What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? (Question 3)

What does a Production company do? 
A Production company is generally responsible for creating a film, this would include all processes from pre-production to post-production. They take care of all the processes that focus on the creation of the film: Thinking of the concept/idea, script writing, storyboarding, funding, filming, editing etc. It provides the finished product for film, television, radio, video etc. 


What is your idea of a film distributor?
A film distributor is the company/person that buy the rights to the film and then sells it to other companies/cinemas in order to release it for public viewing. they do this in order to make money for both the producers and the distribution company itself. Examples of unofficial distribution companies would include, youtube and Facebook where people can display their own work to the public without needing to  contact companies for distribution. 


Who might be the distributor for your film and why?
A company that could distribute my film would be 20th Century fox or Warner Brothers, who  distributed Dude, where's my car? and The Hangover respectively. Otherwise my product would be mainly distributed on youtube/Facebook as it would be seen by a variety of people all over the world.  


Where would the money come from for a film such as yours?
The money for a film such as mine would come from the producers and any investors that were interesting in helping us to create the product. We could also get funding from our distributors or any advertisements that we make and give to advertisement companies, as their advertisements would create interest in the product and encourage people from my target audience to watch the film meaning that more sales are made by the cinemas and as such more money gets back to the producers. 


Why have the various people been named in your title? Which jobs appear in your titles and in what order and how have you reflected this?
We have included mainly the actors names, Ryan, Jamie, Chris, James, Daniel, Kayleigh and Alisha, with the last two not actually appearing in the opening sequence though originally the would have done however due to time restrictions we were unable to include that part.  Our group members are all named as stars of the production (Kayleigh, Ryan, Jamie and Alisha) yet we were all involved in the filming, editing and conceptualisation of our sequence. 

Looking back at your Preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? (Question 7)

I feel that since the preliminary task I have become better equipped to deal with obstacles/problems that might arise during the process of filming, such as forgotten props, low battery on the camera and lack of variety between shot types. I have also learnt to be more cautious when choosing my location for filming and that we need to have good communication skill when working in a group. For example, the prelim taught me that I shouldn't film facing a window as it's near impossible to see what's happening in shot when that happens. I've learn that there are a variety of inventive ways ti create interesting shot's, My group in the prelim have very limited use of shots whilst my second group worked hard to ensure that we'd have a variety of usable shots.  Use of 180 degree rule in my prelim was more tentative and less accurate, whilst upon reaching the filming of our final product we were more sure of our abilities and as such were more accurate in our use of camera meaning the we were better able to stick to the 180 degree rule. Also in terms of shot reverse shot we were able to film this more efficiently when creating our final product whereas we all learnt when our prelim that we could find a variety of more interesting ways to film shot reverse shot than what we had been doing. As for Match-on-action, my prelim group was quite successful in doing this, and my group for the final product would have been successful if we had been able to keep the example of match on action in our sequence. However due to time restrictions we were unable to include it. 

How does your media product represent particular social groups? (Question 2)

The character of Barry in our opening sequence could be compared with the character Alan from the Hangover. This is mainly as a result of their nature. Fro example, Barry in our sequence is supposed to be a fairly simple character of low intelligence and a lack of common sense or rationality. As shown when he asks instantly for a "Cuppa" rather than asking why he's taped to a tree and upon realising where he is he seems to care little about the fact that he is in such a strange situation, instead complaining about louis' seeming difficulty, by refusing to make the tea. We see it again when Barry is reminded by Louis that he has claustrophobia. the fact that he needs reminding of his fears exemplifies the fact that he;s not particularly smart or rational. Similarly Alan in the Hangover shows a lack of rationality and sense in that he is the reason for their situation in the first place due to his drugging everyone. That he would think this a good idea again suggests a lack of intelligence/rationality.

What have you learnt about technology from the process of constructing this product? (Question 6)

We used a wide variety of technology in the production of our opening sequence;

Camera
The camera was probably the most important piece of equipment that we used as we used it to gain the footage for our final sequence. We ensured that every group member had a turn at using the camera, with those who were more experienced teaching the other group members what to do. Those more sure of their camera work would also do parts without use of a tripod, though this happened rarely as a majority of our shots were supposed to be static with only minimal panning or zooming.


