Music Research Ideas

I have been looking for various tracks which could fit what we are aiming for The eZ Life.

Firstly, the song 'Hell of A Night' by ScHoolBoy Q caught my notice due to the out of body feel which the synth gives at the beginning of the song. The lyrics are also very relevant to the film. 

'Hell of a Night' can be heard below:

Next, the song 'Dancin (KRONO Remix)' caught my attention due to its upbeat and lively tempo which would suit a party scene.

Dancin can be heard below:

The music video and song 'PMW' by A$AP Rocky ft. ScHoolBoy Q caught my notice due to the lyrics relating to things which happens at parties.

PMW can be heard here:

The song '2Pac vs. Banks Thugz Drowning (Carlos Serrano Mix)' caught my attention due to the high tempo and lyrics. 

'2Pac vs. Banks Thugz Drowning (Carlos Serrano Mix)' can be heard here:

Marketing Campaign

James created a marketing campaign presentation for The eZ Life. Other tasks which we had already completed helped him create this presentation.

Here is an example of what @TheEZLife would look like on Twitter.

Health and Safety Information (Risk Assessment)

Location and 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 grainy. However the texture of the wall would be good.

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

This is a shot of a wall in the daylight,
outside the media department at Great Baddow High School.

This is a shot of another wall in the daylight,
opposite the media department. Flash was not used.

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 my film pitch idea, The eZ Life.

Working hard 

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 criticism 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.

James helps Issak

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 Zombieland. I choose this film as it is an age group at which our film is targeted at. Our actors are of similar age. Archie researched the film 21. 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 Archie researched a similar genre film in which he 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. I researched different types of music for our film opening. I 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.

Working as a team

Day 7: Thursday 20th November

Today Archie 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 I started the storyboard.

Day 8: Friday 21st November

Today Archie researched film institutions in which we felt would distribute our film. James continued producing and making the script. I 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 Archie 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 Archie created our risk assessment for our health and safety for our shooting risk assessment. James created our marketing campaign PowerPoint whilst I continued to work on our storyboard.

Day 11: Thursday 27th November
Today Archie 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 redid the script at which he improved. James also researched different titles fonts for which our genre was evident. Archie finished the storyboard editing and started to research various music research for 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.

Editing

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. I continued to edit although we would constantly ask each others 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, Archie 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 receive feedback from our fellow peers. We however continued filming on this day in order to finish as we were slightly rushing. Archie also finished the timeline of our opening sequence.

Me putting in blood, sweat and tears

Week commencing 8th December:

This week we received 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 O'clock 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 focused our time on the film opening sequence. After a long and enjoyable journey we finished our film: The eZ Life.

Blog Reflection

Have you learned new online programmes for showing off work?

I have used Prezi as an alternative to Microsoft PowerPoint to complete some of the tasks given to me. At first I didn't like using Prezi as I found the process of creating them very monotonous. I became more comfortable with the features after using it a couple of times, and despite still disliking it, I am now able to create Prezi's efficiently. I have also used SlideShare on a few occasions to upload PowerPoints that I have made onto my blog and offer an alternative method of viewing the PowerPoint to make it more interesting.

What mark out of 20 is it so far?

I think my blog would get 18/20 at the moment. I personally think it  looks impressive, it is organised and I have managed to keep my blog up to date. To improve my blog and then gain maximum marks I need to keep the level of quality high and keep blog posts consistent.

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

In some of the evaluation tasks such as the film opening evaluation I think I need to stay consistent in length in comparison to some of the other posts which I have done. I think I just need to keep the posts flowing and keep the work ethic up.

Is it fun to look at?

I always look to use interesting images and either PowerPoint or Prezi presentations when possible to make the blog less textual. I also think that by using diverse methods of presenting my ideas, I have improved my blog and have made it more interesting to explore.

Three targets to improve my blog:

• Stay consistent with posts
• Use every part of D.I.S.T.I.N.C.T in my Genre task
• Use more technical terms in my posts

Synopsis Planning

Target Audience Research

Today my group researched a film with a similar genre to our own. 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 Films

Here is a moodboard displaying the initial ideas which we used as a starting point for creating our film. The moodboard also incorporates inspirational shots from real films.

The eZ Life - Film Certificate

The eZ Life revolves around drugs and is a teen drama. Therefore, itis important that the film receives a get a 15 certificate. After doing some research we found that: 'Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse.'

