Evaluation (Part 8) - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learn in the progression from it to the full product?

Preliminary Task:
Digital Technology:



Strengths:
I think one of the main strengths of the work was the actual continuity of the work and the match on action. This was the main objective of the preliminary task and I think we executed it smoothly. For example at 0.04 when I open the door from one angle and then the camera cuts to the interior of the room at 0.05 and the continuity was smooth and had the perfect timing. 

Weaknesses:

I think the weaknesses of the digital technology could have been how I handled the camera in some shots. For example, at 0.20 when using the handheld camera, I was very shaky which ruined the focus and quality of the picture.

Improvements:
I have improved this in my final opening sequence 'Framed' as at 0.28 in my final sequence I am again using a handheld camera yet this time I managed to keep the camera in focus and less shaky improving the picture quality.

Post Production:
Strengths:
I think the strengths in post production were the editing. I think the cuts we added to the preliminary task was effective especially at 0.11 where it cuts to a close of the clock to connote time has passed.

Weaknesses:

I think that a weakness of the post production is that there may not have been enough transitions added when editing the work. I think adding a few more may have made the preliminary task look visually better.

Improvements:

I think I have improved and developed my editing skills in post production as I have learnt how to add audio files into the movie, how to import graphics into the movie, reduce the contrast by a certain percentage and how to increase the sound of audio at certain parts and decrease the sound.                             

Planning and Research:

Strengths:

The strengths of our planning and research for our preliminary task was the story board and the actual research itself. We would not have been able to get the shots  right if we did not know the research itself - for example the rule of three and the match on action and the 180 degrees rule. 

Weaknesses:

I think the main weakness of planning and research was that there wasn't enough time to plan more extensively as my partner and I had joined the media subject later then everyone else so we had limited time to plan.

Improvements:

I have made improvements in the planning and research section in my final opening sequence as I have managed to use the knowledge gained from the research in final production such as the match on action, rule of three etc.

Creativity:

Strengths:

I used my creativity to develop the scenario as I thought we went with a different idea to everyone else's  We could have came up with the typical narrative which everyone uses but we decided to try something different and unique which I believe made us stand out from the others. The narrative of our short movie was I was a police officer interrogating Spencer as he had supposedly committed a crime, which no one else did which made is unique.

Weaknesses:

I think that I could have made the narrative a little more interesting as even though the idea was original, it did not seem fast paced enough and attention attracting.

Improvements:

I think that i have taken the creativity and the original narrative of the preliminary task and developed my skills onto the final opening sequence as I thought of an original and unique narrative for that too.

Targets For Next Year:

My targets for next year would definitely be to use my time wisely and as I have learnt that time management is a key area and an area which I lacked in this years tasks. Other targets would be to add a little more use of editing skills such as adding some more transitions into clips to link or separate to scenes and make my work more visually appealing and interesting.  

Evaluation (Part 7) - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this prdouct?

Evaluation(Part 6)- How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation (Part 5) - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In my opening sequence, we represented different social groups through camera, angle, shots movement and position, editing, sound, mise-en-scene, expressionism and typography.

The main focus of our rep was teenagers who have been unjust.We wanted to get the message across that the stereotype of some teenagers in Britain are not always nothing but trouble and sometimes they find themselves in situations which was not their fault or they could not control and why we wanted to appeal to teenagers and young adults in Britain and also display the reality of the mundane lifestyle in Britain for some teens.

Camera:

In this shot we decided to use a mid shot from a low angle. We used this to represent the power level and authority the undercover police has, as we are looking up towards him connoting his high level of power. We also decided to use this shot as it was the best way to introduce the agent of change as it represents how he is quick to burst into the scene carelessly to arrest the protagonist and the low shot connoted this power.

For this we used a two shot from a low angle to again connote the high power level of the undercover police as opposed the the delivery boy. We can see from the the two shot that the cop is standing tall and firm while the delivery boy in on the floor helpless which again connotes the power of police as a social group.

Here we used a high angle from a point of view perspective of the undercover police. The police is looking down at the delivery boy again displaying the low power of the delivery boy and the high power of the police and a social group. 

Editing: 

Here we used editing to represent the social groups. We did this by creating the recording graphic and added it in to the clip to connote that the protagonist is being interviewed as he had been arrested for the drugs. 

This also created verisimilitude and represented a stereotype in the current era of how youths are always getting into trouble due to the fact that we had this scene fade in (edited on mac) right after the drugs were shown to denote the protagonist getting in trouble and being interviewed.

