H Scudder JRCS Media Blog

Coursework Evaluation

2010-02-21T06:31:00.000-08:00

Coursework Evaluation

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

When we first researched the chosen genre for our piece we looked at the conventions that most of the romantic comedies used and what we would try to follow in our piece. These were young modern music, bold titles, monologue, generic characters, location- school and a clear story of romance. We got these from the films we researched to be inspiration. Many used a monologue from the main character which we also did from Jimmy. This gave insight to Jimmy and made it easier for the audience to come to grips to the story from Jimmy’s point of view. It also showed that he was the main character. Another was the use of young modern music like in ‘10 Things I Hate About You’, music is used throughout to represent the school life and the different social groups in a comical way. From our feedback, we learnt that one of the most popular things about the piece was the representations of the different social groups and the use of music. Keeping in with the conventions is also the clear story of romance which I think we showed as 90% of the people from the feedback knew that it was a romantic comedy and one said on what they liked, ‘immediately recognize what genre it is’ suggesting that we were successful in showing some of the conventions of a romantic comedy. However I felt we challenged some conventions due to the opening being set in a British school instead of a American like the ones we had watched during research. This makes it much more interesting for the British audience and puts a twist to the others. So although it is similar to films like ‘10 Things I hate about you’ and ‘Mean Girls’ it has a difference that this is set in England. It does follow some of their conventions and so we did follow the conventions we put out while planning and researching.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Ours is very interesting because we decided to show the stereotypical different social groups in a school from our point of view and Jimmy’s. There is the ‘musically talented’, ‘the popular kids’ and the ‘geeks’. They are represented in a very typical way the musically talented are away from everyone else and are playing their music very scruffy while the ‘geeks’ are wearing glasses doing loads of work. The ‘popular kids’ have make up on and are viewed as better then the rest while also appearing very dim with Kate asking ’Is Europe a hot country’ suggesting they are all looks and no brains. The use of representing them in a stereotypical way makes them more interesting to the audience while also challenging their thoughts if this is right to do. 40% of the people asked mentioned they liked the representation of the different social groups and one said about them ‘their lines were funny’ while also showing the ‘reality of school life’. It is also interesting that Jimmy does not fit in with these while having a friend, it challenges if all school students need a group and if they choose to be put there. Jimmy is not critical of any of the groups really but does state that Kate has a low IQ while then being shown to fancy her putting him in the place of knowing they are dim while yet still wanting to be apart of it by fancying Kate. There is also a use of music to further show the different groups in a stereotypical way with for example the ‘geeks’ having classical music over their scene while the ‘popular kids’ have a much more modern upbeat song suggesting more popularity with them also shown sitting on the tables in a very relaxed way suggesting they are higher up in the school. This and the fact that Jimmy gets very nervous when he fears he has made a fool of himself after he has waved at Kate. This further creates humour while showing they are completely different. When asked people in the feedback, most put the music and the representations together and generally most like it.

3. What kind of media institutions might distribute your media product and why?

To answer this question, I looked at the media institutions that distributed the media products we looked at it during research. The two main inspirations were from ‘10 things I hate about you’ and ‘mean girls’. These were distributed from Touchstone Pictures and Paramount Pictures. They may be interested in our media product as they are similar with all following some of the same conventions and going for that teenage romantic comedy. However I do think that Paramount would be better as they have distributed a vary of different films from Mean Girls to GI Joe. As a result they may be more open to a romantic comedy that is set in England. They did distribute a British romantic comedy for teenagers that was ‘Angus, thongs and perfect snogging’. However most of the films they have distributed are made in the USA so it may more useful to a industry that has distributed more British films such as Universal Pictures. Universal have distributed British films such as ‘The Boat that Rocked’ and ‘Mamma Mia’ while also distributing teenage romantic comedies also set in England such as ‘Wild Child’. Therefore as they did well with these films they may also be interested in our media product as it is similar and sells to the same target audience as ‘Wild Child’ so they already have experience in distributing this sort of film and know where to go with it so it is not a huge risk that they have never taken on before.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Due to our piece being set in a school based around teenagers the target audience is specifically teenagers. When we was researching romantic comedies as a whole we felt we would be better doing a one based for teenagers rather then one for adults like ‘Notting Hill’ due to us being teenagers ourselves and being in sixth form. As a result the piece was originally going to be for the older teenager such as ourselves like ‘10 Things I hate about you’ and ‘Mean Girls’ which has just that bit more older topics that older teenagers will get more then younger ones. However once we finished the piece and we started to get more feedback we found we may have underestimated the older teenager’s understanding as while the feedback we got was fairly positive from our own point of view and others we figured that the younger teenager may be more suited. The piece is not complex while being funny and has no mention of anything that could take the rating up such as swearing or mention of drugs, sex etc. As a result the younger audience is able to watch it and also enjoy it so as a result while the older teenager is still targeted we lowered the age of the target audience to about eleven or twelve. With the research of the target audience while making and planning the piece we looked at what we as teenagers would like and that of the people around us and our own personal feelings while also looking at what teenage romantic comedies were popular as a whole and this took us to the research. It was the same when we looked at lowering the age of the target audience. We thought about what we had watched as that age and the younger people around us and it was this that made us change the target audience. It is the sort of piece that many teenagers would go to see with their friends while the majority being girls. Looking at our feedback more of the girls said they would watch the rest of the film while only one or two of the boys said they would suggesting that it is better targeted at females despite the main character being male and the comedy elements it is still a romantic comedy and generally these are more popular with females.

