Evaluation Task 1 - In what way does my media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Film title

The top left image is taken from our final product and it shows our film title 'High Expectations'. In our original plan the film was to be called High Expectations as the original story was about  girl called Grace who got pregnant whilst still in school.The title was used to suggest the pressures of school and the expectations that her parents had of her, as she was a very smart girl in school with a promising future. However, when we decided to change the story we decided to keep the original title as it was fitting and still appropriate considering the change of storyboard. Now, the film is about Grace still ,but the story has changed, it is now about how about how Grace has extremely successful parents who put her under a lot of pressure to succeed in school and she doesn't want to let them. However, Grace is the most popular girl in school along with her best friend Charlotte,  and she doesn't live up to her full potential as she fears it will ruin her popularity. 

This is the main reasoning behind the fillm title 'High Expectations' - but this title also allows the audience to try and assume what the story is about and this allows them to feel more involved with the film. The serif font for the title is very conventional for the teen angst genre as the target audience is 13-18 year old girls and this is a font that is appealing to this particular audience and is commonly used in other teen angst movies. The title colour is another common convention in the teen angst genre, an example of a teen angst that uses the same title colour is Mean Girls. The colour pink is stereotypically a very girly colour and this is something that will attract the audience as well as imply what genre the movie is. We decided to use a pink title font and serif style due to research that we completed earlier in the school year. The colour pink, as mentioned before, is used in the title for Mean Girls, and the serif font is used in the title for Footloose. These are two very well known films and are hugely popular with the teenage audience we look to attract. So we decided to use both the serif font and pink coloured text for our title for these reasons.

Costumes and props

The top middle image represents the main characters and how they're introduced. This picture is a perfect representation of the two main characters as they are both shown in front of a large wardrobe packed with fashionable clothes. It shows that they care about their appearance and they try their best to get the latest clothes. It is also a stereotypical representation that girls are obsessed with fashion and their appearance which is another reason for this shot. The characters are introduced this way through a split screen (we got that idea from Bratz) and this allows us to introduce the characters at the same time while representing what they are like and what sort of lifestyle they live. Both the main characters Grace and Charlotte wear skirts when they arrive at school, this connotes that they like their legs which is showing the audience that they are confident in their appearance and this also represents their popularity as they think they look better than very body else in school. 

Charlotte is wearing a crop top when she arrives at school which is a fashionable / trendy item of clothing that many girls wear, so this is another thing that can relate to the audience and is a generic convention of the film as girls stereotypically obsess over fashion an this is shown in many other teen angst films (i.e. Easy A). The fact that the main characters dress very fashionably and confidently suggests straight away that they are the popular 'bitchy' girls in school; however this is just a stereotype that allows the audience to develop an opinion on the characters before anything is given away in dialogue. Our research earlier in the year allowed us to recognise the type of clothing / costumes that are used in teen angst films most commonly. In nearly all American teen angsts (Easy A, High School Musical for examplpe) the characters wear non-uniform clothing because most schools in America don't have school uniforms - or they're based in college. We decided to make our characters in sixth form meaning they also wore non-school uniform, the main reason for this was to make our film more like other ones we had studied.

Camera work and editing

The top right image is a shot representing camera work and editing in our product. An extreme long shot of both the main characters and this allows the audience to view the whole outfit of each character. We used editing to add in titles to make the shot more appealing as there is quite a lot of space behind them so we thought it would be a good idea to include titles to fill that space. We used a wipe transition so the title starts behind them and the wipes to the right of the screen, so it looks as if it is following them through the door, it makes the shot a lot more appealing. The extreme long shot allowing the audience to see the whole outfit of the characters is a generic convention of teen angst films and it is used commonly to portray the characters as their clothing can have a big impact on stereotypes etc. The image shows a pan shot that we used, it shows Charlotte catching up with Grace and then opening the door for her, it is a representation of her character and the type of relationship her an Grace have. We used editing techniques on Final Cut Pro (use of 'blade') which allowed us to trim shots and make them shorter as well as adding in titles which are apparent throughout the whole title sequence. 

