Final Film Opening

Final Film Opening

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''I am really impressed with your final opening, after seeing you develop your product from the start I know you've put a lot of time and effort into making every little detail perfect. The end product really is good,  you've captured the essence of period drama right from the start. I particularly enjoyed the music that you've created as its understated yet adds a sense sadness and romance to the film.''
- Jack Johnson

''I think that the opening is really impressive, some of the camera shots you have used are beautiful, particularly the opening shots of Billy. You can tell the genre of your product as through the use of costume, props and especially the well-spoken dialogue of the characters it is apparent.''
- Laura Anderson

''I liked your film. I don't really enjoy the period drama genre but I wanted to find out more about the Billy character after his speech from the start. I really liked the title sequence with the images from the film looking hand-drawn and it looks like you've put a lot of effort into making the titles perfect, its paid off.''
- Sam Emery

Conclusion
Overall I can say that I've enjoyed the process of creating a film. During the planning stages I was really excited about developing the product that we had so many ideas for. Although the filming process wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, we had constant issues with the weather for filming and limited cameras available meaning we had to postpone filming some days. I have learnt a lot during this process, learning to use the equipment, putting the footage onto the mac, using the editing programs and I feel I've developed my knowledge of the film industry considerably and learnt a lot about the procedures involved when making a real film. On a whole everything's been worth it and I'm really happy with our final product, particularly the title sequence as we put a lot of time and effort into that and its really paid off. We channelled the period drama genre as best we could, its not an easy genre to portray and I feel we pulled it off well. I've also enjoyed working with Miranda, I'm glad we worked in a group together as we've worked well together, supporting and helping each other other along during this process and together we've created a professional beginning opening to a well developed and thought out period drama film.

In what ways does your product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real films?

Film title

We decided to call our film Devotion. We came to this decision after researching other period drama films, we noticed a pattern in simple one word titles which hint at the film narrative, examples of this being Atonement (2007) and Persuasion (1995).

The title 'Devotion' hints at the typical period drama sub-genre of romance and gives the audience an immediate expectation of what the film is about.
The film title appears at 1:16, not straight away, this is also a convention of the period drama genre as when researching film titles we found almost all period dramas to wait between 1-5 minuets before the title appears.

Title font & style
We researched other period dramas to find out what type of fonts they used. We found that most period dramas used very cursive, elegant text or strong spaced out powerful lettering. We wanted to use an easy-to-read but also cursive font so that the element of romance within our film was hinted at. 
The font style we finally decided to used for our titles was Apple Chancery.
Our research and reason for the final font choice can be viewed here.

Narrative 

The narrative is very stereotypically period drama. The majority of real period drama films revolve around a love story and often they revolve around the struggle and discovery of a ''decent marriage''. Often the ''true love'' is not eligible for the other. This means our production narrative fits in perfectly with real life films.
how does the opening sets up the narrative?

The opening sets up the narrative as we begin to see the troubles of Billy and his efforts to contact Elizabeth after she tells him he can't ever be with her again. The audience begin to connect with Billy and want to know why this has happened to him and if anything will develop again between him and Elizabeth.

Genre
how does the opening suggest the genre?
The genre is suggested within the opening as we have used a number of conventions of typical period drama. The first shot of Billy writing a letter with basic equipment, the only light coming from a candle is an immediate indicator that our film is period drama. We then hear Billy talking in archaic language, this is the second big hint of the genre of our production. All throughout our production the characters are dressed in old-fashioned clothing and talk in a well-spoken manner suitable to our period drama genre. The music is another big indicator at our genre as soon as our opening begins and throughout our production the audience is greeted with soft classical piano songs and music which is a key convention of the period drama genre.

