Dear Moderator,
Hello and welcome to our group Foundation Production Blog. Thank you for taking time to look around! The best way to navigate around our blog is by clicking on the labels on the right hand side of the page. If you get to the bottom of the page, please note the "Older Posts" button!
Under the Research and Planning label, you will find evidence of all the research, planning and development work we did as a group during the pre-production, production and post-production stages of our project.
In order for you to see exactly what each candidate contributed to this process, we have also included Individual Contribution labels named for each group member. All research, planning and development posts contributed to by the named candidate will appear when you click that label.
Each member of the group has also completed their own evaluation although we have collaborated to produce some of the content, such as our voice overs. You can access our responses to the evaluation questions under the individually named Evaluation labels.
Our finished Film Opening Sequence is at the top of the blog, and each candidate has posted their Preliminary Task Video Sequence as part of their answer to Q7 Evaluation.
You can also filter our posts by labels or date, and there is a blog archive if you want to look through chronologically.
You will also find a link to the Class Film Blog which contains links to the other group blogs from our school.
Once again, thank you for your time - we hope you enjoy looking around the blog as much as we enjoyed creating it!
From Alice Duke, Alicia Powell, Ella Dawson and Rakhi Biswas Evans.
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Closing Post
We have finished all of our coursework so this blog is now closed! Feel free to keep browsing, but we will not be posting any more. Thanks, Alice, Alicia, Ella and Rakhi.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Our prelim task had a big impact on our opening sequence, because it gave us some basic background knowledge and skills into filming that was vital to produce our film opening.
The preliminary task helped us to understand that to make a film it is best to do what you know, use what you have and make it as easy for yourself as possible, whilst still in some ways challenging yourself to make your opening sequence as good as possible.
Here is a video with some annotations about how we did our preliminary task in order to create continuity as best as possible and do what we could with what we have.
The preliminary task helped us to learn that the best way to plan and produce a film is to:
- Choose a film with a plausible location, that is readily available and easy to get to
- Make sure all the shots are planned carefully and with some variety between them, so that they all look professional and also add variety into the sequence
- Always shoot a master shot just incase you want to cut back and forth between it
- Make sure you have thought of everything in advance and completed the storyboard, shot list, shoot schedule and script in order to make sure everything runs smoothly. This includes booking all your actors and making sure they know where to be when!
Everything we learnt from our preliminary task went on to help us with our opening sequence:
1. Due to poor lighting in our preliminary task, we agreed on a location indoors would be preferable as this meant we could control lighting much more easily, and it also meant the weather would not affect our shoot. We decided to film in my basement, and emptied out the complete room, but bought a cheap sofa, and scattered empty beer bottles and ashtrays around to create the desired mise en scene.
2. We had a test shoot, in which we also took pictures in order to create an animatic of our opening sequence. On the day we tested lighting, with and without filters, with and without strobe to see what would create our desired effect best. We also developed the script and handed it out to the actors with a list of what to wear to make sure they came prepared on the day. Everything was thought of in advance, to make sure everything ran as smoothly as possible on the day of the shoot.
3. Our group met at my house at 10am and we asked the actors to arrive at 11am. This gave us time to get up the lights, camera and decide on any last minute details. When they arrived we did make up and gave all the actors food to keep them happy. We shot all shots from different lengths, frames and angles to ensure we had a lot of variety to choose from when it came to editing. For example, we did the point of view shots with the strobe on and with the strobe off so we had a choice of which to use.
4. During post-production, after we had all our footage, we alotted times where each person would do editing during free periods, so that in lessons we could work on the blog together, because it is difficult for 4 people to edit at one time. We did not make changes to the sequence until everyone agreed with them and many changes and developments were made to our sequence from our shotlist and storyboard, because it made the story more realistic, immersive and continous. We also got feedback from a few target audience members as we were editing to help improve our opening.
5. Working as a team was easy because we are all friends with eachother, and listened to everyones ideas for inspiration, some which were used and others which were not. Everyone had an impact on our opening sequence and the fact we were able to share ideas with eachother made planning and developing our sequence run very smoothly.
6. Our final opening sequence was one we were all very happy with, and matched the mise en scene we had been planning for. Although there were a few problems along the way, we managed to produce a final product we were all pleased with.
A few problems encountered...
- We did not check all our equipment properly for shoot 1 and ended up with our camera running out of battery before we were done filming. We had no spare battery or charger and had to move some of the filming to a different day, but fortunately only the shots involving our group had to be done on another day.
- We also had a few technical problems with lighting and bad shadows due to not enough practice with how to light the set properly, however we all tried our best and the end result was a success!
The preliminary task helped us to understand that to make a film it is best to do what you know, use what you have and make it as easy for yourself as possible, whilst still in some ways challenging yourself to make your opening sequence as good as possible.
Here is a video with some annotations about how we did our preliminary task in order to create continuity as best as possible and do what we could with what we have.
The preliminary task helped us to learn that the best way to plan and produce a film is to:
- Choose a film with a plausible location, that is readily available and easy to get to
- Make sure all the shots are planned carefully and with some variety between them, so that they all look professional and also add variety into the sequence
- Always shoot a master shot just incase you want to cut back and forth between it
- Make sure you have thought of everything in advance and completed the storyboard, shot list, shoot schedule and script in order to make sure everything runs smoothly. This includes booking all your actors and making sure they know where to be when!
Everything we learnt from our preliminary task went on to help us with our opening sequence:
1. Due to poor lighting in our preliminary task, we agreed on a location indoors would be preferable as this meant we could control lighting much more easily, and it also meant the weather would not affect our shoot. We decided to film in my basement, and emptied out the complete room, but bought a cheap sofa, and scattered empty beer bottles and ashtrays around to create the desired mise en scene.
