|| A few pictures of the crew and casting members? ||

Suspects cast

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You may notice that our group member Andrew Chappell appears as two characters in the film, this is due to lack of crew members or actors, we did our best to cover up his face in the shot and believe we have kept this unknown....Until now!

Ignore extra slides on the slide show.

|| Ancillery task research (bad posters) ||

When analysing this poster it was first noticed that there was a little too much design added which makes it hard to spot out the detail which you want to pay most attention to, for example the writing can be hard to see when 'attempting' to make it stand out from the background colour, and this is usually missed by passing viewers. We had been told that for a genre like murder mystery you would need something more simpler and more meaningful towards the genre, giving out different messages. For our ancillery task we will need to think along these lines but simpler, the end product will be posted on the blog.

|| Brief Editing Video Diary ||

Again, here is another short video diary explaining the editing skills applied to the movie, it will be explained in more detailed in the evaluation as it will be easier for me to explain in detail.

|| Brief Video Diary's (Sound & Editing) ||

This is a brief video diary explaining what I have used for adding sounds into the short film, this will later on be explained in full detail in the evaluation.

|| Target Audience Research Planning ||

When finding out the right target audience for YOUR short film the first best thing to do would be to put together a questionnaire and then take a look at the feedback. The feedback from a questionnaire will give you the exact information you will want to know from the correct target audience, if asked the correct questions. Here are a few questions that may be asked on our questionnaire: (without answer options)

How old are you?

Male or Female?

Are you still under education?

How often do you watch a film?

What genre of film do you prefer?

What genre of film interests you?

Do you think murder mystery films build a lot of suspense?

Name 3 of the best thriller films you have watched?

Name your favourite film?

Would you enjoy watching a murder mystery?

Are murder mystery's boring ?

if yes, why?......

^^ this is an example of pretty much the questions we would need to ask in order to get answers for our target audience research.

http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/vitalstats

The UK film council website helped gather bits of information that were useful to help us identify who are audience was, it was a very niche audience as not many people are interested in murder mysteries when drawn in by other interesting genre's of movie such as comedy, action, horror, sci-fi etc.....

|| Recording updates (Problems) ||

We have recently filmed 3 drafts to our movie ''suspect'', as we had been told changes needed to be made to some scenes as they were either too boring, not creative enough in shot variety or didnt come together. Our most recent draft is an improvement of our previous 2 and we received positive comments on few of our scenes due to creative thinking and editing. Our only negative comments were towards a few of the title slides that had been made,which was a minor issue as these are minor changes, but we were told to re film 2 of our interview scenes because they were lacking in shot creativity and were boring to audience, so this has slowed down our filming progress as this means we need to re film and edit in a short period of time. We are trying out best to get things done as soon as possible but we find it hard getting actors together on certain days to record. Further updates will be recorded.

|| Music Planning and creation ||

Our music was created by matthew lema alvarez from the take 1 group, we put him in charge of the music production of our film as he is currently studying music technology and has a better understanding of the music production software. Above are screen shots of the software used to create the sounds and what it looks like. As a group we seperated the tasks between us and felt that matthew was fit for the job.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1sgzwl4_W4

Here is a youtube link to the music production diary for our short film.

|| Suspect Storyboards ||

|| A2 media Location shots for Suspect ||

|| Film textual analysis || (Takers)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGcGyYx3n4I

This film is an action crime thriller directed by Jason luessenhop and was released august 20, 2010. The opening consists of a man chasing another within a house hold, and is successful in capturing him, but once after returning to his partner he discovers that the other person they were attempting to capture had escaped from them. This then jump cuts to a robbery which is taking place by mysterious characters who have not been introduced yet and this automatically will have the audience asking questions to themselves. The movie opens with great impact, by immediately supplying a little action scene for audience members to start getting a feel of the movie and what to expect. The opening uses very fast hand-held tracking shots to follow the fast moving action, the mood being given off is also assisted by the high tempo non diegetic sound in the background to match events that are taking place during the action scene. The shots all seem to pan very quickly when things start to heat up which is very good for connoting mood and tempo. The movie is an action crime thriller and these types of shots and this tempo is perfect for portraying this mood and also the characters. Close ups are momentarily used on characters faces to help identify or connote something about the character, this can also be used as a hermeneutic codes. This film has aided me for what I could possibly add to my potential a2 project. It has shown me the few main things that need to be done in order to connote certain things such as emotion, behaviour, moods, tempo and of course the genre. Not many editing effects have been used and the director has relied on his camera skills to provide enough entertainment to satisfy audience members. The props that the characters use to fulfill the desire of their characters are represented very well as there as many different types of characters such as police officers, robbers, workers, people of higher class, and these are represented very well through their clothing mostly and also props that they use as well as location. This contributes to my film making skills as it shows me that I do not need many effects to make my piece look good it depends on how I vary within my camera skills to match the shots in the film if I wish to connote this type of image for my characters.

