EVALUATION: Question 1

Question 1 Evaluation

Evaluation: Question 1

Question 2 Evaluation

Evaluation: Question 2

Question 3 Evaluation

Evaluation: Question 3

Evaluation question 1.

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

Evaluation question 2.

How does your media product present particular social groups?

   

Evaluation question 3.

Evaluation: Question 4

History of the Teen Genre:

The teen movie came of age in 50's America, not long after the concept of the teenager was born. The idea of an intermediate stage between childhood and adulthood, with its own peculiar characteristics. Therefore, teen movies are usually created for teenagers at the age between 15-18 because of the plots and twists based on a teenagers social interest. For example, both the sub-genres: Youth drama and High school drama focus on a teenagers lifestyle in different perspectives. This is also proven by the common stereotypes of teenagers being 'irresponsible' and 'brats' being conformed in each film. However, teen movies are also enjoyed by young adults who usually recollect events of the past.

The Gidget movies and Beach Party (1963) really developed and based with the mood of the 60s in mind, uniting music, comedy and romance with surf, Californian sun and skimpy bikinis. Much of the success of the teen movie lies in the fact that it intertwines fluidly with other genres. In the 70s, teens were subjected to horror such as the movie 'Carrie, 1976' , romance genre movie : 'Love Story, 1970', comedy 'National Lampoon's Animal House, 1978' and John Travolta musicals - 'Saturday Night Fever, 1977' and 'Grease, 1978'.

High-school comedies featuring the so-called Brat Pack were huge in the 80s - a prime example being The Breakfast Club (1985). These films introduced the conventional characters in a teen drama like the bitchy cheerleader, the uber-jock footballer and the bespectacled nerd.

Today, the teen movie remains in good health - considering the success of the High School Musical series and Superbad (2007); initially teen dramas were solely for teens only, as they could relate the most however as the genre has developed and become more popular it has gained a secondary audience of young adults and adults(people between 21-29) because they feel like they can reminisce about their teenage years when watching teen films.

EVALUATION: Question 2

...

Representation is how a mass media text choses to portray someone or something.

Teen drama films can represent the same person in completely different ways depending on the sub genre. Also the sub genres specifically have certain groups they would usually represent. e.g high school dramas usually represent youths as free spirited and fun while youth dramas usually represent youths as hood rats and anti social.

The main social group we are representing in our title sequence is teenage/adolescent boys. We conform to the stereotype about black young teenage boys seen in teen dramas and wider media’s. They are costumed in tracksuits & hoods, one person is on a bike that some may assume to be stolen.  This portrays a negative representation of young boys, although in the voice over Marcus says he just sees them as his group of ‘friends’ not a gang.

EVALUATION: Question 3

EVALUATION: Question 5

Evaluation question 5.

EVALUATION: Question 5

Question 5 Evaluation

Evaluation: Question 5

Evaluation: Question 6

How to create sounds on Garage band

How to create titles in Motion

How to use Final Cut Pro 7

Question 7 Evaluation

Evaluation question 7.

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

 

EVALUATION: Question 7

Evaluation: Question 7

FINISHED

We completed our film today

                     

Final product.

After receiving Dan's advice and one of the technicians, who also agreed that the title being towards the end of the film will be more conventional. We were debating against moving the title and were not willing to because of the specific soundtrack we had for it - which we all approved of. However, after thinking it through carefully we decided to move the title towards the time before Marcus meets his best friend Elijah. This was advised by Dan because he thought it helped emphasise on the title and films purpose. Whilst moving the title we had to adjust the credit names again and fix the transitions made until we were finally finished at 12:30 which was before the actual deadline at 4pm.

Overall, we think our footage is simple and matches the Youth Drama we were aiming for. With short timing we found audio to help the audience understand our footage more, and without it our footage wouldn't have been good enough. 

