Evaluation Question 1.

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


In our group, Chloe Esther and i had to brainstorm some ideas for our film pitch. At first we had an idea for a fantasy/ quest film. This all changed when we realised and decided a teen drama would be more suited to us. Our title sequence is a narrative. It outlines our storyline of the film in 2 minutes.

As a group we sat down and analysed title sequences based on the Teen/Drama/Romance genre and made a list of things that they had in common so that we could include these things into our own title sequence. I found that narrative title sequences were very popular amongst these genres and we realised as a group that is what was best for our film idea. From analysing these title sequences, we also discovered that the music that was in the background was mostly accoustic and upbeat. We also considered a voice over for the title sequence as many films of these genres include voice overs.

Typography

Today in class miss alm showed us why the fonts that are used in a title sequence is important. The fonts contribute to the feel of the film.

Sans Serif: fonts without serifs (the edgy bits) at the end of strokes, these fonts are commonly associated with western/FBI/police films. 

Serif: fonts are the opposite; fonts with serifs at the edge.
The first title sequence we looked at was the 'Catch me if you can' title sequence. 

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/catch-me-if-you-can/

We found that the typography had an almost fluid feel to it. Each title was very smooth. There was constant movement almost fluid like which we could infer could represent the main character in the film who is sly and smooth. The title sequence is narrative, something i would like to discuss with my group about. The main character always appears to be changing his identity, he is smooth and nobody notices what he is doing. Throughout the title sequence the main character is seen in many different occupations, suggesting he is always moving and always changing. The font used is also a Sans serif. it is also noteable that this title sequence has been influenced by Saul Bass as there are alot of straight lines used to fit into the scene, which is similar to what Saul Bass does.

Lord Of War. http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/lord-of-war/
In this title sequence the names of the big stars and the main crew are focused to the centre and the other cast & crew are not as noticeable as they are put to the side. We also noticed that the writing is white and fairly small, this means that it is not the main focus, when we watched it we all found ourselves focusing on the story of the bullet in the background and not what the text was saying. The text itself is also in capital letters which suggests the seriousness of the film.

Th next and last title sequence we looked at was 'Forrest Gump' http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/forrest-gump/
Throughout this entire sequence the names were centred, this shows that is what the audience is supposed to be focusing on. The font used is a serif font, this suggests the film is set in the past as serif fonts are associated with the past and old newspapers. The background is also not too busy so it is easy to read. There is also a very gentle feeling to the sequence, the fact that there is also a feather floating around in the background makes this calm and gentle than the other two sequences we watched.

Perks of being a wallflower analysis.

The Perks of being a wallflower is a film based on the novel by Stephen Chbosky. It is about a 15 year old boy called Charlie. Charlie is an outsider in high school and struggles to make friends, especially after the suicide of his best friend & trying to cope with mental illness, this is until 2 seniors (Sam & Patrick) take him under their wing and help welcome him to the real world.
The reason I have chose to analyse this titlesequence is because some of the genres featured are similar to ones we are using in our film, for example, Romance & Drama.
The first thing we see in the title sequence is the production companies names (Summit entertainment).
We then see a black screen with 'summit entertainment presents' in typewriter font, in the background there is also the noise of someone typing on a typewriter, this suggests that the main character enjoys writing and maybe aspires to be a writer. This also suggests that a typewriter is going to be a key feature in the film, and something we can expect to see alot of. This is followed by 'a mr. mudd production', this is still sticking to the typewriter font & sound.
The next thing to appear are the stars names. This may make the audience think of previous films these actors have been in and what their characters might be like and how different they may be compared to other films they have seen with this actor in it.

