Question 1

1. In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Continuity is an important convention to uphold as it helps maintain the realism of a film, without it the film would not seem to ‘flow’ and the concept would fall apart. We planned carefully to make sure there was continuity and although there were come small mistakes they’re not particularly noticeable due to the idea behind the story; for example originally in the story the day 'Carrie' gets the drugs from 'Oliver' is supposed to be the same day she takes the drugs with 'Jared' however on the day of filming we didn’t realise but as the filming had gone so well we kept it and because the story was things from her point of view if scenes seemed a bit unnatural or confusing I just related to the unravelling of 'Carrie’s' mind.

We used shot-reverse-shot in conversations, we were careful to follow the 180 degree rule again to keep the realism throughout our film and we also followed the 30 degree rule so any shots that got closer up or further away could be edited together more smoothly.

Typical narrative conventions of a drama film genre include; conflict, characters in a situation that is easy to relate to and usually a form of realisation at the end or a happy ending.

We reflect these conventions as we have ongoing conflict between ‘Carrie’ and ‘Jared’; two characters which are realistic and easy to relate to, where he’s trying to push her into smoking, drinking and taking drugs; the main characters are in a typical peer pressure situation that many adolescents face and there’s a huge twist at the end where ‘Carrie’ realises ‘Jared’ is dead. There is a not a particularly happy ending as we want it to be realistic and most stories like this don’t end happily, the most positive outcome in this is that ‘Carrie’ doesn’t die when trying to commit suicide.

We use strange colour effects through parts of the film to emphasise 'Carrie' losing her mind, which is something I'd seen done in the film Mental in which the majority of the film is in a bright colour that makes it look abnormal but works with the storyline and characters. This 'plays' with the conventions of the drama genre as it makes it look unrealistic, however it's done for a reason and as a whole improves the scene a lot.

I have looked at some typical stereotypes, which are important in our film, such as race. For example in many films the black characters are drug dealers and pushing it upon white characters, however in our film we have a white drug dealer and it turns out ‘Carrie’ is mentally unhinged which is why she’s taking drugs so it’s not the fault of ‘Jared’; so here we have broken this racial stereotype.

However a stereotype we follow is having a mentally unhinged female character, which tends to be the case in many films such as Sybil, Mental and Girl, Interrupted. Females tend to have weaker characters that are in some way broken not only in the “psychological” genre but also in paranormal films such as The Exorcist, as explained by the theory of the male gaze.

Gratifications Audience Theory has four categories; education, role models, socialization and entertainment. Our film educates the audience by demonstrating what it can be like to have a mental disorder and the severe consequences it can have on a person. Socialisation relates to our film as people may want to discuss the psychological symptoms our film demonstrates, the way we emphasised things and the shocking twist at the end. Also, as the audience would hopefully empathise with ‘Carrie’s’ situation, our film is quite emotional it is relatable to entertainment.

Also our film relates to Richard Dyer’s Theory of Entertainment which includes; energy, abundance, intensity, transparency and community. Our film relates to intensity due to the high emotions and ongoing conflict, between ‘Jared’ and ‘Carrie’ and in ‘Carrie’s’ own mind. It relates to energy as there is suspense and tension created particularly through the editing we’ve used. Finally there is transparency which flips the story and our ideas of the characters when the twist is revealed at the end.

 

 

OFFICIAL FILM POSTER

This is the official Film Poster for our film DAZED...

We decided to use this poster as it includes everything we need, and has the right feeling that matches with the emotions of our film.

FINAL FILM

Here is our final film, DAZED.

Film Log for 11/12/2013 Film Day

Audience Feedback Results Summarised

Wed 26/3/14

Music

     Today our main target was to find the appropriate music for our film. This has proven to be quite difficult with music being one of the important aspects of making a film. Our tutor gave us a list of websites that would have a list of different songs/music for any film genre. 

freesound.org 

When we went on freesound.org, it proved to be useful for sounds that are commonly used to express a certain emotion. We found sounds that seemed very peculiar and a lot of them didn't suit our film.

 

Audience Feedback for Final Film

Here is the Questionnaire that we asked our audience about after they watched our film.



