Wednesday 19 March 2014

Refined Final Edit

Screening Feedback

19/03/14
Today the whole class sat in their individual groups in class and started to go through everyones title sequence. While going through the sequence everyone was given two feedback sheets to fill while watching the title sequences. We got two sheets as there are three groups and we had to analyse other groups title sequence.

Here are the feedback sheets for our sequence:


 
 

Going through everyones title sequence and analysing them using the feedback sheets was really helpful as we got different views, from everyone, towards our title sequence. This gave us an idea of what we need to improve on and develope. Most people said that we needed to either re-shoot or re-edit the ending as it was a bit jumpy and unclear, get a close-up shot of Aaron when he is looking at his reflection and to experiment with scenes with Aaron being in all black and white. I think the idea of Aaron's scenes being in black and white is a real good idea as it conveys the message of a unlucky man who's life is just boring and dull but then at the same time shows coloured scenes of a happy lucky women. We will, as a group, go through the feedbacks we got and will take them into consideration when refining our title sequence.

Final Edit

18/03/14
This is the final edit that we created. Before we saved the sequence as a final edit we added a clip of a production company(Universal) of our choice to be shown in the beginning.




I feel fairly confident with our title sequence and the way we have edited it. I feel that the romcom genre has been conveyed extremely well due to following the main rules of codes and conventions of a romcom. We have included a wide range of editing techniques and have come out with a really good outcome, considering at the beginning of this coursework we was a little unsure of what we were going to film due to too many title sequence ideas. 

Tuesday 18 March 2014

continuation of post production

6th-17th March
We all continued doing each of our parts by developing and refining on them for a good two weeks. I carried on creating titles until i got to 17 which was the maximum of titles we chose to include as we didn't want to overload the title sequence with titles and wanted to keep it subtle and classy. While i was creating my titles Aaron was experimenting with sound and collected a few bits and bobs such as heart monitor sound and a sound of a accident (to convey the part at which a car crash had occured) as well as the main sound throughout the sequence. Hayley continued to refine the sequence from developing on the rough edit.


 After we had all completed our parts we merged all our work onto the sequence. Firstly we added the sound cropping parts out and using the fading method so that it smoothly starts and ends within the title sequence. We then started to discuss and decided upon which parts we wanted split screens to be shown through different transitions and which parts we wanted to add effects. After discussing we asked our Media technician, Jack, to kindly help us create effects like split screens and filters. Hayley later on then created different types of split screens with different transitions to give more of an impact, for example three-way split screen. We wanted to include some of the shots in split screens to give it a more romcom effect; that was one of the main codes and conventions of a romcom. When doing the split screen Hayley had to make sure that both the shots were at the right equalisation otherwise the split screens would look a bit odd and weird. She did the split screens through transitions of the shots coming downwards.

 Towards the end we made the shots short so that it creates tension of something bad happening to the audience due to short takes. We decided to have some of the scenes tinted and added colour to make them look more vibrant and entertaining to look at making the sequence brighter giving the romcom feeling. The arrangement of our title sequence is non-linear due to the match on action being shown of the two characters. 
Later on during the week we refined the sequence by using Magic Bullet looks at the beginning shots so that they are more brighter as well as cleaning up and refining parts.

Lastly we added the titles that i created one by one onto Final Cut Pro. When we was adding the titles we had to make sure that they were in a order in which title credits are usually put in and had to crop them so that they don't show for too long. Here we used the dissolving in and out editing technique so that the titles are presented smoothly. We also told Hayley to edit the titles by changing the brightness extremely high so that the text is white and therefore is legible to read. I didn't realise when i was making the titles that black would be hard to read however this problem overcame smoothly as white text represents romcom genre more strongly than black.

Saturday 15 March 2014

Editing

28th-5th March
As Hayley was in charge of editing she had to do a rough edit of the sequence on final cut pro. Firstly she had to import all the shots and convert it from the MOV. files to DV so that the editing can go smoothly on Final Cut Pro. She then uploaded all the shots that we will be using on to Final Cut Pro and started to cut, render and add shots together.


