Feedback on initial screening for our title sequence

      During this lesson we each looked at our groups title sequences. We each had an analysis sheet where we simply at to write down the positives, negatives and possible improvements for our title sequences. After the lesson we all took the analysis sheets and then slightly re-editied the parts that needed tweaking in order for us to make our title sequence as sharp as possible.
        We recieved a lot of positive feedack and our classmates thought our title sequence was attractive and overall pretty solid. We were complimented on a lot of things such as our use of typography and music. There were not many negatives but the ones we received were something we were cappable of accomplishing.
      One negative was that our titles were too small and were not entirely visible, to change this we would simply have to go back to the editing and enlarge them so that they are clear and so that they're not too big so that they go out of the boundry of the frame i.e a bottle. Another improvement was to cut down the length of some shots as some went on for a second too long, this meant we had to look caregfully during editing to ensure that we cut the shots down the right size without cutting out any bits of film.
      

Our target audience for our title sequence

For our title sequence we've had to think thoroughly into our target audience. We have to ensure we reach the correct target audience for our title sequence, this will mean we will have to film our title sequence correctly in order to make it look like we are attracting the target audience we're aiming for. We have aimed to put the target audience out to comedy lovers preferably between the ages of 12-19. We felt this was the best target audience we can put as the film as a comedy and we felt that there probably wouldn't many people over the age of 20 or so that would find this entertaining as they're probably too mature to find any of this humorous.
      Aswell as this the other target audience we have aimed the film at this age group we have also decided to aim our target audience towards a set of certain people. We have also had to ensure that the target audience is broad enough so that we can get a big audience to come along and watch the film. We have ensure the film will be targeted at both genders, doing this will create a much larger target audience other than only aiming it at one gender which can limit the target audience a lot.

Media evaluation

Evaluation for ‘Andrew Anderson’ opening title sequence

      

Brief:

       For our opening title sequence, Andrew Anderson, we planned to make our film a comedy, we each agreed to this because comedies are very successful films and a lot of people will go to cinemas to watch comedies because they are such a popular genre, we had concurred some good ambitious plans for a potential story line. We had also chosen to make it a comedy as it is something we can relate to and achieve well. We chose to have the title of our film ‘Andrew Anderson’ as it is considered a classic comical name and it fits our film genre very well. Our opening sequence will consist of our main character sitting on the sofa eating, drinking soft drinks and watching television whilst he is wearing very casual clothing; he will basically be doing nothing in this title sequence which sets the theme for the film. The sub genre will be romance. We thought romance would be a wise and clever idea seeing as he is a lonely man he will be looking for a woman to be in his life at some point during the film.

Who would be the audience for your product?

        The target audience will also be aimed at a large audience and the certificate for this film will be '12a'; we felt this was a good idea and that the 'BBFC' will approve of this as everyone who enjoys watching comedies will enjoy this film will probably find our film humorous. Parents who want to take their children to the cinema may also like this film as it will have humourous content which they will understand and find funny as well as other parts they might enjoy.
       We also had to ensure the target audience was broad enough to get a big enough audience to watch the film otherwise the film would not make much money. Therefore we decided to make sure the target audience was aimed at both genders, this was a basic idea so that both genders can enjoy the film rather than aiming the film at one gender which restricts the target audience a lot.  We have also to allow people under the age of 12 to be allowed to watch it with the guidance of parents/carers, seeing as there is nothing which is completely innapropriate for them to watch in this film which would affect young children we think it is suitable for them to watch the film and their parents/carers could tell them about anything which they did not understand.

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

       We agreed that the company ‘Columbia pictures' will distribute our media product. Columbia pictures is a big company that relate to films like ours because they have a history for distributing films similar to ours before, such as Step Brothers and Happy Gilmore; this will mean they will most likely do the same with ours.
       Paramount Vantage would be another media institution to distribute our film as the primary films they distribute are comedies and dramas making this film a favorite for them to distribute. They also supply a large budget and this could be necessary for this film as a lot of the money can be used for marketing and attracting audiences to come and watch the film.
       For our film the release date for our film will be during July. This is the most effective time to release the film as kids will be off school and they will have a lot of free time. Releasing the film will help the film gain a lot of money rather than releasing it during August where a lot of people will be at work or school where people will not have time to go to the cinema. The budget for the film will be around $70-80million. This will be a necessary budget as the money will be spent wisely, a large sum of this money will go into distribution and marketing. Marketing this film will be very important as we want to ensure we get the biggest audience possible to come and watch our film.

