Pre-Production Tools
Use the paperwork here to help you plan your production to make the most out of your time and resources.
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FFMPEG Download page - a great tool for re-encoding video to the size or codec that you need. Will also convert the JVC camcorder files to h.264 to edit on the macs - very useful!
BLENDER Download Page - A free 3D modelling and animation program that is available for Windows, OSX and Linux.
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AnimaticsAn animatic is an animated storyboard. It is an important stage where the Director gets to see what the sequence will look and sound like with added dialogue and sound. At this stage nothing is set and you can alter your production plans if it throws up issues. Remember that this is all part of your planning and not a final product.
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I know this is very cheesy but it is a good example of what you should be aiming for.
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Skills That Need To Be Demonstrated In Preliminary Task
Continuity Editing Incl. Eyeline MatchCutting On Action |
180 Degree RuleEyeline Match ExampleShot-Reverse Shot |
Examples of Successful Blog Sites
A Very Good AS Level Blog - not only is this good for organisation but also shows what you need to create in order to get top band marks.
AS Video Blog - Good blog and good final production example.
AS Video Blog - A well organised blog and a good example of an effective genre-led video production. Well worth a look!
What Should Be On My Blog/Weebly?
TASK 1: Preliminary Task - DEADLINE FOR COMPLETION - TUESDAY 21ST FEBRUARY 2012.
The following should be placed on your Planning/Production page which should take the form of a blog. Things should be put up in date order so that the most recent are at the top of the page.
You should also put a copy of your final Preliminary Task at the top of your Portfolio page and also complete an evaluation answering the following questions:
TASK 2: PREPRODUCTION OF PROJECT - DEADLINE TUESDAY 20TH MARCH 2012.
GENRE FOCUS: HORROR
The following should be placed on your Planning/Production page which should take the form of a blog. Things should be put up in date order so that the most recent are at the top of the page.
TASK 3 - PRINCIPLE PHOTOGRAPHY OF PROJECT - DEADLINE TUESDAY 17TH APRIL 2012.
TASK 4 - POST PRODUCTION - DEADLINE TUESDAY 1ST MAY 2012
The following should be placed on your Planning/Production page which should take the form of a blog. Things should be put up in date order so that the most recent are at the top of the page.
- Mind Map Generating Ideas for the preliminary task.
- Research into and demonstration of understanding of key technical terminology and ideas - could include video or diagrams, text:
- 180 Degree Rule.
- Cut On Action.
- Eye-line Match.
- Continuity Editing.
- Storyboard for Preliminary Task.
- Script for Preliminary Task - set out correctly and preferably annotated with notes on camera set-ups etc.
- Animatic for Preliminary Task.
- Some camera diagrams highlighting camera set-ups.
- Shooting Schedule and Shot Lists.
- Stills of your group on the shoot showing what you have done.
- Completed Shot Logs.
- Screen grabs of you editing the sequence together.
- The final Preliminary Task.
You should also put a copy of your final Preliminary Task at the top of your Portfolio page and also complete an evaluation answering the following questions:
- What have you learnt by doing this exercise?
- What skills have you developed?
- What feedback have you received? (If you publish to YouTube then other members of the group can leave feedback as comments and a few screen grabs of this could provide this evidence).
- How would you improve your Preliminary Task?
TASK 2: PREPRODUCTION OF PROJECT - DEADLINE TUESDAY 20TH MARCH 2012.
GENRE FOCUS: HORROR
The following should be placed on your Planning/Production page which should take the form of a blog. Things should be put up in date order so that the most recent are at the top of the page.
- An embedded image of 9 frames of a horror film title sequence of your choice and accompanying analysis answering the following questions:
- How does the title sequence establish genre, character and narrative?
- How does the title sequence attract an audiences interest?
- What do you consider to be the target audience of the film and why?
- Who has produced the film and how is that evident in the title sequence?
- An embedded video of a horror title sequence of your choice and accompanying analysis answering the same questions.
- An embedded video of an opening sequence of a horror film of your choice answering the same questions.
- Mind map generating ideas for title sequence and opening sequence of your own horror film.
- Copy of Your pitch presentation.
- Detailed synopsis with explanation of major selling points.
- Initial storyboard for title sequence and opening sequence of your own horror film.
- Evaluation and refinement of storyboard.
- Script for title sequence and opening sequence of your own horror film.
- Shooting script for your title sequence and opening sequence of your own horror film including camera moves and even set-up numbers.
- Animatic of 2 short sequences from the title sequence and/or opening sequence.
- Recce shots of locations.
