Jane's Evaluation

Janes Evaluation Media

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Evaluation - Rukhsar Hussain

Introduction

For my media project, myself and Jane Keegan worked together to produce two minutes of the opening sequence of a film. We shared the work equally and did not disagree with the ideas that we thought of. The editing and choice of settings were done together, but I did the acting in the opening sequence, and produced the non-copyright music that is heard throughout the film, while Jane concentrated on the filming and directing.

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

The genre of our sequence is social realism. We worked upon the conventions of this genre in order to get the reaction we want from the audience. The main audience in college are teenagers and teenagers tend to be more interested in social realist films. Myself being the protagonist and a teenager reflects the teen aspects of this genre, with a teenager who feels the sense of regret after running away from problems and thinking thoughts of happiness and misbehaviour in the past. We showed the past and present clearly in the sequence as effects and black and white footage shows the past, and coloured footage shows the present. Another way of dividing past from present is the change in my hairstyle as my hair was short in the flashbacks and was long when I was shown running and thinking.

Due to the fact that the scene we filmed is an opening sequence, we have made sure that these two minutes of film include the conventions that are normally included in other opening sequences related to social realism. To ensure this, we have set the scene in alleyways, shops, working class locations, in order to meet this goal.



As the protagonist is introduced in the first few shots, the audience are given the first taste of the genre of social realism. This is given to them by the first settings of the sequence, the casual wear of the character, the cobbled ground in the alley, and the non-diegetic upbeat background music. In order to make the audience think and create a sense of mystery, enigmas are used in the first parts of film to ask why the character is running and what is he running from.
Also, when the character is sitting down in thought, the camera is above him in order to make him look weak in this part. The flowers behind him in the cinematography create some sympathy for the character when he is sat there thinking. However, in a flashback when he is walking cocky, the camera angles make him look superior and the body language makes him have the attitude that he should'nt be messed with.

After screening our film to an audience of similar age to our target audience, we found that the majority of the feedback was positive. However, one person did not understand the elements within this opening sequence.

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

Our opening sequence concentrates on teen social groups and life in certain societies, thus having a teen as the protagonist of this film. The characters hoodies, worn out trainers and body language reflects this image we have created to perfect this view of social realism.

The cinematography and backgrounds of these shots include working class terrace houses and the typical kind of street of Northern England. To give this film its hybrid taste, we have made the music quite gritty but to match the type of music that a teenager would listen to. The terraced housing, clothing, etc give the view of social realism, but the protagonist himself and the music shows aspects of teen drama.

The walking of the character in the flashbacks suggests a rebellious attitude. The short hair and the black and white background make this stand out. Only at the end of the sequence do we hear a bit of speech from the character that is not clear enough when he is found stealing a bottle of wine from the corner shop. The voice of the shopkeeper searching him overlaps the voice of the protagonist and this creates a sense that he is not as high and mighty as he thinks he is.

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

Products which are of a similar type to "So Weak" ( My Product ) have been made by other British filmwriters and directors such as Noel Clarke and Menhaj Huda making successful hybrid teen drama/social realism films in th UK, e.g. Kidulthood (2006). This movie contains troubled teenagers and working class locations, similar to the cinematography in the product that me and Jane created. This is the same in Adulthood (2008), directed, written and starring Noel Clarke. The opening sequence includes music of a similar style to ours as it is the type of grimey upbeat music that teenagers "rave" to in these areas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZa96id7k2M

The UK film council presented the movie "Adulthood" and I believe that the storyline of our product would be backed up by similar companies if we consider making a full movie. The shots we have used, flashbacks etc have been done in a near professional style to make the audience relate more to our opening sequence.

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

The target audience that we expect to watch and enjoy our product would be of an age between 15-30, as the main characters of the film are within that age range. Also, people within that age would understand the sequence more as they tend to be more into teen drama/social realist dramas, and also the music within the full two minutes is the type of music that would be enjoyed more from people aged 15-30. We have used a style in our flashbacks when the protagonist is thinking about the past to get more female viewers hooked on, as there is some elements of love and romance within the film.

However, we expect more male viewers to watch this film as the sequence is focusing most on the male protagonist and male people between the ages 15-30 tend to enjoy watching shoplifting, crimes and rebellious attitudes of a character in these types of movie.

