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Our Final Opening sequence

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Evaluation question 7

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Green Screen- Evaluation question 3

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Audience Feedback

We showed our opening sequence to a range of people. We focused mainly on our target audience as the viewers. We wanted to get an audience feedback onto our opening sequence so that they could identify the key features of our opening  sequence. 

Throughout the editing process, the class got to see our opening sequence at the different stages. We had to re-film the opening shots as the audience identified there was a continuity issue through the lighting of when we filmed. Although this was annoying and time consuming, we were happy to re film the shots of Billy getting ready as it allowed us to improve our opening sequence to a considerable standard. 

We asked a few people in particular what they thought of our opening sequence when it was completely finished. We asked Charlotte and Faye because they fit perfectly into our target audience of our film. This way we could judge our opening sequences as a whole because they specifically like romantic comedy films and would tell us the honest truth when it came to what they thought.

Faye: 

“I really enjoyed watching both Milly and Molly;s Opening sequence. I thought the storyline was both engaging and interesting, setting it apart from other romantic comedies. They done this by introducing a concept that I haven't really witnessed before with a lilm. The storyline isn't cringey and predicable, allowing the audience to be on the edge of their seats and wanting to know more about the film. The ending of the opening sequence poses enigma codes to the audience because we want to know more about how the character will meet again and will a relationship form between them. The like the idea of the character, How Erica and Mason contrast each other in both career and clothing but yet thats how they fit so well together. The opening sequence doesn't give to much information away about what could happen to the characters. This is good because if it was to be made into a full movie, the audience would want to have some surprises within it, without knowing it all in the first 2 minutes.” 

Charlotte: 

“To begin with, the institutions they have created a both creative and fitting to the opening sequence. Within the opening sequence, you witness the establishing shots of London, allowing us to identify that both characters are travelling to the city but that the storyline relates to London. The ‘CityScape’ institution links to this thought the use of the name, leaving city in the name of the institution. The font also has a silhouette of the city within it, backing up this point. The movement of the font was smooth and professional. The sirens sound effect that went along with it fit perfectly with the movement of the words. I also really enjoyed the choice of song. Starving is a very popular chart song and the up beat rhythm fits perfectly with the atmosphere of the opening sequence.” 

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Here are the screenshots of how we edited in cross fades into our titles. We clicked on the edge of the footage to show where we wanted the fade on the titles. We added fades into every title as it flowed better with the opening sequence and related to our similarities with the film the Holiday.  The tiles also alternate from each corner make them more intresting.

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Script for Green Screen

Molly: Hi, my names Molly Scorey

Milly: And my name is Milly Acton and we are both media student at the Billericay School.

Molly: Our task was to create an opening sequence regarding any genre that we wanted. We decided to create a romance film, as this was a popular genre when we created a questionnaire that we asked a range of people.

Milly: Also there was a personal preference towards this genre and it would fit into our age group, as it is an aspirational lifestyle.

Molly: During this project we have gained a variety of skills using various technologies to make our opening sequence a high quality and to appeal to our target audience.

Milly: Previously, we had no experience with the production of a film and therefore we weren’t familiar with the software Final Cut Express. We had brief experience when filming our preliminary task, which helped, give us an indication of what to expect when completing our final product.

Molly: the technology we used was the Internet platform Tumblr that we used for researching and planning. The Internet helped us to research theories and watch other romance films, which we would then analyse and present on Tumblr.

Milly: Tumblr is an important software for our coursework as it allowed us to converge technologies in one piece of software making it easier for people to view our work.

Molly: After completing all the research and planning on Tumblr we were ready to film our opening sequence. First we both went to London so we could film our establishing shots in a variety of well-known locations that would be recognizable to any audience.

Milly: We used the Panasonic camcorder, which enabled us to produce a high-quality image for a cost-effective camera. The camera was straightforward to use, as we didn’t need to change any of the settings within it like the lighting, which was already fine as it was a nice bright day outside.

Molly: The director of The Elephant Man David Lynch said, “I’m done with film.” This supports our decision to use a digital camera. The Panasonic Camcorder is an example of democratization as this technology is now easily accessible to everybody to produce media.