Feedback on Final Product

Throughout the footage Eric made comments about how he the footage was really good. He mentioned the characters voice was deep and it sounded as if he was 'depressed' we took this as a positive feedback as we weren't aiming for the character to be joyous. Also, upon seeing the group of boys who looked like they were up to no good Eric said 'I would walk the other way' which again we took it positively - as we wanted to show Marcus's friends to be a bad influence on him. Overall, he didn't really have any negative feedback for our footage and really loved the title.

Dans Feedback - Final

Since Dan last saw our footage, we added narration and voice over. We showed Dan our footage one more time and he mentioned that there has been lots of improvement since the last time he saw it. We have our title at the front because its animation fits in really well with the music. However, he criticised the positioning of our title and said that it would be better if we moved it further down the title sequence, as having it nearer to the front is unconventional. But, Dan said it wasn't necessary for us to move the title and it was up to us.

Final lesson for footage.

For this lesson we added all the audio, which consisted of Marcus's mother shouting and Marcus's voice over about his lifestyle. Due to the audio being last minute, it was hard finding voices, and the the audio has background noise which makes it less clear. However, since it was last minute we think the audio is good enough for our footage and matches the Youth Drama style. 

Also, we had a problem with our font 'impact label' disappearing from out footage, so we had to download it again and add it back to our footage. We had to make sure the titles were inside the image+wireframe so it would be visible for the cinema screening.

Lastly, we watched our video all over again when it was done and fixed some shots by either shortening it and added transitions to make the footage better. 

Blogging health check 3.

Hi 

Good blog at the moment – 16/A grade. Well done on getting feedback, identifying a problem and proposing a solution.

Main thing missing as far as I can see is discussion of edting skills developed. What have you learnt about editing so far? What skills have you developed? Can you explain your use of specific filters or transitions or any other technical skills – you can illustrate this with videos or screen grabs. Imagine you are explaining to me everything that you’ve learnt about editing so far. If you wish to do this as a group blog, the other members of the group blogging need to decide what they are doing – writing blogs on music? Disussing the editing in another part of the film etc.

Dan

Response to audience feedback

Another member of our class - Daniel looked at our rough cut 2 and said that he felt the shots were too long (which is also what dan said previously) so for our final piece we will shorten all the shots. he also said he felt it was slightly pointless, he didn't understand the point of Marcus walking around the location. 

- we have decided to add a narration to our film to give it a sense of purpose and make the objective of Marcus obvious

On wednesday 4th Rebecca said she really liked our choice of font and thinks that it really fitted with the genre well, she thinks the music does the same and creates a sense of crime and movement with its fast pace.

Rebecca's lesson.

We downloaded the font 'impact label' and added it onto our titles, and reduced some titles as Dan mentioned we had too many. Also, we were sorting out whether we wanted our titles to be white or black but ended up opting for white as we believed it stood out the most. Also, we needed a sound effect of a door slamming to help reflect on the character Marcus's annoyance. So we went on YouTube and searched for door slamming effects until we found the perfect one that matched our footage. 

Production Diary: Thursday 5th March

After receiving feedback during rough cut 2 where we were told to shorten footage due to excess material and prolonged scenes, we change the layout of the footage and cut extended footage from the clips and changed some of the music due to one being better than the other due to the sub-genre of the movie; this was the way we opted to apply the finishing touches to our footage.

Editing

Response to rough cut feedback.

After receiving feedback from Dan on our rough cut, he made us understand our footage doesn't really have a purpose and only shows a boy walking without a clear introduction of him. After watching the footage again, I believe Dan has a point so therefore my group and I have decided to add our original idea back to the footage. Our original idea involves the character Marcus's mother shouting at him which causes him to leave the house in anger. Also, a new idea we have thought is a voice over of the character Marcus so it gives the audience an insight of his personality and lifestyle. 

We also received feedback from Daniel (group 34) who mentioned our scenes are too long, I agree with this and suggested we cut of the cigarette scene. I've chosen this particular scene because the cigarette packet isn't really visible and you can't see the interaction between the shopkeeper and Marcus, also the shot was a bit shaky. Daniel also mentioned he didn't understand the relationship between the character Marcus and Elijah - this will be established through the voice over of Marcus. 

