Final Song Choice

Unfortunately, we were informed that we are restricted from using music that is copyright encrypted, however, we looked at various websites through youtube which contained links to a range of uncopyrighted music that would be available for us to use within our media text. we then came across one which had also been recommended by our teacher; http://www.joshwoodward.com/music/

From this, we listened to different songs and came to a decision of which we thought would be most appropriate for the scene, to reflect the right mood - sorrowful.

The song we agreed on is called "I'm Letting Go" by Josh woodward and can be downloaded free of charge.


This song is slow paced, soft and melodic, reflecting the saddness within the scene. However, when the action becomes more violent as she throws stuff around the room in anger, we intend to continue playing this same song as we like the idea of having a contrast between the gentle music and fast paced action.

Health and Safety Checks

Possible risks at location 1;

1) Near by car park
2) Stairs
3) Students throwing things from classrooms above

Forms of risk prevention;

1) Incase of any cars which may pass in order access the building through this particular car park (there are other more used car parks on the premesis, so this one is fairly unused anyway - limiting the chances of hazard) but we will take precautions and avoid the road as much as possible. for the chaotic running, we may need to cross the road in a disoriented manner, so actors may not be paying much attention to on coming cars - to prevent any accident will have someone standing by to keep a look out for any cars to alert other members of the cast to wait before commencing filming.

2) When running down the stairs we will ensure there is no water (or any other slippery liquids), no litter, or anything else on the stairs that may accidentily trip over.

3) We intend to film outside school hours at approximately 1:00, as school time finishes at 12:00 - 12:30, giving half an hour for the school to empty so we can begin filiming without interruption, or without causing interruption. this will also ensure classrooms above are empty so no students can drop anything from the windows if for some reason, they wish to do so..

Possible risks at location 2;

1) Cars
2) Falling over on gravel
3) Animals

Forms of risk prevention;

1) This location is near a main road, not directly next to it, but on the road leading off it. However it is rarely used. it is near to the Sheldon Country Park, and farm, so some may want to access it through this road, and so will have some people on constant look out.

2) As children are running around and playing in the back ground, we will ensure they are wearing suitable footwear to prevent them slipping on the uneven, gravel floor

3) As the location is near a farm it is possible that animals will be around, however it is a cold, wintery season and so the farm may either be closed, or animals be put away. it is unlikely that the farm will recieve many visitors anyway in such a cold month, also decreasing the risk any traffic.

Possible risks for location 3;

1) Throwing of objects on desk
2) Cracking the photoframe
3) Throwing photoframe at wall.

Forms of risk prevention;

1) The objects on the desk will be plastic, and so unbreakable, like empty moisturiser or shampoo bottles. or maybe to seem more realistic we will have objects made of harder materials - so less likely to smash but if used we intend to place a pillow or soft object off screen for them to land on safely. also, when the leading female throws these objects off the desk, me remarni and jodie will stand clear as to avoid being hit.

2) We have decided to use a plastic photoframe rather than a glass one, as we are going to split the plastic so the sheet is just cracked, not shattered and so will not leave any small shards of glass which may be hazardous. when breaking the photoframe we will wrap it in a cloth so that any broken bits will fly out and hit us. with this in mind we will take extra precaution by wearing goggles to protect our eyes.

3) We feel that when the photo frame is thrown at the wall it may rebound and hit us, so after throwing we will quickly move out of the way. also, we will not need to have the photoframe thrown very hard as we will break it seperately, so reducing the rebound caused (if any).

Completed Story Board

We have yet to work out the timings.

Actors

On the 9th December me and my group produced a list of actors that we require for filming of each scene..

Location 1
The "Incident" Scene
Stephen Mills
Jessica Bradley
Ellis Osborne
Karina Miller
Amy Gamble
Suzanne Young
Jade Tolliday
Aaron Collins
Ashley Wager
Baljot Randhawa
Also, myself, Jodie and Remarni may need to partake if in short of extras.
We may even enquire if any teachers at the school wish to participate in order to have a more realistic scope of people running from this unknown building - teenagers, children and adults.