5.How did you attract/address your target audience?

By making the characters stereotypical of the different groups in schools in society at the moment it creates ‘ a reality of school life’ therefore I think it attracts the teenage audience because they can relate to it and know the characters more. However by having the different groups it makes the audience want to know what group they belong in as well as laugh at themselves because the different groups are presented in a comical way. The character of Jimmy also relates to any teenager that is on the outside of the different groups. The use of different types of teenagers attract these different groups because they can see how they are presented and they as a social group are not left out. The actual story attracts teenagers that are going through that stage of fancying someone and by hinting at a love story between Jimmy and Kate people want to continue to watch to see if the two characters get together and if there is that happy ending. From the feedback one person when asked if they would see the rest of the film said, ‘yes to see if the two characters got together.’ Five more people said they would continue to watch the rest of the film while one said maybe. This shows that we were able to attract them and they were aged 16-17 so in the brackets of our target audience. By having Jimmy the focus of the story and the voice over, the audience want a happy ending like they do for other romantic comedies. When researching we found that popular films like 10 things I hate about you, used the reality of school life in a comical way as well as use music to attract the audience. I think we managed this as the story is not complex so is more lighthearted so audiences are more prepared to watch it. It also relates to them in someway. However from the feedback, we can tell that we could have better attracting teenage males as they generally liked it less however most of the teenage girls we asked liked it because they found it funny and liked the story. Therefore we found that our piece was more suited for the female audience because they generally like romantic comedies more. It is lighthearted like ‘10 things I hate about you’ and so by making it very obvious to what genre it was and the character, it simply appeals to those if they have likes romantic comedies in the past, it helps that our piece follows some of the conventions. One asked if she would watch the rest of the film said ‘yes because I like romcoms’.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Before starting the product, none of the group really knew how to use the camera, tripod, the Macs used for editing or the programme imovie which was also used in editing. By the end we had all grown accustomed of using these and I myself learnt to be more confident when using the camera. The change shows from our prelim to our actual piece. Everyone one we asked on the question said that yes we had improved. When we did our prelim we were all unsure how to use the technology and it shows in the prelim. The benefits of the technology was they enabled us to get some good shots and also enabled us to put it all together in the editing process. The imovie programme was particular useful as all we had what we had filmed and apart from put it together it helped put the music, transitions, titles, voice over etc in to our piece that made it overall much better and what made the audience like it. I learnt a lot about the programme that I never knew before and so did the rest of the group. It was really the most useful technology we used. The camera was useful and once we had got a grip around it, it was not hard to use but the tripod had some limitations. The tripod was quite hard to use and to do a tilt and a pan shots it was really hard to move steadily so made our shots look a bit shaky at points. Sometimes it was easier to use a steady cam such as the one at the beginning with all the school student and this also made the shots shaky. One of the things that was not as successful in our piece was some of the shots. In our feedback when asked what our piece could be improved on, most of the people said the camera shots and the angles. So we know that we could have been better when using the camera. We also used other technology that came in useful one was using a digital camera to scout locations. This came in use when we was talking about it afterwards and trying to picture how it would look, it really helped when we did decide where we would shoot. To make the piece more successful I think we could have used a better tripod to make the camera shots more steady and perhaps more choices when it came to the titles and transitions on the imovie as there were not that many and so it was hard to choose. Having said that it made us make our own title which turned out to be better then one that we could have chosen. Overall however the technology we used was effective in creating the piece and we learnt how to use it and how to make the piece itself .