Tripod


The tripod we used on shots where we needed the camera to be steady and using our hands to hold the camera would have been insufficient due to most of our group members having unsteady hands or being actors in the production.





Mac
The mac was another integral part of our project, in that it was the place where our sequence actually came together and was built up. The mac held all of the programs that we needed to use to create our final product.






Final Cut
This we used to actually put our sequence in order and add any 
effects/sounds/music/titles/transitions that we thought would be needed in our production. We used it to add in any effects/transitions/titles/music/sounds that we deemed necessary for our work to be successful at attracting our audience.




Blogger
We used blogger to keep ourselves on track with the production of our project, we used it to ensure that we all knew what to do and when.






Live Type
Live type we used to create the titles for our opening sequence, we then saved and imported the titles onto our actual product. We used this as it meant that we had a professional yet easily achieved title sequence to use for our final product.  

Youtube
We used youtube to publicise our production and ensure that it was seen by our intended audience, we also used youtube to research our reference sequences from the industry and also to see properly whether or not the music we wanted would fit with our sequence.

Scribd
We used scribd to upload all versions of our script so that when we were re-writing we would be able to easily keep track of the most useful script to use in our re-writes as a form of reference. It ensured that we always had a version of the script no matter which person had originally saved it in their documents, this meant that it was easier for us to work should any group members not be present for a lesson. 

iMovie
We use imovie for the main/sole reason of importing our footage easily onto the computer so that we had a quick and simple means of moving the footage we needed into final cut.




IPod + Portable Docking station
We used this so that we knew what to to when we were out filming our sequence. It was used when filming Louis' fall from the tree and Barry's phone going off. This was mainly for the benefit of the actors as they then knew what to do based on which section of the song was playing.



Photoshop CS5.1
Photoshop was used in the creation of the production logo along with Gimp and to a degree Adobe Flash/Microsoft PowerPoint. Flash was used to create the line work and PowerPoint to create a perfect cartoon moon shape, whilst Photoshop coloured and assembled the picture and Gimp was used to make last minute adjustments when I had no access to photoshop.

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (Question 1)

1. The title of the film, and the way in which it leaves the screen.
The title of our film challenges the general conventions of our comedy film due to it's being slightly obscure. The fact that the title doesn't give much away is a challenge to the conventions in that based on our research into films such as the hangover and dude wheres my car, the  titles for those films are very representative of the events that will be occurring within the films.
In contrast our titles fit in with the conventions of our comedy genre due to the way in which they exist the screen. This is due to it's being fairly quirky and fun, meaning that the audience is already seeing clear demonstrations of the genre. The font and colour of our title also helps us to present the genre in that it's quite a happy/fun colour/font, it's almost like bubble writing which would portray our genre through the more happy/comedic/childlike feel. 


2. Setting/location.
The choice of setting/location helps us to set the scene of our comedy film, as the characters waking up in a park is quite a strange place for them to be. This is made stranger through the fact that they are just waking up meaning that they've done something rather strange for them to end up sleeping in a park. That the whole opening sequence is centred around a tree rather than moving to a more typical/normal location, further suggests our genre as it keeps the audience in the stranger more unusual place, and as such adds to the comedy, especially considering that one of the characters is left there whilst the other walks away at the end of the sequence.

3.Costume and Props.
The costumes are simple everyday clothes which helps us to represent our chosen genre and sticks to the general conventions of a comedy film. The simple costume helps us to represent the characters as typical everyday people that have been put in an out of the ordinary situation. This relates to comedy conventions and also makes the characters easier for the audience to relate to. The use of everyday props but in a place where they wouldn't normally be found (party poppers in a park for example) sticks to the conventional use of everyday props in comedy films. The items being taken out of their general context and being put into the opening sequence of our film which is set in a part, makes the situation comedic. Use of general props out of context is a convention of comedy what we have managed to use within our sequence.

