MAIN Post 4 - Group Meeting

The group I was meant to be with did not have enough people and various members of our group dropped out off the course. There fore I joined another group as quickly as possible to catch up with all the work they had produced.

When I joined the group I had missed a lot of work that they had done so I needed to catch up and get filled in with what the Plot of the film where the film was based. We sat around a table of four and we discussed the plot of the film together, we all agreed with some points and all equally made decisions. When I joined the group we all come up with a genre of the film that we wanted to choose, we all agreed with the chosen genre and gave some great idea's towards what was going to be happening. We decided that a thriller featuring a MI6 agent would be the most appropriate for our group, we all agreed with the idea of this and did not exclude any opinions from members of the group.

After the genre of our film was chosen we then moved on to the plot of the film, our group gathered around a table and then started discussing what our film was going to be based on. Many idea's come up but we had to stick to our chosen genre that was 'thriller', we come up with many idea's that did not relate to the genre so we had to make it suit the pacific genre chosen. We started plotting the film by giving a few idea's each of what we thought would be a good idea to suit us and our genre. Some of the idea's that were said by our group members were un-realistic so we had to stick to a certain standard of film that did not involve any special effect e.g explosives, ghosts or effects that would be used by professional film industries. We wrote the plot of the film down on the computer and saved our work, we come up with the cast of the film, where the film was going to be based and what the film was going to be based on. A memeber in our rgoup named John thought that it would be a great idea to base the film on a MI6 agent, all of our membesrs in our group agreed with John and the plot started from there. We then got idea's from other thriller based films and got a idea of what was going to be needed to complete our film. We stuck to a simple structure then noted down where the films was going to be based, what would be needed for our film and the story line for our film.

Main Post 10: Production Report

I found that capturing our footage was quite difficult as there was many items scatted around the room that we had based our footage in, we first had to clean everything up to make our footage more professional and also to make Carlson seem like a MI6 agent. After we had tidied this up and kept focus on continuity we decided to begin filming. We gave Carlson a smart, professional look but also dressed him the way we did to show that he has his own personal problems, we did this by showing Carlson with his shirt un-tucked as he is a normal type of guy.

The main difficulty towards filming was trying to keep continuity unnoticeable, on every shot we filmed we checked over the footage to find out if any object was in a place where it shouldn’t have been. Before we started to film everything that wasn’t meant to be in the shot was moved to outside so nothing we didn’t want was in the shot. Overall the footage was clear of any continuity or objects that weren’t meant to be in the overall outcome as we checked clearly and tried our hardest to avoid any mistakes when filming.

Our filming went on for forty five minutes as we checked every shot taken to see if we could notice any distractions or irrelevant objects that had evolved in the footage. We did find many objects that were irrelevant for our footage so we moved them clear out the way, we also made many mistakes whilst filming such as the acting and characteristics wasn’t up to our standards, to avoid this we adjusted the angles of many shots and tried readjusting the camera to suit the footage. The lighting also played a big part in our footage as Hugo’s house has many windows in the rooms that we needed to use, when the lighting was too bright then we would simply change the settings on the camera. Some of our shots were to dark to use so we simply added light and adjusted our tripod and camera so the lighting would be up to standard in the shot.

MAIN Post 3a: Further look at opening sequences

Saving Private Ryan opening sequences

- Film and Production companies fade in/fade out. (2 seconds - 16 seconds)
- The name of the film fades in/fades out. ( 18 seconds - 24 seconds)
- American flag to represent the USA fades in/fades out. (26 seconds - 40 seconds)
- It then cuts in with a long shot of a old man walking with his family, this is a flashback as the start is the same as the end of the film. (41 seconds - 46 seconds)
- It then has a over should shot of the old man. (46 seconds - 50 seconds)
- After the over shoulder shot the camera moves around and shows him walking with his family at a medium close up, this shows the old mans emotions and feelings. (51 seconds - 54 seconds)
- A close up of the family is then shown after and then also has a very close up of his son taking a over shoulder shot with a camera. (54 seconds - 59 seconds)
- After a close up of his son it then has a medium close of his wife ( 1.02 seconds - 1.06 seconds)
- It then focuses on the old man and his emotions by using shots such as close ups, long shots and filming his walking has a great effect on the overall outcome. (1.07 seconds - 1.31 seconds)
- After it has focused on the old man it follows the family with a over shoulder shot so it can follow the elderly mans footsteps (1.33 seconds - 1.59 seconds)


In the opening of Saving Private Ryan I noticed that there were no titles or credits in the opening sequences, the  film and production company were included at the start but no credits were shown. The reason that there was no titles or credits is that so many people died in the war, this is also the reason why the American flag is shown at the start and end of the film as it tells us how hard the American troupes worked for there country and makes the viewers think of how lucky we are to be here today. If the film included credits at the end of the film then the viewers would have started talking and left the cinema when the credits would have been showed, other then this the American flag was shown for a long period of time for the viewers to sit down and think of memorable times of the history in each there family.

