When given the brief for the project I decided to work with one other person as we felt it would be easier and more enjoyable also we thought that we could come up with better ideas between the two of us. After deciding to work together we chose which question we wanted to complete. It was quite a hard decision however we chose to create an opening sequence to a children’s TV drama alongside a DVD cover and a radio Advert. We chose to do this as we felt we could relate to it from past experiences and thought that we could be creative with it.
Throughout my project I have recorded my progress and what I was planning to do on my blog, bionk.wordpress.com, under the A2 category. Also you can find on there all the final products that we produced.

After making our final decisions we started researching children’s TV drama title sequences. We looked mostly on youtube but also watched some sequences on TV and watched a bit of the programmes just to get some ideas of what the story line of our show would be.
We then came up with three initial ideas which we presented to the class on a key note presentation. We got feedback of what they did and didn’t like which lead us to the decision to use idea three. This was a series based on a group of girls named ‘Best Of Friends’.
We did a bit more research to try and get some more ideas of what to film for our opening sequence. We watched adult dramas as well as children’s to get a wider view of ideas. My partner really liked the ‘Hollyoaks’ title sequence and so she showed me it and we both agreed it could work well with our idea.  The sequence was quite simple. It involved filming the characters in a studio with singly and as a group with various different effects added.

On one occasion my partner wasn’t in so I was left to make so progress with our work on my own.  I decided to search for some appropriate music that fitted with our brief and theme and one that would appeal to our audience and draw them in.
I got it from freeplaymusic.com. It is quite a catchy and cheesy tune which sticks in your head. I felt this was appropriate as people of the younger generation would like something that sticks in their mind and easy to remember. Also in the lesson I cut the music as it was too long to be a title sequence. It was quite hard as I wanted the beginning and the end but not the middle section but it had to flow well and sound good. I made it about 35 seconds long, although this wouldn’t be the final cut of the song it was a good guideline and if needed to be shortened would be easier to adjust.

As we’d decided on what we were going to do we arrange some actresses and got permission to use the location (studio in college). Our actresses were about 14 years old. We felt this was appropriate as they weren’t too young so we could give them direction but still young enough to fit well with the theme. However when we later went to clarify a date there was an issue as our models were not over 16 therefore their parents would have to be there throughout all filming. We debating doing this however it was just not possible as the times we could film their parents/guardians were unavailable.
This meant we had to change something. We thought that it would be easier and more appropriate to change our location rather than our actresses as we would have to change our storyboard and theme if we wanted to change our actresses. We wanted to still have a similar set for our film so we decided to film in a relative of my partners’ house. This was appropriate as there was a studio like room and it was available to us for whenever we needed it.

We first planned to film on 19th November 2009 however to add to our bad luck one of our models dropped out on the day, this made things change quite a lot so we had to spend time rewriting our story board to fit the actresses we now had and set us back at least another week. We used the day wisely as we researched in to some radio adverts as well as rewriting our storyboard. The Radio advert research proved quite difficult because they were hard to access and it was difficult to find ones that relate to our theme.

After our set back we made arrangements with the location owner booked out the camera and equipment we needed and arranged travel for our actresses to get to the set for the following week. However on the day we was preparing to film one of our actresses fell very ill and was unable to act for us on the day. We couldn’t film without her as the whole theme and plan wouldn’t fit. This set as back even more. This was quite inconvenient and created us more hassle but there wasn’t anything we could do at such short notice.

We needed to make the most of our time so we decided to start research in to DVD covers for children’s TV dramas. We gathered images from google.com and evaluated them all and picked out points we liked and disliked. We got a very good idea of what we wanted for our DVD cover. The day wasn’t a complete waste as it proved quite successful as we managed to create two mock up covers for our DVD cover.

After our two filming setbacks we again made all the arrangements to film the following week. Thankfully we finally we got to shoot our footage. We got to the location before the actresses so we could set up. At this point we realized we had a bit of an issues with the lighting as it was either too light or too dark and creating shadow. We eventually got something that didn’t look to bad and then began to shoot. During the filming things weren’t going to plan and the actresses weren’t quite co-operating how we wanted them to. Also what we’d planned to do in our storyboard was sometimes not possible so we had to think of ideas on the spot. I don’t think this helped the situation at all and neither of us were too pleased about how the filming went.

The week after filming we edited our footage in final cut pro. We was very disappointed with our footage because as we expected there wasn’t enough there and what was there wasn’t very good. We tried to fill the 40 seconds however we barely managed to get 20 seconds of good footage.
This added to our dilemmas and we had to seriously think about what we were going to do. We either had to re-shoot more footage and risk there still, not being enough decent footage or re-think our idea completely.

Although it seemed the longer thing to do we decided to change our idea and shoot something totally different. We both felt this was the most practical idea as we found it difficult to work with the girls and we had no more ideas of what to shoot them doing and felt the footage couldn’t really get much better.

