Final Opening Sequence to Triple Payback

Preliminary Task

After filming our preliminary task:

 I am happy with the use of the match on action shot when the package is passed across the table and also when the door is being pressed open and then Abi walks through. I am also pleased with the how we were able to use and maintain the 180 degree rule whilst filming, as we thought this would be very difficult to do. Over time, I hope to be able to improve my focussing of the camera in every shot to make sure that the filming is clear and in focus when it needs to be, and also improve the framing of the camera and how each shot is taken. By doing this my final project will be much more interesting and successful.

How does your media product present particular social groups?

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

Who would be the audience for your media product? How did you attract/address your audience?

Whilst doing our research we looked in to the target audience of Mean Girls and Wild Child, as well as Clueless and Brats. We found that all of these films were targeted mainly at teenage girls between 12-22. All of these films were certificate 12, which reinforced that the film was made to be targeted for this age group and above. Whilst doing our research we also looked at the marketing mechanisms used to promote and distribute the film.  Wild Child hosted a competition which the teenagers could enter with a chance of winning a 'Wild Child Goodie Bag'. This suggested that the way the film was marketed was by targeting the audience in ways in which their suited audience would interact- in a 'childish' way.  With Wild Child, they did not use social networking sites to market and interact with their fans, so if we were to market our film we would use social networking sites as we know that this is a successful, as well as a free way of making a 'event' over our product. 

Additionally, whilst showing our opening sequence to our chosen target audience, we found that from the reactions that they enjoyed the use of costume, as it was clothes they would wear or could see themselves wearing. They could relate or be inspired by a particular character as each character was a exaggerated stereotype.  The audience were teenagers who are likely to be in school, which makes the location of the school relatable to them. The plot to get 'revenge' on a cheating ex boyfriend may excite the audience and make them relate or imagine themselves doing this. 

From the audience feedback, the feedback suggested that our film was very similar to High School Musical and Mean Girls. This may have been interpreted by them due to the Varsity Style title font, or the location of the bedroom and school. 

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Evaluation question 4 from Sophie Ottmann

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

Technology question evaluation from sophieottmann123

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

Change in Script

Today we decided that we would change our voiceover and make it longer. We thought we would do this because it sounded weird and unfinished if the voiceover did not carry on throughout. We chose then to introduce the other characters by using the voice over because it made it more personal to the audience but also reflected the closeness of the friendship group.

Title Draft

Evaluating our work so far

 During the past few lessons we have been focusing on cutting together a rough copy of our work. We used the old footage of Britany (Ronni) in order to see how the timing would be. We also used to rough copy of Hailey (Tamsyn) to see what we need to change. As a group  we have decided to not include any of the outside scenes in the forest. This is mainly because we feel that enough  is going on in the opening sequence and the audience will develop a character understanding within the 1-2 minutes.


By putting together the rough copy cut has allowed us to find out that we need to re film both parts.  As well as showing our draft to people in order to get feedback on what went well and what we could improve. We have decided to change our idea for Hailey and she is now in a science classroom carrying out an experiment, instead of organising her bag for the 'revenge' plan the girls were going to have. We thought this would be a better idea as it allows the audience to understand that Hailey is the out sider to the other girls because she is the 'smart' and 'nerdy' one, yet she is still part of the three group of friends. Though we found that our footage we got for the bath scene was decent, we thought some of the shots were out of focus so it would be better for us to re film and make sure all the shots are at the best quality.


We are also organising a day to have a 'photoshoot' with all of the girls in their costumes and in characters for our title sequence as we have decided to do a 'scrapbook' opening sequence in which pictures of the girls are shown and the credits appear on the screen also.

Change In Character Profile

  Unfortunately, due to our original actress who was cast as Britany was unavailable to re film we had to completely change our actress and use Hollie. Luckily, Hollie looks similar to Ronni and has the same characteristics and features the character of Britany has. But this did mean we had to re film which effected the time we had to edit.

Editing a rough copy

We have decided to cut together a rough copy of our film in order to see what shots are good and what shots we will need to reconsider and re film. It is important for us to do this as it gives us a rough overview of how the finishing product will look like. This also gives us all a chance to explore the editing techniques which we can use. 

Pre production and filming - DAY ONE

12/02/16-

Today we all met at Hollies house with our cast and also saved this day to start filming.

After reading the script we organised which part we would start with and decided it would be best to film in chronological order. 

After the cast were all set and ready to go, we made sure the props were also in place. The main prop in the opening 20 seconds is Tiffany's diary and also the photos on her wall. We also used a iPhone to do a rough copy of the voice over of Tiffany's diary entry. This was so that we could act with the voice over playing on top to get a more realistic and accurate idea of how the timing will be.

We then used a tripod to do a tracking shot around the room- this we found slightly difficult as we were in a very small space so it was difficult to move around the room. 

I took the role as the camera/director

Hollie focuses on the set and also helped with the director role

Abi helped with camera and make up and also costume. 

