Final Cut Evaluation

I think since the beginning of this project our group has progressed a lot as we learnt how to make a teen film. We worked really well as a team which is why I think we were able to complete this project efficiently and within time. I think that out final cut was really good from the feedback we got on Facebook and Youtube but I believe that it could have been better. The editing could have been cleaner and we could have used a wider range of music to keep the audience more interested. I think that we wouldn't have been able to accomplish this at the beginning of the project as none of us had the necessary skills to create the opening of a teen film. During this course I have learnt how to edit clips, create motion animations and match sound to a specific video clip. In conclusion, I think I have done well in this project as throughout the course I have gained the skills to help make this project successful.

Final Cut Evaluation

Predominantly I believe that our group, group 38 have done well in working together as a team to produce our opening of a teen film. Without our corporation, teamwork and time it would have been hard to create our final cut which I consider being quite successful. Being one of the main characters in the opening has developed my acting skills and confidence. Using different techniques and trying out different tools on final cut pro has enabled me to access technology and be able to use that technology to contribute to some of the editing of our opening scene. I am happy with the final outcome of the opening of Cain because we have managed to use a variety of accurate shots and camera actions in order to capture the audience - this is evident in the comments on Facebook and YouTube. However if we were to do this project again then I think we would have to consider using different soundtracks or even a voice over to let the audience know exactly what is going on in the beginning. Perhaps we could also use more conventional teen movie locations to make our opening more professional and make it clear that this is a teen movie. Finally on the whole I believe my group have put equal amounts of effort in producing the final cut of the opening of Cain.

Final Cut Evaluation

Overall, I believe we have progressed as a group and improved hugely from our previous projects where practice makes better in our case. I also think that our final cut is a success despite the several improvements still needed to maximise it's quality, originilatity and professionalism as well as entertaining potential that our project could achieve. I also realised a lot of time and effort is needed to generate knowledge for the technology, principle and other aspects of media. Ultimately, my goal was to improve my skills in editing and the production side of media and enhance my knowledge of the world of media through research tools and softwares that create an advancement in media. In my opinion, I struggled with creating an opening that flowed and made the most sense even though it was only around 2 minutes long. For future references, I intend to develop my planning techniques to maximise the success of future projects. I also think that overall, we managed to joyfully as a group, complete it together.

Final Cut Evaluation

On the whole I think that our final cut of the opening of the film " Cain" was really successful. I believe that we all used skills needed to put together this amazing opening. I like the fact that most of the camera shoots needed were included in this opening. Framing was well done especially when it comes to the tittle sequence being nicely framed. I like the colour that we chose for the tittle sequence because it keeps the writing nice, neutral and simple. For example I cant image the tittle sequence being red or yellow because they are bright colours and will definitely not suit the mood we are trying to portray to our target audience. I like the music too because compare to the previous one in our rough cut it gives more tension to the audience without being boring however I feel like we could looked for better music if we had more time. As the costume designer I did not only enjoy figuring out costumes the characters can wear but I also learned that costumes plays an important role in film. The costume chosen for the characters does not only have to suit the character's personality but also suit the mood of the film/character and the weather. Therefore I think I done a good job even though I could have and should have taken a bigger role in terms of the making of the film. In my opening I think if we were to remake this opening we should include more characters and spend more time on the music search. Perhaps include more conventional teen locations

Youtube and Facebook - Comments

As you can see from the comments, people really liked the opening of our film and want to see the full version.

To gain more attention some of our family members also shared our opening scene of Cain.We can see that the video was successful as they have commented and liked it on Facebook

After uploading our opening scene of Cain to YouTube we had some people viewing our film due to advertising on social media. The views will definitely go up as more people are liking and commenting on our video on Facebook and Tumblr.

Youtube - Post

FINAL CUT

Final Edit - Check

Final Edit - Editing

Student Feedback

Cain vs Teenage Dirtbag - Opening Scene Comparison

Teenage Dirtbag is a 2009 drama film starring Scott Michael Foster and Noa Hegesh, written and directed by Regina Crosby. The film is distributed by Vivendi Entertainment and Lightyear Entertainment.

