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

We used the preliminary task as a chance to explore what shot types and camera movements we could use. Baring in mind we needed to shoot a match on action, shot-reverse-shot and use the 180 degree rule, we played around with different scenarios and events to put in the film. The first shot form our continuity exercise was of Billy Garratt-John walking down a corridor and into a classroom. We saw that the long shot from behind not only looked good on camera, but was a great way to introduce that characters at the start of the film as you give a visual idea of the character but you don’t give everything away at once. This builds minor anticipation to find out more. We then used this type of long shot in our opening to introduce both of our protagonists. 

When editing, we came across the difficulties of putting different videos together and cutting the at the rights points to make the continuity of the film flow. After a long day of cutting and rearranging, we finally came to a point where the film was fluent. We also experienced problems with the audio from one half of the conversation cutting over into the other half. We fiddled with the sound an video settings and managed to use this problem and turn it into a soundbridge. When we shot Billy walking in to the room from outside in the corridor and when we shot him from inside the room, he is walking at different speeds. When we noticed this when we were putting the video together and it struck us as an issue. We did how ever cut the part of him approaching the door and him walking through the door so that it seemed as if he had simply speed up as he got to the door.

When filming and editing our main film, we avoid problems like these by ensuring the screen switched to the other character if two shots following each other did not fit or were not fluent. We also spent more time making sure we cut to different shots nearest to the exact point it would switchover. A similar part of our main film is when Brad walks out of the library and through the door that leads to the stairs. We made sure the continuity of this part was as fluent as it could be and we feel it was a success.

The reason we wanted the continuity to be as perfect as we possibly could was to ensure that it seemed realistic. The whole real-life idea is very important in editing romantic comedies because of course the happy-ending romance may seem a little unrealistic, the continuous editing is key to still make it believable. This lead us to avoid any dissolves, fades or wipes.

We used shot-reverse-shot when Billy and Sean have their conversation, we used two different cameras and filmed the one conversation from two different points. The conversation was shot in medium close-up. Filming this was without difficulty for us, we were confident and happy with our results. Minor setbacks we had were with actors getting restless giggles, but of course the shots we needed were displayed in the end. After the conversation, Billy stands up and slaps Sean. We used a match on action on this part. It proved to be successful and quite funny from the way we had edited it. Perfect practice for a romantic-comedy. Billy had more prevalence and more screen time. We knew that Billy would be the one to slap Sean so we chose to film him from a slight low angle, to increase his power and Sean from a slight high angle, to display his inferiority.

We did want to use a tracking shot of Ella as she ran down the corridor at the beginning of the film. However due to not having the right equipment we were unable to produce this shot.

Again with the idea of realism, we ensured we filmed according to the 180 degree rule as this makes it seem like the audience are seeing the whole thing from a realistic point of view. The 180 degree rule is a basic guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between a character and another character or object within a scene. It is an imaginary line which the actors must stay on ones side of. We followed this rule in our preliminary and our main task.

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

The main piece of technology that we used was the video cameras. As I had studied Media at GCSE, I had already had experience with filming and using different shot techniques such as long shots, medium shots and close ups. I had also previously shot pan and tracks using equipment such as shopping trollies. This was very helpful for me to grasp quickly and help my group with my previous experience. My group and I worked well with the video cameras and all had equal chances to film and explore different shot types and styles. We did however experience some minor difficulties when filming such as when pressing the record button, the camera would sometimes shake therefore ruining some of the shots. We overcame these problems when editing and it became less of a problem and more of a learning step when editing.

Originally, we planned to have the 2000 pop/garage song 'I'll Bring You Flowers' by duo Sweet Female Attitude as our soundtrack, we then found out that due to copyright reservations, we were unable to use the track. We then searched for copyright free music and found 'The Free Music Archive' a website allowing us to download copyright music for free. This is where we found the track 'Someone For You' by Warm Soda. Once we found the track, we then opened it to iTunes and dragged the file on to iMovie where we put our film together. The song seemed to magically fit the opening perfectly with shots of Ella Barraclough who plays Poppy dancing in time with the music.

YouTube was another website we used frequently to research existing romantic comedy films. We are all familiar with the website so it was simple and helpful to use. From using this site, we found many clear codes and conventions of romantic comedy, this helped us to fit the prototype of what a romantic comedy should involve (e.g. two protagonists, binary opposition and continued themes of love and romance).

The scanner was useful for us to transfer our storyboards which we had hand written on to the PC. At first we scanned them on and saved them as PDFs, but this format of picture was not supported by the blogger website. We overcame this issue by converting the images into JPEG images on Photoshop, allowing us to upload them on to our blogs.

