Monday, 13 February 2017
Thursday, 9 February 2017
Evaluation 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Evaluation 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
From my preliminary task, I have learnt that it is important to take multiple shots and also to check the suitability of the shot after it has been filmed. This saved us a lot of time as one time our recordings disappeared somehow, luckily we had backups of the shots on our computer so we didn't have to re-film all of the shots we lost. Checking our footage also saved time as after every shot we would look back at it and check to see if it was ok and if something wasn't up to standard, such as lighting, then we would re-film the shot.
I have also learnt that editing is very important. Originally, I knew that editing was useful for putting shots in the correct place and that it is useful for creating various effects such as the quick cuts when the character is walking outside the building. But i now know that it can make recording easier as it allowed us to start recording earlier than we needed so that we didn't start too early as we could cut the first part of the clip off. It also gave time for the actors to get ready as we could start filming and they didn't need to start immediately.
We used match on action quite a lot in our project, an example of when we did use it is when the main character first leaves the classroom; we recorded him leaving the room and then recorded it again from the other side of the door so that it looked like one continuous shot.
Camera shots:
We used a close-up when the main character is putting his earphones on, this was to show the emotion that he is feeling once he gets out of the classroom - relief and happiness. We also used a long-shot to establish the scene on multiple occasions, some of these include: inside the classroom, walking through the corridors, etc. This makes the viewer feel more immersed in the film and the character as we gain an understanding of their situation. This is similar to the point of view shots that we used as they also allow the viewer to immerse themself as they are seeing what the main character is seeing. We used a slanted shot in one of the corridor scenes, we decided to do this as we thought it looked quite unique and would therefore attract our target audience due to it not being boring/clichѐd. Another camera shot we used was a tracking shot when the main character is going down the stairs; again, this is to make the viewer feel like they are a part of the film. The entire premise of our film was to show what it is like to have social anxiety which is why it was so important to us to make the viewer feel as though they are in the film.
Editing techniques
We didn't use many editing techniques in our film as we didn't feel as though it reflected the genre very well. However, we did still use a few. Some examples include: a black and white filter at the start of the film. This was to emphasise the sadness the main character feels when he has to interact with people. Another editing technique we used was a flash to white straight after the black and white filter, to make it transition to colour. This was used to try and connote the fact that the main character is happy when he doesn't have to interact with people. A similar technique we used was a fade to black, this was used before the actual scene started when the logo is first revealed. We used it to fade out the logo as we thought it was more fitting than just having the logo disappear. In addition, we used a series of jump cuts when the main character is leaving the school. This was just to make the film seem a bit more interesting as we didn't have many techniques before this. We chose it at this specific point as it is when the final music track starts playing and the cuts fit very well in time with the music. We tried to make the editing as continuous as possible, this was to make the viewer feel as though they were there with the main character and so that they could experience what it is like to be the main character.
Camera shots:
We used a close-up when the main character is putting his earphones on, this was to show the emotion that he is feeling once he gets out of the classroom - relief and happiness. We also used a long-shot to establish the scene on multiple occasions, some of these include: inside the classroom, walking through the corridors, etc. This makes the viewer feel more immersed in the film and the character as we gain an understanding of their situation. This is similar to the point of view shots that we used as they also allow the viewer to immerse themself as they are seeing what the main character is seeing. We used a slanted shot in one of the corridor scenes, we decided to do this as we thought it looked quite unique and would therefore attract our target audience due to it not being boring/clichѐd. Another camera shot we used was a tracking shot when the main character is going down the stairs; again, this is to make the viewer feel like they are a part of the film. The entire premise of our film was to show what it is like to have social anxiety which is why it was so important to us to make the viewer feel as though they are in the film.
