Monday 31 December 2012

Choosing the font colour for Mr Teddy


Font Colour for Mr Teddy                                                                                                                                                                      Connotations of colour
he colour red comes across as being rather dangerous and creating a sense of anger. It also connotes: blood, love, stop, patriotic, evil, mars and horror. Moreover, it is suggestive that we was not going to use the colour red as red is very much associated with violence being the primary theme were as ours is humour.
The colour yellow is this sense of happiness as a thematic possibly the underlying reason is the sun relating to weather and our mood towards heat. It also connotes: waiting from traffic lights, brightness, and intelligence and cowardly. Therefore, we decided that this would not really give the sense of an action film within was revolving around being heroic; not cowardly.
The colour green is very much a colour that is neutral, to me meaning very countryside or tropical. It also connotes the ideas and thematic of: nature, saving, envy, go, wealth, ill, conserve and medical practices. We decided not to choose this colour as the tropical countryside location doesn’t really fit with our setting as, we wanted this element of the city and an office.

The colour blue was also considered and this colour connotes: coldness, conservatism, boys, depression, mentality and cleanliness. This colour was not fitting for our film as, for me it adds this sense of water within the narrative almost sensing that the sea will appear in the film which it doesn’t so for that purpose blue was decided that it would not fit our film.

Purple was also considered for the font colouring. It came across as being expected to be seen as a font for a superhero series because of the connection to the colour of crystals so, therefore the colour purple which had the connotations of: Cadburys, passion and witchcraft was dismissed.

Brown was also dismissed because of the connection to the toilet but, it did also have the connotation towards something that gets in your way which we classed as interesting as our film is about obstacles. The colour pink was dismissed straight away as it had too much of a connection towards girls and we wanted to appeal towards a mass audience rather than a small grouping in society.

White and grey was both also considered but we choose not to go with white because it connoted: purity, doves, peace, innocence, birth, ghosts and health. In a way it had too many connotations to be completely sure whether to use it. Grey was not used also as it connoted: ambiguity and fog so, seemed rather boring for the audience we wanted to appeal to.

The final colour in which we looked at was black and it was our chosen colour as it had the connotations of: darkness, loneliness, a funeral and a hidden identity. Therefore the colour would fit that narrative as well as thematic in our film. The sense of black being a colour relating to a funeral would mean it would fit the grannies death at the start of the narrative. It also fit iconographical pieces inn our film such as the expected black tuxedo and briefcase within a “spy” film.

Sunday 30 December 2012

The two main types of font

There are two main types of fonts and we discussed them within a lesson.
They consist of ; Serif and Sans serif.

The two main types of font are highly endorsed within the handrwriting world but, within technology the main type or more rather the font in which is largely incorporated is Serif.

Serif is basically Sans serif with decorative ends onto the bottom of the lettering which is used to add a sense of decoration to the handwriting making it look rather italic. The sense of making the font look italic makes it look more sophisticated as well as professional.

Within technology it is evident that Serif is commonly used; this is evident on this font and this font is automatically the preferrence. The image belows shows in imagery what is meant by the discription above:

 The image to the left basically showss the difference between the fonts and how they are peceived by us the consumer, it clearly shows that Sans Serif is less rounded and has this sense of geometric lines overlapping eachother to actually create lettering. But, serif has the more professional look which would have dated back when italic was endorsed. The fonts are usually used in the main type of font colour which is black.

Saturday 29 December 2012

Props Needed:


Props we need to arrange to source in the upcoming weeks:
We still need to arrange to source some more props. We need to arrange to get some of the most iconic props within our sequence and they are a breifcae to give the impression of a spy as well as, the use of a water gun for the scene which explores the thematics of humour. Then we also need the use of an old mobile phone for the use of the name at the beggining.
We would also need a coin but, under deliberation we decided that we would have to find a suitable clip off of YouTube as, it was not possible to film this footage sucessfully so, we would look on YouTube as, a group and decide which clip was best as the slow motion couldnt go that slow.

