End Of Coursework Statement

It has been quite a lengthy year and this is my final post on this blog. I have learnt a lot through this AS Media year, things which i can be able to implement on my exam and the A2 year. I have really enjoyed this year. Aside from learning various techniques and terminology, i have been able to do what i enjoy the most which is; filming, editing and working with computers. I have learnt the value of teamwork and i can honestly say my knowledge has increased and developed from what i knew at the start of the year.

Evaluation Question #7

Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that 

you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Evaluation Question #6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of 

constructing the product?

Final Cut Express | Create Infographics

DSLR | Create Infographics

BLOGGER | Create Infographics

Evaluation Question #5

How did you attract/address your audience?

I found it easier to address my audience by putting them in front of the final product. In this case i decided to ask my brother and sister-in-law to be in this reaction video. At the end questions were asked to see what they truly felt of the final product. It shows enjoyed it and are willing to watch a full feature film based on it. But the reason i choose them its because they fell perfectly in the target audience for this specific film. They are in their mid 20's which is the right age for this film. The opening sequence is sophisticated and was the typical style they witnessed while growing up. Due to this it made them the perfect candidates that would tend to enjoy such a film that had a slight edge of their times. Even so it was said my brother that 'I have not seen something like this in a long time', which shows they are quite eager to see this style of film.

Evaluation Question #4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation Question #3

What kind of media institution might distribute your 

media product and why?

Evaluation Question #2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation Question #1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or 

challenge form and conventions of real media products?

Final Edit Of Opening Title Sequence - Grifter

This is our groups final edit of our opening title sequence "Grifter". I can honestly say we have put in 100% effort into our work trying to get the best out of it. We kept going over it trying to fix minor issues and constantly looking for ways to improve our opening sequence. I am very pleased with what we have been able to create with in this time as well as not falling behind but meeting the deadline. As a grope we worked together well and did each of our part to create the opening. There were some extra bits added that took much more time then we expected but we managed to get though it. Now that this is complete i am able to now answer my evaluation questions and see what and how i have developed over the period of doing this coursework.

Evaluation Planning

1.  In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge form and conventions of real media products.

For the first question i plan to use the 9 key frame analysis. Reason being to use this is because it breaks up the film in 9 individual frame and allows me to go in depth with each one. As well as showing my analytical skills, it displays the main parts of the opening sequence and show's the emphasis it has with forms and conventions.

2.  How does your media product represent particular social groups.

For the second question i plan to use a website called www.powtoon.com I find this website to be very professional and interactive. 

3.  What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why.

To answer this question i have decided to make a vlog, other wise known as a video blog.

4.  Who would be the audience for your media product.

To answer this question i have decided to use Voki. I like using this software because it is quite a different style. With it we can see a basic outline of what the character may look like. 

5.  How did you attract/address your audience.

To tackle this question i have decided to make a reaction video. The way i would do this is i will place some of my desired target audience in front of a camera and show them the opening title sequence. Then i will edit this as Picture In Picture (PIP) to show the reaction and the opening title sequence playing at the same time. This gives a nice effect and show's how my target audience actually feel about the opening title sequence.

6.  What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product.

For this question i plan to use the website http://infogr.am/ to create an infographic. Reason for this is because it allows my work to look more creative and overall making it aesthetically pleasing.

7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product.

Personally i feel this may be the strongest question in the whole evaluation set of questions. So for this it occurs to me that i may have to do something special as it may be the last question i answer. The way i would answer this would be set up as a fake interview. I would play both roles one as the interviewer and the other as my self. A few questions will be asked in regards to the preliminary and opening sequence and seeing how far i have transgressed.

Evaluation Questions

Today we were told about all the 7 evaluation questions. This is the first time we have properly seen the evaluation questions and initially they look very simple to me. There are 1 or 2 questions where i thought of how i would answer them, but originally i was thinking of all the different techniques of the way i got present each question.

As we looked at them we decided to put them in a specific order, starting with the most significant all the way to the less significant.