Mise-en-scene:

Here we used the mice-en-scene to create the representation of particular social groups in the opening sequence. In the shot we can see how the character is looking around with a weary expression which could connote that he may be doing something dodgy and  or may be on the lookout for something and someone or going into unknown territory. Again this could represent the stereotype of youths in this era engaging in suspicious activity's and causing trouble and exploring new things.

Here we can see through the facial expression of the character that he is bored and just waiting for something. This represents the social groups of some young British people with the mundane lifestyle. 

Here we used mice-en-scene to represent the stereotype of youths getting involved with drugs in the modern era. We did this by having the shot of the drugs run for around 5 seconds which stuck in the audiences head.

Expressionism:

Here we can see how the lighting is very dark and dull and also the clothes the character is wearing is dark grey which is dull, which could be reflective on the representation of the character. We particularly chose these colours and lighting scheme as we wanted to display how the colours represent the dull and boring lifestyle of some youths in Britain.

Sound:

The music we used in the video was a slow, mysterious grime instrumental beat. We used this specific genre of music as grime is a common genre which is listened to in Britain and mostly among youths, which could represent how the youths in the current era listen to a lot of grime which could represent youths in this era as being mysterious and mischievous. 

Evaluation (Part 4) - In what ways does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and convntions of real media products?

Evaluation (Part 3) - What impact did the media institution Film 4 have on each production stage and why?

Evaluation(Part 2) - Who would the audience be for your product?

Evaluation (Part 1) - Brief

The brief we were working to was;

You have been approached by Film 4 to make a new British Social Realist film aimed at British 16-24 year olds. To give Film 4 and idea of how your film will develop they have asked you to produce the first 2 minutes of the film, providing a clear sense of the graphical, editing and musical style your film will use. To protect Film 4's reputation as a leader in British cinema the film must conform the conventions of the Socialist genre, and meet audience expectations for this type of film. Finally to keep costs low, all visual and audio material used the film must be entirely original, with the exception of stock sound effects.

The title of our movie was 'Framed.' The most obvious connotation of the title would be the act of someone being framed - which would be the protagonist which actually happens in the narrative. Another connotation of the title could be that someone has painted a picture and framed it to look like something has happened when in fact it hasn't. 

A summary of what happens in out opening sequence is, the protagonist - Jay doing his ordinary job of delivering packages and one day he has to deliver in a basement his never been to before. He delivers the package and gets rang by his employer (antagonist and agent of change) and is told to run, when the door bursts open and an undercover police (second agent of change) arrests Jay as we discover there are drugs in the package. We then see Jay being interviewed in a police station. 

The opening sequence sets up the rest of the film as in the opening sequence we see what events occur at the beginning which will lead him to take his revenge and change as a character throughout the narrative. We drew some inspiration from British Social Realism films such as Adulthood as we a flashback of the events which sent Sam to jail and him coming out which sets up the rest of the movie. 

http://amandeepsallyear12mediastudies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/questionnaire-results.html - Vox Pop Questionnaire Results

On 1.43 in our opening sequence, we can see how the theme of drugs is explored. We used drugs as in our research the most popular films mentioned when asked 'what British Social Realism movies have you seen' was Kidulthood and Adulthood - which tackled drugs which established the themes in British Social Realism.

Framed


               Kidulthood

Other themes we included in the opening sequence was poverty. We denoted that the protagonist was in poverty as in the narrative he was working for minimum wage. This could also be displayed as the clothes worn by the protagonist were very plain and looked inexpensive and had no branding on which could connote the poverty. 

Project Log 9:

This week was probably the most hectic out of all the production weeks due to the deadline approaching and lots of things going on. We started off in the week filming our last few scenes in the opening sequence and finished that early in the week. Once we had finished, we thought that we had finished the filming process and were going to finish editing. But we received feedback from the teachers saying that we could further improve our work by adding different range of shots and include various camera angles and making the whole opening sequence more interesting as a whole.



So we decided to go and re-film the main scenes of our opening sequence which was around one minute thirty of it. We added a different range of camera angles and included much more close ups to show emotion and facial expressions of the character. We also quickened the pace of the opening sequence to make it more interesting and attention grabbing to the viewers. Once we had finished, we looked back at the footage we recorded on the camera we saw that it was much much better then all the footage we had recorded before.



