L3 OPENING SEQUENCE - GROUP 7 - FINAL VIDEO from cmdiploma on Vimeo.
Monday 16 November 2009
Thursday 12 November 2009
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)
1st frame: In this frame we chose the title of the film to go where the characters first meet. The reason for this is because it is the part of the opening where the tension builds up to.
We did choose the title 'Beat the Bully' because the main character gets bullied and he will fight back.
2nd frame: The setting/location of the film is set near the Grafton Centre, and the part where the gang leader is introduced is by Coleridge school.
We chose these locations because they represent the genre of the film, and makes it look and feel like a regional independent film.
3rd frame: In this frame it shows how we used costume and props. The costumes that we chose to use for the main character (Lars) was his school uniform to make him look like he is coming back from school. We also used one prop for this character which was his school bag, to make it even more convincing to the audience that he is a school boy.
For the gang leader (Jahmal) we made him wear a hoodie with the hood up, jeans with turn ups at the bottom, and black nike trainers. This makes him look scary towards younger people, which is why when he passes the main character, he looks scared. We made sure that you can't see his face to make the audience wonder what he looks like, who he is, and what will happen later on in the film.
4th frame: The reason why we made this helicopter shot, is because we wanted to have a variety of shots and wanted to make our film opening as interesting as we possible could. We wanted to have a shot that is different from all our other shots, and what other people didn't add to their films and is very hard to do.
5th frame: This frame shows how we used titles and font style. You can't see it in this picture as it is a still image, but in the film the separate letters of the titles move together to form the title. The style which we used is (American Typewriter) and we had the font colour white as it showed up well on the background of the film.
6th frame: This frame shows how the opening of our film sets up as it is the crucial scene when the characters pass each other. This shot shows the main character (Lars) looking scared after seeing the gang leader (Jahmal) who looks menacing as he looks back. This shot also shows how the story will evolve later on.
The story is explained in our pre-production posts.
7th frame: In this frame we wanted to show the genre of our film which is 'An independent movie featuring a young protagonist' similar to Kidulthood/This is England.
We chose this shot because we wanted to show that it has a young protagonist in it, as well as a kidulthood like character with his hood up in the distance.
8th frame: We did a split screen of how both characters are introduced. In the left hand shot it shows the main character (Lars) on the floor in a close up shot, and this is how we introduced him. In the right hand shot, it shows a mid-shot of the gang leader (Jahmal) walking across the street, and this is how we introduced him.
9th frame: This shot is at the beginning of the film opening and it shows a POV of the main character looking into the sky after being pushed to the ground. The reason why this is a special effect shot is because we blurred the picture to make it look like he is dizzy and confused so the audience really get the feel of what's just happened.
1st frame: In this frame we chose the title of the film to go where the characters first meet. The reason for this is because it is the part of the opening where the tension builds up to.
We did choose the title 'Beat the Bully' because the main character gets bullied and he will fight back.
2nd frame: The setting/location of the film is set near the Grafton Centre, and the part where the gang leader is introduced is by Coleridge school.
We chose these locations because they represent the genre of the film, and makes it look and feel like a regional independent film.
3rd frame: In this frame it shows how we used costume and props. The costumes that we chose to use for the main character (Lars) was his school uniform to make him look like he is coming back from school. We also used one prop for this character which was his school bag, to make it even more convincing to the audience that he is a school boy.
For the gang leader (Jahmal) we made him wear a hoodie with the hood up, jeans with turn ups at the bottom, and black nike trainers. This makes him look scary towards younger people, which is why when he passes the main character, he looks scared. We made sure that you can't see his face to make the audience wonder what he looks like, who he is, and what will happen later on in the film.
4th frame: The reason why we made this helicopter shot, is because we wanted to have a variety of shots and wanted to make our film opening as interesting as we possible could. We wanted to have a shot that is different from all our other shots, and what other people didn't add to their films and is very hard to do.
5th frame: This frame shows how we used titles and font style. You can't see it in this picture as it is a still image, but in the film the separate letters of the titles move together to form the title. The style which we used is (American Typewriter) and we had the font colour white as it showed up well on the background of the film.
6th frame: This frame shows how the opening of our film sets up as it is the crucial scene when the characters pass each other. This shot shows the main character (Lars) looking scared after seeing the gang leader (Jahmal) who looks menacing as he looks back. This shot also shows how the story will evolve later on.
