Evaluation Activity 6 (Draft)

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

We have learnt many skills and tricks about using technology during the process of constructing our film.

Firstly, We used a 'SONY' camera to film our introduction. We learnt how to zoom in and out and how to focus to provide maximum quality to our shots, including making our shots stand out and be more defined. We also learnt how to use simple functions such as watching the shots you have just filmed.

We have also become familiar with the rule of filming such as not letting the actor lead the shot, but almost having the camera pushing them forwards and the 180 degree rule which is where filming only take place within an 180 degree angle which allows the audience to have a greater sense of the location of the scene.

During the editing phase of our film, we learnt how to use an Apple Mac and we all got used to how they work and function. We also learnt some tricks such as keyboard shortcuts and how to do print screen on Apple products.

We used iMovie to put all our shots together and make necessary adjustments. We learnt how to cut and split shots and put text over our footage in order to put our production company name, actors' names and film title on our film. We also had to put non-digetic and digetic sound into our film which to begin with, was difficult as we had to match the sound track's beat with the action going on in the shot, but eventually, we overcame that. The bit where we have our protagonist 'Sophie Reilly' caused problem as well as she was speaking to quietly, but we overcame that by adjusting the volume and dimming the background noise.

By using livetype we learned lots of skills about animating a title using confusing software, however after lots of attempts we finally made the production company logo for 'Illuminations Productions' seem to illuminate which emphasises the title as well as seeming as if it were typed appearing letter by letter.

We have also learned how to use this software…Blogger! We have all produced our blogs and posted relevant information about the progress of our film introduction and other pieces of work. We can all now use Blogger efficiently and have learned that blogging has become a much larger phenomenon in todays society.

We used green screening when creating our animations, which took numerous attempts. Creases in the green screen proved to create discolouring in the shot whilst we were editing, as well as this, shadows and incorrect lighting also caused colouring problems.

We have learnt a lot during the process of making our film, it will ensure us that we will take less time to work our way through using technology as we now know lots of tricks and short cuts to help us further develop our knowledge.

The Making of Pretty Hurts

Evaluation Activity 4 (Draft)

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

Evaluation Activity 2 (Draft)

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

In the opening of our film, a stereo-typical impression is created of a modern day, upper class, independent school girl; we did this mainly through the clothing worn by the main character (Miranda) as well as the picturesque scenery of the school and the and also the type of car the character was driving which was a convertible Fiat 500; a popular car model for teenagers at the moment and the fact that the car was a convertible emphasised the upper class society that the film is set around.

A character that is similar to the role Miranda played is 'Poppy Moore' (played by Emma Roberts) from the popular and conventional chick flick 'Wild Child.' Firstly, the two characters are visually similar, both being blonde, slim, and generally attractive; this being a typical convention for the protagonist in a Chick Flick. As well as this the characters both dress similarly; Miranda is seen wearing an extravagant fur coat, a pink Ted Baker bag and RayBan sunglasses. Similarly, as shown in the image above, Poppy Moore is dressed in an eye-catching patterned jacket, a Louis Vuitton handbag and is also wearing sunglasses; the style of dress that both characters display shows wealth as they are both dressed in designer garments. As well as being visually similar, Miranda and Poppy are both new students attending an Independent school for girls.

Evaluation Activity 3 (Draft)

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

Production company is responsible for raising of funding for the production or may accomplish this through an emissary. The production company can be either a small company or a larger one, selling its products to a film studio or presenting it at a theatrical venue.
Media institution such as Universal Pictures may distribute our film because they had already associate with chick flick such as Wild Child.
I have also researched other smaller institutions as i thought we might have a greater chance will smaller companies as our film is low budget and not well known. I found suitable institutions such as DNA film or Ealing Studio. DNA film may be interested in helping us to create our film because they participated in making Never Let Me Go which is a romantic film aimed at audiences similar to our film. Ealing Studio collaborated to make St.Trinians which is a film that has the same genre as our film therefore I think Ealing Studio would be interested in contributing in our film as St.Trinians was really successful and it is aimed at a similar audience, addressing similar high school issues and stereotypes.


More importantly, DNA film had multiple collaboration with Film 4 so I think having DNA film co-produce with Film 4 as our distributors will get us the maximum exposure as we can by play our film on Film 4 which is easy access and most people will have it on their TV in the UK. Showing our film on TV will be the cheapest way to showcase our film, but it will not gain much audience attention, so we would like to show our feature film theatrically as well - in cinemas, as it is the best and most effective way to show a film and it creates a demand to see it. According to the Film Distributor’s Association, the most frequent cinema goers tend to be teenagers, students and young adults, and they are the most voracious media consumers. This benefits us because our media product is aimed at a young target audience. More than half of 15-25 year olds in the UK visit the cinema at least once a month. Due to this, hopefully a good distributor such as Universal Pictures will distribute our product because it is aimed a large, young audience.

Having Universal Picture distributing our film would not only get us British audiences, it may also promote our film internationally which will get us audience around the world, achieving maximum success.

Filming of the Car Shot

We decided to use three camera as it is easier to keep camera continuity and it saves time.

Emily is in charge of camera 1 which is to pan when the car is turning into the school gate.

I am in charge of camera 2 which is to film the bit where the car is driving down the school drive.

Priya is in charge of camera 3 where she is in the car and try to film from the driver's POV.

When it comes to the round about bit:

Me and Emily are in charge of filming the car in different angle and Priya is in charge of filming the close up of the car ie. the wheels. 

Change of Plan.....

After having our original storyline for quite a while, we decided to change our storyline completely as we find it not really exciting and it will not attract our audience's attention.

Therefore there will be a lot of changes.

• Location: we changed from English 1 room to the Year 12's classroom as it will suit our storyline more.
• Shots: we decided to add in classroom shot with close up of people to show different personality in the classroom.
• We also moved our car scene from the end of the film opening to the beginning of the film opening as it is a convention of starting a film with a journey arriving at its destination which shows a new start.

New Storyline

• Pan starting on car (driving on Packhorse Road) into school drive and continues panning onto school sign.
• She (Miranda) drives into school, with sunglasses on, wearing a glamorous furry coat and carrying a large Ted Baker pink bag.
• She then walks into the front door of a very traditional private school (i.e. here).
• She then meets the head girl (Mollie) of the school who is very nice. 
• They then walk up the main stairs together, with the head girl explaining about the school
• Cut to Maths room (Mr Tucker) with people sitting on tables, chilling in chairs etc, socializing.
• The head girl then opens the door to show the new girl the classroom, it falls silent and all the other girls gradually stare at the new one. The new girl has a worried face as she sees the antagonist (Sophie), and makes awkward eye contact.
• A focus is then put on the antagonist who is glaring back at her.
• One chair is then shown at the back of the room with the head girl saying, ‘I think that might be your seat!’
• Antagonist then stands up to greet and shake the new girls hand, saying ‘Welcome to St Mary’s’ as she shakes her hand, pulls forward and (close up of ear and lips) whispers ‘let’s not have a repeat of last time’.