Main Post 12.7 Question 7

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

Looking back on both my preliminary task and the main task I think there has been an improvement. 3 key points from then until now that I've developed and even improved on they would be the positioning of the camera, the locations that we filmed in and the continuity.

The positioning of the camera when filming the characters has improved from the preliminary task to the main task.

 
In my preliminary task the camera wasn’t at the eye line of the actors so it made the audience feel distanced from the action. From the picture on the left, it shows the difference in the camera position. You can see the improvement on the positioning of the camera in the image above.

The location that we used in the preliminary task was a small office which meant we didn’t have enough room to move around or position the camera correctly. For the main task we chose the location with the knowledge that we would need space.  

 
In our preliminary task we were given the task of making a 30 second film making sure the continuity was food, however I don’t think we succeeded in this. In our main task the continuity was a lot better and so I would say that has improved.

Main Post 12.6 Question 6

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

From the very beginning of the main task we have been using different technologies.  Below I have created a mood board of the key technologies that we have used as a group throughout the project. I have learned a lot as I haven’t done media before and the only other time I have been able to use them is for the preliminary task so this task gave me the opportunity to learn new things about them and how to use them.

 
From all the technologies I used I think I learnt a lot and they all helped in making the final media product we made.

Main Post 12.5 Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

After watching our final opening sequence, I have worked out some unique selling points that attract audiences to our film. The first thing I thought of is the fact we have used math equipment at the very beginning which creates the mood along with the music but also tells the audience about what the film is about without any characters or dialog. 

Another unique selling point could be the fact that our film has a voice over, giving another perspective on what’s happening. As well as this the theme and storyline could be considered a unique selling point as there aren’t many films that focus on the issues of sexual grooming.

To gain the audiences' feedback, we screened our film to some students at school of whom we considered to be our target audience. Doing this gave us information of which we used to help rectify any issues that the audience had; although most of it came back positive. These groups of students also allowed us to record their feedback upon watching our rough cut; of which again came mostly back positive. They had no ideas for improvements for our piece, except showing that some of them weren’t entirely sure what was going to happen. They all enjoyed the beginning of the opening sequence and thought that the music went well with what was happening on screen. This gave us the impression that we have achieved in making our opening of a film for our target audience.

After looking on the BBFC website, http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines, I believe that our film would be certified a rating of 15. I have chosen this for the reason that according to the BBFC’s guidelines ‘Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour.’ Being a film that is based around sexual grooming there is reference to sex ‘No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds’. To assure that I was gaining a reliable estimate of rating, I researched into other films with the same themes as ours to see what they were certified.  The film ‘Trust’, a film about a teenager who is groomed online and then raped is also rated a 15. Looking at the regulation for an 18 certification, I think our storyline is not as extreme and visual enough to reach these regulations ‘Sex works are works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation’.

Main Post 12.4 Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our target audience would be teenagers and young adults, perhaps between the ages of 14 - 25. I think this age group would be appropriate because of the themes and storyline of our film which are subjects that perhaps an adult wouldn't find as upsetting. I think that to watch our film the audience must be able to understand what is happening and so  should be no younger than 12, therefore when promoting the film the advertising should be aimed at teenagers of about 15, and young adults.

This is Lizzy. She is 16 years old and studying for her GCSE’s. Lizzy has always been someone who is on track with her grades and popular with other students and teachers. When she isn't studying, Lizzy enjoys watching films or going to the cinema with her friends. People call Lizzy obsessed as she is forever sitting in front of the television and always the first to tell people about a new film coming out. Lizzy is a person who loves to impress and is forever entering music competitions and writing her own songs. Although she can be quite loud a Lizzy also likes being calmer and having film festivals with her friends or going shopping so she can tell people about the latest film she has seen.

Main Post 12.3 Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Looking back at the films that influenced our production of the opening sequence, films such as ‘Easy A’, ‘Diary Of A Wimpy Kid’, ‘Catch Me If You Can’ and ‘Wild Child’ all of them successful big budget films made in and produces by large, well known production companies.

