evaluation, Yeah?

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


The genre that we based our film around was 'teen comedy', which in itself has many conventions. In our film, we use a narration over ther top of the action in the film, this is typical of a teen comedy which, for example was used in the 2004 film Mean Girls , as it often provides clarity or extra information for the viewer, and we developed this in our own piece, as we told the story as if the person was looking back on it, rather than talking as if the persons thoughts about the situation as it were happening, were being said aloud. Also, in teen films, the conventional mise en scene usually includes places such as pubs, clubs and schools. The latter one was the setting for our media peice, however we developed this by keeping it as the main setting for the opening of our media piece. Our film is comparable to Superbad, another teen comedy, because the main characters, are both the biggest losers of their school, much like Edwardo. Another convention in teen comedies, is either lonerism, or coming to a new place. This again is comparable to Mean Girls, because the main character has moved from Africa, and has no friends but hangs around with the rejects of the school.This is comparable to ours because although this place is not new to Edwardo, he is outcast because of his background, and is the type of person Cady begins to hang around with in the early parts of the film


How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our film is a prime answer for this question. We have the 'jocks' eg the bully who threatens to beat up Edwardo, representing them as a hostile and unapproachable human being, who only cares about how they look, rather than how others feel. Also, on the very other end of the scale, we have the 'goth' type person, Edwardo, he is represented as a loner of the school and someone who has no friends, and least of all no social skills, who avoids lessons because he feels unable to go with the bullying.. This, again, is typical of American comedies, they usually have 'cliques' e.g, the plastics (again, much like the 2004 film Mean girls), the rejects and the jocks (usually shown as being thick, or very angry people), are rigidly stereotyped. Also, we used the voiceover in our film, to tell the story, but for a comedic effect. It shows that Edwardo is not as bad as everyone makes out, like being a goth is bad, and is just sadly misunderstood. This kind of narration, is typical for teenage comedies, as it has happened in films such as Mean girls, and less recently, Ferris Buelers Day Off. Ferris Bueler's day off is much like ours, because the voiceover is used to tell the story, but also to make the audience laugh, and let you in on Ferris' personality. Much like we do in ours, we show that Edwardo is actually a good person, rather than how he is shown on screen. It is also the character's personal thoughts on the situation. Also, much like other comedies in the teen genre, we use typical camera angles. Midshots, closeups, and over the shoulder shots. This is because, unlike other genres we are trying to tell a simple story as simple as possible, this also ties in with the editing, using cuts rather than flashy effects like fades etc. Also, in many shots, the outcasted Edwardo is shown to be cowering away in the side of a frame, away from the bullies, rather than in the center of the frame, and so is represented as not wanting to be associated with people, and this fits into his loner stereotype.

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


When we first started our media peice, we decided that we should do some research into the type of genre that makes the most money in the box office (via www.boxofficemojo.com) and it became apparent that the biggest earning genre was comedy, or more specifically, teen comedy. So, we decided to go back to that website and see which distribution companys earn the most from teen comedys.


Here is a handful of teen comedies with their total worldwide box office grosses and their distribution company:

American Pie (1999): $235,483,004 - Universal Studios
Superbad (2007): $169,871,719 – Sony Pictures
Mean Girls (2004): $129,042,871 – Paramount Pictures
Bring it on (2000): $90,449,929 - Universal Studios
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986): $70,136,369 (domestic gross) - Paramount
The Breakfast Club (1985): $51,525,171 - Universal Studios


As you can see from the list, Universal Studios earn the most money from teen comedies E.G American Pie, It also shows that this genre is most popular, rather than Horrors which have a trend of not earning back the money they spend on making it, and not grossing very much. However, the biggest earner behind Paramount was Universal, grossing £129,000,000 with Mean Girls which left us in a dilemma, because we had to choose between Universal and Paramount. However, as Universal has the most experience and the most memorable film names, and in the history, has earnt more than Paramount, we have decided that because of this research, to choose Universal Studios to distribute our film. Because of their long running trend of grossing lots more than other companys, and the films previously distributed also share similiartys to our piece. Also, because of the famous tv shows they have distributed onto tv networks such as: 30 Rock, The Tonight Show With Jay Leno and Saturday Night Live and not forgetting, the world wide success, Will and Grace.


