Anamatic (Work completed with Danielle Fletcher 9627)

Below is the link to mine and Danielle's anamatic:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=869435756449071&l=5272313928763230397

Shot List (Work completed with Danielle Fletcher 9627)

Tilt of tree

Pan of Christmas decorations and candles

Close up of slippers

Close up of feet in slippers getting out of bed

Close up of feet moving

Extreme close up of music being turned down

Close up of hand grabbing diary

Tracking shot of her sitting on her bed

Over the shoulder shot of the diary

Zoom in to the page she turns to

*flashback plays*

Two shot of couple putting on tinsel

P.O.V shot of Alan blowing snow towards camera

P.O.V shot of Anika dusting her hair and reaching her hand towards Alans face

Camera movement representing Alan's face getting slapped

Zoom out as Alan hugs Anika

*flashback ends*

Cut to close up of the book

Establishing shot of page being turned

Close up of next page in the book

*flashback plays* 

     Lock down shot of couple walking towards camera

E   A mid-tracking shot of couple walking, followed by a tilt of them sitting down

     A two shot of Alan looking over at Anika

    Shot of the couple sitting on the bench followed by camera movement directing the camera towards the sun

*flashback ends*

Cut back to establishing shot of diary pageMaster shot of her shutting and throwing the diary

Close up of the diary falling to the floor

Close up of the card coming through the letter box

Mid shot of Anika walking out of her bedroom door

Mid shot of her turning the corner of her door and walking down the stairs

Tilt of Anika walking down the stairs

Reaction shot of her looking suspiciously down at the card on the floor

Point of view shot from letter of Anika grabbing it

Over the shoulder shot of Anika picking the letter up

Side view of letter opening

Over the shoulder zoom in of the words in the card 

Blurs out into title screen

Plans for shooting (Work completed with Danielle Fletcher 9627)

Costume:

After researching into current teen romance movies, the costumes that the main female character has been dressed in is usually baggy/casual clothing that tends to require minimal effort. Their outfits are relaxed and cosy rather than formal and sophisticated like females in older romance movies. When it comes to young male actors, they tend to also wear casual clothing such as jeans, jumpers and baggy tees unlike older men who would wear suits and more formal outfits. Me and Danielle are responsible for choosing all of the costumes that our characters will be wearing.

The costume for the bedroom/house scenes (female character): 

- Red jumper

- Black leggings

- Fluffy socks
- Slippers
(All actors own)

The costume for the winter walk (female character):

- Light skinny jeans

- Black long sleeved baggy top

- Dark grey coat

- Black beanie

- Scarf 

- Gloves
- Black heeled boots
(All actors own)

The costume for the winter walk (male character): 

- Black skinny jeans

- Plain white tee

- Black fluffy hooded coat

- Gloves
(All actors own)

The costume for decorating the Christmas tree (female character):

- Grey roll neck jumper

- Black skinny jeans

(All actors own)

The costume for decorating the Christmas tree (male character):

- White baggy tee

(All actors own)

Hair and make-up:

Me and Danielle will be in charge of all of the hair and make-up features. We will direct our female actor how to style her hair and make up in the bedroom scene, but in the ice skating scene we will be curling it for her. Our male actor shall have his powdered face done by us also but he will be required to style his own hair himself. All make-up products will be purchased from Superdrug to be used as coverage for our actors.

The hair and make-up for the bedroom/house scenes (female character): 

- Straightened hair

- Minimal make up e.g. Mascara, eyeliner and powder

The hair and make-up for the winter walk (female character):

- Wavy hair with the top bit covered by a beanie

- Same as the bedroom scene (mascara, eyeliner and powder)

The hair and make-up for the winter walk (male character): 

- Powdered face to reduce the shininess

- Quiffed hair

The hair and make-up for decorating the Christmas tree (female character):

- Straightened high pony tail

- Minimal make up (the same as the winter walk and bedroom scenes)

The hair and make up for decorating the Christmas tree (male character):

- Powdered face to reduce shininess

- Quiffed hair

Lighting:

Due to our filming schedule being filmed throughout the day, it is most likely that we will be relying on a natural light source from the window. We will apply further light sources such as lamps and filming lights as additions to our shots to enable our film to have consistently good lighting. 

When we film the winter walk scene, the paths shall have a varied amount of daylight shining on the surroundings which is what we will be relying on at this location.

