Wednesday 21 March 2012

Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, waht do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Since my preliminary task I have learnt a lot of things; mise en scene was something I looked at in a lot of detail, seen as in my opinion is very important to a film. The mise en scene being everything else in the shot apart from the actors. For example the costumes, the props, the locations ect. I have learnt that many objects within the frame, could change the whole idea and feel of the shot. Also during this time I have learnt a lot about the editing of a film and how important it is to let a lot of transitions run smoothy, for a particular genre: jumpy shots for a thriller, and dissolve transitions for a rom-com for example. All relating to each genre, giving there target audience exactly what they want.
Our preliminary task was something that my group particularly struggled with, especially the 180 degree rule and the match on action shots, so we had to re-do the whole thing, we learned the rules again and manage to complete our film in about 4 hours, record time!

Question6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Micorphone: We used this to hear the voices of each character really well.

To edit our movie we used i movie on the Apple Macs, which helped us a lot with putting the the different scenes together. Dragging the different shots and cutting them down, putting in the music and special effects. Without it this, it would have been difficult to make them, we probably might of used powerpoint of some other piece of microsoft, which wouldn't have worked well at all. 

The camera! The most important part of filming, I have learnt many things about filming, with this type of equipment; for example using steady cam, on the tripod which helped us to get establishing shots or scenery.

The mac, were it all happens, where we were able to fulfill the editing, which also allowed us to see everything much clearer, the screen is a lot bigger and the colours seem to be more prfound.

Although we didn't really need the lights during the making of 'Detention', I did use them for my preliminary task, as we were inside and many of the class rooms we filmed in was particular dark.

Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted our audience by the fact that there is a lot of sports in it, this will attract the male side of our target audience because stereotypically men are more interested in sports and most of the situations that occur with 'James Jackson' could perhaps occur with the male target audience. The music at the begining subverts the type of music that Hackney Kids would normally listen to, which reflects the plot in a way that once you move on in the film a lot of things start to change. We could attract our with merchandise: a type of clothing brand, becuase teenager, especially girls, stereotypically like shopping or type of trainer desgin for the boys, they all want and new pair of 'crepz' (trainers).

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our target audience for our film is teenagers from the ages of 16-24, we would like to give our film to this age range because it's a time in someone's life that they start questioning things and make mistakes and fall from the highest status group; which our film will deffinetely show. We want to raise awerness for gang violence and showing someone's life falling apart and then looking promising and then failing again. Our target is to get as many people interested in our film, because we feel many people can relate to them.

Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The company has made films such as the 'Inbetweeners', that relates to the film we have made because it is based in the same time and location. Our film won't share as much sex in it as the 'Inbetweeners', but it does show some of the situations that teenagers normaly get into. This will be quite hard-hitting, in a sense that it will create awerness of gang culture within Hackney and also subvert the conventions of perhaps a normal teenage life; it will start off normal with the main character being interested in women, and playing basketball to get somewhere in life, however it perhaps subverts it, with the type of music that we chose, the happy and jolly music, makes the audience think that it will be a happy film, but the name of the fim suggests otherwise 'Detention' and also the plot. Normaly 'Film 4' have a certain image, of sex, violence, money ect. Which our film has some aspects of; the money side and violence, which reflect the gang side of our film. We wanted to put out film on this channel because it is most watched by teenagers from 16-24, appealing to our target audience.

Question 2: How does media product represent particular social groups?

The main character in my film is someone who likes sports, basketball inparticular, the main character James Jackson played by Alex Lesurf is sort of like the character from the American show High school Musical Troy Bolton played by Zac Efron, as he likes playing basketball and all had an experience of falling in status. The social groups that come up in the film are: gangs, the athletic young youth, a wise older male (James Jackson's father). We are hoping to show lots of different uniforms; basketball kits etc. relating it to the high school theme, also telling the audience that this will be about sports. However we don't get to see the characters faces in the opening, however the different backgrounds or each characters is shown through the type of writing their name is written in and what type of background they are placed on.

Tuesday 20 March 2012

9 Frame Analysis

1) The title of the film
The name of our film is 'Detention', which I have shown in the first frame. W decided that this would be the appropriate name for our film, becuase we based it around a school and we felt that many of our target audience would watch it, becuase many teens find detention enjoyable or something they hate, either way, we found that they would find it interesting to watch and in some ways they could relate to it. The reason for the title being present on the post it, was to show our audience that this book belongs to a student and that a teacher was marking their book, which is shown through the mise en scene, the books, mark sheets, coffee cup and computer in the background.

2) Setting/location
We shot this in many different locations, for example in the next frame, I shot that in my house and many of the other shot at school, to highlight the fact that it is based in a school. These different settings tell the audience that our film will be presented all over Hackney and the different names in different places, show them that their are different types of people in the area, enabling the audience to relate to at least once character. We have also decided to shoot this in a Hackney based school, because the area is known for crimes involving gangs and we wanted to make everyone aware of it. We have specifically chosen a sixth form, as it appeals to the age range of our target audience, also many of the situations that the characters will get into will be something that our target audience members have been through or who will be involved in

3) Costumes and Props
We have put all of the characters names on a different background, to highlight their personality and what type of classes they are studying, and gave the producer and director a separate background of shot to show what type of people they are like and becuase they were the most important part of the film. Our costumes are generally what sixth formers were, however the sixth form that we are shooting in subverts this idea that youths don't wear any kind of uniform to college. Our characters are wearing formal clothing, but when we see the sports scenes we will see the 'youths' in a different light. Many of the props used have been taken from different classes, for example the art studio and calculators from the maths department etc. These are all to bring out our characters personalities and what they are like in school; how they behave etc.

4) Camerawork and editing
The camerawork in this frame, would be a basketball bouncing into the shot and stopped to show the characters name and then pulled out. We mainly just ran the music over it and exaggerated the bounce noise. Most of the shots used were medium to close up shots, to emphasise the characters, these will reflect our genre, because the whole point of our film was to create an awareness of gangs and show someone of great success fall as a result of this, so the intimate shots highlight that we will be going into a lot of detail about the gang issues and the way someone over comes something traumatic.

5) Title font and style
In this frame, we decided to put the director's name on an iphone, symbolsing something he uses all time and highlighting something many teens use now a days. Many of the characters are hand written, perhaps to emphasise the child-like culture of most teens, subverting what the film will actually be about, subverting our genre conventions.

6) Story and how the opening sets it up
We set the opening up with a book being stampped on by a post-it, saying 'Detention' allowing the audience to know the name of our film striaght away. Also this shot follows in nicely withe first shot/frame becuase it allows us to see a student packing up his bags, symbolising that it is either time for class or perhaps he's walking out of a detention. The opening also start with no sound or music, but later the music begins and it's something quite jolly and playful, subverting the name of the film 'Detention', also adding in just music and no voices, reflects the teenagers personalities.

7) Genre and how the opening suggests it
Our theme of the film is a sporty, attracting more males perhaps and maybe a little bit of romance, attracting girls. This frame doesn't necessarily show this, but it does allow us to see that anything could happen and someone putting away their stuff could mean anything, seen as we don't show what he's actually putting in the bag.

8) How characters are introduced
In this frame Alex Lesurf is introduced 'James Jackson' who plays the main character in the film, we see him drop an apple, pick up his sports bag and walk away, which is when the film ends, getting the audience thinking about where he is walking to, the other characters are introduced in the same way, but different background, again highlighting their personalities.

9) Special effects
In this frame there was no special effects, because we wanted the audience to notice that this is sommething realistic, refleccting the plot of the film. The idea of the stained apron, perhaps means that the film will stain our audiences memories.