media studies 2009-2011

 Opening titles- St Trinians

Directors: Oliver Parker, Barnaby Thompson

I chose to analyse this film as it is a similar to what we want our film to be like, a chick flick about a young girl attempting to fit in with the ‘bitchy’ cliques and in this film different types of groups are demonstrated from the way they dress and the individuals interests, which we can tell straight away from the opening credits/ sequence.

The titles are based on a child like/ artistic background to give the illusion of adolescence and fun, also gives a semantic field of education.

The scene begins with a fast pan across a field showing a young girl and a man in a car, so we can get to no the main character straight away and where she is going, which gives the audience a starting point to what the movie is about. 

The next shot of a young girl in the back of the car, looking out the window at a car burning down as if she doesn’t want to be going to this place. This shows the audience what she is feeling through her facial expressions, then a close up of her dad’s facial reaction is shown to give his thoughts on the situation without any dialogue being said. A pan from the sky downwards is then shown to draw the attention away from the characters and to set the scene, this is known as an establishing shot. We used a similar idea in our movie to create an obvious transition from scene to scene. A fast pan moves from the car to the sign to St Trinians School, a pause is made to introduce the film, and then a pan from a scull with a knife on it is shown to warn the audience of a sense of danger. An over the shoulder shot of the man driving and an over the shoulder shot of the girl looking out the window are used to make the audience feel included and to give a personal edge onto the way that this movie is filmed.

We have tried to stick to what we saw as guideline to make our film fit the conventions to the best that we could. It was more difficult to do so in our film as ours had to be made to be much shorter, 5 minutes in total. So a beginning, middle and end had to be decided whilst using the camera techniques which we were capable of and successfully created our own version of a modern chick flick.

Voice thread will not open properly on the college computers, so this had to be done at home.
This includes our poster and a brief description of our plot.
If you click on this link it takes you to my voicethread page where you will see the film poster.
If you click the right arrow it takes you to a long discription of my film review.

<a href=”http://voicethread.com/#q.b1843398.i9692787″></a>

Photographs demonstrating the filming process:
http://http://www.flickr.com/photos/58983328@N05/?saved=1

The above images show my group filming with the camera and tripod and editing in the suite.
Throughout the project, i have used photoshop and flicker to upload and edit my photographs, like screen grabs off facebook and creating the poster. I have used Facebook to collect feedback, critical or not, to see what other people, friends and family and strangers think of our film. Voice thread was used for evaluation 3, to add description to the film. In general i have used the majority of the programmes and software to gather a multiple media review and evaluation of the film.

Comments from posting a URL on my profile on Facebook:

”Well done Lucy and group, really good storyline and engaged me from start to finish!”

”Very entertaining as the characters each show very individual personalities which is why this is worth watching.”

”Really well done girls, this is so good.”

”Very professional and well filmed, well done Lucy and co.”

” So funny, as it reminds me of an American chick flick, well filmed.”

1. We were advised to turn down the volume in certain scenes as it very loud in some, and normal in others.

2. Another issue was the photographs at the end of the film, with the voice over as they are just screen shots,so we are going to take some real photographs and upload then to our film, to show changes of what happens at the end of out film.

3. A vital issue was the confusion of the actors in school uniform, and then in other scenes in normal clothes, so without re filming, we are going to see if we can use effects to show its a different day. Perhaps with photographs staged using children and other acters to show them when older.

4. The audience observed the film through ethnographic study. They laughed at the parts which were intended but also at parts that were not. They all seemed to be throughly engaged throughout the entire viewing of the film, which was a positive observation that we made.

Our film;

To improve the quality of our film we need to take out the panning shots of the college field and the college enterance, these put a negative look on the film compared to the brightness of the rest of what we filmed. The sound has been recommended to be turned down in the scene where Ben and Summer bump into each other as the volume levels are extremely high and this makes the film flow badly. More voiceovers could be used to allow the audience to make more sense, possibly on the parts where Summer speaks and Olivia doesn’t.

