Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our opening sequence both uses and challenges the forms and conventions of both rom-coms and opening sequences to try and create a recognisable but interesting opening to a rom-com film.

Plot
'The Life of Guy' is a rom-com following our main character 'Guy' who happens to be a university student. The film is a flashback which features Guy talking about how he used to be a social outcast, we see how he changes and how by the end of the film, he is integrated. This is with the help of new and soon to be best friend, Lindy, who teaches Guy how to act. The film opens with an awful date attempt but ends with Guy walking with the girl of his dreams.

Form
Please watch the opening of our chosen example up to 3:40 for the whole opening.

• Our opening was very typical in the form we followed with very little challenges to the typical features of an opening sequence.

 Our opening is clearly very similar to that of John Tucker Must Die:

• It has plain white titles varied in placement around the screen, like John Tucker Must Die does
• We have production and distribution titles at the beginning in the same style
• The main character Guy is introduced in a similar way to how Kate is introduced from John Tucker Must Die
• The Genre is clearly shown in our opening by the fact that Guy is talking about his date and is seen to go on it at the end, this is also done in John Tucker Must Die where Kate talks about her love life

The titles in our opening

Challenges to Form

• The major challenge we made was introducing the title at the end of opening rather than the beginning as is seen in John Tucker Must Die and also in most films. We felt it fit better to have the title at the end though.

Genre (Rom-com)

In a Rom-com there is a standard character list which is common to most Rom-coms, this is:

• Hero - the male love interest usually
• Princess - the female lead role who is the other love interest
• Sidekick - the confidante of the protagonist who may be quite funny or offers good advice

E.G. 40 Year Old Virgin:

• Hero - Andy
• Princess - Trish
• Sidekick - Jay/Cal/David

E.G. Thor (Romantic Element)

• Hero - Thor
• Princess - Jane Foster
• Sidekick - Darcy

In our film, we have Guy as the hero, Bella and then Sophie (his future love interest) as the princess and Lindy (his friend) as the sidekick.

Typical themes include:

• Love
• Friendship
• Betrayal (often for comedy)

Our film follows this as it's the journey of Guy's search for love but it also brings in the friendship of Lindy along the way. 

Events

It is important to highlight the genre focuses of the film in the opening events in our genre. So for us, the main ideas are romance and Guy's current way of life i.e. failing.

This is very similar in She's The Man which features the focus of the film (love and football) in the opening as the main character is seen to be kissing her boyfriend and playing football at the beach in the opening.

Mise-en-scene

• Setting - is usually in a place of work, education or just somewhere in a City although this is not exclusive, The Life Of Guy is set in a University so this follows conventions
• Lighting - is usually warm to portray the sense of love in certain shots and is generally high key as these films are often light-hearted unlike an action film
• Costume - Pretty casual depending on where the film is set but the comedic or weirder characters often have a strange dress sense, this is very true with Guy in our opening
  

Breaks in Convention

• The biggest break in convention we have is the fact that the film is set from Guy's point of view, this is uncommon in rom-coms but what makes ours even more different is the fact that Guy almost starts off as the princess because he needs to be saved, but from himself because he isn't getting anywhere. Eventually, he turns into the hero though
• We done this to target more men and achieve a gender neutral audience

Narrative Structure

• Like many films, we used Todorov's theory of equilibrium, disequilibrium, resolution, new equilibrium to move the plot forward. This is a table comparing The Life of Guy to the Inbetweeners showing how:

Specific Narrative Techniques

• Ellipsis - Boring and unnecessary scenes such as Guy walking between rooms were cut out to speed up the pace
• Cross-cutting - We cross-cut between Guy running and Bella waiting in order to connote how long she was waiting for
• Flashback - Our whole opening is a flashback of what Guy used to be like anchored by our voiceover
• Enigma Codes - The audience will be keen to know how Guy reacts after being rejected at the date like that

Style

Soundtrack

• We found that many films in our genre use a happy or upbeat soundtrack in their openings such as 'The Other Woman', so we followed this and used 'The Life of Riley' as our soundtrack:

Colours

• We wanted to go for warm colours as this was common in our genre, this meant that we used spotlights on the indoor shots to get the desired effect and the sun on the outdoor shots

This is very similar in Pitch Perfect which uses very warm colours when the main character does the romantic gesture of singing her love interest's favourite song.

Our opening has the mixed dialogue of a voiceover and speech which is uncommon in openings but we feel it is necessary otherwise the plot may be a bit unclear without the either of those. This is similar for John Tucker Must Die which does the same thing.

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

The social group that our opening is trying to represent is that of young, geeky, gamer geeks who are socially awkward or perhaps come across as a bit weird to the majority of people. We manipulated multiple things to do this in multiple ways but the main ways are costume, setting and action codes.

