Friday 16 April 2010
Evaluation task 7
In the preliminary task Olivia and I worked with three other people; Emily, Jack and Hannah. As a group we worked very successfully and completed the task efficiently and quickly. The task completion was mainly due to the fact that our story boards and thumbnails were completed in a large amount of detail: which we followed step by step. We gained inspiration from our typical school day; going to the library and getting a computer is always the same. Therefore we took advantage of this element and used to it our advantage to produce an effective prelim.
The technology used to complete the task was a video recording camera, a tripod stand, a computer and an apple Mac (To edit our short film). We initially had difficulty getting used to the camera – e.g. keeping it steady and how to get certain shots however we overcame this by using the tripod provided which helped us immensely in terms of restricting the cameras movement resulting in the shaking stopping. The most difficult technology to get used to was using the Apple Macs, we found the software complicated to begin with, nevertheless we continued to persist and eventually produced an effective result.
The key factors that always should be taken into consideration whilst filming is to use the equipment provided effectively to create the most successful end result e.g. the tripod stand. Moreover the thumbnails should be followed step by step therefore no ideas are missed out of the filming process. Lacking in continuity must always be taken into account whilst filming e.g. if filming outside the light conditions may change if the filming takes places on various days also whilst editing the flow of clips should be considered; the whole effectiveness of the film will be lost if it fails to flow from one clip into another.
Overall our preliminary exercise was a success however after completing our film opening Olivia and I have agreed that there are drastic improvements that could be made. The camera work could have been improved by using the tripod continuously; this would have prevented the shaking of the camera. Furthermore the editing could have been more precise and finally there lacked a storyline.
The technology used to complete the task was a video recording camera, a tripod stand, a computer and an apple Mac (To edit our short film). We initially had difficulty getting used to the camera – e.g. keeping it steady and how to get certain shots however we overcame this by using the tripod provided which helped us immensely in terms of restricting the cameras movement resulting in the shaking stopping. The most difficult technology to get used to was using the Apple Macs, we found the software complicated to begin with, nevertheless we continued to persist and eventually produced an effective result.
The key factors that always should be taken into consideration whilst filming is to use the equipment provided effectively to create the most successful end result e.g. the tripod stand. Moreover the thumbnails should be followed step by step therefore no ideas are missed out of the filming process. Lacking in continuity must always be taken into account whilst filming e.g. if filming outside the light conditions may change if the filming takes places on various days also whilst editing the flow of clips should be considered; the whole effectiveness of the film will be lost if it fails to flow from one clip into another.
Overall our preliminary exercise was a success however after completing our film opening Olivia and I have agreed that there are drastic improvements that could be made. The camera work could have been improved by using the tripod continuously; this would have prevented the shaking of the camera. Furthermore the editing could have been more precise and finally there lacked a storyline.
Evalutation task 4
If our movie was to be produced Olivia and I believe it would be rated as a ‘12A’. The story lines would be too explicit for the younger audiences. To be classed as a ‘12A’ the requirements include ‘No one younger than 12 may see a ‘12A’ film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult’ (http://www.bbfc.co.uk/#).
Therefore the target audience for our film are females between the ages of 13 – 16. We believe that our film will be most appreciated by that particular age group. The target audience shall be the average female teenager – casual clothes (Jeans/leggings and a top), enjoys going shopping, and enjoys spending time with friends.
The films and television programmes that our target audiences will enjoy are films such as: mean girls, bridal wars, 10 things I hate about you, Never been kissed etc. The television programmes that would be enjoyed by our audiences are programmes such as: Hollyoaks, Eastenders, Friends, America’s next top model, the inbetweeners etc. As a group we gained inspiration from these films and programmes and attempted to include elements of several of them in our film opening.
Our target audience would enjoy chart music- mainly r ‘n’ b, however they would enjoy music such as ‘pop’, ‘indie’ and ‘Dance’. Their favourite artists would include Rhinanna, Mika, Chris Brown, Beyonce, Vampire weekend, Mariah Carey etc. Olivia and I researched several of these ‘stereotypical’ teenage artists and we gained inspiration from a Mika video – when he gets out of bed, flicks the cover over and a door opens likewise we used the ‘popular’ girl getting out of bed, flicking the cover over and the fridge door opening.
The reason why I believe that our film would be appealing to this audience because the characters we have produced reflect everyday girls: There will always be a ‘Kayleigh Daniels’ and a ‘Poppy Harris’ in the stereotypical high school, therefore the audience can relate to the characters. Olivia and I also asked around our school to identify which films were most appealing to the average teenage girl; our results showed with an overwhelming percentage that Romantic Comedies were the most sort after. Olivia and I therefore made a decision to create a Romantic comedy film opening.
