Final Evaluation.

1. in what way does your media product use develop or challenge the forms and conventions of real media products? 

Prior to the production of our title sequence, research into the codes and conventions of different genres was completed and i feel confident in saying that our media product follows the codes and conventions of the time travel/romance genre to some extent. The title sequence however shows alot more romance characteristics than it does time travel. Codes and conventions of romance are constantly fulfilled all the way through the title sequence. Beginning with the music, our musical choice, i believe fits considerably well to the genre we have presented. Its relatively slow paced with a range of high notes and low notes, this sound hints some kind of drama which in this style tends to be associated with romance.
     Visually, links to the romance genre begin almost immediately. The first few frames show the construction of a letter which is later shown to be read by a another character of the opposite sex. Here to enigmas are revealed and it becomes quite clear what their relationship is due to the music and style of presentation. the switching between character in the duration of the sequence also shows this, the face that they are both in the exactly the same place suggests that they may live together. Which supports the assumption that they are in fact in love. 
   The title also accurately portrays the genre ''A Time to Love'', the words love and time each individually are suited to the two genres our media product consists of. ''Love ''the most commonly known word to relate to romance and ''Time'' a word that is actually present in the second genre of time travel.
   The link to Time travel is alot less obvious than that of romance within our media product, however clues are present. The most noticeable is the occasional showing of a clock overlapping other clips. This gives the implication of passing time and time in general. However the idea of time travel doesn't become clear until near the end of the sequence when the clock hand is shown to be circulating in the opposite way to the accustomed motion. 
    Another factor where a time travel genre is presented is in most of the frames that the letter is being constructed in. Here i have layered up a number of clips of the letter being written. This also suggests a passing of time as well as a time lapse. These two points of time travel suggestion are relatively typically used to portray this genre in the codes and conventions of time travel.


2.How does your media product represent typical social groups?

Our title sequence mainly represents women due to the low key, normality of it. Judging by the title sequence it could seem that the rest of the film may be fairly typical in the likes of the romance genre, although this is not the case. I believe this because women may feel that they can relate to the characters in the title sequence on an emotional level. This emotional level can be obtained due to the camera angles which were carefully selected and used. a large number of close ups and extreme close ups to the characters allow for this personal sphere to be opened. Being stereo typically linked to sensitivity and emotion women are our target representation. Due the characters being dressed in a relatively plain manor the audience are drawn away from this area and purely focused on the emotion shown on their faces. Other examples of mise-en-scene are also kept proportionally simple. the wooden table is dressed with a few candles, lamps, joss sticks a joss stick holder and an ashtray as well as the book in which the letter lies. in all frames bar the last few the character and the book are the main focus this has been allowed to happen due to the to some extent simplicity of the setting. It was a deliberate choice to include no narrative within our media product. This decision was made to keep a sense of mystery prior to what typically would be the rest of the film. I feel the moderate amount of information we have included in the title sequence is just enough to hold the audiences attention and to keep them watching. The audience however being made up of women. Its not impossible nevertheless i find it highly unlikely for this title sequence to appeal to a man which is why our media product is mainly representative of women.

3.What kind of media institution might distribute your media product? 

 As a group we researched into different types of film distributors and assessed what kind of films they produced. We chose paramount vantage which immediately sounds strange due to the genre of our and they genre they most typically produce. some of the films paramount vantage have produced are 'no country for old men', 'case 39', 'Year of the dog' and 'son of Rambo'. here are films with a variety of genres; thriller, horror, drama and comedy. Obviously this none of these match the genre of our film, however it is safe to say that paramount vantage produce relatively low budget films which is something we decided our hypothetical ''film'' would be also due to the dramas and comedy's. It is notable that paramount vantage are able to attract a youthful audience, evidence of this comes from the films 'American Teen' and 'Son of Rambo'.

4.Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for 'A Time to Love' is mainly female, ranging from ages 15-45. To make sure that this was attainable we had to make our media product visually and audibly appealing to women/ teens of this age. We attempted to do this by trying to make the title sequence as soft as possible for the senses. gentleness being another thing associated with the female gender. The lighting was carefully created in order for this effect to be successful along with the editorial choices. Firstly to establish such a conclusion in relation to the lighting, our group had to wait until around 4:30ish before we could begin with the filming. Baring in mind the filming took place in January, the light didn't stay as we wished for very long. Also a number of lamps were placed around the table where the title sequence was set. To add to this softness the transitions between each shot were a number of different fade effects to ensure there would be some kind of continuity and flow. Additionally the varied levels of opacity in the layered parts are conjointly another factor that allows this soft feel to be apparent. This effect is also achieved partly due to the delicate piano music which i feel would appeal to the female target audience too.

5.How did you attract/ address your audience?

