My Final Video (in HD)

My Final Media Video

Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?(3/3)

In my preliminary task there was a scene where the camera switches from looking over one shoulder of a character to the other, thus changing the area of the 180º rule. After reviewing the footage, I decided that there was no need for this shot and that it made the conversation slow down to an unrealistic pace, taking away verisimilitude from my film. I later decided that I should be wiser when choosing when to use certain more advanced shots in my main task.

In my two minute introduction to a film, I used a similar shot that moved from one side of a character to the other, changing the area of the 180º rule. This time, I was sure that this shot would look good in my film. I feel that this shot makes the scene more interesting to watch, capturing each section of action from the skateboarder.

Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?(2/3)

In my preliminary task I use a zoom shot on a character's face. After reviewing this scene I realized that without proper equipment, zoom shots can look very amateur and shaky and the quality of the image can greatly decrease.

In my main task, I decided to take a close up shot of each of the nerds. Instead of zooming to a close up, I chose to cut to a shot where the camera was physically closer to the actors faces, therefore capturing the shot in the maximum quality possible.

Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?(1/3)

When I shot the scenes for my preliminary task, I was not particularly careful with the camera angles that I used. After reviewing my preliminary task I realized that I had some shots that I did not like. In the example above, I was not careful enough with the hight of the camera, and accidentally captured a scene with a low angle shot. This may have confused the audience because the character that was captured in this way was not supposed to be intimidating, but this might have been suggested by the camera angle.

In my main task, I was far more careful, making sure that the camera angles were just the way i wanted them. For example, the picture of the band performing was shot to capture the singer with the camera level to his head, and the musicians behind him to seem lower down.

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

How did you attract/address your audience?

Who would be the audience for your media product?

One of the key things about musicals is that most of them appeal to a wide audience, even if they have a slightly more specific target audience.

My target audience is younger teenagers who are interested in rock music, much like the target audience of the film ‘School Of Rock’ (2004). These people would probably listen to rock bands from the 60’s through to the early 90’s, but not much modern music. They have just started to learn to play the guitar or another ‘rock instrument’. They are picky about the clothes that they wear – usually a basic t-shirt, hoody and jeans combo with a pair of skateboarding shoes or basketball shoes. They grow their hair long and messy in an attempt to look like their rock heroes.

Because of these characteristics, a film about rock bands as the protagonists and ‘chavs’ as the antagonists would be very appealing to them. They would enjoy the musical genre because the music would be appealing to them, and because the story revolves around older teenagers playing rock music they may feel that this is something to aspire to.

However, musicals are often appealing to a very wide audience, possibly because music is a widely enjoyed thing that is not as subjective as some might think. A film of this style would be appropriate for most if not all age groups, although some stereotypes may offend people.

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

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Similarities between my ‘chav’ character and ‘Sam’ from ‘Kidulthood’:

Appearance:

Both characters are captured with low angle shots, making them seem intimidating.

Both characters faces are partially covered.

Connotations of power

Costume:

Both characters wear hooded jackets zipped up to the top

Both characters wear their hoods up

Both characters wear dark colours

Role In Film

Both of these characters play similar roles in the films in which they appear. In Kidulthood, Sam is on of the antagonists of the film. Similarly, my chav character is the antagonist in the film.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)

The Title Of The Film

My film is titled “Sex Ed Maths And Rock’N’Roll”. I chose this title because our film is a musical about rock music, and the title reflects this by playing on the title of the song ‘Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll’ made famous by ‘Ian Dury And The Blockheads’. The title also reflects the fact that our film is set within a school (sex ed, maths). It is common for films to show the title of the film in the first two minutes or so. It is especially common in musicals e.g. in Hairspray and in Grease.

Setting/Location

My film is set within a school. This is connoted throughout the film, like in the scene with the nerds – they are seen in a school ICT area. Another example would be when people are walking into the school property at the beginning of the film. Introducing the setting is a key factor in the first two minutes of films because it effortlessly explains to the audience where the film is based. It can also give the audience an idea about what type of film they are watching.

