Note for moderator

Dear Moderator,

My name is Georgia Sinton and this is my blog; it contains all the work for my foundation portfolio AS in media studies within the OCR course.
I worked in a group of three to produce a roughly two minute film opening in the style of a chick flick genre. From starting in September and finishing in March/April this project has taken me around five months to complete including editing.
I hope you enjoy reading  my blog posts and watching our film opening too!
To make accessing my blog posts more easy for you to find I have put labels on the top left hand side of my blog page where you can see more specific posts.

Final Ident

Evaluation Question 1

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

Here is an Establishing shot we decided it should be the very first shot shown in our film. One particular idea we got from analysing 'Saturday Night Fever' was how early on in the film a train is shown to represent the emotional journey John Travolta's character will go through, throughout the film. As this was similar with our storyline and what we felt would happen we thought it would be powerful to show our protagonist going on a train journey to represent a similar notion. 

For this shot, we decided a POV shot would be the most effective way of dropping in another element to our story. The first 30 seconds of our film just shows Samantha catching a train on her way to work, and so we decided to make the storyline more interesting by adding in this new component. We contemplated doing a voice over of one of us reading out the text however ultimately we decided against this as the voice over would have lasted too long, running over the next few shots and perhaps boring our audience if we decided to make the shots even longer. Furthermore, our Protagonist is characterised as a person high up in the fashion industry and so we felt in order to fit this persona, an iPhone would best portray this. We also felt, as this was a chick flick film the best 'text language' to use would be abbreviations, such as 'omg' (oh my god).

I felt that this shot was particularly important as the mise en scene helps to contribute to the verisimilitude of the film opening. The various props used were all objects you would associate with a magazine office (i.e. Clothes rack, magazines, clothes doll in far left corner). Additionally, we felt it would be more realistic if we had other people in the office. At first when we planned to film in this room and created our story boards it did not occur to us that it may be useful to have several people around in the background, we were so focused on our two characters that when we got there we felt it was necessary and realized it would help make our film more successful on the whole if we included extras.

As our Protagonist, Samantha, opens this suspicious, ominous letter (which has 'confidential' stamped on in big red letters), we felt it would be most effective to do an over the shoulder shot so that the audience could see exactly what it is that Samantha is reading. This letter follows on from our previous shot of the text message. We felt this would make the story more compelling as there seems to be a dichotomy developing here in the plot of the story, on one side you have this seemingly important character who turns out to be simply an intern and then you have her boss divorcing her husband (who happens to be the publisher of vogue magazine) who then appears to have received a letter concerning a 'court summons'. we felt this would interest the audience and make them curious and eager to find out what would happen later. 

Here, as Mollie has just opened the letter showing her boss is being summoned by court, we thought it would be best to do a close up shot of her face to convey her shock. As aforementioned, this new element being brought in introduces a serious tone to the storyline. Having a serious subplot is something most chick flicks have as it makes the film more interesting.  I also previously mentioned how we analysed the Devil Wears Prada where various issues arise and things go wrong which makes the movie more enjoyable for the audience.  

A popular camera technique used in chick flicks is a slow pan upwards to show the characters outfit. In order to fit in with the stereotypical genre we felt this would be useful to use as our protagonist is wearing smart shoes, this makes it clear early on that our character is not going into London to shop or even meet up with her friends. Unfortunately, due to the weather Mollie had no choice but to wear a coat over her smart outfit, which did not allow for our camera shot to be as effective as we had hoped, as we did not get a chance to show off her choice of clothes. 

An effective way of introducing an important character to the story, is to create some ambiguity surrounding them. This technique was used in the Devil Wears Prada, and me and my classmates felt this would be compelling if used in our film opening. Miranda Priestly, (the editor for the magazine in the devil wears prada) does not reveal her identity albeit numerous shots of her are used, these are specifically of her lower body, focusing on her outfit and accessories. This entices the audience, piquing their interest, making them eager to see the characters identity revealed. And so, we did not show Samantha's face until she enters the office.

For our credits, we decided a girly font fading in would help reinforce the chick flick notion. Although it is not possible to see in the screenshot, the letters appear gradually, softly bouncing in. We experimented with pink writing (as pink is considered quite a girly colour) however decided this was not the most practical use of colour as it often clashed with various colours in the background and as a result, looked fairly unprofessional when used in conjunction with this particular font. However, we were quite adamant this was the most suitable font and so we compromised by changing the colour to white. However, using the colour white did not suit one particular scene where we show Mollie Greaney's name, due to the background colour you are unable to see the 'M' for a few seconds until the camera pans up. We thought perhaps if we delayed her name appearing for a while, this would solve the problem, however this delayed all the other credits and so we had to leave the credits. 

