My opening to a film is called Hope. I have used the style of a homemade video whilst my title’s run to fit in with my planned synopsis. I chose the genre romantic comedy for my film as firstly, a personal choice and also because my research showed up that it was a popular choice for the female audience and also occasionally highly rated by males. I also came to this decision after watching and commenting on a selection of films which came under the romantic comedy subtitle. The intended audience for my film was females. The story within my film touches hearts and would hopefully appeal to a wide age range audience.
My media product uses conventions seen in a real media product as it shows the opening two minutes to a film. Like in a real media product as characters appear on the screen so do the actors names so that the audience can relate character to actor. I have used a popular style to do this in, using a easily legible font and fading the names in and out as the characters appear. Also, like in a real media product I have chosen a non- diegetic sound track to play over the film. This automatically creates a mood for the audience to pick up on and adds dramatic effect, like the sound of the heart monitor used towards the end of my media product.
My opening film credits does not represent a particular social group as the characters represent a mother and daughter relation. Connotations of my opening suggest that the person who ‘made’ the home made film, in the style I have filmed it, is very proud of their daughter and wishes to share moments of her life with others as many families stereotypically do.
The kind of media institution which may want to distribute my media product is a company like Working Title. This is because the intended romantic comedy genre of my film fits in with the films directed by Richard Curtis and also distributed by Working Title. The film captures a mood of sorrow and also of triumph which are regularly seen in his films, for example Love Actually and Notting hill. The Todorov narrative style is also similar with events happening throughout the film and ended up again in equilibrium at the end. Working Title would benefit from distributing my media product as it reaches out to a wide audience of both male and female of a varied age.
The intended audience for my media product is mostly females of a wide age range. Because of the family group and the events occurring in my media product, it may also appeal to males who can relate to the representation of a family situation. My media product was planned in order to attract a large age group. I think it is possible because whilst younger audience members can easily relate to the young character that appears throughout my film, older audience members, especially those with families of their own, can understand and emphasise with the parents and friends of the family.
I thought about different techniques to attract my audience and the main technique was the interesting story line, planned out in my film synopsis. Again, this uses a Todorov style storyline. I also planned to use characters and actors, if I carried on with my media product, which were likeable for the audience and well-known to encourage my audience to come and see the film, even without seeing a trailer.
The main storyline within my film is about a little girl called Hope. At a young age Hope gets a heart problem and spends much of her childhood in and out of hospitals. At the age of thirteen Hope is told that she has no choice and must have a life saving transplant. The rest of the film shows her fight with the law courts and hospital, her family life and the storylines which weave throughout these. My opening to my film is structured to look like a home made video that many parents make of their children when they are young. I have edited it into a montage to play whilst the credits are rolling. The actual filming of my media product did not pose any difficulties to me but once it came to editing my knowledge of technology was limited. Because I chose to use a personal camera, uploading my clips onto the computer was a long, boring task. After uploading them to memory stick each one had to be converted into a windows media format. After this my editing on Ulead was pretty simple. The montage style I chose meant simply choosing which clips to use and which not to use. The style I have used for my opening titles may look messy to someone who does not understand the thought behind it. It was easy to achieve this look as all I had to do was fade my clips together and add the audio track on top. This took some time as I decided not to have speech in my product. For each clip I had to erase the dialogue and put the music I have chosen on top.
Looking back at my preliminary task I feel I have learnt a lot progressing from that to my final media product. The time and work commitment involved in the prelim was a lot less than that involved in the main piece. Going from working in a team to working individually also proved difficult. Using my own camera also meant I came upon difficulties as uploading my clips onto the computer wasn’t as simple as it seemed. Working individually also gave me the chance to learn how to use the editing program properly and gave me complete freedom in choosing how I wanted my product to look.
Monday 11 May 2009
Friday 8 May 2009
Evaluation of the "walking down the corridor"...
Here we go...
Evaluation of Media Project One
We filmed our project down the E corridor. Before doing so we decided how we were going to structure our short film. Tom came up with the idea of using three different shots, one of a clock, one of someone drumming their fingers and one of someone walking down a corridor and rotating them until it shows the person walking into the room. When we filmed this we just continually filmed each separate thing and then cut them and put them together how we wanted when we edited. When we came to film someone walking through the door we used lots of different shots and angles. We did this so when we edited it we had lots of film to choose from and we could it together the best we could. For example we used a close up to show the hand opening the door handle. We also used to close up on the other side of the door to show the facial expression of the person through the glass of the door as they came through the door.