Our first day shooting was slightly difficult as we we were not completely sure what the character of Hailey was doing- this made it hard for us to shoot as it was difficult for us to establish what we wanted audience to know about her. In order to overcome this we decided to leave Hailey's role till the end, this was so we had time to think of what would be best suited for her character.

Unfortunately, not everything went well for us on this day. Some of our shots were difficult to film, which made it hard for us to get many good shoots. An example of a shot which didn't work is the main establishing shot of Tiffany's room. Also the shots which we shot outside of Britany walking outside with her high heels did not look very good, this is because the grass was wet and muddy so the heels kept sinking into the grass. This distracted us, and made it almost impossible to film any good shots.]

Call Sheet

 To make sure we were prepared for the day we created a call sheet which meant that we knew what was happening on the day and what time of day would be suitable to film in. We also had a group chat on WhatApp which allowed us all to stay connected and easily able to contact each other to discuss our ideas and feedback.

Character Profiles

Name: Hailey
Age: 16
Nationality: White British 
Hometown: London
Current Residence: London 
Eye Colour: Blue/Green
Hair Colour: Ginger
Skin Colour: White 
Distinguishing features: Ginger hair  
How does he/she dress?: something pink, short skirts, heels or unsuitable shoes, regularly seeen in a lab room in her lab coat. 
Habits: (smoking, drinking etc.) No
Hobbies: homework, science experiments, sports
Speech patterns: None
Personal traits:  Unaware, unconcerned and dopey. Usually makes the dumb comments.

Britany "The Dumb Blonde"
Name: Britany
Age: 16
Nationality: White British 
Hometown: London
Current Residence: London 
Eye Colour: Blue
Hair Colour: Blonde
Skin Colour: White 
Distinguishing features: None 
How does he/she dress?: Over the top, short skirts, pink clothing, latest fashion, always carries a hand bag. 
Habits: (smoking, drinking etc.) No
Hobbies: Shopping
Speech patterns: None
Personal traits:  Makes dumb and inappropriate comments, usually does not think logically. Very dumb

Tiffany "the ring leader"
Name: Tiffany
Age: 17
Nationality: White British 
Hometown: London
Current Residence: London 
Eye Colour: Brown
Hair Colour: Mousy Blonde
Skin Colour: White 
Distinguishing features: None 
How does he/she dress?: Pink crop tops, short black skirts, suitable but slightly slutty.
Habits: (smoking, drinking etc.) No
Hobbies: Cheerleading
Speech patterns: demanding and stern
Personal traits:  Bossy, demanding, strong minded, passionate, hint of darkness to her personality, slightly sinister.

Story Board

Shot 1: We discussed the potential distributers for our film and after doing our research, we agreed that Universal would be the best distributer as they have distributed similar genre films in the past

Shot 2: We have not yet agreed on a production company name but we will have the production company next, with a black screen.

Shot 3: Mid Shot with all three characters, Tiffany in the centre to show she is the leader. (Title of film appears with fade effect) 

Shot 4-6: We decided to do a scrap book effect which we found on Final Cut pro, where we can add pictures of the cast on the story board as well as the titles.

Shot 7: is a tracking shot around the room, a wide angle shot of the room and Tiffany is seen on her bed writing in her diary. The voice over begins.

Shot 8: The voice over continues, mid shot/over the shoulder of Tiffany looking in the mirror and taking down the pictures of her ex boyfriend.

Shot 9: Close up of the pictures of Tiffanys ex boyfriend.

Shot 10: Cross Cut to the next character- Medium Close up of Britany using a face mask

Shot 11: Close up of the text message, "You ready bitch? Tiff x" appears on the phone screen.

Shot 12: Tracking Mid shot of Britany running out the door.

  Shot 13: The mid shot of Hailey in the library allows the audience to understand the character personality.

 Shot 14: Close up of the phone, similar to the previous shot of Britany.

 Shot 15: Eye line match shot of the clock.

 Shot 16: Long shot of the characters walking towards each other to show they are all friends. Non-diegetic sound of music

Shot 17: Mid shot of tracking around the girls, dialogue is said.


Shot 18: The girls walk off in a line, tracking shot is used. The music cuts out.

Inspiration from other films

 This is a collection of some pictures and screenshots from teen dramas which we were influenced and inspired by. The photo of Miley Cyrus writing in her diary is taken from the film 'LOL' which is a teen drama. We thought of our idea about having our main character Tiffany write in the diary would work well because this was a key scene in the film LOL and as it was used in this film, we thought that it is a typical stereotype for teen girls to write in their diaries. Also taken from the film LOL is the screenshot of the three girls walking besides eachother. The main character is in the middle, which we thought was important as it shows the audience who is the centre of attention, and who is the "leader" of the group. This is why we chose to use three girls in our film. We decided that we would base our diary entry about hate and revenge on a boyfriend because of the film "10 things I hate about you" when at the end of the film she lists all the reasons why she does not like the boy in her notepad, but she resights this as a poem. This was a creative idea which we thought was effective so thought we would use it in our film, but make it a voice over instead as we feel this would make it better.

