Thursday, 17 March 2016
Wednesday, 16 March 2016
Monday, 14 March 2016
Who would be the audience for your media product? How did you attract/address your audience?
Our target audience for our media product is 15+, mainly attracting people of the younger generations. We thought it would be easier to film something that us and our peers could relate to, so we decided to base the film opening on a common situation people of our age are often in. We explored relatable themes of trust, guilt and deception, which some young people have faced with when in a relationship. However, these themes can be relatable to older generations as well, who have had more experiences and relationships. The setting attracts a teenage audience, especially girls because Phoebe's room is very typical teenage girl's bedroom and so they can relate and enjoy looking at another girl's room as they might be interested in the same things, e.g. same band off of the Green Day poster. Also if an adult were to watch the film opening they might feel reminiscent of their own adolescent interests and be attracted to the media product because of this. Therefore both relating to teenagers and adults as an audience for our media product.
Sunday, 13 March 2016
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I think that the Fair Oaks Production of 'Distance' would most likely be distributed through social media platforms, such as YouTube. Websites like this are accessible by everyone who have an Internet connection and it attracts people due to the success of the existing company and its ease of use. It will also cost us nothing and with a budget as small as ours it would have been almost impossible to pay large quantities of money to cinema chains or other distribution companies.
I also think an extremely effective and cost efficient way to distribute our film would be through social media. When our film was published on YouTube as a group we decided to increase the number of views and spread the word of our achievement we would promote it on Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter. We did this because we knew social media would be our strongest ability to market our film as most teenagers/young adults (our target audience) use these sites every day. Also by distributing our film opening on platforms such as YouTube and Twitter we can get our film trending and also create a popular YouTube account were people will subscribe, thus spreading the word and gaining more awareness of the film's existence. Social media allows us to get our information across the globe due to the speed and efficiency of social media.
Another way we could distribute our film is through newly popular media forms, such as Amazon Prime Instant Video or Netflix. Millions of people are starting to use these websites and due to their success have distributed productions of their own and have branched out from just being a media distributing company, their ability to be able to do this highlights their success. We would only be able to contact companies of such status is our film managed to gain enough credibility. We could potentially sell to these companies as they are quite dependant on taking independent films on their site. If this were to ever happen we would not only be looking at gaining views and popularity but also it could lead to a larger gain in profit.
However, we could try and investigate distributing our film through smaller institutions, who mainly produce British independent films as our film was set in a typical bustling British town, with a full British cast and crew. Bigger production companies are more likely to have a wider ethnic variety within their cast and crew due to being more flexible in regards to budget. When researching conglomerates and the film industry as a whole we learnt about the key features and elements. From this we decided to make our film opening very storyline based with little special effects, props or costumes, partly because our budget did not stretch this far. But not only that, smaller companies generally have obscene storylines with mysterious characters compared to the big blockbuster companies, such as Marvel, which generally have similar characters that the audience are familiar with.
Saturday, 12 March 2016
Friday, 11 March 2016
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My group's film opening uses many adaptations of the common conventions of film openings. Firstly, our media product begins with various establishing shots, which give the audience a sense of what time period our film opening is base upon and also time of day. A sense of time period is established though the fact in the opening shot a car is shown, therefore it must be present day. This conforms to the usual conventions of a film opening because it uses Mise-en-scène to present the time period of the sequence. The time of day is established because we filmed part of our opening outside and it was daytime, therefore telling the audience what time of day it is, conforming to usual conventions of a film opening.
We also created an aspect of character throughout the opening. Our use of Mise-en-scène has helped us create a link with a stereotypical teenage girl. Posters, wall colour, objects within the room (e.g. a dream catcher) normally relate to a girl of the younger generation. Character is also established through all of the characters' clothing. The two main characters (Phoebe and Daniel) both wear stereotypical teenager clothing, e.g. jeans, T-shirts and jumpers etc.
A sense of enigma has also been created in the last few second of the film opening. The mystery girl, who Daniel is supposedly cheating on Phoebe with, does not show her face at all and there is no way of knowing who she is. The audience face many questions to do with the girl, whose identity is yet to be revealed, which in turn makes the last section of the clip an enigma and creates many questions about the film opening. This also helps make the opening of the film memorable because people will want to know who the girl is.