The story is explained in our pre-production posts.
7th frame: In this frame we wanted to show the genre of our film which is 'An independent movie featuring a young protagonist' similar to Kidulthood/This is England.
We chose this shot because we wanted to show that it has a young protagonist in it, as well as a kidulthood like character with his hood up in the distance.
8th frame: We did a split screen of how both characters are introduced. In the left hand shot it shows the main character (Lars) on the floor in a close up shot, and this is how we introduced him. In the right hand shot, it shows a mid-shot of the gang leader (Jahmal) walking across the street, and this is how we introduced him.
9th frame: This shot is at the beginning of the film opening and it shows a POV of the main character looking into the sky after being pushed to the ground. The reason why this is a special effect shot is because we blurred the picture to make it look like he is dizzy and confused so the audience really get the feel of what's just happened.
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
For this task we have decided to get a screen grab of our main character 'Lars' and compare it to a screen grab of the main character 'Marcus' in About a Boy.
Marcus from About A Boy has many similarities with our main character, and these are a few examples. In appearance they both look very depressed and are pulling the same facial expression.
They are wearing similar costumes as each other as well, as in our film the main character has his school uniform on showing that he has just come back from his school day. He also has his bag on his back, similarly in about a boy Marcus is wearing his school uniform and he has a bag on his back, but there is a difference in both screen grabs as Marcus is wearing a hat on his head and also a very odd sweatshirt. Also on his uniform he is wearing a tie.
Both characters have a very similar role in each film, and they both have almost exactly the same personality. Marcus gets bullied at his school because he is a very strange boy, however, in our film our main character gets bullied at school but not for the same reasons. Lars gets bullied at school because he is very clever and knows every answer the teacher asks him and other students don't like him for it. The role of each character is to play a young school boy who gets bullied at school and need to find a way out of bullying.
In our film our character tries to get into a gang, whereas in about a boy 'Marcus' tries to make friends with one of his parents friends.
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 3
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Here is some additional information we were asked to put into the commentary but did not because a commentary normaly relates more to the opening than most these questions do.
For this task we had to create a commentary voice over, to put over the top of our film opening sequence. The commentary is explaining what is happening in each scene and why we chose to make it in that way.
I think that making a voice over was a good idea, because people now know what is happening correctly, as the editor and director (Sven and Jahmal) of the film are the ones doing the commentary, so this gives the audience a clear idea of what is going on in each important scene. It also makes sure that people watching notices all of the little details, which they would have never seen before, which makes the film opening twice as interesting to what it would have been if they just sat down and watched it, without spotting the small details.
Because we know all of the little details added by us, we have a brilliant understanding of the film opening, and know what is going to happen later on in the film. Knowing all details makes the film stand out more, because the audience will be looking out for these minor effects, which is why we chose to add a clear and accurate commentary version of our film opening sequence.
Here is some additional information we were asked to put into the commentary but did not because a commentary normaly relates more to the opening than most these questions do.
What does a production company do?
The production company are the ones who produce the film, for example, in relation to our
opening we put our idents at the start of the film, showing that we produced it.
What is a distributor and what is he doing?
A film distributor is an independent company, he is the agent between the film production company and the film exhibitor.
Where the money might have come from for a film such as yours?
The money for our film might have come from government grants, because our film is an independent local feature.
Why the various people are named in the titles?
We named our film production companies as well as actors in the opening on the other hand we have not mentioned small jobs such as boom operator. That is because main jobs such as director are more important than boom operator. And they are named in the opening because more people are going to see the opening and not the credits of the end of the film.
Our titles are:
J.C.A.C Media productions and Sven Mattes Film and Media Production present
a Crowe and Mattes film
LARS MATTES
JAHMAL CROWE
Casting by Bill Noxville
Costume Designer Alex Hume
Sound Designer Karlos Jimenez
Edited by Sven Mattes
BEAT THE BULLY
Producing Designer David Pattern
Screenplay by Johnny Traffer
Produced by Collin Smith
Directed by Jahmal Crowe
We took the order of the title appearing from a template, which is similar to the opening of 'Fight Club'.
What your film is similar to 'institutionally'?
