Friday 23 April 2010

Copyright and Our Final Production



Any use of music in this film complies with 'Fair Dealing' under the 1988 Copyright Designs and Patents Act (UK), Sections 6(i) and 6(ii); Fair dealing is a term used to describe some limited activities that are allowed without infringing copyright. Briefly these are as follows:Section 6i. Research and private studyCopying parts of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work or of a typographical arrangement of a published edition for the purpose of research or private study is allowed under the following conditions:
· The copy is made for the purposes of research or private study.
· The copy is made for non-commercial purposes.
· The source of the material is acknowledged.
· The person making the copy does not make copies of the material available for a number of people.ii Instruction or examinationCopying parts of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work or a sound recording, film or broadcast for the purpose of instruction or examination is allowed under the following conditions:
· The copying is done by the student or the person giving instruction.
· The copying is not done via a reprographic process.
· The source of the material is acknowledged.
· The instruction is for a non-commercial purpose.

This is the track information:

Thursday 22 April 2010

My Evaluative Commentary

When we filmed our media production, I learned how to work the camera. It was the first time that I have used a camera to film a production, so I also had to learn how to use the tripod. I found it easy to learn, however I did feel that I could have done better, if I had have had some more practice. I really enjoyed the filming of our production, because it also gave us more time to bond as a group and get to know each other.
When editing the production parts of the soft ware were new. Adobe Premier Pro, was a completely new software to me, and I found it very complicated. I didn't do much of the editing for our group, but the parts that I did do, was just the cutting of clips. I was able to use Windows Movie Maker, as I find that it is a very simple software programme.


Our media production portrayed the ideology of a 'chick flick' well. We used 'girly' pop music from the beginning of our production which sets the scene, and allows the audience to become focused on the genre of the film. We thought that the music was the most important part through out the sequence, as it also portrays the way that many teenage girls may act in the morning - getting out of bed, getting their hair ready, and packing their school bags, with 'feel good' music on in the back ground.
We looked at other successful chick flicks before starting on ours. From this we got that the costume of the actors would be very important as different clothes hold different identities. For example; in the image below of The Devils Wears Prada, the codes and conventions would lead people to believe that the woman towards the front is more important, not just because she is dominating the image, but also because of her dress code. She is dressed in smart clothing, with a shirt and a blazer jacket, however the actress to her left is wearing more laid back clothes, that aren't necessarily smart. Most people will pick up on this instantly, whether they are fully aware of the judgements that they are making or not.

To achieve the same affect in our production, we dressed girl two (the 'posh' twin) in heels, tights, a skirt and a blazer jacket, and for girl one (the 'lesser' off twin) we dressed her in trainers and a hooded jacket. We kept these conventions going by selecting locations and props that also represented their different worlds in which they had grown up in. Using contrasting houses (as much as possible) and contrasting school books - posh school books in good condition, and school books that had been doodled all over.
I think that our production represents the idea of the contrasting lives very well, however this could have been improved, had we of been able to find a better location for the 'posher' twin. The costume and props that we used worked very well for her character, and defiantly represented the 'posher' side of life.


The target audience for our production would be young teenage girls, from about 12 - 16/17, depending on their interests. This might be the kind of girls who read magazines and are into pop music and other 'girly' things, like the colour pink and shoes. We sought to attract the attention of the audience by first using an alarm in our production. The alarm is loud, and quite startling which instantly grabs the audience, then the music kicks in with a cheesy pop tune that will instantly make the audience know that this film is all about fun, and 'girly stuff'.


I defiantly think that I learned from the preliminary exercise, and took my knowledge onto the main exercise. This was mainly with using the camera, in so much that I learned how to get better shots, and how to keep the continuity running throughout the entire clip. I thoroughly enjoyed creating the main exercise and the knowledge gained from my previous attempt defiantly helped with my confidence when filming.




Sunday 18 April 2010

Editing the Main Exercise

When editing our main exercise we managed to overcome many problems which have come up during the creation of our main exercise. The first problem that we had was when Andy chose to leave college. With Andy being our editor, this then meant that we had put the clip together ourselves, however between us, we had managed to edit our preliminary exercise when Andy was absent, so we did have some experience in the editing department. We used Windows Movie Maker when creating our preliminary exercise, however we also needed to use Adobe Pro which created further problems, as this software was new to the entire group.
This is a screen shot taken from Windows Movie Maker where we were cutting the scenes to the right size, and adding transition effects.

This a screen shot taken from Adobe Premier Pro when we were using it to complete our final production, by adding the title of our film, to the clip.

