Evaluation Question 7 - Preliminary Task

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

In the following I will look at the similarities and differences of my pre-lim task and my final opening scene. I shall also talk about what i have learned in the process.

Below are both of the films, the first being the pre-lim: Sweet Potato, a film revolving around a man in love with a potato. The second The Disciples: Back On The Block, the story of 2 singers struggles of making it big again.

How did you find the preliminary task and what was the hardest thing to overcome?

My preliminary task was difficult for me because i had little to no practice using cameras or editing software. This left me to figure out what looked good and worked well. It was evident that the pr-lim would have to focus around one character due to the time limits otherwise the audience may become confused with the plot. The pre-lim also faired difficult due to the lack of locations we had access to film in. I feel the camera shots we did eventually get worked well but compared to our movie opening they are weak. The hardest thing to overcome was without doubt getting to grips with all of the equipment and software that we were required to use. For example the cameras uploading time was painfully slow on the Mac's but experience taught us to upload the footage to the normal computers first and transfer it via USB.

Where you happy with the pre-lim task?

I would say all in all i was happy with the pre-lim, despite the stresses. Compared to my editing on Back On The Block, Sweet Potato lacked in graphic effects as i had not researched some good effects to use. I would say that Sweet Potato also lacked in scene variation due to the fact we didn't have access to a lounge in order to create the first scene. The main mistake in my pre-lim task was ridiculous as i managed to mix the names up. This meant that my character had the same name as my colleague, Issak's character, which meant the film was extremely difficult to grasp. I made sure i did not make this mistake again.

How is your final scene better than your pre-lim?

My final scene was a great improvement due to the time and effort that i put into the planning, the shots, and the editing. I also took time to find the best settings for Premier, making the film widescreen at a 16:9 aspect ratio to cater for bigger screens. I was also happy with the pitched film due to its frequent indoor setting as this eliminated the problem with lack of winter daylight.

Shot Comparison:

First Scene:

The first shot of my pre-lim was a still, introducing the characters with no sound. This seems fairly bizarre looking back now as i gave no background to the characters.

This differs to a graphical entrance in Back On The Block, with exciting music and fast paced media. This really created a great cinematic experience due to a number of things: I scouted the sound effects better, i made the titles more prominent and i made sure the film was recorded at a better quality.

Second Scene:

I am proud of Sweet Potato's second scene as we used a difficult match-on-action shot. This created a sense of movement for the character and required alot of preparation an editing in order for it to look correct.

The second scene of Back On The Block slowed the pace down from the first shot, due to its dramatic nature. It contrasted well due to its shot of inanimate objects that meant alot to the character. The mise en scene was also very well planned as it effectively contrasted with the character, giving him emotional depth. One being white and pure (a bathroom) and one being dark and tainted (C.Dot).

Third Scene:

The third scene on Sweet Potato is the running scene in which close ups of the character can be seen, this aids to give personality traits to him, mainly him being unhealthy, relating to the couch potato comment early from the other character. This is fast paced and a..... interesting scene.

Back On The Block's third scene is without doubt the best in the movie. It took a enormous amount of time to create but without it, i feel the film would have never reached its potential. With majority effects and little filming, it really set the seen for the music industry side of the film.

Final Scenes:

There is only one other scene in Sweet Potato, the dramatic ending, this features a close up and a potato bite. It then ends with the Titanic film music and crying scene along with the title of the film.

Back On The Blocks has many more scenes indicating its faster pace than Sweet Potato, i feel this works well as it keeps the audience engaged. The interviews are very important as it really shows some personality behind the characters, along with short performances from the pair.

Evaluation Question 6 - Technologies

Technologies I used to create the film (as featured in the video above):

Apple iMac 21.5 inch - 

This is the primary technology i used. This assisted me through the whole project, from planning to uploading the final project. I worked on OS X Yosemite, the systems operating system. With lightening fast processors and stunning graphics, this was the perfect platform to create our movie on. The only downside of the Mac's where their speeds when transferring video footage.

Windows Computer (Dell) -

Although most of the project based on the Mac's, i often used a computer for other tasks such as transferring footage from the camera to a memory disk. This was because the cameras which we used where designed to cater for a Windows based system meaning transfers where a significant amount faster. I chose not to use this platform to create our film on due do their less sensitive mouses which made fine editing harder than on the Mac's

Sony 8.9 Megapixel HD Handycam - 

This is the camera which we used to film the vast majority of footage needed for our opening. It proved extremely good at shots from afar, recording everything in detail. It was average for closer shots, struggling with some lighting. The feature to easily watch back footage directly on the camera was extremely useful as we could see it before the transfer, preventing any scene re-films. Its upload speeds were painfully slow on our primary PC,the Mac, although proved better on a Windows PC. We were pleased with how easy it was to attach to a tripod, making still shots easy for us to conduct.

Microphone -

From the start we wanted to record an original piece of music for the opening. We completed this using a microphone to capture a good sound quality. Although a difficult task to set up in the recording studio, we eventually managed it, recording the vocals for our soundtrack. Once placed on the computer (audacity) it provided us with a clean sound with minimal sound interference. 

