Evaluation activity seven

Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you havelearnt in the progression from it to full product?

 

Evaluation activity six

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

 

Evaluation activity five

How did you attract/address your audience?

Question 5 from Katrinabrookes

Evaluation activity four

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation activity three

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

Evaluation activity two

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Here is a short video (3 minutes 10) outlining how we represented the social groups of caucasian English teenagers (male and female).

Evaluation activity one

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

The title of the film:

The film title of our media product features the name of the female love interest of the movie. This is a little ironic as the film follows the character of Brody- the male protagonist- and his life before and after the sudden tragic death of Luna. The use of the female love interest in the title is similar to (500) Days of Summer's title. Summer is the female love interest of Tom and the movie follows his point of view also. '(500) Days of Summer' was a major inspiration for the development and production of our final piece.

Setting/location:

The movie takes place in a seaside town. The seaside offers many romantic opportunities such as long walks on the beach, skipping stones or watching the sunset- if a bit cliche. These activities could be seen to tie in with the genre of a Romantic-Drama like 'Luna'. The seaside location has been used countless amounts of times before in Romantic movies- more recently, in Richard Ayoade's 'Submarine'. 'Submarine' was also incidentally an inspiration for our final media product. The setting changes throughout the sequence to implicate that the relationship lasted a long time- throughout all four seasons. Due to this, our film challenges the forms and conventions as most Romantic-Drama movies take place during one or two seasons and rarely all four.

Costumes and props

In our movie, we relied mostly on the way that the characters dressed to suggest their personality traits. For example, we purposely dressed Brody in smart clothes to hint at the character being rather intellectual. Upon viewing, many people believed that Brody was a writer due to the way he speaks in the voice over, the way he looks and this further incorporates with the typewriter font used in our final product. We also used books as props to give the movie an even more 'indie' feel. Luna and Brody are suggested to the viewer as well-brought up, middle class intelligent teenagers by the way that they look and act. We changed our clothing depending on the setting of the shot. For example, in slide 4 (far left middle), we were cosy indoors so we decided to clothe the cast appropriately in onesies. The use of this could further imply a time change to the rest of the opening sequence. By wearing this allocated attire, it can suggest that the time of the scene is during the winter season. Winter has been used before in romantic comedy movies a countless amount of times- such as, 'Submarine', 'Love Actually' and 'The Holiday'. We do however challenge this form by dressing appropriately for the different seasons. In Slide 3's scene, the cast dress lightly which suggests that the particular scene is meant to be set in the Summer- despite being filmed in November Winter.

Camerawork and editing

Our camerawork is rather dramatic and captivating. The first and seventh panels show a wide shot. We decided to use these to create a certain emphasis or importance on the events taking place. Slide 1 displays Brody looking particular solemn but emotional as he gazes on the sea in a reflective manner. This scene takes place after Luna's death and has great significance within the plot as the chronological order of the opening sequence is muddled and the scene in particular is repeated later after Luna's death and where it should be chronologically. This reflective scene is similar to the opening sequence of '(500) Days of Summer' where the two main characters are together after they have separated. This method isn't generic of the genre but it supports the forms and conventions when compared with "(500 Days)…". The use of "Day 1" in the seventh panel is also similar to the days method used in '(500) Days of Summer'. However, the days recur throughout the entire movie whereas in our final piece, this method of reassuring the audience of the chronology is only used in this particular instance. We decided to change the framing of some of the shots to differentiate the 'montage' scenes from the other shots- the coffee shop and reflective beach scenes. We included typewriter typography to further insinuate the idea of Brody being an intellectual teenager and even an avid writer. The editing is fast paced in the montage shots but slow in the other two scenes to intensify the significance of the situations in question. These two differences in pace are used incredibly regularly in movies to make sure that the viewer knows what shots or scenes are particularly significant opposed to some others.

Title font and style

The title font and style is rather bold and in a typewriter font (Prestige Elite Std.) which is used to insinuate Brody as being a writer or of having a keen interest in literature. All the typography used is lower case except for the "Day 1" heading. The use of lower case is seen to be "indie" or "hipster" in some subdivisions.

Story and how the opening sets it up

The opening of the movie is introduced in a non-chronological overview of some of the later romantic scenes of the movie. It foreshadows the death of Luna by displaying Brody looking emotional and overwhelmed. This scene is used to keep the viewer speculative about why Brody is feeling this way and what happened to him. Foreshadowing is used rather commonly in Films and TV but not particularly often in Romantic movies. However, '(500) Days of Summer' begins with the two main characters after they have separated. In this case, genres and conventions have been retained in our movie despite not being used often in our movie's genre.