|| Final Questionnaire ||

Suspect questionnaire

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The results from this questionnaire will be displayed clearly on graphs.

|| Risk Assessment ||

The risk assessment covers pretty much everything we need in order to remain safe when filming our short film. It covers any problems we could or may encounter when filming, we measured the different levels of risks and how they would affect us, we had to think of any locations which were harmful to us or our project. This included things such as public issues with police or local residence, ground surfaces which may cause slipping, cars coming through shots very quickly and simultaneously thus affecting filming, or any other social factors which affected our health. Making this risk assessment helped us to minimise the risks and allow us to film safely making sure none of these hazards were a problem.

|| The Team (Take 1 Productions) ||

This is the group I had put myself into, with Robert Unsworth, Andrew Chappell and Matthew Lema Alvarez. I believe and HOPE we work well as a team and manage to organise ourselves for a successful and highly entertaining short film. I'm sure a lot of hard work will be put in and hopefully will pay off in the end.

http://robertunswortha2media.blogspot.com/

http://wbsmediamatthewla2010.blogspot.com/

|| Brief of film ||

For our Media A2 we decided to create a short film. We are doing a murder mystery. The movie involves 2 detectives going round town finding clues about the mysterious body that was found in the woods.
The detectives suspect the victims step brother, a close friend and also the local loan shark who also has apparent connections with the murdered man (steven O'reilly). The detectives move from each suspect gathering clues and information about the whereabouts of each of them during the time of the killing, each interrogation builds to leading suspense and a dramatic twisted ending.

These is a list of the characters:
Detectives Smith & Johnson

Drunk - Peter O'finnigan
Victim - Steven O'reilly
Bruno Marley - Loan shark
Unknown man with dog
John Beattie

| Final Movie - The streets are calling |

This copy of my film can be edited slightly more which I will get down to soon, but here is a sneak preview of the film, HOPE YOU ENJOY IT! PLEASE LEAVE FEEDBACK.

| Blog summary!!! =D |

I have finally reached the end of my main task filming and editing along with my blog updates, on my blog you will hopefully find all the information required to keep you informed and updated about my progress throughout this project, I would personally like to thank my teacher Mr. Titheridge who guided me well along the way and encouraged me to improve the project and to reach its best potential. Also, I appreciate the helping hand from my cousins who helped both the shooting & editing side of the project, without their help I would not have reached the required standard of work, I would have been LOST! 

Hopefully when i move onto the A2 module in the future I will be able to undertake the task more easier as I have a better understanding of the software needed to edit the project, as well as the requirements needed to be met for the next task.

| FINAL VIDEO DIARY - THE STREETS ARE CALLING |

| Sound track production 2 - Video diary 2 | Soundtrack fix

| Old main task soundtrack production - VIDEO DIARY |

| Main Task Storyboarding |

Storyboarding presentation

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| Textual Analysis 3 - Narrative codes |

I will be analysing the film adulthood which is produced by Noel Clark, this film is a movie made in the UK and is mainly directed at youths who live similar lifestyles to show them the consequences of being part of such a thuggish community.

The opening of the film starts with a flash back of the previous release by Noel Clark which was called Kidulthood, the use of hermeneutic codes is used here as a flashback has been used to start off Adulthood to connote the previous happenings, by showing this flash back they will be making the audience wonder what has happened since that past event or what is going to happen.

