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

1) The first picture is an establishing shot which shows the title of our film, "Madison". We used the purple font as this is stereotypically a girly font which is our target audience. We also have an effect called 'Pixie Dust' which comes across the title and is purple/pink. This appeals to the younger end of our target audience as it connotes imagination and fairy tales. It is in a serif font that connotes girly handwriting which is relevant to the film because it is based around school life. Having the title in a purple, serif font was a convention we saw during the research of teen angst films. One main title that we took inspiration from is mean girls as it has the feminine colours that appeal to the target audience.

2) The settings that we used were conventional of the teen angst genre as it is school setting. Picture two shows this with a mid-shot of the main character at the lockers. The lockers are an example of iconography in teen angst films. This connotes to the audience that the story will be based around school life and the relationships and events that it bring. The school setting is a stereotype of the teen angst genre as the target audience of teenage girls can relate to this setting and the relationships and problems that school life brings. We saw this in many of the teen angst films we researched such as Mean Girls and Easy A.

3) The clothes in the film differ for each social group. The popular group of girls has the most modern/trendy clothes as this is important to them because their clothes are an important indication to how popular they are. Expensive clothes and accessories are an important to teenager's social status and it also indicates how materialistic they can be. Researching other films lead me to see that many other films, including Easy A, are American films and their public schools do not have a standard uniform. This is what we took inspiration from and so used normal, casual clothes with the rest of our characters. The film Mean Girls has a stereotypically girly clothes that the main group of girls wear. These as pink, modern clothes and are conventional for teen angst so we decided to make the popular group of girls wear pink, modern clothes. The popular boy, Dylan, wears fashionable clothes as well which indicates his popularity and social status in the film.The less popular, new girl wears nice clothes which foreshadows how she will become popular later on in the film.

4) We used a variety of camera work and editing, with different camera shots and transitions used through out the film. The picture above shows one the POV shots we used which helps the audience to empathise with the main character and how she feels, is treated and her problems. The transitions we use keep the film interesting and so the audience will enjoy watching it more than if normal cuts were just used. Using different transitions makes the film flow better and is more enjoyable to watch. We also used fast forward in a film to speed sections up. This allows us to put lots of information into a short space of time without it getting boring.

5) The title shown in the 5th picture above is a typical title for the teen angst genre. It is conventional as it is pink and in a serif font which connotes that it is targeted at a young female audience as pink is associated with young females. Adding to this, half of the title is white which connotes purity and innocence which is assoiciateThese are a major convention of teen angst films as it helps to establish quickly that the film will be targeted at females and the film will be based on a teenager girl's life. Using appropriate titles helps to improve the quality of the film and so the audience will enjoy the film more. As said above the film Mean Girls also has a pink title as it connotes the female gender.

6) The opening sets up the story by having a voice-over of the main character in the film explain who she is and what the film will be about. It briefly explains her situation and how she is feeling. Another way the opening sets up the story is a close up on a note on the wardrobe. This is shown in picture 6 above. The voice-over is one of the biggest conventions of the teen angst genre, it helps the audience to understand the story quicker and easier as well as introducing characters a lot easier than if there was no voice-over.

7) The genre of the film is made clear from the opening due to mise-en-scene, titles, and other conventions of the genre. Mise-en-scene helps to determine the genre as from it you can identify what the film will be about and who it is targeted at. For example, in the picture above there is an example of one of the titles in the opening. The title it's self is pink and white, pink is stereotypically a feminine colour and white connotes innocence and purity as said above. This indicates that it is targeted at and based around young females and so will be the teen angst genre. This is supported by the mise en scene that is used throughout the film opening. For example, in the above picture there is perfume bottles and a mirror which are associated with females as they are stereotyped to care about their appearance, again this therefore sets up the genre as it connotes it will be about a young female as well as targeted at them.

8) One of the main we used we introduced the characters was by having voice-over. This directly tells the audience who the main character is and so they can understand the story easier from the start. Voice-overs are a conventional aspect of the teen angst genre as they help make the film easier to understand by introducing characters and explaining their situations. Another way we introduced the characters was by having a shot reverse shot between the main female character and the main male character. This shows the facial expressions and how they feel about each other and how their relationship starts and then by using more shot reverse shots the audience are able to see how this develops.

