Tuesday, 11 May 2010
Blog closed
This is my last post, this project has been stressful but forfilling, I look forward to next year.
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
Evaluation
1)In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our media product fits the forms and conventions of an opening sequence. In an opening sequence you try and establish the main character, and our opening titles do this by showing him in almost every shot. Opening sequences have to grab the attention of the audience, our product does this by showing the main character waking up after scenes of him doing un characteristic things for his stereotype making the audience wonder wether it was a dream or real. You must include titles in an opening sequence, and we do this by bring them up on screen throughout, we decided to use the actors names, director and music, as ours was a relatively small production. The product fits the conventions of a sports drama, by using forms of stereotype. Most sports films have an unlikely hero, our main character fits into the social group of 'geek', this is a very unlikely hero in a sport themed film. We developed this character by looking at conventions of a 'geek', we found that they tend to be very un cool, with trousers that revel socks at the ankle, an rucksacks, pull up to the highest they will go. As well as this a 'geek' is not conscious of image and therefore will make no attempts to look good, so to achieve this we made our main character have very scruffy hair. Our research suggested that it would be mainly teenagers coming to watch our film, so we tried to use young ideas, such as it being set in a school/university.
2)How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our media product represents certain stereotype social groups, and challenges these stereotypes. In our media product we create a character who would perceived as a ‘Geek’ by his ‘ankle swingers’ and T shirts which are too small. We also create the character by having him use a rucksack tightened up as high as it will go, and he has long scruffy hair. But we challenge these conventions by showing the audience that he is good at sports, a typically un geeky thing to be good at. We develop this further by showing the audience his bed room, which is un tidy and scruffy, where as the room of a geek would be neat and uniform.
3)What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
1)In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our media product fits the forms and conventions of an opening sequence. In an opening sequence you try and establish the main character, and our opening titles do this by showing him in almost every shot. Opening sequences have to grab the attention of the audience, our product does this by showing the main character waking up after scenes of him doing un characteristic things for his stereotype making the audience wonder wether it was a dream or real. You must include titles in an opening sequence, and we do this by bring them up on screen throughout, we decided to use the actors names, director and music, as ours was a relatively small production. The product fits the conventions of a sports drama, by using forms of stereotype. Most sports films have an unlikely hero, our main character fits into the social group of 'geek', this is a very unlikely hero in a sport themed film. We developed this character by looking at conventions of a 'geek', we found that they tend to be very un cool, with trousers that revel socks at the ankle, an rucksacks, pull up to the highest they will go. As well as this a 'geek' is not conscious of image and therefore will make no attempts to look good, so to achieve this we made our main character have very scruffy hair. Our research suggested that it would be mainly teenagers coming to watch our film, so we tried to use young ideas, such as it being set in a school/university.
2)How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our media product represents certain stereotype social groups, and challenges these stereotypes. In our media product we create a character who would perceived as a ‘Geek’ by his ‘ankle swingers’ and T shirts which are too small. We also create the character by having him use a rucksack tightened up as high as it will go, and he has long scruffy hair. But we challenge these conventions by showing the audience that he is good at sports, a typically un geeky thing to be good at. We develop this further by showing the audience his bed room, which is un tidy and scruffy, where as the room of a geek would be neat and uniform.
3)What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
A small independent film institution would be most likely to distribute our product, such as film four. Film four specialises in showing British films such as Slumdog millionaire. This is because it is very small budget with little money to advertise our product to a wide market, and it does have a rather limited audience. It has a good plot but it is a little similar to films that have already been seen, although these films did make it onto cinema screens, so there is hope for our film. It would be more likely to be distributed in American as the main theme is American football, which is very popular in the US but not so in the UK.
4)Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our target audience would be teenagers between the ages of 16 and 21, this is because we feel that they could relate to the aspects of bullying and peer pressure in the film, as well as be motivate be the eventually rise of the underdog. While doing research we looked at what films are popular with this age group and found that sports and comedy were popular, so incorporated these aspects into our film. We feel that our target audience has been well chosen based on the main plot of our film and the underlying themes or stereotyping and bullying.
These images show stereotypes of how our audience should look; on the left we have university sports students, who would like the sports aspects. On the right we have ‘geeks’ who would be attracted to the film because of the main character.
Our target audience would be teenagers between the ages of 16 and 21, this is because we feel that they could relate to the aspects of bullying and peer pressure in the film, as well as be motivate be the eventually rise of the underdog. While doing research we looked at what films are popular with this age group and found that sports and comedy were popular, so incorporated these aspects into our film. We feel that our target audience has been well chosen based on the main plot of our film and the underlying themes or stereotyping and bullying.
These images show stereotypes of how our audience should look; on the left we have university sports students, who would like the sports aspects. On the right we have ‘geeks’ who would be attracted to the film because of the main character.
