Feed Back On Opening Sequence

In class, we screened our opening sequence to other students. We also showed other students our opening sequence and gave them a table to fill in, which had strengths and weakness boxes, they had to choose at least one strength and one weakness and there was room for any additional comments. From the results shown we can see that our main weakness was our titles, which we agree with as we had a few difficulties with the software so used more simple designed credits. We also feel that the titles written on visual objects weren't clear enough such as the envolope. If we could have done it again we would have made our credits better.

We uploaded our video on to facebook to see what feed back we would get, most of our feed back was positive. so our overall view is that our opening sequence went well and would be suited for our target audience.

Evaluation Question 7

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


Mollie Musgrove:
We did a preliminary task before we started are course work to get are head around how to use a camera with a tripod and all the angles and shots you can do with it. We also all got to have a go at editing and playing around with sound and effects. This was to help us get as familiar as possible with the Mac computers we were using as some people where not very confident on them and the programs it provided. I feel I have learnt an awful lot since then when doing are own opening as there is more pressure for you to do it yourself and think for yourself instead of letting others do it for you. 

Below is the video of the my  preliminary task I did at the beginning of the year  also with snapshots of both my final opening sequence and the preliminary task to compare them. 

1) Mid Shot 

This a mid shot of my preliminary task where you can clearly see environment talking to a friend. So our group adapted this to show the actor in outside a house talking to her friends and you can see all her facial expressions very clearly. 

2)Match On Action shot

 When filming are match on action shot for are preliminary task It took us a lot of retakes to get it right and even then the editing to get it in time after was very tricky and very time consuming but I feel it looks very effective. However In our opening sequence we took a lot of time editing ours and re-filming so due to are hard work I think our match on action looks more or less pot on.  

3)Lighting 

In this shot reverse shot In are preliminary task the lighting with the two characters was different in each shot. That was due to standard lighting in the building and couldn't change that. We tried to edit the lighting on the Mac after but it still didn't look the same. However In are opening sequence we were fortunate enough to have a member of are group who owned two translucent lighting umbrellas so the lighting in the room never changed. 

4) Mise en scene

The use of mise en scene In our opening sequence was a key factor to of remembered as the twins in our project where meant to be as different and unique as possible. So costume and props where a key to show their different personalties. How ever in my Preliminary task we also had a sense of stereotypical social group. As we set the two characters In our preliminary task in a school setting with school blazers and sticky notes all over them to show they were "nerdy" type people. We also made the two characters In are preliminary task have posh accents to add the their characters. 

.. Becky: I origionally worked with Kimmy on my Preliminary task and I feel we have improved a lot. Firstly we have a wider variety of shots from different angles, we also took many takes of each shot till we got the perfect one where as before we just went with the ones we took straight away. We have developed our editing skills as we now know how to do split screens,our match on action shots have also improved from before. We used translucent umbrellas to improve the lighting where as before we had to improvise with the lighting in the room which has also improved our work since. I also used live type where as before we just went with really simple credits from Imovie this has helped improve the look of the opening sequence and make it look more proffesional. In our opening sequence we also made sure our mise en scene was correct for our genre all the way through by using props such as the emo back pack in contrast with the girly handbag,clothing, alarm clocks, etc where as before the only prop used was a lamp and we didn't use certain clothing to fit the scenerio in the film.

Mise En Scene in our preliminary task wasn't used very well. The costume didn't fit with the scenario as the outfit looked very casual instead of the outfit a policemen should wear. Our costumein our opening sequence is good compared to the preliminary task as we went into detail on what they should be wearing to fit in with the genre of the film and the time it was set. The dressing gown and pjs show the time of the film, then when they get changed it shows time has past, it also gives identity to the Twins as one has 'goth' clothes and the other 'girly girl' so it sets them apart.

Props were rarely used in the preliminary task only basic props were used to show what the scenario was other wise it would have just looked like two people sitting in a room, in contrast to the prop use in our opening sequence. We used a lot of props to make it look more realistic and show the characters personalities. For example we used the guitar and a big backpack for the 'goth' twin and her friend where as we used a little handbag and make up for the 'girly girl'.

In our preliminary project we used very basic simple credits. Although we used some simple looking credits in our opening sequence a lot of thought went in to them such as did it fit the genre, what colour & font would go best. We also decided to use visual credits such as writing on the envelope and text on the phone to make them more interesting and unique.

