Evaluation - Question 8 Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product

The preliminary task involved a master shot and a shot reverse shot while also having to adhere to the 180 degree rule. Since that time we have learnt how to use numerous different angles like the extreme close ups in the first scene and the point of view shots. We made a lot of use of camera movement especially in the recording of Ashley’s movements down the stairs. We learnt more about pacing our shots, for example we decided to spend a fair amount of time shooting her in the act of crying. It was imperative for us to learn how to direct our actors into accomplishing the desired affects we most wanted to achieve which was an easy enough task as we were collaborating with our school peers. The preliminary task did not have the same intricate planning as the opening sequence meaning that we did not make much use of staging or integrated much sound. There was also more emphasis on Mise-en-scene in the opening sequence with our costume designs for specific characters. Props was also discussed and agreed upon with more care as each element was moving towards creating this fictional world of our characters. Though we made use of studio lights in the preliminary as they were at our disposable and in the opening sequence we decided to go with a naturalistic style. It is evident within our opening sequence that we made certain editing decisions that we would have been unable to accomplish in our preliminary, for example we made use of the cross cutting technique that helps to tell the story of our flashbacks. The preliminary task was more about capturing the action of our movements and being able to edit those actions into a comprehensible moving image while the final piece had the intent of telling a story and capturing the emotional response of each character, taking a more in depth look to the portrayed images on screen. Sound I believe is the one element we played around with most as we had diegetic and non-diegetic music, we played with the levels of volume, getting them to fade in and out with each cut.

Evaluation - Question 7 What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Toni F. Power Point

Throughout the whole process of the creation of our opening sequence our most important non-tangible possession was our blog. The blog held every aspect of pre-production/production/ and post-production, making the whole process extremely efficient. We uploaded our questionnaires and the answers that came with them on to the blog. These responses were then transferred onto Excel graphs. Our analysis of other opening sequences and film posters were also embedded onto the blogs. Scribd and Slideshare both act as storage devices for us to place our documents in and then use the embed code to transfer onto our blogs. Social networking sites like Facebook and hotmail were of high importance in keeping in contact with our crew and actors and helped us to be quite organised. We made use of Adobe Photoshop to create our credits sequence, which involved cropping some photos and superimposing the text onto the image. Finally we used the Adobe Premiere to edit our opening sequence, which after having experienced has made me appreciate those artists that put together movies as a career, as the work is very tedious and strenuous especially if your personality is that of a perfectionist. I believe that due to our status as amateur editors the final result was beyond what I expected us to accomplish, and is a testament to our teacher’s skills and our ability to take on new technology and harness it in a way that is successful. It took us some time to come to terms with the many different functions on Photoshop and our first few attempts were less than sufficient however with time we were able to use it with efficiency. An online technology that we agreed did not give much input was the Wordle that we used to brainstorm ideas for our title; it did not give us any inspiration and seemed redundant. I have now learnt how embed video or image codes onto blogs along with uploading documents onto online storage spaces. I have learnt how to plan for making a movie as well as camera handling and the editing of clips and sounds. I have also learnt how to collect research and transfer all the information into a discernable graph that is simple to read and efficient.

Evaluation - Question 6 How did you attract/address your audience (video/blog entry)

I believe that we have successfully created a product that will appeal to our chosen audience, as the feedback received was mostly positive. In our planning we wanted to go with a direction for the narrative that would challenge our viewers mind and would stimulate them to address and contemplate on the serious issues that are being dealt with in the opening sequence. Our decision to use actors of the same age as our characters was also pertinent as it helped audiences to slip more freely into the suspension of disbelief. The locations we felt were akin to those spaces that other teenagers would find themselves in thus making the space of our opening sequence another home to the audience. The responses were very positive regarding the technical aspects of editing and mixing of sound as we continuously interchanged from two distinctively contrasting melodies. Some audiences did not manage to follow the purpose of the flashback scenes and our use of cross cutting left them confused at times. Also towards the last couple of scenes the music started to come a little bit early which we decided upon as to represent that the actions of her past were now going to be affecting her future. We firmly believe that the lighting in the scenes was not up to par with our standards and could have been tackled differently.

