Production Update

I have now finished filming all of my shots, both indoor and outdoor. This still leaves me slightly behind schedule but at least now I have all of my shots to work with and can begin editing them into an order that makes sense and is effective in representing my narrative. I have to make sure that the indoor shots of the characters argument comes after the shots of them meeting and falling in love, so that the disequlibirum of the narrative is shown. However, I want the target audience to get the feeling that the film has a happy ending and therefore to show this I will include shots of the couple together at the end to show that there is a chance that they will resolve their problems and get back together. This would represent an equilibrium in the storyline and a "happily ever after" type ending which the female target audience of the romance genre have proven to enjoy in the past.

Soundtrack for Initial Version of Outdoor Location Shots

This is the soundtrack I used for my initial version of my trailer, including only outdoor shots. This soundtrack was included to give a rough idea of the type of romantic, love song that could be used as my non-diegetic soundtrack. I included this song to engage the audience and to make the initial video more appealing as I have cut all of the background sound from my shots so there is no sound to interest people. I won't decide on my final soundtrack until I have all of my shots filmed and edited together, however I think a song similar to this would be effective as it has a nice and fairly slow beginning to set a romantic tone, but then it gets louder and more exciting, which would represent the build and development of the characters relationship well. However, for copyright reasons I wouldn't use this specific song and I would have to get my music from elsewhere or create my own. But a song similar to this one shown above could work successfully in parts of my trailer.

Initial/Basic Shots of Outdoor Locations Only

For this specific film I have used my basic, initial and unedited shots and put them into an order that mainly makes sense and represents a basic boy meet girl trailer narrative. My final product will be completely different to this version of my trailer as it will include both the outdoor shots and the indoor shots. The indoor shots aren't included in this and therefore it doesn't completely makes sense and no disequilibrium is shown, which is a key part of any film's storyline. I have used no transitions or titles in this version and therefore the cuts between shots are very jumpy and sudden and the trailer looks less conventional as titles are a key element of pretty much all romance films.

Initial Editing

Above is a screenshot of my initial editing of a few outside shots that I shot. I'm using iMovie to create initial rushes of my trailer and to edit most of the best and most effective shots together into some sort of order that makes sense for the narrative of the film. IMovie is very simple to use and useful in terms of creating a basic project with simple titles and sound, therefore I'm using it for my initial editing, however I will most likely use either Premiere or Final Cut for the editing of my final product as these are more advanced and offer more specialised features, such as a wider range of titles, that I could use. I'm currently sorting through my external shots and cutting where appropriate whilst trying to sort my film into an appropriate order that will attract and interest a target audience. However, it is fairly difficult to order the shots without having all of my indoor shots filmed, therefore I've ordered them in the most appropriate way I can for now and I'll insert the inside shots after I've filmed them.

Internal Lighting

I have managed to borrow a professional film light of around 500Watts for my indoor shots as I was worried that the lighting would be too dim without external lighting and therefore my shots would be blurry and unclear which would make my trailer look more amateur and potentially put a pre-existing target audience off wanting to watch as they will see these low quality shots and think that the film overall will be bad quality and therefore less desirable. The lighting will be set up in the bedroom that I am filming the disequilibrium scene in, I will point it at the ceiling so that it doesn't shine too brightly on the actors as this will potentially blur some of their features or make them squint if it's too bright. Pointing it at the ceiling will give the room a warmer and more crisp lighting and therefore this will be reflected in the shots and will mean that the actors features are clearly emphasised.

Production Delays

Unfortunately I still haven't been able to film my indoor shots of the two protagonists due to communication problems and my characters having other commitments such as schoolwork or college work. This means that I am slightly behind on my production task and due to the deadline being so close, this is fairly worrying. However, I have filmed all of my outdoor scenes completely and have began editing them so this is more reassuring. I have created a new call sheet along with the help of my actors and ensured that they are free to film on Thursday the 26th Feb so that I can have all of my shots completely finished by Friday and therefore begin editing the project as a whole.

Production Overview- Day 1 and Day 2

Filming Day 2: Health and Safety

As well as the internal lighting being bad in the hut, there were also bits of broken wood, plastic and rock all over the floor of it. This could have put my actors at risk as they could have easily tripped over or cut themselves on these objects. Also, broken wood could lead to splinters. The ground was also very dirty and therefore it wouldn't have been appropriate or safe for my actors to sat down in here and drink like the shot list originally planned for them to do. Due to all of these factors I decided it would be best to still use this location, but from an outside perspective so the actors didn't actually have to go inside an be exposed to all these dangers. The outside shots worked successfully though and in hindsight I think it was the right decision to now risk filming inside the hut, even if that meant that the storyboard had to be adapted slightly.

