Monday, 21 March 2016

Evaluation Question three

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

http://prezi.com/9bqzzetg944i/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

This is the link to my 'prezi' on evaluation question three; What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Overall from answering this question, the media institution that might invest and distribute 'Neighbours' would be a distribution company such as Studio Canal. From the information gathered they tend to invest in films which they are intruiged in, even if they don't do well at the box office, their films; such as 'This Is Egland' did very well in DVD. Also a distributor such as New World Pictures. They invested in the film 'Heathers' and even though the film didn't do well in the box office (much like an indie film may not), the film did well on DVD.


Tuesday, 15 March 2016

Evaluation Question Two

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Mine and Niamhs two minute introduction (Neighbours) is a black comedy and it involved two main characters; Isabelle and Sarah.
 Sarah is what is seemingly the protagonist, however the preferred reading is that by the end of the two minutes our audience has understood that Sarah is the antagonist throughout the film, (if it were to continue).
 Isabelle is seemingly the antagonist; the leader of a powerful girl social clique. However, (much like Sarah) the preferred reading is that we find Isabelle being the protagonist.
 Sarah's character (Sarah) is on the outside of the girls clique and doesn't belong anywhere. She mainly keeps herself to herself if at all possible. Where as in a typical teen film, Sarah would get tormented by the clique; this doesn't happen. Sarah has a sense of ambiguity throughout the first two minutes. The preferred reading is that that audience aren't too sure on what her motives are throughout. We get a sense of the meaning behind her character, when she is following the girls and she crosses a face off the wall.
 Where as the character Isabelle we denote that she is a typical leader of a powerful social clique. As the film progresses our idea is that the audience can connote that she isn't all that she seems. She isn't the girl who inflicts pain on others for her own satisfaction much like Regina George in "Mean Girls".
 The character Rian and Amy are part of the clique and they may not have a major role in Neighbours however they also represent that looks aren't all of someone and that you never really know anyone until you meet them.
 There are many factors that influenced our representations. Heathers has had a very large impact on Neighbours. In Heathers there is a red scrunchy that the leader of the clique has. Each time one Heather gets murdered the next heather ends up wearing the scrunchy. By the end Veronica ends up wearing the red scrunchy. The scrunchy represents power and the colour red represents the clique sticking together. The audience could also denote that it is the colour of blood therefore connoting that there is a darkness to the girls. The colour isn't pink unlike in Mean Girls. Because mean girls is a light hearted film in comparison to heathers we can compare and connote that Heathers is a darker film. Much like in Neighbours the clique wears a dark pink lipstick; representing that they are one. Where as Sarah isn't wearing any; she is alone and left out of the clique. Me and Niamh wanted to make it obvious to the audience that the girls were a strong clique and that there was no getting in or out of their clique. Sarah has no chance. The girls are intimidating and possibly a threat to Sarah; the reader learns later on that it isn't the clique that is a threat; but Sarah that is a threat - people aren't all they are made out to be.
 The film Donnie Darko has also influenced the representation of our film. Donnie Darko is a dark film that focuses on a boy that is having hallucinations about his surroundings. There are quotes such as 'i have emotional issue as well' that give the audience the impression even though it is a dark film there is also some humour.
 When the clique of girls enters the school they are walking in a triangular formation; this represents their power and how they stick together. It also connotes that because Isabelle is in the front she is the leader of the clique (the protagonist/antagonist). We got this representation from the film mean girls; leader 'Regina George' is the leader walking in front of the other two actresses.
 Both characters are stereotypically dressed. However throughout the film we begin to connote that both aren't all they seem to be. For example; Isabelle is wearing lighter clothes (eg. denim jacket and a white top). Denoting that she is girly and into her fashion much like Regina George in 'Mean Girls'. Where as Sarah is wearing darker clothing; denoting she is individual and doesn't fit into a clique. Denoting this could lead to the audience assuming that Sarah may get bullied by the clique for being individual.

