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

Here is the Match on action we used in our opening sequence. We used a selection of interesting shots, including a mid shot and a high angle shot. We also used a Match on action in our preliminary project. However, we used the same mid shot to film the whole entrance. Here we used the 180* rule but in an interesting way. we improved it from our preliminary task because out shots were more complex, for example, shooting through the bookcase. However, in our preliminary task we simply used a shot reverse shot to show the 180* rule

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

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

This is Hollie Latham (19) and Thomas French (21). Hollie is currently living in Croydon and is about to attend the City ofWinchester University to study for a degree in Performing Arts. Thomas is currently in the Army training to become a member of the Army Air Corps. They are a typical couple who enjoy outings to the cinema and restaurants. They shop in popular high street shops like Topshop/Topman and Primark andenjoy socialising with friends and having nights out. Both of them enjoy TV Programs like The Inbetweeners, Skins, Misfits, and Glee. I think our film would appeal to this couple as it involves aspects of all of theyre favourite TV shows as it is of a simular genre.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media?

This is the script for our voice over;

Lara: Our production company logo was created by Rian Forman, who plays the part of the anorexic male teenager in Cut Loose. The programme he used was Macromedia Fireworks, which was then imported into iMovie. The colour used to decorate the logo was the same one used throughout our film

Mel: A production company creates ideas and motion pictures, tv programmes, and adverts  - they may also find funding for the products they produce. The money could come from the National Lottery - Uk Film Council. They have funded Kidulthood which has been a huge  influence for us.

Mel: A distributor is someone reliable who would get the film out there and support it fully. Such as Revolver Entertainment, the multi-award winning, all rights film distribution company based in the UK, who distributed Kidulthood.

Lara: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation  is a possible media institution that could distribute our product, as they distributed In Her Shoes, another one of our main influences. However due to a low budget, Revolver seem more suitable as the distributor as they are known for working on lower budget films.

2. How dows your media product represent particular social groups?

Sarah is similar to Bex from Waterloo Road. Bex is controlled by her boyfriend and has no control over her life or decisions. Like Sarah she cannot turn to anyone due to fear of her boyfriend finding out. However, Sarah is a dancer which helps her to escape from the chaos of what is happening around her, Bex has no escape. Both of the girls dress similar in ways as they both cover as much of their body as possible with clothing, however we only ever see Bex in her school uniform, whereas we often see Sarah in her dance clothes. Both girls are blond and look frail and vulnerable, they also live in fear of men. Bex was a great influence for Sarah's character, however we have changed elements of Bex's character so as to give Sarah an individual persona.

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

• Our opening sequence is rather typical. We set the genre of a teen drama, as the teens introduce their characters through admitting their problems, introducing the audience to the storyline. 
• The Mise en Scene shows teens in stereotypical clothing and carryout stereotypical activities i.e. doing weights, smoking, etc. 
• The set up of the opening sequence is unusual, but not unique, as the opening sequence is the end of the film and the whole film is in the past. 
• The title of our film is indirect as it suggests that the teens are outcasts, however that is a title of a TV series, so we decided to use an indirect title.
• Our genre is also set through our font, it is in a graffiti style which is stereotypically related to teens.
• A variety of high angled shots and low angled steady shots were used to differ between the teens vulnerability and instability in the past and their dominance and self assurance in the present day. 
• The characters are introduced with influence from Trainspotting, we use a still frame to display the characters names and a voice over to introduce them to the audience. However, unlike Trainspotting we use flashbacks to introduced the character further.

Improving our Camera Work

When watching our opening sequence, we felt the opening sofa scene and the characters close ups on the sofa were rather shaky so we decided we would re shoot them. We thought it would be best to use a tripod to emphasise that the characters are no longer vulnerable and unstable. Our original location was not available to us due to unforeseen circumstances. We assessed our options and decided that we should relocate our scene to a sofa in the school main reception. It is a quiet and relatively desolate area, meaning we would en cure minimum disturbances. We re filmed and edited these sections of our opening sequence, adding in all the previous effects as we went. The outcome was much better as our storyline was made easier for the audience to follow through the steadiness of our camerawork.

