SMART targets

By focusing on these targets I will be able to improve my grade and the quality of my blog.

SMART Targets

I believe that by trying my best to achieve these targets, I will be able to boost my grade even further and reach my target grade (A). I will try to achieve these targets by the next blogging healthcheck.

Strengths and Weaknesses in My Blog

This is a table which pretty much summarises how I feel about our blog so far as well as the individual posts that I have created over the past few months. As you can see, I have carefully thought about the strengths and weaknesses, as well as things that might be holding me back which I need to work on. I have also begun to talk about the different skills I have learnt throughout my time blogging.

Strengths I always take extra care with being as detailed as I can in my posts. There is a lot of evidence of research into pre-existing products such as looking at title sequences of some of my favourite films. This show that I have been able to draw inspiration from successful title sequence which are relevant to the genre of ours. I don’t have many posts where there is just blocks of texts and no visual examples, this makes the posts more interactive and appealing.

Weaknesses I tend to binge post when it comes to catching up with work. I try to avoid this by changing the time schedule on my posts, however that doesn’t excuse the fact that I am slow when it comes to get posts done. There isn’t much evidence into planning our locations, props and costume or any evidence of casting. In addition, I am still not using a sufficient amount of alternate technologies in order to make the blog look less dull and demonstrate my ICT skills. The branding of the blog is still not where I think it should be as it doesn’t fully express the chosen genre of our title sequence.

Threats I am slow when it comes to getting posts done and so I tend to fall behind a lot. I am a perfectionist and so if I feel that I won’t be able to get a blog post done to my best standard, I will leave it for another time. This has caused my number of post to be significantly lower than other group members. I am also guilty of procrastination.

Opportunities I feel that I have learnt a lot of new ICT skills whilst blogging over these past few months. I have had the chance to start using more alternate ICT applications to present my work in interesting and visually creative ways.

Setting my Smart Targets

My Smart Targets

As you can see, I have properly set my smart targets after reviewing my work. This will motivate me to reach those goals in order for them to be achieved whilst ensuring that the quality of my work is greatly boosted.

Analysis of my Strengths and Weaknesses

Analysis of my Strengths and Weaknesses

As you can see, my strengths seem to link directly to my threats. The problems and weaknesses I have in my blog posts are that I put an extreme amount of detail into most of my posts. However, when I feel that other blog posts do not require as much detail, it hinders the consistency and quality throughout my entire blog.
I have beaten one of my threats already being the fact that I feel that I do not have enough work to create a blog post on.
I have asked my teacher to provide me with more work, hence the creation of my trailer and the survey.
This post is very important as I can reflect back to this in the future in order to boost my marks in my coursework as well as have a constant remind of what to look out for when I create future blog posts.

Evidence of my Audit

Evidence Audit

As you can see, I fall short when it comes to creating blog posts for "Organized use of actors, Locations, Props and Costumes. As well as on shortlists, layouts etc. This is only because we have not had the need to create a high amount of posts for these. Reasons can include the fact that once we recorded our first day of filming, we had gotten most of our shots. This meant that the next time we went out filming we did not need to have to visit many different locations.However, I could make a few blog posts for the amount of props we used as we used a huge amount.I do not need a blog post on short-lists or scripting as we did not use any actors in our title sequence and when we did, it was for a brief 3 seconds of the title sequence.
                                                                         

Evidence Audit

Here is a picture of the evidence audit grid which I have filled out, From this, I can see that I have a lot of evidence of researching into similar products such as my own as well as researching into the type of audience our product should attract based on the target audience for previous products. There isn't much evidence on my blog of organising the mise-en-scene aspects such as actors, locations, props and costume, but that is because we only really started to finalise and visualise the title sequence as a whole once we got to the pitch.

There is a fair amount of evidence in terms of planning the shots, script and storyboarding which shows we have put a lot of effort and time into making a final decision on how the actual filming process will go down and how everything will look on camera. The blog overall is a success as it is easy to navigate and most posts are laid out clearly and are easy to read. All group members use a fair amount of alternate technologies to make the blog more appealing and interactive.

Setting SMART targets

SMART targets

By achieving my targets I feel as if this will improve the quality of my coursework, as I feel that that the three things that I have mentioned in my smart targets is what is letting me down, I feel as if these targets are achievable, therefore I am not setting myself unreasonable targets.

