Evaluation Part EIGHT

Evaluation Part SEVEN

Evaluation Part SIX

Evaluation Part FIVE

Evaluation Part FOUR

Click below to watch part four
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXWIxYjj8Ds

Evaluation Part THREE

Evaluation Part TWO

Evaluation Part ONE

The brief that we were working to said that we had to create an opening sequence which was British Social realism aimed towards the ages of 16-24 and lasted 2 minutes.

Our title was very well thought off, the title “suffocation” related very much to our main female character who literally feels suffocated by her violent husband. The animation on the title is what makes the title very moving and I would say successful. The animation starts of from the letters spaced out then moving together very close and almost suffocating together. The spaced out letters of suffocation help show her isolation at the beginning but then overtime the violence that it built up and created literally starts to suffocate her. When creating the title we decided to keep everything plain firstly because if we made the typography or background more fancy it wouldn’t look like  British social realism film title and more and it would start to look like something which is more Hollywood based. Also by having a a simple font and background it draws attention to what the letters are actually doing, grabbing your attention and focusing on the movement. The music created with our opening sequence is very conventional firstly because it is not something mainstream, it doesn't have and lyrics and the simplicity of the music adds a huge effect to our piece. If you were to watch it without music the effect and the build of would not be the same. Our music was especially composed for us by Faiz Pokun. We told him what our idea was and he tried to create something that we would easily cut the music to but also give a dull and dreary vibe. I think our music is successful because from other audience feedback teenagers found that it was catchy and had a good base and this music is not specifically aimed at them so it just shows how effective the music really is.

The narrative in our opening sequence still sticks to being a British Social realism film but again because we aimed towards a more middle class audience. By doing this it allowed us to be able to film in more classy middle class locations. Our audience feedback alowed us to explore and expand out ideas which we already had. Our focus group gave us feedback on our orginal ideas and how we could improve them, we used a range of ethnictys and mainly teenagers because we wanted to get a better understanding of what attracted them. What really helped was firstly we had a as media student in our focus group which alowed us to get better feedback because they know what sort of answers we are looking for. We showed them a range of BSR films and asked which one they liked the best or disliked the best and feedback on each one, Zahra and myself mainly wanted feedback on one BSR film in paticular because it related theme wise to what Zahra and myself were trying to create. Looking For Eric portrayed some of the themes that we were going to show in our opening sequence such as isolation, dysfunctional families and a main thing that was a build up throughout the film was stress and in our film stress is what triggers all the bad things to happen.

I feel our idea was very original because you don't normally see many middle class BSR films and by just aiming towards a higher class allows you to be able to experiment with new techniques and new ideas and more importantly new loactions which you wouldn't see in a typical BSR film. Using better locations makes it more appealing to look at and then attracts the audience we are aiming to more.

From getting our feedback Zahra and myself then sat down and discussed our final idea what happens in our opening sequence is that we see the abusive husband at work and we see how his work is piling up and how the pressure is getting to him, we then see his journey home and how he encounters a prostitute on his way home committing adultery. And when he gets home he sees his wife waiting for him with a lovely home cooked meal but he just ignores it takes the alcohol and goes upstairs. After we see her clearing up and crying  then resulting to her drowning her sorrows in alcohol.  We show a lot of themes in out opening sequence and when you watch our sequence you see how we show each of them in a subtle way not making it so oblivious and unrealistic. We wanted to show enough so the audience would be able to understand what is actually going on in our opening sequence but we didn't want to show too much because it would start to become unconventional then. Overall when creating our sequence we took into consideration everything from the brief, audience feedback and teacher feedback.

 

Production Log 9

During this week, what we wanted to do production wise was be able to go back over our audience feedback and re-film what we had been given comments on. When getting feedback we showed out draft and a lot of improvements were given our draft was there to basically show the movement of the characters and some of the camera work that will be used. Zahra and myself knew that we didn't want to use any footage from our draft because when filming it we didn't really care about the lighting or costume it was more of a plan to show teachers and students our thoughts on what we wanted to do. This week that we filmed was the half term and we originally planned to do most of our filming during the holidays mainly because it allowed to have a more easy working schedule to go with and because it was the only other time our actors were free, not having the pressure of going back to school or having to film in a certain amount of time allowed us to concentrate more and allowed the characters to really get into role. Being able to re-film helped us make our opening sequence even better and by taking into account and trying to pay attention to detail is made certain points in our opening sequence stand out.
When filming some of out scenes we took inspiration from a Bollywood film which Zahra came across. What we found weird was the two different genres are completely different yet they do scenes which we are trying to imitate.

Production Log 7

What have been the key issues for your production/ post production this week and decisions made?

