Editing 3

Hello Guys!

Yesterday while I was editing, my partner Anna worked on the sound. From the beginning of our idea we knew what kind of sound we want to go with our scene. We wanted to have a nice slow happy sound to bring a positive atmosphere and make the audience relax but also interest them in what is going to happen in the scene. I wasn't involve in the making of the sound, Anna was mainly working on it and I was just giving my opinion and giving her ideas of what would be better. We created a nice sound which I think achieves the purpose of the scene. We are planning to ask some of our friends what they think of what we've done.

Editing 2

Hello!
Today I found out about the different transitions, I needed the shots to dissolve into one another which i thought will help transmit the positivity of the scene to the audience. I tried all of options so I know what options I would have for the future but I found one which is most suitable for the purpose of this scene. Here is a picture in which you can actually see how it is done.

Me and Anna experimented with changing the colours, specifically the brightness of the shots. I managed to make it lighter which achieved my purpose which was positivity and contrast with the previous scene. Here is a picture to see the difference.

Storyboard 2

Whilst editing what we have already filmed, we did the rest of the storyboard so now we are ready to film the rest of our production. We've made it quite detailed because it is very useful when filming.

Editing 1

I haven't wasted any time and started editing straight away. Using my skills from the preliminary task, first I put the shots together. I was more speedy as I already had some experience on that and I knew what needs to be done.
After that i played around with some effects and discovered that I can remove the visuals but still use the sound which is what i needed for one of the shots. I cut the visuals and I let the sound go on to the next shot. I think that this is a valuable skill and I am quite happy to have it.

Next time I am gonna work on the colours, try and change the brightness of the shots because they were quite dark and it would ruin the whole sense of this scene - which is supposed to be light, happy and bring a positive feeling in the audience. Also, try and find suitable transitions.

Filming 1

Hi Everyone.

Our second half of the filming is done! The day was long and tiring but successful. It went well but we did face some difficulties and we need to improve on them.
Anna was filming most of the shots this time and I was just giving her ideas and helping her.
What went well was that when filming we knew what exactly we were doing because we had our storyboard so we just followed it and filmed each shot. We had to repeat most of the shots because the continuity wasn't good in terms of lighting and positioning. We didn't worry so much about it though because we know that we can edit it afterwards.
We kind of struggled with the space - it was hard to film certain shots because the room was quite small but we still managed to get some great shots. Also, half way through we realised that in a conversation, first we can film one person's reactions and then we can repeat it and film the other person's reaction. Instead of changing the camera position and adjusting the tripod every time which we did struggle with but we managed to get still shots, not shaky ones.

Looking forward to the next day of filming!

Target Audience

By doing some research I found out what is the most suitable and relevant age for our production. We want our target audience to be teenagers but we have to be aware of censorship issues. Our production is mainly targeted on teenagers because they are more vulnerable and more likely to get addicted to drugs. Legally we are allowed to show it to 15 year old and older. This is the proof:
  

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/15 

I've also carried out a survey to find out what age group is more interested in the theme of our production.

So, to summarize this, people aged 15-25 would be most interested in watching our production so this is something we need to consider if we want our production to be successful. The audience is very important for any piece of work.

There is something else playing a big role in our production. Teenagers are the most vulnerable and likely to get addicted to drugs so we are going to try and emphasise how bad the use of drugs is. Also, by having teenage actors we think that it will be easier for them to identify with our character and almost see themselves in the same situation and hopefully think that they don't what such thing to happen to them and they wouldn't take drugs..

Our target audience could be BC1C2 which is middle class, lower middle class and skilled working class.

Costumes - Desicion/Preparation for Filming 1

We are now one step away from the filming. The last thing we need to do is provide the needed props that we are going to use.

We've discussed how we want our main character to be dressed like - Wearing a dress, accessories and make up. So, we met at Marble Arch station and bought a dress and tights. I will bring my own stuff as well like make up, earrings, necklace, shoes etc.

The dress is going to be black. We've chosen this colour because stereotypically older women are more likely to wear black dresses and look more sufficient. That's one thing teenagers try to do as well. They want to be taken seriously and they want older guys to like them.