Location 2
The Wedding Scene
Stephen Mills
Leanne Hilton
Rebecca Osborne
Ellis Osborne
Jessica Bradley
Lauren Bradley
Grace Mount
Daniel Hammond
Suzanne Young
Matthew Gibbs
Aaron Collins
Karon Breese

Location 3
House Scene
Leanne Hilton is the only actor we require for this.

These lists may alter on the day of filming depending on people's prior arrangements;
We plan to schedule a day for filming of the "incident" scene this week when Stephen Mills can attend on Friday 18th December.
We are going to produce a letter asking permission for the neccessary people to participate.

This is a copy of the letter;
''14/12/09Dear Sir/Madam,
As part of our AS Media Studies course for 2009/2010 we need to produce a film opening. To ensure that we have the best opening possible we will need many extras, we would be delighted if you would take part in this with us for the filming of our first scene on the 18th December at approximately 1.00pm at Sheldon Heath Community Arts College (for address see below*). The clothes you require will be smart casual as we are hoping to get the effect of an "incident" at a place of work.

If this is of no problem you may also be required to film for our second scene at a later date for the “Wedding Scene.” we know it will be taking place at some point over the Christmas half term. The venue for this scene is by Sheldon Country Park, but if you are able to come we will arrange a meeting point for all cast. For this you will need to bring smart clothes as if attending a Wedding ceremony. E.g.: Boys in suits and girls in dresses - weather permitted.

Bring umbrellas to both events.

Scene 1 – Incident Scene - 18th December 2009
Attending
Not Attending

Scene 2 - The Wedding Scene – Christmas Half term
Attending
Not Attending
Unsure until date is arranged

Best Regards,
Jodie Mills, Carlaina Breese and Remarni Miller.
If there are any problems please get in contact with the 3 of us through Sheldon Heath Community Arts College.

*Sheldon Heath Community Arts College
Sheldon Heath Road
Sheldon
Birmingham
B26 2RZ
0121-464 4428 '

Mood Board

I will discuss the thought behind our mood board in detail which was completed back in September.

We collected images to create a collage, and wrote text that was relevant to what our fim will consist of. in terms of text, we displayed specific words to summarise important features within our film such as the genre, "romance" and "tragedy" and the "heartbreak" that it would entail. with this in mind we chose images that coinside with the text in order to symbolise these vital aspects of our film.

For example, images of coffins and other things relating to a funeral give the suggestion of death which represents the "tragedy" within our genre.

A close up image of a woman crying highlights the grief/emotion that our female lead would have to portray due to this death, linking to the "heartbreak". also, the woman crying conveys a sad emotion - not happy, emphasising the serious nature of our film and showing that our intentions are not to create humour/comedy.

This seriousness is also portrayed as we made all the images on the mood board black and white.

Images of a bride and groom represent marriage, and the wedding scene we will be incorperating into our opening - marriage is symbolic for the love and happiness our leading female and male once shared together, fitting with the romantic side to our genre but also emphasising the extent of the "heartbreak" caused after the "tragedy" occurs.

Researching Genre - Titanic

I have been doing some research into some films based on a similar genre to ours - romance. Firstly, i have chosen to focus on the opening to Titanic as it's genre is even more relevant, being a romantic tragedy. Also, feedback from our questionnaires revealed that this was often stated as a favourite romance film, and is also one of the most recognisably famous romance films of all time.

Therefore, with it's immense popularity i thought it would be an appropriate choice to analyse and see which aspects of it we can draw from in order to achieve more appeal from our target audience within the 2 minutes we were allocated for our opening.

Corresponding with our idea, titanic has a reflective opening to initiate the story. It begins with an investigation in the far depths of the pacisific ocean, in search for the Titanic.
A contrast is shown between the past and present. in the present the ship appears unsightly -mouldy, dirty and ruined. then, a reflection on the past brings the audience back to when the ship was it it's prime - immaculately clean, luxurious and grand.