After we got a few responses these were the results we got...

Radio Trailer

This is the final film trailer for our film.

We used snippets of the film itself, using sounds and dialogue, as well as creating new voiceovers to explain a brief storyline of our film to listeners.

Questionnaire Results

Questionnaire Results

analysis of relevant short film + film sequence

Film Changes

We had trouble with the sound of our original filming as one of our actors was quite quiet so we decided to get new actors to play the main characters.
We decided to ask a black British male to play the main role of Jared in our film as we thought it would add another dimension to the area of representation as we could make it look like we were following a typical stereotype of a black male smoking, drinking alcohol and taking drugs then at the end we would break it by showing that actually he was a nice guy and Carrie was just hallucinating, we're breaking the typical racial stereotype, like in the film attack the block.
We're making it clear at the end that the stereotype is broken by having a picture on the newspaper of Jared in smart neat clothing and having Carrie's mum  say that Jared was never on drugs and look confused and horrified at Carrie's mention of it.

Diary for filming park scene

DIARY FOR FILMING PARK SCENE

In this scene, we positioned the camera to produce a medium long shot. In this scene, Carrie and Jared are laid down having conversation and Jared offers Carrie a cigarette.  The yellow obstacle restricted our view so we had to move the camera to the opposite angle. Because it was set up on a play ground we had to take into consideration that other people might have wanted to use the apparatus. Luckily enough the play ground was practically empty. The set of the equipment was easy because we have all done it before however, Amanda and Rebecca debated on whether or not the camera angle was straight. 

Advantages:

• We were able to film in a quiet environment, so there were no distractions.
• We were able to finish the scene in one day 

Film Schedule for the Next 2 Weeks

Wednesday 27^th November 2013 – 

Finish park scenes, needs Connor. (IMPROVEMENTS TO SCENE 3, FULL SCENE 4 AND 6)

Sunday 1^st December 2013 – 

Bedroom and Oliver scenes – need Joe. (SCENE 1, 5 AND 8)

Tuesday 3^rd December 2013 – 

Look at available footage, maybe start editing some too?

Wednesday 4^th December 2013 – 

Street/Shop Scene – FIND A SHOP – needs Connor. (SCENE 2)

Thursday 5th December 2013 - 

Look at available footage, maybe start editing some too?

Sunday 8^th December 2013 – 

Street Scene (walking to Oliver’s) and bus stop scene need driver and Connor. (SCENE 5 AND 7)

Film Log for 20/11/2013 Film Day

Park scene:

Improvements:

• We couldn't concentrate when filming and it was also blocking a lot of the sound transition on to the camera therefore as we played the scene back we couldn't hear the speech as clearly as we wanted, As a result, we changed the park and actors to make the speech louder with a quiet background also.
• The wind and the leaves blowing was also a slight setback, as when we listened to the video back we could hear the wind on the camera and the sounds of the leaves blowing about
• The surface gradient was also a minor problem as we couldn't get the camera angle to sit in an appropriate and necessary position that we needed it in for to get the angle we needed
• Finally, we had a few problems with members of the public walking past during filming looking at the camera making it obvious that we are filming

What went well?

• The location was ideal for what we wanted to use for out filming, however their was too much exterior noise in the background from cars, leaves, wind and as it was a busy park their were a lot of passing byers.
• 
  

When editing the short bit that we did film, We realised there were a few shots that may need to be done again, and that is due to background noise and shot untidiness... 

- Close up of my expression when looking at vodka bottle.
- Close up of Connor taking bottle from pocket.
- Few more options when i spit water out.
- Also wider shot to move to next scene.

Conventions of the Drama Genre

Shot List

Below is the shot list for the whole filming schedule, with every single shot we hope to use in our film.

Film Pack for 30/11/13; Street and Shop Scenes

These are the documents we will need as an aid for film the scene when Carrie and Jared steal from the corner shop.

Film Pack for 23/11/13; Bus Stop and Road Scenes

These are the documents we will need when filming the scene at the bus stop and the road.

Film Pack for 20/11/13; Park Scenes

These are the documents that will be needed when we film the scenes that are in the Park location.