- Casting photographs and justifications.
- Camera set-up diagrams.
- Shooting schedule.
TASK 3 - PRINCIPLE PHOTOGRAPHY OF PROJECT - DEADLINE TUESDAY 17TH APRIL 2012.
- Photos of cast and crew on location filming.
- Reflection on shoot days and how it is proceeding.
TASK 4 - POST PRODUCTION - DEADLINE TUESDAY 1ST MAY 2012
- Screen shots of editing.
- Assembly edit and reflection.
- Rough cut and reflection.
- Final edit.
- You will also need to put a final edit on the Portfolio page of your Blog.
Evaluation Tasks - DEADLINE - TUESDAY 8TH MAY 2012.
For your evaluation you should answer 7 questions in separate blog/videos/multimedia presentations. The form you do these in is up to you but I have outlined some possible approaches under each question. Make sure that the question forms the title of each of the relevent blog entries.
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)
Remember when we looked at 9 frames from Art of the title sequence? Well now it's your turn to do the same with nine of your frames.
You should go through the final version of the project and select nine distinct frames which you screengrab and drop into a photoshop in the same style as the website. You will be using these to write about how typical or not of opening sequences your particular design is, so choose them carefully.
Once you have the nine frames neatly in Photoshop, screengrab the whole thing and post to your blog, then write an analysis of how you have used such conventions.
The aspects we would like you to consider across your nine frames are:
- The title of the film
- Setting/location
- Costumes and props
- Camerawork and editing
- Title font and style
- Story and how the opening sets it up
- Genre and how the opening suggests it
- How characters are introduced
- Special effects
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Pick a key character from your opening. Take a screengrab of a reasonable sized image of them. Think of one or more characters from other films with some similarity to them (but maybe some differences too!), find an image on the web of that/those characters and grab it as well. Drop the two into photoshop, as a split screen. Export this splitscreen image as a jpeg then drop onto your blog and write about the similarities and differences in terms of appearance, costume, role in film etc.
So for example if you have a lone cop type character, look for other lone cops to compare him with...
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 3
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
For this question, you are going to do a 'director's commentary' style voiceover explaining some of the key features of your opening
You will need to script the voiceover which deals with institutional issues to include:
- discussion of your production company name and logo and the role of such companies
- What does a production company do?
- the idea of a distributor and who that might be and why.
- where the money might have come from for a film such as yours
- why the various people are named in the titles- which jobs appear in titles and in what order and how have you reflected this?
- what your film is similar to 'institutionally' (name some films which would be released in a similar way)
You need to refer to actual company names and processes so you will need to do some research on production companies that make horror movies - if this research has not already been done.
When you have scripted, record the voiceover using whatever means you have and post the video on your blog. You could do the commentary as a written set of notes embedded into a YOUTUBE video if this is easier.
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 4
Who would be the audience for your media product?
You should have a drawing of your target audience member and an explanation of what kinds of taste they might have- where they would shop, what music they would listen to, what their favourite Tv programme would be, etc.
make sure you have taken a photo of it, post it on the blog and write a few notes on why they would watch your film.
Make sure that you explain the audience in details such as DEMOGRAPHICS, LIFESTYLE SEGMENTATION and RUBICAM and YOUNG's 4C's - information on these ideas are available on the AUDIENCE THEORY page.
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 5
How did you attract/address your audience?
You could use YOUTUBE's annotation tools to add NOTES, SPEECHBUBBLES, and LINKS to your video:
http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=92710
These annotations will highlight the ways in which your Film Opening links to other similiar films in order to attract the particular Audience you have previously identified. Alternatively you could use still images of your film and embed these as a slide show with notes or as images in a written blog entry.
Your annotations will refer to genre conventions, use of music, similiarities with other movies and what you have identified as the Unique Selling Point of your imaginary film.
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Gather images of the technology that you have used to create your film. This might include kit like the camera, lighting and sound equipment but can also include software, internet sites etc.
Remember that you need to highlight what you have learnt about the technology. What can you do with it? What skills have you developed?
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 7
Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
Concentrate on editing and camerawork.
Grab some frames from both tasks and put them on the blog and show what you know about shot types, edit terms and techniques.
Make sure you mention the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot/reverse shot
Downloadable Assignment Checklists
Want to keep a track on what you have done and what still needs to be done before the deadline? Why not download a checklist and tick each one off as you go.
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Research
Below is a selection of relevant title sequences from Art of the Title - a very useful website for research and inspiration which is all about title sequences. You can use one of these for your analysis or you can make your own from a title sequence that you feel would be good to use as research.