The films that would be released in a similar way would be for example 'Man on Wire', 'In Bruges', and 'Slumdog Millionaire', because all of these films are British Independent Films.EVALUATION ACTIVITY 4
Who would be the audience for your media product?
This is our target audience.
How old are they?
They are 16 years old.
What are they called?
Teenager. His name is Louis.
How do they dress?
Nike trainers, straight cut jeans, and expensive jumpers.
Where do they live?
In a semi-detached house.
What do they spend their money on?
Clothes and console games.
Where do they watch films?
In cineworld, and illegal downloads on internet.
Do they play video games? Which ones?
Yes, Muliplayer games, online games like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft.
What is their favorite film?
Adulthood.
How much TV do they watch?
1-2 hours a day.
What do they do in their leisuretime?
They play console games, and listen to music.
What kind of music music do they like?
Grime, Hip-hop, and Rap.
Do they buy music?
No, they download illegal copies of music.
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 5
How did you attract/address your audience?
This is a screengrab of the annotations editor in YouTube..
This is a screengrab of the annotations editor in YouTube..
We added some annotations to our video so that we can describe how we relate our characters to other films. We explain that our main character (Lars) is similar to Marcus in 'About a Boy'.
The gang leader in our film opening relates to some of the characters in 'Kidulthood' because he is wearing hoodie and gangster clothing.
The screengrab shows the timeline of YouTube's annotations program.
The annotations which we added, shows the audience what we intended to do in the film, and shows how everything works, in order to draw the audiences attention towards the film.
On the timeline it shows where we added text. It was very hard to get the text to come in at the right place and fade out at the right place, so we really had to concentrate very hard. We also had to do annotations for each scene. Doing this, shows that we have a great understanding of why we chose to do what we did, and lets the audience know that we didn't just come up with it on the spot.
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
This photo shows all the equipment which I have used to create the film opening, as you can see there is a mac in the background and we used this mac to do all of our editing using programs such as: GarageBand, Final Cut and Photoshop. We also used websites such as, Blogger, Vimeo, Youtube, and Flickr.
There is also a camera with the microphone and tripod. We used the camera obviously to record, and the tripod was to keep steady shots, but we didn't always use steady shots as we had some over the shoulder shots as well. On top of the camera is a microphone which records all of the sound whilst filming, but we didn't actually use any of the sound which we had when recording because it was mostly Me giving orders (shouting action aso.); but we did record sound at a later stage.
We also used headphones whilst on GarageBand, to make our own music for the soundtrack of the film. The headphones are on my head in this photo.
FINAL CUT
Here are some screengrabs of the main programs which we used to make our film opening look professional and not rushed.
Final Cut was the crucial program for our film, because this is where we edited everything, like cutting scenes out of our film, and putting everything in the right position, we also used it for special effects and adding titles.
In our film opening we had many special effects, like at the beginning we blurred the POV shot to make it look like blurred vision as the character has just been pushed to the ground. Later on in the film we added another special effect, where the characters meet and everything goes to slow motion for a little while creating tension.
GARAGE BAND
GarageBand was another program which we had to use to make our film stand out, because in this program we had to create our own music and we had to take lots of sounds to do this. In my opinion, by the end of making the soundtrack which we struggled with at first, it turned out to be very appealing, and actually went with the type of film we have, also if you listen carefully the tone of the music changes when it switches between characters. Another thing I think we did well, was when the characters meet, the music changes to build a lot of tension.
When using GarageBand we also had to fade the music out at the end, so we had to get the pen tool out and put dots on the line where we wanted to drag it down, then when we had it at the right point, we would play it through and it would fade out perfectly.
This photo shows all the equipment which I have used to create the film opening, as you can see there is a mac in the background and we used this mac to do all of our editing using programs such as: GarageBand, Final Cut and Photoshop. We also used websites such as, Blogger, Vimeo, Youtube, and Flickr.
There is also a camera with the microphone and tripod. We used the camera obviously to record, and the tripod was to keep steady shots, but we didn't always use steady shots as we had some over the shoulder shots as well. On top of the camera is a microphone which records all of the sound whilst filming, but we didn't actually use any of the sound which we had when recording because it was mostly Me giving orders (shouting action aso.); but we did record sound at a later stage.