Wednesday, 10 February 2016
Issues when Editing
1. During the editing process we encountered the issue of shots not matching up. The shot of Phoebe walking into the house was slightly too far back in regards to the previous shot, so it looked like she had walked in twice and it was noticeable that it was a shot-reverse-shot. We only noticed this when we got Mr Wall to watch our film opening and help improve it by giving us feedback. We rectified this problem by cutting the second clip of Phoebe walking into the house (filmed from the inside).
2. Another problem we needed to rectify was the fact that during the conversation scenes Daniel's voice was a lot louder than Phoebe's, mainly due to the fact the microphone was positioned closer to his mouth and the room had a much louder echo due to having less furniture in it. We did not know how to adjust sound and so therefore resorted to looking up YouTube videos which clearly explained how to do so on Final Cut Pro. We lowered Daniel's voice to a similar level as Phoebe's to try and not make the dialog too overpowering.
3. We also had issues when it came to editing the music. It was a similar problem as the previous one mentioned. We used the same skills we used when we lowered Daniel's voice to make sure that the music did not overcome the audio and that the diegetic sounds within the establishing shots and the dialog could still be heard clearly as they were needed for effect.
2. Another problem we needed to rectify was the fact that during the conversation scenes Daniel's voice was a lot louder than Phoebe's, mainly due to the fact the microphone was positioned closer to his mouth and the room had a much louder echo due to having less furniture in it. We did not know how to adjust sound and so therefore resorted to looking up YouTube videos which clearly explained how to do so on Final Cut Pro. We lowered Daniel's voice to a similar level as Phoebe's to try and not make the dialog too overpowering.
3. We also had issues when it came to editing the music. It was a similar problem as the previous one mentioned. We used the same skills we used when we lowered Daniel's voice to make sure that the music did not overcome the audio and that the diegetic sounds within the establishing shots and the dialog could still be heard clearly as they were needed for effect.
Tuesday, 9 February 2016
Editing Journal
First day of editing took place on: 11/01/2016
Editing took place over a series of weeks.
Editing took place over a series of weeks.
- Uploaded all the footage to Final Cut Pro.
- Spent an hour converting all the footage.
- Placed all the footage into Final Cut Pro in order of sequence as we did not film all the clips in order.
- We then cut them in order to gather an idea of how long the piece was going to be to make sure we had enough to meet the requirements.
- When we started to put the clips with lots of dialog in we needed to cut them immediately as this was going to make the editing process easier for us.
- We decided to remove all the audio from the establishing clips leading up to the conversation.
- We eventually found a song which suited our film opening from: http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music/3 (Tomorrow song). We then downloaded it and inserted it into Final Cut Pro after researching how this was achieved and how music impacts film.
- We cut the music in order to stop it overshadowing the dialog and we also lowered the volume of the song in some parts of the film opening to make sure the dialog was easily heard.
- We then inserted the opening titles (production companies name, Fair Oaks Productions) along with the actors names.
- We thought it would be beneficial to receive feedback from the head of our department at this stage. She told us that the piece could be improved if we added the diegetic sounds back into all of the establishing shots at the beginning. She also said that we needed to cut a certain clip as it was too shaky and looked unprofessional and that having the production team's names at the end made the sequence look more like a short film, which did not meet the requirements of the task brief.
- We took on board all of what our teacher said and cut the clip that was shaky and added in the audio clips that were needed. This then meant that we needed to cut the audio clips to ensure they were in-sync with the visuals.
- Then we sped up the opening titles at the beginning and began to insert the names of the members of our production team.
- In the final stage we decide we needed an appropriate ending for the music therefore we needed to cut the song in a place which suited the ending of the opening.
- Finally, we rendered the entire piece and submitted it for a first round of evaluation.
Monday, 8 February 2016
Sunday, 7 February 2016
Filming Journal
Filming date: 09/01/2016
However, when we moved onto to Phoebe's dialog scene it took us a lot of takes to finally get the shot we wanted. I was in charge of filming this scene and so I set up the camera in the front corner of the room facing the bed (where she would be sitting). The plan was that I would track Phoebe as she walked into the room but the tripod was quite stiff and I could not keep up with Phoebe as she walked over to the bed. We shot this around three times until I tried something new. I started to pan before Phoebe entered the room and managed to make the tripod stop smoothly enough for her to continue on with the scene. This was effective because we were finally happy with the panning shot and the cuts were clean and smooth, which made the whole piece look very professional.