Costume
Our decisions for what 'Guy' should be wearing were heavily influenced by 'Will' from The Inbetweeners and 'Jim' from American Pie.

Costume Decisions

• We went for a hawaiian shirt as we felt it was really ugly and completely fitted the look we were going for
• The cargo shorts were common for characters similar to ours so we felt this was a must have for 'Guy'
• The long socks looked wrong both in terms of colour and height which is why we chose to use them
• The shoes didn't match the colours Guy was wearing at all
• The whole costume for Guy was a complete mix of colours that didn't match in the slightest

The costume we resulted in

Setting

The set of The Big Bang Theory

• We noticed that The Big Bang Theory's set had an abundance of scientific equipment, games and figurines.

Setting Decisions

• We felt that our setting needed to reflect Guy's interests and therefore had game posters, game cases, an Xbox and a game calender in shot.

Guy's posters and games in shot

The game calender

Action Codes

• This clip among many helped us to conclude that social awkwardness was quite common within characters similar to ours.

Action Code Decisions

• We felt we could go to one of two extremes for Guy to be socially awkward, the first was he would pretty much ignore Bella and the second was that he would be so over the top with her, that he would show how awkward he was
• We settled on the second option and had Guy shaking hands with Bella, which is quite uncommon for a first date, however, the way he does it too further portrays the awkwardness
  

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

Our production company for our film is RC Productions (Rom-com Productions) and our distributor is 20th Century Fox.

Production
































Distribution

For our distributor we are using 20th Century Fox. They are one of the six major Hollywood Studios and have a worldwide reach which is exactly what's needed for our film.






Here is the release plan of John Tucker Must Die:


Our Release Plan:

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

Our film is a rom-com so our core audience was of course fans of the rom-com genre, this is the most natural audience who would watch our film so as long as our film was an identifiable rom-com, this was a sure market.

Our secondary audience was young people. We felt this was an appropriate market as our main characters are university students which is something relatable to a lot of young people who are currently going through the same thing. In addition to this, the 15-24 year olds make up the biggest demographic of cinema-goers so this market made sense.

Our tertiary audience was the British audience. The film is set in Britain and has British accents giving a national appeal.

Here are some character profiles on the target audiences:

Who We Weren't targetting:

• Although we were trying to attract as many audiences as possible, some audiences just weren't compatible with our film such as fans of Action Films as our film features nothing of the sort as high speed car chases and gunfights simply aren't a part of our genre.

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

We had to be very specific in how we appealed to each individual audience. This meant making key decisions that each audience group could relate to.




We used the uses and gratifcations theory in order to really appeal to our audience:








Diversion

• Offers escapism from the problems of real life
• Examples of escapism are at the forefront of our opening e.g. Guy rolls out of bed, puts on way too much aftershave, has terrible hair, runs weirdly. Comedy is a key element to our opening and gets the audience laughing thus entertaining them meaning they forget about real life 

Personal Identity

• Building up your personality through on screen characters as role models or just relatable characters or cliques
• Our opening offers not a role model but pretty much the opposite, this almost shows the audience who they don't want to be thus building their personal identity in this way

Personal Relationships

• Taking the media and using it as a talking point for real life relationships
• Our opening has many points of interest and is rather entertaining making it a likely talking point for good conversation

Surveillance

• Finding out information (about characters)
• The audience learns a lot about Guy's habits as we see where he lives and hear about his hobbies. We also see his date routine meaning we learn more about him here too

Audience Feedback

I created a survey to conduct research on audience opinion. I asked 15 aquaintances to watch my trailer and give an honest opinion of what they thought. Here are the results:

In addition to this, I asked if there was anything we could improve and the 2 most common answers were the music and the constant voiceover. 

Overall, the feedback was very positive with 100% of those asked saying they would watch the rest of the film. I believe this does justice to the specific elements we selected to appeal to each different audience. It also highlights that our opening followed many rom-com conventions which was of great importance to make the film appealing.

Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I learnt a lot this project both in terms of hardware and software and really advanced my technical knowledge in these areas.

Hardware

• The Canon Legria HF G30 camera and tripod were the major pieces of essential hardware. They were very easy to set up although this took longer during the first attempt as I wasn't experienced with this process. The camera was great as it produced a very high quality picture but was also very easy to use.
• Perhaps the only negative with the camera and tripod set was the portability. This wasn't a major issue if we were getting driven from school to the shooting location, however, if public transport was needed, the kit was too much for one person to take. Therefore, we had to split the kit up when this happened and take part home each.

