Shooting schedule

Shooting Schedule

Location Reece

Location Recce

Feedback

Funmi, told me "the opening was very, very dramtic and the sound added on to that affect, however, i was unaware of the scenario, and id not know what was going on." With this feedback myself and my team decided to make it a little bit more informing so our audience would understand what was going on, however, not giving away the story and the plot too soon.

Moving on, another person from the opposing class told me that "the sound used was a brillant effect, however, there were too many shots on the photo-album which could produce boredom." When my team heard this we acted on it staright away using some cut-away editing techniques and also fading to white, to make it quick and easier.

Another comment that was recieved by my teacher was "the continuity is not accurate, as orange flooring could be seen, whereas in all the other shots we could see black flooring. How does thatw ork out?" Indeed we never noticed it, until we went back and we had realised that even though it was for a small amount of time there was still orange flooring. Therefore, we had to use our editing techniques and cut out that bit and speed it up. Once we had done it, everything was perfect.

Q7 Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Preliminary Brief: Film and edit a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character. A couple of lines of dialogue must then exchange between characters & match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule should be demonstrated.
Main Task: The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes (all video and audio material must be original, produced by candidates, with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source)

Looking back at the Prelim task I can see how much my knowledge has advanced and how comfortable I now feel around the Media technology. Before starting the Prelim task I had only used a web cam to film and that was only to a few minutes of filming. At first the Prelim task looked to be a big challenge for most of, little did we know that this was the easy part. For our Prelim task we was asked to film and edit a sequence were a character would enter a room and sit down and have a conversation with another character. They then needed to leave the room and exit through the door. The sequence was simple but it was the rules we needed to follow that were difficult. We were given 3 rules which we had to make sure we created our film around , they were the 180-degree rule , shot reverse shot and match on action. We needed to show that we understood theses rules and could apply them well. We also needed to get use the equipment which was alien to most of us. This was one of the biggest learning curves. The information we gained by using the equipment would be vital to our main project.

There was also many problems which occurred during the prelim task which helped us understand filming more. These problems included
• Sound interference
• People walking past the camera during filming
• Moving the camera from different locations
• Operating the equipment correctly and efficiently
• Using the editing equipment
Now I look back at these problems I cans see how I have grown form them and can compare them to what I done different in the main task. If you take sound interference as an example , when we was filming our main task we made sure we chose a efficient location which would cause as less sound interference as possible. For us this was the media departments control room. It was small enough that the sound didn't echo and that the boom could not pick up sounds from outside. I do not believe that we would have been able to understand why we had to do this if it was not for the prelim task. By having the problems with the sound it made sure that we didn't make the same mistake twice

Another comparison would be the difference in shots in the prelim task and the main task. I think this was due to the amount of time we was given to practice different shots and see which ones we thought would be good to use. Obviously we had been taught the basic shots before but by being able to use the camera we were able to experiment with , low angle , high angle, behind the shoulder , tracking , zooming in and zooming out at different speeds. This is were we got our idea for the slow tracking movement for our main ask. Also I had mentioned earlier the 3 rules were like second nature to me due to practicing them in the Prelim task. As the director I was constantly thing about the position of the camera and I made sure none of the rules were broken. Overall when it comes to camera work i believe that I have excelled greatly and I now fill comfortable either behind it or directing it. This is due to constant practice with it (Especially in the prelim task) and the opportunity to be given the Independence with it to make our opening sequence.

Another big learning curve for me was the editing software. I had always seen myself as someone who was able to edit a piece of media and to do it well , I soon learned that it was harder then I first thought. The editing software we use is called Adobe Premier Pro and is simple and effective one you learn how to use it. After filming for our prelim task we needed to transfer the rushed onto the computer and digitize to them. I had no idea how to do this and so this was something new for me. I learnt how to connect a fire wire and what its purpose was. I then learned how to digitize to the editing software. Once this was done we needed to learn how to create the timeline and which steps needed to be taken to make sure that we didn't edit wrong. This was the most important part for me as I believe that when you go to edit it can either make or break your film. This is why I learnt all i needed to know in the Prelim task so I could transfer my skills to my main task. Learning such things as how to fade and add a soundtrack was vital.

