Evaluation part 7: Looking back at your preliminary task,what do you feel you have learnt from it to the full product?

My role within the title sequence was the director and at first i was quite apprehensive of taking on this role as i am not to most authorative or outgoing character, however throughout the process of making the title sequence throughout all the scenes i directed i feel like my confidence improved and i become more assertive and actually ended up enjoying the role.I also learnt a lot about technology as i mentioned earlier, how to navigate around final cut pro and how to use the DSLR properly including focusing it properly and altering the lighting.I have also learnt a lot about working in a group and how to deal within certain things when working with more than one person such as taking everyones ideas in to consideration. The two feedback sessions we had really helped with the process and helped us to learn a lot about other peoples views and preferences which enabled us to improve our title sequence as best we could in order for it to be more appealing.

Evaluation part 4:Who is the target audience of your media product?

Evaluation part 6: What have you learnt about tehcnologies in the process of constructing this product?

Throughout the process of creating our title sequence a lot of different technologies were used to achieve the best possible results.This included both hardware equipment and software such as final cut pro and photoshop.In terms of cinematography we used cannon DSLR to shoot the whole of our title sequence scenes.The steadycam was used when shooting footage from above each character due to the fact that we needed these shots to be as steady as possible with no shakiness in order for our book to be liable to our audience.When the camera followed the characters walking we were using both a tripod and dolly as well as tracking equipment. The use of the internet also played a huge part in the making of our title sequence. It enabled us to find our memorable,catchy copywright free sound track and introduced us to dafont which offers over a thousand unique fonts.Even though editing wasn't my allocated role i still got to use final cut pro to help with editing and before this i was useless at navigating myself around it however now i feel as if i woud be able to use this with some level of confidence in future projects.Photoshop is something i have used for a couple of years now and become quite confident and capable of using. However throughout the process of our title sequence and the preparation and research i gained more experience using this software meaning my skills have improved. My role within the group was the director, so typically i would be less hands on with equipment however due to us helping eachother out i got to experience using a lot of technologies and also directed my other team members on what to do with them to create a good effect and end product.

Evaluation part 5: how did you attract/address your audience?

Our target audience for our title sequence was Teenage girls as we have researched films of the same genre such as: clueless, mean girls, American pie and high school musical and they all have a similar target audience to ours .The memorable soundtrack and the use of new and current actors and actress' really appeal to our target audience and we as a group agreed as all of us are teenage girls and all the other teenage girls within our friendship groups and in our class that this would appeal to us .Stereotypically the most common genre for teenage girls to be attracted to when watching trailers or looking at film posters are comedy and drama therefore the use of a high school drama is a perfect way to attract the audience we want.Micro-features proved to be exremley important in the process of trying to attract our audience, these include of the cinematography, sound, editing and mise-en-Scene. We had the advantage of gaining the opinions of other teenagers as we are in an environment where we are surrounded by them, this made it easier in terms of research to find out what would really appeal to them and how we could attract them. Showing the class our sequence and gaining feedback really helped the process although the class is not all teenage girls, it is a class full of teenagers and what they thought we needed to add in order for them to want to watch our film became our main priority. One of the main aspects that would attract an audience is the music used when recieving our feedback most the class said they liked our music choice and once asking the class afterwards, all of them seemed to remember the beat from our sequence. Throughout our feedback we was also told how our mise-en-scene had really fitted well with our setting and audience. 

For a stereotypical teenage girl fashion and overall appearance is very important, therefore making our Elite girls wear a lot of makeup and dressing them in cute,fashionable outfits was very important to us as our aim was to make the target audience idolise these characters and be able to identify with them.This would also help in creating a franchise as girls would develop their own preferences to these girls and want to look just like them, so introducing merchandise would encourage them to do this.This knowledge was gained from researching other films such as clueless and meangirls. Including conventionally good looking and physically fit boys would also entice the hormonal and boy mad teenage girl of this generation and this is why we chose our cast members to enforce this.

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

Evaluation part 1:In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

 

For our Title sequence we used STINC to convey our micro-features: Cinematography, Sound, Editing and Mise-en-scene.We also used this with our Macro-features: Representation, Genre, Narrative and audience. 

