Evaluation

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

Screen shot 1: Title
The title of our film is the first of our screen shots and it is pretty simple. We have three colours in our title and it is on a plain black background. We chose these colours for specific reasons, red for the 'Supergood' because in the results of our audience survey, it was most common for people to associate red with goodies. Yellow was chosen for 'Superbad' because our bad characters in our opening sequence all had yellow and black caution tape included in their costumes, and therefor yellow is a good representation of the 'Superbad'. We all thought that it would be best to use a neutral colour for the 'vs' because it is neutral itself. We used the font AMCAP ETERNAL because it is block letters that are easily associated with cartoon strips and animation, which is the theme we have for our film. 


We used Live Type to create our title.






Screen shot 2: Setting and Location
I chose to use this shot because it shows that our film is set in a school, ideally we would've liked to have a long establishing shot of the school as this would have shown our location more clearly and i think it would have looked better. However, this was not possible as it would be too expensive and technically challenging. The lighting of our location shot suggests that it is not a sinister film because it is bright and cheerful. We have a bell ring at the end of our title sequence and this also helps to establish the setting of a school because it is an iconic sound related to schools.






Screen shot 3: Costumes and Props
For our characters costumes we tried to use colours that just by looking at them it is clear whether they are a goodie or a baddie. For our baddies we made sure that their costumes were mainly black so that they appeared evil and dark. We also used caution tape as we felt that it made our characters costumes less boring and that it also ties in with the superhero cartoon theme we were working with. Their costumes were all very similar. Our goodies all had different types of costumes that were bright and colourful. We did this to make them appear happy and cheerful, so that it was clear what side they were on. Both leaders on the the two sides had very similar costumes, this made it clear that the were the two main guys and were rivals with each other. 


Our prop in this shot is the caution tape and the black leather jacket is the costume, Bella is a baddie and the props and her costume help to show that.






Screen shot 4: Camerawork and editing 

This shot shows the timeline of our edit in Final Cut Express, its shows camera work and editing because we can see how we have cut from shot to shot as we move upwards on all the characters bodies. We decided to do each character bit by bit because it made it less boring for the audience to watch, by chopping up the shots it gave it a faster pace. It shows how we used editing to completely change our footage, through editing we were able to make several dull tilt shots into an exciting sequence.






Screen shot 5: Title Font and Style
All text used in our title sequence has the same font, however the colour changes. This shows the name of the production company, the text has just changed from being white on a plain black background to being black superimposed on this image. The font we chose was edgy and in capital letters, we felt that it represented our superhero theme and helped to create the image we wanted the audience to have.




Screen shot 6: Story and How Our Opening Sets it Up
This shot shows the goodies and the baddies walking towards each other whilst glaring at one another. From this shot it is clear that these two groups of people have a rivalry that will be the main plot point in the story. Their costumes show that it is a superhero film.



Screen shot 7: Genre and How Opening Suggests It
Our genre is mainly shown through the use of costumes and props,  we tried to use music that would also go well with our genre. Each character has a mask, this has become an iconic sign of a superhero. Another thing that helped to establish genre was the ident that we chose to use. We decided on Marvel as our ident because after some research we saw that they funded films that are similar to our own, such as Spider Man and The Hulk. The posterize effect we used also helps to certify the superhero genre of our movie as it gives a similar look to that of a comic book, which are commonly linked to superheroes.




Screen shot 8: How characters are introduced
Each character is shown and then their screen name and their own name comes up on the screen. The baddies have their names shown in yellow and the goodies each have red for their name. This shot shows how we have clearly presented each character and their identity. The bigger, colourful text shows their characters name, whilst the smaller, white text is the actors name.




Screen shot 9: Special Effects
We used the effects available on Final Cut Express to posterize our images so that it looked cartoony and fit in with our superhero and comic theme. We changed the colour and brightness levels to make the image look exactly how we wanted it too so that we were happy with the overall look for our final piece.



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

Our media product represents many social groups, one of the main groups that is represented in our final piece is the stereotype of a goth. We played on the stereotype of a villain, by using dark colours in their costumes and make up, this is also associated with goths, evilness and the unnatural. For example, Bella(baddie) had very dark makeup whilst Sophie(goodie) had light make up with red lips, she came across as more friendly and naturally beautiful. Another social group that we represent is the 'jocks', which is commonly thought as the opposite to goths. The characters in our story that were jocks were the goodies, they were muscly and pretty - the type of people that you would expect to be popular. In general, people that are sporty and good looking are often seen as goodies.

                    









As you can see from the pictures there are similarities between the goth's makeup and Bella's makeup, they both have black lips and wear black clothes. However one thing we didn't do was make Bella's skin really pale.
In Sophie's picture there are also similarities, Sophie has the red lips, french nails and blonde hair that are iconic symbols of a cheerleader. Cheerleaders are typically associated with jocks. 
Many superheroes are also linked with the jock and goth stereotype. Superman is seen as the jock of superheroes because he has the bright colours, that are also patriotic to his country. The fact that the colours are the same as the American flag suggests that he has the support of his country. In comparison , the goth of superheroes is The Joker who has the dark and creepy makeup. He conforms to the stereotype of pale skin that makes resemble the dead, this suggest they are evil because it's uncanny and unnatural for people to look like they are dead.

