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

In the opening of our film, we followed and challenged the conventions seen in relevant media products.

Our film What Happened to Peter Smith is a mystery drama that follows a police investigation into the murder of unpopular teenager Peter Smith. Throughout the film, the detective uncovers details surrounding Peter Smith's murder through the interrogations of five teenagers who were the last to see the victim; this is told through flashbacks to the night Peter disappeared. The detective, whose job is on the line with this case, arrests an innocent teenager to wrap up the case, letting the other suspects, who are revealed to all have some hand in Peter's murder, to leave scott-free.

FORM

Opening sequences generally have a standard form - in order to work as an opening sequence, they they need to fulfill certain functions and contain certain features:

• they establish the tone of the film

The opening to The Nice Guys uses an upbeat soundtrack to create a comedic, lighthearted tone, despite the tragedy of the scene:

Our film opening also uses an upbeat soundtrack to create a lighthearted tone, which also conflicts with the tragedy of Peter's disappearance/murder.

• they set up enigma codes that intrigue the audience 

The opening to Se7en conveys a sense of mystery through the fleeting images of evidence we see (primarily words like 'sexual' and 'murder' ).

Our film opening uses similar enigma codes by introducing the characters in a similar way; showing only portions of them and at first never giving the audience the whole picture.

• they identify the protagonist

• they often include opening credits

The opening of The Usual Suspects include opening credits of their cast and crew, superimposed on the stretch of water.

Our film uses opening credits superimposed onto the action of the opening sequence. The 'typed' transition that these titles have compliment to the formal atmosphere created by the interrogation room, and the suspenseful tone that goes with it.

• they include idents of the companies that produced and distributed them 

Our film opening includes our distribution and production company idents in the beginning of our film opening.

GENRE

A mystery-drama is a sub-genre of crime. Crime films have crime as the main event in the plot and is an umbrella for many sub-genres.

   

Please observe my presentation below to explore the conventions of the mystery drama genre.

Our film opening uses some of these conventions. For instance, our film opening is set in an interrogation room, which is one of the iconic locations associated with mystery drama, and in this location, we included as much iconography associated with the interrogation room as possible so as to strongly establish the genre of the film.

Please click on the image to zoom in

Here is the interrogation room from Broadchurch (TV) for comparison 

We also incorporated a lot of the same formal language associated with an interrogation room scene from a mystery drama into our dialogue:

• "Interview suspended."
• "I think it's time to call your lawyer."
• "On the 26th of November..."

Our characters also follow some of the traditions seen in mystery drama characters. Although the characters are not yet murder suspects in the film opening, the opening does show some typical detective/suspect interactions like you would see in an interrogation event from this genre. Some typical examples include the 'uncooperative teen' and the 'distressed relative' mystery drama archetypes, portrayed respectively by the characters of Raj and Cherish.

Raj chides the detective instead of taking the case seriously.

The detective fails to calm down Peter Smith's girlfriend Cherish.

One character we had a lot of inspiration for was our detective, DC Sean Mann, which is a character type that has been iconised after many on screen iterations. 

The image of the detective heavily used the conventions associated with this character type. 

Narrative Structure

Film's tend to follow a similar structure of progression. Tzvetan Todorov recognises this structure in his theory of a classic narrative pattern. Inside Out is a film that follows this pattern, which I have illustrated in my video below.

Please click play on the video above to see my video on Todorov's Narrative Theory

Todorov also discusses the various attempts at a resolution, where there is hope that the disruption will be fixed, but the attempt is proven false.

Our film both uses and challenges this classic narrative pattern. There are many attempts at a resolution, as the detective follows false leads that do not solve the case.

However, because of the nature of most mystery dramas, the disruption naturally occurs very early on, so there is usually a minimal or non-existent look at an equilibrium. One example of this is in the mystery film Vertigo (1958) by Alfred Hitchcock.

Please click play on the video above to view the opening sequence for Vertigo

Similarly, our film opening begins with Peter Smith already missing and his schoolmates being questioned about his disappearance. Therefore, the balance has already shifted.