9) The example of special effects in the picture above shows speed increase which we decided to add in during editing because it helps to give the audience information but it a short time and without the film getting boring. This convention of teen angst is used often during montages or when characters are travelling. Again it helps to keep the audience's attention during a bit of the film that would otherwise be boring. During editing we also added in transitions and titles that would be seen as interesting by the target audience. Easy A is an example of a film that uses titles in an interesting way.

Final Film - Madison

This is the final film opening that we created.

Progression of the title

This was the original idea we had for the title of our film. We called it "The Kiss" as we thought it would connote the ideas about love that come up during the film and it tells the audience that love will have a strong influence throughout the film. 

These were the next two ideas we had for the title, we used the name of the main character as a simple title as it has the effect of staying in the memory of the audience as it is short and memorable. We also changed the colour of the title as we thought the white didn't connote anything suitable for the title. The purple colour connotes that it is targeted at girls since it is stereotyped to be a girly colour. It also connotes love and beauty and since these two things are very important in a girl's life and throughout our film, we thought it would be more successful. The colour is similar to that of Mean Girls. The font and colour is very similar to 27 Dresses which we thought worked well.

We decided the title also needed a symbol with it as this would help with synergy. We originally used the 'XO' as we thought it made the whole title look like a signature and so adds personal value to the movie. In the end, we decided to use a lipstick print as this is more relevant to our target audience. This is because girls in their teenage years, our target audience, use make up regularly because they care about their appearance. So by using the make lipstick symbol it not only connotes love, which foreshadows what will happen in the film, but also that girls care about how they look.  Mean Girls contains a title sequence where this symbol is used frequently so we took inspiration from this.

Feedback from initial ideas

Once we had filmed the footage and started to edit it, we had a chance to show the rest of the class and receive feedback in order to see what could be done to improve and expand on ideas we had. The following are what we received as feedback and we took these into account when making the final film opening.  

• Change the title name
• change title font and title image
• Add in the voiceover
• edit our voiceover by shortening it and include Madison's thoughts of joining a new school
• move/play around with different titles and transitions
• improve the music change so there is a less obvious fading in and out

Music

The music we called was a track called "Getting Acquainted". It is an upbeat track and is catchy which will put the audience into a good mood and so they will enjoy the movie more. Also our audience will enjoy this as they are into chart music and music can be a big part of their life.

Title and Connotations

This is the title for our film opening. We called it 'Madison'  because this is what the main character in the film is called and so it tells the audience that she will be very important in the film from the start. We made it so it was in a font similar to a girl's handwriting and in a purple colour. We did this because the handwriting font, connotes the genre of a teen angst and also engages the target audience as it tells them that it will be a film they will enjoy. The colour of the title connotes that the target audience is females between the ages of 13 and 18 as at this age they still enjoy this colour and it is stereotypically a colour that girls use. We added the effect of the pixie dust and turned it pink as we thought this would appeal to the audience as it connotes fairy tales, fantasy and excitement. Again this appeals more to girls than boys so attracts our target audience.

Fonts and titles/captions

The other titles that we used during the film opening were both pink and white. We used these two colours because of the things they connote. Pink connotes, love, beauty, kindness and compassion and so is a suitable colour to use as during our film, love has a strong influence on the story. All of the above connotations as stereotyped with females and so this targets and engages our target audience. The other parts of the titles were in white as this connotes, innocence, purity and goodness. This means white connotes positivity. Our target audience are young females and so are stereotypically innocent.
The fonts we used were similar to the main title as they looked like fancy handwriting. This is used because it looks like typical girly writing so they can relate to this. The font is a serif type of font so it is informal and more of a fun, laid back film.
The transitions of the titles varied throughout the film as this is fun way to introduce titles that can be boring and repetitive. Some of the transitions are, a swipe in and out from the sides, a swipe/fade from above, a reveal one letter at a time and a curtain effect. This keep our audience entertained and so they are more likely to enjoy and watch the film.