The song 'Could it be another change?' by The Samples begins to play as the title appears. I think this song was chosen because the film is about being a 'wallflower' (a wallflower is  a shy or unpopular individual who doesn't socialize or participate in activities at social events) and by choosing a song that isn't popular goes along with the theme of the film. The title of the song also matches the film. Throughout the film the main character Charlie goes through alot of changes and discovers alot about himself, therefore the title of the song is extremely appropriate to what the film is about. 
The title then fades into blackness and we begin to see moving lights, we can almost immediately assume these are in a tunnel. The fact that this location is featured suggests that it features once again in the film and is a key part for the audience to recognise. Later in the film we find out this location is of some importance to the 3 main characters and has an awful lot of meaning. The travelling through the tunnel continues as names of cast and crew appear on the screen in the typewriter font.

After several shots of the tunnel we are met with darkness and then a reflection of the main character, Charlie, in a window.  We then hear Charlie speaking, it is obvious from the start that he is writing a letter to someone, however we arent sure who, this is something that as an audience we will never find out. We find out alot about Charlies character after a few seconds of hearing him. We discover that he has spent time in hospital, has very little self-confidence and is quite introverted. We then find out it is Charlies first day at high school the next day, this tells us is he around 14/15 years old. There is then a shot of charlie in the school hallway, this is where the title sequence ends, from this short amount of time we have been able to learn alot about Charlie and who he is. 

Codes and conventions of a teen drama.

The genre of the film we are going to be creating a title sequence for is Romance/Teen drama. 

Some of the key codes and conventions of a Romance film are exploration of love at first sight, unrequited love, forbidden love, obsessive love, tragic love, etc. Romance usually is coupled with drama in a lot of TV series and film. The film idea that we had ties in with this genre through the use of, love at first sight and eventually tragic love. We had to make it a Teen/romance drama because our audience and cast in the film would be Teens aged 13-17. Romantic films allow the audience to escape for a while and allows them to imagine themselves as having a love like the characters on screen, it usually ends that the characters live a 'happily ever after' or declare their love for each other after years of ignoring it.
From watching a few title sequences the colours pink and red are usually used. This may also show that they are percieved as feminine films, the target audience for romance is usually largely female.
Most romance title sequences have a backing soundtrack of an acoustic guitar. This is something we have discussed to include in our title sequence.

Some other things that feature in romantic/teen drama title sequences are that main characters usually have something about them that is different or seen as a disadvantage. This is key within most title sequences, but in a romance drama title sequence you come to understand and know the characters. By the time the film starts usually you would know a little about them.  This is something we have discussed and would like to include in our title sequence. We would like the audience to feel a connection with the main characters and feel like they know them and is someone they could be friends with by the time our title sequence is over.


Our genre also falls under 'teen drama'. A teen drama is a type of drama that mainly focuses on the lives of teenagers and the teenage characters. Typically a character who is an underdog is the main character, the character could be a new student to the school or is considered by most of the students as an unpopular person. This is the main issue and the idea that 'love conquers all' comes into play and all is resolved in the end. This gives the audience an idea of how that character feels and allows us to  see the film from that characters perspective. In a teen drama title sequence there is usually music playing in the background. This is either upbeat or acoustic guitars/slower music. Music always plays a big part in a teen drama film, it will also play a big part in our title sequence.

Filming in School

Filming in school was difficult because the people we needed to be in it had different time tables and chloe belongs to erith school so she cant always be here to film during free periods. Also the male protagonist in our film, Greg is year 13 and also has a different timetable to our year. we managed to film little parts today but we need to reshoot some parts and shoot some more shots that we did not have the time to shoot. Esther will upload the clips on the computer in school and we will start editing.

Feedback from Class.

In class today we watched each others and our own title sequence. This gave us the chance to see how other people had done theirs and allowed us to have them comment on our title sequence in order for us to improve it. Our title sequence was the weakest out of all of the others so we have quite a lot to improve. But at least we can fix the problems highlighted to us by other members of our class more efficiently now. 

Problems that were more commonly pointed out were:

• Fonts/ Colour/ Style Positioning/ Difficult to read (This point was the most frequently made.)
• Unclear Storyline
• Editing needs a lot of work
• Length of some of the clips

I dont think our title sequence works particularly well. The fonts used were not the selected colour or style that the people picked on the survey. This was because when it was edited the survey was disregarded. 