This is our new location.

Creating our Credits

We decided it was time to add in our producers and actors names. We used the subtitle text effect over black with The Battle Continuez font in tangerine to display our producers names. We placed this just after our GLAM title but before our opening sequence began, the music and text fade in together. We added the actors names over their second black and white flashbacks in The Battle Continuez font in tangerine.

Making our GLAM Title

Our GLAM Productions title was created in Macromedia Fireworks using a variety of tools like pencils, paint, Stanley knives and more. It allowed our designer to create the letters of GLAM in a Graffiti style, like the rest of our opening sequence's text. The file was then imported to iMovieHD where we took a still frame of it and added it to the beginning of our opening sequence.

Editing our Music

We imported Ed Sheean's You Need Me, I Don't Need You into iMovieHD and began to edit it and remove aspects of the song we did not need. We decided to keep the opening of the song up to the first verse and we kept the middle and last choruses. the choruses would play when the voice overs ended so as the music did not interfere with our dialogue of our opening sequence and make it hard to hear. We had to extend the introduction so as it would play over all of our dialogue, we also turned the volume of it down so as the dialogue could be heard. We also deleted all natural sound from our flashbacks so the voice overs will gain the audiences full attention.

Adding Effects to our Flashbacks

When we played our opening sequence back we felt that although the date differences distinguished between past and present we needed something to show the difference immediately to the audience. We experimented with different iMovieHD video effects. We felt that making the flash backs black and white was the most effective as it would immediately make the audience aware of the time difference as black and white is commonly used to display past events in films. We then attached this effect to our flashback clips.

Creating our Freeze Frames

As 'Trainspotting' is one of our main influences we decided we would use the idea of having a freeze frame of the characters when they're names appeared on the screen. We done this by creating a still shot just before each characters flash back begins . This produced a 5 second still image over which we placed the subtitle displaying the characters name. We then cut these still images down to 3 seconds so as they were not too long.

Creating our Subtitles

We decided that to establish a difference between past and present we would add in subtitles displaying 'July 2011' for the opening sofa scene and 'July 2010' for the flashbacks. We also decided to add subtitles of the characters names in the sofa scene to allow the viewer to grasp who is who. We decided these subtitles would be in the same font as out 'Cut Loose' title The Battle Continuez in a Tangerine colour so it would fit in with our titles.

Creating and Editing our Voiceovers

We filmed the 4 characters voice overs onto a mac then imported them into iMovieHD. We extracted the audio from each film and once it was extracted we deleted the picture. We then imported the voice overs to our final cut of Cut Loose over each of the characters first flash back. This was done by adding each voice over to the third line of the time line underneath its corresponding scene.

Audience Responses

Reaearch into Exhibition

Below is a list of 5 Warp X films and the strategy of their release.
A Complete History of my Sexual Failures was released on 12 screens and took a gross of $12,772 in its opening weekend and a total gross of $80,138.
Donkey Punch was released on 155 screens and took a gross of $144,953 in its opening weekend and a total gross of $293,071.
Hush was released on 34 screens and took a gross of $40,801 in its opening weekend and a total gross of $90,454.
She, A Chinese was opened on one screen and took a gross of $1,350 in its opening weekend and a total gross of $10,838.
Bunny and the Bull was opened on 27 screens and took a gross of $45,760 in its opening weekend and a total gross of $87,590.


Warp X used different strategies to release different films:
Donkey Punch was a teen orientated film and so it was marketed through posters, adverts and merchandise. Too boost its gross it was released within a school holiday to enable teens to go and view it.
She, A Chinese had a very selective audience and so was not advertised very publicly, instead it had a limited release at the ICA for 2 weeks.

Research into Distribution

Warp x is a low budget partner company to the more expensive and prestigious Warp Films Productions. Warp X have an agreement in place with Optimum Releasing, who will distribute all the films that Warp X make to cinemas and on DVD.


