Production Diary

5^th of September: This was my first Media lesson. Where we set up the blog where I am post all of my work that I do in this lesson. This lesson I learnt how the blog works and how to make it my own. After I was comfortable with using it and I knew how to work everything.

10^th of September: Today I learnt about what is included into a film opening, because this is what our coursework is based on. We learnt that they should included; production logo, titles, establishing genre, location and main characters. This was helpful as I can know understand what I have to include to the start of the opening of the film opening that I will create later on in the year.

11^th of September: We put into practice of what we learnt last lesson, which was film opening conventions. We had to get into groups of 3 and create a presentation on the opening of any film. My group chose to do Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone. We had to link every point back to the genre, from this I could understand how everything that is incorporated in the first 3 minutes tells the audience what kind of genre this film will be.

13^th of September: This lesson I learnt all the different kind of camera shots and angles, which was really helpful as I didn't take Media for GCSE. I learnt from using camera work it can portray how you want the character to look. For example you could use a low angle on a character to make them look strong. Also you could use a canted shot to show that something isn't right with the camera.  This is where we got our homework to make a presentation on a film of our choice and we have to pick out 6 different types of camera work. For mine I chose the film Hole and in that opening the shots I picked were; tracking, bird’s eye view, close up, wide shot, mid shot and a extreme close up.

17^th of September: Carrying on with analysing film openings, this lesson we were analysing a still image from a movie. I learnt that when analysing a still image I have to consider; camera shot/ angle, Mise-en-scene, Character, genre, and setting. For example in class today we looked at a still image from “The shinning” from analysing it we could tell that it was a horror film, while we had another still image from “you've got mail” this wasn't as clear because the lighting was dark and one of the characters were holding a knife which suggested that it was a horror, but then we found out it was a Rom-Com, I don’t want this to happen in my film opening as people will get the wrong idea of what genre is, I would like it to be clear the whole way though.  This will help me with my finale piece of coursework because I want people to be able to say what the genre is just from a still image, because it shows that you have completely thought about each shot carefully and how it’s going to link to the genre of my film opening. 

19^th of September: Putting into practice what we were studying last lesson (which was still images), we had to go out in groups at take photos that relate to the genre that we have been given. The genre that my group got was a British drama. My group found it hard to decide what to do for this genre, so we thought about “Downton Abby” because it is a type of drama; as a result we decided to go for a melodramatic image. For example in one of our images we have someone trying to strangle the other person and another trying to pull the other one away. From doing this task I have decide that I wouldn't to a drama for my film opening, because it seems quite hard to do even if your just capturing a shot. Also for it being a drama it has to be quite realistic which again is surprisingly hard to do because as a drama student it’s hard to act out which could mean that the audience might take it the wrong way. Also the audience could find drama quite boring because it is based on real life, so it could be something that they aren't interested in. Also that day we studied genre signifiers which are; colours, costume, character types, props, symbols, setting, music and plot lines. This will help me with my film opening because it will remind me that mostly everything in my shots will have to link to the genre. After we looked at the most common genres which are; romance, horror, science fiction, action, western, fantasy, thriller, rom-com, crime and comedy. Which deciding what genre my film opening should be this will help because if I chose one of the popular genres, it will mean that the audience will be able to say easily what the genre of the movie is. Lastly we looked at Andrew Tudor’s genre theory- “chicken and egg” dilemma. This has taught me to understand that in different countries everyone has different views on genres. Which means that people will call the genre of my film different things.

23^rd of September: Today we were given the task planning out our own move. This means that we have to plan out the summery of what’s happening in my film, the age that will be appropriate to watch the film, what kind of genre it is, the location of my move, and what characters will play who and why. This will help my when planning my film opening because this is all the things that I have to consider when planning it. My film was a crime film because I really enjoy watching movies/ TV shows about murders, because I think that they are really clever on how they so everything.

