Due to the weather, we have been unable to film because the conditions are too cold for the camera as condensation forms inheriting it to break. Temperatures reached up to -16c around our region and having two feet of snow in the locations we wanted to film in.
This is an image showing the depth of the snow, which makes it clear of the difficulty we encountered.
The snow came up to two feet around the school and so not only with the school being shut, making it harder to contact George, my working partner on the film and the actual filming itself! It took along time for the snow to start to clear. This meant that once back at school, we would be filming with snow when having filmed before, there was no snow and so continuity was important else it would be clear that we filmed on seperate days and wouldn't convey any realism. The filming that we had done was at the beginning of the opening and it was about 20 seconds footage which I knew we could film again having decided that the snow wouldn't go for at least a few weeks due to the snow fall and low temperatures. Because of this, we were able to film all our outside shots in the snow.
For our film "Rejected", the type of target audience that would appeal to the genre of the film would be a boy or girl. The age range would be any ages as it targets a family film as our classifaction is a PG. The image I have uploaded is a typical audience member, his age is 16 and the genre of films he enjoys to watch are mainly action and comedy. His favourite films are, "Saving Private Ryan" and "Kick ass", starring Aaron Johnson who is one of his favourite actors. Hobbies that he enjoys doing at the weekends are skiing at a local centre and football, drama and rugby. He also likes playing on his x-box and watching television programmes including, mock the week and top gear.
We took photos of the locations where we want to film. We chose this setting because it's just outside our school and so it was easy for me and my partner and our actors to locate. We said at the beginning that we wanted "Jess" to walk down a path, and this path has a lay-by which enables us to film without the danger of traffic.
For one of our scenes, we thought it would be a sensible idea to have a black, plain background in order to take away any distraction from the actor. There were two backgrounds in which we could use. The first one has coloured patches on which can be taken of to have just a black sheet. However, we decided to choose the second background as it was a lot bigger and so therefore it would be more reliable.
For one shot, “Jess” is sat on the back right table with the left chair. She is sat still whilst people are walking past her taking no notice, this emphasises her being lonely and by herself through-out her school life.
The next images are the different locations where we would like to films flashbacks that happen to "Jess" when people physically and mentally hurt her e.g. Hit her, laugh at her etc. Having the flashbacks being repeated creates effect and shows that "Jess" goes through the bullying daily. Making the different shots quicker and quicker will then build up to a climax of the title saying, Rejection".
For the lead character, we have her name spoken on voiceover, which meant we had to think of a sensible name. I told George how I liked the name "Jess Huntly", however after some discussion, we thought that the surname sounded more upper class rather than middle which is what we wanted. "Jess Hunter" however, sounds like a middle class, common name, but also the surname "Hunter", brings something myseterious about her name which relates to the film as she has magical powers.
I went on the website http://www.imdb.com/ where I typed in the name to find out whether it's a popular name in the performing arts industry. There were three "Jess Hunter's" and non of the films were popular which meant it was acceptable for us to use the name.
I also typed into the website our title which is called, "Rejected". There were only two films with the same title, none of which were big, popular films. This meant we were able to keep this name for our title.
At the beginning of the research, me and my partner discussed different effects in our opening shots. I liked how you can find films that have a comic book effect in the opening credits, i found my inspriation of this of the film Juno.
We have a girl walking down a path with a couple of girls around the same age, staring at her and giggling. Because of this, i felt it wouldnt be appopiate to have the comic book effect because to me it seems a good way to opening a cheerful, happy family film.
After drawing our storyboard, i thought it would be a good idea having a voice-over to create the mystery of why she was different to other people her age. We decided to have two people being the same person but in different periods of their life. Having the older actor speaking in the voiceover whilst the younger actor is on camera is clever because we see her at the end as being older and only then does it really make sense of why she is different, so this makes it a climax!
Casting
Because we had two people playing the same character, they needed to look similar in order for it looking realistic. I was thinking of people in our year (because it would be easy to contact them and more likely to know them), that look slightly younger then our age to play the younger "Jess Hunter". I told my partner about a girl in our year who looked similar to another girl in the year above. They both take theatre studies and so i knew they had experience in playing different roles. The female in the year above also looks older then there age so there was an age gap in looks between them.
Mise-En-Scene
Costume-Modern clothing because we want it to be around this era.
Lighting-Day light.
Actors-Both actors having a similar appearance so they would look similar to eachother.
Make-up-Asking the younger actor to not wear so much make-up in order of making her look younger.
