Evaluation 7 - What have i learnt in the progression from my preliminary task to my final media product?

Camera 

We used various shot types and angles in our preliminary task along with the 180 degree rule. Some of the shots we mainly used were close ups and mid shots, we used the close ups for when me and Dan were having a conversation to show the audience what we were talking about and we also used it when opening the door. By having the close up on the door its shows that it is one of the main features in the film. The mid shot we used was when we had the character walking towards the door and after entering it, we used this as it displays to the audience where the character is heading or where he has come from.

Since progressing from the preliminary task to our film opening i felt that a lot of things that i had done in my preliminary task has been improved. One of the things i felt that i have improved on is using a larger variety of shot types and angles, in my preliminary task i used about 3-4 different shots but in my film opening i used a lot more with wide variety. In my opening title sequence i used tracking, pans, close ups, extreme close ups, mid shots and long shots. We used tracking when Madison was walking to school as this emphasises how bossy and important she is in the film and it suggests that someone is following her like Jennifer because she is so important and popular, We also used a large pan in the film to draw attention to Madison as she likes to boss Jennifer around. Finally we used close ups on the main character Madison when she is in the toilets applying her makeup, we done this to show the audience that Madison is a stereotypical teenage girl who likes to wear make up and takes care in her appearance.

Framing

In our preliminary task there was some additional things in the sides of our shots which shouldnt of be there, this could draw the attention of the viewer away. This is why it is important for things to be out of the shot and only the necessary things to be in the shot, This then makes the film better quality and to a higher standard. When we filmed our opening title sequence we remembered this so when we shot opposite a door we let the film run for a couple of seconds so we could get out of the reflection and then we cut it down when in the editing stage. This made the film look much more professional.  

Mise-en-scene

We didnt really focus too much on mise-en-scene in our preliminary task but we focused a lot more on this in our opening title sequence. One feature that was used in our preliminary task was the lighting which didn't come out the best as we were new to filming and didn't know much about it and in certain areas depending on the room it was quite yellow. We tried our best to use high key lighting as this would create a positive mood as the two people talking are having a general conversation. When it came to our opening scene film the lighting was a lot more important as most common teen angst films use high key lighting, this was to show humour and all round positive attitude. 

I felt that costume was not so important in our preliminary task but very important in our opening scene, i feel these are important as it tells the audience who the character is, there personality and even how they are feeling. For our preliminary task however we didn't have a specific genre so there was no need for specific costumes but this did help us decide what we would need for our film opening as it would display to the audience that are film is teen angst. Therefore we thought we would use trendy modern clothes for our main character Madison, Nerdy school-like clothes for Jennifer and smart causal clothes for Ethan, Because we had a wide range of different clothes being shown to our audience it meant that they could relate to all the characters. 

We used a few props for our opening title sequence as we thought that because the genre is teen angst we would need a few props to fit the theme. We used a purple school bag for Jennifer as she is a nerdy student, we used a trendy handbag for Madison as she is popular and likes to keep up the trends, then we didn't really use anything for Ethan as typical teenage boys don't tend to carry much except maybe a phone. For our preliminary task we didn't use any props as again there was no genre and we were just having a general everyday conversation.

The setting for our preliminary task was our school, we had no choice but to film at the school as we had to film in one lesson which only lasts an hour so this was the most time efficient place. This did allow us to see how much we could film in a limited place and in a limited time which helped us when it came to the final film opening. Then when filming our opening scene we used a different location at the start and gradually progressed into the school to keep our viewers entertained. It also means that they can relate to our film as a vast majority of students in education walk to school.

Mode of address

In the preliminary task we got taught that it is important to speak proper standard English with no slang words used, this is because it makes it clear for the audience to listen to and understand. As one of the focuses for the preliminary task was the conversation it was vital that the audience could understand what we were saying. The structure of our sentences had to be varied but also clear so the viewers attention would be on what we are saying and so they could follow the story line. With all this learnt we could use this when filming our final product.

