Organisation of actors (Meee), locations, costumes or props.

Organisation of actors

The first film opening we did included a group of people acting as well as me. Ideally we wanted people who do theatre as a subject or are involved in drama to be in the film because this would make it look more professional. We made a sign and stuck it to the door of the drama studio at school asking people to audition. No one auditioned. So I sent messages to some people I know who do theatre asking them to help but everyone except one person was too busy so we just asked two other random people. Unfortunately when we filmed with these people the opening wasn’t very good. One of the problems was that one of the actors kept looking at the camera which made the film seem less real.

The second time we filmed we asked two other people to be in it as well as someone who was in it previously. After making the opening again with these people we decided to completely change our idea because someone kept looking at the camera. We decided to just film me (as Amber). Although I’m really bad at acting all I had to do was walk around my house looking sad which was ok. It was a lot easier filming when I was the only actor because we didn’t have to organise other people.

Locations

Originally we filmed around Horncastle because there are  a lot of pretty places and it’s practical because we could film at lunchtimes on school days. The finished film opening was filmed at my house. We decided to film there partly for practical reasons because I couldn’t get anywhere else. There isn’t much stuff in the house to distract the audience and there are also loads of windows which means there’s a lot of natural light. We took the photos for the stop motion of bruises and cuts growing on Amber’s face at Megan’s house because she has a light and background thing to use for taking photos.

Costumes

We were aiming to make Amber look vulnerable because she’s the victim so she is dressed in quite feminine clothes. The clothes I chose make me look younger so the character looks even more vulnerable. The clothes are also dark which reflects the character’s mood. The main character, Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo always wears black which reflects her mood.

The main character, Nina Sayers in The Black Swan is a ballet dancer so she is often wearing feminine dancing clothes which make her look more delicate and therefore vulnerable.

 

Props

The props we used include a towel, a mug and kettle, a phone, a ball and shoes. The film opening is supposed to show that Amber is bored so Kayleigh filmed me making a cup of tea, texting and throwing a ball against a wall. The shot of Amber texting is an extreme close up of the phone so the audience can see that she is asking someone if they’re busy. We used two shots showing Amber throwing the ball against a wall, the repetition emphasises her boredom. The close up shot of the shoes as Amber puts them on shows the audience that she is about to leave the house.

Amber videos!!!

Looking back at our first ‘Amber’ film opening it seems really bad.. I definitely think our finished new one is a massive improvement. The images of the streets are pretty and I like the colouring and music. Generally I do like the opening but it just isn’t right for the type of film ‘Amber’ would be. We completely changed our idea because we were told that it’s best not to just to film someone walking… which was exactly what we did! And after watching it again now I’ve realised it does get really boring. I actually prefer the music we used for this film but it seems more like music for a tv series rather than a film introduction. And it looks ridiculous sped up.

Enjoy!..

I hate watching this so much but this is our final film opening for ‘Amber’

After we finished the filming and stuff we decided to mess around with the colouring to make it look more ‘film-like’. Here is our film opening with four different colour palettes:

I love the black and white one just because I think everything looks better in black and white but I’m not sure if it would work for ‘Amber’.

The colouring I like the best and think would suit the introduction would be the ‘coolish’ one. It creates a sad atmosphere which reflects Amber’s mood.

This colouring reminds me of the blue-ish grey tint used throughout Sucker punch.

 

 

 

 

7- Looking back at your preliminary task what have you learnt?

I completely forgot to post the videos of my continuity exercise thing. I’ve just watched them and I’ve definitely improved a lot since making them. I worked in a group with Katy and Ben. We really struggled for ideas at first so we just decided to basically say random stuff that made no sense hoping people would think we were using metaphors. It was really obvious that we just couldn’t be bothered to think of a good idea so we had to re-do the exercise. Looking back at the video there were so many stupid mistakes. For example the shadow of the camera on the door we were filming. The lighting was also really bad, it was waaay too dark. We wanted it to be dark so it looked kind of mysterious but you couldn’t really see what was going on.

The second preliminary task was slightly better…

I thought we could just film a conversation between me and katy about the preliminary task. Katy thought we could do a conversation between a teacher and a student about their failed video. Sooo we decided to do this. This was better because it actually made sense.

ENJOY.

revisited-prelim-exercise-5750880

We originally really struggled for ideas about what to do for the introduction of Amber. We wanted the film to start with the main character sitting and talking with her friends. Then she was going to tell them that she has to go and walk away. The next shots would show her walking quickly to her house. We filmed the same idea twice. I think the first time it went wrong it was because one of the characters kept looking at the camera which looks stupid. The second time I think we probably just decided we didn’t like the idea and wanted to completely start again. The THIRD opening we made just showed Amber walking around a town. I actually quite liked this video because of the nice settings and the lighting so it looked pretty although it was a bit boring to just watch someone walk around a town.