Who would be the audience for your media product?and How did you attract/address your audience?
For our media piece, we decided that we would target a specific audience, and we decided on teenagers (14-18) and we had to make allowances for this. For example, little or no swearing or any expletives. We also created characters that we felt the audience can relate to or feel for this lends itself to Bloomer and Cat's theory that they watch films so that they can relate to them. For example, Edwardo, the loser being bullied, or the bullies themselves. So the people watching it can identify some part of themselves in the characters. Also, we decided this age group because we were hoping to attract the same audience as those who went and watched Superbad and Mean Girls. Because if we targeted any younger age, they would be the 'Disney Generation' almost, and Disney have a long running trend of almost sugar coating their films, no violence, etc, and because we wanted a sense of realism, showing the effects of bullying, however hard hitting that may be, to the audience. So we decided on 14-18 year olds as our final choice.

We attracted them by using locations immediatly familliar to them, high school. We believe this is a familiar setting to them, and they also can identify themselves in them, because the audience would more than likely fit into one of the high school stereotypes, be it Jock, Goth, Chav, Loner.

In conclusion, we tried to make our piece as realist to real life as possible, catering for the audience with stereotypes, setting, and genre.














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

Whilst we were filming, I believe I learnt how to work alot of different and intricate technologies. As I didn't take part in filming, and concentrated on acting, most of the learning for me came from editing. The program we used was Adobe Premiere Elements and I learnt many things, the first of which was how to fit the editing with and emotion. For example, if it was a sad scene a fade would be used, or if it was a fast paced scene, a quick cut would be used to not leave the audience waiting to find out what had happened. Also, I learnt how to edit scenes correctly, such as fastening, or slowing down audio, pausing a scene by slowing it down to 1%, maing the audio louder by changing the dB rate. Furthermore, I also learnt how to add a voiceover onto the editing suite, after recording it, by dragging it and adding it into the line called 'audio 2. I also learnt how to add titles on top of the video, and make them fly in from various sides of the screen, in different colours. Finally, I believe using Adobe Premiere Elements quickened the editing process, as it was very user friendly, and very easy to use, unlike other editing programs out there. It also makes the final piece of film look very professional.




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

Whilst filming the preliminary task, we focused on implementing the camera angles far more than the actual storyline, or acting or anything like that, which led to rushing of editing,bad continuity, rushing to re-film, and it not being as good as it could have been. This time around we focused on each area individually, where the angles should be, how the acting should be, and what feeling/mood each scene we had, also we tried our best to have good continuity for example, in one scene I was wearing a pressure bandage on my arm, which wasn't present in anything we had filmed before, so we decided to cover it up with my coat, and place the camera at angles where you couldn't see my arm. I feel that perfecting each area, and spending time on each and every thing, was reflected in the audiences comments on our Media piece.



Auidence Respondance


We gave the viewers of our piece a questionaire with a certain amount of questions, asking questions from 'did you find the opening effective' to 'did you find that the editing of this film fitted the genre'


None of the comments written were negative, and all were positive. Some of the comments said that they could get get the general gist of the story but they couldn't get the final idea, which is why they would carry on watching it, to find out what would happen. Also, they commented on that fact that they thought our script was funny, and also helped explain the story, much like the narration added extra clarity, and helped them understand the story. They also thought that although the film was funny, it also showed you the effects of bullying on children. Furthermore, on the editing side of things they thought that the use use of such things as the 'yesterday...' and alot of fades, helped them, and it was effective because the editing wasn't sloppy, and each time they scene cut to another one, the transistion was smooth.

shooting schedule

Things included :Day/Date Scene Int/Ext Day/Night Shot Descriptions/Summary Location Characters


SHOOT DAY 1 Tuesday 10th February 09
1400 – 1430 2 Ext/Day Edwardo walking to school being laughed at School drive Edwardo, girl 1 and girl 2



Shoot day 2 Wednesday 25th February 09
0940-0950 1 Ext/Day Shoot Edwardo in the a bush, writing on his own Bush Edwardo



Shoot day 2 - Wednesday 25th February 2009
1000-1025 5 Int/Day Edwardo walking through the school hall being beaten up School hallway
Edwardo, Alfred, Hannah, Head Teacher





Shoot Day 3 - Thursday 5th March 09
1040-1100

Shoot Day 3 -
1110-1200 3

4 Int/Day

Int/Day Edwardo walking through
the school, being picked on



Edwardo meets one of the school bullies and he takes his coat and bag from him School
hallway







School
Hallway Edwardo
Group of girls





Edwardo
Bully

Updated script

Fade into the shot taken from what looks like a forest. It's in the middle of the day and we can see trees surrounding Edwardo, Edwardo is writing in his note pad about the worst day of his life.







V.O. Edwardo: Hi. I’m Edwardo Frederico (What was my mother thinking, right?), andthis is me, the joke of my entire school. I’ve decided to run far, far away. And if you’re wondering why I’m here, I’ll show you. I’ll take you back to the beginning of the worst day of my life.







