Song Choice

After deciding that I wanted to create a hard hitting music video I started to look at different genres and artists; I then started to narrow down what style of music I wanted to use. I decided I didn't want anything with overpowering instrumentals, I felt that by choosing a track with only one or two instruments in the background it would take the focus away from the music and the audience would concentrate more on the lyrics which will help to convey the message.

When listening to the tracks on YouTube I also made sure I didn't look at the videos because I wanted to make sure I interpreted the songs in my own way and wasn't influenced by the artists video; this has resulted in me taking a different approach to the song I have chosen compared to the artist.

To try to find my song I searched for 'controversial songs' and 'songs with a message'; although it came up with some suggestions the only result that I found useful was the VMA best social message nominees. 'Same Love' by Macklemore would have been a perfect example of controversial song with a hard impact on it's audience however, I have already seen the video many times and I would have been influenced too much by the original music video when planning my own production.

I then asked people in my class if they had any recomendations for songs I could use. This resulted in me listening to songs such as Daughter by 'Medicine', The Temper Trap 'Rabbit Hole' and concrete gold wu lyf. whilst all these songs had a sad feel to them wehn listening I couldn't imagine a video that had the right feel to compliment the songs.

Finally, Mr Buckmaster told me to look at the song Ellie Goulding sang for Children In Need 2013; 'How Long Will I Love You'. I listended to the song twice in a row and immediately I began to imagine the kind of music video I could create to go with the song. After brainstorming I told Mr Buckmaster and we both developed my idea and he helped me to expand on what I was thinking of. This is the song I have chosen to use for my production.

Looking into Similar Products

After deciding I wanted to shoot a video that was a bit more true to life and more about the harsh reality of the society we live in I decided to start looking at music videos with similar story lines. Not only would these videos give me ideas for shooting styles and themes for my own video but they may also lead to to artists who produce music with the right feel that I'm looking for.

The first video I looked at was 'The A Team' by Ed Sheeran. It follows the life of a homeless female that turns to prostituion to make money; when she gets the money she then spends it on drugs leading her into a downwards spiral. The video starts with a young girl crying over a dead body the end is poignaint because the audience realise that the girl lying on the floor at the begining, dead is the girl we follow through the video and it is her spirit that is looking over the body after she dies of a drug overdose.

Another song I looked at was You're Too Young by Lucy Spraggan. The song is about a young girl who takes the wrong path in life, getting kicked out of shcool, involved in crime and getting into a relationship with a 'bad boy' who is into drugs and has many relationships at one time. The song is about the journey to her death after she gets into a fight with another female and ends up getting stabbed by her. The girl that stabs her is actually her dates girlfriend. The video visits the harsh reality of choosing the wrong path in life.  

Shooting Styles

At the weekend I saw the Sainsburys 2013 Christmas advert; 'Christmas in a Day' The advert, like the music videos I have been watching, had a big emotional impact on it's audience. The advert was directed by Oscar-winning Kevin Macdonald.He created a 45 minute festive film for Sainsbury's to be released on YouTube week comensing 18.11.13. Macdonald collected various christmas home videos from across the UK and collated them to create a short film - he also created a 3 minute teaser advert before the film was released.

The 3 minute teaser includes emotive footage; including, a man eating Christmas dinner alone and a dad coming home from Afgahnistan to surprise his children on Christmas day. This realtes to the theme I want for my music video becuase it has a hard hitting, realistic, emotional impact on the audience.
 

It wasn't just the theme and the impact of the advert that attracted me but also the style, I like that they were home videos included in the filming and clearly not set up situations; this gave it a much more realistic feel increasing the emotional impact.
Read more: http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/ad-day-sainsburys-christmas-day-will-bring-tears-your-eyes-153935

Hozier: Take Me To Church

In class Mr. Buckmaster showed us a music video: Hozier, Take Me To Church.

Ireland's State noted that the video, directed by Brendan Canty, echoes the wave of violence currently plaguing the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Russia. The songs lyrics speak of the harsh reality of religious view on homosexuality in many places: "Every Sunday's getting more bleak / A fresh poison each week / 'We were born sick,' you heard them say it". Although these views are considered very outdated in many places these opinions are still practised in many places across the globe.

I like the video because it shows the harsh reality of many societies and opinions; it doesn't sugar coat the situation. The hard hitting impact of the video, gives the song a lot of power over the audience because it very quickly makes people realise the cruel truth about things that Homosexual populations have face in certain societies.