Settings/locations
Pride & Prejudice                               Devotion

One of the shots within the first sequence involves Billy walking through a forest path with his letter. We took inspiration for this shot from Pride & Prejudice (Above). We decided to try and re-create this sequence as I enjoyed the romantic feel of this shot and the beautiful open landscape. The shot is very picturesque and depicts the period drama genre. Filming in outside locations is key to the period drama genre as back in the regency era as there was no technology people normally used to pass the time outdoors.

Characters 
how are the characters are introduced?

Billy, the antagonist is introduced straight away, much like within the opening of Pride & Prejudice where Elizabeth is introduced. We felt that this suggests that Billy is the main character for the audience to be emotionally connected with. We wanted to imply that his story and emotions/thoughts were the most important to follow.
Elizabeth, the character of Elizabeth is first commented on within Billy's letter, she is introduced as Billy's love interest. We first see Elizabeth within Billy's flashback, firstly flirting with Billy suggesting that they are together then her telling him they cannot be together, this suggests a sense of confusion to the audience, they want to know why she has changed her mind so suddenly. Elizabeth develops the narrative.
Maid, the maid is introduced when Billy hands her the letter to give to Elizabeth. She tells him she won't read it and drops the letter, letting it fly away. This suggests that the maid is an antagonist.

Costume and props
To view all the costumes used within our production please click here.
We did lots of research into what specific characters wore in other period drama films and generally in the regency period.
We found it important to channel our period drama genre into the characters costume as its a big and immediate signifier to the audience as to what the genre is.

• We had many inspirations for Billy's costume the main ones being Mr Darcy from Pride & Prejudice and Angel Clare from Tess of the D'urbervilles. 
• Inspiration for Elizabeth's costume, based on Cosette, from Les Miserables. 
• Inspiration for the Maid's costume, based on the maids which appear in Downtown Abbey.

We also used a variety of different props which all hinted at the genre of the film as they were all typically period drama. The main props we used were:
Candle, the first prop used was the candle. The candle is significant as it was the only form of light back in the regency era and so this suggests our genre.
Billy's Letter, the letter which Billy gives to Elizabeth has a wax stamp sealing it together. This hints at the genre of the film as nowadays we use stamps and no longer have to seal letters with wax. We also chose to have a crème coloured paper, this is because white paper was rare to come across at this time this meant that it would be very unlikely for Billy to have it in his possession. The writing on the letter also suggests the period, and is written in calligraphy, we used this to suggest the period, and also to suggest that Billy is making the effort to impress Elizabeth. 
Elizabeth's book, one of the main forms of entertainment was reading in the regency period. The type of book also hints at the genre as its old and looks worn out. We took inspiration from Pride & Prejudice when in the opening shot Elizabeth is walking and reading an old-fashioned book (see picture under settings and locations).

Camera-work and editing
By using cross-dissolves and slowing clips down we have created a soft, slow opening which is typical of a romantic period drama. For example, the letter writing sequence we took inspiration from Mr Darcy's sequence (shown below), we slowed the sequence down making it seem romantic and give Billy a sense of longing.

Pride & Prejudice                                  Devotion

Special Effects
We didn't use any special effects within our production. Special effects are not a typical convention of period dramas as they are normally used within the Ski-Fi category. We did consider using some sound effects for the transitions between real life and flashback but we felt this made our production look too modern so we chose to stick to typical genre conventions.

How does your product represent particular social groups (gender, age, ethnicity, class, religion)?

Our film, Devotion, uses and represents lots of different social groups. As our film is a period drama one of the main elements is the social class.

Billy Walters

Billy Walters is a young boy with hopes of courting Elizabeth Harding. Billy comes from a poor background which is represented through his character background, he grew up farm with his Aunt and Uncle as his mother and father tragically died when he was just born. His social class is also represented through his costume and language. The costume is basic, messy shirt, black trousers, tattered waistcoat and his hair is messy and unkempt. The way the character talks during the flashback sequences is colloquial and common although during the letter voice-over Billy tries hard to write well-spoken heart-felt letter which Elizabeth will appreciate in hopes that she begins to see him more as a gentleman (like Philip Jeffories) and less as a scruffy farm boy. We based Billy on the character Robbie Turner from Atonement, Robbie is the son of the Tallis family servant and he falls in love with the families daughter, Cecilia. Therefore Robbie would have had a similar background to Billy. Both the actors have dark brown hair and represent the stereotypical ''tall, dark and handsome'' male appearance which is common throughout period dramas.

