Storyboard

This is our storyboard for our film along with a commentary about the shots. 

Titles task

For this task we had to watch a few short clips about the history and origin of 'titles' to see how they have evolved and developed over the years. Then we had to compare their titles to ours. 
This is the titles of Paranorman. They all lasted around 3 seconds. 

Conventions of Teen Drama Film Openings

A typical convention of a teen genre would be: 

Themes

• a romance between a girl and boy best friend 
• cliques (cliques are staple to any teen drama)
• out caster
• 'hating life'
• peer pressure

Characters

• nerds
• cheerleaders 
• jocks

Settings

• high school
• the houses of the characters  
• the mall 
• sometimes universities 

The typical conventions for a teen drama are shown above and they feature as a big part of any film. A genre convention for teen drama is usually an over dramatized teen issue such as boys or looks. The titles usually appear in a creative and girly style like being written out in lipstick. They also contain a voice over of the character speaking about his/her life. We have included a voice over in our film opening to convey the genre clearly to the audience. We also styled our titles to appear in a creative way. The setting usually follows the main character involved and you get to know them and their importance within the film. In our film opening we follow the girl on her journey on the train. 

Script Changes

When we recieved our feedback from our peers on our film opening it became apparent that the majority thought our voice over was too short and came too early on that if you were late to see the start of the film you would miss it and wouldn't understand the rest of the film. It was an important piece of dialogue and so it needed to be heard. We moved it back to when she gets onto the train as it still presents the same mood. 

We added more to the script as our peers said it was too short, therefore we added the amount of dialogue into our voice so that it also explained where the girl was going as many asked "why was she on a train?" so within the voiceover it explained where she was coming back from to help with the understanding of her journey. 

Originally the script was - '"The doctor said brain activity should be maintained, he said looking at old pictures and going through my everyday routine would help"

The improved speech is now - "I'm on my way back from the neurology unit at the specialist hospital in London. There was only a single thought running through my head that afternoon. The doctors that brain activity should be maintained. He said that looking through old pictures and going through my everyday routine would help. This was my first therapy to help with the retrieval of my memory and i was determined to make it work'

Final Draft

This is our final draft. Our film is called Amnesia.

Music Feedback

We got a lot of feedback on our music in our opening sequence. 

• The first piece of feedback we got was that the music we had was too much of a famous song even though it was a cover. So if the artist found it he could claim copyright and we would have to remove our entire film therefore we decided to change the music. We found this difficult as every song we found was either too famous even though it was a cover. Then we found that the songs we were finding were too slow and didn't fit the pace of our film. The songs were love songs and didn't fit the genre of our film as it is a teen drama.
• The second piece of feedback we got was that the music we decided on for the opening scene of our film, the xx intro, didn't suit the theme of our film as we wanted to portray a theme of teen drama whereas they said the music made it feel more like a thriller and as though someone was watching the girl or following her. In order to improve on this we changed it to Let Her Go by Passenger instrumental but then we were told that this too was a famous song and we shouldn't use it. 

Titles Feedback

Here are a list of titles that will feature in our film in order of appearance. Some of the feedback we were given was that we didn't have enough titles throughout the start of our film so we added a few more to the original ones we had. Our feedback also said that the titles had to appear for a minimum of 3 seconds and that some of our titles weren't on screen for that length of time so we made them longer. 

Below is a full list of titles that will feature in our film opening. 

1. Libby Collins 
2. Runner Productions 
3. Frankie Edwards 
4. Katie Harragan
5. Title of film  (Amnesia)
6. Directed by Simon Hull
7. Edited by Julie Walker
8. Executive Producer Andrew Lavin 
9. Sound Effects by Debbie Ellis 

Titles we added: 

1. Music by Philip Round 
2. Casting by Jacob Odd
3. Production designer Melanie Smith 
4. Costume designer Leanne Clark 
5. Photography by Robert Cole 

More Feedback

We got some extra feedback from our teachers and peers after asking them to watch out film after making a few amendments. These were there comments for more improvement: 

• We need to look at pur titles research and pit the titles in the right order
• They need to be 2-3 seconds each
• Part of the voice over doesn't make sense so we will delete the part saying she want to 'achieving my memories'
• More photographic effects- freeze frames before they play
• Sort music out- they change to quickly so it doesn't make sense 
• Bowling alley and ice hockey shots are too long so we need to delete a few seconds off each

Once we changed and improved our film by adding these we were ready to hand in our final draft of Amnesia. 

