Opening Sequence Photo Storyboard

Before planning and starting off our shooting schedule we have to plan throughly but taking pictures of the actions that will take place for our opening scene so therefore i have used my phone to take pictures of our location reece which basically was needed for us to do after we setted up our location reece because of the time limit and the changes we had to do from other location reece,so here is the slideshare.

Photo story board

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Analysing Opening Sequences

This film is called Love Sick, and it starts off with a woman shouting at man in slow motion, and there is a voice over of him wondering if there is ever a thing called love. And there is a playful, cheerful tune throughout this film. This makes the audience wonder what has happened between both of these people. When the woman walks off the man goes to a bustop in which he sees another woman and calls her 'the girl of his dreams.' But whilst he is imagining them both together she gets on a bus and it drives off, leaving him there. He then sets out on a journey to get to the next stop to see this woman, making the audience wonder if he will get there on time or not. However, when he eventually gets to the bus top he misses the bus, and is left heartbroken, but is happy again when he sees the woman sitting at a bar, so he walks over to her and presents her with a wedding ring. This does not go according to plan as her boyfriend comes over and punches him in the face. The voice over then asks again if there is a thing called love again, making the audience wonder if that was what happened with him and the last woman. The man then goes to the park and is sitting on a bench when another woman goes past and she is now the 'woman of his dreams' which is funny for the audience. The opening sequence of this film is good as the audience start off asking what had happened between the man and the woman, but then find out that he may just see other women as the 'woman of his dreams,' as he loved three women in the same day.

Analysing Opening Sequences

This film is called Strangers, and it is about a man who gets on a train and ends up saving another man. In this short film, the man gets on a train and sits down, and keeps glancing over to another man who is reading a newspaper. And they keep looking at each other and looking away for some time. The man who got on the train then holds his Jewish necklace so the man reading can see it. A dramatic drumming then starts, and some tough looking bald men get on the train and sit near the two men. One of the bald men draw a swastika on the newspaper the man is reading, giving us the impression that him and  his other companions are Nazi's and want to cause trouble. All of the bald men then stare at this one man giving him intimidating glances. This makes the audience left wondering what are the Nazi's going to do to him, and is the other man going to help. The man with the necklace's phone then starts ringing, and the attention is now on him as he tries to find it, making the music of the film his ring tone and not the dramatic drums. When he finds the phone and switches it off the men smile and look away back to the man with the newspaper and the drumming starts again. The man with the necklace then looks at the man with the newspaper and nods and they quickly run to the doors as the train had stopped, and a fast paced music begins as the Nazi's chase the two men. However, when they get to the doors, they get off separate doors and the Nazi's are left on the train as the doors shut in their faces. The two men then wave at each other and walk off. The opening sequence of this film is good, as it does not give much away, and it makes the audience wonder what the relationship between these two men is going to be, keeping the audience watching.

Evaluation Question 6

Question 6 – What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

The technologies I used in the editing process were a Canon XHAI camera, battery, tripod, video tape, a lens cap, and a LaCie for storage. I learnt from the camera which was used, that you have to be very careful when carrying it around, and you always have to put down the LED screen before moving it anywhere as it can easily break if you happen to bang into something. So with this I had to be very careful when moving it anywhere. The camera is needed whilst filming as it helps you to see what you are actually filming, rather than relying on the actions of you actor/actress, as not watching them through the LED screen, would mean you would not be sure about what is actually going to show up on camera, so for this a camera is very important. Also there are zooming tools on the camera which is useful as well as the autofocus or manual focus. We used autofocus as it saved us time, as the amount of time we had was limited. What I learnt about the battery is that when taking it out of the camera you have to be very careful when doing it, as if you do not, it can just pop out and fall on the floor, which could damage it, and this would not be useful for your filming. The battery is needed when coming to filming, as it is what powers your camera and if you are not using a battery whilst actually moving around your camera your camera will not work as it will not turn on. What I learnt about a tripod is that it is useful for keeping your camera steady, it also helps you get low angle shots, high angle shots, and panning shots when filming. The spirit level on the tripod helps to focus the camera, keeping it steady, and if this is not fixed, when coming to watching back your film, you will see that the image that is there is not straight and out of place, so a tripod is helpful and needed for all of these reasons when filming. A video tape saves your work that you do when filming, and it can also be used when digitising your film onto the computer for editing, which is why it is needed. However, when putting in the tape you have to be careful not to damage it and same when taking it out as well. A lens cap is needed because it can help you not to get the actual lens of the camera dirty or broken, so it is useful in these areas, but when filming you have to take it off as if you do not all you will end up seeing is a black screen. And last of all the LaCie is the place where you save your video, and this is there so you can watch your film, because if it is not there you will not be able to see your film to edit it, which is a reason why it is needed.

