Finished Editing

We finally came up with a location and shot the morning routine scene. We gathered a number of shots that we are really happy with, and cannot wait to get the editing on role.

Editing

Yesterday we finished filming footage of Central London. We took some great shots and we are hoping that they look the same as they did when we looked them on the camera. Due to timing and also location problems, we have not been able to film the rest of the footage (morning routine). We came across a few problems, such as filming inside certain shops which we were not allowed to do. We also could not include the shot where the person on the counter says "Sorry madam, your card has been rejected". Our quick thinking allowed us to come up with an idea to replace it. So we took a shot of our protagonist going to the cash machine, putting her card in to take out money, but is stopped by her phone ringing. Although this was not our initial idea, we believe it may work well. Fingers crossed!

Editing

After struggles about when we were able to film, we decided that Thursday (in the half term) would be a good time. We are hoping everything goes well, and we will not come across any difficulties.

Costume Design

One of our classmates came across a brilliant website, allowing us to design a costume for our characters. Using this, I built three different costumes designs for 3 particular parts in the opening of our film.

The dream sequence:

I designed this costume for our protagonist in the dream sequence as it will highlight her drive to be a very feminine young girl, through the colours pink and purple, something which she lacks at the moment.

The daily morning routine:

For the morning routine, I designed a quite child-like costume for the protagonist, something which portrays that she does not have an amazing life, and that there is a lot of improvement to be done about her dress sense.

Getting Ready Routine:

The last costume which I designed is for the routine where the central character is getting ready for work. I thought that building a simple look, consisting of plain clothing, would be the right decision as it would reflect her dull and boring lifestyle.

Music Ideas

After realising that using existing music created by artists but create Copyright issues, we had to brainstorm ideas of songs which we would like a similar beat to. Because we did not know people that would be willing to create a song for us, Garage Band was our only hope.

Here are a list of songs which were thinking of using in our film, however, we've decided that we can use ideas from the tunes of it, to create our own. Our aim is to include a song that would appeal to our target audience, and creating certain moods such as excitement in the beginning, and panic towards the end.

- Paula De Anda ft Bow Wow: Easy

- David Guetta ft Rihanna: Whos That Chick

- Parade: Louder

- Girliscious: Like Me

- Madonna: Material Girl

- Lady Gaga: Fashion

These songs do fit into the extremely feminine category and also carry a very suitable beat for walking pace, also adding a rhythm to our opening.

Beans On Toast Idea

One of our group members, decided that she would test on the beans on toast idea which was spelling out credits on a piece of toast. The result was absolutely brilliant and I believe it really fits in with the genre and allows the film opening to be unique. Our initial idea was to do it with cake icing, or a mayonnaise tube, or something similar, however, she used beans and this could really work well as a symbol of the working class life of our protagonist. This is what it looked like:

Shot List

Today my group and I decided that it would be good to complete a shot list so that our film will be organised. Whilst doing this, we came up with a number of ideas to add to our film, such as putting credits on toast with white cake icing tubes (which could represent Philadelphia cheese), and then making our protagonist using a knife to smudge the icing as it its a spread.

Storyboard

We have just finished completing our storyboard, and we are happy with it. We are aware that certain things may be altered for specific reasons, but despite this, we are happy. Our storyboard looks like this:

Typography Brainstorm

We discussed some brief ideas whilst the completion of our brainstorm took pace. some of the things we discussed were:

The font colour - we decided on using the colour purple for the font titles as it is a very feminine colour, also reflecting how the protagonist wants to be.

The font - a curvaceous font, making it quite light hearted, what a romantic comedy would usually include.

We decided to have the credits written on things such as a Blackberry mobile phone, an iPod, letters stuck on purses, names on bank cards and even on toast. We aim to make our opening somewhat unique. The choice of having the credits typed on technology, reflects her busy life.

Researching into the Timeline of 'Sliding Doors'

Our task this lesson was to draw a timeline of the opening of 'Sliding Doors'. It helped me realise the amount of roles people have in producing the film. For example, the producer, director, costume designers, etc. This timeline shows, when each shot is taken place (eg. is it 20 seconds into the beginning of the opening etc), where they are, what shot type and other specific

information.

