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?

Through the making of my opening sequence I feel like I have learnt a lot. I have learnt about different shot types and editing techniques, and I have learnt how to operate a lot of technology and programmes on the computer. In our theory lessons we were taught about different types of camera shots, such as the long shot, close up and establishing shot. I used a lot of this knowledge in my opening sequence. Here are some shots I included:

I was also taught about editing techniques such as match on action. This is a shot where continuity of an action is shown. I included this into our opening sequence as well as using editing such as ‘fade to black’ on Adobe Premiere. Another editing technique we used was the 180 degree rule; this is a very important continuity technique that is to be used when two people are having a conversation at a table. When filming the conversation the camera is not allowed to go past a line through the two people having a conversation because it would make them look like they cross positions, that technique was used on the shot reverse shot that is shown above. Here is our match on action shot:

I feel like the making of our opening sequence has taught me a lot overall, I am confident at using the programmes such as Adobe Premiere and Windows Movie Maker and feel like I have learnt how to edit a sequence successfully. I also feel confident with being able to shoot a sequence using a different range of camera shots, and transitions further on. I am happy with my over all opening sequence.
Once I had finished the prelim video I looked back on it and made a note of everything I thought could be improved in the future. Making an opening sequence was my way of showing that I could improve. I noticed that in the filming of the prelim we didn't use a microphone, we only used the mic that was built into the camera and this picked up on a lot of the background noises like cars and wind. I improved on this in my opening sequence because I used a separate microphone that is designed to not pic up these background noises and it did work.
I also noticed in my prelim that when filming someone, they wore a different outfit as we filmed in the space of a few weeks. This showed really bad continuity because in the video it was meant to be the same day but the character was miraculously wearing a different outfit. In my opening sequence I took much extra care when filming that I was always wearing the same clothes so that we didn't have this problem again.

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

5) How did you attract/address your audience?

4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

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

What production company would I use?

View more PowerPoint from HollieFowler_x

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Representation is the way something or someone is portrayed in the Media.The way film producers create representations is by decided what clothes a character is going to wear because the give the audience a certain impression of that character.
The character I have chosen from our opening sequence to compare is the character of Alice, who is played by me, Hollie Fowler. I have chosen this character because she is playing the role of a very typical teenager and I am able to compare it to teenage roles in other films. I have found an image of a girl who looks similar to my character, and she is from the film called 'Chat Room'. Here are the images I chose to compare:

As I have labelled, the image on the left has been taken from our opening sequence; and the image on the right has been taken from the film "Chat Room". You can see from these 2 images that they are very similar, however I have made it easier to notice by circling the similarities of the images:

The red circles show that both of the girls are using laptops. The laptop on the right looks like it is on myspace, and the laptop on the left is on facebook. This is a big similarity because they are both operating social networking sites which involves talking to strangers on the Internet. Another thing i have highlighted is the blue circles, which show that both girls have mobile phones next to them, which is very typical of a teenage girl. It is also another way to contact people you don't know, which is what our opening sequence is based on. The final aspect that i have circled are the mirrors; this is because you can quite clearly see that both girls are sat at their dressing tables, with their mirrors in front of them. This could possible be a sign of vanity, of the fact that they like to operate their laptops in their own personal area of their dressing table; this could possibly make them feel more comfortable with the fact that their are socialising with people they don't know.

There aren't many differences between the 2 images, the obvious thing that i have noticed is that the girl in "Chat Room" has her school books on her table, which suggests she is more intelligent and cares about her studies, which means she may use the Internet to talk to strangers in order to get away from her normal life. Yet the girl from "Have You Seen..." has more things such as perfume and jewellery which shows that she is more interested in self appearance other than her studies.

  The character I have represented in my opening sequence is a teenage girl. From what I have shown of her, the character appears to be rather easily led. There is nothing in particular that stands out in her appearance, so I wouldn't say she is a stereotypical 'chav' or 'emo', she is just an everyday youth. In the story line of my opening sequence she talks to someone that she met over the Internet, so she alone could be representing teenage girls in particular that are very easily led and deluded. This isn't a good way of representing teenage girls because it gets her in to a lot of trouble, but in terms of getting a message through to the audience, it is a good idea to show teenage girls what they shouldn't do and what is harmful on the Internet.

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

'Have You Seen...' - Final Draft

This is the final draft of our opening sequence. We took the audience feedback into consideration and made the changes to our video in order to make it better. We changed the music, cut some of the clips down that went on for too long, and we added some new videos in to make the storyline clearer to the audience.

By Hollie Fowler and Alice Hogan

New Audio Clip

After getting audience feedback, someone suggested that we find a different piece of music to be played at the beginning of the sequence as the one we used creates too much tension. Therefore we got another track off the same website that had given us permission. (www.freesfx.co.uk)

Editing - Adobe After Effects

After getting some audience feedback we decided to change one of the elements of our video, where we zoomed in on a phone in order show a message that had been received. The interference was being picked up by the camera and it was really hard to show what the message said because we could hold the phone or camera still enough and it didn't look professional at all. In order to get round this we decided to go on Adobe After Effects and create a speech bubble that comes out of the phone and shows the message. This was the process of creating the speech bubble:

It was all very complicated to figure out, as there were 3 different bubbles that all had to appear one after another to make it look like it was coming out of the phone, so I had to arrange the timing. We also found that when we uploaded the finished product into Adobe Premiere we hadn't chose the right size of the video, so there were black lines around it that made it look unprofessional. However after figuring it out and changing the size of the edit, the finished product turned out just as we wanted it:

Opening Sequence Audience Feedback

We showed a few people a first draft of our opening sequence and asked them what they thought was good about the video, and what they thought we could improve. Here were their answers:

'Have You Seen...' First Draft.

This is the first draft of our opening sequence called 'Have You Seen...'. We will show a few people this video and get some audience feedback so we know what it is we will need to improve on. We will then improve what we need to for the deadline of 14/03/2012

By Hollie Fowler and Alice Hogan