The first lesson we was put into groups, the people that we were put with are the people that we are working with for our final film opening sequence. I am in a group with James Braddy, Lara Eardley and Becky Stanway. Once we was put into our groups we pitched our individual ideas to each other, the film pitches that we had created over half term. From this we narrowed down to Lara and Becky's film ideas but were still undecided.
Lesson two:
The next lesson we got back into our group and finally decided that we was to go with Laras idea, we decided to choose Lara's idea as we found that it was the most achievable in the time and equiptment that we had. Because we only have two minutes for the opening sence we thought that it would be hard for Becky's idea to come across as funny in such a short period of time, and also as Becky's film was a spoof we relied on the audience and the examiner to of seen the films we were basing it around for our opening sequence to make sense and be funny. After we had decided we started to alter a few things such as the title, which we changed from Tick Tock to Fixation, we decided to change this as Laras original idea was to use childrens voices and have tick tock sound effects in the background when the kidnap takes place, we took this out as we thought it was uneccasary and swayed away from the thriller genre, more to the horror genre, so without this the title 'Tick Tock' would no longer make sense. At first we wanted to call the film 'Obsession' but we thought this was unoriginal and didn't have the right feel to it, so we looked up different words of obsession and when we found fixation we thought it sounded right, and was original. We came up with the idea of swapping the main characters around and having a young boy be the victim instead of a young girl and have a woman as the stalker, although at first we wasn't sure. We listened to the other groups film pitches, and gave feedback on them.
Lesson three:
We then pitched our film idea to the class and got their feedback. We pitched the idea of having the young boy as the victim and the class said this was a good idea as it was original and swayed away from the stereo-typical thriller, they also said that because of this we would need to make it clearer that the woman is a creepy stalker, because it isn't as obvious as it would be if it was a man as the stalker. From this we went back as a group to discuss the changes that we would need to make to improve our film. We decided that one of us wouldn't be right to play the main woman we would need an adult. We then decided how we could make it aware to the audience that she wasn't right. We decided that we would include a shot of an over the shoulder shot of the woman looking at a map of the area where the boy lives. The map would have pictures of the boy and have plots on it, so it looks like she is following and plotting his every move. We also decided that we would make her look more weird using makeup, we would give her pale makeup, with dark under bag eyes and make her have greasy hair. So it looks like she spends no time on her appearance (spends most of her time stalking the boy.) We then decided that James would be the main character (the vunerable boy) and we decided on what costume he would wear. We need it to look like he has just come from a party so we decided to dress him in a pair of jeans, a shirt and trainers.
Lesson four:
This lesson we went over our ideas. We started to plan props, Becky started making the map and Lara started making a shot timeline that had all the shots that we wanted to include in order. I started to research the genre, and Lara , James and Becky started to look at sounds. James was planning and finding the shots that we wanted to do for Lara to produce a storyboard next lesson.
Lesson five:
Now we know what all the shots are that we want to include we are able to produce a storyboard. Lara is the best drawer in the group so she is doing the drawing for the storyboard. Me and Becky focused more on what the characters are going to wear and how they are going to come across. We decided that we needed to make it more obvious that the woman is creepy so we decided that she would wear a long black trench coat and look generally untidy, so she would have unfinished makeup and messy hair. We decided that James would be smart casual, and his shirt would be untucked to represent drunkenness. 
After discussion we founded that the shots wern't planned out as well as we thought, so we decided to change them. We changed the shots so that the opening flowed better, and was more understandable for the audience. They also now build up more of an enigma code. This is our changing process.
Lessson Six: I made the inspirational fonts powerpoint with a voice over and Lara made the storyboard with a voice over. James made the moodboard and Becky began researching music to have in the background of our film opening.
Lesson Seven: Me Lara and James filmed the character profiles, to put on our blog to give the audience an insight to what the characters are. We then went on to edit this and put it on our blogs.
Lesson Eight: I finished the final ideas powerpoint, and put together a shot list and James started to put a voice over on top of the moodboard. Becky completed the risk assessment. James and Becky also took pictures of our actors to start putting together a film poster. We also began to discuss when would be the best time to film within our group.
Lesson Nine: James and Becky filmed me and Lara in front of the green screen, set up as a discussion, where me and Lara spoke about the group feedback that we received when we first pitched our idea to the rest of the class. After realising that we had made a mistake within James' character profile we needed to re film. James and Becky went on to re film whilst me and Lara began editing the group feedback. James started to work on the film poster.
