evaluation 7

Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? 

Overall I think the idea and creativity of our title sequence worked very well, I think this because compared to the rest of the class none of ours were similar in anyway. The class gave such a varity of genres and they all stood out in there own way however ours had a unique style like no one else's, we went for a not so popular genre compared to title sequences students have done over the years and by this ours stood out.

I feel like ours was based on creativity due to the book making and character story lines, this helped ours stand out as we know due to the feedback we got from students and teachers. All feedback we got was positive, they comment on how great the characters looked, how well the book was made, that the idea itself was amazing and we was told in the early stages by a member of staff that if it was done properly and had full attention payed to it that this title sequence will be a huge success. An as we posted the final cut the same teacher came back and told us that they knew we could do it, this was a huge eye opener in how good it was, we put so much effort into it and the hard work did pay off .

I learnt that by listening to all feedback that it can make your project ten times better, all the little things add up and when corrected it makes it so much better. For example by adding the pictures on the boarded colour paper on each character page looked so much better, plus by adding the flash at the begin of the page shot when they came to life gave it that yearbook look. When we showed the class our final copies and we got all that feedback we generally wanted to give up as we thought all the corrections given wouldn't be possible to do in that amount of time we had left, but we was wrong. I'm so glad we didn't give up as I'm very proud of how it turnt out in the end.

evaluation 6

Evaluation 6 from jazmine sims

evaluation 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Because our audience are teenagers age 12-18 we applied the types of codes and conventions to engage with them.lys i think we did reach the target audience as being a teenager myself and being within the age bracket we had given i did enjoy it and so did my classmates.

Keeping in mind that my target audience are teenagers i got inspiration for the characters and how they will act from being in school myself. i go to secondary school and from year 7 to year 12 all characters i have used in the title sequence are people i have witnessed through my school years, elements on how they dress and act are all inspired from my classmates. however i did rely on american films about high school to help me deliver the performance, this is because i go to a British school and American and British schools are so different in many ways.  Any teenager knows that these characters are relatable to them as every school as students like this, they all know or have witnessed a freak, geek and a group of popular girls and boys. They face these people each day and by watching our title sequence they can clearly see that it will relate to their school life, and by choosing characters who will easily relate to the audience is a huge success for some reason teenagers love watching school films, i think this is because they can relate to the fact that they go to school as well plus they want to see how other kids act and behave in school compared to them. 

We are attracting our target audience by relating the storyline to their daily lives this automatically connects with the audience and keeps them keen and interested in whats going on. plus the bright colours and loud music will keep them engaged through out.

evaluation questions 1-4

Final Cut Pro problem

Today we began editing the clips together on Final Cut Pro, me and Brittany sat down and applied and discussed where and how the title sequence will fit together. As we started on the mac computers another class came in to use the rest of the macs, this was a problem as Final Cut Pro began to lag and when we tried to watch our footage back it kept missing out scences we need to see, this became a slight situation as today we planned to complete the freaks section at the beginning of the title sequence. This set us back as we wasted an hour waiting for the macs to become faster.

Geek page- accessories used

The geeks page was full of school related items such as a grade mark on a paper being a A+, books, a flag say "success" and a badge saying he'd boy. These are all elements that connect with school which connects with school equalling his character as a geek. The border of his video was green and orange, we chose these colours as they stand out on the black paper which makes his video stand out, the text saying "Ezra miller" & "the geek" are in orange and green as well, coordinated with the bordered rectangles.

Elite page - accessories used

The elite page had the colour pink all over it, the text was pink their characters videos were boarded in the colour pink and the stickers on the page were pink as well. This was because the colour pink indicates girly girls, and as they are girly girls we chose this colour to help the, represent the page. We had a pink love heart placed between Ellie and Ella's videos and underneath them they had a sticker say "perfect" I love the "perfect" as it states they are the popular girls and are better than everyone else, which is also how they are shown in American high school films. Then underneath Emma Roberts picture it say "Queen B" with a crown above it, this shows she the main girl and is most popular above them all, this also follows along with the stereotype of a high school, there's allways a main girl who's most popular. Plus we had a fruity cocktail sticker on the page as well to emphasis the girly ness even more.

