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?

Since doing the preliminary task I have learnt many new techniques of which i had no idea about at the beginning. I was useless at the beginning of our preliminary task so much so that i never knew how to even use the hand-held video camera.  However, the progress i have made is great, I am now fully able to use a camcorder, connect it to the computer and edit the shots on Adobe Premiere. also, I have learnt how to shoot different shots. e.g. long shot, over the shoulder shot.
Here are some other techniques which i have learnt throughout the whole experience:

• Tromboning - this was a major problem in the preliminary task however we manged to get it right during our actual film. 
• Editing-during the process of making the film I learnt about transitions, how to dip to black, cross cutting and editing the opacity 
• I learnt how to put all the footage on a timeline.
• Continuity - we ensured all people starring in the film wore the same clothes on filming days to maintain continuity
• I also learnt the importance of mise en scene.

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

Before our media project, I had no experience what so ever in using a video camera, tripod, or any of the equipment that was used throughout.

The first day was quite difficult as we didn’t realise we needed a tripod in order for the footage to be clear.  We didn't use a tripod (as we didn’t know what it was used for) this resulted in the footage being bouncy, rushed and looking unprofessional.

The next time we filmed a tripod was used, resulting in smoother footage that looked professional, a range of shots were used ranging from over the shoulder shots, close-ups and establishing shots.

I’d heard of Adobe before, but did not have a clue on how to use the software. Adobe was the programme we used to edit our film; this was quite hard to get used to at first however, throughout the process, as group, we each individually learnt a range of techniques, such as arranging clips on a time line, fading and dissolving clips, we also learnt how to add special FX to our sequence, in the form of opacity techniques. 

1: Photoshop

We used this mainly for the mirror on our title, this gave it a cartoon looking effect and made it look better than a real life mirror and more like a title logo.
Many use photoshop for doctoring images, we used it to manipulate the images to our taste and to get them exactly how we wanted it. 

2: Google

Images were found on this site such as mirrors for when we were looking for ideas for our logo,

we also used Google for a lot of our research and the pictures of the mask for our production logo. Also, I used google to research different films with the same genre of film as mine (thriller) and british teen films e.g kidulthood.
 Google is used for searching the internet and advertising. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising. Also, Google runs over one million servers in data centers around the world,and processes over one billion search requests, these are some of the reasons why we chose to use GOOGLE rather than another search engine i.e yahoo.com

3: Facebook:

We uploaded our film onto the social networking site and asked for reviews, opinions we also used this social network as a contacts site.

We decided to upload our film onto facebook as it is the most easily accessible social networking site therefore it will be ideal to get feedback from our peers by watching the opening sequence on facebook. 

4: Youtube:

We have used youtube to showcase our film to the public

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms4oVjTMsmE

5:Blogger

This is where all our work is uploaded to show our progress.  I tried to upload the film onto my blog, however, it didnt upload therefore I just ended up closing the tab as it took 2 hours but didn't upload properly, it just said 'loading'...

6: Adobe Premiere was the Main feature we used, it is essential piece of technology as this is where our film was edited and uploaded.

 I learnt to do many things on Adobe. I learned how to import clips onto Adobe, how to change the speed of the clips which gave it the fading, slow motion effect which is used throughout our film on many occasions. Furthermore, I also learnt how to arrange and cut these as were appropriate. I also learnt how to create titles. Better transitions can be made on Adobe, also; you can use wider range of effects for both audio and video such as putting a picture onto the timeline and placing text easily over it.

                             E.g Timeline and fading, Opacity, editing brightness and contrast

Timeline; This is an example of me arranging the range of  footage onto a timeline

In the timeline you have several different sections for Audio and Video, you can place several different clips of footage on top of each other by using the section "Video 1" and "Video 2" and so on as well as the Audio sections where you can add different layers of sound from Music to dialogue in to "Audio 1" and "Audio 2" and so on.



Brightness and Contrast- Makes the colour brighter/darker, to add to the effect and add atmosphere to the scene. this technique is genre conventional as it gives that ery element that athriller normally has, creating mystery an element of suspense.

Opacity - By reducing the opacity it makes the footage more transparant which allows you to create more effects such as the ghost effect we used in this particular scene.