On two consecutive occasions I missed the lesson, this set us back even more as we still didn’t have good footage or anything else as a final product. Before my day of absents we had decided on our final idea so that she could make some progress while I wasn’t there. In my absents my partner pursued with our work and she made a final mock up of our DVD cover on the first week and on the second completed it so all we had to do was add two original images. Also in this time she wrote a Radio advert script getting ideas from our research and related it well to our theme. Her making such progress allowed us to arrange filming for the next week and let us make a new story board in our own time so we was fully prepared to film.

Our new idea was just about an average girl and the series was based on her and her life, there wasn’t anything specific about her as we thought we would make it more simple as we were running out of time.
Our idea was to go to the local park and film her walking around. We didn’t like this idea as much as our first one but we felt it would make a better final product and would be simpler to shoot. My partner volunteered to be the actress as we couldn’t find anyone who would fit in our theme and was prepared to do it when we needed to get it done. Also we thought using her made things a lot easier and simple as she was there when we needed her and she knew exactly what we wanted to have as our final product. As she was the actress I was put in charge of all filming and photograph taking.

On the day of filming the weather wasn’t too bad which was a bonus and a change in our bad luck as we feared it would be terrible which would have to prevent us from filming again. Fortunately we got to go out and shoot, which we both felt went very well. We took numerous shots from different angles and repeated a few so we had more footage to work with. We chose to do this as this was one of our mistake in our first shooting attempt. Also, as the camera man and director, I shot some establishing shots of the scenery as we thought it would look good merged in with footage of our actress.
From having a brief look at our footage it looked pretty good and there seemed a lot to work with.
The next lesson we edited majority of our footage and had a clear idea of what else we was going to add in. We were very impressed with how well the shooting went and how much footage we got to choose from. We also played around with different transitions and picked our favourites which we have used in the final video.
Also we added the music and edited it to fit in with the footage we had.

We then went on to recording our radio advert. We found a room in the collage that was totally silent and got a camera and boom mic so we had the best quality of sound possible. It was very simple recording the advert as we had a script and knew what to say. We recorded it a few times so we had different takes to pick from and so we could replace bad bits with good bits from a different recording. One run through we done was practically perfect we just had to add small bits from another clip we had recorded for it to sound right.
Also in our radio advert we added the theme tune, we had it loud at the beginning and end but during the speech we had it fade out a little so it was in the background but could still be heard so that the advert didn’t sound dull. It was very simple editing the advert and we were both very proud of it.
After editing the radio advert we went into a studio and I photographed my partner because we needed pictures to put on to the DVD cover. We didn’t spend long on taking the photos but I took quite a few in various poses so we had a large range to select from.
We shot on a white background so we could cut her out easily and put her on to the cover. We narrowed the pictures down to our favourite 10 and then selected the best two which we thought would fit well on the cover. My partner cut them out and put one picture on the front and one on the back.
We also finished off the editing for our video so it fitted to 36 seconds long. Although we had saved the work for some reason it didn’t save and we lost the work on the video we had done that lesson. We were really annoyed at this as we had spent a lot of time making the final perfections.
We again made the final changes and went to add the text we wanted but again it didn’t save. We had to give up for the day as it just wouldn’t save. We had to go back again the next week to finish it for the third time and thankfully this time it saved correctly.

Looking back at our final product I think it could have gone a lot better. I don’t think it’s bad however I think the video could be greatly improved. It doesn’t look very professional and lacks a lot of creativity. I think this is due to our rushed decision and not a great deal of planning. Although the video is not that great I do think it fits to the criteria very well and targets the right audiences. We had a lot of time to research and look at many different types of opening sequences I think this is why our video has all the right elements it should have. Also I think due to all our setbacks and dilemmas our final film isn’t too bad and has done us quite proud as we did have the worst of luck and it could have come out terrible.

I think our DVD cover is one of the strongest parts of our project. I think it is very well presented and would fit well on a DVD shelf next to similar products. I think we research well in to what it should look like and that is shown in the final product as I feel it reaches the attention of the right audience. Unlike our film we planned our DVD cover quite well even though we had a few setbacks we managed to keep with our idea and adapt it to our change in plans. The use of simplicity and light bright colour sets the theme of the show well and engages children of the right age as they are drawn to something that stand out but aren’t too interested in something too busy.

Our radio advert, I think, is the best part of our media package. It’s very simply but it’s straight to the point and fits with the criteria of children’s TV drama radio advert. We both really enjoyed making the radio advert and took a lot of time planning it and finishing the product. I think the use of the song in the background brings the advert to life and compares it to other such products available in the media. Another thing I think is particularly good about the advert is the change the people who talk so that the audience stay engaged.