When we filmed the conversation it was a little boring because we had to film it over and over again from different angles in the room. When we first started we forgot to keep in line with the 18 degree rule and had to re film some of the angles we wanted to use for the conversation. Editing it was difficult because we had to fit the lines of the conversation together and make sure it was continuous and the close up and mid shots fit together and it didn’t jump from a mid shot to a close or the other way.
George and I had the conversation and we had to try and keep facial expressions and what we said each time exactly the same to make the editing easier.
When it came to editing we had to cut each shot as we played the whole thing. Then we cut each shot down to exactly what we wanted. The one with the clock we had to cut and delete some parts because we wanted the time to be continuous through out the film. We cut the drumming of the fingers in half with the second clip an extreme close up.
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Evaluation of Media Project One
We filmed our project down the E corridor. Before doing so we decided how we were going to structure our short film. Tom came up with the idea of using three different shots, one of a clock, one of someone drumming their fingers and one of someone walking down a corridor and rotating them until it shows the person walking into the room. When we filmed this we just continually filmed each separate thing and then cut them and put them together how we wanted when we edited. When we came to film someone walking through the door we used lots of different shots and angles. We did this so when we edited it we had lots of film to choose from and we could it together the best we could. For example we used a close up to show the hand opening the door handle. We also used to close up on the other side of the door to show the facial expression of the person through the glass of the door as they came through the door.
When we filmed the conversation it was a little boring because we had to film it over and over again from different angles in the room. When we first started we forgot to keep in line with the 18 degree rule and had to re film some of the angles we wanted to use for the conversation. Editing it was difficult because we had to fit the lines of the conversation together and make sure it was continuous and the close up and mid shots fit together and it didn’t jump from a mid shot to a close or the other way.
George and I had the conversation and we had to try and keep facial expressions and what we said each time exactly the same to make the editing easier.
When it came to editing we had to cut each shot as we played the whole thing. Then we cut each shot down to exactly what we wanted. The one with the clock we had to cut and delete some parts because we wanted the time to be continuous through out the film. We cut the drumming of the fingers in half with the second clip an extreme close up.
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The other project we did...
So apparently the evaluation from the "walking down the corridor" thing we did has to go on here as well, so better late than never here's mine. I warn you, its pants...
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Hopefully and finally finished...
I think I've finally finished everything I should have done, my film is complete along with music and everything. :) Yay, I've written my film conventions and comparisions essay and its on my blog. My story boards are all printed off and my evaluation is finished. Its like a massive weight off my shoulders :)
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Film Coventions...
I looked at lots of different film genre's and watched the openings of four films to help me choose which genre to use for my film....Here are my comments about each of them...
Comparison of Film Openings.
License to Kill – 007; You tube; License to kill opening titles. Action film.
Opening of the film is a mix of animated pictures and real footage. It uses different special effects to move between each shot. For example wipes, dissolves and cuts. Some of the shots have a coloured tint added to them to change the colour of the whole shot and it uses silhouettes in different colours. For some shots there is no background scenery and is just simply a black colour. Uses slow motion for when the bullet is fired and you see it moving across the screen, pan and tracking. The credits are in white capital letters to stand out from the dark colours used. You don’t see any particular production design or costume and the sound is simply a pre recorded non – diegetic track to set the mood.
Chariots of fire; You tube; Chariots of fire – movie opening scene. Drama
It uses cross fades through out to suggest continuity between scenes. Uses a pan to show the characters running across the beach, to make the audience feel as though they are there with them. Cuts to a long shot to show them moving along the beach and tracks to show a man, a boy and a dog. The characters are wearing old fashioned running kit and clothes. For examples, flat caps, long boots and socks and blazers. The colours are very light pastel colours such as white, baby blue and sand. Cuts to show a very old mansion house, possibly sets the location and time period. The credits and title are in white text, capital letters and an old fashioned font.
