BLOG FINISHED!

I have finally come to the point of finishing my AS Media blog. I have thoroughly enjoyed working on this entire project. I have learnt so many new skills and have loved the experience of trying new things. I have learnt such a lot of information that I had no knowledge of 7 months ago which can only keep on improving. I hope you enjoy my Final Piece film opening sequence, I had so much fun making it.

Thankyou!

Evaluation Question 6- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?



Evaluation Question 6 from Charlotte Greaves on Vimeo.

Evaluation Question 5- What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

 What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

 

Evaluation Question 5 from Charlotte Greaves on Vimeo.

Evaluation Question 3 & 4- How did you attract/ address your audience? Who would be the audience for your media product?

How did you attract/ address your audience?

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation Questions 3 & 4 from Charlotte Greaves on Vimeo.

Evaluation Question 2-What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Trainspotting is a film I took a lot of influence from during the making of my film and Film Four distributed it. As Film4 distributes low budget British Film, I thought it was perfect for my project.

Evaluation Question 1- How does your media product: a. use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? b. represent particurlar social groups?

How does your media product: a. use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? b. represent particurlar social groups? 

    

Film Presentation

Here is the video of my film presentation. Here was the premiere of my film opening sequence where I played it for my class and teacher and then spoke about what the films story is all about etc. This was the opportunity to present to an audience and receive feedback by them asking me questions.



Film Presentation from Charlotte Greaves on Vimeo.

Evaluation Interview with the Director

Here is the interview my teacher had with me about my final piece. For twenty minutes my teacher asked me questions referring to my video and loosely based them on the actual evaluation questions that I am required to answer for my project. It was fun to be able to tell him all about my ideas and everything that inspired me to create my final piece. It was very laidback and informal so it was easy to get what I wanted to say across and for him to understand. It was set out like a real director interview and i found it much easier just to say everything rather than writing it all out. I decided to edit the interview video into black and white to link well with my film video and create a unique style to it.

Evaluation Interview with the Director from Charlotte Greaves on Vimeo.

Editing my Interview video

For my interview video I have done a quick edit and added a few things to it. I have changed the colour of the video to black and white to link with the idea of using the effect in my film. I have added my screenshot of my title that I used in my film opening sequence, and added an extremely short section of of the music that i played in the second scene of my opening to the beginning of the interview before I start talking. I have also added another title saying 'Evaluation Interview with the Director'. I thought that it might make it look a little more professional and realistic. 

Here is a few screenshots of how I have edited my interview:

 

 

Interview

Today I had my evaluation interview with my teacher to answer questions about my film and my entire media project altogether.I was extremely nervous but once i was in the room and the camera began recording, it was really easy to talk to him and answer the questions. It was just like a normal conversation. He asked me various different questions about my film and how my ideas firstly came about. He asked questions such as what inspiration I got and from which kind of films, why i chose to research the British Film industry and what interested me about the whole concept of it etc. It was videoed and I plan to do a quick edit and upload the interview very shortly.

Plan For My Evaluation

For my evaluation, I will be ansering 7 questions.

The questions are the following:

1. How does your media product:

 

a. use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

b. represent particurlar social groups?             

 

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

 

3. Who would be the audience for your media product?

 

4. How did you attract/ address your audience?

 

5. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

 

6. Looking back at your preliminary task,  what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

 

For my first question I am going to voice record me answering the question in an audio commentary and play it over a video that I will make to demonstrate what I mean and how I represented a particular social group.

 

For my second question I am going to perform an interview where I will be asked the question by an interview and use my camera to shoot it in different camera shots. Here I will discuss what distributor I researched and the reasons as to why I chose it for my own film.

 

For question three, I am going to make a video about my target audience. I will film a documentary style video about the target audeince. It will include me talking about my choice and how I tried to aim it as closely as possible towards that certain age range. I will perform short interviews with a few of my cast aswell, as I would like their opinion on the target audience as they are all teenagers and wht they thought of the way i approached the idea. Use of wardrobe, storyline etc. I will ask them questions such as if they think it is an accurate representation of teenagers and if they feel I have succeeded in doing this.