Milly: When filming all the other scenes and shots that weren’t in London we used a DSLR camera. This was a more modern camera and was easier for use to use the different settings like the focus and lighting if we needed.

Molly: When we filmed in my house for the scene where Billy is getting ready, it was dark outside but when we filmed Alissa getting ready it was still light outside.

Milly: This meant that we had to re-film the scene with Billy to help make it continuous and consistent throughout the final piece. WE made sure when we re-filmed it was light outside.

Molly: To edit what we filmed we used final cut express which is a software programme that we used on the Apple Mac’s. Before this we had only used it for our preliminary task.

Milly: Using final cut express helped us to use editing techniques like match-on-action and shot reverse shot. When we put our titles in we made the video fast-forward for the shots of different places this was because it shortened them down and made the whole piece flow better.

Molly: During editing we were able to add stuff in like our background music, which was a bit difficult as we had to match it up to what was on the screen, as we wanted the chorus for our titles. Also, we added text bubbles into our sequence, to add the texting in we had to use text bubbles from the Internet and then add text over them.

Milly: Our institutions were all edited and designed by us on Final Cut Express and put into the beginning of our opening sequence. We got fonts for our institutions from the website dafont.com, the font for Cityscape Productions fits in with the name as the font has city buildings within it and it relates to our film as the narrative is set in London.

Molly: For our production company, we called it ‘M&M Studio’s’ and we had this in a white font with wood logs in the background as the font comes in from small to large. When this institution came up we started the non-diegetic music for our film. Throughout the establishing shots of London, we put our titles in including our director, producer and cinematographer.

Milly: Throughout this process we have learnt how to do specific things such as planning and researching effectively. We learnt how to add text, pictures and music in the editing process, also we learnt how to use a range of technologies this has then showed us the wider ideas about democratisation that is involved in producing a low budget film.

Molly: Because of the vast amount of technologies available it can help to make a successful media product as there is a considerable amount of opportunities for independent filmmakers such as ourselves who can create opening sequence to an audience.  

Milly: If you have the knowledge of techniques like camera framing and editing then all the technology is of no value

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Evaluation 5

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product. 

Looking back at my preliminary was, I feel as though I have increasingly progressed to produce our final opening sequence.

planning 

When planning our preliminary task, there was little to development for what we filmed for our preliminary task. There was a basic rough script of what we was going to say but we improvised on the dialogue between the two characters. The idea for our preliminary task was brainstormed onto paper with a few other ideas. We decided ago for the holiday idea as it was different form the other ideas in the class and it was simple and easy to follow. We also didn't make a shot list for our pre lim but we had a crate that we followed and just made sure we included the criteria. The prelim task was filmed in a classroom which decreases the verisimilitude of the sketch as its filmed in school.  Whereas, if it was our opening sequence, we would have filmed in a believable location. With the health and safety with the preliminary task, we filmed within the school so there were no real issues or risks. The mise en scene of the prelim made it unbelievable. This because we had a nikes catalogue as the holiday brochure. It was obvious tot an audience that it was a furniture catalogue. The setting was  a classroom and the tables and chairs gave it away. Milly was also wearing jeans and a bomber jacket. This wasn't the suitable uniform that a travel agent would be wearing. 

When we planned our opening sequence, we originally looked into each genre and decided on a romantic comedy. This was because it was different to what the rest of the class was planning and it was popular with our target audience.  It is also shown that romance films profit well at the box office. We them brainstormed a few ideas that we could use and decided on a conventional style love story between a girl and a boy. We then planned a shot list, making sure every location had a different shot list and that we used a range of different shots. The script was short and simple to add suspense between the two character as well as the storyline. If the opening sequence was to be continued into a film, then the two character would continue to meet throughout the film and have a relationship between them. TAhe shot list was a lot more devoped and thought out. It included all locations that we wanted to film in, a long with the variet of shots and all health and safety risks. When we filmed our final product, we had to travel to London and to Romford on multiple occasions, this meant that w had to becareful with the camera near the train tracks, We also made sure we were safe when crossing the busy roads in London . The health and safety for our final piece was a lot more detailed and we had more risks to think about. The verisimiltude for our final piecewas built through the mise en scene. We made sure both actors were wearing suitable clothing that matched their characters personality. W also filmed in a train station and travelled all theway to London to get the establishing shots that we wanted and give our opening sequence ‘pozazz’ 

 Camera Work

The camera work in our preliminary task was very basic. We only included the shots that were required through the brief and this made our opening sequence boring, The framing was also stadard and we didnt included any  Rule of Thirds or leading lines. We also didntuse a tri pod to steady our camera. 