I also like the colour treatment of the music video; I think the black and white video takes away any distractions. The audience’s attention isn't drawn to any insignificant parts of the scenes. I think it signifies that the shooting of the video is not the important part of the video but the message it is trying to send. Also, the black and white colour treatment helps to prevent and other difference the characters may have being introduced to the audience, by all being very plain it almost takes away their individuality.

Things that I will be taking from this video and applying to my own production are:

· The use of colour treatment and the impact it has on the message of the story

· The hard hitting effect of the story

· The controversial manner of the video

I will use this video as the first influence into similar products that I will be looking into to.

Changing my idea

After some thought I have decided to change my initial production idea. I have been considering this for a while and during Friday's lesson I made a final decision. I will still be doing the music video brief however. I have changed the theme song and story line of the music video but, I have not yet finalised my new idea.

Reasons for changing my initial idea: 

• I thought my first idea about someone perusing love and then succeeding was too cliche and predictable
• I felt the idea was maybe a bit hard to follow and that the audience may not understand the significance of shadows and empty seat e.t.c. (Signifying that he is looking for someone/missing someone) 
• I didn't think my song choice linked to my story line strongly enough. The lyrics of 'Clouds' are slightly hard to interpret and slightly contradict themselves.
• Finally, I decided I wanted to explore a completely different genre of media (my AS production was the opening sequence of a rom com and this too was a romance/love based story). This year I want to explore a controversial and slightly more 'gritty' side of media. 

Audience Research - A Liar's Autobiography

I looked into audience research to see how other markets have promoted their media products and to get information about how best to promote my production. I looked on the BFI website to research case studies that they had produced on the ways that they promoted texts.
One case study that I found was based on "A Liar's Autobiography", an animated, factually incorrect biography of Graham Arthur Chapman, one of the founding members of the comedy group Monty Python. From the research I learnt of different ways they promoted their product and therefore got useful information about how I could promote my own media product. Here are my main finding from the research:

Marketing Approach:

• The marketing strategy was straight away decided to be based upon the Monthy Python popularity and legacy
• They wanted to appeal to younger audiences; those generations who may have heard of Monthy Python from their parents
• They didn't want the animated film to move too far away from the Monthy Python fans, they wanted to attract a new audience as well as keeping the loyal fans interested to appeal to big sector of the public.

Target Audience:

• They created two target audience; the 'core' audience and the 'broad' audience

Core:

• 35+ years, male  - loyal  fans and those who grew up watching the series
• 20+ years, male and female - animated enthusiasts and professionals: both old enough to have grown up with the series and young enough to be enthusiastic about animation
• 25+ years male and female art house audiences

Broad:

• 30+ years principally males but females too - fans of British comedy
• 25+ years male and female, may not have been film fans but heard about them through publicity

Overall Distribution and Marketing Strategies:

• simultaneous theatrical and VOD release, closely followed by DVD and BD release
• Support from Adobe
• www.liarsautobiography.com Official website an interactive and innovative site; it received over 13k unique visitors in the UK.
• www.facebook.com/aliarsautobiographymovie Official Facebook Page: became the main ‘hub’
  for all on line activity and distribution of an array of content: including clips, links to YT videos e.t.c.

Conclusion:

• I need to decide what genre and style my music video is so when marketing the single I can aim it at the right audience.
• I then need to decide specifics of my audience (age, gender, social group e.t.c.) for both a broad audience and a core audience. By aiming my production at two audiences I can get as broad audience as possible.
• I then need to decide suitable ways to market my production - this will be connected to the target audience criteria (e.g. am I aiming it at the 'online generation'?

To read up on their audience research Even further visit and click on the top left link in the table ('A Liar's Autobiography) http://www.bfi.org.uk/film-industry/lottery-funding-distribution/insight-reports-case-studies-audience-research/new-ways-reaching-audiences-distribution

Planning My Time

In class we have made a rough plan of what we need to do and when we plan on doing it by, I will edit this copy as I move ontp different stages and complete differnet areas of the course.

I have also created a detailed breakdown of each scene and dated what time I will be doing differnet thuings; see a copy below: 

Song Choice

The song I have chosen to use for my music video is 'Clouds' by Newton Faulnkner Sam Newton Battenberg Faulkner (born 11 January 1985); an English singer-songwriter and musician from Reigate, Surrey. He is known for his unique, percussive style of guitar playing.

I initially chose this song because I like it, I am fan of Newton Faulkner and I decided to listen to his album for some inspiration on what song to use for my A2 music video. After listening to both 'Hand Built by Robots' and 'Write it on your Skin' I liked 'Clouds' the most.

