Evaluation- looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I think I have greatly improved since the preliminary task back in September, my knowledge of the film industry and of the softwares used has increased immensely. I now know how to use the cameras to their full extent and to uses the softwares to my advantage without having to create and work harder with camera shots compared to the issues in the preliminary.

   

During the pre-production stage of the preliminary task it was much harder to construct the opening such as shots and an initial bases idea, compared to the final product where we has the boost of using a book yet we were able to come up with shots that created more of an opening theme such as hidden shots that created the enigma. Very little thought went into character bases or location for the task due to the school class room which is meant to be represented as a restaurant but undoubtedly fails this. The location compared to the real task is a perfect location for the theme of the book and created a bedroom feel as it was shot in an attic bedroom therefore coincided and created a real feel.  

Overall very little planning was put into the preliminary as the real task took many more weeks to plan, shoot and edit the final cut which gave us the ability to produces a piece of work that i am very proud off and it is leaps and bound stronger than our first try. 

Evaluation- what have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Throughout the process of making our film opening I learnt a lot about technologies such as Final Cut Pro and Colour, as well as the cameras themselves. For example, with the Canon EOS 550D cameras I learnt that in order to achieve an extreme-close-up you use the 75mm and for a wide a 35mm is required – the middle/mid-shot being 55mm.  Similarly, discovering Final Cut Pro became the most easiest part for me as i enjoyed it thoroughly and once we learnt the basic tools such as the ‘Razor Tool’ for a straight cut, is was easier to use the software. 

In Final Cut Pro we had a large struggle with sound throughout our piece due to the complications of the typing sound and correctly  matching it with his fingers hitting the keys. Although this we spent many ours fixing and timing the sounds that it achieved a great success and doing so help us learn more aspects of the software and deeper ways to create better effects.  The Colour software was actually fairly easy to use, what caused the most problems was actually transferring it back to Final Cut Pro since we did not understand that we had to ‘render’ the whole completed sequence in order to send it back to Final Cut Pro since the files could not be read properly. Yet once we got to grips with this we were able to create a great colour aspect by increasing the amount of blue to give more of a depressing feel and adding to the ambiance of the piece. 

Evaluation- who would be the audience for your media product? How did you attract/address your audience?

I think our main audience for our film opening would be teenagers aged 16-18 o the the relation with the character and the themes that are apparent in the book and the opening. Due to the themes representing teenage social issues such as depression and bullying our group believed that this was the appropriate age group to place this ruling too. In terms of audience being of a global range, I do not think this is the case since the main plot-line is a school shooting which is quite a niche subject matter in America. Also, since it is set in America with music, objects associated with the place and so therefore may not attract audiences globally. despite the film not being classified as a 'British film' due to most of the themes and set american  based yet the film having a complete British cast a filmed in america most of the attributes to it relate to Britain   

In this way, our film opening may be limited in its audience globally but should appeal to teenagers aged 16-18. According to the BBFC classification for film, our film would most likely receive a '15' certificate. This is due to the themes of drugs and perhaps later scenes of the school shooting and suicide being prohibited in a '12'.

what might be seen in a 15 rated film?

1.   strong violence
2.  frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***').
3.   portrayals of sexual activity
4.   strong verbal references to sex
5.   sexual nudity
6.   brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
7.   discriminatory language or behaviour
8.   drug taking

Evaluation- what kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

We believe that our film opening with most likely be distributed through media platforms such as social media and large online sites such as youtube or Vimeo since it is accessible by everyone with internet connections. This also cost almost nothing instead of perhaps reaching for a cinema to distribute. We will be able to use social media to promote our film, places such as twitter and facebook to market our opening. With a small budget behind the film it would almost be impossible to pay large quantities of money out to distribution companies. I do believe that social media is our strongest ability to market our film as it is the site's most used by the audience age that we are targeting at and is very popular, especially things such as twitter where we c an get our film trending and therefore get a more spread of views and have the accessibility to get our information across the globe due to the speed and efficiency of social media.

With perhaps the 'death' of cinema as we know it, online media forms are becoming much more popular sites such as Netflix and amazon prime are skyrocketing in use and have hundred of thousands subscribes across the world. Perhaps if our film gained enough popularity we may be able to sell to such companies as they are very reliant in taking independent films on to their sites and therefore increase our views and through word of mouth gain admiration from views which can lead to a larger gain in money increase.
     

Evaluation- how does your media product represent particular social groups?

Social Groups are present throughout our film opening, such as age and gender. Firstly, the main character is present very strongly as a stereotypical teenager main traits such as clothing and the set present this. Due to the timestamp of 12;19 as represented by the clock and due to the lighting and the darkness it coincides that it may be past midnight which is seen to be a teenager ideal as this is seen to be a structure that they abide to. Although the content is dark on the typed letter suggesting suicidal thought, this connotes a teenage life as only of the largest killers of teenagers is suicide there can be relatable as many teenagers in the 21st century have seen throughout media and perhaps had a close relation to this.

