Preliminary task

Our Preliminary Task

Katie, Chlaryse, Becky and Jade

For out task we had to film footage of someone walking through a door and sitting down to exchange a short conversation with another person. To do this we used chlaryse and Katie from my group and i filmed. We made sure that we included a variety of different shots such as a close up of the handle, the pan of the room, mid shots, wide shots, match on action. This made sure that the short film would look as professional as possible. We did some research before doing the take on the 190 degree rule - this was so that all of our shots looked right. We found this video on the left which explained to us the rules of the rule and ensured that we didn't break them - which we didn't. We made sure tt we had one line either side of the door and whilst she was walking into the classroom, but also in between me (the filmer) and katie and chlaryse (who were having the conversation being filmed) during the reverse shots. To help with this we used i movie to edit together the clips and to adjust all the audio levels. I am please with how the task went and i think that all the shots are edited together nicely.

Group idea of overall plot, opening plot and characters

Overall plot and character information

After each person in the group doing individual planning of an idea for a plot for the entire film, in class we used our time to discuss the ideas that we all come up with to produce a general idea between us. We filled out a grid on paper which i have copied up in more detail on Microsoft word explaining the stages in the film. It also includes a lot of information about the characters: the name of the characters in the film, the names of the people playing the characters, the role of the character, whether or not they are shown in the opening, a description of the character and then finally how they are represented throughout the film.

Focusing on the opening
Now that we had come up with an idea for the entire film, we had to focus more on the opening and coming up with the stages of that as a group. To do this we filled out a table explaining all the different aspects of the opening, including: creation of enigma, introduction to characters, setting up the plot, pace & rhythm and mood & tone.

Brainstorming the story - My thoughts

My thoughts on the film:
The protagonist, main idea, opening of the film, rough idea of the whole plot.
In order to make the opening as effective as possible, it was important that as an individual i could come up with a plot for the rest of the film but also an idea of what i thought would look good for an opening. As a group we decided that each member of the group would come up with a plot for the rest of the film and an idea for an opening so that we could come together in class and try and come up with a general idea of a plot for the rest of the film between us. By doing this we can all input our ideas to get a bigger variety of things we could include in our opening that will set up the rest of the fill well giving an element of mystery. To do my individual brainstorm i used a website called bubbl.us which allowed me to write as much as i wanted. 
Most of the ideas on my mind map revolve around the research we had done into things that outcasts tend to do. So i included the fact that she could be reading at the train station to show the whole interest in reading (makes it more relatable). I also included the whole idea that she enjoys taking photos everywhere she goes to document the nice things in life which wasn't a popular interest on the survey, this means that it would be different and could inspire other teens to be more like the female in the story.

Entire Documentary

Documentary

This is the entire documentary video that me, Katie, Chlaryse and Jade made. We all took separate roles in the documentary so that we all did our fair share in editing and all had our own twist incorporated in it. After making the documentary i am certain that we know exactly what we want to have in our opening and what to avoid. All the separate research we did into the target audience was so useful and we included sections of this in the documentary. 

I think that the documentary really came together well and we managed to create it with our target audience in mind making sure that it gaged the attention of the audience throughout the entire thing. For this we made sure that we weren't just sat talking to the camera the entire time but we included different types of media such as voiceovers, stop motion film and clips from other films. 

However, i do think that there are some adjustments that could have been made if we had more time or if we were to do it agin. Each title should have been written in the same font with the same coloured text and background to make it consistant. This was hard to do as we all had separate roles in the film and exported our individual sections before adding it to the final thing. If we had more time i think that it would have been more effective to use the same camera throughout with good lighting so that it looked consistant. And the sound in general needed to be adjusted such as the background music being too loud and drowning the voiceover and a simple fade in and fade out to make it more fluent.

But give the time that we had, i am really pleased with the finished product and i am glad that we had an opportunity as a group to make this documentary as it meant that we were able to practice editing and we now know who is best at each aspect. 

Target audience section in the documentary

Target Audience Video - stop motion

As part as my groups documentary, Katie and I created a 1 minute long clip explaining the research we did to gather information about our target audience. We found out from this that out target audience was mainly girls as in the interview the most popular answer was to have a female protagonist as it was most relatable that way. 

