Evaluation Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Convention:

Convention is a theme that is used frequently in films which allows the target audience to know what to expect within a specific genre of film. 

Conventions is used mainly in the title sequence of films mainly to introduce characters, and for the audience to acknowledge the companies and productions behind the film. All films put title sequences in order to show the position of the characters whether they are star actors (Angelina Jolie) or actors that are starting out their career its shows the levels of importance characters, production companies, script writers have in making the movie.
Conventional themes were portrayed well in our film opening as we used different issues based in teen films such as 

• Bullying

to show our story as our teen film was based on the topic of bullying which is a well known topic in most teen films as we always see in teen films an outcast trying to fit in with the crowd which is what we portrayed.

Our film opening is an independent UK teen drama from this we challenged the conventions of movies by being inspired and basing our teen film on an American movie but also interpreting this and developing our film in order to suit our British audience.  

Camera work:
In our film we tried to use as many various shots as possible in order to show the different emotions and feelings of the character the shots that I felt were powerful in our opening that showed the emotion of the character and showed the purpose of our film would be the 

• Close up of our character which shows the emotion of our protagonist so we feel sympathy for the character
• Extreme Close Up of both bullies where from the shot initially we see the attitude and personality of both characters
• High/Low Angle used when flashbacks were played showing Shannon troubled past of being bullied 
• POV shot were we see the story in Shannon eyes as the film opening charts a day in the life of a teen schoolgirl which Shannon is portrayed as 

Evaluation Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions

Editing: 

When editing our film we made sure that the film was of a well pace as the continuity editing made the film run through. Also in the opening Shannon is shown to have the most screen time as she is the main character as the story is based on her troubled past and new beginning. This interlinks with the convention of teen films as the main character always has the most the screen-time in link with Mean Girls we see the screen-time is shared between Cady and the Plastics.

Mise en scene:
The key props agreed with the conventions of teen films as the props we used such as Make Up,Letter,Mirror School Bag allows us to define the film as being a teen drama as in teen films we see these props used as well as the costume of Shannon and the bullies both wearing uniform set the age of the characters representing them to be teenagers showing binary opposition between Shannon and the bullies compared to teen film where we see that the bullies are always shown to wear uniform but add their own twist to it which defines the character personality. 

Sound: 
Sound played a massive element in the opening film as our opening was urban so we used urban upbeat music that our target audience could relate to but also we mixed it up with emotional music as we wanted to give off a sad image showing the emotion of the character we also see the scene change between Shannon and the bullies as the music increases as the bullies approach giving off an intimidating feel. From this we use music from sound cloud.

Evaluation Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Evaluation Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Who would be the target audience for our film?

Our film opening relates to young adults between the ages the 13-18 years old we used this age range as we felt that the topics discussed would be able to relate to them more as the topics discussed in the film is severe that teenagers and people from society can experience through the years. However from receiving feedback from others they felt that the age limit was restricted as bullying is able to happen in a workforce. I also felt that our movie would associate more with females as our main character Shannon was a girl so the issues brought would relate to girls more but boys can be the target audience also.

Also by choosing this age range it links as we are with in the certain age range so we are able to link and relate to the film so it will be less awkward when acting as we will feel comfortable with roles.

Our unique selling point is our conventional theme of bullying as this is something that will be able to attract all teenagers as it is based on reality rather than fantasy as in many teen films we see that the subjects discussed (Relationships, Partying, Friendships) are all fantasized.

I have looked at audience that would suit my target audience between the ages of 13-18 in doing so I have created a Facebook fan page where I have uploaded a video of some of the shots that were incorporated in our film for people to watch to increase our fan base. 

Here I have uploaded a video in which our audience can watch and are able to like and comment whether they enjoyed t or not 

Evaluation Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?

How did you attract your target audience?

When looking at other film openings and how they use their genre to attract their target audience we recently interviewed members of the public asking what their thoughts on teen films were and what they would be interesting in watching in a teen film this helps us to think of how we can engage our opening with our audience in order where they can relate and enjoy the film.

Mise en Scene: When filming our opening we thought carefully about what would help the audience to realize the age range of the movie. The use of costume was important in the film as it distinguished that the characters were teenagers as all the characters were shown to be wearing the same uniform which gave an idea that the story line topic was going to be based on school topics which links to our target audience.We also had various props such as school bag, books, letter of acceptance with our character Shannon as on the other hand one of the bullies were shown to have a mirror and lipstick on them which gave off a look that show her personality of looking pretty rather than focusing on school. 

Stars/Actors: As our group was a girl group it initially gave of a sense of feminine which would say that our film opening would go towards more of the female side rather than men as by having an all girls group it creates a bond between the characters and the girl target audience watching the film.

Sound: Using an urban sound mixed with emotional music together gave a urban feel to the movie as the music would be familiar with the target audience as most of our target audience would listen to urban modern music.

