Representation

Our film opening represents the difference of two parallel lives. There is a lot of controversial topics in the modern era on how we should all live a certain way and the outsiders get neglected form society. As a group we wanted to be the opposite; the idea that two people of two different personalities and backgrounds can still be together. 
It can be suggested that Alicia is a perfect example of how society thinks women should behave and act, we displayed this with the politeness features, the presence she brings and also the stereotypical London working businesswoman. She is well groomed, smart and looks entirely innocent.
Whereas, Tez for example is the complete opposite and is represented as a thuggish young man who has very little money (the reason for pushing a woman out the way to get on to a train). Although, you may think this is exactly how society portrays people, well right at the end of the film opening we see these two parallel life characters come together. With the use of non-diegetic music it connotes they are going to have some sort of romance and defy societies stereotypes.

Marketing for film opening

Movies are usually always marketed to convince people to watch the film. This means that our film opening needs to be promoted and advertised in several ways so the recognition of it increases. 

We will use social media to market our film as it is believed that 71% of teenagers use more than one social network site. This includes Facebook, Twitter and Instagram which are among the most popular social media sites. Instead of just using YouTube to show our film trailer we can actually use social media to promote which means we can hit our Primary Audience of 16-20 year olds. 

IMDB is a huge digital marketing sight and has millions of people visiting the sight to find new movies to watch. We will include as much information about our film as possible as we want people to relate to our film ideas and want viewers to give reviews on our film. This can also mean the 'word of mouth' effect is happening as people may suggest our film to other people if the enjoy.

Institution for Commute

The production company we chose was film 4, the reason we chose them is because they are a well-known company and many people would recognize it. The reason the choice of Production Company is important is because it determines what kind of audience the film will branch out too. Film 4 is mainly a UK based company which means that our film would be mainly a UK attraction and it has been created by a UK company.  It would be hard for it to reach an international audience that is really big, such as America for example. 
However, if the film did do well in the UK and it became a big hit, it could then spread worldwide and become an international hit. For the best means of distributing your product, I think to earn the most money we would need to put it in cinema, but as its only a small film it would probably been shown on TV, on the film 4 channel and from then it will try to produce as much money through that.  However, by putting the film on a film 4 channel, this is advertisement in itself, therefore other production companies may see the film and then lead on to put it in the big screen cinemas, which most of our profit will come from.

Marketing Campaign

Production Diary

Day One - 09/11/2015
Today we found out who was in our group for our AS Media film opening. Our group consists of Alicia, Chloe, Tez and Evan. We assigned the roles within our group and they are as follows:

Alicia - Team Leader/Actor
Chloe - Director/Camera Woman
Tez - Actor
Evan - Director/Camera Man

Today, we also created individual film pitches that we would pitch to the rest of our team the next day.  This individual film pitch was created in order to pitch our own ideas to the rest of our group.  These ideas would be the group individuals own choice/preferred choice of what they would like to do for the film opening.

Day Two - 10/11/2015
(Tez and Chloe were absent on this day)

Today we pitched our individual ideas to the rest of our team. Evan and Alicia looked at Tez and Chloe's pitches and created an idea that incorporated elements from each of the individual pitches.

The idea is:
There are two opposing lives (a 20-something business woman and a homeless, 20-something man) that come together on a train and develop a romantic relationship over a period of time.

Day Three - 12/11/2015
Evan and Alicia pitched their collaborative idea to Tez and Chloe. The response was positive and more ideas were included. We spent the rest of the lesson creating an Emaze presentation to show to the class and receive feedback from.

Day Four - 13/11/2015
Today we pitched our film opening idea to the rest of our peers and teachers. We received feedback on the title of our film, the story line, location and things to improve on.

Day Five - 16/11/2015
Today we received the feedback sheets from our peers and teachers and took all of the comments into consideration and developed our film opening idea. We improved our characters and story line by changing the characters to the following:

The woman = a 20-something business woman and mother
The man = a homeless, teenage boy

By changing the ages of the characters, we have created a more enticing and unique film opening idea. We have decided to take influences from the films The 7:39 and The Boy Next Door.

We also allocated roles within the group and decided who would do what in the production of our film opening.

Day Six - 17/11/2015
Today, we began our individual roles within the group.

Evan started to look at Representation.
Tez looked at the camera shots that we should include in our film opening and the effects that they will create.
Chloe and Alicia updated the production diary and took Recce images to create a mood-board of our film opening in the near future.

