Production Diary 30.01.15

Day 1- filming of the rich girls scenes around the college area. 

We have decided to film the rich girls scene on friday as it was the 3hr lesson and that Ana was available on friday and not the weekend. overall the scenes for the rick girl was very successful and no shots are needed to re-do.

37. Brand your blog visually

Before

                                 After

Continuity Error Issues

We were planning to film on the 28th of January. Unfortunately, due to unexpected weather change, we were worried that if we filmed on this day, we would encounter continuity errors in the other filming days as the weather would be different. We decided to be safe and use this time more effectively by making sure that we are up to date with our blogging.

Nerd guy costume (Daniel)

As we are aiming to greatly focus on the costume aspect of mise en scene, I will be going for a very stereotypical look of a nerd according to the high school drama genre. My costume will consist of a white buttoned up shirt, bow-tie, nerd glasses and a bike helmet as I will be riding a bike as a means to get to college.

31: Goth Girl Costume (Nazmin)

The goth girl's costume is all black, which reflects her personality (Goths are seen as a social group with no soul, etc). Goths are stereotyped as people who wear black/dark colour clothing, black makeup, are seen as depressed and hated by society. The character's clothing for the title sequence is a black jumper, black jeans, black heeled boots, black jewelry and a backpack.

Institutional details

Our short film will be made to be a mainstream production, from the production company 'Paramount'. We have decided to go with this as it is the production company that seems to appear often in the high school dramas such as 'Mean Girls' and 'Clueless'. As Paramount is an international, high budget production company, the titles will most likely be extended as we would have to credit more people. Since they are a major company, their logo would appear first in our title sequence, even before the film title itself, due to the production company's popularity.

Rich girl outfit

My idea of the rich girls outfits, Is doe thing that shows legs and is smart at the same time.. I also would like to add some fancy jewellery so it shows that she is wealthy. 

Film review

Palo Alto

Based on a book of short stories written by James Franco, this delicate debut for director Gia Coppola captures the affluent world of teenagers experimenting with vices in dull suburbia. The narrative focuses on shy, innocent April (Emma Roberts) who gets into a sexual relationship with her football coach Mr B (James Franco). Charming stoner Teddy (Jack Kilmer) longs for April but struggles to express his feelings and gain her attention.  Teddy also slowly begins to tire of his impulsive best friend Fred (Nat Wolff) whose self-destructive behaviour gets Teddy into trouble, whilst Fred engages in a destructive sexual relationship with Emily (Zoe Levin) who is isolated due to her compulsive promiscuity.

The main cast are remarkable in their roles, the characterisation feels authentic and believable; Jack Kilmer and Nat Wolff steal all the scenes they’re in with their captivating chemistry. The dreamy shots of Palo Alto late at night form a moody atmosphere which complements the beautifully empty tone of the film; the cinematography is the highest point of the film. Palo Alto offers a great soundtrack of sweet synth pop which is delicately interlaced into the scenes. The score and cinematography aid each other in capturing the teenage angst.

However the film suffers from a lack of a cohesive narrative and it feels incomplete. Coppola concentrates too hard on making the characters seem realistic that they end up being aimless and unfocused. The emphasis on mood and the lack of a message make the characters less sympathetic, they come off privileged and disinteresting.

In conclusion Palo Alto is a representative coming-of-age story, which paints a realistic portrait of affluent kids who drink too much but say too little. Teenage angst is perfectly captured through tone but Palo Alto lacks a coherent direction and suffers from the absence of a message.

40. Revisions to Pitch and Final Decisions

The feedback we received for our film pitch are as following:

1) To redo the production schedule as it is quite spread out where the actors will have to dress up twice- the production schedule has now been updated

2) Have more detail on other characters in the story board during the second half and to also show the audience how the girl is moving from the country side to the city- a new story board has been uploaded

3) To add into the pitch who the actors are.

4) To be clear as to who's house we will be filming at- we will film at Amy's house.  

5) To have more detail on the soundtrack by noting down the sound names etc

6) Add more detail to the risk assessment especially for scenes where the bus is involved. 

We did also receive lots of positive feedback:

1) The fully developed animatic was liked as the sound track was effective and the plot was well planned out. It gave a clear vision of the film we will make. 

2) The props, locations and make up were very detailed 

3) Clear vision of the bold and fun titles with examples given 

39. Pitch Feedback

15. Individual post- the roommate

Camera: 
The movie starts of with s long shit/establishing shot which shows us the location of where the movie is based.