Furthermore, at the end of our film there is no satisfying resolution, as the police arrests the wrong suspect. This means that the new equilibrium settled in the conclusion of the film either doesn't exist or is one that does not benefit every character in the way that a new equilibrium might in the conclusion of a film like Inside Out.

The narrative of our film opening is not linear like most film openings; it does use a typical narrative that goes from point a to point b in chronological order, such as the opening of Vertigo. We challenge the typical narrative of a film opening by intercutting different interviews together in our film opening, meaning that the interviews happened in different scenes occurring at different times. Although the interviews are not happening simultaneously, the way we intercut them together makes it seem as if the narratives are in parallel, therefore making the story of the opening clear.

Here, two different interviews are cut seamlessly together to make it seem as if it were one flowing conversation; Tyrone says "No-one likes that prick", the detective asks a question and it is Simon who answers.

Our film opening does use some conventional character roles. Vladimir Propp suggested that characters occupied certain character functions that would drive the narrative, and in the slide show below, you can see the seven main character functions Propp suggested with the example of the mystery/comedy film Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.

• The detective is the 'hero', attempting to restore equilibrium by bringing justice to Peter's murder. He is the agent of change - by instigating the questions he poses to the teenagers, he gets closer to the truth behind Peter's disappearance.

• Peter Smith is the 'victim', his disappearance (eventually seen as murder) being the cause for the disruption. 

• Cherish is the 'princess', giving the detective motivation to find Peter through her emotional delivery. However, she is shown amidst the other teenagers to be as guilty as any of them - this shows a challenge to the character function, as Cherish could simultaneously be the princess and secretly the villain. 

Talia from The Dark Knight Rises is an example of when a princess can simultaneously be a villain

• For the story of the opening sequence, the officer is the helper who gives the detective news on Peter's death in the scene to assist his solving of the case, even if he is only a minor role.

No-one is immediately identifiable as the villain in our film opening. That is because it is by discovering who the murderer is that will bring about the equilibrium (that's typical of the narratives of mystery films). However, although the villain isn't identifiable, they still play a big role in causing the disruption by murdering Peter Smith.

Style

Every film in the crime genre has a very distinct tone and style to it, and it is often established in the very first scene.

Some crime films establish for a shocking, dark tone:

The opening scene to The Goodfellas (1990) - please note the emphasis on shadows and artificial lighting - shifting from the warm glow inside the car to the harsh red at the trunk to signify the unmasking of their murderous personas. We used one artificial light source to create and cast long shadows, utilising the Chiaroscuro effect of suggesting moral ambiguity through shadows. 

Some crime films establish a mysterious tone:

The opening scene to A Clockwork Orange (1971) - please note the long, reverse zoom that reveals more of the absurdist, futuristic-styled set pieces and presents the audience with more questions. We framed our film opening similarly, gradually increasing showing more with the framing until the location of the action is revealed. The close ups refuse to lend a full picture, creating enigma codes that creates mystery surrounding their characters - why do they seem so anxious? Where are they?

We wanted the style of our film to be entertaining and suspenseful. Therefore, we used some elements that would establish the typical darker tone of a conventional mystery/crime drama, whilst also incorporating elements that would keep the film upbeat and enjoyable, so as not to make gloomy and predictable a story about a murder. 

One film that achieves this balance very well is the British crime-comedy film Snatch.

The opening to Snatch (2000)

We used a very similar grading to Snatch, keeping the colour palate monochromatic in the grey/blue scheme. We also used similar editing, using some quick cuts to keep the rhythm pacy. Most notable is our soundtrack, that was inspired heavily by the soundtracks used in the opening Snatch and the theme to British heist drama Hustle - both of which are very upbeat musical tracks with emphasis on 'snapping' percussion and quirky guitar riffs. 

Here are the three soundtracks, including the track we used in our opening sequence, Funky Suspense, for comparison. Please click on the arrows below to scroll between them and click the enlarge icon to make fullscreen.