Elizabeth Harding

The character Elizabeth is represented as a innocent young woman who currently lives an upper-class life with her fiancée, Philip Jeffories, living in his grand manor house, while she really wants to spend her life with Billy. Her parents approve of Philip's wealth and think that he will be able to give Elizabeth all she deserves while they look down upon Billy and his more simple lifestyle. It is apparent that Elizabeth finds it hard to be away from Billy and doesn't care about his social class. 

The Maid

The audience don't find out much about the maids character. It is suggested however that she is practical, strong-minded and wise, for example, when Billy hands his letter over to the maid she tells him that Elizabeth isn't going to read it and he should stop daydreaming and waiting around for things that are not going to happen. The fact she asserts her authority over Billy suggests that her social class is similar as maid's in the regency era wouldn't dream of being so brash to social classes higher than themselves.

Philip Jeffories

Although you don't see Philip Jeffories in our opening sequence he is an high-class manor house owner. We imagined him to be a stereotypically wealthy, snobby, man who enjoys getting his own way. We took inspiration for his character from the rich gentlemen who live in grand manor houses with their large families in films such as, Atonement, Pride & Prejudice and the television dramas Downtown Abbey and Bleak House. 

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

What is a producer?
A film producer oversees and is generally involved in a film right from the beginning, it is often that they initiate the project. The producer may work with the director in choosing movie ideas as well as hiring cast and crew. A film producer makes the finished movie happen by taking care of the details behind the scenes.


Our production company: Skyline
For information about the development of our production company click here.

What is a distributor?
A distributor is a company responsible for releasing films to the public either via cinema release or home viewing (DVD, Download, Television). A distributor may do this directly (if the distributor owns theatres or distribution networks) or through exhibitors.

Distribution companies:



Marie Antoinette      Distribution Company: Columbia Pictures
The Duchess           Distribution Company: Paramount Village/Pathé Productions
Atonement              Distribution Company: Universal Pictures/Focus Features
Pride & Prejudice    Distribution Company: Studio Canal/Focus Features
Gosford Park           Distribution Company: USA Films/Focus Features
Emma                    Distribution Company: Miramax Films

Devotion
Our film would probably be distributed by Focus Features (the Universal Pictures 'arthouse' division), the reason for this being is that Focus Features already distributes similar films (as displayed above) and our film will fit in perfectly with what the distribution company aim to achieve.
We could receive funding from the UK Film Council (now the B.F.I) as our film is British and conveys British stereotypes/functions as well as as having an all British cast/producers/locations/dialogue. This means that our production will have qualified for funding and can apply to receive it.

Who would be your audience for your film?

This is Julie Taylor, 37, she lives in the quiet town of Winchelsea in East Sussex with her husband, two sons (aged 14 and 17) and two horses. She currently works part-time as a health care assistant at the local doctors surgery.


In her spare time she enjoys outside activities such as gardening, playing badminton and looking after her horses. Julie also likes spending time with her family but also enjoys going out with her friends, visiting posh gardens, going out for tea and shopping, the shops she normally visits are Dorothy Perkins, Topshop and Debenhams.


The music she enjoys is mostly soft old-fashioned piano music, she enjoys the work of Jean-Vyes Thiabaudet but she also enjoys modern artists such as Florence & The Machine, Duffy, Ellie Goulding, Adele and Sara Barellies.


When Julie gets the chance she enjoys watching high-drama television shows such as Eastenders, Holby City, Little Dorrit, Downton Abbey, Pride & Prejudice and Jane Eyre.  


