Evaluation

Evaluation

For my A level media coursework, we had to create a 2 minute title sequence. In my group was me, Jase and Dom. We had to create a film storyline, do research,

My group and I made the titles for the comedy genre. The reason we decided to go for that genre is because as a group, we are all comical people and also the audience range is wide so we can appeal to more people. If we go for a wide age range, the more we will be able to appeal for.

Second thing we had to do was create a storyline. Our storyline was about an American teenager who is jobless and lives at home with his mum. His mum tells him to get on with his life and get a job but he will not listen. His older brother comes into town and he is extremely successful. He is incredibly jealous as he is his mums’ favourite child.  This makes him more productive and tries to get a job and become more successful. This leads to him failing to get many jobs and he finds himself in many comical situations, which he then overcomes and becomes successful. This is the disequilibrium and equilibrium in our storyline. We planned our storyline because that will give us a better idea of how we can do our titles.

Research

We had to do plenty of research of the codes and conventions of a title sequence. We had to find out the ‘norm’ of a title sequence and abide the most common features. We also researched, order of titles, so we know which order they appear on screen. Even though this is not a necessity, it is something we wanted to abide by so we have professionalism about our titles. This meant we had to watch countless titles to figure out what sort of titles we wanted to go for.

What Age is your target audience and why?

We then picked what age range we were going for. We decided to go for the age range of 12 and 25. In our research, we found out that these are the age ranges that mostly go cinema, and when they do, they preferably like to go see a comedy as it cheers people up. We would make the certificate for the film a 12A because there will be mild violence involved. Also, we don’t think there will be much point in under 12s seeing it as they wouldn’t understand the film. The reason that 12-25 would be our primary audience is because the comedy that is being portrayed in this film is that of which only this age group may laugh at because of the stage that there mind is at in the fact that older people above this age limit might not find the jokes that funny. Also, because the whole situation is that he is trying to make something of his life, after being a lazy, and someone who doesn’t want to achieve in life and then conquers what he wants. This will put the primary audience in ‘Andrew Andersons’ shoes, and make it relative to their life. This will be the moral in our story.

What particular social group does my media product relate to?

When looking at the social groups that I have represented within my media product I can think of one in particular that could be seen as me representing and that is Americans. We have stereotyped Americans, which will make it more appealing, because instead of doing it in an offensive way, we are mimicking a minority of Americans. We are putting the minority of lazy people who don’t want to work into a comical situation. People will not be offended by it but will find it comical and can laugh at the situation.

We have used mise-en-scene to create this stereotype by the way the character dresses and his surroundings in his house. We have dressed him up in tracksuit bottoms, and a baggy top. This shows that he doesn’t take pride in his appearance and he doesn’t take pride in what he does. The setting we had to think about carefully.  We couldn’t just put him in a room for our titles sequence as that does not give off the impression we want. So we decided to surround him in food and mess that way we can show that he is a stereotypical American.

Post Production

Our post production of our title sequence was perfect. We got the exact effect that we wanted for our titles with the ‘swipe’ effect. It took us hours to do but was defiantly worth it.  It took us ages to get it perfect but it defiantly made us stand out to the rest of our class as they just went for the simple pop up titles, we made our appear behind things and it helped us improve our knowledge of Logic Pro. We learnt how to do various cuts and different effects, but we soon realized that if you do strange cuts, it would start to look tacky. To make it look more professional and for it to be made by professionals, we went for the most common form of cut, jump cut. None of us in our group has ever used Final Cut Pro before, and to learn how to use it and put the effects that we wanted to do was a real achievement. There was defiantly a sense of pride after we finished editing. We had minimal criticise after our work which made it seem even better because that was our first draft. So knowing after all the work we did, there wasn’t much to improve on made us a lot happier. 

Codes and conventions

In our title sequence we have used some of the main conventions that exist in most titles and that is that we had the film title, an introduction to character, information regarding mood and tone. Also we helped the audience get in the mood and give a taste of what the character is like in the film by the music we chose. We chose an American type soft rock, as this is the most stereotypical music we could find. It sets up the pace of the film and gets the audience intrigued. It is loud so it will get people’s attention. You need a catchy song because the titles are possibly the most important part of a film as this is where you get people’s attention or lose it. If they are not intrigued by it, they will not be paying much attention to the film if they cannot get into it.

What Institution would you chose to distribute and why?
The two media film industries that we chose to distribute our film were Columbia Pictures and the other is Paramount Vantage. We was not sure which one to pick because Columbia Pictures made great comical films like Step Brothers. Step Brothers was a great film and it made it big and still one of the funniest films of all times. Our film is almost like a sister to our film. This is because they have the same moral to the film and Columbia Pictures would know the best way to distribute it.
The Other institution, who we decided to pick, was Paramount Vantage. After a lot of in-depth research on both film institutions, we felt this was the better institution to distribute our film as they track record of Paramount Vantage is amazing. They have won a  lot of awards and this means they know how to get this out to the audience and get the name out there. Most of their films that they have distributed was comedies. Therefore we thought this is the better option as this was their most focused genre. The decision was made in the group very quickly, even though both industries both have strong parts to them and the vote was unanimous. 

