FINAL FILM

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22 - Joseph Jackson, Sarah Obende, Sabiha Rahman, Durim Sllamniku from 283goswell on Vimeo.

Evaluation Question 6

What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process Constructing This Product?

We dicided to do this one as a group - each of us focusing on a specific stage of the production process

Coursework Evaluation: Question 1

Our media product uses forms and conventions similar to real media products with conventions such as film openings, title sequences, the introduction to characters, music and other members of the distribution company.

Convention of film openings is used to clearly show action and begin the viewers interest so they get immediately hooked  into the film. Most film openings are 2 minutes long. However our opening 'CHANGE' is 2 minutes and a half. The conventions of a film openings introduce the production ident, key characters, the title of the film and the members of the distribution company. It also introduces the plot of the film by showing the audience the type of scene the film is based on so for example our film the scene is based in hackney. Title sequences follow a strict order as the first thing that should be presented is the production ident and then either the title or the main character and then the rest of the characters and members of the distribution company.

First thing that has to be introduced is a Production Ident:

Attack the Block Ident:

Change Ident:

We started of the film opening with our Production Ident and  Distribution companies

Introduction to Characters:

We then introduced the actors that play the role of the important characters in our film. This image shows the actors name and the character next to each other so that the audience to know who the main characters are.

Titles:

Attack the block:

Change: 

We decided to have our title in a moving scene with the character as the whole idea of the film is that his journey to a better life is the 'change'. Also we thought it looked good and unique.

We then finally introduced the members of the distribution company such as the music director, director of photography, costume, editor, director etc

.

Another convention we used was music. We used music with no lyrics as we wanted to keep our audiences attention and not get carried away with music that has lyrics. We didn't want to draw the attention away from our actual film opening so we used a repetitive sound to match with the flow of our film.

Travelling and Arriving:

We have a travelling and arriving scene which is the most important scene of our opening. The scene where it allows the audience to see the sign of the 'change'. The travel by train shows the audience how our main character travels away from his bad life to arrive at a place where all that can 'change' for him, where he can make something better of his life instead of reminiscing on his bad past. 

Coursework Evaluation: Question 2

 

Coursework Evaluation: Question 3

We used Motion to create our production ident and for our distribution company we have used the colleges. For the production ident, we created our own design because we weren't aloud to use a copy-right version so motion really helped us with designing our very own production company.

G22 productions is a smaller independent company, It doesn't stand a chance to Universal or 21st Century but it does give a chance for the younger generation who want to go into filming as the production company itself was only just made and is looking for skillful editors and directors. The company is mainly trying to promote films that are suitably appealing to the younger generation but is also interested in making films that would appeal to the older generation. Budget wise for G22 production is not that high as it is just a new starting company and with the new film 'Change' they didn't look to spend so much on our film. That is why we have made promotional packs and have made student offers to not only promote and attract the audience but to also make some money in the making.

CandiStudios is a distribution company that have decided to join partners with us to invest in order to hopefully make G22 Production a massive and well known company. CandiStudios is a slightly more well known company and has budgeted a lot into creating our film which was premiered in the Cinema this week.

'HanWay Films' would be best suited to distribute our film as it that company has distributed the likes of Noel Clarke's film 'Kidulthood'. 'Kidulthood' is a film 'gang' related and is very similar to our film 'Change'. The film was very popular and had a very high box office. I think that if 'HanWay Films' was to distribute our film then it would possibly receive the same sort of feedback.  The company itself is not that well known but for producing films like Kidulthood and Shank which have made a massive 5 star hit in the cinemas could easily get our film up there too. To this day, people are still watching Kidulthood and Shank like it just came out yesterday. The film 'CHANGE' could definitely be up there. 

Coursework Evaluation: Question 4

For Teen movies in general, a variety of teenagers and young adults are attracted by the sort of themes teen films provide. Themes such as, love, friendship, excitement, fun etc. all are a convenient part to  attracting these audiences to watch teen films. As well as that, the sort of story teen films provide also relate to the reality of teenagers which makes it even more appealing for them to watch.

Here is a Facebook page of 'Eddie Smilezz' a 16 year old from London, Hackney who is a specific member of our target audience.

For our film 'CHANGE' the sort of audience who are more specific to our sub genre are teenagers aged 15-19 who are into 'hood' 'gang' related films. Films like 'Kidulthood' and 'Attack the Block' have really inspired us to create our own version of a 'gang' 'hood' related film. However the second series of Kidulthood, Adulthood has inspired us the most as the film shows how Noel Clarke the main actor who comes out of prison and decides to change his ways similar to our film 'Change'. In the majority of films that are hood related all come to a sequence where the hood guy always remains the same and is involved in crime and drugs etc. Whereas our USP is a clue in the name, 'CHANGE'. Instead of films like this being too cliche we decided our film will have a little twist where our main character does his best to try and change his life and make the most out the oppurtunities he's been given. This therefore makes it much more interesting to watch and allows the audience to wonder throughout the film whether or not he actually changes.