We had to re-think our ideas AGAIN.. I wanted to do a stop motion and Megan came up with the idea of doing one which shows cuts and bruises growing on Amber’s face. She also thought of showing Amber being underwater in the bath. I explain what we filmed in this post:

https://tollidaybollandu.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/ahoy-arrr-weve-done-some-stuff/

We decided to play around with the footage though so it’s in a weird order.

Overall I think the biggest thing I’ve learnt is to be creative and not do the easiest option because it actually takes longer. I’ve learnt some technical stuff like how to use a camera and set up a tripod. I’ve learnt that I should voice my opinions more and be more confident with my ideas. A lot of the time I wasn’t sure that my ideas were very good so I didn’t bother sharing them. I probably should have told other people in my group about what I was thinking more.

question number 6!.. what have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product???

I really enjoyed using the Mac’s throughout the editing process of the video project and learnt a lot about the different programmes available. The technology we used (computers, the cameras etc.) was definitely what I struggled with most whilst making the film. Although, I do feel like I’ve learnt a lot about how to use equipment because I didn’t know anything before I started this project. Although I didn’t film most of the introduction because I was acting (very badly) I filmed myself drawing the ident thang so I had to learn how to use the camera and set up the tripod.

I had no idea how to use the cameras or the tripods before this year. It sounds really easy but I spent ages working out how to attach the camera to the tripod. For the preliminary exercise and the first film opening I used a dolly for tracking shots so I’ve learnt how to attach the tripod to the dolly. We didn’t use it in our finished film opening because we found that it’s really difficult to stop it from wobbling.

We mainly used final cut for editing so I’ve become familiar with the programme and can use it confidently now. I did some editing although Kayleigh and Megan did most of it because they are more familiar with final cut since they both did media for GCSE. I would have liked to do more but didn’t feel very confident. I’ve learnt how to render, cut clips, edit the length of clips, adjust the speed of clips and change the colouring.

The whole of the first film opening was sped up which meant I learnt how to change the speed. We also changed the speed at the beginning and end of our finished film opening.

We used a fade in- fade out effect on the titles…

I’ve learnt how to import footage.

When we got feedback from our questionnaires we were told that some of the shots look too orange. We used the colour corrector to give the film opening the same colouring all the way through. We also used a blue tint which reflects Amber’s mood.

When editing our first film opening I learnt how to use a blur effect. We used this to show Amber’s mental state and so the audience can see things through her eyes and therefore empathise with her.

When we had the problem of Kayleigh’s reflection in the shiny kettle Megan tried using photoshop to cover it up.

We used a website called Audio Network to get music. We selected the genre of music we were looking for, then we chose the mood and instrument. After trying loads of different songs we decided to use one called ‘Crime of Passion’.

5- How did you attract/adress your audience?

The introduction introduces Amber and tells the audience a little bit about her. We showed her doing everyday things in her house such as making a cup of tea and reading which we hoped would help the audience to connect with her. The shots showing her house gives the audience a general idea of what type of a person she is.

There is a close up of Amber’s eyes with the title to introduce her. Many other film introductions show the characters names next to a shot of them.

The introduction is supposed to be really confusing and mysterious to encourage the audience to watch the rest of the film. We used some reversed shots to confuse the audience. According to the feedback we got this worked because most people said they would be interested in watching the rest of the film.

We wanted to make the audience feel sorry for Amber and concerned about her. The first shot, showing her going underwater hopefully makes the audience worried about her. We tried to make her appear vulnerable by using lots of high angle shots. For one of the shots we positioned the camera looking through stair banisters down at her, this is supposed to give the impression that she is being watched. Apparently I look fragile because I’m small which is why I played Amber. This is also supposed to make the audience feel worried about her.

We decided to not use any dialogue so the audience could focus on the main character and the surroundings instead of being distracted by speech.

question 4- Who would be the audience for your media product and why?

From the feedback we got everyone wrote that the film would probably appeal to young adults and adults. We would direct our film particularly towards young adults over the age of 15.

The subject our film is about wouldn’t really appeal to children and younger teenagers and I don’t think they’d be able to fully understand or appreciate the situation. We wanted to give the film a certificate 15 because this would enable us to have more freedom with violent scenes and language. Some of the film would show Amber’s flashbacks which would be violent so this wouldn’t be suitable for a younger audience.

