Thursday 26 February 2015

My Feedback about Rough Cut 2

What went well ? 
  • The sound that we added when the balloon is falling works in a very effective way  along with the slow motion added  to the same scene as well.
  • In this rough cut you can see that we've added a rewind of the attack to emphasize the idea that we are going  back in time. It worked well because  gives the audience a clearer view about what happened to Mia.

What did no went well ? 
  • The effects added   in the establishing shots look very ineffective : 
  1. the effect on the building
  2. the change of colour in the house is not consistent, so appears to have no meaning
  • the last establishing shot is unnecessary because the shot before shows exactly the same thing.
  • Some of the establishing shots are too quick, the  audience  cannot see them properly.
  • Is not clear that the attacker took off the scarf of  Mia 
  • When the attacker hits Mia the scene looks a little dark which contrasts, when the next scene shows her running (this is before she runs downhill )  which lighter. This makes the edit look clumsy. 
  • The close up of Mia's feet running is too slow.
  • The red colour added on the tree does not work at all because again is not consistent throughout the title sequence. 
  • Party scene still too long.
What it needs to be improved ? 
  • Make establishing shots even in time, so i will use slow motion to do so. 
  • Improve sound.
  • Take off the red colour in the scene of the trees.
  • Take off the darkness added when the attacker hits Mia.
  • Use fast motion in the scene of  Mia's feet  running.
  • Delete the last establishing shot.
  • Decide the effects we will be using in the establishing shots, be consistent with it. 
  • Include to the title sequence the scene when the attacker takes off Mia's scarf.
  • Do some close  ups on the party scene.
  • Make end clearer. 

ROUGH CUT 2


I was absent on the 11th of February, as I had to be somewhere urgently. I was really worried that I would leave my group in a very difficult situation where they would not be able to do some important things. But after contacting my group they informed me that they would be able to do everything left to do, without be being there.

Mise-en-scene : outfits




Thursday 12 February 2015

Audience's Feedback About Rough Cut 1

Zeinab, 16 years-old 
  • I think that the running scene was nice because the shots were especially creative and not too long or boring, although I think that the party scene was a little bit too long and needs to be shortened a little or you could throw in different angles to make it a little more entertaining. No offence but the sound didn't really leave an impression on me although the sounds that were made while Eunice was running was realistic and added a nice effect. 

My Feedback about Rough Cut 1


  • Well, in my opinion the establishing shots are too jumpy, so maybe adding an effect would make it less jumpy. When the attacker hits Mia, she is  shocked but looks at the camera, so this little part needs to be cut out. I particularly liked when it cuts to when i am running downhill, the range of shots is quite good. Another thing that i quite liked was the sound of the heartbeat on the black screen even though it needs to be edited more to covey that she dies at that moment. The blue balloon scene is quick, so it looks odd. Also when the scene before mentioned ends and cuts to Mia walking it makes my audience feel quite lost and confused. So i need to make that clearer. I am pleased with the cross cut of Mia walking to the party scene and back again, making this two scenes relate to each other because the party is actually for Mia. However the party scene looks very long because there is no range of shots along with the fact that one of the actors looks at the camera -- something that needs to be also cut out. 

ROUGH CUT 1 OF TITLE SEQUENCE


  • On the 11/02/15 (yesterday) , in the morning two members of our group went to film some         establishing shots   which you will see  in the beginning of the title sequence. Another member of our group stayed in the college doing some blogging about the pitch presentation. Then at the afternoon we recorded the party and the last part of the party scene.

  • Notice that the first black screen you see is meant to be there but the other ones are just there so we can separate certain scenes as we want to add more things to it.

Teacher's feedback

  1. Transitions : fade in in the beginning;
  2. Zoom in shot in graffiti scene needs to be edited again (NO ZOOM IN !) ;
  3. Flashback scene needs to be edited to make flashback clearer;
  4. More range of shot types during the get together;
  5. Some shots need to be edited a little bit more, some longer some shorter .