Blogging Health Check 3

Grade A = Mark: 17

53 posts at health check 3.  Again, blog is looking great with lots of detail around what you've been doing in class.  I can't find your reflection on the rough cut feedback that you got from Dan - I can see his video giving you the feedback but I need to see a post where you've reflected on this and then acknowledged what you are going to do to make the changes.
Aside from this - it's looking great.  Well done.

Rebecca's Feedback to footage.

Rebecca watched our film and suggested that we move our titles into the wide frame as the credits would not be included on a cinema screen if they were positioned how they were. She also said that we should remove our names off the credits if it appears more than once and make sure we replace them with other names, which we can use from films like Kidulthood. This is to ensure that no names appear more than once as it looks unprofessional.

Also, there was a disagreement regarding the music choice for the title sequence and entire footage. So we decided to let Rebecca know about this, and after listening to both the musics she decided it was fine the way it was. This was because the music for the footage matches the Youth Drama film and suggests something will happen like a crime scene, whereas the title sequence music being played during the footage will not have the same effect. This helped us come to a decision and leave the music how it is.

Response to Rough Cut 2 Feedback

Dan said that our footage is meaningless as it does not make sense and is so long. We decided to follow up an idea that we initially thought of but didn't go along with - We are going to add a voice over of Marcus's mother telling him off so that viewers understand that Marcus left the house because he was annoyed with his mother.

We also want to add a voice narration while Marcus is walking so that the viewers get told a story of what they are watching about, as just watching a boy walking can be very tedious.

A member of our class, Daniel from Group 34 also gave feedback about our film - He too said that our footage drags on and to remove the scene where Marcus buys a cigarette as it is very ambiguous and the viewers can't really tell whats in his hand. He also said that he did not understand what was going on between Marcus and Elijah, therefore we decided to add on a narrative voice to dictate the story.

Self Evaluation

I have contributed mostly to the filming process. We used the estate I live in as our location, which is Kingsmead estate in Hackney, I suggested this location as I know it well, it is very symmetrical and it has very liner mise en scene, so i thought this would be a good shot visually.

I felt like this is a strength in our title sequence as it fit our sub genre (which is youth drama) well as it is a stereotypical east London estate which is mainly populated by youths, and the set alone could create the sense of grimy council estate london.
I also contributed with the casting choice, my uncle is the actor who plays Marcus. I thought he was a good casting choice as he fits the stereotypical assumption of bad youths today.
i think the sound that is playing during the production companies should be played during the narrative instead of the production companies as it reflects the atmosphere of title sequence better than the current one we have playing over the narrative.

Contribution

My contributions to the group were mainly to do with the plan and the design of our final product and recording the beginning of our film. Although Zahed was the person who physically edited the titles and music during the editing lessons, I contributed to it by suggesting ideas and helping with the decisions of its music, fonts, positions and styles to help it adapt to the theme of our youth drama.

Response to Rough Cut feedback

After being given feedback from Dan and a peer from our class (Daniel) on the rough cuts, my response to the feedback would be that I have to shorten some of the footage due to the cap of the footage having to be 2 minutes exactly. Furthermore, I have fixed footage that appeared not to be exactly in-line the way it was suppose to be, as well as the fixing the music after Dan said it was not consecutively put as there were gaps in-between.

Rough cut 2 feedback.

Dan mentioned our footage doesn't really have a purpose and only shows a boy walking. So, we have decided to add audio of the character Marcus's mum shouting at him then. This goes with our footage because then we see Marcus putting on his headphones - blocking her out. Also, during the end when the two characters Marcus and Elijah meet there will be dialogue between the two characters instead of them spudding and walking away. 

We are also thinking about adding a voice over narration so the purpose and the characters are understood better in the film. 

Influence website screenshots.

