Christina1200’s Weblog

When introduced to the task we were told that we had to create the opening sequence of a film, including titles and it also had to be a maximum of two minutes. Kim , Elliott , Rosie and I decided that we wanted to stick in the same group as we knew we worked well together, and we all worked hard in the previous task we had to complete , therefore we understood that we would each be able to take on individual tasks to complete the film. As we where already aware of what we had to do for the main task, after being told about when being introduced to the preliminary task, we already had a few ideas in mind of what we wanted to do. After learning from the previous mistakes we had made with the preliminary task we knew that we did not want many extras and we wanted to use a simple idea in which we could use to create tension. 

Before putting our ideas down we had to do some research into film opening sequences , there were not many that were on Youtube, however i managed to find one of a film called ‘Momentum’. This was helpful in allowing us to identify in not what to put in to our opening sequence, and the basic aspect was not to give too much away and also take advantage of enigma code.

Here are the ideas we came up with:

1) ‘When trolleys go bad’: This film would have been about trolleys that turn violent and attack local citizens. We thought this idea would bring in the genre of horror however there would be a comical aspect to this, furthermore we would not have to use many actors. However although there we some good points to make this film , it would have required us to talk to a supermarket to gain permission to use their trolleys. As a result we decided against this idea as it was illogical and difficult to take to seriously.

2) ‘Drugs Situation’ : This idea would have involved a party where a lot of drug taking occurs , due to this someone has overdosed and unfortunetley dies. As suspiscion around the nature of his death arises and police investigation follows , where all is not as it seems.

We also dismissed this idea as it would have required an ambulance , a house setting and ultimately lots of extras, which as i have said previously we did not want to use.

3) ‘Mind Games‘: This idea would have involved the opening scene taking place in a dark room with a mentally ill person who is having crazed fits , we would have then used a jump cut to take us to an ordinary day. We thought this idea would be an interesting concept and allow us to take advantage by using lots of enigma code.

4) ‘I.M’: This name would stand for instant messenger as well as instant murder. This idea involves the serious idea of online predators. We decided that we would pan upwards to look through the window of a girl and her friend giggling over the attractive male that they are speaking to online to give the idea that she is being watch. We would then use a jump cut to move into the girls room , where we would see the instant messaging conversation taking place with the words ‘ would you like to meet up?’ on the screen. We would then flash forward in time where the girl is being chased through the dark streets of her town. We would then flash back to her chatting on the computer, as the conversation progresses. We believed that this would show the audience what might happen, and also leave them slightly confused therefore using enigma code

Between ‘I.M’ and ‘Mind Games’ we had a tough decision with what to choose as they both seemed like interesting concepts to explore, as we had the oppourtunity to confuse the audience and create a gripping film. After some disscussion we decided to choose ‘I.M’ as we had a more in depth idea of the story line , the camera angles, and the titles we wanted to use. Furthermore we would be addressing and everyday situation that internet users could probably relate to.  For this type of movie we suggested that our target audience should be 15+ this is becuase would contain violence , murder and strong language , considering the horrer/ thriller type of genre. I looked at other films of this genre such as ‘The departed’ and also saw that they were rated 15+ also , on that basis we decided to stick with our choice. We also thought that it would be more interesting to those of a higher age as they would understand the concept of the film. Furthermore we decided on the 15+ target audience based the the guidelines given by the BBFC for 15+ films, as we thought , if we were to continue making the film there would be violence and strong language. 

Furthermore in the previous task , no one in the group had a specific role which may have contributed to the unorganised style of our film, and also contributed to us almost running out of time. Consequently this time we created specific roles for each member of the group to take on. Here are the roles we decided on:

Production Manager: Kim

This would mean that Kim is in charge of organising auditions, equipment , shoots, costumes and in charge of the film as a whole.

Editing Director/Cameraman:Elliott

This would mean that Elliot has to make sure that all scenes are shot in the intended way , mis-en-scene is taken into account , actors take specific directions and desired camera angles are adheared to.

Editing and Continuity manager: Rosie

This would mean that Rosie has to edit the final film as well as make sure that no continuity errors are made. For example she must make sure that throughout the scene the girl is wearing a tie, rather than wearing a tie in the first half of the scene and not wearing one in the second half of the scene.