In order to attract/address our audience to effectively stay to watch the rest of the film after the 2 minute sequence we tried not to give too much away. It is clear the two enigmas share a love for one another and the contents of the letter shown in the sequence brings emotional pain to the male character. However it is not made clear why this sadness is created, what the letter says and further information on the couple. This automatically gives a sense of mystery and encourages the audience to stay and watch more. Initially the audiences attention is drawn in by the constant transition between the two characters creating a   
relationship between them however this relationship is virtual as they are never physically seen together. This may cause the audience to begin to question these events resulting in a further concentration and continued viewing of 'A Time to Love'.

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

 This year is the first in which i have ever been a media student. Due to this everything i have learned this year is brand new. In the construction of this product i have learned how to film using a range of different camera angles, i have become far more familiar with the apple macs, also i now know how to convert files and how to edit with an array of different techniques. During the course of the construction of the ''A Time to Love'' title sequence i have personally become relatively familiar with the editing software, Final Cut Pro. This took a while and sometimes resulted in disaster for example i actually accidentally deleted the whole sequence and had to start again. I got used to most of the controls by experimenting with the software and using a trial and error method. I feel the complete edited title sequence is successful to some extent a range of effects have been used, however i believe i could have been better. The titles enter and leave the screen in a relatively simple manor which could be seen as perhaps lazy or careless. Nevertheless i did this purposely for their to be some kind of juxtaposition in the product. I feel that if the same fade effect had been used for the titles too they wouldn't be as prominent and noticeable as they are without the effect. Although the editing was considerably fiddly and stressful, overall i did enjoy it and i'm glad that job was appointed to me.


7.Looking back on your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

The preliminary task we were given at the beginning of the year was a short continuity sequence that showed someone entering a room, crossing it having dialogue with another person and then leaving. Although now this seems comparably simple at the time the task was quite challenging. The preliminary task initially introduced me to Final Cut Pro with a much more straight forward set of steps to follow. To begin with the filming was completed  followed by uploading the files onto the mac and converting them to DV, these files then needed to be imported into final cut. After this all that was left was to drag the clips into the timeline and cut them down accordingly which was relatively simple. The preliminary task in my opinion was great preparation for what followed in the construction of the final product because it allowed for the basic steps to be learned. I also feel that as a group we learned the importance of research in order to gain  a greater knowledge and understanding of the title sequence task and how the film industry functions. Research into different title sequences allowed for the group to make the decisions needed and overall gave us a clue of what needed to be included such as the order of the titles and the style in which they appear.
 Consequently overall, as a group i feel we exceeded our initial expectations that were subconsciously made at the beginning of the project. We had greatly underestimated our ability to function as a group and produce work of a standard that is acceptable.

The Clock Face

The other day whilst at my friends house i spotted in the corner of my eye a clock very similar to the one i had originally pictured for the title sequence, i explained to her that i needed to record a clock for a few hours for some media work. She allowed me to do this. i set my phone up so it was facing the clock and recorded for a few hours. here's an image of the clock face from a screen shot i took from the video on my phone.

The image has decided to zoom in considerably, i don't know why. Nevertheless here it is!

My Job

Since the job i was previously given had diminished, i have been appointed to a new job as the group editor! This means i will be in charge of editing all of the clips we have filmed by cutting them down, adding transitions from one clip to another, putting in the titles, adding the music, layering the clock face over some of the clips and ensuring that everything looks as it should. I will edit our title sequence using the program final cut pro.

New Storyboard

After a conversation we had with Leanne it became clear that our storyboard needed to change because the way we had originally planned to show our titles was too complicated and time consuming. We also discussed that a larger range of shots were needed. The main idea of the title sequence has stayed pretty much the same but now we have decided to just create the titles on the mac in the font we have chosen. The transition of the titles will probably be just a simple fade in and fade out because this will fit in well with the mood and atmosphere of the sequence. The other changes we have made are based on shots and camera angles. For a larger variety we have added in a few extreme close ups, for example we have added two extreme close ups of Daisy's eye and Todd's eye also to convey some kind of communication. There's an extreme close up on the cigarette burning in the ash tray to show passing time, this also illustrates time metaphorically burning away. There's another extreme close up of the cigarette in the hand and in Todd's mouth as he takes a drag on the cigarette.

Editing Begins!

Today i began editing the title sequence, there are 33 clips 34 including the one of the clock the aim is to create a title sequence with a soft feminine feel. To attain this goal i feel that a range of fade edits will need to be used as well as a variety of opacity effects on the clips to achieve a layering of clips. In the two hour lesson today i have managed to drag eight clips in and added cross fades and additive fades to the beginning and end of each. Due to the length of some clips rendering took up at least a quarter of the lesson, in this case i didn't complete as much as i had wished nevertheless a starting point has been made.