Genre and how the opening suggests it

Our genre is fairly apparent in that the two characters are seen sharing a few intimate moments throughout the montage sequence. The couple are seen holding hands, reading together and playfully running in between beautifully lit water fountains. These three activities are used quite often in movies of the Romantic genre- the latter being used less often. However, fountains have been used countless amounts of times in different manners to how we used them. The opening suggests the genre by displaying these romantic activities. Our media product uses the forms and conventions that have been used previously in other movies of the same genre.

How characters are introduced

The characters in our movie are introduced in different ways. Brody is introduced in an emotional manner in the opening shot of the movie and Luna is introduced initially in the voice over at the beginning but later seen physically in the montage sequence. It is unusual for one of the main characters to be introduced in a foreshadowing scene but it has been done before- such as in '(500 Days) of Summer'. In this case, we develop the forms and conventions of the Romantic genre and make some of it's features our own.

Special effects

Being a movie of the Romantic genre, we didn't need to use many special effects to enhance the narrative of the film. However, Ellie decided to make the titles of the movie reveal themselves in a quick fashion as if they were being typed by someone using an old-fashioned typewriter. This gave the movie an even more 'indie' feel to it and benefited the production as a whole. I don't believe that this effect has been used before but the font style certainly has so therefore our movie develops the forms and conventions of movies that have used a typewriter font before like 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower'.

Luna - Blooper Reel

This is the blooper reel from when we created our AS final, Luna.
Featuring Zahra Mukadam's inappropriate hand gestures and comments about wind, Dom Freedman's loud, angry director commentry and Jonathan Foulston's lack of emotion.

Audience Questionnaires - Luna

Here is an answered questionnaire regarding our opening sequence Luna:

1. Is it clear what the genre is?
- Yes; romance? Romantic drama?
2. Is the sound appropriate/does it fit with the genre/content?
- The music is lighthearted and catchy and sounds 'young' like the couple.
3. Does the opening scene create enigma?
- I want to know how they got together completely, and I want to know why he looks so sad at the beginning & why is he on his own if the relationship is so good?
4. Can you understand what is happening?
- The rewind was going back to when they first met, the beginning of the relationship in the montage.
5. Do the titles fit with the genre/content? Are they well made/edited?
- Yes, he seems to be the writer telling the story through a typewriter. They are well made and edited. They are clear.
6. Is the editing well done and clear? How would you improve it?
- Up until the end the editing was very good but I wouldn't stop the music dead at the end.
7. Is the misé en scene good and appropriate?
- I liked the day sections and night sections and the different locations. Obviously a lot of thought was put into this. It shows that the couple travelled together, e.g. to London
8. Is the opening scene convincing?
- Yes, it seems like a real film. The acting was very good, for example at the beginning the male didn't even NEARLY smile!
9. Did it interest you? Would you watch the movie?
- Yes, I want to find out what happened to Luna! Why is he on his own? How long were they together?
10. Please state what you would give it out of 60?
- 52, due to the one overly grainy/fuzzy shot and the fact that the music cuts out at the end.

Luna - final cut

This is the final cut for our project 'Luna', starring Jonathan Foulston and Ellie Robson, filmed by Dominic Freedman and Zahra Mukadam and edited by all of the above. The film is from the point of view of Brody, who falls in love with a girl called Luna. The opening sequence shows a flashback of Brody and Luna's relationship - the flashback then rewinds to the first day they met. The rest of the film would show the progression of their relationship until the day things take a turn for the worst.

Questionnaires for viewers - Luna

1. Is it clear what the genre is?
2. Is the sound appropriate/does it fit with the genre/content?
3. Does the opening scene create enigma?
4. Can you understand what is happening?
5. Do the titles fit with the genre/content? Are they well-made and edited? Are they clear? Are they in a good order?
6. Is the editing well done and clear? How would you improve it?
7. Is the misé en scene good/appropriate?
8. Is the opening scene convincing?
9. Did it interest you? Would you watch the movie?
10. Please state what you would give the opening scene out of 60.

Re-edit planning - Luna

We plan to improve upon our rough cut for Luna in order to make it the best it can be. To do this we will:

• Make the titles stand out (a lot of work will go into this; each title will be 'typed' by a typewriter and will be in a different place depending on shots)
• Cut the shots of the montage crisply in time with the music
• We will add the final shots of how the couple met (in a coffee shop) at the end of the rewind and after the title in order to explain the rewind and also so that the title is not at the end, hopefully making it look less like a trailer
• By cutting the shots of the montage down, hopefully we'll be a little closer to 2 minutes and also we can cut the confusing black section out of the middle of the video
• We will audio gain the voice-over to make it louder than the music and easier to understand

Rough Cut Feedback - Luna

We have received lots of feedback on the rough cut version of our opening sequence – mainly positive:

 

Is it obvious an opening sequence? Is it clear who the target audience is?

