Coursework Evaluation
Our media project consisted of 4 working individuals, Ashley Brierley, Rebecca Livesey, Lyndsay Alderson and myself, Saad-Ali Khan. Our project is based on a young man who is on the first steps of his dream which is to one day become a professional footballer and hopefully make it to the big stage. We focus this by filming his punishing but rewarding routine which consists of a healthy diet, training every day no matter what and ultimately showing the dedication that is needed at this stage if he wants to progress. My particular contributions to this task varied, I mainly directed what shots should be took where and what kind of shots should be took in order to produce an outstanding effect, on the other hand I had other minor parts such as acting for a very short while, filming with the camera and also planning.
The genre of this opening sequence is originated from the sport background. Some people could be confused by the title of the project ‘Trial + Error’ but once we explained to our audience how this fits in with the film, they fully understood. If looked at from a broad perspective this could attract the attention of any target audience, but in particular the ones that could be in the same situation as ash, and this is where we know that in some senses it feeds out inspiration to the younger audience out there. We believe that our innovations proved to be highly successful as when the other students viewed this they had a very velar understanding as to what genre it was and in particular the message we were trying to establish. Dave Chadburn from our media group suggested “I definitely knew what the opening was about, it was also good because it was energetic and entertaining to watch.
Our aim was to keep our opening as simple as we could but on the other hand for it to be effective as it could be, we conducted this with a number of elements, firstly was the choice of costume. Ash was training in a typical football outfit, which was blue shorts and a blue top, also a training jacket.
Appearance is key and as modern day football underdogs stereotypically have short haircut and a natural medium build, we thought the Ash was the perfect fit for our project. We filmed ash carrying out a number of activities, such as running, showboating with the football and also maintaining his healthy diet which is key in order for this underdog to succeed. This represents Ash as a no longer a boy, but him transferring himself into a man, a hard working man who is hungry for his never-ending success. I feel our use of lighting was clever as we start of the clip with Ash led in bed reflected by some low key lighting, also at this point there is hardly any music but only the ambient sound of the alarm clock sounding in the background, we feel this creates a sudden sense of realism and alarms the viewer. After a short while, literally 5 or 6 seconds the lighting transfers from low key to high key as soon as Ash releases himself out of bed, suddenly we change clip to show ash running, the lighting now transfers from low key to high key and we also injected fast paced, enthralling music which suits the condition of Ash’s training session, quick, fiery and energetic. This feeds out many generic conventions already such as, willingness and hard work. The use of parallel sound here we feel is very effective. Fast paced editing helps us convey this message to all viewers, also another vital message is that we want to portray the image in other peoples minds that ash is different to modern day teenagers who to be fair are stereotyped as non-energetic and very lazy. The representation is highly challenging, in this clip there are multiple times where we think strong feelings are conveyed. One of them is where Ash gets himself out of bed to train, not to go out, not to go on the computer, not to have a lie in, but to train, we think that the message conveyed here is that sacrifices’ have to be made if you even want a chance of success in life.
We as a group have discussed why we feel that media institutions could be highly interested in our product. We researched other opening sequences to films that we feel have the similar genre and context such as, rocky, million dollar baby, and goal. Using the website imdb.com we also read feedback left by people saying what they think of the film, following this we once again read the feedback we received and compared. It is the energy and desperation that I feel our opening sequence has the others don’t, also I feel that the use of camera techniques, such as handheld camera recording, and our vast range of close ups we have used, we understand that this opening sequence could have a very strong chance of being considered to be made into a film.
I feel that a target audience of around about 16-21 would sound very reasonable and ultimately understand that it is this age group that would mostly be interested in watching the film. Also this target audience is potentially the best to target as it is this age group who are dominating the cinema’s these days and go out more than any other age group. Secondary target audiences could very easily be formed, such as the 10-16 age range, but we feel that this wont have the astonishing effect that our first age group would possibly have.
