Media Evaluation-Question 1

Nicole Wilding Lauren Davies

Sharni O’Sullivan

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

Titles• The titles are on screen with the film playing behind, the reason for this is because if the scene is too long

for example the scene where she is walking home, the viewer may get bored so by adding the titles it doesn’t make the scene feel as long as your reading the titles. However we’ve made sure the titles aren't too long to read as if they concentrating reading it all they may miss out what's going on in the opening so they might not get what happens later on.

• The titles we’ve used are placed at the bottom so not much of screen is covered from the titles and you can still see what’s going on. We’ve also made sure the size of the font is big and clear to read so the viewers can clearly read it without straining there eyes.

• We’ve set the titles on a transition which makes the titles look less boring and more fun rather than them just being sat there. The length of the transitions had to be done properly as we didn’t want them on for too long but on the other hand didn’t want them on too quick so the audience couldn’t read it in time, so we decided to put the titles on for roughly 4 seconds which is plenty of time for the audience to read them.

• The colours used for the title on our film are bright colourful girly colours like pinks turquoises and lime greens, by using this particular colours people watching the opening will no that its going to be a romance or romantic comedy straight away. As for example if we was to use the colour red it could mean two different them being love or death which could confuse the audience in what genre the film actually is. The font used is a bold curly font which again looks feminine so the viewers know what the film is going to lead to.

Music• The reason we chose the crush background music was because it sounds like a very happy

bouncy song which helps to show the genre of the film, it also helps the audience to understand that the main character is in a very happy mood.

• I think it was a good idea to use music at the beginning while the titles are on because it helps it to be more interesting and stops it from being boring while the viewer waits for the film to begin. It also makes it seem like the titles aren't staying on screen for to long because you have something to listen to and your not just sat looking at a quiet screen.

• We made it so the music fades in at the beginning to it doesn't just quickly jump to the song, because this would make the film seem rushed and wouldn't look as professional as it would if the song slowly came on, it also fades out at the end of the song so it doesn't suddenly just cut out, by doing this it shows the viewer that something is going to happen and it makes them start watching properly.

• The music we used to put over the top of the main character walking, is a non-diegetic sound mainly because we didn't need any diegetic sound as its only the opening and there isn't anything really happening so there was no need for any other type of sound.

Dialogue • In our opening we decided to include a small amount of dialogue, by including this it gives a good

introduction to the characters and opens up the story to the film nicely, the two teenagers are talking about their plans, by doing this it would cause the audience to want to know what happens next. This dialogue gives the audience a chance to get to know the characters and helps them get attached to them, this is an important factor for what happens later in the opening (the girl getting dumped, when this happens we want the viewer to feel sad for the girl, making them want to watch on). However in the film we didn’t want to include to much dialogue because this would be boring for the person watching the opening for example, in our film if we just included two people talking about themselves for the full two minutes this wouldn’t be appealing at all.

• From the research that we carried out on previous romantic comedies we noticed that there wasn’t really any dialogue included into the opening, just a little bit of a conversation mentioning the main characters names etc, it was mainly music our film does have music playing through out when there isn’t any diegetic sound. So by including dialogue it automatically made our romantic comedy different from others.

Enigma – What makes the viewer want to watch on

• A break up is the biggest cliff hanger in the opening two minutes, this • part should be what makes the viewer want to continue watching the • film simply because they feel sorry about what has happened to her.

Shots/Angles - movements • Scene 1: in the café with a friend • Over the shoulder shot• Shot reverse shot between the two friends • Two shot • Scene 2: main character walking home • Close up (to show her face – emotion happy • Wide angle to show she’s walking • Scene 3: main character outside house • Close up of turn the key in the door • Match on action of her walking in the door showing both sides • Scene 4: main character in house • Close up of boyfriends photo• Close up of her phone with a new message • Close up of her opening the message from her boyfriend saying “your dumped”• Pan shot from the TV to her on the sofa • Close up of her face showing sad emotion • Wide angle of her showing what she’s wearing and doing

Mise en Scene• Setting - The setting to the opening of our film is simple, it opens with two friends talking in a cafe at school, this

sets the scene and confirms that the characters in the movie are teenagers. Making the film a little more simple for audience to understand

- Then it cuts to a scene where one of the girls is walking home - Finally we see the girl at home• Costume - We tried to keep the costumes in the film as relatable as possible. In the first two setting the two girls are

seen wearing very light colours, dressed nicely and girls. These colours make the both the girls come across as being happy and friendly.

- Then in the last scene, after the girl gets dumped, we see the girl dressed in all black, by using black this makes the contrast between the first scenes more effective (when she was dressed in bright girly colours) and helps get across the feeling that she is sad.

Lighting: - In the first scenes we want to get across the fact that the girl is happy, we used very bright lighting, on

more then one occasion we see the sun on the girls face (by doing this it makes the girl appeal to be more natural and from the questionnaires that we handed we found that the majority of people that watched romantic comedies would rather see someone that they could relate to), because the lighting is very bright this emphasising the happiness that we want to be displayed.

