Shapes I have made and am using in my Final Piece

Sunshine with yellow and orange rays

Lollipop

Teddy that waves

Handbag that swings

Butterfly

Hearts

Circles

Waves

Football - Goal and Foot to kick the ball into it

Space Hopper

Ice Cream

Henna Hand

Candles

Balloons

Cupcake

Rain Cloud

Art easel 

Paints

Flower

Keyboard

Filming for my Final Piece

For my final piece I have to have an introduction for each of my characters  - I have now made all the shapes for each of my characters backgrounds and have now filmed on my own camera each of my characters introductions. I first of all filmed 2 of my characters, (Helen and Amber),  separately to the other two characters, (Sophie and Rashi), and then did the group of them together when doing the second session of shots with Sophie and Rashi were being done. This was a mistake for me  - as this now meant that Helen and Amber are wearing different clothes to when they were shot for their individual introductions. This is not good as I need to show continuity and by having them wearing different clothing in my final piece it will be too obvious that the filming was not done at the same time - showing it to be unprofessional. To solve this I can either when uploading the film onto a mac - I can zoom in further into all of the faces of my characters so therefore you can no longer see what they are wearing anymore or will have to re-shoot. I think re-shooting is my best option - I can still try and zoom in on the footage I already have, but at least if that doesn't work, I still have a back up plan. This I will also have to do as soon as possible as I need to keep to my deadline.

Rough Cut Process

To make my rough cut I had to create all the shapes that were going to be in my rough cut that would then be organised into 3 different sections as they had to be associated with the 3 different characters that will be in my final product as film, as seen in my mock idea blog. Then I had to set out where the objects were going to be on a flat surface with a white paper background. I had to make sure that I moved each object a little bit at a time and each movement counted towards 2 photos. In total I took 146 photos to make my rough cut. 

When putting it together though, I realised that this doesn't seem to be enough to make an average length opening, my rough cut is about 11 seconds, whilst a children's TV drama is about 30 - 40 seconds long. I think this was because and when looking at my rough cut you can see, that I seemed to have concentrated a lot on sophie's part of the opening, it is at the length that each of the characters should have, but Amber and Helen's parts are a lot shorter, especially Helen's. This is my fault, as I made the movements a lot more drastic than slowly getting to where they need to be, therefore making it a lot shorter. I also think that if I had more objects to move in Helen's shot, I would have therefore more duration, so when doing my final cut, I need to make more shapes to be added where can be fitted in the shot.

Additionally, I am going to add another female character in my piece from a different cultural background, this will add more time to my piece and will branch out more to a wider target audience. I also did not add the titles into my rough cut, meaning the actual title and that it was created by me. This is because I am indecisive about whether to add the titles in from after effects on the mac, or to make my own titles to the theme of my opening. I think making my own would be better for my piece. I think also, I need to make sure the quality of camera I use is good enough, as when looking at my rough cut in full screen, the quality becomes blurry, although this happened in the editing process, before this the quality was fine, but camera change might avoid this problem.

Overall I am happy with my rough cut and I have learnt a lot from it in terms of knowing what improvements I need to make from it to make my final piece the best I can make it.

Rough Cut

Animatic

This is my animatic of my idea. I have story boarded my idea down into images that is a rough example of how I want my idea to turn out. As I am using stop framing for my idea, I realised story boarding this is extremely difficult to do, as to show each movement that would happen in the production of my real product, there would be a lot of unnecessary story boarding, so instead of this I tried to show the drastic movements so that people will have an idea of what is happening. Before presenting my animatic to the class, I showed my mock up video so that the people in my class would have a better understanding of my idea.  

My animatic has no camera angle changes, a midshot of the person in the circle will be there the whole time, including the time at the end when you see the whole group together. The objects will change depending on the person in the circle, the objects will be specific to their personalities. I have done my idea on a gang of girls, each one of them with different personalities, one who is girly, another who is creative and another who is into sport. I chose to do this as in my research I found that children expect there to be stereotypes, this way they can relate to the characters on screen. 

Feedback I got from when I presented my work was;

• With characters, maybe add another to make the opening longer, also make it so that there are multi cultural characters as this is a typical convention of a Children's TV drama that I haven't included yet. 
• Add diegetic sound, which I'd already planned on doing, but make sure that when I do add the diegetic sound that it doesn't interfere too much with the backing track I have used, they need to be in sync with each other.
• Good idea, having objects that will be associated to each characters personality will be good for targeting my specific audience. 
• When the person in the circle is moving, make sure that they will do movements that will also be specific to their personalities.

