DEMI MICHAEL PRODUCTION EVALUATION G321: Foundation Portfolio in Media

Within our final product of an opening sequence we decided to delve into the romantic comedy genre. Exploring conventions of rom-coms which challenge and conform to the stereotypical romantic comedies of the 21st century. Introducing the French culture also gave us another pathway to lead down when exploring the hybrid genre. We were able to combine the French presence within the stereotypical British school life. Conventions iconic to romantic comedies which we have explored include typical locations of British/American Rom-Coms. The typical school locations; class rooms, locker rooms and stairwell can all be intertextual with the highly successful and popular rom-com Cinderella Story along with many other Rom-Coms within the media industry. Locker rooms intertextual with A Cinderella story

Proving each time, to meet the requirements of the target audience. Aiming to target a youthful audience without excluding those of an older age to enjoy and engage with the narrative. Uses and gratification theory can be applied here, as film directors along with ourselves are able to integrate the conventions that the audience demand and require for this hybrid. Allowing the narrative to be more enjoyable and widely accepted as a successful and conventional medium of this genre. Despite this being set within the American culture the ideology between romantic comedies internationally is similar if not exact. Concluding that there will always be a positive outcome and the iconic happily ever after which is identified and associated with rom coms. Allowing the narrative to end on a conventionally stereotypical ending ensures that the audience is consistently injected that the film they are watching is relevant to the rom com genre, therefore the hypodermic needle theory can be applied as the audience from start to finish are bombarded and injected with conventions of the romantic comedy. This is seen within our sequence, including a soundtrack, montage, dialogue and clothing all having relevance to the hybrid we aimed to satisfy. The consistency throughout our sequence with romantic comedies allows the audience to be constantly familiarised with the narrative and genre of the opening sequence and film to follow. The soundtrack which we created was a combination of French instruments, e.g. the accordion. This enabled us to keep a consistent theme throughout the sequence ensuring that the audience does not forget that Monique is an outsider. The soundtrack plays throughout the sequence, and during the montage. This satisfies Levis Strauss binary opposition theory. As the montage creates an image and presence of London however the soundtrack opposes that by setting a French theme to each frame of the montage. The soundtrack is able to be heard throughout the entire sequence this allows the audience to identify that Monique never really forgets or detaches from her culture. Despite her efforts to blend in and settle down subtly her culture means she will be seen as an outsider and her presence to a new school is uncomfortable. The soundtrack also familiarises the audience of Monique's inability to completely fit in with those already in school. This emphasise the proximity of Monique and the other students and allows the audience to empathise with her emotions. Through the use of POV shots and close ups the audience can also visualise Monique's exclusion and what effect this has on her. When she is approached by the two males there is a close up of her face allowing the audience to clearly establish the change of emotions when she feels more accepted. This conforms to the generic conventions of rom coms and females are usually those who show and exploit more emotions.

Our actors within the sequence also conform to the romantic comedy conventions. The dominant female character challenges yet conforms to the role of which a female plays within. How to lose a guy in 10 days and House bunny are popular romantic comedies which also present a dominant and powerful female character, this can be intertextual with our female actress Monique as both characters have in common the ability to manipulate males emotions and use this to their power and order to gain status. Challenging the role of a female within rom coms and also challenges Propps 8 character theory. Propp states that the female is a prize or pleasure to the male and is not seen as higher status of the male. We chose to have Monique playing a timid French exchange student who unintentionally causes disruption between other male students. Intertexuality can be applied with High school musical as both narratives involve a female from outside the welcomed school and their developments through school and how their presence cause friction and conflicts between other class mates. This could engage and broaden our target audience to both genders as both genders have equal distribution throughout frames and the narrative. This allows us to exploit emotions from both genders and enable the audience to engage and empathise with the proximity of the actors/actresses within our sequence.