Trailer:-

Full Movie:-

The film's opening scene involves a black screen and music similar to our opening where the music isn't very gloomy or woeful but it's appropriate to the main target audience being teenagers with dynamics in the sharpness and softness the electric guitar, percussion and of the other instruments. I think that Teenage Dirtbag's opening scene is quite similar to our initial opening pitch idea with the voiceover but I believe our use of match cuts are enough to enable us to draw in our viewers without the voiceover. This movie also uses simple opening credits in regards to font and colour as it sets the formality of the movie that is appropriate to the genre of film. The shooting as well as editing compared to our opening show a high quality use of appealing shots and edits that make the opening flow smoothly conveying professionalism. I believe that our film opening lacked this but still shows a clear idea of the genre and screenplay accompanied by a good range of shots and match cuts. I also like the way the movie takes longer in presenting each shot as it keeps the idea of sorrow and drama but still merges with the next shot in a prolonged cross dissolve as well as  the music/sound beautifully which I also think would have improved our own opening scene with less match cuts in general but better and tighter editing. 
In terms of music and sound effects, the voiceover and music do not clash and the flash back scenes bring light representing the two changes in mood from the 'current' time and the past and the added sound effects like the folder dropping bring the sound to the next level. I think that the car scenes are effective in showing how there is light and life outside and darkness inside with a woman driving alone reflecting the melancholy and loneliness of the woman which differs from our opening where she is surrounded by a busy location yet is still alone despite her surroundings. This irony makes our main character, Leah, stand out even as she is bumped by someone else but remains unchanged. Overall, I think these openings are similar in genre and theme but our opening can be easily improved with better camera shots and editing and more experimenting to find the best outcome. Despite this, I think the whole final cut proves to be a success and can really bring in the audience with a stimulating cliff-hanger.

Plot:-

At a local IGA store, a pregnant girl is shocked to learn from an old classmate that a boy she once knew named Thayer died in a river recently. When going back to her car, the girl has a flashback of her time in high school.

The girl is known to be Amber Lange, once a popular cheerleader in high school. In class, they are dissecting a fetal pig. When it's time to clean up, Thayer Mangeres, a classmate who always sat beside Amber because of their last names, asks people around their table how much they will bet him if he drinks the juice from the fetus. As everyone is putting their money on the table, Amber looks disgusted. Thayer then tells everybody to keep their money, implying that he won't drink it, but he then says he will for free. After the bet, Thayer asks what Amber thought. She tells him that she thinks nothing of him. Ever since that day, he's harassed her.

The next year they are put in Creative Writing and Study Hall together, which Thayer skips the classes to get high with his friend. For the next couple of days, it's hard for Amber and Thayer to get along. At a party that night, he eats fishes from a bowl that she caught earlier that day. Very angry, Amber continually pushes Thayer and asks him why he is such a freak. Thayer continues to harass Amber in class, as a new girl named Tabitha is assigned a seat by them. Eventually Tabitha and Thayer form a friendship, and knowing that he does not like Amber and bullies her, she does the same. By the soda machine, Thayer flirts with Tabitha, unbeknownst to Tabitha that he is doing this to make Amber envy. When Amber walks away peeved, he stops, clearly wanting Amber's attention all along. After school, Thayer walks home. He walks in and his father shouts angrily that he got a call from the school about his actions,and does not want another call from them. Thayer is frightened by his dad, and his father calls in Thayer's brother Dooley, who physically abuses him, to hold him down while his dad whips him. On the same night, Amber walks in to her home, but no one is there. Back in Creative Writing, Thayer starts to show his emotions in his poems, and Amber realizes this because she feels exactly the same way. Thayer begins the start of their friendship by asking Amber questions through writing notes to each other in his notebook. As their friendship progresses, so does Thayer's feelings. Thayer begins to fall in love with Amber the more they talk. During class, Thayer sends Amber signals in his poems. As Amber hears these poems in class, she knows they are about her. She's not sure if she feels the same about him because of their different social groups, although she has strange dreams of kissing him. Thayer and Amber's lives and homes are different, even though they are both experiencing trouble. Thayer is struggling at home with his family. His dad beats him and drunk brother does the same, but his sister Jeannie is very compassionate toward him as he is the same to her. Amber is mostly alone when her parents are gone. At a sandbar one night, Amber has sex with a school friend as Thayer watches abroad. Feeling betrayed, Thayer writes another poem about Amber, but this time, it's about the night before. He starts becoming rude again and harasses her verbally. When the teacher realizes that he's insulting one of the students, he sends Thayer outside with him. Tabitha tells Amber that Amber is jealous of her and Thayer's "relationship". Amber, ticked off, takes out hers and Thayer's notebook and throws it onto Tabitha's desk. After looking at a few pages, Tabitha runs out of the classroom. Everyone rushes to see the notebook, all while Amber sits there. Her life turns back to normal because she doesn't associate with him anymore. One day in the hallway, Thayer and Amber accidentally meet up in the hallway. Thayer begins to yell at her, and questions why she gave away their notebook. After being nose to nose, literally, Thayer walks away without an answer from her. Amber finally screams "Because I hate you!"

