In order to find out the general opinion of our music track choice, Carolina opened a Facebook page event, uploaded our clip of music and invited everyone on her 'friend's list' to comments. We got positive feedback and screen-shot some of the comments we received.
We got a range of responses for our soundtrack. Most of them were positive, saying that our music choice was "perfect for our genre of film" and "its really fast, catchy and energetic". Although the general consensus was that the they weren't a big fan of the piece on its own and wouldn't listen to it for leisure, they said that for our opening sequence and genre of film, it fit and gave a "upbeat and happy" vibe to the atmosphere of the opening two minutes.
Hey, Peep!
Today, since we found out that our SD card is f*cked, or corrupted as I've been told to type, we didn't have much to do. All the other groups in our class are currently editing their footage, except for one boy who's watching football clips on YouTube (Shhhh!) and so we felt a bit useless. We decided to use the double period to iron out any missing blog entries and choose the music for our video.
We'd initially planned to use "Man-Eater" by Nelly Furtado, as the opening song to our film as it completely sums of Naomi's promiscuous character and shows her tendency of serial 'sleeping-around', the act that leads to her dilemma, mid-way through the film. However, we can't use established songs because of, you guessed it, copyright problems and no-one wants to be sued here.
Carolina, who's our music producer, first visited www.mobygratis.com (setting up an account), a free music provider without copyright. She'd previously investigated a variety of music available of the site and none was suitable whatsoever for our opening sequence and genre of the film. We were looking for an upbeat, pop-genre sounding clip as we aimed to set the cheerful, bubbly mood of the film during the introduction, getting the audience engaged in our opening sequence.
She next visited www.freeplay.com, which was again unsuccessful. Sam, with some free time, partnered Carolina in her search for a good music clip and they patrolled Youtube.com for any non-copyrighted music clips they could use. However, there weren't any with a decent pop-genre pieces we could use or they were too short. They then investigated the possibility of purchasing a clip on www.royaltyfreemusic.com, however, the ideal clip was priced at $99.00 (WAY TOO MUCH!!!)
Finally, Mr Roberts led them to Garage Band, and they looked through a variety of clips, finally settling on 'Yearbook Long', a perfect piece, aptly fitting our genre. Carolina and Sam edited the clip on Garage Band so it was a continuous 2 minute piece.
Mr Roberts also found a piece on www.freeplay.com they'd previously not heard and it is another piece which reflects the romantic-comedy genre of our opening sequence through its pop genre and upbeat, bubbly mood we want the audience to feel when first watching our clip. With two potential pieces available, we've decided to hold onto both and chose whichever fits best with the action of the clip. I transferred the music into Final Cut Pro and made them into film clips, so they could be seen on our blogs.
Clip 1 - "Clear"
Clip 2 - "Yearbook Long"
Both music clips are very similar, aside from a slight key change and drum solo opening in one of them. However, they are both what I can imagine being used in the opening sequence and general background music of most romantic-comedies and are fairly catchy (I find myself subconsciously tapping along to the beat while I'm working, etc). Although its slightly repetitive, it'll last two minutes and most people will be occupied with the action on the screen, and its more of a mood-setter than anything to thoroughly focus on.
Hey, Peeps! Today, I had some news for the group regarding our actor playing Aiden. Unfortunately, the one day during the half-term we are able to film on is the day that he might have plans (he may be holidaying in France). He doesn't have an exact answer right now however we really can't afford to have a possible no-show on this day and so we are going to edit him and his role out of the project or try and find a replacement. The latter is unlikely and so we won't be able to include the reverse point-of-view shots series we were planning on including in our film. Although disappointed, we decided we can cope without a male lead. If Legally Blonde can cope, then so can we! Pheebs, OUT! ;)
Today, I decided to complete the next stage in the project, that being taking tester shots of locations. I took a variety of shots, some on film in a series of mini-overviews of rooms and also some simple photos of areas we pictured and envisioned having action in.
