Amy’s Weblog

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.

1ST OCTOBER
Today, I wrote out my SMART targets in detail for the video part of my advanced portfolio. Although all of the targets I’ve set myself are quite short, they are all SMART and relate to my project. Writing SMART targets for myself has helped me to have a clearer idea of what I have to do and by when. Having target dates written down will also help to ensure that I stick to the dates I’ve set myself.

Today I also added to my research part of the project, finding more title sequences relative to our audience and characters. I feel that I have a sufficient amount of title sequences now and I am planning to write an analysis of all of them together so I can gain some ideas and inspiration from them for my own title sequence.

Next lesson we will work on writing up our idea in full and we will make a start on our story boarding.

8TH OCTOBER
In today’s lesson I worked on finishing up my research into the title sequences of other children’s TV dramas. I added to my videos and got it to a total of 11 and then wrote a detailed analysis of all of the videos, including what ideas we could use for our own sequence. I also discussed what would be achievable for us from the other sequences I looked at.

Next lesson we’re going to work on starting our story board, find our music and actors and possibly start on some of the other production documents.

15TH NOVEMBER
During today’s lesson I worked on several different things, trying to tie together some more of my research and planning.
Firstly, I typed up an idea I had in my own time based around the ‘Hollyoaks’ title sequence and I wrote up all my ideas that sparked from it. This was really important because it helped me and my partner to decide on our final idea and helped us devise our final idea to shoot in a photography studio on college campus and create a sequence in a similar style to the ‘Hollyoaks’ opening.
After, I then typed up our final idea in full for the group so that both me and my partner had a clear idea of what our sequence was going to include. I also commented on where we would shoot, what actors/actresses we would use and what music we were planning to use.
Next, I filled out a location scouting form for the College Photography Studio in J Block that we’re planning to use for our shoot.
Finally, I started off some research into some children’s TV drama’s DVD covers and added a short commentary to one for the ‘Hannah Montana’ series.
Next lesson, hopefully we will start our story boarding so that we are hopefully ready to start filming in the next few weeks.

5TH NOVEMBER

In today’s session we put our final touches onto our storyboard and wrote our script in detail. We added to the storyboard how long we planned each shot to be and what each shot would include. We also discussed the there would be no clear camera movement, but a lot of the production would be enhanced in editing with different transitions between each shot and different things we can add into the shots on Final Cut Pro during the editing process.
We also selected our music in today’s session from a copyright free music website. We’ve selected two different sections of the music that we hope to put together to create a single piece. The music has no lyrics to it, but it has a happy tone, something we want our title sequence to be associated with.
Today, we also experienced a dilemma related to our choice of set (see separate post DILEMMA). Basically, it was to with our actors being to young to film on college campus which now leaves us with the issue of nowhere to film as of yet. We are currently looking for another location, hoping to find one before next week’s lesson.

19th NOVEMBER
Due to our dilemma about being able to film today because one of our actresses dropped out on us at short notice, we had to re-write both our script and storyboard. It wasn’t too bad because I feel that the storyboard this time around is a lot neater and shows better what we’re planning to include in each of our shots.
We also have found a new location because of our other dilemma two weeks ago. The location is now at a house of one of my family members. It presents a similar setting to the one we would of had in the studio so its not too bad. Its also a lot more relaxed on times that we can use it and there’s not a risk of an audience at the new location.
During today’s lesson, I spent most of my time re-drawing the storyboard while Bianca made some changes to our script. After lunch we researched into some radio adverts on the internet.
Next lesson we plan to film at our location. Hopefully we will be able to get all of the footage we need. We’re also going to get all our props together before shooting (because we need a lot) and we’re also going to spend a lot of time setting up the place we’re filming so its perfect first time around.

26TH NOVEMBER
Due to our third dilemma in the last few weeks, we were again unable to shoot (really sounds like we’re putting it off, i promise we’re not!).
So instead of spending our time shooting, today, we worked on gathering our ideas for our DVD cover, and then turning them into simple mock ups on Photoshop. It went quite successfully and I feel that the two ideas that we’ve come up with are quite decent.
Next week before we film, we’ll try to come up with atleast one more idea, make a mock up for it, and then hopefully make a decision into which we want to use, before going to film.
The lesson after that, we’ll obviously be editing our video together, and with any spare time we might have, hopefully we can start on our final DVD cover .

1ST DECEMBER
Today, in our short lesson, we added a bit more to our mock up covers, and then we spent time re-printing some of our pre-production documents. We had to edit the ‘Talent Release’ forms, changing the names and dates of some of the details because of the changing of filming dates, and who was going to be in the film. We spent time sorting out our new actress as another of our girls dropped out, and we’re hoping that filming will go well on Thursday, so we can start editing next week.

10TH DECEMBER
Last week we filmed and at the time we thought it went quite well. However, once we’d uploaded our footage to Final Cut Pro we noticed that our lighting was all dodgy and there was a plug socket in a few of our shots. We were a bit annoyed at first but in the end we’ve managed to get the first few seconds of our film looking okay. We had some trouble with a particular transition that we wanted to use but in the end we managed to get it working and everything was fine. The footage that we have is okay but we are planning to re-shot as it isnt as strong as we hoped.

POST DILEMMA

14th JANUARY
In today’s lesson, I spent time working on the final mock up cover for our DVD as my partner was away and I didn’t want to work on editing the footage on my own. I’m pleased because I was able to finish it to the standard that I wanted to and I can now work on the actual cover next lesson or the lesson after.