- Yet after the girl gets dumped and the costume has been changed (the girl being dressed in black) the lighting in the film changes to being a little darker. By doing this affect it shows that the girl is sad, making the over all look better because then the audience should feel some emotion when they see this happening to her, causing them to want to watch on.

Mise en scene• Make up:-Make up in the film is an important factor because this will help the audience understand what kind of person she is because stereotypically if the person is wearing very little make up then she is a natural person that is nice and friendly. In our film the girls make up is perfect, we tried to get the message across that she is afresh and happy person.-Then in the next scenes (after she gets dumped) her make up is ruined, she has dark eyes making the look of her being sad even more obvious. Yet this does add a little humour to the scene.• Expression: - On all of the main expressions that we wanted getting across to the audience there is a close up on the person for example when she gets dumped we wanted to audience to see that she was sad and when she was happy we did close ups to show this. By doing this it helps the audience get attached to the main character. • Props: - By adding props it makes the film seem more realistic and interesting we used, ice cream, a mobile

phone, keys, a picture and a TV. Without using these props our film wouldn’t work as well.

Sound• In this film we didn't have much diegetic sound because it was the opening so it didn't have

much talking in it because we were mainly trying to introduce some of the characters and trying to get the storyline across. We did have the sounds of the television and the sound of a text message we did this so it is easier for the viewers to understand what's going on because if there was no sound and there was a shot of the TV or a phone they might get a bit confused.

Editing• When editing we had to make sure that it was done properly so when we played it back there

was no scenes that jumped. So we had to make sure each shot flowed in to the next scene. We used match on action to make it look more effective while she was walking through the door, for example if we didn't use it there would only be a shot of her back while she walks through the door, however because we did you get to see her going through the door, then another shot from the other side of the door so you can see her in the house. In the middle of the film we used an ellipsis that goes from the main character getting a text message, with a black screen lasting for about 4 seconds saying ‘2 hours later...’ then there's another scene where she's watching an old film with ice cream. I think this is really effective because it builds up a tension and makes them want to see what's going to happen next.

Sound and editing

• Where did I learn these conventions?To get a rough idea of different conventions used in a romantic we watched varies romantic comedies on DVD’s. By doing this it gave us a clear understanding and a good idea of what we are going to include into our opening.

• How have you used them in opening?We’ve used the conventions in our films by including appropriate text which relates to romantic comedies that you usually see. We’ve also included dialogue, background music and different camera shots and angles, by including these it makes our film look a lot more interesting.

• Have you followed conventions or not? In our film we have used the conventions because our target audience, teenage girls, are used to seeing these

kind of convention when watching romantic comedies even though we have tried to make ours different (the girl getting dumped in the beginning). Yet having these conventions makes it seem like a real romantic comedy.

• Why is it a good idea to challenge conventions? It is a good idea to challenge the conventions so that the film is different from other romantic comedies that

people may have seen in the past. Making it interesting as the audience wouldn’t be seeing the same old thing. Ours is different because it doesn’t follow the same routine as normal romantic comedies, gets dumped in the beginning, this normally doesn’t happen. They don’t usually meet someone till later on in the movie.

Conventions

Media Evaluation-Question 2

Nicole wilding Lauren Davies

Sharni O’Sullivan

How does your product represent particular social groups?

What types of people are in the opening/social groups?

• The types of people that are in the opening I would say are your normal average teenage girl. The reason why I have chosen this type of social group is so other people watching the opening can relate to what’s actually going on. For example if I was to use your average popular, blonde, head of the cheerleading team girl which is seen in a lot of teenage romantic comedy films, it wouldn’t make my opening very different as this has been done a lot of times before. The age group that I have used in my film is between 16-18 years of age as when I handed out my questionnaires this was the most popular answer given back, which I think this works well as if I want teenage girls to relate in this, I wouldn’t put in a 12 or 22 year old girl in the opening as they wouldn’t connect in the same way as if it were someone their own age.

• By including the normal, average, nice type of girl in my opening I want the audience to be attached to the girl and for them to feel sorry for her when she gets dumped. I also want the audience to relate to her if they have ever gone through the same as what she did.

• In our opening you only really see two type of people the males and females. Even though no males appear in the film they are still there e.g. the two girls talking about boyfriends in the beginning and the girl getting the text saying that she is dumped. In the film girls are portrayed as the happy friendly types of people, because in the first scene that we see of the girls there talking very friendly. Males in the beginning of the film are represented as being nasty and not very nice people.

• Because of this these two styles of people are shown in very different ways, the girls are shown as just wanting to be happy and in love yet the boys just want to mess around. In a way they are shown as having no feelings.

• In the film there isn’t really any conflict because you don’t see the boy and girl together. Yet the break up that happens in the film could be classed as conflict because they do fall out just not in person.