Editing

Match on action was used in our preliminary task when walking through a door, match on action is used to cut out any unnecessary stuff in the shot. For ours we showed a character walking towards a door then cutting it to the character on the other side of it, we also used this in our opening title sequence film as seen above, we used this to emphasise Madison walking through the door to give a sense of power over Jennifer. In our preliminary task we had to concentrate on sequencing so our film was in chronological order, this was pretty easy to do as we thought of this before hand. We also used this in our final film opening as we thought this fitted the genre well and is common in quite a few teen angst films, it worked well with the voice over aswell. Also we progressed very far with transitions and effects as i did not know how to use any of these types of editing techniques before we started this task, we did not use transitions or effects in our preliminary task as it was meant to be simple and short. However we did use quite a few in our main film. We used things like dissolves, which we used to make a effect of passing the time when Madison is standing at the lockers with Jennifer. We used the 180 degree rule. This rule is used so the viewers don't get confused to where the characters are placed, the rule regards that the camera doesn't cross an invisible line within a 180 degree turn. This was used during our preliminary task but and a little bit in our main film. Some effects we used was right at the start of our opening title sequences when we introduced our production company logo, we used a star spangled like effect in a circle which we thought looked good and thought that it connotes gossip with an all seeing eye. Also for our main title we used a special effect along with a transition which had a pink blob which was connoting spilt make up with our title 'just turned eighteen' appearing on the screen. 

Use of titles

We didn't use any titles in our preliminary task as the film itself was very short and also we were new to filming and editing so we didn't know how to do it. Once we used them on our final film though we knew what we were doing. We had titles for each characters introduced during the opening sequence and used a different colour for each person. We used bright blue and red for Madison, green and blue for Jennifer, then red and green for Ethan. We used the same font throughout the main characters and then a different font for cast and crew names. We used sans serif for the 'Edited by' and then serif for the actual name. The size of our characters titles were fairly big as we wanted the audience to know who the characters were called alongside the voice over but our over titles were a lot smaller as we thought these are not as important as the main characters. We put the names in different corners of the screen depending on the shot as we didn't want them blocking the shot, the transitions we used for these were just them simply popping up onto the screen with no special effects. We did use on one character a greyscale freeze frame when the name appeared.

Evaluation task 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

This was the software we used to edit and create our film 'Final Cut Pro'. Since i was new to using this program it took a while to get to grips with it but got easier the more i used it, This helped as it allowed me to learn the shortcuts and use the program professionally while improving my editing skills. Within this program there is a load of different content to use from simple transitions, fades, sound affects and much more. Throughout using this program we did lose our work once as another student accidentally deleted our film, luckily we done some digging through the back up files and found a copy of our film but unfortunately it had some important effects and transitions missing from our film so we had to use this and start some of it again. This did use some of our time up that we didn't expect to be using so we had to work extra hard and put the effort in outside of our lessons. Overall i felt that Final Cut Pro was a very good program to use and that it is quite easy to understand after using it for a couple of hours.



Graphic Springs is a free design website we used to create our production company logo for our film, We searched for many websites we could use to help create our logo and found Graphics Springs. Once onto the Graphics Springs website it is very easy to navigate and tells you that you can create a logo in 10 minutes or less and that is near enough true. We felt that Graphic Springs was the best website to use as many other websites or programs would probably charge for our time and usage. I thought that this was a very reliable and easy to use website and would recommend to anyone who would like to create a logo to which has no experience in doing so.


This website is what we used to find our music to run over our film. The website allowed us to browse a large library of various songs in which were copyright free so there was no issues when getting the songs. We used two songs off this website in which ended up in our final product of our film, we originally shortlisted 7 songs off the website and narrowed it down to two songs. The website was very handy when getting our songs as it was easy to navigate and search for varied songs as it has a whole host of different tracks. Most of the class used this website but had not done so before so all of us were new to using it, the only trouble we had was trying not to use the same song as somebody else had used in there film as the music on the website had good quality tracks to fit our genre. In the end somebody had used the same track as us but it was fine as we had used the instrumental version. Taking everything into account i thought that this website was easy to use and to download songs. 

