Friday 5 May 2017

Media Evaluation Q7

Looking back a your preliminary task, what do you have learnt from the progression from it to the full product?
We chose to answer this question as a group.


Wednesday 19 April 2017

Media Evaluation Q6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
We chose to answer this question as a group.



Media Evaluation Q5

How did you attract/address your audience? I chose to answer this question individually.

Media Evaluation Q4


Who would be the audience for your media product? I chose to answer this question individually.









Media Evaluation Q3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? I chose to answer this question individually.

















Media Evaluation Q2

How does your media product represent particular social groups? I chose to answer this question individually.

Media Evaluation Q1

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

My title sequence has a very unique use of style and colour, this allows it to appeal more to a more creative and young audience opposed to the mass audience from a superhero film. There are many successful and well known dramas such as, Forrest Gump, The Notebook, Titanic, Shawshank Redemption that use dramatic themes like poverty, class division, racial prejudice, addiction and moral dilemmas in the film. These themes are the core of every drama, and can allow people to relate or connect on an emotional level, my title sequence uses love and some elements of class division to connect to the audience. My title sequence was heavily inspired by Wes Anderson and his unique use of colour and warm/yellow tones, you can see this in his title sequence Moonrise Kingdom.

Moonrise Kingdom, like many other Wes Anderson title sequences, relies heavily on use of props and music to establish a timeframe and style of the film, usually of an elegant style. A close up of the binoculars in the title sequence of Moonrise Kingdom allows a clear shot so the audience can focus on them, the film later shows the importance of the binoculars and how much relevance they had throughout the film and the narrative. I tried to do the same in my title sequence with the wooden box, my narrative consists of flashbacks to previous events of my main character, Walter Murphy's, life. The mise-en-scene and props help establish a time frame along with the soundtrack of the 1960s, the props help suggest this such as the record player, cassette players, type of toys (wooden not electronic), vintage style of the location, the carpet and colours are very old fashioned. I also tried to establish some of the narrative with the wedding ring in the box scenes.













However, most romantic dramas establish the genre clearer in the title sequence, for example The Notebook features and man and woman in the sequence as well as Dirty Dancing which is continuos shots of close ups of men and women dancing passionately together. You can also see form the stills that both of these title sequences have red tones, red having connotations of contrasting views such as love and danger, but in this case love. The only element of love shown in my title sequence is the soundtrack, where it literally refers to the word 'love'. Although you can tell my title sequence is an Drama, the sub genre hasn't been made as clear as other similar title sequence.











My title sequence narrative can be established clearly, the getting ready routine represents everyday life and shows the life of the character. The jump cuts of the pictures of the characters portrays the flashbacks of the narrative as well as building more character, i specifically chose to film the painting of the poppies to represents the flashback and resemble the war scenes in the narrative. The box contains memorabilia in which contains black and white photos of children and a wedding ring which shows marriage and love.


My film conforms to the conventions as my narrative exhibits a real life situation, this can be shown in my title sequence through the basic morning routine, my characters are realistic and represent the life of ordinary people, however the events in their lives are open to interpretation by the audience, their are tragic events such as War and loss and common events such as childbirth and children which are shown in a different light. The themes and events create climaxes to keep the audience emotionally attached and engaged to the ongoing tension. The idea of flashbacks to show the characters lives was inspired by Forrest Gump.


The title sequence of Forrest Gump doesn't give a lot of narrative away, like Moonrise Kingdom it relies heavily on props, the feather is present throughout certain scenes in the film, the connotations of a feather of peace, fate, freedom, rebirth, of which all of these are explored throughout the film as themes. Peace can be related to Jenny's death and how she finally found peace, it can also relate to when she would pray to be a bird so she could 'fly far, far away' and the clear, physical relation of a feather coming form the bird.

My title sequence can also challenge the forms and conventions of an drama minimally, due to the style and choice of colour, this makes is a creative film and can either limit the audience slightly or increase the audience by limiting it less and opening it to a wider variety of people.

Monday 3 April 2017

Group member leaving

Laine was offered an apprenticeship in her chosen career path, she accepted the offer so will be leaving sixth form as she will enrol immediately. This means that although she has been part of the group up until our finished title sequence, she will be unable to take part in the evaluation.

Sunday 2 April 2017

Final Title Sequence

Our title sequence tells the life of our main character Walter Murphy, played by Tom Hanks, through his sons perspective, played by James Marsden. Our title sequence relies on mine-en-scene to help establish the timeframe, narrative and style of film. As our title sequence is quite short, it would continue into the opening scene as seen in American Psycho (2000).


Saturday 1 April 2017

Wes Anderson

Wes Anderson heavily influenced our title sequence in many ways, we took narrative, sound any stylistic influence. When it comes to Wes Anderson, his unique style and design is what makes his work so different and very visually appealing. Wes Anderson uses technical precision in his work, symmetry is one of the most noticeable traits. We tried to create this by using symmetry in our work, we used the typography to help create symmetry as well as the framing within our camerawork.





