I asked a few people to complete the questionnaire that I made about mine and Stevie's medai coursework. The feedback was mainly positive, however there were a few main areas that they felt we could improve on.
How do think we made our piece appealing to our target audience of females?
The main reaction here was that we clearly showed our film was a romance movie, therefore would be likely to attract females. Moreover, the music played would be more likely to attract females than males.
Do you think we achieved good continuity in our film? How?
Most people agreed that we had quite a fluid piece, and they stated that we managed to do this by cutting the clips at the right times and making sure the actors were wearing the same costumes.
How effective were the opening scenes in setting up the characters for the rest of the film?
Most people said that we established the characters well because they knew that they were students and would eventually fall in love with each other.
What aspects of our film did you find particularly enjoyable?
Many people enjoyed the screeching of the record as Ophelia fell over and the split screen when Ophelia and Derek are walking through the school.
What are your thoughts on the music we chose?
Some people did not understand why we had used classical music, but they enjoyed the music we used at the end of the piece.
What do you think to the quality of the camera work/editing?
They agreed that the quality was high as the camera wasn't shaky. Also, they said that the editing was clean they liked the scene transitions.
How do you think we managed to portray the genre of romance to the audience?
The people answering the questionnaire felt like we portrayed the genre of romance by showing two characters with the use of parallel editing, making it obvious that they would meet and fall in love.
If you had the chance to re-create our film, what would you improve/change?
The majority of people said that they would change to costumes to make them more suiting the character's personalities and also the music to make the piece more appealing to and audience.
Friday, 8 May 2009
Thursday, 7 May 2009
Evaluation
Draft 2
Stevie and I decided to begin our piece with a mid-shot of Ophelia, back towards the camera as she walks down the school drive. We felt that this kept to the usual conventions of the romance genre as it immediately showed who was the main character, because the camera was stuck firmly on following one person and it also created many enigma codes surrounding this character, because you don’t get to see her face straight away. The audience begin to wonder why she’s there, what she looks like, how she’s feeling. This is typical of a romance film as the plot is never given to you straight away, making the storyline seem complicated, which reflects the nature of the genre itself.
Moreover, with the use of parallel editing, Stevie and aimed to show that the two characters being shown were making their journeys across the school at the same time. This also adds the effect that these two characters are destined to meet one another, because their stories are intertwined. Again, this is typical of a romance movie because they generally have two protagonist characters that are, or will become to be, in a relationship with each other, and it is common for the editing of a film to show both of the characters’ stories together. For example, this kind of editing occurs frequently in Down with Love where Catcher Block and Barbara Novak are constantly shown in a split-screen clip to connote that the situation they are both in are happening at the same time.
Furthermore, most romance movies have a coincidental incident for the two protagonists to meet (if they do not already know each other) and Stevie and I feel that we managed to incorporate this element quite well. For example, in The Break-Up, Gary and Brooke first see each other at a baseball game. For our coincidental meeting, we had Ophelia trip over and drop her glasses as she was walking upstairs, just as Derek was coming downstairs. This incident made them both meet each other coincidently and also showed Derek to be a kind-hearted person; another convention of romance films – the male interest is good-natured.
I feel that we slightly pushed some forms of the romance genre as the names of the characters were slightly obscure. Usually in this particular genre of film, there are common, well-known, names or names that suggest beauty or decentness of character. However, it is pretty obvious that Ophelia is a Shakespearian name and, in comparison, Derek is definitely not. We aimed to show, through the names of the characters, that they are both very different and from equally different backgrounds, which is another convention of romance movies; opposites attract.