When looking more deeply into the song and its meaning to try and fit a message for my music video around it I conducted some further research. Some of the lyrics slightly contradict each other and the message isn't completely clear when looking at the lyrics. To help me identify the meaning I found a video made by Newton Faulkner to help me research his interpretations; he said the main message of the video was that things get better if you just staty possitive and persue things. The video has since been taken down from his website but below is an article that I found that gives a further in-sight to the meaning of the song from an audience persepective. http://glipho.com/rnbryant/stop-looking-down-at-the-ground-just-pick-it-out-of-the-clouds

Here is a link to the lyrics: http://www.tunewiki.com/lyrics/newton-faulkner/clouds

Music Video Genres

There are different styles of music video that artists can use.

Performance:
 

This is where the video is based around the band/artist and shows them performing and their gigging lifestyle. It's a common genre with new, up and coming artists that are trying to establish their place in the music industry and make themselves known to the audience. An example of a music video that has used the performance genre is 'Let Her Go' by Passenger; please see bellow.

Storyline:

This is where the song and lyrics are used to tell a story. This is a very common theme among many music videos and allows for the artists interpretation of the song to be conveyed to the audience. An example of a music video that has used the storyline genre is 'The A Team' by Ed Sheeran; please see bellow.

Dance:

This is where the music video is based around people dancing to the music, it is often used with 'upbeat songs' for a feel good effect. Often, the artist or band are the dancers in the music video.  An example of a music video that has used the dance genre is Love On Top' by Beyonce; please see below:

 

 

 

Conceptual:

Conceptual music videos are based around a single idea or concept and are usually unusual and obscure, even surreal for the audience. Conceptual videos are often quirky.  An example of a music video that has used the conceptual genre is 'Needing/Getting' by OK Go; please see below:

Special Effects:

Special Effect videos are often disjointed, they allow for a slightly surreal feel to the video. An example of a music video that has used the special effects genre is 'Safe and Sound' by Capital Cities; please see below:

 

Animation:

 

Animated music videos can range from the images being hand drawn, created by computer graphic ot moulded out of material such as plasticine. This style of music video is very creative and visually entertaining to watch. An example of a music video that has used the animation genre is 'One More Time' by Daft Punk ; please see below:

 

 

Practising Shots

Another shot that I wanted to do was a sunrise Time lapse.

I have the idea of starting my video with a person sat on a hill side watching the sun rise, this will be the male protaganist in my music video who is trying to better his life. I will then end the shot with the male in the same place but he will be sat next to a female. I think it will link the story together well and give it a romantic feel.

Here is an example of a dunrise times lapse that I've found (skip to 10 seconds when the time lapse starts). I also found a still picture of the end shot that I envisage.



Practising Shots

On thing that I'm really keen on doing when filming my music video is playing with the depth of field on some shots. I want some shots that go from being blurred to focused and vise versa and I want some shots that have a blurred background whilst the focus is on the main feature of the shot. Above is a video that I found with lots of examples of the kinds of shots that I want to try when filming my video.

I have also found another video where it is specifically the fairy lights that are blurred, this is a shot that I have in mind. It's 'let her go' by Passenger. I plan on using an SLR camera to create these shots as I feel they will be very effective when adjusting the depth of field


Finally I have taken this idea and tried to create my own shot. I have used a Nikon SLR camera to film some  fairy lights using different depths of focus.

'The Bridge'

In Fridays lesson we watched another documentary called 'The Bridge'; filmed in 2004 by Eric Steel. It shows the results of one years filming along the Golden Gate Bridge and the 23 jumps and several suicide attempts that happened over the course of the filming. It also has additional footage of interviews with the families of those who jumped and a survivor; Ken Baldwin. The inspiration for this documentary came from an article in The New Yorker; 'Jumper' - Tad Friend.

There are many controversial issues that are surround this documentary, the main being the sensitive and strong content. We thought of some questions in the lesson based more around the treatment of the documentary rather than the content of it.

Do we have the right to see this?

This, like 'The boy who's skin fell off', is a very sensitive issue. However, 'the boy who's skin fell off' promoted a related charity and helped to spread awareness of the condition; I feel 'The Bridge' didn't look at the issue in the same way. I think it was based more around suicides linked to the Golden Gate Bridge being a regular place that people commit suicide rather than spreading the awareness of the issue and promoting a way of helping such as a charity). Having said this I think the treatments made viewers aware that 'everyday people' are suicidal and helped to spread awareness that it can happen to anyone, I also think it helped to express the importance of not ignoring symptoms and therefore I believe it did promote some parts in a good way. Finally, I think it gave a strong message to people who are feeling suicidal. We hear  Ken Baldwins story in the documentary and his attempt of suicide that he immediately regretted. I think this gives a positive message and a feeling of hope.