Whereas, when we filmed our final piece, We used a tri pod and a DSLR camera which gave us the best possible quality. We also includeda larger variety of shots, this made our final piece a lot more intresting to watch as an audience. 

Editing

The editing for our preliminary task was simpe and straight forward, using basic ellipsis cuts to fram it all together, we created the match on action of me walking through the door but the edit wasnt smooth and we wanted to improve this for our final piece. 

our openiong sequence wa well edited an put together. We made sure each sghot was smooth and editing to the best of our ability. We included croos cuttting, this is where we cut two scenes that were happening at the same time parallel to eachother ao that narrative flowed. We also included the shot reverse shot during conversation of the main characters and the match on action of both characters leaving their houses. However, we did have to refilm Billy leaving our house as the lighting was too dark and the continuity of the opening sequence didnt flow. Oue editing made the opemningsequence moreengaging to an audience andtheyd want tot carry on watching. 

Narrartive 

The narrative for uour prelim was very boring nd basic, not having any flavour to it and not keeping the audience entertained.Witn our final product, we wantedto combat this so we created a storyline that was intrestion and differnet from the majority of romantic comedies. We also didnt want it to be cringy so we targeted those scenes forst, making them as normal as we could. Our fi,m was also very differnet from the rest of our classes, making it stand out as a romantic film.   

Representation

 Me and Milly played the part of the travel agents. We didn't have enough time to build on the representation of the two characters. Both the travel agent and the customers were polite but the mise en scene dosen’t represent our characters in the correct way. The representation of our characters for our opening sequence was carefully thought through. We wanted it to be like opposites attracts, influencing the idea that both Erica and Mason are doingcomplelteyl differnet jobs. The mise en scene also showed a difrenciation betweeen characters as she was dressed smarlty and he was wearing jeans and  a colourfui shirt. We related our characters to the likes of Lou from Me Before you and Augustus Waters from The Fault In Our Stars. 

sound 

 With our preliminary, the only sound within our opening sequence was diegetic conversation between the two character. This made it very boring to watch. We made sure that within our opening sequence we included a song of our choice that would fit with the narrative. The song was upbeat and in the charts, keeping the audience entertained. It created a happy and upbeat atmosphere towards the opening sequence. We also had dialogue between the two main characters to show how the relationship is being built. We used editing to vary the volume of the soundtrack and the characters when the background noise was too much and the characters couldn't be heard. 

Evaluation

With evaluation , i have learnt to analyse and critcically review my product. THeresearch that i done on Box offiice and textual analysis allowed me to build on my writing and analysing skill.  

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Filming Diary 5

The was the last day that we filmed for our opening sequence. All that had to be done waste filming a few section of billy getting ready because the lighting was too dark on the original date. This caused continuity issues within our opening sequence because it didn't flow. 

The lighting was really bright and sunny. Allowing us to film the perfect shots to fit in our opening sequence. We also got Billy to walk faster down the stairs because he previously took too much time and the shot wasn't going to fit within our opening sequence. 

This was the last time that had to film for our opening sequence. Now, we just have to edit on the sections together to make our opening sequence come together. We edited the majority of the filming after each time we filmed because we wanted to keep on top of our editing. 

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Evaluation 4

In what ways does your opening sequence use , develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The genre of our opening sequence is romantic comedy, there are a range of different films that show various similarities to our film with the production of major box office films. 

