Estate of Mind - Final Cut

Estate of mind from Jemma Goulds on Vimeo.

Evaluation Question Six & Seven

What have you learnt about the technologies of from the process of constructing this product?

Adobe Premier Pro CS4

Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, was the first piece of editing software I came across when I first started Media, Most of my group and I had never come across it before, and the very first time we used this programme was when we created our short film for our preliminary task.

We required help when using this programme from both our teachers and media technicians, some of us who were really finding it hard to adjust to using this programme used tutorials from the internet which helped me in particular when I was trying add music & sound to our project, cut unwanted parts of our filming, and really move out footage around with the freedom of a professional.

This programme assisted us in creating our opening sequence. we imported recorded footage into Premiere Pro and cut it so that it fits perfectly with our soundtrack and titles. This stage of our production is vital if we wished to create the desired effect an really reach out to our audience.

This programme made our opening sequence look extremely professional and also gave us some extra knowledge on how to edit videos. This is good as many other production companies or title editors use Premiere Pro, so if we are able to master these skills then it would help us in later life if we decided to go into a media profession.

Adobe After Effects CS4

After Effects CS4, was another programme we used and belonged to the Adobe family, This made it much more easier to use for the first time than Abdoe Premiere Pro CS4 was when we first used it.

I thought that Premiere Pro was a lot more easier to use than After Effects, this is because After Effects is a lot more complicated with the locations of the effects and the layout of the entire programme is quite confusing. I spent most of my time on After effects, as this is what I was involved in when doing my bit for my group. I managed to master the use of this programme to create our opening sequence titles. Using various effects to try and make our opening sequence look as professional as possible.

Cameras

In the beginning when we worked on our preliminary task we used Sony Handy Cam, all of our footage was recorded onto a tape and we had to 'capture' this footage via Premiere Pro. The quality on these camera's were not very good and because they worked with a tape, it meant that if a tape was lost or someone had left it at home, it could cause major problems.

These cameras were given to us for both of the projects we worked on, these were a little more convenient as they did not work on tape, and for us to receive our footage we could just 'capture' it straight from the camera itself. The sound on these cameras were a lot better, which meant we could record voice-overs, which is exactly what we did for our opening sequence when we used the split screen and the voice-over 'It wasnt always like this' was spoken.

Vimeo

Vimeo was the programme which we used to upload most of our videos, this is because Vimeo is more reliable than other video hosting sites such as Google and Youtube, as videos on these sites can be deleted at any time for being disruptive of offensive, Vimeo is more private which was perfect for all of our media projects.

Evaluation Question Five

How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation Question Four

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Q4 evaluation

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Evaluation Question Three

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Part One

estate of mind eval act3 part 1 from Jemma Goulds on Vimeo.

Part Two

estate of mind eval act 3 part 2 from Jemma Goulds on Vimeo.

Evaluation Question Two

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

On the left is Terry (me) a character from our short film ‘Estate of Mind’ opening sequence, on the right is Trife (Aml Ameen) a character from ‘Kidulthood’ They both play similar roles in these two films. Terry is a young man who tries to change his ways of drugs and gang violence to support Josephine and her child. Trife is also a character in Kidulthood who has gotten his girlfriend pregnant and tells her that he will stay by her side; she doesn’t want him to be a part of a gang and wants him to turn his life around. In the end both these characters die. It shows the emotion of the whole situation and that exiting a life of crime is not as easy as when you entered and there is always going to be obstacles in your way you will have to fight in order to escape and create a better life for yourself.

Both these characters are conventional to the genre of an urban drama; they are used as secretly soft characters with a side of them which only true love can expose, they are characters which an audience will become emotionally attached to and can really relate to how this character is feeling even if they have never been in a similar situation.

They are both wearing dark clothing and are both black males, this is a stereotype of all black males to be in a gang or involved in crime one way or another. What both these characters try to do is create a countertype character which tries their very best to do exactly the opposite of what the stereotype is expecting them to do. This gives the audience hope that this character will make a difference and break out of the cycle, which is the whole point of the film, however, in the end, sadly the audiences dreams are shattered as both these characters die, but they haven’t died in vain and have changed the lives of those around them for the better.

Evaluation Question One

YOA Productions - Estate of Mind

Revolver Entertainment - Adulthood

Here are some selected snapshots of two films, Our YOA Productions film, Estate of Mind and Revolver Entertainments, Adulthood.