The action in the beginning which shows a new group of youths on the block attempting a robbery uses hermeneutic codes as the robbery does not go to plan the audience will want to know more about the character and any other happenings later on of that character.

The use of proairetic codes at the beginning where the flash back has been shown will immediately make the audience wonder what the outcome of that event will be, this is good and can be used to build up tension and anxiety of the audience, especially for those who had seen Kidulthood.

In the opening sequence there i'snt much opportunity to squeeze in many codes but the use of narrative codes that have been fitted in should be enough to get the audience going, it will have them anticipating the rest of the happenings.

| Preliminary Sequence Storyboarding |

| Editing & Effects Video Diary 1 |

| Pictures of 2nd filming location |

| Slide Show With Movie Soundtrack In Background (Preview & Filming) |

Here is a video containing the movie soundtrack instrumental in the background which is going to be used for the main and final piece.
Sadly the Audio has a slight technical glitch but part of the soundtrack can be heard.
Enjoy this slide show, there is more to come such as pictures and video, stay tuned in to my blog to find out!

| Soundtrack Production ( Video Diary Coming Soon )|

Z:\media studies\soundtrack presentation

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| Images For Location & Filming |

Z:\media studies\location and filming presentation

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|Possible Locations For Filming The Sequence |

There were quite a few locations to choose from in which I could record the continuation of my sequence, I started off outside as I planned to re-film the first draft that I had recently handed in. the filming seemed to have been done successfully until after I realised we had made a mistake in the filming, and after that I was unable to re-record on the day due to lighting change and being unable to get the characters again for the re-film. Then I decided to film a continuation of the first draft in my house which was a tough challenge to over come and concur, I was unable top experiment different camera shots but im sure after editing i can enhance the overall quality and finish.

| Costume & Prop Research |

Z:\media studies\research of costuming & props

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| Target Audience Analysis & Evaluation |

Z:\media studies\target audience presentation

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| Health & Safety - Risk Assessment |

Before planning the shooting of the film I was to undergo and write down any health and safety hazards that may cause injury to anyone involved in the making of the sequence, this also meant situations that could potentially cause trouble around the area being used for the shot e.g. complaints from local members or the law being involved. Below I will talk about all possible problems that could take place and what actions I should take in order to prevent it.

1) People could get suspicious as to why I am filming their house or on any part of their property, they may assume something else. Therefore I must make sure if I am to film in front of a persons house I must inform them it is for my media studies course and for that purpose only.

2) During filming any bit of acting or stunts could go wrong, for example in my main task you see me fall over with the camera and this was very risky, in order for me to get the shot I needed I was to fall to the floor in which I could have easily dropped the camera or injured myself in any sort of minor way. The only way to preventing such events to happen is to make sure that it is approached carefully, and if not, another location must be chosen.

3) As the movie is located and being shot in an area full of garages there will definately be lots of cars around that area, during shooting I must make sure I keep myself safe from any cars and be aware, I need to also be careful and take care of other peoples property e.g. their cars may need to be used for a shot. To prevent this from happening I could make sure that I am very cautious with my surroundings and careful with acting and behaving properly taking things seriously.

| Preliminary sequence video and final piece |

| Recent filming and editing of Main task first draft |

I have recently finished my first draft before the holidays had started and by the looks of how things were going, Mr. Titheridge said things were looking good for me, he seemed to have enjoyed the editing effects I had used to enhance my overall video quality, a few of the things he said to me were that I wasn't giving out enough of the message and not many codes were being applied so this is one thing I must improve on for my next draft. Mr. Titheridge also said that I needed to make my opening sequence longer by using longer shots and different types of shots, I take this advice on to assist me for my next drafts which I will hand in. I have already planned and thought to myself how I will set it all out, I am looking forward to editing and filming the new draft as I found much enjoyment from the first draft which I had done. Currently I havent managed to capture any images of producing the first draft but I will be able to have images available for the 2nd and 3rd draft which will help to show you the stages I went through for my work. images will be added to a slide show later on.

| Main Task - 1st Draft | VIDEO

This is the first draft of my main task which will hopefully be better and more entertaining for you to watch after I have completed my next drafts after re-filming and editing. Enjoy!