3^rd of October: This lesson I have been told what our preliminary task which was to create a short film but, it has to include a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down on a chair opposite another character. Also we have to use match on action, shot/reverse shot and 180-degree rule.  Before we go out and start filming my group had to draw a story board and create a script of what will happen. In my group it was Ryan and I.   That lesson we did the storyboard and script, which meant that next lesson we could start filming. From doing this exercise showed me that you need to plan everything precisely so when you get to filming you know exactly what you will be doing and there will be no faffing about. We had an idea to do a parody of a scary movie because, we learnt from Andrew Tudor's genre theory the best way to view genre signifies were by watching film parodies in order for the humour to work an understanding of generic traits is needed.
5th of October: Today we practiced filming our parody of a scary film. When we went back over the footage we saw and understood that it is very hard to create something funny that isn't weird. This meant that we had to start all over again, but this time we were going to make it scary. We went back and redid our storyboard and script so we were ready for next lesson. I learnt that doing a parody or a comedy is very hard to create and you have to spend a lot of time on it and the end product might not even be funny. As a result I have learnt that when doing the finale film opening we should do a horror or an action because these types of genres are easy to tell what kind of genre it is and can make the audience feel the way you want them to.    

7^th of October: This lesson we started to film. We got two drama students to acts for us so Ryan and I could direct and film. This was easier because that means that we could concentrate on shot we wanted to get and what we wanted it to look like. However lighting was hard which meant we had to have another person hold a light up to the actors so we could see their faces and what they were doing when it was dark. I liked having a small group because then we didn't disagree on things and we could get everything done quicker. Later on that day I studied Todorov’s narrative theory, this is just explaining what the 5 stages of a film is;

The state of equilibrium

Disruption of the equilibrium  

Recognition that the disorder has occurred

Attempts to repair the damage done

Restoration of a new equilibrium

This can be applied to any film, which means for my film opening that it needs to show the state of equilibrium as well as all the other conventions I need to include. Next we looked at Laura Mulvey’s The Male Gaze theory. The points that were brought up were;

How the audience views the people present

How men look at women

How women look at themselves

How women look at other women

It relegates women to the status of objects

This something that I do not wish to be portrayed in my film opening because, I do not want the women watching the film wishing they were like her or upset with what they look like. No one likes this feeling; therefore, I do not want it in my film opening. Lastly we looked at Stuart Hall’s Reception theory. This explained to me that there are 3 ways in which your audience could take my opening. There are;

Dominate- This is how I want the audience to receive my message.

Negotiated- This is when the audience understands the part I want the audience to get, however, they also have views of their own.

Oppositional- They do not like the message that I am trying to get across and, therefore, create their own meaning of it.

This can all be based on different emotions. From learning about this that no one will interpret the film opening the way I would like them to, everyone will have different opinions and what they think of it. I’m okay with this because people aren't the same; we all have different views on everything.

8^th of October: This was the first time I got to use the editing program Adobe. At first it did look really complicated and I did have to ask people for help to find out what each button meant. The more I got to use it the more I could understand. This is going to help me when I have finished filming my finale film opening because, I hopefully should know what most of all the buttons mean so I can edit the footage really carefully and to the best I can make it.

11^th of October: Today I got my second preliminary task which was to film and edit the start of Juno. I spent the rest of the lesson watching the opening of Juno over and over again so I could complete my shot plan. This is really helpful as I now know how many seconds each shot was, the transition was, the camera work and what was happening in each one. This meant when my group went to film everything was precise because we knew what was happening for each shot. I would like to create a shot list for my film opening because it shows that I have planned everything out to the tiniest part, which again will make filming more fluid because we know what we are doing and we don’t have to keep stopping.

14^th-22^nd of October: In between these dates my group spent filming. I was 2 other groups Juno as well, which meant that I had to give up most of my free time to help them, but also whenever we were filming together there were a lot more arguing because people couldn't agree on what to do and how to do it, everyone had different views. The made filming a lot more easily because we knew what we were doing. However we found that tracking alongside the person playing Juno was really hard as when they were walking they found the camera went really jittery. Also with the shot at her feet and tracking were hard because we couldn't get the right angle and we couldn't walk along side her because it was so low.  From filming this opening it made me realise that having a big group for my finale opening is a bad idea because we will not always agree on things which will make everything frustrating and we will spend more time arguing then actually doing the opening. Also choosing location for each shot is important because this was the main dilemma because we didn't where to film each one and what will look good so we had to improvise.

17^th of October: My group for the first preliminary task have finished editing the footage and is now on the blog. This has helped me for my finale opening because I now know what settings I have to put it on to get it to convert into the right format. Overall from this task I have learnt that doing a comedy is very hard to create because it's hard to make it funny, but also by keeping it a small group you can get the filming done quicker which means that when you edit you can see what adjustments you need to make it better.

