Evaluation question 1

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

There are many different conventions of a teen film opening which we have conveyed in our opening of our teen film 'Trials and tribulations.' We have used a number of conventions to show our teen film is similar to a typical conventional teen film. we have used all key conventional aspects such as mise en scene, camerawork, editing and sound and compared it typical teen films that have been released in the past and found out that our teen film is similar:

camerawork- for this shot, we decide to use and over the shoulder shot, but at a slightly high angle. This is to show that the main character Jerome has a lower status than Omar who plays the "thug" type character.

In comparison, the thug is shown looking down on his victim at a slightly high angle over the shoulder shot.  This represents his incredibly high status.

Mise en scene- for mise en scene we used a few of the aspects like setting, costume and make up, and staging in order to really let the audience into our film opening. 

Setting: we decided to set our film opening around the Highbury and Islington area as we were trying to create a gritty type of teen movie and we thought Islington would be a great place to do so. 

 Costume and make up: as our characters were not too different from who we are in reality (with the exception of Akbar "Omar") finding costumes were not too hard to do.

Here are our costumes with a bit of insight into the characters: http://prezi.com/5otallupurfm/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Staging (movement and performance): we used quite a lot of action in our piece so staging was very important, as it allowed our characters to express feelings and thoughts through the use of body language and facial expressions.

As for the sound, normally in a conventional teen film opening there a numerous amounts of sounds used to either represent the specific character or there is a suitable soundtrack that goes under the film. in our teen film we used quite a few sounds, such as: a gunshot, hype music and calming music.

Editing: in conventional teen films there are normally fine cut edits used in the opening to switch between the characters so that the audience do not get bored of watching one character simultaneously. 

There are also many other conventions besides the main four which occur in the opening of a teen film such as:

• Travelling and arriving 
• Titles
• Introduction of main characters 
• Sets topic
• Sets genre 

Evalation question 1

I created a timetoast timeline on the order of my groups conventions.  Following the strict sequence of the titles made it easier for the audience to identifty who took part in the film opening even though majorioty of the names were made up. 

We slightly made some changes in our film opwening due to the sequence we were told to follow. Although most popular films tend to go with their own sequence which is a little altered.

The purpose of having conventions such as the production and distreibution company makes the audience aware of what companys created the film and to gain popularity as the audience many not be familiar with the specific one chosen. 

Evaluation question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

What is representation?
The definition of representation is the portrayal of something or someone in a particular way. E.g. a gangster being represent with black clothes , broken English etc. Representation can be different depending on the specific conventions which are changed or altered. The main four components that define representation in films are:

• Sound 
• Editing 
• Mis-en-scene 
• Camera work

Evaluation question 2

Stereotypes


Here are a few common stereotypes identified in our teem film opening. Technical aspects such as mise en scene reflects back on the characters appearance and behaviour. Correctly playing the role of that stereotype wasn't as difficult as we expected as we were easily able to play them due to some of our teen friends being like that. The characters stated in our teen movie are clearly shown. Although the character of Jerome is portrayed in both positive and negative way.

Evaluation question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Evaluation Question 1

Here is our film opening in which we have stuck to the title order which is:

1. Production ident
2. Distribution ident
3. Actor 1
4. Actor 2
5. Actor 3
6. Actor 4
7. Film title
8. Casting by
9. Costume by
10. Music supervisor 
11. Music by
12. Edited by
13. Production designer
14. Director of photography
15. Executive producers
16. Written by
17. Director

However, not all films stick the exact same order but you will be introduced to these titles in the opening credits. 

Evaluation Question 1

For Question 1, I decided to create a time toast timeline of the order of my group conventions.  By following strict and precise order of titles it makes it much more easier for the audiences identify who was part of the film and took part in the film opening even though majority of the names were made up. 

However we did make small changes in our film opening. This was required of us; this was because we were told on what order the sequence should run. Although a majority of the popular films do use the same sequence of the order of titles.

The purpose of having conventions such as the production and distribution company is to make the audience aware of who has created the film and also to gain popularity. Also it helps to promote the company as a certain audience may not be familiar with these companies.

. 

Evaluation Question 2

I decided to interview members of the audience that had watched my film and asked them whether or not they could pick out typical stereotypes and whether they had a negative or positive label.

I then recorded myself and answered the question on video. 

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 3

Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? from Amra-Jargal

Evaluation question 4

Evaluation Question 3

The opening ident

Evaluation question 3

Evaluation question 5

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The general audience for teen movies are...teenagers. These may include the age range from as low as 13 to as high as 21 no matter what country or background so long as it relates to them. 