This week Zahra and myself had finished our pre-production planning  so we started to create our graphics, we wanted a unique title and graphics that would make a statement but not be too overpowering. When creating our 'Suffocation' title it took us a few tried to get what we wanted. We experimented with different positions and fonts and effects, we finally came to the decision that we would use the effect which gradually squashes the text together, this relates to the title because the words are almost suffocated. The simple yet effective title really has a big impact when watching it and is something Zahra and myself is very proud of. We downloaded our font on dafont.com because the fonts already installed in the programme we were using didn't have any fonts that we liked, our chosen font is very slick and smooth and can relate to a main character in are opening sequence, the letters are very refined and spaced out quite a lot relating more to our opening sequence. Zahra and Myself made sure that we choose a suitable title that would be suitable for a British Social Realism film. The typography matches our themes a lot and it something we spent a lot of time on trying to get it the best it can be. At first we used fireworks to try and edit our text but we were having difficulties because when cropping around the text we started to get some white and black bits which make our title look very un professional and tacky. We then downloaded the font we wanted to use and started to edit on LiveType and our problem was resolved. The name of the font we downloaded was 'Neou'. After creating our title we then went on to finish the rest of the credits in the same font but with just a smaller font.

After creating all our credits we then went onto doing a test plan of first shot, we went to our location and experimented with different hot types and how we would film it. We needed to create a smooth track so we decided to get creative and create our own trolley track, by attaching a camera to a trolley with some string we decided to create thing, from learning about it in class we decided to create our own. The trolley track did work but we did have some difficulties with the shakiness of the camera. We then tried to solve the problem by having someone sit in the trolley to weigh it down.                                 

We then recorded ourself showing how we made the trolley and the process we went throught to create it.

Call Sheets 1-8

Suffocation - First Draft & Production Log 8

This is the draft version of our opening sequence we put this together as we wanted to see how our ideas worked together and how they looked on camera and edited in sequence. Rianne and i were given some feedback back from our audience who watched this and evaluated it to see if it met the conventions of a British Social Realism film. We benefited from creating a draft as we are now able to create a opening sequence with a review from our target audience, also we are able re film are tailor the opening sequence to the audience preferences  However there is a piece of clip missing before the opening title that we were not able to film for the due day of the draft because of our actors not being available at certain times however we plan to include the missing part in the final of our opening sequence. The sound will also be cut out and our sound track will be played over the opening sequence. 

This is our draft for our opening sequence, what we did this week was we were editing the draft together. When filming and editing our draft it was mainly to plan out the camera movement and what actions wheer going to take place, many takes were taken to get what we wanted. Although this is rough we aimed to film it as close to what we wanted as possible so when we film the real thing we can use it as a guide.  After creating our draft we showed it to the rest of our class to get feedback on how to improve our sequence. The feedback was very useful because the feedback we got was very specific and good and detailed feedback is very easy to think about and take on board. Bearing in mind in our opening sequence the characters are not in the correct costume and our shots are not in correct lighting. Also there is no sound placed over it and a section where the car is driving off is not been edited in.

Production Log 6

What have been the key issues for your production this week?

This week during production Zahra and myself encountered a few problems when filming out first shot as you can see in the video above what we were aiming to do was create a smooth track because we didn't want to do it the handheld way we though to use a trolley but we had some difficulties on trying to attach the camera to the trolley on what positioning we wanted. Also when filming for the first time when watching it back we noticed that it was very shaky so to counter the shaking we decided to have someone sit in the trolley to weigh it down to make the shaking stop.

We also started to create graphics this week and we picked our initial font from dafont.com, the font we choose suits our opening sequence very well and is very versatile. We started to use a new program for this called LiveType, this program being very different from what we are used to using came across as hard to use at first and then we got use to and realized it is much better than other programs we have used before such as fireworks because it allows you to do so much more with it and you are barely restricted.

What decisions did you make about the issues and why?

When creating the track as you can see above we decided to move the position because firstly we were having trouble attaching it to the trolley but this location on the trolley was better because it was closer to the ground and that it what we wanted the shot to be. By doing this it allowed us to get a more precise shot of someones feet walking and is easier to follow someone feet filming if they are in line with something, so putting it on the top makes it easier for them to follow. 

Style Analysis

Loation Reccie

Location one:

Location two:

This is the outside of the house where we will be seeing the car pull up and one of our main characters enter. We choose this location because we think that it will help present the status of him. Our main character being a successful business man, his house will show that he has a lot of money and lives in a fairly large home. As you can see everything is well kept so it shows that there is care taken in the appearance of the home. We also see that an extention has been added on showing that they have money to extend and make a house bigger and better for themselves. This location and the one above would be very easy for us  because it is both of our houses. The outside of Zahras house and the Inside of my house. Using our own houses makes it very easy because we have access to it 24/7 meaning we can film on weekends also we are not limited to any time in a specific area and are able to re-film as much as we like till we get the shot how we want it.

Location Three:

 This will be one of the locations that we shoot it, it will be the corridoor leading to his office. It wont really be seen that much but it is still a very important. This is because although we are only having a close up of his feet walking to the office it is good to keep it in the same coridoor because it keeps everything looking the same for us and keeps everything continous throughout. Also this coridoor looks like it would be in the working enviroment of a big office because the halls are quite wide and everything looks really plain yet developed. This will be easy for us because it is located in our school so we have easy access to it whenever we want.