22^nd-24^th of October: My group spent these days editing all the footage we got from filming Juno. From editing our first task made editing this a lot quicker because I knew what I was doing. The problem was picking the right transition for each shot. The program didn't have to same transition but we tried to get it as close as possible. Also I still don’t know how to edit the transitions because I can’t make it swipe to the others side of the screen. I need to find out how to do this so for my finale opening I know how to edit everything. From editing this we found that some shots weren't right and because we had the time we went back out and re filmed it all, which was good so we could get as close as possible to the actual opening.

25^th of October: We completely finished editing Juno which meant we could put it on our blogs before we broke up for school. We still weren't completely happy with the finale edit because we couldn't get everything precise and we were tight of time we could do it in. For my finale opening I would like to be fully happy with the finale thing, because then I know that I have tried my best. Overall from this task I have learnt that it will take time to edit all the shots that we have filmed because I want it to be the best it can be. Also that a big group isn't the best idea because there will be arguing involved which means that we won't get things done the way we wanted it to.

5^th of November: Today we were told to get into groups and come up with ideas for our film opening. We established what kind of genre we would like to do which was action/thriller this was because it would be a genre that we would enjoy to make which will make us more passionate about filming and creating our opening. But also we thought that it would be a great way to get as many genre signifiers in, plus we thought about how we could add in foley sounds and what we would use as the backing music. We came up with one decent idea do we started to plan out all the different genre signifiers that we could use, for example one of our props would be a gun because this is mostly used in an action movie. However we came across a big problem we couldn’t think of where we could film it and make it realistic. We didn’t want to use any of the school corridors because even if we did decorate it, it would still look like a school. One of our members came up with the idea that we should have it in an abandon house; we all thought that this was a good idea but the problem was that we could get arrested if we started filming there also it could be very dangerous for us because it might collapse. I learnt from this lesson that deciding to where we want our opening to be set is going to be very hard because if we go to an abandon place we have to get permission from whoever owns it, and it could be very risky because we might not be able to use it which means that our whole idea has gone out the window. As a result I think that we need to think up more ideas so we can think of a place which is more realistic.

6^th of November: The task we got set today was to study film openings in your genre and why they were successful. From studying action/thriller movie openings I learnt that most of them do not use titles because the makers want your full attention on the action. Also that a gun is the main prop in every opening I have seen which has told me that for our opening scene we must have one to fit in the category. I found it fascinating that most of their enigmas was of the antagonist, in the openings they were the main characters, the audience doesn’t meet the protagonist yet which keeps them engaged.          

11^th of November: Today we looked at script writing. We mostly looked at the headings and parts of the script. For example

The layout is the layout of the page/ how the page is set.

Normally it will start with the transition for example FADE IN/OUT, CUT TO, WIPE TO and DISSOVLE TO.

The next line would be the Scene heading, this tells us where the scene takes place and what time of day, for example

EXT. CARIBBEAN SEA -DAY

EXT- exterior -the scene will be taken outside

INT- interior -the scene will be taken inside

INT/EXT- interior/ exterior -this would be used the scene is happening inside but being shot from outside

CARIBBEAN SEA- This is where the scene will be taken

DAY- What time of the day they will be shooting; you could also have NIGHT, DUSK and DAWN

ACTION/BUSINESS- This basically will describe what we see on the screen. This does not include any dialogue it’s just a brief description.

PARENTHETICAL- is a direction to the actor about how to read the dialogue. For example before there lines in brackets would be (sotto) this means quietly so the script writers would want the actor to say the line quietly.

EXTENSION- This is a technical indication about the character’s dialogue, placed to the right of the character name, for example;

(O.S.) - Off screen

(V.O.) - Voice over

(M.O.S)- Without sound

(P.O.V)- Point of view

(F.G.) - Foreground

(M.G.) - Mid-ground

(B.G.) – Background

DUAL DIALOGUE- This is where two or more characters talk at the same time, normally this is shown when the dialogue is side by side.

What I learnt from today was what each part of the script was and how you use it. I did find it hard to get around what a film script looks like because I do Theatre studies for A level and the scripts are completely different. This will help me with my final film opening because when we write a script for it, the camera worker and actors will know what will go on and how it will work. Also we can keep track of what we have done by conforming on the script.

12^th of November:  Today I studied how important the title sequence is for a film. For example if you had a slow sequence then you are already showing your audience what the film is going to be like, but on the other hand when I studied Scott Pilgrim’s title sequence that opening got the audience ready for the film because it was an opening that made you feel good and wanting to see the rest of the movie. This was really helpful as I now know what kind of title sequence I want for my film opening. I want an opening that will get the audience ready for the film and doesn’t bore them so they lose interest straight away.

