Continuity errors

As we had multiple filming and editing errors throughout filming, some areas of our film lack continuity e.g. Clark's t-shirt under the Bon Jovi t-shirt changes throughout the different shots from white to yellow to black and the poster board has numerous different posters throughout the scene due to teachers updating it without our knowledge until we came to filming. Also two the different groups are standing in the same place during the quick-pan group shots.

Changes within the Final cut.

during the process of creating our initial idea's we came up with many to use in our opening sequence.

however,during filming and editing,we realised many of these idea's would not be able to be done due to time restrictions and our own skills at the software neccisary.

The first was the social cliques:

We intended to have 4 different groups of cliches for this part of the sequence (sporty,goth,nerd,gangster) but we were not able to have these groups in costume,due to not being able to get the resources necessary. Instead of this we had to simply use people in their normal clothing. But we realised this was just as acceptable as it still shows clark as a reject,and the surrounding people normal.

The second problem with these was the dialogue. We had problems trying to include it into the scene quickly,without the sound clashing with the effects and ringtone on at the time,so we decided to cut this out and have them simply stopping and staring at Clark as his phone rings.

The second problem was with the intended Clark/Sister phone scene:

We hoped (time permitting) that during the phone call scene in our sequence,we would be able to edit in a 'mean girls' style spilt screen phone conversation between the two characters. Unfortunately,due to time restraints we were unable to film the sisters home scenes,so we had to work along with it and simply only show Clark's side of the conversation. This however could bring a slight bit of mystery to the scene.

The third problem was the ending shot:

For our ending shot as Clark leaves,we have a zooming in shot of 'PARTY ANIMAL' on the notice board,to show as the title. we then intended for the background to fade to white and then for the title and background to flash alternating from white and black simultaneously. We were unable to do this simply as we felt we didn't have good enough technology skills to pull this off without it looking badly done or tacky.

The final problem was the script:

Originally,when we wrote the script it was rushed and badly put together,so when we went into filming we disregarded all this so when we filmed the scene which required a script,we simply gave the actor the rough idea of what he has to say and let him improvise. we felt the outcome was excellent on this,as Jack worked around the guidelines we gave him amazingly.

The way in which we helped him keep time during the phone call scene,was by having him actually on the phone to another person in another room,keeping with the phone call, to make sure it seems realistic.

Intentions on final editing session.

Today and tomorrow we intend to finish our final cut of 'party animal',we intend to put the finishing touches towards it,including touching up of sound and editing.

For the filming, we only need to make sure that the sequence flows right,and no cut look out of place or wrong.

For the sound,we simply need to secure that each sound effect,non diagetic and diagetic sound is all in sync with the film.

After this we will post our final cut onto the blog.

Evaluation

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

Within our sequence, we did use certain conventions of a typical film opening sequence, for example the use of our production companies and the logo to go with them at the beginning of our sequence made it clear our sequence was not a trailer. These production companies were chosen specifically as one larger company 'Oh Vivian Productions' and a smaller one, 'Pinewood Productions'. Our 'Oh Vivian Productions' logo was made specifically to add humour to it; fitting in with the almost comedy genre of our film.

The two images when sequenced together create a animation of the animated man saying 'Ohh, Vivien'. We created the sound by editing the voice-over on top. Although we experienced some problematic aspects such as background room sounds whilst recording the voice over: we managed to resolve these problems by asking other class members to leave the room or sit without speaking. Overall we managed to achieve the look we wanted quite well.

Within this title, the image as a whole acts almost as a mosaic piecing together. Originally, the sound we used over this was a sharp, deep sound, which we didn't feel was very appropriate. We managed to then change this sound to a softer sound, which fits in well with the movement of the effect.

Also, the use of titles of the actors, editors etc manage to portray that it is a opening film sequence rather than a trailer or other type of media product. We managed to challenge the typical conventions of a real media opening sequence as we managed to combine our opening titles in with our actual filming, by displaying the names on a notice board. We got the idea of this effect from the opening sequence of Napoleon Dynamite, where the titles work within the film sequence in the same way. Using this technique almost emphasises the qwerkyness of our film.