Another common trait of Wes anderson is his use of patterns and prints, one of his most recent films, The Grand Budapest Hotel, shows his love for vibrant colours. We tried to incorporate vintage patterns throughout our title sequence whilst still showing yellow undertones. Below are some stills of our title sequence which show how we tried to incorporate symmetry and colour into our work.






From the stills you can see the warm undertones, we achieved this by colour correcting in Final Cut Pro. Our title sequence is also set in the past, similar to Wes Anderson's films and that they all take place in eras that are prior to the present. We tried to show his love for nostalgia by creating it in our title sequence. 

Friday 31 March 2017

Typography change

Today we finished our title sequence. We changed our font to 'Messenger Pigeon' as we felt that Morsal wasn't working as it was too chunky. Our new font is also similar to the font in Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom, it is more elegant than our previous fonts (Shorelines and Morsal).


Thursday 30 March 2017

Editing 6

Yesterday, me and Oliver continued to edit. We added more titles and edited the colour to make the  sequence have more yellow and warm tones, this helps to create the Wes Anderson style that our title sequence was inspired by. We moved the text around to see where we felt it fitted the best, we also decided not use motion. After analysing other Wes Anderson title sequences we noticed that the text flashes up and then just disappears, there isn't movement in the text, instead its cleverly lined up within the frame and therefore has relevance and doesn't look out of place. We managed to re-create this in Final Cut Pro.

Wednesday 29 March 2017

Editing 5

Me and Oliver continued to edit today as Laine and Fiona were on a trip. We edited the colour scheme and created warm, yellow undertones of a similar style to Wes Anderson's work. We also continued to use the blade tool to cut and trim some scenes and create some more jump-cuts. We are going to stay behind tomorrow to add the last few titles in motion and then hopefully our title sequence will be finished and we can make a start on our evaluation.

Saturday 25 March 2017

Soundtrack Log 4

After looking at Brancoala's profile thoroughly we noticed that the track was able to download for free. We asked for advice from people who specify in music and know more about copyright and they're opinion was that the soundtrack should be fine to use due to his profile, description and privacy settings.

Friday 24 March 2017

Editing 4

In todays lesson we continued to edit, we fixed up some of the shots by using stabiliser and cut some more of the shots down, specifically the opening scene with the record player. We also added some more titles and started to colour edit some of the shots to make them brighter and more vibrant, which was one of the comments mentioned in the feedback sheets. Myself and my group hope to have finished our title sequence by Wednesday and then we will start on our evaluation, we decided as a group that we would answer some of the questions together and some individually, the group answers we will need to do before Easter half term next week.

Wednesday 22 March 2017

Final viewing

In todays lesson we had our second and last viewing of our title sequence to the class in order to receive feedback, so we can make the final changes to our sequence. Our feedback was much better this time round, unlike the previous feedback we received for our last title sequence. Our title sequence still isn't finished, we need to use motion to make our typography move differently and are still considering whether we like the black and white photos of young Tom Hanks and Rachel McAdams, we liked the idea as it would give more narrative and add character, but we are unsure whether it fits in or not.

Soundtrack Log 3

After watching the other group's title sequence, we continued to edit our title sequence and make improvements using the most updated feedback sheets. Myself, Fiona and Laine continued to contact people via Soundcloud on their cover of 'Love Me Do' by The Beatles, we sent the following message to the user:


Soundtrack Log 2

We received a reply from The Science Project after 3 days of contacting them. It was unfortunately unsuccessful for us so myself, Laine and Fiona we will continue to contact more people whilst also thinking of alternative soundtrack options.



Feedback Sheets 2

                                     These are the feedback sheets we received from today.







Monday 20 March 2017

Editing 3

Today we added the soundtrack to our title sequence and some foley sound with the record player, we added the scratching effect make it more intense and realistic, below is just an example of the sound we used. We were also considering adding other sounds similar but we want our soundtrack to remain loud and intense throughout the title sequence. Me and Oliver also decided to add flashing images of the stills of our mise-en-scene, for instances the old black and white photographs of Tom Hanks and Rachel McAdams, our main stars, randomly in-between shots and the titles of their names. We need to add some more and ask for feedback if other people think it works well and explains more of our narrative.



Sunday 19 March 2017

Soundtrack Log 1

During Fridays lesson, whilst Oliver and I were editing, Fiona and Laine contacted some music artists on Soundcloud on their version of 'Love me do' by The Beatles. This could allow us to still use this song whilst avoiding copyright. Below is the message that they sent to The Science Project. We haven't had a reply yet and if there is no contact made come the 31st of March, we will either have to mix our own version or chose another soundtrack.

Friday 17 March 2017

Soundtrack

Our soundtrack has been one of the most difficult aspects of our title sequence as a whole, we originally and still hope to use 'Love Me Do' by The Beatles. The song not only fits our timeframe of the 1960s but is also an ideal soundtrack overall. The song is upbeat, which is ideal for our title sequence as we plan for our film to be 'feel good' through experiencing the amazing life of our main character, Walter Murphy. However, there is an issue with the song around copyright so we are still discussing a solution and other ideas.