Editing techniques
We didn't use many editing techniques in our film as we didn't feel as though it reflected the genre very well. However, we did still use a few. Some examples include: a black and white filter at the start of the film. This was to emphasise the sadness the main character feels when he has to interact with people. Another editing technique we used was a flash to white straight after the black and white filter, to make it transition to colour. This was used to try and connote the fact that the main character is happy when he doesn't have to interact with people. A similar technique we used was a fade to black, this was used before the actual scene started when the logo is first revealed. We used it to fade out the logo as we thought it was more fitting than just having the logo disappear. In addition, we used a series of jump cuts when the main character is leaving the school. This was just to make the film seem a bit more interesting as we didn't have many techniques before this. We chose it at this specific point as it is when the final music track starts playing and the cuts fit very well in time with the music. We tried to make the editing as continuous as possible, this was to make the viewer feel as though they were there with the main character and so that they could experience what it is like to be the main character.
Evaluation 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?
Evaluation 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?
Our target audience is mature teenagers/adults, of both genders, roughly between the ages of 15-20.
Our film uses catchy music to attract an audience. This is because it is similar to type of music teenagers today are represented to like. It also is useful in portraying the mood of the scenes within the sequence. At the start of the sequence, the music is quite quiet but still upbeat (not to the point of the song being a sad song expected in a romantic film for example). It later shifts to a more upbeat theme when the main character is shown to leave the school, this connotes that our teenager, like most teenagers, hates school which will be appealing to other teenagers and draw them to our film sue to the main character being similar to them in some way. Relatable characters are used in other films such as: The Inbetweeners where there is a character which a majority of people can relate e.g. a nerdy person may relate to Will, whilst someone funny may relate to the others.
Our unique selling point (USP) is the fact that our film is different (counter-typical) and that it focuses on other, more important issues that teens face in day to day life instead of stereotypical things like love life. This makes it more appealing to other mature teenagers as younger, immature teens may find it boring. However, to try and compromise, we tried to add a bit of humour in a few places. One such example of this is when the main character describes his best friend as being the one of the only ones who likes him. Easy A makes use of comedy to attract a younger audience also, an example of this is when the popular girl is shown and it makes the viewer think she is the main character as a result of the voice-over, we later see that character barge into another girl, knocking her over and making the viewer realise that that is the main character.
Some of the conventions which appeal to our target audience are: the props, setting and characters, all for the same reason, being that they all follow one stereotype of teenage life, e.g. earphones, school and teenage main characters. The camerawork also follows conventions of a teen angst film, in the fact that the shots we used are quite interesting and appealing; they aren't boring which will draw people to the film.
The film we took the most inspiration from was Easy A. The audience of Easy A includes those in the E class (maybe slightly higher) such as teenagers and the gender the film is aimed at mostly is probably girls due to the fact that the main characters are girls so it therefore focuses more on the life of girls which boys will not be able to relate to as well as girls. Despite this, I feel as though Easy A was very successful in attracting and engaging its audience due to the fact that it received fairly high reviews on multiple different review websites such as: 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, 7.1/10 on IMDB and 3.5/4 on Roger Ebert.
Evaluation 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. film openings)
Evaluation 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. film openings)
The title of our film is "The Lonely Life of a Teenager". This is somewhat stereotypical of a teen angst film as it makes reference to teenagers, but the use of the words "Lonely Life" connote that it is not a stereotypical teen angst film, but rather the focus is placed on something much deeper than troubles with love life or exams for example. The title is similar to that of Clueless as the title of Clueless makes reference to the fact that the main character is a Clueless, stereotypical teenager. Our title also refers to the main character in the fact that he is shown to be socially anxious - and therefore lonely.
Unlike our title, the settings of our film are completely relevant to teenage life - those being a school and a park. The school is relevant because teenagers spend a majority of their time during school, and the park is relevant due to the fact that teenagers are usually associated with being quite social and more concerned with their friends, and the park is quite a sociable place. Easy A uses a similar settings to our film, that being a school. There are multiple other films which use this setting such as: The Breakfast Club - this is because, like I said, a school is a very relatable place for teenagers.