Juno; You tube; Juno opening. Romantic Comedy
Starts with a black screen with the word “Autumn” fading in, white text, capital letters. Immediately sets time of film. Fades from black to long shot of house, immediately sets the location. Cuts to show the main character, long shot so you can see she is wearing modern clothes with a modern hairstyle. Its use of close-ups allows you to see facial expressions. Uses cut to express her flashback. It then switches to animated shots with the effect of being hand drawn. It uses a wipe to push each new shot onto the screen. It uses superimposition with more than one shot on the screen and the dissolve effect. Some shots are just the animation of the main character with just a plain coloured back ground behind her. It fades back from animation into real life. It uses 2 shots and OTS to show the facial expressions during the conversation.
Titanic; You tube; titanic opening credits. Romance thriller.
The difference between this and all the others is that its opening credits are in black and white instead of colour. This immediately suggests to the audience that it is an old film. It fades between shots of people waving and the boat. White text is used for the credits and it finally fades to a shot of the darkly lit water and then “titanic” fades in, in white capital letters.
Comparison of Film Openings.
License to Kill – 007; You tube; License to kill opening titles. Action film.
Opening of the film is a mix of animated pictures and real footage. It uses different special effects to move between each shot. For example wipes, dissolves and cuts. Some of the shots have a coloured tint added to them to change the colour of the whole shot and it uses silhouettes in different colours. For some shots there is no background scenery and is just simply a black colour. Uses slow motion for when the bullet is fired and you see it moving across the screen, pan and tracking. The credits are in white capital letters to stand out from the dark colours used. You don’t see any particular production design or costume and the sound is simply a pre recorded non – diegetic track to set the mood.
Chariots of fire; You tube; Chariots of fire – movie opening scene. Drama
It uses cross fades through out to suggest continuity between scenes. Uses a pan to show the characters running across the beach, to make the audience feel as though they are there with them. Cuts to a long shot to show them moving along the beach and tracks to show a man, a boy and a dog. The characters are wearing old fashioned running kit and clothes. For examples, flat caps, long boots and socks and blazers. The colours are very light pastel colours such as white, baby blue and sand. Cuts to show a very old mansion house, possibly sets the location and time period. The credits and title are in white text, capital letters and an old fashioned font.
Juno; You tube; Juno opening. Romantic Comedy
Starts with a black screen with the word “Autumn” fading in, white text, capital letters. Immediately sets time of film. Fades from black to long shot of house, immediately sets the location. Cuts to show the main character, long shot so you can see she is wearing modern clothes with a modern hairstyle. Its use of close-ups allows you to see facial expressions. Uses cut to express her flashback. It then switches to animated shots with the effect of being hand drawn. It uses a wipe to push each new shot onto the screen. It uses superimposition with more than one shot on the screen and the dissolve effect. Some shots are just the animation of the main character with just a plain coloured back ground behind her. It fades back from animation into real life. It uses 2 shots and OTS to show the facial expressions during the conversation.
Titanic; You tube; titanic opening credits. Romance thriller.
The difference between this and all the others is that its opening credits are in black and white instead of colour. This immediately suggests to the audience that it is an old film. It fades between shots of people waving and the boat. White text is used for the credits and it finally fades to a shot of the darkly lit water and then “titanic” fades in, in white capital letters.
Friday 1 May 2009
My Film Synopsis...
Blurb : “Growing up from a young age with a heart condition wasn’t ever going to be easy. But Hope dealt with it. Until now. Facing the threat of a heart transplant she took a deep breath and simply said “No.” She’s had enough.”
Hope has to deal with a heart condition, started from the drugs she took from leukaemia. The film starts with her as a small child with a grainy “home made” video and then goes on to show her legal battle and her bid to be allowed to go home and stay at home. The end of the film would show her win and living life to the full.
Hope has to deal with a heart condition, started from the drugs she took from leukaemia. The film starts with her as a small child with a grainy “home made” video and then goes on to show her legal battle and her bid to be allowed to go home and stay at home. The end of the film would show her win and living life to the full.
So the editing is finished....
So I've finished my editing and everything and now all that is left to do is finish my portfolio, I've written my evaluation which I need to post on here and all my storyboards and scripts need printing off and putting together. And everything has to be in by Thursday. Fun!
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