 The font and colour used for the 'Producer title' was chosen as red has connotattons of fear and danger.
The font used is bold and in a readable font which makes it clear to the audience.

 Layering/opacity
this allowed me to overlap two scenes that link to each other

Layering- this is the ghost effect we used to give a dramatic effect to a couple of the scenes in our film

Putting up the Masc logo

Layering on Adobe premiere pro

How did you attract/address your audience?

In order to appeal to the target audience typical conventions of a thriller were utilized e.g. kidnappings and other enigmas. The title 'stage girls' was used to give the film a girly/glam twist, this appeals to the audience due to the fact that our film was aimed at teenage girls. To attract a wide range audience we ensured the mise-en-scene (setting, locations, clothes) were realistic, believable and relevant to our film/genre. Alex, a teenage girl was the main character, we decided on this so young teenage girls would find it easy to relate to her. 
The complicated story that kept the audience guessing was a way in keeping the audience engaged. Also; throughout the sequence we had a certain type of music playing making the plot seem even more tense and gripping, making the audience anxious and also excited at the same time, and furthermore engaged in the plot. The clothes that the teens wore in the film were on trend and relevant to the audience, this is also a way of attracting the audiences attention. 

This is Shakoofeh Shah. She is 17 years of age and lives in the suburbs of Brierfield. She dresses quite conventionally i.e skinny jeans, dresses, t-shirts and when she doesn't feel like dressing up she just wears a hooded jumper and joggers. She enjoys spending time with friends, sleep overs, shopping and going to the cinema and bowling. Shakoofeh shops at selfridges, H&M, new look, River island and topshop. 
she enjoys films like kidutlhood, four lions, mean girls, angus, thongs and perfect snogging, Mamma mia; she's a real girly girl. 


She loves watching films with her best friends. 
Shakoofeh watches programmes such as EastEnders, glee, neighbours, one tree hill, Keeping up with the Kardashians and 90210. The main channels are BBC1, E4, ITV, MTV and E!
The genre of music she listens to is mainly Hip hop and mainstream R'n'B, listening to artists such as Drake, Lil wayne, Nicki Minaj and Usher. 
I think our film would appeal to this girl as she us a stereotypical girlie girl who enjoys typical girlie things, friends are extremely important to this young teenager and if this movie was shown at her local cinema she may go and watch it as it could appeal to her as it is all about trial, tribulations which teenage girls encounter on a daily basis; also, the fact that it has a teenage line up is relevant to her as the films she watches are mainly teenage cast dominated i.e Mean girls. 

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

A small British outlet such as WARP productions would be the type of Distribution Company to distribute our film as WARP productions work off quite a low budget however; they focus on British home-grown talent and have distributed films such as ‘This is England’and the smash comedy ‘Four lions’.
WARP tend to focus/produce low budget films; therefore WARP would be ideal for our film as it has a gritty mise-en-scene rather than a more glamorous setting such as a Hollywood movie 'Fast 5' a action film set in the US and Rio di Janeiro which WARP would not produce (maybe due to lack of funding). 
A company creates ideas and motion pictures, TV programmes and adverts etc. They may also find funding for the products they produce. WARP productions have produced films such as 'This is England' and 'Four Lions'. The money to distribute could be funded by the national lottery fund; which has assisted in finding ‘St Trinians’ and ‘Kidulthood’ which are teenage films like ours.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We decided to utilize teenagers as the main characters in our short film; this is because we thought it would be easy for the audience to relate to the characters as our target audience is teenagers as well therefore it would be relevant. The teens in our sequence face certain problems, hurdles to come over e.g. teenage girls going missing, friends, social groups, stalking, overcoming these hurdles. 