Software

• Adobe Premiere Pro was the editing software that we used. I had already used it at GCSE but this was at a very basic level. I learnt a great deal about the need to get perfect cuts to create good matches on action. It has a very easy to use interface meaning we could speed along through the process of placing and cutting our shots to create the desired effects.
• A big disadvantage, however, was the fact that we could only use the software in school due to the fact that nobody had the programme installed at home, this meant we had to all make a lot of time available to ensure a rigorous editing schedule.

• Adobe Audition was the software we used to record our voiceover. It was very simple to use as all we had to do was plug the microphone into the computer, press the record button and then the stop button when we were done. In addition to this, because the programme was also made by Adobe, we could literally drag the voice-recording across to Adobe Premiere straight from Adobe Audition. 

Social Media

• Our Whatsapp group turned out to be a vital platform for our group's communication. We were able to send key photos to each other that were taken at the shoots but also made it easy to remind each other of important information as well as having discussions about decisions to be made during R&D.

Conclusion

In conclusion, a lot was learnt about both hardware and software during the project. If we had more time, a much more in depth focus on grading would have been likely. Also, if there was more space in my bedroom, I would have liked to have tried using the lighting kit to see what effects we could make with this.

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

The Brief:

• Prelim - 'Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanged a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.'
• Film Opening - 'To produce a 2 minute opening for a fiction film. All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright free source. It should be clear from your sequence who the target audience is.'

Comparisons between the Prelim and Film Opening

• Overall, I think the fact that we had more time for the Film Opening meant we went into a lot more detail and depth for every part of the project.
• The Prelim was great for forming a base of what was needed and then in the Film Opening, we took this basic preparation to a much deeper level to achieve much better results.

  

  Shot List from the Prelim

Finished Storyboard from the Film Opening

• Finally, I think the fact that we had particular audiences in mind when making the Film Opening was vital to certain decisions that were made whereas this simply wasn't the case in the Prelim.

Construction Post 10: Looking back - reflections on our final outcome

Our Finished Project


For me, the whole course has been really enjoyable as it really gave an opportunity to be creative. There have been both highlights and low points but all together, it's all part of any process and something that I feel we were all prepared for.

Highlights

• Working with a group of equals who all contributed to the course, I also feel that we grew much closer together as friends which is a nice bonus from the process
• Having the opportunity to be creative, the fact that we could use almost any idea for our film was really exciting and I'm proud with how it's turned out
• Having the chance to use Adobe Premiere Pro - I really enjoyed editing as you can stamp your footprint on your footage and see it come to life from a series of shots to an opening sequence
• The change from our rough cut, which was quite horrible in my opinion, to our final cut was something quite huge and again something else that I'm really proud we achieved

Lowpoints

• The process was very time-consuming and at times, I may have been stressing slightly due to the fact I was focusing so much on media but at the same time had 3 other subjects to study for. The edit schedule was very intense as we had to use almost all of our frees and lunches and sometimes had to stay after school. In addition to this, the shoot schedules were also long and somewhat repetitive when we weren't getting the shots we wanted. However, in general, the shoots were still enjoyable
• Having to walk around my local area in costume was most definitely not fun for me as I was getting stared at by lots of people for dressing so 'vibrantly'! Also the shots on the high street were annoying to film as people kept walking through our shots as we were filming

I would really like audiences to appreciate the time and effort that was put into this project as it would be quite demoralising to see all of the time put into seem wasted. I would also like audiences to laugh at our main character 'Guy' especially the male audience who we slightly skewed this film to by using a male main character. Finally, I would hope that audiences would want to watch the rest of the film as it would feel really rewarding that our opening is successful.

If there was more time, I would have liked to re-record part of the voiceover as it sounds odd due to the fact that I sound different. I would have also liked to further work on our grading to achieve that professional look that we were working on.

Construction Post 9: My Technical Learning Curve (production and post-production)

For me, the whole process was a massive learning curve. I learnt so much throughout course like achieving the matches on action and not breaking continuity but I also consolidated on things I had learnt at GCSE such as how to edit together a basic cut.

Here are my strengths and weaknesses in my opinion:

Labelling the clapperboard

Strengths

• I can set up a camera and tripod successfully and fast
• Editing together a basic sequence and achieving good matches on action using Adobe Premiere Pro
• Creating basic titles
• Recording the voice-over on Adobe Audition and cutting it on Adobe Premiere Pro
• Fading music in and out and adjusting sound levels of each track during editing

Weaknesses

• My camerawork may be out of practice as I didn't record any of the shots seeing as I was in all of them
• Adding transitions to titles as I was away when this was done
• The grading process as I was also away when this was done

  

  Editing the basic cut

  

  Recording the voice-over

  
  
  

  

  The interface of Adobe Audition

  

  Setting up the camera and tripod

Construction Post 8: My Personal Contribution to the Edit Sessions

I believe the whole group was very involved with the editing but the role of myself compared to those of Angela and Thakshana were different due to the fact that I was on my Geography AS Field Trip during the 2nd week of editing.

