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Evaluation

Kristie Cheng

Monday, 16 April 2012

9 Key Frames1. Narrative

In this key frame it shows the narrative of the opening sequence. It shows the characters are

swapping bodies. The characters are young and we can tell that they are in a classroom because of

the background they are in. This is similar to Dexter’s opening sequence because it shows a clear narrative of what the show is going to be about. In the Dexter opening sequence it shows

him getting ready but it has close ups to see that he is murdering people but really it his morning routine. In Switch you can tell what is happening

from this key frame.

2. Costume In this key frame it shows the type of clothes that one of the characters are wearing. Tyler is wearing

Jack Wills rugby top. This shows that he is fashionable and like high labels. He sorts out his collar

which also shows that he takes care of himself and that his looks are important. In Misfits the costumes that are mainly shown, show what the characters are

like, for example when they are all wearing there community service uniform it shows what there

personalities are like and that they have all committed a crime and now they have to work for it.


9 Key Frames3. Construction of Characters

In this key frame it shows Alexa getting ready, in the background of this part is shows photo’s of Alexa and

her friends which shows that she is a popular girl and has a good group of friends who she goes out with. With the perfume is shows that Alexa enjoys the girly things and that she takes her appearance strongly. In The Change Up it builds what the character is like but showing what

is around that character, for example Dave has baby equipment all around him which shows that he is a father

and that he does the duties a lot. Where as Mitch is a party guy and goes to bars to meet women. The

atmosphere shows what type of characters they are.

4. Props The props we have used all represent each character, for this key frame is shows Edward with his laptop and that he closes it when he gets ready for college. This shows that he likes his technology and goes on in the morning.

In Misfits each character has one prop that describes them and represents them as what they are like. For

example Lauren has a comb where she brushes her hair so her hair is flat and in a tight ponytail. This comes

across that she is a “chav” with her gold hoop earrings and this represents who she is.


9 Key Frames

5. Location The main location that we had chose was the classroom, this is where the main part of the Sci-Fi show will be. In college with a group of

totally different teenagers. The location of the classroom is important because this is where

the characters will be swapping bodies. In Lost the Location is very clear where it shows that they are on a beach/island where people are

laying down and running to show that they are stranded.

6. EffectsAn effect that we had used in our opening

sequence is where the bodies will be swapping bodies we created this effect in Final Cut where

we overlapped the footage together and lowered each footage’s opacity so it looked like the

characters were going dizzy and something had gone wrong. In the Skins opening title they have

used neon colour filters to seem that they are in a party, this shows the audience what atmosphere that they are in and with the flats in the scene shows they aren’t in a very rich looking place.


9 Key Frames7. Credits

In the credits throughout the opening sequence I wanted to keep it simple so it had matched it with the opening title. I had used the same font but I didn’t want to add the same effects as we did

with the opening title, I wanted it so it was easy to read and that it was clear to the audience when it appears against a character that is shown. This

is similar to Buffy the Vampire Slayer because they have used the same font as the title but when there is a montage of a certain character

there name appears so it is clear to the audience who the actor/actress is.

8. Framing of CharactersIn this key frame we have used a over the shoulder shot to show Grace’s reaction to Alexa. We have used this shot to show two characters having a conversation with each

other and you can see the Grace’s reaction is confused because Alexa is wearing different clothes than she normally wears. The shot before this shows a pan of what Alexa is

wearing so it works well together to give the audience an understanding of what is

happening.


9 Key Frames

9. Type Of ActionIn this key frame is shows Tyler and Alexa hugging on

the field, this shows a sense of romance in the TV drama. This is popular in the genre that we are trying

to portray. In our focus group we gathered up our ideas on a table and the second popular choice was the have romance in it, so we wanted to include this

too. We also included a sense of humour to it like Misfits with Nathan as the funny character. We got this idea and made it our own with Tyler in Alexa’s

body looking down her top.


Key InfluencesFreaky Friday (2003, Mike Waters):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlmkMeWNmc0

Freaky Friday is about a mother and daughter who do not get along and live totally different lives. One day when they both go to a Chinese restaurant they start to argue and one of the staff in the restaurant over hears the conversation and she then offers them both a fortune cookie, without knowing the fortune cookie in fact makes them change bodies and swap lives. The sub genre for Freaky Friday is Teen Comedy.

Freaky Friday is a influence in our TV drama because it has two different characters with different personalities and who think about things differently that change into each others bodies where they wake up, into different bodies and locations. This will be similar to our TV drama because the idea is to wake up the next day in different locations and they act all scared and they will be returning to college scared and confused. When they change bodies the bodies start shaking and go into a blur which we could think about doing added an effect to it which will be when they are changing in the classroom.

