Evaluation
In what ways does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Drama conventions take the issues in real life and portray them onto film in a realistic way, which i feel we have done in our film. We have used the idea that drugs, drinking, fights and so on do exist in young people today and exploited it on our film. We used the idea of in-depth development of characters by showing what it is that makes Lexi using the memory scenes that are in black and white which show her friend and their “habits”. Tragedy dramas are based in the characters having a fatal flaw or major error in judgment for the main character leading tho their eventual down fall. We used this by starting with Lexis downfall, as it shows her leaning over a sink, breathing heavily showing the strain of her chosen lifestyle and her inability to cope with it. This is similar to “Rock’n Rolla” who also use the method of quick flashes (of sex, drugs, and shootings) showing the dramatised life and real issues on the world.
How does your media product represent particular social groups? And how would you attract your audience?
The only represented group in our media for the first 2 minutes of that of young adult/ teenagers. We have presented them in the stereotypical light of being out of control, wild and dangerously out of touch with the real world and life. This can been seen in an article in the daily mail; Article on out of control teenagers in Britain.
We showed the age of our characters by the clothes they wore. We chose young, and fashionable clothes to identify with the young audience. For example we had Beth (as Lexi) dressed in a black lace dress, which is currently in high demand for fashion, and notable associated with going out to “town” in the evenings. The red lipstick was wore to make a link to the 1940’s style make up that is now in with young adults. We made both Beth and Katys (Pixie the druggie) hair as large as possible, as this is common today, with wild and uncontrollable curls. With Hannah’s costume (Playing dan) we had the classic image of “thug” by having a beanie hat on with a hood over the top, as this is commonly associated with youth that are up to no good. (See article: Hoodie ban in London mall. Ref: line 5: favoured by young thugs). With Myself, in the fight scene I was wearing dark gray trackies, and a short sleeved polo shit with the collar up and a bright pink and blue “Von Dutch” hat (a make that is now commonly assiciated with young chavs, who have also adopted the line; “Von B*tch”). This was once again to be associated with the chav youth, that wear tracksuits and caps and are related to crimes of stealing and anti social behaviour.
The language used was also an indication of the age group represented, as the only words were “You f****** starting then?” which is a commonly disgusting phrase used when a young chav is wanted to start a fight. The audience we are aiming for would be fully aware of this.
We would attract our audience by making it relatable to the audience as a whole. The youth of the actors would be able to relate to the age group in mind, with the young fashion and styles within the film. The plot also has this draw as it involves situations that most young adults would experience in their youth and be able to empathise with.
The title is very short and catchy, making the audience wonder what the title has in relation to the short film, as it is a unexplanitory title.
The opening is very rushed, and vague leaving the audience with little knowledge of the main character, but enough of her life to want to understand why she is leaning over a sink out of breath and looking rough.
In the sense of attracting the audience we would obviously have trailers and posters. The trailers w3ould be on TV after 9o’clock because of the nature and rating of this film, therefore meeting attracting the late teenager audience that stay up to watch the programmes that late. The posters would be in bus stops because the age of our aimed audience is quite young, so would be non or new drivers thus use public transport frequently, so would see the posters often.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media and why?
Dark castle Entertainment, up untill 2008 were renowned for producing Horrors, but have since moved away towards more Dramas such as Rockn’ Rolla, so this would most likely be the kind of distributing company used for a our media, as it best represents the dark edge and grittyness of the movie that we are trying to achieve.
Another possiblilty for the backing company for our film could be Film 4, as our film would be quite small scale, aimed at a british audience, not a large hollywood company. Film 4 supports this idea because it shows films that are less main stream and closely drama related, such as;
‘This is England’
‘Slumdog Millionaire’
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The age certificate for our media is 18, so that age would obviously be above that but because it is a film a bout young adults we would want ti appeal to the young end, as close to 18 as possible. This would mean advertising during popular programmes such as “Skins” that are on after 9 (so fit the legal requirements for when 18 trailers may be shown) but also a youth programme watched by the age group we desire. This would also mean advertising at the beginning of youth films that 18’s in the cinema. Posters in J17 (A magazine for 17+) would also be sufficient at getting the right audience. Feedback from ages 16 – 69 was taken out and it was found that people under the age of 25 were more likely to be interested in the film as they could relate to it in age wise.
The film is based more on the female characters, so probably would interest many boys, so the advertising and marketing would have to be aimed at them showing adverts in between shows such as; “Gossip girl” and “90210”. In a survey 7 out of 10 boys said they would not be interested in the story line of the film. Where as only 1 out of 10 girls said that.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
As an unexperience camera woman i had not before used a camera to this extend, only using it at family events (and for filming the floor and ceiling by accident!) But now i am aware of the white balance, and how to use it to make the scene seem more realistic and true to the colours of the real scene. I can use different angles to my advantage to get the effect that I desire and creat obscure view points for my audience.
