Collage of Iconography Associated with Your Genre

MOOD BOARD

Script

This was the first draft of our script. However when filming we felt using a scripted made the characters seem too scripted, and decided to let them read through and improvise slightly. This is why the script does not directly correspond to our film opening.

We decided to research some trailers that have similar aspects of editing, shots and sound, of which we would like to use in our opening. We found 'The Bling Ring', and 'The Impostor'. They're both really gripping, even though they have different genres, however, they both have a good sense of pace about them and particular shots which we want to get inspiration from, e.g the interviewing shots in 'The Bling Ring' 

Storyboard Alterations

We altered our story board quite drastically due to us changing our idea slightly. When we turned up at the location we felt a different route of running would be more appropriate. We went back and changed the storyboard and finalised the new route before going back and filming again. We could think about the shots we could do practically, for example where to position the camera.

Research

We have started conducting some research on our coursework, mostly secondary.

In the story line, the gang members years later confesses to a local journalists, anonymously. To make the story as realistic as possible, we decided to research into the confidentiality of journalism. We found out that anything you say to a journalist is completely protected, and identities are kept secret if asked to do so. This therefore allows our story to make sense and as genuine as possible.

Secondly, we researched how to add filters and effects on i Movie in order to make clips look like CCTV footage. We looked up some tutorials and websites which allowed us to expand our understanding on how to do so. We can do this by firsty adding the date onto the top corner by adding text. Also there is an option to add filters onto the videos which will add the effect on being footage.

We did some test shots on the lighting for the interviews. We did this by using the flash on an iPhone to use as the light above and turned off all the other lights. The lighting we got was very effective and we found the look we were looking for.

We decided to use one of our houses for the interview scenes and Sevenoaks High Street for the action parts. We chose this location, as Sevenoaks has a variety of banks and has good alley ways and back streets to use for filming.

For the newspaper we needed to research whether a robbery would make front cover news. We realised that it may not have made front confer of national newspapers however it may have made courier and own news. This therefore changes the layout our newspaper article.

Storyboarding

Our Ongoing Coursework

We have now finally though of a second idea to add to our options. We went back to the paper with the rough ideas on and managed to think of another crime, action, drama piece.
Instead of kidnapping, we came up with a robbery crime whereby a gang of teenagers...rob a bank. The story will unfold and the audience will learn that the gang members never got caught, and years later interviews take place to reveal the mystery of the robbery.
The two frames we chose to draw that conclude the whole idea, was an image of the bank and then an interview with one of the gang members.
We had quite a few pros and cons about this idea. Firstly, it would be intriguing to find out why they got away with this crime and why they did it which is the main aim for a film opening. However it will be hard to film in a bank or in town at night. Then getting older actors will also be hard.
Despite this, we have had some positive feedback on this particular idea and the probability of choosing this one is very likely.
Hopefully our coursework will go to plan!
Phoebe

Thinking Maps of Initial Ideas

So last week we started to develop some ideas for our AS Media Coursework.
We got a piece of paper and wrote down all of our ideas on the plot, location, the characters, the mood and so on.
From this we started to enhance our first idea. As you can see below, our synopsis is about a kidnapping in a village after a girl goes out for a walk. She encounters him during the walk but thinks nothing of it. As she walks home, a van corners her and the rest is history. Our mood board helps establish the feel we want to achieve from this idea. We wanted suspense as well as a dull tone to the film. Our two clips were of the van cornering the girl and then the dog by itself to portray the kidnapping further. We them came up with a list of the pro's and con's of this idea. We thought it was be a great idea to grab the audiences interests and intrigue them to want them to watch more. However there were some con's. For example there is quite a lot of resources need such as the van, the dog and getting an older actor. It would have also needed to be filmed at dusk which does not give us much of a time gap to film.

Looking Back at the Preliminary

So after filming, editing, and re-watching our preliminary task a thousand times over, we thought it would be the right decision to re-film. 

There were multiple things wrong with our filming to cause us to re film. Firstly, there were some shots missing that needed to be included such as shot reverse shot. To do this we had to re film several minutes of the footage. We decided to include this shot during the conversation between the two characters after the phone call. This did not take too long due to us being familiar with filming and we knew exactly what to do. 

Secondly, there were several parts of the filming where the filming skipped to another place at another time. We thought we should add bits of filming to show to transition to each place. For example when the character put down the phone to wear she arrives at the lockers. We filmed her walking to show the audience where she was going. 

Thirdly, some shots were shaky and did not look professional. When we re-filmed we used a tripod and then used handheld for effect, such as when we were walking behind the character to add an effect of being followed. 

So after re filming we have finally finished it!!

Watch it using the link below :)

Phoebe

Preliminary Exercise

Hello!

This blog will be an update of my course of Media Studies AS.

So this is our preliminary task – We were given the brief to create a short clip or film on anything we wanted. However it had to include continuity, and we felt the easiest and most effective story line would be based at school and about a school girl, seeing as school was the only place we could film. Furthermore, the stalker gave our story some tension and so making it more interesting and exciting to watch.

We based it on a young sixth form school girl who is being stalked by another mysterious girl. The stalker follows the girl around whilst constantly calling her phone. As the girl picks up, frustratingly the stalker does not answer, causing the school girl to be confused and worried. However she carries on with her day until the stalker finally introduces themselves…

Before filming we had to create a story board. This helped us plan out the clip and make changes which would make filming easier and less confusing. Our story board including photos and timings, as well as the type of shot etc. This really benefitted us when it came to recording.

To emphasis the tension we used music and camera shots which aided us into making it more interesting. Few words were said throughout the filming which we found effective and inviting for the audience to watch.

There were several uses of continuity within our short clip which you will see below when you watch it. The walking footsteps, bumping into a friend in the common room, walking to the new building and up the stairs. This continuity makes the filming smoother and allows the audience to follow the story line as well as the characters, without having to jump to different shots. This can be confusing and disorientating.

Thank you for reading!

Phoebe