Current Props used:


The current props in which we have used have been rather a lot but accessible.
We have used for an office scene a table which replicated a desk, some pins which gave the impression of paperwork, a work folder which gave the impression of confidential work, a plant as a sense of organic; a sense that the spy is new and doesn’t actually know what he does yet. We also had to use for this scene a pen, keys, a swivel chair as well as the suit which gave the professional look of the actor.

Within the flash of light scene we had to organise to use a black dark room, then with a flip camera we recorded an apple iPhone flashing a vision of light up in the dark giving a sense of a rush that is not completely visible has occurred. We used an apple iPhone as it was accessible and very good at flashing the light, it gave the vision and footage in which we needed and wanted for the opening title sequence.

We also filmed a bird flying in the sky although, the bird can be seen as a prop it was not an organised one as, it was very spontaneous in terms of flying and we couldn’t really organise how the bird was going to fly or capture one to set free. So, in terms of this footage we just filmed for a while waiting for a bird to fly across in which it did. This type of prop was rather hard to use as we couldn’t have the control in which we had with all of the other props.

We have also filmed a bird fake "pooling" onto my arm this was just about trying to find out which prop would best replicate the poo and give that sense of realism that the audience needed portrayed as, it was key as it resembled the thematic of luck. We just used squirt cream which was supplied by Nicola. The blazer in which the cream was squirted on was supplied by me.

Our last piece of footage in which we filmed for our opening title sequence was basically trying to film the name forming on the shoulder. This started off as being rather problematic as, it didn’t actually keep the name when we wrote into the cream with pen as, this heating inside was rather hot. So, then we basically poured cream onto black sugar paper; the same colour as my blazer and tried writhing it in with a pencil unfortunately, it did not work again. So, we photographed the sugar paper and Louise taking control of the computer formed an amazing name using Photoshop. This worked very well that we are contemplating using the method if we are stuck again.

Current Locations used:


We have currently filmed some shots for our opening title sequence for Call Me... Mr Teddy.
The current locations was simple to organise as they were all accessible within school hours as, they was on the school premises and this was evidently a good decision to film here as, it meant that we could re-shoot if the footage was not good enough or keep that sense of continuity that was needed.

 Currently, we have shot the "bird pooling" scene which formed one of the names of cast on the shoulder .This was shot by the back of a wall which meant that we had this sense of a building behind almost replicating the city life in which a spy is in. We shot the scene twice and were rather content that the second shot was to the best of our ability and kept tis impression in which we wanted in our film.
We have also filmed the first shots of our opening title sequence which was rather simplistic but, in terms of props was rather much a replica of the office. Once, again we had to find the location as a group as the office was not planned but, we did have the idea. We set up the office as, a group all contributing with props although; Louise did supply the majority of props as it is her assigned role. The filming was consistent and we decided internally that it would be the best decision if we filmed multiple takes just incise one shot was out of focus or not keeping to the continuity which would be more evident on the uploading process.

In terms of my contribution with the above I gave the idea of the location of the office located in our school as well as helped with placement of props when specifically told too by the assigned manager.
 
We do also have many more locations in which need to be organised, this might be why we have only filmed what we can and what was accessible first. We need to organise the location of the pond science as well as the water gun scene which has been planned to be shot with the upcoming weeks.

Thursday 20 December 2012

Choosing a soundtrack

Choosing the soundtrack for call me… Mr Teddy

Today, we started the editing process so that we could star to get some sort of concept of the footage so far, whether the continuity had so far been abided to and to see if any other features needed considering such as: current lighting, props and music.