Headphones - 

I used headphones in many different situations. They proved to be very helpful in the recording studio as it enabled us to listen to the soundtrack which we created (The Traamps - Rubberband mixed with The Game's - Hate It or Love It) whilst singing over it. This would mean the soundtrack wouldn't have to be played outlaid, reducing the quality. I also used them throughout the editing process in order to hear imperfections in the audio which i may not have heard if it were to be played out loud.

Tripod -

We used these to gain access to steady shots by attaching the camera to it. They seemed easy enough tho operate. The only criticism i would have is that they are fairly hard to manipulate in order to change angles of the shots, taking up a lot of time. They also were very stiff meaning it was difficult to move the camera during shots.

Lighting - 

When using the green screen, we decided to add lighting in order to create authentic looking footage. Although they were heavy, large and often in the way. We managed to work out the situation, placing it out of shot meaning the green screen would not be interfered with. They added a natural glow to our characters, also meaning the green screen footage was easy to UltraKey. 

iPhone (various models) -

These were our go to gadgets, whether it be researching on the go, recording voiceovers or emailing images. They were influential throughout the whole process making little tasks which may have been insignificant back then extremely easy. These little tasks built up to make the whole project, meaning this gadget was one of our biggest assets. The whole of the original soundtrack was entered around these phones. The lyrics had been written on it. The lyrics had been performed using it. The soundtrack had been played through it. It was an all-round winner. I have no criticisms for this piece of technology.

Audacity - 

I used this program to edit the majority of our sound. It provided a simple, yet effective platform which could provide easy sound editing for us. Despite this, the program was often glitchy and wound me up due to some outdated programming. The criticism is valid but it could be argued its designed for Windows 2000, a fifteen year old operating system. 

Youtube -

I used youtube multiple times. A primary example was for one of the visual effects in which the films characters' music video can be seen. It also aided me through the planning process as aided us in our film research. I would criticise that it often provided slow service and upload times but that was to be expected.

Safari - 

This was our research browser. It was another technology that was used throughout the project. Although often criticised as a slower, less supported browser, it seemed to fair well with everything we used it for. It was an obvious choice for our browser as it is native to the iMacs, meaning it was going to be speedy. This also was the home to many other of our technologies such as youtube, blogger and gmail.

Blogger -

We used blogger to document our work from the beginning to the finish. This included our film pitches, the planning leading to production and our final publishing. I would have to complain though, it lacked in user friendliness and was very unreliable. It was hard to navigate but all in all it done the job. 

iMessage/WhatsApp -

These are 2 messaging services me and my peers used to communicate both in and out of school. It allowed us to brainstorm and communicate when we were not with each other meaning we could cut out communication sessions in time where we could be doing other tasks.

Microsoft PowerPoint -

This was a great piece of software due to its wide variety of functions and user friendly image editing. Although it may not even be considered in the image editing world with titans such as Photoshop dwarfing it, this program saved me many hours. It cut down the time when creating graphics such as our flagship title scene. I would criticise that it was not as fast on the Mac's as on the Windows computers. This would be due to the fact it was created by Windows' makers.

Microsoft Word -

A program which we used to document a lot of the planning and evaluation. It enabled fast and effective word processing. The file sizes were small and easily transferable and media could be added if necessary.

Gmail -

Used infrequently but enough to be considered as one of our technologies. We often used it to mail larger files to each other but this wasn't often due to our different specialised fields. Mel completing the majority of the documents, Nathan filming and starring in the film and Connor editing kept us fairly separate with sharing documents and media. 

Adobe Photoshop CS6 -

I used this briefly to create our film poster. Although a lot of the media was manipulated on PowerPoint. This added some effects that cannot be accessed on PowerPoint like layering. I didn't use this program alot due to its large variety of unnecessary functions that i would not need.

Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 -

My best friend and my worst enemy. The single most important piece of technology in the process. I probably have got into the days where i have sat infant of a computer, tweaking an effect or changing a sound on this program. Before i started this course, i had no experience with this program but its safe to say i quickly learnt. With a huge variety of effects and features, this program is an editors dream. I started with the basics, importing all of our footage and setting it up. Organising took a lengthy amount of time but we managed it. Once this had been complete, i started playing with effects in order to learn what the program was capable of. Key moments of our film were made possible by this program, for example the image based titles. It allowed me to green screen, with great success. It allowed me to fade, distort and change both image and sound with great success. And finally it allowed me to create my film with great success. The program performed in most fields but burdened me with rendering, and unless i frequently rendered, i couldn't watch the previews. Within the entirety of the project, 1/3 of it was rendering. Other small problems were the length of time needed to change colours using the 3-way colour wheel, not providing me with a preview once i had, and minor UltraKey problems in which the background would show over the upper layer, although this was easily fixable. All in all it served me very well despite its time consuming.