Similar to our settings, the costumes and props we used are also distinctively associated with teenagers. Some of the characters are shown to wear jeans and hoodies which are stereotypical of a teenager as they are quite casual. The girls in our film wear roughly the same thing as the boys (hoodies and jeans), however, girls are typically shown to wear items such as short skirts and other revealing items within the media industry. This is because we wanted our mean girls to have a rougher look to them so that it made the main characters seem even wimpier. The main character also breaks the stereotype to an extent as he wears a coat in all of the scenes and teens are usually represented as uncaring and rebellious - this establishes our character as a counter typical teen which is the whole premise of our film. We didn't use many props in our opening, but the ones we did use were very relatable to the teen angst genre, including: earphones, school bags, papers, etc. The clothing of our main character is somewhat similar to the main character from Juno as the two are shown to wear casual clothes (Hoodies/Coat and jeans) which makes it seem relatable. The props are also very stereotypical of a teen angst film, they are used in many different films. However, they are used in a specific sub-genre of teen angst, that being the girly style which consists of films such as: Mean Girls and Clueless. In those films they are used to show that the main character is popular and therefore uncaring or oblivious to their surroundings. In our film, we use the earphones to show that the main character doesn't care about his surroundings but the other conventions connote that it is not because he is uncaring, but rather he is uncomfortable.
We decided to use quite a few different types of camera shots, some of which are fairly creative. An example of this is a slanted low-angle shot of the main character walking through the hallway, we also have a lot of POV shots to make the viewer feel as thought they are the main character. This is fairly standard for a teen angst film as boring shots wouldn't attract the target audience. Our editing is fairly slow paced which is counter-typical, however, as our target audience is older teens it wouldn't be too much of an issue. This is similar to Easy A, as the camera shots in the opening are quite interesting e.g. the tracking shot of the popular girl where the camera then tracks to reveal the main character. The editing in Easy A is also moderately slow as, in the opening there isn't a lot that is going on which is similar to our film.
It was our decision to make our titles seem as though they were hand drawn, but also somewhat formal so that they weren't too childish but also to fit in with the idea of teenagers being young and messy. They are also quite dark which can be associated with teenagers (especially the unpopular group which our group is a part of), but we decided to highlight the word "Lonely" in our title as to emphasise the fact that the main character is lonely and we chose blue as it is quite a melancholic colour. We took a lot of inspiration for our titles from Juno. This is because we thought that they were effective at attracting an audience due to the fact that they are quite unique and wanted to try and implement them into our own work.
Our entire story isn't very stereotypical and there aren't many teen angst films which follow the same path as ours, this made researching for our film quite difficult the closest film we found was Easy A as the main character is not very popular and also has a supportive friend. Despite this, I feel as though our opening reflects the basic idea of the story - being that the main character suffers from social anxiety - especially through the use of the voice-overs. As a result of our opening being quite unique, there aren't many films which relate to our opening. The closest opening would probably be Easy A because the main character is shown to be unpopular and also that the best friend isn't a stereotypical teenager either.
Our opening somewhat suggests the genre of the film with the use of the voice-overs some examples of this include the main character talking about how unpopular he is and the fact that he mentions the mean girls. The setting and characters themselves also suggest the genre due to the fact that they are stereotypical of the teen angst genre. The voice-overs bear resemblance to those of Easy A due to the fact that they are used to state how unpopular the main character is. The voice-overs in Easy A also try to add a bit of comedy which have also tried to implement.
Our main character is introduced in a classroom and with the use of a conversation with another person. He then leaves the classroom, proceeds to put his earphones on and then a voice-over starts with him explaining who he is. The mean girls are introduced with a scene of them beating up a boy and with the main character explaining who they are. The best friend is only briefly seen, he is introduced similar to the mean girls, with a scene of him walking with the main character and with a voice-over. This is similar to the scene from The Breakfast Club; (presumably) one of the main characters is introduced when we see him sit at the back of the classroom on his own which has implications of him being unpopular. Likewise, the two popular characters' places are introduced when we see them laughing at the main character which shows the stereotype of a popular teenager - mean, uncaring, etc.
We haven't used many special effects as it isn't too typical of a teen angst film, but some we have used include: the fade to blacks with the titles and logo at the start, and the jump cuts of the main character walking outside the building so that it fits in time with the music. We have also included a black and white filter at the start of the film. This was to make the atmosphere seem quite depressing. The filter disappears in a white flash once the main character puts his earphones on, this was used to connote that music is very important to the main character and also that school (and social interactions) don't appeal to him. From the openings I researched, there was only one which used a large number of special effects, which lead us to use few of them, and that was Juno. The opening of Juno is entirely animated which makes it stand out from other teen angst films.
