Neighbours - The Final Cut

This is the final version of my film opening.
Since my last cut, I have redone the sound track, this is because I wanted to try match the emotions in the opening to the feel of the music. For example I haver added harsher and louder guitar right at the end in order to denote the evil and danger of the protagonist. I have also added both of the indents, slightly altered the timing of the titles and also given the video a teal and orange tint to make it look more filmic.

Final cut Neighbours without sound

Breaking the fourth wall

Breaking the fourth wall is when a character acknowledges their fictionality, by either indirectly or directly addressing the audience. Alternatively, they may interact with their creator (the author of the book, the director of the movie, the artist of the comic book, etc.). While shooting the third scene (school scene) i wanted to break the the fourth wall. I felt that this was a good way to unsettle the audience, it was a way that i could create an atmosphere and directly address the audience. 

Third audience feedback

After improving aspects of my video that i was too didn't or through past audience feedback , i asked some of my peers about the newly improved opening. They are both 17 and so this really helped when it came to target audience age groups. They are both male and so it made it interested to see if i was targeting it secondary audiences rather than just primary that i had interviewed before.

Final ident

This is my final production company ident. I created it using Adobe Illustrator and Adobe After Effects. I started out with a film preset document in AI on to which I added a black rectangle and my studio name in white san serif text, using the text tool. I increased the kerning on the word STUDIOS so that it was the same width as BRIGHTNESS.
After that I put the text and background on to separate layers and saved it.
I opened the Illustrator file in After Effects.
I used the shape tool to create a white circle and placed this on a solid layer behind the text.
I keyframes the circle so that it would move from left to right behind the text.
I then turned the circle into a light and turned the text into a 3D object so that it would react to light.
I played around with the settings until it looked like the sun. I added a colour correction to the light so that it was an orangey-gold colour. This was the result. I am really happy with the ident.

Second audience feedback

I asked Georgia a few question about my opening after showing her the final product. I choose Georgia as she is the the age brake of our target audience which is between the ages of 15-25 and as she is 17 she was a good person to gain feedback from. After taking her advise, i changed the editing less visible and more continuous, I did this by going back to final cute and lengthening the clips slightly differently. Making there longer or shorter depending on the shot.

Evaluation question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups? 

IN this question i am going to talk about and analyse how we have presented certain social groups in our opening. Th most dominant social group is youths as our actors are between the ages of 16-17. I presented social groups through clothing , the setting (a school) and domestic life such as makeup and the stye of the bedroom. 

Evaluation question 6

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

For my evaluation question 6 i made a "prezi". in this i will talk about the technologies that used when creating my media product. some of these were
Final cut pro
Garage band
Youtube
Blogger
In my prezi i will demonstrate which features of final cut pro i used to help create my final media product and how i used them.



In conclusion i have learnt many techniques while using technologies while developing my product. These included using a DSLR camera effectively and diversely, Using final cut pro to create professional and abstract clips and videos and to use the camera equipment to increase the quality of the product.

Evaluation question 3

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

Evaluation question 3 from niamhwormald

Overall from answering this question, the media institution that might invest and distribute 'Neighbours' would be a distribution company such as Panora cinema. From the information gathered they tend to invest in films which they are intruiged in, even if they don't do well at the box office. Their films include donnie darko. 

Evaluation question 1

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

Common conventions of black comedy/teen comedy.

After reasserting into several different black comedy and teen murder films such as Heathers  Donnie Darko Pretty in pink  and Wish you were here and analysing them, I came to realise that there were a few main conventions currents in all of them. These included; the cast being a mainly teenage audience, an influence of death and violence in the story line and both a protagonist and antagonist that are binary opposites and many more.
My opening; 

When it came to my opening I both followed and challenged certain conventions. 

To start with our titles were not typical of a teen murder or black comedy films but i wanted to create a school or college environment and this is why I choice the ones I did. Films such as donnie Darko and Heather used more Sans-serif titles, Donnie Darko uses a white font which usually is uses in documentary style films but this could highlight the factual aspect to the film and heathers uses a pink font with has girly connotations and I think as the protagonist is a female this is why it has been used.

