http://www.channel4.com/programmes/skins/4od#2921869
Tuesday, 14 December 2010
Tuesday, 3 August 2010
My Evaluation
1. Our film is a teen drama, and there’s a lot of stereotypical features to show this. For instance, all of our main characters are teenagers. There are various themes in the opening scene that are things often associated with teenagers, for example Mia getting ready for a party, the teens having a party, and smoking and drinking.
2. In our film there are two main boys, and a main girl. A lot of teenagers associate themselves with some stereotype, and each of the main characters has one. Mia Cocking is the ‘slag’, Daniel Walker is the ‘emo’, and Jack Slater is the ‘Jack the lad’.
I think that all the stereotypes in our film are taken to the extremes, just to make sure that the audience gets the idea of what kind of person each character is meant to be.
Mia Cocking conforms to the stereotype of being a ‘slag’, because she dresses in revealing clothes, gets invited to all the parties and flirts with the boys. Also a stereotypical ‘slag’ would care a lot about her appearance, which Mia does as in the first scene she is shown getting ready for the party and admiring her reflection in the mirror.
Daniel Walker conforms to the stereotype of an ‘emo’ because he wears dark clothing, has long dark hair and is shown slitting his wrists. Although this stereotype may be a bit extreme it does get across the message of what stereotype Daniel fits into.
Jack Slater is you’re typical ‘jack the lad’ type boy. Jack gets all the girls, and is friends with everyone, which is shown in our film where he’s talking to everyone at the party, and then he and Mia make their way upstairs.
The characters in our film will most likely appeal to our audience because they are teenagers, and because each character fits into a specific stereotype the audience is bound to know someone who is like that character.
3. I would choose a small independent company to distribute our film. I do not think that a big movie company, such as Warner Brothers, or Universal, would want to distribute our film because it doesn’t have well known actors in it, plus it isn’t a film which would appeal to wide audiences. The film touches on some controversial issues which could make some viewers uncomfortable, such as self-harm, therefore a small film company would probably be best to distribute our film. There wouldn’t be any merchandise seeing as the film would be so small.
4. The target audience for our film would probably be 15-21 year olds, both males and females, because that’s the age people tend to start going to parties, and experimenting with dangerous things such as drugs and self-harm. Similar films to ours are Precious and Kidult hood, because they’re also controversial films which touch of some of the same issues as our film. The films are also quite true-to-life, like ours. According to www.bbfc.co.uk our film would most likely fit in to the 15 certificate.
5. Parts of our film that would appeal to our audience would be the party scene, because a lot of teenagers like to go to parties and hang out with their friends, possibly drinking like the characters in the film. Some parties involving alcohol, and possibly drugs, can end badly, and our film is an example of this, because Daniel slits his wrists and faints, ending up in hospital. Some parts of our film are filmed from Daniels point of view, this is to try and get the audience to empathize with him, and perhaps put themselves in his shoes.
6. The cameras we used to film were HDV 1000 cameras. These cameras were quite a lot different from the smaller cameras we used for our first task. We filmed using widescreen, to make it look more professional. I found the HDV 1000 cameras easier to operate than the cameras we used for our first task, and didn’t have any problems while filming. We edited the film in final cut express, which took me a little while to get used to, as I was used to using Windows movie maker, which is a lot less advanced.
7. In the first two minutes of our film the main shots used are medium shots and close up shots. This is because these shots are best for seeing characters, and the first two minutes is the best time to establish the main characters. An example of a medium shot is when Mia and Jack are walking through the kitchen, and an example of a close up shot is when Daniel faints and we see his face.
2. In our film there are two main boys, and a main girl. A lot of teenagers associate themselves with some stereotype, and each of the main characters has one. Mia Cocking is the ‘slag’, Daniel Walker is the ‘emo’, and Jack Slater is the ‘Jack the lad’.
I think that all the stereotypes in our film are taken to the extremes, just to make sure that the audience gets the idea of what kind of person each character is meant to be.
Mia Cocking conforms to the stereotype of being a ‘slag’, because she dresses in revealing clothes, gets invited to all the parties and flirts with the boys. Also a stereotypical ‘slag’ would care a lot about her appearance, which Mia does as in the first scene she is shown getting ready for the party and admiring her reflection in the mirror.
Daniel Walker conforms to the stereotype of an ‘emo’ because he wears dark clothing, has long dark hair and is shown slitting his wrists. Although this stereotype may be a bit extreme it does get across the message of what stereotype Daniel fits into.
