Evaluation

Evaluation

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

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

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

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

5. How did you attract/address the audience?

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

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I feel I have learned a lot and progressed significantly since the production of my preliminary task. When I watched my preliminary task back after I had produced 'Exposed' I saw a huge different. In my preliminary task it looked a lot less professional, the editing was very poor and the fluidity of it wasn't very good. The story line was quite ambiguous also and there wasn't really much dialogue or room to develop. I also noticed that some of the camera angles were quite sloppy and because of the poor editing they looked very prolonged. I noticed this on the match on action shots; In my preliminary task it took to long between the two shots and lacked fluidity however in 'Exposed' it flowed fantastically and looked very neat. One thing that I also learned from the preliminary task is that limiting a film sequence to one location doesn't allow the escapism the viewers want to be able to think outside of the box, guess the story line etc...It makes the clip very dull, predictable and boring. We took this into consideration with 'Exposed' and filmed in two different locations. No music or exciting editing was used in my preliminary task, I soon learnt when producing 'Exposed' that music and editing are key and essential elements to a film as they create a certain feel and atmosphere. Also with my preliminary task I didn't do any research therefore had no target audience and nothing to aim or strive towards as far as targeting it and moulding it for a certain group of people. In 'Exposed' I did a lot of research on the conventions of teen drama and was therefore able to make it appealing.

Audience Feedback

I showed my film opening to a selection of different teenagers. All of them filled in questionnaire's and here attached is a video of two girls thoughts on my opening...

2 Minute Opening Sequence

Mise En Scene

Mise-en-scène (French pronunciation: [mizɑ̃sɛn] "placing on stage") is an expression used to describe the design aspects of a theatre or film production, which essentially means "visual theme" or "telling a story" —both in visually artful ways through story-boarding, cinematography and stage design, and in poetically artful ways through direction. Mise-en-scène has been called film criticism's "grand undefined term."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mise_en_scène.

Lighting

Lighting is used strategically at this point in my film. The lighting in this specific clip is naturalistic and under exposed. The reason for the naturalistic aspect of the lighting is to show she's stripped down both literally and figuratively, we get to see her true emotions. The reason for the under exposed lighting is to show how dark and insignificant she is feeling.

Costume

This is a picture of the cast for Skins. Each character are standing in a line against a graffitied wall. The linear form in which they are standing allows anybody looking at it to see each character in comparison with each other. The costume in which they are all dressed in is very unique, each characters looks different. The colours in which they wear are bright and colourful, this shows that the characters are fun and young.

This is a picture of the cast for our 2 minute opening film if it was to develop. We tried to mimic the skins picture by having all characters standing in a line against a graffitied background. The costume in which they are wearing, are the characters personalities objectified.

Setting 

For the majority of this film opening it is set in a bedroom. This plays heavily on the idea of teenagers only ever being in there bedroom. It adds to the realism of portraying the life of a teenagers.

This only other alternating setting that is seen in my film opening is when Eve is outside. This is a poignant moment and picked strategically after she has had the taken. This setting is chosen to show she is walking out to the reality of the situation and picture what she has done.

Film Synopsis

When a young man calls for a young women it evolves into anything but an innocent encounter. After persuasion Eve decides to pose for a nude, inappropriate picture Omar then leaves her feeling used and insignificant. This film focuses on young people but mainly on the life of a typical teenage girl who suffers for a stupid decision in which she chose to make. This film encompasses the grittiness and realism that are real elements of teenagers lives.

Sound & Editing

Sound is an important element within a film, wether this be diegetic or non diegetic...The editing and dubbing in of music is essential in creating a films 'feel'.

At the beginning of the 2 minute opening sequence the first piece of music we are introduced to is 'Tomba-Symphony 666'. This piece of music is a form of music called Dubstep. Dubstep is a genre of electronic music descended from garage music, characterized by its dark mood, sparse, syncopated rhythms and emphasis on bass. Dubstep is commonly associated with youth culture as most teens see it as an escape and a way to channel and release their frustrations and anxiety.

