FEEDBACK & PLANNING

Feedback & Planning

EVALUATION - 20/03/2014

Filming Session 4 - 11/03/2014

Tuesday 11th March 2014

Today we finished filming the final pieces to the truth and dare scene before we moved to our secondary location to film the ending to our final product; the graveyard. In this last part of our filming session, we completed the over-the shoulder and POV shot from my perspective while Rav is telling me what my dare is and my response to it and then the same shots but from her perspective. 

This was going to be the last scene I would be filming in as our film schedule had started to clash with my family commitments, however we changed the last scene of the piece to show that instead of Tom, our previous male character going missing, it would be me. Instead of the four of us being covered in blood at the graveyard standing over Tom's body it would be Hope, Jas & Rav waking up in the graveyard to find me missing... 

Again we used a clip from Pretty Little Liars (ABC Family) as part of our research for our ending scene. (PLL is one of the most watched thriller TV series for young adults; this fits with our age demographic) 

EDITING - 10/03/2014 - 14/03/2014

Monday 10th March 2014 

Today, Hope and Jas started to edit the opening credits using the software Adobe Premiere Pro and sorting out what music we should add over the credits and when playing truth or dare. For the opening credits we decided to use  Pharrell Williams - Happy as it was upbeat and would signify the opening for a stereotypical chick flick. 

For the truth or dare scene we decided to use the instrumental to Do I Wanna Know - Artic Monkeys signifies the tension and suspense that starts to build up in the scene and also creating a mysterious ambiance to the setting. 

Thursday 14th March 2014

We decided to change the songs we chose for the backing tracks in our scenes due to the fact, when we played the scene with the music edited in, we felt that the song choice didn't match with our scene. 

For the opening credits we decided to use: Lana Del Ray - National Anthem (Instrumental)

For the truth or dare scene we changed the song to: Aluna George - You Know You Like It 

We believed this song choice to be more balanced with the scene as the songs tempo increases and has a mysterious rhythm to it which matches the atmosphere in the scene. As the music builds up so does the tension in the game and the ghost story which Hope tells Jas.

Filming Session 3 - 06/03/2014 continued...

Continued...

HORRIBLE DRINK

When filming the truth and dare scene we each had one dare and one truth. When it came to the character who had the truth/dare we used a wide shot between 2 characters; the person giving the dare and the person doing the dare, this gave us the chance to use the 180 degree rule when editing our final piece. 
As part of one of the dares we created a horrible drink which Rav had to pretend to drink for the scene. The shot was zoomed in order to create a disgusted reaction from the viewers.

Filming Session 3 - 06/03/2014 CONTEXT

Thursday 6th March 2014 - Context

Today we filmed the truth and dare part of the sleepover. Our main focus for the first half of the session was to capture a spinning technique that made the camera looked as if it was the bottle spinning around while playing truth or dare. We created this by placing the camera on a smooth surface, in our case a hardback book with a smooth surface allowing the camera to spin around easily and at a height where it was able to get a clear shot of our faces. Here is an similar idea to what we created and what technique we were trying to achieve; this was part of our research: 

After filming several shots of the camera spinning around we moved on to the truth and dares. The initial idea for the first dare was for Jas to make a phone call to her crush who's name was Tom. However as our male actor was struggling to meet with our film schedule due to other commitments, we had adjusted the script so there was no male character and the opening only consisted of the four girls. Due to the script change we also had to remove the scene in which there was a flashback with Hope and Tom secretly meeting at school. This was the original script:

*Entering sleepover setting with cupcakes , singing in the background, everyone takes a cupcake and sit down at different times whilst bringing a snack over , blurred idle chit chat, hope begins to spin a bottle in the centre*

Summaya: We are not playing spin the bottle!

Hope: Why not?

*Summaya proceeds with a disapproving look towards hope*

Hope: Fine, we’ll play truth or dare instead

*Hope goes to spin bottle Rav stops her*

Rav: Do we have to?

Hope: Yes it’ll be fun! Jas wants to play don't you?