The reason for choosing the first question where it is because we see it to show a big significance in the way we progressed. The idea of re-calling the day of the preliminary task shows how far we came from our first official piece of work.  From there everything goes down until the least significant. In this case; 'What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why.'
Either way i do see all the questions significant. As in order to achieve the marks all the questions must be answered.

Rough Edit Of Opening Title Sequence - "Grifter"

This is our groups rough edit of our opening title sequence "Grifter". We have tried to go for a fully abstract opening by following the conventions that it shown in "Catch Me If You Can & "Superbad". This is only the rough edit and there is much to do in terms of editing. We need to adjust the soundtrack, fix the continuity, add the required text and maybe possibly looking to add some extras that would push us to get higher marks. From now we hope to achieve well, as we had a clear vision from the start of what we wanted to create and so far have stuck to it.

Coursework - Editing Day #5

As the 5th day rolled in we began to reach closer in finishing our opening title sequence. All that remind now was too finish off the soundtrack, add the gold background & text and find a suitable sound track for the institution animation. I exported the film where the chroma key was inverted as well as the opening text, this would be the base of the edit. I created a new project and had to now chroma key in the gold background to the rest of the footage. This was very simple but of course i ran into a few problems doing so. First of i ran into a big problem. I noticed that when i tried to chroma key in the gold there was a shadow which showed to be pixelated. Since there is no feathering tool within Final Cut Express this was quite difficult so i tried my best to make it look perfect. Also at the bit where the bars fall i noticed a black bit at the bottom right. This was not a problem in the edit but a problem in the filming. What happened is that part of the black curtain came up. A way around this would be to keyframe part of the gold background and patch it up. Once this is complete then the final few titles could be added to the opening sequence. After all this it is just a matter of adding the soundtrack and opening institution animation then the opening title sequence will be complete.

Coursework - Editing Day #4

So the 4th day of editing began and we simply had to carry the task from the last editing period. I continued with the editing such as trying to show continuity between each scene as well as starting to add the text.




There are still some finalisations to do but so far the edit looks very decent. Also we sorted out our opening institution animation. Since the last lesson we all had decided on the template but decided it would of looked better if it had a logo. This was finished during the lesson and here is the outcome of it.

Coursework - Editing Day #3

 Day 3 was quite more productive we finally got down to the main editing. Once again we all worked individually but each work would assist towards the final edit of the opening title sequence. Since i have been using Final Cut Express the most and i was confident with it i carried out the required tasks. I fine tuned the editing to show continuity as well as that i chroma keyed the characters within clip. This was quite a lengthy procedure but once the green screen was chroma keyed it was easy just to press the invert button then have the characters turn into the desire colour. Also i need assistance with some of the animation that we really wanted in our opening sequence so i requested help for this.

 Samuel sorted out the desired text's for the opening sequence. For this he used photoshop and created each text. The text will use a custom font downloaded from the internet and each text will be displayed in white. It is quite vital that we use white since the colour of the objects and characters would be black and the background would be a golden colour.

 Ja'van had the task of creating the opening animation for our opening title sequence. For this we needed to use After Effects as in terms of animation this software is really needed as it has features which others do not. Since After Effect is a very complicated software and takes a long time to learn we were advised to look for a template. We did initially have a certain way for the opening animation to look but there is not other option, so we need to adapt to this. After some research Ja'van managed to find a template which has good resemblance to our original idea so we decided to use this.

Coursework - Editing Day #2

On day 2 there was much to do but i feel we could of done a lot more. Since there were 3 people in the group we split the duties between us. I started on the editing on Final Cut Express, Samuel worked on the soundtrack on the song using Garageband and Ja'van worked out how to use After Effects to create our opening animation.





I was in charge of editing and since i have edited before i was used too it. In terms of using Final Cut Express i was not that confident but i tried my best. On the first day of editing i was simply having a play around with the software and working
out how to use it, since it has been quite sometime since i used it before. I was getting my head round the video & audio tracks, placement of each individual clip as well as setting the in and out points.