Lesson Ten: Within lesson ten, we learnt about creating feeling whilst we were filming. Throughout our lesson we were making sure that when we film we aim to make the audience feel a certain way and that certain way needs to be created by the shots and the actions and expressions the characters make.
Lesson Eleven: Me and Lara began to do font research and started to put a voice over on to explain our font choices for our titles and why we had ruled out certain ones. After discussion we decided that the presentation of how our research relates to the genre, wasn't in enough detail so Becky went in to edit this and add more detail. James began editing the posters from the final draft to get them to look more like a film poster and how everyone in the group wanted it too look.
Lesson Twelve: Me and Lara continued to do the font research and add the voice over.
Me and Lara began to do font research and started to put a voice over on to explain our font choices for our titles and why we had ruled out certain ones. After discussion we decided that the presentation of how our research relates to the genre, wasn't in enough detail so Becky went in to edit this and add more detail. James began editing the posters from the final draft to get them to look more like a film poster and how everyone in the group wanted it too look. Me and Lara began to give advise to James about the film posters, James completed the drafts. We then went through and told him things that we thought could improve the posters. We also held a group meeting to discuss the different roles and the remaining jobs we had left to do. We decided that nothing was left, but things could be developed in more detail. Throughout our group meeting we had a disagreement, as James and Becky wanted to change the opening and cut some of the shots out as they feel that the opening holds too much detail and tells the audience too much. But me and Lara disagreed. We think without certain shots the opening will not make sense and will completely defeat the key part of the story that we are trying to portray. Taking this into consideration, we all decided to just film what we have planned. We will then edit both openings and pitch it to the public and receive market research on what the public feel works best. After we have collected this information we will decide on the final opening.
(Our set)
(Inspirational map)
(Begging of the map)
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Lesson Seven: Me Lara and James filmed the character profiles, to put on our blog to give the audience an insight to what the characters are. We then went on to edit this and put it on our blogs.
Lesson Eight: I finished the final ideas powerpoint, and put together a shot list and James started to put a voice over on top of the moodboard. Becky completed the risk assessment. James and Becky also took pictures of our actors to start putting together a film poster. We also began to discuss when would be the best time to film within our group.
Lesson Nine: James and Becky filmed me and Lara in front of the green screen, set up as a discussion, where me and Lara spoke about the group feedback that we received when we first pitched our idea to the rest of the class. After realising that we had made a mistake within James' character profile we needed to re film. James and Becky went on to re film whilst me and Lara began editing the group feedback. James started to work on the film poster.
Lesson Ten: Within lesson ten, we learnt about creating feeling whilst we were filming. Throughout our lesson we were making sure that when we film we aim to make the audience feel a certain way and that certain way needs to be created by the shots and the actions and expressions the characters make.
Lesson Eleven: Me and Lara began to do font research and started to put a voice over on to explain our font choices for our titles and why we had ruled out certain ones. After discussion we decided that the presentation of how our research relates to the genre, wasn't in enough detail so Becky went in to edit this and add more detail. James began editing the posters from the final draft to get them to look more like a film poster and how everyone in the group wanted it too look.
Lesson Twelve: Me and Lara continued to do the font research and add the voice over.
Me and Lara began to do font research and started to put a voice over on to explain our font choices for our titles and why we had ruled out certain ones. After discussion we decided that the presentation of how our research relates to the genre, wasn't in enough detail so Becky went in to edit this and add more detail. James began editing the posters from the final draft to get them to look more like a film poster and how everyone in the group wanted it too look. Me and Lara began to give advise to James about the film posters, James completed the drafts. We then went through and told him things that we thought could improve the posters. We also held a group meeting to discuss the different roles and the remaining jobs we had left to do. We decided that nothing was left, but things could be developed in more detail. Throughout our group meeting we had a disagreement, as James and Becky wanted to change the opening and cut some of the shots out as they feel that the opening holds too much detail and tells the audience too much. But me and Lara disagreed. We think without certain shots the opening will not make sense and will completely defeat the key part of the story that we are trying to portray. Taking this into consideration, we all decided to just film what we have planned. We will then edit both openings and pitch it to the public and receive market research on what the public feel works best. After we have collected this information we will decide on the final opening.
