Tuesday 26 March 2013

Audience Survey

I have made a survey for my product. I have done this because I want to ensure my product has been successful in targetting our specific audience. I also want to find out what we have not done well so when approaching a similar task I will not make the same mistake.

Please use the scroll button to make sure all questions are completed.



Sunday 24 March 2013

Finished Titles

We have made and chosen the two main titles which we are going to use at the beginning of our title sequence. It took us a reasonably long time to think, and to work out the design of these titles. To ensure our titles were advanced we had to make sure a grid was put onto Photoshop so that the positioning was correct. We all really liked the idea of the lighting going down the middle and the text either side. I think the sound effect will make the titles look even better as the sound (such as the lighting). I think me and my group have made sure the titles were seen to be significant as we wanted everything in our title sequence to be advanced and good. Our next title, is reasonably simple compared to our previous one. We decided to use capitals to ensure the words were clearly visible  Along with our previous title, the background is black and letters are in white. This is because we wanted to make sure again, the words were easy to read. The actual design on our second title is a type of design which is made on Photoshop. I am content with both these titles as each are very simplistic but also slightly interesting because of the the two contrasting colors and the small design. I think at the moment, me and my group are working very hard to make sure we meet our deadline.

This is our first title
This is our second title




Thursday 21 March 2013

Titles

At the moment, me and my group are deciding upon titles (whilst editing). We have agreed on a name such as "Lighting Productions" as we found it was short and engaging. This is a rough copy of what our title will look like. We like the idea of a still image of lighting being in the middle of the production title. Moreover, we have used a black background with white text so that the words are clearly visible to our target audience.

We have also thought about sound effects. We would like a sound effect of lighting as the title will only last around 3 seconds. I think, this will make our title sequence immediately engaging as even the production titles are interesting. 

However. the changes I would make to this are: A more defined lighting image as I do not think this image looks like lighting due to the abnormal shape. Also, their are no capital letters on the titles which in some way, makes it seem immature. Callum has been the main 'maker' of the titles due to his abundance of knowledge using the software such as Photoshop. However, he has considered our opinions so that as a group we can move forward together. We will now as a group, commit to making these changes so that our titles will be good.





Sunday 17 March 2013

Final shooting

We have recently just finished a second draft of our final cut. Similarly to what we did before we decided to use our critical analytically skills to evaluate our title sequence. It was evident that within the sequence that it came across too aggressive which opposes with what we want to present in our product. We then decided to film more, of the younger version of our protagonist so that we can achieve a more depressing mood which fits into the message we are trying to portray. 

Filming

I found filming reasonably easy due to having organised what we were exactly going to film before the shoot. We already thought of the questions which we wanted the young girl to ask and knew what camera angles/shots we would do. I think overall, me and my group have improved with our filming skills because of the practice we have had.  



Tuesday 12 March 2013

Changes and further shooting

After talking to our teacher, it is evident that there may still be additional shooting which should be done so that we can improve our title sequence further. At the moment, we are currently organising titles and do have time to do some extra filming which will help make our products narrative more advanced. 

What we are now changing:
  1.  We have decided to create more flash back scenes so that our meaning is reinforced throughout the title sequence. I think this will help improve our product because it evidently displays to the audience what has happened in the past and the depressing reaction our protagonist had. The filming for this is going to take place on the 14th of March. The props we need are: chairs, camera, tripod.
  2.  Possible cutting of some material (clips) as we have now decided it is too aggressive and the flashback scenes we will reshoot will take up the spare timing. By doing this we will keep repeating the same message throughout our title sequence which will successfully let the viewer understand our narrative more. 
  3. Additionally, the dialogue of the girl speaking about where her brother has gone. We decided to include this as we think it will again, reinforce and add to the meaning and the understanding the viewers will have for our protagonist. We are using questions such as: (examples) - Where has he gone? Is he coming back? etc. This then signifies to the audience the girl is distressed and upset about her brother going missing.
What we still need to complete:

We are still currently working on our titles which need to be finished very soon. We are hoping to finish them by early next week so that if we needed to dramatically change or adjust anything we will have spare time to do so.