We decided to use quite a few different types of camera shots, some of which are fairly creative. An example of this is a slanted low-angle shot of the main character walking through the hallway, we also have a lot of POV shots to make the viewer feel as thought they are the main character. This is fairly standard for a teen angst film as boring shots wouldn't attract the target audience. Our editing is fairly slow paced which is counter-typical, however, as our target audience is older teens it wouldn't be too much of an issue. This is similar to Easy A, as the camera shots in the opening are quite interesting e.g. the tracking shot of the popular girl where the camera then tracks to reveal the main character. The editing in Easy A is also moderately slow as, in the opening there isn't a lot that is going on which is similar to our film.
It was our decision to make our titles seem as though they were hand drawn, but also somewhat formal so that they weren't too childish but also to fit in with the idea of teenagers being young and messy. They are also quite dark which can be associated with teenagers (especially the unpopular group which our group is a part of), but we decided to highlight the word "Lonely" in our title as to emphasise the fact that the main character is lonely and we chose blue as it is quite a melancholic colour. We took a lot of inspiration for our titles from Juno. This is because we thought that they were effective at attracting an audience due to the fact that they are quite unique and wanted to try and implement them into our own work.
Our entire story isn't very stereotypical and there aren't many teen angst films which follow the same path as ours, this made researching for our film quite difficult the closest film we found was Easy A as the main character is not very popular and also has a supportive friend. Despite this, I feel as though our opening reflects the basic idea of the story - being that the main character suffers from social anxiety - especially through the use of the voice-overs. As a result of our opening being quite unique, there aren't many films which relate to our opening. The closest opening would probably be Easy A because the main character is shown to be unpopular and also that the best friend isn't a stereotypical teenager either.
Our opening somewhat suggests the genre of the film with the use of the voice-overs some examples of this include the main character talking about how unpopular he is and the fact that he mentions the mean girls. The setting and characters themselves also suggest the genre due to the fact that they are stereotypical of the teen angst genre. The voice-overs bear resemblance to those of Easy A due to the fact that they are used to state how unpopular the main character is. The voice-overs in Easy A also try to add a bit of comedy which have also tried to implement.
Our main character is introduced in a classroom and with the use of a conversation with another person. He then leaves the classroom, proceeds to put his earphones on and then a voice-over starts with him explaining who he is. The mean girls are introduced with a scene of them beating up a boy and with the main character explaining who they are. The best friend is only briefly seen, he is introduced similar to the mean girls, with a scene of him walking with the main character and with a voice-over. This is similar to the scene from The Breakfast Club; (presumably) one of the main characters is introduced when we see him sit at the back of the classroom on his own which has implications of him being unpopular. Likewise, the two popular characters' places are introduced when we see them laughing at the main character which shows the stereotype of a popular teenager - mean, uncaring, etc.
We haven't used many special effects as it isn't too typical of a teen angst film, but some we have used include: the fade to blacks with the titles and logo at the start, and the jump cuts of the main character walking outside the building so that it fits in time with the music. We have also included a black and white filter at the start of the film. This was to make the atmosphere seem quite depressing. The filter disappears in a white flash once the main character puts his earphones on, this was used to connote that music is very important to the main character and also that school (and social interactions) don't appeal to him. From the openings I researched, there was only one which used a large number of special effects, which lead us to use few of them, and that was Juno. The opening of Juno is entirely animated which makes it stand out from other teen angst films.
Wednesday, 8 February 2017
Evaluation 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Evaluation 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
A production company is responsible for the production of a film; they look over the key areas of the film such as: time schedule, actors, directors, props, locations, etc.
A good director for our sort of film would be those who make art house films. An example would be Clio Barnard who directed such films as: The Selfish Giant and Flood. She would be a suitable director, as having watched one of her films there are a number of similarities between ours and hers - there aren't many special effects, the editing isn't too over the top, the actors aren't professionally trained and the locations the film is filmed in are fairly simple.