Scene two







Flashback to earlier that day, Edwardo is walking to school alone, from the surroundings we can tell this is the school drive. In the shot we can see two girls pointing and laughing at him.



Stupid Girl one: Oh my god,(laughing hysterically) like what is he wearing?



Stupid girl one: Like come on, I have an idea.


The two girls run off camera shot as Edwardo continues to walk to school.


A snowball appears out of nowhere and flies towards Edwardo’s head. Then the titles appear after Edwardo has fallen to the floor, ‘High school Loser’ appears on the screen.

Scene three


Cut to Edwardo walking up the stairs and we hear Edwardo talking:



V.O Edwardo: You see I’ve got a dark secret, darker than my hair, which is totally cool, right? And I’ve had to live with this secret since I was five years old.



There is a group of girls stood at the top of the stairs, they laugh, point and call him a loser. Then we cut to Edwardo walking down the corridor where he bumps into Arnie.




Arnie: Oi! Loser! Give me your stuff now!


Edwardo runs away,



Oi, where you going!


Arnie chases him.



Edwardo stops after realising that Arnie had his coat



Arnie: If you want your stuff come and get it.

Edwardo slowly returns to Arnie to fetch his coat believing he would get it back.


Arnie: Give me you bag now (pause) Bag!

Edwardo drops his bag with a little scream and runs away leaving his coat and his bag with the bully.



The bully puts on his coat and picks up his bag,



Arnie: Very nice.


Scene four



Edwardo is stood in the corridor, he is upset and looking down he doesn't see the point in going to lesson since no one notices him or likes him, so he sees no point.


A group of lads walk out a class room talking to each other. Then they notice Edwardo stood on his own.


Bully 1: Oi! You owe me money.



Edwardo: That's funny, that's what your mum said last night.


Bully 1: You what!


Hannah appears out of nowhere and punches Edwardo's bully in the face. He falls to the ground. It Freezes mid-punch and Edwardo speaks,

V.O. Edwardo: That's Hannah, she's my best... well... only friend. And. I'm secretly in love with her.

Continues...




Hannah stands there laughing whiles the other bullies are checking to see if their mate is okay, suddenly the headteacher walks round the corner.


Mrs Bigg: Miss Smith, step away from Mr Bent, and get over here now!!!!


Mrs Bigg winks at Edwardo. Edwardo shivers as he is disturbed.



V.O. Edwardo: That’s my mom (pause) she is the head teacher of this hell hole. Don't ask about the hair, it just grows and grows and grows, then it all gone.

Tuesday 10th March
Today, as we had the full amount of footage, we decided we should find music that fitted our piece. As we have to use non copyright music, we decided to go on www.freeplaymusic.com, and find something that was comedic, but also made you feel sorry for Edwardo, by the end of this lesson, we found a few we were happy with, and decided we would choose the final piece of music tomorrow, whilst editing the film, so we could judge effectively if the music fit with the tone and genre of the film


Wednesday 11th March
Today, as most of the editing was done, save the music adding, and the credits, we decided to record the voice over. We basically stuck to the original script, however for added comic effect we added a short, "oh crap" when the guys come out the room, which we got the idea from watching one of our films we had to analyze a few months ago , because it's rather slapstick and due to the short and snappy nature of the word we thought it would make the audience laugh. We also added better information on who Hannah was, for better clarity on who she was ( e.g Edwardo secretly being in love with her), and it sets up her story for the rest of the film


thursday 12th march
We finished the film today! We started off by running through the film, and editing the sections to perfection, there were 3 sections: The beginning bit in the bush to where he gets hit with a snowball, the walking through school and getting called to the bit with the bully, and the 'you owe me money' bit to the end. We edited the audio, and put the peice of music for the titles in, and as it was a drummy piece, we decided to make it start playing as soon as the snowball hits him, for added comedy. Also, on the bit where Hannah hits the bully, we paused it, so there was enough time to Edwardo to say his voiceover. We paused it because without it, there wouldn't have been enough time to say the voiceover as it is a particularly fast scene. Also, we put the credits in, we made them fly in from either side, as this is also typical of comedy films, they were like this "Matt Daukintis as Edwardo" so you could identify easier.

Tuesday 3rd of March
Today we basically edited what we recorded last week, the 'you owe me money' segment we came into a few problems, one of the characters uses the 'f' word, so we had to mix two takes of the scene together and make it flow without any continuity errors, and we succeeded by using some fades, and fading the audio in, so it flowed better, and made it seem it was all filmed consecutively.