When we are filming the Christmas tree scene, lights will be found throughout the whole shot (on the christmas tree and on the curtains). Light in the room shall also be an additional light source as there isn't a lamp covering the bulb so this light is bright enough to cover the whole scene that will be filling the frame. This scene will include low-key lighting in order to set a romantic, Christmassy soft atmosphere.

Props:

The props that we will be using will be appropriate in portraying our film opening as a romance movie. These props will be used to conform to the genre-specific conventions and contribute to the key aspects found under mise-en-scene. 

The props that we shall be including in our film opening will be: 

- A Christmas card (the crisis)

- Lighted candles

- Fairy lights

- Christmas decorations

- Christmas tree

- The diary

- Pictures on the wall

- Cup of tea
- Snowman ornament
- Tinsel
- Reindeer Christmas tree topper
- Fake snow
- Christmas bauble's
- Samsung Tablet
- Phone

Shot Types:

We have previously practised shot types during Media lessons to provide us with a taster of the kind of shots that we would like to include in our film opening. This gives us a slight inspiration for the shot types in our film opening, and we decided that we shall be using the following:

- Tilt (tree)

- Pan (Desk organisations)

- Close up (Diary)

- Match on action (Decorating the tree)

- Reaction shot (Tearing)

- Shot reverse shot (Looking at each other whilst decorating the tree)

- Establishing shot (Winter Walk)

- Long shot (Winter Walk)

- Mid shot (Actor walking down stairs)
- Two Shot (Decorating the Christmas tree)

- Extreme close up (Decorating the Christmas Tree)

Locations:

We have two locations that are being introduced in our film opening; my bedroom/house, and Harlow Town Park. The travel to the Town Park can easily be done by a bus and a little walk. 

Call Sheets (Work completed with Danielle Fletcher 9627)

Meeting - Location Change

Unfortunately, we are unable to film at Van Hage ice skating rink like we originally planned because they require us to film before the Christmas holidays which begins 18th Dec. We originally planned to film during the actual Christmas holidays but this is not appropriate for this location any longer. Van Hage is unfortunately closing on 5th Jan which is when we will be returning to college, making it impossible for us to shoot our ice skating scene. 


Van Hage was our first choice to film, so we considered perhaps filming at the Natural History Museum's ice rink instead as these emailed us back on the day that the Christmas Holiday's begun (as shown below).

After having a discussion about the practicality of filming at an ice rink during a busy period (Christmas), we decided that it probably wasn't the best idea. We'd have to transport all of our actors and background actors to the ice rink, and the travel for this location was a lot more difficult than the travel for Van Hage. We thought it would be inappropriate to carry two tripods, a camera and a dolly on a train for an hour and a half. 

Concluding our meeting, we have decided that in replacement of the ice rink locations, we will be filming a romantic winter walk instead along a path at Harlow Town Park. Every other scene that we have planned to shoot in shall be remaining the same as there have been no difficulties or struggles with these locations, as they are all based at my house. 

Codal Analysis

Location Scouting Sheet (Work completed with Danielle Fletcher 9627)

We created a Van Hages ice skating rink location scouting sheet for when we planned to film at this location. This ice rink will be appropriate to film at because it has large open space and an area for us to place our camera and tripod etc.

17/12/14

Unfortunately after a meeting me and Danielle had (http://ellieg321.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/location-change.html), we decided that we wouldn't be able to film at Van Hages after all and therefore decided to change this location to the Harlow Town Park and film a winter walk instead. Below, are the two scouting sheets we created for Harlow Town Park and my house, with site photographs.

Constructing an opening, engaging the audience (Work completed with Danielle Fletcher 9627)

Main Character

The main character is key in a romance movie because the audience need to become attached with their personality and overall characteristics. We decided to use a teenage girl as our main character because this has proven to be common in many romance movies, for both the younger and older audiences. Females are more stereotypically portrayed as becoming attached and in love with a person a lot faster than a male, so it would allow most of the audience to relate to her as they may find her situation relatable and therefore engaging. Furthermore, after researching audiences for romance films, we realised a majority of them are teenage girls. So having a main character at the same age, allows them to connect with this certain individual on a personal level. 

Crisis

For the crisis, we decided that this should to be on a high scale of drama, so we chose a terminal illness. When the audience discover that a character has a serious illness, they instantly become sympathetic towards them because it's upsetting for a viewer to experience   a fellow persons misfortune; especially when their life is on the line. This crisis engages the audience to continue watching, enabling them to explore the storyline of the main characters further as they will most likely be intrigued as to what happens to the character with the illness. The crisis will be exhaled to the audience through a narrator that will be introduced throughout the first minute of the film opening. 