Sound Manager: Christina

This would mean that i am also in charge of making sure that sound is high quality , unlike the first film we created , in which it was quite difficult to hear one of the main characters.

I thought that deciding on what roles we would take on , made it much clearer and easier to decide what jobs to assign to what member of the group , this made the process a lot quicker , which meant that we could film and edit quicker. This also meant that we would be able to finish to the deadline , without worrying about completing our work.

After decided ideas and roles , we knew that we would have to presents to the class our ideas, despite the fact that we had already decided on an idea , we thought that it would still be an additional help to see what our peers thought of our ideas as it was the type of age group we were aiming at , and to also see what one they prefered in comparison to our choice. Elliot then went about making a presentation and a questionnaire , and then we were ready to present. However we also had to wait for the other peers in our class which meant our presentation date kept getting post-poned. To overcome this we decided to create our storyboard, script and scout our locations. This was so that we did not waste time waiting around to present. This both had its advantages and disadvantages it meant that by beggining to create our storyboards we could concentrate souley on one idea, developing it to the best of our ability. However it meant that we could not change our idea, if it received a very bad response from our peers. Despite this we carried on creating the items needed for our film, so that we did not fall behind. 

We held a group meeting to discuss what sort of shots and scenes we wanted in our film, how we were going to characterise the two girls in our film, what we wanted our characters to say and what locations we were going to film at. As production manager and Director , Elliott and Kim created the storyboard and decided on the scenes and camera angles needed, whilst myself and Rosie created the script. Both our original script and and story board can be found in Production Log 2. Once deciding this we needed to search for locations for the film. I suggested that for the computer scene we could use my house as it had the type of window we needed , which looked directly on to the computer. For the park scene we wanted to find a place with rusty swings that was surrounded with trees, Elliott said he knew the perfect place so we decided to use that.

Because the film was based around the concept of the dangers of social networking sites such as ‘facebook’. We had to create to Facebook accounts therefore we could make the characters talk to each other. We used two email account created profiles for both the ‘Danny’ character and the ‘Ruby’ character. We created typical characterisations for the two girls, such as pictures with them posing and status’s with them bragging about how much they love there friend. We wanted to do this to imply that they are like everyday teenage girls to illustrate how anyone can fall into the trap of a predator. 

For ‘Danny’ we found a picture of a man that we knew many people would add , purely based on his looks. We also wanted to ensure that the man we used in our film looked completely different to the picture we used on the profile. To show that obviously predators are not who they say they are.  

Once we had completed this we knew we had to prepare for our Auditions, to do this i went on photoshop and created a ‘facebook’ themed audition poster . to tie in with the style of the movie. Which we then posted up around the college. 

Kim the producer had to book all the equipment we needed so we could use it to film our auditions. Once the equipment was booked , we went to collect it on the day of the audition. However we encountered a problem as the media technician allowed us to book the equipment during his lunch break, this meant when we went to collect it , he was not there. In turn this meant that we could not film our auditions, therefore we had to cancel them. To overcome this problem we collected the camera’s once he had finished his lunch break, and filmed the auditions with myself , rosie and Kim auditioning for the part of Ruby and Emily. We decided that Kim and Rosie where to play the two girls as i personally preferred to be behind the camera. On reflection this experience worked out in our favour, as it meant that we could use our selves, therefore we wouldn’t have to rely on actors and work around their schedule, this way we could work around our own schedule and complete the film quicker.

At this point we had come very far in our planning , however we still had to present to the class, despite the fact that we would not have been able to go with the idea they liked, unless it was mind games. We presented to the class and handed out questionnaires that we had also made for them to give their opinions about our ideas on. We found that ‘When Trolleys go bad’ was a popular favourite amongst our peers with 5 out of 12 suggesting that we go with this idea. However luckily for us 6 out of 12 suggested that we go with the ‘I.M’ concept. This was a productive process as it allowed us to understands what our peers wanted to see , and the fact that they had chosen the idea that we were filming made us feel more confident about it, because we knew it would get a good response from them. 

We arranged another group meeting to discuss filming dates, how to get the to the location and who was going to bring the costumes in. We thought it would be the best idea to go during the media lesson as it meant not disrupting and missing any of our other lessons. We understood that the most logical idea was for Kim and Rosie to bring in their old school uniforms to use, although they were different it did not matter , because it could suggest that they go to different schools. After this discussion Kim again had to book the equipment , after some trouble we decided not to get the cameras from the media technician again , but to get the cameras from the library. This was a positive choice as the cameras from the library were much better quality. This was also good , as the previous film we created had very bad picture quality , so this way we could improve on the mistakes we made in our preliminary task.