5)How did you attract/address your audience?
We attracted our audience with a gripping story line, shown in our opening titles. We used common stereotypes created by our audience to give them characters to relate to. We set it in a university so that our characters are the same age as or a couple years older than our target audience, so that they can think, yes this happens. We leave our opening titles on a cliff edge, is it a dream, is it really? This draws our audience in making them watch the rest of the film.
6)What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
During the production of our media product we learnt a lot about technology. We learnt about camera zoom and how sometimes it isn’t smooth and can ruin a shot. We learnt that budget camera tripods and stiff and jerky making panning jerky and ruining that shot. We had a lot of technical issues with the editing software, including unsupported file types, a difficult interface to navigate. Though once we knew how to use the software it did a decent job of editing our film, cutting and trimming film was as simple as dragging the bar. We had trouble, at first, exporting files to a compatible format.
7)Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
During our preliminary task we learnt camera and software skills which we applied to our final piece. We learnt all of the different types of shot, and how to execute them with a camera, we got a feel for how to use the camera handheld with minimal shake. We got our first look at the editing software and learnt how to use is successfully so that we could use it well and effectively when doing our final task. We also learnt that it is better to take a lot of shots in one go rather than continually going back to re film. We learnt an important lesson in continuity and how hard it is to keep if we are going back alot of re shoot, because you rely on everyone remembering and bringing all the same things.
6)What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
During the production of our media product we learnt a lot about technology. We learnt about camera zoom and how sometimes it isn’t smooth and can ruin a shot. We learnt that budget camera tripods and stiff and jerky making panning jerky and ruining that shot. We had a lot of technical issues with the editing software, including unsupported file types, a difficult interface to navigate. Though once we knew how to use the software it did a decent job of editing our film, cutting and trimming film was as simple as dragging the bar. We had trouble, at first, exporting files to a compatible format.
7)Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
During our preliminary task we learnt camera and software skills which we applied to our final piece. We learnt all of the different types of shot, and how to execute them with a camera, we got a feel for how to use the camera handheld with minimal shake. We got our first look at the editing software and learnt how to use is successfully so that we could use it well and effectively when doing our final task. We also learnt that it is better to take a lot of shots in one go rather than continually going back to re film. We learnt an important lesson in continuity and how hard it is to keep if we are going back alot of re shoot, because you rely on everyone remembering and bringing all the same things.
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Editing
This is a picture of our group setting up to edit our final peice, the editing took several hours of work spread over a couple of weeks. This was due to needs to re shoot, and alter shots, as well as software issues and previous commitments from members of the group. Our original final cut was 2 minutes over the perscribe time, so we had to edit alot out but still keep the main story line.
Proof of filming
This is a picture of our group watching playback of clips we had just filmed, to see if there were any obvious errors and reasons to re film the shot.
Thursday, 29 April 2010
Conventions of a Sports/Comedy film
We Decided that we would like to do a film on sports, in particular American Football. This was largely as I enjoy the sport and therefore have a lot of knowledge, and as it offered opportunity's to do interesting shots. When we were brainstorming we thought that being just a sports film would make it weak, as most sports films also have comedy or drama intertwined, we settled to make it comical as it appeals to our chosen age group, the 16-25 year olds.
Conventions of a Sports film.
A sports film is usually a racks to riches story of a boy struggling, but somehow pulling it out of the bag when it maters. In the film ' The Longest Yard ' A group of convicts take on the gaurds that disipline them, they struggle to pull together as a team as they are more interested in the violance of the sport. At the end of the film the convicts become a team and beat the gaurds. We tried to include this concept in our film.
Conventions of a Comedy film.
A Comedy film often contains a message but this message is portrayed in a funny way. Comedy is very popular with our chosen age group and ties well with the sports theme, we believe by combinding the two our film will be appealing to our target audience.
Conventions of a Sports film.
A sports film is usually a racks to riches story of a boy struggling, but somehow pulling it out of the bag when it maters. In the film ' The Longest Yard ' A group of convicts take on the gaurds that disipline them, they struggle to pull together as a team as they are more interested in the violance of the sport. At the end of the film the convicts become a team and beat the gaurds. We tried to include this concept in our film.
Conventions of a Comedy film.
A Comedy film often contains a message but this message is portrayed in a funny way. Comedy is very popular with our chosen age group and ties well with the sports theme, we believe by combinding the two our film will be appealing to our target audience.
Thursday, 4 March 2010
Storyboard
This is the rough draft of the storyboard for my final piece, it still needs a few tweaks and some altered camera shots.Tuesday, 2 March 2010
Target audiance and relevant film research
Target audience: Teens, sports fans, males
Research on similar films:
Water boy: A teams Water boy finds himself with a unique ability to tackle people harder than the school has even seen. It’s kind of a rags to riches story where a boy who is not as smart as everyone else and has simple ways become the biggest football start the Mud Dogs football team has ever seen. This film is rated PG. It is a comedy/ sports film starting Adam Sandler.