For our title, we initially had the idea of having the title follow after the bus however after experimenting we really thought the pink glittery fairy dust going through the title was most effective as the title of a girly film. The decision of the name 'two of a kind' depicts the characterisation of the two main characters throughout the film (Samantha and her boss Anna). Although at first they seem to be very different, we decided that although we won't be filming the rest of the film, we pictured the outcome of the film to have the two become unlikely friends. 

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)

Here is an Establishing shot we decided should be the very first shot shown in our film. One particular idea we got from analysing 'Saturday Night Fever' was how early on in the film a train is shown to represent the emotional journey John Travolta's character will go through, throughout the film. As this was similar with our storyline and what we felt would happen we thought it would be powerful to show our protagonist going on a train journey to represent a similar notion. The establishing shot also develops the chick flick convention of the opening sequence, often the protagonist goes on a journey in the opening of the film.

For this shot, we decided a POV shot would be the most effective way of dropping in another element to our story.  The first 30 seconds of our film just shows Samantha catching a train on her way to work, and so we decided to make the storyline more interesting by adding in this new component. We contemplated doing a voice over of one of us reading out the text however ultimately we decided against this as the voice over would have lasted too long, running over the next few shots and perhaps boring our audience if we decided to make the shots even longer. Furthermore, our Protagonist is characterised as a person high up in the fashion industry and so we felt in order to fit this persona, an iPhone would best portray this. We also felt, as this was a chick flick film the best 'text language' to use would be abbreviations, such as 'omg' (oh my god). POV shots are very conventional within chick flicks and they enable the audience to identify with the protagonist, as is the use of ‘teenage’ language in the text messages and the use of the latest technology.

I felt that this shot was particularly important as the mise en scene helps to contribute to the verisimilitude of the film opening. The mise en secene also uses the convention of a 'trendy' environment - typical of chick flicks and attracting the audience. The various props used were all objects you would associate with a magazine office (i.e. Clothes rack, magazines, clothes doll in far left corner). Additionally, we felt it would be more realistic if we had other people in the office. At first when we planned to film in this room and created our story boards it did not occur to us that it may be useful to have several people around in the background, we were so focused on our two characters that when we got there we felt it was necessary and realized it would help make our film more successful on the whole if we included extras. 

As our Protagonist, Samantha, opens this suspicious, ominous letter (which has 'confidential' stamped on in big red letters), we felt it would be most effective to do an over the shoulder shot so that the audience could see exactly what it is that Samantha is reading. This letter follows on from our previous shot of the text message. We felt this would make the story more compelling as there seems to be a dichotomy developing here in the plot of the story, on one side you have this seemingly important character who turns out to be simply an intern and then you have her boss divorcing her husband (who happens to be the publisher of vogue magazine) who then appears to have received a letter concerning a 'court summons'. we felt this would interest the audience and make them curious and eager to find out what would happen later. 

Here, as Mollie has just opened the letter showing her boss is being summoned by court, we thought it would be best to do a close up shot of her face to convey her shock. As aforementioned, this new element being brought in introduces a serious tone to the storyline. Having a serious subplot is something most chick flicks have as it makes the film more interesting, while challenging the stereotypical conventions. We also used a close up shot of the letter which read the word 'SUMMONS'. I also previously mentioned how we analysed the Devil Wears Prada where various issues arise and things go wrong which makes the movie more enjoyable for the audience.

A popular camera technique used in chick flicks is a slow pan upwards to show the characters outfit. In order to fit in with the stereotypical genre we felt this would be useful to use as our protagonist is wearing smart shoes, this makes it clear early on that our character is not going into London to shop or even meet up with her friends. Unfortunately, due to the weather Mollie had no choice but to wear a coat over her smart outfit, which did not allow for our camera shot to be as effective as we had hoped, as we did not get a chance to show off her choice of clothes. 

An effective way of introducing an important character to the story, is to create some ambiguity surrounding them. This technique was used in the Devil Wears Prada, and me and my classmates felt this would be compelling if used in our film opening. Miranda Priestly, (the editor for the magazine in the devil wears prada) does not reveal her identity albeit numerous shots of her are used, these are specifically of her lower body, focusing on her outfit and accessories. This entices the audience, piquing their interest, making them eager to see the characters identity revealed. And so, we did not show Samantha's face until she enters the office.