The filming techniques I learnt and used whilst filming was the rule of thirds, which is when the screen is divided into nine parts and the four golden points is where you put the most important parts of the image, it is also the natural way to view an image. This was used in our production in the shot with the teddy in the foreground and the girl in the background blurred, making a more interesting shot. The 180 degree rule, which is where two people are having a conversation opposite each other, and when it comes to filming you have to make sure these people do not switch sides, and also that the camera stays on the same side of the line. This rule was used in our shot for when the girl was “reading a magazine” and the sister was checking on her. Continuity is used with match on action. Match on action is when something is happening in a shot, and a cut happens and the same thing has to be going on in another shot. This was used in our film when the girl was going to get her shoes from underneath her bed. We had to get the girl to walk away from the mirror, and then do it again for the next shot where she is nearer to the bed, this helps the continuity in a film, and continuity is where a film flows well despite the cuts. Action/reaction shots is when something happens and a reaction is given. So for example in our film the girl heard her sister coming so she had to jump into bed and her sister peeped through the door, for an action/reaction shot to happen we had to film the sister coming in and the girls reaction for the shot of the sister walking in and we had to repeat those same actions for the girls reaction to her sister coming in. Total shots is where the whole of a person is shown on camera. In our film we did this for the girl exercising. This was to show her ballet moves in detail. Different angles is when you film something in different angles, so for example in the film we did, we filmed her getting out the shoes from one angle, and then we did it from another angle. The second angle looked good and so did the first one, so we put them together and it gave a better effect, making it useful for us and good viewing for the audience. The weather can be a problem when filming no matter if sunny or rainy. The sun can ruin the lighting and the rain can spoil the camera and the tripod. Luckily for our film, on the outside shot it was good weather for filming, as it was not too sunny and it was not raining either. When it comes to changing in location, you have to be careful with the equipment, in our case we had to close the legs of the tripod, and close the LED screen on the camera to avoid them breaking if we banged into something, so doing that provided us from making any accidents, when changing location from the set to outside.

When actually constructing the media product we needed some editing software for the film to be complete and so used Adobe Premiere to help us. This is useful as I learnt that it has loads of tools to help you edit and make your film look great once completed. Some of the tools that we used were the razor tool for cutting up our film into pieces to be ready to edit. But before all this we had to digitize our film onto the computer, which was done by putting a usb into the computer connected to the camera, once this had been done, we had to then capture our film onto Adobe, and save it onto a LaCie drive. Once this had been done we were ready to edit our film. We did this by cutting our film into different sections with a razor tool, after this we found out best rushes and used the selection tool to drag and drop them to one side of the time line with the ones we did not need to the other side of the timeline, in case we decided to use them later. We then organised which order would look best to have our rushes in and the hand tool helped with this by letting us drag left and right. When finally in order, we then started cutting the film again with the razor tool to fix continuity etc. and the zooming tool helped with this, as it helped us cut at just the right moment to make the film look good. When all this was done and we decided that the best shots we had were used we deleted the ones that we did not need. After this we put in some transition effects, like dissolves to make the film have a better effect. When we completed this a soundtrack was put in, but before this was done free copyright free music had to be found. We found this on a website and we downloaded a couple from there trying the best ones. Eventually two were found, and we used them by fitting them into our timeline at the correct moments.

Problems that occurred whilst doing our filming were location problems, as we had to switch our location from a house, to a leisure room to a media studio. This was as the house could not be used due to work being done, so we re drafted the story to make it fit what we had available, which we thought was a leisure room, however, we had received incorrect information about this and it was not free when we needed it, so we ended up going back to our original story and we used the media studio and set it up like a bedroom instead, resolving our problem. Another problem we faced was when the sister was coming up the stairs, this was as the stairs that we had available looked like school stairs from a high shot, so instead, we used a lower shot but still from the top of the stairs, which helped. Trying not to see certain things in the mirror was another issue, because we had to close the curtains so we could not see the school chairs in the background, and also we had to make sure that the camera did not show up in the mirror. This problem was resolved by us standing to the corner of the mirror where it could not be seen, and doing a panning shot of the girls make up from there.

Overall, I have learnt a lot about technologies from the process of constructing this product, as I have found out valuable things when coming to film making. Also, I have faced problems which were resolved and this will help me to learn from them when coming to filming again.

How to make a blog interesting

What I have learnt from this video is that you have to consider your audience when writing a blog and you also have to be very specific and unique to attract them. This is as if your blog is complicated the audience will not understand it and if it is the same as everyone else's, they may find your blog boring and may not want to read it as they may not find it attractive and appealing compared to other blogs and they may not find it very original either.

Evaluation Question 3

Question 3 – What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Film distribution is when a distribution market gets a film, and has to find people to “make it big.”  The whole media distribution etc. as a whole starts off with a person who has an idea for a film that they wish to make.  The pre production (planning), production (actually making the film) and post production (the editing process) come together as a whole, meaning the film is ready.  However, this film being ready without any way of it getting out to the audience would mean it has no purpose.  So to make it have a purpose, the distribution market has to find a company that will rent a number of copies for a limited amount of time to exhibit the film in various places like the cinema, on television, online, at film festivals, and on DVD, so it can get out to the audience for them to watch, and it being marketed in this way makes it more successful.  Film companies that consider exhibiting films in the big showcase cinemas like Vue and Cineworld etc. are places like, 20^th Century Fox, Lionsgate, and Paramount.  But the only problem with these companies is that they may only showcase the big production films, rather than the independent ones, as the big productions make more profit because of a higher budget.  But even with independent films, although you may be able to put it on places like Youtube for free, this is also a well known production full of other films, and your one may not be able to stand out from the others, meaning your film may not attract as much of an audience as you had planned to.  In this type of situation, it could be best to put it on other websites that are not well known, but are willing to market low budget/no budget films for you, by showing it on their website to stand out, for example.

For our film “Lets Dance,” we would have to find a distribution market that would be willing to rent our low budget/no budget film and exhibit it for us.  A company that may be willing to do this could include http://www.independentfilmcompany.com/  they may do this as our genre of film is a “Teenage High School Drama,” and on their website, they market films, that include drama.  They also specialise in the distribution of films across various media marketing techniques, making it a great website for our film to be shown on, as it could attract a wide audience.