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

Our prelim was a learning progress with the camera and the tripod that we were able to take on into the full product. However the transitions, titles, music was not that complex so in the progression we learnt more about editing and not only the simple stuff that we had used in the prelim but we became more aware of what we able to do to the final piece. In the prelim we had learned how to do a match on action shot that we were able to take on to our final product and used it a few times. We also learned continuity in the prelim and the importance of this, in our final product we took special care in making sure we never broke continuity by always checking everything and making sure our actors wore the same costumes, the setting has the same things etc and I think we were good at this and there are no major problems with this. One of the major problems we had with the prelim was that we broke the 180 degree rule quite badly. We did not do this in the final piece and instead we tried to show people talking in different ways such as a two shot with Jimmy and Kate at the end. In the prelim we used music that worked well once we had done it so we also took this on more in the final product which worked really well by being comical and showing the different groups. Everyone in the feedback agreed that we had improved from the prelim and the ways I think we improved was with better use of the camera and better shots. We also used more music, transitions and titles as well as be more complex with the editing. The story of the final piece was more planned and organized as well as the settings, costumes, props ect whereas the prelim was very quickly thought out and not very organized as the props were simply some cabinets pushed together with some pieces of paper on them to be like a office. Overall the final piece was more carefully thought out and planned with better organization and ideas with the experience and lessons we had learnt from doing the prelim. If I were to do the final piece again I would make the camera shots better by adding a bit more variety and keeping them more steady. The shots we did get needed to be done more smoothly due to the final piece moving along very quickly and not smoothly. I think the music and the story worked well and so would not change this but the camera angles used and the actual smoothness of the piece I would change as well as get rid of some of the transitions as I think there is to much but we really had no choice due to the way we filmed. We filmed the scenes all together in one and so when we had one scene that we wanted to cup some parts and keep others it would create a jump cut such as the teacher’s part. Therefore we put in a transition but in the end I think there is too many and so this does not help the piece run smoothly. I am pleased with the final piece however as I think we did have some good parts and the feedback we received from the target audience was generally positive as well as we had improved from the prelim.

Gee Production Feedback

2010-02-10T06:19:00.000-08:00

This was done after a screening in a class with a questionnaire that was randomly given to 10 people. All of these were in the age range of 16-18 year olds.

Gee Production Feedback

1^st person

Gender : Male

What genre do you think it is? Romantic Comedy

What do you like about the opening sequence? It’s funny, good use of non diegetic sound.

What would you improve about the piece? No answer

Based on the opening sequence if you were able to, would you watch the rest of the film and why? Yes because it made me laugh.

Do you think we have improved since the prelim? Yes

2^nd person

Gender : Male

What genre do you think it is? Romantic comedy

What do you like about the opening sequence? represents the different social groups.

What would you improve about the piece? Some shots are too fast. Love is slow therefore audience can see expressions and emotions on faces if there are slower shots.

Based on the opening sequence if you were able to, would you watch the rest of the film and why? no because I don’t think I am the target audience.

Do you think we have improved since the prelim? Definitely

3rd person

Gender : Female

What genre do you think it is? Romantic comedy

What do you like about the opening sequence? It is humorous

What would you improve about the piece? The noise quality

Based on the opening sequence if you were able to, would you watch the rest of the film and why? Yes

Do you think we have improved since the prelim? Yeah the 180 degree rule is not broken.

4th person

Gender : Female

What genre do you think it is? Romantic comedy

What do you like about the opening sequence? The reality of school life, the music fit really well and the narration and dialogue.

What would you improve about the piece? The sudden ending

Based on the opening sequence if you were able to, would you watch the rest of the film and why? no, it doesn’t seem to have much of a comic element, plus it is slow moving.

Do you think we have improved since the prelim? Rules weren’t broken, more entertaining and generally better.

5^th person

Gender : Male

What genre do you think it is? Romantic comedy

What do you like about the opening sequence? The use of dreamy romantic music.

What would you improve about the piece? Some camera angles/ shots

Based on the opening sequence if you were able to, would you watch the rest of the film and why? Yes to see if the two characters got together.

Do you think we have improved since the prelim? definitely

6th person

Gender : Female

What genre do you think it is? Romantic comedy

What do you like about the opening sequence? It had some comedy elements.

What would you improve about the piece? The transitions.