Analysing strengths and weaknesses in my blog

Analysing strengths and weaknesses

Here I have created a grid in which I have written down my strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities. This is so I am able to use this to then improve my posts and work on my weaknesses, hopefully this will help me to boost my marks for my coursework as well as improve the quality of my work.

Evidence Audit

Evidence Audit

After looking at my evidence audit I realise that I must do more posts on props and costume, however I feel like this was hard for me to do as my group is doing a discrete title sequence, originally we planned on having an actor, however after talking to the group we decided to stick with the usual convention and not have an actor, therefore there isn't the usual amount of posts on costume and actors compared to other blogs. One category in which I feel I need to improve on is posts on drafting , I feel as if I have not done enough drafting posts therefore I will begin to do this more and write more posts of my rough cut for example. 

Audit Task

Audit Post:

Blog Health check 2

Blog Health check 2:
As you can see, in this post my work has been remarked, to which they have seen my latest blogs and work and have come to an understanding of what i need to do to improve.





An improvement is that from last time, i have improved upon regular posting and have addressed the previous targets i have been given. There is strong focus and i am using more technologies than before.
My targets are to ensure that i use our projects title BIBLE BELT in more post so my blog becomes a product supporter.
I should offer more reflections and action points after feedback on the blog-post 27th November.
I should get feedback on my editing and filming and create a camstasia documentary about it.
Lastly i should design some posters to sell our film!

Audit Evidence

Evaluation of Rough Cut

Evaluation of rough cut from Aniela Lojek

Rough Cut Evaluation

Rough Cut Evaluation

Evaluation of rough cut

Evaluation of Rough Cut

Evaluation

In this blog post i will be evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of different aspects in my rough cut. I will be evaluating factors such as order of shots, quality of camera work, use of lighting, use of mine-en-scene and more.

Rough cut evaluation from ersila bushi

Blogging Health check 2

Our group posted many blog posts with evidence of filming and editing, which I'm glad has become a strength in my blog. In my previous health check I was advised to manage my posting time as it had become a weakness however it seems I've solved that problem since is didn't appear on this health check.
In order to improve my blog and my grade I will make sure to complete more individual posts and extension tasks on our checklist.

Blogging Healthcheck Feedback 2

This is my second blogging health check feedback. I am quite happy with it as I think I have made good improvements since my last health check. In my previous health check, my grade was a C and my mark was 13 and I am happy that I have managed to boost my grade. This is because I feel i have been putting more time into blogging overall and contributing a lot more of my own original ideas in my individual posts. I am also up to date as to where I need to be on the checklist and I am starting to use more technologies.

In order to boost this grade I will need to be a bit less reliant on my other group members when it comes to blogging. As a group, we will need to get more audience feedback on the work that we have
produced in order to get an idea on how to improve our product and make it the best it could possibly. I will also need to use even MORE alternate technologies although I really don't see how.

Blogging Healthcheck Feedback 2

I am pleased with my blogging health check grade, especially as I was able to improve my grade from my previous blogging health check. My last health check stated that one of my weaknesses was the lack of ICT apps, ever since I attempted to use more ICT apps, this has now become a strength in my blog posts. I have also attempted to do extra off tasks in order to have more detail as well as improve my grade.

However, now I need to make sure I use the weaknesses stated in the health check, and make them become strengths. I looked into my blog and realised that in fact i have done the story board and blog post 41, so now i must look into post 35, 44 and 46. In order to stop any confusion i will be posting the blog post number beside the title to eliminate any misunderstanding. I must keep posting blogs more regularly in order to keep a good pace of posts each week.

I will be attempting to improve my blog following the health check in order to improve my grade so that i can achieve a higher mark so I can secure an A grade.

Roughcut feeback

Here is a lengthy clip of the feedback we received when we presented our rough cut to the whole class. Hope you enjoy :))

Rough Cut

ROUGH CUT

Teaser Trailer and Audience Research.

During the 12th of December i created a teaser trailer for my groups media project.
The main reason for the trailers production is to be able to share it to people online and then allow them to complete the survey i created below alongside with the trailer.
The survey results will allow me to find out how well received the trailer was and whether or not it met peoples expectations.
It will also allow me to know whether or not i have captured the key features of a psychological thriller trailer.