Title Ideas

     Struggling to find a title which we thought was interesting but also gives away information for the movie was something as a group we found difficult. Originally we came up with "Tiff's Lovers" this was inspired from "Lover's Tiff" which is a term used to describe couples who argue. We liked this title as we thought it fitted our character, however, the re arrange of the words implied that Tiffany had multiple lovers, providing a inaccurate portrayal of the film.

   After hard thinking, we decided on the name "Triple Payback" we thought this was relevant and a successful title because it was based around 3 best friends, who were planning revenge, hence the word "payback" which has connotations to revenge. The word "payback" also has a more sinister play on the word which foreshadows that something dark is going to happen in the film.

  We decided to have a short title for our film because we looked at our findings from our Questionnaire and found that people prefer shorter titles for example, "Mean Girls" and "Heather's".

Props and Organising

   Here are a few of our props and materials we used when filming. We wrote out Tiffany's voice over in the diary and made the writing in a typical girly writing and lots of hearts. This is so that the writing represents the character of Tiffany.





This is a selection of the make up we used on all of the cast. I did most of the casts make up and used mainly light pinks and bronzer and blusher with a hint of pink lipstick.





The character played by Ronni is Britanny, she is a "dumb blonde" character who cares lots about her skin and appearance. We brought a face mask from Superdrug and applied this to her skin for the bath scene. This was in order to represent her character but to also add humour.



For decoration in Tiffany's room we had to use pictures from the internet of a "boyfriend" for Tiffany. We went on Google and tried to find some typical teenage boy photos which we could stick around her bedroom.

Planning for filming

In order to ensure we are ready to start filming we have created a costume and prop list of all the important props we will need on the day. Most of the costume our actresses will be bringing themselves, however, we will be providing them with the props and also doing their make-up for them.

We will be making a 'revenge poster' which will be a key object in the film as it will suggest to the audience what is going on.
The diary is also a key prop as it will be used by Tiffany when the voice over is on.

Expanding our script

After we created our script we added the key camera shots and important camera techniques we will be including in our opening sequence. This is important for us to do because it means that we can add these details to our storyboard and makes us organised for when we start filming. 

Location Ideas

 

This is the location of Tiffany's bedroom. We decided to use Hollie's bedroom as this is a 'typical teenage bedroom' which will mean the setting is already realistic. We will be adding our own props to the set, for example, photos of Tiffany and her friends, posters. The room is already naturally lit, this is good for us because it means that the lighting will already be in good quality, however we will be adding extra lights in order to get the finest quality we can.

                                                                                                                              

            

We went on to Google Maps to find suitable places we can film the walking scene and the path we want the characters to take when walking to the forest. We chose to film on the bridge as we think that this would be a interesting place to film. The bridge adds to the secrecy of the location the girls are going to be going, and we can also shoot a establishing shot which will make it more interesting.

Script Draft 1

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11W3sZE2YLGUg9eCfn62j4Ytl79FDuBGYaQMfDAmVkrs/edit?usp=sharing

Questionnaire

I decided to share my questionnaire on Twitter and made people retweet and favourite my questionnaire in order to receive more results. By putting it on Twitter allowed us to target specifically our target audience around (14-25) year olds. It also allowed us to see what people these ages want in a Teen Drama. It was useful for us to put it on Twitter because it meant that we did not have to ask so many people ourself, instead other people did it for us.

Questionnaire results

Before we started our questionnaire, it was important that we asked our audience if they had watched any of these films because they fit our genre. If they had not watched any Teen Drama's their results would be random and would not benefit us.

From this question we have understood that many people enjoy watching films because of the actors involved and the story and the narrative, which is why we have made our film really focus on a interesting and exciting narrative.

Additionally, we found that not only in our online questionnaire and the video questionnaire we have found that many people look out for relatable situations, storylines and relationships. This is why we have made our storyline about a broken relationship because it reflects on our results.

Moreover, we found that people prefer to meet the characters within the opening sequence because they are able to understand and develop a dislike for one character and a appeal for another. Also, our results show that many people like the mystery of the film narrative and they want to question the film and then at the end of the film understand why what happened in the film happened. This is why in our film we do not make it very clear why the girls are planning revenge on the cheating boyfriend, but if we were to make a complete film we would reveal this to the audience throughout the film.                     

Although not many people voted for forests        and parks, to create a sense of "black comedy" and mystery we have made sure we include this swell as bedrooms of the teenage girls. 

From these results, we found that people prefer a teen drama which has some sort of mystery and thriller to it. This is why the TV show Pretty Little Liars is so successful because it is based around a mystery between 4 girls. This emphasises why we chose to include mystery into our teen drama.

Finally we found that the most important part of a teen drama was the plot line and also the characters. Evidently, this is why our plot line is such a big part of the opening sequence, aswell as developing the character identity of each girl and each of them having obvious character differences and personality differences.