Evaluation Question 6

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

To film our opening sequence we used a Cannon 500D camera. We chose to use this camera and we thought it would make the opening sequence better quality. Also, this camera captures more light and makes colours much more vibrant, which is what we wanted to have in our opening sequence as 'chick flicks' are very colourful and bright.







We also used a tripod to control the camera shots and movements, for example, we used a panning movement to show the front of the house as an establishing shot.

We also used two sets of Translucent Lighting to make the shot more bright. This is when umbrellas and a tripod are used to control the direction of the light.

To edit the our opening sequence we used many different types of software on an Apple Mac Computer.

We used iMovie to upload our video clips onto the computer and also to use the greenscreen effect to add our film title onto our opening sequence. 

We also use iMovie HD to cut, trim and delete clips and tie all our video clips together in order to make our opening sequence.

To add text to our film company logo, and opening credits to our opening sequence we use Live Type.

To create our Film Title we used Photoshop CS5.








By using all these different types of software and equipment, we have now learnt how to uses each of these things properly and how they are used in order to create a film.

Evaluation Question 5

  " How did you attract/address your target audience and how has this been done in other films?" 

This is our opening sequence i have annotated it to show:

 How similar it is to other films- It has a lot of aspects from different films mixed into this one, as it has social groups like mean girls, conflict between the groups like Wild child, the morning routine like Bratz movie.
 How  it fits its genre- production company and titles font/colour, chick flicks usually starting with a morning routine as does ours, having a girly theme, showing the main characters first so the target audience can relate to the characters (which most 'Chick Flicks' do)
 How the music used goes with the genre- Upbeat pop/rock fast music that the target audience would like, it also is used to set a happy fun tone to attract them to watch the film.
unique selling point- Twins both played by the same actress, may attract the audience as its a rarely used in films.

Evaluation Question 4

"Who would be your audience for your media product?"





A typical person from our target audience:

• Would like 'chick flicks'
• Would like to listen to pop music
• Would fit into the 'girly' social group
• Would enjoy films such as The Notebook and Mean Girls
• Would go and see the film with friends and family

Evaluation Question 3

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

- Mainstream film- we think it would beDistributed and produced by “Warner Brothers” as they are a multimillion film company

-People under 25 (girls) would mainly see it as it’s a chickflick, good audience choice as the most cinema goers are aged under 25.

Evaluation Question 2

"How would your media product represent particular social groups"


First of all our opening sequence is about two twins who are very different to each other. Ones a goth and ones a girly girl. They both live very different lives and both are part of very different social groups. We have tried to achieve this by putting are two main characters in very contrasting costume to represent their personalties and also to show popularity at school and friends we showed the characters friends they hang out with. A big influence from our film was "Mean Girls". which is all about different social groups, personalties and how different people get seen and treated.

This shows some of the social groups in our film that are similar to mean girls. The Gothic twin Erica is very quite and shy and only has a few friends. Similar to Janice From Mean Girls.

To show how different the two twins are and their social groups, unlike above we showed Tiffany the other twin with a big group of friends to show she is popular. We got this idea of Mean Girls as In Mean Girls Regina George is allot like Tiffany.


A key character from our opening sequence is the semitropical girly girl Tiffany. Tiffany is the first main character you see in our opening and attitude and presents shows how different she is to her twin.

Our group made sure that the character Tiffany was similar to characters in other films to get inspiration and ideas. A character we feel is allot like Tiffany is Regina George from Mean Girls.

Costume and appearance wise these two characters are very similar as they are both very into there looks. They both wear pink is well to show a typical girly girl. The role they both play are is well very similar as they are both meant to be very stuck up and arrogant characters who are quite artificial.

Another film that a character from our film and a character from another film are similar is Yasmin from The Bratz Movie. 

The two characters are similar because they again are both very girly and like to wear bright colours and are into fashion and looks. How ever the two characters roles are very different. Our character Tiffany is very big headed and selfish and treats people badly where as Yasmins Role is very generous, caring and likes to help her friends and family.  

Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Activity 1 on Prezi

Our Final Project! - Gemini

Challenges we faced whilst filming and editing

Challenges we faced whilst Filming and Editing on Prezi

Updates from Editing

After filming all the shots we needed, we imported the clips onto the computer using iMovie. We then began to edit the clips. As we had filmed many takes of the same shots, we began by chosing the best clips to use for our opening sequence. After that, we imported the best clips onto iMovie HD and placed the clips on the timeline in chronological order. We started trimming and cutting each clip, in order for it to run smoothly. For example, we used many match on action shots, such as when the characters waking up. Therefore, these clips needed to be trimmed, in order for it to transition well.

