Film Opening - Final

This is the final edit of our film opening.

Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

During the progression from the premliminary task to the full product, there were clear differences in the amount of effort and work we put in for the preliminary task compared to the full product. These we hadn't considered, in terms of preparation, planning, time management etc.

We didn't think about managing time as effectively during the preliminary task because we felt we didn't need to do as much as we could have. This was because we felt pretty confident in our ability to produce a successful preliminary task without thinking to much about it. Admittedly, our preliminary task consisted of the three of us picking up our camera and filming on the day. For the full product however we did think about the time we had available to us which meant that we had planned out what wew were going to do and when we wanted a certain task done by. However, it didn't all go to plan due to room errors which meant that we fell behind schedule but besides that I feel that we have learnt the importance of time management and keeping on target as it can have serious consequences.

Similarly, during the preliminary task there was a lack of communication as we felt we didnt need to do much communication throughout the project. We raised our game during the full product however and created a group chat amongst ourselves so we could discuss anything related to the work ahead of us.

A lot of preparation and planning was undertaken for the full product. We researched everything that was relevant to our work - camera shots and angles, how we could edit and how we could stick to the conventions of our film opening's genre. This was a far greater amount of effort put into the planning and preparation of our preliminary task, where we put a miniscule amount of effort into the work ahead of us. Organisation too had drastically improved from the preliminary task to the full product. This was because we had realised a tremendous amount of effort was needed for the project to run smoothly.

Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

We have learnt that there is a vast range of technology available to us. We had used several different types of technology in synergy to create our film as effectively as we could.

To communicate amongst one another we used an Android messaging service called Google Hangouts  and this was effective as we could see if members of our group have seen the messages, ensuring that all members of our group knew what to do and when to do it. We also were able to send pictures of work or notes amongst one another also further ensuring our group knew what was going on at any particular point during the project’s duration.

Desktop version of Google hangouts



 The tripod and camera combination allowed to us to film the media product as stable as possible, removing any unnecessary shaking from our film. This made the media product much better than it would have been if it was filmed handheld; however this removed the realness it would have had if it was filmed by hand.

We used an Apple iMac to do all our research through the Google search engine, and we used iMovie for the actual development of our media product by storing and editing our footage on it. We have learnt that there is a vast range of products available to us in order to edit footage to a standard we would like. Software such as Sony Vegas Pro or Windows Movie Maker could also perform the editing task but we stuck.



Sites such as Blogger and YouTube were also used in tasks such as putting up new posts or videos with regards to the project. What we’ve learnt with these is that a great deal can be done on Blogger for example to post up our work and customise it all to look how we would like it to look. YouTube enabled us to search for other media projects to see what others have done, giving us the opportunity to see media products from the past and how we could produce something of similar quality. YouTube was also there for us to search for similar films to what we had hoped to create for our project.

Our youtube video on youtube

Our blogger account

Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?

After researching we asked twenty students to complete a questionnaire in order to determine what kind of audience we were looking at for our film opening. The students were aged 17-19. After they answered a few questions we collected the data to review the results. What we got back was that the two favorite genres of film were horror and thriller so we decided to stick with our original thriller story as that was what we had originally thought about creating. As our plan was to create a film where the story is based on crime then it made sense that our media product would be of the crime thriller genre. The hybrid between crime and thriller creates suspense successfully and also a crime thriller is known to keep the focus on the criminals which suited our film as the two main characters are a crime duo, showing their actions from the start of the film - the poker game - right to the end - where the victim is dragged into his flat - and the moments after - where the driver and the killer meet. We felt this would be sufficient enough to attract and address an audience effectively as we had researched what they would like to watch and then conducting further research into what we should do to ensure the audience is addressed.

Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our Primary target audience would be males aged 18-24. With our secondary audience being males aged 30-70.

Primary audience

• Enjoys horror/thriller/action/crime films, probably watches films on a regular basis with a group of friends perhaps.
• Still in school/college/university.
• Most likely single.
• He would more typically enjoy a movie for its action and characters rather than the narrative.
• Would enjoy mainstream music such as rap and hip-hop.
• Enjoy typical high calorie foods and snacks such as Mars chocolate, Coca Cola and pizza.
• May have seen movies such as 21 or Taken.

Typical young teenage adult with branded Nike hoody and earphones. Our primary audience would look like this.