2. We had a test shoot, in which we also took pictures in order to create an animatic of our opening sequence. On the day we tested lighting, with and without filters, with and without strobe to see what would create our desired effect best. We also developed the script and handed it out to the actors with a list of what to wear to make sure they came prepared on the day. Everything was thought of in advance, to make sure everything ran as smoothly as possible on the day of the shoot.
3. Our group met at my house at 10am and we asked the actors to arrive at 11am. This gave us time to get up the lights, camera and decide on any last minute details. When they arrived we did make up and gave all the actors food to keep them happy. We shot all shots from different lengths, frames and angles to ensure we had a lot of variety to choose from when it came to editing. For example, we did the point of view shots with the strobe on and with the strobe off so we had a choice of which to use.
4. During post-production, after we had all our footage, we alotted times where each person would do editing during free periods, so that in lessons we could work on the blog together, because it is difficult for 4 people to edit at one time. We did not make changes to the sequence until everyone agreed with them and many changes and developments were made to our sequence from our shotlist and storyboard, because it made the story more realistic, immersive and continous. We also got feedback from a few target audience members as we were editing to help improve our opening.
5. Working as a team was easy because we are all friends with eachother, and listened to everyones ideas for inspiration, some which were used and others which were not. Everyone had an impact on our opening sequence and the fact we were able to share ideas with eachother made planning and developing our sequence run very smoothly.
6. Our final opening sequence was one we were all very happy with, and matched the mise en scene we had been planning for. Although there were a few problems along the way, we managed to produce a final product we were all pleased with.
A few problems encountered...
- We did not check all our equipment properly for shoot 1 and ended up with our camera running out of battery before we were done filming. We had no spare battery or charger and had to move some of the filming to a different day, but fortunately only the shots involving our group had to be done on another day.
- We also had a few technical problems with lighting and bad shadows due to not enough practice with how to light the set properly, however we all tried our best and the end result was a success!
Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Distribution
We had to make decisions about the institutions behind our film. We had to create our own production company and choose a distributor that we thought best to release our film. We did research into distributors who had distributed similar films to ours, or films with the same target audience or film genre in mind. Audiences may then want to see our film because other films they have loved were distributed by the same institution.
A couple of our main influences were Heathers and 13. Heathers was distributed by New World Pictures, an institution that has since then closed down. 13 was distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures, however this is an American distribution company. Our film was British made for a British target audience and we wanted our distributor to represent this so we decided to choose a British distributor, because our film focuses on British teens and their lifestyle.
Our first and final choice was E One Momentum because they are one of the leading independent motion picture distributors. They have released films that have been hugely successful in the UK, including ones with similar themes or characters within them.
Previous films distributed by E One Momentum are:
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, featuring a dark, mysterious female protagonist like ours.
- Seven Psychopaths, a black comedy like ours.
- Youth in Revolt, a coming of age film likes ours.
- The King's Speech, a massive hit with all UK audiences, old and young.
Production
We created our own Production Company called X Productions.
It would be a British independent production company producing mainly unique and gritty, maybe quirky British films. We chose this as our production company because it represented our film well, and the name was short, snappy and easy to remember. Our production company would specialise in less mainstream genres, such as black comedies, comedies and thrillers, but films that also target the main cinema audience, 16-14 year olds.
Distribution Strategy & Exhibition
Our film would be released nationally at mainstream cinemas, in 2D, because these are the cinemas that our audience tend to go to. If the film was successful in the UK we would then go on to offer the distribution rights for the film globally, however not pay for this ourselves because this film may not be the type of film that is successful globally due to the British themes. We plan to release our film just before the Summer holidays when teenagers are getting excited for a holiday and enjoy their time off! It would also generate the most revenue because exams are over, and teenagers have more time to visit the cinema.
The film would later on be released on DVD, HD and Blu-Ray to maximise profits from the film.
Marketting
Our film is for a primarily British audience, so our group did research into the marketting of other successful British films and how they targeted their audience. Through our research we decided the most successful way of marketting would be to use traditional marketing methods, such as trailers, posters and billboards and an interactive website online to get the audience involved, through competitions and looking at 'sneak-peeks' of our film. Our target audience, agde 16-24 year olds are very up to date with technology and familiar with all the new technologies coming out, so we would also have Twitter and Facebook accounts to keep the audience up to date with news about our film and release small clips of our film to grab their attention and want to watch it. We want to grab the attention of the audience with our campaign and immerse them with information about our film as much as possible, so that they want to see it at the cinema.
 |
| This chart shows that traditional methods, such as posters and trailers that we plan to use, are one of the best marketting methods. |
Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?
When we began to develop and plan our characters, we had to consider representation of each character carefully. Our overall aim was to create representations as realistic as possible, and to make sure not every character was stereotypical, some had stereotypical features but the characters were also unique in some way, breaking boundaries and making the characters easy for the audience to relate to. Our key areas of interest were the representation of age, ethnicity and sexuality.
Our chosen genre; a black comedy with themes of revenge was chosen because we believed it was relevant to a contemporary teen audience. Teenagers often easily get jealous or angry with eachother, whether it's over betrayal, boyfriends or friends and they want the person that hurt them to feel hurt too. However whilst this is reflected in our opening sequence we have also shown that this can go too far and throughout the film we would go on to show how much it affects others and how it is not the way to sort out problems.
Age
In teen dramas, such as Skins, teenagers are often represented as young adults who have not found themselves yet; they are unsure of themselves, mixed up with drugs, alcohol and sex and are often seen as rude, irresponsible and self centered - they care more about themselves than their family or their friends.