Lesson Thirteen:In lesson today James continued to edit posters after myself Lara and Becky gave our feedback on them, we wanted to collaborated two posters into one, Becky edited the music in audacity to see if my idea of making a love song slower would work. While myself and Lara went out into the school and asked Teachers and Students alike what they thought about the posters. After getting the feedback from students and teachers Lara and I edited the recording. While Becky and James discussed how we can improve the posters with the help of the feedback, Becky also put together all the pictures we will be using on the map.
Lesson Fourteen:Today James got some more feedback from peers on how we can improve our poster, Becky finalised and printed the images we are planning on using and also started designing the titles to put in the opening shot.
Lesson Fifteen:
Today in class our whole objective was preparing to shoot, this included putting together the map photos together. This lesson was very hands on and showed how well we can work together. While myself,Lara and Becky finished the pictures James made sure we had the lighting, camera, tripod and the necessary props he then continued to update the poster ideas. However we had a large problem we needed to over come in class our lead role (Natasha Bishop) had double booked and she was unable to attend the filming. This was our problem - do we put of filming for yet another day or use Lara as a stand in? 'The show must go on!' we said and used Lara as a stand in, because we barely see the stalker face we may be able to get away with the posters not being changed, but this will ultimately come down to when we edit. If the face is obviously not Mrs Bishop, then we will have to change the posters, although not a major problem-it is a lengthy process. We would have to re shoot the images, redo the posters, get feedback and then change them accordingly. This will all be decided after filming/editing.
After school the whole group travelled to James' house. Myself and Becky helped Lara with the makeup we had to ensure that we were able to show her untidiness without going over the top.
Lesson Fourteen:Today James got some more feedback from peers on how we can improve our poster, Becky finalised and printed the images we are planning on using and also started designing the titles to put in the opening shot.
Lesson Fifteen:
Today in class our whole objective was preparing to shoot, this included putting together the map photos together. This lesson was very hands on and showed how well we can work together. While myself,Lara and Becky finished the pictures James made sure we had the lighting, camera, tripod and the necessary props he then continued to update the poster ideas. However we had a large problem we needed to over come in class our lead role (Natasha Bishop) had double booked and she was unable to attend the filming. This was our problem - do we put of filming for yet another day or use Lara as a stand in? 'The show must go on!' we said and used Lara as a stand in, because we barely see the stalker face we may be able to get away with the posters not being changed, but this will ultimately come down to when we edit. If the face is obviously not Mrs Bishop, then we will have to change the posters, although not a major problem-it is a lengthy process. We would have to re shoot the images, redo the posters, get feedback and then change them accordingly. This will all be decided after filming/editing.
After school the whole group travelled to James' house. Myself and Becky helped Lara with the makeup we had to ensure that we were able to show her untidiness without going over the top.
After this we did a run though without the lights- this was recorded and will be on the bloopers we then used lights, this was so much better as the shot was far less grainy than without. We then started to shoot, the images of which are on the 'Filming' post. We were very careful to ensure their were no continuity errors while filming for example, a change in the light, hair on the left side than on the right. We would re watch the previous shot to ensure this didn't happen. It was very hard in party shots because we had to ensure that people where in the same positions, they had the same drink in their hand etc. In my opinion those shots were the hardest.
(Our set)
Unfortunately we did not have enough time to film all the shots we required, we shot from 4pm to 7pm and decided that the map would be too time consuming for tonight and we wouldn't of finished till around 10. We therefore decided that we would film the shots of the map tomorrow.
Lesson Sixteen:
Today, despite deciding to film the map yesterday, we felt our time would be better spent editing the footage we had, we knew this was a lengthy process and we needed every ones full attention. We first watched the footage we had and then decided what footage we would keep and what footage to put on the bloopers. We couldn't decide on what sequence to have the shots in, without all the shots this was very difficult. In the end we decided to have the party shots first, then the feet shot followed by the stalker walking up the drive. We also added the non copyright music to see how it would effect the shots, it worked well.
As myself and Lara are absent tomorrow James and myself decided to set up the map and film the different shots.