Jocks page- accessories used

The jock page had the schools colours red white and blue ( which are also the colours of the American flag) their charcuterie videos were boarded in these colours in order for them to stand out. We also applied stickers such a a basket ball and trainers to the page, along with red bold text for the text staying "Jocks". These stickers and images on the page helps the audience identify that they are jocks who play basketball, the accessories placed were a good choice as it helped them deliver their performance.

Freaks page - accessories used

On the freaks page we didn't have much to it as her personality is plain and dull, we didn't give her a bordered to her character video like the others and put her name in grey. The colours used for her page were black white and grey, these colours represent her character as a freak as they a neutral colours and don't symbolise anything. The stickers given were painted black nails as they are the in footage and a skull to represent death, this is because freaks are steotypically connected with death as shown in the media.

Cinematography tips I had learnt

Being the cinematographer I wanted to make sure that the filming I had done was perfect, in order for this to happen I had to do my research. I learnt that hand held filming is okay but in our case wasn't a option as we wanted still shots, in order for this to happen a tripod was the best option. another shot we used was a angled ariel shot, this was hard as the only way to do it was handheld but as i said before we wanted still shots and handheld wasn't always the best as it can be shaky.  A tripod wasn't the best choice as the camera needed to be lifted from the ground at a angle and the tripod doesn't do so. So I used a steady cam, this is we're the camera is screwed on top of a chunk of metal which has a flat piece at the bottom, this flat piece enables you to rest it on our body so it's not being filmed hand held and the camera is not shaky. This steady cam allows a clean shot to be made as it's resting on something. Another tip I learnt with the steady cam is that if you breath in when using it the camera becomes even more still, because if you heavily breath when the steady cam is balanced on your chest you lungs are going to slightly move it, so by breathing in the camera will say still.

Text inside the book

Because our title sequence was set in a American high school when shopping for acsesserios for inside the book we did find it hard due us living in Britain and we don't have shops like America does. So when tryed to find things that relate to a American high school it was difficult however we did vist more than one shop to find as much American looking features for our book. After looking in a couple of shops we did end up finding something which was a huge part to the book, this was the text to spell out words inside the book. This text we found was bright red, bold, school font letters, when we saw this we bought them straight away because it helped the audience idently it was a American high school book and we knew it would look great in the book. This text was used throughout the book spelling out the pages of who it was directed by, who edited it, who the cinematographer was and so on. Many pages had this text on and a one point we did run out of letters so we then had to make another journey to the shop to buy some more.

Making the book

As a group we made the yearbook together, we went to a local craft shop and grabbed the supplies we needed. We originally was going to make the book ourselves by buying different coloured paper and card to make the pages and book cover, however when we visualised it in the shop we knew it wouldn't look as good as we thought it would of. So we looked around the shop and we found a all ready made plain book, we all agreed straight away that it would be the book we used. After we had found the book we then went on to buying accesserious for the pages inside. We had already made our story board and planned out the pages inside the book so we then had to find stickers and pictures that would relate to each page to make them stand out.
Geek page- pens&pencil stickers, number stickers, school related stickers. (Orange and green paper for the boardeds of the character video)
Freak page- skulls and scary gothic stickers and pictures
Elite page- pink girly stickers such as lover hearts and make up, also text saying girly words such as "OMG" "FABULOUS" and "BOYS" (pink paper for the border of the videos)
Jock page- sports stickers such as trophies, a basketball, (red and blue coloured paper to border the videos, we chose these colours because they match the school logo)

Update on the freaks scene

As I previously said about the bad lighting in the toilet for the freak scene which made the footage grainy, we've thought of ideas and ways in order to make it look better. Such as different lights, holding the book in different positions and moving locations to another bathroom but they don't look any better. So we decided to pick the best clip from all the footage we had from the blue bathroom and played around with the contrast and brightness, we did this because we had already filmed the freak walking into the blue barthooms and the passing the book scene to the other character. It looks better than original videos we took but could be slightly better, however when we fitted the clip in amgost the others it looked good.

Cinematography

Cinematography was the most important aspect to this project, because otherwise we would have no title sequence. i was the cinematographer and from a personal point of view i found it very challenging, i experienced new type of camera equipment such as a steady cam and a track. we wanted clean crisp camera shots and with the use of the equipment we was able to achieve great camera shots.