Our main character.

The main character in our film is a teenage girl in her last years of secondary School, she is quite a popular girl and gets along with everyone in the school. In her spare time she listens to music and likes to spend alot of time with her friends watching movies and just talking, when shes not with he friends she likes to sepnd her time on social media websites and watching her favouite tv shows.
Her sense of style is different and can be even considered as alternative but she is a very care-free person and does what she wants. She wears alot of tshirts made by her favourite bands and tv shows on and very rarely follows any fashion trends there may be. She also wears skinny jeans and owns several pairs all in different colours. She also owns many, many pairs of converses and likes to wear a different pair everyday. She also tries to change her nail varnish colour very week.

Survey of fonts.

This is the survey that I made to ask people which font they thought was best and in what colour. This was to ensure that we chose the correct font and colour that people thought would match our chosen genre. The results were:

Fonts:

Always Forever (3/10)

Jenna Sue (4/10)

Jennifer Lynne (2/10)

Sweetie Pie (1/10)

Colours:

White (5/10)

Purple (2/10)

Dusty Blue (1/10)

Red (2/10)

Music.

This is the track that chloe and I chose to best fit our title sequence. We found it on this website:

https:/www.freeplaymusic.com/

From here we chose this song and made sure that we had permission to use it in our coursework by sending an email:

 

Filming Journal 2: Danson Park Re-Shoot.

Today after our media lesson Chloe and I went to get all the Props and Converses that we need and we met Esther at danson park at half past 3. This time the footage was shot a lot more smooth and we managed to get all of the shots that we needed. Luckily the weather was fairly calm therefore making the footage less shaky.

Uploading the First Filming session.

When we uploaded the Clips from last wednesday we realised that some of them were a bit shaky and the converse shots weren't in line with each other making it more difficult to edit smoothly. We have decided to reshoot this next friday. I will go home an hour early with Chloe to get all 8 pairs of converses that i own and meet Esther at Danson park for half past three. I will bring a pack of black Sugru with me to mark the ground.

Filming Journal.

Today we began shooting for our title sequence. The location we chose was Danson Park so we could get the 'walk home' shots. We got multiple shots of the same thing just to ensure we had everything we needed. We even shot more things that weren't planned just incase we didn't get enough shots to make up 2 minutes. This shooting was successful as we had plenty of footage by the end of the day.

My job was costume/ props and to do so I had to bring a few pairs of converse and some changes of clothes with me to film the 'walk home' scene where we subtly hint a change in time. I was also in charge of bringing the 'marker' with me so that Chloe, who was in charge of directing me through each scene, could mark where I needed to walk so we could have continuity. Chloe was also in charge of the story board so that we could keep track of where we were at, ticking each shot off the list as we went. Esther was in charge of the Camera and Tripod. We had all of the equipment that we needed and were set to go!

Film Pitch.

After speaking as a group and having received some advice from Miss Alm, we have decided to change our film idea. The reason for this is because we had a stronger idea for a title sequence. The problem with this however was that the idea did not relate to our chosen genre and style of our original film idea which was mystery/ quest. So we thought that we should change our genre to teen/romance. This was all because the title sequence idea was too good not to use & it was just easier to change our entire film idea.

Our new film idea fits in with the romance drama teen genre of film. It starts with a young girl walking home the same route everyday. Theres a boy who also everyday walks the same way as her. He has no friends and wishes that they could be friends. He eventually gets an excuse to talk to her when she drops her book. He gives it back to her and they start talking. They then begin to walk home with eachother everyday and become bestfriends, however the only way they talk to eachother in school is by excahnging notes through lockers because of their different social statuses. Her female bestfriend find out about the two of them and tries to ruin her reputation as one of the popular kids because she is jealous. This leads to her being bullied for trying to befriend the 'weird boy' in turn ruining her social status. The bullying gets worse and occurs mostly online until she attempts suicide and gets admitted into hospital. When she eventually comes out of hospital she has to attend group therapy to help her recover, when she arrives she sees him. as the group begins discussing problems and how they can be overcome she finds out more about him than she ever could have. They stand up for themselves in school and all is resolved.

