Tuesday, 11 May 2010
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
Post production report
After filming came editing, Editing was not too bad for us as we thought we had got the worst bits over and done with. The first task we had to do was logging. Logging meant we would pick and choose all of the shots we wanted, check the times for each of them and state whether we would want them or not. Logging took about four lessons to finish completely and we generally had no troubles with doing the logging task.
The next part of editing we had to do was the capturing. This meant we needed to get the shots we wanted, put them in order and choose how long we wanted each shot to last for, so everything would be in chronological order. Capturing was just as easy as logging, but we needed to think carefully about where we would put each shot, for continuity issues, and how long we wanted to make each shot and/or if we needed to cut it down, as the whole of our opening sequence needed to be at maximum 2 minutes.
After we had done these two tasks we could now start editing, adding in titles, music and any other editing techniques. First of all we had one problem. Which was the sound in the background when we were filming; we had unwanted sound, meaning we needed to turn it right off or down very low. We decided to turn it right down, and with our music over the top we thought it would not be a problem, it was a success and we were generally very pleased that this had worked.
We decided that we would place the London shots in various different places. We did this and once we had all of our shots in order we noticed another problem. This was the use of our match on action, where the old woman was walking past the pregnant girl. In order for us to correct this we needed to cut the whole shot out. Once we did it, it looked much better and we were pleased with the outcome.
Other problems that we faced were the shots of Dominic and his feet; they did not link together, on the match on action, so again we had to cut the shot short, in order for it to link together into one shot.
After we had captured everything, we started to add in titles, and effects that would come with the titles. We added in separate titles, where each scene ended and added the effect’s which was a dissolve fade. We added in name titles for each of the characters, and director, and casting and music director name, then we added in the name of our film. We made some changed with adding in the titles, as our teacher felt they were too big, and we needed to reduce the size. We also needed to change where we put each of the titles, as we added in the film title at the end, which made it look like a trailer. We also put the cast names over the people who played them, as before we put them anywhere.
The sound also became an issue but that was easily sorted, and we needed to fade each scene into each other. Some shots needed to be edited so that they would link together and some shots were deleted.
The last task we needed to do was to add music to our opening sequence. The music was Dub step, and it made our whole opening sequence alive, and linked in well with our genre. When we added the music we were happy with what we had achieved, as before we had negative vibes about our opening sequence. The music was very easy to add in and once we had done this we were finished. We then exported it to a DVD and got feedback from our target audience. Overall we are very happy with how our opening sequence turned out.
Production Report
Getting started filming was hard for us. We lost a member of our group and lost motivation. We had arranged for the filming to be done outside of school, so we could all get together and film, Emma would do the shots in London. We did not get together outside of school, and we had 1 week before all our filming had to be done. So we had a group discussion and decided we should do the filming inside of school, (during lessons, frees, and lunch times) where everyone would be there and we could just get on with it. Tuesday 9th February was when we started our filming, and it did go well. The filming its self was not hard and also quite enjoyable. We got a number of scenes done which we are very proud of and now we have got started it wouldn’t stop us from filming anywhere else. The first part we filmed was with the pregnant girl, Katie rubbing her belly and a woman walking past her giving her evils. We re did shot’s just in case one of then was wrong, or too long, or too short. We did this for every shot we did, In order for us not to have to re film. Once we filmed Gemma (the pregnant girl) we then filmed the older woman walking past her, and giving her evil looks. We were unorganised at the start of our filming, and it was hard for each of us to keep track, when and where we were filming. We did not have an older woman who we knew would play the character. One of our group members then decided we should ask the librarian in our school. At first we all disagreed with this as we assumed she would not agree to this character. We decided we would give it a go and ask for her permission and consent for her to be in our film. She easily accepted, and we were all pleased. I think this increased our motivation in a way as we knew we had started filming, so initially we could get it bone. So we had found a character that would play the older woman walking past the pregnant woman. We all found this very easy to film as the Librarian had performed a good job. Again we took two shots just in case one of the shots could not be used, for example: not accurate framing, or shots. This part of the filming took place over one free period, which we thought was extremely good, and after this first part of the filming took place we were much more motivated and ready to work, and get the rest of the filming done. The next date for our filming was the 4th of February. We filmed the part where the druggie (Dom Whiteman) was doing drugs. We were relieved when Dom said he had the same free periods as us and asked him immediately to play the part. Thankfully he agreed and said he would be happy to play the druggie. We were filming in a small room, and to our luck, it was being used. We asked the other group who were in the room if we could use the room for our filming and when they would be finished, they said they would not be long, and need until the end of period 1. We agreed and asked if we could use the room for period 2, and so we did. Filming Dom was not hard, we told him what he had to do, and he knew what he was doing without any queries or questions. We wanted him to look more like a druggie and so we decided we would put a small but of makeup on him, around his eyes to make him look more like a druggie. Once Dom was ready and dressed for the scene, we started filming him. We needed to film a number of close ups, and extreme close up’s of his eyes, as well as shots of him running, and close ups of his feet, and head. This was very hard to produce clear and accurate shots of this, because Running with a camera trying to shoot someone else running is hard. We first filmed Dom and again we took two takes of every shot. The first shot we took was the close up of his head. These shots were extremely hard to take as we had to run parallel to Dom. After we took the close ups of Dom’s head we then tried to take some close ups of his feet. Again this was hard, and we were aware that some of the shots will come out with extremely bad framing. When editing we will try hard to make it least noticeable and sort out this problem. As it was a cold day, all of our characters were moaning about getting the filming done. Once we had finished filming Dom’s final part, it was now time to film the last scene of our opening sequence. The last scene consisted of 5 new characters which were, Charlie, sohail, Michael, zack and rory. As it was very cold, and windy this affected the accuracy of the shots that were bring taken. The new characters were very cold and Sohail had to go to his next lesson, so we needed to get shot quickly. In the last scene the sound of the wind is extremely bad, but when editing we will replace this sound with music, which will suit our genre. Only one group member was filming at this time as the other two were in lessons. Due to this, it would have been harder for the group member who was having to film without having any backup. Overall we were happy that we got all the filming done and that was out of the way.