My titles however are a very college like or school like font, but not bold as they are almost faded i felt like these would work well as the majority of the filming and screen time is in a school i also though that the dessert look gives a sense of mystery which helps with the genre and narrative of the story. The text I used is also in white which I choice because I think gave a sense of sophistication and responsibility because white font is normally used for documentaries. 

In my opening I used a protagonist that was different from the other girls in the opening , she was almost singled out which is a common convention for teen horror, Donnie Darko for example has a male protagonist who is seen as weird and differs to everyone in his family and school, another example is Heathers as the protagonist is a girl who breaks away from the stereotypical girl group that she was in to start with and become more of an individual. We not only included this because its a common convention but also included it as we wanted to show the aspect of stereotypes and how women and girls are stereotyped all the time. 

The music that I used in my opening helps to connote murder and teenage murder through out the opening . The music I choose is much like music used in the teen murders or black comedy film for example pretty in pink includes the same type of music as I created, the heavy loud and metal type genre of music helps to connote violence and negativity. 

Other aspect of out opening that follows very strongly to the conventions of teen horror and black comedy film , is the aspect of domestic life and home life that helps us build up a character profile of the protagonists and antagonists. 

The bedroom scene in which she is getting ready in our opening helps to keep a realistic and relatable context to the scenes, they help us target our audience and help them to engage with whats shown in the mais en scene. Things in the frame such as makeup, clothes, beds and eve just mirrors are all signifier of the home life and domestic feel. Films such as Donnie Darko and heathers also show the characters at home in their everyday environments and this could help us connect with the actors , it helps us to understand the characters more by building up narrative enigma around the character. The scene in which the girls are both getting ready in our opening also helps to show binary opposites which is also a common conventions in black comedy films. Through these scenes we gain knowledge that helps us understand the narrative of my opening for example the faces on the wall helps us to understand that she is going to get rid of kill someone as she crosses the furl face on the wall, the graveyard scene then reinforces this idea. 

Many films in the teen harrow genre are set in a school or college/university setting. I followed these conventions. The majority of my opening is set in a school setting, which not only follows the conventions but also ensures the opening is relatable for our primary target audience which is teen girls. We have many signifiers in the opening that help connote that its a school setting for example we have lockers, corridors  and class rooms as well as the outside of the school which also fits the stereotype of english top class boarding type school that many Americans have on Britain. This has been supported by the film Wild Child that was a big success in America for its countryside and boarding school setting. 

When editing my opening i used many techniques that are typical of black comedy/horror film. For example the colour was changed and the exposure levels etc. this helped the opening have an early feel to it and it also gave it a more professional look. Slow motion was used when in the school scene and the graveyard. This helped highlight points of the film that we wanted to be obvious and that would help make the story line understandable, it almost acted as a brake in the film in which people could make sense of the story line and allow thinking time. Prom blood bath is a good example that used slow motion to highlight some kind of emotion that the protagonist was feeling, in Prom blood bath this was angry and humiliation whereas we used it to highlight eagerness and obsession. Therefore I was following typical convention when adding extra features to my editing. 

Evaluation question 7

Q7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

My previous experience with filming and editing before my AS and the preliminary task was very limited. Although taking photography at GCSEs, my knowledge of filming using the cameras was very limited for example when in photography we could shoot and take photos in both portrait and landscape but in media and filming this was not the case as you can only film in landscape. My knowledge of the cameras we used for filming was also very little therefore I had to get used the features such as the focus, changing the white balance and depth of fields and iso settings I also learned that all data is stored separately an there is a different setting for filming on the dslr, keeping videos and photos separately. The extra equipment we used was also knew to me such as tripods, go pros and handheld axis' therefore through my AS I learned to use these efficiently. 

When I was first introduced to the terminology there wasn't many words that I already knew the meanings of, I knew what the depth of field was, genre and the meaning of narrative enigma but words such as long shot, medium shot and close ups were all to and I quick got used to including them in my work and when talking about my filming. 

