Blog reflection 1

Technology - Have you learned new online programmes for showing off work?

I have used various online Programmes such a prezi and Premier Pro. These have various effects which improve the work. I feel comfortable on these programs and I feel as though I will improve as I know more effects. I now prefer to use these softwares as I feel as though they improve the outlay and design of my work.

What mark out of 20 is it so far?

I would give myself a mark of 15 out of 20 as I feel like I could make my blog be more appealing for the readers attention. I feel as though I need to be careful when I am typing as I constantly spell words wrong when I am typing to fast.

Where could you be a little more thorough or a little less complacent?

I think that I could be more detailed on my analysis as I feel as though I am not being so precise, however I do not want my blog to be to full of text otherwise it is not appealing to see and will seem quite boring. I try to use different software's and images in order to fulfil the analysis and to make sure that it is also fun to look through.

Is it fun to look through?

Yes I think that it is fun to look through as I have used various softwares in order to show text and various images which makes it fun to look through. It is not just full of text however I feel as though I need to make it more entertaining.

Is the learning journey evident?

Yes the learning journey is evident as now I feel as though I can analyse and give my views and opinions on a wider range of film openings. I feel more confident and on my blog I think that I understand more. I feel more confident in blogging now.

Three targets to improve blog -

Use more technical terms in blog posts

Make my blog more appealing

Make sure that my blog is organised

The eZ life: Storyboard

Fonts for titles research

Zombie Titles

Drug Titles

The Script for the eZ life opening Sequence

Marketing Campaign

Marketing campaign from James Eagle

Health and Safety (Risk Assessment)

Recce Shots

Today we looked at some particular locations at which our film would start. This is similar to the opening scene of Spike island where there is a tracking shot which revolves around a wall. We felt as though this is a good place where we can fit our titles into our opening scene. I have found three locations at which all have a plain brick wall which we could use. We are a bit worried about the lighting as we do not want the shot to be greeny. However the texture of the wall would be good.

This is a shot of the wall in the daylight, outside the media department.

This is a shot of the wall in the daylight, opposite the media department, in the night time the shot does not appear with the flash. 

This is a shot of the wall in the daylight, outside the sixth form block. in the night time the shot does not appear with the flash. 

This is a shot of the wall in the night, outside the sixth form block. This is a photo with the flash on.

This is a shot of the wall in the night, outside the sixth form block. This is a photo without the flash.

Production Diary

Day 1: Monday 10th November
Today we pitched our own individual film ideas. We then discussed eachother's ideas and contributed to what we felt would improve or what we could do slightly differently. During this discussion we then choose the film idea which we felt would be different and something that has not been done before. We choose this film then gave our own ideas to try and improve and develop the idea. We used this as we felt some ideas would have been to hard to do. We felt as though if we contributed our own ideas and discussed them this would benefit the film itself. We choose Issak's film pitch idea, The eZ Life

Day 2: Tuesday 11th November
Today we Pitched our film, The eZ life to our fellow peers and teachers. We received mixed feedback with some really taking to the idea however some people found it as though to be too hard and that the party scene will need lots of shots in order to select and pick the best ones. However the actual idea was overall accepted and that this could work. The fact that it is something that is different and has never been done before was something that would be exciting. It is an unusual but clever film pitch. We did have one critism which was later resolved. We classified the film as a 15 certificate however this was questioned by many of our peers as our film involves drugs however we resolved this issue and we were correct in thinking that our film arrived inside the 15.

Day 3: Thursday 13th November
Today we researched certain films which we felt as though would help us and give us some inspiration. I choose the film 21 and over. I choose this film as it is an age group at which our film is targeted at. Our actors are of similar age. Issak researched the film Zombieland. James researched the film, zombeavers. We all picked different films and we collectively decided that this would see a wider range of film openings.

Day 4: Friday 14th November
Today we had to research different titles. We did this to try and get some inspiration and some thought as to be what our film title could look like. We also done this to see the timing of the titles and the fonts. This would overall help us in picking our title. We each done this separately and together we came back into a group to discuss various titles that we felt were good or what we could do for our own titles in our film opening.

Day 5: Monday 17th November
Today we had a group meeting and we allocated roles for the tasks that we had to do e.g. Storyboard, audience research, etc. We felt as though if we allocated this now that this would save us time as we know who is doing what. We allocated these tasks to what everyone felt comfortable with and what we felt as thought would work well the best. We also created a moodboard of which gave us inspiration. We did this to give us an overall idea of the shots and the posters which we felt would help us. We choose similar genres and types of films so this would help us look at the shots for our particular film.

Day 6: Tuesday 18th November
Today I researched a similar genre film in which i researched various stats and information about the film which i thought would best suit our particular film. This film was Zombieland. This is similar to our film, with both including zombies. Issak researched different types of music for our film opening. Issak had to make sure that it was copyright free so therefore he researched and played different musics at which he felt would work best. James created a powerpoint which was synopsis planning. James did this as a brief plan for the overall plan. We then had a group meeting at the end to make sure that we was all on track and we then spoke about what we had researched.

Day 7: Thursday 20th November
Today I created our production diary as we realised that we had to post this constantly up to date. James started the script for our film opening, whilst Issak started the storyboard.

