Louis Theroux

Louis Theroux visits the WBC for the first time after four years, during this visit he analyses the change of the people he documented the last time he visited. He concentrated on their strong beliefs about God and homosexuality. A particular family that he visited had lost a family member who disagreed with their beliefs and went her own way. Throughout the documentary Theroux tries to discover why these different families believe what they do, and why they feel so strongly. In the documentary, we follow Louis Theroux who tries to discover why the followers strongly believe that what they are doing is right. 8 minutes into the video Louis visits a family who shows him a video of them mocking jews, and making a complete joke out of them. With the same family Louis speaks to the father about how he feels about his daughter leaving the family, Louis apologies about them loosing a family member, during this interview the father questions Louis and asks 'why are you sorry.' Which gives off the impression that he isn't effected about his daughters absence, this is a clear example of how his beliefs takes over his family values. As Louis walks around the house he notices that all the daughters pictures have been taken down. His wife later states how they no longer talk to their parents because they see their parents as rebellious. At 20minutes we see a family singing a cover of one of Lady Gaga's popular songs, doing this may have an influence on others, since the song is well known.

Opening film: UPDATED

After our teacher went through our blogs, he suggested that we could improve our film by making minor changes. Our film ran a little bit over time, so we had to cut some scenes short and to make our transitions abit more cleaner.

Question 7: Comparison of Tasks

Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Looking back at my preliminary task I have learnt a lot since then, and coming up to this task. Our preliminary task was mostly about concentrating on how to get the right shots, and getting used to the normal equipment; it was also about getting to know how we'd work with each other as we'd never done so before. It also gave us a chance to learn about how to edit our films using iMovie, which became useful for our most recent task. The different shots we learnt to use were; match on action, 180 degree rule and shot reverse shot, having to edit our films taught us how to show the continuity in our film, and make our audience drawn into it.
With this particular task we took a lot more time in planning the opening of our film, we concentrated on what would be the right the genre, and once we had chosen we done a lot of research into it and came across that our genre 'ROMCOM' was highly popular. Once that was dealt with we began planning on what our film would be based on and came up with initial ideas, when we were comfortable with our initial ideas we then came up with a brief summary. Afterwards we then created storyboards and shotlist was created by one of our cameramen, the script was also written for our film. For this task we made sure that everything was organised and everyone in our group new what their role was, we also made sure that we had the right equipment for each shot and we came well prepared whereas in our previous pleminary task we'd sometimes forget certain pieces of equipment. During this task I also learnt how to use a software called 'Celtx' which is what we used to create our script, and production schedule.
In the preliminary task we learnt a lot on time management we had a sheet which helped us schedule our timing, and the different times that we'll be filming; we also worked out how long it'll take us to set up and pack away the equipment, also how long it would take to film each shot. Learning about keeping time management became useful for us in our AS task since we planned what we needed to shoot, when and where and also how long it may take us which seemed more professional compared to our previous task. This made our film seen more professional since we planned enough time to spend on our film, and we took the effort into editing it.
Also the planning for our film was a lot different to the planning we done for our recent task. We weren't given enough time do plan and research on initial ideas, we did draw up storyboards and floorplans to give us an idea of how our equipment would be laid out, and how our storyline would flow. On the other hand with our AS film we went into more depth with both planning and research, which became an advantage to our film. 
 Learning from our previous mistakes gave us a major advantage for our film opening, since we had a clear idea on what to do and what not to do.

Question 6: Equipment check

                                                                                                             

What Have You Learnt About Technologies From the Process of Constructing This Product2

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

Audiences

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Marketing 
Since our target audience are teens I think the best way to market our film would be, by putting posters up in areas where we could catch their attention such as, busstops, buses and colleges/secondary schools. Tv trailers might also be a good strategy to use advertise our film, and to distribute our product could be from the use of promotion and publicity. The promotion could be useful since we could get involved with other companies who could create competitions for people to win a chance to see our film, this could be an advantage because if they enjoy other people may be intrigued to view it as well. On the other hand publicity may also be a good idea since we could attract media attention, our cast could make appearances talking about the film. 