In all I believe that I have come a long way since the prelim task and am happy with my progress. From learning the basics to creating an advanced piece of work I have not stopped learning.

Q6-What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Through this project my knowledge of different types of media equipment and their functions has grown greatly. I have been placed in a position were I had no other option but to adapt to the equipment we was asked to use which at first I found difficult as it was like nothing I had used before. We knew that the equipment we would be using would be similar to what they would use when making an independent film , this for me raised the expectations of our audience and ourselves as there would be no excuses for either bad video quality or sloppy filming.
Before we started to film we were each given a role in the terms of what we would be in charge if , for example I was the director , Daniel was in charge of camera and Antoinette was in charge of sound. Each role meant you was in charge of certain pieces of equipment and that it would be your responsibility to look after it during filming. We had all learnt about the equipment before hand and so was confident we could all do our jobs well.

The equipment varied from sound , camera and editing software. The camera we used to film was the cannon xha1 camera which provides great video quality for films such as ours. As I had never held one of these before everything I learnt from just picking it up and turning it on was new to me. The camera was simple to use and had many different functions to it. There was a circle rod placed at the side of it and this where you was able to switch from actually recording to reviewing the rushes on the small screen placed above it. To view my rushes all I had to was switch the rod to VCR PLAY which would give you the options of rewinding, forwarding or pausing the rushes when viewing them. When actually using the camera on set as a director I found it easy to move it around as it was light , this played to our advantage as we needed to the camera quite a lot during our opening sequence. Overall it taught me that it's not always the biggest camera that you see on the TV which are the most effective , especially when making an Indi film. We placed the camera on top of the Vinten Pro Touch Black Tripod which helped us use different levels and kept the camera stable. The tripod included a spirit level which I learnt you had to make sure was level at all times during use.

Moving onto sound equipment we found this the hardest equipment to use as it had so many different aspects to it. For sound we used the Sennheiser K6 Microphone which was placed in a Rycote Windshield System connected to the Boom pole. None of us had used this equipment before and to us it was alien for the first few days of using it. What I learnt was that his highly sensitive to the smallest sounds, for example someone closing a door in the corridor would interfere with the sound. When actually using it during filming it was even harder as you needed to place it in the right position to get the correct level of sound. If the levels were too high the sound would not be correct for the certain scene in the film. To make sure this didn't happen the person in charge of sound would have a pair of Sennheiser HD 205 headphones to check what the microphone was picking up.

Once filming was complete we had to edit our rushes. This is where we were introduced to even more new technology. First we was given a 80GB Lacie Drive which would be where we store all our rushes and our actual finished product. The portable drive was useful as it allowed all of our production team to gain access to the rushes at any time on any computer. To edit of opening sequence we used the Adobe Premier Pro software which was simple and easy to use. It allowed you to add numerous effects and helped you when actually creating your film. To place your ruses onto the lacie drive we had to connect a fire wire from the camera to the computer. You then digitize your rushes onto the computer and you’re ready to go.

Q1,In what ways does your media product USE, DEVELOP or CHALLENGE forms and conventions of real media production.

It was fundamental for us to challenge and develop the conventions of a real media production through our own. We concentrated on making sure mise -en-scene, editing , camera and sound were all used in the correct format and that each represented the different aspects of our chosen genre correctly. Through research we compared our ideas to other films such as Titanic and My Sisters Keeper which were both successful drama films and saw how they had used different media techniques to represent the traditional conventions of a drama film.

