Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

From the preliminary task, I feel that I have learnt that the editing process is a lot more complex than what we did for the prelim. The editing is very complex as you are always finding new ideas of what to do and how to improve the film. I also feel that my camera work has improved a lot and that I have now learnt a lot more about editing films and how to use the software

I have learnt that the filming process is a lot more complex and involved than I thought. The director has to say; "quiet on set" than a clapper board is used and you have to wait a few seconds before starting to film the actual scene.

The process film makers have to go through is a lot more complicated than I thought. You have to take loads of shots of the sae scene to make sure you have enough in case one isn't good and others are. You also have to make sure the cast know what they are doing and how they are standing, the lighting, etc to make sure the film can be as professional as can be.

I have learnt a lot more about the audiences that would view certain films. I have also learnt a lot more about the typical conventions shown in different film genres and how they are used and challenged from film to film. I have learnt that you really need to think about your specific target audience when filming and editing the film in order to attract them to watch it.

Evaluation Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have used many programmes and different equipment to produce the opening sequence:

1. iMac

We used this mac to upload our footage onto iMovie. We also used the mac to access the different software and websites we needed to help collect data and to produce and record our coursework.

2. The camera

We used this camera at the production stage to film our opening sequence. The camera used was a Sony HandyCam DCR-SR37.

3. Camera USB Input Lead

This is the lead I had to use to upload the footage from our Sony camera to the mac. You have to insert the lead into the USB port and then turn the camera on in order to correctly upload footage.

4. Mobile Phone 

My mobile phone was actually quite important as I used it to communicate with the rest of my group and plan when to meet up to film and edit.       

5. Blogger

Blogger has been very important throughout the course as this is the place where I have been recording all my research and information and where I have been displaying my work and videos I have produced.

6. iMovie

iMovie has been very important in the producing and editing of the final piece. This is the software I uploaded my footage to and the software in which I edited it and produced the final opening sequence, changing any parts I needed to and adding in any extras I needed.

7. GarageBand

I used GarageBand to get the sounds of the audience cheering. This is important as we didn’t have a live audience watching our dance, but I thought that a cheering sounds was needed to create an effect that we were in a real dance show with an audience waiting to watch us.

8. iTunes 

iTunes was important to input the Voiceover into our opening sequence. This helped as it converted the voiceover in to the right format and I could easily get it from iTunes over to iMovie.

9. LiveType 

I tried to use LiveType to create the title slides and the name of the film. However, we decided not to use this as a problem with LiveType is that is was hard to get the words over the top of our footage and it was only on a black background. So my group and I decided against using this and put an overlapping word straight from iMovie.



10. Survey Monkey

Survey Monkey was a key way that I decided to gather the results from my audience response from viewing my opening sequence before it was fully finished. This helped to create graphs and images with the results and put them straight on to my blog as proof of my audience response.



11. YouTube

YouTube was key in allowing me to put my videos on to my blog as I could upload them to YouTube and then embed them straight into Blogger. It is also important as my videos could be easily accessed for other people to view and embed, but also so it can be easily seen and marked.



Evaluation Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

To prove the audience appeal and attraction, I have annotated the opening sequence to show how I have engaged the audience.

Evaluation Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

This is a drawn image of the typical audience member I expect would watch "Live 2 Dance".

Name: Samantha
Age: 16 years old
Education: 6th Form
Hobbies: Dance, Running, Watching Films, Shopping
Clothing: Shops in Primark, River Island, TopShop and H&M
Films: Watches dance films, comedy and films with characters her age
Music: Likes R'n'B, Hip-Hop, Pop and Club songs
Food: Enjoys fast food, but also healthier foods, snacks and sports drinks.

This portfolio is made up from the audience research I conducted. I found out that it is mainly girls in their teens who would watch the film; they mainly like Hip-Hop and R'n'B music. They enjoy watching films with characters their age and they enjoy dancing or watching it. The shops are based on where most teenage girls shop.

