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

Although at the time we as a group we were happy with our preliminary task as a first attempt I feel that I have developed a lot more skills since then. For the preliminary task I learnt very basic skills about film making and that each scene continues from one another using clear continuity throughout. I feel that throughout this process I have learnt a lot and been able to improve my skills in different areas of film making. As a group we worked a lot better together for our main task as we all had lots of different ideas and managed to bring them together to make one idea that really worked.

I think that I have made huge progress from my preliminary task to where I am now. Now I have a better understanding of how important the pre-production stage is. Our overall product is of a much higher standard than our preliminary task as we all as a group have developed new skills along the way. We made sure our pre-production pack contained everything that we needed to help us during the production and post-production stages which made the process a whole lot easier to carry out.

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

With filming, I have learnt a wide range of camera angles that are used for specific shots. We used digital cameras therefore I learnt the three different lenses used for specific shots, these were 35mm, 50mm and 75mm. They enable you to capture a long shot, mid shot and close up shot. For specific shots that we wanted particularly steady we used a tripod and for our panning shot we used the steady cam to make sure it was steady and smooth, to start with we tried the panning shot without the steady cam and we could clearly see that it was a bad idea as the camera was very shaky and that isn't what we wanted. As we had no dialogue in our film opening we didn't use the microphone because the camera itself was enough to capture the white noise.

I also learnt how to use ‘Final Cut Pro’ which is the software we used to edit out film opening. I learnt that we had to convert it to an ‘MPEG stream clip’ and compress it first of all before starting any of the editing. Once we had uploaded our film to ‘Final Cut Pro’ we could see that on the timeline visual footage was above the line and sound was below the line. A small selection of tools I learnt to use on ‘Final Cut Pro’ were the selection tool, cutting tool, and razor blade tool. One of the mistakes we made to start with was when we wanted to move our visual footage around that we forgot to move the sounds with it meaning that it was all out of place so we quickly learnt that when moving visuals you have to select the sound aswell. 

Evaluation - How did you attract/ address your audience?

We address out audience by using things in our film opening that they can relate to. Such as a 17 year old actor, issues they could face and relate to and using technology. Our main character gets bullied and school and as a result of that becomes depressed, this is something that quite a few teenagers could relate to. We thought that having things in our film that certain people can relate to would give us a wider audience as people enjoy watching films they can relate to. If we had a film that involves unrealistic scenarios that nobody could relate to then we would have a very small audience and it would interest many people.

Evaluation - Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our target audience was teenagers / young adults. We decided that this would be our target audience as we as a group are around that age so we would have a good idea as to what would interest teenagers. The male protagonist is 17 years old meaning that the audience would be able to relate to him, if the actor was an older person then teenagers and young adults wouldn’t be able to relate to them as much. Our film opening is based around young adults being bullied, getting depressed and thinking about suicide, these are all issues that young adults could face in reality therefore they can relate to it. In our film opening we show the boy using a laptop which our target audience can also relate to as most teenagers own a laptop, older people aren’t as up to date the technology so they wouldn’t relate to it as much.

Evaluation - What kind of media institutions might distribute your media product and why?

Our film is a large conglomerate film as it is set in America so therefore a big institution company would distribute it. They would use brand convergence to help distribute our film, we would have merchandise such as posters etc. to spread the word and make our film more popular. Social media could also be used to help distribute our film, using things like YouTube for adverts etc. Our film would be distributed globally on a large scale, we want everyone to be aware of it so it would appeal to national audiences. 

Evaluation - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The social groups that are represented in our film opening our age and gender. Our main character is a 17 year old boy so we used things in our film opening that are typical to teenage boys, such as a laptop because they are up to date with the latest technology. We dressed our protagonist in typical teenage boy clothes; black t-shirt and blue skinny jeans with trainers, this shows that he is fashionable like most teenage boys.

Evaluation - In what ways does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our film opening begins with a panning shot going across the back of the protagonist while he is sitting at a desk typing. This opening shot creates a sense of enigma as you can’t see the boy’s face, you don’t know where abouts he is and you don’t know what he is typing. Another way we created enigma in our film opening is by having no dialogue which represents our protagonist as a very mysterious character. We use some extreme close up shots and didn’t show the characters face which creates questions from the audience and again a sense of enigma. The end shot shows his eyes with a reflection of a gun in his glasses, this creates an even bigger sense of enigma and more questions from the audience as they don’t know what he is going to use the gun for or why he wants it. Also seeing the characters eyes gives the audience a chance to sort of ‘be inside the characters mind’ as his eyes gives away a lot about his emotions. We also tried to establish some dull lighting is some of the shots which connotes the negative feeling to our film opening as the boy is meant to come across as depressed. The reason we didn’t want to have bright colours and lighting is because that fits with films that would be romantic and happy and we didn’t want to subvert the conventions of a drama film too much.