Feedback

A variety of people watched our film and then gave it a mark and told us their opinion about it. 

Overall we received a mid range mark of between 35-42 for our first draft and we were aware that there were a few things that we already wanted to change. 

Refelction

Throughout the process of putting our film together we have made many changes of which we have written about. There were many reasons for this as they all differed. 

• We had a lot of trouble trying to get the 'look' of the titles correct. Originally we wanted them to be written into the scrapbook but the timings weren't working and the style of handwriting we couldn't agree on. Then we decided we would have the titles to appear letter by letter with 3D foam letters but then we couldn't make that idea work properly without it looking messy and we were pushed for time as we needed the scrapbook when filming. 
• We also had to change the script as we realised there wasn't enough dialogue within the film and that was also one of our feedback points. We changed the script to lengthen the voice over but also to clear up any confusion as to where the girl was coming from/going to. 
• We also found that we had to add in more memories to the flashback as we had more time to fill than we had anticipated. We planned to only have two or three memories but then we had to add more into it as we had time left over. However, this wasn't an issue because we had shot enough footage in Southend to make up for the time we had to fill in. 

Draft Feedback

On December 5th we handed in our first draft. We were given some feedback on how we could improve our film to make it better. When we handed it in we knew we were short of footage by about 30 seconds and so this was our first point we needed to improve on for the final draft in a weeks time. Here was our feedback:

• Our voice over was too early in the film so if you were to miss the first 10 seconds of the film the theme wouldn't be as clear. Also the speech "brain activity" wasn't very clear and was read to quickly. In order to improve on both of these points we will look at changing the placement of the voice over in the chronological order of the film. We will also re-record the voice over to slow down the speech and clearly pronounce all the words. 
• There was a wobbly shot. Our tracking shot that we filmed at the train station was wobbly which looked unprofessional. In order to change this we will experiment on Premier to try and stabilise the shot.  
• Too many flashes to black. After the first few shots flashed to black it lost its effectiveness and started to make it annoying, they also lasted to long, as the original idea was for it to look like a blink. In order to improve this we will experiment on Premier using different video effect and transitions to keep our audience interested.
• Slow down the shot where Libby is looking at the scrapbook as the scrapbook is supposed to be an important prop within the film. We can improve this by editing the shot on Premier and slowing down the speed/duration to make it last longer. 
• The shot which has the teacups in is too dark and a different contrast of black and white compared to the other black and white shots. In order to improve this we will make sure that all of our black and white shots have to same brightness.
• One of the titles is missing from a shot so we will need to add that back on and check that all the other titles are included and correct.
• The title of our film comes in too late and needs to feature earlier as only trailers show the title at the end of the clip. To improve this we will play around with where we could have the title come in but making sure it doesn't give away the concept of the film.  
• They liked the first shot of the lift.
• They thought that the titles that are pushed by the train work well and show good use of editing. 

Amnesia 1st Draft

This is our first draft of our opening scene "Amnesia".

Shot List

Here is a list of our shot in the order they appear:

-The first shot is a level shot of Libby standing looking out the window of the lift.
-The next shot is a low shot of Libby walking up the stairs in the train station, we shot it from the top of the stairs.
-The next shot is a level shot of Libby walking through the barriers at the train station.
-Next is a static level shot of the train pulling in to the station.
-The next shot is a close up shot of the train moving past the camera.
-The next shot is a static shot of Libby walking onto the train from the platform.
-Next is a tracking shot of Libby walking through the train to find a seat.
-Another tracking shot but this time the camera is close up to Libby as she sits down.
-The camera pans around Libby as she looks at her scrapbook.
-The next shot is from over Libby's shoulder as she looks through her scrapbook, at the end of the shot it zooms into the scrapbook before zooming out into the next shot.
-The next 2 shots are both of the scrapbook, they fade into one another as the pages turn.
-Next it zooms into the middle picture on the right side of the scrapbook.
-It then dissolves into the first memories which starts as a still shot of Libby and Katie before paying round them.
-The next shot is from Libby's point of view as she walks through the arcade so it is close up.
-For the next shot we used the tripod to film a high shot of Libby bowling.
-The next shot is a long shot of Libby sitting looking out the window of the train
-The following shot is an extreme long shot of Libby and Katie walking down the pier.
-The next shot is an establishing shot that pans across the sea front.
-The next shot is of Libby and me playing air hockey.
-It then changes to a close up of the air hockey as if it were from Libby's point of view.
-Another establishing shot but this time of Adventure Island.
-The final shot is a static shot of Libby standing infront of the sunset.