Jack Slater is you’re typical ‘jack the lad’ type boy. Jack gets all the girls, and is friends with everyone, which is shown in our film where he’s talking to everyone at the party, and then he and Mia make their way upstairs.
The characters in our film will most likely appeal to our audience because they are teenagers, and because each character fits into a specific stereotype the audience is bound to know someone who is like that character.
3. I would choose a small independent company to distribute our film. I do not think that a big movie company, such as Warner Brothers, or Universal, would want to distribute our film because it doesn’t have well known actors in it, plus it isn’t a film which would appeal to wide audiences. The film touches on some controversial issues which could make some viewers uncomfortable, such as self-harm, therefore a small film company would probably be best to distribute our film. There wouldn’t be any merchandise seeing as the film would be so small.
4. The target audience for our film would probably be 15-21 year olds, both males and females, because that’s the age people tend to start going to parties, and experimenting with dangerous things such as drugs and self-harm. Similar films to ours are Precious and Kidult hood, because they’re also controversial films which touch of some of the same issues as our film. The films are also quite true-to-life, like ours. According to www.bbfc.co.uk our film would most likely fit in to the 15 certificate.
5. Parts of our film that would appeal to our audience would be the party scene, because a lot of teenagers like to go to parties and hang out with their friends, possibly drinking like the characters in the film. Some parties involving alcohol, and possibly drugs, can end badly, and our film is an example of this, because Daniel slits his wrists and faints, ending up in hospital. Some parts of our film are filmed from Daniels point of view, this is to try and get the audience to empathize with him, and perhaps put themselves in his shoes.
6. The cameras we used to film were HDV 1000 cameras. These cameras were quite a lot different from the smaller cameras we used for our first task. We filmed using widescreen, to make it look more professional. I found the HDV 1000 cameras easier to operate than the cameras we used for our first task, and didn’t have any problems while filming. We edited the film in final cut express, which took me a little while to get used to, as I was used to using Windows movie maker, which is a lot less advanced.
7. In the first two minutes of our film the main shots used are medium shots and close up shots. This is because these shots are best for seeing characters, and the first two minutes is the best time to establish the main characters. An example of a medium shot is when Mia and Jack are walking through the kitchen, and an example of a close up shot is when Daniel faints and we see his face.
Friday, 14 May 2010
Evaluation
1. Our film is a teen drama and there are some generic conventions throughout to show that it belongs to this particular genre. Firstly,the characters in our film are all teenagers and our opening scene establishes Mia (one of the main characters) getting ready for a party.
2. In terms of gender, there are as many girls as there are boys in the film, but our main characters consist of one girl and two boys, who are all caucasian. They are teenagers and behave in stereotypical ways.
Mia Cocking- ‘the slag’
Daniel Walker- ‘the emo’
Jack Slater- ‘the Jack the lad’
They all conform to the norms that these stereotypes give and there are no signs of deviance. For example, Daniel, the protagonist of the film, is an emo. The stereotype for emos are that they have long hair, wear dark clothes and slit their wrists. In the film, this is exactly how Daniel behaves and as a result of slitting his wrist, he faints and ends up in hospital.
Mia conforms to her stereotype of being a slag, because she dresses in short skirts, strappy tops, heels and gets invited to all the parties. She gets with all the popular boys at college- even if they are in a relationship! However, Mia does slightly deviate from this stereotype because most people tend to see ‘slags’ as having a face full of make up (spider lashes, foundation that doesn’t match their skin tone, heavy eyeliner, too much bronzer,lipgloss) whereas Mia plays it subtle and doesn’t cake it all on- her natural beauty is more than enough to get her what she wants, especially as her legs are always on show.
In teen dramas, there are usually boy who are represented as ‘Jack-the-lads’. This film is no exception. We have Jack, a ‘player’ who’s thinking about girls 24/7. Girls are well aware of his behavior, but that doesn’t stop him from being able to charm them all the way into his bed. In the film, Mia is under Jack’s spell, but it leads to trouble. This may be a good result because it could show him that his behavior affects others more than he thinks.
Daniel, Mia and Jack link to our audience because they are of a similar age and our target audience can relate to the stereotypes that have been given to the characters.