When it came to the day of filming, we collected the equipment and set off on the bus journey to my dad’s house. We were determined to make this film better than the one we had created for the preliminary task, so we got to filming straight away , wasting no time. The first scene we wanted to shoot was the one of the window looking in on the girls. We found this very difficult as we tried not to get the image of our reflection in  the window , however we over came this by blocking out the light with a coat. We then went on to film the conversation scene between the two girls. We had to do several takes of this because we either needed to make alterations to the script or we didnt get the correct shot. However full details of this filming day can be found it Production Log 5. When looking over the footage , we were not to best pleased, this was because we didn’t feel that it was gripping enough. We also thought that the footage looked as if we had put no effort in as somethings we did looked quite careless. We assumed that with editing we could try and overcome this problem, However, we thought that it would look very silly to use lots of editing techniques and would show that we were unsure of what we were doing . Furthermore we knew we would have also had to film the scenes in the park , but would have to wait until it was dark , if we stuck to the same story board. In addition we knew that this would waste time. Looking at they many points we had come up with against what we had filmed, we disgarded the footage and re-draw the storyboard and make use of more close up and point of view shots . The full details of this can also be found in Production Log 5. 

With our knew story board in hand, we had to find someone to play the predator, and we thought our class mate James would be the ideal person for the part, we asked him and he agreed. 

We then had to organise another filming day, and again we decided to go during a media lesson. With the new storyboard we did not have to use the inside of the house , however we wanted to use the outside setting which had quite a picturesque setting , this way we could use juxtaposition. As something beautiful is contrasted with a sinister atmosphere. The full extent to which we filmed can be found on Production Log 5. After this filming day , i felt much more confident about the outcome for the film , seeing as this time round we had a better storyboard to follow and this time we were more motivated , so that we did not make the same mistake again ( obtaining footage we couldn’t really use).

After obtaining all our footage , we had to edit. We had a few problems with uploading the footage on to the computer as the software was not very compatible. However after spending almost an entire media session trying to upload the footage, Myself and Kim managed to edit the  beginning scene of our opening sequence, and i also found some music for the sequence. Seeing as it was the last lesson we had before the easter holidays, we knew that we would have to come in during our holidays to finish off editing the film. When we came in during the holidays we began editing, and had pratically by around 3pm however as the software we were using had an unexpected error, we had lost all the work that we had not saved. ( The full information on the editing process can be found in Production Log 6) 

After this experience i felt quite dishearted , although we had re-edited and made the film as close as possible to how we had it before, we knew that it was not as good as we had it before. However there was not enough time to go back and redo anything as the coursework deadline was approaching us. So we carried on and burnt it onto a DVD.

We then distributed our film on sites such as Youtube and Facebook so that we could show it to our friends and family and get there opinion on it. Kim also created a survey on the website survey monkey , so that once our friends had watched it youtube or facebook , they could then go onto survey monkey and fill out our survey.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=DfvCoTd3mW1YBXdY_2fhpN4w_3d_3d

In the survey we asked our peers to answer these questions

1.Rate it out of 10 (being the best) on how good you thought it was as a whole

All the responses we received where between 7 and 9. I think this is good as our peers believe that it is above average , and i did not expect anyone to rate it as a 10 as it is far from perfect. 

2. What do you think of the choice of music?

75% said the choice of music was good and 25% said it was Excellent. This was also a positive response as i feel that the music does play a big part in the film , in creating tension and a dark atmosphere. 

3. How did the music make you feel throughout the sequence?

Here are the responses given 

All responses said no apart from one who said it goes quiet at one point , however i think that this is when the pieces of music change.

5. How would you rate the camera work throughout?

75% said good and 25% said average. Honestly i expected a worse response than this as the camera work is very slanted. So saying that , i was quite pleased with the response we received.

6. Can you spot any problems with the camera work?

2 people said they could not see anything wrong with the camera work. However another two people said it reminded them of the blair witch project , which reinforces the idea that it looks hand held and a home made movie. 

