EXTRA: Bloopers

These are a few funny moments we had while filming Mismatch. A couple of those clips are from the extended version of our opening sequence.

EXTRA: On Set

We thought it would be appropriate to show a couple of behind the scenes/on set clips from when we were filming. One of those clips is from the extended version of our opening sequence.

Evaluation - Question 7 - Progress from Preliminary Task

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

When we created our Preliminary Task, we had no experience with making movies, editing or filming in general. We had very basic ideas without a specific plot and everything was simply thrown together in an attempt to complete the task.

Point 1 - Setting

Firstly, we will look at our setting for our two separate products. For our preliminary task, we used what was available to us, which was the school hallway and the canteen (doors pictured to the right of the screenshot). We did not put enough thought into it at this stage and, although we had originally planned to use the English office as an ideal workplace setting illusion, it was unavailable to us at the time and so we settled for what we thought would be the next best thing. We encountered problems with this as, being the canteen, it was fairly noisy due to the fact that a lot of people and teachers would walk in throughout the day, and we could hear the noises coming from the kitchen, making our product look unprofessional.

For the opening sequence, we made sure to organise and ask permission for using certain locations. We mainly filmed inside two separate houses (where our actors lived), which was beneficial because it meant we could take our time and there were no restrictions in place. We also filmed out in the street as well, on the road next to one of the houses we filmed in, which was good because it made it easy for us to get there. Putting more thought into it meant that we could organise it in such a way so that we knew that we were not going to encounter any issues regarding the locations.

Point 2 - Continuity editing

In our AS product, we were very careless with props and continuity editing in general, as can be seen in the following screenshots. In the first one, the bags are visible behind one of the girls, but in the second they are gone. We did not consider re-filming everything before the point where we removed the bags, which was careless and made our overall product look unprofessional.

In our opening sequence, we made sure that we put more thought into the continuity editing. As can be seen in the two screenshots below, we had the character of Elisabeth carrying the apple core in her hand throughout the whole video. Bins were unavailable to us at the time so the actress had nowhere to throw it away, and we did not want to take it from her as there would be no continuity if she appeared without it without an explanation.

Point 3 - Match on Action

For our preliminary task, our match on action editing was pretty basic especially as we realised later that we should have done it while opening the door rather than it being already open. While the two shots added up and made sense when edited together, we thought that the set-up and the lead-up to it could have been done better, though it was not necessarily incorrect.

For our opening sequence, we repeated the shot but completed it through opening the door, as the effect merely looked better. We thought this was a massive improvement because again, we didn't put a lot of thought into our preliminary task match on action, while for our sequence we sat and planned exactly what was going to happen, even down to the opening and closing of the door.

Point 4 - Costuming, hair, makeup

For our preliminary task costuming, we were already dressed in smart clothing as this is our sixth form policy. However, we did not actually plan what we were going to wear, and this was a problem because while the costuming was smart it wasn't necessarily formal, for example, the girl on the right was wearing a coat over her clothes so that it wasn't possible to actually see her clothing. We all just turned up wearing whatever it is that we wore that day without making sure that our mise-en-scene was relevant to the plot of our task (an office setting, for example). Our actors also did not wear any make-up (quite unusual for this type of setting) and no thought went into making sure that the hair looked neat and linked to the plot of the video; our characters did not have personalities of their own and they definitely didn't become obvious through the clothing.

For our opening sequence, a lot of thought went into our costuming, as we wanted the clothes to represent who the characters were, as people, and what could be inferred about their personalities from the way that they were dressed. For example, the character of Ash was wearing a chequered shirt, leggings, smart shoes and a blazer. We also had her hair thrown in a bun to show that although she is trying to make an effort she is not completely prepared to make that commitment of essentially changing who she is as a person to conform to society's rules of how a woman should be dressed on different occasions, as she is represented as carefree and casual.

Elisabeth, on the other hand, is wearing very smart clothing, high heels and carries a Gucci handbag while her make-up is minimal and her hair is very neat. This all shows that she is in control of herself and her life, as she is shown to be quite a strong character whom does not conform to society's rules because she doesn't follow them, she makes them, which is shown in her confidence when it comes to selecting clothing and also from the way she walks. Her back is straight and she is walking quite quickly and confidently, while Ash is slightly hunched, showing that she is perhaps less confident than Elisabeth.