Costumes And Props

Because my film opening is largely based on stereotypical social groups, I have used a wide variety of costumes and props. For instance, the lead singer of our rock band is dressed in a leather jacket and a loose desert style scarf. He is holding a microphone and a microphone stand in his hands. The other people in this scene are playing a bass guitar and a drum kit. This use of mise-en-scene helps the audience to identify this character as the singer of a band. Another example of my use of costumes and props is the music technician who is recording the band. He is operating a mixing desk and has a pair of studio headphones in his head. He also wears a cap and hooded jumper. This is a reflection of real studio technicians being quite contemporary.

Camerawork And Editing

I am quite proud of some of the camerawork in my project. Because I did not have access to a steady cam or track cam, I decided to strap a camera to an office chair with wheels and push it around the school while filming to get the effect of a track cam. I also like the editing sequence in the scene with the rock band and music technician. The cross cutting was smooth and well timed, giving a good continuity. I also like the use of ellipsis by speeding up footage to make time pass quicker. I have not seen this in any musicals but I thought it was a nice touch.

Title Font And Style

The title of my film is show in a ‘bubble writing’ style font. I chose the colour yellow because I think it represents the liveliness of the film. I chose to use a ‘bubble’ style font because it is similar to the one used in Hairspray, a musical that I have analysed to get an idea of how to stylise my film.

Story And How The Opening Sets It Up

Story Summary – My film is about a protagonist group – the rock band, and an antagonist group – the chavs. George (the lead character) is a singer/songwriter that replaces Harry (the singer of the band in the first two minutes) as singer in the rock band. Harry then befriends the chavs and plots to sabotage the rock bands performance at the annual ‘Battle Of The Bands’. This is set up by the opening two minutes of the film. In the opening two minutes we are introduced to the chavs, the rock band, Harry and George. The rock band is seen recording a song. The following scene is George playing the ending of a song in the same key as the non-diagetic music. This order of these scenes was supposed to hint at an interaction between George and the rock band.

Genre And How The Opening Suggests It

My film is a musical, and to show this within the first two minutes, I have written some music to play throughout the video. I have also removed the audio from many scenes to put more emphasis on the music. The last two of my scenes are both music related – the rock band recording a song and George playing a song on a piano. Many musicals use social stereotypes as characters and groups. For instance, ‘Grease’ uses classic USA stereotypes of its time such as ‘greasers’ and ‘jocks’. For this reason I have decided to include stereotypical social groups of our time in my film – ‘emos’, ‘nerds’, ‘chavs’ and ‘skaters’.

How Characters Are Introduced

My opening two minutes focus on introducing characters to the audience. Each character, excluding George, is introduced within a group of people. The groups are introduced as stereotypes with text written on the screen. George is introduced separately because he does not fit within a stereotypical group, making him stand out as the main character. He is shown playing a piano, suggesting that he is musical and therefore the focal point of the musical film.

Special Effects

In my opening two minutes I make good use of effects. Between scenes there is a white flash that was added post filming. This was included to detach the scenes and to give an effect of non-continuity. I have also sped up a lot of footage between character-based scenes to build audience excitement.

Character bio / Unused character images

These are the final images that me and my partner hoped to include in our project, but could not because of time restraints. We imported the pictures of the characters into Adobe Photoshop along with some 'notepad doodles' that I designed for each social group. We intended to show each of these pictures after the corresponding scene had shown on screen to give deeper insight into the characters. The mise-en-scene was important in each picture because it helped reinforce the steriotypes to the audience.

This picture shows the 'skaters'. In terms of mise-en-scene, the most important thing was the skateboard in the centre of the image. The clothes are also important. The costume was put together to give a sense of effortlessness, something that is often linked to the extreme sports culture. The doodles consist of interests of the characters, such as skate ramps, skateboarders, and danger signs to convey the dangerous nature of the characters lifestyles.

This picture depicts the 'nerds'. They all wear large rimmed glasses in the picture. The key thing in this image is the doodles. They are all linked to the steriotypical social group. For instance, there is a chess club reminder in the top left corner, maths equations and a hydrochlorid diagram.