Would be interested in our product due to it containing thriller and action scenes, enjoying the film criminal genre itself rather than the over all plot.

Secondary audience

• Enjoys mystery/action/thriller/noir films, probably watches on a regular basis either alone or with friends.
• Has a interest in poker or other card games or forms of gambling.
• In a stable job - an office worker - or potentially retired.
• Has family, wife, kids and potentially grandchildren.
• Would enjoy films for its narratives, story and characters.
• Enjoys music such as jazz, blues and orchestral.
• Would eat Steak - medium rare - and other red meat foods.
• May have seen movies such as The Cincinnati Kid, Rounders and Clockwork Orange.

Middle old aged man, wearing smart shirt and tie with a top hat. Our secondary audience would look like this.

Would enjoy the film for its mystery and noir like style. would be attracted to our films pokerand would enjoy to understand the characters overall reasoning for their actions of murder and so on.

Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Our media product might be distributed by an independent distributor. Several factors contribute to this. Our film, although being inspired by films such as Rounders and the Cincinnati Kid, has an edgy look to it which is dissimilar to the mainstream films that are pumped out by big Hollywood companies. Reasons for our film taking the independent approach is because if it did attempt to become a Hollywood blockbuster it most likely wouldn’t fare too well due to heavy media saturation and the same mainstream films being pumped out by companies such as Warner Bros. Films such as Shifty, set in urban areas have turned over a profit in the independent market due to extensive audience research and planning to enable the largest audience to be reeled in. This is why I think our film could be distributed in the independent market because of its gritty storyline, edgy look and feel and its similarities with films such as Shifty.

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

During the creation of our media product we had researched the most common stereotypes associated with specific social groups. A well-known stereotype with black individuals is that they are exotic and criminal. This is why as a group we decided the killer/thief should be myself (Sharmarke) as I’m the only black person in our group. This would hopefully show that we do possess the knowledge and understanding of the most of obvious stereotypes.

We also used our media product to represent another social group. A known stereotype of white people is that they are rich individuals. This was supported by our film as the people participating in the underground poker game were rich which meant having a white character to feature would be a smart thing to do. This is how our decision to ask our friend Luke to be the victim came about as we thought that conforming to another stereotype will further show our understanding of how particular social groups are represented.

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our media product uses several conventions of a thriller/action/mystery from many real media products, such as the extremely low key lighting, camera angle and overall themes. Our media product however takes heqavy inspiration from the movie Rounders and how they used poker. Rounder focuses on the overall idea of poker and the actual mechanics and techniques of the game, and as such would focus a lot more scenes of the games and what cards each player holds. Our project on the other hand takes a lot more focus on the mystery involed after the game, and rather use poker as the catalyst for our overall plot, and as such we have far more less scenes on poker. With this we enhance the Mystery aspect of our film, making the audience ask what the purpose of the poker game was and how it all relates to the plot.

Rounders uses several high angle close ups on the and close ups on the cards in order to give focus to the game to the audience

We on the other hand use minimal amount of shots on the cardgame, with more focus on the result, and money instead, showing that the match is 'high risk high reward'. although we agree a high angle close up like those used in rounders is the best choice overall for the shot

Rounders has a very causal clothing and a rundown styled area with moody lighting, however we decided to use professional suites for our project, with complete pitch black background. We rather used this technique to make isolation and build a more serious mood, to fulfill the conventions of a thriller and mystery which can be seen in many real media project. While Rounders indeed filled the conventions of a thriller, with the unprofessional look reading into a more unnoficial gamble, the suites would creat a much more serious and mysterious tone. Although the medium close up shot of characters we decided to use as it brings clear focus to the characters

The medium close up brings out the focus onto the characters expression, however the background and lighting gives a more casual feeling

The shirt and tie sugest professionalism, in the unlikliests of places to bring out mystery and the several straight lines on his shirt further connotes his proffesionalism, and his neatness., again attributes not seen in thrillers or underground poker games. The completely black background further spurs on tension and connoting death or misfortune to the scene

Feedback for final film opening

After putting our completed product up on Facebook seeking potential feedback from our target audience, I received feedback shortly after. This is what was said:

- Sharmarke.

Feedback

After showing our first copy of the film opening to our teacher Mr. McManus, he made a couple of suggestions to our group with regards to how it could be improved. He suggested we take out a few extra shots that were not particularly necessary. Also, our film opening featured a point-of-view shot from the gambler's perspective however that wasn't needed as the gambler wasn't the most important character. We decided to take his advice to go back and do the changes suggested to us. Also, we still needed to do something about the sound.