She also likes watching mainstream films with her family, they have recently watched and enjoyed Avatar and Toy Story 3, but she secretly loves watching romance and period drama genre films on her own and with her friends. She has an extensive DVD collection, her favourites are, Love Actually, Gosford Park, Titantic, Marie Antoinette and The Notebook.


Our production, Devotion, will appeal to Julie Taylor as she it is apparent that she appreciates key elements of the period drama genre such as the outdoors, horses and classical soft music. She also enjoys romantic films and the romantic/period drama genre which is featured throughout our production. 

How did you attract/address your audience?

I have made annotations on our final production video above referring to genre conventions, use of music, inspirations and how we have attracted our audience.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Sony HD Video Camera & Tripod

I am very happy with the camera we were given to shoot with. It was easy to use and control and the quality of out footage and our final film looks very smooth. I learnt how to attach the camera onto the tripod and how to move it smoothly to create interesting dynamic shots I also learnt how to capture footage and transfer it onto a computer ready for editing. The only problem we had with the camera was when we forgot to clean the lens, as we were filming outside on a sunny day we failed to notice that over the top of the footage we captured was dust ruining the image, I have learnt to always make sure that the camera lens is clean to ensure the highest quality footage is captured.

We also used lots of computer programs and websites to create our final media production. All the programs we used were available to us on the school Apple macs.

Adobe Premiere Pro

This is the program we used to edit our film. During the editing process I learnt how to:

• Import footage/music
• Split slides/music
• Slow the pace of clips down
• Change the colouring of clips
• Cross dissolve the beginning and end of clips
• Add a 'flashback' effect to the edges of clips
• Add text over the top of clips
• Zoom clips in and out

Garage Band

When working on the soundtrack to Devotion in Garage Band the main things I learnt were how to add music together to create a good flowing tune and also how to change the pitch and length of notes so that the music connected together nicely. For research I learnt different types of sounds/music that are found within period drama films so that our film fit the conventions of our chosen genre.

Photoshop
We used Photoshop to edit the images used within our title sequence and also to create our production company logo. I learnt how to use lots of different tools within Photoshop particularly how to use different layers to change the look of the screen-shots from photos to hand-drawn/water-coloured images. I learnt how to use different fonts and how to arrange text artistically when creating the production company logo.

iTunes
We used iTunes to import the music that we had created in Garage Band onto our blogs and film and also to listen to our music back and gather feedback from other groups about our choice of music.

Flickr.com

I used Flickr to find suitable images for our film/blogs. For example, I found the feather image that we used for our production company (Skyline) on Flickr. The reason I used Flickr for my pictures rather than Google images or other search engine picture searches was that I found when I used Google images that it chucked out lots of irrelevant bad quality pictures while the Flickr website provided me with a large selection of good quality professional images.

Youtube.com

We used Youtube to upload our videos so that we could share and import them onto our blog. We also used Youtube to gather feedback from other users. (http://www.youtube.com/user/skylineproductionsuk).

Blogger.com

We used blogger to post regularly about the process of creating our film

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

To view our initial preliminary activities click here.

The preliminary tasks were very useful as during our first sequence as our main character (Billy) is walking through a field (match on action). We had to make sure that the audience first saw Billy walking down the end of the path and when the shot returned to Billy that he was further down the path.

Within our first sequence we also had the maid and Billy talking, we had to make sure that both characters were 180 degrees apart and that we had filmed them both so that the audience could see both the expressions of characters (shot reverse shot). It was useful that we had already learnt how to do this during our preliminary task as we had to then do it again during our filming for Devotion and knew how to do it.

Overall I feel that I learnt a lot when reconstructing our preliminary tasks in our final film, the smoothness of transition has dramatically improved from the original tasks and it is apparent in our film that we had control of every scene. As we had learnt how to do the match on action and shot reverse shot sequences before filming Devotion this saved time as we didn't need to figure out how to accomplish them on the day.