 

For the fourth question I need to answer, I will combine this with my third question in the documentary style video. Explaining everything about my choice of audience.

 

For the fifth question , I am going to make a video about the different types of technology I have used throughout the project. I will include the cameras I have used. I will also talk about the different things I have experimented with during the project. Like the different aspects of editing I used and the particular editing software I used, the blog I have maintained throughout etc.

And for my last question, I am going to use screenshots and clips of both my preliminary task and my final piece task and compare them. I will talk about the area I have improved on and the progress I made during the whole process.

 

                                        



FINAL PIECE 'SOBER'

Here is the link to my finished opening sequence final piece on Vimeo. I decided to upload it on to there to get a better high definition image instead of it being blurry and grainy on here. 

 

SOBER Final piece from Charlotte Greaves on Vimeo.

Editing clips

I've been editing my video for a few weeks and experimenting with different things. I have tried out a lot of different effects to add into my video as I thought it would be very effective on the audience and link very well with whole concept of the story of the film. As the character is into taking drugs, I wanted to add in effects on certain clips of the sequence to make it look disillusioned and 'trippy'. I decided to add the echo effect to a few of my clips to emphasise the feeling the character gets when sniffing the drugs during the video. I also decided to speed up some of the clips to give a different effect to the video and represent the rush of the party scene. I have cut up some of the clips and made them jump to the beat of the song that is playing over the video, I have done this to also try and achieve an upbeat feel in contrast to the first half of the video dragging out with slow music, representing a depressing and miserable feel. Here is some screengrabs of the different video effects I have included in my video.

Testing the video out with the target audience

Before finally completing my finished final piece video, I decided to test it out on people of the age range of the target audience. I thought that by doing this it would give me an big indication as to whether my ideas and final video would cater to teenage viewers. I asked a few people of that age range to watch my video and then I have voice recorded myself asking them a few questions and them answering with their own opinions. I found this quite useful as it has helped me and reassured me that what I have created has met the target audience and is of interest to them. The feedback was overall positive which I am very pleased with.

Opening Credits

On my video I have put in quite a few credits. I have included the main and extra actors. I decided to include all the actors as there was a lot of spare room on the clip to add them in and I wanted to include all the names as I would have planned to have them feature quite regularly throughout the rest of the film and not just in the opening sequence. For the Director of Photography, the Editor, the Screen Play and the Producer, I wanted to add other names, not just my own and I decided to research people who did these roles in other films that are similar. I decided to look at the crew on Trainspotting and included their names as both films are British and have similar style and genre.

The Use of Smoking and Cigarettes

I included cigarettes and the character smoking throughout the first half of the opening sequence as I wanted to strongly highlight his personality. By him smoking, I wanted it to be direct message instantly to the audience that he has bad habits and acts like a typical teenager doing things that will get him into trouble. Also another representation I wanted to add was in society today, many people smoke as a form of stress relief. The character may be smoking due to his troubled life and his bad emotions and this may occur to the audience as they begin watching the film. 

Film Indent

On my rough cut I didn't have the chance to include my Film Four indent at the beginning of my film. This is going to be added so that the audience are aware of the distribution company and also as it is known for  a particular style and genre, may give the audience an instant indication of what the film is going to be about. Film Four are known for their British Film involvement and for distributing low budget films. So this was a big reason as to why I chose Film Four. They also distributed Trainspotting and and I have taken a lot of the inspiration from that film so this also helped me to choose Film Four.

