MAIN Post 8: Pre-production documenatation

In This pre-production post I will display all of the vital documents needed including the synopsis of the whole film, the synopsis of the opening sequence, Treatment (complete with detail of titles and their timings) Location Recce ,Shot list and any other relevant evidence to be shown in this post.
Synopsis of whole film
We have decided that our film is focused on a women who is an alluring free spirit young English women with a hectic lifestyle. We will display her unorganised personality and her main focuses on life.We will address her in her everyday life, juggling her hectic lifestyle, displaying she's single and has no time to date as she devoted to her job as a editor of a fashion magazine. The film will show her go through a number of dates which fail for different reasons, for example her she sends the wrong message to her boss instead of her love interest.Things seem to keep going wrong for Jenny her clumsy personality comes across however a burst of luck comes her way, when she finds love and finally meets her match.
Synopsis of opening sequence
In the opening sequence we will display the the young women in her house rushing around her room trying to get ready in time for her day ahead,The room will be shown in a messy state as this will represent her unorganised lifestyle. It will come frequent that the opening credits will be displayed in the film itself by using objects for example in fridge magnets.
Treatment

Shot list 

location Recce

Our location recce displays the feel of the character it represents her attitudes and lifestyle.

Props list / costume list 

Risk Assessment

Mise-en-scene Description 

Set design/ Location

Our Rom-com is based in a house showing she has money from her job but the house is going to reflect her lifestyle for instance her bedroom is going to be pink with white furniture however her bedroom is going to be displayed in a messy state. In our rom-com we will film in the kitchen the bathroom and hall. As she is a young women we want the set to look basic an what would relate to her character.

Shooting Schedule

Day	Shots	Time
Tuesday 22nd February	ALL SHOTS WILL BE FILMED	12- onwards until natural light is too dark

Character movement

Majority of JENNY'S character movement is showing her rushing around this is to represent JENNY'S personality and give an insight of her everyday life. In our opening sequence one of the begining shots of JENN'Y is showing her waking up and rushing out the room this display her characteristic of being un- organised , clumsy and has a very hectic life. There are also elements of her character movement that just reflect her normal life for instance when she is getting ready she is shown brushing her teeth, putting on her makeup and getting dressed.

Lightening

The lightening will display a natural look as there will be lightening coming through the whole of the back wall of JENNY'S bedroom as the window takes up majority of the wall. However we will prevent some light when needed for instance we will script it by showing JENNY opening and drawing the curtains to suggest weather its day or night. This will make the shots look natural. We will try not to use artificial lighting however if it is needed there is a ceiling light in the bedroom and a bedside table light if the natural light is too dim. The bathroom window is situated across the back of one whole wall, this allows a lot of natural light also because its at the front of the house there is already a lot of natural light. This will once again enhance our shots to look realistic and a natural look. The bathroom does have a ceiling light but we probably wont use it if its light outside. The kitchen has windows along too walls as its situated at the back of the house there isn't a lot of natural light but there is artificial lightening we can use. As Rom -com are light and bubbly we need to display this in choice of lightening for example we need to show JENNY'S life in a realistic way by doing this we need to have bright lightening preferably natural as it will look more realistic.  

Hair and makeup

JENNY'S hair will be left down and straightened. Her makeup will be a natural base and she attempts to do her eye makeup however its smudges and she gives up.

Costume

Firstly you will see JENNY in her bed wear which will be p,j bottoms and a vest top . Then you see her get dressed for work this includes black tights a tight black skirt a fashion top a blazer and heels this is to represent her work authority as it displays she is smartly dressed wearing heels which most women her age would wear to work.

Props

We felt it was important to use a majority of different props as we found out from our research Rom-com include a lot of props to display the characters personality. So therefore we are going to have fashion magazine all over her bedroom floor to resemble her job as a fashion editor,we will also knock over a box of tampons to cover the comedy element in the Rom-com. A wide majority of our titles are going to be displayed in props for example the name of the film shown on a bracelets , the actress and directs names shown through fridge magnets or on the post. By using everyday products allows us to link in with the character and portrays that natural look of her everyday life which Rom- com achieve. Other props we use are as follows tooth paste, toothbrush, makeup clocks hand bag. This revels to the audience that she has a normal everyday life style.   

__________________________________________________________________________

CREW LIST

Amy: Actress who will be playing JENNY

Alice: The camerawomen, Costume and make-up also director and editor.

