Media Studies 09-11

Annotated Version of The Film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0pLudxkzSI

Looking back at my preliminary task and seeing our film opening I can see the differences in the quality of the filming  and editing . In this first picture we can see a shot from the preliminary on the left and a shot from our film opening on the right. In the shot from our preliminary we can see that there is too much head space and general room around the character and we could of tightened that and framed the shot better, whereas in the picture of our main task it shows how we have framed it so that the camera doesn’t have to move and the character walks perfectly into view in the sequence.

The framing of the shots is one of the main noticable improvements from preliminary to film opening. The picture below is another way to see the improvements from the preliminary task. Once again the picture on the left is the preliminary and the film opening is on the right. The two shots are both point of view shots taken as though the camera is a mirror, the film opening shot is better because the camera is the right height for the actress to just look straight forward rather than having to look up, also the framing of the film opening shot is a lot better because it has more headroom and the spaces either side of the character are even. As well as framing we can see some improvements on lighting as in the preliminary shot there is an obvious lighting  change either side of the character which we balanced out in the actual film opening.

When watching the two films it is obvious to see that the overall editing of the film opening, including transitions between shots  and cuts, is a lot smoother and sharper than the preliminary which had a few jumps in it. Other features which are a big improvement are than in the main film opening we have included other aspects than just video, such as music and titles.

The lighting for the preliminary was quite harsh because we didn’t set the white balance properly every time, this was improved on the film opening and the lighting is even and the same in every shot.

In the preliminary we had a few places where characters where blocked by other characters because of the framing of the shots, in the film opening we stopped things like this from happening again by creating a split screen, this can be seen in the picture below:

Another thing that I think we improved was the continuity because in the preliminary there are some errors including bags being in different places in different shots and characters wearing slightly different jewellery, this was avoided completely in our film opening and we took care to make sure no furniture was moved between shots to keep the continuity of the film, as well as double checking costumes before filming.

Overall I think I have learnt much more about the filming and editing processes between the preliminary and the film opening.

The camera we used to produce this film opening was manufactured by Canon (See above picture) Using this camera gave us good opportunities for using professional features such as setting the white balance , which helped us make our film to a better standard.

These next few images show how we used the camera in different ways and also used the tripod with it. Some of our shots we did required hand held work with the camera whereas others could be done by changing the height of the tripod and experimenting ways to get the view we wanted. We found that the tripod was stable while it was on a solid base like the floor, however it needed some more support for some of the shots where it was places on the bed because the duvet made it a lot less stable. Once we had stabilised the tripod we would use the features of it to test out the different positioned and angles for the camera.

These three images are of us using the camera in different ways and experimenting with the tripod to get the right angles and shots. It was hard to position some of the shots in our film and we relied a lot on the technologies of the tripod to stabilise the camera in awkward positions such as the mirror shot where the camera was placed over the sink. The first image is of the tripod in the sink, at first this shot caused a lot of problems cause we didn’t know how to film it, we tried to use the camera hand held but I wasn’t able to keep it steady just holding it with one hand because I didn’t have anywhere to lean unlike the first mirror shot, so we took time carefully positioning the tripod at the right height and stabilising it so it didn’t end up falling in the sink.

The middle picture is of us filming the first mirror shot, for this there was no where to place the tripod so when filming I had to try and make the camera as stable as possible by leaning against the wall and my knee to make sure my arms and hands were at the same height and couldn’t slip.

The last image is of us trying to position the camera in the base of the shower at the right height for the shot of the characters legs, there was not enought distance between the shot and the camera if we filmed it on the floor so we had to use the shower to be able to fit the full frame in.

The picture below is a screengrab from ‘Adobe Premiere‘ which is the editing program we used to produce this film. I found premiere a very good and useful program, we managed to do all of the editing quite quickly and professionally by using it. Premier has taught me a lot about the editing process of films such as how to create split screens and how to include music and titles into films.

The picture below is of another program we used, for one of the evaluation activities, this was Youtube’s annotation tools, I found using this quite confusing at first but it was a good way to evaluate and comment on our film as we watched it, I think annotating makes it a lot easier to see the things we wanted to point out and talk about.

The two pictures below are of the Wordpress blogging, this is another major use of technology for creating this product because it is a way which I could include links and embed videos or images, before creating this film I had never used a blog before and this has taught we that they can be useful for creating multi-media information online.