Based on the opening sequence if you were able to, would you watch the rest of the film and why? Yes because I like romcoms

Do you think we have improved since the prelim? Yes

7th person

Gender : Female

What genre do you think it is? Romantic comedy

What do you like about the opening sequence? I really liked the narration, along with the action, and I also really liked the fact that they showed the different social groups- their lines were funny.

What would you improve about the piece? Some of the shots and also the way it ends.

Based on the opening sequence if you were able to, would you watch the rest of the film and why? Probably because it looks as if ‘Kate’ would be quite funny.

Do you think we have improved since the prelim? Yes

8th person

Gender : Male

What genre do you think it is? Romantic comedy

What do you like about the opening sequence? It was funny, music comical, immediately recognise what genre it is.

What would you improve about the piece? ASD was quick for romcom and could hear someone say cut at the end.

Based on the opening sequence if you were able to, would you watch the rest of the film and why? Maybe, quality of film not all that but the story line was good.

Do you think we have improved since the prelim? Yes

9th person

Gender : Male

What genre do you think it is? Romantic comedy

What do you like about the opening sequence? Voice over was good, representations of different groups and the choice of music.

What would you improve about the piece? Seems to not move along smoothly.

Based on the opening sequence if you were able to, would you watch the rest of the film and why? Yes as I didn’t understand all the story.

Do you think we have improved since the prelim? Yes as there was representations that seemed interesting.

10th person

Gender : Male

What genre do you think it is? Comedy

What do you like about the opening sequence? Not a lot

What would you improve about the piece? Hate the music, to much free hand cam, no story continuation, no 180 degree rule.

Based on the opening sequence if you were able to, would you watch the rest of the film and why? No not my type.

Do you think we have improved since the prelim? Yes

Editing

2010-01-18T09:01:00.000-08:00

We are now at the stage of a directors cut which is looking ok. It has some added shots that were not planned in the storyboard such as the shots of the school but it has added to the opening and also shows the genre more. Some of the shots have been hard to cut down such as the teacher's scene. We had her do her own thing in which she went on for longer then what we wanted and so had to cut some which created jump cuts and so transitions and new clips had to be added. It is hard trying to now cut it to two minutes as we feel that it is all good and want to keep it in but it will have to be. We have to cut 43 seconds away from it which is going to be hard.There are a few scenes that while it will be sad not to have them in the final piece they are not really important where they must stay. Decieding on that as a group may be a little hard however. We do each have some ideas that makes it hard to choose one idea such as the tiltles which none of us seemed to be able to decide on with the choices. However we now have a picture to use with the titles that is good and fits in more with the conventions originally chosen. Looking at the editing the hardest bit to do is to remember the original ideas like with the conventions and keep them in. However now we have looked at the planning we did more it makes it easier. The director's cut is now done however and it is now a case of getting the footage down to two minutes while also making sense to the audience. Once the editing is fully done and we are happy with it we can then show it to a audience to recieve feedback. Originally when we had started planning who our target audience would be we said the older teenagers, however i think after looking at what we did that we underestimated what the older teenager would like and so it is much more suited for the earlier teenager and possibly a little younger like 11 and 12 year olds. I think they would like it more after seeing what me and my friends would watch and what my younger sister and her friends would watch. The editing has helped point this out to me and the rest of the group.

Editing

2010-01-06T04:23:00.000-08:00

Filming has now finished and so we are on to editing the piece. Looking back on what we filmed i would say we got some good shots to use and some that was not good enough to go in the piece. However at the moment we are just working on getting everything trimmed and in order and have just started working on the opening in which we have added some establishing shots of the school, music and the voice over. We will continue doing this to the rest and the only problem that is arising for the future is getting it to 2mins which may mean some will have to get cut then what we had thought. However we have as a group have some good ideas to what we can do to the piece to make it more interesting and am keeping to some of the conventions with the genre. Editing is taking a while as we have a lot of ideas and cannot always decide on one however it is coming along nicely and looking ok at the moment with no problems arising. With extra work on it on Thursday hopefully we will be finished and can start getting feedback once we start showing it to people. It will be interesting to see what they think as they will be unbiased to it and be more truthful and so this give constructive criticism to our piece.

2009-12-14T05:42:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday with a lot of stress we did manage to film all the rest of the scenes and are up todate with the schedual. It went well and hopefully all the shots look ok we did it twice so we are able to pick the best one and have more editing opportunities. The only scenes to do is the teacher scene which is being done tomorrow and Jimmy and his mum which if all goes to plan should be done on wednesday. However this may be a struggle to fit it in with our actors as it is the last week of term and there is a lot going on around school. Once it is done after christmas we will move onto editing and we have started talking about what we could do such as for the titles we were thinking of pausing the shot and their name coming up like in 'Mean Girls'. This would give it a younger exciting feel as well as be a good part of editing.