This is Eddie's description 

Eddie supports Arsenal and listens to rap music

Eddie likes to watch films that are gang related similar to our film 'Change'

Coursework Evaluation: Question 5

How did I attract/address my audience?

In our teen film, there are many different aspects which appeal to our specific target audience. Making the film look appealing allows the audience to enjoy and want to watch the rest of the film. However, seeing as tho we only had 2 minutes to make an opening, we had to fit in all the conventions in such a short space of time to make it best apeal for our target audience. The audience is attracted to teen films due to the use of conventions such as mise-en-scene, actors, the story line, the genre of the film , film name etc. For our film our target audience were teenagers aged 15-21 so we needed to think what sort of things those age groups would like to see in a film. Because in our group we are all 17 we thought of stuff that we could relate and that people that we know can relate too. 

A lot of young people are into films like 'Kidulthood' and 'Adulthood' films that portray an Urban lifestyle. A life that includes gangs, drugs, money, and the 'Hood'. 'Kidulthood' has really inspired us as it is a real hit with the younger generation; a lot of teenagers are attracted by the sort of conventions it portrays. Story line is very important when it comes to films if you want to attract the audience. We tried to portray a similar sort of theme but with a twist. Instead of the 'suggested criminal' (main actor) to travel a road of bad influences and troublesome and end up no where but bad. In our film we have the main actor who travels a road of troublesome and bad influence but challenges that and eventually makes something better for himself (hence the title: CHANGE). 

Mis-En-Scene has a really important part of attracting our audience. Using costume, body language, location etc.

Location: An establishing shot of the geographical area, Hackney. The location where most teenagers are from. Living in a council flat estate like Ashley can appeal to the audience as they can relate with him and know what sort of lifestyle he lives.

Actors also have a really important part of attracting our audience. 

We don't see a lot of these actors (Ashley's friends) but from their appearance we can definitely see that they are involved in crime by the way they dress and speak. Audiences love this as it creates tension later on in the film. The audience can guess that something bad might happen involving those two 'hooded' teenagers. That is another way that we have attracted the audiences attention, they like to see drama filled with twists and conclusions.

Our genre is an 'Urban' 'Action' 'Romance' type of film.

A teen movie wont be a teen movie without there being a convention of romance being involved. We ended the opening to the scene where Ashley meets our Sarah because it makes the audience wonder, whether or not they take things further. We left our audience on a sort of cliffhanger as we only did 2 minutes. However in those 2 minutes we've filled in clues to what may happen later on in the movie, giving the audience everything they need to be appealed by it to make them want to watch more.

 

The rough cut feedback helped us massively as we used Dan's tips from this video to improve our film to get the reaction we expected from our audience. Before receiving the feedback from Dan I asked a friend if he could have a look and wanted to get his feedback and he said it was good but then he looked at it after we made some changes and was blown away. Taking tips from Rebecca and Dan has ultimately made our film get the best reaction from the audience. One type of feedback that has really helped us is the music, for our second sound we had a more up tempo beat but apparently to our feedback's it didn't really suit with the flow of the film so we decided to change the sound and it worked out really good.                    

We watched our film and everyone else's in the Cinema this week and it was really fun, I felt like a movie star, watching myself on the widescreen. It was nice to see the peoples reaction during the opening and after, so one of my group members decided to record reaction feedback towards our film:

How did you attract/address your auidence?

Feedback was collected after a screening of the opening to the film to an audience full of teenage students. Here's what they had to say towards our opening sequence

Here we have an interview of the actor Durim Sllamniku AKA 'Ashley' who talks about how hectic his promotional schedule for the film.

Coursework Evaluation: Question 7

What have I learnt in the progression from looking back at the preliminary task to the full production?

Evaluation Q1~

Our media product 'CHANGE' uses a variety of form and conventions such as Titles, Music, Travelling/Arriving and an Introduction to characters. 

Conventions are elements that are common to use in movies. They aligned in a strict order in order to attract and engage the audience to watch the rest of the film. 
I compared conventions from my teen opening with that of a real movie 'BOYZ 'N' THE HOOD'


Examples:

IDENT~
Idents are used at the start of the film to introduce the list of production/distribution companies with their logos used.  

BOYZ 'N' THE HOOD~ their ident is Columbia Pictures Logo because they are the producers of the movie.

CHANGE~We decided to use the college's made up ident for our distribution companies 

TITLES~ The titles are used to introduce the name of movie and potential give a hint of what the storyline might be.

BOYZ 'N' THE HOOD~ Here is the title of the movie

CHANGE~ This is the tile of our movie, I think where our title is positioned is important because the meaning of the title and the muse-en-scene where it is position is a juxtaposition. This makes it more interesting for the audience and it draws them in wanting to know why it was positioned there.

INTRODUCTIONS TO CHARACTERS~

BOYZ 'N' THE HOOD~ Had no introductions to characters but i am going to compare our movie to another movie that has a similar storyline. 