Setting 

The location of our opening sequence is set in London. We chose to film in London because Erica is represented as an accountant apprentice and working for a major company that operates in London. Mason is an art scholar for the London art college. The superior title of the art college makes Mason sound as though he is a high quality artist who is lucky to go there. The location for our film is to a degree conventional as many films are shot there. Some of these include Notting Hill and Bridget Jones’ Diary. Filming in London seemed like a suitable location because it makes the film relatable to a larger audience. If we was to film in Billericay, not as many people would be able to relate to the storyline. Whereas, London is a USP for which every knows where it is and that its the capital. The shots in London increase the verisimilitude of the narrative and it allows the audience to believe that we travelled to London to film. The atmosphere in London is also lively and busy. The likelihood of both character bumping into each other was slim but added to the storyline and that it was love at first sight if they bumped into each other in London. 

The other romantic comedy film that has significant similarity in location is Love, actually. The narrative involving Hugh Grant as the Prime minister is all set in London. The location shots show similarities with our opening sequence, proving it is both conventional and a popular location to film. 

Types of shots 

In our opening sequence, we wanted to take full advantage of the song that we recorded and included some shots of both characters getting ready at the very beginning. This helped to introduce each character through their personality and built the representation of each one. It allowed us to show clothing choices and how Erica is wearing smart clothing, going to her job. Whereas, Mason was a lot more relaxed, wearing jeans and a printed shirt, showing his creativity.

The film ‘Me Before You’ also has shots of Will getting ready on he morning of the accident. This helped to influence our opening sequence because we wanted to take similar ideas and incorporate it into our opening sequence. we used a lot of over the shoulder shots, illustrated in the image below, to show the facial expressions of the characters as well as there actions. It also provide enigma codes to the audience because the audience will question who they are.

Narrative 

The narrative of our opening sequence is inspired by that of ‘Four Weddings And A Funeral.’ In our product, the narrative consists of two character who meet unexpectedly at the train station and repeatedly see each other on various occasions. In our opening sequence, we show both character getting ready for the dat and then leave to go the train station.  They see each other at the train station for the first time and have a small conversation on the train and speak about how she is new to the area and he offers to help.  She declines his offer and finds her own way around. They later bump into each other. The rest of the story line unfolds when the pair continuously bump into each other and end up together on the idea that its love at first sight. 

In Four Weddings and a funeral, the characters played by Hugh Grant and Andie Macdowell represent our main characters as they repeatedly see each other at weddings over and over again. They realise that they have a instant connection thats apparent to both the character and the audience. The final outcome of the film is that both characters end up together. 

The narrative of our film. also has many similarites with ‘Friends With Benefits’ Our opening sequencee shows text messages. With this, we was able to make it look like both of the main characters knew eachother. The parallel over the shoulder medium shots also allow us to create the effect that they alredy know eahother. This is very simialr to ‘Friends With Benefits’ because the opening sequence shoes the storys of two different people who i meant ot be meeting their partners. Through editing they lead he audience to beleieve that they are meeting eachothe but in reality, they are meeting completley differnet people. This suprises the audience and keeps them engaged. 

characters

the characters within our opening sequence are similar to those in Me Before you and The Fault In our Stars. Augustus waters personality resembles Mason because he has an upbeat and chatty personality whioh allows him to be easy going. Augustus and Hazel automatically get and bounce off of eachother. 

In Me Before You, Lou Clarke is represented as a clumsy but quirky individual. She represernts the charactor of mason because he stands out from the crowd of typica business mern that Erica would usually go for. He is different from what shes used to and makes him stand out. he is also an Arts student which shows his creative side and that he has a fun and open personality. 

Erica’s character also faces similarites with Mageret Tate from The Proposal. They are both sophiscated women who work hard but fall in love unintentionally. 

Editing 

Withing our opening sequence, we originally wanted to include character profiles that came up on the screen when Mason and Erica bumped into eachother. Although, we found this to be difficult because the ending scene was too short for the text to come up. We wanted a text to appear on the screen so that the audience could see what is said and make it seem as though both characters already knew eachother. To look like an iphone message, we got the image of the internet. Aswell, we included the iphone message sent sound effect. 

Our idea of using the text messages on screen originally came from The Fault in Our Stars. Although, they show the same idea as the audience can read the text, our texts resemble those of the iPhone to show the legitimacy of the text.

