Josie's Preliminary Task Analysis:

Preliminary Task Analysis:

Have you fed the fish…? The title of the task is enough to make an audience laugh, and so my group (Ella, Sam, Tom and myself) wanted to make the audience think the opposite of joy and laughter. Our aim was to create shock factor, which we would have done if our sound were working, which it wasn’t. As there was no speech to be heard, we thought to put up subtitles so that the audience knew what was going on.

We faced many difficulties when filming, and even more when editing. One of the difficulties we faced was the weather. It was a very cold day, with the threat of rain and our camera was not as steady as we would have liked it to be due to the coldness. There was also a man running/jogging in the location that we had chosen to film, which we saw as a negative but managed to spin into a positive thing by the man not knowing what we were doing, and so just not making eye contact with any of us, which we chose to see as him being afraid of what was going on (in our actual task and not in general).

Whilst editing, we faced a problem when we realized that the sound was not working. After the initial panic, we put our heads together and decided to use subtitles. After coming up with that idea, we had to work out how to use it on Imovie, which was a task in itself. Having neither of us used IMovie before, and our combined limited experience was not helpful in the slightest, until we worked out how to use subtitles, even then it was difficult to place them in the exact time space and we were not sure what length of time to leave them up for.

Making the preliminary task did help, with the continuity editing mostly. And most of all, the task helped us to practice different camera shots and angles, which we then analyzed to mean different things. For example, the use of a low angle showed the audience of Patrick’s (The Boss’s) superiority over me (his work monkey). The basic editing skills that we learnt were very helpful, and Final Cut is a bit easier to use as it has less limitations and clearer labels. The fact that I have used Final Cut before helped our group (Lucy, Ewa and Joe) to understand the progression of our film. I was able to give a quick tutorial to the group, and we all chipped in and helped with the editing and input all of our ideas together.

The preliminary task allowed everybody to practice things they wouldn’t normally try, and I really enjoyed working with the people I was with (for the preliminary task) because all of us had creative, bright ideas and the determination to put them together. At the beginning, all of our editing skills were limited, but now we could probably make a film in our sleep. The confidence in all of us have massively increased from the start, which has had a knock on effect in our other work.

Analyzing an opening title sequence (ANGUS THONGS AND PERFECT SNOGGING)

The moment that Georgia Nicolson steps out of the party, and she is running down the road in her olive costume, the first title appears in the bottom right corner of the screen. The text is a very friendly and engaging font, which draws the audience in.  the music starts playing as she starts running- “She’s so lovely” by Scouting for Girls- which engages the people watching because it is an upbeat, popular song. The cursive writing of the title ‘Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging’ gives the audience a vibe that they are going to be watching a film full of hilarious antics and it symbolizes the freedom and youth of this young girl, and also her lack of maturity.

The credits run throughout the first nine minutes of the film, in a cursive font, which shows off Georgia’s youth and her freedom. Adding to her freedom, is the fact that she is wearing a giant olive costume, and at the party all her friends are dressed up how normal teenaged girls would dress up. Everything about this title sequence suggest that Georgia isn’t you average teenager, and so she gets into all sorts of mischief and teenage drama.

The directors has got Georgia Croom playing Georgia and the rest of her friends are played by Eleanor Tomlinson, Georgia Henshaw and Manjeevan Grewai, and the love interest of the film is Robbie who is played by Aaron Johnson. The reason Georgia Nicolson has been cast the way she is, is because the directors wanted to give the audience a relatable theme and Georgia Croom is very similar to her character in her daily life.

Friends opening credits analysis:

Camera Work:

The director uses various shots of the characters in ‘Friends’ acting all chummy and friendly with each. The close up of each characters face when their name appears under an image of them. This introduces the characters to the audience and also tells them who plays who. The camera work shows various images of the friends together, and also the relationships between each charatcers. For example, there is a shot of Ross and Rachel dancing, which establishes a stronger relationship between the two of them, almost hinting of them having a long-term relationship together.

Soundtrack:

The song ‘I’ll be there for you’ by the Rembrandts plays through the opening title sequence, which gives the audience a sense of their friendship and it foreshadows most of the program, because the audience knows that the friends in this television show are going to be getting up to random antics and odd behavior again. The song appears to be fitting with the genre of comedy, as the gang are dancing around together, acting lime children that are having a blast. The music displays a friendly vibe, and foreshadows that these friends are very close and symbolizes that they always have great fun when they are together. The use of a clap during the soundtrack also engages the audience because they feel like they are a part of it, knowing that they can clap along too.

Colour/prop/lighting:

The director has chosen to use mainly bright colours and daylight, which broaden up the friendly atmosphere. It is obviously filmed at night time, but the use of a streetlight is the main source of lighting. The colour scheme is very basic, but so obviously set in New York because of the location and the lighting that surrounds it.