Dear Moderator...

Dear Moderator, 

My name is Emily Moss and this is my blog; it contains all of the work undertaken as part of the G321 AS Foundation Portfolio Unit within the OCR CGE course in Media Studies. 

I chose to work in a group of 3 to produce a film opening in the chick flick genre. The project lasted four months, commencing in September 2013 and cumulating in February / March 2014.  

I hope you enjoy my work and find it both successful and interesting.

Please use the navigation bar on the left hand side of the page in order to access my work, as organised into the five stages: Audience Research (including progression tasks), Planning, Camera Work, My Coursework Piece and the Evaluation. There is also a link to the St Mary's School Blog Hub. 

Yours thankfully

Emily Moss

Pretty Hurts

Here Is My Coursework Piece: A Film Introduction!

Enjoy!!

Evaluation ~Question 7~

More Audience Feedback...

Once I was in the process of making my film, I continuously showed it to different people to get their point of view, some said it was great, however it was much more helpful when the audience gave constructive criticism of my work, and how I could improve it from the view of someone who had never seen it before.

Audience Feedback

Throughout the process of making my film introduction I sent out a survey to my whole school asking them certain questions about my chosen 'Chick Flick' genre. Here are some graphs showing the responses:

Unfortunatley all of the replies were from a female audience, so I was not able to get a complete perspective on the genre, however, they have provided me with information to help me in creating my introduction.

However, luckily the replies were from a very varied age range, with the most 16-18 year olds of whom my film is aimed at. 

I first asked what they expect from a chick flick film and the majority said boys and girls,  closely followed by love and jealousy with are both key themes of my production.

I then asked if they watched chick flicks, and clearly the majority said YES! This helped me to confirm that I had chosen a very female orientated production.

I then wanted to know who their favourite celebrity was, Beyonce was clearly the winner here, and is a perfect role model for young girls today. Something I wanted to pick up on in the film with a strong independent protagonist.

 Here, clearly the favourite chick flick is Mean Girls, which is the typical chick flick film of the recent few years. I wanted to take from these top films the idea of a new girl attending a school with some 'mean girls' who try to make it a struggle for her to fit in.

Finally, I wondered about the music genre which my audience preferred, they mostly said pop and rock, and I would say that the soundtrack to my opening is a mixture of the two,

We Finished!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Evaluation ~Question 6~

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

Evalauation ~Question 5~

How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation ~Question 4~

Evaluation ~Question 4~

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Making of The Car Scene for Pretty Hurts!

Evaluation ~Question 3~

Camera Work When Making My Film Opening

I learned how having three cameras in different locations to film one action is a much simpler way to provide a variety of shots. Whilst filming the car scene. I stood outside the school gate at first, with Jenny a little further away and Priya inside the car. We all then moved positions whilst filming the walking scene and once again during the classroom scene where there were 2 cameras on the action and one doing close ups.

Evaluation ~Question 2~

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

New Storyline...

•        Pan starting on car (driving on packhorse road) into school drive, in a very typical Fiat 500 car in baby blue (a colour theme I continued throughout the film)
•     She drives into school, wearing a glamorous furry coat and carrying a large pink Ted Baker bag.
•     She then walks into the front door of a very traditional private school.
•     The scene then cuts to show her walking down a corridor, and meeting a girl who currently attends the school, she introduces herself as 'Priya' and we also learn that the protagonists name is 'Miranda'
•       The audience is then shown a very noisy classroom full of sixth formers, however the room falls silent as the new girl walks in. We also see a group of girls who turn around and glare at Miranda.
•       Miranda then is provided with a seat next to Sophie (the antagonist) who gives the protagonist a mean stare, which then contrasts Mirandas innocent look back.
•      Antagonist then slams her folder shut after saying  ‘let’s not have a repeat of last time', a sort of threat to the new girl and implies that something has happened previously between the two girls, yet no one knows quite what it is yet.
•      The shot then changes to show texting on an iPhone which shows Miranda texting a friend, saying how she is so shocked and worried that Sophie attends this school...

My Holiday Essay

Evaluation ~Question 1~

      In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)
I made this shot of 'Illuminations Productions' on 'LiveType' and used a special effect to make each letter flash and therefore stand out and seem to illuminate, which links with the company name. The background has been kept very simple and white to emphasise the flashing title. The music also  begins during this shot which is an up-beat pop-rock soundtrack which is typical of the Chick Flick genre.