Film Name/Production Company: Our title being called New Girl told the audience the guideline of what our film is going to be about 

Attracting my audience

Facebook

In order to promote our opening I have made a Facebook page where my our film can be promoted in order to watch later once it is published, this will create a fan base for our film where teenagers,and other audiences can go to as Facebook is a international website where it is available for everyone to use so it will be easy for everyone to find. 

Vimeo

As for promoting my video we published it onto Vimeo where it can be played for our audience to watch, also being another source of media promoting our film opening. 














Videos

Here I have interviewed a friend on her thoughts of the film and what their thoughts and feelings were to watching the film whether they enjoyed it or not and why?

Evaluation Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Evaluation Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task what do I feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

sanaa elhaouzi's Slidely by Slidely Slideshow

Research

When first starting out with our preliminary we learnt about how to use Final Cut Pro in order to help edit our films and how to use the camera in the right way do we didn't end up breaking or damaging them. We did not do any further development of research in this task therefore my skills was halted. Whereas when we came to doing our final opening scene a lot of research was done before filming our shots as it gave us a guideline of what we needed to do once we started filming.

• Camera tutorial was given to us developing our knowledge on 180 degrees rule, Thirds Rule and how to match cut properly and walk out of frame so we can change scenes.
• We also research different teen films watching movies such as Bling Ring, Break Fast Club as well as doing independent research on teen films in general and how we could interpret their conventions into our openings
• We looked at binary oppositions that was used in teen films as well as discussing why they were used 
• Interviews members of the public and friends on thoughts and feeling on teen films and what they would like included in teen films this gave us general knowledge of what the public likes so we could adapt it into our film opening
• Titles we made sure that we included titles at the beginning of the film opening also making sure that they were in order following the conventions of teen film 

Since doing the prelim to my final opening I had  improved massively when researching as we made sure we had lots of research and knowledge of what people enjoy in teen films this gave us a idea of what to include in our teen film openings and how we could better them from our rough cut copy. 

Pre Planning 

In pre planning we had props such as board, glasses, phone and a ID card to give off a office look as the prelim was based in a hotel, When filming our film opening we got inspiration for other movies and brainstormed them to help us guideline our story we also made sure that props and costume were valued equaling the characters out and representing the binary opposition. From our pitch we gained feedback in how to improve our film before the deadline to make it better this was a good idea as it showed us what else we needed to have. Our pre planning has improved as it was more advanced as we had a storyboard to help give visual aspect of the film so it was less time consuming when filming as we had guidance. 

Reflective Blog of Filming and Editing

Reflective Post

Looking at our opening scenes and the different shots and angels that we had used in the opening as well as other intake on what we could improve 

What went well 

What I thought went well was how the character was imaging someone that was being bullied as the flashbacks of physical abuse the character went through as she gets ready for school it made the opening look more engaging, as well as the editing was done to a good extent making our opening look really good 

What could be improved 

 

After some criticism from our teacher we realized in order to make our film even better we needed to film some of the flashbacks again in order to make our opening continuous and flow throughout 

Some of the feedback we got was 

• Pick up on pace on editing so there was more time to add sound and tweak any changes if needed
• Too many long/mid shots needed more variety some shots could be at a closer angle
• Get more cut shots of Sanaa playing the role of Shannon in the opening scene 

The End of our editing !

Finally , we have finished editing our opening scene ! Here is Li doing the honours of crossing off our group of the completion !

Editing - Sound Effects

SOUND EFFECTS

The search for the right sound effects to match our opening was indeed a struggle, luckily I had created a lot of foley sound while on set which had come into my advantage as the sounds I couldn't find happened to be the ones I had recorded myself while out on location.

The part of adding the sound effects in that I struggled with the most was getting the footsteps in at the exact point and stopping it when needed, but other than that doing the sound effects had gone really smoothly for me.

The part of adding the sound effects in that I struggled with the most was getting the footsteps in at the exact point and stopping it when needed, but other than that doing the sound effects had gone really smoothly for me.

I think at the end of the day the sound effects I found/used did the job correctly.

   

Day Three- Filming

Day Three Filming :

For Day Three filming we decided as a group to focus on the parts which would show the background information to our opening scene ; this being our flashbacks of the our main character Shannon , played by Sanaa who was in the past also bullied as she was in the film .


To show this , we filmed varies extreme close ups , close ups and medium shots which will reveal the bullying that Sanaa goes through , such as filming Sanaa being hit , kicked , her hair being pulled , also embedding her feelings through using different angles such as high and low angles .