We at the end of the clip leave the audience with a knowledge of ideology. They understand that this is a boy who wants to make it to professional football. However we leave them with many possible enigmas at the end such as “ Will he actually make it? “, “What’s going to happen to him next” this obviously indulges the audience into wanting to watch more of it. Our use of lighting and time of filming made it easy for the audience to understand all chronic features. They knew that Ash was training in the day as we converted from the alarm clip straight to him training, this conveyed the message that he has gone straight to his training regime. On numerous occasions using the camera we gave the audience a vivid understand of the environment he was surrounded by, an extreme long shot of the fields covered in snow, handheld camera, when he was running down the steps to emphasise the uncertainty and instability of him, and also close ups of his feet while doing tricks which made it dynamic and finally extreme close ups of his face, showing the seriousness and determination of Ashley.
I definitely learnt how to use different aspects of modern day technology throughout the time of this task, I learnt how to film using different techniques and also how lighting and editing would effect the outcome of the final product.
I as an individual feel that I contributed generously to this task, but on other occasions feel that I had let the group down as I was absent. Speaking from a broad perspective we as a group feel that we have all worked terrifically well together, and formed a great understand between each other taking on board each others comments and showing respect. I feel that we worked to out full potential on this task and feel that it a job very well done by all of us.
Thursday 30 April 2009
Monday 20 April 2009
Ashley Brierleys evaluation
Evaluation: Foundation Portfolio
Introduction
Our project was a film opening sequence called ‘Trial and Error.’ This is a film about a young football fanatic chasing his dream of playing for his favourite team. In the opening sequence we showed the teenage boy (acted by myself) training and working in order to fulfil his ambition. Our team consisted of four members myself, Saad Ali-Khan, Rebecca Livesey and Lyndsay Alderson. My initial contribution to our project was doing the acting, but I also helped with the editing and the selecting of the music.I enjoyed working in a good team with the aim of producing an interesting , well produced and popular opening sequence.
The genre of our film was sport based but with particular focus on football, and was aimed at for youngsters and teens aged from 5 to 18. We used convention to show the sport genre, we used training scenes to show this, also we used sports clothing and equipment. Our film is based around the theme of the underdog working his way up to the top, Other films use this theme such as bend it like Beckham, Goal, Rocky, we used these films as insperation . We used conventions in order to set the location and also create a genre which are both required in an opening sequence. The feedback we received was positive and we found that people found it easy to establish what genre our project was, with the 80 % of the audience questioned claiming they would purchase this film. The opening sequence introduced the main character showing him training which was ideal and required in any opening sequence.
In our sequence we have represented youngsters that have a dream to fulfil in life. Showing that you should never give up on your dreams but live your dreams .We have created an image of a teenage boy who is to be dedicated to his trade and willing to work hard in order to fulfil his dream. We have shown the dedication of this youngster by making him endure a variety of different weather conditions during his training and showing him battle against the elements. Again to show the sport genre the costume worn by the character was always football clothing and the shorts in all weather showed again the characters commitment. This determination was also shown in the activities he was doing as there was several gruelling running scenes. We have created this image to give the audience the feeling that they want to get up, join in and do something active. Also to show the audience that despite the rising obesity levels in the young there are still youngster out there who are fit and striving for their dreams. The audience will be on the main characters side and live his dream with him and enjoy his successes and endure his challenges.
We have focussed our film on sport, but more specifically football as football is a popular, world-wide watched sport and therefore should attract a big audience. This film could be watched by both male and female as football is now a sport played by both male and female. The target audience for this film would be aged between 12 and 25 as it is based around a teenage character and would catch their interest and they would be able to relate best to the character as they are of a similar age. Our secondary target is likely to be families as it could be seen as a family film, this would also be a good audience as it is a large group who enjoy doing activities and spending leisure time together. From the audience we surveyed about our film the people aged 12-16 mostly claimed they would like to watch the film. A positive reaction from our target audience means that we are targeting the right audience and this should prove a successful project.
Our opening sequence would be likely to be produced by a company such as Fox searchlight pictures, as they have produced films of this genre before, also this would be ideal as being an American company this will create and audience in America. An American company would be interested in this film with obesity levels at a high in America this feel may influence youngsters participate in sport or exercise. From the feedback we receive such comments as ‘I loved it ‘ were used .
