Schedules

This is our first shoot schedule, it's very brief.

"12:00 - All people involved with costume and make up preparations (you know who you are) arrive at Sarah's house.
1:00 - Arrive at ruins and meet Aimee there
3:00 - Finished filming ruins. Arrive at Clifton after lift up there in parents car
5:30 - Finish filming in Clifton and go home"

Second shoot schedule

"3:00 - All people involved in costume and makeup arrive at Sarah's house
4:00 - Arrive at ruins
5:30 - Finished filming at ruins and now filming in Weston - in - Gordano (WIG for short)
6:30 - Finish filming in WIG and go home"

The Potential Target Audience and Characters

Note: I have found a website containing interesting and useful articles and information on Tim Burton, the website is http://www.timburtoncollective.com/ and the article I looked at is at http://www.timburtoncollective.com/articles/misc18.html. These helped with research.

We are not going to activley represent social groups, however, the main groups included are; Male; Female; Age Range 16 - 25 and those with borderline psychological disorders. Take the Snow White chracter for instance, she is female, around 20 years old and of working class. This is shown through her costume mostly. As in many Tim Burton films, the main characters are very complex and developed, whereas the less important characters may not be less complex, hypothetically, but there is not room in the film to show every detail about them, especially in the opening. And, as it is only an opening, we have decided to opt for keeping the characters slightly shrouded in mystery rather than introducting every detail about them, mostly, to save, from doing extra work into the differect charcters psyches and their backgrounds. Additionally, most of TB's target audience relate in some way to the main characters, for example, someone might relate to Alice as she feels awkward in certian social situations as somebody else might. However, due to not having characters that show complexities in the opening, it would be difficult for any of our target audience to realte to the characters, therefore, it is probbaly not going to be a contributing factor to who our target audence would be.

We did quick interviews with different people to gather who might be interested in our film. We asked people of various ages, male and female the same questions. Questions included;

1. What kind of films do you enjoy?
2. Why?
3. Tell us what kind of film you would consider seeing and why
4. (We then explained our ideas breifly and mentioned our inspiration) Would you be interested in seeing our film.

We discovered that our target audience would be people from the age of about 15, up to about their thirties. It would not be sutible for somebody substantially younger than this. The gender would be predominantly female, with some male audiences additionally it would attract fans of the same genre.

First shoot attempt

The group spent Sunday filming (23rd jan) and I heard that it went okay. Unfortunatley, there was some kind of mix up which meant that I was not present for the shoot, apologies for not being there at the right time if you consider it to be my fault. I can see how our hard work has paid off from the footage gained, however some of the shots could be improved with the re-shoots we are planning to take out over the next few weeks.

I know that Heather is not used to the Tim Burton style and is more inclined toward comedy. However, she was not in at the time of briefing and Sarah and I needed to make a start, or else we would have been wasting time, otherwise there would have been more of a unified effort to come up with a theme. Most of Tim Burtons films are dark, but with some humour. Additionally, they are extravagant, interesting and theatrical. We tried to incorporate this into our mise en scene as much as possible with Heather's recearch into make up, as well as the reacarch into costume we all carried out. The style was ambitious and I prefer to do something challenging rather then something easy. It let us be creative with the brief. During editing we have tried to add effects to make more of a proffessional feel to our work.

I still have stuff to post!

This work is from weeks ago! Sorry it is so late. Look back over my other posts if you must, I have just edited in my work to older posts. Here is our updated script:



The opening would be the male character reminising on the past, therefore, we felt a voice over in past tense would be appropriate. The rest of the film would be Snow White haunting him and eventually turning him mad as revenge.

Skills Audit 2 :P

Holding a shot steady, where appropriate - Basic ability. I have not actually used the camera in this project, therefore I do not see any way in which I could have improved with this. However, I do know that on IMovie, if a shot is slightly shaky, it is possible to stabilise the shot during editing. I feel this would be especially useful if you did not have a chance to re-shoot the offending piece of footage, particularly if it was crucial to meaning. Obviously, what I mentioned before still stands; use a tripod or some type of camera yielding equipment which, amongst other things, allows you to keep a shot steady. Additionally, to improve, you must practice and map out the shots before actually pressing record.

