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Question 7 by Kelli: Looking back at you preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression of it to the full product?

Looking at the preliminary task as well as our final film opening you can see a remarkable improvement in many areas. As the preliminary was a continuity edit the focus was almost completely on technical ability, comparing it to our film opening you can see the improvements in things such as the lighting and the selection of camera shots. The editing is also significantly improved and so has the continuity, it appears more precise and more like a professional product than the preliminary task. This is also partly due to the genre we chose, as a mockumentary limits you to the range of shots and editing you are able to do. Another thing I felt we learn to do better was to follow the conventions of our chosen genre as well as creating a tangible schedule as we were able to stick much more closely to our original plan, and had to veer off very little. 

Question 6 by Kelli: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? on Prezi

Question 5 by Kelli: How did you attract/address your audience?

It's George Middleston's reaction to Constance - as you can see above - that communicates to the audience that their own reaction to Constance is perfectly normal and she is in fact overly energetic. He takes the position of an observing character that can be used to show the audience that this is not bad acting but that you are meant to see her as an extremely eccentric character. 

Question 4 by Kelli: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Question 3 by Kelli: What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?

What kind of media institution might distribute you media product and why? on Prezi

Question 2 by Kelli: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

 

We used largely stereotypical characters in our film opening as this is a technique often used in mockumentaries to add to the comedy of it. As our film involved a lot of performance art students we wanted to use the stereotypical egotistic and energetic characteristics that you would find in the tv show Glee. The character of Rachel Berry in this show often talks about her "incredible talent" obviously boasting and acting superior to others, this is the kind of character we wanted to reflect in our film, something I feel we achieved quite well.

The mockumentary film Drop Dead Gorgeous did something similar, as it's about a beauty contest they used the shallow, self-centred stereotypes for their characters. Using these stereotypes is essential to a mockumentary film of this style as irony and sarcasm are often aspects of the comedy used it will always be used in the type of person the main character is.

Question 1 by Kelli: In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Throughout our film opening we chose to use and develop the conventions of mockumentaries rather than challenge them. The conventions of a mockumentary often define whether it is in fact a mockumentary rather than just another comedy and so challenging these conventions would prove to be difficult. 

Titles

 

With our titles we chose to use a fairly basic font as is traditionally used, this is because technical and aesthetic aspects are not largely focussed on in the mockumentary genre as it is meant to appear to be a documentary. 

'Talent' clips

We began our opening with clips of talents in a talent show, giving a brief glimpse of what the film would entail as is often done in mockumentaries. The bottom screenshot is from the film Drop Dead Gorgeous which opens with a show of the pageant that takes place throughout the film, this is something we used in our own film opening to both start to introduce the idea of the film to an audience as well as for the comedy of it. 

Interview clips

One of the most common conventions of a mockumentary is that of the interview style clips, something that we used on several occasions to communicate the storyline to the audience. 

Comedy clips

Comedy is an essential part of the mockumentary genre, it's used in a subtle way so that whilst the comedy is still there it would still be believable as a documentary as well. For example in Drop Dead Gorgeous, the main characters is practicing her talent but the situation she is in at the time (putting make-up in a body at the morgue) turns this into a comedic scene. We however chose to do something much simpler to create the comedy, which was to have our main character dance badly as she tries to compete with her rival. 

Question 7 Answered by Grainne: 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 product?

Screenshots Question 7

Comparing the shots to the preliminary task and the opening sequence, there is an obvious difference between th two. Firstly, because the genres are completely different, the edits are also completely different. So fo instance where the first task involved Match on action edits, our opening sequence has lots of free hand shots which you will not find in the preliminary task. In the bottom left picture shows one of the edits from the preliminary task, this involved a sequence of shots showing the character walking down the stairs. The photo adjecent is from our opening sequence which only involved that one edit throughout the scene, rather then a series of edits showing our character walking down the stairs. This is an example of how the genre we chose limited us with the amount of shots and edits we could do. 

Question 6 answered by Grainne: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Throughout the process of creating our final product we have used a diverse amount of software both via the web, and through software which is installed onto the PC themselves. The first major piece of software we used on the Apple Macs is Final Cut Pro. This was the editing software we had used for the preliminary task and for the final open sequence.