We then allocated the specific hour to finding a non-copyright track in which could be incorporated into our work. The task was conducted on a website called audio network which is a reliable source for music as, our teacher suggested a list and the website has reliable sources. The search engine of the actual website was fairly straightforward we typed in "spy" and a list of the top preferences followed meaning it was now just down to listening and the picking the favourite by a majority.
As a group we looked at the list of non-copyright songs and explored the main concepts of our film and whether the thematic our film explores in the narrative was followed by as well as if it had the pace of our film and genre. We looked at four songs in thorough detail:

 Agent x-The first song in which we looked at was rather heavy and connoted too much of a rock gene which our film did not explore. Guitars within the song are rather futuristic giving the impression that the narrative would not be in the present day and we did not explore this either. The sense of rock also indicated that the target audience where primarily male based which was slightly away from what audience we wanted to draw in (nuclear family this was possibly because no comedy aspect was connoted through fast pace or change in rhythm so it seemed serious. The genre did not seem abided by either as there was no sense of action adventure it sounds slightly sci-fi it the sense of the futuristic soundings as well as the slow pace.
 
Alone in love- The sounding of this soundtrack was rather depressing; it didn’t have that sense of quick pace movement or either the sense of the narrative and a robbery. It also sounded rather like the 6o's which differentiated from the era we posted our film too. The element of jazz doesn’t fit the narratives it is too to slow. The sense of the pace is an indication that the music would fit an action genre but more of a ron-com which is not suitable for children as, it has no comical aspects and doesn’t convey the sense of a robbery chase which is the narratives disequilibrium. Replicates a fairy tale in the sense of the instruments used.
City streets- Too techno giving the impression of an adult themed film as, you would accept the pace which is rather slow to have elements of blood as well as gore which is not what our film is planning to represent in thematic or the narrative I think this because it’s as if you are expecting something to happen/occur. I don’t also think that it fits the genre as it doesn’t suit action/comedy/spy because it is too slow. It’s also rather relaxing, which doesn’t provide excitement for the audience as, it is rather slow and mellow and the tune doesn’t make you "tap your foot" (colloquial).
 Follow that car (our chosen one) - The last soundtrack which I am to discuss was our chosen soundtrack for the opening title sequence we are to create. Them fast pace  gives sense of narrative as, it has this slight sense of a chase which is about to occur which is the underlying narrative of our film because it’s all about trying to prevent a robbery from occurring which is the disequilibrium. The random sound increase creates excitement, seems comedic, suitable for children who would advise this sense of stimulation and interaction between the targeted audience as well as the narrative. The style is almost replicated a dance track which would encourage participation possibly in the sense of "tapping the foot" the sense of the changing pace will also create the cohesion within the opening title sequence as, the change in movement of camera and cinematography can be the change pitch and pace of the sounding.
The task in which was set out is completed and therefore, I do think for this reason the task was a success all of our input also helped our group to work consistently and meant also that fair contributions was distributed evenly.

Sunday 16 December 2012

Call Me Mr Teddy- Typography Research

This our conducted research to find out whcih font the audeince would like as, after all they would be the veiwed market. We conducted the research within our school so we do know that the results are bias as we didn't ask a larger area of people.

If we was to make the outcome much more rounded and decriptive in represntation of the public we would of had to had to ask a larger amount of people in larger are worldwide. To do this we would of had to have a lot more facilites and resources, we would have also had to  have a lot more money as, would lack the finance of an unbias research. The other main contribution in which we lacked would be the time as, a larger conducted questionnaire would mean alot more time put into it.

The result of the public was the font in which we preferrenced possibly because they actually liked or we came across as bias toward that font type.We asked 22 people in total.

Typography Research


After all the work in which we completed with typography, we had to start thinking our the font of our opening title sequence; Call me...Mr Teddy. First of all as a group we had to think about what type of style we wanted and our main ''obsession'' was a handwriting style as, it would give the impresssion of a spy writing it. Below, we have explored many routes: very thin lines as well as, thick and bold lines.