                                                                                                                                                               


< The Jock
                          

                                The Goth>
Question 3:

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

I think that our film would be distributed by Marvel, i think that our film is best suited to this production company because it ties in with our comic/superhero theme. In the past Marvel has funded many superhero films, such as Spider Man, Hulk and X-Men. These films have various similarities with our final piece: Supergood vs. Superbad but the main one is the link to comic books. The certificate for our film is 12a, we chose this because it contain mild sexual content, mild violence and some bad language. 

                                   



Although we feel Marvel is the best ident for our film, there were other choices. We chose to go with an ident that typically represents Superhero films but we could have gone a different path and gone with an ident that typically supports comedy films. We looked at the ident of films such as SUPER and Kick-ass. Lionsgate Productions funded Kick-ass and Crimson Bolt funded SUPER.However, after talking about it together we decided that we wanted our movie to be seen a superhero film rather than just a random comedy. 


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

The audience for our final piece would be mostly be teenagers because they can relate to school life and the daily problems that occur with bullying. The certificate for our film is a 12a and so this also effects who would be able to watch our film, only over 12's are able to watch it without parental guidence. Our film is a superhero comedy and so it is quite likely that boys are more likely to be attracted to our film. Our audience survey showed that males are more attracted to comedies, whilst girls are more drawn towards romances. 



This is Will Brown, he is 17 years old and lives in Bromley, London. He is currently studying Maths, English, IT and Graphics at sixth form. He hopes to go to University. He dresses in dresses in what he thinks is cool clothing. It was, three years ago. He's not bothered by what other people think of him. 

He enjoys reading comic books and hanging out with his friends. They go to gigs and just chill at each other's houses. His favourite films are Transformers 1, 2, 3 - but 1 was the best one. He also likes Superbad, Kick-Ass and The Matrix. He doesn't often watch TV because he is always with his mates, but his favourite programmes are The Big Bang Theory, Futurama, Family guy and South Park. He likes programmes that make him laugh. His TV channels are Dave, E4 and The Discovery Channel. At home, he is always listening to music. His favourite stations are Radio 1 and XFM. He likes indie/rock music and independent bands which is why he often goes to venues with live music. 

I think our film would appeal to Will because he likes comedies and his love of indie/rock music will attract him to this movie as it makes up most of the soundtrack. He is of a similar age and social background to the characters in our film and with therefore be able to relate to them. People who liked Kick-ass will like our film because our intention was that it would be of a similar genre. 



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

We tried to make our film fast paced so that it was fun to watch and not boring for the audience as we wanted to make them want to continue watching the film. We used fast indie/rock music that would attract our target audience of teenagers and also help to make the film interesting, it fitted well with the style of our film. The way that the font of the text in our opening is block letters and cartoonish will attract a younger audience than a calligraphy text might, this why chose to have this style of font. 
Another thing that will help to attract our audience is through our 25 word pitch, which is presented using lots of colour to make it eye catching and fun, which encourages our target audience to watch Supergood vs. Superbad. 

We would show the trailer of our film between the TV breaks of programmes like The Big Baag Theory and Futurama because these are the types of programmes that our audience will watch. We also advitise it in before the latest teen comedy movies at the cinema. It would help attract our audience if we had posters adivitising our film at bus stops because our audience would mostly be 16 to 17 year olds that can't drive yet and so have to get the bus. They will see the posters everywhere they go and want to watch our film.


Question 6: 
Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progressing from it to full product?

I feel that the preliminary task helped us to understand how much hard work is required to create the 'perfect' film. The main thing that the preliminary task taught us was how to edit, it also showed us that to have enough footage to play around with when editing is very useful, it is best to film loads and loads on the day of shooting so that it is less likely that pick ups will be needed. As a result we didn't need to film any pick ups for our final project, whereas we had to do a few for our preliminary project. 

The preliminary project allowed us to make mistakes and learn from them, one thing i learned from the preliminary project is that attention to detail is very import. We made several silly mistakes in our preliminary project, for example not paying attention to the direction the the train was moving in the background, but we learned from them and made sure not to repeat them in our final project.

More can be seen on what we learnt through the preliminary project on my page Preliminary Task where i have written an evaluation for our preliminary production The Package. 


Question 7:
What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing this product?

The main thing that I have learnt through making this film is how to operate a camera, I now know how to achieve different types of shots and how to make sure they are steady and in the correct light. Another skill that i have learnt whilst creating this film is how to edit. I think that editing was the most challenging skill to learn as it was the most complicated, but the preliminary project helped us to get an understanding of basic editing so that when we came to edit it our final piece it was easier to do and if we came across any problems they were quickly overcome. 

We changed many of the effects in Final Cut Express to create our perfect image and were able to turn over an hours worth of footage into a short into a 1min22secs film that had a story line and plot. 

When using the cameras we had to quickly learn how to do it properly. We came across many challenges, one example is filming Sophie in the mirror, we had to be careful not to get the camera in the reflection, so we positioned ourselves to make sure that we weren't. 


1. Final Cut Express - Editing
2. LiveType - To make our titles
3. Camera and Tripod - Filming and keeping shots steady
4. Google - Finding images and researching
5. QwikSurveys - To make an audience survey
6. Blogger - To keep a diary of our daily progress and to upload our final piece
7. Copyrightfreemusic.com - To download copyright free music that we would use in our film
8. Vimeo - Transporting work so we can upload it to our blog
9. YouTube - To look for inspiration and look at other student's work
10. Scribd - To upload word documents to our blog

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