Therefore the target audience for our film are females between the ages of 13 – 16. We believe that our film will be most appreciated by that particular age group. The target audience shall be the average female teenager – casual clothes (Jeans/leggings and a top), enjoys going shopping, and enjoys spending time with friends.
The films and television programmes that our target audiences will enjoy are films such as: mean girls, bridal wars, 10 things I hate about you, Never been kissed etc. The television programmes that would be enjoyed by our audiences are programmes such as: Hollyoaks, Eastenders, Friends, America’s next top model, the inbetweeners etc. As a group we gained inspiration from these films and programmes and attempted to include elements of several of them in our film opening.
Our target audience would enjoy chart music- mainly r ‘n’ b, however they would enjoy music such as ‘pop’, ‘indie’ and ‘Dance’. Their favourite artists would include Rhinanna, Mika, Chris Brown, Beyonce, Vampire weekend, Mariah Carey etc. Olivia and I researched several of these ‘stereotypical’ teenage artists and we gained inspiration from a Mika video – when he gets out of bed, flicks the cover over and a door opens likewise we used the ‘popular’ girl getting out of bed, flicking the cover over and the fridge door opening.
The reason why I believe that our film would be appealing to this audience because the characters we have produced reflect everyday girls: There will always be a ‘Kayleigh Daniels’ and a ‘Poppy Harris’ in the stereotypical high school, therefore the audience can relate to the characters. Olivia and I also asked around our school to identify which films were most appealing to the average teenage girl; our results showed with an overwhelming percentage that Romantic Comedies were the most sort after. Olivia and I therefore made a decision to create a Romantic comedy film opening.
Evaluation task 2
The ideas and inspiration behind the ‘popular’ female character was gained from the 2004 mean girl’s star Regina gorge. Our idea was to have a stereotypical ‘popular’ female – wealthy, a large house, expensive clothes and a car. Similarly to Regina, Bethan (our lead character) has blonde hair, a toned figure and we ensured that she had an item of clothing in the colour pink and red (top). These colours were import to portray a certain ‘girly’ image: pink connotes femininity and red connotes sexuality. Olivia and I found that the colours which Bethan wore were import to connote her character, resulting in the audience able to have an understanding of her personality and characteristics throughout.
However the character of the ‘popular’ female and Regina Gorge are different in several ways; this is possibly because the film ‘Mean girls’ is set in a typical American high school, and in America they have different attitudes and trends. Olivia and I chose not to dress the ‘popular’ girl all in pink; we felt that all pink would create a slightly ‘tacky’ image. We also chose to dress the ‘popular’ female in leggings due to the fact that in England Leggings are more fashionable than skirts.
The ideas and inspiration behind the ‘unpopular’ character was sourced from the American comedy Ugly Betty, which first aired in 2006 in the USA. . Olivia and I believed that the most effect way to portray an unpopular person was to gain inspiration from the character Betty. Originally we chose our unpopular lead character (Jess) to wear a long orange skirt, large green jumper, glasses and walking boots however we came to the decision that this was too drastic and chose to ‘tone down’ the clothes. Resulting in the ‘double denim’ idea, an orange top and we chose to keep the original idea of the glasses. However the character of Ugly Betty wears similar styled clothing to the original outfit of jess, although this image works for the Ugly Betty character Olivia and I believed that it was extreme for the image that we wanted to portray. A further difference between the two characters is that Betty has her hair styled of a sort, however the style is not fashionable compared to the character of Jess who has an extreme ‘out of fashion’ hairstyle.
The idea behind the character of jess is that the audience can see that she is actually attractive, if the glasses were removed and the clothes were changed – this idea was also inspired by the ugly Betty character.
Evaluation Task Six
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Evaluation Task One
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Evaluation Tasks
For the final 20 marks of the project, you must complete seven tasks on your blog, posting them in this order, with the question heading at the top of each task. You may do them as a pair/group, but must post individual copies on each blog. Make sure you answer each question as well as producing the visual elements. Try not to write more that 1500 words in total.
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups ?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
7. Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)
Remember when we looked at 9 frames from Art of the title sequence? Well now it's your turn to do the same with nine of your frames.
You should go through the final version of the project and select nine distinct frames which you screengrab and drop into a photoshop in the same style as the website. You will be using these to write about how typical or not of opening sequences your particular design is, so choose them carefully.