We thought this was much more effective than the preliminary task and we thoroughly enjoyed the planning that came along with this section of our planning stage.

Point 5 - Editing (quick cuts)

For our preliminary task, we used very basic editing; we simply cut and split clips and put them together in a sequence without thinking about how we could create an effect, although we did use some angles to show the differences between the two characters in terms of social standing or who was the most powerful out of the two. Despite this, our editing really wasn't that strong and it would have been hard for an audience to be empathetic as the editing was so bland that there was no telling what the characters themselves felt.

For our opening sequence, we edited using quick cuts because we wanted to show the frantic nature of the character, how desperate she is. We found that this would help the audience be more empathetic towards her as they could see what she was feeling inside. The screenshots below are all of the cuts that we put together; as you can see there is a fair amount of them, and even after being so frantic and trying to get things done the character still looks incredibly messy. This is a massive improvement from last year, because we managed to actually create an effect rather than leave it looking natural and bland.

Point 6 - Props

For our preliminary task, we did not have props that would normally be seen in a typical workplace office. We had a laptop but that was the end of our list of props, because of the location that we used. We filmed in the canteen so it was impossible for us to have things such as desks, comfortable chairs and other office equipment such as PCs and stationary. Our lack of props obviously made it difficult for us to create the same effect and recreate the location.

For our opening sequence, we had a lot of props available to us because of how easy it was for us to film in our chosen locations. For example, the alcohol that Elisabeth drinks was easily accessible, as was anything in the house scenes due to the fact that we did actually film in a house and did not have to recreate the set at all. It was also easy for us to use the most important prop of our sequence, which was the car, which was an essential object because it shows who Elisabeth is as a person as well as her financial status.

Evaluation - Question 6 - Technology

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

Evaluation - Question 4/5 - Target Audience

Who would be the audience for your media product and how did you target them?

We chose to create a Facebook profile for our Target Audience, as this appeals to teenagers everywhere. Most (if not all) eighteen year olds own a Facebook account so this automatically allows them to relate.

(click to enlarge photos)

Evaluation - Question 3 - Institutions

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

Evaluation - Question 2 - Representation

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation - Question 1 - Conventions

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

FINAL PRODUCT: Mismatch

Details of Roles

Production office (Production Management, Accounting) Sophie Honor,  Alexandra Cojocaru.

Director- Sophie Honor

Director of photography- Sophie Honor

Camera and Lighting- Sophie Honor

Location scout- Alexandra Cojocaru

Costume department- Alexandra Cojocaru

Hair and Makeup department- Sophie Honor

Post production department (editorial, visual effects, sound/ music) – Sophie Honor, Alexandra Cojocaru.

Budget Plan

(click to enlarge)

Location permission form

Location permission forms:

I agree for S and A Productions to film on my property in Winslow, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom.

I agree that I will need to confirm a date and time with S and A Productions.

I agree that all scheduled days must be followed through with unless a minimum of 48 hours notice is given.

Signed: ______________________

Signed _______________________

Date __________________________

Location permission forms:

I agree for S and A Productions to film on my property in Buckingham, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom.

I agree that I will need to confirm a date and time with S and A Productions.

I agree that all scheduled days must be followed through with unless a minimum of 48 hours notice is given.

Signed: ______________________

Signed _______________________

Date __________________________




Location permission forms:

I agree for S and A Productions to film on my property in Brackley, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom.

I agree that I will need to confirm a date and time with S and A Productions.

I agree that all scheduled days must be followed through with unless a minimum of 48 hours notice is given.

Signed: ______________________

Signed _______________________

Date __________________________

Locations

For our locations we decided to switch between Buckingham and Winslow.

Buckingham

In this town, we will be shooting at one of our actors' house, for the opening scene of one of the characters waking up and getting ready. The reason this is convenient for everyone is because Buckingham is exactly halfway between Brackley and Winslow, which means that there are no transport issues for the crew as it does not take a long time to get there and there are plenty of transport options available. It is even more convenient for the actor that will be filmed in this setting because obviously it is her own house. Also because it is in an indoor space, the time of day doesn't matter as we will not have the curtains drawn at any point in this opening scene, which means that we are free to film it whenever we want and at whatever time we can.