Editing was particularly new to me and i had never before used the programme Pinical before now. I learnt how to cut scenes in the correct places and piece them together to make them flow smoothly, then i am now able to add titles to the given piece, including rolling credits. I can successfully change the colour balance and saturation on a clip and match it with another, along with effects added to transitions on my film.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full project?
I have learned about mainly, the lighting and how important it is to a shot. In the Prelim one of out shots light changed drastically, because of where we had placed the camera and where the light was coming in the window. Also another factor that was important was how important continuity is with acting, because the slightest change will make the clip void and unusable, and could affect the overall piece.
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Plot line
The plot follows a young well to do girl named Lexi, who gets mixed up in all the wrong things. She has got in so deep with Drugs, drink and sex that she is finding it difficult to pull her self to the surface again. She is surrounded by people the like herself are in too deep, and have no regard for their own lives.
She is stood at the very edge of oblivion. She can either carry on with her damaging lifestyle and lose it all, or take the plunge and climb her way out of the fatal lifestyle. It won’t be an easy ride. What will she choose?
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Editing
As part of the editing we interspersed the scene with Beth leaning over the sink breathing deeply in order to separate the scenes up enough so that people would under stand when the changes occurred with in the film.
Using the editing we made the scenes all have shot snappy shots, not focusing on one point to long to make the film seem to fly through things and never settle on one part too long.
Hannah took the lead and organised the editing process. We used the program pincal to edit our scenes, and we began editing from the moment the first scene was filmed. We started with the drug taking scene with Katy in the toilet. This was difficult to edit because it was out first attempt at the film, thus made many little mistakes and missed out valuable shots making continuity difficult. Katy fell different ways each time we filmed the scene, therefore careful effort was taken to ensure the scene had continuity.
This was also the same with the subway shot with Megan and Seb. Because we filmed one of the scenes several times, and narrowed it down to two main shots that we liked the two shots we narrowed it down to ended up in different places, so we had to spend several hours editing the piece very carefully to ensure it looked realistic.
For the filming of the fight scene we wanted it to be more rough and tumble type of filming, and seem more spontaneous and keep the verisimilitude. So this involved filming from differnt angles and veiw points through out the scene. The issue that arised here was the lighting again. One of the scenes we filmed we really liked, but couldn’t use because the light was really out and gave the scene an unprofessional look. Eventually we managed to cut the scene so that it was still jerky, but looked reasonably good.
The next scene was the Chase scene, and in this scene the idea was to show the character Chase with two different girls in the the same room to show his personality as a womeniser. So we filmed the scenes rom the same angles in the editted it so that the film show Chase doing the same thing with two different girls. We then had a close up with Chase’s back and the girls hands coming up his back. We used a close up so that the audience focuses straight on the back of the actor and not on anything else.
The final scene was the break-in with Hannah. This needed alot of editing to make the continuity correct in the piece. We started with the camera running up Hannah to give a character profile and the audience an idea of the Hannahs personality. We then move the shot to show a car leaving the scene. The next shot was done inside of the house looking out through the window. The next bit to edit was difficult as we had to time the opening of the window with the camera movemen, making sure continuity was kept. After this we did a point ofd veiw shot with Hannah jumping into the room holding the camera so the audience can see what Hannah sees making them feel involved in the scene. Tghis scene was considerable long than the others in the film,but we felt it was needed to offer a wider variety of shots within the film and had a contrast to that of the other mnore choppy scenes.
Shot list
Lexi, Scene 1= Close up, view in the mirror. (reoccuring shot)
Pixie, Scene 2= A low foot shot of her walking. see the door of the toilet opening; An over the head shot, showing the top of Pixes head and her moving over the toilet; Shot from the back of the toilet showing Katie falling against the door.
Ella, subway scene, Scene 3= Tracking shot of them moving down into the subway;A close up of them kissing; tracking shot of them finishing kissing moing away and stumbling down the allyway, then Ella throwing up.
Danni, fightscene, Scene 4= Wide shot of Danni up against a fence; wide shot of girls walking towards Danni; Over the shoulder shot of fight; wide shot of the fight.
Chase, Scene 5= Wide shot from side of two girls; close up of hands on back (repeat)
Tyler, break in, Scene 6= Tracking shot moving up the body showing the character; Wide shot with car leaving; close up of Tyler leaving; medium close up through window; shot of Tyler getting a large rod; Inside window shot again; Point of view shot; Wide shot of leaving and running away.
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Music
Originally we like the song ‘Pretty Vacent’ by Lady Soverign. But because this was a cover of an original song, we couldn’t find the publishers to get the music rights for it. So using a copyright free website http://ccmixter.org/ we found the song ‘Never Get out’ by William Berry. We felt this song gave the up beat rythem that we had originally wanted to achieve. The name aoso gave us and idea of the theme we wanted to run through out movie, the idea that she has made a lifestyle choice that she can no longer get out of.
