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EVALUATION QUESTION 1

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

Overall I think our media product uses a lot of conventions of a typical film opening. It does this by setting the scene of where the film is to be set, in our film it is the village. Film openings including ours introduce the main characters to the audience, in a way that they can judge the character from first impression i.e from their mise-en-scene which is why you can see in our film that we focused on this concept. A film opening also sets a tone for the rest of the film, in our film we did this by showing the main character Lexi drinking and smoking on her own for no reason and she is underage to show what she is capable of doing in the rest of the film. We have challenged conventions of a real film opening by not giving our characters much dialoge, we are not the only film opening to have done this however this is very rare. We originally planned to have a voice over while she was walking down the road however, me and Dani changed our minds as we thought the clips alone would impact the audience enough.

 

Our media product uses conventions of real media products in a way that it has set the location of the film. It has opening titles and a main title. It introduces characters (two in our case) It generally introduces the concept of the film and the target audience, which most film openings do. It is developing a story line and introducing dialoge.

Frame One 

This shot is a location shot, this was to set the scene of where the film was going to be based so the audience could realise that this was a peaceful village until the arrival of our character. This shot in frame one was originally a pan from left to right however due to the quality of the shot we decided it would look less jumpy if we froze framed it so this is what we decided to do. We froze the frame using final cut pro and this also meant we could choose how long it could now be. 
Frame One
For the beginning of the opening we wanted to set the location of where we would mainly be filming, this frame is one of the shots we used to set the location. This would give the audience an indication of where the film will take place. The shot was originally a pan of the houses and knoll, we decided to use a still frame instead because of the cameras jumpiness. We were also able to choose the length of the clip on final cut pro.

Frame Two

Mary my neighbour kindly said her and her dog Bonnie could be shot for the film. This shot shows normal village life so is also a location shot to show the audience what the 'locals' look like and do. This shot we took first time, the movement in this clip I think is key for the starting location shots as most of them are still or frozen frames so shots like this and the tennis court one show that there is life in the village. 

Frame Two

This frame was also setting the scene, we wanted to show that the place in which the story would take place was just an ordinary village, with normal people. We asked our neighbour if she would walk her dog as we filmed and she agreed. This shot is also repesenting the "neighbours" or "locals" who Lexi might come into contact with later on in the movie.

Frame Three

This frame is the first time you see the main character Lexi. In our rough cut we had the titles before the arrival of Lexi which from feedback other media students felt that by having the titles inbetween meant the contrast in worlds didn't show as well as there wasn't just a sudden change in both imagery and sound. As soon as I recieved this feedback I realised that it didn't flow as well as it could of with the arrival of Lexi before the Lexi main title, I think me and Dani only didn't realise this before the feedback because in our heads we knew the twist and until producing a rough cut and putting the basic clips together it is hard to know how to improve your own work. 

Frame Three

This frame is when the audience first see the main character Lexi. This is also when the music changes and the dubstep comes in and the audience really get to see the real genre of the film. We decided to put the character titles on when you see Lexi, as our feedback pointed us into this direction. They also advided us to put the main title "LEXI" on after we saw Lexi on-screen, this helped it flow better with the audience. We were not aware of this because me and ruby knew the twist of the film opening, where as the audience did not.

Frame Four

The film title - We took a long time deciding on what to actually call the film we had a few suggested titles however we thought most of these sounded comical, after doing some research we found that many film titles of this genre have one worded title names i.e Kidulthood, Shank and Sket. We wanted our title to be big bold and explode however due to not having the software to blow the words completely up, we settled with making the title suddenly increase in size and out of view with a smash noise from Soundtrack Pro. The font we chose called TRASHED made the titles big bold and edgy which is typical for this genre of film and I also felt like it related to our main character.

 Frame Four

This frame is the title frame. We didnt know what to call the film for a long time, but we finally decided on the main characters own name. We thought this to be effective becasue she is the main character and the film is about her life. We wanted to have a dramatic film title opening, so we inluded an explosion sound with soundtrack pro and zoomed the word LEXI using final cut features. We felt this was a good way to create the films drama driven genre.

Frame Five

This is the first time you see our main character up close, by putting her name title there with her allows the audience to see that she is infact Lexi. The close up shot also gives a great view of her mise-en-scene. From her smoking with a black eye and hooped earrings, all the way down her body in a downwards pan to her short top, short skirt and heeled shoes.