In our opening sequence, the use of drugs is represented and as our first shot is a point of view show of someone on drugs and we have used the echo effect from Adobe Premiere Pro to give the sequence a surreal and realistic feeling, with double vision and a warped sense of time experienced by the audience. We have used a negative representation of teenagers, but we have also represented the use of drugs as negative, as Hanna overdoses and collapses due to the use of drugs. By representing drugs negatively we also managed to get a 15 certification for our opening sequence meaning we could widen our audience.
Although we have represented teenagers and drugs negatively overall, we have also shown everyone at the party to be getting on well with one another; they are all friends and do not judge one another. When Hanna overdoses most people are worried about her and start panicking, showing that teenagers are there to help their friends.
Sexuality
Homosexuality is often a major stereotype in all films, especially teen dramas. Homosexual characters want to keep their sexuality a secret and feel insecure due to their sexuality.
We planned to break stereotypes about sexuality, because the representation of sexuality is currently quite unrealistic in films and TV programmes such as in Skins. Maxxie is represented as a quite feminine boy, who dances and is quite self conscious of his sexuality. This is an out of date view of sexuality and homosexuality is now increasingly treated like heterosexuality. We have therefore represented homosexuality more realistically and this is shown by the clip of Joe and Patrick, where they are both dressed in their own style but not feminized in any way. The fact they are homosexual is not emphasised and each male is given their own unique personality traits; one as a alternative male, who is very worried about Hanna when she overdoses and the other a very casual male, laid back and only interferes with Hanna when Joe calls him over. Patricks noticed Eve leave whilst no one else did, showing him to also be clever and perceptive.
Gays are overly stereotyped, compared to females. Gays have much more attention brought to them, so we chose to focus on the representation of a gay couple rather than a female couple. However females can also be represented negatively, for example Naomi in Skins is uncomfortable with her sexuality and will not admit that she is a lesbian because she is afraid of what people might think.
Ethnicity
Ethnicity, like sexuality is also often represented unrealistically. In Skins series 1 there is only 1 coloured boy in series 1 and 2 - a Muslim called Anwar. He is represented quite stereotypically with strict parents, who want him to do his best at school and put pressure on him. They also make Anwar go to the mosque to pray, sometimes against his wishes. Many themes running through Skins also run through our film opening so we have done lots of character research on Skins. In series 3, a black boy, called Thomas is introduced who is also stereotyped as he has been sent over from Africa for a better life.
Our representation of ethnicity was based on our research into ethnicity in dramas. We used a range of ethnicity to show an up to date view of modern society. It is much more cultured, mixed and varied than ever before and we needed to reflect this in our opening sequence as one of the key areas of representation. We have Ama - black and Meera - Sri Lankan and each character is unique. Everyone is given equal screen time to show that everyone is equal.
The representation of ethnicity is film dramas is often outdated, stereotyped and unrealistic so we broke convention on this representation issue in order to make it more realistic and believable, especially to our audience, part of multicultural society.
Our chosen genre; a black comedy with themes of revenge was chosen because we believed it was relevant to a contemporary teen audience. Teenagers often easily get jealous or angry with eachother, whether it's over betrayal, boyfriends or friends and they want the person that hurt them to feel hurt too. However whilst this is reflected in our opening sequence we have also shown that this can go too far and throughout the film we would go on to show how much it affects others and how it is not the way to sort out problems.
Age
In teen dramas, such as Skins, teenagers are often represented as young adults who have not found themselves yet; they are unsure of themselves, mixed up with drugs, alcohol and sex and are often seen as rude, irresponsible and self centered - they care more about themselves than their family or their friends.
In our opening sequence, the use of drugs is represented and as our first shot is a point of view show of someone on drugs and we have used the echo effect from Adobe Premiere Pro to give the sequence a surreal and realistic feeling, with double vision and a warped sense of time experienced by the audience. We have used a negative representation of teenagers, but we have also represented the use of drugs as negative, as Hanna overdoses and collapses due to the use of drugs. By representing drugs negatively we also managed to get a 15 certification for our opening sequence meaning we could widen our audience.
Although we have represented teenagers and drugs negatively overall, we have also shown everyone at the party to be getting on well with one another; they are all friends and do not judge one another. When Hanna overdoses most people are worried about her and start panicking, showing that teenagers are there to help their friends.
Sexuality
Homosexuality is often a major stereotype in all films, especially teen dramas. Homosexual characters want to keep their sexuality a secret and feel insecure due to their sexuality.
We planned to break stereotypes about sexuality, because the representation of sexuality is currently quite unrealistic in films and TV programmes such as in Skins. Maxxie is represented as a quite feminine boy, who dances and is quite self conscious of his sexuality. This is an out of date view of sexuality and homosexuality is now increasingly treated like heterosexuality. We have therefore represented homosexuality more realistically and this is shown by the clip of Joe and Patrick, where they are both dressed in their own style but not feminized in any way. The fact they are homosexual is not emphasised and each male is given their own unique personality traits; one as a alternative male, who is very worried about Hanna when she overdoses and the other a very casual male, laid back and only interferes with Hanna when Joe calls him over. Patricks noticed Eve leave whilst no one else did, showing him to also be clever and perceptive.
Gays are overly stereotyped, compared to females. Gays have much more attention brought to them, so we chose to focus on the representation of a gay couple rather than a female couple. However females can also be represented negatively, for example Naomi in Skins is uncomfortable with her sexuality and will not admit that she is a lesbian because she is afraid of what people might think.
 |
| We have represented a homosexual and a heterosexua couple to keep up to date and be realistic of society. |
Ethnicity
Ethnicity, like sexuality is also often represented unrealistically. In Skins series 1 there is only 1 coloured boy in series 1 and 2 - a Muslim called Anwar. He is represented quite stereotypically with strict parents, who want him to do his best at school and put pressure on him. They also make Anwar go to the mosque to pray, sometimes against his wishes. Many themes running through Skins also run through our film opening so we have done lots of character research on Skins. In series 3, a black boy, called Thomas is introduced who is also stereotyped as he has been sent over from Africa for a better life.