 However their personalities are counter types to a very stereotypical teenage film; such as 'Mean Girls'. Isabelle may be wearing light colours and be the leader of the clique; however we denote throughout the two minutes that she isn't the dangerous character. Sarah is. Sarah is the potential murderer in 'Neighbours'. By the end we can connote that Sarah is a threat to Isabelle and her friends, as she crosses a girl off her wall.
 Our film is based on a teenager girl in a typical high school setting; with a dark past. Our target audience is teenagers of any ethnicity. We are using caucasian females. We chose these actresses due to them bring available; using the opportunities around us.
 Socio-economic groups have a large range. They were created to help the government group the population into categories. We are aiming our target audience to be in the category E - Casual labourers, the unemployed and pensioners; for example people who live on basic benefits or students. Seeing as our characters are in group E. This means that our audience can relate and identifiy with the characters. This is going to be highlighted by the protagonist being a caucasian student girl. This is so that teenage girls can empathise and connect with the protagonist and antagonist of out film. She will be wearing typical girl clothing - clothing brands such as; H&M and topshop.
 Psychographic profile fits into groups; much like socio-economic groups. based on personality, beliefs, values, interests and lifestyle choices. The government also uses this grouping to see where different people fit into different categories and compare them. Much like demographic but instead of focusing on the work they do they focus on the behaviour of the audience and their actions.
For example a group of 16-18 yr olds staying at home and a group of 16-18 yr olds leaving home and having to live for themselves for the first time would be very different audience's. For example if we were aiming the film at a group of 16-18 yr olds that are leaving home, the film could focus on independence.
 Our film is aimed at a teenage audience and a young adult audience, between the ages of 13-22. This is because we believe teens enjoy our genre and theme more , which is teenage murder. As out opening was mostly filmed in a school setting we belie that teenage benefit from this , they can relate and understand the context and setting. Our cast were 16 or 17 and i believe having a cast at the same ages our target audience has benefited our opening , our audience can relate more to our story line, they also feel some kind of connection and relationship as the cast as they have similar features which in this case is age. We used fast pasted editing in our opening , due to the increase in youtube and music videos , fast pasted editing in time with music and beats has become increasingly popular , therefore we used this is some parts of out opening to appeal to our audience , we belive this swill help our opening look up to date. The music we used as a basis for ideas and influences was chosen as its peopler and well known in the younger society. therefore we though basing our music on music that is already popular would give us an advantage and create a more up to date and on trend look to our opening. We would give our opening a rating 12 based on what i read on the BBFC’s website. 
 I think the genre of our audience will be fairly split between males and females. Our female actors draw both a female and male audience in but mainly attracting guys due to male gaze. The aspect of violence also attracts a male audience as wifi and horror films are traditionally and stereotypically seen as "male films". The issue of conflict between the girl and the scene in which they get ready draws in a female audience and the aspect of teen conflict also will appeal to a female audience.
 Our opening is english that means that our audience will be english speaking. We hope that our audience will become a UK-wide audience and we hope that we would make sales worldwide and over sees.
Our settings include traditional looking english school settings , i think this will appeal to american as it fits the stereotypical image american have on England and i believe that this will appeal to them.
as films such as wild child become very popular due to the english boarding school setting.
 Typical audiences for our genre would be teenagers. Our genre of teenage under and crime is very popular in the movie industry at the moment sue to the break out of series such as scream queens and going back to films such as heathers. The typically audience for the genre such as scream queens is young teens and there is an equal divide between males and females. Typical audiences for dark comedies such as, 'Heathers' are teens and girls going into their 20's . Heathers was released into cinemas in 1988. It flopped. Heathers did best through video players. The distributor 'New World Pictures' failed to reach out to the correct audiences and the marketing for the film was poor; there was minimal posters and TV ads. Many people weren't too sure about the film due to it addressing such raw subjects; eg. eating disorders, date rape and suicide. If the film were to continue we would take inspiration and focus on raw topics such as teen mental health and what it's like to be a teenager in the UK in 2016.
 Our representation challenges the normal conventions of a teen film due to the main two characters being extremely different than they really appear. Isabelle challenges the stereotypical conventions by being innocent instead of being the bully. Our representation of the lipstick binding the clique together fits well with the typical conventions. Letting the audience denote that they are a clique and stay together. Our costume designs also fit the typical conventions of a high school film. We took inspiration from 'Mean Girls' and 'Heathers'. With the clique wearing a certain type of outfit and the "protagonist" (antagonist in Neighbours) wearing darker indie clothes; standing out to the surrounding people. Our film also takes inspiration from the TV show 'Pretty Little Liars' (American, teen drama). Created by I. Marline King. In this show a typical popular group of girls are tied into a continuous line of murders and deaths. Even though they may look like stereotypical girls they have been through a lot. They have been involved in murders and kidnappings.
 If we had had more time we would've added more stereotypes to show the juxtaposition between the characterisation. A male protagonist would've been added; this would have showed the binary opposition between Sarah and Isabelle. the male figure would've had been attractive - bringing in more of the female eyes.
 Overall our film shows that not all social groups are what they seem to be; just because you look like a stereotypical girl group, doesn't mean that you act like one. We want to break the typical conventions and thoughts that our audience have about high school social groups. The audience will be influenced by past film that they have seen; such as 'Mealn Girls', 'Scream Queens' and shows such as 'Pretty little liars'. Neighbours will show our audience to not judge a book by it's cover. We represent different social groups by making them sterotypically binary oppositions, however by them both waking up and getting ready in the beggining of 'Neighbours' it shows that even though they act and look different they are really more simmialr than they think. So are there really different social groups in high school?






