Rating of our film

We feel that in reflection after was have watch our film opening in its entirety that our film should have the rating 12A. This is becuase there is no violence or scenes within our film that would be unsuitable for twele year olds. we have decided not to rate it PG becuase there is some mild swearing included in our film but we think it does not deserve to be a 15.

What kind of media institution would distribute your media product and why?

When researching into films genres that our similar to our own film opening we based our inspiration around films such as Mean girls and She’s the Man. Both of these films had large budgets, (Means girls $17 million) (She’s the man $20 million) and are both big budget American films. They were distributed by prominent companies within the film industry. She’s the Man was distributed by the hugely successful Dreamworks and Mean Girls was distributed by Paramount. As our film would be a low budget film and the first of our projects we would not expect such a big prominent company to distribute our film. We feel that a company such as Working Title would distribute our film as after conducting research into this company we have found that they have previously distributed films that have similar things in common to our film. Working Title has distributed low budget films such as Shaun of the dead and Atonement which are a similar category in the British Film industry. As Working Title is a British company we feel that they would be the most interested in distributing our film and would be the most successful in distributing it.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Keeping in mind our target audience, while coming up with idea's and actually filming our opening we always referred back to the social groups that we were trying to represent. As we are representing teenagers with our film, we based our film opening on the typical school/college love story. We wanted to clearly represent different relationships, peers and different situations that teenagers face when at school and college.
When coming up with idea's for characters we again referred back to what social groups we are representing and decided on using a stereotypical geek for our main character. When we had decided this, we then had to brainstorm clear idea's and situations that this character could face whilst at college that would represent the different social groups and link back to the target audience. To add more to the representation of social groups, we also chose to include a few more characters. We added the boy character who the geek character likes and the "bitch" character who didn't like the geek. By doing this we feel that we did well to represent several different social groups within school and college which we also feel our target audience would be able to relate to.
We researched this idea to help aid us with our planning. We decided to use the film Mean Girls as a good example that clearly represents different social gropus.

Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you think you have learnt from the progression for it to the full task?

Something we definatley learnt while filming our preliminary task was how to use the video camera's. Nobody in our group had used one before so firstly we had to ensure we knew where all the different buttons were and we knew how to handle the camera, both on and off the tripod. Also, when we had finsished filming our preliminary task we began editing it. While doing this we learnt how to use the macs and were all introduced to final cut-pro. We went through the different stages of editing, firstly logging and capturing our footage. We then continued this, aswell as cutting out bits we didn't need when the footage was on the time line.
Another huge thing we learnt when filming the preliminary task was about the 180 degree rule. This is a concept in media referring to an imaginary line which cuts through the middle of the scene. If the line is crossed while filming it changes the audiences perspective of the scene which could lead to confusion, this is why crossing the line should be avoided at all time while filming. Our group however did cross the line when filming the preliminary task. We only actually realised this when we came to edit the footage but we decided to stick with it as it is a clear error that we could point out when discussing our preliminary task and also when filming our main task as we knew that it was a mistake that wouldn't be made by us again.
We also learnt about continuity while filming the preliminary task. This is something that needed to be included as it is making sure that the characters, editing, mise en scene and sound all fit in with each scene and had to flow throughout. While filming the preliminary task i think that continuity set us up hugely for our main task, more than our prelim as there was more involved and we had a better idea of what needed to be done then.
There are also a few differences in our preliminary task and our main task. One difference is the sound. When we were filiming our prelim the camera we were using wasn't pickig up any sound. When we edited the footage we didn't really think that this mattered as that wasn't the main point of filming the preliminary task. Also, although the camera we used for the main task didn't pick up sound either we included a voice over and a soundtrack in our film opening, so the fact that the diagetic sound that didn't get picked up actually worked in our advantage.
Also, not much planning went into our prelim storyline which is why it ended up abit basic. In our main task howvever because we created a treatment, storyboard, shotlist etc. we were able to really work with our ideas both while filming and while editing the footage. For example, using different effects on final cut-pro. Also, no titles were included in our prelim task but we made aure that we used them in our main task as they make the film look more realistic and add to the proffessional look of the film.
Another difference when looking at our prelim task and our main task is the locations that we filmed at. In our preliminary we filmed everything in college and alothough we did include the college in our main task, as it linked in with our plot, we also chose to film elsewhere as this would firstly differ from our prelim and also because it gives our film a variety of locations and different dynamics within the film.