We this linked this to ours, as a contrast is shown between the present when the female is distraught, crying, and alone and the past when she is happy and smiling at her wedding, surrounded by family and friends. this contrast provokes thought as our audience will wonder what may have have happened to cause such a dramatic change of circumstance.

Preliminary Task - Youtube Video

We had to come up with a senario to act out during the filming and as we wanted to have a little more fun with it, gave it more of a storyline - coming up with the idea of having a thumb-war; thus making it a little more interesting to watch. as the interaction between actors within the film is not what we were being assessed on, we focused mainly on carrying out the continuity shot effectively and successfully.
i feel we carried out this shot well, making sure Remarni had opened the door the same distance on both shots either side of the door during her entrance to the room. also, as she was walking, we had to edit it so that the door could only be heard shutting once; making the action appear consistant.

To edit our film we used a programme called iMovie on a macbook laptop. personally, i had never used this before and so had to adjust and familiarise myself with it, this was fairly easy to cope with and i was soon able to help organise shots, cut shots and add effects, transitions, and credits to the film.
Only a couple of fades we needed in order to cover up the slight discontinuity of shots.

The 180 degree rule shot, and reverse shot were used to flick between Remarni and Jodie, sitting at the desk, looking at eachother.

Overall, i am pleased with the result of our preliminary task :)

Introduction To The Preliminary Task

We carried out the preliminary task several weeks ago, but had trouble uploading it onto youtube due to technical difficulties caused by some of the effects we had used. But, now it's successfully uploaded i can begin to discuss the process we went through and the things we had to consider in terms of shots.
I will upload the actual video into my next post and discuss personal decisions etc, but for now this is the basic outline of the task..

We were given the instruction to incorperate a continuity shot requiring us to film a person - Remarni - walking through a door, with shots from both sides of the door in a way that makes it look coherent. we also had to include some diologue between this person, and someone else - Jodie - giving it more of a storyline/purpose.

The continuity shot, an editing process which is used to combine a sequence of shots where the transitions between them give the appearance that the action is running coherently. for the definition of continuity editing in more detail please refer to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuity_editing

Other shots that were included in our preliminary task;
1. The reverse shot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shot_reverse_shot

2. The 180 degree rule shot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/180_degree_rule

Overall Update So Far - Story Board And Locations

We have drawn up a story board, to give us a fairly detailed idea about the sequence of shots in our opening and give us a structure to work from when we actually begin filming. however we still need to work out time-span for each shot, to make it even more specific, so we know exactly what shot we are doing, and how long we expect it to last within the time frame. I will take a picture of the completed piece to upload as soon as possible.

Also, for research, we created questionnaires and distributed them to possible audience members to get their opinion and give us an insight of how we can achieve a preferred viewing and get an understanding of their expectations of a romance film.
We have recieved some feedback but have more to hand out in order to get a vast range of information to compare and analyse.

TARGETS
1. We need to do a health and safety checks for our locations.
2. Establish a film schedule.
3. In prepiration for filming - discuss props such as a wedding dress, picture frame containing wedding photograph, and other objects we may require.

ALSO, we have just been talking about a possible destination for the "incident" scene which differs from our origional idea of using a derelict building alongside a road in our local area. a group member, Jodie, suggested an area which is located within the school grounds but is not really in use anymore, meaning that filming would be possible without interruption from students or us causing too much of a disruption to anyone else within the school.
an advantage about using this site is that during the "incident" scene we require the male lead, and extras to run from the building doors, creating a chaotic atmosphere. the school location, unlike the other, isnt near any roads, this means that when running around, there is not the danger of on-coming traffic.
i think this location would be more convinient, and easier to gain permission from, however we will look into both the locations first, then make a decision on which is more appropriate for use.