Day 8: Friday 21st November
Today I researched film institutions in which we felt would distribute our film. James continued producing and making the script. Issak continued to create the storyboard. We discussed our various ideas for the script and storyboard so we all felt as thought the storyboard would be as close as it could towards out final shots that we want to take.


Day 9: Monday 24th November
Today I researched certain locations and got some recce shots in which our locations could be. Me and Issak also started to create the storyboard video. Once we completed this however we received some feedback and we realised that we had to introduce titles into the video. James started the marketing campaign presentation.

Day 10: Tuesday 25th November
Today I created our risk assessment for our health and safety for our shooting risk assessment. James created our marketing campaign PowerPoint whilst Issak continued to work on our storyboard.

Day 11: Thursday 27th November
Today i planned the shooting schedule and together in our group meeting we decided what days we would film. We decided that if we planned certain days that we could all make that we would keep to this schedule. James finished the script after feedback which we felt as though we could improve the script from our group meeting so James redone the script at which he improved. James also researched different titles fonts for which our genre was evident. Issak finished the storyboard editing and started to research various music research for our film. We started filming the first shots to our film.

Day 12: Friday 28th November
Today we continued filming shots for our film and started editing for our film. Together we filmed the first three shots of our film. We took two shots of every shot that we had so that we could pick the best shot which would fit our film.

Day 13: Monday 1st December
Today we continued to film certain shots for our film and Issak continued to edit the film. I researched various film institutions and researched Film4. James researched various props that we were using for our film.

Day 14: Tuesday 2nd December
Today we continued to film certain shots for our film and together we contributed to edit the film together. Issak continued to edit although we would constantly ask eachother's opinions and what we could do to improve it. We researched various inspirations to try and help us improve our film.

Day 15: Wednesday 3rd December
Today we continued to film certain shots for our film as we try to continue filming as a way to see what we could do and need to improve our film sequence. We looked for different locations in ways which were we could improve the shots to make them better. James made the shot list of what shots that we are using for our film sequence.


Day 16: Thursday 4th December
Today we continued to film certain shots for our film as we found shots at which we wanted to improve for our film opening sequence. James started the powerpoint whilst James started the representation powerpoint. I started the timeline of our opening sequence.

Day 17: Friday 5th December
Today our first draft needed to be in. This needed to be in so that we could recieve feedback from our fellow peers. We however continued filming on this day in order to finish as we were slightly rushing. I also finished the timeline of our opening sequence.

Week commencing 8th December:
This week we recieved our feedback from various peers and teachers in order to try and see what we would could improve. Our feedback was what we expected and was very good however we felt as though we could improve our film when we had group discussions. We continued to film for our opening sequence and we changed other sections and shots of our film in order to improve it. We constantly stayed every night after school as a group till 6 oclock at least. Together as a team we discussed various ways our film could be the best it could be. As we were ahead with paperwork we filmed various of shots that we did not use and shots that we filmed twice as we were ahead of time. The final film needed to be in on Friday 12th December and therefore we focussed our time on the film opening sequence. After a long and enjoyable journey we finished our film: The eZ Life.

Synopsis Planning

Synopsis planning from James Eagle

Target Audience Research

Today we researched a similar genre film in which we researched various stats and information about the film which we choose, Zombieland. We felt this is similar to our film, with both including Zombies. This has given us an idea to which worked well and which did not.

Moodboard of Initial ideas including inspirational shots from real film

Title's Research to Opening Sequence

The Captain America Winter Soldier:

This Title sequence has very Bold titles for the names of People. It also has a variety of special effects at which are all cartoon. The colors are varied towards the end however the colours at the start resemble the title with it being a winter soldier which relates to the white winter and soldiers back in the day everything was black and white. The constant theme was then taken out by a red which resembles blood and war. The special effects are very consistent. The actors names come towards the end of the opening sequence.

History of Title Designs

Today we were given a task of researching different types of titles.
I found some of these titles very inspirational especially the Vertigo one as that fits in with our genre. It was an air of mystery and the title fitted in well with the background image of the eye. I also liked the title of Pink Panther as the size of the title increased as well as good effects which made the title stand out. The colours of the titles were mixed through this video. Every titles colour however linked with the film itself e.g. Pink Panther title colour was pink. The titles that I found worked the best had special effects such as Shaun of the dead where the title transformed into blood.

Similar genre film openings

Today we researched certain films which we felt as though would help us and give us some inspiration. I choose the film 21 and over. I choose this film as it is an age group at which our film is targeted at. Our actors are of similar age. In this film it is heavily involved in drugs where the main characters took the drugs and over time they become more heavily consumed with alcohol. This is similar to our film as in our film we are showing party scene. We were asked to create a timeline in order of the opening credits and to give us an idea in what would work well and what didn’t work well.