One of the many films in which teenage girls are the main characters is sorority row- a thriller. Mean girls is also a film with mainly higher-middle class female characters. in our sequence; we have a range of girls with different ethnic backgrounds; being teenagers and the fact that we have different ethnic backgrounds allows our film to relate to the characters of films like Bend it like Beckham which has white middle class teenage girls, Asian teenagers just like our film...this enables our film to appeal to a wide range of teenage girls of different ethnic backgrounds. Also; in mean girls there are 2 white middle class girls, and a black girl which represents ethnic backgrounds and social groups, in John Tucker must die there are a range of ethnic/social groups ranging from Latino American, black, higher class white teenage girls. 
another movie which represents different social class is 'kidulthood' with the spin-off 'kidulthood to adulthood'  these hmovies have casts of black, White, Asian, lower to middleclass teenagers. 

Evaluation: Question 1

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

Our film's title is displayed at the end of our film; we thought it would be a nice touch if it was displayed at the end as even if the audience hadn't already pieced together what the 2 girls did (sing) then the title would ensure full understanding that they were 2 singers getting stalked by a mysterious figure.  Initially, the image was just taken from Google, however we edited it on Photoshop to make it more appealing and well suited to our film and the idea we had in mind. After choosing which image we wanted we copied the picture to photo shop and decided to smooth the edges out; by using the blur tool the edges become softer which allowed us to edit the edges better through the Eraser process.

We then uploaded the picture and cropped it using the lasso tool. The magnetic Lasso tool is easier to use as it finds the areas you want to crop, attaching itself to the areas you are going round with your mouse and therefore makes the cropping process easier and makes the picture look smooth; this is the effect we wanted.

The dimness of the image used in our title is conventional as the lights around the mirror have been dimmed via Photoshop lighting effect therefore looking less brighter adding an element of darkness to the title, whereas if the image was to stay the same with the brightness of the lights then it wouldn’t seem like a thriller, however after the editing process it seems more appealing to our film.

Also, the fact that our production logo is black, red and white add to the fearfulness of thrillers as the black background against the white masks contrast, the use of the red lipstick on one of the masks and the use of the red text adds to the ‘thriller’ effect. Also; the production name which is situated below the logo is red which merely says ‘M.A.S.C productions.’   Using red lettering, this fits with the theme of stagegirls; the use of the black background therefore allows the red lettering to really stand out. The colour red has connotations of fear and danger therefore fitting nicely in with the genre of the film.

Throughout the 2 minutes sequence music plays a major part. The music we chose to use in our film sounds like a drum; which allows the audience to anticipate what is going to happen as the music is quite overwrought and tense.  This type of music is particularly common with thriller/ psychological thriller type films as the initial aim is to have the audience wanting to know what is going to happen next and this tense beat assists in getting that fearful element across to the audience. The music is then followed up by a piano being played, this orchestral  piano based music is played throughout the film when Alex is searching for her friends and having the flashbacks.

Settings and location

Initially, we started filming the opening sequence near our college, however our teacher advised us to re-film as part of a better mise-en-scene, therefore we took the constructive criticism and decided to film at various locations that would fit into our film. The locations included: a park, the local hospital, train tracks, pebbled streets and more isolated areas to add to the isolated effect we wanted to create in our film.  The reason we decided to do this is because the fact that the primary protagonist is having flashbacks throughout the film, the film begins with her lying down on the side of the canal. This allows the audience to think why she is there, and how did she end up there...this is also a way of engaging the audience as they will think up their own ideas to why she is there. The fact that we have filmed at the hospital provides information to the audience about the missing characters whereabouts.  The isolated, secluded areas we used is genre conventional as it is popular amongst thrillers to use these kind of locations, for example ‘murder by numbers’ which is a popular thriller, in this film the characters were secluded on a cliff, also; in the psychological thriller ‘Donnie Darko’ we first meet Donnie on a isolated road by himself. The use of the isolated scenes/locations hints at the audience that something is not right and that something awful is going to happen. Also; one of the settings we used was a theatre due to the fact that it is part of the many flashbacks the primary protagonist- Alex has.

Costume and props

This is an example of a typical media convention as every film has costumes and props. In our film props have played a fairly big role; the two ‘stagegirl performers’ who have gone missing are dressed in long, evening dresses, this suggests to the audience that before the girls were kidnapped they were singers/performers as some of the flashbacks suggest; therefore relating to the title. The primary protagonist who is searching for her friends is dressed in quite laid back, normal attire i.e. skinny jeans, t shirt, jacket and a scarf which is an everyday look for teenage girls these days.  One of the main props that was used as a trigger for the audience was the green scarf which gives the audience something to focus on, and adds elements of questioning; the audience is left asking why the stalker took the scarf, later on in the film it is revealed that he has kidnapped them, that is the reasoning of the obsession with the scarf.  

