Final Film

Film Improvements

After we watched the first things we filmed, we used the iMovie programme to watch what we had done. We went over this with our teachers and were advised to change certain things. We also agreed with these points and made some of our own as we wanted our film to be at its highest standard. We had to reschedule this with the actors and get all of our props together. This was fine with the actors and as we were using our own locations, this was fine as well.

We went on to re-film certain parts, mostly the parts filmed in Bob Thurgood Phillips' (Bob Phillips) room as the lighting made the exposure and the reflections from the camera really odd and discoloured. The whole scene had a strong orange tint to it and made the shot look like everything was shining and reflecting light. This was because instead of using natural light we decided to use the electric, artificial lighting. As we were filming it wasn't apparent to us but when watching the clips we realised it was one of the worst filmed parts of our sequence. This is why we filmed it again one day after school. The actor was happy to do this as it only took up to an hour and he was happy to redo the scenes as we showed the previous clips and he also agreed we couldn't use them.

There was another scene in the sequence that we wanted to re-film but, the two times we tried to do it, it didn't work at all. The scene when Stacey is coming out of her front door was the worst shot we created throughout the whole piece. The shot was really over exposed and her costume really didn't help as she had a light pink t-shirt on and very light, blue jeans. When we filmed the first time we filmed it out of the front door we were supposed to use. This really didn't work and the actor just disappeared when she went over the white door frame.

Instead we tried it on a different day and using a different door. The sun was still quite bright and we tried different angles - even experimenting with blocking the light with umbrellas and big wooden boards. This didn't help much as the shot is still over exposed and this is a shame as its quite noticeable in our final opening and brings it's quality down slightly but we did all we could have done without cutting out the shot.

Emily Wallace

Final Film Title Ideas and Justification

After receiving feedback on our 2nd rough cut with the use of our alternative title sequence, we began to reconsider our generic challenge. The feedback we received was from Year 10's, Year 11's and Year 13's.

One piece of feedback that we recieved from a Year 13 student was that the titles appearing at the end of the opening resembled a TV show as opposed to a film opening sequence. This brought to our attention that this may affect the continuity of our opening and how our piece is interpreted by our audience and the examiner.

Another piece of feedback we recieved was from a Year 10 student who claimed that they did not understand the storyline or plot. This led us to the conclusion that the title did not appear in the right place, preventing the audience fropm seeing a connection between the female protagonist (Stacey Munez) and the film title (About A Girl). This prevented our audience from understanding the storyline of the film and the importance of the character Stacey.

In order to resolve this problem, we changed the order of our title sequence back to how we originally planned, and placed the title after the character Stacey is first introduced.

This feedback was useful as it allowed us to improve our opening based on other peoples' opinions and ideas and pick up on flaws that we as a group did not consider to be an issue. We are glad we made this decision as we agree with our feedback and find that the improved title sequence resembles a film opening more clearly and gives our audience more insight into the storyline of the film. We are also glad we made this change to our final cut as the risk of representing a trailer or TV show is no longer a problem and the continuity of our opening is more consistent.

Devon Dalton

Feedback of Rough Cut 2

We asked a range of young adults and teenagers what they thought of our film opening. Here is some of the feedback we received.


We asked 27 people from a year 10 class what they thought of our opening. This means the audience was 14 to 15 years old. This was good as our target audience varied from 15 upwards. The class was mixed gender and this was the results of their feedback:


- They laughed at the sound cutting out for the character Stuart. This is good as within the first few minutes the atmosphere for our film is set and the genre is quickly apparent.
- They didn't understand the story or plot. This led to the discussion of when the title should appear and ultimately changed its position.
- They liked the character Stuart because he was so boring.
- The music set ambiance. Once again this is good as it created the right atmosphere.
- They loved the split screen and said it worked very well.
- 27/27 said they would watch this film.


We then asked 25 people from a year 11 class what they thought of our opening. This means the audience was 15 to 16 years old. This was good as our target audience varied from 15 upwards. The class was mixed gender and this was the results of their feedback:


- They laughed at 'Wisecrack' logo. This was good as it shows our institution has knowledge of the comedy film industry.
- They also laughed at Stuart's silence. This was good as both classes already have awareness that the character Stuart is boring and dull.
- It reminded them of the 'Inbetweeners' (a teen/young adult show about a group of four teenage boys and their adventures). This was good as our film can be compared to a hugely successful show.
- 25/25 said they would watch this film.


