as media studies: 2013

Friday, 10 May 2013

Final film opening project

We had a lot of problems in uploading our final project onto Blogger and tried many ways but failed. This is why is has been put onto a disc that will be given to the moderator.

Tuesday, 7 May 2013

How did you attract/address your audience?

Friday, 26 April 2013

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

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)

Frame one - Title of the film

The title of our film was chosen so that it was very to the point and established the main character straight away for the audience. We chose the background to be black when the title in white shown so that people knew that the name and the title was very important and so it ooked singled out from the film opening so that it helped create the thriller aspect.We made it very oblivious to the audience about what the film is going to be about through the title so the audience is kept on its toes about the whole thing. This also creates interest and entises
people in to watch the rest of the film.

Frame two - Setting/location
The setting that we chose was remote, countryside paths for the main character, Alice, to bike through so that is helped set the era of the 1960's so that we didn't get any people in modern clothes in the scene or cars and houses. We then chose the location for the field that the two characters sit on to talk so that it was cute and went with the age that we was trying to portray through the characters so that the audience got that idea through the setting as well.

Frame three - Costume and props

The era and time that we set this film opening in meant that we had to be careful in the costumes and props that we used so we didn't break that code and make it look stupid. We had the main two girl characters wearing an old fashioned black and white dress an
d the other in an old fashioned floral blouse and skirt. This was all made look better through the main prop, being the bike, that Alice rode. The bike is old fashioned and it has a basket which made the 1960's feel come through in our film opening better to the audience.

Frame four - Camerawork and editing

The camerawork that we used had to create the right feel for our theme and the era we was trying to portray to our audience through this opening. We used close up shots between the characters as they was speaking of their mouths so that it created an uncertain and strange atmosphere because its not a usual shot that would be used as it is also off centre and almost looks handheld at this point in the shot. We made scenes fade into each other so that they looked almost like flashbacks or a dream, this helped create the right atmosphere and tension for the audience that we was aiming for in our theme. Our entire film opening is in black and white which helps set the time in which it was set and also make an eary feel and contrast, as the characters within it look happy and laughing whereas the actual film itself is blank and dull.

Frame five - Title font and style
The title font we chose looked almost like it had been written by a child, which we chose purposely so that it looked creepy and strange to go with our theme and help suggest it to the audience.

Frame six - Story and how the opening suggests it

The story of our film opening suggests that Alice's friend that she goes to meet on her bike in a field is dead. However the voiceover suggests differently and make the audience think. The story line for the rest of the film would be that the main character, Alice, is actually dead. The audience can grasp this idea through the speech that Alice is saying over the top contrasting in the way the filming shows that her friend is dead. The black and white effect on the film opening does suggest that something dark has happened or is going to happen which also helps suggest the
main idea to the audience.

Frame seven - How characters are introduced

The main character is introduced to the audience on her bike coming from a far to the front of the shot quickly. She is also shown happy and smiling on the bike, this shows the audience for a start that she isn't worrying about anything and is happy about the destination she is going to reach. The voiceover then appears throughout the film oepening as she is still biking and the audience realise that the girl speaking is infact her. This introduces the character to the audience nicely and makes them build a relationship to her as she is speaking to them about herself and her life. This helps the audience establish the main character and have an insite to her aswell as making them feel like they are a part of her life so that they are more invovled and curious about the rest of the film. The second character, Alice's friend, is shown sitting in a field waiting for her. We already see that the audience have been tied deliberately to Alice for a reason, which also hints to them that she is the amin character. They are shown sitting far apart rom eachother which shows the clear difference between the two to show the storyline more for the audience.

Frame eight - Creating that enigma

Our film openings theme is thriller so we had to incorporate that in our film opening in order for our audience to be made aware of it so that they want to watch the rest of the film after the opening, to entise them in. The black and white effect the we out on the whole of our film opening created an old, eary feel to it towards the audience and helped the thriller theme come through to them. We made our transactions fade so that it made our character dissappear slightly slower than the scene itself to create the feel of death to the audience. This, along with voiceover, the words that are said in it and the way in which things are portrayed through it, show that the theme of this film is going to be a thriller.