Wednesday 11 February 2015

THE PICTH PART 4









This part of the pitch was done by Sarene.

11) Cinematic Details - Full storyboard

12 ) Production Schedule
      a. A time-toast document that indicates what you are going to do and when.

13) Risk Assessment
      a. Identify any risks that you may come across when filming with some possible solutions to               prevent the risks.

14) Technology Skills Audit
     a. What different technology ( hardware and software ) have you used and learned about to date ?
     b. What has each one allowed you to do ?
     c. How has each one helped you develop your project ?

THE PITCH PART 3




 This is the rock we used in our title sequence. 


Location



This part of the pitch was made by Jessica. 
She covered the following points :

7) Mise-en-scene - Location & Setting  
    a) Which locations will you use ?
    b) Which settings will you use ?

8) Mise-en-scene - Props, costumes. make up etc
    a. Which props do you intend to use - show evidence
    b. Which costumes have you created and for which characters - sow evidence
    c. What other aspects of mise-en-scene have you planned for?

9) Sound Design
   a. What  diegetic and non diegetic sound do you intend to use and why  ?
   b. Play a rough soundscape that you have designed for your title sequence with some explanation           for your choice of sounds.

10) Title Credits
    a. What will your title credits look like ?
    b. Do you intend to create them in Motion or in FCP ?
    c. Play or briefly introduce a rough template of the titles you intend to do .

THE PITCH PART 2



This part of the pitch was done by Eunice.
She covered the following points :

4) Representation
    a. Which characters will you introduce in your title sequence ?
    b. What differnt social groups are evident in your opening ?
    c. How do you represent these social groups - stereotypically or do you challenge stereotypes ?

5) Instituional Detail
    a. Will your film be a mainstream or independent production ?
    b. Which company(ies) will produce and distribute your film ?
    c.  How would the ownership affect the type of titles and credits you have ?

6) Audience Detail
    a. Who is your target audience ?
   b. Who is your wider target audience ?
   c. How will you attract them to your film ?
   d. How will you address them in your title sequence ?

THE PITCH

Presented to class on the midle of January
 ** We already posted the teacher's feedback. 





 This part of the pitch was made by Simona.
She covered the following points:

1) The film
     a. What is the title of your film
     b. What's the treatment - give a very brief outline of the whole film, then a brief outline of the                  opening to the film.

2) What type of title sequence is it ?
     a. Do you intend to have a discrete, styled, narrative or animated title  sequence ?
     b. What real title sequences have influenced you?
     c. Do you intend to conform or challenge these openings?

3) What type (subgenre) of Teen  Film is it ?
    a. Which real teen film title sequences have inspired you and why ?
    b. Do you intend to comform or challenge these openings ?








Looking at Opening Scenes

11/02/2015

Today we took a look at our footage and had a talk with or teacher on ways to improve our title sequence. We felt quite lost and unsure of what to do so with the help of our teacher we took a look at some title sequences such as Shank, Kidulthood, Attack the Block and Beautiful Thing. This gave us some ideas in how to do our title sequence better. 
Below are few opening scenes and the parts that we would like to use. 


Shank opening scene :

  • We really liked the way they done the scene where the boy is running way from the guy in the motto. It uses a range of shots such as close ups and  medium shots to show the by running coveying urgency and danger. 
  • Also we like the way the title credits are, especially the actors names : where they actually show the characters moving . So this animated title sequence is good.
  • Finally, we also liked the way they establish the location and mood. Some of the title credits ( from production design to written and produced) had a background that gave tips of the location : the buildings tells us that the film will be in a urban area; the barbed wire and the CCTV camera tells us that the film (may) involves the police/ prison. 

Kidulthood opening scene:  


  • We really liked the way the clip uses fast and slow motion to introduce the different groups in school.
  • We also liked the way they cross cut from breaktime to troy using the machine. 
Conclusion :
  1. We need to include establishing shots of the location where we filming.
  2. Stick to our storyboard.
  3. We using cross cut to relate 2 scenes. 
  4. We will use a variaty of shots. 