Evaluation Question 5 - Directors Cut

Evaluation Question 4 - Audience

Evaluation Question 3 - Media Institutions

Evaluation Question 2 - Representation

Evaluation Question 1 - Conventions

We watched many documentaries and mockumentaries films such as 'One Direction - This Is Us', 'Michael Jackson - This Is It' and 'Spinal Tap' where all three films conform with the theme of our film Comedy/Documentary, however Michael Jacksons and One Directions films was far more serious and more like a fly on the wall documentary whereas our film was more staged. We also watched some other films and television series that fit within the mockumentary style, such as 'The Office'. Watching these films and these televisions series enabled us to compare our own film and get inspiration for it to better our film and make it more comical. We related our film to some things to conform to the genre conventions to make our film stand out from all the others. To fully answer this question I have separated it into four sections: Narrative, Conventions, Characters and Style.

Narrative- 
Levi Strauss devised a way of analysing narrative and studied hundreds of myths and legends all around the world, from that he found out that we as humans make sense of the world, people and events by seeing and using binary oppositions. He found out that narratives are arranged around the conflict of binary opposites. Basically that binary opposites are the central climax of a narrative structure. Using Strauss' theory, we set up an binary opposition: that Keith and C.Dot are so opposite in how they are and also how we would usually see a musical duo to be, they are the complete contrasts to this.
Another theory that we adopted in our film is that of Barthes' enigma code, this is five codes which are woven into any narrative. The main code we used was the 'Hermeneutic Code' which refers to any element of the story that is not fully explained and hence becomes a mystery to the viewer. The purpose of the author in this is typically to keep the audience guessing, arresting the enigma, until the final scenes when all will be revealed and all loose ends are tied off and closure is achieved. This relates to our film because it raises questions such as, Why are these two characters together? How did they meet? Why was Keith in prison? What was the real reason why they broke up in the first place? Why are they back together?

Characters: Keith Abraham Lovesworth (One of the two protagonist)



Keith is presented as an extremely holy, church goer who has found himself and has been born again. We can tell this because of the clothes he wears, which are very smart, simple and religious looking. We can also tell this by the way he speaks and what he says;' however later on in the opening sequence, you find out that Keith has been to prison which then juxtaposes what we thought we knew of him and does not make him as holy as we thought. The audience sees Keith as a very flamboyant character because of his monologue he has nearing the end of the opening, which the shots of him walking, and when the camera pans down when he is lying on the grass are all shown over his speech, which the viewer found amusing when surveyed, therefore makes him loveable because the viewer knows that he's been to prison yet still found him funny.

C.Dot (The other protagonist)



 

 

 

 

 

C.Dot is presented at the start of the opening sequence as non-stereotypical singing partner, who happens to look like a harden criminal that grew up on the streets of London, which from the offset creates an amusing atmosphere as it contrasts Keith entirely as the viewer wonders how they got together as they are completely opposite. Later on in the sequence when C.Dot is looking in the mirror seriously, we still think he will be the serious tone to C.Dot which will continue throughout the whole of the opening sequence and my group all hoped to make the viewer think that they will not really learn much about him as we all hoped they would think he will be the guarded character out of the two. This all changes when he starts speaking because of the way he sounds as we find out that he is rather geeky with a bad stutter; which now makes the audience feel at ease with him as they find him more approachable.

Style:
After doing a vast amount of research on various opening titles for the genre we wanted to create, Connor edited in the titles throughout the task and then added footage in to fit around it. We took inspiration from Justin Bieber's title openings, Michael Jacksons title opening and Spinal Tap's title opening. We wanted to take inspiration from these three films because we tried to keep within our specific genre when researching as we wanted to make it look as professional and as realistic to the three film openings as possible.
Mise En Scene


Costume:
For our costumes, myself and Connor wanted to really stereotype the characters as we wanted our audience to be shocked when the two characters started to talk. We decided to dress Keith up all in black smart clothes and make him wear a dog collar, which implies that he is a vicar thus reinforcing the fact of him being extremely religious. For C.Dot, we decided that he should mainly wear hoodies, hats, sunglasses and a lot of gold chains to portray to the audience that he is some sort of gangster.

Actors:
Our main actors are C.Dot and Keith, who are played by Connor and Nathan. They play a failed singing duo who won the X Factor and had hits all over the globe but then something happens which make the pair fall out, but now they are reforming the band for the biggest comeback of all comebacks.

Make-Up:
We used no make-up during the filming of this opening sequence as we did not need to convey anyone being hurt (blood, gash).Setting: The majority of our film opening is set indoors, we used the green screen a lot to emulate the allusion of being on stage singing to thousands of screaming fans. It was set in the outdoors for Keith as he loves God's gift to the world (mother nature) and for C.Dot the shots were mostly indoors in the recording studio to represent that he likes to make mix tapes.

Props:
We used a microphone, a guitar, gold chains and sunglasses for our props. They all represent their musical back ground and their time in the spotlight.


Lighting:
During the majority of the filming process, we used natural light for Keith outdoors shots to make the film look more real to life. However, the majority of our lighting was the use of studio lights because it made our skin look better when in front of the green screen. Connor used an effect on Premier to make the first few shots in black and white to illustrate the failing of the band, this was pathetic fallacy as the emulated how Connor felt at the time.