 -This narrative for us definately had the clean and precise look of the film. It also had the element of handwriting but, when reveiwing it we did think that the scratchy aspect of the handwriting did look a bit like a horror film instead of our aimed genre which was meant to be comedy action.= meaning the suitablity towards the genre wasnt a box that could be ticked. We didnt feel that this typography fit the narrative either as, it was very thin and didnt necessarily look like a standard ballpoint pen wrote this.
 -This font seemed to emulate fridge magnets which would be expected to be used by a childin a home environment, for this reason we felt that the font didnt fit the narrative as no children characters will be expected to be cast. This also meant that the thematics of the film and the genre was not evident. It also felt llike a product alreday available for purchase; ''playdough'' meaning that the film may not be peceived as original.
This font for us came across as rather feminine and swirly and for this reason meant that the audeince was not primarily adressed as, it favoured the female audeince rather then a nucleur family which is our primary target audeince. Although, the audeince does not necessarily fit to the purpose we did feel that the typography gave the impression of a business feild which is a thematic of the film. The typography also would not fit the purpose in the sense that it is rather hard to distinguish what it says so the younger audeince might be confused.
   
It straight away fits our purpose of the clean and concise handwriting; its easier then the others to distinguish what it says. Its also easy to imagine that this could be a handwriting whcih emulates a spys written quality's. It also repliactes our genre as well as our narrative as it has the sense of relation to the most ''normal'' handwriting meaning that the audeince will relate to the writing. The fact that the font is not that professional makes us content as, it represents the thematic of humour and not being completely sensible in our narrative.

We, are now going to ask people in random and survey which was the publics preference.

Typography analysis

Seven-                                                                                                                                                                                            -Distorted font- child’s writing-Looks like irregular hand writing                                                                   -Small writing re-illiterates that thematics of secrecy and a hidden identity.                                             -The font appears like flashes of light indicating that a sense of equilibrium is lost.                                  -Its suggestive of a medical illness- Nothing is still? Mentality is questionable.                                           -Looks like it has been etched in- something unplesant and sharp indicating murder and suspicon.
Lords of War-                                                                                                                                                                                   -Bullet is our point of view.                                                                                                                                   -The font replicates a regiment in an army such as the sign.                                                                          -The bullets movement hints a foreshadowing of text.                                                                                    -The narrative is suggestive - war and trading of weaponry of destruction.                                               -Subtle integration of text and the visual imagery.                                                                                           -Font is small in the frame suggesting the narrative is the highlighted aspect.                                            -''Soviet'' Russian style (symbolism). Military based certainly not suggesting the film is humourous in the narratve.
Forest Gump-                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                -Classic font suggesting that the film is timeless.                                                                                               -Serif font- subtle white and middle of the screen meaning that it is easy to focus upon especially with the Hollywood greats; ''Tom Hanks''.                                                                                                         -Typography replicated a school report.                                                                                                             -The white font indicates a sense of purity and clinical approach to life. This is referenced with the foocal point of a feather and the way that it glieded through the air. It also had this impression through the layout of the suitcase as, it looked very organised and suggested the protagonist may have a form of ''ocd''.

Catch me if you can analysis (typography)


The film for me straight away triggered a connection towards the series of be-witched which had the same style of music as well as the slight geometrical shavings in which the be-witched opener had. I suppose the style of transition of the titles flying in and moving into the screen - the flying of the lines emulated the flying of the witch of the broom which was my initial reaction. The transitions was very smooth and classy which had the impression that the film was going to sophisticated, possibly even a hint of what the audience profiling would be like.
The characters held the iconography which gave the impression that there was once again this occurring thematic of sophistication and possibly a sense of ambiguity into the actual career the protagonist embodies throughout the film.

The typography of the title "Catch me if you can" gave once again this fluid sense of continuity and cohesion of the opening title sequence. The lexis "me" was in a font which embodied the style of a cloud giving the impression that plane movement and transport is to occur within the film possibly even a chase between rivals. It also gave the impression of lightness a sense of a hidden identity possibly as the cloud was almost merging with the blue sky background.