Jas: Sure (hesitantly)

Hope: See! Now let’s go

*Rav lets go and hope spins bottle*

*multiple dares and truths go by- Eating ketchup etc., ‘I used to like tom in yr9!’ etc., Jas spins bottle it lands on hope*

Hope: Truth

Jas: ok… (She thinks) who do you like in school?

Hope: (hope looks shocked and flustered) that’s a stupid truth do another one

Rav: No we had to answer ours now you answer yours.

*Flashes back to Hope with Jas’s crush*

Hope: (flirting dialogue)

*Flash back to sleepover*

Hope: Fine I don't like anyone in school; they're all idiots, and your idiots for liking them.

Summaya: Just shut up and spin the bottle

*hope looks back with a glare and then spins the bottle, it lands on Jas*

Hope: (Slurs words) Truth or dare.

Jas: Dare

Hope: Are you sure?

Jas :( long pause) Yeah, course.

Summaya: ok then, I dare you (hands her phone) to call Tom over.

Jas: What! Why?

Summaya: oh come on we all know you like him

Rav: summaya that’s not fair

Hope: yeah summaya leave it

Summaya: Why? We all had to do our dares; (gestures to Jas) now ring him

Rav: You don't have to

*Hope looks at Jas*

Jas: No, it’s ok ill call him (hesitantly grabs phone)

*Phone rings, phone answers*

Jas: (on phone) oh tom hi, its Jas…..

Tom :( on phone) oh hey what's up

*summaya looks at Jas again*

Jas: (on phone) ermm...nothing

Tom :( on phone) then why’d you call?

Jas :( on phone) oh ermm I’m just here with Summaya, ran and hope and I thought... (Gets cut off by tom)

Tom :( on phone) wait hopes there? (Excited voice)

Jas: (on phone) yeah why? (Confused)

Tom :( on phone) oh no reason, anyway what did you want?

Jas: (on phone) oh I was wondering if ermm, you would wanna come over and see us?

Tom :( on phone) is hope still there, I mean all the girls, are they still there?

Jas: (on phone) yeah come over.

Tom: ok see you in a sec.

*night goes on blurred laughter and tom appears at the door blackout, four girls appear in graveyard with a dead tom*

Summaya: oh my god what happened?

Hope: I can't remember

Rav: guys Toms not waking up

Jas: Oh no, he can't be dead

Rav: he is, we need to go now!

*girls exit leaving the body*

Filming Session 2 - 03/03/2014 continued...

Mis-en-Scene

The location change created a more flexible outlook for us as the room has blinds we could use so you wouldn't be able to tell if it was light or dark outside. This allowed us to film the sleepover scene during the daytime and get more done during daytime hours; also the dim lighting helped create a more evening look as well as the blinds. 

Costumes/Hair

Stereotypically, in American chick/flicks the idea of female costumes is to enhance the male gaze however, we decided to change the idea of a typical stereotype and keep the costumes so that they are realistic in comparison to how teenagers now dress at home and around friends; comfortable, baggy, plain clothing. Also, hair was kept natural in order to keep the natural home-like setting. 

Cinematography

In this filming session we filmed the opening to the sleepover where the girls are arguing about playing truth or dare. Each character has a dialogue in this scene so at first we decided to film a wide shot of all of us talking and then re-film the same scene but from each one of our views; POV shot/camera angle. This will enable us to add the different angles we filmed when it comes to editing, making the outlook more effective. In order to film all our shots in this scene we used a tripod to keep the camera steady and filmed all shots within a close frame to capture details of the mis-en-scene.

DIALOGUE FILMED IN THIS SCENE

Filming Session 2 - 03/03/2014

Monday 3rd March 2014

Today we had filmed during our first 3 morning media lessons, but after looking back at our previous filming shots we realised that our voices echoed too much in the room we filmed in and that we had to change location. 

This is a rough clip from our first filming location, you can see from this clip how our voices echoed when we spoke. Also in contrast to our secondary location, this location doesn't seem as 'cosy' for a sleepover scene as it is quite an open space.