Once you have the nine frames neatly in Photoshop, screengrab the whole thing and post to your blog, then write an analysis of how you have used such conventions.
The aspects we would like you to consider across your nine frames are:
The title of the film
Setting/location
Costumes and props
Camerawork and editing
Title font and style
Story and how the opening sets it up
Genre and how the opening suggests it
How characters are introduced
Special effects
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Pick a key character from your opening. Take a screengrab of a reasonable sized image of them. Think of one or more characters from other films with some similarity to them (but maybe some differences too!), find an image on the web of that/those characters and grab it as well. Drop the two into photoshop, as a split screen. Export this splitscreen image as a jpeg then drop onto your blog and write about the similarities and differences in terms of appearance, costume, role in film etc.
So for example if you have a lone cop type character, look for other lone cops to compare him with...
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 3
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
For this question, you are going to do a 'director's commentary' style voiceover explaining some of the key features of your opening
You will need to script the voiceover which deals with institutional issues to include:
discussion of your production company name and logo and the role of such companies
What does a production company do? start here
the idea of a distributor and who that might be and why. start here
where the money might have come from for a film such as yours here
why the various people are named in the titles
which jobs appear in titles and in what order and how have you reflected this?
what your film is similar to 'institutionally' (name some films which would be released in a similar way)
You need to refer to actual company names and processes so you will need to go back to the early posts on film companies and maybe do a bit more research
When you have scripted, record the voiceover using Final Cut on a new audio timeline, then export to quicktime and embed on blog.
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 4
Who would be the audience for your media product?
You should have a drawing of your target audience member and an explanation of what kinds of taste they might have- where they would shop, what music they would listen to, what their favourite Tv programme would be, etc.
make sure you have taken a phot of it, post it on the blog and write a few notes on why they would watch your film.
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 5
How did you attract/address your audience?
You will use YOUTUBE's annotation tools to add NOTES, SPEECHBUBBLES, and LINKS to your video:
http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=92710
These annotations will highlight the ways in which your Film Opening links to other similiar films in order to attract the particular Audience you have previously identified.
Your annotations will refer to genre conventions, use of music, similiarities with other movies and what you have identified as the Unique Selling Point of your imaginary film.
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
In pairs, take a picture of each other holding the kit you have used. This might just be the camera and tripod, and your Macbook but there may be other things you want in the shot.
Drop the image onto your blog and annotate it, adding all the programs and other technology you have used as screengrabs and what you learnt about it/from using it. Your written text need only be minimal. You could include reference to all the online and computer programs you have used such as youtube, flickr, blogger, final cut,photoshop,vimeo garageband, etc.
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 7
Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
Concentrate on editing and camerawork.
Grab some frames from both tasks and put them on the blog and show what you know about shot types, edit terms and techniques.
Make sure you mention the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot/reverse shot
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups ?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
7. Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)
Remember when we looked at 9 frames from Art of the title sequence? Well now it's your turn to do the same with nine of your frames.
You should go through the final version of the project and select nine distinct frames which you screengrab and drop into a photoshop in the same style as the website. You will be using these to write about how typical or not of opening sequences your particular design is, so choose them carefully.
Once you have the nine frames neatly in Photoshop, screengrab the whole thing and post to your blog, then write an analysis of how you have used such conventions.
The aspects we would like you to consider across your nine frames are:
The title of the film
Setting/location
Costumes and props
Camerawork and editing
Title font and style
Story and how the opening sets it up
Genre and how the opening suggests it
How characters are introduced
Special effects
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Pick a key character from your opening. Take a screengrab of a reasonable sized image of them. Think of one or more characters from other films with some similarity to them (but maybe some differences too!), find an image on the web of that/those characters and grab it as well. Drop the two into photoshop, as a split screen. Export this splitscreen image as a jpeg then drop onto your blog and write about the similarities and differences in terms of appearance, costume, role in film etc.
So for example if you have a lone cop type character, look for other lone cops to compare him with...
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 3
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
For this question, you are going to do a 'director's commentary' style voiceover explaining some of the key features of your opening
You will need to script the voiceover which deals with institutional issues to include:
discussion of your production company name and logo and the role of such companies
What does a production company do? start here
the idea of a distributor and who that might be and why. start here
where the money might have come from for a film such as yours here
why the various people are named in the titles
which jobs appear in titles and in what order and how have you reflected this?
what your film is similar to 'institutionally' (name some films which would be released in a similar way)
You need to refer to actual company names and processes so you will need to go back to the early posts on film companies and maybe do a bit more research
When you have scripted, record the voiceover using Final Cut on a new audio timeline, then export to quicktime and embed on blog.