Film Opening - First Upload

This is what our film opening will look like. At the moment it is without sound additions or alterations.

Sound choices

Our decision for sound on our project was a tough one. Instead of playing a whole soundtrack above the project we decided to just add some sound here and there. We chose to do this because
we felt that our film would seem real to the audience if we kept the majority of the film strictly diegetic and soundless, in terms of sound we could have potentially add in. This was in the hopes that it would have built up tension in the audience as it would be a very thought provoking thing, which is a very strong convention for thrillers.

Addition of Dialouge

Dialogue was something that was suggested that we keep to a minimum due to the lack of professional skill. However, as our film was to be a thriller and we needed a few bits of speech here and there to help the audience understand what is happening in our film opening as, without it, the plot would have been harder to follow. Phrases such as "place your final bets" and "all in" were used to create a dramatic effect among the audience, perhaps suggesting that they are keeping talking to a minimal due to professionalism. Also, whilst Sharmarke is in the mask we considered the option of putting a voice-over suggesting to the audience that his voice has been disguised however we struck that out because it sounded unnatural and it would have been confusing as to why there was a vocal disguise when the mask is a basic and rubbery mask.

- Kausar.

Editing Software - iMovie Vs Sony Vegas Pro

We used iMovie for the editing of our film. The reason for this was that Sony's Vegas Pro (our other choice of editing software) was a bit too complicated for our liking. It had many features we were unsure of and we thought learning to use it during the post-production process wasn't a smart thing to do. This is why we had chosen to use iMovie; it had a simpler, cleaner look to it that made things clear and we have in fact already used iMovie in the past which meant we were very familiar with it. Ultimately, it meant we could creative our film as effective as we could.

An example of the Sony Vegas Pro interface.

Our film opening being edited on iMovie.

- Sharmarke.

Completion of shoot

The filming by the end of it all, took us just under 2 weeks to film, including the days we were unable to film. Now we had to start the editing process. The car scene took no longer than 3 hours for us to film with everything we could have needed. The flat scene took 4 days for us to film because we went back to re-shoot some footage. The poker scene in the school took the remaining days for us to film.

Unavailbility of rooms

During production, we faced many issues of gaining access to the drama studio, a key area for our project. As the drama studio became unavailable it meant we had to postpone our shoot for a week. In order to make use of our time during these four days, we decided to focus our energy towards the other scenes first. As we had unlimited access to the flat and near unlimited access to the car, it seemed as the most secure decision to continue filming later scenes and do the remaining drama studio scene during a later date when the room becomes available. This change in schedule helped us keep on track.

Weather issues

The car scene was the only scene that was actually shot outside. As such it was the only scene we had to worry about weather conditions for. We would prefer a typical cloudy and dry weather conditions. This is due to give the scene a mundane feel to further enchance our thriller. The bright sunny weather would indeed look 'nice' however it would not suit the tone of the project as we intend to make a dark undertone to suit the scene rather a sunny, happy feeling. We decided not to film during rain either - rain tends to be the most unpredictable factor of typical British weather and would potentially damage our equipment. Indeed it would suit the conventions of thriller if it rained by setting a 'mood' however the conditions for us to use that type of weather seemed to unreliable. We decided to film the car scene all in one day, in order to ensure we kept the right weather conditions. This meant we had to get what we needed without much reshooting.

Rain which we did not want. Rain came a week later from our shot.

Our ideal weather condition. Murky and dark, with small rays of diluted light.

- Sharmarke.

Production schedule

• Filming period - 1 week
• Editing period - 1.5-2 weeks

Actors and their roles, choices we made and the replacement of characters

The actors for our five characters were chosen. They comprised of the three of us and two other individuals from outside our group. These were:

• myself
• Sharmarke
• Aram
• Ali
• and Luke

Sharmarke.

Aram.

Luke (left) and Ali (right).

Our actor decision were based on a number of different factors. We considered availability, possible stereotypes and suitability of each actor. The reason for choosing ourselves to take part was the fact that we were always available to take part, along with the stereotypes associated with black people for Sharmarke. Our choice in choosing Luke was similarly because of the stereotypes associated with white people and how they are rich individuals. Aram was chosen to be the driver/mastermind of the plot due his ethnicity. A very extreme stereotype of an Arab is their ability to plot which is why we decided to fit this stereotype into our film opening in the form of Aram. This again enable the film opening to be carefully planned out with suitable characters playing each role.

