Vic and Olivia's Coursework

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.

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.

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.