These comments I will have to take on and this should help me know how to make a good final product.   

In my AS project, the group and I didn't make a realistic storyboard, meaning our shots were much too difficult to do with the little experience we had when it came to filming. So I made sure when storyboarding my animatic and with the overviewing of my idea, that I knew, that what I wanted to do was what I was capable to do. After creating my mock up idea, I knew that the idea I had would be something I could do and do well, and so by doing that it made it easier to make my animatic and to have realistic ideas about what I wanted in my piece. This should make it more simple to create in the long run, as in my AS project, because we weren't too sure on the shots we used and our idea changed so much, this I believe was our downfall.  

List of Possible Objects to use in my Piece.

Doodling on page??
Sunshine?
Painting from a paint pallet, paint a smiley face.
Musical instruments, keyboard that when gets played a musical note will appear above it?
Football - being kicked by a cartoon foot? flies across screen into a goal on the other end - sound of cheers in background.
Drawing of scissors on paper, cuts out paper doll chain - gets stretched out onto screen - could be at end where I could have a gang photo of my characters and the name of the program on the paper chain dolls.
Stars - layering
Hearts - layering of them
Flowers for the more girly girl in the group
Glasses for the brainy girl
Books that are layered
Skateboard for a tomboy type character?

Idea Changes.

For my piece, I decided that I felt my target audience needed to be streteched out further to a slightly younger audience, but from looking at children's TV programmes, there are no TV dramas that are aimed at children younger than the age I have already researched (7-12 year olds). I thought about doing it at a younger audience as after doing my mock up idea, i thought that my idea would be more suited to a younger audience than the audience I had originally targeted. This was because of the bright colours and simple shapes I had used in my mock up, I didn't think that a 12 year old would be appealed to watching a program with what looks like quite a childish theme to it. So I decided to aim my piece at a younger target audience - youngest being 5 or 6 years old and the oldest being 9 or 10 years old. I will still use the same idea as in my mock up, but instead will theme the objects - I will base it on a girl gang of friends and so will use objects that can be associated with each of their different interests and roles in the group, for example one can be brainy and shy, another quite outgoing and into music and another into art. Letters can then move onto the screen when the characters are shown to show their names. This also doesn't limit me with where it needs to be set to film my characters, as the gang could be at school together or live near eachother etc. I so I can decide this. I believe this will make it more significant to my target audience. I will also give my piece a comedic effect, I'd like to make my programme a comedy drama for kids, as I beleive that from my research, this is the most appealing type of Children's TV drama.

Mock up idea

To test my initial idea 2 - my preferred idea - I made a short stop frame animation in the style I potentially will use in my final piece. To do this I had to cut up shapes specific to what would appeal to my target audience and then set up a still camera on a tripod. I then gradually moved each shape I had made and with each movement I would take 2 pictures. After this, I imported the stills onto the computer using imovie, and then exported the footage into Adobe After Effects where I green screened footage of a character I had filmed earlier. This effect didn't work well because some of the green showed through, so as an alternative I created a vector mask - which is a square shape that cuts a hole in the top layer of footage to reveal the footage of the actress underneath.

Initial Idea 2

This idea was inspired by the opening of 'Saved by the Bell', the same technique used, only in a more modern way and use of other objects. In 'Saved by the Bell' objects move around the screen according to what was popular at the time it was made, also when the characters are introduced there is footage of them from past episodes also shown to display their personality. 'Saved by the Bell' was aimed at teenagers, so I would be aiming mine at a younger audience and therefore would use younger characters. Also, I would set mine in a modern time and so would have objects that would be more specific to my target audience, i.e. mobile phones, computers, etc. I would also use more than just drawings of objects, I could also take pictures of the objects or use the actual objects for a better effect. I like this idea as it would be a clever way of doing a title sequence and I really believe that it would appeal to my target audience.