During our prelim task we learnt techniques that benefited us greatly with our future edited and filming. The prelim was a continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue and help to demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule in our work. The task helped us understand continuity editing and helped us understand what to do and what not to do when it came to filming on our own, as we wouldn’t have much guidance at this point. 

We had little planning for the prelim and didn't look into any other texts to help us develop our ideas, we had a screenplay to follow but no screenplays or shot lists, there was no casting involved only the people that were not filming helped out by acting. We learnt how to import all of our media from the SD card onto the laptop and onto final cut so we could start editing. When it came to edited the prelim, very basic edited skills were used as using final cut pro for the first time was very daunting therefore we only used tools such as the select tool , zooming , blade and positioning tool. When finished editing we learnt how to export the film into a master film therefore saving in onto the laptop. 

The swede was our second experience filming with the cameras and then editing with final cut pro. This was were we took the Paddy Consindine film Tyrannosaur and changed the opening from a WARP style opening into a Working title opening, to do this we looked at the typical audience and features of a working title film, for a British film this included suits, high class school setting, posh accents and references to things such as the races. This was our first experience of looking into past texts and audiences and it helped us understand the uses and helpfulness of this. When it came to planning for the swede we were all given a responsibility, for example I was given the task of creating all the screenplays for all the scenes. Others were given roles such as shot lists, props and director. This helped us work as a team and build team work skills as we all had to work together a rely on each other to produce exactly what we needed to fulfill the task, it also gave us knowledge of all the preparation that shoots need in able to take place, it helped us understand what screenplays, shot lists and storyboards were and how they benefited production. We all took turns at filming the opening. This was the first time that we had films without direction from a teacher, it helped us get to terms with the equipment and to get used to how the camera works. While filming we were thinking about the different camera shots that we could use, the shot types (long shot, medium close up, extreme close up etc.) and the depth of field of the shot this helped the whole group feel more comfortable when filming. When it came to editing the swede although we had edited the prelim out knowledge was still very limited of final cut pro, we started off just simply editing it , using the cut tools and the section tool to cut and reposition the clips. Once the rough cut was completed we were taught how to include sound effects and titles in our opening, this helped the swede to have a more humorous and was a skill we could use in our future coursework. 

From my swede I learnt how to use final cut pro more efficiently, I learnt that using a tripod created a much more professional and sturdy look to the shots and what screenplays, shot lists and story boards were and that they were very effective and helped a lot when it came to filming. 

When we began the production of our openings, all the techniques we had already learnt became very use full. The first planning we did for the opening was gaining information on the genre we wanted to our opening to be, we had already be told lots of website that could help us with this information from our swede and this came in very useful. I choice the genre, teen murder of black murder as existing texts such as scream queens and heathers appealed to me.  I also wanted to include feminist views toward the stereotypes of women for example 10 things i hate about you was a good example or a film that included both stereotypical and counter typical female protagonist. After coming up with basic ideas i started to think about the type of cast that would be good for our opening, then we could start to storyboard out ideas knowing that we had a dedicated cast.  We the started to story board our ideas, basing some of the ideas on theme demonstrated in some of our previous texts, for example the idea of having the protagonist along and the antagonist in a group of girls , this idea was based on mean girls. I then started to develop out ideas and created the shot list and screen plays, production script and created a production schedule (weather dependent) so that we knew when I would be filming and it helped me be more organized. Once I had done this is started to think about locations that would work well with the genre and audience of my opening, I knew that I wanted a graveyard and as there was one in my village I knew that I would be using that so then I only had to think about locations for the other scenes, I choose to set some of the opening in my school because it was very convenient and I thought that as my audience is mainly teen girls I though it would create an approachable and relatable scene. My other scenes were set in two girls bedroom and on paths. 

