Evaluation
The Finished Movie:
"Dropout" by Conor Boyle
- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.
- MUSIC
- The music in our movie opening is important as it is the main audio in our movie. It also in a way controls the flow / speed of the movie opening. Music in real media products (the teenage movie area) usually use music that is current and relevant to the movie. For the movie, we used music that was created by a pupil in our school, his name is Jack McGarry. He made music that is current - as it was created this year for the movie, and it is relevant to the movie - as it is of the punk rock genre, which skinheads listen to.
- In real media products the music is usually used to control the scenes and pace of their movement and actual actions in the movie. Our music is fast paced, and the shots change quickly as the boy gets ready quickly and moves quickly.
- Keeping the music relevant, the movie is meant for a teenage audience, and this music was created by a teenager who attends our school. The music for our movie opening is very important, as music plays throughout almost the entire opening. So this means that it is recognisable for the audience, they will be focusing on the audio and video - but because there is no dialogue other than two short narration points, the music is very important as it acts as the audio as a whole. The viewers will notice the changes of shots paired with the changes of beat / sound in the music.
- SKIP
- The main character in our movie is played by me, and he is shown in the movie as disorganised and in general not bothered with school. This is teenage rebellion, and it is shown in a lot of modern movies.
- TITLES
- Our titles appear consistently, with the same font as the films logo. The titles appear in a generic fashion, with each credited editor / member of the team appearing at different points in the movie opening.
- How my media product represents particular social groups
- SCHOOL STUDENT
- The main character, Skip, played by me, is a school student. He attends school, even if it's not every day - and this is one of the days where he is not attending school. It is obvious that he is a school student, he wakes up to his alarm clock going off and then gets in to his school uniform to start his day, expected to go to school. The opening dialogue confirms that he is attending school, "school's not for everyone". This shows the viewer that he is at school, but he is not overly bothered with it - reinforcing the theme of teenage rebellion.
- Skip as a School Student is shown on the right. He wears his school uniform here, quite generic and doesn't overly define him - other than being an old student at an unnamed school. Wearing:
- - A woollen hat
- - A school blazer
- - A shirt
- - A school tie
- - Suit trousers
- - Smart shoes for school
A 'school student' description from Wikipedia:
** A student or pupil is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In Britain until about 2012, underage schoolchildren were always referred to as "pupils", while those attending university are termed "students". In the USA, and more recently also in Britain, the term "student" is applied to both categories, no doubt due to US influence. In its widest use, student is used for anyone who is learning, including mid-career adults who are taking vocational education or returning to university, or younger 'researchers or artists learning from a more experienced (and usually older) colleague and mentor.' **
- SKINHEAD
Skip as a Skinhead is shown on the left. He wears the stereotypical clothes of a skinhead:
- A green flight / bomber jacket
- Baggy, bleached denim jeans
- Crimson Doc Marten high top boots
- Skip is first shown as a school student, but then transforms in to a skinhead - a different type of person to the original school student that was shown before he went in to the forest and got changed in to these new clothes.
- A 'skinhead' description from Wikipedia:
- ** A 'skinhead' is a member of a subculture originating among working class youths in London, England in the 1960s, that soon spread to other parts of the UK. Defined by their close-cropped or shaven heads, Doc Martin boots, suspenders, bleached jeans and smart shirts, the movement reached a peak in the early 80s.Skinheads came in two waves; in the late 1960s and early 1980s. The first skins were motivated by an expression of alternative values, rejecting both 1950s austerity and the 1960s peace and love ethos, and were instead drawn towards outsider culture, incorporating elements of mod fashion and black music, especially from Jamaican rude boys.[1] The second wave were often ex punks. Both first and second generation skins were influenced by the heavy, repetitive rhythms of dub, and by soul, ska and rocksteady. 1980s skins were closely aligned with anarchists, first wave punk, Oi! and dub.Highly regionalised and excluded by society's moral norms, skinheads were tainted in the mid 1980s by tabloid hysteria of a fringe and violent far-right elements representing extreme nationalism. According to Shane Meadows, "It's unfortunate that the racist elements have become such a by-word for skinhead culture. The media has played its part in this, but by the same token it's clear the fascist element has always been fairly vocal in skinhead culture. The sad bit is that the more enlightened, anti-fascist aspects have not better promoted themselves." **
- A skinhead wears specific stereotypical clothes, and we had to make me wear those clothes in order to make me look like a skinhead. Rather than shaving my head, we thought it would be more suitable to wear a hat, as it is against the school rules to shave my head to the degree of a skinhead.