They also use a worm shot which shows the city from the bottom upwards

Tracking shot, this shot tracks the taxi where implies that who ever is in the taxi has to be important to us.

Over the shoulder shot, which is shown whilst the girl has a converation with the lady at the first desk.

Persons point of view shot, whichs pans the room from left to right.

Editing:
Match cut between conversations

Jump cut showing the locates of where the tim is set.

cross cut when she sees a poster if a job requesting help and of her taking a number.

Mise-en-scene:
suit cases
taxi
smart and casual clothing
summer clothes
suitcase trolley
student room
phone
college/school
campus party
band
music and alcohol
students

Sound:
Starts of with an up beat rock/pop music,
Then the sounds lowers a bit once she arrives to the college.
Diegetic of voices when she is talking to the lady at the front desk over the music
then goes higher again and continues like that till half way when two girls go knock on her door and then rock music starts as we establish that she is at a campus party.

Party student youth music continues playing though the party scenes.

36. Updated Story Board

Updated story board with added feedback of having more detail on other characters.

Xmas Homework task

Wild Child 

Teen Film

Genre: High school drama 

Sub-Genre: Comedy Drama Romance

Producer :Roger McKenzie

List of titles credits in order:

1.production company x3

2.film name

Films plot summary

A Malibu brat has lost her mother and has pushed her father too far, as he shamelessly loses his patience and decides to send her to a former English boarding school for girl 'abbey mount'.

As she first arrives she has made enemies with dorm mate Harriet (headgirl) and staff 'Mrs. Kingsley'.

Unwilling to accept that she has to stay in the school, she misbehaves and takes blame for everything others do until they decide to dismiss her.

Lastly starts to fall for Freddie which is Mrs. Kingsley son.

Who are the main characters

We are introduced to the main girl which is the Malibu brat called Poppy Moore, which dresses in all pink with heels and blonde long hair. And the other two who are also main characters but not as much as poppy are Freddie which is the guy that she falls inlove with and Harriet which is the girl who is competing with her to get Freddie.

Social Groups

During the moving we are introduced to 3 different type of social groups. The first one we saw was the spoiled rich Malibu brats, then we was introduced to the boarding schools head girl and her friends which are big headed and posh and last of all we was introduced to the popular group which is the group where Poppy Moore is in.

How they interact with adults?

The adults that are introduced and shown in the movie at mostly all teachers and there are also two parents which are Poppy's father which is shown at the beginning and also Mrs. Kingsley which is also the head teacher.

They interact by giving detentions and but helping each other's. 

Camera

Long shot of a bedroom and then it zooms Into the room and starts to zooms  into the girl who was sleeping on The bed. 

Long shots

Over the shoulder

Paning from right to left

Medium shot

Close up

Tilting upwards

Distance shot 

Worm shot

Establishing shot

Editing 

Text in bold and white font

Match cuts during conversation 

Motivation cuts from the lorry to the students outside Poppy's house

Sound

Soft piano and string music, 

Then changes to hip hop music 

'Shut up and drive' by Rihanna 

Then motivating sounds, quick and skippy.

Diegetic sounds come with the splash and with voices.

Mise-en-scene

Short dresses and tight clothes

Heels and makeup

Swimming pools

Malibu rich people's houses

Personal opinion on film

I actually really like this movie because it shows clearly the mentality change that the Malibu brat have as she started to make friends and started to get become popular with everyone in the school. It's also a really good example of a teen drama. 

Sub-genre Conventions

38. Pitch

Pitch from Amy Chau

Risk Assessment

• Weather- check the weather forecasts before filming to ensure the equipment does not get damaged by the rain 
• Traffic- be extra careful with cars on the roads when filming 
• Overcrowding on the streets- make sure to not disturb others journeys 
• People stealing the equipment- never leave the equipment unattended

Animatic

24. Shortlist of font types

http://www.dafont.com/

Our twitter account

https://twitter.com/AANDgroup34

Sub-Genres of teen drama

Sub-Genre of teen drama film

Youth Drama

• Focus on the social dilemmas faced by the main, often male, character
• Popular wit teen audiences, seen to be a more authentic representation of youth than HSD
• The character is often rebellious and/or conflict with others e.g. schools,police, adults
• This focuses on the difficulties of adolescent experiences 
• Youth as difficult or a problem

High School Drama

• Becomes poplar in the 70s,80s and 90s with lots of variations within the sub-genre
• Often girl cantered
• Focuses on the different social groups, also known as cliques in school.
• They tend to focus on changes, makes overs and/or conflict within different groups at school

Order of the title credits

My Favourite Film

M favourite film title sequence is for the film "the cabin in the woods". the title sequence contains titles shown over moving images for the first minute and then they show a scene with now titles onto. but after it reaches 2:52 minutes. it shows us the films title and then titles start to appear but not over images, this time its over an scene.

