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

The Avid programme was used to edit my work this year. This programme had an influence on my pre production as it enabled use non linier filming meaning we didn’t have to shoot in chronological order meaning it made my filming more efficient.

Using the edit programme enabled me to add certain effects to the film and cut in between shots which showed action reaction shots making our opening more interesting to view.

The Programme meant that our work more professional and of a higher quality than if we used an editing software such as windows movie maker

The Cannon HD camera was a very big advantage in filming. Not only did allow me to produce a very high quality finish, it also helped the day go faster as the camera is considerably light so it was very portable when moving from location to location which meant it made the day time efficient

The Blog was used to communicate between teachers and students on the Blog we were able to find certain items that would aid us with our work, the Blog was also was big help when we was displaying our work to our fellow classmates for feedback and responses.

Also the Blog made it easier to display our work to be marked online.

The internet was the biggest aid throughout the whole project. This helped me with my research and planning, without this I wouldn’t be able to find certain representations and watch fairy tales online to relate to my work. Also I wouldn’t be able to research opening sequences which I used certain traits when making my own.

Using tripod we were able to perform tilts and pans which made our opening much more interesting. We also used the camera to zoom in and out of characters when filing from a distance which again made our opening interesting, this also enabled us to give our actors room to act because we could firm from a distance allowing them room to move about without worrying where the camera is.

With the help of avid I was able to learn the techniques of a rough assemble which is putting all our rushes in order.

We were able to digitise using the capture tool, which is basically capturing your good shot of the tape, which was able to easily because of our continuity sheet which told us which shots were good and bad.

We were able to input our credits in the correct positions and use fades and dissolves to make them look more interesting.

We used trimming techniques to trim shots that we didn’t need to use or we wanted some of the shot and the same shot but from another angle.

We also learnt how to delete shot and move shots about, we done this quite a lot because at some stages of our editing the sound and the video were out of sync.

The key lessons I have learnt from filming are:

• How to set up the camera, tripod, put in the batteries, tape and sliding the camera on to the tripod.
• How to use the camera to perform tilts, pans and zooms.
• Positioning the camera so the actors are able to perform better
• Placing the boom microphone in a position where it can’t be seen in frame and in the best position to pick up sound.

The key lesson I have learnt from editing are how to:

• Perform a rough assemble edit
• Trim shots
• Splice in shots
• Take away sound from shots
• Deleting and moving shots
• Marking in and marking out shots
• Creating and applying titles
• Adding such as fades and dissolves to certain shots

In what way does your Media Product USE, Develop or Challenge forms and conventions of real media products.

I have researched several opening sequences such as American Psycho, Sunset Boulevard, Spiderman 2, Lady Hawke and haunted mansion. We done this to make sure that we followed the codes and conventions that a real media opening sequence follows. The characteristics that I found that were most dominant in the opening sequences I found were that:
· Music is an important feature of the opening it is used to create atmosphere such as suspense, seen in American psycho or fear present in the haunted mansion.
· Establishing shots
· Setting the Theme of the film
· Credits
· Establishing Main Characters
· Giving hints to narrative

All these elements are present in our op0eing sequence.

Our opening sequence follows the codes and conventions of the genre of a teen film and also has elements of a rom com, like love actually.

Teen films are usually set in secondary schools or high schools and themes consisting of popularity: seen:, social groups: where Ben is seen as a geek , young relation ships: Bret and Tiffany, friends circles: Tia , Amy and Tiffany , Alpha males/ jocks , plastic girls, superior and inferior characters ect.

These characteristics are present in other teen dramas such as “Mean girls” , “Porkies” “Nepoleon Dynamite” , “ Super Bad” and “High School Musical” all these films I have used as a reference to help me when following codes and convention of this particular genre.

As seen in our sequence the whole narrative is based in barking abbey secondary school, which follows the codes and conventions of most teen films where they are set in some type of schooling institution such as secondary school (Waterloo Road/ Inbetweeners).

We established our main characters in our opening sequence this is done to help the audience recognise who the narrative will be about and introduce these characters to the audience.

The main specification of our task was to take a Fairy tale and modernise it. So we chose beauty and the beast. To complete our task we had to research many fairy tales from many different cultures such as: Beauty and the beast ( French Fairy tale), The Bird of truth (Spanish fairy tale), Cinderella ( Greek fairy tale), the Enchanted pig ( Romanian fairy tale, the girl without hands ( German Fairy tale) and the boy who cried wolf ( Dutch Fairy Tale). Researching these fairy tales help us underline the key factors that are present in most fairy tales.