Wednesday 4th of March.
Today we found our film only lasts 1 minute 28 seconds, after spending both lessons editing the film, adding bits like "yesterday...." frame, and editing the audio, because it would have massive jumps and be too loud in places (we got by this by turning the DB counter down), so after we'd finished, we planned what scene we were going to add to bump up the time, we did, and it also answered a few continuity problems.


Thursday 5th of March
Today we filmed the extra segment, which answers the questions on why Edwardo is without his bag, and coat, in the 'you owe me money scene', we decided that he would get set upon by a bully in the corridor, that forces him to give up his bag and coat, it also added a bit of well needed comedy because the bully would just walk away with all edwardo's belongings as if they were the bully's and not Edwardo's, as there can never be too much comedy! We also spent time editing this bit into our film!

Tuesday 24th February

Today we decided what we were going to do for the rest of filming, and made changes to the script, and shooting locations. We decided that we did not have the appropriate lighting techniques to beable to film anything decent at night, and so we decided to film the bit where Edwardo was in a bush, on the school grounds in the light. We are going to film this bit tommorow. Also, we re-edited bits that we'd recorded before half term. We also decided to film the bit where someone tells Edwardo they owe him money tommorow aswell. So we asked a few people in our media group if they would be okay with acting in our peice, they agreed.


Wednesday 25th February
Today we filmed the bit where Edwardo's in a bush, and for that, we needed a location. So we went location scouting, we looked in the Quad, but there wasn't anywhere with enough space for me to sit, or the camera to get a good angle. So in the end, we went on the field behind the main building, where there were two trees, and 3 bushes with a space in the middle, and so, with some clever camera angling, we made up for not filming at night. We will make amendments to the script at a later date. We also decided to film the 'you owe me money' bit tommorow.

Thursday 26th February
Today we filmed the 'you owe me money' bit, and was alot harder than we expected. We changed the location for filming from in lower school, to the corridor in sixthform, as the corridor had the most rooms free. And so we started to film, the first few takes weren't as good as we hoped, due to not being able to see the characters properly, or not being able to hear the talking properly, and so we refilmed and refilmed until we got a take we were all happy with

Filming timess

Tuesday 10th of February


Today we went location scouting, for places that would fit in to our film. We decided that we want it to look modern for our interior shots, and a kind of generic road for our walking to school scene. We decided to use the corridor on the upstairs part of sixth form, as it fit the look of a school, because it was, and it would also have students walking around to give it a spark of authenticity. For the outside scene,we decided to use the road/drive leading up to sixth form. Tomorrow, we're going to film the part where Fredreco walks up the drive and is hit with a football




Wednesday 11th of February.

Due to the excess amount of snow,we decided to change from getting hit with a football, to getting hit with a snowball. We also decided what my character Fredreco should where. We decided he should be the stereotypical school reject, goth like. And so we decided that Fredriko should wear a black T-shirt with Green Day's American Idiot logo on it, black jeans, and a studded belt, not forgetting red shoes. Also we decided he should wear a long black wig. Anyway, back to filming. We set the camera up at the top of the sixth form drive, and Me, Sarah and Laura (Sam was away on this day) ran to the bottom, making it look like he was walking to school, with people shouting names at him. Then, Laura and Sarah's characters run off screen, and throw a snowball at my character . For this, we filmed them from the top of the drive until I was off screen, and then paused it. Moved the camera for a close up on my face, and then off screen Laura through a snowball, the first one missed my face, and so was not very comedic. However, the second one, thrown by Sarah hit me square in the face, and I mock fell over, which added comedic value.




Thursday 13th February

Today we took a break from filming, and decided to edit what we filmed yesterday. Basically, we deleted a few takes, like the one of Laura's failed attempt at hitting me in the face, and a few takes of us walking up the drive, because you couldn't hear Sarah and Laura's taunts. But in the end, we found a take we were happy with and used it. Next week is half term, so we will return to filming once we get back

Who's done what?

Camera angles: Sarah
Shot map: Laura
Script: Matt
Camera operaters: Laura and Sam
Acting: Matt, Laura, Sarah, Sam
Storyboard: Laura, Sarah, Sam, Matt.

The script

'High School Loser'
The Script


Fade into the shot taken from what looks like a forest, a night

It's dark, very dark, we can see trees surrounding a small little tent being flung side to side by the wind, and inside the tent we see a light flickering.

Inside a tent, a boy is wearing skinny jeans, a studded belt and red shoes. Writing in a pink fluffy diary, he begins to scrawl in it.

V.O. Edwardo
Hi. I’m Edwardo Fredireco (What was my mother thinking, right?), and this is me, the joke of my entire school. I’ve decided to run far, far away. And if you’re wondering why I’m here, I’ll show you. I’ll take you back to the beginning of the worst day of my.