Another website that may consider distributing our film could be http://www.bigbuddhafilms.com/ this is as they screen films that are to do with human dilemmas, and as our film is to do with a girl that is hiding her secret of ballet dancing from her parents, this is something to do with human dilemmas in her teenage life, so therefore this company may consider distributing our film for us.

The website http://www.screenonline.org.uk/index.html may also consider distributing “Lets Dance” as according to their website they have a variety of genre of film, and our film could fit into one of these categories.

Websites like http://www.youtube.com/ would definitely consider distributing our film for us as they have a variety of all types of genre of film, and they also have a number of short films on there site too.  However, even though this is a good thing, our film could get “drowned out” and not attract a wide audience as planned due to the amount of films on there, so this site may not be a good idea.

Film festivals are another way of distributing a film and this is a good idea as people sometimes tend to go to film festivals, and a number of short films are played here.  This is a great way to get our film distributed as this will attract a wide audience who love short films already and they may like to watch our film.

Overall, the kind of media institution that may distribute our film is that of an independent film distributing company, and this is as our film is a low/no budget, and these types of companies usually produce films like this, rather than companies that produce big blockbuster films, as those films have a high budget. 

Evaluation Question 2

Question 2 – How does your opening sequence represent particular social groups?

The social group that I am trying to represent is a female teenager, aged from around 13 - 16 years of age, who wishes to become famous by ballet dancing. She is an outsider in school and does not care what anyone thinks about her, causing her to have no friends, as all she cares about is her passion for ballet dancing. She is interested in wearing make up, looking good, dancing and her hobbies are ballet and going shopping for costumes like wigs, tutu's etc. She also likes to go to the cinema to watch films like "Step Up", "Billy Elliot" and "Bridesmaids" and loves to watch reality television programmes such as "Strictly Come Dancing", "The X Factor" and "Britain's Got Talent". Due to her dedicated time to her hobbies and interests, she is educationally slacking, and therefore her parents do not wish for her to continue with her hobbies, as they want her to become successful, and these things are holding her back. This social group can relate to the target audience as they will most probably have similar interests and hobbies.

The character profile that our group created gives more details into our character, and how she would represent these particular social groups. Here are some brief but important details about our character:

• She is an outsider in school – this is shown through her facial expression that she likes to be alone.
• Has fears of not becoming famous – this is shown through the quick camera shots of her hiding her ballet shoes and wig from her sister for her not to find out she is dancing. The posters of famous people on the wall also show that she wishes to become famous as she looks up to famous celebrities.
• Has a strong passion for ballet dancing – this is shown through the camera shots of her practising ballet in secret, and the scared facial expression when she hears her sister coming up the stairs.

My opening sequence represents this social group as the character in it has the same personality, hobbies and interests. She is also educationally slacking due to her obsession with ballet, which makes her parents worried about her and so instead made her stop ballet dancing to make her concentrate on her education, meaning she does it in secret instead, to continue her hobby that she had done since a very young age and developed a passion for. This can be related to the film "Billy Elliot" as the character too was hiding his love of ballet from his father because he thought it was “not for lads,” making his son pretend he enjoyed boxing instead, whilst carrying on with ballet in secret. This can also relate to our target audience as they too may have a hobby that is restricted due to their parents wanting them to concentrate on their education.

We also represent this social group through the mise en scene used. The costume used is a wig and ballet shoes, to show that the girl likes to do ballet dancing, and the wig shows that she wants to be someone different and famous. The ballet shoes were hidden underneath the girls mattress to show she is hiding it from her parents and the wig was on the desk, but hidden when she heard someone coming, which also gives the audience the impression she has something to hide. The props in the opening sequence were make up, and other beauty products, showing she likes to look after herself, ballet shoes to show she does ballet, teddies to show her childlike side, posters to show she is an ordinary teenager, and magazines show she likes to be updated on the latest celebrity news. These props were placed in various places around the room. Make up and other beauty products on the table in front of the mirror to show she uses them often. Ballet shoes, which are hidden underneath the mattress, but also on the girl as she is wearing them, whilst doing her practice. Teddies on the bed to show even though she may be obsessed and dedicated to ballet she is still a child inside. Posters to show she is interested in famous people. And also magazines to show she likes to be constantly updated on celebrities.

The setting used is her bedroom, to show that she is still a normal teenager in her room, despite her obsessions for ballet. When actually coming to the filming, we set up the media studio to look like a bedroom due to various location problems we had faced, however it was still set up like a girls bedroom with all the appropriate things and was useful when it came to filming. For hair and make up, the girl used a wig to show she wants to be someone different and is trying to achieve it through wearing one, it also showed her insecurities about not being famous, whilst the make up is natural and not overdone to show she is a normal child in the comfort of her own room where she does not need make up and can be herself. This can relate to our audience as many teenagers have insecurities and want to be something else. The body language of the girl at the beginning of the opening sequence is slow and delicate whilst putting on her ballet shoes to show that she is very passionate and careful with them and this is shown through slow camera movements and shots at the beginning to let the audience know what to expect. This same body language is continued through to when she is practicing her moves and stretching, however later on when she hears someone coming, the camera shots get faster to represent how the girl is feeling and her panic to hide her secret, so fast camera shots are used here when she is hiding the wig and jumping into bed to pretend to be casually reading a magazine. The camera angles used are a wide angled shot to show the interior of the girls room, like all the posters and magazines etc. to give the audience a clear view that it is a girls bedroom. And the rule of thirds, in which the teddy is in focus and the girl dancing in the background is blurred to show that she has a childish side shown through the bear, and her being blurred in this shot shows she is trying to hide something. The rest of the camera shots used are close ups of the girl putting on the shoes, long shots of her dancing and a medium close up of her facial expression when someone was coming to show her panic. These are used to show in detail what she is doing in various ways and keep the audience interested. There is no dialogue used in this opening sequence as it not being used can make the opening much more interesting as the audience have to rely on the camera to tell the story, rather than the dialogue. There are no sound effects used either as they were not needed for our type of film, but there are two soundtracks to it. At the start of the sequence, an uplifting cheerful song is used which gives the audience a clear answer as to what genre this film is going to be, and when the girl is dancing and practising her moves a ballet/classical soundtrack comes on to show the type of dancing she is doing, and it speeds up when the girl is hiding her wig etc. to show the girls panic. These types of soundtracks being used keeps the audience watching as it reflects the mood of the film.