For our credits, we decided a girly font fading in would help reinforce the chick flick notion. Although it is not possible to see in the screenshot, the letters appear gradually, softly bouncing in. We experimented with pink writing (as pink is considered quite a girly colour) however decided this was not the most practical use of colour as it often clashed with various colours in the background and as a result, looked fairly unprofessional when used in conjunction with this particular font. However, we were quite adamant this was the most suitable font and so we compromised by changing the colour to white. However, using the colour white did not suit one particular scene where we show Mollie Greaney's name, due to the background colour you are unable to see the 'M' for a few seconds until the camera pans up. We thought perhaps if we delayed her name appearing for a while, this would solve the problem, however this delayed all the other credits and so we had to leave the credits. 

For our title, we initially had the idea of having the title follow after the bus however after experimenting we really thought the pink glittery fairy dust going through the title was most effective as the title of a girly film. The decision of the name 'two of a kind' depicts the characterisation of the two main characters throughout the film (Samantha and her boss Anna). Although at first they seem to be very different, we decided that although we won't be filming the rest of the film, we pictured the outcome of the film to have the two become unlikely friends. 

Evaluation question 2 How does your media product represent particular social groups?

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

 

Prezi Evaluation question 3

Evaluation qestion 4

We asked a group of girls from our school, aged between 14 - 18 years old, to watch our film opening and give us constructive criticism so we could improve the opening for our target age range. We asked them to fill out this form anonymously:

The audience of our media product is for teenagers that are ages 14 to 18. The most common thing brought up was how repetitive the background music was. Seeing as this was a frequently brought up issue, we are currently looking for an appropriate less repetitive chick-flick style of music. We found information from interviewing a focus group in our school of the teenagers and this gave us an idea of the stereotypical audience viewing our product. 

Evaluation task 5 - Planning

How did you attract/address the audience?

To attract our audience last lesson all three of us decided to use a green screen. We read out lines out each whilst sat in front of the green screen and uploaded this on iMovie. Then edited ourselves in with the film opening on in the background playing at the same time as we speak. This was the only time in our film opening where we used this and found it fairly easy to use as we didn't need to move the tripod or change the green screen in any way.


The only difficulty we had when filming was the lighting this was because of the skylight coming through the window causing there too much light in one place.

Evaluation question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?




Social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube can help market our film. For example they have figures such as subscribers and likes which make people watch them.

Furthermore, Twitter has 288 million active users per month and 500 million tweets sent per day. As seen with Disney's most recent release of the live action film Cinderella, their twitter page gained 47,000 followers who were eager to receive updates about the film's release.

In order to spread awareness it would be ideal to make a twitter page for our Film, and to tweet updates about the progress of the film and its release date. 

Evaluation Question 6

This is a video showing the various technologies we used in our film opening.

Evaluation task 7

Evaluation task 7 progression from my preliminary task89 from georgiasinton




Here is a presentation I have uploaded onto slide share.  

Music for our film opening

As a group we decided that we needed an uplifting and fun background song that would fit a teenage audience.

The first one we came across was quite repetitive and from the feedback we got we knew we had to change the song.Our final song we chose had a girl singing in the background which gave it more tone and it was catchy which is good because it draws more attention to the viewer. This song was called loving everything I find.

Another filming day

My media group went to film some more of our film opening on Thursday. We took advantage of the bad weather because it was rainy and dark and so we filmed some more. The rain created pathetic fallacy as our protagonist is feeling stressed. This part includes the actor Molly running to costa and running out again with her two coffee cups. The overall commotion of the traffic and people that passed by gave a good atmosphere. The shots we filmed were; mid shot,long shots, establishing shot and a pan that followed Molly running along the road.

We borrowed coffee cups from costa which made it verisimilitude. However after filming we realised that if the cups were filled with coffee it would have spilt. When we finished filming we began to edit and thought that it would be a good idea to have music or have a voice over. 

We used two cameras which was good as a result of  having two choices of film and this helped with continuity as we could look at the same camera angles at once.

Another idea  that we had is to have a clip of the bus drive past with the titles in the centre of the frame. Then Molly would run past as if she is pushing the titles out the way.