Questionnaire Evaluation

I asked 8 males and 12 females all between the ages of 7 - 12 years old and overall I found that most of the participants liked Children's TV dramas to have a normal surrounding in them, for example School or home being most common.
They also circled most of the stereotypes I had listed in my questionnaire to be in my real product, meaning they obviously expect a variety of characters in a Children's TV drama.
The results also showed that the majority of people asked preferred a Children's TV Drama to have real people in it and also both real people and animation - so I should include this into my title sequence.
Music was the most important aspect of a Children's title sequence according to my results, but animation and clips from other episodes were also a common result and so I could use both or either of these techniques for my title sequence.
Most popular genre type was Comedy - so to make a popular program that my target audience would be most appealed to, a comedy program would be my best option.

I will take everything I have learnt from the questionnaires and make sure I apply the information I have gathered into my Children's TV drama sequence.

Initial Idea 1

To set the title sequence in a school, using both animation and real life imaging that I would create a comic book sequence effect where the title sequence would show a typical day in a school - for example kids coming out of their classrooms - the comic book effect would be used to make the imaging different colours and then added animation in cartoon effect would be added, for example speech or thought bubbles. Sound effects used would also be typical of a school, children's laughter, school alarm bell, etc. I can then use other random imagings and annotate over them also. I probably won't use this idea as I don't think it will keep the audience interested and I don't think I will be able to come up with more creative ideas that will appeal to my audience.

Research Questionnaire's for Children's TV Drama's

I created a questionnaire so that I could find out more about what should be put into my Children's TV Drama opening so that I can appeal to my target audience. This is the questionnaire I created and am going to print out 20 copies to give to children around the ages of about 6 years old to 12 years old.

Questionnaire on Children’s TV Drama
1) How old are you?
____________________________

2) Gender? (Please Circle)
Male Female

3) Do you watch or have watched any of these Children’s TV Dramas? (Please Circle)
Goosebumps Even Stevens Tracy Beaker

The Sarah Jane Adventures Hannah Montana ChuckleVision

Hotel Trubble Other

4) What is your favourite television program?
_______________________________________

5) What is your favourite type of show? (Please Circle)

Comedy Animated Fantasy Horror Real Life

Sci-fi Action Other (please name) _____________

6) In an opening of a television program, what do you enjoy the most? (Please circle)

Animation Music Past Clips from other episodes Images
Other (please name) ____________

7) What type of storyline do you like in a television program?
___________________________________________________

8) What do you not like to see in a Children’s TV Drama?
___________________________________________________

9) What settings do you prefer in a Children’s TV Drama? (for example School, Home.)
___________________________________________________

10) What character types do you expect in a Children’s TV Drama? (Please Circle)

Geek Bully Class Clown Talking Animal Shy Bossy

Good-looking Boy or Girl Sporty Person Moody

Other (please name) ________________

11) What time do you normally watch TV?
_______________________________________

12) How long for? (please circle)

0-1 hours 1-2 hours 2-3 hours 3-4 hours 4-5 hours 5+ hours

13) Do you prefer characters in a TV drama to be what age? (Please Circle)

Younger Same age as you Older

14) Do you prefer television programs that are animated, with real people in or a bit of both? (Please Circle)

Animated Real People Both

First Lesson

In lesson we watched a documentary on 'Film Noir'. This was to learn the codes and conventions of a film noir film and then relate these to our own chosen projects.

Typical codes and conventions of a film noir.
Guns
Shadows
Suspense
Villain
Women have dominance, are also seductive.
Narration

In a Children's TV drama, I don't believe that I could use any of these specific codes and conventions. Although the use of female dominance could be used, a female character could be head of a classroom or gang.

Disney Magazine Cover.

This is a cover of Disney's Magazine of Winter 2004-2005. It is obviously promoting its next best film and to show its dominance the picture of the characters are over the text of the masthead, also furtherly showing that disney is so confident in its brand that some of the title can be covered and still people will recognise it. Target audience for the magazine is for children as it shows the promotion of a family film, represented by 'The Incredibles' on the cover. This proves that the film and the magazine is friendly and suitable for all ages. From the use of red, a simple colour stereotypically related to males, gives the impression that 'The Incredibles' will appeal more to males, also superhero type films are always related back to well known male heroes for example 'Spiderman', 'Superman', 'Batman' etc, although having the older sister on display, shows a character females could also relate to, saying that girls could like it just as much as the boys, it is a film aimed at a wide target audience. Also having the use of orange and yellow on the cover displays a further appeal to a female audience, as stereotypically females will be attracted to more complex colours. For my own front cover, I could lay it out the way that this magazine has, putting a bold picture of my characters on the front to help promote my new children's TV drama, making sure I use colours that will appeal to my target audience and that my subheadings will also attract and target the same audience I want watching my children's TV drama.