Editing 2

Today we continued to edit. We managed to add more typography to our sequence so it flows and fits into our shots without looking out of place and random. We had to jump-cut some of our footage in order to make it more quirky and give more narrative whilst still keeping it interesting. Our group is hopeful that we will be finished come our deadline.

Wednesday 15 March 2017

Editing 1

After looking back at all of our footage and deciding as a group we were pleased with it we started to edit in Final Cut Pro X. Myself and Oliver are the main editors however everyone in my group has a input and contribute their individual ideas. We have our chosen typography that are mention in older posts however today we picked the official colour for our typography, we chose a deep mustard yellow colour as inspired by Wes Anderson. We plan to decide tomorrow whether we will use Motion for our typography edits or not. Today we chose the best footage of each scenes and jump edited some as well as decreasing or increasing the pace of some of the footage in order to fit the pace of our soundtrack. Our deadline for the second screening of our title sequence is the March the 22nd, so we plan to stay behind and try to finish as much as we can by then.

Tuesday 14 March 2017

Production Log 4

Filming Day 4
Camerawork
Weather 
Location 
2:00 to 3:00
box scene - Birdseye view
sun with clouds
living room 
3:00 to 4:00 
tea scene- Birdseye view
sun with clouds
kitchen
4:15 
finish filming






We put the box and the props on the floor and used a tri-pod to film above it in order to still achieve the Birdseye view. We also tried to adapt and add some different scenes in order to make the narrative and genre clear. Due to it starting to get dark around 5:00 we decide to film the tea scene before the box scene, we also ran over and didn't finish filming until 5:00.

Monday 13 March 2017

Production Log 3

Filming Day 3
Camerawork
Weather 
Location 
2:00 to 3:00
record player (opening shot)- try close up and Birdseye view
sunny
living room 
3:00 to 3:30
Oliver walking past painting
sunny
dining room
4:15 
finish filming
started to get dark






We have to film at certain times to ensure the lighting is accurate, so we have to stop filing at 4:00 as it was already getting dark. We decided to use a close up shot of a record player that belongs to Fiona, we hope the close up will draw focus to the details of the record player and make the overall experience more intense. We decided to use this scene to our advantage and use it to introduce our soundtrack, below is a still of the record player we used.


Thursday 9 March 2017

Production Log 2

Filming Day 2
Camerawork
Weather 
Location 
10:00 to 10:40 am
stairs 
clouds 
stair way
10:40 to 11:00 am
Close up paintings
clouds 
stair way 
11:00 to 11:30 am
Oliver walking across painting
clouds 
dining room
11:30 am
Finish filming 



Today we me and my group started to re-film after the feedback from our class and looking back on our previously filmed footage ourselves. We changed our filming location and decided to film the whole of our title sequence at Laine's nan house, we done this because we felt it would help our footage blend together better and help establish the narrative. We also changed the idea of our title sequence and decided to include a character, Oliver took this on by taking  the role of either the son or grandson on. Below is some of the footage and outtakes we showed to the class for our first viewing. Due to the weather we were unable to film Oliver walking across the painting as we rely on natural lighting, we will have to film this next time.


Wednesday 8 March 2017

Response To Feedback

After watching the first edit with the class and receiving feedback, myself and the rest of my group decided that we needed to change our ideas and techniques of filming and that we will definitely have to re-film previous footage. A big change we decided to make is to adapt the way we portray the narrative in our title sequence, as some comments were made about our narrative being unclear. Taking this into consideration we decided that instead of having the title sequence from our main characters point of view the film would be from the grandson or the sons perspective, this will make our title sequence more realistic and make more sense overall as we could not find an elderly man to play our original role. This change will allow us to add more shots and include more character in our title sequence which would help make the narrative clearer and our overall title sequence more visually appealing. 

We also discussed adding a wider variations of shots, for example a close up of our main character doing up their bowtie, a close up of making a cup of tea and of them setting up the record player. Me, Oliver and Fiona talked about the soundtrack, we are unsure if we are going to use foley sound, such as the kettle boiling, to make the overall sequence more intense or to use a relaxing upbeat soundtrack to make it flow nicely. 

We found this task very useful as we are now aware of what we have to improve and what we have to change as a whole in order to make our title sequence more appealing.

Feedback Sheets 1






Mise-en-scene

Fiona collected many props as part of the mise-en-scene that are perfect for our title sequence. Fiona collected photos of Tom Hanks off the internet and edited them so they were black and white, this made them look older and more realistic and reflected our main character. The wedding ring represents his wife engagement ring as this is a key part of the narrative, the box has a vintage effect that will tie in with our theme. The toys are also more traditional toys such as marbles and wooden figures, this will help establish the timeframe. We also collected a vinyl, record player and cassette player's, we plan to use these in our title sequence. We plan to add and expand to this selection as the props in the wooden box is the main aspect of our title sequence.