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

The title font and style of the film (1)
The first screengrab shows the title of our film as it appears to the audience. We decided to call our film "One Night, One Life" as it relates to the life of our main character and suggests that no matter what your life is like, it can all change in one moment because of one event. The repetition of the word "one" connotes the importance of how easily situations can change due to one small thing. The way we presented this title was by displaying it in the sky in a cloud font. The fact that we positioned it in the sky was because we felt that the sky connotes freedom and is a space of no limitations, which is significant as this emphasises the life that most teenagers should live by. They should not let anything restrict them from achieving their goals and ambitions, which is a contrast to how our main character feels. We used the cloud font as this is a further emphasis of this connotation and also because the clouds are related to dreams, which connote a carefree environment and a place where there are no restrictions. The style in which we presented our title challenges the stereotypical title in most Teen Angst films. This is because in most films such as Mean Girls, Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging and Juno, the title appears in a bright sans serif, which is a direct contrast to how we demonstrated our title. On the other hand, the title itself can be argued to be stereotypical, as there is no set stereotype of a Teen Angst title which I learnt from my research before we started planning. There is a variety of different Teen Angst titles that exists that range form being short, long, vague, specific etc. This meant that when we were creating our title it didn't really matter what the title of our film was as long as we could relate it to the film in some way. We decided to put our title at this point as it fades into the sky background in an almost effortless manner which relates to the idea of clouds - the fact that they look very delicate.

Setting and location (2)
The setting that we chose to set our film in was a School. This was important as it is extremely typical and an iconic convention of teen angst films, as it is the place where a teenager will spend most of their life, so it is a significant part of their daily lives. By using this convention allows the audience to identify straight away that the film is in fact of the teen angst genre and also makes the film more relatable to our target audience. An example of Teen Angst films that are set in schools would be Mean Girls, Easy A and Wild Child. We used ideas from these in order to set the scene more effectively. We used the fact that Easy A and Mean Girls use a voiceover that state they are currently in school and the tracking from EasyA to show the school and the main character walking through it.
 

Costumes and props (3)
The most used prop in our film would be the use of earphones and mobiles. Although the items themselves don't play an important role in our film, they are important in making the film relatable and allowed us to include aspects that are stereotypical of a teenager. The clothing that we used in our film was mostly counter typical of a teen angst film. The reason that we did this was because we felt that some people didn't relate to certain characters, possibly due to their outfit, especially with the "mean girl". Stereotypically the "mean girl" would wear skirts and dresses and lots of bright colours such as pink. When planning our characters we were initially going to use this image as well but when filming we decided to completely contrast this to wear she is wearing all black. This reflects the personality of the character and also adds a connection to the main character that most teen angst films do not have.
 

Camerawork and editing (4)
The fourth screengrab shows a panning shot that we used in order to show a passing of time and also to introduce the title of the film. This is used in a lot of teen angst films in order to set the scene, follow characters or like we used if for, to show a passing of time, although it is not as popular for this reason. Easy A is an example that uses panning and tracking throughout their opening sequence to set the scene as well as a montage of the town and school in order to help the audience establish where the film is set. Other parts of camerawork that we used would be a lot of long shots and mid shots. These are very significant in Teen Angst as the long shots enable to audience to get to know the scenes and the characters, as it allows them to view their clothing, mood/attitude (body language) and also their props, such as a mobile. 
Smooth editing and the use of titles and special effects are a huge part of teen angst. From bright, sans serif titles to introduce characters, to the use of sound effects and animations to target the audience. Using our research we tried to include some of these factors when editing in order to make the film a convincing teen angst film. One editing technique we used to emphasises the importance of technology and also to introduce the main event in our film was layering two clips on top of each other. This was used when the art competition was introduced, with one layer being the main character walking into the room and the other being the computer screen. This gave the illusion that the camera was behind the computer screen. Although I have not seen this used in a Teen Angst film, it can be seen as conventional as it signifies the importance of technology in a teenagers life. 

 

Setting and how the opening sets it up (5)
The 5th screengrab shows the two main characters right at the start of the film on their bikes, laughing and having fun. This shows that the setting of the film is quite a small quiet town, which is quite stereotypical of Teen Angst as most of the target audience live in quite sub-urban towns which is the reason teen angst films such as Mean Girls, Wild Child and Clueless are set in these places. This allows the audience to relate to the film more and have a slight understanding of the characters situation. From this scene, the main character is then shown walking through the town on her way to school, enabling the audience to get to know the area and the small scale of the school. We got this idea from Juno, where the whole opening is Juno on her way to the shop. Although, the two characters are not going to the same destinations, we felt that it had the same effect on the audience, that the characters are lonely as they are by themselves and in our case, school focused.
 

Genre and how the opening sets it up (6)
The genre of the film is clearly shown in the opening by the main characters journey to school. This depicts the genre (teen angst) as you can tell that the character is school focused and that this is a huge part of her life, due to the fact she has to attend this place 5 times a week. This is further emphasised through the voiceover, where the character talks about her own struggles - like being the unpopular one, her friends and her attitude towards school, which is negative. This is stereotypical of Teen Angst as voiceovers similar to this as used in Mean Girls and Easy A and all are shown going to school in their openings.
 

