Evaluation

The genre we chose for our film was ‘teen drama’. We chose this genre as we thought that it would be the most appealing to our target audience of 15-19 year olds. When deciding what to include in the opening sequence of our film we looked at many other different film ideas, the first one was mean girls. We looked at this as we thought it would relate back to our target audience and was a film with a similar genre. We also looked at the opening sequence from the film snatch, as we thought that although the genre was not the same, Snatch is a popular film among our target audience. We also looked at the television series Skins, as this has a similar plot and is also aimed at 15-19 year olds. It includes topics like sex, drugs, alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy etc. And is supposed to represent the college life of the teen audience in a more exaggerated way. We decided this was effective and tried to incorporate this into our film idea. We have chosen to use teenage characters in our film to make it more appealing to our target audience as they are characters we hope our audience can empathise with and are representative of the different social groups of college. The music we have chosen is ‘indie rock’ it is upbeat and modern and is something that is stereotypically what teenagers listen to. We hope this will add to the appeal of the title sequence, portraying its fast movement and upbeat storyline.

We have used 6 characters within our film, 3 girls and 3 boys. We have chosen to do this as it is an even representation of both sexes. We have tried to make our characters versatile and representative of all different sorts of teenagers. Firstly there is Cher. Cher is the leading female character who is easy going and into partying and drugs. She is the most dominant member of the group but that is only because the other female characters envy her lifestyle, not because she tries to be in charge. Cher subverts the stereotype of a teenage girl as she is not easily led by male characters, she does what she wants, when she wants which is something teenage girls are not always given credit for. The other two female characters are Lola and Sara, who tend to be more like Cher’s followers. Lola is very academic and quiet and is more in the group through her association with Cher rather than any forcefulness of her own. Sara however is a typical wannabe character. She’s vain, image obsessed and jealous of Cher’s link to the male characters. She is also the most bitchy of the females and is constantly trying to cause upheaval within the group. Matt is a typical ‘jack the lad’ character. He’s the most domineering of the boys and is the one that gets all the girls. Chris is less of a dominating character. He’s mischievous and likes to have a laugh but is less ruthless than Matt and knows his limits. He is a college music student who dresses more alternatively. A typical ‘boy in a band’. Finally there is Thomas who is a college dropout, but still part of the gang. He is laid back and spends most of his time at home of his Xbox. The reason we have chosen to use these characters is so that our film appeals to our target audience because they can relate to the characters they are seeing on screen. We want our film to be representative of the college environment and the only way we can do this is by creating versatile characters that represent most social groups. For dominating females we have Cher, for the high maintenance fashion girls we have Sara and for the less extrovert shy girls we have Lola. For the popular ‘ladies men’ we have Matt, for the ‘indie’ boys we have Chris and for the boys that don’t go to college or the nerdy geeky types we have Thomas. Hopefully this will help our target audience to be more attracted to our film.
If it was to be released we think our film would probably be released by a small British company such as ‘Warp’. If it was to be shown on television it would probably be shown on Channel 4 alongside things like Shameless and Skins which are of a similar genre. It would have to be shown after the 9oclock watershed as it is not suitable for children. It is low-budget and probably be shown in select cinemas in a limited amount of areas. It is not supposed to be a Hollywood blockbuster. Regarding merchandise I don’t think it would be an effective method of promoting our film. The best way to do this would probably be by holding themed parties at nightclub venues for obviously the older end of our target audience. Where the cast would attend as a meet and greet for fans. Our target audience is 15-19 year olds. A similar film to ours would be films such as mean girls. This has similar target audience and is also based in a college setting. The TV programme Skins also has a similar plot structure and characters. From our audience research we learned that teen drama was a popular genre and the film Mean Girls and the TV programme Skins did appeal to our target audience. We gave our film the classification certificate 15. As it involves scenes of alcohol, drugs and some mild sexual contact, which we thought was suitable for persons aged 15.
In the opening 2 minutes of our film we decided the best method would be to introduce the characters and the college setting. This was in order to keep our audience intrigued and make them want to get to know the characters more. We haven’t included much action or gave away very much of the storyline as it this stage we decided it was better to keep the audience guessing. We have used a range of characters and settings to show the fast pace of the film and the range of topics we want to cover.

