Sound

In this opening sequence that we're filming, we have a very strong contrast between our two main characters and so the music we choose has to reflect the differences between the two characters at various points during the sequence. The music that we use however, has to be non-copyright and so we can only use music from sights that have been specially set up to help with amateur film makers' productions. For example, Bensound. 

Here are some examples of music we have are considering using: 


http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music/track/happy-rock

http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music/track/rumble

http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music/track/better-days

http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music/track/acoustic-breeze


  Learning Comment:

Character Profiles

Name: Kathryn Winfield

Age: 15

Hometown: London

Class: Upper class

Relationship status: Single

Current family: Mother, father

Other close relationships: None

School: St Bonaventure's

Dress style: Well groomed, sophisticated, organized

Religion: Catholic

Attitude towards Religion: Strong, strict

Hobbies: Horse riding, hunting, ballet

Favourite sports: Lacrosse, hockey

Favourite food: Salads

Sense of humour: It’s hard to make her laugh

Temper: Quite a high temper, especially when things don’t go how the usually go

Consideration for others: Doesn’t think much of anyone else of a lower class than herself as she was brought up this way

How other people see her: A bit stuck up, teachers pet

Opinion of herself: Thinks very highly of herself because she is well dressed and polite, brought up being told she is the best of the best at pretty much everything

Ambitions: Top grades, best job there is, makes lots of money (under a lot of pressure from her parents)

Most important thing to know about this character: She may be rich etc. but she is in fact very lonely

Will the audience like or dislike this character, and why?: At first they may decide to dislike her because of her background and the fact that she’s a posh stuck up girl, which is the stereotype for the “villain” in these types of films

Name: Jodie Smith

Age: 15

Hometown: London

Class: Working class

Relationship status: Single

Current family: Mother, father, 2 brothers, 2 sisters

Other close relationships: None

School: St Bonaventure's

Dress style: Casual, scruffy, laid-back

Religion: Catholic

Attitude towards religion: Relaxed

Hobbies: Drawing, playing the piano, writing

Favourite sports: None

Favourite food: Chocolate biscuits

Sense of humour: Easily entertained 

Temper: Quite a low temper, she tends to let things go and take the blame when things go wrong

Consideration for others: Respects others because she knows everyone has their own back story (as she has been through a lot and understands people easily)

How other people see her: She comes across as the “weird girl” to the popular kids because she has no friends, lots of people know about her strange/crazy family and how she doesn’t have much money – which shows through the clothes she wears, her uniform has many holes in

Opinion of him/herself: She thinks very low of herself because she has been treated like this her entire school life by others in her year

Ambitions: Just to get through school and get a decent job to be able to provide for her family at home

Most important thing to know about this character: Like Kathryn, she is very lonely

Will the audience like or dislike this character, and why?: They are more likely to become fond of Jodie than Kathryn because many teenagers can relate to the problems that she faces and therefore sympathise for her


Learning Comment:

In order to fit our two main characters into the opening sequence effectively, they must have at least one distinct similarity - in this case it's loneliness. However the use of binary opposites constantly throughout the opening sequence will be used effectively in order to highlight the contrast between the two protagonists and how their lifestyles differ. This allows the audience to distinguish between the two personalities and therefore keeps them more actively engaged when the two of them come together at the end of the sequence, whereby foreshadowing a friendship that was before considered unlikely by the audience. We will use a lot of codes and conventions and miss en scene to engage our target audience because as Kathryn comes from an upper class family, she can afford many more branded items such as a Mulberry handbag and Chanel perfume, whereas Jodie can only afford what her family buy her, such as body sprays and handed-down bags. This will be used a lot so that the  audience can get a feel for the types of characters they are and allows them to explore all the possible opportunities that would link them together later on in the narrative. 

Audience Profile

This is an audience profile created about the people who we have targeted as the audience of our opening sequence. We have made a prezi to show who our audience will be and how we are going to film in order to engage their attention.




Learning Comment:


From what we have learnt from this piece of audience research, we have discovered that the primary target audience of this film is more aimed at females between the ages of 14-19. This will be really useful when it comes to making our opening sequences because it means we can use the codes and conventions of films aimed at this range of people in order to make our opening titles as engaging as possible. For example we can include scenes that relate to the daily lives of people of this age, such as trying to fit in and the rush to get ready for school in the morning. It also means that we can make it applicable to those people in the secondary target audience by giving them an insight into the lives of their children and the ways that people of this age are feeling nowadays. 

