Copyright Information

Any use of music in this film complies with 'Fair Dealing' under the 1988 Copyright Designs and Patents Act (UK), Sections 6(i) and 6(ii);

Fair dealing is a term used to describe some limited activities that are allowed without infringing copyright. Briefly these are as follows:

Section 6

i. Research and private study

Copying parts of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work or of a typographical arrangement of a published edition for the purpose of research or private study is allowed under the following conditions:

·The copy is made for the purposes of research or private study.
· The copy is made for non-commercial purposes.
· The source of the material is acknowledged.
· The person making the copy does not make copies of the material available for a number of people.

ii Instruction or examination

Copying parts of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work or a sound recording, film or broadcast for the purpose of instruction or examination is allowed under the following conditions:

· The copying is done by the student or the person giving instruction.
· The copying is not done via a reprographic process.
· The source of the material is acknowledged.
· The instruction is for a non-commercial purpose.

Final Evaluation

We researched many films such as 'The Devil Wears Prada' and 'The Lizzie McGuire Movie' to try and create similar conventions in 'chick flicks'. We looked at 'The Lizzie McGuire Movie' and liked the idea of having diegetic titles. This film was aimed at young girls and was quite successful to that age group. By having diegetic titles we thought it would be more fun to read for the younger audience and not just have names coming up on the screen. This was really challenging as we had to make sure it was readable and stayed on the screen long enough for our target audience to see. Once we had filmed we couldn't go back to it because all the titles are diegetic.

We had a few problems such as the titles being in a different order to a real media product and not being able to read some of them. In our researched films the lighting is very bright and colourful but our product looks very dull, we couldn't do anything about this because we didn't have the correct lighting to use. We also went with a similar opening sequence to the film 'The Devil Wears Prada'; this includes different girls with different lifestyles, getting ready in the morning. We used 'girlie', happy and fun music throughout as this was done in many films we researched. In many films similar to our genre the storyline is usually one popular girl and one not. We developed this but having two girls with different lifestyles and you can see this straight away in the sequence because of their clothes, one makes more of an effort than the other. In the end the two girls turn out to be twins and that is why our film is called 'Matching Opposites'.

Our media product represents particular social groups such as the popular type and the geeky type you see in films today. We have created the two different social groups by having different clothes, houses, hairstyles and even food. 'Popular' girls are stereotyped as being blonde, tall and loads of make-up. In our film she isn't any of them and that is a good thing because we wanted to show young girls that you don't need to be all of them things to get noticed or 'fit in'. Our storyline is two very different girls who turn out to be twins so even though they have different lifestyles their exactly the same because their related and actually have alot in common. We wanted it to be like many other films with a similar genre but didn't want to stereotype or put different people into social groups because we wanted to show young girls that everyone is individual.

I think a company like Buena Vista Distrubution which is better known as Walt Disney Motion Picture Group would distribute our film because all disney films could be aimed at 12-24 year olds which is the audience for our film. They have distributed many films such as 'The Princess Diaries' and 'The Lizzie McGuire Movie'; these films have a similar genre to ours and have been successful.

The audience for our product would be girls aged between 12 - 24. We decided on this wide age group because i looked at a few reviews on different romantic/comedy and 'chick flick' films and i found out that even though you would expect the audience to just be teenagers alot of older women liked the films we researched. Young girls look up to the 'popular' girl in the film usually and want to be like them, this is why they watch it. Popular girls are stereotyped as being horrible to the not so popular girl in the film but we wanted to get a different message across to young girls that everyone is the same and shouldn't be treated different. We attracted our audience by trying to think of what young girls would want to see and like, the audience is from girls aged 12 and this is when a girl is just going into secondary school and does alot of growing up. The girls in the film could be role models and someone to look up to as young girls watch it.

I have learnt so much about different technologies during coursework process. Even though i wasn't filming and handeling the camera i learnt a lot just by watching what Naomi was doing. If i didn't think the camera should be put in a particular place i would say my opinion and i think this is why we worked well as a team because we all said what we thought was best. I have learnt alot about 'Windows Movie Maker' which i had never used before and now i think if someone said to me can you do some editing i would be more confident because i have seen what to do. We used 'Adobe Premiere Pro' whilst adding the non diegetic titles such as 'a film by...' even though i didn't see much what was going on whilst using this technology i still feel i would be confident using it in the future. Another technology that is new to me is 'Blogger' and 'Google Documents'. Before the coursework stage when Lee told us we had to do everything electronically and put everything up onto 'Google Documents' i was very nervous because i didn't know what to expect. Once i used it a couple of times i got the hang of it and feel very confident using it now. I have uploaded videos and images which i wasn't able to do before and have learnt how to during the main exercise.