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

During the filming both of us, especially Lauren as she was in charge of filming the footage, became familiar with using the video camera to create a professional film. We made sure that the tripod was placed on one side of a 180 degree line so that the continuity of the film was to a high standard. We learnt the majority of our new techniques during the editing process of the film making. For us this was the most interesting aspect of the task as we got to see how our film looked once we had completed the editing and we got an insight into the work it takes to produce a film. To edit our film we used Apple Mac computers and the editing software Final Cut Pro. Excluding the preliminary task it wad the first time that either of us had used this software so it was exciting for us to be able to use it to create our film. We began by using the log and capturing tool on Final Cut Pro to capture all of the footage that we had filmed that we needed for our final version. Once we had decided upon which shots to use we added them to our project. After this we began to place the different shots that we had log and captured onto our timeline and when played it shown us the rough edit of our film. This was helpful as it gave us a clear indication of which shots worked well and which scenes needed to be re shot as the continuity of the film was not up to the standard we expected and because of this we had the chance to re shoot part of our film again to make sure it could be as good as possible. Once we had log and captured the new footage and placed it on the timeline we were happy with the results and we began to include our titles. When deciding upon our titles we used different types of text to make them more interesting. We used the typewriter option for the title of our film to add extra emphasis to it and we played around with the various font and colour options until we were happy with the overall effect created. We then placed the titles onto the timeline and began to create freeze frames. This was an important aspect of our film opening as it added to the effects of the titles created and drew more attention to what we felt were important parts of the film. We used a number of freeze frames in the opening which we created on Final Cut Pro such as the shot where Lauren bumps into Steph and the beginning of the canteen scene. Both of these shots also included titles which had more of an impact due to the freeze frames. After we had created the titles and were happy with them and added the freeze frames we began to add transitions in between the shots we had captured to make the film more appealing and to create an overall professional finish to the film. We used transitions such as fade to create this effect. After we had completed all of this we felt that the overall quality of the film could be improved to we began to change the colouring of the footage by using tools such as colour saturation to create a more professional finish and we feel that this has worked well. We also imported our MP3 soundtrack into Final Cut Pro and added it onto the timeline. We used various tools to change the volume levels of the soundtrack and the digetic sound within the clip to make sure that there was no clashes and that the opening of the film was clear. When capturing the voiceover we used a video camera and a microphone to make sure that there was a high quality sound that was picked up so it was clear. We needed to use a microphone to pick up the sound as the voiceover was key to our film opening and without it our film would not have made sense. After we had recorded the voiceover we log and captured it and separated the visual footage from the sound as we only needed the sound from it. Once we had done this we placed the voiceover on our timeline ad our film was complete.

How did attract/address your audience?

When we began to think of the type of audience that we would like our film to attract we researched into existing films of a similar genre to ours. We found that these films, also aimed at teenage girls, involved comedy. Films such as ‘It’s a boygirl thing’ is centred around a relationship between a boy and a girl in high school. As this was along similar lines to our idea we looked into the different techniques they had used in order to attract their intended audience and we kept these features in mind when making our film. As we did not rely heavily on digetic sound with the opening of our film we wanted the voiceover to create as much humour as possible. We wanted to create the idea that the voiceover was the private thoughts of the central character and what added to the humour of the opening was the fact that she would not want anyone else to listen to her thoughts. The voiceover portrayed and exaggerated stereotype of the ‘loner’ within a college environment and we played upon the features expected to add humour. During the costume ideas we decided to exaggerate certain elements of the characters wardrobe such as her glasses as we wanted the character to create humour visually as well. During the final shot of the opening the audience discovers that the character is wearing pyjamas in front of her crush after going through all of the effort to get ready. We played upon the character’s awkwardness and lack of concentration to again create humour within the opening. We also found that the intended audience watch films based around a relationship between two teenagers. During these films there is often a reason why the characters are not yet in a relationship which makes the storyline for the film more interesting. This was what the main idea for our film was based on and we wanted to reflect this within the opening minutes of the film. We kept the characters at a similar age to our intended audience to make our film more relatable to them. During the planning stages we decided to base our soundtrack on a number of different songs. One of which was ‘Fireflies’ by Owl City which is currently in the charts and another was the ‘Skins’ soundtrack. Both of which are popular with the intended audience and we decided to base the soundtrack that we used during the opening of the film on these. This would create more of an interest and it would be beneficial for us to use a soundtrack that the audience would like. Most people find humour out of other people’s embarrassment so we included many embarrassing moments for the main character in the opening sequence for example the pyjamas scene. We have also used a variety of camera angles such as the panning shot in the canteen scene and the over the shoulder shots use in the bathroom scene. We did this to make the film seem more professional and to make sure our film opening was not monotonous.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The genre of our film is a hybrid Teen RomCom and because of this we feel that the core target audience for our film will be teenage girls. The main character which the audience see throughout the opening sequence and then in the film that would follow is a young, teenage girl in college. As the film is based predominately on her life and her experiences we feel that girls of a similar age will be able to identify with her character and therefore enjoy the film more. As this is a RomCom we feel that people of a younger age will find the film funnier as they can relate to the character and have probably been through similar experiences. When deciding upon the characters for the film we wanted each one to belong to a clear stereotype as every college environment has these groups. The audience will then be able to relate the characters to someone they know or even themselves which makes them feel more involved within the film so they will enjoy it more. We believe that females will be more interested in this film as it is based around the thoughts and feelings of a teenage girl and they will have a stronger connection with her character than males. Although the comedy element of the film will appeal to both genders as both will find it funny. Teenage boys will have an insight into the mind of a teenage girl and the comic thoughts of the character will create humour which they will find funny. Teenage girls will also find the voiceover funny as it is an exaggerated version of the thoughts of a girl in high school/college. The core target audience on which the film is based on will be interested in the latest trends and would be aware of the different dynamics within a school/college environment. We would also expect them to have good relationships with their peers as the film creates humour out of the girl being a ‘reject’ so people in a similar situation to the main character would not find the film appreciate the humour within our film. The audience for the film will be teenage girls in general and they would most likely be in a school or college environment as they would further appreciate the humour in our film. Although we are not restricting the audience in terms of gender as there will be male characters included later in the film which would mean that teenage boys would be more likely to watch our film. We also based our idea for the target audience around research we conducted on previous films with a similar genre. We found that in films such as ‘Mean Girls’ and ‘It’s a boygirl Thing’ the audience was largely teenage girls. We used these films as a reference to ours as they are both based around a girls relationship with her peers in a high school environment.