This sofware allowed us to place all our cut scenes into seperate, organised folders, in order to help create a sequence along a timeline which in the end created our final sequence. It also allowed us to place voice overs onto our sequence of clips, as done in our preliminary task. Another piece of software we used in conjunction with this was Soundtrack Pro.

Here we were able to create the short piece of music over the beginning of our montage of titles. Due to the detailed timing on both Soundtrack Pro and Final Cut Pro, we were able to create a perfect fit and create a fade out also which was good for when we created sound bridges into another edit.

In Soundtrack Pro we were able to not only select through different genres and snippets of music, we were also to pick sound effects that were both reallistic and over the top.

Another key, important piece of equipment was the camera with which we recorded our whole sequence with and the tri-pod which gave us our level and professional shots.

These were less complicated to figure out then the pieces of software on the computer, mainly due to the user friendliness of the equipment and previous experience with similar products.

A programme we used via the internet was You Tube. This of course was used for us to upload our sequences and embed them to our blog, and in some cases peer review videos in order to give constructive criticism for our peers to act upon.

If we wished to, we could also annotate out video via you tube in order to perhaps analyse our video. We used it to research our genre previously in our blog and again, embedded videos to our blog.

Another useful programme we used was Prezi. We used this more than once in our blog because we felt it was a great way to present the information we wished to convey.

We could choose to add a You Tube video, pictures, and bits of text in a creative way.

We found the technology to be both creative and limiting. We were able to present research on our blog iniverse ways but then we were also unable to create the exact opening sequence we wished to. We had also experienced problems with the Macs and the storage system which was an annoyance.

Question 5 answered by Grainne: How did you attract/address your audience?

George Middleston

One of three charactersthat can be related to in our sequence and can perhaps attract and address our audience through this.

The fact that sequence is set in a college is also another way in which it can relate to our audience. Those who are of an age of 15+ may be able to understand the culture, so to speak, of being in college or being in the presence of such personalities.

Question 4 Answered by Grainne: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Copy of Audience - Evaluation on Prezi

Question 3 answered by Grainne: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

As previously researched in our blog, we thought that Studio Canal or Film 4 would most likely distribute our film due to the distributer's diversity in genres and, their appeal for quality, creativity and films that are independent. This is more fitting then using a distributer such as Warner Brothers, seeing as Warner Brothers  is much more of a Hollywood, big budget, high tech. equipment production. Studio Canal, although having distributed very popular films is still dedicated to it's independent films that don't necessarily have a large budget or have Hollywood actors and actresses. 

 

With independent films finding funding for such projects money can come from donations, people investing in your movie from a pitch or from a short sequence being shown to them of your film but not being fully sure whether it will create a lot of money. This is only slightly different from large Hollywood films. For instance Warner Brothers tend to only invest in projects that they know they will gain profit from, and they most likely wouldensure this happens through investing money into marketing and such.

Our sequence would perhaps be similar to films such as Submarine, The Inbetweener's Movie in terms of what audience the film would appeal to rather than genre.

Question 2 answered by Grainne: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our opening sequence tends to represent the more "Performing Arts" social group. For instance within the series Glee, the characters which we have portrayed in our own opening sequence are similar to those within Glee. For example one character in particular, Rachel Berry, is portrayed as a very egotistical and delusional person which is a theme that often reoccurs when dealing with "Arty" characters or cliques. This is similar to the character within our film opening sequence, Constance. Instead we have tried to convey it in a more subtle way due to the genre of our sequence being a Mockumentary we can't create a character which is too full-on for the audience so to speak. 

This here is a photo of Rachel Berry, from this we can tell already she is a dramatic character. Within Glee she often talks about herself and pursuing her dreams and often, is openly modest about herself. This is very similar to the way in which we tried to convey Constance Wood to our audience. She also like Rachel Berry is very open about how talented she is and often talks of becoming a famous dancer.

Question 1 Answered By Grainne: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Question 1

Construction Final "Talent Show"

Continuity

This is our continuity exercise, in which we had to use a match on action shot, a shot reverse shot and had to use the 180 degree rule. 

Editing problems

The final cut we had created unfortunately was saved over and so we lost the work towards our final cut. To try and save this we imported the rough cut and had to separate the necessary clips and sound so that we were able to recreate the progress we had made with our final cut. We did find that we had some problems in places, particularly with the continuity of sound where scenes had been moved however we managed to overcome this and recreate our final cut.

