Looking over our film opening

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

Fortunately, myself and my group were able to use iMovie to transport and edit our films from the Flip. iMovie provided great tools to perfect our opening, such as, be able to change the colouring, sound and length of a clip - as well, adding more transitions and other additional sound to enhance the quality. 
We also had the opportunity to use a software called Final Cut, where we could have used it for the more advanced editing - although we never got the chance to use this in our last project.

CREATIVITY
Our entire opening was black and white, as it suited the genre of our film - creating suspense  and a sense of question immediately. As well as this, we decided to create a Swedish film - which, meant we had to have Swedish voices and English subtitles. This idea was hugely influenced by the Swedish film, The Girl in the Dragon Tattoo. We never intended to have a soundtrack, we simply reversed certain Swedish sounds, creating a echoing murmur, which fit perfectly. 
A great deal of our creativity was based on our plot - the filming and editing which we did, was quite basic. Our a2 project, should perhaps, show more experimentation with our editing techniques. 

RESEARCH AND PLANNING

We were influenced, as a group, with a majority of films that we had previously watched. Girl, Interrupted was one of them, as it had the psychological aspect with a main female character. When researching, we found the settings and shots that were most common in these styles of films and began to incorporate it into our own. There was a lack of planning in our group, as no definite story boarding was done until later on, and the one I had previously created was brief because new ideas were constantly being thought of. 
Regular story boarding will have to be done in our a2 project, to keep an up-to-date, organised idea of what we will film. 


POST-PRODUCTION
The post production stage for our film opening was a highly significant part. We perfected the picture and sound by editing, whilst adding in the English subtitles with precise timing to when it was being said. We also included our original logos, which fit both the target audience and the genre of our opening. This stage, however, did not require any SFX to be added and we did not advertise our film opening in anyway. In our a2 project, it is necessary to include a music poster and digipack, which will all be done after the completion of our music video. 

Music Videos

During our lesson, we each chose two cards, which stated a feature that we had to find in any music video. I received 'Lead Male Vocalist' and 'Interesting use of Lighting'. I chose Jack Penate's Torn on the Platform for the first one, as the video is quite quirky and very suitable for his indie style of music. 

Personally, I really enjoyed watching this humorous musicvideo, although it is very similar throughout and could perhaps be considered quite boring towards the end. It gives the audience an obvious understanding at the beginning that he starts his song in a garage with his band. Then, the animation comes in after they appear to be drawing the setting of a paper puppet show - which has the head of Jack Penate. 

For my interesting use of lighting music video, I found a Justin Timberlake song - Rock  Your Body and after came across Kanye West's - All of the Lights. 

Long shots are used to establish the setting - playing particular attention to the use of colourful spot lights, giving off the atmosphere of a club. There is a great performance element to this music video, as he has backing dancers that blend into the background in black, whilst he is the focal point in white. Movement is key, not only in the performance side but the lights are also moving to the beat of the music, which fits the genre of the song perfectly. 

This is a very unusual video, a lengthy black and white shot is used at the beginning of a small girl, which then flashes different vibrant colours before the quick, flashing lyrics are shown. These lyrics flash precisely at the time that they are spoken in the song. Throughout the song, shots of both Kanye and Rihanna are shown. In particular, Rihanna is against a black background with a huge spotlight on her - emphasizing her appearance, whilst, Kanye is on top of a police car whilst the flashing lights give connotations of risk and excitement.