Font and Titles 

The titles of our opening sequence resembles those of The holiday. We used a similar font that is angular and structured. The titles in the holiday also appear in alternative corners of the screen, usually at the bottom. We have also consecutively placed ur titles alternatively between the bottom left and right corners. We also made sure our font was always the same size and style. This its to make the opening sequence look professional. 

sound

The song that we chose for our opening sequence was Starving by Hailee Steinfeld. This is because it is an upbeat and happy song that creates the right atmosphere for our opening sequence. 

Conventionally with romantic comedy films, They will use a popular song of the time that has a fast paced tempo and the lyrics of the song relate to the narrative of the film. The film ‘Cant Buy Me Love’ opens with the songh’Cant Buy me Love’ by The Beatles. This not only relates to the title but also provides an upbeat and poastive vibe to the film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srwxJUXPHvE

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Filming diary 4

3rd March 2017

We left school at lunch to film at Basildon train station and then in Romford. We borrowed the camera, the microphone and the Tripod so that we could film at the train station but also outside the station in Romford. 

The camera equipment that we used this time round was different to the previous DSLR camera and we quickly learnt how to focus and use the camera.We were on a tight schedule to get the shots at the train station because we didn't have time to wait for another train and do we quickly managed to film a shot reverse shot dialogue between the two characters. We used a mixture of long shots and close up to tho body language and facial expressions of both the characters. 

Filming at a busy time increased the verisimilitude of our opening sequence because many people would be going to London and the platform is very unlikely to be empty. 

We used the RODE microphone on top of the camera because it was windy outside and we feared that the wind would over power the dialogue. The Rode Mic helped a lot but we could have introduced voice over to make it more clear. 

We managed to get a shot of Erica and Mason getting onto the train but it was difficult to set up the camera and let them get on when there was a lot of people waiting to get onto the train. Filming under pressure meant that we had difficulty getting the perfect shots because we had to rush and film each shot. On the train, we filmed a basic shot reverse shot of the two main characters speaking. W didn't include a large amount of dialogue because we knew it wouldn't fit into our opening sequence. We filmed all of Billy’s parts first but had Alissa say hers in the background to make it sound more natural and Flow better. 

We then repeated this process for Alissa.Although, the sound of the train drains out the dialogue slightly but you can still hear what the characters say. If we could re film this section, I would get some shot of Billy and Alissa walking onto the train and sitting down to make the story line flow better. 

The weather was relatively grey but not too dark meaning that each shot we filmed outside was clear and bright. When we wanted to film outside of the station, we wanted tot catch the moment both character bump into each other for the first time. We lace the camera in various different locations and angles to get a shot of just Alissa walking, then of Billy and lastly we filmed a long shot from the other side of the road to show the location of where we was filming but also show the two characters bumping into each other. 

We tried to film a long shot between two red double decker red buses. Although, the shot was quite claustrophobic and crowded so we decide that it wasn't the shot that we wanted to use. 

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Filming Diary 3

On the 23rd of February, I arranged to borrow the camera and film the parallel shots to the previous ones that appear in our opening sequence. Billy came to my house after school and we filmed the shots of him getting ready. 

I made him wear a relatively smart but creative outfit to show his personality. He wore a garish shirt to make him stand out Although, he also wore smart and sensible shoes and a denim jacket. 

When we started filming, we realised that it was relatively  hard to get the right angles and we had a lack of space.  When filming the bathroom, it was hard to film over the sink without getting the camera and tripod in the shot. We got the shot of billy brushing his teeth from the view in the mirror to make it easier or me to film.

Another problem we faced is that the natural daylight was getting dimmer and the artificial light was to yellow to film. The light became relatively dark and the quality degraded. 

We real have to re film the match on action shot of billy leaving the house because the shot was too dark and it proves as a continuity issue of our opening sequence. 

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Script: 3rd March

Alissa: the next train arrives in 5 minutes

Billy: ahhh Thankyou, I must’ve just missed one 

Alissa: yeah, I'm never good at getting the times right, normally just wing it

*gets on train*

Alissa: * accidentally drops phone*

Billy: * picks it up* I haven't seen you on this train before

Alissa: thank you and no I'm new to the area, don't really know the trains too well. 