This meant that I had a very hands on approach in the first week with the editing together of the basic cut whereas Thakshana and Angela were very involved in the finishing touches such as grading and sound adjustment, even though they were present for most of the cutting together of the basic cut and did some of it themselves. In the same way, I tried to keep in touch via our whatsapp group for the 2nd week.

My Personal Contribution

• Cut together the majority of the basic sequence with the help of Angela and Thakshana, attention to detail was key here to ensure the perfect matches on action and avoid a jumpy/glitchy look to our opening
• I recorded the voice-over, cut it and implemented it into our opening
• I created most of the basic titles, however, these were changed in the 2nd week to better ones by Angela and Thakshana
• After our back-up shoot, I put the new shots into the sequence as this was on the Monday before I left for the Field Trip

Me cutting together the basic sequence

Me recording the voice-over

The editing process was my favourite part of the course as this is where our opening really came together. I learnt quite a lot about really paying attention to detail to achieve those matches on action which can change how professional the whole opening looks. However, I'm slightly disappointed that I didn't get the chance to experiment with grading myself due to the timing of my Field Trip and if I was given the chance to edit again, I would definitely play about with the grading to see what I could achieve.

Construction Post 7: My Personal Contributions to the Shoot Sessions

Me in my costume as Guy

My main contribution to the shoot sessions were that of an actor as I played the main character, Guy. It was quite hard to get into character at first but having already practised the role during the test shoot, I felt it was easier to get into role this time.

A poster I put up prior to the shoot

We also used my house and the surrounding streets, this meant I dressed my bedroom with posters before hand in order to save time doing so on the morning of the shoot.

The streets around my house

Me after reviewing a shot on the high street

Finally, I reviewed every shot after we filmed it and suggested what we could do to improve. We all had input here and I feel this helped us to produce the best shots we could. I had a lot of input here as I could see what was wrong with each shot and therefore adjust my acting or position accordingly or try to help Thakshana or Angela with their camera work.

Construction Post 6: Reflections on Edit Week 2

I was not here for the majority of 2nd week of editing as I had to go on the AS Geography field trip, this meant I was only here on Monday. This left Thakshana and Angela with task of adding in most of the finishing touches to our sequence, however, they still kept me involved via our whatsapp group.

What needed to be done

A photo of the interface for grading on Adobe Premiere Pro

• The old shots had to be replaced with the new ones from the back-up shoot, I did this on the Monday where I had a lot of Free Periods.
• We wanted to add some transitions to the titles as they were very boring.
• The shots needed to be graded to affect the colour, brightness, hue and saturation of the shots.
• We re-wrote the voiceover with the help of our media technician and recorded it on the Monday before I left
• The volume of each track such as the voice-over, music and dialogue had to be adjusted accordingly

  

  A photo of me adding in the new shots

Construction Post 5: The Back-up Shoot

Our back-up shoot was scheduled for the 7th March as this was a good date for everyone involved. We actually had a relatively short amount to re-shoot meaning that we could take time over the shots in order to assure that they were as good as possible.

A blooper from our back-up shoot

How did we improve our footage

• The weather had improved drastically meaning that there was little noise interference from the wind like last time
• We recorded a master shot of the conversation between Guy and Bella meaning that we could cut in and out of it if necessary
• We ensured that Guy wasn't wearing Calvin Klein pants and instead opted for more plain, purple boxers
• We removed an awful pan of Guy and instead kept it still

• We replaced this shot of Guy with this one, improved by removing the pan and the improved weather.

Before, with the Calvin Klein pants

After, with the plain, purple pants

Construction Post 4: Reflections on Edit Week 1

We used a an editing schedule in order to make sure we made progress on the editing of our opening sequence. We had to edit intensively as we had limited time.

Our edit schedule (12b media = lesson time)

In general, we all edited in pretty much every free period we had. Due to us not all having the same free periods, this is why we weren't all together at the same time. However, it wasn't always necessary to edit together as we all knew what we were doing and could just get on with the editing by ourselves.

What we've achieved so far

• Cut together our basic sequence with correct matches on action
• Added our music track in, called 'The life of Riley'
• Put in the majority of our basic titles
• Added in the sound effets of the alarm clock and the text message

What went well

We feel that the first week has been a very successful and productive one. We're happy with how the sequence is looking and with a bit of touching up and the implementation of the shots from the back-up shoot, feel we could have a really successful opening. 

What we can improve on

• Add in the new shots after the back-up shoot 
• Add some transitions to the titles to make them more interesting
• Re-write the voice-over as it doesn't fit with our opening any more as it has changed a lot from the early stages