Many people have said that the genre of ‘Luna’ is quite clear as well as the target audience. However, some people have mentioned that it looks like a music video or trailer which is not what we were hoping for.

 

Titles go with genre. Is the genre obvious? Are they clear? Are there enough and are they in the right order?

Feedback on the titles was overall positive saying that the titles were clear, relevant, in a good order and went with the genre. The only criticisms were that the titles were too simple and there were not a lot of and one person didn’t understand how the typewriter style font went with the romantic drama genre.

 

Think about the sound and images – are they appropriate? Do they go together?

Many people were impressed with the sound and said it was appropriate, the music is good and shows the genre. Some people said that the voiceover in the beginning was good, effective and created a mood to the sequence. However some said that they thought it was too quiet and the music drowned the voiceover out. A lot of the feedback said that they didn’t like the reverse sound in the sequence.

 

Camera – are the shots appropriate and relevant? Is there controlled use of camera, attention to framing, variety of shot distance/angle? Close attention to use of mise en scene?

We were said to have good use and variety of camera shots and clever camera techniques and the audience liked that when both characters in the sequence were alone the setting was dark but when they were together it was light (which was not intentional) and that we have good mise en scene including costume. Someone suggested the use of a high angle shot.

 

Editing so that the meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions and other effects?

Lots of the feedback was positive regarding the editing, saying that it was good and relevant and our opening had smooth transitions. However, a lot of people mentioned that they did not get the idea of the rewind part of our sequence (as we hadn’t filmed our finishing shot yet) and said that because it blacked out before the rewind the scenes stopped flowing.

 

Total score and any other comments

Lowest score: 36

Highest score: 58

It has been said to be convincing that the couple in our opening sequence are truly in love due to their ‘brilliant acting’; ‘cute’; ‘voiceover is effective’; people were confused about the link to the title; ‘needs more enigma codes’; some were unsure about the rewind; it has been cited as one of the favourites out of all of the opening sequences.

 

Production Shots

This photo shows our group working out the responsibilities of the other members and figuring out which pitch we would choose to film for our opening sequence.

This photo shows Dom and Jonathan working on the computers. One is researching narrative voice-overs in popular movies whilst the other is searching for a useful soundtrack for the opening sequence.

 

In this shot we can see Jonathan looking for useful locations to film our opening sequence in.

 

This photo shows Jonathan and Zahra working out a shot list for our opening sequence and a script for our narration.

 

 

This shot shows Dom working on the safety assessment for the filming of the opening sequence and Ellie working on the various mood boards for our pitch and the titles research needed.

 

 

Jonathan is seen here editing the footage we have so far of our opening sequence.

 

 Ellie editing the Audience Interviews we recorded for our films evidence to place on our blogs.

 

Here, Zahra is recording Jonathan whilst he is acting in our ‘character profiles’ filming practice.

 

This shot shows Zahra and Dom working on the storyboard and the timeline for the film.

Storyboard - Luna

Audience Interview - Luna

We had to answer several audience questions in interview form to give an insight to who we are aiming our audience at and also to have experience in using/editing a green screen. The questions were:

1. How do media industries target audiences?
2. Who is the audience of a romantic comedy?
3. What do audiences consume?
4. Feedback from 'audience' on their favourite romantic comedy

Props

The props we will use in our opening sequence are as follows:

1. Books. There are several scenes which involve the characters reading books. These are staple icons in the movie as our characters are being portrayed as intellectual and avid readers. The books we will use are those such as The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye, Lolita, 1984, Pride and Prejudice etc.
2. Gaming console. The most easily accessible games console is the Xbox 360 so this will be included in the montage during the scene where the two protagonists are playing video games.
3. Television. During the montage there is a scene where the two protagonists are watching a scary movie whilst huddled under a duvet. A TV has to be present in this scene.
4. Sofa. There are several scenes in the montage where the two protagonists are together on the sofa.
5. Bed. There is one scene in the montage where the characters are sitting facing each other on a bed.

Titles Research

The following is the typical order for opening credits in the beginning of a movie:

Name of the studio

Name of the studio that is distributing the film and may or may not have produced it (Walt Disney Pictures, Columbia, Lions Gate, Universal, Marvel Studios, Dimension, Miramax etc.). Ours will show Fox Searchlight.