Binary opposites are another stylistic choice we used to create a sense of antagonisation between the detective and the interviewees. When two people who differ are placed on frame together (e.g. formal/informal, young/old), Levi Strauss' theory of binary opposition explains how this sets up a conflict between the two contrasting figures on screen. 

It is a staple of most interrogation scenes in crime dramas to have conflict between the detective and the interviewees -

A scene from crime film Hackney's Finest (2014)

- so we used binary opposites to display this conflict:

• the detective spoke in received pronunciation/most of the teenagers used slang ('He's safe' - Raj)
• the detective wore formal shirt and tie/the teenagers wore informal clothes (e.g. hoodies, sweaters)
• the detective has a stony facial expression/the teenagers were more expressive

With some research of relevant media products, we developed a broad understanding of the genre conventions of mystery dramas, as well as the basic conventions of the form of film openings. Our final product demonstrates where we have used these conventions, and where we have challenged them to create our own unique film opening. 

Evaluation Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

With six main characters being portrayed in our film's opening sequence, we had ample opportunity to represent social groups. We had to make some important decisions regarding the representation of our predominantly teenage cast, because it was important to represent young adults in a way that did not exclude our primary target audience, made up of 15-25 year olds.

We decided that it would be important to not alienate any facets of our audience by having a skew towards an ethnicity or gender in our cast. A lot of media products create complex and meaningful identities in their teenage ensemble cast by having a diverse band of characters of different ethnicities and genders.

When deciding how to represent particular social groups, we decided both to use and challenge certain stereotypes associated with those social groups. Please observe my presentation below on our intentions and motivations when choosing how to represent young in our film opening.


Press the play button to start the presentation, or navigate the slides by clicking on the dots at the bottom of the screen. Press the bottom right corner to make full screen.

Evaluation Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

As an independent film, we looked for media institutions that had history with distributing independent films. Major studios do not often associate directly with the distribution of smaller budget pictures, but some studios do have subsidiaries that purposefully look for, help fund and distribute independent films.

The Presentation below explains our motivations for choosing which media institutions would likely help distribute our film.


Please click the arrows to navigate my presentation and click the enlarge button to make fullscreen.

BUDGET

Based upon the budgets that are provided to independent movies like ours that are under the Film 4 institution, I would say that the budget for our movie would not exceed £10 million.

In Bruges is a crime/thriller film by Film 4 that had a budget of  £15m.
Because of the 

Evaluation Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for our film What Happened to Peter Smith? are crime/mystery film fans, skewed towards British audiences aged between 15 and 25. This is the demographic we aim to directly attract.

The secondary audience for our film is a wider, mainstream audience made up of fans of thriller and suspence films, aged 15 and up. This is the demographic of the public we believe will be attracted to our film. In the presentation below, I will identify our primary and secondary audience, as well as their likely media habits and lifestyle choices:


 Please navigate the Prezi using the arrows, and click on the icon in the bottom-right corner to make full screen.

Evaluation Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract and address fans of the crime/mystery genre with our film opening, we must first observe what motivates audiences to seek and consume media and what they receive from it. Blumler and Katz suggested in 1974 that audiences receive four main gratifications from consuming media products; this is what is called the Uses and Gratifications Theory. In the mind map below, I have illustrated and explained the four main facets of the Users and Gratifications Theory.



We used the Uses and Gratifications theory when making our artistic decisions, because we felt that as the brief clearly states a motivation towards attracting the target audience, this approach would be very audience-orientated. Below, I have written up some tables that explain how we incorporated Blulmer and Katz's Uses and Gratifications theory into our creative decision making when constructing our film opening.

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK

We recieved written and video feedback from our peers in response to our film opening sequence. Please take a look at the feedback we found:

POSITIVE FEEDBACK:

✓ Nearly everyone could remember the film's title

✓ Most people could tell the story of the opening sequence

✓ Nearly everyone could identify the genre (at least to the broad genre of crime)

✓ Nearly everyone said that they though the film worked and that they would watch the rest

✓ Some people could identify one character who was there favourite

✓ Most people complimented the music choices and the cinematography 

✓ After watching, some people were intrigued as to who out of the teenagers was the murderer (e.g. my friend Sian said she thought Cherish did it, because 'she's the least obvious one, and she looked shady')

The positive feedback told us that we had succeeded in attracting and addressing our audience our audience. 