Previously, we had two other characters replacing myself and Luke. These were Shadia and Charlie. We had replaced the two due to Charlie being permanently unavailable and Shadia not being able to help out anymore.

- Kausar.

Character Issues

We had encountered some issues with regards to who would be playing our main character in our project. As the three of us had undertaken other roles, we had to find someone else to fill in the role as the main character. We already had two characters for the remaining roles (the other poker player and the dealer), so all we needed was to find a main character. After a little searching, this was going to be played by a student called Charlie. However, we hadn't anticipated that he would be leaving our sixth form. As we were unable to get him back to help us, it meant we had to restart the filming process with a new main character, leading to the disappointing loss of twenty or so minutes of shooting. This set back had led to the loss of a lot of valuable time where we could have been filming. We found a reliable student called Luke, who would be available for us whenever we need to film. Now all we needed to do was fix some aspects of our previous footage and reintroduce it into our project during the new shoot.

- Sharmarke.

Shotlist

1. Card Scene

• Master shot of the poker room. Possibly an aerial shot.
• CU of the final hand being dealt by the dealer.
• MCU of the dealer glancing at the gambler. Cuts to a POV shot of what he's looking at (the dealer)
• OTS over the gambler at the dealer - dialogue - 'final bets'
• Reverse OTS shot over the dealer at the gambler.
• Cut to an ECU of his hands pushing the money to the centre.
• Cut back to a CU of his face - dialogue - 'I'm all in'.

2. Outside Scene

• WS of the driver waiting at the car. Driver pulls out his phone. 
• ECU of his phone to read the text he has received.
• Cut to a MCU of the driver. He looks up the street and down the street as he puts his phone away.
• Dissolve into a MS of gambler as he walks. Holds his pocket and smiles.
• WSs of the car as the driver walks around it to open the door for the gambler.
• LS of the car as the driver closes the door.
• MS of the driver as he walks around the car.
• CU as the driver enters the car. Cut to black on the sound of the door shutting.

3. 'Driving Scene' - Credits Scene

• No shot. Stays black for a few seconds. Can hear car engine starting up.

4. Gambler's Home Scene

• LS of the gambler walking into his building.
• WS him walking up the stairs.
• LS of the gambler walking down the corridor.
• POV shot as he approaches his door.
• OTS MCU shot over the killer at the gambler.
• TS of the killer pulling the gambler in the house. Door closes.

5. Final Scene - Corridor Scene

• MS of the killer walking out of the house. ECU of his hand holding the money.
• MS of the killer walking away from the door and throwing money to someone.
• Cuts to a MS of the driver catching it.
• ECU as he examines the money.
• CU of the killer as he removes the mask. His identity is revealed.
• CU of the drivers face. Dialogue - "time for number 13."
• Fade to black. "FILM TITLE".

- Sharmarke.

Props

Our first idea was to use a balacava mask for the criminal, however the mask seemed too generic, as its seen as a typical criminal mask in your typical film, and as such we decided to take inspiration of using a animal mask instead, as seen a video game called hotline miami http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HQshGnjpo0&safe=active

The horse mask seemed to comedic, particularly due to its wide bright eyes and gaping mouth, so we decided to not use this animal mask

The chicken mask was too childlike or fake, with its hard plastic beak and very plain colour scheme, and as such did not suite our thriller theme.

Our final decision was to use a pigs mask. The pig masks gives a strong sense of dread due to the blood like red and pink along with the the various mini spots, possibly representing as blood. the mask was also rubber, giving it a edgy texture and feel, suiting perfectly wit our thriller.

The poker mat with the deck of cards in the centre.

A lot of printed fake money to use in the poker match. Also the money is
what the killer then steals from the gambler.We had a total of £200 worth of real £20 notes, however we could not use that amount to make the poker game money seem  'big' as we could not produce stacks of money big enough to do so. As such we resorted to making fake money from printing it out. However the money was still fake and as such only printed to one side, so we had to use a combination of both real and fake money to make a stack o money look legit. we put 1 £20 note on top and on bottom of the stack of fake notes so the it will appear legit to the viewers.