| Textual Anlysis 2 | Opening sequence

The opening sequence of One Day starts off with slides and pictures of production companies informing who was involved in making the film, this follows with establishing shots which helps viewers to understand where it is located or what type of area it may be in, this immediately connotes the lifestyle of people. The very opening uses long shots to allow full view of a conversation that takes place in the beginning which can tell the audience lots of information about the characters in the film, it focuses strongly on the characters conversation and the main characters involved. The camera cuts from locations very quickly as it is located in a prison to begin with which tells you something about them, the next shot shows a man in a house making food for his baby which connotes he is a decent man with a child who doesn't seem to be involved in the trouble, then the shot reverse shot that has been used for the two men on the phone to each other instantly tells the audience something about the person which they misunderstood for being a peaceful man.

The non diegetic sounds in the background help to connote and match the tempo and mood in the shot, using this for my movie will be helpful as there will be little dialogue, matching dialogue and situation tempo allows the audience to get more into the movie and connotes there is more action to come.

Close ups of the characters heads or medium shots helped focus on the clothing and facial features and expressions of the characters which also helps to analyse the characters lifestyle and behaviour, close ups are mainly used when a character tends to get aggressive which shows facial expressions as this emphasises more on the characters position in the film.

The location seems to be very thuggish in some places as the camera shows as spoken about before, this is due to the cheap informal clothing and the rough dirty scenery in the background allowing the viewers to have a better understanding of the location and people in the film. Fast camera movement is used very much during conversations and movement in the film.

Editing is not used much for the opening part of the movie apart from a match on action which helps follow the action and not miss any bits out of that shot, any interruption of the flow of the shot could reduce a viewers thoughts of the film. Editing the diegetic and non diegetic sounds has been done well as the music slowly fades as a conversation begins and ends this can be effective because during boring parts of the movie the music can keep the tempo of the movie up beat and keep viewers entertained.

Overall this movie has given many ideas as to what I could do for my opening sequence and has inspired me to do a lot more to it, i now know how I should use camera movement and which shots would be best, Using sounds i will try to make the most of it so the viewers are more entertained and do not get bored.

| Saw 1 Essay - For Old Main Task Idea |

SAW 1 TRAILER – ESSAY

The opening sequence of this movie trailer it shows us that there is an evil madman behind the happenings of all mysterious deaths that have been happening lately and how people have suddenly gone missing. The opening sequence allows us to take in that the main villain in this film likes to ‘’play games’’ with his victims, which gives us a clue about the sickening storyline behind the film and the characters in it. The opening sequence captures parts of action that take part in the movie to interest the audience in the gory torture that takes place.



Characters in the opening scene are made out to be very scared, confused and tense as they are all involved in action or suspense moments throughout the brief trailer. The capturing of facial expressions and dialogue helps to understand what position the character is in at that certain point in time when the film plays. The characters are made out differently as planned, many victims of the madman’s games are made out to be scared, confused, lost and emotionally drained, police force are shown as a hard working force that will not drop the cases of what is happening thus building up intense moments for what is going to happen next and the villainous voice in the background of the trailer helps to define the unseen character to the audience.


The location and setting of where the opening sequence is shot connotes a dull, isolated room which is where most of the action takes place as short clips of gory happenings are shown to the audience, one after the other they continuously switch from shots but show a shortened length of it so not all of the action is revealed. The camera shots assist the realism and effect of horror because of how they are positioned and how the camera is moving. Long shots have been used in this opening sequence to show the dull, tight and cramped room there is in the corridor, as this will connote the darkness and fear of what will be happening in the film. The trailer contains many close ups which help to signify the mood and expressions of the characters faces to help understand what they could be suffering in the scene.


A majority of the realism and emphasis comes from the editing as the editors have used many effects to enhance the effect of messages and feelings given out. The director uses a blurred effect to signify the movement of injured people who are being tortured in the movie and also uses lots of slow motion in the trailer to build up tension towards the audience and will surely boost the excitement and thrill they get when watching. Temporal ellipses is also fairly used to go forward and back in time to reveal happenings in the movie to help audience to understand what is happening and why it is happening. A vast range of effects are used here which have been used very well as they have boosted the thrill and horror side of the theme.