Since i have edited before i had quite a good of idea of doing the muzzle flash and lens hit. It was just a matter of downloading each individual stock footage from youtube the adding it to the timeline. Since the stock footage has a black background i was having a hard time finding the composite settings, but once i found it made life easier as i was contemplating on keying out the black. The basic edit was complete it was now simply to wait to the 3rd day to get into the more complicated parts of the edit.

Chosen Font For Opening - "Titania"

We searched for multiple fonts on the internet slowly we found the Titania Font on http://www.dafont.com/. Not only is this font nice to look at it is also spaced out properly at a reasonable amount. It does not connote any ideas of horror, crime, comedy or any genre for that matter, that is the beauty of it. This font can practically work with anything. To make it more aesthetically pleasing we added a drop shadow using Photoshop. To be precise the drop shadow was at an angle of 120º as well as a distance of 4 pixels. This made it look better and when placed over our opening it looked good. We used white as it seemed to be the only colour that was not used through out the opening and white tends to go with almost everything, especially that there is much black within the opening.

Coursework - Editing Day #1

Today was our first day of editing. I tend to not work with Final Cut Express so i had to take some time and work out how to use it. Our original idea was to have a coloured background the invert then invert it to the character who the would have a different colour from the background.

Since i am unfamiliar with Final Cut Express i was having some difficulty to find the invert button, i requested help and i got it. After that i tried to work out how to chroma key because with this software it is fairly different then Final Cut Pro X.

Coursework - Filming Day #3

Today we managed to complete the filming of our coursework. Surprisingly it was not a very lengthy procedure i am very glad we managed to complete within 3 filming sessions. We did not waste any time as soon as the lesson started we collected our tripod and camera and directly went to the TV Studio to record the remaining footage. We tried our best to line up the tripod from the last recording session to give a sense of continuity, clothes did not matter if they were changed as the person will not be visible when we edit the footage. We only need two actors so it made it easier to film as only one of us can stay behind the camera and tell us how it looks without going back and forth.

 We did make a quite a few adjustments in our script and storyboard. Not a lot of it made sense so we had to rethink our ideas, Even so the story board was not in order so it lead to some confusion when filming. Also since the green screen was not partially the floor and we cant track our whole body many shots had to be changed or either removed so it was easier to adjust. We did take some time in this but it is safe to say that we did our best and tried to balance the time of looking at the script as well as filming.





It takes us only 2 filming sessions to finish but finally it has been complete the only thing left now is the final edit and this may just be a lengthy procedure.

Coursework - Filming Day #2

The second day of filming was a bit more productive and we managed to complete the first bit of the opening sequence. At the start we did have a problem as other people needed to use the area which we needed for filming so we were delayed in that. Also there was quite a delay at getting our camera meaning we were 45 minutes behind schedule. Either way eventually we got somewhere.

The first step was to get the area ready and reveal the green screen. This was very simple to do as it was just a matter of pulling the rope and revealing the screen. We did however run into a bit of a problem as the initial idea to me, was that the green screen runs across the floor but it did not. We then as a group decided to change the angle of the camera and not point it towards the floor.








There after we all got into costume and character. This was not very time consuming as it was just a matter of putting on a few clothes. No much effort and time was taken into this, as soon as costume was on we got ourselves into character and promptly started to film.









As i have experience with using a DSLR i knew how to use the camera so i did tell the rest of the group to how to white balance,  zoom and focus. This was not very difficult and they understood straight away. As soon as the camera was ready and in place we began our filming straight away. We managed to complete the first 3 pages of our storyboard with-in the 45 minutes we had and i say we done that pretty well.
There was some what of a problem at the start but we got through it, hopefully we will be able to finish filming with-in the next 2 filming sessions. So far so good.
Overall 2nd day could of gone better but now that we know what we are doing i am sure that the 3rd day would be perfect.

