Evaluation, Question 7..

Evaluation, Question 6..

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?- Question 6. on Prezi

Evaluation, Question 5..

Evaluation, Question 4..

Evaluation, Question 3..

Evaluation, Question 2..

How does your media product represent particular social groups?


First of all, our project is based in a school environment, so social groups is very important for our opening sequence. In schools, there are different stereotypes and labels which we wanted to show; we have done this by dressing our actors/actresses appropriately according to their label. Our main influence was the film Mean Girls, which is all about the different groups in school and the way each group is treated, according to their status. We wanted to reflect their idea in our own project to achieve our audiences' attention, being a light-hearted comedy, but also focusing on some teenage issues that everyone goes through.

This is our first similarity to the film Mean Girls; they have a 'Burn Book' with pictures and labels of all the girls in their year. We have made a yearbook which has the same content. It's iconic for the movie as well as for our project.

Just like in the film Mean Girls, we portrayed girls in the typical view of being obsessed with makeup and their looks. They are both looking in the mirror and being overly conscious about the way people see them. We specifically fitted the music with this clip because the lyrics relate very well; 'all i see, when i look in the mirror, you're looking at me', is a line from our song which is played when the girls are putting on their makeup.

In the film Mean Girls, there is a zoom into a map of the different stereotypes at the high school; Our project is only slightly different as we zoom into the yearbook, but we still have the different groups before  going into a clip.

Just like in Mean Girls, we have considered and been very careful when it comes to the rule of thirds and the 180degrees rule. As you can see above, the girls in the clip are positioned in the left and right third. This is the same in Mean Girls, as you can see. Both groups are sitting at a table showing the isolation against the other groups (in the cafeteria) and in our clip it is set in a study centre isolating themselves from others on different tables.

In this picture, we have taken a still frame from the film Centre Stage. In both pictures, there is a lot of space around the dancers and the lighting is very good. It relates well to their character and the shot gives them a lot of space to be able to move around freely, and still be in the frame. Both characters are wearing appropriate clothing which clearly tells the audience that they are dancers. 

First of all, these are both wide shots; you can establish the setting giving the audience an idea of who they are. Both are set in a gym, and they are both gymnasts; you can tell this by the way they are positioned and by their clothes. The comparison we have used is from Bring It On, which is another typical teenage comedy movie.

This is from the film Goal. We researched what would be appropriate for the shot. We knew of a friend who is very skillful and who already had his own costume which helped a lot. In the clip, he performs a few tricks which shows that he is a footballer; also, the surrounding is at a football pitch.

We have compared the band clip to the film Bandslam. We tried to fit all of the characters into the frame and trying to show their instruments too. We have a drummer and a singer, just like the film. Both scenes are filming a rehearsal which also makes them quite similar.

This is our main character (on the right). We based his geek like character on Napolean Dynamite. The clothes they're wearing are very similar; they're both wearing school uniform (smartly dressed), glasses, and have curly hair! In the clips, we have also tried to make our geek act and sound like Napolean Dynamite after watching many clips of it.

Overall, we used Napolean Dynamite, Centre Stage, Goal, Bring It On and Mean Girls to represent particular social groups in our opening sequence.

Evaluation. Question 1..

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

Titles..

As we came to the end of our two minute opening sequence, we decided to use LiveType to make our credits and titles more interesting. In previous lessons we had been practicing and playing about on it and we really like some of the fonts and animations that were on there and thought that they would look good on our opening. We had to import the still frames we wanted into LiveType to add the title; we also changed the colour, font and added an animation. However, when we imported it back into our opening on iMovie, the quality of the still frame had changed and it looked very unprofessional and it was really obvious that it didn't fit in with the rest of the opening. To get around this, we realised that we had to import the clips before and after the still frame into LiveType. Even though this took us quite a long time, we managed to add exciting titles to all of our freeze frames before the deadline! In addition to the titles, we decided to create our title in Live Type. The title of our film is 'SnapShot'. We chose the font 'Manic', which looked really cool. We used bright colours, orange, red and yellow to make it feel fun and upbeat, which reflects what our film is like.

Re-filming..