Estate of Mind

The Title of the Film

1. The first snapshot is he title of our film 'Estate of Mind' we chose this title and a motto to support it which was 'An estate is not only a low class building it is a state of mind' .

Title Font & Style

2. The second snapshot is me focusing on the font and style of the title itself. As you will be able to see there is a blur on the title background this is done purposely to give the effect of a shadow and darkness, this gives the audience the impression that our film will be about characters who are always being stereotyped as being the whole reason behind the 'Estate of Mind' hence the shadow.

Location

3. Snapshot 3 is of the location, this is very important when identifying our genre and target audience, because we needed to locate in an area which our genre of an urban drama and for the audience of a young, usually ethic teenager a location such as Buckingham Palace, would not be conventional to either the audience and the genre of our film.

Camera work & Editing

4. This shot is of a vodka bottle's contents being 'un-poured' into a glass. This scene is very effective as it shows our skills of editing and what skills we have in order to manipulate our footage, it also suggests the storyline as this could be interpreted by the audience as the storyline sort of going back in time, and also showing things from the past, hence the black and white effect and the final like spoken in our opening sequence 'It wasn't always like this'.

Costumes & Props

5. This shot focuses on Josephine's face, this shot shows her smoking a cigarette the significance of the cigarette is to show the addiction of which we have talked so much about in our blog so far, we tried to show this in the best possible way we could.

Genre, And How It Is Suggested

6. This shot shows cocaine being shown on the table, this scene is used to show how drug taking is usually associated with people from an urban background and people that normally live on estates are usually stereotyped as drug addicts. As we chose a genre of an urban drama, this shows the stereotype of drug addicts and in some ways enforces it.

How The Characters Are Introduced

7. This shot is of Terry (me) being followed by Myrin. This is a scene where the audience can sense that something is about to happen to Terry as the suspense and tension has been dragged along across a long period of time period to this particular where the confrontation actually begins.

Storyline, And How It Is Set Up

8. This shot shows Myrin grappling Terry against the wall. For someone who is yet to watch our film or even be aware of its storyline they will be able to make out that Myrin is a character which is more dominant than Terry and makes it seem like Terry is a character who has done something wrong in the past and maybe Myrin wants revenge, which is basically the basis of our synopsis. During our opening sequence we decided on an enigma code which means we were not prepared to give away too many answers in our opening sequence but leave our audience asking many questions.

Special Effects

9.The last scene of our opening sequence is of a split screen between me, Myrin and Josephine. This is the scene where we all come together and say the words 'It wasn't always like this' which could have easily been the title of our film, these words sum up our whole purpose of the film and again leave many wondering 'what wasn't always like this?' and 'how have things changed?'. Which made our opening sequence very enticing and make our audience want to watch the whole of our film

Adulthood

The Title of The Film

1. The first shot is of the title of the film 'Adulthood' This is a follow up from the film 'Kidulthood'. which had the same distributor, Revolver Entertainment, and the same creator; Noel Clarke.

Title Font & Style

2. The second snapshot is of the title itself, the 'd' in the 'Kidulthood' and 'Adulthood' is the only letter which is lower case, and the reason for this is that it is the only letter that is both is the words 'Kid' and 'Adult' which is used to represent that fact that some things never change, no matter how old you are.

Location

3. Adulthood, is set in the same town as our film, London. This was crucial when trying to find a film which was much like ours, and this is the main reason why we chose this film over films such as 'One day' and 'Dead man running' because they are not in the same location as our film. London is seen as a more exciting place that other places in England, which is important if a film like Adulthood wishes to gain a more worldwide appeal.

Camera work & Editing

4. This shot is of a split screen, this is a shot which is something like what we did in my last snapshot frame, this shows how good we became at using the programmes we were using the same things that our influences are using, and using them to create a similar effect.

Costumes & Props

5. In this shot, this shows Sam wearing a jail attire as this is him in prison and this is used to express that you can identify from what all the people in this scene are wearing that they are in prison, this just shows how important costumes are in scenes.

Genre, And How It Is Suggested

6. This shot is of a crowd dancing to music which is being played, the genre of music is important in this scene as the music being played is grime, and grime is usually associated among people from an ethnic background and from urban areas, other genre's which would have been acceptable possibly would have been, hip-hop, rap and RnB. However, if there was Pop, Jazz, or even classical music being played you would be wondering what is going on and thinking the audio had been switched.

