This is Daniel Right, one of our target audience. He is 14 and he is in secondary school, as he is only 14 he is starting to appreciate smarter jokes in movies. He likes science fiction movies, teen comedies and cult classic movies. He wears casual clothes, t-shirts and baggy jeans and he likes underground music and is a fan of comedy films. He regularly goes to school but likes to go out with his friends to the cinema during the holidays and on weekends.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)
These nine frames I chose because I felt they were the most important in showing the conventions of the film we've been making and how we used conventions of the action comedy genre.
The first frame shows three things, the "basis" of the film in which we claimed that this was based on a graphic novel by Chris Adegoke, who makes a brief cameo appearance later in the film, which are common in comedies, it also introduces the main character of the film, Alex, the hall monitor, and also the types of titles we are using, informal, red, falling font, which is less serious, as comedies tend not to be serious in tone unless they are black comedies, which this film is not what we were aiming for.
The second frame introduces a second main character, and sets up her role in the film as a love interest, which will become more important later in the film.
The third frame suggests the comedy of the scene with a deliberately satirical parodying dramatic walks, to show that it is a parody of the cop genre. It is played in slow motion, to make it look more like its poking fun at the dramatic walks.
The fourth frame shows Alex walking up to the school, establishing the setting and also showing the beginning of the fourth wall jokes, with Alex knocking over the camera because he's too poor to afford 3D.
The fifth frame, shows the convention comedies have of deliberately setting up a dramatic moment and then something funny happening to ruin the moment, in this case Alex having his speech on why he does what he does and striking a dramatic pose, only to have the head-teacher smacking the table and causing Alex to jump out of his skin.
The sixth frame, we chose to include an in joke in the pig in Alex's pocket, on that one particular shot. This is a reference to Daniel Wright, who plays Alex, making frequent jokes about his weight and about bacon, so we chose to make an in reference with the pig in the pocket, which is something many comedies do, with quick shots and in jokes.
The seventh frame follows in the trend of in jokes and references to other movies that this film makes, what with it being more of a geeks film, in this shot, Alex's walk is deliberately meant to look like the Terminator. We chose to use conventions like these because many comedy films, particular of this sort of comedy, like to make references to other films and in jokes at the cast, for example Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead.
The eight frame has two cameo's from different people involved in the production of the film, the one on the right being Chris Adegoke who is the "writer" of the graphic novel this film is "based on" (as we were trying to set it up as a comic book adaption like Scott Pilgrim) who makes a cameo being pushed by Alex. The second cameo is Olivia Barry, who storyboarded the opening sequence of Hall Monitor.
The ninth frame, has an establishing shot of the setting, with the title appearing on screen, I wanted a shot following Tom, (played by me) as he walks through the school, with the camera gradually revealing more and more of the school, and eventually as the title shows up, showing it to be a big bustling school, with an incredibly large amount of younger students, implying that Alex and Tom have a very difficult job to do.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Ges Smith played The Head-teacher, he is similar to Head of 6th Form, Mr. Gilbert, from the Inbetweeners TV series and movie in terms of dress, both where suits with ties, with a miserable look plastered on their face, and they are somewhat similar in terms of their characters they are both grumpy with their students however The Head-teacher is notably much less foul mouthed/rude towards the students, partly due to us aiming our film for a younger audience than the Inbetweeners movie was. We were initially inspired by Mr. Gilbert, as we wanted to create a stereotypical grumpy teacher, and represent them in that way, however I wanted to add depth to the character rather than him just being a cardboard cut out. He has reasons for being the stereotypical grumpy teacher, and this made him less mean spirited than his original inspiration, he's grumpy because he is the only competent one on staff (hence why Alex is able to be so aggressive as the Hall Monitor.) and grows frustrated with him being the only one actually doing anything, thus making him bitter, sarcastic and droll. His deadpan humour would be justified, as opposed to Mr. Gilbert who is just plain sociopathic with his unkindness.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
We used different equipment from most of the other groups, I brought my own camera and tripod to film.
We used apple macs with following programs to edit:
We used LiveType to create our titles, which Chris and I worked with to get the write title font and animation for the film:
We used Final Cut Express to edit the video through multiple drafts:
However we had to import all of our on camera footage in with iMovie:
Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
Since finishing the final task I think I've had more oppurtunity to use my editing skills than what I did in the preliminary task. The prelim, while funny and fun to make and edit, took a great deal less skill to edit than what the final task did, and I think that the opportunity to use a good editing software also helped me learn how to better the final editing job, using tricks I've picked up from other programs like Sony Vegas, which I've used at home, in Final Cut to create a more cinematic video.
I think it's simple to say that the final task took a lot more planning and skill to make, as there was a lot more we needed to do to get it up to scratch like how we envisioned it to be, whereas the prelim video was more of a fun video, just to get used to continuity editing. I don't, however, feel that I've learned a huge deal more about editing from the video, as I have edited far harder to make videos than my final task in the past from my own hobbies. However I do feel that I learned a lot about organising everything, from cast, to storyboards and actors as well as screenplay writing and piecing it all together, since the prelim task, which did not require it.
I think I'm more confident in my abilities as a film maker now, as at first I thought it the final task would be a complete disaster due to it being a much bigger project than my prelim video, howeve upon completing it I feel a lot more confident in my abilities to pull a project along, and I feel like I've improved a lot as a cameraman as well, and that I've learnt good, albeit unorthodox techniques of getting good quality footage on camera.
I know more technical terms now, and I'm capable of using the 180 degree rule, and shot reverse shot and match on action effectively, through out the final task, and I think the prelim task provided good practise for this also.
What Kind of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product and Why?
Production Company vs Film Distributor
A production company is behind producing and creating the film, for example Dreamworks SKG. It is them who would produce and create the film, and in their production logo is shown at the beginning of all their films. However a film distributor is one who actively distributing the film to cinema's and on DVD, for example Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
I think companies like Universal Studios would distribute our film, because they cover a very large range of films from comedies, kids films to action movies, and they have distributed films similar to Hall Monitor in the past such as Hot Fuzz, both spoofs of the cop genre.
Considering your own film
We would have got the money for our film from multiple small studios, as it is an independent film and we would probably not have managed to get big studio backing, this would also allow us to make a film closer to what we intended to. We chose to name the main cast and author of the graphic novel we have said this movie is based on, and we would have included the rest of the film's cast and crew in the credits of the film. We first put "Based on the graphic novel by Chris Adegoke" and then after this "Daniel Wright", "Alisha Ward", "Andrew Bryan" and "with Ges Smith". These people would have received the highest amount of pay, due to their important roles on the screen in the vast majority of the film. This film is institutionally similar to This Is England, in that it has been created by a small group of people and would have backing from multiple small companies, but distributed by a larger one.