Evaluation - Question 5 How does your media product represent particular social groups?

N.B. Please ensure that the annotations gadget is turned on.

Through mise-en-scene we managed to demonstrate Ashley’s character of a sweet simple girl, specifically through the props that were used in her bedroom and her chosen attire of a plain and appropriate t-shirt and jeans. This created a stereotypical representation of the wholesome girl next door. As our film targets young women explicitly, it was very important to us to show them in a realistic light so as to create a foundation for young girls to learn from and relate to. Because Ashley succumbs to her temptations she is automatically seen as more human and therefore her character becomes more three-dimensional this directly challenges other representation of young girls as large studios prefer to distribute an image of a teenager that says no to peer pressure. Conventions are challenged this way due to Ashley’s human actions. However in the aspect of our representation of males we have created a fairly 2-dimensional character, this is acceptable due to the films explicit targeting at females. We only see two male characters within the opening sequence who are both instrumental in peer pressuring Ashley to taking drugs and having sex. They are therefore considered the evil characters and thus it becomes a fairly stereotypical model of the male gender. Youth has also been represented in our media product. We have portrayed a typical view of how the world perceives youth today that being as irresponsible, as substance and alcohol abusers and as sexually active which no regard for consequences. However this was pertinent to our product as we wanted to show that even those of the most wholesome personalities may fall to the pressures of teenagers. This was important in our creation of a realistic setting and character. It is evident from the large stair case that Ashley descends and the nicely furnished home that she is from the middle class of society which is then further enhanced by the diegetic sound of radio four coming from the kitchen in the background.

Evaluation - Question 4 In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In the construction of our narrative we have complied to the codes and conventions of a normal teenage drama. In the sense that the story deals with alienation, rebellion, teen angst, conflict with parents and peer pressure with an underlying intricate storyline dealing with the universal issues that come with the journey of coming of age stories. We established these issues clearly in our opening sequence with the extreme close up of Ashley’s leaflets on abortion. This combined with shots designed in a central composition of her seated in the middle of the party clearly alienated for the other partygoers establishes her teen angst and awkward shy nature that one can easily relate to. We have decided to display the narrative in a non-linear fashion by utilising flashbacks to clue in the audience on the escapades that were the catalyst in her downward spiral. As the opening sequence conventionally sets up the whole atmosphere for the movie, the blatant lack of adults being present tells the audience that this film will be mainly focused on young adults, in turn this is evidence of our genre being directed at teens. This coupled with the melancholic and sombre music, establishes the movies status as a teen drama. We have undertaken a style of editing that involves numerous cross cutting between the present day shots of Ashley and the flashbacks this made the process quite laborious and meant using an intricate system of sounds and shots. The cross cutting was used as a representational method of portraying the madness and confusion plaguing her mind. It is noticeable in the movie that we have made use of very little locations; this shows the lack of budget, though it creates a realistic image of a teenage lifestyle. Our costumes are clearly representative of the fashion styles of modern day teenagers. The props used were instrumental of displaying the troubles and peer- pressure our character Ashley would have to face. These being the bottle of vodka Ashley clutches, nervously to her chest ass though it was a lifeline as she wonders in a her own social peril and the substances she is peer pressured into taking. We decided to go with a classic design for our typography, especially with the aesthetic as we were faced with the problem of having the colours being defined enough to be noticeable. The visual conventions of the genre are conspicuously displayed within the opening sequence and can be identified as the leaflets on abortion, the alcoholic drinks and substances offered to Ashley.