Final Cut- Main Task

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC-ZrmnytTc

Props Research

Props:

• DVD's (Star Trek, Superman, Doctor Who, X-Men etc.)
• Bin (overflowing)
• Laptop
• Laptop Mouse
• Chair
• Desk
• Metal Frame Bed
• Pot of Pencils 
• Desk Lamp
• Bowl of old, uneaten cereal
• Monster Energy Drink 
• Books (fiction, non-fiction)
• Superman tin lunch box 
• Black dressing gown 
• Clock 
• American sweet wrappers 
• Newspaper cutting on pin board ( linked to shootings)
• Glasses 
• Death wish poster 

We used the props to dress the room to fit Peters personality. As the story is set in America we wanted to find a way to make that clear to the audience, we did this by having some uneaten American sweets on the desk where Peter was sat.

We wanted to give the audience some clues that it it based around shooting in schools without giving away too much, this is when we came up with the idea of newspaper cuttings linked to school shootings.

Costume Research

Our main character is a teenage boy so we wanted to dress him in typical clothing for a teenager. As we are trying to communicate that he is depressed and it is one of many stereotypes of teenagers, we decided to dress him in a plain black t-shirt. He is wearing wire rimmed glasses so that he comes across as 'geeky', we decided this because in the book 'Nineteen Minutes' Peter is bullied as having glasses is a common and stereotypical thing to get bullied. Another reason we wanted to have him wearing glass was to create our end shot, which is a very effective shot of Peter looking at the camera with the reflection of the computer screen in them that clearly shows he is looking at pictures of guns.

Lighting and Colour Research

As we wanted out main character to come across s depressed we wanted to have a little light in the room as possible, we did this by making sure the blind was kept shut at all times. Our film is a Drama so we wanted to have some tones of blue in the shots aswell which help represent loneliness and depression. To change the colour of our shots we used a programme called 'Colour', as well as having some blue tones in our shot we also added a tint of red to communicate to the audience Peters anger and frustration.

Locations Research

Our idea for a location was a teenage boys bedroom with hints of what he was planning on doing without giving away too much about him so that there was still a good sense of enigma about our film opening.

Our location 

One of the members of our group has an older brother so his bedroom was the perfect place to shoot. We shot our film opening at about mid-day but we wanted it to look like the evening so we shut the blind in the room to make it darker. 

The room wasn't exactly how we wanted it so we made some changes, we added a desk with a laptop and and all the other props we needed for the close ups. We dressed the room to fit peters personality, with posters on the wall and a laptop on the desk where he wrote his letter.
We wanted our location to conform to the stereotypes of teenagers so we created a typical bedroom for a teenage boy. Teenagers are thought to be depressed and obsessed with technology and social media, this fits well with out film opening as the boy is using a laptop and wearing black which represents depression.

Issued faced with the location:

Because we were filming during the day and our film was set at night we had to make sure we got the lighting perfect. The blind in the room was a bit broken so we couldn't completely block out the light, this wasn't a problem to start with. Filming took us a while day and the light was changing during the day which meant that the shot would have different lighting in them which isn't what we wanted as the whole thing was set at night. To overcome this problem we used some blue tack to stick the blind to the wall so it would block out all the light from outside.

Main Task- Shot list

What is the purpose of a shot list?

The purpose of a shot list is to inform everyone involved in the making of the film as to which shots need to be filmed and what order they will appear when post production is completed. 

We created our shot list after our storyboard. We decided that some of the shots we had drawn up in our story board we didn't actually need so we didn't include them in our shot list. Also because we wanted the identity of the boy to be a mystery we added some more close ups. 

We created our shot list after we had finished with out storyboard, this way we could copy the visual information from our storyboard into words for out shot list.

Main Task- Storyboard

What is a storyboard? 

• A sequence of drawing, typically with some directions and dialogue, representing the shots planned for a film or television production.

What is the purpose of a storyboard?

The purpose of the storyboard is to make the written screenplay into visual image and to give you ideas as to how the different shots will look. It also gives you ideas of the depth and positioning of actors and props.

Example of a storyboard

Nineteen Minutes- Storyboard;

We created a storyboard to visually show what our plan were for our film opening. We had planned to do a tracking but we weren't sure if that would work so we decided to make two storyboards just in case. The main feature of out story board is close up shots of props we used to give the audience an idea of what the character is like without giving away too much so that we still kept the sense of enigma. We also included some close up shots of what Peter was writing in his letter so that the audience knew what it was about but again we didn't want to give too much away so we just included the most important parts such as 'By the time you read this, I hope to me dead.'

Writing Screenplay

What is a screenplay?

• The script of a film, including acting instructions and screen directions.

Example of a screenplay- Fantastic Four;

FADE IN:

CLOSE ON A MASSIVE STEEL HEAD

Our first thought: DR. DOOM?  But it's not moving.  A
welder's torch sparks into frame in the hands of a sculptor
on scaffolding.  This is art, an epic 20 foot statue going up
of a business mogul (VICTOR VON DOOM) in whose generously
extended hands sit two intertwined columns of DNA.  His face
is chiseled, angular, perfect (too perfect).  Past sparks, we
MOVE down to pick up...