Becky:The camerawomen and Director also editor

Chloe: Main Director, commenting on camera angles. responsible for Props and also editor

Technical Reece

Unwanted Noise: As our location is set in a house and outside on a fairly busy road we will allow for atmosphere noise, however the best time to film is when there is no-one else in the house as there will be no unwanted noise. Also we will film outside after cars have gone by.  

Animals: In our location a dog and a cat live there so we will have to make sure that they are not in our shots or make noises which we don’t want them to make.

Outside filming:  we will have to be aware when outside of pedestrians as you don’t want them in our shot, traffic isn’t a main problem as we want the footage to look realistic but the noise of the traffic make cause a problem, we will have to try and film in a quiet part of the day.

Weather: For the outside scene the weather will affect when we film as we won’t be able to film when its raining as it could ruin the equipment

Cars in drive: We will also need to make sure that no cars are parked in the drive when we are filming as this will make the shot look bad and we don’t want to show the character as having a car

Story board

Pre-production individual report

Throughout the pre production stage we had to make final decision about our opening sequence. We met with our head of media teacher and it was noticed that our synopsis of our whole film was fairly vague and she suggested that we added more detail. So as a group we went away and discussed the outcome of our Rom-com. After a few changes were made, about the ages of our character and her job description we began to continue on the pre production documents. We completed our shot list however, when it came to doing our story board, it became clear that some of our original shots weren't going to work so we had to make changes to our shot list by adding more shots for example by changing the shot size and angles.

Our group consisted of 3 people so we decided to split the work up fairly however when doing all of our documents we all was present and discussed how and what to do. As our group only had three people in it we had more work to do however as we all worked together contributing ideas it worked well for us.

MAIN POST 7 Alice Chloe & Rebecca's focus group

In this post I will display our focus group video along with a conclusion with the outcome of what we received.


Above, shows our focus group video the feedback we received was as follows they stated that all our ideas were good, they suggested that we could including a male actor or showed the male that will be part of the story line. By doing this, it will relay to the audience that it is an actual romantic comedy and the genre will come across to the audience clearer.  We did think about using a male figure but they also suggest a phone call conversation and we had an original idea about a girl texting and a boy, from the feedback I think we will use a male hand and female hand to show a text conversation to establish the romantic storyline we want to portray.

MAIN Post 6: History of your chosen genre.

In this post I will Research the history of our chosen genre and imminent plans for its future.

We have had many discussions about the chosen genre of our film and we have came to the conclusions that we are doing Romantic Comedy.We have done some background research on our chosen genre Its noticed that Etiquette, technology and gender rules may have changed since the romantic comedy genre first arrived in the 1930s and 1940s but the formula remains almost the same to this day.  Its noticed that The Classic most modern "rom coms" now follow the same trusted pattern - boy meets girl, they get together, it all goes wrong but they overcome the obstacles eventually and are reunited at the end. So it is arguably not the suspense that enhances us to be hooked on the style of genre, perhaps it is quite the opposite. Screwball films like His Girl Friday, Bringing Up Baby and It Happened One Night, starring the likes of Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant, set the tone and audiences have been flocking to the cinema ever since.

It was reveled that from our research we found that many people wanted to see more of rom coms and felt it was an advantage that they knew what to expect when knowing your going to see a rom com with the usual mishaps, chemistry and humour.

To conclude I feel that Romantic Comedies are increasling popular they appeal to both men and women giving them a wider range of audiences, suggesting that the demand for romantic comedies will continuely grow.

Love actually is one of the most recent rom coms made in 2003

MAIN Post 5a: Macro/Micro analysis of an opening sequence from your genre.

In this post I will analysis Two films which are the same as our chosen genre I will outline the conventions its breaking. discuss the Macro/Micro.