4. Camerawork and editing. 
We've related our opening sequence to general comedy conventions through camerawork in that we've used a lot of close up, and mid-shots. The conventions of camera in comedy films is that the shots need to show the reactions of the characters to the events of the opening sequence. We've decided to also not use many/any shots with a long duration. The ASD of comedy films tends to be fairly high, as such we've kept our ASD quite high also in order to keep with the conventions of comedy. We've also made use of framing to add comedy where Louis is in first seen in the tree. Most of the editing for our film opening was sequencing, but we did also have some moments where we sped up and a shot in order to create some comedy. We've fit in with comedy conventions by not using a lot of editing other than sequencing, we've used minimal effects and have kept the look of the opening fairly simple. 


5. Story and how the opening sets it up. 
The story of our film is that the two main characters and some of their friends have had a night of drinking and a rather strange party, they wake up the following morning unable to remember what happened or understand how they've gotten where they are. This is set up in the opening sequence through the flashback and Louis' obvious confusion upon waking up. This fits in with conventions of comedy through the fact that they then go on a journey to find out what had happened, something that 'Dude, where's my car!' and 'The Hangover' also do. 


6. Genre and how the opening suggests it.  
The chosen genre for my groups opening sequence is comedy, and I feel that on the whole we have managed to clearly show this to the target audience. We have demonstrated this genre through our presentation of character/the manner in which the characters are introduced, use of props, gimmicks and Dialogue. Character presentation helps to represent the genre also in that comedy films typically include characters that the viewers can relate to and align themselves with. As such my group has kept the style/clothes of our main characters fairly simple and casual, whilst still maintaining the comedic element of having the buttons on Louis' shirt done up wrong. Another aspect of character presentation would include the characters speech. We have also kept the way in which the characters speak very simple and natural, so that it flows well and can be related to by the audience,  this means that the audience gain feels better able to relate to the characters we've created and as such we are able to fit with the conventions of a comedy film. As mentioned previously the props we've used in our sequence help to communicate the genre to the audience through their unusual context/ the strange way they've been used. The dialogue helps to present the genre as we tried to make it quirky, interesting and comedic in it's confused nature. The dialogue shows the characters personalities which helps the audience to relate the the characters.


7. How characters are introduced.
The characters are introduced in very strange ways with Louis falling from a tree having been woken up by his phone ringing, and Barry waking up taped to a tree. This helps our film fit to the general conventions of a comedy film due to the fact that it's a strange location which creates humour and interest. It also fits with comedy conventions as they enter the scene in such strange ways yet seem somewhat uninterested in the fact that they've fallen from a tree/remain taped to a tree other than their initial confusion. This reaction at the same time seems to challenge conventions of comedy in that based on the films we watched and used as references, the characters tend to be more concerned and react more than we had our characters react.


8. Special effects.
Comedy films on the whole seem to use minimal special effects, similarly we have used very few special effects, adding only a slight colour/brightness change in order to show the flashbacks as being flashbacks. The colour changes added a slight misty effect over the flashback shots which helped to signify the haze through which he'll remember the events of the night before due to the alcohol. Other than this there was little/no real use of special effects which fits with the comedy conventions. 

How we attract/address our target audience? (Question 5)

Planning for a directors commentary of our opening sequence and How we attract/address our target audience? (Question 5)

Here I am including a rough(initial) plan for the commentary we will be completing in answer of Question 5.

~All/most group members would speak at some point in the commentary.
How did we attract/address our audience?

• Production Logo- We chose to put this first in order to let the audience know who created it but it also fits with the genre and does introduce the music well.
• Titles- We thought that bu having the titles come in and then fall with a clatter it represents the genre well and also relates to the theme of drink within the production (The glass clattering)
• Setting- We thought that setting it in a park would cause confusion and interest in the audience so they would want to continue watching the film.
• Music- We thought that we would use macho men as it added comedic effect to the film.
• Actions: We had Ryan fall out of the tree as it was a fairly easy gimmick for us to pull off that we thought would also gain laughs from our target audience.
• Flashbacks:
• We included these to give a brief insight into what had happened the night before that led them to where they currently are, they are also comedic- we would latter return to the time in which they were set(the party after the opening credits)
• Taped to a tree- this was included for comedy and to get the audience to feel interested and want to continue watching.