By creating this two minute film I have learnt how to use the filming equipment correctly and effectively. I have also learnt how to use the editing software to manipulate our shots to make them look the way we wanted them too. The difficulties we encountered were that, at times our group tended to lack some motivation for the project; we also found it difficult to transport the large equipment to our range of different settings as they were quite far away from each other. We also chose to film in a busy area of the town centre which made it difficult to get the shots to look how we wanted them too. As a group i think we have all improved since the research process of our film in which we lacked motivation when it came to the filming and editing we managed to pull together and although we found it difficult to work round everyone schedules we made it work and still remained a functioning team to create a finished product that we were happy with the standard of. The most difficult aspect of filming I found was trying to remember the 180 degree line rule. This is difficult without guidance to put into practice. We are now more confident as a group with both the technical aspects of setting up a camera and tripod but also with the creative side, knowing which shots work and how to make the film run more smoothly. The main effects that we have used within our film are fades to make the change of settings run more smoothly. We found it difficult to perfect the timing of the shots so that they didn’t jump and also finding a soundtrack that was appropriate to our genre was also difficult though in the end we were happy with our choice of an ‘indie rock’ song which really finished off our film well. For my research I chose to look at the opening sequence of Snatch and also Mean Girls and Skins. This gave us an idea what shots were effective and what characters to use. The shot list was effective as it made our filming much easier as we knew exactly what we wanted and where we needed to film which characters. The character profiles gave us an idea of how the characters should behave and treatments made it easier to remain on track with our idea. Overall I am happy with our finished film product. Although if we could improve it would definitely be on our blog. Due to the confusion of what our idea actually consisted of and trying to figure out how we would put it into practice our blog is not up to the standard I feel that it could have been had we have time managed more appropriately and so if I had to improve on any point, that would be it.

Lauren Remington - Evaluation

The title sequence we have done is in the theme of a ‘teen drama’ hence our target audience of 15-19. Movies such as Mean Girls, Juno, and Thirteen helped us to get an idea of what a ‘teen drama’ consists of, i.e. characters, settings, storylines and music, one of our biggest inspirations was the Television Drama, Skins, Using ideas such as alcohol, sex, drugs, college and just general teen life in the 21st century.

Throughout our 2 minute sequence we tried to use a range of different ways to portray teenage life such as our setting, using bedrooms, parent’s houses and college as our main focal point. Our music was chosen specifically as ‘indie rock’ is a popular type of music within teenage groups. We also used a variety of characters to give different aspects of a group and to be able to relate to our target audience, characters such as Cher, a troubled tear away and obvious leader ruling not only the girls, but manipulating the boys. Then there’s Sara and Lola the typical sidekicks to the leader, playing a part but not a big on, there purpose was mainly to highlight Cher’s power over people and influence, another Character is Matt, the character all the boys want to be and all the girls want to be with. There is also Chris a laid back music student, whose life is music, in particular rock music, this being said he is still a key piece to the group, Thomas the college dropout, a lazy but loveable character. All these characters were specifically chosen to compliment each other and give a well rounded view of typical clicks.
When filming this sequence it was apparent from the start that this type of genre, if made wouldn’t be made into a big Hollywood blockbuster, this would be a small film company, probably British, the time of Film Company that may make something of this nature could be like ‘warp’ or film4.

The first 2 minutes are to introduce our characters and make the audience familiar with them, in the hope that this would keep the audience interested and carry on watching, by not using anything scary, no action or anything particularly shocking, we hope that this would interest the audience into seeing what would happen. By introducing our characters in certain ways it gave an initial outline as to what each character would bring and by using a range making it more relatable.

When making this sequence I picked up a range of skills such as how to set up filming equipment, how to use a camera in the correct manner and learnt that filming isn’t that easy as me had a few minor problems such as our locations i.e. a busy main road a street, making it difficult to be able to use a shot and make it fit. It was also difficult to get who we needed where we needed them, and a lot of time was wasted in chasing people up, and organising times and places. The hardest bit for me was editing, as I have never used editing software before the concept was alien to me, and a lot of time and patience was needed to get the sequence to run as smoothly as possible.