S = Settings. Choosing the appropriate location to set the scene within your film is one of the main priorities a film maker should have. The setting should be conventional of the chosen film genre genre in order for your film to conform to the genre ideals and ultimatley address the target audience.Choosing the Settings for our title sequence was quite an obvious task as it was crucial that all footage was based in a school which we had to our advantage as we were working within one.However we still had to decide on which locations within the school building would reflect the identities of each social group and their stereotypes.This proved to be quite difficult for the 'Elite' for example as no where within a school is particularly luxurious or a girls paradise however we decided that a bench would be the perfect place for the girls to gossip and socialise as they would not have to share it with any other students that does not meet their standards.Re-searching into other films and TV series that had represented characters with the same characteristics helped us with the process of choosing settings.We looked at the film Meangirls and the TV series 'Gossip girl' for inspiration, we debated whether to place the girls in the canteen on a table as they spend most their time in mean girls, or on a bench like gossip girl, however after thinking about it we come to the conclusion that they would sit on the bench as their was not enough of them to fill up a canteen table which wouldve efffected the shot and also our group of popular girls were already heavily inspired by the gossip girl characters.Thinking of a setting for both 'The Jocks' and 'The Geeks' was more simple ,undoubtedly the perfect setting for the Jocks is the sports hall,and luckily for us our school hall has basketball hoops and markings on the floor so it was perfect for reflecting the characteristics on our basketball playing 'Jocks'.For the Geek We set our scene in the science corridor in school as geeks in other high school films we have researched are usually found in the science lab revising chemistry,biology or physics.The classroom that we used for the geek also looked the most American out of all the other classrooms and departments in our school. 'The Freak' scenes setting was difficult to decipher.  however me Brittany and Jazmine sat down and spoke about the most isolated setting within a school, we decided that the schools toilet was the perfect place as an individual cubical could not be any more isolated and remote compared to the hustle and bustle of other areas of the school such as the corridoors and the canteen. When finding settings we had to consider whhich areas would reflect each social groups characteristics best and also which parts of our British school looked most like an American High school.

T = Themes. Evidently our title sequence has a recurring theme of America and High school, me and my group heavily had relied on the setting and Mise-en-scene to help communicate the theme of an American high school.However the more underlying theme within our title sequence that is slightly more sinister is the theme of discrimination and prejudice. The fact that these social groups are still so prominant within the American High School community is an issue that needs to be uncovered.We decided that in our narrative the most popular girl within the 'Elite' group Brittany, would flourish a relationship with the hopeless 'geek', this would challenge the conventions of a high school drama where usually the popular girl would get with the Jock and hopefully change the views of our audience among the prejudices against certain social groups and what is socially acceptable.

I = Iconography. The 'High school drama/comedy'genre is heavily dependent on iconography to illustrate the narrative therefore focusing on key iconography was important in the process of production.The use of different social groups being represented which were ; 'The Geek', 'The freak', 'The Elite' and 'The Jocks'was one of our main iconography features as these are broadly known stereotyped groups that American schools are believed to have and this is supported in other films that we have researches such as American Pie, Meangirls,Clueless,High school musical,21 Jump street and the Breakfast club. The iconic high school event that has now spread all over the world but was derived from America is the end of year prom. We included this in our narrative idea , however unfortunately it did not feature in our Title Sequence due to time restraints. The foundation of our title sequence was based on the use of the Yearbook which is a main iconography feature in high school.This was our main prop for our title sequence which we depended on to convey our narrative and titles.Throughout our title sequence there are shots that include the front of our book that includes the title of our film, this worked really well as throughout the title sequence the audience were constantly reminded of the title of the film subconsciously.

N = Narrative. Within our title sequence we focus on the introduction of the characters,social groups and the relationships that arise between them.However we chose not to focus on the narrative of our actual film due to the fact that we didn't want there to be any confusion of our title sequence being a trailer.  Furthermore the use of our iconography and settings it becomes very clear to the audience the narrative style that is foreshadowing.The narrative of our entire film that we had pitched at the beginning of the process was a very conventional of the high school drama genre as it included the main issues that this style of film should include such as relationship problems, gossiping/rumors ,partying and the struggle of school life in general. 

C = Characters. The characters within our title sequence were very obvious and typical of the genre.The use of different social groups and the relationships between these social groups is usually what forms the foundation of a high school dramas narrative.As i have mentioned throughout, our social groups that we represented were the 'Jocks' the popular girls/ 'Elite' the 'Freak'and 'The Geek'and we did this in a very cliche way in order to conform to the conventions of our genre.However we did challenge conventions as unlike most high school dramas where the geek is normally outcasted from the rest of the groups and only plays a small role ,the Geek plays a main role within the film as he is closelyt linked as the film progresses with the main elite girl Brittany. 