Finally, we asked a year 13 media studies group what they thought of our opening. This means the audience was 17 to 18 years old and the fact we asked a media group benefited us as they are aware of media terminology and good openings. The class was mixed gender and this was the results of their feedback:


- Good font for the titles and fitted with the genre.
- Alarm clock also fitted with the genre.
- The fact the alarm clock was green fits with 'Emerald productions'
- The music cutting out for Stuart seemed like an amateur element. They suggested we added in a record scratching when the music cuts so it seems like the music broke; an idea we intend to adopt.
- They said it resembled a TV show, not a film, because of the title appearing at the end. This was also why the year 10 class got confused with the plot. As a result the title 'About a girl' will appear after Stacey is introduced to connote she is the 'girl' from the title.
- All the students said they would want to watch this film and all also said they wanted to watch the opening twice.


Scott Collins

Film Title Research and 2nd Rough Cut Ideas

To challenge generic conventions, we decided during the editing of our 2nd rough cut to change the order of the title sequence. Instead of our film title appearing at the beginning of the opening, we've chosen to display the title at the end of the opening.

This idea was inspired by the film Step Brothers (2008), where the film title does not appear until the very end of the opening scene.

Step Brothers Opening Scene

Although film openings are not generally associated with this title format, the sequence works successfully in this example as the opening uses clear generic conventions and contains content that prevents the audience from interpreting the opening as a trailer, such as the storyline and introduction of characters.

For our film opening, we also plan to challenge this generic convention by using it in our piece. We believe that by using the same techniques, our film could also pull off this convention. We also believe it would benefit our piece as it would make it unique and original.

Devon Dalton

Rough Cut 2

Rough Cut 1

Film Diary

DAY ONE

STACEY

Shot one

We started filming by getting the shot of Stacey in the bed to do this we set up the camera to make sure the bed was in the frame and Stacey face could be seen.

We started filming but soon realised that it wouldnt work without timing it correctly so instead we set the alarm and counted it down would be better. You can hear the counting in some of the clips, this way all film-makers knew what to do as well as actors.

Shot two

This was a shot of Stacey straightening her hair. we filmed this first and got about 6 seconds of footage. We then filmed her brushing it this was also about 6seconds. This worked well but wanted it to flow smoothly so we recorded them together for about 15seconds and this enabled us to cut it in editing.

Shot three

This was a new scene as we did not prepare for it. while filming we realised that Stacey is in her pyjamas then she is suddenly in her daily clothes. this is a continuity problem, so we added an extra shot of her pulling her t shirt down, this worked for male gaze theory as well.

Shot four

tissue scene, changed the angle from the original plan

was going to be from the side, stuffing in but changed it to all one shot, pulling down top, then stuffing bra.

acting was really good and she didn't mean prompting, looked really natural.

Shot Five

Changed angle again, but worked out better as it showed more varied angles. instead of filing her looking into the mirror putting on make up, pretend the camera was the mirror as she put it on looking towards us. This is considered as a point of view shot,

Shot Six

had to change sides because of lighting, was to dark in one corner of the room while she was reading so we wanted to change it so she was reading on her bed, taking advantage of the natural sunlight from the window.

STUART

Shot One

We set up the camera several feet higher than Stuart so the audience could see within the frame the book connoting he is the nerdy geek. We had to have the camera's tripod balance on a table and a sofa to get the higher shot we desired what took some time.

Shot Two

Stuart is seen impatiently waiting as he sighs and looks at his watch.

We set up the camera to face the character head on, the shot was a mid shot.

Shot Three

Stuart looks through his window

This shot was suppose to be an easy to achieve shot of the character looking through his window connoting he was impatient for the day to begin. However, we did not think of any relection issues from the glass. Through the camera's eye you could not see the character Stuart but instead only the reflectiong of the crew. To solve this problem we ultered the shot so Stuart opens the window and looks out for his two fellow geek friend before once again closing it.

Shot Four

Stuart is seen walking through his door. This was an easy shot to achive but it started to rain whilst we were filming and therefore we had to have to people filming so that a umbrella could be used to stop the camera getting damaged.