The key characters in our film are the main character who plays Emma, the girl obsessed with ballet. We chose the cast by going into a year 9 drama class and selecting a pupil who fitted the “look” of our character we had in mind. We had no issues with cast, and when directing she stayed true to our representations of our character by following our directions, e.g. Put on shoes delicately. We also helped our character stay true to our representations by researching other films, like "Black Swan", the main character is similar to our character in some ways as they both have a passion for ballet and want to succeed in that industry. Our character is also similar to the young girl who played Posy Fossil on the film "Ballet Shoes" as she sneaks out to do ballet despite not told not to do it any more. These two films are helped us stay representative to our character as they helped us with our ideas when planning our character in depth.

In conclusion, my opening sequence represents particular social groups as they have similar interests to our character which can also be shown through mise en scene and the cast.

Lets Dance

Evaluation Question 4

Question 4 – Who would be the audience for your media product?

There would be two types of audiences for our media product, which would be the:

Primary Audience Profile:

This is females from the ages of 8-20 years and of any ethnicity. They will be interested in going out with their friends, wearing make-up, going to parties, and they will also like watching television. The types of programmes that they will watch are programmes like Waterloo Road, EastEnders, X-Factor, and Strictly Come Dancing. They like to spend their money on shoes, outfits, costumes and Cd's. And the type of music they will listen to will be pop and R&B.

Secondary Audience Profile:

This is males from the ages of 8-20 years and of any ethnicity. Even though this may not apply to many males, the males who would want to watch this film would have an interest in ballet dancing, and the type of music that they would like to listen to is pop and R&B.

Why was this target group chosen?

This target group was chosen as they are more like our character so can find it easy to relate to her, as they have the same types of interests and hobbies. Another reason why they were chosen is as most of the target group would be at school or in education, meaning that they would be able to relate to our character, in the sense that they would understand how she feels about hiding her hobby of ballet from her mother, who wants her to concentrate on her education, because they as an individual would know how their parents feel about the importance of them getting a good education and becoming successful.

What would attract them to watch your film?

They would be attracted to watch our film as it is unique and not common like the predictable horror and gang violence genres, which are quite predictable. They would also want to watch our film because of the various ballet outfits and the feminine style and feel of it. Also they may want to watch it because of the males in the film, of whom they may be attracted to. And the final reason is as they can relate to the girl because they are of the same age, are in some sort of education and have very similar interests.

What other films would your target audience be interested in watching? What films do you think they may have seen in the last six months?

 Our target audience would be interested in watching comedy, dancing and romance genres. The films that they may have seen in the last six months would be:

• Ballet Shoes

• Black Swan

• Bridesmaids

• Billy Elliot

 

• You Got Served

• Streetdance

• Honey

 

What would be their expectations of your film?

The audiences expectations of my film would be that they would be that they would see a girl who loves ballet dancing with a passion, and wants to become famous through it. They would also want to see her doing some dance moves and would want her to relate to them in some way through similar interests, hobbies, costumes and props etc. The audience may also expect to see pretty costumes and interesting camera angles shots and movements to keep them interested and watching.

What would you need to have in your poster to attract the target audience?

The things that would be needed in my poster to attract the target audience would be a picture of a ballet dancer, a bold catchy name, a good pun and some quotes from newspapers. This would draw the audience to it and make them want to watch it.

Evaluation Question 5

Question 5 – How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted the audience in various ways, for example by posters of my film "Lets Dance". These would be seen in places like in magazines, on banners at bus stops, and places were people would drive by. These would be put in these places to attract the target audience, as they would be likely to read magazines as they are teenagers, and they also would be in school, so if they are put at a bus stop they would be likely to see it. Another reason is if they are put in places were people would drive by, they are likely to see it on there way out with parents or driving past on a bus for example. This would attract them as they would be seeing it in various places making them curious as to what it is about, and therefore going to watch it.

The entire opening sequence as a whole shows the audience that the girl is doing ballet and has a passion for it, and this is shown through her actions, for example being very worried before dancing and looking around to see no one is watching before starting, and this gives the audience the impression that she is doing it in secret and it makes them wonder why, especially in the part of the opening sequence where she hears someone coming up the stairs and so hides her wig behind her mirror and jumps in to bed to hide the ballet shoes she has on and pretends to read a magazine. This makes the audience ask questions as to why she is dancing in secret and also wonder why she does not want anyone to know, making them continue watching to find out this. I also attracted the audience by doing some fancy ballet looking credits. These were the colour pink with a bit of blue in it, as the film is targeted at female teenagers, the primary target audience and this colour gives the audience a clear of who the film is targeted to, as pink is usually a girls colour making them want to watch it as it is directed at them. And the colour blue, is for the secondary target audience, as blue is usually represented with boys, and this could make them want to watch it too.