The role of the production company is not only to raise funding of a film, but to produce the film. Film production is everything from the initial idea of the film, shooting and then editing the film. With this in mind, we are aware that our film would not be produced by a production company such as Paramount; primarily because it is such large company so select the films that they make carefully. A production company such as Working Title also has an expectation to uphold, something that a film like ours is a risk in creating due to the story line. However, with this all in mind, I think that they might produce it as it is a popular genre and from our feedback, was a success in terms of creating the dramatic genre and our focus groups seemed very pleased with the outcome; as previously mentioned though because of the story line and themes in it there is a limited audience for this kind of drama. Having thought about all the options I think that a smaller production company would be more suitable for our film.  A small production company would still allow the film to be a success, but would avoid it being a risk for more multinational instutions such as Working Title.

Main Post 12.2 Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

To compare to the characters in our opening sequence, I have chosen two characters from drama film ‘Wild Child’. I picked ‘Wild Child’ as a comparable film to our opening sequence not only because it is clearly in the dramatic genre, but because the main characters are teenagers, like in ours. The screen grabs I have selected were from school scenes in both films, giving me a good opportunity to compare the two.

When looking at screen grabs from ‘Wild Child’ you can see that the characters are of a similar age to the characters in our opening sequence. The mise-en-scene, in particular the costume is representative of a school girl, particularly through the matching blazers. In the below photograph of the other characters, the teenager’s social group is represented through their uniforms, as well as their hairstyles and the way that they are standing. We took these elements as inspiration when trying to represent the teenage schoolgirl look in our opening sequence.

It wasn't that difficult in representing this age group when filming because the actors, one being myself, are part of that age group. However in order to represent this social group through filming, we purposely added elements, particularly within the mise-en-scene that would make the audience aware that they are teenagers. One of these was through the use of costume, this can be seen through the screen grab that the girls were dressed in school uniform; this not only adds to the narrative that they are in school, but also shows how young and perhaps innocent they are through seeing their scruffy presentation. Another element is the body language; the girls both go everywhere together. This is shown with the fact that they both go to Sophie’s locker and walk side by side. When you put this into perspective, adult friendships aren’t like this, therefore it could be said that it is representative of a teenage social group.

Above are screen grabs from our opening sequence, showing two characters in full costume.

Main Post 12.1 Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

1.      Structure of sequence

I think that the structure of our opening sequence is that of a conventional drama. It firstly has conventional opening credits that are spread evenly throughout the two minuets, however unconventionally we have placed the title of the film in the middle of the credits. We kept the structure of the sequence of events relatively conventional, establishing a theme or story line that is continued throughout the rest of the film. Like other dramas we have first established the mood before the action starts.

2.      Style of presentation

In our group we decided that we would stick to convention when it came to deciding how to present out opening sequence. For this we found a piece of music that reflected the theme of our film well and that was copyright free which we put over the top of the action. However we stayed from this convention as we decided to have a voice over that would set the scene and show the point of view of the antagonist so the audience begin to think about who he is and why he does what he does. This was against convention as this is normally shown by the action in dramas.

3.      Style and colour of font

As a group we chose font that is simple but still has the effect of drawing someone’s attention. We chose for the font to be in white, one reason for this was because it made the credits stand out over the top of the clip; where the clip was either in dark colouring or black and white. Another was so that it didn’t detract from the action with bright colours. We kept the same style, colour and size font throughout the whole of the opening as it is more conventional and looks more professional.

4.      Genre

 The genre chosen was drama, a vague genre that is unconventional for a short film but drama is often described with a sub-genre and this gave us licence to be creative. Drama is created through simplistic elements; one being that the problems or issues facing the characters in the film are those that are faced or affects the target audience. This enables the audience relate to the characters and creates a sense of realism within the film. We used a conventional drama structure in our opening, setting the mood first, with music and the images at the beginning. As a group we watched the opening sequence of ‘Diary of a wimpy kid’ which influenced out decision on how we would set out our opening sequence. For example it uses a voice over which we also used to take the audience’s attention off Paige and on to Sophie, showing her to be the main protagonist as this isn’t made clear with the action shots due to both girls having the same amount of screen tome.

