Music

Neither Jessie nor I had ever used Soundtrack Pro before, and after experimenting on it for what felt like a very long time, we agreed that neither of us could use it to produce a tune of a good quality, and since we want to include a voiceover, the track is not vital and needs no sound effects. With this is mind Jessie and I opted to look at some royalty-free music websites, of which we found one we liked: Freeplay Music. This site had tons of different songs we could use, and specialised in acoustic guitar songs, which is exactly what we were looking for. We looked through a lot of songs to ensure that we found one perfect for our film, and we managed to devise a short-list of three possible songs. The song titles were 'Adios', the first song on the linked page, 'Final Gripe', the second song on the linked page, and 'Feathers in the Air', also the second song on its linked page.

Adios


On the website, 'Adios' is described as "A profound acoustic guitar plays a dirge-like ditty that evokes a feeling of loss." We felt that, after listening to it in time with our opening, it was slightly too (for lack of a better word) sad for our film. The film is about loss, since Katy will be talking about their relationship as a memory implying that they have split up, but we wanted the way she felt about the memories to be happy rather than mournful. We did a lot of experimentation with this track trying to make it work: for example, we attempted to change the track every time a memory was shown to a happier song, but when we watched it through with this in effect we felt that it just didn't work and would be too much of a 'mish-mash' for the viewer, especially if we wanted to include a voiceover.


Feathers in the Air


The description of this song on the website is: "Lightly strummed guitars play out a contemplative chord progression as the rhythm section provides perfect accompaniment." This does not describe the feel of the music very well, but you can imagine by the title and the instruments described indicate that the song is mellow and happy. It is, however, rather repetitive, which is not a deal-breaker in deciding which of the three to use, but we wanted to keep an audience audibly interested when the voiceover (if we have one) cuts out (as we do not plan for it to be constant).




   

Here is the full musical component to the soundtrack of our film opening, the third song, 'Final Gripe'. At the moment, the song length exactly matches the length of the video and as you will hear, is not repetitive as it includes electric guitar and piano solos which will keep our audience interested. However, we may have to cut some of the song down if we end up having to shorten our opening. Also, this will be perfect for background music with a voice over layered over the top as well as by itself because it can keep the mellow happy and positive tone that we wish to create without overpowering the voiceover when necessary, but picking up again and maintaining its own strength as a song in the parts that will not feature a voiceover.

The Technical Bit: Part One:- The I-dent

Jessie and I worked together using Livetype to produce an original I-dent that coincides with the genre of our film opening. We researched the distribution companies that were involved in the films that we would place our film in the same group as in terms of genre and style, as well as an example of a distribution company that produces a specific genre of films.

Juno, a quirky teen romantic comedy, was distributed by Fox Searchlight, the branch of 20th Century Fox that produces a more 'alternative' type of film. The I-dent for Fox Searchlight is very general, as the company does not produce films specific to a genre.

A Cinderella Story was distributed by Warner Brothers. It is similar to our film in that it is about a teen relationship. Warner Brothers is another of 'The Big 6' Hollywood distribution companies that also distributes a number of different genres, including action with Sucker Punch (2011) and  Final Destination 5 (2011).









It is very rare to find a distribution company that only distributes films of one particular genre, but Magnet Releasing comes pretty close. It specialises in the distribution of only horror, action, comedy and Asian Cinema, which may not sound particularly genre-specific, but when you consider the number of genres that they do not work with, for example drama, romantic comedy, historical and musical films.


Having done sufficient research and experimentation, as well as the development of certain ideas, such as our 'Lego House Cinema' which we attempted to include a graphic in, but we felt that it did not flow very well and decided to nip our attempts to make it work in the bud, so that we could focus our attention on just one I-dent. we hope to, however, include 'Lego House Cinema' in our credits for our opening.
We chose the title 'Messy Productions' during a small 'brainstorming' session Jessie and I had with each other, and felt that the use of the term 'Messy' links with the theme of the scrapbook and also has connotations of the modern teen lifestyle. It also coincidently was the word used to describe teen relationships by my own mother. We thought that the contrast between the title itself and the simple layout of the I-dent would have an almost oxymoronic quality. We also thought that the title had a similar ironic ring to it as 'Working Title' does, as it would normally give the impression of unfinished or basically assembled piece of film, but the audience that we asked about the name responded that they understood the irony. However, since Miss suggested that it may not be an appropriate name, we will put the question forward when we screen our rough cut to a sample of our target audience.

Filming- Day 1

Here are some photos from our first day of filming. We gat a lot done for one day, including all we needed for Luke and Katy's first date and when they first met. We changed the location from where we originally thought; in our original plan, we were going to go to Wroxton, but since we did not have time to get there before it got dark, we decided to film it at a bench in Bloxham instead, which was very helpful because it was down the road from my house, which is another of the locations in our opening. The cafe was also in Bloxham so that was also easy to get to from my house, which is where we all met to begin filming. I'm really pleased with the progress that we've made in just one day, and I'm sure that when we have a lesson to work on our coursework, with me being such a keen editor, we'll start editing what we've got and then edit in the rest of the footage from another day of filming.

Shot List

Here is our shot list. This tells us the exact order in which we will film. This is especially helpful as we do not plan on shooting the scenes in the order that they will appear in the film opening. As you can see, Jessie and I have equal responsibility when it comes to manning the camera; we have not yet configured who is better at handling it, therefore we felt it would be more democratic to take turns.

Call Sheet

Here are the two call sheets that we used. It was important to use them because it kept the communication between Jessie and I and our two actors, as well as ensuring that the filming process is organised by ensuring that everybody involved knows what location, props and scenes we will use on each day. These sheets have been a great help.

Risk Assessment Form

Lights, Camera, Action?

Now that we're almost ready for filming, we need to fill out Risk Assessment Forms and Call Sheets etc. I will post photos from filming, as well as self assessments of how filming days go, and once we have finished that, I will post through the stages of editing.