Evaluation Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

This is the answer to question three. We have produced a voice over to go over the top of our opening sequence to explain about the institutions.

Evaluation Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

This picture shows a character who is confronting another person. The character on the left is angry and tense from something the other character has done and reacts in a fierce way from anger. This is a reaction from the character that wouldn't usually happen but has happened from anger and revenge.









Similarly to this, the screen grab on the left is from our film. It also shows a character (on the left) who reacts in a violent way due to things the other character has done and said. This is similar to the existing dance film as the character is normally placid and calm, but reacts and lashes out because of actions from other characters.

Evaluation: Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? - Existing Films

I have analysed opening sequences and screen grabbed 9 different shots to show different conventions and ideas used.

1. This shot shows the title name of the film. The name relates to the genre as it is called "Street Dance" and it is a dance genre. This shows a clear reference to the dance film.

2. The colour of the font in this opening sequence of "Step Up 2" is black and red. This is typical dance film font colour as they are used in a lot of dance films.

3. The style of the font in "Street Dance 3D" uses a handwritten type font. This is a typical font used in the dance genre.

4. Typical settings used are parks and out door spaces, i.e the streets. This is backed up by the fourth picture (from Step Up 3D) as it shows the dance troop dancing outside and in an open area.

5. Picture 5 shows a screen grab from Step Up 2. This shot shows the typical costume of the characters as they are all wearing baggy clothing, t-shirts and vests. These clothes are seen in most dance films and is a common convention.

6. Colour adjustment is used in picture six (from Dirty Dancing). The colour has been changed to black and white. This is a common convention in some dance films as this effect is often used.

7. The type of lighting used in this shot are bright and a lot of lighting effects are used for different things. This is common in a dance film as they are used in the final battle or show scenes.

8. Transitions are a common convention used in most dance films as they allow the different footage to fit together and look professional. The picture shows a shot from "Step Up 2" where the titles fade to black. This is used a lot as it looks neat and an effective way of getting the titles off of the page.

9. In a dance genre film, obviously there is some dancing. Picture 9 shows the characters dancing. This supports the dance genre as there is actually some dancing happening.

Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? - My Film

I have now analysed nine shots from my opening sequence that are similar to those i have previously compared from existing dance films

1. This shot shows the title name of our film. Our name relates to the dance genre as it is called "Live 2 Dance". This shows a clear reference to the dance film. It is also similar to existing dance films as a lot of films from this genre use the word dance in the title, so we are sticking to typical conventions.

2. Shot two shows the colour of the font in our opening sequence. The font is black and red as this is a typical  font colour used in a lot of dance films. We have stuck to these conventions as we have also used red font for our "Live 2 Dance".

3. The style of the font used for our names is a kind of handwritten type font. This is a typical font used in the dance genre as it looks like people have just written it 'from the streets'. We decided to stick to this convention and use the handwriting styled font.

4. Typical settings used for dance films are parks and out door spaces. We have stuck to this typical idea by filming some of our footage outside as shown in picture 4 when the character is dancing outside a building.

5. Picture 5 shows a screen grab from our opening sequence. It shows we have stuck to the typical costume of the characters as they are all wearing baggy shorts, shirts and vests. These clothes are seen in most dance films and is a common convention which is why we have stuck to it and used these costumes.

6. Colour adjustment is used in picture six from Live 2 Dance. The colour has been changed to black and white. This is a common convention in some dance films and I decided to stick to this as I thought it was quite effective and looked professional as a dance film.

7.  In our opening, we used red lighting and spot lights to create a dance show feel. This is common in dance films as they are used in the final battle or show scenes. I decided to use these lights to stick to typical conventions and also to create the effect of a real dance show.

8. Transitions are a common convention used in most dance films as they allow the different footage to fit together and look professional. We also used transitions in Live 2 Dance and picture 8 shows a shot where the final dance scene fades to white for the ending. This is used a lot as it looks neat and an effective way of ending scenes. 

