'The First Reflective Main Exercise Blog Entry Thing!'

There is a large difference between the planning for the preliminary exercise and the main task. Firstly as a group we have had to do a lot more research into codes and conventions of particular genre's, specifically targeting social realist drama and playing on the stereotypical ideas of "Chavs", whereas in the preliminary exercise it did not need to be as clear what genre the scene was from as it was simply to demonstrate our knowledge of camera work, looking at the 180 rule, reverse shots and continuity, as well as getting used to the equipment. The story boards also have to be a lot more detailed mainly due to the fact the shots are more complicated and change and alternate more frequently between shots and viewpoints to emphasise the difference between the two main settings we have chosen to include in our film, to emphasise the difference between the characters backgrounds and social upbringing as well as stereotypes. We also need to think more about the background noises when filming and therefore if music is necessary, we will need to find it from a un-copyrighted source. I am also noticing that we are being more prepared and moving faster with the planning work to ensure we have enough time to film and create a professional final edit as the programs we intend to use for the editing are more complex and therefore give a better finish, such as Premier and Adobe Audition for editing the sound and creating echo's etc and therefore we will need to spend more time on the finalisation of the opening sequence.

After looking at the SWOT analysis as a group, we feel that our main stumbling points are mainly surrounding the filming itself, rather than the pre-production work and evaluation. I think this may be because we all have different timetables, and all live in different area's therefore meaning we will have to arrange a date for filming that is not only easy for us all to make but also the actors and locations we have arranged for the filming. We also thought that time keeping could be a problem, as in the preliminary task, due to another member of the groups illness, we left it fairly late for filming, but that has taught us to prepare and arrange it sooner rather than later to ensure completion. I think that our strongest points are; that we work well as a group and have come up with a range of ideas and opinions all influencing the planning stages; we now have some experience with the camera and the editing process and software and we have a range of friends to choose from to participate in the acting, that will be able to represent and portray different stereotypes.

I think that to improve from the preliminary exercise we need to; set a target date for the filming earlier on to create a deadline for ourselves for the paper work to be done by, practise with the camera and editing software before hand so that our main task is more professional looking, discuss ideas more within the group so that we can combine and decide upon the best ideas for the film, stick to our own responsibilities and jobs so that all work is done to the correct standard. I also think that a lot more research into similar films and genre's is essential in making sure our production follows the right codes and conventions as we have chose to crete a soical realist drama, looking at issues of knife crime in a British society, which therefore creates a niche audience of being relatable to by British people, who understand and live amongst this culture and society.

There are many films with similar themes such as 'Kidulthood', 'Adulthood' and 'Green Street' and so as a group we need to review and watch as many opening sequences from the genre of social realist drama as we can to ensure ours follows a similar pattern and that the stereotypes of the characters; 'Girly Girl' and 'Chav' are constructed in the appropriate way. If all these things are done then our production will be completed easily and on time and will be hopefully be to a high, professional standard.

We have now filmed in both locations, spreading the filming over 2 days, one day for each location. We worked efficiently as a team and made sure that we took a number of takes of each shot to ensure during editing we have enough footage to work with to create a tighter and more professional edit. We also tried taking the same sequence from different angles and viewpoints so that during editing we are able to cut them together to create a more realistic view and also so that the film flows better and therefore is easier to relate to by the audience. As our film contains elements of elipsis as we cut between the locations and the characters and the actions that they are doing; we had to consider this when editing the film together as we needed to make sure that the length of time where one character was in shot was long enough to make up for the actions that have taken place in the other location with the other character when they come back into the shot, for example Harriet's change of clothes while Jamie was being filmed looking in the mirror and putting up his hood. We also decided to use a still shot at the end of the opening sequence and used a fade transition to allow it to blend with the actual film as we needed to lighten and increase the contrast on the image to allow the title of our film "Ranelagh Road" to show through more clearly and be more visible for the audience to read.

We also used a fade in from black at the beginning as we felt that the shot of the camera bringing itself into Harriet's room and also her life was slightly too long and therefore wanted to shorten it and also emphasise the fact that the audience are being brought specifically into her life and her room which is a very private space for a girl, allowing the audience to feel as though they know her. We also used a fade between two shots of her doing her make up, to her standing up and getting ready to leave the room to show an elipsis as we found that Harriet had already put her make up away in the next shot and therefore needed to make them blend and show that some time of her applying make up had passed, as the audience did not need to see all of this as it would become boring and they may lose interest.

For a few weeks we were told we were unable to use music from the library as due to copyrights which faced our group with a fairly large problem as we had filmed around the basis that there would be music taking up most of the sound section of the opening sequence. We had planned in our story boards and final scripts to have diagetic music within the opening sequence, when she presses play on her iPod, which then becomes non-diagetic throughout the rest of the opening sequence as it cuts between the two locations until the point where the boy slams the door, where the music cuts and fades out to show the film is beginning. However now we have been told that we are allowed to use Library CD's as long as we provide full copyright information and acknowledge the source which we have done. We chose a CD called "Pirate Broadcast: Sounds from the Underground" and picked a track with a male MC rapper and a heavy bass line to add to the mise en scene and build up the ideologies and ideas surrounding youth crime and its association with rap music and 'Gangster' culture.We have kept some of the diagetic ambience from the original filming so that there is not complete silence before the music comes in, as otherwise it would seem unrealistic and would not be representative of real life, social realism. We also used a fade out where the music stops as the 'Chav' slams the door to emphasise that a change in scenery and story is about to happen as well as an making it clear that the story has actually now begun as the characters have been introduced and their stereotypes firmly established.

To add the title in to our production we used Premier, which was a software i was new to. This gave us a few difficulties as we had to get used to the controls and tools but once we had got the hang of it we were able to tighten our edits and fade in and outs between scenes and also chose the best locations for our titles and tried to put them in the most imaginative and appropriate places. For example we wrote Kyle's name as editor in the shots where the most complex edit's took place. We also had a slight problem with the sound we had recorded while filming as there was some talking from passers by recorded. We decided that we should leave it in and not take the diagetic sound out all together as in the last scene the diagetic sound becomes heard and is very important in keeping the realistic idea that the audience can easily relate to. We also thought that this could become a happy accident, as this helps to add to the mise en scene and idea of an inner city urbanised area.

Overall i am happy with the filming and editing process as it has gone pretty smoothly and i feel that after some small problems involving mainly music and sound, we have now over come the issues and turned negative factors into positive traits. I also feel that we as a group have become more confident to tell each other our view and opinion on the editing and the way we think the scenes should look, which has benefited the film itself as we are therefore discussing more the best options and choosing the most professional outcomes that enhance the production and help emphasise more the codes and conventions of the social realist drama genre.