Looking at our final work as a media product I think we have done quite well. I really like the radio advert and think the other two parts are very good too. I think competing in the market with similar products it would do well as it hits all the right criteria and has all the right this for the target audience to want to watch and enjoy. Also I think another good thing about our package is there the continuity is very good and stretches across all three products. I think this I because we worked hard to get them to fit with each other and once we’d made our very final decision we created everything to fit in with the theme. We also thought about where the show would have been played and made up our own channel to make it more professional and realistic.

I feel we have successfully targeted the right audience as we researched very well in to each media product and kept to the basic ideas and followed the ideas of other media products out there. I think if our work was presented to people of our target audience they would rather enjoy it. However I think the title sequence wouldn’t get as good response as the radio advert or DVD cover. I think the music colour choice and theme would be the points people would enjoy most and give positive feedback about however I think the location in which we shot our video and other aspects of the video people may react not so well to.

As a partnership our planning and communicating skills could have been better as sometimes we found it hard to agree and felt as though we were going against each other rather than trying o work together, I think our many setbacks and stresses coursed us to be like this as we both got stressed easily and were both very panicked. However I do feel when we got down to it me and my partner worked very well and made quite a good team. I don’t think I would choose to work in a group again purely because there’s not debating or referring when working alone you can just make decisions and get on with it. Also when things got stressful we didn’t work together well and think things through. Although I say this I did really enjoy working with my partner we both come out with good ideas and although our planning was bad our spare if the moment ideas and quick plans did actually pay off. Overall me and my partner are both every proud of our work and despite all of the issues and dilemmas we faced we still managed to come out with a rather decent piece of work and a complete media package which we feel would do well competing with other current media products.

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After deliberating for  a while we came to the decision that it would best to change our theme idea and to use another actor. Although we didn’t really want to do this and the rest of our work would be  a waste of time we felt it had to be done to achieve a decent final product.

from looking back at our research we came to the decision to base the programme on a teen girl and her life. The video will be of her doing every day things. we have done this as it will be simple to film and we only need to find one actress.We are going to use the same kind of idea as before with a happy, girly theme as it will allow us to use some of the things we have already worked on, including the music that we’ve found and want to use for our sequence and the work we’ve already done into the DVD cover. we plan to only alter the DVD cover by adding an image of the new actor and making a title change, as the current title would not fit with the new theme.

Idea One
Our first idea features a large image of the four characters that dominates the whole bottom half of the front cover of the DVD. The photo will not feature a background and we will be placing the character photos onto the cover background. We plan for the background of the cover to be a very pale pink, attracted our highly female audience. The top half of the cover will feature a purple, rough cut out box with the title in the centre. Our house font is going to be a font called Eight Track from the website www.dafont.com. We chose this font because it seems quite young and fun which we’re sure will be attractive to our audience. In the background we’re going to display the same little icons that appear in the background of the shows title sequence.

Idea Two
Our second idea follows quite a similar colour scheme to the first idea, although purple is the dominating colour here. The background will be a pale purple, almost lilac, with a darker purple box in the middle presenting the title of the show in our house font. The box will be outlined with two white lines, making it seem like its glowing. The cover will feature four individual images of each of the girls with a oval shape separating them from the rest of the background in each corner in the cover. In between the top two and bottom two images will be a small purple heart in a black oval, similar to the ones the images of the girls will be in. Around the cover, little different sized purple hearts will be dotted around to fill some of the blank space in the background.

We had to think fast and have found another destination for our filming which is at a family meber of my partners house.

Here i have researched in to DVD covers for Children’s t.v programme’s. I have looked at 8 different covers that relate to my theme storyline or characters.

Most of the covers are very similar in style. They all have a image of the main character(s) with the title to the show big and bold on the cover somewhere. Also majority of the covers have used bright bold colours that stand out and grab the audiences attention. I think they have used large text and colours that stand out as children of our target audiences age will be attracted to these colours and will clearly be able to read the title. The use of a large image of the main character(s) across the center front of the cover is also used to draw in the Children’s attention as they will notice their characters and visualize the show and want to see more. All the character(s) are happy and smiling, this is because children will enjoy seeing people happy and that is the atmosphere of all the shows.

I have had a look at the sequence on you tube;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRw3MtsyT-w&feature=related.

After watching the sequence i also really like it and think it would work very well with our project and be quite simple to produce. We could use a studio like they have in this title sequence and add music and text. Although Hollyoaks is aimed at an older age group than our target audience i think that style of its title sequence can work well with a different type of programme.

Our idea was for a title sequence to have clips form the main show however this would be more difficult as we are not actually making a series.

Im really happy with our new idea of shooting it in a studio and editing it on the computer.

Today i have written out my SMART targets for the opening sequence of our childrens t.v. drama. The dates i have given my self for each part of my project are all SMART and are very achievable.

