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

Digital technology:

As we had to use new technology such as I movie on the mac's we had to learn from scratch. I think using a HD camera was much better as the shots were clearer, and more defined which makes it better for the audience. When i came to do my editing i found the software quite difficult at first, but then realised that it was making my work look alot better as i could try and make it as precise as possible with the new trimmer on I movie.

By having to use new software on the macs, it took me longer to get used to how to use different effects, trimming clips, adding in audio and adding in graphics. In my editing i think some of the shots weren't as clear as i had hoped them to turn out. If i could have had the chance to spend more time on some of my editing i could have made it more precise or even selected a better order for the shots. In the preliminary task we used new cameras which made the shots more clearer and better quality for example at 0:10 seconds we can clearly see how high the quality is of the camera, in the final product we also used these cameras. We found that the quality was just as good, but the natural lighting we used sometimes made it hard to see what was going on in the shots for example at 1:45 the lighting is very dark and hard to establish what is going on. When using the I Movie again in our final piece i felt like i could work better with the software and found it easier to cut and edit shots to fit with the music. However i still think that there is room for some improvement to make the shots as precise as possible.

Creativity:

The strength of my piece was that we used a lot of creativity. In the brief we was told what we had to do, as a group we developed this by creating a better story line behind it. Instead of them walking into a room, sitting down and conversing with the other character we made the characters more specific and gave them a more interesting role to play. 

I think we made our piece creative but at the same time we had our downfalls as we couldn't shoot all the shots that we wanted to in our pre-production stage. By having to alter shots so they would work made our actual scenario for the brief not as successful as we had hoped.

I felt like we used simple shots in the preliminary tasks, whereas now i have developed my skills as we used a range of different shot types, angles and movements to make it a bit more interesting. In the preliminary task we mainly used close ups and long shots but by using a varied amount of camera language it made it more interesting for the audience. For example we would see a simple a static close up shot at 0:06 seconds in the preliminary task, but in our final piece at 0:08 seconds we used a close up of her feet which tracked with her when she moved across the room. This made it feel more like as an audience we were following her from the very beginning as it was the opening shot and made the audience more engaged in the action. I feel like i could still improve by using a wider variety, but now i feel more confident and know what shots will work better and which ones i should avoid as they are hard to film.

Post-Production:

When i came round to edit my piece i also had some issues. Some of the shots that we had previously filmed didn't really fit in with what we was trying to show, this meant that the continuity of my piece was not as precise as it could have been. I found it quite difficult to make the editing exact, for example if a shot was too long i would either crop it too much or not enough so there was always a space before or after the shot which made it less flowing. Some shots had dialogue missing so i had to edit the audio onto another shot to make more sense for the audience. For example at 0:27 seconds i added the mans voice to a shot where you don't see hes mouth moving as it would make more sense to the audience.

Our editing in our final piece wasn't exactly continuity however the first part had some. For example at 0:21 seconds we see the protagonist taking off her leggings and then pulling up her fish net tights which show her change in character from being an ordinary teenager to her role as a prostitute. We used continuity editing here as we filmed it in two separate shots and had to edit it together to make it continuous. However the montage that we used after the title was shown, was cut to fit the beat of the soundtrack so this meant that continuity editing wasn't really shown as the pace was fast as we wanted to show a lot of different shot types in a short amount of time. Next time i will maybe include more continuity as in the first bit before the title was shown was the only time that we could show off our knowledge with continuity editing. An improvement i would make next time is by showing off my continuity skills more, as it was hardly shown in our opening scene.

Research and planning:

When we was planning our scene we created a storyboard, this helped us to plan what shots we were going to film, the edit, the location, the dialogue, the lighting, props and any background sounds. By doing this it helped us go into production with an idea of what we wanted to do, if we didn't plan this we would have been a bit lost and i don't think it would have been good. The location that we used in our production was meant to be a dark room, we had a problem with that as at the time we filmed it was still light outside and that there were no blinds on the windows so light still got through. We wanted the room to be dark so it was more mysterious for the audience and it would have fitted our story line better. If we got too shoot it all again, i would have made sure that the windows were covered or that we shot more in the evening so that the light wasn't as bright as it was and we could create a good eerie atmosphere. From creating a storyboard in the preliminary task we felt as if this helped a lot when we got to the production stage. When we got to the planning for our final piece we felt as a storyboard wasn't necessary but a shooting script would mean that we knew about the shot type, movement, sound, costume, props that we would need and use for each shot. By planning things before we could make sure our shots matched our scripts that we had previously created before production. For example you can see the close up of the door handle in my storyboard and this was also used at  0:11 seconds. In our final task we used a shooting script, for example you can see at 0:01 seconds you see the production logo which we had planned to place at the very beginning of the opening scene. The research that we did with the preliminary task was finding out shots that were used in continuity editing and rules that we had to follow. We incorporated the shot reverse shot, match on action and followed the rule of thirds and the 180 degree rule. For example at 0:21  to 0:25 seconds we see a shot reverse shot between the boss and the younger boy. The research we carried out for the opening scene was by watching many Film 4 Films and finding the typical conventions of a opening sequence. For example at 0:04 seconds we see the Film 4 logo, which is seen at the beginning of every Film 4 film as well as other institutional logo's that have been connected to that production. Another example at 0:20 seconds was translated into our production was the positioning of the credits and the typography where we used a white bold font that was placed to the bottom righ hand corner so it didnt take attention away from the actual shots. I will improve my research and planning next time by making sure i always look back at my research when producing my work so that i know exactly what i am doing. With my planning i will make sure i give enough detail so if someone read the shooting script they would be able to produce something similar and this would also help us while in production as we know exactly what to film