As our film is somewhat relatable to an art house film and a large amount of finance is not required, the main source of finance for our film would most likely be something like the BFI as they are typically used for small, low budget films.
The people who played a part in our film are named because they deserve credit. It also shows who did what e.g. someone may have done many small jobs while someone did one big job. There isn't a specific order in which the titles for our film appear as we feel that we have all played a somewhat similar role to each other in terms of importance. In big blockbuster films, the list of members would be in terms of importance, e.g. producer, director, actors, etc.
Some films similar to ours, institutionally, mainly consist of small art house films as I previously mentioned. the way they would do this is by advertising them at film festivals and by using various other means such as a poster - a trailer may be used but it would be less likely than a poster due to the larger cost. They would then be released mainly in British cinemas and maybe some international ones such as America. The types of cinemas they would be released in would be specifically designed for art house films (not large scale cinemas such as Cineworld or Odeon).
Sunday, 5 February 2017
Evaluation 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Evaluation 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our main character represents the unpopular social group. The similarities between our main character and the main character from Easy A include: the fact that the two are seen as being quite unpopular, our character takes this a step further and explains the fact that the reason for this is his social anxiety whereas the main character from Easy A just explains that she prefers to stay under the radar - which somewhat implies slight anxiety. This is the main thing that we wanted to base our main character on - to represent what it is like to be unpopular. Both are shown to wear normal/casual clothes in the opening sequence which represents the fact that they don't want to draw attention to themselves.
There are quite a few differences between both main characters. The first and most obvious being the difference in gender, this was intentional as we wanted to show that anxiety can affect both genders equally. Originally our main character was going to be a girl but we changed it for this reason.
Our mean girls/Bullies don't really follow stereotypes, whilst stereotypical mean girls are shown to love the colour pink beyond obsession, our mean girls are shown to wear quite dark colours. Their hair between the two is also very different, stereotypical mean girls are represented as having long blonde hair whereas ours have short-mid length and dark colours. Our mean girls are meant to have a somewhat punk vibe to them instead of the clichѐd popular type.
Despite the differences, our mean girls still connote a sense of hate towards them which is demonstrated in the fact that they are beating someone up and through the use of the voice-over.
The best friend in our film takes some of its inspiration from the best friend seen in Easy A. This is because they aren't seen a lot and therefore don't draw the attention away from the main character. Another similarity is the fact that despite the unpopularity of the main character, the best friend doesn't mind being seen with him/her. Similarly to the main character, our best friend is the opposite gender as the best friend from Easy A - this wasn't done for any particular reason like the main character was however.
The best friend from easy A is shown to be quite weird (especially in comparison to the main character), our character doesn't stand out as much, this is because we wanted our film to be slightly more serious than stereotypical teen angst films.
Our main character represents the unpopular social group. The similarities between our main character and the main character from Easy A include: the fact that the two are seen as being quite unpopular, our character takes this a step further and explains the fact that the reason for this is his social anxiety whereas the main character from Easy A just explains that she prefers to stay under the radar - which somewhat implies slight anxiety. This is the main thing that we wanted to base our main character on - to represent what it is like to be unpopular. Both are shown to wear normal/casual clothes in the opening sequence which represents the fact that they don't want to draw attention to themselves.
There are quite a few differences between both main characters. The first and most obvious being the difference in gender, this was intentional as we wanted to show that anxiety can affect both genders equally. Originally our main character was going to be a girl but we changed it for this reason.
Our mean girls/Bullies don't really follow stereotypes, whilst stereotypical mean girls are shown to love the colour pink beyond obsession, our mean girls are shown to wear quite dark colours. Their hair between the two is also very different, stereotypical mean girls are represented as having long blonde hair whereas ours have short-mid length and dark colours. Our mean girls are meant to have a somewhat punk vibe to them instead of the clichѐd popular type.
Despite the differences, our mean girls still connote a sense of hate towards them which is demonstrated in the fact that they are beating someone up and through the use of the voice-over.