We attracted the audience by leaving enigmas as the audience initially are left wondering what the character is training for. The enigmas are answered by the scene of the poster explaining about the football trials which attracts the audience as it sets the story in motion and sets the scene for the young athlete’s adventure. Also by using quick short scenes the opening sequence has a fast and interesting pace to it. The use of fast and exciting music also contributes to creating the fast pace to attract the audience. Natural lighting is used in order to create the real life feel for the audience. The idea behind the pace of the opening sequence is a message about how life can easily pass you by and to strive to get what you want now. The audience is propelled to watch the rest of the film as they want to see whether the young teen reaches his dream or whether he is set for a life of failure.
We used many different types of technology during our project; I learnt many different things about those technologies. Before starting the filming for our opening sequence we conducted some research creating a blog to assist us as it was used as diary / instructions to organise and order procedures taken. I also used you tube to help research existing opening sequences to give us ideas and guidance for our own project. I learnt how to film using a camera properly and learnt how to use different angles
Introduction
Our project was a film opening sequence called ‘Trial and Error.’ This is a film about a young football fanatic chasing his dream of playing for his favourite team. In the opening sequence we showed the teenage boy (acted by myself) training and working in order to fulfil his ambition. Our team consisted of four members myself, Saad Ali-Khan, Rebecca Livesey and Lyndsay Alderson. My initial contribution to our project was doing the acting, but I also helped with the editing and the selecting of the music.I enjoyed working in a good team with the aim of producing an interesting , well produced and popular opening sequence.
The genre of our film was sport based but with particular focus on football, and was aimed at for youngsters and teens aged from 5 to 18. We used convention to show the sport genre, we used training scenes to show this, also we used sports clothing and equipment. Our film is based around the theme of the underdog working his way up to the top, Other films use this theme such as bend it like Beckham, Goal, Rocky, we used these films as insperation . We used conventions in order to set the location and also create a genre which are both required in an opening sequence. The feedback we received was positive and we found that people found it easy to establish what genre our project was, with the 80 % of the audience questioned claiming they would purchase this film. The opening sequence introduced the main character showing him training which was ideal and required in any opening sequence.
In our sequence we have represented youngsters that have a dream to fulfil in life. Showing that you should never give up on your dreams but live your dreams .We have created an image of a teenage boy who is to be dedicated to his trade and willing to work hard in order to fulfil his dream. We have shown the dedication of this youngster by making him endure a variety of different weather conditions during his training and showing him battle against the elements. Again to show the sport genre the costume worn by the character was always football clothing and the shorts in all weather showed again the characters commitment. This determination was also shown in the activities he was doing as there was several gruelling running scenes. We have created this image to give the audience the feeling that they want to get up, join in and do something active. Also to show the audience that despite the rising obesity levels in the young there are still youngster out there who are fit and striving for their dreams. The audience will be on the main characters side and live his dream with him and enjoy his successes and endure his challenges.
We have focussed our film on sport, but more specifically football as football is a popular, world-wide watched sport and therefore should attract a big audience. This film could be watched by both male and female as football is now a sport played by both male and female. The target audience for this film would be aged between 12 and 25 as it is based around a teenage character and would catch their interest and they would be able to relate best to the character as they are of a similar age. Our secondary target is likely to be families as it could be seen as a family film, this would also be a good audience as it is a large group who enjoy doing activities and spending leisure time together. From the audience we surveyed about our film the people aged 12-16 mostly claimed they would like to watch the film. A positive reaction from our target audience means that we are targeting the right audience and this should prove a successful project.
Our opening sequence would be likely to be produced by a company such as Fox searchlight pictures, as they have produced films of this genre before, also this would be ideal as being an American company this will create and audience in America. An American company would be interested in this film with obesity levels at a high in America this feel may influence youngsters participate in sport or exercise. From the feedback we receive such comments as ‘I loved it ‘ were used .