Other typical conventions of an opening sequence would be different camera angles used in order to portray a certain character, or suggest the specificity of the genre we have chosen for our film. We use a point of view shot as the first part of our filming, not only does this depersonalize the character, creating more tension into seeing his appearance: this gives the idea that the main purpose behind our opening sequence is to introduce the main protagonist, we challenged the normal point of view as usually at the opening of films an establishing shot is used to set the scene, we used the point of view shot as our first shot. Also point of view shots are more oftenly used in conflict sequences of action films, as in Robocop shown below..

Our film is difficult to put into a one specific genre zone, there are subtle elements of comedy but the film is also themed around adventure and social diversity. The different camera angles, shots and diverse theme makes our film different and difficult to set in a specific genre. The introduction of Clark's sister is not direct, she contacts Clark on his mobile, this challenges other films which almost always introduce main plot related characters in person, we used this to our benefit to add comedic affect but also once again to build tension as to who his sister is, like with the introduction of Clark through the point of view shot. Non-diegetic sound effects are used to put emphasis on Clark's movement, this challenges the normality of the film being as realistic as possible, to immerse the audience. We aimed to challenge this and use a convention that was different.

2.)How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Clark Epson, the protagonist is represented like typical films that share a similar genre, an outcast at the bottom of the social hierachy(e.g Seth from superbad).
We represent him through the reactions of those around him during the point of view shot. For example the boys who walk by him stare aggresively, the attractive girl who walks by doesnt even glance at him and during his phone ringing every group he looks at looks at him like he is a loser. By using the other characters to represent Clark they also represent themselves, judging Clark because of his adverse clothing. These representations are amplified in our film but are based on realistic situations. This a typical representation for the types of genre our film comes under.

3.)What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Our product is more likely to be distibuted by a more independant film company like Fox searchlight. This is because our film runs outside the normality of it's genre, aswell as the genre being hard to decipher. Also our film used different conventions and challenges normal often-used coventions, e.g. odd camera angles and 'silly' non-diegetic sound effects. However the simpler comedy used in our film may makes it similar to large, widespread, popular films like Waynes world or Superbad, or some aspects even Mean Girls. This means it could also be distibuted by a larger company like 20th century fox, as it has the potential to be popular with a variety of audiences.

4.) Who would be the audience for your media product?

We decided that our target audience range would be specifically for teenagers, so our age certificate would be a 15 rating.‘Party Animal’ will be a 15 rating due to the mild adult humour involved, frequent bad language and mild sex and drugs scenes and references.

The type of teenager we think will watch our film will be the typical late school/college student, due to the humour and content that would have been involved in the entire film. Other types of films relating to this genre that would share the same audience, as ours would be ones such as;

1. Napoleon Dynamite.

2. Eagle vs. Shark.

3. Mean Girls.

The wider audience could expand to any adult who has an appreciation of this younger, more sarcastic than usual humour. Teenagers of a younger age may also enjoy it, but may not have a full knowledge of what is going on entirely.

5.) How did you attract/address your target audience?

We focused on asking for feedback from teenagers in the same year as us due to us being in the prime age barrier for this type of film. We also asked a few people, out of the normal age range.

Audience Feedback:

Sophie, 17: Good use of camera shots and transitions and the music suited the genre.

Bobby, 18: Good editing, nice transitions, well portrayed storyline, easy to understand.

Lauren, 17: I liked the music to it, adds to the imagery well.

Sam, 22: Continuity should have been better.

Will, 16: It was quite difficult to read the titles in the sequence.

We took all of our feedback into consideration for this sequence and have therefore made changes to the sequence altogether in order to improve it. I feel that the feedback was very helpful, and we were able to convey personal ideas from our target age range in order to make an overall better sequence that people will be more than likely to enjoy.