The second piece of music that is used is a song by Rhianna called Skin. This song is very provocative and induced with sexual connotations. This song is played at the point in which the scene starts to become sexual. Here are some of the lyrics;

"So why you standin' over there witcha clothes on,
Baby strip down for me,
Go on take em off.
Don't worry baby,
Imma meet you half way,
Cause I know you wanna see me."

These lyrics are very fitting for this film.

The second final song which appears in the song is a very unique song. It's by lady sovereign who is commonly known for her crude rapping songs, the alternation in this song from her others makes it quite poignant. The lyrics in this song whilst being very blunt and still slightly crude are actually quite heart felt. This is an ideal portrayal of how teens cope with their feelings.

 "My heart is like a jigsaw puzzle, pick it up and fix it for me. Can you figure it out?

So I'm smoking like a chimney, i feel fucked up got too much drink in me, its a shame you can't be around. I've got you on my mind, i've got shit on my mind, i've got plenty of time t just sit and rewind"

These lyrics are very fitting for this film.

In this clip the  music is still playing from the previous one, this being Lady Sovereign-Jigsaw however over the top of this i have intentionally left the diegetic sounds in this clip. I chose to do this as I felt it would show that reality is not kicking in for what she has done.

Filming

I proposed that for our 2 minute film opening, that we didn't use a tripod. The film genre in which we wanted to project through our film is 'Urban teen drama'. We wanted for our film to be as gritty and real as possible so that it was something our target audience could relate to and think "this film is good because it's really realistic" as opposed to "This film is rubbish! That would never happen". It was important for our film to really reach out to teenagers. I felt that through the use of a handheld camera is would make the film have a more 'real' feel.

 We filmed our opening sequence over a series of three days. It was important for us to maintain continuity and consistency throughout the filming over the period of these three days.

There was a total of 8 minutes 35 seconds of footage in which we filmed. We then extracted clips from this and edited the bits in which we wished to use.

 Here is the collection of clips in which we had to chose from...

 Our opening sequence when it was fully completed and edited lasted 2 minutes 27 seconds.

Here is a picture of our opening sequence in progress while we were editing it.

Why did I use these shots? 

 This shot is the first one we are presented with. I felt it was important to use this shot as it was a way of not only showing what this character is doing but also illuminating how she was feeling at this point. The mirror is also a way of projecting the characters projection of her own thoughts and how she sees herself in a literal and figurative way.

 The close up shot of this texts allows the viewer to see and feel what Eve would be seeing and feeling at the point of receiving this text.

 This close up is an important point in our opening sequence. Prior to this Eve is looking at the floor she then looks up for a split second and this is what we see before it continues to a new scene. This is a way of showing her emotions and what she is feeling and allowing it to carry on to the next scene.

This is the next clip that we see, which is of eve walking. This clip strategically placed after the close up of eve's face shows that she is now facing the reality and consequences of what she has done.

Absence of Shooting Script and Story Board

I suggested that to coincide with our 'Urban teen Drama' genre and to achieve the feel that we were aiming for,  that to use a shooting script and story board would remove the authentic and gritty feel in which we wished to achieve. The dialogue in our film is very minimilistic; we agreed that the use of spontaneous unrehearsed speech would compliment our film more successfully and add realism.

Further Character Development

                                       LIST 1                                                    LIST 2


These were the initial character and cast lists when we first began the planning stage. We soon became aware that list 2 would not be appropriate for a 2 minute film sequence as there are too many characters and focusing heavily on this would mean the quality of the film and editing would not be as good as it could be. We decided to them make list 1, which brought the character numbers down to 8. We then further deviated from this list and decided to only involve; Omar, Eve and Lewis.

Initial Planning Notes

These notes were our initial brainstorm and ideas of what we wanted to happen. We later realized that attempting to fit all of these elements in the first 2 minute opening sequence, would be too hard to do. All of these scenarios would be perfect for the scenes to follow.

Again, with these notes we agreed that they'd be fantastic ideas for camera work within our film but not in the first 2 minutes.