YouTube is a website which allows anyone in the world to upload whatever content they want within their rules and regulations. Once we had completed and finished our film we uploaded it to YouTube for everyone to see, after we had uploaded it we had a thought that in a way uploading to YouTube could be a sneaky marketing technique. Because of this we added tags to our video to attract audiences intended for our film which was 12-19 year old females. Also because our target audience is quite young most of them will have some sort of technological device like a smart phone, tablet etc which is technological convergence, this meant that our video could potentially attract a wider audience. It also means that our audience will most likely know how to use YouTube and probably use it often to find music, watch vloggers and much more.     

This is a website called blogger via Google which allows any user to blog about whatever they want. This website allowed me to store all of my notes and planning together for our film, the website is accessible through computer, iPad or tablet and even an app for your phone which makes it easy if you have an idea you can just open up your phone and simply write it down, This is also technological convergence. The website requires a Google Plus account to start up but is very simple and easy to use. I have learned that it is important to keep track of my individual progress and the importance of keeping all my work and planning together. Blogger also allowed me to share my ideas and thoughts with the rest of my classmates to give feedback on my work and my film it made sure that i produced only the best standard of work.

This piece of equipment is called a tripod, this certain piece of equipment allowed us to steady the camera when filming. This really benefited our film as we used it when filming our panning shot which meant we didn't have to free hand that scene and also helped when we did the tracking shot of Madison as we would of had to do that free hand aswell and would not of came out in the best quality. Overall this piece of equipment came in really handy and helped us film a lot of shots throughout our film. If we weren't able to use the tripod then this would of had a massive impact on our film as most of the shots would of be unstable, With the tripod it meant that we could film accurate and focused shots without having to check the camera every couple of seconds.



This is the HD camera we used to film our movie, it is a Panasonic 1080p camcorder, with the camera being HD it meant we could record a good quality picture. Also the camera was digital which meant that it didn't have to be constantly plugged in. I learnt a lot from using the camera from how to generally film and how to make varied shots. An example of this is the shot in our film when the camera pans and the film crew names appear. This is a common shot in teen angst films as it shows the setting/location and introduces either characters or cast and crew, This taught me how to be effective with using the camera and how to take successful shots. That specific shot shows the audience where the film is set and also what is going on in that scene, for example the school setting in the background of that shot helps the audience understand the genre of the film. 



This is the voice recorder we used in our film to record certain voice overs for our movie, The voice recorder meant that we could record good quality sound without any background noise interrupting it. It was helpful as we used voice overs a lot in our film from the beginning right through to the end, it meant that we could show the audience what was going on during that scene and also when we introduced our character and to tell them a bit about that certain person. This was the first time in using this device but is pretty easy to understand and only takes a couple of minutes to grasp all the buttons. 

Evaluation 5 - How did you attract/address your target audience?

Evaluation 4 - Who would be the target audience for your media product

14 yr old - People of this age will more likely want to watch our film as they can relate to it because of their age. As in the picture you can see that her hair is down and has make-up applied, this suggests that she is vain and that she cares about her appearance. The clothing that she is wearing is school uniform which is typical for this age but she is still wearing fashionable items such as branded coats and bags to keep up the fashionable trend within school. Also with her age she will be living at home with her parents and probably siblings.                                                                                                                         

18/19 yr old - Again as stated above this age is more at the older end of our target audience but still fits in for people of this age to watch our film. The studded leather jacket and purple hair shows that she is rebellious and doesn't care what older people think but still wears fashionable clothing as she does care what her friends and classmates think of her and her appearance. People of this age will most likely be studying in higher education like a-levels or college which means they are soon to leave full time education. Also she is still living at home but most-likely on the verge of leaving as she probably has a job or is thinking of going to university.  