This was the planning i used for my final piece, and i created a whole shooting script where we planned out the shot type, angle, movement and stated what was actually happening in the shot so it was easy for the actor to understand.

This was the planning i used in the preliminary task, i used this to show what the shot would look like, the angle, the location of the shot, the sound that we would hear and a description of what will occur in each shot.  

Overall i felt like where the use of continuity editing wasn't there due to my opening being a montage, my skills since the preliminary task haven't really had the chance to develop. However i feel like the camera language used in my final piece was much more creative comparing it to what we had in the preliminary task where i used mainly close ups and long shots which were static. However the places i would mainly want to improve is my post-production which means that i should maybe focus on my continuity editing as i couldn't really show it or develop it since my preliminary task.

Next year i will aim to develop my skills mainly in these sections:

-my continuity editing and produce more of it

-improve my use of digital technology(making sure the lighting is correct and view able for the audience)

Part Seven- What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Part Six- How well did you Attract/Address your audience?

Part Five- How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Part Four-In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

You may have to watch this video through Youtube To be able to read all of the annotations!!!

Part Three-What impact did the media institution Film 4 have on each production stage and why?

Part Two-Who would be the audience for your product?

Part One- Brief

This was the brief we was given by the exam board, we had to aim our opening scene to a British audience of 16-24 year olds which fitted with the British Social Realist genre and lasted two minutes in duration. I felt like i met the brief well as from the feedback we received from class mates they found our work original as we showed prostitution in another light and they could relate to the protagonist as she was of a similar age to our targeted audience of 16 to 24 year olds.

The title of our opening scene was "Damaged Goods". The title showed the fact that the protagonist is female, the red lips that we placed to the bottom right of the title connotes love, sex and desire. It connotes that she may be damaged both on the inside and the outside. The goods represents that she offers a service to people which is her main source of income this relates to our narrative as the protagonist in our opening scene is a prostitute. However it also could connote that she is someone that people are attracted to and they feel that she is something nice to look at but she may be damaged and nobody really sees her problems on the inside. However as we added the red lips it anchors the theme of sex as it shows her promiscuous side which is also shown through her costume in the opening scene. The main meaning of our title relates to the narrative of our story as we are showing the protagonist as a sexual object which shows her side as being a prostitute

We changed our idea, so our treatment didn't have any relevance as we changed the whole narrative and all of the themes that we was planning to show. 

I feel like we met the brief as we showed the hard hitting themes that we would typically see in British social realist films. For example at 0:11 seconds we see condoms laid across the floor, this connotes that she has casual sex and it is a regular thing for the protagonist as there are several condoms not just one. We see the theme of prostitution in London to Brighton at 2:24.She is seen in a over the shoulder shot looking through a car window which connotes to us that she maybe looking for a man, who will be willing to pay her to help out her younger daughter.

We see slight poverty at 0:09 seconds where we see the protagonist walking across, the trainers she is wearing are very old and the stuff on the floor shows that she has little respect for herself or her home. This is also seen in London to Brighton at 1:54 where we see the costumes of both characters where they are both wearing tatty clothes, and are eating out of a box in a small public toilet. We also see at 0:40 seconds the graffiti on the walls and this emphasizes the run down area of London and the poverty as they are staying in the toilet to be sheltered. 

This sets up the rest of the film as we used a montage which clearly establishes the theme of prostitution and casual sex as we use different camera language to show the protagonist out and about in different costumes. This helped set up to the audience that it is an ongoing thing and she is constantly out trying to earn her living. The narrative of our film is rather basic however from our opening sequence the theme and situations would make it clear for our targeted audience due to our use of props such as the condoms  and the protagonist shown in the first two minutes. The bit at the end where we hear the male character say "get in love" helped set up the idea that she gets around and that men just want her for the sex.