2009-12-07T05:46:00.000-08:00

We have now started filming and have compleated the first four scenes. The first three went well once we got it organised and got into the swing of things. It was a lot easier then we thought it would be getting the actors ready as we chose a time to film when everyone was having free time and not doing anything. The main problem we had was the classroom scene which we started to do nearing the end of the day. This meant people wanted to go home and so we were a bit rushed towards the end and so it may have to be done again. Luckily we have really useful actors and so it will not be an issue getting them to do it again if we can fit it in. This Wednesday we planned to do four more scenes to find everyone is busy period three for a class and on period five our main actor is busy with a class. As a result we are having to move some to tomorrow night after school and try and do as much as possible. If what is on the schedual done tomorrow and wednesday we will still be up to plan and we are also hoping to redo the classroom scene and only a little part needs to be changed. Now we have altered the schedual hopefully it will go well and get done. At least we have three scenes done already which having a look at today, it looks as if we will be on track to use these.

Shooting Schedule

2009-12-01T05:49:00.000-08:00

Shooting Schedule

Date	Time	INT/EXT	Scene	Cast	Shots	Props
		N/A	Jimmy’s voice over	Jimmy	N/A	N/A
2/12	13.40	INT- music class room	Jimmy I can play the triangle	Jimmy	4	Triangle
2/12	12.45	INT- French classroom	Classroom scene	Jimmy, Kate, Elmo, Eugiene, Teacher and extras	19, 20 21, 22, 23 and 24	Notebooks, pens etc
2/12	12.15	INT- table	Typical Geeks	Eugiene, Geek 1 and extras	5, 6, 7	Maths books, calculator
2/12	11.45	INT-table	Popular group	Kate and friend and extras	8 and 9	Handbags, football, make up and book of Europe
9/12	12.50	INT-table	Musical Talented	Extras	3	Headphones, Instruments etc
9/12	Depends on weather	EXT-outside doors	Another typical day	Extras	2	N/A
9/12	13.10	EXT- outside school	Jimmy and Elmo talking	Jimmy, Elmo and one of the popular kids in shot 18	13, 14, 16, 18	How to be cool book
9/12	13.10	EXT-school doors	Kate waving at doors	Kate	17	N/A
3/12	4.00	EXT- outside house	Jimmy and mum	Jimmy and mum	10, 11 and 12	Washing up, comb
3/12	4.20	EXT-outside house	Jimmy and pink scarf	Jimmy	13	Pink scarf

Cast list

Denzie as Jimmy- casual clothes

Josh as Elmo- baggy trousers, white t shirt, and baseball cap

Beccy as Kate- dress and black shoes or boots

As Kate’s friend- similar to Kate

Connor as Geek 1- short trousers, shirt and tie and white socks

As Eugiene - same as Geek 1

Kanika as Jimmy’s mum - mumsy clothes casual and older

Extras - casual/smart clothes

Screenplay

2009-11-27T08:32:00.000-08:00

EXT. STREET, SCHOOL -- MORNING

JIMMY (Voice over)

Another typical Monday at my boring school, (word appear on Screen).

INT. CORRIDOR, SCHOOL -- CONTINUOUS

JIMMY (Voice over)

As in all schools you got all the different social groups, the musically talented.

Music group are shown, they have HEADPHONES and INSTRUMENTS, which they are PLAYING.

JIMMY (Voice over)

The only instrument I can play is the triangle.

INT. MUSIC, CLASSROOM -- FLASHBACK

The sound of a piano can be heard, JIMMY is seen holding a Triangle.

Counting UNDER his BREATH, trying to get the timing right. He then hits the triangle.

INT. CORRIDOR, SCHOOL -- MORNING

JIMMY (voice over)

Then the typical geek, that get into school an hour early for some light reading. The library is their Sanctuary. Mine is my bed.

JIMMY laughs. GEEKS appeal on screen, wearing LARGE GLASSES and surrounded by PILES of BOOKS. They are dressed in too short trousers with WHITE socks, their image is OVER EXAGERATED.

GEEK ONE

EUGENE, what is the square root of 7225?

There is a pause and a look of deep thought on EUGENE'S face.

EUGENE

Well if my calculations are correct

…

The answer is 85.

The rest of the geeks CLAP and praise EUGENE.

