Evaluation: What have you learned from technologies in the construction of your product?

RESEARCH

When our genre had been identified, we decided to do large amounts of research to find out what we had to about the codes and conventions. We used Youtube initially to look at the trailers and openings of the films of our genre. We also looked through the International Movie Database (IMDB) for facts and figures about the movie and the success rate because we wanted to include conventions that were going to make us the most profit. These helped aid the construction of our product because we were able to find the things that were typical of our genre and what we wanted to include in our own opening. 

The use of Survey Monkey also helped us during this stage because we were able to construct our own questionnaire and send it out to people to fill in. We were able to include a variety of types of questions both open and closed with different options that they could press. By doing this we were able to conduct thorough research into our genre and audience to get a clear picture of who they were and what were there expectations of the film. The website also produced graphs from the closed questions which we were able to analyse and find out what were the most popular things and what were not so popular. This allowed us to create an effective opening because we knew what our audience wanted and what they were expecting, we were able to mould our idea around these conventions and wholly appeal to them.

PLANNING

Our planning was all conducted on a software called Celtx. Celtx allowed us to plan our script, storyboard, character profiles and shooting schedule. As this was all in one place, it was very useful to use and look back on. We initially had created our script on Celtx, it allowed us to use different things in our script such as the use of dialogue, voice-over and a description of the setting. This made our script more efficient and we were easily able to differentiate between different parts of our script. 

The storyboard that we created was using pictures that we had taken rather than drawing it ourselves. This was a creative use of technology because we did not expect to be doing this. It was also easy to update and transfer different photos when changes had to be made rather than having to re-draw. On celtx we were able to choose form a variety of shots which ones we would use and when, which enabled us to be more organised when it came to filming because we knew how to position the camera etc.

The shooting schedule that we created was also allowing us to be more organised because were able to choose which days everybody was free to film and which times, we also chose what scenes we were going to film and allowed for extra filming days if necessary.

The final use for Celtx was the creation of character profiles. We were able to create profiles for the characters that were in our opening. We provided a more in depth analysis of them and the software had already built in heading such as name, age, likes and dislikes to be able to really understand who the character is. We were also able to give the profile to the person playing Chloe who was not in our group so they understood the character and was able to portray her effectively.

Overall, Celtx aided in the construction of our final product by allowing us to plan and organise effectively. If we did not plan as much as we did then we may have had to re film numerous times therefore it saved us time because we knew what we were doing on each day and what we were filming and how we would film it etc.

PRODUCTION

During the production stages, we used a tripod and DSLR camera to film. We used a Nikon D3100 camera which is a standard DSLR camera. The difference of quality from the digital cameras we had used in our preliminary task to these cameras was evident. This aided in our construction because it ensured that it was the best quality filming we could have gotten which allowed us to convey the message of our introduction effectively. We were able to zoom in with the camera easily and zoom out as well as focus easily and when we wanted to. By using a good quality camera, we were able to create a realsitic picture of our film and create verisimilitude. We also used a tripod throughout filming to ensure that the shots that we were creating were able. These was particularly effective doing pans which we used quite a few times in our final product. However, some times we did not use the tripod on purpose to get the effect of handheld camera.

POST-PRODUCTION

During, the post-production stage, we mainly used the software iMovie to edit the introduction to the film. We had already learnt some editing techniques when we created our preliminary task however these were not sufficient enough to create an effective introduction. We had to develop our skills further by adding music, voice-over and transitions as well as editing effectively to create verisimilitude.The most important thing was editing our shots together properly because if we did not do this then our opening would not look effective. iMovie helped us to create realism in our opening and make it look realistic. We used a youtube to mp3 converter to get our music for our opening, it was a quick and simple way of putting music onto out opening. 

BLOGGER

Finally, we used blogger to display everything that we have created and found out about or genre and what we would include our opening. We altered the layout of our blog to make it look more nicer and when creating posts I had to learn how to embed things using HTML. 

Evaluation: Looking back on the preliminary task what do you think you have learnt in the progression from that to the actual production?

In our preliminary task we were asked to consider match on action, shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.Because the task was a continuity task, we tried to focus on continuity throughout and using a variety of shots. The preliminary task fully equipped us with the essential rules and shots that we had to consider when creating our opening. Here is a comparison of the different shots that I have used and the different rules in the preliminary task and our final opening. 

Evaluation: How does your media product present particular social groups and who would be the audience for your media product?

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

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

We decided to choose Paramount as the production and distribution company of our film. This is because after our initial research we found two films to be very popular and highly grossing and they were both produced and distributed by Paramount. Other institutions were considered such as Universal but our initial research did not identify films made by universal as being very popular therefore we did not choose them.

Our opening for a teen romantic comedy film -'All In Time'

This is the final piece that we have created, hope you enjoy it :)

Changes to the opening of our film

Whilst filming, we made several changes to our opening. Initially, our idea was to have the character run into the door to create a comic element in the film opening although when we tried to film this the shots that we had obtained were not very good and did not seem as realistic. We therefore changed the script to not include this part and have Ellie bump directly into the antagonist, Chloe and then have an altercation. After this a voice over will occur detailing Ellie's life and what she has been through.