Firstly, everyone agreed it would be a good idea to run through exactly what was going to happen during the day. This entailed running through the screenplay, storyboard and shot-list not only with the rest of the production team but with the actors as well, as this was key when considering time management and the battery of the camera. During this process as a group we changed a few things in terms of shots etc. due to having lots of feedback from the actors and also from just running through the storyboards with the entire team on set helped us open our minds up to better and more effective shots/angles than previously planned.
After this we decided to go outside and set up to start filming the various establishing shots. We did this because we needed to film them before it got dark and also it looked as though it was going to start raining later on in the day, which would stop us from filming and we wanted to get all the filming done in one day. We filmed various panning shots of the house and of Phoebe walking up the path through the door. We had an issue with the tripod when we were trying to film the panning shot of the house and it took us a while to get used to working with it as we were all unexperienced with this piece of unknown equipment. We eventually worked out how to successfully tighten the camera onto the tripod and use it properly. We also needed to re-film some of the shots of Phoebe walking up the path as some we out of focus and shaky. We also attached the microphone and used this to pic up the diegetic sound of each shot.
Once all of the establishing shots were filmed we moved onto filming the dialog scenes. For Daniel's scene we simply set the camera up in the corner in-front of him on the tripod as there was no panning needed. We discussed lighting as a team and decided that a lamp on the desk looked much better than having the main ceiling light on. After we filmed Daniel's scene we moved onto the clip where Alexandra comes in. We went straight into filming this shot because we needed the camera to be in the exact same place. Again, this shot required little skill because the tripod and camera were already set up. The only thing we needed to do was make sure that only Alex's body was visible and not her face (enigma element). We then moved on to filming the close-up shot of Phoebe ringing Daniel's phone.

The last shots we filmed was the shot where Phoebe walked up the stairs and when she came through the door and took her coat off. We had to discuss the correct angle for the stairs shot as originally it was going to be a pan shot through the banister poles but we decided after trying to film the shot in that way that it would be best to go with a simple stationary shot facing Phoebe. We chose this because we would have had two big panning shots next to each other and we thought the opening had too much movement and it looked too messy.
Letters of Acceptance
A letter of acceptance is a written communication between a home/location owner and actors with the production company of the film. It normally confirms details of the rights to film on selected locations and also the acknowledgement by the actors of what the film entails and how it will be distributed.

Saturday, 6 February 2016
Friday, 5 February 2016
Prop Research
For our film opening many props are needed to give each scene a sense of validity. Props can vary in size. From something huge and expensive like a car to something as small as an item of food. Without props the film would not flow as well as it potentially could. For this task we need to write our props list as we write our screenplay to make sure we do not miss anything as some of the props (bracelets) we need to buy and we only have a short period of time in which to buy all of the necessary props. It is very important to get the right props as it could make the shot or scene look jarring if they were incorrect. For example, if a wealthy person drove a cheap/damaged car.
Prop list:
1. Two phones.
2. Three matching bracelets.
3. One laptop.
4. Male shirt.
Mcguffin: In fiction, a mcguffin is a plot device in the form of some goal, desired object, or other motivator that the protagonist pursues, often with little or no narrative explanation. The specific nature of a mcguffin is typically unimportant to the overall plot. For example, like the feather in Forest Gump. In our film opening the bracelets represent the mcguffin.
Prop list:
1. Two phones.
2. Three matching bracelets.
3. One laptop.
4. Male shirt.
Mcguffin: In fiction, a mcguffin is a plot device in the form of some goal, desired object, or other motivator that the protagonist pursues, often with little or no narrative explanation. The specific nature of a mcguffin is typically unimportant to the overall plot. For example, like the feather in Forest Gump. In our film opening the bracelets represent the mcguffin.
Location Research
Researching locations for the film opening task is a relatively important element of pre-production as the right location makes it possible to achieve the look and feel you want your film to obtain. We only need two very contrasting rooms in our film opening. One will be used for Daniel's university room (give off the impression he is far away). This room needs to be modern, minimalistic and look like a typical working room with a desk and chair (right picture). The second room will be used as Phoebe's 'girly' room (give off the impression she is naive. This room needs to have lots going on in terms of posters and character to make it look like a typical girls room (left picture). We have decided to film at my house because I had both of these rooms. My bedroom will be used to portray Phoebe's room because it was slightly messy and also had lots of posters on the wall, which gave it a sense of character. I also said that we could use my Stepdad's study as Daniel's university room as it is minimalistic and has a desk that we can place the laptop on that he will use within the film opening.
