Redo of Voiceover

From the class feedback we had to redo our voice. This time around we would use another device that would better the clarity of the voiceover. The device we used was called a Merantz. I redid the voiceover with the Merantz also in an isolated room. A merantz simply records information either directly into the internal speaker or you could use a microphone. I used it internally. We also made alterations towards the voice over.

Hi, I'm Lisa, I'm 16 years old and I go to Alberto High, currently studying for my GCSE's in English, art and music. I only recently joined the school so I don't really have a social group to fit in with. Most of the time, I spend my school life doing extra school work and gazing at this one boy. Owen! He's just so perfect, always smiling. He's so hard working. He's really helpful as well, I'll never forget the time he helped me with my books. OMG! It was just after class and I, clumsy as ever, bumped into him and dropped my books. I mean, dropped them,like all over the floor near his feet. Then he bent down and picked them up for me and boy was there an eye connection. He noticed me, he looked right into my eyes and smiled. He's so fit. Adorable. Cute. Funny. He's the One.

We changed the line to 'He's the one' rather than 'I love him' because 'He's the one' is the title of our film. Also filmmakers use strategies such as that to make the audience remember the title of the film so marketing can also spread through word of mouth. I also paused at this part of the voiceover 'Then he bent down and picked them up for me and boy was there an eye connection'so that Sara's actions could match exactly what I was saying. Redoing the voiceover got rid of the airiness in the background of the film

ROUGH CUT

He's The One- Rough Cut from Jemma Goulds on Vimeo.

We showed this rough cut to our Media Class on Thursday 18th of March. We wanted to get feedback from our teachers and from our classmates so that we would know what to improve on. We asked for comments from the class. Comments included

"Really good. The soundtrack went with the voice over because it was jolly. The echo could be heard during the voice over." -Josephine


"Instead of walking down the stairs, there should be a group of people laughing together and then Lisa walking alone." -Myrin


"Music and titles worked well together. Opening credits were too long compared to the film." -Sophie


"The target audience was made apparent. You could have included speech bubbles for when she said "OMG" The camera angles were excellent but re-do the voice over and lower the music during some points." -Miss Goulds

EFFECTS

From these comments we decided that we needed to redo the voice over. This was because the voice over sounded airy and unprofessional. Initally we thought that the soundtrack would eliminate the airiness of the voice over, however it didn't.

Voice Over

We decided to do a voice over to introduce to the audience what the story of our film opening is about. The voice over was done in an isolated room where I read a transcript of what I was going to say. It was then recorded by the video camera and imported into Adobe Premier Pro.

A member of our group, Dominique, was responsible for editing the voice over. This meant changing the pitch if it was too low, and fixing the parts where I stumbled on words.

Here is the copy of our voice over:

Hi, I'm Lisa, I'm 16 years old and I go to Alberto Hight, currently studying for my GCSE's in English, art and music. I only recently joined the school so I don't really have a social group to fit in with. Most of the time, I spend my school life doing extra school work and gazing at this one boy. Owen! He's just so perfect, always smiling. He's so hard working. He's really helpful as well, I'll never forget the time he helped me with my books. OMG! It was just after class and I, clumsy as ever, bumped into him and dropped my books. I mean, dropped them,like all over the floor near his feet. Then he bent down and picked them up for me and boy was there an eye connection. He noticed me, he looked right into my eyes and smiled. He's so fit. Adorable. Cute. Funny. I love him!

This is a screen shot taken from the Voice over in Adobe Premier Pro

Treatment

Treatment

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Analysis of Soundtrack

To pick the correct soundtrack we looked at the music that is popular for a Rom-Com/ Teen movies had. For example, I watched the opening for The Princess Diaries, at first the music is mellow, violin or piano playing. Then the music gets personalised to fit what the film is about.



Here is the first part of The Princess Diaries, focus on the soundtrack in the beginning of the film.