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

Photos uploaded on Flickr to demonstrate our technical knowledge and understanding…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58983328@N05/

The Title of the Film:
With our film we have tried as hard as possible to fit the forms and conventions of a real film for the opening. Starting with the title of our film, we researched other opening sequences to see the style of the titles, we studied the order they appeared and what names and jobs were most important to be in the sequence to give a professional touch to out own film. We also made sure that we had the key titles in such as ‘directed by’ and ‘editor’, we added other titles such as ‘photographer’ and little jobs that are usually mentioned but mostly forgotten about. The genre was decided as creating our own chick flick appealed to each of us. Real famous films, always makes the title unique and one to remember, this is so the audience wont forget it and will be attracted to watch the film. I think ‘The new girl’ ticks all these boxes as it’s unique and explains the film in one short phrase which makes it effective. Also a tag line was introduced to give an indication to what the film is going to be about, without giving too much away.

Setting/Location:
We then decided on setting and location. For the title sequence we wanted somewhere familiar and recognisable to be a school/college. Location is very important in the conventions of a real film. It explains most off the story line to the audience and adds a heavy genre onto the film. For the title sequence we chose to film a long walk in slow motion of the college entrance to open the film up and introduce the characters. It fit the film story line well, as it gave an insight to what else the film is going to offer. In a slight contrast we then chose the common room and Lucy’s house to film, to get a more homely and natural feel to our film.

Costumes and Props:
We needed to then decide on costumes and props. This was essential to the genre of the film. A mixture of school uniform and normal everyday clothes were chosen to give to illusion that time has gone by and they school kids have grown up into sixth form, and to also give the impression that they are out of college for particular scenes. It was difficult to get the order correct as we didn’t want the costumes to confuse the audience. Props that were used in the film included typical college items such as bags and mobile phones. We wanted it to be recognisable of the 21st century so that our audience could relate to it.

Camerawork and Editing:
The camera work and editing was very important to hit the forms and conventions of a real film. We needed to make sure that the aspects of camera angles and the methods used were chosen carefully. So we chose such camerawork as still shots, panning and two shots. We used a panning shot to establish the scene, I think that this worked well to gently give an insight to what the rest of the film was expected to entail.

Title, Font and Style:
We firstly designed the production label ‘Kiss Productions’. From this we wanted to make the rest of the titles to fit the same theme of pink so that they would match. We also needed the titles to have a certain style to fit the genre off the film. We chose a font that was fun and girly. The actually title of the film ‘The New Girl’ fitted the same theme (style and font) as the rest of the titles apart from making it bolder and stand out more to the audience due to its importance in the film. The final aspect we needed to consider was the names off each title. Our group took out time to research into other opening sequences so see the style and layout of other titles, which in the end really helped us decided on our sequence.
Story and how the opening sets it up:
Using ideas from various chick flicks, we decided on a storyline that would almost send a message to the audience. The main character ‘Summer’ is made out to be a bully who intimidates ‘Olivia’ which is the main point that we have focused on, to show that girls in particular shouldn’t jump to conclusions, or judge people before getting to know them personally. They have a few tiffs within the film over one boy, Summer’s boyfriend ‘Ben’. The film concludes with everyone becoming happier than they once were, Summer has a few children to different fathers; showing that the once to be popular kid turns out to be not so looked up to, Olivia and Ben get married and everyone realises that immaturity is only skin deep and people’s feelings should really consider emotions.
Genre and how the opening suggests it:
Our film is unashamedly chick flick. The music that we used is very upbeat and sounds fun, giving off the illusion of a happy, current movie that would be particularly appealing to our target audience. The opening of the film is slow motion to introduce the main character ‘Summer’ and her supposed friend ‘Mia’. The titles are pink as mentioned earlier, which again show an intended bubblegum and popcorn flavour to the movie.
How characters are introduced:
Each of the characters is introduced in turn, perhaps with a short pause and a title or through a conversation between two of the characters mentioning a name.

Range of shots

  Shot 1:

The Film Title

We came up with the film title ‘The new girl’ as it fits well with our chick flick genre. To help us come up with a suitable title and also a font style and colour we researched similar girly films, such as mean girls and Wild child.

The above image shows the mean girls title, ours is very similar as we used similar colours of white and pink to attract our target audience. Our title is a fairly simple name but it quickly portrays the storyline. The font style we used fits in with the conventions of chick flicks as it is girly and directed at a teenage audience. The opening titles then follow the name of the film, we stuck to the usual form and conventions of other classic chick flicks and analysed these during our research to gain as much knowledge about them as possible. ’The new girl’ is very typical of a chick flick as it has all the normal conventions you’d expect to see such as a ‘bitchy’ main character, an outsider who the audience sympathises with and a main male character. Which is very similar to the structure of mean girls with ‘Regina’, ’Cady’ and ‘Aaron’. We had to research the job titles that are most likely to be shown during the opening sequence, these were mainly the director, writer, producer and the names of the main characters. As well the music we chose to use over the opening title is a typical upbeat song to reflect the tone of the film, as chick flicks are never usually serious they create a light hearted drama to please the audience.