Framing a shot appropriately - Proficient ability. Again, I have not used the camera during this project, but I have learnt how a badly framed shot can ruin many things, for example, continuity. Whereas a well framed shot can (amongst other things) in fact improve meaning, for example, a shot of a woman from her shoulders up, )i-e, not showing her clothing) and being able to see her expensive jewellery, whilst a discussion about careers and university is taking place, could set up an impression that the woman is being objectified and possibly set up into a marriage or partnership. Again, It is fairly simple to step backwards a few steps or zoom out slightly to fit everything needed into the shot, or vice versa. Additionally, I take a photography class, this also helps. 

Variety of shot distances - Excellent ability. I have learnt more shot types and camera angles and additionally that many pieces don't just need the necessary shots to show meaning but also some additional shots to make the piece flow better, look more interesting and artistic and change the audiences expectations and emotions. I feel that our piece has a good variety of shots.

Appropriate material for task - Proficient ability. I understand that sometimes, if you are too ambitious, you cannot get everything you want with limited recourses, however I feel that we have managed to create something which is very close to what we intended the film to be like. Perhaps, if I did this project again, I would try something which is still good quality, but slightly easier to set up, for example, something set in this era. As mentioned in the previous skill audit, you need to keep to the conventions of your chosen genre.

Selecting mise-en-scene - Proficient ability. We have worked very hard to try and get an authentic feel for our opening's genre/era. I feel we were very successful in doing so. Again, if resources were not so limited, it would be easier and we would have more range/possibilities to to what we wanted. 

Editing for meaning to viewer - Proficient ability. I have learnt how to edit appropriately through editing myself and watching others edit. Sometimes you may need additional shots to make the sequence more coherent. It is important to have a pilot showing of your film to gain audience feedback on how to improve it and ensure that it all makes sense. We did the same thing with out rough draft and it paid off.

Varied shot transitions, captions and other effects - Proficient ability. When making our film, we learnt very quickly about transitions, effects and titles, especially as we have a dream sequence. This meant that we could not vary transitions or effects quite as much as we wanted to. However, we did try to vary transitions outside of the dream sequence, although this is difficult to do, as most of our opening consists of that sequence. Our titles do vary - we have a font for production and title, and a font for credits. Of course in an opening you need to keep some kind of unity when using text otherwise it could get quite messy to look at, for example, having a different font for each word. 

Use of sound with images/editing - Proficient ability. The soundbible website provided several effects or clips which we could download and put into IMovie. Additionally, we used two different tracks, one that ran almost to the end of the opening and another to add impact to the death of male character 2. All of the clips combined well and worked with the images on the screen due to the music genre we selected (classical). The voice over was fairly sucessful after we edited it in garageband. We learnt a lot during this project.

Using titles appropriately - Proficient ability. We kept a unity for different sections of text, for instance one font for the film title and production, another for credits, et cetera. Also, we feel the fonts fit in well with our genre. The positioning of the titles was also appropriate - main titles in the centre, actors in the corner. We particularly thought that the title for the film was positioned well - in the centre of the screen partway through the zoom past Snow White and male character This provided a blank background to create more of a focus. It was difficult to get the same shade of colours for each title due to being unable to save the colour we had initially chosen. This would be a disadvantage to the macs, especially as Pcs actually allow you to do this. I suppose to improve further you would need an opportunity to create a complex opening sequence, like Coraline or something with wordart and animation.