Thinking of a Concept / Final Idea

In this piece of planning, we had to come up with an outline for our opening title sequence and film narrative. To show our original ideas I have made a mind map which covers aspects of media studies which will be expressed in our sequence, and codes and conventions that we will use to ensure our film fits in to the coming-of-age genre.

By doing this task, my group and I have been able to discuss which ideas we believe would and would not work and have been able to collect them all and form one basic structure that we are all happy with. We have taken into account aspects like lighting and setting and so we have chosen a location that will fit the needs of our sequence. We have also planned out our costume and other aspects of mise-en-scene so that our opening sequence will engage the right audience but also attract the secondary audiences of out film.

Learning Comment:

Preliminary Task

In this task we have been asked to plan, film and edit a piece of footage recorded ourselves. The storyboard below is showing the scene in which a person walks through the door, goes and sits next to another person and exchanges a few lines of dialogue. I have tried to make good use of a few filming and continuity editing techniques that are used when filming much larger productions and these include: 

- 180 degree rule is a filming guideline that the characters in a scene should have the same left-right relationship with each other, so filming only occurs on one side of the axis. If this line is crossed, it changes the viewer's perspective in such a way that causes disorientation and confusion. For this reason, crossing the line is to be avoided.

- Match on action (or cutting on action) is an editing technique in which one shot cuts to another shot showing the action of the subject in the first shot. 

- The shot/reverse shot is often used when filming conversations. It is often a shot showing what the character is looking at, followed by a shot of the other character looking back at them, for example.

Below is my storyboard showing the outline of what shots I used in the filming of my short scene.

After this planning, I filmed and edited the recording I took of my preliminary task. I have made sure to include the match on action technique, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree line rule. Below you can see the 14 second long video I've made to show my storyboard.


Learning Comment:

In the planning of this task, I have learnt the different types of camera angles and editing techniques that are used to create a continuous scene in films. For example, the 180  degree line rule; I have learnt through using this in my preliminary task that it creates a better perspective of the shot for the audience and it means that the serrate shots become much easier to edit together.
When filming this task, there are a couple of things that I will take away and use when creating my real opening sequence. E.g when recording, I have learnt that I will need to press the record button on the camera but then wait about three seconds before actually enacting the scene. This is because I found that when editing together my footage, the first half of sentences were cut off because I pressed record and the dialogue started at the same time, so half of it didn't get recorded. I will be sure to use this to my advantage when filming my sequence.
I feel that the editing of this task would have been a lot smoother and easier if I had made sure that I had taken more time when filming, and therefore left more time to fit slightly longer transitions between shots. For example, the last few transitions in my edited sequences are cuts, so when editing my sequence for the real task, I can use a wider variation to make my sequence more interesting.

Analysing Previous Students' Work

For this task, I had to look at two other opening sequences from other media students in order to give me some ideas as to how I should make my opening sequence and which techniques I have found to be successful. This task has given me an insight into what is possible to make and what I should be aiming to recreate:

The Edge






Roses Are Red



Learning Comment:

By watching and analysing a couple of other AS students' media work, I feel like I have gained a lot of knowledge about the conventions and techniques that are popular in a couple of specific genres, and I find that now I am able to distinguish between a piece of work that is A grade and a piece of work that is B grade. From watching the second title sequence, I have developed an understanding of what features are used in a  coming of age opening sequence like I want to create, in order to engage a target audience of this genre from the start. The use of music is very important in an opening sequence so I think that I should use something that is upbeat but simple, and that if I can, the music should hit a crescendo at the most intense part of the sequence. 
Unlike these two sequences, I would like to use more non-diegetic sounds to set the scene so that it helps to link the audio and visuals together to attract an audience. On top of this, both openings used camera angles effectively, but I will aspire to use a wider range of angles and editing techniques, such as close-ups. A technique that I really liked the use of was the shot that followed the character's feet, because I felt like that gave a different perspective to the film and made the character feel more relatable to me, as a person of the target audience.