The Story of Tracy Beaker

2002 onwards  - british children's TV drama - CBBC

Uses both people and cartoon animation, shows only the main actors and actresses as actual people, therefore showing they are more important. Very colourful and bright, will attract audience into watching the program as it is eye catching. Cartoon and animation is also linked with childrens television, therefore making sense for it to be in the opening. 

Fast editing as is used in a lot of other children TV drama openings. Children are being typical children, running riot and making mess, and also shows that the show is child dominated as the shot of the orphanage in which they all live in is shown with them all in it. 

Again the music is upbeat, fun and youthful to attract target audience. Main actors seem to be females, slightly female orientated, especially as it is 'The Tracy Beaker Show'. 

Camera establishes setting, (orphanage), and characters, keeps Tracy Beaker focus of the opening as she is the focus of the program, always centralised in shot.  

Sabrina the teenage witch

Series started in 1996 - american television program.

Starts with looking through her bedroom window, and then an animation of the world behind it, showing an insight into her world, because its different than the one we live in, full of majic

etc. children could relate as often they make their own world and pretend to be a superhero etc.

Very much women orientated, showing the main female character, and the other actresses names all come up before the actors names, subverting stereotype of male dominance in television. I could subvert typical codes and conventions in my own piece, putting female characters before the male characters, to show a more modern society.  

Sense of magic as she is presented in a setting that seems to be 'the unknown', emphasising the importance of magic and mystery in the program, shown through the use of special effects. 

Female lead is a teenager, children that are slightly younger than the specific target audience could be intrigued as it would be seeing into an older persons life - curiosity. 

Upbeat music, emphasises the fun and youthful vibe of this show, a convention commonly used in a lot of children's TV drama openings, emphasises that it is aimed at a younger audience.

Special effects used  - the magic of her changing outfits.  Animation is also normally associated with kids television, most animations are aimed at children, for example disney pixar films, or  cartoons like 'Scooby Doo' etc.

Editing - shot doesn't change, focuses on her to keep audiences focus more on the character than anything else, shows her importance to the narrative and program.

Even Stevens

Series started in 2000 - disney channel - american children's TV drama.

Establishes the setting of where program will be set at the start, shows typical family life, brother

and sister fighting, dad washing the car, mum working, target audience can relate to own family life.

The opening also takes the viewer completely around the house whilst havoc is being raised by

the 2 children of the household, showing that they are important in the narrative of the story, 

as they are also centralised and have the most air time.

Upbeat music used as is in most Children's TV Drama, depending on sub genre shown, for example

this Children's TV Drama is a comedic type. Shows energy, which children are known to be restless

and active, wanting to be occupied at all times, having music that will attract their attention will make

it more likely they will watch the program.

Editing is also fast paced to fit the narrative and the music, this is to keep it interesting, as again a child

doesn't have a good attention span and so if the program does not use conventions such as these,

then their targeted audience will most probably loose interest.

Use of animation shows kiddish charm, cartoons are instantly related to children, therefore targeting 

their audience. Typical of boy character to make the mess, female character being annoyed at actions.

Children can recognise and relate to the actions that are shown, for example the 2 children characters

fight with light sabers, due to the similarity in target audience in the movie star wars and the program.

Research into my chosen idea - children's TV drama.

I will be researching into what goes into an opening and therefore get ideas into what can go into my own, 

identifying their codes and conventions, differences and similarities and their restrictions.  This was the first opening

that I have found that represents a children's TV drama. What I liked about this title sequence is the use of shapes 

that over lap and are also used as windows to show the actors names.

Also, having the different shapes and objects flying around shows that the program will be of a younger generation,

for example a football and skateboard are shown to symbolise that the program is targeted at a younger audience.

Saved by the bell was released in 1989 in the USA, aimed at a young teenage audience, from about 13 years old to 

about 16 years old. This era of time is shown through the conventions that are used in this opening, 

for example the bright colours', the 80's were all about being bright and bold, and for the younger generation it was

all about having scruffy big hair and wearing baggy colourful clothing, which again is shown when seeing the

characters in this introduction. So if I were to make my title sequence of a certain era, I would have to research

upon that era and use stereotypical symbolic objects etc. to represent that it is set in that particular time.