We attracted the audience by leaving enigmas as the audience initially are left wondering what the character is training for. The enigmas are answered by the scene of the poster explaining about the football trials which attracts the audience as it sets the story in motion and sets the scene for the young athlete’s adventure. Also by using quick short scenes the opening sequence has a fast and interesting pace to it. The use of fast and exciting music also contributes to creating the fast pace to attract the audience. Natural lighting is used in order to create the real life feel for the audience. The idea behind the pace of the opening sequence is a message about how life can easily pass you by and to strive to get what you want now. The audience is propelled to watch the rest of the film as they want to see whether the young teen reaches his dream or whether he is set for a life of failure.
We used many different types of technology during our project; I learnt many different things about those technologies. Before starting the filming for our opening sequence we conducted some research creating a blog to assist us as it was used as diary / instructions to organise and order procedures taken. I also used you tube to help research existing opening sequences to give us ideas and guidance for our own project. I learnt how to film using a camera properly and learnt how to use different angles
Tuesday 7 April 2009
Evaluation - Lyndsay
Trial and Error
Evaluation
For the project I created an opening sequence to a British sports genre film. I am aiming it at 16 – 35 year olds, as these are the target audience people that most regularly go to the cinema and would be interested in this kind of film, as the main character is a teenager with aspirations which many people can link to. I worked with Rebecca Livesey, Ashley Brierley and Saad-Ali Khan. In the project I contributed to the filming process but contributed a great deal more towards the editing process.
As the opening sequence is a sport genre, particularly football, I have used a range of conventions in the sequence. For example, I used a lot of shots of our main character (Ashley) training and kicking a football.
It was vital I use these kinds of shots to get the message across that Ashley is training for a football trial. I didn’t use typical camera work as I filmed some of them with handheld camera, which did make it look less professional, but in the end looked good when I edited them together with the better shots. We used shots such as close ups on his feet and low angles to show off his speed and dominance over his training. 
It is important to do something new to the genre as it appeals to the audience and makes them more interested to watch the film. I believe as a group that our idea for the film sequence would be successful as sport is popular with most teens and a sport-orientated film would also be popular. I found out in our research that other sport films such as Goal and Bend it like Beckham were very popular with our target audience. Goal made £857,253 in its opening weekend, and Bend it like Beckham made £2,001,795.The choices I made with the project worked effectively as the genre, main character, plot etc. was clear and easy to understand.
The use of costumes and props (mise en scene) are aspects that help get this message across. The costumes I used were a football kit and street wear, which is very typical of a footballer that also helps get the genre of the film across.
By showing a young person in a positive light I am trying to offer an alternative representation to the audience. Young people are generally shown in a negative light and seen to be thugs or anti social, so I am hoping to send out a message that young people aren’t all the same. By showing our character training in all weathers, the editing of these shots together shows his energy and passion to succeed. Also the fast pace editing helps to convey this.
The opening sequence I have produced is likely to be produced by someone like Fox searchlight pictures, as this company distributed another film of this genre. This was Bend It Like Beckham. They have the money to distribute the film and show it on lots of screens. If an American distributor distributed our product it may appeal to the audience more and sell easier in the UK, as many British distributors find it difficult to sell their films in the UK and abroad without any kind of American input. An American company would want this film because it provides an insight into what teens aspire to achieve and would have global appeal because of the football side of it. Football is a world wide played sport and would be appealing to anyone who plays or watches football themselves. We showcased our sequence to the target audience and feedback shows that the majority enjoyed it as they said things like “I loved it” and said that it made them want to watch the film.
As I have chosen a sport genre, our film is likely to be appealing to anyone who is interested in sport, particularly football. However, our film is aimed at teenagers from 16 - 35 as these are the kind of people that if they are part of a team, aspire to go far in it and therefore do their up most to achieve this. Just like I have shown in our film sequence. Obviously with it having a football theme it is more likely to appeal to boys than girls, but I feel that many girls with enjoy this film too because nowadays there are just as many girls that enjoy football as boys do. Our feedback has shown that girls also like the storyline of our film and would want to watch it.