When we got back onto the mac we tried to import all the new footage we had recorded, but every time we tried it kept on coming up with an error. After around an hour of trying to import the footage we realized that the SD card was corrupt. This meant all the footage we had re-filmed was corrupt and there was no way possible of importing and editing the footage to the Mac. As the deadline day was fast approaching, the only options were to re film again or make do with what footage we had. 



We decided to quickly re film the scenes that were lost due to the SD card being corrupt, but we also had to bear in mind that we had to do this very quickly as we also had to edit and import the sound and graphics. We re filmed the scenes which took around an hour and then quickly imported the footage on the mac successfully. We also managed to cut and edit half of the footage, but had to stop there as school was closing.



The next day we continued to edit and put all the footage together. While two people in the group was editing the footage, the third person was finding appropriate music to use in our opening sequence. We narrowed down the music choice to four, and then by elimination process we chose the music that would fit our mood and theme of the narrative and also appealed to British Social Realism. Once we had finished editing all the footage and imported the music, we started to import the credits. Once we imported the credits we realized we could not increase the duration of the credits, which again stopped us from completing the opening sequence. After a while we realized the problem and fixed it so the credits could be tampered with so the duration could be changed. Once this was done we checked through everything and had one final check from the teachers and finally finished and uploaded the final product to YouTube.



In the last lesson of the week, we all watched as a class over our peers opening sequence and provided feedback on it. We included things that we liked, such as technical strengths and narrative strengths and also weaknesses of the work. We also wrote how each opening sequence could be improved. This helped us a lot as we found out what worked well in our opening sequence not just from our point of view but from others, meaning we could improve in the future.

Call Sheet 4:

CALL SHEET

This is the re-film of the interview scene.

Date and time: 16/04/13      1.10 -1.55 Location: Interview Room  (Chadwell Heath Academy) Script scene no.s: Scene 24-28 Contributors: Amandeep Sall, Jaspreet Kaur, Satveer Degun, Melissa Gur Contributors Contact Details: Amandeep Sall – amandeepsall686@gmail.com Jaspreet Kaur – jaspreetkaurrai28@gmail.com Satveer Degun – satveerdegun123@gmail.com Crew: Amandeep Sall, Jasprret Kaur, Satveer Degun Equipment voice recorder,  Tripod, Camera, folder Travel Arrangements: Went to interview room in Chadwell Heath Academy

Final low Quality - Framed

Project Log 8:

What has been the key issues for production/post production this week?

Th biggest and key issue for out production this week was that we had to re-film everything we had done. This was because of the fact that we had too much events going on at one time in a cramped amount of time and also we did not include a range of lots of different shots. 

What decisions did you make about the issues and why?

As a group we sat down and re-evaluated and discusses thoroughly what we could remove from the opening sequence. After quite a while, we came to a decision to remove one and maybe 2 scenes from our opening sequence. We also had to re film what we did in our draft due to the fact that I had a haircut, meaning there would have been continuity error if we had used the draft recording and mixed it with the new filming. We also added more range of shots to provide the opening sequence with more perspectives and also made it more interesting then it was in the draft.

 We also decided to change some things from the script when the main character is being arrested. For example, when we were re-filming, we decided to add in a point of view shot from my perspective when I was picking up the phone in one scene, which is not included in the script. I believe this made the opening sequence more diverse and added elements which you often see in British Social Realism movies. 




Once we had finished with the filming we starting editing on the Mac, once we had imported everything on the Mac and put all the scenes we had done so far in I-Movie, we worked on the graphics.

Draft:

Call Sheet 3 :

CALL SHEET

This is the start of re-filming everything again

Date and time: 11/04/13      11-1.30 Location: Car Park  (Chadwell Heath Academy) Basement (Chadwell Heath Academy) Script scene no.s: Scene 3-23  Contributors: Amandeep Sall, Jaspreet Kaur, Satveer Degun Contributors Contact Details: Amandeep Sall – amandeepsall686@gmail.com Jaspreet Kaur – jaspreetkaurrai28@gmail.com Satveer Degun – satveerdegun123@gmail.com Crew: Amandeep Sall, Jasprret Kaur, Satveer Degun,  Equipment Card box Box,  Tripod, Camera, mobile phones. sugar bags as drugs Travel Arrangements: Walked to car park and basement in Chadwell heath academy

Project Log 7:

What have been the key issues for your production/post production this week?
The only issue we had for production in this week was that we had to re-film one scene of our opening sequence as we accidentally missed a couple of dialogue which hindered the whole scene. Apart from that there were no issues in the production.