The Change Up (2011, David Dobkin):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHnyW5FvtvwThe Change Up is about 2 friends that one is married with two children and the other is a single man who is always up for going out. One night when they come back from a night out they start to pee in a water fountain which they both say “I wish I had your life!” then a storm happens and they both swap bodies and start living in each others opposite life. The sub genre for The Change Up is fantasy, comedy, supernatural.

The Change Up has the similar idea as Freaky Friday the way they show two different personalities change and goes into a different body. But this time they were really good friends and they knew each other which we won’t be using in our TV drama because we want all the characters to be totally different and able to change without them knowing the other person very well. The way they that two friends with different lifestyles change will be similar to our Sci-Fi TV drama because all the characters live different lives and all have different personalities.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHnyW5Fvtvw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHnyW5Fvtvw

Key InfluencesScooby Doo Movie (2002, Raja Gosnell):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z5qYObHPU4

In this part of the Scooby Doo Movie is where the demons use their bodies as hosts and Shaggy, Fred, Daphne and Velma accidentally swap bodies. When they are changing back there faces are like spirits and they end up swapping back to correct body.

What is similar between this part of the film and our TV drama is when they change back they could change back like this and towards the episodes they could become closer and try to figure out why this has happened to them and the way they can change back is the way the gang has changed back. The effect that they have used when they swap bodies with a faint ghostly head figure wondering around gave us an idea of having faint ghostly moves to when they are changing bodies.

Skins (2012, Bryan Elsley & Jamie Brittain)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AIujbNZu8s

Skins is about a group of teenagers and the way they live there crazy lives but has teachers and parents that try to change stuff.

I really like the opening titles of skins as this shows a group of teenagers and how they are being introduced, which is what I want to do similar to my TV drama the way when one episode is shown it focuses on one character so in the opening sequence the end person would be the character that is being shown. This is quite clever and it makes you remember the last character.






Construction ProcessWhich aspect did you find the most enjoyable?

In the process of creating the opening sequence of a Sci-Fi TV drama the part I have enjoyed the most is editing it all together, which meant I was able to learn new skills during this in Final Cut. I am very familiar with Final Cut but now I am confident with using Key Frames where we were able to

move the text around where we wanted in the second view of video. Another part that I enjoyed was researching the influences which we used Wikipedia to search “Body swap appearances in media” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_swap_appearances_in_media. This gave me options to

choose from.

Which aspects did you find the hardest work?

The part I found hardest through out the process was find actors to be in our Sci Fi TV drama. This was quite hard to do as some actors weren’t free at the same as others. In the end we had to film at lunch times because this was the only time that our actors were free when we needed all of them to be together. Another part that I found hard was remembering using the clapper board, when we were filming we forgot to use it.

When it got to creating our shot list we should of used the clapper board as it would be easier to identify which footage is which shot.

What problems did you face? How did you resolve them?

The problems we faced was when we had decided who our actors were we had filmed their part, but the next day when we needed the same actor he wasn’t able to film as he was ill. Me and my partner had a production meeting and decided that it was best if we found another actor to take his place and re-film the shots we did with Doug. The actor that was going to be Edward ended up being the actor for Tyler and we had got someone else to fill in and be Edward. This was a huge problem for us as we had to make a quick decision to ask people to be in our opening sequence and to make sure that they were free. Another problem that we faced was being able to get a free Science room to film in

and we ended up filming in a film studies room because this was the only room that was free.

How did you find working in team? Did this help or not?

Working in a team during this project had its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages were that we were able to discuss our ideas which made us work well together to expand our ideas. Another advantage was that we were able to do 2 different tasks at the same time and was able to put it together which made it more quicker to complete the project. The disadvantages in working in a partner was that we

had to find actors to be in our opening sequence as there was only two of us we found it hard to just have us two acting. Another disadvantage was that if one partner wasn’t in lesson it would be hard to discuss what to do in the lesson and to be able to film or edit.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_swap_appearances_in_media

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_swap_appearances_in_media

Legal and Ethical Consideration

One legal and ethical consideration that me and partner had to make was when we found a piece of music that we thought would work well with our opening sequence. Lucy knows a band that has a Facebook page and me and her went through the different tracks and played them with our opening sequence and decided which track we wanted. The band is called Sterling and Lucy contacted the lead singer of the band, Dale Taylor because she knew him personally from school and he also taught her guitar. She sent him a message

on Facebook because this is a easy and quick way to gain contact with people of our age. This was good news as we were able to use the music that fitted well with our opening

sequence. It is important to get permission if you want to use their property, otherwise if we used it without permission they might not be happy with this and call it copyright. Getting permission to use this made a huge impact to our project because the music

fitted really well with the theme were trying to portray.