We wanted the website to be simple and not too amateur. We added some screenshots from the footage such as the casting crew and scenery. Also, we made our own blog on the website which looks really similar to our actual blog. We added our twitter on it so it is easy for people to follow and look at our tweets. 

...

Feedback from class member.

Daniel from group 34:

He mentioned that the title of the film was really nice and the film was good overall. However, there were many improvements he suggested we do such as:

• Shorten some of the shots as they drag on too much
• Increase the pace of the editing so it looks better
• He wasn't sure why the last scene took place and doesn't understand what is going on between the two boys. 
• He didn't like the fact that the music wasn't playing. 

We have decided to cut off some scenes - the scene we have chosen is when the character goes inside the shop to buy a cigarette packet, this is because we don't think it's necessary and doesn't really go with the plot of the film. Also, we cut down the parts when he was walking as we thought it was too much. 

Also, the reason the music wasn't playing is because we're still working on it because of the feedback we got from Dan last time. 

Rebecca's lesson.

We were sorting and removing some of the scenes that were not needed in our footage, also we decided to change the font of the credits. We used the website 'Da Font' for that and so far we liked the font Impact Label and have decided to use that for our footage.

We think the font is simple, and goes with the Youth Drama film we have done. Also, once looking at it on the footage we though it stood out a lot compared to the other fonts we had chosen. Moreover, we used the laptop to make some changes on our films website, to make a few Twitter feeds and upload our rough cut 1 feedback. 

Rough Cut 1

Rough cut 1 feedback.

44. Our Website

http://influence33.weebly.com/

Feedback from Rebecca.

The major concern she had with our footage was it went over the time limit it was actually meant to be in, which is two minutes. Our footage was not even finished and we had reached two minutes and 32 seconds. She had suggested we either start cutting some now as we add more footage along the way, or we add all the footage altogether and then start cutting unnecessary parts out, we decided to go for the second option as we found it easier and more simple. 

Photos from 1st filming session.

The first three screenshots from the footage, were a success. This is because they were clear, and matched the idea we were aiming for - which was using different buildings so it is similar to attack the block. Also, I believe that the first three screenshots help represent the youth drama, this may also be because of the weather as it was not too sunny and was quite dull. However, the very last image is a shot through Shakayla's bedroom window. I don't think the shot came out how we expected it to and was very blurry compared to the other footage - so we may not use this shot but this won't be a problem as we have enough location settings.

Moreover, the non location shots taken such as the close up shot of the character Marcus is a way of introducing him. He is stepping out of his house after an argument with his mum and has a serious face - i liked this shot a lot as it shows he calm and relaxed attitude. Another shot I liked was the close up shot of the phone, the title of our film ended up being on the lock screen of the phone, this was not planned but ended up being a good shot. Also, the rest of shots are of the camera following Marcus leaving the flat and starting his journey which we will be filming on another day. 

Production Diary: Tuesday 10th February

After finishing editing completely, I started to edit the footage to correspond the storyboard we made earlier in the project. The things that went well was that due to the footage interlinking with each other easily, it made it easier to edit the footage into a on going sequence. However, I do think that the footage the group took could be more steady without excess movement, this is something we will look into next time if possible otherwise we will edit with the footage we have and put it together with the best of my abilities during the next media lesson.

Production Diary: Sunday 8th February

Today we shot more of Marcus walking around the area, which is Hackney, as well as him interacting with a group of boys, which is what we did not do on Saturday. 

The problem with the group of boys that are in the video were they looked quite young. We would have preferred to find boys that were/looked a bit older, as it would of gave a more threatening vibe that we were aiming for. However, we were still pleased with what we got. 

Also, we had a slight problem with the actor who played the role of Marcus.This was due to him having a haircut causing he to look slightly different to how we shot him the very first time on Wednesday 28th January. But it was okay because most of the shots we had taken, he had his hood up, so the viewer won't be able to see the difference. 