Shot 2:

Summer and Mia walking towards the camera, we used slow motion over this shot and fast paced music. This is one of the most important shots, it is similar to the shot in mean girls where the ‘plastics’ walk towards the camera and the long shots focus on the girls outgoing outfits and shows there status. The music is very fast paced and portrays action and drama, which is what these characters create in the film. The slow motion exaggerates them walking forward and makes the scene very dramatic. It establishes these characters to the audience.

Shot 3:  

Opening shot, Jenny’s voiceover.

This shot introduces Jenny’s character ‘Olivia’ to the audience, to do this we decided to include a voiceover which familiarises people with the storyline. We found this worked well in the popular film ‘Bridget Jone’s diary’ where the main character speaks her mind over the top of certain scenes. This creates humour and helps the audience relate better with the character, we decided to try and copy this technique and it fits well with our film. This shot also establishes the first location of the college. Location is an extremely important part in any film, like in mean girls the scenes in the high school portray a typical American school with the different cliques. We wanted to show a typical British college with normal teenage girls. We filmed ‘Olivia’ walking towards the college in her smart school uniform, this is then contrasted with ‘Summer’ and ‘Mia’ walking away from college more scantily clad and glamorous then the character ‘Olivia’. This idea came from ‘Wild child’ where the new girl starts a British college, her outfits are the opposite of the other traditionalist school girls.

This is an important scene in the film as it establishes the hierarchy of the characters.

Shot 4:

This shot shows ‘Summer’ confronting ‘Olivia’ it portrays how Summer dominates the first scenes and portrays her as the ‘Queen bee’ of the school. We used a range of camera shots in this scene, the wide shot establishes the characters and when Summer stands in front of Olivia it shows her power and higher status. It then goes onto close ups of the two girls talking this high lights their key facial expressions to show their bitchy personalities.

Shot 5:

This shot shows Summer and Ben talking together, the love music over the top portrays the theme of this scene as they are discussing their relationship. It is a normal convention of a chick flick as it adds to the romance and drama. Their outfits are fashionable and what most teenage girls would wear today. The location is at the school again. as this is mainly where we filmed to create a realistic film. The argument between the couple is crucial to our storyline.

Shot 6: This shot is of Olivia waking up, we did this scene to show the two girls getting ready on a normal day and it shows the contrast between the characters. The quick edits adds a fast pace to the scenes and we added a similar paced song over the top. The music was made for us by a friend, so it was good to have our own personal song for the film. We used a different location for this as well, our friends house made a good location as it was easy to return to if we had to and the rooms are typical of the girls characters. Summers room being very girly and glamorous whereas Olivia’s was extremely tidy and basic. We used close ups on the girls as they were getting ready and over the top the character ‘Summer’ has voice clips saying bitchy comments.

Shot 7:

Summer and Olivia leaving their houses. This shot shows the two characters as they leave to go to college, it makes the audience compare the two girls as the shots slowly zooms out and reveals the two characters.

Magazine film review

When Olivia (Jennifer Chandler) starts her new school, she doesn’t expect it to be as difficult as it is. Until she meets the head girls ex boyfriend and it starts to get better for her and worse for Summer (Lucy Hart), but is there a happy ending for them both?

Running time- 135 minutes

Director- Arnold Gibson

Cast- Jamie Byrom, Lucy Hart, Jennifer chandler

Certificate- 12A

*****

Review- ‘The new girl’ is clearly inspired by such films as ‘Mean Girls’ and ‘St Trinians’ which are huge hits in England and also the US. I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes these films like these, they are of a similar genre to” wild child” as they use school/college locations, similar aged actors and include bitchy girls. The bitchiness of school girls has become a regular inspiration to most movies for young teenage girls in the last 10 years; this is because it’s an enhanced reality of how girls act in a realistic college environment. This will defiantly be a hit at the cinema as I can imagine all the girls will be queuing for hours.