Shots are generally quite short in teen angst films and the use of title is another generic convention as they are always found in the teen angst genre. Our research allowed us to realise that generally the shots in title sequences and opening scenes are quite long, as opposed to the rest of the film that uses quicker cuts. With this in mind, we didn't use too many shots in our title sequence / opening scene and so we had to make the most of them by keeping them on screen for longer than we may have wanted. In terms of the shots we used, most teen angsts use shots like close-ups, mid-shots and pan shots most often as they are most useful for different reasons. For example the long shot can be used to represent a character's whole outfit to the audience and this can help the audience start to make assumptions on the character's personality or role in the film - fitting stereotypes to each character - and long shots we use quite commonly in the opening of our film to assist that.

Title font and style

As you can see in the image in the middle left of the grid, we used a pink colour for the titles as it is a colour that appeals to the target audience and is commonly a colour found in teen angst film. The font style was a handwriting style font and this is a style that appeals to the target audience (13-18 year old girls). We originally had all of the text in a white colour and it was in a block styled sans serif font in our first draft, we noticed when watching it back that this was quite dull and it needed to be made more appealing for the audience, and that was the reasoning behind the change. We kept some of the titles white, but changed most of them to be pink so it offers a bit of variety and it isn't just repetitive.

We used pink and white for the colours of our titles as they are colour that appeal to the target audience and this is also a generic convention in the teen angst genre as many films of this genre use pink and white as primary colours for titles. The reasoning behind using two different colours were that some titles you couldn't see clearly due to the background so we had to make changes. We used a serif font called 'Coventry Apple' for the names in the titles as it is more conventional - the target audience (teenage girls) will appeal to this font more than anyone else. Other films tend to use serif font to appeal to the audience, for example: Dear Lemon Lima - which uses a similar serif font as well as the pink coloured text for their movie title. Dear Lemon Lima is one film we researched when looking at titles and this gave us the idea for our titles to be pink and serif font because it fits the genre more than any other colour and font style.

Setting and location

The middle centre image is a shot from our film that represents setting and location in our film. This particular shot is very effective in implying what the film is about, due to the setting and location. This shot shows one of the many different shots during the title sequence in both girls' houses. Due to the range of shots it makes the houses look very large and this links in with the storyline that Grace comes from a very wealthy family and a successful background. Another setting in the film is the school, which is shown in the middle-right image. Both the home setting and school setting are very common in the teen angst genre as these are the two places teenagers are most commonly found, this makes these two settings / locations generic conventions of a teen angst move; and this helps the audience understand what genre this film is during the title sequence and opening scene.

The school lockers is an example of iconography. This is because lockers are commonly found in a school setting and the audience will easily realise that the opening scene is in a school setting when they see the girls stood next to the lockers.Easy A is a good example again of setting and location, as the two main setting the in title sequence and opening scene of that film are the main characters bedroom and the school she attends, this makes it easier for the audience to realise her age group and the genre of the film, which is why we have also made home and school the two main settings / locations. When looking at all the films we researched such as Easy A, High School Musical, The Breakfast Clubs etc... they all include lockers as they are a typical object found in teen angst films as the main setting is school. The lockers therefore are iconography as the audience will recognise this and this also makes it a convention of teen angst.

Story and how the opening sets it up

The middle right image is an imported image from my film that is a representation of how the story is set up throughout the opening. In this shot, the main characters are stood outside the school lockers and Grace is throwing her books at Charlotte while emptying her locker. While this is happening non-digetic sound is used when Grace's voiceover is in the background. While Charlotte is struggling to hold the books being thrown at her by Grace, in the voicoever she says 'at lest I'm popular... right?' - this implies that she isn't happy with her relationship with Grace and her current situation at school but she really wants to be popular in school. This is a generic convention in teen angst films as there is always a 'popular' girl group in school and usually a girl who is seen as being on the outside of that popular group trying to fit in. 