We also need to finalise music and make sure we are happy with the ordering we have placed it in. At the moment, I am fairly happy with how we have added in the sound but there is still work to be done and I am aware of that. Additionally, we have not touched upon sound levels which is significant because we need to make sure the music sounds advanced and successfully fits into the sequence.

This is our title sequence at the moment: (We still have a lot to go...)



Overall, me and my group are happy with how we are working and progressing at the moment. We are aware of the deadlines that have been set and are on track to meet them. To improve the way we approach the filming and editing I think we need to make sure we try to expand and think 'out of the box' so that it saves us time and we do not need to shoot more.

Thursday 7 March 2013

Reshoot of flashback scene

Today me and my group did our final bit of filming which was as we call "the flash back scene". In order to achieve a good shooting we had to create a small, detailed table on what camera shots and angles we were going to use. We did this because it would help us when filming as it would be easier instead of improvising. This scene is considered highly important within our title sequence as it is to some extent the trigger which reveals the girls inner feelings which is why we felt the need to organise ourselves before actual shooting. Furthermore, I think me and my group did very well partly because I feel as a group we have progressed with our filming skills. 

Choice of actors:

To create authenticity and realism within the title sequence we used a real drama teacher to play the schoolteacher so that it could look genuine. We then used a young girl, Asian  to play the part of a younger version of our protagonist. We found it hard to find a girl who looked similar to Cindy (our main character  but because we finally did, it will make our sequence look and feel more real towards the audience. 

Camera? Mise-en-scene? Sound?

We decided to use an opening shot of the teacher and girl sitting with each other so that the audience would understand what they are doing. We then went onto a close up of the girl, looking concerned (as she has been pulled aside by a teacher). It then goes onto a close up of the teacher speaking the dialogue of how her brother went missing. After, a close up, reaction shot is shown of the girl so that the audience can understand and see her reaction to what has happened. The costume is very simplistic as we kept the young girl in uniform to add to the authenticity of her being at school. The teacher, wearing a smart casual outfit so again it will add to the current realism which is being presented. I think these decisions that we made with the camera, editing and sound are all significant which will help add continuity to our title sequence.

Overall, I am happy with what me and my group achieved today and I think we are constantly progressing. If I was to improve the way we approached this side of filming I would say that we maybe should have tried out more camera shots. Apart from this, I think we can now go back to editing and put the clips into a right place so our continuity is good.



Wednesday 6 March 2013

Title and Further Editing


Editing

Today, we managed to put all the correct clips in order. However, we discovered a problem; one of our clips was too "jumpy" which took away the continouty out of our title sequence. To overcome this, we had to play around with clips to see which one would fit. Furthermore, after this problem was resolved we went onto adding in our titles. We decided to put our titles over the top instead of fading to a black screen. This is because we ran out of time because when editing and putting our clips together we found out they were longer than we thought. This is not a main problem as we could still successfully fit in our titles and make them look good. Overall, me and my group are doing very well with editing as any problems or challenges we have faced, we have overcome. I think to improve the way we approached editing is to look at tutorials more so that no time is wasted when figuring out what to do.

Current Title


This is our current title of our film. At the moment, we are quite sure we will use this in our opening sequence, however have not received any feedback or advice on this so we do not want to make a final decision. The reason why we decided to make our title like this is because we wanted a "creepy, mysterious, scary" effect. The reason why did white text with a black background is because when doing our research we found out it was very common and was very effective. We also decided to use sans serif font because again, it is bold, common and eye catching which will draw the audience in. Also, the "smoke" fits in with the narrative as it is a metaphor for the antagonist (boy) drifting away. I am very content with this title.

Moreover, I think me and my group are doing well as we are frequently discussing current ideas and how to improve upon them. Editing is our main issue but I think we are working good and will meet the deadlines. We have one last bit of filming to do which will then (hopefully) fit into our sequence nicely.