This film opens of the new girl Olivia; (Jennifer Chandler) started her first day of school. Summer (Lucy Hart) is the main girl at school. There are various shots of her life and how she gets up in the morning at the same time as viewing Olivia’s day to day life to show the comparison. They walk their houses to go to school and the audience can see that the two rivals live next to each other. The main girl doesn’t like new competition so she doesn’t make friends or walk to school with her instead she gives her dirty looks and tries to make her feel uncomfortable, they walk in opposite directions. The shot of Summer putting make up on is by hand held camera, it’s quite steady to show that she is looking into a mirror putting lip gloss on. It works really well so they have done two of these, another showing summer coming back to look at her hair and checking herself out.

Summer (Lucy Hart) is a confident character, which clearly doesn’t care about anyone but herself, this is obvious when Olivia looks lonely and she does nothing about it. She is a very good actress who will defiantly go far in Hollywood. It is made clear that Olivia has a lower status compared to her rival, even summer’s friends feel sorry for the new girl. Having emotional situations in this film works well as it gets the audience into the emotional rollercoaster that the director of this film was intending.

The costumes in this film each resemble the individuality of the different characters. Summer for instance wears hardly anything; a short black skirt with a fashionable baggy shirt. Olivia, however, wears plain/practical, basic clothes for school, because she doesn’t feel the need to make an effort as she doesn’t have anyone to impress. Mia (Georgia Deardon) tries to imitate what summer wears in order to impress her “friend” she wears almost the exact clothes that Summer wears. Ben (Jamie Byrom) wears casual jeans and a top as he is in the year above and it isn’t necessary for him to wear uniform. All of the characters attitudes to college and easy to distinguish though what they wear.

The locations used, are all extremely thought out. Because of the college theme the filming is mainly shot in an educational environment to, again, easily show that they are at college. This also allows the target audience of young teenagers to associate themselves with the actors in this film. One of the locations is based at a house to show that the characters live there and how they act differently in there own environment, like how they get ready etc…

The “love” scene is not like a typical romantic scene, its just how teenage couples go out at a college, but at the end there is 5 years on and they are happily married and all loved up, showing how there life is happy and how the main girls life isn’t because she has kids with different dads,.

Storyboard Shot Numbers:
Day/Night: day
Starting Time: 2pm day 1, 3pm day 2
Synopsis: Chick flick/ bitchy events leading to fallings out and conflict

Assembly Location: Northallerton College and a selection of houses for different scenes

Probable Wrap Time: 4pm day 1, 4pm day 2

Cast/Personnel: Lucy Hart, Jennifer Chandler, Jamie Bryom, Jack Young, Georgia Dearden.
Extras: College Students
Stunts/SFX: N/A
Risk Assessment Notes: Make sure that the location is available to use as during college times it could be a problem to tackle this we asked permition for what times would be best to film.

Props: School uniform, bags and folders/books

Wardrobe: College/School uniform depending on the desired age (day1), Casual clothes to give the illusion that the cast were out of college grounds, this could also show that they were older in sixth form(day2)

Technical Responsibilities: Responsibilities shared equally according to who was acting at one time.

Notes/Successes/Failures/Revisions

Shooting in the college grounds worked well as it really set the scene and was convinient as we could nip out of lessons and do some extra filming if needs be. It was difficult to get the order of the filming to match with the shooting as we initially began filming towards the end of summer, where we used outside as an advantage for the ‘fight scene’. This became an issue when the scene that came after was filmed in the winter. The change of outfits and the different colours of the sky could potentially sabotage our film. I think we have achieved to disquise this as we have mixed up the storyline to make sense and fit together so that the audience can follow with ease. To allow the scenes to make sense, additional filming had to take place.

This is an example of a typical teenage girl which is the perfect candidate for our film. She looks as though her interests would be such activities as shopping, dating boys, hanging out with her friends and going out for meals. She is 18 years old, which is roughly around the age we are aiming at for our target audience. But our film is rated as a 12 so really anyone of this age and above can view our film. She looks like she takes care of herself in terms of hair, make-up and fashion sense. A trendy girl, who would be perfect to star in our actual film. She looks as though she would enjoy such tv shows as 90210 and The Hills, as these are fashion and gossip based which teams perfectly in with the genre of our film. We want our audience to be able to relate to the characters in our film, and being a college based drama film, we believe that this is possible, which is why we have targetted young girls in particular to be our perfect audience.

All of the film posters we used for inspriation are of the same genre. They all portray the same competative message within the film.

