Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression

In our preliminary task our group used different shots we had not used before, because most of our group were new to filming editing and media overall.  I have noticed a big difference in the preliminary task and our opening sequence.  I have learned that it is important to take your time when filming, and to use the equipment properly. in the preliminary we didn't use a tripod, and it is clear to the viewer that we didn't. in our opening sequence we used a range of different high/low angles and effects. I feel that I have learned a lot more with filming and editing throughout the practicals


opening sequence                                  Preliminary

Editing
there's a big difference in presentation with the editing from the two different films . in our opening sequence it shows that we thought carefully about the design and made sure that it fitted with our chosen genre. whereas in our preliminary we use a very basic design, because we had few choice because we used movie maker, and we used final cut.

Match on action 
we used match on action again in our opening sequence, because it worked well as it showing the character leaving her house. this was we made improvements on how we did it from our first time because we learned how to film more professionally for example we used the tripod again to make sure that it was a more steady shot.

Close up shotwe used this shot again but never had to use a text effect to show what it was clear to the viewer because it was already clear. the quality of the shot is also better, because again in our opening sequence we used the tripod and put it at an angle and used the zoom to zoom in drastically as if it was a point of view shot.

 

Match on action
we used match on action and improved on the technique. for example we used the tripod in our opening sequence. from the evidence you can see a lot of difference in the quality of the shot because we also made sure that the shot was an over shoulder shot. we took our time with filming the shots making sure that they were accurate and clear in our opening sequence whereas we rushed quite a bit in our preliminary. 

"How did you attract your target audience"

• using actors in the same age range as target audience
• costume was what target audience would be familiar with
• music is familiar with the target audience 

We made sure that we used actors who were around the same age range as our target audience would be (13 - 25+).  This way the target audience could connect more to the characters.  We also made sure that our female actor was an average looking woman rather than someone who is really unrealistic or known as a 'barbie' girl. this would have then made the story more unrealistic.


we also used costume which we thought would be familiar/ popular with our target audience.  Our main female character is dressed in casual smart clothes such as a smart dress, an average hair style and average use of make-up and accessories. 
it was the same with our male characters; we dressed our mugger character in 'street' clothing, i.e. a puffer jacket with the hood up, jeans and a scarf to cover his face. this then was clear to the viewer what kind of character he was.
and with ryan's character (the homeless man) we we used rough looking clothes, we made sure that his hair was down. because ryan has naturally long hair, we thought it would suit the rough look, showing that he was one of the less fortunate. also using a sleeping bag as his only valuable. 


again, so the viewers were familiar with things in the film and would be able to relate to it we used 
time after time by quietdrive. a song that is well known but an underground version. we also used this because it suited our screen play

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

What does a production company do?

'Budgeting, scheduling, scripting, the supply with talent and resources, the organisation of staff, the production, post-production, distribution and marketing' - Wikipedia

What is your idea of a film distributor?

A company who look at a writer/director's script and takes it into their own hands and organises the budget, production, post-production, distribution and marketing.

Who might be a distributor for your film and why?

I think that because my films low budget, no huge companies such as WB would take on my film. but from what we are able to do it modern technology we could distribute my film by advertising it on social networking sites and popular sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube.  Although the quality wouldn't show that my film could be as popular as if it was distributed by a large production company would, but because of the amount of people worldwide who use those websites stated above we would still catch the attention of a large amount of people.

Where would the money come from for a film such as yours?

The money would come from any producers or investors who would help us pay for the making of our movie. Although it wouldn't be as big as a blockbuster, i think that our movie would have a chance of making a profit because of the result of the advertising, millions of people use the internet and would see these advertisements and this would pay for the money we used in our budget also.

Why have the various people been named in your titles? Which jobs appear in your titles and in what order and how have you reflected this?

in our titles we added the names of the actors,  the production company name  

How is your film similar 'institutionally' to others? Name some films which would be released in a similar way.

films in the same genre of this 

what have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product

Video Camera 

the different shots to use were important. we made sure that made as many different screen shots as we could so we could put different angles in to edit. we also found that it was important to take our time recording because we filmed twice, we noticed that the first time we recorded we rushed, and it was obvious in the recordings, and when we did it while taking our time there was a clear difference in the quality of posts.

Tripod

the tripod was a very useful piece of equipment while filming our sequence.  in the first time recording we had made a lot of mistakes without even realising so. one of the mistakes was not using the tripod the whole time, this showed big difference in the quality of the shot quality

Final Cut Express 

we used final cut to have a look at the different options there was to design, there was a better variety on final cut than movie maker. 

Final Cut Express

we used final cut, because it was a different media source, so we were using various sources.  also we found that there was more option for us to put different effects.

We all used the equipment in different ways, we used the tripod to the most we could so we got many different angle and hight shots.

YouTube

We used this during our planning and research to look at typical romcom opening sequences. it was an easy source to find trailers or videos of films. this was used a lot throughout the planning and making of our opening sequence. We also used YouTube to search for our background music. another reason why we used YouTube was to upload progress diary entries onto our accounts to keep us updated on our progress and at what point we were at

www.youtube-mp3.org

We used a youtube converting website to download the music to put it in our editing.

