Student Exchange FINAL

This is the final film that we produced. After the drafts that we had done, this was the piece that ended up being the final, as we had no adjustments left to do. We had managed to change the suggestions we had been given to end up with our FINAL piece.

Evaluation 7- What do you feel you have learnt in the progression from the Preliminary Task to the full product?

Camerawork

When we did the preliminary task we were asked to use the 180 degree rule. I did not initially feel confident with the 180 degree rule because I had never heard of it before. Fortunately because I had learned the 180 degree rule it enabled us to develop our skills further. As a group, we liked the idea of the 180 degree rule combined with shot reverse shot. This was because when Peter and Sarah are talking it allowed the conversation to flow and made sure that characters were not jumping sides. It guaranteed that the characters would stay in a fixed position making it look more realistic for the audience.  


For our preliminary task we did not concentrate as much on the framing than we did in the 180 degree rule.  However we still had a story board to work with which included what we needed to be in the frame. As we did not focus as much on the framing our filming still included unnecessary objects such as posters on the wall which drew the attention away from the character, and bags and folders cluttered over the tables at the side during the conversation. However we focused on framing a lot more for our feature film opening as everything in the shot mattered especially so it fitted with the genre. It was also important for the settings as everything in the shot showed the audience where the setting was located and how it related to the characters. Such as the school setting gave the audience an idea of their age.  

In our film as I have previously said we used quite a lot of hand held camera shots in the title sequence, this gave our titles a more relaxed feel for the audience and make them feel as though they are in Peter's shoes. It also gave us the right framing for the props in that shot. For example the first shot of hand held was when Peter walked into the lesson late. This emphasised how Peter was isolated and it gave the audience an insight to how he was feeling. Whereas in our preliminary task we used all static camera shots. I learnt from this and made sure we used hand held in our feature film.

Framing

Fortunately, for both our film and preliminary task, story boarding was a large part of planning so this was not something we did wrong or forgot and helped us decide what was going to feature in the shot. Without the storyboards our filming would have been unorganised and we would not have been able to put together our filming in the time that we were given. However because we used the storyboards, we got exactly what we needed to achieve for our film. In these storyboards we featured what type of shot we were using (this also helped us make sure we had a variety of shots) ,who featured in each shot, how long the shot was on for and if there was any diegetic or non diegetic sound within it. Although in comparison to our preliminary task to set the scene better for our feature film we had to think carefully about what was going to be in the frame.

Mise en Scene

In our preliminary task Mise-en-Scene wasn't thought about which made the final outcome seem basic and also not in the right environment as you could tell it was set in a school location so, when planning our feature film we made sure we had thought through lighting, costume, props and settings.
For our preliminary task the lighting was all high key, this was because our preliminary task had no emotions in, compared to my real film. But when planning and researching teen angst films we knew the lighting had to fit in with what the emotion of the characters were feeling at the time. As we filmed in winter we needed to film 'the waking up routine' scene for the title sequence during the day when it was lighter, otherwise we would not have made the audience believe the story. We needed to make sure that the lighting that we needed, was the right lightness. We used a lot of high key lighting as it is also a convention of teen angst. However we did included low key lighting when Peter was being bullied, this created the effect of Peter feeling upset and lonely. Props were also one of the main features that added to the film. We used props to identify the personality of each of our characters, for example the cigarettes that we used for Jays group shows that they are stereotypically from a lower class. 

Use of Titles

We did not use any titles in our preliminary task as we did not need to. This made it difficult at first to add the titles into the film as we had no previous experience of using Final Cut Pro to add in our titles. However we did start to get used to it.  We used the pop font as it is simple and easy to read which we thought was suitable for the demographic as males tend to focus more on the action such as the film itself. For the crews names we used a bold red don't. We also chose for their names to be larger, which shows their importance. We chose to use a simple black font for the roles of the crew as this was less important then their names. We chose black and red as they contrast one another and fit in with who our demographic is by by ensuring that they stood out and attracted them. We used a transition so that the title would slide into the screen instead of just popping on, this made the title sequence look more appealing and ideal to the demographic.

Editing
When it came to editing we had learnt new techniques. Match-On-Action shot and shot reverse shot were the main two that I had learned. Within our preliminary task we had used shot reverse shot, however did not know how to make it look professional. For our film we used both methods of editing. I managed to understand the knowledge I needed to know about the rules and it became very useful for our editing lessons. We used shot reverse shot to show Peter and Sarah's conversation. This was to allow the audience to have a feel as to how their friendship was being created. However it was difficult as we had to ensure that everything was still in the same position as it was in the previous shot. Match on action was used in order for the film to run smoothly. It ensured that we could use as many different camera shots and still make the film fit together. This also linked in with transitions as we were able to link some of the shots together in a more exciting way. For example when we used the hand held camera we used fades inbetween to let it fit in together instead of just using cuts. 