EXT. STREET/VON DOOM INDUSTRIES TOWER - DAY

REED RICHARDS and BEN GRIMM head toward the soaring glass-box
atrium of VDI Headquarters.  Designed to inspire awe, it
does.

  REED
 High open space, exposed structural
 elements.  Obviously aimed at first
 time visitors to create feelings of...
 smallness, inadequacy.

Ben glances at Reed, who looks a little nervous.

  BEN
 Good thing it ain't workin... Reed,
 what are we doing here?  This guy's
 fast-food, strip-mall science --

  REED
 This wasn't our first stop, in case
 you forgot NASA.  And Victor's not
 that bad.  He's just a little...
  (seeing the statue)
 Larger than life.

INT. VON DOOM INDUSTRIES TOWER - DAY

They move past the statue, into the sprawling atrium.

  REED
 He's financed some of the biggest
 breakthroughs of this century.

  BEN
 You'd never know it.

He motions to a high-tech ORB, showing FOOTAGE of VDI's
accomplishments: a safe and clean nuclear facility, the first
private Space Station.

All images have VICTOR front and center, glad-handling George
Bush, Tony Blair, shady International Leaders.  The last
image is Victor holding the AMERICA'S CUP.

  BEN (CONT'D)
 Jesus.  That too?

They reach three stern RECEPTIONISTS.

  REED
 Reed Richards and Ben Grimm to see --

A receptionist cuts him off, handing them each a pass.

  FEMALE RECEPTIONIST
 Executive elevator, top floor.

  BEN
 What's the price for a smile round here?

They head for the elevator.  Reed carries a small, black box. 
As they enter the elevator, steel doors shut and we CUT TO --

INT. VON DOOM INDUSTRIES TOWER - OFFICE - DAY

A large, dark office.  Ben in the corner.  He yawns,
watches...

BRIGHT HOLOGRAMS: Stars.  Planets.  They hover in the air,
making the room feel like a majestic portal into outer space.

  REED (O.S.)
 My research suggests that exposure to
 a high-energy cosmic storm born on
 solar winds might have triggered the
 evolution of early planetary life.

REED stands among the holograms, speaking to a MYSTERIOUS
FIGURE in shadow behind a desk.  An ominous, PULSATING RED
CLOUD covers the stars.  It washes over a hologram of EARTH.

  REED (CONT'D)
 In six weeks another cloud with the
 same elemental profile will pass
 Earth's orbit.  A study in space could
 advance our knowledge about the
 structure of the human genome, and
 help cure countless diseases, extend
 human life --

The SHADOW clears his throat.  Reed speeds up, emotional.

What is the purpose of a screenplay?

Every film has a screenplay because it tells you what will happen in the film. Even if there is no dialogue a screenplay is still needed as it includes stage directions and informs actors and crew members where the current scene will be set. 

Our Task

The task we were given was to make a 2 minute film opening based on a book that hadn't already been adapted into a film. After looking at a number of books, as a group we ended up choosing to adapt the book 'Nineteen Minutes' by Jodi Picoult.

We decided to focus our film opening around the letter that the book opens with, we did this because we thought it would be very effective in making and 2 minute film opening and it would create a sense on enigma.

Once we had made our decision on what book we were using for our film opening we then made a mind map of how we were going to do it before we went on the storyboard. 

The aim of our film opening was to not give away too much information about the boy (Peter) to do this we decided that we would have no dialogue, and not to show his face. To give the audience a bit of an idea about Peter we had close ups of important things in his room and certain lines from the letter he was writing. These ideas created a huge sense of enigma. 

Nineteen Minutes- Screenplay; 

INT. BEDROOM – MID-DAY

A typical messy teenage bedroom in Sterling, New Hampshire. It’s around 1pm in the afternoon. The room is very messy, with a bowl of half eaten cereal on the bedside table, and dirty socks on the floor.

There is a young man sitting at a desk in the corner of the room, whom is named PETER. He is typing on a laptop, and the audience can see the screen of his computer, as he clicks on an album on his screen, and music begins to play.

At this point, PETER continues to type away on his screen, as the audience realises that he is in fact typing a letter.

PETER

(typing on screen) By the time you read this, I hope to be dead.

PETER continues to type on his keyboard as we see other areas of his room.

PETER

(typing on screen) Don’t blame yourself

The typing continues as we see more of his room.

PETER

(typing on screen) That would be a lie.

The typing continues as we see his cupboards.

PETER

(typing on screen) You’ll cry at my funeral.

The typing continues as we see a clock, and hear it ticking.

PETER

(typing on screen) Will you miss me?

The typing continues, and we see a shot of a gun in the reflection of PETER’S glasses