Pre production report
Throughout the duration of our Main media task, we needed to analyse everything and anything we had done to prepare our filming. We needed to outline decisions made by the whole group and ensure every one of us made a contribution to the production.
The pre production paper work was very stressful it’s self. We were very unorganised at the start but gradually pulled our self together knowing we had limited time to be filmed and edited. It was difficult to try and outline an opening sequence when we were put into groups, and there were only two of us and we wanted to let the other two members of our group have an input. Conflict was not an issue when trying to come up with a theme for our opening sequence. We both came to a conclusion that our opening sequence could be based on real life issues that young teenagers are facing. Just like issues that occur in skins, I think that this teen drama has influenced us to make our choice, as well as Adulthood and Kidulthood, as they all reflect upon teen issues that are occurring in our society today. After discussing with the other two members of our group we all came to the decision that this would be a good idea, and started discussing where we could film.
Our first task was writing a writing up a plot for the whole film, then writing up a description of the opening sequence. Difficulties occurred during this, as our teacher had concerns. She was not sure if it was “gripping” enough for our target audience, and was not very appealing. We also read out a description of our opening sequence to the class, and again the feedback we had from our peers, had concerns about people watching it. It also needed more description which we were told from our teacher, yet this could be easily changed and made better.
We also had comments made about our teamwork from our teacher; she concluded that we were always off doing our separate tasks, not communicating and working as a group taking each task step by step. We took this and decide we needed to work together as a group more in order to pass this course.
Our group all came to the decision that we did not need to include dialogue for our opening sequence, due to the messaged we wanted to send. We thought it would be appropriate to have no speaking to send “silent messages” although we have included a soundtrack, which is non diegetic. We hoped that having a clear bass/grime soundtrack would fit our opening sequence perfectly, outlining the social issues that are occurring today. Also as we have included some “hoodies” it would reflect the type of music they listen to and would have a clear meaning of danger/violence that is happening today.
Our mese-en scene would have a huge influence on our filming. Our props, costume, lighting e.t.c, would all need to be outlined. We decided to include different stereotypical characters which would be appropriate for our target audience. All of our characters mirror the main concerns raised on today’s community, such as young pregnant teenagers, homosexual men, and those who take drugs for fun.
Our treatment was a very big part of our pre production, and this was very stressful as it took a number of times to get right. We changed some aspects of it such as the order of our scenes/shots. We also added in more detail to ensure we knew exactly what we were doing. Then we handed in a second copy, which still needed improving, we still needed to add in more detail, and make sure we gripped the audience and made then want to carry on watching it. By this time we was all fed up and wanted to finish this task and get on with the next one. The third time we handed a copy in our teacher explained the problems to two of us in our group, and she also provided us with examples we took it away and edited it, still adding in more detail, and made final changes to the order of the shots. Thankfully it was an acceptable piece of work, leaving a sense of relief over our group.
After our treatment was finished, we needed to design a shot list, including setting the location of the shot, what is happening in the shot, and a description of the shot. Emma wanted to do some shot’s in London as she is regularly visiting London, we were all not convinced at first, as none of us visited London regularly and could get up there. Emma then decided she could pull this off on her own, as she meets up with friends, and we all agreed. As it was getting closer to February half term, which was the deadline in which we had to be filmed, our group needed to come to a conclusion whether we should change the location and setting in order for us to get it filmed on time. We decided we would give it a go, and see what Emma would produce from London.