Another problem that we had, came when uploading our footage to Windows Movie Maker, on a few occasions, it was only loading the data, but not the video footage itself. This was only a minor problem, because we found that as long as we stuck to using lap tops, we were generally okay with loading our footage.
Our major problem to overcome was adding the music to our clip. We found music from a CD in our college library which fitted in with the genre of our film perfectly, however we were then told, that we would have to copyright our music, which could cost us. We were aware that we had to gather certain information about our choice of music, however Andy who has left college, still has the CD out in his name. This means that our group has to make a decision, whether or not to abandon the music all together, or find a way to get hold of the information that is needed to complete the copyright process.

Monday 22 March 2010

Filming the Main Exercise

Our film is about two girls that are twins. The synopsis goes as such; two twin girls, who were separated at birth and bought up to live completely different lives. One girl lives a privileged life whilst the other girl lives a much less privileged life. The girls might later meet up, or find each other, but we were only creating the first two minutes of a film, so we didn't think about the rest of the plot in too much detail.
When we filmed at the main exercise I faced a few problems. The main problems came when setting up the tripod, especially at out first location. It was much more difficult to film inside someones home, than in a classroom, (like where we filmed our preliminary exercise). I faced problems such as setting the camera up in a narrow hallway to film our actress walking down the stairs. We had to over come this problem, as this shot held a very important meaning in our clip. The shot of the 'posh' twin (girl two) walking down the stairs in heels was put in the opening trailer, to represent the wealth that girl two held over girl one (the 'poor' twin). In a later shot, we show girl one walking down the stairs in trainers this contrasts to the first shot of girl two. We did manage to over come the problem and get the shot, however, you couldn't really see that girl two was in fact wearing heels. This was a problem that wasn't taken into account fully, until we began putting out production together.
This is how the shot was supposed to look, however when filming we took the shot from the side, looking at herfrom behing when she walked down the stairs.





















Another problems with the tripod was trying to fit it in a dining room, around the table and chairs. Once I had set the tripod up, it was okay, and we got the right shots, however, it was difficult for me to get behind the camera and actually shoot it, getting the zooms and tracking correct for the shot. This problem was common in shooting in the bedrooms also, as they were quite small rooms. I felt that I would be held to blame if the shots weren't right, yet I wasn't really given very space efficient locations to film in.
In the end I think the filming went well. We got all the shots we needed to make our clip, and we stuck to the script and storyboard really well. I felt that I had full control of the camera, and was allowed more freedom by the rest of my group. This allowed me to be slightly more creative with the shots, and give more of my personal opinion when filming.
One thing that we did do to help us when filming our production was to keep count of how many shots we took of each scene. This made it easier for us when we had uploaded the video footage onto Windows Movie Maker. We had to take our shots in different a different order to the order that the scenes would eventually go in. This meant that wehen filming we had to muddle of shots, in order to keep the continuity running through out the entire clip. To check that we had filmed all the scenes we numbered them as we went along, so before filming at the second location we already know how to go about getting all our shots without getting confused about what we had and had not filmed.
Here is an example of we kept count of our shots that we had taken.

Thursday 18 March 2010

Main Exercise Updated

We have now filmed out entire production, and it's gone really well. We filmed at two locations on two different dates, differing by a week. Finding places to film wasn't very difficult, because as it turned out, Sarah and I both had houses that were perfect for out production. I took on the role of camera woman again in this production, and I found that it went much better then when we filmed our preliminary exercise. I thought that my zoom and my panning were a lot smoother, than when I filmed for the first time. With regards to out paperwork, we have managed to produce a strong final script and a good storyboard, however we need to develop our research further and expand on our original notes. When we filmed at our second location Andy wasn't present, however this didn't cause too much of a problem. The problem that we have faced, has been when we've gone to edit. This is because Andy supposed to be the editor of our production, however he has missed a few of the lessons and so we've had to edit our production without him. This hasn't been too difficult as between us we know how to use Windows Movie Maker, however next lesson we are intending to use Adobe Pro to add a couple of titles to our production. We have completed location recees for our first location, however we are yet to of produced our second location, location recees.
When it came to filming at the second location, I defiantly felt that I did a better job than when filming the preliminary exercise. I felt that I had more control over the camera. I also felt that the rest of my group allowed me to have more control, thus meaning I could learn from my own mistakes, and film the shots that I felt would work well with our production. We are now having major problems pulling together our production and cutting the the clip perfectly and adding titles. This is because Andy has been absent a lot recently, and he is supposed to be the main editor of our media piece. Between the rest of the group and I we have tried our best to make the publication good, however we lack the knowledge of being able to use Adobe Pro to do the finishing touches.
I need to get the photographs of my house to put in for the second location, and then our folder should be complete. This is good as it shows that we have worked consistently and kept track of all of our decisions, and planning.