Representation in my film

The representation in my film, is quite focused on social class. The chosen class I have put my character under is working class. I found that this went perfectly as it links to all of my research on Birtish Film and the industry and how I want my film to be perceived. The films i have researched are also focused on the representation of social classes in Britain and the regional identity. I have chosen my storyline to follow a young boy growing up in the North East in a working class background. I have used the stereotypical view of the North of Britain to my advantage and how there are alot of working class and 'common' areas around. The character is into drinking underage and taking drugs which also represents the type of upbringing he has had and also his surroundings.

ROUGH EDIT OF FINAL PIECE

https://vimeo.com/86608637

Music and Voice over

Tonight I am finishing off organising the music and voice over for my video so I can add them tomorrow in lesson time. I have had to add some script in as it was too short and didn't match up to the length of my full video. The music is being put together so it is merged into one music clip and goes together in the clip smoothly. The boy who is helping record it wont be finished till later on tonight so I will update you on the final choices of songs that will be used in the video soon.

Target Audience

The Target audience I had in mind for my film, would be mid teenagers up to early twenties. I have chosen this as they would be much more likely to relate to the storyline and connect with the character. The films I analysed have the same type of audience and the ages are very similar. My story is about a teenager so it makes sense for the characeristics and habits and way of living of the character to be similar to people in real life. I have tried to reach out to this particular audience by creating a story line that would perhaps relate to them. The choice of casting also played a huge part in this. My use of mise-en-scene also helped me to create the style and relevance to the audience.

Scenes not used in my Video (outtakes)

There were a lot of outtakes I had left over in my footage that were not all sutiable to include. As you will see in the video of the clips I have created, it was very difficult to manage to keep everyone in charcter and to not get distracted easily. Jonny, the main character, particurlarly took quite some time to focus and get his scened right. Also alot of frustration went on so there is swearing and shouting haha, but who can blame me, when trying to control a room full of people with a single camera! Some of the scenes are just not filmed properly and have errors which obviously restricted me from using them in my final piece. Some of the point of view shots accidentally inclused the main character by accident so I had to redo this a few times. The main character at times lost focus and would move which ruined the continuity so I also had to redo these scenes until he finally got it right. Another problem on a few of the scenes there is light beams over the screen which appear on the clips which I unfortunately could not include either.

Screenshots

Here are some screenshots of the titles I have included in my video. Here as you can see, I have chosen simple and quite dull colours. I have also put the video in black and white effect, as it links to the story and represents the it very well. Aswell, you can see the production name I decided on 'wheelhouse productions'. Here in the screenshots I have included the shot of him lighting a cigarette as it highlights the whole idea of the video and emphasises a teenager being rebellious. Alot of teenagers nowadayss, smoke and have bad habiyts, and this helps connect to the target audience of teenagers and young adults. I have aimed to create a representation of roughness in my video by making the charcaters hair look very messy, he has bags under his eyes and looks very tired and run down. I filmed very early in the morning so that he would naturally look tired and exhausted and the coldness of the weather made him unhappy, creating that kind of mood from his body language.

Editing

Throughout last week I began and continued making a rough edit of my video. I have taken time to look through all of my footage and carefully pick out the shots and clips that I want to include in my video. I was quite diffuclt as I wanted to make sure that every clip was good enough. I had to crop some of the footage and alter the duration they played for it to fit perfectly together. I found this quite easy to do but it required good concentration and focus. I decided that I wanted my film to be in black and white effect as It is similar to the film 'Control'. I applied this to all my clips and have altered the brightness and contrast. I have defcdied to include the two main actors in my film on the opening titles and not to include the extras as this would usually be included on the end credits. I came up with a production name 'Wheelhouse Productions' and added that to the titles. It was quite difficult to come up with a name and I found myself overthinking this alot, when really I just needed to simply pick a name. Still, it wasn't as easy as it looks.I have chosen a simple black background with an off white text for my titles. As it is very dull land represents the film completely.