Peter also is a very stereotypical teenager due to his clothing. As he is seen to wear older clothes it is apparent that he is at the older end of teenage hood due to; skinny jeans, a black t-shirt and Nike trainers. This is perhaps him trying to be normal and to fit in although as presented through out the clip there seems to be links of non-conformist ideas of teenage hood. 
   
Peter is also aged 17 and so does conform to the stereotype of being 'mis-understood' by adults since his character shuts himself away in his attic room. The attic room is also quite symbolic of Peter feeling closed off from society and kept out of sight, up in a small room. Which may link to his depression and feelings of anxiety. 

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

My groups and I's film opening uses many adaptations of the conventions of film openings, to begin our clip begins with a panning shot with a shot of the protagonists back, this presents a sense of enigma as the audience face many questions to do with the boy whose identity is yet to be reviled to create many questions about the clip. We also created an aspect of character throughout the opening. the use of Mise-en-scene linked with a teenage boy such as; books, films and different food types normally related to the younger generation. This lets us reveal him gradually to the audience therefore also enhancing the enigma. The certain types of dvds and books create a 'nerdy' atmosphere which applies to perhaps his personality and due to over sound of music can secure this. Character is also established through his clothing. We incorporated a stereotypical teenager look such as a black t-shirt, jeans and glasses.

We also established a sense of time and location, to begin there is a shot of a alarm clock which present the time to be 12:19 to coincide with the title of 'nineteen minutes'. This conforms to the usual conventions of a film opening as it present the time. Lastly we established location by using the mise-en-scene. By this we used american associated sweets such as Hershey's and Baby Ruth. But overall we used an end sequence that revealed the actual location to the audience and is used to further on the story, it shows 'Sterling, March 6 2007'. Therefore i believe that we established all conventions of a film opening.       

Final Cut

 

Overall I am extremely proud of the final cut, all the hours spent working on filming and production were well spent on the success of the outcome.

Shooting Journal; Post Production

In post production we faced many challenges, although this something's did go to plan for example we found most of our shots were very strong and we had enough to complete the 2 minutes which could show the full story we wanted to achieve in that short amount of time. Yet not everything can be as smooth we had many problems with sound, firstly we had no background noise of pipes ect and we had to place the sound of typing in. This in my eyes was the largest challenge of we spent many hours recording and trying to place each individual click with the corresponding hand movement and the type words as the appeared on screen. After many attempts we finally matched the sound perfectly which was a large relief off our shoulders. Next due to the music being non-diegetic and placed in through post production we had many issues trying to change the sound levels the relate to the positioning of the camera; as somewhere further away from iteam producing the sound. This was a challenge as we moved the clips the sound would have to be re-cut and it was very time consuming.
   

Shooting Journal

I think overall the filming day went extremely well as it went very smoothly with very minor problems. Once arriving at 11 we got straight to work on the set up, the desk as being made of wood and draws was already pre made which helped speed the process of starting up, after setting up the cameras and props in position we were ready to start filming. We began with the close up shots as they were only a few seconds long and were able to get them done quickly. After some time it came to the tracking shots, here we fell to and issue as the room was very small and had little room to move around. Therefore we decided on using my skateboard to achieve the smoothest appropriate shot.

Due to this we had to record the tracking shot many times, at one point there were three of us dragging the camera along the floor as one adjusted the focus to keep it sharp, this became a very different experience for me as i had never done anything like it before, I enjoyed the filming experience very much even if there was a lot of repetition of shots and took us a long time to get the perfect positioning and depth.

  

Lighting and Colour

Due to the aroma and theme of the film we wanted to suppress the amount of light that was visible in the room, this also connotates with the exclusion of the attic room and the darkness of Peters doings in the further future. Therefore my group and I darkened the room as much as possible by shutting the curtains and luckily to moveable lights change the positioning of them to create a darkened affect on the desk, this helped us create the best look for the opening and also adds to genre of a thriller.

  

In colour grading we wanted to also improve of the darkness and dreariness of the room, so we experimented with various colours and mixes. This lead us to add a large amount of blue to the cuts as it really brought out the presentation of Peter's personality and the theme could be visual more clear to the audience, i think the blue added a great overall effect.  

Audience Research

Looking at the book's target audience it seems to have no exact specification to what audience to appeal to. Due to this we decided to aim for young adults to adult age, I do not believe that the story line is eligible for younger public. Therefor due to the violence and manner of the film an older target audience was best suited to the film.

Actor Research

As our film opening is based around the protagonist of an 17 year old boy it became very simple for us to find an actor of that age group as it matched our own, we needed someone who related well to the character and had some acting experience yet this wasn't completely needed as there was no dialog involved and only minor scans of their body. In the end we went for Tom Downey who luckily is doing drama a-level and also media so would understand the process of filming ect. He fitted the role perfectly and did an amazing job with putting up with 4 girls for the whole day.  