JIMMY (voice over)

And then you’ ve got the popular group, the envy of all. Pretty boys and the wannabe wags.

Popular group are shown LAUGHTING and BULLYING the geeks.

KATE

Daddy is taking me on a trip to Europe… Is Europe meant to be a hot country?

Her friend stare at her with a look of shock on their faces.

JIMMY (Voice over)

KATE is the most popular girl in school, she’ s a daddies girl with a LOW IQ.

A BALL of paper lands at JIMMY’ S feet, he bends down to pick it up, throws it in the air and catches it. We then see his face for the FIRST time.

JIMMY

And then there’ s me, struggling to make it through college…

INT. HOUSE, HALLWAY -- EARLY MORNING

His MUM enter carrying washing.

MUM

Ah look at your hair, all scruffy,(picks up a comb. There you go my handsome little boy, (PULLING at his cheeks). Your going to have all the girls.

INT. CORRIDOR, SCHOOL -- MORNING

He begins walking further into the school, but stops when one of his CLOSE friends enters the scene.

MARK aka ELMO, is a tall boy who wears round glasses. In his attempt to fit in with a social group he has dressed himself in; baggy trousers, a white t-shirt and a backwards baseball cap. He also carrying a book titled ‘how to become cool’ .

ELMO

Yo Yo Elmo in the house, what’ s up dude

(referring to his book)

JIMMY doesn’ t look surprised to see how his friend is dressed.

JIMMY

What group are you trying to fit into today?

ELMO

Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it, mate. They’re all well impressed man, I’ m liking the new garments.

They both begin to walk . Kate appears to be looking over and waves in the direction of JIMMY. They Stop.

JIMMY

Is She waving at me?!

He smiles at her then begins to wave back before realising that her friends Brad is standing, just a few feet behind him. In an attempt to hide his wave, he scratches his head. ELMO notices this and laughs.

ELMO

real smooth!

JIMMY

Shut up (PUSHES ELMO)

INT. SCHOOL CORIDOOR, TOWARDS CLASSROOM -- CONTINUOUS

They continue walking into the school and head towards an ajar door. ELMO begins to laugh again. They enter a class room, where a few other people are. JIMMY and ELMO take seats in the far corner of the room. JIMMY SLUMPS into his chair. ELMO opens his book and flicks through the pages.

JIMMY

Why did I wave ?

ELMO looks up from his book and directly at JIMMY

ELMO

Because you’ re a twat!

JIMMY says nothing. Elmo looks over towards the door, as if he is waiting for someone to enter.

ELMO

Well here she is!

Nods his head in the direction of the door. JIMMY turns his HEAD SLOWLY to see KATE enter the room. He then looks around at ELMO.

JIMMY

Oh God, what do I do?

He look at ELMO for advise, but he just smiles at him.

ELMO

Well don’ t start waving at her for one.

ELMO laugh (LOUD) and a few people in the room turn towards them. Before JIMMY could reply, a well dressed female teacher enters the room, carrying a large stack of books. She turns towards the class, who all fall silent.

Teacher

Class, today we will be starting our project, I assume that you all have your notes from last lesson! I will place you into pairs of my own choosing. No one will be allowed to swap pairings, so any problem that you may have with one another I suggest you sort them out. Right Mark your with John; Megan with Sam ; Holly with Jack ; James with Roger; Eugene with Brad and Jimmy your with Kate. You may move into your pairs and begin working.

MARK aka ELMO lets out a SMALL laugh, before moving over towards his partner. JIMMY does not move and sinks low into his chair. A few minutes later KATE appears beside him, carrying her belongings. She puts her stuff on the TABLE and takes a SEAT NEXT to JIMMY. There is a moment of silence. JIMMY looks awkward at KATE. JIMMY clears his throat, but says NOTHING.

JIMMY looks at her, then opens his mouth as if to speak but no noise comes out.

KATE

So have you got your notes from last lesson?

She says this in a blunt and aggressive tone.

JIMMY

Oh, um yeah

…

here

KATE begins to look at his notes and JIMMY stares over in ELMO’ S direction as though looking for help. ELMO laughs.