- Kausar.

Locations

The first location for our film opening was inside our school. We chose to use the drama studio as it had the open space we needed for the poker game to be done, also an advantage to this room is that it gives option to control the lighting to a setting we could select.

The drama studio. All the curtains were pulled to enclose the area and the poker table was set up in the middle.

One of the many lights we could control.

The second location was the streets near our school, Buckingham Place and Catherine Place. We placed the car on Catherine Place and had the gambler walk down Buckingham Place towards the car, to which the driver would open the door. We chose this location as it was a convenient location for the car owner, who was my mother, and also it was a convenient location for us as the school was a short walk away meaning we could upload the footage as soon as we had finished.

The car was positioned in circle 2 and the gambler walked from 
circle 1 to circle 2.

The third location consisted of my home building. We chose this location as we needed somewhere for the gambler to live. In the building we used the corridors and the front door of my flat. This was used to show the killer forcefully taking the gambler inside for him to meet his doom. Also, the corridor would be where the killer reveals himself to be the poker player who had lost to our gambler and how he had set up the deal with the driver of the gambler. Below is the corridor where the killer and driver meet. The driver will be standing at the far end of the corridor whereas the killer will be coming from the near end towards the driver.

Although my hallway is dark and narrow, and fits well with the conventions of horror, it does not fit the ideals of the character played by Luke being rich, as the floor is cement, several cobwebs and badly painted rails, would not suit the character. 





The hallway of Aram's flat is clean with nice sources of light, and carpet, further improving the rich experience. Further more the narrowness of the hallwas make the character feel trapped as shown.

- Kausar.

Costume

Because this was a high end poker game where everything is kept professional, all characters had a costume consisting of a suit and tie. This meant that it would stick to the conventions of an underground poker game.

- Aram.

Characters

For our film opening we needed five characters. These are:

• a dealer
• two poker players.
• a killer (the third poker player).
• a driver for the winner of the poker game.

We now had to allocate the roles of each character. One of our main decisions in this process was incorporating the stereotype that black people are criminals, as portrayed in media. This would show the audience that we understand and have a knowledge of media representation and some stereotypes.

- Aram.

Inspirations From Games

Watch from point 00:00 - 1:20. This opening sequence from the game 'Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney', gave us the idea of bringing in murder to the world of gambling.

This trailer to the game 'Hotline Miami' is what inspired us to use a animal mask for the killer. In the trailer it can be seen that a man uses an animal mask is used to commit various killings. This is due to its terrifying effect of the mask and also how it brings anonymity and fear to those who oppose him.

- Kausar.

Inspirations From Film

We gathered several inspirations that helped form the story and choices we used in our project.

This is a trailer for the movie The Cincinnati Kid. What particularly inspired us from the movie was the underground world of gambling that the movie use. It was also our primary reason for choosing our characters to have a costume of suit and tie. This would give the audience a sense of professionalism and danger.

This is a scene from the 1998 film Rounders. This scene gave us a lot of inspiration as it shows the final hand of the illegal poker game being played. It features only diegetic sound including minimal talking. This was why we made the decision to keep speech to a minimum during our poker game, to make the poker game seem more real to the audience.

Editing research

As the genre of our film was a thriller we had limited option in what kind of cuts we could use for our film opening. These edits are:

• continuity editing
• cutting
• dissolving
• shot / reverse shot
• and fading.

Continuity editing will be the basis of our editing. Continuity editing means editing in a way in which an action shown through several different shots runs smoothly. Most of our editing will consist of simple continuity cuts and our film opening will show different sequences of actions that require being shown smoothly for it to be effective.

The dissolve is a camera edit technique that suggests a passage of time. We could incorporate this into our project perhaps as the driver waits for the gambler to make his way to the car.

The shot / reverse shot shows the interaction between two individuals. This can be used in our project when the killer and the driver meet up outside the flat.

Fading to black also suggests a passage of time. This has been decided to feature in our film opening in two particular scenes. The first use of fading to black is right at the end of the poker scene. This will therefore show that the poker game has been over and something else is now happening at a later time. The second use of fading to black would be at the end of second scene when the driver enters the car. This will be edited in upon the sound of the car door shutting.

- Sharmarke.

Camera shots research

In preparation for the film opening we were to create we did some research into typical camera shots used. The various shots have different effects. The close up and its variations convey emotion to the audience. The long shot shows the subject fitting into the screen creating a true likeness of the character making it seem life-like. The wide shot, shows the subjects surroundings, giving the audience an idea of where he is located.

