Media Song..

This is our final music song.. 

We recorded it in the music studio, and with a little bit of editing and mixing, and with help from the music technician, we have a final song! (: 

Overview & Plans..

Over this week, we have started our storyboard and script and we have almost finished our music.

Next week, we are hoping to finish the storyboard and scan it onto the computer to hopefully make an imovi of it, or a Prezi. Also, we would like to finish our scripting.
We have asked our actors/actresses to have their pictures taken on Monday, so we can show our casting.
We have booked the music studio for Monday as well, so we can record the bass guitar and vocals. Then we can edit it, and it should be ready sometime next week. Whilst we are in the studio, we are going to hopefully film our 'band shot', which will show our drummer, guitarist and singer to put in our opening sequence.

Music Lyrics..

These are the lyrics that we made up for our song. We think that they relate to the story of the film ;


'Cos I want you to know that I'm not who you see,
And I want you to know I'm not here for being me.
'Cos I want you to see that you're not who you want,
Taking a change, acting a line, It's all you see when you've come this far.


All you see when you look at me in the mirror you're looking at me,
All I see when I look at you I see you for you are not who you want to be


Take the time, to make people see through all the lies


Looking around now can't you see, all these things we're meant to be,


All this time I see you for who you are not who you want,
It's such a shame that you've come so far to see me.

More Music Development..

This is our latest recording of our music; We managed to book the school music studio after school so we could include the drums this time, with the help from our friend (Conor). Later on in the week, we recorded the drums and guitar in the music studio, and we're in the process of editing it. Hopefully next week we will have the bass guitar and the vocals recorded too so our song will be complete.

Music Development..

In our media lesson, we took a guitar, sat in an empty room and finalised the chords for our song. You can faintly hear our vocalist, as at this stage, we were trying to create a melody.

Music Ideas..

We wanted to record our own music for our opening sequence. We thought that because we can play instruments and we have friend who can help, we should try and think of something ourselves. (I play the guitar, Chloe sings, and our friend Conor plays the drums). We played around with some chords and started to come up with something which we feel suits our idea.
This is a video of the chords that we would like to use.

Opening Sequence Ideas

After changing our synopsis, in order to make our story less cliche, we came up with an outline of what we wanted our opening sequence to look like. From the start we liked the idea of using a yearbook because it's creative. After much discussion, we have come up with a rough final idea....

1. We will open the sequence with an aerial shot of the front of the yearbook, presenting the title of our film and our production company name. Our own music that we have composed will be played whilst this is happening and it will carry on throughout.
2. Then, our geek character will open the first page which will include credits, and pictures, which the geek will stick down. (Like he is creating the book).
3. The pages will then be turned over, introducing the different stereotypes in the school with a voiceover of the geek expressing his thoughts towards these groups of people.
4. The first three pages, will be showing pictures of the dancer, the actor, and the band, which we will zoom into these photos and switch to a short clip of them.
5. After those three, we will show the other stereotypes with short clips overlapping each other, getting faster and faster, to emphasise how many different 'cliques' there are. They will get faster and faster to give the impression that he is flicking through the book really fast.
6. Then it will come to a sudden stop, and a picture of the geek will be shown. Then the voiceover will help lead into the film..

Target Audience

After discussing we have decided that our target audience is aimed at 15-25 year olds because they can relate to it because its based at a school. 

It will interest both boys and girls however it might not appeal to everyone as it deals homosexuality for example people who have strong religious views may find the content offensive.

We feel the boys will be interested in parts they can relate to such as being a young teenage boy in high school and the problems that come with it. During this age you are going through changes and you feel different things so they might find they are able to relate to the film. 

Also the comic points of the movie will be interesting to teenage males and females because people aged 15-25 tend to enjoy comedy's. 

We thought we might find that a few boys might be putt off by the idea of homosexuality in the film but we don't feel this will be a big issue. 

Synopsis

A young boy, Barney, aged 16, is perceived as a geek at his school, Lodgedale Academy. He is assigned the job of Yearbook editor because of his great photography skills. While composing the yearbook he realises the vast amount of stereotypes in his school and how he doesn't fit in. This in the case until he accidentally finds out that the most popular boy in school, Jack, is actually a homosexual but is seeing one of the most popular girls in school to try and keep his secret so that people at his school wont treat him any differently. When the geek confronts Jack, Jack proposes the offer that he will be friends with him and invite him to school social events if Barney keeps his secret. Once he becomes friends with him he finds that school life is a lot easier and he feels more accepted. Someone from the yearbook committee stumbles across the photo of Jack kissing another boy and leaks it to the school. Jack becomes scared the school wont accept him anymore but he goes to school and no one's opinion have changed of him. He is treated exactly the same as he was before. He thanks Barney for helping him and supporting him throughout and the school becomes a more accepting place.

Initial Ideas

When we were told what we were going to have to do, my group decided that we wanted to do something different. We didn't want to do a horror opening sequence, or a rom-com, because we thought that everyone would go for that option. We wanted to focus on comedy.