Extra Scene StoryBoard Panel

Voice over

After much thought, we felt adding a voice over to the beginning scenes would be unnecessary. This is due to the fact that the clips are quite self explanitary in terms of them being "Talents" for a "Talent Show". Also, due to the use of music it has also helped to explain the beginning sequence and more than that, we felt we had to consider the quality of the sound. Would we be able to record the voice over in good quality, or would it be muffled therefore creating a less convincing sequence and experience for our audience.

Update on editing process

We have acted upon feedback we had recieved from peers. We are now to record an extra scene in order for the opening sequence to be more of a beginning rather than a beginning, middle, and end.

We shall be recording a scene of our main character, Constance Wood, actually entering the Talent Show. It will then end there. We might add to our montage of talents depending on how long the sequence itself will be when we've added the extra scene. We have already removed the lift scene but alas, the sequence is still a little over the time limit which may make us unable to add an extra talent.

Talent Show Work Log

The majority of work went into the titles and music at this point. We found music that we thought was light hearted and jazzy, as this is the kind of music you would find in a mockumentary, we believe the music we've found fits well and works with the opening. The titles are simple and traditional as the mockumentary genre often use these types of influences.

Feedback

Overall, the feedback was very positive, the majority thought that it was very comedic and enjoyed it largely. The only criticism we received was to enlarge the titles to make them easier to see.

Talent Show - First Cut

The first rough cut of our opening went quite well, we've included all the clips however we now need to condense it down, and add the titles and sound. Our plan is to use voice overs, which will help to condense the opening down, which in turn will help to condense the humour of it. 

The process in which we edited the sequence is as follows: 

1. We imported the files from the camera to Final Cut Pro, although we had a few problems which were easily resolved.
2. After logging and transferring the clips, we then placed the clips into relevant named files (bins) according to the scene.
3. We then began adding each scene in the order shown on the storyboard and cutting down the scene to the necessary time.

Talent Show - Filming

The filming process went very smoothly, all scenes were filmed in completion within the first day. We did have issues creating the classroom scene as we didn't have enough people to take part, however we decided to replace this scene with the 'lift scene'. We plan to use many voice overs and so much of film will be cut down in time.

Distributor Research

Our film opening of "Talent Show" is in the style of a Mockumentary, as this is a very uncommon genre, we began by looking at distributors of not just other mockumentaries but of british independent films as well. Looking at this we found that STUDIOCANAL were the most fitting distributors.  

STUDIOCANAL, also formerly known as Optimum Releasing, are well know for their diverse mix of film genres and titles, which makes it ideal for our film. Some of their titles include: Four Lions due to it's documentary style and comedic nature, this is a similar style to our own product; They also distributed the mockumentary film Spinal Tap, which is fitting as this is the same genre as Talent Show.

Shooting Schedule

Shooting Sched.

Storyboard - Second Draft

We altered our original storyboard as we felt that the timing would not be long enough and by adding a few more establishing shots the story would be better explained. 

Storyboard - First Draft

"Talent Show" Treatment - Take 2

Past (roughly 1950)
Various.
Unknown


Three students practice for the Talent Show in various places around college as the voice comes on.


Voice over man Weston College is holding their annual Talent Show. The show has been going since 1947 and is still going strong. This is a chance for many bright young students to show off their diverse talents, to claim their way to fame, and to travel the globe. 




The Present.
College.
Hallway.
Midday. 


LONG SHOT of Sarah Middleston, a creative arts student as she walks around the corner and towards the camera.
SHOT-REVERSE-Shot of her walking past the camera and up to a billboard in the hallway as she pins up a poster for a Talent Show. 


Sarah Middleston (responding to the question "Is the talent show popular with students around the campus?" - Audience can't hear question being asked)


Yeah, all the students take the show very seriously. There are some really talented people, there's this one girl who really goes all out every year. 


College.
Rehearsal Hall.
Midday.


(sound bridge of Sarah Middleston) Constance Wood with a friend of hers helping her to rehearse. Her friend shouts out a series of emotions to which Constance responds with the same facial expression.

Constance Wood is now having her own interview with the film crew. As we see people in the background rehearsing their own acts.


