Logos

Logos

When looking into and discussing the creation of our company logo I decided it would beneficial to generate some templates using 'freelogoservices.com'; through doing so this helped the group establish what perception an audience may infer from our logo of choice and whether or not this coincides with our desired choice of audience and genre. As a group we found that simplicity was a main feature of a successful company, e.g. CocaCola, Nike, Warner Brothers etc. All of these brands/companies are recognised globally due to their logos lacking in complexity- this enables an audience to remember such logos and therefore become familiar with them and their associations. Through our research we have learnt that film production companies have their own set of codes and conventions in which their audiences expect them to follow; for example it is unlikely that somebody would associate a Warner Brothers film with a romantic comedy- most companies generally stick to a certain genre in order to advertise their product through connection as well as targeting similar audiences.

Logo Design One:

The first template logo consisted of black eligible font underneath a media related image. Due to the industry in which 'Moongate Productions' would be based, the image would allow audiences to associate the logo to the nature of the company. It also consists of a monochrome colour scheme which is subtle but somewhat strong as my group found that colourful logos appeal to audiences of the younger variety- a social group in which our company is not directed towards. 

Logo Design Two:

The second logo design had a somewhat 3D effect in which the image of the film cassette roll looked realistic to the viewer; this is a very modern way of portraying the media industry and would possibly entice the desired audience (YA). However the font consisted of a navy blue colour and was thinner than that of logo design one; we found that this was a weakness rather than a strength as it looked less professional and the company name did not stand out as much as we had hoped with the colour change.

Logo Design Three:

Logo design three appealed to our teen audiences as when asking classmates this was the one that was most popular on average; we considered this feedback when discussing our final design. Although the font is still navy, it matches the colour present on the image; the image was chosen as it consists of darker and more mysterious connotations which coincides with the thriller genre. The atmosphere/effect such an image would have on our audience would strongly correlate with that desired in our film.

Logo Design Four:

The last logo design has a slightly burgudy/maroon tone to it which some classmates noticed but others did not; this can be seen as quite unnerving as it can almost be argued that "your eyes are playing tricks on you"- Katy Ward. This was somewhat intentional as the text alongside the arguably disturbed image which is slightly spooky really grasps the idea of the thriller genre however, unlike design three's use of headphones, there is no link to film or media visible.

Overall our logo looked really good and professional, and fits in with the rest of our piece. Our group and I liked the logo collectively which is another reason it fits and we're happy. 

Editing Session 2

As time passed we found it hard utalising the time  we had left due to our group members  trying to balence out all the coursework we have for school. As this was a problem I borrowed a school mac and took the second half of the film home to edit and get right. I managed to get all the clips to flow well, cut and edited to the appropriate speeds which meant both halfs of the film had been worked on.

While I was doing this Matt B  made some tweaks to the introduction, adding some sound so that the group could  get a feel for the video. I then took the mac to school and the whole group sat and edited both sections together on the school computer.

Megan and Lily gave us some pointers on how the film should have certain elements such as timings and effects the audience should feel at certain times, so we will take this onboard and include these comments in our next editong session.

Editing Session 1

When we started editing, we had a choice of editing software. We decided to use Adobe Premiere Pro as it included prfessional tools and effects which would produce quality videos and because I personally had some experience using this software before.

As mentioned, we started editing the introduction scene with the pinboard with the improved re shoot clips. Matt B spent a lot of time cutting the quick stutter zoom in on the pinboard and then found an appropriate sound effect which enhanced the look of the zoom. Once he had done this we were able to link all of the first half together and it looked good.

Overall this session was good and both Matt and I worked together and shared views for a good result we were happy with. Lily and Megan were blogging while we were editing so our group took full advantage of the time we had left before deadline .

Filming Session 5

Once we had filmed the pinboard scene Matt and I took the clips across to Premiere Pro for editing, and manged to cut a play the clips all the way through. After discussing about what we thought about the pinboard scene, we concluded that elements were not needed as they were not improtant elements to the overall scene. An example of this would be the keys being thrown onto the desk, as there was a dramatic pause focusing on the keys which had no significant meaning to the audience so we re shot this in hugher quity and for a short screen time.

