Evaluation 3 - What Kind of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product and Why?

Below is the link to our Director's Commentary, in which we cover Evaluation 3.

Link to Director's Commentary

Evaluation 1 - In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

In our film, we primarily attempted to go against some stereotypes which are contained within the teen angst genre. This starts straight from the title as we wanted to do something unique. Of course, we had to remain within the boundaries of this genre and pick a suitable font and colour scheme for our titles, but compared to a film such as Juno, some comparisons can be drawn as well as similarities, as shown in these images.





In our setting, we wanted to make it set in a school, as it is a very important scenario for a teen angst film to contain. It is very typical, then, to find such a setting in this genre as it is so pivotal to many of these films. Comparing to a film such as Easy A, it can be said that the film begins at a school. The film we have produced likewise does similar, but of course taking a different angle on a very common scene to help make it stand out to our target audience.


 

This screenshot best shows costumes and props. We can clearly see  how this class setting shows two casually dressed students, and we also can easily tell this is a classroom from how we can see tables and chairs, along with the windows and general 'generic' style of the room. but props such as bags are also imperative to how the students are clearly conveyed as such.
 

This camera shot best illustrates how we were able to take a simple corridor and try to make it more interesting. The camera is directly in line with the lockers seen on the left, and the angle helps to create a sense of how the main character is going through a lot of 'chaos' in his life (although this is not shown explicitly). We feel that a camera shot like this was unique to our film and cannot be compared as our camerawork was mostly unique.

 

Evaluation 2 - How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

In our film, we tried to create some 'stereotypical' characters, and also try to produce a countertype for our main character. Films such as Easy A took a major inspiration from this aspect as we tried to make a unique character who didn't quite fit into a school stereotype. Other characters, which didn't take such a big spotlight in the film, typically fit into a certain stereotype which ultimately helped bring together the school setting for our introduction.

An example of some of the stereotypes used would be a group of 'mean girls', which appear briefly bullying someone just outside the school in a courtyard. This was primarily implemented to help create a more 'busy' atmosphere, which helps create interest.

Our second 'social group' is of the main character and his friend. This was also taken directly as inspiration from Easy A as we liked the idea of the main character having one good friend.

And the main character themselves can be compared directly to that of Olive in Easy A. The character would show themselves to be quite similar to that of Olive, although this can't be clearly seen in the introduction we have produced. But in the context of the entire film, this comparison would be made quite evident.

We found it especially challenging to implement more social groups, as we were limited as to what times of day we could film. Filming at a 'busy' time of day at our school was too challenging and when we attempted to do so, it was often difficult to frame our character correctly and make the audience easily see our character.

This is where our inspiration for Easy A was particularly difficult to fully implement into our film, as we found it a challenge to implement many social groups that a school typically contains. Many people whom we had asked was often not available and they wouldn't be able to help act in our film. We were only able to get one stereotypical social group, and due to limitations of time we were not able to make our product exactly to how we would've liked.

This particular aspect of our film was where we felt we could've improved the most in our film as we couldn't effectively create a busy school environment with the timeframe we were provided.

Evaluation 6 - What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process of Constructing This Product?

In our film's production we took advantage of many different technologies to help and aid in making the production a smoother and faster process. Facebook Messenger is one example of this. We used this app to contact our actors and to help organise a time where we could film. If we didn't have this app available to us, the process would've been more lengthy and more time would've been devoted to getting actors instead of filming.

We also took advantage of using Adobe Fireworks as well as Premier Pro. This helped us enormously because these software programs allowed us to easily edit and produce our logo and edit our film. Premier Pro was a very helpful tool that we used in order to make our film of a higher quality and make it look more professional.

Adobe Fireworks was a helpful image manipulation tool which helped us construct our company logo.

The physical technologies that we used were our camera and tripod, along with the school computer we used to edit our production. The camera we used had a 720p quality, with a Polaroid tripod which enabled us to smoothly pan and keep a steady shot. These technologies, despite being not the 'latest' per se, was still vital to the production process, and gave us a video quality which was good enough for our film.