Gridiron Gang: A bunch of juvenile’s at a detention centre gain self esteem, respect for others and team work by playing football. This film tells a tale of a bunch of kids who have lost everything but their will to live, and the means to fight others, but with the help of their coach Sean Porter (Dwayne “the rock” Johnson) they learn what it means to be part of a team. This film is a crime/drama/sports genre, so will appeal to the same sort of audience we wish to appeal to. Rated a PG 13 for scenes of violence.
Any given Sunday: A behind the scenes look at the life and death struggle by the modern day gladiators and the people who lead them. Any given Sunday tells the story of a young inexperience Quarter Back, Willie Beamen, who needs to guide the team to glory, but gets caught up in the fame of it all. This film as an all start cast including Al Pacino, Cameron Diaz and LL cool J. This film has won three awards. This could be a useful film to watch to see how Willie Beamen leads the team for the first time, as we could include this in our film.
Research on similar films:
Water boy: A teams Water boy finds himself with a unique ability to tackle people harder than the school has even seen. It’s kind of a rags to riches story where a boy who is not as smart as everyone else and has simple ways become the biggest football start the Mud Dogs football team has ever seen. This film is rated PG. It is a comedy/ sports film starting Adam Sandler.
Gridiron Gang: A bunch of juvenile’s at a detention centre gain self esteem, respect for others and team work by playing football. This film tells a tale of a bunch of kids who have lost everything but their will to live, and the means to fight others, but with the help of their coach Sean Porter (Dwayne “the rock” Johnson) they learn what it means to be part of a team. This film is a crime/drama/sports genre, so will appeal to the same sort of audience we wish to appeal to. Rated a PG 13 for scenes of violence.
Any given Sunday: A behind the scenes look at the life and death struggle by the modern day gladiators and the people who lead them. Any given Sunday tells the story of a young inexperience Quarter Back, Willie Beamen, who needs to guide the team to glory, but gets caught up in the fame of it all. This film as an all start cast including Al Pacino, Cameron Diaz and LL cool J. This film has won three awards. This could be a useful film to watch to see how Willie Beamen leads the team for the first time, as we could include this in our film.
Main task synopsis
our media film it will be based on a 16 year old boy who has applied for a place in Plymouth University. He makes it into the university and does not realise that he is quite different to all the other children. Because he is classed as a geek by all the other kids he is severely bullied by them and his school life looks as if it’s going to be a living hell. As a practical joke a group of boys decide to sign him up for the American football team thinking that he will be easy to take down and will make a fool of himself in front of all the school. When he is forced to go to football practice by the team he realises that he has the best throw that the school has ever seen. Because of his talent the team become friendlier towards him and don’t bully him. The only problem is that the rest of the school still bully him and make his life hell. The boy becomes angry and asks one of the more popular guys in the team to teach him how not to be a geek. This goes badly and makes things worse. He is assigned the role as quarter back and he plays in the first game of the league. Unfortunately he is taken down left right and centre and his concentration is distracted by the crowed making jokes about him. This makes the team lose the game. The coach however still believes that he has the ability to win and decides to give him some one to one training sessions that will train him to withstand tackles better and be able to make better plays. After being placed on the bench for the rest of the season he is felling rejected but still wants to play. On the last game of the season the replacement quarter back is reported injured and the boy is asked to take his place. The whole team is feeling like there is no point to the game because he will fail like last time but they don’t know that he has been training and has improved lots. When the boy scores the first points the team realise that he is better and become friendlier towards him and support him. Because of this they win the match and win the league. The boy is then better respected but realises that he hasn’t put any effort into his studies and knows that he is going to fail all his exams. All of the members from the football team put all their knowledge together and create a book that has all the information that the boy will need to pass his exams. He spends the next few days reading the book and when it comes to his exam day he smiles at his exam paper and his confidence makes him succeed. There is an end of year party and the boy finds the love of his life and he dances with her and they get together and have the best time of their lives. At the end of the film we get shown a future clip of the boy’s life and what he did with himself after university. We see that he carries on training and joins the Arizona diamonds football team and gets fame and fortune. Then we see he gets married and has two kids with the woman from the party.
Shot reverse shot
one character is shown looking at another character often off-screen, and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.
Match on action
Match on action is where the same event is shown but from a different angle or shot e.g if some one was opening a door and the shot showed the handle being turned from a over the shoulder shot, then straight cut to a close up of the handle being turned, this would be match on action
180 degree rule
The 180 degree rule is a basic filming technique stating the both actors in shot should have the same left/right relationship.
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