Completion Tasks

You need to have your work completed and ready for marking by 9am on Wednesday 3rd May.

Please ensure that you read and follow the instructions below:

Blog

Ensure that all Research and Planning is evidenced and correctly and clearly labelled via individual blog post titles - you must have evidence of both.

Your completed film opening must be embedded from Youtube to your blog and clearly titled as COMPLETED FILM OPENING.

You must also re-embed your Preliminary Task below your completed film opening to illustrate the progression you have made.

Your evaluation should follow your embedded film opening in question order. 

The last task for you to perform on your blog is to delete the link to my blog! This is important - please do not forget.

IMPORTANT

I need a copy of your completed project and preliminary task.

Save this in the following way via your Mac desktop:

• Open Secondary Resources
• Open Media
• Open AS
• Open Foundation Portfolio June 2017
• Save the documents to this location in the folder with your names.

ANY WORK THAT IS NOT COMPLETED AS ABOVE WILL INCUR A LOWER MARK

AS Evaluation Questions

In the evaluation the following seven questions must be addressed:

• In what ways does your film opening use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real film openings?

• How does your film opening represent particular social groups?

• What kind of media institution might distribute your film opening and why?

• Who would be the audience for your film opening?

• How did you attract/address your audience?

• What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this film opening?

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

Examples of previous evaluations can be found using the links below:

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

Link 4 (website)

OCR Exemplar Film Openings

CLICK HERE to see some exemplar film opening provided by OCR.

Scroll down to the film openings.

Each on has the level awarded next to it.

Planning : To Be Completed Before Filming

You will be given an updated Coursework Completion Tracker in the lesson today.


Use this to track your progress to date and moving forwards.


The following planning tasks need to be completed before we can move forward into the production phase of your film opening.


Each of these must be evidenced as separate blog posts with the correct title.


Planning - Producing A Storyboard For Your Opening


You need to produce a storyboard for your film opening using the Main Task Storyboard Planner sheets that I will give out in the lesson today.


This must include information you have researched about storyboarding in relation to the production of a film as well as your own storyboard for your film opening.


For example, THIS LINK takes you to information provided by Pixar in relation to the storyboarding process for 'Toy Story'.


I am looking to see that you understand the purpose of a storyboard as well as being able to complete one.

Planning - Location Planning For Your Opening


You need to identify the locations you need to film in for your opening.


Once you have done this you need to find suitable locations and record photographic evidence of these - the more the better.


When you have decided upon the locations you want to use you need to identify what the strengths are for your chosen location as well as any potential weaknesses which you need to address. 

Planning - Casting For Your Opening (if characters are required)


Who are the characters you need to cast?


Make a list of the characters which include their names and a pen-portrait describing what they are like (personality) and their role in the opening.


You then need to have casting videos for each actor you are considering using. This should include an explanation of why you have chosen / not chosen them to appear in your opening.

Planning - Considering Mise-en-Scene For Your Opening - costume and props


Costume


What do you want each of your characters' to wear? Their costume will communicate lots of information about their personality and a very important element of representation.


You need to have sketches or images of the way you want your characters to dress as well as evidence of explaining why you want them to be dressed in this way.


Props


What props do you need to source and where will they be used?


Props, short for properties, are really important as they communicate information to the audience as they watch the film.


You need to think about props that might be needed for characters (mobile phone, books, bag, etc) as well as props that may be used to 'dress' a location'.

Planning - Producing A Shot List


Your shot list will break down everything that you need to film in the order that you need to film it.


I have provided an example of a shot list HERE..

Planning - Filming Schedule


Your filming schedule will ensure that you have given real consideration to the logistics surrounding your filming.


When will you be filming? Where? Which characters are needed? What equipment is needed? etc.


Again, I have provided an example HERE.

Planning : Treatment For Our Film Opening

Once you have received feedback from members of your target audience, you are able to move forwards with the planning of the opening of your film.

You need to do this by writing a short description of the idea you want to move forwards with. This is called a Treatment.

This MUST include information relating to the following areas:

Video : What will be happening on screen during your opening 2 minutes
Audio : What will the audience be able to hear - diegetic and non-diegetic
Titles : How will you be using titles in your opening 2 minutes?

It is very easy to get carried away and come up with an idea that includes much more than you can realistically fit into a 2 minute opening sequence.