BOB

Shot One

Originaly we wanted the character Bob to be sitting on a chair leaning on his keyboard asleep. However, due to the change of locations we now have the character Bob sitting on his bed asleep upon the keyboard. This wasnt a big deal as the shot still looked good. We had to position the camera perfectly so when Bob stood up and exited the frame the shot didnt blur.

Shot Two

Bob is seen tucking his shirt in. We wanted the shirt to appear tight on Bob connoting little pride in appearnce. To do this a member of our film crew stood behind Bob pulling his shirt back making it appear tight.

Shot Three

To stay true to stereotypical geeks we wanted one character to have ashma. This character should be the one that appears the most un healthy. This was Bob so we have a shot of him using his inhaler connoting through an enigma code Bob is unhealthy.

Shot Four

The actor Bob decided to check himself out before the shot was filmed of him putting on his glasses. However, we left the camera rolling and thought the shot of him checking himself out before putting on his glasses was worthy to be placed in our opening.

Shot Five

Whilse filming Bob leave his front door we had to be coucious. This was due to the fact that if we went to far back we had other doors within the shot; something we did not intend to include. Also the path way the tripod was placed upon was uneven, making it diffucult to get a shot perfectly balanced. As a result it took several minutes to find the perfect angle that wouldnt capture other doors within the frame and would also keep the frame evenly angled.

DAY TWO

BOYS WALKING

Due to the actors only being able to film after school and the fret of the sunlight fading quickly we filmed this shot first, though it is the last to appear in the opening. This also saved the actors Bob and Stu time as they did not have to watch the filming of Tom's scenes first.

TOMS

Shot one

The shot of filming the character Tom watching the femernine show lose women required the moving of furniture. The sofa the actor, Harry, sat on was against the wall. We needed to push it forward so the camera crew could be centred behind him and capture the over the shoulder shot required. We also filmed this shot from the front to see if it would look better or suit the opening more correctly. It did not and was quickly scrapped from consideration of our final edit.

Shot Two

The gloves the character wears had to be done first, so that it was easy for continuity as he could keep them on throughout filming and didnt have to worry about them being on and off.

Shot Three

The batman belt given to the actor was to small to fit. As a result we didnt expect him to wear it so we ultered the shot so the audience could just see he was putting it on (but it was never actually fitted).

Shot four

This was a shot of Tom putting on his white socks, we had to try it at least thre different ways including sitting on the bed, stand up and putting it on and using the chair to lean on. We tried the chair first but it moved very easily but we also tried to film it while someone was holding the chair down out of shot. This still didnt work so we tried him standing up but the actor found this hard to do. We then had him sit on the bed and put his sock on there. The bed worked well because of the white on black contrast.

DAY THREE

Shot five

This day we had forgotten to film Harry coming out of his front door. This was our own fault as it was planned to be done but our group got excited about finishing everything and didnt think about the last shot. This had to be done another time although this was easy to re film as someone in our group lived close to the actor and it was able to be filmed after school one day.

Problems faced with the shot was that the door was less than a meter away from the neighbouring one. There

was no way of avoiding it from our frame, it appeard within the shot slightly. To be as polite and thoughtful as possible and to insure the shot looked better we avoided as much as possible of the neighbouring door.

Film Schedule

This is the filiming schedule for our opening commencing 13th March 2011. We also needed to film our insitution logo for 'Wisecrack Studios' and so we have incorporated this into the schedule. If we stick to this, we will be able to complete it with enough time to edit, arrange feedback and re-edit our piece. This schedule is for the crew only and a new, simpler version will be created for the actors as to when they're needed for filming.

Charlotte Morrison

Improved and Final Shot List

Several changes have been made to the final shot list, including:

• Scene and shot order. Instead of organizing the scenes/shots in order of appearance, we organised the scenes and shots in order of filming. This is more convenient as we don't have to skim through the shot list during production, and can alternatively go in the order it's been set out.
• Shot duration. The shot durations were manipulated to avoid short cuts and dragging shots.
• The sandwich scene was cut out of the opening, and will alternatively end with the title and a fade to black. This decision was made after suggestive feedback that it was unnecessary and made the opening feel too cramped.
• Institutions. Although we initially decided upon 2 institutional companies, we were unsure that we had enough time to open with both logos. We left 'Wisecrack Studios' out of the initial shot list, and re-introduced it into the final shot list after deciding that we had plenty of time to fill.