Question 4: Audience Profile Photo

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for our media product would be teenagers aged 16-18 years old, which what the pciture above shows. They'll be casual teen agers, each with different personalities which would be suitable for our film, since they'll be able to relate to most of the different characters. For example some may be able to relate to Ned Flames, they may have troubles fitting in at school/college and some may be on the same boat as Rick Flames, very popular and outgoing. I also think that my film would appeal to my audience is because of the genre which is a ROMCOM, these type of genres make the film very funny, and enjoyable. i believe that the film would also be encouraging to some teens and influencing in a positive, as some teens may find it difficult to be themselves, and our film gives off the message that there isn't a problem being comfortable with who you are.

Question 3: Directors Commentary

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

Institution

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Question 2:Character Snapshot

How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

Question 1: 9 Frame Analysis

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions for the real media products?

Since our media product was the opening to a film I think that we stuck to the conventions the film began with establishing and panning shots. Futheron in the film the title sequence began which helped intorduce our media product and gave the audience an idea on what it was about. We did challenge the forms and conventions for the media product aince we didn't want to go ahead with the normal way of putting the title sequence right at the beginning of the film.


The title of the film:
The title of our film is 'Another Day,' the title is introduced at the end of the opening; this is done because we wanted to foreshadow the film and to also draw the audience in. Before the titles appears there's a voice over of one of our main characters explaining both the story and title.

Setting/Location:
For our establishing shot we took various shots to create the idea of 'morning after' which links to the title 'Another Day.' We done this by starting our shot by showing rush hour with a busy train, ticket machine and people getting onto the train, doing this gives the impression that it's the beginning of a new day which relates to 'Another Day.' We also showed shots of houses which are in the area we shot our film in, the town hall and the park. Since our film is based on a party that happened the night before, by filming these shots shows that it's 'new' day also showing that it's the start of a new week, and the effects the night before has on our characters.

Costume and Props:

The characters various props were shown in the first initial footage which set the scene of a party; to set this scene we used decorations, party cups and empty bottles; with the use of our props we wanted to make the scene look like the morning after an outrageous party. As for costume, for our 'nerd' character Ned Flames he is made to wear braces, glasses and a shirt to show his dorky character, to portray his personality/character we had notebooks, and large school books.

Camerawork/Editing:

We took a range of different shots and edited to reflect our genre and the music that's used; this consisted of slow pan shots and the different transitions used to give it the smooth and natural effect. We wanted to use shots that were appropriate for our genre; since our genre is a ROMCOM two-shots were used to show both characters having a conversation, and we're also able to see their facial expressions cleary. Pan shots were also used but they were used slowly to help create the 'romantic' atmosphere, doing this would help draw the audience in.

Title font and style:

The title font we decided to choose is 'American typewriter.' This is done purposely to show that it is an american style theme done in a British way. This is also done to help portray our genre 'Teen Rom Com' which appeals to our target audience. We also thought that the style of our font would really appeal to our audience.

Story and how the opening sets it up: 

The opening starts with a range of different shots of the morning that links to the storyline which is about the aftermath of a party the night before. The music, shots, and transitions used portray the teen-ROMCOM genre, giving it an uplifting feel to it showing that not only is it going to be enjoyable but romantic as well.

Genre & how the opening suggests it:

Our genre being a 'Teen Rom Com,' the opening helps suggest this since we're introduced to a house after a party the night before, as we get an establishing shot of the house we see props that give off the impression that its a teen movie. After the establishing shots of the setting and location, there's an establishing shot of one of the characters feet walking towards the stairs, and as the character makes her way down the stairs she gives one of our other main characters on his cheek, which may indicate that they've just had sex.

How characters are introduced:

Most of the characters are introduced in different ways, the first character we're introduced to is the girl who we see walking down the stairs. As she is walking down we're also introduced to one of our main characters 'Rick Flames' who she kisses as she makes her way down. The second main character 'Ned Flames' is introduced using a panning shot of him watching t.v, doing this the audience then get an understanding of his character and the type of person he is.