Overall I have learn't so much with making our film. It has allowed my knowledge of filming to expand  especially in using a camera for different shot types and editing. 

Evaluation 6- What have you learnt about technologies from the processof constructing this product?

In order to produce our teen angst film we had to use a variety of different types of technology. This ensured that our film was the best it could be and also helped us to learn how technology works.

We used a website called blogger.  Blogger is a blog-publishing service that allows multi-user blogs with time-stamped entries. It was developed by Pyra Labs, which was bought by Google in 2003. Generally, the blogs are hosted by Google at a sub domain of blogspot.com. A user can have up to 100 blogs per account. We used blogger to put all of work on. We used it because it was a simple way to ensure that all of our work was kept together in a safe way. Also our blogs were able to link with our teachers blog so she could keep on track of us all. I used blog as a way of keeping all my work safely together in one place. It allowed me to upload all of my research and planning of my film to make it easier for us as a group to find our work and know what we needed to do that lesson. 

For part of my planning, I used my Iphone to take pictures of the settings that we used in our film. I decided to do this as it shows clearly what and where the setting was. As Iphone is my everyday use phone then I already understood what I was doing with the camera, however i used a USB connecter to allow myself to get the pictures transferred from my phone to the computer, and then finally uploaded onto blogger.

We used an Apple IMac to complete our editing on. We used Apples as they are a high end computer. At first i had never used an Apple Computer, but after 1 lesson I was able to fully understand how to use them. We used these to be able to access an app called 'Final Cut Pro X'. This is mainly accessible from Apple. Final Cut Pro X is a video editing app for OS X from Apple Inc.   Final Cut Pro X was one of the most important piece of technology that we used. This is because it helped us to edit all of our film. 

After a few lessons we began to understand the short cuts on the keyboard which helped us speed up the editing process. We learnt where pictures and other data we needed was stored on the system, this made everything easier to focus on where all of our projects were.  Lastly, we learnt how to share our projects so that we could transfer them from the Mac to the school system. 

We used the voice recorder for our commentary of our film. Using the voice recorder taught us that the voice recording sounds much clearer on the mac than the talking on the video recorder. The voice recorder was extremely easy to use and we were able to use them at school as this is where they were accessible. It also allowed us to record for as long as we needed which gave us plenty of footage to edit. This was a bonus as when were recorded we made some mistakes. Also we learnt that we were able to pause the recording whenever we wanted and this allowed us to get the speech correct.  I also learnt how to transfer the footage from the voice recorder onto the Mac. As our speech was longer than we expected and we had to use Final Cut Pro X to extend our film.

 We used social networking sites to market our film to a global audience. We used sites such as Facebook, twitter, Youtube and Instagram to raise awareness to our target audience. This improved  the technological convergence in the making of our film, as these sites are easily accessible through phones and other technical devices. Which is a way of reaching our audience for free using modern day technology.  Firstly we learnt to target our audience on the social media for example YouTube. We used twitter and Facebook to promote our production by posting links, status's and tweets about the film increasing our audience, these social media sites are very popular with the age we are marketing for spreading the word about our film around. We also used Instagram when filming to show people that we were making a production in hope they would watch when we had finished.

We used Freeplay music to find our  music for the film. This is a free way to download music that has not been heard of before. It is a cheaper way then making our own music and is of high quality therefore making the film appear more advanced. 

We used gmail in order to communicate with one another within our group. This was a way to make sure that everyone in our group was up to date on what we had to do. I was able to contact my group to tell them that I had finished the storyboards. This then meant that Alex could go away and start the script. It helped us keep on track and make sure we did not fall behind. 

Evaluation 5-How did you attract/address your target audience?

I used YouTube's annotation tools to add notes that show how Student Exchange and our stereotypical teenage angst conventions attract and address our target audience.

Evaluation 4: Demographics and Psychographics

The Demographics for our teen angst film are 16-20 year old british males. Our film is specifically a British film so we aimed it towards British teenagers, however the film does contain different cultures, so it may appeal to a wider audience such as European people. We aimed our film to have a target audience of boys by making the main characters boys. We also made the title of our film 'Student Exchange' in blue. Stereotypically blue is associated with boys.