How The Characters Are Introduced

7. In this scene, Sam is coming out of prison, after doing time for killing Trife in Kidulthood. This lets the audience know that the film carrying on from where it left off and that most of the same cast from the previous film is going to be used.

Storyline, And How It Is Set Up

8. This shot shows a couple of youths in a group talking about robbing a man who is parked outside the rave in his car, this gives the audience an idea that the whole film is going to include this group of youngsters doing these reckless activities. This is part of the plot of the film where they are asked to kill Sam and are paid for it.

Special Effects

9. This shot is of a flashback being used, this is also something we used in our opening sequence, a black and white effect is used when showing a flashback and expresses that what is being shown is something relevant to the storyline.

Target Audience Research

This is a table showing a group of teenagers which we used to find out what genre films they enjoyed the most.

Production Brief

Opening Sequence Title – Estate of Mind- 2 minutes

Group Members

Terry as himself (Co-Editor & Drug Addict), Myrin as himself (Co-Editor & Drug Dealer), Josephine as herself (Producer & Drug Addict) & Duane (Editor, Director & Camera-man

Content Overview

The film follow the life’s of to young south London teenagers trying to find a way to escape their lifestyle but are really leading themselves to their death. Josephine is a 17 year old mother, who is addicted to alcohol and drugs, she doesn’t realise that what she is doing is not only dangerous and harmful to her, but it also has a significant effect on the people around her, especially her 8 month old baby.

She is juggling the life of a teenager with motherhood and is finding it difficult to cope; she doesn't want to take care of her baby as she feels this requires time and dedication two things which she does not have. Josephine likes to party, which you should be able to see from the opening sequence, she is out one night when she is confronted by a man (Myrin) offering her drugs, she has just come out of the club where she has spent most of her money, she doesn’t have enough for the drugs, but she is reluctant to turn down such an offer, she tells Myrin that she doesn’t have any money on her, but promises to pay him on a later date is he gives her the drugs in exchange for her phone number.

Josephine goes home with three of her friends, while she exits the room to go to the toilet, her friends go into her bag and open the bag of cocaine which Myrin has given her, when Josephine comes back her friends have already gone through half of the bag, one of her friends tells her that this bag is one which she has brought from home, so Josephine is more than happy to join in.

Later on that night she realises that the bag she had bought from Myrin has gone missing and she starts to suspect that the bag which they all took from had in fact been the bag she had bought of Myrin, she asks her mother for money, but she refuses, and Josephine soon realises that she is in trouble. She doesn’t have enough money to pay Myrin back. One day Myrin follows Josephine home and takes her baby from her.

Terry (me) is also 17 years old trying to make something of his life but finds himself confined to selling drugs on a estate but there are other dealers who want to see him dead so he starts to carry weapons. When he gets to a dead end he realizes that “Bad boys don’t have to stay bad forever” and changes his life proving society wrong that teenagers can change.

Josephine and Terry fall in love. Terry tries to get Josephine out of the trouble she is in and get her child back but this just makes Myrin, Terry’s enemy mad. Terry gets killed and Josephine escapes.

Target Audience

Our target audience is both male and female teenagers from different backgrounds, different likes and dislikes because every teenager knows about the drug dealers, gangs, weapons and killings whether it is from seen on the news or in real life. The film includes everything that is happening in real life from selling drugs on an estate to robbing teenagers on the streets for no reason. Every teenager knows about what goes on, on the streets that they live on especially if they live in London.

Research

In researching for our opening we looked at films and programs that are dramas and are targeted at teenagers. From this research we were able to see what type of things interests and attract teenagers to the program/ movie. It then gave us an idea of what are opening was going to include to make our film exciting and an attractable opening. Also from watching mainly dramas we was able to see what conventions a drama has, that we need to include. Our main influence was Kidulthood.

How will we check the movies success

To see if our opening is a success we will show it to the class and a fewer friends to see if they would watch this film. We expect that we will get a positives and negatives, which we want so that we will be able to improve our film to make sure that we attract as much of our target audience as we can. After we have improved the film opening we will re-show it and see what the audiences think about it, this way we make sure that our opening will be the best it can be and the way the audience wants it.

Conventions of a drama:

• Serious
• Realistic character
• Realistic settings
• Real life situations
• Plot driven
• Development of characters

The problems that we may encounter:

• Not all of us are based at one site so we will not be able to meet during breaks to discuss and work on our films
  
• We will only have certain days which we can film because of other subjects which may cause a problem because other people may need to use the cameras on days that we are free to us
  
• We will not be able to take the HD camera off school site
  
• We will need a lot of help with using Adobe Premier Pro and Adobe After Effects as we have never used them before.