This is the 'emo' image. The important factor in this image is the fact that all the characters are wearing black. This fuels the steriotype that 'emos' only wear black clothes. In the background image there are a few doodles of hearts, one of which is cracked down the middle. This is suposed to suggest that the characters are depressed. The 'I love MCR' doodle means 'I love My Chemical Romance'. 'My Chemical Romance' are an American band who's music is traditionally popular within the 'emo' culture.

In the picture for the 'chavs', we decided that all of the characters would wear their hoods up with peeked caps on. This is an obvious steriotype to play upon because it is widely shown in the media. As for the background, I decided to use rudimentary, childlike drawings to suggest the chavs' lack of intelligence.

Photos Finished

Today I created the 'backdrops' for the photographs of the stereotypical groups. Each 'backdrop' was made up of a piece of lined paper with scribbling on it that in some way was representative of the group. For instance, the skateboarders backdrop features pictures of stick men on skateboards.

Credits - In the style of a musical

I have added credits into my film. The first two credits are the companies involved - Paramount Films and Bad Robot. These two are presented in a relatively normal font. The next text that appears onscreen is the title of the film (we chose it today - 'Sex Ed Maths and Rock'N'Roll'). This is shown in a large orange 'bubble writing' style, and from this point onwards all text is shown in this font. Actors names are listed and at the and the directors etc are listed i.e. Rohan and Myself.

Finished Editing

Today I spent a lot of time uploading the last scenes onto a computer and editing the project together. It was a struggle to get the film to fit into two minutes, so in the end I cut some scenes shorter than I would have hoped, but I am happy with the outcome.

Skaters

We filmed on of our friends skateboarding in the school grounds. I watched a few skateboarding videos to see how they are filmed. After watching the professional skateboarding films, I decided to take a simple shot where the camera follows the feet/board from behind and slightly to one side, and as a trick is executed, the camera moves parallel to the skateboarder. When the trick is over, the camera is in front of the skateboarder and rises up to give a long shot of the whole body of the person.

First bit of Editing

Me and Rohan have cut our scenes together and have started choosing bits of footage to use in our project. We have looked at effects to use and have calculated the average time that we can allow our scenes to run on for.

Some new scenes

I have filmed some new 'transition clips' to account for changes in our project. Me and Rohan also filmed a new scene - a handheld camera walks into the school building from the school gate. This scene was designed to attach the opening of our film (people walking into the school) to the rest of our film (track cam viewing different areas and groups within the school).

Cutting out the 'Normal Kids' scene

Are project was getting too long. We have managed to film over 100 minutes of footage to fit within the two minute boundaries, and after making a rough cut of the project it was too long and we needed to cut something out. We both thought that this particular scene was not of the same standard as the others and have therefore chosen to remove it. I have filmed a new 'transition clip' to account for the change in setting.

Rock Band

Today Rohan and I filmed the scene with the rock band and music technician (we cut out the jazz band because of time restraints in the film). We set up a drum kit, guitar and microphone for our actors to work with, and filmed another actor operating in a recording studio. From the recording studio, the band is in the shot, visible through a window. There is no photo for the rock band because in our story they are all main characters.

Establishing shot of the school in the morning

I got to school early this morning to film the main enterance of the school as people walked into the grounds. I filmed for about quater of an hour, filming as the amount of people entering at one time increased. We plan to take three or four small sections from the footage, each section with more people in it than the last.

More transitions

Today we also shot a new version of the transition from the bands to the lead guy because we ended up changing the room in which we shot the lead guy's scene, meaning that the transition clip had to end at the foot of a different door.

Emos

Today, Rohan and I shot the 'emo scene'. We had a cast of five, including myself. It is another short scene that focuses on the five people standing next to some trees in the school's garden area. We have also taken a still picture.