My house is also a good location because there are lots of places in which we can take establishing shots. For example, the gate that leads to my front door and the big stair case that Phoebe will walk up as we introduce her as a character.
We have to take into account that we will need to carry all of the equipment so by making the location my house, which is very local to everyone, means that people will not need to drag equipment round for miles. Another factor we need to take into account will be our travel budget. We do not want to spend loads of money on travelling. By having a local location kept transport costs at a minimum.
My house is also a good location because there are lots of places in which we can take establishing shots. For example, the gate that leads to my front door and the big stair case that Phoebe will walk up as we introduce her as a character.
We have to take into account that we will need to carry all of the equipment so by making the location my house, which is very local to everyone, means that people will not need to drag equipment round for miles. Another factor we need to take into account will be our travel budget. We do not want to spend loads of money on travelling. By having a local location kept transport costs at a minimum.
Thursday, 4 February 2016
Costume Research
Due to the fact that one of our main characters (Daniel) is a university student, we want to dress him in clothes that a stereotypical student would wear so that the age of our character is clear to the audience. Our other main character (Phoebe) is only a year or so younger than Daniel she also needs to be dressed in stereotypical clothes. Costume not only helps the audience find our what age the characters are but also the time in which the film is set, e.g. modern day or periodic.
We have decided to dress Phoebe in a big grey sweater to reinforce the stereotype that young people of this generation are often depressed/sluggish. She knows her boyfriend is acting strange towards her and so naturally she will feel down. The fact that much of her upper-torso will be concealed also emphasizes she may be insecure or worried about the stability of their relationship or perhaps herself. She will also be wearing jeans (a stereotypical item of clothing young people wear).
We have decided to dress Daniel similarly. He will be wearing a black V-neck T-shirt. This is not only stereotypical but again shows that he may be depressed or concerned as perhaps his guilty conscious is catching up with him.
Alexandra's costume will be harder to find as we need an over sized shirt. The reason she is wearing this is because we need the audience to know that Daniel is cheating on his girlfriend with this mystery woman. By Alexandra wearing (one of Daniel's shirts) it shows that he has not been faithful and has another woman in his life.
All three characters wear the same bracelet:
We have decided to dress Phoebe in a big grey sweater to reinforce the stereotype that young people of this generation are often depressed/sluggish. She knows her boyfriend is acting strange towards her and so naturally she will feel down. The fact that much of her upper-torso will be concealed also emphasizes she may be insecure or worried about the stability of their relationship or perhaps herself. She will also be wearing jeans (a stereotypical item of clothing young people wear).
Alexandra's costume will be harder to find as we need an over sized shirt. The reason she is wearing this is because we need the audience to know that Daniel is cheating on his girlfriend with this mystery woman. By Alexandra wearing (one of Daniel's shirts) it shows that he has not been faithful and has another woman in his life.
All three characters wear the same bracelet:
- Daniel (black)
- Phoebe (pink)
- Alexandra (blue)
The matching bracelets show the link between the characters and also we want to make it look like Daniel has given them to each of the girls and to really influence how untrustworthy his character actually is. The bracelets will have the infinity symbol on them, which means limitless or endless. The use of these particular bracelets shows the intensity of the damaged relationship because it is clear that the love between the characters is not endless.
Actor Research
This is one of the hardest decisions to make during the research process as it is vital we choose the right actors to fit the character roles. If the actor does not fit the criteria, it could give the film opening a jarring feel to it. Our film opening is based on a newspaper article so we have complete freedom as to what we want our actors to look like as there is no 'character' to go by. We know that our close friend Phoebe has an interest in drama and achieved an A* grade at GCSE. She is an obvious choice for the lead female role. The leading male role takes the most amount of thinking and decision making because it is the most important role. We have started thinking about male actor options and have decided a friend of ours would fit the bill as we know he has an interest in drama and has also been in school productions at his secondary school. For the second female role (the woman Daniel is cheating with) does not need to be thought about very carefully because we know you will not see her face (enigma element) and she only had a very short line. This means that this role will be the last role to be cast and we just need to ask one of our other female friends who will be free at the time. We will organise all the actor roles and filming times before we break up for February half-term so that when we come back to school everything will be sorted for the day of filming and we will not need to worry about it during the break.