Link to this video on Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0pLudxkzSI

In what ways does our media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)

The title of our film is ‘When Shelly Met Kelly’, we got the idea for this and based in on the same structure of the very popular romantic comedy, ‘When Harry Met Sally’ . We wanted the audience to recognise this title to show that we were relating to the well known conventions of ‘When Harry Met Sally’.

These 9 frames are the most important because they show the main features in our film such as the font and style. By looking at other films we realised that the title font styles are usually big and clear letters, so that is how we set ours. This makes them easier to read for the audience, and stand out more from the film opening in the background. Titles are important because they set the first impression for the film so we used a bright vibrant red colour because this immediately gives the audience the impression of a ‘feel good’ movie. We made our company logo in a computer program and integrated this into the very beginning of the film before the music starts.

The next frame is of our establishing shot, our film is set in a block of flats so even though all of the filming was done in the same house a few miles away from the fictional location so we could stage each character’s bedroom and bathroom, we were still able to stick with the location by using this shot of the flats to set the scene at the beginning. It was quite hard to film this because we had to try lots of different camera angles in order to get the full building in. The setting of our film is very typical to the usual conventions of a romantic comedy. In most comedies the first scene begins with an establishing shot of a building in which is related to the character like a home or a work place, we know this as later on in the first scene of the main film we see the character leave this building as though they are on their way to work.

For costumes and props our actors used their own clothing and we found props that fit in our own homes. The clothes we used were purchased from modern shops like New look or Topshop because these are the types of shops that our aimed audience would shop in, therefore allowing them to relate to the characters better. The costumes also represented our characters personalities. Our props were an alarm clock and most everyday bathroom items, such as face cloths and toothbrushes etc. The way our props are used in the film, like when the character ‘Kelly’ uses mouthwash, make it easy for the audience to relate to because they can recognise these things from their own lives

The story begins with the third frame, this is a mid shot with the alarm clock going off and we see a hand turn it off, this hand is the first introduction to the female lead character. Also in this frame we have the introduction to the story because it tells us the character is on a time schedule to be somewhere. The fourth frame is a mid shot of the second character in bed, we know this is another character as this scene is in another bedroom with different settings, this is the first introduction we have to the second character. The fifth key frame is a split screen of the two characters looking up at the camera, in the editing process we did this by dragging the two shots of both characters side by side into one shot and re-sizing them so that they fit together and fit in the frame. This is the first time in the film we see the characters faces and we created the split screen so that the story was able to follow both characters at the same time. The sixth key frame is still a split screen however it is a different type of shot, this shot is a point of view shot because the characters are looking into the camera as though it is the mirror and we see what they are seeing as their reflection. The last key frame is where the music stops and we have the natural sounds of the town, this was a shot of the character walking from the building towards the road whilst walking out of the camera’s shot, we panned the camera to do this, and as soon as the character is out of the shot the title appears, covering up most of the screen.

The first image, on the left, is our actress Hannah Whyman playing the lead role of Kelly in our movie ‘When Shelly Met Kelly’ , this picture is taken from the last shot in our opening sequence when she is on her way to work. The second picture, on the right is the actress Sandra Bullock  playing the lead role of Maggie in the movie ‘The Proposal’ , this picture is also taken when the character is on her way to work. We based the character Kelly on the character of Maggie because that is the image we wanted to portray, of a ’stuck up’, snobby, ambitious and career driven woman who doesn’t let anyone into her life, especially not to interfere with her work, and that is the type of character we wanted our character Kelly to be exactly like. These pictures were chosen because they show some of the similarities of the characters quite clearly just by looking. For example even the way the two characters both hold their bags on the same arm and have the same strong definite walk. They are both dressed similar and there is a sense of power in the way their faces are set with determination. However there are some differences in the characters, our character of Kelly isn’t supposed to be very confident and supposed to be quite shy, you can see this in the picture because whereas Maggie has her head up looking confident, our character has her head down. Overall I think the way we filmed and directed our character Kelly was successful because we managed to portray her how we first planned.

This image is of two who we thought would be good to represent our audience because they relate to the characters both by age and personality, which is what we wanted to happen. Both of the girls are between 12 and 18 which is the age range for our film audience. 

 We decided early on that our film, ‘When Shelley Met Kelly’ , was aimed at mainly teenage girls, the type of characters that go shopping with friends, listen to the latest pop music and watch TV soaps or sitcoms. We felt we managed to do this successfully because our audience can relate to the characters in our film and the morning routines we see them go through. Also the age of our characters can relate to the audience, the audience may see them as like themselves or like how they want to be, so they can connect with the film and the storyline better than if the characters were very unlike themselves because it is easier to understand the characters.