Nerds

I filmed the scene for the nerds. I filmed them in the schools library. In the scene there are three people sitting at a table wearing nerd style glasses reading from a pile of science text books and talking to each other. I have a close up of the books that they are reading as well as other more general shots of them. I have also taken a photograph of the key cast members of the scene to be edited.

Lead Guy Footage

Today we filmed the 'lead guy' in school. We captured footage of George Quinnell-Harcombe playing a song on a piano and singing. The song is by my band, so there are no copywriter issues. We will use this scene at the end of our video as the non-diegetic music ends. The diegetic sound starts as the door to the room opens. We took multiple takes of George, each take from a different angle, and one mobile camera take. The scene ends with George turning the equipment of and leaving the room.

Transition 'Flash'

I found a good effect that we can use for some of our styalistic transitions that made the brightness of the video increase to the point that the sceen becomes momentarily white. This could also be useful for our camera flashes.

Trouble Editing The Scenes

We had problems today with editing because some of our scenes have been sped up to fast to accuratly edit. We had to slow down all of our work so far to make editing easier.

Normal Kids - Shooting

We have shot the footage for our 'normal kids scene'. We filmed people in our school's common room sitting on sofas set up in a circle, with space for the camera man to move through. We have also taken a photograph of a few members of the cast for this scene to use as still photograph in our project. We took the photo against a blue screen and later I will edit the image by inserting a new background.

Above: the image as it currently stands.

Nearly done filming the 'transition clips'

Rohan and I have now filmed over 25 minutes of footage of the school corridors. We used our idea (taping a camera to an office chair) to film track cam style sections of the camera moving down empty corridors. We are going to cut the best takes of each section together and then speed the footage up to use in our second section of our two minute film (the first section being the scenes shot in the lead characters homes.) We are pleased with the footage we have captured so far.

Storyboard: Part 2

•Image 1: 'Chavs' standing (maybe dancing) next to a pylon.

•Image 2: Shots of a rugby game taking place.

•Image 3: Shot of the 'rock band' recording a song together.

•Image 4: Shot of a music technician recording the 'rock band'. The band can be seen through the window.

•Image 5: Shot of a jazz group performing in the room next to the 'rock band'.

•Image 6: Shot of 'Lead Guy' practicing his singing with a friend accompanying him on a piano.

Storyboard: Part 1

•Image 1 + 2: 'Lead Guy' waking up on the morning and proceeding with classic 'school morning' activities such as brushing teeth, eating breakfast etc.

•Image 3 + 4: Front door of home slams as 'Lead Guy' leaves the house. As the door slams, the scene cuts to an establishing shot of people walking into the school building.

•Image 5: Shot of 'Emos' standing in the school garden area.

•Image 6: Shot of 'Lead Girl' practicing her singing with her teacher.

•Image 7: 'Nerds' in library - two playing chess, two playing with swords.

•Image 8: People sitting on sofas in the common room conversing as a group.

musical research before filming

Research and planning for our musical

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Re-Capturing some sections of our 'transition clips'

We noticed after uploading and reviewing our shots for cut scenes when we noticed that in some takes we have managed to capture our shadows, and will therefore have to reshoot these parts earlier in the morning when the sun is facing the other way.

Thinking About Costume

A list of costume possibilities for the different characters:

Sports players - Rugby kit

Emos - Black skin tight jeans, black hoodies, dark eyeshadow, slight pale faces

Chavs - Big hoodies with hoods up, big tracksuit bottoms, big trainers

Jazz band/symphony orchestra - smart shirts, tucked in

Band - Skinny jeans/ripped jeans, band t-shirts, trainers/basketball shoes and accessories

Nerds - Black trousers, shirts, big glasses

Cast Thoughts

We have thought about the cast that we will need for our film.

This is a list of parts that we have so far:

Lead Guy

Lead Girl

"Emos"

"Chavs"

"Nerds"

Band

Jazz Band/Symphony Orchestra

Normal Students

Sporty Students

Friends of Lead Girl

Friend of Lead Boy

Music Technician

Drama Teacher

Music Teacher

Families of lead roles

In some instances we may use actors for more than one part e.g. we could re-use any of the "chavs" because in the shots they will have hoods up and their faces will be to covered up to see.