Filming Day 2: Problems

We did encounter a few minor problems during the second day of filming, however we managed to overcome them all. The first was in terms of the hut location, the lighting was very bad in there and due to lack of equipment, we could not use internal lighting to make the shots more visible. Therefore, we still used this location but we filmed from outside looking in through the window instead. The characters sat on the window ledge that is visible in the picture on the left, and we positioned the camera outside the hut. This was effective as we could still use the hut location but just from an outside angle/view instead. Also, the shots worked fairly nicely because of the way the sunlight was positioned on the actors lighting them up effectively. So despite there being an initial problem with this location, we dealt with it successfully and it worked out in the end.

Filming Day 2: Equpiment

On the left is a photo of me setting up the tripod and positioning the camera so it was at the correct angle for the shot that I wanted. As with the first day, the only technical equipment that I used to film was the tripod and the actual camera. Luckily, on the day we decided to film, the weather was very sunny and of average temperature. This meant that only external lighting was needed as the sun effectively lit up my actors in a range of different shots. The sun also meant that the ground was dry and we didn't have the problem of finding a safe place to position the tripod compared to on Day 1 of filming where we struggled and then had to stop filming in the end due to the bad weather conditions. Because I am making a trailer, the continuity in terms of the weather being rainy one day and sunny the other, doesn't matter. This is because I filmed at different locations on both days and I intended it to look like a jump in time showing the progression of the characters relationship, therefore the difference in weather was actually quite useful in effectively showing this jump cut to a later time.

Picnic Scene/Catering

For the picnic scene my actors and I walked to the local shop and bought a variety of food that was easy to transport. After we filmed the picnic scene the food was left for us to eat and therefore this worked as catering for the actors and as we were out for quite a few hours in the cold they had regular food and drinks breaks to regain energy and ensure that they weren't hungry from walking around to different locations. We went to about 3 different locations on Day 2 of production, therefore this food and drink was essential.

Filming Day 2: Props

This bottle was the only prop used on Day 2 of filming. In terms of legality and health and safety, the actors obviously couldn't actually drink alcohol during filming, so I filled the bottle with water instead as both liquids are clear and you can't tell the difference between the two without actually tasting them. An unbranded bottle was used rather than something expensive, this is to show that the actors can only afford the cheaper bottles as they are only teenagers and aren't old enough to be drinking anyway. This makes it more realistic and a lot of the target audience will be able to relate to these characters as they are teenagers and may struggle with money from time to time. Also, drinking is often stereotyped with teenagers so this part of the narrative/genre will appeal and interest the target audience.

Female Characters Costume 3 (Filming Day 2)

 Kate is wearing jeans and a leather jacket again for her third costume, and I have already explained the reasoning and connotations of these items in my previous mise en scene posts. However, the top she is wearing is different. The top is floral lace and is slightly cropped. This top has connotations of femininity as flowers are icons of beauty and nature which are both often stereotyped as being feminine. The lace material is feminine too as it is often associated with females, lace can often also be perceived as sexy, therefore this shows the teenage style of the costume and could indicate that the female is trying to impress the male character as she is wearing it when she is with him.

The female's make up for the third costume is fairly simple, but the red lipstick brightens it up. The red lipstick is worn as it is often seen as attractive and sexy and therefore links to the idea of the female trying to look good in front of the male talked about above. Red lipstick is very bold and has connotations of beauty and femininity and therefore offers a good contrast to the leather jacket and boots in the outfit that are often symbolic of masculinity.

Female Characters Costume 2 (Day 2)

This is the second costume that the female character wore on Day 2 of production. The leather jacket links back to the grunge element of the characters personality and costume as leather jackets are often stereotyped with musicians and the rock and roll lifestyle of alcohol, drugs and partying. Kate wheres this jacket in a scene where her and Theo are drinking rum from a bottle sat in a hut/field, therefore this costume is appropriate for this as she is displaying rebellious behaviour of drinking underage and potentially getting drunk. This links slightly to the drama aspect of the sub-genre. The female's hair is big and curly again linking to this rebellious style and not conforming. The jeans and top are fairly casual and stereotypical of how a teenage female would dress and therefore these are worn to counteract the leather jacket and wild hair and therefore balance out the mise en scene so that the overall style isn't too grungy.