Camera work and Editing

Due to the fact that our film doesn’t have much acting, we have relied/ focused more attention upon the editing process.  Cross dissolves were used to create the impression of Alex having flashbacks; cross dissolves made the character seem as though she was thinking about the last time she saw her friends and where.  The opening sequence also has a number of reoccurring images e.g. the performance, playing of the piano, the camera flash and the taking of the scarf, the fact that we used these re occurring images was because it attains the audience’s attention.

It was vital to utilize close up shots as close up shots show the facial expression of the actors, we also used a range of shots such as medium and long shots, the  long shots showed the different locations we shot in.  We have used the 'layering' effect and made 2 shots combine and opaque by reducing the opacity. This gives the effect of Alex thinking about the missing characters that she has been layered onto. A layering effect followed by a close up shot was used for Alex waking up and wondering where her friends are. The close up shot shows the confusion and sadness on her face.  Another close up was used regarding the ‘scarf incident’ the close up shot of the stalker picking up and holding the scarf I dropped shows that he holds the scarf close to his nose and smells it; this gives a disturbing element to the film which also engages the audience as they think why, the close up shot emphasises on the strangeness of the situation.

Title font and style The name of our production company 'M.A.S.C Productions' comes from each individual group member’s First name. The irony of it being pronounced like ‘mask’ made us think about having our actual production logo as a set of face masks. Eventhough the title 'Stage Girls' in the mirrors quite ‘girly’ it is relevant to the film as it is based on a group of girls, however the ‘girliness’ is  reduced as the thick, bold, solid, black font gives a slight different element.  

The way in which our film has been produced uses the generic conventions of a thriller, therefore meaning that the film needed to be fitting in with the genre we had chosen; psychological thriller, i.e.  Mysterious with an element of excitement. The theme should also play with the audiences mind and make them have to think.  Our film ‘Stage Girls’ fits with the generic conventions of a thriller because it is about a stalker kidnapping two girls and the quest to find them. We use different techniques to bring our plot theme across in the best way possible.

Story and how the opening sets it up


The opening gives a sense of mystery, the fact that someone is waking up in an isolated, secluded place all alone triggers all sorts of questions like ‘why is she on her own?’ ‘Where is she’? ‘What is she doing there?’What has happened before hand which resulted in her being like this?’ then it follows with a range of flashbacks and memories; with not much of a structure.

Genre and how the opening suggests it The use of the piano playing over the opening scene and part of the flashbacks assists the genre conventions by giving an eerie element and also gives a sense of mystery. The use of the layering effect also gives the impression of flashbacks and mind games; consequently our genre being based on mind games with it being a psychological thriller. 

How the characters are introduced

Alex is the primary protagonist shown on the shown in the film; she seems to have woken up...stunned to find where she is. Her shocked, worried expression on her face shows that there is something wrong and emphasises on the seriousness of the particular situation which is nicely followed on by the flashbacks.

Regarding the flashbacks there is a range of footage of Micheala playing the piano, myself and her walking in the park (this is when I am introduced).Aaron, the stalker is first introduced watching myself and Michaela in the park and by picking up my scarf and holding it close and smelling it suggests he is psychologically not right and his instability shines through onto the screen...giving the same impression to the audience of his instable mindset.

Special FX

We have also used a layered effect throughout the sequence; meaning we have layered many clips on top of each other, making it look like Alex is recalling more than one memory. This engages the audience by making them intrigued into find out what is happening, therefore this also adds to the theme of thriller. For most of the clips we have used an opacity effect, this makes the clips seem like memories and emphasise that Alex is remembering her friends and wondering about their whereabouts.  

Final adjustments that need to be done to the film! :)

Yesterday,  we FINALLY finished editing! I cannot tell you how good it feels to say this! It was essential that we touched up on the lighting, brightness and contrast. The fact that the film is a 'psychological thriller' we needed to make it seem more doom and gloom, because before editing the shots were all bright therefore going against the genre conventions.