Location

When In search for a location, this is a list of what we were looking for:

• A city view of London
  
• An Estate
  
• An open space (prefrably indoors)
  
• A Living room
  

And this is what we found...

Carpark - South Norwood

This is the location in fron of the estate, where we filmed Myrin following me.

Estate - South Norwood (Confrontation Scene)

This is the estate of which our short film was based around we used this estate for various shots in our opening sequence. Including the tracking shot of me entering the estate and also the confrontation between me and Myrin.

Living Room -Penge (Drug Scene)
This is the location where the dance and drug scene was shot. We wanted a typical family living room, which would make the actions of the characters more believable and yet still shocking. In the first picture you can see a baby car seat, where when they are taking drugs and dancing the baby would be sitting in the corner inhaling the fumes and bad bahaviour and language.

Locker Scene - South Norwood

This is the locker scene where I used a trunk shot to show me placing drugs in my locker.

I believe we ticked all of the boxes for the perfect locations for what scenes we wanted to shoot.

Equiptment List

The Confrontation

Terry
White hat, Black Jacket, Grey hoodie

Myrin
Red hoodie, Pair of black gloves, Dark trousers, Dark trainers,

Drug and Drunken night
Sugar, Flour, Grass, Leaves, Penicil sharpenings, Ciggerettes, Lighter, Bottle of vodka, 3 shot glasses.

Josephine
Long shirt, Red bra, Tights, Heavy chains,

Bianca (extra)
Skinny Jeans, Grey top,

Regina (extra)
Leggins, Long top, Messy hair,

Hidden package

Terry
Black pouch, Locker, Black hat, Dark clothing.

Character Profiles

Terry Boateng

Similarities to...

Aml Ameen (who plays Trife in Kidulthood)

Myrin HallSimilarities to...

Noel Clarke (who plays Sam in Kidulthood & Adulthood)

Storyboard

A very rough sketch which helped us visualise our opening sequence in order for us to create our finished product. This was a method of planning which we found very effective, when it came to doing our dialogue, shooting our various camera angles, etc.

Treatment

For our film opening we wanted to incorporate the things that teenagers come into contact with whether it is from seen on the news or in real life.
• Drugs
• Addiction
• Weapons
• Gangs
• Theme of escapism
• Street wars
• Low class lifestyle
• Street reputation.
We wanted our title to represent the film and what the film is about. After we had done so editing we started to come up with titles. Each of us would pick their own name and we would see who’s was the best.
The titles that where suggested:
• Estate of Mind
• Here today gone tomorrow
• The better life
• Eyes of a teenagers

The title that we decided that we was going to use as Estate of Mind because the film is based on a estate and to survive on the estate you need to have your mind focused to make sure that you are not killed.

We then came up it a statement for our film opening; An Estate is not only a low class building it is a state of mind... Estate of mind.

The film follows the lives of two young south London teenagers trying to find a way to escape their lifestyle but is really leading themselves to their death. Josephine is a 17 year old mum who struggles to control being a mum, a student and a broke drug addict. As she tries to quit the addiction she finds herself get more addicted which makes her lose everything she has. She is wanted by her abusive ex boyfriend, who is her drug dealer because he wants his money. Terry is also 17 years old trying to make something of his life but finds himself confined to selling drugs on an estate but there are other dealers who want to see him dead so he starts to carry weapons. When he gets to a dead end he realizes that “Bad boys don’t have to stay bad forever” and changes his life proving society wrong that teenagers can change.

Josephine and Terry fall in love. Terry tries to get Josephine out of the trouble she is in and get her child back but this just makes Josephine ex boyfriend, Terry’s enemy mad. Terry gets killed and Josephine escapes. Our opening has a mixture of scenes and a smoky effect where the titles of the film appear. We did this to create suspense to see what is going to happen. It starts with an establishing shot of London to show that it is set in London. Then cuts to a drug scene with a few teenagers taking drugs. After that Terry is seen walking into the estate that he sells drugs but then is robbed and threatened.

In our opening you cannot tell the narrative as we wanted to make it attract the audience to carry on watching the film to find out what happens at the end. We do indicate who the main characters are.