3. To distribute our movie, I would choose a small distribution company such as Working Title Films. Our film is a low budget film with unknown actors and actresses as the main characters so a big distribution company such as Warner Bros will not want to distribute it as it doesn’t have any major stars. The film highlights issues such as self-harm, love affairs, drug and alcohol fuelled parties which are a regular occurrence in contemporary Britain. The film would be released to help teenagers understand the dangers of drugs and alcohol and the effects of self harm, and rather than force them to sit through a documentary, a film is an ideal way to reach them because it would hold their attention whilst showing these. It would be ideal for the film to be television movie as it would reach our target audience because teenagers tend to spend most of their time in front of the television. There wouldn’t be any merchandise available for the film as it is only a small production.
4. Our target audience would be males and females aged !5-21 because this is the time when people tend to start experimenting with drugs, alcohol and self-harm. Not all teenagers take drugs or alcohol or self-harm, but by watching this film, they could help a friend that was. Similar films to ours are films like Kidulthood and Precious, which are very gritty, true-to-life films about teenagers targeted at the male and female teenage audience. I think the certificate of the film would most likely be a 15. It doesn’t contain any violent or explicit behavior and people under the age of 15 would probably find it a little disturbing because they won’t have learnt enough about these issues to follow the film.
www.bbfc.co.uk
5. The age and gender of our audience is males and females aged 15-21. Points in our film that would appeal to the audience are the party scenes and when the story is told from Daniels perspective. The party scenes will appeal to them because teenagers have parties and social gatherings on a regular basis as a way of getting away from school/college work and just as a way of having fun. These parties may sometimes end badly and our film is an example of this. By filming some scenes from Daniels point of view, the audience will empathise with him and will see what led him to try and end his life.
6. In terms of camera equipment, we used the HDV 1000 cameras. These cameras are more advanced than the video recorders we used in the preliminary task. Having never used one of the HDV cameras before, I found it easy to set up and use and didn’t have any problems with it throughout the course of filming. We filmed using widescreen and edited using Final Cut Express.
7. The shots used in the opening two minutes were mainly medium shots, with a few close ups in other scenes. An example of a medium shot in when Mia is getting ready for the party. An example of s close up is when Daniel has collapsed on the floor. Overall, I think that my use of shots have improved even though in our film there aren’t that many different shots. I think that by using the same type of shot I have improved because I know how to use them more effectively.
2. In terms of gender, there are as many girls as there are boys in the film, but our main characters consist of one girl and two boys, who are all caucasian. They are teenagers and behave in stereotypical ways.
Mia Cocking- ‘the slag’
Daniel Walker- ‘the emo’
Jack Slater- ‘the Jack the lad’
They all conform to the norms that these stereotypes give and there are no signs of deviance. For example, Daniel, the protagonist of the film, is an emo. The stereotype for emos are that they have long hair, wear dark clothes and slit their wrists. In the film, this is exactly how Daniel behaves and as a result of slitting his wrist, he faints and ends up in hospital.
Mia conforms to her stereotype of being a slag, because she dresses in short skirts, strappy tops, heels and gets invited to all the parties. She gets with all the popular boys at college- even if they are in a relationship! However, Mia does slightly deviate from this stereotype because most people tend to see ‘slags’ as having a face full of make up (spider lashes, foundation that doesn’t match their skin tone, heavy eyeliner, too much bronzer,lipgloss) whereas Mia plays it subtle and doesn’t cake it all on- her natural beauty is more than enough to get her what she wants, especially as her legs are always on show.
In teen dramas, there are usually boy who are represented as ‘Jack-the-lads’. This film is no exception. We have Jack, a ‘player’ who’s thinking about girls 24/7. Girls are well aware of his behavior, but that doesn’t stop him from being able to charm them all the way into his bed. In the film, Mia is under Jack’s spell, but it leads to trouble. This may be a good result because it could show him that his behavior affects others more than he thinks.
Daniel, Mia and Jack link to our audience because they are of a similar age and our target audience can relate to the stereotypes that have been given to the characters.
3. To distribute our movie, I would choose a small distribution company such as Working Title Films. Our film is a low budget film with unknown actors and actresses as the main characters so a big distribution company such as Warner Bros will not want to distribute it as it doesn’t have any major stars. The film highlights issues such as self-harm, love affairs, drug and alcohol fuelled parties which are a regular occurrence in contemporary Britain. The film would be released to help teenagers understand the dangers of drugs and alcohol and the effects of self harm, and rather than force them to sit through a documentary, a film is an ideal way to reach them because it would hold their attention whilst showing these. It would be ideal for the film to be television movie as it would reach our target audience because teenagers tend to spend most of their time in front of the television. There wouldn’t be any merchandise available for the film as it is only a small production.