• The fact that a lot of our audience remembered our film's title and character names told us that we had gratified them from an informative standpoint. 
• Their compliments to our film opening's music and cinematography shows proof that we had succeeded in gratifying our audience's need for entertainment. I think our use of the Kanye West song 'Devil in the New Dress' helped this, which was a socially conscious motive, that succeeded in targeting and entertaining our teenage audience through recognition. Another film that did this was Suicide Squad, which included pop songs like 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and recent ones like 'You Don't Own Me' in their film to attract their soundtrack, which sold half a million copies in six weeks. 

Suicide Squad Trailer - feat. Bohemian Rhapsody

Devil in a New Dress by Kanye West, featured in our film opening

• The fact that some people could identify their favourite character also told us that we had gratified the audience's need to see themselves, or their values and behaviours that the audience agree with or enjoy, reflected in the media, thus reinforcing their personal identities. 
• The discussions we heard afterwards about who the murderer was showed us that young people were invested and entertained by the 'whodunnit' element of the genre, which let us know that our target audience (British, 15-16 year old fans of mystery dramas) had been positively affected.

To see if we attracted our audience, we set up an interview with some peers after they watched our film opening. We were especially pleased to see that Sian Richefond and Meera Nakrani could name so many of our characters' names after just one sitting. 

CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK

✘ Consider different lighting choices

✘ More cuts to increase the pace a bit more

These criticisms are signifiers that we did not gratify our audience in every way. Perhaps the way we chose to implement cuts/light our was not aesthetically entertaining for them.

Here are some other examples of feedback we received from other 16-17 year old British people using a questionnaire.

Feedback by Adam Omasta-Milsom

Feedback from Joe Davis

Evaluation Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

As I began Media Studies at the beginning of sixth form, this was my first experience of using professional filmmaking equipment. In hindsight, I have learned a great deal about the technology involved in creating a media product during the construction of our film opening, and I am now comfortable with operating the technologies I have been introduced to since the start of this project.

Here are the pieces of technology I have used during the construction of our film opening:



Please watch my presentation below to see my technological learning curve:

Please press the play button to start my presentation, use the arrows to navigate the slides and click on the enlarge icon to make fullscreen.

Evaluation Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I feel that I have learned a lot since the preliminary task and I have made immense progress from it. Here is how I believe I have demonstrated my learning since the preliminary task and how it shows in our group's final product:

HOW HAVE I PROGRESSED?

Overall, I think that I have made significant progress since doing the evaluation. The prelim was a fantastic starting point for me as a newcomer to Media Studies and helped me garner the basic skills and knowledge of fundamental film making. Since the prelim, I have learned many more skills, notably in the realms of :

• Grading - I have a good grasp of how to give my footage a colour gradient and the emotional effect it can have on an audience through the tone it creates.
• Sound mixing - I now know how to tone down moments of high volume and keep the audio consistent.
• Camera movement and framing - whilst our prelim had unimpressive framing and no camera movement, my work on the project taught me stylistic ways a camera can be used.

Construction Post 30: Looking back - refections on our final outcome

Here is our final film opening:

I believe that this project has gone very well.

We have worked incredibly well as a group and have enjoyed the process a lot - we have got to know each other over the course of this term and I'm happy that we have bonded well as a group. We have already received very positive feedback from our peers  and a lot of people have said that they really enjoyed it - I particularly enjoyed the reaction from my friend Noa who gasped at the pan from Tyrone to the detective and then back to reveal Simon.

This feedback has made me feel that we have achieved what we set out to do when creating this sequence, which was to create an entertaining film opening that people would be interested in seeing the rest of.

Overall, although we have encountered a few problems and challenges along the way, I feel very happy about how our film opening turned out and I think that it went the best it could've done.

Construction Post 29: My technical learning curve during the construction phase

I think that my skills with technology have majorly improved over the course of making this media product.

