Thursday, 17 December 2009- Minutes of Meeting- General Discussion

Present: Anna Constantinou, Elena Antoniades, Anna Philona

In today's meeting, we reviewed our progress and what we still have left to do and who is going to do what how, where and when.

I will not be present during the Christmas holidays because I will be in Cyprus, therefore the group will have to film without me. However, we will be able to fiim the scene with my character in it when i come back.

We need to complete our filming, apart from the scene with my character in it, which hopefully can get done within the Christmas holidays. Every member within the group except me will be present.

Following the completion of the filming, Anna Philona and Elena Antoniades will be editing our trailer.

We also need to finish our website which will be done on the 2nd on Febuary at the CLC. To this, we will be adding our 'sneek peak' which we would have previously filmed.

In adition to this, we have our individual work left to do which is the magazine covers.

Filming day 2 cancelled and Script draft for sneak peak written up

We learned that lesson that Shadeie had had a car accident, therefore filming day 2 had to be cancelled. Also due to me being in Cyprus during the Christmas holidays, this meant that once Shadeie recovered, we would not be able to film the scene with me in it anyway because I would not have beeen there.

Anna Philona wrote up the script for the sneak peak during the lesson. This will be used when filming the sneak peak.

Researching music for our website with Shadei

When we (Shadei and Anna Constantinou) got back to school from the CLC, we sat down at a computer together and went about researching music for our website. We visisted a numder of websites provided and recomended by our teacher, in search of free music samples which we can incorporate and edit to make our own to use as music for our website.

We are researching music so that we will be able to have appropriate music on our website, as an extra feature. With what we find, we will edit it appropriatly using the appropriate software in order to add it to our website.

We are hoping that we will be able to add the music correctly and that, with this, it will make our website more appealing and intressting to our audience.

We found many samples that sounded intressting and different, but only a few that seemed to be along the lines of what we were looking for.

After coming back from the CLC, we researched about potential soundtracks that could be used on our website homepage. We have to use a soundtrack that portrays our soap in the style that we are trying to convey it in and also for it to integrate with our soap layout and colour theme. We will be looking for potential soundtracks and putting a link to them for the other group members, Anna Philona and Elena Antoniades to listen to and as a group we will be deciding which soundtrack will be most suitable for our website.

Soundtrack 1:

http://www.derekaudette.ottawaarts.com/index2.php

Lazy Sunday Morning:

We liked this soundtrack as it is fast paced at the beginning but starts to mellow down as the soundtrack progresses. This represents our soap as we dont have unrealistic storylines that say for example, Tv dramas such as Smallville would have. However our storylines are more realistic and relate to peoples lives and we tackle problems that people may actually face. This we think should be represented in our website soundtrack. However our characters do face big problems, such as rape and this should also be portrayed in our soundtrack. We think that this is a good example of this as this soundtrack starts of fast paced and aggressive, which could portray the problems that our characters have to face and it starts to mellow down which conveys the realism of their storylines showing the audience that these storylines could happen to anyone. We also think that this soundtrack goes with our layout and colour scheme as we didnt use bright or sharp colours and we used quite a neutral colour scheme ensuring it all blended in with each other. However, a downfall to this soundtrack in relation to the website could be the beginning of the soundtrack which is upbeat and fast paced. This could possibly not blend in with our layout which is calm and feminine. This could immediately put our viewers of visiting the website or even watching the soap. This is why it is important to check through many different soundtracks to ensure that we will be making the right decision.


