2. 9 Key Frames
1. 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.
Monday, 16 April 2012
3. 9 Key Frames
3. 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.
Monday, 16 April 2012
4. 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. Effects
An 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.
Monday, 16 April 2012
5. 9 Key Frames
7. 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 Characters
In 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.
Monday, 16 April 2012
6. 9 Key Frames
9. Type Of Action
In 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.
Monday, 16 April 2012
7. Key Influences
Freaky 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=xHnyW5Fvtvw
The 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.
Monday, 16 April 2012
8. Key Influences
Scooby 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.
Monday, 16 April 2012
9. Construction Process
Which 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.
Monday, 16 April 2012
10. 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.
Monday, 16 April 2012
11. Skills Development
For 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=UzdE6MP5vi8
On 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.
Monday, 16 April 2012
12. 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.
Monday, 16 April 2012
13. Quality of Final Product
Our 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
Monday, 16 April 2012
14. 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.
Monday, 16 April 2012
15. Feedback
I 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”
Monday, 16 April 2012