Sound

28th-5th March
As Aaron was in charge of sound he started to look and find sounds that was suitable to be used in our title sequence. He was searching for copyright free sound so that it can be used in the sequence. He found a few sounds that he quite liked and started to play around in adding some of the downloaded copyright free music into logic film pro so that he could see which sound worked well with the rough edit of the title sequence. The type of sound that we were looking for to be on our sequence were something that is quite happy and fits in the field of being in a good mood and meeting someone. He also started to look for sounds of a patients heart beat or a heart beat monitor as he thought it would be a good idea of having a heart beat at the end of the sequence to show that the male character has been hit by a car and is now in hospital.

Titles

28th-5th March
As i was in charge of titles i started creating them on photoshop. Using the notes we made from Leanne's lesson of what order the titles go in i started to create them. 

  • Production company
  • Cast
  • Title of film
  • Casting by
  • Music by
  • Costume designer
  • Production design
  • Director of photography
  • Co-producers
  • Co executive producer
  • Executive producer
  • Written by
  • Produced by
  • Directed by

I firstly jotted down the titles i was going to include in our title sequence on paper in the order of what i wanted them to be shown in. Then i went on photoshop and started to create the titles using a film and video template with the size of PAL D1/DV Widescreen. I had to use a film and video template so that  the titles can be put onto Final Cut Pro without a problem and also because i have to make sure that the titles fit in nicely with the whole title sequence.







After i had created a new page i started to type each title individually on the bottom left hand corner. The font style i chose and thought was suitable for all the titles was Cochin. For the main title 'Delayed' it was Riesling which i got from Dafont. To make sure that all my titles were at the same side with the same alignment i used the grid layout as a guide line as i didn't want all my titles to show at different places. I chose the font colour to be black as i thought it was the colour that would be the most legible when shown on the different shots with different coloured background.






Once i had finished creating my titles i had to get rid of the background paper and save it as a PNG. I had to get rid of the background paper before i saved it because when i put the titles on Final Cut Pro the background for the titles will be the shots. Saving it as a PNG allows me to upload my titles onto our title sequence.


Post-Production

26/02/14
In today's double lesson each person in our group was delegated a task. Aaron was in charge of sound, Hayley being in charge of editing and me being in charge of the titles.

As i was in charge of titles i wanted to create a mini questionnaire for the main title ''Delayed''. I wanted to ask a few people on their opinions for what font the main title should be in from the ones my group and i selected before.

                           

I gave this questionnaire out to twenty-two people of different ages and gender. I then collected all the sheets once people had answered and started to gather the results and present them in a graph context. By putting the results in a graph context it made it look more professional.

                                 
From looking at my results i found out that the font style 7 was the most preferred for our main title. When looking at the font i can see that it work pretty well with our film plot as well as the genre due to it being romantic simple and classy.

Feedback on filming

24/02/14
The feedback we got was that the shots we captured were not linear. We need to have a stronger beginning of the title sequence and a much better ending. Leanne suggested that as our film is about the two characters not being able to meet each other and go on the date, due to an accident that the male character encounters, we should end the title sequence of the male character getting hit by a bus. She also stated that by adding a stronger beginning and end it will pro-long and give a better impact to our titles sequence. We agreed with Leanne and really liked her suggestion on the ending of the title sequence so we all went out after school when it was sunny and re-shot the beginning and ending of the title sequence. For the ending we went with Leanne's suggestion but for the beginning we went with an idea of our own which is the male character putting earphones in his ears and listening to music from his phone. We got the shot of Aaron getting hit by the bus by a shot of Aaron stepping off the pavement, shot of the bus coming and then a shot of Aaron's facial expression of him being shocked. This part we will edit out in a jump-cut style.  