Thayer still has feelings for Amber, after Tabitha mischievously attempts to spill purple nail polish in Amber's book bag, when he grabs her wrist. After eating 4 brown tablets which Thayer tells Amber they're drugs, which she doesn't believe, Thayer convulses and has a seizure on the floor. The whole class has to leave the room and Amber watches through the window on the door as Thayer goes unconscious. After the overdose, Thayer never returned to school. Amber's world returned to normal. Years later, while shopping, Amber meets Thayer again and is surprised to learn that he had joined the Mormon faith.

The scene switches back to the present, Amber is at home calling up old schoolmates trying to find out exactly how Thayer died. No one is really sure how Thayer died, but Amber finds out that his father and brother died suspiciously, and no one seems to know where his sister is.

Scene changes to another old memory, Amber meets Thayer again at the beach. She questions him about his Mormon Mission and he informs her that he left early to which she replies, "you don't look very Mormon". Thayer evades her questions by changing the subject. Eventually, Amber informs him that she is getting married, Thayer remains silent for a second and then starts talking about how easy it would be to fake his own death. Amber debates with him a little bit telling him that she would know that he wasn't dead, to which he smirks and says "No, you wouldn't" and walks off.

The scene briefly switches back to the present and then to another memory when Thayer follows Amber into the bathroom of a movie theatre the same day of the beach meeting. He argues with her trying to get her to admit her feelings, but she denies it and pretends that she doesn't know what he's talking about.

Amber eventually finds Thayer's sister and visits her, she then visits the school and finishes writing in the notebook which she pulled out from her closet. She admits defeat stating that she'll never know whether he was alive or dead. The movie ends with a scene of Thayer's sister looking in on Amber in a hospital room having just given birth to a baby boy, named Thayer.

Comparing the opening of Cain to the opening of Just Another Girl on the I.R.T.

Tittle sequence of  Cain

Production

Distribution

Title of movie

Starring

Casting

Costume

Music

Co-producer

Editor

Producer

Writer

Director

Title sequence of Just Another Girl on the I.R.T.

Distribution

Production

Title of movie

Starring/introducing

Casting

Production designer

Music by

Additional movie

Director of photography

Executive producer

Producer

Writer and Director

The title sequence of both films are simliar however starting from music on both list they become slighly different.

Just Another Girl on the I.R.T is similar to cain in numeros ways because the main character is a girl and she somehow becomes pregnant througout the movie. The opening of both films are similar because both pretagonists were telling their almost however it was done a little diffirently for example we had flashback in cain with music but with Just Another Girl on the I.R.T it was more of a voice over during the opening and herself talking to the viewers along with music.  Another similarity is that in both openins the girls were walkin to a destination however in Cain Lea was upset/sad as she was walking and Chantel in Just Another Girl on the I.R.T was in a good mood/ happy/ jumpy as she was walking to her destination.

To add to this more charaters were involved in Just Another Girl on the I.R.T than In Cain. More locations are also included.