Stevie and I were aiming to show that Ophelia was from quite a high-class background, whereas Derek has emerged from a more middle to working-class background. However, this might not have been achieved as well as it could have done because of the costumes that the actors were wearing. Ophelia’s and Derek’s clothes did not suggest that they were from different social groups. This could have been improved by Ophelia wearing more upper-class/old fashioned clothes such as a mid-length skirt with tights/stockings and a ladies blouse. This could have been contrasted to improvements on Derek’s clothing; he might have worn an old, worn t-shirt, with ¾ length trousers and un-branded trainers. However, the location of the piece did show that they were both students and therefore more likely to enjoy the pastimes and entertainment. We also tried to show that Ophelia came from a wealthy background by the music that was played over the top of the first few scenes. It was a piece by Vivaldi, and stereotypically, classical music is associated with well-off people as they can afford to go to concerts and operas.
As the genre of romance is extremely common, it is likely that any well-known media institution would distribute our film. The majority of films, romance or not, have an element of love in them. Therefore, to have a whole film based on the idea of love and relationships means that it is probable many institutions might distribute our product. From previous research I found there was no dominant distributor of romance films, institutions such as; Paramount, Warner Bros., Tristar, Columbia etc. have all distributed big-named films. However, more extensive research I found a few films that were distributed by the same company. Grease, Titanic, Runaway Bride and Romeo and Juliet were all distributed by Paramount Pictures. Although these films also incorporate aspects of other genres, such as comedy/tragedy, the main theme of them is love and romance. I feel that Grease (although being a musical) relates the most to our piece because it is set in a school, with the two protagonists being students who are very different from each other, yet eventually fall in love. Therefore, as its distributor is Paramount Pictures, I believe it would be fitting for our piece because they are two similar products.
The audience for our product would be young to middle-aged women and teenagers. As the genre of our piece is romance, it would stereotypically attract women because they are perceived as being emotional and sympathetic, therefore can more easily relate to what is happening. As opposed to men, who stereotypically don’t go for all the slushy, romantic storylines. This product would also attract teenagers because of the location and age of the characters. Teenagers would have something to relate to and therefore are more likely to watch it because they can easily imagine themselves within the narrative and become absorbed in the film. I feel that our film would fulfil a person’s social needs from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. People have to feel loved and have a sense of belonging; therefore if they watched this film, they could relate the events and emotions to ones in their lives and would consequently feel wanted and loved.
Stevie and I attempted to attract our audience by clearly showing them that it was a romance film. If that had not been obvious from the start then the audience may not have carried on watching it because they would be unsure as to whether it’s a film of their interest or not. To begin with, we made sure it was evident that the two characters being shown were to become the main characters of the film. Therefore, they knew straight away that they would meet and fall for each other. Moreover, the music that replaced and audio at the beginning of our piece also gave the audience a clue as to what the genre would be. Our choice of classical music is typically related to love and romance because of the orchestral values and soft harmonies. The parallel editing and split screen of Ophelia and Derek walking around the school connotes that they are eventually going to make their way towards one another, showing the audience that they are definitely going to fall for each other as the narrative unfolds. Moreover, as we see Ophelia walking towards the reception, it is clear that she is lost and/or nervous because she keeps looking at her new surroundings with unease and curiosity. This is a chance for the audience to realise that Derek will become the ‘hero’ and help Ophelia find her way around. When the two characters finally meet, Stevie and I have edited a scene to make it in slow motion, which shows that when Ophelia and Derek both reach out for the dropped glasses, it is highly significant. This is because the audience can see every detail of when they go for the spectacles, and they first time they touch. During the dialogue, Ophelia seems quite nervous and shy, which is contrasting to Derek, who appears to be quite calm and assured. When he offers to show her to student reception, this makes him out to be courteous and polite, which would make Ophelia warm instantly to him, showing the audience that it is likely they will fall in love with each other, due to this immediate attraction. Also, the titles of the film have a lot of the colour red in them, which is traditionally associated to love, and they also include hearts, which again, are typical of romance films.