Evaluation - Question 3 What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why

As our narrative is quite similar to many other productions take for example ‘Juno’, it could be said that it is capable of being transferred to any kind of Distribution Company. Company’s like Working Title who are renowned for producing movies that are focused more on the glamorous aspects of life and enjoy to create feel good movies like ‘Notting Hill’ would take this certain approach because they are a subsidiary of Universal Studios who in turn is owned by Vivendi making it possible for them to have a larger budget. However these big budgets come with the added pressure of having to construct a media product to be enjoyed by a universal audience directly meaning that those British issues would have to be excluded. Warp films however do not have the resources to create such glamorous portrayals, though this suits them well as they have established themselves as a film company that depicts the lives and harsh realities of British society, their film ‘This Is England’ being a great example of this. Their style is quintessential of the abrasive and gritty reality that life truly is for those who would most likely be watching the film. Thus I believe Warp Films would be the best contender for distributing our film as they will place most of their focus on portraying those teen tribulations being tackled within the film.

Evaluation - Question 2 Who would be the audience for your product

From the collection of results from our questionnaire we have come to the conclusion that our target audience should exhibit a female gender of a vast age from 14 to 25 and of a Caucasian race. The more preferred genre amongst the audience is that of comedy however we decided against following this genre because it was advised that it is quite hard to portray. We wanted to create something that would touch upon certain issues and would have an impact on the audience, thus we followed with the idea of creating a teen drama which should appeal to the majority of our viewership. Many of the people we asked admitted to watching their movies online whereby meaning that the marketing team should come up with a strategy that focuses itself heavily on the internet by releasing trailers onto YouTube and possibly streaming the movie via Netflix. The audience made it clear that they were not enough films that would portray realistically the harsh troubled conditions teenagers are facing today. This fused with our pre-production research of the questionnaire helped us in finding the right narrative that would attract a big enough audience to ensure maximum profit while still creating something with cultural advantages and would be relatable enough for one to respond to and learn from.

Evaluation - Question 1 Brief

Our narrative touches upon many teen issues like peer pressure that intertwines the usage of substance abuse and sexual experiences. These then lead our character into a journey of moral principles as she falls pregnant and has to decide which path she will follow, whether she will have an abortion or put the baby up for adoption or rather raise the baby herself. Within our opening sequence we decided to include all the narrative devices that will set up this distressing decision that she has to make. To create curiosity and demand for our audience, we have deliberately left out the final outcome and have left it very abmiguous as to what decision she will make. Our sub genre is that of a teen drama that more than anything is specifically targeted at teenage girls and certain female universal issues. Movies like Thirteen and Precious are what we used as inspiration.

Feedback For Swell

After having presented our final piece to an audience, we found that the majority of people enjoyed it and would be interested in watching the complete film. Others that did not enjoy it said that their main criticism was the acting and that some errors of the film were unclear as to what they were supposed to represent. They also said that if they had not been paying much attention they would have missed the fact drugs were passed to Ashley and that this would have been a crucial error as the use of illegal substances was a significant part of the narrative.
We were pleased with the feedback we received as it supported our film, but also gave us useful knowledge as to what we could change if we had more time.

Final Cut For Swell

Swell - Rough Cut Analysis

In this stage of our editing process we have achieved to piece together all of separate shots into a sequence that will successfully open up to our movie. We decided to utilise the effect of cross cutting between our present day shots and flash back ones which I believe has turned out quite strongly. I believe our target audience will feel a strong connection to the character and her emotional turmoil along with the universal theme that most teenagers will be able to identify with. We are preparing to add two sets of audio tracks to the opening sequence, one that will be quite melodious and sad to place emphasis on her troubled predicament, another that will mesh with the party scenes. We also intend to transform our party scenes into black and white which will guide our audience to be aware of the fact that this is a flasback.