Our representation of ethnicity was based on our research into ethnicity in dramas. We used a range of ethnicity to show an up to date view of modern society. It is much more cultured, mixed and varied than ever before and we needed to reflect this in our opening sequence as one of the key areas of representation. We have Ama - black and Meera - Sri Lankan and each character is unique. Everyone is given equal screen time to show that everyone is equal.
The representation of ethnicity is film dramas is often outdated, stereotyped and unrealistic so we broke convention on this representation issue in order to make it more realistic and believable, especially to our audience, part of multicultural society.
Here is a clip, showing Anwar in Skins and the stereotypical way that
his Muslim parents treat him.
Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of contructing the product?
After developing our storyline and planning our shots and starting to develop our storyboard and shot list, we agreed as a group that using the right equipment for our footage and film genre was crucial. This meant using a camera that enabled us to get good quality footage, whilst also being able to change some shots to slow motion, whilst keeping the good quality of the footage. The argument was based largely on whether to use the Canon 550D or the Canon Legria HV-30. Other technologies were smaller details, although still very important to our opening sequence.
Camera
Lights
We used 650w and 750w Arri Redheads. For most of the shots we used the slightly less powerful 650w lights which we had 2 of, whereas we only had 1 750w light. The 650w was less harsh and produced less shadows because it spread the light more evenly and less harshly. In our very last shot where Ella leaves the house, we used the 750w and tried to bounce the light off the wall from behind Ella to cast her half in shadow, representing her dark nature. We also thought that this would look realistic, because as she is outside she could just be standing under a street light. Although the lighting generally worked well throughout, we came across a couple of problems with shadows, that looked weird and unnatural and perhaps not very realistic, however we did not include this shot in our opening
Before we started filming we also made the actors aware of the fact that their were lots of cables around from the lights, extension cables and other equipment to make sure they did not trip over anything, or break any expensive equipment.
We used a PAG light for the point of view shots that were shot in the dark, to make sure there was some light in order to show what was going on at the party, but the PAG light was also weak enough to make sure the strobe effect was not hidden. The strobe light added to the parties atmosphere and made the party more realistic, as well as making filming easier and more relaxed, because people felt more comfortable dancing with a strobe on.
Software
We did all our editing on Adobe Premiere Pro CS5, which worked well for slow motion effects, grading and to use effects, like echo to create the sense that the people at the party were on drugs.
We then had to go on to use Adobe After Effects, because after filming the point of view shot, we realised all the footage was grainy because not enough light had reached the camera lens during the party scenes. Adobe After Effects had a remove grain feature, which although took hours to remove grain, was well worth not having to do a re-shoot of all our footage.
Lastly, LiveType was used to create our credits and font effects. We chose our font from a website and put our titles into LiveType to create the ghost effect that makes our titles disappear off screen.
Here is a Youtube video of the different effects and why we used them in our opening sequence:
We also used social media; Facebook to communicate with our group, and created a page about our project which we added our actors to so we could make posts about any updates they needed to know about, information for the shoot about their costumes and script and to make sure they knew what time they had to arrive. Facebook enabled us to communicate with everyone easily and is a good example of how social media is a good way to market our film and communicate with our audience.
Monday, March 25, 2013
Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our chosen film genre was predominantly teen drama, with the main sub genre being black comedy with themes of coming of age running through the film and our opening sequence. We researched films and TV programmes of a similar genre and with similar themes, such as Heathers, Mean Girls and 13 in order to gain some inspiration for what would be in our opening sequence.
Here is a director's commentary video that our group made...
We used:
- Conventional characters, but whom also broke stereotypes
- Iconography that British teenagers are familiar with, helping to target our audience
- A typical narrative structure: equilibrium with the protagonist then causing a disruption
- Themes including: sexuality, revenge, relationships
Many of our narrative themes and inspirations also came from Skins. Skins has many teenage parties throughout the programme and for our opening sequence we agreed to start off in a party and we had to decide what mood to settle for and the type of camera effects to use. Much of our inspiration came from Skins, because it has alot about rebellious teenagers, similar to our opening sequence.
We had to create our party to look as realistic as possible and this involved using a blue strobe light to create a party feel and also because it helped the actors to feel less embarrassed during the shoot, so the whole feel of the party was more realistic. The problem was that the strobe only worked in the dark, and when we filmed in the dark not enough light could reach our camera lens, giving us grainy footage. However we were able to use Adobe After Effects to get rid of a lot of the grain in the party footage. We also threw beer cans, and wine bottles around, as well as a few ashtrays with cigarettes to create the whole mise en scene of a party. This helped to make the genre of our film obvious to the audience as soon as the film started.
Narrative Structure
Our film does overall fit Todorov's narrative theory. Only the first 2 parts of the narrative theory; the equilibrium followed by the disruption are in our 2 minute opening sequence, but the rest is what we planned for our film.
1. Equilibrium - A group of friends hang out together at a party. They are dancing, drinking and some are on drugs. Many are chatting and just having a good time together.
2. Disruption - One girl, Hanna, overdoses at the party which causes her to fall over amongst a group of dancers. People start to panic, some take no notice; too engrossed in the party to realise while others turn the lights on, music off and try and help the girl.
3. Recognition - People at school hear rumours and suspect Eve ( the girl who walked out of the party ) is the one who caused Hanna to overdose and other students at the girl's school begin to take revenge on friends who have also wronged them. The revenge trend that had been triggered by Eve went too far and one boy even began to plan the murder of a girl he fancied.
