Minutes of Group Meeting

15th September 2009

All present: AP, EA, SR, AC
Of today's group meeting we shall be particularly be discussing the three highlighted topics.

1. Assigning tasks and roles to each individual group member
As previously discussed it has been confirmed that both Anna Philona and Elena Antoniades will be taking the joint role of group leaders. Although choices will be made as whole group decisions there will need to be dominant group leaders who will both at times take charge as well as strongly contributing to the groups work. Furthermore this week we have assigned tasks to one another to be fulfilled in the duration of one week, this way it can be guaranteed that the group work is done and that we are on our way forward to achieving to our highest potential. Therefore for this week Anna Philona and Elena Antoniades have been assigned to fulfil the task of researching soap trailers. this will help us with ideas for our own soap trailer and will be added onto this group blog as primary research. The following members Anna Constantinou and Shadei Rabeie will be researching soap posters/magazines being advertised, helping the group to find out how current soaps attract their audiences. These tasks will be expected to be completed within a period of one week in order for the group to be able to move on to following out more important tasks that lay ahead.

2. Current Storylines
Although we have already discussed and planned our pitches it was felt that these needed to be reviewed and verified for our overall final two decisions. We have concluded that our previous two main storylines will remain the same. Our first one being - a young celibate teen falls pregnant although not in a way that is her own choice. The teen attends a party but to her horror her drink is spiked. The night ends in a total blur. These scenes we will be using claustrophobic shots. the morning after and pieces of the puzzle begin to connect, not only does she find out she has broken her celibacy there is also another hidden secret soon to be found out.
For our second storyline we wanted something a little more different though still just as dramatic. "Cultural clash" - this story is based around the life of a young adult and his/her (the gender still undecided) strict religious family. The family are persistent to find their child a wife/husband encouraging them that arranged marriage is the respected method, yet little to their knowledge do they know that their "baby" is actually a homosexual.

3. Finding locations
This was discussed briefly. After having discussed our storylines it is now easier to come up with and for the next step to be take into where we will be filming these scenes. With our first storyline, involved will be a party scene. We will need to create this by using props, lighting and confined space. the room will need to be big enough to hold around 4 people to produce the atmosphere there is at parties. therefore possibility will be filmed at one of the group members house. We are planning to film claustrophobic shots of the teen being led up a spiral staircase, fortunately one of the group members have this at their home so be will be shooting this at Elena's house.
Our second storyline "cultural clash" we aspire an olden traditional house using props such as icons to make it appear that a religious family lives here. Preferably a living room will work best for this scene where they could be praying. We will also need a kitchen or dining area to use on the emphasis of the arranged marriage scene. We have discussed our scene ideas and have concluded the above locations that will be needed. However we will be holding another meeting beforehand to finalize these locations.

Starting the Coursework Pre - Production

We have now began our A2 Coursework which involves creating a new unique TV Soap trailer. During lessons we have began our pre-production tasks in order to get the ball rolling immediately. Our group consists of the following people:
Elena Antoniades (me)
Anna Philona
Anna Constantino
Shadei Rabbeie

All of us will work together as a group to achieve the best outcome, although each individual is assigned to specific roles. After each tasks is done the group will meet together and confer the outcomes, if we feel the need for improvement this action will be taken. We first began by discussing different storylines and all agreed that it would be wise to first take part in primary research before undergoing any tasks, this way we would be directly targeting our target audience.
Primary research
Questionnaires - we designed questionnaires with eight different questions, ranging from Our target age group to selecting what is your favourite theme in a soap. The answers from these will help us to find out what elements will be needed for be our new TV soap at and also what type.
Our results show -
Most watched soaps: Eastenders & Hollyoaks
favourite type of soap: Traditional Community based
favourtie themes in soaps: Drama
Expectations from soaps: Realistic characters, exciting storylines, psychopaths
These results show that the two most commonly watched tv soaps by our target audience 16-25 years olds are Eastenders and Hollyoaks, these appeal most to them. They both contain the community based setting and enough modern influences to appeal to our target audience of late teenagers to young adults. These results and responses will be taken into account whilst properly constructing our storylines and filming our soap trailer in order to appeal to our young adult target audeince as much as possible. As well as taking part in questionnaires I and Shadei also watched a range of TV soaps and dramas. We analysed these in terms of genre, representation, narrative, audience and media language. We researched into Tv trailers too, finding out how these are represented towrads the target audeince and used to draw them in.
The Pitch. Before any of the production begins we will need to have storyline ideas therefore as a group each individual has come up with one pitch idea each:
- Love triangle, two boys one girl.
- Cheating affrair
- Suicidal victim
- Drug addict goes to far
After discussing all our pitch ideas our group came to two decisions which will feel will be most attracting to our new target audience.
Final pitch ideas
- Cultural clash in small town
- Celibate girl gets pregnant

Skills Development AS - Opening of a thriller

Technical problems

Beforehand I was unaware of the problems that would arise through this whole process including pre and post production. I thought that it would be much easier than it actually was. However the outcome of our product was also better than I had expected. Through the filming process I learned that there would be aspects and situations when we were unable to achieve the outcomes we had wanted. Two events we had to re-schedule and re-film, firstly this was due to lighting problems. As a group we took too long to plan and discuss what we aimed to accomplish, by the time we had finished the lighting outside was too dark. Therefore this resulting in the shots we took being blurry. We weren't happy with this, consequently we re-scheduled learning from our mistakes.