Specific audience to our sub-genre

Our teen film fits into the sub genre of crime, gangs, money, friendship, violence, 'hood', youth culture and drama. We aim at teens who can relate with these categories and/or have friends/family who have been in similar situations. Teenagers specifically who have had a rough time growing up in diverse post codes and making wrong choices due to society and peers and result in consequences. These teens may have already thought about making the right choices or teens that are still involved in crime etc and this film may appeal to them as they know about the character's lives and allow it to be more closer to home. The age range we chose is 15-21 both males and females, however mainly males.

I chose to make a Facebook profile of a typical person who may be interested in watching our teen film. He is a stereotypical black boy living in London who is involved in drugs, music and making money. He is in an ant-school subculture who believes school is wasting his time. He is at the age of 16 attending college.  

Here are a few pictures of his Facebook profile in a GIF

Evaluation question 4

 

A way i tried to reach to the target audience asked, i created a tumblr page instead of a Facebook or twitter page due to reasons such as identity therft. I had used my iPad as i found it more easier to use as there were technical issues wrong with my laptop. This was a great way for me to explore using different digital technologies .

The tumblr page consists of a teenage girl who (not me) uploads images of things relating to the film.The idea came as it was a teen movie in which targets teens aged 15+ due to the choice in language used and inappropriate images which could effect those who are below 15.

There is no specific sex in which could access this; either girls or boys are welcomed onto the page as what has been reposted can be seen by both.This is a much wider audience span as this website consists of millions of teenagers all across the world who access this site.


Here's a link to the site seriousantics.tumblr.com 

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for you media product?

The group of people that would be watching our media product would be majority young teens. The rough age is between 12-30. The type of audience that would be drawn to our film would be normally those who are urban based. Also our films is also based around Urban music so those whole are attracted to urban music would be a fan of our film. In addition, those who enjoy watching coming of age thriller would be drawn into our media product. I believe that the USP for our specific audience is that we have a mixture of different ethnic minorities and each character in our film are relatable this is why we think this film would be a success with it target audience.

Evaluation Question 5

Evaluation question 5

This was an interview constructed with Amra with the actress Marie Jones. Topics such as the development of the film, PR schedule's and about the film were talked about.

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Poster

This poster has been created to it will promote the film and the public can go and watch the film. These poster will allow the target audience to go and watch the film because what the actors are wearing it will be relating back to them therefore going out seeing the film. 

Evaluation question 6

Evaluation question 6

Evaluation Question 6

Evaluation Question 6

Evaluation Question 7

Both of the prelims and the film opening were presented differently. In the opening scene the prelim was filmed with a still tripod and the film opening was filmed with a fig rig this is why the film opening scene seems a bit wobbly. One of the differences in the prelim and film opening is that we used conventions.

Evaluation question 7

Evaluation Question 7

Evaluation question 7

How Binary Oppositions are established in teen films- Romeo & Juliet

How Binary Oppositions are established in teen films- Romeo & Juliet

Binary Oppositions

+Montague and Capulet
+Good and Bad
+Light and Dark
+Wrong and Right

Mise en scene-Binary Oppositions 

 +COSTUME: Montague's wear light clothes and the Capulet's wear dark.
 +MAKEUP: The Capulet have their hair slicked back and they are well tamed whilst          the montages have messy hair.
 +BODY LANGUAGE: The montagues are clumsy whilst the Capulets are slick
 +PROPS: The Montague's have a modern car and the Capulet's have a classic car

Editing- Binary Oppositions

+Slow and Fast.
+Close

Sound-Binary Oppositions 

+Loud and quite
+Upbeat/rap music and instrumentals

Type of music used in teen openings

In teen movies the music and sound used usually reflects on the genre of the film and the atmosphere in that specific scene. For instance in films such Mean girls, Clueless , Shes all that usually include pop songs to relate to audience as they would feel that they could personally relate to it.

Although some teen movies use a variety of sound and music due to the combination of genres in the film .

Alisha's Blood Stained T-Shirt

This is the blood stained t shirt Alisha was wearing . As you can see the colour has faded but was originally a deep red colour. With the combination of of flour,water and red food coloring we poured it onto the top and also made a hole to indicate that she had been shot .

Change in Sound

In our film opening we decided to only use two soundtracks as it was more appropriate for the scenes. Music such as Stay with me -DJ ironic and Pow - Lethal Bizzle was used in the beginning and at the end .

Our reason for only using two is because we also had a voice over which made it less complicated to include a variety of soundtracks to the opening than keeping it as simple as possible.