Risk Assessment Form

Step 1

Identify the hazards Whilst filming on the college grounds, such hazards that we experienced were; the bad weather, wind and rain.

Step 2

Decide who might be harmed and how If the weather had taken a turn for the worse the camera and tripod could have been damaged, also the person in charge might have been harmed whilst trying to control the equipment.

Step 3

Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions To prevent the risks, only filming in average/better weather conditions would have been a good idea. In future more preparations/ precautions about the weather would be made.

Costumes:

Our Initial idea is for all of our characters to be in school uniform, although they will obviously vary depending on the character personality we are trying to convey.

Lucy Hart: Black High waisted skirt (with braces), white blouse, black long knee high socks, Black heels, school tie

Emma Roberts: Pinafore dress, white shirt, long socks, School tie

Jenny Chandler: Black Trousers, trainers, White shirt, School tie, Baggy Jumper.

We gained inspiration from the film St Trinians (2007). The costumes we want to create are very similar to these ones shown, as the characters mirror our own.

Our main character (Lucy) is going to portray a similar Character as Regina George In Mean Girls.

Location: Outside the school

Make up:

Summer- Glamourous, Smokey eyes, Red Lipstick (Similar to Gemma Arterton In St Trinians)

Mia: Pink tones, Girly, Pale Pink Lipstick

Ella: Similar to Summer.

Olivia: Very Natural, Little make up needed

Props: School Bags, Mobile Phones,

Due to the absence of 3 of my original group members I had to make the decision to either go it alone or join a group who have yet to film. The 3 members from my original group chose to drop the subject as they could not manage to juggle along with the other subjects that they chose for the second year of A level. Luckily it was fine for me to move groups as they told me their choice early on. From now on i shall blog my work that I am doing with Flora Simpson and Joanna Byrom about a school chick flick similar to ‘Mean Girls’.

SHOT OF LONG TOWN STREET OUTSIDE A SCHOOL – ESTABLISHING Four Teenage girls all in school uniform.

 One of the girls stood on there own (Jenny Chandler)

 Shot of three girls walking towards the camera, camera shot slowly moves upwards to reveal the characters. Camera pauses inbetween each actor, and shows opening titles.

 All fashionably dressed.

 Camera moves onto a shot of Jenny (High angle to show inferior to other girls). Fairly plain clothes.

 Then cotinues to show the three girls walking forward past Jenny, all look over to her. Fades to black and opening titles begin.

 Begining shot of Jenny walking by herself, voiceover of Jenny explaining how she has moved form a smaller town.

 OLIVIA: So things have changed so much over the past year. I used to be Happy. I used to be Popular. Then suddenly my mum decided she wanted to move here, (drops bag) and now everythings different. So it was Goodbye to Beachlife and Hello to the City.

 FADES TO DINING HALL SCENE

 SUMMER: “this is our place.. MOVE!”

 OLIVIA: “Oh sorry I didnt Know…”

 SUMMER: “You will be! Learn the hierarchy new girl!”

 (Olivia moves quickly)

 ELLA: Who is that?!

 SUMMER: some freak from the beach

 MIA: I heard that she doesn’t even know what a pedicure is.

 SUMMER:…Well whatever… Anyway Guess who came round last night Girls??…

 MIA AND ELLA: Who??!

 SUMMER: Ben!!!”

 FADES OUT TO NEXT SCENE.

 Olivia sat by herself reading, Ben walks towards her.

 BEN: “..Err Hey, Do you mind if I sit here for a minute, Im trying to avoid someone” Ben Laughs nervously.

 OLIVIA: Yeah thats fine. I’ll be glad of the company to be honest.”

 BEN: Your new, right?

 OLIVIA: Yeah is it really that obvious?!

 BEN: Well thats just say you don’t exactly fit in with the girls round here…

 OLIVIA: Meaning?

 BEN: Meaning your not fake, your not shallow and you don’t make a point of wearing as little clothes as possible!

 OLIVIA (laughs): Thanks. I suppose I should take that as a compliment…

 BEN: Yeah it was meant as one.

 They both smile at each other as summer approaches. Ben jumps up.

 SUMMER: Where have you been? And what are you talking to her for?!

 Summer points towards Olivia as she walks away.

 BEN: I just needed to get away! I’m sick of you being so rude to everyone. To be honest I think we should break up.

 Ben quickly walks away. Summer shouts after him.

