A Note To The Moderator

Hello and welcome to our group Media AS-level blog. Thank you for taking time to look around!

We have tried to make our blog easy to navigate. To the right, you will see a labels section. Use this to navigate our blog easily. You can click a label to show only posts with that label (for example, click 'Gavin Fraser Evaluation' to see all of Gavin's evaluation posts.) You can also use the archive to navigate our blog. This is located below the labels section. Finally, there are links to our school's media blog, where you can find each of the individual blogs from our year group.

Our final film opening is pinned to the top of our blog for easy access. Our blog also contains all of our research, planning and construction work. Again, you can use the labels to find specific types of posts (for example, only construction posts). There are also labels to show the contributions of each group member. To see all the work that Alice Cahill, for example, contributed to, click the 'Contribution: Alice Cahill' label. If not all of the posts are showing on one page, you can click 'older posts' towards the bottom right of the page to see the rest of the posts.

You will notice that some pictures and prezis have been used by more than one member of the group. We would like to point out that they are not simply copied. They were created and worked on by all the members of our group who posted them.

We really hope that you enjoy our film opening as we have spent many hours planning, constructing and evaluating it. We also hope that our blog is easy to navigate and interesting to read and we appreciate you taking the time to explore and, hopefully, enjoy it.

Gavin Fraser  (0245)
Mahalia John  (0345)
Alice Cahill  (0130)
Kayvon Nabijou  (0610)

This Blog Is Now Closed

We will no longer be posting anything on this blog. We hope you enjoy seeing how our opening progresses from the initial planning stages to the finished product. Thank you!

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

'Michael' is a coming-of-age rom-com. During the research and planning stage for our film opening, we considered the genre, form, narrative and style of our film opening in relation to real films, keeping in mind relative existing theories that might help us. The real media texts that influenced our decision making process included 'Scott Pilgrim vs the World', 'Submarine', 'Juno' and the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, The World's End).

Genre

The table below shows conventions of the genre and whether we conformed to them or challenged them.

Form

From watching existing film opening and studying various theories, we found that all film opening follow certain forms and conventions and all contain the same information but in different ways.

This is our self-recorded soundtrack for the film opening (see mind map above for reasoning)

Narrative

We stuck close to Todorov's narrative theory, as many of our reference films have done the same. This is shown in the flow diagram below. We flipped our narrative slightly so that the start of the film is in disequilibrium. This makes the film stand out and look more original and interesting from the start.

Narrative references included 'Scott Pilgrim vs the World', 'Youth in Revolt', 'Submarine' and 'Juno'.

Whilst the above three films all start with some level of equilibrium, 'Juno' was a film with a similar narrative to Michael, starting with Juno finding out she is pregnant - complete disequilibrium.

Propp's character theory:

Michael - Hero

Lara - Princess

Brad- Villain

Tris - Helper

Louis - False Hero

Roland Barthes' theory of codes:

Enigma Codes: 

• Why has Lara so suddenly broken up with Michael?
• What is Michael going to do about it?
• Who is 'Brad Douché'?

In hindsight, we could have set up stronger enigma codes, such as revealing the very start of what Michael's plan of action is.

Action Codes: The start of our opening has Michael trying to hold Lara's hand and her pulling away, as well as her awkwardly looking at him. This suggests that their relationship is not healthy, and so her breaking up with him does not challenge the audience's expectations. Michael's reaction, including running away and crying in his room, does challenge their expectations, as it is unexpected after how calmly he responds initially to the break up.

Semiotic Codes:

• The montage of Michael being sad causes the audience to feel mixed emotions - is he being pathetic or do they sympathise with him
• Michael crushing the ice-cream shows his anger, making the audience wonder what he is going to do next
• Michael ripping the paper up links to themes of his mixed emotions of sadness and anger
• Michael crying shows he is sad
• The act of Michael writing a list of reasons why Lara should take him back shows his weakness and desperation at the time

Cultural Codes:

• Recognisable setting - terraced houses, in a UK big city
• Popular music icons on Michaels wall - One Direction (UK), Jimi Hendrix (USA)

Style

In my opinion, this is one aspect of our final product that, when it came to filming, we paid less attention to compared to the other elements of our film opening. However, in post-production, we graded effectively to get a simple, natural style. We also looked at other films of the coming-of-age genre to look at how they construct their titles.

Grading

When grading, we were going for the most natural look we could without making the image look flat or too cold, to give the audience a realistic yet enjoyable experience.