Genre Conventions:
Our film challenges the traditional documentary conventions because it is mocking the music industry making it more amusing than serious and factual. It mocks celebrity life and pop culture. Our film is extremely similar to the film Anchorman as they mock the news industry which makes it the most similar to ours as we are mocking the music industry, they both intertwine together because news and music are connected showing that we based our characters and the way they act on how actors/actresses act in Anchorman which is very sarcastic.

Film Poster

The next step in my process was creating a poster for the movie. This was much harder than i first thought it would be due to the difficulty with fonts on the Mac. The font i used as the primary title was native toWindows meaning i had to externally install it on the Mac. Once i had, i found it difficult to manipulate due to the slowness of the Mac comprehending what was asking it to do. Eventually i found a way to speed this up: by converting the text to a picture and changing it from there. The end product can be seen below. It draws inspiration for the Dark Knights film poster with aspects of it being imitated.

Second Render

Today I taught myself a couple of new effects in Premier and implemented them into my video. I firstly learnt how to create professional zooming in my titles using motion and key frames. Although initially finding the zooming tricky, I mastered it which came in handy for my next effect. After overlaying a .png picture on a background I learnt how to make an effective movement scene where the background moves one way and the .png the other. The final trick I taught myself was how to input a moving scene behind a stencil to create an effective title. All these effects can be seen below on my 2nd Draft.

Feedback (First Draft)

Our feedback was very pleasing as most of it was very positive. Here is what some of the feedback said.

1. Can the genre of the film be identified and how?

Many people could identify our film genre being a documentary by the opening which was very pleasing. However some people did say that they thought it was a mockumentary which it is almost bordering but people still knew it to be some sort of documentary which was good.

 2. What went well?

Most of the feedback said that the editing was 'outstanding' and that the concept was very good. Also we were told many of our shots were good too.

 3. Even better if?

Many people did not like our interview but that was because it was not filly edited. I now think that we are going to take it out of the film opening and put something else in instead.

 4. Does the film present an adequate enigma?

Most of the feedback said yes The average of the overall grade was between 40-50/60.

First Render

With spare time and an exciting idea, I took it on myself to create a potential opening to the film. This opening includes the production company's, sound and music. Lacking any raw footage, the template is to be edited adding footage at a later date. The following video is a TEMPLATE which I have created, the final edit will bare resemblance but shall be edited with greater attention to detail.

Newspaper Article

Today my attentions focussed around creating social media which I could include in our film, i felt this would play a strong roll in showing our characters comedown from the peak of society, to just another failed band. Choosing a popular Newspaper: The Sun, I created the below article.

Special Graphics

When creating the opening I decided to challenge myself and create a visually stunning title to the movie. This would feature the bands name: The Disciples, with the film name underneath: Back On The Block. I researched many films and how their main title was portrayed. After enough research I found a type of title which would work best on our film.

This title I chose to create requires creating an image with a hollow title which would allow me to place a video behind the picture, creating the effect of a moving title.

To go about this I firstly created the template. A black background with a normal title on, as if it where a poster. The next thing I did was change the 'Back On The Block Title to as vibrant colour as possible to make the hollowing as easy as possible. Due to a tight schedule didn't have time to create the hollowed image on a program like Photoshop. Although it would create a crisper border for the hollowed text, I felt a faster creation would be more beneficial to our production process. I imported the image into PowerPoint and use the 'Remove Background' function. This allowed me to remove the vibrant coloured text leaving a transparent effect.

Once I had created this image, I transferred it to Premier. I then laid it over a video which I had chosen. Choosing the correct video was difficult but I felt it was essential to chose one that had frequently changing 'Disco' colours.

The final creation can be seen below.

Shot List

When filming we wanted to include as many different shots as we could.

Here is a list of the shots we have chosen to film and hopefully include in our opening sequence:

1. Close up of Connor
2. Close up of Nathan
3. Panning shot (right to left) of Connor and Nathan in recording studio
4. Long shot of Connor standing
5. Mid shot of Connor sitting
6. Medium shot of Connor at the mirror
7. Close up of Connor looking in the mirror
8. Close up of hands by the tap
9. Medium shot of Connor washing his face
10. Close up of chain on tap
11. Close up of chain in sink
12. Medium shot of Connor and Nathan (at church)
13. Extreme long shot of Nathan walking towards the camera
14. Panning upwards of Nathan standing
15. Panning downwards/ birds eye view of Nathan lying on the grass
16. Close up of stepping in a puddle
17. Close up of Nathan's face
18. Long shot of Nathan walking towards camera
19. Close up/ panning left of Connor and Nathan

 We will be adding more shots and we may not include all of the shots listen above in our film opening.

Timeline

Original Music: Live For God

From the start of the production we always knew that we wanted to make a song to accompany the production. Even though we couldn't sing well if we wanted too, it is intentionally bad. This adds to the characters persona's by showing to the viewer the reason why our characters are on the slope to the bottom. Sadly, we didnt get to use the song in the final film but i felt it should be uploaded due to the effort (or lack of) put into it. Here is The Disciples comeback single: Live For God.