Just by refining on the beginning and ending of our title sequence really made a difference as it made it more effective of the day in the sequence being really jolly and happy but all of a sudden the ending is a shock.
 

Group discussion

21/02/14

Today we all met up at Hayley's house and had a group meeting in which we discussed our title sequence plans and flicked through the shots. We made sure that all the shots we took were the way we wanted to take them and that we captured all the shots we wanted to capture.


Overall i think we captured quite a lot of good shots which meant that the shooting went pretty well and was successful as all the parts we wanted to shoot were filmed just the way we wanted them to. I think by filming on the second day really helped as due to the weather being real good and sunny it gave that romcom feeling through the shots that we wanted to convey. Also on the second day we started shooting further shots that we didn't plan to but got the ideas on the spot. By filming lots of different shots i think it will help a lot when putting all the clips together for the title sequence as it will broaden our title sequence and improve it as we will have lots of different shots.

Start of Filming

17/02/14
Today we started filming for our title sequence. Aaron, Hayley and i met up at Bexleyheath Station and made our way down to Waterloo station where we started our filming. On our way to the station we did a few clips on the train of Aaron looking outside the window as well as other trains passing by. When we were filming here we did it by handheld as by using a tripod it could change the angle of what we wanted to capture. Also we had to be quick in capturing the trains around us as we may miss them.


While we were at Waterloo station we did Gorilla filming of the two main characters walking past each other. We then started walking around the South Bank, London eye and Westminister bridge filming various shots.



We also continued shooting up in London on the following Tuesday 18th February to shoot and capture more parts as on the day we shooted before the weather was not too good so therefore the clips came out a bit dark and gloomy.



Developing Production Plans

10/02/14
In Sineads lesson, my group and i went into the mac room where we went through our blogs making sure that they were all up to date and that all the links were embedded. As i had some difficulties in embedding the links to my blog i asked Jack(media technician) to help me. This problem was then later solved and all the links on my blog was embedded as well as my blog being all up to date. As a group we then started to add onto our production plan.    

Pre-production

We started a production plan of when we will be filming and what we will be filming.  We created our production plan by printing of an A4 sized calender of the months February and March 2014 and started to fill in what we will plan to do on each day. 

We decided to shoot the scenes over the half-term which was between the 17th February and 21st February so that we have enough days to get all our shots in. The time frame we planned to shoot in was between 10-3pm so that we don't have to go through the peak times which are mostly around 9am and 4-5pm. In the time frame we chose the stations are not as busy which means we can capture shots easily without worrying. We have also arranged to hire the schools DSLR camera and Steadicam before we break up for the half-term as we wil need it for shooting.

Mise-en-scene
We have planned a list of props that each individual person needs to bring on the day of shoot:
Hayely
-Glasses
-Handbag
-Watch
-Lipstick 

Aaron
-Blazer
-Tie
-Watch
-Umbrella
-DSLR Camera
-Steadicam

Me
-briefcase/work bag

The costume style for both male and female character will be smart business wear as they are both posh formal people who live in London. The setting of our title sequence will be up Central London as we want to give the hint of the film being about two British people who are based in London. On the day that we will be shooting the lighting outside will have to be quite a sunny bright day as the genre of our film is a romcom and we want to set a happy romcom feel towards the audience. This will mean that our shooting dates will be flexible (between 17th-21st February) due to weather conditions. The make-up for both the female and male character will be subtle and natural. The performance and facial expression to be shown on both characters will be getting excited and being in a good mood due to both characters meeting up with each other and going on a date.

Cinematography
The cinematography that we are planning to use are extreme close-ups, mid shots, 3/4 shots, long shots as well as wide shots, crab, pan and track. We will use a tripod and Steadicam as much as we can so that the camera does not move too much and is steady.