Macro including 

• Narrative
• Representation
• Genre

Micro including

• Camera
• Sound
• Mise-en-scene
• Editing
• Special Effects

500 Days Of Summer
The first opening sequence we looked at was 500 days of summer it seems to slowly start with a dirty background which appears to be a pieces of paper, the paper takes up full lens of the camera. It becomes apparent that it is paper, as the affect of a hand drawn buildings and the opening credits start to appear. The tittle appears (500 days of summer) this is displayed in a simple white block capitals font. Secondly Trees and fine lines of buildings are drawn on the paper in a wiped action;the camera is facing the paper. The trees are then adding some green leaves;the drawings are created without seeing the pencil it self.The opening sequence starts off in black and white then changes to bright colours to suggests and to link in with the tittle "summer" this represents the genre of the film.The effects used in this opening sequence are demonstrated by the use of creatively, for example the drawings are drawn in syncisation with the music all of which are shown in a thin pencil line to represent the film is continuous, however The drawn pictures fades in to the footage. It shows a couple sitting on a bench the lighting exhibit a natural look but still shown fairly bright to represents the genre of the film romantic comedy. The shot size is medium shot. In the opening sequence there is no other sound dialog displayed in the opening sequence apart from the non diegetic music.The music fits the genre well as its a upbeat bubbly love song.


In the opening sequence of 500 days of summer the use of camera shots, angles and editing are used well they show that their effective. The use of sharp cuts, to a soft focus close up,display an eye and the typography is plain block text of a name ( Joseph Gordan-Levitt) which revels the eye blinking. It then fades to a picture of a girl’s eye and typography is in the opposite position compared to the previous shot. It then goes back to the sketch that appeared at the start, the dates then roll back from 282-34. It then cuts to footage of a boy on a train and the other of a girl waving. whilst this is happening the screen is spilt into two. The footage of the boy is a medium shot filming him from behind and the footage of the girl is a close up. Its reveled that both clips have natural lighting but looks bright.

The opening sequence does not suggest much about the ordeal of the film however when the couple are situated on the beach it suggest to the audience that their linked and perhaps the film is based on them.

Its become apparent that we don't see many special effects in opening sequence of the genre of rom-coms however from watching other opening sequence of romantic comedy films, i have seen this is quite a common re-occurrence. The sketches are quite a common factor in rom-com opening sequences,they use the style of a comic book of drawings to show the audience what is to be expected throughout the film. 


There's something about Mary
Secondly we looked at the opening sequence of Theres something about Mary it sharply starts with a black background and the typography appears by fading up, reading (Twentieth century fox presents) The typography is displayed in a light blue colour all typography is in lower case except (presents) is in capitals.The visual font is illustrate in a Chaotic handwritten style is printed, this is to repersent the age of the character such as a school girl and that its reality rather professional,as this typorgaphy fades out non diegetic slow melody music is played. Following this, It then cuts to a close up displaying some trees this pans across. There's sight of typography visually reading (Cameron Diaz) fading in the same style as before and then fades down, at this point there's diegetic music playing at a slow paced backing beat. The camera carries on panning and lyrics are sang by a male voice acoustically, other staring names producers and production company's appears in the same style of fades down and up.

There is no special effects in this opening sequence, this film was made when special effects weren’t as developed as they are now and from what I have already watched special effects aren’t the conventions of a rom-com film. I have also noticed that a few Rom-coms start there title sequence in the location that the first scene is and I think this is  conventional and a good way of linking the title sequence in with the film.

MAIN Post 5 - Title Timeline

In this post I will display a time line of an opening sequence from our groups chosen genre .We each Individually watched an opening sequence and took notes. I looked at 13 Going on 30 and made a timeline of the timings when the titles appear and how long they stay on the screen for.

MAIN TASK POST 4 Group Meetings

In this post i will display a  group meeting and discussing the following:

Genre of your opening sequence

Plot of whole film.

Description of opening sequence

Becky- So were doing rom com



Alice- I like that idea too


Chloe- Yes I like that idea, I think the main girl should feature in the title sequence


Becky- And I like the idea of doing all the writing in food like spaghetti letters and fridge magnets and makeup on the mirror


Chloe- I think we should show a clip of the girl with something embarrassing happening to show she has a hetic life


Becky- Yes I like that idea we will need some happy bubbly music.


Alice- we could film it in a alley way and have her walking out and the clips of the girl getting ready should be in a house


Chloe- I think the song toothpaste kisses would be really good to use


Becky- I think at the start we can show her hetic life and having messing room and very clumsy type of person


Alice- I think it would be good to show that she getting ready to go on a date as well and she’s exicted


Chloe- yes that’s good and maybe she can be on the phone to her friend so we can set the scence and what is going to be happening in the film


Becky- We could also do that through text


Chloe- yes if we get a boy to text out a text and make it obvious it’s a boys hand then get the girl to reply and make it obvious that it’s a girls hand we can also set what is going to happen in the rest of the film or give a small insight.