[Lyrics]

 [Keith]

 Live for god,
Shake his hand,
Praise the lord for this holy band,
Live for god,
Shake his hand,
Praise the lord for this holy band,

 Like a bird soaring high,
Reach to god and touch the sky,
Thank him for the life we live,
And a passionate prayer ill give,
Thank god for this land of heather,
I just wish that i could live forever,
COME ON

 Live for god,
Shake his hand,
Praise the lord for this holy band,
Live for god,
Shake his hand,
Praise the lord for this holy band,

 He took my dreams and made them true honey,
Gave me the fame and the money,
Showed me love and made me funny,
Everyday he clears my sky and makes it sunny,
His son was born in December,
And on the 25th we shall remember,

 [Connor]

 Coming up from the hood man,
Where the druggys kill each other for a tin can,
Mad 8 year olds cruising with they hoods up,
Drinking special brew from their old sippy cups,
If a boy ever threatens me they better run,
Cos a gangster never leaves the house without a gun,
Come from the city repping shit like everyday,
Cos you know in chelmsford that we get paid,
Keep it thoro I've never been a fake g,
On my own style like the boys mobb deep,
You clowns fuck around and die today,
Shots through you like a motherfucking x-ray,
 People ask me when the next album drop,
They wanna hear that chart motherfucking hip-hop,
Paired with chief Keith and his mad pop,
Next album diss-ciples back on the block,
Go ahead Hit em up Keith

 [Keith]

x 2 Live for god,
Shake his hand,
Praise the lord for this holy band Live for god,
Shake his hand,
Praise the lord for this holy band

Production Diary

Here is our production diary, we kept a record of what we did day to day for 2 weeks whilst we were planning, filming and editing our opening sequence of our film, The Disciples. This will be useful for us to look back on as we can see what we did wrong and also what went went well and how well we used the time given to us to film.
We had already been assigned our groups and i was put into a group with Nathan Lorenzo and Connor Healey.


10th November
We had previously made individual film pitches which we were able to show to our group, we then decided on one of the films to make an opening to. We decided to go with Nathan's idea which was about a once famous duo called The Disciples who were a major musical hit back in the day and now making a comeback. We all decided that this would be the best idea to film and would be the most fun to plan, film and edit. We had to make sure the film pitch was perfect and make any alterations we though it needed before we were to present it to the class in the next lesson.

11th November
This lesson we presented our film pitch to the class as a group and we asked people to give us feedback on what they would do differently and what they would change to make it better, we then used that to make out film pitch perfect so we knew exactly what we were going to be filming.

12th November
Today we looked at films that were similar to the ones that we would be making the opening to. We has 3 films that we thought were most similar to our film that we wanted to make, these three films are One Direction's 'This Is Us', Michael Jackson's 'This Is It', and also one other 'Spinal Tap' which was most like our film as it was more of a mock of a band rather than a serious film about singers and their travels. We focused on how the titles were presented and how they opened the films and noted down anything that would help us with ours.

13th November
We carried on looking at similar films again today and continued making notes on anything that we could include in our film opening.

14th November
Today we were all individually working and keeping our blogs up to date and making sure our lap charts were up to date too.

15th November
[weekend]

16th November
[weekend]

17th November
We all wrote in our lap charts all of the tasks that needed to be done in order to prepare and plan for the film, we then split these up so we all had a equal amount of work to do.

18th November
We were all getting on individually with our tasks given to us, I was doing audience research whilst Nathan did market research and Connor started making a script.

19th November
This lesson we were carrying on with our tasks and we also came up with the name for out film - The Disciples Back on the Block. The Disciples being the duo that is making a comeback.

20th November
Today we were all doing another one of the tasks we were all set. Nathan was doing the institution task and Connor was carrying on with the script that he was previously working on. I was making the storyboard for our film opening which I found quite challenging.

21st November
Today we were all making sure our blogs were up to date and had everything it needed on there.

22nd November
[weekend]

23rd November
[weekend]

24th November
We started filming today as we felt we had done enough preparation to be able to start shooting.

25th November
We were carrying on filming and I made a few alterations to the storyboard I had previously created as we wanted to change a few things as we were filming.

26th November
We spent today finishing off all our planning for the film opening individually and making sure we would be prepared to film for the next few days and know what we are filming.

27th November
We were filming for all of today's lesson, we found it quite easy as the shots we had to get were easy to film indoors.

28th November
We were filming again today, this time it was more difficult as we were shooting outside and we found it harder to get the perfect shot without being interrupted.

29th November
[weekend]

30th November
[weekend]

1st December
We were filming again today and making sure we had all the shots we needed and making sure that they were perfect for us to start editing.

2nd December
Connor started to edit the footage today, we used the green screen to film another part of the opening and Connor was working on some edits that would be included in the opening.

3rd December
We had started adding in the footage to the Premier software, me and Nathan went out to film again as we were not happy with one of the shots that were taken so we did that whilst Connor stayed inside editing and creating more edits.

4th December
Connor continued editing and me and Nathan were catching up with our planning that we missed and also making sure our blogs were up to date.

