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.