Costume List

2009-11-24T11:04:00.000-08:00

Costume List

Jimmy- any clothes casual
Elmo-Round glasses, baggy trousers, white t-shirt and baseball cap
Eugene-Short trousers, white socks, shirt with a tie and glasses
Geeks- same as Eugene
Kate- handbag, jewellery and casual clothes
Popular people- same as Kate
All others - casual clothes

Story board

2009-11-24T10:22:00.000-08:00

2009-11-24T09:19:00.000-08:00

Prop List

Triangle (Jimmy music flashback scene.)
Guitars (Musical Talented)
Books-maths books (Geeks)
Calculator (Geek)
Book of Europe (Kate)
Handbags (populars and Kate)
Make up (populars and Kate)
Washing basket ( Jimmy’s mum)
Comb (jimmy’s mum)
Scalf-pink (Jimmy)
Notebooks( students in classroom)

Locations Pictures

2009-11-24T09:07:00.001-08:00

2009-11-13T06:16:00.000-08:00

Treatment - The idea for our coursework is a younger based romantic comedy set in a british school but with sterotypes seen in America. This is the plot that we thought out while in class and talling ot over what would work and keep the conventions but also have good characters and story.

Music that is younger and modern and bold titles- 'Smooth' is title
Boy(Jimmy) and comical friend(Elmo) are walking to school.
Get to school and see popular girl(Kate) who the boy likes. She waves and Jimmy thinks she is waving at him but she isn't so he turns the wave into smoothing his hair which Elmo tells him is smooth and tells him he has not got a chance.
Kate was waving at her boyfriend(Brad) who is a bullybut a popular boy who is everything Jimmy is not.
Kate and Jimmy are partnered together in which he says something stupid and she ignores him for the rest of the class.
This will be the opening sequence where the audience will meet the characters and get to know a little of the story but not what is going to happen between them. However we did think of what would happen in the rest of the film if we were to continue it.
However Kate comes into trouble with her work and asks Jimmy for help and the friendship grows.
Brad finds out and beats Jimmy up in which Kate sees and sticks up for Jimmy then breaks up with Brad.
Kate loses social status within school and blames it on Jimmy.
Have to present the final project andJimmy helps Kate.
She realises how good he is and they get together.

This we are thinking is are first plot if there was a whole film and we are in the stages of what is going to happpen in the opening sequence but we have got an intial idea of what we want it to be like and the characters. It is a romcom for teenagers very much like 10 Things i Hate About You and that sort of typical story but in a British school. This would be the twist to set it apart from these films. There would be certain conventions we will show to keep it within the genre. These are

Young modern music
Bold Titles
Monolouge
Generic characters
Location- school
A clear story of romance.

2009-11-04T06:44:00.000-08:00

Research

For part of the researching of our chosen genre we had to watch the opening of some romantic comedies and also some gangster movies as at this point we were not sure of which one to do. The object of this task was to get an understanding of what happens and what is used. One of the first films I watched was ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’ which starts with a monologue from the main character. This happens in many other films such as ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ and ‘John Tucker Must Die’. I think that the effect of this is that it makes the main character seem more real to the audience and one that they can get to know more intimately. It makes them feel part of the journey. Therefore it is useful for us to consider using a monologue of the main character. The main character is usually a someone that makes mistakes and says the wrong things and is so put in comedy situations in the case of Bridget and also with Charles in ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral.’

What also seems to reappear in the films I watched is a ridiculous friend of the main character that offers the comedy side of the film if it is more based on the romance. This happens in ‘Notting Hill’ when Will returns home and the audience see his roommate Spike who is a eccentric welsh

wannabe artist or in Bridget Jones’s Diary where audiences meet her mother who is dressed in something that looks like a carpet and is constantly interfering. It makes fun of the types of people that everyone knows. However some films do this differently. Some romantic comedies are targeted at teenagers such as ‘10 Things I hate about you’ and ‘John Tucker Must Die.’ In these films there were certain things that were changed to suit the younger audience. For example in most of the romantic comedies I saw, most of the titles were subtle and part of the shot. However in the films that are targeted younger the titles were in the middle and young like as if someone had written them not subtle and part of the shot. This was not all that changed there was younger more up to date songs playing rather than the classic love songs. It is these sort of slight changes that we have to take into account when deciding what sort of romantic comedy we will do.

One of the ideas that came up was doing a gangster movie or fusing the idea of gangster into a romantic comedy. Therefore we did look into some gangster movies. This was to give us an idea of what was included in a gangster movie generally. In the gangster films I saw they were very alike like romantic comedies are and have their generic characters. This was found in ‘Layer Cake’ where it followed Valadim Propp’s idea of archetypes. There was the main character, then his right hand man that helped him but was not a developed character on his own. The boss of all gangsters seemed to appear as well as the wannabe gangster that made mistakes. It was very similar to the romantic comedies which also had it’s archetypes. For the younger targeted films the characters changed to fit the stereotypes in schools such as the cool jock that everyone wants and the lovable but geeky main character that wants the head cheerleader. This draws in the younger audience as it is particular to them as does the characters in the romantic comedies that are for older audiences. The mise en scene of both of the genres is really important as it makes the genre its’ own and is similar to those that are in the same genre. For example gangster films usually contain if not always something to do with violence.