Here is the survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/VXGMJM8

Improving our title sequence discussion

Title sequence discussion

Second day filming evaluation & twitter

Second day filming 

Above I have created a slide show consisting of photos taken on the second day of filming. We filmed in my garage which is in Enfield, we used various props such as a Globe taken from the Geography department, various pages ripped from old books, newspaper articles that were printed out, the Bible and jewellery. The lighting in the garage was dim however this worked in our favour. When filming quotes we had the demo light on and facing the bible, as well as having a candle lit behind the bible, the lighting was effective as when we watched the shots you could clearly the quotes as the area was well lit, as well as the fact the candle gave a warm hue to the shot.

We decided to use a globe instead of an american flag as we thought we could create more interesting shots if we had this instead. The plan for the shots that included the globe was to have a shot of the globe spinning, followed by another shot of our friend Mert using a pin to show the location of where we are in, in this case the bible belt region. This was so we can show the audience where exactly the location is set in, if we used an american flag we felt that this would be too vague, therefore by specifically showing the bible belt area this will make the audience assume that this is an important location in the film.

We used jewellery as apart of our mine en scene, the audience will be able to make their own judgements on what the jewellery represents, personally I see this as the main character collecting jewellery from a girl that may be a witch, the reason why I said witch is because the quote in the bible mentioned witches. However the jewellery on the table is up to interpretation.

On the first day of filming which was in Finsbury park/crouch end we created a twitter to inform the media department in city and islington that we are filming, we used the twitter account to post pictures of the group filming in my garage.

Overall, the second day of filming was successful, we were able to get a variety of shots such as light flickering, door closing, many shots of the desk and various other shots that would be appropriate in our title sequence. Now that we have the shots we need I feel confident that our title sequence will be very successful. 

Second day of filming evidence

Our second day of filming was based in a garage in Enfield, London.

Reminder for evaluation !!

Representation 

When evaluating the representation in our title sequence, I will make sure to pick up on the one shot of our actor pinning a green pin into the globe. This is because this is the only shot which implies the appearance or identity of our main character. We decided to only include that element in one shot since our title sequence is not a narrative but rather a discrete sequence. This means that the identity or story of our main character should not be revealed through the title sequence. The hand which appears in the shot belongs to someone who is Turkish Cypriot and so has fairly dark skin. We thought this may be an issue since our main character is supposed to be white and so should be represented in an accurate way. 

First Day Editing - Evaluation

On our first day of editing, we had to look at all the shots we took over the weekend and decide which ones were good enough to include into our actual title sequence. We decided on a rough order of the shots as well as messing around a bit with the special effects. Here is a quick evaluation of how the process went:

First day of editing evaluation

First day editing

First day of Editing Evaluation

In this blog post you will see a few examples of our editing and our methods in doing so.

First day of editing evaluation

The Editing Process

On our first day of editing, we looked through all of the shots we took over the weekend and picked out the ones that looked the best. We then begun the editing process by putting them all together roughly how we wanted them, although we knew that we'd probably end up changing it later on. This was to just get a rough idea of how our title sequence was gona look. We decided that the shots would only be on screen for a total of 1-2 seconds, however some shots may be extended for dramatic effect.

Screenhots of editing the shots outside the first church, and the inside of the front of the second church

Shots of inside the church as well as Finsbury Park, here we are putting the title sequence together

Screenshot of a potential sample of sound being downloaded to layer over our title sequence

Some establishing shots, wide shots of the park and the laundrette

Screenshot of us editing the shots into an inverted filter to make the shots look creepy - inverted shots can often be a common convention of thriller/horror 

Blog Post 49: Evidence of Editing Part 1

First Day of Filming Evaluation

We started filming at around 12pm. Our first location was Finsbury park and we filmed some shots of the outside area for our title sequence. We took shots of things like the floor, dirty and covered in leaves, the sun light coming through the trees and the trees itself. Some of these were worm's eye view shots and some were long and wide shots. We also filmed a man on a bicycle and a wide shot of a dog running down a pathway. One of the problems we encountered was that one of our group members was slightly late, so carrying the equipment proved to be more of a challenge. However, they only arrived an hour late so we weren't left with only the three of us for too long.

