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

The intricacies of research, planning, filming and editing

For our preliminary task, the amount of research, planning, filming and editing was very small scaled in comparison to the preparation for our film opening.

For our preliminary task, our task was to learn the concepts, which we were taught in lesson time. For our continuity task, we noted what shots were included and the times in which they changed, and this was done throughout the whole clip to gather precise information. Filming the footage was quite difficult as it meant that we had to replicate the exact shot from the clip but in our own way, and in our own surroundings. Once we filmed our footage, we then edited our shots on iMovie and insert transitions, which had to be anchored by the non-diegetic soundtrack and exactly the precise moment. This was quite difficult was it was managed and soon completed. The intricate planning of our preliminary task, taught us that it was vital to do the same for the planning of our film opening.

The depth of research that had gone into our preliminary task was minute to that of our film opening. We first had to research into a specific given genre, and then focus on the genre that our film opening was based around, looking at the conventions and how we could adapt them into our film. We were required to plan each shot in a story board, informing the person that would read it, how long it would be, who would be in it, what props were included, if there was any diegetic or non-diegetic sound included in the shot,the location where it would be filmed, the camera shot which was going to be used (eg. high-angle shot, mid-shot etc) and what was happening. Prior to our editing, we were able to try out Final Cut Express for the first time, and examine a range of techniques that we thought we might use for our opening.

I believe that I have learnt a huge amount in the process from our preliminary task, to our full product. Other than the obvious skills I gained whilst using Final Cut Express, I also realised that planning is vital for the success of a film opening and organisation is key as strict deadlines have to be met. Research into romantic comedies helped me understand the conventions of a typical romantic comedy and gave me a number of ideas that would be ideal for our genre, for example, the quirky font. I also learnt that sound plays a very important role in creating a certain mood. For example, whilst taking notes on the clip we were set for our preliminary task, tension was created through the music. We adapted this knowledge into our film opening, to excitement and happiness in the dream sequence, and panic and stress in the second half.

Your use of Technology

For our preliminary task, we used the camera, dolly and iMovie for editing the footage, whereas in our film opening task we used filming equipment but Final Cut Express, instead of iMovie for the editing process, which was a lot more advanced. This allowed us to have the opportunity to create a film opening in the best way possible. Using iMovie at the start allowed the class to gain experience of the basic concepts of an editing software, to then use on Final Cut Express. We did come across problems of not knowing how to simply cut, add text etc, but this was overcome by the internet, and later showed us that it is a lot simpler than we thought. I also learn that little things make a big difference. For example, for the beginning of our film, we wanted to add a dream-like effect to make the dream sequence a lot more believable, and easier identified by the audience. However, this was tricky because we were not aware of what every affect looked like. We thought that maybe if we left the dream sequence without any affect, it would still be clear to the audience that it is a dream, but we were wrong. Once we added a soft focus to the clips, it made a big difference.

The importance of organisation, time management and effective teamwork

I learnt some valuable lessons in organisation, time management and teamwork, during the progression of our film opening.

Time management was not a problem we faced in our preliminary task and the locations we needed to film in were very close to us and lesson time was used for this. Although this was completely different in the process for our film opening. Our plan in the beginning of the project was to have the filming process completed as soon as possible, however, obstacles such as exam preparation and different timetables meant that there was not a huge amount of time that our group could gather to complete it. This meant that our plans were prolonged. Issues such as arriving in locations such as Central London proved difficult due to the fact that this took up valuable time, as we moved from destination to destination.

Effective teamwork was also a important in our progression to the film opening. Whenever our group had time to gather at lunchtimes etc, to finish editing or complete the soundtrack this was done. We also worked together in gathering props that would make a difference to our opening and represent our protagonist. For example, some of us were in charge of bringing magazines, cosmetics and many more.

Staying organised was also important. We made timetables of when which member of the group is busy and from there worked out a time where we were all free. We also created a list of what props were needed and who will supply them and other important aspects which influenced the production of our film. Lastly, we realised that staying organised with our blog was important. Without the lack of internet for a few days meant that I lost valuable time to access my blog and update it. As the lesson times were used for the editing process, going home and updating the blog was not an option for me. However, once my internet was fixed, I accessed my blog and had to write down what I have been doing for a period of a week. I realised how much this made a difference because if I was able to access it, I would of saved the stress of doing it later on, and trying to remember the process that we were completing.

Overall, I learnt valuable lessons on how keeping organised, managing time accurately, and working effectively as a team played importance in our progression and made a great difference to our film opening.

The different roles within the creative media industry

Until my experience in the BFI, I did not realise how much work actually went in to the production of the film and the scale of people that were involved in the process. My realisation was further reinforced by our timeline of 'Sliding Doors', which also taught me the amount of different roles there were in the media industry that would contribute to the making of a film, for example, costume designers, music editors etc.

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

The process of creating this film opening has further expanded our knowledge about technologies, such as using Final Cut Express, Garage Band and handling equipment such as Camera's and Dolly's.

Final Cut Express

Previously, we had used Final Cut Express for our animatronics, so we were fairly familiar to the basic concepts of it. However, our knowledge expanded during the process of creating our film opening. Despite this, we faced a number of problems. We were not familiar with the editing techniques of the program and struggled with speeding a shot up. We then decided that the best option was to do some research to find out how we could speed the shot up and found that it was fairly simple but were not able to add the affect if the clip was short. This meant that we had to lengthen the clip which was not an ideal thing to do because it made the film even longer.