Female Characters Costume 1 (Filming Day 2)

Filming Day 2: Mise en Scene
This is a shot long shot of the main female protagonist, Kate, and her first costume for the second day of filming. The costume style and stereotype for this character has changed quite a lot from my initial ideas of having her follow a completely grunge theme with ripped tights, skirts and leather jackets. These initial ideas have changed for a number of reasons, the biggest being practicality issues such as the time of year and temperature meaning that the actress would be cold and uncomfortable in skirts and dresses. Also, after the first day of filming, the character type has been adapted from the initial ideas of Kate being sad and lonely, and actually in many of the shots she is shown to be very excitable and upbeat, therefore the clothing has been adapted slightly to address this. Also, I have chosen clothing that makes the character look quite feminine to deliberately work in contrast in shots of her with the male character, showing the difference in masculinity and femininity between the two. Many of the clothes the female wears are quite fashionable at the moment showing the conventional way a teenage girl could dress, however other elements are still very casual showing that the female doesn't hugely care about her appearance, but still makes an effort. This outfit proves this, jeans are stereotypical of casual/chilled out clothing and are very common, however the black crop top is quite fashionable and shows her stomach and outline emphasising her femininity to the audience. The chunky, biker style black boots hint at the grunge element of the character's costume discussed above and show that she is still rebellious and unique in some ways.

Filming Day 1: Equipment

Day 1:
Equipment Needed: 

• Camera- Sanyo
• Tripod
• (Umbrella)

The camera and tripod were the essential pieces of equipment that were needed to film on Day 1. The tripod was used in every shot so that they were all in focus and not shaky as often hand held shots can be very unsteady and therefore look unprofessional. The camera and tripod stayed under a large umbrella at all times and were put away into rucksacks when they weren't being used or being transported to keep them safe from damage, specifically water damage from the rain. No lighting was used as external light successfully lit many of the shots as all the scenes were shot outside. Also, a lighting rig would have been extremely difficult to transport seeing as we had to walk to our locations, also any lighting would have been dangerous and inappropriate for the weather conditions (rain and mild wind.)

Filming Day 1: Costume 3 (costume change)

 These are also shots from Day 1 of filming, however the female character has changed costume so that it looks like it is filmed at a different time to represent that there has been a jump in time in the trailer and the characters relationships have developed further after they have met. This costume was only used for one short scene of the characters on the bench, yet it was still important that the costume was changed to emphasise to the audience that the protagonists' relationship has progressed and to hint at the narrative slightly by proving that they have a romantic relationship. The female is wearing the hoodie that the male wore in the first few shots, this was done to purposely show that they have a relationship together and to link them together clearly to the audience. Also, females borrowing males clothing is often perceived as romantic as it is symbolic of sharing, therefore this links to the romance genre clearly.

As we filmed at the second location on the same day as the first and didn't go indoors anywhere in between locations then we couldn't completely change the make up that the female character was wearing. However, her eye make up had faded slightly from the rain in the first few shots and we changed her lipstick colour from a purple/pink to a bright red. This again represents a jump in time to the audience as the female is wearing different clothes, has her hair up instead of down, and is wearing noticeably different make up. Also, red is a bold colour linking to the characters personality and hinting at her rebellious side, whilst constantly referring back to the idea of femininity in the noticeable make up and way she is caring about her appearance. Red is a very striking colour and the female character is wearing this when she is with the male character, indicating that she could be trying to catch his attention or make an effort to impress him. Red is also a colour that has strong connotations of the romance genre as it symbolises love, therefore this links to the genre very well.

Filming Day 1: Locations and Problems

The first location on my storyboard that we went to film at today was the park location. Here both of the stock protagonists are introduced to the audience and they see shots of them first meeting. However, due to the weather and the time of year, some of the shots turned out slightly differently than expected and the rain meant that the actors got wet. This subsequently meant that the original plan of filming at the field and hut locations all on Day 1were ruined as the rain got heavier and the actors needed to change their clothes. I didn't want to risk the equipment being damaged by attempting to film in the muddy field location that my production schedule initially included, therefore my actors and I rearranged the call sheet and included these locations in the list for the second day of filming. Despite these setbacks, we still managed to get all of the shots needed in the park location and the rainy weather meant that the park was empty so there were no disturbances to our filming and we could therefore finish within reasonable time.

Filming Day 1: Costume 2

Today was the first day of filming my romance trailer and this is the costume that my male character wore. The t shirt represents a slightly grunge style similar to the females costume, so it shows that they may be similar. Overall, the male character is dressed fairly casually in a plain hoodie and jeans. Hoodies are conventional of films with teenage stock characters in as they are symbolic of gangs etc and the term 'hoodie' is stereotyped with teens, specifically male teens.