For example when the characters were walking with the book we used a track to get a smooth video of them walking because doing it handheld was a huge fail and using a tripod and pan the camera as they moved didn't look good. i said we needed a camera shot that followed the book along side it, we asked the media teachers about this and they suggested the track. we tried it out and it looked great, we then used the track multiply times after that.

At times being the cinematographer was hard because looking onto the scene where your filming through the camera isn't as good as you think it is in your head. for example the toilet scene for the freek, in my head we thought it would look so good with the toilet seat and the dirty floors in the background. however when actual filming it the footage was grainy their wasn't enough light in the toilet and when we applied more light it looked too much. plus having to re-shoot scenes in school was a mission at times, this was because we filmed during the school day so we interrupted with the change over of lessons and other students using our filming locations.

Editing

Editing the whole title sequence itself was one of hardest aspects to this project, its a huge part to the final cut and it needed full attention and commitment due to the effects and ideas we had in mind in order for this to be a success.

Our idea was for the characters individual yearbook pictures to come to life with them then doing a moving pose to the camera when the book had been turned to their page. for example the main jock photo of him was him with a basket pall on his finger, he then came to life an walked into the shot and span the ball facing the camera.

A problem we had with these videos was that when we placed the character video on top of the video footage of the book turning the character video began to move and made it look very messy. we
needed to find a away for them to stop moving. this was a problem we found when we showed our final cut to the class, they agreed that we needed to find away to fix it so on our last week went back and fixed the problems. however due to family matters our editor Brittany was unable to attend school for a few days which left us in a situation, me and Bronte then took on the role of editor while she was not present.

Together we found a tool that fixed the moving video problem and applied that tool to all the character clips and it made a huge improvement, we also added some small effects which made it a lot better. for example when the book reached the next page of characters we added a flash which gave the video that effect of a picture being taken and then they characters came to life.

Other things we had to work on was the font styles and colors, in our feedback session we was told too look into other fonts because they believed they didn't work with that particular page style, we also needed to add the sticker tool to the fonts as they also moved around the page due to the video footage it was layered on top of.

Audiance profile

Re- shooting

So from the corrections given by the class we had to re shoot each character turning there particular page again with pictures of themselves placed already inside the book. This was a challange as the characters we used were all in different year groups which ment they didn't have study and lesson time the same as me, Bronte and Brittany. So when we wanted to film the actors and actresses they wasn't able to attend due to them being in a lesson. However we worked around it and was able to film after school with them all, filming after school was a much better idea as they could all attend, classrooms and sets we used were completely free as the rest of the students who go to school there had gone home and we could take as long as we want because we had no lessons left to go to.

Corrections given by the class

After showing the class our nearly finished final cut version they had given us feedback and we then had things to changed in ordered for it to be complete. These comments were...

 - on the characters page let there already be a picture of them there and when the video plays its as if they come to life.
 - make the videos still as they are moving around the page.
 - the freaks opening scence is took dark, re film.
 - change the font on the geek an elite page.
 - swap footage around of Brittany walking to and from the bench.
 - take the flash of the text.
 - cut down the video of the jock walking into the basketball room.
 - add some pictures of school related stuff on the blank pages where the text is.
 - deleted the hat thought video at the end or find a better one.

 These were all correction given to us and we completed them in 4 days, this included re shooting, making new accessories for the inside the book plus editing new footage and tweeking old footage.

Geek book turning scene

Today we filmed Frankie "Ezra miller" opening the book to his page; his setting was the science room. We chose this because he's playing a geeky character and science connects with geeks. During school time we set off to film in the classroom however when we got there a supply teacher was using it with a science class, this delayed us however we done it after school instead when we knew it was going to be defiantly free. After school we set up to film, i tracked Frankie walking down the corridor to the science classroom with the book and instead of panning him walking in I decided to experience with different camera shots and done a two shot of him walking in. This means I filmed him from outside the door walking in and then filmed him from the inside walking in and them got Brittany to edit it together so there's not pause. This gave the title sequence a more creative look, as we didn't stick to the same filming pattern. When filming Frankie I had an advantage as the science classrooms have stalls instead of chairs, this gave me a good height above him I could easily film from above his head whilst he turned the pages.