Cinderella - New makeup merchandise

Disney has teamed up with the makeup brand 'MAC' to create  Cinderella themed makeup consisting of 17 items. This consists of; Eyeshadow, eye Gloss, pigment,liquid liner,mascara, lipstick,powder, glitter,blending brush and contour brush. Each of these having an identical light blue packaging and lid. Some of these products are cleverly named as places and events in Cinderella such as the lipstick called 'Royal blue' and 'happily ever after lipgloss'. Lots of these products have recently sold out.

The advantages of teaming up with MAC is that it allows the older audience such as teenagers and young women to buy merchandise in order for Disney to get a greater profit. The logo and advertisement on the website allows more people to access and consume their product. As it is limited edition and some of the products are sold out it creates a 'buzz' for people to buy their product and the thought of not getting it in time makes people want it even more.

The fact that Disney is teaming up with lots of companys to promote different things such as 'Ashdon Inc' to sell prom dresses helps people to hear about their film and is a good form of advertisement.

Cinderella interview and facebook page

Disney has made a Facebook page for 2015 Cinderella. I found on this page so far it has just over 13 million likes. It also posts regularly with pictures and the newest news.

Below is one of their posts who is aimed at the adults as it is an article.

As a special holiday offering, guests visiting Magic Kingdom Park will have the opportunity to see the actual coach featured in the upcoming live-action Disney film, “Cinderella.” A team of white horses will pull the dreamlike carriage in special pre-parade appearances through the park and down Main Street, U.S.A.

Inspired by the classic fairy tale, “Cinderella” brings to life the timeless images from Disney’s 1950 animated masterpiece in a visually dazzling spectacle for a whole new generation. The stunning, golden coach from the film will be gracing the parade route at Magic Kingdom Park through the holidays, and can also be seen as part of the “Disney Parks Frozen Christmas Celebration,” airing Christmas Day on ABC.
“Cinderella” opens in theatres March 13, 2015.

The official poster is also on this page featuring Lily James who plays Cinderella.

I have also found an interview of Lily James talking about Cinderella. In this Interview Cinderella talks about her relationship between her and the prince and how Cinderella changes the Prince from other Animated Cinderella movies.

In this interview she says 'It's not that he just comes in and sweeps her off her feet its like an equal meeting of two people'. She mentions how in other movies the Prince just rescues Cinderella but this film is more cleverly written and she also says that in some ways Cinderella challenges the Prince.

Here is Lily James's interview.

Case Study: Vertigo Films

Monsters





This is the first trailer from vertigo films of monsters. This one has come out in 2010 and the second film is coming out in England in February 2015. The film director is Gareth Edwards.


When was the company started and what sort of media does it produce?

As it says on the website Vertigo Films is a UK Film and Distribution company founded in 2002 by Allan Niblo and James Richardson. The following year Rupert Preston and Nick Love joined and became partners.

 The Films span a range of genres and audience taste and include the box office smash hit Streetdance 3D and also others such as Monsters which was very popular and won multi million awards.

When was it first shown and where, to whom?
The film was released in North America on 29 October 2010. It was also previewed in America as well.

Awards it has won?

It has been nominated for 10 awards one was a  Bafta award.

Reception - how much money did it make at the UK Box Office? In DVD sales? Elsewhere through distribution in the UK?

Budget
$800,000 (estimated)

On the opening weekend
It received $20,508 (USA) 31st of October 2010 on three screens and on December the 5th 2010 in the USA on 164 screens it got a gross of £348,577 in the UK.

Any special features that made it a success in the UK and/or internationally?

Edwards created the special effects himself using mainly Adobe software and Zbrush. This made it successful in the UK because of his new software.

Summarise the campaign by the social networking website Foursquare

Foursquare is mainly for used by people who can access it by a smartphone. Vertigo decided to use this as a way of widening their advertisements and their audience. They wanted to gain as many people as they could to view their film.

Vertigo wanted to create a buzz around the film before its release and draw the audience into the cinemas. They teamed up with the social networking site 'Foursquare' which allows members to 'check in' wherever they are and communicate with other users and the venues themselves. The aim was to raise awareness of the cinemas showing the film and generate interest. As the director, Gareth Edwards, went to a UK tour, Foursquare created 'infected zones' in each key city, with volunteers dressed in protective clothing handing out fliers. Fans who logged into the 'infected zones' could win prizes and discounts on their tickets. The increase in awareness of the film was a huge success. This is an example of a film was a huge success. This is an example of a film company using the latest technology to attract a target audience. It was also a networking opportunity for Vertigo to gain information about their audience from their cinemas.