Billy: where you going? I can help you out if you want 

Alissa: oh no its fine honestly! i think I can find my way 

Billy: alright well, it was nice to meet you. Im billy btw 

Alissa: yeah see you later 

*Billy and Alissa see each other*

look up and hold a stare 

We plan to follow this script when filming on the 3rd of March. Although, we want it to seem as natural as possible and not as though it is scripted so we will let our actors change certain words and tell us what sounds best when we film it. We only have a short script because we have included a lot of other shots from different locations. This took up a lot of our 2 minute opening sequence so we shortened the script so that it was suitable and fit with our opening sequence.  

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Test Filming

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How does your media product (opening sequence) represent particular social groups?

Representation in media is how a person, a place or an object is portrayed or discripted to an audience. It shows the preferred reading as the audience understand the representation.The way in which something is represented can change the atmosphere or the mood of your media product. 

In our opening sequence, there are a two main character that feature. With a rom com, we wanted predominately a man and aa woman to features the two main character as they are the two that are meant to fall in Love. Erica, is a 19 year old accountancy student working in London.  The apprenticeship in accountancy shows her to be a well educated student.  The fact that it is in London shows her to be well respected and determine to get a top quality apprenticeship. 

Mason, is an art student in College. This shows him to be creative and open minded person. His scholarship for Royal College of Arts in Kensington shows how his family are from a lower class but he smart as he managed to get the scholarship for a well respected college. 

Erica is our other main protagonist in our opening sequence. She is an accounting student living in Billericay. In our text, she will be wearing smart clothing including loafers, smart trousers and a white blouse. The clothing choice allows us to represent Erica in a certain way so that she has the smart image of her working for an accountant in London. The representation through clothing is a main factor when creating the image that we want to create and show how Erica's a smart and intelligent student whereas Mason has a creative side that contrasts with Erica's personality making them the perfect couple Both Erica and Mason are the protagonists of my opening sequence. The genre of romance allows there to be two main characters to make the storyline work.

Both characters have an essex accent. Although, Erica is very intelligent and breaks the stereotypical essex girl. The audience will be surprised by the manor of Erica as she is represented through her accent to be dumb.  Billy is a joker and is seen to be a funny character . His accent and confident essex attitude allows him to be shown as a confident character. The bag that Erica is holding is a designer showing that she has wealth but also that she is successful and fashionable.Mason will be holding a sketchbook to back up the representation of him as an art student in London.  

The characters in our opening sequence are similar to those of Hugh Grant and Andie Macdowell in Four Weddings and a Funeral. This is because they meet in an unlikely circumstance but also have an instant attraction towards each other and unexpectedly bump into each other time and time again making it seem like fate. This relates to our opening sequence because when Erica and Mason meet at the train station, they already feel the connection between them. 

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This is the text scene that we have edited together to show how the relationship sis built between the two characters. The original text looks like it was sent from Erica’s phone and the text received gives the illusion that Mason sent one in return. 

This makes the audience believe that there is already a relationship between the two character but they don't meet until the train station. I had to get a PNG file so that the bubble didn't have background and we could use it within our opening sequence.  I then changed the colours to represent the messages on an iPhone. We also included sound effects to show that the message had been sent and one was received. 

Overall, i am really happy with the outcome as the messages don't distract the audience from the main shot but also give a background behind he story line. The editing is really smooth and the sound effects come in at the right time. 

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Cityscape productions is the name of our production company. This is because it relates to the storyline of our opening sequence. It is set in London which is the capital and is always bust. We used a police siren sound effect over the top of our institution to add verisimilitude. The font we chose also depicts the silhouette of a city. We chose this because it fitted with our opening sequence but also because its bold and it stands out. This helps with our brand identity because if we have a bold logo, it is more likely to stand out and be remembered by our audiences.

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With our distribution company, we wanted a relatively plain background that still had an affect on the audience. M AND M studios represents me and milly as it its the initials of our names. The font is bubbly and creative