An aspect of filming that I have gained experience in, is knowing the importance of using a variety of camera angles and shots. A match on action shot helps sustain a good level of continuity as it makes the film quite fluid and smooth because one shot shows her opening the reception doors, and the next we see her walking inside. During the first few scenes there was a high angle shot of Ophelia walking into reception, which connotes that she is inferior to the others around her because she is new to the school and isn’t familiar to the surroundings. Although this shot does its job in the way that it shows her vulnerability, I believe that the camera was in one position for too long, and Ophelia is lost for a large period of time. This could have been improved by incorporating a couple of different shots as she made her way upstairs, so the audience wouldn’t get bored. Also, another shot used is a close up of the dropped glasses which shows that they are important in bringing the two characters together, which essentially is central to the rest of the film. When the two characters converse, there are many over the shoulder shots to display reactions and they show which character is talking.
Because Stevie and I wanted to set our opening scenes at a school, it was important to make sure that we didn’t have too much going on around where we were filming, as the camera would have picked up a lot of background noise, and the continuity would have been poor. Therefore, we had to film during periods when it was quieter, so the quality of film would be higher.
I felt that I gained a lot of experience during the editing process of making our product. I learnt the importance of cutting clips with extreme precision, as every half a second can affect the continuity of the piece. This became an issue during the last few scenes when the positioning of the camera changes as Ophelia and Derek are walking along the reception corridor. We had to cut both of the clips at exactly the right moment in order to keep the fluidity of the film at a high level. Also, I learnt how to effectively put in scene transitions, for the clips to fade in and out as the titles were showing. It was important that there wasn’t just an abrupt cut at the end of the camera work to show the titles, by using transitions, it made the jump less noticeable. Furthermore, I gained experience in fading in and out the audio and non-diegetic music. This was essential because similar to the scenes, we couldn’t have a sharp start to music over a clip, we need to gradually bring it in. To make the audio of the film better, Stevie and I had to modify the background and foreground noise in a few of the scenes. In some cases, the background noise drowned out any conversation, so we had bring the levels of that noise down to a minimum, and then increase the volume of the foreground noise.
When I was assigned the preliminary task, the main focus was to ensure good continuity rather than high quality content. In comparison, the opening scenes to a film that I needed to produce for my coursework, I had to incorporate both of these elements. It was essential that I clearly displayed what the genre of the film was straight away and that I established the personalities of the characters. This would tell the audience what to expect from the upcoming scenes and what kind of narrative there would be. In order to achieve this, I used split screen to show both of the main characters at the same time, connoting that they are central to the plot. Also, I tried to display the personalities of the characters, something that I didn’t have to do in the preliminary task. Furthermore, I used more effects and transitions for my coursework piece, which made the end product flow more and have better continuity. I feel the quality of my work, using a camera/Adobe Premiere Elements etc., has greatly improved because I am now more aware of the difficulties and complications that filming and editing bring up. I had to make sure that we were filming in the right location at the right time, and that we got all the shots needed to make a good quality two minute piece. Once we started editing, it was crucial that Stevie and I carefully chose the right clips and put them together in way that presented to typical forms and convention of a romance movie.
Stevie and I decided to begin our piece with a mid-shot of Ophelia, back towards the camera as she walks down the school drive. We felt that this kept to the usual conventions of the romance genre as it immediately showed who was the main character, because the camera was stuck firmly on following one person and it also created many enigma codes surrounding this character, because you don’t get to see her face straight away. The audience begin to wonder why she’s there, what she looks like, how she’s feeling. This is typical of a romance film as the plot is never given to you straight away, making the storyline seem complicated, which reflects the nature of the genre itself.
Moreover, with the use of parallel editing, Stevie and aimed to show that the two characters being shown were making their journeys across the school at the same time. This also adds the effect that these two characters are destined to meet one another, because their stories are intertwined. Again, this is typical of a romance movie because they generally have two protagonist characters that are, or will become to be, in a relationship with each other, and it is common for the editing of a film to show both of the characters’ stories together. For example, this kind of editing occurs frequently in Down with Love where Catcher Block and Barbara Novak are constantly shown in a split-screen clip to connote that the situation they are both in are happening at the same time.