Final version of Welling High title sequence

Jock book turning scene

Today we also done the jocks scene of him looking through the book, this was filmed inside the sports department outside the sports hall. First of all I tracked him walking with the book into the sports hall then panned as him opened the door and went in, but we had one problem as the shorts we had for him had gone missing and we had no others, this ruined the costumes look so when I filmed him I had to make sure I didn't get his trousers in. But every footage i filmed of the characters walking with the book was shot from the wast up so it wasn't a huge problem. I then filmed him sitting on a bench reading through the book until he got to his page, what I liked about the sports hall was that in the background we had the basketball court lines which was perfect as they are playing basket ball players and the lighting wasn't bad either, it was grainy compared the freak scene, it was good enough so the light didn't reflect off the pictures placed inside the book.

The elite book turning scene

Today we filmed the elite girls opening the book, played by Brittany lily as "Emma Roberts" and Ella Bradford & Ellie Whelan as her best friends. Today was the perfect day to film because the weather was sunny, this gave the setting a glow when filming and the footage we took was the best yet. We tracked Brittany walking towards the bench to meet her friends and together they looked through the book, as i said about the sun being bright today it gave the book and background such a emphasis and when we played it back. Today was very successful and the filming was don't easily and quickly.

acting for character videos

For the clips that go inside the book we had to shoot them in front of a white screen, this was done in school using the schools camera, tripod and white back drop. each one of the characters were dressed in their costume and had to walk into the camera shot and do some form of signature pose. For example, one of the jocks walked into and turned to the camera, whilst looking down the camera lens he pushed his hair back. another example was the main popular girl walking in with a sassy walk she turned to the camera smiling whilst playing with her hair, she then dropped her face with a bitch stare and looked down the camera lens. the geek done a rockstar sign with her hands and the geek walked in and waved with a geeky smile.

Feedback from our presentation

When we showed our first cut of our title sequence the class had given us feedback about our work. there was a rating section where they had to choose how many stars our title sequence was worth, 1 star was rated "in need of serious work" 2 stars being "it definitely has potential" and 3 stars saying "why isn't it on MTV already". the majority of the vote was between 2/3 stars which is good because our work was liked by teenagers who are our target audience.

The next section was 3 paragraphs asking the audience member "the elements that worked" "Things that need developing" and "things that don't work are". some comments were similar such as the music worked really well and the cinematography and editing was good, they liked the idea of our title sequence, they liked the fact we had the different characters looking at the book plus that we edited videos into the book.

However the comments weren't all good, we did have some improving to do within the title sequence. they said to makes sure camera shots weren't shaky and that blank spaces need to be filled. An every feedback sheet had this comment " make the images appear before the page turns, maybe re shoot with pictures in the book". so from this feedback we went back and reshot all the scenes where characters turned the book and added pictures on to the area where the video will be played of them.

Behind the scenes filming

As I was the cinematographer I had to set up the setting for the particular filming we had chosen to do that day. For example when we filmed the year book clips I had set up a white back ground with two lights pointing towards the centre, these two lights ovbousliy brought light to the set but the light enhanced the characters against the white background and when you play the footage you can see the difference between having lights and no lights. And for the filming we done of the characters walking we sometimes used a light depending on the location for example the jock walking into the basketball hall the lighting wasn't the best so we tyres to apply a light in the background and as I moved with the camera I had someone follow me with it. But when we played it back we realised it didn't work well so we videoed it normally and adjusted the brightness when editing.

Presentation on our title sequnace

Mistakes made during filming

Today we had to re shoot the freak opening the book in the toilet, this was because last week we showed the class our first cut of our title sequence and the class and teachers said that when we open the book onto the pages of the freak, geek, jock and popular girls that we need to have pictures of the characters there already because the page looked dull, an would look better if the pictures came to life to life because the next part would be the performance of the characters walking in front of the white screen for their "year book" picture.

So we attempted to re shoot the freaks scene where she's on the toilet opening the book, however we came across another problem when reattaching footage back. that the lighting makes the shot grainy, the focus is good and the lighting is however when its played back it looks grainy an when compared to other shots it looks really poor and with it being one of the first shots it brings the expectations down for the rest of it. we persavired on by moving locations in the bathroom and holding the book at different angles so the grainy effect went but we haven't succeeded yet.