For psychographics, we decided that male teenagers are interested in going out with friends and socialising which could be done by going to the cinema. Because of this, we are releasing our film in the summer, as this is when our target audience will be out of school and go out more, Our film will stand out as most films that come out in the summer are comedies and chick flicks, whereas ours will have less competition and will stand out. Another interest we focused on was our main male character, as most teenage girls are interested in male actors within teen angst films. We wanted our audience to relate to the film, and we did this by basing the film within a school and include everyday teenage problems, like bullying.. We thought this would help teenagers in future situations and show them that anything can happen to anyone their age. Lastly, our psychographics focus on what teenagers value, this includes friendships, parties, relationship, family and having a good time. However, as our film contains european culture, Peter wears slightly different clothes and comes across to the other teenagers as 'strange'. Which shows how different he is to other teenagers his age.

Evaluation 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?

For this evaluation we had to join up as our group and write a script to explain how we would market and distribute our film. Within this, we explained how it fits our demographic and what we would to to promote our film in order for teenage males to see. It explains what other distribution company we would partner with and why. We also explain how thee film would be distributed across train stations and how it would be advertised across the internet. This is because the ways in which we have chose to distribute our film is where out demographic are most likely to be.

Evaluation 2- How does my media production represent particular social groups?

Our film consists of the stereotypical 'gang' of teenage boys.These boys are like a stereotypical version of 'bitchy' teenage girls. It is a generic convention to have one main social group so we made sure this featured in our film. Our film features a couple of different social groups, which are represented in the title sequence and opening scene. One of these social groups in our film are the lower class 'chavs'. These are Jay and Tyrell, they are considered to be the bullies of the school and throughout Student Exchange they try and make Peter's school life a misery. In most teen angst films, there is stereotypically 'chavs' or bullies involved. In our film, the lower class 'chavs' are stereotypically represented, we did this by making one the 'chavs' smoke in the scene and they also wear a hooded jumper, both of these props are iconography of bullies or 'chavs'. We go the idea of the use of these props through the film kidadulthood, which is based in London, which is stereotypical for 'chavs'. Tyrell and Jay are similar to the two 'chavs' in kidadulthood as they both instantly judge new people and stares at them, they also like to use violence to get their points across.

The second group of teenagers that appear in the film are the stereotypical group of 'popular boys'. These are the boys who are only interested in what there appearance is and girls.We firstly introduce the group within the title sequence. We featured them in the title sequence to show the variety of groups in our film. They all wear stereotypical fashionable clothing and are all very vain. Within many teen angst films there is usually a popular girls group and a popular boys group. For example, within Mean Girls there is a popular group  who are referred to as 'the plastics'. They are classed as the hot girls that everyone looks up to.  When it comes to the boys, they are stereotypically sporty, good looking and popular with the girls. The group of boys who feature in our film are all part of the football team so they play sport which means that they are fit. Like Aaron Samuels in mean girls, he plays for the schools football team and gets all the popular girls. 

This is stereotypical of a male. Because of their popularity, they come across as dominant over the other groups especially the 'geeks'. Which leads me on the next social group that we have in our film.
We included these because there is always one group that is unpopular and seen as not being attractive or physically fit. For example in grease the geeks have glasses and generally have a passion for school and work which is also stereotypical. Also within mean girls they are the group that are seen as the 'losers' and get no attention especially from the popular groups. 

For our main character Peter we decided that we were going to base him on zac efron in 17 again. This is because he is new to the school as well and doesn't belong in a social group. He doesn't fit in very well, especially with the schools bully. Within stereotypical teen angst movies there is sometimes one character that finds it socially hard to fit in with others. We emphasise this by using Jay as a way of stopping Peter from ever gaining any confidence. Because of this it represents a social issue of today which is bullying. It shows the audience that Peter is weak and vulnerable, which makes the audience connect with Peter and feel sympathy for him. However when Peter lived in Poland where he was originally from he was popular and had a lot of confidence due to the amount of friends and girls he had running after him. 

Also as it is both Sarah and Peters first day the automatically become friends as they are both in the same shoes and have the same feelings as they have no friends. This is also a USP of our film because it shows a boy and a girl being just friends and having a close bond. This is because our film is targeted for boys. Most stereotypical boys prefer seeing fights and violence, unlike girls who love romance. As most teen angst films are targeted for girls, it's usually involves romance. Meaning the boy and girl will get together and fall in love, where as our film doesn't. For example in 16 wishes and Angus thongs and perfect snogging, the best friends fall in love and began a relationship, however out characters stick to being friends.