As we only have 3 people left in our group, we are now thinking of what we can do about the London shots, and if we should cut them out or not as we have not got access to them anymore.
Our next task was to produce a story board. This was a relatively easy part of our pre production work, and we decided to separate the short list, so each one of us would have 3 or 4 different shots to draw and write about, we decided we should share out the work with this part of our pre production and we worked well as a team, so we divided the storyboard up so one each person would draw and describe 3 different shots.Our story board needed to have a picture illustrating what size the shot would be, and a drawing of what each character is doing. Next to each picture we included a small piece of description of the scene number, shot number, whether it would be night or day, the camera movement, the character movement, the sound (whether it would be diegetic, or non diegetic), and lastly the length of the shot.
The last bits and pieces left to do was, a cast list, equipment list, crew list, and a props list. We decided to divide these tasks out between the group, as we thought it would be quicker if one of us did one each. These small tasks were very simple to do, and it took us not long at all compared to all the other tasks we had to complete.
Overall I think our group found the pre production up to the filming very stressful. We found it hard to all communicate and work well as a group at first, and i think the most trouble we had was the lack of motivation in the group but then we realised what we had to do to get all this work done. We all worked hard to get the pre production work done, and are now looking forward to getting the filming done.
Wednesday, 17 March 2010
looking back at my prelimary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product
My prelim task we learned and tackled new skills. We were introduced to new key media terms and had to put them into practice. We leaned about all the different shot sizes, camera techniques, and rules and regulations when filming.
From the start of the prelim task i felt that i have progressed and have learned how to familiarise myself with the edit suites, and camera work. The prelim task was very much rushed compared to our main task, we had much more time to prepare and film.
I think our group have learned to motivate ourselves, and with the use of the equipment, we have all become more familiar, with different camera techniques, such as shot reverse shot and match on action. We have all took it turns on the Edit suite's and have all had an attempt at editing meaning we have a good knowledge of editing techniques. For example: during the prelim task, our group was very much behind, so we had to quickly rush it, and get it done, with very much help from our teacher. When i edited in our main task i learned new skills such as turning the sound off or down, learning the skills for sound on the edit suite, and i also learned how to import music over our opening sequence. Even though we were taught this before our prelim task i feel i have developed my knowledge, and have gained more depth of different editing techniques.
Three things which i think i have developed and improved are, our use of camera work, meaning that when filming we took shots more then once so they would be more accurate, and which would prevent us from re filming.
The second element that my group improved from our prelim task was, most of our pre-production work. During the prelim task we did not spend enough time and effort on it, and i think we have improved the quality of our written work, and our planning before our atchual filming, even though it was much more time consuming, our pre-production work was more accurate and presentable then our prelim task.
The third aspect of improvement would be learning and developing our knowledge on the edit suite. When we edited for our prelim task we all did not spend much time on it, and just added in the bits that we needed to. When doing our main task we learned more skills, especially new ones such as different fading techniques, adding in music and appropriate titles.
What have you learnt about technoligies from the process of constructing this product
To film the final opening sequence for our media film, we needed to use a number of different technollogical equiptment.
The Internet and television was important when producing our pre-production work and planning, which we would need to use to research films from our genre, and to watch some film's of our genre which would also help us to decide if our final opening sequence would fit in the genre, and seem realistic.
Camera's and video cameras were also used as part of our production. We all took turns in filming, and i feel that we all learned some efficient camera work such as panning and the use of shot reverse shot, compared to our prelim task.
Camera's were used to create location recce's and pictures of our group filming, which would help back up our production report.
The last piece of technology we used was the edit suites. The edit suites were used to finalise and finish our final product, adding in the effects to make it look like a complete opening sequence.
The editing was the hardest part of the technologies used, as we needed to make use of the editing much more then in the prelim task, for example: the prelim task did not consist of using any of the fading techniques, and music, and in this task it was essential that we had put all of these elements in.
How did you attract/adress your audience
Attracting a certain target audience takes alot of persuading in terms of "gripping" the audience, and making sure they want to carry on watching the film, and what we want them to see in our opening sequence.
We tried to make it interesting for our audience, but with the troubles that we have had with our group, it was hard for us to try and attract our target audience.
This is when we thought about introducing a certain storyline which outlines teenage issues which are becoming more and more common today. We thought that if we added in scenes which have high amounts of issues, the suspects of who are becoming pregnant which are at a young age, and who are taking the drugs, they would be able to see their reflections and what they look like, hopefully they will realise what they are getting themselves into.
To gain audience feedback i created a questionnaire, which asked what they thought of our overall opening sequence, titles, editing and so on. The feedback we gained was generally positive, but occasionally the audience felt that they did not know what was going on in the film and could not quite figure out the genre.
