Final Film Opening

Evaluation 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

I feel we have learnt a lot since the creation of our preliminary project and the progression between up until our now finished final film opening project.

This first screen grab shows a close up of Abby in our final project (on the left) and Lydia (on the right) in the preliminary task. As you can see the general quality of the shot is far better in our film opening. This is because we were able to use a higher quality camera and an efficient tripod. The picture on the right is much less balanced and is blurry compared to the one on the left.

We learnt from our preliminary task that using a close up shot is very effective in showing emotions, however the background in the right picture is messy, whereas on the left the picture is clearly only focussing on Abby. We also learnt that this was a good shot when in a conversation with another character as it shows the reaction to what they have just said and displaying their expression on their face.

As a second screen grab we have used a medium close up. In our preliminary this wasn’t as effective as our final piece as the shot was slightly angled and was too far away. We improved this in our final project mainly by using a HD camera and a tripod. With the two preliminary shots you have seen so far, our use of the 180° degree rule is demonstrated. The 180° rule is a basic guideline that states that two characters in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other and we obeyed this rule in both our preliminary exercise and our final film opening so as not to confuse the audience. In both conversations we used shot/reverse shot. Shot reverse shot is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.

We found this effective in the preliminary task as it made it more obvious what was going on. The eye contact between the characters also established a relationship between them. This was particularly highlighted in our final film opening since the focus was very close up on the face and the facial expressions demonstrated their personal feelings in general, and towards each other.

Here a long shot is typically used to establish a setting which is shown through Abby and Ella walking through a door and Lydia walking through a room. This made the audience feel more involved with the action. We made sure in our final project that this first establishing shot was realistic and natural and did not contain any distractions; this allows the audience to relate to the setting.

Above is a screen grab of both Abby and Lydia walking through a panning shot. Using this in the preliminary task of Lydia walking through a room was effective so we elaborated this idea as we thought that a panning shot of Abby walking to school is as though the audience are moving along with the character. This attracts and engages our audience and also established the characters surroundings.

The screen grabs above demonstrates a two shot in which involved a conversation. This conveyed the body language and expressions in the preliminary task allowing the audience to relate to the characters. This worked effectively and so we implemented this in our final project as portraying Abby and Ella’s friendship was a key part of the storyline.

The shot above Nancy throwing paper is of Lydia pushing open a door to enter a room; an example of match on action. These two consecutive shots depict accurate continuity, an aspect of film production which we learnt to be very important. Whilst editing it became clear that without precise continuity, the shots didn't flow and looked very unnatural. From this, it was clear that we would have to edit extremely precisely during post production of our final film opening so to make it look as professional as possible and as though it is completely real. The only problem with the two sequential shots above are that they are very similar and therefore seem a bit pointless; it would have been better for us to vary the angle and composition of the two shots so as to make it more interesting for the audience and to allow them more exposure of the situation. We took this into account when filming and editing our film opening. The two shots below in chronological order are another accurate example of match on action. We made sure to vary the shots and as you can see they are very different in terms of angles and distance. When watching the film opening you will also notice sound continuity, something we learnt post preliminary exercise and a technique that became very useful and effective throughout the film opening.

Evaluation 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

For the editing of our film we used Georgia's macbook laptop, we also used her laptop for doing some research into our film and our films genre. The operating system of the laptop made it very easy and efficient for us to use which was very helpful. Also, because it was a laptop we could edit the film wherever and whenever we possibly could, which was mainly in our media lessons at school. We were all familiar with iMovie on macbooks before and it is a fairly simple programme to use so there wasn't a lot for us all to learn. Something that we learnt from using iMovie was how to detach a sound from each clip so we would be able have good sound continuity and no gaps in the editing. From using iMovie quite a lot we have realised that there are some things that may be able to be done better using a different programme, we were thinking that next time we could maybe use Final Cut Express as this would give us more opportunities for better effects in our film. We also think that it would be more appropriate and give our film a more professional feel as Final Cut is designed for more professional films whereas iMovie can be used by anyone.


We also used Georgia's Nikon D5100 to shoot our film opening. We used this camera as it was the highest quality camera that we were able to get hold of. I think that it was a really good choice to use this camera as it gave our film opening really high quality. It also was very easy to use and none of us had any problems with using the camera, it also fitted the tripod well.