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 4
Who would be the audience for your media product?
You should have a drawing of your target audience member and an explanation of what kinds of taste they might have- where they would shop, what music they would listen to, what their favourite Tv programme would be, etc.
make sure you have taken a phot of it, post it on the blog and write a few notes on why they would watch your film.
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 5
How did you attract/address your audience?
You will use YOUTUBE's annotation tools to add NOTES, SPEECHBUBBLES, and LINKS to your video:
http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=92710
These annotations will highlight the ways in which your Film Opening links to other similiar films in order to attract the particular Audience you have previously identified.
Your annotations will refer to genre conventions, use of music, similiarities with other movies and what you have identified as the Unique Selling Point of your imaginary film.
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
In pairs, take a picture of each other holding the kit you have used. This might just be the camera and tripod, and your Macbook but there may be other things you want in the shot.
Drop the image onto your blog and annotate it, adding all the programs and other technology you have used as screengrabs and what you learnt about it/from using it. Your written text need only be minimal. You could include reference to all the online and computer programs you have used such as youtube, flickr, blogger, final cut,photoshop,vimeo garageband, etc.
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 7
Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
Concentrate on editing and camerawork.
Grab some frames from both tasks and put them on the blog and show what you know about shot types, edit terms and techniques.
Make sure you mention the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot/reverse shot
Sunday 7 February 2010
Characters
After deep deliberation Victoria and I decided on using are friend Jessica Hutchingson to play the role of the ‘unpopular’ girl and Bethan Kench to play the ‘popular’ girl. There are various reasons why we selected these two individuals to play are leading ladies. A distinguishing feature we picked up on when watching a range of romantic comedies was that the female acting the ‘popular’ character always had blonde hair, this hair colour connotes a confident, fun loving, ditsy character. This is the persona we are trying to perceive thus are ‘popular’ girl must have blonde hair. We went around school trying to find suitable candidates for this character and took pictures so we could critically compare each of them and weigh up the pro’s and con’s of each individual. Here are some of the possibilities for both the popular and unpopular girl:
We selected Jessica firstly because of her willingness to act this role. Jessica is also tall and very slim, we believe by the style of her clothing and the use of her body language we can make her seem like a lanky uncoordinated female. However we are posed with a problem in that Jessica possesses beautiful facial features and we need to make her look not so easy on the eye, we plan to do this by scraping her brown hair back and making it look messy. In addition to this we will not apply any make up to her face to make her look plain.
Also Bethan and Jess are some of mine and Victoria’s close friends and we feel comfortable letting them into our homes and we know they are reliable and will put all there effort into acting there roles to the best of there ability.
We eventually decided on Bethan for the 'popular' girl, her main feature being her blonde hair, she is also a slender young lady so the tight fitted girly clothes will fit and look spectacular on her, she has big blue eyes and straight white teeth, these are all typical traits a character like hers possesses, she has also had basic acting training appearing in local pantomime’s so being in front of a camera will not faze her.
We selected Jessica firstly because of her willingness to act this role. Jessica is also tall and very slim, we believe by the style of her clothing and the use of her body language we can make her seem like a lanky uncoordinated female. However we are posed with a problem in that Jessica possesses beautiful facial features and we need to make her look not so easy on the eye, we plan to do this by scraping her brown hair back and making it look messy. In addition to this we will not apply any make up to her face to make her look plain.
Also Bethan and Jess are some of mine and Victoria’s close friends and we feel comfortable letting them into our homes and we know they are reliable and will put all there effort into acting there roles to the best of there ability.
Costume Ideas
We want the 'popular' girl to sport clothes that are sophisticated, high fashion, bright and girly this will hopefully convey to the audience the type of character she is without her even having to speak. Emphasis on the costume element of mise on scene is going to be pivotal in our 2 minute opening sequence as we want to evoke certain emotions for the characters in a short space of time, and we believe by getting the costume perfect we can achieve this.
The sophisticated and high fashion feel will connote wealth, a good sense in style and the fact that she takes pride in her appearance, by placing her in bright clothes it will tell the audience that she oozes self confidence and loves to be seen. By dressing her girly, the viewers will be under the illusion that she gets a lot of male attention and is the girl everyone else wants to be with and around. These are a few of the attributes we are hoping to gain through the use of costume.