The close up.

Extreme close up.

Medium close up.

Long shot. 

Wide shot.

- Kausar.

Credits research

As we would have to include the typical credits found in a film opening, I had done some research into what the hierarchy of credits would be. After not too much looking into I found an article on Wikipedia which showed what the typical order is. Below is what the typical order is:

 After reading through that and verifying it with other sources, this is what we have decided to include in our opening:

• Name of the studio
• Name of the production company
• Producer name
• Director name
• Starring
• Film title

The initial plan is to place the studio and production company names at the beginning of the film, before anything is shown. The names of the producer and director come next during the poker scene. Characters who are starred will come throughout the rest of the film opening and the film title will be shown right at the end. We thought putting the title at the end of the film was a good idea because it allowed us to show the audience that the video they were watching was in fact an opening sequence. The reason for putting the studio and production company names at the beginning was to establish that it was a film and to follow the conventions of starting a film. We felt showing the producer and director names during the film opening was good because the placement was perfect for it and we didn't want to waste time before we actually started showing the film opening, therefore getting straight into the action.

- Sharmarke.

The New And Improved Story

After redrafting our initial story we had a new outline of what our film opening would be. The newer version of our story was this: a young gambler is in a poker game which he ends up winning. He then leaves but is killed by a masked man in his home as his earnings are stolen from him. It becomes clear that the killer is in fact the previous loser of the poker game who had left before the game was finished and is also working with his partner who is the hired driver.

-  Sharmarke.

Initial inspiration for the opening scene

As one of the problems we had was introducing the main character, we had to figure out how to go about doing this. As previously stated, our character is a young man who has come into some wealth so we had to find a way to not only show him, but to tell the audience that he is in fact rich. With the help of Mr McManus, we were pointed into the direction of a movie entitled The American Gigolo. This movie is about a male prostitute who runs into some trouble later on in the movie but we were not interested in the whole movie. We had our eyes on one particular scene which showed its main character getting ready to leave, as seen in the video below. We plan to use a similar scene to introduce and set up our character and his story.

- Aram. 

The Story - Problem 2

Within our initial story, there was another problem we faced. We had worked out how to sort out our first issue - by keeping the camera on the two characters - but now our story became a little confusing as there was no clear motive as to why the main character was going to be abducted in the first place. Our original plan was to have the whole poker game but to shorten the scene we decided to just use the end to show what was going on. This would then make the story clear as the film progresses. So we further discussed what to do about this and we decided that we would attempt to place a phone call or send a text message between the gambler and the driver after showing the initial scene to show the audience that something was up, implementing clearly what the gambler had done to deserve it and whether it is business or personal.

Through discussion we had overcome the two main issues we had with our story. This led to myself rewriting the initial story to create a new and improved version. Now I had to write up a shotlist with the new story.

- Sharmarke.

The Story - Problem 1

With direction of what we hope to accomplish, we set out to take some initial shots in order to see what our story would look like. We decided to shoot the first scene. The first scene was about establishing who was involved in the game all passing the bouncer. The problem we faced was establishing who the main character would be, as Mr McManus pointed out to us that it was unclear. To overcome this we considered the option of adding an additional scene but ultimately we decided to make the first character seen to be myself as I play an important role in the film, then show a lot of Aram first during the outside scene as he also plays an important and role and finally show the two of us right at the end of the sequence to show the audience that we're both linked together.

- Sharmarke.

The Story

After continuous discussion and endless debating, we had concluded with finalising what would be the story for our film opening. Summarising the story as shortly as possible, it was going to be about a young man who had recently come into wealth joining an underground poker game only to be killed at the end of it. So after sorting out the basic story we had to discuss locations, costumes, props, characters etc. The image below is our plans for the film opening. The bullet points along the margin show what we have sequenced and what each scene will be about. The writing to the right hand side show what kind of shots we plan to use and the writing scattered along the bottom of the page are of additional notes for the film.

- Sharmarke.

The Continuity Piece

Our continuity piece.

The Introduction To Our Film Opening Project

During today's media lesson, we were introduced to the basis of what would be our actual project. Our task was to create a two minute long film opening. What and how we did this was up to us.