Production Log 9

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

The key issues we faced in this week was finding suitable music that fitted with our theme and the types of shots we were showing. This was also difficult as we have to find music which was copyright free, and if not we had to find music that we could get permission to use. Another issue that we had was the credits and the title, as we changed our whole idea we had to make alterations to fit this change. We had to find suitable typography and framing for each credit that would appear on the screen. We also had to make a decision of whether we was going to put our credits over a black screen or overlay it over our opening sequence.

How have you taken into account peer feedback?

From our last piece of feedback from our class mates we improved all of the shots that didnt work and added in new things that set up the theme and story a bit better. Our teachers also gave us feedback and we changed it to make it more of a Montage which made the pace of the sequence much faster and turned it into more of a smash mouth opening

What decisions did you make about the issues and why?

The issues we faced caused us some problems during our production. The way we fixed the problems with our credits was buy seperating them onto seperate files instead of putting all on one section. This was unconventional of the British social realism genre as this wouldnt be seen and the credits would normally be shown one by one.

Another issue we faced with typography was how we was going to present out title. As we changed it to damaged goods we didnt want it to be just plain and bold, we wanted to make something significant. This is how our final porduct looked, we made the damaged part bold to try and show how much we want to emphasise how bbadly damaged she is. We put the goods in a fancy font which showed that she had a good service to offer to her customers. Another feature we added to the title was the kiss marks, in the beginning we see the main character putting red lipsitck on. Red lipstick is associated with sex and love and this is a typical thing that we see prostitutes wearing. We thought this would work well as it matches with the theme that we was trying to portray and this helps show her as a sex object. Another issue we had was where we was going to place the title in the sequence, we felt like if we placed it too near the end it would feel more like a trailer so we positioned it in the middle which made it feel more conventional of a opening scene.

Another issue we faced was finding suitable music that was copyright free and fitted with our theme. We ended up finding a  song that fitted well and was the genre of dance and house music . The beat in the music fitted well and we cut the shots to match this and it made the pace much faster and made it more tense. As we used a variety of shots and in each shot she had a change of costume it fitted well with the music and made it better and showed her doing prostitution over a long period of time.

The production logo we created was placed at the beginning of the opening sequence. We created this on flash and come up with the name of Teacup Productions, we though this would suit it well as a stereotype we hear in England is that everyone just drinks tea. We added this is as we thought it would make the BSR genre clear from the start and we also added on a animation where the teacup moves into the frame and lands on the saucer. We felt like this fitted well and made it clearer to the audience from the beginning what we going to show and by incorporating the united jack it would show this stereotype even more.

Shooting Script

Call sheet 7

Final Opening Sequence- Damaged Goods

Production log 8

The first draft we created with our new idea was shown to our classmates and from this we got feedback from them to find out our strengths,weaknesses and how we could improve it.  Here is a overall look of the feedback we received:

Damaged Good's

We picked this as our title because it explains the main character very well due to how young she is, she could be seen as a new item but due to her experiences (prostitution) society would view her to be damaged.  Our new idea is based on a young girl who is involved in prostitution because she doesn't have money to survive the hard life in Britain. Society doesn't view prostitution as a choice for women which in our view we are trying to reinforce but not straight away. She has moved to this lifestyle due to financial status. She lives with her mum how is divorced and can't provide very much for Rosie (the main character) and her half brother. Rosie dropped our of school when her mother and father divorced and has spiraled out of control since then. She was first introduced to the idea of money for sex when she met a few older boys at a party, She then went on to realise that the money was very helpful from buying clothes which she loves to helping her mum out with bills and food. We will use a run down miss-en-scene we most of the props will be found and the lighting will also be found to help the idea of it being her real life and to show how dull and bad Rosie's life is. Towards the end of the film we will she Rosie get involved with the wrong man and she how she deals with the situation of being forced into prostitution, remembering Rosie is very young ( just turned 17). The locations we will use are very simple found places as we want to show her on streets trying to get jobs and we will use a house which isn't very well kept as we want the miss-en-scene to be dull and run down to connote her lifestyle. As we are creating a film 4 film we don't have a big budget to make the locations and everything perfect but this is a good thing that we don't have a budget because it allows us to use what we have and show the real idea and life of Britain. Also film 4 are very big on showing new talent, we are using an actress which has no experience and we aren't using any big piece of technology apart from the mac (iMovie) to edit. The technology we will use is very limited due to the budget however we have access to the school equipment such as camera, tripod and editing computers. This is all we need to film our opening because it doesn't want to be anything glamorous just what we have is what we got.