Special effects:

Using special effects to help us transition to different moments smoothly, but doing so we did discover some problems, some of the transitions didn't work very well due to some of the scenes not going well together, and the transitions not creating the atmosphere that we wanted it to create as a ROMCOM for our audience. The pictures below show how the transitions did go well with our clips, and how they faded out well.

FINAL OPENING SCENE

Editing

After uploading our footage two weeks ago, we've been editing our piece and making new changes. Since we didn't get all the footage we needed, we had to go away for another week to get the important clips. Once we done that and uploaded footage we realised that some of the clips that were filmed weren't steady enough or the canera was either out of focus. So myself and another group member had to go and get the footage again. In the end we've managed to get everything that we needed and we only have a couple of days left of editing.

To create the font we want for our film we went onto a website called 'dafont.com' to try and create suitable credits for our opening. We wanted to choose a font that would link to our film, and since it's a Teen ROMCOM, the type of font we wanted to go for was a bold, and colourful type.

Changes on title

Whilst having our first editing session after going through most of our clips, our teacher suggested that maybe 'Cant take the heat' may not be the best idea as a film title. First he came up with the idea that 'All night long' may be a good suggestion since the main storyline is about the day after partying all night long.We thought about it as a group then decided that 'Another Day' would be better, we thought this because not only is our film concentrating on the morning after a long night, but also about the daily situations our characters go through. The beginning of our film also shows establishing shots of daily routines which would relate well to our new title. We also decided to take the 'Classroom' scene that we had filmed, this decision was made since we thought that that particular scene wasn't really necessary for our opening scene, and didn't really fit in with the flow of our story.

Filming Part 2

On the set photos


Here are some photos of our actors on set and whilst filming.

'House Scene' Filming

The next part of our filming was the House Scene, which we filmed on Saturday. The only problems we encountered was our schedule timing, not everyone arrived on time, so therefore it caused us to start filming a bit late. Otherwise everything else went fine, everyone knew what they were doing, and we got the whole scene done.

Planning for filming

FINALISING FONTS IDEAS

Ater going through different title credits, we then decided upon Napoleon Dynamite. Napoleon Dynamite was our final decision because we thought that it related well with our film as well as our main character Ned Flame. Instead of using the same images that the film has we decided to use, school books to represent Ned Flames 'nerd.' As for Rick Flame 'Ladies Man' we're going to use mens magazines etc.

FONTS

JUNO

The different font styles used in Juno show the ways in which they try to attract teenagers. The fonts are a decent size, colourful and clear to read, they also bring a comic feel to the film.

NAPOLEON DYNAMITE

                                      

Napoleon Dynamite's fonts are both colourful and simple; they also use a range of different ideas to show the way the fonts are represented, doing this engages the audience making it interesting and fun.

                                         
                                                               STEP BROTHERS

The font used for Step Brothers is also simplistic and a large size which makes it clear to read. 

Problems

We came across some problems with our filming schedule we weren't able to film our house scene the first time we planned to due to some of our actors being unavailable for the day. We then decided to change it to the Wednesday which would take place at 4pm, but another problem that arose was that our main actor had been excluded, so we couldn't contact him to make other arrangements. So now we've decided to film our house scene Saturday 4th 12pm, this will hopefully go well knowing that all our actors are available. 

Establishing Shot Filming

We managed to film our establishing shot which took place in the park Friday 27th January, we started filming around 10am and finished 10:40am. The filming went well we got the different shots that we wanted which would a good opening to our film.

Filming part 1

Today we filmed the first part of our opening scene which is the 'Classroom,' the filming went smoothly the actors in the scene contributed very well. The only problem we had was trying to fit all the filming within a certain amount of time. We also managed to set up and pack away the equipment quickly, so we didn't go over time.