We continued to film in Jas' house but moved into another room upstairs which was much smaller so that our voices wouldn't echo; the smaller room allowed us to create a more mysterious ambiance with the lighting as we were able to change the lighting by using pillow cases giving us a dimmer effect. 
This is a rough and uncut clip from the sleepover scene in our secondary location.


We used the idea of covering our lighting to create effect from YouTube tutorials as part of our research. This video was one of our main inspirations while filming.

After watching this video we used the idea of covering up our lights with white pillow cases as the lighting was shown too bright through the camera. The new lighting also gave our setting a more cosy and dim look which help create the ambiance for our scene.

Our lighting (before and after)

Filming Session 1 - 24/02/2014

Monday 24th February 2014

Today we had finished creating out opening credits props and started our first filming session. We filmed at Jas' House (fellow member of the group) and thought at the time it was best to film in her living room due to the space and lighting.

Props we made for opening credits:



OPENING CREDITS WE MADE (click on image to zoom in)

After filming the opening credits we went into Jas' living room and started filming the crucial scene of the opening; the truth and dare scene. We had created a script and stage directions to create dialogue in the scene and also in order to show our knowldge of what camera techniques can be used when filming dialogue between people.







DARE OR DIE!

Each one of us in our group had our own and different perception on dare or die and how we should end or start the production opening. We each created our own storyboards and pitched our ideas to one another and collaborated them all into one. Here is an example of one of our rough copy story boards.

The initial idea was to create a stereotypical American comedy/chick flick with our own parodical elements, however the idea of comedy is tricky for us as amateur dramatists so we decided to change the genre to thriller/chick flick. There is a link to one of research videos below that consists of the typical American comedy/chick flick (Pretty Little Liars - Pilot Opening).

Which idea?

In order to choose which proposal we should do, we carried out a survey/questionnaire to our media class seeing which idea they liked best. 

The most voted proposal was the second one which included the 4 girls and the mystery sleepover. People had shown an interest towards the idea of the different style in which we wanted to show the opening credits and the idea of the mystery cliffhanger.

As part of our consumer research for our young adult demographic, we had looked at TV series/movies that relate to our genre and audience and found this clip on YouTube which we used as part of our inspiration.

 

Pretty Little Liars (Pilot Opening)

We also carried out surveys to the class regarding our movie title, background music and what food they thought would be suitable to use in our opening credits. 

Movie Title Options:

ORIGINAL IDEA FOR PRODUCTION TITLE

* Dare or Die
* Truth or Death
* Who knows?

DARE OR DIE GOT MOST VOTES

Background Music Options:
* Independent Woman - Destiny's Child
* Pack It Up - Eliza Doolittle
* Valerie - Amy Winehouse
* Love On Top - Beyonce
* Wanna Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper
The song choice had to be a generic girly song in order to create the sleepover atmosphere but also not too lively and quite "chilled out" as we wanted to keep the mysterious ambiance. 

Food Options:
* Cupcakes
* Ice Cream
* Cookies
* Jelly
The initial idea was to use ice cream to write on with ice cream sauce however, we realised that we needed to use a food that would be no hassle when it came to the filming. Ice cream is easily able to melt which would be time consuming if we had to keep re-filling the bowl and also expensive to continue buying, in which case we decided to use cupcakes instead. 

Filming Location for Cliffhanger:
* Graveyard/Church
* Backgarden
Most Voted = Graveyard/Church

PROPOSALS: AS Media Opening Scene Coursework

As part of our AS Media Studies coursework we had to come up with an idea for the opening of a film of any genre which lasted atleast 2 minutes. We had to put together this opening in a group of 3/4 people.

For our opening scene we came up with 2 proposals, both of which consisted of different genres. 

CAMERA ANGLE OF HAND IN HAND WHILST RUNNING AWAY

FLASHBACK BEGINNING SETTING

The first proposal was of the Drama/Romance genre. A brief outline of the idea was that an interracial couple face adversity throughout the Victorian Era as they are forced to marry other people from their own class even though they love one another and want to be with none other than each other. The mis en-scene for the first scene is to open in a church with both the couple hand in hand ready to run away; as they are running we switch to a flashback (technique used) which tells the beginning of their love story and how they met. 

