Amy’s Weblog

DILEMMA
We were trying to edit our footage together to try and come up with a decent sequence today (21.01.10) but it really wasn’t any good. All of our footage was really poor and we realised we didn’t have enough good footage to work with and have since decided that our only option is to re-shoot. We have also had to slightly change our idea as the actors we were working with were no longer available and they weren’t very confident in front of the camera.

IDEA CHANGE
We have decided to change the idea of our opening sequence due to several problems we’ve experienced during the process. After going back to our research, we’ve decided now that our title sequence is going to feature one actress and the title sequence will follow her daily journey and activities. We are going to use the same kind of idea as before with a happy, girly theme as it will allow us to use some of the things we have already worked on, including the music that we’ve found and want to use for our sequence and the work we’ve already done into the DVD cover. I plan to only alter the DVD cover by adding an image of the new actor and making a title change, as the current title would not fit with the new theme.

Above is the final idea for our DVD cover and the idea that we’re going to use for our mock up. This is the best of our ideas because it has a really girly feel to it assisted by the large image, the hearts logo and the colours used. The sparkly pink background colour and the sparkly purple dividers were inspired by other DVD covers for Children’s TV dramas that I have researched. The sparkly idea really gives the whole cover a really girly feel, something we were really planning to achieve with this cover idea.

Below are several screen shots showing the development of the cover also showing changes that were made.
Firstly, I created the sparkly background by taking an image and copying and pasting it until the whole of the background was filled. I thought about changing the colour to a slightly darker pink but it proved too difficult to try and work around the sparkles. We decided together that the sparkly background created the theme and idea we wanted to put across with our DVD.

After adding the background, I started experimenting with different fonts that I found on copyright free font website www.dafont.com. We found a font that we felt was suitable.

We later decided that the font didn’t actually fit too well with the theme of children, and the cursive style seemed a bit too complex for a children’s DVD cover. I tried adjusting the placement of the title to make it look a bit better but I couldn’t find a way for it to look suitable and like it actually fitted the cover. We re-visited the same website and tried to find a font style suited more to the theme of children and attempted to find a font that children might understand better and one that would be easier for them to relate to (shown in shot below).

After selecting the font together that we wanted to use and placing it in the place we wanted it on the background, it was time to add in an image. I found an image on www.google.co.uk for my mock up, but obviously for the real one, an original image will be used. I added the photo in the bottom left hand corner of the cover leaving me enough space to include possibly another image, a logo or maybe some more text. I think the placing of the image works really well here.

Having the large dominating image on the front cover is good and helpful to the younger audience that we are planning to target. It’s good for the audience because they can immediately relate to the cover as, if they are planning to buy the DVD they should recognize the main characters. The image also takes up some of the plain space making the cover look more professional and realistic. After adding the image we felt it would be appropriate to add in some information about some of the main features of the DVD itself. We wanted to add some dividers to the cover to separate out the few different sections that there’s going to be. I took another image of sparkles but this time purple and made them into thin lines to use as dividers but so they also followed the sparkly, girly theme that we had already agreed on.

I added one divider right underneath the title and then one slightly lower. We wanted to frame the DVD details around the dividers, maybe with the text either resting on the top or the bottom of the divider lines, or maybe both. I decided when adding the information I would do so in a different font so it didn’t look too similar to the title and doesn’t take away from the main focus of the title. The size would also have to be smaller otherwise the title wouldn’t stand out from the rest of the cover like it is supposed to.

I added a black outline to the text and filled the inside of the letters with the same purple colour as the shows title. I carefully placed them so they were touching each of the dividing lines so that they didn’t seem out of place and appear to just be thrown in anywhere. At this stage the cover seems a bit bare, and we thought maybe a logo could be added or maybe some smaller images to fill out the cover a bit more and make it not seem so plain and average.

We decided to add some hearts in the bottom right hand corner of the cover as a logo so the cover didn’t look empty. We also felt that the hearts connected well with the girly theme.

IDEA CHANGE
Since we had to change our idea, it means we have to make some edits to the DVD cover idea. Because we still want to stick to the girly, happy theme I thought it would be a good idea to keep the cover much the same, just changing the things that no longer apply to our new idea, including the title and the image (which will now only feature one girl, and not three).

I added an image of a single girl to the DVD cover to show that the focus of the series is now just the one girl. It is important that the model is smiling and the photo looks posed and happy to compliment the positive, girly, happy theme of the DVD. Using a large image allows the audience to associate the DVD with a popular character therefore encouraging them to purchase the DVD. We plan to have our model wearing a girly outfit maybe in purple and pink colours to fit theme of that of the DVD cover.