The use of our montage is highly important to our sequence. This instantly sets a clear outline and location for the audience. The montage consists of many iconic images of London and a different image appears in the frame. We decided to present the montage through a photo album which connotes that Monique could see London as a holiday and that she feels like a foreigner despite not having an intention on returning to France. The images used are of iconic landmarks of London which stereotypically tourists would appreciate and photograph, this conforms to how we wanted to portray Monique. Again, throughout the montage the soundtrack is playing which contradicts the London theme, combining French and British cultures; conforming to Levi Straus Theory.

Within our sequence the use of gender played a significant role. The two male actors who play Chris and Rob show and connote the stereotypical teenage boys. Loud, bold, confident, cocky, arrogant, humours. All characteristics which are conventional to the gender and genre. However we also manipulated this convention and challenged it by allowing the audience to see a more emotional side of the boys. Exploiting their emotions towards the new student. We see the proximity of the boys emerge as they both develop an emotional bond between the new student. The sequence involves long shots where the audience can see physical reactions to Monique's presence and close ups of the males to show the emotional reaction to her presence. This allows males within the audience to engage with the actors and gratify to see the gender roles being challenged and alternated. The soundtrack opposes some elements of our sequence. The locker scene shows the boys frustration with one another and their competitiveness, this could make the audience feel edgy and uncomfortable, therefore that is why we chose to have the soundtrack playing which uplifts the mood and contradicts the aura of the frame. This can be applied as Levi Strauss theory of binary opposition; with the males emotions and the affect Monique has over them. Monique instantly appears in the frame with a French presence. The dialogue between her and her mother instantly allows the audience to feel bewildered as they cannot understand what is being said. This allows the audience to instantly be placed into Monique's shoes as they are unable to understand what Monique and her mother are saying. This builds a barrier between audience and Monique however the use of subtitles allows the audience to finally seek comfort and understanding. The use of a French voice over also has similar effects. Creating an awkward position for the audience as they begin to see how it must feel to be in Monique's position and perspective on being one who is excluded from a culture. This voice over is highly effective as it creates a presence of unknown and discomfort, also conforming to Levi Straus theory of binary oppositions. Creating a sense of enigma and leaving the audience anticipating to see if the language barrier amongst others can be overcome. Camera angles and shots also support the diegetic and non diegetic dialogue. High angles and long shots allow Monique to look timid, vulnerable and out of place. All of which build upon Monique's inability to combine both cultures in order to fit in or seek acceptance. The teacher within our sequence allows us to show status and power between characters. The teacher is shown to the audience through a low angle this enables her to look dominant and gain power. The teachers body posture also dictates that she is of higher status then the other actors/actresses in the frame which is conventional to the genre. The fact she is the only one who appears to be standing shows that she must have some authority over the others. Also when Monique is first welcomed into the classroom the teacher is the first to great her and speak to her. This shows signs of maturity and respect, characteristics conventionally associated with an elder person. This also allows the audience to engage with her as a teacher and with more dominancy over others.

We will aim to distribute our film to a small British independent film institution. Film 4 or Warp X would be ideal institutions as they have dealt and have had successful releases with similar romantic comedies. E.g. Four weddings and a funeral Bridget Jones diary Donkey punch etc. This will mean we will already have a media platform of a mass audience already. Those who have seen films by these institutions would have built a positive relationship and would watch another film that is distributed by the same institution. Film 4 have horizontal integration within media platforms and are able to distribute products through their own advertisements or music channels which they have ownership to. This would be highly beneficial for our sequence as we could distribute our product by covering as many media platforms as possible in order to maximise our potential mass audience. Distributing our soundtrack through music channels would allow a slightly more diverse audience to be interested with our sequence as those of a larger preference to music may seek interest due to the soundtrack and could link that to our product. Attending film festivals and cinema release dates, also a premier where the actors can comment and quote on the roles of which they played and how it enabled them to unravel new genres. Through press and media attention through cameras either through internet or on the TV, the press have the ability to advertise your product if they chose to stream from the premier or interviews from film festivals etc. This media platform branches off to a vast majority of advertising and allows a mass audience to be made aware by our product. Online advertisements would also be highly beneficial as it is cheap and convenient. This form of advertising has a very large audience, also being of age groups which we aim to target our sequence towards. Users of Face book and other social networking sites allows us to have great communication with our audient and allows us to keep the audience up to date with important dates, e.g. release dates, premiers and releasing of DVD. Blogs could also keep our audiences up to date with latest merchandise of our product and ways of legally streaming our sequence to potentially diversify our audience. We believe that the most appropriate time of year to release our film would be around Valentines Day. February would be a perfect month for our film to be released as teenagers are off school timetable and have half term in which they can visit the cinema and watch the film. Valentines day has also been seen successful in the past The Vow had its highest viewings in the first 2 days of releasing as it came out February 14th and had a great advertising platform to exploit this date to the audience. Therefore we have chosen to distribute it during the middle of February as it again increases and broadens the potential target audience we aim to grasp with our sequence.