Also today i have added to my research of opening sequences. these have help e get a better idea of the different directions i could take with my work. I think i have nearly enough title sequences to complete my research and then write and analysis of them all.

8th October.

In today’s lesson i have finished my research in t childrens t.v dramas and wrote an analysis of what i gained form my research and what i thought of all the different styles of sequences. Next lesson we will be starting our story board and look in to set, actors and maybe complete a few production documents.

15th October.

Today’s lesson i have work on a few minor things for planning and research to try and finalize the details for our final production

First my partner showed me a title sequence of Hollyoaks that she found and thought was really good and would work well for our idea, i watched the video and wrote a short analysis of what i thought of the style and how i think it would be easy to achieve and work well with my work.

After me and my partner typed up our final idea for our title sequence what the basic idea is and how things would work. We also filled out some pre production documents such as talent release location release and a few others.

Hopefully by the end of next lesson we will have completed our story board for our title sequence and nearly be ready to shot it.

5th  November

today we went to book the venue for our filming. although it was fine that we shot there, there was an issue that the girs were not over the age of 16 so they would need their parents to be there for us to shot and as we wanted do shoot in college they wouldn’t be insured so it wouldn’t be permitted.

this has created a lot of problems for us and we has used our time to try and come up with another idea of where to shot. We are going to shot our footage at a relative of my partners house. we have chose this a s we can have a blank background which is what we wanted for our footage. We have arranged transport for us and our models and have booked out the equipment for next week.

Next week we are ready to shot and hopefully will have a lot of our footage completed.

19th November

Unfortunately we was unable to shot today as one of our actors dropped out. there for today we re wrote our storyboard to fit the actors we have now and arrange all definite plans for our filming next week. In the after noon we researched radio adverts.

Next lesson we will collect our props and equipment and go to our set and film the opening sequence

26th November.

Today we had planned to shoot our filming however one if our actresses was very ill. this stopped us form being able to do any shooting therefore we have had to put back our filming another week. this i quite a pain but there isn’t  anything we could do.

So instead we decided to create 2 mock up DVD covers. i have posted these on my blog. and wrote about them. next lesson we will be filming! and taking photographs for the DVD cover.

3rd December.

Today we are Filming for our opening sequence. We have Three girls which we are collecting at about 3o’clock. We are going to get our camera to film and tripod then we will head to our destination at prepare and practice shoot before the girls arrive. This will save time as we will be able to get straight on with filming when the girls arrive. after filming we will photograph our actresses for pictures for our front cover for our DVD cover.

10th December.

Today we edited our footage that we took last week. we looked through our footage but we didn’t really like most of it. this has now made us have to film more next week. we need to ask our actors first if they can make he date but hopefully we will be ale to arrange a date for us to both film.

We have made a small part of our final opening sequence form the footage we took last week. we’ve added to our music and does work quite well. We do need take more footage but at least we’ve made a start.

Although our footage was quite disappointing we’ve had a few ideas of new shoots we will take.

next week we hope to go to the set to and practice before the actors get there.

14th JANUARY

I was not in to days lesson so my partner spent time working on the final mock up cover for our DVD. She managed to finish the mock up and now be able to create a final one next lesson.

28th JANUARY

Again due to another misfortune i missed this lesson however thankfully my partner was In and made so great progress with our work. She produced a final DVD cover and created a script for our radio advert. Her doing this enables me to be able to get on with directing and filming our footage next week as that is my role.

4TH FEBRUARY

Today we finally got on with our re-shooting. As the director and Camera man i had a lot of responsibility and had a lot to think and plan before shooting.

After shooting we uploaded out footage and had a look through and it seems we have enough to fill our 30 second clip so hopefully we wont need to re-shoot. next week we will edit our footage and i will arrange some recording for you radio advert.

11TH FEBRUARY

Today i have spent a lot of time editing our film and got about half done of what we need to and i have a plan of the rest of the footage. In the afternoon we recorded our radio advert.

Editing the video wasn’t too hard especially compared to our first attempt at filming

Next lesson we will finish editing out film and edit our radio advert and add music.

25th FEBRUARY

Today we completed out radio advert which just needs now a few minor edits and also we completed a lot more of our film editing which now only leaves us with a bit more to do.

Today, we edited together our radio advert. We didn’t have to cut much up because it was actually quite clear as we recorded it and it all flowed quite well. We had some issues with adding our theme music to the radio advert because we needed to ensure that it all flew well together and that we could fade it in and out so our voices could be heard over the music. It all went really well and I think it actually sounds really good and I’m really pleased that we worked on it together. We also made more changes to our actual film adding more of the footage in to bulk out our blank spaces. Towards the end of the lesson, however, our computer turned off and we lost a bit of our work. Some of it had been saved on autosave but not all of it was re-stored. We’re going to work on finishing it next week as well as my completing of the DVD cover. I also plan to start writing my evaluation next week.