Call Sheets & Model Release Forms

Shotlist

Shot list from 048860

Storyboard - Plan of Film

The plot line for this film opening is that, Amy, a teenage girl has just moved away from her hometown and best friend to go and pursue her dream and join a nationally recognised sports team. The opening will show her as she walks into her room after her first day of school, feeling down as she reminiscences of old times with her best friend, but is inspired to go and prove herself after looking at many of her past medals and prizes. She then walks out the door with her sports bag to go to training. 

Overall Influences from Research - Summary

Initial Title Research
-26 shots on average in a 2 minute film opening.
-Main jobs mentioned were Producer, Co-producer, Music Composer, Executive Producer, Writer, Director, Costume Designer, Casting Director, Editor, Production Designer & Director of Photography.

Due to this being a film opening with only me producing, there will not be a co-producer or an executive producer listed in my film opening. There will also not be a production designer mentioned as all the scenes were not shot in constructed sets.

Mise-en-scene Research

-Consistent colours throughout

-Location should be fitting to the drama genre.

-Font titles should be consistent.

-Lighting and props should tie in with my chosen genre.

Analysing Cinematography

-Use of establishing shots

-Try and use a variety of close ups, long shots and medium shots.

Research into Institutions

-Make sure that my film includes prominent features of the drama genre so that film distributors are more likely to take interest in my film.

Researching Student Work

-Simple idea

-Titles that fit with the genre.

- As little as possible dialogue between characters or just one character talking (maybe as a voice over like their thoughts).

Research into a Potential Target Audience.

-Font that is easy to read & stands out.

Costumes & Props Research

-Clothes that you would see everyday (casual – maybe sports clothes)

-Everyday props, such as phones, bikes etc.

Sound Research

-Actual song/soundtrack, which has changes in tonality to represent the emotional rollercoaster of a drama film (generic convention).

Logo Research

-Animated logo (nothing too fancy, only slightly animated to make it more interesting).

Location Recce

Location Reece from 048860

Ideas

After moving house, I have gained some inspiration. I have decided to include videos that were shot for this film as 'flashbacks' or 'memories'. Instead of disregarding the footage completely due to the complete change in location (across the country) and therefore story line*. I thought that it would make sense to use this to my advantage. Therefore I will use a couple of the videos as memories of the main character.

*if I were to carry on the original idea, there would be a lack of continuity within my film and I can't use the same actress as she is no longer accessible to me.

Logo Animation - Finished Product 2

Logo Animation - Finished Product 1

Logo Animation - Construction

From following this tutorial, and practicing with a different film logo, I was able to animate both of my logos. These logos are the logos that I will use in my film opening instead of my original two as shown in previous blog posts. This is because I preferred these ones that were created in After Effects and I thought that they looked more professional than the other two.

Logo 1: Sotnick Productions

Logo 2: Lou & Lou's Entertainment

After Effects - Movie title animation practise

Before I animate my logos, I thought that I would have a rough practice of creating an animated logo, by following this tutorial exactly.

Completed Logos

Logo Construction

Logo 1:

How I made it:

Here, I had just changed the background to solid black and then used the custom shape tool to create the white wobbly shape. I then added in the text in a dark blue colour and in Palatino font.

Next, I used the shape tool again to create the flower head, and I added a centre. For the colour, I had to go into blending options after right clicking on the layer that I wanted to edit. I was able to create the rainbow effect here.

Here, I just added the text 'Productions' underneath the text 'SOTNICK', which gave me the final company name of 'SOTNICK Productions'.

To finish off my first logo, I added a second layer of the white shape and made it slightly different in shape and size so that the border wasn't even. I then changed the back layer of the two to have a different style and I changed this to become blue to give the logo more colour as it seemed a bit too dark and almost creepy to me. 

Logo 2: How I made it:

I started off with a black background once again, and I copied and pasted the white and blue movie reel image onto the edges of the rectangle to make it look like a bigger version of a movie reel.

I didn't like the white in the images so I had to use the rectangle shape tool to go over all the little and medium rectangles to make it black.

To finish the logo off, I used Microsoft word and used a font that had a glow on the outside, and I copy and pasted the font into my current logo in photoshop.

Logo Sketch

Logo Research

This video of the Fame 2009 opening credits may not appear on certain devices. However, I can't upload this to YouTube due to copyright.  Please see my Evaluation Question 1 Prezi and it is the second video.

Within Fame (2009) there are 3 company logos shown.

All three of these logos used their general logo, and didn't change anything to fit the drama genre. I think this is because the drama genre can have a very wide range of conventions, so it would be hard to constantly change the logo to fit every single type of film.

All of the logos are also animated. The lion raws in the MGM logo, the Lakeshore Entertainment logo has a moving image within it. Also the United Artists logo is animated as it shows us the logo being constructed by the outlines and the text is highlighted with animation.

In terms of sound effects, there are no sound effects on the 2nd and 3rd logo (there is usually sound effects on the 3rd). Within the time that the MGM logo is playing, the lion raws.

There is 1 logo used within the Breaking Dawn Part 2 opening and it changed to fit the film and this is carried on within the font used for the titles. The logo has white text but the background has a strong red hue. This is representative of the blood, due to it being a vampire film. So, instead of it being the standard logo, it incorporates the film, as it has the film setting in the background, a mountain with a blood red sky above it. The logo and text are animated as they have colour moving around in them and the camera is shot is moving too, whether it is moving across the landscape or zooming in. Also the logo and text fades in and out. There aren't many sound effects as the only sound effect I can hear is the 'whoosh' as the camera zooms in and past the logo. The only other sound that we can hear is the non-diegetic soundtrack for the film opening.

GarageBand - Practise

This is just a practise with using the software, however I did choose instruments that I would most likely choose for my final soundtrack. I did find it difficult to find snippets that were in the same key, so the music didn't clash and sound discordant.

Listen Here:

http://amysotnickmediatstudies.tumblr.com/post/136212001877/practise-making-music-on-garageband

Sound Research

How has this research influenced my work?
From this research I have realised that my music should be an actual song/soundtrack and not just sound effects and ambiance sounds. These films both had music which changed in tonality, speed and dynamics, which to me represented one of the generic conventions of a drama film; the emotional rollercoaster. For my opening, I might have actual instruments such as piano, cello, guitar, drums etc. Furthermore, I will make sure my music has turns and changes within it to let the audience know that there will be ups and downs intended in the film. I will either compose and record the music myself, or find some non-copyrighted music which fits my opening.

Making a Prop

Please ignore the red underline on the word 'Fam' in the picture of the final product as this was just a screenshot from Microsoft Word and it is not on the actual prop.

Costume & Props Research

Follow Amy's board Costume and Props Research on Pinterest.

Reflection
For my production I will need to use clothes that you would see everyday, such as casual clothes like hoodies and jeans. I need to make my production look like a normal everyday life to make it relatable to the audience so I will need to use common items such as laptops and phones in terms of technology. Furthermore, I think my character is going to have a certain talent in a type of sport, so they will need to have sports clothes in the opening as a prop to make it look as realistic as possible.

Research into a Potential Target Audience - Secondary Research

Pta 1 from 048860

http://business.pearlanddean.com/films_guide_details/7269/paper-towns
http://business.pearlanddean.com/films_guide_details/7354/me-and-earl-and-the-dying-girl