9. In a dance genre film, obviously there is some dancing. Picture 9 shows the characters in our film dancing. This supports the dance genre as there is actually some dancing happening.

Opening Sequence

Blog Update: 15/02/2011

Today in lesson we finished off the editing for our opening sequence. We have adjusted the end by keeping the "8 months earlier..." on screen for longer. We edited the beginning titles by changing the colour to make it stand out. We also cut out the laugh at the start of the action as this is one thing the audience said they weren't too sure why this was here and they said it didn't make sense.

Audience Response Feedback

As a group we decided to do a survey using Survey Monkey to collect our results. These are the questions we asked and the results we got:

1. Do you think our opening sequence is appropriate and fits in with the dance genre?
	answered question		12
	skipped question		0
		Response Percent	Response Count
Yes		83.3%	10
No		16.7%	2

DownloadCreate Chart2. On a scale of 1 to 10, what grade would you give our opening sequence? (10 being the best)
	answered question		12
	skipped question		0
		Response Percent	Response Count
1		0.0%	0
2		0.0%	0
3		8.3%	1
4		0.0%	0
5		0.0%	0
6		0.0%	0
7		50.0%	6
8		25.0%	3
9		8.3%	1
10		8.3%	1

Download3. Please explain why you said this number,,,
	answered question	11
	skipped question	1
		Response Count
Hide Responses		11
10 responses per page25 responses per page < 1 > 1. it engages the audience however its a bit confusing Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:48 AM Find... 2. I would be very likely to see the film, even though this is not my favourite genre, i like the characters. Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:30 AM Find... 3. Some bits seemed a bit jumpy and the dialogue could have been improved. Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:21 AM Find... 4. Because it follow the conventions of a dance film, however is made into its own original piece. Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:20 AM Find... 5. It looked professional. Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:20 AM Find... 6. because it was good and very conventional of the genre Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:15 AM Find... 7. hahaa,, because there was lots of dancing and dance music and a problem presented itself early on in the film, which is what usualy happens. Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:15 AM Find... 8. because it had me engaged from the word go Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:15 AM Find... 9. the conventions that you have used suit the genre of the film, what you would normally expect or see from these films Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:14 AM Find... 10. cos its beast mate Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:13 AM Find...

Download4. Who do you think our film's target audience is?
	answered question	11
	skipped question	1
Target Audience Teenage Boys Male Adults Female Adults Teenage Girls Young Girls Young Boys Response Count Audience is: 9.1% (1) 0.0% (0) 0.0% (0) 81.8% (9) 0.0% (0) 9.1% (1) 11

Download5. Do you think our opening sequence stuck to typical conventions of the chosen genre of Dance films?
	answered question	12
	skipped question	0
		Response Count
Hide Responses		12
10 responses per page25 responses per page < 1 > 1. yes and no, because i dont really know what the conventions are however it look relevant to its genre Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:48 AM Find... 2. It contains dance sequences, slow motion, close-ups, and a performance scene. Yes. I think the titles were particularly effective. Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:30 AM Find... 3. Yes, because it had a dance group and a conflict. Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:21 AM Find... 4. Yes Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:20 AM Find... 5. Yes it did in some ways, such as the introduction of characters dancing. Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:20 AM Find... 6. i thought it did because they always have up beat music which you had, and yeah it was good Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:15 AM Find... 7. Yes i believe it did. Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:15 AM Find... 8. yes there was lots of dance and music also the costume Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:15 AM Find... 9. yes because of the type of dancing, costume and music Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:14 AM Find... 10. yes as they had music and abit of drama Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:13 AM Find...