1.Production Companies x3

2.Film Title

3.Character names x9

4.Casting by x2

5.Co-Producer

6.Visual effects supervisor

7.Msic supervisor

8.Music by

9.Costume designer

10.Editor

11.Production designer

12.Director of photography

13.Executive Producer

14.Produced by

15.Written by x2

!^.Directed by

34. Production Schedule

23. Institution Ideas

Paramount is a well known institution which produces many movies from all the different genres. They have produced the number 1 high school drama Mean Girls and Clueless so therefore we think it is appropriate to use Paramount as well as they are familiar with the teen genre movie and title sequence conventions

Paramounts official website: http://www.paramount.com/

Planning mise-en-scene: location, setting, props

Film idea- nerd girl wakes up late for school and gets ready quickly, she rushes to school by a bus, we then see other students from different cliques (jocks, goth, rebel, rich girl, loser boy) travel to school by train/skateboards/bikes accordingly

Mise-en-scene: Location and Setting

Locations-

• Kings Cross to Angel Taking the Bus, etc.
• Candi sixth form college and someones house

Setting- bedroom, bathroom, canteen, tube station, roads, sports hall, outside of school

8)Mise-en-scene: Props, costumes, make up, etc

Costume- All black (skinny jeans) for the goth, tracksuits for the rebel,  tight dress for rich girl, pyjamas/ glasses for nerd girl, oversized shirt and tie for loser boy.

Lighting- natural and bright lighting other than the beginning where she is sleeping.

Key props- mirror, bike (nerd) , skateboard, oyster cards, basketball, school folders and then shots of library/classrooms/canteen/posters/textbooks (similar to breakfast club) after they all arrive at school, backpack (nerd/ rebel, etc), Handbag (rich girl), car, cigarette (rebel)

Make up- 

• Goth: Dark, Black eye shadow/ liner for goths, also dark lipstick ( Black/ purple)
• Nerd girl: Mascara, Chapstick
• Rich girl: Over the top make up ( Eye liner, Mascara, red lipstick, fake lashes?, blush)
• Rebel: no make up, but products, etc on hair.

9) Sound Design:

• non-diegetic sound: alarm going off, buses, skateboard, car, fast pace music due to the nerd girl waking up late and is rushing to get herself to school, background music for title sequence.
• diegetic sound: road noises (background noise), oyster card beep, 

31) Nerd Girl's (Amy) Costume

The main girl's outfit which is played by me (Amy) will be plain and casual- just like her personality. She will wear simple black jeans, vest top and a checked shirt. She will carry a rucksack and wear comfy trainers to school. 

28) Media Texts That Influenced Us

1) Mean Girls- this title sequence gave us a clear representation as to how to represent a student as being new to the school. In Mean Girls, Lindsay Lohan recently moved from Africa to a high school in America- similar to our plot of have a girl moving from the country side to a college in the city.



2) The Breakfast Club- we really liked this specific title sequence because it represents the different students clearly by the way they travel to school. The audience is properly introduced to the many characters in just a few minutes- which is the aim of our title sequence.



3) 10 Things I Hate About You- the main influence of this opening is the effective use of the soundtrack and the titles. They both suit the genre and also addresses the audience very well.

18. Motion Title

This is an example which shows how to use motion

23) Initial Ideas- Planning The Title Sequence

The sub-genre will be High School Drama as we like the title sequence of The Breakfast Club
Target audience is people from ages of 13-22

Titles over moving images with animated titles like the titles from 10 Things I Hate About You or Mean Girls

The actions behind the title will include:
-Student rushing to get ready for school (jumping out of bed sleepy/brushing teeth/getting dressed, putting shoes on)
-The school building
-Students travelling and arriving to school (buses/train/car/bikes/skateboards)
-Different cliques of students (rebels, nerds (girl and boy), rich girls, goths, )
-Students playing sport (or someone holding a basketball etc)
-People having lunch in canteen and sitting on the floor talking
-Text books, library/computer room, music room/stage, clock, corridor, canteen food, display boards, -lockers, graffiti, trophies