Evaluation

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our two Continuity pieces and opening main piece represents a "teenager peer group".

Whilst filming we knew exactly what social group we wanted to represent and by doing so we took into consideration the Mis-en-Scene, by us filming the two continuity's in the location;Sixth form Social room, it added that affected of reality to our scenes, the decor in the social room also contribute to the scenes, such as the notice board with events,updates around school and the whiteboard in the social room, the space in which we filmed in also represented a social group, the social room we used was a small room it is a accurate representation of Sixth form common rooms-cramped.

The costume is also a true representation of peer groups we made sure in order to create the feel of sixth form that we had all the cast in casual wear-jeans,jogging bottoms,t-shirt, in the main piece we had Bobbie in a white top, this was to signify her as different and to let the audience know that she was the main character.

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

I have learnt that team work is a vital piece to play when creating a film and co operation.

Initially I thought creating a film was a novice task but I have seen from my own eyes it is not as easy as it seems, there are many background components that are carefully considered in order to produce films let alone a 2min opening.

I have also learnt editing is not a simple as it seems,the amount of editing that goes into the opening of a 2minute film is incredible, editing can be a tedious job ensuring that each and every shot is superb is difficult, fixing jump cuts with smooth transitions etc, we had the opportunity to use I Movie whilst editing which was a slight benefit for those familiar with the software, initially i had no knowledge of I Movie at all, so getting to grips with the editing was a difficult and stressful process

Overall this course has been a great learning curve for myself, I feel I have learnt the techniques producers go through to ensure that credits are incorporated into the beginning of their film to the best of the ability and how effective it is,the stressful job of editing a 2minute clip can take days and days of re filming and how to use I movie more efficiently in order to add transitions to give the impression the scene has moved on to a different location,change effects e.g black and white to give a more scary effect to the piece and to add credits to the scene to make them more effective (e.g in the opening of Spider man 2)

Poster ideas

I've had a look over different posters in the musical/dance genre to give the group some inspiration as to what to include in our poster, colour,font,image layout wise and tag lines.

Below are various posters from the musical/dance genre that i feel convey music and dance at its best.

Step up (2006)
This is one of my favourites it shows a light behind the two characters whilst the lady balances in the mans hand it creates the sense of trust but also taking risk/first steps which sits in well with the tag line- "Every second chance begins with a first step"



Honey (2003)
Tag line:Her dreams,her Terms
the use of images behind the woman portray a sense of a journey also the buildings Honey is standing upfront of shows a sense of again a journey but overcoming the city.



Fame (2009)
Tagline:Dream it-Earn it-Live it
The title "fame" is seen lit up by lightbulbs as usually seen in broadway, the piano in the background seems focused out and the lighting behind the woman portrays the woman as she has accomplished.

2minute Opening clip completed

The opening clip has now been completed you can see it at;

http://bjbriscoe-jabby.blogspot.com/2010/05/main-movie.html

Potential fonts for promotional material

I have been researching into various fonts we could use in order to be promote our film to the best of our ability- (as our films social group is teenager peer groups we carefully are going to decide which best would relate to the social group),e.g, posters,DVD covers etc, I've found a website; http://cooltext.com/
which basically generates your text into a logo/graphic image, examples are below;



Here's one mock up iv made of the opening films name in the font generator



I choose this text as a potential text for our group name as i thought it sat in well with our film, the logo has that vibrant red shade around it whilst the lettering are grey, i feel the red stands out and can catch the appeal of the audience

Group discussion video

Below is a link to a short 3minute discussion that the group did, discussing Mis-en-scene,camera shots,angles and compositions, editing and sound.

The discussion can be found here, on the group blog;

http://conscience2010.blogspot.com/2010/05/discussion_07.html#links

Fame 2009-inspiration for our opening clip

Since the completion of our two continuity's Ive been looking at various films that the group could get some inspiration from in order to create a 2min opening to a film.

Fame is about new york talent attending the New York City High School for the Performing NYC Arts,students get specialized training that often leads to success as actors, singers, etc.(from IMDb)

I think our group as a whole could gain a lot of inspiration from this film and we hope to all watch this on DVD and make notes on the camera techniques,editing and sound used within the film.

Feedback on 2nd continuity via social network-facebook &twitter

The second continuity has been up for a a day or two now,I have posted a link to the 2nd continuity on my Facebook page and Twitter, theese social networks will help me to gain some negative and positive feebback regarding the continuity clip from friends.

Having some negative &positive critisim will help me in my future studies as it will highlight what i need to improve on and what iv done well,and its from people who are on the same level as me so its not completley bias.

The feedback can be found here;

http://conscience2010.blogspot.com/2010/05/continuity-2.html#links

2nd Continuity completed!!

A link to the 2ND continuity can be found here on the groups blog;

(It is more social towards a normal teenage life.
We tried our best to vary each shots in order to make it more practical each other.)


http://conscience2010.blogspot.com/2010/05/continuity-2.html#links

Enjoy :)

Story board for 2nd continuity

Iv attached the storyboard for the 2ND continuity, i could not seem to get the image rotated straight or the picture to be any clearer but hopefully with my explanation you can make it out to the best of your ability or view this as a written storyboard so...

