Introduction.

This year I have already started to create music videos where I need to sync the music to the video so that it all fits together including lip syncing. This will be vital for when I start my work next year as we will be making more music videos which will be marked in terms of the syncing and the video its self. This is why I have been practicing so I can improve my skills in this area. This will ensure that I will be able to create a suitable video to the song choice and so I am able to create a professional looking video at the end of this process.

Re make of guns for hands by 21 pilots music video

In our re make of the video we did not do very well with the costumes as we found it hard to come up with the same clothes as the original artists in the video, especially as we had a male and female character who acted in the video. we found that we were able to find a good location to shoot the video despite the limited choices we had to do so. However we had found it difficult to find the resources of the equipment that was used in the video as it was difficult to move this from a different location to the location that we needed it to be. we managed to set up the props in the same way that the original video had it set up though which was difficult as the props were heavy. The drum set and the piano were the only major props in this video which made it easy for us as we could concentrate on setting these up appropriately which did not take long with four of us helping. we did need to cover up things on the wall behind the set to make sure it looked close enough to the video and we did this using large sheets of white paper which we located from our art department for the back drop of the video.

The filming for our video also did not go as well for our group due to the limited time we had for filming and without a rehearsal first, we ended up just jumping straight into filming which is why we did not achieve a very good representation of the video. However we did manage to get some similar shots for our own video which is good as we can sort of see what we were trying to achieve for this task.

With the editing we were able to sync some of the video to the music but if we had filmed the video with the music we could have done this a little better. We have have almost got the tempo of the original sound track in sync with the video so we can relate the actions to the music which is playing. We did not have much difficulty up loading the video and editing it as a whole which was good but it was slightly difficult to get the video right due to the lack of shots which would have worked with the music well. Overall I think we could have done a better job if we had focused more on the filming of the video.

Task two

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our film opening represents different social groups from the beginning, this was important to do so people can relate to the characters and feel as if they have an understanding as to how they feel and this makes it more personal for the audience.

This also keeps the audience interested throughout the film. Focusing on the second main character(Emily)she plays a similar role to 'Kim' in 'Taken' and this is where we got our inspiration from to begin with, however our story like almost juxtaposes the plot of 'taken'. She is kept in a cage by her father and fed dog food, her father is the only person who knows about her apart from her mother who left them both whilst Isobella (Emily) was very young.

She is a very important character in our film opening. Kim is taken from her hotel room in France and is held captive as a slave for men, in our plot Emily is held captive by her father and this is the similarity between the two films. They are both around the same age also and this is important as many audiences are interested in this sort of plot and from this, we can tell that our audience is into this sort of character as they can relate to this age group well. Both of these characters are not able to get out of their situations alone and this is why the audience become interested in these characters. In the opening we are trying to capture the audiences attention by introducing a problem from the very start of the film, this is so the audience can figure out what is going on but also to make the audience want to know what will happen next.

Technologies from the process of constructing this project. Here is a picture of me using the technical equipment which includes a Mac, Tripod, camera, and I-Movie. Without these, the would not have been able to create our film opening at all so these were vital to us whilst filming and editing.

To edit our film opening, we used I movie on the mac computers as this was the easiest and quickest way for us to do so as we were already familiar with this software as we had used it in previous tasks. Using the macs made it much easier for our group to do the editing and other tasks as we all knew how to use this well.


To actually film the opening sequence, we used a hand held camera as this was also the easiest way to do this as we already now how to use this from previous experience. We has done some 'practice' tasks before shooting the opening of our film to get a good understanding on how to use this beforehand. To stop any camera shake, we used a tripod which really helped us shoot our opening. We used this for most of the opening apart from a few acceptances where is was appropriate to not do so such as when the girl is in the cage

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In this picture it shows three types of equipment that we used  to complete our opening sequence.

Tripod: this came in very handy in assuring the filming was straight and steady when it was needed. It made sure that when we were filming it made creating the shots a lot longer with steady movement, and also made when zooming much more of an ease in assuring it was kept straight. It is also good to use whilst in dark to ensure that we get a steady shot so it is easy to see. It also ensures that we get a clear shot that is not blurry.

The tripod just provides a steady, even stand for your camera, so that you are not holding the camera yourself. This means that you do not get blurred images, using your hands may cause un clear images.

Advantages and Disadvantages of using tripods;

Dis-advantages of using tripods are that they are large, take time to set-up,and can slow down the process of filming. Adjusting lens height is more time-consuming than with a monopod.

Advantages of using tripods is that they allow careful, precise composition, and help eliminate any blur that is caused by camera shake.

 

We also used a Mac computer to reaserch into other films and to help us plan our oppening sequence. The programs we used are Imovie to edit our opening sequence and to put all the film together to create a finished clip.

We also used a hand held video camera to create our oppening as we already knew how to use this as we used our own to do this instad of the schools hand held cameras. We had an advantage here as it was an HD camera whereas the schools cameras were not. Using a hand held camera was helpful as they are small and easy to carry ect and also easy to use.