Our target audience is both male and female teenagers from different backgrounds, because every teenager knows about the drug dealers, gangs, weapons and killings whether it is from seen on the news or in real life. The film includes everything that is happening in real life from selling drugs on an estate to robbing teenagers on the streets for no reason. Every teenager knows about what goes on, on the streets that they live on especially if they live in London.

This is how the opening is going to go;
We had the production logo followed by the ‘Solomon pictures’ with the soundtrack beginning. After we have the establishing shot followed by a title. Then we have a bird’s eye view of Me walking followed by a title. Next we have a close up of vodka bottle pouring drinks but the drink gets less than more followed by a title. Then we have a long shot of Me being followed by Myrin who is a drug dealer who wants to see me dead, then a title. After we have a close up on the vodka bottle to show that the teenagers are drinks alcohol, then a title. After we have an extreme close up of Josephine’s lips as she smokes followed by a title. Then we have the confrontation of me and Myrin, followed by a title. Next we have a dancing scene that has an effect to show that they are drunk followed by a title. After a cocaine scene followed by a title. Then a scene of me putting the drugs into a locker followed by a title. Then a spilt scene with all three main characters and a voice over followed by the main title of the film.

Rough Cut Feedback

Estate Of Mind Rough Cut from Jemma Goulds on Vimeo.

On Thursday 18th March 2010 we showed our opening to our class mates.

This is the feedback we got:
• interesting and good
• attracts audiences
• excellent soundtrack, it goes with the timing of the titles
• titles look professional
• good effect on the dancing adds to the drunk effect
• the "wasn't always like this" needs to be recorded again
• some scenes are too dark and needs to be re-shot
• cannot tell the narrative
• make the main title last longer
• make drugs last longer
we will be taking this feedback and using it to improve our opening.
Improvements we are making:
• taking out the wasn't always like this or re-doing it
• re-shooting today the dark scenes
• adding extra shots to the drug scene to make it longer
• making the titles last longer
we wanted to make the audience not know the narrative so that they can try to just what is going to happen in the film and so that they can try to link the characters together. we mainly wanted the audience not to know the narrative so that they would be attracted and interested to find out what happens in the film.

Soundtrack Creation

The programme Cubase was used to create the soundtrack for our opening sequence, the aim of our soundtrack was to create a piece of music which our target audience would be likely to listen to, we opted for the Grime/Hip-Hop approach, which would help us connect to our target audience at the very beginning of our opening sequence and grab their attention, which would make them want to watch more of our opening sequence, thriving on the mentality of our target audience as if they like the music then they are more likely to give our filming a chance as they may feel the connection between the music and the theme of our short film. Orchestral sounds used in this piece of music to build the atmosphere, create tension and include a more sinister feel into our opening sequence.

Estate Of Mind Soundtrackbyduaneamarquaye

Modboard

To create my mood board I selected images from Goggle which I believed would represent our short films theme and storyline the best, using images of people smoking and drinking, the use of drugs, guns and knives, which usually results in one thing, death, represented by the rose.

These images express all the emotions of our short film and shows the main challenges which face the youth of today, and the decisions they have to make every single day of their life.

Influences

Kidulthood

Kidulthood was a major influence on our short film, there are very few successful films which fitted into our genre and theme, our film was based on drugs and violence and so was Kidlulthood, this film inspired us to create a short film which also gave a representation of youths in today's society, it is fair to say that most films of this particular genre represent young people in a negative way, we were out to do the complete opposite, yes we did portray youths at the start in a way which could be deemed negative, however, in the end we turned the story around completely and sent out a positive message the the viewers of this film.

Here is a list of some other films which influenced us in a similar way:

Adulthood

Bullet Boy

Shank

1 Day

Synopsis

Estate Of Mind

Josephine is a 17 year old mother juggling motherhood and education she is caught up in an excessive drug addiction which she is finding harder and harder to put to an end, she is breaking down and finding life harder and harder to live as the days roll by, will Josephine find the right state of mind, overcome her addiction and become a loving mother to her child?, or will she crumble back into her Estate of mind.

Terry is a young man growing up in the dangerous streets of South London where drug usage and Gun & Knife violence is at its peak. his life is based around both of these and he is trapped in a cycle which he feels he is unable to get out of, until one day when his true love helps him to realise that their is more to life than that of gang culture and crime, from then on Terry tries his best to break away from this chain, which he once called 'unbreakable'. Terry is on a personal mission to find happiness with his new found companion, but will he succeed?

In a place where the right state of mind is only a dream but where the Estate of mind is a reality.