4. Attempt to Repair - Eve stops this boy from killing the poor girl, who rejected being the boy's girlfriend and the whole school realise what has been happening and the terrible trend that has been triggered by Eve.
5. New Equilibrium - The whole school agrees to resolve their issues with each other in other ways and never let anything spiral out of control quite so dramatically again, however the police circle the school, ready to take students to the station once they heard about the revenge trend that had been going on around the school.
Form
We did research into the opening sequences of films of a similar genre and also researched the conventions and the role of opening sequences and then tried to include the main conventions of opening sequences into our opening sequence. This included:
1. Titles: We made our own titles on LiveType, and tried to use a font and effect that was fit for our genre film, because this is the first thing the audience see and will set up their expectations for the whole film. We did research into fonts in another British black comedy; Seven Psychopaths, in which they use a standard font, with a few added effects to make it look more dramatic. We chose something similar and added the ghost effect when the credits came on and off screen. Here is the font for Seven Psychopaths:
2. Establishing film genre: Our characters and mise en scene introduced in the opening sequence set the scene for the whole film, also emphasising the genre and bringing the audience straight into the action.
Style
When we were making decisions about our opening sequence, our group mainly agreed that we wanted the film plot to seem dark and twisted to represent the revenge trend that takes place within our film. Here is a clip to show how we tried to represent this through the style of our film:
We created a title sequence that represents clearly the genre it is as the film begins and we have included credits, main characters and themes all in our opening sequence, establishing our film for the audience in the first couple of minutes. This is the role of a opening sequence and we have appealed to what our target audience know about teen dramas, as well as breaking some conventions in order to attract the audience, because they know what to expect, but they are also kept guessing what is going to happen.
Here is a director's commentary video that our group made...
We used:
- Conventional characters, but whom also broke stereotypes
- Iconography that British teenagers are familiar with, helping to target our audience
- A typical narrative structure: equilibrium with the protagonist then causing a disruption
- Themes including: sexuality, revenge, relationships
Many of our narrative themes and inspirations also came from Skins. Skins has many teenage parties throughout the programme and for our opening sequence we agreed to start off in a party and we had to decide what mood to settle for and the type of camera effects to use. Much of our inspiration came from Skins, because it has alot about rebellious teenagers, similar to our opening sequence.
We had to create our party to look as realistic as possible and this involved using a blue strobe light to create a party feel and also because it helped the actors to feel less embarrassed during the shoot, so the whole feel of the party was more realistic. The problem was that the strobe only worked in the dark, and when we filmed in the dark not enough light could reach our camera lens, giving us grainy footage. However we were able to use Adobe After Effects to get rid of a lot of the grain in the party footage. We also threw beer cans, and wine bottles around, as well as a few ashtrays with cigarettes to create the whole mise en scene of a party. This helped to make the genre of our film obvious to the audience as soon as the film started.
Narrative Structure
Our film does overall fit Todorov's narrative theory. Only the first 2 parts of the narrative theory; the equilibrium followed by the disruption are in our 2 minute opening sequence, but the rest is what we planned for our film.
2. Disruption - One girl, Hanna, overdoses at the party which causes her to fall over amongst a group of dancers. People start to panic, some take no notice; too engrossed in the party to realise while others turn the lights on, music off and try and help the girl.
3. Recognition - People at school hear rumours and suspect Eve ( the girl who walked out of the party ) is the one who caused Hanna to overdose and other students at the girl's school begin to take revenge on friends who have also wronged them. The revenge trend that had been triggered by Eve went too far and one boy even began to plan the murder of a girl he fancied.
4. Attempt to Repair - Eve stops this boy from killing the poor girl, who rejected being the boy's girlfriend and the whole school realise what has been happening and the terrible trend that has been triggered by Eve.
5. New Equilibrium - The whole school agrees to resolve their issues with each other in other ways and never let anything spiral out of control quite so dramatically again, however the police circle the school, ready to take students to the station once they heard about the revenge trend that had been going on around the school.
Form
We did research into the opening sequences of films of a similar genre and also researched the conventions and the role of opening sequences and then tried to include the main conventions of opening sequences into our opening sequence. This included:
1. Titles: We made our own titles on LiveType, and tried to use a font and effect that was fit for our genre film, because this is the first thing the audience see and will set up their expectations for the whole film. We did research into fonts in another British black comedy; Seven Psychopaths, in which they use a standard font, with a few added effects to make it look more dramatic. We chose something similar and added the ghost effect when the credits came on and off screen. Here is the font for Seven Psychopaths:
2. Establishing film genre: Our characters and mise en scene introduced in the opening sequence set the scene for the whole film, also emphasising the genre and bringing the audience straight into the action.
Style
When we were making decisions about our opening sequence, our group mainly agreed that we wanted the film plot to seem dark and twisted to represent the revenge trend that takes place within our film. Here is a clip to show how we tried to represent this through the style of our film:
We created a title sequence that represents clearly the genre it is as the film begins and we have included credits, main characters and themes all in our opening sequence, establishing our film for the audience in the first couple of minutes. This is the role of a opening sequence and we have appealed to what our target audience know about teen dramas, as well as breaking some conventions in order to attract the audience, because they know what to expect, but they are also kept guessing what is going to happen.
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our teen drama opening sequence Vendetta uses and develops a variety
of forms and conventions previously utilized by real media products. I will be
expanding on this statement with reference from four areas of genre, narrative
structure, form and style. I have also included a video voice-over of our
opening in which our group discuss these topics over the sequence.
Genre
Our chosen primary genre for Vendetta is ultimately a Teen Drama, but with incorporated elements of Black Comedy as our sub-genre. To make
this immediately recognisable, we made sure that we followed the researched
conventions set out by our key inspirations, for example Heathers and Thirteen.