For us research into camera techniques was the most important as this certain aspect of production would be were could show that we have created a uniqueness within our production. When linking shots to genre you have to analyse how each one will come out on screen and what effects they may apply to the audience. Shots such as close-ups and panning allow you to emotion within characters, and this is what we saw throughout our research. Looking into the Titanic we saw a close-up (zooming) used when the character Jack pulled a missing diamond from his coat pocket. What this shot done was create tension but also allowed the audience time to come to terms with what is happening. We felt that we could adopt this shot for our own productions as it would suit the scene were we have our main character Claire going through a scrap book. Another interesting shot we came across was a Tracking shot used in My Sisters Keeper as Katie shows her mother the scrap book she made. What the shoot represented was a passing through time , and as the camera tracked each picture in the book you feel as you are following her journey. This scene was similar to the idea we had on our storyboard and wanted to mirror the effects of it. This is were we had the idea of mixing the two shots together creating an hybrid. By using both the close-up and the tracking shot we were able to build the tension and melancholy atmosphere we wanted while allowing the audience to follow the journey of the pictures. This showed that we had developed the conventions of a drama film as we had created and hybrid of two shots and creating the mix of atmosphere through it.

Mise-en-scene contains many aspects to it , such as costume , location , props and lighting; we needed to make sure we addressed each one if we wanted to show that we were challenging the conventions of a drama film. Location for us was important as we need to make sure it mirrored our character and more importantly reflected her social status. Looking back at our research we saw how the Titanic made the social differences between higher and lower class clear by their surroundings. The higher class had very classy rooms filled with luxurious possessions were as the lower class had only a bed and table. This difference in location allowed you to distinguish between characters and even give you a hint to the type of character they were. This is vital as in drama films you want your audience to become attached to the characters and this is a good way of doing just that. We had decided that we was going to set the scene with the phone conversation in a bedroom as this would allow us to include props such as wallpaper which would reflect our character. We added a small table with a lamp and phone on top , this represents both independence and intelligence as not all 16 year olds have their own phone in there room. When picking out wall paper we had to think about what pattern or picture our character would have on it. Our character belonged to the smart but popular social group so we needed something sophisticated. This led us to pick a pink wall paper with a small pattern printed on it, we hoped this wall paper would both mirror our characters personality and make our audience feel as if they could relate to her. By accomplishing this we are allowing the audience to emotional bonds between them and the characters which is what you should aim for when creating a drama.

Editing techniques are usually associated with action and horror films, but they can be the final part of the puzzle when it comes to the drama genre. Films such as Slumdog millionaire and taxi driver show that a cluster of editing techniques is not always needed to create emotion and atmosphere. When drawing up our storyboard we was unsure how we would challenge the conventions of a drama film through editing, that is until we saw how My sisters keeper opened. It used a montage at the start of the film, showing the young girl at her final stages of life and then switching to when she was healthy. The effect this had was that you gained enough information to start to feel a bond between you and the character Katie. We wanted our audience to be able to do this and we decided we would start our production in the middle and then switch to the beginning. The technique shows that we are trying to develop a relationship between the audience and the characters while challenging the conventions of a real media production.

Q2-How does your opening sequence represent particular social groups?

It was important for us that we represented our social groups correctly and that our audience was able to identify them. When dealing with social groups you need to think about costume, make-up, movement, voice, dialogue and facial expression. Each aspect helps the audience to identify which social group a character belongs. There are many different types of groups, some you relate to a particular genre , for example you would expect a gangster to be in a crime-drama film. As we only included one character in our opening sequence we had to make sure that we represented extremely well as she would be only character the audience saw.

Costume is one of the main ways of linking a character to a social group. A piece of clothing can determine if they are an emo or if they are a Jockey. Our character belonged the social group of "popular girls" which meant she dressed well and looked good at every opportunity. To understand this more we took part in an experiment to see how easy this could be achieved. We had a pupil sit in a chair and slowly started to add different pieces of clothing on him. We started with a coat which seemed that looked old and dirty. Simply by adding a coat he no longer looked like a pupil but more like a rocker or even a tramp. We then added some stylish glasses onto him and took away the coat. The glasses transformed him into a cool kid who seemed to have an attitude. This experiment told us that we did not have to over dress our character to make them suit their social group. As our character belonged to the popular girls social group we needed to make sure she was wearing trendy, colourful clothing which would represent her love of life and family. As she is also stylish we made sure that her clothing was designer and that everything was equally proportioned.