Think back to the 3 film opening that we watched in lessons. These were all relatively simple without complicated narrative and plot twists - this would be unlikely to happen in the opening 2 minutes.

Planning : Target Audience and Potential Openings

You have developed your idea and this has been pitched and accepted. 

You now need to distill this idea into a synopsis of a single paragraph so that it can be shared with members of your target audience. 

This will be different to your pitch as it needs to be more concise. 

        
Here is an example of how this should be done. 

This example is for the British horror / thriller  'Eden lake' which was released in 2008.

   

Eden Lake

Nursery teacher Jenny and her boyfriend Steve, escape for a romantic weekend away. Steve, planning to propose, has found an idyllic setting: a remote lake enclosed by woodlands and seemingly deserted. The couple's peace is shattered when a gang of obnoxious kids encircles their campsite. Reveling in provoking the adults, the gang steals the couple's belongings and vandalizes their car leaving them completely stranded. When Steve confronts them, tempers flare and he suffers a shocking and violent attack. Fleeing for help, Jenny is subject to a brutal and relentless game of cat-and-mouse as she desperately tries to evade her young pursuers and find her way out of the woods. 

Once you have completed this you need to undertake some targeted audience research to help with the planning of your film opening.

What To Do?

• identify 10 people who fit the target audience for your film - fans of horror films, aged 14-25, regularly watch films, etc would be a suggested profile for these people
• share your synopsis and ask them how they think the film would begin - you need to have a record of their thoughts and this could be done in different ways. 

1. You could give them a sheet onto which they write their ideas and take a photo of their thoughts.
2. You could record an interview with them and upload this.
3. You could ask them to sit in fron of a Mac and use Photobooth to video their thoughts.
4. Once you have the thoughts from this target group, you can then use their opinions, together with your own, to move forward.

You need to create a post titled Planning : Target Audience and Potential Openings and record  evidence for this task.

This is very important as, in the evaluation of your coursework, you will be asked to explain the ways that you have used audience feedback.

Planning : From Production Company Name to 60 second Pitch

The following evidence needs to be presented on your blog by Wednesday 23rd November.

This should be in a post with the same title as this one with separate sub-headings for each area of planning.

60 Second Pitches need to be ready to be delivered on this date at the start of our lesson on Wednesday 23rd November.

Read the instructions carefully and follow these for each task.

Introduction

We have completed research into existing media products and now need to move into Production Companies for your teen horror film.

These are the teams you will be working in for the remainder of your Foundation Portfolio:

Emma, Immy and Wiktoria

Becca, Loris and Bethany

Paula, Meg and Jodie

Sam, Sean and Ashley

Rebbecca, Bernice and Jade

Jude, Jayden and Dom

Harvey, Harry and Jamie

Task 1

Planning : Production Company Name

The starting point will be to create an identity for your production company.

Your production company will specialise in the production of ultra-low budget horror films aimed at a teen audience.

Your name will reflect this fact and should be discussed and agreed upon by you as a group.

Brainstorm some ideas before deciding upon a name for your production company.

Task 2

Planning : Brainstorming Initial Ideas

In your production company, brainstorm your initial ideas for a teen horror film.

You MUST remember that you are thinking of an idea for a complete film and not just attempting to think of an idea for a film opening.

The best way to do this is to take a sheet of A3 paper and just throw down lots of different thoughts. 

I would advise that you use a different colour pen for each member of the group's contributions to this document.

Try to make the sheet as full of ideas as possible.

Task 3

Planning : Decision Making

Once you have exhausted yourself of possible ideas, you need to decide upon the one that you want to move ahead with. 

Make sure that you give this really careful consideration as you won't be able to change your mind. 

You don't need to worry about the opening of the film yet though - concentrate on the idea for the complete film still.

You will need to give your film idea a 'working title'. This is the title that you will use as you move forwards with planning but it may not be the title that the film is eventually given for its release.

Task 4

Planning : The 60 Second Pitch

You should now have a great idea for a film but you need to pitch it to me to get the 'green light' for further planning to take place.

You need to write a 60 Second Pitch for your film ready to be delivered to me.

You will have 60 seconds in which to tell me about your idea for a teen horror film. 

Watch the 3 videos that follow for some ideas about what makes a good pitch and also to see some pitches being made by film directors...