Before grading:

 After grading:

This 3-wheel colour-corrector is what we used to grade our shots:

Titles

We took a lot of inspiration from other film opening for this aspect, such as 'Submarine', 'Scott Pilgrim vs the World', 'Panic Room' and 'Zombieland'. Initially we wanted to integrate our titles into shots (e.g having a title sitting on a shelf), but time restrictions meant we wouldn't be able to focus on the other aspects that needed attention. In the end, we semi-integrated our titles, having them go behind Michael as they passed him and then having other titles coming out from behind Michael. 

   

This is how we integrated our titles:

When considering the font of our titles, we looked to several coming-of-age films such as 'Submarine' and 'Scott Pilgrim vs the World'. We found that they all contain very simple fonts. We conformed to this, as it looked appropriate in the relatively mundane setting of Michael's room.

This is the font we used for the film title:

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

The two main representation issues that we focused on in our film were age and gender. We took inspiration from similar characters in existing coming-of-age rom-coms such as Scott Pilgrim from 'Scott Pilgrim vs. the World' for our protagonist Michael, and Jordana Bevan from 'Submarine' for our helper Tris.


Gender
In our chosen genre, gender stereotypes are often quite different to many other genres, where both male and female characters may show traits that perhaps audiences would recognise more clearly in the other gender. We had both positive and negative representations of both genders, shown below:

Like Brad, Michael is an anglicised version of the stereotype - a 'cross' between Scott Pilgrim and Oliver Tate (Submarine).

To conclude: We had mixed representations of gender - however all the character types are recognisable by our audience.

Age
Age was our most important representation issue as our target audience was British teenagers and young adults. We chose to challenge the common stereotype of teenagers being rude, noisy and rebellious that is so commonly portrayed in films such as Youth in Revolt and Superbad.

Our protagonist Michael, although appearing pathetic and childish at the start of the film, quickly decides what a sensible plan of action is through the narrative. Whilst Brad and Lara and negative representations of teenagers, Tris and Michael show the more mature, aspirational representations of teenagers.

To Conclude: We have represented teenagers in a way that is not commonly seen in the media, but in a way that our target audience will relate to and understand through their own personal experiences as well as other films with similar representations, such as Submarine and Scott Pilgrim vs the World.

Kayvon Nabijou - Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

As our film was produced by an independent studio (Alma Gavon Studios) we had to decide on a separate distributor to distribute our film. We chose Universal as they have experience in distributing films of our genre such as Scott Pilgrim vs the World and the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy. Furthermore, Universal is vertically and horizontally integrated, giving us the potential of having our film reach a much wider audience than just the UK market we have in mind.




Production

We created our own production company called Alma Gavon Studios. It is a British, independent production company, specialising in indie films targeted at British audience.



We based our production company on 'Warp Films', a British, independent film production company. They have produced films very similar to ours or with similar themes such as 'Submarine' and 'This is England'.


Distribution

Release Plan

Below is a flow chart of Michael's proposed release plan.

Cinema

We would expect quite widespread distribution as our distributor is one of the 6 major Hollywood corporations. Cineworld and Odeon are big cinema chains that could exhibit our film.

Television

It is unlikely for our film to be shown on the most popular channels such as BBC1 and ITV1. We would try to get a deal with channels with a smaller audience such as BBC4 or perhaps Film 4.

Streaming

As our primary target audience are quite young and therefore more likely to be very technologically able, streaming our film on popular streaming sites such as Netflix and Blinkbox could be an effective way of distributing our film directly to our target audience.

It is also likely that our audience will illegally stream our film through sites such as Putlocker and Project Free TV. Whilst this is undesirable and will not give us and monetary profit, our film will get more awareness amongst our audience.

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

The most common audience for an indie coming-of-age rom-com is 16-24 year-old males and females, and so we have chosen them to be our target audience. We also chose them because they are frequent cinema-goers and have a lot of disposable income to spend on cinema viewings and DVD or blu-ray discs.

Primary Audience: 16-24 males and females, fans of indie films

16-24 Males

Film-viewing habits: Favourite genres are action, thriller, horror, comedy and feel-good films. They prefer a film that they can enjoy watching with friends to serious dramas.

Interests: Listening to and playing modern music; playing sports (e.g. football, rugby); going to the cinema with friends; video games.


16-24 Females

Film-viewing habits: Favourite genres are romance, comedy, rom-coms, feel-good films. They prefer a film that they can enjoy watching with friends to serious dramas.

Interests: Listening to and playing modern music; playing sports; going to the cinema with friends; shopping.




Secondary Audience: Older males and females

Perhaps family of the primary audience, who will want to enjoy going to the cinema with their family to see a feel-good film. Relatable themes for adults to reminisce about personal experiences.




Films with similar target audiences include Scott Pilgrim vs the World and Submarine.