Day Seven - 18/11/2015
(Alicia was absent on this day)

The rest of the group started adapting the idea to make it easier to film or more exciting. The group decided to adapt the character of the homeless boy and make him a teenage "thug" with a twist - he's actually a nice guy, not the stereotypical gangster. By making this alteration, we have allowed ourselves more room to be creative with our music choices and shots.

Day Eight - 19/11/2015
(Alicia and Tez was absent on this day)

The rest of the group videoed a draft version of the new film opening in order to be able to see the product and analyse the physical video. By doing this, it made the ideas come to life and allowed the group to get a visual product to base the real opening on.  They did this by getting Evan, Alicia, Beth, Will and Dan all from outside of media (except Evan) to be part of the draft film opening.  Chloe filmed this and then herself and Evan edited it using premiere and putting the instrumental of Nasty by Skepta in the background to add effect to the draft film opening.

Day Nine - 20/11/2015
(Chloe and Tez were absent on this day)

Alicia and Evan created a storyboard for the film opening. This included an image of the shot and a brief description about it. They also researched upon film production companies that could be used for our film. In addition, Alicia and Evan decided upon the production company of Film 4 and chose a production opening and merged the visuals together with a soundtrack that fits the setting of the teenage "thug". The music track is: Skepta - Nasty (musical instrumental).

Day Ten - 23/11/2015
Evan and Tez wrote up the risk assessment onto the risk assessment sheet whilst Alicia completed the production diary. The production diary states that the group's filming starts on Wednesday 25th November and continues over to Thursday 26th November.

Day Eleven - 24/11/2015
Alicia uploaded images of the risk assessment and shooting schedule onto her blog. She also finished her research into film fonts and titles and uploaded that to her blog. Chloe, Evan and Tez filmed the storyboard, put it onto Adobe Premier Pro and started to recording the voiceover of it.

Day Twelve - 25/11/2015
Today we filmed our production. Using our storyboard to help us with the shots we were meant to film and the length of each shot, we completed the filming process. We asked some of our fellow peers to be extra's in the film to make it look more realistic. We used three of the school cameras to film, meaning that we set all three up to film simultaneously and therefore we received the same shots from multiple angles. This means that when it comes to editing, we have a range of interesting shots to use.

Day Thirteen - 26/11/2015
Today, Evan was taking photos of our group working and Chloe and Alicia were editing the film opening.  Tez was looking at what song choices we had to use certain parts of the film for Alicia's spotlight scenes, as we already have the song Nasty by Skepta for Tez's opening shot.                                                                                                                        
 Day Fourteen - 27/11/2015 (Chloe and Tez were absent on this day) Alicia and Evan finished the rough copy of our film opening and spoke about the plan for our next filming date and how we can ensure that it will go smoothly. They also found a different camera that we could film with.

Day Fifteen - 02/12/2015 Today the group re-filmed the entirety of the film opening. This time, the filming process was more fluent as we already had experience in the shots we wanted and the angles we knew would look good. In particular, we added a tracking shot of Tez's character walking down the train aisle; this shot was effective because the focus was on Tez and the lighting on the train made the shot look professional.

Day Sixteen - 03/12/2015 Today we uploaded the new footage and started the editing process. We also decided to cut the original Film 4 indent that we wanted to include as it was too long and didn't particularly fit with the theme. Instead, we opted for the simple approach of text. This says "A FILM 4 PRODUCTION". We were all impressed with our new footage.

Day Seventeen - 04/12/2015 Today we continued editing our film opening and added small amounts of titles, such as the actors names. However, we quickly realised that our footage lasted less time than the required time (2 minutes) and knew that we had to film a couple more shots in order to fit the expected duration. We finished the editing the footage that we had in time to submit it as our first draft. This draft is to be watched by all of the media classes and their teachers to be given feedback on.

Day Eighteen and Nineteen - 07/12/2015 and 08/12/2015 Today we watched each others first drafts and gave verbal feedback on them. The feedback regarding our film opening - Commute - was as follows: 1. If dialogue was included then the opening would seem more realistic. 2. Tez's thuggish character gives the impression that he is stalking Alicia's character. 3. There is no indication that the characters are supposed to become romantically involved.


Teacher feedback said:
The variety of shots are good. Faces are unclear and therefore do not accurately reflect characters. Editing is mostly fluent, some missing shots. Use of natural lighting is good. Alicia should keep a neutral face - looks too jolly. Music becomes boring as it is used constantly.