Our second time round, due to technical problems of the camera not being fully charged, yet again we had to re-schedule for a re-shot. Although in the end our outcome were greatly improved. When we filmed the trail of the blood we used many different shots. We used unsteady camera movement to achieve a sense of the characters movements, tracking her feet/legs as she followed the blood. This was successfully used so that the audience could experience the feeling of the unknown. In the basement scenes we used our surroundings to our advantage.

Using our different skills

Although we were in a small confined space I learnt that we still were able to use it, accomplishing shots from all different angles high and low. As a result of filming the same scenes using a variety of different shots from different angles was a success, as when it came to editing we had a number of shots that we could use avoiding jump cuts and continuity errors. The shots of the mystery house we used establishing shots mainly focusing on the back of the character, following her also tracking the character making the audience feel apart of the scene. Overall the major part that I have learnt and greatly improved on is my camera skills. I have learnt the many range of camera shots you are able to use including zoom ins and outs although these don’t work too well, I preferred the outcome of close ups. I learnt how to put the filming footage from the camera into the computer and I'm now able to use the editing software.

Through the full production I have learned and picked up many skills that I was unfamiliar of. Looking back specifically to the preliminary task I can immediately list a number of errors that I would go back and change which I am now able to do. Although it wasn’t that long ago I feel I have developed a lot from then. When filming I assumed you could only use a limited number of shots from only a few view points. I now know that this is untrue. Situations and locations can be used to an advantage, by filming shots from different angles. For example standing on chairs to get a high shot or crouching down on your knees to get a low shot.

Mise-en-Scene

Creativity was one of the main elements that we used well in the process of developing our final product. At the start of the process we immediately began bullet pointing ideas that we had for our thriller product. We came up with a variety both unrealistic and realistic designs, although in the end we all agreed on “Number 24”. We planned that this thriller film would include continuity and contain all of the aspects that a typical thriller consists of. In order to achieve the out we accomplished we had to research and plan very precisely. Our group from the start were always organised. We researched into at least four other thriller, horror, and psychological films that were all successes to help us also achieve their same success. We picked out elements that we felt were kept the audience on constant edge although thriving for more. The main films were based our research around was “Silence of the Lambs” and “Memento”. Having watched the opening to these thrillers we began noticing similar aspects that both films were using. Although they have very different storylines both use narrative enigmas in the same way to keep the audience drawn in. As well as both creating an air of suspense and mystery. We too tried to perceive these aspects in our product. We used non-diegtic, eerie music in the background which added emotions of tension amongst the audience watching and making them feel on edge. This was only used at one point in the clip as we also used the technique of silence which added to the uncomfortable atmosphere. As in “Memento” the one worded title has an impact on the audience almost immediately. It creates the audience to think more in depth about what they are about to watch and it also links to the storyline. In our product, we came up with the title “number 24”. Again a short title with an important relevance to our film.

Target Audience

In order to make sure we were correct in this predicting the target audience and in producing a product that would appeal to this age group, we took part in some primary research and our group designed questionnaires. The questionnaires were distributed to teenagers from the age of 16-19 years old, which was our key target audience. Some of the questions included the following: “What is your favourite type of thriller?” and “What aspects of a thriller appeal to you most?”.
We achieved successful results giving us great knowledge of what this target audience expects from a thriller. When asked “what do you expect from a thriller?” respondents answered to be on edge throughout and to feel the element of the unknown. Having gone through all the completed questionnaires we felt we then needed to take into account all of these elements. The most common answer reflecting the favourite type of thriller they enjoyed, three types came out on top: psychological, horror and mystery. Therefore we aimed to embed these aspects into our product. The sense of mystery was shown through possible questions running through the audiences mind, Is it safe for her to be walking into this deserted house? Why is there blood on the floor? The product showed psychological elements, twisting the audiences minds, what do these numbers on the victims mean? Additionally horror was shown through the blood, bruises and knives included in the film.

Conclusion

During the final piece task, although I had already used all the equipment before in the preliminary task I felt this time round I was able to use it more confidently and I felt I knew what I was doing. Previously I thought that the planning process wasn’t as important and in the preliminary task we didn’t really use the storyboard much. However in the final piece our storyboard became very useful and from this we were able to direct each other. Also when it came to editing we were able to look at our storyboard and identify which order the scenes went in. For the final piece there was much more planning involved. Before we began the filming process we filled in the number of correct forms, these included: group production schedule, shooting schedule, recce form, risk assessment, shooting schedule and booking forms. Each group member had an individual role in this process, mine being creating the group production schedule. I think that as a group we worked much well in the full product. We all worked together fairly taking into account everyone's views and ideas. This improved our work in many ways as we were able to give different ideas and opinions on what we thought worked best. Looking at the editing techniques used and the outcomes we accomplished in the preliminary task compared to our final product are very different. In our preliminary task had many jump cuts and we had to try and hide these using fades which didn’t have a professional look to it. Whilst in our final product when we noticed jump cuts and continuity errors we immediately felt it would be best if we re-shot avoiding these obvious mistakes and resulting in a better finished off product.

Although the process of both filming and editing was a long one in which to develop the end final product I and the group were extremely happy with. The process included cutting the shots we no longer wanted to use and adding music were we felt would work best. I still feel that with additional practice I will improve with my editing skills. In order to accomplish our finished product we had to use our editing skills that we had previously learnt. To me this came in huge help as we were able to add sections of music to fit the theme of our product and insert them to the scenes were we felt they fitted. A handful of us helped in the process of the editing and I feel that without my group members I would not have been able to edit by myself. This process allowed me to pick up many additional skills especially when cutting, snipping and putting the scenes in correct order. However I do still feel that I can greatly progress my editing skills with preparation. This feeling also accounts for shooting a variety of different shots, with practice I feel I can produce a better end product.