The title 'Estate of Mind' signifies a stereotype of the typical groups or individuals which live there. Having the right state of mind means breaking away from the stereotype (Estate of Mind) and finding your inner potential which we should all be allowed to release in order to achieve.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

AS preliminary task from Jemma Goulds on Vimeo.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

Terry, Josephine, Dwayne, Myrin

For our preliminary task we had to direct a short scene of an individual opening a door, walking across a room and sitting down to have a conversation. In this scene we had to include 3 different camera shots, a shot reverse shot, match on action, and also follow the 180 degree rule.

Planning & Research

Before we even were allowed to set our eyes on a camera, we had to conduct all of our planning and research. For this we looked at previous AS preliminary tasks posted on the internet (YouTube), we discussed our views of the various videos we watched and compared them to one another, this was a hard process because it was such a short task and the videos lasted for about 00.30 seconds each, so it was almost impossible to notice any sort of variation which we could comment on, however, this was a good task which would develop our understanding of the different camera shots and looking at what other groups may have not included or if they had included anything extra in their preliminary task, which was not needed so that we would learn from their mistakes and not waste time on including certain camera shots/camera angles which are unnecessary and that wouldn’t gain us any extra marks.

We formed our groups and started to brainstorm, thinking of suggestions or ideas for our own preliminary task. This didn’t take us long as many people had chosen to work in the same groups they had decided to work with on previous/future tasks, which is a good idea when getting the work done more quickly, as you don’t have to spend time on breaking barriers or introducing yourself to people you don’t know or haven’t worked with in the past.

We researched into the different editing techniques, we tried to gain full understanding of the editing techniques described to us, however, there were many occasions where we didn’t understand what a description meant, and this lead to s having to watch clips of editing techniques on the internet, this was a better way of learning as you could be given a definition/description of an editing technique, and also be given an example if you didn’t understand the description which would enable you to understand it better.

Pre-Production Planning

After conducting our planning and research we started developing our storyboards, this was quite a stressful process as we had to figure out what our storyline was actually going to be and also our location. When we had worked that out we used two sheets of A4 paper to draw up our storyboard, this would consist of the dialogue and actions used in the scene and the camera shots used. We planned thoroughly what we would include in our production we wanted to express our skills fully, and this was hard because we had a larger group we all wanted to have a say in what our production would include forgetting that this only a preliminary task.

Production Process

We decided to be a little bit different from the rest of the groups in our class and opted to film our preliminary task outside. We asked for permission to film in a local café just down the road from our school, the location we chose perfectly fitted the storyline/plot and made our production look more professional and showed our creativity as we thought outside the box.

We used various editing techniques in our preliminary task such as dissolve and jump cuts, etc. We tried not to include too many as it was unnecessary and wasn’t part of the criteria to pass the task.

Evaluation

What Went Well?

· Making sure we had included every camera shot we needed to include.

· Finding a unique location

· Creating a convincing storyboard

· Research on other examples of AS preliminary tasks

· Teamwork

Things to Improve?

· Focus in lessons

· Staying on task

· Carrying out even more research

I believe that our preliminary task successfully achieved the criteria.

Smart Targets

Specific - We will need to be able to film a specific range of camera shots/angles in order to meet the requirements of our brief.

Measurable - We should be able to keep track of our progress and help ourselves by coming up with ideas of our own which we think would help improve our film.

Achievable - We will set aims which we know we will have enough time and the right equipment or knowledge to complete.

Realistic - We will not set aims which we think will require too much from us, so we can eliminate the risk of not reaching the aims we set for ourselves initially

Timely - We will set ourselves a deadline which we feel will give us enough time to fit all of which we have planned to complete.

Saul Bass & Kyle Cooper Research

Saul Bass & Kyle Cooper Research

Saul Bass

Saul bass was an American graphic designer and an academy award winning film maker. He is best known for his design on animated motion picture title sequences. He worked with some of Hollywood’s greatest film makers such as Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger and Stanley Kubrick.
Saul Bass became notoriously famous for his work on the title sequence for the movie ‘the man with the golden arm’ as the film was so controversial Bass matched him controversy. This caused quite a sensation.
Bass had a couple of motto’s which he stuck to with every title sequence he made;
‘Design is thinking made visual’
‘My initial thoughts abut what a title sequence can do was to set mood and prime underlining core of the film’s story. To express the story in somemetaphorical way. I saw the title as a way of conditioning the audience so that when the film actually began , viewers would already have an emotional resonance with it.