Planning -

We have started discussing as group a few ideas that had jumped into our heads and brainstormed them as a group. We came up with a number of ideas but one that really caught our attention was one that had the same concepts as 'Sliding Doors'. We have all seen Sliding Doors in the past, and really enjoy it for the unique concept it had.

We decided that out film opening would start with as a dream sequence and this dream sequence would show our protagonist walking through the streets of London with numerous shopping bags, her walking into shops, looking at and buying clothes, with a close up of her purse showing a lot of money in it, symbolising her wealth. She then goes to the counter, and pays for a dress or top using her credit card, and this is then anchored by the diegetic voice of the person at the till saying "Sorry madam, your card has been declined". Her phone then rings and she struggles finding it. It then overlaps to her being woken up by her boss calling her, whilst she is asleep. She picks up and her boss tells her "how many God damn times are you going to be late?! Did I not tell you yesterday that it is an important day! Hurry up and get yourself here right now!" The protagonist tries to apologize but is constantly interrupted by her boss.

Her morning routine then takes place, showing the protagonist:

- Brushing her teeth.

- Doing her hair.

- Running around the house.

- Making toast and many other things.

We decided that the best way to do this would be by increasing the speed of the clips, which would add to the panic.

When she finally gets ready, she heads for the door, grabbing her keys and an apple, followed by a rewind effect showing her picking up the keys and apple again. The next shots will show her in a split screen walking down the road with the apple and keys, and the other side without the apple and the keys.

The aim is to give a message to the audience that what would be the outcome of taking the apple and keys, and not taking them. It shows the protagonist going into two paths, similar to sliding doors. This path could be interesting because although she is living out the life she has always wanted, there could be a consequence in taking the morally wrong path in life and this would provide a leeway for a moral message in our film opening. We also decided the target audience which would be mainly young women. We are hoping to get a protagonist that looks slightly older, however, this may be proved as a struggle, because none of us know anyone which would take the ideal role.

Evaluation of Preliminary Task

What was the task set?
The task involved, in groups, was to create a clip from the Britist TV drama; Life On Mars. It involved a mixture of skills such as planning, camerawork and editing on iMovie available exclusively to Apple Macs.

What steps did you take in order to complete the task accurately (eg. Planning, filming, editing)
The first step we took was the planning. This involved watching the clip of Life On Mars and taking notes on the different shots that were included in the clip, the timing and any transition that took place in the clip. Once the planning was done, we then worked on recreating the drama. We filmed the recreation of the clip in a number of places such as the school car pack, near the entrance of the school and the school canteen. Once we had successfully finished the filming, we then started working on editing the clip using iMovie.

What problems arose and did you solve them?
There were a few problems we came across during this task but one of them was using the dolly. When we tried attaching the camera to the tripod and also making sure the height of the camera overcame this by balancing the tripod on the dolly without it being fully attached.
One of the challenges that we faced was making sure our camera shots looked very similar to the shots included in the clip we watched. We overcame this looking back at the clip of the drama and trying our best to make the shot we take look very similar. By doing this, it would enable us to complete our task successfully and accurately.
We also had difficulties with adding a transition to a particular clip in our sequence, due to our lack of experience with iMovie.

What are the benefits of completing this task?
This task enabled us to gain experience with using iMovie. It also helped us gain more experience with using a camera and various other equipment, such as the dolly and tripod, something that does not occur in our everyday lives.

Rom Coms

Definition of a Romantic comedy: Romantic comedy films are films with light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals such as a true love able to surmount most obstacles. The basic plot of a romantic comedy is that two protagonists, usually a man and a woman, meet, part ways due to an argument or other obstacle, then ultimately reunite. Sometimes the two protagonists meet and become involved initially, then must confront challenges to their union. Sometimes the two protagonists are hesitant to become romantically involved because they believe that they do not like each other, because one of them already has a partner, or because of social pressures.

Here are a number of film openings I have watched in order to gain some more knowledge about Romantic Comedies.