Then we looked at Angus, Thongs, and Perfect Snogging, focusing on the soundtrack for the film opening. This soundtrack was more upbeat and childish typical for the type of film genre for the Teen/Rom-Com genre. They also used a popular song as it related to the protagagonist in the film.



We decided that film openings for our film genre can be personalised to fit the synopsis of the film. We also felt it was best that we used a soundtrack that was pre-recorded either by a famous rock band or something with a low tempo. This is why we chose the indie music genre as this reflects the characters in the film.

We found a suitable soundtrack from a Music producer on Myspace. One of our group members wrote him an email asking for his permission to use his music for our soundtrack.

Here is the copy of the email


Hello,
I'm Dominique, a media student from Harris Academy in the UK currently in the process of completing my coursework for my AS level qualification.
This requires me to produce a film opening. For the film opening I require a piece of music to go with my work, matching the genre etc. I have found the perfect piece.


Cutting to the chase, would it be possible for me to use your guitar piece called "The Clap"?
I am not allowed to include any copyrighted material in my coursework unless given permission to do so. I do not intend to use the piece to gain any sort of income/profit or monetary advantage.


This piece of music fits perfectly with my coursework and I would greatly appreciate being able to use it in my work. All credits go to Steve Howe for the music.


I hope to hear from you soon.
Thanks.
Dominique Alexander.

Still Images

To make our film opening unique, we wanted to incorporate still images. These still images indicate to the audience the genre of our film opening. They also help tell a story without any words. This is because the pens, the notebooks, the girl coat indicate that a girl is going to be involved in the film. We also did this to add to the creativity of our film. We took pictures of these images using a camera then we imported it into Adobe After Effects.

Costume List

Duane
Black blazer
Black trousers
Blue tie
Smart shirt

Sara
Grey Blazer
Pink smart shirt
Grey skirt

Character Profile

CHARACTER PROFILE
LISA

Lisa could be an example of a typical shy awkward young girl going through her teenage years trying to find out who she is. She is new to Alberto High School and desperately wants to fit in. Like most 'Rom-Coms' or your 'Teen movies' she meets this boy at her school that she likes. She claims to 'love' him, even though she is new at the school. This could be because Lisa's uncertainty about herself forces her to be certain about a boy. Also, Lisa is an academic student having done her GCSEs, this is why she frequently states she likes Owen as she wants to feel like that typical teenage girl that has a boyfriend rather than the 'Geeky girl' without a boyfriend.Therefore, because of Lisa's academic abilities and her awkwardness at being at a new school we compared Lisa to Gabrielle Montez from High School Musical
In the shot of Lisa, she does not face the camera to establish to the audience that she is not very confident however she is confident in books that is why she holds them in her picture.


OWEN

Owen is a teenage boy in 'teen movies' that is pursued by the geeky new girl. In this shot he faces the camera and he smiles to show his confidence. Unlike Sara, he is proud of himself. He is the funny, confident, warm hearted boy in the film that Sara goes for. However, unlike most movies he is not afraid to be kind hearted to the new girl. Sara goes through his characteristics frequently throughout the voice over to establish to the audience why she likes him so much.








Psychographics for Lisa

Lisa likes various types of music but especially the music that she likes includes the indie, rock/pop genre. Occasionaly, she enjoys classical music when it comes time to relaxing and doing her Art and English. Sara believes that successful women inspire her that is why her favourite music group is Tegan and Sara.


The type of clothing Lisa wears are typical of an indie 'farty' girl. This means she regularly shops at Charity shops and chooses to shop at vintage stores however they are extremely expensive. Usually she shops at Thrift Stores in London when she gets the chance to go there.

On her spare time Lisa chooses to associate with her female friends. They enjoy liasing in Starbucks or Costa. However, Lisa does not always have enough money to for it as she is only a Year 11 student. Lisa's aspirations to become a Art/Fashion designer means that even outside school she always is painting or creating clothes. She believes this will help her even more after her GCSEs and even after 6th form. Lisa's busy schedule is also a shock to her personally that she can be in love with a boy in her new school.