After looking at different openings on the apple macs, we found one that we wanted to take ideas from; Napoleon Dynamite. In the beginning of that film, the opening credits are on different objects and it is a cool way to begin a film.

At the same time, we thought about what we could contribute to the clip. We all realised that we have some connection to performing arts; I play an instrument, Chloé sings, dances and acts, and Hannah and Cindy both act and dance. So we thought that we would involve that into our clip.
We scrapped the idea of the Napoleon Dynamite beginning as we couldn't see how it would fit in.

We then agreed on the idea of a performing arts type school (influence from Fame).
We then decided to look at school based films, such as Mean Girls.

At the moment, our clip is based on a boy, who is an outsider in his school (performing arts school); he's rejected by everyone and this is what we are going to try to show.
We are going to have a band, a dancer and an actor, as well as the person who is going to play the main character.

We want to start the clip off with the year book and inside the year book, the credits will show, as well as seeing the pictures of each group. The camera will zoom into each picture to show the group and the rejection of the 'loser'.


I think this is a good idea, but I think that maybe we are trying to fit too much into a two minute opening. I think that when we're back at school my group and I should go over the idea again, so we can maybe make it a little less packed, and so we all have a clear vision of how it is going to go in our head.

Analysing 3 Opening Sequences

In class we looked at three different opening sequences from Office Space, Trainspotting and Sweeney Todd. This work is to help us think about opening sequences for our next task.

The first clip we looked at was Office Space.

At the very beginning we are shown the production company (20th Century Fox) and then it goes straight into the opening credits. The writing is quite bubbly and they are accompanied by some upbeat music which leads us to think it is quite a cheery film. We are shown a massive traffic jam and the camera focuses on the main character who we are introduced to straight away. At around 1:00 into the clip, the man realises that an old man with a zimmer frame is moving faster than he is. This shows us that the film is a comedy because when he moves into the moving lane, it stops, and when he moves back to the other lane, that stops too. At roughly 1:50, we are introduced to another character who is rapping in his car. And then at 2:17, we are introduced to another character, who seems quite agitated. Each car has a different personality.
I found this opening quite funny and I think that it would be quite a good film to watch.


The second opening we watched was Trainspotting.
(video is currently unavailable).
This is a very upbeat and busy opening to a film. There's music playing throughout and dialogue too. There is a voice over from the main character who is talking to the audience. Whilst that's going on, when we are introduced to a new character, there is a freeze frame and the name of the character is shown.
I thought that this was a very effective opening to a film; the music and dialogue fit well together and although it's very busy and there's a lot going on, it is a very good way to introduce the audience to the film. The audience can establish what's going on.


The third opening we watched was from Sweeney Todd.www.artofthetitle.com/2008/10/10/morrison-on-morrison

This opening was my favourite because it was completely different from the other two.
It is an animated opening with a continuous feel to it, and instead of introducing us to the characters, it focuses on setting the tone and theme of the film. The credits run throughout along with the eerie music, whilst we follow the trail of blood. The opening gives us an idea of what the film is about; you can tell it's a horror.
The opening draws the audience in as soon as the music starts; after watching it you definitely feel like you want to watch the whole film to find out why there's lots of blood and how it happens. It is a very good opening.

Preliminary Project

I worked with Hannah McCrossen, Cindy Wellings and Chloé Byerley for this preliminary production. They were fun and easy to work with; I was pleased with how well our group worked together and how quickly we put our idea into action. We all agreed on the idea of a student being later for school, as we thought that we could get the shots we needed in it and plus, we filmed it in school so our location fitted well.
I was very pleased with our overall clip; we had all of the required things needed to pass. We also added some music, transitions and a ticking noise for the clock so we could emphasise that the student was late.
We showed our clip to the rest of our class and we now know how we could improve and what we did well;


Good Points:* Good, steady shots.
* Mise en scene worked well; the location and costumes fitted well with the idea we had.
* Sometimes the rule of thirds was used in a good way.
* They thought that the hand held camera shot of Chloé running looked good.

Hand held shot of Chloe running.

* They liked the way we edited our clip, they flowed well.
* Good use of titles at the end.
Bad Points:
* At some points, the music was too loud; we should make it the same level throughout.
* The dialogue was quite quiet, which made it hard for the audience to hear what was said.
* In the classroom, there was an issue with the lighting; we filmed facing the window which made it difficult to see the actors faces; we should of filmed from the other side of the room.
* Sometimes the rule of thirds wasnt used, so next time we need to make sure it's used well throughout.

This is where there were issues with the lighting, because it is hard to see the characters faces.

Overall, I am pleased with the feedback from the class; we will make sure that we think about our improvements for our next task and we will take the things we did well and make sure we do it again.

Media Studies Brief

The set brief for our Video project is to create the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes. This blog will document the pre-production, production and evaluation stages of this project.