I think the film would appeal particularly to young women because it is from the perspective of Amber who is a 17-year-old girl. Most of the adults in the film aren’t positive characters.  Amber’s step-father, Dave is abusive towards her and Amber’s mother, Julie cares about Amber although she is a strict parent and doesn’t realize that Dave is abusive. This would probably make it more appealing to young adults rather than older adults. Amber’s group of friends, social life and school are important aspects of the film which younger adults can relate to. In response to the questionnaires 14 people answered that they think the film would appeal to young adults compared to the 7 people who thought it would appeal to adults which supports what I think. The main character, Amber is a girl and the film is from Amber’s perspective. I think because of this Amber would be more appealing for females to watch. However Amber does have two close male friends, Will and Harry.

Other similar films, for example This is England, Black Swan and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo are 15’s or 18’s.

Black Swan is a 15 and the other two films are 18’s. I think Black Swan is the most similar film to ours.

Amber wouldn’t be as violent or disturbing as the other two films so I think it’d be suitable for 15 year-olds and older. Most of the violent scenes in the film would be flashbacks so they would be blurred so this wouldn’t be as frightening as violent scenes in other films.

Question 3- What kind of media institution would distribute your media product and why?

Hmm WELL.. when we did the questionnaire people said that our opening reminded them of:

• Black Swan
• Juno
• This is England
• Hollyoaks

I think our introduction is most similar to Black Swan because of the filming techniques used, the atmosphere created and the narrative. The production companies for this film include Fox Searchlight Pictures, Protozoa Pictures, Phoenix Pictures and Cross Creek Pictures. The distributors include 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Odeon, and Warner Bros.

This is England 83′ is also quite a similar film because of the genre and the atmosphere the director creates. The production companies include Big Arty Productions, EM Media, Film4, Optimum Releasing, Screen Yorkshire, Uk Film Council and Warp Films.

 Some of the film distributors are A- Film Distribution, Arthaus, King Record Co, NonStop Entertainment and Madman Entertainment. 

Although no one wrote this on the questionnaire I think Amber is similar to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo directed by Niels Arden Opley. This film is also about domestic violence and a young girl being abused. Opley creates a sinister atmosphere and a lot of it is quite scary, similarly a lot of people wrote that they thought our opening was  for a horror or thriller. The genre is a mixture of drama, mystery, thriller and crime which is similar to ours because the audience doesn’t find out who is abusing Amber until the end. A couple of people have said that Amber looks continental likeThe Girl With the Dragon Tattoowhich is Danish.

Some of the production companies are Yellow Bird Films, Nordisk Film, Zweites Deutsches Fernehen and Filmpool Stockholm Marlardalen. The distributors include Alliance Films, Music Box Films, Odeon, Solar Entertainment, Canvas, Gussi Films, Imagem Filmes, Momentum Pictures, Monolith and Rosebud.

evaluation. Question 2- How does the opening represent social groups?

We tried to challenge the stereotypical idea of what social class experience social problems. Many other films which are about dysfunctional families and domestic violence are about working class people e.g. This is England whereas our film would be about middle class people. Some people compared our introduction to This is England in which one of the characters, Lol is abused. The house shown in the introduction probably suggests what social group is being represented. We challenged stereotypical ideas because we wanted to suggest that domestic abuse could affect anyone.

The introduction only shows one character, Amber a 17-year-old girl. She is represented as being quite vulnerable which is typical of a lot of tv programmes and films. We noticed that in other films and tv programmes high angle shots are used to make people look vulnerable so we included some in our film. For example Matilda includes lots of high angle shots of Matilda because she is a vulnerable character.

There is a part in our opening when Amber is walking down the stairs which we filmed from above. We used the same shot of her in the bath twice, the first is reversed so it shows her going underwater and the second is the original so it shows her sitting up after being underwater. These shots make Amber look vulnerable because she is naked.

This is similar to the painting of Ophelia in water by John Everett Millais.

Our introduction also challenges how young people are portrayed in films because they are often represented negatively with aggressive and threatening characters. The character Amber is supposed to be the victim which is the opposite of most other media products. I played Amber because apparently I look fragile so the audience wouldn’t think of Amber as being an intimidating teenager. Amber has a nice friendly group of friends which is different from many other films about teenage girls for example Mean Girls.

In this respect our film is similar to Attack the Block because the group prove that they are good people really by saving everyone else from the aliens. It is different from this film because initially the characters are portrayed negatively because they threaten a woman whereas in Amber young people would be portrayed positively throughout the film.

In Kidulthood young people are represented negatively because they are involved with drugs and violence. All the characters in this film dress like stereotypical ‘chavs’. In Amber, Amber and all of her friends would dress individually which challenges the thought that all young people are the same. Amber wears feminine clothing in the introduction which emphasises the idea that she is vulnerable.

asdfghjkl evaluation time.