Frame nine - Genre and how the opening suggests

We represented our thriller genre throughout our film opening by the editing aspect of our film. For example, we have made it black and white so that it looks old and it looks eary to create a spooky atmosphere to the audience that is watching it and gets to grips with the fact that the film is going to be a thriller. The writing font for the titles are very angular and sharp, which makes a scary, strange vibe from it as their are children as the main characters and these titles contrast with that. The way in which the scenes fade from one to another creates the thought that something ad is going to happen or has happened because it fades and looks almost like a dream or a flashback from a different time. This also links in with the era in which it is set, being the 1960's and the way that the characters are dressed and the setting in which we have located it suggests this also. This is how our genre is shown and how the film opening suggests it.

Friday, 19 April 2013

What have we learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

We have learnt about a lot new technologies that we had to use in order to make our film opening media product. In order to put our film opening together, we used Premiere Pro on the computers which we had to learn about before we started exporting our clips into it as we didn't know the ins and outs of the programme that we needed to know. Once we got the hang of it we started being able to import the clips to make our film opening and start editing it and creating titles which we then fit into place. This process took a long time and was Premiere Pro was the programme that we used to most for our media product as it held all our project together and we had to make sure this was done correctly.

In order to film our media project we used one of my group members cameras' so that we knew how to work it and we had someone that knew everything that we could do on it in terms of filming. On some of the scenes we did, we had to make sure that the camera was held steady and in position. For this we also used a tripod that my other group member brought along to the location of our filming which helped us greatly. This helped us position the camera in places that we couldn't hold, for example the sitting positions of the main characters that are low to the floor which we wouldn't have been able to keep still being handheld.

The other part of our film opening that was a big part was the voice over of the main character throughout the whole of the film opening. For this we had to record my voice in the recording room into a microphone. For this we had to learn about the programme that we had to use in order to record our voiceover effectively, which was Audacity. A music teacher helped teach us about this before we began to record that day. The whole of my group had to help at the voiceover for the volumes and to start and end the recording as we did it in sections so that we got each line correct. After the recording was complete, we then imported the file onto Premiere Pro and began to fit it in place with the clips of our film opening and titles.

Saturday, 30 March 2013

Risk assessment

Tuesday, 12 March 2013

Our voice over

Narration

Sky:

When I think of growing older I get a strange feeling in my belly. It’s like, it’s not meant to be.

And if I never grow older, well that will be a comfort.

That’s me. You don’t know about me.

But I know me

Like a black bird carries the sky on its back, I feel like I carry the weight of the world on mine.

I have so much I wanna say but no one to hear it. I just need to there’s someone out there that listens and understands.

I often spend my time out, my family never really acknowledge me.

And if you don’t know where your heading any road will take you there.

I’ve not always been this way, so negative.

My life used to be so good and happy, but you’re not supposed to look back, you’re supposed to keep going.

I used to think it would be nice if thinks made sense for a change, but now that’s all different.

Now I have Rosie, she listens to me and I like that.

We found peace in each other, when I’m with her I’m not alone and nether is she.

And I wouldn’t go back to yesterday because I was a different person then. And life doesn’t stop for anyone.

So let me tell you a story, my name is Alice.

Monday, 11 March 2013

Filming

We scheduled for days in order to film the opening of our film, however we came across complications because the weather wasn't what we wanted for the days that we picked so we had to keep re-scheduling and hope for the best. We ended up finding a few good days that we used to film in and got as much done as we could in different places in order for the journey part of our opening to be longer and better in order for the speech overlay to be used because there is going to be quite a lot of it. We also found the perfect place to film the bit after the journey which a cute and right for what we was aiming for with the two little 60's girls in our opening of our film. We still need to go back to the place in which we filmed the journey in order to get some close up shots which are needed for the opening to be more successful and so that we are marked better at the end.

Audio overlay

I am in the process of writing up the overlay speech that goes over a large part of the opening of our film that will look like the main character is thinking in her head. She is going to be speaking about her family and home life and the fact she doesn't have any friends but one, then goes into a certain depth about her. Through the speech I am going to put in creepy lines that relate to her situation to hint to the audience about the twist at the end of the film if we was to make the whole thing. We have been researching over the internet for lines that will be perfect for this. We ended up choosing lines from 'Alice And Wonderland' and it related back to our film opening as that is also a fantasy film with a hint of creepiness within it.