We developed our main character Eve from the loose basis of
Veronica in Heathers. She is someone who despite being in 'the cool crowd' is
independent in her thinking and does not conform to the social 'rules' of her
school environment. Another example of this typical character propping up in a Teen Drama is Cady in Mean Girls, who also operates in the same way. Both
seek some kind of vendetta against members in their school which is why they
are characters extremely relevant to defining the genre of our film.
Other characters we adopted from previous Teen Dramas include the typical characters of the 'Sleazy Male' (e.g. Tony in Skins) and the 'Stoner'. Both these characters provide immediate links to our key themes of partying, experimenting with sex and experimenting with drugs. We discuss how we incorporated these themes into our opening in detail in our voice-over:
An example of a film which best epitomises similar themes to what are included in our opening sequence is Thirteen. This can be recognised in the trailer.
An example of a film which best epitomises similar themes to what are included in our opening sequence is Thirteen. This can be recognised in the trailer.
We aimed to portray two key events in our opening, those being the overdose and Eve's smile at the end. We believe these convey the desired genre of a merging between Black Comedy and Teen Drama. Firstly, with drug use being such a prominent theme in Teen Dramas, our overdose scene is particularly relevant. When brainstorming our initial idea, we opted for this as the disruption as it was very fitting to the genre. Although an emergency, the fact that our main character Eve smiles at Hannah's misfortune not only provides an enigma code, but also an element of Black Comedy. This is due to Black Comedy being typically associated with treating serious situations in a satirical manner e.g. Eve's smile.
Narrative Structure
After researching the theories behind narrative structure, these proved very useful in coming up with an idea for our film. All films tend to abide by Todorov's narrative theory as a classic narrative pattern. Our opening sequence specifically only features the equilibrium stage and part of the disruption. However, our whole film in terms of Todorov's theory is summarized here:
In order to tell the story we utilized specific narrative techniques in our opening sequence. Here I will exemplify how we used them and why.
Ellipsis - We used this to give the audience a warped perspective on the passing of time. This allows them to recognise that our main character is under the influence of drugs, linking to the party thematic of our chosen genre.
Linear - Our opening sequence begins very non-linear, jumping between events going on at the party with no real perception of time. However, we jump to a linear approach during the overdose scene in order to convey the action in a way that the audience can engage in.
Enigma Codes - We offer many questions to our audience such as 'Who is responsible for the overdose?' and 'Why is the girl smiling after a serious overdose has occured?' This drives the narrative in a way that engages the audience and leaves them wanting to know the answers.
We also included some of Propp's character theory in our opening, although this can't be applied perfectly to our film as a whole as it is ambiguous who victims/villians are. This is due to the theme of revenge that runs constant throughout the storyline. Despite this, both Hannah (the victim) and Eve (the villain) can be applied to this theory. However, the true villain of our film is the creepy teenage boy who plots murder on the girl who rejected him, although he isn't presented to the audience in our opening sequence.
Form
On learning what was essential in the making of an opening, we tried to incorporate these things into our sequence. I believe that we managed to follow the conventions.
Titles - Here we followed the conventions of an opening sequence as we researched title orders, for example Juno to give us inspiration for our own order. We included the distributor and production company first to follow convention and to also allow the audience to associate our film with other films from the same distributor. These are recognised as important because they are the only ones that arn't super-imposed. We wanted the rest to be super-imposed so we didn't have to cut away from important action, as the majority of our sequence is quite fast paced. For this same reason of not serving as a distraction, we opted for white titles with a simple but fitting font.
Engaging the Audience - The audience is unaware of any main characters until we switch away from the point of view shot. This engages them to find out more about this elusive character, and with the enigma code of the smile as well, this urges them to keep watching. At the end of the opening, they still don't know the main character well.
Establishing Genre, Themes and Characters - Special attention is given to Eve, and in her smile her dark side is revealed. This introduces her as one of the main characters in the film, and gives her room to develop into a better person which is typical of a coming-of-age Teen Drama. Themes of sex, drug use and partying are also conveyed to allow the audience to associate the film with the desired genre, and possibly allow them to anticipate what could be coming up.
Style
I believe the style of our film is one that incorporates many different elements of surrealism to create a style that is original and important to setting our film apart. Here is a voice-over in which we discuss and analyse style fully:
When carrying out our audience feedback, the words often used to describe our sequence were surreal, creepy and sadistic. As you can see from the voice-over, this is what we were trying to aim for.
Another teen drama that can be described as 'surreal, creepy and sadistic' is Pretty Little Liars. It has strong themes relevant to Teen Dramas, yet also incorporates a sinister style with themes of revenge and murder. This can be seen in this trailer, where the colour scheme is black and misty, with flashes of colour. We have incorporated this as a background effect in our introduction of the distributor and production company.
However, unlike Pretty Little Liars we use our sadistic-ness for comical effect, reflecting the sub-genre of black comedy.
Overall, we believe that we created a film that abides by the typical conventions of what we are trying to create - a teen drama title sequence. This heightens audience appeal as they know what they enjoy and therefore somewhat know what to expect from our film. However, our film can bring a little more than expected to give it a rising factor over average teen dramas.
I believe the style of our film is one that incorporates many different elements of surrealism to create a style that is original and important to setting our film apart. Here is a voice-over in which we discuss and analyse style fully:
When carrying out our audience feedback, the words often used to describe our sequence were surreal, creepy and sadistic. As you can see from the voice-over, this is what we were trying to aim for.