Demographics: 

Age: 12-19
Location: England, east Anglia
Gender: Female
Income level: Low level income
Education level: Secondary school upwards 
Family status: Living at home
Occupation: Student
Ethnic background: Any

Psychographics, these are some of the things that our target audience are most likely interested in:

-Music that is currently trendy as they like to keep up to date and fit in with their peers within school.

-Socialising with friends is a important aspect of being popular as many people judge you for who you hang around with and speak to, so it is valued for girls of this age to fit in with the right people.

-They enjoy shopping for clothes in shops that are big brands like: River Island, New Look and Primark. This can be for clothes and also fashion accessories/icons, This is because they like to wear trendy/fashionable clothes so they keep up with the latest ongoing trends.

-People of this specific age group like to watch films like Mean Girls, Easy A, Twilight etc, so some of the film genres they like are rom coms, teen-angst and dramas.

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

Evaluation task 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our film 'Just turned eighteen' has a few social groups but has one main one which is the stereotypical teenage girl who is the most popular girl in school and her nerdy best friend who does what ever Madison tells her to do. The bossy rebellious teenager is common in many teen angst films such as Mean Girls and High School Musical. We thought that this would be the ideal focus for our film as it shows the common conventions that are made up of a teen angst film and also appeals to our target audience who which they can relate to it. The picture i have used is from Mean Girls of Cady Heron who starts the film as a nerdy high school girl but soon becomes a bossy "mean girl" as the film suggests. In the picture you can see that Madison is wearing trendy clothes and the colours of a stereotypical teenage girl, one main colour used is pink. Most people associate pink with girls so it suggests that Madison is a feminine person but she also likes fashionable colours like the grey jacket she is wearing on top of that. In contrast to that, Cady from Mean Girls also wears a pink and grey combination of coloured clothes which connotes that she likes to take care of her appearance and wear a modern style of clothing. This also fits in as in Mean Girls Cady becomes popular and starts to wear these new trendy clothes as does Madison throughout our film. The facial expressions on Madison are also very similar to how Cady's are from Mean Girls as they are both popular and are use to getting their own way. In our film 'Just turned eighteen' we made Madison of the age around 18 as we wanted it to be near the end of her school life, this is quite common in teen angst films of people to be this age or a little younger. 

Another main character in our film, Ethan is an athletic socialite who is the boy everyone wants to be with, well except Madison that is. He is part of the stereotypical sports group and is one best in school at playing football, this is stereotypical of boys in school set teen angst films to be good at sports. Ethan is a 18 year old British male and is shown in the picture that he is older as he has a trimmed beard, alongside this the trimmed beard also connotes fashionable stereotyping as his beard isn't scruffy but is neatly trimmed. He also wears a smart checkered shirt to keep up with the stylish trends. This shows that he takes care in his appearance. In High School Musical Troy Bolton is very similar to our character as he does sports and is very popular, you can also see that he too takes care in his appearance as he has style side swiped hair and wearing typical American high school sports clothing. Ethan wears headphones which suggests he likes to listen to music but modern day music, this connotes that he is up to date with the latest trends and because he is so popular he can start trends. As a result of his popularity it means that people will listen to him and most likely do things that Ethan likes as this will them make them look popular as they will try to fit in.   

Evaluation 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

1. The title of the film 
This is the main title that we used in our film, just turned eighteen. The font we used in this was handwriting-dakota, we thought this font looked good and fit the theme of teen angst very well as it connotes teenage style handwriting as it looks messy and that the person who has written it doesn't really care which adds to the plot as the main character is rebellious. The white writing with the pink outline also fits in with the average female teenager, for example in Mean Girls they use white for the word 'Mean' and pink for the word 'Girls'. This shows it is a feminine film aimed towards the younger age group. We used this idea for our main title. Also the the mirror suggests that girls like to take care of their appearance, we thought this looked really good as this resembles teenage aspect for their appearance and is stereotypical for teenage girls of this age to wear some kind of makeup.    