28th JANUARY
Today I worked on the actual DVD cover for our new idea (see separate posts). We had to make several changes to our film but the DVD cover wasn’t affected because it only involved me moving a few things around and changing names and information on the cover. I also started to work on the back of the cover writing the blurb information to feature on the back cover. I also managed to write a complete radio script for our advert, ready for us to record next week. Both of our voices will feature in the advert. I decided to do these things this week because my partner wasn’t in and felt that I needed to find a way to progress further with our work.
Next week, I plan to have fully completed the DVD cover without original images which we are planning to take when we film in the afternoon next week. I will be starring in the video next week, leaving my partner to the filming and directing.

4TH FEBRUARY
Today we went out to re-shoot for our film. With the DVD cover almost complete without original images, we don’t have much left to do on this section of the project. The filming was quite successful and we came out with a lot of good footage that was suitable for our title sequence. We looked through all the footage that we took and are confident that we might not have to shoot again. Next week we plan to edit the film together and hopefully start recording for the radio advert.

11TH FEBRUARY
Today we’ve edited half of our film and got almost half of the sequence together to fit the music that we’re working with. I’m really pleased with how it has come out so far, and we plan to edit the other half next week. We gave up with editing the film to start recording for our radio advert. We had to perfect the script and upload it to the blog before we could start recording. The recording went really well and we got all of the right things recorded for the advert. During our next lesson we plan to edit the radio advert and continue editing our film. In the next weeks I will also complete the DVD cover to ensure it’s finished so we can begin writing our evaluation.

25TH FEBRUARY
Today, we edited together our radio advert. We didn’t have to cut much up because it was actually quite clear as we recorded it and it all flowed quite well. We had some issues with adding our theme music to the radio advert because we needed to ensure that it all flew well together and that we could fade it in and out so our voices could be heard over the music. It all went really well and I think it actually sounds really good and I’m really pleased that we worked on it together. We also made more changes to our actual film adding more of the footage in to bulk out our blank spaces. Towards the end of the lesson, however, our computer turned off and we lost a bit of our work. Some of it had been saved on autosave but not all of it was re-stored. We’re going to work on finishing it next week as well as my completing of the DVD cover. I also plan to start writing my evaluation next week.

11TH MARCH
Today, we were working on getting our original images together to put on our DVD cover. We went into the photography studio on the college campus to shoot the photos of me so I could put them onto the front and back of the DVD cover. The shooting went really well and we came out with a lot of good images to chose from for the front cover. We chose two photos one of me posing in a full length shot for the back cover, and a medium close up photo of me for the fr0nt of the cover (see seperate post relating to the DVD cover work).
As well as doing this, we also planned to finish editing our film, ready for us to start planning for our evaluation. We had to re-edit our music because we kept have problems with it jumping and not sounding like it had been fitted together properly. Once we had sorted the music so it flowed better, we then continued to edit the film together. The editing was very successful and we managed to actually finish it all and it looked really good. However, when we attempted to add text to our video to create the title sequencing at the end, the Final Cut Pro application quit on our mac unexpectedly and the work we had done hadn’t saved. We wouldn’t let this bring us down, and we re-edited the whole film back together. We made sure we had saved our work this time and the mac told us that it had worked. However, the application quit again when we tried to add text for the second time. We tried to re-store our work from the application but it wouldn’t allow us to, and eventually we gave up. It was very annoying for us because we’d already done it twice, but mainly because it wasn’t actually our fault.  It was frustrating that the failure was out of our hands and there was nothing we could do to rectify it. It’s also even more annoying because both of our other products are finished and ready to hand in, and it’s our video now holding us back. The time that we would have spent today planning for our evaluation, we had to spend re-editing. We are going to try and re-edit the video together before our next lesson and hopefully add in the text for the title. This would allow us to plan for our evaluations next lesson.

18TH MARCH
Today we finally finished editing our film! I’m quite pleased with the final outcome, but I still don’t really think it is as strong as it could have been. There are parts in it that I don’t think fit well with the young, girly film that we were trying to achieve because at some points there are graffiti in the shots which we should have thought more about. But overall I am quite pleased with it. We had to re-edit the music because we lost it last lesson when the Mac failed on us. This didn’t prove to be much of a problem for us because we had edited it so many times that we had a fair idea of what had to be cut where and at what times. Today I also worked on adding a lot of bits to my blog and making comments on a lot of the things I hadn’t written about. I also added things to my radio advert post and the DVD cover post.

SMART TARGETS
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time Related.

IDEA DEVELOPMENT
By 17th September we had produced three ideas and had presented them to the rest of our class.
By 5st October we will have written up our final idea in full detail and will have a clear idea of what our sequence is going to include.

RESEARCH
By 8th October we will have completed our research of children’s TV drama title sequences and written a full analysis of all that we researched commenting on how the characters, the audience and the show in general relates to the one we are creating and how we are going to take on board what we have found from our research.

PLANNING
By 22nd October we plan to have completed a full, detailed storyboard of the title sequence, a full script (if needed) and have prepared our choice of music.
By 5th November we aim to have fully selected all of our actors, arranged our set / location and found the appropriate equipment.

PRE-PRODUCTION
By 12th November we plan to have completed our production documents including personal release forms, talent release forms, location scouting and release forms.

FILMING
We hope to have completed filming by the 3rd December. This will also include a full camera shot list.

EDITING
We plan to have completed the editing process by 17th December, adding in our music/sounds and effects where needed.