Children's Film Review

Camerawork
Firstly, we began with a mid shot of the book on the table surrounded by clutter. This simple shot worked well as the main focus was the book and the clutter  disappearing around it, so we didn't have any movement of the camera, because the clutter disappearing was meant to be happening over a long period of time. Our next shot was an overhead shot of the book, followed by an extreme close up, this meant that the only focus for the audience could be the book therefore, they could get the full effect of glitter falling on the page. This wouldn't have been as effective if it was a long shot or mid shot because the camera was able to capture the glitter, making it possible for the audience to see it clearly.

Sound
We could have added more variation to our background music, as it was slightly repetitive because we didn't have much time to put it in, although, the music we did have fitted in well. We didn't use typical fairytale styled music that sounds 'magical', we decided to use a more modern style that was an acoustic guitar.  If we could do the opening again we would add more special effect sounds, i.e. a twinkling sound when the glitter falls onto the book. We had a voice over which made the opening much more interesting and worked well alongside what was happening on the screen. It didn't give the whole story away but hinted at key themes of what was going to happen later on in the film.

Editing
After we had more our opening together, we realised that it was slightly jumpy between different shots. Therefore we corrected this by using a dissolve shot to smooth out the transition. We also ended on a fade to move on to the rest of the film that would be played by real actors instead of animation. We also changed the speed of the introduction of the characters so that it fitted in with the voice over. We could've improved the start to make it more interesting by having people walking past the cluttered table etc but sped up to show the long period of time.

Mise-en-scene
To start the children's films opening credits, we filmed in a classroom, that is just an everyday room that is boring and dull. The change therefore is emphasised because its a complete contrast from dreary to magical with the glitter falling onto the book. The book we used was very old and we felt fitted perfectly into the genre we were doing. Also, rather than just having the words just there on the page we made it more visual where the letters appeared one by one.

Our review of our children's film opening

Good points
. Introduction of characters --> speech gives information about Edd and Mia
. Effects --> use of glitter gives a 'magical' effect, book opening on its own
. Animation --> girl moving on path (links to editing also)
. Sound --> voice over works well with the different parts of the sequence
. Transitions --> fading and cuts


Not so good points
. Camera --> could've been more stable at times and there could've been more angles
. Sound --> could've varied the music more
. Transitions --> some of the transitions could've been smoother
. Credits --> added more credits/ production company etc
. Mise-en-scene --> we could have made it more clear where it was going to be sent

Peer feedback

Our feedback from the group about our children's film opening sequence:


Conventions of an opening sequence
. Introduces characters
. Credits
. Tells you what the films about

Specific genre conventions 
. Fantasy
. Romance
. Fairytale romance
. Adventure fairytale

Variety and quality of camerawork
. Good variety of camera work but unstable at times
. Nice variety at beginning
. Nice variety

Use of special effects
. Good use of special effects
. Nice effects e.g girl walking up path
. Book opening on its own
. Fairy dust

Sound- quality and effectiveness 
. Good background music
. Song fits with genre
. Like the music and the way it fits in with what's going on

Use of Mise-en-scene
. Book and glitter (props)

Editing
. Music, credits in the book being written letter by letter are good
. Opening of the book

Best features
. The effects
. Effects