Kyle Cooper

Kyle Cooper has directed over 150 film title sequences he is acclaimed as the most innovative and important designer of film titles since Saul Bass. He has a reputation as the most successful modern designer of motion picture title sequences.
Kyle Cooper was most famous for his work on Spider-man 3, Se7en, Speed racer and also the video game Metal Gear Solid.
As a film maker Kyle Cooper is all about passion. He only focuses on about two minutes of every movie so he is obsessive about every cut and every transition. He holds the title of royal designer for industry from the royal society of arts and is a member of the alliance Graphique Internationale.

About a Boy (Opening Sequence Analysis)

About a Boy (Opening Sequence)

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ8iLBSI-Po&feature=related

This film begins with a man walking into a room where a TV show ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’ is being shown on his television with the diagetic sound of the man’s dialogue telling a story in the background. In this scene a tracking shot from a high angle is used as if someone is watching him which may signify all eyes being on him as he may well be a celebrity. High key lighting is used in this scene to show how positive this man thinks his life is looking at the moment; it could also suggest that this man has a bright future ahead of him. The non-diagetic sound in this scene is that of an acoustic guitar playing at a fast paced, upbeat sort of tempo. The man fully enters the room and answers a question that was just asked on ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’ he insults the show saying that it is a “complete load of bullocks” this gives the viewers an idea of what kind of person this man actually is, as he begins speak his accent also adds to the stereotype of a posh, obnoxious, self centred man who doesn’t care about anyone else but himself.

He keeps pet fish as he is probably the type of person who has no time for a higher maintenance animal to take care of such as a cat or a dog. He gives the impression of a womanizer as he compares men to islands, this impression is enhanced when his answer machine goes off and a woman who he went out with the day before calls him to tell him how she think things went she describes the date as ‘great’, and asks him to give her a call. This man is confident, well-spoken and has a high opinion of himself, He continues to talk about himself and compares himself to an island where women are drawn to, he describes himself as cool, and Ibiza (an island holiday destination for many women).

The location changes to a boy lying on his bed facing the ceiling, another high angle shot is used to possibly show a connection between these two characters or some strange similarity. Low key lighting is used in this scene to show how negative this boy thinks his life is going at the moment; it also suggests that he doesn’t think things will change any time soon, this is enhanced by the use of the editing technique fading to show him in different places and show that time is going by and his life is still the same. The credits shown at the beginning of the film showed the title ‘About a boy’ where the words ‘about’ and ‘boy’ are emphasised however the letter the ‘a’ is not in bold. This signifies that this character feels less small and less important than everyone else around him as if the letter ‘a’ was replaced with the word ‘the’ and the title of the movie was ‘About the boy’ this would immediately give the impression that there is something special about this boy hence increasing his level of importance. The ‘a’ is also in between two words (‘about’ and ‘boy’); this could also signify that this boy feels isolated and lonely.

The boy describes himself as shy, and someone who doesn’t fit, he keeps a pet hamster which signifies that he is lonely and probably sees his hamster as the only living organism he can share his true feelings with as the hamster cannot speak, the hamster is probably the only thing he feels will not harm him with harsh words and will not even react to anything he says. The music used in this scene is still the same; however, when the boy begins his ‘diary’ the music is slower to signify his life as being slow and boring.

Prduction Log / Meeting

My Production Log



Meeting 1: Our initial idea was of us attending a drug counselling session, where we would individually be aksed about our addictions and how we wished to deal with them this required us to follow each indiciduals progress over time, we followed the actors through the ordeal and made it evident that they werent coping with this decision to give up whatever they were addicted to, Our second scene was of me (the addict), coming out of the session and talking about how 'things werent always like this', he showed emotion, and told a story of how he got into drugs in the first place

For our next scene, we shooted shots of me dealing with Myrin (the drug dealer) afterwards we showed the connection between our characters as after this scene we also showed Josephine (the addict) trying to get more drugs from Myrin, however, Myrin got angry and demanded that Josephine paid him his money from the last time she recieved drugs from him.

Meeting 2:
We went into college initially just to collect our equipment so we could carry on filming at another location; however we decided that we might as well start at college and shoot some shots which were not initially on our storyboards. This allowed us to film shots which we would later use to link up some of our later footage so that when it came to editing we would have various shots to choose from.