Film 4 are known for distributing movies for teenagers, such as 'The Inbetweeners Movie', so I think that Film 4 would distribute our movie as it was created in the idea that it is aimed at teenagers.
The movie is, as described, aimed at teenagers, so we think that Film 4 is a very suitable company to distribute our movie.
- The audience for my media product
- For our media product, it would be aimed at the audience of young people and teenagers. I feel that this is the case because young people and teenagers can relate to the people appearing in the movie - the main character and supporting characters that appear / would appear in the movie are teenagers. The two characters shown in the opening, played by myself and Rudi Magill, are teenagers.
- Teenagers are able to relate to the movie as it focuses on teenage rebellion and being unique / yourself. The boy is shown as creative, and clearly different to other people that attend the school that he 'goes to', that he is ditching today in the movie. This makes the movie more relatable to teenagers as at this age, people are becoming more of 'themselves' where they are deciding what they want to be - as the boy 'Skip' is doing in our movie. He leaves school to do his own thing in spite of his parents wishing for him to attend school and do well, going down the academic route in life. Many young people / teenagers can relate to this, as they are at this stage in their life.
- Older people, and the young people's parents may be able to enjoy and relate to the movie, described in the next section.
- How have / will I attract / address my audience
- We have created a movie that is relatable to teenagers and young people as described, we feel that an audience would easily be attracted to watch the movie. Our target audience is teenagers, but we feel that older people, such as the parents would watch our movie also, as they may be interested in the lives of young people - interested in what they're doing, or they may just want to watch the movie to feel an almost 'back in time' experience whilst watching, as perhaps they even got involved in teenage rebellion and uniqueness / 'becoming yourself' as a young person.
- What have I learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product
CAMERA
We used a Panasonic Camera in order to record our movie opening, and it ended up looking very professional when put in to the computer off the SD card and rendered and edited properly - specifically the tracking shot which Conor filmed, used to reveal Rudi Magill's character when Skip is walking back to the car.
We were able to use a tripod to mount the camera, allowing us to get steady shots of Skip walking to different places. Also, it was helpful for the eight different shots in the movie showing Skip undressing and getting dressed in to two different outfits (as his two personalities)
FINAL CUT PRO X
Constructing my movie opening, I used Final Cut Pro X on one of the iMacs in my school in order to edit my movie and make it look professional. Final Cut is an expensive product, and is very easily used to create a professional looking movie - when one learns how to use the program.
I learnt how to use all features of Final Cut quite quickly, and I was the main editor on our film. I was able to trim and edit to make it look like a professional movie opening.
I learnt how to use all features of Final Cut quite quickly, and I was the main editor on our film. I was able to trim and edit to make it look like a professional movie opening.
- Looking back at my preliminary task, what I feel I have learnt in the progression from it to the full product...
Our Preliminary:
- Looking back at our preliminary, we have learnt a lot in the progression from it to the full product. If comparing the two, it is easily seen that the final movie opening is much more professional that our preliminary. Our preliminary was filmed in school, in our Media Studies classroom, and me and Rudi (both as actors), are in our school uniforms. In the final product it is the two of us acting again - but this time we are in proper costume, rather than just our school uniforms with me solely having a different tie instead of my school tie.
COSTUME ESPECIALLY
- Now the costumes are much more professional, as we actually went to the effort of going out and purchasing items of clothing for the characters involved in the opening of the movie. The characters actually looked the correct part for the movie's scene, in stark contrast to the preliminary where neither characters appeared as looking like a boss or an intern.
The music is actually much more relevant to the movie as described, rather than just produced quickly in school and inserted like it was in the preliminary task.