 SUMMER: What?! No one breaks up with me!

 Scene Ends.

 Summer on the phone to Mia.

 SUMMER: Mia, I’m going to get him back if its the last thing I do. You should of seen him talking to that Olive!

 MIA: You mean Olivia.

 SUMMER: Yeah Whatever, she’s still a Bitch!….

 SLAMS DOWN PHONE.

 MIA: Hello?? Summer? Are you still there?

 NEXT SCENE.

 SHOT OF OLIVIA WALKING TO SCHOOL.

 Summer Mia and Ella are walking behind her.

 SUMMER: Hey Slag! Keep away from my boyfriend. (SHOUTS)

 OLIVIA: From what I’ve heard he’s not even your boyfriend any more! And don’t worry I wouldn’t go near him anyway, I don’t know what I might catch.

 SUMMER: What is that suppose to mean? I don’t know who you think you are but at this school I’m in charge.

 MIA AND ELLA: Yeah exactly!

 GIRLS WALK OUT OF THE SHOT.

NEXT SHOT. OLIVIA SAT BY HERSELF. MIA WALKS TOWARDS HER. 

MIA: Err Hi, are you okay? 

OLIVIA: Where’s the rest of the group? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you apart from them. MIA: To be honest I’m getting pretty sick of them. Mind if I sit down?

 OLIVIA: I suppose not.

 MIA: I really am sorry about Summer. She just can’t stand competition.

 OLIVIA: Competition?

 MIA: Yeah its obvious Ben really likes you.

 OLIVIA: I hadn’t noticed. (Smiles)

 MIA: I better go anyway. I’m supposed to be meeting Summer for a pedicure. It was nice talking to you anyway.

 OLIVIA: …What’s a pedicure?

 Scene Fades out.

 OLIVIA WALKING ON HER OWN. BEN FOLLOWS AFTER HER (RUNNING) 

BEN: Olivia! Wait up. OLIVIA TURNS AROUND.

 OLIVIA: Oh Hi Ben. (AWKWARDLY)

 BEN: I haven’t seen you in a while, have you been avoiding me or something?

 OLIVIA: To be honest I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to be friends. Summer doesn’t seem too keen on the idea.

 BEN: I don’t care about Summer though. (Pause) I like you.

 OLIVIA (smiles to herself)

FADES TO NEXST SCENE.

AT SCHOOL. SUMMER, MIA AND ELLA CONFRONT OLIVIA.

SUMMER: I thought I warned you to stay away from my boyfriend!

OLIVIA: I don’t know what you’re talking about.

STARTS TO WALK AWAY GIRLS FOLLOW.

SUMMER: Ben told me that the reason he didn’t want to be with me anymore was because of you!

OLIVIA: Maybe he’s finally come to his senses.

SUMMER: Or maybe he’s got seriousd concussion, He’d have to, to find you attractive! Right Girls?

MIA: Don’t get us involved Summer.

MIA AND ELLA WALK AWAY

SUMMER: Every thing started going wrong since you turned up!

OLIVIA: You can’t blame me for your own mistakes Summer.

OLIVIA WALKS AWAY LEAVING SUMMER STOOD BY HERSELF.

 5 years on, Jenny voice over explaining what has happened to the girls

A MONTAGE OF IMAGES.

OLIVIA: In case you’re wondering the group split up, from what I’ve heard summer, is now having her 3rd child, all with different fathers. As for the other girls, Ella is now a top Journalist and ironically my favourite columnist. I still see Mia, in fact she’s one of my closest friends and she was the maid of honour at my Wedding. 

Ben proposed after two years of living together, and I’ve never been happier. So surprisingly the move to Shallow City was the best thing that ever happened to me! And the group split was for the best.

FADES TO BLACK AND END CREDITS.

Don’t Leave
Author: Femi Escalante
What would I do if you leave?
I’d miss you, I believe
That’s what I’d do if you leave
Emotions are kept under my sleeve
So my prayers to you I’d give

Please stay a bit longer
For I may see you again never
And you leaving isn’t for the better
Surely I’d miss you sooner or later

Everyday I miss you more and more
It makes my heart feel so sore
Thinking of the way things were,
I’d like to go back
to the times we had before.

Hear the agony of my heart
Longing for you and for your touch
Feeling your lips, feeling your face
Missing your kisses and warm embrace.