MAIN Post 3a: Further look at opening sequences

In this post I will be reviewing a variety of opening sequence
Task 1
http://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=GyR4RK0LA_E
One of the opening sequence I looked at was Reservoir Dogs this brakes away from convention of an opening sequence because its displayed in a different layout from others however this can be seen as a positive .
Reservoir Dogs
Firstly displaying a shaking looking start almost suggesting a hand held camera this is to portray a real life setting to fit the genre of crime thrillers. The location is set in a classic, American coffee shop showing middle class men smoking.  This opening sequence is interesting as the typography is situated first whilst the dialog is over lapping the typography for example you can hear the characters before you see them this is to give the audience an opening impression. It relays to the audience the feeling of the film and what genre is to be expected. Another way in which this is conventional is by hearing the characters before you see them, creating the feeling of anticipation and wanting the audience to see what is to come. The typography is displayed on a black back ground with gold writing (Live America Inc. presents)(A Lawrence bender production) the credits fade out and last for about 3 second there's not as many credits at being compared to other opening sequence i have looked at previously. This implies a negative effect because its suggest it has a low budget and may affect people watching the film. However the positive of this are that it fits the genre of creatively getting on with the film this could favour the audience because its shown individuality.


One of the techniques used to target the audience is the way the camera is used, Reservoir Dogs firstly uses the camera technique of hand held slowly viewing all of the people on the table, the camera slowly goes round the table. This gives of the effect of suspense and links into the genre.  By them doing this it allows the camera to capture each of the characters facial expressions without cutting from shot to shot by them doing this it allows the audience to grab a feel and make an opinion of each individual character .


The ending accounts with non diegetic music playing and some characters Begin to move the music is a fast beat and masculine this lead to represents the genre of crime thrillers. Towards the end of the opening sequence Majority of the names and productions appear this allow the audience to take in what they have just seen and relays them to want the film to start so therefore having the opening tittles at the end of the opening sequence is conventional. However the names of the character are reveled in the conversation so the audience know who they are. Lastly slow motion appears of all characters who the audience was previously introduce too(the men) they appear to be walking in slow motion displaying close up on each individual. This tells the audience who the main characters are in the opening titles.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw23KM3-Ry8
The shining
Task 2
http://www.youtube.com/results?aq=1&search_query=saul+bass+title+sequence&search_type=&hl=uk&gl=US&oq=saul+bass
The next task was to watch other opening sequence from our choosing genre and to gather ideas to use in our open sequence. From this I noticed that. 
Task 3
We also looked at work from previous year 12s I gathered allot from the use of others techniques and how to display them.From looking at others pupils opening sequence its become apparent that i would situate the credits differently as some of which are displayed at the bottom as its look unclear in my opening sequence i will try to displays the staring names to fit in with the genre rather than just placing them on a black screen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBoSZfiQ5fk

MAIN Post 3: Research into Opening Sequence Designs

In this post I will share my notes on the two interviews displayed below on how it might influence my designs.
Kyle Cooper Interview (Part 1)
Kyle Cooper Interview (Part 2)
From these interviews i received information which could potentially help me when creating my own opening sequence.From watching these interviews I found it useful for when My group start to work on our opening sequence because it came apparent that their was interesting idea which was shown in the interview which i wasn't aware of.

Its reveled that both interviews talks about Kyle Cooper views and opinions on opening sequence and his thoughts on what is perceived as a good opening sequence. Its implied that a good opening sequence is meant to leave a good impression on you, This is to suggest that you as an audience is hooked on the film and will want to see more. By them doing this it leads people going to see the film. This will influence our choices when making our opening sequence because it give the idea of trying to create a gripping interesting opening sequence as we don't want it to be boring. Target audience is important when thinking about an opening sequence because you need to make sure the opening sequence relays to the target audience. When Kyle Cooper talks about To kill a mocking bird he relays that the opening sequence is effected by its use of camera angles for example the classic horizontal lines gives the impression of a good contrast and the typography is integrated rather than being an afterthought. Relating to my groups idea for our own opening sequence its apparent that we shall take into detail every characteristic to reveal an opening sequence with these skills. 

From what Kyle Cooper has said our ideas so far as a group have linked quite well. They fit the boundaries of kyle impression for example our typography idea was mention in the interview of Kyle Cooper and displays its effective.