Draft of the attack video




Monday 9 February 2015

Overall production (Filming sessions)

Filming our Title Sequence Scenes

We intended to start our filming on the Monday 26th of January, however one of our group members we not in so that brought back the filming to our three hour lesson on Wednesday 28th of January. However in that lesson me and the remaining group members planned out clearly and carefully what we wanted to film. And therefore that lesson was a productive one, but I had to leave quite early because of an enrichment workshop.

Wednesday 28th January:-

Today was the first day of filming, and we had three hours to complete the planned filming and we were ready to go.
However one key problem that was evident was the weather, on that day it was a very gloomy day and there was a forecast of showers and a lot of wind, and it was very cold. we were originally going to go to Hackney Marshes to film our scenes. However we decided to film closer to college just in case something went wrong whilst we were filming. 

Risk assessment:-
The wind was could be a problem, especially because it is raining, therefore the umbrella might become very difficult to handle and therefore it would be hard to protect the camera.

This resulted in us producing not a lot of footage during that filming session because of the weather. I was extremely upset with that day because it wasn't at all a productive day.

Monday 29th January:-

This  was a very productive day, because we filmed a lot of shots which we reviewed later that day and thought it was a good try but we found that it didn't really have the quality of the type of film we wanted. Therefore it was a good trial for future filming.


Sunday 8 February 2015

Plan B




Seven is a title sequence which is very discrete because it doesn't explain to the audience what is happening, and in some of my other exploring, I realised it identified the audience with the person that will be the cause for most of the things in the film.
As a group we reviewed this title sequence and decided that if our initial ideas, like the party, doesn't go to plan then we would use this idea.
For example we would only show the hands of the killer, and the plans he has, him preparing the party as a trap for Mia. However we only see his hands.


Some clips from filming


This is a clip from the filming of the sessions we had but as we looked through it we realised we didn't want to use some of these as the clips didn't have the better quality we needed for the title sequence.

Final Idea for Font.



This is the Final Font which we chose for our title sequence. We found this fitting because it like graffiti, which is stereotypically identified with young youths. Also the red and the almost like blood-like font fits with our target of making the title sequence scary and quite dark. 
However on risk is that it might look very professional, it might look quite childish but hopefully if we make our different clips look dark, then it might blend in well.
dripping marker

Location Change!

Location Change:


We initially decided to complete all our filming in the Hackney Marshes, as there is alot of greenery and the area is quite rural, dark areas which we felt that this could be very fitting for our quite dark and scary title sequence.
  

We changed our mind and decided to film our scenes in a location closer to us all and a if there is a problem than we can easily get some help, as our college is close. We decided to film our clips in City Road basin (the canal close to there).
We found this area as effective as going to the Marshes, but there was a local pitch that looked very much where youths would hang around in, so that was a very plus to the local.







This is the picture of the pitch that is in our location, the image is quite blurry but the pitch is a large area where we could do most of our filming.


Wednesday 4 February 2015

What did we do today



What we did today!


Eunice:
  • Looking at font styles
  • Edited the videos that we recored on Monday
  • Researching about slasher films

Jessica:
  • Edited the blog to represent our theme of the title sequence

Sarene:
  • Done more blog posts about our updates of production and the changes of our costume and scene

Simona:
  • Planning the filming of the party scene


Updated production schedule


Updated Production schedule:

As we were supposed to film on Saturday 24th January we couldn't as personal issues occurred: church, illness & time issue. Therefore we decided to film on a college day: on Wednesday 28th January, we managed to film a small chunk of filming, mostly filming about the main plot as to why the "villain" doesn't like the "victim".

Change in costume

We changed the costume that the main character had to wear- instead of wearing a school uniform we decided to let her wear her normal, comfortable clothes to film because we think that "Mia" would look too innocent, even though she is quite bad.