The best friend in our film takes some of its inspiration from the best friend seen in Easy A. This is because they aren't seen a lot and therefore don't draw the attention away from the main character. Another similarity is the fact that despite the unpopularity of the main character, the best friend doesn't mind being seen with him/her. Similarly to the main character, our best friend is the opposite gender as the best friend from Easy A - this wasn't done for any particular reason like the main character was however.
The best friend from easy A is shown to be quite weird (especially in comparison to the main character), our character doesn't stand out as much, this is because we wanted our film to be slightly more serious than stereotypical teen angst films.
Thursday, 2 February 2017
Evaluation 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Evaluation 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Throughout the process of constructing this product, I have learnt that technology is very important in the production of film making.
The use of technology was very useful in developing the logo for our company as it would not have been possible without the use of Photoshop - we could have made a logo similar to our final design but the quality would be nowhere near the quality it is now. To make our logo, I used an image of a moon and a wolf silhouette and merged them together after cropping them slightly and making the edges of the wolf fit the moon. I then added the title over the design and added a filter to make the moon slightly darker - which I believe made it look better.
We used YouTube to upload any videos that we needed to use on our blogs so that it was easy to upload. I also used it to find the various film opening and title sequences that I used for my research and planning.
We used Blogger to upload all of our research and planning, this is a suitable alternative to writing up the numerous posts on another application such as word and then printing and sending them to the examiner, as there are multiple posts which would equate to a large number of papers ring sent. By uploading everything to blogger, the examiners have instant access to everyone's work and they don't need to be printed it sent off.
We used a microphone and Cubase to record the voice-overs, this allowed us to obtain higher quality audio which wouldn't have been possible a few years ago. It also meant that the quality of was higher as it is professional recording software and if we used the audio from our clips then there would be a lot of background noise.
To edit our film, we used Premier Pro which is specially designed editing software. Premier Pro allowed us to edit the software and use various editing techniques, such as: cutting clips, this meant that if one clip was too long or there was a part which didn't fit we could cut it out. Premier Pro also made the recording process a lot easier as it meant we didn't have to film all of our shots in order as we are able to move them around. We also edited the audio in certain parts, so that the voice-overs can be heard over the music for example or increasing the volume of the music when there are no voice-overs. We also used various transitions between shots to make the film play smoother, the most used transition we used was the fade to/from black as the other transitions looked to extreme for the genre we are portraying.
Facebook also played a large part in the production of our film as it allowed the members of our group to communicate with each other e.g. Notifying of possible times we could meet up to film or edit. Similarly, it allowed us to contact the people we planned to use as extras so that we could meet up. This would have been a lot more difficult a few years ago when social media wasn't as we would need to message each other back and forth, one at a time as messaging/communication wasn't as advanced then.
Word allowed us to write the script for our pitch and film a lot easier than writing the whole thing out and then editing it if there was something we didn't like.
PowerPoint was another example of software we used, we used this to make the presentations for our pitch. It allows us to present detail and images alongside the script that we made in word so that we don't need to go into as much detail with what we say as the viewers can see what we are trying to represent.
The camera we used was a Panasonic HC-V130 along with a tripod for some shots. Whilst camera are essentail in the production of a film, this model was very useful with what we were trying to achieve. It was light and easy to carry around which made filming a lot easier. The zoom on the camera was also very good; it allowed us to obtain a number of shots which wouldn't be possible with a lower quality model. While the quality wasn't as good as higher quality cameras, it was still very good considering the size, and was suitable for what we wanted to achieve.
In conclusion, I have learnt that the use of technology is very important in the production of a film as it makes the entire process much easier, from contacting team members to filming and editing.
The camera we used was a Panasonic HC-V130 along with a tripod for some shots. Whilst camera are essentail in the production of a film, this model was very useful with what we were trying to achieve. It was light and easy to carry around which made filming a lot easier. The zoom on the camera was also very good; it allowed us to obtain a number of shots which wouldn't be possible with a lower quality model. While the quality wasn't as good as higher quality cameras, it was still very good considering the size, and was suitable for what we wanted to achieve.
In conclusion, I have learnt that the use of technology is very important in the production of a film as it makes the entire process much easier, from contacting team members to filming and editing.
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