Costume Research

Due to our deep research on Peter we wanted his costume to fit mostly his personality but his age and his male sexuality. This then lead us to look at the death wish poster and the overall feel about the letter and what occur further on in the book. Therefore we decided on a black rolled sleeve top, blue jeans and white trainers. With this look we believed that we captured Peters look with the added prop of the large lense glasses really added to the darkness and aroma of Peter's character. 

 

Props Research

For our opening many props were needed due to the protagonists personality and how jodi picoult describes him in the opening chapters. This information also added to the decoration of the set what would be appropriate for a 17 year old boys bedroom. Due to the book being set in america we had other challenges to face as we need to incorporate certain implications that it is based in America as we were based in England therefore we expressed this by buying American based sweets that could give key points to an American based society. Peters glasses were a large influence to his character this lead us to purchase some large lensed glasses to incorporate is announced 'nerdiness'

 

    

Also we wanted to include the band that was stated he liked and also brought about more about his personality,and a collage of other school shootings to foreshadow the upcoming rest of the film as to suggest it wasn't an impulse shooting but a thoughtful process he had confided to.   

Props List:

• Death Wish poster
• DVD’s (Star Trek, Superman, Doctor Who, X-Men etc.)
• Bin (which is overflowing)
• Laptop
• Laptop Mouse
• Chair
• Desk
• Metal Frame Bed
• Pot of Pencils
• Desk Lamp
• Dirty Socks
• Bowl of old, uneaten cereal
• Monster Energy Drink
• Books (fiction, non-fiction)
• Superman tin lunch box
• Black dressing gown
• Clock
• American sweet wrappers
• Newspaper cuttings (linked to shootings)
• Glasses

Location Research

Once all the theoretical attributes were finished we started thinking practically; first where are we going to shot. We discussed many places, then i suggested my older brothers attic room. This location became a success as it was a smaller room; that brought around filming difficulties, yet it was inclosed and was painted to suit a teenage boys room. Because of separation of the room compared to the rest of the house enabled well with the plot of the book as it suggests that the protagonist would want the exclusion from everyday life.

Due to the need of a desk in the room we were able to create a desk out of draws, a plank of wood and some table legs. This then finalised the creative outlook and the perfect setup of our opening.

Shot List

My group and I found after drawing up the Story board that we did not include as many shots as originally thought, although this due to our opening to keep information hidden the use of more close up shots help keep the audience attracted by not revealing large amount of story line.  

Story Board

Story Board; a sequence of drawings, typically with some directions and dialogue, representing the shots planned for a film or television production.

What is the purpose; the purpose of a story board is to bring the written screenplay into a visual picture and to get and understanding of the shots that may be used and how expression, position, depth etc will come across in the production. 

Challenges faced; our first challenge with writing the screenplay was deciding which shots to present the greatest story line and connected well with what was occurring in the section. Therefor we wrote our shot list at the same time to be able connect them together. 

  

Sketches

Once we had decided and finalized our ideas we have adapted the book into the protagonist Peter sitting at a desk in his bedroom typing on a computer his suicidal note. From the information in the book we found he likes a band called Death Wish, lives in america, is seen to be quite nerdy and is bullied. Therefore to involve this information we incorporated a poster, american sweets and books and films that may be seen for his personality and preference to watch.  

This image is a ruff sketch of the setup that the room may look like and we hope to achieve. 

   

Film Treatment

Film Title: Nineteen Minutes

Production Name: MAGC Productions

Film Duration: 2 Minutes


Roles
Director: Chloe Kennedy
Assistant Director: Grace Chambers
Production Manager: Andrea Simpson
Camera Man: Maisie Baker


Characters
Peter Houghton: Tom Downey


Costumes
Peter Houghton
* Peter will be wearing wire rimmed glasses, as described in the book. He will wear the typical clothing of a 17 year old boy, a black t-shirt, a pair of jeans and some trainers. His hair will be very neat


Synopsis:
Sterling is a small town in New Hampshire, and the home of Lacy Houghton, whose job as a midwife is to bring new life in to the world. But on March 6th, her son Peter did the complete opposite, when he walked into his high school with a gun instead of books, shooting down 10 people. The book travels between the time before and after the shooting occurred, showing the knock on effect that the shooting has on everyone around Peter. As the narrative continues, we begin to realise that despite Lacy’s every efforts, she barely knew her son at all, and we follow the turmoil as Lacy wonders if there was something she could have done to stop Peter. The novel creates many questions in our head, especially, is the victim ever allowed to strike back?


Setting:
We have chosen to set our film in a bedroom location, and then dress the bedroom to fit Peter’s personality, perhaps with posters over the wall, and a computer in the corner on which he will write his letter.