Music

As now I will start my editing tomorrow, My friend is going to complete recording the music for my opening sequence so I can see how well it compliments my video when all of it is put together. I have chosen the same song to be throughput but he is recording two seperate versions, changing the sound completely and pace of the song. I have chosen this particular song as it is originally by a famous British indie rock band who are quite young. It fits in well as the music links well with the style the character is and also as the film being very typically british, a song that is also british and the people being teenagers aswell, represents the character himself.

Collection of Footage

I have now got all of my footage to begin my rough edit. I have filmed all of my shots for my separate scenes. My choice of outside setting went really well and I'm quite pleased with how the quality of the camera turned out. Which is absolutely fantastic. 

Chosen distributor for my film

My chosen distributor for my film is Film Four. I have chosen this as a lot of British Films are distributed by them.

Film4 is a digital television channel available in the United Kingdom and Ireland, owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation, that screens films. It offers films in standard definition free of charge.

Film Four has had an impact on British Film Culture since 1982.

I have chosen this as it is relevant to my particular choice of genre as alot of films (especially low budget) that focus on life in Britain and regional identity with a cult edge. And this I what I planned for my video. Not the typical Hollywood glamorous shine, that is on films distributed by Universal or 20th century fox etc. Film4  looks for material with a distinctive voice that aims to push the boundaries within a given film genre which i thought my film did.

It also tends to use contemporary stories, rather than period pieces and will usually be made with British led talent or with British content which I also thought my film met the criteria of.

It also links to the films that I have researched into as they are low budget british indie films. And have the same kind of style and story lines as my own film.

Setting Photos

I have chosen these particular locations for my film as I wanted some where quiet and in the middle of nowhere. The scenery is very bleak and dull which sets the mood for the audience on how the film will be. The scenery represents the character alot in the sense that he is very miserable and dull and his fellings are also like that too. The colours of the scenery and the reality of the scenery fit in with the genre as it is very typical British weather and scenery.

Second day of filming

On Saturday morning I got up at 7 and got ready to leave the house and begin filming my 1st scene of my opening. We began filming at 8. The weather was absolutely perfect as it was just getting light outside and it was a cold, frosty, grey morning. It ahd been raining the night before so it was damp and made the atmosphere much more cold and grey.

Filming was much easier this time round compared to the hectic party scene. I was only filming with one person, which made my patience better and it was a much more relaxed and calm atmosphere. The fact we started so early meant there wasn't many people walking around and it was quiet. Also we weren't constantly interrupted by people passing by, just the odd dog walker.

The setting was great for the scenery still shots. And because we got up so really the actor looked really tired and and mess hair, which gave a rough look to tim, whic hwas perfect for the video.

Overall the morning went really well.

Change of Date

I had planned and was supposed to film the second part of the filming on Sunday 19th January but I had some problems with the actor, as he had other commitments he had agreed to before without realising. I have had to reschedule the times and date to more suitable ones.

Here are them rescheduled:

Changed from Sunday 19th January to Saturday 25th January.

I have also decided to film early moring time instead of afternoon, as it is much easier and the weather looks more promising.

I plan to start filming at 8 am.

First day of Filming

Last Thursday I began my filming. I decided to film the second half of my video first as it has taken more planning to organise and the concept of getting everyone together on a certain day was rather difficult. I have filmed all the footage for that particular scene. I found it quite hard on the actual night, as I was worrying people would not turn up at the correct time and people would be late. My production schedule had helped me clearly plan my time frames. On the night, a few people did turn up later than required which did cause some tightness of time and resulted in me falling behind schedule but it turned out ok in the end.