What decisions did you make about the issue and why?
To solve the issue, we re filmed the scene again which only took around 15 minutes which was not really a bother. Another thing we did was change one of the locations that was supposed to be an interrogation room as we felt it was more ideal for our narrative as it looked more like a interrogation room rather than the old location we had picked, thus adding to the verisimilitude to the opening sequence.

Call Sheet 2

CALL SHEET

Date and time: 18/03/13      9.25-10.10 Location: Interview Room (Chadwell Heath Academy) Script scene no.s: Scene 24-29 (interview room/office) Contributors: Amandeep Sall, Jaspreet Kaur, Satveer Degun, Hardeep Panaser Contributors Contact Details: Amandeep Sall – amandeepsall686@gmail.com Jaspreet Kaur – jaspreetkaurrai28@gmail.com Satveer Degun – satveerdegun123@gmail.com Hardeep Panesar - hardeeppanesar16@gmail.com Crew: Amandeep Sall, Jasprret Kaur, Satveer Degun, Hardeep Panesar Equipment Card box Box, Pen, Clipboard, Tripod, Camera, iphone  Travel Arrangements: Walked to interview room in Chadwell heath academy

Project Log 6:

What has been the key issues for your production this week?
So far there hasn't really been any key issues in the production of our opening clip apart from creating the Production schedule as we had to figure out exactly what we were going to do at what time. We in fact finished filming the first session quicker then expected which has allowed us to have a free session to make our graphics. 

What decisions did you make about the issues and why?

The decisions we made about the production schedule was that booked extra time for after school filming almost every day if we needed it. I think this was a good decision as it was like a back up plan as it provided us with more time to film in case we run out of time. We also did this with the editing, sound and graphic time slots.

Shooting Script:

Reply Reply to all Forward

Call Sheet:

 CALL SHEET

Date and time: 14/03/13      12.00-1.10 Location: Car Park Script scene no.s: Scene 3-5 (car park) Contributors: Amandeep Sall, Jaspreet Kaur, Satveer Degun Contributors Contact Details: Amandeep Sall – amandeepsall686@gmail.com Jaspreet Kaur – jaspreetkaurrai28@gmail.com Satveer Degun – satveerdegun123@gmail,com Crew: Amandeep Sall, Jasprret Rai, Satveer Degun Equipment Card box Box, Pen, Clipboard, Tripod, Camera Travel Arrangements: Walk to Chadwell Academy Car Park

Production Schedule:

Location Reccies:

Location 1:

The Chadwell Heath Academy basement.

Reason:

The reason why we picked this location was because the interior of the basement is very dark and gloomy - much like a British Social Realism movie. Its abandoned, not much happens in it which makes it an ideal place for the opening sequence due to the actions that take place. The whole point is that it is meant to be quiet so it seems like a place where potentially drugs can be sold.


Problems we might have:
One of the main problems we may have is the accessibility of the basement. We will have to ask the caretakers when the basement is available because other students may want to use it too. Other problems we may have is the lighting in the basement. The lights in the basement may not offer the type of image we want for our opening sequence. We may not have enough time given to film in the basement so might have to come back a few times.


Location 2:

Car Park (basement exterior)


Reason:
The reason we chose this location is because in our opening sequence we need to include someone looking from outside witnessing the protagonist being arrested. It also gives the audience someone else s perspective of what is going on and also provides the audience a better understanding of where the location is.

Problems we might have:
As it is a car park, it may be busy a lot of the time and there may be a lot of noise in that area too. This means we have to shoot at the least busy possible time to make sure there is no interruptions. We will need a car parked in a specific position so we can film from an over the shoulder position of the car. For this we might have to get permission from someone we knwo so they can position their car in the place we need it.

Location 3: School Hall

Reason:

The reason we chose this location was because at the end of our opening scene we see the protagonist going to court and being sentanced.We though that the hall resembled a court room really well and was an ideal choice.

Problems we may have:

There may be exams or assembly's in the hall which means we have to be careful what time we film. Also we have to make sure that it is quite outisde the hall too as we need there to be silence when filming in he hall.

Location 4: School Intrview Room

Reason:

We needed this room as it resembled an interigation room which we need for the opening.

Problems we may have:

Availability as we have to make sure no one is in the room when we are filming.

Treatment:

Title
The title of the film would be Framed. This represents what the film will be about and is like a clue to the audience. Many BSR films have a simple name which tells something about the film which is why i have kept this one simple.