      

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

       The genre of the film is a comedy, the use of editing and the titles helps set this genre as they are fun to watch and are entertaining for the audience. The editing consisted of quick cuts and close-ups, the close-ups were used on simple things like junk food in which we used them so that we could fit in the titles. The camera shots were normally ¾ shots so that we can see the whole character and his surroundings, this was to show that he has everything he wants but could also leave narrative enigma suggesting whether could he have more than he’s already got? We had to think carefully about mise-en-scene just to ensure we have the perfect setting, props and costume to ensure the audience knows that the character is simply just a lazy jobless man. We figured that lighting was not entirely important within the title sequence; nonetheless we still decided to carefully look into it. We thought that if we had a light shining through onto the main character whilst he is doing nothing then maybe it could make the audience think that the light shining in on him could mean that there is a chance for change and a better life outside in the real world.

       For the typography we had to ensure we had the right font for the title sequence, so we decided to hand out a variety of fonts on a survey for our classmates to look at and then decide which one looked the best. Almost all of the results came back the same and we decided to stick to one font based on the vote of our classmates. The iconography represents the genre of the film rather than the main character, the fun and bubbly writing shows that the genre is comedy yet we have not let it reveal what the character is like. The anchorage used consists of the juxtaposition between the main character and the junk food. The main character always seems to be eating the food around him or in every shot food is there next to him.
       Our media product has developed the forms and conventions of real media products by creating our title sequence in a way to make it clear to the audience what genre our film is. We have had to do this so that they know what they are getting when watching the title sequence, also the laziness of the character helps to establish the plot for the audience.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

       Our media product represents particular social groups such as our main character being a stereotypical lazy American. We have made him different, we have made it so there’s no one else like him and that he does not fit into any social group whatsoever, he is a man of his own. We decided to make our character like this as we thought it would be a great inspiration for the audience to see a man like no other achieve greatness and to prove everyone wrong. 

        The mise-en-scene helps represent our character as a classic 20 year old jobless American man because he is in his living room sitting on the sofa doing pretty much nothing as he is only eating and watching television. There is junk food scattered around him, he is wearing clothes which someone would only wear at home (they would not been seen out wearing this), and is slouched comfortably watching television. For the music in the title sequence we were restricted because the music used had to be copyright free so we did not have much choice, we settled to use an American rock instrumental which fitted well with the title sequence and it still managed to fit the theme.  

How did you attract/address your audience?

       We have managed to attract and address our audience well by producing the title sequence which we planned to do. We made sure we addressed our target audience, certificate '12a' we done this by revealing clearly that the film genre is comedy and because of the way the title sequence was made with the fun typography and use of shots etc; it may also intrigue them to watch the rest of the film.

       We have been able to establish the genre very clearly. With the narrative enigma used I also feel that we have also been able to address our target audience to the people who are looking for an inspiration or a possible change in their lifestyle.

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

       From the technologies used from the process of constructing our title sequence we learnt how to create and draw a storyboard in a way to ensure that we had drawn out the images correctly along with how or where the titles fit in, whether there will be sound, the camera movements and how much time will be spent on one shot. This was because drawing it out beforehand makes it a lot easier when filming. When recording we ensured that we could shoot all of the images on the storyboard without changing anything about. When editing we had to strongly focus on our titles seeing as they were essentially what our work evolved around, we had to get the right font and positioning to get our work right.

       I believe we were successful when it came to editing and constructing our storyboard. This is because we edited the title sequence well considering we had to put in approximately 10 titles which was not entirely easy to do, I also felt that we constructed our storyboard well because we had to be very specific when it came to going into detail and I felt we managed to achieve that. We were not successful when it came down to sticking to what we had done on our storyboard or when we had to film first time round. We had to adjust our storyboard after filming as we had to change things around, such as the length of shots, whilst we were filming. When we looked back at the shots from filming first time we knew that we had to film again because the camera was shaky in some shots meaning we had to film a second time around.