Optimum Releasing tend to focus on documentaries, low budget, American independent films, foreign language movies (Pan's Labyrinth) and british low budget films, most Warp X movies. In short Optimum Releasing distributes more complex and less commercial films.

Filming Day Three

Our third shooting session was on Wednesday 16th February. We filmed our opening sofa scene with all the close ups, both of Rian's flash backs and Lara's flash back in the mirror.

Shot 1 is an establishing shot to begin our opening sequence of an ordinary living room and our 4 main characters carelessly chatting. When watching it back we decided this shot was too shaky and so we would not be using it in our opening sequence.

Shot 2 is a close up of Mel as she begins our dialogue which will link our 4 characters together through a sentence.

Shot 3 is a close up of Tyrone continuing the linking sentence.

Shot 4 is a close up of Rian continuing the linking sentence.

Shot 5 is a close up of Sarah completing the linking sentence.

Shot 6 is an establishing shot of Rian doing weights.

Shot 7 is a side on close up of the same actions as shot 6.

Shot 8 is an over the shoulder shot of the same actions as shot 6.

Through editing shots 6 - 8 will become a match on action.

Shot 9 is an establishing shot of Rian doing sit ups.

Shot 10 is an over the shoulder shot of Rian carrying out the same actions as shot 9.

Through editing shots 9 and 10 will become a match on action.

Shot 11 is an establishing shot of Sarah looking at her bruises in the mirror. We decided to film Sarah's reflection as we thought it would vary the shots.

Shot 12 is an over the shoulder close up of Sarah tending to her bruises in the mirror.

Shots 1 - 5 are steady so as the show the viewer how the characters have now come to terms with their problems and that they are now no longer vulnerable.

Shots 6 - 12 are handheld to show the viewer how uneasy the characters are and they are also from a high angle to show the characters vulnerability.

Filming Day Two

Our second shooting session was on Friday 4th February. We filmed Lara's first flash back of her tying her shoes in the dance studio.

Shot 1 displays Sarah tieing her ballet shoes, preparing to dance.
Shot 2 displays Sarah carrying out the same actions as before but from an over the shoulder view, however we discovered we could not use this because mid way through the shot the lighting in the background changes.
Shot 3 displays Sarah carrying out the same actions, however it is a mid shot.
After watching these 3 shots back we decided that they were rather slow and maybe Sarah's actions could be displayed clearer, so we decided we would display her finishing tying one shoe and begin to tie another.
Shot 4 displays a mid shot of Sarah tying her shoes in the new way and faster.
Shot 5 displays Sarah carrying out the same actions as before but from an over the shoulder view.
Shot 6 displays Sarah carrying out the same actions as before in a mid shot from a different angle.
All of the above shots are handheld to show the viewer how uneasy the characters are and they are also from a high angle to show the characters vulnerability.

Filming Day One

Our first shooting session was on Thursday 3rd February. We filmed both of Mel's flash back scenes and Tyrone's flash back in the library.

Shot 1 displays Tyrone sitting alone in the library, we later realised that we could not use this shot as we had broken the 180 degree rule, and so would confuse the audience if we added this scene in.
Shot 2 displays Tyrone sitting alone once again, however we shot it through a bookcase to get a more intriguing shot and so to attract the viewers attention.
Shot 3 once again shows Tyrone sitting alone reading, here he opens up to the camera about his homosexuality through touching characters within his book.
Shot 4 shows Mel lighting and starting to smoke her spliff.
Shot 5 is of Mel smoking her spliff, we moved the camera around during this shot to get a variety of angles.
Shot 6 is an over the shoulder shot of Mel buying drugs.
Shots 7 and 8 are close ups of Mel buying drugs to give the audience a better idea of what is happening.
All of the above shots are handheld to show the viewer how uneasy the characters are and they are also fromm a high angle to show the characters vulnerability.