For instance I believe that my knowledge on how to successfully use lighting technologies has dramatically improved, as can be seen by comparing these shots from the test shoot and the main shoot.

The first shot (from the test shoot) is very dimly lit, which obscured the action of the foot tapping.
The second shot (from the main shoot) is lit with a miniature light to throw the action into greater clarity.

I also believe that I have improved my skills with post-production technologies. I have learned how to grade shots to make the colour palate of our video consistent.

In our test shoot, we did use any grading, which meant that the look of our film opening sometimes changed between shots.

In our main shoot, we used grading to keep the colour scheme of our film opening consistent and match the tone of the film opening.

Construction Post 28: My personal contribution to post-production

We all worked very well when we edited as a group, and we made sure to share the editing duties when we worked together. This usually involved rotating where we sat so that each of ushers a chance to take a seat at the computer.

When working individually in our scheduled editing times outside of lessons, I made a lot of progress with the sound editing and the grading. I enjoyed experimenting with the possibilities of colour grading, which I could then show the rest of my group to see if they thought any of them looked effective. I believe I made a lot of progress with the sound mixing, and it was good developing that skill. I reviewed all of our audio and saw when the volume spiked or was too quiet, and I made sure that my editing kept the sound consistent and comfortable to listen to.

It was good to communicate our individual progress to the other members of our group so that they could review it, so we wrote each other notes that we left at our edit suite to keep the group informed. This way, we could keep track of everyone's editing choices, which helped us work better as a group.

Construction Post 27: My personal contribution to filming the sequence

I assisted Emilio transporting our prop table over to his house so that it could be set up for the filming location in advance of the main shoot; I had initially provided my own fold out table for the test shoot, but as we decided that the prop was a bit too large, we used a slightly smaller model. On the shoot day, I helped our group unpack and set up the table and the kit, and I also helped clear the shelves in the background to keep their contents out of shot. I contributed a variety of props to the sequence - this included the packet of tissues and Cherish's necklace.

Each member of our group took filming and directing duties if they were not acting. I shot a lot of the close ups and the shots involving only the teenagers, because I was acting for a lot of the sequence.

This is me filming in the main shoot

Construction Post 26: Edit week 2: titles, video FX, grading

In advance of our second edit week, we created an edit schedule to coordinate our editing time outside of class. We agreed to schedule as much free time that we had available, because we knew this week would be labour intensive scoping our opening sequence for any problems we could fix, and experimenting with the text, grading and sound to achieve the best results in all of these facets.

Titles

On Live Type, I found it interesting experimenting with the different effects we could give our titles. I particularly liked how many facets of the effects could be changed to create the effect we wanted. For instance, I sped up an effect that made the letters appear one by one to make them look like they were being typed by a computer. This made them more suitable for the tone and genre of our film opening.

Me editing titles on LiveType

Grading 

On Adobe Premiere Pro, we had the option of changing the colour palate of our film. We decided that a dark, blue colour suited the suspenseful tone of of our film opening and reflected the colour of many  mystery films. I particularly thought that the three colour changer wheels gave us a lot of freedom to find the perfect colour combinations.

The three colour wheels available on Adobe Premiere Pro - shadows, midtones, highlights

Sound Mixing

We could also create alter the sound quality of the soundtrack and the dialogue. This was very useful for us as there were moments when the volume of people's dialogue or sound effects would spike, and by adding key-frames, we were able to keep the audio consistent and comfortable to listen to.

With this, we could see when the audio volume would spike.

I believe this week went very well. We finished our titles, grading and sound mixing in good time and our group cooperated well to agree upon the best option from our experimentations. Initially we had a much longer cut that lasted over three minutes, so at the end of the second edit week, we created a shorter cut that was closer to 'two minutes' as mentioned in our project's brief. This is the cut we eventually decided upon using, because the story and characters were all still clearly defined and the shots we did cut did not add much more to either. Overall, I believe this week was a success.