When we uploaded the footage of the zooms in and out of the book, we found that they were a little wobbly; this is because it was really hard to try and zoom in, without moving the camera to fit the frame of the picture. So we re-filmed it and this time we put the camera on a tripod, and on some tables, as we did before, but instead of zooming into the book, we started with the frame that we wanted (the camera zoomed into the picture), then we zoomed out. After we imported the clips, we reversed the zooms so that it looked like we were zooming in. It looked a lot smoother than before and it was a lot less wobbly.

Filming Session.. Geek..

This was the last bit of filming we needed to do. We filmed it in the Art Room in our school because we liked the desks in that room and we were able to use it after school. This was the longest filming session as we had to get everything filmed; we had to film the Geek (Luke Groszewski) turning the pages of the book, gluing this down into the book, writing our names, and also the only bit of speech in our opening. We took several different shots of the 'And That's Me' shot because we wanted plenty to choose from. I think we're going to have a hard time choosing which one as they were all very funny!
I'm pleased with what we filmed and I think we have everything we need to start editing!

Ideas..

Recently, Cindy came up with a very good idea; she suggested that we speed up the beginning of the clip. This will work really well because otherwise it would be very boring for the audience to spend a very long time looking at the geek stick pictures down! Also, it means that the opening sequence won't be really long and we can get more in.
In addition to that, she also thought it would be a good idea to create still frames of the short clips we have taken and have writing popping up with a funny sentance about each one.
All of us agreed that they were really good ideas and we're including them in our final sequence; we will do this in our editing stage.

Filming Session.. Football & Showoff..

Football:
We had originally planned to film our school football team, however, they didn't want to be in our project. So, in the half term, we met up to do some editing and borrowed a camera from school. I volunteered to film the Kent County Under 18 Football team, who my dad manages, as they were playing against London FA. I got permission from both teams and filmed it on the Thursday evening of half term. The lighting was really difficult; it was filmed in the evening so the floodlights were on. But i think that some of the film has got some good lighting.

Showoff:
Whilst at the football, I asked my dad to choose one of his most skilled players to be our 'showoff'. Ben Lockett volunteered himself and he did a few skills for me. He's very talented and I only needed one shot as I was very pleased with what he did.

Yearbook..

We have finally finished the yearbook! It took a very long time and we are very proud of it! It was mainly Cindy and Hannah that put it together; I'm not very creative so I stuck to cutting out whereas they glued it all down and have made it look very professional! It's exactly how we wanted it and it has all of the pages we need to film the Geek!

Filming Session.. 'Make-Up' & School Council..

'Make-Up':We chose to film the make-up shot in our school toilets. We had originally asked some friends to be in this shot but they pulled out at the last minute. Thankfully, three girls in our media class (Mel, Beth & Steph) offered to help us and they did great. We took two shots in total; one shot of all three of them putting on some makeup infront of the mirror, and another one of one of the girls (Mel), putting makeup on in the camera, to make it look like the camera was the mirror.

School Council:We had asked some friends to be in this shot as we knew they were prefects, but they let us down at the very last minute. Luckily, we were saved by 4 other girls (Isobel, Eleanor, Kate and Hannah). We took 3/4 different shots in the Study Centre at our school; one quite far away, and three closeups. I think the long shot looked better as we can clearly see their prefect badges and everyone is in the shot.

Filming Session.. The Disruptive Class..

We filmed this shot in our Media classroom. It involved everyone in our class as they were all willing to help, including our Media teacher, Mr Go. We only needed to take one shot of this as we knew what we wanted. We used a powerpoint that Mr Go had, and put in an extra slide which had the word 'loser', with an arrow pointing to our teacher. We just put Mr Go in the shot as we wanted to see what was on the board. When the board changed to 'Loser -->', we asked our class to throw paper balls and aeroplanes at him! It looked really good and we're really pleased with it.

Filming Session.. Gymnast..

We used our school Gym to film our gymnast (Steph Parker). Fortunately she brought her own costume and it fitted well to what we had planned. We filmed lots of different shots, with lots of different flips and tricks, so we had a lot to choose from. We tried to film it different ways too to try and vary our shots. This didn't take very long as our gymnast had lots of ideas and we were very pleased with what she came up with.

Filming Session.. Actor & Band..