Overall, all of these decisions were considered within the group and we believe that our final shot list is a major improvement and will make filming easier and more manageable.


Devon Dalton

Initial Shot List

Emily Wallace

Charlotte Morrison

Character Auditions - Script and Process

Before filming our opening sequence, we had to cast actors for our characters. To help us choose which actors would best suit each part, we planned auditions. As we had some people in mind already, we asked them all to meet us in a certain room at our school during break time. We had to plan it so that they were all available and, as most of our actors were from younger years, it was quite hard to find a time they could all attend. However, we eventually found a time, and even though some were late, everyone turned up and our auditions were able to take place successfully.

We also found that having everyone in the same room created a more friendly and fun environment, and throughout auditioning, the actors said they much preferred this as they felt more relaxed and less stressed. By giving the actors a short briefing of the characters they were auditioning for, they felt more confident about what they needed to do as they had a better understanding of the part. We simply read out the character descriptions for each relevant actor.

Before meeting everyone at our auditions we had to create a short script. This was quite difficult as our actual opening consists iof hardly any dialogue and the only person that speaks is the character Bob. We used his line in our auditions as its one of the main parts, and assigned other auditioners tasks that their character would be seen doing.




Emily Wallace

Character Auditions

This is the video clip we created for the auditions we took.

Emily Wallace

Scott Collins

Popular Actors for Our Film Genre

Jonah Hill Feldstein was born in 1983. This photo was taken in 2007 as he portrayed his character Seth from the smash hit ‘Superbad’. This shows how good makeup and a shave can still make him look young and also geeky. His physical appearance fits perfectly of how we would want our character Bob to look like.  Also, his portrayal of his character Seth also fits perfectly with Bobs. However, Seth only cared about trying to have sex and Bob cares about the girl making one small change being necessary.

Michael Austin Cera was born 1988. He in most his films plays either the geek or the weakling. His physical appearance looks nerdy and weak, he also seems book smart what would fit perfectly with our worried intelligent geek Stuart. His character he portrayed in ‘Superbad’ (2007) was of a young nerd called Evan. Evan cared for the girl he liked instead of his friends who just wanted sex. He was shy, funny, smart and very sarcastic what would fit perfectly with our Stuart. His character Evan with a name change would make our ideal Stuart.

Christopher Mintz-Plasse was born in 1989. He has portrayed many lead role geeks. Two that stand out as sterotypical geeks was his character Fogell in ‘Superbad’ (2007) and Augie from ‘Role Models’ (2008). Both characters were nerdy however Fofell was dying to be popular and cool. Wanting just sex and fame. This would suit the character Tom as both long to be cool. His portryal of Augie however was fantastic bringing a nerdy fairy tale land geek to life. He would run round with a fake foam sword and fight other players in the park who would do the same. This character would fit Bob though we wrote he never played with toy swords. However, he likes World of Warcraft and I can't see why he wouldn’t want to adventure into a real life role playing world. The fault with Christopher is that his physical appearance does not fit the requirements for Bob leading to him not being able to play our Bob despite the life and atmosphere he could bring to the character.

Jon Heder was born in 1977. Though he may not look like a typical geek he played one of the most over the top geeks ever to be portryaed on a film, ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ (2004). A ginger boy who was simply a loser. Napoleon Dynamite is also like ‘Kevin and Perry Go Large’ (2000). Based on a tv series, it tells of two fifteen year old boys who want to be famous DJ’s but are really just losers.

Kathy Burke as Perry

 Kathy Burke was born in London in 1964. The interesting thing about Kathy is that she played a boy called Perry. The female playing the male worked perfectly as it just highlighted how unmanly and cool Perry really was. A woman playing Stuart could possibly work as he is the weakest and most feminine out of all the geeks. A woman playing his role would really help connote this fact.

Jim Carrey was born on January 17, 1962, and is regarded a comedy genius. In 1994, Jim Carrey played Lloyd Christmas in the comedy film 'Dumb and Dumber'. Lloyd Christmas is a stupid and easily amused geek. He doesn't fully understand the struggle of life and has a childlike approach behind his character. His friend Harry Dunne, played by Jeff Daniels, is the same as Lloyd in almost every way, making their petal arguments more humourous as they make no progress of winning throughout them. Both men love the same woman which is linked to our film. And the girl actually dates Harry Dunne. This is like when Stacey dates Tom, leading to the fall out between the friends. Both actors performed their geeks brilliantly. However, they are just too silly and rediculous to fit any of our characters.