5.        Narrative enigma

In our opening sequence we may have been a bit too obvious to create an enigma with what might happen in the rest of the film with the voice over, however without it we would not have been able to introduce the antagonist or completely set the scene. Although when we showed our opening sequence to people (video) only a few people caught on to the fact that it was about sexual grooming and only thought it was about a rape. It also still has the twist of Paige being abused that no one even suspected which is conventional.

6.      Introduction to characters

We introduced three characters in the opening sequence of our film. We introduced Sophie and Paige in a conventional way, building up their characters; however we were unconventional in the fact that they both have equal screen time which makes it harder for the audience to identify which girl is the main protagonist. The fact that they are sitting together and the audience sees them walking together immediately sets up the relationship between the two, something which is furthermore explored as the opening sequence continues through the dialogue. For the girls we kept the dialog to a minimum to create a sense of mystery about them but also because we chose to use the voice over. In the introduction of the antagonist we bordered on being conventional as we introduced him with the voice over but the audience don’t know who he is and don’t see him other that short shots of his face, creating a mystery about who he is and if he is the man being shown on the screen. The voice over is in a conversational tone which draws the audience into a false sense of security, believing after the few lines that he is just giving his point of view and is harmless.

7.      Camera

When we were filming we kept to conventions using the 180^o rule making sure that all the shots were from the right position and angle.  We used a series of different camera angles in the attempt to not only show the relationship between the girls, but to create a mystery about who the man in the car is. We used panning shots to show the maths equipment so the transitions could be smooth and slow and fit with the music. When both girls were in the shot we used medium shots apart from when they are walking to the car, then we used log shots so we could show that they were leaving school and to show the man in the car. Something which we took inspiration from was the film ‘Easy A’ and the idea of the over head establishing shot. We used the establishing shot in the classroom to give the audience an idea of the age of the girls and the relationship they have with the rest of their year.

8.      Sound

As previously stated we decided to use music over the top of our action which sets the mood of the film and draws the audience in. having music over the top of action in the opening sequence is conventional to a drama. We also used the more unconventional voice over to give some background knowledge to the audience and to give them a clue to what is going to happen later on. From watching the beginnings of films like ‘Easy A’ we discovered that the less dialog there is the more the audience is drawn in, it also helps in a dramatic sense building some tension to what will happen. We wanted to find a piece that wasn't too distracting from the action, but makes the audience uncomfortable about what might happen. Therefore once we found an appropriate, copyright free track we put it over the top of the whole film, by making it quieter in the moments of voice over. The opening reflects the dramatic mood of the music an overall tense atmosphere was created. We also edited the music in a slow paced fade out at the end because we thought this would add tension and drama to our film.

9.      Editing and special effects

We didn’t use many special effects in our opening because we felt that it may seem less real to the audience or detract from what was going on in the clip. We did however adjust the brightness of some of the shots so that the continuity wasn’t broken. Other than this, we only added faded transitions from one shot to another, showing the reflecting the slow pace of the music and creating mystery. Most of the special effects and editing that we used in producing this opening sequence is seen in conventional drama films.

10. Mise-en-scene

 We had our characters wearing school uniform so that a childlike essence was shown following the conventions of most teenage dramas. We used a few props including; maths books, school bags, maths equipment, pencils and a car which we used to show that the girls are in school and to give the film the most realistic appearance we could. Without the mise-en-scene showing these aspects, the storyline wouldn’t have been as effective.

Main Post 12a Evaluation - Audience Feedback

Once our group had finished editing the opening sequence of our film, the next step for us was to find out what our audience thought about it. We gathered small groups of people together to sit down and watch the opening sequence and tell us what they thought about it. We asked them questions about what they thought the rest of the film was about, what they thought of the music and what they thought of the overall opening sequence. We recorded their feedback and this is what's shown in the links below.

