotype, as we thought it would make our film less original. The music we used is aimed at teenagers, and the band members who created the song are teenagers themselves, which helps draw in our target audience. Our mise-en-scene was carefully thought about, and we considered in detail our target audience. There are several shopping bags in the set of our title sequence which is aimed at our primary audience, teenage girls. The photograph on the wall and the year book photos are also stereotypically kept by girls as sentimental memories. We edited the shots in our title sequence to make them very fast-paced, which matches the pace of the song. The fast paced rhythm is aimed at our target audience, as this type of music connotes young people partying and enjoying themselves. Our typography is the typography that is usually seen on baseball jackets. Boys in American films who wear baseball jackets are usually called 'jocks', and are usually the 'popular' boys. We thought that this typography is a typical school font to use, and can be recognised by our target audience easily. The lighting of our set was very bright so that the audience knew there were going to be bright, fun and happy characters in our film. In the film 'Wild Child', when the girls are having fun the lighting will be bright and the weather will be nice. However, if the 'snob' in the film is about to do something bad, the lighting will be darker, the outfits would be dull and the weather would be bad. This is a very effective way of creating a mood in the film, and we thought carefully about what time of day to film our title sequence.
'Graduation Day' is filled with different types of stereotypes. Many typical teen stereotypes are portrayed, to show the different types of characters in the film. The main character, Rose, wears clothes of very dull colours, with no bright colours. In her school photo, she also wears glasses which represents the stereotype of a 'geek'. Doug wears a baseball jacket which suggests he plays a sport, which is a very common stereotype for the 'popular' boy. There is also the character of Ching-Lee that is also presented as a 'geek' through the use of glasses, and also fits the stereotype that asian people are intelligent. The character of Shelby wearing a fur coat instantly suggests that she is fashionable, and the use of the pouting and posing represents that she is the 'popular' girl. In our research, we found that in many teen films, the 'popular' boy and the 'popular' girl would be in a relationship at the beginning. For example, this happens in 'A Cinderella Story'. However, we decided not to use this stereotype, as we thought it would make our film less original. The music we used is aimed at teenagers, and the band members who created the song are teenagers themselves, which helps draw in our target audience. Our mise-en-scene was carefully thought about, and we considered in detail our target audience. There are several shopping bags in the set of our title sequence which is aimed at our primary audience, teenage girls. The photograph on the wall and the year book photos are also stereotypically kept by girls as sentimental memories. We edited the shots in our title sequence to make them very fast-paced, which matches the pace of the song. The fast paced rhythm is aimed at our target audience, as this type of music connotes young people partying and enjoying themselves. Our typography is the typography that is usually seen on baseball jackets. Boys in American films who wear baseball jackets are usually called 'jocks', and are usually the 'popular' boys. We thought that this typography is a typical school font to use, and can be recognised by our target audience easily. The lighting of our set was very bright so that the audience knew there were going to be bright, fun and happy characters in our film. In the film 'Wild Child', when the girls are having fun the lighting will be bright and the weather will be nice. However, if the 'snob' in the film is about to do something bad, the lighting will be darker, the outfits would be dull and the weather would be bad. This is a very effective way of creating a mood in the film, and we thought carefully about what time of day to film our title sequence.
evaluation part 4
Part 4
‘Graduation Day’ subverts the linear narrative, as our title sequence starts at the end of our film. However, it still includes the conventions of a rom-com. We looked at films that are similar to the kind of film that we wanted to produce. '10 Things I Hate About You’ is a perfect example. The location of this film is clearly shown in an American city but most importantly a high school, which then connotes the film for a teen audience. It is shown by an establishing shot capturing many students in the school. The whacky typography suggests the genres of a comedy and a teen film. Only one main character is shown by standing out and being different by the song she plays being different to the one on the soundtrack. The themes of the film are shown by the hatred of the main character and also school life and about the prom. This film was very useful to research as it is so similar to what we wanted to produce. The establishing shots are very common to use in rom-coms. We also researched the rom-com Love Actually, which has a slightly different target audience to us, but is of the same genre. As soon as the title sequence of Love Actually begins, we immediately we know the genre of the film. It introduces love in all forms not just romantic love. Only digetic sound of Hugh Grant and the non-digetic sound of a soundtrack which sets the tone of soothing love and romance. It sets the location of Britain with Heathrow airport with an establishing shot. It uses mid-tracking shots to show people running up to loved ones but also close-ups to show emotions of the people. The codes and conventions are clearly shown through Hugh Grant being a British, Rom-com actor and being in London Heathrow airport for location. The themes of love, family, friends, relationships are clearly shown also with the cinematography of mid-shots and close-ups of people in an airport running up to each other with love and such happiness. In our film we decided to have a voice-over to show that it is a British film. However, we did not feel that it was effective, so we decided to use a British song instead, which improved our title sequence. When deciding on our narrative, we liked the idea of a graduation, and we thought that moving into a dorm room would be a great way to show this. This idea stemmed from out research into rom-coms, and looked closely at '10 Things I Hate About You', as it has a similar setting. We looked at the typography of rom-com films and we chose an appropriate typography for our title sequence that we thought would be very effective. We had to film our title sequence more than once, as the first time the mise-en-scene was not carefully thought about. The lighting had to be bright daylight, as dark lighting may confuse our audience about the genre of our title sequence.