Facebook

We used facebook to contact people we could use as actors. we found this as a good source to use because all we hadto do was post a status asking if there were any actors who would like to take partand people would comment, volunteering 

 

Blackberry/Blackberry messenger

I used my black berry messenger to send a broadcast to everyone, asking if anyone was able to act for our opening sequence giving time dates and location. this is how we found our main actress and our male actor, luke who plays the mugger. We asked our other male actor, Ryan personally as he is in our media class and we were able to get in contact with him easier 

www.IMDb.com

we used the website IMDb.com to look up popular romance comedy films for our planning and research, we also used this to see the budget it cost to make the film

OpenOffice

I used open office because it was useful to display my planning and research posts. i found this document easy to use and useful to use 

Wikipedia

I used wikipedia to research information on our planning and research topics. I used this source because i find it easy to find information. 

iTunes

we used iTunes to save our music, e.g. voice over, background music so then it is memorable of where it is saved for when we copied it into our editing. we used iTunes because we found it really quick and easy to use 

www.google.com

we used Google as a research source.  we found it the easiest and fastest to find accurate answers, to put in our research and planning

Most of  my work was completed on a Mac in school. i.e. planning and research, recording, youtube uploading, editing, publishing.

How does your media product represent particular social groups

Lucy's character :
is shown to be the 'average' student/young worker in society. she is smartly dressed, looks like she has good manners and is a polite and sophisticated teen who is growing into a young woman, maturing and entering the wide world on her own.  she is also an ambitious woman who works hard. you can tell this because of her punctuation.

Ryan's character:

This character shows that ryan is part of the young, homeless people who sleep rough don't have a very good lifestyle. they are usually homeless because they had been disowned by family members or kicked out. he fits in with the less fortunate people in social society

Luke's character: luke's character is shown to be the bad part of the youth.  someone who is mugging another young person. this is seen to be spoken about a lot today in the media, so it is a common thing to be expected in todays society.

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products ? '

'Lost And Found' final product

"Who would be the target audience for your media product?"

"Who would be the target audience for your media product?" 

Horoscope that Lucy reads out.

''ARIES DAILY HOROSCOPE.
today you will encounter your prince charming. He may not be in shiny armour or have the noble steed you were hoping for, but realise the potential for happiness and seize it.''

Tuesday 31st Jan & Wednesday 1st Feb Filming

Tuesday:
today we filmed Ryan's part of the sequence
we went to a subway to give it more of an effect, for the homeless person
we used the tripod to make different angles

Wednesday:
today we filmed lucy's and ryan's part of the sequence when they meet
we used the same effects as yesterday

Filming evidence that everyone in the group had a chance to film (Teni was absent today)

Tuesday 24th January. Re-Filming with Improvements

On tuesday we re filmed Lucy's opening part of the opening sequence,

Improvements made :

• following of storyboard 
• use tripod at all times
• make sure the shots are accurate, for example, if we are using an extreme close up, make sure the person is in the middle of the screen. 

Examples of our improvement

^ first time filming, she isn't in the middle of the shot, the strory board shows an extreme close up of her lips.

second time filming (with improvements) we stuck to the story board plans, the shot is in the middle of the screen and it is an extreme close up 

Update on today's progress

Today we have had some problems with what we were planning to do.  Members of the group didn't turn up, and our actors had been away because of illness therefore were unable to film.
Our original plans for this week to be starting to edit today, but during the week, we were unable to film because of the reasons said.

So today, the group, without Renee, made some filmed clips we needed to film from the mac, for example the message alert.
We wrote up an extension explanation on our blogs and explained why we have asked for an extension and when we are going to film again.

we used open office to make an email alert. we made it look real by using effects and we are going to be using an alert sound which will be added when editing.

Teni experimented with the opening title for our opening sequence on LiveType. 

Extension on Filming

On Tuesday we filmed the first half of our opening sequence, we tried to continue to film the rest of the sequence yesterday, but we had trouble with every group members getting out of lessons, and the same problem with our actors getting out of lessons.  We have been let down a few times by our actors but we have learned that that is all part of the process.  This is why we will need to extend our filming time to next week as we will not be finished for Friday because both actors are away because of illness.
We have decided to ask for an extension with filming to complete Ryans scene on monday, periods 1-4 and come back after 5th period. We are also hoping to film ryan and lucy's part when they meet that day too.  If all the filming isn't completed by the end of the day on  Monday, we are going to use periods 1&2 on Tuesday. The extension will help us massively for us to be ready to edit on Thursday

Final Screen Play Draft

• Close up of computer screen, then an email pops up onto the screen
• Close up of the Womans hand (Amy) using the keyboard with red nail vanish on
• Back to the close up of the computer screen
• The email is opened by Amy and it reads "Amy today you will meet your prince charming. He will solve a problem for you, but dont let him slip away, you have to repay the favour or you will never find love."
• Amy reads the email and says quietly to herself 'Prince charming?!' (With confused emotions)
• Close up on the clock (the time should be 3:59)
• Amy looks at the time and shouts 'home time!'
• (Match on action) Amy is walking out of the door from her workplace.
• Tilt from feet upwards on Amy walking down a street on her way home from work. (She is smartly dressed)
• She walks past a poor man who is counting his money, he notices her being followed by a boy
• The poor man watches Amy walk by him
• As she walks past the poor man (Justin) , the young boy grabs her bag and runs down the street
• Justin starts to chase the young boy
• There will be a short montage of the homeless man chasing the boy, he finally manages to get the bag back
• He gives the bag back to Amy and says 'there you go love'
• Amy is shocked and says 'oh thanks'
• Justin replies 'no problem'
• There is a flash back of the horoscope, with a voice over of amy reading it.

Production Schedule

Today our group have planned the days when we are going to be filming and editing.


Tuesday 24th January ; we are aiming to get all, if not most of our filming done today.
Wednesday 25th January ; We are going to finish off the rest of the filming - lucy's scene, ryan's scene and the mugging scene.
Thursday 26th January; Start on Editing

Story Boards

Here are our story boards, Renee drew them out and the rest of the group helped with the different angle shots, and the descriptions.