Enigma Code

Towards the end of our film opening, the main character will be receiving a Christmas card. A close-up shot will be inserted at this point to reveal the message printed inside saying 'I need to see you asap, it's urgent!' and it will immediately cut into the film title. This results in the audience feeling anticipation and will therefore continue to watch the film.

Everyday life

As we're only filming the first two minutes of the movie, everyday life of the main character will take up a majority of our film opening, as this is what you typically see at the start of a film. The female character will be displayed doing her typical morning routine - from waking up, to making tea, to even checking the mailbox.

Classification screen and company logo screen (Work completed with Danielle Fletcher 9627)

Risk Assessment (Work completed with Danielle Fletcher 9627)

Audio Permission (Work completed with Danielle Fletcher 9627)

Considering we have not yet chosen what style of music that we want to include in our film opening, we have decided to create a 'dummy' audio permission. 

"Hello, 

Danielle and I are two AS Media Studies students that would like to include your piece of music '________________' in our 2 minute film opening. We will credit you in the titles, however we would require the music to be free or charge as we are not professionals, just A-Level students. 

Thank you,

Ellie and Danielle"

We decided to use music from Royalty Free, and below is a screenshot giving us permission, just so long as we credit the musician Kevin MacLeod.

Meeting 7

After constructing our audio permission template, we originally didn't know what music we wanted to use. A couple of discussions later, we decided that it would be appropriate to use a soundtrack from incompetech.com royalty free by Kevin MacLeod. The image below is proof that we are able to use his music for free just as long as we credit him in the titles. 

The song that we would like to use is Jingle Bells (calm version) as we felt that this would fit perfectly with our genre and the season of the movie.

Talent Release Forms (Work completed with Danielle Fletcher 9627)

Location Release Form (Work completed with Danielle Fletcher 9627)

Our Production Company Logo (Work completed with Danielle Fletcher 9627)

Our Logo

Below is our logo design that we created on Photoshop. We altered the background of the logo and the title colour to create two different examples. We created the white one to use on white documents e.g. talent and location release forms. We then created one with a black background because this will be less harsh on the viewers eyes when it comes up on their cinema screen; white would probably blind them.

Existing Logo's

Below are three existing logo's that consist of only the colours black and white. This is simple, neutral and subtle rather than bold and in your face with colour. We felt that the black and white theme had a slight tinge of romance in it through 'Deli' being in the squiggly font. So romance is portrayed slightly even without the colours red/pink that are stereotypically associated with love.

After studying a variety of existing logos, we felt that we should keep our one simplistic and stick with the theme of black and white. This allows the black writing to stand out against the white background and vice versa. 

Weekly Production Log (Work completed with Danielle Fletcher 9627)

28/10/14 - Today I went out and filmed the assortment of different shot types and merged them together as a video which I then posted on my blog. I tested out these shot types to see if any would accelerate into my film opening. These shot types consist of: Pan, Establishing shot, Tracking shot, Two shot, Close up, Extreme close up, Tilt, Medium shot and the Lock down shot. I then created a powerpoint on genre conventions and important of genre by evaluation existing romance movies and the kind of techniques and features that should be included in my film opening. Additionally, I created another PowerPoint on production and distribution companies. 

05/11/14 - This lesson I created a short list of the kind of shots that we're going to be including in our film opening. I then tried these out the following lesson as a short video. 

07/11/14 - This lesson we were able to go out and film some practise shots that we may be including in our film opening. We constructed a video on Premier Pro showing all of our shots with still frames and titles. This allowed us to see which type of shots could perhaps work in our film opening e.g. I filmed a panning shot of some objects on a table from afar and close up. This meant that I was able to choose if I preferred the close up one or not.

08/11/14 - I then put up my 2 Prezis onto my blog, one of my initial story ideas and the other on a collection of mine and Danielle's story ideas. We then both set up a Twitter and Facebook account so that we were able connect with our audience to receive their input. We spent a day at the weekend creating a blog post on feedback for our movie ideas along with our film opening. We finalised our decision on which film opening to go with and then formed a mind map on film title ideas. For this, we created a poll and sent this to our audience who gave their input into what film opening we should film. All of this data has been screenshot as pictures onto this blog post as evidence as to why we're going with story idea 3 and why we're calling it 'Our Last Christmas'.

19/11/14 - This lesson we researched film classifications and why certain movies are rated specific age ranges. We then also created an additional blog post on current romance movies out there that are rated the age we've rated ours and why. 