(In this clip we will enlist the help of a GCSE Drama student to fulfil the acting role we required, we felt that with us acting it was not taken serious enough and we kept ending up playing around and joking.)

First we have a two shot/Long shot of Leslie and Richard (1),then there is a transition(2), then a POV and two shot of Leslie and Richard(3)and lastly a

Again I've taken a lot of thought into this 2ND continuity's planning with the camera composition such as the two shot of Leslie and Richard to give the illusion to the audience as a sense of friendliness but also to signify they both have something to say rather than doing the generic reverse shot,POV or over the shoulder shot, i feel although we may have limited camera movements or shot sizes we still have covered a few camera angles all of which will contribute to the scene.

This scene will be shot within another sixth form social room in our schools building as its a prime location where college students like to hang out rather than us having to enlist peers and again it ties in well with the continuity as its a group of college friends talking about a football match, we also aim to have the characters in casual wear to contribute to the illusion of college life and a "typical teens" choice of wear.

In the editing stages on the Mac i plan to use I-Movie and plan to edit with a transition in the 2ND scene, the possible transitions i have in mind are a fade in, box or mosaic all of this is to allow a smooth transition and maybe cover up any potential bad jump cuts.

At present i have only thought of some ambient sound of people talking and may edit with some non diegetic music to add to the feel of a typical sixth form social room.

Feedback on first continuity via social networks

The first continuity has been up for a couple of days and since then i have enlisted the help of social networking twitter & facebook to get my friends to write some negative and positive feebback regarding the continuity clip.

I personally feel that having some negative critisim will help me in my studies as it will highlight what i need to improve on in the future and its from people who are on the same level as me so its not completley bias.

The feedback can be found here;

http://conscience2010.blogspot.com/2010/05/continuity-1.html

Continuity 1 completed.

A link to the first continuity can be found here on the groups blog;


http://conscience2010.blogspot.com/2010/05/continuity-1.html#links

Story board &explanation for 1st continuity

Below is a storyboard for the my first continuity, despite my poor drawing i hope the illustration comes across clear....if not i shall explain.

First we have a pan from a low angle then a mid shot of Sue-Ann and I(1), then two shot of Sue-Ann trying to get Bobbies attention as she listens to music(2), Sue Ann is then seen talking from a canted angle(3) then a extreme close up of Bobbie is seen(4), then a spin as the camera is Sue-Ann's eyes to a two shot of Alberto and I(5) and lastly credits(6).

I've taken a lot of consideration into our first continuity with the camera compositions,angles and movements such as the pan from a low angle to Sue-Ann and I illustrates a sense of activity as we are speaking prior to the pan, then the ECU of Bobbie is to allow the audience to focus on Bobbie letting them know she is speaking, i also like the spin movement the camera will do coming from Sue-Ann's perspective-creating the illusion of power.

This scene will be shot within the sixth form common room in our schools building as its a friendly location and ties in well with the continuity as its a group of college friends talking, we also aim to have the characters in jeans/casual wear to contribute to the illusion of college life and a "typical teens" choice of wear.

I plan to edit and do a transition in the 3rd scene from Sue-Ann's canted angle to Bobbies ECU this is to allow a smooth transition and maybe cover up any potential bad jump cuts.

I also plan to have some diegetic sound of Bobbie playing music through her headphones and ambient sound of Alberto and I talking all to contribute towards the clips aim of re creating a college life atmosphere.

Camera arrival!!

In todays Media Studies lesson we recieved the Video cameras we will be using to film.

We began the lesson with a tutorial demonstrated by our teacher via the interactive board, we learnt the basics such as how to switch between modes,white balance, taking snapshots whilst filming, we also went over the camera movements such as pan, canted angle, tilt (all of which i covered in the image in the previous post)

When I first recieved the camera i was a bit skepticle at first but gradually become acostume to using the video camera as in class we practiced different Camera shots and angles within our group and produced short scenes consiting of potential angles we could use.

This was my first time actually experimenting with a video camera on angles but personally thought i did ok as i did a tracking scene,ped and extreme close-up

Possible Camera shots,angles and compositions

I have conducted some research in to the variety of possible camera shots,angles and compositions my group could use in the two continuity pieces and opening to our film
and have found a vital detailed image containing useful angles and movements all of which to consider when filming in order to get the best of our ability out of our work.


I now need to look into Mis-en-scene, Editing and sound prior to filming in order to see how the techniques could impact on our filming.

Introduction

My name is Ashley Cambridge, this individual blog is dedicated to my Media AS studies.
I am in a group of 4, we will be producing a 2 minute opening to a film and two continuity pieces alongside a very detailed blog illustrating all the background behind the filming and the techniques used.

Initially we will be experimenting a lot with the Camera shots,angles and compositions,Editing, sound and Mi en scene in order to see the possible outcomes of our film