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.

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.

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.