preliminary task (the continuity editing task),

I used many techniques  and shots in my opening sequence, from my continuity task. 

Shown below are a few shots in which i used in my opening sequence. 

Character within my opening sequence

I have decided to compare my main character to the young lads in the film *A room for romeo brass*. 

Ive decided that they would be a good comparison as they are are both relating to food and youth.

Shown below is the 2 screen shots from a room for romeo brass and also my film opening

.

The main similarities: 

-  Young actors 

- Slight rebellious behavior . attitude (Hands in the pockets ) (The way he is not sharing the chips) 

The main differences: 

- The age age of the characters

- The difference in costume (school - casual) 

- two actors in the scene compared with one 

My film opening with directors commentary

Script for directors commentary 

Hello, im kirk kemp, writer and director of Sugar n spice.

Im just going to talk you through the opening sequence of sugar n spice, but before i do heres a little more information about my production company and some other information relating to it.....

My production company was created in order to show and promote my video productions and work. 

When i was looking for distribution companies i came across Dog Woof: indie, and i think  they will be the best company to distribute my film, as they focus mainly on distributing british independent films, and as you can see that is what sugar n spice is. 

To make the full length version of this film,  i would most likely ask for funding from the uk-film council, as they fund many british independent films.

As you can see at the start of the film opening i have placed the title of my production company. i have done this mainly due to copy right and also to show that it’s my production company that has produced this film.

 also this follows in the footsteps of a traditional film opening.

 As the titles appear they appear within the negative space, which is black. I chose to do it this way as the titles seem a lot more clear and easy to understand.

 

As you will see the titles continue to appear in the same way but at different points around the screen.

 I went with this idea as i believe it keeps the audience fixed both on the action and the titles which i believe are very important within a film opening. 

Realistically speaking the films that would be released in a similar way to mine are any independent uk films, for example the film *Life is sweet*.

It’s a great example of a great british film, which is actually closely related to sugar n spice. 

As you can see it is quite obvious from the first few shots, mainly due to the school uniform, that sugar n spice is aimed at teenagers. 

And the overall age group for this film is 15 upwards this is due to the content within the film. 

Such as...  swearing..., and some scenes of violence...

Invoice clouds

Shown below are my tag / invoice clouds to show both the people i helped and the people that helped me. (Click the images to view the full screen version) 

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

The order of the 9 shots, from the top left corner (1) to the bottom right hand corner (9), are as follows:

(1) Costumes/props (2) Lighting (3) Settings - time etc (4) Framing (5) Camera movement (6) Transitions (7) Visual effects (8) Typography (9) Narrative

Shot one: Costume / props

As you can see, i have chosen this shot, as it shows clearly that the costume for this film opening is a school uniform. Also it shows one of the main props which is the school bag, which is shown later on in the film opening.

Shot two: Lighting

I have chosen this shot, as it shows that the first few scenes are shot outside, which shows that i have used *natural lighting* from the sun, which makes the shot alot more clear.

Shot three: Settings - time etc

I have chosen this shot, as it shows the scene is about to change from outside to inside, this is a great close up which i believe shows that the character is just about to change location, so it prepares the audience for a location change, and i believe this shot shows the setting / time change within the scene.

Shot four : Framing

Ive chosen this shot, as it shows that the shot is framed by the door, so the audience willl expect to see the actor walk through the door, into centre shot. Also the door supplies a brilliant frame for the camera, and ensures that the subject (actor) is in the centre of the screen, and not off centre.

Shot five: Camera movement

Or tho my film opening is done in stopmotion there is still some aspects of camera movement. For exmaple within this shot the door is closed, and as it is pulled closed the camera photo slightly moves position, which suggest's the camera has moved, slightly, this keeps the action more live, and also keeps the audience fixed on what is happening and gives them a slight change to the norm, of what has already happend within the sequence.

Shot six: Transitions

Within my sequence, between all 35-40 shots, there is a slight fade transition, this makes the action seem alot less jumpy, and means the action seems to flow a lot more smoothly compared without the tranisition, where the frames seem to jump. I have chosen this frame as it shows the slight colour diffrence compared with the past shots, this is because it is captured in between the fade effect / tranisiton.

Shot seven: Visual effects

As you can see the whole sequence, is in stop motion, and the photos have been "cartoonized" and slightly made sharper. This is, in my opinion and from my feedback, a very good effect, which is not usually seen in many films. I chose this shot as it shows one of the best cartoonized photos, or so i believe.

Shot eight: Typography

I went with the handwritten style font, as i believe it fits in very well with the whole theme for the movie which is young college / school lad. Also it is visually very good, and works well with the cartoon effect. (hand drawn / hand written). I have chosen this shot as it shows the black negative space, in hwich the titles appear, or tho it doesnt show the actual titles it shows the area in which the titles appear. (You can see the titles on the other shots) --- 1-7 and 9.

Shot nine: Narrative

The opening sequence, shows the opening to the film, and in my mind shows the audience what the film is about, but does not show it in full, which leaves the audience wanting to watch on. The idea was to show a college boy arriving home from school and cooking some things, but as this was too long, i cut it down to just 2minutues. Within these 2mins i believe that it shows the college boy arriving home from school and walking into the kitchen, and in my mind this is enough, in order or the audience to get a basic feel for the film and also makes them want to watch on.

I have chosen this shot as it shows the final scene in my opening sequence, and after the title fades / flashes away / out. The transition will be to the cartoon photo once again, but from this it will fade once again, but will fade into real / live action, which will be easy to achieve as its all donw with pictures etc.

Feedback (review)

From the feedback i have recieved i can see that there is definalty room for improvement with my film opening.