I decided to make the image of the character bigger to take up more space at the bottom of the cover because previously the bottom half of the cover looked a bit empty, and I had no idea what to put there. Although the image is now a lot bigger at the bottom, there is still quite a large amount of empty space at the bottom so there is space for me to add a logo a bit later on if I decide that it is necessary and will compliment the cover. By including a logo, it will also give the audience a connection between the TV series and the DVD series release.

Where the font was quite childish on the previous cover, we wanted to make the font this time around a bit more sophisticated as we were now only focussing on one character and no longer the idea of a group of best friends. I went back onto copyright free website http://www.dafont.com to try and find another font. We decided on a curly font that added to the girly theme and I decided to make it purple to again add to the basic theme if girly-ness. Once we had picked the font we liked, we together decided on a name for our main character, ‘Isabella Ryan’. To accommodate for our new title, it meant that I had to make the image slightly smaller again and I also had to move the dividers and the DVD content information down a bit.

For a logo / picture in the corner to add something to the blank space, we decided to use two of the hearts we had on the previous cover. We also added in another heart that had a little curl it to add a bit of difference to the cover.

Pre-filming note
Today we are finally going to film our title sequence. We need to collect our equipment that includes a camera and tripod because we want or camera movement to be steady. We’re leaving to set up the location at about 12 ready for our girls to arrive at 3pm. We now only have three girls to film for our sequence because another one of our girls dropped out, and it was almost essential that we filmed this week. After filming, we will be taking still-shots of our actresses for our DVD front cover, which we have already posted our mock-ups for (see separate post).

Post-filming note
The actual filming itself went quite well but during the setting up we had a few minor set backs, lighting being just one of the problems.
Our lighting caused us a problem during the filming because we kept getting shadows when we trying to film our girls in action. Becuse of the natural light source obviously getting darker as time went on, it created shadows from the artificial light we had set up in the room. The poor lighting, also meant we started filming later, leaving us less time as some of our actors had to leave quite quickly. With the time being cut short, it also meant that we didn’t have time to shoot our stills of our models. This isnt too much of an issue because we can take the stills next week (same time, same location).
All in all, filming went quite well, and the shots that we got arent too bad.

The first and main thing we definitely want on out DVD cover is an image of the characters. The front cover also has to include the title in a bold and colourful font. We need the cover to be attractive to our quite young audience, so we plan to use quite a few bold and standing out colours.

Idea One
Our first idea features a large image of the four characters that dominates the whole bottom half of the front cover of the DVD. The photo will not feature a background and we will be placing the character photos onto the cover background. We plan for the background of the cover to be a very pale pink, attracted our highly female audience. The top half of the cover will feature a purple, rough cut out box with the title in the centre. Our house font is going to be a font called Eight Track from the website www.dafont.com. We chose this font because it seems quite young and fun which we’re sure will be attractive to our audience. In the background we’re going to display the same little icons that appear in the background of the shows title sequence.

Idea Two
Our second idea follows quite a similar colour scheme to the first idea, although purple is the dominating colour here. The background will be a pale purple, almost lilac, with a darker purple box in the middle presenting the title of the show in our house font. The box will be outlined with two white lines, making it seem like its glowing. The cover will feature four individual images of each of the girls with a oval shape separating them from the rest of the background in each corner in the cover. In between the top two and bottom two images will be a small purple heart in a black oval, similar to the ones the images of the girls will be in. Around the cover, little different sized purple hearts will be dotted around to fill some of the blank space in the background.

So we planned to film this week, but we’ve experienced another painful dilemma that’s put a pause in our film making process.
One of our girls had to drop out because she couldn’t film on the days we’d already planned, meaning we now only have four girls for the film. Its not too bad in the sense that we’ve lost someone because we were originally only going to have four girls anyway. The only issue is, is that we’re going to have to change our script and our storyboard to accommodate for our loss of an actress.

26.11.09
It sounds an awful lot like we’re just putting off filming, but this week one of our actresses is ill, again creating a huge dent in our filming process. So this week instead we’re going to work on creating some mock up covers for our DVD and hopefully researching a bit more into radio adverts .

Here’s the dilemma: Everything was going swimmingly. We sorted our actors, finished our storyboard and we’d even found our music. We THOUGHT we’d found our set. Turns out we don’t.
We’ve just been informed that we’re not allowed to shoot our actors on the college campus because they’re under 16 and they’re not covered by the college insurance. Obviously this poses a bit of a problem for us as this is where we’d planned to shoot and we’d already completed our full story board and script based around it!