Re- shooting the geeks scene

When we uploaded the footage of the geek turning the pages in the book we saw that the video was shaky and out of focus, this was my fault as I was not concentrating properly. This footage was most defiantly not being put in the final cut so I went back with Frankie and re filmed it, this time I took more than 2 clips and made sure I was fully focused on what I was doing. After re filming it me and Brittany uploaded it to Final Cut Pro and straight away we saw a huge difference, it was perfectly still and focused correctly like the other videos we had for the characters.

Making the Props

To make the book we went to hobby craft and bought the book, we then bought accessories such as font, and symbols to create it. We had cocktails for the girls page and images that represent the characters such as a pile of books for the nerd. this was added to the book through out the book which made it up, making it was very successful however we thought it was going to take up most of our time but it didn't really as we worked together to make it. 

Music for the Title Sequance

Music- Ben Sound 

For our title sequence we needed background music, one because music is key in order of a successful title sequence and two, so the audience can identify the genre.

We ran a poll on another group members blog with had a total of 10 votes, they had a choice between 3 songs one of them being ben sounds music piece. i voted for Ben's music because i thought it would really go well with the title seance and when i listen to it i automatically thought of teen comedy/ teenagers at high school.

Jock Scene

The jock scene in our title sequence was performed by Jacob, playing the character Michael b Jordan. We thought he would be the perfect fit one because he's generally a sporty person and does play basketball plus he's american anyway and he has the features of a american basketball player, he's tall, black and has muscle therefore he's showing the stereotype well.

His scence was done in the sports hall, which is where the basketball court is which is lucky because he's playing a basketball player and by having the court with the line and hoops really did help us deliver the codes and conventions of a basketball player.

The costume was a white jersey with red writing as shown in the picture with black shorts and trainers. Even though his costume was shown fully it was still seen and it helped him stand out amongst other characters.

Freak scene

The freak was played by myself, i was dressed in all black as you can see by the image above showing my costume. my blouse was inverted at the top which made it flick up towards my neck, this gave the outfit a really gothic look which really helped with the codes and conventions of this scene.

I done my makeup and gave myself a black smokey eye along with a white place face. i researched into films on how they portray freaks in high school films, they were shown as scary pale people with dark makeup, the paleness shows how they have no life because their inner person is dead.

The setting of my scene was in the bathroom, this is because we thought it would be a weird/ freaky place for her to be. with her being so strange we thought the toilet would be a great place to emphasis her freakiness.

Geek Scene

Frankie was our geek for this project, we thought he would fit the codes and conventions well. however we applied him with accessories that would help him deliver the performance much better, such as the glasses. we put white tape around his glasses to make him more geeky, this is because in high school films geeks glasses usually have white tape securing them together. This is because they would be broken by other people so the white type is fixing them.

The checkered shirt also gives him the geeky look, plus by having his top button done up gives him a more geeky look as well, this shows us that hes nerdy & geeky. the setting for his shooting is the science room, we shoot him walking into the science lab, he sat down and opened the book with the science lab in the background.

Popular girls scene

Here are two of the popular girls in our title sequence, they are dressed in girly colours such as pink and whites. Their make up is done pretty and bold this is so they to stand out from the background, by this it also shows the difference between the girls. It shows the difference between the freak and popular girls, the pinks indicates the girly side of girls and the freak dressed in black shows her gothic/death side.

When the girls open the book they are sitting outside together on the bench, i think by the setting being outside it will make the camera shot better beacuse it will have natural light to highlight the book better.

Settings

I took pictures of two settings of our title sequence, however there are many other locations such as the basket ball room and a science room.

Outside was the location where the "popular girls" read the book, we filmed the main girl walking with the book, then going to meet one of her friends on the bench and them two read the book together.

The toilet was the location where the "freak" filmed her opening the book. We chose this because its a weird location, like herself and it helps emphasis how strange she is.

Welling High designs

We decided to create our own badge to represent our school, because we created the school we also then had to make a badge to represent it. We used photo shop to make this an used iconic styles and patterns of a typical american high school badge. We added the schools colours red and blue to make the badge stand out, the bold colours helps make a eye-catching image to the font of the book, which is where it will be placed.

Just having a badge on the front cover we thought would be too plain and boring, so we decided to place our name on the front of a american high school to really emphasise the setting and give the audience the idea that it is a real american school.