Why has the documentary got an 18 rating?

Film classification is based on violence, bad language, sex and nudity and taste and decency. This documentary has a high rating, this is due to its taste and decency. I personally found the documentary very hard to watch due to its harsh reality. In the documentary you watch a real life suicide and many reenactments along with verbal accounts and photo graphs from people who have seen people jumping off the bridge or climbing over the railing. This can clearly be disturbing for many viewers and therefore a high rating was needed so that an audience that was too young didn't view it as it's likely that they'd have found it harder to deal with.

The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off

In class we watched a very inspiring documentary called 'The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off'. It is a moving story about the last four months of Johnny Kennedy's life and showed his suffering and long battle with the rare condition - dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (EB) it also shows his release, his death. To watch the full documentary please follow this link: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-boy-whose-skin-fell-off/4od


The documentary has many sensitive issues within it and in class we were asked to think about the following questions and write a response to them. Here are my thoughts on the programme:

Do we have the right to see this?
Whilst this documentary has been made to inform people and raise awareness I believe that some of what was shown shouldn't have been. Johnny clearly worked alongside E4 to create this documentary about his last 4 months and therefore I believe it was his wishes for us to see this footage. In some respects his day to day life and obstacles helped to portray the struggle he went through strongly however, some of these 'day to day' things were perhaps a bit too personal to show. For example seeing Johnny in excruciating pain, I personally found really hard to watch as my heart sank at the thought of him having to go through that on a weekly basis. Also, when Johnny's Mum mentioned being asked if she would have had an abortion I thought was a very personal thing to show to millions of people and was perhaps overstepping the line in terms of what they are sharing about such sensitive issues. Finally, although seeing Johnny dead in his wheelchair and viewing his funeral was deeply upsetting and emotional for us as the audience I feel we shouldn't have seen this not for our sake but the families. Us seeing this footage meant that they were not left to grieve at such a sad time but instead surrounded by camera men and crew member, this I felt was particularly insensitive. Having said this and stated some negative points my overall feel is that the documentary was an amazing opportunity for Johnny and other EB sufferers and that it was clearly made with the wishes of a dying man and I therefore agree that E4 should of and did respect what he wanted.

Should they be filming this?
The first time we are introduced to Johnny is in his voice over. The voice over has been scripted so that Johnny sounds as though he is speaking from the grave; to me this is slightly insensitive; however, I think maybe it is the tactfulness of the filming rather than the content. Having said this he may have decided he'd rather approach the touching story in a more informal way. Although my immediate thought was that some of the filming wasn't very tactful Johnny has clearly 'asked us along for the ride' and after seeing a little more I get the impression that perhaps Johnny worked with producers to create this feel as it helps to reflect the way he approached this awful condition. Obviously there are some aspects of the filming that are more upsetting than others (such as: when Johnny gets upset, when he's telling us of the worst parts of his journey and when we see his dead body) however, I think without some of these parts we would not understand fully the terrible ordeal Johnny had gone through.

Was it a valid documentary?
I believe the documentary was very valid. Not only does it help with the awareness of rare condition EB it also helps to promote his charity. Unfortunately, it is very rare that people donate to worthy causes unless they feel some sympathy for the cause; this was shown when £500,000 was raised through the help of the 5 million viewers. This documentary allows the audience to connect with Johnny and I feel that many people will both take something from it and give something back. I personally have learnt a lot about a rare condition that I previously knew nothing about and have acknowledged a worthy charity (DEBRA) through this documentary.

Did they take advantage of the situation?
I definitely think they took advantage of the situation because it is such a rare condition that it would be hard to find someone willing to help to make a documentary and that has put so much time and effort into helping others who have the condition. However, I don't think that taking advantage of it was all bad; through the documentary Johnny not only got to educate and inspire millions with his story but he managed to raise thousands of pounds and promote his charity. Obviously E4 made money out of the documentary but I think the morals and ethics behind using this story for their personal profits are completely thrown out the window when you think of the difference the documentary has made to: the charity through donations, sufferers through educating people about their condition and maybe the most touching outcome, Johnny Kennedy by telling sharing his story at such a hard and emotional time.