        STEP UP 2~ After the title, usually follows up the cast list and extras and that's where the introduction of characters comes in. The importance of this to engage the audience and give a first impression to what the characters might be like in the rest of the movie.

CHANGE~ Here is one of our characters from Change. From the mise-en-scene of the character we can tell that she might be a stress-out and worried character.

Travelling/Arriving~ This is important in teen movies because it shows different ways in which teenagers usually get around on their on daily lives. Sometimes, the social class or personality can affect the transport of the characters.

 BOYZ 'N' THE HOOD~ The first Travelling/Arriving scene is by walking

CHANGE~ In change, the travelling scene is by train which was useful because it was a symbol of the transition from the hood life to posh life.

Evaluation Q2~

Media~

Using Animoto, I have showed the different types of representation there are in TV drama.

Media representations are the ways in which the media portrays particular groups, communities, experiences, ideas, or topics from a particular ideological or value perspective.

In ‘Change’ Ashely (protagonist) walks up to his friends to spud them. And in the society today for teen social groups, a ‘Spud’ can be seen as something negative but the way we approached it came out positive although the rest of the film is going to negative.

Evaluation Q3~

Evaluation Q4~

Who would be the audience for your media product?

This is a Facebook Page: 

Email: AA89295@student.candi.ac.uk

Password: mediaxx26

An example of our target audience; her name is Chyna Banks, 17 years old from New Jersey.

For our teen movie 'Change' our audience age is ranged from 13-19 so anyone was liked Kidulthood or Juice will definitely love watching our movie. 

The USP of our movie is something influences the main character to CHANGE. In the majority of most teen crime life movies, the bad character never changes his ways but when he encounters a huge situation, he starts to have regrets and it’s always too late.

However, in our movie, the character realises his mistakes on his own and at the start of the movie. Corrects himself by involving himself with good people in a new environment. It is more unique as it is less cliché. It also make the audience curious about his past life making them want to know why and how he CHANGED

Evaluation Q5~

The opening of our film appeals to the target audience (teens from 13-19) in various ways such as mise en scene. Ash's costume  (hoodie) can be appealing to males and also the location of the movie. If any of the audience lives in a similar area to our settings; they would be able to relaate to thr situation. The characters in our movie can even have a big influence on the audience because they have a similar personality or are/knows someone going through the same dilemma.

There will be a 10% discount for students watching our movie. If it was cheaper then it would to appeal to more students and it will also help spread the true meaning of 'CHANGE' more to teenagers because teenagers don't like to spend a lot of money for a movie.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation Q7~

what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

EQ1

Our media product uses forms and conventions of real media products with titles, music, characters, travelling and arriving, and the introduction to characters.

Conventions of film openings are things that occur a lot in movies, so much so that they become conventional. Conventions are the way they are because everything must have a strict order. The director is always last because they have put the whole film together and have the role of making sure the film works well for the target audience to watch.

For example, an ident:

Kidulthood:

Change:

Introduction to characters:

Kidulthood:

Change:

Travelling and Arriving:

Kidulthood:

Kidulthood didn't focus on travelling and arriving as much as we did

Change:

A film that does do travelling and arriving would be Donnie Darko.

We start off with the main characters first and who casts them because they hold a greater importance in the film compared to other characters, for example, backing characters. In our film opening we made sure Durim, who played our main character, was the first person to be seen and his name was our first title too.

Unlike Kidulthood, we put the title after some footage of the main character. Kidulthood had the title before any action or character was seen.

We have followed most conventions like the ones above including music too. We used music with no lyrics because it doesn't draw the attention away from the actual film opening, just like Kidulthood did. 

EQ2

Representation in TV Drama

In TV Drama, there are different representation areas as shown above in the Animoto presentation. Media representations are the ways in which the media portrays particular groups, communities, experiences, ideas, or topics from a particular ideological or value perspective.

In our film opening for Change we have represented the teen social groups clearly. For example, age is clearly represented by the way the characters are dressed and the way they speak/communicate.

In our opening, when the main character (Ash) walks up this friends, he touches their fists with his. This is the way that certain age group (15-19 year olds) greet each other.

Ash and his friend 'spud' each other

The way we have represented the teen social groups have come out somewhat positive. However, in the rest of our film it would seem negative. This is because we would see another character called Preston who would cause a problem with Ash and there would be tension. This would represent the teens as rebellious and always looking for trouble.

We see a different environment when Ashley goes to college at UCL. This is a representation of social class. It contradicts with his look of a "hood boy" and is a huge contrast to the people around him who are affluent and from a more educated background.

We see a different ethnic background portrayed well using mise en scene where Sarah, played by me, is wearing a head scarf or 'hijab'. It shows the multicultural environment of the college. It includes white, black and Asian people. However, the majority of the college is white due to the area it is located in.

We don't represent regional identity as much in our film opening but we do hear Ashley say "bye mum" to his mother. From that, we can hear the stereotypical "Hackney/Cockney" accent. Although it isn't strong, if the film was further produced, we would hear a contrast of accents between characters from UCL and characters from Hackney.