Change in scene

The recent scene we made, where the characters were filmed outside, sitting on a bench, gathering together is now been scraped. The reason why we don't want to add this, is because we think that there is a lot of dialogue and not enough fast, sudden shots. We assumed that we weren't doing a title sequence, instead it felt like we were doing a"film", which we didn't like. Instead what we now try to do is only get shots of images of the area and any objects that represents a young, ghetto atmosphere. We believe doing the outside party is the main bit of our title sequence and the attack but in a faster and more of a mixture of a discrete and narrative opening.








37.) Changing the design of our blog


I designed the blog according to the theme of our title sequence. The colour used represent darkness and resentment and also foreshadows the scene where Mia almost dies. For example the reoccurrence of the colour red represents the blood on the weapon used to hit Mia on the head. In antithesis, it also represents the way the stalker wants to seek vengeance which is a dark action.
In addition the grey in the blog represents the dreary mood when the pictures are presented, because the pictures will be in black and white.

Sunday 1 February 2015

Updated Production schedule/ title sequence location

OUTDOORS

Because we couldn't access an indoor location to film the party scene, we decided to make it more accessible to everyone in that scene and move it outdoors.
So the closest and most convenient place we came up with was 'The canal', near that area we have lots of trees, a river, and also a closed area to film the mains scenes. In addition, its a lot more convenient for everyone as its located in Islington.
The order of the title sequence remains the same, the only changes we have made is the location which doesn't disrupt our initial plans whatsoever.

Exploring the Wix website



Whilst in lesson, I decided to look through the Wix website and get used to working with the tools, so that when we start creating I will know what we need to do, quickly and efficiently. 

Filming

Wednesday 29th  of January 2015


As a group we decided to film on this day, and when looking at the weather days before we were promised that it would not rain, However coming to that day, the weather was absolutely horrid and it stopped us dramatically from doing any type of filming. We decided to not travel to Hackney Marshes because it would truly we a waste of time, so we decided to go to a closer location, a canal on City Road.

This was quite good at the beginning but as we started filming and tried to film, it would begin to rain and as I most important thing (the camera) we had to protect it from the rain as it would get damaged.
We however was able to film a few shots, when we finally decided to stop filming because we couldn't risk damaging the camera and the weather was getting worse by the minute.
It was an extremely disappointing day.

Final ideas



Final Idea's


After the pitch we did decide on a different location because we felt that we could not find any place indoors where we could film our party scene.

 We did decide to change the location of the party, as we found it very hard to find a place/house to film the party scene in. We now have decide to have the party outside, to show the urban side and show that is modern day norm, young youths don't really need a party to drink or take drugs. We have decided to film our piece in Hackney Marshes, as there is a lot of greenery and forests, which is key to our storyline. This will allow us to film the scenes in a place where it won't require anyone to have the space free for us to use. However one key problem will be weather, if it rains it will become very hard to film, and it could (will) damage the camera.





Also we decided to also film some of our title sequence scenes closer to our college, we decided we would also use the space near the canal in City road. 











The final idea's are:- it will be based on a killer/starker (a friend of Mia's becomes jealous that Mia is getting attention from he ex boyfriend, she then kills Mia and the audience will think to themselves why they killed her and what will happen next.


The Pitch




With our ideas decided for our title sequence, we had to present our idea's to our teacher, and try to convince them that our idea will work our to create an effective piece of work. In our group we allocated different slides which we would read, however I decided not to just stand and read off the slide as it does become quite boring to listen to and therefore I decided to summarise each slide I was given and interact with people watching our pitch. This was effective because we were able to interact and display our idea's to the audience, and make it more interesting, which at points were vital as there was a lot of information on display so we had to make sure the audiences focus didn't not differ.Things we did well:-
  • We had a clear idea and structure for the title sequence.
  • There was a clear description of what and where we will be filming our title sequence
  • There was an example for the sound


Things to improve:-Filming a party scene is one of the most difficult scenes to film, so planning is essential.Make sure we plan when we will film because as we are filming in an open space, there will be a very high risk of rain.