2. Costume and props
In this screenshot it displays our characters wearing and using different props such as bags, a phone and holding a purse. It also shows the characters wearing their clothes, Madison wearing a fashionable designer jacket and handbag while Jennifer wearing a nerdy 'wonder woman t-shirt' and a purple school bag connotes that she is nerdy and not necessarily popular. But with Madison shes wears expensive trendy clothes which suggests that she is rich, spoilt and popular.

3. Setting/location
The setting and location we used in our film was mainly a school setting but we also used public places to change up the stereotypical school themed location. We thought that not using just a school location would look more authentic as most teen angst films start with them either waking up or walking to school. We choose to use a reception area of a public gym for a meeting place at the start of film as our two characters meet at vending machines within this place. This was used as a shopping centre for our film. We also used various locations around the school like toilets, classrooms and lockers. We thought that the iconography within our locker scene portrays realism as most of our target audience can relate to this. The locker and classroom scenes are very iconic and are used in films such as Easy A and High School Musical, as stated these scenes are normally used so the audience can relate to it.

4. Camerawork and editing 
In this shot i used Madison and Jennifer walking besides the school and approaching the entrance of the school, I choose this shot to portray our camerawork as this is a long shot of the two characters while the camera pans. We edited this shot down so that it didn't last on the screen for too long as it would probably put off the audience but kept it long enough to fit in the crew names. Also in our film we use a variety of shot types like close up, mid shot, point of view, panning and many more. In one of the scenes Madison is looking into a mirror, we edited this specifically to a point of view shot and a close up as it shows Madison cares about how she appears and what people think of her even if she is late for class which shows her rebellious side.

5. Title font and style
For this specific frame i decided to use a shot which shows who the director is, this shot shows how we placed our titles according to the background, the specific colours we used and the font style. We placed our crew names on brick walls to show how we used our background placement, i think that in-twining the titles in with the background fits nicely with the genre of the film. The font that was used for 'Edited by' was sans serif and for the actual name we used serif. The colours we choose were light pastel colours like green, violet, pink and blue. This connotes the stereotypical teenage girl as people of the that age and gender normally associate with these colours.

6. Story and how the opening sets it up
This frame is of our main character Madison, it is of her outside of the shopping centre we used in our film. The screenshot shows a title displaying Taylor's character name Madison which tells the audience who Madison is in the film along with a voice-over of Madison telling a short narrative to the audience describing the story in the current scene. The voice over is quite common in teen angst films, for example Mean Girls has a voice over in one of its first couple of scenes.

7. Genre and how the opening suggests it
The genre for our film is quite obvious from the start. The opening begins with Madison walking to school and meeting a friend on the way, the clothing from Madison suggests that she is in some sort of higher education and has finished secondary school. The opening also progresses to a school environment and has a voice over through most of it so it suggests that it is a teen angst. The convention of the school is typical in a lot of teen angst films like Easy A, Mean girls etc which is why we decided to use it our film.

8. Special effects
We used alot of special effects in our film and felt that they were quite important to include, the screenshot shows the very first part of our film with a spotlight style transition showing our film production company logo. In the end it covered 2 things, a spotlight and an eye. We thought that the spotlight suggests a big company and ties in with the film industry and that the eye looked good and actually went well with the theme of teen angst as the circle portrays an eye and therefore connotes gossip as a kind of all seeing eye. 

9. How characters are introduced   
In shot 9 you can see how we introduced our characters. We used titles to introduce our characters by putting the actors name first and then the characters name second, the characters name was often put in a following shot. Two of characters had a greyscale freezeframe when their names appeared but not when the when their characters name appeared. You can see this as an example in the screenshot. The names appeared alongside a voice over to narrate and give a brief description of who the character was. This method is used in The Breakfast Club as characters were introduced with their nicknames. 

Final film intro - just turned eighteen

This is our final version of our film title sequence and opening scenes - just turned eighteen.