So now, we have to scout another location which at the moment isn’t very helpful because we hadn’t prepared for change.
We’re going to look into other locations, but this may been a dramatic change to our script and storyboard.

When creating a DVD cover for a children’s TV drama series, it’s important to research into other series in the public to gain some ideas and an understanding of what needs to be included.

Firstly, because I had already looked at the ‘Hannah Montana’ opening credits, I decided to look into cover of the ‘Hannah Montana’ series DVD’s.

I really like the Hannah Montana DVD cover because even just the look of it before you even read the content represents the series itself. The colours use represent the      character of Hannah Montana with the pinks and purples and the glitter represents Hannah’s life as a popstar. By using a large image on the front of the DVD cover is sensible because it allows the writing to be limited, appealing to the younger audience. It also allows the audience to be totally clear of the main character and it introduces them  straight away. By using a familiar logo for the title also helps the audience to associate the DVD cover with the show series and title sequence.

I had already looked at the title sequence for ‘The Sleepover Club’ in my research and felt that it could benefit me to look at the DVD cover to see how it is similar to the title sequence itself.
You can tell that the DVD cover is linked to the series because of the use of ‘The Sleepover Club’ logo on the front. By making it big really helps to grab the audience’s attention and also limits the text to also appeal to the audience. The use of a big photo also appeals to the younger audience because they’re not going to want to read a lot, they’re more interested in finding out what the DVD is about and which characters. Having the photo also allows the audience to be introduced to the characters straight away.
The use of pink in the background also helps to attract the young female audience the show is intended for. It also relates closely to the show itself, in particular the main characters. Stereotypically the colour pink is associated with females and this reflects the characters in the show.
On this cover, I really like how the image of the characters appears to be framed by the green frame. To me this indicates a photo frame that would hold all the friends memories.

Looking at the ‘Saved By The Bell’ cover, it doesn’t really relate too much to the title sequence I previously researched, yet the characters are clearly shown on the front of this cover, and the title logo seems to be quite similar. The colours aren’t even similar to the title sequence, however the characters really keep the cover linked to the series. The use of the big image, similar to the other covers I’ve looked at, helps to keep the audience informed of which characters are featuring, but it also gives new viewers a chance to be introduced to the characters.
I really like the simplicity of this cover, and how it still relates to the theme of the programme which is school. In the image, the characters appear to be sitting at a desk do some work and this clearly is relative to the school theme.

The cover for the Series One of Britannia High DVD is really attractive to its young audience. It uses bright primary colours as the producer knows that its audience would definitely be attracted to it. The use of a large photo of the main characters is helpful to how attractive the cover is to the audience because the buyers should hopefully be familiar with the characters already. The characters all look happy which is a positive because it indicates that the DVD itself follows quite a happy storyline. The use of a star on the cover is also helping to attract the audience because

We hope for our title sequence to be between a 30 and 40 second clip featuring both live footage (shot by ourselves) and a selected piece of music (either an already produced song or a piece we devise ourselves).

Our sequence will feature 4 or 5 female actresses aged between 14 and 15 to appeal and connect with our audience of 10-15 year old children.

We hope to shoot our actresses in a photography studio that we have found based on our college campus. We decided on this idea because we felt that it would allow us to clearly present our characters to the audience. During the editing process we hope to be able to edit the background of the shots in some way to create some variation, maybe by changing the colours or adding a pattern. We also wanted to edit the characters’ names into the clip to introduce them to the audience.

Our idea for the sequence was inspired and influenced by several different title sequences we researched. The ‘Hollyoaks’ title sequence really inspired our studio idea and we also adapted some of the ideas from ‘The Sleepover Club’ s opening credits. We were also influenced by ‘Hannah Montana’ and ‘Sonny with a chance’ through their use of catchy theme tunes.

Recently when watching an episode of ‘Hollyoaks’ at home in my own time, I found that, although it’s clearly not a children’s drama, it presents a very interesting title sequence. Although it doesn’t give much insight to what the show is actually about, it gives the audience a clear introduction to each of the characters without naming any names or giving any of the characters past / history. I like the idea that sequence appears to have been filmed in a studio, and then edited to present all the characters in a short sequence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfBy5LPJHo8

The ‘Hollyoaks’ title sequence presents all the ideas that we’ve had in mind for our own title sequence. An opening sequence like this, with added relevant music on our part, and some graphics added indicating the characters names, could be very positive and relatively easy for us to achieve. We would be at an advantage as well given that we have a photography studio on the college campus and we could film here and edit in any other effects we wanted later on. Something like this covers everything we wanted our opening sequence to have and not to have in it.