We also used headphones whilst on GarageBand, to make our own music for the soundtrack of the film. The headphones are on my head in this photo.
FINAL CUT
Here are some screengrabs of the main programs which we used to make our film opening look professional and not rushed.
Final Cut was the crucial program for our film, because this is where we edited everything, like cutting scenes out of our film, and putting everything in the right position, we also used it for special effects and adding titles.
In our film opening we had many special effects, like at the beginning we blurred the POV shot to make it look like blurred vision as the character has just been pushed to the ground. Later on in the film we added another special effect, where the characters meet and everything goes to slow motion for a little while creating tension.
GARAGE BAND
GarageBand was another program which we had to use to make our film stand out, because in this program we had to create our own music and we had to take lots of sounds to do this. In my opinion, by the end of making the soundtrack which we struggled with at first, it turned out to be very appealing, and actually went with the type of film we have, also if you listen carefully the tone of the music changes when it switches between characters. Another thing I think we did well, was when the characters meet, the music changes to build a lot of tension.
When using GarageBand we also had to fade the music out at the end, so we had to get the pen tool out and put dots on the line where we wanted to drag it down, then when we had it at the right point, we would play it through and it would fade out perfectly.
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 7
Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
1.
Match on action shot (1. and 2.)
2.
3.
Reverse shot (3.)
4.
180 degree rule (4. and 5.)
5.
I used Jahmal's preliminary task which he made to compare it to our finished film opening.
1.
Match on action shot (1. and 2.)
2.
3.
Reverse shot (3.)
4.
180 degree rule (4. and 5.)
5.
I used Jahmal's preliminary task which he made to compare it to our finished film opening.
Looking back I feel that we have really implemented every aspects we have learned by doing the preliminary task.
In our opening we have several match on action shots aswell as used the 180 degree rule. We also used a reverse shot of both characteracs looking at eh other.
As you can see in picture 1. both characters (Louis and Lars) open a door. In the 2. picture both projects have a close up of the action. This match on action shot is used to make the audience really see what is going on.
On picture 3. you can see how both characters (Tilly and Lars) react to a certain action. This reverse shot is used to let the audience see what the other person did at exactly the same moment.
Pictures 4. and 5. demonstrate the 180 degree rule from two views. The 180 degree rule is used to see the characters are always on the same side.
In our opening we have several match on action shots aswell as used the 180 degree rule. We also used a reverse shot of both characteracs looking at eh other.
As you can see in picture 1. both characters (Louis and Lars) open a door. In the 2. picture both projects have a close up of the action. This match on action shot is used to make the audience really see what is going on.
On picture 3. you can see how both characters (Tilly and Lars) react to a certain action. This reverse shot is used to let the audience see what the other person did at exactly the same moment.
Pictures 4. and 5. demonstrate the 180 degree rule from two views. The 180 degree rule is used to see the characters are always on the same side.
Friday 6 November 2009
Wednesday 4 November 2009
Creative risk
We were asked to identify one risk we took while making the opening scene.
We took away the background noises of the original filmed clips because we had a lot of car noises in the background. The risk was not getting any marks for the soundtrack or that the opening sequence does not sound real enough.
Because we will paste music to the opening and we already recorded extra sounds to fit to the scenes, it was worth to cut out the distracting noises.
I would not change what we did because it is working really well.
Sunday 1 November 2009
Feedback for Sophie and Charna
1. What did you rate as strengths of the work?
The strengths of this opening are that they used alot of different shot types as well as angles.
They also use the benefit of the night so that the fire and the titles stand out very well.
Because it is dark and the fire is the only light source, it feels like another dimension/fantasy world.
I like the music at the beginning of the opening which also gives a sort of mysterious feeling to the opening.
2. What did you rate as weaknesses?
In the middle of the opening sequence the music changes, which in my opinion does not fit to the opening.
The title with the name of the film is at the end of the opening sequence. Normally trailers have the name of the film at the end, so I think that your opening looks more like a trailer than an opening sequence.
The audience does not really know what is going on. Maybe when the fairies are edited into the opening scene it will make more sense.
3. What do you think the group should change?
I think that the group should change the music and the title with the name of the film (at a different time), nothing else really.
4. what has the other group still got to do? e.g. titles, sound, visuals
The visuals (fairies) still need to be inserted into the opening.
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