Scene two

Flashback to earlier that day
Edwardo is walking to school, alone from the surroundings, we can tell this is set in America. In the shot we can see two girls pointing and laughing at him

Stupid Girl one:
Oh my god,(laughing hysterically) I like totally know right, he’s like, so funny, what’s he wearing?

Stupid Girl two:
It looks like a bin bag

Stupid girl one:
Oh my god that is so last year


A football appears out of nowhere and flies towards Edwardo’s head.
PAUSE as ‘High school Loser’ appears on the screen. Whilst it is paused we hear him say

V.O Edwardo
You see I’ve got a dark secret, darker than my hair, which is totally cool, right? And I’ve had to live with this secret since I was five years old.

The shot unfreezes and the football hits him on the head, he falls to the ground and we hear the school bell ring.




Scene three

Cut to Edwardo standing next to a wall, and is looking down and is visibly upset from his ordeal earlier, we see a group of people walking up to him, laughing and pointing. One guy stays behind to talk to him

Arnie:
Hey douche bag, get over here, you owe me money!

Edwardo:
That’s funny, because that’s what your mom said last night.

Arnie:
That’s not funny you little shit! Why I oughtta!

A girl walks out from the crowd and hurries over to Edwardo. From no where a fist punch the guy in the face, he falls flat on his back

Hannah
That’s the 10th one today, (she clicks her fingers turns to Edwardo)

Mrs Bigg
Miss Smith step away from Mr Bent, and get over here now!!!!
Walking down the corridor we see the head teacher, she is very tall with short brown hair, and winks at Edwardo, and he winces

V.O. Edwardo
That’s my mom (pause) she is the head teacher of this hell hole.

As Hannah walks towards Mrs Bigg she turns and winks at Edwardo, she then walks out of shot and we are left with Edwardo looking very flustered and Arnie rolling around on the floor still moaning.

Storm breaker opening

In this mini essay, i'm going to compare and contrast Stormbreaker and The Women In Black.


Stormbreaker, firstly is alot slower than average action films, but very well paced, I thought. At first, it starts with nothing but a blank screen with a few titles. Then, there is a soundbridge of a seemingly middleaged man talking quite loudly, as he continues speaking, it begins to fade in, showing a class sitting on chairs, it then pans around individual students, it then gets to a young man, we know as Alex, we then diegetically hear a man call alex up to the front, and Alex does as he is asked. Next we hear the non-diegetic fast paced, bumpy music in the background, and as Alex begings to speak, it very quckly cuts to his uncle seemingly lighting a fuse, or something similiar. It then cuts back to Alex, and we begin to noticed that he is dressed differently to almost everyone in the room, and as the camera goes around the class, we also find out that he is generally disliked by most of his class mates. From the fact that the teenager is seemingly the main character, we can surmise that this film, typically, is going to be aimed at teenagers, or young adults.

In contrast, The Women In Black is completley different, the titles may connote danger or fear, which lets the audience know what they will be watching will be a thriller or maybe even a horror, we can safely assume this because of the dark colours used, and the use of the black background and white writing. From the opening we also know from what the characters are saying, that this is going to be some sort of psychological movie, and this lets us know that the audience are going to have to be older to understand the film, or connect with it.


After watching these openings, we've decided to take things from both. We used Stormbreaker's use of enigma codes in the opening and titles, but we took the 'knowing what you're going to watch' from Women In Black.

After a bad year at school, a young lonely boy called Edwardo decides to dissapear into his grandmas tent in her back garden, in the hope that no one will remember him. Things go from bad to worse when the last 4 people to see him alive are taken into a room and interviewed by a policeman who is so stupid, he shows pictures of himself in a bikini rather than the boy who's missing. Meanwhile, a girl called Hannah, who is secretly inlove with him, carries on with the search to find her one true love.

As the film fades into a eerily dark area, in the distance we can see a small, rickety tent being flung around in strong winds, and inside the tent, we see a small light flickering (which is one of those fake, paper candles), as the camera zooms in a bit more, we go inside the tent we can see a boy writing in a pink, fluffy, sparkly diary, with a unicorn on it. As a voiceover begins, he introduces himself as Edward Fredreko, and tells the audience that the audience that he has run away, into the deep realms of his grandmothers back garden "A.K.A the fortress"


We then quickly flashback to the beginning of Edwardo's day. He is walking alone towards his secondary school, in the shot, we can see that behind him are two girls pointing and laughing at him. In a voiceover from Edwardo, we are told that he has a 'dark dark secret, darker than his favourite skinny jeans', which has haunted his poor soul since he was of the tender age of five. He tries to ignored the jibes, and walks further towards school, as we hear the diegetic sound of the school bell, as the camera stops and follows Edwardo from behind, we see that as soon as he walks past someone, they point, snort and laugh at him.