We've chosen a red lipstick because again signifies that the girl is seeking attention and wants to be noticed.

We've decided to keep the idea of a normal look for the guy but wearing a hoodie.

Tomorrow's filming is going to be done in our friend's house. It is a quite girly house - pink, so we think that this is going to add to the mise-en-scene that's why we've decided to use it.

Everything is ready to go and we'll be filming tomorrow.

LOCATION 2nd part of the opening sequence

We have now decided where our first filming is going to take place - our friend's house.

Reasons why:

• We know it is a PINK room. Stereotypically, girls are assosiated with the colour pink, so we think it will be nice to show the girls getting ready in her pinky room.
•  It adds to the mice-en-scene and it is in quite a big contrast with the previous scene which is exactly what we want. Also, the girls are teenagers so it is another way so symbolise that. 
• Our friend is actually acting in our video, so we think it will be easy to use her room. It is also quite close to where we live, it will be easy to get there and bring all the equipment.

Auditions

We held auditions today. Me and my partner thought that I am most suitable to be the girl but we still wanted to see if we can find someone else. I can film the scenes that I am not in and edit afterwards. We've discussed how we want our main character to look (the girl). Just a normal girl, we don't want anything special about her because we want to relate to the girls who are going to watch it afterwards. We want them to identify with our character.

Actors - Costumes

We have already established that I am going to be the protagonist but we need two more actors. We are planning to hold auditions to choose them.

I had an idea of how the girl should look like. We have already mentioned that we want our production to be educational as well and one way to connect with our target audience is to make them relate to the characters. The danger which we will try and show in our video is likely to happen to any other girl in the world, just a girl with a normal life who gets dragged into this. So, I believe that we should go for a normal girl so most of the girls out there will be able to identify themselves in our character.
I was thinking, what do normal teenage girls do when they go out clubbing. They try to look older so they will be taken seriously. They seek attention. A way of getting that is the way they dress. I thought our character should wear a red or a black dress, definitely heels. Stereotypically, by wearing red she would get the attention but by wearing black she would look older. I will speak to my partner and see what she thinks and we will decide what look we will go for.

The guy in our video  has an important role. He has to go over a drugged girl and try to silence her. This emphases the danger of taking drugs and not being able to take care of yourself. Through our production we want to show almost every side of it, one way is by showing how dangerous it is to be on street, unaware of what is going on around you and anything could happen, there are all kinds of people out there.
So, what we have thought about how our  male actor should look like. We didn't want anything stereotypical because in real life situations it could be anyone, so race, skin colour, anything like that wouldn't matter. But we want to break the conventions of  a 'baddie' in a film. They are often presented as more intimidating, wedge and possibly tall, but we want to show that anyone could attack a young girl. We are looking for an ordinary guy - not very tall or masculine.
Although, criminal tend to hide their identities so we  would want him to wear a hoodie and hide his face which will also create enigma in the beginning of the film.

Storyboard 1

HELLO!

My partner Anna decided to do the second half of the storyboard today because we've decided to film that first so we wanted to have it ready so we can start filming.. I helped her a little bit with the some ideas of shots we could use. The 2nd half is easier to film because of the location we've chosen - a room. Also, it shows the girl getting ready so she needs to look nice and be dressed, so we thought that it will be easier if we have this sorted out first and then in the other half she is supposed to look messed up and it will be easier for us to achieve that afterwards.
Out storyboard is quite specific, we know exactly what shots we are going to use and I believe that this is going to make our filming much easier knowing from previous experiences that we need a storyboard.

SCRIPT

Today I wrote the script but it was kind of hard because normally there is a dialog or more talking but in our production there isn't much but we still need to give our actors a script which tells them what they have to do. To help understand what the script needs to include, I've looked at a few examples and this is what I've come up with.


Empty street, about 5 o'clock in the morning.

Girl - hardly able to walk, looking around confused, lost and signs of being drunk.

She is trying to hold on to a wall but she can't stay on her feet.
She drops down as if she's lost control over her body.