MAIN Post 3: Research into Opening Sequence Designs

Watching the Kyle Cooper interview  was very interesting and it showed us how important the opening titles are. It also showed us that there is an industry itself. However his title sequences for Superman and Seven utilised a lot of CGI (Computer Graphic Images) and we don't want to do this, and don't have the software to do this either.

This interview led us to look at other opening sequences such as Snatch by Guy Richie, we really liked the style of film. We also learnt that we can be adventurous in our opening sequence, although some of our research into short films showed us that we can keep the opening titles simple. Editing is also involved in all opening sequences as they put everything together, our group has limited access to software that includes great editing techniques that look professional and makes the sequences look a lot smoother and flows better. There are many vital parts that can make a good opening sequence and graphic is a key part to a good, professional opening sequence, having a skilled editor would make a opening sequence a lot easier as they would know how to make the titles and credits more interesting.

MAIN Post 2: Choosing your genre

I have researched the top ten grossing box box office films of 2011 and this has gave me a idea of what people like to go and see and what genre was the most popular in 2011. This will help me choose my genre as the box office results suggest more people would want to see a fantasy or comedy instead of going to watch a romance film. At number one was Harry Potter and the deathly hallows with Transformers at number two and The Twilight saga at number three. The other most viewed films of 2011 included The Hangover II, Pirates of the Caribbean, Fast Five, Cars 2, Thor, Rise of the planets Apes and Captain America.

I have also researched films that have been a great hit in the UK, I searched online and found many surveys trying to figure out which genre was the most viewed in the UK and i found some very useful information about the UK film industry and what the UK market like. Here are some of the most viewed films from the UK, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, My week with Marilyn, The Kings Speech, An education. These are various types of genres but I have noticed that the genre of Horror does not appear as often as adventure or fantasy as this type of genre is not a great hit in the UK.

This research was very helpful as I now know what genre people like to go and see at the cinema, this will help me choose my genre as I'm not going to choose a genre with less views then another genre. The most popular genres are fantasy, teen horror, adventure and comedy. This helps me a lot as now I know what type of genre people like the most.

Our secondary research was interesting but we decided that we didn't want to create a fantasy film as this would be to difficult with the software and cameras we are using. Our next research was to be the questionnaire and I would be issuing this to my peers, the results will be interesting.

Our school  and group have a very limited budget so it is hard to choose a genre such as action or adventure as props are used that cost a lot of money, the spaces we have are also limited.

Secondary Research- InternetI found choosing a genre very hard as there are so many different genres, further more i need to find out which type of film is most profitable. Furthermore i want to find out what type of films do not do so well.

As you can see some of the worlds most icconic films are infact thrillers, or have elements of thriller threw out them. however apart from the Dark Knight (2008) and Inception(2010) not many films have been thrillers therefore leaving a big gap in the market.

Main Post 1: Conventions of a opening sequence

Types of conventions from different genres

James Bond - Goldfinger

The introduction and credits are very dramatic at the start of James Bond Goldfinger, the lighting is fairly dark and symbolic as James does not want to give his identity away right at the start. The music is iconic, and used in every film in the franchise as his theme. The music is adventurous with sounds getting louder then more quiet creating drama and expectation, this has a good effect on the start of the film as it's a good introduction and the viewers find out what the film is going to be based on such as adventure and action. The opening of Goldfinger uses a variety of shots to capture small details, establishing the characters and the action.  The other objects that surround James are woman and throughout Goldfinger and most of the James Bond films woman were a great part of the film as James is a ladies man. The opening is very clever because reflected/overlayed on top of the women's gold painted body are sections of the film giving the audience an insight into the film before they see what is going to happen. The reflected clips are of good looking women, bad guys, cars, fire and explosions, the icons of action and adventure films. This demonstrates that the film is going to be another typical Bond movie and the audience will notice this and remember from the old Bond movies that this is a recurring theme.