A key feature we did use in editing was fading in and out, as it seemed a good way to give off the effect we were hoping for whilst making it run smoothly, also the soundtrack was difficult to find as it was difficult to find the song we wanted to fit our purpose, so by choosing and upbeat, young ‘indie rock’ song it seemed to fit the bill quite well.
Obviously from the start of the sequence to now, I feel my ability has improved vastly, from not being familiar with a camera, editing, or filming to making a 2 minute successful sequence that in my opinion works well, and portrays exactly what was intended. There were good days and bad days, lack of communication and experience affected us, but through determination and effort we were able to work as a team and pull it out of the bag.

Snatch research

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vWxU7tclsw

We decided to look at Snatch as it is a popular film among our target audience. We decided after looking at the opening sequence that the method of freeze framing characters and telling the audience their name, was a good way of introuducing them. We incorporated this idea into our own film idea.

Final Finished & Edited Film - Unrivaled

This is our final film. Filmed and edited by Courtney Harrison, Becky Yeardley and Lauren Remmington. We have tried to use a number of shots and also some interesting edits to capture the audience with our film. We have used some upbeat indie rock music to represent teenagers and their party life style and we have also tried to gage a teenage environment by the sets and props we have chose to use.

Courtney - Media Evaluation

Our film is a ‘teen drama’; we decided to do this as it would appeal to our target audience of 15-19 year olds. We have looked at the movie mean girls and this gave us the idea of having different types of character clicks linked into one group. Also we looked at the TV programme skins this also gave us the idea of having themes of teenagers, college, partying, alcohol, drugs and sex. In our film we have used teenage characters so this shows it is a teen drama. Also our setting shows that it is based around teen agers as we have used a college set and a teenager’s bedroom. The music on our film is ‘indie rock’ so it suggests some of the music teenagers listen to, also it is upbeat so it suggests the kind of party lifestyle a lot of teenagers seem to live and especially the characters within our film.

Within our film we have used 3 girls and 3 boys, all teenagers. We have tried to portray these characters are all different types of people. Cher is like the leader of the girls, and in some sense the leader of the boys, so she is not a stereotypical girl as she shows a girl having power to rule boys so she is subverting a stereotypical female. Lola and Sara are more just like Cher’s sidekicks and these don’t seem to be leaders, so they are more like stereotypical females. Matt is like the leader of the boys, everyone wants to be like him as he is ‘cool’, he is like a stereotypical ‘jack the lad’ he’s cool, popular and gets all the girls. Chris is a music student at college rather ‘mosher’ like and is into all heavy rock bands; however at the same time he still belongs in the popular click at college. Thomas, even though a college dropout is still part of the gang, he is just lazy, maybe like a stereotypical boy. The group as a whole is rather stereotypical to a college or a school, seen as they are the popular group who everyone wants to be like. As our target audience is teenagers, and mainly girls we have tried to show a range of different characters so that the people watching can link and relate to these characters. So our audience who are girly girls we have Sara, for our more dominant girls we have Cher, for our more quiet geek like girls we have Lola, for our popular boys we have Matt, for our music students we have Chris and for the boys that don’t really do much we have Thomas. So we have linked a variety of teenagers to relate to our audience.

Our film would probably be released by a small English film company such as ‘Warp’, as it is not a big Hollywood blockbuster. It may be shown on the TV now and again, maybe on channels like film 4 and it would be shown at night after 9 as it is not suitable for younger children. There would probably not be any franchises or merchandising for our film as it is just a small production in which will be released by a small company, also there would be nothing suitable for merchandising in which would link to our film.

Our target audience for the film is 15-19 year old girls and boys, o we have tried to relate our film to teenagers and how some like the party life style as well as coping with college. A similar film to ours would be mean girls and by doing audience research a lot of people stated they like that film. Also we asked our audience if they like the TV programme skins as our film is similar to that and most of our audience said yes to liking it. We have decided to give our film a classification on 15 as it involves alcohol, drugs and some sexual contact and we thought it would be appropriate for 15 year olds.