Rough Cut

Here is our rough copy

Ident Distribution Blog

Ident Distribution

In order to create an approiate Ident we discussed what we thought would properly illsurate our genre which was Teen Drama , the Ident we have decided as a group to choose is a Ink spillage which will roam around the screen , we felt that is best conveyed our genre as it showed an urban look to our opening , also the fast movements conntate to the reality of the youth of today . As well as this we had to create another Ident that represented our production company which we labeled 'urban motions' we labeled it urban motions because we felt that it would communicate to our viewers the location of our film opening. To do this , we embodied these ideas and used the software Motions to create our Ident . Before using Motions , we watched a tutorial in which we learnt how to navigate our way around using it.

 How to use Motion:


1. Get Project properties correct

Locating properties is simple , Motions opens to an blank black screen in which you can set your Idents on , from this right click on the scrren and then click on Project Properties which allows you to manage your timing spam and also fits your ident to the size required .









2. Choose animation from particle emitters:

 To choose an animation , click on Library , then click Particle Emitters , we will instantly guide you to the different and variety effects which could be used on a Ident .

 3. Sort out its properties(3d):

After placing your choosen Effects for your Ident , you can now using the properties option next to the effect to place where you would want to put it .












 4. Press record
When pressing record , you are recording your ident to be emported to our Opening scene , which is on Final Cut Pro 

How we are going?:

Rough cut of our film opening-Feedback

                              Feedback on our rough cut film opening. 
Throughout the editing process we were able to enquirer about the progress of our film opening from our peers who our film opening is aimed at, as well as our teachers. this we felt was extremely helpful as it allowed us to improve our film opening through final cut pro properly with a better understanding of what we needed to do. Despite the various constructive feedback we received from our target audience, we decided to go to our teacher for her opinion on the work we were doing and this is what she had to say about it:

• we needed to pick up the pace of our editing

• we had too many mid shots as well as long shots and needed to incorporate more close ups of Sanaa  our main character. 

we took on this advice and tried to improve these things as much as we could.  

Editing of Opening Scene

Editing :

Now that we have all our shots and angles imported in Final Cut Pro we can finally start editing our opening scene , here are some videos about our progress :


Blogging Check Up



Making of Ident :



Editing our Opening Scene :

Reflective Post on Filming

What I enjoyed about filming

What I enjoyed filming our opening scene was that everyone in the group was very determined to make sure that we had good shots, this showed through our dedication, in filming as we all met up early to make sure that we had the whole day to film just in case of any problems that could cause us to stop filming (weather).
I enjoyed experimenting with the camera testing different angles and different shots that we could use in order to make the opening flow. Everyone contributed with ideas of ways to make the filming go better and how we could improve it, we worked well as a team as we all gave each other good feedback as well as improvements which I found was very useful as it saved us more time of having to film. During the day whilst filming we had fun also which made the day go faster and more enjoyable. On the other hand some of the public was very engaged with our filming and wanted to know what our opening was about.

What I felt went well on the day

• Got good shots/angles
• Weather was great
• Good teamwork 

What I feel could be improved 

What I feel we could improve would be to make sure that the camera was in a good angle as most occasions the road was uneven which affected our filming as the tripod would be uneven making our shots look wonky leading us to go back and re doing shots which was time wasting. This could be resolved next time we film by making sure that we film on a soft surface so we are able to get a good angle when filming.

Day Two- Filming

                                           Day Two-Filming

                             Location: Li's House, Alleyway

                             Time:10:00-17:00pm
                          Filmmaker: Li, Ornela, Ebony
                          Characters: Sanaa,Ebony,Li
                           Props used: School Books
                           Clothing: School Uniform

Improvemnets to be made if we could film again: We would make sure that we find a suitable location where less memebers of the as in some scenes we were disrupted by members of the public going around which disrupted our filming during the day.

Scenes throughout the day

                                                     NEW GIRL (Day 2) - slideshow

Day One-Filming

                                                         Day One- Filming 

Location : Ornela's House 

Time: 10.30- 4.00pm  

Filmmakers::Li, Ornela

Character: Sanaa 

Props used: Alarm Clock,Clock,Kettle,Letter

Clothing:School Uniform

These props were used as we wanted to adapt the concept of a typical teenager and the normal surroundings found in a house, each prop played a major part in the film opening especially the letter as this establishes the scene and sets the rest of the scene allowing to know what the opening will be about. 

Alarm Clock: We used the alarm clock when filming as this is a concept in which most people use daily to wake them up so by using the alarm clock it sets the regulation of the day.

Clock: The clock is being used to show the difference in time as the day goes as we see the opening is showing different stages in how the character gets ready to start their new school so by using the clock we can see the timing of the scenes 

Improvements to be made if we could film again: We felt that our filming went smoothly but if we could improve anything we would make sure that we get others involved in the scene to make the scenery look like a typical home of a school girl, 

                                                  

 

 

 

Character Inspirations

Here are the inspirations behind the three main characters.

Prezi of our overall pitch