Snatch - Guy Ritchie

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Snatch was released on the 1st September 2000, directed by Guy Ritchie about unscrupulous boxing promoters, violent bookmakers, a Russian gangster, incompetent amateur robbers, and supposedly Jewish jewellers fight to track down a priceless stolen diamond. The opening to Snatch starts with four Males in the back of a van disguised to hide there identity as they have been on a important mission, it then has a very cleaver sequence that involves Brad Pitt looking into the priceless diamond that starts off the sequence, when the diamond is zoomed in on it Say's 'Snatch' on the diamonds face. The next sequence opens with Dennis Farina a Jeweller that is magnifying the diamond closely, this is a very professional sequence as the viewer of the film would not know what was going to happen next as the convention is very smooth. The sequences give a great effect as the camera and editors follows the conventions used very well, the transactions of the sequences are very smoothly done as they flow with the filming and editing making the opening titles very interesting as the editing skills are very professional. Snatch uses music in the opening of the film that makes it out that the film will be based on a robbery that has not been pulled off as the music is quite fast and elegant. 

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Post Production Report

I found that capturing our footage was difficult in some aspects as some of the clips we had made did not go to plan. When filming we made a lot of mistakes, we filmed around ten minutes of footage and cut it down to two minutes, this took quite a long time rather than being more organized with our shooting schedule. Capturing the footage was fairly easy as are shot angles were listed down and we had gone with our instinct on what would be most appropriate for our clip.

The main difficulty of filming our clip was continuity; the room we had filmed in had many objects that could have been moved around to make the next shot look out of place. When filming the main focus I concentrated on was staying consistent with continuity and making no vital errors that were noticeable, in a few of our clips we had noticed that objects were in different places so we did have to re-film small parts of the clip just to make it right. In our group we all worked together well to avoid any continuity problems, when we were filming we reminded each other not to adjust any objects as the next few clips would be different from the first couple of clips, this would have looked un-professional.

We discovered that there were more errors in  our film, we had spent far too long trying to make the clip perfect by adjusting the setting and feel of the room, this made us forget about the angles and continuity of the clip so we had to re-plan and make the clips suit our film. We plugged the camera into the USB, we then uploaded all the footage to Adobe Premier and this is where we edited all the footage. I had some past experience with editing so I new the basics of how to put clips together and how to add affects, this helped me a lot as my group didn’t have this experience.  As I had filmed for a hobby I enjoy the editing and it gave me the basics of putting clips together, adding effects, and putting in sounds and titles. When are group got the hang of how to use Adobe Premier then we cracked on, we all found out that editing is more simple then people make it out to be and consists of adding clips together and adjusting them so they suit the final outcome of the film. The main difficulty we found when editing was straight cuts, we found that cutting the film down was a challenge as we had to make the film flow and for it to be consistent, when we were cutting the clips down we had trouble putting the clips together, after was had cut the clip down then the clip before this would have been separate making there be a pause and then it goes to the next clip, we then discovered there were pauses and errors so we found out why and it was because of clips we uploaded were to long for the film.

In our film we added two transitions, this was fade out and fade in, these transitions worked very well as they suited are film. We added transitions by clicking on effects, transitions and then fade in or fade out; we used these transitions as they were very effective for the clip we used them for. I think that using fade in and fade out was a great idea, it makes the clip look professional and we used both transitions appropriately making the outcome successful. We did not add music as it was inconvenient, we realized that there was no need in adding music or sound clips as we wanted the film to be professional, we did think of adding sound effect but this would have been a waste of time. At the end of the film we did add in credits, we needed to do this just to show the viewers who made the film and just to add to the ending, we added the credits by clicking the text box in the far left hand of the Adobe Premier software, it was a easy process that took no time at all.

Evaluation

The final outcome of are film was ok, there were many improvement to be made but in our group it was mostly everyone’s first go at editing and making a small film, it was a challenge for most of us but we tried our hardest and enjoyed it very much. We stuck with the criteria well and had objectives to achieve; we tried our hardest to focus on continuity and to keep objects in the same position, this was the main aspect we stuck with a tried to make it consistent. We tried to make our film fairly simple, by doing this we didn’t add many transactions and effects, are focus was to make a film fairly professional, we achieved this in our group as we all worked together well and stuck with our objectives.