In the video we mainly talked about the mood board and how we made it based on the results from survey monkey, interviews and the focus group. We decided to make out section of the documentary a little more interesting and unique as oppose to just sitting in front of the camera talking. So for this we printed off some graphs that we put together about the interests of the target audience (what they like to do in their free time) and explained how this would help us create an image of our target audience through a voiceover. We also printed of some separate images from the mood board which we felt told us most about the kind of thing we want to include in our film opening. Things such as the typical settings that our audience associated with a teen romance, the music aspect which connotes an outcast character and some images of people which reflect the 'normal' teen and the 'outcast' teen. Once we had printed them out we used my iphone camera to take various pictures of each photo moving slowly into the centre of the table instead of doing a video. We thought that the stop motion was a lot more interesting and had more of a teen feel to them. Clips of the interviews and focus group were placed at the end of the documentary so there was no need to include them in this section.

focus group

general information about the focus group:

In order to get a wider understanding of what our target audience like and dislike, we organised a focus group. This meant that we could ask questions and have more of a discussing but also get a wide range of answers from a variety of people. However we did come across some issues when doing our focus group. We were meant to have a range of ethnicity within the group however the girl that was meant to attend had an illness so couldn't join us. It was intentional that we did not have any male individuals attending the focus group as we already know that we want to aim our film at teen girls. because of this, the people who attended ranged from 16-18 years of age. 

We also had technical issues with the opening we used. Originally we were going to show an opening with a voice-over, then an opening without - however we couldn't find the openings on YouTube and the links that we had previously used on windows did not work on the school imac. Another issue with this was that we couldn't show the clip we intended to with the female protagonist: instead we had two clips, both with male protagonist. Despite all this, we still managed to get the answers that we needed, even though they were more general, we came to some conclusions from it.

In the end, we showed 'The Art Of Getting By' and 'The Perks Of Being A Wallflower'
The perks of being a wallflower = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQPhbA1luzw

The art of getting by = http://www.sockshare.com/file/83E68BA0D728A39F

The questions we asked include:
- Out of the two openings, which did you prefer?

- Do you think the voiceovers were effective? or would you prefer it if there wasn't one?

- Which background music did you prefer out of the two?

- Which character did you prefer from what you saw in the openings?

- Which opening was best in terms of setting up the plot for the rest of the film? 

- Which one made you more intrigued to continue watching it?
- If you could improve anything what would it be?

Conclusions made from the focus group include: 

- There was a mix in opinion as to which opening was better. It was said that an opening would be more effective if there was a mix of both openings as the second one tells you more about the rest of the story. However, they liked the fact that in The Art Of Getting By, it went straight into the story and they felt like the opening to The Perks Of Being A Wallflower was a little too long before we were actually introduced to the main character. They also thought that In The Art Of Getting By there tended to be too many statistics, they liked that it was more personal with Perks, therefore it is important that we focus on both these things and not just one of them (have a mix of a personal touch with statistics).

- It will be best to use a voiceover in our opening as they thought that this was more effective.

- It is best to have a song in the background which is upbeat and makes you feel more excited to watch the rest of the film. In the focus group they said they preferred The Perks Of Being A Wallflower as it had nice acoustic, happy background music to start the film off and set the mood.

- The character out of Perks is preferred as you feel more sorry for him. I think that because of this in our opening we need to make sure that we do make a connection with the audience through a voice-over which is personal and lets the audience into the characters life more.

- They favoured The Art Of Getting By in terms of setting up the plot because it just went straight into it, whereas with Perks, it was the long introduction of the travelling through the tunnel. I think that in our opening if we are to have an introduction it should be quite short as it is important we introduce the protagonist.

- The whole mystery at the beginning of the perks was something that out focus group liked, it made then intrigued to continue watching the film however they thought that it was maybe a little too mysterious so as you are trying to focus on who he is talking to, you miss out on vital information. Therefore we should have a small aspect of mystery in our opening but make it a little more subtle.