Things that went well

From our first draft there were a list of things that we were told which went well: 

- The footage is Southend fits well with our genre and looks good.
-The idea of the film is original and creative

- Putting some of the effects to go with the music was good

- People thought the final shot in front of the sunset was good.
-The parts that fit with the beat of the music work well.
-We included various camera shots.
-People likes the production logo
-The titles that are pushed by the train look good.
-We had many comments saying the editing was good.
-Most of our shots were steady.

Production diary

10th November: This was the first day we sat together as our group to discuss film ideas for our potential opening sequence. We pitched each of our ideas to each other to see which we thought was best and we came up with 2 or 3 ideas although they were fairly similar. The first we came up with was an idea about a girls holiday where you could film the opening sequence as them getting ready in the morning whilst including the titles into that, however it didn't really have a plot to develop so the rest of the film wouldn't be interesting. The second was a pregnancy theme, the girl discovers she is pregnant whilst in an abusive relationship. You don't discover until the end that she is pregnant but she shows signs and symptoms throughout, although we didn't go with this idea as we thought it was done too often. The third idea that we did come up with was a girl with amnesia who is on a journey as she looks through her scrapbook of memories. We eventually chose this idea because we felt it had the best story line and we could develop it the most. We also talked about the different locations we could use to film our opening scene. 

11th November: We put all of our ideas for the film onto a power point so that we could present our film pitch to the class. We each typed a slide so that it was a joint effort. 

12th November: Frankie wasn't here today so Katie and I decided on the character names for the titles and for the characters in our film. These were, Libby - Daisy Blackman, Katie - Eliza Thomas, Frankie - Naomi Waters. Then we researched some similar films to ours such as Memento, which features a man who creates a strange system to help him remember things; so he can hunt for the murderer of his wife without his short-term memory loss being an obstacle and the Notebook, which is set as an elderly gentlemen telling a lady a story from their past in which, a poor and passionate young man falls in love with a rich young woman and gives her a sense of freedom. They soon are separated by their social differences, as they follow similar memory loss story lines to ours. We time lined the titles of the Notebook, the last passenger, Memento and 50 first dates. 

13th November: Today we found an art book that we could use for our scrapbook so we covered the front page in butterfly wrapping paper so that you couldn't see the writing on the front. Then we thought of some designs we could put into the book and where we could fit the titles into our opening scene. Today, we finalised who we wanted to produce and distribute our film, we decided Runner Productions would produce our film and New Line Cinema would distribute it. 

17th November:  In this meeting we decided on the task we were each going to complete separately and the ones we should do as a group. I started to plan out the storyboard roughly as we were still unsure on how we would work all the shots. Frankie wrote the script for the voice over that daisy will recite at some point during the film and Katie wrote a list of props. 

18th November: We continued to progress with our designated tasks in today's meeting. I carried on planning the storyboard, adding to it and changing certain bits so that they fitted to the genre. Frankie created the shooting schedule which gave us a plan of what we wanted to film, when we wanted to film and where we wanted to film. Katie started to research cover tracks of songs we could use as background music for our opening sequence. 

19th Novemeber: Today, I started to research into the font for our titles. I researched which fonts would be suitable for the genre and themes of our film and wrote why they would be appropriate. Katie continued with some research into music for our film. Frankie started the mood board in which she screenshot evidence from other films of our inspiration. Throughout this week we keep changing our minds as we're coming up with more or different ideas as to how the film can continue. 

20th November: In our meeting today, we all continued on previous tasks we had started. I continued to research font titles and researched the fonts of titles from similar films to ours and Frankie continued to develop the mood board. Today we also started to practice and trial out how we wanted the titles to appear and how we could work them into the scrapbook. It proved to be quite challenging as each time, something wasn't quite right. 

24th November: Today, we began to film our titles which I was going to write letter by letter so that we could film it individually and edit them later using premiere, however when we tried to do this we found it difficult as the camera angles weren't exactly the same so the shot was moving around meaning the titles didn't stay in the same place. So then we decided to film me writing the whole word out and speed it up later by editing it on premiere however we weren't impressed by the titles as we thought the styles weren't as stylish as we thought they would look. Frankie told us her mum had smart handwriting and that she would be happy to write out the titles for us, so Frankie took the camera home to film. 