In the opening 2 minutes of our film we basically just introduce our characters, we have used different sets and props in which relate to each character. We decided to do this in hope that people would want to keep watching and find out more about our characters and get to the main storyline. There is no scary action in our first 2 minutes and nothing inappropriate, so our audience will just be intrigued to see what happens within the main film. We have shown all different types of characters, boys and girls in hope that this will link to a lot of different teenagers and show what they are like.

By doing this 2 minute film I have learn't how to set up the filming equipment (camera and tripod) properly and safely and I’ve learn't how to use a camera correctly. We had a few little problems when filming, one being, as we filmed on a main busy street outside of college we struggled a clear pathway to film, we just had to keep trying and doing all different shots until we got it right, even though it took a long time we eventually got there. Also getting our characters to be able to film at certain times was hard as we had to work around everyone, but in the end we got it all sorted and done to the standard we wanted. As I have never used the editing soft ware before, doing this film has gave me the chance to find out what it’s all about and basically use it. The main effects we have used in our film are fading out and fading in, this has helped us to create the effect of ‘passage of time’ and it has also made our editing a lot smoother. During our editing process we struggled to find a sound track, however eventually we found one to fit our theme, it is an ‘indie rock’ track which is quite upbeat, to represent the party life style of teenagers.

Since doing the preliminary task I feel like my work with different equipment and resources has improved, also so have Becky and Laurens. We have become more confident with setting up the tripod and camera and also learnt more of how to use the camera. I have learn't things in which need to be took into consideration such as the 180° line and white balance. Also I have learn't how to do a range of shots and use the camera correctly. Through the planning stages of our film my group struggled to find our main idea of what we was going to base our film on, however we eventually all came to an agreement of doing a teen drama. For my research within the group I looked at mean girls and they way our characters could link to the characters from mean girls, this gave us an idea of how our characters could act. Also I looked at a clip of a skins house party, this was just to see how later on in our film for the partying scenes this would be what it is like. By doing the basic story outline and by doing the treatments for our film it gave us a clearer idea of what we wanted within the first 2 minutes of our film, we didn’t want too much to show off the whole film however just a basic introduction of our characters and this is what we have tried to show within our 2 minute clip. Also by creating a shot list gave us an even better idea of what we wanted.
Over all I think our film has turned out to be quite good as it has worked out just as we wanted it to, however the only problem we have faced by doing this project is our research and our blog work, as our time management hasn’t been the best. We originally decided we was all going to do different things to put on the blogger but as we have took a lot of time filming and editing we have not done as much research and blog work as we could have, so if we was to do the project again this would be the thing we need to improve on.

Film Research - mean girls

By looking at mean girls this enabled us to choose our different types of clicks within our characters, for example:

Cher - The Plastics (Regina George)
Lola -The Plastics (Gretchen Wieners)
Sara -The Plastics (Karen Smith)
Matt - Popular Boy/Jock (Aaron Samuels)
Chris - Quite Popular/Music Student
Lewis - College Drop Out



We got the ideas of having different clicks of people together from the film mean girls, however we linked our characters into one big group.

Location Shots

Where Cher is when on the phone to Lola.

The corner cher walks round before seeing Matt.

Where Matt is stood.

Where Lola is on her own when Cher rings her.