We filmed in and around the school building, this was useful as we could ask teachers for any additional information or equipment we could use to enhance our performance such as a boom which we could use to improve the quality of any dialogue we may include in our filming, and any ideas which our media technicians could assist us with.

Our first shot was of me hiding drugs inside my school locker we used a wide range of camera angles such as close ups, long shots and medium shots, we also came up with a great idea of placing the camera inside the locker itself and show me opening the locker and placing the bag of drugs inside. We redone a few of our shots over and over to ensure that we had enough to work with when we reached the editing stage. We put as much emphasis on the bag as possible to make it obvious to the audience that there is something in the bag which will in future affect the storyline.

Our second shot was an extreme long shot of Myrin sitting in the canteen of college this is used to show him as a very secretive character and that there may be something very sinister about him.

This idea was one which we decided we would not put forward as the storyline was not properly

thought out, and poor camera work made us fear re filming our whole short film all over again, we decided to start on another idea, however, decided to stick with the theme and genre of our short film but, we knew we had to come up with some more unique ideas if we were going to be able to create an opening sequence we were all proud of.

Meeting 3:

Josephine and Duane met up to start on our new ideas of our film the filmed a drug scence, Myrin and I were unable to attend this meeting, however, they were able to use some of

Josephine's friends to show a party scene where they were shown to be smoking and drinking, this scene was a great success which we used in some of our opening sequence.

they were able to mix flour and sugar to make a substance which was close to the appearance of cocaine.

Meeting 4:

Me, Myrin and Josephine met up at an estate round the corner from our college, we managed to film me walking into the estate where i was then confronted by Myrin who grabbed me and pushed me up against the wall, this gave clarity to the storyline and how it would be about drugs, crime and gang culture.

Meeting 5:

we stayed in college on this day to do some group work, we brainstormed our ideas for our titles which I would later be producing, we decided to go for a more dark and sisnister approach to our opening sequence, we decided on creating an 'enigma' which meant that we were not going to give away many answers in our opening sequence to the actual synopsis of our film but leave our audience asking many questions. We began to write down the names of the people in our group on paper and the names we would be including in our titles, for example, Producer, the editor, the costume designer, etc. So that I would know exactly what to work with when I was creating our opening sequence credits, and who I should show played which part in our short film.

we planned our opening sequence thinking long and hard about our location and what kind of message we wanted to put through to our audience.

The Ring (Opening Sequence Analysis)

The Ring (Opening Sequence)

The American remake of The Ring starts with a woman walking up a flight of stairs to find water dripping on the corridor floor. She approaches a door along the corridor and attempts to open it, placing her hand on the doorknob which the water appears to be dripping from. She enters the room to find a video playing...

The opening credits begin with the production company being the first name to be shown “DreamWorks studios presents” and the font used is quite disturbing, and so are the flashes of the various different scenes such as, chairs spinning by themselves trees, blood swirling around in a glass of water. The ring which is flashed a lot of the time in the opening credits makes the audience want to know what this movie is all about and what the ring has to do with it, the opening sequence has already left you in suspense. Even when they are showing people’s names like the director, producer and actors, it’s almost as if they’ve made sure that all of the people names that they show include a letter which requires a circle to be made when writing it, such as the letter ‘o’ , ‘b’, ‘g’, etc. That circular motion is always the last to disappear after the name has gone and you are just left with the imprint of a ‘o’ for a couple more seconds

The sounds used in the opening credits is low pitched and repetitive. However, as the music gets louder, more high pitched and includes more of a beat to it, the images seem to get even more disturbing. The credits are written on a dark background which gives you the impression that this movie is going to be very dark and eerie.

Different camera angles are used for effect, for example, at the very beginning when the woman is walking up the stairs the camera is low and taking a long shot, however as she reaches the of the stairs the camera doesn’t move and you can only she the woman’s legs as she walks along the corridor. She walks as slowly as physically possible to create maximum suspense, and as she steps in the puddle of water the camera changes to an extreme close up of the woman’s face to reveal her facial expressions whether she is happy or sad. At this stage her facial expression tells the audience that she is confused not so much scared at this point as she doesn’t really know what is going on, but as she opens the door she freezes and a screech from the video frightens her and as she is about to scream the camera zooms into her eye and many images appear, if you pause at the right times you may be able to see the image of a ring, a tree, a box containing fingers that have been cut off someone’s hand, before the video distorts and appears to come to an end as the screen goes fuzzy and the movie goes into the opening credits.