13/02/09

For the last few days I have been fixing up my portfolio and evaluating our soap.

We have collected audience feedback and have made graphs from the results. The results revealed that everyone asked thought that the stories involved were appropriate for a soap opera and that they could easily follow the story-lines involved. The majority of people asked, also thought that it was a typical opening to a soap opera.

I am happy with our final soap product overall, even though it was a very difficult and long production process The Soap is below:

04/02/09

We finished the final soap opera today and I am pleased with the final product.

The re-captured scenes fitted well into the overall edit and this time we made sure the framing was right and that the bruise was clearly shown for all to see.

After we added the final photos and the re-shot scenes into the final edit, we then attached the title sequence to the final soap and we watched it through to make sure it was perfect.

We then made sure the song from the title sequence slowly faded into the actual soap.

OVERALL, we are happy in our group with the final product and are happy that we planned thoroughly in the pre-production stage, and that we made sure we filmed quick in case there was any reason that we needed to re-film, which we did. I think the song choice fit well with the title sequence and that the script sounded like a real soap opera.

I was shocked with how it turned out because i didn't really watch soap opera's or like them before this project started so I didn't think the final product would be good, but due to lots of research and planning, and working in a great group, I was happy with how it turned out.

02/02/09

 Today we re-filmed the scenes that we had framing problems on, and overall the re-filming went really well and the scenes were captured much better.

However other scenes such as in the supermarket, we could not re-do as it was difficult finding a shop that would allow us to film.

Overall, I think that the recaptured scenes look much better than the originals and that I am glad we had enough time to re-film.

We have also made a few changes to the title sequence that were slightly different to the story board. We added 2 new pictures of the area that we hadn't drawn in the storyboard. We decided to add these pictures because we felt it made the title sequence more smoother and gave a better insight into where the soap was set.

Although normally we should have thought this process through more thoroughly in the planning stages, I think that it was difficult to tell what the final product would look like. However now we have a better understanding of timing and flow, I think this will help us next time in the next project.

26/01/09 and 28/01/09

We have spent most of our time trying to make sure that the title sequence is perfect as we have practically finished editing the actual soap opera. We have taken some more photos and have been trying to upload them to the computer so that we can add them to the title sequence.

We have also found a 'flash' that can be used to fit between each clip/photo which fits with the aim of appealing to a youth audience, but the title sequence itself still looks like it is for a soap.

Happy Birthday Hollie!

21/01/09

We have started to put together our title sequence and have filmed certain clips to include. We have also took the photos to include and have chosen the song.

Originally we was going to make a song using Garage Band, however we found a song that seemed to fit with the images in the title sequence and had the same feeling of a song used for a soap.

We are now preparing to take a few more photos on Monday with some of the cast and this will then be added to the rest of the sequence and we will edit them together to create the full and final title sequence. 

Our song and video is below:

19/01/09

We have filmed over the weekend all of our scenes and have started to edit the footage. However in a few scenes, the framing is not right therefore we have to consider re-filming those scenes. We will arrange appropriate times with our actors in order to do this. We also must remember to consider weather differences, and clothing, to make sure the footage is consistent with the rest of the soap opera.

Location shots

15/01/09

The Bill Workshop Video

Workshop and Location Photos

Hi Michelle

Don't forget to upload your final Bill video and your location photos.
Blog is really reflective. Well done!

14/01/09

Workshop

On the 7th of January, we was given the opportunity along with Bishop Challenor to have a workshop with people who work within the media industry. After some tasks, we were put into groups where we had to recreate a scene from The Bill, film it and then edit it.

In our groups we were given the script and then we had to delegate tasks and roles for people. I took the role of a director and then also acted once we swapped roles.

I think the workshop was really interesting and definitely gave me an insight into how a scene is shot and the whole process of filming from different characters point of view. 

The Editing Process

After we had completed all the different camera shots and angles, we then had to upload our footage and edit as a group. I think that our footage turned out quite well and because we used lots of different camera shots and angles, it made the scene look more interesting when edited together. However we did come across a few technical difficulties on the tape, that we only found out once we uploaded the footage.

Overall, i think our final product turned out quite well but i think that we should have made sure that the footage did not have any glitches and that maybe we could have filmed the scene better, i.e. lighting was not good and maybe to have filmed where there was a corridor. I think our group did the best we could with what we had and that the final product turned out fairly well.

Update from December-January

Since the last post, there has been a lot of improvements and developments with the Soap project.

We had to create another pitch that would explain why our soap should be shown on channel 4, and I think that our presentation went really well and that we explained thoroughly why this channel was the most suitable for our soap. However I think and so did the rest of the class during feedback that we didn't include enough information on the schedule however i think the rest of the pitch was in extensive detail.

We have also made LOTS of developments in the pre-production stage for our soap. We have wrote the script and story-boarded the title sequence and scenes. We have just finished scheduling the filming stage and are about to start Thursday this week.

Today we are going to take photos of our locations.