Actor:The location chosen for the Actor (Dom Sauboorah) scene was the Drama Studio in our school. We had a big problem with the lighting at first and we tried lots of different angles to try and get the best one to see the Actors face clearly. We have recorded him saying something without realising that we won't be able to hear him as we're muting the clips to hear the music, but it hopefully won't look too weird. Overall, the filming went well and it didnt take too long at all.

Band:
We filmed the band scene in the Music Studio at our school. It was hard trying to make sure that all of the instruments and people were in the shot as the studio isnt too big. But we eventually did it and the drummer (Conor Fuller), bass guitarist (Hannah McCrossen), guitarist (Claire Brooke) and vocalist (Chloé Byerley) all managed to fit into the shot. We recorded us playing the song so we can hopefully try and edit it so that, in the yearbook, it looks like we're playing along to the track.

Screenplay Draft..

INT. MEDIA CLASSROOM. DAY
NDS- upbeat soundtrack starts playing throughout
BARNEY starts work on the yearbook and turns over the front page showing the production company
BARNEY continues to cut out and stick down various newspaper and magazine articles, as well as the credits for the film
BARNEY then turns the third, fourth, fifth, sixth + seventh page showing the cast of the film

BARNEY

Ah yeah, and that's me! 

(laughs till he snorts and falls of his chair)

Filming Session.. Dancer..

The location chosen for this filming session was our school hall; we arranged with the lighting technician to put the spotlights on to make it look more professional. Luckily, Cindy already had her own leotard and tutu which was brilliant and it looked really good; her costume shows her stereotype well. We took several different shots because we wanted to see what her dancing would look from lots of different angles. We took a behind the shoulder shot, and a few different long shots. We decided that the long shot looked a lot better because she moved around quite a lot and it was easier to fit all of her dancing in.

Storyboard..

Influences..

Influences on Prezi

Location Shots..

School Hall- we have chosen to shoot the dancer, played by Cindy Wellings , in the hall because it has a stage with curtains behind which will link in with the idea that she is performing. It's also a large spacious area which means Cindy is able to move around easily when we film.

Drama room- We are going to film the actor, played by Dom Sauboorah, in the large drama room which is situated in our school because it links in with his characters hobby perfectly. We have taken into consideration that lighting could be an issue because it's painted all black which means we might not be able to see the character's face cleary, so when we film we plan to use the white lighting or spotlight. 

Casting Shots..

                                                            Luke Groszewski  (Geek)

                                                             Dominic Sauboorah (Actor)

                                                            Conor Fuller (Drums-Band)

                                                           Claire Brooke (Guitar-Band)

                                                          Chloe Byerley (Singer-Band)

                                                              Cindy Wellings (Dancer)

                                                                            Geek..

Media Song..

This is our final music song.. 

We recorded it in the music studio, and with a little bit of editing and mixing, and with help from the music technician, we have a final song! (: 

Overview & Plans..

Over this week, we have started our storyboard and script and we have almost finished our music.

Next week, we are hoping to finish the storyboard and scan it onto the computer to hopefully make an imovi of it, or a Prezi. Also, we would like to finish our scripting.
We have asked our actors/actresses to have their pictures taken on Monday, so we can show our casting.
We have booked the music studio for Monday as well, so we can record the bass guitar and vocals. Then we can edit it, and it should be ready sometime next week. Whilst we are in the studio, we are going to hopefully film our 'band shot', which will show our drummer, guitarist and singer to put in our opening sequence.

Music Lyrics..

These are the lyrics that we made up for our song. We think that they relate to the story of the film ;


'Cos I want you to know that I'm not who you see,
And I want you to know I'm not here for being me.
'Cos I want you to see that you're not who you want,
Taking a change, acting a line, It's all you see when you've come this far.


All you see when you look at me in the mirror you're looking at me,
All I see when I look at you I see you for you are not who you want to be


Take the time, to make people see through all the lies


Looking around now can't you see, all these things we're meant to be,


All this time I see you for who you are not who you want,
It's such a shame that you've come so far to see me.

More Music Development..

This is our latest recording of our music; We managed to book the school music studio after school so we could include the drums this time, with the help from our friend (Conor). Later on in the week, we recorded the drums and guitar in the music studio, and we're in the process of editing it. Hopefully next week we will have the bass guitar and the vocals recorded too so our song will be complete.