Looking back at my preliminary task, I feel that I have learnt a few things since then with my editing and shooting skills. I feel hat it was important to improve these skills as I knew the film opening would need more enhanced skills to ensure that the opening is as good as it can get. I feel as if I had worked hard to ensure that I had these skills in hand. 

We have used in our opening the 180 degree rule, ensure that the mis-en-scene is right the whole way through as this is very important to keep the same. We also used flash shots, slow motion and music in our film opening which were new skills. We used the tripod also to ensure we had a steady frame. We added film titles in appropriate text to fit in with our opening and genre.

overall I think that the opening sequence to our film went a lot better than our preliminary task  as we had a better understanding on how to edit and film scenes to a better standard which really helps and I think this will be much helpful in the future. I think that our final product is good but maybe we could add some improvements such as making sure our continuity is better for example.

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

The title of the film: We put the title at the end of the opening sequence to keep the audience interested in the opening as it gives a clue as to what the film would be about and we wanted this revealed at the end to have an impression on the viewer. The title its self if is in front of a crying girl which also has an impression and clue about the genre as we know it is going to be a horror thriller. The title is called ‘HIDDEN’ and this was important to put at the end as it would have given the clue away too early in the opening and this would have made the audience less interested.

 Setting/Location: for the setting we wanted it to have a ‘dark feeling’ to it so we decided to film in an old house which had not been used for a while which had older looking objects to fit in with our genre/theme and story plot. This was important to keep the same throughout the film as it needed to make sense for the audience. The shot we have used is of the girl in the cage and this was to show where the scene was set and also gives clues to the genre.

Costumes and props: For our opening we used many of props to make the setting realistic and this is very significant as it had to be relatable. We had used: Army clothes for the main character, and we also used a cage for the other main character to use, dog food, most of the house items and many more. Every movie will use props to make the setting realistic and ensure that people understand what is happening throughout the film.

 Camera work and editing: We shot the opening with a hand held camera and we also used a tripod most of the time to keep the frame steady and to make sure we didn’t get camera shake. This was important as it made the opening look more professional. When shooting a real movie, a bigger camera will be used and a large tripod that can move to achieve smooth filming. We used the camera hand held at times when it was appropriate to do so; there was one shot where we did this to add to the effect and atmosphere of the opening. We edited our work on a Mac computer as this was easy to do and we had learnt how to edit on the program beforehand so we were familiar with this which made editing a lot easier.

 Title font and style: We wanted the title font and style to fit in with the style of opening. We found and downloaded a font type of the internet to do this, we needed the font to fit in with the genre and setting of the film opening. We used a different font for the opening credits to the main title of the film to emphasize on the main title. This can be seen in a lot of movie openings and is very effective. Story and how the opening sets it up: The story of the movie needed to be shown in the opening as this is what keeps the audience interested as they want to know what happens next. We had looked at many openings to see how they had made theirs interesting and this helped us figure out how we would do this. We added flash images to confuse the audience in a way so that they would want to watch the rest of it to make sense of what is going on. We have used the first shot for this as the audience won’t know what is really happening.

Genre and how the opening suggests it: The opening has a very dark atmosphere and this is how we wanted it so it fits our genre from the beginning. We had to ensure that we kept this up throughout the opening and the music really helped us to achieve this. The lighting was important to and we had to keep this in mind whilst filming as we needed to keep up the atmosphere.

How characters are introduced: We introduced the characters in different ways, as there were only two characters this made it a little easier to do. The first character is introduced in the very beginning of the opening and this was done to have some sense of what was going on in the film; however the introduction to the other character comes after the first introduction and this introduction is not supposed to make sense as we want the audience to wonder what is going on and what is going to happen in the rest of the film. I think we have done this quite well considering the two minuets we had to do so. 

Special effects: We did not really use any special effects in our opening as we think it would have been too early on in the film to do this. We did use some fade in effects ect to make the opening run smoothly and I think this also went well, I think we also used these effects appropriately. Many film openings are like ours and so i think we have done a good job by making it run smoothly. We have added titles and also music to make the opening better. I think all of this is very important to get exactly right as it all has an effect to the opening.

Task four. as our age certificate for our film is 15, we think that our main target audience would be from the age of 15- 20 years old. We have researched into this to see which age group would be targeted best, young children are not able to watch the film in the first place due to the content of the film it's self, and older people are not very interested in this type of film. Teenagers would be our main target audience however as it seems that they are most interested in this genre (thriller/horror) as it seems they get a thrill out of watching these types of films, it would target the type of teenagers who like scary films and who like to try and figure out the plot of the movie. This would not be a great film for those who are scared easily however. This film has been put to a certificate 15 because it would include scenes that would not be appropriate for under the age of 15 and the plot of the movie also would not be very appropriate to watch if under the age of 15.