Question 7

Question 6

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

Question 5

Question 4

Question 3

Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?


First of all, our project is based in a school environment, so social groups is very important for our opening sequence. In schools, there are different stereotypes and labels which we wanted to show; we have done this by dressing our actors/actresses appropriately according to their label. Our main influence was the film Mean Girls, which is all about the different groups in school and the way each group is treated, according to their status. We wanted to reflect their idea in our own project to achieve our audiences' attention, being a light-hearted comedy, but also focusing on some teenage issues that everyone goes through.

This is our first similarity to the film Mean Girls; they have a 'Burn Book' with pictures and labels of all the girls in their year. We have made a yearbook which has the same content. It's iconic for the movie as well as for our project.

Just like in the film Mean Girls, we portrayed girls in the typical view of being obsessed with makeup and their looks. They are both looking in the mirror and being overly conscious about the way people see them. We specifically fitted the music with this clip because the lyrics relate very well; 'all i see, when i look in the mirror, you're looking at me', is a line from our song which is played when the girls are putting on their makeup.

In the film Mean Girls, there is a zoom into a map of the different stereotypes at the high school; Our project is only slightly different as we zoom into the yearbook, but we still have the different groups before  going into a clip.

Just like in Mean Girls, we have considered and been very careful when it comes to the rule of thirds and the 180degrees rule. As you can see above, the girls in the clip are positioned in the left and right third. This is the same in Mean Girls, as you can see. Both groups are sitting at a table showing the isolation against the other groups (in the cafeteria) and in our clip it is set in a study centre isolating themselves from others on different tables.

In this picture, we have taken a still frame from the film Centre Stage. In both pictures, there is a lot of space around the dancers and the lighting is very good. It relates well to their character and the shot gives them a lot of space to be able to move around freely, and still be in the frame. Both characters are wearing appropriate clothing which clearly tells the audience that they are dancers. 

First of all, these are both wide shots; you can establish the setting giving the audience an idea of who they are. Both are set in a gym, and they are both gymnasts; you can tell this by the way they are positioned and by their clothes. The comparison we have used is from Bring It On, which is another typical teenage comedy movie.

This is from the film Goal. We researched what would be appropriate for the shot. We knew of a friend who is very skillful and who already had his own costume which helped a lot. In the clip, he performs a few tricks which shows that he is a footballer; also, the surrounding is at a football pitch.

We have compared the band clip to the film Bandslam. We tried to fit all of the characters into the frame and trying to show their instruments too. We have a drummer and a singer, just like the film. Both scenes are filming a rehearsal which also makes them quite similar.

This is our main character (on the right). We based his geek like character on Napolean Dynamite. The clothes they're wearing are very similar; they're both wearing school uniform (smartly dressed), glasses, and have curly hair! In the clips, we have also tried to make our geek act and sound like Napolean Dynamite after watching many clips of it.

Overall, we used Napolean Dynamite, Centre Stage, Goal, Bring It On and Mean Girls to represent particular social groups in our opening sequence

Evaluation. Question 1..

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

More on credits/title

Last lesson we had our 2 minute opening sequence nearly finished but we thought that the subtitles we originally had were not as interesting as they could be so we used a new software called LiveType and started to experiment with some new ideas. We imported the still frames we wanted into LiveType and then changed the colour,movement and transition of the titles. However when we then inserted the new title back into iMovie the quality of the picture changed and it didn't look as professional so we decided to stick to the original credits. As a group we then looked through all the fonts and chose our favourite ones that could possibly used for the title of our film "SnapShot". The colours we considered were red, yellow and orange because they were bright/upbeat and reflected the genre of our opening sequence which is a comedy.We decided on the colour orange and used a fun font called "Manic".

Re-filming

After we imported and edited the zooming in clips of our yearbook we thought that it would be a good idea to re-film it. The shots looked a bit wobbly because it was hard to zoom into the picture without moving the camera left and right to get the exact frame. To overcome this problem we set up the tripod and camera in the same way as before but instead of zooming in, we filmed the book starting with the frame we wanted and then zoomed out. After importing the clips we reversed the dancer,actor and make-up clips so that it looked as if we were zooming in. We all decided that it looked a lot smoother than the previous clips.