The cinematography includes working class housing, northern English streets and British places, which show that the audience will be more of a British ethnicity than other backgrounds as this audience will understand the British scenery and ways of life in Northern England more than any other type of audience. "Adulthood" is a recent British movie and is similar to our product in many ways. Our product may be financially successful as Adulthood has gained worldwide success and has international and worldwide gross of $5,922,805 (Ref: http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2008/0ADHD.php) . This has given us confidence that our product may do as well if released.

5) How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted and addressed our audience in many ways in order to keep them hooked on to the sequence. We have done this successfully by using different techniques, such as running, flashbacks, regret, being rebellious and being happy. To make this stand out we have put in different effects such as black and white footage for the flashbacks, pictures for the happy past, and body language to show the rebellious character of the past. Also the division of past and present time in the sequence stands out significantly as the present is in colour and the protagonist has long hair, but in the past, the shots are in black and white and the protagonists hair is short. The chronology of the movie is not in any order as in parts of the sequence go from present to past when the character is in thought.

To address the names of the main characters of the film to the audience, we have included captions and titles in the first few shots of the sequence. At the end of the sequence a black background shows up with a white title saying the movies name "So Weak" to show the audience what the film is called. The reason the film has this title is that it matches with the music I have produced and shows the audience that there is weakness in the protagonist and he has to overcome this when he is thinking of the good and bad life in the past. Tension is built in the sequence by the characters actions and the music in the background that is mixed in to change when tension is building or it is calming down.

The message that our sequence suggests about crime and this lifestyle portrayed here is of a stereotypical aspect as teenagers tend to shoplift more than adults in modern society. This is effective in our piece as the flashbacks of the protagonists joyful life was shown in photographs, but the bad flashbacks was a chunk of film showing the character shoplift a bottle of wine and get caught.

To appeal the audience even more, we have put that the director of the movie is "Saul Gibb", as he is popular and many people like to view his movies. The music and sound is produced by me but mixed in to fit in with the opening sequence as the flashbacks of the photos match with the beat of music. Our editing style is done in a way to split the past from the present, when the past is shown in the opening sequence, the protagonist blinks when he starts thinking about the past. We have used transitions to make a good effect when the protagonist blinks and put in a white fade in to the past in order to significantly divide both times from each other.

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

We have researched about similar products in ways such as YouTube ( Viewing other opening sequences ), searching through http://www.thenumbers.com in order to see the figures of how financially successful similar products such as Adulthood and Trainspotting were, e.g. Adulthood has gained worldwide success and has international and worldwide gross of $5,922,805 (Ref: http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2008/0ADHD.php)

we have used YouTube to view opening sequences, e.g.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZa96id7k2M

At first, we found it hard to use the camera equipment and editing technologies, but as the weeks went on in this project, we developed more skill and experience which boosted our confidence. We have looked back at our final product many times and compared it with our Preliminary task and have seen a significant improvement in our way of producing a sequence.

One thing needed to be altered in the sequence which was the music in the background, as first we used non copyright music that was too tense for a social realism film. In the last two weeks i produced a track to fit in with the product.

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

After looking back many times at both sequences ( final product and preliminary task ) me and Jane have seen a significant improvement in our ways of filming and editing. The preliminary task had shots that did not blend in with each other and were not that smooth. The editing was satisfactory and was too dark and the style was in my opinion, unprofessional.

However, now looking at our opening sequence that we have produced, we have seen that the transitions and editing is much more in the right pace and is much smoother that before, the music fits in very well, and over the weeks we have developed many new techniques and styles that have made our film work and be a success.

We have made the chronology in the movie more interesting by changing the colour of the shots to divide past from present life in the movie. The music has played a big part in the success in our final product as all the editing has been done to fit in with the pace of the music. Overall we have seen many improvements in our experience to produce a film.

Conclusion

Overall, I believe that the product that me and Jane created was of a higher quality than expected and we are confident that we have done a good job in our collaboration to produce this opening sequence of "So Weak". The key strengths of the film was the editing and the portrayal of northern British life and and lifestyle of the protagonist. The editing and music is another key strength as everything goes together in a smooth pace. However there are some weaknesses that we will learn from if we decide to produce another film such as the acting and the way the camera moves at times. However, I believe that the opening sequence is of a good quality and me and Jane are happy with the final product.