During the filming of our opening we needed to keep our shots steady and stable. To do this we hired a tripod from school. It was very helpful during the filming as we could film everything without the worry of having shaky shots. It was also good as it helped us get a range of shots and angles as the tripods height was variable. We learnt how to change the length of the expendable legs and changed it to the angle that we wanted to use. When we wanted to create a low angle, we would make the back leg on the tripod smaller than the other two which made us able to keep the camera stable but as low to the ground as we possibly could. It did take us quite a while to get the mechanism of the tripod working properly but we soon got the hang of it and were able to construct as many angles as we liked.  As you can see in the shots above, we were using the tripod in nearly all of our shots, the only time that the tripod was not used was when we wanted to use a tracking shot of Abby, we decided to use a handheld shot which gave the feel that we were walking with her. By not using the tripod it allowed a steady grip on the camera and was easier to film the shot whilst walking in front of Georgia.

We created our production logo on a programme called 'LiveType' on Georgia's macbook. We used this to give the text an effect so that it would have motion when inserted into the beginning of our film. We decided to use a text effect called 'Barrel Jump', it is a simple effect but made our logo much more interesting and more professional. This was the first time we have used LiveType so it took a while for us to get the hang of using it but in the end we managed to create the text transition.

Evaluation 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

This is an interview that I did with my friend Jess. Jess is currently studying at St Johns school also. She is 18 years old and is the typical member of our target audience. I asked Jess a number of questions about our film, what she enjoyed about it and what she said that we should improve on if we had the chance. Jess is the perfect member of our target audience as she fits our audience profile very well and her favourite genre of film is Drama.

Above is a screenshot of the basic demographics of our audience based on it's youtube views. We are very pleased with this result since it the demographic that the film opening is most popular with is our target audience; young people and primarily females. As you can see in the screenshot, the video is most popular demographic is females in between the age of 13-17. This conveys that a lot of the people who have watched it are either people of the same age that were able to relate to it or younger people who possibly aspire to be like the characters or use it as a warning as to what older teenage life is like. Looking at the map, you can see that the only country that the video has been viewed in is England which was expected as all the elements including cast, location and storyline were very British based and so we would expect it to appeal more to British people.

Evaluation 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

It was very easy for our group to decide who our target audience was going to be, we knew that primarily female teenagers would be the perfect audience as they can relate to our film and the things that happen in the film.
This is Georgie Thatcher, she is 16 years old and currently attends St Johns sixth form. As any other teenager she enjoys going out and spending time with her friends, shopping and partying. When she is not out with her friends she enjoys spending time with her family, her dog Katie and her boyfriend. As another other girl she loves chocolate, her favourite food is Resses Cupcakes. She enjoys listening to relaxed music such as Fat Freddies Drop and Little Dragon and in the summer she has seen them live at festivals which is another thing she loves to do in her spare summer days. She loves shopping and her favourite shops are H&M and Urban Outfitters. 
Georgie has a number of favourite TV programmes, mainly The Big Bang Theory but also Desperate Housewives and The Inbetweeners, she says she "loves comedy but I also love a bit of drama in a TV programme to make things more interesting".
Her favourite genre of film is a mix between Drama and Romance which makes her the perfect member of our target audience. Her favourite film is either The Notebook or Juno. She says that she loves drama and romance because "you can relate to the people in the film, you feel as if you learn things like how to approach a situation that comes up in the film! It just helps you work out your own life problems! And obviously because they are funny and entertaining but can be really sad so they can suit you whichever mood your in!"
Georgie is the perfect style model for our target audience, she fits our audience profile very well, she is over the age of the certificate which is ideal, all of her likes are the same of those of our audience profile and this is the same with her dislikes, she doesn't enjoy horror films, social cliques or bullying! 

Evaluation 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

What does a production company do?
A production company are the people that fund and produce the films for the film makers. They sell the makers films to a filming studio. The first logo that we created 'Wired Productions', was for our production company, we created it using livetype which is an application on Mac computers. It allowed us to create the font and the buzzing sound effect. We decided on the name 'Wired Productions' as Georgia already had a picture of barbed wire on her computer and the name fitted with the picture so we decided to play around with some effects and fonts and that's how we came up with 'Wired Productions'. 