Filming

Today we completed most of our filming, we shot everything but the clock face which we are still in search of.  Filming took about 90 minutes as we had to re-shoot a few frames. We waited until it was about 4:30 because we wanted our lighting to be just right, a slight glow however not too dark. Due to this focus on light  we only had limited time to complete all filming before it got dark. Thankfully we just managed to do it which was a relief. Shooting was rather enjoyable and i believe successful too. All shooting was completed in Daisy's kitchen, at her wooden dining table. Before any filming took place we cleared the table completely and laid out a tray with candles on it, a joss stick in a holder/ashtray, a glass lamp which we regarded to be quite futuristic, the notebook in which Arrow writes the letter and a pen. We placed the chair where Daisy and Todd sit in front of the window so we could get as much natural light as possible in the shots. This was also done because Daisy's kitchen window sill is full of pretty ornaments, we thought this would be a nice backdrop in the title sequence. Both of our actors (Daisy and Todd) were very focused and surprisingly not very giggly at all. This was great because there were very few outtakes, id say there were about 6 maximum. One problem we did come across was that daisy had to write the letter whilst we were filming, because of this we feel the content of the letter isn't as good as it could have been. overall though the filming of our title sequence was a positive experience. here are some photos of the setting we used and different positioning we played about with:

Final song choice

From the online questionnaire we posted online a few weeks ago it has become quite clear which piece of music has been thought to fit our genre the best. It has finally been decided which piece of music we should use for our title sequence, its a piece called curiosities which we found on http://www.audionetwork.com/ Im glad this piece was most popular because for one it suits the atmosphere we hope to create very well. Also this piece of music has more variety than the others and in this case is less likely to become boring than the others.

https://soundcloud.com/daisy-preston-pratt/curiosities

Typography 2

                       
We have now agreed to use this font for our titles because it is easier to read than my previous choice however it still looks very much like handwriting. Because it will be difficult to copy this font exactly we have decided to print it onto good quality paper and perhaps go over it in pen/pencil to give it more of a natural feel. This is how we will construct the letter written by Arrow to Finn.

The next step.

We met with Miss Whittaker on monday and discussed our title sequence and our progress so far. We came across a few problems with our original story board idea and had to take out the part we planned where the titles appear on a notebook because of its impracticality. Also we discovered it could be too time consuming which may result in missing the deadline. Another problem we came across with this was that these titles would have been of the lesser actors in the film and at this point these names would be the main focus. Leanne also noticed that we didn't have a wide enough rage of different shots and camera angles, so that was something we needed to take into account and change. In the next post i will show you our new story board and new ideas. Due to this being taken out i will no longer have to search for invisible ink and therefore i need to be appointed a new job.

Invisible Ink

When i typed in invisible ink to you tube a few different options appeared. invisible ink which is visible with a UV light, making invisible ink from lemon juice and disappearing ink which involves phenolphthalein and an acid based reaction. Originally we wanted to buy a pen which makes a mark then disappears and reappears but apparently this does not exist. In this case we may either have to find a way to make this ink or edit the text accordingly. Below there are a few videos which show these methods. 

invisible ink- Phenolphthalein

invisible ink- UV light.

invisible ink lemon juice

Order of Titles

When a title sequence is being made it is very important to show the titles in the correct order, this order is as follows;


-Studio Logos
-Production company presents
-Film Title
-Actors Names
-Any of the following;
  -Casting
  -Make-up
  -Special effects
  -Music
  -Sound editor
-Line producer
-Executive producer
-Editor
-Director of photography
-Writers
-Director

Production Plan.

it has been discussed amongst the group which jobs are necessary and who each job should be appointed to. things like location and props came up in this chat, so here's the official plan.

LOCATION
We decided that the best possible location we could use would be daisy's house. Being daisy's house there will be no need for permission inquiries or fuss. We believe that of all the houses we could possibly use Daisy's has the best atmosphere and lighting to suit our idea. Also another perk of using Daisy's home is that most if not all the props needed are already there which avoids alot of hassle and difficulty.

PROPS
Here are a list of props that we plan to use;
-Desk
-Cigarettes
-Paper
-Ashtray
-Clock
-Pen
-Desktop lamp
-Chair (preferably wooden)

ACTORS
-Finn will be played by Todd Harding (student)
-Arrow will be played by Daisy Preston
These two were chosen because we know them and of all the people we do know they are most similar to our original cast of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Rooney Mara.

SETTING
We decided that around 4 O'clock would be a good time to begin filming. we feel this because by this time it will begin to get dark and this kind of natural lighting will fit the atmosphere we hope to create very well. This darkness may in a way build tension and could bring more emotion to our production. This is necessary because our title sequence is based around a very emotional goodbye.

JOBS
Molly- molly has been given the job as Director.
Daisy- daisy is our Producer.
Sean- i have been put in charge of finding ways to make or purchase invisible ink.