The audience were also attracted and addressed by the mise en scene used. The hair in the opening sequence is normal and plain, and the character is wearing a wig. This is to show the audience that she wants to be someone different and it also shows them that she has insecurities about herself not being famous and this shows the childlike side to her, like in the children’s series "Hannah Montana", she wears a wig to hide her “famous identity” so she is two people, and this can also represent that the character in my opening sequence also has two sides to her, her inside “famous side” and her outside “good child” that her parents perceive her to be. This can make the audience want to see the film to see if her true inner self will come out eventually. The audience may be able to relate to the character having two sides to her as they too may be hiding a secret hobby from their parents that they want to do, and may not be able to show that side of themselves much as their parents may want them to concentrate on the most important things in life like their education for example. This keeps the audience interested, primarily as they can relate to the character, and secondly as they would want to see if she will tell the truth eventually.

The character is not wearing any make up in the opening sequence, although some are on the table. This is done to show the audience that she usually does wear make up as there is some on her table near to the mirror, but her not wearing any at that moment shows the audience she is not planning on going out anywhere any time soon. This aims to keep the audience interested as the target audience would have the same interests, meaning they would most probably wear make up too, making them relate to the character in some way.

Costume also addresses the audience to keep them interested in the film. The costume consists of black plain leggings, a plain white shirt, pink ballet shoes and a wig. The leggings and shirt can show the audience that she is just practising in her room, as these clothes are easy to move in, and the ballet shoes show the audience she does ballet whilst the wig shows the audience she is hiding her identity and wishes to be somebody else. This keeps the audience interested as they would want to know why she wishes to be someone else, and also the plain looking clothes show the audience that she is just a normal young child practising in her room however as she hides two parts of the costume, the wig and ballet shoes the audience will be gripped to the film as they will want to know if she will get caught later on or not.

Facial expression also aims to keep the audience interested. In the opening sequence, the girl's facial expression is a panic expression when she hears someone coming up the stairs and this gives the audience an impression that she is very worried and scared of someone catching her, which makes them wonder why. Also in the opening sequence the girls facial expression is relieved when she notices that no one had caught her doing her ballet dancing and she had hidden the shoes, giving the audience the impression that she desperately does not want to get caught dancing for some important reason, which is what the audience would want the answer to, keeping them interested.

Body language is also an important part of mise en scene that helps to keep the audience interested in the film. For example, the girls body language is very calming and elegant when she is doing her ballet dancing, showing the audience that she is very passionate about her ballet dancing. But when she hears someone coming up the stairs to check up on her, she panics and her body language changes to all panicky and nervous, and she shows this by running around confused trying to find somewhere to hide the wig. This makes the audience wonder why she is calm when she is by herself doing ballet, but very nervous when she thinks someone may catch her doing it.

Colour also aims to keep the audience interested, and it does this by the actual colour that is used. The colours used in the opening sequence are quite bright and vibrant to reflect the type of dancing the girl is doing. The colours consist of a lot of pink and other bright colours shown through her duvet cover and her ballet shoes, plus the credits. This shows the audience that the film is to do with quite a stereotypical teenage girl, as the colour “pink” usually is to do with girls when it is mentioned. This lets the audience know that the film is mostly targeted at girls, as if the colour dark blue was used for example, the audience could get the impression that the film is not targeted for them, and actually for boys, so pink was a great colour to use. This also keeps the audience interested as if they notice the colours used it can make them realise the genre of film which is a teenage high school drama, rather than a horror, which would most likely have the colours black and red dark mysterious colours in it.

The lighting of the film is a natural lighting, and this is done as it works with the genre of film we are doing, and reflects it too. Ass if a crime mystery thriller were to be done, the lighting may be dimmed and dull to reflect the mood, so a natural lighting was best for this genre as any other lighting would not make sense, and would be confusing for the audience to watch. Also, if the audience like this genre of film, they can find out clearly what it is, by the lighting which is a good thing.

The position of the props in the framing of the film also keep the audience interested. This is so, as for example, in the shot were the teddy was in focus in the foreground and the girl in the background was blurred, which was also the rule of thirds, this can give the audience the impression that the girl has a childlike side to her behind all of her obsessions, but she is blurring who she really is from society, which can be shown by this. Another example of the position of the props in the frame is when all the girls make up and other beauty products were in front of the mirror. This shows the audience that she uses her make up and beauty products often as they were in front of the mirror. Also most of the things in the bedroom were placed neatly, apart from her magazines on her bed. This was done to show the audience that she likes to take care of herself and her bedroom, and the magazines on the bed can show that she likes to read them a lot an also wants to be updated regularly on celebrity news. This keeps the audience interested as they can clearly see what type of person she is by the way the things are organised in her room.