7. Which shots can you see that were used?(pick as many as you want)

Close up     75%

Point of View   50%

Medium shot    75%

Long shot    75%

Over the shoulder shot   100% 

Wide shot  25%

8. What do you think of the location in regards to the storyline?

75% said good 

25% said excellent 

9. Do you get any connotations from the location we chose, if so what…?

Many said that they would not expect this type of crime to occur in this type of area , which is the impression we wanted to give off , so this was a positive feedback.

10. Can you spot any continuity* errors throughout the film,

Everyone surveyed said no , this was not quite surprising as there were not a lot of continuity errors , apart from the time , which is a very difficult thing to spot.

Looking over what our peers have said i think the answers they have given are very valid and i would agree with what they have said , however i would disagree with those that have said they could not see any continuity errors. Overall i believe that we have received a very positive response from our audience, also it is positive because we wanted to target the film at the age group of us and our peers. 

The way in which we tried to attract our target audience was to use a topic that they were familiar with and could relate too. We did this buy using the Facebook website. We also understood that teenagers are constantly being warned about the dangers of the internet , and are always told not to talk to people they don’t know. So knowing this we decided to develop a concept that our audience would understand. 

Personally analysing the film i can see so many errors. The first error i can see is the time we see on the computer when the predator is on ‘Ruby’s’ profile. The time says 12.53pm, however the scene outside is one of the girls walking home from school , a normal time to finish school is around 3pm. However we suggested that we could work this into the film,  the girls could have been coming home for lunch. Despite this we knew it was not a major error and there were more important ones that we had made in our film. The next error i have noticed is that when Kim’s name appears on the screen there is a very quick edit which makes the shot appear very jumpy , we tried to remove during editing, however we found it difficult and as we were running out of time we knew that we would have to keep it in. Furthermore at that same time we have a still of Kim , but no camera click. Again we also tried to include this but it made the rest of our music out of sync so we could not include this. Another point of the film that i do not like is that i think the scene where James is walking, i think that its too long and the audience may begin to loose interest at this point, also at this point there is water on the camera, which we did not realize until we had uploaded the footage, however that was the only walking sequence we had filmed. Finally the thing that i dislike the most is the steadiness of the camera , it is very crooked , which gives it a very hand-held , home movie kind of feel.   However compared to our previous film , i do prefer this , there are a lot less silly mistakes, and the mistakes that have been made with the filming of this film , we are actually aware of . Therefore we can take that into account and take responsibility of it. I also prefer the overall storyline for this film as tension is built up quite successfully , with the help of the music as it adds and create a dark and sinister atmosphere. I think our film successfully represents different social groups. The predator is portrayed as an everyday man, who appears to be getting on with his daily life like the average citizen. However contrary to this he is harboring a dark secret , which implies that we don’t really know people , no matter how they appear. I think that dressing him in the long black coat also gave him that sinister look , however to the public he may just appear quite business like. 

We also portrayed the school girls quite well also. They too , were also typical school girls , who were interested in there friends and the internet. I think dressing them in their school uniforms highlighted how young and naive they really are.

I think with our film we stayed true to the conventions to a thriller , as much as we could , seeing as we could only produce and opening sequence. We were not able to use lots of tension building techniques and nervous situations , however we tried to do this as much as possible , through music and mis-en-scene. We decided that we wanted to stay true to these conventions , rather than challenge them because it may confuse the audience as to what genre it is , and as to what we are trying to achieve. 

With the type of film we created, we had to understand what producer and what type of institution would distribute our film. Researching producers , we found that Jerry Bruckheimer would be the ideal producer has over his career as he has produced many successful thrillers such as ‘Defiance’ , ‘Thief’ and ‘Dangerous minds’. Furthermore i think that the type of institution would be 20th century fox , as they too have distributed successful thriller films such as ‘Taken’ and ‘The league of extraordinary gentlemen’. We decided that we would use 20th century fox , rather than something like Universal as they produce more Comedic films.    

I think i learnt quite a lot from this process again.I learnt that we should film to our best potential the first day we decide to film , and realise that we don’t really have a lot of time in which to complete everything. In the previous task i did not have much time to work with the camera or editing. This time round i gained more knowledge into the technologies we had to use to construct our product. More about how to use the camera , and this time i actually learnt how to use the editing software , final cut pro , and with the help of Kim i edited part of the film.I also learnt the importance of saving your work as we go along.