Props-Having a her wear a school bad conveys her age and shows why she is walking.
Setting(s)-Having the opening film around school so it's easy for me and George (partner), and our actors to locate as we all go to the same school. Classroom with an appropiate black curtain for a plain background, we have took photos and are going to film this shot in our drama studio.
Sound
Non-digetic sound through-out. Background music. Voice-over. Foregrounded breathing. Camera sounds possibly of cars going by of shots of actor walking down pathway (might need to be turned down so doesnt interfere with storyline but keeping it down will make it as realistic as possible).
Editing
Fasst motion walking - time lap shot. Photos speeding up to create tension. ball of fire at the end to show the person has magical powers. Video transitions on varius shots (fading going into next shot).
Representational Feature
Only females are in the opening of the film. The aging in which we want the actors to look is around 13-20. The class and status of all the actors is middle class making it relavent to people watching as it's classed in the middle. This can be shown by them both dressed neatly wearing average, modern clothing.
Target Audience
Gender: Both.
Class: U - exceptable for everyone.
Over the last couple of lessons, we have been looking at past students work to give us some inspiration on what works well and what doesn't. Depending on what genre the film is e.g. thriller, comedy; that would relate to the techniques you would use in your opening sequence. We watched a thriller and I thought the foregrounded noise of breathing created tension and was a good way to finish the sequence as you want to know what happens next. The use of close up's worked well because it stresses something significant in the shot and can bring it into the performance e.g. One of the past students picked up some keys which showed only his hand and keys in the shot. We watched one opening where the the first shot was too long because they had that as only only using text on screen in introduce the key people who made it. This can make veiwers get bored straight away and then miss the rest of the sequence.
This film is set in the mordern day and then falshbacks to the sixties. The country in which the film is portrayed is Brzail which we know beacause of the non-diegetic sound played at the beginning of the film. It is established to be set in an urban area which we can see beacause there is a lot of people about in the town. I understand Rocket is the main part because voice over is used with him telling the story. Shaggy is also another main part because there is a parellel storyline going on between the two characters which leads up to them both in the same storyline where they meet. The film starts of with a black silent background which then changes to a foregrounded sharpening process of a knife in a close up shot which provides impact to the film straight away. Quick cuts are used to create the emotion of confused and tense, this also helps us to get a glimpse of their chaotic lifestyle. Determined dark music is played when the chase is happening which suggests death could arise.
The film is set in America in a rich neighbourhood because you can see the big houses when the camera is tracking Donnie on his bike. We understand it is nearly Halloween because there is a close up on a poster displayed. The camera at the beginning is leading up to revealing a strange and unexpected shot of a teenager in the middle of a road on a corner, this unexpected emotion by the audience, is what the director is wanting you to feel. The film is called "Donnie Darko" which suggests that he will be the leading role in this film. Deigetic noise of thunder implys something bad is likely to happen in the film. Time is being played in the film using the technique of expantion and contraction which conveys only one technique of the weirdness of the film.
We understand that the film is set during the US Civil War, this then gives us the information that it is set in America. The voiceover is used to link the relationship between the leading role and his partner, we know who the partner is because he is admiring an image of an attractive woman as we hear the voiceover. We know that this relationship will be a key storyline to the film. After the use of text on screen, the film fades to black which suggests dark and scariness, this relates to the film as it's about the Civil War. I like the idea of this fading to various colours which symbolise something, this maybe something I could convey in my work. The use of close up is shown to imply something significant and plays a part in the play.
Our preliminary research which we watched yesterday was extracts of opening television programmes to give us a flavour of what we would need to achieve at a high standard in our unit 1 coursework. The extracts from different media texts gave me some ideas about the opening credits which relate to the programme such as, in "Six Feet Under" the editors name moved down in unison with the liquid which doesn't make the writing always static. The majority images were associated with death for example, predator bird, dead flower and a grave yard. I noticed that the sound added to the death-like feeling, as the sound gave a short climax on a significant part of the opening credits. At 0:30 on the timescale, the wheel turns as text is being shown.
In "Dexter", the programme is conveying clues of what he does; him being a serial killer! There is a close up of ham which he is cutting and then puts into a pan where we hear diegetic noise of the food sizzling. We see that he is making breakfast but subconsciously we think he is cutting skin when we see the meat in a close up. He ties his shoelaces at 1:29 which makes you believe he is hanging someone.
This is an image showing the depth of the snow, which makes it clear of the difficulty we encountered. 