21/11/14 - This lesson we created a blog post on our emails sent to ice skating rinks along with the replies that we received, both good and bad. 

26/11/14 - This lesson we produced our two location release forms and our two talent release forms.

03/12/14 - This lesson we posted a blog post of a screen shot of our location and talent release forms along with beginning our location scouting sheet. We also developed our company logo and looked at existing ones by analysing them to finalise our final production company logo.

09/12/14 - This lesson we constructed an email that we would be able to send to a person regarding permission to use their music. Down to us still being unsure of the music that we would like to use we were unable to actually send this message and so just created one for when we would be ready. We also formed our Risk Assessment discussing the hazards and precautions presented in a table.

10/12/14 - This lesson we put together a blog spot which engages the audience. This included a description of the main character, the crisis occurring in the film, the enigma code and the everyday life established in the first two minutes. Having spare time this lesson we put together a classification screen and our company logo on Premiere Pro as a short little video uploaded on YouTube. This allowed us to put our film footage onto the Premiere Pro which we put our classification screen and our logo on. 

17/12/14 - After our meeting on the change of location, we put together a blog post concluding our notes. Then throughout the lesson we constructed a blog post on our plans for shooting. This included the characters costumes, hair and make up, lighting, props, shot types and location. This allows us to know exactly what we will be doing on the days of shooting. Also during this lesson we put together our call sheets which meant that the actors knew what time and day they would be required to be at our filming locations along with what they should be wearing. 

19/12/14 - During this Media session, we formed a shot list for our future shoot which enabled us to be informed of the shots we will be filming in what particular order. This is an organised method which made each shooting day simpler and quicker. 

22/12/14 - Today we decided to meet up outside of our media lesson to create our Anamatic for our film. We created this on Windows ovie maker.

07/01/15 - First day back from the Christmas period, we uploaded all the footage onto our mac's of what we filmed over the Christmas holidays. We began to look through the clips and to decide on the ones we will be using, along with the ones we won't be using. We constructed a grid on word called 'Edit Decision List'. This included the quality of the shot and why we are not/ are using it.

09/01/15 - We needed to reshoot some clips for Media so used this day to improve the quality of clips that were originally bad. 

14/01/15 - This lesson we began to import our clips into Premiere Pro and start some editing. We decided to create a rough cut first to give us a general idea of the clips we'd be using and the order they will be going in.

16/01/15 - This lesson we started our real copy, and began editing the clips precisely together. We experimented a vast amount on how we would create the diary shot which we practically spent a whole lesson on. 

21/01/15 - This lesson was when we uploaded the rough cut onto our blog. From this, we began editing the real thing.

23/01/15 - 04/02/15 - The lessons during these two dates were filled with editing our film opening. It took awhile playing around with different video effects in order to create an effective flashback. We also began planning the script that the narrator will be speaking. 

06/02/14 - This lesson we began adding titles onto our film opening. We will be continuing this next lesson so hopefully all our titles will be completed then.

Choosing our ice skating location (Work completed with Danielle Fletcher 9627)

Me and Danielle originally contacted a variety of different ice skating rinks that we could possibly film at and awaited a response. Below I have inserted my email to a few different ice skating rinks and only one of them emailed me back. I have also inserted their reply. Unfortunately they wasn't going to allow us to film at their rink for a range of reasons, so we then decided to contact Van Hages individually which is a closer ice skating rink and they happily agreed to us wanting to film there.

Below is the email that I sent to Van Hages. We thoroughly covered what it was that we wanted to do and they responded back to us within a couple of days which was amazing. Since then we have had no more responses from other ice skating rinks so decided that this would be the one we'd be filming at when it comes to filming this ice skating scene.

Meeting 5

In order to classify our films content, we had to do some research on current successful romance movies that are out there. We both explored the themes they contained and compared them with what we intended to include in our film opening. We both done research on all of the classification bands and what would be appropriate for those particular ages, just to cover the kind of content found in each band. After researching the 12 band, we went into researching the romance movies under it. Ellie suggested that our film will most likely include a brief/discrete sexual scene, a terminal illness theme and moderate violence. Danielle agreed and proposed that the terminal illness will include medication and injections being briefly shown, a brief sight of bloody/injury during these medical drama scenes will also be present, and also strong language (bitch, sh*t and f*ck). Films such as The Vow, The Notebook and The Fault In Our Stars contain the listed above and are all classified as a 12, which is what influenced our choice on classifying our film as a 12. 

My Film Classification

After researching the different film classifications and what comes under them, along with romance movies currently out there that have a rating of 12, we have come to the conclusion that our film is going to be rated a 12 also. 