Day Twenty - 10/12/2015 Today we filmed a couple more scenes to add into our footage in order to increase the duration of it. These scenes included - Alicia's character walking down the high street (dialogue was included in order to establish her character) and Tez's character walking down the street with headphones in, then taking them out (this scene will be effective in the essence that we can fade out the music - this is a reaction to our teacher feedback).

Day Twenty-One - 14/12/2015
The group uploaded their additional shots that were filmed on the 10th December and integrated them into the other footage. The titles were added to the film opening. Alicia completed the Commute film poster using an image of a train and train platform whilst Chloe started to make a website for the film. 

Risk Assessment

Below is a picture of the risk assessment Evan himself has completed.  In this image it displays what risks could happen on a severity scale of 1-10.  Alongside each risk there is a control measure for each one of how to prevent these risks from happening.  At the bottom of the sheet is the emergency number we need to call if anything does happen, as well as the local 24 hour hospital, in our case is Broomfield Hospital.

Shooting Schedule

Below is a picture of our shooting schedule as a group that Alicia created herself. In this image it shows the day and date that we will be filming, what number scene it is, if it is interior or exterior, the shot number and the description of what is happening in the shot, the location of the shot, the characters involved in each shot and the props/special equipment needed in each shot.

Music Research

We chose Skepta's Instrumental of Nasty because it is current music that is on the up; it is listened to stereotypically by the people on the Streets of London and City based areas. A lot of people that listened to it wear the same type of clothing style as the actor in our film opening so we felt as a group this could fit really well with the actors attitude.


The next music is an Emotive Motivational track off YouTube that as a group we felt fits our Genre: Romance. The music creates a happy connotations which allows the watcher to connect with the scenes and the romance between the two characters which is yet to be discovered throughout the rest of the film.

Props Research

Props Research

For Alicia:

• Long draped coat
• Court heels
• Holdall bag
• Train ticket
• Coffee cup
• Newspaper

For Tez:

• Rucksack
• Black, hooded puffa jacket
• Earphones
• Black joggers
• Black trainers

For Chloe:

• Looking like a typical, innocent woman
• Train ticket

For the train platform setting:

• Train
• Underpass/alleyway
• Cafe

Costume Ideas

The props we need for the film opening vary with the different characters and clips.

Costume Planning

Business Woman - Alicia

The black and grey clothing will look sleek and smart - reflecting the persona of the business woman in our film opening. The high heeled boots will make the actress (Alicia) look older and more professional than if she was to wear flat shoes. The black dress, with its high neck and flattering shape, will show the conservative-ness of the character. By using a holdall bag instead of a shoulder bag, the character will look proficient.

Teenage "thug" - Tez

the stereotypical teenage "thug" with all black and sports-branded clothing. This type of clothing is seen as intimidating which is how we wish to present Tez's character. This will then create enigma when Tez's character sits next to Alicia's character, making it surprising when the couple start to develop a romantic relationship.

Audience

Audience - Primary and Secondary

Primary

We have decided that our primary audience will be 16-20 year olds. This is because our film opening consists of a young thug who has come from a poor, unstable background and an older businesswoman who works in London, both these scenarios become evident in the film.  The reason our primary audience is ranged from that certain aged group is because they are the people who are most likely going to relate to the film and the films situation involved.  We know that the most profitable age range to aim films at are these ages. Also, being in our chosen age range, it will hopefully be easy for us to create an intriguing film opening that we ourselves would be interested to watch. We shall give our film a 15 certification. This is because we intend to use:

• Frequent strong language
• Nudity in a sexual content
• Sexual activity (but with no explicit detail)
• Some use of mild violence

Secondary

Our secondary audience shall be an older audience of 30-50 year old working women as we feel they will be able to identify with the business woman character. Also, this age range is also thought of as enjoying romance and drama films; both of which are genres that are incorporated into our film.  This audience will be able to relate to Alicia as most of them will be at work, maybe in the city where Alicia is.  Another reason why they could relate is because the majority of them have either fallen in love, therefore they will know what it feels like and relate to the film due to their past experiences.  Because of this, this makes the film a much deeper narrative for people who have experienced it.

Location - Recce Shots

Below is images we have taken which display the locations we used in our film opening.  It is all based in the town of Chelmsford, therefor it was quite easy for us to shoot the film on a whole as the locations weren't too far apart from one another.