Match on action shot

After editting most of these clips, we watched it through and decided that some clips weren't necessary, and some needed to be filmed again. For example, there was a shot where the camera would zoom up to the letterbox of the door at the beggining of our opening sequence. However, we felt it didn't zoom up smoothly and wasn't necessary, so we removed that clip all together. We also had to re-film the shot where the music credits would be typed on the phone as it wasn't clear enough.

Text had to be made larger on the phone screen in order to see it clearly

We then added sound effects to the opening sequence, such as the ringing of the alarm clock, and the school bell to make it more realistic. We also had to add music to make the opening sequence feel more upbeat and energetic, which we want our opening sequence to feel like. This is because our genre is a "chick flick" aimed for teenaged girls. We edited the volume of the music so the audience is able to hear the diegetic sounds from the actual film clips. We did this so that our opening sequence didn't feel like a music video.

When adding text to our opening sequence, we faced a few problems. Our first plan was to use Live Type, however our edited opening sequence wouldn't open on the software. Instead we used a different software to add text to our film company logo, "Oh La La Pictures" and more opening credits to our opening sequence.

Text added onto film company logo

To add our film title, we had to use iMovie instead of iMovie HD, this is because we had created our film title logo on photoshop and saved it as an image. We had a few difficulties placing the image over the top of our film using iMovie HD. In order to solve this problem, we added a green background to our film title image, and used the green screen effect on iMovie to place the image on top of the opening sequence without the green background.

Film title on top of opening sequence

Props & Costume

In are opening sequence to get the two twins in the films characters to come across as effectively and obviously as possible we had to think of ways to do this. Props and Costume was a big part of this and helped allot to get the right mise en scene to suit the genre of our film.

Costume/Make-up;
We wanted the actor playing the two twins to have a completely different look and style to show they have very contrasting personality's. We dressed the Gothic twin "Erica" In all black (stereotypical) with dark eye make up and a hat to cover her face. We wanted her to look very dull depressed and plain looking.

Here Erica is wearing plain dark  clothing
, and a hat to hide her face to show she is a miserable
teenager maybe also so show she is shyer then her sister?

For Erica the Gothic one we added very dark heavy make up to her eyes to add character.

How ever, the other twin played by the same actor "Tiffany" is very different to her twin in every way. We wanted to show this by her presents and attitude. We also wanted Tiffany to be very bold and "In your face" we wanted to show very extreme personality difference to get the message across that they are very different and do not like each other. We got Tiffany to wear very girly, stylish and bright clothing to make her stand out unlike the other twin Erica. 

Here Tiffany is wearing a pink glittery jumper to show
that she is a very loud and bold character and takes pride
in her appearance.

                In contrast to Erica with her black eye make up

                we wanted Tiffany to be very girly almost like a barbie doll

we added bright pink lipstick to her lips to make her look like she wants to stand out and be noticed

Props 
-We used a few props to differentiated between the two twins. We even went into allot of detail and found appropriate bed linen for each of the twins rooms e.g. flowers for Tiffany and plain dark blue for Erica ( Goth)

. We looked into things like the two alarm clocks for when the characters had to wake up,the girly girl Tiffany had a purple alarm  clock while the other one had a plain silver one.


We also made door signs to on the doors to differentiate the two twins personality's all to add more detail and to make it as realistic as possible.

To Do list for this week

To Do List For This Week on Prezi

Updates/Current Progress

Class Work- 23/02/12

Mollie getting ready to film 

This is the camera we used to film with. We also used lighting
to make sure the light is the same in every shot, especially as we
film the same scenes at different times of the day.

These are photos from when we were testing out our camera shots, in Kimmy's room.

Although this shot was not in the storyboard, we decided to add it in to the opening sequence. This was to include more credits in our opening sequence; the letters will fall through the letter box with a clear view of the director's name on the envelop. We used a safety pin, and a card to weight down the envelops to make sure it will fall down smoothly and effectively.

We also wrote the producers' name on the envelops. We included lipstick marks on the envelop to match to film company logo.

We asked our friends to play a few parts within our opening sequence.

Past Opening Sequences and Exam Criteria

Today In are lesson we looked at some past opening sequences by pupils from 2009. We have token into account that the change in technology in the past 3 years has improved so we as a year are expected to do more advanced filming and credits. We had to watch three openings to a film made by students and had to mark them on abilities and construction. We did this so we could get a feel of what is expected from us from the examiner and how high the grade boundaries are. 