15^th of November: I looked at mood boards today. I really liked doing this because you got a feel to what your film opening was going to look like and imagining what it will include and what the characters were doing. I found it quite interesting.  

21^st of November: Today I was out on a field trip to the BFI- Making Film Openings for AS Media Studies. In the first session that we did I learnt all about the conventions of a film opening. This made me reflect on what I need to reconsider with my film opening. The points I really need to concentrate on is genre, narrative, character, atmosphere and settings. This has made me think more on what I need to do for each section and how do I show that.  Next I got a talk from Simon Frame who created the title sequence for Da Vinci’s Demons. He explained to us how important titles is for an opening, this has made me realise how much time I should out into making and creating the titles because they are important for an opening. I found out that I need at least 20 titles during my opening, for example the main actors, designer, costume, makeup, editor, music and director. Lastly in session two Making your own Film Opening, I learnt that it can only be 2 minutes long, but I need to sort everything out into task, assessment, time frame and equipment. Also that I shouldn't go straight into filming the opening I should practice see what looks good and what doesn't. Foley sounds are very important when editing it because; it’s one of the factors that I need to do to get a higher mark.  When I start filming I need to think about the people, places, props, costumes, rehearsing, directing, and equipment and keep a record of the process.  The person who was taking the session showed me the main scenarios that people do for their opening, for example the victim is tied up in a shed, flash forwards or flash backs and someone waking up and cleaning their teeth. This has made me realise that I want to avoid doing any of these because I would like to keep mine original. Lastly he told us the six common problems that students have; it looks more like a trailer, there is insufficient titles, poor sound/quality, poorly directed and is confusing for the viewer. These are all the points I need to stay away from to do well. Hopefully I will apply everything that I have learnt today in my work to create a film opening that I am happy and proud of.

22^nd -24^th of November: During these days I made research on the type of costume, make up and location that I wanted to use in my film opening. From studying action/thriller films I found out what the stereotypical conventions are from these areas. For example I found out that most of the people in action thriller movies wear dark coloured clothes like leather and wear sunglasses so they aren't recognised. For the location I found out that most of the films start with a establishing shot, for example Jack Reacher and The Dark Knight use it as their first shot. Make up was a hard one, because normally in action/thriller films it’s always the strong man as the main character because they are always seen as the hero in films and the girls are always the sweet and innocent type that always gets into trouble. For ours we wanted a female lead role, so I did not want a lead role that looked innocent. To get what sort of makeup I needed for a strong female lead role I looked at The Matrix and Salt. These films showed me that the makeup is very dark around the eyes and normally but the blusher is very subtle.

27^th of November: In today’s lesson I created my storyboard and the shot list. I wanted to do both so I knew exactly what I am going to film in what order. Also it was easier to do the shot list after I did the storyboard because I can then elaborate from that. Also I found it hard because I knew that I could not stay exactly to the plan because when I am filming I always try things out to see if it looks good even though it isn’t on the list.

3^rd of December: The planning in this lesson was quite important because I was planning what titles I was going to use in my opening. Titles are a main part during a film opening because it’s not meant to take away the audience from the action. From learning that I needed a minimum of 20 titles I found it quite hard to come up with different names and what their title was during the filming.  Doing this before editing them in I think is a good idea because then I am all ready for when I get to add them in and I’m not wasting time when I could be editing.  

Also this lesson I start to create my production logo on Adobe After Effects. This software is very hard to use and understand to what all the symbols mean and what number you have to put in to get it right. To make it easier I watched a tutorial on how to make a production logo. I followed it step by step but I still couldn't get it right because it would not work for me so tired it again about three more times and it did not work. I had to stop because I was getting very frustrated that it was not working. But I was going to come back to try it again. From this lesson I understood that this software was going to take time and effort just to understand the basics of it which is annoying because I like to pick things up easily, however, I am willing to out more time and effort in and work on it, because if I know how to use this software it will help me to make my opening better.