Production Diary: Saturday 7th Feburary

We filmed Marcus from one block to another so we had a wide shot of the block and this is where we will hear the mother's voice while panning up the block. We had tried to shooting him buying a packet of cigarettes, but no shops would allow us. So instead we decided to shoot him going inside a shop empty handed and then coming out with a packet of cigarettes. 

Also, we shot him meeting the second main character in our film, Elijah, at the end of the footage. However, the only scene which was missing from today was Marcus with a group of boys. This did not happen because we found the group of boys too late and the scenery was too dark to shoot, so we decided to do this on Sunday 8th during the day.

Blogging Health Check 2

17/20 : Grade A

39 posts at health check 2.  The blog is looking pretty good Zahed - well done.  There is lots of evidence of excellent research and planning here, as well as lots of reflection on the changes made in light of the pitch.  What I need you to work on now is more of your own blogs:  after each filming and editing session post your own individual blog where you reflect on what you felt went well and what you think needs to improve.  Then post another stating your plans for the next filming/editing session.  Keep up the great work.  

Blogging health check 2.

Congratulations, guys you have an excellent blog. Well done (even my girlfriend looked at it, and commented it was "very professional"). I particularly liked the way that you blogged my last bit of feedback - you wrote about what I said and found a solution. Keep up this current level of focus. It's really good work. 

Don't forget to keep including the productions diaries. Do a write up after every filming session and always reflect on what you might want to do going forwards, how the footage you've shot has changed plans. You can add comments about your individual contributions. Be specific and detailed. You can also blog about what skills you think you have developed. 

I would say with your filming currently, don't be shy of experimenting. I remember talking to you about Jump Cutting on Friday - I found a couple of Youtube videos which show some interesting examples. It might be something to experiment with for your opening scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1yUwWG5ikE

There's some excellent, interesting editing in this sequence - though it gets a little bit gory so brace yourselves:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2GPBBxFpEw

These links could form the basis of a blog post. You don't have to do this, but it might be an idea.

40/40/38 - grade A-

Dan

43. Reflection

After having our first shoot on Wednesday 28th January 2015, we have decided to continue filming the rest of the footage on Saturday 7th of February, and hopefully finish shooting the footage for our Youth Drama Film, so we can edit the whole footage the following week.

After filming on Wednesday, we have decided that we need to re-shoot the first scene of the character Marcus leaving his house. This is because we can see the camera and the person filming on the reflection of the door window, also we can see the actor looking straight at the camera - it makes it look less realistic. So it is vital for us to re-shoot this particular shot and make sure the same mistake is not repeated. 

We believe the clothing of the actor portrayed the rebellious character we were aiming for. He shall be wearing this through out our opening scene of the title sequence, to show that the day or scene has not changed. 

We also believe our location shot was perfect for our sub-genre - Youth Drama. This is because it didn't look too class, and showed different blocks of flats with a bus stand right at the front. It also shows how people will be dressed like our character - which is casual and dark clothing - as we have chosen the perfect day to do this. The weather was dull, and there wasn't much sun showing in the footage. 

Task 36: Updated storyboard/ animatic & address feedback from storyboard 1

For the storyboard, Dan liked our idea using Panic Room's title sequence shot, however he mentioned how it will be difficult to get a three dimensional affect. Also, Dan suggested we get clear shots of the main character walking during the title sequence so it doesn't get boring watching buildings only and it will make the youth drama more effective by showing the characters movements. He also said we needed to be specific in what type of shots we will be taking in each scenery.

Since it will be difficult to get a three dimensional affect against the buildings, we have decided to keep the text plain so it stands out against the buildings. Dan's suggestion was really helpful and useful, so we have decided to use this suggestion as we believe it will help the audience know the main characters attitude and movements more clearly. The location of our film will definitely be in Hackney and we will be using various shots such as establishing shot, wide shot, close up shot, long shot etc.

Final decisions in light of feedback.