Download6. How do you think we challenged the typical conventions?
	answered question	12
	skipped question	0
		Response Count
Hide Responses		12
10 responses per page25 responses per page < 1 > 1. By having a female as the group leader?? Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:48 AM Find... 2. More male dancers, more swearing, suggestion of a gritty plot....something darker than your usual dance film. Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:30 AM Find... 3. im not to sure. Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:21 AM Find... 4. You added more transitions and adapted the colour to black and white for more of the dancing footage. Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:20 AM Find... 5. You added in a lot of swearing which is usually not included in a dance film. Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:20 AM Find... 6. the big show was at the beginning when normally it has one big build up to the final event and there is use of flashback. Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:15 AM Find... 7. i did not notice any challenges. Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:15 AM Find... 8. swearing !!!!!!! Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:15 AM Find... 9. different types of dancing included rather than just street Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:14 AM Find... 10. by showing the end at the start to hook the audience Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:13 AM Find...

DownloadCreate Chart7. Do you think we can improve this opening sequence?
	answered question		12
	skipped question		0
		Response Percent	Response Count
Yes		75.0%	9
No		25.0%	3
If yes; please explain. Hide Responses			9
1. the lighting should be brighter Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:48 AM Find... 2. You could make then sound clearer and perhaps tweak the ending, i think the 8 months before could stay on the screen longer. The V-DAY productions could be more professional in terms of font and layout...i don't think it needs to fill the screen. Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:30 AM Find... 3. you could use different dialogue when they are behind the curtain because it seems a bit to violent for a dance film. Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:21 AM Find... 4. I think that you could improve the actual scene where the dialogue begins and finishes. Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:20 AM Find... 5. I think you show too much of each character dancing when introducing them but other than that it was good. Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:15 AM Find... 6. cut out vikkies laugh its pointless when shes runnning up the stairs Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:15 AM Find... 7. and could make the storyline of the film more clear within the opening Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:13 AM Find... 8. Edit the sound                Tue, Feb 15, 2011 12:54 AM Find...

DownloadCreate Chart8. If you saw this opening sequence, would you want to continue watching the film?
	answered question		12
	skipped question		0
		Response Percent	Response Count
Yes		58.3%	7
No		41.7%	5
Please explain answer. Hide Responses			11
10 responses per page25 responses per page < 1 > 1. i don like dance movies Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:48 AM Find... 2. To find out what happened 8 months earlier. I think the characters have a complex relationship, this interests me. Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:30 AM Find... 3. it isn't that interesting to make me carrying on watching it. Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:21 AM Find... 4. It look interesting, with a good engaging storyline and I would want to watch on to see what happens in the film. Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:20 AM Find... 5. The story looks like it may be very interesting because it looks like the conflict between the characters trying to achieve their dream, which i feel is quite original. Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:20 AM Find... 6. because it was good and enjoyable. Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:15 AM Find... 7. purely as it is not my sort of film, but if i was into that genre i believe i would continue watching it because the footage was good (: (: (: O_o Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:15 AM Find... 8. because it hooked me in and i wanted to see what happened 8 months before :) Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:15 AM Find... 9. i want to know how they got to where they were Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:13 AM Find... 10. i didnt like vikki dancing!! Tue, Feb 15, 2011 1:11 AM Find...

To summarise these results, 10 out of 12 people think our opening is appropriate for the Dance film genre.  the majority of people think our film is good and gave it a 7 or above. Some of the answers they gave were that it looked professional; it flowed well ; it stuck to the conventions and the storyline was good. For the target audience question, 9 out of 11 people got the audience right; which is teenage girl. It stuck to conventions as we used similar transitions, we had a range of dance and the story line was strong. Most people got the challenged conventions right as they said we involved ore male dancers than women, we had the characters have a dark background with each other and we used more swearing than you would see. People gave some suggestions on improvement. They said we could edit the titles some more to make them look more professional, we could edit some of the sound because it's un clear and some of the footage is jumpy. We can't change the footage as we have no more time to shoot new scenes. Overall, 7 out of 12 people would like to carry on watching the film after seeing this opening sequence. The people who said they wouldn't aid this as they don't particularly like dance films.