5th December
Today was the first deadline for the first draft of our film opening, unfortunately we had not got very far with our first draft but the teachers and peers were all very impressed by how well edited and timed it was.

6th December
[weekend]

7th December
[weekend]

8th December
After receiving feedback from the first draft we started making changes and making the opening scene more completed than before which was one of the improvements that needed to be made.

9th December
Me and Nathan we continuing with any research we missed before and Connor continued editing.

10th December
We all made sure our blogs were up to date today.

11th December
Connor got a lot further with the editing and the opening was nearly complete, me and Nathan we making sure all the shots were there and telling Connor if there was anything wrong with what he had done.

Film Certification

For mine, Connors and Melanie's film 'The Disciples: Back On The Block', we had to decide what film certificate to give it. When in the planning stages for our film, we decided that giving it an age rating of 15 would be most appropriate as from the outset we chose that our film will involve some traces of drug abuse and some scenes that younger viewers may find offensive, such as when Connor raps in the beginning of the open sequence, a swear word can be heard and generally his language when rapping is considered offensive. After doing some research i found that drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. I believe we do not do this however we do show this openly and talk about it.

Institution

The Island Def Jam Music Group (IDJMG) was an American record label group formed in 1999 when the Universal Music Group (UMG) merged two of its daughter companies Island Recordings and Def Jam Recordings. In 2011, Motown Records was split from the Universal Motown Republic Group and was subsequently merged into The Island Def Jam Music Group. Barry Weiss served as Chairman and CEO of the company. As of February 2014, artists on the IDJMG roster included Mariah Carey, Rihanna, Kanye West, 2 Chainz, and Iggy Azalea.

On April 1, 2014, it was announced that Island Def Jam will no longer be running following the resigning of CEO Barry Weiss. The label will now be reorganizing Def Jam Recordings, Island Records and Motown Records all as separate entities. Being as our film is about a singing duo who is as big in the music industry as Rihanna and Kanye West, my group thought it would be ideal for our film to distributed by our 'record label' and a lot of films that are produced by music companies we have taken inspiration from, for instance One Directions movie and Lady Gaga's tour movie. We took a lot of our creativity from these two films in particular. One of the main reasons that we decided to chose this distributor is because they have had precious experience in producing films like ours.

Interscope Communications (also known as Interscope Pictures) was a motion picture production company founded in 1982 by Ted Field. Its divisions included Interscope Records (which was founded in 1990 as a joint venture with Atlantic Records).

Moodboard

In this particular lesson Nathan was assigned a task to make a mood board consisting of all the sorts of things we would either like to show in our opening scene or something just to give us inspiration to work from it. A lot of the images are from other documentary films such as One Direction's This Is Us and Michael Jacksons' This Is It.

Shooting Schedule

Script for Interview with Keith

Mel - So what have you been up to since the split?

 Nathan - Prison mainly, it was quite therapeutic really. I found Jesus, shared a cell with him. Lovely lad, hispanic, went by the name hey-zeus. [pause] In all seriousness though, i did find the church. i was born again.

 Mel - Weren't you born again before the band? 

Nathan - Yeah but this was more like an afterbirth 

Mel - Have you been in contact with C.Dot?

 Nathan - [looks into the distance] I wonder where he is now

Script for Interview with C.Dot

Before this interview there will be a shot of Nathan and Connor turning to look at each other after Nathan's interview.

 Mel - people might look at the two of you and think it's quite an unconventional partnership

Connor - [pause] what are you trying to say?

 Mel - Well it's a gospel singer and a rapper

 Connor - Thats racist and there is no placism for racism in the music industry.

After the interview it then goes on to the first film Logo coming up and the titles will start.

Synopsis Planning

What we will need:
 Gold Chains, Sunglasses, Bandana, Snapback. Green Screen, Lighting. Room to interview in. Microphone. Recording Studio. Sink, Tap and Mirror. Brink Wall. Pathway, Trees, Greenery. 

Characters:
Keith Abraham Lovesworth (Nathan) In this I will be playing a religious, eccentric character who cannot sing but has made it big in the music industry with his singing partner C.DOT (Connor). He is a calming influence on Connor and the two are completely different personality wise but when they come together and sing, something just feels right.
Callum C.DOT Flewers (Connor) In this Connor plays an offensive, serious person who finds it hard to control is anger. He is the one that has the offensive lyrics which offends Keith's church but Keith overlooks this as he sees good in C.DOT.

Costume: For myself, the group felt as if he needed to always look formal, with various white or black shirts and formal jackets as we felt this would represent me as a religious figure, in one shot i dressed in all black with a white dog collar and a gold chain with with the symbol of Jesus to represent me as a 'Vicar' or 'Priest' which hopefully some people will find comical. Connor decided to dress in lots of gold chains with various hoodies, bandana's and snapbacks to represent him being from the streets of London which people will also hopefully find comical because it illustrates that we are two completely different people from different walks of life.