Movement was another aspect which needed to be addressed with caution as a characters movement can be the key to their social group. The way a character walks , sits and stands all come under movement and it was important that we matched our characters movement to their social group. By looking at other social groups and the characters in which you associate them with we saw how they used movement to portray different groups. Take the character Vincent Vega from Pulp Fiction. He walked with a swagger and attitude so straight away you could see he was a gangster. Another example would be Vito Corleone (The Don) from the God Father. In the opening scene he is sitting in a chair having a conversation, he is sitting up straight and his arms placed on the table. His body is open which suggests power and by him sitting up straight he is showing that he is higher than everyone else. We needed to use our characters body language to get the same results. Although the only movement our character performed was walking into the scene , picking the phone up and then dropping it will still needed to make sure the actions matched her social group. What we asked the actress to do is to walk in with her legs leading her body to represent confidence and elegance. By letting her legs lead her body the audience will be able to see that she is full of confidence and that nothing can get in her way. We also asked her to let the phone slip through her fingers when she drops it. What this suggests is that whatever was said over the phone it had pierced her self -esteem and her confidence, not only is the phone slipping through her fingers but so is her dreams.

We included dialogue in our opening sequence as we believed that this would be the biggest give away to her social group. Our dialogue was placed at the end of our opening sequence and was "little did I know this phone call would change my life forever, my hopes and dreams shattered in an instance". The dialogue was very dramatic and allowed the audience to see that our character was emotional and upset. Although her social group is "Popular Girl" we wanted the audience to understand that she was also very in touch with her softer side. Although we still wanted the audience to know that she belonged the popular girl social group so we decided she would she would speak with a melancholy tone. What this would do is show the audience that there are two sides to our character and that she is different form others in her group.

Q3-What Kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

It is important that when deciding how to distribute your media production you choose the root which will best suit your target audience. There are a variety of ways in which you could do this, each with its own positives and negatives. You have to understand how each method of distributation works and which will be the most successful method distributation. First thing we needed to do is recognize that our media production was indie and that this limited us to certain methods. At the same time it narrowed to the roots in which we could take and allowed up to compare and research each one.

At first thought anyone who wants to distribute a media production will go to a movie distributor. Distributors are split into two categories, indie and mainstream. As our film was indie we would look for a distributor who would support our film and allow us funds which would help promote it. Optimum Releasing is one of the biggest indie film distributors in the UK and are responsible for the distribution of films such as This Is England and Rise of the Foot Solider. Although This Is England only had a budget of 1.5 million pounds, its gross revenue was 8 million pound. Optimum Releasing was in charge of its promotion, producing trailers, posters, and setting up a website for the film. This is what we would want for our production. Without a good promotional campaign you will not be able to target your intended audience. Dogwoof is another indie film distributor based in the UK. The distributor is not as well as known as Optimum releasing but deals with really low budget films such as ours and helps them to distribute their film. Dogwoof has helped distributed films such as The Age of Stupid and The Wolf. Both are foreign films which are set in the UK and each were produced on an extremely low budget. What this shows me that this distributor may be able help promote our film in foreign countries such as Spain and Germany. By promoting our film in other countries we widening our range of audience. In a recent survey taken in Spain showed that the indie film culture was more popular there then in Britain. Over 65% of people asked said that they preferred indie films to mainstream and this was including foreign film for Britain. Another survey taken in Britain this time showed that 85% of people preferred mainstream to indie, some stating that they found mainstream films more exciting. Looking at these results you may say by going to a distributor such as Dogwoof which distribute in foreign you have a greater chance of success.
On the turn if the millennium the age of the internet was born and this opened up a whole new market for film distributation. For film makers such as us who have no funds for distributation , you have to look for ways in which you can promote your film for free. In 2004 the social networking site called MySpace was created by Tom Anderson. Nothing like this had ever been created before and soon the website had over 100 million users. Celebrities, politicians and even the Royal Family used it to connect to the people. What the website allows you to do is create a page (for free) which can be for any purpose, from promoting music to connecting to lost friends. They are also used to promote films and this we could for ours. By creating a page we will be able to upload pictures, trailers and information which people can access at any time. The network also allows you to become “fans” of the page and includes a comment box on each page. Although our film will be unknown at first it only takes one person to become a fan to start the wild fire process. As soon as one person becomes a fan they may invite their friends to join them and so on and so forth. The comment box will also allow us to gain vital feedback on our film which we can use for future films.
Another social networking site which may be as or even more effective would be the social networking phenomenon called Twitter. What makes Twitter different to Myspace is that it is mainly used by celebrities. Again the network is free but it does not offer as much as MySpace as it does not allow you to post pictures, posters or videos. Although this may be a down fall, the chance that a celebrity may see your Twitter page and actually become a fan is too good to past. If we gained the support of a celebrity through Twitter this would make distributation of our film a lot easier. We would gain media coverage and the people who follow that celebrity may see that his have become a fan of our page and decide to do the same.