COSTUME IDEAS 

We used various films/TV series as research and inspiration for this proposal:
* Interracial couples: Othello, Django Unchained, Bend it like Beckham
* Costumes: Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Downton Abbey
* Classic love stories: Romeo & Juliet, Othello, Reign, Grease & all others mentioned above. 

This is the opening scene to Pride and Prejudice (2005). This was part of our consumer research for the proposal and our most inspirational for location, sound effects and costumes. 

The second proposal was a Thriller/Chick Flick. A brief outline of the idea was four girls all have a sleepover and decide to play a game of truth and dare, and under the influence of alcohol things get a bit out of hand. The girls blackout and wake up the next morning outside a graveyard covered in blood, the body of one of their friend's next to them and no recollection of the night before...

IDEA FOR OPENING CREDITS

For the first scene, we are set in the kitchen where we are getting all the food for our sleepover and taking them up to a the bedroom. However, we came up with the idea of writing our opening credits and production title on our food and other props just as seen in the opening credits of Napoleon Dynamite. 

The mis-en-scene of the bedroom will consist of dim lighting to create a cosy yet mysterious atmosphere and all the characters dressed in casual pyjamas.  

COSTUMES

The research/inspiration used for this proposal was:
* Mean Girls
* Pretty Little Liars
* Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants
* Napoleon Dynamite
* Wild Child

SETTING

WE WERE UNABLE TO FIND A CLIP OF THE OPENING CREDITS TO NAPOLEON DYNAMITE AS AN EXAMPLE OF HOW WE WANTED TO CREATE OUR OWN PERSPECTIVE TO THEIR CREDITS.

Pre-lim Task - Media @ King's School

As part of our preliminary task we had to create a short clip of someone entering a room, walking to a chair and sitting down. For our piece we decided to create a distressed doctor who has just lost a patient. The idea is for the doctor to just walk from her desk, sit down at the table next to her and get lost in her thoughts about the loss of her patient. The scene is set in a doctor's office aka one of out teacher's staff room's and the doctor played by one of the members in our Media class.

The software we used to edit the final cuts of the pre-lim task was Sony Vegas Pro 12. As this was the first time using this software, it increased our knowledge on the programme and how it is quite similar to Adobe Premier Pro which we'll be using for our main task. 

Script for Voice-overs

Evaluation

For our preliminary task we decided to do a short clip which featured a mentally unstable doctor battling with his thoughts after blaming herself for the death of her patient. The clip only contained a minor amount of dialogue which we presented as voice-overs in the doctor's mind. We used a variation of shots in our preliminary task in which we researched from other TV series we thought would relate; series such as Sherlock, Broadchurch, The Wrong Mans etc. 

The camera angle which signified tension was when the camera slowly zoomed in on the character of the doctor as voices manifested in her mind, this is not seen in many shows of this genre but we believed it created a climactic build for when the next character entered the shot and contributed to the persona of the character of mentally stressed she was.We also used point of view (POV) shot which again emphasised the instability and agitation of the character. However, after watching the shot we realised that it caused us to lose continuity yet made the shot look effective. Other conventional shots we used were, the shot-reverse shot through which was through our dialogue and the 180 degree shot in order to create a sense of conversation presence between 2 people during the scene.

Personally, I think that we challenged the conventions of media and the typical stereotypes that usually represent an ill doctor or a 'male' doctor. By doing this we challenged how a typical doctor would be perceived by created a female doctor and also how they can be just as vulnerable as the rest of society therefore going against the generic social conventions of media and the perceptions found in a regular TV drama/soap. 

Media institutions that I would distribute this to would be the BBC or ITV. This is due to the fact they are well known for creating dramas like and are loved by a wider age demographic which we gathered from our consumer research. Channels/Institutions such a E4 are mainly used for entertainment such as sit-coms which this piece wouldn't be.