Constance Wood (responding to the question "What is your talent for the show?" - Audience can't hear the question being asked)


Dancing, dancing's my life. (cnt. over next shot - It's what I do, I practice all day and all night. My parent's tell me I'll never be able to make it and to focus on school, but I know that dancing is my ticket to fame.)


(Sound bridge of Constance Wood) LONG SHOT of Constance Wood attempting to get her leg on top of a bar, ending up lifting it on the herself, and continuing to try to do ballet exercises. 


The Present.
College.
Classroom.
Midday.


CUT TO classroom (sound bridge of response to question)LONG SHOT through classroom window. Constance Wood is sat at the back of a classroom dancing to herself. Teacher points at Constance. Constance notices camera and looks uneased 

Constance Wood (responding to the question "Who's your main competition?" - Audience can't hear the question being asked)


My competition? Well I would say myself but I guess it would be Isabella Star, (cnt. over next shot - we've been in competition ever since our first nativity play. I got chosen for the role of the donkey, she got Mary but everybody knows she was trying to steal my part...)


(sound bridge of Constance talking) Shot of Isabella doing and elegant and graceful dance. 



CLOSE UP on Constance looking uncomfortable.


Constance (Responding to the question "Do you believe you are a better dancer than Isabelle?" Audience can't hear the question being asked) 


Sound bridge Constance "Yeah, I think I'm a better dancer than Isabella..." 
Isabella is doing an elegant ballet dance whilst Constance is beside her dancing very badly trying to engage Isabella in a competition. Constance falls over.


CLOSE UP of Constance looking uncomfortable.

Title Sequence Research

We felt that as we are doing an opening sequence and mockumentaries traditionally don't allow you to include credits that we would do a title sequence for the talent show. We thought as a mockumentary must have comedy we would parody the 1950's style of advertising to do this. 

Shot List

Shot 1
Long Shot of Rockabilly dancing
Black & White


Shot 2
Medium shot of someone singing


Shot 3
Medium shot of someone juggling 


Shot 4
Medium shot of someone putting their fist in their mouth


Shot 5
Text : TALENT SHOW


Shot 6
LONG SHOT of Sarah Middleston as she walks around the corner and towards the camera.

Shot 7

(Shot-reverse-shot) Sarah Middlestone walking away from the camera pinning a Talent Show Poster to wall

Tracking Shot. Interview with Sarah about Talent Show

Close Up Shots (From shoulders)

Shot 8
MID-SHOT of Constance and her friend looking back and forth between the two as they shout out emotions and Constance does the same facial expression as a response each time. 


Shot 9
Mid - Close-up Shot Constance Woods is now doing an interview for the camera.

Shot 10
Long Shot of Constance trying to get her leg up on a bar. 


Shot 11
Long Shot of a classroom through the glass, focus on Constance then over to the teacher and then come out to see them both.


Shot 12
Mid-Shot of Constance back in her interview.


Shot 13
Long Shot of Isabella dancing. 


Shot 14
Close-Up Shot of Constance


Shot 15
Long, Two Person Shot of Isabella and Constance dancing. 

Marketing Plan

Because our target audience are of the ages 15-24 we wish to advertise through technologies that are trending in this decade. For instance: Social networking sites, according to recent surveys, in 2010 social networking sites make up 11% of peoples time on the internet, and increasing. Therefore by advertising via Facebook, Myspace and Twitter networks, our target audience will be more informed of our movie. We think that if we were to create an interactive advertisement, it would be more stimulating for them, and may influence other audiences. Another website which is frequently used for advertising is You Tube. According to surveys, the base age demographic for You Tube is 18-54. Perhaps our movie may appeal to wider audiences due to this.

"Talent Show" Treatment

Past (roughly 1950)
Various.
Unknown


Three students practice for the Talent Show in various places around college as the voice comes on.


Voice over man Weston College is holding their annual Talent Show. The show has been going since 1947 and is still going strong. This is a chance for many bright young students to show off their diverse talents, to claim their way to fame, and to travel the globe. 




The Present.
College.
Hallway.
Midday.


Sarah Middleston, a creative arts student walks up to a billboard in the hallway and pins up a poster for a Talent Show. As she does an interview for film crew.