Filming Day 1: Costume 1

This is my female characters first costume, it is fairly simple and consists of ripped jeans, a baggy checked jacket and a chocker necklace. The choker necklace and the baggy jeans are used to represent her grunge style and to hint that this will play a minor part in the narrative. The clothing is fairly basic but the necklace adds femininity to the mis en scene as necklaces and jewellery are stereotyped with females. The character's hair is wild and curly representing her rebellious side and showing that she is unique and doesn't always conform to the rules. This idea will be backed up later in the film when we see the character taking drugs and drinking alongside the male character.

This close up/medium shot is used to show the character's make up for the first day of filming. The make up is deliberately noticeable as the character is wearing a fair amount of mascara and has a noticeably bright shade of purple lipstick on. This again proves that she is slightly rebellious, however it style shows that she has a more feminine side and takes pride in her appearance. The hair subverts this idea as it is wild and un-styled, but still fairly long which links back to her femininity being emphasised as longer hair gives connotations of fashion and beauty which are both stereotyped with females more than males.

Genre Specific Magazine Analysis 2

• This magazine cover follows the conventional rule of thirds where the front cover is split into three parts/columns and each column contains separate information. The masthead/title of the magazine goes across all 3 thirds as it is intended to stand out and be the most important part of the magazine to encourage people to continually start buying or subscribing to the specific magazine. 
• The focal image has codes of the romance genre, for example having a male and female as stock characters is stereotypical of romance films as the target audience has been proven to have enjoyed characters like this playing protagonists in romance films in the past. 
• Both the characters have a direct mode of address. This is intended to catch the audiences eye and draw them in so that they study the magazine further and then become more interested in it and in the film itself. This image has been used to promote both the film itself and the magazine, because it is powerful as both of the characters look windswept and scared and in shock but also they look happy to be together, which links to the romance element of the film's genre. This will play on the audiences desires as they will see the two together and automatically associate the image with the romance genre which they enjoy and will want to find out more about the narrative and the relationship between the characters. The fact that they look scared will also potentially attract a wider audience outside the target audience of those who have been proven to enjoy the romance genre, as people who like scary or thriller films will also see the shocked facial expressions that are icons of thriller/horror films. 

Genre Specific Magazine Analysis

• The masthead of this poster is on the left hand side of the magazine cover, this subverts the convention of the masthead being in the centre of the magazine. However, some magazines do have their mastheads toward the left-hand side because they want the central image to be the most eye catching and central thing on the cover, so that the image will attract the correct target audience and then they will be drawn to the magazine's title soon after this. 
• The buzzword on this poster is "Exclusive" as it this automatically grabs people's attention and interest because they think that the magazine includes new information and articles that they wont be able to read anywhere else, and many of the target audience who enjoy watching films will want to have updates on the latest films before everyone else, so they have priority and can find out hints of the narrative. 

• The female character has a direct mode of address as she is facing the camera directly, however the two other male characters are looking away from the camera or have their backs to the camera. This hints at the narrative to the audience and shows that the female plays a key role in the film as she is the one facing the camera directly and instantly catching the audiences eye and interest. Direct mode of address is used to make the magazine cover feel more personal and make the audience feel like they are directly being targeted because the character is looking straight at them, therefore this interests many of the target audience for certain films, particularly romance films, and plays on their desires. 
• The poster emphasises the film's genre, which in this case is romance, and hints at the film's narrative as there are 3 main protagonists on the cover instead of the stereotypical male and female characters that appear conventionally on magazines including romance films. This indicates some sort of love triangle and the way the characters are positioned also adds to this idea with the way the male characters have their backs away form each other and are turning and looking over their shoulders at each other and glaring, indicating some sort of tension between them, possibly involving the female, and therefore interesting the target audience. 
• A mixture of fonts have been used on the magazines front cover, this is conventional of almost all magazine covers as different fonts are used to promote different sections of the magazine and the titles typography is often different from the font used for the tagline or the buzzwords because it is intended to stand out and immediately catch the target audiences eye. 
• The film's narrative is hinted at slightly because of the magazines background involving a wood location, this allows the audience to discover and anticipate about the film's plot because they are wondering what the woods has to do with the film and if it plays a key part in it. This provokes interest in the target audience and will make them more likely to buy the magazine to find out more information. 
• The star system is used to promote this magazine and make it appeal to a more tent-pole audience as it includes both an image and the name of all 3 famous actors who are associated with the specific Twilight films, and with the romance/fantasy genre. Therefore, this will appeal to a wide audience of people who know of and like these actors, and a more niche audience of people who like this film specifically.