Lisa enjoys watching Romantic Comedy films such as Bridget Jones Diary. She is also a firm believer of supporting the British film industry so she enjoys watching films that include British Actors such as Hugh Grant. She also loves the film Titanic and Notting Hill because it features Kate Winslett and Hugh Grant.

Psychographics for Owen

Owen is very different from Lisa when it comes to aspirations and his leisure time. For instance, after his GSCEs he aims to become a Sports player. He does not know in what but most likely it will be in Basketball. For him, his leisure time includes playing basketball with his friends for fun. Going to parties and socialising because thats what he does best. Also, he is priviledges with money so he can afford the latest clothes and vacations with his family. The music he listens to varies. However he enjoys music that gets him upbeat and excited for his sports games. For instance he likes the rapper Lil Jon and Nelly because they cater for his sporting career. His clothes includes track suits, trainers, baggy jumpers, and t-shirts usually from Foot Locker and JD. However this is only when his liasing at home. When he is out, he prefers to look sophisticated and smart, as he appears in our film. This is because he is very confident, he does not mind the smart uniform. He gets his 'special clothes' from Boss, H&M, Colours, and Burton. Money is not a barrier to him.

Since we related Owen to Troy from High School Musical, Owen's films that he watches are not reduced to British films. He enjoys on edge High School movies such as the Crime/Drama/Music genre. A perfect example of this is the movie Step Up that was first released in 2006. He enjoys this movie because it is recent and he can relate to it.

Soundtrack for Production Logo

We wanted to be specific about what type of soundtrack we put for our production logo. Since we had a girl-esque feel to our production logo we wanted to incorporate the whole countdown to getting ready that girls usually do. This is why we chose a 'tick-tock' sound from a clock towards our production logo.

We went to a website recommended from our teacher called


http://music-for-video.com/
Here is a screenshot for the website


Here is how we added our soundtrack onto our production logo

Presentation1

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Locations

We based our entire filming at our school. Our school was chosen for the location because it was the best location that fitted the content of our film.



The first image is of a desk. This image was taken at school. This is where Sara sits day dreaming about Owen and also staring into space to him. We chose to do this scene at a desk because commonly in Rom-Coms or Teen movies the daydreaming about boys usually happens in class or at home. We felt that this shot went well with the context of the film.



This image is of a long alleyway in our school where students enter class. We chose this shot because it perfectly established Lisa's isolation in her new school. For instance the long distance represents the loneliness Lisa feels walking into that school everyday. Also she walks on her own it makes the audience sense her loneliness and makes the audience feel sorry for her.

Production Logo

We looked at examples of ready made production logos on this website. This helped us to understand how production logos appeared.
Also we looked at examples of popular production logo's. Here is an example of Disney's popular production logo named 'Dreamworks'.



http://templates.entheosweb.com/logos_corporate_identity/Video-Production.asp

Also, we watched production logos in film to get ideas into how our production logo should resemble. I thought of the idea to use a picture of a model while using animation to put lipstick on her lips.

The programme we used was Adobe After Effects. The production logo ran for about 5-10 seconds. I had to manually draw the red lipstick on the model's picture whilst animating the lipstick to do the drawing.

The Images




These were the JPEG images we used to create our production logo. They were taken from the internet but made original by our incorporation of using animation on these images.

Synopsis of Film Opening

The film opening introduces the main protagonists in the film. This is Lisa and Owen. The film opening shows that Lisa has a very big crush on Owen but at first she feels that he doesn't notice him because she's new to the school and because of her awkward nature she feels that he won't like him. However, eventually Owen begins to notice Lisa. She feels that he likes her and they make a love connection. Owen being the popular boy he is, knows that him liking Lisa is not his regular choice of girls that he would usually go for. Lisa is ecstatic though.