In our opening sequence, we used a lot of different aspects to attract our target audience, and also used many conventions to clearly get the genre across. Firstly, we set up the equilibrium by introducing the main character in the first shot to show that he is the main character.
By showing him waking up, this leaves enigmas as the audience doesn’t know what the genre is or what he is doing. We then introduced a disruption. This was Ashley jumping up out of bed and instantly starting an active training session. This again leaves enigmas, as we don’t exactly know what he is training for. This is later made clear when we see shots of a poster about football trials, hence the name ‘Trial and Error’.
To create a sense of time passing in the sequence, we showed Ashley training in different places, in different clothes and in different weathers to show his determination to succeed in the football trial. With our opening sequence, I think that we are trying to get the message across that young people aren’t as they are shown to be in the media, as I mentioned earlier I am showing young people in a positive light. As well as showing this, we have tried to create a sense of conflict as this is a feature film. We have created the conflict that he is racing against time to get himself ready for the football trial, this is shown with him training a lot in all weathers. One aspect we have used to make an interesting looking sequence is the music and editing. I have used a soundtrack that is upbeat and edited the shots in a fast pace to fit with the music and help get a sense of the genre.
From the process of constructing this product, I have learnt a great deal about technologies. I have learnt a lot about how to use imovie, such as complex features to create effects, but there are aspects of it that I am still unsure about how to use. As well as using new things to create the product, I have also used old technologies that I am familiar with. I used the Internet to search on sites like youtube.com to look at other opening sequences with the same genre as ours in order to get a sense of how ours should look. There weren’t any real limitations when using the moviemaker software to create our product, I found that we were able to use the software to create the kind of opening sequence we wanted to. In the process of making our product, I worked out how to use features such as embedding video to put our preliminary task onto our blog page.
Looking back at the preliminary task, I feel that I have progressed a lot. When I made the preliminary task with the others in my group, we made a few simple mistakes such as not having the correct angle on a shot and editing them together in a way that made it look jerky. I feel that in the final product this was not the case as editing didn’t look jerky or out of place and we had all the right angles on our shots. For example, the close up shot of his feet running and kicking the football and the shot where he jumps over the camera and runs off. As well as this, we didn’t really manage to get the story across well in our preliminary task. As the shots were jerky it made the conversation between Rebecca and Ash look very unrealistic, but I was able to create a good story and realistic looking editing in our final product.
Overall I feel that the project went well. A key strength was us being able to work well as a team to create a good opening sequence. As well as us being able to work well together I feel that there were weaknesses in the process. One of these is the fact that we were keen to get all the shots done in a short space of time to allow us more time to edit the shots together, but by doing this many of our shots weren’t at good angles or were wobbly. Aside from this, the feedback we have received has shown that people enjoyed it, were able to understand the storyline and would want to watch the film, so this shows our film sequence is a success.
Evaluation
For the project I created an opening sequence to a British sports genre film. I am aiming it at 16 – 35 year olds, as these are the target audience people that most regularly go to the cinema and would be interested in this kind of film, as the main character is a teenager with aspirations which many people can link to. I worked with Rebecca Livesey, Ashley Brierley and Saad-Ali Khan. In the project I contributed to the filming process but contributed a great deal more towards the editing process.
As the opening sequence is a sport genre, particularly football, I have used a range of conventions in the sequence. For example, I used a lot of shots of our main character (Ashley) training and kicking a football.
It was vital I use these kinds of shots to get the message across that Ashley is training for a football trial. I didn’t use typical camera work as I filmed some of them with handheld camera, which did make it look less professional, but in the end looked good when I edited them together with the better shots. We used shots such as close ups on his feet and low angles to show off his speed and dominance over his training. 
It is important to do something new to the genre as it appeals to the audience and makes them more interested to watch the film. I believe as a group that our idea for the film sequence would be successful as sport is popular with most teens and a sport-orientated film would also be popular. I found out in our research that other sport films such as Goal and Bend it like Beckham were very popular with our target audience. Goal made £857,253 in its opening weekend, and Bend it like Beckham made £2,001,795.The choices I made with the project worked effectively as the genre, main character, plot etc. was clear and easy to understand.