Construction Post 25: Our back up shoot

Having reviewed the footage of our basic cut, we decided not to do a back up shoot. We based this decision on a few things:

• We had enough footage and alternative takes we had from our main shoot to use in the case that one of our shots were problematic; for example, we had filmed master shots for all of the character dialogues, meaning that if we found a glaring problem with a sequence in our opening, we could always use the master shot as a backup.

• From our feedback with the teachers, we were told that one or two extra shots might improve some of the story beats (e.g. a shot of Lucy fake crying). However, they agreed that it would not be worth calling back actors to travel to the filming location in order to do this.

Because we felt comfortable knowing that none of our shots were outstanding with problems, for instance problems with continuity, we agreed as a group that we did not need to make any further changes in regards to shooting new footage. 

Construction Post 24: Edit week 1: the basic edit

Before we began the first edit week, we created an edit schedule that we used to coordinate our editing time outside of class.

Edit Week 1 was very successful. Because we had more shots than most groups, and more takes per shot, it took a substantial amount of time to label all of our shots and then decide on our best take. However, we managed to compile a basic edit before Friday, meaning we could use our sessions on Friday to review our cut and decide on whether we needed a back up shoot.

Me and Sayo putting our shots onto the timeline

It was in this week that we decided on which versions of shots we would use, in the cases where we took multiple different takes. Most notably was our pan shot, where we took around seven different versions of the same conversation for variety. After reviewing our footage, we chose the version whereby we would cut the portion of the shot where the two characters would switched, as we thought that once we had colour corrected it and edited the transition more finely, it would result in the best version of the shot.

Overall, the basic edit we created put us in good step for the second week, where we will need to do colour correction, sound mixing and titles; we worked well to turn up to our scheduled editing times so that we could finish our edit in advance of the deadline.

Construction Post 23: Our post-production kit

We used the following pieces of software during the post-production process:

Editing Software

Adobe Premiere Pro

Premiere Pro was an easy to use editing software which granted us a lot of options and effects that we could use.

✓ We saved time when making our rough cut by being able to quickly cut our best takes using the in-and-out markers to establish roughly where we wanted the beginning and end of the shots to be, which we could then drag into the timeline. 

✓ We could use the software across two screens; one of which we could use for the editing and the other to review the result. 

✓ It offered a number of tracks on the timeline, which allowed us to edit the sound and visuals simultaneously. 

LiveType

Apple LiveType Interface

Live Type was the software we used to create our titles and attribute them with effects.

✓ The software had a variety of effects to choose from, and we could experiment with the effects themselves (e.g. changing their speed and their keyframes).

✓ There were multiple tracks to each piece of text, meaning we could have two effects at once, or turn off certain effects and keeping them saved whilst we experimented with new ones.

✗ The effects available were a little too cartoon-like for the suspenseful tone we wanted to establish and few of them could be altered successfully to replicated typical titles seen in the mystery genre.

Construction Post 22: Our main shoot session

On reflection, I think that our main shoot went well. Despite planning on shooting more shots than we had in our test shoot, we worked efficiently enough to complete our task in roughly the same amount of time it took to film during our test shoot.

Our group decided that it was best to capture a variety of different ideas for certain shots, so that we had a large choice when it came to editing, and we succeeded in doing this. This was especially useful for one of our more difficult shots, the pan, where the camera had to pan between two characters and then seamlessly pan back to show another character.  We had a variety of different shots planned for this sequence, and experimented a lot on the day, including shot/reverse shots for the exchange of dialogue as well as the pan itself. We worked well as a group to experiment with each others ideas and shot a lot of footage in an efficient manner so as not to waste time.

Sayo preparing the camera for the pan

We changed a number of things from our test shoot, and whilst a few did not work, most of the changes worked really well:

• We switched the actors of Cherish and Lucy, as we thought that they would be better suited acting the other's role. The actors worked a lot better in their new roles in the main shoot and, because we gave them a script in advance so they could become familiar with their new lines, we encountered no problems.

Top Row: Test Shoot
Bottom Row: Main Shoot

• We also had some new shots planned for the sequence to increase the screen time of characters such as Cherish. The new dialogue worked really well and did not majorly interfere with our shoot time, meaning none of our actors were staying longer than necessary.