I feel i have learnt so much from the preliminary exercise until now. I was the scriptwriter and i thought it would be exactly the same as any other script but it wasn't. The script for a film has alot more detail in it than a TV one and i have learnt how to write a film one. I wasn't able to make it to the filming of the preliminary exercise because i was ill so i have learnt alot about the filming and camera during the main exercise. At the start of the preliminary exercise i was very nervous about doing it because i had never done anything like it before but once i was put into my group and we started discussing i started to enjoy it. I have learnt that you need alot more paper work and thought going into the main exercise than the preliminary, but my group had good teamwork so we all had our own things to do and if we didn't know what to do we asked each other for help. I think we learnt from the preliminary not to leave everything to the last minute. We wasn't rushing at the end of the preliminary but i think during the main exercise we managed our time better.

Filming and Editing the Main Exercise

We all met up outisde Fleet Building on Wednesday 10th March and Sarah drove us to her house. Once we got there we set the camera up ready for our first shot and put the props in places they needed to be. As i missed the filming of the preliminary exercise i was looking forward to the main exercise filming to see what new things i could learn. Naomi was the camera operator so she filmed all the scenes, even though she was filming we all had our input to say if it didn't look right, we crossed the 18o degree rule or if the actor was to close to the edge of the frame. I think it was good that we all worked as a team and said if something wasn't right because it would make the final outcome stronger.

Once we started editing it all started to come together, the filming we had done looked good. We took a couple of shots for each scene, picked the best one to use and then put it in the right order. We noted down how many shots we took so we could make a paper edit to show how many shots we took and in what order it goes in. We cut the scenes down quite short because we wanted it to be quick and flow right with the other scenes we were going to film. Then we added the music, the song was very upbeat and it fit in really well with the whole 'chick flick' genre. Whilst editing we noticed that our shots with diegetic titiles weren't on the screen long enough to read for our audience, so we decided to take a still of it on 'Windows Movie Maker', saved it then put it back into our whole clip so it stays on the screen for longer and is able to be read.

We met outside Fleet Building again on Wednesday 17th March to film at our second location. Andy wasn't there for our filming, but it didn't affect the rest of the group or the filming. We had abit of trouble with the camera at the start of the first shot, but then got it sorted. When we got back to college we showed Lee our footage and he said it looked a little dark. The lighting wasn't right because in 'girlie' films it's normally bright and colourful, we said that we wanted to show the differences between the two girls though so it wasn't really a problem. We used the same actor because we decided that if the film was carried on they would end up knowing they were twins but very opposite. We also made a paper edit for Wednesday 17th March to see how many shots we took and in what order.

We started to edit but Andy the editor wasn't here so we all helped with it. We cut from the first location to the second location on each scene which looks like two girls getting ready in the morning. We found out later on that we wasn't allowed to use any music because of the copyright. We had music throughout the whole clip so needed it to find someone to do it for us or we was allowed to pay for the song. Naomi knows someone who writes music and she asked him if he would be able to do us a music piece similar to what we had before and he agreed to do it for us. We carried on editing even though the music was an issue. Lee looked at it and said it just needed tightening up so it would flow better. We just need to tighten it now and add text for the title of the film which is going to be 'Matching Opposites' because their twins but don't know it and have very different lives.

Today we found out we could use our original track we decided on from a soundtrack from the library. We had to include track information such as name of producer, name of composer, track number and how much of the track we are using. We had decided to stick to using our track because the lyrics fit really well to our sequence. We tightened up our clip today, we cut the shots down shorter and it flows a lot better now. Tomorrow we just need to add our title of the film to our clip, make sure all our paper work is in our folder and up onto google documents. We couldn't do what we planned to do because the computer system was down. We all decided to do our blogs and finish off what we needed to do in half term or when we came back after half term because we didn't have much more to do.

After we came back after half term all we had to do was add the titles to our film. We used 'Adobe Premiere Pro' which is easier for adding the titles. We put the title at the end of the clip but you couldn't really see it because of the lighting, so we moved it to the start of the clip and we all preferred it there. Whilst Sarah was adding the titles i went and got the music information for our soundtrack and put it up onto Google Documents. The lesson after that we wanted to finalise our film and make sure everything was right. We noticed that the titles didn't go in the right order because the first ones would normally be 'starring' or produced by', but couldn't do anything about it because our titles are diegetic. We showed Lee our film and he said it looked more like a music video because we only had one bit of diegetic sound at the end of the clip, we decided to add more diegetic sound throughout and it was a lot better.

The First Reflective Main Exercise Blog Entry

Last week we got given the brief for the main exercise. It was 'create an opening sequence to a new fiction film'. I was happy to be working with the same people, as we got on well for the preliminary exercise and worked well as a team. At the start i was very confident that our group would produce a successful opening sequence, but since we have been doing pre-production tasks it's been a lot harder than the preliminary exercise. For the main exercise it's basically the same tasks with a lot more detail.