Audience Feedback Rough Cut
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UltDP81oOEQ&feature=BFa&list=UUiCPNZjTUS7GKDcdT5xgP_Q

Audience Feedback 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv9xa9d4eos&feature=BFa&list=UUiCPNZjTUS7GKDcdT5xgP_Q

Audience Feedback 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqFsWCSLVeI&feature=BFa&list=UUiCPNZjTUS7GKDcdT5xgP_Q
Audience Feedback 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D8w-ln-sgg&feature=BFa&list=UUiCPNZjTUS7GKDcdT5xgP_Q
Audience Feedback 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrpnbXdXUmU&feature=BFa&list=UUiCPNZjTUS7GKDcdT5xgP_Q
Audience Feedback 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7JkPprAVEQ&feature=BFa&list=UUiCPNZjTUS7GKDcdT5xgP_Q

Audience Feedback 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcmtVe2_DCo&feature=BFa&list=UUiCPNZjTUS7GKDcdT5xgP_Q

Audience Feedback 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZkfZnGHI08&feature=BFa&list=UUiCPNZjTUS7GKDcdT5xgP_Q


After watching all the feedback clips of the audience’s views after watching our opening sequence we now have a better understanding of what they thought and ideas on how we could improve it if we were to do it again. The majority of the people who we got feedback from commented on the shots at the beginning of the opening sequence when the camera was panning across the math equipment.

They said they it made them want to watch on as the music and the different images intrigued them as to what the film was about and what would happen. Along with this, one person commented on the fact that the equipment might be there to signify the pressures of school that the main character could be going through. One of the other key points made in the feedback videos was the use of the music in the opening sequence. The feedback we got said that the speed of the music and the opening titles at the beginning of the opening sequence went well together, they also said that it helped set the mood of the film and create emotion among them. The music we have chosen made the audience 'intrigued' and was 'dark and misleading'. Another group that watched it said that the beginning of the opening, the panning, was spooky and the attention to detail was very good. This shows us that we established mood well as the audience felt a sense of fear and anticipation. Another point several people made was the fact that once the girls got into the car, after seeing the male look out the window and then the interior mirror, it made them slightly uncomfortable to watch because of the thought of the short skirt and loose tie shown in a shot before. It also made them conscious of the fact something bad was going to happen to one of both of the girls.

When the audiences were asked about where they thought the rest of the film would be about and what was going to happen, they had a mixture of ideas.  We found that the women watching the opening sequence thought the rest of the film would be about either 'grooming', 'sexual abuse' or a 'rapist'. Whereas the men weren't quite sure on what they thought it would be as the responses we got from them were 'something to do with a math tutor' and 'misunderstanding the signs'. From this we found out that the women had a better understanding of the opening sequence than what the men did. Overall the majority of the feedback from all the clips was positive and the audience seemed to understand what the film was about and would want to watch the rest of it.

Main Post 11 Final Opening Sequence

Due  to problems when trying upload our video clip from youtube onto my blog, it didn't work. Therefore below is a copy of the link that will lead straight to the video on youtube.

However when we put the video onto youtube the size of the screen changed to 4:3 (this normal size for television) but when we shot and edited our opening sequence we used the size 14:9 (the size of a film screen) so at times it may look stretched but this would not happen if the audience was watching a film in the cinema or on DVD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOvWz14PI3M&list=UUiCPNZjTUS7GKDcdT5xgP_Q&index=1&feature=plcp

Main Post 9 Production

Whilst filming and editing of Behind Blue Eyes our group had to make decisions about how we were going to present our final opening sequence and what should go into it. These decisions were made as a group and we made them in order to insure the outcome of our opening sequence was at a high standard.

One decision our group made when editing the second half of the opening sequence was to take out the scene in Paige’s bedroom with Sophie and Paige doing their homework and another scene with Sophie getting out the car and walking towards her own house. We felt that these weren’t needed and just made the overall opening sequence longer and repeated what we had already established in a previous scene. We also decided on this as we thought that by having the scene of them both in Paige's bedroom it would make the audience feel as if the opening sequence had ended and the film had begun and but we that we had missed out linking a scene.  We instead put in scenes with Paige and Sophie walking away from school and getting into Alan's car and with them both inside the car, beginning to drive away. These decisions were
Even though the shot of the girls getting into the car outside Paige's house was cut, we kept the shot of them getting into the car, this time outside the school instead of Paige’s house. This decision was made because it kept the continuity from the previous scene. The added scene shows the girls walking towards the car, and we can therefore still show Alan looking out the car window at them and still highlight the fact he's looking at Sophie's short skirt and loose tie.