Guy - Walking behind the girl (very intimidating and manly)

He puts his hand over her mouth as if he is trying to silence her.
The girl struggles and widens her eyes.



Girl's bedroom. The girls are getting ready for a night out.

Girl - Looking in the mirror putting make up.

She turns around (excited and happy)

GIRL
So? How do I look?

  

The girl responds (excited and amazed)

  

GIRL FRIEND

Oh My God! You look stunning?

GIRL
Do you like it?

The girl responds and asks (worried and concerned)

GIRL FRIEND
Love it! But.. We still don't have the thing... You know.. The thing thing?

The girl answers (confidently)

GIRL
Don't worry. I took care of it.

The girl takes out the drug from her draw and shows it to her friend.

Girl friend (Surprised, happy and claps)

GIRL FRIEND
Good girl.

The girl jumps on the bed next to her friend and they both look at the drugs (excited)

GIRL
We are gonna have so much fun!

Production's name

Hello Everyone.

Me and my partner discusses in more detail what the name of our production is going to look like. We already knew how it is going to be called but we had to choose the font and the colour.
'Unique' is in different font and colour because it symbolises the meaning of the word. Unique is something different, one of a kind so that's why it is in contrast with the word 'Productions'. That's also why we came up with this name in a first place - we want to stand out, be different. We've decided to keep 'Productions' in simple font because Drama movies are quite serious and we've made it in a darker colour as well.

NAME of our opening sequence

This is a chart which shows the response of the people I interviewed.

As you can see in the pie chart above, it shows that the title of a movie is very important to the audience. The majority of the people have said that the title of a movie would have an impact on them and make their decision about watching the film easier.

After doing a questionnaire and asking people for their opinion we've decided how our opening sequence is going to be called. We've thought about it a lot because a name is quite important for a movie, speaking from experience if a name of a movie attracts me I would be more interesting in seeing the movie itself. So, the name is going to be "FALLING APART". The dilema was between this one and "THE CONSEQUENCES". The second one was my first idea and I really liked it because I thought it goes well with the plot of our production. We are showing the effects of drugs so it is basically showing the consequences, but after having a deeper thought on it I realised it gives out too much  to the audience and we don't want that. "FALLING APART" would be more of a question for the audience; I am hoping it would make them wonder 'What is falling apart? Why is it falling apart? What is happening?'. I believe that once they have these questions in their minds they would definitely want to watch it. The name also has a meaning of how a person's life can fall apart in every way - emotionally, health and physically, if continue taking drugs, which again relates to on of our aims and that is to make the audience think about it as if it is them in the movie - Do they want this to happen to them? Do they want to have this kind of life?

HELP!

HI EVERYONE!
We need to choose our title but we are struggling with it. If you have followed our idea please, help us! We are gonna give you some suggestions but if you come up with something yourself that would be great!

1. The Consequences
2. Falling Apart
3. The beginning of an Addiction
4. The Night
5. The Excitement of a Wider Imagination

Research into Drugs

Hi guys! :)

I've done some research into drugs to help me understand the effects of it and how we can show it in our production.
These are some of the drugs I found and their effects:

1. Heroin

• Shortness of breath
• Dry mouth
• Constricted (small) pupils
• Sudden changes in behaviour or actions
• Disorientation
• Cycles of hyper alertness followed by suddenly nodding off
• Droopy appearance, as if extremities are heavy

  Behavioural changes:

• Avoiding eye contact or distant field vision
• Increases in time spent sleeping
• Sudden worsening of performance in school work, including expulsion or loss of jobs
• Lack of interest in hobbies and favourite activities
• Wearing long pants or long sleeves to hide needle marks even in very warm weather

2. Cocaine

• Increased body temperature and heart rate
• Enlarged pupils
• Anxiety
• Dry mouth
• Increased breathing rate
• Paranoia
• Increased talkativeness or quiet contemplation and rapture
• Feelings of great physical strenghts and mental capacity
• Panic
• Reduced appetite
• Unpredictable aggressive behaviour

3. LSD

• Increased blood pressure and heart rate
• Dizziness
• Loss of appetite
• Dry mouth
• Sweating
• Tremors
• Hallucination

4. Ecstasy (MDMA)

• Irritability
• Depressive sympotms
• Exhastion
• Fatigue
• Insomnia
• Paranoid symptoms
• Concentration difficulty
• High temperature
• High blood pressure
• Rapid pulse
• Hallucinations

 

 

 

DESICION

We've decided to use Ecstasy because our plan of how to show the effects of it is similar to what it really is.