There is one particular social group that I have represented in our film. Young people are represented in a positive light as I am showing that if a young person has a dream, then they strive to fulfill it and do whatever it takes. I have represented them by showing our main character training in all weathers and in different ways to get him ready for a football trial.
The use of costumes and props (mise en scene) are aspects that help get this message across. The costumes I used were a football kit and street wear, which is very typical of a footballer that also helps get the genre of the film across.
By showing a young person in a positive light I am trying to offer an alternative representation to the audience. Young people are generally shown in a negative light and seen to be thugs or anti social, so I am hoping to send out a message that young people aren’t all the same. By showing our character training in all weathers, the editing of these shots together shows his energy and passion to succeed. Also the fast pace editing helps to convey this.
The opening sequence I have produced is likely to be produced by someone like Fox searchlight pictures, as this company distributed another film of this genre. This was Bend It Like Beckham. They have the money to distribute the film and show it on lots of screens. If an American distributor distributed our product it may appeal to the audience more and sell easier in the UK, as many British distributors find it difficult to sell their films in the UK and abroad without any kind of American input. An American company would want this film because it provides an insight into what teens aspire to achieve and would have global appeal because of the football side of it. Football is a world wide played sport and would be appealing to anyone who plays or watches football themselves. We showcased our sequence to the target audience and feedback shows that the majority enjoyed it as they said things like “I loved it” and said that it made them want to watch the film.
As I have chosen a sport genre, our film is likely to be appealing to anyone who is interested in sport, particularly football. However, our film is aimed at teenagers from 16 - 35 as these are the kind of people that if they are part of a team, aspire to go far in it and therefore do their up most to achieve this. Just like I have shown in our film sequence. Obviously with it having a football theme it is more likely to appeal to boys than girls, but I feel that many girls with enjoy this film too because nowadays there are just as many girls that enjoy football as boys do. Our feedback has shown that girls also like the storyline of our film and would want to watch it.
In our opening sequence, we used a lot of different aspects to attract our target audience, and also used many conventions to clearly get the genre across. Firstly, we set up the equilibrium by introducing the main character in the first shot to show that he is the main character.
By showing him waking up, this leaves enigmas as the audience doesn’t know what the genre is or what he is doing. We then introduced a disruption. This was Ashley jumping up out of bed and instantly starting an active training session. This again leaves enigmas, as we don’t exactly know what he is training for. This is later made clear when we see shots of a poster about football trials, hence the name ‘Trial and Error’.
To create a sense of time passing in the sequence, we showed Ashley training in different places, in different clothes and in different weathers to show his determination to succeed in the football trial. With our opening sequence, I think that we are trying to get the message across that young people aren’t as they are shown to be in the media, as I mentioned earlier I am showing young people in a positive light. As well as showing this, we have tried to create a sense of conflict as this is a feature film. We have created the conflict that he is racing against time to get himself ready for the football trial, this is shown with him training a lot in all weathers. One aspect we have used to make an interesting looking sequence is the music and editing. I have used a soundtrack that is upbeat and edited the shots in a fast pace to fit with the music and help get a sense of the genre.
From the process of constructing this product, I have learnt a great deal about technologies. I have learnt a lot about how to use imovie, such as complex features to create effects, but there are aspects of it that I am still unsure about how to use. As well as using new things to create the product, I have also used old technologies that I am familiar with. I used the Internet to search on sites like youtube.com to look at other opening sequences with the same genre as ours in order to get a sense of how ours should look. There weren’t any real limitations when using the moviemaker software to create our product, I found that we were able to use the software to create the kind of opening sequence we wanted to. In the process of making our product, I worked out how to use features such as embedding video to put our preliminary task onto our blog page.