The program we use to compose and edit our film was iMovie. I had previous experience using this software and was confident when using it. I did however stumble over a few difficulties such as not being able to save the un-published film to my user to allow me to edit from different PCs around the Mac room. This meant to edit, my team and I had to stay at one PC every lesson to edit. This did slow us down at times when other people were using the PC that we needed to use, but having considerate and understanding classmates, this became less of a problem.

Using the Macs was simple and familiar form me as I have been using them for a while now. Although there were a few things I was not too sure of to begin with as I hadn't been using them as frequently as I was throughout this project, I quickly grasped and found out what and how to do certain things on the PC. Problems I came across were putting titles on the film and positioning them in places that wouldn't interfere with the film in the background, but of course some time exploring the program in more depth around with we found how to make the titles work to the standards of our anticipated vision.

Using Blogger has been especially useful, the site is an easy and quick platform to display our research, planning and evaluating of our film opening. We all have existing blogs so we found it simple and easy to use.

Overall, the technologies have worked to our advantage. Although challenging us at times, it showed us that our will to succeed and produce a good piece of film pushed us to overcome any problems if it meant spending more time trying figure things out, or searching for an equal substitute.

5) How did you attract/address your audience?

We addressed our audience by setting our film in a college atmosphere making it familiar to them as they would be either currently attending college/high school or have recently left. This allows the audience relate to the characters. The fact that the two protagonists are binary opposites helps widen the ‘relatability factor’.  Other films targeted at a similar audience set at a college/high school include Easy A (2010), Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist (2007) and She’s The Man (2006).

The soundtrack is performed by an all male pop/rock band, band such as these tend to be quite popular among many teenage girls. 

We asked in our questionnaire what age group they like to see main characters belong to. Most of the females said from the age of 17-21. This made it clear for us to cast actors within this age bracket.

The 1960s fashion theme is another way we have addressed our audience, as it is a popular and attractive style within teenagers and young adults. The protagonist Poppy is seen dancing around the art studio to the music from her headphones, this is a subtle way we have intended to attract our audience as it simply magnifies her ‘cool’ character. We altered the brightness and saturation of the film to make it high key and colourful to mirror the upbeat, happy storyline.

The pace of the opening is fast on one half and slower on the other in the sense that the character Poppy is seen running and very much active throughout the film (e.g. dancing, skipping)  and the character Eugene is seen either sat in one place or walking calmly. This effect is hugely important to showing their differences as characters, which is key in romantic comedy film.

It is intentionally unclear when the film is actually set because our costumes, hair and make-up are 1960s inspired, the music is 1990s inspired and we film part of our opening in a 1980s building as well as a 2011 built building. This has created a timeless theme for our film that we consider our unique selling point. This was inspired by the 1994 film Pulp Fiction with it's reference to different eras.

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

From the results we collected from our audience questionnaire, we found that females from the age of 14-23 are the most common watchers of romantic comedy films, this proves why they are sometimes known as 'chick flicks'. From these results we know that they are our target audience. Their interests may include a taste for popular music (ranging in pop sub-genres of R&B, Rock and Folk) and popular fashion (including high-street and vintage). This is what inspired us to use 60s style costumes as it gives our film more of an exciting edge. Many girls of this age group would be into soap-opera shows such as EastEnders and Hollyoaks, as well as TV series such as Skins and 90210. All of these shows tend to have a number of attractive young males (sometimes known as 'eye-candy') which is a clear common interest for many females in that age bracket.

Our target audience would watch our film because it’s a film where the storyline could possibly be familiar with their lives. The characters are relatable and realistic so they will find some form of connection with at least one of the characters off back. In all films targeted at this type of audience, the cast are reasonably attractive to a wide number of viewers, this is part of the reason the actors were cast.

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

Our film opening leans more towards a British art-house style film whilst still coming across as a Hollywood style film. It is similar to films such as Tamara Drew, 500 Days of Summer and Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist in the sense that you can see it is not a big budget hollywood film, but it is however a very well filmed British film. Directors who are likely to to direct a piece of this nature would be Mark Waters who directed Head Over Heals, Mean Girls and 500 Days of Summer because of the romantic comedy elements all of these films have that are very much attractive to young females. The cast of this film would be mostly a young cast ranging around the ages of 17-25. Other characters however may be much older around the ages of 35-50 as the film is set at a college where there would be teachers, other staff and parents.

The films budget would ranger around the figures of £8-11 million as it would not require the expensive special effects, explosions and large scale settings such as a film like War of The Worlds or The Dark Night Rises. A production company likely to release this film would be New Line Cinema as they have commonly released rom-coms such as The Wedding Crashers, Monster-In-Law and other romance films such as The Notebook. Universal Studios would be a likely company to distribute our film. They have distributed British films like About A Boy and many romantic comedies like Love Happens, Couples Retreat, The Holiday, The Break-Up and Prime.