Lesson Seventeen:
Due to mine and Lara's absence Becky and James started putting together the map, we researched different 'stalker maps' to get inspiration from, as stated previously we wanted the map to look like organised chaos, originally we were going to have pictures and just small snippets of information we decided it looked too bare and we needed more pictures/information so decided that we would need to take snippets from different parts of James life and put the map to show the length of time she has watched him for. Today was very much trial and error, seeing where things should be put, ensuring it made sense, we plan to continue the map during break and lunch today to we are able to film tomorrow morning. After putting the basics on the map Becky and James decided that instead of just filling the map we would fill the surrounding area as well because we felt it would show that she follows his every move. Becky continued to add to the map after school and we planned to finish tomorrow.
Lesson Sixteen:
Today, despite deciding to film the map yesterday, we felt our time would be better spent editing the footage we had, we knew this was a lengthy process and we needed every ones full attention. We first watched the footage we had and then decided what footage we would keep and what footage to put on the bloopers. We couldn't decide on what sequence to have the shots in, without all the shots this was very difficult. In the end we decided to have the party shots first, then the feet shot followed by the stalker walking up the drive. We also added the non copyright music to see how it would effect the shots, it worked well.
As myself and Lara are absent tomorrow James and myself decided to set up the map and film the different shots.
Lesson Seventeen:
Due to mine and Lara's absence Becky and James started putting together the map, we researched different 'stalker maps' to get inspiration from, as stated previously we wanted the map to look like organised chaos, originally we were going to have pictures and just small snippets of information we decided it looked too bare and we needed more pictures/information so decided that we would need to take snippets from different parts of James life and put the map to show the length of time she has watched him for. Today was very much trial and error, seeing where things should be put, ensuring it made sense, we plan to continue the map during break and lunch today to we are able to film tomorrow morning. After putting the basics on the map Becky and James decided that instead of just filling the map we would fill the surrounding area as well because we felt it would show that she follows his every move. Becky continued to add to the map after school and we planned to finish tomorrow.
(Inspirational map) 
(Begging of the map)
(Half way through)
Lesson Eighteen:
Today Lara and I added our bits to the map second period, at break Becky came to see how we had got on and we had added quite a lot, which Becky was pleased about,during Becky's free she added the last tittle bits including more news articles and post it notes . We plan to film during fourth period so we we are able to edit fifth and have our first draft ready at the end of the day
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During filming we found a lot issues with the lighting upon doing tester shots, we found that having the main lights on it was too dark, so turned them off and they seemed fine, however after filming the entire sequence and putting it on the PC we noticed that the shots were very grainy and hard to make out, at this point tensions where running high and a dispute erupted between the group, making a further divide. After time apart we got back together with little frostiness we continued to edit hoping there would be no more interruptions. We were having problems with the 'ghosting' effect as one image stayed in the same place without moving, it look us a while to figure out why this was happening and resolved the issue. We then put some music in to match the map sequence, the music does seem very jolly but we feel that it is a good contrast between the more serious music. We then continued to edit and finalised our first draft.
The group decided to stay after school for a while because we felt we could get some more editing done as this is our last time as a whole group.
Lesson Nineteen:
Myself and Lara were absent today so Becky and James continued to edit, they tried different music for the opening because they felt that the first music we tried was so much like the opening of another film, we wanted to make our film unique as so changed it.
Lesson Twenty:
Today we all continued to edit, and tried different music and different effects on the shots we had. We also changed different shots around to see where, if anywhere, they were better fitted. We also added the shots that we filmed on a previous lesson so we had more shots in our sequence. We all sat around the computer and continued to work together as a team to edit the shots, we still found it difficult with just three of us. After school Becky decided to add different bits onto the main structure, she did not want to change anything without the groups acceptance so made a separate folder so she could edit what she felt might work without loosing any of the work we had already done. It took a while but she felt it was important to have different ideas available in case we wanted to change it.
Lesson twenty one:
In lesson Lara felt it necessary to do another version of of FIXATION, we had shown a select few our opening and we were told that the titles were too long, so Lara started an opening with snippets of the board throughout the opening in order to break up the begging, Becky and James helped Lara but also edited the map and started thinking where we were going to put the title and production companies. At the end of the lesson we watched Lara's piece and incorporated every ones ideas into the piece, we ended up changing quite a lot today because we wanted to ensure everything flowed.
Lesson Twenty Three:
Today the class stopped working on the openings and we all sat down and did a peer assessment on each others first drafts. We answered questions on the film to give each group positive and critical feedback that we would feel would make their film lot better if they changed or added certain things, I think this was an important thing to do because although the group understand whats going on, the audience may not and this was very relevant to us.