Looking back at the preliminary task, I feel that I have progressed a lot. When I made the preliminary task with the others in my group, we made a few simple mistakes such as not having the correct angle on a shot and editing them together in a way that made it look jerky. I feel that in the final product this was not the case as editing didn’t look jerky or out of place and we had all the right angles on our shots. For example, the close up shot of his feet running and kicking the football and the shot where he jumps over the camera and runs off. As well as this, we didn’t really manage to get the story across well in our preliminary task. As the shots were jerky it made the conversation between Rebecca and Ash look very unrealistic, but I was able to create a good story and realistic looking editing in our final product.
Overall I feel that the project went well. A key strength was us being able to work well as a team to create a good opening sequence. As well as us being able to work well together I feel that there were weaknesses in the process. One of these is the fact that we were keen to get all the shots done in a short space of time to allow us more time to edit the shots together, but by doing this many of our shots weren’t at good angles or were wobbly. Aside from this, the feedback we have received has shown that people enjoyed it, were able to understand the storyline and would want to watch the film, so this shows our film sequence is a success.
My project is an opening sequence to a film, targeted at the audience of 12-30 year olds. I worked with Lyndsay Alderson, Ashley Brierley and Saad-Ali Khan. For the project, I did a lot of the camera work and also contributed greatly towards the editing process.
As the sequence is one of a sports genre, we used certain conventions to portray this. One obvious convention being Ashley (the main character) training for a football trial which he is aiming to get through. We made this obvious by using shots such as him kicking the ball make the genre obvious. Also, the music used is upbeat and young which is aimed at the target audience. If slow, scary music was to be used, it would not fit with the sequence as the film is fast paced and exciting. The fact that the sequence is so fast paced means the music is a vital element in the project as this helps to set the correct mood when an audience is watching the film. Our group believed the ideas we had for the sequence would be successful because sport is popular within the 12-30 year old age range and this film could maybe inspire them. We also decided to use shots of him running and doing press ups as this would break up the sequence, and also shows the amount of hard work would need to be done in order for him to reach his goal.
As the sequence is one of a sports genre, we used certain conventions to portray this. One obvious convention being Ashley (the main character) training for a football trial which he is aiming to get through. We made this obvious by using shots such as him kicking the ball make the genre obvious. Also, the music used is upbeat and young which is aimed at the target audience. If slow, scary music was to be used, it would not fit with the sequence as the film is fast paced and exciting. The fact that the sequence is so fast paced means the music is a vital element in the project as this helps to set the correct mood when an audience is watching the film. Our group believed the ideas we had for the sequence would be successful because sport is popular within the 12-30 year old age range and this film could maybe inspire them. We also decided to use shots of him running and doing press ups as this would break up the sequence, and also shows the amount of hard work would need to be done in order for him to reach his goal.
I believe the choices we made, such as making the sequence fast paced and using upbeat music worked well. I believe this because after creating a questionnaire for people in the class, they knew the genre straight away, and said the reason for this is because of the genre conventions used. The pace is apparently very accurate and correct, and the music goes well with the sequence according to the feedback as 100% of the audience said this. As the film is aimed at younger teenagers, I thought it would be good to use a sixteen year old to act out the role of the main character. This would automatically interest the target audience more than it would if we were to use a man the age of thirty. Ashley is wearing a typical football training kit, and also general street wear whilst running and exercising. This adheres to the stereotype of a ‘football crazy’ boy. Also, as he is the main role in the sequence, this may lead to inspire young football fans to chase after their dreams. From the feedback we have received, it is obvious who he is and what he is aiming for.
The film I have helped to produce is most likely be distributed by a British production company, as football is an extremely popular sport in the UK. An example of a good production company would be Film38 Ltd, as they are known for being hardworking and filming every genre you may wish for! From horror to sci-fi, even to drama and sport! I believe they would consider backing our product because sport is a big issue in the UK and young teenagers would love more films they can associate themselves with. As said above, our film is targeted at young teenage boys. The reason for this is because these fit into the stereotype of young, British teenagers. As sport has a big impact on mainly boys of this age, this audience would pay to watch the film at the cinema and they will also pay to buy the DVD.