Target Audience

From the collection of results from our questionnaire we have come to the conclusion that our target audience should exhibit a female gender of a vast age from 14 to 25 and of a Caucasian race. The more preferred genre amongst the audience is that of comedy however we decided against following this genre because it was advised that it is quite hard to portray. We wanted to create something that would touch upon certain issues and would have an impact on them, thus we followed with the idea of creating a teen drama which should appeal to the majority of our audience. As many of the The bulk of people watch their movies online whereby meaning that the marketing team should come up with a strategy that focuses itself heavily on the internet by releasing trailers onto youtube and possibly streaming the movie via netflix. The results reveal that a popular prefernce is to watch movies that will have an established and famous star. However as we are a low budget movie we do not have the money to afford a celebrity actor, though we hope to bring to light fresh new faces with great talent that will go on to become stars. The release date for our movie has been decided via our questionnaire as we specifically asked which season does one prefer to watch movies in, which returned with winter.

Call Sheet

Media as Call Sheet

Production Log Shoot

In preparation for our shoot day which was on the 5th of March, we prepared the locations for our scenes from the night before so as to be ready for the next moring, these locations included the bedroom we would be using for our character to inhbit and the living room that would become a scene for our party that we dressed up in a number of alcoholic bottles and party paraphernalia. Our teacher arrived at nine o'clock along with our main actress whereby we went over our story boards and started shooting. We had the idea to use the camera to push into the room from outside the room with the door closed, from the guidance of our teacher we decided that this wouold not make sense because it would be improbable for a the door to open by itself which would make the film seem more like that of a horror or thriller genre. When directing the stair case scene, we had the idea to have radio 4 on in the back ground which would create a juxtaposition of a troubled girl in a homely atmosphere. We then finished these scenes at around 10 o'clock at this point our actor playing Max turned up but we still had to wait for our other four actors to turn up to start our party scenes. Our production came to a stand still which we filled by planning each shot and practicing the last scene with our two characters Max and Ashley. At this point our teacher decided that we had everything in hand and left us to continue on our own. We resumed production at one o'clock and finshed at two o'clock with only minor problems of dialogue and continuity.

Production Schedule

Production Schedule for Scribd

Preliminary Task Video Evaluation

In the preliminary task video we learned how to edit our shots together and the rules about continuity. It was a good experience that made us more prepared for our actual shoot. We realised that there would be issues with sound that we took into account when doing the actual filming. We also learned how to track the camera properly which was great help in our staircase scenes.

Preliminary Task Video

It was instructed to us that we had to complete a preliminary task before shooting our own film. The task involves filming and editing a scene that would prepare us for dealing with continuity issues. The scene involves a character opening a door crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue.

We decided to have our classmate come into the room, very excited about a monologue that she has to study and perform for drama while myself and another classmate listen attentively and ask questions about her monologue.

We will make use of match on action shots and the style of shot reverse shot, while using the 180 degree rule.

An example of a match on action shot would be;

An example of a shot reverse shot would be;

An example of the continuity, 180 degree rule would be;

Discussion of Script

Below you can see the first script we wrote up for our opening credits. We start with Ashley sitting on her bed in her room, which will be very plain with white sheets and tidy room surfaces etc. This is portray her usually proper and prim lifestyle which her parents have raised her by. We thought about maybe having some pregnancy leaflets and/or a pregnancy test on the bed, but these will only be clearly visible after the flashbacks have ended, as to keep the audience wondering what she is thinking about or what the leaflets are about. Her mother calling her down to dinner also shows that the family has a ordered lifestyle with daily meals eaten together. It would create a good contrast if the room is quite bright with stuffed toys etc, however Ashley’s expression and mood is dark and worrisome. The first shot of Ashley in her room will be filmed, so that we do not see her face, probably placing the camera behind her. This will create a barrier between audience and character while also building up tension, which will intrigue the viewers about her situation.

In the first flashback we learn why she is feeling guilty and ‘dirty’- it starts with Kat, Ashley’s ‘friend’, with her arm around her holding out an illegal substance, we aren’t too sure which one but probably some kind of a pill (e.g. speed or LSD). Kat tells Ashley that it is ‘No big deal’ and her use of the word ‘newbie’ tells the audience quickly that Ashley is new in this social group and doesn’t normally act like this. This is followed by a eye line match of Max after which she swallows the substance. With this we are trying to represent that she is trying to impress Max by doing this, showing that she likes him and is interested.