Who would be the audience for your media product? (Question 4)

The target audience for our film would include mainly males between the ages of 15-20, they would be a fan of comedy films such as The Hangover and Dude where's my car.He would enjoy alcohol related humour such as that which can be seen within the hangover. He would be  a student, studying at either sixth form, college or university. He watches films quite often and uses the Internet a lot, he also watches a lot of TV and enjoys shows such as the inbetweeners and shameless. He listens to Rock music most often but also will listen to cheesy pop. He dresses very casually and shops at places such as primark, matalan etc.   


Based on this audience profile I feel that my groups opening sequence would be appropriate and fit in with the needs/wants of our general audience member. This is due to the fact that our film falls within the favoured genre of our target audience member and also follows a similar storyline to that of his favourite films. It also uses characters/actors of a similar age range to the people we are hoping to encourage to watch our film, this means that the characters can be more easily related to by the members of the audience.  We have also included examples of rock and cheesy pop music in order to cater to their musical tastes as well as their film preferences. 

Editing day 6 and final product

This is our end product. Today we showed the group members that were unavailable last night  the changes we made and discussed them. We then made some last minute changes and added in what we felt we needed, we also ensured that our shots were consistent and all in the correct aspect ratio before uploading to the schools youtube channel.

Editing day 5

Today, we worked in lesson and again after school to get the sequence finished/mostly finished. We realised that our sequence would exceed the time limit of two minutes if we included everything that we had wanted. In the end we decided to put the whole sequence together anyway so that we would be able to see what we could cut out without loosing the humour or making it seem cut off.  We decided to get rid of our party montage and also all of the flashbacks, We removed as much dialogue as we possibly could- which was not a large amount. In the end we managed to get as close to the two minute limit as was feasible. We finished the titles and sent them over to the mac with our production to add them to our sequence, we also added in the production logo that I had finished creating the night before. We added in our last minute effects and sounds/music and were fairly happy with the end result.

editing day 4

Today we began to put more of our shots together whilst some group members were working on the titles. We began placing transitions in between the shots that we were using in order to make it flow more easily, we thought that doing this now, before we'd finished piecing everything together would work as it meant that we would have more time later on to get the more important parts of the editing process completed as we would move through placing transitions faster due to having experience. We finalised the appearance of the titles by the end of the lesson but felt that they might need some type of sound effect to make them even more interesting.  Next lesson we will begin piecing together the last of our footage and placing effect over the shots as well as sorting out sound on our titles.

Editing day 3

Today we reviewed the party footage and began to integrate it into what we had by this point. After reviewing the footage and changing the brightness/contrast on a few of them in order to show some progression of time we had one group member break off and begin creating some initial ideas for the titles. In the mean time the rest of the group was still piecing together the footage we had and neatening up the sequence we had, which at the end of the lesson was still unfinished but making progress.

filming day 4 (final)

Today after school most of the group was able to meet up at Jamie's house and film the party sequence, we invited a few friends to act as extras in the background and created a space that looked like a party. I had however forgotten a few of the props so as I went home to get them, the other members of my group filmed some establishing shots of the outside of the house and people arriving for the party. Upon arriving with the props we had lost a few extras but were still able to film. We got the shots that we needed and were happy with our progress overall.

Editing day 1

Today, my group began our editing of our final sequence. We decided that the first thing to do would be to review our footage and decide which shots we thought were the best. We then chose to begin deciding on the order our shots would be in and found that in general the shot order matched the storyboards. We were only able to organise a rough order for our shots as we still didn't have the party sequence filmed we also decided to leave creating title and sorting out the music/sounds/effects until another lesson when we would have more time to create the titles and add sound. (This would all happen at the very end of creating our sequence)

Filming day 3

Today, my group went through the same prepatory processes as we had in our previous day of filming, we gathered equipment, organised the time off from form with our tutors, and met at our location, unlike last time the weather was fine for filming. We managed to re-film particular shots that we decided hadn't worked particularly well, such as the reaction shots to the props. We were then able to film our conversation a total of 3-6 times, 3 for each character. As a group we took turns at filming, and the actors would film the small parts that they didn't appear in. Overall today has been successful and we will be using our time next lesson to begin our edit, while we arrange the best time for filming the party sequence (the only section we have left to film)