Contribution - Basic ability/ Proficient. I feel I contributed quite a lot to the plot and the creation of the storyboard and characters. Additionally, I would help with editing or finding tracks. Unfortunatley I was not there on our first shoot due to some unexpected complications, however I was present for our re-shooting of the scenes subsequent to the footage from the ruin location. This made me feel slightly detached from the rest of the group as I wansn't able to contribute then, i.e - Holding the camera and staging a few shots. I was able, however to hold people's coats, glasses et cetera, however, I do not feel that this particularly added to my skills :P I have gained some confidence in voicing my opinions and ideas. Additionally, we seemed to delegate tasks that needed to be completed, for example, research on Danny Elfman. Occasionally one of us would take up a task that we thought needed doing in our spare time without notifying others.

 

Conventions of Tim Burton films

I composed a chart after watching several Tim Burton films;


Director/Writer/ Producer: 

• Sleepy Hollow - Dir. Tim Burton, Produced by Scott Rudin, Adam Schroeder and Francis Ford Coppola, Screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker.

• Sweeeny Tood: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - Dir. Tim Burton, Produced by Richard D. Zanuck, John Logan, Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald. Written by John Logan.

• The Nightmare Before Christmas - Dir. Henery Selik. Produced by Tim Burton and Denise Di Novi. Screenplay by Caroline Johnson. 

• The Corpse Bride - Dir. Tim Burton and Mike Johnson. Produced by Tim Burton, Allison Abbate, Joe Ranft and Derek Frey. Screenplay by John August, Caroline Thompson and Pamela Pettler.

• Alice In Wonderland  - Dir. Tim Burton. Produced by Richard D. Zanuck, Joe Roth, Suzanne Todd
  and Jennifer Todd.

Connventions of Narrative (Mostly themes/symbols)

• Sleepy Hollow - Witches/Death/Revenge/Misunderstanding/Love/Hate/Other world
• Sweeny Todd -  Death/Revenge/Love/Marrige/Entrapment/Beauty/Poverty V. Privellege
• The Nightmare Before Christmas - Other worlds/ Haloween/Christmas/ Monsters/ Death/ Love/ Kidnap
• Corpse Bride - Death/Murder/Love/Marrage/Misunderstanding
• Alice In Wonderland - Society/conformity/other worlds/ monsters/ marrage...

Charaters

• Sleepy Hollow - Witches, Iccabod Crane, The Hessian (Headless Horseman)
• Sweeny Todd - Benjamin Barker/ Sweeny Todd, Mrs Lovett, The Judge
• The Nightmare Before Christmas - Jack Skellington, Boogey Man, Santy Claus
• Corpse Bride - The Bride, Victor and Victoria, the man who tries to marry Victoria
• Alice In Wonderland - Alice, The Mad Hatter, Chessie, The Red Queen

All stories have a protagonist, and one (or several) antagonists. They each have companions that either help them completley, or hinder them slightly in one way, and helping them in another. Additionally, there are several reoccuring actors in each film - Johnny Depp is in all of them and Helena Bonham Carter is is at least two of them. Tim Burton often gets the same proffesionals in for each film. Most characters have a dark past.

Mise - En - Scene

• Sleepy Hollow - Dark, rural, small community. Old fashioned clothing.
• Sweeny Todd - Dirty city, bustling with people. Victorian gothic styles of decor and clothing.
• The Nightmare Before Christmas - Animated world of haloween dark. Christmas world is extravagant.
• Corpse Bride - Again, very dark and based in victorian times.
• Alice in Wonderland - Bright summertime in the real world. During the Red Queen's reign, Underland is fairly dark and run down, whereas during the White Queen's reign (as seen in Tarrant's (the hatter's) flashback, everything is brighter and more extravagant. These reflect the different styles of reign and the personalities of the queens.

Evaluation

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

Our inspiration was the director Tim  Burton. He has created a diverse range of films, however they are distinctive because of the conventions he uses and his style. Plots are dark and twisted tales usually involving love, death. Additionally, the main protagonist overcomes a tradgedy or problem of some varitety. We have targeted the conventions of a Tim Burton type horror film by focusing on the mise-en-scene, music and plot. The micro-elements contributed to the authenticity of the film. We have concluded from our feed back that our film could be easily affiliated with the Tim Burton style - many could see the inspiration. Additionally, we have used a common form of title sequence, first showing the production company, then the main actors, the writer and finally the director. 