Pros:

• Finding the best typography for editing was easy and it was easy having to add them in as it was a simple drag and drop procedure.
• The camera was small and portable. This made it easy for us to carry around and when filming it was easy to attatch it to the tri-pod.
• Using the software was easy as there were no difficulties, it simply consisted of cutting and shifting scenes around.

Cons:

• Editing was made difficult as the Macs crashed a lot which meant we were given less time to edit.
• Using the dolly when recording the 360degree shots didn't work as the camera jumped a lot which meant we had to record a second time.
• The cameras ran out of battery very quickly at times which resulted in us having to change the batteries a lot.

What do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

       In the progression from our idea to the full product I felt that we have learnt a lot when it comes down to how to we managed to create a very detailed storyboard and then following threw on it and creating a great title sequence for a film. I think we were most successful when it came down to the editing because it was a very tough task getting everything right aswell as having to fit the titles in at the same time but I felt we did a great job. We were least successful when I came down to recording first time as we made a few mistakes. Despite these mistakes we recorded a second time round and got everything right. Overall I am pleased with the outcome and overall there is nothing that I feel negative about with the title sequence.

Lesson diary- 11

       In this lesson we showed our completed title sequence to the class aswell as other groups presenting theirs. When showing our title sequence everyone in the class they each had a piece of paper in front of them to write down notes on their analysis of our title sequence, e.g. target audience, positives, negatives and what genre our film was etc.
       The class enjoyed our title sequence and gave us productive feedback as to where we done well and where we can improve on it. We were advised to make the titles bigger and cuts some shots shorter where it was too long. We've taken these points on board and we've made our title sequence to the best it can possibly be.
       We now have to complete our evaluation for our title sequence. 

How we are going to edit.

Here is our editing plan for how we are going to edit our clips together. We sorted it out into a list like this so that we don't get confused with what we are doing. We also see it as a way of being organised.

1. Put all clips into order in the file where it is saved and delete unusable footage
2. Copy videos into Final Cut Pro in order
3. Cut the video where necessary and were we want one shot to cut/fade into the next shot
4. Add in transitions and effects were needed
5. Add music and make the music link up with the cuts, so it is all in time
6. Add the titles
7. Finish up and make any changes to the final video

We are aware that we will not be able to complete this over the duration of one lesson. Nonetheless we still have a deadline date which means we will have to complete this in an allocated time of approximately 3 weeks, so we will have to work quickly and productively in order to complete this title sequence and present it infront of our class.

Comparison between shooting first time and second time

       There was quite a big difference between shooting first time and second time. It was only until we uploaded our shots to the computers was when we realised what mistakes we had actually made. First time shooting we struggled to use the tracking dolly, there was not much room to use it with which made it difficult to move it around the room with. When we looked at the shots we saw that the dolly slightly jolted/moved the camera, this meant we couldn't use the shots we recorded because of the constant camera jolting meaning we can't use these shots.
       Second time we recorded we decided to steadily use the tripod and move around the room with that, we found that the shots were a lot more steady and looked more professional. This also meant we could use these shots when editing because they were good enough to edit with and this also means the we can remove the shots we made from the first time of recording.

Lesson diary- 10 second filming

       For this lesson we had to film again. This was our second week of filming and to make sure that we get it perfect this time and that we don't have to go through the trouble again of recording for a third time, we had to make sue it was perfect this time.
       We went round to Michael's and set up his living room. We ensured that we had enough space to move the camera around the room so that we could achieve all of the camera shots/movement that we had drawn onto our storyboard. Michael decided to be the actor again in the title sequence, we felt this was a good idea as Michael acted the first time and he did a good job and knew exactly what he was doing.
       Once we had finished filming we looked over at what we had recorded and w were happy with what we have achieved. We completed everything on the storyboard. We returned to school and uploaded the shots from the camera to the computer. We will edit next lesson because then we will have time to look over the clips and put them all together.