We began to write a cast list, to start with we had 10 characters in which we wanted to be in our 2 minute opening sequence. I realized once we began filming that to fit all these characters in and pack all the content in that would coincide with this would take away from the quality of the film.

Because of this, we decided that it would be a sensible idea to keep the characters down in number.

We then deviated even further from the plan shown above and our opening sequence only consisted of 3 characters; Omar, Eve and Lewis.

Shooting Schedule

Shooting Schedule

Date & Time	Description	Location	Cast	Crew
16th February 2011	Begin shooting of intro.	Laura’s house	Nazir Ullah Charlotte Elliott Laura Walters*	Nazir Ullah Charlotte Elliott Jordan Brown Laura Walters
2nd March 2011	Final shooting of intro.	Laura’s house	Nazir Ullah Charlotte Elliott	Nazir Ullah Charlotte Elliott Laura Walters Abigail Cross Joshua Holmes

*Initially started as cast but did not work out due to misunderstanding of role.

Character Development

Eve is the main character in this film opening as she's what the whole plot is based around. Eve sends a naked picture to omar and consequently gets physically attacked by Sharnice (Omar's girlfriend). Eve is actually quite a withdrawn character and usually keeps herself to herself however really likes Omar so acts innapropiately as a means of trying to impress him.

Alesha is Omar's girlfriend, this is the character who is going to physically assault Eve.She's very fiesty and intimidating and is stereotyped as a bit of a 'cheap chav'. It is important for this character to be very loud and outgoing.

Sharnice is Alesha's friend. She's very close and protective over Alesha. She is Alesha's sidekick and follows her in what she does and the things she thinks. She is also very intimidating.

Omar is Alesha's boyfriend. He's a very arragont character that fits into the jack the lad stereo type. He takes advantage of the fact that lot's of girls are intrested in him even though he already has a girlfriend. It is important for this character to be displayed as very cocky.

Lewis is Omar's sidekick friend. He is to be displayed as quite a cool character who is quite funny but however very outshined by Omar and lives in his shadow.

Chloe is Hannah and Eve's friends. Chloe, Eve and Hannah are all very similar they keep themselves to themselves and are quite withdrawn from the big school crowd. They are geeky in a very cool quirky way.

Hannah is chloe and eve's friend. She is also usually quite a withdrawn character with individual quirky traites and a peron who is only open with her close friends. Hannah has a bit of a harsh edge though which will come to light when confronting Eve about her innapropriate behaviour.




Here are a series of photographs to show the relationships between the different characters.

Plot Development

For our plot we felt it would be essential to focus the main plot on a very realistic, gritty story line that teens would be able to relate to, adding verisimilitude when possible. In order to achieve this we decided our plot was going to be based in a school or college as straight away there's an element that teens can relate to. A female character is going to send an innapropriate picture to a fellow peer mate. This boy has a girlfriend and so therefore when the boy begins to send the picture to people it immediately causes controversy. This will then result in the girl becoming very unpopular with her friends and people within the school. The girlfriend of the boy who recieved the pictures will then physically assult her. The scene will end with the girl who got attacked contemplating her revenge/response to what happened to her.
1. Leaked pictures
2. Corridor scene, peoples reactions to the girl as she walks down the corridor. She's unsure what everybody is whispering and looking at but she has an idea.
3.Walks into a situation where everybody are viewing the picture on either a computer or posters stuck around the school.
4.She's humiliated, everybody is laughing at her.
5.Boy comes down the corridor she confronts him about it in tears. He shows now remorse and dismisses her and walks to his girlfriend who has a go at him.
6.The guilty girl looks on at this situation in embarrasment and fear and walks into the classroom.
7.Girl is attacked by the girlfriend, no one intervenes. It is essential we see her isolation and embarrasment.
8.Ends with the girl contemplating revenge in a drastic manner. Knife? Pills?


Possible music to go with this film;
* Jamie T- Sheila

* Lady Sovereign- Jigsaw

* Tomba- Symphony 666



Possible scenarios & Setting...