A beginning for our film

We think that it would be cool to start our film with the two lead characters waking up in the morning and getting ready for the first day at school. We will film the actors sitting up suddenly in bed with messy hair etc. then film as they proceed to other morning tasks like brushing their teeth. When they leave their houses the scene will cut to the school entrance scene.

Audience Profile

After looking at other popular musicals, we have decided that our film will be aimed at people from the ages of 8 to 15. It will probably follow the content style of a PG certificate film. The story will include topics of interst to people of such ages e.g. school life.

Problems with time restrictions.

We have estimated that our film is going to be well over two minutes, and so we needed to cut something out. We have decided to remove the opening scene because it is simply to long. Instead, the film will open at the school entrance with students entering.

I also thought it would be a good idea if in the opening scene we have a time-lapse where the scene cuts from just a few students entering the school, to a few more, and build up.

Because there will be no incet days between now and the deadline, we have changed our story slightly to be set in a school with a 6th form.

Problems with mise-en-scene in the filming

We are planing on basing our video in a 6th form collage, although we are filming in a secondary school. We have some shots of students entering the school with lots of people in, and these shots will be much easier to film if we take the shots as the school day begins. The problem is that most of the actors will be in school uniform, and this will seem unrealistic because it will be obvious that these people are not A level students.

To tackle this problem, we will try to take these shots on a school mufti day so that everyone will be in there own clothes.

Order Of Shots In The School

Rohan and I have decided on an order of shots for our scenes in the school. The order is as follows:

• Students entering the school by the gate
• Students entering the school in the canteen
• 'Emos' in the garden area
• Lead girl in the drama studio
• 'Nerds' in the Library
• Shot of students in the common room
• 'Chavs' by a pylon
• Rugby/football game on the field
• Band recording in a large music room, a shot of the band from the studio and a shot of the jazz band
• Lead guy in a practice room. (Dialogue)

Thought For Music

Today I went over to The Yehudi Menuhin School and listen to loads of peoples compositions written over the last few months. Each one seemed to have it's own unique sound. This has given me an idea that when I write the music for our project, maybe for each group on screen the music could vary according to the genre of music that is commonly associated with the group.

We are going to use a blue screen to take still shots of characters or groups with different backgrounds (e.g. a note pad with doodles on it). These stills could feature text; possibly cast, character and/or group name.

Getting Around The School In Our Project

We have decided that in our project we will capture different stereotypical social groups in different areas of the school. Between each area, we think it will be a good idea to film as we move on to the next area, and when we edit the shots we will speed the footage up.

To avoid the camera from jolting too much (although we aim to have some jolting movements), we think we will film the scenes with our own recreation of a dolly camera (camera taped to office chair).

Ratings

I have looked at the certificates of some musical films to help me understand what types of content I should aim to use. Generally, musicals seem to have very clean content that can be watched by anyone. For instance; Hairspray (2007) and Grease are both rated PG, and High School Musical is rated U.

PG: Parental Guidence
The BFFC defines a 'PG' as follows: "General viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for some children. Unaccompanied children of any age may watch. A 'PG' film should not disturb a child aged around eight or older. However, parents are advised to consider whether the content may upset younger or more sensitive children."

In a film rated PG there is a certain level of exceptance towards more adult features, including: more serious issues such as rasism or crime providing that these issues are not glorified in any way; a level of mild bad language may be used; nudity with no sexual context; the discrete inplication of sexual activity; moderate, undetailed violence.

Rohan and I think that we will try to keep our musical within the boundaries of the PG certificate specifications to help ensure that we create an accurate representation of a musical.

Film4 Films

Film4 Productions is a British film production company owned by Channel 4. Because a British television channel, and not a large media conglomeration own them, they tend to make lower budget films.

Film4 usually produce British films such as This Is England and Trainspotting, two films that are very different to my musical. However, following Film4’s global success with the film Slumdog Millionaire, they could be a good company to produce my film.