The scene then cuts to Edwardo standing at his locker, presumably just before lunch time, and a group of girls walk slowly past him, and mock him for his attire, and then walk off, however one pretty girl stays and comforts the upset Edwardo, and introduces herself as Hannah. Edwardo tells us that this is Hannah, the prettiest girl in school, and the only one who 'truly understand his poor misguided soul :'(, and that he has had a crush on her since she punched dear old Phil Mccracken in 5th grade after he called Edwardo a name'. After he has suitably embarrased himself infront of her, Edwardo's best friend Alfred comes over, and asks him why everyone was laughing at him. Edwardo gets angry and punches the wall, which then breaks, and a puff of smoke comes out and makes him choke.

He then runs off down the corridor, straight past a group of clones (girls with peroxide blonde hair, big boobs and tanned skin) following a girl. In another voiceover Edwardo tells us that this is Candy and that the whole school worships the ground she walks on. Edwardo is shocked when Candy's boyfriend [Jason, the school football captain] comes and pushes him against the wall, out of nowhere, the head teacher appears, and the voiceover tells us that this is Edwardo's mum. She asks edwardo if 'her little prince is okay, and will her prince beable to fight the big bad demons of this school'

We then cut straight to a close up of him jolting away from school, the voice over says "I had to make the laughing stop, I just couldn't take it anymore!" he then jumps into a bush just round the corner from the school, he rolls over and talks to himself but from a distance it looks like her is talking to a worm which is crawling past him whilst he starts to talk, for Hannah and a group of her friends who are there smoking. Hannah walks over to him and asks what is he doing? He tells her and she convinces him to stay at least until the end of the day, they hear the bell and walk off to class together.

This is then cut back to the scene from the opening, we can see him talking to a stuffed bear which he is holding in his arms, from nowhere we can hear an old lady's voice saying "Eddie, its time for tea!" we cut to see the outside of his tent, and we can see a small house with all its lights on and a old women standing on what looks like the back porch. The tent then shakes as Edwardo shouts "I'm busy grandma!"

We then cut to early the next morning, and see a school room including the last 4 people (Jason, Candy, Alfred and Hannah) to talk to Edwardo, all sitting waiting for class to start; in every shot taken we can see the same empty chair with loser written across the back of the chair. The head teacher walks into the room crying with a police officer at her side, under the police officers arm is an over head projector. He officer asks the class if they have seen Edwardo, and flicks a picture of him up onto the screen, he starts to question the last four people to see Edwardo, and clicks the projector onto the next image and we see him standing in a filed in a bikini.

.

We then cut the police officer taking the four students into a small classroom and telling them to figure out what happened to Edwardo, or else! They are all confused and start to panic because they have no idea where he has gone. The police officer returns with a water pistol, Jason shouts “where’s your mankini?” get ya tits out officer!” from the mention of the word ‘mankini’ the officer does a shoulder/neck nervous twitch and points the pistol at Jason. Jason shouts “mankini” again and the officer does the twitch again, everyone in the room starts shouting mankini at him and he runs out of the room screaming.

.

After 5minutes of sitting in silence, they all decide to escape and hide until this blows over. They garb their backpacks and put on their own style of camouflage example: Candy’s is all pink, with diamonds on it. They put two black lines on each cheek and put on a hat which has written on it ‘hit squad.’ We then see them climbing out of the window and jumping around the car park trying to get away before anyone sees them. At the school gate they turn round to see if anyone had noticed them leaving, and from the room where they were we can see the police officer and the head teacher both looking confused and angry. We then cut to a black screen, with the writing ‘two days later’

.

The next scene opens on a picture of Edwardo, with written underneath it ‘have you seen this boy?’ we then hear doors being opened and people gasping and staring at where the light is coming from. Stood in front of double opened doors with a bright light behind the person is Edwardo, he now has short hair and is wearing normal clothes. His mum runs over to him with the police officer by her side shouting ‘oh my little prince!” the officer and his mum both start crying and everyone around the cheers and claps. Edwardo walks past his mum into the middle of the corridor and shouts “my whole life I have been the laugh of the town, and over the past 3 days I have become a man and moved passed the past I hope you all can do the same!” Everyone gathers round them and starts to cheer and clap him.