Frame Five

This frame shows the first character title and shows a close up shot of Lexi and her mise-en-scene. This frame is important to the audience because they get to take in the characters apearence and overall. It shows her smoking, her black eye and the dress sense.

Frame Six

This shot in my opinion is brillantly acted by Darby (Lexi), her facial expression is showing her attitude and the fact that she doesn't care about what she is doing in the middle of the village contrasts the worlds of chav vs village which is what we wanted to achieve through this film opening.

Frame Six

Again this frame is showing Lexis attitude toward where she is, drinking in public in the day time is not something the villagers would do. Showing a contrast in cultures once again. We also wanted her to have a prop that would show her personality, we figured a vodka bottle would do the job.

Frame Seven

This shot is outside Lexi's home. We decided to make her stand still and give her opinion by her facial expression rather than adding a voice over. This close up shot is from low to high which shows how superia Lexi thinks she is as it looks like she's towering over the camera. This shot shows her attitude and feelings towards the house she is going to enter which pre-warns the audience that there's something not right between Lexi and this house.

Frame Seven

This frame Lexi turns up at a house. We show a close up view of her face to show the audience that this isnt a place that she likes or where she wants to be. This angle is good for this situation, we wanted the audience to see her from a low angle shot, to show her up higher than everything else, almost like she thinks she is better than everyone. We also included her face to be discussed at something to really dramatise the situation she was about to go into.

Frame Eight

This is the first shot of Julie (Lexi's Mum) in the shot you can see that she is very shocked to be seeing her daughter, so shocked that she drops a bowl. Lexi's Mum almost looks intimidated by her daughter which shows the relationship between the two characters. Lexi's Mum says 'Oh my god, what are you doing here?' to suggest Lexi has not been there for a period of time, this dialoge creates the main storyline for the audience.

Frame Eight

This is the first time we see another character in the opening. Lexis mum is also one of the main characters in the film, and we really wanted to show her reaction to seeing for daughter in a bad way. This part of the opening is also showing the relationship between the two characters and also showing the audience what the film may turn out to be about. 

Frame Nine

This shot is a mirror shot to show both characters, we never planned on including this angle of shot however, we had the idea on the day of filming so went with it and when we watched it back on Final Cut Pro we realised how good it actually was. I personally like this shot because you can see how much Lexi loves herself as she is being vain in the mirror not really bothered about where she is or that her mum is just there, in contrast to Lexi's mum who is very aware of Lexi and is very disturbed by her own daughter. During this shot Lexi has a cheeky bit of dialoge towards her mother '..did you miss me?' showing her teenage attitude. This clip is followed by Lexi turning around to face her mum with a massive grin which is the ending of our film opening.

Frame Nine

This frame is my favourite camera angle throughout the whole sequence, becasue we see Lexi and her mum in the mirror so we can see both emotions. This is also Lexis first bit of dialoge, this shows her attitude toward her mother and shows their releationship even more through their dialoge. We can also see the mums shocked expression which again is a dramatised version of mother and daughter relationships. 'I'm home mum, did you miss me?' her attitude is clearly shown in this first part of dialoge which sums up the film which is why we stopped it here even though it is just under 2 minutes. This also indicates that she is returning from somewhere.

EVALUATION QUESTION 2

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? 

Ruby Sinnott

We decided to get Darby (on the right) to play Lexi mainly because she lives near me and Dani so it was very conviniant when we needed to shoot. We dressed Lexi as a chav, this was because of the genre we were aiming for, teen drama crime. Teens are generalised in the media as all being 'chavs' and 'thugs', as this is a current view of teens we thought it would fit  nicely in our movie as it is a modern up to date view on teen life. On the left is a picture of 'Becky' from Kidulthood, who is a stereotypical chav who sells herself for money, dresses cheaply and is involved in all the wrong things. As both me and Dani have watched Kidulthood we agreed that Becky was a good character to base Lexi around as they are very simular. Chav's are stereotypically seen as hanging around on the streets in big cities which is a contrast to the countryside location where Lexi lives.  In both these images both characters facial expressions show how much attitude and almost bitterness they have inside. Also both characters dressed in the stereotypical chav outfit. This consists of; hair pulled back, big hoop earrings and lots of bling! 