For the film sequence we set up the Equilibrium by the main character (Ash) training for football, as this is what the film is about, therefore establishing the genre. As the music is fast paced and upbeat, this helps to set up the Equilibrium also. The fact that Ash is constantly racing against time to get through the trial is the conflict, which is set up in our opening sequence. To try and create a sense of time, I thought trying to represent Ash training for the trial over a number of different seasons would be effective. To make this work, we filmed in many different weathers, such as snow and rain, to show the determination, in all weathers. The ideologies the sequence suggests are the typical, young boy stereotype. Young British boys are known to be football fanatic and this film is about a boy crazy about football chasing his dream. This may then influence teenagers who have the same dream. As the film opening is fast paced, I didn’t think it would be a good idea to use any transitions as this would take away the pace. We were trying to promote positive ideologies about teens, so to do this we tried to show them as up-beat and determined. This is different to the current media representations as in the media they are portrayed as drug addicts who are a huge threat to society. Another important element of media language I made sure to be correct was the clip length. Every shot had to be of the same length (2 seconds) to ensure the pace is kept and builds adrenalin.
To help the group to construct our product, I used the internet to research certain elements of the genre of film we used. For example, I used ‘YouTube’ to search for films such as ‘Bend It Like Beckham’ to look at the pace, the mise en scene, costumes etc. I also used certain websites to research audiences for certain genres. Before this project, I didn’t have any skills on the movie editor. I now know how to use complex effects, how to add transitions and how to cut clips. Also, I have learned how to hold a camera properly and how to make sure it Is straight. I found a problem when trying to find any suitable transitions for our project. As the sequence is fast, there weren’t any transitions that seemed to fit properly. When we put all our filming on for the first time, we realized we needed many more shots of Ash just simply kicking the ball or quick shots of him running. Our shots were too slow, so this took a long time to be redone.
Looking back at the preliminary task, I feel I have learned many more skills using a camera and also the editing software. For example, my composition of shots improved quite a lot and I also made sure I held the camera correctly and steadily. I also learned how to use the editing software, for example cutting shots at playheads and also repeating the shots throughout the sequence, which I could not do successfully before.
Overall, I think the project turned out better than expected. At first, I didn’t have much confidence in it as a sport genre only seems to have a restricted audience and it is also extremely challenging to keep up the fast pace of the film. However, we managed to use the software correctly and ensure all the shots were the same length in order to keep up the pace and also used specific genre conventions, such as footballs, weights and training kits. I believe all our skills have improved greatly and also feel the group worked well together.
BECKIE LIVESEY
Monday 26 January 2009
Trial and Error - Final Video
This is our final version of our media coursework. As a group, we believe the piece worked out better than planned and worked well as a team to create an opening sequence.
At some points, filming was wobbly and in points doesn't look very professional, however we tried our best to maintain the steady focus through all the shots. During the editing process, disagreements happened and we struggled to decide the order of our sequence, but in the end we worked it out and figured out a decent order.
BECKIE
When editing our shots it took us a while to figure out what went well together as we weren't sure at first. We were able to make some of the wobbly shots fit in with the sequence and we are pleased with our final piece.
LYNDSAY
The music we used went well with our filming as the timing of the music fitted with the timing of the filming sequence , we adjusted the music in order to fit in with the sequence, as when the training starts the music kicks in . This also helps create the pace with our project as the music is fast paced and upbeat .
ASHLEY
Overall we are very pleased with our performance and our teamwork with each other as we together learnt that we must work together and put in the full time and show full dedication to the project in order to create a substantial and well created opening sequence.
Thursday 22 January 2009
FINISHED!!
Today we have finished our opening sequence.
We edited a few clips and changed a few of them to fit in with the track and make the whole thing look good.
We are pleased with our opening sequence and have done our best to make a good opening sequence.
LYNDSAY ALDERSON
Monday 19 January 2009
Editing 18/1/09
Today we were slightly concerned as we didnt think we would get any more film footage than our 1:29 seconds, so we put our titles over black which gave us the minimal 2 minutes of film that we needed. Also it added a lot of effect and a sense of professionilism. We now have our finished product and are just tinkering with the clips to get everything to fit in with the track.
SAAD
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