Title Sequence Draft Feedback

After showing the first draft of our title sequence to the class, we got the following feedback and made some changes:

• Change the font of the title: we changed the title 'Rumour' from a blocky font to a font that looked handwriting, which fitted with the theme of school.
• Add more colour to the titles: as most of the writing on screen was originally white, we changed the names of the cast and crew to bright colours.
• Shorten the shot time on the phone: the length of time that we showed shots of the phone in the opening scene were too long so we cut them down considerably so that the pace of the film didn't get too slow. 
• Remove sound from production logo section and don't zoom in: we removed the twinkly sound that accompanied our production logo because it didn't fit with the logo or the film. We also stopped it from zooming in on the star because this made it seem too pixelated. In the end, we found that it was a better idea to redesign the production logo to make it clearer and more presentable.    

Shotlist

Our original shotlist plan was:

Tracking (through corridor)
Close up (Megan)
-----------------------------
Tracking (classroom, legs)
Mid shot (Megan)
Over the shoulder (phone)
Mid shot (teacher)
Over the shoulder (phone)
Mid shot (Megan)
Over the shoulder (phone)
Mid shot (teacher)
Mid shot (Megan)

However, we found that when we came to film and later to edit, this order wasn't quite right. Our final shotlist is as follows: 


Tracking down corridor (12 seconds)
   

 

Tracking into common room (7 seconds)

Point-of-view around characters (22 seconds)

Long shot as bell rings (12 seconds)

Close up of Megan (2 seconds)

Mid shot of Megan in class (2 seconds)

Establishing shot of class (2 seconds)

Extreme close up messages to Hazel (11 seconds)

Mid shot teacher at door (3 seconds)

Long shot teacher entering (2 seconds)

Over-the-shoulder of teacher  (2 seconds)

Extreme close up message from mum (2 seconds)

Over-the-shoulder of teacher (1 second)

Mid shot of Megan (2 seconds)

Over-the-shoulder of teacher (8 seconds)

Mid shot of Megan (2 seconds)

Planning Changes

Plot
One of the main plot points in our film is our main character Megan's mum's pregnancy. When we originally planned our plot, we thought that Megan should find out about this pregnancy about halfway through the the film. However, we then decided that we wanted to introduce this storyline within the opening scene, so that it could be an ongoing issue for Megan throughout this film. In addition, we also wanted to show this storyline in our final product and we were only filming the title sequence and opening scene.

Title Sequence
The main idea of our title sequence did not change, as we always planned to track down the corridor and into the common room. We also planned for one character to run straight in to Megan, causing her to fall over, as this is common in teen angst films. However, when we started filming we decided that we should begin with the main character getting school work out of a locker, which showed that she was at school. Lockers are stereotypically used in teen angst films to represent the location as being at school. This can be seen in films like Juno.  We also shortened the distance that the camera tracks behind Megan in the corridor because we realised it would take too long and it wouldn't be possible to film good quality footage due to some obstructions on the floor.

Opening Scene
Originally, our opening scene was going to start with a shot of Megan's legs underneath the table, before tracking/panning across to show that she was sitting alone whereas everyone else was sitting in groups. We then planned to have Megan texting 'Hazel' during lesson with messages suggesting to the audience that there had been some sort of incident regarding Hazel that meant that Megan no longer sees her. The teacher tells her off for being on her phone making the rest of the class laugh at her. However, after struggling with the filming of tracking on the title sequence, we decided not to track at the beginning of our opening scene. Instead, we just used a close up of Megan, and then a long shot of the classroom to illustrate that she is sitting alone. We also decided to include Megan receiving a text from her mum telling her that she is pregnant. We also decided not to have the class laughing at her when she gets told to put her phone away because we decided that we wanted to start off with people just ignoring Megan, rather than bullying her straight away.

Editing

To edit our film we used Final Cut Pro X on the Apple Macs. We decided which clips were usable (as some of our footage was too shaky) and arranged them into the right order. We then cut down each clip so that only the relevant footage was in the film. 

We realised that two of our clips had completely different lighting from each other, which was an issue because the clips were supposed to cut into each other as if they were filmed at the same time. Therefore, we had to use the colour correction element of Final Cut Pro X. This was successful, and once we had edited one of the clips, the lighting appeared to be the same for both.

Once we had corrected the colouring and ensured that we had the correct clips in the right order, we were able to start adding special effects to our title sequence. An example of this is the slow motion we used when Megan is pushed over. The papers that she is holding go everywhere, and the use of slow motion emphasised this fall. We also used slow motion during the section of the title sequence where Megan is looking around at her peers, and they are all staring back at her. The slow motion means that there is more of a focus on the actors/characters. We then used fast motion to speed up the panning between the groups of people as this was a lot less significant. 

We added transitions between some of the clips. An example of this is when the camera is tracking Megan. The shot fades into the next shot of Megan walking slightly further up the corridor. This transition showed an ellipsis between the two shots.

Props and Costume

We wanted our film to look as authentic as possible therefore we asked our actors to wear what they would normally wear to Sixth Form. Students were dressed in their own clothes. Megan, played by Ella Thwaites, was wearing a red cardigan in order to connote a warning. Although Megan is the protagonist, the red in her outfit shows that she could be dangerous. This is proven later in the film when it transpires that she was responsible for the death of her best friend. We decided that Megan would wear make up, not only because she cares about her appearance but because she wants to cover up the secrets of her past. 

Props used in our film include:
-A phone; in order to do the texting section of the first scene, we had to find the right phone. We decided that an iPhone would be best because we could use iMessage, which meant we could show when a character was typing. We used my phone, and changed two of my contacts, one to say 'Hazel' and one to say 'Mum'. We also had to ensure that the contact 'Mum' was able to text back, so a fellow group member used her phone to reply. It is a stereotype that teenagers use their phones a lot so Megan using it in class
-Papers; we wanted Megan to fall over in the title sequence, which is typical in teen angst. To emphasise the fall, Megan held papers with work on that she would drop as she was pushed. 
-Locker and locker key; at the beginning of the title sequence Megan is closing and locking a locker. Lockers are seen in lots of teen angst films such as Juno, and is a stereotypical setting for a teen angst film because it suggests that it is set in a high school. 

Title

We chose the name 'Rumour' for our film, however we struggled for a long time to find a suitable title. Although the name 'Rumour' appears to suggest that there was only one rumour, this is not the case as there are several throughout the film. Instead, we chose the name 'Rumour' because a lot of what is said in the film is based on rumour, as a concept, rather than individual rumours. 

Fonts and Titles

The opening credits of our film include bright colours as well as white. The bright colours of the names represents the vibrancy and high energy of the stereotypical teenage lifestyle. However, the white writing is a contrast and this juxtaposition suggests that teenagers also have more boring and calmer parts of their life. We based our brightly coloured title sequence on the title sequence from Juno.














Our main title is in lilac, because our target demographic is females and lilac is stereotypically a female colour. In addition, we chose a font that looked like handwriting, because our film was mainly set at school, and a key element of school is writing.