Micro- element: Mise-en-scene. We have carefully looked at the type of costumes in the Victorian Era, as well as the costume conventions of Tim Burton and gothic horror films. These have been incorporated into the costume in a number of ways, for example, using lots of lace and dark colours for the Snow White character, or having the male character (1) wearing a cravat - a typical fashion of the late 1800s. As budget was limited, we went to charity shops to find most of the clothing, this then gave us a limit on how elaborate the costumes were, however we mangaged to drastically cutomise them to give us the gothic Victorian Era type clothing we required. Make up of the Tim Burton characters  usually makes them look gaunt, we tried to emulate this with dark shadows around the eyes and on the cheekbones in addition to pale skin and dark lips for the Snow White charcter.

 How does your media product represent particular social groups?  

We did not actively attempt to represent social groups, however the main groups included are; Male; Female; Age Range 16 - 25 and Social Class. Take the Snow White chracter for instance, she is female, around 20 years old and of working class. This is shown through her costume mostly: Women in the Victorian Era will not have worn anything but dresses or skirts, i.e - not trousers. Additionally, the clothes (as mentioned previosly) are not typical of  the higher classes in this era, the skirt does not trail along the ground or stick out, the bodice is basic and there are no accecories. Additionally, she was obviously looking for a husband, which was again, typical of women of her age in this era. The men wore smart yet simple shirts and trousers and were slightly older than Snow White, around 22 - 24years old.

Furthermore, the Victorian Era was a very patriachal society, this shows through the male's influence on Snow White's life. Within the relationship, however, the balance of power was fairly equal as they were both in love with eachother. If they were to marry, then presumably the male would be a hunter-gatherer and Snow White would stay in the house and care for the young. Oddly, Snow White commanded power both when she was talking to her brother (but her lover didn't know this and assumed it was another possible suitor) and when she came back from the dead at the end of the opening. One can only guess that she held this power over the male character (1) because he was completley obsessed with her.


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

Tim Burton has worked with many different production companies including Warner Brothers, Dreamworks and 20th Century Fox, as well as smaller companies such as Karol Film Productions and his own company: Tim Burton Productions. We think that our film is most similar to Sleepy Hollow, the studios used were both Mandalay Pictures and American Zoetrope and it was distrubued by Paramount Pictures.  Obviously this comes down to a number of contributing factors; whether it will sell, whether they like it and the plot is interesing ,if it is well made and what it suggests about their company.


 Who would be the audience for your media product?  

Our audience would be American and English people, from the age of around 15. As our film has death and malevolent characters, it would not be suitable for anybody substantially younger than this. However there is the question of the individual and how well they can handle that type of thing, for instance, in one scene of Alice In Wonderland, the main character had to use severed heads as stepping stones to get across the moat of the Red Queens palace. Despite this, the movie was only rated as a PG.  It would also interest a predominantly female audience, as well as male due to the different themes running throughout. It would also attract fans of that genre and possibly some Tim Burton fans.

  How did you attract/address your audience?  


Firstly, the characters are around 20years old, this is an age that many people can realte to or imagine becoming. Additionally, the opening changes pace, in the begining, it creates some mystery, i.e - Who died? How did they die? Creating questions keeps the audinece wanting to find the answer to them. Especially as they are about something that everybody is slightly curious about - Death. It then launches into a romantic flashback, this would attract any females (who are typically interested in romance), then the change of pace (having two deaths before the film even begins) would draw in most people as it is exciting and adds interest. The end of the opening is interesting and eerie as the main character comes back from the dead. The three bangs on the zoom adds impact and the opening creates more questions - What will happen? Did she really die? Is she actually haunting him physically? 