Chelmsford open underpass


Chelmsford Train Station



Train



Train station platform

Audience Feedback

We decided to interview some of our target audience to see how they felt about our Film Opening. This involved:

- What they thought the Genre was.

- What they liked about it. 

- Would they go and see it at the cinema. 

- What could be improved. 

 

 

Student Feedback for First Draft

Strengths and Weaknesses: Holding a shot steady where appropriate. 

Strengths: We received mostly level 3's and 4's. It was said by many that most of our shots were steady and the panning was smooth. 

Weaknesses: Some shots people suggested to use warp stabilizer to stop the shakiness which is an effect on Premiere. 

Strengths and Weaknesses: Framing a shot, excluding and including elements as appropriate. 

Strengths: People said that a lot of our shots were fitted to frame so practically most of our feedback for this was level 4.  

Weaknesses: One person gave us a level 2 because 1 of our shots was apparently disproportionate compared to others. 

Strengths and Weaknesses: Use a variety of shots and distances. 

Strengths: In this feedback we got mostly level 4's with a few level 3's and people said they liked the use of long shots to show the setting and close up to show facial expressions. It was also said this kept the opening more exiting to watch as their was always different types of shots. 

Weaknesses: Some people said that some scenes should of had different shots to create more of an effect. 

Strengths and Weaknesses: Using titles appropriately (consider font, colour, length of screen, order)

Strengths: It was said the titles of the film are clear to see upon the background and are bold but simple. People placed our titles in mostly level 4's and someone's feedback was "length of the titles are perfect and the fade in and out is a nice touch". 

Weaknesses: Although the feedback was very good we did get a couple of people saying 'because their was so many titles' that it distracted them away from the actual shots. 

Strengths and Weaknesses: Selecting mise en scene , including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting. 

Strengths: People said that the mise en scene was really good and the setting was effective in contrast with the representation of characters. 

Weaknesses: The lighting under the bridge was apparently a bit dark and was hard to see the character. Also some people that gave it a level 3 said that some shots need to be lightened up. 

Film Opening Teacher Feedback - Draft 1

Feedback from Draft 1

Today we received feedback from our teachers regarding the first draft of our film.

The feedback was:
What went well - use of costume, exciting atmosphere because of short and fast shots.

It would be even better if - audio was fixed, the relationship between the characters was obvious (seems as though Tez is going to kill Alicia)

In response to our feedback we plan to:
Finish putting our titles in the film opening
Re-shoot some footage so that the quality is better and clearer
Find a way to naturally fade out the music that plays constantly
Re-place the 'Commute' title
Experiment with the audio (cancel out the noise of the wind)
Add some clue into the opening as to the future relationship between the characters

Evaluation Of Storyboard

The storyboard myself and my group created is full of shots that we are using in the film opening, it also includes how long each shot is going to be and where it is going to be filmed.  It also includes the detail of what will happen in the shot, for example, it will say 'Alicia walks through the train station barrier'.  We have done this in order to remind us when it comes to filming what to do and where to do it.  Therefore, this entitles the whole group to be organised and not stress about forgetting any important aspects when we film.
The storyboard on a whole was really useful, it kept the group organised and there was no debating about what to do in each scene.  Myself and Evan were the directors and assistant director of the film opening, therefore we each had a copy of the storyboard when going to film, this reminded us of how long each shot was and the detail we needed to include in the shot.
When recording the storyboard, we chose Evan to do the voiceover, this was a good choice as he has a clear voice and you can understand it through the phone.  We made sure we could hear his voice, by getting Alicia to watch the storyboard video and see if she could understand the voiceover.  This would enable us to realise if we need to alter the video or change the voiceover person.

Storyboard

Below is a video of the storyboard myself, Alicia, Tez and Evan created altogether displaying each scene in our film opening.This includes the type of shot it is and it also describes what is happening in the shot, Evan has voiced over what is included in each shot.

Film Poster

With our film poster we wanted the 'Commute'  not to represent the relationship that will occur with the characters as we wanted to keep the relationship unexpected for the audience. By including an image of a train station platform and train, the narrative of the film is kept hidden, but the reoccurring location of the train station is displayed. We also feel that the prominent genre of the film, drama, is conveyed in the basic and neutral film poster.

Shot List

Below is an emaze production that Tez created to show the shot lists we will be carrying out when filming the opening of our film 'Commute'.

Script for Commute