I also attracted and addressed the audience through the editing in which was used. The editing which was actually used was making the cuts flow together well as a whole. We did this by using continuity and match on action. Continuity was used whenever the girl would do something different. For example, in our actual opening sequence the girl walked from the mirror to her bed to reveal the secret hiding place of her ballet shoes, and this was done by showing a medium shot of her turning away from the mirror to walk to the bed, and then a cutaway was used when she was taking out the shoes under the mattress. This was done so the film would flow better, and make sense, so if the girl was in the mirror at one second and taking out her shoes the next this would not make sense for the audience and would not keep them interested in watching the film as this would look quite odd and unprofessional for them to see. Match on action was also used in this opening sequence, and this was done when the girl was smiling in her bed and when her sister was looking at her. When shooting this was done in a different order, but when editing we made the shots come together to show that the girl was hiding what she was doing by a fake smile and the sister locked the door and went out with no suspicion. This was done to show the audience that the girl did not want her sister to know what she was doing, and she hid it by doing a “smile” and “reading” a magazine, which keeps the audience interested as they would want to know if the girl would get caught later on, and also as if the girl just randomly smiled at the door when no one was there yet it would look odd, so match on action had to be used here to make it flow well and make the audience interested.

Sound is also anther factor in which was used when attracting and addressing the audience. For example, no dialogue is used as if it was it may give too much as the storyline away and not build suspense as to what it is about, and there were no sound effects either, as they were not needed for our genre of film and would most probably be suited in a comedy kids film more than a teenage high school drama one. There were also no voice overs used in the opening sequence, as we thought it would be best just to put a normal soundtrack to it instead. So we put two soundtracks in. A happy uplifting one was used at the beginning when the room was being shown, giving the audience a clear image of what genre the film is, and a slow at first but building tension soundtrack was used from when the girl picked up her wig and was doing her ballet routine, to when her sister came and nearly caught her. We chose these soundtracks as we thought it would be much more interesting if these were used and it would also suit the film more, especially the second soundtrack which built tension towards the middle to show that the girl was panicking and also to reflect her feelings inwardly at the time. This also keeps the audience gripped if the music reflects what is going on in the film at the time as it is much more interesting to see, keeping them interested.

Camera movements/angles/shots also keeps the audience interested. This is done by a slow camera movement at the beginning and when all her personal belongings like make up etc. are being shown to reflect the mood of the beginning of the film, and it also leaves the audience not too sure about what to expect. The camera angles used are a wide angle shot for example, and this was done to show that the setting is the interior of a girls bedroom, and this type of angle also exposes her posters and make up etc. showing the audience that this is a typical teenage girls room. And the shots used are quite creative in some areas for example, the rule of thirds shot with the bear in the foreground in focus and the girls in the background blurred, giving the audience the impression that she is childlike but also hiding her personality, making the audience wonder why she feels the need to feel this way. These uses of camera movements/shots and angles help to keep the audience interested.

The prior knowledge of a particular genre I would expect my audience to have would be knowledge of how a particular genre actually comes across. For example a horror film would be presented in a much more different way to that of a romance film for example. I can make use of this to attract them to my film by using a particular type of font and colour used or soundtrack for example. In my opening sequence Lets Dance, the soundtrack we used was a happy cheerful and classical soundtrack and this gives the audience the impression that it is a teenage high school drama, and not a mystery horror, as if it was this, we would have most probably used a dark and mysterious soundtrack. Also the font and colour used is a pink and blue bright plain looking font. This again shows the audience what genre the film is as it it were horror it would be dark and red type colours.

The themes chosen is obsession, and this can attract our audience as the girl has a deep loving passion for ballet and so it restricts her from her education, and so she does it in secret in order to be happy. The audience may be able to relate to this theme as they may inwardly want to do something, but it is restricted due to there parents wanting them to focus on education for example. Other successful films that have addressed similar themes are films like:

• Black Swan
• Ballet Shoes
• Step Up
• Billy Elliot

The film Black Swan addresses the theme of an obsession with ballet, which eventually over powers her life. And Ballet Shoes, Step Up and Billy Elliot involve the kids wanting to do dancing but it has been disrupted by something or someone not letting them do it, but they eventually find a way out of the situation, and still end up dancing in the end. All these films helped us with our theme and presenting the opening sequence.

Overall, the audience were attracted and addressed by various things like the mise en scene, editing, sound and camera, which helped the film be successful and get the message and point of the film across to the audience.

Evaluation Question 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 at the preliminary task I feel that I have learnt a lot of things in the progression from it to the full product. This is because in the pre production, production and post production of the preliminary task, we encountered a number of problems that we did not know would occur. The pre production, which is the planning, included the treatment, pitch, poster, moodboard, script, storyboard, photo storyboard, location recce, casting, shooting schedule, rehearsal, and the timetable for the day. In this we had planned to use the shooting schedule, which would help us during the filming process for the order of shots to use. However, when coming to filming we had forgotten about this, and ended up starting with the shot outside, then we went inside for the next shots then out again. It would have been much simpler if we did the outside shots first then the inside ones after, and this could have saved us time too. The key lessons learnt is, when planning to make sure you have everything at hand before starting to do your filming. This helped us in the main task as we made sure that we had the shooting schedule at hand and this was much easier for us. Another problem encountered in the pre production was the script, as we had planned to have one printed off to help us when filming. Although this had been done on the computer, we had not printed it off to use and had to rely on the photo storyboard, which was not helpful, as we had changed some things from the storyboard and had something different on the script to make it better. So instead we had to improvise and also do some things from memory with the storyboard to help us. What I learnt here was that before filming to have planned in advance that you have got everything and have put everything in the correct place, and even if you are sure you have got them, to double check. This helped in the main task as we double checked things were there before starting our filming, so that if something was not there we could quickly think of something to help, so it would not interrupt the filming process. We also had a problem with the casting. This was as when planning for our cast, we had thought we already had a boy to act for us when filming. However, when doing the filming, we had found out that we did not have one. Luckily, the person I was working with had someone else to do the filming, and this helped us a great deal. What was learnt here was to make sure you definitely have the cast available on the days you need them, by ringing them or sending them a text message to ask again if they are alright with it. This helped again in the main task as we checked a number of times to see that the girl was available for acting on the days needed.