When I started filming as a photography student the quality of the shots were very important to me, I wanted it to be the best I could possible be given the weather conditions I was filming in. When I was shooting the graveyard scene I changed the white balance on the camera regularly to ensure that the colors looked as good as they could be, I tried to take as many different shot types as I possibly could these included:

Aerial Shot

Arc Shot

Bridging Shot

Close Up

Medium Shot

Long Shot

Deep Focus

Establishing Shot

Handheld Shot

Low Angle Shot

High Angle Shot

Over-The-Shoulder Shot

As I had previous learnt about these shots while shooting the other two tasks it was fairly easy for me to find ways of incorporating them into my shots. For example when Sarah is looked at the girls from a distance i got an over the shoulder shot, this also gave the sense that we were looking at exactly what she was looking at. As well as the white balance and camera shots i also worked in different iso setting, this gave different depth of fields and therefore many of the shots had different parts of the shot in focus which I really liked as I thought it gave variety. 

When it came to editing out opening when all our filming was done, felt much more comfortable with find cut than i did when using it with the prelim and swede. I was able to use much more complex tools and skills such as slowing clips down, speeding them up, layering clips over each other and decreasing exposure, adding music/sound and adding sound affects that sounded realistic for example in my opening is children’s voices and the sound of wind and trees. As I created more and more rough its I think my opening began to look much more professional, through audience feedback I was able to highlight areas I could improve to either create a more approachable and relatable scene or to make it loo more professional and well made. 

In conclusion both my camera skills and editing skill have developed immensely from the prelim task to now after the opening. I have learnt how to plan shoots effectually through the use of screenplays and storyboards etc. and also how to use may tools in final cut pro to create a professional and neat finish to my videos. Finally my knowledge of cinematography and different ways of composing shots has greatly improved which I hope I have demonstrated in my opening. 

Evaluation question 4 and 5

Vodcast- 

BFI links and statistics-

http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-audiences-2015-11.pdf

Existing films i based my research and genre history on-

Donnie Darko is a sifi and fantisy filme relased in 2002 , which is about a A troubled teenager plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes, after narrowly escaping a bizarre accident.

My analysis of the opining scene is here. 

In order to get out of the snobby clique that is destroying her good-girl reputation, an intelligent teen teams up with a dark sociopath in a plot to kill the cool kids.
My analysis of the opening is here.

question 4 and 5 plan

Our primary audience would be 15-21. One of the reasons for this would be that this is the age group that attends the cinema the most frequently.
  AGE:
Our film is aimed at a teenage audience and a young adult audience, between the ages of 13-22. This is because we believe teens enjoy our genre and theme more , which is teenage murder. As out opening was mostly filmed in a school setting we belie that teenage benefit from this , they can relate and understand the context and setting. Our cast were 16 or 17 and i believe having a cast at the same ages our target audience has benefited our opening , our audience can relate more to our story line, they also feel some kind of connection and relationship as the cast as they have similar features which in this case is age. We used fast pasted editing in our opening , due to the increase in youtube and music videos , fast pasted editing in time with music and beats has become increasingly popular , therefore we used this is some parts of out opening to appeal to our audience , we belive this swill help our opening look up to date. The music we used as a basis for ideas and influences was chosen as its peopler and well known in the younger society. therefore we though basing our music on music that is already popular would give us an advantage and create a more up to date and on trend look to our opening. We would give our opening a rating 12 based on what i read on the BBFC’s website.

 Genre: 

 The genre of our audience will be fairly split between males and females. Our female actors draw both a female and male audience in but mainly attracting guys due to male gaze. The aspect of violence also attracts a male audience as wifi and horror films are traditionally and stereotypically seen as "male films". The issue of conflict between the girl and the scene in which they get ready draws in a female audience and the aspect of teen conflict also will appeal to a female audience.

Nationality/region:
 Our opening is english that means that our audience will be english speaking. We hope that our audience will become a UK-wide audience and we hope that we would make sales worldwide and over sees.
Our settings include traditional looking english school settings , i think this will appeal to american as it fits the stereotypical image american have on England and i believe that this will appeal to them.
as films such as wild child become very popular due to the english boarding school setting.

Typical audiences for this genre:
Our genre of teenage murder and crime is very popular in the movie industry at the moment due to the break out of series such as scream queens and going back to films such as heathers. The typically audience for the genre such as scream queens is young teens and there is an equal divide between males and females.

