My Final Film.

This is my final film.

Evaluation 1

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

In my opening sequence of my film i have in some ways followed the codes and conventions but also challenged them aswell.

These are some of the many aspects i have taken into consideration whilst talking about the codes and conventions.


The title of the film

The title of my film is ‘Roads to Fame’ I have chosen this title as I believe it is relevant to my film and the location. My film is about four teenage girls trying to achieve their dreams of becoming famous singers. All four girls in my film inspire to be ‘the next big thing’ like the beetles once were. The Abbey Road crossing has connotations of fame and recognition which is what the girls are searching for. This is their ‘road to fame’

Setting/Location

The opening sequence of a film usually establishes the location of the film I have followed this convention as the opening shot of my film is a close up of the Abbey Road sign. This straight away establishes the location of the film and gives the audience a hint that music may be a key element to it as Abbey road is a famous music landmark in London. Abbey road studios is the most famous studio in London- The close up of the sign above the door shows that this is also key to film. In the last few seconds of opening sequence you see four young females walking in a line across the abbey road crossing. This crossing is famous because of the beetle’s album cover where they are posing in exactly the same way.  The speed in this scene is slowed down so that it stands out this suggests that these four girls inspire to be like the beetles.

Costumes and props

The type of clothing the four girls are wearing are all different, this shows that there characters are all very different from each other. Maryam's character is wearing smart stylish clothing; this suggests that she is quite wealthy. Stephanie's character is wearing casual clothing and looks quite down to earth. She is holding an A-z which shows she is not familiar with her surroundings.  Charon's character is wearing urban looking clothing and big headphones. I have not used many props just headphones, An A-z and a car. The headphones suggest that Charon is into music which relates to the storyline of the film. The car gives us an insight to what Laura’s character is like; as the car looks very expensive we know she is wealthy. She is wearing pink and white, the two colours have connotations of a ‘girly girl’.

Camerawork and editing

The beginning of my opening sequences starts with close ups to establish the location of the film. There is also a close up on Stephanie’s face which gives an insight to her personality, her facial expression is confused and she is looking at the A-z which suggests she is not familiar with her surroundings. There is no transactions between the scenes it cuts fairly quickly between each scene this is to create a fast pace upbeat feeling to fit in with the music and to fit in with the genre of my film. The last scene is slowed down to give it a ‘slow motion’ this suggests that this scene is key to the film as it stands out much more than it would if it was at normal speed. The music fades to a stop at the end.

Title font and style

The font I used for my titles was quite simple looking. It is in the style of a female’s handwriting which establishes the genre of a ‘chick flick’. Whilst researching I noticed that in many films of this genre the typography is often white, black or pink. I wanted to use the colour pink for my titles as it has connotations of girls and anything girly. When I tried this colour out in my titles it did not look very good. The pink clashed with the colours in my scenes. For example the red bus. As my titles are white I have followed the codes and conventions in this aspect of my film. However, the order that they appear in does not quite follow the conventions as most other films the production company and studios appear before anything. Although those are the first titles that appear on my film they do not appear until the fourth scene as I thought that they wouldn’t look right before this. My first three scenes are of close ups of road signs, studio signs and station signs.

Story and how the opening sets it up

My film is about four teenage girls on their summer vacation who come to London to fulfil their dreams of becoming famous in the music industry.  The opening sets up the story line as the camera focuses on the Abbey Road sign and the Abbey Road music studio. Which suggests that music is going to be a key element to the story line.

Genre and how the opening suggests it

The opening sequence for my film is easily identified as a 'chick flick' from the music playing in the background. The four teenage girls we see in the sequence also give a suggestion that the film is aimed at teenage girls like the ones in the film itself.  Also the typography used looks like a female’s hand writing which reinforces the ‘chick flick’ feel to it.

How characters are introduced

The main protagonists in my film are all individually introduced in the opening sequence, showing elements of their personality.  When we first see Maryam she barges Stephanie turns around gives her a dirty look and continues walking this suggests she is the typical ‘bitchy’ character usually seen in chick flicks.  Stephanie drops her A-z and we see her scrambling on the floor to pick it up, this suggests that her character is clumsy and maybe a bit ditzy.

Evaluation 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The social group represent in my film is teenagers. My film challenges the stereotypes of females; it focuses on four different types of teenage girls. My main protagonist is Christina played by Maryam Baraho. My character is very similar to Megan Fox in A teenage Drama Queen. Both characters are portrayed as the ‘bitchy girl’. They are both very wealthy and popular in school.  Both characters have a sophisticated and stylish dress sense. They are also very self centred and often look down on others less wealthy then themselves.  The main difference between the two characters is that Christina is not in her normal surroundings- her high school, and has to interact with different types of people. Both characters are humiliated during the film which encourages them to make some changes in their personality.  For example, they both learn to be less selfish and not look down on people who are less fortunate than themselves. I think that my audience will be able to recognise this stereotype as it is portrayed in most ‘chick flicks’.

Evaluation 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

This is Issachar Whyte she is 16 years old and lives in London with her mum, sister and three brothers.  She attends a local sixth form college. Issachar is a typical teenage girl who enjoys socializing with her friends, going to parties, shopping and going to the cinema. Issachar is very passionate about music and song writing is a very big part of her life. In her spare time she writes songs for her older sister to perform.  Issachar’s taste in music ranges from hip hop, rap, rnb and pop.  Being a girl, fashion and looking good is also very important to Issachar, a lot of her pocket money is spent on buying new clothes and make up. Her favourite shops are Zara, H&M, New Look Jane Norman, Top Shop and Boots. Issachar also enjoys watching a lot of TV programmes, some of her favourite are Glee, 90201, Waterloo road and Skins. Issachar regularly goes to the cinema to watch the latest films with her friends. She loves ‘chick flicks’ comedies, romances and anything involving music or dance. Her favourite films are step up, a teenage drama queen, mean girls, Valentine’s Day and Easy A. Issachar would watch my film because she loves music and can relate to the characters in the film. Their dream is to one day record their music in abbey road studios- the film is all about their journey to reach this dream.  Because Issachar is a teenage girl trying to accomplish a similar thing, I think she would enjoy the film.  I also think she would enjoy my film because it has elements of the genres she most enjoys.