The next location we travelled to was Crouch End to get shots of churches. Since Omar knew the area quite well, he directed us to a few churches in his area which would be suitable for our title sequence. When filming the footage, we came to a realisation that some of it looked very obviously like it was filmed in London. Considering the location of our title sequence is somewhere within the Bible Belt area of the United States, we then made sure to exclude things that gave away the location too much. We made sure that the churches we filmed didn't look too Victorian on the outside since we did some research on churches in that area and came to a conclusion that they looked more modern. 

The first church we filmed, we only got footage of the outside of the structure as we thought it looked modern. We got close ups of the cross on the front as well as wide and long shots of the roof and steps. When filming, we had to make sure we didn't get any of the people in the shots and it proved to be harder than it seemed since it was a residential area and many people were walking by. On the side of the church, we discovered some pretty cool paintings in the parking lot so we decided to film them too since they looked peculiar and would fit our creepy atmosphere. However, it was starting to get dark and we had to take out our dedo light. We filmed wide shots of the wall with the dedo light moving across it and thought it looked very effective. 

The second church we filmed the outside, in the small gazebo section in front of the entrance. We used the dedo light to shine through the stained glass windows outside which looked quite creepy and effective. We also filmed close ups of the marble statues above the entrance together with the latin writing as it added to the creepy effect. We then decided to ask the church man if we can film on the inside of the church. Multiple of the shots we took were just of the statues inside, close ups and panning shots of the shrines and the pictures of the walls. 

Overall, I think we got a lot of good shots that we have now started to edit in Premier Pro CC. The day was productive, and we didn't face too many problems and they didn't impact our productivity very much. Here is a short emaze of our group members filming: 

Blog Task; First day of filming evaluation

In this blog task i am going to be evaluating our first day of filming.

We decided forehand that the first day of filming would take place on Saturday the 26th of November. After meeting most of the members of the group at 12 pm Finsbury park station, i took the members to my house where the equipment was located. We first recorded the areas of Parkling walk, Finsbury park. We took many random shots that would contribute to the eerie feel within our title sequence.
We recorded other shots at Ossian road such as the Laundrette. We then went to crouch hill to record the interior of a baptists church, and then crouch end to record shots such as the Union church exterior which would make up most of our title sequence.

Problems/Solutions:
As a whole, our first filming day consisted of almost no problems, and the problems that did occur were very minimalistic. One of the few problems we had were keeping to our schedule; the main idea was to meet up at exactly 12pm Finsbury Park Station where i would collect up all three members of the group, retrieve the equipment and have a full meaningful day of filming. Instead, one of the members had left their house late meaning that we could not keep to the schedule. We overcame this by recording whatever shots we could, then when the final member arrived we met them at Mcdonalds.
The second problem that occurred was the filming interiors of Union Church crouch end, we noticed that a service was being conducted on both the first floor and the basement daycare level. I overcame this by leading my group to the Crouch Hill baptists church where i asked the priest if we were able to record the interior, He said yes thus allowing us to get many amazing shots for our title sequence.
The last problem was the recording at Parkling Walk, there were many pedestrians walking by consistently due to us recording in a public space during day time. The only solution avbailable was to wait until there were fewer people and quickly record shots.

Filming process:The process of filming for our title sequence was very unsettled in a good sense. Our method was that if we were closest to what was available to be filmed, we would record those shots first and then travel to areas that were further away to record. As said before, the first shots that were recorded were the sinister shots in Parkling Walk. Originally we planned on recording a few panning shots and cut ins of a railway track behind a fence-this became a problem as the camera was not focusing on the fence and parkling walk was literally a few seconds away and was much more viable.
We recorded some free-hand,panning and wideshots of the forest. The tripod became very useful as we were able to record some great stable shots.
 This worked well as the context of both the music we planned to use and the location allows the viewer to get a sense of danger.
One of the shots we included were actually inspired by Donnie Darko.

After recording these shots the other shots became very useful as all the locations were relatively close by. we travelled to crouch end and made use of the tripod once more recording a ton of great exterior shots of the churches. It did become a little dark; i made use of the dedo-light and set it up for Ersila. She then shone light upon the painted wall(with children) and finished the exterior shots of Union Church. We finally went to Baptist Church and recorded shots of the stained glass, then after getting permission recording the interior of the church. We again made use of the tripod and recorded many panning shots, wideshots, a few close ups and a mid shot.
In conclusion our first filming day went very great and was overall successful.