The title sequence throws the audience off a bit as the split screen shows Grace and Charlotte being very similar and then when they arrive at school, Grace treats Charlotte more like a 'slave' than a 'best friend' - and this then sets the story up for the rest of the film and gives the audience a little insight of Charlotte's life through the use of voiceover as non-digetic sound. Our research helped us find that this type of scenario is quite common in the teen angst genre and a plot twist is also common in many teen angst films and that's what we tried use it straight away. The teen angst film 'Flirting' is another example of a film that involves a similar situation to ours, with the two female 'best friends' as the main characters who both attend the same school.

Characters and how they're introduced

The bottom left image is showing how the characters are introduced in the title sequence. In this shot you can see that the girls are doing their hair and make up which represents they are quite 'girly girls' and they come under the stereotype that teenagers care a lot about their appearance. The whole title sequence was based on introducing the characters through taking the audience through both of their 'morning routines'. At the start of the title sequence they are both in bed, which is a generic convention of teen angst movies and we have represented the two main characters as ones that fit the stereotype that teenagers are very lazy, hence the reason the audience see's them in bed. This is also connoted with the use of the alarm clock, as it shows they are possibly running late. 

When Grace wakes up from her sleep she instantly has a smile on her face and her body language in the way she stretches connotes happiness and cheerfulness; and this was done to represent her popularity in school. Whereas Charlotte wakes up quite differently and her bod language suggests she might be quite unhappy; and this opens up suggestions that she may be jealous of her 'best friend' which is a scenario commonly used in teen angst films, and something that the target audience may be able to relate to. This type of connotation is a feature of many teen angst films as a lot of teen angst films tend to start with the main character(s) getting out of bed and getting ready for school, and the use of body language is commonly used to represent their personality. These contrasts in body language is another thing commonly found in teen angst films - as they like to portray the characters very obviously through things like over-expression so the audience can understand more clearly, and this is the type of approach we wanted to use.

Genre and how the opening suggests it.

The bottom centre image represents how the opening suggests the film genre. The use of serif font in this shot is one of the many conventions that show the audience what genre this film is. Another is the non-digetic sound that is in the background throughout the title sequence and during this shot; the music is very upbeat and cheerful and is sung by a female which are two reasons from the song that suggests this again is a teen angst film, as these types of songs are commonly found in the teen angst genre. There is a lot f the colour pink in text (i.e. the titles and film title) - this is another convention for teen angst films and it suggests that the film is quite girly. 

The title sequence consists of the girls getting ready for school and doing their make up and this also immediately suggests the genre of the film as it is something that the target audience can relate to, which implies that the genre of this film is teen angst (as the T.A is 13-18 year old girls). Angus Thongs And Perfect Snogging is a teen angst that relates to ours in many ways; for example the main character wants more that anything to win the 'popularity contest' in her school, which is similar to Charlotte in our film as she is desperate to be popular and well known. This is another example of how we used research to make our film like other popular teen angst films in order to fit the genre.

Special effects

The bottom right image shows a shot in the film in which I used editing to include special effects (i.e. the arrow shape and the voiceover). The arrow was something that i hate to get off the internet and then transfer onto Final Cut Pro through the use of Photoshop and a memory stick. The use of shapes or various objects on the screen is very common in teen angst films as they make the appearance of the shot a lot more attractive. I edited in the arrow as an example of this generic convention and I used it to assist the voiceover so that it made sense. This is because in the voiceover Charlotte says 'Hi, i'm Charlotte' - when both characters were in the same shot. 

The voiceover is used to represent Charlottes frustration of always being pushed around and treated like a 'slave' by her 'best friend' Grace. We connote Charotte's unhappiness when in the voiceover she says 'at least i'm popular... right?' and this type of situation where a girl is jealous of her best friend is common in the teen angst genre and we wanted to use the voiceover to immediately imply the genre. Easy A contains a similar use of special effects as as in the title sequence / opening scene of that film there is a use of special effects to have certain shapes appearing on the screen whilst a voiceover is in the background as non-digetic sound.