‘Graduation Day’ subverts the linear narrative, as our title sequence starts at the end of our film. However, it still includes the conventions of a rom-com. We looked at films that are similar to the kind of film that we wanted to produce. '10 Things I Hate About You’ is a perfect example. The location of this film is clearly shown in an American city but most importantly a high school, which then connotes the film for a teen audience. It is shown by an establishing shot capturing many students in the school. The whacky typography suggests the genres of a comedy and a teen film. Only one main character is shown by standing out and being different by the song she plays being different to the one on the soundtrack. The themes of the film are shown by the hatred of the main character and also school life and about the prom. This film was very useful to research as it is so similar to what we wanted to produce. The establishing shots are very common to use in rom-coms. We also researched the rom-com Love Actually, which has a slightly different target audience to us, but is of the same genre. As soon as the title sequence of Love Actually begins, we immediately we know the genre of the film. It introduces love in all forms not just romantic love. Only digetic sound of Hugh Grant and the non-digetic sound of a soundtrack which sets the tone of soothing love and romance. It sets the location of Britain with Heathrow airport with an establishing shot. It uses mid-tracking shots to show people running up to loved ones but also close-ups to show emotions of the people. The codes and conventions are clearly shown through Hugh Grant being a British, Rom-com actor and being in London Heathrow airport for location. The themes of love, family, friends, relationships are clearly shown also with the cinematography of mid-shots and close-ups of people in an airport running up to each other with love and such happiness. In our film we decided to have a voice-over to show that it is a British film. However, we did not feel that it was effective, so we decided to use a British song instead, which improved our title sequence. When deciding on our narrative, we liked the idea of a graduation, and we thought that moving into a dorm room would be a great way to show this. This idea stemmed from out research into rom-coms, and looked closely at '10 Things I Hate About You', as it has a similar setting. We looked at the typography of rom-com films and we chose an appropriate typography for our title sequence that we thought would be very effective. We had to film our title sequence more than once, as the first time the mise-en-scene was not carefully thought about. The lighting had to be bright daylight, as dark lighting may confuse our audience about the genre of our title sequence.
Part 3 evaluation
Part 3
We thought about different media institutions that would be suitable to distribute Graduation Day. Miramax was a possible choice as they distributed ‘Happy Go Lucky’, ‘She’s All That’ and Bridget Jones’ Diary 1, 2 and 3, which are British comedies like our film. We also researched Universal pictures. They are a very popular distributor and a common distributor to use for a comedy. Universal pictures distributed films such as ‘Get Him to The Greek’, ‘Kick Ass’, ‘It’s Complicated’ and ‘Role Models’, which all contain the genre of comedy. The final distributor we looked into was Summit Entertainment, who distributes a range of films. They have distributed ‘Sex Drive’, ‘Twilight’ and ‘A Lot Like Love’. Two of these films are comedies, and although ‘Twilight’ is not a comedy, it is aimed at a similar age range to ours, and is one of the most popular films ever made. When creating our title sequence, we used Summit Entertainment as our distributor.
Part 2 evaluation
Part 2
Our target audience are 13-26 year olds, and dominated by a female audience, as most romantic films’ primary audience are women. However, our secondary audience are 13-26 year old males, as couples may decide to watch the film together. ‘Graduation Day’ is targeted at a niche audience, as it is a film that our primary target audience can relate to and enjoy viewing. The psychographics of our target audience would be people who are at secondary school, or higher education. It is aimed at people who enjoy socialising with their friends and maybe online on Facebook and Twitter. They may enjoy watching other rom-coms such as ’10 Things I Hate About You’ and ‘Love Actually’. We carried out some informal research on our target audience by asking 16-17 year olds what they think of our idea, in which we got positive feedback. Our audience gave us good responses, saying that they would definitely watch it. We took this research into consideration when planning our title sequence.