6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of the constructive this product?

The things that we have learnt during the process of filming and editing is first of all a better understanding of Final Cut Pro.

Initially, we already had a basic knowledge of Final Cut Pro, however during our time of editing and producing our sequence we have managed to build on it and able to create overall better transitions and effects. One thing we did have problems was, was the continuity between the shots involving the pin-up board, as the posters kept on changing each day, so we found it hard to portray our continuity to a high level. Although we did not manage to make the transitions between these shots 100% perfect, we still feel that they worked well and we did the best that we could do.

Moreover, other software we managed to increase our knowledge on was Soundtrack Pro and Garage Band. By using different tracks and layering them upon each other we were able to create the soundtrack that suited our specific problematic genre: we aimed for a simple but cheesey soundtrack of which fitted in with our protagonist’s personality. We managed to add in voice overs within our titles and also other non-diegetic sounds including Clarke’s ringtone. It took a while for us to manage to include the ringtone as we found it problematic transferring the specific song we wanted, however we soon managed this by recording the ringtone via the microphone and editing it on top of the shots where we needed it.

We found that the technology we were able to use, in one sense made us more creative as we were able to identify and expand on the techniques we were able to include; however in another sense we also felt slightly limited to the effects we were able to include. For example, we found it difficult to edit in the split screen shot of which we initially intended to include, therefore with our timing being very limited on what we were able to achieve, we did not end up being able to include it.

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

We found the preliminary task gave us basic knowledge in order to carry our successful camera angles, and with this we were able to use them in our final sequence. We found it difficult in order to carry out successful continuity shots within the preliminary task, as one of our mise en scene (the phone) was in a different position with each shot. Funnily enough, our continuity worked in the same way in our final sequence as the posters from the boards would be in different positions due to filming on different days. Our editing, however, has improved since the preliminary task, we all had different techniques that we were able to carry out, so putting them all together seemed to work well.

Further Filming Updates.

Since our last attempt at filming, we have filmed a large section of our opening sequence in one block, however this did take us longer time than originally expected due to technial difficulties with the camera! We found that some of our shots would not act as continuously as we expected: therefore would have to film some of the shots again to ensure a better aspect of continuity within them.

Within editing the shots we have most recently filmed, being the quick action shots of the protagonist, Clark, answering his phone and the social cliques turning around to reveal a dirty look, we have included sound effects in order to emphasise the quickness of the movement in the protagonist's actions: we used a 'Swish' sound in order to do this.

Moreover, we also edited in our protagonist's ringtone over the top of the filming, as we found there were minor faults in attempting to record the ringtone with the microphone as the sound quality wasn't very high. However, after editing in the ringtone to our sequence, we had a problem with the software Final Cut Pro, of which resulted in us losing half of our sound that had been edited in. We aim to put this back in the next chance we get as we ran out of time this time.

First Attempts at Filming.

We began to start shooting our opening sequence within the past few days. The first shot we intended to have a point of view shot from our protagonist, walking through the corridoor. During his walk, we aimed to have other students giving him dirty looks. Followed by this, Clarke is distracted by an attractive student walking past and 'checks her out'.

We finalised in filming this shot around about five times, each time having trouble with the timing and smoothness of the overall shot. In our editing stage, we soon realised that the cut between two of our shots was too 'abrupt', therefore we will have to, again, refilm this shot, along with another shot (or title) to go inbetween the two shots.

This picture shows how we were attempted to edit the shot. As half of the footage we wished to use was in the widescreen setting, the the other half was not, we attempted to crop the shot in order to make the two shots the same aspect ratio. Cropping the shot, however, we feel was too time consuming and we believe that our time could be used much more wisely by just refilming the shot altogether.

The video shown below shows our first attempt at filming the first shot, the only piece of this filming that we felt satisfied with was the clip when Clarke, from his point of view, 'checks out' the girl walking down the corridoor. Although we attempted to cut this into another sequence that went better, the clips still seemed abrupt therefore did not work.