Filming day 2

Today, my group gathered our props equipment and costume and decided to meet at our location before school, we organised this with each of our form tutors and were able to get to our location with plenty of time. However upon arrival we found that rain would be an issue, we thought that we might be able to work around it by keeping the camera/equipment dry using an umbrella and trying to get the work done as quickly as we could. However we found on reviewing our test footage that the noise of the rain was too loud and as such we returned to school and instead planned out more thoroughly what we would be doing during our next lesson/next filming attempt.

Reflection- 23rd January

So today we began our filming for the opening sequence we intend to create, we used periods three and four after gaining permission for group members to miss out on their single period enrichment lesson. We encountered a few minor setbacks when filming. Firstly we got to our main location for filming with minimal problems, however upon arriving we realised that our camera had very little battery and we wouldn't be able to film, so we sent one member of our group (Ryan) back in order to get another camera and in the mean time began to set up for our filming and waited for  Ryan to return. Upon his return we managed to film what I deem the most difficult part (Ryan's fall from the tree) In all I'm quite happy with what we managed in what turned out to be only am hour of filming. We intend to go out tomorrow during our media lesson and continue filming.

Music we will be using in our production

We will be using the following songs in our opening sequence;


Macho Man by the Village people;
This song will be the background music for the company logo's appearance,  the party sequence and the titles, it will then become diagetic and be used as Louis' ring tone. We chose this song as it adds to the comedic feel of this part.



They're red hot by the Red hot chili peppers;
We're using this as Barry's ring tone, again it will be used to add a comedic feel to the sequence and also to relate more to our questionnaire findings in which the preferred genre of music was Rock.

Storyboards

Today my group finished creating our storyboards.
Here are 2 of the 21 pages. 

Screenplay Draft 4

We as a group have been working on our screenplay and today managed to finish our work and create a screenplay that we and our teachers are happy with. Below I will attach a copy of the screenplay's final edit;

The Leap year, Final Edit Screenplay 4

Production schedule

We intend to have our final draft of the screenplay completed tomorrow and also begin to create our storyboard and shot lists. We intend to finish all preparatory work by or during the Thursday lesson but we will definitely be filming Monday, and we should have all our necessary footage by the end of the day on Monday. Our screenplay should be posted by the end of the day tomorrow and soon after the storyboard too should be complete. Whilst a few members of our group complete the storyboards (Me and Alisha) The other two members will be creating costume lists and shot lists (Jamie and Ryan) whilst working on separate things our group members will be all working together, e.g. Me and Alisha will still contribute to the costume ideas/lists etc. 

Screenplay Draft 3

We've finished a third draft of the screenplay and intend to adjust it further, a copy of the 3rd draft can be found belowLeap Year draft 3

Lesson Summary

Today we've begun to finalise our screenplay and have also received comments from our teachers about our ideas. We've decided that we need to cut down our screenplay as it'll be much too long and not fit within our 2 minute time limit. We've decided that we will keep the party montage but may have to re-arrange the sequence of events. We plan to continue adjusting our sequence and have a final draft by the end of the week. 

Shot list (Basic/Preliminary)

When filming our Opening sequence my group will be making use of the following shot types/camera movements:

• Slightly jerky/shaky movement- freehand (mainly during the party sequence)
• Extreme close up shots (again mainly during the party sequence also of the mobile phone as it rings)
• Close up shots of Louis as he awakens
• Change of focus (When reaching for the phone, the background is first out of focus with the only clear image that of the phone then it changes so that the phone is out of focus and Louis no longer is)
• From here onwards we would use a variety of long to mid shots
• We would make use of a tracking shots when Bonnie is walking towards the park
• We would possibly make use of Point of View camera work when they find Barry
• When they find Barry we would also use reaction shots
• throughout we might make use of panning or tilting (Tilt would be mainly to showcase the strange costume they're wearing)
• I think that overall we'd use more flat angle than low or high angled shots

Screenplay draft 2

Leap Year Screenplay Version 2