Below I have inserted an assortment of romance movies that are rated a 12, as their genre is the same as ours and will most likely include most of the content that ours is going to.

Our film will include:

• Brief and discrete sexual references and nature
• Strong language such as f***, sh*t, b*tch.
• Occasional gory moments (brief sight of blood/injury during a medical drama)
• Medication briefly shown
• A terminal Illness theme
• Moderate violence

Our film classification screen 

Classification of Films

U-Rated Films

The U symbol stands for Universal. A U film should be suitable for audiences aged four years and above. However, it is impossible to predict what might upset a particular child, especially at this lower end of the category range. At U there will not normally be references to illegal drugs or drugs misuse unless there is a very clear anti-drugs or educational message which will be understood by a younger audience. U films are unlikely to contain discriminatory language or behaviour unless it is clearly disapproved of. ‘Baddie’ characters may carry or use weapons, but there will be no emphasis on these. Child or ‘hero’ characters are unlikely to use any kind of weapon outside, for example, historical settings. Characters may be seen kissing or cuddling and there may be references to sexual behaviour. However, there will be no overt focus on sexual behaviour, language or innuendo.

PG Rated Films

PG stands for Parental Guidance. This means that a film is suitable for general viewing, but the content may include scenes of unsettling nature for the child, and therefore must be viewed with a parent or guardian. A child around the age of eight and above must not experience anything in a film that has the possibility of upsetting them. Parents decide whether or not what occurs in a movie is appropriate for their child as they could be sensitive or emotional to certain footage. Although some films are given a PG certificate, they have not always been made with a younger audience in mind. A PG film may include mild bad language (such as ‘shit’ or ‘son of a bitch’), undetailed and infrequent sex reference and violence will usually be mild. While there might be some blood, we would not see how the injury was inflicted in strong detail as PG films do not want children to inherit bad behaviour.

12A and 12 Rated Film

Films classified 12A and video works classified 12 contain material that is not generally suitable for children aged under 12.  No one younger than 12 years old may see a 12A film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult. The BBFC's Guidelines state that strong language (e.g. 'f***') may be passed at 12 or 12A, depending on the manner in which it is used, who is using the language, its frequency and any special contextual justification. Strong language being used aggressively may result in a film or DVD being placed at the 15 category. Sex may be briefly and discreetly portrayed at a 12A or 12. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted if they can be justified by their context (for example a brief sight of bloody injury in a medical drama). Some horror films are passed at this category. Moderate physical and psychological threat is permitted at 12A or 12A as long as horror sequences are not too frequent or sustained and the overall tone is not disturbing.

15 Rated Films

 

No-one under 15 is allowed to see a 15 film at the cinema or buy/rent a 15 rated video. 15 rated works are not suitable for children under 15 years of age. No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds. Any of the following can be expected to be found in a 15 rated film: strong violence, frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***'), portrayals of sexual activity, strong verbal references to sex, sexual nudity, brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence, discriminatory language or behaviour and drug taking. At 15 there is no upper limit on the number of uses of strong language (e.g. ‘f***’). Occasionally there may be uses of the strongest terms (e.g. 'c***'). There may be racist, homophobic or other discriminatory language, and the work could explore themes relating to this. At 15 sexual activity can be portrayed, but usually without strong detail. Some sex scenes can be quite long at this category. At 15 there can be strong threat and horror as long as there is no sustained focus on sadistic or sexualised threat.

18 Rated Films

Films rated 18 are for adults. No-one under 18 is allowed to see an 18 film at the cinema or buy / rent an 18 rated video. No 18 rated works are suitable for children. 18 works are for adults and can contain strong issues such as very strong violence, frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***') and / or very strong language (e.g. ‘c***’) strong portrayals of sexual activity, scenes of sexual violence, strong horror, strong blood and gore, real sex (in some circumstances) and discriminatory language and behaviour. There is no limit on the number of uses of strong (e.g. 'f***') or even very strong language (e.g. ‘c***’) which can be passed at 18. Uses could be aggressive, directed, frequent or accompanied by strong violence. There may be racist, homophobic or other discriminatory language at 18, and the work could explore themes relating to discrimination. There can be strong and detailed portrayals of sex at 18, including full nudity. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context. Where sex material genuinely seeks to inform and educate in matters such as human sexuality or safer sex and health, explicit images of sexual activity may be permitted. At 18, horror films may contain very strong horror, gore or sustained threat.