 Location: Our film opening will be located in various different locations such as recording studios, walkways, brick walls, interview rooms and an almost bathroom looking area. Audience: We have pitched our audience to be between the ages of 15 and 30 however not excluding any ages over the age of 30. We did not think anyone younger should be able to view this because there will be traces of drug abuse and offensive language also our group envisaged our fans being older than 14 years or younger as they would be too young to be around when we was big. The film certificate is 15.

Possible Opening Script

Keith's Monologue when being interviewed.

'As the new generation, my artistry and my faith and creativity is nothing to do with making it because we had kind of already made it, right? I mean when we were playing for nothing in the church it was still like we have made it, we still felt like we were superstars. I look out into that crowd and im like when the fuck did this happen? How did this happen? Who created this? Because I didn’t create this, its for sure, it must be God, its for sure Jesus because it is'nt me because im not ridiculous enough to think for a second that I am not powerful. We woke up one day and we were like, we made it… it worked... I told so many people for so long that I was a star and but I wasn’t and one morning I woke up and the delusion was real. I get to live my dream I get to hopefully live the dream in a way that inspires other people to live their dreams. I always knew it was my destiny but I didn’t know what destiny meant until I saw my fans, God and C.Dot until I saw the birth of the The Disciples. We are destiny, the fans are the truth and they are my reason for waking up in the morning to Moses my pitbull. I'm still the same person that I was, before all of this happened I still walked down the same streets, go to the same Church, I drink my camomile tea with extra shot of basic.'

My group thought it would be a good idea to include various shots of me walking round a city, sitting in different places and just shots of me in various locations. This was all inspired by watching a opening to Lady Gaga's MonsterBall DVD. It will occasionally go back to the interview which will include myself as Keith and Mel as the interviewer from HBO

Storyboard

The Disciples Logo

When planning our production it was evident that our characters would need a band name and logo, for both story and graphical purposes I created a logo to be used. The graphics of the logo can be manipulated to my liking by using a pre-made template. The final product can be seen below along with some alternate designs.

First 30 Second Filler

Over the last few days i had been watching various opening scenes for movies that relate to our genre and plot, one of the most notable being One Direction's 'This Is Us'. After the opening credits, a montage of clips of the boys growing up can be seen with photos of the boys at various different ages being displayed. When laying in bed at night, i remembered an old photo album full of pictures of me at different ages. I feel that conforming to this opening genre style will prove to be effective and will there take advantage of the find and potentially implement these pictures into my opening scene.

Planning Stages

Approaching the creative stage of the task, me and Mel took it upon us to plan some of the key attributes. This included the plot, the setting and potential props and things we made need to set up the production. In the picture below we are discussing the potential fonts that may be used in a variety of texts that will be associated with the film. We are discussing in particular the band which our films based around, The Disciples' logo.

Risk Assessment

Titles Research

To research titles, Nathan had to gather information on films from our given genre and analysis them. 

To begin with Nathan had to research past films like 'Micheal Jackson's: This Is It'.

One Direction's: This Is Us' .

and finally 'This Is Spinal Tap'.

 All of them being movie documentaries about famous bands, and even one of them being a mockumentary, the specific genre we are aiming for. Nathan studied all three of these opening sequences and what I found in common with them is that the titles are simplistic and it shows a back story which is something we are aiming for.

Audience Research

Audience Research for The Disciples Back on the Block from Chaypolllinger

Final Movie Pitch

We finally chose to go with my colleague Nathan's idea, consisting of a washed up band who had a successful single and are now trying to get back into the music industry. The below info was a pitch we presented to our class.

Audience – Our primary audience will be be female teens between the ages of 12-19 , potentially expanding to a secondary audience both genders upwards of 15. We feel the target audience would pay to see it as it is a in depth look into the life of the music industry that they would not otherwise see. It also is entertaining, funny and moving.

Producer and distribution - Illumination pin association Stryker Productions Film comparisons - Michael Jackson ‘This Is It’ andOne Direction ‘This Is Us’Genre.

Style and Mood - The film is an upbeat one, slowly deteriorating to a portrayal of pity and failure. We feel the contrast will make the pacing enjoyable as it will be swift with twists and turns.

Genre– Our film will be a documentary, bordering on Mockumentary, this will be due to its serious yet joking nature. Although not often aimed at our chosen audience, we feel it would work sufficiently.

It is about the lives of two failed performers (The Disciples) who had a one hit wonder, who are desperately attempting to rise up the ranks and publicise their new song: It Takes 2. It shall be set in various locations, the intro shall be the pair performing a snippet of their big hit and continuing to show their downfall in more low key places.The themes and messages of the film are to never give up on your dreams even if the odds are against you and you have no right to access them due to your lack of talent.

The opening sequence will relate to the film as it will emulate their high hopes from the beginning and show the rise and fall of the band, progressing to a re-up of success’ later in the film. From the start to about 1.5 minutes the opening will show the bands high, fans screaming, big stages and loud music. It shall the have a imminent stop displaying the title. After the title, a brief summary/biography of the band will be narrated over transitioning pictures displaying the fall from the top. This will include Heyzues’ illegal narcotic addiction. It shall finally conclude with an interview of the two with an interviewer asking key questions to the pair like “what went wrong?” and “what's happening next?”. The titles are integrated by being in time with the music, they wont be inputted seamlessly but appear as a black screen in-between heartbeats and music. With a final graphically enhanced title with the movie name.