Film setting

For our film opening the characters of Rosie and Alice will meet at a field where they will be having a picnic. We have took inspiration from the film The Time Traveller's Wife of where they meet at a picnic spot in a field.

We chose a place which was close to us that was surrounded with trees and bushes for the sitting down scene so we could see or hear cars which would ruin the effect that we was looking for for the film. If we was to have got a car in the shot it would have taken away that fact that the film opening was set in the 1960's.

As a group we have decided to film on the outskirts of Glinton. The reason we have chose this area is because its a rural area that's just fields and worn down paths. With our film opening being set in the 1960's this area is good because there will be no roads around meaning no modern life so show the actual time of our filming.

Song choice

We've so far all agreed on the song sang by The Beatles 'Black Bird' as our film is going to be set in the 1960's, The Beatles were big in the 60's so we think it fits in well. Plus we looked at the lyrics and it kind of fits in with our story line too.
we plan to have the first 38 seconds of this song and then when the opening scene atmosphere changes a little, the song stops and we will add in another as that's when the scene goes creepy.

Quick idea for film opening

I have come up with an idea of how to introduce a character into the film opening that we are creating. For the girls friend that is one of the main characters, I thought it would be a good idea for her to be seen for the first time at the picnic that the main girl is heading for whilst travelling on her bike in the first 38 seconds of the film opening. As the main characters shakes out the picnic blanket to lay it out and drop it, the girl will just appear as the blanket is laid down in slow motion. This will make her appear as a ghostly figure as she just appears unexpectedly and this is the aim that we are going for.

Research into events in the era chosen

I have researched into events that took place within the 1960's that hit headlines across the country so that I can use them when I write the narration to go over the top of the film. I will be using these events within the narration to relate back to others characters within her life such as her family members.

Our individual film opening ideas

These are the initial ideas that we came up with individually. By doing this we were able to put different aspects of everyone ideas together to start to come up with our first idea as group.

Laura's idea:
About a girl who discovers she's not alone (didn’t have any friends) as she meets a girl, but later on its revealed she's ghost.
The opening will be start of the story with a voice over.
The genre will be thriller/fantasy

Mollie’s idea:

What I would want to happen in my film opening is to have narration all the way through it but to have the opening of the story playing in the background also, so the narration is explaining what is happening but not giving to much away, just getting us hooked into it. Then when the narration has finished the screen fades into a bright light and then the actual film would start.

Sky’s idea:

Sibel’s idea:

My idea for the film opening is that it should be a Thriller Fantasy genre but includes supernatural events of a person’s life experience.

An added idea is that the films ending starts at the beginning.

The beginning which is actually the ending is a person walking around with a camera following over their life whilst they tell their story of what has happened.

The scene from them walking will fade into the past to show you the events that has occurred.

research on our chosen genre

For our film opening, we are looking at doing a thriller-fantasy. We know that thrillers use suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements in order to portray their genre to the audience. However, as we are adding the fantasy theme into our film opening, it will calm down the big elements that we would have to do in order to make our film a proper thriller. Fantasy usually involves magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures or exotic fantasy worlds. We think this will be a different genre to do as we haven't witnessed anyone else do the thriller-fantasy genre for their AS Media film opening project as usually people do horrors or romantic film genres for their opening. We chose to do a thriller instead of a horror as there would be a lot of equipment that would have to be used in order to make that genre work well and it wouldn't look very realistic. So we decided on a thriller-fantasy as we think we can make it look creepy and look really good if we do everything successfully.

Outfit ideas

Outfits are an important part in our film opening as it will show the era that the film is set in and help determine the genre too. For our 1960's thriller fantasy idea, we are going for a puffy or knee-length skirt look, maybe a cute floral dress for the two girls within our film opening.

Name research

I have chosen the name Alice for the main girl within the opening of our film because of the previous TV drama 'Marshlands' which was an old fashioned thriller which links back with our film idea. I think that the name Alice goes well with the aim of our opening and the genre that we want to achieve.

Below are the top baby names for boys and girls in the 1960's as we are basing our film opening around this era. From the list it as helped to pick the second girls name in our film opening, We have decided upon the name Mona. We chose this as it was a popular name in the 1960's and we think that the name goes well with the theme of thriller fantasy and is a good name for a little girl in this era.

Female Names

Meaning

My List

Male Names

Meaning

My List

Emily

admiring