Friday, 11 March 2016

Target Audience

Evaluation Questions 4 and 5 plan

4. Who would be the audience for your media project?
5. How did you attract and address your audience?

4. The audience for my media project:

1)
Primary Audience - Teenage Girls
Secondary Audience - Teenage Boys and girls of an older age

2)
AGE
Our original thoughts were teenagers - high school students
In 1015 there was an increase from 26% to 35% in admissions of teenagers (15-24) going to see films
15-24 watch comedy and action most often - bfi

SOCIAL GROUPS
DE - (15-24)
films such as Duracula untold - over the average 25% of 15-24 watch this - bfi

GENDER
Greater female audience if there is a female protagonist - bfi
They can identify with protagonist
What we did on our holiday - daily female - romance
hunger games didn't have a genre difference between male and female due to there being a male and female presence during an action film

SEXUALITY 
Appealing to all sexualities. Mainly female characters therefore many a female audience.

FANS OF HEATHERS AND SCREAM QUEENS
Fans of the film heathers may be interested in Neighbours.Because heathers was filmed in 1988 the fans may be intruguided that there is another ilm of similar variety.

3)
National BBFC rating would suggest that our film is a 12
-mild violence
-suggestions of bad language
-heathers is a 12
-pretty in pink is a 12

4)
Izzy and the two side characters ar wearing pink lipstick - female audience could get the impression and understand that they are girly girls; where as sarah isn't wearing any make up.

5)
Active audience research - filming people on their opinion of themes.

8)
Audience for this back comedy is the audiene for heathers and donnie darko and scream queens.

9)
Nationality of our characters. Working title appeal to USA audiences and UK audiences where as warp focuses on the UK audience. Our film attracts to the British audience by it being set in a typical British school - British females can identify with the characters.

10)
Even though are main audience and characters are females. The violence and ambiguity of the film helps us bring other genres.

12)
secondary audience = the violence and the murders bring in the male audience and the older females - the school atmosphere will bring back memories for the older girls of their past education nd they will be able to relate to the protagonists.

5.  How did you attract and address your audience:

Attracting
We told our friends about the film and what it involved - the fact that other friends were involved in the film attracted people to see their friend in the film.
We posted it on Facebook - a page to attract the general public
Posting it on tube for the work rot see
having a blog - people all around the world can view the blog and find out about the process and the film
Updating the blog about what we ave done every week - more than 8 posts a month

Addressing 

  • Portraying the the protagonist and anagonists with some ambiguity 

Sympathtic towards sarah - on her own - not apart of the clique
assuming the clique are the anagonists
However sarah is the antagonsit killing girls
there isn't a protagonist due to the symbolism of everyone having dark secrets in high school.