Furthermore, most romance movies have a coincidental incident for the two protagonists to meet (if they do not already know each other) and Stevie and I feel that we managed to incorporate this element quite well. For example, in The Break-Up, Gary and Brooke first see each other at a baseball game. For our coincidental meeting, we had Ophelia trip over and drop her glasses as she was walking upstairs, just as Derek was coming downstairs. This incident made them both meet each other coincidently and also showed Derek to be a kind-hearted person; another convention of romance films – the male interest is good-natured.
I feel that we slightly pushed some forms of the romance genre as the names of the characters were slightly obscure. Usually in this particular genre of film, there are common, well-known, names or names that suggest beauty or decentness of character. However, it is pretty obvious that Ophelia is a Shakespearian name and, in comparison, Derek is definitely not. We aimed to show, through the names of the characters, that they are both very different and from equally different backgrounds, which is another convention of romance movies; opposites attract.
Stevie and I were aiming to show that Ophelia was from quite a high-class background, whereas Derek has emerged from a more middle to working-class background. However, this might not have been achieved as well as it could have done because of the costumes that the actors were wearing. Ophelia’s and Derek’s clothes did not suggest that they were from different social groups. This could have been improved by Ophelia wearing more upper-class/old fashioned clothes such as a mid-length skirt with tights/stockings and a ladies blouse. This could have been contrasted to improvements on Derek’s clothing; he might have worn an old, worn t-shirt, with ¾ length trousers and un-branded trainers. However, the location of the piece did show that they were both students and therefore more likely to enjoy the pastimes and entertainment. We also tried to show that Ophelia came from a wealthy background by the music that was played over the top of the first few scenes. It was a piece by Vivaldi, and stereotypically, classical music is associated with well-off people as they can afford to go to concerts and operas.
As the genre of romance is extremely common, it is likely that any well-known media institution would distribute our film. The majority of films, romance or not, have an element of love in them. Therefore, to have a whole film based on the idea of love and relationships means that it is probable many institutions might distribute our product. From previous research I found there was no dominant distributor of romance films, institutions such as; Paramount, Warner Bros., Tristar, Columbia etc. have all distributed big-named films. However, more extensive research I found a few films that were distributed by the same company. Grease, Titanic, Runaway Bride and Romeo and Juliet were all distributed by Paramount Pictures. Although these films also incorporate aspects of other genres, such as comedy/tragedy, the main theme of them is love and romance. I feel that Grease (although being a musical) relates the most to our piece because it is set in a school, with the two protagonists being students who are very different from each other, yet eventually fall in love. Therefore, as its distributor is Paramount Pictures, I believe it would be fitting for our piece because they are two similar products.
The audience for our product would be young to middle-aged women and teenagers. As the genre of our piece is romance, it would stereotypically attract women because they are perceived as being emotional and sympathetic, therefore can more easily relate to what is happening. As opposed to men, who stereotypically don’t go for all the slushy, romantic storylines. This product would also attract teenagers because of the location and age of the characters. Teenagers would have something to relate to and therefore are more likely to watch it because they can easily imagine themselves within the narrative and become absorbed in the film. I feel that our film would fulfil a person’s social needs from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. People have to feel loved and have a sense of belonging; therefore if they watched this film, they could relate the events and emotions to ones in their lives and would consequently feel wanted and loved.
Stevie and I attempted to attract our audience by clearly showing them that it was a romance film. If that had not been obvious from the start then the audience may not have carried on watching it because they would be unsure as to whether it’s a film of their interest or not. To begin with, we made sure it was evident that the two characters being shown were to become the main characters of the film. Therefore, they knew straight away that they would meet and fall for each other. Moreover, the music that replaced and audio at the beginning of our piece also gave the audience a clue as to what the genre would be. Our choice of classical music is typically related to love and romance because of the orchestral values and soft harmonies. The parallel editing and split screen of Ophelia and Derek walking around the school connotes that they are eventually going to make their way towards one another, showing the audience that they are definitely going to fall for each other as the narrative unfolds. Moreover, as we see Ophelia walking towards the reception, it is clear that she is lost and/or nervous because she keeps looking at her new surroundings with unease and curiosity. This is a chance for the audience to realise that Derek will become the ‘hero’ and help Ophelia find her way around. When the two characters finally meet, Stevie and I have edited a scene to make it in slow motion, which shows that when Ophelia and Derek both reach out for the dropped glasses, it is highly significant. This is because the audience can see every detail of when they go for the spectacles, and they first time they touch. During the dialogue, Ophelia seems quite nervous and shy, which is contrasting to Derek, who appears to be quite calm and assured. When he offers to show her to student reception, this makes him out to be courteous and polite, which would make Ophelia warm instantly to him, showing the audience that it is likely they will fall in love with each other, due to this immediate attraction. Also, the titles of the film have a lot of the colour red in them, which is traditionally associated to love, and they also include hearts, which again, are typical of romance films.