Q4-Who would be the audience for your production

It was important for us to make clear who our audience and to understand the demographics of our target audience. At first we needed to link our audience to our chosen genre. The genre of our production was drama and so it would be easy stereotype the audience of other drama films to ours. We understood that not all drama productions are the same and each brings in its own type of audience. A clear example of this would be the audience which would watch the Titanic and the audience who would watch My Sisters Keeper. We also needed to understand the social back ground of our audience and keep in mind the secondary audience as well.
A typical drama film would produce an audience which would contain mainly women between the ages of 25-45. Drama films are associated with emotion which women seem to embrace more than men. The percentage of women of who watched the Titanic was 68 which is over half the audience. This backed up what we had already presumed but this did not mean that we ruled out men completely. We saw men as the secondary audience who would be dragged to the cinema by their partners. We knew that it would be important that we addressed men with as much importance as women as they could hold the key to our success. It is said that over fifty thousand dates take place each week according to a research site. One of the most popular venues for these dates was the cinema. Our secondary audience (men) may invite women on a date and use the cinema as the destination. Knowing that a majority of women find drama films interesting they may choose this over maybe an action film or horror which is not as popular with women. Going back to who are target audience will be , after looking at the information above we was sure on that we were going to target both women and men but what we had not decided on was what social class we were going to target.
The demographics of an audience vary as there are different types of social classing. We have the higher, middle and lower classes which all have their own likes and dislikes of film genre. We understood that the higher class may not understand out production as well as other classes as we did not have a real budget to work on. You would associate the higher class with mainstream films with blockbuster budgets and so we ruled out targeting the higher class. This means we were left with the middle and lower class which are both similar when it comes to what film genre they prefer. As our film is indie this means that we would only be available in certain cinemas or festivals around Britain. As we are also in the middle of an economic crisis it is also important to think about ticket prices. The lower class will be struggling at this period of time and so going to the cinema may be a luxury rather than something to do for the weekend. This is why we narrowed it down to only the middle class. Through research we discovered that 78% of people who attend the cinema are from the middle class. We also discovered that an astonishing 89% of people who attended the reading indie film festival were from the middle class. Theses result showed us that by targeting the middle class we would be placing ourselves in a position in which we would could take advantage of the current economic situation and were actually target people who will be more likely to be interested in our production then others.
Going back to the different types of audience’s associated to drama films; we needed to make sure that we targeted the audience which were interested in a drama production which included many emotional and hard hitting scenes. To do this we looked at other films similar to ours and analysed the type of audience they bought to the cinema. What we found is that the target audience was both men and women form the ages of 30-50. This was because the film included many scenes which were not suitable for a younger audience. This was similar to our production and we decided we would take the same approach. If you look at another drama production such American Beauty you will see that they have a much younger target audience as there film does not include such an emotional storyline.
Taking in all the information which we had gathered we came up with target audience for our production. We decided that we would target women as our main audience and men as our secondary; this would show that we are not stereotyping men to a certain genre. Both women and men would belong to the middle class and be between the ages of 20-40. From our research we know that by targeting the middle class we are giving our selves an advantage in actually making our production successful, and having the age group between 20 and 40 we are making sure that we are not exposing young children to the issues in our production which may not be suitable for them.

Q5-How did you attract/address your audience?