Group Vlog

Updated Production Schedule

Since our previous production schedule wasn't clear enough, we decided to use 'Celtix' to help us create a more sophisticated looking and clearer schedule, we were able to choose appropriate timings for whatever day we needed, and with each day we typed up what we would be filming. Doing this makes it easier for us to keep track on what we're doing, and when we need to  be available, especially since we're using 'Celtix' to create our script as well. 

Production Schedule

Before we started filming we had to come with a production schedule to show when and where we'll be filming certain scenes, we also used the schedule to decide what props we were going to need. 

                                                             

Updated Script

After re-reading through our script a number of times, our teacher then decided since we do not see the character Ned Flames in the present, we should add something at the end of the script to introduce him.

First draft of script

We used a programme 'Celtix,' to help create our script once we came up with our storyline.

PLANNING

INITIAL IDEAS 

STORYBOARD

SHOTLIST

Storyline

"Cant Take The Heat"
Since our genre is a ROMCOM for this particular genre we didn't want to go for the typical  woman falling for the man, we wanted to do something different that would keep the audience intrigued, but we also wanted to keep the story simple.The story is based on two brothers one named Rick Flames whose known as a  "ladies man" and the 'popular' teen; and the other Ned Flames who is referred to as the "Geek" and who also has trouble getting girls, and fitting in at school.
The opening is mostly going to have a voice over of Ned Flame explaining how his life used to be before it changed. Ned Flames life begins to change the  morning after a party that his brother had the night before. The main plot of the story is that both Ned and Rick Flames switch roles, Ned get's the girl that he's always wanted.

Opening credit music

Since our genre is ROMCOM we had a range of different ideas of what song we'd use to go with our opening credits, we had a clear idea that we wanted it to be, fun and upbeat. We then came up with 'Jamie Lidell - Another Day,' we thought that this would be a good song choice, and it'll flow nicely with our opening shots.

RESEARCH: Genre Analysis- film influences

                                       
                                                                   STEP BROTHERS

                                  

Since our film is based on two brothers, we thought that 'Step Brothers' would link to our task very well. We decided to watch the opening of this film to see how the opening credits were fitted in, and the different shots that were used to sow that.

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS

'Friends with benefits' is an ideal ROMCOM that we used as an initial idea to work on camera shots. In the scenes that are in the clip we see different camera shots such as; 

• Over the shoulder shot 
• Two shot - when conversating 
• Medium close ups - to see the characters expression and emotions 

                                                                JUNO 

Juno was another film that influenced our choices on the opening credits for our film opening. The fact that we had an idea of making our credits 'cartoon,' we thought that this film would be a good example, the cartoon theme gives the impression that the film is bound to be fun and have some sort of comedy, which links to what our film maybe like.

RESEARCH: Public Survey

Since we decided upon a ROMCOM we thought that giving out a survey to find out the public's opinion would be really useful to make sure that we were making the right decision. One of our group members went around and asked other students what genre of film they mostly preferred out of;

• Action 
• Thriller 
• Romance 
• Drama 
• Romantic Comedy
• Sci-fi 
• Horror 
• Comedy 
• Crime & Gangster 
• Fantasy 
• Animated

From this we found out that Action, Comedy, ROMCOM, and Thriller were the most popular. Using these results it encouraged our idea to go along with ROMCOM.
Another question that was asked was 'How often do you watch t.v in a week?' in this case the options were;

• 0-5 hours 
• 6-10 hours 
• 11-15hours 
• 16-20 hours 
• more 

We found out that people mostly watch t.v for 0-5 hours.

                                               Survey Results 

NEW TASK - OPENING FILM TASK

Initial Ideas-"CAN'T TAKE THE HEAT "
Our second task as a group was to make a 2minute opening to a film. Firstly we had to decide which genre we wanted such as:

• Comedy 
• Action 
• Crime 
• Romance 
• Horror 

At first most of our members suggested that we done horror and comedy, but then our director thought that those genres would be too easy to create and wanted to challenge the group; so we decided upon a romcom (romantic comedy).