An aspect of filming that I have gained experience in, is knowing the importance of using a variety of camera angles and shots. A match on action shot helps sustain a good level of continuity as it makes the film quite fluid and smooth because one shot shows her opening the reception doors, and the next we see her walking inside. During the first few scenes there was a high angle shot of Ophelia walking into reception, which connotes that she is inferior to the others around her because she is new to the school and isn’t familiar to the surroundings. Although this shot does its job in the way that it shows her vulnerability, I believe that the camera was in one position for too long, and Ophelia is lost for a large period of time. This could have been improved by incorporating a couple of different shots as she made her way upstairs, so the audience wouldn’t get bored. Also, another shot used is a close up of the dropped glasses which shows that they are important in bringing the two characters together, which essentially is central to the rest of the film. When the two characters converse, there are many over the shoulder shots to display reactions and they show which character is talking.
Because Stevie and I wanted to set our opening scenes at a school, it was important to make sure that we didn’t have too much going on around where we were filming, as the camera would have picked up a lot of background noise, and the continuity would have been poor. Therefore, we had to film during periods when it was quieter, so the quality of film would be higher.
I felt that I gained a lot of experience during the editing process of making our product. I learnt the importance of cutting clips with extreme precision, as every half a second can affect the continuity of the piece. This became an issue during the last few scenes when the positioning of the camera changes as Ophelia and Derek are walking along the reception corridor. We had to cut both of the clips at exactly the right moment in order to keep the fluidity of the film at a high level. Also, I learnt how to effectively put in scene transitions, for the clips to fade in and out as the titles were showing. It was important that there wasn’t just an abrupt cut at the end of the camera work to show the titles, by using transitions, it made the jump less noticeable. Furthermore, I gained experience in fading in and out the audio and non-diegetic music. This was essential because similar to the scenes, we couldn’t have a sharp start to music over a clip, we need to gradually bring it in. To make the audio of the film better, Stevie and I had to modify the background and foreground noise in a few of the scenes. In some cases, the background noise drowned out any conversation, so we had bring the levels of that noise down to a minimum, and then increase the volume of the foreground noise.
When I was assigned the preliminary task, the main focus was to ensure good continuity rather than high quality content. In comparison, the opening scenes to a film that I needed to produce for my coursework, I had to incorporate both of these elements. It was essential that I clearly displayed what the genre of the film was straight away and that I established the personalities of the characters. This would tell the audience what to expect from the upcoming scenes and what kind of narrative there would be. In order to achieve this, I used split screen to show both of the main characters at the same time, connoting that they are central to the plot. Also, I tried to display the personalities of the characters, something that I didn’t have to do in the preliminary task. Furthermore, I used more effects and transitions for my coursework piece, which made the end product flow more and have better continuity. I feel the quality of my work, using a camera/Adobe Premiere Elements etc., has greatly improved because I am now more aware of the difficulties and complications that filming and editing bring up. I had to make sure that we were filming in the right location at the right time, and that we got all the shots needed to make a good quality two minute piece. Once we started editing, it was crucial that Stevie and I carefully chose the right clips and put them together in way that presented to typical forms and convention of a romance movie.
Wednesday, 6 May 2009
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