How the characters are introduced (7)

The way that we introduced our characters was through a voiceover and titles on screen, both of which are very conventional of Teen Angst. The 7th screengrab shows how we visually introduced our character Darcy. We used a bold, sans serif font in a variety of bright colours such as purple, in order to target our audience and allow them to clearly read the text written. This is stereotypical of Teen Angst as many teen angst films use a bold font that can almost  be seen as childlike in order to attract the teenage audience. The voiceover that we used to introduce the character is another stereotypical aspect as films such as Mean Girls and Easy A use a voiceover at the start of the films that explain their situation and their friends etc. We used this idea where our main character is talking about her life and introduces the other characters which adds a personal feel to the film. When introducing Darcy, we used a still image of the character amongst the clips, so that the audience could can clearly see what the character looks like without any movement.

Special effects (8)

The special effects that we used in our film would include the typewriter effect of the words "24 hours before". We put these words on screen in order to make it clear to the audience that there is a change in time. We got this idea form the film 13 Going On 30, as in this film the main character changes ages, although it does not necessarily say this visually on screen as there is a bigger change in time compared to our film. Although this idea is used in 13 Going On 30, I would not necessarily say that this is a conventional aspect of Teen Angst as I haven't seen this technique used in any other film. For this reason I would say that the special effects that we used challenges the conventions of Teen Angst as most films in this genre do not give an insight into the end of the film at the start. The typewriter effect was added to make it look and sound as if someone is typing the words on screen as the audience watches. This adds to the stereotype that teenagers are always on some sort of technology.

Credit font and style (9)
The font that we used for the credits is a similar font and style that we used to introduce the characters. The only difference between these would be that the credit font was slightly narrower and the title font is more rounded and bubble like. We did this because the titles are more significant to the audience than the credits, so we made the font more appealing to teenagers as children are known for writing in a bubble style font for school presentations and titles on their homework etc. Although there is not a particular film that uses this, we wanted to add a visual element on top of the voiceover to make it more clear to the audience.

Group Chat Screenshots - Planning

Feedback On The First Draft

What went well?
Areas that my teacher and people in my class said that we did well was that the cinematography that we used throughout the opening sequence was good and that it was relevant to the genre. Another aspect that they said we did well was the placement of our fonts. They said that the way in which we used transitions to make the credits appear on screen was very effective in appealing the audience.

What to improve?

• The voiceover throughout the whole of the opening sequence needs increasing in volume as it almost gets lost within the music
• The last clip needs decreasing in volume as the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs is too loud and distracting.
• The part walking to school takes too long so it needs cutting down slightly
• Cut down the time that the art competition clip is on screen for
• Have the title of the film coming on the screen in 2 parts, maybe even with a sound effect
• The title sequence could be shown in another colour as white may not be appropriate, maybe have it colourful so that its contrasting the idea of the film.

First Draft of One Night, One Life

The first draft of our teen angst film - One Night, One Life
*Insert thumbnail of video*
https://youtu.be/uoOLzqxb-Ew

Changes Made Through Editing (5) - Alice Nutter

Update/ Entry 5- 13/1/17

Today we continued editing our teen angst opening sequence, we have now chosen our music track to go behind our voice over and footage called ‘Happy rock’. We felt as a group that it will give our opening sequence an upbeat feel, whilst also showing the ‘preppy’ ‘Angst’ side we were after. We didn’t want the music to be too uplifting as our film is about a girl with depression, so that wouldn’t fit the character or the story all too well, that is why we stuck to rock. As well as adding in our soundtrack and cutting it to the correct places in our timeline, making it start as Ash puts one earphone in but at a low level, and then as she puts both earphones in the music becomes louder, kicking off the opening the sequence, and setting it into motion. We looked at credits, and successfully added the cast list, and produced by credits into place. It was rather difficult to do, and at some points we had to be very careful, as to when they came in and the left the screen, it was also rather hard to choose what colour to make them so, they wouldn’t be hard to read. Although, for now we’re keeping them as white until they’re all in, and then we will change the colours, but for now our main focus is getting them in, and making them look good and flow nicely.

 

Changes Made Through Filming (4) - Alice Nutter

Update/ Entry 4- 11/1/17

Today was our second attempt at filming the first scene of the opening sequence with Ash and Darcy riding their bikes down the road screaming “Wohooo!” whilst laughing. We were more conscience of the light we had this time. As we were filming this part of the opening sequence outside, and the sun sets a lot earlier now, we had to be quick and precise with our filming. We chose to film in three separate parts, allowing us when it comes to editing to use the shot reverse shot rule. We first filmed Erin and I, riding side by side screaming “Wohoo!” and laughing, then we filmed just me doing the same actions and looking to my side as if Ash was next to me, and then once again repeated that with Erin but this time her looking to her side as if Darcy was next to her. We did have a few issues with how to zoom in and out of a shot, but after a few trials this issue was soon dealt with.

Changes Made Through Filming (3) - Alice Nutter

Update/ Entry 3- 10/1/17Today we started editing the footage we had on the camera. At this point in time we haven’t filmed every scene, but the majority of it has been filmed. All the rest of the scenes have to be filmed outside of school. Therefore, we stuck to editing the footage we had already obtained. Using premier pro, we uploaded all of our footage onto our computer, and made a new project, inserting the media we had already filmed into it. We placed those sections onto our timeline, and began to simply cut them to their right timings so they would flow together nicely. As a group Rebecca, Erin and I were still undecided on the music we wanted to choose. Rebecca had done some research and found three tracks that she felt appropriate to use within our teen angst opening sequence, it’s just left to all of us together to choose which one out of the three would fit our message and our opening sequence the best.