As you can see our treatment hasn't changed much compared to the last one its just the treatment and idea of our film that has changed. 
http://prezi.com/ofh_bmqoff0o/untitled-prezi/?kw=view-ofh_bmqoff0o&rc=ref-33412237

The narrative of our movie is explained above briefly however in more detail it would be a young girl named Rosie who has been pushed into prostitution due to the money. She started when she was 15 just turning 16 because she ran away from home because her parents were getting a divorce. She was involved with the wrong people when she left home and now she can't escape the old life expect now she does it because she wants to and for the money. Over the time the life style of a young prostitute becomes too much for her and she gets involved with the wrong man on one of her jobs. She ends up on a hospital bed fighting for her life after her abused her. Can she win the battle of her lifestyle or does her age mean she's more vulnerable. Rosie has always felt she big enough to fight the world by herself. We see her normal day life in comparison to her evening life over the movie, This is to show her boring everyday life to shock people. Her parents are unaware of her job as she tells them she has the late shift in a corner shop. This topic about her lying to her parent would also be dealt with in the story. We want to show that prostitution happens at all ages and however society and our audience may not be shocked that the character is young. We want to conform to the idea of prostitution being for money, but we are kind of challenging the idea of prostitute not liking the idea of it as she then starts to like it. We also have changed the idea because she then has a chance to stop being a prostitute but she doesn't she carries on.

From the feedback we received it has helped us alot to know how we should alter what we have so far and to help us by making suggestions for music and the graphics that we will use. By doing this we felt like we worked well under some pressure as we had got what we wanted and this meant we could get more accurate feedback rather than them not seeing enough and us not knowing how to develop it. From this we will now be able to go out over the holidays and re film certain shots and film more that we hadn't though of doing before we completed this task.

Call Sheet Six

Call Sheet Five

Production Log 7

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

Our key issues this week were the shooting, we found it quite hard as what we had expected to shoot which we put in the shooting script was different to how we shot it as the shots didn't fit exactly to how we wanted it to. This meant we had to spend more time when we actually got to our location which meant we couldn't do as much in the time we wanted as the found lighting was changing(e.g. went from light to dark outside, so we couldn't carry on as it would be non-continuous). With the stuff we had filmed we put it together and cut some of the shots to fit with the continuity editing. We uploaded this to you tube even though we knew we didn't think we had achieved much from what we had filmed so far, this meant we could use this and anylise it on what shots we found looked good and which ones we could get rid of as they was unnesecary. Another issue we had was the typography and we either found that it was too plain or not bold enough. We had an issue with the size of the font aswell as we couldn't find anything that suited the title.

What decisions did you make about the issues and why?

These issues meant we had to go out and film more than we had expected and we felt like this was wasting us valuable time which we could have spent on creating the graphics or even editing the shots together on I movie. When we had the issue with the title and the typography we went through alot of different fonts on websites to find one which was suitable and not too animated for the British Social Realism genre.  We then found a suitable font and animation which resembled a flickering light which we thought went with our title called "Switch"

Call Sheet 4

Call Sheet Three

Production log Week 6

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

Our key issues in production were when we first went to film. We found issues with the found lighting that was at our first location, as we had to do alot to alter the lighting and even when we did that we didnt get it exactly how we wanted it to be. This held us back as we spent alot of our time in production trying to fix this problem when we could have had longer to shoot these shots. We also had an issue when trying to find a suitable font for the title and an animation. We wanted the text not to be over the top as it wouldnt fit to what is typically seen in the British Social Realism genre so we also spent two lessons trying to find one that was good and fitted with the name of our film. We looked on one website alot to try and find one that would be most suited which we eventually found. We looked at ones that looked like someones handwriting to make it look like it was the protagonists story but we found that sometimes it looked to plain and not bold enough.

http://www.dafont.com/

What decisions did you make about the issues and why?

With these issues we decided that once we had imported the shots onto Imovie they had come out too dark and wasnt like we expected. Eventhough our location was good and we made it look dirty and cramped it still didnt feel realistic enough for the audience. From these original shots we decided that we would re film all of the shots that we tried to complete in that session which meant that we would have to add on another day were we will do this. For our other issue that we had with the font we finally found a suitable font which was a bit more bold and we also researched into other BSR films that deal with similar themes such as mental illness and found that they all had quite plain fonts but they were bold.We also finally found a animation which fitted well with our font and the title as our film is called "Switch" we made it flicker like a light and we also used a light switch on the "i" which is similar to what we see in Happy Go lucky where they include a small object that has some relevance to the film.

We used these font types to try and find a suitable one for our title as we couldnt find one on the fonts that were given on Live Type. We found the font under one of these sections and the font we finally chose was "Impact"

Call Sheet Two