In between every flashback we return to a short shot of Ashley on the bed to highlight that the scenes are only flashbacks and Ashley at present is just w=thinking about her actions.

The second flashback is of a canted angle of Ashley’s point of view, which shows her intoxication and that she isn’t in a clear state of mind. Max shows up and helps her. We are trying to make his character ‘slimy’ so he is only using her. He tells her to follow him into a room, but as the film is about making a mistake yourself and having to deal with the consequences, we decided to get Ashley to look over at Kat who is currently making out with another guy standing on the opposite side of the room. This camera shot indicates to the audience that Ashley is trying to be like Kat so she mimics her sexual actions and lead Max into a room upstairs. As we believe it would be hard to get two actors of 17 to act like they were having sex, we chose instead to simply use a dolly shot and follow both Ashley and Max upstairs where a door closing will hinder the audience of viewing the following actions happening on the other side of the shut door.

Again the audience is returned to Ashley’s room now with the leaflets about pregnancy and the positive pregnancy test visible. The camera will have moved so that we can now look into Ashley’s face. She gets up and starts walking to the door, whilst we follow her. Another dolly shot is used to walk after her down the stairs or a pull out of her face to a wide view of her descending the staircase. She will then enter the living room where her parents are currently sitting. However before we get to hear her telling them about the pregnancy we stop in an extreme close up of her in order to fully see her emotions and get the audience to empathize with her.

Script for Scribd

Script for Scribd

The Title

During the decision making process for our films title, we reached an impasse when we founded the two titles; 'It's No Big Deal' and 'Swell'. 

 We took a particular liking towards 'It's No Big Deal' because of its association with explicitly used jargon by young adults which we believe would make our audience feel most comfortable. The words also hold a direct link towards not only the film's script but also regarding the significant event within the narrative that sets of the disequilibrium in our characters story. The words also present some of the issues the movie will be challenging, as it is a common sentence used when pressuring another peer into something one would not normally consider. However we chose to go with the title 'Swell' because of its easy going sound that we think the audience would be able to take in more coherently and remember easily. The sound also holds an onomatopoeic texture that gives the title a sense of maturity not to be ignored. Its foreshadowing elements towards the ultimate growth of the pregnant belly encouraged us to move forward with the title 'Swell'.

 

Sequence Mock Ups 2

Sequence Mock Ups

Before coming up with a credits sequence, as a group we discussed how we wanted to portray ourselves and knew that the credits would set some kind of precedence for the movie. Thus we took to the idea of having a very simple and classic look for the font and a rather moody background which would foreshadow the events to come. We chose to customize the colour purple into a gradient so that it could show the many ups and downs our protagonist will be experiencing. Because of the very dark shade of purple at the bottom left we had to use the colour white for our titles, which we utilized in depicting a rather young cast and crew.

Wordle for Title

First Wordle

Story Boards

ToniF Storyboards

The Pitch

Our film is about a teenage American girl named Ashley, who recently moved to London with her very catholic family. Her oldest friend, Kat who she has not seen in two years, has changed tremendously and is her only friend at her new school. They start school and Ashley is exposed to an environment where Kat is popular and not the good girl she used to be, which makes it hard for Ashley to fit in the way she was planning. On her first day of school Ashley meets a guy who she falls for and Kat tells her that he fancies her. Kat convinces Ashley to come to a party where she knows Max will be. At this party Ashley is surprised to find herself surrounded by illegal substances such as drugs and alcohol. She is peer pressured into consuming some of these substances, something that her parents would not be proud of. From there one thing leads to another, that causes Ashley to spiral out of control till she has to make a life changing decision.