Evaluation 5 How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation 3

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

Unfortunately, I was not able to record a voice-over for my films opening sequence as i have not had access to the right equipment or software. As an alternative I have written out my script below:

 My film starts with my production company name Alystone Studios. A production company is responsible for the physical production of a film but also the pre production for example they raise the funding for the film, pitch the idea to the studios, make up the budget, find writers and director actors and everything else the film needs to move on in production. They are also responsible for making sure everything stays on target. There are two different types of production companies; larger ones or smaller independent ones. Distribution is the final stage of production.  A film distributor is a company or individual responsible for releasing films either to the public by cinemas or for home viewing i.e. DVDs, internet downloads or on television.

I would like Fox Searchlight to distribute my film as they specialize in independent British films like mine.  Fox Searchlight is a company that produces and distributes films it was established in 1994 and is a film division of Fox Filmed Entertainment alongside the larger studio 20^th Century Fox.  As Fox Searchlight is one of the larger companies they will also fund my film as well. Fox Searchlight has distributed successful films such as Slum dog millionaire and more recently Never Let Me Go. I believe that this company would be a success for my film as well.

The opening credits of a film are shown at the beginning to show the important people involved in the production of the film. Whilst researching other films of my chosen genre; chick flicks i played close attention to the orders these titles appear on screen. They are as follow, name of studio and Production Company,  producers and directors names, the name of the film, starring and finally everyone else involved in the production of the film for example casting, costumes etc. 

I have broken some of these conventions as I felt that the title of the film fitted better at the end. I also had the production company and studio on my fourth scene as the first three were close ups of signs to establish the location I felt it didn’t quite look right.

Evaluation 7

Looking back at your preliminary task ,what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

For me, the preliminary task was in a way more difficult as I had very little experience using a tripod and camera and I had also never used editing software of any kind.  However, the preliminary task was done in groups of three so there was less pressure when it came to filming. My full product was very stressful when filming as arranging a time for everyone to film was very difficult. I was also still not used to using adobe premiere and still found it very difficult to edit all my clips together.

My preliminary task was not very good; it did not contain many different shot types. I think this is because we had not properly thought out what we were doing. What I have learnt from this is that planning and preparing exactly what you are doing before you film is vital in producing a successful piece of work.

Above is an example of match on action, this was the only shot that my group used effectively. The only other shot we used was a mid- shot of two people talking. I have taken what I have learnt and applied it to my full product.  I have used a wider variety of shots such as match on action, close ups, mid- shots and long shots.

From doing my preliminary task up to my final product I have learnt a lot about how to use the editing software and also different types of shots to use in my film. I have also learned a lot about the media industry as a whole.



Evaluation 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your products?

I have learnt that there are three stages of production. These are: pre production, production and post production.  For each of these types of production i have used software or programmes to help me.

I used google to research different films with the same genre of film as mine and also to research different artists who produce the same upbeat music usually played in the opening title sequences of chick flicks. I used google to search for pictures for my mood board. I also used it to search what transport would take me to Abbey road, as it is not somewhere i would usually go.

I used youtube to watch other opening title sequences and to listen to songs i was considering using for my film. I also used youtube to upload my final product, my annotated version and my voice over.  I have learnt how to annotate videos and how to upload them.

For my production i used a canons camera and tripod. I learned how to operate the camera and tripod allowing me to widen the variety of shots and camera angle i used.

I used Adobe premiere pro CS3 for the first time, to edit my film. I learnt how to import my clips from my documents and download and import my sound from the interent. I also learnt how to arrange and cut these were appropraite. I learned how to change the speed of my clips which gave it the 'slow motion' effect. I also learnt how to create titles.

I used adobe photoshop CS2 to make my mood board as part of my research for my genre of film and also to my 9 frames for evaluation 1

I used blogger to store all my work and research for my opening title sequence.

Shooting Schedule

Questionaire

Treatment

My film starts with a close up of the Abbey Road sign followed by a close up of Abbey Road Studios and St Johns Wood Station. The song One Girl Revolution by Superchick is heard in the background. The camera zooms out and a teenage girl walks out the station, the camera angle focuses on the girl as she walks down from the station and past the camera. The camera angles change to a long  shot of another teenage girl getting out of an expensive car. It then changes to a mid shot of another young girl walking down the road reading an A-z. This mid shot changes into a close up as she gets closer to the camera. The camera then zooms out to an extreme long shot were we see the girl still walking, we then see the the girl who came out of the station appear on screen again. Both girls are walking in the opposite direction from eachother, they bump into eachother and the A-z falls out of the girls hand and onto the floor. We see her rushing to pick it up. The camera then changes to a close up on the A-z on the floor. There is then a long shot of another young girl getting off the bus, she takes her head phone off and turns to walk away the camera angle changes to a mid shot as the girls back as she walks past the bus. We then see a long shot of the bus driving away from the bus stop. The camera cuts quickly to Abbey Road crossing where all four teenage girls walk across the crossing together. A few seconds into this scene the speed is slowed down so you can see each girl clearly as they walk across the crossing.