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Tuesday 28 February 2012

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
View more presentations from Mica Morgan.




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. 

Monday 27 February 2012

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?


Question 2:Character Snapshot


How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

Sunday 26 February 2012

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.













Thursday 23 February 2012

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.









Thursday 9 February 2012

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.

Monday 6 February 2012

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.

Thursday 2 February 2012

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.