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. Viacom, the world’s third largest media conglomerate, owns Paramount Pictures. Paramount Pictures is the oldest American film company, founded in 1912. They will often produce and distribute a film, as well as playing just one of these roles.

Paramount Pictures help make films from all genres, and would therefore have experience when making a musical. Paramount Picture would be a good candidate to produce and distribute my film.

Working Title Films

Working Title Films is a British film production company, founded in 1983. Working Title Films are soon to release a television division. American filmmaking company Universal Studios owns Working Title Films, who in turn is owned by American multinational conglomerate General Electric. Because of Working Title Films’ relationship with these large companies, they often make small budget films, but have the ability to produce films of larger budgets, such as Johnny English, with a budget of $40 million.

Working Title Films are responsible for “stereotypical British Films” such as Four Weddings And A Funeral, Notting Hill and Bridget Jones’s Diary, as well as more traditional British Films such as Atonement, Pride And Prejudice, etc. However, they also make more general films. Because of the companies extensive experience in general film making, although not so much with musicals, I would say that Working Title Films could be a good company to produce my film.

We intend on using the school's 'PEC room' as a location for a shot involving athletic students working out.

We want to get a shot of the school jazz orchestra or symphony orchestra rehearsing their music.

We want to use this science room to get a shot of students doing chemistry practical work with bunsen burners and liquids in flasks.

We think that the library will be a good location to get a shot of stereotypical 'nerds' in the school.

This is the main entrance to the school. Rohan and I think that this will be a good area to get a general shot of students as they enter the school's main building.

We think that the canteen will be a good location to obtain general shots of pupils in the school.

We are going to use this area to get a shot of students 'flooding' into one of the buildings as they are bottlenecked through the door.

Rohan and I like this area because it looks nice and could be used for a number of different shots.

This is an area of the school that looks particularly run down and unpleasant, with a broken bollard and industrial sized bins to the right of the frame. This area could be used when we shoot a section representing more rebellious and willfully disobedient students.

The drive up to our school. We intend to capture a shot of students walking into the school in the morning.

More Ideas Regarding My Two Minute Opening

today we looked at the opening scenes of films of different genres (Kidulthood and Goodfellas for gangster, High School Musical, Hairspray and Grease for musicals and Scream, Saw II, Cloverfield and The Village for horror) and took notes on what we thought were distinctive techniques and characteristics used to help convey what genre the film is. I found this task useful because I will be able to apply the ideas that I have taken from watching the openings of the musicals to my two minute opening scene. I found that musical films are interesting because they do not seem to have to follow a particular theme or use any specific techniques. Also, only hairspray opened with music, where as Grease and High School Musical both begin with scenes introducing the leading characters. I think I will have to include song and dance in my opening scene because there seems to be no other obvious way to convey the genre of film that I am trying to recreate.

Generating Ideas For A Two Minute Opening

Last week Rohan and I presented to the class our ideas for our final two minute long introduction video. After thinking about doing a horror film or a gangster film, we decided we would do a musical style film based in the school, potentially writing a short soundtrack for it ourselves. We have thought about a corresponding story-line and potential cast, what we are going to shoot and how we are going to shoot it.

Our First Video Conversation

Editing

Today Rohan and I cut up and edited our footage. I think the match on action has been done quite well. We have taken as much unwanted noise out of the scene as we could without disturbing the speech too much, and we are becoming familiar with the editing software. After a bit of time spent cutting the clips up and moving things around, we managed to get the speech how we want it. We plan to upload the scene tomorrow.

Today I also did an analysis on the opening five minutes to the horror movie 'Scream'. I learned to make links between different aspects of analysis such as 'sound and editing', 'camera work and sound' and 'mise-en-scene and editing'. After the task, I now feel comfortable with analyzing in this way.

First bit of filming

Me and Rohan started filming for a bit of classwork last week. We have filmed a person walking down a corridor and entering a room where they sit down and exchange words with another person. The match on action when the first person enters the room is pretty difficult to get right but hopefully it will come together when we edit the shots later on.