Main Task Post 2 Choosing your genre

Task 1
http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/sfischo/media3.html


 From research its suggested that the  most popular genre differ from certain target audience however it shows that Drama has the highest percentages 30.7% and the lowest percentage was animal based 0.6%
This table shows the percentages and rank order of popular genre order. 

Task 2

From my findings I've learnt and study the different types of genre and which will be useful to use when choosing and making our film. Many genres establish different techniques for example appropriate locations to link in with the genre of the film. My research expressed that drama, action adventure, romance and comedy are the top 4 most popular genres of films. From this as a group we have found that the use of rom com has a great influence on us and have decided to choose this genre for our opening sequence. we decided this because we are interested in this type of genre and seem to watch allot of rom com so we will be confidant in relaying this in our filming. 

Task3




Questionnaire we created

  My feedback reveled that romantic comedy's are a popular choice. It came apparent that some people wanted to see more of them as they feel that other genres are more common. We as a group have decided to do a romantic comedy because we enjoy them ourselves, we have done research on this and feel we can portray well, thought out techniques in our open sequence.

Main Task Post 1 conventions of an opening sequence

Task 1
From watching various opening sequence its suggest a similar layout from each opening sequencing for example the Main actress and actors names are displayed on the first shot on screen, this seems to be repeated in a number of opening sequence and suggest its one of the conventions. The names which are stated are usually the most famous actors/actresses, producer and direct. Opening sequences use different conventions to fit the genre of the film by this they may use different animations, assessable colours for example dark to fit the theme of thriller or bright colours to fit the theme of fantasy.

It appears in casino royale that the opening credits feature fast action. The use of conventions such as audio track help to display this by linking in with the genre. This opening sequence includes the most famous actors/actresses, producer and direct names at the begining. It was good to look at this opening sequence because the genre is well known.

This is taken from the film Juno, Juno reflects a comedy , they use this comic book type style to implies and reflects that her life is like a comic, the opening sequence has bright colours and bubbly music to implies that its light hearted.

This is from Se7en.

Se7en expressed a different genre of opening sequence it still had, the main concepts of having the actress and actors/producer and directors names  displayed on the first shot however this opening sequence was displayed in a different way from the other two as it was quite at the opening and only displayed a audio track this made it stand out from the other two.

Post 12 Evidence of targets

In order to achieve my targets i set out a plan for each one to show me what to do in future.

• "To plan a better location so we don't have to re shoot, check for sound levels appropriate setting for the story line and correct lighting."

In order to achieve This I will make time to find the location which fits these must haves, this may take up my own extra time however it will be a benefit as it will save me time when filming and i wont have to change other work such as location recce. Therefore when looking for a location to film check that its situated in a noise free location, to make sure its a basic room so i can turn it in to whatever the theme of the short film and to make sure the lighting is correct for the filming .

• "Timing. To plan out our time so i don't run out in my filming and edit time."   

In order to achieve this i will have to stay relabel to the shooting schedule in order to make sure the time is used well. Also to make sure that everyone in the group has a fair individual role to prevent one person doing more work than others. secondly to plan my time for each task giving myself deadlines for each task. 

• "Edit more effectively."

i used this website to suggest tips for me to use whilst editing. 
http://www.zepy.net/archives/rrripple-edit-social-media-sharing-platform.html

• "Team commutation to make sure everyone has a fair role in the group."

As a group we have decide in future to allocate roles for each person present so its a fair amount for each,presenting something as a shooting schedule and relaying to this.

• "improve my level of ict on my blog"

In order to achieve this is have made sure i re look over everything i type or place on my blog , i will take my time with skills and use tools to help me such as spell checker and the position tool.

Post 11 Targets

• To plan a better location so we don't have to re shoot, check for sound levels appropiate setting for the story line and correct lighting.
• Timing. To plan out our time so i don't run out in my filming and edit time.    
• Edit more effectively.
• Team commutation to make sure everyone has a fair role in the group.
• improve my level of ict on my blog

Post 10 Anticipation

Anticipation

From past experience of taking GCSE media I've already had some knowledge about filming, different shot sizes and editing. I feel by the complete product of the production of Anticpation, shown about revels that the work of myself and my group was successful in meeting the criteria. We used a variety of camera movements, angles and shot sizes which i learnt in GCSE as our opening sequence shows emotion and has a touching story line the shot sizes and editing was highly important in this task as we needed to create this affect. The editing used displayed this and related to the audience.