On the first lesson we had to think of initial ideas such as audience and genre. This was really hard because we didn't want to do something to challenging but still make it look really good. We decided to have an audience of 12-24 year old women and a genre which was chick flick/romantic comedy. When we was doing the research it was a lot harder than doing it for the preliminary exercise because we could basically do anything that contained two people sitting opposite each other and exchanges a few lines of dialogue but for this we have had to watch opening sequences, see why it appeals to our audience, see if we could produce something as well as some of the films but at the same time it has to be a new idea. I think the hardest part was choosing an genre and what our sequence was going to be. Finding a location was harder this time because we could do it in college but it wouldn't look very realistic. Sarah said we could use her house but only on a Wednesday afternoon so we all had to make sure we was free then and be ready to film. Andy did some research on genre and the how 'chick flick' is under the category of romantic comedy but is aimed at females but romantic comedy is aimed at both male and female.

We have done our SWOT for the main exercise and i think our 'stumbling' points will be time management as i have already mentioned. We all need to be available for the Wednesday and meet with our group at the time we agree on. Absences could be another risk because i was unwell for the filming of the preliminary exercise and Andy was away for the editing. We wanted it to be nice weather for the day but we obviously can't guarantee that so we will have to organise lighting for the day. Another 'stumbling' point would be the actors not turning up on the day. This happened in the preliminary exercise so we have to make sure the characters will be there on the day or it will be a big issue.

After we decided on our audience and genre we made a pre production schedule to follow each lesson so we're more organised. Once we did this we decided on roles. I said that i wanted to do a different role in the main exercise to get more knowledge and understanding, but we all chose to have the same roles because we knew what we was doing and had practice from the preliminary exercise. Even though we have these roles we all said we would help eachother. We all agreed and said Sarah's house would be the best place to film for our first location, so in the lesson we went to Sarah's and did a rough location recce and took photographs of all the rooms we needed.

When we came back to college we all decided to each do recce of a room to make it more detailed and neater. Me, Naomi and Sarah made a start on the draft script and we decided we was going to have two girls both doing a morning routine and when we edited we would cut back and fourth between each shot. We needed to include the titles in our film so we researched films such as 'The Devil Wears Prada' and 'The Lizzie Mcguire Movie' to help us with how we should include the titles. We decided to do something similar to these successful movies by including the titles on objects such as a hairbrush, mirror, school books ect...

In the next lesson Naomi done the storyboards to show our shots in more detail, after we done the call sheet for our first location which was Sarah's house. Next i done the final script and made sure it was all clear enough to follow whilst filming on the Wednesday. In this lesson we decided to get music from the library to include throughout our opening sequence. We wanted happy and outgoing music. We looked at a few cd's and found a song which fitted with everything. We produced a call sheet and risk assessment for Sarah's house and our risks would be falling from height, impact with objects and self drive car. We needed to find another location to film at and Naomi Said we could use her house if we wanted. We decided to film there on Wednesday 17th March. We produced a call sheet and risk assessment for Naomi's house and the risks came out to be similar.

I want to improve on first of all my input to the filming of the main exercise. I was ill for the filming of the preliminary exercise and this time would like to get involved as i couldn't last time. I would also like to improve on learning how to use 'Windows Movie Maker' to edit. I watched the group members do some editing last time because i didn't know how to use it. As i was watching them i got an idea of how it works and would like to give it a try during the main exercise.

Filming and Editing the Preliminary Exercise

I was unable to make it to the filming of my Preliminary Exercise because i was unwell. I asked the members of my group how it went and they said it went good but was unable to find a clock on the day so we have got to find one, set it to the right time and then edit it into the scene. I am more determined to make a good job of the main exercise now because i didn't see what goes on whilst filming. I am disappointed that i couldn't go the the filming because i wanted to learn new skills such as seeing how the camera was used. I was the scriptwriter for the Preliminary Exercise, so for the main exercise i want to learn something different and maybe take up the role of director or using the camera. I want to challenge myself and show that even though i have very little knowledge of what to do i can do it with some help from my group members.

When we was planning i think in our scene we did manage to create representations that the audience would understand. We did this through camera angles, dialogue and dress codes. Straight away in our scene you know the teacher is the dominant character because he says 'come in' and is dressed in smart clothes, at the end the teacher also says 'sit down'. The pupil is listening to the teacher because he has a higher authority. We used inter-diegetic gaze throughout our scene so the audience focus on what the characters are looking at and we used the 180 degree rule to show the characters having a conversation. I was looking through a group members blog and she said that one of the actors pulled out but they managed to find a replacement. Even though they found a replacement the clothes he was wearing didn't fit the dress code of a teacher so in the filming we didn't create a representation of a teacher through dress codes.