Identify Target Audience:
This film would be aimed towards a niche British audience. It would mainly be for males within the age range of 15-24 year olds. This would because the film would be more interesting to guys as there would be a lot of violence and males character are more dominant in the film. The other interests would be law, drugs, gangs and revenge. The class would be aimed towards people living in normal areas such as seven kings, ilford, newbury, Barking etc... These areas would be working class places. It would be aimed towards people living in these areas as the film would be set in these locations and the audience would be able to relate to the areas. Here is a link to work I recently did on Audience. This is primary research.

Vox Pop Results:
http://amandeepsallyear12mediastudies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/questionnaire-results.html

Technology
The technology I will need would be equipment such as cameras, tripod, mac to edit on with the imovie. the technology i will use when it comes to camera work would be a wide range of shots and angles were needed. This would make the film seem more interesting. There are also some limitations for what i can do such as using CGI and special effects. This would be because they aren't apart of BSR and don't have any verisimilitude  The other reason would be that it would be too expensive and we can only use what we have to make our film which has to be BSR.

Representation  
Our main characters in our opening sequence will be working class, and approximately 16 years of age, his representation would be more ‘nerdy’ and less suspicious, he would have a light complexion and would be 5ft10, he is represented as an innocent character and is caught delivering parcels, containing drugs, but he doesn’t know this.
Our antagonist is mysterious, we do not know much about him, as he mainly speaks to the protagonist over the phone, he would have a deep and intimidating voice, and would be feared throughout this movie, the enigma built up for this character would make the audience feel intimidated due to his actions and ruthless personality.

Narrative
Our movie will be about a 16 year old teenager who will be working a part time job of delivering parcels, he is an ordinary person, and his family is working class, who looks less suspicious to the police and is completely unaware of what he is delivering. One day when he is preparing his packages for delivery, he is arrested, and is imprisoned for 5 years, even though he isn’t guilty. He is released from prison and plots revenge upon his employer, he finds his employer after going through many sources and brawls with him, eventually getting stabbed.  

Conventions
How will you use the conventions of the BSR genre (conform/subvert)?
Some conventions we will use are real life sets in London. Other British Social Realism conventions that we will use are the use of unknown and untrained actors - us or other people we know.Our main protagonist is going to be working class which is another British Social Realism convention. Usually British Social Realism films contain a lot of fast paced rap and grime music. We will also use grime music (copyright free) which displays a convention. The type of camera shots and angles we will use are a lot of tiled and canted angles and use handheld shots. The camera frames will also look more rough. When editing, the contrast of the video will be lowered by 10% to provide it with that more dark, grimy feeling to it which confroms the BSR conventions. We will also use natural lighting.

Will you have any hybrid elements?
The only other hybrid elements we will have is a little bit of thriller in our opening sequence so we will try to build up some suspense and tension in the opening clip.

Style & Iconography
How will you use camerawork to create an effect for the audience?
We will use the gimey type of camerawork used in British Social Realism movies. This means there will be lots of tilted an canted angles. Also a lot of handheld shots will be used to capture the realness and rough trueness of Britain. This will help to create an effect for the audience that they are there witnessing the film taking place in first person.

How will you use editing to create an effect for the audience?
One of the main things we will do in the editing is to drop the brightness of the video by 10% which will again provide that more dark, rusty feel to it which will create the effect on the audience of experiencing the real Britain creating verisimilitude.

How will you use costumes/props as visual signifiers for the audience?
We will use costumes and props in our opening sequence. From these the audience can tell alot about, for example the location of where the film is taking place just from the costumes. We will also use props as appropriate to the character in the opening sequence which could connote to the audience what the personality of the character is. For example if the character is carrying a weapon the audience can connote from the prop that the character may be violent and has bad intentions.

How will you use costumes.props as visual signifiers for the audience?
We will use sound similar to what is commonly used in British Social Realism movies. For example a lot of grime is used so we may use grime too. We will also use real life sounds and no sound effects as it rarely happens in British Social Realism and it makes it creates a more believable experience for the audience.

Institution
Our movie would be distributed by Film 4, as it would meet their conventions, of having a low production budget, unknown directors, and unknown actors- also the movie would be aimed at a nice market and wouldn't be produced expecting a profit, but more to convey a message of life in Britain, we would exhibit this movie at film festivals to build slow word of mouth promotion, and also in small niche cinemas such as PictureHouse as they’re known for exhibiting independent movies.