Any Issues overcome?
We had one issue within our filming and that was the initial idea to do a 360 degree movement of the camera around the room. The issue was that we could not find a suitable location to be able to do it. We tried at various locations but the effect we was trying to do was just too hard. We used the dolly and it just wouldn't work. So we decided to change taking single shots and then edit them together in post production and I think it made it a lot better. In a way I am glad it never worked at first because this has made our titles look a lot more professional and it has made me get better at Final Cut Pro. The new final titles which we have made is very good and high standard.

What have I learnt?
I feel that this media project has helped me a lot and has improved my knowledge of Final Cut Pro and now I can use it if need be in other lessons. I also now know a lot more about how films get distributed and about industries and it is nowhere near as simple as it seems. I have accomplished a lot in this task and I now have a deeper understanding of the whole film industry. I worked very hard and stayed behind after school to finish all work to get it to a high standard as I found the whole topic very interesting and it has made me more aware of what goes on in the film industry.

Final Cut Pro Guidebook

This is the guidebook that we used to help us whilst editing our title sequence. This come in handy when we was trying to figure out how to do transitions as our group have not used Final Cut Pro before.

Andrew Anderson - First Draft

This is my groups first draft of our titles for our film 'Andrew Anderson'.

Editing Plan

Tomorrow we will be editing in Shauns lesson and I have come up with a plan to do the editing so it does not get too confusing. The order goes like this:

1. Put all clips into order in the file where it is saved and delete unusable footage
2. Copy videos into Final Cut Pro in order
3. Cut the video where necessary and were we want one shot to cut/fade into the next shot
4. Add in transitions and effects were needed
5. Add music and make the music link up with the cuts, so it is all in time
6. Add the titles
7. Finish up and make any changes to the final video

We will not be able to do this in all day but I think we should finish up to number 3 and we will be in a good position to finish of the editing for next week. We only have an hour lesson tomorrow, so we will have to work quickly and productively.

2nd Time Of Filming

Today we filmed for the second time and it had gone a lot smoother. We decided to not move the camera and decided to just use different shots, which is almost like completely changing our idea. We was worried it was not going to work because even though we planned it, not much thinking had gone into and the footage has come out a lot better than we expected.

We filmed 29 clips, and kept to the same script as before but we cut up the filming. We think this will tie in with the music better. As the music is fairly fast pace, it will suite the cuts a lot better. The music is quite quick and if we decided to use the footage before, it would be contrapuntal, which is not the effect we are after. By doing it the way we have done it, it will make our titles look a lot better.

It took us 2 and a half hours of filming to get, what we think is, right. I was the actor in the titles, and Jason was the camera man and Dom helped out when needed as we only needed one actor and only one camera man. Also by shooting the way we have, we can involve camera techniques we have learnt in class, and one of the most effective ones we are going to use is 'match-on-action'. As a group we think this will add to the effect and it won't just be a bottle dropping on the floor. I think that this is by far a better idea and will increase our grades as it will look a lot more professional.

I have watched all the footage and I think most of it will be useful in one way or another. There is a few clips that can't be used, like were the camera gets jolted and minor mishaps but the rest of it is very good and clear.

Tomorrow in Shauns lesson we will be editing the footage. We will edit it as a group so we all know how to use Final Cut Pro and put our skills from Jacks lesson into use.

Our New Solution For Filming

What our group have decided to do is to completely scrap the 360degree movement of the dolly, and now we are keeping the camera still and just getting individual shots and editing them together.

The reason for changing our camera movement, is that it is virtually impossible because my front room is very big, but it is still not big enough for the dolly to function. We have thought about this long and hard and we do not think placing cardboard down on the floor will make it any better. We want to make the best title sequence in the class so we have decided to change it, so it will not look tacky.

We have decided to change it to the camera just moving on the tripod and we think this will also look effective.

The only issue with changing our camera movement is that we have to change our:

• Storyboard
• Photo Animatic

This is making us have to do more work, and we will have to do some work outside of school, but I am sure it will be worth it by the end of it.

Production Schedule

We have updated our calendar because filming didn't go to plan. We had to change the date of filming to when we was all free and here is our new production schedule.

We are now shooting on thursdays because that is when we have our media lessons, and we can go back to mine and shoot. We have about 2 Hour 30 Minutes to get in, set up and record in each thursday.

If you want to see our full schedule plan, as in the picture it only shows this month; Click on the hyperlink below.

https://www.google.com/calendar/render?tab=mc&pli=1&gsessionid=j-ugXJTkXM14HWI678SEfw