• Name of production company

Name of the production company that actually made the film or name of the investment groups or companies that financed a substantial part of the film (usually credited as "in association with" or "A (studio name) production."). Ours will say An Iridescent Innovations production in association with Cool Cat Studios and Phoenix Rising Studios, with Forbidden Fruit Entertainment.

• Director's first credit

A film by (director's name). Ours will say A film by Dominic Freedman.

• Principal actors

Showing the principal actors in a list or with a single credit each, either in order of importance, order of appearance or alphabetical order. Our movie will say Jonathan Foulston and Ellie Robson, each with a single credit.

• Film's title

Name of the film. Ours will not go in the sequence this early on but rather at the end of the opening scene. Luna.

• Featuring

Featured/supporting actors. As we have no supporting actors there will not be a section for these in our opening sequence.

• Casting

Casting director. This will say Casting, Casting Director or Casting By. Casting by Zahra Mukadam.

• MUSIC or MUSIC COMPOSED BY or ORIGINAL SCORE BY

Composer of music. This will say Music; Music Composed By; Original Score By; Musical Director. Our opening credits will say Musical Director, Jonathan Foulston.

• Production Design

Production design or production designer. Whilst she never actually participated in the opening scene, this credit will say Production Design: Lauren Hunt as we are aiming to not repeat each of our names.

As a variation some of the below may be noted:

• SET DESIGN
• COSTUMES or COSTUMES BY or GOWNS (older movies)
• HAIRDRESSER
• MAKE-UP ARTIST
• SOUND RECORDING (older movies)
• VISUAL EFFECTS DIRECTOR or VISUAL EFFECTS BY

(but we aren't putting these in our opening sequence)

• Editor or edited by

The editor of the movie. Ours will say Edited by Jonathan Foulston, although we will all participate in the editing.

• Director of photography

Director of photography - Director of photography, Zahra Mukadam.

• Producer

Producers, co-producers, executive producers, 'also produced by'. Often, though, the name of the producer will be the next-to-last opening credit, just before the director's name is shown. Executive producer, Ellie Robson.

• Based on the book/play/graphic novel by...

If based on a book or other literary work. Ours isn't based on other literary work so we will skip this title.

• Based on the characters by/based on the characters created by...

If based on characters from a book or other media. We have been inspired by the characters from (500) Days of Summer and Perks of Being a Wallflower so our credit will say Based on the characters created by Scott Neustadter.

• Story

Person who wrote the story on which the script is based, gets "story by" credit, and the first screenplay credit, unless the script made substantial changes to the story. Ours will say Story by Ellie Robson.

• Writer(s)

The screenplay writers. Ours will say Written by Ellie Robson and Jonathan Foulston.

• Director or Directed By

The director is the final credit in the opening sequence. This will say Directed by Dominic Freedman.

Genre Codes and Conventions and Audience

Our planned opening is a compilation of many different romantic shots in the form of a montage. It will all be handheld footage to look considerably more personal than static shots.

These typical Rom-Com conventions will occur during the opening scene:
A typical ‘Boy meets Girl’ scenario.
Often starts with a voiceover explaining characters.
Two protagonists, normally male and female.
A chance encounter.

However, as opposed to the movie being centred around a female protagonist, the main character will be a male. The movie will be aimed at the female gender predominantly however it can be aimed at the male audience too due to the relation with the main character. The age of the preferred audience will be of 15 years of age and up.

Examples of Romantic Comedy conventions:
We were inspired by the movies '(500) Days of Summer', 'Submarine', 'About Time' and 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower'. We were also inspired by my friends' student film 'Bottlebank' which includes a montage scene too.


Not officially from the movie but it shows what we are aiming to do with the aspect of cute/romantic scenes compiled together to create a montage.


The montage scene at 24:35 perfectly displays what we are intending to do with our opening sequence. A personal old-fashioned looking compilation of many romantic handheld pieces of footage.

Location and Recce Shots

 

Adventure Island theme park will be displayed in a selection of our final shots. The two main characters will be seen having fun on rides and running around the facility.



Electric Avenue and all of the other arcades down the beach of Southend will be shown in some of our shots. The two main characters will be seen playing arcade games and laughing together.

Either Starbucks Coffee or Costa will be used to create our final shot of the opening sequence. It will feature the meeting by chance of the two characters.

A few shots will take place on the Southend beach at sunset. This will increase the intensity of the romantic relationship for the audience.