Coursework - Filming Day #1

Sadly today was a very disappointing day of filming. We never managed to get anything done and this due to the area we needed to use was booked, so tomorrow should be our start day in hope that we can finish it one day. Even so we did not waste any time. We began to do some research on what music to use in our Opening Title Sequence. Of course for this we had to use Copyright / Royalty Free Music. There are a number of websites out there, but we decided to use:  www.incompetech.com/ I am quite familiar with this website and have used it before so I know the content it has would be beneficial to us. We are looking to use a jazz style music that will match with the on-going action; so far we have narrowed it down too 3 different options. Currently we are stuck between the 3, if we cannot come to a conclusion we decided to mix all 3 of them our selves. So far the day may not have gone us planned, but at least we managed to do some sort of work that will benefit us in the long run. 

Final Opening Title Sequence: Costume

Costume List Template

Final Opening Title Sequence: Props

Props List Template

Final Opening Title Sequence: Equipment List

Equipment List Template by Othman Abdul Ghani

IPod Adverts - Opening Title Sequence Research

As the journey of creating the opening title sequence was coming, as a group we were 100% confident in going with the green screen option which highly resembles 'Superbad'. We tried to look for various different examples which could inspire us but we were stuck between 'Superbad' & 'Catch Me If You Can' as we thought not many people try to go for the route we are going. Yet until are teacher reminded us of the ipod adverts which went though 2006-2008 that mimicked that green screen effect, this gave us more clips to look at.

There are numerous different style of ipod adverts on the internet but these two caught my eye. Specifically this one can highly relate to what we are trying to achieve in our opening title sequence. It has the green screen use of that is seen in 'Superbad' and uses line animation which is similar to 'Catch Me If You Can'. If i was asked to say what video out there is most likely resembles to our idea of our opening title sequence, i would say it has too be this one. Reason being it has a coloured background, inverted chroma keying on the character which makes abstract as well once again uses the idea of animation.

What we have looked at previously is not the only advert that was released by Apple in that similar style. Here is another one which shows some extras that gives similarity in the way we wish to present our opening title sequence. At 0:07 the background gives of this nice yellow/gold colour and we hope to use the colour for our background when editing. Of course this will be chromakeyed but its nice to get an idea and have something to relate are future work too. Also at 0:17 we see the use off 2 people in one frame [two shot] and once again this idea can relate to our opening sequence. Reason being because throughout our sequence, majority of the times 2 shot would take place and we can refer to this idea for our own work.

Final Opening Title Sequence: Recce

Production Role - Top Trump Cards

Final Opening Title Sequence: Storyboard

Final Opening Title Sequence: Script

Grifter Script (1) by Othman Abdul Ghani

Film Opening Concept Idea

I have been doing some independent research in hope to be inspired for my final opening sequence. As a group we decided to go for a 'Superbad' meets 'Catch Me If You Can' look.

As we can see here 'Catch Me If You Can' has a very crime fiction feel. The abstract look that they have gone for belnds quite well with our idea, because that is something we are going for. The whole vibe in the opening title sequence gives a very strong idea of a man running from the police, which somewhat matches to our story line. Just by looking at the first couple of seconds of this opening title sequence we can see it connotes the idea of a detective and what seems to be a thief which is running away. As there our many transitions when the thief changes costume it shows the use of good editing techniques as well as corresponding to the actually story line. It does give a cearting sense of enigma with this. This is something i hope to do this when we start planing & editing our opening title sequence.

'Suberbad' has similar concepts that we hope to use. Two similarities between both these openings would be that they are abstract and both use quite similar colour schemes. 'Superbad' is more of a comedy so that is more portrayed and shown in the opening title sequence, but in the movie we do see some suspense moments which may create some enigma codes. Once again when we create our opening title sequence i hope to use some enigma codes that should arise many questions in the minds of the audience. Also i have noticed that the 'Superbad' opening title sequence has been shot in front of a green screen, and this is something i want hope to do for our opening sequence. I think the whole idea of shooting in front of a green screen can allow an esay edit and make it look somewhat complicated, as well as give a better abstract look to our final opening sequence.