Brief Research - Documentary

The third and final brief I am interested in is:

• An extract from a new documentary TV programme, lasting approximately 5 minutes, together with two of the following three options:

          - A radio trailer for the documentary

          - A double-page spread from a listings magazine focused on the documentary

          - A newspaper advertisement for the documentary

I watch many documentaries based around human life; many of the documentaries I watch are on e4. Because I have watched many different documentaries I understand the basic content that they need (such as a gripping, real life story or subject with a feeling of empathy and or inspiration) in order to attract the audience. However, I haven't seen any short documentaries and I therefore started my research by looking on YouTube for short documentaries. A few I found include:

Future Learning
Analysis:
- They had many short snappy shots, there was a lot of footage that was often shown whilst people were voicing there opinions. This made the documentary a lot more interesting than if it was just a single shot of the person talking
- They had opinions from many different people including young people who were the basis of the documentary. I think this gave the documentary even more feeling
-Finally, the whole documentary was filled with passion, making it inspirational.

Lost in Transgender
Analysis:
- The technical aspects of this documentary were quite good; there was a good variation in the shots and footage however, I didn't like the narrative feel of the documentary, as though it was more based on the reporter finding her true opinion rather than viewing what life is like for a transgender.
- I also feel that the reporter wasn't as sensitive to the issue as she should have been, this may cause some controversy and therefore if I choose to film a documentary about a sensitive issue like this one I will ensure I am careful about the peoples feelings
- Overall, I didn't particularly like this documentary as I don't feel it realistic and had the same criteria as successful documentaries.

The Janitor
Analysis:
- Although the subject in this documentary wasn't exactly inspiring or very gripping I think it had strong conventions of a documentary and showed varied sides to the story
- I think if I did a a documentary this may be similar to the style I would choose, it will be hard for me to find a very inspirational and 'deep' story to base it on without making it up and although I may and find something more gripping to film about I think it will be along a similar line.

After watching the short documentaries I analysed them as this will help me later on if I chose to go with this brief.

I also searched for previous A2 work that had used this brief, some documentaries I found include: Classics: Restored, Wasted Youth and Ten Years of Music

Although I commented in my first research post that I was thinking of making the music video I am now very unsure. From researching the three briefs I now want to do all of them because I think they all sound very fun. If I choose this brief it is likely that I will base my documentary around the previous A2 work and 'The Janitor' rather than more extreme documentaries because I think it will be hard to make an extreme topic effective.

Brief Research - Short Film

The second brief I am interested in is:

• A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or a combination of both, together with two of the following three options

          - A poster for the film
          - A radio trailer for the film
          - A film magazine review page featuring the film

As I only knew of one short film before I started my research stage I began by using YouTube to find a variety of different films. That meant I could start to specify my research towards the types of short film I wanted to create. A few examples of short films I found include:

 Awake
Analysis:
 - There was a good variation in the camera angles and shots used which helped make the film effective. It allowed the film to stay secretive and withhold enough information from the audience to keep them drawn in.
- The Foley sound used in the film help to make it realistic however, I should not be able to tell it was Foley sound. I know it was Foley because the sound of the young man walking on the pavement was the same sound as the young man walking on the pebble beach.
- Finally, although I understand that short stories have to have brief story lines I felt that the whole film was confusing up until the last shot which may have lead the audience to lose interest and therefore switch off.

The Desk
Analysis:
- The main thing I liked in this short film is that they managed to create a story using very limited dialogue. There is some script when the protagonist listens to a voice mail and then again at the end however, most of the speech is shown through written communication which gives the film a magical aspect.
- I also like that the protagonist is  relatable even though we know very little about him, his story is not built up and still I feel we know him very well.
- I like that the short film wasn't a horror/thriller. Many short films are scary genres as it is an easy way to attract the audience however this film was more a romance but still managed to capture me.

Bed Trick
- Overall I found this short film very strange!! However, it had some good technical aspects and will help me in my decision making process.
- I liked the twist in the film. Although I feel the audience got the sense that something was being held back the whole way through the film I think the ending of the film was very unexpected.
- I think the setting, costumes and characters worked very well in helping to set the mood of the film.
- Finally, I think the reaction Rachel ruined the reality of the film a little because I don't think someone would react that casually in that situation.

After watching the short films I made notes on what I thought of them and used the points to research this brief further.