When will the waiting ever be over?
For as long as were apart I can never be whole
Oh! My Dearest Love
I just want you to know
That my heart is aching because
“I’M MISSING YOU!”

Titanic

The opening credits to this film are very brief but introduce the film formally without giving away the actors and actresses. It begins with a dissolve in of the cruise ship followed by the production company’s name. The entire introduction is made into sepia to show the technological angle to make the audience realise that it was past present and also allows them to understand what era it would have been. More credits of the apposing production companies are shown by fading in. But then, unlike other opening sequences, the main title is shown straight away to initiate the powerful word, which means so much to the wide range audience spectrum.

Grease

The opening credits of Grease are animated to match the cartoon theme and used in a unique way to an ordinary film, the title ‘Grease’ is used by squeezing a tube of greasy hair gel to create the title ‘Grease’, which then turns into a car animation to represent the T Birds car. The sequence of the characters getting up from bed and ready for their college day, introduces each character by pausing the animation briefly and adding text to the right hand side for the boys and left for the girls. Also song lyrics are used to give the audience an understanding to what songs to expect during the movie.

The Notebook

The establishing shot of a beautiful sunset opens up the movie, and gradually the names of the actors fade in to introduce the characters. A different simular shot of a sunset is used to change the warmth of the film to make it appear to be romantic. A boat is then used to introduce the main character, the title is then shown and the film begins.

Make up-

Natural base make up with red blusher and red lipstick.

Location-

Romanby River/ beck,

A selection of random fields,

Dormant railway line,

Old-fashioned housing area.

Props-

Umbrella, basket, picnic blanket, hats.

Costumes

Our initial idea was to create a Victorian style theme by using costume along to set the era.

Elizabeth- Long skirt, petticoat, long dress, under-skirt, corset, bonnet etc.

George- army uniform, includes- beret, kaki jacket, camouflage trousers.

Storyline

Girl obliviously is having a picnic with her best friends; boy is watching her through the bushes whilst painting a portrait of her. He has a secret obsession. A series of minor events happen that leads up to the discovery of a blossoming love story. The boy’s obedient dog runs off to eat some food from the picnic allowing the boy to chance it which introduces the couple of young teens. As he goes to collect his dog he bends down and all of the paintings of the girl fall out of his satchel. She appears confused but flattered. They fall in love at first sight. From then on, the love progresses which is portrayed through a series of dates which will be showed using fast editing. The boy gets called to go to the war. Boy walks off into the distance reading a poem to her explaining his decision. As she reads this she cradles her stomach as she was about to tell him that she is pregnant.

Over the past few months of piecing our film together, we feel like we have achieved an awful lot in the time provided. Looking back at our Preliminary Exercise, we can see a big step in professionalism, simple aspects like; head-room and camera position make a massive difference to the outcome of the film. All our little mistakes from that exercise prepared us to want to achieve a more mature final piece for our coursework. And we think we have succeeded.

If we had the opportunity to redo ‘Disturbia’, there would be a number of things we would do differently. For example; we could have used a larger range of shots, for instance, we could have included a few more close-ups to build up suspense and make it more visually appealing. The lack of actors disabled us from delivering to the audience the desired atmosphere that a typical group of teenage girls would give. Also the fact that we couldn’t gather actors together made us have to compromise, which meant filming and acting (taking it in turns), we did manage this extremely well considering the difficulty when filming some of the scenes. We managed to distribute our roles equally, and we worked really well as a team.

Successes

We have created an enigma code, with the fact that the audience are unsure of what to expect. Also the way that we faded/blended the past to present in the opening credits worked well, and seemed to build up tension. The freaky laughing that the girls demonstrated gave off a eary feeling and made many of our viewers feel quite uncomfortable, which is what we wanted to achieve. Handheld camera was used at the beginning to make it seem like we were videoing it ourselves as part of our camping trip, which gives off a different feeling, this is also similar to such films as the ‘Blair Witch Project’ and ‘True Blood’ When the audience is expecting something bad to happen.

Failures

The main failure was to not get a close up of the knife during the tension scene. If we were to include this it would have created a lot more suspense.

We later changed our narrative due to inconvenience of setting and lack of actors. But in the end we thought our film was more successful than the anamatic that we previously created.

In conclusion we believe that our film has been a huge success.

Voice over commentry to explain the professionalism involved when making a film, we talk in the commenty how we would if we were the actual producers of a big time film.