Gradually, Lisa finds friends in her new school and she joins a new social group where she feels at ease with herself. She makes friends with a bestfriend named Katie. Lisa starts to get involved in activities going on in the school and is preparing to participate in the school's talent show. Lisa's skit was to write a poem for Owen. On the other hand, Owen was going to sing a song for Lisa which Lisa knew about but he also planned to ask her out at the end. When Lisa tells this to Katie, Katie confesses that she loves Owen. Lisa is very upset and even angry at this news so her relationship with Katie is not as strong anymore.

When the talent show arrives, Katie is there. She struggles up the confidence to clap at the end of Owen's performance for Lisa but she is shocked to see that he asks Lisa out. Lisa is shocked aswell. Katie can not take this and slaps Lisa. This is one of the comedy parts in our film, because the slap turns into a cat fight.

After, like all romcoms and teen movies Katie and Lisa realise that there friendship is stronger than a boy so Lisa she tells Owen that she would rather just stay friends so that it does not affect her relationship with Katie

Production Log

Meeting 3

Here after filming, we discussed what we need to be put in our audience profile, our target audience, and what ideas we had for editing.

How the narrative and genre are established in the Opening 5 minutes of E.T and Independence Day


E.T FILM OPENING

Instantly, when hearing the title sequence E.T the abbreviation of the title makes us think of secrecy or something that is being hidden to the public. This is because the full title is not spelt. The cover of the film shows a moon, a non-human hand, and a pair flying over the moon on a bicycle. These iconography connote that the film is going to be based around the supernatural specifically on the unhuman hand as it reminds us of an alien which are typical conventions of sci-fi films. This indicates that the film genre will be sci-fi. The colour of the film cover is blue/silver. These colours are traditional for sci-fi films.



The title 'Independence Day' makes us think that something significant is going to happen on that day especially because Independence Day is a very important day in America. The cover shows a close up of three male figures therefore this could create a stereotype that these three males will be heroic and dominant in the film. They are also positioned one behind the other therefore signifying that Will Smith will be the protagonist in the film as he is pictured first.



Independence Day and E.T both have different iconographies displayed throughout the first 5 minutes of the film. E.T displays an unusual creature which we assume is an alien walking about the scene, moon, and a spaceship these particular iconography are typical icons that are conventions of sci-fi films. Independence Day features some icons such as the American flag, which we associate with patriotism, sattelites that we associate with outerspace, the American Military which we associate with conflict and spaceships we link with outerspace. These are all connotations of these icons. Going back to the narrative, the audience can tell through these iconographies that there will be conflict with America and perhaps another extra-terrestrial world.

In E.T the camera movement used is panning. These creates an effect to the audience as if we are following E.T and seeing what he is up to. By this we can tell he is a protagonist. The medium establashing shot of the stars and the moon also help us to know that immediately that the film we be based on the outerspace, hence fulfulling the convention that the film is sci-fi based. Independence day uses some camera techniques such as zooming out of the American flag. This puts America into a small position making them seem vulnerable. It also makes the audience know there could be conflict with America later on in the film. In the first 5 minutes of the film some over the shoulder shots of the important characters talking are used. This creates tension and reminds us of the future conflict that America may have to deal with later in the future.

Different types of lighting were used in both films. E.T used a lot of low key lighting that is commonly used for sci-fi films, this created a lot of mystery. There was also a lot of key lights that created sharp shadows and sharp blue lights that were used which connoted that the genre was sci-fi as blue lights are commonly used for this genre. The dark back lights in the film helped to connote that the setting is in an abonded place.

Independence Day used some common lighting techniques such as the red beeping light when the character was on the phone to connote that there is danger and something was not right. There was also a lot of equipment in the background with beeping filler lights that that could make the audience realise that they were about to watch a sci-fi film.