Refined Storyboard

07/02/14
After discussing with the group we decided upon an idea of filming a title sequence of a match on action of the two individuals making there way to meet each other. The sequence will be non-linear due to the match on action of two scenes.
Here is our new storyboard consisting of a new and final idea:

   

We spoke to Emily about our idea and she thought it was a really good idea and liked the idea of both characters doing similar things at the same time but at different places. This feedback we got made us feel a bit more confident in our title sequence plan. 

Developed brainstorm





Results

We collected all the questionnaires after they were filmed and presented the results in a graph so that it was easier to see which sections were most preferred by the audience: i prefer presenting results in graph context as it makes a visually easier to understand.










The results we got from our questionnaire was that from the title 'Train Affairs' many people thought and knew that the film was going to be about two people falling in love on a train; the title was just too obvious and gives the film plot away. 

95% of the people got the genre for our film correct of it being a romantic comedy. Most people said that they would like to see either a train, train station or a clip of something that gives a hint of the film being about trains. Majority of the audience would like there to be a happy and cheerful sound played so that the audience can feel that comedy genre. 

When people started to answer the second page of the questionnaire most of them thought that the plot of the film was good and that they would probably go to see the film. However the title choice that was selected the most was 'Delayed' which resulted in our title name being changed from 'Train Affairs' to 'Delayed'.

30% of the people said that they would definitely go to see this film while 55% said they would maybe. Only 25% of the people didn't like this film plot which made us confident in our film as many people quite liked it.

Overall from our primary evidence we found out that the plot and the genre of the film is good and people would actually want to go and see the film this gave us a positive sign. However, the title was the only part in which the audience felt 'Delayed' was better than 'Train Affairs'. To be honest, i prefer 'Delayed' as a title name as it doesn't give the film plot away so easily and sounds more interesting

Primary Audience Research

My group and i decided to do some primary audience research by creating a questionnaire based on our title sequence and film plot. We wanted to do some primary audience research as we wanted to know other people's opinions on our film title and their opinion on the film plot. Here is the questionnaire we created on Microsoft Word. We gave out our questionnaires to twenty-two people. So that our results were not biased we carried this questionnaire outside a shopping centre.



Typography For Train Affairs

05/02/14
To find a suitable font title for our title for the film we went on a copyright free website ''Dafont'' and looked at some fonts that we could consider using in our title sequence. Here are some fonts we selected and felt that it worked well with the storyline.





 
 
                                 

The feedback we got from Sinead when we showed these titles was that some of them didnt work well with the RomCom genre. For example the third, fourth and ninth titles represent more of the action genre than RomCom. The first title she felt looked a bit too formal conveying a romantic drama film. This feedback we took into consideration as then we had a rough idea of what title we will use.


Typography

05/02/14
Today's lesson started off by Leanne going through the importance of typography and design and looking at the typography of titles in Catch Me if You Can, Lord of the War and Forest Gump title sequences.
My notes
-Typography in 'Catch Me if You Can'
  • Typewriting style- connotates hand written checks
  • Title being Serif and names being San-serif connotating that there are two characters. The first character being formal(sheriff) and the second being informal and escaping away as the text is changing forms and being able to disguise.
  • Soul Bass influence-colours and block shapes
  • Smooth and bold movement of typography
  • Mysterious and detective genre related
  • Titles are interwoven to fabric of title sequence
                                      

-Typography in 'Lord of the War'
  • Sharp
  • Masculine
  • Block and capital typography
  • Action genre
  • Titles are subtle-not too big of a font
  • Titles are kept to the sides so that the background sequence is not disrupted.
                                      

-Typography in 'Forest Gump'
  • Serif
  • Timeless-there is no period of time
  • Typed in classic quality style
  • The white feather and text connotating the impression of the film being peaceful, calming and smooth.
  • Font text is centre aligned- old style text placement
  • High grammer used- capital letters on the beginning of each title
  • subtle and gentle text as it is fading in and out
                                      

Looking at typography really helped me understand in how the typography of titles in the title sequence link well with the genre. By looking at the typography in various film titles gave me an idea of how the typography in our title sequence should be like so that it flows with the romcom genre smoothly.