 

Danielle Lock

Our media product represents a particular social that has been a big talking point in the media during the last few years, chavs. Our character Lexi is what they call a chavy stereotype. She has attitute, she is loud and dresses in a way that would been seen a chavy and/or pervocative in the media. We decided to go for this particular stereotypical person becasue we thought people of our age would be attracted to this genre of film (Drama/crime/teen)  From the research i have carried out people of our age like this type of genre. The film Kidulthood has been very populare with the age group of our target audience. However, i feel Kidulthood is mainly aimed at boys, although they do have female characters. We wanted to make our movie unique in the fact that the social group we are wanting to represent is not only chavy, but includes a girl chav, which is not in the film maket at the moment.
The "girl chav" is shown to have lots of make-up, pulled back hair and dress differently to other people of different social groups.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? on Prezi

EVALUATION QUESTION 3

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


Ruby Sinnott
Danielle Lock 



Our media product would most likely be distributed by a more independent label as it is a small budget movie which is made for a particular audience, teenagers. This narrows the amout of people who would go to see the movie or purchase it as it is aimed at a minority however it could have a wider audience. This means it wouldn't make as much at the box office as a big label such as Warner Bro's.
I have been researching different distibutors who would possibly distribute our film. I have found a label called Revolver Entertainment who I think would be the perfect label for our Teen-Drama-Crime Film. They have previously distributed films like ours such as 'Kidulthood', 'Sket' and 'Shank'. 
 Another distrubter who would be suitable to our film would be Universal Studios as they are a global film distrubuter who have previously distrubuted drama films such as Gladiator - which has a lot of not necessarily crime but fight scenes. However, after all my research I believe that the perfect distributer for our film Lexi would be Revolver Entertainment as they have knowledge of both films of our genre and of our target audience so they would be perfect. Also Revolver Entertainment films have done quite well at the box office and are mostly well known, which is the overall aim for our media product.


Our media product would be suitable for a small independent lable as it is a low budget film and would only apeal to a small range of audience and would not apeal world wide. This does limit the amount of people who would see the film, as it would not be in mainstream cinemas.
From the research we have carried out, Revolver Entertainment would be perfect to distribute our movie. They have distributed films like ours, such as, Kidulthood, Shank, Sket, Anuvahood and many more low budget films. A distributer that would not work for our film would be someone like Warner bros. This wouldnt work for our movie because our movie is very low budget film and we are aiming our audience at teenagers. Because we feel our movie is unique in the teenage market (drama/crime aimed at girls) the movie would not sale at box office to the extent as a harry potter film would. However, Revolver Entertainment have been known to do quite well in the box office over the past few years because of the genre of film they usually distribute such as, drama, teen, crime. So this lable would be perfect for our Lexi movie because of its successful background in the film industry. This goes to show that they is a big audience for this genre of film.

EVALUATION QUESTION 4

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

 

EVALUATION QUESTION 5

5. How would you attract/address your target audience?

EVALUATION QUESTION 6

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

Ruby Sinnott

Danielle Lock

 

 This is the camera we used to film all of our footage it is a Panasonic HDC 5D60

 

This is the tri-pod which goes with the camera, the tripod was very useful when we were filming as it allowed us to get very still shots and steady panning shots. The tripod had  extendable legs which was useful.

  

 This is me Ruby learning to use the camera and seeing what each button means. I was also seeing how to connect the camera to the mac as you can see from the USB cable inserted. 

This is my camera, and is the camera we used to take pictures of locations we were going to shoot, the camera we used to take pictures of our actress after her make-up had been done on the first day of filming so that when we filmed again we could make sure it was the same, and the camera i used to take pictures while we were filming. The pictures are on the blog.

This is Dani uploading some evaluation footage onto Final Cut Pro, which is the editing programme we used to put our film together. 

This also shows the Mac computer we used in lesson which was easy to use.

This is a screen shot i took while I was using Final Cut Pro to edit the beginning of our film opening. The left hand box with all the clips in is where all the clips we shot get imported to so we can view them in the middle screened box (black in the picture) to see what parts of that particular clip we needed so we could cut it down and add it to the timeline. The timeline is the long box along the bottom clips that are blue clips are the imagery and the greenclips are the sound. The top right box is where we could view what was on our timeline i.e watch what we had created so far. The tool bar at the top (File, Edit, View..Effects) was where we found how to to freeze frames, add in fades and lots more. The bottom right is a little box which was the most handy, this is the basic tools needed to edit. We had the 'arrow' which was how we moved clips along the timeline, the 'razor' is how we cut clips down once they were in the timeline and the 'pen' which is how we faded the music in and out appropriately.