                                                            

      The shot now changes to an 'In Car Shot'.  The camera is from the driver’s POV however the audience do not know who the driver is yet. The car is driving a long a straight which creates a verisimilitude as people can relate to the everyday car driving situation. The production company name then appears, saying 'An Illuminations Productions Film'. It is displayed in a handwritten, girly font which once more, reflects the Chick Flick genre. As the car drives forwards  the audience can see a school sign for St Mary School, and the audience can relate to this typical English independent school.  The impression they get is that this is a rather posh area which is quite typical of a Chick Flicks such as 'Wild Child'.  Another convention I followed is starting a film with a journey arriving at its destination which shows a new start.

    This shot shows the car which we just saw the interior of driving into the school which the audience also just saw.   The audience also get the first shot of the driver which appears to be a young girl wearing sun glasses (Ray Ban). Designer label which is really expensive and representative of the high end product these privileged teenagers can afford. Once more, the title credit 'In Association With JEP Studios'  is in a girly swirly font reminiscent                          of 'A Cinderella Story'.

    This shot is now an animation of the Director, Producer and Screenwriter. This is typical of Chick Flicks too. The use of scraps of paper could reflect the school setting, as well as using school type fonts. The background is baby blue which is the same as the car previously shown.

   This shot shows the car driving down a really long, grand front drive (Typical of British Private Schools). This shows the whole car and therefore shows that it is a typical first car for girls of that age, and something that the audience can relate to. The title credits still appear, this time showing the actors starring in the production.

     

    This shot returns to inside the car, and once more gives the POV of the driver, there is still a mystery as to who this is though. The audience get a first view of the grand school building through the windscreen of the car which reflects the audiences expectations of such a school.



    This shot, once more, shows the side of the car driving into the entrance, the car highly contrasts with the green background, which may even foreshadow the upcoming contrasts with the other students. The titles appear again to show another actors name. The audience gets a quick peek at the driver, who seems to be a young girl. However they do not know exactly who yet.

    This shot is back from the drivers view. I did this so that the audience can get a really clear  view of the school landscape and how it is a very old, grand place. As the car drives around the audience can see even more of the location, and gets the idea that maybe the driver is a student.


   This shot, furthermore emphasises the car to the audience,and how it seems to be driving around a roundabout at the front of the school. I panned the camera so that a really clear view of the car is provided, with a final look at a green field behind, with a few girls in smart uniform walking around.

Another Attempt :(

Lets hope that FinalCut can fix our issue…

Todays Findings

WE GREEN SCREENED!
(but it didn't quite work…)

Next time we will do it on paper and see if it makes a difference if we use my camera...

Practising Our Shots

Here is a video of the shots that we have practiced..

Filming Day Today………..

Story Our Film Opening

The scene is set by a camera panning downwards onto a classroom full of writing schoolgirls. We then see a girl close up who is doodling in her notebook. We then see a very zoomed in notebook with animated titles of Director, screenwriter and producer. We then hear a school bell ring and the screen fades to show the film title.It re-opens again to show a view from the front of the same girl walking through a hallway with lots of girls saying "hi" in the hallways and interacting with the girl. The scene cuts and shows the girl looking in her locker. The actors name appears on a file. The camera view then switches to show a view from inside her locker and she then slams the locker shut. The scene then jumps to show the girl walking to get into her pink car but sees post-it's on the windscreen with notes like 'love the new car' alongside with other actors names. We then see her get into the car and the camera cuts to show the car from behind and it drives off and round the corner. The screen fades to black...

Testing Animation For My Introduction

Practising Walking Editing

New Certificate Classifications

Today, I found out that the way that films are classified has changed. 
Here is the BBC News article on the subject which also has a video clip explaining what and why changes are occurring.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25684461

Jung Typology Test

I took this quiz to see what kind of person I am as well as the fact that you can link it to a Disney Princess! It shows us how Disney has evolved to create a bigger background and more ways of promotion and to get people involved. 

I was an ISFJ which is 

ISFJs live in a world that is concrete and kind. They are truly warm and kind-hearted, and want to believe the best of people. They value harmony and cooperation, and are likely to be very sensitive to other people's feelings. People value the ISFJ for their consideration and awareness, and their ability to bring out the best in others by their firm desire to believe the best.

The princess I was most like was Cinderella! 

My Favourites :)

Whilst trying to find a film to watch I decided to find out all of my chick flicks and post a picture of them...

My favourites are...