26th November 2016 - First day filming

First day filming evaluation

On the 26th of November, our group met up to begin filming. However we encountered various problems during the process. One of which included one of our group members were late, we reminded each other that we were originally suppose to meet up at 12, however as one of the members were late we were missing an extra hand. We decided to use the time efficiently and begin to take shots and start filming, during this period at around 1pm, we began to film parks and pathways that was beside Finsbury park station.

When the fourth member of our group arrived we went and had a break at mcdonalds, we then began start filming with our fourth member, we visited crouch end to start filming the first church, however a problem occurred when we attempted to film inside the church. We were told that this was not allowed, as there were children inside due to the nursery. Therefore we solved this problem by only filming the outside of the shots as we were able to find may areas that we felt would look good in our title sequence. These shots include a painting of various people on the wall beside the nursery, when filming this, to make this shot appear more sinister, we used the demo lights to shine light one each painting of a person whilst it was dark out to create a ominous effect.

As we were really eager to get shots of the inside of the church, omar directed us to the nearest church at the end of the road. However we realised we cannot take shots of the outside of the church as it was a red brick building, something that is uncommon in the bible belt region of America. However we were still able to get some great shots of the windows, we tried to make this appear more sinister by shining the dedo light towards the glass and shaking the light around to create an eerie effect. We then asked the priest inside if we were able to film inside, thankfully he said yes. We took advantage of the fact that no one was inside the church, we were then able to take very successful shots of the inside of the church, I feel that these shots would tie the whole title sequence together resulting in a very professional and seamless title sequence.

First day of filming evaluation

Overview
Our first day of filming took place outdoors on the 26th of November (Saturday), we met up at 12 at Finsbury Park and started filming at around 1pm. Our first destination was a park around Finsbury along with some random shots of alleyways and a laundry place. At 3pm we took an hour break and then starting filming at our second location, which was in Crouchend. There, we filmed various shots of two churches and the inside of one of them. Overall, we filmed about 5 hours and finished at 7 pm.

Problems 
Overall, no big problems occurred however, we were a little bit behind schedule as there was a lot of church filming to do and travelling took up some time but we stayed overtime and got everything done so it turned out fine. Also, we had planned to film inside the first church, which didn't happen but we managed to film inside the second church with the permission of the priest and we got the shots we needed in the end. Furthermore, it was slightly harder to carry around the equipment than we had anticipated so we had problems travelling far. Luckily after we reached the filming of the church filming they were close to each other.

Filming
To sum up, we managed to complete all the park, alleyway and church filming, which we will be using for the second part of the title sequence. We got a variety of shots such as a panning shot, close-ups and medium shots.
All of our group was involved in the filming by switching positions around. We rotated who filmed with the camera and held/ worked with the props.  Sometimes the props would be very significant in the shot, like in the example below. The prop, being the light is moving from one end to another, which was moved manually by our group.

Ersila and Omar working with the prop while I record with the camera.

Sound Layering test

Sound layering test:

When looking back on our Roughcut, i realised that what hindered the progression of our title sequence delivering an impact on our audiences was the fact that it lacked any means of sound layering.
The use of sound layering is crucial in a title sequence as it sets the atmosphere as well as povides the viewers with ideas and conventions to expect in the rest of the film.

I decided to create a Sound layering test for the first 50 seconds of our title sequence.

This was is not the final version as many sounds are subject to change as well as the timeline of certain shots and sounds that may be added to the sequence later on, however this provides me and my group with a sense of direction of how we would layer our sound effects.

Non diegetic sound:
The main sound elements of this title sequence are all non diegetic. This is because the diegetic sound that was recorded alongside the shots contained audio of the directors and actors speaking. This would have hindered the impact that the title sequence would have.
I used sound effects such as walking through grass; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxHe9reNwtg
-This was because of the fact that at 0:20s you can see Diana walking through grass so i decided to match up fitting audio.
-I used the sound effect of a door closing and creaking at 0:25 because it matches what is seen on screen.
-At 0:29-32 i used a sound effect of electricity and a lightbulb turning on, this was because when the two sound effects are matched up they create a sinister and odd sound effect, not your typical sound of a light turning on.
-The idea of sinister and eerie atmosphere was introduced at 35 seconds in with the use of a drone and a looped quiet recorded voice of me saying the bible quote from exodus 22: "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live"