5^th of December: Today I took pictures of my three actors, because I am filming in a home I wanted to make it believable that it is their home. I am going to take down all the pictures of me when I was younger and put up pictures of the actress and her family. This will also show the audience what kind of woman this is and what her life is now. For example the rest of our film was about a retired spy who wanted to settle down and have a family but her past catches up to her. So in the opening I wanted to show that her life now is that she has a husband and a daughter and she is just a normal person. Taking pictures around the school was very hard as it was hard not to show that we were at school. I took loads of photos in different place and different poses so I had a choice of what pictures makes them look like a family more. For example there was a big Christmas tree in our school hall, so I got them to stand in front of it while cutting out the background of chairs to make it look more homely. From today’s session I learnt that when making a film I need to look at the details of what will be in the shot because just the slightest thing will take away the impact it will have on the audience. For example  if I will leave pictures of me up on the wall where we are going to film that it would not look good because I will have one thing happening but the pictures will confuse the audience because those pictures do not fit in with the story line.

6^th of December: From taking the pictures yesterday I wanted to find out what pictures made them look more like a family so I went round the school asking people over 12 ,because that will be my target audience,  what three pictures made them look more like a family. From asking my target audience I could find out what they think would be the best and as a result I would be avoiding getting it wrong which could lose the impact of it.

7^th December: Today I created the risk assessment for my filming session, because I have learnt that it is very important to understand all the problems that could happen when filming and how to avoid them, because you do not want anyone getting hurt on set. I realised that I have to take into the smallest problem when filming, for example if the actress trips over her own feet.          

9^th of December: Today was my first shooting session, but because we did it after school it was very dark which meant that we only got to do the shots inside. From tonight I learnt that when filming you have to take it from every angle as possible to see which one looks the best and see if it flows well into each shot. On my plan I said that we were going to have a phone shot where you could see the message come up, however, it was really hard filming this because when the message came up we could not see it on the camera. We tried different things to see if we could get it to work like turning the brightness down and up and we had the light on and off but it did not work so we had to figure out another way.

10^th-13^th of December: During this I edited the footage that I filmed on Monday. I could edit it quite quick because I am familiar with the software that I used. From putting it together I realised that I needed a few more extra shots but in different angles because at the moment there was two quite long shot that needed to be broken down.  Also I showed a couple of people what I had so far so they could tell me what they thought about it and I could find out what I could change to make it better. For example I asked people what did they think of the music because I wasn't too sure that it went well with what was happening but most of the people I asked said it went well but some said it was too cliché.

14^th of December: was my second shooting session with my actress, where I got her to do the outside shots and we redid some of the inside shots, for example when she is opening a draw we had to get a different angle of her opening it. The shooting went really well the actress did everything I told her to do which was really nice and I really enjoyed it. 

28^th of December: Today I got the first rough copy of The Handler up, which was nice because I felt like I was one step closer to completing my work. From today I could start getting feedback from my target audience to find out what they think of what I have created so far. This was really helpful as I could find out on what I need to improve on and what I need to do to make my sequence better.

7^th of January- 7^th of February: During this time is all the editing that I did to my opening sequence, like adding titles and cutting each shot so they fit and flow together better. I learnt that when editing our footage it does take patients because some things I may did, did not work so I had to try again and think of another way to see if I can warp the sequence into what I want it to look like. I found out that picking music for each scene was very hard as that most music did not fit in with what was going on the scene which was pretty frustrating but when you found the right one it was a really good really as I have felt like I have completed something.

13^th of January: Today I got feedback from my teacher that so far my sequence did not quite show what genre it could be yet as there is not much genre signifiers within it and also it does not hit 2 minutes. As a result today I spent the day planning out idea of what I could do for the next shots. I came up with an interrogation scene where two characters talk about the character we just saw to create enigma.

31^st of January: Today we held a feedback session where we got to know from our target audience if our film opening was easy to understand, because if it wasn’t we would be able to find out ways in which we could improve our sequence to make it easier to understand. Our average score for understanding was 7, which meant that they could mostly understand what was going on. We knew that we were not going to get 10 out of 10 as we did not want the audience to completely understand what was going on, because from them not understanding what was going on it would intrigue them to watch the rest of the film. We also asked them if they would see it in the cinema, this was an important question because our film was going to be in big mainstream cinemas like Cinema world. From this we could find out if our target audience would actually come to see our film, and as a result we now know that we should go for big cinemas instead of independent cinemas because our audience will want to go watch it. 

2^nd of February: I was finally happy with what we had and edited, but I know that there will always be something that I can improve on. I have learnt many things when editing, for example what sets the atmosphere of the sequence. If I was to do this project again I now known what I need to do and what I should avoid, which was really helpful as it gave me a sense of what it would be like working on a set of a film. Now that I have finished that section, today I started on the evaluation questions.