Questionnaire Results

Questionnaire results
questionaire 2

Questionnaire

Questionnaire Media AS

Before embarking on brainstorming for an idea we had to create a questionnaire that would help us realise who our target audience would be. We did this by first asking standard yet important questions about their basic gene make-up. We then went into depth by asking them to specify what their likes where when deciding which movie to watch, this would then make the genre of our film explicit which then would guide us through many other decisions regarding the film. We wanted even further knowledge on when to release the film and asked which seasona does our audience prefer to watch movies.

Preliminary Poster Analysis 3

A teenage boy sits on a chair that is iconic for being the type that would be found at a school. He is flanked on either side by young, beautiful girls in shorts, a young boys dream. He is also surrounded by paraphernalia that is associated with being a young adult. The marketing campaign evidently works to encourage teeangers to identify with this character and his interests in surfing, junk food and so on. Attracting an audience that is curious to view how they are being represented on the big screen. The font is fun and striking, with not one but two taglines. They both are employed to amplify the films narrative.

Preliminary Poster Analysis 2

The Graduates poster is simple and suggestive, the narrative being clear in the title and picture. The audience may come to the conclusion that this will be a story of seduction and sexual prowess. The font is large and colour grand filling up the poster. A tagline appears to have been excluded however the dressed up leg that runs across the taglines usual place seems to work as a tagline on its own. The poster markets the movie as a youthful picture that displays a man possibly reaching his sexual peak.

Preliminary Poster Analysis 1

In this poster we find our charcters placed in front of a plain white back drop, this I believe is appropriate as the characters are each individual and are a representation in themself of sub-categories of stereotypes in the society of American high school. Each stereotype easily discernible from their costume, the most obvious being that of 'The Jock' who sits on the right in his iconic letterman jacket. The girl in pink is easily understood as a popular kind of princess. The tag line is longer than what is usually used but is fundamental in asserting the films narrative.

Preliminary Opening Sequence Analysis 3

Character and setting are easily established in this movie 'Dead Poets Society'. The backdrop being a church which encourages the audience to assume that this will be a narrative with a high amount of influence from religion. The priest embarks on informing its congregation of the schools high success rate with entrance to ivy league universities, coaching the audience to take in that this is a prestigious and respected school; the kind of school that would not tolerate alternative learning. The priest also inadvertently makes clear the period of the movie which is a hundred years after 1859.

Preliminary Opening Sequence Analysis 2

There is a suprising amount of time taken to reveal the opening image of the movie, The Basketball Diaries. However sound is incorporated immediately, using a technique called sound bridging. A voice that slowly emrges as a sound of prayer but errupts into a horrendous screaming of profanity creating linguistic irony. This can be seen as a foreshadowing effect as the camera opens with an image of the assumed protagonist awakening in his bed, we are to assume that his fate will meet an end like that of the one being cursed. The characters bedroom is small and appears to have no privacy as the crazy lady is used as his alarm clock. The characters status is established simply through his location and accent which is recogniseable as Brooklyn, New York. The placement of the camera is found looking into each window through bars which implies that the characters are prisoners of their situations, they are born into a world of poor income and will struggle to come out of it. It may also be a suggestion to the character's, Jim, future to be incarcerated in a state penitentiary.

Preliminary Opening Sequence Analysis 1

In this classic coming of age drama's opening scene, the audience finds themselves observing a world of teenagers which is easily discerned through the location and props of lockers and halls. Our main character is established through her position in these halls, Winona Ryder walks toward the camera as it continues to pull out possibly through the use of a dolly. This keeps her at the forefront while securing the audience's attention is not lost. The use of the non-diegetic voice over educates the audience further of our protagonist's personality and position in school as is always an important factor in teenage dramas. The micro elements like costume and performance are crucial in setting up the era of the movie. From Winona's line 'What's your damage Heather' we may recognise thar the film is a product of the late 80's early 90's. This is further enhanced through the costume's high shoulder pads and big hair.