The style and mood of the film is an upbeat one, slowly deteriorating to a portrayal of pity and failure. We feel the contrast will make the pacing enjoyable as it will be swift with twists and turns.

Individual Film Pitch

The following is a pitch to my group about what are film should be about, it includes specifications that I would like to see when creating it.


I would name my movie Freedom to Fail and i believe the genre would work best as a TEEN DRAMA. This would work well as we would have the correct resources actor wise to produce it. The movie would be ABOUT a struggling youth battling the grimy realities of a city. He is introduced in various scenes of him walking through the city, looking lost emotionally. It shall be SET IN London, but is not limited to the London settings, meaning we can film in locations similar to this area. The THEMES of the movie is to display the dramas and struggles that modern day inner-city youths are forced to encounter, for example drugs alcohol and violence. The films MESSAGE,  is that everyone goes through struggle, often not winning. I feel the TARGET AUDIENCE would pay to see it as it would effectively emulate and amplify their problems and they would be able to relate to it. I would put an age rating of 15 on this sort of film as it would contain too much explicit content to be rated any lower, thus meaning the target audience would be middle of the line teens to people in their middle twenties. The OPENING SEQUENCE will relate to the rest of the film by addressing the setting and some of the films key characters. It'll also capture the genre well by using a specific arrangement of Mise en Scene. This will include locations that often signify youths bad behaviour and costumes specific to the age range E.G. hoody's and caps. I feel good camera work and constant changing of angles will create a great opening. Although the character will only be partaking in minor events, if filmed correctly, the film should be engaging to the audience. The STYLE and MOOD are similar, both should be grimy and dark, this paints the image to the target audience that no one around this area is well off, and it is an overall struggle. The titles will be integrated in many ways, many shall be embedded in the picture and various graphical techniques shall be used to create a visually artistic opening sequence. I feel that DIALOGUE will be kept to a minimal in order to achieve my idea, this is due to silences connotations of loneliness and fear. CONTINUITY PRINCIPLES will be followed to create a fluid, medium length scene opening, I will eliminate fast scene changing as it would make the pace seem fast when actually it wouldn't be. SOUND will be primarily used in the form of music, I feel the music choice will be vital for my opening. I feel that this movie would be good as it WOULD NOT CONFORM to how movies often end: with a light at the end of the tunnel. The main character would not overcome his problem.

Student Film Evaluation

Today we watched various movies from previous years to draw inspiration for our own. We also learnt some tips on how to make an effective opening.

We gave judgements student videos from the past years, theses included:

• Gemini - 40/60
• Roses are Red - 45/60
• My Mother and I - 28/60
• A Schools Nightmare - 30/60
• The Edge - 55/60

We were told to say if they provided an entertaining experience and if not, why they didn't.

I found roses are red to be creative but lacking in story which told me that one of the key pieces of criteria is that the opening must show character.

Gemini was good as a thriller but lacked the correct actors due to age meaning the target audience was confused, another piece of criteria that i decided to take into account.

The edge, a thrilling opening, which kept everyone glued to the edge of their seat, received high ratings across the board with great effects and acting. I would hope to make my opening as good as this.

Pre-Lim Task Feedback

Upon being told our presentation had been shown to our peers and fellow classes, we were presented with feedback on our over all short film.

With overall positive reviews, it seemed people really liked our film. The main criticism was that our film didn't hugely conform to our genre: Rom-Com. A fair criticism, although completely conforming to the genre would have been difficult in a group of three boys.

Film Language

Film Language is an important part of knowing what you are going for when filming and is made of 4 different sectors: CAMERA, SOUND, MISE EN SCENE and EDITING.

CAMERA:

• Frame 

- Extreme Close up, Close up, Mid-Shot, Medium Long-Shot, Long-Shot, Extreme Long-Shot

• Angle

- Birdseye, Low, Level, High, Worms-eye

• Movement

- Pan Left or Right
- Tilt Up or Down
- Tracking
- Static Shot
- Crane Shot
- Zoom in and Out

SOUND:

• Music
• Dialogue/ Speech
• Voiceover
• On-Screen (can see where/who sounds coming from)
• Off-Screen (cannot see where/who sound is coming from)
• Diegetic (Everything thats included when filming)
• Non-Diegetic (Everything thats added when the editing process occurs)
• Parallel (When music is implemented to match scene)
• Contrapuntal (When contrasting music is used against the film e.g. nursery rhymes in a horror)

MISE EN SCENE:

• Costume
• Lighting

- Low Key

-High Key

• Actors
• Make-Up
• Props
• Setting

EDITING:

• Pace (How swiftly paced the change of camera angles are)
• Special Effects
• Order of Narrative (Whether it takes place in the normal time format or if its in flashbacks)
• Graphic Matches 
• Transitions (how the movie cuts and the movement from one scene to another)