Classroom Feedback

Now that we have completely finished our opening sequence we spent a lesson watching every ones productions and evaluating them as a class. This gave us an idea of how well we had done and if our intentions came across. Overall the feedback was very positive and we we're please with what we received. Here is a general overview of the answers given to each of the questions, in which the class had to answer about our opening sequence: 


In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Identify films that you think are similar to this opening sequence. 
The most popular film the viewers thought it reminded them of was Taken staring Liam Neeson, this is because of the girl being taken in the car. This was surprising to us as it wasn't originally one of our influences but now that the it has been mentioned we can see why people would think that. Other films were Adulthood and Kidulthood, and this was because of the the soundtrack we had chosen to run throughout the opening sequence. 


How does your media product represent particular social groups? Identify social groups identified and whether you think their representation is positive/negative; stereo type/alternative. 
Here we got the feedback we were looking for as they said that it stereotyped the male cab driver and the venerable young girl. They also said it gave a negative representation towards teenage girls as she was acting drunk and getting into a strangers car. Nothing new was brought to our attention here and we had spoken about all of these representations as a group before the class had seen it. 


What kind of media institution might describe your media product and why? Big studio or independent production? 
Here the feedback varied as some said a Big studio because of the professional look it had where as other people said independent production as it may only appeal to a certain type of audience. Here we agree with both, however sway towards the independent production as like the feedback said not everyone enjoys horror films and could be quite disturbed by our film, and it is obvious that someone who loves romantic, comedy's and chick flicks, may not be interested as it contains none of these elements. 


Who would be the audience for your media product? Target audience - approximate age group and possible preferred gender. 
Again we received different feedback, some groups recommended 18+, where as others said 15+ late teenagers. Another group however said 18-30 and we think this is because of the horror genre and storyline, as well as some of the scenes that a young audience would not be able to view. Regarding gender, the majority of the feedback said it swayed towards females due to the main character however both would enjoy. 


How did you attract/address your audience? 
"tense and dark, suspense music" "mystery makes audience want to see more and find our what happens to Katie and the male driving the car" "Interesting, keeps the audience thinking" "tense horror soundtrack" 


Provide any other comments about the production-any particular shot or moment you thought was good? 
With this question we received feedback that the story line was interesting and the opening sequence was well constructed and thought about. Another group mentioned that the actors were very good, the violence was realistic, it was very interesting and made you want carry on watching, and that it included a variety of shots. In addition to this we had another comment about our use and good range of camera shots, as well as the camera movements relating to the story of the character, such as the car scene where we use a hand held camera effect to show that Katie is drunk and disorientated.

Film Credits

Now that we have decided our overall filming and editing is finished, the group and I thought it would be a good idea to get the film credits done also. Instead of fitting all of our seperate names to gain credit for every minor detail we instead just one name per role g.g Directed by Florence Dodd. We felt that this looked more professional that trying to fit all of our names under each role as an attempt to show that we have all put in the same effort as we know we have been doing so anyway. The titles are the same font as the main bold font at the very end as we wanted the film throughout to look simple and pleasing to the eye rather than having too much going on as this may draw attention away from the content of the filming.

In addition to this the music in which we chose fits perfectly with the filiming we produced. So much so that we hardly had to make any changes only here and there in order to perfect the timing of beats and so on. Seeing as the deadline is drawing ahead I feel that so far we are well on our way to producing a well thought out piece. Only minor tweaks here and there are left to look at and once done so I'm sure that the finished outcome will be a pleasure to watch.

Warner Sisters.

As over the weekend we were unable to film the extra shots of the party scenes at the very start of the opening we felt that we had enough filming which was good enough without the extra scenes. Therefore the group and I thought it best to start making our production company icon. Myself and the others all came up with seperate ideas of how the title "Warner Sisters" could look. After looking at eachothers creations we all agreed that Steph's was the most imaginative and professional looking. I then drew the final outcome of the icon and we scanned this drawing into the computer. Once uploaded we started to use photohop in order to bolden the letters in an attempt to make the icon look more professional. However we didn't have enough time in the lesson to carry on so within the next lesson we know what we have to do in order to make sure that the overall piece is ready by Friday's deadline.

Filming Process

During this lesson we asked our teacher how we were to go about filming a fast paced section of the nightlife in a car and have texts passing through it with the name of the company and so on. However, our teacher gave us advice that this may be a waste of time as the it will be an hours worth of filming in order to film one specific area for a long period of time. Therefore, as this aspect of the sequence isn't necessary we thought it best to leave this idea and focus on more important sections such as the main title.

Our ongoing idea for the title was t have the word "Twisted" to literally twist in a spiral as an influence by Saul Bass which will engage the viewer and refer to the entire film as a whole. However, our computers which we use are not well equipped with programs that can do such therefore we have instead made a steady impact of the Title appearing in bold slowly from a fade. The white text on a black background is also menacing as it in a way signifies the innocence within the exterior of a darkened person; Katie.

FIlming Session

After watching through all of the footage we have already made we realised that adding an extra scene of "Katie's" gradual process of drinking was unnecessary. This was due to the fact that her good acting skills made it obvious to the viewers of her being under substance and adding extra filming of her at the house party before hand would have been extra time added which we were already quite close to the limit. Therefore we made sure to focus all of our energy into making the shots we had to the best of their ability by starting to look at how we can apply shot transitions from location to location.