Sounds such as heart beats and very slow sound effects that add to emphasis on the theme of the film as it involves cameras and static sound, gates closing shut as if to connote someone being trapped, which does happen frequently in the film trailer. Narrative in the background by an edited voice to give audience an even better understanding of the characters behaviour, this means that the audience will be more keen in wanting to watch the movie because of the build up and bits of messages given out. Sound effects enhance the realism and theme of the shot, this is mainly due to the fact the sounds are both diegetic and non – diegetic from on screen and off screen sources which un-eases the audience whilst watching.


The credits in both the opening and the end have been written in grey writing with a dark background to match exactly the mood and theme of the film genre, because when making a horror movie dull colours are appropriate to keep the same mood going, especially for a horror trailer. Overall the credits have been spread out well, both in the beginning and end, this is an advantage and upside because this means the audience will not get bored of a long trailer at the end.

| Production Logo - Idea 1 |

I have created a logo on Macromedia Fireworks for my production name which i will be placing at the beginning of my main task for recognition.

This is a simple logo i have made for the time being, i will later on try to create an animated logo on a MacBook using LiveType.

Here is the current production logo

| Main Task Update |

Just recently I have decided to take on the main task on my own and have already gathered ideas to prepare myself for the challenge ahead, i have chosen to do an action/drama genre which will be based on true stories that happen in the streets, it contains mild violence which will be viewable on the trailer once finalized.

The idea was inspired by myself and a few friends from outside school who told me I could put together a really good trailer and agreed they will assist me in the filming process as my actors.

The main plot of my new genre is about a boy who lives in his small neighbourhood enjoying a normal day out when he walks past a group of youths who he is hated by for no reason at all, this will slowly be shown during the trailer and will give a brief summary of what will occur later on, the boy is then attacked and mugged by these youths constantly and wants to do something about it but cant, until one day he has enough.....
He takes action and trains up to take on these mischevious youths after he prepairs himself through vigorous training, in the trailer i am planning to have messages to be written on screen as warning messages given to the viewers about being aware of the streets.

| Valuable Lesson - Hermeneutic & Proairetic Codes |

Lesson Objectives/

To learn hermenutic codes and proairetic codes:

To understand how the codes work:

To be able to identify the codes in an opening sequence:

Hermeneutic Codes -

Parts of a story that are not fully explained. They exist as enigmas or questions that the audience wish to resolve. An example would be a criminal act that is shown and the remainder of the narrative is devoted to answering the questions raised by the initial event.

Techniques -

Snare - Deliberately avoiding the truth of the event and sending the audience down the wrong path ( Trying to deceive the audience.)

Proairetic Codes -

A character we know who will have a reaction to something and the outcome of the event that has occured.

Narrative codes

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| Main Task Story Board |

Our storyboard outlines what shots will be used in which scenes and how long each shot will last along with what sound effects or dialogue we will be using in each scene.

A drawing of the scene outlines how it should look and what action, what will be taking place and any use of SFX or dialogue involved in that shot/scene.

The storyboard took us 1 lesson to complete, we were told to add more pictures of shots which lasted shorter periods of time.

| Trailers Of Similar Genre - Ideas For Main Task |

Here are a few trailers to films that have been released that have a similar genre and theme to the trailer we are making for our main task, the trailers are great for developing on our idea and will assist us to make it better.

- Saw 1 Trailer - < Link to video

- Halloween H20 Trailer - < Link to video

- Paranormal Activity Trailer - < Link to video

- Paranormal Activity Trailer - Pre-screening Reactions And Review - < Link to video

- The Orphan Trailer - < Link to video

| Preliminary Sequence evaluation - Coursework set by Mr.Titheridge |

Preliminary Task Evaluation
There were different sections of the preliminary sequence we had to plan individually to get it up to the standards of the finalised piece. Our first stage of planning was deciding our genre and film title a long with where we were going to shoot the sequence, and for our movie we decided to do a drama called ‘The Gift’ we then chose a quiet spot in the school which we thought was perfect for our short sequence due to the quiet and dull atmosphere, it also appeared to be a secretive place near to the end when the exchange of an item happens. The next stage was the drawing up of our storyboard and how we were going to imagine how everything is set up and what camera shot we will use, also where and when we will need to use the required camera shots. The equipment we used to record and finalise our preliminary sequence were a HD digital video recorder, and an Apple Mac Book to help us edit and finalise our piece, both software we used were of great assistance.