Rukhsar Hussain

Audience Feedback

We screened our opening sequence in front of an audience of a similar age that will understand the genre of the film.

One person gave negative feedback but his comments were irrelevant and didn't make sense.

Jane and Rukhsar

So Weak

This is our final product

Enjoy :)

Rukhsar and Jane

What we need to do

We are a little bit behind on things however we just need to add extra footage for our flashbacks get the music, which will be produced by Rukhsar, and sort out our voiceover. Then the final perks such as the credits and final editing and hopefully our opening sequence will be complete. 

The flashbacks are going to be fast photos of memories which hopefully will  look good.

Jane and Rukhsar

List of things we need

The props we used were in Rukhsar's costume. Hooded jackets, trainers, realistic and what most teenage boys wear, as our film is a social realism genre film it was appropriate also the locations, victorian streets and houses are typical of working class areas and realistic in the genre of our film.

Jane and Rukhsar

Good Jane and Rukhsar! However you need to keep blogging on your progress regularly! How is the shoot going etc... Have you changed ideas inr elation to your storyboard?

Also include your props list (including costumes) and discuss your choice of locations and why you will use them. Keep blogging!

Miss McNulty

Storyboard 2. 27/03/09

This is our Storyboard below,  its gives a brief description of the shots and expressions we will use in our video and we will follow this throughout our task.

Jane and Rukhsar

Storyboard 27/03/09

27/03/09

Next we'll upload our storyboard onto our blog to show our plan for our opening film sequence. We have drawn out our rough i idea and the story of the sequence, we've decided our mise-en-scene, most of our cinematography ideas and our locations for the opening. We have a an idea for our music but not 100% sure yet. So when we upload our storyboard we can hopefully start going out and filming

Jane

Feedback 26/3/09

A very good prelim task! Remember to put on your feedback from your questionnaires now and remember to keep blogging your progress - at least once a week!
You should scan and upload your storyboards when you have finished your planning.
Miss McNulty

Preliminary Task 23/03/09

From completing our Preliminary Task and looking back at it several times, we found many parts of the sequence that we were happy about, e.g. the 180 degree rule, the shot reverse shot used and especially the acting and the help from the characters who volunteered to appear in this sequence. The main things we are looking to improve on for our actual video project is to be more organised, improve on our style of acting, work on the camera work to shoot video sequences in near-professional quality, and most of all, work on confidence to make our social realism movie look real!

Jane and Rukhsar

Preliminary Task

Target Audience 13/03/09

For our film based on social realism in the UK, we must concentrate on what target audience will be best suitable. Due to the inclusion of violence, teenagers, music and similar elements, me and Jane have decided to make our film appeal to mature teenagers aged 15 and over, and to young adults with an age range from 15-35. The film will be made to appeal to female people as well as the male gender, to target both sexes in order to create a wider audience.

We have also looked at similar products to see how well they did at the box office. An example of a successful movie based on social realism in the UK is a recent film released in June 2008 called "Adulthood", which gained worldwide success and an international and worldwide gross of $5,922,805 (Ref: http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2008/0ADHD.php) . Due to the success of social realism films in this country, we are certain that we will produce an opening sequence that will be very appealing to a wide audience.

Rukhsar

Feedback 12/3/09

Good Rukhsar and Jane! Good research but don't forget to outline who your target audience is - include an age range, gender etc... and why your film will appeal to this audience.

Also look at similar products - did they do well at the box office? Include facts and figures (try www.the-numbers.com) Is there a market for your product?
Miss McNulty

Our Questionnaire

We asked 10 people, teenagers, our target audience a few questions to see if we were right about our choice of genre and audience and we found out what most of our 10 participants like about our choice of genre.
Our questions were


1 Have You Watched any of these social realism films?

- Trainspotting

- East Is East

- Kidulthood

- Adulthood

- Billy Elliott


2)Name one thing you liked about it.



3)Name one thing you disliked about it?



4) What aspects of social realism films appeal to you?