Because we had made changes to the script we also had to make changes to the storyboard that we had planned. Another change in our storyboard was the beginning, we had decided to do 4 quarters which would each have a shot of what she would be doing that morning. However, we did not have time to create this and we did not know how to do it so we simply decided to leave it out. By changing parts of our storyboard and script, we ensured that the opening looked realistic as well as creating verisimilitude. 

Shooting schedule

We created a schedule deciding on which days we would shoot what scenes. This made everything more organised as we had set dates where we would film particular scenes and had to have certain characters in the scenes. We added an extra day in which we would film any extra parts that we did not get time to film on other days.

Storyboard of our opening

When planning our opening, after scripting, we had to make a storyboard, this aided our planning as we were able to decide what shots we were going to use. We decided to use a variety of shots that would be effective in portraying the characters persona and feelings. By storyboarding when we film it would be a lot easier because we will know what we are doing. 

Character profiles

We decided to make character profiles, which provided an in depth analysis of the three characters in our opening Ellie (protagonist), Chloe (antagonist) and Lucy (best friend).

Ellie

Chloe

Lucy

The script for the opening of our film

Here is the script that we have created for the opening of our film. We decided to make a script to aid the planning of our opening and make it easier to film. Our script includes a running scene as well as voice-over to reflect the protagonist feelings.

Idea for our opening 

When we had decided what our film was about, we then had to decide what our opening was going to look like and be about. We decided to have our female protagonist realising that she is late for school and then running into school. She will then smash into the doors which will create a comedy element. After this, she will have a conversation with the antagonist of the film, the antagonist will somehow insult her. There will then be a voice-over reflecting the thoughts of the protagonist and introducing us to her, this was found to be very popular in our research so we will definitely include it and then the title of the film will be put on the screen at the end of the voice-over. For our opening we looked at the codes and conventions we identified when analysing openings for our research and then applied them to our own introduction.

Overall idea for our film

Here is the idea for our film, we have decided to create a Cinderella esque storyline for our teen romantic-comedy film. We applied Propp's character theory to the characters that we have identified in the film. We didn't include the dispatcher because we did not have one of them in our film. We also applied Todorov's narrative theory to the film, looking at all the different sections of the theory and identifying which part was which part in our film.

Brainstorming my thoughts

Here is a brainstorm of my thoughts about what we could include in our teen romantic-comedy such as the characters, settings and what kind of narrative. 

Preliminary Task

For our preliminary task we were told to record a scene with someone 'opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue'. We were told to consider and include the 180 degree rule, match-on-action an shot/reverse shot. 

We applied the 180 degree rule when filming, we imagined an invisible line where we could film and made sure that we did not cross this line. Match-on action was included when one of the characters walked through the door, we saw a shot from behind them and they were walking and a shot in front of the door and them walking. We used shot/reverse shot when one of the characters was sitting at the table we were able to see them looking at the door at the other character which was not on the screen and then see them looking at the character. We edited the scene using iMovie to make sure that all the shots looked and flowed together correctly. 

Final Documentary

Here is our final documentary that summarises all the research that we have conducted into our target audience and chosen genre:

We were told to be as creative as possible when creating the documentary by including music, videos clips and voice-overs. We included all of these aspects when producing the documentary although it did take a long time to make the documentary flow and look as we envisioned. 
We were able to develop our editing skills when using iMovie on the macs because we had never used them before. We have learnt how to annotate, do voice-overs and add animations as well as title slides and how to add effects. All of these elements will be useful when  creating the opening to our film. 

To improve the documentary next  time, we would make sure that our levels of background music and voice-overs were all similar. The levels of music were often much louder than the speaking which were not as loud. This did not allow the people watching to be able to fully understand what we were trying to portray and we would make sure that we do not do that in our final opening. In some of the clips also, we sometimes cut off the ending or beginning of the clip which did not have a significant impact on changing the meaning but it did make it flow less well. We will make sure that we do not do this next time. 

Overall, we believe that our documentary was successful and did summarise our research as effectively as we could have possibly done it. 

Planning our documentary

We were asked to create a documentary that concluded all the research that we had done into our genre and audience. We decided to create a plan of what we would include in our documentary to be able to work as efficiently and effectively as possible and to make sure that we were able to include everything. Here is the plan that we have created:

Target Audience Mood board

Here is a target audience mood board that I have created to represent what we have found out about our target audience. The mood board includes things that we have found in our questionnaire e.g the different activities that our audience enjoy such as reading, doing sports and watching television. We will try to include these activities in the opening of our film to appeal to our audience. Other things included are the setting that our audience identified as important such as the home/bedroom setting and school setting. These are all places where teenagers usually would be and would have experienced. This is important t us because the setting allows the audience to be able to identify with the character more easily and what there situation  may be. The other photos on the mood board include parents, a best friend and a dream guy. These are all the characters that our audience identified as key characters in our genre and we will make sure to include/mention them to be able to appeal to our audience effectively.