Family connections
Royalty
Death
Marriage
Quest / journey
Natural elements of nature
Helpful Characters
Ultimatums or a ban on action
Elementary colours such as gold and silver holding significant importance
Special Objects
Magic
Enchanted creatures
Human to Animal interaction
Mystery and secrets
Love - Falling in love Fast
Morals
Birth Rights / Inheritance
Justice for bad deeds
Supernatural
Good vs. Evil
Time Periods




A ban on action: Where Tiffany is not allowed to go home and must go book club

Royalty: Tiffany is seen as royalty in the school as she is above and respected by everyone else
Happy ending: This is seen in the end of the narrative

These are just a few of the codes and convention of Fairytales that we have featured.

However our narrative also challenges these elements of a fairy tale because we do not have no magic or any enchanted creatures or a quest.

In our opening sequence we see the clear social difference between the two main character Tiffany and Ben by the way they interact witch each other and camera angles use, i.e. high camera angles looking down to Ben and low camera angles looking up to Tiffany.

Final Plot Points

1. Ben in Wheelchair , rolls over Tiffanys foot by accident she shouts at him and calls him a geek. her friends l;augh at him and she tells him to roll on.

2. there is an incident in the classroom where the people in the class make fun of ben trying to get through the gap between tables

3. Tiffany and her friends graffitti a picture of Ben on the wall , the others flee leaving Tiffany to bear all the punishment, she refuses to tell on her mates , so sh is put in book club for a month.

4. At the first meeting she doesnt want nothing to do with him , he tries to spark conversation and she makes it clear it is not be choice she is here.

(Ben has a diary which he writes in everynight about his secret love for tiffany)

5. Tiffany complains to her friends about how she is stuck in a book club run by ben who she hates and she cant stand it.

6. 2nd meeting ben brings in a magazine about Paris hiton which grabs the intrest of Tiffany, and she begings to talk to him and gets to know him abit more.

7. Tiffany is with her friedns when Ben comes passes and her friedns are laughing and giggling , making fun of him , but tiffany stays quiet.

8.Next meeting Tiffany apololgieses for her friends actions the other day, in the same meeting he reveals reason behind him being in a wheel chair.

9. Tiffany defends Ben next time when her friends are trying it, which provokes the group to question her loyalty , she respomds by agreeing to go to the dance with bret, a popular boy that likes her, to prove she feels nothing for Ben

10. Ben finds out that she is going with bret and gets upset. he starts to distance himself and because of this they argue , causeing him to storm off leaving his diary. Tiffany finds it and reads it.

11. On the night of disco Tiffany arrives at the school hall with Bret.
Benjamin is on her mind and she leaves Bret to go and find Benjamin. In Her search she finds him in the library . Dressed up for the disco but sitting in the wheel chair alone.

12. She ask him to come to the disco with her and explains she has read the diary on thier way.

13. At the disco they share a kissand everyone is amazed to see them two together. Bret makes a comment about her choosing a disabled geek over him.

14. Ben stands up and says i may be a geek but im not disabled (over course the course of the film ben has been going to phyical therpy classes helping him with walking. )

The inbetweeners is all about 4 boys that don't quiet fit in and their characters type rages.
most of this programme is set in their secondary school similar to my film and they are rejected by their peers and not seen as equals that is why they are they subject to many pranks and are beaten up alot in their affairs.

Where as my Film Takes a more general approach Napoleon dynamite focuses on secondary school life from the geeks point of view. This film is about the day to day life of a geek and how he is bullied and seen as a complete outsider. The main character in this film can be liked to my character Ben as they are both viewed as social rejects and are not recognised on the high school Heir Archy.
This film a classed very much as a comedy and yes my film is a little bit more serious but i can be viewed as a comedy as several comical remarks , although harsh , are targeted towards Ben.

Mean girls is a film that is closely linked to our own as it is featured in a seconday school and it is all to do with the hier archy of whose who and loosers ect. As myn film is a very low budget there are somethings this film does that i cant but i can do is compare representations, from my narrative the 3 set of friends is very similar to Tiffany and her 3 girls and Lindsy Lohan plays an outsides who is mocked by the more popular kids , just like ben is mocked in my narrative.