Shot list

Shot 1
Establishing shot of Cher opening her front door.
Shot 2
Medium shot of her facial expression and of her shouting back at her father.
Shot 3
Long shot of Cher slamming the front door
Shot 4
Close up of Cher taking a bottle of vodka from her bag
Shot 5
Medium shot of her drinking the vodka
Shot 6
Shot freeze. Shows Cher's name
Shot 7
Establishing shot of her away from the door that pans and follows her.
Shot 8
Establishing shot, new setting. Cher walking around a corner. Also in the shot, would be Matt. Talking to a group of girls
Shot 9
Close up of Matt's face as he see's Cher coming around
Shot 10
Shot freeze, shows Matt's name
Shot 10
Follow Matt, as he crosses the road. To join Cher.
Shot 11
Establashing shot, new setting. Lola, sat down alone in a library.
Shot 12
Move to a medium close up of the same thing
Shot 13
Freeze shot, Lola's name comes up.
Shot 14
Same shot as shot 12. Lola's phone rings.
Shot 15
Close up insert of Lola's mobile phone ringing, with the name 'Cher' on screen.
Shot 16
Medium shot of Lola answering the phone and talking
Shot 17
Long shot of Lola getting up from her seat, picking up her things.
Shot 18
Long shot of Lola leaving the library
Shot 19
Medium shot of Sara's reflection in a mirror as she is applying make-up
Shot 20
Freeze shot, Sara's name appears
Shot 21
Insert shot of radio
Shot 22
Medium shot of Sara leaning towards the radio
Shot 23
Close up of Sara's hand on volume button of the radio.
Shot 24
Establishing shot of music room, Chris on drums.
Shot 25
Medium shot of Chris on the drums.
Shot 26
Shot freeze, Chris's name appears
Shot 27
Close up of drumsticks hitting the drums
Shot 28
Cuts to a shot of playstation controller.
Shot 29
Zooms out medium shot of Thomas sat down on the playstation. Phone rings.
Shot 30
Close up of phone ringing, text message from Cher, saying "house party 2nite, my place. every1 invited. BE THERE"
Shot 31
Medium shot of Cher, smoking outside college. With her phone in her hand.
Shot 32
Close up of her phone screen. The text message Thomas received is on the screen, sending to all the characters names.
Shot 33
Long shot of Cher throwing her cigarette and walking into college.
Shot 34
Close up of the cigarette.

Film Title

LOGO

This is our logo for out production company, I chose to do it like this as we just wanted it plain and simple however effective just stating our company name.

First 2 Minute Opening Treatment

Title Of Film: Unrivaled

Length: 2 Minutes

Opening Outline: We will have small clips of each character one at a time and then a still shot with the name on.One of the main shots to gather the story line will be the shot of Thomas's phone with a text from Cher about her big house party. To end the film there will be a title, showing a table with booze bottle's and cans and cigarettes, then we will use flour to represent powdered drugs and our title (UNRIVALED) will be written in the powder. Throughout the film we will have up beat music to represent a teenage party lifestyle.

Full Film Treatment

Title Of Film: Unrivaled

Length Of Film: 90 minutes

Target Audience: 15-20 year olds, both male and female (however will probably appeal more to females)

Similar Films/Programmes: Skins, 13, Juno, Mean Girls.

Age Certificate: 15 there are drug use within the film however it is not a drug promotion film, as it is more showing the consequences of drug use. There won't be much violence or sex related scenes however there will be use of alcohol.

Story Outline: There are 3 girl characters and 3 boy characters who are all very different however click in the same friendship group. The college friends have a build up to a house party, which to them is going to be 'the party of the year' and a night to remember ... however unknown to them there are many things in which go wrong. After waking up from another night at the pub they have a long week a head to plan the party. Booze, drugs and cigarettes need to be bought and organised, as well as the people attending the party. The week of planning is over and the weekend is here, it Saturday and the party commences everything's going fine until Sara over doses on a mixture of drugs and alcohol, as she is jealous of Cher she buts in and tries to keep up with her, however she just cant! Its not good that Sara OD's as her parents have no clue about this party! Sara is not the only problem of this party there are boyfriend/girlfriend troubles and a lot of broken things within Cher's house, no one is really bothered as they are all off their faces ... Until the morning after everyone is rough and trying to remember the nights performance? After reminiscing on the nights events Cher checks her house to see the damage, however she finds something much worse than the damage; Sara dead on the bathroom floor. this results in all the group having to explain to Sara's devastated parents about the party and their dead child. The film then continues to show each characters emotional pathways and them dealing with the loss of their friend as the end of the year looms, this shows a change in all their actions and behaviour as they stop all the drugs and the over blown partying.

Skins House Party

Character Profiles

We have decided that the our cast list will be made up of three male characters and four females.
Below is a character profile for each of the characters we plan to include:


Name: Cyndi Cher Harper
Age: 17
Occupation: College Student
Personality traits:
Although her full name is Cyndi Cher, she prefers to be called Cher. She lives at home with her dad, who is a recovering alcoholic as her mum left the family home after having an affair when Cher was a child, she has no contact with her mother and is the most rebellious of the group. She's laid back and does not care what other people think. She also gets on better with male characters than females. She is dominating and envied by the rest of her female peers. She is a user of recreational drugs and has a party orientated lifestyle.
Function in narrative:
Cher is the leader of the group, but unintentionally. She does however realise her influence and use it to her advantage. Her purpose is that she represents female characters in a more domineering role and highlights the change in modern society.