Comparing the opening of Cain to the opening of Easy A

Opening scene of Easy A:

 

 

 

The opening scene of Cain and Easy A are very different in subject of the storyline and genre. For example in Easy A it all starts by showing the high school entrance and where the students' everyday life takes place. Easy A shows all the conventional characters and groups that a typical teen movie incorporates. However in the of opening of Cain we as a group decided to pull away from the conventional groups and keep it simple meaning that we are only showing the quiet girl and the popular boy in college.

    The settings in both film openings are different as Easy A is in the entrance of the high school and Cain is in a busy place in London which leads onto the conventional areas such as the college corridor, canteen and library.

    The music/ soundtracks of both openings are also clearly different due to the difference in genre. In Cain we used a more gloomy and tense soundtrack however in Easy A they've used a more chilled out up beat music. On the other hand 2 sound effects that are common in both openings are the sound of the crowd of students in the background and the sound of the folder dropping. These sound effects show that they can be used quite often in teenage movies.

     The shot types and camera actions that are present in both openings are:

• over the shoulder shot         
• wide shot
• medium close up
• close up
• panning
• tilting - toe to head

The title sequence of Easy A :

1. Distribution
2. Production
3. Title of movie
4. Name of actors
5. Casting by
6. Costume Designer
7. Music Supervisor
8. Edited by
9. Production Designer
10. Director of photography
11. Produced by
12. Written by
13. Directed by

The title sequence of Cain :

1. Production
2. Distribution
3. Title of movie
4. Starring
5. Casting
6. Costume
7. Music
8. Co-Producer
9. Editor
10. Producer
11. Writer
12. Director

The title sequences in both openings include the same things but the order varies. For example the production in Cain comes before the distribution unlike in Easy A where production comes after distribution. Moreover the Editor in Cain comes after the Co-Producer however in Easy A the editor comes before the production designer. Also in our title sequence we didn't find the need to add director of photography because we thought we all contributed to this as a group. All the rest of the title sequence have the same order in both openings. Finally another similarity that is evident in both openings is the white colour of the font ( although we used black for the job title) and the capital letters used for the title sequence.

 

Overall I think that the opening scenes are primarily different in accordance to the genre and storyline however the sound effects, shot types and camera actions are similar. This emphasises that these factors are commonly used within teen movie openings of different genres and plots in order to engage the audience. I believe we could improve the opening scene of Cain by trying to use more conventional teen movie locations and experimenting with the editing in order to make our opening scene feel stronger and can capture the target audience more quickly.

 

 

 

 

Comparison of Juno to Own Opening Scene

Opening of Juno

In the opening of Juno, the main character (played by Ellen Paige) is walking through an animated town whilst drinking Sunny D. The title sequence is playing as she walks to the music 'All I want is You' by Barry Louis Polisar. It is similar to ours, Cain, as we also use a flashback (not shown in the above clip) to show what has happened in the past and how it has affected the present. We chose not to use animation in our opening scene as we wanted to make the atmosphere serious and tense which would definitely be ruined by animation. The main character in our film is also walking to a specific place, however, we did not make the walking take place throughout the title sequence as no one would have known what our film is about. We used flashbacks specifically for this reason; to help the audience understand the idea of the film.

Title Sequence - From left to right

Our title sequence is very similar to that of Juno as we used it as a guideline. However, we did not include some of the titles listed below:

- Other actors/actresses names

- Music supervisors

 - Production designer

- Director of photography

- Executive Producers

We didn't include these roles as we felt it might be too much to go through in two minutes. I think the roles we missed out were not as important and as the ones we did list and would not effect the overall quality of the title sequence. We decided not to include the names of other actors/actresses as the main two characters are the only ones that stood out in the opening scene s there was no need to list other names. The Music Supervisors title was not really relevant to the music we chose so we just included who the music was by. 

Instagram

I posted this on instagram and as you can see people have watched the video and commented on the picture. So far we have like seven likes on the picture. Those like will increase as days go on.

Tumblr

Whatsapp

To be able to advertise our opening scene we used a variety of social media networks such as Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram and Whatsapp. I advertised our project through a Whatsapp status and I believe it was successful as some of my friends have watched it already and really liked it.