As a class we watched several film openings to inspire us into thinking creatively. It made us aware of two things: we had to follow the criteria as effectively as we could and we also had to know what to include. This was a successful back story and establishing the film openings within our two minute time frame. As a group we have discussed what we could potentially do for our project but more work is needed for us to come out with a solid idea.

- Sharmarke.

Music for the Continuity Piece

Free Music Archive: DMN Productions - A Potência

The link above is to the music we have chosen to add to our continuity piece. We felt that it went well with our piece. It was also copyright free.

- Aram.

Nearing The Finish Of Our Continuity Piece

Sharmarke and I decided to use our study periods today to work on the video a bit more. It was a new day so we thought that a refreshed mind could assist us in noticing minute details that we had not previously noticed. As the camera's microphone picked up background noises that we did not want, we felt it was best that we muted the majority of the video.

The search for a suitable soundtrack continued as we have been struggling to find one that would fit the mood of the clip. This was admittedly the hardest part of the continuity piece as we had to avoid using copyright protected soundtracks. This left us with two options: search for a copyright free soundtrack or create our own. Aram took on the responsibility of finding a track.

- Kausar. 

The Editing

Today was the start of our definite editing period with the new footage we shot. Seeing as how we kept with the same camera shots and sequence, it was only a matter of cutting it together to make it run smoothly. We uploaded the new footage and myself and Sharmarke took rough cuts of the sequence and pieced them together. This was a simple process as we could see what the rough copy of the piece would look like. After this, Sharmarke, Kausar and I returned to the rough copy and cut it as precisely as possible to make it as smooth as possible. This process took endless repeats of the piece, and watching it frame by frame and points where the cuts took place. Eventually we got it to a standard we were proud of. Now, our only task was finding a suitable soundtrack to go with it.

- Aram.

Our First Problem

Following on from last week's difficulties, we spent some time trying to figure out how we could tackle the problem in hand. After talking it through thoroughly amongst ourselves, we decided to do two things: we would salvage what we could in an attempt to avoid redoing everything and we also redid some of the shooting. A slight alteration was made in the continuity piece story. To add a little mystery to it, we decided to have myself talking on the phone and picking up a bag in the hall. Also, a simple line, "I've got it. What next.". This, we felt, would make it more intriguing and interesting.

- Kausar.

First Shoot for the Continuity Piece

Sharmarke decided to capture a variety of shots such as an extreme long shot to kind of establish the buildings to which the actions would take place. He then decided to capture a few long shots, mid shots, variations of close ups and over the shoulder shots with high angle and low angle placements. The weather left us with a few inconsistencies so we tried to eliminate these as best as we could.

After collecting all the shooting we headed back to the media suite to upload the clips onto iMovie, which is the editing software we are using for the continuity project. Whilst uploading we analysed the data and stabilised the footage to see how it could possibly improve the video quality, however this uncovered a few techincal errors as it had corrupted the video footage.

- Kausar.

The Continuity Piece Story

During today's lesson our whole group was present. As a class we discussed what was going to be our Continuity Piece. The aim of this project was to take a variety of shots we captured ourselves and piece them together in a manner which demonstrates our ability to create a continuous piece. During the previous day we had decided not to use a monopod and stick with the more stable and more familiar tripod.

The rough idea was to follow a 'delinquent' as I made my way to the assembly hall where I would get shouted at by my teacher, which was gracefully played by Aram. Sharmarke handled the technical aspects and used his thoughts to capture shots which would hopefully look right when pieced together at the end of the filming sessions.

- Kausar.

The First Day

Today was the first day our group got to 'have fun' with the equipment. After a briefing from Mr. McManus, we left the classroom with the hopes of returning with the knowledge on how to use the equipment through hands-on experience. Our aim was to collect a few shots of our choice.

Between the three of us, we tested out the camera and potential equipment at our disposal, such as the monopod in our case, and we went out to gain some experience on how to use the equipment as correctly and effectively as possible. With Aram as our actor, a tracking shot was the first shot type that Kausar and I tried to capture. Also, we aimed to collect a few decent close ups and we felt that getting the hang of effective close ups would become useful to us. Seeing as how we did not have a crane to take advantage of, the two of us used the monopod in an attempt to capture the tracking shot as smoothly and as stable as possible. It did not work out how we had hoped, and we made a group decision to stick with a tripod for most of the project as it has the stability we need.

- Sharmarke.