Credits/Titles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J85m7zfMYyM&feature=related

After watching the Trainspotting trailer, we really wanted to incorporate still images into our clips while credits play over the top. First of all we tried it out on the gymnast clip and thought it looked effective. This is just a short overview of what we plan to do for every clip:

1) Zoom into yearbook picture
2) switches to the first frame of the clip which starts to play
3)Clips plays for a few seconds and then a still image is used
4)Title plays over the still frame
5)Clips continues to play

Further filming updates

Since the last post we stayed after school to film the yearbook pages being turned and the speaking part of our geek played by Luke. When we planned our location shots we chose to film the book on an art room table, with lots of art related props surrounding it so that it is apparent to the viewers that he is making the yearbook and also to make the shots more interesting. To film the aerial shot of luke turning the pages we had to do some test shots to get the angle right, and the one that worked best was with the tripod on a table with luke kneeling on the floor with Luke leaning back slightly so his head isnt visible.

Then we set up the camera and Luke acted out a few possible scenes that suited his character really well, which then also gives us extra choice when editing!


 This is just a picture that was taken while we were shooting the "Geek". We also felt that Luke's character should wear glasses, so that it stuck to our theme of stereotypes

Filming Update

Before halfterm we managed to film most of the short clips that are going to be used to give the effect of flicking through the book. The actor, the band, disruptive class, make-up obsessors have now all been filmed and during halfterm claire got permission to film part of a football match and the warm-up to show the roles of footballers and the show-off. We came into school on tuesday to upload some footage and start the editing process! Looking at our filming schedule we are now hoping to film the yearbook and our geek character played by Luke, tomorrow after school.

Filming

Our first filming session went well, and we managed to film the part of the dancer for our film played by cindy wellings. Our filming location was in the hall, and with help from the technician we got some lighting. For this particular character, to make it clear to the audience what particular role/stereotype she was in the school we decided on the costume shown in pictures below. We thought that the black theatrical leotard/tutu worked really well with the characters role and also suited the whole theme of stereotypes.

Storyboard..

Screenplay draft

INT. MEDIA CLASSROOM. DAY

NDS- upbeat soundtrack starts playing throughout
BARNEY starts work on the yearbook and turns over the front page showing the production company
BARNEY continious to cut out and stick down various newspaper and magazine articles, as well as the credits for the film
BARNEY then turns the third, fourth, fifth, sixth + seventh page showing the cast of the film

BARNEY

Ah yeah, and that's me! 

(laughs till he snorts and falls of his chair)

Influences

Influences on Prezi

Location Shots

School Hall- we have chosen to shoot the dancer, played by Cindy Wellings , in the hall because it has a stage with curtains behind which will link in with the idea that she is performing. It's also a large spacious area which means Cindy is able to move around easily when we film.

Drama room- We are going to film the actor, played by Dom Sauboorah, in the large drama room which is situated in our school because it links in with his characters hobby perfectly. We have taken into consideration that lighting could be an issue because it's painted all black which means we might not be able to see the character's face cleary, so when we film we plan to use the white lighting or spotlight. 

Gym- We are going to film "The Gymnast", played by Stephanie Parker, in the gym because it relates to her characters sport. The large windows means that alot of light could shine through and affect the shots so this will have to be considered when choosing where to set up the camera. The large room also means Steph can move around easier and we can be more creative.

Casting Shots

The Geek played by Luke Groszewski

The actor played by Dom Sauboorah

Band member played by Conor Fuller

Band member played by Claire Brooke

Band member played by Chloe Byerley

The Dancer played by Cindy Wellings

Geek..

Final Media Song..

On Monday after school, we booked the recording studio and recorded the vocals and bass for our song. Then, with help from the technician we edited it and mixed it to create our final soundtrack. :)

Music Lyrics!

Here are the lyrics to our song, which we are going to record in the recording studio along with the bass this week. We made it so that the lyrics relate to our story:

'Cos I want you to know that I'm not who you see,
And I want you to know I'm not here for being me.
'Cos I want you to see that you're not who you want,
Taking a change, acting a line, It's all you see when you've come this far.

All you see when you look at me in the mirror you're looking at me,
All I see when I look at you I see you for you are not who you want to be

Take the time, to make people see through all the lies

Looking around now can't you see, all these things we're meant to be,

All this time I see you for who you are not who you want,

It's such a shame that you've come so far to see me.