Final filming schedule

A filming schedule has already been posted onto my blog, however this was only a draft as some vital parts were missing. Here is our final filming schedule completely filled out which was given to each member working on our project and came into great use when filming, helping us to remember what to bring, where to go and what times to be there.

Editing of Film

Editing:
After a very succesful filming day on the 25th February we came into the classroom positive that we had some really good footage to work with. Just to be safe we filmed a lot more than we needed to, which was extremely helpful when deciding which shots looked best and worked well together. An hour later we had cut our filming down to four minutes that included the best angles, shots, and camera movement filmed that session. However we were worried as the maximum length of filming for our opening sequence is two minutes, 30 seconds, we had double that and still had more filming to do! Therfore the next lesson we carried on cutting down our filming and we managed to make it two minutes long. Although this was still too long, we came to the conclusion as a group that we would again cut down. however once we had filmed our last scene and could put it all together to decide what works best.

First day filming

We had planned to have our fist day of filming on Sunday 13th February, this was going to include the scenes outside the party where Katie gets into a random car. Therefore we collected all the equipment that was essential including the school's camera and tri-pod on the Friday, and we didn't need to carry much up to London, as our main props are used in the party scene such a strobe lights and the smoke machine, glasses and bottles of alcohol, and the party scene is going to be filmed at a later date. All weekend we were eager to get filming and after finally finishing all our planning we felt ready to begin creating the the two minute opening sequence. However we received very bad luck as when we woke up on Sunday morning it was pouring down with rain! We tried to stay positive and hopeful that the rain would die down and eventually stop completely. But to our dismay the rain persisted and got even heavier. An hour before leaving to go to our destination we contemplated even going at all as many new problems had arisen. One main one was that if we needed to re-film anything or get some different shots we would have to wait till it rained again, and obviously we couldn't do that as rain is unpredictable and then we wouldn't be sure if the cast were available, we could take the camera equipment out that day etc. It also meant that our shots may bit a bit blurry and we had a risk of damaging the equipment.

However in the end we decided to go up to London, Mayfair to see what we could do, and tried to stay positive, get all the shots possible, and if worse came to worse we would have to re-film it all again another day. But we agreed on seeing what we could get due to the circumstances, and in the end the effect of the rain worked for us and looked really good on camera/suited the scenes we were filming to a great extent. The dark dismal atmosphere the rain gave off suited our horror genre and plot well and we were very very pleased with the out come. We realised that because of the rain it gave more of a reason for Katie to escape the weather and get into a random persons car in the first place.

We left our houses at half five and met at Beckenham Junction to all get the train together up to where one of the cast live, (also the location we were filming with). It was important we got the timing right as we needed to make sure it looked dark enough to be late at night, so by the time we arrived at his flat, chose outfits for the cast and done their makeup, it was perfect lighting and we were ready to begin filming. Filming took a lot longer than expected as we wanted to make sure we had enough variety of shots to choose from and hopefully we wouldn't have to come back and re-film anything on another day as we all grew on the idea of it raining and it worked to a great advantage. We tried to film every shot three or more times using differ net angles, shots and movements each time and i think we accomplished a range of all three.

Some changes were made and we decided to not have to shots that look at the clock, and at some points we changed they way we filmed the shots. We had originally planned to film the whole thing on a tri-pod to ensure all the shots were steady and straight. However we realised that obviously it was impossible to fit the tri-pod into the car and therefore we changed some shots to handheld and if gave off a very good effect.

On our way to our location we got a train to Victoria, a bus, then walked under a subway for a short cut and walked about 5 minutes to our filming destination. However on the way when walking under the subway we were really drawn to the atmosphere and the quietness was in fact quite scary. There were also very bright lights so lighting conditions would be perfect. We all came to the agreement of ending the opening sequence with a birds eye shot of her running down the stairs into the subway, then collapsing in disbelief of what she has just experienced inside the subway, which looked much better than just running off down a street where it was busy and looked unrealistic.

Overall we had an extremely successful filming day and the problems we encountered actually gave us a great advantage and benefited our opening sequence. Our actors worked really well together and took directions extremely well, as well as adding in some suggestions and improvising parts themselves. I think we adapted well to the circumstances and acted maturely and professionally, giving us a great deal of footage to work with that we are all very pleased with.

Location Shots

Due to our change of location now being situated in Mayfair we thought that we should take images of the nearby location to give a sense of where we were filming. We particularly liked filming in Mayfair as in certain areas we were able to find very isolated places which were especially rewarding for the scene in which the male driver tries to physically abuse Katie as obviously we didn't want anyone else to be in the area to give more of a sense of danger for the viewer.

Twisted

Due to not all of our material yet being filmed we were finding other aspects of the project which needed attention. Therefore we went over the title for the film as we felt that regrets didn't quite portray the theme we were going for with the film as it brings to mind a sense of innocence rather than a threat. More so we have now come up with "Twisted" which gives an insight into Katie's psychotic nature and no sense of moral. From this we then looked into different fonts in which we wanted to use for the end title. Bank gothic in a medium size was a bold and assertive text which seemed to fit well in the opening. Until we have finished filming and start to really focus on editing we will then insert these other aspects of font into the screenplay.