S = Style. Our title sequence has a very conventional style in terms of addressing the genre's ideals. As mentioned earlier the use of social group representations shaped the narrative of our title sequence.We had used a very similar style to films such as Mean girls, Clueless and The breakfast club.The actual style in terms of visuals of our title sequence was the idea of using a book to illustrate the narratve and introduce the cast and crew members. I think this worked really well in terms of style as not only was it aesthetically interesting but also it conformed to the genre conventions and helped our narrative and character backgrounds become clear before the film has even begun.

Evaluation part 2 : How does your media product present particular social groups?

As we chose high school drama as the genre of our title sequence, there were already set social groups that are conventional of the genre that all hold their own stereotypes. The groups we chose to represent were the popular girls which we called ‘the Elite’, the ‘Jocks’ , the ‘Geeks’ and the ‘Freak’ . Within these social groups there were other minority social groups for example: ethnic in the 'Jocks' group. The Main Jock is from an African background and has been represented as athletic as he is a sportsman, this is a very stereotypical representation of people from other ethnic backgrounds and is very commonly found in American high school dramas.

The 'Elite':

This is our version of a popular girls clique and this social group is particularly stereotyped as bitchy bimbo's who are spoilt by their parents. They are also commonly conveyed as bullies who pick on people who are lower in the social hierachy at school. We chose to stick with the 'Bitchy bimbo' stereotype and conveyed this with our year book videos as Brittany(queen B) sarcastic smiles then pulls a nuetral expression which is broadly known as a 'bitch face', ellie blows a kiss to the camera which is suggestive that she is the flirtatious character of the three and finally Ella plays with her ponytail and smiles innocently at the camera which hints at the fact that she is ditsy or the 'bimbo' of the group. These actions portraying each characters personality are supported by the girls physical appearance. Ella is blonde so therefore is represented as being the 'dumb blonde' which is definitley a broadly known stereotype of blondes. Brittany has dark haired aand pretty and is the tallest making her come across as the most dominating out of the three girls and this is definitley supported with her personality traits. She is the ring leader of the group and is very confident in the way she carries herself. She also comes across as unpleasant due to her permanant neutral facial expression. Her actions in her year book video to which i directed her express this personality type and i think it is clear that she is the main girl from the video despite this being made obvious by the layout of the Elite page and her having her own seperate page from her side kicks.

The 'Geek' and The 'Freak':

These two social groups are represented within our Title sequence as the 'Outcasts'.These social groups are isolated in the school society due to their unusual character traits that define their identities.Unlike the two popular social groups both The Geek and The Freak have their own page within the yearbook, this reflects the isolation these social groups experience in their everyday school life due to them not having friends to share the page with. Unlike the Freak, the Geek is not a hated character within our film and this is highlighted with the 'Headboy' badge that features on his title page. The fact that people would've had to vote for him to gain this title shows he had achieved some respect in the high school community.On the other hand the Freaks page was completely blank,no other information on her character or her achievements were stated on her title page which emphasises the irrelevance of her character within the school.Although in this narrative the freak is alienated, she is part of a bigger social group stereotype that is spread amongst schools in America and this representation of this specific character is commonly illustrated in High school drama films. 


The 'Jocks':


The Jocks are the conventionally attractive sportsman in our film and sequence and the most popular group of boys within the high school social hierarchy due to the attention they gain from the girls and most importantly the 'Elite'. The Jocks are closely associated with the 'Elite' girls and it could be percieved that they are the male version of the 'elite'. Both social groups abuse their popularity to hold authority other the more outcasted groups such as the 'Freak' or the 'Geek' and almost intimidate them.Like the 'Elite' ,the 'Jocks' are represented as arrogant and superficial due to them only dating girls who are part of a high social status just like themselves. We chose to conform to the stereotype of an arrogant athlete due to us wanting to fulfil all conventions of our genre which typically has very cliche representations of different social groups.We decided that to achieve this representation of the 'Jocks' the three boys should walk into their yearbook photos acting particularly smug and confident.Jacob (The main jock) was directed by me to walk in to the frame showing off his sportsman skills by spinning the basketball on his finger whilst making direct eye contact with the camera and catching the ball in his hand for his end pose.Oliver ,one of the Jocks side kicks,clicks his fingers and points directy at the camera with a cheeky,smug expression on his face this conveys him as cocky and full of himself which is a stereotype usually held by jock characters in this film genre.Tommy, the last Jock,is identified as a vain character due to his actions within his yearbook video as he brushes his hands through his hair whilst looking at his reflection in the camera which suggests that he prioritises his appearance and is aware of the way he is percieved by other people,especially girls.Once again this is a very stereotypical representation as the Jock in the latest high school dramas is a reflection of how boys are getting more and more vain in this generation.