I also looked at previous A2 work that had used this brief to help further my knowledge; some films include:
Twenty Pounds, Hell is Round the Corner and Never Judge a Book

Although this brief sound very fun and really interests me I don't think it will be the one I choose. If I was to make a short film I would want to move away from the generic horror genre they have. I feel it is very easy to make a scary short film look generic; although, I feel 'Never Judge a Book' was an extremely good attempt and definitely scared me. Therefore, for me I think it would be very hard to create a good short story that attracts my audience as I feel it will be hard to draw an audience into a film in such a short time without doing so through suspense.

If I were to chose this brief I may use 'The Desk' as my starting block and inspiration.

Brief Research - Music Video

The first brief that I am interested in is music videos.

• A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three option:

      - A website home page for the band 

      - A cover for its release on DVD

      - A magazine advertisement for the DVD 

      

As I was interested in 3 different briefs I started to research them individually to help me make my decision. I started researching music videos by watching a variety of videos for songs that I currently liked. A few examples included:

Icona Pop - I Love It (feat. Charli XCX)  

What I liked:

- The different editing techniques

   - Split screens

   - Bright colour saturation

   - Lyrics appearing over the video

   - Reasonably quick cuts

- Relatable and feel good factor

- Variety of camera angle and shots

- Large amount of footage

Passenger - Let Her Go 

What I liked:

- Seeing the Artist singing the song

- Wide range of close-up shots

- very casual feels

The King Blues - I Got Love

What I liked:

- Very relatable feel

- A variety of Artist and filming

- Slight story line

After looking at these videos I made notes on what I liked about them and used those points to research further.

I also looked at previous A2 music videos to further my knowledge of the brief a few I looked at include:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeKrR5Rjed0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rajf5yQZPRE

I also looked at a video which can be found on this blog; http://abibunceblog.blogspot.co.uk/

From my research I think this brief is likely to be the one I choose. I've decided the key things I would include in my video are flashbacks, a story line and a reasonably fast pace. 

The video I found which most suits this criteria is Same Love - Macklemore and Ryan Lewis and this may be a video I use for inspiration if I choose to proceed with this brief.

Introduction to A2

Mr Buckmaster introduced the A2 course to us by taking us through this power point. On the slides there are the brief titles and a vague idea of what we will need to include. Sir went through each brief and outlined them in detail to help us make a decision on which brief we would choose.

Whilst going through them Mr Buckamster explained that they are not all video based projects, although I think it would be interesting use a different type of media I decided I wanted to stick with a video based project because that was the predominant media type we used in our AS project.

I narrowed down the briefs I want to do to 3 options:
- A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video.
- A short film in its entirety lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animated
- An extract for a new documentary TV programme, lasting approximately five minutes

I will now research each brief in detail to help me make my decision on which project I will proceed with.

Evaluation of Opening Sequence

Our AS opening sequence was a romantic comedy based around two protagonists waking up. There are many things that worked well in our production however, there are also many things that I would change if we came to doing it again.

I think one thing that worked well was our location. We took a lot of time into making sure our location reflected the themes of the opening and tried to include as many connotations of a rom com as we could. For example we made the girls room reflect her as being a creative, tidy, girly character and the boy was portrayed as a slightly messier, musical protagonist. We also chose a rural setting which we felt had a more romantic feel than a big, busy city. Although most of our location were successful there were a few things we could have improved (Lily walking out of a public toilet and their places of work could have been slightly closer together).

Another thing that went well was our soundtrack and voice over. I think they helped to convey our ideas and the voice over also helped to introduce our protagonists and the story lines. Although our soundtrack and voice overs contributed to our production in a positive way I think we could have added some Foley sound to improve it further.

I think the main thing that we could have improved is our framing and camera shots/angles. There are a few scenes where we have either cut characters heads off or given them too much head space. This distracts the audience from the significance of the shots. Also, on our final scene where the two protagonists walk past each other Lily and Joe aren't walking at the bottom of the frame and the store names are slightly cut off, by lining up the shot more precisely it would have improved the scene. Also, we didn't use a wide variety of camera angles and shots.

Also the continuity within our production could have been better. In the scene where Lily is walking down the stairs her hair is tied up, in the rest of the opening it is down. Also, there is no car when Joe first crosses the road and when shot from a different angle a car has suddenly appeared.

Finally, some scenes in our opneing had different colour saturations than others. For example the scene where Lily is coming down the stairs and putting her shoes on has an orangey 'wash' over it where as the outside scenes and other waking up scenece have more natural colouring. This meant that our editing wans't invisible, it was obvious that we had adjusted the colouring on certain scenes.



For a more in depth evaluation please visit my AS blog bethanyhutson.blogspot.com