Storyboard

Detailed Outline of My Video

The opening shot of my video will be an establishing of the landscape and scenery surrounding the character. Here the slow music begins play. Then the camera will
shoot a close up of the main characters face, emphasising the sad emotion on his face.
Then the shot will switch to a close up of the character struggling to ligh his cigarette with his hands shaking from the cold. Here in this shot, the voiceover will begin. After, using a medium shot, I will shoot the character drinking his can of beer. Then the character will look down at the ground and I will film this in wide shot. The music and dialogue continues meanwhile. Using a wide shot of the character again, the camera follows him walking. Duialogue and music contines still. Another wide shot is taken of the character with a tilt zoom movement. Then an over the shoulder shot is used as he keeps walking, then a pont of view shot. Another wide shot is taken of him walking then a cut in shot of his feet. Then a cutaway of the scenery again and a wide shot of him walking. Then the camera changes to a close up of the characters face again, smoking his cigarette. The music and dialogue ends and then a black background appears with the words in print 'SOBER' with white/grey text.

Next, a full shot of the door of the house appears, the character walks up to the door and opens it. As he opens the door, the camera changes to wide shot. Then point of view shot. Camera pans slowly a little to see the entire room. Close up of different characters. Begins to walk through the hallway, a girl tries to pull his arm to kiss him, he pushes her away. Shot reverse shot here. Continues into the kitchen, the camera follows him from behind. Then as he reaches the kitchen doorway, the camera switches to see the front of him enter the room. People are jumping and messing around, fighting etc. He walks over to the bench and sniffs some drugs, then carries on across to the other side and opens a can. Sips the can, and a close up shot is put here and continues to party.

List of Extra Actors

• Callum Lincoln
• Zoe Crick
• Niall Chazot
• Sam Bryan
• Patrick Rowley
• Alex Whitehill
• Megan Whitehill
• Jess Palmer
• Jess Ferguson
• Ben Graham
• Jason Mullen

Production Schedule- 19th January 2014

Sunday 19th January 2014

12:45pm: Go to Location

1:00pm: Arrive; begin run through and briefing with cast.

1:15pm: Begin Filming

1:45pm: Break

2:00pm: Filming re-starts

3:00pm- Break

3:10pm: Filming re-starts

4:00pm: Filming Ends

4:00pm - 4:15pm: Time for footage that needs re-doing

Production Schedule- 16th January 2014

Thursday 16th January 2014

5:45pm: Actors arrive

5:45pm - 6:15pm: Run and talk through and briefing with cast

6:15pm: Jonny- Main Character arrives

6:30pm: Take positions and filming begins

7:00pm: Break

7:05pm: Filming Re starts

7:45pm:Filming ends

7;45pm-8:00pm: Time for anything that needs re-doing

Call Sheets

Filming Dates

I have chosen the two dates I will be filming my project on:

Thursday 16th January

&

Sunday 19th January

I have chosen two dates quite early on as I would like the chance if needed in the second week of filming to redo any shooting that may need to be done and have another chance to film if anything does on the off chance go wrong (fingers crossed that it wont though!)

Name of Film

I have decided to name the film 'Sober'.

I chose this because it links to the story very well. The story is about a teenage boy growing up in the North East who has a difficult life and is very troubled. He struggles to cope with his life and results to relying on drugs, alcohol and partying with his friends to help him through. The idea is that when he isn't sober everything becomes okay and that is why he begins to constantly be drunk etc. The name Sober represents his life as it becomes alot worse when he is sober.

Props

For my opening, I will be needing some props.

So far, I have covered the following.

• Empty Alcohol bottles
• Cigarettes
• Fog Machine
• Chewing Gum
• Flour (pretend drugs)
• Credit Card
• Extra Lighting (maybe)

Costumes

As my film opening is set in the mid nineties, the style of wardrobe I've chosen is grunge, cool and simple. It is set in a low class background so I want the actors to look rough wearing no fancy clothes or expensive looking clothes. They're teenagers so I want a style of 90's youths.

Main Character- Shaun Evans

Black Harrington Jacket
Plain White T-Shirt
Jeans
Black Vans

For the scene with the extras, I have most of my extras finalised but there's still a few people I'm waiting on confirmation.

I have asked them to dress 90's style and make themselves look rough and low class. I have said to them to make their styles look unique as that's what teenagers do when putting together outfits trying to be different and individual with their own style.