Part 1 evaluation
Part 1
Within our group, we decided to create a title sequence with the genre of romantic comedy. The title of the film is called ‘Graduation Day’. Our title sequence begins at the end of the film. It shows the main character, Rose, moving in to her university dorm room with the help of her boyfriend, Doug. We see Rose walking into her new room, and starting to unpack the boxes. They come across some photographs in one of the boxes, and they both sit down and look at the photographs. The title sequence ends with a photo of when they were at school. This will go into the film, which will go back to the beginning of the story, when Rose used to get bullied at school by Doug and his friends, and the film will show how their relationship develops, and how their relationship is at the end will be shown in our title sequence. Our sub-genre is a teen rom-com, as the title sequence/film is aimed at teenagers. The storyline that we have created is definitely aimed at a teen audience, and as the characters are in their teens, teenagers are more likely to enjoy the film.
Monday, 28 February 2011
Filming Journal
We had to re-shoot our title sequence in the half term, as our old footage was not good enough, and not planned properly. We are now editing our new footage. Third time lucky!
Monday, 7 February 2011
Photo of the Set.
This is Katie's brothers bedroom, where most of our filming took place. In our opening sequence, this is the dorm room.
Thursday, 27 January 2011
Filming Journal
On Monday, 24th January, we filmed at Katie's house. The filming was successful, much better than the first time because we thought about the mise-en-scene and also applied a voice over whilst we were filming. We have uploaded the footage on to final cut pro and are currently editing!
Thursday, 20 January 2011
Filming Journal.
On Tuesday 18th January, we filmed at Katie's house. Unfortunately, when we uploaded the footage on to the computer, the lighting was too dark and we couldn't use it for our title sequence.
We need to reshoot because of this problem. We also did not have a clear storyboard so in todays lesson we worked on our storyboard so we now know exactly what we had to film, and what shots we need to take. We have also realised we need to pay more attention to the mise-en-scene, as there were things in the background of the footage we had that shouldn't have been there.
We are reshooting on Monday morning when we have a double media lesson. With our clear storyboard and knowledge that we need to check our mise-en-scene and check the lighting is correct, the footage we film on Monday should be a big improvement to the footage we already have.
We need to reshoot because of this problem. We also did not have a clear storyboard so in todays lesson we worked on our storyboard so we now know exactly what we had to film, and what shots we need to take. We have also realised we need to pay more attention to the mise-en-scene, as there were things in the background of the footage we had that shouldn't have been there.
We are reshooting on Monday morning when we have a double media lesson. With our clear storyboard and knowledge that we need to check our mise-en-scene and check the lighting is correct, the footage we film on Monday should be a big improvement to the footage we already have.
Monday, 17 January 2011
Tuesday, 11 January 2011
Typography fonts.
We have thought about using one of these fonts as they are similar to the fonts on an American baseball jacket, which fits in well with Graduation Day.
Friday, 7 January 2011
Title Fonts.
Some of the actors have changed (Rose is now played by Beth Rashbrook and Chad played by Dan Lloyd), but this is the typography that we are going to use.
Schedule!
Thursday 6th January 2011:
Made our production logo, title and the character credits
Friday 7th January 2011:
Taking photos of our characters for the Year Book! and filming the last shot.
Monday 10th January 2011:
After school film at Angelica's house.
After we complete this, we will have to decide in what order we are going to do the credits, and when we are going to show the 'produced by' and 'directed by', within the sequence keeping it in the time limit.
Made our production logo, title and the character credits
Friday 7th January 2011:
Taking photos of our characters for the Year Book! and filming the last shot.
Monday 10th January 2011:
After school film at Angelica's house.
After we complete this, we will have to decide in what order we are going to do the credits, and when we are going to show the 'produced by' and 'directed by', within the sequence keeping it in the time limit.
Thursday, 6 January 2011
Monday, 3 January 2011
Cast Photos
Beth Rashbrook as Rose
Tom Brown as Doug
Grace Rowe as Shelby
Dan Lloyd as Chad
Harriet Hawgood as Mary
Tuan Lai as Ching-Lee
Sunday, 2 January 2011
Feedback from class.
My group presented our Brief and Treatment to our class and received feedback from our idea. Overall, it was positive and they all said that our movie has definite potential.
Most people liked our narrative structure of starting in the present then going back to the past. A few did not understand it well but that may be that they did not understand our opening title sequence. Everyone liked our sterotypes of our characters as well as setting and how they all link into our genre of Rom-com. Futhermore, one feedback really liked our thinking of when to release our film because how it would attract to the audience.
We also need to work on how we would record the song by Jets as we are not allowed to use it because of copyright. Our group have decided to use a band that would change it around a little so it did not sound like the original.
Most people liked our narrative structure of starting in the present then going back to the past. A few did not understand it well but that may be that they did not understand our opening title sequence. Everyone liked our sterotypes of our characters as well as setting and how they all link into our genre of Rom-com. Futhermore, one feedback really liked our thinking of when to release our film because how it would attract to the audience.
We also need to work on how we would record the song by Jets as we are not allowed to use it because of copyright. Our group have decided to use a band that would change it around a little so it did not sound like the original.
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