We are using heavy breathing on the background which shows rapid pulse, might mean that the person has high blood pressure.

The girl is stumbling, can't walk shows that her she can't concentrate.

Voice on the background - as if she is hearing things - paranoid symptoms and hullucinations.

Final idea - MAIN production PART 2

This is the second half of our opening  sequence. It was influenced by a real media product, a famous spanish film which gave us the idea.
Here is a link of the beginning in which you can see the girl getting ready and this is kind of what we want to achieve, but not exactly the same.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnrpzOrO_ms


The mice-en-scene changes completely with a happy song on the background and bright colours to highlight to the audience that the scene is different and make them realise that this is the beginning before she took the drugs.
We are gonna start with close ups of the girl putting make up - her lips, her eyes, putting earrings on, the dress and her heels. After that the happy song stops, over the shoulder shot of the girl turning around saying: So, how do I look? and this will bring the audience to reality and what's actually happening in the scene. Mid shot of her friends sitting on the bed putting make up as well. The last shot is going to be a close up shot of her taking the drugs from her draw and then a mid shot of her saying: ' We are ready to go?'.

Final Idea - MAIN production PART 1

Hello Everyone!

Me and my partner had our group meeting and shared our own ideas. We've decided to use the drug problem as our main theme but we changed it a little bit. In the beginning we wanted to show how drugs affect people's life, but we realised that it's going to be harder to deal with such a big issue so we made it a bit simpler. We are gonna show what drugs does to everyone who is not addicted and how it all starts by showing a girl going out to a party just for one night and coming back from it in a really bad condition.
We've also decided to keep the idea of starting with the end because it will be very interesting for the audience if we just show bits of the end of the night and then go back to how the girl is actually getting ready for the party.

This is our actual idea including the shots we are planning to use:

• Long establishing shot of London to identify the location and set the scene. Heavy breathing on the background which is to interest the audience and make them pay attention.

Variety of different shots of a girl walking

• Long shot behind her, cutting to middle shot, a pan beside her- these shots will be to make the audience follow the character.
•  A few blurry POV shots to show how confused and lost she is. 
• Close ups on parts of her body (ripped tights, messed up make up all over her face, her feet - wearing no shoes). We won't actually show her face in a close up in the first a few seconds, that would make the audience want to find out who she is and what's happened to her.

On the background there will be a voice which is going to be her talking to the audience as if she's hearing things and hallucinating - "Have you ever thought that you would end up like this when all you expected when you were a kid was the world. You never imagined the world changing you into something that took away your innocence, happiness, pureness.
By doing this we want to show how everything changes when you grow up and as we've said before the use of the dramatic voice and sound on the background is very significant to our piece.
The mice-en-scene is going to be very dark to set the atmosphere and the mood of the scene.
While this is happening we are going to show through a long shot of the girl trying to stay on her feet holding on to the wall but she falls down and we see a guy coming behind her. After that we are gonna show a close up of her face how the guy is trying to silence her by putting his hand over her mouth. We see her facial expression and the shot is gonna dissolve into another shot which is going to change the scene and that way we are gonna start the actual beginning of the movie.
The mice-en-scene changes completely with a happy song on the background and bright colours to highlight to the audience that the scene is different and make them realise that this is the beginning before she took the drugs.
We are gonna start with close ups of the girl putting make up - her lips, her eyes, putting earrings on, the dress and her heels. After that the happy song stops, over the shoulder shot of the girl turning around saying: So, how do I look? and this will bring the audience to reality and what's actually happening in the scene. Mid shot of her friends sitting on the bed putting make up as well. The last shot is going to be a close up shot of her taking the drugs from her draw and then a mid shot of her saying: ' We are ready to go?'.