4. Our target audience would be males and females aged !5-21 because this is the time when people tend to start experimenting with drugs, alcohol and self-harm. Not all teenagers take drugs or alcohol or self-harm, but by watching this film, they could help a friend that was. Similar films to ours are films like Kidulthood and Precious, which are very gritty, true-to-life films about teenagers targeted at the male and female teenage audience. I think the certificate of the film would most likely be a 15. It doesn’t contain any violent or explicit behavior and people under the age of 15 would probably find it a little disturbing because they won’t have learnt enough about these issues to follow the film.
www.bbfc.co.uk
5. The age and gender of our audience is males and females aged 15-21. Points in our film that would appeal to the audience are the party scenes and when the story is told from Daniels perspective. The party scenes will appeal to them because teenagers have parties and social gatherings on a regular basis as a way of getting away from school/college work and just as a way of having fun. These parties may sometimes end badly and our film is an example of this. By filming some scenes from Daniels point of view, the audience will empathise with him and will see what led him to try and end his life.
6. In terms of camera equipment, we used the HDV 1000 cameras. These cameras are more advanced than the video recorders we used in the preliminary task. Having never used one of the HDV cameras before, I found it easy to set up and use and didn’t have any problems with it throughout the course of filming. We filmed using widescreen and edited using Final Cut Express.
7. The shots used in the opening two minutes were mainly medium shots, with a few close ups in other scenes. An example of a medium shot in when Mia is getting ready for the party. An example of s close up is when Daniel has collapsed on the floor. Overall, I think that my use of shots have improved even though in our film there aren’t that many different shots. I think that by using the same type of shot I have improved because I know how to use them more effectively.
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
Contrast and Development
The Film Noir research below is another type of film genre that I did, You can see a contrast here to the modern age film we have produced in many aspects such as the cencorship and camera work. This proves the development of film and genres over time from the black and white productions of the early 1900's to modern day.
Steroetypical Costume
For male characters in film noir the detective look is the most common. The characters often wear a suit and a long coat, making them look important and intimidating.
Where as the female role often wear a fancy dress making them look more innocent and seductive.
This costume choice for the characters makes the male role seem more powerful and in charge and the females look weaker and make it seem like they are just there to look pretty, more as a trophy shown off by the male characters.
This also helps if in the story the twist is that the woman is the bad guy as it is more unexpected and shows that you can't stereotype someone by how they look.
These costumes are very stereotypical and makes the film feel older as the males are always in working clothes and seem to be mainly detectives or spy's and the female roles always seem to be in fancy dresses in show business or in plain old fashioned clothes and are house wives.
The costumes are often colour coded to fit the characters in film noir and are made so the more important roles contrast, are made to stand out more. For example because it is in black and white a female character would wear all black but have fair skin and light coloured hair making her contrast and stand out more like the woman on this picture.
This also makes the female characters that have costume like this look more seductive and have something about them and the female characters that don't contrast seem more boring and less important.
The male characters that do this make them seem like theres something going on with the character, making them stand out like this gives the audience the feeling that they have an important role in the film and may be the downfall in it or as a twist the more shady male character in the beginning turns out to be the big hero in the end.
How To Create That Signature Visual Style
Here are some tips on how to perfect the visual style of Film Noir;
Helps to have a smoke machine
Back Lighting/Front Lighting
Using blinds between front light & actor creates a nice effect
Shooting at night & in black & white is strongly suggested
Interesting camera angles (e.g. Deutsch Angles, X-tremely High/Low Angles)
Point-Of-View Shots can help your viewer into the mindset of the character
There is a video on this I have found, unfortunately it cannot be posted onto this blog, however here is the link. Feel free to watch it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J97VnLw7PM8&feature=player_embedded
Main Characters
One main characteristic of film noir is that its main character is often not much of a hero, but rather an anti-hero. This detective is often trapped into doing some pretty bad stuff, and he is left to get himself out of trouble and find a life for himself again. He is depressed, spends a lot of time walking through dark cities at night in a fedora, and always seems to lose. The story often was told from the perspective of the hard-boiled detective, and it was not at all uncommon to begin the film with a scene from the end of the plot, and then flash back to the beginning of the whole story for him to tell it as the narrator
The other main character who was present in most every film noir was the femme fatale, a typically blonde woman whose name spelled trouble. These women with guns were empowering, deceptive, and just plain mean. They always seemed to manage to trap the hard-boiled detective into falling in love with them, just to come in at the last second and turn his world upside-down.
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