We will also be filming the final shot of the opening scene at this actor's house as her father has an office in the garden which makes it perfect for the interview scene. We like this location because it gives off a vibe of professionalism which is exactly what we are going for in these final shots. However one thing we didn't like was the fact that, because the office was in the garden of her house, it didn't look exactly like we wanted it to as it is quite obvious that it wasn't in a more professional environment.

We have also decided to do the opening of when the two characters meet here. These are the pictures for this location:

(we have covered up some details in this picture for privacy reasons)

The reason we have decided to do it here is because as you can see there is a turning where it's possible for us to do the "colliding" scene in a realistic and believable way as there is no way they could have seen each other coming. Also, because Ash is by garages, it kind of emphasises the type of person she is because it doesn't look very posh or rich. However Elizabeth is walking through the town and there are beautiful, neat houses around her which suggests a very nice, calm environment and it also looks quite upper class. The two meet at the halfway point by the corner, which points to our film's subtitle; "Opposites attract".

Winslow

This will be the location of the other character's opening scene. It may make it inconvenient for one of the actors to get there because Winslow is quite far from Brackley (where the actor lives) and therefore there may be transport issues especially with the limited buses to and from that area. It will also be quite expensive to get there if the actor is travelling by bus as they need to travel with two, (Brackley-Buckingham, Buckingham-Winslow). However, similar to the Buckingham location, there will be no problem with when we will have to film the opening scene because it'll be in an indoor space. This makes it easier because it gives us more time to concentrate on the outdoor film spots so that we get everything perfect, and we can always film the opening waking up scenes when we are done filming the encounter. We have chosen to use this bedroom and have arranged it in such a way as to make it quite messy to show what Ash is like as a character - her life is a mess, just like her bedroom.

Font Study & Choices

Because our movie is an LGBT romantic comedy, we have decided to look specifically at one LGBT movie, and the rest rom-coms and their opening credit fonts.

The Movies

But I'm A Cheerleader

We have chosen to look at the movie "But I'm A Cheerleader", which is our chosen LGBT movie. We liked the way that the font was quite simple and normal because it's almost as if it's trying to say that LGBT people portrayed in the film are normal as well and don't need some sort of extravagant, fancy font to make them stand out. We also liked the different colours because LGBT is often associated with bright colours (specifically colours of the rainbow) because of the LGBT flag, and it's as if this really got that across. However, we did not like the font itself, for our film. This is because this font seems too basic for what we had in mind as it does not show the difference and contrast between the two main characters, and also because it is not very professional.

Pretty Woman

Next we looked at the Pretty Woman font. We liked what this font was trying to get across for the film that it was used for. It's quite professional and you would expect the film to feature a businessman after seeing this font, which is exactly what happens as there is a businessman as one of the main characters. The colours of the font, white/grey with a black outline, look quite dull which again could represent the film as being quite professional, perhaps a little boring. This could work well with our movie because it is a professional font and it links to one of our characters perfectly. However, despite it being okay because it represents one character, there is still the problem of the second character as this font does not represent her because she is the exact opposite of professional. We may consider this font but for now it looks like it is not something we'd like to use for our film.

My Best Friend's Wedding

Lastly we looked at My Best Friend's Wedding. We found this font interesting because it's not just one font that was used. Two were. One of them is quite fancy and feminine and it looks hand-written while the other is the exact opposite, it looks quite masculine because it's completely in capitals and every single letter is the same size which is not the case with the first font. This could represent the difference between the two characters in the movie, more specifically the two women "fighting" over the man's love. We really like how they're different because it looks to be a very original idea and it's also quite a bright colour which highlights the fact that it's a comedy. The pink background could indicate the need for acceptance, support and unconditional love which is very similar to one of our main characters' personality. Because both fonts are different and seem to work quite well with each other, we think we may like to use something like this in the future when we have finished filming and editing our movie.

Our Choices

We have done some research on fonts we could use, following our recent study of fonts in existing films' opening credits, and these are some that we instantly felt attracted to. We have not decided between any of these fonts and we may or may not use them but for now this is a general idea of what we might want to use in the future.

EDIT:

The two fonts we decided to use were Engineering Plot and DJB My Boyfriend's Handwriting. The reason we picked these two is because of the way one of them is quite block-y and very simple while the other is girly. We felt like these two actually showed what our film was about more than any of the other fonts we looked at.