Work By Saul Bass

Saul Bass was an American graphic designer and filmmaker best known for his design on animated motion pictures. During his 40 year career he worked for some of Hollywoods most famous film makers and produced titles for many famous films including West Side Story and Psycho.
After looking at a selection of Saul Bass' work, we concluded that his work seemed to be far to edgy and of a completely different style from what we wanted to achieve. Unfortunately we felt his work was to abstract and complex to follow, whereas we were hoping to show simple hint of what would be happening throughout the rest of the film.

The particular film titles we looked at were from the film Carmen Jones. We liked the black background with the writing over the top which was similar to our own titles but then felt although it looked arty and effective with the red colour and drawing of rose running through Saul Bass' title we felt it was an unnecessary feature that would complicate our titles.

Producing Effective Bruises

We decided it would be sensible to practice Sarah's bruising on Lara before we began filming so as we knew what we were doing when it came to it. We used a variety of eyeshadows and a lipgloss whown below.




 



We used dark eyeshadow colours, black, browns, and grey, tocreate the base to our bruise.

We then blended this to the skin using a cotton bud and a lighter shade of brown.

Once happy with the effect we added a hint of purple and blue to the centre of the bruise to create a recency effect.

We then experimented with producing cuts with the lipgloss by applying it in small amount and smudging it to look realistic.

once happy with our trial we completed the same steps on Lara's face as shown bellow.

Conflicts During Filming

Once filling in filming schedules we began to film on Thursday 3rd of February, however due to unforeseen circumstances of actors and crew being ill we could not film. Instead we decided we would use our time productively. We decided to go to our location or the alley scene and film using different actors just so we could get a rough idea of what we needed to do and to get used to the equipment we were using so that when it cam to filming it could be done as quickly and efficiently as possibly so as we do not fall behind schedule.


On day two of filming we were faced with a second problem. Our location of the school gymnasium was made unavailable to us, however we knew we could not waste anymore filming time and we could not fall behind schedule so we went in search of a new, effective location. We soon came across the school hall and thought it would be good as although we would not have the mirrors we would have a stage which would reinforce the fact that Sarah is a dance. We then began filming and we feel it went well as although we changed location we feel it gave us more variety and freedom with our shots.

School Hall

How To Create Convincing Bruises And Cuts

We looked around the internet for instructions of how to make a convincing bruise or cut and instead found a video tutorial on YouTube which give a really convincing effect and uses materials which we have easy access to.

Learn How to get a beaten and bruised makeup look for Halloween. For more Makeup How-To Videos & Articles, visit WonderHowTo.

Finding Our Music

Whilst browsing Youtube as a group we came across an artist named Ed Sheeran, we knew of him through a friend. We listened to a few tracks 'The City' 'You Need Me, I Don't Need You' and 'Firefly' we thought they were good as they had a strong beat to them, we thought 'You Need Me, I Don't Need You' was our best option as the lyrics fit well into our film's storyline. We then contacted the artist through Facebook and explained that we would like to use his music for our A Level media project. He replied to us to say that he was not signed and giving us his permission to use his music, he also let us know the music was not copy write. Once he informed us of this we edited the track through IMovieHD to make it fit the length of our opening sequence and to cut out any irrelevant aspects to it.


Below are the 3 songs we considered for our music.

Proof of Ed Sheeran giving us permission to use his music and stating that it is not labelled

Changes In Our Plans

In class today we evaluated previous opening sequences and have decided against the idea of having a heartbeat as our soundtrack as this has been generally used in the horror genre and if it is not used effectively then it can ruin the hard work put into the opening sequence.


Also we have decided we no longer need a four way split screen from '4321' to link our characters together as we feel our characters are now linked through our establishing shot on a sofa and so the split screen would no longer be necessary.

Casting Roles

Cut Loose consists of four main characters; Mel, Sarah, Rian, and Tyrone. Casting these roles was a more difficult task than we had anticipated as our storyline deals with sensitive issues, so we needed actors who felt comfortable with their characters background and would also be able to perform to a good naturalistic standard.


After auditioning a variety of actors we have settled on four whom we feel will be strongly capable of fore filling their role.