21 and over:

Timeline:
0-6 seconds there is a blacked out screen, with music on in the background which builds up tension.
6-21 seconds there is the person who made the credits, then there is the distributor who in this case was columbia pictures, and then the production company which in this case was, A trigger street production,  in association with relativity media. Up to this, the credits are moved quickly and this is due to the music. The music is quick which then blends into the credits. There are single digit number in the background for effect.
21- 25 seconds the title of the film, 21 fly's into the shot and stays there.
25- 37 seconds the main characters names appear onto to cards as a link to the title 21 as the game of cards is called 21. This is a good pun which is shown throughout the opening credits. The main names are given there own card such as Jacobs Pitks. The title links well with the card of the Joker card. All the names link in to the cards. These main characters are on screen for longer than the film companies at the start and this is to show the names in the film. The main characters in the film are shown. The colours contrast to what the cards usually looks like, this is added affect for the audiences viewing. e.g. the ace of spades usually  has a white background with black spades however in this video this is the reverse. This creates an overall enigma as to why things are not the same and why every card has a black background.
38- 43 seconds these are characters who are not as important and therefore they are grouped together. This is where the characters and these people are not as important in the film itself. They are not apart of the main characters. These three people shown the time is quicker which highlights that they do not have as big part in the film itself.
44- 50 seconds this is where the director and producers are shown. they are given longer than the actors as they are the people who are the most important in creating the film. However they are after the actors as they are behind the scene when creating the film whereas the actors are the people who you will see.
51-54 seconds the cinematographer and the editor are shown. They are both shown in one place.
55- 70 seconds there is a series of special effects after all the titles are done. Then the title of the film arrives which ends the opening credits of the film. The title of the film is shown at the start and end of the film.

Feedback on film pitch

Today we pitched our ideas to our fellow peer's and we received very good feedback although there was one thought which was to our film certificate. They believed that our film was not a 15 but an 18 as it contained taking drugs. However we researched this as we thought that our film was in the 15 category.
After doing some research about what is allowed in 15 and 18 films
We found this that a 15 allows : 'Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse.'
This means that fortunately our film would be accepted as the main message of the film is not to take drugs. This was important as if it was an 18 rated film and a teen drama it would have a very limited target audience.

Group meeting

Today we pitched our own individual film ideas. We then discussed eachother's ideas and contributed to what we felt would improve or what we could do slightly differently. During this discussion we then choose the film idea which we felt would be different and something that has no been done before. We choose this film and then gave our own ideas to try and impove and develop the idea.
After we gave feedbackwe choose issak's film pitch idea, The eZ life:

Issak's Film Pitch - The eZ Life

Individual Film Pitch from issakcook

James Film Pitch - Second bite of the Apple

My Individual Film Pitch

Today we created our own individual film idea. Between the three of us we had to create our own ideas. We then had to pitch our own ideas to the rest of our group. By doing this we created more ideas and then we together picked the best idea which we all contributely discussed our ideas.

Past Student Film Openings

In today's lesson we evaluated three past student film opening scene's. We did this to give us an insight into what we think the sequences were like. This will also help us and give us some ideas which we could see what it is like to create a film opening scene.




Roses are Red is an opening sequence which came across as a teen drama or teen bully. This came across evident as it was fairly stereotypical in the fact that the younger girl was listening to an upbeat song something that is associated with a teen girl that is commonly seen doing make up and taking a long time to get changed. I think the editing skills and the camera shots was very clever as they organised this around the titles. However although the editing with the titles was extremly well done i found this piece rather boring as personally i would not like to see somebod getting changed for up to three minutes. This rather dragged for me and it did not make me want to carry on watching. However the twist at the end did add some extra effect of mystery but i felt as though i waited to long for that to happen. I think the editing was really good however the music i found rather irratating. Overall i think that it had really good editing. I gave this task a Level 3 42/60.



GEMINI is an opening sequence which came across as a thriller. This came across as a thriller because it had a cetain air of mystery. It gave the audience an enigma as it started off straight into the action which i personally liked. It made the audience ask lots of questions such as why is there two couples. It enters straight into the action which immediately makes the audience want to carry on. The editing was not great as i found the movement between he camera shots to be quite sudden and although they tried to make this to add to the mystery i found this was not the case and every shot was not timed perfectly. some of the editing however was really good effect such as showing the splitscreen and the timing of the sound effect of the gun came across really well. The titles and the movement of the titles was a really good idea and the colours suited the genre. I think although the idea was really good and it made the audience want to carry on i feel like if they edited and sorted out the sound to a higher quality then it would of been a really good piece. I felt as though some of the acting could have been better. Overall i think that it was a good opening sequence. I gave this ask a Level 3  47/60



The Edge is an opening sequence which came across as a thiller. This came across as a thriller because it was a very mysterious piece of work where the use of older age groups showed this. It immediately gave the audience an engima such as: why was the boy there? why was the boy on roller skates? This opening sequence had very good titles which suited and was in time with the music and camera shots. The editing was really well done as the shots all flowed and the titles entered at precisly the right moment. The action made the audience want to watch more and the overall story was quite unique as you dont often see a young boy on roller skates being chased. The music was very in tune with all the movements with the music starting off slowly before being in tune with the chase. They used different shots from a person view to a high angle view which really created a greay effect. The fast paced shots and movement from one shot to another made it flow and the chase looked real life and believeable. Overall i think that it was a great opening sequence. I gave this task a Level 4 60/60