We were also unaware of how to make a clip pause. When the title is shown, we wanted to add a pause to show that this is a poignant moment in the film opening where things are going to completely change. However, we had never tried adding this affect and encountered a few problems whilst trying to. We then had to search on the internet how a freeze frame could be added and found that it was simple. It required the playhead to be on any frame which we wanted to 'freeze' and following had to be clicked:

We eventually got the outcome we wanted, and happily learnt how to create a freeze frame.

One other problem, that we came across was dealing with the sound levels. Removing sound from clips was simple, however, we found it difficult to alter the sound level to make it either quieter or louder. With the help of the internet, we learnt how to do so and learnt another valuable technique.

The last problem we faced was deciding what affect would be ideal to portray a dream sequence. As Final Cut Express does not have a preview of the affects on a clip without actually applying it, this meant that a lot of time was consumed by adding an affect, and removing it, and so on.

Furthermore, I learnt some other techniques, such as:

- Editing the length of clips.

- Adding, removing and altering sound.

- How to add layers of sound.

- Applying special affects and speed level of clips.

And a number of others.

Garage Band

The process of creating music for our film opening also played an important role in building our knowledge of creating a film opening. As we could not use music from artists, for example the ones from our research which we thought would be ideal for our opening, we had to create a piece of music of Garage band. With hardly much experience on Garage band, it took us a while to get the hand of things. We decided that playing around with the beats etc, would be the ideal thing to do. After a lengthy process and a tight deadline, we created a soundtrack that fitted the moods of both the dream sequence (excitement and happiness) , and the getting ready routine (panick and emotion).

Film Equipment

Although my group and I had initial experience with filming from previously, we still encountered a few problems whilst filming. In some of our shots in Central London, we found it difficult to maintain a steady and smooth filming process with the dolly due to large crowds trying to make there may through the area. This consumed a lot of time, but we then decided to use handheld shots instead, but this obviously was a little unsteady. Once we started the editing process we realised that the unsteadiness of the shots was not as bad as we thought, and created a sense of atmosphere and excitement in the shots.

Furthermore, in our preliminary task, I learnt that the verisimilitude of our film was vital and that different techniques influenced this. We learnt about techniques such as the 180 degree rule, shot-reverse-shot and match on match action. In our preliminary task, we struggled with continuing the 180 degree rule throughout the whole filming process, but we made sure that this mistake did not occur again in our film opening task. We did this by placing objects on the floor to act as a guide of which side the had to film from.

Other Technology:

The use of internet which enabled us to download new fonts made our film effective for representing our genre, romantic comedies. In the past, I've used the website 'www.dafont.com' numerous times before in order to get away from the traditional fonts we usually come across and be a bit more creative in other pieces of work I have done. In our process of finding the right font from the traditional fonts on the Apple Macs, I remembered the website and immediately decided to test whether adding the font 'Comic Andy' from this website onto the font book, would mean that it would be accessible on Final Cut Express. Thankfully, it was and we believe it really helped us portray the genre, but also be attractive to our target audience.

Some other equipment my group and I used consisted of a tape recorder. This was needed to record our voiceover as our protagonist introduces herself, and we found this was fairly simple. However, speaking loud and clearly into the microphone was vital and this affected how the amount of times we had to re-record it. We also had to overcome the problem of finding a quiet area in the school to record, where we would not be disrupted.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

We included a number of things in our film opening to attract our target audience, such as the use of recognizable brands and labels. With the recent Blackberry craze, we thought that it would be ideal if we used a blackberry in her dream, as it reflects the lives of mainly teenagers but also adults, who wish they had one. We also included shots of a number of popular brands and shop names which a large proportion of teenagers would shop from. For example, Miss Selfridge, Topshop, River Island, Gap, Mango and many others. Including these brand and shop names, attracts our audience as they can relate to the protagonist, who shares a similar taste in fashion. We used cosmetics such as nail varnish to attract our audience. The use of the stereotypical colour for girls, pink, also catches their attention, as it is feminine and something that our target audience are very likely to wear. We also thought that the use of fashion magazines as a prop will relate to our target audience. For example, my friend that I enjoyed reading magazines and stated that it is unlikely that she goes through a weekend without a new issue to read.

As well as things such as props, and costumes, we also used establishing shots to attract our audience. The shot of the Oxford Street train station sign would cause an immediate reaction to our target audience, as it is a popular shopping location.

Lastly, we addressed our target audience by the use of humour and reality in our opening. The voice over of our protagonist introducing herself, is quite humorous as she insults herself by saying "lame Jane", referring to herself as dull and boring. It can also reflect the lives of many of our target audience.

I showed our film opening to a number of people within the target audience and asked them a number of questions about what appealed to them, and how they felt the film addressed them. Here is one of the feedbacks I received:

"What appeals to you the most in 'Turning Point'?"

"There were so many things that really caught my eye. Firstly, the use of the blackberry was really good, because with the addiction that teenagers have with their blackberry's nowadays, I think it really aims are girls our age. I loved the way you used magazines, as well as the pieces of paper on the bed where Jane wakes up, because I think it really fits the story line. I also loved how you used Oxford Street as the location in Jane's dream rather than just picking any high street because everyone knows Oxford Street as a shopping location. As soon as I saw the shot of Oxford Street train station I knew that shops would appear in the film opening. Lastly, the voice over of Jane talking about her life felt as if she was talking to me, which added to creating a sense of sadness. It is personal and the way she referred to herself as "boring" made me feel bad for her."

"Can you relate to the our protagonist?"

"Definitely. It's every girls dream to be walking down high streets buying as many things that can fit into their wardrobes, and to be girly and fashionable. I can definitely relate to Jane because it is as if she's one of us. It was really easy to connect to her character. I also realised how she wasn't wearing pink nail varnish in her normal life, whereas in the dream she was. I think that really reflects how girly she is in the dream, and how unfeminine she is in her life."