Lesson Twenty Four:
Today we got our feedback handed back to us, so we could see what people though about our first draft, there was a problem with our opening, because it was a ruff cut there was no titles and the ending had been cut off so we got a lot of comments about that, we received positive and negative. However, both benefited us, we took this into consideration and started editing The main positive piece of feedback we got was that the titles were very original and creative, however they were very long and due to the ghosting effect was very confusing and the ending didn't make sense to them, which we knew wouldn't. We all chose how we wanted the main title and then Lara edited the title into sequence but we still cannot figure out where to put it.
Lesson Twenty Five:
We went through the negative feedback and improved upon it. We changed the positions of shots, the sounds and added in extra clips on the map that we thought the audience needed to see. We feel the map gives a clear insight to our main character, Eileen's, personality. During this lesson Becky continued to type up the feedback, most groups were writing it up on their blog but Becky wanted it to look more creative so used different programs like Pixton to show the feedback in different ways.
We then showed our opening sequence to people in year 13 and asked them for their feedback on our new and improved version. They were very helpful and gave us very positive feedback about our film but also gave us advice on how to improve, for example one said that the music was very abrupt and we should edit it flow easier. Lara also made a new institution logo as the ones each of our group members made did not fit our genre well enough, therefore we decided to make a new one, Lara volunteered on making one while Becky and James continued to edit, this was called scorpion productions.
Lesson Twenty Six:
Today Becky continued and finished the feedback of our first draft, Lara created the production companies and James started the type up the shot and music lengths. We also continued to edit so we were able to meet our deadline. We tried to make sure everything was in the right timing and tried as hard as we could to fit all of our shots into the time scale that we had. We also tried to make a title fade in and out so that we could have one of our titles do this, and this would look more elegant that just randomly appearing and randomly disappearing. After school myself and Lara then stayed and showed our teacher our final production, but they gave us some feedback to improve our opening sequence. We then took another shot of our board, in a different room to see if the lighting was better. However, on the camera our shots look very good as the lighting was professional, but then when we uploaded them onto our blogs we found that the lighting did not look like the other clips that we had and they almost had a hint of purple on them. Therefore we tried it in the original place we filmed them and it was much better, so added this into the begging of the opening and then made sure everything was in place before uploading our final piece.
Lesson Twenty Seven:
In today's lesson, Becky and Lara created a questionnaire about our film to give the audience a variety of questions so we could gain some feedback on our final opening sequence. We asked around our class and filmed people answering, this gave us an overall view of what people thought about the film, we asked both media and non media studies along with one of our teachers so we were able to have a variety.
The questions were:Do you feel as though the music fits in well with the whole sequence?
What do you think the rest of the film could be about?
Do you think the editing is effective?
What do you think the genre of our film is?
Would you want to see the whole film?
If you created the film what would you have done different?
Was there anything you couldn't see? If so what?
What would you score our opening out of 60?
Then, during our lunch break we did a screening of our film and after school myself and Lara are editing the feedback we received.
Lesson Twenty Eight:
In today's lesson we filmed fellow media students talking about FIXATION we asked them the same questions as above, we wanted feedback in different ways so we had taped feedback and questionnaires. After filming the feedback we edited it so we could make it flow, adding the questions in to give it a more professional look, which we then uploaded on the blogs.
Lesson Twenty Seven:
In today's lesson, Becky and Lara created a questionnaire about our film to give the audience a variety of questions so we could gain some feedback on our final opening sequence. We asked around our class and filmed people answering, this gave us an overall view of what people thought about the film, we asked both media and non media studies along with one of our teachers so we were able to have a variety.
The questions were:Do you feel as though the music fits in well with the whole sequence?
What do you think the rest of the film could be about?
Do you think the editing is effective?
What do you think the genre of our film is?
Would you want to see the whole film?
If you created the film what would you have done different?
Was there anything you couldn't see? If so what?
What would you score our opening out of 60?
Then, during our lunch break we did a screening of our film and after school myself and Lara are editing the feedback we received.
Lesson Twenty Eight:
In today's lesson we filmed fellow media students talking about FIXATION we asked them the same questions as above, we wanted feedback in different ways so we had taped feedback and questionnaires. After filming the feedback we edited it so we could make it flow, adding the questions in to give it a more professional look, which we then uploaded on the blogs.
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