The stylish feel of the film slight reinforced that the characters was likely to be chic and at the top of the field of profession they enrolled in which was also, indicated through the jazz music which is usually associated with the 60's and meeting a lady in which was likely to become an equated female in the future. This narrative was touched upon when it evidently had the scene in which had a man enter a black room full of women around the side. The fact that the scene was lack once again touched upon the thematic of secrecy in the film. This referenced the theory by Laura Mulley and the Male gaze as, the females although ''cartoon-like'' had short pink dresses on suggesting that the purpose was to catch males attention.

There was an obvious influence within the film and it has to be Saul Bass. Bass's famous hallmarks which are evident in his work seemed to be there: the geometrical shapes placed in the formation of characters was evident and emulated the opening title sequence Bass made for Vertigo. Other attributes which gave the indication that Bass's work had influenced the making process, the colour choice hinted this as they were blues, reds and oranges.

The opening title sequence also incorporated the two types of font. Sans Serif and serif. Serif was present on the word ''present'' and sans serif was evident on the other entire font giving a continuous and cohesive feel to the opening title sequence.

The movement of the font and the fact that it came in slowly and gracefully gave the impression that a chase is to occur-it slightly referenced the Pink Panther opening title sequence. The lines looked like a ''type-writer'' sensing that it might be an iconographical aspect and backing up the contextual era of the 60's.

Typography Lesson

Thursday 13th December 2012
Typography
What do the typography design and way in which the titles appear in Catch me if you can to communicate to the audience? Consider connotations of the film:
-Genre
-Style/Mood
-Possible narratives
-Production Values
-Themes

Thursday 13 December 2012

Weekly Journal

This week we have completed more then our aspired achievements of the week. We, have as a group i feel become much more cohesive with time management and really in the time we have been available achieve as much as we possibly could, our productive side is definitely becoming admirable.

This week on Monday 10th December we started to film our opening title sequence in an office to give the feel of the spy agency- it worked really well with the props in which louise sourced for the office. Louise sourced many props for the opening title sequence including: pins, a folder, a memory stick, a plant, a bin and many more.

In terms of what i achieved on monday was the acting side as well as co-filming by checking some of the shots (we did this as group). I mainly did this as fits with my role- the main reason was to check the scene was continuos and worked as a whole. I also managed the prop green screen by getting it in the location as well as away from the location with was a difficulty.

On Tuesday the 11th we completed some work within the storyboard as well as planning what else to shoot within the fore coming week, which was rather essential so that time management would be key. We decided that some other elements of the opening title sequence would be completed on thursdays double lesson and also that the pond scene incorporating water would have to be shot as a later date as, it is not currently available for use.

I plan on within the next week have analysis of the rules being broken as well as analysis of the rules being achieved this will help to ensure success within our opening title sequence and hopefully give us the contextual knowledge as a group.I also plan on putting up wrecky shots of the locations as well as shots of the props which have already been sourced and incorporated.

Friday 7 December 2012

The Production cycle

This diagram below shows the distributing cycle of a film and how the main main marketing concepts take place.


Thursday 6 December 2012

Brainstorming of Opening tile sequence and storyboards


This is our brainstorm of our opening tile sequence it is basically showing our main themes and how we wanted it to look. To do this we sat down as a group and brainstormed the necessities of our genre and how we wanted it essentially to turn out. 


We focused on the setting, thematic, narrative and characters specifically in this brainstorm. We wanted to go into the iconography aspects in detail as, this will give the thematic of family loyalty. This will be represented through the old photographs. The phone will essentially give the impression of the spy and gadgets as well as the idea of secrecy. Other iconography items such as : a gun, a watch, a magnifying glass and a posh car as it once again links to the idea of the spy adventure genre and will set up the impression of the spy on an adventure. The wedding ring will also give the impression of a love within his life and that this may foreshadow problems or happiness to occur.

The iconography also helped to show thematically aspects within the narrative such as a water gun. The water gun will hopefully connote the childish aspect of the stereotypical ''dopey'' sidekick, giving the impression that he is comical, irresponsible and feather-brained. The idea of a bird ''pooping'' from the sky landing in a composition on the protagonist's arm will give the impression that he is dopey but underlay the message that luck is yet to foreshadow in the narrative.