  • Narrative enigma - about sarah; not who you think she is
  • Humour - speech going to be sarcastic, overall the situate of how you think that it is all a normal typical high school film with a twist
  • For a preferred reading the audience would have to have seen mean girls - or a typical american high school film; also they would have to understand that the girls have had a dark past that is the reasoning to whether is tension
  • there is no dialect in the first two minutes; however the accents will be british
  • Representations such as the lipstick that the clique wear suggests that the girls are staying together no one can enter or leave their group - tying them together.
  • The audience can see more than one character in the first two minutes (privileged prov). We see sarah and izzy. Both are the main antagonists. We also see the remaining clique walking through waking throguh the school and at the graveyard.
  • Focusing on the body - the clothing and how it fits the girls body is different i contrasting. showing their different personalties. 
  • the genre of music is indie - i used the pop rock guitar 
  • Sound is being used to build tension. the music changes when sarah comes into contact with the girls walking into the school - she spots them and then the it goes to a slpit screen and music increases with ease. Eventually the music builds up an there is a tracking shot of sarah following the clique and the music page increases and another sound in added building the tension = feels like more happening.
  • The male gaze is brought in by attractive females and there is a suggestion of violence - when sarah crosses of a face on the wall = suggesting murders and more murders to come.
Intertextuality 
We didn't use intertextuality throughout the film however our film is heavily based on the film heathers and Scream queens. 

Things that didn't work that well:
  • Sarah was wearing boots in one shot and then trainers in another shot
  • some shots are blurred instead of being in focus 











Thursday, 10 March 2016

My Ident




  • This is my ident for Scaife Studios. I decided to use a cake because it brings the audience's eyes to the centre of the screen. Other idents such as version at the beginning of Heathers also is round and int he centre.
  • The look of my ident has a retro theme. I used a retro theme because it was based on the retro theme of Heathers
  • I also used the retro theme and music because i feel that the ident should represent me, i like cake and i like retro films such as heathers and the breakfast club

Wednesday, 9 March 2016

Screenplay and shotlist

Scene one 

Girls getting ready Sarah in Niamh's room and Izzie in Tia room. Shown alarm clock , two on screen ( split screen ) then the screen showing Sarah widens , we then see a sequence of her getting up , to the bathroom , makeup , clothes breakfast. Though out this show glimpses of Izzie getting ready , not showing faces through hole thing.

Scene two 

Walk out of their houses we then see that the live next to each other , leave walking opposite directions.

Scene three 

( in school reception )
Pink girls walk into school , flick hair shots and on phone shots. No diegetic sound involving laughter   and the sound of phones going off. Sarah then walks in late to the slow and loud sound of a clock ticking that matches her footsteps. we then see the girls sat in a class together all talking , and Sarah looking through the door window at them , she follows them and listens in to their convocation.

Scene four 

We see a funeral and Sarah hidden in a bush around the church , dressed in normal clothes showing no respect. while we are shown the funeral we see flash backs of girls in a field and old photos that give us the indication that they used to be friends.



WE shot in the order of ; scene five , scene 4 scene 1 scene 2 scene 3 and then the extras.
This was because a lot of our scenes were based outside and therefore weather dependant. We also had to take into consideration the timetable of the girls , as they had revision and personally matters that may have propound our filming. The "extra bits" were bits that i included to give the opening more narrative enigma and signifiers through the opening they also helped the reader to understand clearly.

Evaluation question seven

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

Evaluation question six

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

Evaluation question five

How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation question four

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation question three

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

Evaluation question two

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation question one

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

Monday, 7 March 2016

Exporting files in final cut






I learnt how to use final cut pro. This is how you export a piece of footage; you go to share, masterfile and the export.