I have read through one of my group members blogs to see if they followed the script and storyboards whilst filming. She said that throughout the filming they stuck to the original script and used the storyboard to guide them through the framing and camera movements. Our storyboard and script was very detailed so it was easy to follow so this probably helped them alot whilst filming.

We did manage to employ the technical codes such as 180 degree rule, inter diegetic gaze and different shot types. We used close up shots to show the characters emotion, mid shots to show the two characters talking, over the shoulder shots which shows the back of the talking characters head and the other characters face to see reactions.

Today the editor of our group wasn't in the lesson so the rest of the group had to do the editing. I wasn't there for the filming but today my group showed me the scene they had filmed. It looked good but the only thing we could have improved on was the framing. The characters were to close to the edge of the frame but we can improve on this for the main exercise. When filming the group was unable to find a clock for one of the last shots. In today's lesson we got a clock and filmed that shot so we could edit it in. When we watched it back the camera was shaking but we couldn't do much about it without using a tripod. Lee said to us if we want to get a steady camera we can rest the camera on our hand and this will improve it, this is something we have learnt and will do better in the main exercise.

I haven't been there for any of the editing apart from today's lesson. I have never used Windows Movie Maker before so didn't really understand what to do but wanted to learn. I watched the rest of my group to get the hang of what they were doing and i now have an idea of how to use it. I now have some knowledge of how to edit and i can improve on this in the main exercise. Whilst editing we noticed a few mistakes such as the pupil entered the room without a bag but stood up to leave with one and when we filmed the over the shoulder shot we noticed the eyeline wasn't correct, this is something else to look for and improve on in the main exercise.

At the top of this post is our final product for the preliminary exercise. I am very pleased with the final outcome as it conveys all the technical codes through camera work such as the 180 degree rule, editing such as cutting and mis-en-scene such as dress codes, props and location. We have learnt alot from the preliminary exercise and will hope to improve on things such as actors being to close to the edge of the frame and having a steady camera. I think it is very well done for our first lot of filming and editing.

First skills audit for the G321 foundation production

When we was told about our coursework i wasn't nervous because i wanted to learn new skills. I have never used a camera or written a film script before so was looking forward to the Preliminary Exercise to see what new things i could learn and improve on.

We got into groups and started planning our initial ideas for the genre. we agreed on a genre of doing a school drama and this would be easier to make our final product look more realistic because we have everything in college such as props and location. We carried out research on television shows such as Waterloo Road, Hollyoaks and Grange Hill to help us with the audience and storylines. All of these shows relate to a UK audience but Waterloo Road was the best example because it focuses around teachers and students but the other two focus mainly on students.

I was pleased with my group because straight away we had good organisation, time management and worked well as a group. Even though i'm the scriptwriter i wrote up the SWOT which is where i had to identify our weaknesses, strengths, opportunities and threats within the group. Our weaknesses were finding actors who looked the right age to play the parts and learning how to film which we was worried about but could develop this for the main exercise. We are filming in college so we had a threat of noise outside the room. We decided to film after college so less people would be around but this made another threat which was the time of day. We are doing a school drama so we want it to be light outside and make it seem like the middle of the day, but we're going to use key lighting. We made a pre-production schedule to decide what we we're going to do in each lesson so we were more organised.

After we had to decide our roles:
Andy James - Editor
Sarah Blues - Director
Naomi Kelly - Camera

I am the scriptwriter but we all got involved on creating our draft script. I was worried about doing the script because i had to write down all the right shots, camera angles and dialogue. Film scripts are different from television scripts so i didn't really know what to do but now i have done it i can develop it further because i have a wider understanding for the main exercise. Following are brief we decided to have a pupil who had been bullying another pupil to wait outside the classroom, walk in, sit down in front of her teacher and exchange a few lines of dialogue. We used an anti-bullying poster at the start and zoomed into it. We did this so straight away you knew what the short film was about and so it looked like it was from the actors point of view and she was looking at the poster. We also had to produce a detailed storyboard of shot numbers, shots sizes, duration, camera angles and sound. I used the storyboard to help me later on produce a final script with more detail of what was going to go on in each shot.

We all decided to use L005 because it looks like a classroom and props were available. We're also going to use the corridor outside L005 where we will do our first shot. We took photographs and produced a location recce of the classroom and corridor showing what it looks like and what was on location.

Next we did our risk assessment which had to be done in case any equipment was damaged or lost but as were doing it in college it's a low risk. Finally we had to do our call sheets. We had to provide information of where we're filming, the times, the dates and who is involved.

This is a test