From the two student feedback sheets, the main issue is with the target age group. The atcual target group for the film is actually 15+, but as you can see from the feedback i recicved you can see that they were far from the actual age group, mainly due to the content within the opening, this mainly being the costume, music, and the theme of the movie.

Other than that issue with the age / target group and the comment about adding more details about the actor / character within the sequence. The overall comments for my film opening were highly positive, but as i said there is definatly room for improvement.

So, in conclussion for the next project we do i will keep in mind what was said about my final opening sequence, and do the best i can in order to make the feedback, even more positive next time.

Feed back on final opening sequence

I recieve feedback on my final openign sequence, from both Jake and Jim, and two students from the Level 2 media diploma group.

Here is the feedback i got from the first student:


What kind of "genre" do you think this film belongs to? why?

Animation

What do you think the "Target Audience" of this film would be? why?

Elderly people or young children.
It depends on what the actual story line would be

What is your favourite image from this film? why?

The first few shots of the boy walking towards and through the gate, becuase they look very arty and more thought out than the others.

If you were to borrow one idea from this film for your own film-making project, what would it be and why?

I like the way that the pictures have been made to look down and the music goes well with the type of effect that is created by the colours in the pictures.



Here is the feedback i got from the 2nd student:


What kind of "genre" do you think this film belongs to? why?

Family drama, music suggests this along with the use of the child actor and cartoon stlye effect, with story line set in school.

Who do you think the "target audience" of this film would be? why?

8-12 year olds, feel of the film and relevance of the siuation suggests this

What is your favourite image from this film? why?

-------------------------------------------------

If you were to borrow one idea from this film for your own film-making project what would it be? why?

Use of pictures to show plot line, effect of past pictures.






Here is the feedback i got from Jake & Jim:

Overall very good film opening, maybe could be a bit shorter as its a little long and drags slighty.
Also the opening could do with more of a "bread trail", as in, little hints as to whom the character is, for example his personaility and such. But overall very good!

Jake & Jim

On wednesday 04 March, Jake and Jim, (Professional film makers / directors). visited us in order to give us feedback on our work aswell as give us a talk about their personal media productions / work, and what they do in the media industry.

Shown below is a screen grab from Jims webpage, showing a brief descirption of what Jim has done and also showing some of his videos.

Here is what it says on Jim's webpage:

2007 saw Jim Canty embark upon a solo directing career which quickly flourished. Videos for Liam Frost and the year’s breakthrough artist, Jack Penate, proved an auspicious start; both featuring Jim’s customary unique and cleverly executed ideas. He completed the year with the brave and much talked about one shot piece for Kaiser Chiefs’ “Love’s Not A Competition”.

Jim’s intelligent direction marries perfectly with his talent for finely balanced humour in his video for Mark Ronson’s “Just” – an homage to the iconic Radiohead video directed by Jamie Thraves. And in commercials Jim has directed ads for Kellogg’s, Colman’s, The Times and award-winning Observer spots.

Jim Canty started directing in 1999 as one half of the successful duo Jake and Jim. Together they directed videos for Super Furry Animals, Spiritualized, Paul Weller, Faithless, Stereophonics, Catatonia and Grandaddy to name but a few. And commercials for Observer, Nescafe, Cinzano, WH Smiths, Abbey National, Sony PlayStation, Powerade, Nike and BMW.

Equipment i used in order to make *SugaR 'N' SpicE* opening scene

I have used a wide range of equipment and software in order to create my opening sequence.

 

Software used: 

Sony Vegas 8.0 

Picasa Pro 3 

Paint 

Windows movie maker 

Mix Craft 4.0 

Equipment used: 

Sony Vaio Laptop 

Kodak 9 mega pixel camera 

USB 2 gb flash drive 

Mouse 

Websites used: 

Google.co.uk 

befunky.com

Youtube.com

Blogger.com

Here are the ways in which i used the above things, in order to produce my film opening....

Software: 

I have used a wide range of software packages / programs in order to produce my film opening. The main program that i used was sony vegas, as this is what i sued to produce my final (video) footage. I put all the photos (30-40) into a time line in sony vegas, to see if they matched up ok, once they did, i then exported the images out of my camera folder and onto a carbonizer on a photo editing website, where by then, i edited the photos in order to make them look more like a cartoon. 

I done this for all 30-40 photos. After this i then placed them into paint to crop the images to the correct size. (As i had taken screen shots from the photo editing website) I then placed the photos back into sony vegas and put them into a sequence once again. 

I soon realized that the picture quality was lowered when i rendered the footage, so i exported the footage onto windows movie maker where i made the footage sharper, and slightly edited the colour and contrast to make the images more clear on the screen. 

Once the video footage was done, i moved onto making the sound track, i made the sound track in mix craft 4.0. Once the music was completed i then exprted that from mix craft into windows media maker where i put the usic in time with the video. 

Once all this was done i rendered the final video from windows movie maker, onto my desktop. 

Equipment:

The main equipment i used was my laptop and kodak Camera.  I used the camera to take the photos, for the stop motion of my opening sequence.  I then edited the footage on my Sony Vaio laptop 

Websites: 

I used a few websites in the process of making my opening sequence, websites such as google and youtube, i used these websites for inspiration purposes mainly, but i also used google in order to find the photo editing website which was (befunky.com). 

Once i had done my video (draft and final) i uploaded them to blogger (blogger.com). I also uploaded my videos to youtube. (youtube.com)

9 shot photos from my opening sequence

Evaluation of my opening sequence

Evaluation of my opening sequence

*SugaR 'N' SpicE*

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)

I had much inspiration for my film / opening. Mainly it was programes and tv that inspired me, not just film opening themselfs. From the many videos / photos that inspired me to create this film opening. many of which are food or school related, for example, Grange hill, jamie's school dinners, and life is sweet.

Show below are a few videos which show the kinda of things that have inspired me for my film opening.