This location is one of the most important we use because it helps establish out main character as a person. The office shows his high status and how he is at the top of his career. Showing that he has his own office gives us the idea that yes he is a ver busy/ hardowrking man who probably spends loads of time in the office. We use the office for one of our important shots which shows time passing and folders building up over time showing the work load pilling up and how he can't keep up because he is taking way ore than he can handle. There will be certain items on the desk that will be help tell us a little about the character for example we are going to have a photo frame on the desk with the main character and his wife to show that he is married and to try and portray a happy relationship to the audience so they imediatly think that there is no family troubles at home. But then later on in the opneing sequence we learn as an audience that there are a lot of familiy struggles and that everyone has another side to them. This location is perfect for us to use because firstly it is located in our school we have very easy access to it whenever because we have go to school Monday-Friday so we are able to access it whenever we want.

Call Sheet

Production Shedule

Shooting Script

Conventions of an opening sequence!

Production Log 3

What have you learned about opening sequences and title devices?

What I have learned this week about opening sequences and title devices are that they vary very much depending on what they are about. Opening sequences usually include graphics and some movement from certain characters but mainly the main character. They could also be used to establish the location the film is set out in. I have seen this a lot in many opening sequences and I think when it is done right it can be done very effectivly. Establishing the location helps gives the audeince an idea where the film is set and also can help give you a clue what the film, is about for example if a film is set in the city, you are obviously going to be showing places from around the city but you could also show specific thing within the city which link in with the film again helping to get a brief idea about what the film is about. A hollywood film that we looked at in lesson which does this is "Drive".

The film drive is a good example of using establishing the location in an opening sequence because throughout all we see is him driving in his car around the city and then stopping of at his house juust to drop off his bag and tehn going out back for a drive. This clearly puts across to us that the film is about him driving around. The film is set in the 80's and we can clearly see that from firstly the car he is in, they style of that is something that was popular in the 80's. We can also see this by the music played, the music played has an effect on the us and helps set the mood for the film. And when it comes to the graphics it has an 80's feel to is also the colours of the text stands out and is very neon and bright and is very bold to us because it stands out against a dull and dark background so it emphasis the title credits.

What I have also learned about opening sequences are that not much is given away to us, they show us just enough to engage the audience but not give to much away, and especially with British social realism they sometimes keep the opening very exciting and fast paced to make you want too watch on and see what happens. But sometimes that is quite the opposite and they sometimes just use animations or simple shots to show give an idea of what the film is about whilst the opening credits are comign on screen.

Click here to see the opening sequence for An Edcuation (0:00 - 2:30)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt6eCyPpOpc

This is another opening sequence we looked at during lesson. It has more animation in it but it also has a very professional look to it and the grpahics sued with it work very well. It was help distributed by sony which explains the good quality although it is a bbc film. The animations used help show the girls everyday life and what they learn about in school, the music played also helps suggest the era it is set in and some of the classes shown help show that also because they show some of an older classes like ballroom dancing which we don't learn now.

When it comes to titles I have learned that you need to use what links in with your film and you cannot use something which is irrelavant otherwise it will just not look good. A lot of through should be put into your titles because it is something that is going to keep re appearing over and over again and if they don't look good the audience can sense that something is off and it will also give your film a bad look to it whilst they are watching.

How will this inform your production?

 This will inform my performance by firstly from watching all these other succesful opening sequences I will take ideas that has worked for them and try re-use tehm so they would work for me. I will try to make sure that everything is checked and make sure that the titles I use are correct and also everything is good visually. When creating my titles I will take into consideration what hte film is about and if the title font suits it, where I present the title on the page, what animations I use or effects used on the title e.g. fade in, fade out etc.

 

What methods might you use in an opening and why?

 The methods that I would use are add animation to my opening sequence. I think it adds a nice feel to it and depending on the genre can really relate to the film. Animation makes it look better sometimes and just makes it that much better. Another method I may use is have some of it as establishing a location because I think it helps the audience understand where everything is set and also gives you an idea of the surroundings and how some of the characters live.

Here are some pictures me and my partner Zahra took. What we were trying to show where British representations. In the first image you can see a young girl in a very rusty environment, surrounded by a lot of old equipment. We tryed to capture her in a surrounding which she is not use too. As you acn see from the image her cllothes show that she is well of because she is very wel dressed and up to date with fashion. But then what we were trying to apture was her coming here to think because its the only place where she can be alone and think. We decided to have the gate open so it looks like we are looking in, I think this is a good effect because it changes the way we look at the image. Also the body language the way she is leaning on the wall for support.

    In this second image we tried to capture normal school boys working, making good use of there time. We took the picture in the study room so it shows that they are not in lesson but are still willing to do work in there free time. The picture shows three boys instead of one to show the enthusiasm plus they all look very into their work also they are all of asian ethnicity so it shows some othr race than the dominant white Also the picture shows how well off they are because they each haev a computer to themselves and you can see more in the picture iswell.