Preliminary Task - VIDEO

Hi guys !!! FINALLY!

Our video is finished! Please watch it and comment on it. Enjoy. Thank you

Ideas - MAIN production 1

Hello Everyone!!!

I've had some ideas about our main production and this is what I've come up with:
Theme
One of my ideas was to make a Romantic Drama. The story would be about a boy and a girl falling in love with each other but after a while the girl tells her boyfriend that she's got cancer. The boy doesn't give up on their love and they are still together until she dies.
List of shots
In the opening sequence we could show how happy they are together using a variety of different shots and camera angles, such as close ups which would show more detail, low angle shots which would set them up as being powerful and happy, pan - I considered having a scene in which a pan around both of the character which could mean that they are centre of attention which would make the audience focus on how happy they are.
Sound
We could add a nice happy song on the background and probably show them in slow emotion  so the audience could take their time and feel the happiness between them. But while that is happening, we could give little hints to the audience like the girl being sad when she is alone shown through a high angle shot, or taking some pills or even having a heart attack. That would make them wonder why is she like that and keep them interested in the movie.

 

As I research a lot of sub genres I realised that if we create an Addiction Drama we can use more interesting shots and use different effects of sound as mentioned earlier I really liked the idea of the voice on the background revealing thoughts. So if we do something more tragic we can use that and it would be effective for the audience.
I was influenced by an Addiciton movie which shows what drugs do to young people and I found it very useful and educational. I would like our production to have a long term effect on young audiences.
So, this is my actual idea.
Following the storyline including all shots and effects.
Starts with a girl's voice on the background saying: Have you ever felt like you've lost everything? You feel like you're in a tunnel full of darkness? Pause. All you dreams, hopes... love, fall apart! Combined with a sad and dramatic but slow diagetic sound this could bring the desired atmosphere for this scene and also identify what the genre is.
While this is happening, we see a dark shot of a city, could be raining, this could be our establishing shot to set the location and show where the next actions are going to happen.Then straight after that we start with showing close up shots on pills, girl's cut hands and then a high angle shot of a messy room and a girl lying down in her bed. This immediately would indicate that she is a drug addict and her life is a mess, symbolising it with the messy room. Close up on her face while she is waking up, and the shot could be blurry going to normal. Close up on the girl's hand trying to reach for another pill from her desk but she realises that there isn't anymore. Long equal level shot of her sitting down on her bed. After a POV shot looking around the room while she's sitting down to show particular bits of the room which are very messy. A high angle shot of her back getting up starting to panic, looking everywhere to find any pills. Cuts to a POV shot of her hands looking through her bag, her jacket pockets, and her cupboard. She can't find anything. Close up on her hand shaking and taking her phone. Middle high angle shot of her calling someone. Close up on her lips while talking on the phone and saying: Where are you, can you meet me?? Without hearing the answer we cut a close up shot of her face saying: I'm coming. We don't want to show the answer5 because that would make the audience wonder, why is she calling him/her, where is she going, why is she going there. All these questions could go through a viewer's mind and this would be absolutely engaging. She picks her jeans of the floor, shown through a tilt as she is bending. She puts them on as quickly as possible. The door of her room is open, a long shot behind her zooming in when she is walking almost of there is someone behind her. Cuts to another shot from behind her running down the stairs, high angle shot. She leaves the house banging the door, we hear the loud bang. There's a blackout with the titles coming on and a sound which builds up, the volume goes up and the beat is faster.

Preliminary Task - Editing 2 and 3

Hi Guys :)
Yesterday and today we have been working on the editing again. Patrycja did the titles but all of us had ideas about it. Anna came up with the idea of "Green Pie Productions", I came up with the idea of the name of the movie - "Friendship". Then we chose the font, and Patrycja tried putting it in the right shot. Patrycja experimented and  tried to put the title of the movie in different shots to see how it goes. Her idea was to put it in front Anna's when she sees Veronika and her facial expression shows that she is not happy to see her. But then Dawn suggested that there was a better moment when Anna is leaving and the titles appear there.