Music Development..

In our media lesson, we took a guitar, sat in an empty room and finalised the chords for our song. You can faintly hear our vocalist, as at this stage, we were trying to create a melody.

Music Ideas..

We wanted to record our own music for our opening sequence. We thought that because we can play instruments and we have friend who can help, we should try and think of something ourselves. (I play the guitar, Chloe sings, and our friend Conor plays the drums). We played around with some chords and started to come up with something which we feel suits our idea.
This is a video of the chords that we would like to use.

Opening Sequence Ideas

After changing our synopsis, in order to make our story less cliche, we came up with an outline of what we wanted our opening sequence to look like. From the start we liked the idea of using a yearbook because it's creative. After much discussion, we have come up with a rough final idea....

1. We will open the sequence with an aerial shot of the front of the yearbook, presenting the title of our film and our production company name. Our own music that we have composed will be played whilst this is happening and it will carry on throughout.
2. Then, our geek character will open the first page which will include credits, and pictures, which the geek will stick down. (Like he is creating the book).
3. The pages will then be turned over, introducing the different stereotypes in the school with a voiceover of the geek expressing his thoughts towards these groups of people.
4. The first three pages, will be showing pictures of the dancer, the actor, and the band, which we will zoom into these photos and switch to a short clip of them.
5. After those three, we will show the other stereotypes with short clips overlapping each other, getting faster and faster, to emphasise how many different 'cliques' there are. They will get faster and faster to give the impression that he is flicking through the book really fast.
6. Then it will come to a sudden stop, and a picture of the geek will be shown. Then the voiceover will help lead into the film..

Target Audience

After discussing we have decided that our target audience is aimed at 15-25 year olds because they can relate to it because its based at a school. 

It will interest both boys and girls however it might not appeal to everyone as it deals homosexuality for example people who have strong religious views may find the content offensive.

We feel the boys will be interested in parts they can relate to such as being a young teenage boy in high school and the problems that come with it. During this age you are going through changes and you feel different things so they might find they are able to relate to the film. 

Also the comic points of the movie will be interesting to teenage males and females because people aged 15-25 tend to enjoy comedy's. 

We thought we might find that a few boys might be putt off by the idea of homosexuality in the film but we don't feel this will be a big issue. 

Synopsis

A young boy, Barney, aged 16, is perceived as a geek at his school, Lodgedale Academy. He is assigned the job of Yearbook editor because of his great photography skills. While composing the yearbook he realises the vast amount of stereotypes in his school and how he doesn't fit in. This in the case until he accidentally finds out that the most popular boy in school, Jack, is actually a homosexual but is seeing one of the most popular girls in school to try and keep his secret so that people at his school wont treat him any differently. When the geek confronts Jack, Jack proposes the offer that he will be friends with him and invite him to school social events if Barney keeps his secret. Once he becomes friends with him he finds that school life is a lot easier and he feels more accepted. Someone from the yearbook committee stumbles across the photo of Jack kissing another boy and leaks it to the school. Jack becomes scared the school wont accept him anymore but he goes to school and no one's opinion have changed of him. He is treated exactly the same as he was before. He thanks Barney for helping him and supporting him throughout and the school becomes a more accepting place.

Initial Ideas

When we were told what we were going to have to do, my group decided that we wanted to do something different. We didn't want to do a horror opening sequence, or a rom-com, because we thought that everyone would go for that option. We wanted to focus on comedy.

After looking at different openings on the apple macs, we found one that we wanted to take ideas from; Napoleon Dynamite. In the beginning of that film, the opening credits are on different objects and it is a cool way to begin a film.

At the same time, we thought about what we could contribute to the clip. We all realised that we have some connection to performing arts; I play an instrument, Chloé sings, dances and acts, and Hannah and Cindy both act and dance. So we thought that we would involve that into our clip.
We scrapped the idea of the Napoleon Dynamite beginning as we couldn't see how it would fit in.

We then agreed on the idea of a performing arts type school (influence from Fame).
We then decided to look at school based films, such as Mean Girls.