The main problem in our pitch, was the role of the mother. Dan mentioned it would be difficult to find a character to play her role, who looks the age and can act it out realistically. Also, he had mentioned that it would be hard to make a different person, other than the group members to commit to our film. So, we have decided that instead of getting someone to play the role of the mother, we will use someone from our groups voice to show the argument between the mother and son. This will be done by a voice over, were the mothers voice will be heard but she will not be visible. We believe this will be easy to carry out, instead of going through the stress of finding another character. Moreover, Dan mentioned Zahed doesn't fit the role of a bad behaved youth to play the role, so to match the role we decided to use Shakayla's uncle who has agreed to take part. There were problems regarding our location which we have confirmed to be Hackney, most of our sceneries will be from that particular area.

Pitch Feedback.

Questions answered by our classmates:

1. what was good about the about the pitch/ ideas represented?

"I liked how they included a video to demonstrate how they would like to show it"

"The use of garage band to create the music for the opening sequence"

"Liked the prepared indents for the production companies"

"Good use of examples and liked the sound track draft"

"Detailed title sequence plot, showed inspirations"

"I liked how detailed they made the storyboard"

"Clear and easy to understand the basic idea"

"The detail of the storyline and location"

2. What would have made the pitch even better?

"Examples of the type of shots they would use in conjunction to the film that inspired them, which is attack the block"

"Could have made a TimePost for the production schedule"

"Plan specific dates for production using TimeToast"

"Give abetter understanding of how they want to film"

"Closer shots of the story board"

Questions our classmates asked at the end of our pitch were:

Are the two boys going to be from different areas?

No, they will be from the same area, but the area is not a specific theme or problem in our film.

What other locations will you be using? 

We will mostly be using the location of Hackney - East London as it is is a usual location for a British youth drama because it creates a "hood" atmosphere.

Do you plan on playing the same track for the whole title sequence?

At the start when the production companies are being shown there will be a different soundtrack. It's only when the main character Marcus puts his headphones in is when that track will begin.

Do you plan on using any special effects?

We plan on using special effects when inputting the titles on the moving image as we want the titles to appear as if they are within the moving image. 

Task 23: Which institution/ studio will produce your film?

For our film we chose to have it produced and distributed by 'Legendary Pictures'; notable movies that 'Legendary Pictures have produced are Inception, Dracula Untold, Gozilla (2014), The Hangover Trilogy, 300, Due Date and several others. However, we chose produce and distribute our film with a company we chose to make, 'Luxor Entertainment' this is because due to doing a Youth drama which majority of the time is produced by independent label, it will support the fact that independent labels produce and distribute Youth drama films. 

Below is the images of our production and distribution company:

...

Task 28: 3 real media texts that influenced our film titles

Panic Room: we were influenced by the text in the title credits of Panic Room as it was very appealing due to the fact of how the text appeared on screen. The way we would be able to use them is if we take the same approach in our movie and display the names of the cast on footage of buildings .

Kidulthood: we were influenced by the text in the title credits of Kidulthood due to the title slowly increasing in size with a 'impact' like font which is simply but effective on a blank screen to focus the attention of the viewer. Ways we could use them is on our title and use the effect of zooming into the text gradually.

Ill Manors: the way the font for 'ill Manors' was portrayed influence us becuase within the font the lied an image of the city which the movies based in as well as the writing being bold and placed on a black background to emphasise the title. Ways which we would be able to use this is by placing the location of our movie inside the font of our title to show the whereabouts of the movie.

Task 37: Brand your blog visually

The visual look we had to change for our blog to adapt to our film/genre was that we had to give it a darkish look to correspond to the fact that the film is based on bad influence in a typical estate and how one of the protagonists is effected by staying with the wrong crowd which influences his decision making in the process and causes him to go astray.

We chose to place the film title/logo in the middle which has a ragged font style to show the upbring of the two protagonist as both come from bad backgrounds. The pitch black background behind the font denotes the fact that something bad will take face in the movie; the black background of the blog is to match the films storyline but no entirely. They typical graffiti font on 'Group 33' is to show one of verious acts which are commited in rough neighbours as where our film will be set.