It is important for any film to grab the attention of the audience in the opening sequence. There have been some legendary openings in films such as The Matrix, Saw and James Bond. It is the opening sequence what sets up a film for the next couple of hours or so, and you can usually tell a lot about the rest of the film by the way it opens. When analysing an opening sequence your are looking for the use of camera, sound editing and mise en scene. Each is important as the other and making sure they are all addressed is part of making a good opening sequence. We wanted to make our opening sequence unique, exciting and mysterious. Our aim was to keep the audience guessing throughout by experimenting with camera and editing techniques such as low angle shots and montages. We also wanted to make sure that our character contained ecological validity, which means that her personality and character reflected a real human being.

As I said before e wanted to create mystery and confusion in our opening sequence as we believed that this would be an effective way of keeping the audience interested. We had seen this technique used in other films such as Saw were in the opening sequence the narrative is made unclear and the identity of the main characters remain hidden. We wanted to mirror this effect. To do this we placed the camera behind our characters shoulder creating an over the shoulder shot. This made sure that her identity was hidden but we wanted to make the scene more exciting for the audience. This is where the idea of a close-up (zooming) came in. We believed that if we slowly zoomed into the scrapbook we would make the audience feel as if that time is slowing down. This would allow them to gather emotions such as sorrow and remorse in a manageable time.

Although we had accomplished what we had wanted through the camera there still didn’t feel as if there was enough sadness in the scene. We wanted the audience to feel confused and mystified but at the same time start to build up all different types of emotions. We had seen this done in other films by adding a soundtrack to the back ground. Scene’s in films were a character may be near death or situation may be coming to its climax there will be a soundtrack added to give that scene the additional atmosphere. This is why we added a very melancholy soundtrack to our opening sequence so that we would create the extra piece of atmosphere we believed would ease the audience in to feeling an emotional link towards our character.

Once we had showed the scrap book we had our actress open the scrap book and revile the pictures inside. So that the camera didn’t seem too static at that point we decided to fade the two scenes together. This allowed an easy and smooth transition between shots and also made sure that the audience’s attention was not lost between the transitions. Once we had our character open the scrap book we placed the camera just above the first picture on the page. We still used a close up shot so that the audience were able to see the photo in detail. This was important as the photo’s held the key to part of the narrative. We wanted to represent a passage in time from photo to photo so that the audience would feel that they were going through our characters past. To do this we used a tracking technique which meant that the camera moved smoothly from each photo. We hope that because the speed of the tracking is slow it will allow enough time for the audience to analyse each photo.

Once the scrap book scene is finished we allow a period of time where the screen is just empty and a black screen is only visible. We believed that by doing this was giving time to the audience to reflect on the information they had just been given. This is where we believe that the audience will become curious and want to understand what is happening. This will lead them into wanting to carry on viewing our production. The blank screen then fades into what seems a room with a table and telephone taking the centre spot of the frame. We used a low angle shot as this allowed us to keep the identity of our character hidden which was vital as it was one of the main factors which mystified the audience. The identity of a character is important to an audience as they are able to draw conclusions from the characters they see in the production. We didn’t want this to happen in ours so we made sure that her identity was kept hidden by using a variety of different shots.

We wanted the audience to feel as if that what they were watching reflected a realistic stetting , so it was important for to make our setting look as if we was actually filming in a bedroom. We created a fake wall by sticking wallpaper onto a hard back board; we then placed carpet around the fake walls. This came up well on screen and added realism to the scene. If the audience feels as if they are watching a real life story they may develop more emotional links to characters. In the last scene, were we used this set we had our character enter the set pick up the ringing phone and then drop it. As our character entered the room we added a voice over which we had recorded previously. The dialogue was dramatic and short so we hoped that that it would have a hard hitting effect on our audience. My Sisters Keeper is an example of how effective an over can be on an audience.

The ending of the last scene sees a close up of the phone dropping to the floor in slow motion. In this shot we focused on the editing more than anything else. We slowed down the frames so that the phone looked like it was falling in slow motion. What we wanted this to represent is the moment in which everything slows down when she is given the bad news. This will show to the audience that a change in the narrative has occurred and will encourage them to want to carry on watching.