However from the research I think the group is going to look into romantic comedies that are based for younger audiences such as ‘10 Things I Hate About You’. This we feel means we can include what we know which is being a teenager and we know more about what school groups are like and we can incorporate this into our piece. It enables us to be more creative but research more into films of this type so we know what conventions are used specifically for this particular type of romantic comedy. From the research we also got an understanding of what is used to engage the audience such as the music and monlouges etc and got an idea as to what is used commanly in the romantic comedies and the gangster films if we decide to go down this route. This will be useful and we can look back to the research when diciding what conventions to use. The Mise-en scene is also similar within the genres so we can take this to use in the coursework.

2009-10-30T04:12:00.000-07:00

Prelim Evaluation

Process of creating the Prelim

The first thing that started the process of creating the prelim was coming up with a idea. The prelim had to be simple and be able to show three things which were match on action, shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. So to come up with a idea in the group we each brainstormed came together and decided on a job interview. It fit all the criteria’s and the concept of it was simple so it was perfect for the prelim.

The second thing was the script which we worked on together and that to was a simple script with a conversation between the interviewer and the job candidate. The script was fairly generic in the sense we kept it what you would expect in a job interview.

Once everyone was happy with the script we developed it into a storyboard. Everyone came up with what shots we could use and as a group we did the storyboard with what shots we would use and when. One of the things that were done at the same time was writing down what order the shots would be filmed in so it saved time and made filming easier when we came to it.

Next was scouting for locations which we had an idea of as we knew we would need an office and a corridor which was easy to find in school. Although we did not use the office originally found it did not change anything on the storyboard however we was working in a smaller space. This did change things around a little and we had to change some shots but i think it was very minor changes and so the change of location did not cause any problems apart from the fact it was smaller.

Then after doing all this we did the filming and afterwards the editing of the piece to end up with the finished prelim.

Creative Decisions

The Editing process in when most of the creative decisions came in as the rest was more of the standard processes but however with the editing we were able to add titles, music and transitions. These worked to make the prelim more interesting and also helped get an idea of what effect each give to a piece and the audience. Shots also had to be trimmed in the editing process to get rid of any unwanted parts and the shots were put in the right order to what they were in the storyboard.

Extra creative decisions were made when thinking about mise en scene and came when looking at locations and costumes etc and fitting them to the script.

With the camera and thinking about what angle, shot and movement to use required the group to be creative about it and think about what would look better.

Another creative moment was coming up with a script for the prelim which we did sepearately and i did it with someone else. When we got to the group stage both of the scriptswe had was very similar in the fact they were both job interviews and a similar idea. With discussion we used the other script.

Evaluating the prelim

Although we had some parts to improve in the prelim we also had some parts of it that went ok such as we managed to take into account continuity and so there were not major mistakes here. Also as a group we worked on the editing phase and the editing went well. This was helped with the fact we did have some good shots and thought about what to use and what would look good. The match on action shot was particular good and I feel we pulled this off.

However we have got a few things to improve such as the 180 degree rule which we broke and realized this when it came to editing. We learnt a lot from this as it was a major rule of the prelim so we know now to not do this when it comes to next time. To do this we could make it clear where the camera has to be by drawing it in when doing the storyboard. Or as hopefully we will have actors and be in a position to all be behind the camera, one of us could be looking out for breaking of this rule and others such as continuity. It will also help to be able to look at the shots before the editing stage as this may helping doing them again more easily.

This will also help with another mistake which was made of doing two shots separate when they should have been done together. This was a simple mistake and an easy one not to do again.

When it comes to next time we also need someone on the lookout for continuity mistakes as we did make a few little mistakes that can not be made in the coursework.

These are the three major mistakes that we made in the prelim and are the ones that we have to be extra vigilant that they are not made again. However now that these mistakes are made we have learnt the importance of them and how not to do them again.

Skills Learnt

Throughout the process of the prelim I learnt how to use the camera and the editing technology. Also the shooting process as well as learning the process to create a piece of media. The prelim was practice for the coursework and I think that we are now able to know what we are able to do and what we will have to work on and the process of the prelim helped do this.