Kayvon Nabijou - Question 5: How did you attract/address the audience?

When deciding how to attract and address our audience, we considered the Katz & Blumler Uses and Gratifications Theory. Below is a group Prezi that shows our thought process when deciding on certain elements of our own film opening.



Why did our film attract/address our target audience?

The Katz and Blumler Uses and Gratifications Theory came into use when considering this.

Identity

• Relatable characters: Our audience are either at school or were at school only a few years ago. Characters such as Michael, Lara and Tris are easily recognisable by the target audience as they will know or will have known people like at least one of them.

• Relatable setting: Our film is aimed at a UK audience, and is being distributed in big cities for theatrical release. The semi-detached big-city-suburbs setting will be recognisable by the target audience, making the film more personal to the viewer.

• Relatable events: The first thing that happens in the film is that Michael gets dumped. The relatively young target audience will most likely have experienced one end of this event, making their emotions more active in viewing the film.

Entertainment

• Comedy: Michael runs away from Lara in a comical way, which the audience may find funny.

• Enigma: The audience will initially wonder why Lara broke up with Michael, what he is going to do about it, who Brad is etc., making the film more enjoyable.

• Suspension of disbelief: Due to the smooth editing, subtle grading and montage, the opening sequence is quite immersive for the audience.

Information

This would not be the main reason for watching the film, but a viewer could learn from the mistakes and actions of the characters in the film, such as the shallowness of Brad and Lara, and the choices Michael makes throughout the narrative.


Audience Feedback

We posted our film on Facebook along with a survey. The following graphs show the spread of results we obtained.

The vast majority of people who answered our survey were 16-24 year olds - our target audience.

The gender balance was fairly equal, meaning both genders wanted to answer the survey

To conclude, I think that we attracted and addressed our audience quite effectively, as they could easily follow the narrative and relate to it, the characters and the events involved. They picked up on the comedy aspect of it, as we were worried that some of the comedy parts in the opening weren't exaggerated enough.

Kayvon Nabijou - Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Below is the list of different technologies we used and how they influenced the final outcome of our project:

Pre-production (Research & Planning)

• The Internet: Vital in our research, helping us find useful audience statistics from websites such as BFI and IMDb as well as draw inspiration from existing films that we could access through YouTube. Use of Facebook very important for organising meetings/delegating tasks.

• Sony DSC H50: We made our animatic on this camera, making it easier to visualise our film opening and spot any practicality issues.

Production

Cameras

• Canon Legria HV30 Mini DV: School-issued cameras. This recorded footage on tape which was then captured onto our edit suites during post-production. The camera was very portable and lightweight, simple, and shot in HD. However, its lens was not wide enough to create some of the shots we had in mind. Through the lack of manual exposure on this camera, I learnt of the importance of it when trying to make our montage look professional. Without manual exposure, there was a white glare for a couple of seconds at the start of each montage shot, as shown to the right.

• Canon 600D: This was Mahalia's camera. We could shoot wider shots on this camera and set a manual exposure to avoid over-exposure during the montage shots. It also had a higher quality image than the mini DV. We originally planned to only use this camera for the wide shots, but realised it would be easier when it came to grading to use this camera for all the shots in the interest of continuity.

• Tripod: This helped us get steady shots when we needed them, as well as panning shots. It was also simple to use and portable. However, our crabbing shots in the montage were hard to do with only a tripod mounted on a skateboard. However, I became more comfortable in using the tripod in more inventive ways that I hadn't done before.

• Lighting: This was our first time using lighting independently on a shoot. We learned how to use a 3-point lighting system, pointing the lights into the corners so as not to create any unwanted shadows. We could keep the same lighting all day because of the montage nature of our indoor shots, meaning there was no worry of breaking continuity. However, the lights got very hot, meaning we had to regularly turn them off and open the door.

• Microphone: We used a Blue Yeti microphone to record our soundtrack. We used Adobe Audition for this, which I had rarely used before. We also used a Rode Stereo Microphone with the Canon 600D to record dialogue.

Post-production

• Premiere Pro: This is the editing software we used to edit our film opening. We could use this for creating a continuous sequence out of our footage, grade shots and create basic titles. Through constructing this project, I have become more confident in editing software.

  

  3-wheel colour correction tool we used to grade our shots

  
  

  

  Cross-dissolve on title 

  

  Our whole opening sequence shown on the timeline (left) 

• After Effects Pro: This is the software we used to create our integrated titles. Before this project, I had no experience with this program, but now I feel confident in certain aspects.

Integrating our titles into the shot using After Effects

Facebook was very helpful in communication and delegating different tasks to people.