After we had looked at typography, with Leanne, the group and i went through our idea of title sequence showing our rough storyboards. The feedback we got from her was that it was not particularly clear and didn't really link well with the title. Due to Hayley not being in this lesson, Aaron and i decided to improve our idea on Friday in Emily's lesson so that we can decide upon an idea as a group.

Storyboarding

31/01/14
Today's lesson started off with everyone getting into their coursework groups and started planning their title sequence through a story board. Before starting the storyboard we came up with various interesting ideas. The first idea was to film a train tracks and a brides dress dragging on the floor in two separate shots and then to edit the both the shots so that they are merged into one in a way so that the tracks are being swept away by the bridesmaid dress while the bridesmaid is walking down the isle. However due to time restrictions this wouldn't be possible to do. The other idea we came up with was to use Polaroid cameras and to film the title sequence by taking shots of different photos in a Polaroid style, but then we felt this idea to be too simple. We then had a final idea of creating the title sequence in a circular narrative so that it starts off with the women getting ready for her wedding day showing hints of her having two men in her life.
 This is the start of our story board:

Then Emily went round and was speaking to individual groups and people giving feedback to them on their title sequence and blogs. The feedback that was given to our group was that we still needed to do a little more in depth research of what we would like to film and finalise an idea for our title sequence. We came up with too many ideas to choose from which made it difficult for us to decide which idea to go with. We were given a feedback of story-boarding different ideas we had that we would like to film and then choosing one in which is suitable and successful. The feedback i got on my blog was that all my posts were in detail and well typed however, i just needed to post my continuous editing sequence and Love Actually analysis which i have now done. Now all i need to do is embed a few links onto my blog which i will do with Leanne on Wednesdays lesson.

Love Actually Title Credits Analysis

The title sequence in ‘Love Actually’ starts off conventionally by firstly showing distributors and production company logo’s. A sound bridge is created when the last production company logo fades out. The non-diegetic sound is orchestrated and slow, making the audience feel emotional and give a caring feel as well as calm. The camera focuses on a person with a backpack walking through the crowds. Here a mid-shot cinematography is used to give the audience a glimpse of the setting but not fully giving it away. The style of the cinematography looks like a home-video. As the music continues credits appear over the scenes at the bottom of the sequence with the editing process of dissolving in and out. There is a montage sequence of people meeting and greeting each other. Here the cinematography is shown through different angles so the audience can see the setting; airport. At this point the audiences are felt as if they are in the scene due to the environment in which the scene is in. A voice over then begins when a women is picking a child up. The voice over gives a hint of who the main character could be if the voice is recognisable to people. 

A focus pull is then created through the camera to draw the  audiences attention and eyes on the people that are greeting each other. This gives the connotation to the audience of the film being about love as the people are affectionate to each other.The voice over and camera angles reveal that the setting is at an airport and that this film is based on a romantic genre due to the main character talking about relationships and love. The title then appears gracefully.

This, i think, is a nice simple sweet title sequence for a romantic comedy film. I think that the voice over worked beautifully as it gave a greater impact towards the audience of them being intrigued to know who the main character or the voice for the voice over could be. This opening is unique from other title sequences with the same genre as it introduces the start of the film without fully exposing the characters. I also feel that the parallel sound that was played throughout the sequence went really well and set the mood up for the audience of what journey they are going on; romantic journey.

This title sequence is fairly meaningful in the fact that it consists of Roland Barthes narrative codes to convey specific meanings. The enigma code has been used in a way to leave the audience questioned on the link to the people greeting each other and the voice over this leads to the clip using semantic code as the voice over can lead to meanings of a number of things. Usually, romantic comedies are targeted to women due to romance and desire. However i think that this title sequence does not only target women but targets men and families in general as it shows love between family and friends and not just couples. Throughout this sequence narrative codes and features have been used and shown to convey to the audience that this film is based on a romantic genre.