I believe that what went well for us was the filming as we were able to capture everything we needed within an hour and managed to film before everyone else. Our editing was quite successful although we did struggle a few times using final cut express, but once we had got a hang of the software things were looking good for us and our finalisation of the preliminary sequence. There were many difficulties we faced beginning with our planning, although we managed to do this very quickly we it was tough as we had many individual ideas and making an overall agreement as to which ideas we should add was a very tough job. Once editing, it took us time to adapt to the new software as we were all new to it but managed to overcome the difficulty and progressed very quickly, creating titles was a tough job as we had to use another software which we needed a better understand and was very time consuming.

My overall impression of our finalised piece is very positive as I am impressed that we have understood the new software very quickly and managed to undertake such a new task very quickly, i was particularly impress with how we edited our sequence by using simple effects, we enhanced the overall quality and presentation of our work. There are 2 problems I had with the finalised piece which were the quality of acting and our understanding of camera shots and angles, improving these 2 problems will help to make future work even better than the last piece.

My main lesson I have been taught is how to put together a movie using different software and adding many effects to boost overall quality. Over the few weeks of producing the piece I have also learnt on what bits I must improve on other attributes to improving movie quality through my acting skills, this allowed me to understand what I do and don’t need to improve on and it is a great help and eye opener for what I need in order to pass through my main task with ease. Doing the preliminary sequence will be an advantage to help my main task reach its best.

| Using The Mac Book & Software (Final Cut Express, Garage Band, Livetype) |

During our preperation and completion of our preliminary sequence (The Gift), we seemed to have had a little bit of trouble using the software as we were new to using it. There were times wen using final cut express we would lose our work, or things would get misplaced when adding in new bits to our work, this came as a really big problem to us as it was slowing down our progress to begin further planning of our main trailer. We added effects such as the ''Fade in'' and ''Fade out'' to give the sequence a more smoother entrance to the opening scene and the exit of the finish, this made it seem more tidy rather than just finishing on a black screen.

Once starting on the creation of our credits and title page we instantly had problems using the software Livetype as we had trouble changing background colours, choosing the correct font, colour, effects etc...

This had taken up alot of our time and was a real problem, but with thorough investigating and determination to create and finish our preliminary sequence we finally figured out how to do all these things.

In the end we managed to overcome the problems and finish our piece.

The use of garageband was very short as we needed an entrance beat to assist the trailer to avoid hearing minor noises in the background, although it is a minor adjustment it had made a big difference to the look of our trailer.

| Preliminary Sequence - Preperation & Completion |

I am working with my fellowclassmates Aqib Hussain andBlawal Butt on a project that we were tasked with for our AS Media Studies final assessment, which was to create a two-minute preliminary sequence alongside a two-minute trailer on a genre of our choosing. After we considered numerous possibilities, we finally decided to base our main trailer on the horror/thriller genre. We conducted a brainstorming session where we all had an input on what to include and how we could work on the idea that we chose. Recently, we have finished planning, filming and editing our preliminary task which involved us directing a scene in which we had to add certain shots which were prerequisite for our preliminary task. Once filming had concluded, we edited the film on a MacBook [provided by Mr. Titheridge] using Final Cut Express, which consisted of numerous features that enabled us to enhance the audio and visual quality of our work. We utilised Garage Band for the audio, and altered the titles and credits using Livetype.

| About Myself |

Name -- Osaama Zaheer

D.o.B -- 09-07-93

Age -- 16

Interests & hobbies -- I take a keen interest in maintaining my physique and so I devote a great deal of time towards working out at the gym and attending mixed-martial arts classes in my local area. I am a prodigious footballer and frequently play social football with my peers.

My friends describe me as being very laid-back and calm, although I show great enthusiasm and vigour when partaking in activities I find appealing. I always try to encourage people, regardless of whether I am on a football pitch, in the gym or in a class where other pupils require my help =]..