Audience profile

Gender Age Hobbies

Male 17 Football Rugby Tennis Swimming Travelling Socialising Politics Economics R&B Hip Hop Contemporary The Hangover

Gender Age Interests

Female 19 Fashion shopping Languages Travelling Socialising Love Relationships Hip Hop Country Pop The Notebook

Interests

Music Choice

Music Choice

Favourite Film

Favourite Film

The certification we have chosen for our film is a 12A. This allows us to reach a large mass audience and not exclude many from being able to access the film. We feel it has elements of some violence and some language which could be taken or seen offensively therefore we have decided to allow parents to accompany their child if they give them permission to view our film. The criteria for a 12A are as follows: Discriminatory language or behaviour must not be endorsed by the work as a whole. Aggressive discriminatory language or behaviour is unlikely to be acceptable unless clearly condemned. Any misuse of drugs must be infrequent and should not be glamorised or give instructional detail. Moderate physical and psychological threat may be permitted, provided disturbing sequences are not frequent or sustained. Moderate language is allowed. The use of strong language be infrequent. Nudity is allowed, but in a sexual context must be brief and discreet. Moderate violence is allowed but should not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted if justified by the context. Sexual violence may only be implied or briefly and discreetly indicated, and must have a strong contextual justification. (http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/12a12/)

In order for my product to appeal to the audience we have included actors which conform to the stereotypical association with teenagers, students and teachers. The verisimilitude of the actors and actresses allow the audience to feel involved and able to engage with them. This can be seen as uses and gratification theory as the audience is able to engage and gratify from seeing such proximity within themselves and the actors. This will instantly increase the connection the audience feel with the actors and will eventually conclude to a successful release The narrative we have chosen for our sequence combines romance with comedy, also with a culture clash. This allows the audience to experience a range of emotions and opinions towards the actors. Through some scenes they empathise and through another they feel frustration. The constant conflict of characters emotions could relate to Levi Strauss theory of binary oppositions as the positive emotions are opposing the negative emotions within our sequence. The soundtrack and audio to our sequence conforms highly to the rom com genre. However it also incorporates the French culture. This combination reaches a mass audience and allows us to diversify our product in who we distribute it to as it could be in England and France, concluding to a more successful release. The soundtracks iconic French and up tempo beat is consistent through the sequence and this can be applied to the hypodermic needle theory as the audience is consistently injected with the French theme despite whatever the visual is displaying. Our titles and translations (voiceover) proves also highly effective. As it allows the audience to always feel involved within the sequence despite what language the audio and diegetic dialogue is in. The voiceover allows the audience to be placed into Moniques position and places the audience in a 3rd person perspective. This engages great proximity with the audience and Monique as the audience are lead to feel out of place with the language but with the subtitles connoting that it is able to understand and find acceptance. The Mise-en-scene has also proven popular with the audience as it is iconic and symbolic to a traditional school situation. The verisimilitude between location and real life are very high. This allows the audience to grasp realism within the frame and overall sequence. Being able to engage and enjoy visualising similar and realistic locations means that the audience are more able to understand and grasp the narrative, therefore concluding that they will enjoy the sequence more.