5) Did you watch it at a Cinema/buy it on DVD/ buy a pirate copy/ buy a video?




Our results were as follows:

1)
- Trainspotting- four out of the ten people have watched it
- East is East- three out of the ten people have watched it
- Kidulthood- nine out of the ten people have watched it
- Adulthood- four out of the ten people have watched it
-Billy Elliott-eight out of the ten people have watched it

2)Aspects of the film which they liked were:
the violence, the grittiness and how it is realistic

3)Aspects of the film which they disliked were:
it can be too dull and very saddening however most of the participants,seven, said there was nothing they disliked about the film

4)The aspects of social realism which appealed to the participants were:
youth crime, real life stories which occur all around, real life people,events etc

5)Most of the participants either have the film on DVD or VHS or watched it at the cinema




These results helped us see that the genre social realism is a good genre to make a film aimed at teenagers because it appeals to them and be successful as teenagers are big buyers of films and we know that social realism appeal to teenagers because it contains things which they find entertaining to watch, violence, drug abuse and sex all real things that happen in the real world. In general Social Realism films do well with teenagers in Britain, at least one of our five films we asked if the participants watched they watched at least one of them.

Jane and Rukhsar

Kidulthood Opening

Kidulthood Analysis

Another opening which inspired us for our project is the opening sequence for Kidulthood. There are loads of events that are happening and they all link but the audience doesn't know what is actually going to happen from the events that are taking place. A boy is building a gun, the audience have enigmas etc because they don't know where that gun is going to come in, a girl is being bullied, again what is going to happen to her or what is she going to do? Another girl is trying to talk with her ex about something important, what is it that is so important? All the quick events that are happening all in one morning at school straight away get the audience involved and gets them hooked into the film and want to know what happens in the rest of the film. This is again something which we want to achieve and the tempo of it is one which we would like, the fast pace makes it more exciting.

Jane and Rukhsar

Trainspotting Analysis 5/3/09

In the extract below, the opening for the film 'Trainspotting' by Danny Boyle we are shown the typical working class side of Britain. Straight away the audience are hooked into the opening of this movie, as there is fast-paced music and fast action as two working class men are running away from something, but the audience don't know why they are running and who they are running from and these are the equilibriums set for the audience. This is the reason why we picked this movie as an inspiration because we want our opening sequence to grab the audiences' attention straightaway because questions are raised, and enigmas are set. Trainspotting also is a social realism genre film which is also another aspect which inspired us with our project.

 Jane and Rukhsar

Trainspotting Opening Sequence

Research tasks

Rukshar, please see the word document entitled 'Blogs Research Task sheet' on the media section of moodle. Jane, i ran through this with you in lesson yesterday! Please ensure you divide tasks equally and have all research complete by monday's lesson so you're ready to storyboard.
(Mrs A)

First Ideas 2/3/09

We have chosen to do an opening film sequence because we wanted to try out filming the issues that occur in Britain today.

The members of this group are Rukhsar and Jane.

Our film project genre is mainly Social Realism however it is a hybrid because it will have elements of comedy,romance and teenage life because it is aimed at teenagers, therefore the hybridity makes it not really depressing and all about social realism so teenagers won't feel too grim. The hybridity also will make the project appeal to more audiences.

Similar products to our film project are Trainspotting, Kidulthood and Skins, all involve problems with society and teenagers, and the struggles everyday people in Britain 

face, so interesting to the British public especially British teens.

We think our product would be successful because it is about 'real issues' in the 'real' Britain, which appeals to the British public, we know this because the similar products above which inspired us have all been very successful in cinema and TV.

However our USP is that our product shows the violence and racial conflict that is in Britain today, therefore the story line is very different to Trainspotting, Kidulthood and Skins but it is about a teenager struggling with the hard side of life in a deprived area in Britain.

We will produce a questionnaire to find out what aspects people would find interesting and their input would help us as we would be able to find out what we can do to appeal to the audience. Also we will be watching similar films with the same sort of genre to see what aspects of the film were successful and what aspects weren't, which will help us make our product as good as we can. We also will research some issues that occur and try and put it into our flashbacks so that the story line is more realistic

Jane and Rukhsar