Another technology we have used is YouTube. It has been another vital tool to help us upload and share our film easily so that feedback from other students (from our draft) was made more possible and simpler.

The last one we utilised was of course Blogger, which allowed us to present our coursework in an easily accessible manner. This technology was very helpful to us as without it, we would not be able to make our coursework as accessible as possible.

Evaluation 4 - Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our main target audience that we are aiming for is of a teenage demographic, specifically for male teens who may be interested in this general genre. We have produced a film in which it is directed ore at teenagers, and the fact that this genre typically contains films more apropos for the female gender, we thought it would be a good niche in the market to make this sort of film as there aren't many like this film around currently.

Typical target audience demographic

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Reasons they would watch:

- Part-Time Worker (Class D), means they can afford cinema tickets easily

- Goes to Cinema with their friends

- Has social anxiety

- Not very popular, has limited friends

- Can relate to main protagonist of the film

Film Draft

Link to Draft

Planning - Settings

This is where the film will begin. The classroom scene would last roughly 45 seconds, and then the students, along with our main character will leave.



This is outside the door of the classroom. Our main character will walk outside here and we will use a variety of camera shots to make our introduction look more interesting.

This is the top of the stairwell that we will be using; this also helpfully illustrates the bird's eye view that we will use as the main character walks down the stairs.

This is at the bottom of the stairwell. We will use this specific shot as the character walks down, and pan to the left as they walk around and down a long corridor.

This is one end of the corridor. The bottom of the stairwell can be seen on the right, and we will change camera shots to this one, as they walk down this corridor, away from the camera.

This is at the middle of the corridor, in which we will see the main character walk inside from left to right. Each of these shots will last a few seconds, as we don't want this segment to be too slow-paced or boring.

This is at the other end of the corridor, in which we will see the character walk towards the camera. This follows on smoothly, as the previous shot can be found in the middle of this corridor, on the left from this shot.

This is the end of the second corridor, which is located immediately behind the camera's previous shot, and now facing a different direction. The previous corridor in just out of shot on the left. We will see the character walk from the left and then turn as they walk away from the camera down this corridor.

This is the other end of the corridor. The camera will likely be zoomed in as the character walks toward the camera.

This shot will be used to pan from the right, behind the lockers on the right, to keep the main character in centre frame as they turn and walk towards the left.

This is also a panning shot, in which we will see the main character walk towards the camera on the right, and then walk towards the left as the camera pans.

This is our next shot, in which we will see the character walk from left, through the doors on the right.

This is through the doors in the previous shot, where we will see the character walk down these stairs and walk straight ahead down the corridor, and go through the doors at the top of this picture.

In this shot, we see the other side of the door, which the character will be walking through and then walk towards the camera and then past it.

In this shot, we see the scene change to the outside, as we walk towards the park. The camera will be zoomed in here, so we can see the character as they walk out and towards the camera. They will then walk around the corner to the left, out of frame.

This is situated right next to the park. We will see the character walking from the school, through this line of trees, and towards the camera.

This is when the camera is turned around and inside the park. We will include some POV shots, where we will look at the scenery and trees. The character will walk all the way across this park to a road, in which the opening sequence will conclude.

We won't follow the character along the entire park, as it would take too long. We will likely cut partway through to the road, in which we will see the character waiting to cross as cars drive by.

This is on the other side of the road, where the camera will be placed. We will likely use a close-up shot of the character as they wait to cross. When they begin to cross, we will fade to black as our opening sequence will end.

 

These settings are key to help the audience know about the story and how it all begins. Easy A was our main inspiration as it is set in a school and our main character is not in the 'popular' stereotype. We tried to deviate from the typical conventions that surround films set in a school, but there were some key stereotypes we had to keep in order to keep the setting and atmosphere that we wanted.