I would define the look we are going for, for the popular girl as ‘preppy’. This consists of a mixture of designers such as Abercormbie, Jack Will, Lacoste and Ralph Lauren. Below are a few examples I found of attire that would be appropriate for the popular girl:
Below is a mood board I created with a selection of items from clothing to jewellery to bags and much more just to give you a feel for what we are considering. We could pick any of these pieces and put them together to construct the perfect costume. We will obviously trail and test a variety of costumes on are actresses before filming, to see what compliments her, the character we are creating and the settings.
The sophisticated and high fashion feel will connote wealth, a good sense in style and the fact that she takes pride in her appearance, by placing her in bright clothes it will tell the audience that she oozes self confidence and loves to be seen. By dressing her girly, the viewers will be under the illusion that she gets a lot of male attention and is the girl everyone else wants to be with and around. These are a few of the attributes we are hoping to gain through the use of costume.
I would define the look we are going for, for the popular girl as ‘preppy’. This consists of a mixture of designers such as Abercormbie, Jack Will, Lacoste and Ralph Lauren. Below are a few examples I found of attire that would be appropriate for the popular girl:
Below is a mood board I created with a selection of items from clothing to jewellery to bags and much more just to give you a feel for what we are considering. We could pick any of these pieces and put them together to construct the perfect costume. We will obviously trail and test a variety of costumes on are actresses before filming, to see what compliments her, the character we are creating and the settings.
Setting ideas for the 'un -popular' character
The settings that Olivia and I are thinking about for the 'un - popular' girl are my the outside of one of my friends house, inside of house and the dirt paths and tunnels in my village - Whetstone.
However the end result we have visualised for the 'un -popular' girl is to be less fortunate, therefore we cannot use the inside of my friends house because she may be offended, consequently for the inside house scenes we shall film in my house. The plan is to make it un - tidy and messy; resulting in my house looking cramped and un - clean. The kitchen will have laundry on the sides, painted pictures on the cupboards, dirty tea towels hanging off handles, newspapers spread out all over the floor (because of the new puppy), the dogs basket etc. The bedroom will be just as un - tidy; clothes everywhere, grungy posters, shoes on floor, bed un -made etc.
However the end result we have visualised for the 'un -popular' girl is to be less fortunate, therefore we cannot use the inside of my friends house because she may be offended, consequently for the inside house scenes we shall film in my house. The plan is to make it un - tidy and messy; resulting in my house looking cramped and un - clean. The kitchen will have laundry on the sides, painted pictures on the cupboards, dirty tea towels hanging off handles, newspapers spread out all over the floor (because of the new puppy), the dogs basket etc. The bedroom will be just as un - tidy; clothes everywhere, grungy posters, shoes on floor, bed un -made etc.
The bike scene that we are going to include in our film opening with be filmed on a country gravel path, which has fields on one side and 'jungle like' bushes on the other. We believe that this scene will be used effectively because the natural lighting will be good, also it shows the struggle that the 'un popular' character has to go through every morning.
This are pictures of my friends house that we are going to use for the exterior shots of the
'un - popular' girls house.
These are shots of my bedroom after I messed it up, this is the types of setting that Olivia and I are trying to achieve for the getting dressed, bedroom scene. We are also going to put 'grungy' posters up on the walls, this makes the room darker without loosing the light. The dark setting is a reflection of how the 'un -popular' female lead is feeling.
These are two shots of my kitchen; for our kitchen scnen olivia and I are going to 'clutter' my kitchen resulting in it looking un - clean and messy - this is a reflection of the 'un- popular' girls appearance. Using my Kitchen is not ideal however we have no other option without risking offending someone - our vision was to have a small un - unclean kitchen.
This is where we are going to film the bike scene. I believe that this setting will look effective for the scene that we have visualised. The idea behind the bike scene is portray the stuggle that the 'un - popular' female has to go through everyday to get to school: hopefully achieving the audiences' sympathy. However the scene will look ineffective if the natural light is not bright and hazy - as shown in the pictures. Therefore Olivia and I will have to plan a day when the whether is going to be dry and bright so we can achieve the best possible scene.
I suggested that we include a Birds eye view shot. The idea is that we film the 'un - popular' girl on the bike off the top of the tunnel going in and coming out therefore including two birds eye view shots. However we will film the first birds eye view shot and skip to the 'popular' girl then edit the 'un - popular' female coming out of the tunnel - the viewer is under the impression that she was in the tunnel longer than she actually was.
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