Soundtrack 2:

http://www.derekaudette.ottawaarts.com/index2.php

Blueberry compote:

This is a mid-tempo mood piece featuring a strong groove, which we feel would work well with our website as it sounds modern and the pace stays similarily the same throughout the soundtrack. The only problem we have with it is that in the middle and slightly more towards the end, it starts sounding eery and possibly a bit sci-fi, which is definately not what our soap is trying to portray. Therefore we could possibly edit soundtrack 1 and soundtrack 2 to make a combination of the two. We will have to ask the group what they think but with we like the ending of soundtrack 1 and the beginning of soundtrack 2 which is upbeat and modern. We will have to investigate further soundtracks but this could be a possible idea for us to try and combine these two.

http://www.pacdv.com/sounds/free-music-04.html This is slow, soft piano music with the slight use of strings. It is called 'Gentle thoughts' and truly gives the feeling of content and unusual peace. It instantly comes across as very sentimental, and sad as if the person who composed it is heartbroken over something or someone or something and has longing. Although our soap contains heart-breaking storylines, we think that this might perhaps be too emtional, because our soap has positive things aswell.

http://www.pacdv.com/sounds/free-music-07.html This is fast- pace style music with fast-tempo drums. It gives the feeling of wanting to run. It is determined, repetitive and rhythmatic, but in a positive way, like someone playing the drums for pleasure. We think has too much drum-work within it and is a bit too happy for using in our website.

http://www.pacdv.com/sounds/free-music-19.html This is called 'Urban Spy 1'. This sample is cautious and mysterious, and the word that instantly comes to mind when thinking about it is 'Spy'. Althout it contains some elements which appear with our storylines, such as secrets, and going behind someone's back, we do not think that it is exactly what we are looking for


Group effort by Shadei Rabeie and Anna Constantinou

Going to the CLC to carry on with our website

At the CLC, we concentrated on improving the layout, improving and fitting photos, and rearranging text so that it worked in harmony with the rest of the layout. We changed colours of fonts and background so that everything worked better and looked better together and wrote up an interview of us talking about our characters. These interviews took time to write because we came up with suitable questions, and also had to write the full answers, but it was all worth it. The interviews turned out looking very realistic and we were happy with what we managed to write, as it will give out the correct information about our soap. We want our audiences to read the interviews on our website and see our own opinions on the characters that we are playing. Therefore, the information given out needed to be intressting, informative and funny, so that it is stimulating to read.

The e-cards were made accurate. We made sure the writing fit perfectly on them, and we made sure the presentation of the games added to the website was neat and accurate. We also cropped and re-sized our photos so that they were improved and fitted, and the layout was better construted. We managed to get most of it done, with only a few things left to complete.

Minutes of Meeting- Group Picture Taking

All present: Shdei Rabeie, Elena Antoniades, Anna Philona and Anna Constantinou

As we are visiting the CLC on Tuesday to continue with our website, until then, none of the group members have individual tasks to carry out, therefore, today, we spent our time taking better photos that we can use for our website, and this time, Shadei was there aswell, so we were able to take new photos with her also. We took many head-shots as well as Christmas- themed photos of us that we can use for E-cards on the website.

We also decided to take more comical photos, so Shadei, Anna and I used eye-liner to draw things on our faces so that we could take funny head-shots. I drew glasses onto my face, Anna drew a small moustache, and Shadei drew tear-drops under one eye. We were pleased with the results.

We also used a staircase to our advantage and took a photo of Shadei, Anna and I on different steps, grinning.

Our plans are, that we are going to add all of our new photos to Elena's USB so that we can bring them with us to the CLC on Tuesday. This way, we can incorporate them to our website.

We also changed the second filming date from the 6th December to the next Sunday after that.

Group effort written up by Anna Constantinou

Continuing Website Construction & taking images

Group effort written up by Anna Constantinou

All present except Shadei Rabeie, for personal reasons.

Today, Anna Philona, Elena Antoniades and I attempted to carry on with our website, however, along with the rest of the class, we could not edit our work, only view it- due to software issues. We found this very frustrating, however, we managed to book another day at the CLC so that just our group can go to re-do our website, and then we can tutor the rest of the group about it, as this was the only option we had.

So as not to waste our time,we used the Mac computor to our advantage and took a variety of many character head-shots for our website. We used all of the effects availuable to create comical, casual, and special- effect photos to incorporate into our website.

We are taking photos so that we can use them as character photos within our website. We are taking them any way we can; using digital cameras, and the camera on MACs. Through using these photos within our website, we are adding visual information for our audience to see and be visualy stimulated by our characters and their personalities.