Wednesday, 3 February 2016
Shot List
Shot list: A full log of all the shots you want to include in your film. Essentially it is a checklist filled with details that will give your film a sense of direction and efficiency.
1. Establishing shot of house.
2. Close-up shot of Phoebe opening the gate to house.
3. Medium-wide-shot of Phoebe opening the door and taking off her bag and coat.
4. Birds-eye-view long-shot of Phoebe walking up the stairs.
5. Panning shot of Phoebe walking and sitting down in her bedroom.
6. Over the shoulder shot of the phone ringing.
7. Close-up shot of Dan answering the phone.
8. Medium close-up of the entire phone call conversation.
9. Panning shot upwards as Alex enters the room.
1. Establishing shot of house.
2. Close-up shot of Phoebe opening the gate to house.
3. Medium-wide-shot of Phoebe opening the door and taking off her bag and coat.
4. Birds-eye-view long-shot of Phoebe walking up the stairs.
5. Panning shot of Phoebe walking and sitting down in her bedroom.
6. Over the shoulder shot of the phone ringing.
7. Close-up shot of Dan answering the phone.
8. Medium close-up of the entire phone call conversation.
9. Panning shot upwards as Alex enters the room.
Tuesday, 2 February 2016
Storyboard
Storyboard: A sequence of drawings, typically with some directions and dialogue, representing the shots planned for a film or television production.
What is the purpose of a storyboard? To organise the images to be displayed in a sequence for a motion picture, animation, or interactive media sequence. Storyboards make it easier for the editor to know what order the clips should be shown in.


Monday, 1 February 2016
Screenplay
Fade In:
There is an establishing shot of the
outside of a house. The camera acts like a person and walks into the house.
Once inside, the camera walks upstairs and comes to a stop inside a girl’s
room. There is a panning shot of the room. The girl is sitting on her bed, a
phone vibration is heard, camera zooms into the phone. Diegetic noise.
Phoebe
Good morning baby, how are you?
Daniel
Morning. I’m good. I miss you.
Phoebe
I miss you too. How long is it until you’re
back home?
Daniel
UH, four weeks if I can get home.
Phoebe
(More serious tone – emotionally
desperate)
Please don’t cancel again, I haven’t seen
you in like two months.
Phoebe is seen sitting on her bed
surrounded by books whilst Dan can be seen at his desk on his laptop typing.
Daniel
(Reassuring tone)
I won’t cancel on you again. I promise.
Phoebe
Go-
Daniel
Look babe I have to go I have stuff to do.
I’ll talk to you later.
Phoebe
(Sad tone, emotionally drained)
Okay. I love you.
Daniel
(Dismissive tone)
Yeah, yeah love you too.
A girl is
seen to be entering. Her face is not shown. She comes to a stop and rests her
hands on his shoulders. The camera s positioned on Dan’s desk and can see them
front on. The camera pans up to reveal his face. He has a guilty expression.
Mystery Girl (Alexandra)
Was that her?
Fade Out:
The End
Sunday, 31 January 2016
Film Treatment
Synopsis: The story revolves around the long distance relationship between Phoebe and her boyfriend. The idea is based upon an article on how long distance relationships are destined to fail, mostly because the boyfriend/girlfriend that is away usually cheats on their partner back home. http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/sex-relationships/relationships/dear-coleen-cheated-long-distance-girlfriend-6008900 Throughout the film opening, it is revealed that the boy is cheating on Phoebe all whilst pretending that their relationship couldn't be more perfect. The film is based upon Phoebe's discovery of her boyfriend's double life and her journey throughout the process of moving forward.
File Title: "Distance"
Production Company's Name: "Fair Oaks Productions"
Roles:
- Director (Katy Wealleans)
- Assistant Director (Bonnie Bidgood)
- Production Manager (Grace Weston-Davies)
- Camera Man (Alice Greengrass)
Characters:
- Girlfriend (Phoebe Una Train)
- Boyfriend (Daniel Henshaw)
- Other Girl (Alexandra North)
Costumes: Generic outfits for both girlfriend and boyfriend. For the girl of whom Daniel is cheating with, she needs to wear an oversized shirt.
Setting: The setting we have chosen is the simplicity of two contrasting rooms. We have chosen this as an appropriate location because it is able to show the stark contrast and distance between the couple.