I personally think that it was a good decision as the end result of the girls walking to the car and then the shots inside the car look really effective and contribute to building the tension for the audience.

We also took out the from inside the locker where we would've seen Sophie getting her books out and shutting the locker door, leaving a black screen for 'Behind Blue Eyes' to appear. However we decided to take this out was because it was difficult to keep continuity, as we couldn’t put the folder in the locker laying at the same direction as it was in for the shot before hand, this was because the camera took up more room than we had initially planned. It was also because we had trouble keeping the camera at a flat angle whilst filming and when editing we discovered the title looked better on a black screen anyway.

Another decision our group made was about the beginning of the opening sequence, with the math equipment. We decided to film the different pieces of equipment at different angles all of which had a black background, making it easier in the editing phase to put them together. We also made the decision that because when filming, we captured lots of different shots of the colouring pencils to use more than just one shot of them and instead we put several shots of this in from different angles.

I think that using the different shots of the pencils has improved our opening sequence as it gives it more colour, compared to the plain colours on the black background and also gives it another dimension, with the different angles.  

During the editing of the opening sequence we had to make several decisions, these being where to put the opening titles, what font to put them in and how many we should have. From our research, watching the openings of several drama films, we found out that there are a lot of opening credits, as they mention every main job in the creation of the film, and from this to keep to convention; we put the majority of them in to ours.

Another decision we had to make was about the opening credits and where to put them as our opening sequence doesn’t have space in the shots, for this reason some of them may differ from what we have put on our shot list. We spent a long time deciding where we should position the credits as we wanted them evenly spread through the title sequence and in places that looked visible yet not taking up the entire screen or taking the focus off the action. However we found that when we were adding the credits in, because there are so many we couldn’t keep putting our four names on every single one of them as it would look unprofessional so, for this reason we made up names meaning that when the audience watched it they felt that it was more realistic.

Overall all the decisions we made as a group during the filming and editing stages, I think, have been good ones as they have meant that they film not only looks more professional but mean that we have managed to give the audience just enough information for them to carry in watching.

Main Post 8 Pre-Production Documentation

Before we began looking for a location to film, we came up with a mise-en-scene design for us to follow. This shows a mixture of different pictures that highlight specific parts in the mise-en-scene that we want show. The picture below shows this.

As a group we produced a location recce of the bedroom that Sophie and Paige would be in whilst shooting them in the scene, this location recce show’s what lighting there is in the room and how the room’s laid out. It is also helpful for later when we did the risk assessment.
Below is a copy of our group’s location recce of the bedroom Sophie and Paige are in at the beginning of Behind Blue Eyes.

As well as planning what the set would look like with the pictures from above, we also put together what we wanted the props and costumes to be and look like. The costumes are what Sophie, Paige and Alan would be wearing and the props are mainly what we would be using to pan over at the beginning of the opening sequence.

We produced a  shot list for the opening sequence of Behind Blue Eyes, this simply shows the location of the shot, the scene the shots in and a description of the shot itself. Having this shot list means we can refer back to it whilst filming all the different shots. Below is a copy of our groups shot list of the opening sequence to Behind Blue Eyes

The script tells us who says what and the order in which the lines are said. This script contains the voice overs said by the male in the opening sequence as well. Below is a copy of our group's script of the opening sequence to Behind Blue Eyes

We produced a storyboard to illustrate each shot in each scene, along with the description it had a visual drawing of what the shot would look like and it also highlighted the character movement, length of and where the shot would be.

We carried out a risk assessment on the locations we are going to use, this shows the potential risks throughout filming, risks that could injure somebody or a piece of equipment. Below is a copy of our groups risk assessment, highlighting the risks in each scene and a way of avoiding this risk.

In order to get our opening sequence filmed, we created a shooting schedule of when we were all free and the equipment was free in order to get the opening sequence shot. Our groups shooting schedule was over two days and describes what scenes will be filmed and at what time we would film them, it is show below.