The production is actually making the film, and the things here were equipment, cast, location, timing, weather, continuity, cut away shots, variety of shots and re shoots. There were a number of problems encountered here, but when they happened this helped us to plan better when doing the main task. One problem that happened here was a major problem with the tripod. This was as we had broken tripods, and we discovered this when coming to actually doing the filming. As we had not planned for this to happen we were quite shocked, but dealt with it by first of all asking for a different one to use for the time being, however the one we had received was also broken, and so we had to wait for it to be fixed. This took up some of our time, but we were grateful for it being fixed to use. What was learnt here is to ask before hand if all your equipment in which you are borrowing are working properly, before the filming process. This helped when doing the main task as we made sure that the tripod was working properly before filming. Another problem we had was a noisy cast. Again, we had not planned for this, but two of the members were not doing what was asked, and as we had planned to get out by the latest four, we finished much later than that because of this. What was learnt here is to make sure that the cast you have is going to be sensible, and follow what the director is asking of them, and also if they are not, to learn to control them better, and if again if they are not listening to have a back up plan in case you decide you do not want to use them because of the problems faced. This helped when coming to the main task, as we controlled the cast well, and it was easier because of this, as it helped our timing too. Continuity was also a problem that was faced when making the preliminary task. This was because when filming we were not sure exactly how one of the girls who was acting for us was sitting when we filmed her previously. We had not planned for this either, but a key lesson learnt is next time when filming to keep an eye on how your cast is sitting etc and pay close attention to it so continuity will not be affected. This helped in the main task, as we made sure that all of these things were checked before actually filming.

The post production and feedback is editing the film and the feedback that is given from your fellow class and teachers. The post production and feedback consists of time, how you incorporate feedback from your teachers and others, sound/music choices, saving work and credits. There were some problems encountered here. One of the problems was that when actually editing our preliminary task, there was no sound in our actual production. At first, we thought it was because we had not plugged in the camera properly, but it was actually as there was no sound when filming it, as the camera was not working properly. We had not planned for this either so it was a massive problem. This was not helpful at all for editing, as we had to rely on just the images we had available to help cut the film at the right places. What I learnt here is to make sure the sound is checked before filming, and this helped when doing the main task as the sound was checked. For the preliminary task, some feedback that was given was to cut out some shots were the same thing is happening in both of them. This helped in the main task, as when we did our editing, we made sure not to put in two similar shots next to each other giving the same information to the audience. For example, if someone is walking to a door, you do not have to put a long shot and then a medium shot of the same information. This helped prepare us for the feedback given in the main task. The information we got here was to make the shot of the house shorter, which we did, and this helped make our opening sequence better, as the house being on the screen for too long is quite boring for the audience, and also at first it was on for about thirteen seconds, but we cut it down to make it shorter and this helped the timing overall. Some more feedback we received was to change the credits. At first it was white and plain, but we changed it to pink and blue, and we made the font more fancier to reflect our audience, and the genre of film. We also changed the production company from a “Lacie” production to a John Speed production, as “Lacie” was not that creative, and so John Speed sounded better. And the last bit of feedback was to change the start music, as it was depressing. Instead we changed this to a more cheerful and uplifting song to reflect the genre, and this helped the opening sequence as a whole.

Overall, looking back at the preliminary task, I feel that I have learnt a lot from it to the progression of the full product, as during the preliminary task there were a lot of problems encountered during the pre production, production, post production and feedback, that helped us to learn from them and do things better in the main task.

Evaluation Question 1

Question 1 - In what ways does your media product USE, DEVELOP or CHALLENGE forms and conventions of real media products?

My media product uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products in various ways. Forms and conventions are the typical features that make a film belong to a certain genre. For example, in our film "Lets Dance" the genre of it is a "Teenage High School Drama". The typical things that an audience would expect of this genre, is:

• A child who has a dream they wish to pursue in the future – This is shown in our film by the girl practicing her ballet moves.
  
• This gets interrupted by something – The girl is not allowed to do ballet as her grades are slipping at school.

• The child tries to resolve the problem – She does this by practising ballet in secret behind her family's back.

• The problem is resolved – Her family realise how much it means to her, and she becomes successful from it later on in life.

Forms and conventions also have typical themes that follow this type of genre too and "Lets Dance" has:

• Obsession – The girl cuts herself out of her personal and social life to focus on ballet and will find any way of doing it even if it means lying, which is shown in the opening sequence when she hears her sister coming up the stairs and so jumps into bed, hiding the shoes and pretending to read a magazine.

• Fame – The girl wishes to become famous, and this is shown through the wig prop, as she wishes to be someone else, someone famous and the wig represents her hidden identity.

• Determination - She makes sure that she does not get caught doing ballet, and this is shown through her shoes hidden under her mattress and her wig hidden behind her mirror.

• Passion – She loves famous celebrities, which is shown by her magazines and posters.