Props:
- Two phones
- Three matching bracelets
- Laptop
- Male shirt
Sound:
- Diegetic sound = dialog and various sounds such as the laptop keyboard taps.
- Non-diegetic sound = Soundtrack to move the narrative along and make the film flow a lot better.
http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music/3 (Tomorrow song)
Lighting: Natural lighting will be key throughout the piece, however, a desk lamp will be used in the boyfriend's scene.
File Title: "Distance"
Production Company's Name: "Fair Oaks Productions"
Roles:
- Director (Katy Wealleans)
- Assistant Director (Bonnie Bidgood)
- Production Manager (Grace Weston-Davies)
- Camera Man (Alice Greengrass)
Characters:
- Girlfriend (Phoebe Una Train)
- Boyfriend (Daniel Henshaw)
- Other Girl (Alexandra North)
Costumes: Generic outfits for both girlfriend and boyfriend. For the girl of whom Daniel is cheating with, she needs to wear an oversized shirt.
Setting: The setting we have chosen is the simplicity of two contrasting rooms. We have chosen this as an appropriate location because it is able to show the stark contrast and distance between the couple.
Props:
- Two phones
- Three matching bracelets
- Laptop
- Male shirt
Sound:
- Diegetic sound = dialog and various sounds such as the laptop keyboard taps.
- Non-diegetic sound = Soundtrack to move the narrative along and make the film flow a lot better.
http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music/3 (Tomorrow song)
Lighting: Natural lighting will be key throughout the piece, however, a desk lamp will be used in the boyfriend's scene.
Saturday, 30 January 2016
How Research Will Inform Planning
Our research will inform planning in numerous ways. Our primary research (focus group and audience profile information) that we conducted, helped us to decide what our target audience was going to be (15-25). Our primary research also helped us identify whether or not our target audience enjoyed the genre (romance) that we wanted to base our film opening around. When it came to our secondary research (real media artefact, typography and BFI information on Box Office trends) it showed that the genre 'Romance' was not particularly popular, but we concluded this was due to the lack of releases last year (2014). We decided to continue with our chosen genre, even with it's low ranking on Box Office figures, because some of our focus group members like romantic films. We also had confidence in our own ideas.
The research into real media artefacts and typography has helped us inform our planning by noting down key connotations of films situated in the 'Romance' genre, which we can then use in our own film opening. These key conventions of romance will give our film a more professional and well thought out feel to it. It is also easy for the audience to guess what genre the film opening falls into as the key conventions shown in the short two minutes of film will be familiar to them.
The research into Typography has helped us identify and establish what type of typography is commonly used in romance films, thus helping us chose an effective font for our film opening. We noticed that most romantic films use bold fonts with block colours and capital letters, therefore we installed this in our own film opening to make it easier for the audience to figure out which genre this film opening falls into. 'Love Actually' uses block colours and bold fonts to express the genre of the film and this secondary research (analysis of real media artefact) helped us to express the genre of our film opening.
The research into real media artefacts and typography has helped us inform our planning by noting down key connotations of films situated in the 'Romance' genre, which we can then use in our own film opening. These key conventions of romance will give our film a more professional and well thought out feel to it. It is also easy for the audience to guess what genre the film opening falls into as the key conventions shown in the short two minutes of film will be familiar to them.
The research into Typography has helped us identify and establish what type of typography is commonly used in romance films, thus helping us chose an effective font for our film opening. We noticed that most romantic films use bold fonts with block colours and capital letters, therefore we installed this in our own film opening to make it easier for the audience to figure out which genre this film opening falls into. 'Love Actually' uses block colours and bold fonts to express the genre of the film and this secondary research (analysis of real media artefact) helped us to express the genre of our film opening.
Friday, 29 January 2016
How does music impact film?
Music is a powerful guide to what is happening in the scene. Music within film can set the mood of a particular scene and can introduce important elements of the plot. It also gives the film itself a character and can also inform the audience of the time period in which the film is set. Music is also used within film to make scenes more interesting, rather than just having dialect, diegetic sounds or sound effects. It has also been proven that music has a profound effect on the viewers' emotions and therefore Music Supervisors need to chose songs or produce soundtracks that will provoke the right emotion from the audience in correspondence to what is going on in the scene. For example, if a well liked character dies you would chose a thoughtful/sad song that makes the audience cry or feel upset. Therefore, a successful film should not lack music.