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We then cut to see the other four characters crawling across the ground, in a bush near a restaurant, they are covered in dirt and leaves and all fighting with each other. They over hear two students from their talking about an amazing party, which is happening tonight at Edwardo’s house. They miss hear the conversation and think that they have found Edwardo’s dead body and this party is his funeral. Hannah starts to cry and confesses her love for him, she convinces them to go and pay their respects, so they walk to Candy’s house to get cleaned up.

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We cut to Edwardo talking to a group of girls trying to impress them by telling how brave he has been over the past 3 days. Everything goes quite when Alfred, Jason, Candy and Hannah walk into the room, Edwardo walks up to them and thanks them for being the ones who made him change into a better man, Hannah tells Edwardo how she feels about him and so does he, they kiss and everyone cheers them on. After that they all start to party the night away, and we see everyone having a great time. the scene ends on a shot of Edwardo and Hannah kissing and the voice over starts again and sums up everything good about the party, well what he remembers. We then flash foreword 10 years and see what happened to all the characters after they had finished high school, whilst the end credits go up.

American Pie Beta House analysing.

Last Media lesson, we were told to bring in DVD that fits our genre and may help us with our own Film Opening which was Teen Comedy. We decided to bring in American Pie Beta House.

Below, under the following headings "Conventions" "Titles", "Audience", "Representation", I will show you what we found in the opening 10 minutes.

Conventions

The film opens with a wide angle shot of a city, with a car coming towards the camera, as we see this, the titles appear on screen in big bold and brown letters (the name of the company who has made the film, but it does not show the actors name, this, I presume will be in the ending credits) , and as the car continues coming towards the screen, the titles also change to American Pie Beta House. It then changes to a close up of a teenage man and his father, in a rather funny situation as, abnormally,they are talking about having sex, and how 'on campus there will be lots of things to bang'

The boy then goes on campus, and decides to go into the toilet, and again, in a funny situation, the bathroom is a Unisex one. As he goes to the urinal, a girl walks in (this fits into the stereotypical boy meets girl scenario, with a comedic twist) to use the shower (this also could influence our opening because, from this opening, we know they decide to introduce the love interest early on, and we can now decide, if we choose to have one, if we want to introduce it in our opening).


He then continues to use the urinal, the women then opens the shower curtain slightly and asks him to pass her the shampoo, he agrees and turns back around, then out of nowhere appears a naked women, and, understandbly he is shocked, so shocked indeed that he urinates all over his trousers and the shampoo (another funny moment which could help us in our film because we can now be sure what they expect people to find funny)

As he runs out, embarrased, back to his dorm room, he walks in on his new dorm mate having intercourse with his girlfriend. He looks shocked and walks over to his clothes and changes his trousers, just as he is doing this, the girl starts choking on the gum she is chewing, the man then leaps onto the bed and starts giving her the Heimleich Manouvere (from behind), the use of the low angle mid shot makes it look like some sort of sex position, as we see this, his best friend and father walk in, and in a odd chain of events the father high fives the man, and the best friend looks rather disgusted (as this is a unusual situation, the audience would find it funny because it is so out of the ordinary, this could also influence our film because we could add unusual situations which would make the audience laugh at the humour)

This was the end of the opening for this film. From the opening we as a group learned many things that may influence our film, that sex, unusual situations, and embarrasing things are all stuff that the audience find funny and interesting.

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Sex (Many of the scenes contain, or make referance to sex, this can help our film as we now know what the selected audience are interested in, and find funny)

Embarrasing parents ( The main characters father is very crude and open about his sexual endeavours, this also could help as it could create some very funny moment in our own film)

Embarrasing encounter with a girl (The main character meets a cute girl, and makes a fool of himself by peeing on his trousers. As our film is about detention, this could help as two characters could flirt with eachother, but leads to an embarrasing situation)

Embarrasing encounter with new friend (When he goes back to change his trousers, his new dorm buddy is having sex with a girl)

Parties (Many of the scenes contain outrageous parties)

Two enemy sides ( The Betas & The Geeks)

Drunkenness (This is very much like parties, where people just get drunk for the sake of it. One of the characters in the film could be drunk, which is cause for their detention)

Moving to a new place E.G college. (Start of a new era of someone's life, new place, new people ETC. This could also help, as one of the characters could be new, and forced to get in trouble by older students, and wrongfully gets put in detention.)

Funny incident (When the new dorm buddies girlfriend is choking on a chewing gum, the main character tries to give her the Heimleich Manouver, which looks like some sort of dodgy sex position, and his Father walks in)

Popular & unpopular people (Betas being popular and Geeks not)

Nudity (Most girls in the film are topless, or fully naked, typical of many teen comedys)



Titles

The titles fade in and our big and brown, and in a very informal font, this shows the audience that what they are about to watch isn't going to be anything too serious, and isn't going to require alot of thinking. They however, don't show the actors names, they show the companys that help make it. The only exception to being big and brown is the typical American Pie logo, which is red.