Sooo (why do all my blog posts begin with sooo??) we have finished our film introduction minus a few little tweaks we might make. Now I have to do the evaluation. The first evaluation question is basically asking how our opening  uses, develops or challenges forms and conventions of other media products. I think our opening is quite different and unusual and we concentrated on being creative and original because our first film was really boring. We were told the finished opening looks kind of continental! Some people wrote on the questionnaire that it reminds them of This is England and Black Swan.

I think this is probably because both of them include a lot of psychological stuff.  We tried to really mess up people’s minds (mwahahahaaaaaaa) by making the introduction really confusing and weird. I think this worked because lots of people told me it was really creepy! The idea is that after that introduction the rest of the film would make more sense but we didn’t want to give away too much information too soon. Most people said this is good because they would be interested in finding out what happens in the rest of the film because the beginning is mysterious and doesn’t give too much away. We used a lot of the same footage a few times by reversing some of it and we had lots of fun messing around with stuff. I think in one of my previous blog posts I compared our introduction with the crazy mirror part in Black Swan which is really disturbing. Here’s the scene again anyway…

Someone or maybe even a few people compared our film to This is England. I think they might have thought this because of the bathroom part in This is England 88. The scene shows Lol who was abused by her father. Lol murdered her dad in a previous episode and is imagining seeing him. Similarly to Amber, the scene in This is England shows Lol being underwater in the bath.

Shane Meadows makes her seem vulnerable by using high angle shots. We used a few high angle shots looking down on Amber as well for the same reason. The scene has the same unsettling atmosphere as our opening, this is created by shots of Lol’s dead dad appearing unexpectedly and watching Lol. For one of our shots we positioned the camera looking through the stair banisters looking at Amber as she walks down some stairs which gives the impression that she is being watched. Some people have told me that the creepiest part was the stop motion showing the bruises and cuts growing on Amber’s face.

Someone else said that the titles reminded them of Juno and another person said hollyoaks. Not actually too sure how either of these are similar. Maybe because the introduction to Juno includes drawing and our ident is a video of me drawing? Meh. I think it’s a compliment anyway because this is one of my favourite title sequences.

I also think there are some similarities between Hamlet and the painting of Ophelia by John Everett Millais and our introduction. The most obvious similarity is that the painting of Ophelia shows her laying in water, she also has the same hair length and colour as me. There are similarities between the character Ophelia and Amber as well but I’ve already done a post about that.

I suppose we did challenge how young people are usually represented in other media products but this stuff fits in with the next question so I don’t want to write about it too much.

Ooooooooh. I have the answers!

I found it really interesting reading the answers people wrote to our questionnaire, some of them were really funny as well! It was mostly positive and the negative comments are useful, we’ve made a few changes because of some of the criticisms we got. These are some of the answers from the assembly:

1. What genre do you think the film is?

15 people said they thought it was a domestic drama.

2 people said it’s a social drama.

2 people said it’s a thriller..

2. What do you think of the colouring? Is it effective?

13 people said YESSS because it:

works well, represents dullness and boredom of the characters’ life, creates an effective mood, is interesting, natural, depressing, very cold and black, realistic, moody and gripping.

Other people said no (grr) because it is plain.

We’ve chosen a different colouring to use now, the brightness and contrast is emphasised so hopefully it will look more interesting. We considered changing it to black and white because it basically looks really pretty but other people said they prefered natural colouring.

3. Can you think of any similar film openings?

 10 people said no but a lot of people didn’t answer this question at all so I suppose that means no. One person said no because they don’t watch films of this genre.

Someone said Black Swan! Someone said yes, but not now..?

4. Can you think of any ways the introduction could be improved?

13 people said no, someone wrote it’s really good and another person wrote it’s amazing!

Someone wrote that we could use slower movement,another person wrote there should be more hints to explain the darker side of the film and someone else wrote we should improve the lighting.

5. Does the opening look like a film introduction or a television series introduction?

10 people said that it looked like a film introduction… Someone wrote definitely a film! The reasons these people wrote were that there is no hint of the plot, there’s too much detail for a TV programme, because of the ending, because of the dramatic music and the opening is dramatic.

4 people thought it looked like a television series opening. The only reason was because the plot would be explained during many episodes.

6. Who would watch this film?

14 people wrote young adults.

7 people wrote adults.

7. Who would you watch the film with?

6 people wrote alone.

6 people wrote with friends.

5 people wrote with a girlfriend or boyfriend.

2 people wrote with their family.

A couple of people wrote that they just probably wouldn’t watch the film.

8. What group of people do you think is being represented?

11 people wrote abuse victim. Yay.

4 people wrote young, single, female.

2 people wrote people with mental illness.