In our film opening we needed thoughtful music but not a song that is particularly sad as that is not the purpose of our film opening. We also did not want the song to be overly 'romantic'. Even though our genre is 'romance' there is also a twist and an element of drama, so a romantic song would not suit the film opening we created. We used a website called 'Bensound' (suggested by one of our classmates).
In our film opening we needed thoughtful music but not a song that is particularly sad as that is not the purpose of our film opening. We also did not want the song to be overly 'romantic'. Even though our genre is 'romance' there is also a twist and an element of drama, so a romantic song would not suit the film opening we created. We used a website called 'Bensound' (suggested by one of our classmates).
As we explored the various pages of songs we came across a song called 'Tomorrow'. After playing this song and playing our film opening together we realised this song fitted our film opening perfectly and so we downloaded it and transferred it into Final Cut Pro. We also investigated what rights we had to this piece of music and according to the website as long as we give Bensound credit for the song we can use it free of charge.
Thursday, 28 January 2016
Stuck In Love (2012) Deconstruction
Stuck In Love (2012) Deconstruction
This film opens with the Millennium Entertainment and Informant production company titles before a 'fade-in' (where the shot gradually and smoothly appears or disappears from the screen) technique is used to transition to the main sequence. As soon as the 'fade-in' technique is complete non-diegetic music is played (sound or visual element of a fiction film that does not exist in the diegesis, meaning that the music being played cannot be heard by the characters in the film). The camera then pans down an English lesson's calk board during an extreme close-up the opening credits superimpose on the screen. The camera then cuts to a mid-shot of one of the main characters (Rusty Borgens). He is looking over his shoulder. Typography superimposes the mid-shots of Rusty looking at one of his class mates (Kate) as a voiceover of Rusty talking about Kate is played (non-diegetic sound). As the words appear on the screen a sound effect of a pencil writing is used.
A close-up of Kate shows that her nose is bleeding. The way that Rusty is shown to be looking at her, tells the audience he has some sort of feelings towards her. In the mid-shot where Kate looks up she looks directly at Rusty who then proceeds to tell her that her nose is bleeding. Further mid-shots show Kate grabbing a tissue and cleaning up her nose, whilst Rusty hesitantly looks at her. These shots then cut to a wide-shot of Kate walking out of the classroom and putting her rucksack over her shoulder. The camera uses the 'cut' technique to transition to a new shot of Kate's boyfriend walking up to her and kissing her in the hallway. The camera then immediately cuts to a mid-shot of Rusty looking at them and bowing his head in disappointment. The audience now knows that Rusty has some affectionate feelings towards Kate as his head bows and his face drops from a smile to a rested mouth at the fact she has a boyfriend.
The non-diegetic music has now stopped and for rest of the opening there is just a close-up of Rusty's sister (Samantha Borgens) talking about how she lives her life. As she is talking, again, typography of her sentences superimposes the screen for the beginning part of her monologue and the sound effect of keys on a keyboard is played over the diegetic-sound (can be heard by characters) of the noises in the bar they are stood in. The lighting has also changed from the lit-up hallways of the school to the dim lighting used in the bar in which Samantha is situated.
Conventions identified:
- Fade in & cuts
- Non-diegetic music
- Panning
- Lots of close-ups/ mid-shots
- Different uses of typography
- Voiceover
- Sound effects
- Diegetic sound
- Mixture of light and dark lighting
LOL (2012) Deconstruction
LOL (2012) Deconstruction
LOL opens with the LIONSGATE and MANDATE PICTURES production company titles. A sound bridge occurs at the end of the MANDATE PICTURES title. The titles then cut to an establishing shot of the high school. There is non-diegetic music playing throughout the opening and the lyrics consist of "everybody wants to love, everybody, everybody wants to be loved" inferring this film will be about a love story. Opening titles superimpose during the entire opening.
A 'cut' is used to transition to another long-shot of the school campus and then used again with another establishing shot, this time the city in which the school is situated. Several establishing shots of the school grounds and the public transport systems within the city are then shown.
There is then a mid-shot of the school's sign, which pans down to the three main girl characters. They walk towards the camera in slow motion as a voiceover is played of Lola talking about how she finds it weird going back to school after the summer break.
Conventions identified:
- Sound bridge
- Cuts
- Non-diegetic music
- Superimposition
- Long-shots & mid-shots
- Slow motion
- Panning
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