At the moment, our clip is based on a boy, who is an outsider in his school (performing arts school); he's rejected by everyone and this is what we are going to try to show.
We are going to have a band, a dancer and an actor, as well as the person who is going to play the main character.

We want to start the clip off with the year book and inside the year book, the credits will show, as well as seeing the pictures of each group. The camera will zoom into each picture to show the group and the rejection of the 'loser'.


I think this is a good idea, but I think that maybe we are trying to fit too much into a two minute opening. I think that when we're back at school my group and I should go over the idea again, so we can maybe make it a little less packed, and so we all have a clear vision of how it is going to go in our head.

Analysing 3 Opening Sequences

In class we looked at three different opening sequences from Office Space, Trainspotting and Sweeney Todd. This work is to help us think about opening sequences for our next task.

The first clip we looked at was Office Space.

At the very beginning we are shown the production company (20th Century Fox) and then it goes straight into the opening credits. The writing is quite bubbly and they are accompanied by some upbeat music which leads us to think it is quite a cheery film. We are shown a massive traffic jam and the camera focuses on the main character who we are introduced to straight away. At around 1:00 into the clip, the man realises that an old man with a zimmer frame is moving faster than he is. This shows us that the film is a comedy because when he moves into the moving lane, it stops, and when he moves back to the other lane, that stops too. At roughly 1:50, we are introduced to another character who is rapping in his car. And then at 2:17, we are introduced to another character, who seems quite agitated. Each car has a different personality.
I found this opening quite funny and I think that it would be quite a good film to watch.


The second opening we watched was Trainspotting.
(video is currently unavailable).
This is a very upbeat and busy opening to a film. There's music playing throughout and dialogue too. There is a voice over from the main character who is talking to the audience. Whilst that's going on, when we are introduced to a new character, there is a freeze frame and the name of the character is shown.
I thought that this was a very effective opening to a film; the music and dialogue fit well together and although it's very busy and there's a lot going on, it is a very good way to introduce the audience to the film. The audience can establish what's going on.


The third opening we watched was from Sweeney Todd.www.artofthetitle.com/2008/10/10/morrison-on-morrison

This opening was my favourite because it was completely different from the other two.
It is an animated opening with a continuous feel to it, and instead of introducing us to the characters, it focuses on setting the tone and theme of the film. The credits run throughout along with the eerie music, whilst we follow the trail of blood. The opening gives us an idea of what the film is about; you can tell it's a horror.
The opening draws the audience in as soon as the music starts; after watching it you definitely feel like you want to watch the whole film to find out why there's lots of blood and how it happens. It is a very good opening.

Preliminary Project

I worked with Hannah McCrossen, Cindy Wellings and Chloé Byerley for this preliminary production. They were fun and easy to work with; I was pleased with how well our group worked together and how quickly we put our idea into action. We all agreed on the idea of a student being later for school, as we thought that we could get the shots we needed in it and plus, we filmed it in school so our location fitted well.
I was very pleased with our overall clip; we had all of the required things needed to pass. We also added some music, transitions and a ticking noise for the clock so we could emphasise that the student was late.
We showed our clip to the rest of our class and we now know how we could improve and what we did well;


Good Points:* Good, steady shots.
* Mise en scene worked well; the location and costumes fitted well with the idea we had.
* Sometimes the rule of thirds was used in a good way.
* They thought that the hand held camera shot of Chloé running looked good.

Hand held shot of Chloe running.

* They liked the way we edited our clip, they flowed well.
* Good use of titles at the end.
Bad Points:
* At some points, the music was too loud; we should make it the same level throughout.
* The dialogue was quite quiet, which made it hard for the audience to hear what was said.
* In the classroom, there was an issue with the lighting; we filmed facing the window which made it difficult to see the actors faces; we should of filmed from the other side of the room.
* Sometimes the rule of thirds wasnt used, so next time we need to make sure it's used well throughout.

This is where there were issues with the lighting, because it is hard to see the characters faces.

Overall, I am pleased with the feedback from the class; we will make sure that we think about our improvements for our next task and we will take the things we did well and make sure we do it again.

Media Studies Brief

The set brief for our Video project is to create the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes. This blog will document the pre-production, production and evaluation stages of this project.