With this knowledge, fortunately our film would be accepted as a 15. This is because the main message of the film is not to take drugs and to promote the difficult lives which drug addicts face daily. This was very important; if it was an 18 rated film and a teen drama it would have a very limited audience.

Timeline: Zombieland Opening Sequence

In today's lesson we researched certain films which we felt would give us some inspiration. I decided to research Zombieland. Zombieland is a 2009 American zombie/comedy film directed by Ruben Fleischer from a screenplay written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. I chose Zombieland as the film which I would research due to it being in the genre of zombie, striking a similarity to my group's film 'The eZ Life".

Zombieland is about a reserved student attempting to get to his family in Ohio, a tough guy trying to find the last Twinkie in existence, and a duo of sisters trying to reach an theme park. They join forces to travel across a zombie-filled America.

Zombieland Opening Sequence:



Timeline:

0:00 - 0:03: There's a blacked-out screen which fades into a waving American flag, the camera slowly zooms out to allow viewers to deduce that the flag is atop an overturned car, with the sky and ground the opposite way round.

0:04 - 0:11: The narrator sets the scene that the country, America, is without people. Offers enigma, as to why?

0:12 - 0:21: The narrator stops speaking and the shot shows an effect of interference, the camera rotates to put perspective upon the car overturned, upside-down. The camera work is from the perspective of someone filming the event. Mass destruction can be seen; smashed, burning vehicles, firearms scattered on the floor.

0:22 - 0:37: The camera pans right and a zombie is introduced, covered in blood and dressed in a suit, jumps off of an overturned car, revealing the White House in the background. The zombie chases the camera man who is screaming. The camera man trips, the camera falls on the floor and the screen cracks and flickers, blood is also splattered onto it. The zombie can be seen eating the camera man, it stops and burps. The narrator addresses the audience as 'friends' and introduces the setting as 'United States of Zombieland'.

0:38 - 0:49: There's a shot which zooms out, showing an accelerated birds-eye view of the Earth in space. The rotating world is fragmented by lava. The narrator is setting the scene using his personal perspective.

0:50 - 2:40: The narrator talks about rules which he has implemented and lives by, these rules are presented and 3D text is shown on-screen. The things which happen interact with the 3D text.

Interactive Rules: An example of how the rules are incorporated into the shots.

2:41 - 4-19: The film credits begin to be incorporated into shot. The actors interact with the 3D text. Various events of death and destruction by zombies can be seen.

Impact: The zombie throws the victim into the 3D text.

Group Film Pitches

In today's lesson we discussed as a group on which film idea to use for our opening sequence.

We did this by showing the rest of the members in our group each of our individual film pitches which we had covered in lessons previous.

Archie's individual film pitch slideshare can be seen here:

As a group we felt that Archie's film pitch was alright. However, we felt that the idea was not original and interesting enough to be a standout film.

James' individual film pitch, 'Second Bite Of The Apple' can be seen here:

As a group we felt that James' 'Second Bite Of The Apple' was not too bad. However, we felt that the idea was not original and interesting enough to be a standout film.



Deep in thought: Member of my group, Archie
in mid discussion with James (pictured right).

Disagreement: James was very sceptical of some
of the ideas put forward, he was very eager
 to put forward his views and discuss them.






 Next, we moved onto my individual film pitch, 'The eZ Life'. The slideshare can be seen below:

Titles Research

As homework, we were given the task of watching the title sequences of films and analyzing them. I researched the title sequence of 'The Conjuring'. The Conjuring  is a 2013 supernatural horror film directed by James Wan. This research will be very useful when we compose the titles in our film as I will now be able to know how to structure my own titles for when it comes to editing.

Picture 1: 0-26 seconds, part of the background story shown

Picture 2: 27-43 seconds, producers, executive producers, director of photography

Picture 3: 44-57 seconds, production designer, editor

Picture 4: 58-65 seconds, main actors

Picture 5: 66-67 seconds, TRANSITION

Picture 6: 68-93 seconds, lesser actors, casting by, costume designer

Picture 7: 94-109 seconds, music composer, institutions

Picture 8: 110-115 seconds, director

Picture 9: 116-123 seconds, title of film

Individual Film Pitch

In today's lesson we had to create a film pitch individually which would later be used to pitch to our fellow members in our groups. Each film idea had to be unique and each person in the group had to do a seperate genre so when it came to choosing a film we would have several different options to go with.