25th November: Frankie showed us the footage she got of the titles her mum had written out and we all agreed that we liked them. Once we tried to edit them to make them look more aesthetically pleasing we realised it wasn't working and you could see there was nothing on the page overleaf. So we thought it would be a good idea to shoot the titles again with a series of pictures portraying a memory on one page of the double spread and then the titles spelt out in foam letters on the other side.

26th November: Last night, I took the scrapbook home and began to decorate a few pages of memories to make the scrapbook look personal. Then when we met at school, Katie and Frankie decorated more pages. Whilst they did this, I started doing some audience research for our film. We got some feedback from our teacher and some other peers within the class and the general feedback was that the genre wasn't clear and it was a little confusing as to how you would tell the memories apart from the present day. So we re-evaluated the storyboard and the genre of what the film had now become due to the music we had chosen.

27th November: Today we finished the scrapbook and decided all of our shots that we need to shot whilst on the train, at the train station and in Southend. Katie began to rewrite the storyboard out in neat and Frankie began the marketing campaign. 

28th November: We completed a risk assessment for the day we planned to shoot and made sure we had everything ready for Saturday so we could film. We also recorded the voice over, so that we were able to edit that into the film once we had all of our footage. We finalised the storyboard and shot list so that we were clear on everything we needed to shoot. 

29th November: Today we filmed. We were faced with a dilemma once we got to southend as our main idea that the film was based around had to be ruled out as the theme park was closed so we were unable to get our roller-coaster shot. Instead we tried to get some other footage so that our film didn't finish short of 2 minutes. 

1st December: After filming on Saturday we sat down and got all of our footage onto the computer so that we were ready to edit. We began to edit a few of the first clips in this meeting and added the music that we had originally chosen, and we put some video effects into the footage, whilst also adding the titles on via Premiere as the written titles didn't go to plan. 

2nd December: Today we continued to edit together. We experimented trying different effects and transitions to make the opening sequence more interesting and also decided on where we could edit in the numerous titles we needed to include. 

5th December: Today was the deadline for our 1st draft. Before we handed our film over we tried to add some more footage into our film as we were around 30 seconds short of 2 minutes as we had a vital shot that we weren't able to include although we will have it filmed for our final piece. We also changed a few bits around and changed the speed of one or two shots. Our teacher gave us some feedback that we are able to improve on for our next deadline. 

Music Changes

When we received our feedback for the choice of music, many commented that the pace and theme of the music didn't suit our genre or theme therefore we changed the track a few times to see which fit well and worked with the pace and themes of our film. We researched a few different tracks with different paces, some with lyrics and some without and then made our decision. 

Frankie suggested this piece of music as it had a heavy beat behind it which automatically builds suspense within the film giving it the desired effect we wanted although we were unable to use this piece as it was too well known. 

We looked at another track which was similar to our first choice although it's an instrumental cover of John Legends song 'Made To Love'. We thought this track might fit our film better as it was had  change of beat through out the track, which is what we originally wanted for the start of the film.



The track we decided to use was a song that none of us had heard before but Frankie found it when searching through YouTube and we thought it would suit our film. 

Recce Shots

Here are some of our recce shots that Frankie took. This enabled us to see the different places within the locations that we could film in. 

This was the first shot that she took of the train station. We thought this was appropriate for the location of our first few shots in our film. We filmed going throught the barriers, on the platform and getting onto the train. 

This was the second recce shot she took. We used a train as a location as the representation of the film relied heavily on the train moving. We filmed quite a bit of our footage on the train. 

This was the third recce shot she took. We chose to use this location as a memory as it featured the sun setting which was a shot we wanted for one of the memories. 

This was the fourth shot she took. We filmed in some of the areas that you can see from this viewing platform. 

This was the fifth shot she took. This was the viewing platform and and the lift in which we filmed. It was an appropriate location as the lift was glass so you were able to see out when we filmed in it. 

This was the sixth recce shot she took. This was the arcade in which we shot a lot of our footage in. This was also an important location as this was where one of the memories took place. 

Font Research

For this I had to chose a variety of fonts that would be suitable for our film title 'amnesia'. I researched similar film titles to see the style of their fonts so that we could base ours on a similar style to suit our genre. 

In the end we actually chose a different font altogether as we thought that the font we chose looked like it was typed like a doctors style. It was simplistic yet still conveyed the complex tone of our film and they don't distract you. This was the font we chose. 

Titles Timeline