Name: Matt Jones
Age: 18
Occupation: Unemployed (College Drop-out)
Personality traits:
Nicknamed Jones, for obvious reasons. Matt is a ladies-man. A typical 'jack the lad' character. Who has dropped out of college and is currently unemployed. He lives at home with his parents, who are both property developers and although they are wealthy are never really around, but still fund Matt's lifestyle. Matt is an only child and lives in a large detached house. Where most of the groups parties are held. He is laid back and a real mischevious character. The most confident of the boys.
Function in narrative:
Matt is a perfect match for Cher, but is also a likeable charcacter that the viewers will be able to associate with.


Name: Lola Madison
Age: 17
Occupation: College Student (she works part-time as a waitress)
Personality traits: Lola is a subdued and coy character. She is also quite shy and is only accepted in the group because of her friendship with Sara who she has been friends with since she was a child. She lives at home with her mother, father and younger sister. She works part time for her father who owns a restaurant. The sensible character of the group. She does not take drugs and prefers not to drink, she can be however quite easily led by Sara.
Function in narrative: Sara represents peer pressure and how people can be easily led by their friends. She is the nervous and shy character that the group will try and make rebel.

Name: Sara Sanderson
Age: 17
Occupation: College Student- Studying hair and beauty (Works part-time in a beauty salon)
Personality traits: Sara is the bitchiest character of the group. She is high maintenance and enjoys causing trouble. Sara has a real problem with Cher and really just pretends to get along with her. She is two-faced and vain. She also is a very forward character and craves attention from the male characters of the group.
Function in narrative: Sara is the character that causes the most conflict within the group. She is usually the responsible for the tensions and any arguments. Her function in the narrative is to cause arguments and shake up the groups relationships.

Name: Chris Western
Age: 17
Occupation: College music student. (He works part-time at the local music store and is also in a college organised band)
Personality traits: Chris is the most alternative of the group in many senses. He dresses differently to the rest of the group, with him favouring band t-shirts and baggy jeans with over-sized jackets and converse. He is very music orientated and his 'never leave home without' item would certainly be his i-Pod. He lives at home with his mum, dad and younger brother. But is actually adopted, although he has no contact with his birth parents, who are both heroine addicts. Chris is in a band with some people at his college although none of these feature in the main cast list of the film. He plays lead guitar and is lead vocals. His association with the group is through Matt, who he considers to be like a brother despite their varying personalities. Chris is also very laid back, he is however more of an emotionally open character. He could also be described as a 'ladies-man' but is usually looking for more of a long term relationship.
Function in narrative: Chris's function in the narrative is to dilute Matt's character, he in a way plays the role of Matt's conscience and is the only person that Matt is comfortable enough to open up to. He is also an important character in his own right, he represents the current 'indie' scene sweeping Britain.

Name: Thomas Barlow
Age: 17
Occupation: College student
Personality traits: Lewis is the most plain character of the group. He lives at home with his mother, father and two twin sisters. 'Average' would be the best word to describe him. He has no real close relationship with any members of the group and is only really invited to events out of politeness. He basically just hangs around the group for reasons that no other member of the group can really explain. He is never really invited into conversations but always joins in anyway. He is more tolerated than liked. With nothing that extraordinary about him there is no real reason to like or dislike him. When we first meet him he hasn't really come out of his shell yet, but he could definitely be described as one to watch.
Function in narrative: Lewis represents the more typical college students. The ones that aren't the glamorous, hyped up exaggerations that most other teen dramas create. He is however the character that is set to shock the audience. He has not yet come into his own, but when he does he is set to cause ructions.

Basic 2 Minute Film Idea

Four our film idea we have decided to do a teen drama/chick flick, using 6 characters, 3 boys and 3 girls... The characters will be all very different and but representative of a stereotypical college environment. For our opening 2 minutes we will have  a brief introduction of the 6 characters and an establishment of the college environment. The characters are getting ready for a big part at Cher's house which will be the following weekend.