Another teen drama that can be described as 'surreal, creepy and sadistic' is Pretty Little Liars. It has strong themes relevant to Teen Dramas, yet also incorporates a sinister style with themes of revenge and murder. This can be seen in this trailer, where the colour scheme is black and misty, with flashes of colour. We have incorporated this as a background effect in our introduction of the distributor and production company.
However, unlike Pretty Little Liars we use our sadistic-ness for comical effect, reflecting the sub-genre of black comedy.
Overall, we believe that we created a film that abides by the typical conventions of what we are trying to create - a teen drama title sequence. This heightens audience appeal as they know what they enjoy and therefore somewhat know what to expect from our film. However, our film can bring a little more than expected to give it a rising factor over average teen dramas.
Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?
When initially coming up with our idea and throughout the entire production process, we put conscious thought into how we were going to represent social groups. In most cases we developed the already existing stereotype, with the exception of age in which we solely conformed to the stereotype. We felt this was imperative not only to create a realism in our representation in relation to society, but to also create relatable characters - an element key to ensuring success of our film. The areas I will be focusing on are age and sexuality but for an overview of all our representations click here.
Age
All characters in our film fall into the teenage age spectrum - specifically the ages of 16 and 17. With the word 'teenager' comes a very specific stereotype of a girl/boy in the process of developing into their personality, with an air of recklessness towards drugs and sex with no care for schoolwork. One TV Drama that fed off this stereotype is Channel 4's controversial Skins that boldly explores the problems teens have within their lives. The following trailer shows the extent to which drugs, sex and partying play a part in the social lives of the Skins characters.
However, Skins received much criticism for it's overly positive representations of teenage activities, when the encouraged view is that this behavior is dangerous and reckless. Subsequently, it was rated an 18. For this reason, we chose to represent teenagers and their antics still in a realistic light in order to conform with the typical representation - but did this more negatively than Skins in order to apply for a certification of 15.
We abide by the typical representation by connoting our teenagers to be on drugs. Not only do we do this by showing someone supposedly rolling drugs (no drugs were actually used on set), but we also utilized point of view shots to show that our perception is through the eyes of someone on drugs. We used echo effects to do this and also used slightly blue grading to add to the surrealism of the scene. What's more, many of the characters (for example 'the sleazy male') were behaving rather eccentrically to not be on drugs, suggesting that they were. However, unlike Skins we do not encourage this lifestyle to be glamorous as we portray the overdose very graphically with shots likely to shock the audience. This is representing to the audience a situation when the light fun of suburban teen life goes wrong, done with a realistic approach. The following reactions of worry from the majority of the characters also induced a negative portrayal as the abusive use of drugs marks the end of the 'fun' of the party.
However, in some respects our portrayal of teenage behavior is positive. What can be noticed from our opening sequence is that everyone is accepting of one another with no element of sexual orientated or race conflict. They seem a lot free-spirited than the stereotype often suggests, with teenagers renowned in the media for gun and knife crime, homophobic prejudice and countless other behaviors that portray them badly. Despite this, we want our audience to recognize that our representation is just realistic as the one often displayed in the news.
Sexuality
It is obvious from our opening sequence that sexuality is a theme very predominant in teenagers' lives. We can almost see what our 'sleazy male' is thinking when he approaches Eve and we see couples kissing and lounging on one another. From the very start of the planning process, we wanted to ensure that equal attention was placed upon both our couples - one being homosexual and the other being heterosexual. This was with the intent that our film would encourage both to be looked on with normality, whereas the subject of homosexuality is typically met with humor.
During our research, we discovered that a homosexual character is typically defined by the fact that he/she is homosexual. An example of this is Damien in Mean Girls. In this comedic teen drama, he becomes a comical character solely due to his sexual orientation. A lot of focus is drawn to his emasculation for this reason. This is a montage of his funny moments, most revolving around the fact that he is gay.
However we wanted to convey the topic of homosexuality with indifference, a trend that is gradually developing in the media. One way we did this was by ensuring that our gay couple was no more feminine that our straight male couples. In fact, one member of our couples takes the lead in the overdose scene saying: 'Get over here!', 'Snap out of it!', and 'Call an ambulance then!'. We gave him commanding dialogue to portray him with dominance rather than the femininity gay people are often characterized with.
Not only did we make them appear like the completely average teenager in manner but also in their appearance. They are not wearing any element of pink, which is typical to gay characters, but are simply wearing stylish clothes without being overly groomed. This ensured that we didn't exploit the stereotype.
The main point we wanted our representation to show was that every teenager has the potential to be themselves even in a negative context such as the huge influx of revenge at their school. This is first seen with the homosexual male and also seen with Eve, as they step out from the crowd and become their own person.
Age
All characters in our film fall into the teenage age spectrum - specifically the ages of 16 and 17. With the word 'teenager' comes a very specific stereotype of a girl/boy in the process of developing into their personality, with an air of recklessness towards drugs and sex with no care for schoolwork. One TV Drama that fed off this stereotype is Channel 4's controversial Skins that boldly explores the problems teens have within their lives. The following trailer shows the extent to which drugs, sex and partying play a part in the social lives of the Skins characters.
However, Skins received much criticism for it's overly positive representations of teenage activities, when the encouraged view is that this behavior is dangerous and reckless. Subsequently, it was rated an 18. For this reason, we chose to represent teenagers and their antics still in a realistic light in order to conform with the typical representation - but did this more negatively than Skins in order to apply for a certification of 15.
Sexuality
It is obvious from our opening sequence that sexuality is a theme very predominant in teenagers' lives. We can almost see what our 'sleazy male' is thinking when he approaches Eve and we see couples kissing and lounging on one another. From the very start of the planning process, we wanted to ensure that equal attention was placed upon both our couples - one being homosexual and the other being heterosexual. This was with the intent that our film would encourage both to be looked on with normality, whereas the subject of homosexuality is typically met with humor.