This title sequence uses bubbly, happy music, therefore creating a fun, energetic vibe, the editing also fits in with this

throughout the whole extract, therefore targeting their specific younger children audience. Mid-shots of the actors are 

used and all of them are shown individually, centralising each of them to show their significance and this will engage the

audience straight away and let them relate to a certain or numerous amount of characters. The extract uses clips from

past episodes to introduce each character, therefore again reinforcing the engagement of the audience. Each character

has a different personality, the men in this particular extract are more out there, funny, active, while the women characters

are more conserved, representing the social stereotypes, that women are more mature whilst men are more immature.

The use of flying objects of footballs, skateboards, surf shorts, convertable cars, guitars, shows what at the time the 

program is set, a typical teenager liked, as if it were set in a more modern time, the objects shown would most probably

be things like televisions, computers, mobile phones as we live in a technological age. Also, the sunglasses graphic 

stays centralised on screen as it then establishes setting, of it being in a school, which then shows that each character

has a role, for example male characters in a school will probably include a nerd, bully, or class clown, whilst females

will probably take the roles of shy girl. bossy girl or the straight A student, and maybe if the program is aimed at a teenage 

audience, like 'Saved by the Bell' will have the pretty popular girl everyone wants to be like or be with. If I chose to

use graphics and drawings in my own piece, representing my own characters for my piece, I would have to use the 

more modern objects that I have listed. On the screen, this would make my title sequence more interesting and 

make it more recognisable that it is aimed at children and maybe more appealing to watch from the audiences perspective.

Book reference of research : - Teaching TV Drama by Jeremy Points.

I found from using this book that there are certain conventions used that will keep an audience watching,

for example 'Doctor Who' will use for it's mise en scene CGI effects as it is a drama that is based on time travel, 

therefore based in a futuristic time where he can travel through any galaxy. which means the audience 

will expect aliens and other odd creations of a different world as this is what will attract the audience to watch it.

Keeping the main character, the doctor, engaging also is important, there will be an expected costume for him

to wear as this will match his personality, scruffy clothing, red converses, messy hair. An expectancy of a

narrative of good versus evil is also common in TV dramas, this has been used in children's TV dramas, 

but are normally of a much milder problem than on a normal TV drama. Also a love interest or story are used in

TV dramas, again I have seen this been used in children's TV drama, but is an innocent narrative usually used

where the character is liking the person from afar. Representations of females and males are normally stereotypical,

women being the inferior sex whilst the males dominate, in a children's TV drama a stereotype for a girl can be varied

as different roles can be given because of the environment they are in, for example if the children's TV drama was

based in a school, there would be a nerdy girl, a bossy girl, a shy girl. This is the same with males, there would be

a nerdy boy, a stupid boy, the class bully is normally played by a butch young boy, and the class clown. I would 

have to include stereotypes into my own piece depending on the environment I decide to base my title sequence on

and if I decide on including real kids into my title sequence.

Final Decision.

I have decided that I will make a children's TV drama. This is because I believe, in knowing my skills, this was the best option for me as it will enable me to make a short trailer, meaning it would not be too technically based and complicated. Also, as no-one has made a children's TV drama before, it will allow me to start from scratch and make my own vision, using my own ideas. I will now have to research into different children's TV dramas' so that I can identify what conventions are used in them and therefore then use these conventions in my own piece, this will also help me to find ideas of what I could base my title sequence of a children's TV drama on, as I need to figure out a basic genre of story that I can then represent through my title sequence. 

First Media Lesson.

In the first lesson back we were given the options for our coursework, in 2 weeks time we have to decide what option we are going to choose to then develop on by ourselves. I have to make sure that I choose an option that will be suited to my skills, but will also let me develop on some new skills, especially in the technological area, as that is my weaker point. Choosing an option I beleive will be a hard thing, I need to be able to come up with an idea that will work with the piece, I need to insure that I have resources around me that will help with the development of my project, so taking this into account, I will have to try and come up with ideas for the piece when deciding what option I want to do, which I am also enthusiastic about, so that I have a basic idea on what I want to do.