Audience
Typical of a very controversial teen comedy, it has an 18 tag, however, the audience for this film, typically, is late teenagers, early 20's, who enjoy slapstick comedy, and know that they can come one afternoon and not have to think to greatly, just laugh along.


Representation
The representations of people and places in this film don't differ greatly to those of any other average teen comedies.

The men in this film are represented as being sex mad, and are only doing what they are doing to get laid by the opposite sex. They are also represented as only caring what girls look like rather than their personality.


Girls only after money from Geeks, and will do anything in their power to get what they want, much like the men. So girls are stereotyped as people who're gold diggers, only after what they think they need.


Both sexes are represented as wanting to have a good time, either partying, getting stoned or having sex. This is typical of a comedy as they all normally feature drug abuse, or rapid partying.

Analysing a film opening

Last Media lesson, we were told to bring in DVD that fits our genre and may help us with our own Film Opening which was Teen Comedy. We decided to bring in American Pie Beta House.

Below, under the following headings "Conventions" "Titles", "Audience", "Representation", I will show you what we found in the opening 10 minutes.

Conventions

The film opens with a wide angle shot of a city, with a car coming towards the camera, as we see this, the titles appear on screen in big bold and brown letters (the name of the company who has made the film, but it does not show the actors name, this, I presume will be in the ending credits) , and as the car continues coming towards the screen, the titles also change to American Pie Beta House. It then changes to a close up of a teenage man and his father, in a rather funny situation as, abnormally they are talking about having sex, and how 'on campus there will be lots of things to bang'
Sex (Many of the scenes contain, or make referance to sex, this can help our film as we now know what the selected audience are interested in, and find funny)

Embarrasing parents ( The main characters father is very crude and open about his sexual endeavours, this also could help as it could create some very funny moment in our own film)

Embarrasing encounter with a girl (The main character meets a cute girl, and makes a fool of himself by peeing on his trousers. As our film is about detention, this could help as two characters could flirt with eachother, but leads to an embarrasing situation)

Embarrasing encounter with new friend (When he goes back to change his trousers, his new dorm buddy is having sex with a girl)

Parties (Many of the scenes contain outrageous parties)

Two enemy sides ( The Betas & The Geeks)

Drunkenness (This is very much like parties, where people just get drunk for the sake of it. One of the characters in the film could be drunk, which is cause for their detention)

Moving to a new place E.G college. (Start of a new era of someone's life, new place, new people ETC. This could also help, as one of the characters could be new, and forced to get in trouble by older students, and wrongfully gets put in detention.)

Funny incident (When the new dorm buddies girlfriend is choking on a chewing gum, the main character tries to give her the Heimleich Manouver, which looks like some sort of dodgy sex position, and his Father walks in)

Popular & unpopular people (Betas being popular and Geeks not)

Nudity (Most girls in the film are topless, or fully naked, typical of many teen comedys)



Titles

Big and brown, they show the name of companys who helped make the film, but NOT the actors names


Audience
Typical of a very controversial teen comedy, it has an 18 tag, however, the audience for this film, typically, is late teenagers, early 20's.


Representation
Sex mad (Virtually every scene contains sex, but as it is a comedy, these have a comical twist)

Girls only after money from Geeks (Girls are stereotyped as people who are only after money, and will do anything for it)

Party mad (As they are teens, they are stereotyped as wanting parties)

Genre Research

In todays media lesson we had to research things for our chosen genre. E.G Iconography, narratives, setting, stock characters, who is the audience, which films of the same genre have earned alot of money, which editing techinques are used.


Our chosen genre was Teen Comedy


Iconography
School bell
Booze
Mobile phones
Make up
Cars
Sex

Narratives
College students trying to lose their viriginity before the graduate
Finding a date for the prom
Trying to find friends

settings
High school
Houses
Pubs/clubs
Cars (road trips)
Shopping malls
Motorway service station


How much films of the same genre have earned
Super bad ($121,463,226)
Mean girls($86,058,055)
American Pie ($145,103,595)
Juno ($143,495,265)
Clueless ($56,631,572)


Editing techniques
Fade
cut
match on action
180 degree rule


Audience
Teenage boys/girls

Dark Knight Notes.

In Media Studies, we watched a few film openings and had to write down what we saw, Camera angles, editing, enigma codes, music/sound, action, how fast the pace was and which characters where introduced.

There were some quite complex camera angles used:
Setting shot
low/high angle
midshot
close up
alot of panning
wide angle

Example

This is an example.