The other production logo we created was 'Deluxe Studios', we created this using iMovie using a preset theme. We wanted to create a logo that was quite different to 'Wired Productions', we wanted 'Wired Productions' to be more edgy and quirky and we wanted 'Deluxe Studios' to be more professional which is how we came up with the name, Deluxe Studios. We decided to create two production companies as we are a small, independent, low-budget production we didn't think that we would need any more.

A film distributor is a company that is responsible for releasing films to the public. There are many ways in which this can be done and the distribution company has to decide the best way in which to do this to gain the right target audience. There are many ways in which they can do this, through the cinema, DVDs, television, the internet, downloads and more.

Because our film is a small and independent film with a low budget, it is not very likely that a big distribution company would be interested in distributing our film. It is more likely that small distribution companies that have more experience distributing low-budget, small, independent films. A company such as PlanetIndie which is an independent film directory, they distribute films from all types of genres, but they specialise in Indie films. Although this company would be good for distributing our films to an audience that we wouldn't usually aim for, it wouldn't be as successful as if we were to use a large film distribution company. Using a large distribution company would be more successful for getting our film distributed to a wider audience, I also think that because our film isn't typically 'Indie' it would be a problem getting PlanetIndie to distribute our film. Whereas, because teen drama is such a popular genre, a distribution company such as 20th Century Fox may be more interested in distributing our film as it appeals to such a wide audience. The film would most likely have to be funded by the BFI or the UK Film Council, as it is a small independent film it's unlikely that there would be sufficient funds to finance the film.

The credits for our film were shown at the beginning of the film but not in the first scene, they were shown in the scene in which Abby is walking to school. We decided to put them here as this scene is quite long and as it is after the dream scene it is where the audience are most likely to be watching. The credits came in order of importance with the main protagonist Charlotte Farrow first, followed by Harry Shakeshaft, Alice Moore and Ellie de Carle. The names of us are then shown, the director (Lydia de Blangy), producer (Beth Knights) and screenplay (Georgia Daly). There is no importance to these names and the titles that they are associated with as each of us in the group worked together on each part of the film. We decided not to include that many titles as the scene of Abby walking to school isn't that long and as our target audience is teenagers we wanted to show the most important titles to ensure that they were paying attention. The title of the film is then shown at the end of the credits, in a different colour to signify its importance.

Evaluation 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

When planning our film we decided that our main protagonist would be a female, we decided this as girls seem to have more problems than in comparison to young men and we found it hard to base our story around a male teenager. We found when doing research into our film that Abby is a very similar character to 'Sam Montgomery' from the film A Cinderella Story. Both of the characters are very shy and easily intimidated, as well as this both of the characters have a keen love interest but both are too scared to tell their love interests this.


As you can see from the pictures above, both of the characters are portrayed as shy and introverted. We wanted Abby to be like the character Sam, although we were unaware of the character Sam in the film until we did some research into teen drama films. Abby and Sam are very similar, although they are both shy characters they are both very pretty but both have very low self-esteem and don't believe that they could be liked by their love interests, as both of them are very modest.


Although the characters have quite a few things in common they are also quite different. Abby is an English character in an English film going to a sixth form, whereas Sam is an American character in an American film going to college. As well as this, the two characters are quite different in the way that they view life, Abby and Sam are both very ambitious but Abby has a clear view on where she wants to go in life whereas Sam wants to go to a specific university but can't imagine this to be possible.

As well as the similarities between the characters of Abby and Sam, the character Ella is very similar to the character 'Lily Moscovitz' from the film The Princess Diaries. When planning our film we wanted Abby to have a character who would be seen as her best friend. We wanted this character to be extremely outgoing and a fun character and this is how we came up with Ella, who is very similar to Lily Moscovitz. Both characters are very confident and are both the best friend of the main character in the story.


As you can see in the above pictures, both of the characters have very similar facial expressions whilst they are conversing with their best friends. Both characters are very excitable and keen to speak to their best friend. This is shown by the enthusiastic smiles on their faces which are shown throughout both films. As well as their personalities, both characters are similar in age as they both attend school. They are both very chatty and sometimes tend to forget about the feelings of their best friends, un-purposely of course but this can tend to cause some friction in their relationships.              
                      
Again, although the characters are very similar they are both quite different, The Princess Diaries is an American film with American actresses and actors whereas Beyond Closed Eyes is a British film with British actresses and actors. As well as this, although they both attend school Lily attends a private school and has to wear a uniform whereas Ella goes to a public sixth form and doesn't have to wear uniform.