During our research, we discovered that a homosexual character is typically defined by the fact that he/she is homosexual. An example of this is Damien in Mean Girls. In this comedic teen drama, he becomes a comical character solely due to his sexual orientation. A lot of focus is drawn to his emasculation for this reason. This is a montage of his funny moments, most revolving around the fact that he is gay.
However we wanted to convey the topic of homosexuality with indifference, a trend that is gradually developing in the media. One way we did this was by ensuring that our gay couple was no more feminine that our straight male couples. In fact, one member of our couples takes the lead in the overdose scene saying: 'Get over here!', 'Snap out of it!', and 'Call an ambulance then!'. We gave him commanding dialogue to portray him with dominance rather than the femininity gay people are often characterized with.
Not only did we make them appear like the completely average teenager in manner but also in their appearance. They are not wearing any element of pink, which is typical to gay characters, but are simply wearing stylish clothes without being overly groomed. This ensured that we didn't exploit the stereotype.
The main point we wanted our representation to show was that every teenager has the potential to be themselves even in a negative context such as the huge influx of revenge at their school. This is first seen with the homosexual male and also seen with Eve, as they step out from the crowd and become their own person.
Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Throughout the pre-production and production process, we kept in mind the desired production and distribution companies and ensured that our film was appropriate to these. Our production company was X-Productions and our distributor was Momentum Pictures, and had distributed films in the past that we wanted our film to be associated with.
X Productions
We imagined our production company to be an independent British company, subsequently producing independent British films. The company would be rather small, meaning that our film would be unlikely to become a global success. However the company would've produced a few well renowned films nationally that attracted niche audiences of predominantly the 16-24 age spectrum. We would hope that our film would become one of these. As for the genre, 'X Productions' will have experienced a wide variety of genres and wouldn't be limited to one. This would allow our teen drama to contain elements of black comedy effectively and confidently.
We came across the name by accident, simply writing 'x' for our production company when we were yet to think of one. However on further thought, we realized that this could suit perfectly as the producer of our film as 'x' connotes the same secrecy and enigma present in our film. This themes are immediately associated with our film.
A real production company that 'X Productions' could be loosely based on is the independent film company 'Warp Films'. It has produced some of our inspirations, a few being Four Lions, Submarine and Tyrannosaur. We believe that had 'X Productions' been real it would've resembled 'Warp Films' in its values.
E One Momentum
The above diagram represents our thought process on deciding our distributor. It summarizes our options and their previous works. With Heathers being our main inspiration, we had the notion of choosing 'New World Pictures' to be our distributor, to provide immediate association between the two films. However, on further research we realised that 'New World Pictures' had ceased to distribute films from 1997 onwards, meaning that the 'E One Momentum' route was more probable.
In seeking a distributor, we would've taken our film to a film festival as 'X Productions' wouldn't have had the funding for distributing, marketing and exhibiting the film. Here it would've been picked up by 'Momentum Pictures', who already have experience in distributing films with the themes of drama, darker comedy and female protagonist. In this way, they will have understanding on how to deal with our genre. We would hope that 'Momentum Pictures' could do the same with us as what they did with the global successes of The King's Speech, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Dear John and Seven Psychopaths.
Exhibition Platforms
We hope that our film would be plausible to be released in not only small cinemas but also in more mainstream cinemas. We feel the themes we explore in our film open a wide audience in which we will get the most reach in national mainstream cinemas such as Vue, Odean and Cineworld. It is unlikely that we would be able to gather the funds to opt for 3D, yet if this option arose it would give a fully immersive experience to the audience that they could only find in cinemas. This would ensure maximum difficulty to stream online.
Marketing Strategy
Momentum Pictures was the mastermind behind the effective marketing of The Kings Speech, which made $414 million at the box office worldwide. We would hope to follow in its footsteps with a similar marketing campaign, raising awareness through traditional posters/trailers but targetting our core audience through use of social media and interactivity. This would be the main source of our marketing, being an independent British film. We would create pages on facebook and accounts on twitter that allow regular contact with our 16-24 demographic, all the while raising awareness and anticipation of our film with the announcing of new trailers, posters etc. This engages their interest and keeps the target audience wanting and regularly receiving more. Of course we would also create a website much like Dear John, which was positively received by teens. Therefore, we will expect to create a website that attracts teens to the same level.
On the website, young good looking actors are introduced and a variety of home media formats are advertised. The website is also cross media converged, with videos and text. There is also a feature in which visitors to the website 'share their love stories', which is interactive and involves the audience with the themes in the film.
Overall, we believe that our production and distribution companies can be trusted to deliver our film to it's best ability and that we have made realistic choices.
Marketing Strategy
Momentum Pictures was the mastermind behind the effective marketing of The Kings Speech, which made $414 million at the box office worldwide. We would hope to follow in its footsteps with a similar marketing campaign, raising awareness through traditional posters/trailers but targetting our core audience through use of social media and interactivity. This would be the main source of our marketing, being an independent British film. We would create pages on facebook and accounts on twitter that allow regular contact with our 16-24 demographic, all the while raising awareness and anticipation of our film with the announcing of new trailers, posters etc. This engages their interest and keeps the target audience wanting and regularly receiving more. Of course we would also create a website much like Dear John, which was positively received by teens. Therefore, we will expect to create a website that attracts teens to the same level.
On the website, young good looking actors are introduced and a variety of home media formats are advertised. The website is also cross media converged, with videos and text. There is also a feature in which visitors to the website 'share their love stories', which is interactive and involves the audience with the themes in the film.
Overall, we believe that our production and distribution companies can be trusted to deliver our film to it's best ability and that we have made realistic choices.
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