Sarah Middleston (responding to the question "Is the talent show popular with students around the campus?" - Audience can't hear question being asked)


Yeah, all the students take the show very seriously. There are some really talented people, there's this one girl who really goes all out every year. 


College.
Rehearsal Hall. 
Midday.


Constance Wood is now having her own interview with the film crew. As we see people in the background rehearsing their own acts.


Constance Wood (responding to the question "What is your talent for the show?" - Audience can't hear the question being asked)


Dancing, dancing's my life. It's what I do, I practice all day and all night. My parent's tell me I'll never be able to make it and to focus on school, but I know that dancing is my ticket to fame. 


The Present.
College.
Classroom.
Midday.


CUT TO classroom (sound bridge of response to question)LONG SHOT through classroom window. Constance Wood is sat at the back of a classroom dancing to herself. Teacher points at Constance. Constance notices camera and looks uneased 

Constance Wood (responding to the question "Who's your main competition?" - Audience can't hear the question being asked)


My competition? Well I would say myself but I guess it would be Isabella Star, we've been in competition ever since our first nativity play. I got chosen for the role of the donkey, she got Mary but everybody knows she was trying to steal my part...


CLOSE UP on Constance looking uncomfortable.


Isabella is doing an elegant ballet dance whilst Constance is beside her dancing very badly trying to engage Isabella in a competition. 

The Blair Witch Project Analysis

Title Sequence Analysis of The Blair Witch Project By Grainne on Prezi

What do you expect from a Mockumentary?

Target Audience for a Mockumentary

As mockumentary is quite an uncommon genre and one that is quite vague, and so a specific target audience is hard to find. Therefore we are also looking at audiences for comedy/drama and documentaries.

For example looking at the statistics the target audience for Four Lions would be 35-44 year-old professional, business and white collar males.

However, we are planning to do a 'teen drama' style mockumentary and our main character will be a girl so our film could appeal more to 15-24 year old, female, manual and unskilled workers/students.

Title Sequence Deconstruction!!

The opening begins with the idents of the production companies. This is necessary to all films and something we will be doing ourselves. 

In this case it went in to an introduction by the director of the film, this is not necessary to a mockumentary film and will most likely be something we will leave out. 

With the title of the film the credits 

After this the only credits are for the characters themselves, as a mockumentary must be believable as a real documentary and to include credits for the actors playing the characters would make it obvious that it isn't. 

Conventions of a Mockumentary Word Collage

Iconography

As we are doing Mockumentary there are no real iconic images as the genre is more about the characters and less about specific things within a film, and so we have used the more famous mockumentaries and their directors. 

Conventions of a Mockumentary

We have taken many conventions from the opening scene of the mockumentary; Best in Show some of which are

• The serious setting, in this case a therapists' office
• subtle comedy, this is done through things such as revealing embarrassing acts 
• editing is used to show the reactions of characters, creating comedy
• In the opening clip they refer to a 'Beatrice' whilst in their therapy session. leading you to believe that this is their child, it is then revealed that Beatrice is their dog, it is this subtle and naive action on the characters part that creates the comedy attached to the mockumentary genre. 
• You see in many places slight camera shake, indicating a more low budget documentary which is what allows a mockumentary its comedy. 

• There are many interview style scenes that mock the documentary genre
• Credits at the bottom of the screen tell you the characters name as if ti were an interview with a real person, small indicators like these make the audience wonder if it is a real documentary
• The serious attitude of the characters, which adds to the comedy of a scene
• Characters are all very stereotypical

Iconic directors within the genre "Mockumentary"

One of the most iconic directors for our genre is Woody Allen.

Born 1st December 1935, Allen became a screenwriter,

director, actor, comedian, musician, author and playwrite.

Most of Allen's early and later work are of a comic genre, mixed with romance and philosophy. Some of his latest works we may recognise; Cassandra's dream starring Colin ferrel and Ewan McGregor; Match Point starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Scarlett Johansson; Zelig starring Allen and Mia Farrow.

Another iconic director is Peter Jackson and Costa Botes, who directed the film "Forgotten Silver" in which it claims to tell a story of a pioneering movie maker in New Zealand

Peter Jackson  being famous for such films as: The Lord Of The Rings trilogy starring Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen and others; King Kong starring Naomi Watts, Jack Black and Adrien Brody and The Lovely Bones starring Saoirse Ronan, Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz.