Focus practice

To get the hang of our new cameras we did some practice shots using different levels of focus. This should make our overall filming experience smoother and we won't have any difficulties using these in our short film now.

Individual Music Considerations

For certain parts of the film we all decided to individually find some music that we believe would fit the film.

Title Sequence



Another Example


I have chosen these songs as they are a little more upbeat to fit in with a more fast paced title sequence.

Title Sequence Ideas

Title Sequence Ideas

One idea we had for our title sequence was using post-it notes to create the title of the film, Notes. We attempted this but unfortunately could not manage to fit the whole word on the wall at the same time. This made editing the clip extremely difficult.These are two images of our first attempt at our title sequence.  This first one shows our attempt at creating the title, Notes, using post-it notes.
This is an image of another shot we attempted. We used an A3 piece of paper with the information we wanted on it and covered it in post-it notes. We then used a fan to blow the post-it notes away. This gave us the desired effect and we liked how it looked. We are still considering recreating this shot to use in our title sequence.


An idea we are considering is creating a filp book using the post-it notes. We would use the post-it notes to tell a simple plot of the film and the title of the film. We decided that this would be a good way to inform the audience of the title and the people involved in creating our short film as it ties in with the use of post-it notes throughout the film. 

Individual music considerations

Individual music considerations 

Throughout our short film we will need some music. I was looking for inspitation on the website FreeMusicArchive. Whilst on this site I found a few options that could be used at different stages throughout our short film.

Title sequence:
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3
Option 4
Option 5
Option 6

Above is a list of songs I am considering for our title sequence. I have chosen these songs as they are a little more upbeat to fit in with a more fast paced title sequence. 


Time Lapse:
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3
Option 4
Option 5
Option 6
Option 7
Option 8

These are some more songs I have considered for the time lapse. I have chosen these songs as they are much more peacfull and have a softer tone. This will link well with the image of the skyused in the time lapse.

Possible music to be used in our title sequence

When thinking of music to be used in our title sequence I wanted a piece of music which would be seen as catchy as well as what could be recognised in the future. I thought the music would need to be quite upbeat so that the audience wouldn't be put off of the film. However, I had to remember that the music I chose complied with the copyright legislation. In order to make sure this happened I went to free music websites which allows people to use music for projects whilst complying with the legislation.

One website I looked on was BEN SOUNDS- ROYALTY FREE MUSIC. This website allowed me to look through different music pieces through refining genre. This helped me when finding music as I could find music quicker which would reflect my film. Below are examples of music examples which could be used in the title sequence of the film we were creating.

1. Memories is the first song I found. This particular piece of music is subtly upbeat and would suit transitions well due to the bass which was included.
2. Acoustic breeze was the next piece of music which I thought could be potentially use as it added a calming affect to the film which would look ironic as the film wouldn't consist of a calm tone making it easy to contrast the dispute in the films.
3. Retro soul was my third choice as the different instruments used showed the increase of volume in film which could be used to represent the tension between the two main characters in the film rising.
4. A new beginning was the last piece of music which I had found. This music is upbeat and could be used well as a sound bridge to connect shots together.

 

As I have chosen more than one song as examples of what could be used in my title sequence, me and my group will look at each example to see which one we think would be better suited. This is so that we are aware of everyone's choices so we can make the best selection possible.

Music considerations

I selected certain pieces of music I like for both our title sequence as well as our short montage scene:

Title sequence: This,
this,
this,

Short montage:  This

Our music needs to be free of copyrights so we can use them in our film. For example for one of these songs to be used in our film we need to give the creator full credit at the end as well as emailing them to ask for permission. It should be easier to get music for our film as it's for educational purposes, as well as this our film is non-profit so we don't have to worry about the creator wanting pay. 

Premiere Pro Tips and Tricks

One tip that will help improve our editing skills, and one that we will be using while editing, is to turn the audio waves on. This helps when you are cutting and matching scenes together so the audio wave match up so the scene sound is continuous.

Video Questionaire Plan

As well as our online survey, the group decided to do a video questionnaire that would give us an idea from a person’s perspective to help us evaluate our target audience. We figured that the survey we did online did not benefit us enough therefore we decided to record volunteers that have read our outline of our storyline plot.

1. "What is your name?"  We decided to use this question to get some information about are audience.
2. "What is your age?" We decided to ask this question to gather an age range for our target audience and what the age range of our film should be.
3.  "What is your profession?" We decided to use this question to get some information about are audience.
4. "What do you think about the name Notes?" We thought this was an important question to ask because a lot of the audience do judge a book by what they see on the front, thus I think Notes describes our film. We would like to see if anyone else thought that this would be a good idea. 
5. "Do you understand the plot of Notes?" We thought this was an important question to ask because we understand our concept, we thought of it, however the audience may not understand so we think that gathering data about the plot will help us adapt our plot so that the audience understands it more.
6. "What do you think the genre of Notes is?" We decided to ask this as the genre of our film is a sub-genre called domestic comedy.
7. "Our genre is Domestic Comedy, What aspects would you expect in the film of this genre?" We believe this is an important question as we would want to know wheather our target audience understand the genre of our film.
8. "Where do you watch films most?"  We need to know the primary source of video viewing, as we want to make sure that this film becomes popular with the mass audience, rather than just having it online where, typically, the younger audience might see the video from YouTube, Vimeo or ShortOfTheWeek.
9. "Where would you expect to view our film?" We believe this would be an important question as we would want to know where the audience would expect the film so we can exhibit there.

Film look

To give our film a professional look and feel, it would be good if we used some colour grading and took ideas from the many YouTube tutorials out there.

Here's a before and after shown through pictures with a small tutorial aspect.

This video is very useful to us and shows us exactly how to achieve professional looking effects in our film. This is also the same editing software we use so following this tutorial should be easy to use.

Viral advert ideas

Viral advert ideas

When researching viral adverts I came across the website Branded 3. This site showed me some of the top viral marketing campaigns of all time. When looking through these adverts I could see a general theme of emotion running through the adverts. This suggests that using strong emotions such as humor has the best outcomes. Emotion is a factor that drives people to share the content they see on social media, whether thats humor, anger or anxiety.  As our film is a domestic comedy I believe a funny viral advert will work well for us as it will link in with the theme of the film. 


One idea I had was involving the audience with the advertising process. We could use social media such as Twitter and Facebook to ask viewers for ideas involving what they use post-it notes for or what they want from a post-it note, for example them to be bigger, different colours, in a particular shape etc.

Another idea I had was creating different characters using the post-it notes and use them to promote the film. With this idea we could create characters from our film though this usually works well for films with well known characters such as the Marvel characters.



I also had the idea of getting the audience to create a short story on a pad of post-it notes. This would share ideas for short films like ours for other film makers and for people doing media projects similar to ours. This gives people a starting point as to what they could create a short film about. 

Rubber band panning.

As panning is quite tricky to do smoothly I did some research into making our experience easier and our pans smoother.
This video compares using your hand to pan and using a rubber band, the constant smooth tension created by the rubber band makes panning easier and is a cheap trick. Handheld pans are notorious for being hard to do and easy to spot and using a handheld pan can break the immersion of our film.

Research into Viral Ads

Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networking services and other technologies to try to produce increases in the awareness of the film.
Large social media websites that are most commonly used by film makers are:
Youtube- Producers pay Youtubers to put their viral adverts up on Youtube before their videos start.
Facebook- Producers create pages on Facebook for their film, they can build up a fan base by posting posters and then can upload their viral advert for free. People who like the page can share the video in their Facebook page and show their friends.
Twitter- Producers can create a profile for their film and create a fan base and get followers. They can post videos which people can 'favourite' and 'retweet'so that their followers will see it too.


One famous viral advert is LG's "So real it's scary" advert campaign. Within the viral ad, LG take their new monitors and replace the floor of a lift with monitors. People enter the lift and it appears that the floor falls underneath them. They react and LG wants the audience to laugh at the reactions. People can remember things more if it humours then as it sticks in their mind.

20/1/16 shooting schedule

Shooting schedule. 

On Wednesday the 20th we planned our first proper attempt at our film's filming after our practice on the 13th.


We decided to film in chronological order starting with our conversation scene in the living room involving MATT & LAURA. The equipment we would need would be the CAMERA and TRIPOD.

After our conversation scene it moves into the montage scene within the kitchen involving just LAURA, CAMERA and TRIPOD.

Next is our conversation on the phone between PAIGE & LAURA and after this scene the one between MATT and BRANDAN.

Next filmed is MATT walking up the stairs and entering the bedroom; commencing the bag packing scene involing the bag prop, CAMERA and TRIPOD.

Next MATT walks through the house going down the stairs into the living room using CAMERA and TRIPOD.

Then its our final interior scene in the bedroom which is the last in the film's timeline involving CAMERA and TRIPOD.

Our final shot is our outisde establishing shot and we've put this last as we want it to be a little bit darker this will need CAMERA and TRIPOD.

Cast and Crew list

Laura in costume

Matt in costume

Cast and Crew list

Cast 

The cast includes:

• Matt as Matt
• Laura as Laura
• Brandan as Brandan

Crew 

The crew includes:

Director:

• Brandan Wiles

Producer:

• Matthew Wogan 

Editor:

• Paige Watson 

Writer: 

• Laura Briscoe 

My idea for a Viral Ad

When thinking about ideas for a Viral Ad which would go alongside my film I wanted them to be related to each other so then people could distinguish the clear link between them both. As my film is about relationships and the arguments I can include I wanted there to be a competitive streak within the viral ad as it would raise attention as there would be a leader board included. The final aspect which I wanted to include was the post it notes. The title of my film is called "Notes" so this was important to come across in the viral ad in which I was going to produce.

 

A popular and easy thing to make at all ages are paper airplanes. As a test I attempted to make a paper airplane out of a post it note. This worked so my Viral ad would be a web page in where people can post how far they can  throw a paper airplane as well as how they may have designed or decorated them. This way it gets my audience included within the marketing of the film. This spreads by word of mouth also as friends may talk about how far they have thrown a paper airplane and may then try to beat each other. This competition could also be shared on things such as social media to showcase the film even further.

What is a Viral Ad?

Viral marketing is used to raise awareness of a company, their brand or awareness of a particular product which they may want to enhance. They can promote this in more than one method. The following are ways in which people may use viral marketing:

1. Social Media
2. Word of mouth
3. Websites
4. Blog 
5. Plus many more. 

By using these methods to raise awareness it gives the company time to showcase what they have to offer. By doing this it means that more people will know about the product or company which is being showcased. As more people have an understanding it means that there is a higher chance of success due to the audience it has reached. In addition, there are also different formats in which the viral advert can be shown in which makes it reach different media platforms. If it is viewed in a popular format such as Facebook on social media it reaches it's specific audience.

 

Overall, Viral Marketing is an easy way to reach the desired audience of choice as you can make it approachable to different media platforms. Next, it is an alternative way to things such as a movie trailer. Viral Adverts can be made to include the audience which makes them feel included within the film.

Viral Ad ideas

Viral Advert Ideas

Within our viral advert we believe that we have to incorperate Post-it notes within the concept. Viral adverts are most commonly in the form of a video as they are easy to create and are easy to share arcoss social media. A short video with some sort of post it note integration would suit our film well.

The idea comes from the game headbands, however instead of having a headband on your head the people are using Post-it notes. On each Post-it note they all have the same word "Notes". They all go round asking question but the "questions" are the plot of the story so that the whole plot is asked about. Once the last part of the person asks his "question" the all say "Notes" at the same time.
 

Complicated Aspects

More Complicated Aspects Of Our Film

The more tricky shots we are using in our film are:

• Montage?
• Jump Cuts?
• Stop Motion? 

Montage:
We are using a montage to show the scene where MATT cleans up the kitchen. We decided to use this method as it would show the audience what is happening without showing the whole thing and the film getting repetitive and boring. This can be tricky as we need the shots to match up.  In this scene we are also using jump cuts. These can be dificult as they can make the film look jarring and disconnected.

Stop motion
We are using stop motion editing technique to show our title Notes in the title sequence. We decided to use this technique as it works well within the title sequence. This teqnique has proved difficult to edit as we could not fit the whole word on the wall at the same time. We are considering using a different method to create the title of our film.

Viral advert ideas.

Viral advert ideas. 

For our viral advert we decided that actually incorporating actual post it notes within our advert would be a good idea. Videos tend to be the best format for viral adverts as they are easily sharable on social media. A short video with some sort of post it note integration would suit our film well as it would keep the idea of post it notes present within the audiences minds and represent our film.

After recent trends of "challenges" where someone had to do something that was deemed had or difficult. I decided that an advert promoting a charity would be good. Due to the nature and use of post it notes I decided using them to promote a dementia charity would be good; for the challenge part it would be a short story wrote on a normal sized post it note and then sent in to the company for a prize such as free tickets to see the film or merchandise. All profits would then be donated to charity.

Research into viral adverts.

Viral advertising is utilising social media websites such as Youtube, Twitter, Facebook and Reddit. Companies have pages or accounts on these sites where they can post their advert. Viral adverts are unique as they self replicate through users passing it along to their peers on their social platform allowing the company to have to do minimal work while still reaching a large audience; there is no guarantee that an advert will go viral as the general public is very unpredictable and may not like the advert enough to share with their peers. Viral advertising can come in many forms such as video clips, images, webpages or even branded software.

A famous viral ad campaign is the "Will it blend?" series on YouTube by Blendtec, here they blend seeming tough and random everyday items in the blenders they produce. This campaign worked because they did have a good product in the blender and used audience participation to request objects to try and blend. Another aspect in why the series worked so well is that they weren't scared to blend expensive cutting edge techonology at the time such as Apples Watches and a Chromebook. 

Their YouTube channel here

Another famous viral advert is Volkswagens "The Force", featuring a small and less menacing Darth Vader who is struggling to use "The Force". The advert is montage like and the small Vader can't make anything happen with his "Force". Because Star Wars is a very established brand many people will instantly associate the music present and his costume. He then tries his powers on the family Volkswagen car where his Dad uses the remote unlock feature to make the cars headlights flash tricking the boy into thinking he did much to his delight. The advert leaves a good impression because it tells a small story and small children are very relateable and seen as cute by many. The advert also has the element of humour which will make it more memorable for people. 

Film Poster Practice

Film Poster Practice

Before I created my film poster I had a practice on photo shop. I had a quick tutorial on how to upload images onto photo shop and used the different tools to cut the images out and place them on a background. I used this image of a pig in an astronaut costume and placed it onto a space background. I created this armature film poster just to get a feel for photo shop as I had never used it before.
I used one of the tools to cut out the pig as it was originally on a different background. I then added some text for a title of the "film" and changed the colour to white as you couldnt see the black writing on the background.