Sarah will be played by Lara Edwards, a calm and collected actress who is also a dancer. She will be able to perform the choreographed dance scenes with ease and has experience in playing characters from a violent background.

Rian will be played by Rian Formon, a strong and competent actor. With his acting experience Rian will be more than capable of fore filling the needs of his character. He will not struggle with the physical demands of his character as he regularly deals with roles which require high levels of fitness.

Tyrone will be played by Tyrone Mijberg, an actor whom is familiar with playing homosexual characters. With his past experience he will be fully capable of taking this part in his stride comfortably.

 Mel will be played by Melina John, a relatively new actress with a lot to offer. Melina can easily adapt to a variety of roles and after auditioning we felt she fit the role perfectly she feels passionately about her character and this passion is shown in her acting.

We feel that these actors are more than capable of fitting their characters personas and will perform well to produce a good end result.



Finding Filming Locations

Once we had decided on our plot we had to find locations where we could film to get the desired outcomes for our film.

 We decided that the first location in a living room should be in a realistic environment. We sampled two environments, the 6 form common room and Lara's Lounge. We settled on Lara's Lounge as it was more realistic and we would be able to control the surroundings, mainly noise level.

6 Form Common Room

Lara's Living Room

The second location needed was a dark alley, instantly we all agreed on an alley at the back of school as it is dingy and isolated and will serve its purpose well.

Alley Behind School

Our third location is a library; again we considered 2 locations, the dalo and the library. We finally decided the school library would be better as it is a quieter and more realistic environment.

School Dalo

School Library

Our fourth location is a male teenage bedroom, we eventually settled on using Lara's back room as it is spacious and basic and ideal for us to film in.

Lara's Back Room

Our fifth location was a dance studio. For this we wanted to use the dance studio at Shirley High, however this was not available for us to use so we will be using the school gymnasium as it has a mirrored wall, which is slightly distorted to reinforce Sarah’s instability.

School Gymnasium

Our sixth location is a female teenage bedroom. We agreed that the room should have purple in it to indicate the gender; we chose to use Lara's bedroom.

Lara's Bedroom

Our final location needed to be a field and we decided it should be close to our other locations and so we will be using the relatively deserted Millers Pond.

Millers Pond

Whilst choosing out locations we had to consider keeping them as close to life as possible, using locations which were easily accessible and that could be returner to if necessary.

Cut Loose - Storyboard

Below is a Prezi displaying our shots and the camera movement that will go with them, we then decided to go on and created a less interactive and more straight forward storyboard as this one can become confusing as it jumps from shot to shot, however it is a good way of displaying our camera movements and angles.

Storyboard on Prezi

Below is our finished storyboard without the camera movement. We did try to add the camera movement into this presentation using title screens, however we found that when we reviewed the end product the titles affected the storyboard's flow with the music and they also affected the viewers understanding of the storyboard.

Making Our Title Screen

After playing around with the effect in IMovieHD we decided that we wanted to use the wipe effect to present our title sequence. We decided that it would fit our genre and opening sequence well as it has a more adult look and goes well with the desired font.

Designing the Title Text and Font

After a while of playing around with Imovie on the macs we came up with our final idea of the title font of our opening sequence. We tried out a selection of different fonts and decided on a font titled 'The Battle Continuez'. We then played around with different colours and came to the decision of the colour tangerine, because we felt the font and the colour stood out and reflected the theme of our opening sequence well. Below shows the process we went through to come up with our final idea:

Font: Tekton Pro

Colour: Snow

Font: Kokonor

Colour: Snow

Font: Bank Gothic

Colour: Snow

Font: They're Coming To Get Me

Colour: Snow

Font: The Battle Continuez

Colour: Snow

Font: The Battle Continuez

Colour: Flora

Font: The Battle Continuez

Colour: Ice

Font: The Battle Continuez

Colour: Steel

Font: The Battle Continuez

Colour: Cayenne

Font: The Battle Continuez

Colour: Tangerine