Forms and conventions also give you typical props, settings, character, narrative and sound for that certain genre. The typical props used in our film were the stereotypical things that you would see in a girls bedroom for example, posters, magazines and make up, which gives a clear idea to the audience of what genre it is going to be. The setting in which was used was a bedroom which is also like what you would see in this specific genre, and this is what was used in the opening of the children's Disney film “Camp Rock”, so this helped inspire us of a type of room that we could use. The typical narrative, is a child who has a passion for something they love to do, and this gets disrupted by something or someone, but they resolve this and so have a happy ending. Our story follows this typical narrative in order for it to fit into the planned genre. The sound of our film is a cheerful soundtrack, and a classical song too, to go with the flow of her practicing her ballet moves, and also as cheerful songs are used in these forms and conventions.

 The form of our opening sequence is shown through camera, lighting and editing. Our film follows the conventions of the form of real media products of films like “High School Musical”. Similar to this, both of the films have the same type of lighting for the beginning, as both have a natural lighting, which is to show the audience what type of genre the film is. If the film was a horror, it would have most probably had a dimmed lighting, but as it was not this genre a natural lighting is best to set the mood for the film in a sense that it is quite happy and uplifting at times. However, our film challenged the opening of this by the camera shots which were used. This was done as our opening was more focused on the room and the girl as a whole, rather than just the girl. We did this by showing a more detailed description of the room by leaving the shots of her make up etc. on for longer, which was to make the audience understand what type of girl she is through her personal belongings before introducing her. We also, used dissolving in the editing part of our opening to give an uplifting and happy effect to it.

The character in our film is similar to that of Rita Louise Watson from “Sister Act 2”. Our film follows the same conventions of this as they are similar in the sense that Rita is not allowed to sing because her mother Florence thinks that it will not get her anywhere. But, she has a singing competition and forges her mothers signature in order to go. Whereas our character wants to do ballet but is not allowed as she is educationally slacking, so sneaks to practice now and again behind her parents back. Both of these characters have a passion for what they love and are ready to go to any means, even if denying their parents in order to continue with what they love doing, which is interesting, and also typical of this genre. However, our film challenged the conventions of this film by instead of doing singing, which is quite common in films of this genre, we did ballet instead which is not a completely unique idea as it has been used before, but it is not common either.

The narrative of our story was similar to that of the film “Billy Elliot”. This is as the young boy “Billy Elliot” has dreams of doing ballet/tap dancing, and he cannot do it as his father thinks it is “not for lads.” And our character has dreams of becoming a ballet dancer but she cannot do it due to her parents not letting her, because she is not doing too well at school. Both of these characters love tap dancing, which is obvious to the audience, as they sneak out to do it. But we did challenge the idea of the parents disagreeing with the idea of their child doing ballet because of what gender they were, as this is somehow common. So instead we changed it to the parents disagreeing with their child doing ballet because they think that education is more important for the child instead. We decided to do this, as this idea is not really common for this genre and we thought this would be original and unique, even though been used before.

The sound of our film is similar to that of “High School Musical”. It is similar in the sense that in “High School Musical” they both have cheerful music in them. They both also do not use sound effects, as it they were used the form and convention of these films would be more of a “Children's Comedy”, rather than a “Teenage High School Drama”. However, although we did use cheerful songs in our opening sequence, we decided to challenge the typical “cheerful pop music” of the form and convention and put in a classical song that matched with her actions and the mood of the film at the time.

The mise en scene of our film follows the conventions of a “Teenage High School Drama”, as it is similar to the film “Camp Rock” in some aspects. It is similar with the body language as the actress who plays Mitchie Torres has a very happy and cheerful type of body language at the beginning, and so does our character at the very beginning before she hears her sister coming. We challenged this by instead of her body language being completely cheerful the whole way through the opening sequence, which usually happens in this type of convention, we changed it up a bit and made her nervous too when her sister was coming to so something different. The facial expression followed the convention too as she looked happy which is fairly typical, and our character had a similar expression to that of Mitchie's but we did challenge the convention by making her panic in the opening sequence, making her face nervous. The lighting in “Camp Rock” is also the same as our lighting, as they both have a similar natural lighting, which is how both films follow the conventions of a “Teenage High School Drama”. We did not challenge this in any way as if we did it may not look alright on film. The colour in both of these opening sequences follow the conventions of this genre too as in “Camp Rock” bright colours are used to show that this is a “Teenage High School Drama”, and our film “Lets Dance” shows this too by using similar bright colours. With this too, we did not challenge it. The hair and make up in “Camp Rock” is natural, which shows the audience what genre the film is, as the natural look lets the audience know she is a cheerful teenager, however although our film was similar with the make up being natural, we did decide to make the girl wear a wig, this was as we wanted to challenge the “typical” opening with the girls hair being natural, and give the audience more information about the girl wanting to change, which was shown through the wig. And last of all, in “Camp Rock”, the girl changes her costume a number of times to show that she is trying to pick an outfit to wear, which is usual of this genre, as in stereotypical terms girls find it hard to pick an outfit when they have somewhere special to go, and this is what makes it fit into this convention. Our film did a similar thing to the “changing costume” idea but we toned it down and instead made her wear ballet shoes a wig and casual things that a girl would wear when trying to do ballet, and also wear just around the house. We decided to do this as whereas the aim for the beginning of “Camp Rock” was to show a girl waking up and getting ready, we wanted to show a girl practising her ballet moves, making the opening scene different in some respect. Our film challenged this convention of the genre however, by giving a little bit more detail into the girls life with the ballet shoes, which makes the audience ask questions.

Overall, our media product used similar forms and conventions to that of other films that we researched and this helped us develop fresh ideas from them which contributed to helping us challenge the forms and conventions of other real media products similar to our own.