For exmaple, we'd planned, for the opening shot to be the showerhead spraying water, then switching off with the screen framing the bottom of the shot. It would be post-titles, of the 'film companies' backing our project, and would be the first shot the audeince sees. Our idea was to have the shower on, pouring water, then to have it switch off and cut to a pair of feet coming out of the shower.
The following scene is of the actresses feet climbing out of the tub and we will also have an over-the-shoulder shot of her pouting and drawing something in the steam on the mirror. This series of actions will be followed by the actress walking out of the bathroom, the camera likely at a subtle high angle focusing on her feet.
The camera will then track her walking along the hallway to her bedroom where the majority of the film will take place.
We are planning to attempt a reverse shot of the actress opening the wardrobe, with the first shot being an over-the-shoulder shot of her mid-open of the wardrobe then putting the camera on a tripod within the wardrobe and filming a medium close-up of the actress finishing opening the doors.
We've talked about doing quite a bit of mirror work because the main action taken place throughout the two-minute opening will be the actress getting ready and preparing to leave the house and go on a date. We'll do a small scene with the mirror in the bathroom and intersperse clips of the actress applying make-up with panning shots and snipets of details of the room which hints at aspects of the characters personality e.g. '50 Shades of Grey' trilogy, multiple of Valentine's Day cards and flowers and beauty products such as mascara and powder.
We are hoping to do a window scene, using a reverse shot, where we get a shot of the actress first approaching the window, then two point of view shots of the actor. One being the actress's view point of her seeing the actor, playing her date, from the top floor window (shot at a high angle from inside through the window) and the second being the actor's view point of the actress waving behind the window (shot from a low angle outside).
The actress exits the house and walks round, along the pavement to meet the actor, whose leaning on the wall, inspired by the memorable pose Aaron Johnson's character makes in Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. Both characters then walk off holding hands/arms around one another down the street as the sequence comes to an end.
*The film video footage*
These shots and locations give a general picture of where our film will be set and what we are aiming for regarding picture and location. They'll be a useful reference point while filming as well as something to experiment with, as not all the shots are definitely set and regarding exterior locations, we will be fiddling about with placement and camera angle before we decide what we'll be doing for certain.
So today, we planned our locations. It was fairly simple as we needed a girly bedroom, (pink wallpaper, big bed and dressing-table), as the main setting for where most of the action would take place. I nominated my bedroom due to Carolina and Sam saying that both of theirs were unsuitable because they didn't fit a stereotypically-girly bedroom. We wanted to recreate a 'British' version of Elle Woods' bedroom in Legally Blonde and as my bedroom has lilac wallpaper, is big and has girly elements to it, it became the most sutiable.
My bathroom and hallways would all be included in the shots as it all comes as a kind of package and so the general locations were set. We only needed 3 different inside locations to shoot the bathroom scene, bedroom "getting-ready" montage and journeys inbetween for the opening sequences, and once we'd found one, we generally had the others as well. Finally, the exterior of the house and street outside are possibles to be used and we have those guaranteed as well, on different street areas. All locations were suitable and we now have an idea about scenes and space size, so we can make more informed decision about how different shots will be filmed.
As an add-on to other admin we have to do pre-filming, we needed to decide what certificate our film is going to be. Following the certificates of our inspired films e.g. Legally Blonde, Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging and The Sleepover, we've chosen to age our film at 12. Our target audience is generally females between the ages of 14-25, but, the film isn't too inappropriate that we have to narrow the amount of people able to watch to only those over the age of 12. We didn't want to alienate the audience by including anything distasteful and everything shot within the opening two minutes is, according to the 12-certificate criteria, reasonable for a 12 audience and older.
Our film would be classified as a 12 because:
There may be strong language (e.g. 'f***')
There is some allowance for puns on strong language at this category
There may be moderate language (e.g. uses of terms such as ‘bitch’ and
‘twat’ at 12 or 12A)
Verbal sex references should not go beyond what is suitable for young
teenagers
Comedy may lessen the impact of some moderate sex references or innuendo
There may be nudity in 12A films but sexual nudity should only be brief and
discreet
Information from:http://www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/12a-and-12