Sound and music played a big part in establashing that the films were sci-fi. E.T had a lot of slow paced, synthesised non-diagetic sound which is a commonly used convention of this genre. They also used diagetic sounds such as the beeping sounds and non-diagetic such as the strings in the synthesizer. Independence Day used more diagetic sounds that helped reveal the content of the film. For instance, the characters speaking. For instance a character says 'There more confused than we are'. This makes the audience question who is 'they'.

Production Logo Research

The information we knew about production logos was that they were the logo to brand the film opening that we produced. It was not necessary for the production logo to resemble the type of film that we produced however we wanted to incorporate the same 'rom-com' genre of our film opening into our production logo.

We looked at examples of ready made production logos on this website. This helped us to understand how production logos appeared.
Also we looked at examples of popular production logo's. Here is an example of Disney's popular production logo named 'Dreamworks'.



http://templates.entheosweb.com/logos_corporate_identity/Video-Production.asp

Production Log

Meeting 2

This meeting happened in our school on a Friday. We drew a draft storyboard and decided on the narrative of the story. We wanted our filming to be very precise and accurate so we decided we were going to do a voiceover to explain our storyline. We drew pictures in our storyboard of what we wanted to happen in each of our scene. Once we had devised our filming we thought of locations we could film our opening. Once this was done we started to film.

Film Opening Ideas

Our first idea for a film opening was to create a film opening of the thriller genre. For this idea we created a storyboard so our film opening would flow coherently.

Location

An abonded park


Time

In the dark so that the filming matched the genre of the film

Protagonist

A suffering young girl

Antagonists

Bullies

Outcome

Once we had done our filming we realised that the lighting was very dark so we had to start over again.

Old film opening



Film Opening Ideas


This is when we started our filming again and thought of the idea to do a Rom-com film opening. I developed a mood board to establish what type of ideas and movies we could use that could help our film opening reach the Rom-com criteria.



As you can see from the mood-board, pictures included where similar to a fun, 'girly' and 'chick-flick' genre. For example, High School Musical.

Production Log

I jotted notes of each meeting to set up accurately our production onto my blog

Meeting 1

This meeting is where we jotted ideas on changing the genre of our film. Myself, Dominique, Sara and Chauntelle gathered around together in a common room and changed our genre from horror to a rom-com/teen movie.

General Research on Title Sequences

Title sequence
Title sequences are meant to convey the mood, backstory, transition, character development of a film or drama. They have evolved from the early stages of 1950s until now they have become more artistic and creative. However maintaining this creativity is just as important as the title sequence being able to blend in with the film opening and compliment it as a whole. This is why we made sure that our title sequence thoroughly fit to one specific genre.

The title sequence of the movie Se7en is extraordinary as it is conventional of a police/thriller film yet the title sequence establishes this genre in a unique way especially considering it was released in the mid 1990s.

These are all images from the title sequence of the film SE7EN. These images all use low key lighting to create an eerie atmosphere. This then suggests to audience the mood of the film. It also can explain to the audience that there will be crime/murder/death involved in the film. This is connoted by the aging, disfigured images of the hands

The title sequence of SE7EN indicates to the audience the character type in the film. For instance there is an scene of an old man laying tiredly on his bed. It lets the audience feel perhaps he is vulnerable as he is all by himself. With the addition of the ‘tick tocking’ of the clock it adds tension in the room which arises concern for this man’s safety. This is because we don’t know what could happen next.

Along with establishing the character type there is also an indication of where the film will take place. There are images of killed people and an anonymous character causing self-mutilation on his fingers. This suggests that perhaps maybe he is involved with the killings of these people this then suggests to the audience that this film will involve the assistance of police as it seems like the photos have been taking by police records. Overall, it seems as if the film will be taking place in modern day society as there are not any props to signify that the film is going to be retold from the past. The film also makes sure to introduce the actors in the title sequence. This is important as it will engage the audience’s to the film if their favourite actor stars in the film.