The graph paper, was discussed in thorough detail as, we wanted to somehow incorporate this into the opening title sequence so we had the idea that it could get scrunched up and chucked near a bin, this would give the impression that the protagonist is rather organized and structured. This will hopefully be incorporated into the tile to give the impression of cohesion and continuity throughout the opening title sequence. 

We then had to put this to show by making a storyboard for our opening title sequence to do this we each sat down, completed a quick 30-shot description and then put them onto the storyboards but, only the drawings. 

Other aspects in which we added was desk in which he sits down at, this would emulate the life of a spy and a job in office, almost in a way an intertextual reference to Superman and the idea of a secret life. We also used the element of ‘’fire’’ as, almost a reference to danger that will foreshadow the narrative.

Then, so that it was fair we each got a sheet and had to do description of sound and the shot and so type. The storyboard will be essential to get a good ending resolution as it gives us something to follow and read into if we are unsure of where to go next. This will help the role of the cinematographer as; it is evidence of how to follow it.


 It is also crucial for Prior to finishing we all each divided the storyboards once again and shared pencil and gave the drawings colour this gave a professional look and make us more aware of the lighting and colour co-ordinations withinthe opening title sequence.Louise, as, she now needs to find out where to source the items and the locations as well.







                                         






Specific Roles and Duties


Within this coursework and our opening title sequence we have to have specific jobs so that we each have fair and good contributions towards the work. We have assigned roles to each person and fitted them with every person, thinking which would be best for job and the make the best outcome with the job. The jobs and who is assigned to them is as follows:
Director -Nicola Vickery. We gave Nicola this role as, she is rather conscious of how to improve every piece of work, her desire to achieve and understanding into the media ''world'' will hopefully send a rush of excitement into our opening title sequence. Nicola's time management within everything she does adds to the consistency of any outcome she produces suggesting to us that she is the outright best for the position.
Cinematography Manager -Daisy Moore. Daisy was given this specific role as; Daisy’s consistent thought within the presentation of work and her aspiration to make the best product possible suggests that she will be the best for filming. Her knowledge and understanding towards the art world will  also suggest that any filming create will be presented in the best possible way, this will be evident at the presenting stage meaning that any effects or fillers will definitely be picked for cohesion of our opening title sequence.
Continuity Manager- Thomas Madden. I got this role as; I think I’m rather quick at spotting rules within the filming and hopefully we will then abide by the rules so that it is a success and follows through in the film world. I’m rather ambitious and sensitive towards critics so, will definitely plan the research for the rules and check whether there are mistakes within rules and if there are the amendments will be made directly.
Make-up, props, Location Co-ordinator- Louise Taylor. Louise got this role as she is also rather creative and has the ambition to drive forward the presentation of work, her ambition to detail will foreshadow success in the opening title sequence. The roles all merge into the mise-en-scene meaning that this advice is essential in the filming. It is suggested that her contextual graphic knowledge will keep consistency in the font when it comes to the editing stages.



Audience profiling


Monday 3 December 2012

Ms Whittaker - Feedback




Leanne’s Feedback


The feedback that Leanne gave me was really crucial and I feel that the mistakes I made can be corrected easily. As for the literacy mistakes made, I do feel that they could have been prevented. I have changed these quickly by getting all posts one by one and putting them onto word for spell checking so, that I knew for definite the minor literacy errors that were made could be corrected.

The other clear mistakes or rather improvements that could be made to my work was screenshots on all long analysis as, they become hard to flow and the screenshots would ensure that there was clear reference to the point that your making. I will ensure that going through the videos and screen shooting for evidence that relates point specifically will make this.

I need to also have the output on some of the clips to be again put onto YouTube as, some don’t show up and have ‘’408 request’’.to insure that I can change this I will make sure that they are once again put onto the blog without crashing.