As this is a mature teen romantic comedy it would be release at the beginning on Summer, around early June time to get the viewers excited and anticipating the official start of summer. TV advertisement would be the main way of marketing this film as the it is a high enough budget film to have this publicity. Other promotion would include posters on busses and taxis and Billboards. The film would be largely marketed on the internet, adverts on youtube videos for example, magazines and newspapers. We view our film as being the British summer feel good film of the year, so a fair sum of the budget would go directly on promotion and creating a buzz around the film.

A premier of the film most defiantly take place in London, with the cast of the film and other current celebrities attending also. The film would be shown in around 250 multiplex cinemas around the UK and Ireland. It would also be shown in some multiplex cinemas universally and would be very big in art-house cinemas around the US.

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

Our two main characters, are from two completely different ends of the social spectrum. Poppy an 18 year-old white, female art student from a middle class family. She is creative, loves art, music and has an adventurous fashion sense. The character is one in a wide circle of friends that are considered by themselves as 'cool' as well as others. She likes to socialise and meet new people, she is open to what she finds fun or intriguing such as going out to clubs and parties. Poppy has elements of a number of existing romantic comedy characters as she is the it girl, the one that all the guys want to be with and all the girls want to be. The effect she has on other people is similar to that of Cameron Diaz's character Mary Jensen in the 1998 rom-com 'There's Something About Mary' where every man that she meets seems to have some form of liking to her. She also has the 'cool, attractive' elements of Stockard Channing's Grease character Rizzo, who is considerably the leader of her circle of friends. Poppy is however less reckless and sarcastic. This cool, attractive element is like that of Skins character Effy Stonem, however Poppy is less elusive and enigmatic, just very much an attraction to many of the people around her.

Eugene is an 18 year-old black, male maths, biology, chemistry and physics student from a working class family. He is extremely intelligent and dedicated to his subjects spending most of his spare time on his studies. He likes to dress smartly for college as he takes pride in his a-levels and wants to make the best of the opportunity of the education he is getting. He has a few friends that he socialises with every now and then but he is hardly ever noticed by them or many other students as during break times he is found in the library as his studies are his priority. His character is similar to the Grease character Eugene in the sense that he is considered nerdy by others because of his dedication to his studies,. He is however less physically awkward than Eugene from Grease. The character resembles elements of Jason Schwartzman's character Max Fischer in the 1998 comedy-drama film Rushmore as well as Michael Cera's character in 2007 romantic comedy Juno as he is a socially awkward know-it-all.

Because of their different subjects, interests and priorities, the two characters fall into very different social groups. Eugene who spends less time socialising with people his age and more time alone revising and studying his subjects. Poppy on the other hand very much enjoys socialising and being with other people, and because of that has attracted loads of friends who consider her cool because of her talent in art and eye-catching fashion sense.

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

Our film opening begins with an extreme longshot of the buildings around and of the college. This is a shot to establish the general location (setting) of the film. Many romantic comedies use this shot to open the film such as Pretty In Pink (1986). The role of our opening is to introduce the audience to the two protagonists and to give a brief but clear idea of what their characters are like. In our opening we see Poppy (Ella Barraclough) running through a corridor to her art lesson. Once she arrives, she dances to the music from her headphones whilst painting a picture. From these two shots, we see that Poppy is outgoing, and up-beat, maybe a little unorganised (as she is running because she is late). We then see the other main character Eugene (Brad Dinnall), who walks orderly, dresses smartly and is seen in the library working, sitting down in one place. Already there is a massive contrast between the two characters which is very common in romantic comedy film. An example of this is Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds characters in The Proposal (2009) where Reynold's character Andrew is rushing to work after waking up late to bring his boss (Bullock) her coffee. On the other hand, Bullock strolls in to work orderly as she is the boss.

In creating the two main characters, we had to stereotypically choose their identities. Poppy is clearly the popular, it girl of the college who isn't very academic, but her creativity, beauty and personality attracts many of those around her. Eugene is clearly what we would stereotypically call a nerd/geek. He's socially awkward and totally dedicated to his studies compromising any chance at being 'popular'. We set the two characters in different locations as they walk/run to their lessons. Poppy runs down a hallway with red walls, Eugene walks down a hallway with green walls. This also connotes their differences.