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


I have learnt how to use professional programmes such as IMovie and GarageBand. These new skills are ongoing so I could definitely learn more in the future, however my skills have improved. And although the skills are fairly basic, for example, splitting clips and cutting music and voice overs, they are important when it comes to creating a professional product. Other skills I have learnt include adding music to a clip, adding transitions and effects, as well as using the precision editor to create accurate timing. Furthermore I have found that the Finder application on the MAC can help to find anything on the computer that you may need, very quickly, be it an application such as ITunes or a file. I have learnt that ITunes is integral when uploading or downloading music as it creates an accessible point from white you can transfer music into other applications.  Initially the IMAC was quite difficult to get used to (No right click!?) compared to a traditional Windows format. The advanced technology gives an opportunity to create what you want and however you want it to be as well as making it of a high standard.     


Programmes, websites and features I have used and learnt about include;


- IMovie
- ITunes
- GarageBand
- Finder
- ImageCapture
- The Grab tool
- Blogger
- MoonFruit

IMovie - This was used to edit our film, obviously. It allowed us to piece together the shots that we needed to create meaning for the audience. We feel this was done sucessfully as the feedback we recived for our first draft was very helpful in gaining knowledge on which parts were confusing so we could smooth them out in time for our final draft. This also allowed us to overlap certain clips of music. We needed a continuous piece throughout to keep the opening flowing sucessivley, however at points we needed to create more impact, for instance, when male 1 kills male 2, we overlapped Prokokiev's Finale for Romeo and Juliet. We could also add in transitions, effects and make the timing perfect.

Garageband - We used this to put our voice over together. We had recorded Rich speaking whilst he was watching the opening. The script had prompts of when to speak, however in some places the speech was not in the place we wanted, for instance, we intended the word 'End' to be when male 1 slit male 2's throat. So we imported the file from IMovie over to GarageBand and improved the timing or cut out mistakes. We feel this was done succesfully as the speec was in the right place at the right time, with barley any mistakes. We used an external microphone to record Rich, this allowed us to get a clearer and more coherent recording.

Blogspot/ Blogger - This Google website has allowed our group to present our work and any thoughts we had during production. This is what you are reading this blog on at the moment. It enables you to create one, or several, blogs, format and design them. You can follow other's blogs if you enjoy reading them, either publicly or anonymously. Additionally, you can create new tabs on your page, this is useful when seperating catogories of information, for example, I have a Foundation Portfolio tab and a Contact tab.

Grab - This feature on the IMacs allowed us to take screenshots of the page we were looking at. This was especially useful when we needed to post photos of our locations from Google Maps.

ITunes - This was extremley useful in uploading tracks and sound effects and when we needed a platform to take the clips we needed and transfer them into IMovie or GarageBand.

MoonFruit - This website is similar to Blogger in the way that you can present your work and thoughts. You can create your own website. You can edit it by changing the design, the layout, the pages, pretty much everything about it. Unfortunatley, you     must pay if you want more space than the allocated amount of memory. This was very akward when we tried to upload our files to the site as we had to be very selective in what we put on there. Occasionally we would have to put a photo into PhotoShop, for example, and make it smaller, then re-save it and re-upload it to give us more space for other things.

IMac - These are so much more useful than traditional Microsoft PCs. They are more professional and accesable (when you get used to them) as well as having more opportunities to create exactly what you want/need for the project.

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

I have learnt a lot in the progression from the pre-lim to the foundation portfolio. I have improved on all of my practical and planning skills. For example, we knew we needed plenty of time to allow for shooting. In the pre-lim, our footage kept getting wiped out by other people's footage, so by the thrid shoot (yes. third.) the shots we obtained were of a very low quality, not varied and there were some continuity errors. We only had twenty minutes to get our footage and then twenty minutes to edit it together. This meant that we could not add any effects, music or decent titles, as well as having very bad shots which did not convey a lot of meaning. See skills audit 2 for more on progression.