Ethnicity
Our film is based on a teenager girl in a typical high school setting; with a dark past. Our target audience is teenagers of any ethnicity. We are using caucasian females. We chose these actresses due to them bring available; using the opportunities around us.

Socio-economic groups
Socio-economic groups have a large range. They were created to help the government group the population into categories.

A - higher managerial - administrative and powerful jobs, such as; lawyer or surgeon
B -  intermediate managerial - professional and administrative; back manager or teacher
C1 - Supervisory and junior managerial; shop floor supervisor and sales person
C2 - Skilled manual workers, for example carpenter or electrician
D - semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers; assembly line or messenger
E - Casual labourers, the unemployed and pensioners; for example people who live on basic benefits or students

Our film is going to be targeted at the socio-economic group E - students. This is going to be highlighted by the protagonist being a caucasian student girl. This is so that teenage girls can empathise and connect with the protagonist and antagonist of out film. She will be wearing typical girl clothing - clothing brands such as; H&M and topshop.

Psychographic Profile
Psychographic profile fits into groups; much like socio-economic groups. based on personality, beliefs, values, interests and lifestyle choices. The government also uses this grouping to see where different people fit into different categories and compare them. Much like demographic but instead of focusing on the work they do they focus on the behaviour of the audience and their actions.
 For example a group of 16-18 yr olds staying at home and a group of 16-18 yr olds leaving home and having to live for themselves for the first time would be very different audience's. For example if we were aiming the film at a group of 16-18 yr olds that are leaving home, the film could focus on independence.

history into the audience of similar texts: 

Scream queens 

59 percent among adults 18-49

Mean girls 

"Mean Girls" will be loved by teen age girls, the audience for which the film is targeted. Lindsay Lohan is immensely appealing as the newly arrived Cady. Rachel McAdams and Lacey Chabert are Regina and Gretchen, respectively.
Donnie darko

Primary and Secondary audiences; 

The primary audience is teen girls between the ages of 14-25 o=allthough the film is a 12 we believe under the ages of 14 may find the narrative upsetting , we based our rating on similar texts and the BBFC website.

BFI evidence: 

Upward trend in the % of the audiences in 15-25 age group was 26% to 35% 

53% of film watchers are male this is why we incorporated male gaze to attract male viewers. 

There is a higher % of female protagonists therefore we are following conventions. 

Question 5 - 

Attract- 
as we our main audience is teen families these are the audiences we will mainly be attracting due to this we set part  our opening in a school , this setting helps create a relatable scene. This is also the stereotypical view that american have on britain , the middle class boarding school type scene in the country side therefore we also appeal to americans. 
Teen murder not only attracts teen girls but also males , Black murder is huge in the film industry at the moment and and is attracting both females and males. we fit them conventions. 
Female protagonist means relatable for all types of girls and attracts males through male gaze. 
Different time frames and tenses make it interesting , childhood makes it relatable. 
male gaze = secondary audience. 

Adress- 
grouping of the popular girls and the singular protagonist means all types of girls can relate makes the film approachable and engaging. 
All girls can relate. 
School setting appeals to any teen that at school , scene that casual and familiar to them. 
Graveyard scene , appeals to those who have lost someone. 
Older people can reminisce being at school , brings back memories. 
Girls getting ready , makeup etc. 

locations

For scene one we are filming the protagonists in their bedrooms. We are using Niamhs house and Izzys house. Even though they are in different locations when filming the girls coming out of their houses they will be neighbours.

 This is where Niamhs house is. It is in Ben Rhydding.

The house to the left and the house to the right are the houses we are going to use to give the impressions the protagonists are neighbours. As you can see there is an ally way in between the houses - this is where the girls are going to walk next to each other and make eye contact. The first scene and the last scene are filmed here

For scene three we are filming in the graveyard in Ben Rhydding. To be respectful we are going to use a family members grave. They will be looking down at the grave, and we chose this grave because there are many bushes and Sarah will able to hide in the bushes and over look the girls.

Production schedule