Another section we re-filmed was the actual pin board section, as the majority of the pictures displayed Katy who is the friend of the protagonist. We did not want her to be protrayed as the protagonist, so we re-arranged images and ended the pin board scene with an image of Lily our protagonist in focus and close up which emphasises her role to the audience. Once we had done this we showed both to our teacher Mr Ford, in which he gave his opinion in liking the way the second edit was structured using match on action with later on in the introduction which helped us greatly.

Filming Session 4

For our title sequence, we have a decorated pin board of pictures of Lily, Katy and I to present to the audience that Lily is a target. On the pin board, there are pictures of Lily from when she was younger to what she looks like now. Our narrative is about stalking and this presents to an audience that Lily is being stalked and someone is constantly watching her. I took pictures of Lily, Katy and I walking and talking at distorted angles and some from a distance. This is to show that the 'stalker' follows Lily's every move and is constantly watching her. We printed out arrows to pin onto the pin board, linking pictures together. At first, the footage shows a close up of the pin board then panning out. This shot can be viewed as ambiguous to an audience as it could be seen that this is more of a police investigation and they are gathering information about Lily - this is what we originally planned to do when we drew out our storyboard. Matt B and I filmed the title sequence together as Lily and I were both in lessons at this point. They slightly adapted our original storyboard further on as in our storyboard, we do not actually see the antagonist at all, only certain parts like hands and arms but what both the boys filmed actually turned out to look incredibly good and definitely works better than our original thoughts. Before the antagonist is seen, the camera is fading in and out to different pictures of Lily and friends on the pin board - after the last fade in, the zooms out to a shot of the pin board where Matt (the antagonist) suddenly appears for a split second. A problem that could arise when it comes down to editing the  title sequence is that the footage may not flow into each other. 

When filming the pin board sections Matt B and I worked together to film and light each scene in the most dramatic and enhancing way possible to make the pin board subject and antagonist look as striking as possible for the ambiguous feel the group wanted. This went well as we certainly achieved this from our footage however some shots we're blurred so we would have to set up another session to re shoot this. 

Filming session 3

Our third filming session was also successful, as we were able to continue filming the outside clips and get the majority of theme completed for the final editing task which Matt and I will complete. Due to this being our third filming session we found it hard filming the wanted sections, as weather changes each day we filming so matching shots was hard as some clips would be bright and others wouldn't. Despite this we continued to film the shots, as I knew my skills in editing the brightness, contrast and colour levels in the clips we're a strength of mine and Matt B and I would be able to edit all the clips colours to match so that they would flow well.

Problems with filming that we have had was that actresses would sometimes appear to filming sessions in different clothing to other filing sessions by accident, which was fine as we would do other things than filming in this time we had but delayed the filming a lot as gathering the crew to film was difficult so time gradually moved on closer to the deadline.

Another thing our group did which we improved on from our continuity task was how we would film sections of our opening well, but would think of other clips we could include which would further help the flow of the sections we needed. This expanded our overall time of footage which wasn't negative as we could cut our footage down effectively. Which would link and match the clips together.

Filming Session 2

In our second session of filming, after shooting practice footage of one of our hardest shots we have on our storyboard, we decided to film the shot again, applying the improvements I stated in an earlier blogpost. We set up the tripod so we can use it to keep the camera movement steady and consistent. The shot was difficult to shoot in our practice shot because Lily was not stationary in the shot, she was walking at a pace which made the camera footage look shaky and disorientated. We did not want the shot to be perfectly still because that would look unrealistic but having shaky footage also makes it look unprofessional and unrealistic. The tripod was simple to set up and it helped me keep the camera steady and accurate. We also asked Lily if she could walk at a slower pace to simplify filming the shot. Luckily, challenging the practice shot was successful today, we just hope that it will flow nicely with our other footage that we filmed the other day. If it does not flow well with the other footage, we will have to re-evaluate methods that we could use to improve and fix this shot.