Typically of every romantic comedy, the two characters involved in the romance need to meet. Just like when Richard Gere pulled up on the street corner and was approached by Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman (1990), or when Kate Winslet opened the door to Jack Black in The Holiday (2006). These meet-cutes vary in the events that happen, they can be simply 'cute' meetings where you can see signs of love at first sight, they can be awkward encounters where you'd think the two would never speak again, or their first meting could involve them being totally against each other and cause them to almost hate each other to being with. But we had to chose carefully of how we would introduce the characters to each other, because a boring meet cute won't make the viewers want to keep watching.

As it is set in a college environment, and both of our characters aren't particularly focused when they're walking (Poppy listening to music, Eugene reading a book) we chose for their encounter to involve them bumping in to each other. Because they're both not looking where they are going, the collision isn't really either of their faults whilst being both of their faults at the same time, this automatically brings them together on some sort of level.

The lighting of the film is high key throughout. This is typical of a romantic comedy film as the theme is positive and upbeat. The upbeat music and high key colour and lighting suggests tot he audience the genre of the film. We also have subtly followed a theme of red and pink throughout the film, this connotes the romance that is about to occur between the two protagonists.

The title of our film is 'Love Levels', we chose this title because it links in to the fact that both of our romantic characters are studying A-levels at college. The title also connotes that you can find love on different social levels as they are form two very different social groups. We used the font 'Courier New' for the opening titles as it is a formal font that resembles the font of a typewriter, which is linked to education and learning.

What was not so typical of a modern romantic comedy is the costumes we used. The outfits the protagonists wear are all 60s inspired, usually the characters in rom-coms are dressed in modern clothing if not the latest fashions which shows the time period, however we wanted to exclude the element of time to create a new time and space zone for our film.

Female characters in rom-com tend to have more prevalence, this is because females are more likely to watch this genre of film, and therefore will identify more with the female character. We have followed this typical theme because we found form our own personal research that romantic comedies are more popular with females. Poppy is the first character seen and has more screen time than Eugene, this was an intentional plan to allow the viewers to see the film more through Poppy's eyes than Eugene's. Both characters are mostly in the centre of each shot, this draws a focus on the characters giving the audience the idea that the film is mainly about them and that they are the two characters to pay attention to.

Day 1 (Filming, March 7)

The first day of filming was very successful, we gathered a wide selection of difference shot sizes, angles and movements for us to select the very best of for our film. Our actor Ella was fantastic and stayed in character the whole time whilst being filmed. My team and I worked very well together with each of us suggesting and taking control of shots that we though would work well. The input Jessie and Emma had was refreshing to hear and has made me very excited to see the finished result. I documented our first shoot with a few pictures of my team (Emma, Jessie and Ella)

Preliminary Exercise

Continuity task involving filiming and editing and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with who she/he then exchanges a couple of lines

Analysis of Existing Romantic Comedies

The Proposal

The film opens with a long shot of a forest from the view point of a cyclist. The camera then zooms out to reveal that the forest is being viewed on a TV screen with Sandra Bullock on a cycling machine in front of it. The opening titles appear on this shot in a white, sans font that fades across the shot. The next shot is of Ryan Reynolds in bed, just waking up and looking confusingly at the time realising he is late for work, to which he shouts 'SHIT!'. There is instantly a clear difference between the two characters, as Sandra Bullock has time to exercise in the morning before she goes to work, whereas Ryan Reynolds is oversleeping and rushing to work.


The Rebound
This film opens with a medium shot of Catherine Zeta-Jones dropping her two young kids off at school. This establishes and introduces her to the film as a mother. There is a lot more focus on her character than her love interest Justin Bartha, but when he is introduced, he is seen in a coffee shop and is initiated as much younger in comparison to Zeta-Jones. After finding out her husband had been unfaithful Zeta-Jones moves the outskirts to New York City in to an apartment on top of the coffee shop Bartha works in. There is an x-long birds eye shot of the mother and kids in the car as they approach the city. Again the instant contrasts between the two are made immediately. In this case, the main contrast is their age differences, but yet find common ground in the fact that they have both been divorced.

Soundtrack

We want the sound in our opening to mainly be the soundtrack playing non-diegetically over the film. We considered having our character Poppy wear headphones and be dancing around an art room to the music. This could be the music coming from her headphones but playing over the whole opening (even on the scenes not including her). The soundtrack for our opening is entitled 'Someone For You' by American pop/rock band Warm Soda. We chose this song because lyrically reference the theme of love and sonically is youthful and upbeat. The song also has the same feel as the music from TV series Gavin & Stacey and film Angus, Thongs & Perfect Snogging two productions very popular with our target audience.

Red & Pink (Colour Theme)

We have decided to use a theme of red and pink throughout the opening as these are colours that symbolise love/romance. We will incorporate theses colours in the settings we chose to film in and the costumes our characters wear to connote the romance yet to take place. Some of these will be subtle whilst others very noticeable.