• We added some lighting to the shot where Raj is tapping his foot, and the effect came out very well.

Lighting Raj's foot shot

• We tried out a contra-zoom on the shot where the detective reveals that Peter's body has been found. We did this by moving the camera back on a dolly whilst also zooming in on the detective. However, it was very difficult to get the framing consistent whilst doing this and did not create the desired effect. Therefore, we opted for a straightforward zoom, like we did in our test shoot. 

Because it worked very well in the test shoot, we tried to share out the duties of cameraman and director as fairly as possible. Because I was involved in the majority of shots as an actor, I was delegated the role of cameraman whenever the shot did not contain my character, most notably the close ups on the teenagers.

Sayo and Emilio alternated between cameraman and director between the rest of the shots to try and keep the duties as even as possible. This method worked really well and meant we all got our chance to be involved in the technical side of the shoot.

The main problem we encountered as a group was when we forgot to turn off the overhead lights before filming and shot an hour's worth of footage before realising our mistake. Although this meant we could not use this footage, we were able to reshoot the footage very quickly to make up for the wasted time and, luckily, we did not encounter any problems with our scheduled shooting time for actors because of this mistake. 

Overall, we worked very well together as a group during the main shoot, and I enjoyed it a lot. As well as working well shooting our film opening, we also had a good time in our breaks and between shots, which made the day really enjoyable.

Construction Post 21: Our production kit

We utilised the following pieces of kit to construct our film opening:

Camera and Microphone

Canon Legia HFG30
Canon DM-100 Directional Microphone

✓ The camera recorded the action to a good standard in the dimly lit conditions we were filming in. 

✓ The camera was light and portable, meaning we could easily transport the camera to new positions between shots. Time wasn't wasted, therefore, as the intervals of time where we moved the camera to a new perspective were quick. This also gave us leeway to experiment with some shots and try out new perspectives; for example, when we were filming different perspectives and movements for our tilt shot, the versatility of the camera enabled us to quickly try out a number of ideas. 

✓ The camera had a playback function, meaning we could re-watch certain shots to see if they needed reshooting. This was a great tool to have because we wanted to try our hardest not to require a backup shoot, as it would mean calling back a large number of actors to give up their free time - the playback function meant we did a lot of retaking shots on the day.

✓ The microphone picked up dialogue and sound effects (e.g. the opening/closing of the door) really clearly, and didn't require much supervision as it was planted on top of the camera. Using the set of headphones provided, we could hear the quality of the sound whilst recording, meaning we could tell if the audio quality was off. 

✗ Because the microphone was on top of the camera, it meant that the sound quality changed between shots depending on how far away the source of the sound was from the camera. This meant that in editing, a lot of sound mixing was needed to keep the quality of the sound consistent. 

Tripod

Libel TH-650 HD Tripod

✓ The tripod kept all our stationary shots very still; this kept the focus on the action rather than any handheld camera shaking that would've been a distraction.

✓ It was easily adjustable, and we could take a lot of different shot types with it; for example, when we wanted to take shots from a high angle, we could elongate the legs of the tripod and tilt the camera downwards, and when we wanted to perform a tilt, we could pivot the camera using the handle on the tripod to point it between two characters. 

Dolly

✗ It was a bit of a struggle to fit the tripod on top of the dolly, so some time was wasted.

✗ We encountered similar problems with the dolly that we had in our test shoot. For the main shoot we used the dolly for a pan and an attempt at a contra-zoom. Unfortunately, the wheels of the dolly were very loud on most surfaces, which interfered with the audio of the scene and even after using a carpet surface to combat the noise, the camera on top of the dolly was still very shaky. We decided against using the shots where we used the dolly in our basic edit, and opted for the handheld ones instead. 

Miniature Light 

✓ After deciding that some shots (e.d. Saj's foot under the table) were not lit well enough, we took with us a small light source to the main shoot. The light was effective in brightening some of the more shadowy shots, meaning none of the action was lost in darkness. 

We hired our kit from our school media department. We did this via an equipment release form, which everyone in our group signed.