John William Ferrell was born July 16, 1967 and is a very talented actor for giving characters a believable, humourous feel. I could write a long list of characters he has performed amazingly that could possibly fit our film, however, I want to focus on two. In the film 'Step Brothers' (2008), Will Farrell played a fourty year old geek living with his father called Brennan Huff. The man was hysterical to watch. His performance amazing and was believable. Though we wouldn't want a fourty year old man to play any of our characters, the arguments he has with his new step brother (once his father re-married) was brilliant and would fit well with the arguments our friends have with one another once fallen out in our opening. Here is a short clip of one of the earlier less violent argument from Step Brothers.

Cameron Diaz was born in 1972. She has had a diverse list of characters she has performed varying from an Irish gang member to a beautiful ogar from far, far away. I'm going to concentrate on her character Mary from 'Something about Mary' (1998). Mary was a beautiful, young woman who had several men fighting for her love. She was funny, relaxed and fun; the sort of personality traits required for Stacey. Mary however wasn't geeky, though she was attracted to them. Stacey should perhaps take some of the characteristics from Cameron Diaz's Mary for the geeky side on Stacey.

Kirsten Dunst was born in 1982. In the film 'Bring it on' (2000), Kirsten played a cool, young cheerleader called Torrance Shipman. She was the head cheerleader and, like other examples from this post, she falls in love for the geeky, nerdy boy. From this her geeky side begins to show and the young girl eventually wins the heart of the cautious geek. Her character is perfect for our geeky Stacey. She also has been seen as a bitch during other films such as the Spiderman sequals. She can be confrontational and during Spiderman One (2002) her character, Mary Jane, hid her geeky side by dating the school bully similar to our film.

Scott Collins

Purpose of Consent Forms

It is important that we receive consent forms from our actors as it confirms that they have agreed to act in our film. Although verbal agreement can also be obtained, a consent form can be kept for future reference and is visual evidence. Without a consent form, there is no evidence that our actors have agreed to be filmed, and would be the equivalent of a professional actor not signing a contract to be in a film. This would leave the character usage and film production purposes uncertain for the actor, meaning that consent forms are an important factor to creating an ethical and organised film.


Devon Dalton

Reconsidering Sound

As a group, we decided to use a different music piece to play throughout the film opening. Alternatively, we will be using a music piece played by a group of our friends who play in a band called 'Forgetting the Fallen'.

Although some of the music they produce is heavy metal and screamo, they have agreed to create a more energetic and up-beat piece of music especially for our film. We have obtained their permission through a consent form, which shows that they have agreed that we may use their music in our film.

We have chosen to use this type of music as opposed to our previous selection because, as a group, we decided that custom-made music is more flexible and can be shaped to the film in a way that premade sounds can't.

Music played by 'Fogetting the Fallen' is also royalty free as they have agreed not to copyright the music made for our film opening. Overall, we have decided that this decision is more benefical to the film and allows us to adapt the music to our specifications more easily.





Devon Dalton

Consideration of Sound

As we knew our opening sequence would have to include sound, we wanted to research into different soundtracks and effects. As a group, we learnt about the impact sound has on opening sequences. The most effective example we found was Dawn of the Dead.

Dawn of the Dead

This opening includes different types of sound including soundtracks and effects, a technique called layering. This is when more than one sound is used. For example, in this opening the soundtrack plays continuously in the background whilst screams and destructive sounds are played over the top. Through the whole piece, a rhythmic heartbeat is also used whilst a high pitched sound is quietly being played. This creates an eerie and suspensive atmosphere for the audience that reflects the genre of the film.

For our piece we need to have a soundtrack to play whilst the characters get ready for college. These are some possibilities for the opening music to our opening sequence:

Feelin' Good

The title of this stood out to me and the music is actually quite upbeat and feel-good. At about 0.32 seconds, it starts to kick in and again at 52 seconds it gets slightly more intresting and more intruments are used. This is good for our piece as the funny parts of our opening occur after about 28 seconds and this would add emphasis to them. We could make this work agaisnt our piece although the music then doesn't get any different or funner.