Soundtrack Pro is the programme we used to create our music. The music at the start (village music) came from putting folk music and bird noises together. This image on the left is of me using Soundtrack Pro to create the music for the upbeat half of the film opening. I did this by adding together various instruments which are in a typical dubstep type music. The middle box where the green music lines are is the music starting to take shape. 

Blogger is the site we used to make a blog to put up posts of our research, planning and evaluations and publish videos. The image on the right is of our blog http://rubydaniteenfilm.blogspot.co.uk/

 Art of the title is a website we used to research opening titles. As you can see from our blog post from art of the title we found a simular location setting opening film titles from 25th hour. 

 

 Dafont is the font site we used to make our opening titles, after lots of browsing through various titles we found the one for our movie - TRASHED.

We used YouTube a lot while we were researching, as this is a good site for watching other film openings on quickly, we also watched interviews with producers from our genre to give us an insight to achieve our own. 

Paint we used to make screenshots of our work, as you can see from the image on the right, this is me screen-shooting for this post on paint. Paint is an easy programme to use, so we prefered to do our screen shots on here rather than on Photoshop Pro. 

Overall, we have learnt alot about technologies through the process of this media product. I have become more advanced with programmes I have used before such as, using the Camera, Final Cut Pro, Youtube and Dafont. And I have developed skills to use Soundtrack Pro to create music and Art of the Title to browse through other film titles. Technology is the most important factor affecting the relationship between audiences and institutions so it was key that we continue to learn more about technology.

This is me using the camera, learning all the buttons.

Panasonic HDC 5D60, the camera we used to film our footage.

Me using the mac and final cut to edit our film opening together and uploading our evaluation interview. I was also using soundtract pro to edit our sound together. 

Our tripod we used to keep the camera steady so we could film more angles and have a better pan on a landscape if we needed to.

Me using the camera again. Our camera skills has vastly improved over the duration of filming. Our camera was very easy to use, whether it was on the tripod or in our hands.

Close up shot of the cameras buttons, to show how simple the technology is.

 Final cut pro was very improtant to creating the final film opening. This is the software we imported and edited our footage onto.

Soundtrack pro was also very helpful, we could pick what sound effect we wanted to include, such as the car shreek. We also created our music on this software.

This is what used to do some research into frames of an opening sequence.

Blogger is what I used to update our progress, homework, videos, pictures and write about how we wanted our film to be.

The font we used for our opening titles.

The font site we used to download the font we wanted for our titles.

 Using final cut pro putting together the first part of the opening seqence to our movie.

 The camera we used to take pictures of us while we were filming and to picture darbys finished make-up, so if we had to film again we could go back to the pictures and look at how we did the make-up.

 The mac we used in college, very simple to use.

 Us using soundtract pro, putting together the first part of the sound during the titles.

 Using final cut pro to sort the fades between shots so the clips flow evenly. 

We used paint for screen grabs.

Used youtube to upload the final "LEXI" film opening and to get comments from peers.

Us using camera to take pictures of filming for progress report.

My overall experience with the technologies that we have used for this media product is good. I feel that i have improved my skills with Final cut pro and Soundtrack pro. Editing the film was a good challenge for me and ruby, we wanted it to flow smoothly and did achieve this. However, we had a problem with final cut pros fades, which was dissappointing, but we were able to make our own fades on the same software, and in the end looked better.

Originally we were going to use a downloaded song from youtube for our openings music. However this didnt sound too good on the final product, so we decided to create our own sound on Soundtrack pro. This was overall a better sound for the film and gave us the chance to work more with that software.

I havent used blogspot that much before this product, but i found that it was easier this time round. It was clear how to upload images and things i need to do for the progression of the planning, filming and editing.

The camera we used to film was fairly straight forward, all we had to know was on/off, record and playback. We decided not to include any zooms in the final product, as it is rare that you see a zoom in a film opening.

The other softwares we used such as, paint, youtube, art of the title and de-font we had used before. It was straight forward, however we did gain more skills and practice with these being included to help us achieve our final product.