Storyboard.

Production company Logo

Film Pitch.

Barthes Enigma Code.

Barthes' enigma code is a theory that suggests a media text portrays a mystery to draw an audience in. It also poses questions and makes the audience become intrigued in the piece. For instance, a murder mystery will often not reveal the identity of the murderer until the end of the story which poses the question, 'who is the murderer?'

Barthes' theory of the 5 codes is a way of grouping signifiers according to the role they play in the text.
These are categorised as:

1.  The Hermeneutic Code- The voice of truth, This is an element in a story that is not explained, & therefore exists as an enigmas for the reader, raising questions. 
2.  The Proairetic Code- The voice of empirics.
3.  The Semantic Code- The voice of the person.
4.  The Symbolic Code- The voice of the symbol.
5.  The Cultural Code- The voice of knowledge. 

Saul Bass Notes.

Notes on Saul Bass: 

• Born 1920 - 1996
• He was an American graphic designer based in New York.
• Saul Bass became famous for his film work and classic logo design.
• He uses simple geometric shapes and their symbolism.

Examples of his works:

• North by Northwest
• The man with the golden arm
• Vertigo
• Psycho

Today we looked up designers of title sequences mine was Karin Fong she designs film, TV, Advertisements and even the cinematics for Sony's Playstation game 'God of War III. We prepared a presentation and decided on roles within the group ready for next lesson.

Conventions of a title sequence.

A title sequence is the method by which a film credits production and cast members utilising visuals and sound. The opening credits list usually displays a list of the most important members of production. They are either on a black screen or over an action. There may be musical accompaniment. The aim of an opening sequence is to establish characters, settings, genre and sometimes even the narrative.

Usually a title sequence will contain:

• Details of the cast and crew
• The films title
• An introduction to the characters or character type
• Indication of place
• Indication of historical period
• Information regarding mood & tone
• Introduction to signature theme tune
• Information about genre
• Questions that the viewer finds intriguing (sets up enigmas)
• Patterns & types of editing that will be echoed in the remainder of the film
• Mise en scene & cinematography that will be echoed or elaborated upon later in the film.

Common credits in a title sequence in the correct order:

• Name of production companies 
• Producer 
• Name of title
• Director 
• Other key crew
• Executive producer 
• Top billing actors

S.T.I.N.C.S.

Setting: Where & when is this film set?
Theme: What is the mood of the film?
                   What is the film really about?
Iconography: Costumes, Makeup, Props, etc, relevant to the genre.
Narrative: What is the story about?
Characters: Who are they?
                         What are they like? How do they dress?
Style: Cinematography, sound, editing.
               What will the film look & feel like?

Plan for Film.

Today in our group, Esther, Chloe and i thought of things we could do with the genre horror / thriller.  We brain stormed 3 possible ideas and locations for filming and some ideas we could use. these locations were; a graveyard; damson park and someones home. We decided that it may not only be difficult to shoot but also disrespectful if we did a zombie theme in a graveyard so we scrapped that idea. That is when we chose to use the danson park idea but change it a little bit.

The new idea was a scary looking man whispering in a girls ear from behind as she is walking in the park but when she turns around no one is there. then she sees a man who looks old and he falls over she rushes to help him and he grabs her hand and transports her to an alternate universe. in the alternate universe she has to complete a series of tasks before she can get back to the normal world. the challenges test every skill and emotion she has but will she survive?

by the end of the lesson we had a plan for the title sequence, a title a 'pitch' presentation and even a plan/schedule for shooting the title sequence.

Continuity Editing sequence