Possible Location - Wedding Scene

These are photographs taken of our ideal destination for our wedding scenes, in the arch way outside a church. this is our most desired location as churches are very symbolic for weddings and so would be a more realistic setting. however, we have not yet had permission to use this site, so nothing is official. so incase we cannot get authorisation, we searched for alternatives and came up with two other back-up locations where this scene could take place; i plan to upload pictures of these locations to my blog :)

Music

We are currently undecided on the music we wish to use within our opening which will create the most tension. two possible pieces of music we intend to use are, Robert Pattison - Let Me Sign, and Paloma Faith - My Legs Are Week. both of these would fit the mood we are trying to create, but will make a definate choice once we have filmed so we can see which one is best suited. however, this is dependant on copy right restrictions so will have to do some further research on this.

i have provided you with the two possible sound tracks we will consider using.

Progress Update - Change Of Plot!

We now have official confrimation today from the possible male lead, Stephen Mills, that he will participate in our production alongside Leanne Hilton.

Throughout October, although i have not updated my blog, we have been working continuously on our project. Collectively, we have began creating a story board to show a step by step plan of our film opening in terms of shots.
however, after further discussion since september, we made considered decisions to change the plot/order of events withing our opening.

1) We want to have the "incident" scene first, in order to start the film with something more exciting, having an immediate impact on the audience. shots from the male leads point of view, using a handheld camera to create a shaky, running like effect.

2) Then the scene with the female roles reaction to the event, sitting in her room, instead of lying in bed. she is sat looking down at a picture of her and her husband on their wedding day, then to show her devestation, we show shots of her throwing stuff around the room- including the photgraph, which in it's frame will lay broken on the floor.

3) From this, we will zoom in on the picture. by using a fade the wedding scene will carry on from the point the photograph was taken, leading to the introduction of the storyline building up to the event of the "incident". this will show a clearer reflective opening than our previous ideas.

TARGETS

On the 21st September we set our selves 3 targets to meet within the following week.

1) Finalise the roles for leading female, leading male, and extras.
We have since finalised the leading female role, Leanne Hilton and so far a couple of extras such as Suzanne Young and Matthew Gibbs, etc

2) Find locations.
On the 25th we searched our local area for locations for the wedding scene.
Outside Saint Giles Church at the arch way is our main choice and have taken pictures which I will upload soon!
However, we need to seek permission of use by phoning up the church office on Tuesday when it is next open.
If they do not approve our request we have found several other places suitbale for this scene, pictures of them will also be uploaded soon!

3) Finish the mood board and begin a story board for each scene of our opening.
We have completed the mood board within the week and will upload a picture.
We have also started the story board.

I now plan to find a film opening of a similar genre to ours on youtube and analyse it for my blog.

Actors

We have someone who's agreed to play our female leading role in the production!

Leanne Hilton















We also have someone in mind to play the male role as husband
but nothing is definate, and I will update you on this once we've had confirmation.

There are some people we've considered to play extras in the background for the "incident" and wedding scenes but have yet to ask them.

Introduction To Project

The start of the course began on the 7th September. I got into a group of three with myself, Jodie Mills and Remarni Miller. We immediately began to discuss ideas and came to the decision of doing our film genre based on a romance/tragedy.

Our initiall ideas for the opening within the 2 minutes..
1) Begin with wedding scene, aged effect, home-video like, no sound.
Recorded phone conversation played over the top. Woman being informed about the "incident" involving her husband, which ultimately causes his death.

2) Dial tone played, as screen goes black. Title of the film will appear here - Name is undecided.

3) Recording of the same woman sleeping in bed from a bird's eye view. Begins to toss and turn in bed looking distressed. Dreaming.. Or remembering..

4) Camera slowly zooms in on her face. Whilst zooming, images of the two of them arguing flash on screen. Also flashes of scenes from the "incident", screaming, running away from a building from the husbands perspective - we have a building in mind for possible use in this scene..

Plan to search the area for required locations like the building, and a church for wedding scene.

This is so far the ideas we have, but need to develop and discuss in more depth.