1.) Opacity - By reducing the opacity it makes the footage more transparent. 

2.) Brightness and Contrast - Makes the footage brighter/darker/ black and white/more colourful to add effect and atmosphere to the scene.

By adding Brightness and Contrast and changing Opacity you click on the footage that you would like to edit and go onto Opacity which originally will be on 100.0% and then using your mouse click on the number and the mouse arrow will change to a horizontal arrow and then slide the mouse left or right to adjust the darkness of the clip. Same with Brightness and Contrast Slide the numbers to change the Brightness and how colourful you want it.

After looking/ analysing our footage we realised there have been some minor problems with the Brightness and Contrast edits. We have made some of the footage darker and some footage brighter to make some scenes appear less busy and not too complex so that the audience won't lose interest. We took the footage from Video 1 panel on the time line of Michaela's piano performance and edited the opacity on that footage and also edited some other footage so that it didn't look like it was becoming darker and then lighter randomly, by doing this it gives the film a more constructed effect, the sombre mood comes across with colour of the shot. e.g the dim, dark, dull lighting=sad mood. 

As a group we are all extremely pleased with the overall outcome of the film. All 4 of us feel as though the footage is much better and has progressed well.

Minor adjustments were made today by Alex, as the rest of us were out on a college trip; the way in which she has edited it ensures that the audience will understand what is going on, and what the film is actually about.

At the beginning of the film, where Alex initially wakes up from being unconscious, she has echoed the screaming of Michaela and I and it seems as though the noise of the screams are waking her up...this is the effect we want to portray across to the audience. 

Personally, in my opinion I now think the plot is so much easier to understand, it is a more logical approach.in addition to this she has added another layer of the Close up of her waking up for a better effect and to emphasise on her waking up from being unconscious. 

Here she has made the scene where she is running over the bridge and the piano overlay darker to give a more mysterious atmosphere which emphasises her sadness that she has lost her friends...

We have now finalised our film title 'Stage Girls'. It was quite a simple process; we saved an image off Google and uploaded it to Photo shop, we edited it on photoshop as we wanted to alter it so it fit into the image we had in mind, here are the different stages...

This is the original picture taken from www.google.com Chloe copied it to photo shop and decided to smooth the edges out. So by using the blur tool the edges become softer which allows us to edit the edges better through the Eraser process. 

We then uploaded the picture and cropped it using the lasso tool. The magnetic Lasso tool is easier to use as it finds the areas you want to crop, attaching itself to the areas you are going round with your mouse and therefore makes the cropping process easier and makes the picture look smooth.

This is the finished product, this is the final version; the one that appears in our actual film 

Yesterday, I looked at the editing software for Adobe Premier. We have now started on a working progress of our film and are all finally beginning to get used to editing. Here is what I have learnt about the editing software so far:

1 - Panel, footage, text and pictures are imported here.

2 - This is where effects audio a videos are added.

3 - This is the editing screen where you can edit individual pieces of footage.

4 - This is the editing technique for footage you want to use. There is a marker to mark the start of the footage you want to use.

5 - This is the last marker, which shows where you want your required footage to end.

6 - This is a scroll for when a long piece of footage is imported, it makes it easy to find the piece of footage you want.

7 - This is where I can have complete control over rewind, fast forward and speed.

8 - This is where you put your markers, and where you can click it and drag it onto the timeline.

9 - This shows whether the footage has been rendered or not, if the marker is red, it has not been rendered. This ensures all the effects run smoothly.

10 - This is the video overlay, where you can put one piece of footage over the other, or text over footage etc.

11 - This is the main line of footage, and no text.

12 - This is where audio is imported.

13 - Where the soundtrack is imported.

14 - Where you can watch the full preview of the film to see what it looks like.

Screen grabs from editing process!

Here are some screen grabs from the editing process...

Text box for text controls, and to add text to footage e.g

Producer and director.. cast members etc.

Over lapping the footage of the piano and the hospital shots

Windows effects control allows you to change opacity then preview it to see what it will look like, also 2 videos can be blended together; we have utilized this effect.