Skills DevelopmentFor this project the programs we used were Final Cut and Photoshop. I am very familiar with these programs but I learn new skills everytime I use them. In Photoshop I was able to create the title and the other credit text onto Photoshop. I wanted to have a glow effect to the text because I wanted it to relate to the science effect of

space. I searched tutorials on google and I came across a YouTube tutorial. http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=UzdE6MP5vi8On the switch title I created a new canvas and I used the Bucket tool to paint the background black. I then went onto the text tool and I typed in what the title of our Sci-Fi sequence is. On the Layer of the text I right clicked and clicked Blending Options. I added an Outer Glow, Inner Glow and Bevel and Emboss to the text so it looked like the text was glowing. After creating the main title I started to create the other titles using the font that me and my partner chose and saved them on a transparent background on “Save for Web and Devices” and imported them into our Final Cut Project.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzdE6MP5vi8




Skills Development

On Final Cut we imported our footage on it but some scenes were lighter than others and without

having to film it footage again we were able to change the colour saturation to the footage that

needs changing, when I had changed one footage I wanted to be able to change the others with the

same saturation percentage so in the view window of filters I copied it (cmd + c) and then i opened up the footage that I wanted to change and pasted the filter (alt + v) this then gave me a separate window where I was able to choose what I wanted to paste, I

ticked the filters option and clicked ok.

Another skill that I have developed on Final Cut is to create a blur effect to my footage so it makes the footage look like

there are various movements and cuts in one shot. To create this we had copied and pasted the same footage on top of each other so they overlapped, we were able to move them even though they weren’t in the same time as each other

because we were going to have music in the background so the sound didn’t matter. To each footage that we copied and pasted we lowered down the opacity so you were able to see each clip. This effect made the audience think that there was

a sort of dizziness and something has gone wrong.


Quality of Final ProductOur task was to create a opening and credit sequence to a new UK Sci-fi/Fantasy TV drama that will be showed on BBCthree. Our target

audience were young teenagers that enjoy similar Si-fi such as Misfits which is a popular Sci-fi showed on E4. Looking back at our opening sequence I think that we have achieved this task and able to create a Sci-fi TV drama opening for the appropriate

target audience.

From the original plan and our storyboard we have made a few changes, because of the problem we faced when one of our actors were ill and weren’t able to come in and film for us. We had to change the whole character profile to another actor which changed the idea of what shots

we will be doing. Instead of Tyler putting on a cap, me and my partner decided that we would have Tyler sorting our his collar. We kept the idea of putting shoes on but we changed the way that the character would put his shoes on.

Text


Quality of Final Product

The strengths in our final product is the chose of music, I think that we have chosen an appropriate track to fit in our opening sequence, and to get permission from the band was a good bonus. Another strength is even though we had deleted the natural sound in the background and put music over the top, it doesn’t seem like a music video because it has the credit titles with the right character. In the beginning you have each character

getting ready and the feedback from the audience told us that you can tell what is happening and which character is which. This was good feedback for us because we wanted the audience to understand what is happening in the opening sequence. Another strength is when Grace walks into college

with her phone in her hand she bumps into other people but it does a reverse shot and cuts to a front view of her face reaction.

The weaknesses in our final product was the amount of filters that were in the footage, we only changed the saturation to each footage but it would of given a more effect if we added some more filters in the part where the characters were switching bodies. All the footage look the same in the

sense of filters so it would be better if we added different colours to give the audience the atmosphere that they are in. Another weakness is towards the end of the opening sequence the music cuts off, we should of faded out the text and the music.

Overall I am very pleased on how our final product has turned out as the audience has given us feedback that they found the narrative easy to understand. Working with a partner was good as the group was small and it was easier to communicate thatn if you were in a group of 4. If I could do this project again I would research on different effects that other sci-fi tv drama’s have and to do a similar effect. I could also make the schedule

clearer and more detailed so it would be easier to understand and that we were able to follow it better.


FeedbackI have showed my friends and family my opening sequence of the Sci-fi TV drama “Switch” and the feedback that I received.

“The framing was thought well before shooting, it was easy to understand the characters and the way there were four different characters in the beginning getting ready.”

“It looks like that it is aimed at a younger audience which was originally planned, from a tv show like the Sarah Jane Adventures.”

“The start of the opening sequence was strong because even though you canʼt see the characters faces you were able to tell what they are like in the atmosphere that

they are in.”

“The text and font was simple which works well with the opening sequence it doesnʼt have a fancy font so it was easy to understand”


Technology

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