In order to make our product look professional and presentable we used a variety of different software, equipment and technologies. All advance in making overall productions look professional and allowing any mistakes to be fixed or edited. We used a variety of still cameras (Canon 600d), tripods, microphones, dummys, camera rigs, microphones, booms etc. Each piece of equipment added individual aspects which would help develop a shot or make a shot appear better. Using the dummy allowed us to move around maintaining a steady shot and worked successfully in our sequence. We found alternate ways of using flat surfaces which involved using gym mats to place on the pavement so that we would not jolt the shot. After we uploaded our footage onto an iMac computer we were then able to use the variety of software in order to produce our sequence. Garage band allowed us to create a soundtrack using appropriate instruments which suited the aura and genre of our sequence, also allowed us to incorporate the French theme into our music. Photoshop allowed us to edit the photographs we took for the montage, to enhance colour and to improve the appearance of the weather to make it more appropriate for the mood of the sequence. iMovie and Final Cut consisted of the majority of the editing, though this was time consuming we were able to cut milliseconds into our shots in order to successfully achieve smooth transitions and accurate camera movements. We were also able to add subtitles and titles through LiveType in order to complete our sequence. This allows the audience to gain a wider understanding for the culture conflict throughout the beginning of our sequence as we were able to add additional translations for the audience to understand and empathise with Monique. Precision editor and Clip Trimmer were useful editing techniques which I developed throughout the process of the product. Successfully creating merges, transitions and jump cutting in order to improve and enhance the overall appearance of our sequence. Voice/Sound control also allowed us to lower and raise the volume of audio and ambient sound we wanted in the background. I was able to adjust the pitch of a sound in order to make it less or more noticeable to the audience. The soundtrack also changes volumes throughout the sequences allowing diegetic dialogue to be heard above the non diegetic soundtrack. Cuebase allowed us to record separate audio to merge with our sequence, the voice over was recorded in a software recording studio and ensured the audio was clear and understandable. All software and editing techniques the group developed enabled us to advance in our sequence in order to project high quality film and sound.

Throughout our production we gained a variety of different skills in order to produce a better sequence. Using fixed cameras and rigs allowed us to get stable and steady shots. We also were able to use the focus on the camera to show depth of field and allow which ever character was essential to be in the focus of our sequence. Final Cut and iMovie enabled us to edit shots and combine shots with transitions to show time passing or a change of location. Within this software we were able to tune milliseconds into our footage, allowing us to precession edit the smallest of unwanted movement. Within our preliminary task this is something we didnt achieve successfully, we had slow cuts between shots which did not look or run smoothly. Setting a staged and awkward presence to the frame. Therefore we explored the precision of final cut and this allowed us to create faster and more accurate cuts and therefore the overall shots became sharper and looked much more realistic. This was evident when both males in our sequence where having conversations or confrontation. Our preliminary task allowed us to understand and grasp the 180 degree rule. Therefore we implemented this within our sequence to ensure that the audience understood the proximity and positioning within the scene. Also through final cut we were able to remove or lower the volume of any ambient sound we didnt want. We initially had trouble with the noise of the unsteady microphone; this gave us a vibration sound which needed to be removed as it interrupted with our sequence. Final cut allowed us to lower the volume of that specific shot and through the use of Cuebase (software for recording) we were able to rerecord the sounds; diegetic and non diegetic to the frame. Final cut also allowed us to place this recording over any footage and this is how we successfully achieved a voiceover showing Monique's thoughts. Planning and reshooting footage is highly important as you need a maximum of shots and footage just incase complications arise. We discovered this with the issue of our microphone sound. We did not film that scene again therefore was limited with what visual and audio footage we could use. This made it even more evident how vital it is to refilm footage even despite having it already filmed. Planning is also key as we took our storyboards, script and contingency plan with us when filming each scene. This enabled us to have a clear outline for the day and clear directions to give to the actors within the sequence. They were able to understand their roles and learn the script given to them. This ensured we had a successful and smooth running when filming.