Film Schedule

Musical Influences

We researched some possible music choices for our opening sequence however we cant use them due to copy right reasons.We also don't wantto make it look like a music video so have taken in to consideration how long the music should last. These music videos will help us to compose some music for our opening sequence by giving us the styles we think will be good for the genre of our film.

We though teenage kicks by the undertones could be a possible song used as the lyrics would work well with the film and the age of the characters in it however its a bit slow for our opening sequence and may be better for a more romantic film.

We thought we Avril Lavignes version of Bad reputation would have been good song to use as its upbeat and fast so would work well with the speed of some our shots and the genre. The lyrics could work well with the characters in our film and teenagers would like the song so would relate to the target audience.

As these songs previously shown are quite heavy base music. Sometimes are group feel we have different interpretations of how we see the music being. Some members of are group feel that the music should be more "girly" to match the genre. Blondie- "One way or another" is an upbeat bubbly song we feel that if we could get a tune like this it would suit are genre.

This song by scouting for girls is also a light hearted up beat song which would be a good influence as it up beat and fast paste.

Shot Experimentations

\

This is our very first shot experimentation, where we experimented with using the split screen effect. In this clip Becky Phillips and Mollie Musgrove are experimenting with using different positions for the split screen. The background used in this clip is very detailed to avoid noticeability of the line in the middle of the screen. However, when filming this shot for our opening sequence, we will have to make sure we use the same lighting, and keep the camera in the same position for each shot. Also, we need to make sure we film each shot for the same period of time, maybe even purposely longer, so that we can cut the clip so each side of the split screen is on for an equal amount of time.

This is a shot that we tried while filming. We planned to have a shot in a wardrobe and someone on the other side. This shot was very hard to control as we just had to leave it running and we couldn't see it it was in focus, inline or in the right position. This shot was a practise as the tripod was a bit too high above the actor but we wanted to see if it was possible and effective and we believe it is.

Casting Shots

What is a  Casting Shot?


If track does not play please click "Audio Recording on Wednesday Night"

• What actors give along with their resume to show casting directors what they look like
• Casting directors like the look of them they put the actors through to auditions
• Head shots are mainly very natural to show facile features 
• If the film was a comedy the actor may smile in there head shot
• It also helps to see what the actors currently look like i.e hair colour, age and gender.

In our opening sequence the only main characters we have are the twins. We thought it would be a good and  practical idea to  have the twins played by the same person. So we decided to cast Mollie who is a member of are group to  play the roles. As she is a drama student herself and we know she will be reliable as she is working in our group anyway and would want it to be the best we can make it. As Mollie is in are group she will also have a clear knowledge/understanding of what the film is about and how the characters want to be portrayed.

Location Shots

Location Shots are very important. Every film has them to make sure they have the appropriate locations for there genre/scene.

This Location Shot will be used as one of our last places for are opening sequence. This will be to show a different location to the one we have previously as like any other film the location changes after scenes. So to make our sequence as realistic as possible we will include a establish shot of a school.

This Location Shot will be one of the twins rooms. The girly twins room. We chose this as we thought it would be suitable for the characters personality as the room is very light, pink and girly. We also thought that things like mise en scene would help create this girly atmosphere e.g. the bed lining will all help. It would then contrast with the other twin who is very different.









This Shot is a wardrobe where the character Tiffany ( the girly one) will open and then a shot will then happen in side the wardrobe to get a match on action shot of the character. This may be difficult as the tripod that we are filming on may not fit in the wardrobe or the wardrobe to be to small. If that is the case we will have to improvise and think of any other way of doing this.

                      

 This location shot is where the split screen will happen with two doors that each twin will walk out of at the same time to look like they are in the same place at the same time. This could look really effective and shows that the twins live with each other. Another difficulty we may have with this is to make sure the lighting is the same for both shots and that the camera is in the same position otherwise it will not look as realistic. We will also have to take into consideration the space we have to film this as we do not want any objects in the way like the stair banister. 

For the gothic twin's bedroom, we have chosen this room because there are many band posters on the wall which will be suited for the character.

                                                     

In our storyboard, we have included that we are going to have a high angle/aerial shot of the gothic twin in her bed. The covers for the bed may need to be changed and the cuddly toys may need to be removed as it seems too girly for this character.

Also in our storyboard, the character gets out of bed to turn of the alarm clock. This is the tv/alarm clock that we are considering to use in our opening sequence. The character also opens the cupboard, the camera would be inside the cupboard, but the tripod may not fit, so we might have to consider an alternative for that shot.