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Actors, Actresses and Costumes
Katy Neal: Played Pixie. We had Katy wearing a floral, long-sleeved long top, jeggings and high heels. We chose this combination because the floral top showed a most sophisticated and “going out” look that we desired, and with the heels made her seem more glamorous. But we anted it to seem although she were in a school, so we added the jeggings to ground the look, and make it seem more casual. Katie’s natural hair was white curly bonde, so we used this to our avantage by fluffing it up and making seems mesys and giving Katie a rough edge.
Beth Elmes: Played Lexi. We had Beth dressed in a dark lace dress, giving the impression that she had just been out, and only just got in. Her make up was smuged and over her face, making it seem like she had had a rough night. We chose dark colours ot show off her darker side within the movie.
Megan: Played Ella. Once again we opted for the sophisticated look, maig her seem like she was coming back from a night out, and drunk. We would ahve rather she was not wearing jeans, but weather conditions, and worry for the safety of out Actors forced us to allow her to wear jeans.
Hannah: Played Dan in the breakin. Hannah was dressed in casual jeans, a wolly hat and jacket with the hood up. This was to show the idea of a “shifty look”, and in todays society polls show that people are more afraid of people in hooded clothes.
Josh, Holly and Lucy: Playing the bedroom scene. In this scene we went for the casual look for the girls, focusing on being girls. Lucy was wearing a skirt to keep it feminine, with a white top, this was widely contrasted with Hollys clothing (This was deliberaty to show the difference between the two). Josh, we had wearig the same clothes for both scenes as we wanted the audience to see the similarity between the two scenes, and notices thta Josh is wearing the same clothes in both.
Dotty: In the fight. We had Dotty dressed in skinny jeans, with a blakc top and leather jacket. We had the leather jacket in order to make her look “badass” and indie. This was to make her seem roughwhich the scenen needed as it was focused on how her charactor is always ignored, and tends to use fighting as an oulet.
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Problems and Solutions
The main issue that arised for our group was time, as we all have 3 other A levels to focus on time has been very limited and mixed in with work there was only a small window of time that we could actually get together and film.
We resolved this by making a time sheet, and filled in our names on times that we were able to film, we also changed some of our scenes to be shot in school, so accessablility would be easier.
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Developed Plot ideas
We have come across some issues with timing, as our deadline was recently revealed, leaving us little time to do the scenes we intended. So in order to accomodate the new time scale we have been give we have had to change our idea slightly.
We have scrapped the idea of a voice over each of the scenes, because we feel it is no longer needed with the order in which we have placed the scenes. We choose to have it at the beginning over the first scene, as an introduction into the whole film, thus taking it away from the classic “Tv episiode” opening and more towards a movie.
The order is now as follows;
An image in the mirror, with the main character (Lexi) leaning over, looking roughed up. This is where the voice over will come, with heavy breathing and a heart beat over the top. SHe will then plunge her face into the water, followed by a black and white showreel of the events that lead her to her current place.
Next is Pixie, in the toilets sniffing coke.
Then inserted is Lexi leaninjg over the basin
Then it is Annie stumbling in the Ally way and being sick.
Lexi over the basin
Next is Chase, in the bedroom with two different girls.
Lexi over the basin.
The we see a fight between Dorothy and another group of people.
Lexi over the basin
We the see a break in.
And finally Lexi pulls her face out of the water showing the end of the montage.
The title “The Edge ….”
And then the final scene of Lexi rushing into class and slamming the door, leading into what would be the rest of the film.
Notes: All of the shots with Lexi leaning over the bason are in colour, to show the present time, and focus of the film. Then the shots inbetween of the other charactors are to be in black and white to show the difference between them and Lexi. They are more of a memory for her, rather than the main focus of the present time. The black and white makes it easier to seperate and understand the plot with out giving too much away.
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Initial Plot Ideas
Idea: As Drama as our genre, we decided to go fro something that reflect real life as much as possible. The show “Skins” was an early influence for the production with its casual exposure of drugs, sex and the difficult lives of teenagers in today society.
The initial idea was to have a series of scenes showing the darker areas of teenage life, showing the gritty things that others may not notice, or experience. We were planning to use different actors in each scene with no connection to each other except the fact that they were all involved in the wrong kind of scene, and were throwing their lives away with no way out. To make the opening less tedious we would have shots that cut up each individual scene. These are of out main charactor leaning over a basin, looking roughed up and “out of it”
But this was to unrelated, and we didnt have any common ground for the audience to relate too, so we added a voice over and had this person to talk about the characters on the scenes, and how they have effected her life.
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