I had to create a way to pitch my film idea to the group which I was put in. I decided that the best way to present my ideas would be on Microsoft PowerPoint. With that, I went ahead and created it. I have converted it into a slideshare format for your viewing pleasure:

Previous Student Film Openings

In today's videos we watched several videos made by students from previous years and other schools and then analysed them. 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 use when it comes to creating an opening scene.

The analysis' can be seen below:

The Edge Title Sequence:

 

After watching this title sequence I analysed it and gave it a mark based upon the system which was covered in the lesson previous.

The Edge is an opening sequence which comes across as a thriller/action film. I think that this opinion can be gained through several factors such as the fast pace of the video and moving shots. There are many scene cuts which are typical conventions of the thriller genre. The way which the editor placed the text showing the actors names was really clever and suited the genre perfectly, making the sequence look slick and hi-tech. The sequence immediately offers up several enigmas to the audience such as why the boy is being chased and who the people chasing him are. The varied camera shots were used to great effect, close up shots were used more at the start of the opening, whereas wide shots were used more as the opening progressed. I gave the 'The Edge' title sequence 60/60.

Roses Are Red Title Sequence:
 

After watching this title sequence I analysed it and gave it a mark based upon the system which was covered in the lesson previous.

Roses are Red is an opening sequence which comes across as a teen drama. I think that this opinion can be gained through several factors, mainly by the fact that the character is a female teenager and the props are ones which are typically found in a teenagers bedroom, I thought it was very clever how the students incorporated the actors' names onto the props rather than editing text onto the video. I thought that the use of stop animation was very effective and the overall title sequence benefitted from it. Unfortunately I found the every day task of getting dressed to be a boring scene as it lasted too long and it wasn't interesting enough to keep my attention and I found the music really annoying and it began to irritate me very quickly. This being said, I enjoyed the part at the end which offered up an enigma to the audience. I gave the 'Roses Are Red' title sequence 47/60.

GEMINI Title Sequence:

 

After watching this title sequence I analysed it and gave it a mark based upon the system which was covered in the lesson previous.

GEMINI is an opening sequence which comes across as a thriller or crime drama. This can be learned through the fact that one of the characters are being interviewed by the police or similar crime enforcement unit. I felt that the editing wasn't as slick as it possibly could have been as shots changed very suddenly and seemed to change at the wrong time for my liking. However some of the editing was good such as the split screen and the timing of the gun sound effect was accurate. The colours used for the titles were well suited to the genre. The sound was sometimes not of the greatest quality and sometimes this became noticeable and disrupted immersion into the piece. Overall, I gave the 'GEMINI' title sequence 45/60. I gave it this mark due to several reasons.

Marking System for Openings

We were given a marking system which would be used to analyse several film openings created by other students. We watched a few of their openings and then gave each of them an individual mark. We did this task collectively, as a group. 

This was the marking system which we used:

Level 1 0–23 marks - The work for the main task is possibly incomplete. There is minimal evidence in the work of the creative use of any relevant technical skills such as:
• Producing material appropriate for the target audience and task.
• Using titles appropriately according to institutional conventions.
• Using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set.
• Shooting material appropriate to the task set; including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot distance and close attention to mise-en-scene.
• Using editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions and other effects.

Level 2 24–35 marks - There is evidence of a basic level of ability in the creative use of some of the following technical skills:
• Producing material appropriate for the target audience and task.
• Using titles appropriately according to institutional conventions.
• Using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set.
• Shooting material appropriate to the task set; including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot distance and close attention to mise-en-scene.
• Using editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions and other effects.

Level 3 36–47 marks - There is evidence of proficiency in the creative use of many of the following technical skills:
• Producing material appropriate for the target audience and task.
• Using titles appropriately according to institutional conventions.
• Using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set.
• Shooting material appropriate to the task set; including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot distance and close attention to mise-en-scene.
• Using editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions and other effects.

Level 4 48–60 marks - There is evidence of excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:
• Material appropriate for the target audience and task.
• Using titles appropriately according to institutional conventions.
• Using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set.
• Shooting material appropriate to the task set;including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot distance and close attention to mise-en-scene.
• Using editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions and other effects.