Conducting interviews

As part of our research we decided to conduct interviews to get a more detailed and in-depth analysis of what our audiences preferences were in the openings of teen romantic-comedies. We showed them two clips from two openings: 'Angus,Thongs and Perfect Snogging' and 'Wild Child'. We also asked the audiences general views about the teen romantic-comedy genre.We asked them the following questions:

·    What stock settings did you identify?

·     What stock characters were there?

·     How were these characters introduced?

·     How was enigma created?

·    How was the plot set up?

·    How did the mood and tone of the music conform/subvert the rom-com genre?

·    Was the opening typical of the teen rom-com genre?

·    How would you improve the opening of the film?

Here are the clips/trailers for the films:

                                     

Here were the responses:

Analysis of the results from our questionnaire

From our questionnaire we got 21 responses and this is an analysis of our results: 

 From our results, we can see that the majority of the people who answered our survey were female (90%) and were between the ages of 16 and 18., Only 3 of our respondents were over 18. This suggests to us that the people who are most interested in teen rom-coms are female and are teenagers. This is therefore the demographics our target audience and we will do our best to appeal to them.

The questionnaire also allowed us to identify the interests of our target audience. We found that the most common hobbies or interest for our target audience was watching television. Other interest we identified from our questionnaire included watching films, reading, sport and socializing. By identifying the interests of our target audience we will be able to incorporate the aspects of these interests into the opening of our film. This will allow the audience to empathise with the characters in the film.

A question we asked in the questionnaire was how many specific teen rom-coms the respondents had watched. The two most popular film were 'Angus,Thongs and Perfect Snogging' and 'Mean Girls'. Both these films have a typical plot for a rom-com film with an outcast girl as the main female protagonist. The main character also ends up getting the 'dream guy'. By identifying the similar plots and openings of both these films we will know what the expectations of the audience of our opening will be and how we will be able to appeal to them. 

From our survey we were able to identify the characters that the audience expect and who will we include in the opening of our film. A main female character was 100% in our survey therefore we will definitely include this type of character in our opening. The 'dream guy' and the parents both scored equally as the second most popular and therefore we will try and include these in our opening to fulfil audience expectations. The least common character was a male main character so we will definitely not include this in our opening. 

Other questions we asked in our survey were open questions. We asked what they though of the opening of the rom-coms they had watched. Many respondents said that they enjoyed them and that they were good and intriguing. Other respondents said that they were not very interesting and presented an over-exaggerated representation of teenage life. One respondent said: 'Funny opening which make the audience laugh are the best because it makes the character seem more likeable and you can connect with them'. From this response and other similar responses it is suggested that we should include a large element of comedy in the opening to entice our audience and make them want to watch on. 

A question we also asked were how similar the plots of the films were. Nearly all respondents said the plots of the films were very similar in terms of ideas about love and relationships. We also asked in relation, what do they expect when they watch a teen rom-com. Many of them said they expect a boy meets girl storyline which will end with a happy ending. People also said that they would expect aspects of jealousy and fighting which will continue the narrative. 

Creating out questionnaire

As part of our primary research we created a questionnaire asking both open and closed questions about the openings of teen romantic-comedies and what they expect in them. We also included questions identifying the demographics of our audience so when making our opening we will be able to appeal to that target audience and what they like. We then used the website www.surveymonkey.com to create our survey.We sent the survey via email to people of various ages to get there responses.

Here is our survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Q6TYLP3

Analysis of an opening: 'It's a Boy Girl Thing'

Creation of enigma
Not much enigma is created but we do not know the background of these characters and how they relate to each other. We can see that they are neighbours but we do not know why they have a bad relationship and what will happen next after the female protagonist 'flashed' the male protagonist because we do not know if they will get in a relationship or not but we assume that they will. 

Introduction to characters
The two main characters are introduced. The female protagonist is represented as being a conventional nerd/geek character. This is first introduced because she is reading a book and trying to study. However, she is also conventional because from her room and what she is wearing it is typical for a teenage girl. The female protagonist also uses a voice-over expressing what she is trying to read, this indicates that she is unable to think properly and creates annoyance for her which we as the audience side with because she is the first character we see.  The male protagonist is presented as being a typical jock character, we can see that he is shirtless and interested in women/sex which suggests that he is arrogant. The fact that he is playing loud music inconsiderately also reinforces this. 

Setting up plot
Binary opposites is created by the two characters, the shot of them where they are both talking out of the window with the tree in the middle signifies that they are opposites and they will never get along and that there is a clear separation between them. As it is a romantic-comedy film we were introduced to themes of love by the reading of Romeo and Juliet and sex which indicate that these two characters will eventually get together. 

Pace and rhythm
The pace and rhythm was fairly slow at the beginning when the female character was reading her book but as her annoyance grew and the introduction of the other character the pace began to increase suggesting that she is getting more and more angry with the male protagonist. 

Mood and tone
The mood is fairly angry, this is reflected by the harsh and loud music that is being played from the stereo as well as the dialogue and the angry tone that the female protagonist is displaying.