Ups and Downs - Filming and Editing

During our process of filming, we found it difficult to stick with our original ideas as we had many challenges that came our way. For instance, we weren't allowed to use the toy gun anywhere outside as it would have been an instant disqualification for our whole group as it was see as breaking the law. So we then decided to film inside the college mimicking a warehouse in which Omar (Akbar) pull out the gun to shoot .

Our film begins with a flashback although by many it was seen as unclear due to the shots we had taken. Struggling to use all the clips we had to make our flashback was difficult as we had taken a numerous number of clips.

While editing we merged all the clips together to look like a flashback by using white fades, a black and white effect to represent the event happened in the past tense. Even though it had taken many hours during lesson,after college hours and in our spare time we managed to finish a day before the deadline .

We had learnt new things in our lessons about filming and editing , which would personally help me (Janet) in future as i would want to peruse a career involving editing skills.Timing and organisation are one of the most important things we had to keep track of as a load of work began to build up each week .

 

Review- Lenya

Vlog- Volume

Vlog 2

Vlog p1

Review from TOLU

Amra's costume for character SARAH

SARAH

These are the costumes we had planned on wearing, as we thought it would fit perfectly for the characters we were attempting to portray.

Amra's character (Sarah) she is seen wearing a red checked shirt, black wax jacket, black jeans and Dr Martens boots. She is more into the urban fashion, loves music and arts and no way near into gangs etc and definitely would not get along with the antagonist Omar.  

Janet's costume for character ALISHA

ALISHA

These are the costumes we had planned on wearing, as we thought it would fit perfectly for the characters we were attempting to portray.

Alisha represents the balance in Jerome s life, we thought that we would go with a rather simple look; as she is the complete opposite of Omar, we decided that she was going to be a simple, lovable character. This is shown through her smile, and you can just see her bubbly energy oozing from the picture. She is seen wearing, nike ait max, black jeans, and a parka jacket.

David's costume for character JEROME

JEROME AKA JAY SQUEEZE

These are the costumes we had planned on wearing, as we thought it would fit perfectly for the characters we were attempting to portray.

Jerome played by David is shown wearing a Nike windrunner, Zara jeans, converses and a beanie that says "Comme des fuckdown." Although he is involved in gangs and drugs, he has always been different to the stereotypical "hood man" this is shown through his simple clothing.

Akbar's costume for character OMAR

OMAR

These are the costumes we had planned on wearing, as we thought it would fit perfectly for the characters we were attempting to portray.

The first picture is of Akbar's character Omar; he is seen sporting what is known as typical "road man attire." He is wearing Air force one's, which are very popular amongst our inner city youth, baggy Stone Island jeans, a hoody and a parka jacket. This is because he plays the role of the antagonist and represents the main "trial and tribulation" of Jerome.

FINISHED EDITING!

We finally finished editing on the 11th one day before the actual deadline and ticked off our group!

Group photo (minus Akbar) after the completion of editing :)

Evidence of editing- Photographs

During today's lesson and lunch, we had our last chance to finish up everything. We inserted our idents, voiceover, appropriate music for the teen film opening. As a group we came up with the idea of rewinding everything back to the first scene to make it more clear that it is a flashback, however we were encouraged by our media teacher that we do not do that and so we chose not to.

IDENT

Improvements

Improvements 

• Fashbacks aren't clear enough- more editing and an idea in rewinding the last scene all the way back to the first.
• Music is jumpy, in terms of it not fading away smoothly.
• Also a change in music as the one's in our rough cut are not as suitable as we thought it would be.
• Low volume whilst Akbar's character is speaking and therefore if we are unable to increase the volume on final cut pro we may have to result to doing a voiceover.
• There are currently no titles.

Rough cut- Film opening

This is our rough cut of our teen movie opening called 'Trials and Tribulations' we have been given our feedback from our teachers in ways in which we can improve our rough cut. 

Day 1 -Editing

while editing we came across the challenges of putting together our film as our plan seemed well-structured at first but then failed. Starting off  routine , i personally found it easier and faster to do.

 

 

Research- Sound in Teen Films

In teen films there are many soundtracks that are played during the film. Soundtracks are played because it heightens the audiences emotions during the film or parts of the film. Teen films usually have soundtracks that use popular music this is because the audience can recognize and associate the film with.

For example, ADAM DEACON & BASHY FEAT. PALOMA FAITH- KEEP MOVING

ED SHEERAN- I SEE FIRE

photos of production

Below are a few pictures we took whilst editing and filming.

The reason we took a picture of Akbar's back is to show his character's clothing, as you can see we managed to find the exact jeans we planned in our pitch which are stone island.