Welcome To The Show

This title also stood out to me as it's clearly for an opening. The pitch is very low, quite funky and interesting. Although saying this, its not quite rocky enough and we dont think it's catchy enough for our opening. The tempo doesn't quite match our comedy genre as other comedy films tends to have a fast paced soundtrack to set a happy atmosphere.

Rock on Chicago

This was the most suitable music  found for our piece as it was extremely upbeat and fun. It was catchy and matched the tempo of our opening well. Although as a group, we agreed we'd want to cut certain parts out and possibly play other bits over again because they did not give the same atmosphere.

Big Rock 

This was the last piece we looked at and this had quiet a good souund to it but we found it was to heavy for the atmosphere of our piece. It sounded like it could be from a horror rarther than a comedy and so we could not use it for our opening. 

These are the sounds that were found on the Mac; they are all copyright free. The sounds that we couldn't find on the Mac, we will simply record ourself by doing the action we wanted. We could use these in our final piece as they are exactly what we need and we only have to make the volume higher so they are more noticeable.

We also had the opportunity to use the copyright free tracks and sound effects from the Mac which is especially convenient as we don't have to search through different sites to find the soundtracks and the effects we want. However, though there is a variety of sound effects and tracks, there are not many choices for our genre and this limits what we can use. To solve this, we will record our own sound effects and look for various other sources to find the soundtrack right for our film opening.

Emily Wallace

Charlotte Morrison

Final Institution Logos

As a group, we discussed which logo to choose decided on these designs for our final institution logos. Since our audience is mainstream, our logos needed to be animated or filmed in order to replicate the same professional effect we want, as seen with the Universal or Warner Bros institution logo.

Emerald Productions (animated):

For the logo for our institution, we chose an animated film reel which would roll out and the name Emerald Productions would appear at the end of it. It would start as a close up and zoom out of the main reel to reveal the reel rolling and the production company name. We chose this as we thought it would be the most original idea that showed to the audience clearly that we were a film production company. The use of the colour green reflects the word 'Emerald' and the original name of our group (green productions). The green also connotes wealth to show we're a big institution and is bright and calming which connotes happiness and peace. For our final product, we used a series of images together. Unfortunately, it did not give the professional look we wanted as it was jolty and we did not have any other programmes available. In the future, we would investigate which tools and programmes we could use before making decisions. 

This is the logo for Wisecrack Studios (filmed):

As the second mainstream intiution was called 'Wisecrack Studios', we wanted to reflect the comedy genre through the logo to show the company specialises in comedy film. Also, as a unique idea and to show that the insitution is large and mainstream, we decided to film it to resemble it to other institutional logos, such as Universal. We used the juxtaposition of the dry weather and umbrella to create humour and the person holding on to the banner evokes humour as the girl riding the bike is oblivious to what's behind her. However, filming this 5 second institution logo took approximately 3 or 4 hours to create and so in the future, we will try to be more organised with our props as we thought it would take less time to create the banner.

These are the two logos at the start of the opening:



Charlotte Morrison

Institution Logo Ideas

As a group we had to come up with a name and logo for our institution to be shown in our opening titles. To help us create a institution name, we went through different words and phrases found in thesaruses to inspire us and create a train of thought. We also discussed ways in which the words could be presented in a moving image using various objects and actions.This is the spider diagram we produced as a group.. We found creating a spider diagram useful as it allowed us to channel our ideas into a visual form and expand on thoughts and opinions.

 

Finally, we decided to use Emerald Productions and Wisecrack Studios as our final institution names. We chose these names as Emerald relates to our group name, Green Productions, and Wisecrack is reflective of our film genre and represents comedy. As a group of four, we decided we would each create one logo for either institution and use parts of each of our ideas to create 2 final logos. As our target audience is mainstream, we will use animation or moving images to create at least one of our logos (like Universal or Warner Bros).

These are our logo ideas for EMERALD:

Design 1

Design 2

Design 3

Design 4

These are our logo ideas for WISE CRACK:

Design 1

Design 2

Design 3

Design 4

Emily Wallace

Charlotte Morrison

Devon Dalton

Scott Collins